How well he
did this work, requiring as it did the most accurate judgment and the
nicest discrimination, was shown when he was made Editor-in-Chief of
the _Matin_ in 1901.
His tenure of office was destined to be short for, when the world war
broke out, M. Lauzanne, as a First Lieutenant of the French Army,
joined the colors in the first days of mobilization and surrendered
the pen for the sword. His career as editor had been long enough,
however, for him to impress upon the minds of the French public the
imminency of the Prussian Peril. As to this he had no illusions and
his powerful editorials had done much to combat the spirit of
pacificism, which at that time was weakening the preparations of
France for the inevitable conflict.
The obligation of universal service required him to exchange his
position of great power and usefulness for a lesser position, but this
spirit of common service in the ranks means much for France or for any
nation. The democracy of the French Army could not be questioned, when
the powerful Editor of the _Matin_ became merely a lieutenant in the
Territorial Infantry. As such, he served in the battle of the Marne
and later before Verdun, and thus could say of the two most heroic
chapters in French history, as AEneas said of the Siege of Troy, "Much
of which I saw, and part of which I was.
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