Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 219, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 October 1917 — ITALIAN LEADER GREAT GENERAL [ARTICLE]

ITALIAN LEADER GREAT GENERAL

Intimate Sketch of the Man Who Has Beaten His Enemy’s Military Machine. LUIGI CADORNA’S BIG RECORD He Has Molded an Army That Drivea Austrians Out of Alps Mountains In Hardest Campaign of World Conflict During Summer.

Rome.—lt is said in the little Italian water town of Pallanta on the border of the Lago Maggiore, away up toward the Swiss Alps, where Lombardy and Piedmont meet, that some years ago a learned German with a particular interest in heraldry paused at some length before a weather-beaten crest embossed in a quaint old-fashioned doorway, and observed to those in his company: _ “Remarkable most remarkable. The composition of this coat of arms points to a line of fate running in the same family from father to son, and to tremendous achievements to crown the family tree. I wouldn’t care to be pitted against the star of that famIly.” - And he marched himself off, growling : “Remarkable, "’"most remarkable I” But it never occurred to him to ask the name of the family who had once gone s through the deserted gateway, nor, at | the time, did his reflection strike his Italian host as anything but a freak of “kultur.” Time has proved that tfie German was right for once. The star and the oak tree and what not that had struck his fancy so are the crest of the Cadorna, who come from poor but unsullied provincial nobility, with two chief ideals running in the family: Faith in God and devotion to Italy. The present General Cadorna’s grandfather was minister to King Carlo Alberto, who led the movement for Italian independence, granted the constitution to his kingdom (then restricted to Piedmont and Sardinia), abdicated in favor of his son when he thought that such a course of action would help the formation of new Italy, and died an exile at Cadorna’s father, Gen. Count Raffaele Cadorna, led In 1866 the Italian advance on the Isonzo, which was cut short by diplomatic Interference and the subsequent granting to Austria of the Italian lands beyond that same Isonzo and the Adriatic; an unjust and therefore unwise move which ultimately resulted in the war of today. The “line of fate running in the family from father to son” is evident now, when Gen. Count Luigi Cadorna takes up- the flnished bj- his father, as aH TtaTy of today takes up the strand of fate illtwined and distorted by the unfortunate events of 1866. Luigi Cadorna himself was born in Pallanza on September 4, 1850, and he was barely 15 years old when he entered the military academy, graduating therefrom as a full-fledged lieutenant in 1870, and receiving his captain’s commission in 1875 in an artillery regiment. Opportunity for experience in infantry work was afforded him by his appointment as a major in the Sixty-second infantry regiment in 1883; hut since 1892, when he got his colonelcy, he has been identified with the Bersagllerl, the “wideawakes” of the Italian army. All these years were spent by him In active study of general military problems, as well as oL Italy’s particular characteristics in the military line. To this day his essay on the Franco-German war of 1870 and his pamphlet about tactics and the proper use of Infantry in legitimate warfare are consulted by the experts to advantage. as are his studies on the Italian boundary lands. These he knows to perfection, so that he hardly ever needs tairesort to charts and maps for his plans; he has It all mapped out in his head, and the facility with which he draws from his memory the names and positions of intricate passes, valleys, mule paths and toads is nothing short of marvelous. ’ When he took command of the Tenth regiment of the Bersaglierl, he started to work on it after his own mind, and brought it out in the grand maneuvers of 1895 in splendid form, practicing, in fact, on the adversary forces that same type of outflanking and surrounding move that works so capitally on the Carso todqy. Again, in 1911, (he had attained his generalship then since some years), he led in the “grandes maneuvers,” the Blue party against the Red, with all the strategic odds against his party, and astonished all experts by the working out of a capital plan first; and when this fell through on unforeseen circumstances, by the promptness with which he sized up the new situation and turned it once more to his advantage. But nothing then seemed to point out the magnificent heights to which he was called. In fact, the breaking out of the European war in 1914 still found him a general on the list for the command of an army in case of war. And the Italian chief of staff was General Pollio, who, by the way, was blessed with an Austrian wife. His timely death v as a good turn of fate for Italy, for rhe king appointed General Cadorna to his place. General Ca.’orna, it may be frankly Stated now, found the Italian army in practically desperate conditions of unpreparedness. The way he went' to work and reorganized and equipped it w’as as remarkable and as brilliant an achievement as any of his most brilliant achievements in the fighting line; in fact, it was only the preparation of 1914 that makes Victory possible in 1917. s He is the only commander in the allied world that has retained his posl„tion, we might say, kept steadily his job, throughout the war, without ever as much ns a hint of a breakdown either in the wholesale confidence that his country, his king, his army—and the allies—have placed in him, or in the lively, energetic, all-around quality of his action and command. In fact.

