MONTCEA17-LES-MINES. T HE victory won by M. Waldeck-Rousseau in the Chamber
on Tuesday on the question of the coal- miners' strike was one of grave importance. It is the social question which, first of all, interests politicians in France, and every strike is supposed to involve the social question, and to be a battle not only between the masters and men who happen to be at issue but between Capital and Labour, the rich and the poor. And that view, though often exaggerated because the facts are seen through a haze of suspicion, is sometimes substantially a correct one. The men do not strike unless they are greatly exasperated, either by some pressure from hard times which they hope to remedy by an increase of wages, or by some Socialist idea which has become dominant among them—the central power always dominates their imaginations—and once in motion they are as ready to revolt as to strike work. The motive in the present instance was the Socialist one. The men employed in the coal-mining district, of which Montceau is the centre, demanded an eight-hour day, a fixed minimum of wages, and pensions after twenty-five years' service of fourteen francs a week; and as such terms could not be obtained from the mine-owners, they demanded that the latter should be compelled to grant them by a law backed with penal provisions. Their leaders declaimed in the wildest way against the system of society which "reduced workers to starvation," threatened in so many words a general attack on the rich and the slaughter of all gendarmerie, and even commenced the importation of arms of precision. The stories about this last detail are, as might be expected, a little wild; but it seems to be true that the workmen's clubs, aided possibly by wealthy friends who wished for disorder, had succeeded in importing about a thousand rifles and a certain number of cartridges, thus rendering loss of life inevitable if the men rose. All other miners were asked to assist with money or men, and the Socialist leaders were approached, with such success that the Deputies of that faith Pledged themselves in the debate of Tuesday that veilent measures were adopted they would "throw themselves into the miners' ranks and perish or conquer with them." It is impossible for any one not in the miners' most secret counsels to ascertain precisely the number of men who agreed. to a violent programme, and there appears to have been some juggling with the votes ; but it is a moderate estimate to say that thirty thousand men were violently committed, and, of course, at the first gleam of success or the first sign of weakness in the Government the whole body might have followed their advanced guard. This would have set the Red Spectre walking, would have thrown all France into a tremor of excitement, and might, if the cities had. grown agitated, have given a victory to the party which clamours for a Dictatorship.
The situation was a serious one for a Cabinet which pro- fesses to be distinctively Republican and not dictatorial, which contains M. Millerand, and which, if it finally lost the Socialist vote, might be overthrown. It was expected that it would be divided, and therefore would compromise, and its opponents stood ready to take instant advantage of any such display of timidity. M. Waldeck-Rousseau is, however, a man hard to beat. He has a most annoying way of tramping along the path which he considers the path of duty without studying too closely the finesse of Parliamentary management, and he pursued that course upon the present occasion. The Minister of War, under his instructions, drew towards Montceau a force capable of putting down a formidable rising—it is said, indeed, that half a corps d'armie was warned—and then the Premier turned upon his enemies in the Chamber. The Government, he said, were perfectly willing to consider the question of old-age pensions, as, indeed, they had promised to do, and to see what could be accomplished in that direction; but the demand for an eight-hour day was not opportune. It would reduce the output of coal, and that had already diminished to a figure which imperilled serious interests.
He must, therefore, refuse that demand, as well as the one for a minimum wage, which would infallibly either compel the mines to close, or so raise the price of coal that all classes except the miners themselves would suffer. The Government would not be irritated into needless action against the miners, but they were bound to consider the needs of the whole community before those of any class. The Motion for the instant dis- cussion of a Bill embodying the .miners' demands must therefore be rejected. As almost invariably happens in France when a Minister is firm, the Chamber supported the Government by a vote of 290 to 245, and the moment the decision was known at Montceau the threatening features of the agitation ceased. The men, quite aware that if the Chamber were hostile the force opposed to them would be overwhelming, postponed the strike sine die, returned to work, and. will, let us hope, begin to argue instead of allowing their leaders, or rather, perhaps, the more violent among their leaders, to threaten insurrection. The rifles are to be seized, their importation being regarded as illegal, and. for the present everything reverts to the customary discontented orderliness, while a Committee of the Chamber discusses the pension law..
The affair is, we may trust, over for the present, leaving M. Waldeck-Rousseau's Administration se strong that he may hope to retain his Premiership until the next elections ; but there are two features in it which the friends of the Republic, a,meng whom we count ourselves, cannot witness without apprehension. One is the bigotry, if we may use that word, of the violent section of the workmen, who seem prepared to sacrifice everything, not for their own interests, which are calculable, but for abstract ideas, the result of which cannot be foreseen; and the other is the dependence of the Republic upon military force. It is not that the violent section of the workmen can overpower the State, for the peasantry are fay stronger than they are, and would soon set up an irresistible Government, but that the violent can by forcing en an armed conflict alarm all France. French property-holders are the most timid men in the world, and. if a couple of thousand men were slain in a conflict with the Govern- ment about a Socialist proposal, all France would deckle that property was in danger, and insist on setting up some "saviour of society." Yet how axe thirty thousand nuners who are "marching on the rich," plundering banks, and burning châteaux to be driven back except by the employment of troops, upon whose fidelity, therefore, the Government absolutely depends. That is the weak point of the French Republic. It is true that every Government, except perhaps the American, suffers in a degree from the same dependence, and that even in this country the refusal of the troops to fire would produce a most disastrous situation ; but then a declaration of war on the rich is not expected in every country, nor is it in every country that the Army is doubtful of the Constitution. The miners at Monteeau- les-Mines, though they have probably serious grievances, appear in their threats of insurrection to have been merely " bluffing " ; but some day with a weaker Administration menace may pass into action, and then either the rebels must win, which would mean the dissolution of society, or the soldiers must win, in which case the master of the Army would be the master of the State. Reflective men of nerve like M. Waldeck-Rousseau constitute the best hope for the future of the Republic—for a Dictator must go to war—but what with the Church, the deficit, and. the Socialist section of the workmen, they must have many anxious hours.
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