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DOUGLAS COUNTY SENTINEL, DOUGLASVILL6, GEORGIA
HAS GREATEST
RECORD OF ANY
LEADER IN WAR
Genera! Joffre Will Rank in His
tory With the Ablest of
Soldiers.
MAN IN HIS PLACE
Hero of the Battle of the Marne 1$
Succeeded by General Nivelle, but
His Great Talents Will Still
Be at Service of Allies as
War Council Head.
Paris.—General Joffre has been su
perseded. The active command of the
French armies ill the Held has been
placed in the hands of a younger man,
General Nivelle, the hero of Verdun.
General Joffre has been made head of
the allied war council. Unprejudiced
observers ugree he bus today the great
est military record of any of the lead
ers In the present war. He will rank ii\,
history with Nupoleon I, Hannibal,
Caesar and George Washington.
He won the battle of the Marne,
where defeat would have meant com
plete German success in the conflict.
He won it twice—first, by directing
French preparations in the critical
years, 1911 to 1914, and, second, by
leading the armies of the Republic
in that fateful month of September,
1914, on the field of battle.
Joffre lias commanded the armies of
a warring nation longer than any other
man in this war. Hindenburg’s victo
ries in the two battles of East Prussia
Involved smaller numbers of men and
smaTter responsibilities by far than
those which the idol of the French peo
ple lias borne through more than two
years of heart-wracking strife.
The Old Man of the Lakes follows
von Falkenlmyn and von Moltke as
supreme military leader—under the
kaiser—of Germany. Who knows how
long he will last? In the British land
forces Sir Douglas Haig has superseded
French; in Russia the Grand Duke
Nicholas has given place to the czar,
and General Alexioff sharing highest
command; in Austria-Hungary the
leadership has shifted and finally been
given almost entirely into alien hands;
while Italy’s troops, although** always
under General Count Cadorna, have
not been fighting so long as those of
the other great powers.
Age His Only Fault.
The slowing-up of the battle of the
Somme without a distinguished allied
success, has been a great disappoint
ment to France. But few Frenchmen
blame Joffre for this. Criticism of him
has to find comfort in the fact that lie
is old, that he fought in the Franco-
Prussian war, and that his driving
force theoretically should he exceeded
by that of a younger man.
He is one of a group of groat
French leaders who got their earlier
training in the 1870-71 struggle with
Germany. The others of the group
Include the one-armed hero, General
Pau. and General Foch, who has been
In direct command of the Somme op
erations.
The present war has brought to the
fore certain younger officers. Men who
were only coloneis or less when the
struggle commenced are now com
manding army groups. Purls politi
cians of the intriguing sort have been
demanding for some time that the old
er lenders step aside and let the young
sters show what they can do.
But nothing that may happen can
dim the great glory of Joffre. It Is
safe to say that a vote by either the
soldiers or the civilians of France
would continue him in the post he lias
held since 1911.
In that year the archaic French mili
tary organization started toward re
form. The army was to have Its first
real commander in chief in many
years. Cabinet, army leaders and the
people alike united In the demand that
this position go to General Pau.
But Pau, the patriot, standing In a
great council, declined the honor.
Pointing to Joffre. he said: ‘‘There
stands the only possible man.”
So Joffre was selected, because Pau
wanted him as his superior. The choice
was a disappointment to the public,
to whom Joffre was little known.
In many ways Joffre Is more Ger
man than Parisian. Sober, simple in
habits, Industrious, rising at five and
going to bed at ten, and making no
great public appearance, ho was not
the figure to strike the French imag
ination at first view.
Strong for Efficiency.
His career had already been marked
by several acts of gallantry, hut it was
as an efficiency man, an engineer, a
systematizer and organizer, who was
not too proud to learn from the kais
er’s great general sfuff, that ho had
Impressed Pau and Civstelnau and oth
ers, who now hecuine his immediate
Instruments In regenerating the French
army.
Joffre is not the Frenchman of Paris,
but the hard-working peasant type
which made France great. He was
bom in RlveraglUs, in the East Pyre-
bees, and loves today to talk the Cata
lan dialect with hU old friends there.
He was the third oljleven children—
race suicide, one t** deduct The
tradldojabr w coopers, and
ienf had had 1
iome Spanish bbx> in
sweet-tempered. He was even looked
down upon by certain masculine spir
its in school—this boy who was to be
come the man of Iron and direct fif
teen million soldiers.
At fifteen he astounded his parents
and friends by announcing he intend
ed to compete for the Polytechnic
school in Paris, the great training
place for artillery officers. He passed
fourteenth in his eutrauee examina
tions among 132. and would have
stood much higher had his German
not been rather weak on points of
grammar, a failing of his in which
tlie French people now take a certuin
delight.
