Palatka daily news. [volume] (Palatka, Fla.) 1919-1994, 1921-11-04
MARSHAL FOCH

genius as Marshal Ferdinand Focb,
the supreme master-mind Of the
World War. While comparatively
few Americans will have the priVi-
lege of seeing the illustrious visitor,
his presence on our soil and in our
atmosphere will be felt as something
of an inspiration, thing to be re-
membered.
Few critics we believe, either of
this time or of the future, will ques-
ton the present-day judgment that
Foch outranked any other military
leader of his era. And we mean by
his era a period that embraces the
first war between France and Ger
rnany-the era of Won Moltke, who
was, indeed, the only commander
within that period that will seriously
challenge the claims put forward so
confidently for Ferdinand Foch.
Foch is a greater leader of armies
than was the illustrious German. The
conditions were all in favor Of the
Prussian soldier, who had every ele-
ment of victory on his side and under
his immediate banner. Foch had to
assume command at a time when the
German prestige had only been
shaken, not shattered, and when, in
deed, the Germans were still, and
were to be for some time, superior
in almost all the material" of war
from man-power and gun-powder
down to poison-power and of course,
in sheer iron weight of discipline
of the mass. Foch's achievement
was, therefore, greater than that of
Won Moltke, and, the Frenchman's
plans were both vaster and more in
spired.
Won Moltke merely confronted the
problem of carrying out a program
of the general staff, with the great
est comparative - equipment the
world had ever seen brought into
war. Foch had to invent his own pro-
gram, invent armies and new re-
sources of men behind the quivering
lines of battle, invent new strategies
for the new phenomena and novel
demands of modern warfare, and,
with all this, to coordinate the hosts
of nations along battlefront that
could have held all the previous
campaigns of history.
Foch has, inevitably, been compar-
ed or contrasted with all the great
military leaders; but there are only
few that are worthy of such
''bracketing" with Ferdinand Foch.
One bars, at the outset, the three
great ancient worthies-Hannibal
Alexander, Caesar. These, with the
great Napoleon, belong in a distinct
and inviolable group. The three most
anc ent of the group had little in
their campaigns, save here and there
in particular enterprises, in common
with the modern Frenchman. But
Foch can not escape comparison with
the stupendous Corsican. Largely,
because both were French LADDERS,
both essentially modern" to the
last impulse of their genius, and be-
cause both depended upon supreme
strategy and the highest morale"
We are of opinion, however, that
in future Foch will be largely COM
pared with Robert E. Lee. Possibly,
more often and more fully with Gen
eral Lee than with any other modern
soldier
Very much--probably too much
has been written and said about
Foch's dependence upon moral force
His maxim, wharf.-the domain of
moral force" is misleading, if we
take it as throwing light upon his
campaigns or his genius. What the
soldier means by "moraP force is
hardly what the man in civilian
dress takes to be the significance of
the phrase.
When the Germans were at their
blacklist worst, in ruthlessly devast-
ating Belgium and northern France,
they were also at their very high
"moral power" moral force" in
war, is merely the force of mind or
sentiment that may be directed to
the accomplishment of the purpose
in hand. 1t may be as vicious as the
unbroken, indomitable spirit of the
Roman legions were carrying fire
and sword throughout the world, as
wicked as the ecstatic temper of the
hosts of the Prophet in subduing the
".nfdel" Christian peoples, or it may
be as exalted as the spirit of the
soldiers of Washington at Valley
Forge or the Huguenots of Coliguy.
The French soldiers of Foch were
more moral when they were de-
tending Paris on the Marine than
when, victorious, they started toward
the coveted rich cities and corn
lands of Germany And the less
"morar they were the greater be-
came their "morale"-the temper of