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 circumstance--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the sword is or is not superseded in the affairs of men.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 multitude" 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 nobly, 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 preëminently 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 God 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 God, has sustained me in
the hardest hours. Prayer has illumined my soul."
In presenting to Foch the baton of a Marshal of France, President
Poincaré 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 preëminent ability to represent and to
lead his people.
"You are not," President Poincaré 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 Poincaré 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 God."
Too deep a student of history, too keen an analyst 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 multitudes 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."