Indiana Daily Times

SOCIALISTS GO DOWN IN VOTE
French Ballot Shows Heavy Falling Off in Power of Radicals.

PARIS, Jan. 8.—As soon as the results of the French elections were known, it was apparent that order, so often threatened, had again triumphed in France. This impression was still further confirmed by the result of the vote of Nov. 16. France had pronounced herself, and resolutely barred the path of parliament to bolshevism, by excluding the apologists of social upheavals and civil war, and by affirming its resolution to accomplish the great task of national reconstitution with method and organization.

The rout of the socialists is of capital importance, as they have lost no less than fifty seats. Numbering 104 in the former chamber, there will be only fifty-five in the coming parliament, and it must be noted that in this number are included those dissident socialists who were blamed by their more violent colleagues for having manifested an interest in questions of national defense. All the leaders of the unified socialists, such as Mr. Renaudel, Mr. Sixte-Quentin, Mr. Longuet, Mr. Sadoul, and Mr. Mayeras, and those most deeply involved in internationalism, such as Mr. Brizon, were beaten. The defeat of the whole of Jean Longuet's list in the Paris sector is particularly significant, and will, so some say, cause a great disappointment to Germany, if the latter country counted upon the successful dissemination of revolutionary ideas throughout France.

That country, on the contrary, has proved that it had not struggled for five years in order to succumb at last by voluntarily hurling itself towards moral and social ruin.

VOTE REJECTS RADICAL VIEWS.

The almost unanimous vote of the French nation proves that it absolutely rejects all idea of revolution, and that it expects its representatives to follow a reasonable, yet realistic policy and to govern it both wisely and well.

The radicals have on their side lost many members who have played a considerable role in French politics during the last ten years, whilst the representatives of the Alliance Republicaine will be much more numerous. Thus, it will be seen that the recent elections mark no tendency toward a narrow conservatism as some are liable to affirm out of the bitterness of their hearts, but have been, on the contrary, characterized by a frankly republican spirit.

Many deputies belonging to the former chamber have been re-elected, while, on the other hand, many new personalities are entering the chamber and will no doubt render considerable services—such as Mr. Isaac, former president of the chamber of commerce of Lyons; Mr. Artaud, president of the Chamber of Commerce of Marseilles; Mr. De Wendel, elected in Meurthe and Moselle; Mr. Maurice Colrat, director of the Opinion.

It can, therefore, be said that the result of the French elections allows one to form the greatest hopes for the future. Nevertheless, it is an undeniable fact that the good will of the nation is superior to its political conceptions.

France, which has always been considered the crucible in which new ideas were elaborated before taking their luminous flight throughout the world, seems for the moment to be suffering from a regular paucity of new ideas.

Certain persons strive to explain this incomprehensible fact by declaring that the fault lies with the political men of the day. They affirm that the political programs would be less simple did France possess a Gambetta.

COUNTRY MUST BE ON ALERT.

Yet it remains to be seen if the task of renewing the theory of government depends upon political men. It would seem, in general, as if the latter were far too absorbed in meeting immediate difficulties to meditate upon the difficulties of the morrow. Thought does not seem to form a part of their political baggage. The true cause of the actual political indigency of France resides rather in the regression of French political reflection for the last forty years.

If the political men of the revolution were able to accomplish so much, it was because of the elaboration of ideas accomplished during the eighteenth century.

But such an elaboration unfortunately has not taken place during the last forty years, although, strange to say, during this period French thought produced a philosophical doctrine, that of Bergson, and a military doctrine. Without "the principles of war" of Marshal Foch, the French chiefs of 1914 would no doubt have maneuvered as in 1870.

Therefore, it can be said that France lacked governmental ideas because it has not been taught the fundamentals of policy. But the new members of the chamber may change this state of things.