Socialism and Democracy in Europe

IST PARTY

. Thiers, in his last official message as president, claimed that Socialism, living and thriving in

general amnesty was declared, they brought to Paris a new and virile propaganda. The leader of the n

But he was also insisting upon "Le minimum d'état et la maximum de liberté" (a minimum of government and a maximum of liberty). This may be taken a

ty. This is the first time the words were used with a political significance.[1] It was a small beginning, his votes were few, and the newspaper that espoused the workingman's cause, Le Pro

archists, under Blanqui, formed the "Parti Socialiste Révolutionnaire"-the Revolutionary Socialist Party; the co-operativists, calling themselves the Republican Socialist Alliance, inc

only 15,000 votes in Paris and 25,000 in the Departments for their munici

y petty factions. We will hastily review these constantl

the social problems, "Société d'économie Sociale"-Society of Social Economics-which rapidly developed into the important group of Independent Socialists-"Parti Socialiste Indépendent." The labor movem

Labor Party of France-"Parti Ouvrier Socialiste Révolutionnaire Fran?ais." In 1893 the first confedera

year the Guesdists withdrew on account of the rigorous quelling of the strike riots by the government at Chalons-sur-Sa?ne. In 1901 the Blanquists withdrew and, coalescing with the Guesdists, formed the Socialis

gestion of the International Congress held at Amsterdam, 1904. The "United Party" is officially known as the

te of the fact that the Guesdists and Jaurèsites have not forgotten their ancient differences. The French people are not amenable to discipline and

lectualism or because of their political ambitions, have a repugnance to hard and fast organization. This group includes a number of college professors and journalists; also Briand, Viviani, and Millerand, former

Chamber. In most countries their radicalism would be called Socialism. But in Fra

toward securing the moral and material betterment of "the greatest number," and amidst the cheers of his followers the Prime Minister replied that the government's duty was comp

ons were illegal. In 1881 the government removed the restrictions that had been placed on the press. In the following year it extended the primary schools into every commune, and Gambetta did everything in his power to p

dicats by the French-sprang up everywhere. Article 3 of the act declared that these unions had for their exclusive object "the study and the promulgation o

vement. In 1885 several deputies, calling themselves Socialists, began to interpellate the ministry on the labor questions. The government brough

edge and superb oratory immediately commanded attention. He was joined by another new deputy, M. Millerand, scarcely less proficient in debate, and even more extreme in his conv

nization of trade unions. They then began to promulgate the doctrine of the general strike. The unionists began not only to compel their employers to accede to their dem

ur day among the miners. In 1892 the Departmental Congress of Workingmen at Tours passed a resolution favoring the general strike, and it was discussed a few days later in a general c

your hand, now give the Republic your instructions."[3] The parliamentary entente of the liberal Socialists with the Radical Left dates from this time. The campaign spread with surprising fervor. Labor unions and parliamentary Socialists joined their forces. In 1893 they elect

of humanity. The misery of the people had awakened, he said, after right of association had been granted. Labor had, through strikes, gained certain minor improvements. It was now prepared to conquer publ

elebrate their victory. They were tiring of their quarrels and were ready to unite. At least they agreed that each group could name its own

adical Left, attempted the answer. It was made in the presence of Guesde, Vaillant, and Jaurès, and many local leaders from various parts of France. So, for the moment and for the occasion of

sonality? That implies two necessary conditions of which one is a factor of the other: first, individual appropriation of things necessary for the security and

is setting itself up daily; it is, if I may be allowed the phrase, being secreted by the capitalistic régime. Here I seem to have my finger on the characteristic featu

hastened to guarantee to the small property owner his modest possessions. All this taking over by the state was to be done gradually. "No Socialist ever dreamed of transforming the capitalistic régime instantaneously by magic wand." The method of this gradual absorption by the state must be constitutional. "We appeal only to universal suffrage. To

ed as long as it was rhetorical. But when Millerand himself became a member of the cabinet in

was spokesman in the Chamber of Deputies for the Socialist group, which now held the balance of power. With threats of violence against the Republic in the air, he assured the deputies that his comrades were united for "the honor, the splendor, and the safety of the Fatherland" (l'honneur, la grandeur, et la sécurité de la Patrie). And this was part of the price of their adhesion: old-age pensions, a fixed eight-hour day, factory le

