Afoot in England | Page 6

the main topic of conversation is a fact
which has undoubtedly entered into Paris history. The Temps [one of
the foremost daily newspapers of Paris] has had fifty-seven thousand
copies of his Sorbonne address printed and distributed free to every
schoolteacher in France and to many other persons. The Socialist or
revolutionary groups and press had made preparations for a monster
demonstration on May first. Walls were placarded with incendiary
appeals and their press was full of calls to arms. Monsieur Briand [the
Prime Minister] flatly refused to allow the demonstration, and gave
orders accordingly to Monsieur Lépine [the Chief of Police]. For the
first time since present influences have governed France, certainly in
fifteen years, the police and the troops were authorized to _use their

arms in self-defence_. The result of this firmness was that the leaders
countermanded the demonstration, and there can be no doubt that many
lives were saved and a new point gained in the possibility of governing
Paris as a free city, yet one where order must be preserved, votes or no
votes. Now this stiff attitude of M. Briand and the Conseil is freely
attributed in intelligent quarters to Mr. Roosevelt. French people say it
is a repercussion of his visit, of his Sorbonne lecture, and that going
away he left in the minds of these people some of that intangible spirit
of his--in other words, they felt what he would have felt in a similar
emergency, and for the first time in their lives showed a disregard of
voters when they were bent upon mischief. It is rather an extraordinary
verdict, but it has seized the Parisian imagination, and I, for one,
believe it is correct.
Some of the English newspapers, while generally approving of the
Sorbonne address, expressed the feeling that it contained some
platitudes. Of course it did; for the laws of social and moral health, like
the laws of hygiene, are platitudes. It was interesting to have a French
engineer and mathematician of distinguished achievements, who
discussed with me the character and effect of the Sorbonne address,
rather hotly denounce those who affected to regard Mr. Roosevelt's
restatement of obvious, but too often forgotten truth, as platitudinous.
"The finest and most beautiful things in life," said this scientist, "the
most abstruse scientific discoveries, are based upon platitudes. It is a
platitude to say that the whole is greater than a part, or that the shortest
distance between two points is a straight line, and yet it is upon such
platitudes that astronomy, by aid of which we have penetrated some of
the far-off mysteries of the universe, is based. The greatest cathedrals
are built of single blocks of stone, and a single block of stone is a
platitude. Tear the architectural structure to pieces, and you have
nothing left but the single, common, platitudinous brick; but for that
reason do you say that your architectural structure is platitudinous? The
effect of Mr. Roosevelt's career and personality, which rest upon the
secure foundation of simple and obvious truths, is like that of a fine
architectural structure, and if a man can see only the single bricks or
stones of which it is composed, so much the worse for him."
Of the addresses included in this volume the next in chronological
order was that on "International Peace," officially delivered before the

Nobel Prize Committee, but actually a public oration spoken in the
National Theatre of Christiania, before an audience of two or three
thousand people. The Norwegians did everything to make the occasion
a notable one. The streets were almost impassable from the crowds of
people who assembled about the theatre, but who were unable to gain
admission. An excellent orchestra played an overture, especially
composed for the occasion by a distinguished Norwegian composer, in
which themes from the _Star-Spangled Banner_ and from Norwegian
national airs and folk-songs were ingeniously intertwined. The day was
observed as a holiday in Christiania, and the entire city was decorated
with evergreens and flags. On the evening of the same day, the Nobel
Prize Committee gave a dinner in honor of Mr. Roosevelt which was
attended by two or three hundred guests,--both men and women.
General Bratlie, at one time Norwegian Minister of War, made an
address of welcome, reviewing with appreciation Mr. Roosevelt's
qualities both as a man of war and as a man of peace. The address in
this volume, entitled, "Colonial Policy of the United States" was Mr.
Roosevelt's reply to General Bratlie's personal tribute. It was wholly
extemporaneous, but was taken down stenographically; and it adds to
its interest to note the fact that on the evening of its delivery it was the
first public utterance on any question of American politics which Mr.
Roosevelt had made since he left America a year previous.