Page:The International Socialist Review (1900-1918), Vol. 1, Issue 1.pdf/25

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THE FRENCH ELECTIONS
25

by Comrades Ranvier, Weber, Poiry and Paris. Of the four newly elected, three are manual laborers; on the contrary, of the four Socialists who were defeated only one was a laborer and represented a laborers' district, the other three were professional men and represented middle-class districts. As to the figures of the election, the Socialist party had 98,000 votes at Paris in 1896, while in 1900 they had 126,000.

All the bourgeois democratic parties have at Paris been crushed by nationalism. In the old municipal council there were 30 radicals, twenty Socialists, eighteen republican-opportunists and twenty-two reactionaries and nationalists. In the new one there are forty-four nationalists and reactionaries, twenty Socialists, fourteen radicals and two opportunists.

It is therefore the Socialist party which will be at Paris the only vigorous and solid defender of republican liberties, as well as the only representative of the interests of the working class.

But I hasten to inform the Socialist comrades of the United States of the results of the municipal elections in the provinces—altogether remarkable from a Socialistic point of view. Since the election of 1896 the Socialist party has controlled the municipal governments of a certain number of cities, the most important of which were Marseilles, Lille, Roubaix, Dijon, Montluçon and Ivry. Against the Socialist municipalities a terrible assault has been made by the capitalistic bourgeoisie. Let us see what has been the result. ,

At Marseilles our valiant friend, Dr. Plaissières, has carried off the victory in spite of the coalition of all the bourgeois parties against him. Likewise at Lille the Socialists are victorious with Gustave Delory, a weaver, as also at Roubaix, Montluqon and Ivry. Only at Dijon our friends have been defeated, but there in 1896 their victory was a surprise and came about from there being four bourgeois tickets in the field, which this year were fused against the Socialist ticket.

But brilliant victories and the capture of important cities are still to relate. Our friend, Dr. Augagneur, professor in the University of Lyons, one of the most learned physiologists of Europe, leads the victorious ticket of the Socialist party at Lyons, the second city of France, where thirty-three Socialists and radicals have been elected as against twenty-three reactionaries. The majority of the municipal council of Lyons is in the hands of our party, and Angagneur has been elected mayor of Lyons.

At St. Etienne, a manufacturing city of more than 150,000 population, the Socialist party is victorious as a result of the great strike of last winter, which the Socialist party conducted the striking workers to a victory, especial credit being due to the admirable work of Comrade Jaures. At St. Quentin, at Bourges, at Limoges and at Montceau-les-Mines the Socialist party has