Le Figaro
- A forgotten fact…
- The beginnings of stabilization in Germany
- Another cabinet crisis in Poland
A wartime recollection stresses French advice on training American staff officers. A Berlin dispatch explains how stable money changed the position of wage earners and investors after inflation. Warsaw reports the Bartel cabinet’s resignation following two votes against its ministers.
Partial reading: the opening two paragraphs of “A forgotten fact”; the Berlin correspondent’s attribution and opening three paragraphs on German stabilization; and the subtitle and opening two paragraphs of the Polish cabinet report. The rest of these articles and the rest of the page are not translated.
Translation
A forgotten fact…
Reading Mr. Octave Homberg’s thoroughly documented and absorbing study suggests that we might make our own modest contribution by recalling an episode from the war.
The American 1st Division began its training at the Gondrecourt camp in July 1917. Other units followed, slowly at first, since toward the beginning of 1918 only a very small number of divisions were capable of entering the line. Throughout this period, American generals came and went in eastern France, preceding their troops or carrying out particular missions. All visited General de Castelnau, who then commanded the Eastern Army Group. He gave them all abundant advice and, in conclusion, placed particular emphasis on the American army’s need to train good staff officers. “Without staffs worthy of the name,” he told them, “your army will be a body without a brain.” And he added, with his sturdy common sense and vivid turn of phrase: “You have a choice of two schoolmasters for your instruction: the Germans and us. The Germans will charge you very dearly for their lessons; they will cost you needless losses and repeated failures. Our lessons will be free, and we have as much interest as you do in making them fruitful.”
The beginnings of stabilization in Germany
(From our Berlin correspondent):
To explain clearly the difficulties our neighbors had to overcome and the measures they took to defeat the “high cost of living,” we must recall the state of the German economy when financial recovery was undertaken.
At the end of the inflation, that is, during October and November 1923, prices expressed in domestic currency, in paper marks, rose beyond the reach of the mass of the population, whose incomes and wages were losing value continuously and at an ever faster pace. Expressed in gold, however, prices remained below the average figures of the world index.
The situation changed as soon as domestic prices were allowed to be calculated in gold, in gold marks, and the Rentenmark was put into circulation. The position of wage earners and people living on investment income improved because the sums they received, although proportionately lower than those received before the war for the same services, were now fixed.
Another cabinet crisis in Poland
The Bartel cabinet resigns
WARSAW, September 25. — The Polish cabinet, headed by Mr. Bartel, decided to resign after losing its majority yesterday following two votes in the Diet withholding confidence: the first, by 187 votes to 82, in the minister of Public Instruction; the second, by 185 votes to 88, in the minister of the Interior. After a brief discussion, Mr. Bartel went on behalf of the ministers to the President of the Republic, who accepted the cabinet’s resignation.
At first it had been feared that the cabinet would lose its majority following the vote of the Diet’s committee, which had reduced the budget submitted by the government by 34 million zlotys. But that did not happen.
Context
Declaring war did not create a trained army
The United States entered the war against Germany in April 1917 after renewed unrestricted submarine warfare and the Zimmermann Telegram helped turn opinion toward intervention. The recollection begins several months later, at a training camp, and therefore concerns the practical work of turning intervention into military strength. Castelnau’s schoolmaster analogy presents experienced French officers as a way to avoid learning through battlefield losses. Its particular subject is staff training: the officers who coordinate an army’s work, rather than simply the number of soldiers available. This distinction explains why the passage treats advice and organization as a contribution to the American war effort.
Why a fixed income could be an improvement
German wartime borrowing and central-bank money creation helped prepare the ground for the inflation that became catastrophic in 1923. As the mark lost its functions as a means of payment and a store of value, even wages paid daily could quickly become inadequate. The Rentenmark was introduced in November 1923. Against that background, the dispatch’s distinction between paper-mark prices and gold prices matters: a spectacular rise in the former did not describe the same thing as a rise measured in a stable unit. The benefit identified here is predictability, even when recipients still received less than before the war.
