New Britain Herald Newspaper, December 27, 1918, Page 11

“Clemeiceau”—at Seventy-Seven By Irving R. Bacon IOCH was the mighty arm which smote the German- and forced them to sue for peace; but the head which energized that arm and gave it power to strike was the astonish ing Clemenceau, the prime minister and war lord of France. For forty-seven years had Georges Benjamin Clemenceau nursed the sacred flame of protest against the ** German domination of Alsace and Lorraine, the provinces which Gor- many wrested from France. And during ail that long period his one dream and hope had heen that he might live to see them restored to their rightful country. He was thirty when, in 1871, as the leader of the Radicals in the Nationai Aesembly, he opposed tha peace which gave to Germany so large and beau tiful a part of France. He was seven- ty-ceven when, in 1918, as Prime Minis ter, he dedicated the peace which re gncorporated with the Frepch soil the provinces that had been torn away. On March 8, 1918, before the Ger- mars hud .begun their second big > drive, but when many in France were clamoring for peace, he said in the Chamber of Deputies: Y have but one ambition, and that % (s to serve my country. My whole policy is to preserve the country's morale. all wars he is the con- queror who, for a quarter of an hour lenger than his adversary, can believe he {s not beaten. Everybody desires peace—myself like everybody else— but it is not by bleating about peace that we shall destroy the Prussian militarism." “Americans Are Coming” And again addressing the Chamber of Deputies on June 5, 1918, when the Germans’' new big drive toward “Paris was under way and the Soclal- ists in the chamber were denouncing Clemuenceau for the disaster which appeared to be inevitable, he said calmly: “The moment is perilous; but the scourage of our soldiers is equal to the situation, and they have good chief: * ** Our duty is very simple. Our resolve must be to carry on the fight to the end. * * * The Americans are Yarriving. We are staking the game upon the help of the Anfericans. “Our effectives and those of Eug- land are being exhausted, as are those of the Germans. The struggle now turns upon America’s participation. Have you not the patience to wait? % “If I have not done my duty, turn me out. If I have your confidence, let me complete the work which our dead have begun.” And then, on October 18, 1918, when he had “completed the work” and the ctory was won, he once more ad- ed the Chamber, which this time, hailed him as “the Deliverer of France.” “Our victory is not a victory of re- venge.” he said; “our victory and the victory of our allies means the libera tion of civilization and the emancipa- dion of human conscience.” Never since the time of Richelieu has France been so loved by any of her sons with a love so romantic as by Clemenceau, is the testimony of those who admire him. An American writer, who appears # pot to have liked him, writing of him en Mareh 20, 1916, when Clemenceau was chairman of the French Senate’s War and Foreign Affairs Committces, said # "At twenty-five he (Clemenceau) had the appearance of & man of fifty. At seventy-five, his haggard face and bald head sometimes look as if suddenly revealed from the shroudings of the grave. The cynical smile on his lips, speaking of disillusionment, complete and irrevocable, is the farewell of an old. old man to his youthful dreams. “But the mention of France trans- forms the face. The black eyes be- come inflamed, alive with passion and fanatical devotion, as he says: “‘No sight of countries and of men; no grace of earth; no splendor of the beavens could wear away from my heart the love of my native soil. By its charm I was possessed, its charm still holds me. This is our land; here our fathers sleep in peace and here, too, we shall sleep when our day’s work is done.’” Romance and Ambition Unite America has a particular incentive to regard this man with a more than common interest. He lived in this everal years; practiced medi- cine for a while in New York; taught echool in Stamford, Conn., and mar- ed an American girl. Romance, poverty, ambition, love of eountry, fearle venturesomeness, genius and boundless enthusiasm are ghe elements of which his life-work has been compounded. No novel has anything more stirring, more startling, more inspiring than this great French- man’s career, whose exploits have won him the sobriquets of “the Tiger,” “Destioyer of Ministries,” “King- maker.” “Father Victory” and “De- w¥erer of France.” He was born September 28, 1841, at Mouillcron-en-Pareds, near Fontenay- le-Comte, in the Vendee, the last sironghold of royalism. But in the stock he sprang from royalism had #ts staunchest enemy. Iis father, a physician, was a republican of revolu- tionary proclivities and the latter's ther, 100, had been very much in evidence in efforts to do away with thrones. » When Georges Clemenceau was ten, Years old his father took part in & movement designed fo thwart the fa- nwous coup @'etat which seated Louis Napoleon upon the throne. It cost the Hailed as “Deliverer of France” Georges Benjamin Clemenceau, Prime ister of France elder Clemenceau’s liberty, and as he was being led away handcuffed prison, his little son whispered into his ear, “Never mind. papa, I will avenge you."” “If you wait to avepge me, work!” was the somjewhat cryptie Teply At that period, except for his revo lutionary tendency e was nothing in Georges's activities to