The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-06-04
TRAGIC FIGURE
AGAIN HEADING
FRENCH FINANCE
Joseph CaiIIaux, Premier
Prisoner. Exile, Once
More at Post.
BY WILLIAM PHILIP SIAfMS
Scripps-Houard Foreign Editsr

More at Post.
BY WILLIAM PHILIP SIMNIS
scripps-Houard Foreign Editor
WASHINGTON. June 4-Out OF a
ira e past today looms forth again
the history name Of Joseph
Caillaux. once more Frances min
ister Of finance and thus key man
IN the fatefl battle 70 save tn
franc.
Few figures more dramatic or with
moro rOCket-likc ups and downs
ever stalked through fiction.
I have seen him as premier and
p a prisoner in the docks charged
with high treason. I have seen him
Is minister Of finance and on his
way to exile. again as cabinet men,
Der. and once more in court watch
ing a murder trial through blood =
saOt eyes-for his beautiful wife was
the accused
When I first met Caillaux he was
minister OF finance for the second
time. with his glorious gobelin- hung
Office IN a wing Of the Louvre. He
was then a.
Inherited Large Fortune
Today he is -. And in that
quarter Of a century enough has
happened TO him to Shatter the
brain of one less forceful. less stub
born. less certain in his own mind
that the course he Is following is
right
He rs Of medium height and quite
bald. his dark eyes so piercing that
they give him the look of an eagle
His father. banker, left him a
large fortune. No one in France. 1t
is said. knows more about finance
than he
IN 1911. Caillaux became premier.
Il was in that year that the kaiser
sent the gunbOat Panther to Agadir,
pointed her guns inshore and told
France. IN effect. to share her Afri-
can colonies with Germany or else
War was averted only because
France. on British advice, COM
IAhilAArfn Nv eAfANAAAE ANWrouO otudAI
miles OF the French Congo.
I mention this because the 1911
crisis with Germany was TO change
and embitter Caillaux's subsequent
existence.
Attacked by Newspaper
In December. 1913. nc became
minister OF finance for the third
time Shortly afterward the news
paper. Lc Figaro, edited by CASTOR
Calmctte. elegant editor of a icul =
nal Tor the elite. began TO attack
Kim.
AT first Calmette merely charged
CaiIiaux with political Chicanery.
with selling out to Germany. and
so on. But as the crusade waxed
the attacks became more personal
Letters which passed between NJ.
and Mime. Caillaux before their mar
riage were published. Poor Nine
Caillaux was driven frantic. but
there seemed little that could be
done about it, II was politics"
one evening IN March. 1914. I re-
ccived an excited phone call. A
woman. l was told. had Just shot
Calmette-
Wife Is Tried for Murder
nv Office was only three blocks
away I ran TO the Figaro. The
police we're Just arriving. As l
started up the steps to the second
floor. where I knew the editors
Office was. two policemen and a
softly weeping woman passed out
into the darkness OF Rue Drouot.
The woman was Nine. Joseph
Caillaux. Beautifully gowned in
black and wearing black furS. she
had entered the editors Office
drawn Browning automatic from
her muT and shot him dead
Her husband resigned at once.
He spent a fortune defending her
The trial took place in July. 1914
No trial i'm France ever attracted
more attention, not even that Of
Capt Dreyfus. Newspapers in the
United States blazoned it as one
OF the greatest human interest
stories Of all time. For here were
high position. money. beauty. gal
lantry. love. politics and murder
combined
War Breaks Out
For a year the World War had
been seen coming. After the aSSaSs-
ination OF the Austrian archduke
and his ConSOrt. il appeared in
evitable. From mid-July on. 1t
seemed only a question of hours.
In the eos of July one Paris cor
respondent. %ilO had been cabling
more and more war news, received
this from his Office III New York:
"DoWnhold war stuff. News
papers upplsying Caillaux."
Nine CaillauX was acquitted one
Friday night. at the end of July
Next morning about 10 o'clock
Frances mobilization orders we're
pasted up and the war was on
Imprisoned and Exiled
Before the war ended. however.
Caillaux found himself in prison.
Clemenceau charged him with high
treason because CaillauX took the
position that If the war went TO a
knockout victorS as well as van
pushed would be ruined-a thesis
which time was TO SubStantiate
The charge. impossible to prove.
was later reduced and he was found
guilty by the French Senate. sitting
a. a court, and sentenced to a few
years Of exile.
Today Caillaux is back again-in
the same Office which was his 81
years ago last March when tragedy
began TO stalk his career.