The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-06-15
WORKERS ABROAD.


From the Pail Mall, Gasette.
In France-at any rate, in Paris-the work
iDgman makes the Government under which
he lives, and lives in great degree on the
Government which he has made. His de-
pendence begins in the earliest stages of life,
before he is aware how much he is discount
ing the power which he will hereafter exer-
else His infantine days are passed in the
cTecbe, where public or private charity affords
him shelter and attendance without
trouble to either of his parents. From the
cToche he passes to the sale ddStIe, where it
is only question of pride or meanness on
the part of his parents whether his first edu-
cation shall be wholly or partially gratutous
Be it remembered that the sales d'GStJo are
not confined to Paris; for in 1866 not fewer
than 432, 900 children were educated in these
institutions altogether. From the sale d'GsSte
he is transferred to the ec0Ie primaSre, where,
for the slightest payment, orfor none at all, he
gets more thorough instruction than the sons
of many English brokers and merchants re-
ceive in Establishments for Young Gentle
men, In 1866 more than 1,732,000 boys
and 1,57S,000 girls attended these schools
throughout France Beyond these, again,
are different superior schools, eliminating in
the most ambitious of all, the Conservatoire
des Arts ct Meters. Up to this point little
has been done by the French workman, but
everything for him. Henceforth his attempts
to help himself are aided by the benevolence
of paternal Government. There are about
500 savings banks in France, with deposits to
the value of twenty-three millions sterling.
Then there are the Annuity Societies (Caisses
de Retraite pour la Vieillesse) which enable a
workingman, by the investment of two sous
q day, to obtain an annuity of 600 on attain
ing his sixtieth year. Lastly, there are the
Societies de Secours Mutuels, or Friendly So
cieties, which perform functions nearly identi-
cal with those in England. They furnish
temporary assistance to their sick or infirm
members, and provide the funeral expenses
of those who are dead. All these societies,
we infer from the general tenor of the Report,
are more or less watched by the Govern
ment. They are controlled by official
pressure into a conformity of practice with
principle, and are not allowed to expend
80 per cent. of their receipts on the
salaries and feasts of their committeeman
From all these circumstances one might
infer that the French workman is q we'll
trained, disciplined, and contented man,
thrifty in the accumulation of funds which
can be so well economical, and grateful to
the Government which thus stimulates and
rewards his thrift He who would make
such a supposition would find himself
strangely disabused by facts. The French
artisan in general, and the Partisan artisan
in particular, is neither grateful nor con-
tented. The wages which he receives are on
level with those of his English compeer.
But, in Paris at any rate, he does not save or
invest more largely than the Englishman.
He does not, it is true, guzzle and swill away
his earnings as too many London workmen
do. But he is not a whit less extravagant in
his own way. He expends a large proportion
of his wages on what he calls his pIatstrs.
Fetes, cafes, dancing saloons, music-halls,
singing-rooms, in which the indecency is
more striking than the melody or the wit,
make as great drain on his resources as the
alehouse and GIN palace do on those of the
London mechanic. And the women are not
behind the men in their love of pleasure
Many a wife of q Partisan laborer earning
high wages goes into some kind of service,
not to make the pot boil at home,
but to provide for her pLGiSirS
abroad. working population which
thus provides for its own pleasures, and
has its education and protection provided for
it, ought to be cheerful, and even jolly. But
the working population of Paris, though often
excited by gayety, knows nothing of perma-
nent contentment. AS Mr.. Malet says, ''No
private indulgence, no public legislation, can
eradicate from their mind the idea that the
capitalist is a vampire feeding on their blood.
In the workshop the discipline may be COM
plete; beyond it the employer is treated
without respect, and his word is without in
ments which may be useful are treated not as
boons, but as devices to bribe them to addi-
tional labor. A large manufacturer, by way
of doing kindness to the hands in his en-
ployment, turned on a tap of hot and cold
water outside the manufactory, at which any
of the families living about could come and
help themselves workman, on being
asked whether the innovation was we'll re-
ceived by his fellows, replied simply, without
the slightest intention of giving offense, that
it appeared to be only small part of what
was due to them. No indulgence
appears to them in the light of spontaneous
act of benevolence. They say again and
again, 1t is only part of what is due to u.s. "
It is not a pleasant reflection that thousands
of French operatives go through their lives
imbued with these opinions, which they leave
to their children and successors, to be cult
waited and developed by the sermons of Social
ist teachers in every large town. 1t is dreary
piece of good fortune which forbids Partisan
workman to have grandchildren; otherwise
this teaching would fructify more rapidly
than it has done hitherto. To the alternate
excitements of indulgence and insurrection is
due result which proves the unwholesome-
ness of Partisan life, and precludes the here.
ditary transmission of an inexorable commu.
nism in the same families.
We turn from France to Switzerland
Here, at all events, the life of the operative
should be at once happy, contented, and self
dependent. He is the citizen of country
which has grand national traditions, and Of
which all the inhabitants are equal. Neither
is political equality marred by those inequali
ties of fortune which make American repub
licanism such ludicrous mockery. The only
plutocrats are the bankers and the hotel