Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-06-14
The BRAND Legend Breaks
Aspiration Presidency

In part but when BRAND slowly climbed
the stairs to cast his second vote before
the combined Senate and Chamber
which had rejected him, his shoulders
hung forward a little lower than ever
before. His face was still pallid; he did
not once look up.
A few days later saw him sitting IN
the presiding char at the opening Ses-
sion at Geneva of his European fedora
ton commission. His voice, when he
spoke. had lost its old resonance. 1t
which before had often stirred our
souls. And while, with bowed head he
sat Listening to the long speeches which
poured above the tangled, thinning
gray name I saw, three or four times,
his right thumb creep across and rest
upon the inner surface of his left wrist
above the pulse--and remain there
for minute or more. Once, at such a
moment, he drew long, deep sigh and
TO q companion on his right he MUIR
INJURED, "Oh. cette vieillese, Cette Well
Jesse" con, this old age. This old
age.')
It is this which has come upon
Aristide BRAND since that fruitless, I'M
necessary battle at Versailles. And yet,
/ think that 1t was inevitable. 1t was
the blind spot which, one day or an
other, awaits all of us. Only for him
it was binder and more cruelty !ronic
because he himself had so long and SO
unerringly profited by the blind spots
of others. Why must it have come to
BRAND, too?
BY his very nature BRAND is con-
demned to two things. He can make
no decision today which can be post
poned until tomorrow. To say yes, or
-. al <,f
retraction-this, all his life, has been
the most difficult thing in the world
for him to do. Had he said yes or no
one week earlier he would have been
elected President OF France or have re-
manned at the ministry of foreign af-
fairs with prestige unimpaired.
Again, the man of Locarno Is con-
demned to be supple, 20 be sinuous and
subtle. Frankness and dIrectneSs, these
are not in his nature. They have in
them no maneuverings, no nuisances.
All of his siXty-nine years he has al
ways taken the indirect course. Could
he have been frank and direct-but he
could not be. 1t ran counter to the
habits of a lifetime.
And so the pathetic picture of a
hunched-down, temporarily broken old
man, with face SO pallid the wrinkles
stood starkly clear leaning forward on
his elbows, staring dimly and fixedly
before him and seeing nothing. Worst
of all, this defeat has shaken his con-
fidence in himself. The long line of
political successes was broken too
abruptly.
Perhaps Aristide BRAND will come
back in some measure. 1t seems prob
able. in fact, that he win. 1t seems that
to the end he will carry on, in one
y,fo he hig
policies of peace which he crystallized
at Locarno and let slip for few fatal
hours by carrying them to Versailles
Palace. Yet I think BRAND will per-
sist on his pilgrimage-onlyf for the fact
that he knows. better than all the
others, how heavy the blow has been,
the moral blow as well as the physical;
and that doubt crept into his own words
of self-appraisal spoken three days later
at Geneva.
Hands Not So Strong"
"Or whether I go along the road a
pilgrim" said the sad, unnaturally SUBJ
dued BRAND voice. carrying my stick
in hands not so strong as they once
were"
That is It. Cette vieillese.
Aristide BRAND will be the man Of
Locarno to the end, even to the bitter
end. Perhaps then we shall see his vir-
tues more clearly as his faults fade
away. But one thing still is certain
tragic as it may be: The peak has been
passed The great legend, which through
these difficult postwar years had sc
steadily mounted, broke that day at
Versailles and the descent set in. Arts
tide BRAND will never be quite the
same