The Socialist or revolutionary
groups and press had made preparations for a monster demonstration
on May first. Walls were placarded with incendiary appeals and
their press was full of calls to arms. Monsieur Briand [the Prime
Minister] flatly refused to allow the demonstration, and gave
orders accordingly to Monsieur Lepine [the Chief of Police]. For
the first time since present influences have governed France,
certainly in fifteen years, the police and the troops were
authorized to _use their arms in self-defence_. The result of this
firmness was that the leaders countermanded the demonstration, and
there can be no doubt that many lives were saved and a new point
gained in the possibility of governing Paris as a free city, yet
one where order must be preserved, votes or no votes. Now this
stiff attitude of M. Briand and the Conseil is freely attributed
in intelligent quarters to Mr. Roosevelt. French people say it is
a repercussion of his visit, of his Sorbonne lecture, and that
going away he left in the minds of these people some of that
intangible spirit of his--in other words, they felt what he would
have felt in a similar emergency, and for the first time in their
lives showed a disregard of voters when they were bent upon
mischief.
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