Before lie could finish his course the
Frahco-Prussian war began and
Joffre became a sub-lieutenant in a
Paris fort. Here he got little chance
to distinguish liimseif, hut the hor
rors of the siege left a great impres
sion on his mind aud heightened his
patriotism.
Directly after the conclusion of
peace he was employed in reconstruct
ing the Paris fortifications. His work
so pleased Marshal McMahon when
he cuine to Inspect it that he made the
lieutenant a captain on the spot.
First Came Into Fame.
In 188.'» he went to Indo-China,
where he built the defenses of Huut-
Tonkin. He constructed a railroad in
Senegal and the defenses of Diego-
Suarez in Madagascar.
In 1887 he became a professor of
fortifications in the army school at
Fontainebleau, and afterward he was
director of engineering for the minis
try. As an army corps commander at
Lille and Amiens he gained intimate
knowledge of the couutry where
fighting is now going on.
Almost his only blast of fame came
in 1893. He was commander of a na
tive column in Africa. Colonel Bon
nier, who commanded the main line,
hud encountered disaster. Thirteen of
his officers and Bonnier himself had
been killed. Joffre had been ordered
to ascend the left bank of the Niger
from Segu to Tinibuctoo and take pos
session of the land which still re
mained independent of France.
He went about the expedition in his
usual methodical fashion, studying the
country and its method of warfare,
and after Bonnier’s death he made a
inarch of 500 inilete under great diffi
culties and planted the tricolor over
Tlmbuctoo for the first time.
When in 1914 the great call came
Joffre was a member of the higher
council of war, a body of 11 men, from
whom the commander in chief in time
of war would he selected. He was
known as “Joffre the Monk,” partly be
cause of the decency of his private
life and partly because of his abstem
ious dally regime. He could do only
one thing better than work, It Is said,
and that wus sleep. The uight fol
lowing the disheartening reverse at
Charleroi he slumbered for a few
hours as peacefully as a baby. He
has no nerves.
Joffre, Millerand. minister of war,
and Poincare, premier and later presi
dent, were the triumvirate which cre
ated the France that stopped Germany
at the Mu rue.
The first tiling Joffre did as com
mander in chief was to stop civilian
spying on army officers to discover
whether they attended mass. The sec
ond was to dismiss five of the show
iest generals In the French urmy—be
cause they betrayed incompetence in
maneuvers.
Mads Many Reforms.
His reforms were almost countless.
He specialized in tlie new departments
—telephones, telegraphs, automobiles
and airplanes—and brought his army
to a technical efficiency second to non*.
He had a large part in bringing
about the three-year army service law,
by which France raised her standing
army from 485,000 to 600,000 men, and
so had enough to meet the onslaught
of Germany’s 820,000.
Then came the great war, the story
of which is fresh in every mind. Jof
fre had seen it coining, and with the
English field marshal, Roberts, had
warned against it. His brain and per
sonality stood the test of actual strug
gle as well as it had met the problems
of preparedness. He found time from
his work in the field to meet and van
quish the iufamous peace cabal of Cull-
luux.
Following the battle of the Murni
his power increased, rather than di
minished. In Junuury, 191G, it was
announced that the government had
decided to Interfere with military op
erations in no way from that time
forth. The commander in chief was
supreme.
A further honor and responsibility
came to him after the great council
of all tlie allies, when supreme mili
tary direction was resolved upon and
placed in Joffre’s hands. Since then
lie has directed the masses of tin*
czar as well as the new armies of
Great Britain. Only on the sea, where
the British hold sway, was the direc
tion of the war out of his hands.
At the age of sixty-four—he was
born January 12, 1852—he may well
look back on his life work with as
much satisfaction as Kitchener and
face whatever changes fate may have
in store for him with equanimity.
IN A WOMEN’S MEDICAL COLLEGE CLINIC
GERMAN “TANKS"
OUTRUN CAVALRY
Are Faster and Harder to De
stroy Than the British
Monster.
PLAYS HAVOC WITH INFANTRY
Machine Guns Can Be Operated in
Almost Any Direction Through
Narrow Slits—One Machine
Kills 300 Men.
At General von Falkenhayn’s Head
quarters in Rouinauia.—One of the
most interesting features of the Rou
manian campaign, from u German
standpoint, has been the spectacular
work of the new arino. ed automobiles
evolved soon after the advent of the
British “tanks” on the Somme front,
but which tin* developments in Bou-
tnania have shown to he a vast im
provement in efficiency over the Brit
ish machines.
Even in the brief tests it hus had
since the Germans crossed the moun
tains into the Roumanian plains tlie
new German armored car has shown
itself an efficient auxiliary to the cav
alry in patrol work, as it frequently
can inflict infinitely more damage than
a whole squadron, and is far more dif
ficult to destroy than the English ma
chine. Its achievements so fur In
clude an attack on Roumanian inf untry
in which 300 Roumanians were killed.
