On the Eve of the French General Election

...The other big factor In the elections of 1928 was the mad tactics of the Communists...

...Worst of all Is the treachery and dishonesty of the so-called leaders of the John M. Lewis type...

...A horrible amount of child prostitution among girls of an unbelievably young age who are selling their bodies for loaves of bread is prevalent...

...They a n still rebels—they a n still wining to die fighting...

...I it is most likely that their exp tat ions will not be fulfilled,, cause in spite of the appeals mi to Nationalist prejudice a n da fear, the masses of French La will give proof of their elass-o sciousness as well as of their conquerable love of SoclaU peace and democracy...

...For years reaction, which has been rampant In most of the Cabinets France has known since 1926, had been able to make capital out of the fact that the great "friend of peace," Arlstide Briand, was still at the French Foreign Office...

...All over France, except in the suburbs of Paris and In a few constituencies In the North, the great majority of the Communist voters of four years ago have gone back td the "old party," the S.F.I.O...

...Then slowly and relentlessly a new and complex Industrial age swept upon these hula and took from them their newly won farms, and drove them Into the bowels of the earth tb dig coal that the wheels of Industry might keep moving...

...When after the war the same Briand began his tenacious action in favor of a policy of peace and reconciliation between the nations the Socialists gave him the most cordial support, in spite of all the bitterness of the past...

...would do It again today...

...But since that time Moscow has changed its views...

...erywhere to support their representatives at the second ballot...

...These workers have achfl one thing, a simple form of "* consciousness...

...They think,, and feel as workers...

...This is what the French Communists did at the 1925 municipal elections...

...The Chamber which was elected in May, 1928, and whose mandate will end in a few weeks' time, was returned chiefly under the Influence of two big factors...

...They are still ready and anxious to fight for freedom...

...The real situation only came to light, with brutal frankness, when Briand, betrayed by most of his own colleagues in the Cabinet, was defeated last summer by M. Doumer at the Presidential Elections...

...On the one hand the cause of reaction and capitalism had been helped considerably by M. Poincare's 'National • Union" policy and by the weakness of the Radicals, and more especially of their leader, M. Herrlot, who two years before, in 1926, under the pressure of the big banks, had Joined the very "Nationals" who had overthrown the "Cartel" Cabinet (M...

...Socialists Ready to Fight And now we are approachl) the big battle throughout tl country...

...The result of this policy of course influenced most of the more moderate Radical elements In favor of "National Unionism...

...The French Social Party has never been in betl fighting form...

...All of this has reduced these once free hill people to a condition of life to be matched by no group of workers since the middle ages with the possible exception of some Orientals...

...although they had already lost most of the more cultured element in the working class, the Communists nevertheless obtained more than 1,000,000 votes (in a country where—women having no vote— we have only between 8,000,000 and 9,000,000 voters...

...Poor whites, formerly indentured servants, and ex-convlcts who were willing to risk all In the struggle against the Indian and nature to wrest a piece of land that they call their own...

...On the Eve of the French General Election Tide Is Turning in Favor of Socialists By Jean Longuet WE HAVE now only two or three months to run before the French General Election and, naturally, all the political and Parliamentary life of the country is dominated by this prospect...

...Just before Lausanne at Geneva "the Man of Peace" wi dismissed by M. Laval on U hypocritical pretext of 'Ijj health," and the "Nationals" wi had voted for the previous Lain Cabinet supported it again < January 22 last under its new ai more reactionary aspect...

...We have alrea candidates nominated in mi than 500 constituencies and mi of them have already begun vigorous and enthusiastic proj ganda campaign all over t country...

...Police brutality, company thugs, the weapons of eviction and starvation are persistent, ly used...

...The Qua...

...Prosperity • came to them, and the million psychology which baa becomtj philosophy of the mart oM...

...But the Socialists themselves have also won several seats from the reactionaries, or so-called "Moderates...

...Ignorance, starvation, disease, cold, squalor, and a rate of Industrial accidents that has left a terrible trail of death and cripples in its wake have become the ordinary routine of life...

...My English readers must not forget that France, together with Germany and Czecho-Slovakla, has been one of the three countries of Western and Central Europe where the mystic revolutionary propaganda of Moscow has, unfortunately for the Labor and Socialist Movement, been the moat effective...

...And now these pioneers are engaged in a new warfare, a far greater one, far beyond their comprehension, but more bitter and with less possibility of immediate, victory—the class war...

...The Reaction Unmasks The Radicals, however, whose troops are everywhere preparing for the coming electoral battle against the "Nationals," could not accept such a proposal without committing suicide, and, of course, they refused...

...Herriot's as well as M. Painlev^'s...

...Every party is preparing itself for this great battle and is acting accordingly...

...Upon the death of M. Laval's War Minister, the jingoist and militarist, Maginot, the Premier attempted to pull off a great political plot...

...The "National" Governments Meanwhile the "National Governments" of MM...

...So, having given up all hope of achieving this risky combination, M. Laval has simply repaired the old Cabinet with similar elements as before, and meanwhile dropped M. Briand, whose departure from the Qua...

...In all the by-elections in the provinces ' for the last two yean the Communist vote has gone down by 60, 60, and even 80 per cent, while the Socialist Party has already won ten new seats, and in every other case gained many votes...

...Just before the war this former propagandist of the revolutionary general strike, seemed to most of our comrades the worst type of renegade...

