Le Figaro
- The Illzach Sabotage
- Things Will Heat Up on the 14th in Bordeaux
- The Government Wants the Accords Ratified, but with Reservations
Le Figaro's front page of 6 October 1926 opened in a Mulhouse courtroom, where a special correspondent described the trial of seven defendants accused of sabotaging Armand Weinmann's factory at Illzach and called the case a crime against labour. Henri Vonoven's political column looked ahead to the Radical congress opening in Bordeaux on 14 October and argued that the Radical-Socialists still could not accept that the Cartel des gauches was finished. A finance-committee report said Poincaré wanted Parliament to debate the Washington and London war-debt accords quickly, with reservations added as recitals, because the Mellon-Bérenger text itself could not be amended.
This edition reads only part of the page. The small body type is partly illegible at the available resolution, and all three excerpts break off mid-sentence. Other front-page articles, including those on inter-Allied debts, the Neustadt incident and the Queen of Romania in Paris, are cut off at the image edges and are not translated. The commentary does not cover the background of the Illzach case or the outcome of the Bordeaux congress.
Translation
The Illzach Sabotage
The Illzach Sabotage
How a plot was hatched against M. Weinmann's factory
MULHOUSE, October 5 (from our special correspondent). – What was committed in M. Weinmann's factory at Illzach truly is an outrage, a crime against labour, and the industrialist they sought to strike in his work, in his fortune and in his commercial successes told us, quite simply, from the witness stand, what had been done in his factory.
After a brief examination of the identity of the seven defendants, who are on provisional release, M. Armand Weinmann is brought in, and the account he gives, without the slightest bitterness, is truly painful.
One day, at the Illzach factory, a machine stops; a part is broken; it is repaired, but it had to stand id–
Things Will Heat Up on the 14th in Bordeaux
POLITICS
Things Will Heat Up on the 14th in Bordeaux
Quite apart from questions of personalities and the struggle for the party presidency, the battle will be fierce at the Radical Congress, which opens on October 14 in Bordeaux.
"The Cartel has had its day." That is a fact. It is not a fact of yesterday; it dates from last winter. But, like those forsaken Ariadnes who can neither resign themselves to being abandoned nor even believe in it, the Radical-Socialists could not give up the hope of a reunion. Even today, not all of them can get used to the painful idea of their isolation. And yet, yesterday, it was in the
The Government Wants the Accords Ratified, but with Reservations
AT THE FINANCE COMMITTEE
The Government Wants the Accords Ratified, but with Reservations
M. Henri Simon yesterday morning had the announced meeting with the Premier. During this interview, M. Poincaré informed the chairman of the finance committee of the importance he attaches to seeing Parliament debate the Washington and London accords as quickly as possible, during the extraordinary session of 1926.
"He envisages," says a communiqué from the finance committee, to which its chairman reported the Government's intentions, "the insertion, in the form of recitals, of a certain number of reservations which would be submitted to the vote of the Chambers together with the actual text of the Mellon-Bérenger accord."
This text, naturally, cannot be amended by Parliament. The law to be voted by the Chambers has no other purpose than "to authorize the President of the Republic to ratify the text of the convention with the United States." By the proce–
Context
What reservations did Poincaré have in mind for the American debt accord?
The finance-committee report says Poincaré wanted the reservations attached as recitals, voted together with a text that Parliament itself could not amend. American diplomatic records from the same week describe the plan the same way. On 7 October 1926, the day after this issue, the US chargé in Paris, Whitehouse, cabled Washington that Poincaré was preparing to seek ratification with reservations in some form during November. Whitehouse also reported that Poincaré had read a draft preamble to the Belgian financial expert Émile Francqui. Francqui reportedly found it very complicated. The 'considérants' in Le Figaro's report correspond to such a preamble: a way to record French conditions, such as the link between debt payments and German reparations, without reopening a treaty text the United States had already signed. In the same telegram Whitehouse said opposition to ratification in Parliament was real and considerable. That helps explain why the Premier wanted a vote soon but would not ask for one without conditions.
Why were the Washington and London accords so hard to pass?
