A la Chambre

La Chambre des Deputes, housed within the august Palais Bourbon, presented such an indescribable babel of confusion last week that correspondents seriously pondered whether they should refer to it as a madhouse. They were saved from this scandalous impropriety by a sly wag of the Boulevards who whispered a knowing question in their ears: "Eh bien, Messieurs, avez-vous vu 'Les Folies Bourbon?'" As "The Folies Bourbon," the Chamber passed one of its most chaotic weeks.

The week opened with stirring appeals to the Deputies by Premier Briand and the leaders of almost every party. One and all they stressed the desperate necessity for calm, dispassionate, concerted action in considering the Cartel finance bill (TIME, Feb. 8), which was before the house. The bill was presented in 101 articles with over 250 amendments already attached.* After an entire week of furious debate, often degenerating into fist fights and hair pulling, a part of one article had been passed amended out of all semblance to its original state, thrown back into the chamber again as utterly impracticable and passed again in a still further amended form, which admittedly bordered on legislative lunacy.

Income Tax Publicity. The Socialists demanded that article 58, making it obligatory for Frenchmen to declare the amount of their incomes to the tax collector, should be debated first.

After interminable wrangling, all the original features of this article were amended out of existence and a new idea finally adopted in the form of an amendment. This passed by a vote of 285 to 282, and consisted of a proviso that French income tax returns are hereafter to be made public in substantially the same way that they are now made available in the U. S.

After another day of debate such a pitch of exasperation was reached that Deputy Balanant, famed for having lost most of his front teeth last year while "arguing" with another deputy, introduced the final "spoof amendment," which the disgusted and wearied deputies whooped through, 442 to 2.

By the terms of this purely farcial rider, the Deputies themselves would be required to file the following information with the Government, which must then publish it in the Journal Officiel: 1) A statement of their total wealth on the day that France entered the War and on the day that the Armistice was signed. 2) A statement of their present total yearly incomes from all sources. 3) A list of every article which they own together with a declaration of its value and a statement of how many horses they own and the horsepower of their automobiles.

Of course this monstrosity will eventually be killed in the Chamber or the Senate.

Conclusion. M. Lamoureux, reporter of the original Cartel bill, stormed: "If the Chamber goes on at this rate, the budget deficit will never be met by our scheme and we shall have to accept after all the Government scheme of a sales tax or tax on payments" (TIME, Feb. 8 et ante). Since the Chamber gave every sign of continuing to "go on" indefinitely, M. Lamoureux and the Socialist fiscal expert, M. Auriol finally walked out of the Chamber hurling shrill rebukes right and left.

Finance Minister Doumer smiled grimly at their discomfiture. If the Cartel measure gradually evaporates while the Chamber almost literally boils, so much the better for the Government measure, which has not yet even come up for consideration. At the same time it is quite evident that the Government scheme may be reduced to a jumble of absurdities by the same process. With a heavy heart M. Doumer pronounced a sour dictum upon last week's performance of Les Folies Bourbon: It would seem that in this Chamber a majority can always be found to kill any proposal whatever."

Debt Funding Theory. M. Lamoureux made public last week a theory which he has evolved concerning French debts to the U. S. and Britain. In a word he declared that most of the money borrowed by France from the U. S. was spent in the U. S. on munitions, etc., and that the U. S. Government collected in taxes from the munition makers "about 46% of the sums spent by France." Therefore, according to M. Lamoureux, France has already "paid" almost half of her debt to the U. S. and a still larger percentage of her debt to Britain.

*Le Cartel des Gauches (coalition of the Left Parties) headed by former Premier Herriot. Opposed to the Cartel's bill (increasing indirect taxation) is the Government's bill (increasing direct taxation). The latter was not debated last week.