The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1922-11-22

Georges Clemenceau, ex-prem- fer of France comes, in the s1st year of his age. to renew his ac- quaintance with United States He is welcome guest. He is in vited to speak freely to the American people. His frankness will not be misunderstood. The American people may not agree with him but they will wish him to speak plainly. They want to know what he thinks, believes and hopes for. Little is so bad ceaIment. Few things are better than frankness.
 
 There is something of the pa thetic in the appearance of the venerable Frenchman upon his mission to America; he is so com pIetely a representative of the past. When the Franco Prus- sian War took place and the French people were bowed under the weight of Germany's armed heel, Georges CIemenceau became the prophet of his country. He reflected its spirit. He proclaim ed The Day. He waited for the day to arrive. It came; Germany in turn was crushed under the iron heel. There was no profit in it for France.
 
 Some bits of land come under the French flag again but mil lions of the French people are mained or dead. The French Treasury is exhausted; the French future darkened. Nobody in Europe, nobody in the world, so far as thoughtful men can de- termine, is better off because of The Day. in France; every body is worse off. Europe is in the balance and may just as well descend into an incurabIe anarchy.
 -
 Suppose that Georges CIemen- ceau, with all his fighting power, had the mind of Lincoln and the outlook of Lincoln. If he had struggled for the reconciliation of Europe, for understandings, for good will, for brotherhood, for common use of the wealth of the soil! The mind of Glenn enceau is not the mind which Europe ought to breed up and ought to follow. In Europe there are some, a few, who know that European people need an arrangement for an orderly conduct of their affairs.
 
 They are too many barriers, too many laws to injure the other people, and just as effectively injuring the people who make the law. Weapons have become too efficient. mechanical killing Is too highly developed; interna- tional boundaries have been abol- ished in Europe in many ways The aeroplane in time of war is & most effective abolisher of barriers.
 
 If Georges Clemenceau has anything to teach America it is the lesson that ancient hatreds must be broken down. They must be swept away. There Is no room for them in the world. That past for which he stands is not a dead past. it ought to be. From America Georges CIemenceau may learn that here are one people. scattered over a territory larger than Europe, who live under the same law, share in the wealth which the land produces, who trade freely among, themselves, who settle their disputes at the bal lot box
 
 It Is true that they had a war. Not, however, a war to get an economic advantage, but a war to make men free.
 After this war Americans did not preach the day, they did not demand conquered territories; under the leadership of Lincoln they proclaimed forgiveness; they sought restoration of the devas- tated lands, they procured meet ings of the soldiers, who had fought on either side, and they hastened the day when Amer lea might be one again.