Show GALLIC ELOQUENCE Oratory as a fine art s st 11 popular n France To say well what s neces sary and to say it w th all the power of logic sent ment and metaphor is the amb tion of the Gallic 0 ator In England and America Oratory has become dec dedly matter of fact The speeches of Prem er Asqu th and Lloyd George on the war have been closely reasoned and masterful n the r force t 1 phrases and statements These gen tlemen however made no attempt to adorn the r speeches w th f gures of rhetor an c g arnmat c fol t es It rema- ned for Prem or v am the lead ng orator n France s nee the death of Count de Mun to embody the cause of the allies n a prose poem Although he was delivering the formal declaration of h s government to the chamber of deput es he did not confine h mself to formal language On the contrary he stated the case tor the all es and against the Germans with the studied and yet f ery eloquence for which he is lllus tr 0 s The F ench and ndeed the Engl sh f not the Bms ms take the view that the are f ght ng for the cause of iv 1 zat on aga nst a Germanic despotism wh eh seeks to dominate the world Th s po nt of v ow perm ts of the most lm pass oned oratory The late Governor Altgeld in a mono-irrai mono-irrai h wh ch he wrote concerning the art of 0 atory mainta ned that all tr e eloquence was based upon the advocacy of the r o-htB and 1 bert es of man He belie ed that there could be no subl me eloquen 0 wh ch did (not have for ts object the defense of the opprosod and the defeat of or at least res stance to the oppressor Perhaps th s was a rather narrow ew but he was able to show by analyzing many of the greatest speeches of h story that h s contention was not w thout merit To say the least the theme is one of the noblest to wh ch the orator can dev ote h s talent and Pre mier Viviani by represent ng German n ll tar sn as the most hateful despot sm jn the tide of time and all civ 1 izat on as its net m evolved a speech wh ch si ttle less than a maBterp ece Perhaps some of its phrases and sent ments are a trifle too perfervid for the cold magination of the north but they must ha e appealed w th peculiar force to h s Gall c auditors The p em er s name as well as h s style suggests that hs ancestry was more Ital an than French An excellent example of h s etjle is contained in the follow ng passages Fa thfnl to the signature that she attached to the treaty of September 4 1914 and to which she pledged her honor that is to sav her 1 fe Trance acting in accord with her allies will not sheath her sword until after tak ng vengeance for outraged right until she has un ted for all t me to the French father land the provinces ravished from her by force restored hero e Bel gium to the fullness 6t her material life and her pol tical independence and unt 1 Pruss an m 1 tar sm has been crushed to the end that t be poss ble to reconstruct on a bas s of justice a Europe f nally regen erated Aga nst barbarity and despot sm igainst the system of pr6vocat ons and military menaces which Cer many called peace aga nst the 53 s tern of murder and p llage wh ch Germany called war against the n solent hegemony of a n 1 tary caste wh ch loosed the scourge Trance the emanc pator Trance the venge ful at the s de of her all es arose and advanced to the fray That s the stake It is greater than our lives Let us continue I then to have but one united soul and tomorrow m the peace of v c tory we shall recall w th pride these dayB of tragedy for they will have made of us more valorous and better men Whatever we may think of the pre m er s ma n content on t s in pos s ble to deny that he is fully iust f ed n exulting over the mar olo a un ty of all Frenchmen brought about by the war This was as inspiring to France as it was unexpected by Germany Part of the sc entif c calculat on of the Ger man war party was the assumpt on that France and ndeed all of the nat ons in the tr pie entente would bo weak ened vitally by internal d ssens ons The failure of theBe cond t ons Ijo ma tenalizo has given to the all es a 1 ower wluch arm es and na es could not be stow |