Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1920-04-25
THE CAILLAUX VERDICT.

x The world Will Scafcely De sur prised at the verdict in the CaillauX case, in view of the retirement of Georges Clemenceau from the gov ernment of France and of the man. euyers which have been going for ward since he surrendered the reins of authority. But for the Tigers" masterful grasp of the situation it seems likely that Caillaux would never have been called to an ac- counting even, so powerful hold did the latter have upon an impor- tant section of the public, says the Commercial Appeal.
 The result in this celebrated case goes far to conform the widespread . opinion as to the fickleness of. French public opinion, state of mind which seems utterly inconsis- tent with the intrepid daring and unyielding valors which they have displayed from the earliest times, and never more conspichousIy than in the war which recently devastated much of their territory and destroy ed millions of their own people in life, limb and property.
 The world can never forget the heartless cruelty with which the fa- nous guillotine was fed lives of Frenchmen, from the monarch on his throne to the humblest of those who excited the frehzied suspicion of the X sterrorists, or their own or the pri- vate vengeance of their associates. And the relentless persecution of Dreyfuss at much later period would furnish plot for the genius of the older Dumas.
 The dramtic element is never lacking in the public affairs of this remarkable nation, nor to less de- gree in the private lives of it's citi- zens. And it is largely on account of this theatrical element in the character of French people that they have been so widely and uniformly misunderstood in many important re- spects. The world finds it hard to take them seriously ,and it is mat ter of fresh surprise at each display of their heroism, which is evidently the solid foundation upon which their national structure reposes.
 Caillaux is gifted with full share of the imaginative powers of his race. His intrigue against life and honor of his country was worthy of the daring of the Count of Monte Cristo, having it's roots in our own land and in far away Argentine. One shudders to think of the fate of the world had not the successful ex- < posture of the plot been made through the efficiency of our secret service.
 Punishment for life would seem to be far too small punishment for such treachery as this eminent Frenchman was guilty of; but ban ishment for the brief period which has been assigned him is nothing less than a farce. unless it be true as has been said, that enforced ab- sence from Paris is one of the keen est sufferings that Frenchman can be made to endure.
 But what of his associates in y guilty treason? Their banishmen, was made perpetual when they faced a firing squad and thus made the, exit from Paris, from France and from the world. May it not be that the suffcrings of Caillaux will afte, all be greater than those of his de- luded associates who followed him in crime? In the language of Prem tiss: "In his broken and distorted sleep, his dreams will be more fear { full than those of the false, perjured Clarence; and around his waking Z pillow, in the deep hours of night s will fit the ghosts of Bolo Pasha < and other companions, shriekine their curses in his shrinking ear"