IN THE DEBATE ON SOCIALISM WITH JAURÈS[1]
(1906)
Born in 1841; elected Mayor of Montmartre, and then for many years a Deputy in the French Chamber, where he became the leader of the Radical party; prominent during the administrations of Gambetta (1882), Ferry (1885), and Brisson (1886); active against Boulanger in 1885; defeated in 1893, he devoted himself exclusively to his newspaper, La Justice, advocating among other things a revision of the action against Dreyfus; returning to public life, he served as Minister of the Interior, and in October, 1906, became Prime Minister
I wish at the outset to render full homage to the noble passion for social justice which so magnificently animates the eloquence of M. Jaurès. In an irresistible impulse of idealism he wishes the happiness of all humanity and we are witnesses that he would spare nothing to assure this happiness. To the chords of his lyre Amphion modestly erected the walls of Thebes. At the voice of M. Jaurès a still greater miracle is ac-
- ↑ In this reply to Jaurès the brilliant and caustic Clemenceau, while minister of the interior, championed the cause of democracy and sought to dissipate the theories and disprove the claims of the new society as expounded by the Socialist leader. As summed up by L'Aurore, "M. Jaurès professes the German philosophy of what may be; Clemenceau holds to the English philosophy of what is." As Clemenceau had previously not spoken in the French Chamber for thirteen years, his oration was awaited with
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