COLLEGE
OF THE PACIFIC
presented by
MARY BIXLER STANTON
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FRANCE
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UNDER THE REPUBLIC
BY
JEAN CHARLEl\IAGNE BRACQ, LITT.D.
" " "
Professor of Romance Languages in Vassar College
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1910
COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
Published October, 1910
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PREFACE
THE writer has attempted in this book to
gauge the great political experiment of France
during the last four decades, and to make an
inventory of the constructive and reformatory
work of the Republic. That great evils exist
to-day in Republican France is beyond question,
but these evils are neither new nor exceptional
,vith that country. l\Iany of them ,vere the
blight of former régimes, and others belong to
the times rather than to the land of Thiel's and
Gambetta. Some of these evils, also, are on
the surface, or are, in part at least, imaginary.
If ,ve look beneath momentary disturbances, the
strife of parties, the theatrical arraignment of
opponents ''lith an eye to the gallery, the con-
troversies of extreme religious and irreligious
men, ,ve shall find innumerable evidences of a
healthy progressive life. If we bear in mind
the complexity of national problems and the
difficulties thrown in the path of the French
people - difficulties of history and religion which
Americans have never experienced - ,ve shall
be filled with admiration for the Republicans
v
YI
PREFACE
,,
ho, not ,vithout making many blunders, have,
on the ,,
hole, "
rought
o ,veIl.
The ,,,,riter assumes that the reader is ac-
quainted ,vith the s,veeping criticisms of the
Republic by its opponents, and these criticisms
are seldom absolutely groundless. He has en-
deavoured to ascertain facts as they are, and
to state them fairly. The contrast ,vhich he
dra,,'"S bet'\\
een the life of the Second Empire
and that of the Republic does not deny a genu-
ine progress in many things under Napoleon III;
but taking conditions as they were then and as
they are no,v, the present advance is evidently ex-
ceptional. As a Protestant, and satisfied, as such,
,,
ith the treatment of Protestants by the gov-
ernment, he has endeavoured to set forth objec-
tively the contentions between Catholics and
Free-thinkers in the light of impartial la ,\\T, which
the former almost systematically oppose and
the latter not infrequently disregard. In a
period of transition and conflict, one cannot
expect that consistency between principles and
practice ,,"hich can be attained in calmer times.
In discussing the so-called religious issues of
recent years the ,vriter may unconsciously have
departed a little from the judicial attitude ,vhich
represents his ideal. It is difficult for a French-
man, "Tithout a strong sense of indignation, to
PREFACE
..
Vll
see his native land disturbed by a small company
of foreigners \",ho, under the pretext of religion,
are ever interfering ,vith French affairs.
The first part of this book is devoted to a
bird's-eye view of the great changes in the na-
tional life, ,vhile later chapters expand subjects
already touched upon, but in vie\v of recent
events, not sufficiently discussed. Apart from a
very extensive bibliography which he has used,
the "
riter has dra ,vn fron1 his o\vn experiences
during the Second Empire, fron1 his official
rei a tions ,,"ith French societies, from his o""n
residences in, and frequent visits to, the land
of his birth. In son1e instances he can say
,vith La Fontaine's pigeon, "J' étais là; telle
chose 111'avint." His statistics come chiefly from
official documents. Le Temps, Le S'iècle, the
Revue des Deux :!fonàes, Rambaud's IIistoire
de la c,ivilisalion contemporaine en France, and
fron1 The Statesman's Year Book. The Annu-
a'ire stalistique has been used constantly. It
proved an inexhaustible mine of data, the value
of ,vhich cannot be overrated. Its comparative
array of facts constitutes one of the best dem-
onstrations that can be made, of the progress
of France under the Republic.
J. C. B.
VASSAR COLLEGE,
September, 1910.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
PAGE
PREFACE .
v
I. THE 'YORK OF POLITICAL RECON-
STRUCTION 1
II. THE TRANSFORMATION AKD Ex-
PANSION OF FRANCE 30
III. THE ÐEVELOPl\lEKT OF CO
I::\IERCE
AND 'VEALTH 56
IV. THE NEW EDUCATION I
THE
NEW LIFE. 74
V. CHANGES IN LITERATURE, ART,
AND PHILOSOPHY 91
VI. TIlE N E'V ACTIVITY I
IIISTORY
AND SCIENCE . 116
VII. SOCIAL REFOR
l AND PIIIL
\N-
TIIROPY .
136
VIII. SOCL\.L I
IPROVEl\IE
T A
D 1\10-
RALITY 156
ix
x
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
PAGE
IX. RELIGIOUS DOUBT AND RELIGION 174
x. THE CONTE:\IPORARY FRENCHl\lAN
I
THE NEW LIFE . 190
XI. l\IoRAL I
STRUCTION IN FRENCJl
SCHOOLS 212
of
XII. EXTRACTS FROl\1 1:'EXT-BoOKS OF
l\IORAL INSTRUCTION USED I
FRENCH SCHOOLS 235
XIII. THE DISPERSION OF THE UN-
AUTHORISED RELIGIOUS OR-
DERS · 252
XI\T. THE SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND
STATE 280
xv. THE CRISIS OF TIlE SEPARATION
OF CI-IURCJI AND STATE . . 308
X'TI. CO
TEl\IPORARY FRENCI-I PROTES-
T ANTISl\l . 333
INDEX .
365
FRANCE
UNDER THE REPUBLIC
FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC
CHAPTER I
TIlE 'VORK OF POLITICAL RECON-
STRUCTION
T HE difficulties which the Republic had
to surmount in its earlý days ,vere al-
most over\vhelming. There ,vere the
twenty-six departments occupied by the Ger-
mans, and the Commune ,"vith its horrors, the
disorganisation of public services, the lack of
money, the indifference of the clergy to national
ills and their clamours for a war ,,"ith Italy, the
petty intrigues of parties, each looking after its
o,vn interests, the prevailing mistrust - all this
was more than sufficient to create a great na-
tional depression. Yet the people ,vere far from
disheartened. The Commune, that horrible mis-
understanding - "rhich impelled some men to
take up arms for lofty social reasons, some for
the defence of local liberties, and others from
1
Q FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC
sheer love of disorder - ,vas put down ,vith great
severity, tempered later on ,vith mercy.! By a
superb outburst of patriotism, long to be re-
membered, the French people, after having faced
burdensome financial obligations and paid two
billion francs to Germany, at the appeal of 1\1.
Thiers for three more billions to settle the war
indemnity, came forward with forty billions. 2
This enabled the provisional government, before
the time appointed by the Treaty of Frankfort,
to hasten the departure of German soldiers from
France. No åchievement of the Republic has
ever received such co-operation of all classes
and of all parties. The civil service, purged of
many of the politicians of the Empire, was rap-
idly restored and efficiently reorganised, though
it ,vas impossible to eliminate from it that fa-
vouritism which has existed under all régimes.
The most difficult problem of all was to decide
upon the character of the future institutions of
the country. Various governments were possi-
ble. The Legitimists, posing as the makers of
French history, sustained by the nobility as well
1 Bourloton et Robert, La commune et ses idées à travers l'h
stoirø,
Paris, 1872; \Vashburne, E. B., Recollections of a lI-fini$ter to France,
New York, 1887; Hanotaux, G., Contemporary France, New York,
1903, vol. I, p. 158.
'I Revue des Deux Mondes, Aug. 1, 1872, p. 696; Le Goff, The Life
of Louis Adolphe Thiers, New York, 1879, p. 241.
POLITICAL RECO
STRUCTION 3
as by the clergy, had a fair political outlook, for
they appealed to the religious and to the polit-
ical traditions of the country. They \vould have
succeeded had not the Comte de Chambord re-
fused to accept the tricolour. 1 The Orleanists
were not without encouraging prospects, for
they represented a popular form of monarchy,
friendly to the Church, to progress, and to
modern culture. They held up before moder-
ate Frenchmen the not distant possibility of a
constitutional government like that of Great
Britain, "Thile the Comte de Paris, by his past
history as ,veIl as by the signal beauty of his
life, inspired the greatest sympathy. l\1:oreover,
his cause was sustained by men who were the
most brilliant and popular opponents of the
Empire in its last days. The Imperialists, on
their side, could still depend upon all the bene-
ficiaries of the previous rule, upon those ,,
ho
had held important sinecures, upon men with
dictatorial instincts, and upon those who still
idealised the military achievements of the first
Napoleon. l\Iasses of toilers still recalled the
days of exceptional prosperity - not those of
adversity - under a government which had led
1 Hanotaux, G., Contemporary France, New York, 1903, vol. I,
p. 256; Seignobos, Histoire politique de l' Europe contemporaine,
p. 184.
4 FR,A.NCE UNDER TIlE REPUBLIC
France through the Crimean 'Var, the 'Var of
Italy, the 'Var of l\Iexico to Sedan. They re-
membered particularly the festivals, the brilliant
pageants, but not the corrupt régime and its
pitiful collapse. They ,vould have been happy
to try Napoleonic rule again.
The Republicans had a decidedly inauspi-
cious outlook. They stood before the public
as the political visionaries and utopians of the
land. Their principles seemed particularly ideal-
istic and fancif
l to those who posed as practical
men. Their conception of government was re-
pugnant to the conservative masses, who ,vere
essentiaHy hostile to the idea of political prog-
ress. Their aspirations ran full tilt against the
ideals of the Catholic Church. The horrors of
the French Revolution - not its beneficent ef-
fects - ,vere still associated in the Catholic
mind \vith Republican régime, while the blun-
ders of the Republic of 1848 seemed to many
inseparable from Republican rule. The up-
holders of democratic ideals were maliciously
made responsible for the Commune, and repre-
sen ted as leaning to\vard socialism, then the
terror of all respectable Frenchmen. In such
circumstances, a republic seemed but a distant
possibility. Yet this was the government im-
posed upon the nation, not by a deliberate
POLITICAL RECONSTRUCTION 5
choice, but by a hard, harsh necessity.1 A re-
public had, at least, theoretic chances of stability
for ,vhich the people greatly longed, while the
triumph of the l\fonàrchists would have doomed
the country to an endless series of disturbances
and revolutions. Again, anyone of the three
other parties, raised to pO"Ter, would have re-
moved all hopes from the opposition, while the
Republic - for a,,
hile at least - kept them
alive. l\Iultitudes rallied to this political ex-
periment, \vithout any enthusiasm, ,vith the feel-
ing that it "Tas the only possible peaceful gov-
ernment, and the one they wanted.
A good constitution - not the ,visest that
could be conceived but the best one for France,
adapted to national needs, and capable of sub-
sequent readjustments - ,vas framed. It ,vas
not a high-sounding decalogue like most of its
predecessors, but one susceptible of modifica-
tions which experience might suggest. The
slight changes introduced into it, in 1875, 1884,
1885, and 1889, tend to sho,v the ,,"isdom of
those ,vho framed it. No country has elected
its presidents more easily, more rapidly, or, as a
1 It is said that, on the evening when the National Assembly
accepted the republican form of government, the wife of the presi-
dent, l\Ic:\Iahon, said to some one sitting near her at dinner: "At
last we have it, that rascally Republic." (A venel, Les Français de
nwn temps, p. 20.)
