Caillaux, Joseph

(1863-1944)

   political leader

   A controversial figure in French politics, Joseph Caillaux was born in Le Mans. He was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1898 and, as a member of the Radical socialist Party, served three times as minister of finance between 1899 and 1911. Later, as prime minister (1911-12), he won Germany's agreement to a French protectorate over Morocco. As finance minister again (1913-14), he sponsored passage of France's first income tax law. In 1914 his wife, in a famous incident, shot and killed the editor of le Figaro, gaston calmette, for having published personal letters written by Caillaux. Caillaux resigned from the government to defend her at her trial, and won an acquittal. During World War I, Caillaux favored a negotiated peace with Germany and, for that reason, was accused by the premier, georges Clemenceau, of treasonable correspondence with the enemy. Found guilty by a high court, he was imprisoned from 1918 to 1920. Later amnestied, Caillaux subsequently returned to the government as a senator (1925) and again as finance minister (1925, 1926, and 1935). He is the author of his Mémoires.