Page:Jean Jaurès socialist and humanitarian 1917.djvu/37

 United Socialists, out of whom the new party was formed. From that time to his death he worked for the whole party. It was a life of unceasing activity, for he was not only writing daily for L’Humanité, and speaking in the Chamber, but speaking also in public, drafting motions for Conferences, working without intermission for Internationalism and Peace.

Jaurès was a man of very great gifts which were never used for his own advancement but devoted to the service of the people. In a nation where the power to speak well is quite common he was recognized as the greatest orator. It is curious that in spite of being already so accomplished a speaker, when he first entered the Chamber of Deputies the mere thought of having to get up and speak caused him a terror which he found it very difficult to overcome. He soon had the ear of the Chamber, which not only realized his wonderful powers, but also the care with which he studied all the questions on which he spoke. Although his voice was not in itself attractive—Rappoport calls it "monotonous" and Macdonald speaks of it as "harsh"—yet he always won the sympathy of his audience. For the power of Jaurès' words sprang above all from the mind and heart of the man. "Even when he improvised," says M. Rappoport, "he only spoke of things which he had studied deeply. Headdressed himself at the same time to the reason, the