The Greeneville daily sun. (Greeneville, Tenn.) 1918-1920, 1918-08-13
UNITY OF COMMAND.

Inc marvellous success Of the allied armies gives album
dant material to each nation for satisfaction and prid
in the conduct of its officers and men, Each nation cal
celebrate glorious victories without infringing upon th
right Of others to celebrate equally great events.
might be contended by each that if its army had not
hand the allied victories could not have been achieved
But there is one factor Of allied success without any in
vidousness in it, which each nation must concede Tha
is the factor of unity Of command.
Each army has done its best and has earned the graft
tude of the world; but all combined have won the vic
tory which they could not have won singly. AS th'
United States is strong because Of the union Of indi
ydua states SO the allies have been strong since they
achieved the unity Of supreme command. The many
forces are now one army. Hence the cogency of the
American motto, &c pluribus unum"
For three years the necessity of unity of command
impressed upon the allied governments by expert OBJ
servers and by events in the field The contrast between
German executive control and allied lack of control
not only painful to observe but costly in practice Allied
lack Of unified command lost many opportunity if not
many battle. German concentration Of command en-
abled the kaiser to swing unit the massed forces
of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey
at any time or place. The German great general staff
only seized every advantage campaigns developed
but they invariably retrieved their own errors before
the allies could pounCe upon them While the allies were
trying to agree upon action, Germany acted, and her
allies did not to interfere before or after action
1t was only after the existence of the British empire
in dire peril early this year, that Premier Lloyd
George was able to overcome British opposition to the
appointment of Gen. Foch supreme commander of the
allied armies This opposition seemed to have its center
in the chief Of the British imperial general staff, Gen.
Robertson who finally resigned rather than cooperate
with the new plan. He was supported by strong and
able men, like Gen. Maurice and Col. Repington, who
held out the very last against French commanderhp
although these knew very well that it was absurd
to expect England to furnish the skilled staff capable of
matching brains with the German general staff. They
insisted upon autonomous and separate army commands
with separate general stas which of failed to
grasp the allied problems as a whole.
From the moment that Gen. FOch was able to maneu-
all the allied forces without regard to their nation
atty there has been of victory. The allied
armies If under one command, might have beaten Ger
many in 1885, before the German forces in the east had
been shifted AT this time if the allied armies were
not under one command they would not be winning vic
tories but would probably be conducting defensive oper
atoms and losing ground. The German armies would
now be bombarding Paris This does not that Mar
shall FOeh indispensable but it does that unified
command indispensable. The armies all ndspen-
sable yet the mysterious thing called victory not
with them until they acted army under the orders
of one intellect.
The problem Of union in political action is far
complex than unity of military command 1t extremely
difficult to delegate political decisions to individuals who
dealing with representatives of other nations The
consequences Of political decisions so mOmentous that
the retain their freedom Of choice
great extent Therefore the best they hope to
compsh in the way of unity of political action is close
and sympathetic exchange Of views and to agree upon
fundamental principles which may serve as a common
guide in matters of policy.-W Washington Post.