New-York tribune., 1922-11-19
EyHE first time saw Clemenceau was in
\ 1884 in the Chamber of Deputies during
debatee on the colonies. Jules Ferry

n
1854 in the Chamber of Deputies during
.H debates on the colonies. Jules Ferry
''~s tAe~ Prime Minister and Secretary
for Foreign Affairs. The French had suffered
:. reverse in Tonkin. The explanations offered
oy the minister were unsatisfactory. Standing
49, sale speaker $ desk, Cisnenceau,
with dramatic gestures and in a voice tremb-
Eng with emotion, shouted TO his colleagues:
eIt is not the Secretary for Foreign Affairs
whom ! am facing, it is an incompetent Off
cial attempting TO defend an indefensibe
cause These words provoked a formidable
uproar. Applause from the radical side of
The Chamber, Kisses from the conservatives
compelled the President of the Chamber TO
put on his hat, which meant, according TO
French parliamentary custom, chat the session
was temporarily adjourned.
During that forced internission groups
formed in the lobby discussing the situation.
Clemenceae was surrounded by dozen of
his colleagues firing questions at him in
Discriminatory.
awe have no right" exclaimed Clemenceau,
"to scatter cur troops thousands of kiometers
from home. Instead of devcting our re-
sources and our manhood TO impose our
civilization on those people, we should un-
ceas;ngIy remember that over there, over the
yosges mountains. there are people waiting
anxiousiy to be delivered from German yoke"
This alluson to AIsace recalls the fact
that Clemenceau refused to ratify by his vote
the treaty of peace in 1871 when he repre-
sented Alsace at the National Assembly at
Bordeaux, called to approve the agreement
reached by Jules Favre and Theirs, the French
peace delegates, with Bismarck, Won Room
and Moltke, the German plenipotentiaries.
Instrumental in Breaking
Seventeen Cabinets
Untiring in his efforts to right a wrong
wherever that wrong exists Clemenceau knows
no fear. He does not bow to social prestige
when that prestige is accidental nor does he
cater to the masses to gain cheap popularity.
A man of his character, of his caliber who for
more than half century has been one of the
shining lights of France, man who has been
instrumental in breaking up seventeen Cabi-
nets, is bound to have political enemies anx-
iously awaiting their chance to down such an
opponent. The men whom he had attacked
while they were in the supreme height of their
power in governmental circles, had good rea-
sons to call him: ''Le tombeur des ministeres,"
which can only be translated as "the under
taker of Cabinets" He did not hesitate to
strike when he thought it to be patriotic
duty. Neither did he ever hesitate to admit
his mistake when his judgment at times proved
TO be wanting.
This was best evidenced during the Dreyfus
crisis, which convulsed France, and which
brought the nation to the. very brink of civil
war.
Clemenceau at first believed in the guilt of
Dreyfus. "Seven of his brother officers have
condemned him." wrote Clemenceau; "the ver-
dict was unanimous; how, then, can any one
claim that the captain of artillery, Alfred
Dreyfus, is innocent?'
The trial had been held behind closed doors;
nothing transpired of its proceedings. The
charge of having attempted to deliver to a
"foreign nation" certain documents referring
to mobilization had been substantiated by