Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-12-24
TIGERS TRIP CAUSE
Of j. s. ENTRY INTO
AFFAIRS Of EUROPE?
Prominence of Clemenceau's
Tour in French Press
Bears Significance.
BY WILLIAM BIRD
Special Dispatch to The Tribune.
1n2o BY Great Ealls TTlhN

ELopyflgnt. IJL-, by SfsdI Hais AbahF
Paris, Dec. 23.-The return to
France this week of Georges Clemen-
ceau brings many ~misgivings to those
who snent their time calculating the
possibilities of politics. For Clemen-
ceau. in French politics. is an meal
culable factor. He has just announced
| that his career is ended. but just
when he is believed to be ~pigeon-holed
and filed away for future reference.
he is most likely to bob up again and
interrupt the feast that has been pre-
pared in his absence.
After he was denied the presidency
of the republic, in January. 1920. in
favor of the colorless DeschaneI,
| Clemenceau retire. to his little fishing
| cottage on the barren lands Of the
bleak Vendee coast, and for more than
two years declined to utter a word for
publication. He was plainly a dis
gruntled, disappointed man. .
But those who figured he might
henceforth be omitted from political
calculations missed their guess. To
the surprise of everybody he plunged
once more into the ENTER of the pic
ture BY taking his trip TO America.
Since then he has had them all guess
ing.
WHStf FNCWspdp1' SPoeo
The amount of space devoted TO the
old Tiger in the French press during
his American tour was judged by ordi-
nary French journalistic standards,
nrod;gious. Almost every day every
important paper in Paris had at least
q column concerning his speeches Or
his reception in different American
cities. This may not seem much com
pared with the amount of space given
by the American press to European
affairs. but when it is remembered
that most French papers consist Of
four, or at most. six pages daily, and
that scarcely more than a few inches
are ordinarily devoted to news from
across the Atlantic, some conception
may be formed of the interest that
the matter aroused over there. Glenn
enceau had more space in a few
weeks than all the rest Of American
news ordinarily gets IN a, year.
This will indicate fairly accurately
the extent to which the visit is
expected TO react on French politics.
! For while France is, of course. also
| interested. it has in America the prime
question. What is the old man going
to do over here
The question might be answered very
differently today from what it would
have been three weeks back. At the
! outset when the Tigers speeches were
%arousing the ire of the senate. people
were inclined to say, Hes going at
it wrong. He went owe to get the
American people to take an interest IN
Europe. He has simply succeeded in
getting them back into the state of
mind they were in two years ago"
Politica! Cunning Shown
That was the feeling in France at
the beginning-that Clemenceau had
simply gone and opened an old wound
which was BEGINNING to heal. 1t is ex-
pressed that after all the old man has
preserved his political cunning eve at.
the age of 50. Did he know what he
was doing. after all, and has he re-
turned to France after all with some
thing tangible to show as n result Of
his unofficial visit!
For it seems that possibly Cleinenceau
in the beginning was just out 70 get a
little adyertising--just beating the
drum outside the tent until he got the
attention Of the crowdtIIaying got il,
he changed his tactics.s He changed his
tone of voice. IN q Of his later
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