Wheeling majority. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1907-192?, 1910-11-03
Trouble in Germany and Egypt
-Quietness in England.
(From our Correspondent.)
london, October 21st. 1910.


arose. This is feature of French
Industrial conflicts, and the ending Of
such a strike even with a loss to the
men is not to be regarded as defeat.
French strikes have to be regarded
from two sides-the economic and
the political. The late strike. was
confined to two railway systems, al
though serious unrest exists amongst
the French railway workers. All
through the present year the French
railway mems committees have been
demanding concessions from the
companies and it was by no means
unlikely that the strike would not
throw out over a quarter of a million
railway workers. The demand of
the French railway men for mini
mum wage of one dollar a day is the
immediate help wanted but the trou-
BILE is deeper than that.
The central organization of the
French labor movement is the Gener-
al Confederation of Labor. 1t is al
legged to be the aims of the leaders
of the G.. G.. I. that make French
strikes really formidable. The G. g.
I is the practical expression of the
idea Of the general strike which first
made its appearance as an economic
doctrine twenty-five years ago. I'm
DERIVING the propaganda of the gen
eral strike there is whole philos-
ophy which has gained hearing in
French labor circles. The leaders
of the G. C. I. are not Socialists in
any sense in which that word is COM
monty employed. They are opposed
to the bureaucratic centralized state.
Organized labor in France has been
so slightingly treated by the French
state whether that state has been
Imperial, Monarchical or Republican,
that even the Socialistic state is not
desired by the G. c. I.
The French labor movement is
thus a twin movement working on
one side towards better wages and
conditions and shorter hours, and. on
the other towards revolt against
what the French call etatisme or
state interference. Further, 1t ex-
presses the absolute contempt which
is felt in French labor circles for
what passed in French as Democracy
and particularly parliamentaTism.
The vast sections of organized
French workers covered by the G. c..
I. apparently scorn the vote as an
instrument of Acknowledgement.
The French operative points to
years Of useless Parliamentary ac-
tivity, and he. demands some reform
which will come at once, and which
he can see coming before his eyes.
The General Strike'' advocated
by the G. c. I. expresses all the latent
contempt for democracy for capital
for the state as a remediary agent,
which one meets wherever French
working men are gathered together.
1t expresses current contempt, and at
aims at the overthrow of the things
despised. It proposes to effect this
overthrow by the sudden withdrawal
at some propitieus moment of that
factor which alone makes the produc-
ton of wealth possible. The whole
world Of labor is to throw down its
tools and paralyse the capitalist into
the acceptance of labor's terms. In
the theory of the premeters Of the
Syndicate Rouges" f''Red Trade
Unions") the capitalist will yield and
new social order will appear IN
which there will be no head Of the
state. no civil government, only the
regulations imposed by the "Syndi-
cate, or Trade Unions, which will be-
come the only normal association
in which man will henceforth bind
himself. This ideal is the essence
of "Syndicateism" or French Trade
Unienism.
Fer great project of this char
acter money above all things is nee
essary. Originally the benefit side
of the French Syndicate" was every
thing. The Constituent Assembly OF
1871 Influenced partly by Rousseau's
doctrine Of the unity and sovereignty
Of the state, and partly by the fact
that under the Old Regime, the jur-
andes, or close trade guilds, were a
real economic evil, forbade any sort
Of professional association and, in
deed, any association at ALA pro-
hibition which lasted practically un-
til 1901, when M. Waldeck- Rous-
seau's now famous law was passed.
Hence. 10 theory at least. working
men were prohibited frem combining
IN anx sort II Trade Union. This