Der Nordstern. [volume] (St. Cloud, Minn.) 1874-1931, 1922-12-14
Magnifique, M. Clemenceau, But ....

We must admire the magnificent i'm
pudence of Clemenceau as manifest
ed in those passages of his New York
speech, that dealt with German charac-
teristics and German intentions. We
say advisedly i%mpudence, not courage;
for there is very little courage needed
to say the things M. Clemenceau says
about the German people; for he must
know by this time that the Americans
hold it as one of the privileges of man
as such to make a fool, even a capital
fool, of himself, if he wishes to do so.
Well, Nj. Clemenceau has done it in
magnificent fashion Everything M.
Clemenceau does is magnificent, mag
nifique) and the average American
citizen of whatever extraction, that
found time to read the speech or the
salient parts Of it, will now have
changed his pity for the old man into
contempt for the old fool. We r
selves still pity him, but we feel in
dignant at the other fools in France
and in America, who invited and en-
couraged him to come and talk to us.
NJ. Clemenceau is at least three
years behind the times and tells us
things that were not true when they
were new, and prophesies things that
- soe1rhA 1ro1xy ox,on ooNro
than three years ago.
NJ. Clemenceau is mainly RESPONSE
BILE for the Internal lie that lies, like
Satan in Dante's He'll, in the deepest
depths of that awful conglomeration
of immortality and ~wickedness, the So
called Treaty of Versailles, the declar-
alton, namely, of Germany's sole re-
sponsibility for the war. This declar-
alton was made in order to justify all
the manifold acts of injustice perpe-
trated upon the German people in the
successive clauses of the "Treaty."
Germany was not admitted to the
endless deliberations. Three men de-
cided the extinction Of the German
race and forced the German ENJOYS to
sign their nations death warrant; but
the most energetic and rancorous of
the three was our present unwelcome
guest, Georges Clemenceau. Now as
Frencesco Nitti says in his most val
liable book, "The Wreck of Europe"
there is nothing more useless indeed,
nothing more stupid, than to take your
enemy by the throat after you have
beaten him, and to force him to de-
clare that all the wrong was on his
side. The declaration is Of no use
whatever, either to the conqueror, be-
cause no Importance a be attributed
to an admission extorted by force; or
to the conquered, because he knows
that there is no moral significance in
being forced to state what one does not
believe" We have formerly believed
that M. Clemenceau had the saving
grace of humor, or at least, the sense
of the ridiculous. What a sardonic
smile he must at times indulge in, at
the expense of idealistic Wilson, and
matter of fact Lloyd George, whom he
persuaded to sign such a marvelously
stupid declaration. But whatever M.
Clemenceau thinks of the declaration,
he is impudent enough to demand the
fulfillment of every condition imposed
upon the German people in conse-
auence of the lie of Germany's sole
and exclusive gilt. And to do this he
adds the towering impudence of de-
m~anding our help in carrying out this
insane and ~dastardly plan.
In proof of Germany's plotting
against France and the peace of the
world, M. Clemenceau adduces the
fact, that, on his first meeting with
Lloyd George in Carlsbad, he accost-
ed the future Premier Minister with
the prediction, "We are going toward
a great war; Germany wants war;"
and that, when Lloyd George came to
Paris, he in turn said to Clemenceau:
You are right. You first saw what was
to happen, but 1 did not. I did not
want to look for a quarrel" The two
haruspices must have laughed in their
sleeves, when they met. For the war
against Germany had been decided on
by both England and France long be-
fore the meeting at Carlsbad. In fact,
France had been planning, and clam
oring for revenge ever since her hum
iliation in 1870. Both were only look