The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-08-31
THE PRESIDENTS
 or FRANCE

Out of the ruins of the Second Elm pire and the wild fury of the Com mune sprang the third Republic of France, a government based on lib- erty, fraternity and equality, reali- zation of the hopes and dreams of a century, It was just forty-five years ago today, on August 31, 1871, that Louis Adolphe Thiers, who had been chief of the executive power for sev- eral months, was formally named as President of France by the National Assembly.
 Thiers the first of the executive heads of the Third Republic, was a native of Marseilles, was seyenty-four years old at the time of his elevation to the presidency. He held office in the government of Louis Philippe, and voted for the presidency of Louis Napoleon, but was ever after one of the bitterest opponents of the Elm peror, and was banished for a time. During the terrible crisis following the inglorious defeat of Fran ce by the Germans he came to the front as the supreme man of France. His first duty as executive, prior to his nom ination to the presidency, was to aid in drawing up the treaty whereby France lost Alsace and Lorraine and agreed to pay an enormous indemnity to her conquerors. Then came the Communist insurrection, when the terrorists held brief but bloody sway in Paris. In 1872, owing to an ad- verse vote in the assembly, Thiers re- signed, but he was induced to re- call his resignation, and remained in office until May of 1873 he retired, and died four years later.
 The second president of 'la repub- | Hque'' was Marie Edme Patrice Maur- I ice de Macmahon, Duke of Magenta and a Marshal of France. He was | born in 1908, and was the descendant of an Irish Jacobite family. He won a marshaPs baton and a dukedom for the decisive part he played in the bat tie of Magenta during the Italian campaign. After the downfall of | Thiers he was elected president for a term of seven years, the royalists hoping that through him the Bour- bons might be restored. He resigned early in 1879, and died in 1893. l Francois Paul Jules Grevy, who had been president of the National Assembly in 1871, succeeded Macma- hon as the occupant of the Elysee Palace, the official home of the French presidents. He was re-elect- ed in 1886, but on account of scan dal in which his son-in-law was inn plicated he was forced to resign late in 1887. President Grevy was person ally innocent of any complicity in the trafficking in Legion of Honor dec
 orations which ended his public ca
 reer. He died in 1891.
 Marie Francois Sadi Carnot was | chosen president on the retirement o1 M. Grevy, and inaugurated a policy of careful development of the army
 and navy, economy in government ex penditures, and the fostering of peace ful relations with other nations While attending the exposition a Lyons in 1894 he was fatally stabbed by an Italian anarchist.
 Jean Paul Pierrs Sasimir-P -Periel succeeded Carnot, but resigned abou
 seven months later, and died in 1907 Francois Felix Faure, a Parisiar by birth but later a wealthy ship
 owner of Havre, was the sixth presi
 dent of France. His administration
 was marked by serious labor trou
 bles, and the Dreyfus case also caus ed much political recrimination an(
 unrest. The year following his cleo
 tion to the presidency an attemp
 was made to murder him. He helt
 the office until his death in 1899.
 Emile Loubet, who had been pre- mier under Sadi Carnot, assumed tn, presidency on the death of Faure, ant
 his administration was very success ful.
 Clement Armand Fallieres, lawye and winegrower, assumed the presi
 dency in 1906, and gained a hug,
 popularity among the masses of tn, people by his simplicity and sincerity. Raymond Poincare, the presen
 president, lawyer, man of letters ant
 an "immortaI' of the Academi,
 Franchise, succeeded Papa" FaIliere
 on Jan. IT, 1913.