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"Inflation will come within six weeks," M. Daladier told the Chamber Finance Commission, "unless the budget is balanced!" " Inflation is preferable," retorted M. Blum in his newspaper the Populaire, "to such budgetary deflation as Daladier pro poses."
Lobbying busily, the Premier appealed to all factions in the Chamber to support his Cabinet and by so doing bolster the franc. "Only today," he cried, "200,000,000 francs in gold have been withdrawn from the Bank of France!" At M. Blum the Premier shouted that, if defeated, he would go to the nation and tell the voters of France that their budget had been wrecked "because of the obstinacy and intriguing of the Socialists on whom the full responsibility must rest!" Frenchmen had only academic interest in the armament trust. But they cared vitally about new taxation. Officials called out the police and the Garde Républicaine, who with steel helmets, bayonets and barricades of auto buses, protected the Chamber from an angry mob. Within sound of their cries, the Deputies acted quickly. Premier Daladier was defeated 329-241.