The Sun.
London, England, 1865-06-21 00:00:00

Strike of the Paris Cabmen.

(From the Correspondent of the Times.)
The most important event of the day is, not the
debate in the Chamber on the fortified towns of

France, or on the best system of frontier defences,
nor yet on this or that chapter of the naval or
colonial Budgets, but the strike of the cabmen in
the Imperial Company's employ, which has de-
prived a vast number of Parisians and strange* of
the indispensable means of locomotion. In one
day more than 3,000 vehicles ceased running, and
more than 4,000 persons were enabled to concert
together, though not allowed to meet for that
purpose, and stop work. Besides the great in-
convenience resulting from this strike, the loss
to the company is most serious. It is calculated
that the average receipts of each of the 2,500
vehicles of the first category—facres—and the 500
of the second—remises—were 15f. a day, or a total
amount of 45,000 f., now lost. I have already noticed
the grievances of which the cabmen complain—some
being well founded, others unreasonable, as, for in-
stance, that by which they claim the right to specify
the grounds on which one of the brotherhood may be
discharged. It is clear, however, that their wages
are insufficient. They get nominally 3f. a day, but
these 3f. are reduced by stoppages to If. 40c., or
about 14d., and for this pittance they work on an
average from 17 to 18 hours out of the 24. During
the Paris season, when there are private balls
and balls at the Opera, they are obliged to pass
the night in the street, and the only addition for
this extra work is one-fifth of their receipts during
the night—that is, about If. The men also com-
plain of the chefs de depot, or stationmasters, and
the difficulty of obtaining fair play from them. After
detailing his grievances, a cabman who has written
to the papers concludes his letter thus :

" It would be too long to recount all the vexations which
a cabman has to endure from the agents of the company,
and from a public often exacting and capricious, and, what
is worse than all, from over-zealous police agents."
Thus far the strike has fallen severely on places of
public amusement, such as theatres, concert rooms,
&c., where the receipts have greatly fallen off for the
last three days. The company is in a very difficult
position, and it is not quite certain that the strike
will not involve the forfeiture of its privilege. The
9th clause of the contract concluded in 1855 between
the Prefect of Police and the company says :
" Should M. Bourlon and partners, from any cause what-
ever, stop the working of the contract, or cease to be in a
position to continue it, the Prefect of Police may by a
simple ordnance declare them to have forfeited the advan-
tages of the said contract."
On the other hand, if the company submit to the
demands of the men for higher wages, it will have
an additional charge of more than two millions of
francs a year. It is obliged to pay the municipality
for its stands, &c., about a million and a half more,
and all this before any dividend is paid to sharehol-
ders. To supply the deficit it must raise the fares,
which are too high already. In this case the public
would have no remedy but to strike in turn, and
act as the Milanese did in 1858, who abstained from
smoking for a month by way of protesting against
the Austrian monopoly of tobacco. To the monopoly
accorded to the company by the municipality all
agree in ascribing the present state of things, and
that monopoly, which is paid for so dearly, arises
from the necessity the Prefect is under to procure
funds from all sources, in order to continue the
great ornamental and strategical works of Paris.
The private cabowners, who have long and des-
perately struggled against the invasion of the great
monopoly, have profited by the strike. For the
last three days those Pariahs have put forth their
strength, and seem to multiply themselves--making
up for want of number by extraordinary zeal
and activity. Yesterday it was easy to see that
the vehicles moving about on the Boulevards and
some of the other great thoroughfares were more
numerous than for two or three days previous. The
better class of vehicles, called remises, the others,
known as regie, except, of course, those that depend
on the Imperial Company, and about a hundred that
have rushed in from the environs of Paris, were
placed at the disposal of the public, particularly at
the railway termini. Then, again, the Omnibus
Company has put in circulation an additional num-
ber of its carriages, and the railway companies are
sending their omnibuses about in all directions.
By means of these helps, the public may wait with
less impatience—so long, at least, as the fine weather
lasts—for the solution of a question which occupies
the Parisian mind to the exclusion of all others.