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The blunder of Léon Bérard

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The municipal council of Castres, unanimously, without distinction of party, had expressed the wish that the name of Jean Jaurès be given to the college of the city.

- Impossible ! replied Mr. Léon Bérard

If our Grand Master had been satisfied with this autocratic response, there would have been no choice but to bow. But he felt the need to justify his decision. He did it, as we know, in these terms : — The permanent section of the Superior Council of Public Instruction, called upon to rule on this proposal (?), considered that one should only give to high schools and colleges the names of personalities whose notoriety, however indisputable that it or is placed, as a result of the passage of time, above party polemics. —

So how could the permanent section of the Superior Council of Public Education tolerate that the name of M. Georges Clemenceau be attributed to the Lycée de Nantes? Because finally, Mr. Clemenceau-is not above controversy. As for making him benefit from the "passage of time", it is to kill prematurely a man who only asks to live again.

Whenever there are blunders to be made, Mr. Léon Bérard, decidedly, does not miss a single one...