6 FRANCE UNDER TIlE REPUBLIC
,,,,hole, more successfully. The method of elec-
tion provided by the constitution has proven a
superb instrument of selection. Thiers, l\Ic-
l\Iahon, Grévy, Carnot, Faure, Casimir-Périer,
Loubet, and FalIières constitute a line of presi-
dents of
fairly large mental calibre, of great
dignity of life and efficiency. 'Vithout being
blind to some of their limitations, '\V
here is the
land ,,,,hose chief magistrates during the same
period would offer a finer record? So real have
been the services rendered by them that no one
no,v, as in the early days of the Republic, speaks
of abolishing the office of president.
In the executive machinery also a great
change has taken place. Several ministers have
been added to those already existing. Agri-
culture, the colonies, and labour came to have
their distinct places in the administration of the
country. The efficiency of the ministries has
been increased by the gradual introduction of
under secretaries of state, and by the co-opera-
tion of elected superior councils whose members
are men of special competence chosen by their
peers. 'Vhen this was done for education, Jules
Ferry rightly said that that ministry had ceased
to be an administration, "to become an organ-
ised and living body." 1 The ministries are not
1 Rambaud, A., Jules Ferry, Paris, 1903, p. 102.
POLITICAL RECONSTRUCTION 7
simply executive, but also agencies carrying on
extensive investigations and studies upon in-
numerable subjects affecting the national works
and policies in many directions. The cabinets
may change, but the regular officials of the
ministries seldom do.
. It is owing to this that one sees designs planned
and carried out with remarkable continuity of
purpose. The gradual control of North Africa
by France is a notable ill ustV? tion of this. The
steady diplomatic policy since 1887 is another.
l\Iany other instances might be adduced to
show the working of the permanent and un-
changeable elements in the ministries. The
cabinets, until recent years, were short-lived, and
that ,vas ascribed to French fickleness; but
critics failed to recall that the ministries were
not constituted so much in view of longevity as
of national security. French legislators wished
to avoid the repetition of Napoleonic dictator-
ship and of coups-d' état. Even from the point
of view of duration there is progress. While
there \vere fifteen different ministries during the
first decade of the Republic, there have been
only five during the last ten years. This in-
creasing permanence of cabinets has often
been secured at the cost of the favours of min-
isters to deputies who endeavour to obtain
8 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC
offices for their constituents; but even at this
point the spoils system has never gone to the
extreme which it has attained in some other
countries. The wonder is that, with a system
,vhereby a majority against one single proposal
of a minister entails the overthrow of a whole
cabinet, ministerial changes should not have
been more numerous.
The Senate is perhaps the most perfect work
of the Republic. It has had among its members
scientists li
e Wurtz, Berthelot, Broca; phil os-
phers like Littré and Jules Simon; literary men
like Scherer and Deschanel père; religious men
like Dupanloup and Edmond de Pressensé;
royal spirits representing all shades of political
opinions, Laboulaye, ChaIIemel-Lacour, d' Au-
diffret-Pasquier, Jauréguiberry, Haussonville
père, and Grévy. It contains now the flower of
French political intelligence. We see at its ses-
sions de Freycinet, Bérenger, de Mercère, de
LamazeIle, de Courcel, Delpech, Dupuy (Ch.),
l\iézières, Clemenceau, Méline, Combes, Ribot,
Siegfried, Rouvier, Ranc, Lintillac, Lozé, d'Es-
tournelles de Constant, Ph. Berger, and Trouil-
lot. It would be difficult to :find another upper
house in the world representing so much per-
sonal and political worth.
In the intention of its founders the Senate was,
POLITICAL RECONSTRUCTION 9
above all, to be a conservative institution. Gam-
betta, who, like most of his followers, opposed it
at the outset, came to recognise its importance;
then he spoke of it as "the Great Council of the
To\vns of France," a necessary check upon the
Chamber of Deputies, the organ of French
democracy as organised in cities. 1 At first it
owed its superiority to the fact that its members
might be selected by the government from among
the most distinguished sons of France, outside
of the political machinery. Now it has the
signal advantage of drawing its members mostly
from the deputies. The elected
re better sen-
ators because they have been deputies, and often
because they have been good deputies. The
experience gained in the popular Chamber
brings its best fruition in the Senate. Deputies
are naturally drawn to the Luxembourg by the
longer term of office, nine years instead of four,
by the greater independence which they enjoy
from their constituents, by the more dignified
function and the greater honour. Senators are
more carefully chosen than any other French
representatives and b
a smaller, more intelli-
gent and select electorate. Thus of the follow-
ing senators sent to the t,vo houses, l\Iéline had
8,238 votes as a deputy and 659 as a senator;
1 Adam, :Mme. Ed., Nos amitiés politiques, Paris, 1908, p. 244.
10 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC
Francis Charmes was sent to the Palais-Bourbon
,vith 4,171 votes and to the Luxembourg with
,--'288; Charles Dupuy was made deputy by 10,201
votes and senator by 480. 1 The Senate has
been all along an intelligent moderating and
controlling power, often preventing hasty and
unwise legislation. The slow ascent of its mem-
bers from the Chamber of Deputies helps to
create a homogeneity in Parliament which could
not exist other,vise. It tends to eliminate the
former aristocrats and the ultra conservatives on
behalf of more democratic and progressive ele-
ments.
The Chamber of ,Deputies has often voiced
the political effervescence of the land and re-
flected the spirit of its politicians. I t has dema-
gogues, radical demagogues and clerical dema-
gogues, but judged by its best it would still
bear a favourable comparison "\vith any popular
House of Representatives on the Continent. It
suffers unquestionably from the elimination of
its ablest members through their promotion to
the Senate, but the new men are in closer touch
with national feelings, more alert and earnest.
They are less likely to become fossilised. 'Many
of the disturbances of this house have been due
1 Ribeyre, F., La nouvelle chambre, 1889-1893; Grenier, A. S.,
Nos 8énateur8, 1906-1909.
POLITIC4
L RECONSTRUCTION 11
to the parliamentary inexperience of the country.
\Vhen the National Assembly gathered at Bor-
deaux, in 1871, there were distinguished men in
its midst, such as the Duc d' Aumale, Thiers,
Bishop Dupanloup, Prince de Joinville, General
Chanzy, General Changarnier, Jules Simon,
Léon Say, Gambetta, de Broglie, and Jules
Favre - uncommon men, but as a ,vhole not
yielding the elements of a good national repre-
sentation. l\fost of them were royalists incapa-
ble of reading aright the wants of the French
nation. The Assembly was really composed of
men unknown to one another and hardly ac-
quainted with the real needs of France. 1 Con-
tentions without number have arisen because of
the dual spirit of the members of Parliament,
some representing the old spirit of the Church
and the privileges of aristocracy, while the others
were upholders of absolute political equality.
One other reason for the frequent turmoils in
this house is that French legislators have a far
more difficult task to perform than the legis-
lators of the United States because they have to
deal with questions which, in this country, are
settled by the States. The commotions in the
lo,ver house &re also occasioned by the im-
portance of the issue discussed. Since the con-
1 Scheurer-Kestner, Souvenirs de jeunesse, 1905, p. 241.
12 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC
tentions over slavery, in the legislative halls of
the United States, no such burning questions
have been before American legislators as that
of the secularisation of French schools, the dis-
persion of the unauthorised orders, and the
separation of Church and State.
It should also be remembered that, as the
Chamber of Deputies has the initiative in the
matter of ne\v laws, these are presented in a
rough and indefinite form ,vhich is likely to
excite bitter antagonism. Furthermore, the ma-
jority of deputies have the restlessness of pro-
gressive men. The so-called unruly elements
have been those which have forced the Parlia-
ment to devise and to do. As a whole, the Sen-
ate has represented a ,vise conservatism, not
unfriendly to change; and the lower house, a
fearless, if at times impatient, spirit of progress.
The Senate is still, at least in part, inspired by
the political liberalism of the French Revolu-
tion, but the House of Deputies has directed its
efforts to\vard social legislation, and endeavoured
to remove some of the traditional injustice in
contemporary society. The deputies have their
unworthy members, but as a whole they do not
deserve the sweeping denunciations of their ene-
mies. The charge made against them that they
are hostile to religion and bitter against religious
POLITICAL RECONSTRUCTION 13
ideas, may be applied to only a fe\v of the
members. M. Paul Sabatier mentions religioùs
speeches made before the deputies and listened
to with perfect courtesy.l The interesting but
long religious discourses of M. Eugène Réveil-
laud during the discussion of the Law of Separa-
tion would not have been heard so respectfully
by American congressmen as they were by
French deputies. 2 As to those who have syste-
matically opposed both houses, it is difficult to
speak with much praise. They have all along
betrayed the cause of true conservatism by a
tactless opposition. They have never kno,Vll ho,v
to defend their interests properly by making
needful concessions to rising democracy. They
have often joined their own bitte
est enemies to
overthrow a moderate cabinet, bringing thereby
to power those from whom they had Inost to fear.
Comte Georges d'Avenel, a distinguished mem-
ber of the French nobility, does not hesitate to
recognise this fact. 3
The general councils (conseils-généraux) , or
department assemblies, mere shams of local gov-
ernment under the Empire, have, ",.ith the Re-
public, become efficient instruments of provin-
1 Lettre ouverte à S. E. Cardinal Gibbons, pp. 38 and 39.
2 Réveillaud, E., La séparation des églises de l'état, Paris, 1901, pp.
239, 324 and 396.
:I Les FrançaÏ8 de mon temps, Paris, 1904, p. 41.
14 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC
cial service and of decentralisation. Apart from
their functions, which are constantly extended
by new prerogatives, these councils have often
voiced local feelings in such a manner and so
concurrently with the Parliament as to leave no
doubt as to the real state of the national mind
upon any policy. Through these councils local
interests have an organ of representation, and
local ideas a voice, heard by the nation when
necessary. Though vexatious at times, the pre-
fect is no longer the imperial satrap of Napoleon,
before whom everyone trembled. 'Vhen he
exceeds his rights, the representatives of local
authority - now there is a local independent
authority - do not hesitate to remind him of it,
or to have the matter brought before the Parlia-
ment. The prefect is still the representative of
the central government, and, as a rule, a cour-
teous and correct official. With the exception
of Paris, which, like Washington, has a com-
munalistic régime of its o,vn, all municipalities
are absolutely free in the choice of mayor, as \vell
as in that of the members of their municipal
councils. The towns have never had so much
local government, and never have they devised
more measures of local utility. With this has
come a new municipal spirit of reform, progress,
and enterprise. The writer could mention cities
POLITICAL RECONSTRUCTION 15
and villages, the progress of ,,,,hich reminds him
of the advance of American communities.
