FRANCE 



France. Map showing the main railway lines and the principal canals of 

 the country 



cautious and too comfortable to 

 have large families. The proportion 

 of marriages which yield only one 

 child is very high. Even the pea- 

 sant farmers, who use the labour of 

 sons and daughters, are affected by 

 the system which divides up landed 

 property among all the children 

 upon the father's death. 



As a consequence of the small- 

 ness of the population in relation 

 to the size of the country, French 

 rlys. are imperfectly developed. 

 The republic is well provided with 

 trunk lines, but in most parts 

 of the country local communi- 

 cations leave much to be desired. 

 The total length of rlys. is between 

 25,000 and 26,000 m., not much 

 greater than the length of the rlys. 

 in the U.K., although the area of 

 France is nearly double that of 

 Great Britain and Ireland. They 

 are mostly in the hands of private 

 owners. One has been worked for 

 a long time by the state (the Etat 

 line), and more recently the west- 

 ern system was bought by the 

 government. But this only gives 

 the state between 5,000 m. and 

 6,000 m., whereas the companies, 

 Paris-Lyons-Mediterranee, Nord, 

 Est, Orleans, and Midi, have nearly 

 20,000 m. between them. There has 

 been some agitation |or national- 

 isation of all the systems, and in 

 1920 a strike was declared which 

 had nationalisation, not for its 



avowed, but for its real object. It 

 was, however, a failure. 



The canals of France are a most 

 valuable auxiliary to the rlys., and 

 are used regularly for the carriage 

 of various merchandise. There are 

 over 3,052 m. of them actually navi- 

 gated out of 3,620 m. in existence. 

 French roads are excellent. Those 

 of the first class, national roads, 

 are looked after by the state. In 

 the second class come the depart- 

 mental roads, kept up by the local 

 government authorities ; and in 

 the third class district roads under 

 the district councils. 



CONSTITUTION AND GOVERN- 

 MENT. The local affairs of the 

 country are entrusted in the first 

 place to bodies elected by the in- 

 habitants of each department. 

 Their power is, however, limited ; 

 they have not the same authority 

 as county councils in the U.K., 

 because anything they decide can 

 be ignored by the prefect of the 

 department, an official appointed by 

 the government. There are also sub- 

 prefects whose duties are confined 

 to smaller districts known as arron- 

 dissements. These also have coun- 

 cils representing the cantons under 

 the control of sub-prefects. 



A canton usually consists of 

 twelve communes ; communes may 

 be either small villages or great 

 cities. The commune is the basis of 

 French local government. Its voters 



FRANCE 



elect a municipal council, whose 

 decisions are subject to approval 

 by the prefect, and sometimes by 

 higher authorities. The head of 

 the municipal council, the mayor, 

 has control of the police, except in 

 Paris and in Lyons, where they are 

 under prefects. The largest com- 

 munes are divided into cantons, 

 which serve to link the commune 

 and the arrondissement. Although 

 in French local affairs, therefore, 

 the people do not directly rule, yet 

 the system works well on the whole. 



The prefect is a figure of con- 

 siderable importance in French 

 affairs. Appointed by the president 

 of the republic on the recommenda- 

 tion of the minister of the interior, 

 he is held generally responsible for 

 the government of his department, 

 controls the administrative depart- 

 ments therein and their financial 

 requirements, and acts as its legal 

 representative. He is advised by 

 the council of the prefecture. The 

 general council of the department 

 meets twice a year, with a depart- 

 mental commission of certain mem- 

 bers meeting at least once a month, 

 and votes the annual budget and 

 deals with questions of local taxa- 

 tion and departmental properties. 

 The council of the arrondissements 

 also deal with assessments of taxa- 

 tion and related subjects. 



The National Legislature 



The national government is 

 carried on by a president, a senate, 

 and a chamber of deputies. There 

 are 314 senators, mostly repre- 

 senting departments, who cannot 

 be elected before the age of 40. 

 Their term of office is nine years ; 

 every third year one-third of their 

 number retires, and elections are 

 made by a body composed of the 

 deputies, the departmental coun- 

 cillors, the arrondissement coun- 

 cillors, and representatives of the 

 municipal councils. The interest 

 taken in the senate is not very 

 great; it is the chamber of depu- 

 ties which attracts and holds popu- 

 lar attention, which makes and 

 overthrows ministries, and which 

 decides home and foreign policy. 

 In 1914 there were 602 members; 

 there have since been added 22 

 representatives of the recovered 

 territories, Alsace and Lorraine. 



All French subjects over 21 can 

 vote at parliamentary elections, 

 after six months' residence in an 

 electoral district. No one can be 

 elected under the age of 25. The 

 elections are made by a form of 

 proportional representation, which 

 was adopted in 1919, but has not 

 proved altogether satisfactory. 

 Both deputies and senators are paid 

 15,000 francs a year and can travel 

 almost free on the rlys., making a 

 small payment for their passes. 



