THE SOCIALIST PARTY OF FRANCE
I
The Commune abruptly put an end to Socialism in France. The caldron
boiled over and put out the fire. Thiers, in his last official message
as president, claimed that Socialism, living and thriving in Germany,
was absolutely dead in France. It was, however, to be revived in a
newer and more vital form.
The exiled communards, in England and elsewhere, came in contact with
Marxianism, and in 1880, when a general amnesty was declared, they
brought to Paris a new and virile propaganda. The leader of the new
Marxian movement was Jules Guesde, a tireless zealot, burning with the
fire that kindles enthusiasm.
The "affaire Boulanger" absorbed attention at this time, and Guesde,
in his newspapers, _La Revolution Francaise_ and _Egalite_, supported
the Republic. But he was also insisting upon "Le minimum d'etat et la
maximum de liberte" (a minimum of government and a maximum of
liberty). This may be taken as the political maxim of the Socialists
at that time, although it leads them into the embarrassing anomaly of
using their own slave as their master.
Meantime a political labor party had arisen. In Paris, in 1878, a
workingman became a candidate for the municipal council, and he headed
his program with the words "_Parti Ouvrier_"--Labor Party. This is
the first time the words were used with a political significance.[1]
It was a small beginning, his votes were few, and the newspaper that
espoused the workingman's cause, _Le Proletaire_, was constantly on
the verge of bankruptcy for want of proletarian support. In other
cities the political labor movement began, and in 1879 a labor
conference was held in Marseilles.
The two movements, labor and Socialist, drew together in 1880 at a
general conference of workingmen at Havre. Here there were three
groups which found it impossible to coalesce: the Anarchists, under
Blanqui, formed the "Parti Socialiste Revolutionnaire"--the
Revolutionary Socialist Party; the co-operativists, calling themselves
the Republican Socialist Alliance, included the opportunist element of
the Socialists; and the Guesdists, who were in the majority, organized
the "Parti Ouvrier Francais"--the French Labor Party--and adopted a
Marxian program.
The Guesdists entered the campaign with characteristic zeal. They
polled only 15,000 votes in Paris and 25,000 in the Departments for
their municipal tickets, and 50,000 in the entire country for their
legislative ticket.
From the first the Socialists in France have been rent by petty
factions. We will hastily review these constantly shifting groups
before proceeding to the larger inquiry.
In 1882 the Guesdists split, and Brousse formed the "Federation des
Travailleurs Socialistes de France"--the Federation of Socialist
Workingmen of France. In 1885 Malon formed a group for the study of
the social problems, "Societe d'Economie Sociale"--Society of Social
Economics--which rapidly developed into the important group of
Independent Socialists--"Parti Socialiste Independent." The labor
movement was stimulated by the act of 1884, and in 1886 the
"Federation des Syndicats"--Federation of Labor Unions--was organized
at Lyons, and in 1887 the Paris Labor Exchange--"Bourse du
Travail"--was opened.
In 1882 Allemane seceded from the Broussists to found a faction of his
own, the Revolutionary Socialist Labor Party of France--"Parti Ouvrier
Socialiste Revolutionnaire Francais." In 1893 the first confederation
of the labor exchanges (bourses) was held, and the first conspicuous
victory at the polls achieved.
In 1899 an effort was made to unify the warring factions, and a
committee representing every shade of Socialistic faith was appointed.
It was called the General Committee--"Comite General Socialiste."
Within the year the Guesdists withdrew on account of the rigorous
quelling of the strike riots by the government at Chalons-sur-Saone.
In 1901 the Blanquists withdrew and, coalescing with the Guesdists,
formed the Socialist Party of France--"Parti Socialiste de France."
This movement was soon followed by the uniting of the Jauresites and
the Independents, who called themselves the French Socialist
Party--"Parti Socialiste Francais."
After the expulsion of Millerand, the two parties united in 1905 at
Rouen. This unity was achieved at the suggestion of the International
Congress held at Amsterdam, 1904. The "United Party" is officially
known as the French Section of the International Workingmen's
Association--"Section Francaise de l'Internationale Ouvriere."
The United Party, after its years of ridiculous factionalism, is the
most compact and disciplined group in the Chamber of Deputies, and
this in spite of the fact that the Guesdists and Jauresites have not
forgotten their ancient differences. The French people are not
amenable to discipline and party rigor as are the Germans and the
Anglo-Saxons. At the last election (1910) the United Party elected 76
deputies in a chamber of 590 members.
There are to-day two other groups that are more or less Socialistic
but are not in "the Party." The Independent Socialists, numbering
thirty-four members in the Chamber, are men who, either because of
their intellectualism or because of their political ambitions, have a
repugnance to hard and fast organization. This group includes a number
of college professors and journalists; also Briand, Viviani, and
Millerand, former ministers. They are not committed to any definite
political program, take a leading part in all social reform measures,
and are accused by the "united ones" of using the name Socialist
merely as a bait for votes.
The other group is the Socialist-Radical Party, numbering about 250
members in the Chamber. In most countries their radicalism would be
called Socialism. But in France they are only the connecting link
between Socialists and liberal Republicans.[2]
II
The "social questions" were slow in entering parliament. In 1876 a
Bonapartist deputy, known for his charities, interpolated the
government, asking what inquiries were being made toward securing the
moral and material betterment of "the greatest number," and amidst the
cheers of his followers the Prime Minister replied that the
government's duty was comprehended in securing to the country
"liberty, security, and education." This was the old idea of the
functions of government. The new social movement had not yet gathered
momentum.
With the development of the workingman's political party, interest and
sympathy for his problems suddenly increased. In 1880 the Republicans
adopted a resolution in favor of freedom of association. At this time
labor unions were illegal. In 1881 the government removed the
restrictions that had been placed on the press. In the following year
it extended the primary schools into every commune, and Gambetta did
everything in his power to promulgate what he termed "an alliance of
the proletariat and the bourgeois." Social science, he said, was the
solvent of social ills. The Socialists, however, believed that
politics, not "social science," was the solvent.
It was not until 1884, while Waldeck-Rousseau was Minister of the
Interior, that labor was given the legal right to organize.
Immediately unions--called _syndicats_ by the French--sprang up
everywhere. Article 3 of the act declared that these unions had for
their exclusive object "the study and the promulgation of their
interests, economic, industrial, commercial, and agricultural." They
were not given the liberal legal powers that English and American
unions have.
The social movement now invaded French politics in full battle array.
A government commission was intrusted with the study of the
co-operative movement. In 1885 several deputies, calling themselves
Socialists, began to interpellate the ministry on the labor questions.
The government brought in two proposals, one pertaining to communal
and industrial organizations, the other to the arbitration of
industrial disputes. Both were tabled.
In 1887 a man appeared in the Chamber ready to debate the social
questions with the keenest and the ablest. This was Jean Jaures, a
professor of philosophy, whose profound knowledge and superb oratory
immediately commanded attention. He was joined by another new deputy,
M. Millerand, scarcely less proficient in debate, and even more
extreme in his convictions. Both were considered members of the
radical party. But they soon formed the nucleus of a new group, the
Independent Socialists, that grew rapidly in influence and power.
The social question was forced on the public from yet another
direction. The Anarchists, who had been expelled from the Havre
conference, remained passive until the organization of trade unions.
They then began to promulgate the doctrine of the general strike. The
unionists began not only to compel their employers to accede to their
demands, but to coerce workingmen to join the unions. It was during
this agitation that the government established an elaborate system of
labor exchanges--"Bourse du Travail."