One great change which has taken place is
that the people are not at the mercy of public
officials as under the Second Empire. There is
nothing left of that awfulloi de sureté générale,
\vhereby one could be arrested, exiled to other
countries, sent to deadly penal colonies without
any form of tria1. 1 Imperfect as the judiciary is,
exceptionally, at times, there is no such parody of
justice as the famous Procès des Treize, when the
imperial government had thirteen liberals con-
demned under the most futi
e pretexts. 2 Simi-
larly has disappeared the Cabinet noir, in which
the correspondence of suspected citizens could
be, and was, examined by the government. 3
All the changes which we have sketched have
been encouraged and upheld by the suffrage of
the nation, which has never been so free or so
intelligent. Frenchmen in office, whether in
politics or in the Church, have al,vays used their
influence at the ballot-box on behalf of their
friends - they still do, and often \vith detesta-
1 Rambaud, Histoire de la civilisation comemporaine en France,
Paris, 1901, p. 520; Scheurer-Kestner, Souvenirs de jeunesse, p.
101; Léon Séché, Jules Simon, Paris, 1905, p. 74; Adam, :Mme. Ed.,
Nos amitiés politiques, p. 8.
2 Rambaud, Jules Ferry, p. 9.
3 Scheurer-Kestner, lUes souvenirs, pp. 110, 115 and 117; La-
rousse, Grand dictionnaire universel, vol. XVI.
16 FRANCE UNDER 'l"'HE REPUBLIC
ble methods - but the fact remains that the
individual voter has never been so independent.
Those who have known the candidatures offi-
cielles of Napoleon III smile \vhen they hear the
impeachment of the Republican elections in
'\",hich there is much indeed to condemn. Then,
representatives of employers would visit the
,,,"orkingmen and practically give them orders to
vote for the candidate patronised by the firm.
Now, the ,vorkingman may be bidden by labour
unions - these labour unions affect only a
limited number of voters - to sustain some
favourites. The beneficiary of the government
does what he can to influence votes. The ad-
ministration helps its favoured candidates, but
the fact remains that the voter, even so, can dis-
pose of his ballot more freely than ever before.
The idea of liberty for all free French citi-
zens, which was opposed at every step by the
Empire, has carried the day. This is evident
if \ve consider four highly important laws con-
ceding ne\v liberties. There is the law of June
10, 1881, granting freedom to hold meetings;
that of July 81, 1881, sanctioning the freedom
of the press; that of March 21, 1884, aIIòwing
the organisation of trades-unions and of various
labour societies, and that of July 1, 1901, con-
ceding freedom to organise corporations and
POLITICAL RECONSTRUCTION 17
associations. It may be asserted that as a
\vhole the Republicans, in the midst of men
systematically opposed to their ideals, have en-
deavoured to secur
for the greatest p088.ible
nunLber of citizens a maximum of liberty and
justice. In so doing conflicts have come. No
live nation can advance \vithout them, but in
the struggles for better things these conflicts
have scarcely interfered with good civil service
and progressive life. Mr. Bodley, an English
gentleman ever unfriendly to the Republic, was
obliged to recognise its good government. "I
,,"ould be perplexed," he says, "to mention three
nations which on the "Thole are better governed
than France." 1
The increase of freedom for individuals has
been, as just noted, extended to organisations.
So great ,vere the obstacles placed in their \vay,
even during the last days of the Empire, that
it was difficult to create any form of association,
or to keep it alive. The consequence was that
societies were fe,v. Foreign ethnographers had
noticed this, and ascribed it to racial traits-
racial traits at that time explained everything.
"Tith the freedom of the Republic associations
of all kinds sprang up in every direction. ...\.
little city which had two or three societies will
1 France, New York, 1898, vol. Is p. 44.
18 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC
now count them by the score. Commercial
companies rose from 3,983 in 1871 to 5,814 in
1904; trades-unions from 175 in 1884 to 11,841
in 1906;1 mutual benefit societies from 4,237 in
1872 to over 10,000 in 1904. 2 Co-operative socie-
ties have increased in membership thirty-six
times from 1870 to 1899. This union and social-
isation of efforts has shown itself in a multitude
of religious works, of philosophical, scientific,
philanthropic, and artistic associations. As soon
as Frenchmen were able they took advantage of
their freedom to organise associations so essen-
tial to progress. This associational movement
is not without its dangers. The rise of great
organisations will doubtless create frequent con-
flicts with the State, but national security will be
found in the principles of political equality,
which are sinking profoundly into the national
consciousness. Be that as it may, it is strange to
find that, at the beginning of this t\ventieth
century, the old Napoleonic law of 1810, that
no more than t,venty persons could meet to-
gether without the permission of the government,
was still on the statute book. This legal land-
mark of former despotism had been subjected
to the attacks of liberals fronl the days of
1 Annuaire statistique, 1906.
2 Journal des Débats, April 15, 1904.
POLITIC.A.L RECONSTRUCTION 19
Louis Philippe to our own. In 1901, Waldeck-
Rousseau put an end to that anachronism.
Freedom of association was fully granted to all
groups of citizens, but not to unauthorised
religious orders which, with the various monastic
associations, had been so constant in their
opposition to popular liberty.
It is probable that at no distant period even
these restraints upon the orders ,vill be removed.
By the separation of Church and State, the
country has also been freed from one of the most
despotic political rules to \vhich the clergy of
the land were ever subjected, the Concordat.
'Vhatever one may think of the manner in
which it was abrogated, there can be no doubt
as to the tyrannical character of that celebrated
document, and of the Organic Articles that ,vent
with it, both of which were long and fully ac-
cepted by the Church. Now, Catholic priests,
as far as the government is concerned, are
liberated from all the restraints of bygone days.
Religious bodies, persecuted under the Empire,
now enjoy the greatest liberty. Baptists, l\Ieth-
odists, Theosophists, Buddhists, and Comtists
have the right to preach and practise their
peculiar tenets like Ca tholics, under the droit
commun.
The development ôf the press, more than any-
20 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC
thing else, perhaps, enables us to gauge the
extension of liberty. The harassed journalism
of the Second Empire, daily exposed to ruinous
fines, to the incarceration of the editor, seems to
belong to another age than ours. Ranc was con-
demned to four months' imprisonment for an
article not half so violent as those of the opposi-
tion to-day.1 The manager or the printer of a
paper could be arrested with the editor. The
paper might be suppressed, thereby bringing
about the bankruptcy of the owner. An internal
revenue tax was collected upon each number of
any paper issued. All this has been replaced
by a thoroughly independent and often ex-
tremely reckless press. Through the sudden
extension of liberty, whereby those who accuse
the Republic of tyranny can assail it ceaselessly
in their papers, the expansion of journalism has
been rapid, not to say extraordinary. At the
close of the Second Empire Paris had only
t\venty dailies, and their circulation ,vas small.
Even the Petit Journal had an issue of not more
than sixty thousand. In 1898 the Parisian
dailies had risen in number to one hundr
d and
ten. The circulation of the Petit Journal has
long ago passed the million mark, while some of
its contemporaries have attained a correspond-
1 Adam, Ivlme. Ed., Nos amitiés politÏIJ.ues, p. 8.
POLITICAL RECONSTRUCTION 21
ing increase. The number of dailies for the
whole country has risen from forty-eight to
three hundred and eighty in twenty-eight years.
The total number of newspapers and other
periodicals throughout France, which, in 1870,
was exceedingly small, rose in 1880 to 2,980,
in 1899 to 6,736,t and in 1908 to 9,877. 2
The same freedom has been extended to lit-
erature. The Republic, for good or evil, has
abolished the censure of literary and especially
of dramatic works, assuming that the best cen-
sor, in this domain, is public opinion. The im-
perial laws, preventing the unfettered peddling
of books, of pamphlets, of papers and pictures,
were repealed; and the new statutes, as far as
this domain is concerned, apply only to porno-
graphic works.
The same generalising of freedom has been
applied to the opening of saloons, and that with
unfortunate results. A great change has also
taken place in reference to travel and residence.
Formerly there was a real inquisitorial system.
Travellers were subjected to numerous formali-
ties more or less vexatious, and even to the sur-
veillance of spies in hotels. Any citizen travel-
ling at a distance of fifteen or twenty miles from
1 Avenel, H., Annuaire de la presse.
2 Annuaire de la pres8e française, 1909.
22 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC
home was expected to carry papers, a labourer
to have his livret. 1 The poor workingman was
often prohibited from going to Paris or to other
large centres to earn his livelihood, but now all
may go with the utmost freedom, and without
annoyance, wherever they wish. Travel and
transportation have been released from the irri-
tating control of papers and passports. The
new spirit has broken through the national ex-
clusiveness, a.nd foreigners may be naturalised
more readily than before.
Nothing can give a better idea of the work of
the Republic than the general trend of legisla-
tion. Something has been done - much more
remains to be done - to free the child from ab-
solute paternal authority which is still the sur-
vival of Roman la\v. The former power of
parents to prevent the marriage of their children
has been greatly restricted, and that with good
results. The French code now allows the judi-
ciary to take away children from the care of
vicious parents. The legal status of woman
has been raised. Women at the head of com-
mercial houses, or of large industrial p1Jrsuits,
have the right to vote at elections for judges of
1 Book of identity delivered by the authorities to the workingman,
without which he could not secure any labour. The Republic has
done away with it.
POLITICAL RECONSTRUCTION 23
the tribunal of commerce; they may be wit-
nesses in matters of deeds or other legal docu-
ments; they may study and practise law, or
devote themselves to any science or art. The
legal and social progress has been such that a
woman, Mme. Curie, has become a professor
of science at the Sorbonne and occupies one of
the foremost chairs of French higher education.
A law was passed in 1891 securing to the wife
a more equitable share in the succession of her
deceased husband. Another law has been
passed that secures to a married woman her
wages, which previously could be collected by
her husband, even when he had deserted his
home. In the case of intolerable marriage situ-
ations, the law has provided the, however unsatis-
factory, at times necessary, remedy of divorce.
The statute book now contains provisions for
the greater protection of the accused before
French courts. They are no longer considered
guilty until they have proven their innocence.
They may have legal counsel immediately after
their arrest; and even in civil cases, if one of
the parties is too poor, the State comes to his
rescue and furnishes a competent lawyer. The
accused in a criminal case is no longer obliged
to stay in prison awaiting the good pleasure of
the judge; but if his case is not ready, he may
24 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC
have conditional freedom. A new law, now
before the Senate, guarantees the inviolability
of the home and of the correspondence of the
accused. The Parliament is now endeavouring
to transfer to the civil courts, in time of peace,
the military cases which hitherto have been de-
cided by martial courts.
The tendency has been to bring all misde-
meanours exclusively before the judiciary, and
to assert the absolute independence of the bench
from the executive. The Dreyfus case, when
France was divided into two camps, each hav-
ing upon its flag, Fiat justitia, whatever else it
showed, showed also how, in different ways and
at any cost, both wanted justice, both were
ready to sacrifice for justice even national peace.
Laws also have simplified the revision of criminal
cases, rendering it both easier and quicker.
