Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1901-04-11
COMMENT AND CRITICISM.
A Frenchmau must be always talking,
whether no knows anything of the matter OF
not.-Johnson.

A Frenchmau must be always talking,
whether no knows anything of the matter OF
not. johnson.
1t vas, perhaps, unwarranted to
expect that Emile Zola's latest story.
Labor" just completed serially In
Harner's Weekly, would contain any
thing new and acceptable in the line of
sociologic speculation. No man who
LOCKS at life through its back door and
imagines it fertili2ed by its cesspool
can take broad and just view of the
unhappy relations that exist hetween
capital and labor, muoh less analyze
their causes and suggest reasonable
plan of betterment 10 Zola life APP
pears "chaos of thought and passion,
all confused" but one might readily
have conceived that his literary career,
and his long residence in Paris under
the shadow of the academy, would
have developed his powers Of OBJ.
serration to an extent sufficient to
have enabled him to avoid advancing
the absurd theories that the antaeonism
between the laborer and the CAPITALIST
could be removed oy industrial CO.
operation and intern arriage. The first,
as every keen sighted economist knows,
is imrracticab.e, because it means
equalizing brains and medioority,
feat as impossible of accomplishment
as for two solid bodies to occupy the
same SPACE; and the second, viewed
in as charitable light permissible, is
simply an cratic notion, unredeemed
by the dramatic interest that might
obtain II it were even remote pos.
sibility. Evidently NJ. lola does not
recognize that so long as competition
is the bone and sinsw OF trade there
will be war Of one kind or another be.
tween the man of creative power and
executive ability and the man who
only knows how to make living by
oheying the orders of Others Ii he
had outlined some sensible way by
which the descendant elements of this
inevitable condition could he har.
monized, ard the enmity engendered
by ignorance and self-intelest BIO eradi.
Gated, he would have done we'll. But,
as pointed out, he offers no practical
paIacsa.
The story opens just at the close of
strike among o body of iron workers,
who, not having secured all the conces-
sions they demanded, have returned to
work sulien and defiant, and closes with
a rosy description OF La Creherie, an
ideal industrial settlement where every
one has work at short hours, plenty Ct
money and surfeit OF happiness. But
how this happy result is brought about
is not clearly Indicated, owing TO i'm.
Perfect details aud the curiors absence
OF descriptive Development. The
reader is hurried arbitrarily from scene
TO scene, without time for explanation
or reflection, and is suddenly thrust
into an atmosphere of PEACE and con.
tentment, with all labor problems
solved and money flowing in abundance
before he can realize that the strike is
really over and there is no longer
danger of disaster aud bloodshed.
Admitting the feasibility Vt M,
Cola g plan, however, the puppets be
has created to exploit 1t do not fit the
situation, If one may use that term.
They are too Tightly" too senti-
mental, too immoral-in fact, two char
acteristically French. There Is Luc
froment, for example, the guiding spirit
of La Creeherie. He is introduced 10
the reader as an unattached young man, !
OF presumably noble qualities, and the
strong character of the books but, In
the midst OF the SUCCESS OF his
SCHOLASTIC experiment, he seduces-or,,
as the author would have US under.
stand, is seduced by Josine. the pretty
wife Of Ragu, a sooundrelly iron
worker. The enormity of this act is
not lessened by the fact that this be.
Jysine had formerly been the
cast oil mistress OF Rasu, who had
been induced to marry her by bensvo-
lent influences at La Crecherie. The
n nj inn i,af tha sntn
relations between Luc and Josipe are
to Ragu by Fernando Della
veau, an ambitious enemy OF Luc, who
goes to the ironworker's house surrep-
with her juicy knowledge in
the hope that it will induce Ragu to
kill Luc and thereby remove a financial
rival from her husbands Path to
wealth II does iEcite Ragu to attempt
ths deed, hut before he permits Fer
handle to leave his house he takes ad-