BLUM (Léon). Autograph manuscript. July 1936.... Lot 7

BLUM (Léon). Autograph manuscript. [July 1936]. 4 pp. 1/2 in-folio and 2 pp. in-8 oblong, mainly in ink, with passages in pencil; erasures and corrections including a passage entirely rewritten on a separate sheet. PRECIOUS DRAFT OF THE FAMOUS SPEECH DELIVERED BY LÉON BLUM ON JULY 14, 1936 IN FRONT OF A MILLION PEOPLE GATHERED AT THE PLACE DE LA NATION, DURING THE POPULAR FRONT DEMONSTRATION. The legislative elections of April-May 1936 had just brought the Popular Front to power and allowed Léon Blum to become President of the Council. "Citizens, comrades and friends, we were all here a year ago. All together we took the same oath. THE OATH WAS KEPT. IT WAS KEPT BY THE POPULAR MASSES who, in an effort of decision and discipline almost without example, affirmed their sovereign will on April 26 and May 3 last. IT WAS BY THE PARLIAMENTARY MAJORITY AND THE GOVERNMENT that came out of this verdict. It was, and it will be. THE OATH IMPOSED ON US FIRST OF ALL THE UNION, AND THE UNION IS COMPLETE. You have just had one more solemn testimony of it. Whether or not they are in the Government, all the parties and organizations that make up the People's Rally have collaborated wholeheartedly in the common work in the Parliament or in the country... I have the right... to express my pride and joy to them. The country had wanted this union. IT IS THIS UNION THAT HAS ENABLED US TO OBTAIN THE RESULTS WE HAVE ACHIEVED SO FAR... At the end of fifteen days, BOTH CHAMBERS HAVE VOTED A SET OF SOCIAL LAWS which... represent something more than a reform, since they mark a change... THE PARAMILITARY LEAGUES WERE DISSOLVED. From this week, the House will deliberate on THE NATIONALIZATION OF THE WAR INDUSTRIES AND ON THE COMPLETE REVISION OF THE STATUTE OF THE BANQUE DE FRANCE, while the amnesty, THE PROLONGATION OF SCHOOLING, the institution of the Wheat Board, THE REPRESSION OF TAX EVASION will be submitted to the Senate for approval. Immediately afterwards will come the plan of great works, the organization of credit for small and medium-sized commerce, for small and medium-sized industry, the same ones that will ensure the control of prices, especially the retail prices for foodstuffs, those that will make it possible to reopen to a worried youth the access to public administrations. When the Chambers separate, they will have already translated into reality the greater part of that common program which has enabled us to win the electoral victory together. We will have built together the most significant work that has been attempted in this country since the beginning of the Third Republic..."