The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1902-04-08
unns of advertising.
A Hot CAMPAIGN.

President Loubet Of France has by de-
cree fixed the date for the election Of
members of the chamber of deputies on
April y, and the campaign has begun with
great vigor. Indeed, there were reports
in February that public interest was
warming up to the occasion, which is one
OF extraordinary Importance.
The present ministry under NJ. Waldeck-
Rousseau, went into power in June, 1899,
and was intended to tide France over the
great crisis brought about by the Dreyfus
affair and it was known as the Ministry
of Public Defense. 1t had position of
peculiar peril to maintain, for all the
reactionaries were in opposition, the
monarchists, the -baiters, clericals
and imperialists, but 1t pulled through
triumphantly with some compromises
which left some blots upon it's escutcheon
That ministry has had a longer life
than any ministry has had since the third
republic was organized. 1t was Of a quail
ity not calculated to endure. It repre-
sented the advanced republican group and
the socialists, Waldeck- Rousseau himself
being strong believer in the principles
of Gambetta. He is man Of extraor-
binary ability. No man of average ability
could have choked off the Dreyfus scandal
as he did, or put through, under the ex-
listing conditions, the rather drastic law
OF associations which struck severe
blow at the politically Interfering cler-
icals.
1t would certainly seem from the career
of this ministry that the reactionaries
have no longer the power to place the
republic in jeopardy. The fact is, since
the resignation of Macmahon in 1879, there
has been little real danger Of a reac-
tionary success which would imperil the
republic. Macmahon saw the futility of
trying to promote reactionary movements
The Broglie ministry was forced out of
office by the rising tide of republicanism,
which in 1877 secured three fourths of
the seats in the chamber of deputies.
Since then the republicans have only lost
ground when internal discord weakened
their ranks. The party system in France
is peculiar for the number of small be-
1igerent groups which it is not easy to
bring together in emergencies. Gambetta
had the unifying faculty and Waldeck-
Rousseau possesses it largely so far as
the republican party is concerned
At the coming election the groups of
reactionaries will be arrayed against the
ministry. The most bitter opponents of
the premier are the clericals, who refuse
to be reconciled to the check imposed
upon ecclesiastical political Vaccinations
by the law Of associations, which is a
kind Of supplement to the educational
bill Of Jules Ferry In 1879, which was
designed to put education beyond eccle-
siastical control The Waldeck- Rousseau
ministry has achieved popularity through
Its demonstrations of the reality of the
bond of friendship embodied in the
Franco Russian alliance. This pleases the
French people, and moreover, under the
present ministry, an understanding with
Italy has been reached and the govern
ment's participation in the Chinese ex-
petition and resulting settlement and in
demnity from China has been made to ap-
PSoi ~ lAC POpuldI cy + Ill france as great
glory" for France, which wipes out the
blow to her pride entailed by the rebuff
at Fashoda.
1t is wonderful, considering the fact that
France. at the beginning of the third re-
public, had very old and deeply rooted
monarchical traditions and one royal and
one imperial prince to draw upon, that
the monarchical and imperialist elements
have not been able to make progress to a
restoration of their systems The French
nature has no doubt become somewhat
less susceptible to the Establishments of
Napoleonism and Orleanism and is get
ting more practical and reflects more upon
the sequences of certain plebiscites, and
is not taken off it's feet, so to speak, by
every breezy man on horseback
Reports from various beet sugar-mak-
ing centers of the country show that re-
fineries in Michigan, Colorado and Utah
have already passed into the hands Of the
American Sugar Refining company-the