A parliamentary crisis after the May coup
Poland had already experienced a violent change of power in May 1926. Troops led by Józef Piłsudski defeated forces loyal to the government, which resigned; Piłsudski declined the presidency, and Ignacy Mościcki became president. That recent upheaval gives the September report its political setting. The article nevertheless describes a crisis operating through parliamentary votes, cabinet solidarity and presidential acceptance of a resignation. It also distinguishes the actual trigger—votes refusing confidence in two ministers—from an earlier fear about a budget reduction. Reading those as separate episodes preserves the report’s explanation of how the cabinet fell.
Original
UN FAIT OUBLIÉ...
La lecture de l’étude si documentée et si passionnante de M. Octave Homberg nous suggère l’idée d’y apporter notre modeste contribution en faisant appel à un souvenir de guerre.
La 1re division américaine commença au mois de juillet 1917 son entraînement, dans le camp de Gondrecourt. D’autres unités suivirent, à une cadence d’abord faible puisque, vers le début de 1918, il n’y avait qu’un très petit nombre de divisions capables d’entrer en ligne. Pendant toute cette période il y eut dans l’Est un va-et-vient de généraux américains qui précédaient leurs troupes ou étaient chargés de certaines missions. Tous rendaient visite au général de Castelnau, qui commandait alors le groupe d’armées de l’Est. A tous, il prodiguait les conseils ; et, pour conclure, insistait d’une manière toute spéciale sur la nécessité, pour l’armée américaine, de former de bons officiers d’état-major. « Sans états-majors dignes de ce nom, leur disait-il, votre armée sera un corps sans cerveau. » Et il ajoutait avec son robuste bon sens et son langage imagé : « Vous avez le choix, pour votre instruction, entre deux maîtres d’école : l’Allemand et nous. L’Allemand vous fera payer ses leçons très cher, elles vous coûteront des pertes inutiles et de multiples échecs. Nos leçons, à nous, seront gratuites, et nous sommes autant que vous intéressés à ce qu’elles soient fructueuses. »
Les débuts de stabilisation en Allemagne
(De notre correspondant de Berlin) :
Pour la clarté de l’exposé des difficultés que nos voisins eurent à vaincre et des mesures auxquelles ils eurent recours pour triompher de la « vie chère », il faut se souvenir de la situation dans laquelle se trouvait l’économie allemande à l’époque où fut opéré le rétablissement financier.
A la fin de l’inflation, c’est-à-dire pendant les mois d’octobre et de novembre 1923, les prix calculés en monnaie intérieure, en marks-papier, s’élevaient jusqu’à l’inaccessible pour la masse dont les revenus et les salaires se dépréciaient sans cesse et de plus en plus rapidement. Calculés en or, les prix restaient cependant inférieurs aux chiffres moyens de l’index mondial.
La situation se modifia dès que fut autorisé le calcul en or, en gold marks, des prix intérieurs, et que le Rentenmark fut mis en circulation. La condition du salarié et celle du rentier s’améliorèrent du fait que les sommes reçues, bien que proportionnellement inférieures à celles perçues avant guerre pour les mêmes services, étaient désormais fixes.
Une nouvelle crise ministérielle en Pologne
Le cabinet Bartel démissionne
VARSOVIE, 25 septembre. — Le cabinet polonais, présidé par M. Bartel, ayant été mis en minorité hier à la suite des deux votes de la Diète refusant la confiance, le premier par 187 voix contre 82 au ministre de l’Instruction publique, le deuxième par 185 voix contre 88 au ministre de l’Intérieur, a résolu de donner sa démission. Après une brève délibération, M. Bartel, au nom des ministres, s’est rendu auprès du Président de la République, qui a accepté la démission du cabinet.
Il était tout d’abord à craindre que le cabinet fût mis en minorité à la suite du vote de la Commission de la Diète qui avait réduit le budget présenté par le gouvernement d’une somme de trente-quatre millions de zlotys. Or, il n’en fut rien.