rding men
might easily have been the same as the situation regarding guns,
aeroplanes and uniforms.

Plattsburg, being in New York State, naturally became the type of
camp, since in 1914 Wood, having been relieved of his position as
Chief of Staff, was detailed to command the Department of the East
with his headquarters on Governor's {218} Island in New York Harbor.
He no sooner took up this new work than the Department of the East,
where fifty-six per cent, of the National Guard of the whole country
was included, became a seething office of energy and work. In so far
as the training camp idea went this energy was centered in Plattsburg.

At the same time General Wood inaugurated the Massachusetts National
Guard Maneuvers--the first of their kind held in this country--and
added a water attack on Boston. He also assisted Governor Whitman in
putting through the New York State Legislature the bills creating the
State Military Training Commission, under whose management all boys
between the ages of sixteen and eighteen undergo a simple but
effective training in the rudiments of military tactics and receive
the athletic training of a short camp life each year--all involving
the inculcation of the principles of discipline, of order and of self
care.

Thus the history of the way in which the Government of the United
States, when war was eventually declared, secured its officers is
told. {219} One might go into detail, but the main facts are not
altered by any amount of detail. They stand out clearly--the awakening
of our land in time by the energy and patriotic spirit of one man,
supplemented by the untold amount of work accomplished at his
suggestion by thousands of patriotic American citizens.

And in the midst of this work before war was declared General Wood, as
a part of his plan of preparedness, asked some ten or twelve men to
come to Plattsburg at different times to speak to the student
officers. Among these men he included the two living ex-presidents of
the United States--Mr. Taft and Colonel Roosevelt. He first submitted
the list of speakers to the War Department so that the Department
might eliminate any one of them who for any reason should appear to be
undesirable.

After two weeks, having had no reply, he sent out the invitations and
from time to time these speakers came and addressed the members of the
different camps.

Roosevelt on his arrival at Plattsburg handed to Wood the speech he
proposed to de