I

is courage in assuming responsibility. But while the Independents were jubilant over the elevation of one of their number, the Guesdists and Blanquists withdrew from the "Bloc." They issued a manifesto setting forth their reasons. They did not wish

rès proposed to put the question up to the party congress, and in 1899 at Paris a bilateral compromise resolution was adopted. Guesde, however, restless and dissatisfied, compelled the congress to vote fi

ptance of office by a single Socialist in a bourgeois government "could not be deemed the normal commencement o

d largely of friends of Millerand and Jaurès. By this time the Socialist minister had had three years' experience in the c

p; second, on a resolution to prosecute certain anti-militarists for publishing a book that tended to destroy military discipline; and, third, on a resolution asking the M

t a party consciousness of some sort had been achieved. This meeting is significant because it tried to fix defin

which gains ground daily on the revolutionary Socialism, a policy which Citizen Millerand did not start, which he has merely developed and defined, a

r to resolve, in a sort of automatic fashion, the antagonisms of society.... The enthronement of political democracy and universal suffrage by no means suppresses the profound antagonism of classes.... Sarrante errs in

cialistic state has replaced the oligarchic and bourgeois state." This can be brought about, he said, by "a polic

which required a superhuman legerdemain never yet

rty fold, was adopted by 109 to 89 votes, fifteen delegates abstaining from voting. This was a very close margin, and in spite of Millerand's promise that he wou

away from the Guesdists every year until he repudiated the class war and adhered to social solidarity; substituted the method by evolution for the method by revolution, still espoused by Guesde; and placed the national

reduction at eleven hours, reducing it to ten and a half, and then to ten within three years

ition of piece-work, guarantee of no work on Sunday, and the per cent. of foreign workmen allowed on the job. He arranged that the workingmen should unite with the employer in fixing the

ident ins

and took great care to perfect the organization of trade unions. He introduced amendments to the old law of 1884, giving greater scope and elasticity to the unions, granting them greater corporate powers, and making the dismissal of a workman because he belonged to a union ground for a civil su

cation of all disputes arising between employer and employee, suggesting improvements, and keeping vigilance over all local labor conditions. In 1891 a supreme labor council had been established.

ore than fifty men, a sort of committee of grievance to which all matters of dispute might be referred. In case of failure to settle their diffic

by compelling the employer to share the responsibility of ownership with his employees. This would mark the beginning of a revolution very different from th

urès told him to accept. When he had perfected his practical procedure, and the bulk of the proletarians evinced their disappointment and chagrin t

erty, and government. It was the heroic period of modern French Socialism. Red and black flags were borne by enthusiastic multitudes through the streets of Paris. The "Université

of the army. The old Royalist families had continued to send their sons into the army and navy. Many of the officers were suspected of royalist sympathies. An elaborate system of espionage was instituted, and the suspects weeded out. The last vesti

ntire policy. In 1906, when a new cabinet was formed, Millerand declined a portfolio, but two other Socialists accepted cabinet honors; Viviani, a well-known Parisian lawyer, held

en the fear out of their hearts. Even the Marxian Socialists failed to notice the event. They had written into their p

lliant debate in the Chamber with Jaurès in which the philosophical basis of individ

w under great obligation. These workingmen, the proletariat, were the force now to be dealt with. "If you really wish society to evolve, if you wish it really to be transformed, there is the force you must de

een the man and the system." Clémenceau read the Socialists' program upon which they had won their victory. It embraced: the eight-hour day, giving state employees the right to form unions, sickness and une

gram, challenged me to produce my own. I had very great difficulty in restraining the temptatio

