The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1919-02-28
THE PREMIER OF PREMIERs

| Washington, Feb. 25.-The Repub-
lican Publicity Association, through
its President, Hon. Jonathan Bourne,
Jr., today gave out the following state
ment from it's Washington Headquar-
tiers:
"It is not too much to predict that
history will point to Premier Clemen-
ceau as the greatest personality that
this war has developed. Called from
retirement to take command Of the
government after other premiers had
failed to measure up to the demands
of the hour he Immediately demon
strated in his vigorous handling of the
situation that he had lost none Of his
early fighting qualities. The cause
of the allies was at low ebb when
Clemenceau stepped into the arena
and calmly announced that thereaf-
ter Marshall Foch would exercise SUI
preme command of all allied armies.
Such was the force of his character
that nobody had the hardihood to dis
pute his decision, and the appointment
of Foch as generalissimo was accept
ed. No other single incident of the
war contributed so much to the allied
success as the unified command that
Clemenceau by sheer force of will
made reality.
Premier Clemenceau's entire life
has been in the turmoil Of politics,
constantly fighting for the principles
in which he believed. Although
France was forced to conclude a dis
astrous peace with Germany in 1871,
it was not done with the acquies-
cence of Clemenceau. He was one of
the delegates to the negotiations and
fought to the last against the ceding
of Alsace and Lorraine to Germany.
"Men cannot be bought as slaves in
Africa, nor sold as serfs in Russia, nor
delivered like cattle into the hands of
Bismark." Those were his words as
he ragged against the oppression of
the Iron Chancellor. He has lived to
have the satisfaction of seeing those
states returned to France. with him.
self the leader Of his country in
bringing Germany to her knees.
"But great as have been the con-
tributions of the Tiger of France to
the defeat of Germany it may be
truthfully said that at no time has
he assumed a more important role
than he is now playing at the peace
conference. While there is a differ
ence of opinion among the large num-
Der of conferees on most of the ques-
tons they all are of little significance
compared with the paramount import
ance of the policy to be followed in
dealing with Germany. On that ques-
ton the conference apparently is d.
vided into two camps-those who be-
lieve in forcing the Huns to pay the
penalty for the frightful disaster they
brought upon the world, and those who
think the best way to obtain lasting
peace is to be lenient with the Ger
mans, to send them what food they
need, raw materials for their indus
tries, and so arrange matters that
they will be able to take their place
in competition with other nations for
the worlds commerce.
"The latter school of thought is
personified in Mr.. Wilson and his as
sociates on the American delegation
the former policy is insisted upon by
Clemenceau, backed by the French
Italian, Belgian, and English dele
gates. The French people know that
Germany not only has a huge army
with which to continue her menacing
attitude, for factories turning out i'm
mense quantities Of products with
which to flood the markets of France
and OF the world, and possible fleet
of ships to carry those products over
! seas. France, on the other hand,