THE OCTROI AT ISSOIRE. 451 



the worst of all thieves, and for them to despoil him was biit to 

 seek restoration of stolen goods. And the schoolmaster said that 

 he who takes for his own the value labor has given is worse than 

 he who robs upon the public highway — for he adds hypocrisy to 

 theft. 



Some of them counseled an immediate attack upon the mana- 

 gers of the Confidence Society, but the voice of master-workman 

 Jacques was for some comi3romise which would restore them to 

 employment. There had been a considerable fund collected by 

 the Chevaliers of Industry in the way of dues and assessments. 

 This fund he had distributed among the unemployed laborers, 

 freely at first, but of late more sparingly. There were many who 

 hoped to live through the winter on this fund, and these spoke in 

 no pleasant terms of the master- workman's stinginess. The fund 

 was nearly gone, and Jacques well knew that, if work was not 

 soon resumed, the order of Chevaliers of Industry would come 

 to a sudden end. Organized labor without money is very soon 

 disorganized. 



A few heeded his words of counsel and followed his lead to 

 their homes. But the bolder spirits stiffened their resolve with 

 the wines for which the cafe du Lion d'Or is so justly famous, and 

 started for the residence of the President of the Confidence So- 

 ciety. They roused him from his bed, killed one of the Jonas 

 men whom they found asleep at his door, insisted on an imme- 

 diate division of his personal property — which he was only too 

 willing to grant — and next morning they found themselves in 

 jail, charged with robbery and murder. 



There was again excitement at Issoire. The workingmen held 

 mass-meetings at the Lion d'Or, and passed resolutions of sym- 

 pathy and defiance. The wives and daughters of the members of 

 the Common Council sent bouquets and baskets of fruit to the 

 prisoners, and the mayor said that he loved them as though they 

 were his own sons. But the law in France is in higher hands than 

 those of the municipality. It is swift and sure. The prisoners 

 were taken to the capital city, Clermont, to be tried. The sym- 

 pathies of the judge were on the side of capital, and he paid little 

 attention to the plea of organized labor. " If your theory is true," 

 said the judge, " you have no sort of claim on the boots you have 

 demanded from the President of the Equitable Confidence Society. 

 All this labor you talk of is simply the moving of things back 

 and forth. How can this confer value ? The real work is done 

 by the cow ; and the herdsmen on the mountains, who are her heirs 

 and assigns, are the only persons who have a natural lien on the 

 boots which are made from her hide when she is dead. This claim 

 the herdsmen have assigned to capital, and to capital, therefore, 

 all the boots belong." 



