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Show THE CITIZEN 7 CAILLA UX ON TRIA-LT a secret meeting of the bud- . get committee of the German Reichstag in May, 1916, either or Von Jagow declared that there would be a change of government in France before autumn, that Caillaux would return to power and that then there would be peace. Caillaux is our man, said the speaker. The scene has been described, under oath, by delegates from Alsace-Lorrain- e to the Reichstag and their testimony forms a part of the indictment on which Joseph Caillaux, expremier of France, is being tried before the high court of the French sen-atBeth-mann-Hollw- eg e. Not the least remarkable feature of the trial is the fact that Caillaux, although he has been charged, time and again, with traitorous relations with the German government extending as far back as the Agadir crisis in 1911, is still so much of an enigma that he can plead with much color of confidence that he may have been impulsive and indiscreet, but never disloyal to France. statesman has ever NObeenFrench the target for more charges than Caillaux, but never before has he been compelled to defend himself at the bar of justice. Political treachery, stock gambling, on the basis of government secrets, consorting with infamous swindlers and sharing in their plunder, treason and even murder have been laid at his door. Yet he is able to defy the high court of the senate to convict him on the broad indictment which accuses him of plotting against the external security of the state throughout the war. That he is able still to maintain the demeanor of innocence, although he admits that enemy spies were his companions, is evidence of the ability and cunning which made him minister of finance four times and premier once. would be interesting to learn just IThow to much his influence helped defeat Clemenceau, his president of the republic. He has arch-enem- Caillaux quit the republicans and placed himself at the head of the radical socialists, whose campaign he financed. Between him and the socialists there was nothing in common. Throughout his career he had been a demagogic plutocrat, attaining his objects by the most cynical methods, and it was obvious to Clemenceau and other astute observers that he had become a convert for the sole pur-- , pose of furthering his ambitions. Although Clemenceau' was a practical politician he had principles which he would not sacrifice on the altar of ambition. Caillaux, on the other hand, had proved throughout his public career that his one god was power. He tried to realize life to the full without consideration for any human being who did not minister to his own pleasure, profit or power. y, "The Tiger to blame for his downfall, for it was Clenceau, the patriot, who began the disclosures which culminated in the arrest o f the one man who is accused of having been the chief figure back of the defeatist campaign which almost ruined France. Their enmity had its origin long before that. Caillaux became minister of finance in Clemenceaus cabinet in 1906 and remained in the government until 1909. For years he had been 'fitting money in his purse and surrounding himself with powerful political friends of good and bad repute so that he might become premier and he was restless and dissatisfied that he had been unable to progress farther than the ministry of finance. In 1910 there was an election and who has chronicled the of Caillaux gives the following account of his antecedents and of his early life: Joseph Caillaux was bom March 30, 1863, at Le Mans, of an old French bourgeois family. One of his grandfathers was a member of the French national assembly after the revolution, while another held an imports ant position under Napoleon I. father, Alexandre Caillaux, was a civil engineer and with the Belgian, de Gammond, first proposed building a tunnel under the channel from Dover to Calais. He was for many years chief engineer for the Chemin-de-fe- r de lOuest, but in 1871 went into politics and was minister of public works in that year and minister of finance in the Due de Brogiles cabinet in 1876. Joseph studied law and was admitted to the bar, but chose finance and politics as a career. He inherited a modest fortune from his father and set out to raise it to immense proportions. Starting with a minor administrative position in the ministry of finance in 1888, he succeeded in ONE Cail-laux- attracting the attention of Waldeck-Roussea- u and was successively raised to higher positions until in 1898 he abandoned administrative work and stood for election to the chamber of deputies. The Due de la Rochefoucauld, a royalist, was Caillauxs opponent. Caillaux, running as a republican, was elected by a handsome majority and thereafter continued to represent the Department of the Sarthe in the chamber until his arrest. Once in the chamber his future was assured, for he had the backing of Waldeck-Rous-seawho made him minister of finance in 1899, a position he held until 1902. Up to this time Caillaux had been a comparatively obscure man, but he had been, as he always remained, a tireless worker. By attaching himself to Waldeck-Roussea- u he had laid the sure foundation of political success, and by his operations on the Bourse