New-York tribune., 1895-02-17
A SOCIALIST TRIUMPH.
DECLINE OF EXECUTIVE POWER IN
FRANCE.

TEMPORARY ESCAPE FROM THE cRIsIs-DANGER
AHEAD-INDIFFERENCE OF THE PUBLIC
AMERICAN VERSUS FRENCH REPUBLI-
cANIsM-PRIME MINISTER RIBoT
Personal. ANIMosITIEs.
Paris. January %
For thirteen days France has been left without
Government. Less than thirty hours was
needed to replace the President Of the Republic
but the President is not the chief OF the Execu-
tive power in this Parliament-ridden country
That office. both in and in reality. Is exer-
cised by the Prime Minister president Of the
Council Of Minister'S who is indeed chosen by
the President Of the Republic. but Is directly re-
sponsible to the majority in the Chamber Of
Deputies.
This majority first kicked the Dupuy Ministry
out Of office. The next night President Casimir-
Perier, with the temper of his family, resigned
his own office, and NJ Dupuy. of course. had to
hold over in an ad-interim Administration. So
far the Deputies had been coquettng with the
Radical Socialists against the Moderate Repub-
licans Somewhat frightened at the effect of their
manoeuvres, they promptly elected another Mod
crate. NJ Felix Faure. President of the Republic.
Now the latters first business was to find
new Ministry On looking the votes which
had elected him. he could easily discover that the
majority OF Republican members of Parliament
had been actually given to the Radical Socialist
candidate NJ Brisson He had himself secured
the absolute majority OF the electors only by a
coalition OF the Royalist Right with the Mod
crate Republicans. common man would have
thought it proper to follow this lead by naming
Moderate as Prime Minister The new President
showed that he was no ordinary politician by
calling at once on the extreme Radical. Leon
Bourgeois whose last public act had been to vote
against VI. Caslmir-Perier, and who was the very
man NJ Brisson himself might have chosen
Why did President Felix Faure. elected by
Moderate votes, wish first to intrust the Gov
ernment Of the country to the Radical Socialists?
Probably because he sees, as does every one else,
that the only majority possible In the present
Chamber OF Deputies is A purely Republican one
and this cannot be constituted without the help
OF the Radicals Now the Radicals will not go
many steps without the Socialists.
Why did NJ Bourgeois after seven days labor,
have TO abandon the attempt to form a Radical
Socialist Administration? Because he could not
find ten men among all his wing OF the Republi-
can party nor even among the Opportunists
themselves who were willing to face the i'm
perative demands of the already overdue budget
Of 1895 at the same time with the equally i'm
perative demands OF Socialist theory, Ca
yaignac the grandson Of the Republican Cen
eral 81 ls4s and Of the First Empire. was for
the entering wedge OF progressive income tax.
pevtral who is more OF an Opportunst than
Radical. would hear only of a proportional In
come tax Poncare. who has been fdding with
budgets and finances in half the administrations
of the last five years. would have nothing to do
~ota oil
office he put forward the Socialist progressive
tax on inheritances. In other words. Socialism
in the French Parliament has succeeded in over
turning the moderate Republican Government
which centred in the personality Of President
casimir- Perier 1t has failed in endeavoring to
substitute for II a Radical Socialist Administra-
ton.
President Felix Faure. who. like Carnot, is not
n personality has now compromised-for time
on an old Fashioned concentration Ministry
Of Opportunlss shading into Radicals. lie
hopes doubtless. that it will last long enough 10
vote the budget through Parliament.
The necessity OF Fastening the financial appro-
,ri,tions Of this years budget is thus the only
thing which has kept France from political revo-
,uton on two occasions since the New
Year First. NJ. Caslmir-Perier might nave
dissolved the Parliament which houted MIN
and tied his hands; with the budget un-
voted he did not dare. but chose rather
I, resign with a Presidential message that was
q direct Indictment of the present Parliamentary
Constitution OF the French Republic Second NJ
Felix Faure following in the footsteps OF Car
not was willing to hand over the Republic TO
the Radical Socialists: and the budget fas again
stood In the way.
IN, the first triumph Of the Socialists has al
al oil nf
s.rt a solid group Of nearly fifty Socialists to
the Chamber of Deputies. Their alliance with
the Extreme Radicals has increased the wing
hound to work along Socialist lines to l2o out OF
,N Deputies in all No one party is more nu-
,nerous: and the recent disturbances show that
no coalition Of parties can be relied on against
than, Socialists pure and simple. have not ye;
rho Government Of France IN their own hands;
h,t there can be no Government in the French
penublic which does not count with Socialism
The attitude Of the country at large in the pres
o,ce of a state of things which ten years ago
would have been thought possible only after a
revoIutiou is puZzlng \ Government junction
Dry high enough placed TO be able to judge re-
marked the dav after Casimir- Periers sudden and
theatrical action: The temper OF the populace
disauets me-" When asked IL there were signs
of revolutionary agitation, he answered; NOT
the least: the people remain in sleepy indifference,
learning what goes on from the newsvenders'
with no grouping together, without a thrill. a
peoplc whom nothing can stir must be very SICK
Those who dislike the Republic under any form
-Royalists or Imperialists-and those who simply
think that the Parliamentary Republic has failed
--ex- -Boulangsts. Revisionists. Radical Socialists
agree in attributing this carelessness OF the
publlc to the general disgust for the present order
Of things Paul de Cassagnac even says that. in
the silence ne can hear horseman coming al
though he is still too far away TO distinguish just
who he may be!
As neither Orleanists nor Bonapartists have any
inspiring leader TO come riding into France at