Doubtful Victory

As the week opened, the Deputies of the Left parties, composing former Premier Herriot's famed but unstable Cartel des Gauches, continued their efforts (amid great confusion) to get the Cartel finance bill voted item by item (TIME, Feb. 15, et ante).

The Government, with its own bill up its sleeve, stood grimly by and watched the Cartelist Deputies struggle to such negligible effect that M. Lamoureux, reporter of the Cartel measure, repeatedly threatened to resign in utter disgust.

None the less whenever Finance Minister Doumer attempted to come forward and effect a rational compromise on the various disputed items of the bill, the Cartelists rallied and rebuffed him by passing articles and amendments distasteful to him, notably an admittedly impracticable measure to require registration of all unregistered securities in order that they might be taxed more easily. This particular article passed the Chamber 287 to 233, although even its authors knew that it could never pass the Senate.

Next the super-demagogs of the Chamber attached an amendment to an article dealing with agrarian taxation providing that farmers should be allowed to evaluate the labor of their wives and children as "a contribution to the state" and then deduct this nebulous "value" from their tax payments. The Deputies, not daring to offend their rural constituents, voted this measure 416 to 100. M. Jacques Dumesnil, one of the chief sponsors of the Cartel bill as a whole, groaned aloud. Protesting at the top of his lungs he cried: "Imbeciles! Scelerats!! All you are capable of voting is that the largest class of electors shall pay nothing!" As the tumult mounted to utter bedlam, the President of the Chamber put on his hat and stalked from the room, thus officially declaring the Chamber not in session. The disgusted gentleman who stalked was none other than M. Herriot himself, the ostensible leader of the fractious Cartel!

Meanwhile Premier Briand received a deputation of 280 Senators out of a Senate numbering 311. These men had at last been roused to a notable pitch of alarm by the now almost hackneyed "national emergency." They assured M. Briand that they would stand behind him should he attempt "to enforce action from the Deputies." They let it leak out that, before putting up with a great deal more nonsense from the Deputies, they would cause the Chamber to be dissolved and order new elections held or even place the government in the hands of a dictature.

Fortified by this support, the Premier strode to the Chamber and called for a vote of confidence, an act of daring which he has studiously avoided for weeks, fearing defeat. Suddenly confronted with the necessity for decisive action, the Cartel split once more. Only its extreme left wing, the Communists and Unified Socialists, stood out against the Government. The bulk of the Cartel supported M. Briand, who emerged victorious 326 to 183. Observers remained completely skeptical as to the significance of this apparent "victory." Throughout its checkered career the Cartel has been "split" and yet reunited itself times without number. The legislative accomplishments of the week totaled exactly nil.