Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-08-30
Now Benefited by Municipal Laws
and Also by the
HELPING HAND OF WOMAN.
An EX-Member Of the Commune Discusses
the Working Glasses.
WAGEsHIGHER AND THE TIMEsHARDER
rcoRRrspoNDENcE OF THE DISPATCH,

mated. The distinctness of character, the
proud independence and the power ol
initiative which belong to the working
population OF Paris, have no parallel in any
other European capital. The true Partisan
for am careful to exclude the numbers
of provincial and foreign workmen who flock
to Paris-is possessed of qualities, both
moral and intellectual, which rank him
among the aristocracy Of the human race.
He is of exemplary sobr1ety, attached to his
family, full of dignity, industrious, and
| of o most gentle disposition. Refined
in his taste, he has the instincts of an artist
and the ardor OF votary of science. His
love of country is only equalled by his zeal
for every kind of knowledge. He is great
reader-so great, indeed, that his tastes are
considered even by authors in the highest
position. and thus indirectly exercise dis
tinct and powerful influence on the litera-
ture of France. There is not an author,
great or small, who does not make some at
tempt to deserve the favor of this vast pub
| lie, who does not task his ingenuity to touch
its feelings to interpret its sentiments, to
respond to the tendencies of its Imagination.
Success in this attempt brings to even the
most distinguished author, not only the
material advantage of huge circulation,
but real increase of fame.
FORCED TO DO VIOLENCE.
This, of course, may seem very different
picture from that which foreigners are apt
to form of the character of the Partisan
workman. His revolutionary aims, his out
bursts of sanguinary violence, the Reign of
Terror, the successive emeutes of 1848, the
Commune, have left upon many minds the
impression that the Parisians are excitable,
reckless, at times ferocious-the very re-
verse, in fact, of the quiet, thoughtful,
gentle character which I would ascribe to
them. That character, however, is not in
consistent with the facts of Partisan history.
The crowds VINO Joined in the several out
breaks Of popular Iury were starving work
men who had been goaded beyond human
endurance, and whose frenzy it was beyond
the power of any organized force to restrain.
And then, what an example has been set to
the popular party by the brutality of other
classes of society in their hour of victoryi
Thirty thousand human beings-men, women
and children-ruthlessly shot down in the
streets OF Paris within single week.
The fault OF the Partisan workmen, I
maintain, is not an excess of savagery, but
an excess of forbearance. He is too willing
to forgive even the faults which he most de-
spises. Enthusiastic for what is good, be has
not sufficient detestation of what is base.
But his chief failing, and that which has
brought him so much suffering and so much
miseonstruction, is his uncompromising
idealism. There is something OF the martyr
spirit in this unfinching fidelity to the un-
attainable.
THE BURDEN HEAVIER.
1t is, however, not only the thought of
disappointed aspirations which weighs upon
the Partisan workingman. The struggle of
life is harder than it used to be. The sub
stitution of great for small industries, how
ever beneficial to the consumer, has made
the lot of the workman more uncertain, and
deprived him of the prospect of an indie
pendent, economic existence. And then,
there is the growing expense of lodging in
the center of Paris, which has driven the
workman more and more to seek refuge in
the outskirts of the city, and thereby has
broken up his old associations and made in
roads upon his family lie. The home to
which he is so tenderly attached is not so
much to him as it used to be. The work.
man no longer goes home to his midday
meal. His wife no longer devotes herself
to her household and her children, but for
the most part goes out to work Just in the
same way as her husband. Their home is
too often nothing more than nightly meet
ing place for two people overwhelmed by
the toll of the day.
WOMEN WORKING WONDERS
But there is : bright side, too, to the grow
Ing practice of female labor. The increased
importance of the woman to the support of
the family, and the capacity which she has
displayed in her new character of bread
winner, has given her a fresh influence in
the social life of the working classes. The
Partisan workman was always respectful to
his wife, but he used 70 pay little attention
to her opinions. Now he makes her the
sharer of all his interests, intellectual and
political; he takes her with him to all meet
ings, and he even chooses his newspaper
with reference to her tastes. The influence
she exercises over him in political matters
is the only protection he enjoys against the
political impostors to whose fine promises
and empty schemes his open and unsus-
picious nature causes him TO tall an easy
prey. The women are thus a conservative
element of real power Woe to the Govern
ment which in any way incurs the hostility
of the wife of the Partisan workman When
she is not interested in defending the status
quo and restraining her husband, the revo-
luton is not far of.
The means by which the workmen of
Paris seek to improve their economic post
tion under the modern system of wholesale
production, are the same which have been
employed elsewhere, and they have met
with a similar fate. Cooperative stores
have succeeded, while cooperative produc-
tion has proved a failure. The most import
tant of these new growths, however. are the
chambers syndicates," or boards of concil-
iation, in which workmen and employers
meet to arrange differences arising between
them in the course of their trade.
WAGES INCREASED IN FRANCE.
fact that they have risen of late years; but
an increase in the price paid for manual
labor is no safe criterion of the prosperity of |
the working classes. 1t is maintained by |
certain economists that the Paris working |
people have benefited by the great pros
perity of the past 80 years more than anv |
other class Of the community. At first sight, |
the statistics of wages undoubtedly bear out |
these assertions. Thus 1 find that wages
have risen in Paris. in the short period be-
tween 1875 and 1885, from 40 to 60 per cent
For example, day laborers were paid in 1875
at the rate of 40 centimes an hour, and last
year they received so centimes, exactly 30
per cent more than ten years previously.
The wages OF skilled stonecutters in the
same time rose from 70 centimes to i franc
20 centimes, those of building carpenters
from go to 80 centimes, plumbers from
francs to francs. carpenters from51< francs
to francs, and so on.
1t must be borne in mind. however, that
the condition of those engaged In the build
ing trade in Paris is exceptional. Napoleon
III, after the coup d'etat, endeavored to
attach the working classes to his Govern
ment by giving them we'll l-paid employment.
He therefore undertook to rebuild Paris,
and necessarily, the rate of wages rose
rapidly. Since the fall of the Empire the