So look in the face!

Someone asked the other day how many kinds of socialists there were in the area. I tried to answer him:

First there are the independent socialists, like Mr. Painlevé; secondly the French socialists, like Mr. Levasseur....

So there are socialists in France who are not French?
If you start interrupting me, I'll never get to the end. Thirdly, here are the S. F. I. O., or, if you prefer, the “Unified”, who continue to call themselves that out of the most touching obstinacy or the most courageous hope; these are the socialists grouped around Léon Blum and Paul-Boncour; this is the heart of the future reconstituted socialist party...

So what is he waiting for to reconstitute himself?
He is undoubtedly waiting for the other socialists' eyes to open, and it is not his fault if they remain closed. But where was I with my enumeration? Ah! fourthly, non-Moscow communist socialists, like Bracke. Fifth, pure communists, so named because they communicate with no one, Cachin adds.

Have these people never had any relationship?
But if! Until recently, not very long ago, they formed a large party proud of its strength, which precisely valued its unity.

Don't they at least have enough political sense to march together into the electoral battle?
First, there are some who have made any alliance impossible by shouting loudly that they only intend to receive their “directives from Moscow. As for the others, we hardly see what distinguishes and divides them, other than capital letters variously grouped and, beneath these capital letters, tiny grievances. But it is probably with the socialist as with Hesiod's potter, who begins by envying the potter; the fact remains that true socialists recognize themselves by this sign that it is absolutely impossible for them to associate with. They preach the union of all men, which will cure all ills; but they have no intention of setting an example. By condemning bourgeois anarchy, they want to clearly establish that when it comes to anarchy they can do much better than the bourgeois. And they do, in fact, much better. Too bad if the Republic dies.

But the left-wing cartel?
See what socialist anarchy has done in certain cantons: it is the fragmentation of democratic forces, defeat assured. Sometimes it even seems like it is methodically prepared. On the part of these men who claim to represent or who aspire to represent the interests of the people, we cannot imagine such ignorance of the most obvious interests of the people themselves: because the first is not to have a voice in the chapter and to impose one's sovereign will by force of numbers? These little electoral games, which multiply the lists, are only that of the Billet and its bosses or the like. When I see a Colrat in the other camp. blessed by Poincaré, kiss Tardieu on the mouth, I assure you that this spectacle, as joyful as it appears, does not rejoice in any way...

Gustave Téry