The fundamental principle of law-making has
been reversed. Thus, in attempting to solve
problems, and especially labour problems, Na-
poleon III proceeded by notions of abstract
justice, rather than by rules of equity growing
out of concrete cases. The laws of the R
public
have been empirical, even endeavouring to elim-
inate wrongs in conditions. The aim has not
been so much to punish as to prevent wrong;
it has not been individualism but solidarity.
POLITICAL RECONSTRUCTION 25
The national jurisprudence has been liberalised
and humanised. The celebrated Bérenger Law
is a law of probation, \vhich interests a culprit
in his o,vn moral regeneration. Incarceration
before a trial must no\v be reckoned as a part of
the total penalty. Imprisonment for debt has
been abolished. The Republic has not only
made a great advance in the nobler and more
dignified administration of justice, but in seek-
ing for absolute justice itself. Thus the man
who has atoned for his guilt cannot be punished
further by calling him an "ex-convict." In the
scales of French justice those who' have endured
the penalty of the la,v cannot be pursued further
through life by a relentless social Nemesis. Nat-
ure is merciless, but justice, which rises above nat-
ure, must be a barrier against social vengeance.
If we turn from the consideration of the feat-
ures of a great internal change to that of the
adaptation of the Republic to her international
environments, we shall be impressed by the
progress made. In the last days of the Second
Empire, France had been isolated by the med-
dlesome and tactless policy of the emperor.
He gained nothing from England by his partici-
pation in the Crimean 'Var, ",.hile he irritated
Russia for years to come. lIe aroused the feel-
ings of the American people by the campaign of
26 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC
l\iexico, as well as by his open sympathy for the
South during the Rebellion. He excited the
resentment of Austrians by the war of Italy,
without ,vinning the gratitude of Italians; for
while he helped them to secure their unity, he
constituted himself the custodian of the last
remnant of the temporal power of the Pope.
Had the son of IIortense been willing to have
French soldiers leave Rome, on the eve of the
Franco-Prussian War, Austria and Italy would
have joined France against Germany in 1870.
In the great conflict France was thoroughly
isolated, and the moral sentiment of the ,vhole
world was against her in just condemnation of
the war, now known to have been brought about
by Bismarck, whose supreme art was to provoke
it and cause Napoleon to appear as the aggressor.
This war was virtually continued by the Iron
Chancellor, who organised the Triple Alliance
to isolate France, while another triple alliance
had been made between England, Italy, and
Spain to cb_eck French action in the Mediter-
ranean. 1 The attitude of Bismarck, alarmed at
the rapid recuperation of the country, came near
bringing about a new conflict which was averted,
thanks to the good offices of St. Petersburg and
of London.
1 Bérard, V., La France et Guillaume II, 1907, p. 22.
POLITICAL RECONSTRUCTION 27
The place which France had lost in interna-
tional life has been more than regained. The
labours of l\I. Delcassé were of signal value in
the improvement of French external relations.
He ,vas a leader in the peace policy of Europe.
He did not wait until all the po,vers were com-
pelled to move by the irresistible behests of the
conscience of the civilised world. At the time
of Fashoda, he urged arbitration upon the points
at issue; and even ,vhen this was refused by
England, he still showed the most conciliatory
attitude. From this policy he n
ver deviated.
He was foremost in signing treaties of arbitra-
tion, and in putting an end to Anglo-French
controversies. The settlement of the Newfound-
land difficulty was due, in a very large measure,
to his far-sighted and conciliatory spirit. He
brought Great Britain to make the neutrality of
the Suez Canal real, while the Egyptian question
ceased to be a constant cause of Anglo-French
friction. The Republic had already brought
about the Russian Alliance, but he created
the Anglo-French entente, followed by the
Franco-Italian and the Franco-Spanish agree-
ments equally commendable. An enumeration
of his successful diplomatic acts with almost
all the other powers would be as flattering
to the great minister as it '\vould be fatiguing
28 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC
to the reader. He did not plan the isolation
of Germany in Europe, "he worked against no
one." He prepared the pacific solution of the
l\{oroccan problem, which cost him his port-
folio, as the Rouvier Cabinet sacrificed him to
placate Germany. If the Kaiser endeavoured
to prevent the carrying out of the Delcasséan
plans, the powers, at Algeciras, gave a vir-
tual sanction to them. In any case, there could
not have been a more flattering manifestation
of the good-will of all the powers but two than
that which was given at that conference. They
were all aware that there is a radical difference
between the ideals of humanitarian solidarity
of the Republic and the racial exclusivism of
the German Empire.
Since that time M. Pichon has only continued
the policy of }\rI. Delcassé. He has brought
about a Russo-Japanese reconciliation, reached
a new understanding with Spain in reference
to the J\;Iediterranean and North Africa, made
an agreement with Japan shielding French
Asiatic possessions, contributed to the better re-
lations of Russia and England, and, on FeLruary
9, 1909, signed an important agreement with
Germany in reference to Morocco. In dealing
with world-problems, France took a most active
part at the Conference of Brussels, in 1874, at
POLITICAL RECONSTRUCTION 29
that of Berlin in 1885, and at those of The
Hague in 1899 and in 1907. She inaugurated
the era of international congresses, as essential
parts of expositions, at her 'Vorld's Fair in
1889, and has been largely represented in those
which have taken place on such occasions else-
where. International congresses, upon all great
issues of our times, have not only been instru-
ments of international friendliness and peace,
but they have been a great educative force,
bringing into French life the experience of man
from all parts of the world. The influence
of these gatherings has been intensified by the
nlany international societies 1 which the larger
life of the Republic has fostered. Never have
French diplomatic relations been more satisfac-
tory or French life more in touch with all great
human interests beyond national borders.
1 Fifteen of them have their headquarters in France.
CHAPTER II
THE TRANSFORMATION AND EXPAN-
SION OF FRANCE
T HE nation has also made great sacrifices
to improve her capacity for resistance
and her power of expansion. The
army, which was disorganised, not to say de-
moralised by the misfortunes of the Franco-
Prussian War, has been remodelled. 'Vhatever
may be the present limitations of French officers,
there is an essential difference between them and
those of the Empire. An officer of the staff of
General Félix Douai asked at Mülhausen, in
1870, if the Harth was broad and had a bridge
over it, taking that forest for a river; and Gen-
eral Michel telegraphed the Minister of War to
ascertain where his own troops were. 1 The
officers of to-day have worked much, and from
a technical point of view are superior to all their
predecessors. Taken all and all, the same thing
might be said of their manliness and devotion
1 Scheurer-Kestner, Souvenirs de jeunesse, p. 160.
30
TRANSFORMATION-EXPANSION 31
to their country. The corruption revealed at
the time of the Dreyfus case was connected with
the Bureau of Military Information, in which a
man to excel is tempted to trample under foot
the moral principles everywhere upheld by true
men. The army is now like the nation. It is
no longer made up of the poor, the ignorant,
or paid substitutes. The marchands d'hommes,
who made it their business to provide some one
to take the place of the rich, disappeared '\vith
the Empire. The son of a peasant and the son
of a duke now stand side by side in the ranks.
There wealth and birth no longer create much
inequality, though the officers come mostly from
aristocratic families; but the middle class is
more and more taking an important place among
them.
The term of military service has been reduced
from seven years to two years. The peace
footing of the army has risen from 400,000 to
571,000, and the war contingent from 540,000
to 4,350,000. 1 As Captain Lebaud has said:
"The conception of the army has changed. It
is no longer intended for the purpose of conquer-
ing new territories, but to safeguard the national
honour. The soldier to-day is a free and con-
scious citizen who is entitled to some considera-
1 Rambaud, Ope cit., p. 569.
32 FRANCE UNDER TIlE REPUBLIC
tion." 1 The army is fast becoming something
more than a fighting machine. The officer is
more than a commander, he is rapidly becoming
an educator. In many places he has opened
schools which have been quite successful. In
the opinion of Captain Lebaud, the residence in
barracks now should build up manhood rather
than mere technical ability. Good appearance
should be an index of self-control and self-
restraint. Hazing has almost disappeared. The
attacks of French pacificists upon the army have
contributed much to its transformation. There
can be no question that it brings Frenchmen of
different provinces together, introduces a com-
mon national spirit among men who have never
been assimilated,2 leads them to speak the na-
tional vernacular of which they have been igno-
rant, while it imparts to them a discipline which,
later on, may be secured outside of the army. In
Madagascar it has become a great force of colo-
nial pioneering and of instruction in the arts of
peace. The soldiers have been made overseers,
gar
eners, farmers, road builders, engineers,
etc. 3 The same thing is true of the recent cam-
paign in Morocco. They built roads, con-
1 L'Education dans l'armée d'une démocratie, p. 55.
2 This is the case with the Basques, the Bretons, and the Flemish.
3 Gallieni, La pacification de ftladagascar, 1900.
TRANSFORl\IA TION-EXP ANSION 33
structed bridges, opened markets, established a
postal and telegraph service, dispensaries, etc. 1
l\Iany of the leaders became explorers, such as
Gallieni, Gentil, l\:Iizon, Binger, Toutée, and
Lamy. One cannot but gratefully record ,,,,hat
French troops have done under the Republic to
deliver Africa from the black Caligulas, Samory,
Behanzin, and Rabat, whose records of cruelty
surpass the darkest feats which the most san-
guinary imagination could picture. It would
be an act of signal injustice not to mention the.
great services rendered everywhere to science by
French officers.
The navy, so powerless during the Franco-
Prussian 'Var, has become in Europe second
only to that of Great Britain. 2 The recent criti-
cisms of the navy, though containing some truth,
do not as yet change the relative naval strength
of the country. That the British should have an
admirable navy is quite natural. The whole
British people have an irresistible love of the
sea and of ocean travel. They are the nomads
of the deep. The French are much more at-
tached to the soil. 'Vith the exception of those
living along the coasts, they have none of the
1 Le Siècle, Jan. 23, 1909.
2 This statement, true when written, will have ceased to be 80
when the naval units which Germany is building are completed.
84 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC
instincts of a maritime people. To develop
qualities of seamanship the government has
given extensive bounties to fishermen, most of
whom, in time of war, would be available for
service in the navy. The existence of a large
fleet cultivates the habit of life on the ocean which
not infrequently becomes love of the sea. In
this respect there has been a change in the feel-
ings of Frenchmen. Nothing is more interesting
than the poetic effusions of Richepin, a man who
had stood before the mast, upon the beauties of
the ocean and the glories of the deep. This mod-
ification of the French
ttitude toward sea-faring
life is a factor of no little moment in reckoning
the naval strength of France. 'Ve might apply
to the navy the remarks made about the army,
that, apart from the sense of security which it
gives to the nation, it exerts considerable influ-
ence upon the populations coming into touch
with it, and remains a necessity so long as the
French flag floats over so many lands and all
the great nations keep up their burdensome naval
armaments.
