THE CAREER OF LEONARD WOOD

BY
JOSEPH HAMBLEN SEARS

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY

NEW YORK
LONDON

1920

Copyright 1919 by
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY

Printed in the United States of America

TO GENERAL LEONARD WOOD

By Corinne Roosevelt Robinson

CONTENTS

THE SUBJECT

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I

THE SUBJECT

In these days immediately following the Great War it is well upon beginning anything--even a modest biographical sketch--to consider a few elementals and distinguish them from the changing unessentials, to keep a sound basis of sense and not be led into hysteria, to look carefully again at the beams of our house and not be deceived into thinking that the plaster and the wall paper are the supports of the building.

Let us consider a few of these elementals that apply to the subject in hand as well as to the rest of the universe--elemental truths which do not change, which no Great War can alter in the least, which serve as guides at all times and will help at every doubtful point. They range themselves somewhat as follows:

The human being is entitled to the pursuit of happiness--happiness in the very broadest sense of the word. No one can approach this object {12} unless he is in some way subordinated to something and unless he is responsible for something. No man can get satisfaction out of life unless he is responsible for what he does to some authority higher than himself and unless there is some one or something that looks to him for guidance. Perhaps the existence of religion has much to do with this. Perhaps prayer and all that it means to us belongs in the category of the first of these elementals. Certainly the family is an example of the second.

The family is the unit of civilization--always has been and always will be. The father and the mother have their collective existence, and their children looking to them for guidance, support and growth, both physical and moral. The moment the family begins to exist it becomes a responsibility for its head, and around it centers a large part of the life and happiness of the human being.

In like manner the state is the unit to which we are subordinated.

These constitute two examples of responsibility and subordination which are necessary to the {13} acquirement of civilization, of happiness and of the rewards of life.

Wherever the state has presumed to enter too far into the conduct of the family it has overstepped its bounds and that particular civilization has degenerated. Wherever the family has presumed to give up its subordination to the state and gather unto itself the responsibility through special privilege, that particular state has begun to die.

In modern civilization it is as impossible to conceive of a state without the unit of the family, as it is to consider groups of families without something that we call a state. It is ludicrous to think of a strong and virile nation composed of one hundred million bachelors. We must go back to the feudal days of the middle ages to get a picture of the family without a state.

In other words, a man, to approach happiness, must have his family in support of which it is his privilege to take off his coat and work, and--if fate so decree--live; and he must have his country's flag in honor of which it is his privilege to take off his hat, and--if need be--die.

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Love and patriotism--these are the names of two of the sturdy beams of the house of civilization.

These old familiar laws have been brought forward again by the outbreak of the Great War. There is a letter in existence written by a young soldier who volunteered at the start, a letter which he wrote to his unborn son as he sat in a front line trench in France. It tells the whole great truth in a line. It says: "My little son, I do not fully realize just why I am fighting here, but I know that one reason is to make sure that you will not have to do it by and by." That lad was responsible for a new family, and was the servant of his state--and he began his approach to the great happiness when he thought of writing that letter.

It will be well for us to remember these simple laws as we proceed.

Fifty-eight years ago these laws and several more like them were just as true as they are now. Fifty-eight years hence they will still be true, as they will be five thousand eight hundred years hence. Fifty-eight years ago--to be exact, {15} October 9, 1860--there was born up in New Hampshire a man child named Leonard Wood, in the town of Winchester, whence he was transferred at the age of three months to Massachusetts and finally at