M. BRIAND AND THE SOCIALISTS
I have mentioned M. Briand; he is certainly the most remarkable
politician that France can boast at the present moment, and one who will
probably rise to greater things even than those he has so far achieved.
He began life as a workman in a factory, and soon made himself known by
eloquent speeches, which he delivered at Socialist meetings in Lyons,
St. Etienne, and other working centres in France. He had more education
than people belonging to his class generally boast, and he was wise
enough to understand that it was imperative that he should complete it,
if he desired to play an important part in the historical development of
his country--perhaps one day to rule it. Accordingly, he devoted all his
spare time to that object, and refused offers to accept a seat in the
Chamber of Deputies. Only when he felt sure that he could hold his own
in that assembly of politicians did he entertain the idea.
M. Briand is one of the most ambitious men of his generation, and he
distinguishes himself from most of his colleagues by the knowledge which
he possesses of his own power, and by the extreme prudence with which he
shows it in public. It is true that he likes to rule, but he does not
care for people to know that he rules them. In this he differs from
others in power, who are not guiltless of displaying the influence which
they exercise over their political friends and disciples.
When M. Briand entered the Chamber of Deputies, he spent the first years
initiating himself into the secrets of social life, being very well
aware of the importance of such things; with an energy of which very few
people would have been capable he set himself to learn. He ended by
becoming one of the best-groomed men in Paris. His former friends
stared; at first they felt tempted to be angry. They very soon realised,
however, that a deep political purpose was hidden behind this apparent
flattery of society, and they began to respect him, and to talk about
him as of a man born to great things. When at last he became a power in
his party, and in France, and joined M. Clemenceau’s ministry, they
understood that he would prove a leader such as very few political
parties could boast.
His ambition is defined by those who are watching his career as aiming
to grasp the reins of France, and to hold them fast, until the day when
he can show himself to the whole world as the strong man of France.
M. Briand has an exceptional nature. He has no illusions, either about
himself or about those who surround him. He knows very well that the man
who allows sentimentality to interfere with politics is lost long before
he has begun to fight. He early hastened therefore to put a barrier
between himself and everything that could be called by that name.
He gained his place in his party; won the votes of the electors who had
sent him to the Chamber to defend their interests, without having
recourse to underhand tricks; he fought his adversaries with clean
hands. He won the admiration of his partners in the game he played by
the audacity with which he always put himself forward when danger was
ahead. He exercised influence over his colleagues in the ministry by the
energy with which he defended his personal opinions, and the
independence which he showed in questions where his principles found
themselves involved. And he gained the attention of his country by the
strength of his personality, the calm which never forsook him in the
gravest circumstances of life, and the cold determination which he
brought to bear upon everything he did, and every blow which he dealt.
Enemies he had in plenty, detractors very few. Many hated him, but they
did not despise him. Years ago he realised that he had succeeded in
winning the respect of France, and he meant to keep it.
Too far-seeing to fail to understand that the theories by which he had
been able to attain his position were utopian and would not carry him
very far, M. Briand had no sympathy with the programme of destruction
which the Labour party of his early days had brought forward; indeed, it
looked as if he meant to sweep away that party as soon as he succeeded
in gaining power and in inspiring confidence in his personality and his
political principles. He had patience, a thing so rarely met with in
politicians, who are always eager to see their opinions triumph without
waiting for the moment when they become acceptable to the nation. He
felt, moreover, that he was the only man capable of saving France from
the hands of the anarchists who at that time were determined to destroy
her.
He had been a workman, and had learned to appreciate the evil passions
and the thirst for unreasoning destruction which not infrequently
animates the mob. He knew but too well that the spread of Socialist
theories would lead to nothing but the desire to overthrow everything
without the possibility of putting anything else in the place of what
had been trampled under foot, and he made up his mind not to lend
himself to the ambitions of those who aimed at annihilation.
