Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-11-12
TIGER Of FRANCE SAILS
FOR i, S, ON FRIENDSHIP
MISSION; KNOWS AMERICA
Clemenceau, Foremost Statesman of France,
Plans to Reunite His Country With United
States With Bond of International Felicity;
Undertaking Considered of Prime Importance.

Havre, France, Nov. 11.-(By The
Associated Press.)-A short, stout.
sharp-eyed, brown-faced man of 80
was the most noticed person on the
steamship Paris, which sailed from
here Saturday afternoon for New
York.
He was Georges CIemenceau,
Frances wartime premier, on his way
to carry out long cherished dream
the first time since his youth and do
ing his utmost to bring complete un-
derstanding and sympathy between
that country and France.
Although the departure of "the
tiger" ~was unrecognized officially by
either the French or American gov
ernments, he is looked upon as one of
the most important figures ever to
leave the shores of France.
Besides his valet, Albert, he is ac-
companied, as he 'characteristically
remarked, only by his hat and cane.
NOT HIS FIRST TRIP
Paris. Nov. 11.-Georges Clemen
ceau, one of the foremost journalists
in France, got his first experience as
a newspaper man during his sojourn
In the United States between 1866
and 1869.
Throughout his residence in .Ameri-
ca, Clemenceau sent contributions to
the Temps. Letters From Ameri-
ca" they were called, and they dealt
with all the foremost questions of
the day. His articles ON the future
of the negro race in the United
Stats, written two years after the
end OF the civil war. are a model
of style and show clear understand
ing of this complex problem. They
or1 +hn
dangers besetting the relations of the
white and colored races in the Unit
ed States.
Clemenceau wrote them after an
extensive tour of the South, and he
drew vivid picture of conditions in
that then devastated area. Admira-
BILE literary documents, displaying
democratic tendencies, political fore
sight and large philosophical ideas,
man of 81 nearly all the qualities of
the remarkable old man of today.
A New York editor, after Clemen,
ceau's fall from power in 1909, asked
him to write book on America.
"It is already written" replied
Clemenceau. just look through the
Temps files for 1867 and 1861
Clemenceau is charged by his enc
HltS Will bttuS hcoiIiCoS- AAC h"o
never shown any mercy to a power
full enemy; the fight was always to
finish. Toward the weak, however,
he has been known to be lenient.
After the court had sentenced
young Coffin to death in 1919 for hav
ing pumped seven bullets into the back
of the automobile in which Clemenceau
was riding, two of which struck the
'Tiger," he recommended that the
young anarchists sentence be com
muted to term of Imprisonment.
How long shall we give him. the
minister of justice asked.
"About ten years" said Clemenceau.
"I'll be dead and gone before he
comes out, in case he should like to
use me for target again"
Coffin has now served nearly four
years of his sentence and, with time
allowance for good behavior he should
leave Jail about 1926.
Clemenceau, in spite of the bullet
from Cottin's revolver which he still
carries between the shoulder blade and
collarbone, shows no signs of depart
ing from the world. He is in better
physical shape now than he was when
the attempt upon his life was made
Glenn enceau's anti-cierical ideas were
always very pronounced until he wit
messed the courageous behavior under
fire of Catholic priests modified dur
ing the war Then his point of view
underwent a change, and his attitude
toward the church of Rome is not
antagonistic.
As Clemenceau was being carried
into his house on the Rue Franklin
after the attempt on his life by the
anarchist youth Coffin. a priest be-
longing to a congregation with head
quarters adjoining the garden of the