On 4 July 1917 Gen. John J. Pershing, the commander in chief of the American forces in France, went to Little Picpus cemetery on the outskirts of Paris to lay a wreath on the tomb of Lafayette, the French general who had come to the aid of the American revolutionaries in 1776. A troop of reporters with nothing better to do tagged along. Maj. Charles E. Stanton, the army paymaster, was a gifted public speaker and made a preliminary set of remarks, working himself up to a fever pitch and concluding with the ringing proclamation, "Lafayette, we are here!" General Pershing came next and made some inaudible murmurings as he laid the wreath on the tomb.

Far back in the crowd the correspondents mistakenly thought the general had made the effusive and dramatic remark. Floyd Gibbons of the Chicago Tribune and several others...