¹ The writer is indebted to M. Barthélemy, the distinguished chairman of the Commission on Universal Suffrage in the Chamber, for this illuminating insight into the attitude of the radical parties toward P.R.

² Only two Radical-Socialist votes were cast for the amendment to exclude foreigners. Cf. Le Temps, July 11, 1927. The alien population of France is now nearly two and a half millions, or more than double what it was before the war.

³ Data taken from the excellent analysis of the law in Le Temps, April 9, 1928.

⁴ Quoted in Le Temps, July 7, 1927.

⁵ It was humorously suggested in the Chamber that if 612 deputies were better than 587, why not 1,000? In reply, M. Albert Milhaud contended that since France was now more “vast” in area than ever, with the return of Alsace-Lorraine, it required a larger chamber; and even in the new plan there would be only 590 metropolitan (non-colonial) seats. Cf. Le Temps, July 12, 1927.

⁶ As before 1919, an absolute majority is necessary for election the first day, while a plurality, provided it equals one-fourth of the registered voters, is sufficient in the ballottage. New candidacies may be entered up to Wednesday night preceding the polling.

⁷ Apparently most of the candidates standing in the recent election did so.

⁸ One Paris paper intimated that this may have been the reason for the appearance of so many “independent” candidates in the department of the Seine.

⁹ Quoted in Le Temps, July 10, 1927.

¹⁰ Quoted in the London Observer, April 22, 1928.

¹¹ Twice during the debate on the electoral bill woman suffrage amendments were defeated. Cf. Le Temps, July 10, 1927.

¹² Quoted from the Chicago Tribune, April 30, 1928.

¹³ Le Temps, April 16, 1928.

¹⁴ As paraphrased by L'Europe nouvelle, May 5, 1928.

¹⁵ Cf. Manchester Guardian Weekly, March 30, 1928.

¹⁶ The opposition press characterized this tactic as “la politique du pire”—strengthening the extremes in order to weaken the center.

¹⁷ Much was made of Poincaré's statement on reparations and debts by certain American newspapers, notably the New York Times (cf. issue of April 2, 1928). But judging from the caustic comments in different French journals, ranging in position from Le Matin to Le Populaire, one doubts whether any such broad significance can be attached to the Premier's remarks. Le Petit Journal ironically advanced the suggestion that all nations use the same day for their national elections, so that the existing crop of “fantastic proposals and projects” (referring to foreign comment on Poincaré's statement) might be squelched. Quoted in Le Temps, April 7, 1928. Nothing is likely to be done by France on the Dawes plan revision or debt settlements until after the American election in November. Cf. Senator Berenger's statement quoted in the New York Times, June 28, 1928.

¹⁸ At the same time, the conservative republican groups could not refrain from resorting to the use of lurid campaign posters depicting the “Hun” in a most menacing attitude and implying that France had been left defenseless in 1914 by the pacifist policy of “radical” governments. “Let no good Frenchman be duped again!” Such chauvinistic appeals, however, lack the effectiveness they once had in France.

¹⁹ April 5, 1928.

²⁰ By this was meant the establishment of what is now known in France as l'école unique, whereby secondary education would no longer be institutionally distinct from primary, but would be free for all meritorious children, regardless of economic or social position.

²¹ Cf. Le Temps, April 21, 1928, for a resumé of his most notable speech.

²² Cf. especially the Manchester Guardian's account of this incident in its weekly edition of April 6, 1928.

²³ Cf. Le Temps, April 7, 1928.

²⁴ As reported by Le Temps, May 10, 1928.

²⁵ There were more ballottages in 1928 than in any previous election held under the single-member plurality system: in 1906, 156; in 1910, 229; and in 1914, 252. In only five départements (Calvados, Meuse, Orne, Corse, and Constantine) were all the seats filled on the first vote.

²⁶ Cf. Le Temps, April 26, 1928, and Julia, E., “Les Elections,” Revue Pol. et Parl., May 10, 1928Google Scholar.

²⁷ French party labels and classifications are so confusing and so “fluid” that it is impossible for any set of statistics to satisfy all groups or to hold for more than a given moment of time. In the above table, based largely upon the bulletin issued by the ministry of the interior on April 30, the Démocrates are allowed only 17 seats, but they claim 23; likewise the Radical-Socialists insisted they had 131 instead of 123. Numerous deputies freely cross the frontiers between adjacent party groups during the term for which they are elected. This tendency has already shown itself, especially among the personnel of the shifting center groups, since the elections of 1928.

²⁸ In its leading editorial, May 5, 1928. Legal stabilization at 3.93 cents was actually voted on June 24 by the overwhelming majority of 450 to 22.

²⁹ Cf. Julia, E., “Les Elections,” Revue Pol. et Parl., May 10, 1928Google Scholar.

³⁰ G. Lachapelle, one of the most eminent French exponents of P.R., came to these conclusions after analyzing the election results in Vu (Paris weekly), May 9, 1928. His allotment of seats to the U.R.D. and the Democrats differs by six from that given in the table presented above.

³¹ In the eighteen districts bordering upon Paris, the discrepancies were especially glaring, as follows:

In the entire Paris region, moreover, 47 out of 59 seats went to conservatives of one shade or another through the operation of the “plurality” system. This shows how Paris was “swept by the Right” as never before!

³² Such is M. Julia's astute prediction. Op. cit.

³³ M. Loucheur was appointed to replace M. Fallières at the ministry of labor. Otherwise, the personnel of the cabinet was unchanged when, without following the customary usage of resigning, it faced the newly chosen chamber on June 1. The occupational distribution of the latter's membership is characteristically wider than that of the American House of Representatives. It is:

³⁴ Cf. Manchester Guardian Weekly, May 4, 1928.

³⁵ May 4, 1928.

³⁶ The man most frequently talked of as the likeliest successor to Poincaré is M. Tardieu, formerly a close collaborator with Clemenceau and now minister of public works in the National Union government.

³⁷ The victory of the Left in the May elections in Germany will doubtless strengthen Briand. But the Kellogg outlawry proposals played little part in the French campaign, though both Briand and Poincaré the latter much chastened since the Ruhr days, sounded the note of “peace with security” in their few speeches.

³⁸ Though as yet there is no adequate understanding of the meaning of “home rule” in a centralized country like France.