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Barthou (LOUIS a French statesman born)

LOUIS, a French statesman, born in 1862. He entered public life at an early age and occupied many important positions in the French Government, including service as Minister of Public Works and Minister of the Interior. He was appointed Minister of Justice in the first cabinet of President Poincaré in 1913. On the fall of this ministry in March of the same year, he was appointed Premier and Minister of Public Instruction. He was one of the chief figures in the controversy between the French Government and the Roman Catholic Church, on the question of the separation of church and state and was especially zealous in carrying out the legislation passed in order to effect this separation.