The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1878-06-14
STRIKES In FRANCE.



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[From the London News.l
II London were afflicted with strike
of compositors, the consequences might
be serious; but the Partisan compost
tors have been on the strike for more
than fortnight, and newspapers and
books appear as usual. The reason OF
this is that in France trades-unions have
never been allowed to take any develop
ment. The compositors in Paris have
their union, but it has no connection
with the unions of provincial cities.
The case is the same as regards all the
other trades. If union in Paris
sought to enter into partnership, even
for mere pecuniary purposes, with a
union in the provinces, it would become
in the eyes of the law "secret socie-
ty;" it would be dissolved, and its Off
GERS would find themselves in prison.
Strikes can hardly succeed under such
circumstances. A union in one city
may send emissaries to the workmen in
another, begging them to join in
strike, but, as it cannot use coercion, its
requests will only be hearkened to if
convenient. The provincial compost
tors, who earned less than their breth-
rem in Paris, have been coming up in
gangs to take the places of the latter,
who may find it somewhat hard to OBJ
tain employment in the capital when
they abandon the quarrel with the mas
tiers. The printers have also resolved
to employ women largely henceforth,
and this will have been another result
OF the compositors' strike. 1t is found
that women do not quarrel readily with
their bread and butter, and that in all
the light work of the printer they are as
clever as men. Well-wishers to the
cause which Miss Emily Faithful has
80 spiritedly undertaken in England
may possibly, in another ten years
time, have the qualification of seeing the
work in most of the printing offices in
Paris done by women.
When you talk to Frenchman of 60
cieties like the Forresters and the Odd
Fellows, which reckon their members by
such colossal associations would be i'm
possible in France. They would develop
into political caucuses, and try wild ex-
periments in the way of Communism.
As to trades unions, the Conservative
party think that the law has already
gone too far in allowing the workmen
following the same trade in one particu-
lar city, or commune, to combine. When
ever these gentlemen have been in power
they have quelled strikes by the effectual
but ultimately ruinous process of MAX
ing soldiers do the work of the strikers.
When, in 1865, the journeymen matters
of Paris struck, an order of the day was
read in all the barracks Of Paris, and the
garrisons of the environs, setting forth
that soldiers who were hat-makers by
trade might have leave to go and work,
on condition of accepting the pay offered
by the masters. Many, of course, jumped
at the proposal, in ORDER to get few
weeks holiday. In that same year, 1865,
there was strike among the Partisan
cab-drivers, and again soldiers were
pressed into service this time in such
large numbers that the strike came to an
end in less than a week. We have called
this ruinous process, however, because
it sows ill-will between the army and the
working classes, and the fruit of such
The police are also made to play a
large part in the suppression OF French
strikes, and we cannot help thinking
that this part is not fair one. There
was big strike at the Creuzot Iron
Works in 1870, another near st. Etienne
in 1873, and now there is one among the
miners of DecaZeville. On all these oc-
casions we have heard of wholesale ar
rests being made on the charge of pick
citing. Men who had not used any
threats to deter non-unionists from
working, but who had simply been
found pleading the cause of the strikers,
were charged with rioting, while others,
who were strangers to the district, and
who had come to do little agitating in
an amateur capacity, we're adjudged
guilty of the more heinous offense OF
political conspiracy. A French strike
somehow always gets mixed up with
politics. BE the strikers never SO care
full, their ringleaders almost invariably
end by getting into Jail, and Judges
often add to the penalties of imprison-
ment deprivation of civil and political
rights, along with police supervision for
a number of years. We cannot call to
mind any French strike which has re-
suited in a complete victory for the
strikers. Government takes alarm at
the first signs of combination, and the
masters, being backed by the whole
strength of the administrative mechan-
ism, naturally decline to make conces-
sions.