From the labor unions the doctrine of the general strike was
insinuated into Socialist circles. In 1890 it was proposed as a
practical measure for enforcing the demand for an eight-hour day among
the miners. In 1892 the Departmental Congress of Workingmen at Tours
passed a resolution favoring the general strike, and it was discussed
a few days later in a general convention of the unions, at the
suggestion of Aristide Briand, a Socialist who was destined to play an
important role in the development of the theory and practice of
general strikes.
The government could no longer dodge the social question. Millerand
announced his conversion to Socialism and became the leader of a small
parliamentary coterie who pressed the issue daily. In a signed
statement to the unions they said: "The Republic has given the ballot
into your hand, now give the Republic your instructions."[3] The
parliamentary _entente_ of the liberal Socialists with the Radical
Left dates from this time. The campaign spread with surprising fervor.
Labor unions and parliamentary Socialists joined their forces. In 1893
they elected forty Socialists to the Chamber of Deputies. Among them
were Jaures, who now espoused the cause of the Socialist opportunists;
Millerand, conspicuous as leader of the independent group; Guesde, the
vehement Marxian; and Vaillant, a communard and Socialist of the older
type.
Now began the actual parliamentary Socialism in France. Jaures, in
introducing the group--they were scarcely a party--to the Chamber,
affirmed their allegiance to the Republic and their devotion to the
cause of humanity. The misery of the people had awakened, he said,
after right of association had been granted. Labor had, through
strikes, gained certain minor improvements. It was now prepared to
conquer public authority. But so much of their time was spent in
quarreling with each other, and debating whether they should vote with
the Radicals, that very little substantial work was accomplished by
the Socialists.
Finally, encouraged by their unusual success in the municipal
elections of 1896, the leaders of the various factions met at
Saint-Mande to celebrate their victory. They were tiring of their
quarrels and were ready to unite. At least they agreed that each group
could name its own candidate for the first ballot; on the second
ballot they should all support the Socialist who polled the most votes
on the first ballot.[4]
But who is a Socialist? Here for the first time a political definition
was attempted. Millerand, a Parisian lawyer who, we have seen, made
his political debut with Jaures, as a member of the Radical Left,
attempted the answer. It was made in the presence of Guesde, Vaillant,
and Jaures, and many local leaders from various parts of France. So,
for the moment and for the occasion of rejoicing, there was a united
Socialism. And it gave assent, with varying enthusiasm, to the general
definition and program outlined by Millerand. He defined the ground to
be covered as follows:
"Is not the Socialistic idea completely summed up in the earnest
desire to secure for every being in the bosom of society the
unimpaired development of his personality? That implies two necessary
conditions of which one is a factor of the other: first, individual
appropriation of things necessary for the security and development of
the individual, i.e., property; secondly, liberty, which is only a
sounding and hollow word if it is not based on and safeguarded by
property."
He then accepted _in toto_ the Marxian theory that capitalistic
society bears within itself the enginery of its own doom. "Men do not
and will not set up collectivism; it is setting itself up daily; it
is, if I may be allowed the phrase, being secreted by the capitalistic
regime. Here I seem to have my finger on the characteristic feature of
the Socialist program. In my view, whoever does not admit the
necessary and progressive replacement of capitalistic property by
social property is not a Socialist."
Millerand was not satisfied with merely including banking, railroads,
and mining in the list of "socialized" property. He believed that as
industries become "ripe" they should be taken over by the state, and
cites sugar refining as an example of a monopoly that is
"incontestably ripe." Millerand also laid great stress on municipal
activities, and hastened to guarantee to the small property owner his
modest possessions. All this taking over by the state was to be done
gradually. "No Socialist ever dreamed of transforming the capitalistic
regime instantaneously by magic wand." The method of this gradual
absorption by the state must be constitutional. "We appeal only to
universal suffrage. To realize the immediate reforms capable of
relieving the lot of the working class, and thus fitting it to win its
own freedom, and to begin, as conditioned by the nature of things, the
socialization of the means of production, it is necessary and
sufficient for the Socialist party to endeavor to capture the
government through universal suffrage."[5]
This mild formulary, which places the "socialized society" far into
the dim future, was accepted as long as it was rhetorical. But when
Millerand himself became a member of the cabinet in the
Waldeck-Rousseau coalition, and began to translate his words into
deeds, a rupture followed.
In the meantime occurred the Dreyfus affair, which shifted all the
political forces of the Republic. At first the Guesdists remained
indifferent, while Jaures, with great energy, threw himself into the
contest in behalf of Dreyfus. But when the affair took an
anti-Republican turn and democracy was threatened, then all the
Socialists united, with no lack of energy and zeal, in the defense of
the Republic. On June 13, 1898, Millerand was spokesman in the Chamber
of Deputies for the Socialist group, which now held the balance of
power. With threats of violence against the Republic in the air, he
assured the deputies that his comrades were united for "the honor, the
splendor, and the safety of the Fatherland" (l'honneur, la grandeur,
et la securite de la Patrie). And this was part of the price of their
adhesion: old-age pensions, a fixed eight-hour day, factory
legislation protecting the life and health of the workman, military
service reduced to two years, and an income tax. The Radical Left
adopted this "minimum program" of the Socialists, and the famous
"Bloc" was formed. Jaures was made vice-president of the Chamber and
soon proved himself master of the coalition. Now for the first time in
history the Socialists were in political power, and what occurred is
of the greatest interest to us.
III
And now for the first time a Socialist becomes a cabinet member. In
1899 Waldeck-Rousseau appointed Millerand Minister of Commerce, to the
consternation of the Conservatives and the division of the Socialists.
Jaures congratulated his colleague on his courage in assuming
responsibility. But while the Independents were jubilant over the
elevation of one of their number, the Guesdists and Blanquists withdrew
from the "Bloc." They issued a manifesto setting forth their reasons.
They did not wish further alliances with a "pretended Socialist." They
were tired of "compromises and deviations," which for too long a time
had been forced on them as "a substitute for the class war, for
revolution, and the socialism of the militant proletariat."[6]
To them the war of the classes forbade their entrance into a bourgeois
ministry; and the conquest of political power did not imply
collaboration with a government whose duty it was to defend property.
Jaures proposed to put the question up to the party congress, and in
1899 at Paris a bilateral compromise resolution was adopted. Guesde,
however, restless and dissatisfied, compelled the congress to vote
first upon the question, "Does the war of the classes permit the
entrance of a Socialist into a bourgeois government?" The answer was
818 "no," 634 "yes." Jaures' compromise was then adopted, 1,140 to
240.[7]
The international congress held in Paris, September, 1900, adopted
Kautsky's resolution declaring that the acceptance of office by a
single Socialist in a bourgeois government "could not be deemed the
normal commencement of the conquest for political power, but only an
expedient called forth by transitory and exceptional conditions."
At the Bordeaux congress, April, 1903, the whole time was given over
to this perplexing question. The congress was composed largely of
friends of Millerand and Jaures. By this time the Socialist minister
had had three years' experience in the cabinet. The Waldeck-Rousseau
premiership had given way to Combes, who was also dependent upon the
Socialists for his power.
Millerand had especially offended the Socialists by voting against his
party on three separate occasions: first, on a resolution abolishing
state support for public worship; second, on a resolution to prosecute
certain anti-militarists for publishing a book that tended to destroy
military discipline; and, third, on a resolution asking the Minister
of Foreign Affairs to invite proposals for international disarmament.
