Page:Famous Living Americans, with Portraits.djvu/238

held by his fellow students. Many men excel in one of these directions, but few in all of them, as Goethals did.

As to scholarship, Goethals stood number two in a class of fifty-four men. Men highest in rank are chosen for the corps of engineers; of Goethals's class only two were so chosen, and be was one of them.

He was not only strong in scholarship but be was so highly regarded by the tactical department that be was chosen in his last year as one of the four captains of the cadet corps.

The first of these two honors may come to a man by dint of hard work, The second is the result of the deliberate judgment of his superiors, but the third is based solely upon the respect, affection, and confidence of his fellow students. And no man in his class stood as high with his fellows as Goethals. A classmate told me that one of the things that chiefly distinguished Goethals at West Point was his loyalty to his class; he wanted to attain success for himself, but be also wanted the whole class to make an unexampled record. He was often found coaching or tutoring the less able men to bring them up to the standard. It was no accident that won for Goethals the highest honor within the gift of his fellow students—election, prior to graduation, as president of his class. It is thus noteworthy that before be left West Point he had already displayed those high qualities of character, as distinguished from intellectual brilliancy, which mark the true leader. He was soundly respected by the men who knew him best

After further training in the army engineering school at Willet's Point, Goethals began the long quiet service of the army engineer in time of peace. He says that be got his real start while serving under Colonel Merrill at Cincinnati

"The most unfortunate thing about you," Colonel Merrill told him when he reported, "is that you are a lieutenant of engineers. If you can subordinate that fact you may sueceed."

"I'm here to learn," said Goetbals.

So Merrill started him at the bottom as a rodman, under trained civil engineers, and he worked his way up to be f ore- men.