The New International Encyclopædia/Jaurés, Jean Léon

JAURÉS, zhṓ'rắ', Jean Léon (1859—). A French Socialist, born at Castres. He studied at the Lycée Louis le Grand and at the Ecole Normale Supérieure; taught philosophy at Albi (1881-83), and at Toulouse (1883-85); and then entered politics, and was chosen Deputy in 1885. He was at this time a strongly conservative Republican, but after his defeat in 1889 by the monarchist candidate, and his return to Toulouse, he became a Socialist, and in 1893 was returned to the Chamber of Deputies, where he was one of the most prominent of the leaders of the Socialist party until 1898, when he failed of reëlection. The break in the Socialist ranks which followed Millerand's acceptance in 1899 of the Portfolio of Commerce somewhat lessened Jaurés's power, as he attempted to sustain the Government. He took an important part in the movement for revision in the Dreyfus affair; published Les preuves (1900); and, in spite of a bitter attack on him based on the confirmation of his daughter in the Catholic Church (1901), kept his old place as one of the foremost leaders and greatest orators of the Socialist Party. He was reëlected Deputy in 1902.