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Socialist Ten Commandments. First job of the incoming Chamber last week was to elect as its President (Speaker) huge, pipe-sucking Edouard Herriot, the perpetual Mayor of Lyons who year after year keeps reminding Frenchmen that they ought to pay their War debts to the U. S.— Next the new Cabinet presented itself amid deafening cheers from the Radical Socialists, Socialists and Communists. Then to his one remaining foot leaped war veteran Deputy Xavier Vallat. "This is the first time," he cried, "that our old Gallo-Roman country of France will be governed by a Jew!"
At once flushed President Herriot forced Deputy Vallat to modify his words into the more parliamentary form. "For the first time France will have its Disraeli! .. . I do not forget the valor of Jewish soldiers during the War, but I want to say what many people are thinking, our French peasants would rather be governed by a man of their own sturdy race than by a great intelligence which has been nurtured on the Talmud!" Other deputies not of the Left proceeded to chime in and soon new Premier Leon Blum had become so embarrassed that he withdrew briefly from the Chamber while gentile Edouard Herriot bellowed at the top of his great voice: "There are no Jews here, no Protestants, no Catholics—but only Frenchmen!"
Since everyone knew that votes and not Jew-baiting alone counted, the Chamber settled down and ultimately voted confidence 384-to-210 in the new Cabinet. This powerful support was given Premier Blum after he had in effect handed the Deputies a sheaf of Socialist Ten Commandments. Specifically the Chamber and Senate were notified that the Blum Cabinet intends to keep them in session until they have enacted: 1) Nationalization of French war industries; 2) the 40-hour week for all French workers; 3) the right of Collective Contract for workers bargaining with their employers; 4) compulsory annual vacations with full pay; 5) creation of employment by nationwide public works; 6) extension of the French compulsory public school system; 7) creation of state boards to increase French agricultural prices, starting with wheat; 8) repeal of numerous decree laws displeasing to the Socialists and Communists which were enacted under former Premier Pierre Laval (TIME, Dec. 16); 9) political amnesty and finally, 10) reform of the statutes of the Bank of France "to guarantee the preponderance of national interests in its managements." This last meant on its face that the famed "200 Families" who have long been accused of dominating France largely through control of its central bank and immensely complicated interlocking directorates are now to be scotched. Very many of them are Jews. They seemed last week to be the least worried of any French employers, to judge from the way in which they rebuffed strikers. Almost as one man members of the ''200 Families'' who own the heavy and munitions industries of France refused to grant the 10% wage uppings other employers were widely granting. Accustomed to smash others, they seemed to be waiting for Leon Blum & Friends to try to smash them, daring the new Cabinet to try.