FRANCE 



2299 



FRANCE 



to one. Altogether, the textiles produced in a 

 year are worth about $750,000,000. Next to 

 the textile industries are those connected with 

 metals. France manufactures comparatively 

 little machinery, but its smaller metal prod- 

 ucts, whether of iron, steel, brass, silver or 

 gold, have that special excellence of finish and 

 that artistic touch so characteristically French. 

 The making of wines and cider has been men- 

 tioned under the heading AGRICULTURE, and 

 side by side with this has grown up the manu- 

 facture of beer. 



Fisheries. These are extensive, employing 

 about one hundred thousand men and having 

 an annual value of over $30,000,000. Sardines, 

 herring, mackerel and tunny are caught by 

 tons, and on the west coast oyster-breeding is 

 conducted on a large scale. The French fish- 

 ermen do not content themselves with work- 

 ing the near-by waters. Their fishing fleets 

 find their way to Iceland and even across the 

 sea and carry back from the Newfoundland 

 Banks millions of dollars worth of cod. 



Transportation and Commerce. The United 

 States, Germany, Russia and British India sur- 

 pass France in length of railways, but no coun- 

 try surpasses it in speed and in excellence of 

 service. The total mileage is about 30,400, 

 and of this over one-fourth is owned by the 

 state. All the other roads, at present owned 

 by great companies, are under strict govern- 



ment control and will at the expiration of 

 their franchises, about the middle of the twen- 

 tieth century, became state property. Practi- 

 cally all of the great roads start from Paris 

 and run toward the large towns. 



France has a large and efficient system of 

 canals, which with its rivers gives it about 7,100 

 miles of navigable waterway. The Atlantic is 

 joined with the Mediterranean by means of a 

 great canal, and most of the important rivers 

 have canal connections with each other. There 

 are also in the country great stretches of won- 

 derful roads which have been in existence for 

 centuries. 



The total foreign trade of France amounts 

 in a year to nearly $4,000,000,000, and of this 

 imports make up somewhat more than half. 

 These are chiefly grains, wood, raw cotton and 

 silk, machinery, coal, wood, oil seeds and, 

 strangely enough, wine; for France exports 

 most of its own wine. The exports are cotton, 

 woolen and silk goods, wine, clothes, Parisian 

 articles and dairy products. In general it may 

 be said that what is shipped from French ports 

 is chiefly expensive manufactured products, 

 while the incoming cargoes are of bulkier, 

 cheaper raw materials. Great Britain, the 

 United States, Belgium and Germany have 

 had most of the French trade; in 1919 French- 

 men declared Germany would not recover its 

 prestige. 



Social and Political Conditions 



Education. No country of Europe has ever 

 shown a keener interest in education than 

 has France, especially in recent years, and the 

 national system of education is an excellent 

 one, capably administered. Formerly the 

 schools were largely under the domination of 

 the Roman Catholic Church, but in various 

 ways that state of affairs has been done away 

 with, chiefly through legislation. A large pro- 

 portion of the girls who go beyond the ele- 

 mentary schools attend the convents, but boys 

 are in far larger numbers sent to the secular 

 schools, because government positions and 

 certain professions are not open to those who 

 have not attended state schools. 



Education is free and compulsory between 

 the ages of five and thirteen, and the system 

 includes schools of all ranks, from the kinder- 

 garten, or "maternal school," which admits 

 babies two years of age, to the highest uni- 

 versity. Even in the primary and secondary 

 schools boys and girls are taught separately, 



and the courses differ in many particulars, the 

 girls' schools neglecting the ancient tongues 

 and the more technical subjects and laying 

 stress upon "cultural" studies. The secondary 

 schools consist of the state colleges, or lycees, 

 the communal colleges supported by the com- 

 mune (see COMMUNE), and private schools, 

 and even these latter are under the super- 

 vision of the minister of public instruction, 

 for education is strongly centralized. For edu- 

 cational administrative purposes, the whole 

 country is divided into seventeen districts, 

 known as academics, and each of these has its 

 own officers of instruction. 



The state supports no fewer than fifteen 

 universities, and there are special and profes- 

 sional schools of various kinds. One of the 

 universities, that of Paris, has an enrollment 

 of over 17,000 yearly. 



Literature and Language. The literature and 

 language of the nation are described under 

 the titles, FRENCH LANGUAGE and FRENCH LIT- 



