Briand, Doumer & Co.

A tale is told to the effect that M. Briand, Premier of France once said that he did not know the difference between a stock and a bond because he had never possessed enough spare cash to purchase either. Of such stuff art popular heroes made. Last week Finance Minister Loucheur, known as "the richest man in France," save his drastic eight-billion-franc tax bill (TIME, Dec. 21) wrecked amid a storm of popular resentment Jean Frenchman made it exceedingly evident that he resented being told to pay crushing taxes by the millionaire-financier, M. Loucheur.

Twice the Finance Committee of the Chamber proclaimed by heavy adverse votes that the only clause of the Loucheur bill which would ever reach the Chamber was the relatively unimportant article proposing stern punishments for income tax dodgers. Thus rebuffed Loucheur kissed the rod to the extent of asking the Committee what sort of proposal it would endorse. The Committee haughtily took the almost unprecedented course of refusing to offer any suggestions whatever, and M. Loucheur was forced to resign as Finance Minister-- admittedly a beaten man.

Observers remarked two notable mainsprings of this contretemps: 1)The impassioned mass meetings which were held at Paris, Marseilles, Dijon, Nimes--in fact all over France. At these gatherings taxpaying voters protested fiercely against increased taxation and demanded instead the curtailment of Government expenses. 2) The party situation in the Chamber, which continued as a potpourri of recalcitrant "blocs," whose leaders appear to endorse the sentiment "every man for himself and the devil take the franc."*

In this trying impasse the position of Premier Briand was not so desperate as might at first appear. In ordinary circumstances he would have felt called upon to resign after so spectacular a rebuke to his chief minister. But last week French public opinion obviously continued to regard Pere Briand as the one man who can still save the nation by constitutional means. (Although Le Matin, influential organ of famed editor Stephane Lauzanne, called for the dissolution of Parliament and the establishment of a dictatorship by "staunch and courageous men outside of politics.")

Thus the grizzled Aristide may have reflected that by appointing M. Loucheur his Finance Minister he has firmly drawn to himself the 45 odd votes Loucheur and his friends are supposed to control in the Chamber. When Loucheur vanished, his votes remained with Briand, It might now be possible to slip these votes as ready political coin into the pocket of a more popular financier. There were those who said last week that the astute Briand winked as he summoned his old friend, the "safe and sane," self-made Senator Paul Doumer, to be his Finance Minister.

Observers recalled that Senator Doumer's recent failure to form a Cabinet (TIME, Dec. 7) was cleverly exploited by M. Briand to make his own triumph the greater when he succeeded. One Frenchman said to another, "What if it were all a put up job: a deal whereby Doumer, who has the Senate solidly behind him, should succeed the brilliant but unpopular Loucheur, and slide necessary tax measures of a less drastic nature through the Chamber?"

Premier Briand, whatever his preparatory duplicities, pledged his entire Cabinet to stand or fall by M. Doumer's projected fiscal program, in an address to 150 Deputies: "This time I will not change my Minister of Finance. If you defeat Doumer you will not hear from me again. I will withdraw from politics and you may then settle your account with the country."

After this defiance Briand and Doumer were reported to have ensconced themselves in privacy and pondered well plans for "indirect taxation," which it is hoped will prove more acceptable to the Deputies and the electorate than M. Loucheur's scheme to extract eight billion francs a year from such direct and obnoxious sources as an increased tax on wine, tobacco and incomes.

Friends of Briand and Doumer recalled that in 1921 they stood in the same mutual relation as at present: Premier and Finance Minister. At that period the budget was voted by the end of the year for the first and only time since the War, and the cost of living fell and the franc rallied notably. Subsequently M. Briand lost power and prestige owing to his failure to achieve at Cannes the "security" which he has just brought home in triumph from Locarno.

* It sank to 27.67 to the dollar last week. a new low for the year.