General Foch and General Pershing.
It is a marvelous time in the history of the world and the times require men equal to the demand. Nearly four years of the war passed and up to that time the hearts of many were heavy because no one outstanding figure had appeared. The unspoken call was for a leader. Great men, good men and many of them were in evidence, but the Napoleonic leader had not appeared.
Then upon the insistence of the President of the United States a supreme commander, one brain, one heart, one sole power to direct, was found and the Allies were no longer separate units, each free to come or go, without adhesion or cohesion. There was now to be one plan and one planner. The world already is aware of the result, for Foch has been tried and tested. The great unifying power has been discovered. The man for whom the world had been waiting had appeared and taken charge. Whether times make men or men make the times is a riddle as old as the one concerning the egg and the hen as to which was first produced. Without question both are true.
But no military genius can win battles, much less win a war, unless he is supported by strong men and true. And in the number of those who are closest to Foch is the Commander of the American Expeditionary Forces in France. All are rejoiced that he is where he is, but they are equally proud that he is what he is.
It is easy to paraphrase the words of the great Apostle to the Gentiles, and to say of General John Joseph Pershing that he too "is a citizen of no mean country." It is also easy to say that he is no mean citizen of that country, for he is both the citizen and the general, the man as well as the soldier. And there is the strongest possible desire on the part of his countrymen, that, upheld by his armies and helped by everyone in his native land, he may speedily add new luster to his name and to that of his own land until the words of the greatest orator of the new world may have an added significance and a deeper meaning—"I—I also—am an American!"