The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1919-01-18

with that same vigorous forward
thrust, which Is familiar to all who
have seen Colonel Roosevelt In &C
| ton.
Always Liked America.
At the door he reminded me again
of America: You will see everything
and you will go back and tell tho
Americans. They must understand.
l know il they understand 1t will be
all right. AS for me, have always
liked America, knew it once-but
that was very long ago. yes, as told
you. l am an old man."
Looking backward now, after three
years, and trying to recall the faces
and the words of the men l have met
in public life in Britain and France.
Lloyd George, Balfour, Poincare, Pain
love, l find that even now my recol-
lection Of Clemenceau is the clearest.
Alone of all these men. there was
about him sense of force, of power.
a sort of fearlessness alike of phrase
and form. What the man felt, you
would be sure he would say, he would
say it whether it hurt himself or an
other. whether it destroyed a min
istry or merely labeled an opponent.
welt. much polished Roosevelt, the
master Of the phrase and of the man.
ner which the colonel had not. The
man who Yields rapier, not broad
sword, who strikes but once, where
the colonel battered and pounded un-
til he at last destroyed his foe, some
times by mere bruising. But in en-
ergy. in carelessness, the men are
&c To
velt
He Came Back.
And when l came back to my
French friends and told them of the
Clemenceau I had met, they laughed
at me a little incredulously, as at one
who had insisted on preserving his
gods, despite having encountered the
fact. And when I asked them if he
would not come back" they one and
all said: mpossible-Clemencea is
finished: do you know what he said
! of-of-No, decidedly, he is too dan
gerous: he is too terrible. 1t is i'm
possible"
But now Clemenceau has come
back" The man who said to me, Il
am the opposition is today the gov
eminent. The man who told me that
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 off
all those in Britain and in America,
who dared most for France and de-
sire most to see her come unspoiled
and restored from this terrible strug-
gle.
For the final terrible year of war,
Clemenceau has been the incarnation
OF the will to live in France. In
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. Viyi-
ami, he of the words, BRAND. who once
more tried under great task, Pain
leve, the scholar, incredibly active was
again at Ncyon, and still within range
Of Rheims, but when ossimists came
from France bringing words of evil
thought always of this man, Clemen-
ceau, as he sat behind his gun en-
placement, two years before, shaking
the cap, he borrowed from some poillu,
who was glad, l doubt not, to lend it,
and saying
Once l had doubts about France,
once / feared for my countrymen, but
now, is it not wonderful, is it not I'M
believable!"
Survives His Enemies.
There are men in whom you believe,
once you have seen them. l do not
think men would trust Clemenceau as
they do Roosevelt, his following will
never be made up of those who person
ally admire or love him. But the
thing you must feel about the man is
that he will fight it out, he has fought
1t out, in French politics for nearly
half a century. His enemies have
passed, he it is, who has survived And
as he was the first premier in France