French socialist and politician, born in Paris on the 10th of February 1859. He was educated for the bar, and made his reputation by his defence, in company with Georges Laguerre, of Ernest Roche and Duc-Quercy, the instigators of the strike at Decazeville in 1883; he then took Laguerre’s place on M. Clemenceau’s paper, La Justice. He was elected to the Chamber of Deputies for the department of the Seine in 1885 as a radical socialist. He was associated with MM. Clemenceau and Camille Pelletan as an arbitrator in the Carmaux strike (1892). He had long had the ear of the Chamber in matters of social legislation, and after the Panama scandals had discredited so many politicians his influence grew. He was chief of the Socialist left, which then mustered sixty members, and edited until 1896 their organ in the press, La Petite République. His programme included the collective ownership of the means of production and the international association of labour, but when in June 1899 he entered Waldeck-Rousseau’s cabinet of “republican defence” as minister of commerce he limited himself to practical reforms, devoting his attention to the improvement of the mercantile marine, to the development of trade, of technical education, of the postal system, and to the amelioration of the conditions of labour. Labour questions were entrusted to a separate department, the Direction du Travail, and the pension and insurance office was also raised to the status of a “direction.” The introduction of trades-union representatives on the Supreme Labour Council, the organization of local labour councils, and the instructions to factory inspectors to put themselves in communication with the councils of the trades-unions, were valuable concessions to labour, and he further secured the rigorous application of earlier laws devised for the protection of the working-classes. His name was especially associated with a project for the establishment of old age pensions, which became law in 1905. He became in 1898 editor of La Lanterne. His influence with the extreme Socialists had already declined, for it was said that his departure from the true Marxist tradition had disintegrated the party.
For his administration in the Waldeck-Rousseau cabinet see A. Lavy, L’Œuvre de Millerand (1902); his speeches between 1899 and 1907 were published in 1907 as Travail et travailleurs.
Millerand was included in the Briand Ministry of July 1909 with the portfolio of Public Works, and in the Poincaré Ministry of January 1912 he became Minister of War. He resumed this portfolio when, immediately after the outbreak of war in 1914, the Prime Minister, Viviani, desired to strengthen his team. He was Minister of War during the most difficult period when, after the first battle of the Marne, the Government had to have recourse to all sorts of improvisations in order to make good the deficiencies revealed in the country’s military equipment. His administration was severely criticised by Clemenceau on account of the muddle and mismanagement which ruled the army medical services. He was also criticised with some vehemence for the delays in producing the right kind of shell and gun in adequate quantities. His extremely dogged character enabled him to withstand the many parliamentary attacks made upon his political position, and his departure from the War Office only took place when Delcassé’s resignation brought about that of the whole Viviani Ministry in 1915. For the rest of the war he devoted himself to relief work, and went back to his very large practice at the bar. After the Armistice M. Clemenceau appointed him to the posts of Commissioner-General of the Republic at Strasbourg and Administrator of Alsace-Lorraine. These posts he filled with great distinction and ability. In the elections of 1919 he played the chief part in constituting the national bloc with which the moderate parties successfully fought the elections. When Clemenceau resigned Millerand formed the new Government. He was called upon to play a big part in the protracted inter-Allied negotiations with regard to the application of the Treaty of Versailles. His political prestige grew steadily during office, and when M. Deschanel was forced to resign the presidency of the republic he succeeded him as President, being elected by 695 votes out of 892 on September 23, 1920.
