New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-04-26
Rene ViUidni
By F. c. Fay

D1
/ When Rene Vivisni, former Premier ana
now Minister Of Justice, arrives at Washing
ington at the head of the French War Com
mission America will entertain as guest
man who peculiarly embodies the principles
of liberty, equality and fraternity on when
the French Republic was founded
It is on the shoulders Of the workers whom
he befriended from the earliest days of his
manhood that the Partisan barrister OF Al
gerian birth and Corsican extraction, whose
pous mother destined him to the cloth OF
the Roman Catholic Church, was carried TO
the high position he now holds in his coun-
trys political life. Because he saw the needs
Of the laboring and low salaried classes and
offered his help for the readjustment OF So
cial conditions he was sent to the Chamber
Of Deputies at the early age Of thirty, IN
1892 by the Fifth Electoral District OF Paris,
which holds the Sorbonne, the College de
France. the School Of Law, where Niyianl
qualified for his profession; the Pslais de
Justice, where he pleaded civil and CONNER
cial suits; the Cathedral Of N0tre Dame
where his mother had vainly hoped to see
/ him IN purple IopeS' anu TIC Coy '''''
the Latin Quarter
! For four years he battled for social better
ment by the side of Jean Jaures. the big
hearted leader Of parliamentary socialism,
but the party was yet weak IN the early
COS. and Vivani was too young TO command
much attention. At the next election he was
beaten, and went into the rural Department
of the Grouse, in picturesque Auvergne, 70
work his way into the confidence of farmer
and woodman voters.
/ He was returned triumphantly to the
Chamber. where his first outstanding act was
to secure favorable vote in 1899, on bill
admitting women to the practice Of law.
An Early Feminist
At that time feminism was beginning to
arouse interest in France through its daily
organ, LA Fronde" The multitudes Of
Frenchmen who knew what tremendous as
set the work Of their womenfolk's brains and
hands had been to them applauded the meas
ure even more than the women themselves
who had given their service as a matter OF
course. never looking for public recogni-
/ ton of its value.
/ Thus. the young man from the province OF
/ Oran, in Algeria, who had turned from the
practice of law to the making Of it-as so
many French lawyers are tempted to do
made over night a wide breach in the fortress
/ of popularity
/ Not many years later he walked straight
/ in through that breach behind the old age
pensions law, by which he put into the hands
/ Of every worker one franc a day after the
age of sixty-fve which at the time was
enough to buy his board and keep and make
/ him feel that he was not accepting charity
from his children, who, in French fashion,
would, nevertheless, not be deprived of the
! right of looking after him.
! So strong grew Viviani's hold upon the
working classes, whom lie continues to rep
resent in the Chamber, that wise old Clemen-
ceau, upon becoming Premier in 1905, when
/ labor was dangerously astir, put Viviani at
the head of Ministry of Labor, newly ere
/ ated. There "the workman's friend" worked
wonders by finding common ground Of I'M
Outstanding between capital and labor,
! thereby avertng the gravest disturbances in
the life of the nation. Viviani had become,
from the militant socialist he was, link be-
tween toiler and employer, man whose fair
ness made him acceptable to both, the me-
diator who rendered unnecessary the threat
ening war of classes. BY this he dealt the
severest stroke to the Socialist Party Of
/ France.
With the Independent Socialists
] When in 1904 the Socialists agreed that
something had to be done to separate the
sheen from the goats among them-the goats
! being those who had broadened the MarXlst
doctrine and like Vivani's friend and rival,
Millerand. were willing to accept Office IN
/ bourgeois Cabnet-Viviani broke away from
the "unifed" Socialists, taking his place with
Rriand and the independent" Socialists, and
as such he is still listed.
Though in love and knowledge of art, ut
erature and the classics Viviani is the equal
of the university professor of Lettres' Jean
Jaures in eloquence he does not rank with
that typical Tribun, nor even with the recent
Premier. Aristde BRAND. When Viviani first
came into the public eye his stage fright was
noticeable. He still writes his speeches, but
in the early days he even memorized them,
co that he found himself utterly at sea in
snirited public meeting where hecklers were
AZ their post. Yet ne has gift for coming
/ nhrases that last and his delivery is re-
markable for it's velocity, pungency and
punch"
But above all he wins his hearers with the
neculiar charm of his clear, high tenor voice,
/ which he has learned to use with astounding