Foch the Man Part 16

It is Foch's "likeness" to the myriad soldiers of France that France adores--not his difference from the rest. Her poilu is her beau ideal of faith and courage, of patriotism and devotion to the principles of human rights, of cheerfulness and hopefulness, of invincibility in that his cause is just. France is too essentially democratic to esteem one set of characteristics in the ma.s.s of men and another set in the leaders of men. Foch and Joffre will live always in the hearts of their countrymen because, like Jeanne d'Arc, they have so much to say to everyone--so much that illumines every path in life wherever it is laid.

On the 19th of December, 1918, Joffre took his seat among the Immortals of the French Academy. The vacancy to which he had been elected was that made by the death of Jules Claretie who, before his admission to the Academy and before his absorption in the affairs of La Comedie Francaise, had written several books about the leaders of the French Revolution.

It was Ernest Renan who delivered the address of welcome to Claretie (in February, 1889) and he said that it was still too soon to know whether those leaders of whom Claretie had written were supremely justified or were not.

"You are young," Renan said to the new Immortal, "and you will see this question solved, . . . some years hence it will be known; if in ten or twenty years France is prosperous and free, faithful to right, strong in the friendship of the free peoples of the world, then the cause of the young Revolutionists is won; the world will enjoy the fruits of their endeavor without having had to know their unripe bitterness."

Joffre quoted this part of Renan's address, in taking his seat.

Claretie had not lived quite long enough to see, save with the eye of faith, that day Renan foretold; but Claretie's successor in the French Academy had seen it! And it was like him to say:

"I think, gentlemen, that in doing me the honor of receiving me into your august body, your desire is to pay homage to that glorious French army which has proved that the soul of France is steadfast for the rights of man, even unto death that men may be free."

Accepting the honor as paid through him to the men who had proved the worth of that Liberty, Equality and Fraternity the Revolution declared and decreed, Joffre asked permission to name those to whom, he deemed, the grat.i.tude of France and of France's Immortals was due. And first among them he named Foch.

This was gracious; it was generous; but it was more than that. And though Joffre went on to name many leaders, many armies, many moral forces incarnate in many men as co-responsible for victory, no one could know quite so well as he how completely the France of which Renan dreamed as a glorious possibility, is realized and typified in the man whose name leads all the rest as having saved not France only but the liberties of mankind.

Bonaparte, although he was not French (save technically) and not a democrat, captured the hearts of France in spite of all he cost them; because he aggrandized France, made her supreme in many things besides extent and power. It is instinctive in every Frenchman (or woman, or child!) to revere anyone who does new credit to the name of France or brings new glory to it; for the pa.s.sionate love of country is the primary religion of the French--they may or may not have another, but unless they are totally renegade they have that faith, that devotion.

In Ferdinand Foch they have a great leader who is in no sense an "accident" (as Bonaparte was), a sporadic development in their midst, a spectacular growth on an exotic stem. They have, rather, a quintessential Frenchman of to-day, even more widely representative of his countrymen than Lincoln was of ours.

"The fame of one man," says Henri Bordeaux, "is nothing unless its represents the obscure deeds of the anonymous mult.i.tude."

This is a typically modern idea, and typically French. France of to-day would not deny the worth of any development because it was singular, isolate; but what she is particularly interested in is the possibilities of development along the lines that are followed by the many and are open (broadly speaking) to all. Guynemer, for a shining instance, is the idol of every schoolchild in France, not for his daring alone, nor for the number of boche birds of prey he brought down; but because wealth and influence were unavailing to get him an opportunity beyond what the poorest, humblest youngster might have got in the same indomitable way; and because frail health and puny strength could not debar him from the sublimest exploits of daring for France.

His circ.u.mstance--physical and material--tended to bind him to the soft places of earth. His desire to serve France gave him wings to fly far beyond the eagles. He has no grave. He rides the empyrean for all time, to tell the youth of France how surmountable is everything to one who loves his country and the rights of mankind.

Foch is of less legendary sort, but he, too, epitomizes France; and he will be increasingly potent as time goes on, irrespective of whether the sword is or is not superseded in the affairs of men.

"The obscure deeds of the anonymous mult.i.tude" are much like his own obscure deeds prior to the great day when France needed him and found him ready.

Every black-smocked schoolboy in France loitering along historic highways to his gray-stuccoed school, may feel in himself a Foch of to-morrow--and quicken his steps so that he may make himself a little more ready for his recitation.

Every youth entering upon his military training must find in Foch a comrade whose influence is all toward thoroughness, "Learn to think,"

was Foch's personal admonition for long years before he thus charged his students.

Every teacher toiling to impart not knowledge alone but the thirst for knowledge, the zeal to use it n.o.bly, has in Foch such a fellow as the annals of that great profession do not duplicate. Other teachers may have influenced more pupils; but no human teacher ever saw such a demonstration of his principles--to the saving of mankind.

