In 1873, following the establishment of the
Third Republic in 1870, Waldeck-Rousseau moved to the bar of
Rennes, and six years later was returned to the
Chamber of Deputies. In his electoral program he had stated that he was prepared to respect all liberties except those of conspiracy against the institutions of the country and of educating the young in hatred of the modern social order. In the Chamber he joined the
Republican Union parliamentary group (
Union républicaine) and supported the policy of
Léon Gambetta. The Waldeck-
Rousseau family was strictly Catholic in spite of its republican principles; nevertheless, Waldeck-Rousseau supported the
Jules Ferry laws on public, laic and mandatory education, enacted in 1881–1882. In 1881 he became
minister of the interior in Gambetta's grand ministry. He further voted for the abrogation of the law of 1814 forbidding work on Sundays and fast days, for one year of compulsory military service for seminarists and for the re-establishment of divorce. He made his reputation in the Chamber by a report which he drew up in 1880 on behalf of the committee appointed to inquire into the
French judicial system.
Capital/labour relations His main preoccupation was with the relations between capital and labour, and had a large share in securing the
recognition of trade unions in
1884. He again became minister of the interior in the
Jules Ferry cabinet of 1883–1885, when he showed considerable administrative ability. He sought to put down the system by which civil posts were obtained through the local deputy, and he made it clear that the central authority could not be defied by local officials. Waldeck-Rousseau also introduced the bill which became the 27 May 1885 act establishing
penal colonies, dubbed "Law on relegation of
recidivists", along with
Martin Feuillée. The law was supported by Gambetta and his friend, the criminologist
Alexandre Lacassagne.
Law practice Waldeck-Rousseau had begun to practise at the Paris bar in 1886, and in 1889 he did not seek re-election to the Chamber, but devoted himself to his legal work. The most famous of the many noteworthy cases in which his cold and penetrating intellect and his power of clear exposition were retained was the defense of
Gustave Eiffel in the
Panama scandals of 1893.
Return to political life In 1894 he returned to political life as senator for the department of the
Loire, and next year stood for the
presidency of the republic against
Félix Faure and
Henri Brisson, being supported by the Conservatives, who were soon to be his bitter enemies. He received 184 votes, but retired before the second ballot to allow Faure to receive an absolute majority. During the political crisis of the next few years he was recognized by the
Opportunist Republicans as the successor of Jules Ferry and Gambetta, and at the crisis of 1899 on the fall of the
Charles Dupuy cabinet he was asked by President
Émile Loubet to form a government.
Coalition cabinet After an initial failure he succeeded in forming a coalition cabinet of "Republican Defense", supported by the
Radical-Socialists and the
Socialists, which included such widely different politicians as the Socialist
Alexandre Millerand and the
General de Galliffet, dubbed the "repressor of the
Commune". He himself returned to his former post at the ministry of the interior, and set to work to quell the discontent with which the country was seething, to put an end to the various agitations which under specious pretences were directed against republican institutions (
far-right leagues,
Boulangist crisis, etc.), and to restore independence to the judicial authority. His appeal to all republicans to sink their differences before the common peril met with some degree of success, and enabled the government to allow the second court-martial of
Alfred Dreyfus at Rennes a completely free hand, and then to find a compromise by negotiating a presidential pardon for Dreyfus. Waldeck-Rousseau achieved a considerable personal success in October by his successful intervention in the strikes at
Le Creusot. With the condemnation in January 1900 of
Paul Deroulède and his nationalist followers by the High Court the worst of the danger was past, and Waldeck-Rousseau kept order in Paris without having recourse to irritating displays of force. The Senate was staunch in support of Waldeck-Rousseau, and in the Chamber he displayed remarkable astuteness in winning support from various groups. The Amnesty Bill, passed on 19 December, chiefly through his unwearied advocacy, went far to smooth down the acerbity of the preceding years. With the object of aiding the industry of wine-producing, and of discouraging the consumption of spirits and other deleterious liquors, the government passed a bill suppressing the
octroi duties on the three "hygienic" drinks—
wine,
cider and
beer. The act came into force at the beginning of 1901. A year earlier, in 1900, seats had been mandated for female clerks.
Social policy Various reforms were carried out during the course of Waldeck-Rousseau's premiership. Decrees were issued in August 1899 that obliged the state (and allowing communes and departments) to stipulate conditions of work on public contracts such as periods of rest, hours of work, and regional pay scales, while a Department of Labour was set up that same month. A law of March 1900 introduced an 11-hour day in the manufacturing sector. The daily working hours were set at eight in most postal and telegraph sectors, and the creation of a workers' union was authorized. A weekly rest period was also introduced in state-run institutions. Regional labor councils were also organized via decrees made in September 1900 and January 1901. In February 1902, a major public health law was passed. A law was passed in March 1900 that limited the working hours of female workers and young persons under 18 years of age to 10 daily hours of “travail effectif.” The Higher Council of Labor was turned into a tripartite body composed of employer and worker representatives alongside members of parliament, with the aim to (as noted by one study) “strengthen the fruitful collaboration of workers, employers, and the government" in "scientific inquiries followed by adversarial discussions." Departmental councils were encouraged (as noted by one study) “to introduce direct representatives of employers and workers into the departmental labor commissions associated with the labor inspectorate.” A suggestion to cover the travel expenses of the worker representatives was also accepted by 35 departmental councils.
Associations Bill of 1901 The most important measure of Waldeck-Rousseau's later administration was the
Associations Bill of 1901. With his
anti-clerical sentiment, he was convinced that the stability of the republic demanded restraining religious associations. All previous attempts in this direction had failed. In his speech in the Chamber, Waldeck-Rousseau recalled the fact that he had tried to pass an Associations Bill in 1882 and again in 1883. He declared that religious associations were now being subjected for the first time to the regulations common to all others and that the object of the bill was to ensure the supremacy of the civil power. Royalist sympathies given to the pupils in the religious seminaries was a principal cause of the passing of this bill, and the government took strong measures to secure the presence of officers of undoubted fidelity to the republic in the higher positions on the staff. His speeches on the religious question were published in 1901 under the title of
Associations et congregations, following a volume of speeches on
Questions sociales (1900). All Conservative parties opposed Waldeck-Rousseau's policies, especially the mass closure of church schools, as a persecution of religion. He led the anti-clerical coalition on the left, facing opposition primarily organized by the pro-Catholic
Action libérale populaire, (ALP). The ALP had a stronger popular base, with better financing and a stronger network of newspapers, but had far fewer seats in parliament. As the
general election of 1902 approached, all sections of the Opposition united their efforts under the
Bloc des gauches, and the name of Waldeck-Rousseau served as a battle-cry for one side, and on the other as a target for abuse. The result was a decisive victory for the left and Waldeck-Rousseau considered his task ended. Therefore, on 3 June 1902 he resigned office, having proved himself the "strongest personality in French politics since the death of Gambetta." He emerged from his retirement to protest in the Senate against the construction put on his Associations Bill by
Émile Combes, who refused
en masse the applications of the teaching and preaching congregations for official recognition. ==Death==