Evening star., 1919-11-09

| A NYTHING with which the Ital-
| ~ ians have to do is bound to
| ~ be dramatic. They set every
thing to music and present 1t
| on the stage. D'Annunzio expressed
the Italian temperament the other
I day, accurately If extremely. when he
marched into Fiume and chose the
grave in which he. the martyred hero,
was to rest.
So it was that the Italian crisis at
Paris was the most dramatic OF any.
It is an interesting fact that the Pres
ident had to "go down on the mat"
| with each of the great powers In turn.
the principles he stood for coming
into conflict with the special inter-
ests they supported.
When an Englishman has his fancy
fixed on an island. or Frenchman
wants some billions more of francs
than there Is any show of getting. or
an Italian covets town which
was Italian in the days of the Vene-
tan doges, there is difficult business
afoot. The President could easily
have had his principles adopted after
the spoils of war had been divided,
but it was a terrific task to get them
adopted on the basis of peace. Every
one wanted a good strong league OF
nations to guarantee a treaty In
which each first got all he wanted!
And often in these struggles the
President was absolutely alone. but
sometimes he could form combina-
ers-usually the British-to help him
maintain his position.
Aid of British Liberals.
The British liberals and their excel
lent newspapers helped him more
than any other single group in the
world-better than any single group
in his own country. Lord Robert Cecil
and Gen. Smuts were often towers OF
strength. AS for Lloyd George. he
was powerfully on one side on one
day and powerfully on the other the
next-but on the whole and in the
great main issues he was with the
President. Lloyd George was one OF
the most charming and amiable hg-
ures in Paris. full Of Celtic quick
silver, a torrential talker in the con-
ferences-but no one was ever quite
sure, having heard him express an
unalterable determination on one day.
that he would not be unalterably de-
termined some other way on the day
bright ideas, he contracted enthusi-
asms. he had panics-and amused or
char med nearly everybody with whom
he came into personal contact. He had
to have his tea every afternoon-and
got it-though it overturned the an
cient proprieties of the most solemn
of institutions, the French foreign
office; and he had the British passion
for fresh air. l saw him one day
come bursting out of the hermetically
sealed room where the peace confer
ence was sitting in supposed secrecy.
= haf ovcla i'm
"I don't believe the air in that room
has been changed since the time Of
Louis Philippe"
Clemenceau's Charm.
AS for ClemeAceau. no one who saw
him day after day in Paris could
help coming to have kind of abid-
ing personal admiration for him
though he was against the Presi-
that arose. 1 see him now-his body
as solid. square, strong. as though
built out of oak wood, his short legs.
his great drum of a chest. his head
set far back and held very erect.
the bald top of it the color Of old vel
always wore gray cloth gloves in
conference and out-I never saw his
bare hands-got up at o'clock in
the morning and went to bed at s
or 9 in the evening, and though sew
ety-eight years old was able. within
would-be assassin. to return to the
conference. The French we'll called
him 1.-The Tiger He had a devas-
tating wit and after long life in
which he had seen everything. done
everything, felt everything. had no
illusions left. nothing but kind of
burning fame of passion for France
Everything else was vanity. So old.
SO worldly wise, so obstinate, SO wit
ty and withal so gentle (French to
the bone) there is no one like him in
the whole world today.
Respect Won by Mr.. Wilson.
These were strong men with whom
the President had to deal; men who
had managed the great war for two
great powers and contrived, in spite
of everything, to maintain their hold
upon their people. Some Americans
forget to give him credit for the fact
that he not only held his own with
them. vindicated his position as the
indisputably outstanding figure at
the peace conference, but secured in
large measure what he came to get;
and. I am certain, left Paris not only
with the high respect Of these asso-
ciates. but. If words ever mean any
thing at all, with their truly friend
ly consideration. They knew him, after
six months. for fighter-a hard fighter,
but always fatr-and respected him ac-
cordingly.
AS say. he had a struggle with each
OF the powers in turn. He met the Brit
ish, for example, on the colonial issue,
as 1 described in former article, and
little was heard Of the fight. for II the
British have to give in they are dis
creetly silent about 1t. and even make
it appear afterward as though. after all,
they were the real winners. The French
fought always with foils. politely. but
with matchless ingenuity in alterna-
tives and a persistence to wear away
/; the solid rocks. 1t would seem one day.
in the conference. that Clemenceau had