New Cabinet

M. Raymond Poincare, whose name is great in France, was called by President Doumergue to form a "Sacred Union" Cabinet, last week--to weld the unruly French Parliamentary blocs into a stable unit, to save the franc from extinction. The task which, he faced was stupendous, unique.

For a year and more the Chamber has demonstrated its disinclination and its incapacity to legislate. Almost every possible program for saving the franc has been presented to it, and has been rejected on grounds of petty local politics. The Deputies have refused to vote adequate taxes, or to ratify either the Franco-British or the Franco-U. S. debt settlements. Amid this carnival, this debauch of legislative folly, the franc has lost two-thirds of its value within a year.

Last week the politicians of France seemed at last somewhat chastened. Premier Herriot had fallen after only two days in office. As an earnest that they were willing to break party lines for once, some 300 Deputies, headed by Deputy Morinaud of Constantine, Algeria--a political nobody--signed a petition requesting that the President designate some outstanding statesman to form a Cabinet in which all parties would unite to save the franc. Naturally, M. Doumergue chose the potent War-President of France, the representative of French "Big Business," M. Raymond Poincare. Soon Poincare "presented" to M. le President a Cabinet which would be unthinkable in any other country, a Cabinet in which statesmen notoriously one another's mortal enemies agreed to unite: Raymond Poincare

Premier and Minister of Finance Aristide Briand

Minister of Foreign Affairs Louis Barthou

Minister of Justice Paul Painleve

Minister of War Georges Leygues

Minister of Marine Edouard Herriot

Minister of Public Instruction Andre Fallieres

Minister of Labor Albert Sarraut

Minister of the Interior Andre Tardieu

Minister of Public Works Maurice Bokanowski

Minister of Commerce Andre Queuille

Minister of Agriculture Leon Perrier

Minister of Colonies Louis Marin

Minister of Pensions

Contrasts. The foreign policies of Poincare and Briand are, re- spectively, as flaming war-oil and quenching peace-water. Briand has just fought and been defeated by Herriot in a political death grapple which Briand described on the floor of the Chamber as a "per- sonal duel." MM. Briand, Herriot, Painleve and Sarraut are of the Left; MM. Poincare, Tardieu and Bokanowski are of the Right.

Paradoxically this even balancing of enemies is a factor of strength. The Chamber is similarly split between "Left" and "Right." Only through a "continuous compromise" by the leaders of these opposed groups, united in "Sacred Union," can the Parliamentary deadlock be broken.

As everyone knows MM. Viviani and Briand presided over "Sacred Union Cabinets" during the War. It remains to be seen whether the present emergency has actually frightened the politicians into union, as did the War.

Policy. Premier Poincare took his time last week, kept mum, allowed the prestige of his new Cabinet to send the franc bounding up from 50 to the dollar to 40. The consensus of despatches last week was that the keynotes of M. Poincare's projected policy were:

1) Drastically increased indirect taxation--a necessary reform here- tofore impossible to get through the Chamber.

2) Delay and further negotiation before ratifying the Mellon-Berenger Franco-U. S. debt settlement--M. Poincare having expressed himself strongly against it in the past.

3) An attempt to escape "economic enslavement to the U. S." by negotiating such foreign loans as are needed in the Netherlands, Sweden, Britain.

The Paris Temps declared with expectant, slightly pessimistic conservatism last week: "The Poincare Ministry is a great ministry because of the illustrious names it contains. Whether it is to become a great government will depend upon the effectiveness of its acts."