The colonies and protectorates of France have
increased eight times in extent. During the
Republic has come the idea of a greater France
through her union with her most important
colonies. Like Russia she has her most prom-
TRANSFOR1\iATION-EXP ANSIO
35
ising colonies at her door. One by one Afri-
can possessions have been added by arrange-
ments with the powers until the French flag
flies over territories extending, ,vith the omis-
sion of the l\Iediterranean, from the British
channel to the Congo River. These acquisitions
and groupings have been carried on ,vith a
continuity of purpose which is truly admirable.
There is a scheme to unite more efficiently these
possessions by a railroad extending from Algiers
to Lake Tchad. Railroads have been built in
Dahomey, Senegal, Algeria, and Tunis. Though
this last province has been less than thirty years
under French rule, it possesses as many kilo-
metres of railroad in proportion to its population
as France itself. The contracted railroads, those
in process of construction and those in running
order, for the province are 2,040 kilometres. 1 The
Trans-Soudanais, uniting Senegal and the Niger
Valley, will, ,vhen completed, have a length of
2,700 kilometres; an important part of it is
already finished and prosperous. 2 The Guinea
Railroad ,vas finished to the four hundredth kilo-
metre, August 30, 1909. 3 The great and most
difficult railroad from the eastern coast of l\Iada-
gascaI' to the heights of Antananarivo is completed
1 L'Illuslraliorl, April 16, 1910.
2 Le Temps, Sept. 3, 1909.
I Ibid., Sept. 21, 1909.
36 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC
from the ocean to the former capital of the island.
Timbuctoo, the city which had remained so long
an agglomeration of men the farthest removed
from all possible Western influence, is a well-
governed French possession. Caravans no\v
go from there without difficulty to the most
northerly points of Africa. A great work of the
French has been the digging of thousands of
artesian wells which bring fertility as soon as
they are dug, while much has been done other-
wise for irrigation.
The capital invested in French colonies, so
insignificant under the Empire, is no\v estimated
at over 4,000,000,000' francs; and the colonial
trade, so unimportant in 1870 that the States-
man's Year Book does not record it, is now,
including that of Tunis and Algeria, 1,400,000,-
000 francs annually.1 The old colonies, such as
St. Pierre and
fiquelon, Guadeloupe, Martinique,
and Réunion, are not financially profitable, but
those which came under the French flag dur-
ing the second half of the nineteenth century are
quite prosperous. From 1889 to 1905 the trade of
Algeria has increased from 87,984,000 frhncs to
124,950,000, that of Tunis from 48,188,000 francs
to 158,000,000, that of Senegal from 38,746,000
to 77,879,000, that of the French Congo from
1 Le Signal, Aug. 20, 1907.
TRANSFOR:\fATION-EXPANSION 37
6,221,000 to 24,312,000, that of Indo-China
from 118,249,000 to 423,318,000, that of New
Caledonia from 15,736,000 to 21,797,000; from
1892 to 1905 that of l\Iadagascar passed from
8,003,000 to 54,049,000, that of Guinep, from
7,622,000 to 35,299,000, that of the Ivory Coast
from 5,719,000 to 21,531,000, that of Dahomey
from 13,693,000 to 18,367,000, that of Mayotte
from 1,962,000 to 3,869,000; from 1899 to 1905
that of the French Somali Coast rose from
1,962,000 to 30,149,000. 1 The colonial finances
have been so administered that many colonies
have a surplus in their budget.
To defend these possessions a colonial army
has been created. While many natives have
been incorporated in it, their education has not
been neglected. The budget for education for
French "
estern Africa has risen from 241,909
francs in 1883 to 1,115,990 francs in 1909. In
Algeria were created J,federsas, or training
schools for the Islamitic clergy, who thereby be-
come more intelligent and more liberal. Schools
,vere opened also by Jules Ferry \vith the thought
of educating the natives to render them capable
of fully enjoying the rights of citizenship. · If
these people at times have been molested, as
a rule the government has protected them against
1 A nnuaire statistique, 1906.
38 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC
the greed of European settlers - French as well
as others. 1\i. Etienne said in Parliament, some
years ago, that in Algeria, after so many years
of French occupation, the natives still held
t\velve-thirteenths of the land, which they are
fast improving. Following the methods of their
conquerors, their farming has been modified so
that, ,vhere they reaped only four quintals of
"rheat per hectare, now the yield is nine quintals. 1
Agriculture has become diversified. Large vine-
yards have been establislled, olive-tree plantations
have been made on a large scale, the gathering of
cork has assumed some importance, and truck
farms send their early vegetables to Europe. The
mines yield now fifty millions of francs a year.
All the great instruments of civilisation have been
introduced. 1\1r. James F. J. Archibald, the war
correspondent, speaks of " the truly marvellous
,york the French Government has done in
Algeria in the past sixty years, and in Tunis dur-
ing the last twenty years." 2 Those who are
acquainted ,vith the colonial history of the world
and of black France will be pleased to hear the
same gentleman say: "Not until I visit
d the
French colonies of northern Africa did I find
what I considered a most perfect form of colo-
1 Le Temp3, June 1, 1909.
2 The National Geographical Jf agazine, March, 1909.
TRANSFORl\IATION-EXPANSION 39
nisation, and I no, v firmly believe that the
French people and the French Government are
to-day the most practical colonisers of the civil-
ised world."
The experiences in the colonies have reacted
upon the education of the mother country. The
general abstract conception of man has been
modified by coming in contact with other races.
A colonial literature has come into existence de-
scribing the homes of Frenchmen beyond the
sea, or the tragedies springing from the contact
of the colonists with the natives. In 1909 was
founded La S ociété coloniale des artistes français,
devoting itself to colonial themes, sho\ving the
artistic possibilities of ne,v lands under new con-
di tions. Colonial schools, colonial gardens, and
colonial experimental stations have exerted con-
siderable influence. Le Jardin colonial has
studied the best species of cacao-trees, of sugar-
canes, of gutta-percha and rubber plants for
colonies. I t has made special studies of all
forms .of colonial produce, thereby incidentally
rendering services to botany. An institute of
colonial medicine studies all the diseases of for-
eign possessions. Societies, such as the Union
coloniale, La Colonisation française, La M utua-
lité coloniale, and the Protestant society of colo-
nisation further this cause. An important French
40 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC
association uses every means in its power to
promote the culture of cotton in Africa. The
results have been encouraging. The total pro-
duction, '\vhich was practically nil a few years
ago, reached the figures of 164,000 kilogrammes
in 1907, 171,000 in 1908, and 238,000 in 1909. 1
National industries have adapted themselves to
colonial needs and have shown great ingenu-
ity in meeting new conditions. Important iron
works, bridges, and piers have been made for
the colonies. There have been constructed ma-
chinery for colonial agriculture, special means
of transportation, contrivances for colonial com-
fort, transportable houses, colonial furniture for
special districts and climates, new adaptations
of rubber, gauzes, and wrapping clothes for use
in distant lands. No people has made an earlier
or better use of automobiles in the colonies than
the French. As they had been great road build-
ers, when the day of automobiles came these
machines had before them uncommon possibil-
i ties.
At home the railroads have also made great
advance. The old car, separated int
incon-
veniently narrow compartments, is being re-
placed by the long car of comfortable dimensions.
On important lines one may see vestibule trains.
1 Le Temps, :March 29, 1910.
TRANSFORMATION-EXPANSION 41
The little wagons, which used to cost about
10,000 francs, have made way for others of
palatial style costing over 60,000 francs. The
railroads have increased from 17,929 kilometres
in 1870 to 47,282 in 1906; their net income has
risen from 383,000,000 francs to 778,000,000;
the number of travellers from 95,000,000 to
459,000,000, and the tons of merchandise carried
from 37,000,000 to 144,000,000. National roads
and high\vays have increased from 368,000 kilo-
metres to 575,000; canals and other v."ater-ways
from 1,075 kilometres to 1,207. In sixteen years
the tonnage upon these water-ways ,has increased
forty-two per cent. 1 Since 1866 the general
tonnage of French ports has quadrupled. 2 The
telegraph service leaped from 4,000,000 telegrams
a year to 41,000,000, and the income from
11,000,000 francs to 43,000,000; the telephone
in fourteen years had its communications in-
creased from 20,000,000 to 232,000,000. From
1869 to 1905 the number of letters distributed
by post-offices increased from 358,000,000 to
1,113,000,000, and the total income of the postal
service from 94,000,000 francs to 262,000,000. 3
Not,vithstanding the almost irresistible com-
1 A nnuaire statistÜJ.ue.
2 Thery, Ed., Les progrès écorwmiques de la France, 1909, p. 250.
:I A nnuaire statistique.
42 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC
petition of wheat-growing countries having the
advantage of a virgin soil, France still raises
almost wheat enough for her own consumption.
Instead of 102,000,000 hectolitres in 1873, the
yield was 117,000,000 in 1905. Where she reaped
25 bushels, now she has 40. Oats have increased
from 76,000,000 hectolitres to 95,000,000; beet-
root sugar from 349,360 tons to 948,671, and
alcohol from 1,591,070 hectolitres to 2,608,626. 1
The phylloxera, which years ago destroyed the
greater part of the vineyards of France, and
inflicted a loss now estimated at 10,000,000-
000 francs,2 has been practically stamped out.
French wine-growers have shown great moral
strength irt fighting the evil, and replacing the
plants destroyed. The vineyards, in 1871 ex-
tending over 6,397,000 hectares, were 6,516,000
in 1905; and the yield, which in 1871, 1872, and
1873 averaged 83,000,000 hectolitres, was 114,-
000,000 in 1905; it had been 118,000,000 the
year before.
The former superstitions of cattle raisers, who
made religious pilgrimages for the cure of their
herds,3 or got priests to bless their flock
\ before
1 A nnuairc statistique.
2 Hanotaux, G., La France, est-elle en décadence 1; Théry, Ed.,
op. cit., p. 135.
3 See L'lllustration, July 6, 1907, in which there is a picture of
Breton peasants carrying the tails of their sick cows and placing
them upon the altar to secure the recovery of those animals.
TRANSFORftIATION-EXPANSION 43
starting for distant pastures,1 is slo"rly, but surely,
disappearing, giving place to the skill of the
veterinary surgeon. The former no longer asks
processions like that so beautifully pictured Ly
Jules Breton, nor does he go to church to have
the priest bless the seeds before they are in-
trusted to the ground, but rather goes to the
agricultural chemist, buys proper fertilisers, seeks
new markets, studies new demands and strives
to supply them. He employs machinery upon
an unprecedented scale. Not to speak of those
made at home, almost all forms of American
agricultural implements have been quickly in-
troduced. During the summer of 1908, the
writer, in the valley of the Loire, saw three
reaping machines following each other in the
same field; and L'Illustral-ion, soon after, showed
a procession of :five in the same :field of wheat.
Under the Empire all this ,,"ork ,vas done by
hand. The variety of agricultural and horti-
cultural produce has also increased. The floral
culture of the Riviera has become most impor-
tant. Some parts of the South and Algeria,
transformed into truck farms, have become the
,vinter gardens of France and England. French-
men have never made their native soil yield more,
or made more profitable uses of its produce.