He had further offended the Socialists by officially receiving the
Czar on his visit to Paris.
The debate, then, was disciplinary rather than doctrinal. But it was
political discipline, evidence therefore that a party consciousness of
some sort had been achieved. This meeting is significant because it
tried to fix definite limits for Socialistic action and committed
Jaures to the narrowing, not to the expanding, policy of the party.
M. Sarrante expressed the Millerand idea when he told the delegates
that they were to judge "an entire policy," the policy of "democratic
Socialism, which gains ground daily on the revolutionary Socialism, a
policy which Citizen Millerand did not start, which he has merely
developed and defined, and which forces itself upon us more and more
in our republican country." The test of Socialism, he said, was just
this "contact of theory with facts."
Jaures found himself in logical difficulty when he endeavored to
reconcile both sides for the sake of party unity. He said that
Sarrante was wrong "when he thinks it enough to lay down the principle
of democracy in order to resolve, in a sort of automatic fashion, the
antagonisms of society.... The enthronement of political democracy and
universal suffrage by no means suppresses the profound antagonism of
classes.... Sarrante errs in positing democracy without noting that it
is modified, adulterated, thwarted by the antagonism of classes and
the economic preponderance of one class. Just as Guesde errs in
positing the class war apart from democracy."
To Jaures the problem was to "penetrate" this democracy with the ideas
of Socialism until the "proletarian and Socialistic state has replaced
the oligarchic and bourgeois state." This can be brought about, he
said, by "a policy which consists in at once collaborating with all
democrats, yet vigorously distinguishing one's self from them."
Jaures acknowledged the awkwardness of this policy, which required a
superhuman legerdemain never yet accomplished by any party in the
history of politics.
Guesde's motion to oust Millerand from the party was lost. And a
compromise offered by Jaures censuring him for his votes, but
permitting him to remain in the party fold, was adopted by 109 to 89
votes, fifteen delegates abstaining from voting. This was a very close
margin, and in spite of Millerand's promise that he would in the
future be more careful of his party allegiance he was expelled the
following year from the Federation of the Seine. The stumbling-block
was removed.[8]
More important than the party discipline is the question of the
economic measures attempted by Millerand. In general he followed the
outlines laid down in his Saint-Mande program.[9] His experience
carried him farther away from the Guesdists every year until he
repudiated the class war and adhered to social solidarity; substituted
the method by evolution for the method by revolution, still espoused
by Guesde; and placed the national interests upon as high a plane of
duty as the international and the personal. His program of labor
legislation was comprehensive, and he succeeded in getting some of it
passed into law. These were his leading proposals:
1. Regulating the hours of labor and creating a normal working day of
ten hours. He began the reduction at eleven hours, reducing it to ten
and a half, and then to ten within three years. In the public works of
his own department he reduced the working day at once to eight hours.
2. In public contracts he introduced clauses favorable to workingmen.
These clauses embraced the number of hours in a normal work day, the
minimum wage for every class of workmen, prohibition of piece-work,
guarantee of no work on Sunday, and the per cent. of foreign workmen
allowed on the job. He arranged that the workingmen should unite with
the employer in fixing the wages and the hours of labor before the
contract was signed. In these contracts, furthermore, the state
reserved the right to indemnify the workmen out of the funds due to
the contractor.
3. An accident insurance law.
4. The abolition of private employment agencies, with their many
abuses, and replacing them with communal labor bureaus free to all.
The voluntary federations of the trade unions were put on a similar
footing with the communal labor exchanges, and were encouraged to
co-operate with them. Millerand took great care to perfect the
organization of trade unions. He introduced amendments to the old law
of 1884, giving greater scope and elasticity to the unions, granting
them greater corporate powers, and making the dismissal of a workman
because he belonged to a union ground for a civil suit for damages. He
began a movement to secure the co-operation between the unions and the
state workshop inspectors. There had been a great deal of abuse in the
operation of the inspection laws by the employers. An attempt was now
made to define strictly the rights and duties of the inspectors.
5. His pet scheme was the establishing of labor councils (conseils du
travail). On these councils labor and employer were to have equal
representation. The duty of the councils embraced the adjudication of
all disputes arising between employer and employee, suggesting
improvements, and keeping vigilance over all local labor conditions.
In 1891 a supreme labor council had been established. To this
Millerand added lay and official members and greatly increased its
efficiency. He tried to make it a central vigilance bureau, keeping in
close touch with local conditions all over the land.
6. He elaborated a plan for regulating industrial disputes. This was
to be effected by a permanent organization in each establishment
employing more than fifty men, a sort of committee of grievance to
which all matters of dispute might be referred. In case of failure to
settle their difficulties an appeal to the local labor council was
provided. By this democratic representative machinery Millerand hoped
to solve the labor problem.
It will be seen that Millerand's plan was an attempt, by law, to
project the working class, not into politics but into the capitalist
class. He would do this by compelling the employer to share the
responsibility of ownership with his employees. This would mark the
beginning of a revolution very different from the revolution
ordinarily preached by propagandists, because this revolution would
substitute class peace in place of our present incessant economic
class war.
The Socialists made it plain that Millerand's procedure was not
Socialism. When Millerand was first asked to take a cabinet portfolio
his friend Jaures told him to accept. When he had perfected his
practical procedure, and the bulk of the proletarians evinced their
disappointment and chagrin that the elevation of a Socialist had not
brought utopia, Jaures gradually slipped away from his former alliance
and finally left the reformist group.
Jaures also had his day of power. The Dreyfus affair presented the
issue in tangible form--the old traditions, religious, political,
social, against the new ideas of society, property, and government. It
was the heroic period of modern French Socialism. Red and black flags
were borne by enthusiastic multitudes through the streets of Paris.
The "_Universite Populaire_" was inaugurated by students for the
purpose of instructing the common people in the issues that were at
stake. The flame of eager anticipation spread over the Republic.
As master of the "Bloc" in the Chamber, Jaures became the first real
head in the first French democracy. Two great reforms were undertaken:
the disestablishment of the Church, carrying with it the
secularization of education and the reorganization of the army. The
old Royalist families had continued to send their sons into the army
and navy. Many of the officers were suspected of royalist sympathies.
An elaborate system of espionage was instituted, and the suspects
weeded out. The last vestige of the old monarchy has now disappeared
from French officialdom. France has a bourgeois army, a bourgeois
school system, a bourgeois bureaucracy, thanks to the power of the
proletarian Socialists led by Jaures in the days of the Republic's
danger.
Jaures remained orthodox; Millerand became heretic. The Millerand
episode left a deep impression on the public mind. The first Socialist
minister shaped not only a program but an entire policy. In 1906, when
a new cabinet was formed, Millerand declined a portfolio, but two
other Socialists accepted cabinet honors; Viviani, a well-known
Parisian lawyer, held the newly created ministry of labor and social
prevision (prevoyance sociale), and Aristide Briand became Minister of
Public Instruction and Worship, and later Minister of Justice.
The public regarded the elevation of two Socialists to the cabinet as
a matter of course. Millerand's activity had taken the fear out of
their hearts. Even the Marxian Socialists failed to notice the event.
They had written into their party by-laws that no Socialist could
accept office, so the new ministers, by their own acts, ceased to be
"Socialists."
