o another,
traveling all over the United States.

At six in the morning he would appear in one of them ready for
inspection, and any day anywhere where there was a camp one might see
him in the early morning sunshine, or the early morning rain striding
up one company street and down another followed by new and old
officers, peering into this dog tent and that kitchen, examining this
man's rifle and that man's kit, praising, criticizing and jamming
enthusiasm in two hours into a group of a thousand men in a manner
they knew not how, nor clearly understood. It was just what he had
done in Cuba, just what he had done in the Philippines where he had
organized drilling, athletic and condition-of-equipment competitions
in each company, each regiment, each brigade, each division--one
pitted against another, all at it hot and heavy; {214} not because
Wood came along and looked them over, but because when he did look
them over he could spot any weakness in any part of the work with
unerring certainty--not alone because he could spot any weakness, but
because he knew a good point when he saw it and gave credit where
credit was due.

It is perhaps not out of place here to look back in the light of
events which occurred afterwards and are now a part of history and
secure an estimate of what this work did for this country in awakening
the people to a sense of the critical situation, to prepare an army
which should do its part in the world war, to bring that army into
line in France at what seems to have been a critical moment and to
help bring the war itself to a successful conclusion in conjunction
with the Allied armies which had held on so long against such terrific
odds.

The purpose of the camps and what they will lead to in time of peace
and did lead to in time of war is perhaps best shown in one of General
Wood's statements: "The ultimate object sought is not in any way one
of military aggrandizement, {215} but to provide in some degree a
means of meeting a vital need confronting us as a peaceful and
unmilitary people, in order to preserve the desired peace and
prosperity through the only safe precaution, viz.: more thorough
preparation and equipment to resist any effort to break the peace."

That at a time when there was no European War in sight.

Now consider General Pershing's report of Nov. 21, 1918--after the
close of the war. The first American air force using American
aeroplanes went into action in France, that