1 Ibid., Jan. 8, 1907.
44 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC
This great change has come from a better edu-
cation and greater agricultural intelligence. Gam-
betta founded the l\Iinistry of Agriculture. An
important part of its functions has been agri-
cultural education. This is given in its high-
est form by the National Agronomic Institute of
Paris, by three veterinary schools with twenty-
seven professors, and by the National School of
Forestry of Nancy. Then there are three sec-
ondary schools of agriculture which study the
peculiar problems of the regions in which they
are situated, having a staff of twenty-six pro-
fessors and t\venty-ni,ne lecturers. For this sec-
ondary grade of work, there are also the School
of Agricultural Industries of Douai and the
National School of Horticulture of Versailles.
In the lower grade of instruction come thirty-
four practical elementary schools of agriculture,
viticulture, and horticulture; twelve schools of
irrigation, of draining, of the care and uses of
milk, of cheese making, and of the care of
poultry; nine schools of arboriculture and the
care of fruit, forty-two fromageríes-écoles, at once
cheese factories and schools for instruction in
cheese making. Everyone of the eighty-six de-
partments has an experimental station. There
are forty-t\vO agronomic stations and labora-
tories for analyses, six stations of ænology, not
RANSFORMA TION-EXP ANSION 45
to speak of the thirteen stations of zoology, of
entomology, of sericulture, of experiments ,,,,ith
seeds, of vegetal physiology, of vegetal pathol-
ogy, of animal physiology and cattle feeding, of
vegetal physics, of fermentation and of testing
machinery. There are also three schools for
the training of girls for the duties which may
devolve upon them in farming. 1
This agricultural transformation has also been
accelerated by the improvement of roads,2 by
the greater facilities offered by railroads, by the
reduction of farmers' taxes,S and by the en-
couragements given to agricultural societies.
The sum placed by the government at the dis-
posal of 1,500 mutual loan banks 4 is now 80,-
000,000 francs. 5 At the Congress of Angers, July,
1907, M. de Rocquigny showed that agricul-
tural associations, though of recent date, had
reached the number of 3,553. Since 1900 they
have doubled numerically. Against cattle mor-
tality, there are 7,000 local mutual insurance
1 Annuaire statistique; Annuaire de la jeunesse, 1907.
2 On April 10, 1879, there were voted at one meeting of the Par-
liament 200,000,000 francs for the roads of the country. (Ram-
baud, Jules Ferry, p. 184.)
3 In 1879, 1890, 1898, and 1905, important reductions of taxes
were made. In the budget for 1898, they amounted to 26,000,000
francs. (Rambaud, H istoire de la civilisation contemporaine en
France, p. 749.)
· Méline, J., The Return to the Land, New York, 1907, p. 94.
6 Compte-rendu du sixième congrès national des syndicats agricoles.
(Foi et vie, Dec. 1, 1907.)
46 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC
societies with 355,000 members, as well as 1,000
mutual insurance societies against fire.
Co-operative associations ha
e rejuvenated the
farming of some districts by introducing new
forms of produce for the Paris markets, by de-
veloping the export of horticultural crops, and
by using refrigerator cars to facilitate the trans-
portation of perishables, meats and vegetables
alike. These organisations have also paid some
attention to the ,veIl-being of the rural popu-
lation, the improvement of d,velling-houses
for farmers, and to old-age pensions for aged
toilers. 1
Such have been the improvements of farming
life that an ever larger class turns to agriculture,
so that the number of small land-owners is
increasing. According to M. Ruau, Minister
of Agriculture, there have been, during the last
twenty years, only two out of eighty-seven de-
partments in which concentration of property
has taken place. The new education and the
new life have taken traditional French agri-
culture out of the old ruts, and sho,,"ed it a
world of new possibilities which hav
been
realised. It might be added that the govern-
ment has elevated agriculture to the dignity of
having a special decoration known as the mérite
lOp. cit.
TR.A.NSFORMATION-EXPANSION 47
agricole, although it may possibly be brought
into disrepute by being distributed too freely.
The industries of the country have been
quickened by science. Thus the ability to
transmit electric energy to great distances has
almost created a revolution. There has been
a great rush in seizing and u tilising all the wa ter-
falls. The west side of the Alps alone can
furnish 4,000,000 horse-power, and the Pyrenees,
the Vosges, the Cévennes, and the central
mountains may yield 5,000,000 more. This new
power, now called houille blanche, "white coal,"
is more and more constituting a. natural equi-
valent for the cheap coal ,vhich their English
competitors enjoy. Again, the country, as com-
pared with others, has a peculiar distribution of
industrial interests. The salaried "Torkmen are
only five per cent more numerous than the em-
ployers or those who "\vork on their o,vn account.
The 19,652,000 persons connected with French
industries, in the largest sense of the term, are
divided into t,vo almost equal parts; 8,996,000
are either employers or those \vho work on their
own account, ,vhile the employees number
10,655,000. 1 In spite of opposite tendencies
else,vhere, in France this economic individual-
1 Yves Guyot, Le collectivisme lutUT et le socialisme présenl.
(Journal des EC01wmistes, July, 1906, p. 8.)
48 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC
ism is growing. There were 592,600 industrial
establishments in 1896 and 616,100 in 1906, a
gain of 23,500 in ten years. 1 The advantage of
such a condition is that it is a spur to individual
ambition, that it is more favourable to the aII-
round development of the labourer, that it secures
a ,vider distribution of profits, and that it makes
for greater social and political stability. The
disadvantage is that French industries find it
hard to compete with the colossal organisations
of the United States, of England, of Germany,
and accordingly the industrial progress is not so
striking.
Yet the whole produce of French industries,
including those of Alsace and Lorraine, was
about 5,000,000,000 francs in 1870/ and about
15,000,000,000 in 1897 - this, ,,,,ith Alsace ex-
cluded. One of the great auxiliaries of manu-
facturing, coal, was extracted to the amount
of 13,000,000 tons in 1870 and 38,000,000 in
1905. In the meantime the production of pig-
iron increased 217 per cent, that of iron and
steel 200 per cent, and the extraction of iron ore
399 per cent. S In fifteen years, from
891 to
1906, the production of iron has increased 71 per
lOp. cit.
2 Larousse, Grand dictionnaire; Revue des Deux j\fondes, Jan.,
1872, p. 227.
3 A nnuaire statistique.
TRANSFORl\IATION-EXPANSION 49
cent in quantity and 73 per cent in value. 1
Steam engines rose from 26,000, "tith 316,000
horse-power, to 79,000, with 2,232,000 horse-
power, a gain of 303 per cent for the number of
engines, and 706 per cent for thpir potential
capacity.2 From 1890 to 1902 the number of
horse-power used in metallurgic industries rose
from 167,584 to 354,856, and in textile manu-
facturing from 172,999 to 434,529. 3
It is difficult for foreigners to realise the
part which machinery has come to play in
France. l\Iany who in former days spent much
time in devising new toys, 'now toil to invent new
machines adapted to national needs. Visiting
the mechanical part of the Paris Exposition of
1900 ,vith Americans, the writer heard them
again and again exclaim at the great advance of
the French in mechanical art. The greater
activity of inventors is seen from the fact that the
number of patents issued in 1870 was 2,782,
while that of 1905 was 12,953. Though the
principle of industrial agglomeration is not so
"ridely spread as in the United States, France
has her Fall River in Roubaix, her Pittsburg at
Le Creuzot, and numerous other centres ""here
machinery is made and used upon a large
1 Théry, Op. cU., p. 23.
3 Méline, Op. cit., p. 49.
2 A nnuaire statistique.
50 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC
scale. Some of the grpat metallurgic works
export machinery to every part of the ,vorld.
One of them makes sixty tons of pig-iron in an
hour. Provence has the largest and the best
deposits of bauxite 1 in the ,vorld - a fact which
has helped the recent and rapid progress of the
making of aluminum, now used for electric
cables. One of the ship-building yards turned
out recently a steamer 450 feet long, of 10,000
tons, in nine months.
The ability -to ere.ct vast iron structures is not
the sole possession of Germans, Englishmen, and
Americans. The Eiffel Tower, the Suspension
Bridge Gisclard in the Pyrénées orientales, the
Viaduct of Gabarit in the department of Cantal,
Eiffel's superb iron bridge over the Douro
River in Portugal, the iron bridge over the Red
River in Indo-China, immense iron docks in the
colonies, and the enormous guns made at Le
Creuzot, show that French metallurgic ,yorks are
capable of great things undreamed of four dec-
ades ago. Frenchmen were among the first
to use electric locomotives on their railroads.
They have done works of engineering it! their
roads and their canals ,vhich amaze foreigners
by the boldness of the conception, their beauty
of design, or their admirable execution. One
1
iineral for the making of aluminum.
TR
L\NSFORMATION-EXPANSION 51
of the colleagues of the writer looking at photo-
graphs of the masonry of the new railroad of
l\Iadagascar said: "'Ve Americans have never
done such superb work on a new railroad."
l\Ioreover, France was first in making submarine
boats and remains first. Her place in aero-
nautics is such that inventors of dirigible bal-
loons and of aeroplanes have gone to her for
experiments and recognition. Her supremacy
in the making of automobiles is yet widely rec-
ognised. They are in great demand abroad.
She exported them to the amount of 51,000,000
francs in 1903, 71,000,000 in 190
, 101,000,000
in 1905, 138,000,000 in 1906/ and 145,364,000
in 1907. 2
A Paris house furnished all the apparatus for
the great light-house of Bombay. England
buys annually from France over 50,000,000
francs' worth of finely wrought metallic ,yorks,
chiefly copper. 3 It is quite significant that
French firms w
re asked to provide electric
lighting for the London Exhibition of 1908.'
From 1891 to 1906 the country exported ma-
chines, metallic objects, tools, small sea craft,
automobiles, etc., so that the excess of exporta-
1 Revue des Deux A/ondes, June 15, 1907, p. 875.
2 Théry, op. cit., p. 180.
3 Bérard, op. cit., p. 58.
4 Le Siècle, Nov. 19, 1907.
52 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC
tions over importations increased from 117,000,
000 to 473,000,000. 1 French jewelry wrought with
great artistic perfection is more and more ap-
preciated in all the great centres of the civilised
world. Works in gold, hall-marked by the
government, have increased 51 per cent from
1894 to 1906, those in silver 24 per- cent. The
exports of these increased 80 per cent for gold
and 186 per cent for silver. 2 1\I. d' Avenel
speaks of a French manufacturer who makes
150,000 kilog-rammes of paper in a day.
Textile industries have undergone transforma-
tions of great importance. The hand weaving
of the Empire has largely been replaced by the
power-loom. The hand-loom is used only for
the weaving of samples or for very small orders
which are more easily worked that way. In
some places the power-loom, worked by elec-
tricity, is in the home itself of the weaver. The
cheap distribution of electric energy is now
keeping the workmen at home. In small cities,
and often in small villages, the baker makes his
bread with electric kneading machines. The
transformation of weaving by machine has not
lowered the quality of the output; in fact the
finest textile fabrics are so exquisite as to come
nearer the decorative arts than to simple texture.