justify hope of his future greatness. Of all her children, Georges was accounted. by his mother, the least promising At sixteen he knew scarcely more than any normal boy of twelve, al- though it is said that he made an ef- fort to master the English language about that time. Another boy had told him the story of “Robinson Cru- and to be able to read it in entirety and without the glaring tuses which he felt that his com panion’s narrative contained, he sct about to acquire the author’s own language. When he attained his seventeenth vear his sudden mental awakening was almost startling in its effect. He began to read omnivorously and, as he had developed an amazingly reten- tive memory, he remembered nearly all he read At nineteen he went to Paris to study medicine. He lived ir the Quar- tier Latin, and his room was the ren- dezvous for kindred-spirited revolu- tionaries. Hidden there, too, was a small printing press, from which a constant stream of anti-kingcraft pamphlets was poured forth. Collab- orating with Emile Zola and Jules Maline, he published a small newspa- per, “Travail” (“Work”), which landed all three into the Mazas Prison Seeks Fortune in America Some weeks later, when they were released, young Clemenceau's high spirit vented itself in a shout of “Vive la Republique,” in one of the busy streets of Paris. An unequivocal hint was thereupon dropped from official sources that, perhaps, the air of America might suit his health better than that of France. He had already obtained his degree of M. D., and so, without further delay and equipped with no assets beyond sufficient money to pay for his way across, and a boundless ambition, he set sail for America He lived for a while in West Twelfth street, New York city, cking out a precarious existence by practicing medicine. He had plenty of spare time and a great deal of this he spent at the Astor Library, storing his mina with literary and, philosophical treas ures of antiquity and the scientific discoveries of modern times. And, in return, he bestowed upon the great library, which has since become merged with the Tilden and the Lenox Libraries into the great Public Library of New York, a small volume entitled, “De la Generation des Elements Anatomiques,and bearing the follow- ing inseription: “Presented to the Astor Library, by the author, New York, October 12, 1867. G. Clemenceau.” It was the thesis with which he had won his doctor’s diploma in 186 Recognition of his ability as a phy sician was too slow for so ardent and impatient 2 nature, which craved for quick results. Accordingly, having heard that a voung ladies’ academy in Stamford, Conn., was looking for a competent teacher of the French language and literature, he applied, was accepted and without the least regrets closed up his New York office to enter upon the new career. It was a fateful step. Among the pupils was Mary Plummer, a2 New York heiress, for whom the eloquent prelections of the new professor had ent-Thomas command of these a peculiar fascination. His words sank They met mind, and before long she found her self desperately in love was an exceptionally keen-witted girl, and pre-eminent among her classmates and gracefulness. wonder that the impecunious Profesor Georgeg Clemenceau should with him. She were slain. Clemenceau protested that, as Mayor of the arrondissement, he had endeav- ored to quell the riot and protect the An officer of the War Coun- cil expressed doubts concerning Clem enceau’s veracity, whereupon the fiery prepossessing a pupil i young Mayor challenged him to duel s, it is said, were not at all pleased with the prospect of @ union with the e 5 ” preceptor and signified to her On the “Ficld of Honor would be disinherited. In this instanc fired his shot and Clemenceau said: “As vou are an offi it has been laughing at the proverbial After receiving the alleged ultimatum directly to Oakley Hall, who w: Mayor of New York, and were married above the is less dan- only brealk understand, to be wounded low the knee.” locksmiths. T ranco-Prussian clared soon afterward and Clemenceau felt anew the old-time Clemenceau turbulent political His duels almost always pos ssed an element of picturesque “dif- ferentness,” stirrmgs of pa- to return France and get into the thick of the Prussia but against Louis Napoleon, for the over- throw of whose reign as emperor he 1 auspicious opportu- gaged in during hi the stupldity regarded this antiquated ‘proving” one’s honor. o journalist had dc insult him by knowledgment of Cle A challenge was the result, and before the shooting began Clemenceau snnounced: For instance. “Love in a Cottage iberately sought to bow in ac- The impetuosity of their hearts had of prudence of au and his beloved. By their marriage the young couple had loose from the anchor financial security, in def famous caution of the Poet Keats, that “Love in a cottage On water and a crust 1s, Love forgive me, Cinders, ashes, dust.” fortunately friends came to the res- cue and loaned Clemenceau a sufficient sum to defray the expenses of the voy- age to France for him and his bride of They settled in the Mont- martre district of Paris, and it was not long before the denizens of that tumul- discovered in Clemen- man of the hour.” chose him their mayor. The Communz, which came after the s born in the Mont- Thither Thiers, who, upon the downfall of Louis Napoleon, had been elected Pr of the regular army to take over some cannon which had been left there by the