Clemenceau, the new Premier, ushered in the next period of social
adventure by a brilliant debate in the Chamber with Jaures in which
the philosophical basis of individualism was reviewed with great skill
and some of the social questions discussed.[10]
Jaures claimed for the Socialists a dominant share in the great
victory won by the friends of the Republic during the Dreyfus turmoil,
and made much of the multitudes of workingmen to whom the Republic was
now under great obligation. These workingmen, the proletariat, were
the force now to be dealt with. "If you really wish society to evolve,
if you wish it really to be transformed, there is the force you must
deal with, and that you must neither repress nor rebuff." The
parliamentary experience of Socialism Jaures passed over lightly; it
added nothing new, he thought, to the theory or the arguments of the
Socialists.
His opponent, however, in a single sentence laid bare the weakness of
the Socialist's logic: "The truth is that it is necessary to
distinguish between two different elements of the social organization,
between the man and the system." Clemenceau read the Socialists'
program upon which they had won their victory. It embraced: the
eight-hour day, giving state employees the right to form unions,
sickness and unemployment insurance; a progressive income tax; ballot
reform (scrutin de liste) and proportional representation, and
"restoration to the nation of the monopolies in which capital has its
strongest fortress."
"What a terribly bourgeois program!" exclaimed Clemenceau. "M. Jaures,
after expounding his program, challenged me to produce my own. I had
very great difficulty in restraining the temptation to reply: 'You
know my program very well. You have it in your pocket. You stole it
from me.'"
This debate was significant, not in what was said, but in the fact
that it was possible to enlist the Prime Minister, the cleverest of
French statesmen, and Jaures, the greatest of French orators, in a
discussion of Socialism from the tribune of the Chamber of Deputies.
The whole country listened. During this brilliant tilt Clemenceau
taunted Jaures that his Socialism was impractical, a dream. "You are a
visionary, I am a realist; you have dreams, I have facts." Jaures
replied with great fervor that he would prove to the people of France
that Socialism is not impracticable and that within a year he would
produce a plan for the new social order. The "Unified" Socialist
Party, built up largely on Jaures' abandonment of his former colleague
and his earlier liberal convictions, may be considered a part of the
fulfilment of this promise. The other part, the plans and
specifications for the new society, is not yet before the world. Its
introduction, properly its prelude, is the volume published by Jaures
in 1911, _L'Armee Nouvelle_, containing suggestions for reorganizing
the state defense along lines of voluntary militia and cadets.[11]
IV
Clemenceau's regime was destined to test the Socialist policy in a new
direction. The law of 1884 gave state employees the right to form
associations, but not to federate or organize _syndicats_. A great
many organizations were formed, especially among the postal employees
and teachers. They were mutual benefit societies, "friendly"
associations, and the government recognized them to the extent of
discussing their grievances and questions of mutual interest with
them.
Among the workmen in the navy yards and the national match, tobacco,
and porcelain works similar organizations existed. The Syndicalists
would not let the matter rest there. They demanded that these
organizations become members of the C.G.T. (General Confederation of
Workingmen). The government objected because that would give the men
the right to strike, a dangerous anomaly giving to the state's
servants the right to make government nugatory. This extreme doctrine
found ready advocates in the Chamber among the Socialists.
In March, 1909, the post-office clerks and telegraph operators went
out on strike. The government promptly discharged thirty-eight of the
ringleaders and arrested eight of the strikers in Paris on the charge
of resisting the police. In the course of a few days over 800 out of
15,000 employees were discharged. Soldiers were introduced into the
service, and with the help of local chambers of commerce and other
civic bodies the postal service was renewed. The strikers were then
willing to make terms. They stipulated that the dismissed employees be
reinstated and that M. Simyan, the Under-Secretary of Posts and
Telegraphs, be dismissed. The first request was conceded, the second
was denied. The ostensible cause of the strike had been the attitude
of the under-secretary; the men asserted that he was arbitrary and had
imposed petty political exactions upon them. The government refused to
allow the men to dictate its affairs, the under-secretary remained,
and the men went back to work.
The Socialists censured the government for not being considerate with
the men, and placed the entire blame upon the ministry for refusing
the national employees a right to organize as other workmen. To this
Simyan replied: "We are in the presence of an organized revolutionary
agitation ... this is blackmail by strike." The Minister of Public
Works said: "Over our heads these officials have revolted against you
and against the entire nation. These are serious hours when the
government needs perfect facilities of communication with its
ambassadors and consuls [the Balkan question was in the pot], and in
such hours a strike is an attack upon the national sovereignty. In
these circumstances I cannot re-enter into negotiations with the
general postal association. If I did so that would mean
abdication."[12] The Socialist deputies voted against the government's
resolution "not to tolerate strikes of functionaries."
The general strike committee was not discharged when the men returned
to work. When it became evident that the government did not intend to
ask the under-secretary for his resignation the post-office employees
organized a trade union, unauthorized by law. The government refused
to meet representatives of this union, on the ground that state
employees had organized for one purpose only, namely, to have the
right to strike, and the government would not concede that right.
On May 12 a second general post-office strike was called. The
government immediately dismissed over two hundred of the strikers. The
Socialists in the Chamber began a demonstration against the
government. One of their number started the "Internationale," the
Socialist war-song. After the first blush of indignation had passed,
the whole Chamber sprang to its feet, there were shouts of protest, a
Republican started the Marseillaise, and the two revolutionary hymns,
bourgeois and proletarian, were blended for the first time in a
parliamentary chamber.
Now the general confederation of labor (C.G.T.) took charge of the
strike, and soon plots began to be carried out in various parts of the
country. There were indications of violence everywhere. The general
committee of the C.G.T. declared a general strike. The situation
threatened to become serious, but the soldiers distributed over the
affected territory had a tranquilizing effect. Men in other trades
were reluctant to follow the orders of the committee. A few electric
workers succeeded in cutting some wires in Paris, leaving the city in
darkness a few hours. There were desultory acts of _sabotage_, but
there was more terror than enthusiasm, and in two days the general
strike was over.[13]
Here was an attempt to place the 800,000 French state employees into
the revolutionary current of the C.G.T. The real question at issue was
this: Is striking an act of mutiny? Barthou, a member of the ministry,
said in the Chamber of Deputies that "the more solemnly you denounce
the strike as a crime against the state, the greater the victory of
the Syndicalists." The Syndicalist journal, _Le Voix du Peuple_, the
day after the first strike was settled proclaimed "the victory which
our comrades of the postal proletariat have won over their employer
the state." This, they said, showed that the state conceded the main
contention of Syndicalism--that it is not different from a private
employer. And the Syndicalists gloried in the fact that the
government, instead of treating the strikers as mutineers, parleyed
with them and reinstated them.
Clemenceau brought in a bill designed to relieve the situation by
fixing the status of the state employees. The men were to be given the
right of association for "professional" purposes only,--i.e., for
improving their efficiency,--but were absolutely prohibited from
striking and from joining other unions. A comprehensive civil-service
reform was embodied in the bill, aimed to prevent the men from
becoming victims of political abuse.
Before the bill could be thoroughly considered the Clemenceau ministry
fell and a new Prime Minister was called to the helm. This was none
other than Aristide Briand, the first Socialist Prime Minister in
European history. His former comrades had long before this disowned
him, and he was soon to participate in events that would forever
alienate them. He had been a furious Socialist, an anti-militarist,
and defender of the general strike. In the Socialist congress at
Paris, 1899, he said: "The general strike has the seductive advantage
that it is nothing but the practice of an intangible right. It is a
revolution which arises within the law. The workingman refuses to
carry the yoke of misery any farther and begins the revolution in the
field of his legal rights. The illegality must begin with the
capitalist class, if it allows itself to be provoked into destroying a
right which they themselves have professed to be holy." At the same
meeting he expressed himself on the soldiery as follows: "If the
command to fire is given, if the officers are stubborn enough to try
to force the soldiers against their will, then the guns might be
fired, but perhaps not in the direction the officers thought." Briand
repeated these sentiments at the Amsterdam congress in 1903.