1 Théry, Ope cit., p. 23.
2 A nnuairc statistique.
TRANSFORMATION-EXPANSION 53
France takes an ever larger part in the cutting of
diamonds for the world. The crystals of Bac-
carat, the beautiful plates of Saint Gobain, and
the china of Limoges have never enjoyed a
greater popularity at home and abroad. L'ar-
ticle de Paris is ever in greater demand.
The artistic traditions and environments,
high ideals of professional workmanship, and the
specific educational efforts of the Republic have
kept up the old superiority. The few technical
schools existing under the Empire have been
remodelled and many new ones have been
founded. The Conservatoire national des arts
et métiers (National Conservatory of Arts and
Crafts), at once a laboratory of mechanical,
physical, and chemical experiments, a patent
office with a vast collection of models of in-
ventors, a museum of devices to prevent in-
dustrial accidents and to improve industrial
hygiene, has been made a great school of tech-
nology, devoting 1,368,963 francs to its work.
There is also the Ecole centrale des arts et manu-
factures (Central School of Arts and lVlanufac-
tures), preparing engineers for all forms of
industry as well as for public works, whose
budget was 732,349 francs in 1905. Then came
four national schools of arts and crafts, at Aix,
Angers, Châlons, and Lille, the expenses of
54 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC
,,"hich are 1,838,290 francs. A fifth school of
this kind has just been opened in Paris.
The purpose of these institutions is to train
and improve overseers and manufacturers, keep-
ing in view the character of the manufactures
peculiar to the part of the country in ,,
hich the
school is situated. Thus the institution in Lille
has a section devoted to spinning and ,veaving,
,vhile that of Paris will have one giving special
attention to electricity, industrial chemistry, and
automobilism. There are, again, the "National
Practical School of 'V orkmen and Overseers" of
Chauny devoting annually to its purpose 367,864
francs, the schools
f clock and watch making
(horlogerie) in the eastern part of France spend-
ing 107,000 francs annually to improve the per-
sonnel in this branch of industry. In Arman-
tières, Nantes, Vierzon, and Voiron are national
professional schools to train workingmen for
the positions of overseers and managers in large
establishments. In 1905, their budget was
887,810 francs. Fifteen other industrial schools
spend 713,613 francs in giving various forms of
industrial education. One of them, the Ecole du
li-vre, teaches its students the best way to print
a book, to illustrate it, and to bind it. This
institution, with two hundred students in day-
time and two hundred and fifty at night, will
TRANSFORMATION-EXPANSION 55
contribute to give a higher place still to the
French book in the world. Twenty-six schools
are at once giving an industrial education, and
teaching the best methods for disposing of the
fruits of industry; they are called "Schools of
Commerce and Industry." 1 The number of
students attending the higher industrial schools
in 1905 was 8,787, and those in the more ele-
mentary 9,765.
The several great exhibitions in Paris, as well
as those in the provinces, have been efficient
agents of industrial progress. This has been
increased by the many-sided development of
energy in other realms of the na'tion's life, as
well as by a wider culture and a keener intelli-
gence. Frenchmen are now conscious of their
peculiar place in the economic life of the world.
They recognise that their products are not so
much for the masses as for the classes. They
realise that their well-being in a large measure
depends upon the peace and prosperity of man-
kind.
I A nnuaire statistique and A nnuaire de la jeun,esse.
CHAPTER III
THE DEVELOPMENT OF COMMERCE
AND WEALTH
F RENCH commerce has above all become
better organised. Under the Empire, the
chambers of commerce were merely con-
sultative, local advisory boards, hampered at
every point by the government; but now they
are unhindered and, what is more, they have
become extremely numerous. Many have been
founded in foreign countries where they serve
French interests. The government now co-
operates with them, and has enlarged the state
machinery to further the development of trade.
In 1882 was established the Superior Council of
Commerce, a board of commercial advisers \vith
a large experience to help the same cause. In
1897 was organised in the Ministry of Commerce
the National Foreign Trade Office, the design of
which is to furnish merchants with all the data
which they ,,,,ish in regard to the opportunities
of trade in any foreign country. Its work is
56
COl\Il\IERCE AND 'VEALTH 57
done by interviews, or by means of the Moniteur
officiel du commerce.
In 1898 ,,"as instituted the organisation of
Counsellors of Foreign Trade, which numbers
now 1,400. These counsellors are Frenchmen
established in other lands, who send valuable
information to the home office. They also find
positions for young Frenchmen in those coun-
tries, with the view of acquainting them ",
ith
commercial conditions and methods. There
were likewise createdøforeign commercial scholar-
ships, devoted entirely to students preparing for
industrial or commercial pursuits. The govern-
ment has gone even further in creating the insti-
tution of attachés commerciaux in connection
with embassies and legations. These attachés
may prove a sign of the times, giving more place
to trade questions than to military ones. Socie-
ties of commercial geography were organised in
Paris, l\farseilles, Bordeaux, Lyons, Lille, and
Nancy.1 Commercial schools have been multi-
plied, rendered more practical and less academic.
Superior schools of commerce were developed
or established in twelve of the most important
cities of the country outside of the capital. The
Commercial Institute of Paris, fo"unded in 1884,
is largely devoted to the preparation of young
1 Rambaud, H istoire de la civilisation contemporaine en France,
p. 648.
58 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC
men for foreign trade. The School of High
Commercial Studies, with an annual budget of
over 400,000 francs, is one of the best commer-
cial institutions anywhere. Of the 61 papers
representing commerce, 89 were founded under
the Republic, and of the 270 journalistic organs
of finance, 177 "\vere started since 1871. 1
All these efforts must tell. Economic studies,
a greater general intelligence, and a better pro-
fessional training have done much toward the
commercial and financial advance visible in so
many directions. In gaugin:g this gain we should
remember that the French have not the advan-
tage of Americans, with a new country of un-
limited resources, and with methods which set
aside all considerations of the future, who make
havoc of forests, exhaust arable lands, and pick
here and there the best from their best mines.
In France the forests are in a condition of steady
improvement. Under the Republic they have
increased to the extent of 1,150,000 acres. 2
The soil is rendered more and more fertile,
while mines are worked with a care demanded
by their relative poverty. France, so rich in
many things, has certainly not been favoured in
the matter of mines.
Notwithstanding this, the annual commerce of
1 Annuaire de la presse, 1909 pp. 844 and 852.
2 L'Illustration, Oct. 13, 1906.
COMl\IERCE AND lV"EALTI-I 59
the country has increased more than 5,000,000,-
000 francs. From 1875 to 1907 it has risen from
7,500,000,000 to 11,819,000,000. 1 The increased
commercial activity is sho\vn by the fact that,
,,,,hile the Clearing IIouse of Paris reported
transactions amounting to 2,210,000,000 in 1875,
thirty years later they had reached 26,095,000,
000. The amount of business transacted by the
Bank of France was 68,814,000,000 in 1871 and
236,975,000,000 in 1908;2 the bank-notes of that
institution increased from 1,544,000,000 in 1870
to 4,853,000,000 in 1908; its cash reserve rose
from 1,130,000,000 to 3,956,000,000; and so
abundant ,vere the funds that interest fell from
5.71 per cent to 3 per cent. At the time of
the American panic it rose to 3.45 per cent, but
from 1900 to 1907 it averaged 3.03 per cent. S
The gold reserve of the bank has risen from
604,000,000 in 1881 to 3,052,000,000 in 1908. 4
The Bank of France is the only bank of emis-
sion in the country, having in this respect a
monopoly for which the nation is well compen-
sated. Besides, not to speak of small banks,
there are five great financial institutions, the
Crédit lyonnais, the Société générale, the Comp-
toir national d'escompte, the Crédit industriel et
1 Le Temps, Oct. 3, 1907.
a Théry, op. cit., p. 278.
2 A nnuaire statistique.
A nnuaire statistique.
60 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC
comrnercial, and the Société marseillaise, large
joint-stock corporations ,vhich receive deposits
and make loans. From 1891 to 1907 their paid-
up capital increased 395,000,000 and their de-
posits 2,389,000,000. On Decembel' 31, 1907,
these deposits had reached the sum of 3,736,-
000,000. 1 By ingenious and plausible reasoning
1\1. Théry, in his admirable book, estimates that
their total transactions must have been 14,470,-
000,000 in 1891 and 34,362,000,000 in 1907. 2
In fifteen years the funds intrusted to the Bank
of France and to these companies rose from
2,384,000,000 to 5,411,000,000. Such were the
deposits during that period that the lending pow-
er of the Bank of France increased 61 per cent
and the other institutions 177 per cent. S The
annual income from French and foreign securi-
ties, in France, averaged 1,635,496,000 francs
during the period from 1884 to 1891, and from
1900 to 1907 it was 2,136,850,000 francs, that
is, an increase of 501,354,000 francs. 4 Assum-
ing that the securities taxed by the government
yield about 4.5 per cent, M. Théry infers that
in twenty-five years a capital of 11,140,000,000
has been added to these investments. '
During the American panic of 1907 French
1 Théry, op. cit., p. 283.
3 Ibid., p. 289.
2 Ibid., p. 287.
Ibid., p. 298.
COMl\IERCE AND WEALTII 61
industries were severely tried, but banking in-
stitutions were scarcely affected. The Bank of
France did not hesitate then to help the Bank of
England. Those who, like the writer, remem-
ber the heroic efforts of M. Thiers, after the ,var,
to borro"r money for the Republic at impossi-
ble rates, cannot but marvel on seeing that the
once vanquished, isolated, mistrusted France
has become, in some respects, the banker of the
world. We cannot refrain from quoting 1\1]\1.
Delpech and Lamy: "From 1884 to 1900, there
were registered in France foreign bonds, bought
by French citizens, to the amount of 16,729,000,-
000 francs, of which 6,500,000,000 were Russian
bonds/ that is, a third of the total debt of Rus-
sia, which is 16,500,000,000; 1,752,000,000 of
Turkish bonds, that is, more than one-half the
debt of Turkey; 959,000,000 of Portuguese bonds,
that is, almost a quarter of the total debt of
Portugal; 802,000,000 of Spanish bonds 822,-
000,000 of Austria-Hungary bonds, while besides
this Frenchmen own about 3,689,000,000 of for-
eign stocks. The whole of this represents a total
of 20,000,000,000 francs invested by Frenchmen
in foreign securities. 2
1 The statement quoted is from 19QO. In 1907 the amount was
9,000,000,000. (Le Temps, ?vlay 13, 1907.)
2 Delpech and Lamy, Trente ans de république, 1902, p. 57.
62 FRANCE UNDER 'l'HE REPUBLIC
At the end of 1908 ß'I. Alfred Neymarck, one
of the most eminent economists of France, long
president of the Société de statistique, sets at 30,-
000,000,000 francs French investments abroad. 1
M. Théry, the editor of the Economiste européen,
values them at 37,000,000,000 on December 31,
1907. 2 'That a change between the 10,000,000,-
000 or 12,000,000,000, according to Léon Say,
of French investments abroad during the last
days of the Empire,s and the 37,000,000,000 no\v!
