way into competence wherever you are; but we are continually on the look out for employment under Government. My brother is in the army, an officer in Tonquin, and he writes home that all the trade in the province is falling into the hands of the English, because a Frenchman who goes out there saunters about and besieges the Government to find him a place and a salary."
I found in Périgord that the peasants had no respect for their deputies. "They go to Paris as needy avocats," they told me, "and come home with their pockets full of money."
"But how do they make the money?" I inquired.
"Oh, there be various ways; one is by selling State secrets to the Jewish bankers; by creating panics, and so on, to help these Jews."
It is interesting to observe how that in England during and after the great European War of 1914–18, we have adopted many of the measures advocated by the Socialists in 1847–9; and these perhaps the most mischievous.
The Socialist party, though split into sections each with its special panacea for social evils, was united on these points. It was agreed that poverty and excessive toil were the result of human institutions, and could be prevented by a more equitable distribution of wealth, and by restricting the hours of labour; that the only lawful source of revenue is manual not mental labour; and that rent and profit are abuses; that steps should be taken towards the suppression of these abuses. The steps advocated were: (1) The abolition of the National Debt. (2) The abolition of rent of land, the occupier being converted into the owner. (3) A progressive income tax levied on the rich, the labourer and artisan paying nothing, and the entire burden of expenditure of Government being derived from the well-to-do classes. (4) In order to free the artisans from subservience to the manufacturers, it was proposed to supply the workmen with capital, machinery and material, at cost price. (5) To fix a minimum wage, and to provide old age pensions, hospitals and schools supported by the Government out of the pockets of the rich. (6) In every town magazines to be established from which operatives might obtain the necessaries of life, food and clothing, at cost price. (7) That every department of human activity should be under the control of Government through salaried officials.
