New-York tribune., 1906-04-26
THE STRIKES IN FRANCE

The threat of a universal strike in Fronoo
on May / is certainly disquieting and accounts
lor lhe panlcky feeling which is said to nre
NalI throughout that country. The predictions
VI revolution are probably i'll founded and
exaggerated. We believe that the government
ana the good sense Of the nation will sufica to
maintain the authority of the republic Rut il
Is possible that the republic will next week
suHer the severest domestic strain in IFS his
tory. Never before were influences of discon-
.eHt 50 widespread, and never was their organ
.Nation 50 complete and militant. We are not
sure that their opportunity for making troubla
was ever more ample
1t is of special interest that tbis unnraco
dented social upheaval is contemplated at tba
very tlne when France has Just come under tbe
ulrecuoh or the most radical Ministry in the
history OF the Third Neutrality-suspicious. in
spiIe Oh or because Of that fact we shall not
presume TO say. VI. Sarrien himself and NJ
DOuf seolS nave long been known as Radical
leaders. NJ. Poincare ia so much of q Radical
aS 10 De committed TO an income tax NJ Rri
anu USED TO be not merely a Radical but a
h1e'0iutiohaFy Socialist AS for VI. CIemen-
oo"u' VINO Is most of all concerned in the pres
ehl Crisis, he is the foremost Radical of France
1t may be that the Socialists and lobor ooi.
tators imagine this Ministry is so symna+betio
toward them that it will yield to their demands
or IL may be that they are resentful at its NOT
a'lhs at once adopted policy more in accord
wan nelr programme We may assume at
any rate, that they deem the present time op-
Fortune for their great strike on two accounts
one' mat general election is close at hand and
CONSIDERATIONS of vote getting may affect the
governments conduct toward them; the other
uldI lne civil government has provoked the an
tagonlsin OF the Catholic Church, and therefore
support OF the state officials 1t may be- how
ever, that in these things the forces of dis
order make miscalculaton. We must believe
that French statesmen realize that brave main
tenance OF law and order never costs man or
party votes, and we must disbelieYe that the
clergy VIII, even by their silence, give aid or
comfort to disorder
1t is quite possible that VI. CIemenceau half
regrets that he did not stick to the rule 80
long followed by him, of declining to take of
nee. Certainly his initial experience as a re-
sponslbie minister is most trying. He began
his administration with a bold effort to settle
the strike at Courrieres through personal inter-
vention and mediation. He went thither with
out any escort, talked freely with the labor
leaders, expressed sympathy with them ex-
horted them TO be good and not resort TO
violence, and assured them no troops would
be employed against them. In that he was
uue TO the professionalism TO the Illusions
or his anteIninisterial DAYS But now n
change has come DER the spirit of his dream.
he mas set aside the rosewater bottle and is
massing troops in the mining region and in
fafls' and he Is telling the very men with whom
lie Formerly talked so pleasantly that by ad-
Vocaung violence they have put themselves out
side the pale and he has no further use for
them. 1t must be little short of agonizing for
MN thus TO dismiss his illusions and 10 read.
Just ms policy in accordance with unpleasant
put unfortunately concrete and stubborn
iacls' Dut IL Is TO be expected that with his
versatility, his resourcefuness and his ex-
ceptional strength of character and temper be
VIII succeed in the onerous task before him
That the striking miners have. or had. some