Natlonal Guard. both Clemenc some to raigse your hat, I will take off for you." Clemenceau’s the man's hat ance of that nd knocked it off his Another time Paul Deroulede, amber of Deputies, accused Clemenceau of corruption in the French Panama At the conclusion of the accusing speech Clemenceau arose, and after saying “Monsjeur Deroulede The “Code of Honor” speech in the connection Canal scandal. three days. lies!” sat down. pelled to challenge. So dreaded had Clemenceau becoma as a duelist that Deroulede felt death He made his will, bade friends adieu honor” cut from his own head a lock of hair which he divided between the seconds as souvenir: 5 he that his bullet went wide of the marle and Clemenceau smiled grimly and refused to fire in retura. siege of Parls > nervous wi sent troops Generals Clem- As Minister of War in his own Cabinet, Clemenceau personally looked after After he had served a year as Mayor his Montmartre constituent elected him to the General Assembly. He had won their affection by his man- ner of house-cleaning for them. He had found their streets poorly paved, the policing wholly inadequate, the Clemenceau and Field Marshal Haig welcomed by the parish priest of Cambrai after German evacuation sewerage insanitary and nearly every- thing wrong that should have been right. His year'’s incumbency as Mayor was spent in dynamolike ef- forts to reform all this; and there i no donubt that he accomplished mucl Almost immediately he became & power in the General Assembly. His biting satire and thunderous, crushing dialectic onslaughts, both as orator in the assembly and as writer in the paper which he had established, made him a factor which the highest and mightiest in the land soon realized kon with. From 1871 to 1875 he was a member of the Paris Municipal Council and became its pres- ident. In 1876 he was elected to the Cham- ber of Deputies to represent the Mont- martre district. And from that day to the present time, except for a nine- vear withdrawal from politics i1 the eighties, his voice has been ringing out, loud and clear, a clarion call of opposition to everything that savored of injury to France. Rights Dreyfus Injustice During the celebrated Dreyfus case he risked his career and life in espous- ing that deeply injured army officer’s cause. In his paper, L'Aurore, to which Zola also contributed some of the finest productions of his genius in behalf of Dreyfus, Clemenceau sur- passed himself in his efforts to vin- dicate justice against intrigue so wide- spread that it threatened to engulf the entire nation. Of Clemencezu's Drey- fus letters in IL’Aurore Sydney Brooks has said: “They remain, I suppose, the most brilliant masterpieces of polemics that French literature has produced since Pascal's famous ‘Provircial Letters.’” And to Clemenceau’s untiring activ- ity was largely due the victory which brought freedom and rehabilitation to the young Jewish captain who had suf- fered as a caged prisoner on Devil's Island on a trumped-up charge. In the early years of his political career, as Mayor of Montmartre and deputy in the National Assembly, Clemenceau was the leader of the Rad- jcals. So entirely radical was he that he wag gaid to have been “independent even in his radicalism.” By an al most imperceptible evolution he has emerged, as one of his blographers says, “to a saner advocacy of a just and free democracy.” When prime ministers did not seem to him to be pursuing a course cal- culated to produce the best results for France; or when while pursuing the ght course they seemed to him to lack efficlency, Clemenceau would move every engine of political, oratori- cal and literary destructiveness to burl them from their high position. Sixteen ministers has he thus upset in his time. and a vast number of in- dividual ministers have been lald low, politically, by his single-handed efforts. Among the prime ministers whom he thus unseated were Jules Ferry De cinet, De Broglie, Rouvier : nd Cail- The title of “King-maker” came to hini thirty-eight years ago, when he forced President Grevy to retire to make place for Carnot. It has been said of him that without his support no cabinet or president has long main- tained supremacy. Becomes a Philosopher During the period of his withdrawal from politics he studied and wrote much. He had ‘always been fond of the ancient classics and is said to be able to recite Homer by the hour. In the third year of his retirement he made his debut anew in public, this time as a philosopher and litterateur. He published a book on the philosophy of nature, entitled “Great Pan,” a novel of sacial life, and a play, “The Strongest,” the scenes of which are laid at the Ceurt in hina. In October, 1908, when he was sixty-five years old, he was called by President Fallieres to form a cabi- net. He sent for a taxicab and went from house to house of the men whom he desired for his colleagues. Within less than forty-three hours after his appointment as Prime Minister his cabinet had held its first council and been presented to the President. He was called a second time to the Premiership in ovember, 1917, by President Poincare, the present head of the French Republic. The spirit of France had begun to ebb. The one- time flaming ardor for victory had al- most become extinguished by the Ger- man propaganda manipulated by Bolo Pasha and other defeatist agents. Viviani and Briand hdd been com pelled to acknowledge that as Prime Ministers they could do nothing to