Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1885-10-25
OUR PARIS LETTER.
REVIEU or THE POLITfCdL sITr-
ATIOS arm FRENCH CsPITaI.

Fifteen Different Tickets In the F,ed for
National Ofncrrs-The "Group sys,-m'- |
why French Politics are Uns' nble-iho
Opportun,sts ana the Conservative
Special Correspondence to the GLotK .REruBL'c.
PARIs, France, Oct. 10, 1885.
Politics in Fance are 90 complicated rs to /
become . great Fifteen puzzle; = for, while 10 |
America We have at most only three or tour
political parties with tickets in the field for |
national Offices, here there are no less than
fifteen tickets. The department of the
Seine, in which Paris is located, 10 entitled to
thirty -eight seats in the chamber Of deputies. |
With fifteen different tickets that would seem
to give A7O candidates in this one depar ment,
but in France a politician may not only be on
both sides of the fence q, the same time, but
he may straddle half doz'u fences and be
candidate Oh haf dCz n tickets, IL bis legs
and his head are long enough TO perform such
q pymnastic ieat. Partisan uism 10 even more
bitter IN France than In America During
the last f'w weeks the city has been pacatded
with threats Of fiery radicals to burn the
public buildings II defeated but We
find SIX or eight parties which are ready to
"tear each others eyes out" but on whose
tickets are tha same names. Yet 1t is hardly
proper to dignity these organizations with the
name Of party" They are not parties AS we
understand them in America. Nor are they
called parties in France. They are called
groups. May the American eagle save the
American republic from
THE GROUP SYSTEM.
What is q Rroup2 1t lei d Zen or two score
members Of the chambers who always sit To-
gether and vote a. unit. The whole cham
Der 10 divided into fl teen or twenty Of these
groups aud ~ no group has a majority. 90 no
statesman can count with any assurance on
the complexion Of the chamber when he rises
TO make a speech, and he fears the secret stab
OF his supposed friends more than he does the
avowed opposition OF his enemies. These
groupp, are organized bodies. Each has It's
president snd other officer, and so instead Of
one or two recognized leaders OF the house,
there are these fifteen or twenty presidents OF
groups, and each one OF these presidents is a
petty lesder or dictator and controls his
group. He is impressed wI'h hi own i'm
portsnce and woe to the lobbyist who dares to
approach the individual deputy e1cep
through the president OF that group. Each
group has its Dewsp per to act as the organ
for its vituprrstion against whatever or who
ever it desires to crush.
The groups are no, formed on any solid
basis Of great p liica principles or doctri les,
but are kept together on purely personal and
selfish grounds, each group having a plat
form Of old grudges which are not intreGuent-
ly spiked together by the persons ambition
OF i's president who in America would be
called a ring-lesder.
OF course these respective groups must
unite more or less whenever u measure is To
be adopted, and bence they have the gres,
parties--the republican the con serVstives, the
royali.ts, the imPcrialists, the oppor unisrs
and lot OF other lists too numerous to
mention, and just as individuals may be can
didstes on several tickets At the same time, so
these groups may seem to belong to two OF
three OF tne great parties, voting one day
with one party and another day with An q.
Oher party.
I.itsry wonder that French politics are
uns,sbltP The nation does not know whs
IL vans, or rather The politicians are evel
recreant to their trust and tail to follow the
will o, their constituents, but as soon a. he y
are by popular vote vested with = little brie
authority, they forget that the government Is
OF the people and for the people, but Bet tc
work to crush the rights of ell who will no
aid in their personal Advancement
| have SAT- the parties are too numerou.
to mention, but the three most important
parties are the radical republicans, the oppor
tunisls and the conservatives. Every d,
knows what the radical republicans are, to
their name expresses it.
TIM OPPJRTUS srs
"The opportuslsts," said United State,
Consul General Walker, when talking pol
iticS to me few days ago, "aeem to NE L
represent the highest type Of politics. Oppor
tunism means doing the best thing psssibl
under The present circumstances. Ii does no
mean sacrificing ones opportunity to gain
partial result merely because the entire re.
suit can not At once be rea.hei. There ar
times when the statesman may prefer ever
defeat to partial victory st the expense o
his opinions OF what Is right, If he is so con
hdent in his convictions that he has faith il
the reaction in his favor. Then he must sticl
TO his principles without compromise, bu
opportunism usually means compromise be
tween tSo extreme
The OF portunis,s have been in power eve
since Gambettas time, four or Eve years ago
bat, by The election of last Sunday, the cor
serva,ives have made such gains ,ha: the days
OF opportunism are numbered.
The conservatives are not a SHORTY, but q
the Solell puts it, Yesterday they were
minority that wss not taken INTO account to-
day they are minority that 10 going to b.
taken into account. Soon, perhaps, they vii
be the M Irlty.'
The conservative party means royalty, src
II they gain large msj Drity IL is the genera
opinion here that the Comts de Paris will b,
placed on the French throne. That fact il
what mikes present elections 30 significant
and as the system in france requires a Gouol
elee ion, or rather two elections two weeks
apart, the suspense which the nation i
avw in viii not be ended tor several days yet
All candi1etes, 10 order To be elected on th'
first election day, are requested TO have a ma
jori,y over the combined votes for all oppo
nents. A mere plurality will not constitute
an election on FIRST ballot, but il no ons re-
ceives a majority on this first election day
thea the same candidates are voted for again
on the second election day, and this time Z
plurality is all that is required A
new plan 10 in operation this
time which WAS opposed by the conservatives
but which seems to have worked them NJ