DELAFOSSE (Jules). - Lot 92

DELAFOSSE (Jules). Born in Ponfarcy. 1943–1916. Writer, journalist, and politician. M.A.S. “Jules Delafosse.” No place, no date. 4 pages, 3/4 in-8 (glued edges serving as hinges). Enraged by recent political decisions, Delafosse rails against the members of parliament...“Bankruptcy is at your doorstep,” Mirabeau declared at the Constituent Assembly. This rhetorical flourish has remained famous (...). Mirabeau’s successors—that is, the parliamentarians of our time—are well aware of it (...). Bankruptcy is at their very doorstep, yet they deliberate as if they knew nothing of it. In fact, they want nothing to do with it. Bankruptcy is a sinister word that will never find its way into the contrived rhetoric they have made their language. To counter the impending bankruptcy, they resort to taxation and borrowing. Since they have trained their people to endure anything, they are unconcerned about how the people might react to a measure that is, after all, painful... He believes... “When a people has allowed itself to be ensnared in democratic and republican farces, its case is virtually hopeless (...). Only one thing affects it: a dent in its wallet (...). This is precisely the mistake our government is making right now...”Jules Delafosse refers to certain political projects he considers unreasonable... “But then?” Does this mean that the gaping budget deficit will never be closed? I dare not answer that. In the meantime, the government of the Republic, running out of options, is trying to cover it through borrowing. This is, moreover, a sham that not only fails to remedy the deficit but, on the contrary, exacerbates it by creating an additional burden, since the interest on the new debt must be paid—and that is yet another hole in the budget... He then criticizes the proposals put forward by members of parliament... For more than thirty years, the radical and Masonic state has been a cynical exploitation of unchecked appetites and the vices of democracy. Fra Paoli Sarpi said of the rabble: “To silence them, one must stopper their mouths.” To silence them, one must fill their mouths. Radicalism has made this cynical maxim its guiding principle (...). The most certain result of this depravity is the financial crisis against which the frantic debate is now pitting the Republican Party, for electoral campaigns are never free. They are horribly expensive (...). When the demagogues in Parliament pass law after law to improve workers’ conditions and pile up millions upon millions to fund their operations, they do not consider that this unbridled philanthropy is creating deep chasms in the budget that will one day have to be filled by raising taxes... He concludes his text by stating ...It is up to the people of France to get to know them and judge them. But who would dare to say or believe that they will be capable of doing so?...