K RANGE 



311 



<>givo an account of his reasons for 



11 man. M. t'onstaiis and M. Kou- 

 HOrkea "Ml u vast project for creating for 



irkmeii a fund for retirement and insurance 

 tin- lino of the (Icrimm scheme. Imt without 

 .pulsory character and the fral un- <>f state 

 nt. The fund, which is to reach in a 



rtnin time (lie capital sum of 12,000,000,000 

 lobe built up by a small tax on the 

 "f the iiiMircd.an eoual contribution from 

 the employer, and a subsidy of the same amount 

 from the Male, which will have to grant an an- 

 nual sum CM nnated at 150,000,000 francs. A 

 workman can lie insured or not, as he pleases, 

 and has some choice whether the fund will be 

 intrusted to a Government, establishment or a 

 private company. The scheme offers the advan- 

 >f promising a moderate pension without 

 wait ini: for extreme age and of leaving a certain 

 pro\ IMOII to the families of participants. M. 

 Con-tuns said that the Government, which had 

 pro\ idcd milliard* to make the army strong and 

 France' respected, would be able to do its share, 

 mid that he and his colleagues would willingly 

 cede their places to younger strengths if they 

 could achieve this work of peace and another 

 for the organization of agricultural credit, for 

 it is inequitable that, whereas a banker can 

 borrow for 3 per cent., the cultivator, who nets 

 only '^i per cent, from his land, must pay 5 per 

 cent. 



International Congress of Miners. A 

 Conirress of Miners met in Paris in April, chiefly 

 for the purpose of deciding on a method for se- 

 curing the eight-hour working day. There were 

 99 delegates, representing 909,107 miners in Great 

 Britain, Germany, France, Belgium, and Bohe- 

 mia. The meetings were held in the completed 

 part of the Paris Labor Exchange, whicn is to 

 cost 4,000,000 francs. The delegates pledged 

 their constituents to give pecuniary support to 

 the coal-miners' strike in Belgium. The existing 

 international committee was re-elected, and au- 

 thorized to draw up statutes for an international 

 federation of miners to be submitted to the next 

 Congress. There was much discussion between 

 the advocates of state intervention and a legal 

 work day and the English trade unionists and 

 Belgian proponents of a general international 

 strike on May 1, 1891. The German spokesman 

 suggested a general strike at a later date, allow- 

 ing more time for preparation. The English 

 miners, though they have had the eight-hour 

 day for twenty years, promised to strike with 

 their Continental brethren in order that English 

 coal might not be used to replace exhausted 

 stocks in other countries. The compromise res- 

 olution adopted on April 4, when the congress 

 separated, runs as follow: 



The International Congress of Miners, now sitting 

 nt tlie Bourse du Travail, deems that a general inul 

 Internationa] strike mhv become necessary to obtain 

 an eight-hour day. I'ho congress, however, before 

 tig to such an extreme measure, invites the 

 governments and parliaments of the nationalities rep- 

 resented at this eoniriTss to agree to an international 

 Convention dealing with an eight-hour day in mines, 

 whether liel.-.iiir'mif t" the state or to private enter- 

 prise, this international convention to lie similar to 

 thir which the various governments have applied 

 for the regulation of the postal, telegraphic, railway, 

 and navigation services. 



The Melinite Scandal. On May 19, Ger- 



ville H'ache, Deputy for Guadeloupe, charged 

 the .Ministry of Marine with delivering melinite, 

 or smokeless powder, to the ArmMrong firm in 

 England. A few days later M. Turpin, <.ne ,f 

 the inventors of picric acid, which is the basis of 

 melinite, and M. Trijiond, a captain in the terri- 

 torial army, were arrested on the charge of espi- 

 onage or treason for having sold to the Arm- 

 strongs the secret of the French explosive. In 

 1884 M. Turpin offered the Government a sub- 

 stance which he called picric acid, and experi- 

 ments were begun in the state laboratories to 

 compound an explosive, a part of which IK; wit- 

 nessed. For the Knowledge that he imparted he 

 was naid 251,000 francs, and was warned not to 

 divulge what he had seen, though he was at lib- 

 erty to do what ho liked with his own discover- 

 ies. He demanded a higher price for his inven- 

 tion, and, after the Government had perfected 

 the process of making melinite, he made con- 

 stant demands for compensation, which were re- 

 fused. He engaged in the manufacture of his 

 picric acid, endeavored to sell it to foreign gov- 

 ernments as identical in composition with the 

 melinite of the French arsenals, and in 1888 

 entered into a contract with the Armstrongs to 

 teach the process of making smokeless powder. 

 Capt. Tripone, accepting an agency from the 

 Armstrongs, negotiated the contract and ob- 

 tained samples of the real melinite and docu- 

 ments relating to the manufacture of the shells 

 from M. Fasseler, an officer, and M. Feuvrier, an 

 engineer, in the Government arsenal. M. Tur- 

 pin, who had expressed penitence to M. de 

 Freycinet for his experiments in England, after 

 promising not to continue his unpatriotic con- 

 duct, was afterward detected in overtures to the 

 Italian and German governments. He declared 

 that he had refused 750,000 francs for the com- 

 pletion of his experiments from the Armstrongs, 

 and in September, 1889, brought accusation 

 against Capt. Tripone, which he repeated in 1890, 

 but did not sustain with the evidence that he 

 pretended to possess, so that that officer was ex- 

 onerated by a military commission in the be- 

 ginning of 1891. After M. Reache's disclosures, 

 which were officially contradicted, M. Turpin 

 published a book inculpating the others and de- 

 scribing the chemistry of his preparation. For 

 this he was arrested, with the persons whom he 

 accused, under the law against spies, on the 

 charge of revealing state military secrets. Al- 

 though the secrets of the smokeless powder and 

 repeating rifles of different governments are 

 pretty well known to all the rest, the affair 

 created a tremendous sensation in France. M. 

 de Freycinet denied that the explosives de- 

 scribed by Turpin were anything resembling 

 those adopted for the army, or that artillery 

 secrets of importance had been revealed, and his 

 explanations were accepted with a vote of confi- 

 dence by 338 against 1:57. Mistrust of the devoted 

 and energetic Minister of War helped to make 

 the attack on the Cabinet near the close of the 

 session well-nigh successful, and was the motive 

 of the rejection, on the eve of adjournment, of a 

 credit of 600,000 francs for enlarging the Poly- 

 technic School. M. de Freycinet was only re- 

 strained by the persuasions of his colleagues 

 from offering his resignation, instead of prorogu- 



