Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-03-16

Marnc proved TO he the victor Of Paris,
for Foch was as hard a foe to Wilson
as he had been to the Germans.
And among the rcsentments Of the
Peace Conference the President carried
away none sharper than that he bears
toward the marshal of France.
Toward Clemenceau the President
probably has no ill-will; no feeling,
perhaps, except liking for him as a man,
Of his intellectual arteries and contempt
for his spiritual blindness and skepd-
cism.
Clemcnccau was politician, knew
how to fight and win while leaving no
bitterness.
His remark to Wilson. "You have a
heart of STEEL was the diplomatic
masterpiece of the conference.
q q q
ENOCH'S contribution to tie peace was
i the holding by the Allies of the
west bank of the Rhine, under a mill
tary tenure that was left indefinite and.
with events turning as they now arc,
is likely to become perpetual.
The insistence upon 1t, the insistence
upon strong Poland, the alliances in
southeastern Europe were all defensive
moves on Frances part.
They gave occasion to the Presidents
recent charge of militarism against
France.
But arc purely defensive measures
militaristic in the Prussian sense of the
word?
The people of France themselves are
certainly far from miltaristic.
At the moment the President made
his charge the nation was-if the Ger
| rnGnlnttn, 1ppS nnCnt ~ all
on the point of cutting her compulsory
military service term down from three
years to two years, and perhaps to one.
And the government, to make even
that degree of training acceptable to
the people. had to disguise it more or
less by calling it physical education
and instruction in sports"
q q q
rs FOCH himself militaristic?
L There is story told that when
Clcmenccau approached him with the
suggestion that he be placed in supreme
command he replied. II am not the
man you vant. / am a royalist and a
Catholic. France is republican and
anti Catholic"
His writings and his interviews show
almost strain of mysticism in him,
something like the strain of mysticism
that developed in the President when
transported by the fervor of his belief
in the League of Nations.
Foch always scorns the brute force
. of the Prussian militarists and insists
that war is won by ideas and ideals.
The story of him just told may be
apocryphal. but there is true story of
!. him that shows how he subordinated
himself to the saving Of France.
kftpr tho lafpaf nf tho allied fOrcea
at Chemin des Danes. where the second
great German offensive of 1913 fell.
FOch went to Clcmenceau and said, Il
should be relieved of command. Petain
was right. He kept telling Inc that the
Germans were aiming their blow at
Chcmin des Danes. / thought they
would strike further north (whcre, in
fact, they delivered their third great
offensive), and | prepared accordingly.
No commander has right to make such
a mistake as that
Clemenceau replied. Every general
is entitled to make one big mistake"
q 9 9
IDHILIP GIBBS, in his book on the
L great war, indicates that there was
hardly general of genius in it. A re-
viewer recalls having asked him about
this when he was in this country.
Gibbs replied. We'll perhaps Foch he
did the trick twice, you know" Gibbs $
opinion is that war is mass of blum
ders out of which somehow victory
emerges.
That was Tolstoy's opinion, who de-
voted endless chapters in his colossal
novel. War and Peace" to prove that
Napoleon was a great bunderer. whose
luck deserted him on the way to Moscow.
The Russian general who opposed
Napoleon, TolstOy thought the greatest
man, because he seemed to have a sense
of how pitiful thing was strategy and
tactics and how tremendous were the
forces OF fate and nature.
q q g
|pEACE hath its blundcrs no less than
l. war, and men will debate till the
end of time as to which was the blum
der Of Paris-the failure to follow Will
son consistently or the failure to follow
tons.
Mr.. Wilson's partisans will say mill
tarism at Paris has borne fruit in mill
tarsm at Berlin.
Those Of the other school will say,
See the folly of Wilson's belief that
the world can lay, down its arms in
front of Germany"
q q q
MIR. BRYAN is not candidate for
lNl the Democratic nomination for the
presidency, but will accept the nomina-
ton if circumstances require him to
do so.
Therein he is in agreement with Mr..
Hoover, Mr.. McAdoo, Governor Ed
wards ex Speaker Champ Clark and a
whole host of others, who wait upon
the crooking of the forehnger Of fate.
And he agrees, too, with President
Wilson, who thinks that nobody should
have his territorial integrity guaranteed
by instructions to delegates until San
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