Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1918-09-17
Ferdinand FoCh.

4 CIOlIISJIu L OCH.
General Foch has by his strategy been such
important factor in all the recent military successes
on the western front that his name already be
come a household word among all allied peoples.
A French correspondent, very familiar with the
famous general gives the following interesting
items regarding him:
4 square-ahouldered, thick-set, grizzled man,
rather under middle weight, with peculiarly keen,
challenging EXPRESSION such is Ferdinand Foch.
Brown Of skin-he is southern Frenchman by
birth-but with blue Celtic eyes-his mother
Brittany woman-he gives the impression of great
mental force combined with physical strength He
has the lined face of the deep thinker and air
of blended caution. hardness, and obstinacy. But
he is in reality neither hard brutal. His init
mate friends love him. but warm impulses and quick
sympathes are foreign TO him He judges you cody,
If not coIdIy and he does not care two what
you think about him. The poIlus have ncknamed
him General 1Deux sous-~General Twopence" as
one might say. This because of his habit in discus
sion Of saying. 4 don't care twopence. :" If
anyone in this world knows his mind it is Foch,
and he doesn't care twopence what you think when
\ once he has made it up. And he makes it up with
lightning rapidly in crisis. simply because he is
familiar with every twist and of and has
spent 40 years quietly thinking out military prob
lens He did most Of his thinking before August,
1914 Since then he has been applying the fruits of
his thoughts
Foch does not irradiate popularity like Grand
papa Joffre. as the army called him, but he
peIs confidence. He probably has the firnest char
acter in all France. and the proof is that even N.
CIemenceau cannot bend him Patience, as most peo-
pie know, is not one of N. CIemenceau's cardinal
virtues. Foch has oceans of patience and (which
is highly unIIkely-they disagreed on any question
Of military poIicy-welI, it is not Foch who would
give way.
Foch-his name is said be corruption of a
Celtic word meaning .Ire"-was 10 when the war
Of 1870 broke out He was about to enter the great
polytechnic school but instead straight the
army After the war lie took the polytechnic course
and then was one OF the most brilliant pupils of the
Ecole de Guerre 10 which he returned years later as
professor of strategy and tactics. There he taught
his great doctrine "wilI-power wins" The best of
the younger French leaders of today are his dfsci-
pies As for the older ones one Of the ablest said
the other day. 4 always regret Foch was my con-
temporary and not my teacher
All the world knows that when war broke out
Foch commanded the famous Twentieth Iron" corps
at Nancy. How he defended the Lorraine capital,
then overthrow the Prussian guard on the Marne
and later on the User in Flanders and Artos per
formed miracles with insufficient forces are mat
tiers Of history.
When the war is over the marshal will retire to
his quaint old manor house. "Trefeunteunion," near
MorIaix. in Brittany Here he will indulge in his
favorIte sports Of shooting and riding smoking end
less cigars and live the life OF gentleman farmer
q farmer more interested in trees than in trefoL
Trees are hobby with him; he IS also great music
lover and a man Of very varied culture