This was the man whom destiny had chosen to lead the French government
against the organized revolt of government employees.
On assuming the premiership he announced his program:
1. Parliamentary and electoral reform, he said, were of the first
necessity, but he deemed it best to experiment with the new methods of
balloting locally before adopting a national system of reform.
2. A graduated income tax.
3. Fixing the legal status of state servants.
4. Old-age pension.
October 10, 1910, the men employed on the Northern Railway went out on
strike. Before they did so they had a conference with the Prime
Minister and the Minister of Public Works, Millerand, requesting that
they try to arrange a meeting between the men and the officials of the
railway. The ministry offered its services to the railway directors,
but they refused to meet the strikers, although Briand had volunteered
to preside at such a meeting. The Prime Minister told the men firmly
that the government could not tolerate a suspension of railway
service, that it would exert its authority to prevent it, and that it
relied on the common sense and patriotism of the men to prevent it.
However, the strike spread to other lines, including the state
railway. The men's demands were three: 1. A minimum wage of five
francs a day. 2. A revision of the railway pension act making the
pensions retroactive. 3. A weekly day of rest--the men had been
excluded from the "rest day" act when it was passed.
Briand at once characterized the strike as political in motive and
revolutionary in character. In his mind the strike ceased to be merely
a question of the right to strike, but was a criminal outbreak, an act
of rebellion planned by a few revolutionary leaders and submitted to
by the rank and file without their even voting on the question. He was
greatly incensed at the sudden calling out of the men after the
government had received their representatives, and especially since
the railway companies had granted their request for a minimum wage and
had taken under advisement the other demands of the men.
Five of the ringleaders were promptly arrested under dramatic
circumstances. They were attending a meeting in the office of
_L'Humanite_,[14] attended by Jaures and Vaillant and other leaders of
the party. They were arrested under color of Sections 17 and 18 of the
law of 1845 dealing with railway traffic.[15]
This law proved a powerful factor in checking the strike. Arrests were
made far and near. The energetic Prime Minister did not wait for acts
of violence; he anticipated them. Briand called out the reserves
(militia), and nearly all of the strikers were compelled to put on the
uniform. If they refused they were guilty of a serious offense; if
they obeyed they could no longer strike.
The railways were run as in times of war, under military rigor. In
spite of these precautions acts of violence occurred, and _sabotage_
was reported from various railway centers.[16]
In one week the soldiery, under the determined minister, had done its
work. The strike was over. The government refused to reinstate about
2,000 men employed on the state railway.
The strike committee issued a manifesto excusing the failure of the
strike, assuming the full responsibility for calling it, and affirming
that the government had "lowered itself to the level of the most
barbarous employer."
The strike was hastily conceived, never had the sympathy of the
public, and the destruction of property was deplored even by the labor
unions, which, when it was all over, passed resolutions condemning
_sabotage_. The leaders of the Syndicalists, the plotters of the
strike, no doubt believed that the time was opportune. The Prime
Minister and two of his cabinet, Viviani and Millerand, were
Socialists, and a third member, Barthou, was a Radical who had as a
private member of the Chamber, a short time before his appointment to
the cabinet, vigorously defended the railway men's "right to strike."
But official responsibility had its usual effect.[17]
Now began a series of dramatic events in the Chamber. The united
Socialists maintained that the men had a legal right to strike and
that the government had denied to French citizens their legal
privileges. Briand replied (October 25) that the strike had nothing to
do with the labor problem. The government, had been confronted with
"an enterprise designed to ruin the country, an anarchistic movement
with civil war for its aim, and violence and organized destruction for
its method"; and he had treated it as a rebellion, not as a strike.
The government, he said, had evidence of a well-laid plot for
_sabotage_; and the Syndicalist idea of liberty he characterized as a
"hideous figure of license."
Millerand (October 27) characterized the strike as a "criminal
enterprise," and the _saboteurs_ as "criminals" guilty of "a
revolutionary mobilization with a political object." For the
Socialists Bouveri, a miner, replied. He defended bomb-throwing and
_sabotage_; asked the Minister of War if, in case of invasion by a
foreign foe, he would not blow up the bridges; and said the strikers
were engaged in a social war and had the same excuse for destroying
property.
The climax of the debate came October 29, when Briand, turning to the
Socialists, said: "I am going to tell you something that will make you
jump (que vous faire bondir). If the government had not found in the
law that which enabled it to remain master of the frontiers of France
and master of its railways, which are the indispensable instruments of
the national defense; if, in a word, the government had found it
necessary to resort to illegality, it would have done so."
No words can describe the disorder of the scene that followed this
challenge. Cries of "Dictator!" "Resign!" were mingled with catcalls
and hisses. Finally Jaures was heard in bitter rebuke of his former
comrade. Viviani answered Jaures; they had fought together the battles
of the workingman and would do so still "if Socialism had not adopted
the methods of _sabotage_, of anti-patriotism, and of anarchy."
A few weeks later Briand and his cabinet resigned, although sustained
by a majority of the Chamber. But President Fallieres immediately
requested the dauntless Prime Minister to form a new cabinet. In his
new program he included measures that would greatly strengthen the
arms of the government in times of strikes, punishing _sabotage_ by
heavy fines and penalties, penalizing the public railway servant for
striking, and contemplating an elaborate system of conciliation boards
patterned after Millerand's plan.
These rigorous suggestions increased the flame of hatred against him,
and his life was threatened. Nothing daunted, he proceeded in his
warfare against the C.G.T., which he denounced as a handful of
plotters exercising a wicked tyranny over Socialists and workingmen.
Finally, February 27, 1911, he resigned, refusing to hold office by
the sufferance of the reactionary Right. The Socialists voted with
their enemies to dethrone their first Premier, whom they considered a
traitor to the course.[18]
So ended one of the most significant episodes of modern political
history. Every government, especially every democratic government,
will within the next few decades be compelled to meet the railway
problem and the question of the relation of the government to its
state servants.
Two important details in the Briand affair are of especial interest.
First, the Prime Minister's attempt to project the authority of the
state into the contract relations of the railway employees and the
companies. Instead of hostility, Briand's plan might well have
deserved the support of the Socialists. For he was expanding the
functions of the state, was enlisting the power of society in behalf
of a contract that is of universal interest.
Secondly, Briand's bill making it unlawful for a railway servant to
strike was quite as revolutionary as the C.G.T.'s contention that the
state had no right to interfere. Here, too, Briand was the Socialist
and the Socialists were the individualists; the one recognized the
paramount interests of society, the other saw only the interests of
the individual worker. Put to this test, French Socialism failed as
signally in theory as the violence, _sabotage_, and insubordination of
the C.G.T. failed in practice.[19]
V
Who were these revolutionary labor leaders, this small handful of
plotters to whom Briand constantly alluded?[20] In order to understand
the Socialist movement in any country, both politically and
industrially, it is necessary to understand the organization of labor.
Socialism began as a class movement, and in every country it is
endeavoring to capture the labor organizations.[21]
In no two countries are the relations quite the same. In the United
States the unions have traditionally kept out of politics altogether.
