Evening star., 1923-08-12
COOLIDGE ASCENT
MARVEL 0E::FRENCH
May Pattern u. S. Way of
J. Providing President in
Great Crises.
nv Cable TO The Star.

which Calvin Coolidge became Presi-
dent automatically on the death of
President Harding has set French
politicians considering whether it
would not he an advantage to adopt
the American syAtem in France. Well
informed political circles and the
more serious section of the press are
still commenting on the simple
larnp-li lighted ceremony in the Ver-
mont farmhouse, which means trans
fer of the executive power of a great
nation from one mortal, who has
Just succumbed to illness, to his sue
cessor
The commept here is that it is SIM
pie and time saving, without disrupt-
ing the counfry's activity. and elm,
mates partyIsquabbles and electoral ora.
intrigueS. II short. for the first time
since Deschanel was forced to hand In
his resignation on the grounds OF IL
ness and AYllerand,s accession a1;,io t" rl,s the
are thinking soberly of borrowing the
American institution of Vice Presi-
dent in the event of a resignation or
death of the President of France. Inc
law reqAires that the sentee ana
chamber of deputies shall travel TO
Versailles. there TO elect new presl-
dent 1t is a process that takes much
time ana tends to bring about all sorts
OF fling in both houses, often hot
clasheS.of interest and not infrequent-
~ direct reversal of the govern
1nent' - policy because the new presl-
dent II empowered to pick premier
whose ideas may be exactly counter
TO thfse of his successor.
Doubly Grave Matter.
ThMs the death of President Mil
leragtd tomorrow could result in
throSring the country into state OF
political disruption for weeks and the
replacement of Poincare by a man con-
stiFutionally able to scrap the famous
Posncare Ruhr reparations policy
ov$rnight This actually occurred In
thr election of President Loubet In
This is a douhly grave matter since
the President of France is elected tor
a. full term OF seven years and Is not
removable except through death or
forced resignation or IeVoLu.'oal. n.
frances last presidential election at
Versailles was in September, 1920. Ihe
government was held in abeyance for
many months during the attempted re
icovery OF Deschanel and there was
spreat delay in signing the necessary de-
crees afFixing signatures to new laws,
funtil finally the president was 1orcea 10
! resign his power. Then there was TUT
ther delay and expense in conVenins
and later adjourning parliament. wltn
from Hobbies of the Palais De LuXem-
bourg, and the Palais De Bourbon down
10 the lowliest cafe De Commerce -
equivalent to our corner grocery store
Fortunately for France, Mtllerand was
then premier and the outstanding fig
ure. as he had sent Gen. WeNgand TO
Warsaw and had stiffened and organ
ized Polish resistance against the on
coming bolsheviSt hordes and save f-u-
rope from the menace of the red army.
Tba ar,NjA
national" a party still fairly cohesive
and imbued with ideas which brought
about its triumph in the famous post
war elections of November l6, 1919.
Serious Possibilities.
II the anarchist Bouvet had succeed
ed in assassnat'ng Miiierand on july ~,
II. 1922 however. before Poincare had
decided to occupy the Ruhr. while the
chamber and senate were split in two
camps and the country was navigating
in uncertainty as to whether to con-
tlnue its nalaver with England or 60
it's own way in collection Preparations.
the situation would have been most
serious.
With parliament adjourned and the
governments policy in liquid state
dfdate except himself who could
hardly have expected to be reelected
president. a position he lad left IN
January. 1920. The profile m would
nave trfD more SCI itJS sun IL 'iiI
care. during the war had been struck
down from the presidency during his
frequent trips to the front or had
been assassnated in Paris.
The spccter OF an electoral strife
disrupting the union sacree" in the
midst Of the nations struggle for its
very existence was enough to send
cold shiverS down the spine Of the
most phIegmatic Frcnchman. Middle
aged citizens here have not forgotten
the death Of President Felix Faure
and the subsequent election of Presi-
dent Louhet, with intrigues and
charges and counter-charges result
ing, eliminating in a policy of feeble
ness toward extremists on both sides,
with royalists dashinG in Loubet's top
hat at the Auteuil race course in
the presence of a crowd and Loubet
forced later to partake of socialist
ceremonies in which the red flag was
vauntingly displayed.
= Other Similar Incidents.
These and other incidents of a sim
liar nature following the resignation
OF Perier and the assassination Of
Carnot all tend to strengthen the
the post of vice president. They pro-
pose to tear a leaf straight from the
Constitution Of the United States.
Despite the turbulent history of
France during the past half century,
the average bourgeois Frenchman
here today dearly loves continuous
functioninG in orderly tranquility,
and fears what always happens to the
country when the president dies or re-
signs. Nominally. the position of the
president in the French senate is
similar to that of the American Vice
President. but he cannot succeed as
civil chief of state. He must take
his chance with other candidates at
the Versailles congress, where the
preponderance of deputies, voting on
an equality with senators, usually re-
cults in the chamber sending its cam
didate into office, as was the case with
peschanel, who yanGuished Clemen-
Ceau in 1920: and with Poincare, who
beat Senator Leon Bourgeois and
Jules Pama, former premier and the
C1emenceau candidate in 1913
Changing the French constitution
for tho purpose of creating the post
of vice president, however. is a project
that is pregnant with political contro-
versy. as it involves a constitutional
convention at Versailles, which, ac-
cording to many persons Millerand is
now urging for the purpose of giving
at the same time the president Of
France greater power than he now
has, also along the American model.