The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1940-07-24

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Of strikes which occurred four years
before, in 1886, is thesis difficult
to maintain. The big wave of strikes
the only wave that really halted
French industry, occurred in June
1886. In the defense industries, they
did not last more than a few weeks.
After the June strike-wave, there
were individual strikes in later years.
But none of them were called in the
armament industries. The important
strikes in this period were as follows:
the food strike, October 1886; the
one-day bus strike in Paris, December
1887; the Goodrich tire company
strike, winter of 1878; the one-week
strike in the Citroen plants in Paris
in the spring of 1898; the lockers
strike in Marseilles, Aug.-Sept. 1898;
the building strike at. Lyon, Septem-
Der 1888; and finally the abortive one
day general strike of November 80,
1888, which failed to get a response
from the workers This list does re-
veal considerable labor unrest. 1t
does not indicate that French industry
in general was frustrated" for any
important time or that the defense
industries were retarded in their work.
But, it may be argued, rearmament
was only part of the whole French
economy, and this economy suffered
SO much under the Popular Front that
the crack-up Of 1910 was inevitable.
This line of argument is based on
further misconceptions about the Pop
ular Front. To begin with, the Pop
ular Front was in power only little
more than a year. Later govern
ments, save the short-lived Blum cabi-
net in the spring of 1888, did not rep
resent the original Popular Front and
did nothing to further its new DEAF
program. Whether the Popular Front
could have avoided the debacle If 1t
had remained in power long enough
to achieve it's end is largely an aca-
demic question
In any case, the French new deal"
failed for two reasons: II Blum did
not proceed with the measures neces-
sary to carry it through; q French
and international finance sabotaged it.
Nine months after Blum took office
gold was flowing out of the country
and financial panic doomed. Blum
had two courses: u either bring the
private banks under government su-
institute currency control
system, or q reverse his inflationary
spending program, allow the financiers
their usual freedom and make an at
tempt to balance the budget. He
chose the later largely because Of
from the British. Within
four months, the financiers again
worked up a financial crisis and his
government fell. From then on, with
but short Interruptions, deflatiohary
and orthodox financial and economic
policies reigned.
The new deal" was sabotaged on
he eve of success The fact is that
Up to the time Blum compromised
with finance, French business and pro-
iuction had improved under his re-
sime. Alexander Werth, Paris cor
respondent of the Manchester Guar
liam, in his book (Which Way
France?" described the situation at
he end of 1886: ION the whole Paris
md France were not, internally, near
y as pessimistic as they had been
Turing the four previous years. Bust
less was picking up, in spite of the
sabotage on the part of certain en-
'loyers."
dorae
Not all American writer's have failed
0 see this picture. G. F. Hughes,
usiness news columnist of the New
'ork Times wrote on June 30: ut ap-
ears that opposition to social re-
orms may have actually been at the
ottom of her (France's) difficulties"
ay Franklin, on July 4, gave this in
'The process (of French
ollapse) began with the ousting of
he reformist government of Leon
'lum. !. The French set up bus
lesslike defense government under
'aladier, and let the conservatives
ully labor and estrange the French
lasses into a mood of sullen fatalism
s a result the French people entered
ne war with conviction that they
ere licked
This writer can agree in general
18th Mr.. Franklin, save with the state
lent that ''the French people entered
le war with conviction that they
ere licked" The French people were
OF convinced they were licked. But
ley certainly went to war with no
lthusiasm. The great hope charac-
ristic of the early days of the Popu-
r Front had long since evaporated.
he prevailing mood of the people was
lie of disillusioned apathy. This was
ot the morale which could produce
ctory-airplanes or no airplanes.
he sabotaging of the Popular Front
cant the sabotaging of the morale of
people who had to fight war.
If the critics of the French Popular
ont were logical, they would have
contend that Great Britain, because
e eschewed a New Deal and was
n by conservatives, was better pre-
red to meet the enemy than France.
'itain clearly was, if anything, less
sll prepared. The lesson of the
ench Popular Front seems to be
at the U. S. is headed for disaster
it's program is to involve annihila-
IN of social gains. Only il the pro-
am preserves and extends these
ms will it engender the hope and
thusiasm - the morale - without
itch any defense organism is inert.