LIBERALISM IN THE EMPIRE OF IRON - DEWEND EL,FRANCOIS AND INDUSTRIAL LORRAINE, 1900-1914

Francois de Wendel's election to the Chamber of Deputies in 1914 in a largely industrial working class area was a great political achievemen t. Socialist and syndicalist opponents claimed ii was the result of th e autocratic control he and other maitres de forges exercised over vot ers. This is not true. While Wendel did eventually get the grudging su pport of some local industrialists, he won chiefly because of the supp ort he received from workers in his and other companies. He was able t o profit from the common interests that bound management and French la bor in industrial Lorraine. His own workers were won over by generous paternalistic programs, while those in neighboring companies supported his progressiste program that favored a conciliatory attitude towards the Church, and support in this border region of the army against Ger many. Wendel also received the help of Lorraine's influential Catholic and anti-Semitic Right. His own support of the secular Republic, howe ver, won him the votes of many moderate republicans as well Wendel was thus able to win in 1914, after several previous defeats, despite the opposition of the Prefect, Albert Lebrun and his powerful Federation republicaine. His victory demonstrated the extent to which manufacture rs could maintain their political influence through free elections wit hin their localities, and modern industrial capitalism find support on the eve of the First World War even within an industrial electorate.