The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-07-20
Only "War Professor" in World
Discusses Military.
Lays Down Principles Deserv-
ing Consideration of Z. s.
CITES NAPOLEON War SECRETS
Character First Essential of a
Successful Leader.
Appointing Generals for POliti-
cal Reasons Lost Many a Battle

(Note: Spencer wilkinson, professor of
war at Oxford university, the man who
taught most of Britain's army heads the
war game and who today is preparing fu-
ture leaders of England's armed forces, has
written a most interesting series of three
letters for the United Press on Some
Things for America to Consider" He is
the only professor of war boosted by any
university in the WORLDLY
BY SPENCER WILKINSON,
professor of Military History, Oxford
University
ARTICLE ONE
London, July 20.-In my judgment
the important matters for a nation
going into war are these:
First of all, the statesmen and the
people should have true conception
of the nature of war and of the char
acter of the particular war they are
taking up. Otherwise the leading can
not be right. The supreme leader is
always the statesman and in demo-
cratic country the people must under
stand and sympathize with the states
man. If he sees too far ahead they
won't follow and if the popular ideas
on the subject of war are not true the
greatest leader may be crippled.
In the military sphere the first
thing is the choice of a commander
and his assistants. When raising an
and education of the officers. In the
training of troops all soldiers will say
the thing to aim at is discipline and
the best means of giving it, providing
the officers have been well chosen and
rightly taught, is to teach the soldiers
to shoot and to march
'One Man Is Everything
I'm war;" said Napoleon, writing to
his brother Joseph, the men are
nothing. One man is everything"
At the end of his career Napoleon
dictated a pamphlet which he called,
Notes on the Art of War;" the pur-
pose of which was to explain to gov
ernments and nations about to go to
war, how to set about it. He said
the principles of the art of war are
those which guided the great captains
of the past-AleXander, Hannibal,
Caesar, Gustavus Adolphus, Turenne,
Prince Eugene and Frederick the
! Great" Reviewing the campaigns of
these commanders Napoleon pointed
out that on all the vital points the
practice of all of them was the same.
He then reviewed his own campaign
and concluded by saying that you
should make your war as they made
/ it and model yourself upon them,'' for
| there is no other way of mastering
the secrets of war. In other words "a
! knowledge of the high parts of war
can be obtained only by studying the
! history of great campaigns and by ex-
! perience."
| In an army that has passed thru a
long period of peace, experience is
| necessarily lacking; a knowledge of
war is possessed only by those who
| have studied it in the way Napoleon
recommended. Such a student was
the late Admiral Mahan of the United
! States navy. No writer in any coun-
! try has shown a stronger grasp of war
| or better illuminated by his writings
J its larger aspects, especially in all
that concerns maritime warfare.
/ Leader of Lofty Purposes.
My first point is: Warfare cannot
| be conducted without knowledge, but
in the choice of a commander the
first requisite is not knowledge, but
! character. If 1 were looking for
( commander-in-chief 1 should search
! above all for man of high purpose
! who, could be sure, would think only
! of his duty, only of his country and
never of himself. In war more than
| in any other of the affairs of life, the
saying holds good, IF thine eye be
single, thy whole body shall be full of
/ light
I think that Grant as a general
! and as commander of the armies in
the Civil war had the single eye and
he had a remarkable strong charac-
ter. Sherman before setting off for
Atlanta spent an evening in CONVERSE
tior with an intimate friend, one of
LIS OC7- SdNdAlJ generals, WHO reports
that late at night they talked a little
about Grant. After a pause, Sher-
man, looking in the fire, said:
Il know a lot more about history
and law and war than Grant does,
but I'll tell you where he beats me
and where he beats the lot of us. He
doesn't care a damn for what he can't
see the enemy doing and it scares me
like hell"
Sherman Sized Grant Up Right.
Sherman was a good Judge of the
kind of character that a commander
in-chief requires.
In the second place your commander
must have that grip of affairs and
breadth of view which are generally
associated with a liberal education
and which give to those who know
him the impression of a. man of larger
calibre than the common fold.
Nothing is more fatal in war thar
the appointment of generals for any
other reason than their capacity fol
generalship. More battles have beer
lost by the appointment of com
manders for political or personal rea-
sons than from any other single
cause.
The knowledge of war comes only
in the third place because this can bt
supplemented for the commander by
others. while character cannot. Thu