258 



FRANCE. 



enough to carry through the Chambers impor- 

 tant measures, such as the new succession du- 

 ties, the revised spirit duties, the bill establishing 

 a colonial army, and, as the logical chastisement 

 for the reactionary parties, the associations bill, 

 The army and navy, the colonial empire, and the 

 international positfon of France waxed under the 

 care of the democratic ministry in a way to 

 rebuke and humiliate Caesarism. The defenses of 

 the French coasts, the gradual transformation 

 of the navy, the development of submarine tor- 

 pedo-boats, the construction of the naval port 

 of Biserta, the fortification of Diego Suarez, the 

 occupation of new territories in the Sahara and 

 central Africa, were accompanied by a more ener- 

 getic defense of French interests in the East and 

 elsewhere. The Russian alliance was not weak- 

 ened, while a rapprochement with Italy removed 

 a source of weakness and danger. When the 

 Chamber met in January, 1902, the Government 

 proved to working men the value to them of min- 

 isters like M. Millerand and M. Baudin, which the 

 Guesdist Socialists denied, by adopting the bill 

 of M. Basby, the representative of the miners, 

 fixing eight hours as the maximum day's work in 

 French mines. To enable the companies to dou- 

 ble the number of pits, broaden the galleries, 

 and make other preparations, nine hours will be 

 a day for two years, then for two years eight 

 hours and a half, and after that e,ight hours. 

 A bill decreeing that workmen and workwomen, 

 whether in public or private service, including 

 employees in shops, restaurants, and hotels, shall 

 not be employed more than six complete days in 

 the week, but must have one whole day or two 

 half-days of rest, was opposed by only 10 Depu- 

 ties. A Socialist motion to amnesty strikers 

 was carried on March 21, in spite of the opposi- 

 tion of the Government, by 368 votes to 62. The 

 Guesdist Socialists and some anarchist agitators 

 led a demonstration of the unemployed at the 

 Labor Exchange and a conflict with the police 

 on March 3. Even the Parliamentary Socialists 

 who have defended M. Millerand considered it 

 inexpedient for a Socialist again to enter a 

 French Cabinet for some time. 



A new law on shipping bounties is intended to 

 indemnify ship owners who purchase vessels 

 built abroad for the extra expenses entailed by 

 the restrictions placed upon them by the French 

 shipping laws, though its opponents described it 

 as a bill to give 40,000,000 francs a year in premi- 

 ums to British ship-builders. Its purpose is to 

 enable the steam mercantile marine of France to 

 keep pace with that of other countries. The act 

 of 1881 allows half the navigation premium to 

 vessels of foreign construction sailing under the 

 French flag. The act of 1893 restricted bounties 

 to French-built vessels. The present act grants 

 an outfit indemnity equivalent to less than a 

 third of the navigation premium to foreign-built 

 steamers registered in France. The navigation 

 bounties for French-built vessels are at the same 

 time increased, 'except for large sailing vessels, 

 which were so favored by the act of 1893 that 

 they have been built in excess. Notwithstanding 

 the protection given by the law of 1893, French 

 owners have continued to buy over two-thirds of 

 the new steam tonnage abroad. A part of the 

 increased bounty is reserved as a superannua- 

 tion and accident insurance fund for mariners 

 and fishermen. The construction bounty remains 

 05 francs per ton and 15 francs on every 100 

 kilograms of engines and boilers. The French 

 builder of a steam-vessel receives also 70 per 

 rent, of the navigation bounty. French vessels 

 in colonial waters may hereafter have foreign 



crews under French officers, it having been found 

 that the law requiring three-quarters of all 

 French crews to be Frenchmen was detrimental 

 to the coasting-trade under the French flag in 

 tropical seas. The act of 1893, under which boun- 

 ties will continue to be paid out until 1913, will 

 have cost the taxpayers 221,000,000 francs. The 

 cost of the new statute, which was passed for 

 ten years, with payment of bounties for twelve 

 years longer, is limited to 200,000,000 francs. The 

 Chamber sanctioned by a practically unanimous 

 vote a vast project of canalization that has been 

 long studied, involving the expenditure of 665,- 

 000,000 francs, of which 443,500,000 francs will 

 be spent on new canals, 60,000,000 francs on 

 widening and deepening existing canals, and 

 162,000,000 francs on improving Dunkirk, Havre, 

 Nantes, St.-Nazaire, Bordeaux, and other har- 

 bors. Of the new canals, one to connect the Pas 

 de Calais with Lorraine, giving a cheaper and 

 more certain supply of coal and of iron ore to 

 a great manufacturing district, will cost 130.000,- 

 000 francs. The projected northern canal will 

 cost 60,000,000 francs. The canal from the 

 Loire to the lower Rhone, estimated to cost 

 123,000,000 francs, will link the extensive canal 

 system of which Paris is the center with the 

 southeastern parts of France. The canal from 

 Marseilles to the Rhone will cost 91,500,000 

 francs, and in connection with this the navigable 

 channel of the Rhone will be improved, and also 

 the Cette Canal. For works of minor importance 

 and local value the districts interested are ex- 

 pected to pay half the cost; for works of national 

 importance the local contribution will be less; 

 for military ports the whole cost falls on the 

 national treasury. The question of shortening 

 the term of military service was not decided. 

 Under the present law about 50,000 of the annual 

 recruits serve only one year, after which they 

 are called out for four or two weeks annually: 

 15,000 serve two years; and 160.000 are com- 

 pelled to serve three years. Young men of the 

 wealthier classes, on the ground that they are 

 needed for the support of their families or have 

 a certain amount of instruction, are released, 

 while the poor have to serve for the full term. 

 The Government proposed to make the period of 

 obligatory service two years for all if a sufficii nt 

 number of suitable men can be induced to re- 

 main with the colors voluntarily from one to five 

 years longer. A bill before the Senate offered 

 to those who would enlist for the addition;]] 

 terms not only higher pay, but future emplo\ - 

 ment in certain Government and communal o <: - 

 fices and in societies receiving state aid to be 

 reserved for soldiers who have served time 

 years in the national or the colonial army. Sor 

 who support widowed mothers or youn.irrr chil- 

 dren would also have to serve two years, during 

 which the Government would provide for the 

 support of the bereft families. The Government 

 favored this plan and was desirous of suppress- 

 ing all exemptions and inequalities, but not uniil 

 the preliminary measures were taken to insure 

 the efficiency of the military organization wlntn 

 the short term is introduced. As the matter 

 could not be brought to a conclusion before fie 

 dissolution of the Chamber, the Deputies, by 553 

 votes to 2, declared their adhesion to the princi- 

 ple of two years' service to be effected by the 

 suppression of all exemptions and by reenlnt- 

 ments. with compensation for families deprived 

 of their normal support. Military service lias 

 weighed very heavily in France because the an- 

 nual number of available conscripts has declined 

 since 1871 from 293,000 to 225,000, half the num- 