Like a Motor Truck.
The cars are 25 feet in length, with
wheels a foot wide uud incased in
solid rubber. They carry a crew of
ten men, including the nmchlue-gun
operators, the chauffeur and one sub
stitute and one officer.
The machine guns cun be operated
in almost any direction through nar
row slits. At one end, under the cus
tomary hood, Is a 100-horse-power mo
tor, and at the other end. under a sim
ilar hood, is 4he gasoline tunk. Each
man in the crew is an expert me
chanic and chauffeur, so if a bullet
hursts through t‘ •» slit through which
the operator looks in driving there
are others ready and competent to
take the injured man’s place.
The automobile engine Is both air
and water-cooled. The enr shell Is
impervious to machine gun and rifle
fire. When no opponent Is In sight
the top of the turret can be opened
so that a map can get his sLoulders
out and make (Ascrvatloos.
the ttufet Is closed periscopes
permit
ENROLL FRENCH WOMEN
Paris.—A woman’s committee
presided over by Mine. Routroux,
wife of the celebrated philoso
pher, has been organized to en
roll woman volunteers in the
service of the country. It Is ap
pealing to all women to Inscribe
their names, with a statement of
their aptitudes and tlie time they
will he able to devote to work
in different categories when their
services may he needed.
Enrolling offices will be opened
soon and a comprehensive effort
will he made to enlist all the
women of France in the service
of the nation.
taken for Russians, because the Ger-
mans were not supposed to have arm
ored cars.
Just as the crew was being enthusi
astically greeted three Roumanian lo
comotive drivers tried to get their en
gines away, but tlie automobile was
too swift for them. The machine
raced ahead, the crew destroyed a por
tion of the track and the automobile
received the engines with a withering
fire, which forced their surrender after
they hail been disabled.
On the return to the village the crew
was again greeted by the population,
hut this time-with whi(b flags of sur
render.
Routs Roumanian Infantry.
On another occasion an automobile
encountered a force of Roumanian In
fantry and opened fire before the
troops could seek shelter. The Rou
manians fled after 60 seconds of firing
from the car, leaving 300 dead and 50
wounded.
The great usefulness of the auto
mobiles has been most apparent In
Roumnnin, where the character of the
warfare makes It possible to slip be
hind the opponent’s lines. On a re
cent exploit of this kind the com
mander worked his way to the rear of
a body of Roumanian infantry which
wns intrenching, and almost before the
Roumanians were aware of the car’s
presence it had swept the trenches
with machine gun tire and driven the
defenders out in disorder.
None of the German automobiles of
this type used in Roumnnin has as yet
been disabled or destroyed by oppo
nents. The bullets thus far encoun
tered have hardly dented the shells of
the machine.
The chief advantage of the new auto
mobile, In contrast with the British
machine, Is that It can run at an aver
age speed of 25 miles an hour, ns con
trasted with the snail-like pece of the
entente cars. Us speed frequently en
Women students of the Women’s Medical college of l’ennsylvanla witnessing an operation by / flMlen 8U;geous|
the clinic of the institution. Everyone in this operating room is a woman and there is no suggestion alfniutneis
pari of any-of the audience.
SERBIANS MOURNING AT GRAVE OF A COMRADE
Two Serbians, members of the army that is fighting to regain their country, mourning
rude killed in battle.
MRS. SKEFFINGTON AND SON
Irs. F. Shechy
Irish editor v
trial by the Brit
during the re
keffington, widow of
io was shot without
di military officials
rebellion
in Ireland, and her seven-year-old son.
en, photographed in New York
Mrs. Skeffington says she has come to
America to tell of her husband’s
“murder.”
Blotter Shortage Imminent.
Insurance companies find it neces
sary to retrench on their supplies of
various kinds, owing to tlie Increased
cost of paper stock. In most cases
prices have doubled. Companies are
cautioning economy and saving in every
possiblo way so far ns literature is con
cerned. Many companies that have been
liberal with blotters and calendars are
cutting down their supply materially.
Some companies are not getting out
any calendars this year, others are re
ducing their usual number and some
have discontinued getting out large
blotters which n«£cost about 10 cents
apiece. Where are found to be
nonproductive theNfe supply of calen
dars and blotters m being decreased
materially. Paper Is such an Item to
day that economy in its use is neces
sary.—Western Underwriter.
WAITING FOR HIS DEAD
British official photograph showing a pathetic seefl|
front. A handsome horse, the mount of a British oft
edge of a dugout, where the British olttcer has good
unfamiliar hand will lend him away from the scene of
FRENCH HOSPITAL IN TH
