The National tribune., 1906-05-03
FEAR OF A REVOLUTION IN FRANCE.

convulsion with its attendant massacres
and horrors The trouble with the
French Government is that 1t Is to1
artificial. 1t is paternalism carried to
the last extreme The State undertakes
means of living for all. While this has
many good features. it has a world of
disadvantages. Necessarily. wherever
it is assumed that the Government is to
provide, there must be hosts of men
who do not think that they get enough
and are envious of others who get more.
1t is the very antithesis of our system
of Government, where every man is
supposed to be free to work out his own
destiny and get whatever his brains and
industry will secure him. We believe
that the functions of Government should
be confined to protecting every man in
his life and property and giving him
the most absolute freedom as to the
rest. On the other hand. the French
theory of Government is that the State
is the Father of the people, and should
in some way provide for all of them.
This principle runs all through French
history, and no matter whether the
Government is a Kingdom, an Empire
or Republic, il is first and last social
istic. This idea is everywhere persistent
and controlling. The Government gives
one man unusual profits, say, in the
portion of his profits in order to pay
big profits to some other man, who is
in turn heavily taxed. Where we, for
example, claim that every man has a
right to buy where ne can buy the
cheapest and competition must have
for an instant. Frenchmen must buy
of Frenchmen, and either buy French
goods or those which Frenchmen have
imported.
The waiter in n restaurant has his
tips guaranteed him by law. and a
i'll collecting them. He takes these tips,
and when he has enough to amount to
25 francs (s5) he buys a Government
bond with them. On this the Govern
ment pays him three and three and a
half per cent, where the United States
Government can borrow all the money
it wants at two and a half per cent; but
it makes this UP by taxing him in some
way. In this way the Government Is
carrying the enormous National debt
of $5,S56, 7O6,403, or nearly twice that
OF Great Britain, and by far the largest
National debt in the world. This is
drawn from a population of only 49,
000,0 and where franc counts for
as much as dollar does with us. All
of this debt is carried by the thrifty
Frenchmen, and none of it owed abroad.
In addition, they have plenty of money
to lend other Nations, as we saw recent
L. in the taking of more than one-half
of the Russian loan of $40, 200, 900.
The enormous burden of this debt, as
well as of Frances great army and
navy, is carried upon a wonderfully
complicated system of taxation which
reaches every man and woman in the
so-called Republic, and the experience
of centuries has made its weight dis
tributed with great justice and equity.
However, there is always the danger of
the eternal human unrest which wants
more than it can get. All the shiftless
and improvident all the theorists, all
the men who do not want to work and
yet want as much as the others who
ton and eager for some CONFUSION
which will redistribute the wealth This
is the eternal evil of Socialism, which
has forever led to rebellions and over
turnings. All the troubles in France
for centuries may be traced to the
theory inherited from imperial Rome
that the State was obliged to provide
for all its people.
The great revolution OF 1898 was an
insurrectiOn Of the middle classes
against the nobility and clergy, who
were getting far more than their share
anu lIc Dldif result VI lhdt revolution
and the troubles following was the dec.
laration that all Frenchmen were en-
titled to a participation in the bounty
of the State. The troubles then cul-
minated in the battle of Waterloo and
the restoration of the Bourbons. These
attempted to put things back as they
were before the revolution, with the
result of another revolution in 1880
which instated a Constitutional Coy.
erHment like that of England with
Louis Philippe as the Citizen King
This experiment lasted IS years, and in
1&4S another revolution re-established
the Republic, with Louis Napoleon as
Prince President This lasted only three
years, when Napoleon made himselt
Emperor by he coup d'etat of Decem.
ber. 1851. This lasted another IS years
when Napoleon was oyerthrown in 1870
and the Third Republic Instituted
which has now lasted Sc years. 1t be-
gan with the most terrible massacre!
on both sides, the Communists shooting
the clergy and other prominent people
as mercilessly as their predecessors hat
used the guillotine in 1793-94, and ther
the Republican Government massacre
ing the Communists by the thousand.
| in retaliation. At the approach of Ma,
| every year there is a strong feeling o
Unrest and solemn expectancy of out