Evening star., 1933-02-12

and Navy, this huge and unIamIar task peihs
pressed upon him in addition to his peacetime
labors.
fundamental principle Of our democratic
form of government is that the military shall
never be permitted to ride roughshod over the
civil administration. Hence the President Is
given unlimited authority to command all mill
tary officials to appoint or remove them, pro-
mote or denote, and, if he sees fit, to give them
directions as to strategy and tactics.
Since he is usually a civilian and his generals
Are military experts, he has . splendid oppor-
tunity to blunder to interfere disastrously with
plans he does not fully understand.
In 1861 this task of commanding armies was
suddenly thrust upon Abraham Lincoln, law
yer from the Middle West practically without
military experience.
There was nothing in his record up to that
time which indicated his competence to con-
duct war, and very little which seemed to
. qualify him for performing the presidential
duties in time Of peace even. During the en-
suing four years he learned prodigious
amount by tireless effort and narrowing expert
ence He made mistakes but he profited by
them
4 IL became, in the judgment Of the historians,
I one of the Nations ablest Presidents, but
he has commonly been considered much more
successful in civil administration than in mill
tary,
In fact, the military writer's have seemed to
5sel that Lincons efforts to direct military
. affairs were usually mistakes, and that almost
the only useful service he performed in this
field was to give the supreme command to
Grant and leave him free to win the war with
out supervision or restraint.
In recent years. however this view has been
sharply challenged, and lincoln is emerging
from the controversy as great military figure;
not as great general, but as the President who
found out how to exercise wisely and success
fully his vast authority over the military men
under him and the Nation behind him toward
effective cooperation in winning the war.
One Of these challengers for instance, boldly
asserts that Abraham Lincoln, the civilian, did
. better job in managing his generals than was
done by the president Of the Confederacy, JEFF
ferson Davis trained military commander.
'cDavis had none of Lincoln's difhdence about
. his own capacity for directing the strategy OF
{ armies" says this authority. HE had passed
g., through West Point and commanded a bat
TALON in Mexico without finding out that his
fitness stopped there.
''He interfered with Lee and Jackson some
times to almost disabling extent. He forced
his enemy on Joe Johnston and superseded
him at the very worst time in the final cam
paign. He interfered more than ever just
when Lee most required free hand.
"And when he did make Lee q real comman-
der in chief the Southern cause already had
been lost. Lncoln's war craftsmanship grew
with the war. Davis remained as he was"
Lincoln's ability to learn from experience
aided him greatly in co-ordinating the military
with other departments Of the Government
Another and still more recent authority (Sir
Frederick Maurice, World War director of mill
tary operations Of the imperial general staff
oe Great Brittany shows this in the following
statement:
ATHE effort Of great nation engaged in
war calls for the development of all its
resources and the combination of those re-
aoosces for common purpose. The military
s0ort being but part Of the whole, there must
- some one to combine the parts.
The soldiers must be directed and guided;