soldier and
whose position as the official representative of France would mean much
to General Pershing. The British War Office (May 28, 1917) had said that
including those already serving in French or British armies there
shortly would be 100,000 American soldiers on French soil. Within a year
the number was to exceed 1,000,000 and hundreds of thousands more were
to follow. No such numbers or speed in transporting troops 3,500 miles
had ever been known before. And in France plans must be formed,
organizations made, great buildings must be erected, military measures
must be adopted--and General John Joseph Pershing must be the directing
power. What a task! Small cause for surprise is it that he solemnly said
to a prominent clergyman before his departure from America that he "felt
the need of all the help that could be given him,--human and divine."

Already in France Americans were drilling in preparation for active
fighting. Among these were detachments of college students from Harvard,
Princeton, Yale, University of Chicago, Williams, University of
California, and many other American colleges, but a vast concourse of
men from every class and condition in life in the United States was
making ready to join their fellow soldiers across the sea. From no man
in all the world was more expected than from General Pershing. And the
expectations were resting on strong foundations if the manner in which
he carried himself in the four trying days in London and in the three
days of formal ceremonies in France and then in the beginnings of his
heavy labors in preparing for the demands of Americans who were yet to
come, were indications. By many he was declared to be the
personification of the best type West Point could produce.

CHAPTER XV

FOURTH OF JULY IN FRANCE AND BASTILE DAY IN AMERICA

THE manifestation of the feeling of France and England for the United
States as shown to General Pershing was still further in evidence when
the national holiday of each nation was celebrated. In this celebration
all three nations united. "Never did I expect to see a day like the
Fourth of July this year in London," wrote an American stopping in that
city. "The flag of the United States was everywhere in evidence. I don't
think Great Britain ever saw so many American flags at one time. The
streets almost seemed to be lined with them. They were hanging from
windows, stretched across the streets and sidewalks, carried in the
hands o