ical, a dream. "You are a visionary, I am a realist; you have dreams, I have facts." Jaurès replied with great fervor that he would prove to the people of France that Socialism is not impracticable and that within a year he would produce a plan for the new social order. The "Unified" Socialist Party, built up largely on Jaurès' abandonment of his former colleague and his earlier

ot to federate or organize syndicats. A great many organizations were formed, especially among the postal employees and teachers. They were mutual benefit s

ey demanded that these organizations become members of the C.G.T. (General Confederation of Workingmen). The government objected because that would give the men the right to st

uced into the service, and with the help of local chambers of commerce and other civic bodies the postal service was renewed. The strikers were then willing to make terms. They stipulated that the dismissed employees be reinstated and that M. Simyan, the Under-Secretary of Posts and Telegraphs, be dismissed. The first request was

l by strike." The Minister of Public Works said: "Over our heads these officials have revolted against you and against the entire nation. These are serious hours when the government needs perfect facilities of communication with its ambassadors and consuls [the Balkan question was in the pot], and in such

etary for his resignation the post-office employees organized a trade union, unauthorized by law. The government refused to meet representatives of this union

inst the government. One of their number started the "Internationale," the Socialist war-song. After the first blush of indignation had passed, the whole Chamber sprang to its feet, th

clared a general strike. The situation threatened to become serious, but the soldiers distributed over the affected territory had a tranquilizing effect. Men in other trades were reluctant to follow the orders of the committee. A fe

he strike as a crime against the state, the greater the victory of the Syndicalists." The Syndicalist journal, Le Voix du Peuple, the day after the first strike was settled proclaimed "the victory which our comrades of the postal proletariat have won over their employer the state.

association for "professional" purposes only,-i.e., for improving their efficiency,-but were absolutely prohibited from striking and from joinin

general strike. In the Socialist congress at Paris, 1899, he said: "The general strike has the seductive advantage that it is nothing but the practice of an intangible right. It is a revolution which arises within the law. The workingman refuses to carry the yoke of misery any farther and begins the revolution in the field of his legal rights. The illegality must begin with the capitalist class, if it allows itself to be

to lead the French government against the

remiership he ann

necessity, but he deemed it best to experiment with the new method

duated i

egal status of

-age p

eeting between the men and the officials of the railway. The ministry offered its services to the railway directors, but they refused to meet the strikers, although Briand had volunteered to preside at such a meeting. The Prime

. A minimum wage of five francs a day. 2. A revision of the railway pension act making the pensions ret

an act of rebellion planned by a few revolutionary leaders and submitted to by the rank and file without their even voting on the question. He was greatly incensed at the sudden calling out of the men a

ing in the office of L'Humanité,[14] attended by Jaurès and Vaillant and other leaders of the party. Th

ait for acts of violence; he anticipated them. Briand called out the reserves (militia), and nearly all of the strikers were com

or. In spite of these precautions acts of violence occurred,

d done its work. The strike was over. The government refuse

, assuming the full responsibility for calling it, and affirming that the

eaders of the Syndicalists, the plotters of the strike, no doubt believed that the time was opportune. The Prime Minister and two of his cabinet, Viviani and Millerand, were Socialists, and a third member, Barthou, wa

that the strike had nothing to do with the labor problem. The government, had been confronted with "an enterprise designed to ruin the country, an anarchistic movement with civil war for its aim, and violence and organized destructi

a political object." For the Socialists Bouveri, a miner, replied. He defended bomb-throwing and sabotage; asked the Minister of War if, in case of invasi

ire bondir). If the government had not found in the law that which enabled it to remain master of the frontiers of France and master of its railways, which ar

and hisses. Finally Jaurès was heard in bitter rebuke of his former comrade. Viviani answered Jaurès; they had fought together the bat

ster to form a new cabinet. In his new program he included measures that would greatly strengthen the arms of the government in times of strikes, punishing sabotage by he

ich he denounced as a handful of plotters exercising a wicked tyranny over Socialists and workingmen. Finally, February 27, 1911, he resigned, refusing to hold office

especially every democratic government, will within the next few decades be compelled to meet

in the Briand affair a

s and the companies. Instead of hostility, Briand's plan might well have deserved the support of the Socialists. For he was e

