Evening star., 1934-04-01

cisions if they met in the capital.
Urged Moving Chamber.
On the evening of February 6, when
the shouting of the populace and the
shots of the police were heard near
the Palais Bourbon. the abode of the
Chamber OF Deputies. many voices
loudly proclaimed that the Chamber
and the Senate ought to be moved to
Orleans or to some other suita BILE
town, far away from the Partisan
tumult
Could the conflict be ended by a
dissolution of the Chamber and the
holding of fresh general elections
Such a procedure assuredly would be
in keeping with the republican con-
stitution. But the most competent
judges shake their heads and frankly
disbelieve that French politics could
be directed back to peaceful channels
in that manner. Why?
The first point to make clear is
that the Radical Socialist and Socialist
parties bid fair to retain most of their
electoral strength in the provinces
whatever they do or do not do. The
people who live there have not been
deeply stirred by the events of Feb
ruary s. They are prone to interpret
them as a royalist plot, as the hope
less attempt of a numerically con-
temptible faction to have its way
against overwhelming odds.
Likened to Tammany.
Those people are most unlikely to
be converted to a healthier political
faith because it has been proved that
two dozen of their Deputies and few
Radical Socialist ministers backed and
abetted a swindler called Stavisky, or
because, just as the politicians have
abused their influence over the ad-
ministrative machinery and the judi
ciary. the latter have succeeded in de-
feating the course of justice. The
people in the provinces simply are at
a loss to understand why Paris should
take those happenings so tragically.
imagine that the attitude of those
who support Tammany Hall is the
best analogy in America to the mind
and attitude of provincial France.
In recent weeks, it is true. a new
element has been injected into the
controversy. the murder of a Paris
Judge who was supposed to have
known more than anybody else about
the misdeeds of officials involved in
the Stavisky case. Now it dawns upon
many that a real "maffia' exists in the
ministry of the interior and the po-
lice department, which for over 80
years have been the practical monop-
oily of the Radical Socialist party and
Of free masonry. Will that revela-
ton deeply modify the reaction of the
provinces? 1t is merely a possibility
But, assuming that the electorate
would return the same Chamber of
Deputies with slight notifications :,
can it be expected that public opinion
at large, as 1t shapes itself in Paris,
would quietly disarm and surrender
to the verdict of the nation, to the
victorious coalition of petty. narrow
and local and individual interests, to
the tyranny of political jobbery? No.
The Stavisky scandal has gone too far.
Too vivid light has been shed upon
the rotten foundation of the cartellist
regime.
Election Might Begin Fight.
Until it actually happened, hardly
any one would have thought 1t possible
that assassination should ever be re-
sorted to by police officials or their
auxiliaries in the underworld, to save
a regime from the consequences of its
rongdoing-that is, hardly any one
outside the ranks Of the royalist "Ac-
ton Francaise." Now the man In the
streets of the capital is convinced
that a Tcheka is really at work and
he apparently is ready to risk a good
deal to do away with it. Moreover.
the international situation can only
be described as dangerous. 1t is real
lied that France will not hold her own
unless her standard Of government
approximates. in discipline and gen.
eral efficiency, the standard of the
German and Italian relationships.
The practical conclusion is that the
holding of general elections might
become the beginning of a struggle
between the Right and the Left, each
side trying to use violent means and
to set up governments freed from the
trammels of ordinary parliamentary
procedure and ready to enforce execu-
tive ordinances. A while ago NJ
Daladier, then prime minister, and
his minister of the interior, M. Frot.
were freely indulging In schemes of
that character. The choice, there
fore, would be between a "fascism" of
the Right and "fascism" Of the Left,
the demonstrations of the patriotic
being followed by demon
strations of the Communists, Social
lists and Syndicalists. Such would be
the aftermath of the Stavisky affair
and of the riots of February.
The Doumergue cabinet of national
union does its best to avoid those ex-
treme possibilities, and it can be said
that the country as whole has no
taste whatever for the cruel methods
of an authoritarian government. The
,SContinued o sixth Pase.l.