It is yet too early to judge whether M. Briand’s plans will ever be
realised, but for those who know him as well as I do, it is pretty
certain that sooner or later he will try to constitute a moderate
Republican party, determined to put a stop to the progress of anarchism,
and to rally around the new party the sound forces of the nation. He
will then be the object of the denunciation and hatred of his friends of
yesterday, who will see in him a traitor, and who will fight him with
all the energy of which they are capable. They will endeavour to
overthrow him as they have other idols that they have worshipped in the
past.
It is probable, however, that M. Briand will not lose prestige by this
cry of revenge which will certainly be raised, and that he will continue
in the path which he has marked out. He is essentially an opportunist,
and moreover has enough common sense not to attach himself to the
success of the moment; rather he looks to the future for his ultimate
triumph, a triumph he will not miss, and which will not miss him. At
present the only hope France can have of the establishment of a strong,
moderate Republican government, able to exist without having recourse to
the votes of the Socialists, lies in M. Briand. He alone is able to stop
the torrent that is threatening to carry away the existing order of
things.
In M. Briand, M. Clemenceau finds a strong man with strong political
opinions, but it is not likely, so long as the latter is alive, that his
former pupil will come out openly against him.
M. Briand was for a short time considered the real leader of the
Socialist party. This did not last very long, and perhaps he was not
sorry to give up that position, and to have the opportunity of
disagreeing openly with M. Jaurès, the great oracle and prophet of
Socialism.
M. Jaurès is a curious personality. He is extremely rich, and yet
preaches a general division of all wealth--save his own. He is gifted
with singular and powerful eloquence, and knows how to appeal to the
hearts and especially to the imagination of his hearers, using a torrent
of words which leaves such a deep impression on those who listen to him
that they lose sight of all that is false and untrue in them. M. Jaurès
is worshipped by the more fiery Socialists, who consider even Radicalism
as something associated with Conservatism, and whose only creed is the
destruction of everything that existed before their time.
He is ambitious of influencing others, but has no desire to rule his
country, perhaps because he knows very well that the moment he would
consent to enter or to form a ministry half his prestige would be gone.
He is too intelligent not to understand that the moment that one has
power one is bound to defend those who have given it to you as well as
the principles to which one owes it. And M. Jaurès with all his
eloquence is unable to defend anything; he can only attack, a thing
which is easier and nine times out of ten more successful--at least in
politics.
He is the type of a tribune of Roman times; he can win the masses over
to his view, and knows very well how to incense them against those whom
they consider to be their enemies; it is a question whether he would be
able to stop these masses, should he ever desire to do so.
Very often the question has been asked whether M. Jaurès is a sincere
Socialist, or whether he has declared himself to be one simply because
he wanted to attract the attention of the world to his person, his
opinions and his speeches. To this question it is most difficult to
reply. Certainly M. Jaurès has a great deal that is theatrical in his
nature, he is an actor by temperament as well as a fighter, and this has
perhaps contributed more than anything else to the attitude
[Illustration: THE CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES SITTING]
which he has taken in politics. Nothing gives him more pleasure than by
scathing phrases to disarm his adversaries or inspire them with terror.
Strange to say, the Socialists have never reproached him for his large
fortune, which he has always steadfastly refused to share with them. M.
Jaurès is in their eyes a privileged person whom they allow not to
practise the virtues which he preaches. They know but too well that they
possess in him a strength they cannot well spare.
France, it seems to me, is a country where Socialism is rampant, and yet
one where it has the least chances to seize control of the country. The
explanation lies in the fact that the working classes are far from
possessing the intellectual development which we find among them in
Germany, or even England. Men like Virchow, Liebneckt, or Bebel are not
to be found in France, where if they existed they would at once embrace
the political convictions of the bourgeois class, which after all has
the upper hand in that country. Frenchmen are very practical; it suits
them to scream against all those who are in possession of riches, but
the moment they have earned the francs which they envied in their
opponents they immediately become disdainful of their former friends.
All the French workmen are Socialists until they get rich, but the
country itself is essentially bourgeois, and we all know that the French
bourgeois is not the most unselfish of beings.
From this fact I draw the conclusion that, so long as the present love
of money lasts, there is little danger of a purely Socialist government
ever ruling France.