Eloquent Warrior

It was in the silk-tented Bal Tabarin room of the Hotel Sherman, Chicago. Kiwanians were there assembled last week to celebrate Armistice Day. It was not the one tense moment for the first great political speech of a man's career; neither was the speaker, General John Joseph Pershing, expected to entertain businessmen with anything more than patriotic remarks, dully pronounced.

He touched, as expected, on the subject of war but those who knew him were at once surprised by his unexpected eloquence: "America will not start the next war, but thanks to the enterprise of our empire builders, America will be able to stop it, Slow to start, but sure to finish, is our record in war. And this should be a warning to trouble-seekers."

Then suddenly, and even more startlingly, he turned political interpreter ; knocked self-satisfied smiles of "our country, right or wrong" off Kiwanian faces; said: "If the time ever comes when public offices can be virtually bought and sold, then the downfall of the Republic is not far off.

"In the light of recent events in certain states,* some of our citizens would modify the methods of selecting candidates for office. If the present system encourages or permits the contribution of inordinate sums by wealthy candidates or their supporters, it should receive the most careful scrutiny by honest citizens. . . .

"It is too often the case that men of standing and ability shun public office because of the difficulties they are likely to encounter through the trickery of cheap politicians."

Politicians next day read, blinked. Here was a popular warrior who could and would talk of politics. At what was he aiming? Perhaps they remembered that General Pershing's boom for President in 1923-24 had been mild talk which did not expand much outside of his own state of Nebraska; perhaps, too, they poked into history books to find that he is probably the only U. S. hero-warrior who has not been President or at least a serious candidate for the office.+- If Warrior Pershing really has his eye on 1928 (which is doubtful even to his admirers), his speech last week was an effective opening gun.

* Pennsylvania and Illinois.

+- Washington, Jackson, Harrison, Taylor, Grant, Roosevelt were hero-warrior Presidents. Two other dashing generals, but poor politicians, Winfleld Scott and W. S. Hancock, were nominated and defeated. Admiral George Dewey tried for the nomination in 1900 and fizzled.