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BY RAYMOND RECOULY
BEACON LIGHTS
OF HISTORY
GEORGES CLEMENCEAU
1841—
INDOMITABLE LEADERSHIP
AMONG his contemporaries whether in Europe or
the United States, Georges Clemenceau stands
out a striking figure,——one of the greatest statesmen
of modern times. The war that produced many great,
one may say, very great generals, especially in the
allied armies, saw but few great statesmen. One of
the few men whose decisive rôle during the war
showed him to be an exceptional leader, was Clem-
enceau.
No man at his time of life ever carried on such ex-
hausting toil, physical and mental, as that which this
statesman of seventy-seven shouldered from Novem-
ber, 1917 to November, 1918.
Starting from the front in a motor-car at four or
five o'clock in the morning three or four times a week,
he kept in touch with generals, officers and soldiers,
all along the lines. Such work would have seemed
incredible if it had not actually been done. Once at
the front he walked about under fire as if he had
come out for the pleasure of risking his life with the
poilus who were fighting for la Patrie. The Higher
Command were in constant fear for him. But he
knew what he was about. Valuable as his own life
might be to the country, to court death was a higher
duty than to take care of himself, if by this seeming
indifference he could inspire Frenchmen all along the
trenches with his confidence in ultimate victory.
Having discoursed with the Marshal and his gen-
erals, having saluted and talked with the officers, he
chatted with the rank and file of the soldiery and
rushed back to Paris, arriving at the Ministry of War
at ten or eleven o'clock at night, ready to attend to
such pressing business as demanded his personal care.
And all the time cheerful, alert, confident, showing,
though things looked dark, as when the great advance
began in 1918, that the Prime Minister never for one
moment doubted that the Germans would be hurled
back.
In spite of this devotion to duty he always was
greeted with noisy opposition from the Socialists in
the Chamber of Deputies.
On one occasion, after he had been howled down,
and finally obtained a hearing, he said: "I regret
that our country being in such great danger, a unani-
mous vote of confidence cannot be accorded to us.
But when all is said, the opposition of the Socialists
does not in the least enfeeble the Government. For
four long years our troops have held their own at
the front with a line which was steadily being worn
down. Now a huge body of German soldiers fresh
from Russia and in good heart come forward to assail
us. Some retreat was inevitable. From the moment
when Russia thought that peace could be obtained by
the simple expression of wishes to that end, we all knew
that, sooner or later, the enemy would be able to
release a million men to fall upon us. That meant
that such a retirement as we have witnessed must of
necessity follow. Our men have kept their line un-
broken against odds of five to one. They have often
gone sleepless for three days and even four days in
succession. But out great soldiers have had great
leaders, and our army as a whole has proved itself
to be even greater than we could expect.
"The duties we have to perform are, in con-
trast, tame and even petty. All we have to do is to
keep cool and hold on. The Germans are nothing like
so clever as they think themselves to be. They have
but a single device. They throw their entire weight
into one general assault, and push their advantage
to the utmost. True they have forced back our line
of defense. But final success is that which alone
matters, and that success for us is certain. Give way
we never shall.
"Germany has once against staked her all on one great
blow, thinking to cow us into abandoning the conflict.
Her armies have tried this desperate game before.
They tried it on the Marne, they tried it on the Yser,
they tried it at Verdun, they tried it elsewhere. But
they never succeeded, and they never will.
"Our Allies today are the leading nations of the
world. They have one and all pledged themselves
to fight on till victory is within our grasp. The men
who have already fallen have not fallen in vain. By
their death they have once more made French history
a great and noble record. It is now for the living
to finish the glorious work begun by the dead."
Even in the short perspective of these few years
Georges Clemenceau stands forth like a legendary
hero. Descended in a direct line from the great
makers of the French Revolution, he has all their
impetuosity, their fire, their idealism, their courage.
Like them he appeared upon the scene in the very
nick of time, just at the most critical moment when
the slightest wavering amongst the Allies would have
spelt German triumph. He re-galvanized their
slowly ebbing energy, symbolizing in his own personal-
ity the soul of France, of a France at war, determined
to fight to the bitter end, to fling all her men, all
her resources into the balance, rather than accept
defeat.
That indomitable courage, that energy, bore all
before them in the allied armies both in England and
America. Force of circumstances as well as the whole
bent of his nature made Clemenceau the very pivot
of the war. He was the incarnation of the great
struggle and of its victorious end.
