Of course it would be absurd to judge what is
likely to happen from the Senate elections as they are conducted indirectly through comparatively small colleges. Yet it is reasonable to expect that on the whole time will be on the side of the Cartellistes, for the Poincare Government used its " special powers " to impose a great deal of unpop- ular legislation and a great deal of new taxation. It will have to pay for its financial triumph. One of the first results of the rise of the franc from 240 to about 120, where it now stands, is that there is noticeable industrial depres- sion and unemployment. Such things have not been known in France for a long time. But M. Poineare under- stands what he is doing ; he alone succeeded in checking the wild inflation, the headlong rush towards financial dis- honour and loss of credit, and he believes that his country- men' will be sensible enough to recognize that they submitted themselves to the only possible cure.
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