u, By F. P. Gallagher had greatly increased his fortunes. His purse was ready for a political career when, at the age of thirty-fivhe first entered the chamber. It was a preliminary he had decided upon. e, But his desire for money was not satisfied, and he foresaw the need for a much larger fortune in order to keep the power he intended to seize. OPPONENTS were accustomedCail-to of scorn at laux because he had been a successful trader on the Bourse. Had he quit speculation at the time he became minister of finance there could have been no justification for scandal, but he continued to trade more or less secretly during his term of office and there can be little doubt that his steady winnings were due to the knowledge he obtained througn his position. In the circumstances he did not escape reproach and when his name began to be bandied about in hostile journals Gaston Calmette, of the Figaro, one of his most unsparing critics, had this to say of him: The series of articles we have been devoting to the secret maneuvers and schemes of Mi Caillaux has allowed us to show that the efforts of the minister of finance have constantly been directed to one single object, the quest of money We have shown the damagogic plutocrat (according to the stinging appellation applied to him by M. Briand) on the watch for all the public or private operations which could feed the war treasury on which rests all his fame. We have told of the manipulation on the Bourse which allowed his well informed friends to increase without any risk the mysterious resources which they intend to use for the defense of his disastrous policy, or which they recognize as indispensable for his costly ONE of the strangest features of career is that he seemed to thrive on scandal. Whether this was due to his magnetism and eloquence or to the touch of nature which makes men sympathize with the public official who becomes the target for bitter attack, is a puzzle. Even to this day he has his admirers and who cannot bring themselves to regard him as a demagogue and who believe that he will demonstrate that he is what he feigns to be a pacifist who places the interests of humanity on a par the interests of well-wishe- rs France. But when the impartial cast a glance back over his career, public and private, they can see nothing to convince them that the Joseph Caillaux of today, on trial as a traitor, threatened with the blank wall and the firing squad, is not the logical product of the Joseph Caillaux who began his career by wiping from his slate all the rules of ethics and honor and replacing them with a code of utter selfishness and relentless ambition. love affairs may have differed little from the heart affairs of French statesmen who have escaped notoriety, but they seem to interpret to us his character and to explain HIS his career. During his first term as Minister of Finance he proposed an income tax law. The radicals hailed him as a while the financiers progressive, growled, complained and threatened. He secretly killed his own bill after finessing in such a fashion as to retain his popularity with both factions. A letter which he wrote to his mistress cynically boasting of his cleverness was used against him by Calmette and led to the disaster which wrecked his life. . praise. "We have shown that in the most unexpected administrative deliberations he was the suave and servile captive of the wealthiest foreign financiers; that, like a zealous slave, he sacrificed to them his closest colleagues in cases of disputes; that he insured for himself the continuance of lucrative honorariums and fat salaries, while retaining during his passage to power, in spite of his denials, offices well paid from Cairo and elsewhere. We have proved that in keeping illegally on the list of the Paris market the lottery bonds of the Credit Foncier Egyptien, in causing the laws of France to bowr before a prohibited foreign security in which he was personally interested, this enemy of the savings of the nations and enemy of the safety of the country was also the enemy of justice. It remains now for us to show that, unknown to a parliament which he makes game of by lavishly offering it his injurious subterfuges, M. Caillaux has placed all the power of his ministerial functions at the disposal of a swindler. AMONG the accusations brought was him at that period that he offered to have allowed a claim against the French government for $20,000,000 on condition that he be given the lions share; that he tried to hold up a Paris bank for $80,000, and that he had protected and aided in the escape of Henri Rochette, who swindled the French people out of At that time, too, he was mobbed by the stockholders of the Credit Foncier of Argentina for taking an excessive share of the profits and leaving to them but meager returns. $30,000,000. Caillaux first but almost immediately he fell in love with Mme. Jules Dupre, an unusually beautiful woman, who was the wife of a clerk in the Ministry of Fine Arts. It was to her that Caillaux wrote the letter pluming himself on his finesse in beguiling both the radicals and the financiers in the inwas IT wed, in 1900 that come tax affair. Caillaux and Dupre obtained vorces in 1906. The Minister (Continued on Page 13.) di- of |