Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-01-12

the republican leaders. who are the
true fountains of all these appoint
ments
Bourgeois desired to he deputy a
leader. The great ones were willing
to admit him to their number They
slated him for election i'm the Marnc-
where he had never lived and was
known; 1T did not matter He was
elected Next time they put him up
for Rheims. He was elected and re-
elected.
From the day he became deputy his
course was clear. He pure radi-
cal republican, and no more to be Sa id.
All knew him to be stanch. So he be-
gan. from time to time, to form part
of the various cabinets which succeed
ed each other at the rate of two or
three a year. In 1890 he was minister
Of the interior, then passed long
time as minister of public instruction.
Later he was minister Of justice.
). ::
He was recognized a great statesman.
Important measures, like the reorgani-
zation of the universities, were due to
him. He studied and proposed the in
come tax And in 1895, after there
had been nine governments in three
years, under three presidents. Felix
Faure called Leon Bourgeois to form
new cabinet which. for the first time,
mise among different squabbling re-
publican groups-one color, his own,
radical.
skip it,
He was great chlef.
And he was sick OF IT,
Vanity of vanities. all is vanity
He devoted himself to advanced re-
publican beneficence. Although ne
never took the name of socialist. ne
has been great protector of working
men. women and children; passed
old-age pension laws, trade accldent
compensation laws and worked out ana
first proposed the income tax.
He desired poor young men to take
the university degrees which open
liberal professions to them. lie broke
down the sons-of- families wall around
the baccalaureate. Though himself a
classical scholar. he created the moo
ern courses in high schools and uni
versities: but he left Latin as neces-
sary for law and medicine o'hce
then others have gone further-so
that Latin is scarcely necessary lol
ANYTHING; but there Is a reaction anu
Rourceois certainly believes that STU
dents who have only learneu ilio ',';aa
languages and science lack the "lde
view and deeper Discrimination enjoyed
NV students who have worked at.thelr
classics.
Vanity Of vanities.
They would not let him work at what
he liked The great chief shrunk from
str;fe The Panama scandals saddened
bim-he was minister of justice, and
stood at the helm. sagely compromising
between mutiny and a short-crewed ship
of state But he hated it all, and his
health weakened.
Vanity of vanities. he saw the Dreyfus
affair coming. With what joy he packed
his trunk for The Hague. as delegate Of
France to the original International peace
congress proposed by the car
In the midst of his work at The Hague,
President Loubet recalled him to Paris,
and begged him to form a cabinet devot-
ed to the Dreyfus revision. Leon Bour-
geois' heart fell What! More strife? He
begged that the cup might be removed
from him.
Then took place a memorable scene, of
which the present one is but an enlarged
duplicate All the groups Of the republic
gathered round this man. They showed
him the danger, they adjured him. plead
ed with him to accede to the presidents
request to form cabinet, for the defense
of republican institutions. attacked stimuli
taneously by royalists, nationalists and
BonapartiStS.
Seldom was a man so 1attered by the
republic.
Leon Bourgeois could not Or was it
albumen? The eminent statesman, to the