credit.

=925. The Human Element.= No system of training and instruction that
does not take into account human nature, can be thoroughly effective.
The human element probably enters into war more than it does into any
other pursuit. The old idea of turning a human being into a machine,
by means of discipline, and making him dread his captain more than the
enemy, died long ago, especially with the American people. In modern
war success depends to a great extent upon the initiative, the
individual action of the soldier and this action is greatly influenced
by the soldier's state of mind at the moment, by the power that can be
exercised over his mind by his comrades and those leading him. The
company commander should, therefore, study the characteristics of the
human mind with the object of ascertaining how he can influence the
men under his command, so that in battle those human attributes which
are favorable to success, may be strengthened and those which are
favorable to defeat may be weakened. Of the former, courage,
determination, initiative, respect, cheerfulness, comradeship,
emulation and esprit de corps, are the principal ones; of the latter,
fear, surprise, disrespect, and dejection, are the leading ones. By
means of good, sound discipline, we can create, improve and foster the
qualities mentioned that are favorable to success, and we can
eliminate to a considerable extent, if not entirely, those that are
detrimental to success.

=926. Fear.= The emotion of fear acts more powerfully upon the
feelings of the individual soldier than any other emotion, and it is
also probably the most infectious. Fear in a mild form is present in
every human being. Nature wisely put it there, and society could not
very well get along without it. For example, we stop and look up and
down a crowded street before starting to cross, for fear of being run
over; in going out in the cold we put on our overcoats, for fear of
catching cold. In fact, we hardly do anything in life without taking
a precaution of some kind. These are all examples of reasonable fear,
which, within bounds is a perfectly legitimate attribute of a soldier
in common with other human beings. For example, we teach the men to
take advantage of cover when attacking, and we dig trenches when on
the defense, in both cases for fear of being shot by the enemy. It is
the unreasoning type of fear that plays havoc in war, and the most
deadly and common form of it is a vague,