1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Jaurès, Jean

JAURÈS, JEAN (1859-1914), French Socialist leader (see 15.283), was already in 1910 the recognized leader of the Unified Socialists in the Chamber of Deputies. He continued to play a prominent part in International Socialist politics, striving to arrange concerted action of the working classes to make wars impossible by means of general strikes. He was the most active and effective critic of the three-years Military Service Law and other measures by which France sought in 1913 to meet German war preparations. He was assassinated July 31 1914.