he seems to thrive on his work, and to gather new strength, as the days go and as time tests it, in the consciousness that it is good. His faith in God supports his faith in victory. .Forhe is a deeply religious man, his favorite daughter, by the way, is a nun, and while such feeling means a good deal to human’ lives that are intrusted to him, it helps him to request of them all the sacrifice that the higher ideals may require. It is his firm conviction that “to sacrifice one life wantonly is a crime; to use a hundred thousand if neces»sary is a duty,” for the commander of a nation at war. “If necessary” is his condition; and “if necessary, let it be done,” his slogan, just as the slogan of the officers with heavy responsibilities is: “When in doubt, go to Cadorna.” The particular characteristic of his mind is breadth of vision and the sweeping aside of all minor issues, not to speak of petty details. He is, above all, practical and simple. The fundamental, law of his thought is “common sense And a remarkable clearness in seeing things as they are”—not as he might like them to be or as he might object to their being. He even has gone the length of writing that “The iyt of war must be governed chiefly by common sense pure and simple.” And by the study of war on this basis he has reached a deep knowledge of the world, on the principle that “there is everything in war, from geology to the human heart.” Glvenjiis simplicity and directness of the simplicity and directness of his written words are consequential, and it may fairly be said that since the “Commentaries of Julius-Caesar” Italy had heard nothing to compare with the splendid simplicity and the Latin “line” of his war bulletins. It is whispered among those who know that, in the early days of the war, the task of drafting the daily communique had been intrusted to a very brilliant Italian journalistic officer, whose headline ran, “Gran Quartiere Generale” (Chief Headquarters, or something to that effect, with obvious reference to the Germanic equivalent). General Cadorna, after having firmly established his men on the outer side of the Italian borderline and carried the war into the land of the enemy (a privilege which the Italian army Slone of the belligerents has enjoyed since the beginning of the war), turned back and saw that the reports were not half so good as the work —literary, but not razor-keen. And this journalist was; thanked (which, by the. way, tn the Italian war zone slang, is expressed by silurate (torpedoed )\ and,.this characteristically Latin headline was adopted: Cornando Supreme (Supreme Command). From that day on; the communicato

Cadorno has brought to the expectant Italy the dally word of her great general and the unspoken assurance of his faith in ultimate victory, every day made nearer and more resplendent, for the general believes In what might be called the contagiousness of faith, and the Identification of the ideal with the reality in ultimate achievement. He believes that victory, before materializing as a fact, must be potentially blazing as an absolute certainty in the hearts of the soldiers and their leaders —in fact, must descend from the leaders to the masses as an irresistible, joyous flow of truth. He believes that discipline is the spiritual flame of victory. Never for one Instant has he doubted the ultimate issue of the war;-never once doubted his own power to win, not on account of personal conceit, but because he considers himself as an agent of necessity, -an exponent of the inevitable march of history. His will is inflexible, because he never seeks strength in the opinion of others. On the other hand, he never makes up his mind until every side has been considered and every item of the contention outweighed. After that his conclusions are drawn, and anything that may follow finds him unswerving. His strength lies largely in his absolute, naive unconsciousness of anything that might disturb it; that, in fact, would disturb another man. No useless anxiety in him; no nerveracking impatience. z Once, away back in 1915, a mayor of an Italian city sent wofd that his constituents* had an Italian flag ready for Goritz. Cadorna dismissed the subject with a whimsical smile. "Tell him to put it away in a drawer for now.” But when, about one year later, Goritz was taken, the mpyor received this rather cryptic telegram from the general himself: “You may now send along that object. Cadorna.” Which rather reminds you of Dante’s famous answer about the egg with salt, at one year’s distance. On New Year’s day of 1916, an acquaintance sent him, with good wishes, the offering of a shaggy fur coat, and the general answered accepting “thflL fleece” as a good omen “for the conquest of our ideal golden fleece,” and added: “But then, you know, in Jason’s time there were no barbed-wire fences, nor other infernal devices, hud it was possible to step more lively.” Which, by the way, is a mighty good hit at the closet-critics of the war. It is characteristic of the general that such a gift he may accept with a sihile; but he definitely waives any collective token or demonstration. Knowing his affection for his native place, and his regret at circumstances having compelled his father to part with the family homestead, it was proposed to purchase and present to him the house by national subscription. He stopped that, and desired the proceeds to be given to the home for mutilated soldiers and victims'of the war. Other demonstrations were similarly thwarted, but it is believed that he will not refuse to accept a sword once owned by Garibildl, since it is planned to present it to him “at the end of. the war.” . . If a general proves unfit he is “torpedoed” on the spot; if a soldier shows the right stuff, he is rewarded. His constant preoccupation is: “Find the men who have the stuff. With such men as the Italians, first values must have.been developed during the war; find them and put them up.” His ruddy, genial, open countenance, his boyish freedom of movement and gesture, Interestingly contrasting with the whiteness of hair and mustache; his clear, forceful voice and the definite, resolute things that it expresses, with a breezy sense of vitality that is quite refreshing to the hearer, all come in for a share in the exceptionally attractive personality of this "geptleman warrior,” who, as a young lieutenant in 1870 stood by his father and helped him give Rome to Italy, and as a mature leader of men may or may not give Trieste to Rome in 1917, but will forever stand in the eyes of Italy and the light of the world as the true representative of the righteous fight of Latin civilization against the barbaric brutality of the Huns.