Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-02-17
HERRIOT, FRANCES FIERY
DEBATE LEADER, RETURNS
Always Storm Center i'm Politics of
Nation, He Again Is Back at Old Post
in Chamber of Deputies.
BY WILLIAM LEON sMYsER.

a a broken nose, brought abou
Il 4 by stonemason's hammer
concealed in bouquet, to FIRE,
Edouard Herriot from the comparativ,
obScurity of a small ministerial pos
and to give him once again the oppor'
tunity Of baSking in the limelight. Her.
x1ot is the Houdini Of French statesmen
mo one can bottle him I'D.
In man of Herriot'S stamp, with
MS temperamental urge to dominate
and his physical need for action, any
position other than that of leader pro.
duces spleen. He is not of the stuff
from which Subordinates are made
Powerfully built. he dominates any
gathering. His great square head, Teu.
tonic, literally a battering ram, is the
awe and anxiety OF political foes. Hi
very hair bristles.
In France he stands for the Strenu.
Gus life. Whether this strenuoSity /:
innate, born in his bulk, or whether IL
Is sort OF complex protest against his
possible love Of that leisure and bonnie
chere which most Americans seek ir
Paris, 1t y impertinent to ask. The
TACT exiStS-he is Ienfant terrible. the
agitator, the little Roosevelt of the
Third Republic.
Opposes Most OF Predecessors.
II it hao not been for the dramati-
cally broken nose, there would have
peen some other smash, some other
rupture, which must have liberated him
from coalition ministry to take his
old place on the floor of the Chamore
oeS Deputies. Now he will again direct
debate. His heavy, finely nodded voice
VIII ring out with its accustomed ora
tor1cal gesture. And he will busy him
self with every political pie, with every
literary Die. and with every mud pie
that comes from the French cuisines.
When three years ago I first met
Herriot he was at the height of his
power, waging war against the falling
franc and trying to re-establish a peace
with Germany. He was opposing nearly
every great politician among his prede-
ceSsorS. Since then, until these last
lew months, he has gone into eclipse,
because MS opponents succeeded in gag
gng him, just as RooSevelts party
gagged him during the MCKINLEY cam
paign by offering an honorary post
where his hands were tied. Roosevelt
accepted the vice presidency only under
protest, and Herriot took a portfolio in
the Union Rationale" ministry only
because his party had to be repre-
scented. His colleagues wrangled him In
using the only approach that leads to
ms neart-an appeal to his love Of
Since he cannot be premier. offer
MIN enough portfolios to keep him
his man.
Five things at a time" is Herriot,s
motto. Besides his rare literary career
ne has for nearly Observation-Disclosures
ms early years as teacher, through his
1mmoderately active service during the
war and through his terms as premier
OF France and as President of the
Cnambre-been the mayor of LYON. the
third largest city Of the republic. He
mas controlled his party. When not
leading the government, he has led the
opposition. To offer such man a
mere couple OF ministries was under
esTimating his capacity. Yet two min
Strles- were better than one.
Personality Broad.
When Herriot took over the ministries
q beaux arts and INSTRUCTION pub
nque the same stories came I'D which
nad circulated when, two years earlier.
this man from the provinces had be-
come overnight the first executive of
France. Herriot's personality is too
broad for narrow traditional ministry.
the liveried fiunkies OF his palace were
shocked % see monsieur lie miniStre take
On his coat and get down to work in
ms shirt sleeves. They were horrified
that apparently he had never bothered
70 learn how one bows over woman's
hand, how one wears "froc" or how
ono employs a cigarette as an asset
IN offensive and defensive conversation.
Herriot, indeed, scorned the elegant
cigars and the chic cigarette of his
predecessors. He chung to his redolent
briAr, and Its od0r chung to him. What
else but his pipe can so well sum up the
impression which Herriot created?
He lay down his pen between sig
natures OF state in order to ram its
charge more compactly home In the
bowl. He became absorbed and turned
out its ashes on the presidential carpets
He knocked dents into the Bourbon
furniture. The cartoonists were delighted.
No nation loves ridicule more deeply
than the French. Soon any splotch Of
ink representing an ungainly yet i'm
possible bulk of Drawn, topped by bull
let head and sporting plain briar pipe,
was meant irreverently to represent the
premier. That briar became as famous
rs Uncle Joe Cannon's stogy.
Lincoln wished all his generals would
take to Grants brand of whisky. The
French have had to admit that If briar
pipes and shirt sleeves can turn out
Herriot's work, then most executives
would profit by them.
Reads Between Trips.
Herriot made the peace with
Sis pipe. Herriot reconstructed Lyon
e. with his pipe. And the pipe Is his
only witness on the long nights which
he passes twice week on the expresses
L. Id ui& ~ al
For years he has been the jouet of a
cock, played across 500 kilometers In
these hours of enforced repose between
his two headquarters he reads books.
Il read Andre Glide, and Paul Valery
and Marcel Proust-these and the
younger men, Giraudoux and Paul Mo-
rand and their contemporaries. have
no time and no excuse to read except
when am on the train. So I take
them with me there. must keep
abreast Of thingsl Why else be a min
lister Of public instruction."
Always the humor, always the quiet
irony, always, too, slight regreti AL
though this man did not, like Roosevelt
embark upon the strenuous life as a
way toward strength, he has of late
found health elusive :. when rest was
denied Wnlle the spleen OF repreSSec
activity possessed him. Although sched-
ules may exist for his subordinates, they
can never exist for him. Sleep-"that
knits up the raveled sleeve of care
seems the last of possibilities.
When does he sleep?" I asked ons
of my friends in the ministry.
My friend is poet, and irreverent.
Never" he said. And yet, at any
kdme. Come in, just for fun, mex
Wednesday"
Now, on Wednesday, If he has beer
held over by his duties In Lyon, Her.
riot is accustomed to return to Paris
On the appointed day I found myself
with a numerous company, before tn,
ministerial sanctum.
Monsieur lie Ministre dortl"
Takes n Peeu at HerriOt.