Here, too, Briand was the Socialist and the Socialists were the individualists; the one recognized the paramount interests of society, the other saw only the interests of

nderstand the Socialist movement in any country, both politically and industrially, it is necessary to understand the organizat

busied with politics until a few years ago, when the Labor Party was organized. Since then a number of union men have identified themselves rather loosely with Socialism. In

de guilds and corporations. The Loi le Chappelier forbade unions of workers and of masters, and the Code Napoléon imposed a penalty of imprisonment on those engaging in un

Paris Labor Exchange, built a large clubhouse for if, and succeeded in getting an appropriation of 20,000 francs a year from the city for its maintenance. Within ten years about fifty of these exchanges were formed in as many cities, and about seventy per cent. o

bitter rivals, after the French fashion, until, in 1902, they amalgamated, retaining the name C.G.T.[24] The organization is dual, retaining the benevolent activities of the local exchanges and the trade activities of the local unions. These activities are federated int

f Proudhonism in the body of labor unionism. Briefly stated, it is class war in its most violent form without the aid of parliaments and politics; with the

arance of Georges Sorel's book, The Socialist Future of Trade Unions, in 1897,

and journalists of the bourgeois class, who live on respectable streets, receive you in comfortable

narchism, repudiates the leadership of Socialism, and scorns to be me

ecause no laws can emancipate the workingmen. It therefore despises governments and abjures parliaments. But its ideals are Socialistic; it believ

ment. Their state is a glorified trade union whose activities are confined to economic functions, their nation is a collection of federat

death, whose terrible and incalculable consequences would force the government to capitulate at once. If it refused, the proletariat, in revolt from one end of France to the other, would be able to compel it." Sorel says that "revolutionary Syndicalism nourishes in the masses the desire to strike, and it can thrive only in places where great strikes

le, sets the masses in motion and drives them on."[29] There are plots, underground man?uvers, and sudden outbursts. An air of mystery pervades their spectacular uprisin

vernment and majority rule is to them merely a polite form of tyranny, and patriotism a farce. Potaud says: "Patriotism can only be explained by

erlands! Our country is the international world!"

ns, 1906, they resolved that the "anti-military and anti-patriotic pro

s overt acts. There was no limit to their superlatives. "Rip up the bourgeois!" "Turn your rifles on your officers!" "Cut buttonholes in the skins of the bourgeois!" were familia

. We have seen how these outbreaks were met by a Radical government. Since then their ardor h

ert its sovereignty. This includes the police and constabulary as well as the army, and courts and parliaments as well as the navy. Since soldiers and policemen are servants of the state, and sin

cher of history from Auxerre. He had spoken the suitable word, and became famous overnight: "The French flag arose from dirt!"; and to the peasantry he shouted, "Plant your country's flag in the bar

isian workingman was arrested for an offense against public morals. He protested his innocence and, when released, in revenge killed a policeman. He was promptly executed. Hervé used the occasion for an onslaught upon the government in his paper. He said: "If the working class would display one-tent

been slow at achieving practical results. As early as 1887 they acquired considerable power in Paris.

tions for workshops and factories; abolition of private employment bureaus; establishment of homes for the aged; maternity hospitals; free medical attendance for the poor; free public baths; sanita

at Saint-Ouen. The discussions were filled with revolutionary phraseology. In a few years the ideas of violence were discarded for more practical issues. In 18

ter was opened; school children were fed and clothed; and an attempt was made to regulate the length of the working day and fix a minimum wage for municipal employees. At Dijon the feeding and clothing of school children was regu

he Socialists attempted to do in their towns was the readjustment of the finances for the benefit of the working classes. Their acts were vetoed on the ground that they were ultra vires. The attempt to fix a minimum wage for municipal employees met the same fate. Then the municipalities petitioned the central government for greater financial autonomy. This was

