Clemenceau

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 16726, 8 January 1920, Page 6

Clemenceau

Fortune seems to have reserved nil tbo greatest piffs in her bestowal for Clomencoau's declining years. Worldwide fame, the admiration of his country's Allies anil the respect of her foes, and the profound affection of his fel-low-rr.untrymen—nil these have come to liiin since, a little more than two years ago, in the dark days of the war, he Prime Minister of France. And now he is to mid the Presidency to his oilier honour-. Having announced his willingness to accept the position, nothing is more certnin than ho will bo elcctcd. More thnn n year ago, when the war was drawing to n close, a member of the Chamber of Deputies, referring to the hold that tho Primo Minister had upon the country, remarked: If we were to turn Cleraenee.au out, '' we should all he shot, by our electors." Since then, in no small measure by the nged loader's tremendous driving force, tho war has been won, and at tho subsequent general cloction Franco pronounced an impressive rerdict in' favour of his policy. The (Senate and Chamber of Deputies, liy whom, Kitting together in a National Assembly, the President is olccted, form a constituency to ■whom 1 M. C'lemenceau can appeal with perfect safety. The secret of M. Clemencenu'g popu- ] larity is not far to seek. Ho is tho in- < carnation of France. Though, as we J havo said, /nmc —of that quality which ; writes a man's name in history—has come to him late in life, he has beon a well-known figure in the political world of Franco for much moro than a generation. The son of a doctor in tho West of France, he followed his father's profession, but at tho age of 21 he wenb to America, where ho stayed for some ' years, supporting Himself partly by . teaching French, and partly by acting as correspondent of "Lo Temps." The tragedy of 1870 brought him back to i France, and rn 1871 ho signed, with the : Republican members of the National Assembly, to which ho had been elected, a protest against the cession of Alsaco- ] Lorraine to Germany. Ho is tho only ] survivor today of tho signatories to that document. Tho loss of the two provinces coloured h» whole Efo; ho i lived, as has been said, fox the day : when tho wrongs then suffered by t Franco should be repaired. Ho was Mayor of MontmaTtTo in tho tumultu- , ous days of tho Commune, and subse- < quontly became Mayor of Paris. But 1 his notoriety was won in tho Chamber i of Deputies in tho years between 1876 1 and 1893. Ho was over a fighter and a ; furious partisan. He hroke Cabinet j after Cabinet by tho violence of hSs attacks on inefficient government. It was in this period that he won the title of "Tho Tiger," and tho reputation of being a dangerously destructive forco. ! His opposition to the Russian alliance ' cost him his scat in 1593, and thence ' for nine years ho devoted himself to € that political journalism which flour- , tshes nowhero more strongly than in . France. Ono of the most notablo parts 1 ho played in this sphere was that of a 1 vigorous supporter of Zola in connexion f with the latter's opposition to the antiSemitic campaign which arose out of j tho Dreyfus case. The year 1903 saw him elected to tho Senate, and four t years later he became Prime Minister, j his three years' term of office being t notablo - for the "rapprochement" be- I tween England and France. j In November, 1917, he once more g war. callcd to tho leadership of the State, and entered upon the greatest t phase of his career. The responsibili- 1 tics of such a position, at tho crisis r of a long and devastating war, P would havo been too great a * burden for most men in their seventy-seventh year to undertake. c But Clemencoau is one of those ii men who rafuso to grow old. The p

| irijj venrs had Mini !" I an a man. ho snid. "who ha« been 1 "made p'iid< ill and n..tf,*;tnl !y ..!• ; "country'.. l'tTii" — :,- n t.*:oy had i."t abated li:> <•:» rgv. i;i< i.>i.'r;ip\ <"T h'. i p:i-~ir>n:it«- patriotism. M- !i •fans'''. i divil. -'the von - soul of l'"ra:/v's -■>>:- anccv" Whether in the or in the trenche-. where time .lftvr time ho risked hi< life, in vi>iti:i:: the pvlu-. ! he breathed into nil -nine of hi.-, mr.trhlt <w res dutinn and unfailing coniid-'iiff. 1 ; The nioniorir< o: IS7I. that fir nearly j fifty y.-ars had f:il<'d his mind and ru-tu-. I aV-d hirn in all he did. in = pir«l him: even in the darkest hour. when the i norm.m irun? could 1.0 hoard in l'ari?, , j his conviction that the wheel would j i turn full circle never weakened. Events! j have ji;-' ified )iis confidence, and now, j j when ii:iproachin£ hi.i eightieth year, i ! the indomuahle old man, wh"?e report!ed retirement into private life seemed > -o improbable a conclusion to a strenuj ou= career. i = to become the head of : tl'.e State that he did more to save than | any man It will be a Oull position j for so ardent a fighter, for the powers of the President of France are more restricted than those of the President ! "f the T'nited States. That he wil] play | his part with all the vigour that is j pnssible we may he sure, and it is pleasant to know that the Anglo-French entente will not loso strength by anything that lie will do.