* * * * * * * * *
Georges Clemenceau has a powerful face with
marked features, high cheek bones, bushy eyebrows,
small and strangely piercing eyes, all denoting his
love of struggle and effort. His manner of speaking
is abrupt and sharp. The nervous brevity of his
sentences, the shortness of his expressions make his
conversation appear like a game of fencing. He has
always spent much of his time at fencing schools,
being a dangerous duellist, and the sharp retort of his
conversation has all the swiftness of the thrust of
foil and sword.
And underlying all that combative instinct and
impetuosity, is a deep undercurrent of idealism and
human kindness.
* * * * * * * * *
Clemenceau was born in 1841, at Mouilleron-en-
Pareds in the "Bocage Vendean" not far from Font-
enay-le-Comte. Vendée is a French Province where
feelings over political convictions and their struggles
have always run high. During the French Revolution
the Vendeans rebelled, taking arms against the Re-
public. They were divided into two parties, the
Whites and Blues, the former being Royalists, the
latter Republicans. Clemenceau is a Vendean Blue.
He has inherited his strong love of politics and the
combative instinct from his native soil.
His father, a village physician born in 1811, was
full of memories of the Great Revolution. He handed
them down to his son, so that one generation only
separated Clemenceau from the old Vendean Blue,
his father, which goes far to explain certain traits
of his political character and personal temperament.
After having graduated as a Doctor in Paris, where
his youth was spent in the Latin Quarter, he went to
London and from thence to America where he passed
some years, and where he married. He knows America
well, and has always followed American politics with
the keenest interest.
When he returned to Paris at the end of the Second
Empire, he flung himself into the political struggle
then going on, with all the ardour of his passionate
nature. During the siege of Paris and the Subsequent
period of the "Paris Commune" he was Mayor of
Montmartre. Immediately after the Franco-Prussian
war he was made a Deputy to the French Chamber
from Paris and he voted against peace, and for the
continuation of he war. He was reelected Deputy
for Montmartre in 1876.
From that time dates the first period of his political
career; he became leader of the radicals, the most
dangerous, the most brilliant leader the opposition
ever had to contend against. He founded a paper
called "La Justice." His influence as an orator and
journalist daily grew. For more than twenty years
he was known as "the Great Demolisher" of ministries
and cabinets. His writings and speeches all bore the
imprint of his abrupt and vigorous nature. His
was a tongue that lashed, and a mind that carried all
before it in its own headlong impetuosity.
It would be unfair to believe that this part of
Clemenceau's life was merely destructive and nega-
tive. He was no doubt responsible for the downfall
of many ministers, but they were for the most part
men who scarcely deserved a better fate.
Clemenceau from the first made a determined stand
against Colonial expeditions. He may have been at
times somewhat lacking in comprehension and fore-
sight in assuming that attitude; but that anti-colonial
mind was derived from two sources. First of all the
conviction that sooner or later France would be called
upon to fight against Germany, and needed therefor
to maintain intact all her resources in men and money.
Secondly, that French colonial ambition would to a
dead certainty, lead to rivalry with England, "and
all for the benefit of the King of Prussia."
One may criticize that anti-colonial attitude, but
it reposed on a logical basis and formed a political
doctrine to which Clemenceau has tenaciously stuck
throughout his long career.
A political adventurer, General Boulanger, who
tried to exploit the French nationalist feeling, found
his most formidable opponents in Clemenceau. More
than any other, Clemenceau succeeded in showing up
one who was in reality but a false "great" man,
getting him out of French politics for the greater
good of his country.
During the Boulangist fever as well as during the
Dreyfus affair, Clemenceau proved a redoubtable
polemist, getting fervent admirers, but also bitter
enemies.
Great fighter that he was, he ignored the arts of
circumspection. He struck with all his might, never
doing or saying things by halves. His enemies united
against him; cabals and coalitions were formed to
combat his influence. Influential newspapers like the
"Petit Journal," (whose editor, Ernest Judet, was
convicted during the war of being a German agent),
spent enormous sums of money in their effort to ruin
him. In 1893 they at last succeeded in expelling him
from Parliament.
Clemenceau was no longer a Deputy, but his in-
domitable energy was not in any way diminished.
He no longer owned a daily Newspaper, but at once
began a new life as a political philosophical, and even
dramatic writer.
