Showdown

Premier Robert Schuman, ordinarily a meek and mouselike man, last week pounced on the Communists like a raging lion. The tide of battle between Schuman's government and the Reds, who were trying to paralyze the nation, turned suddenly in Schuman's favor. It was the legislative measures he proposed against them that really staggered the "Cocos"; but the newly leonine M. Schuman showed himself not averse to a little personal action as well. When Communist Jacques Duclos called him a dirty name in the Assembly, Schuman started right down the aisle. Ushers held him back.

"State of Insurrection." Earlier the Cocos had been riding high. Comrade Benoit Frachon, kingpin of the C.G.T., had formed a National Central Strike Committee representing 20 striking unions (out of the C.G.T.'s total of 38) and was issuing daily communiques. Two million workers were idle. More than a million tons of coal production had been lost; 253 ships were tied up in French ports, more than half of them laden with coal and oil. Since most of the rank & file preferred to remain at work, as the secret strike votes indicated, the Frachon committee met this opposition with violence and by denouncing the secret strike ballot as tending to "dislocate workers' unity."

The sabotage was especially bad on the railroads. Track was torn up, signals were wrecked, engineers were hauled bodily out of their cabs. High tension and telegraph wires were cut. As a result of these activities twelve people were killed.

Premier Schuman declared it a "state of insurrection." According to secret Communist campaign plans which fell into the hands of the Ministry of the Interior, and which the police believed were genuine, the Reds planned to: 1) isolate Paris by rail and postal strikes; 2) cut off the south of France and there create a liaison zone with Italian Communists; 3) paralyze coal production in the north; 4) "create disturbances in key towns, notably Marseille, Lyon, St-Etienne, Limoges, Poitiers, Bordeaux, Toulouse.

The Black Briefcase. Many workers really needed wage increases to cope with inflation. The non-Communists among them were willing to give the new government a breathing spell before tackling the wage-price situation. The Communist leaders, however, wanted to use unrest over living costs to spike the Marshall Plan and put pressure on the London conference of Foreign Ministers. When Schuman offered a cost-of-living bonus if they would call off the strike, the Cocos refused.

Then Schuman buckled down to work out something really stiff. At 10 a.m. last Saturday he bustled into the Assembly carrying a black briefcase. What was in it? someone asked. Said M. Schuman: "Vous verrez ce que vous verrez" (wait and see). What the Assembly saw amazed it; nothing so strong had been expected. What the Communists saw goaded them to a maniac pitch of fury.

The Premier proposed a law for the "protection of the liberty of work and the defense of the republic" whose main points were these:

P: Mobilization of 80,000 troops (from the reserve) for the Ministry of the Interior.

P: Punishment by heavy fines and imprisonment (six months to five years) of all those who by violence, distribution of false news, threats or other fraudulent means, seek to incite a strike.

P: Punishment of accomplices, defined as those who orally or in writing encourage or approve the above crimes.

The Cocos yelled: "Bismarck! Tyrant! Dictator! Boche!" They set out to block passage of the law by every parliamentary tactic they could think of. One hundred and twenty Communists made individual speeches. They proposed 250 amendments, each of which had to be voted down by the non-Communist majority. This wrangling went on all night and far into Sunday--for 36 solid hours.

While the Assembly "debate" was going on, the Communist paper L'Humanite pushed out an extra with two-inch headlines in red ink: "Alerte! Ils Veulent Assassiner la Republique!" The paper screamed that "the American party tears up the constitution. . . . Workers, democrats, patriots, you have the strength to prevent the crime ordered by the exploiters and imperialists of New York." Pouncing quickly, M. Schuman charged L'Humanite with criminal incitation to revolt. Police invaded the newspaper's plant, smashed the plates.

Beans & Whiskers. M. Schuman said he wanted a showdown; that he would push for "unconditional capitulation." The Cocos were already cringing. They asked a 1,500-franc payment for each striking worker to tide him over the Dec. 1 payday. Schuman refused.

The main threat to Schuman's position was a split among the Socialists, some of whom thought that Popular Republican Schuman had gone too far, that he had encroached on the workers' basic right to strike. On Sunday night the leader of the doubting Socialists, Minister of Social Affairs Daniel Mayer, called on the Premier at home.

"If you' will so authorize me," said Mayer, "I can get the C.G.T. to issue orders for everyone to go back to work tomorrow morning."

"What are the conditions?" Schuman asked.

"Certain wage increases, less than they have been asking."

"That I can accept, within reason."

"Also withdrawal of your bill."

"No, M. Mayer," said the Premier. "If the government does that, it admits that nothing can be done in France without Communist consent. It would mean the wrecking of our foreign policy. It would not only mean that I might as well go back to planting beans in Lorraine--to which I have no objection--but also that the recovery of France would be indefinitely postponed."

Mayer argued for a few minutes longer. M. Schuman said firmly: "If you will excuse me, I have not shaved for two days. I would like to shave now."

The Assembly passed the first part of Schuman's bill (calling up 80,000 troops) by a vote of 408 to 184, which meant solid non-Communist support. Meanwhile the back-to-work movement was gaining strength. The number of strikers dropped from 2,000,000 to 1,400,000.

Against the Wall. The vigor of M. Schuman's counterattack surprised many who had thought that Charles de Gaulle was the only strong man in France, and who were therefore expecting De Gaulle's quick ascent to power. If the Socialists stood firm behind Schuman, De Gaulle might not be needed for quite a while.

Eight days after Schuman took power the Communist thrust had been blunted by the good sense of French workers and by the Premier's courage. TIME Correspondent Andre Laguerre summed it up: "The Communists are backed against the wall. This law will give Schuman both the legal and the moral authorization to break the strikes. The only thing that could stop him would be lack of support from public opinion, and the great mass of public opinion is with him. If the strikes are broken, the Communists will have failed in their insurrection. Either they must stop interfering with French recovery or they must gamble everything and open the floodgates of civil war. If only for military reasons, I doubt that Moscow is ready for civil war."

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