In Great Britain they refused to be busied with politics until a few
years ago, when the Labor Party was organized. Since then a number of
union men have identified themselves rather loosely with Socialism. In
Germany there is the closest co-operation between the party and the
unions, but not any organic unity. In Belgium the political and
economic organizations are virtually merged.
In France the most interesting development has taken place. From the
Revolution until 1864 no labor organizations were allowed. The
National Assembly abolished all the trade guilds and corporations. The
_Loi le Chappelier_ forbade unions of workers and of masters, and the
_Code Napoleon_ imposed a penalty of imprisonment on those engaging in
unlawful combinations. In 1864 the criminal laws were revised, and
unions of twenty members were allowed. The law of 1884 left the way
untrammeled for their development.[22]
Within a few years unions were formed everywhere.[23] In 1886 the
Guesdists organized the National Federation of Trade Unions, a
Socialist body of workers subordinated to the Workingman's Party. Soon
thereafter the Municipal Socialists, the Broussists, founded the Paris
Labor Exchange, built a large clubhouse for if, and succeeded in
getting an appropriation of 20,000 francs a year from the city for
its maintenance. Within ten years about fifty of these exchanges were
formed in as many cities, and about seventy per cent. of the union
members belonged to them. The object of these exchanges was
educational and benevolent. But they were soon made the hotbeds of
Socialistic politics. In 1892 they were all federated in the
Federation of Labor Exchanges (Federation du Bourse du Travail).
In 1895 Guesde's political adjunct, the National Federation of Trade
Unions, became extinct. The Blanquists then organized a new
federation, the notorious General Confederation of Labor
(Confederation Generale du Travail), commonly called the C.G.T. These
two bodies were bitter rivals, after the French fashion, until, in
1902, they amalgamated, retaining the name C.G.T.[24] The organization
is dual, retaining the benevolent activities of the local exchanges
and the trade activities of the local unions. These activities are
federated into national councils. The union of these councils forms
the central governing body of C.G.T. The organization allows a great
deal of local autonomy, but the central control is none the less
effective. In 1907 the C.G.T. claimed 350,000 members, in 1911 it
reported 600,000.
This body of workmen is known for its violence. Within its ranks has
spread the doctrine known as revolutionary Syndicalism, a resurrection
of the spirit of Proudhonism in the body of labor unionism. Briefly
stated, it is class war in its most violent form without the aid of
parliaments and politics; with the enginery of the general strike, and
the spirit of universal upheaval and anarchy. It is the most effective
outbreak of Anarchism since the days of Bakunin.
The intellectual revival of the doctrine of violence may be dated from
the appearance of Georges Sorel's book, _The Socialist Future of Trade
Unions_, in 1897, and the culmination of the tide in his volume
_Reflections upon Violence_, in 1908.
For a movement so young Syndicalism has had a peculiarly expansive
literature, written by professors and journalists of the bourgeois
class, who live on respectable streets, receive you in comfortable
drawing-rooms, and from their upholstered ease display a fine zeal for
the oppressed proletariat.[25]
It is not easy to classify Syndicalism, for it refuses to be called
Anarchism, repudiates the leadership of Socialism, and scorns to be
merely trade-unionism. The following are its principal characteristics:
1. It is disheartened with Socialism because, it says, Socialists have
lost their ideals in the race for political power. Law-making is
useless, because no laws can emancipate the workingmen. It therefore
despises governments and abjures parliaments. But its ideals are
Socialistic; it believes "in reorganizing society on a communistic
basis, so that, with a minimum of productive effort, the maximum of
well-being will be obtained."[26]
2. But repudiating governments and parliaments, they say, does not
make them Anarchists. Syndicalists believe in local or communal
government. Their state is a glorified trade union whose activities
are confined to economic functions, their nation is a collection of
federated communal trade societies. When I went among them they were
especially solicitous that they should not be regarded as "mere
Anarchists."
3. Syndicalism is not trade-unionism pure and simple, because its
method is violence and its ideal the industrial unit, not the trade or
craft unit. The weapon of Syndicalism is the general strike. A
circular issued by the executive committee in 1898 defined the general
strike as "the cessation of work, which would place the country in the
rigor of death, whose terrible and incalculable consequences would
force the government to capitulate at once. If it refused, the
proletariat, in revolt from one end of France to the other, would be
able to compel it." Sorel says that "revolutionary Syndicalism
nourishes in the masses the desire to strike, and it can thrive only
in places where great strikes, occupied with acts of violence, have
taken place."[27] The strike committee of the C.G.T. in 1899
proclaimed the general strike as "the only practical method through
which the working class can fully liberate itself from the
capitalistic and governmental yoke." The general strike includes the
boycott, _sabotage_, and all kindred forms of violence.[28]
4. Syndicalism revives the old revolutionary methods of conspiracy, of
a dominant minority swinging the masses into line; "a conscious
minority, which, through its example, sets the masses in motion and
drives them on."[29] There are plots, underground manoeuvers, and
sudden outbursts. An air of mystery pervades their spectacular
uprisings. In order to accomplish their purpose there must be a
solidarity of labor. But this unity is the result of the energy of the
"conscious few," not of the assertive many.
5. Finally, Syndicalism proclaims that democracy is a "fraud"
perpetrated upon the workingmen by the property-owning bourgeois;
representative government and majority rule is to them merely a polite
form of tyranny, and patriotism a farce. Potaud says: "Patriotism can
only be explained by the fact that all patriots without distinction
own a part of the social property, and nothing is more absurd than a
patriot without a patrimony."
"We workingmen will have none of these little fatherlands! Our country
is the international world!" cried Yvetot to the post-office strikers
in Paris.
They regard the soldiers with enmity. At the national congress at
Amiens, 1906, they resolved that the "anti-military and anti-patriotic
propaganda should be promulgated with the greatest zeal and
audacity."[30]
Syndicalism is the extreme pessimism of the laboring class. It reached
its height about 1907-1908. Portions of France were terrorized, more
by its extravagant language than by its overt acts. There was no limit
to their superlatives. "Rip up the bourgeois!" "Turn your rifles on
your officers!" "Cut buttonholes in the skins of the bourgeois!" were
familiar battle-cries. There was so much talk about putting vitriol
into coffee, ground glass into bread, pulling the fire-plug out of
engines, that finally language came to mean nothing.
The "new commune" thought it was coming into reality with the
post-office and railway strikes. We have seen how these outbreaks were
met by a Radical government. Since then their ardor has cooled, and
their adjectives grown flabby. They are now devoting themselves to
organization.
Anti-militarism does not mean merely opposition to standing armies.
All Socialists are opposed to the maintenance of armaments.
Anti-militarism is opposition to all force used by the state to assert
its sovereignty. This includes the police and constabulary as well as
the army, and courts and parliaments as well as the navy. Since
soldiers and policemen are servants of the state, and since the state
is the expression of nationalism, the anti-militarist concludes that
his supreme enemy is the nation, the master of the soldier.
Anti-militarism is the forerunner of anti-patriotism.
In 1906 this doctrine was so rampant that, on May Day, an uprising was
feared in Paris. A prophet had arisen, proclaiming the most extreme
doctrines of anti-patriotism. This was Gustave Herve, a teacher of
history from Auxerre. He had spoken the suitable word, and became
famous overnight: "The French flag arose from dirt!"; and to the
peasantry he shouted, "Plant your country's flag in the barnyard
dung-heaps!" He came to Paris and started a daily paper, _La Guerre
Sociale_. Syndicalists and Socialists flocked to his standard, and
even Jaures was compelled to acknowledge his influence.[31]
Herve has a simple remedy for militarism: "The way to stop war is to
refuse to fight." He exhorts his fellow-Socialists to join the army,
but fire on their commanders, not on their comrades. He was arrested
several times for these utterances and the overt acts that they
aroused. Some years ago a Parisian workingman was arrested for an
offense against public morals. He protested his innocence and, when
released, in revenge killed a policeman. He was promptly executed.
