Tengths which, judging from his early speeches, he would have liked in grappling with the obstacles to the free expression of the people's desires. He had to recognize the difficulty of distin-gushing the national will from the contentions of the official spokesmen of the constituencies. He had to proceed warily in curbing the enthusiasm of the right-wing elements so as to mould them to his purpose and yet deprive the extreme left of too evident a ground for asserting that reactionary influences were dominant. He managed to rally behind him a strong centre party to which Jess violent members of the extreme parties could give discriminating support. He had to face the task of rehabilitating the national finances which had fallen fon evil days owing to administrative defects in controlling industries, in handling the fiscal system and in applying an extravagant policy of social insurance. Doumergue took his courage in both hands. He instituted a severe retrenchment in the public servants' salary list—operations which involved "a gigantic reduction in personnel, sweeping cuts in salaries and pensions. In spite of strikes and other forms of protest, he yarned the day and the country supported him so strongly that the once powerful had to acquiesce.
But M. Doumergue realized that unless he could give stability to the national administration by guarding it against the weaknesses which had made the life of the normal French cabinet so short that no insurance broker could quote a reasonable premium on its account, his efforts would be of no avail. In other words the authority of the Government must be restored. The average life of the six Governments which had been entrusted with France's destiny during the twenty months ended in February last was three months. There had been no less than six different cabinets in that short period. The power of throwing a Government out of office rested with men who suffer no personal disabilities in wielding that power. The Prime Minister lacked con stitutional authority: The extreme radical elements were using that. position to work for a dictatorship for themselves. Hence came the decision to put into force a comprehensive programme of constitutional reform. With that programme M. Doumergue is prepared to
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.