210 SCIENCE SKETCHES. 
the price of boots was suddenly lowered, until the 
competing dealer would be willing to sell out on 
favorable terms to some of the society’s members. 
There were a few dealers in Issoire who still 
brought boots over from Clermont. These were 
made td understand that their course of action was 
unpatriotic, and that it was displeasing to the mem- 
bers of the Equitable Society. The office of the 
octroi was visited by several men who accused one 
of these dealers of having silk stockings concealed 
in an invoice of boots from Clermont. All the 
boxes were opened and each boot examined. 
Then all were thrown ina pile by the side of the 
street. The owner gathered them up as well as he 
could; but the street boys helped him, and before 
he knew it several boys and several pairs of boots 
were missing together. And so in a hundred ways 
the Equitable Society discouraged outside and in- 
side competition, until at last the entire boot-trade 
fell into its hands. 
But the rise in the cost of boots. had its effect on 
the workingmen. Clearly the increase in the price 
of boots was due to the growth of labor, for the 
price of hides was no greater than it was before, 
while the value of hides made up into boots was 
materially higher. If a day’s work was worth five 
francs before, nine francs was not too much now, 
when labor was so much more valuable to the 
capitalist. 
The big workman Jacques thought this out, and 
in the café of the Lion d’Or he advised the work- 
ingmen to march in a body to the President of the 
Confidence Society to demand their rights. They 
