The Theodore Roosevelt Centennial CD-ROM

believe I am best fitted to be the division commander in

an expeditionary corps, under the chief of that corps;

but if you desire to put me in a less position, and make

me a brigade commander, I will at once raise the

division, and can raise it without difficulty, if it is to be

put under any man of the type of General Wood,

General Pershing, or General Kuhn. (To Secretary

Newton D. Baker, April 22, 1917.) Mem. Ed. XXI, 216;

Nat. Ed. XIX, 204.

____________. All I am asking is the chance to help

make good the President's message of April 2d. If you

don’t know whether the governments of the Allies

would like me to raise such a division, and take it

abroad at the earliest possible moment, I wish you

would ask those governments yourself their feeling in

the matter. I know that they earnestly desire us to send

our men to the fighting line; and I have been informed

from the highest sources that they would like to have

me in the fighting line. Of course, they will not desire

to have me go, or the division go, unless the

Administration expresses its willingness.

Let me repeat that if you permit me to raise a

division, it will be composed of men who would not be

reached in the bill you proposed to Congress, and who

would otherwise not be utilized at all. I should, of

course, like your authority to have about two Regular

officers for every thousand men, and perhaps four of

the Reserve Officers for every thousand men, and

perhaps certain additional ones if you saw fit to grant

them. But the subtraction of these men from the number

of men available to train the force called out under your

proposed bill would be inconsiderable, compared to the

immense gain which would come from having such a

division put into the fighting line at the earliest possible

moment. (To Secretary Newton D. Baker, April 22,

1917.) Mem. Ed. XXI, 218; Nat. Ed. XIX, 206.

____________. I wish respectfully to point out certain

errors into which the President has been led in his

announcement. He states that the purpose was to give

me an "independent" command. In my last letter to the

Secretary of War I respectfully stated that if I were

given permission to raise an army corps of two

divisions, to be put under the command of some

General like Wood or Bell or Pershing or Barry or

Kuhn, I desired for myself only the position of junior

among the eight brigade commanders. My position

would have been exactly the same as theirs, except that

____________. In view of the fact that Germany is now

actually engaged in war with us, I again earnestly ask

permission to be allowed to raise a division for

immediate service at the front. My purpose would be

after some six weeks preliminary training here to take it

direct to France for intensive training so that it could be

sent to the front in the shortest possible time to

whatever point was desired. I should of course ask no

favors of any kind except that the division be put in the

fighting line at the earliest possible moment. If the

Department will allow me to assemble the division at

Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and will give me what aid it can,

and will furnish arms and supplies as it did for the early

Plattsburg camps, I will raise the money to prepare the

division until Congress can act, and we shall thereby

gain a start of over a month in making ready. (To

Secretary Newton D. Baker, March 19, 1917.) Mem.

Ed. XXI, 200; Nat. Ed. XIX, 190.

____________. If I were a younger man I would be

entirely content to go in any position, as a second

lieutenant, or as a private in the force. With my age I

cannot do good service, however, unless as a general

officer. I remember when I went to the Spanish War

there was talk about rejecting me on account of my

eyes; but, of course, even in the position I then went in,

it was nonsense to reject me for any such reason. To the

position which I now seek, of course, the physical

examination does not apply, so long as I am fit to do the

work, which I certainly can do—that is enlisting the

best type of fighting men, and putting into them the

spirit which will enable me to get the best possible

results out of them in the actual fight. Hindenburg, was

of course, a retired officer, who had been for years on

the retired list, and who could not physically have

passed an examination. I am not a Hindenburg; but I

can raise and handle this division in a way that will do

credit to the American people, and to you, and to the

President. (To Secretary Newton D. Baker, April 12,

1917.) Mem. Ed. XXI, 203; Nat. Ed. XIX, 193.

____________. I now ask permission to raise a division

to consist of regiments like the regiment which I

commanded in the Santiago campaign (and I can raise

you an army corps on this basis). If I were young

enough I should be willing to raise that division, and

myself merely go as a second lieutenant in it. As it is, I

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