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Show H OUR WAR PRESIDENTS H JS TERSHING THE NEXT? H The scribes are already beginning to speculate on the H 4 presidential possibilities for 1920. Some of the prognoses prognos-es tications are plausible, others are perposterous; but the H rfiolJowing article from the pen of one of the Hearst writ-H writ-H -scrs presents the name of a possible candidate in a manner H lhat makes a striking appeal to the imagination: H Every war has made a president of the United States. H JHajr Gen. John J. Pershing, commander of the expedi-H expedi-H Honary army in France, is a natural born soldier, though H :ii political favorite. H Anyone who imagines that he is not ambitious, capa- H We of seizing every opportunity and of even making op- H poi-tunitics, does not know him. H The revolutionary war made the first president m "Washington. H The next wui , 1812, made Andrew Jackson president. M The next war with Mexico in 1846 made Zachery Tay- M lor president. B The next was the Civil war, and it made Ulysses Grant M president. M Next came the war with Spain, in 1898, and little as M -that war was, it made Theodore Roosevelt president. B When Roosevelt became president his enemies charged M that his great personal friendship for General Leonard B Wood was responsible for Wood's elevation over several m hundred senior officers. And when Pershing was jumped M ever 8G2 officers from a captaincy to a generalship Roose- fl velt's enemies made pointed references to the act that M i( Pershing had married the daughter of United Stats Sn- M si ator Warm of Wyoming, chairman of the committee on M J military affairs. M But time has amply vindicated Roosevelt's judgment H -as to the merits of both officers and incidentally proved m the selective promotion is right. M Pershing was the logical selection to lead the first ex- 1 peditionary forces to Europe; he was the logical man to H -quiet the clamor for Roosevelt himself. Pershing's name H -was a sedative and was perhaps the only name that would H have served. M He first furnished a mighty good background for H -Irimself among the exalted by his deeds in the Philippines. H ' Now there are a great many other officers in our H army whose records are as brilliant as Pershing's. There H are other men who are probably just as capable. It is H not likely that military men will agree that Pershing is H y any means our greatest soldier, but the fact remains H fthat he stands foremost in the public eye. M Had Frederick Funston lived it is conceivable that he H -would have been sent to France. He was regarded as H the ideal eoldier. Maybe he was no greater, if as great, H -militarywise, as Pershing or J. Franklin Bell, or Leonard H ""Wood, or some of our other generals, but he was better H "Toiown to the people. H And it will probablv not be denied at Washington that H "'Pershing's reputation had something to do with his selec- H lion; it will probably not be claimed that he was chosen H after a close analysis of the records of all our fighting H men had been made and his found to assay best. H 'He was chosen because the people have confidence in H 'him, which is a pretty good basis on which to choose men. H In his case it probably will be found that the confidence is H fully justified. H And now destiny puts him in command of the first H ,. forces in the greatest war in which America, or any other 'j country has ever engaged it makes him custodian of the H "very heart of his native land, this dashing debonnair pro- y .-duct of old Missouri. H Then where? Then what? Who knows? HjK Pershing is 57 years of age, is as agile as any man HJ -not as most men, but any man at 35. He is a sadle- H "hardened man; a campaign burned, field dried fellow with H a. great capacity for endurance. B Educated, polished, a linquist to a certain extent, a H' (' I lover of good society, he is the best ideal of the American '1! I j nrmy officer because first before those things he is a ,,j 1 lighting man. He used to be a beautiful dancer and he Ji ! .Is still a beautiful fighter. 1 i ' ' He comes of good, American stock. He is a real Ameri- 1 , i can in every way. You cannot pay a man a much higher H ( ' -compliment. K when the smoke of battle dies awav and John Persh- H , ?5B returns to his own people safe and sound, there are aaaaaS ' I BBBBBH BBBBBBbK bbLLbHb1.w b other honors in store for him, he will probably be found as worthy for them as he has been worthy of his honors in the past. Goodwin's Weekly. - t |