New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-09-04
S0CIALISM'S NEW POWER,
French Cabinet Shaker, by the Con-
gress at amsterdam.
Paris, August 81.

Paris. August 81
The condemnation of NJ. Jaures by the Inter-
national Socialist Congress now being held at
Amsterdam will not astonish those VINO have
followed with attention the progress of the So
cialist movement in France during the las:
twenty years. but 1t is nevertheless an event
OF great political Importance. which deeply con-
Germs NJ Conbes's Ministry.
NJ Con1bes is in power to-day because he re-
lies upon that formidable majority known as
the bloc" which consists Of large portion of
the Moderate Republican party, ell the Rad
icals and the Socialists, with the exception Of
small group OF doctrlnaire Co;lectvists under
Jules Guesde. This combination was the tr-
urnphant achievement of the late Waldeck-
Rousseau, who had clearly seen the hopeless
ness of carrying out successfully a Republican
programme with the support OF the Centre IN
GLIDING NJ. rIelines friends, and the Rallied
Right to the exclusion of the Extreme Lett
AS he remarked to ". LOubet at the time or his
accepting Office. the Rallied Right is an impos-
sible ally because rs on,y policy is TO shoot us
I'm the back" The experiment of leaning on the
Centre had been tried and had failed, and, in
The opinion of NJ Waldeck-Ro Rousseau and OF
many other earnest Republicans, the Republic
ran regime was, owing this mistake. threat
ened in its very existence
The sole chance of safety lay then. in moving
the centre of gravity of the Republican major
ity toward the Extreme Left. Accordingly, NJ.
Mlerand, a new convert from Radicaiism TO
Coectivisn, invited to Join the Cabinet
and though his acceptance was looked on with
suspicion by the doctr;naire section Of the So
cialist party, the Guesdists, NJ. Jaures, the most
eloquent though the most authoritative
rnouthpiece of Collect;vism in the Chamber, raj
lied to him, and was followed by several other
These men had also seen elected the Collec-
twist ticket, with the assistance of the Revolu-
tionary Socialist Federation OF the Seine
This federation is essentially Marxist, and the
unbending prophet and apostle of MarXism is
Jules Guesde He is bar of iron. No tempta-
ton, pecuniary, social or intellectual to Coop
crate with a bourgeois enterprise OF any de-
scription, whether in the press. in Parliament
OF elsewhere. has ever made him yield iota
of his independence or abate in the smallest de-
gree his carefully calculated refusal AS the
champion of an idea he is certainly remarkable
and 1t is to a farseeing and logged determine
ton such his that the Collectivist movement
owes most of its development and all of its in
tcrnational discipline. The Dreyfus question,
however. which entirely outside the sphere
OF party politics. led the Guesdists to lower mo-
mentarily at any rate. their swords point
against a government which seemed anxious. in
spite Of bourgeois opposition. TO rehabtate
a wrongly condemned man. This supplied the
opportunity which both NJ. Waldeck- Rousseau
and Jean Jaures were seeking, the one to estab-
l!sh his bloc majority and the other to be
Prirne Minister in everything but name
The truce consented to by the Marxists did not
last long. II. Millerand, whom they had always
treated with suspicion, much as the Italian car
cinAls did Manning, promptly bundled out
OF the Socialist Federation, and though NJ.
ysuras's long and brilliant services to the party
saved him from equally brusque execution
he viii have TO submit TO the decision OF
the Congress at Amsterdam or share the same
fate
The fact Is that NJ Jaures has attempted to
DO that which all his precursors at the same
task have failed in, namely, to revive the old
Possfblist party. TO erect kind Of OppOrtunist
bridge between Colectivisn and Republicanism.
Perhaps his Opportunist past for there were
days when NJ. Jaures the brilliant spokes-
man OF the Opportunist Centre, may ACCOUNT
for this lingering ambition, but he would have
been wiser to remember that the doctrine of
Karl Marx is still, 1t always was. the dom
mating and directing element in the French So
cialist movement. Fifteen years ago French
Socialism, which then by means the
power in the country that it is to-day. torn
by various dissensions. There the Blan-
quists, represented by NJ. Valiant. revou
tionists who not particular as to theory,
but who could be relied in riot; the Pos
siblists. and subsequently the Aemanists. the
Broussists. and. of course, the Catholic Social
lists. though these latter were the reverse of
revolutionary.
The Possibl;sts differed from the BIarXists by
of their Opportunisn. They confined
their aims within the region of what they held to
be possible and for reasons of eXpediency were
willing to make friends with the Radical COM
rnittee which then held it's meetings in the Rue
Cadet, and included among its members Clemen-
ceau, Goblet and Lockroy. Possiblism expired
TO all intents and purposes with the late NJ.
Joffrin, who on a parallel pretext with that of
II. Jaures-namely TO save the republic from
danger which subsequently turned out to be il
lusory-joined hands with the Radical govern
meut IN the fight against Boulangsm. Aleman-
ism and Broussism were the disiointed remnants
OF the old Possiblist group. and grew out of
quarrel between NJ. Allemane and DR.. BrOusse
as 10 which should lead the Possiblists after
Ioffrin's death. Both these groups, however.
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