Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-01-19
a. Highly Polished Roosevelt.

again, IScdli the tOuCn OF hOoSe-
welt, much polished Roosevelt, the
master of the phrase and of the man
ner which the colonel had not-the
man who wields Il rapier. not broad
sword: who strikes but once where
the colonel battered and pounded until
at last he destroyed his foe. some
times by mere bruising. But in en-
ergy, in carelessness, the men are
alike; and Clemenceau is like no other
man | have ever met in the public
life of the three countries.
And when l came back to my
| French friends and told them Of
Ciemenceau, of the Clemenceau I had
! met, they laughed at me little in
credulously, is at one who had in
sisted on preserving his gods, despite
| having encountered the fact And
when 1 asked them if he would come
| back they, one and all, said, I'm
| possible. Clemenceau is finished. Do
| you not know what he said Of,
| Of? No, decidedly he is too dan
| gerous: he is terrible. It is i'm
| possibier'
But now C1emenceau has 'rome
| back" The man who said to me, II
am the opposition" is today the gov
| eminent. The man who told me that
| the politician who talked peace. sur
| render peace: German peace" would
| be shot, 'decently.' has made good
! his words. and in the lonely and dan
/ gerous eminence he now occupies he
| has, at the least, the best wishes of
| all those in Britain and America who
care most for France and desire most
| to see her come unspoiled and re-
| stored from this terrible struggle.
| For the final terrible year of war
| Clemenceau has been the incarnation
| of the will to live in France. In a
sense this old man, the Connecticut
school teacher of the period when the
civil war was just over in America,
was the final hope for France.
Viviani, he of the words: BRAND. who
| once more tired under a great task
Painleve, the scholar, incredibly ac-
| tive, but inescapably didactic: they
all failed, and when the enemy was
again at Noyon. and still within
range of Rheims. but when pessimfsts
came from France bringing words OF
evil. thought always of this man,
| Clemenceau, as he sat behind mis-
gun emplacement, two years before,
shaking the cap he had borrowed
from some poilu, who was glad, 1
doubt not, to lend it, and saying:
No Longer Doubted France.
"once I had doubts about France.
once 1 feared for my countrymen. but
now-is it not wonderful, is it not un-
believable?'
There are men in whom you believe.
once you have seen them. / do not
think men would trust Clemenceau
as they do Roosevelt; his following
will never be made up of those who
personally admire or love him. But
the thing you must feel about the
man is that he will fight. II out: ne
| has fought it out in French politics
| for nearly half a century. His enc
mics have passed: he it is who has
survived. And as he was the firs'
| premier in France to make unhesi-
| tating: answer to Germany-the first
since lST0-so he deserved and achieved
victory, as a man who has no fear and
! has never yet surrendered.
| Today men all over the world are
reading with joy of the return to
| France Of her lost provinces: OF
French generals in Colmar. in Null
| house in Metz, in Strassbourg. To-
| longs to the soldiers; they have
earned it and they should enjoy 1t;
and tomorrow and for all other days
| the fame of Foch will endure as the
conqueror of the German military
machine: the man who broke the
mighty if evil, tradition OF the Prus-
sian war lords.
But without Clemenceau Foch could
not have triumphed. Without Foch
Petain could not have reorganized
the French army. following the mill
t2ry defeat and the moral weakening
of 1917. When France turned "a
Clemenceau all other hope was gone.
lie came heralded by evil forecasts
of brief ministry and a complete
and disa strous failure. He came when
treason was abroad and defeatist
propa ganda general. After he came
there was a period of military dis
aster and a growing sense OF i'm
pending defeat