more money on the poor than their predecessors. You will find better nurseries for the babies of the working mothers, meals and stockings doled out to school children of the poor, here and there a physician or a lawyer retained by the town to render free service to th

rnments are trying to destroy poverty. Their ideal

neva, in a very clear and able speech, pointed out the merits of municipalization, citing the ownership of street railways, gas, waterworks, garbage plants, and other public utilities of European and American citie

e needs a great deal of gas to light up his big house. But what laboring man needs gas? When has he time to read? In the evening he is too tired, and he gives no receptions." Guesde maintained with great ve

t brought out clearly the fact that the Guesdists are not devoted to state

ndependent landowners. There are several million of these thrifty peasants in France, and their acquisition to Socialism will mean, not only a great increase in political power, but a modification of their theory of property. The Socialists are luring the s

nt Chamber, only thirty are workingmen, or trade-union officials; eight are professors in the University or secondary schools; seven are journalis

considered Socialistic in England or the United States; half of it calls itself Socialist-Radical. It rules the Republic from the Chamber of Deputies. Everywhere y

ion. They keep their fields and their little shops, and speculate about the new to-morrow. They vote and debate with imaginative fervor; they pay taxes with stolid commonplace silence. In measuring the strength of French Socialism it is necessary to k

itions of men, from Anatole France, most fastidious of literary aristocrats, to

in dreams and delicate theories; but they never lose their grip on t

TNO

du Mouvement Socialiste en

rench Chamber of Deputies-are the reactionary Right; the repu

supra ci

ies fails to receive a majority of the votes cast, a second ba

. See also a collection of Millerand's speeches,

ifeste 14 Ju

listes Fran?ais tenu à Paris du 3 au 8 Décembre. Co

f the Bordeaux congress is given in

02, a sympathetic account of his work; contains

view, August, 1906, for a br

f the law is of interest, and instructive. The workmen naturally rejoiced over this increased leisure. The employers, on the other hand, found themselves paying wages for hours in which no service was rendered. The

Chamber of Deputi

d in the demand of the Syndicalists. One of their number who had signed a vitriolic circular was dismissed by M. Br

ist daily of Paris. Briand had writte

ilway traffic is a crime; and if it has been planned at a seditious meeting, the instigators are as liable to punishment as the aut

eance Briand will suffice" was read on the walls under flaming p

ree with Briand in his efforts to pass a law making all railway strikes illegal. He said as l

d the bill; but Guesde voted against it in spite of his party's instructions, because labor was charged with contributing

rime Minister, he promptly invited Briand into his cabi

ist and the independent. In 1896 there were 202 co-operative productive societies. In 1907 there were 362. The follo

he reports of the Minister of Labor, show

f Unions Numb

221

280

501

725

821

,006 1

,250 2

,589 2

,926 4

,178 4

,163 4

,243 4

,324 4

,361 4

,685 4

,287 5

,679 6

,934 6

,227 7

,625 7

,857 8

,322 8

,524 9

March, 1909, for a comprehensive articl

fter the color of their membership cards. The "yellows" are tho

the increase of strikes since

Averag

es Avera

ers Aver

ays

379 71,961

855 214,66

t, Les Bases du Syndicalisme; Griffuelhs, L'Action Syndicaliste, and Syndicalisme et Socialisme; Pouget, La P

of Trade Unionism, a

xions sur

ndicalisme, Chap. V. This pa

f Strike Committ

he governing class, the bourgeoisie, and the parasites. Therefore the XVth Congress approves and extols every action the anti-military and anti-patr

ry one of turmoil and perpetual commotion. This book is a sample of the reading given into the hands of the children of the Republic. I was told, upon careful inquiry, that a large number of the primary and secondary school teachers are Socialists. Thiers, before he became President, while

r; but that it would be a long time before the people would regard all mankind, rather than a single ethnic group, as t

to Spain and Italy. But they have not found fav

Essais de Sociali

y Compère-Morel, in the Chamber of Deputies, December 6, 19