Not many men alive today have walked and talked with an authentic saint. Such a man is rare old Henri Chéron, sturdy, twinkling-eyed Finance Minister of France.
Long years ago he strummed a reverent guitar while hymns were sweetly sung by "The Little Flower" of Lisieux. famed Thérèse Martin who died in 1897. Later M. Chéron was six times Mayor of Lisieux in Normandy, zealously promoted the I. S. L. F. (International Society of the Little Flower). In 1925 the Society and M. Chéron knew boundless joy when Thérèse of Lisieux was officially canonized in Rome as St. Thérèse of the Infant Jesus.
Meanwhile Mayor Chéron had made his plodding, Norman way in Paris to the unexciting post of Minister of Agriculture (1922-24). He made it exciting, became the idol of French farmers. No Minister of Agriculture before or since has shut out of France so much meat because of hoof & mouth disease, so many potatoes on account of scab, so much butter because of "taints." More important, during this period Minister of Agriculture Chéron won the firm friendship of his exalted chief, Premier Raymond Poincaré, "Savior of the Franc."
A day came when Premier & Finance Minister Poincaré, having stabilized the franc for years to come, wished to turn his irksome Finance Ministry over to someone else, someone solid, shrewd, incorruptible. In open Cabinet the Premier turned to M. Chéron: "Dear friend, I think you should be charged with the finances of France."
Spluttered astonished Minister Chéron, "Bu-but!"
"I know what you are going to say!" the Premier cut him short. "You are afraid the job is too big for you. You are too modest. I know you better than you know yourself."
"I cannot decide, not like this—not all in a moment!" cried flustered Papa Chéron, "I must think." Characteristically he rose, paced the Cabinet room with big steps, tapping thoughtfully on his huge chest.
"Do not reflect too long. Chéron," chaffed a Cabinet colleague. "In the end you will accept!" Deliberately, ten minutes later, Papa Chéron accepted. French cartoonists rejoiced. Within a week M. Chéron was a national figure, a sort of Norman Coolidge, invincibly bourgeois. As Finance Minister he outlasted Premier Poincaré, carried on under Premier Briand, then under Premier Tardieu. When the latter fell (TIME, Feb. 24, 1930) Papa Chéron was found to have left in Jean Frenchman's long, woolen sock a treasury surplus of 19 billion francs ($744,000,000).
Today, two short years afterward, France has squandered her surplus and faces a budgetary deficit of more than 10½ billion francs. Last month, when Premier Joseph Paul-Boncour succeeded Edouard Herriot, he begged Papa Chéron to come out of retirement and roll up a surplus again. After solemn thought (and probably some chest thumping) Chéron of Lisieux is Finance Minister again. Last week at a painful Cabinet session he told Premier Paul-Boncour & Ministers exactly what bitter pills must be swallowed if France is to have a sound, balanced budget again.