Cabinet Out

The French Government does not fix wheat prices, but from time to time the Ministry of Agriculture announces what wheat is worth, serves notice that if the price falls much below the announced figure the Government will: 1) up the tariff on foreign wheat; 2) reduce the legal proportion of foreign flour in French bread; or 3) cancel wheat import licenses. So successful has been this system that last week French farmers rejoiced in a price of $1.72 per bu. of wheat, while at Chicago the price hovered around 80-c- in Canada 57-c- But so peculiar are French politics that last week the highly satisfactory price of wheat in France caused the fall of M. Theodore Steeg's "Cabinet of Concentration, Entente and Conciliation."

In the Chamber of Deputies it was charged that Minister of Agriculture Victor Boret, who has upped the price of wheat in France 10-c-per bu. in the last month, did so with the prior knowledge of "speculators" (presumably friends of his).

In this miasma of scandal the Steeg cabinet withered, declined and died by the close vote of 293 to 283.

At once M. Aristide Briand, veteran foreign minister, was asked to form a cabinet but deferred in favor of a "young senator" sometimes called his protege, 56-year-old Pierre Laval. The arrangement was made by telephone, for M. Briand was at Geneva. Returning to Paris he was met at the station by 200 politicians, all anxious to become ministers in the Laval cabinet.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.