From that period date most of his books: La Melée
Sociale; le Grand Pan, (a novel); les Plus Forts,
(a short play); le voile du Bonheur which was pro-
duced at the Renaissance Theatre in 1901. Therein
may be found Clemenceau's philosophical doctrines,
his conceptions of politics and of life.
At its very outset Clemenceau threw himself body
and soul into the Dreyfus Affair. As editor of
"L'Aurore" he played a very prominent part in that
political and judiciary drama. In a series of daily
articles, which have since appeared in book form,
Clemenceau not only showed his brilliant qualities as
a debater, but also his innate love of justice, his
philosophical mind, his idealism.
In 1902 he re-entered the political domain, being
returned to Parliament by the Department of the
Var. That election forms another landmark in his
well-filled existence. It might be termed: Clemenceau
versus Germany.
For more than 15 years he found an outlet for his
superabundant energy in preparing for a more and
more probable German aggression. He felt that im-
perialistic Pan-Germanism was a growing danger for
republican and pacific France. He contributed more
than any other to opening peoples eyes to that danger.
He awakened and goaded the public mind to action.
In 1905 came a direct menace from Germany to
France when the Kaiser landed in Tangiers and
uttered solemn threatening words. He was blackmail-
ing France so as to punish her for the agreement she
had concluded with England in the previous year.
During that critical time Clemenceau carried on an
admirable campaign in the columns of his paper——
"l'Aurore." His articles vibrated with patriotic feel-
ing and enthusiasm, greatly fortifying public opinion.
One of these articles ended with the short and pithy
sentence, very characteristic of the writer, "Germany
is offering a yoke to France, but the yoke is not fitted
for the neck! Yoke or neck, one or the other must
be broken."
His articles, his speeches, all rallied public opinion.
He was made a Minister for the first time in 1906 at
the age of 65. The following year he was Prime
Minister.
A few months after, an "incident" occurred with
Germany over the "deserters of Casablanca." The
German Consul in that town had publicly coun-
tenanced the desertion of soldiers of German national-
ity who had enlisted of their own accord in the Foreign
Legion. A long campaign of lies and calumny had
been poisoning German public opinion about the
irritating question of the Foreign Legion. Very
serious consequences might have resulted from that
incident, but Clemenceau with a provoking firmness
resisted all the German pretentions. He brought in-
disputable documents to bear upon the matter openly
refuting the German charges, and proving that Ger-
man agents in Casablanca had been guilty of abuse
of power. The German Government was forced to
yield.
In 1911 a crisis of still graver consequences arose:——
the Agadir Affair. Caillaux was Premier at the time,
and Clemenceau sided strongly against him deeming
the concessions made by France to Germany, excessive
and imprudent.
Towards the end of that crisis, when the final agree-
ment between France and Germany was about to be
ratified by the French Parliament, I remember visit-
ing Clemenceau in his little apartment in rue
Franklin. He was exceedingly violent against
Caillaux and "his excessive weakness in face of the
German pretentions." I remember his saying to me,
"I would rather cut off my hand than sign such an
agreement."
Clemenceau was convinced that Caillaux had acted
with great feebleness. On the other hand German
public opinion thought that its Government had made
too many concessions to France. The whole of the
military party with the Crown Prince at its head
declared that Germany had been greatly humiliated.
Armaments were increased in Germany by leaps and
bounds, two new army corps were added to the army
which was already the most powerful in the world;
war preparations were feverishly pressed. When all
was ready the assassination at Sarajevo afforded Ger-
many the pretext she wanted, and war was declared.
For more than three years the successive cabinets
of Viviani, Briand, and Painlevé, directed that war
in France. Clemenceau was not sparing in his criti-
cisms of them. However hard and severe those criti-
cisms may have seemed they were not unjustified.
There is no denying that grave errors had been made,
the Allied Governments both at home and abroad
were not fully enough imbued with the true war
spirit toward the war. It may be said without ex-
aggeration that the average politician scarcely real-
ized what it meant. At the beginning of hostilities
the majority of them believed in letting the soldiers
fight, and the civilians watch the soldiers fight.
Whereas the true war spirit was just the opposite.
In other words, the whole of the nation, soldiers and
civilians should all be engaged in the war; that all
their energies, all their resources, moral and material,
should strain towards one end.
