Page:Studies in socialism 1906.djvu/44

xxxviii Republicans has to be, we in America can scarcely imagine. We see that the present French Government is liberal and even radical in tendency, and is supported by a majority in Parliament and in the country, and we do not realise that the opposition that confronts it, and that tries by every possible means to win over the public, is not an opposition in the parliamentary sense of the word, but a revolting, a seceding fraction of the community, whose aim is to overthrow the whole republican régime, re-establish monarchy, and undo the work of the Revolution.

Under these circumstances, it was natural for Reformist Socialists and other Republicans to unite in their fight against the common enemy. The Revolutionists maintain, however, that the union has been too close, that Jaurès and his friends have risked merging the party with the other groups of the Left and have lost sight of their essentially Socialistic aims. The situation reached its climax in 1899 with the entrance of the Reformist Millerand into the Waldeck-Rousseau coalition Cabinet. The "Affaire Millerand " is particularly interesting, as it has served as a text for endless arguments on both sides, and was one of the principal issues between the two wings of the French Socialist party.

Millerand took office as Minister of Commerce and Industry in 1899, at a time when many serious men thought that the existence of the Republic was in danger. When in office he three