The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1925-04-21
BRAND, .Hm-Hater-
CaiIIGux, Policeman

OuLtUuA1 IO-OSI HtuU
The BRAND cabinet represents at least tenn
porary victory for one Of the most reactionary
groups in French political life but it is a strange
combination.
1t is understood that BRAND will continue the
relations with the vatican a sop to the catholic
royalists and will frown upon drastic taxation of
big fortunes A former socialist BRAND made his
first bow to the bourgeoisie by calling railway
strikers to the colOrs and by use of military dis
cipline, forcing them to break their own strike
This was about two years before the outbreak of
the world war. During the war French imperial
ism found in BRAND loyal supporter.
Caillaux, finance minister in the BRAND cab
met, has many supporters in the parties of the
called left and many admirers among the liberal
intellgentsa abroad. His foreign policy is of the
Germanophile variety as opposed to two other
groups which from time to time influence French
diplomacy.
One groups wants, and works for complete
French supremacy in Europe and is bitterly anti
English another attempts to preserve the entente
cOrdiale, the basis of which was an Anglo-Franco
alliance against Germany Caillaux has always
regarded Germany the logical ally of France and
considers Great Britain the real enemy
The system of alliances which brought France
and Germany into conflict was always fought by
OdluduA. Turing JUc war ne IudU6 Il NUMBER Oh
attempts to force cessation of hostilites by work
ing for a separate peace between France and Ger
many, basing his plans on the joint ownership Of
many industrial enterprises in the Briey basin.
He went to prison for his palms, but it has been
shown since that time, notably by Strict, in his
"Where Iron Is, There Is The Fatherland," that
the COmite des FORCES, the French steel trust,
actually followed the Caillaux policy in the Briey
basin, and that in that district from which Ger
many was securing her largest supplies of iron
and steel, no offensive conducted by the allies
until the American troops arrived in that sector
in 1918. Generals who sent over bombing plans
we're removed. Nothing was done by the French
general staff to disrupt production in this i'm
portant area whose mines and mills were the joint
property of French and German capitalists.
But Caillaux will not be able to effect rap
proachment between France and Germany. Such a
policy would have to be based on the sacrifice of
Preparations and the French bOurgeoisie, those
that prefer an alliance with Germany to domino
ton of western Europe by France alone, are not
ready to do this.
Neither can Callaux afford to tax his friends
among the industrialists. BRAND himself is
against capital levy. With the need for great
increase in the government revenues, with the
House of Morgan waiting on the doorstep for pay
ments on account the BRAND Caillaux cabinet
VIII PROBABLY Try 10 raise 1unuS by JdXduOn mea-
sures that will hit the working class and the lower
sections of the middle class
The initiation of these measures will transfer
the acute crisis from the realm of parliamentary
politics to the entire social structure.
We think it can be said safely that the crisis
in France is just beginning and that no cabinet
combination can hold power for any great length
of time.
The Caillaux policy with its emphasis Ger
many is the logical one for French capitalism, but
the big industrialists have had taste now of the
fruits of expansion since the crippling of German
industry and will not easily reinquish what seems
to them to be favored position. Neither will the
banking fraternity look with favor upon the can
collation. of PREPARATIONS, the reparations without
which the whole French financial system is a
punctured bubble.
The masses of the workers and peasantry have
remained passive during the cabinet crises that
have succeeded one another because they have not
been asked to pay for the war. But some govern
ment must pass on the war costs to the masses
None has yet dared to attempt this. Callaux
may be the one to show to the French workers
and peasants that the war has not been paid for
and that the real rulers of France-the nterna
tional bankers-haye presented their bill.