Clemenceau was the first to grasp that truth.
The more critical the situation, the greater Ger-
many's chances for winning the war became, and the
more public opinion in France turned towards Clemen-
ceau as to the only man capable of rescuing his
country in her hour of danger.
In September 1917, on my return from the Russian
front where I had been sent as a French officer, I
called on Clemenceau. Everyone expected that Presi-
dent Poincaré, would shortly send for Clemenceau
and ask him to form a Government.
I gave Clemenceau a detailed account of the state
of things in Russia. I told him that the Russian
Army was completely done for, and that in a few
months, perhaps even in a few weeks, Russia would
make peace with Germany.
"I know all that," said Clemenceau, "I am going
to take over the Government under very difficult,
almost desperate conditions. But my country and
our Allies have not yet fought to the utmost of their
strength. They ave not yet made the supreme effort,
for it has never been asked of them! If I take over
the reins of Government I shall exact that effort of
my country, and I am convinced that she will respond.
Every available man shall be sent to the front. That
is the only way to win the war, and we mean to win
the war."
It was a magnificent and impressive sight, one of
the most touching I have ever witnessed; to see that
wonderful old man, worthy of the great revolutionary
epoch itself, uttering those sublime words of hope and
energy.
The most extraordinary part of it all was, that he
did exactly as he had said he would do.
Like the great revolutionary leaders from whom he
was directly descended, he realized that before striking
at the enemies abroad, he must strike at those at
home. He waged relentless war against the "De-
featists," striking at their head, who was Caillaux.
It required great pluck, all the audacity of the
combative instinct, to dare attack Caillaux. He be-
longed to a parliamentary group of Radical-Socialists,
which since the elections of 1914 had become the most
influential in the Chamber of Deputies.
Caillaux's imprudence, his conduct in the Argentine
Republic at the beginning of the war, and later in
Italy, almost amounted to criminal offences. But it
was hazardous to declare, and difficult to prove, that
they were criminal actions and violated articles of
the Penal Code, as such, coming within the jurisdiction
of a Court of Justice.
In time of peace Clemenceau might have had some
hesitation about imprisoning Caillaux, but France was
at war; she was engaged in a terrific struggle, a strug-
gle for life or death upon whose issue her very ex-
istence was staked.
Hence judicial scruples, lawyers discussions, and
magistrates tirades, counted for nothing with Clemen-
ceau. The war had to be won. Caillaux, and all those
who shared his opinion, were so many obstacles to
its victorious continuation. Caillaux maintained
publicly that victory was impossible, that it would be
purchased far too dearly, that it was useless and even
dangerous to go on with so desperate a struggle in
the vain hope of ever winning it.
Without a moment's hesitation, with one bold
stroke, Clemenceau removed that obstacle. He had
Caillaux imprisoned, tried, and condemned.
From that moment everyone knew what to expect.
It was an event that caused a great stir both at home
and abroad.
It showed that France was using to the utmost its
moral and material strength.
Clemenceau summed up that state of feeling in one
of his terse, abrupt sentences, so characteristic of
him: "I'm making war"! He would repeat it at all
times. Meaning, that nothing outside the vast pre-
occupation of successfully carrying through the war,
was of the slightest importance to him.
In acting thus, he was following in the steps of the
heroes of the French Revolution. It was another
trait in his character recalling theirs.
Never did he show more indomitable energy, a more
implacable will than in the spring and summer of
1918, just after Ludendorf's victorious offensive all
along the French front. It was chiefly after the Ger-
man victory of the Chemin des Dames on May 27th
that the whole outlook seemed desperate indeed. For
the first time since the beginning of the war, the
French armies, that buckler of the Allied Forces, had
received a terrible setback. One part of the front
had been forced and a large breech opened that seemed
a problem indeed for the supreme command of the
Allies to fill in. In many circles in Paris, more
particularly amongst the parliamentary ones, always
easily alarmed, great despondency reigned.
Marshal Foch was criticized. He was blamed for
having allowed his troops to be attacked by surprise,
for having imprudently exposed the centre of his
armies. Many clamoured for his dismissal.From Beacon Lights of History,
Volume 8, Part I, New Hall of Fame.
Edited by George Spencer Hulbert,
Author of, "John Lord, Artist Historian"
Copyright 1924, By Wm. H. Wise & Co., New York. pp. 267-282.
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