yyS FRANCE 



many supporters, candidates who gave it prominence polling 5,500,000 votes as 

 against 2,500.000 votes given to supporters of an " absolute majority " system. / 



The New Chamber met on June i, 1910, M. Briand put the Government programme 

 before the house at some length. Returning to the broad views expressed at St. Chamond 

 and Perigueux, he outlined a vast project of administrative reform, involving anew 

 method of popular representation. This was his response to the opinion on Propor- 

 tional Representation expressed by the country. Plenty of interpellations ensued from 

 Socialists and Radical-Socialists, the latter, with M. Jean Cruppi 1 as their mouthpiece, 

 not hiding their misgivings. Soon afterwards the session came to an end. 



A serious railway strike troubled the end of the vacation in October. Railway 

 servants (cheminols) had been asking for improved conditions of work for some time 



past, and the concessions made by the companies were regarded as insuf- 

 Thc drcat fi c j e nt. A committee was appointed to arrange for a general strike on Octo- 

 Strike. ber i5th. It broke out prematurely on the Nord on the nth, but in spite 



of the leaders' efforts the strike never became general. Train services were 

 dislocated on the Nord, the Quest and the Midi. The Eastern railways, the Paris-Lyon- 

 Mediterranee and the Orleans lines, kept their trains running almost as usual. Reports 

 came from all sides of sabotage (the act of preventing the carrying out of work of any sort, 

 by damaging tools, plant or material). The Government promptly took energetic 

 measures, "militarization" orders being issued to all railway servants, troops being 

 sent to guard the lines, and proceedings taken against members of the Strike Committee. 

 " Militarization " consisted in calling out all railway servants liable for military service, 

 for a period of twenty-one days' instruction, but leaving them nevertheless to carry on 

 their ordinary work. Refusal on their part would make them liable to be brought before 

 a court-martial. The strike agents were on the other hand dismissed on the lines where 

 the train services were being maintained. The strike broke down completely, and by 

 the 1 8th all the train services were working as usual; but excitement at the time was 

 intense and left deep traces. Business was hampered for a long while by the dislocated 

 traffic, and sabotage was continued with a rare pertinacity. When parliament reassem- 

 bled on October 23rd the Ministry was taken sharply to task by the Left groups. In 

 the course of a string of interpellations between October 25th and 3oth there was a visible 

 widening of the rift existing already between the Extreme Left Socialists and Radical- 

 Socialists (led by MM. Jaures and Cruppi), who decided to swim with the anarchist 

 tide, and the more moderate section which was disposed to form a " party of order." 

 It was the latter section that kept the Ministry in office. 



The result was a reconstruction of the Cabinet, and the coming in of a second Briand 

 Ministry, which lasted from November 3, 1910, to February 27, 1911. In spite of the 



support received in the Chamber, M. Briand decided that his policy now 



turned too obviously on matters remote from those in question when he 

 Ministry. accepted office in the previous year; so he resigned (Nov. 2d), and the 



President, M. Falliercs, 2 called upon him to form another Cabinet (Nov. 

 3rd). The new administration showed a marked tendency towards the "group of 

 order." M. Briand's two Socialist colleagues, MM. Millerand and Viviani, resigned, 

 and the Prime Minister surrounded himself with new men. The programme which 

 he laid before Parliament (Nov. 8th) was dominated by a policy of " social defence " 

 trade unions to be restricted to their industrial function, assurances of security to be 

 given for the maintenance of public services. Henceforth it was more obvious than 



ever that there was a gulf fixed between the Government and its former 

 c* supporters on the Extreme Left. It was shown directly over the question 

 Left. of reinstating railway servants (cheminots) dismissed for taking part in the 



strike. The Extreme Left asked the Ministry to compel the companies to 



take back the men, and the Ministry refused to put pressure on the companies. The 



position of the Cabinet grew difficult, however, and its majority melted away. The 



attack on social questions proving fruitless, the Extreme Left had recourse to its old 



1 B. '855; formerly minister of Commerce. - B. 1841; see E. B. \- t 154. 