The Mellon-Bérenger agreement, signed on 29 April 1926, settled France's First World War debt to the United States on reduced terms. It was nonetheless deeply unpopular in France, where many felt the United States should cancel the debt in view of French wartime losses. Some 20,000 war veterans marched in Paris against it. The 'London accord' in the report is the parallel settlement of French war debts to Britain, known as the Caillaux-Churchill agreement. Poincaré's hope of a quick debate in the 1926 extraordinary session did not come true. The Chamber of Deputies ratified the American agreement only on 21 July 1929, after an all-night sitting, by 300 votes to 292, and then ratified the British agreement. The narrow margin three years later shows how strong the resistance was that the reservations in this report were meant to answer.
Why did Vonoven say the Cartel 'has had its day'?
The Cartel des gauches was the alliance of Radical-Socialists and SFIO socialists that won the 1924 elections and governed under Édouard Herriot's leadership. It broke up in 1926, when the socialists went into opposition. After the currency crisis, Raymond Poincaré formed a government made up of the National Bloc parties plus the Radical-Socialists. That is the 'isolation' Vonoven describes: the Radicals were sitting in a government with their former opponents while their old socialist partners stood outside it. His image of the abandoned Ariadne casts the Radicals as a party still hoping its socialist partner would come back. The column itself gives the stakes of the 14 October congress, a fight over the party presidency and over the party's line. The excerpt ends before it says what happened 'yesterday', so the reading does not show how the congress actually turned out.
Original
Les sabotages d'Illzach
Les sabotages d'Illzach Comment un complot fut monté contre l'usine de M. Weinmann MULHOUSE, le 5 octobre (de notre envoyé spécial). - C'est vraiment un attentat, un crime, contre le travail qu'on a commis dans l'usine de M. Weinmann à Illzach, et l'industriel qu'on a voulu frapper dans son labeur, dans sa fortune, dans ses succès commerciaux, nous contait très simplement, à la barre, ce qu'on avait fait dans son usine. Après un rapide interrogatoire d'identité des sept inculpés, qui sont en liberté provisoire, on introduit M. Armand Weinmann, et le récit qu'il fait, sans nulle acrimonie, est vraiment douloureux. Un jour, à l'usine d'Illzach, une machine s'arrête; une pièce est brisée; on la répare, mais elle a dû rester im -
Il fera chaud le 14 à Bordeaux
LA POLITIQUE Il fera chaud le 14 à Bordeaux Indépendamment des questions de personnes et de la lutte pour la présidence du parti, la bataille sera vive, au Congrès radical qui s'ouvre, le 14 octobre, à Bordeaux. «Le Cartel a vécu». C'est un fait. Il n'est pas d'hier, il est de l'hiver dernier. Mais, telle ces Arianes délaissées qui ne peuvent ni se résigner ni même croire à l'abandon, les radicaux-socialistes ne pouvaient renoncer à l'espoir d'un rapatriage. Même aujourd'hui, tous n'arrivent pas à se faire à l'idée douloureuse de leur isolement. Et pourtant, hier, c'est dans le
Le Gouvernement désire la ratification des accords mais avec des réserves
A LA COMMISSION DES FINANCES Le Gouvernement désire la ratification des accords mais avec des réserves M. Henri Simon a eu, hier matin, avec le président du Conseil, l'entretien annoncé. Au cours de cette entrevue, M. Poincaré a informé le président de la commission des finances de l'intérêt qu'il attache à voir le Parlement discuter les accords de Washington et de Londres le plus rapidement possible, au cours de la session extraordinaire de 1926. «Il envisage, dit un communiqué de la commission des finances, à laquelle son président a rapporté les intentions gouvernementales, l'insertion, sous forme de considérants, d'un certain nombre de réserves qui seraient soumises au vote des Chambres avec le texte même de l'accord Mellon-Bérenger.» Ce texte, naturellement, ne peut pas être modifié par le Parlement. La loi qui doit être votée par les Chambres n'a d'autre objet que «d'autoriser le président de la République à ratifier le texte de la convention avec les Etats-Unis». Par la procé -