Lewiston evening teller. [volume] (Lewiston, Idaho) 1903-1911, 1907-06-27
FRENCH WINE GROWERS REVOLT
Explanation and Analysis Of Nearly
Revolutionary Crisis.

Revolutionary Crisis.
The agitation for government relief
Of the Vine growing industry in South
ern France, which was started some
weeks ago by an obscure viticulturist
one Marcelin Albert, has gradually ac-
quired formidable proportions.
What are the grievances? They may
be reduced to one, namely, the low
price obtainable for the wines on the
production of which the natives of
Southern France mainly rely for their
support 1t is doubtless true that the
prevailing prices for most of the wines
prodrced inS the four departments of
Herault, Aude, Haute Garonne and
Pyrenees Orientales are so low that
they do not afford the cultivator a
margin of profit above the cost Of pro-
duction. The disastrous decline in val
ues is imputed by the vine growers to
the competition of adulterated or fab
rfcated wines, which undoubtedly have
flooded the French market for some
years
Cette, the Mediterranean port which
lies in the heart of the region con-
cerned in the present agitation, has it
self long been a notorious offender on
this score. So far as this grievance is
concerned the French parliament has
passed law after law intended to abate
it, and the present minister of finance
has expressed willingness to intro
duce supplemental legislation on the
subject. The legislation, however, is
certain to encounter opposition on the
part of the potato growers and beet
root cultivators of France, who furnish
the material out of which artificial
wine and brandies are made. Some
| Paris newspapers suggest that the
vine growers of Southern France
should be looked upon as the victims
of a catastrophe and should receive a
government subsidy proportionate to
their needs. This, of course, would
be robbing Peter to pay Paul, for the
producers of sugar beets and potatoes
would be taxed to keep alive rival in
dustry. Others advocate the denun-
citation of the commercial treaties with
italy and Spain, with a view of cutting
off the inflow of Italian and Spanish
wines. Political and economic consid-
erations of great importance, however,
would forbid the French government to
adopt this solution of the problem,
The truth is that the lowness of the
prices procurable by the wine growers
of Southern France for their product
J Is largely due to two causes, for one of
which they are themselves responsible.
In the first place, the consumption of
wines in Central and Northern France
has undergone In recent years a re-
markable curtailment. In those parts
OF the French republic the habit OF
taking wine at breakfast and at din
ner has long ceased to be universal
and the substitution of cider, beer, cof-
: fee or filtered water is going on apace
: among the professional and shop keep
ing classes. AS for the workmen In
5 cities and large towns. they have fol-
b two or three decades shown themselves
: inclined to prefer a small glass of fiery
: spirits to a bottle of ordinary wine
: The shrinkage of demand has been at
tended with az surplus of supply. Fol
some years the wine growers Of the
Midi have had to compete with extra
: ordinary harvests garnered In the
e vineyards of other sections of France
Instead of taking warning from the
shrinkage in consumption or from the
; excess of competitive production to re-
, duce their own acreage in vines and
, to devote a considerable fraction OF
their lands to mixed crops, they have
( continued to rely solely on their vine
: yards for a livelihood, with the result
!, that almost all the viticulturists In
: the four departments above named are
e poor and many Of them are starving.
! What Is to be done now that, owing
a to the sweeping resignation Of the civil
: authorities, a state Of things scarcely
: distingufshable from anarchy exists
/ throughout the whole Of the country
a formerly known as Languedoc? Elk
!, perience has taught French statesmen
that owing to the excitable tempera'