intention than that of conciliating the public of his own day.
JAURÈS, JEAN LÉON (1859- ), French Socialist leader, was born at
Castres (Tarn) on the 3rd of September 1859. He was educated at the
lycée Louis-le-Grand and the école normale supérieure, and took his
degree as associate in philosophy in 1881. After teaching philosophy for
two years at the lycée of Albi (Tarn), he lectured at the university of
Toulouse. He was elected republican deputy for the department of Tarn in
1885. In 1889, after unsuccessfully contesting Castres, he returned to
his professional duties at Toulouse, where he took an active interest in
municipal affairs, and helped to found the medical faculty of the
university. He also prepared two theses for his doctorate in philosophy,
_De primis socialismi germanici lineamentis apud Lutherum, Kant, Fichte
et Hegel_ (1891), and _De la réalité du monde sensible_. In 1902 he gave
energetic support to the miners of Carmaux who went out on strike in
consequence of the dismissal of a socialist workman, Calvignac; and in
the next year he was re-elected to the chamber as deputy for Albi.
Although he was defeated at the elections of 1898 and was for four years
outside the chamber, his eloquent speeches made him a force in politics
as an intellectual champion of socialism. He edited the _Petite
République_, and was one of the most energetic defenders of Captain
Alfred Dreyfus. He approved of the inclusion of M. Millerand, the
socialist, in the Waldeck-Rousseau ministry, though this led to a split
with the more revolutionary section led by M. Guesde. In 1902 he was
again returned as deputy for Albi, and during the Combes administration
his influence secured the coherence of the radical-socialist coalition
known as the _bloc_. In 1904 he founded the socialist paper,
_L'Humanité_. The French socialist groups held a congress at Rouen in
March 1905, which resulted in a new consolidation; the new party, headed
by MM. Jaurès and Guesde, ceased to co-operate with the radicals and
radical-socialists, and became known as the unified socialists, pledged
to advance a collectivist programme. At the general elections of 1906 M.
Jaurès was again elected for the Tarn. His ability and vigour were now
generally recognized; but the strength of the socialist party, and the
practical activity of its leader, still had to reckon with the equally
practical and vigorous liberalism of M. Clemenceau. The latter was able
to appeal to his countrymen (in a notable speech in the spring of 1906)
to rally to a radical programme which had no socialist Utopia in view;
and the appearance in him of a strong and practical radical leader had
the result of considerably diminishing the effect of the socialist
propaganda. M. Jaurès, in addition to his daily journalistic activity,
published _Les preuves; affaire Dreyfus_ (1900); _Action socialiste_
(1899); _Études socialistes_ (1902), and, with other collaborators,
_Histoire socialiste_ (1901), &c.
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