Moderation Is All

Slim, tousle-haired Jeannette Vermeersch, wife of ailing Red Boss Maurice Thorez and herself Communist candidate for the National Assembly, spoke with passion for two hours. She railed against "capitalist exploiters," but her words fell on a lethargic gathering of scarcely 30 people, even though she was speaking in the grimy 18th arrondissement, the reddest of the Red districts of Paris. In tiny Ecurie (pop. 362), only 15 men and a runny-nosed boy turned out to hear Socialist Guy Mollet review his premiership, blame "the Americans" for preventing the Anglo-French conquest of Suez. Were any problems bothering his listeners? he asked. "Classrooms for our children," responded one man.

"You Know Me." If they did not vote for him, said Mollet amiably on parting, they should vote for any representative of a "national" party: "I ask only one thing of you: don't vote Bolshevik!" Even flamboyant Jacques Soustelle, De Gaulle's Minister of Information, who masterminded the May 13 revolt in Algeria, was running a low-keyed campaign. His election posters read: "You know me; you know what I've done; you know what I will do!"

On two successive Sundays, the voters of France were to elect the first Parliament of the new Fifth Republic. They went about it with an apathy that disturbed the politicians. Some voters seemed to feel that in voting for De Gaulle they had freed themselves of all that parliamentary nonsense. Except for the Communists and a few independents such as Pierre Mendes-France (who is being attacked as having "sold out to Anglo-American Jewocracy"), virtually every candidate was clinging like death to Charles de Gaulle's coattails. Forbidden to use his name, at least four parties ran on his Cross of Lorraine symbol. But despite a profusion of new labels, the faces were generally the same old ones, including at least a dozen former Premiers of France.

Down Goes Mendes. In the first Sunday's voting, the Gaullist label proved magic. Soustelle won easily. His new

Gaullist party defeated two ex-Premiers, Joseph Laniel and, most surprising of all, Pierre Mendes-France (after 26 years in Parliament).

Leading candidates who failed of a majority the first time would have to run next Sunday, and in this category were ex-Premiers Mollet, Georges Bidault, Paul Reynaud and Felix Gaillard. Even though there was a big Communist vote, most of their leaders failed to get elected even in safe constituencies, and must face runoffs where other candidates will combine against them.

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