Liberalism in the empire of iron: Francois de Wendel 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 achievement. Socialist and syndicalist opponents claimed ii was the result of the autocratic control he and other maitres de forges exercised over voters. This is not true. While Wendel did eventually get the grudging support of some local industrialists, he won chiefly because of the support he received from workers in his and other companies. He was able to profit from the common interests that bound management and French labor 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 Germany. Wendel also received the help of Lorraine's influential Catholic and anti-Semitic Right. His own support of the secular Republic, however, 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 manufacturers could maintain their political influence through free elections within their localities, and modern industrial capitalism find support on the eve of the First World War even within an industrial electorate.