FRANCE 993 



The Land Bank System (Credit agricole) is developing rapidly: 



Number of Total Loans Sums advanced by 



Local Branches. advanced. . the State. 



1901 ....... 21 206,000 128,000 



1905 66 1,766,000 779,000 



1910 ". '..',:' ..;.., - 96 4,528,000 2,017,000 



Mutuality also is making great progress, the societies having 4,500,000 members in IQil, 

 as against 1,200,000 in 1898; the annual takings amounted to 3,880,000. 



Social Legislation. The most important achievement of recent years has been the 

 enactment of the Law of Old Age Pensions (Loi sur les retraites ouvrieres et paysannes) 

 April 4, 1910. Many difficulties have arisen over its application, and in spite of 

 attempted amendments weak spots still remain. After discussions in the Senate from 

 November 1909 till March 1910 the draft Bill was laboriously knocked into shape; and 

 the Chamber was so anxious to pass it that very little attention was paid to details and 

 the law was carried with no more than a formal debate (March 26-31). The law pro- 

 vided for two categories of insured persons, compulsory and optional. Men and 

 women employed in trades, manufactures, the liberal professions or agriculture, and 

 indoor and outdoor servants, aged not less than 65 years, and in the receipt of not more 

 than i 20 per annum, were brought under the provisions of compulsory insurance. The 

 insured person was to pay, at regular intervals, a sum amounting annually to 73. id. 

 for men, 45. gd. for women and 33. 6d. for minors under the age of eighteen. The 

 employer was to pay a like sum, and both payments to be recorded by affixing adhesive 

 stamps to a card in the keeping of the worker, and renewable annually. The payments 

 were to be made each pay-day, the employer deducting the workman's quota from his 

 wages. An insured person might claim his pension at the age of 65. The State increased 

 the total of the pension by an annual grant of 2. 7s.6d. if the insured person had made 

 thirty annual payments twenty-eight payments to count as thirty if the person 

 insured had performed two years of military service. If the insured person had made 

 less than thirty payments, but more than fifteen, the State made a grant equivalent 

 to as many times is. ad. as he had made payments. For less than fifteen annual pay- 

 ments the State made no grant. The law also provided a scheme of voluntary insurance 

 for farmers, metayers, market-gardeners, artisans, and persons in business on their own 

 account or with a single workman, or with help from their families; for non- wage-earning 

 members of the families of insured persons, for earners of incomes between 120 and 

 200 per annum, and for wives and widows (other than wage-earners) of insured persons 

 belonging to the compulsory category. 



The law was put into force on July 3, 1911. In spite of the efforts of the Government 

 and administration it met with scanty success. The working-classes regarded it with 

 much indifference. By December scarcely a third of the persons coming under the 

 compulsory division had complied with the regulations, and only one-tenth of those 

 qualified for voluntary insurance. Two criticisms were made by those affected. In 

 the first place, by compelling the worker to keep up his payments till the age of 65, if 

 he was to receive the whole benefit of the state grants, the law left him little hope of 

 drawing his pension, and was organising " annuities for the dead." In the second 

 place, the State grants were inadequate. To meet these objections the law was amended 

 by articles 54 to 62 of the Finance Law of February 27, 1912, coming into operation 

 August 1, 1913. By the new regulations the age at which the pension becomes due is 

 lowered to 60; the insured person can defer the receipt of his pension till the age of 65; 

 the State grant is increased to 3. 193. 2d. with an added bonus of 10 per cent for the 

 insured person of either sex who shall have reared at least three children to the age of 

 sixteen. For women, the birth of each child is to count as a year's insurance. While 

 endeavouring to attract the working-classes by new benefits, the Government tried to 

 secure the application of the law by making the employer liable to carry out its provisions 

 even without the consent of the worker. To this end, the administration, interpreting 

 Article 23 of the Law in its own fashion, held that the employer was bound, with or 



