nal make-up and character and because of the amazing variety and
extent of his services to his country which are written upon every
page of its history during the last thirty years. It is the variety of
things done which puts him in his present position, just as it is the
variety of high qualities that has made the great men of all times
great. King David was not only the greatest {207} general of his time.
He was one of the greatest administrators of all time and perhaps the
greatest poet that ever lived. Washington was not only a fighter of
the highest order. He was one of the great generals of history; and a
statesman and ruler of a higher order still.

It might very aptly be said, therefore, that General Wood's campaign
for national preparedness was only the accomplishment of a task for
which he had all his life been preparing himself.

Upon his return trip from the Philippines in 1908 he had come by the
way of Europe studying always military systems. There was a short stop
in Ceylon, in Singapore, in Egypt, in Malta and Gibraltar and a summer
spent in Switzerland, ostensibly for health recuperation after the
tropical life in Moroland and Manila, At the same time this gave
opportunity for a closer study of the Swiss system which with an
admixture of the Australian system furnished the basis for the
training camps afterwards inaugurated by him here.

At the same time he had the opportunity by invitation of seeing the
German and French {208} armies mobilized at the time of the
Bosnia-Herzegovina episode when all Europe was on the verge of war.
The German army of maneuver was at Saarbruecken--ready. Practically the
whole of the French army of maneuver was on the Loire--ready. He saw
one immediately after the other--less than two days apart. Mr. White,
then American Ambassador to France, asked him what he thought of the
French army and his answer was that despite the fame of the German
military machine France in the next war would surprise the world by
the fitting effectiveness of her forces. He based this conclusion on
the relation of officers and men and the discipline founded on respect
and confidence rather than fear of officers.

Then followed the centenary mission to the Argentine and a couple of
years as Chief of Staff of the American army before he could
effectively begin his campaign.

The first gun was a letter sent out by Wood under permission of the
Secretary of War which proposed to many presidents of