Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-03-14
CONFIDENCE OF FRENCH
CITIZENS is WEAKENED
Talk Of Dictatorship Is General as
Factions in Chamber Unite Only
to Insure Patronage.


.ent Of the casualty list is patent.
At the moment Andre Tardieu,
-Iemenceau's greatest lieutenant, has
lust been triumphantly elected at Bel
fort and returns to the Chamber after
Two years of exile. His election is a vic
tory for those who, with Conservative
hope for reasonable solu-
tons. 1t has been accepted as far
reaching sign and symbol Of the
In the temper of the electorate.
Yet can Tardieu do the impossible?
He has never been a success in the
Chamber, which is quite as much TO
his credit as not. lie has assailed
Poincare and Millerand quite as much
as Painleve. Herriot and Blum. the
figures on either side OF
the political divide. Yet for the mo
ment. at least. Tardieu is the white
hope" Of the conservatives Of the coun-
try outside Of the political world.
But one must recognize that the pos
sibilitios of a dictator are not solely
to be canvassed from the Conservative
side. 1t Is at least possible that 1t
might be the extreme Radicals. the
Socialists and the extreme wing Of
he Socialists which would supply the
dictator: that. instead of Tardieu, one
might have Blum; that. in reality, the
Of the dictatorship might
as easily come from Moscow as from
Rome; that one must think OF LentD
as well as Mussolini.
Justice Is Sole Plea.
BY and large believe It would be a
fair statement to say that the country,
the people, have escaped from the old
folly of believing that Germany would
pay all through reparations or that
oil oh
cations by cancellations What is now
demanded IS merely government
which would impose the necessary
taxation with justice and equity.
But here is a Parliament made UP
of groups of men each trying to tax
one part of the country and protect
another; to tax the constituents of a
colleague and save his own constitu
ents. The manufacturers representa-
tives would strike the peasant. the
peasants Deputies would strike the
manufacturers, the bankers are made
she fair target of both. but the general
sense of national unity has disappear
nd; there are no Deputies thinking OF
France as Contrasted with their own
districts.
Then, as / have tried to make clear
there is no such thing as responsible
party, only incoherent groups. There
g no possibility of presidential inter
ference. for the President is conStitu
tionally a cipher. and his predecessor.
Millerand. was flung out of the Presi-
dents seat incontinently because he
undertook to exercise merely moral
influence upon political events. Add to
this the fact that between the Senate
and the Chamber there is a vast diff
derence. difference which results in
he demand by a portion of the ma
fority group in the Chamber that the
Senate be dissolved. and something OF
the extent Of the chaos is made mani
fest
BlOOdShed Possible.
Laying aside the more or less violent
solution of a Dictatorship, what an
swer is there TO the present problem
No one can see, no one can even
dream. There is the real tragedy. And
should add at once that when one
talks lightly In America of a French
Mussolini 1t IS worth while to recall
that a dictator at the moment in
france would mean, perhaps. a ter
rifle blood-letting. IL would not he by
castor oil and unofficial drubbinge
that any man or any Fascist con-
bination would ride TO power in Paris
IT is true, perhaps. that the time
might come when more WEAKNESS
would convince the vast majority OF
Frenchmen that the dictator was
necessary. but there would be a mi
nority which would fight, there might
easily be barricadeS, all the attendant
circumstances of other coups d'etat
In France. After all. France is moi
Italy. and all easy and thorough
going analogteS are excessively dan
gerouS.
OF course. one must say at once that
there Is no superficial evidence of ur
rest or disorder. Paris is outwardIv
as calm, peaceful. busy, orderly as
ever IN her history. One might come
stay and go. and. aside from some lit
tie discomfort due to varying en-.
chanEe. have no more sense of any
political or financial trouble than in
New York or London. In reality the
very calm is one of the most bewilder
ing and perhaps disturbing phases
Paralysis Is Cause.
There. after all, is the best picture |
can give OF the present situation in
france, the domestic situation. II Is
the impression of paralysis in the
presence of supreme crisis. paraly
sis on the part of those who should
act, pathetic resignation on the part
Oh those who cannot act. but must
suHer FATALLY In case of any catastro
pne. There is not a man In France
from BRAND to the least peasant who
can tell you what will happen tornor.
row or who will not tell YOU how MANY
Things might happen. some of them
shocking beyond American compre
hensjon.
snail try in another article to de
Scripe the foreign situation as viewed
from Paris. but 1t Is essential TO add
now that the American observers must
perceive something of the presen,
French domestic conditions TO appre-
clate the real difficulties IN the way
OF debt settlement or disarmament
conference. There has not been a. day
since he took office when BRAND was
not In danger Of being turned out, and
the danger has not diminished. But
how under such conditions can Ber.
enger or any other ambassador nego-
t1ate a debt settlement which will
have to be submitted some day 10
the Chamber. but perhaps to a Cham
Der with Il new and hostile master?
Confidence Weakened.
One obvious possibility is q panic
which will sweep away all values.
Such panic would come. not because
the financial situation of France Is
desperate or even terribly bad, but
because public confidence is gone and
popular feeling is excessively sensi-
tive to even the slightest currents of
air. How. then, can any one expect
people under such conditions to con-
slider the question of foreign debts or
even the far more abstruse question of
limitation Of ornaments?
There never was In recent history
so colossal a question mark as France
at the present hour. nor was any
people ever more acutely alarmed over
the immediate present. There was
vastly more calm and courageous for
titude when l was here just 10 years