The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-01-31
IA Review Of The French Elections
 By
By PAUL TYNER

has been placed under Denikin's com | mand.
 Such a step might well precipitate l a race between France and Germany for Russian loot. Some color is given | to the report of Clenenceau's belli- | cose intentions by the suggestion sent out by M. Georges Mandel that C1ern- enceau has changed his mind about retiring from political life, and will continue to direct the nations des- t1nies in his present office. As Clemenceau'S confidential secre- tary and close friend and adviser, Mandel has long been credited with exercising a mysteriously powerful influence over the premier. MandeI has just been elected 8 deputy from the Gironde and resigned his personal post as Clemenceau's "chef de cab met" But that only means he will, as C1emenceau's man in the Chamber, remain power behind the throne. Election Without Newspapers. Paris is certainly France, journal istically speaking. There are papers in the provinces, but they don't count
 All France is dependent for news on l the Paris papers. Owing to a printers strike, declared just a week before
 
 following, all France was witt out | its papers throughout the elect on period. Refusing the mems den, ,is for an increase of five francs (about l 60 cents at present rate of exchange) a day to meet cost of living, all the 65 daily papers of Paris had to sus- pend publication. The directors of 56 of these journals, however, got together at once and with non-union I 1 1n11 four pages. The strikers and the df- rectors of the nine remaining papers (which were Socialist and radical, and so friendly to them), then Joined forces in a, common daily, which they called La Feuille Commune One page 1 was given up to news in tabloid form, the remaining pages to editorials al- so tabloid. In the first combination were the 'sbig'' dai1ies like the Jour | nal, Matin and Petit Journal. with ] their two-million-a-day circu1ations 1 and corresponding resources in the. way of white paper and equipment. 1 The European editions of the New Srork Herald and the Daily Mail of l London were each allotted half col | umn to give the news of the world | in English. Under the title of La Presse de Paris. this sheet attained a daily circulation of about 3,5O0,- 1 900 on election day and during the | days immediately before and after | the great event. Incidentally, the ed-
 itorial staffs of the two English lan- | guage papers here conducted quite an l interesting competition in the matter | of their respective half columns! My 1 impression is that the American 1 ''desk men" gave their English con | frers some interesting pointers in the great art of condensation
 Composition of the New Chamber. While it is true that the Socialist representation in the new Chamber l has been cut down from 105 to 56, | this fact does not mean a falling off | in the Socialist popular vote. On the | contrary, the returns show an in
 crease from 100000 votes polled in May 1914, to 100000 boiled last ] Sunday. The fact that the party has i lost 49 seats, although increasing it's
 vote by 60O,O00, is pointed out as one l of the many anomalies of the new election law. Plainly, the prerense of incorporating proportional represen- tation in the law, is only a sham. l With real proportional representa- l ton, the Socialists woud have l elected 160 instead of 56 members. Another striking anomaly is the elec- 1 tion of Leon Daudet, the Roya1ist leader, although his Action Francaise list (ticket) was hopelessly beaten,
 and he only received 19,OOO votes
 against 36,O0o for his opponent, Gus tav Tery, the brilliant editor of tLOeuvre
 1 The new Chamber has 626 mem bers, including those from the "A
 new seats in Alsace-Lorraine. For
 the first time in half century, more than one-half of these (339) will be
 new members. Many of the old mem
 bers standing for reelection (outside
 the Socialists) were defeated because 1 they were held accountable for de-
 lays in rehabilitating the devasted re-
 gions, for coal and transport short
 ages, and for the high cost of living. Oddly enough, NM. Loucheur, In-
 dustrial Reconstruction Minister, and Boret, former Food Minister who
 have been the targets of continued
 denunciation on this account were
 reelected. Five members of the gov
 ernment, however, were ''made the
 goats and went down to defeat.
 A House of Lords'.
 Four of the retiring senators were elected to the flower house.; NM
 Herriot, Rezmonencq, de la Ribboisere
 and Gavin. In a, sarcastic article in | Bon Sofr, Dangeau suggests that the
 new Chamber may become a House
 of Lords! He says: 'I do not
 know if the new Chamber will rep resent with exactness the opinion of
 the country, but it is certain that the . 1 fashionable clubs of Paris will be
 well represented. One will meet here
 the greatest names of France and the grandest titles. This assemblage
 promises. indeed, to be one of the
 most elegant we have seen in a long i, tine.' He then goes on to report an
 imaginary conversation with an old
 gentleman who cuItivates the arts ot
 genealogy and heraIdry.
 Woman Suffrage Test Vote. Although the last Chamber passed
 a bill conferring the suffrage upon
 women, it was tabled in the Senate ; and the feminist struggle for the electoral franchise will be continued
 in the new Parliament. Two Paris
 newspapers, the Excelsior and L. . Oeuvre, arranged opportunities fol : the women of the capital to express their political choice by placing bal
 lot boxes, at the Kiosk news stands in the central sections and sending
 ''traveling polls'' in the shape of bal