The Alaska daily empire., 1920-03-01
i. Monsieur Georges Clcmenccau
GA New Pen Picture of The Tiger.)

greater misconception of fundamental
 facts than this. As a boy Clemen- ceau defied the Third Empire because
 he was what he has remained throughout a long life, a republican
 and a radical. With militarism,. with
 colonial dreams and ambitions, he
 has had no sympathy. In opposing
 the extreme aspirations of Americans
 and of Britons at Paris, he did not
 think or act as q reactionary, but
 rather as. a realist. The same
 appreciation of fundimental facts
 which shown through all the darkest
 periods of the war, which led him to
 demand unity of command, moved
 him again and again to protest
 against total ignoring of history, of
 military and geographic considerat.
 ions at Paris.
 It is, however, unfortunate that as a result of careless and unintelligent critisism, Clemenceau's true grand eur has been somewhat obscured in the United States and in Great Brit ain. He has been more fortunate at home. The recent election was one of the most magnificent and tre- mendous vindications any public man ever achieved in a democracy. He had won the war for France. He had fought to make the peace sec ure. And in his memorable speech at Strasbourg, which opened the campaign he told his countrymen plainly that the salvation of France lay in work and nowhere else.
 The result of his conduct of the political campaign was like that of the military effort. The forces of disorder, of anarchy, of revolution, were beaten. France, on the morrow of victory, elected to the Chamber of Deputies men whose character was the guarantee against Bolshe- vism. The victory of the First Marne the supreme success of the Second Marne, neither was more important as contribution to world order than the victory of democratic France under Clemenceau at the polls. I
 Had he so chosen, Clemenceau might have continued as Prime Min ister His decision to retire. and his consent to succeed Poncare, leaves the field open for younger man, not impossibly for M Millerand, who was sent to Alsace Lorraine by Clem- enceau to repair the blunders of the early days of occupation, and who revealed capacity for organization and government which has excited admiration on av sides.
 As President'of the Republic, Clem- enceau must face Limitations which have obscured the occupant of that office since the days of Thiers him. self It may be that after the great renown of his recent triumph, and with some support from the men e1 ected under his direction, he will. as President, for the moment at least. remain a force, I On the other hand, it seems far more likely that he will now become a voice, that he will be a force from his high office to address to his fellow countrymen those appeals and those statements which in the days when he, single,handed, was fighting off cial incompetence early in the war were the most considerable contri- button in the shape of the spoken or the written word In office or out of office, Prime Minister or President Clemenceau, until the breath of life leaves his body, cannot fail to be a force. France has recognized his value and appraised his service; and in the critical months which are now to follow the whole world is forum ate in having. in some measure at least, the services of, Clemenceau Given all his human limitations, his excesses of phrase and of temper, his grim. sardonie outlook upon life, he sheMsm as he was yesterday against remains the greatest figure of our own ssstime-the man who saved France in the hour of her deadliest peril, and the man who now, having led France to victory, is leading her back to peaceful effort which will consolidate the victory. To-day he is as great bulwark against Bol- the German.