Page:The history and achievements of the Fort Sheridan officers' training camps.djvu/386

 384 THE FORT SHERIDAN ASSOCIATION

separate from the element of pure leadership that selfish element of per- sonal gain or advantage to the individual, without which such leadership would lose its value. It is in the military service only where men freely sacrifice their lives for a faith, where men are willing to suffer and die for the right or the prevention of a great wrong, that we can hope to realize leadership in its highest, most exalted and disinterested sense. Therefore, when 1 say leadership, I mean military leadership.

In a few^ days the great mass of you men will receive commissions as officers. These commissions will not make you leaders; they will merely make you officers. They will place you in a position w^here you can become leaders if you possess the proper attributes. But you must make good, not so much with the men over you as with the men under you.

Men must and will follow into battle officers who are not leaders; but the driving power behind these men is not enthusiasm, but discipline. They go with doubt and trembling and with an awful fear tugging at their heart-strings that prompts the unspoken question, "What will he do next?" Such men obey the letter of their orders, but no more. Of devotion to their commander; of exalted enthusiasm which scorns per- sonal risk; of their self-sacrifice to insure his personal safety, they know nothing. Their legs carry them forward because their brain and their training tell them they must go. Their spirit does not go with them. Great results are not achieved by cold, passsive, unresponsive soldiers. They don't go very far and they stop as soon as they can. Leadership not only demands, but receives, the willing, unhesitating, unfaltering obedience and loyalty of other men; and a devotion that will cause them, w^hen the time comes, to follow their uncrow^ned king to hell and back again if necessary.

You will ask yourselves, "Of just what, then, does leadership con- sist?" "What must 1 do to become a leader?" "What are the attributes of leadership and how^ can 1 cultivate them?"

Leadership is a composite of a number of qualities. Among the most important I w^ould list self-confidence, moral ascendency, self- sacrifice, paternalism, fairness, initiative, decision, dignity, courage.

Let me discuss these with you in detail.

Self-confidence results, first, from exact knowledge; second, the ability to impart that knowledge, and, third, the feeling of superiority over others that naturally follow^s. All these give the officer poise.

To lead, you must know^ — you may bluff all your men some of the time, but you can't do it all the time. Men will not have confidence in an officer unless he knows his business, and he must know it from the ground up. The officer should know^ more about paper w^ork than his first sergeant and company clerk put together; he should know more about messing than his mess sergeant; more about diseases of the horse than his troop farrier. He should be at least as good a shot as any man in his company. If the officer does not know, and demonstrates the fact that he does not know^, it is entirely human for the soldier to say to himself: "To hell w^ith him; he doesn't know^ as much about this as I do, " and calmly disregard the instructions received. There is no sub- stitute for accurate knowledge. Become so well informed that men w^ill hunt you up to ask questions; that your brother officers w^ill say to one another, "Ask Smith — he know^s." And not only should each officer know thoroughly the duties and responsibilities of his own grade, but he should study those of the two grades next above him. A two-fold benefit attaches to this. He prepares himself for duties which may fall

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