WHO IS M. LOUBET?

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 82, 8 April 1899, Page 1 (Supplement)

WHO IS M. LOUBET?

PERSONAL D£TA}LS,

: Ticre can be no doubt that many Congressmen were largely influenced to vote for M. Loubet because of bis simple manners and general lack of pretentiousness. The late President's inclination to ape Royal state was a constant irritation to Parliamentarian visitors to the Elysee. 'What we want,' said a voter on.: Saturday, is a President who will not be too fine to jump on a 'bus when he gets caught in the rain. Also a man without any sort of past, political, financial, or even domestic' M. Loubet s. past is open to all. You. can read . every line of it in 'Men of the Time. There is nought sub rosa. • . The new President belongs, liKe :■;; Eaiire, to the middle-class Provincials who—solid and reliable—are the leal' backbone of France. His father was a well-to-do farmer. His bro-ther-in-law is a prosperous ironmonger at Montelimar. Emile Loubet Wanted.to be a farmer, but his father thought him out of the common, and insisted on bringing him up as an avocat. He fully justified family ex-

pectations, and in due course became a prominent public man. But success never altered his bourgeoise tastes. Even his enemies on the press (and they are numerous) admit that his tastes are thoroughly domestic. He dislikes showy society, likes to spend his evenings at l\ome, and is a great reader. He is not rich, neither does he covet wealth nor honours, but he is notoriously strong in financial questions. M. Loubet has lived many years in aa unpretentious flat in suburban Paris, and dined off white oil-cloth in the place of a linen tablecloth. His hands are, figuratively speaking, clean, but his beard and clothes are untidy, thus contrasting with Felix Faure. The family of the President are by no means overjoyed at his prospective grandeur, and he himself takes matters very soberly. 'There will,' he said to his exultant private secretary, 'be more worry than honour, and more tinsel than true glory.' His old mothers heart sank Avhen she heard that he might next day be head of the State. To be Mayor of Montelimar, Senator of the Drome, and President of the Senate was surely enough to satisfy any reasonably ambitious man. However, she was too far off to understand exactly how things, were,- and therefore thought it better to give no advice. Madame Loubet's brother, M. Picard, the ironmonger at Montelimar, was seriously dismayed at the prospects of his brother-in-law's further elevation. He knew that it would lead all the office-seekers in the Department to assail him with begging letters for his patronage. All this, of course, is very French —very provincial French. The narrow, respectable lives of such folk run in clear-cut grooves, and to be hustled out of them—even though it means social promotion—is discomforting. Though M. Loubet has never publicly said a word on the Dreyfus case the Anti-Semites are furious at his election, and their newspapers on Sunday morning virulently abused him. That the 'Echo de Paris,' as mouthpiece of the discredited Quesnay. dc Beaurepaire, should formulate a lot of inane charges against the new President is natural enough. No one outside Bedlam will notice them. Neither do the savage screeds of Rochefort, nor the pedantic jeremiads of .lules Lemaitre carry weigh*t with Paris as they once did. The 'Intransigeant' has quite outdone itself with elegant objurgations over the election. Here is a charinng pas-

sage:— 'Elected as he is by the scunp of the people, by men illegally acquitted of odious crimes, by Panamists and by Dreyfusards, Loubet has no right to be honest, even if he wished to be so. He is the prisoner of the salaried menials of the Syndicate, and I have no doubt that last night the Hie dv Diable was illuminated, for Loubet did not fail, I feel certain, to telegraph to his friend the traitor a record of the victory which so deeply interests them both.'