Paris 1935: Destiny's Crossroads

Café de la Paix

  Wednesday evening, July 17. Dexter walked up the boulevard des Capuchines towards Place de l’Opéra. Approaching the corner, he turned underneath the sidewalk awnings of the Café de la Paix, walked through the open front doors, and headed towards the bar. At one end, where the bar smoothly curved in a turn to meet the ornately gilded walls, sat a rumpled newsman, his fedora pushed back on his head, tie askew, nursing a drink.

  Dexter sat down, nodded at the barman, and asked the newsman, “What do you hear, Phil?”

  The newsman, the Paris reporter for a big New York daily, nodded at a radio sitting on the shelf behind the bar and said, “We can listen to the premier give his radio address right here, glass in hand,” and then called lightly to the barman, “Right, Pierre?”

  The barman smiled and said, “For our best customers, of course.”

  Dexter responded, “Great. You look bushed.”

  “Spent the day all over town talking to people inside and outside the government about the budget.”

  “And?”

  “Everyone across the political spectrum compliments Laval on the thoroughness and completeness of his program, the scrupulous respect for the general above the particular. There’s something for everyone to like about the program—and something for everyone to dislike.”

  “So he achieved equality of sacrifice?”

  “Well, at least equality of dissatisfaction.”

  Dexter laughed. “What about the overall program?”

  The newsman turned thoughtful. “If defending the franc is the goal, then he has succeeded far better than anyone thought possible. All day, people have remarked to me about Laval’s competence.”

  Dexter said, “Well, that was what the Chamber of Deputies voted him to do as premier.”

  The newsman grunted, “That’s what the Two Hundred Families wanted. Preserve wealth, put the burden of austerity on the people.”

  The newsman added, “But I think Laval’s doing a great job fighting the wrong war very well. Your leader, President Roosevelt,” and he nodded and looked at Dexter, assigning ownership of the president to the diplomat, “went the other way. He devalued the dollar forty percent against gold. Sat in his bathtub every morning and worked out the day’s gold price with his treasury secretary.”

  Dexter smiled and nodded in agreement remembering Roosevelt’s bold action.

  The newsman voiced the popular opinion, “Roosevelt works for the people, not the high-hat crowd.”

  Dexter asked, “What do the parties of the Left think?”

  The newsman looked at Dexter. “That’s very interesting. Publicly they are of course opposed to the wage reductions. But they look at the sweeping powers the state has taken to regulate the economy. They love the precedent. They believe they are coming to power in next May’s elections. They will use the same powers to implement their program.”

  Dexter was impressed with the insight and said, “So you don’t think there will be big street demonstrations?”

  “Not as big as people think.”

  Dexter took a drink and turned thoughtful and murmured, “Interesting.”

  The newsman knocked back his drink. “French politics is always that,” and nodded at the barman for a refill.

  The barman refilled the newsman’s glass, then turned to the radio and switched it on. Hearing the crackle come out of the radio, other people crowded up to the bar. After a fanfare, Premier Laval began to speak. He appealed for acceptance of the program in a spirit of cooperation, that the sacrifices were necessary for the good of the nation.

  The premier’s voice continued in a sonorous appeal. He asked his fellow citizens to remember that other countries were watching France and that unity in facing the crisis would improve France’s standing in the community of nations. Everyone listening knew he meant Germany.

  The premier concluded, “If I had done nothing, I would have failed in my duty and all would have been victims of my weakness.”

  Dexter silently nodded in agreement and thought to himself, “Yes, victims of weakness. The big danger.”

  The announcer came back on; Dexter turned to the newsman. “Very impressive. He will have the country with him.”

  The newsman said, “For awhile.”

  Dexter clapped the newsman on the back, called the barman for the tab, pulled out some franc notes and left a generous tip on the tray.

  Turning to the newsman, Dexter asked, “What do your sources say, Phil?”

  The newsman said, “Big demonstration on the Place de l’Opéra Friday night,” and the newsman nodded towards the square just beyond the windows.

  Dexter replied, “Right,” and stood up to leave.

  The newsman called after him, “Here’s a tip, Dexter. Save yourself some time. You can read about it in the papers Saturday morning.”

  Dexter turned back and smiled at him while giving him a farewell wave.