The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1902-04-27
Campaigns Close Marked by Nj
merous Conflicts and Amusing
Incidents and Charges.
PASSING OF THE CABINET.
Predicted All France Will Realize
What 1t Has Lost When the
Waldeck Rousseau Ministry
Will Have Ceased to Be.
BY ]. CORNELY.

A. a..
r AND THE ST. LOUIS REPUBLIC,
Paris. April 26.-CCopyright. lsoe)-One
can say that the week which has preceded
the elections, and which has been a kind OF
watch before the battle. has been almost
entirely absorbed with election Incidents
without any great interest or Importance.
There have been numerous conflicts.
Many meetings have been broken up by the
extinction OF the gas in the halls, or the
electors have taken 10 fighting among
themselves.
1t Is really very curious how darkness
makes noise cease: makes muscles relax
and fun begin. This disappearance OF Isht
is otherwise symboiical, and in most OF the
districts the electoral squabbles which end
in this physical darkness have commenced
with intellectual darkness.
Waldeck-Rousseau to Retire.
All the positions have been taken up. The
whole of the opposition. from the prosress-
I've Republicans to the most ardent Ma
tionalists, not to speak Of the Bonapartists
and Eoyalists, has ADOPTED q refrain winch
consists in their calling themselves anu
Ministerial, because the Ministry Is a MN
istry. they say, of treason and of bank
rupIcy, which has disorganfzed the army,
put France into the hand of the Collect.v,
lists and brought her TO material ana moran
ruin.
This language Is quite delicious in the
mouths of a people who have just passed
three years In profound calm. anu VINO VIII
otherwise begin TO regret the Ministry Of ".
Waldeck-Rousseau on the very morrow OF
the day when 1t ceases to be-that Is 10
SHY. on Jult =, liz ll9 hNA "a
the Cabinet on meeting the new Chamber
viii be at the same time the last of its ex-
istence, and will consists of its retirement.
According to the tradition, for those VINO
believe in providence. enc may say that
French Conservatives are doing everything
they can to tempt 1t.
Dreyfus Affair Recalled.
Among the election incidents one must.
nevertheless. make some mention OF the last
maneuvers of the committe over which NJ.
Jules Lemaitre presides and which is called
an attempt to galvanize into life the "Drey-
fus affair" 1t has been mounted with 4
certain degree of art. the characters have
been distributed among the whole Nationals
list crowd, ana it has been given with a
real orchestral accompaniment.
This is the fable. the legend. the history.
public meeting. which has served as n
theme, with all the variations. When Drey-
fus had been condemned at Rennes, the
Ministry thought. 1t appears. of submitting
TO the Court of Cessation the verdict OF the
court martial. which was quite the opposite
of the conclusions arrived at by that court,
of which it seemed at Rennes that every
body had otherwise received the WORD not
to speak.
At that time. the story goes, General de
Gailiffet interviewed. and is stated TO nave
spoken the sentiments of the army and to
have asserted that the partisans of Dreyfus
and foreiGners alone were of the opinion
styled a "Foreign Government"
The teller of the story. employing the
means OF discussion, WHICH fdScdi ms ~
often made a reproach against the Jesuit
Fathers. added: $50, you see, that General
de Gaiiiffet. by implication. regarded the
Government as q Government IN the pay
OF the foreigner. II is clearly, therefore. a
foreign Government of which the electors
must rid themselves"
The country next Sunday is face to face
with this degrading mania for perpetuaily
bringing in the notion of foreign partci-
patton in our affairs, with usual Interior
objects quite opposed to every idea of mod
ern civilization"
General de Gailiffet has replied by letter,
which one would Ike to have been more
conclusive and set out with facts. He con-
tented himself with declaring that he would
never make himself the accuser of the
Ministry of which he had been a member
and of whose acts he considered himself
equally responsible up to the moment or
his leaving il.
Unhappily. a certain number of persons
who dragged him in the mud when he was
a colleague of NJ. Waldeck-Rousseau. as
sert that he has shown them the latter,
and they give. regarding his intention OF
SO doing, details which allow it TO be sup
posed that the General has now been quite
restored to their favor.
That is his affair. As for the rest. it is
an incident which Is based only on childish
hypothesis and will be without any kind
of influence upon the elections. and even
IL General de Gailiffet does really call the
Cabinet of which he was a member a for
eign Ministry 1t would not cost that Min
istry the votes Of ten electors.