Courageous Straddling

"A phantom government groping for a shadow majority in the darkness." Thus Le Temps last week characterized the struggles of Painleve and his new Cabinet (TIME, Nov. 9): 1) to disentangle the numberless conflicting "live issues" perplexing the minds of French politicians; 2) to formulate a program that would command a working majority in the Chamber.

Two Major Issues emerged: 1) Should France retain and dominate at crushing expense her Moroccan and Syrian mandates? 2) Should France raise the funds necessary to balance her budget by a "capital levy?"

The Cabinet's Program: 1) To shelve the Moroccan and Syrian questions temporarily, while waiting for the return of General Sarrail, who is being recalled to justify his policy of ruthlessness as French High Commander in Syria (TIME, Nov. 9). 2) To straddle the "capital levy" issue by demanding "an immediate sacrifice" from "all forms of wealth" instead of from "capital." 3) To secure passage for the highly popular Locarno Treaties. 4) To resume debt negotiations with the U. S. at an indefinitely later date.

The Chamber, when asked to support the Government on the basis of this purposely vague statement of policy, voted as follows: For, 221; against, 189; abstaining, 174, of whom 100 were Socialist Deputies and the rest scattered as to party. Thus the Assembly of 684 Deputies gave Premier Painleve a "majority" of 32. On that reed he leaned heavily for the remainder of the week, and promised to reveal his fiscal plans in detail to the Chamber should his Government be spared for a little longer.

The Situation is dominated by one fact. The Socialists have bolted from the Herriot Radical-Socialist bloc, which it was hoped would solidly support the new Government. This left the residual Radicals, and indeed all the individual factions, in a "majority" position, and caused the statesmen of France to spend an arduous week trying to add up and juggle the various groups into a real majority.

Politicians opined that M. Painleve is shouldering such a crushing mass of difficulties that his worst enemies are not anxious for the honor of supplanting him as Premier. In such circumstances his apparently "unworkable" majority of 32 may "work" longer than seems possible at first glance.

The bolt of the Socialists was, of course, caused by the fact that Premier Painleve refused to sponsor wholeheartedly their darling project of a "capital levy." M. Painleve straddled as widely as he could, and it is reported that he will propose a levy on income so "broad" that it amounts to practically the same thing as one on capital. But that would not suit the Socialists. Why then did not M. Painleve yield completely and veer to the extreme Left, adding to his support the 100 Socialist votes? Answered the politicians: "He knew that if he won a Left majority in the Chamber with the capital levy, that measure would be later crushed by the Rights in the Senate. He chose to straddle. It was perhaps a courageous course."

Last week's political impasse sent the franc tumbling to 25 to the dollar. Frenchmen rushed to convert their francs into stable currencies and stable foreign bonds. "A buying panic" ensued--brokers labored late, smiling.

It was remarked that the franc is now quoted at but three-fourths of its value twelve months ago. During the same period the circulation of paper money has been increased one-fifth, from 40 billion francs to 48 billion.