Herve used the occasion for an onslaught upon the government in his
paper. He said: "If the working class would display one-tenth of the
energy that this workman displayed, the social revolution would not be
long in coming." For his imprudence he was imprisoned for a term of
four years.[32] His influence is waning, but the words he and his
following have planted in the hearts of the conscripts may bear some
strange fruit.[33]
VI
While the French Socialists have been prolific in the developing of
factions and theories, they have been slow at achieving practical
results. As early as 1887 they acquired considerable power in Paris.
They contented themselves with establishing a labor exchange and
extending a few municipal charities.
The local program, as outlined at Lyons, included: the feeding of
school children; an eight-hour day and a fixed minimum wage for
municipal employees; the abolition of the "_octroi_"; sanitary
regulations for workshops and factories; abolition of private
employment bureaus; establishment of homes for the aged; maternity
hospitals; free medical attendance for the poor; free public baths;
sanitaria for children of workmen; free legal advice for workingmen;
pensions for municipal employees; and the publication of a municipal
bulletin giving record of all the votes cast by the councilors.[34]
In 1892 a number of important cities were won by the Socialists, and
in September of that year the first convention of Socialist municipal
councilors was held at Saint-Ouen. The discussions were filled with
revolutionary phraseology. In a few years the ideas of violence were
discarded for more practical issues. In 1895, when the municipal
convention met at Paris, the time was largely given over to the
question of organizing the municipal public service, public hygiene,
etc.
In Lille the Socialists began their administration of local affairs by
raising the budget from 740,000 francs in 1897 to 1,019,000 francs in
1899. Free industrial education was established for the working
people; a municipal theater was opened; school children were fed and
clothed; and an attempt was made to regulate the length of the working
day and fix a minimum wage for municipal employees. At Dijon the
feeding and clothing of school children was regulated by the amount of
wages earned by the parents. Free medical aid was provided, and a
drug-store was induced to sell medicines to the poor at reduced cost.
The local labor exchange was voted an appropriation from public funds.
These illustrations show the general trend of municipal Socialism in
France. The results are not numerous. But the French Socialists
justify their meager practical results by pointing to the centralized
system of administration which enables the prefect and other
administrative officers to veto many of the acts of the municipal
councils. The first thing that the Socialists attempted to do in their
towns was the readjustment of the finances for the benefit of the
working classes. Their acts were vetoed on the ground that they were
_ultra vires_. The attempt to fix a minimum wage for municipal
employees met the same fate. Then the municipalities petitioned the
central government for greater financial autonomy. This was denied. In
Roubaix the opening of a municipal drug-store was disallowed by the
prefect on the ground that the corporations act does not grant that
power to municipalities. Municipal bakeries met the same fate. During
the last few years, however, the rigor of the central administration
has relaxed and the towns are allowed greater liberty in municipal
affairs.
Under the circumstances it is perhaps little wonder that French
municipal Socialism is a poor housekeeper. You look in vain for the
high ideals of the Socialist evangelist. If you visit the towns where
Socialism abounds you will be told that the Socialists have spent more
money on the poor than their predecessors. You will find better
nurseries for the babies of the working mothers, meals and stockings
doled out to school children of the poor, here and there a physician
or a lawyer retained by the town to render free service to the working
people. On inquiry you will find that the soldiers are drawing
increased pensions, the widows and orphans of the workingmen are
especially provided for, and that bread is delivered to the needy at
the door so they need not go ask for it, need not be beggars.
You are impressed that these proletarian town governments are trying
to destroy poverty. Their ideal is noble, but some of their efforts
are very crude.
The French Socialists are not by any means a unit on the municipal
question. In 1911 it was the principal question discussed at their
national convention at Saint-Quentin. Professor Millhaud of the
University of Geneva, in a very clear and able speech, pointed out the
merits of municipalization, citing the ownership of street railways,
gas, waterworks, garbage plants, and other public utilities of
European and American cities. He included municipal drug-stores, the
feeding and clothing of school children, the establishing of
playgrounds, and many other municipal activities familiar to American
practice, in his local Socialistic program.
His exposition met with the approval of the Jaures faction. But the
Guesdists were not satisfied. "Who would benefit by cheap municipal
gas?" cried a delegate from the rear of the hall. "The rich man, for
he needs a great deal of gas to light up his big house. But what
laboring man needs gas? When has he time to read? In the evening he is
too tired, and he gives no receptions." Guesde maintained with great
vehemence that municipal ownership and state ownership are not
Socialism; they may be a step toward Socialism, but often result in
substituting the tyranny of the state for the tyranny of the private
employer.
The convention adopted a municipal program after a prolonged
discussion that brought out clearly the fact that the Guesdists are
not devoted to state or municipal ownership as a principle, but only
as a means to a greater end.
During the last few years a very important movement has been taking
place among the peasantry of southern France. Under the leadership of
Compere-Morel, a gardener and member of the Chamber of Deputies,
Socialism is spreading rapidly among these small and independent
landowners. There are several million of these thrifty peasants in
France, and their acquisition to Socialism will mean, not only a great
increase in political power, but a modification of their theory of
property. The Socialists are luring the small land-holder by telling
him that they are with him in his fight against the large estates.
They assure the peasant that they have no designs upon his small
holdings. It is the _great_ property, not merely property, that is the
object of their hostility.[35]
There are other evidences that French Socialism is mellowing. Most of
its leaders are bourgeois. Of the seventy-six united Socialists in the
present Chamber, only thirty are workingmen, or trade-union officials;
eight are professors in the University or secondary schools; seven are
journalists; seven are barristers; seven are farmers; six are
physicians; three are school teachers; and two are engineers. This
does not suggest class war.
Socialism is a power in French politics. An observer who moves among
the middle class wonders how much of a power it is in French life. The
Radical Party would be considered Socialistic in England or the United
States; half of it calls itself Socialist-Radical. It rules the
Republic from the Chamber of Deputies. Everywhere you hear the people
talking about collectivism, the nationalization of railways, of mines,
of vineyards, of docks, and ultimately of wheat-fields and
market-gardens.
But the French are a nation of small farmers and shopkeepers who cling
to their property while they argue and vote for their radicalism and
Socialism. This is the duality of their temperament; they love
possessions and they love philosophical speculation. They keep their
fields and their little shops, and speculate about the new to-morrow.
They vote and debate with imaginative fervor; they pay taxes with
stolid commonplace silence. In measuring the strength of French
Socialism it is necessary to keep this in mind. Not that the
Frenchman does not take Socialism seriously. He takes it as seriously
as he takes monarchism or republicanism, and much more seriously than
he takes religion. There is only one thing he takes more
seriously--his property.
That is why the Socialists number among their adherents all classes
and all conditions of men, from Anatole France, most fastidious of
literary aristocrats, to gaunt and hungry proletarians who infest the
cellars and garrets of ancient Paris.
The French are, after all, the greatest of realists. They speculate in
dreams and delicate theories; but they never lose their grip on their
little farms and their little shops and the gold bonds of Russia.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] GEORGES WEIL, _Histoire du Mouvement Socialiste en France_, Paris,
1904, p. 220.
