Plattsburg, being in New York State, naturally became the type of camp, since in 1914 Wood, having been relieved of his position as Chief of Staff, was detailed to command the Department of the East with his headquarters on Governor's {218} Island in New York Harbor. He no sooner took up this new work than the Department of the East, where fifty-six per cent, of the National Guard of the whole country was included, became a seething office of energy and work. In so far as the training camp idea went this energy was centered in Plattsburg. At the same time General Wood inaugurated the Massachusetts National Guard Maneuvers--the first of their kind held in this country--and added a water attack on Boston. He also assisted Governor Whitman in putting through the New York State Legislature the bills creating the State Military Training Commission, under whose management all boys between the ages of sixteen and eighteen undergo a simple but effective training in the rudiments of military tactics and receive the athletic training of a short camp life each year--all involving the inculcation of the principles of discipline, of order and of self care. Thus the history of the way in which the Government of the United States, when war was eventually declared, secured its officers is told. {219} One might go into detail, but the main facts are not altered by any amount of detail. They stand out clearly--the awakening of our land in time by the energy and patriotic spirit of one man, supplemented by the untold amount of work accomplished at his suggestion by thousands of patriotic American citizens. And in the midst of this work before war was declared General Wood, as a part of his plan of preparedness, asked some ten or twelve men to come to Plattsburg at different times to speak to the student officers. Among these men he included the two living ex-presidents of the United States--Mr. Taft and Colonel Roosevelt. He first submitted the list of speakers to the War Department so that the Department might eliminate any one of them who for any reason should appear to be undesirable. After two weeks, having had no reply, he sent out the invitations and from time to time these speakers came and addressed the members of the different camps. Roosevelt on his arrival at Plattsburg handed to Wood the speech he proposed to deliver; and {220} in view of the known critical attitude which the former took towards the administration Wood asked two other army officers to go over the proposed speech with him and help him to eliminate anything which might be questioned upon such an occasion. The address was delivered at about five o'clock in the afternoon at the camp and when it was finished Roosevelt was heartily congratulated personally by many men of both political parties, among them two distinguished Democrats--John Mitchel, Mayor of New York, and Dudley Field Malone, Collector of the Port of New York.