Word: bill
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Dates: during 1920-1929
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During the absence of the Premier, the Minister of Finance, M. Louis Loucheur, had drawn up a stop-gap financial bill the provisions of which could be justified only by the undoubted fiscal emergency with which France is faced. Of all Frenchmen, M. Briand alone was thought to possess sufficient prestige to jam this bill through the Chamber and Senate. Its provisions : 1) The immediate issue of 7½ billion paper francs by the Bank of France; 6 billions to go to the depleted Treasury, and 1½ billions to supply the needs of commerce...
Article by article the bill was debated, while M. Loucheur, always at disadvantage in public, defended it point by point, for 14 hours, in his high pitched rather squeaky voice...
Ever M. Briand remained with-in call. When the crux of the bill, the 7½ billion franc inflation clause, was about to be put to vote and trembled on the brink of failure, he ascended the tribune again...
Shortly the entire bill passed the Chamber by a majority of 28. Next day it passed the Senate by the overwhelming vote of 205 to 26, while senator after senator declared: "I vote in deference to your judgment, M. Briand." Former President Millerand, who blocked M. Briand's attempts to gain security for France at Cannes, was all but thrust from the Senate when he attacked the bill. The excited senators shouted: "Renegade! . . . Traitor...
President Doumergue signed the bill. It became a law. Frenchmen at length calmed down sufficiently to give a thought to the other matters slated by the Briand Cabinet last week for early attention: 1) Immediate ratification of the Locarno Treaties (shelved during the fiscal squabble but certain to pass with acclaim). 2) Resumption of foreign debt negotiations. 3) Syrian and Moroccan affairs to be peaceably adjusted...