[2] Other groups--the word party is hardly applicable in the French
Chamber of Deputies--are the reactionary Right; the republican
Conservatives, or Center; the Radical Left, or Liberals.
[3] WEIL, _supra cit._, p. 276.
[4] In France, when any one candidate for the Chamber of Deputies
fails to receive a majority of the votes cast, a second ballot is
taken, for the two receiving the highest number of votes
[5] Quoted by ENSOR, _Modern Socialism_, pp. 48-55. See also a
collection of Millerand's speeches, _Le Socialisme Reformiste
Francais_, Paris, 1903.
[6] See "Manifeste 14 Juillet," 1899.
[7] See _V^{me} Congres General des Organisations Socialistes Francais
tenu a Paris du 3 au 8 Decembre. Compte-rendu stenographique
officiel_, 1900, p. 154 ff.
[8] A partial report of the debate of the Bordeaux congress is given
in ENSOR'S _Modern Socialism_, pp. 163-184.
[9] See A. LAVY, _L'Oeuvre de Millerand_, Paris, 1902, a sympathetic
account of his work; contains also extracts from his speeches and
state papers.
[10] See the _Contemporary Review_, August, 1906, for a brief abstract
of this debate.
[11] One of the first laws passed with the aid of the Socialist vote
was the "day of rest" law, commanding one day of the week as a day of
rest. It met the obstinate opposition of the Conservatives. The
operation of the law is of interest, and instructive. The workmen
naturally rejoiced over this increased leisure. The employers, on the
other hand, found themselves paying wages for hours in which no
service was rendered. They lowered the wages; the workmen resisted.
Finally the law was so amended as virtually to annul its effect, in
certain trades. The Socialists became irritated to the verge of
breaking their _entente_ with the Radicals.
[12] Proceedings Chamber of Deputies, March 19, 1909.
[13] During this agitation the teachers of the public schools, who had
formed a great number of associations, joined in the demand of the
Syndicalists. One of their number who had signed a vitriolic circular
was dismissed by M. Briand, the Minister of Education, and for a time
a strike of schoolmasters was threatened, but it did not materialize.
[14] _L'Humanite_ is the leading Socialist daily of Paris. Briand had
written editorials for it in his "red" days.
[15] These sections declare that the employment, or abetting or
instigating the employment, of any means of stopping or impeding
railway traffic is a crime; and if it has been planned at a seditious
meeting, the instigators are as liable to punishment as the authors of
the crime, even if they did not intend to provoke the destruction of
railway property. The penalties imposed are very severe.
[16] Placards displayed the bitterness of the men. "For our vengeance
Briand will suffice" was read on the walls under flaming posters that
quoted fiery sentences from Briand's earlier speeches.
[17] Viviani, Minister of Justice, resigned soon after the close of
the strike. He did not agree with Briand in his efforts to pass a law
making all railway strikes illegal. He said as long as railways were
private property men had the right to strike, but not to destroy
property.
[18] Before his resignation, the old-age pension bill had passed the
Senate and thus became a law. The Socialists supported the bill; but
Guesde voted against it in spite of his party's instructions, because
labor was charged with contributing to the fund. The syndicalists were
also violently opposed to it because they believe the amount of the
pension is too small.
[19] When in January, 1912, M. Poincare was appointed Prime Minister,
he promptly invited Briand into his cabinet as vice-president and
Millerand as Minister of War.
[20] The co-operative movement is spreading gradually throughout
France. There are two kinds of societies--the Socialist and the
independent. In 1896 there were 202 co-operative productive societies.
In 1907 there were 362. The following figures show the increase in the
number of co-operative stores: 1902--1,641; 1903--1,683; 1906--1,994;
1907--2,166.
[21] The following table, compiled from the reports of the Minister of
Labor, shows the growth of the labor-union movement:
Year Number of Number of
Unions Members
1885 221 ...
1886 280 ...
1887 501 ...
1888 725 ...
1889 821 ...
1890 1,006 139,692
1891 1,250 205,152
1892 1,589 288,770
1893 1,926 402,125
1894 2,178 403,430
1895 2,163 419,781
1896 2,243 422,777
1898 2,324 437,739
1899 2,361 419,761
1900 2,685 491,647
1901 3,287 588,832
1902 3,679 614,173
1903 3,934 643,757
1904 4,227 715,576
1905 4,625 781,344
1906 4,857 836,134
1907 5,322 896,012
1908 5,524 957,102
[22] See _Journal of Political Economy_, March, 1909, for a
comprehensive article on French labor unions by O.D. SKELTON.
[23] From the beginning there were two kinds of unions, named after
the color of their membership cards. The "yellows" are those pursuing
a policy of peace, and the "reds" are the militants.
[24] The following figures show the increase of strikes since the
organization of the C.G.T.:
Years Average Average
Number Number Average Number
of Strikes of Strikers of Days Idle
1890-1898 379 71,961 1,163,478
1899-1907 855 214,660 3,992,976
[25] The doctrines of Syndicalism may be found in the writings of
Georges Sorel. Also in the following: POUGET, _Les Bases du
Syndicalisme_; GRIFFUELHS, _L'Action Syndicaliste_, and _Syndicalisme
et Socialisme_; POUGET, _La Parti du Travail_; POTAUD and POUGET,
_Comment nous ferons la Revolution_; PAUL LOUIS, _Syndicalisme contre
l'Etat_.
[26] POUGET, _The Basis of Trade Unionism_, a pamphlet issued in 1908.
[27] _Reflexions sur la Violence._
[28] See YVETOT, _A B C du Syndicalisme_, Chap. V. This pamphlet is
issued by the C.G.T.
[29] Statement of Strike Committee C.G.T., 1899.
[30] "In every state, the army is for the property owner; in every
European conflict, the working class is duped and sacrificed for the
benefit of the governing class, the bourgeoisie, and the parasites.
Therefore the XVth Congress approves and extols every action the
anti-military and anti-patriotic propaganda, even though it only
compromises the situation of all classes and all political parties."
See YVETOT, _A B C du Syndicalisme_, p. 84.
[31] Herve has written a history of France that has had considerable
vogue as a text-book in the public schools. He begins with the
significant year 1789; glorifies the violence, and praises the
Socialistic manifestations and the heroism of the revolutionists, that
have made the past century one of turmoil and perpetual commotion.
This book is a sample of the reading given into the hands of the
children of the Republic. I was told, upon careful inquiry, that a
large number of the primary and secondary school teachers are
Socialists. Thiers, before he became President, while still a
functionary of monarchy, objected to the establishment of government
schools in every village, because, he said, he did not want "a red
priest of Socialism in every town." To-day he would find these "red
priests" everywhere. They have even organized _syndicats_ and joined
the C.G.T.
[32] When I called upon him in the Prison Sante he told me that he was
as sincerely opposed to military measures as ever; but that it would
be a long time before the people would regard all mankind, rather than
a single ethnic group, as the object of their patriotism. Pointing to
the grim walls of his prison, he said, "Vive la Republique! Vive la
Liberte!"
[33] Syndicalism and anti-militarism have spread to Spain and Italy.
But they have not found favor among the phlegmatic North-European
countries.
[34] See STEHELIN, _Essais de Socialisme Municipal_, 1901.
[35] See _Les Paysans et le Socialisme_, a speech delivered by
Compere-Morel, in the Chamber of Deputies, December 6, 1909. Also
published in pamphlet form by the Socialist Party.