Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1949-10-16

first part of this year. the pric,
line was held. thanks to the def1a
tionary policies of Finance Min
lister Petsche, and also to las
years harvest. This years har
vests as result of drought. have
been generally inferior.
Prices began to rise in mid
summer. and even had there beer
no devaluation, the probabilit,
was that the coalition would have
collapsed. Devaluation, however
with its extra flip to the cost o.
living index. proved the straw
which broke the camel's back. L
may thus be said with some justice
that this French government il
the first victim of the chain reac.
ton set off by Sir Stafford Cripp.
on September ID.
/ But it is the victim also of the
great improvement which ha!
been brought about in France dur.
ing its tenure of office. 10 put il
most simply. France can nov
afford governmental crisis of the
old-fashioned kind; it could moi
have done so IS months ago.
Center Parties Grouped
In September. 1s4S, when Presi.
dent Auriol called on Herr
Queuille to try to form a cabinet
France was in a very bad way in.
deed. Andre Marie and Robert
SchuWin had both tried and failed
to cement coalition of the center
and on both TANKS Communists
and Gaullists. confident and ag-
gressive, were awakening the per.
! ennial talk of civil war.
At that time a dissolution Of
the Assembly. with recourse to the
country, was unthinkable. I'm.
aoubtedly it would have produced
a large Gaullist victory, as the
election to the National Council
(the upper house, later proved
but it might also have provoked
an asslze of arms, as the Commu
|nists' discretionary strikes il
the. coal fields that autumn ais,
suggested.
The four center parties Wer,
therefore condemned to live to-
gether. They did so on the basi
Iof the status quo, something the.
could agree upon as a second best
With time as their ally they pro
ceeded to extract from that ma
'gician's hat, which is an authentic
property in the French politica
scene. a series of miracles.
! They fought off the coal strike
thanks to the Socialist Ministe
of the Interior, Jules Moch. VIII
had the courage to use troop
against workers. They hoated
national loan, thanks to Financ
Minister Petsche. They succeede,
in making Gen. Clay, forme
United States military governo
in Germany, give ground on tn
Ruhr question, thanks to tina
mildest of Foreign Ministers, Rob
tert Schuman. The black marke
in food disappeared. BY spring
the franc was more stable thar
the pound in the Paris black mar.
fket. and an overwhelming sum.
mer tourist season put the finish.
ing touches on a state of we'll.
being which France had not en-.
joyed for at least 10 years.
Trend to Right
/ But when the Gaullist and Com.
munist threats receded the gov.
eminent lost the cement which
bound the coalition together. Tit
trend of France during the post
war years has been toward the
right, away from government
controls and lavish social welfare
and although the individual work
err is probably better off, in fact
than he was last year, he feel!
that the upper and middle classe!
have done far better than he ha.
done He feels that the new pros
perity of France is being unfair
lily shared, and this is the eviden
significance of the Socialist unions
new campaign for wage increase.
and for special bonus for the
lower-paid groups, to cover thu
period until there can be free col
lective bargaining.
It was inevitable that the dis
comfort of the coalition shoult
fall hardest on the Socialists. I
was a wonder perhaps that the.
stayed in it as long as they did
But by last week the unions hat
made things so uncomfortable fol
the Socialist ministers in the cabi
net that tempers were very thir
indeed.
! In the end it was the Socialis
unions which toppled the govern
ment, by refusing to accept thu
cabinet wage-price agreement. b!
which it had been hoped that thu
crisis had been postponed.
The cost of living. according tx
the not very reliable official fig
ures, shot up 4 per cent in Sep
TENDER. All this time the govern
ment has been trying desperately
to bring prices down. counting thu
great displeasure of farmers by
allowing free importation Of for
eign food. The campaign evi.
IDENTIFY has failed, if the cost-of.
living index can be trusted, anc
the Socialists are perhaps not tt
be blamed for refusing to accept
the governments proposal for 9
new campaign against prices
Meanwhile, the farmers have gone
so far as to" threaten a strike
against the import program
Nothing could more clearly illus.
trate the tremendous differences
of interest which the present Goa
lition has been trying to accom-.
modate.
Election Drawback
Nothing but a new election car
u