...Socialists and Briand As far as the Socialists are concerned, their relations with Briand have been of a most strange and paradoxical character...

...d'Orst there shall be no war," and bt cause of these words the Socialist were prepared to forgive hk much...

...Since 1928 many changes have taken place...

...d'Orsay was, however, frequently under the influence of our old traditional diplomacy of intrigue and prestige (more especially In regard to Yugoslavia, Poland, Rumania and Hungary, whose Fascist dictators found support among our high officials, while In their hatred and fear of the "Anschluss" of Austria with Germany they were more or less prepared to support the restoratU of the Hapsburgs...

...Prostitution Is Rife It is needless to go Into the details of that struggle...

...I would not say that Briand paj sonally altogether favored sue schemes, but neither did he oppos them with vigor...

...The Radicals have meanwhile lost several seats, which the Socialists have gained...

...Moscow's Change With the second ballot system in force again in France since 1924 it was, of course, possible for the Communist elector, after having voted for his candidate at the first ballot, when the latter had no chance of election, to transfer his vote at the second ballot to the Socialist, or even to the more progressive of the two remaining bourgeois candidates...

...He offered the post of Foreign Minister to M. Herriot, expecting that he could make capital out of the Radical chief's well-known "patriotism," not to say Chauvinism...

...In the midst of the still virgin forests rose ugly, soul defiling coal tipples, oil and gas well derricks, and filthy company towns...

...Tardieu and Laval, which have become more and more typically plutocratic and Nationalist in character, have provoked a growing dissatisfaction among the masses of the people, in the working-class, and among the peasants and small land-owners, who play such an important part in French politics...

...Men who knew they ml never return gladly took up el in the struggle to unionise West Virginia "murder belt...

...They are anxious for tl one to come in and show them way out They will follow an] who can promise them freed Witness their swift flocking to Communists In the National 1 era Union., Of course, the 0 muntsts with their tactics 1 lost them and they are * waiting for some one...

...The elections were first m posed to be held on April 17 i 21...

...The result was that in 55.or 60 constituencies where a Socialist or art advanced Radical ought to have retained the seat a reactionary was elected...

...d'Orsay after seven years of tenure (a very rare case in French politics) has created a great sensation, not only in France but all the world over...

...An ugliness out of which can never grow the much talked of American "culture" is stunting whole future generations...

...In 1928...

...The political life of France—and to a certain degree of the whole of Europewas transformed for a period of four years, merely because of the folly and ignorance of the Russian "Comintern...

...Rolph Promises Moon Decision by April...

...Then I aspirations for a middle class among them...

...They are familiar to all Socialists...

...Under the pretext of the "gravity of the European situation" and the "German menace," this astute little politician from Auvergne tried to build up another "National Government" of the 1926 Poincare type...

...1 only await leadership...

...In spin the betrayal by their former li era they still have faith In a " Ion...

...Meanwhile an Important change has occurred in the composition of the Ministry itself...

...Virgin forests, antiquated log cabins, Daniel Boone's cave, almost echo the struggles of a brave and .dauntless people driven from the comparative safety of the estates of the wealthy Virginia planters by that great desire for freedom and happiness so inherent in the American people...

...But it has not daunted their spirit...

...But in spite I all, it was he who had said: "A long as I am in the Qua...

...It was not difficult to recruit an army of a thfuifind miners to "capture" Logan county in the famous an march...

...The Misery of the West Virginia Miners— By Amicus Most TIE twisting, curving, steep but excellent modern concrete highways that not so long ago were mountain paths, and not so long before that Indian trails, form a vivid contrast with the surrounding scenery that still give evidence of the pioneering days...

...SAN FRANCISCO.—Ai holding a conference with his vlser, Judge Matt I. Sullivan, G Rolph has announced that he 1 give his decision on the Moo case by April 21, when he la) for Richmond, Va., for the I ernors' conference...

...Arnold Hoffman In his recent article ably described it...

...But our "Nationals" expect make great capital out of the fi of the success of Hitler's "Nai in Germany in April and at I beginning of May, so that 1 elections will most probably postponed till the end of May...

...He says t he will stay in his office at capltol—a rare phenomenon 1 the much-traveling governortwo weeks previously and | most of his time to considers...

...Aligned against 'them in this terrible class war are all the forces that wealth and the state can command...

...of the Mooney record...

...French section of the Labor and Socialist International...

...Jaures had once denounced him after he had broken the back of the 1910 railway strike as "l'aventurler...

...They have ordered their innocent French adherents not to trouble any more ' as to whether a Socialist or an extreme Nationalist or Conservative was finally elected, and ev...

...the milliards lent, under the same conditions, to the General Transatlantic Company, the "Areopostale," the reactionary bankrupt land-owners, "Lee Agrlculteurs de France," and the foreign reactionary Governments of Yugoslavia, Roumania, Poland, and Hungary, have created much discontent, and have been denounced In several heated Parliamentary debates by the Socialist leaders, Leon Blum, Vincent Auriol, and Georges Monnet, as well as by the Radicals, Daladier and Herriot...

...Their recent support of the Bank of France, to whom they lent two milliards of francs in order to save it from its own bad management...

...They have been much written about In the columns of The New Leader and other journals...

...Under cover of Briand's international prestige, as our comrade Froasard wrote in the Populaire, "the hypocrisy of a policy of reaction was disguised...

...Those 55 or 60 seats lost by the Socialists (and Radicals) entirely changed the majority of the Chamber...