From the Diary of a Secretary

Suggested Paragraphs for the Journal of One of Our Most Recent Innocents Abroad

ALBERT LEE

At an Atlantic Port: Perhaps, after all, was wrong in trying to stave off this war. If it had not been for the war, I might never have had the chance to make this little trip abroad. I've always wanted to see Europe, especially since so many of my boyhood friends from Cleveland have been going over there as Quartermaster Colonels and Ordnance Majors, with headquarters in Paris. And, besides, as I said in my letter to the President, I feel that the relatives and friends of our soldiers are deeply concerned to know the conditions under which these soldiers live, and the environment in which they find themselves. I feel that the mothers of our boys must be reassured concerning the moral and really wholesome surroundings of their loved ones far from home.

SOMEWHERE between Over Here and Over There: We are having a very pleasant voyage. I had no idea the Navy had such large ships as the one I am crossing on. I had never seen such a big boat before. There are as many men in the crew as there are voters in my ward at home. I have not been sick at all. But, as my aide very properly says, any man who could go through what I went through at the hands of Congress before I sailed for France, must have a rather strong stomach.

A FRENCH Port: Arrived at last! I am beginning to feel that the war is no longer three thousand miles away. The last part of the voyage was calm and pure. It was through the submarine zone, which has at least one strongly commendable feature about it. No one is allowed to smoke cigarettes oh deck while in the zone. This adds to the moral surroundings of our boys in that part of the ocean. Mothers will be glad to know this.

I was delighted with my first sight of France. Almost all the people here are French. As we motored along a road near the port of arrival, I saw a French peasant and his wife eating their luncheon by the wayside. I was distinctly shocked to notice that they openly drank wine from a bottle. This sort of thing cannot be permitted in the American zone. I want to be able to tell the mothers of our boys that their surroundings in France are thoroughly moral; and such shameless carousing, of course, cannot be tolerated.

SOMEWHERE near the Gare du Nord: Pershing met me at the railway station in Paris, with several of his staff. Pershing wore that Sam Browne style of belt, which I don't like, and have forbidden officers to wear at home. It is all very well for our aviators to wear spurs, because the regulations of 1872, on which our army is run, require it. But I don't see why officers require an extra cross strap, just because British officers have found it serviceable. The British found the Lewis gun serviceable, too, but that was no reason why we should manufacture any.

I was surprised to find there was no Cleveland man on Pershing's staff. When I enquired about this, the General seemed to feel that all the Cleveland men of military age had already found jobs in the War Office or the Ordnance Department. I must see about having the age limit reduced in Cuyahoga County.

SOMEWHERE on the Boulevards: While walking from the hotel to the Embassy this morning, I noticed a stout Frenchman speak to a young girl on the street. He apparently was not acquainted with her at all, and his conduct was, in my opinion, grossly impudent. I am sure none of our soldiers ever speak to young girls on the streets of Paris unless they have been properly introduced. I have heard rumors that our sailors do, sometimes. I'll speak to Jo about this.

SOMEWHERE on the Second Floor of a Hotel in Paris: There has just been a great demonstration in my honor by a large crowd out in the street under my windows. It seems that one of my press agents (without my knowledge or consent, of course), circulated the report that my ancestors were French, and that the family name was originally Boulanger. The volatile French immediately assumed that I was related to their famous General Boulanger, and acclaimed me as a military genius. Not a bad idea of my press agent. I'll have him work the same scheme in London, using Isaac Newton as the ancestor.

OMEWHERE Northwest of Toul: I have just been inspecting our troops at the front. I devoted much time to the Y. M. C. A. and the K. of C. headquarters; and had many pleasant conversations with clergymen and settlement workers. Several of them are from Cleveland, and we recalled many a pleasant strawberry festival at home.

SOMEWHERE East of Lunéville: Today I visited one of our field hospitals. One of the wounded men told me he had been decorated with the Croix de Guerre, but could not wear it because the regulations forbade it. "I now give you authority to do so," I said, in quite a Napoleonic manner, even if I say so myself. Of course, I had no right whatever to tell the man he might wear the medal. The law of our land forbids this. But then, in war time a Secretary is a Secretary, and I think it may be just as well to establish a precedent and have that law changed, so that foreign decorations may be worn by Americans. Civilians, too. Who can tell but what the French may decorate me?

SOMEWHERE Else: I have spent a very pleasant afternoon at an aviation field. There were hundreds of keen young American aviators sitting about doing nothing. Threescore or more were flying about in French machines overhead. As I looked up at them, I was quite thrilled, and wondered what our airplane builders at home would think if they could see so many machines. I asked an aviation Major where our American airplane was, and he said he thought it had not been unpacked yet. When it is put together, some time this summer, all our aviators will be able to take turns and fly for short periods, so as not to forget how to do so before they are retired for age. Flying seems a dangerous undertaking, but our mothers may feel reconciled when they consider how pure the air and the surroundings are up there in the clouds.

Later I watched one of our batteries at work. I asked the Captain in command if it was not advisable to stuff cotton in my ears. I told him that, as a boy, I was always greatly startled at the explosions of fire crackers on the Fourth of July. He advised using cotton. To show him what a military Secretary I am, I casually asked him if he had any guncotton in his pocket that he could lend me. He said they did not stuff their ears with guncotton; they stuff the guns with it. I overheard one young Lieutenant, just down from Paris after a week's leave, say to another that his mouth was full of cotton, and that he did not need any in his ears. How curious.

AN Atlantic Port: Home again at last! The return trip has seemed very long. In the first place, the weather was atrocious, and there were about three thousand miles of it. It was then I almost wished the war was not three thousand miles away. But soon I did not care how far it was; indeed, at one time, I would not have cared even if it had been right next door; and I lost all interest in the mothers of our soldiers. In the second place, I have been reading and re-reading those final words of the President's letter written to me on the eve of my departure for Europe: "We shall look for your return with impatience, because your guidance is constantly needed here." I'm sure somebody's guidance is needed here,—and perhaps, after all, it is mine.

Furthermore, now that I have been at the front, and have actually seen what war is, I feel like a new man,—an American with a capital A. We are in this war to see it through; and I am going to see to it that the "seeing through" is properly and aggressively done. The mothers can help. They can do as much at home as their boys,—our men—are doing on the border line of Freedom. They can do more by being steadfast, than by being concerned over their boy's comfort. Those boys who are fighting for us are not thinking of comfort. They are thinking of a greater thing. They are thinking of Victory. So am I.