9. SOCIALISM IN FRANCE DURING THE WAR. When the Great War broke out, the general elections had just taken place in France. The Organized Socialists obtained 1,200, 000 votes (132 per 1,000), and sent 106 Deputies to the Chamber. The Republican Socialists had 23, the Independent Socialists about a dozen, the Radical Socialists about 150 De puties, besides those groups dependent to a greater or lesser degree on Socialism, a cer tain number of Radicals, of Social Catholics even, amongst whom the most noteworthy was M. de Mun, accepted some of its claims. The Chambre de Deputes, a majority of which ad mitted the intervention of the state in economic matters, had on this subject a very different opinion from that of the Senate where the doc trine of uLaissez-faire* predominated.
Among the different parties we must make a distinction between mere Reformers and the declared Radicals. Two only of these parties upheld the class struggle as a principle and called for a social revolution; the abohtion of the salary and capitalist systems. These were the Organized party or French Socialist party, a section of the Workmen's International party, and the Syndicalist party, making up the federation Generale du Travail,* known for short as C. G. T.
The Organized party labored chiefly in the political, the Syndicalist party in the economic, field. Seeking the same end but with very dif ferent men and means, they had maintained for several years rather strained relations which sometimes. degenerated into open quarrels. The former aimed at the acquisition of power through electoral and parliamentary action; the latter meant to attain the same end by means of strikes and direct action and its keenest fol lowers the policy of anti-militarism to the pitch of antipatriotism.
The Socialists were divided into 'groups, each member of which received yearly a card delivered to him upon payment of a subscrip tion. The different groups of a same borough (commune) or, in Paris, of a same district (arrondissement) formed a section• and the different sections of a county (dfrartrhent) formed a federation directed by a federal com mittee. The legislative power of the party was constituted by a yearly national congress, which met at different cities every year and whose members were chosen by the federation in the ratio of one member per 100 subscribers. The executive power devolved on a National Council, composed of delegates of the federa tion, of the parliamentary Socialist group and of the Permanent Administrative Commission, comprising 22 members, nominated by ballot at the Congress. The journal Humanite was
the party organ and the Socialiste its official bulletin.
In France, in 1913, of 7,700,000 workmen and employees, there were only about 1,000,000 men and 100,000 women unionized, agricultural, mixed and employers' syndicates being de ducted. They were grouped as follows: 5,046 local unions, 207 corporative federations of these, and 143 labor exchanges (Bourses du Travail). The legislative power of the con-• federation, which did not include all these or ganizations, was an annual congress held in dif ferent towns every year, and at which an execu tive committee was elected whose office it was to administer the affairs of the Confederation, with its seat in Paris and to name a secretary. The official organ of the Confederation was La Voix du Peuple and its newspaper La BataiIle Srdicaliste. The two radical parties had ties with similar parties in foreign countries. In ternational congresses discussed pressing ques tions of the moment and a permanent central organization furthered communications between the several national sections: The International Socialist• Bureau had its seat at Brussels, its president was Mr. Vandervelde, its secretary general, Mr. Huysmans; the International Syn dicalist secretary's office had its seat in Berlin and its secretary was Mr. Legien.
The Effect of the War upon the Differ ent Factions of French Socialism.— In every country, war in so far as it obliges the citizens to concentrate their forces in order to defend themselves is opposed to the policy of uLaissez and, as it arouses the solidarity between members of a same nation, it demands that the general interest prevail over particular in terest. It thus creates a semi-socialistic atmos phere; and it may be remarked that, in France, very many measures brought on by events were more or less tinged with socialism; thus the buying, selling and distributing of certain arti cles of food by the state or municipalities; requisition and taxation of other goods; grants of relief to the unemployed; proclamation of the principle that the reparation of the damages borne by the few is a social debt to be repaid by all; agricultural work performed jointly by all the inhabitants of the same village; collec tive tilling of neglected lands if the proprietor be defaulting; legal establishment of minimum salaries in munition factories and for home workers in the clothing trade; progressive in come tax; the creation of employment bureaus and of mixed commissions in which employers and employees meet on an equal footing; and compulsory professional training, etc.