Le Petit Matin
- The Political Balance Sheet
- A Tremendous Fire Breaks Out in Brussels in a Pharmaceutical Depot
- 300 Redskins against 1 Negro
This front page of Le Petit Matin for 1 November 1926 led with Marcel Huart's political column. Huart argued that the government still could not set a date for the Chambers to reconvene because it first needed to know where the parties stood, even though it wanted the 1927 budget finished before the end of December. A news report described a huge fire in a newly built reinforced-concrete depot of the Centrale Pharmaceutique de Belgique in a crowded Brussels district: residents fled in their nightshirts, four people were injured and the damage was put at over 10 million francs. A short wire item from Montana used the crude racial language of the time to tell of a Black man accused of theft who shot two police officers and was killed after 300 Native Americans were called in to burn him out of a barn.
Translation
The Political Balance Sheet
By Marcel HUART
It is understandable that, under these conditions, the government has so far been unable to fix the date for the Chambers to reconvene, even though it has the natural and legitimate concern of giving the work of our deliberative assemblies a pace brisk enough for the 1927 budget to be wrapped up before the end of December. Must it not know what dispositions the political parties hold toward it, on what support it believes it can count, and to what opposition it will be exposed? The art of governing requires the statesmen who practise it to take care to be informed of the designs of those who fight them, as well as of those who remain their firmest supporters.
A Tremendous Fire Breaks Out in Brussels in a Pharmaceutical Depot
… in Brussels, at the corner of the chaussée … and the rue du Téléphone … depot, newly built … Centrale Pharmaceutique de Belgique. This building is located in a very populous … and once the alarm … people in the neighbouring houses were seen fleeing in panic in their nightshirts … All the Brussels firefighters … still on the scene, trying to flood the …, but the rescue operations … very difficult, because the flames cannot be seen. In each part of the …, built of reinforced concrete, the … burn or explode, filling the buildings with opaque, nauseating smoke. At the present hour there are four … injured. During the … work, they managed to flood an immense … of petrol, so that on that side the danger of large explosions is … The damage is already … more than 10 million francs.
300 Redskins against 1 Negro
MONTANA, 31 October. – A Negro accused of theft had barricaded himself in a barn, from which he fired on the police, killing two officers. The commissioner then asked the Indian warriors to intervene. 300 Redskins arrived, shot flaming arrows at the barn and set it ablaze. The Negro, surrounded by flames, came out and was met by a volley of 300 rifle shots. As he was not dead, the Redskins threw him into the burning ruins of the barn, where he was burned.
Context
Why the 1927 budget was so pressing for Poincaré's government
Huart's column treats passing the 1927 budget before the end of December as the government's overriding concern. The government in question was the ministry of national union that Raymond Poincaré formed in July 1926, which the Radicals joined after Édouard Herriot had to give way. The currency crisis behind that change was severe. The pound, which had cost 60 francs in 1922, could by July 1926 be bought only for 250 francs. A review published in Foreign Affairs in 1927 noted that when Poincaré took office the floating debt had ceased to float, the state was without current funds and the franc stood at 248 to the pound. The Chamber gave the new cabinet the full powers for financial recovery that it had refused earlier governments, and on 3 August 1926 Poincaré made Parliament vote 9.3 billion francs in increased taxation to balance the budget. A quickly passed, balanced budget for 1927 was the next step in that recovery programme, which explains why the column stresses the pace of parliamentary work.
The 1927 budget was passed before the year began
Poincaré's government did meet the deadline Huart describes. According to the Foreign Affairs review of October 1927, Poincaré presented to the Chamber, and had voted before the beginning of the year, a fully balanced budget for the calendar year 1927. The uncertainty in the column of 1 November 1926 about when the Chambers would reconvene therefore did not, in the end, prevent the budget from being completed on time. The column itself records only the government's intention and its worry about the parties; the outcome comes from that later account.
The parties whose dispositions the government needed to know
Huart's question about which parties would support or oppose the government reflects the composite nature of Poincaré's coalition. Poincaré's cabinet of national union brought together the parties of the right and the Radical Party, the great hinge party of the centre, while excluding the socialists of the SFIO and the communists. The column does not name any party, so it cannot be determined from the text which groups Huart had in mind. Even so, his distinction between the government's firmest supporters and those who fight it fits this line-up: the Radicals' continued backing decided the majority, while the socialists and communists stood outside the government.
What Brussels heritage records say about the Pharmacie Centrale building
The Brussels-Capital Region's architectural heritage inventory lists the building at rue Philippe de Champagne 23, on the corner of rue Rouppe 2, as the former Pharmacie Centrale de Belgique. According to the inventory, the building originally housed the offices and stores of the Pharmacie Centrale de Belgique and was rebuilt in 1927 after a fire. The inventory does not date that fire, so it cannot confirm that it is the one reported here. The newspaper places the fire in a newly built depot of the Centrale Pharmaceutique de Belgique at the corner of a chaussée and the rue du Téléphone, which matches neither the inventory's address nor exactly its name. A 1927 reconstruction after a fire fits the timing of an autumn 1926 blaze, but the link remains unproven.
Original
Le Bilan Politique
On comprend que dans ces conditions le gouvernement n'ait pu jusqu'ici fixer la date de la rentrée des Chambres, encore qu'il ait le naturel et légitime souci d'imprimer aux travaux de nos assemblées délibérantes une allure assez accélérée pour que le budget de 1927 puisse être bouclé avant la fin de décembre. Ne faut-il pas qu'il sache de quelles dispositions les partis politiques sont animés à son égard, sur quels concours il croit pouvoir compter et à quelles oppositions il sera exposé? L'art de gouverner commande aux hommes d'Etat qui l'exercent le soin d'être avertis des desseins de ceux qui les combattent comme de ceux qui demeurent leurs plus fermes soutiens.
Un formidable incendie éclate à Bruxelles dans un dépôt pharmaceutique
à Bruxelles, à l'angle de la chau vers et de la rue du Téléphone dépôt tout nouvellement constr Centrale Pharmaceutique de Belg Ce bâtiment est situé dans u très populeux et une fois l'alarm on a vu des maisons voisines les affolés se sauver en chemise de Tous les pompiers de Bruxelle core sur les lieux, essayant d'inon sier, mais les opérations de sauv très difficiles, car on ne voit pas mes. Dans chacune des parties du construit en béton armé, les ma brûlent ou font explosion, emp bâtiments de fumée opaque et na Il y a à l'heure actuelle quatre blessés. Au cours des travaux de on a réussi à inonder une immen d'essence, de sorte que de ce côté ger de grosses déflagrations est Dès maintenant les dégâts sont plus de 10 millions de francs.
300 peaux-rouges contre 1 nègre
MONTANA, 31 octobre. - Un nègre accusé de vol s'était barricadé dans une grange d'où il tira sur la police, tuant deux agents. Le commissaire demanda alors aux guerriers indiens d'intervenir. 300 Peaux Rouges arrivèrent, lancèrent des flèches enflammées sur la grange et la firent flamber. Le nègre entouré de flammes sortit et fut reçu par une save de 300 coups de fusil. Comme il n'était pas mort les Peaux Rouges le jetèrent dans les ruines en feu de la grange où il fut brûlé.