The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1885-08-04
SOME REFORMS
The Programme of the French
Radicals.

HaQlcdlS.
/ The Radicals in Paris have issued an
electioneering manifesto in preparation
/ for the elections which has not received
the attention it deserves. 1t is to be i'm
posed, if possible, on all the can didates
on the general ticket of the Department
of Seine. To begin at the beginning,
every child is to receive gratuituous
education at every stage from the State,
at the hands of lay teachers, and while
receiving it is to be boarded, lodged, and
clothed at the public expense. In this
way every couple can have as many
children as they please without refer
ence to the amt u 1t of their income. All
indirect taxes are also to be abolished.
and there is to be substituted for them a
progressive tax" both on capital and
income, that is to say, it is to be very
high on much capital and very low on a
little income; very high on large in
comes and very low on small ones. Be-
sion duty on property transmitted by
parents to children, the only. succession
which is TO be permitted. Whether any
capital would stay in France under these
conditions Is not a matter about which
the Radicals concern themselves. In
fact they would be rather pleased to
have capital emigrate, inasmuch as they
ascribe to 1t most of the evils by which
French society is afflicted. This done,
the State is to take possession in one
way or another of all railroads, canals,
and mines, and work them for the pub
lie benefit. The maximum of the hours
of labor is to be reduced, and no chill
dren under fourteen are to be allowed
in factories or workshops. "Credit'' is
to be provided for people who can give
no security as well as for those who can.
Groups of working men are to have
preference in all contracts awarded by
the State. The State prisons are to be
'reformed"-though in what manner is
not mentioned, and people who cannot
labor are to be supported at the public
expense. To crown all, illegitimate and
legitimate children are to- be put on
complete equality before the law, or
rather, there are to be no Legitimate
children hereafter. Nearly all good
Radicals are opposed to legal marriage,
and therefore cannot be expected to
recognize two classes of children.
This last point is one, however, which
has occupied French political specula-
tors and legislators good deal. The
amount OF writing which French jurists
have done on what they call la recher-
che &c la paternite" that is on the pro-
priety of allowing women to point out
the fathers of their children not born in
wedlock, is enormous. The weight of
opinion, both among lawyers and politi-
clans, has, however, always been against
it, and the enormous evils which might
flow from it have been painted in the
most eloquent language. The Radicals
propose to get rid of all this trouble by
cutting the Gordian knot. That IS they
propose to create state of things in
which it will make no difference whose
"nlId any child is-all will be the chill
dren of the State, which will thus be-
COVE g'eat founding hospital.
There Is, however, it must be confess
ed, in the succession laws of all civilized
countries distinction in favor of legiti-
mate children, which is difficult to de-
fend on grounds of natural Justice.
The exclusion of illegitimate children
from all share in the Inheritance of their
father in case of intestacy when there
are legitimate children to take
it, is provision which is, whenever it
exists, intended to fortify the institution
of marriage, but the Radicals maintain,
and not without some show of reason,
that we have no right to fortify any in
StItution at the expense of the innocent.
If anybody should suffer from the fail
ure of parents to get married, it is I'M
doubtedly the parents themselves, if
they can be got at; for the consequences
of Illicit unions nobody is less response
BILE morally than the children born of
them. In France the question is made
more serious than elsewhere by the
great pains taken by the law to strength
en- the family bond, in all dealings with
and by the serious limitations
put on the testamentary pow f
parents. The legitimate children have
in France, in fact, rights in the property
of their parents, such as the law gives !
them in no other country, and under
these circumstances it is not surprising |
that the sympathy of French Radical |
reformers for the Legitimate should be |
than elsewhere. This sympa-
thy is in their case of course increased |
by their hostility to marriage, which, |
strong as regards civil marriage before |
the mayor, is ruthless and furious as re-
CARDS church marriage. There is proba-
bly, no country in the world but |
France in which political can
didate would be driven from the |
stump by storm of execra-
tons, on his admitting, in answer to
question. that he had had one of his |
children baptized. and in spite of his
expressions of penitence; and yet this
occurred in Paris not long ago.-N. Y. |
Euening Post.