FRANCE. 



247 



land, and members of the order, after protesting 

 against the law as an infringement of their rights 

 as freemen and citizens and as Catholics and ec- 

 clesiastics, emigrated to Jersey, Syria, Egypt, and 

 other countries. Belgium received a great num- 

 ber of refugees, but the bishops of that country 

 would not let them open chapels or schools or 

 make collections. 



Labor legislation was expected and demanded 

 from the Cabinet that included M. Millerand and 

 M. Baudin and was headed by M. Waldeck-Rous- 

 seau. On the other hand, the farming class 

 called for relief. A critical time had arrived for 

 both industry and agriculture in France. The 

 protective duty of 7 francs a quintal on imported 

 wheat had more than the desired effect of stimu- 

 lating production until France supplied the needs 

 of the population. The production already ex- 

 ceeded consumption, and the growers could no 

 longer obtain the price that made bread dearer in 

 France than in any other country. A bill was 

 passed by the Chamber, but not by the Senate, 

 which would give a bounty of 7 francs a quintal 

 to the farmer who exports wheat. The wine- 

 growers asked for legislation to stimulate the 

 consumption of wine. The bounties which make 

 French sugar cheap abroad and dear at home 

 facilitated a corner in sugar which enriched the 

 manipulators and ruined contractors, leading to 

 the bringing of charges against Deputy Jaluzot, 

 one of the syndicate, and the framing of a bill on 

 time bargains. 



Labor strikes in France have always a politi- 

 cal bearing, especially strikes in the coal-mines, 

 which have not benefited the miners, and have 

 usually led to increased imports of foreign coal. 

 Optional arbitration was introduced by the law 

 of Dec. 27, 1892, but of nearly 5,000 strikes that 

 have occurred since then only 6^ per cent, were 

 settled according to this law. Early in 1901 a 

 large section of the miners of Montceau-les-Mines 

 went on strike, induced by Socialists of the fac- 

 tion opposed to M. Millerand. The miners belong- 

 ing to trade-unions, about two-fifths of the miners 

 of France, threatened a general strike in Novem- 

 ber unless Parliament passed the pending and the 

 promised labor bills, including an eight-hour law, 

 a law insuring a minimum wage, a superannua- 

 tion law, and others. M. Millerand, in August, 

 1899, issued decrees defining as conditions of work 

 .a weekly rest, the normal duration of labor ob- 

 taining in the locality, the normal scale of wages, 

 and limitation of the employment of foreign work- 

 men, for which conditions the Government was 

 bound to stipulate in its contracts and depart- 

 mental and communal authorities might in theirs. 

 In September, 1899, M. Millerand modified the com- 

 position of the Superior Council of Labor, whose 

 duty it is, when requested by the Government, to 

 examine questions relating to labor organization. 

 He made two-thirds of these councils elective, half 

 of these elective members being chosen by masters 

 and half by workmen. In March, 1900, a law was 

 promulgated for the regulation of work in fac- 

 tories, protecting not only children and women, 

 but adult men, and limiting the day's work to 

 eleven hours in mixed workshops where men, 

 women, and children are employed. In Septem- 

 ber, 1900, M. Millerand, adopting a Belgian law, 

 established councils of work in industrial centers, 

 elected partly by the unions of masters and partly 

 by the unions of workmen, and having for their 

 mission to bring about compromises in labor dis- 

 putes. Bills to enable labor-unions to own prop- 

 erty and to trade and to establish obligatory arbi- 

 tration in labor disputes were introduced early in 

 the session of 1901. Optional conciliation by jus- 



tices of the peace had proved inollWiiv.-. The bill 

 on compulsory arbitration provided ilui.1, in estab- 

 lishments employing more thtin Oo laborers per- 

 manent delegates should be elected, 2 j,,r every 

 50 workmen, to present and explain ;uiy demands 

 of the workmen to the employer, who mu-,t reply 

 within forty-eight hours; otherwise the men huve 

 the right to strike. If he rejects their demand.-; 

 he is bound to appoint arbitrators and the \voik 

 men to select their referees, all of them from the 

 district labor council. If the arbitrators ean riot 

 agree on a settlement within six days, the men 

 can legally cease work by the decision of a ma- 

 jority vote by secret ballot, the majority to con- 

 sist of at least one-third of the workmen inter- 

 ested. The striking miners of Montceau ob- 

 tained from M. Waldeck-Rousseau a promise to 

 advance legislation for limiting hours of labor 

 and for pensioning aged workmen from a fund 

 to which both masters and men contribute. An 

 eight-hour day in mines was approved by the 

 Prime Minister. The Minister of Public Works 

 notified all persons having concessions of mines 

 in France, Corsica, or Algeria which were not 

 being worked that their concessions would be an- 

 nulled if they did not resume operations within 

 three months. In May the miners went back to 

 work at Montceau. Marseilles became the scene 

 of strikes attended with turbulent manifestations. 

 The strike of the dockers drove the commerce of 

 the seaport to Genoa and put a stop to manufac- 

 turing while it lasted. The strikers were willing 

 to arbitrate; not so the contractors, in whose 

 favor the strike terminated. Strikes occurred in 

 many of the smaller trades. In the autumn the 

 miners held plebiscites with reference to the labor 

 measures before the Chambers, and decided not 

 to strike. A law to compel storekeepers to fur- 

 nish seats to saleswomen went into force. A com- 

 mission drew up sanitary regulations for factories 

 in which lead oxid and other poisonous materials 

 are used or produced based on the British and 

 German regulations. Foreign workmen were ex- 

 cluded from the labor pensions, although in Ger- 

 many there is no discrimination against foreign 

 workmen. It was proposed to make employers 

 pay a tax for each foreign workman, but the Gov- 

 ernment rejected the proposal. The labor pensions 

 bill was not completed when the Chambers were 

 prorogued. 



The budget embodied a new kind of taxation 

 that excited much controversy progressive suc- 

 cession duties such as had been introduced in Eng- 

 land, but on a scale of progression so sweeping 

 that the measure was called the antimillionaire 

 bill, and was by many expected to drive capital 

 out of France. Gifts in lifetime are taxed at the 

 same rate as inheritances or bequests. A legacy 

 or inheritance in the direct line not exceeding 

 2,000 francs pays only 1 per cent., rising to 2 per 

 cent, for 250,000 francs or over; legacies or in- 

 heritances from husband to wife pay 3 to 7 per 

 cent; from brother or sister, 8| to 12 per cent.; 

 from uncle or aunt, 10 to 13 J per cent.; legacies 

 from a stranger in blood, 15 to 18J per cent. For 

 greater sums the tax is made much heavier. 



When the net share devolving on the bene- 

 ficiary exceeds 1,000,000 francs, the succession 

 duty is increased by one-twelfth; for 2,000,000 

 francs and over, by one-tenth ; for 3,000,000 francs, 

 by one-eighth ; for 5,000,000 francs, by one-fourth ; 

 for 10,000,000 francs, by a half; for 20,000,000 

 francs it is double; for 50,000,000 francs it is two 

 and a half times as great; for 100,000,000 francs 

 and over it is tripled. Moderate Republicans, 

 Rallied Republicans, Reactionaries, and Nation- 

 alists, as well as the supporters of the Govern- 