re- store the national morale “The Tiger” was the only one from whom any reheartening of France might be expectcd. He morve than Justified the confidence reposed in him His first act as Prime Minister v to he the insidious propaganda which was undermining the nation; he brought to book all who in any way were in the meshes of this far- flung conspiracy; the most prominent of them, like Bola Pasha, were exe- cuted; Caillaux was imprisoned; oth- ers fled. Shortly before Clemenceau was call ed to the premiership in 1917, Cail- laux, who was in Rome, sai driand will fail and go; there may be another; and then will come Clem- enceau. He will try, and will fail And then—then I will come.” Fortunately Clemenceau did not fail. If he had and Caillaux had really be- come Prime Minister of France, Ger many would have dictated her own peace terms; for, it is said, the stage had all been set for this; and de- mocracy and world-liberation would have gone bogging again for perhaps another century. Is Hailed “The Deliverer” Next, as War Minister in his own cabinet, Clemenceau shaped events so adroitly that Field Marshal Foch was chosen commander-in-chief of the Al- lied armies; the union with England and Ttaly was tightened and, with France's spirits thus rejuvenated and the wlll for victory revived, the French people were now convinced that, at last, they were being properly gov- erned. It was not altogether ecasy sailing for this “grand old man” of France. He himself had sowed the sced of the trouble which as Prime Minister be- set his way. Through his efforts in the Chamber of Deputies the French censorship had been removed from all but military affairs. His newspaper, IL’Homme Libre (“Free Man"), in which he had launched many of his most scathing philippics against inef- ficiency or corruption, or both, in high piaces, had been suppressed, and, al the soldiers’ needs at the front though the paper reapreared at deaux under the name of L'Homme Iinchaine (“Man Chained”), the cen- sor's habit of “blocking out “the choic- est paragraphs moved the {irascible editor to such wrath that he put all his resources in motion until he succeed- ed in getting the censorship removed in regard to political matters. It was not until he became Prime Ministe~ for the second time that he m™.ized how fortunate it would have been for him if the censorship had not been re- moved from politics. Needless to say he was made the target of the fiercest kind of attacks. France, during the first few weeks of his incumbency, was either furiously for or against him. But when the salutary effects of his genius for gov- ernment began to be felt and France was seen again to have recovered her wonted fervor, the hostile spirit against him died out and he came more and more to be looked upon as “the Deliverer.” He had spent days at a time among the troops, reviving their spirits and making them believe that nothing but victory was possible. And he was the first to bring to Paris from Picardy, from Flanders and from Bethune the welcome news that the Germans were fleeing before the French, the Brit- ish and the American arms. In his devotion to his public life he was negligent of the duties which would have insured him domestic hap pines: Never was there a more loving or devoted wife than Mme. Clemenceau, and yet, after thirty years of mar- ried life, and after all their children were grown up, she obtained a divorce and returned to America. Monsieur Clemenceau married again; this time a Parisian. A Stoic in Frugality In his hahlzlelemenceau is most rigorous. He is up with the lark and to bed, whenever possible, by 8 at night. At 6 every morning a Swedish gymnast puts him through a severe course of exercise. He writes in the morning and attends to public duties in the afternoon. His diet i3 ex tremely frugal, partly on account of his stoic disposition, but mainly be- cause of an ailment of the stomach. It is related that on one occasion, invited to Juncheon by General Joffre, he presented himself at the head- quarters kitchen half an hour befors the luncheon time and handed the generalissimo's cook a small parcel, saying: am Monsieur Clemenceau, who is to Junch with General Joffre. This is a packet of noodles. Please have the kindness to boil them for me in plain, unsalted water, because I never eat anything else.” He is of medium stature, guick and graceful in his movements and polite and amiable beyond the ordinary meed of even the proverbial French good manners, especially toward women. A Few Smiles An Irish soldier had lost an eye in battle, but was allowed to continue in the service on consenting to have a glass eye in its place. One day he appeared on parade without his artl. ficial eye. “Nolan,” said the officer, “you are not properly dressed. Why is yaur artificial eye not in its place?” “Sure, si replied Nolan, “T left it in me box to keep an eye on me kit while I'm on parade.” Geraldine (tearfully)—Jack, our en- gagement is at an end and T wish to return to you everything that you have ever given me. Jack (cheerily)— Thanks; you may begin at once with the kisse: “What did the landlord say when you told him you would leave if the janitor didn't give you more heat? “Didn't seem to worry him. 1In fact, he suggested another location where I would get all the heat I wanted and then some, Briggs—What time did the clock say when you got home last night? Griggs—I don't remember what tha clock said, but I'll never forget what my wife said.