New-York tribune., 1920-04-11
Organizer Of Britain S Nayv
Adnirals Autobiography Reveals Curious Mix
ture of Genius and Eccentricitv
By William l.. McPherson

ORD FISHER tells US in Memo
ries and Records" (Doran) that
he made his way in life by
- kicking other peoples shins
I'D brsndishing his fist in their faces.
r;,e Edward VII, whose friendship he
loved. once politely asked him to
,snense with this latter form Of argu-
-en. In the book which he has die
...sd mot written) he continues to
,,s shins and shake his fist under
o.her peoples noses. Characteristic
,sljy. he laments the fact that the writ
,sn word so signally fails to convey
ne tempestuous and histronic flavor Of
he spoken utterance. II tried once"
he says, $50 as to make the dead print
more lifelike, using different kinds of
t-ve-big Roman block letters for the
ss..shaking large italics for the
aioling, small italics for the facts and
o,dnary print for the fool" But the
cost was ruinous. So in this book we
ard only two brief preamb bles in long
rimer, full face.
When "The London Times" published
last year a series Of extracts from the
Fisher book, they seemed explosive,
,sntakerous. aggressively self-lauda-
tory, indiscreetly candid. racy and
pungent beyond any reasonable expec-
a.ion. They were as non English in
temper as possible. The two bound
Volumes fail somewhat to sustain this
Impression. From the manner of their
composition they are exceedingly repe-
t.ous. Some stories and many opin-
Ions, judgments and apothegins recur
IN practically the same form three, four
or FIVE times.
Lord Fisher is an enfant terrible
playing with typewriter. He was a
great man, but he is also a great eccen-
TIC. The line between greatness and
.ccentricity is shadowy. "If a man is
sper cent before his time he may posi-
bly, be accounted a genius," says the
former First Sea Lord. But if this
same poor devil goes 10 per cent better
then he's voted crank. Above that
percentage he is stark, staring mad.
n. B.-l have gone through all these
percentages
Lord Fisher was an exceptional naval
organizer and administrator. He mod
srnized the British navy and put it in
condition for war with Germany. He
vas a progressive in the matter of
building, guns, turbines, oil fuel, sub
marines mines and naval training. He
ioresaw the war and had had the good
fortune to predict, far ahead, that it
would break in 1914. History will do
justice 10 his real accomplishment
But it incites skepticism rather than
confidence to have these achievements
so boisterouSly enumerated and en-
phaszed by their author. Fishers
vanity is colossal and it often passes
the bounds Of ingenious naIvete. How
many pictures Of the hero of these two
do they carry? No fewer than
twenty-eight.
Fisher prepared for the war, but
didn't fight It. He came back to the
Admiralty as First Sea Lord in August,
lql4, but retired in huff in May, 1915.
His conduct was censured ~ the
Cromer Dardanelles Commission. He
opposed the Dardanelles- Gallipoli ex-
petition. But his opposition was due
mainly to the fact that an operation
against Constantinople would interfere
with his own pet project Of naval
descent on the coast Of Pomerania
he could never get anybody else to
lake that venture seriously. If Great
Britain couldn't penetrate the Darda-
nses or conquer the Gallipoli penin-
'ua, how could she hope, in 1915, to
'ase possession of the closed Baltic
Lake, extremely difficuls of access be
cause Of mines and neutral channels
and infested with German submarines
me British failed at Gallipoli against