The 40-Hour Week in France In an article on another
page, a correspondent in Paris analyses the difficulties attached to the task, undertaken by M. Daladier, of increasing French industrial production, especially for purposes of defence. The difficulties are less economic than political ; in attacking outright the 4o- hour week M. Daladier attacked what is a symbol, no less for the Right than for the Left ; the Right wish to destroy it, as the crowning achievement of the Front Populaire, as much as the Left to defend it. Yet reasonable men of both opinions admit that a 40-hour week is not in itself the cause of France's troubles and that the necessary modifications can be introduced without a formal attack on it. It can only be surmised that M. Daladier wished to satisfy, not the economic, but the political, demands of French capital. By doing so, he almost provoked a disastrous crisis ; but fortun- ately he has withdrawn from his original position and dis- avowed any intention of attacking the law as such. With Frenchmen of all, or almost all, opinions increasingly united by the danger abroad, it should now be possible to modify the application of the law, without legislative amendments which would involve summoning the Chamber, and even with the support of the Trade Unions and the Socialists.
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