The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-03-04
New York Herald Special Cable Service.
rin hxr &ha NJ

New York Herald Special Cable Service. Copy
right. 1906 by the New York Herald.
Paris, March SUPPLEMENTARY la
bors We're particularly, active during
the last week, and only one more week
remains. 1t cannot be said that it has
been very fruitful in results, for the
chamber is somewhat like the dying
man in doubt about his salvation, who
disinherits his family in order to gain
heaven-it sacrifices national interest
to abandon their deputy; it sacrifices
everything to electoral intrigue. Thus
it voted the workmen s pension, which,
in addition to the tax imposed on
workingmen and employers, will cost
the budget sum which is reckoned at
the lowest figure at $70,000,OOO.
After having voted this formidable
expenditure, the chamber then pro-
ceeded to amuse itself by demolishing
receipts and. diminishing the resources
of the budget. It re-established the
privileges of the bouilleurs de cru.
The bouilleurs de cru are vinegrow-
ers who distill alcohol from their
grapes. This privilege consists in not
being under the surveillance of excise
officers and not being obliged to de-
clare the alcohol which they produce.
Thus they are able to consume and
even hold this alcohol, depriving the
treasury of the high tax which is lev
led on alcohol. It is estimated that
the establishment of this privilege
means loss to the budget of $20,O0O,-
000 AS there are several hundred
thousand bouilleurs de cru in France,
they take advantage of their numbers
to terrorize their deputies.
Lower Postage.
Another reform, also antidemocratic,
is going to cost the treasury as much
as the privilege of the bouilleurs de
cru. This is the lowering at the post
age on letters from fifteen to- ten
confines. The people who gain the
most by this reform are senator's and
deputies who have extensive corre-
spondence, bankers and big business
firms The peasant and the working
man, who do not write letters, will not
be more benefited by the postal reform
than by the privilege Of the bouilleurs
de cru.
Then, continuing it's evil work, the
chamber lowered the duration period
for instruction for the reserve and the
territorial army. AS the senate, which
has already rejected a number of such
propositions, will reject this one, the
chamber wanted to incorporate it with
the budget so as to force the senate to
vote it, under the penalty of leaving
France without a budget. The minis
try, however, did not lend itself to
this combination. It proposed a ques-
ton Of confidence, as it did in the SEN
ate for postal reform, and it obtained
q victory on this point, and the cham
Der contented itself with proposing a
bill which will be rejected by the SEN
ate.
It is really fortunate that the con-
stitution Of 1875 organized senate
which has not the same electors or else
the same periodicity as the chamber,
and which can oppose this legislative
folly, for one really cannot understand
this reduction of instruction, coincid-
ing with the reduction Of the length
of military service from three to two
years.
The Moroccan Conference.
The Algeciras conference continues
on it's course. Both German and
French plenipotentiaries, after having
failed to agree, terminated their dia-
log and submitted their differences to
a conference. If the necessary con
cessions do not come from Berlin or
Paris and an agreement being impos
sible, the conference will fail and will
relapse into statu quo; that is to say
under the provisions of the convention
of Madrid, signed in 1875 by England
France and Germany. This does not
mean to say that there will be war
but this will render probable marked
GOODNESS in the relations between
France and Germany. I remain per
suaded that at the last moment En-
peror William will terminate the af
fair l'amiable by a coup theatre.