Every good father in France may see himself in Foch--and especially every father who gave his son for France and her ideals.

Every man whose work in life calls him to lead other men, in peace or in war, has supreme need of Foch; because Foch embodies those principles of leadership to which men are now responsive, those ideals toward which they are striving. Particularly as a coordinator is Foch great--and potent for the future. There is, probably, no other kind of service so important to the world's welfare, now, as that of bringing men together; making them see that fundamentally they are all, if they are right-minded, fighting for the same thing; and that in union there is strength.

As a scholar, Foch is brilliant besides being profound. As a man, he is simple--and France admires simplicity; he is elegant--and France loves the elegance that is the expression of fine thinking, fine feeling; he is modest of his own attainments, and proud of France's glory.

For nearly every great commander, victory in arms has led to power in the state.

Foch is a statesman as preeminently as he is a warrior. His counsel was as weighty in the peace settlement as his strategy was in winning the war.

But one cannot conceive him using his prestige, military or diplomatic, to increase his personal power.

He has served G.o.d and man; he has served his country and his conviction of right. He is content therewith--just as he hopes millions of men are content who have done the same according to their best ability.

"I approach the twilight of my life," he wrote not long ago, "with the consciousness of a good servant who will rest in the peace of his Lord.

Faith in eternal life, in a good and merciful G.o.d, has sustained me in the hardest hours. Prayer has illumined my soul."

In presenting to Foch the baton of a Marshal of France, President Poincare recalled certain definitions he had often heard Foch reiterate: "War is the department of moral force; battle, the struggle between two wills; victory, the moral superiority of the conqueror, the moral depression of the conquered."

"This moral superiority," said the President of the French Republic to the new Marshal of France, "you have tended like a sacred flame."

Always, the tone of tribute to Foch is one of veneration for the greatness of his soul and his preeminent ability to represent and to lead his people.

"You are not," President Poincare went on, "of those who let themselves be downcast by danger; neither are you of those whom victory dazzles.

You do not believe that we are near the end of our efforts and our sacrifices. You guard against optimism as much as against depression."

This he said to Foch, in the field, on August 23, 1918, when the fruits of victory though in sight were not yet within grasp.

Had the presentation been three months later, President Poincare would (I think) have spoken not differently; better even than before, he would have known that Foch is not "of those whom victory dazzles"; and not less clearly than before would he have perceived that Foch does not "believe that we are near the end of our efforts and our sacrifices."

Foch may well feel that he has done his utmost for his country and for mankind, in the crisis for which he prepared himself and which he met with such superb faith in the triumph of Right; but he certainly does not feel that he has ushered in the millennium; he knows what other demands there are and will be upon the souls of men, on their devotion to their country, their perception of truth and honor, and their ardor and ability to serve humanity. He knows that not France alone but every nation has need to-day and henceforth of leaders who will do just what he did: personify the highest ideals of their people and prepare themselves to defend those ideals intelligently, unselfishly, devoutly.

He has established a new standard in leadership. Far from culminating an old order, he has inaugurated a new--an order which everyone may join who wills to serve. Its motto is: "Right is Might; believe in the power of Right; learn to uphold it; strengthen others, as they come in contact with you, to meet the enemies of Right and to vanquish them; never forget that the moving power of the world is _soul_, and the laws of the soul were made by G.o.d."

Too deep a student of history, too keen an a.n.a.lyst of human nature to entertain any illusions about the enemy he has conquered but not converted, Foch knows that if what he has been privileged to do for France and for her allies is to have any lasting value, there must be a league of freedom-loving peoples as strong and as united to preserve peace as they were to win it; and that this league must be supported by a general morale not one whit less devoted to the end in view than was the morale which won the war.

Too wise to feel that the victory is his save as he was the leader who re-organized millions and showed them how to make their conviction of Right prevail, he is also too wise to wish that his were the power to create the world anew. He knows that not only will the to-morrows of mankind be as the mult.i.tudes of mankind make them, but that they should be not otherwise directed; this, of all things, is what the overthrow of autocracy means.

He helped us to shake off the Beast who sought to impose his will on all the world. Briefly, at least, that Menace is restrained--thanks to the indomitable will of many nations and to the genius of Ferdinand Foch.

It is for us--every one of us!--to say what shall come out of the security that Foch and his armies have maintained for us at so great a price; how long we shall maintain it and how honorably we shall use it.

And to us, with this sacred obligation on us, Foch would say:

"It is not enough to mean well, to desire that righteousness shall prevail; it is not enough even to be willing to give all, should it be required of you. You must _know how_ to serve your ideals, your principles. Victory always goes to those who deserve it by possessing the greatest power of will and intelligence."