That means an increase of at least 25,000,000,000
during the present Republic and 16,000,000,000
during the last sixteen years. 4 Let us add that
French traits of foresight and prudence show
themselves at this póint; their investments are
mostly in bonds or national rentes, while Eng-
lishmen give prominence to stocks. 5 This makes
French finances more stable than those of most
other countries. Be that as it may, from foreign
securities France receives annually 2,000,000,000
francs of interest, and that in gold. Further-
more, this makes rates of foreign exchange most
favourable to the country receiving the funds.
From 1892 to December 31, 1907, the stock of
gold in France increased by 3,929,000,000 francs.
1 Yves Guyot, Le Siècle, Dec. 8, 1908.
2 :More accurately 37,150,000,000. (Théry, op. cit., p. 306.)
a Ibid., p. 304.
Ibid., p. 306.
ri Yves Guyot, Le Siècle, Oct. 13, 1908.
CO
I
IERCE .J\ND \VEALTH 63
Of this 2,059,000,000 were coined into French
money, 1,120,000,000 were taken by the trades
of artistic gold ,york, and about 740,000,000 in
various forms and in various \vays have been
deposited in institutions. 1 This, according to
the same writer, means, at least, that when
France has paid all foreign countries for ,vhat she
draws from them in return for ""hat she sends to
them, i. e., after paying all that needed to be paid,
she has received 3,929,000,000 francs in gold,
nearly one-fifth of the total production the world
over during that time. 2 The "realth of the coun-
try, in stocks and securities of all kinds, which
was 2,500,000,000 francs in 1851, 25,000,000,000
in 1880, 109,000,000,000 in 1900,s was valued at
135,000,000,000 in 1906. 4
It is difficult to gauge accurately the nation's
wealth, but innumerable data, singly or collec-
tively, point to a marked increase. The gain may
be seen in the great advance which has taken
place in the securities of the six great railroad
companies of France, almost entirely owned by
Frenchmen, as they are all guaranteed by the
State. The bonds of the Est ran from 285 in
1871 to 440 in 1908; those of the Paris-Lyon-
1 Théry, Ope cit., p. 346. 2 Ibid.
a Georges d'Avenel, Revue des Deux lvlondes, June 1, 1906, p. 651.
· Yves Guyot., Le Siècle J Oct. 13, 1908.
64 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC
JI éditerranée from 297 to 437; those of the JI idi
from 292 to 435; those of the Nord from 306 to
451; those of the Orléans from 297 to 438, and
those of the Ouest from 291 to 431. The stocks of
the Est have risen from 479 to 937; those of the
Paris-Lyon-!!éditerranée from 852 to 1,368;
those of the ]{idi from 610 to 1,138; those of the
Nord from 968 to 1,779; those of the Orléans
from 816 to 1,382; and those of the Ouest from
509 to 853. 1 The reason of this remarkable rise
is the increased prosperity, and an ever-gro,ving
larger use of the national net-work of railroads.
In sixteen years, from 1891 to 1907, their gross
earnings were 500,8
0,000 francs. 2 The same
thing might be said of the other popular channels
of French investments outside of national bonds.
Legacies have risen from 4,567,000,000 francs in
1869 to 6,939,000,000 in 1907. During the pe-
riod elapsing from 1884 to 1891 the average es-
tate was 6,381 francs, and from 1899 to 1906 it
reached 7,309 francs. 3 Gauged by the assessors'
lists, which are always below the real valuation,
the national wealth has quadrupled in seventy-
five years. It was 136,000,000,000 francs in 1869
and 204,000,000,000 in 190-1. As a mattel'- of fact,
as the Comte Georges d' Avenel puts it, it is about
1 A nnuaire statistique, 1908.
2 Théry, op. cit., p. 225.
a Ibid., p. 324.
COIVIMERCE AND WEALTH 65
234,000,000,000 francs. It has increased one-
half under the Republic. 1 M. Théry reaches
nearly the same conclusion after basing his cal-
culations upon the increased values of legacies. 2
Unfortunately we know only too well that asses-
sors in every country fail to see all taxable prop-
erty, and that in view of the inheritance tax heirs
often come short of making an accurate report
of the real wealth inherited.
With the progress of wealth has also come a
better distribution of it than in most countries.
The real estate of the land is in the hands of
8,454,000 owners. There are not five persons
in France owning 25,000 acres of'land, while in
Hungary there are more than 200. One could
not find one man in France ,vith an income of
750,000 francs from land, while in Great Britain
there are at least 175. 3 'Ve have shown that
farming property is more and more ,,"idely dis-
tributed, and as the friends of large estates put
it, it is increasingly morcelée (parcelled). In the
Journal des economistes,4 Yves Guyot asserts
that there are more than nine persons in ten
who are directly or indirectly owners of real
estate. In his paper, already referred to, Le
1 Revue des Deux }rf or/des, June 1, 1906, p. 616.
20 p . cit., p. 327.
a Avenel, Les Français de mon temps, p. 260.
· July 15, 1906, p. 8.
66 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC
collectivisme futur et le socialisme présent, he
sets it at twelve-thirteenths of the population.
The same conclusion is forced upon us by the
unusually wide distribution of inheritances. 1
Those above 5,000,000 francs scarcely exceed
6 per cent of the whole. Four-fifths are made
up of small and moderate amounts.
The records of savings-banks point to the
same facts. From 1872 to 1900 the number of
depositors increased three times, and the amount
deposited five times. 2 From 2,130,000 in 1869,3
not\vithstanding stringent la\ys forbidding the
possession of two bank-books, and bringing
1 INHERITANCES IN FRÍ\NCE DURING THE YEAR 1907
NUMBER OF TOTAL OF
AMOUNT OF INHERITANCES INHERITANCES INHERITANCES
IN FRANCS
From 1 fro to 500.. . .. .. . 116,323 27,688,200
501 " 2,000. . . .. .. . 106,807 135,161,500
2,001 " 10,000....... . 114,695 562,248,100
10,001 " 50,000.. . . . . . . 7,703 532,410,900
100,001 " 250,000. .. . .. . . 5,018 776,396,200
250,001 " 500,000.. . . . . . . 1,713 602,805,800
500,001 " 1,000,000. . . . . . . . 814 579,240,200
1,000,001 " 2,000,000. . . . . . . . 360 501,585,500
2,000,001 " 5,000,000. . . . . . . . 134 389,140,600
10,000,000 " 50,000,000. . . . . . . . 7 107,405,800
Above 50,000,000. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . none
Total. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401,574 5,461,843,300
-(L'Illustration, Dec. 26, 1908.)
2 Delpech and Lamy, op. cit., p. 56.
a A nnuaire statistique.
COl\Il\iERCE AND WEALTH 67
down the maximum of deposits from 2,000 francs
to 1,500, in 1906 there were 12,462,900 bank-
books. 1 The deposits had risen from 710,000,000
francs to 4,710,000,000. It must be stated also
that ,vhile the savings-banks encourage thrift,
they have rendered a great service to the coun-
try by putting into circulation large sums ,vhich,
before the Republic, remained unproductive in
the "old stockings" of the lo,ver classes. 2
According to l\I. A. N eymarck, the people O""ll
23,000,000,000 francs worth of stocks and bonds
of the six great railroad companies of the coun-
try, and 26,000,000,000 of French rentes, held
in small quantities. 3 Pierre Leroy-Beaulieu,
author of one of the ablest books in French on
the United States,4 said in Parliament that 17,000
out of the 31,000 stockholders of the Bank of
France own only one or t,vo shares. 5 The in-
stitutions for savings have done a good educa-
tional work by teaching the people the value of
national bonds and state-guaranteed securities
as safe investments. The present state of na-
tional finance is satisfactory, not because it has
al,,"ays been guided by superior ,,"isdom-though
wisdom there has been - but because the spirit
1 Thét;y, op. cit., p. 322. 2 Théry, Ope cit., p. 294.
3 L'Illustration, Jan. 3, 1905.
· Les Etats U nis au XX e siècle.
lí Chambre des Députés, Feb. 16, 1909.
68 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC
of thrift and economy has never been more cul-
tivated or more potent.
The reactionaries may oppose the Republic,
but they should oppose it fairly, intelligently;
and this they have not done. In choosing an
issue, they have often selected the most unfa-
vourable to them, namely, the financial condition
of the land. They have circulaied fables about
the ruin of public credit, and more than once
have endeavoured to start runs upon savings-
banks. The _ finances of the Republic are not
beyond criticism - ,vhere is the government
above reproach in that respect ? Yet even here
we are forced by facts to find much that is
creditable to Republican financial administra-
tion. The Revue des Deux ltlondes, all along
a stern censor of the Republic, has been forced
to recognise that it "has mercilessly dropped any
man whose reputation was soiled with financial
intriguing either on behalf of himself or of his
relatives." The Republicans have gone to the
very bottom of the Panama corruption, and pun-
ished the offenders with a severity from which
Americans and Bri tish in similar instances have
occasionally shrunk. "
The financial legacies from the past were very
heavy. Thus the budget for 1910, as first
proposed by the Minister of Finances, amounts
COMMERCE AND WEALTH 69
to 4,027,000,000 francs; but of that 69,000,000 are
devoted to pay the pension of Catholic priests, and
for squaring accounts as well as estimates. The
sum of 1,504,000,000 represents pensions, in-
terest, and annuities on the national debt. The
largeness of this sum comes, in a great measure,
from the Franco-Prussian War, and from im-
perative national works, performed by the Re-
public, which should have been done by former
governments. Seeing the extent to which France
was backward as compared with other nations,
the Republicans attempted to regain time by
a multitude of works of national utility.
In this budget, 1,261,000,000 francs are allotted
to the army, the navy, and the work of colonial
defence. By the end of the nineteenth century,
the Republic had spent at least 25,000,000,000
francs to reorganise the military and the naval
forces of the country.1 'Vhen all the great powers
of Europe were enlarging their armaments,
France could not but act likewise. In no coun-
try were those expenses voted to such an ex-
tent under the sense of a merciless national
necessity. To the ,york of education are allowed
281,000,000 francs - a sum to curtail which
would be tantamount to creating a revolution;
304,000,000 are devoted to the important postal,
1 A. Neymarck, Trente am de finances, p. 3.
70 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC
telegraphic, and telephonic service-a sum com-
pensated for by large returns; 245,000,000 go
to public works-a small sum to keep in good
condition the extensive and perfect system of
French roads and other works of national utility.
A sum of nearly 375,000,000 is the comparatively
small amount left for other national services. 1
The number of functionaries has increased,
but the state machinery does a national ,,"ork
several times larger. The improvements that
were made and the new tasks performed de-
manded a new and a larger civil service. Hence
the increase of public officials for '\vhich Repub-
licans have been so, constantly taken to task. 2
1 Le Temps, Sept. 8, 1909.
2 In a village well known to the writer, a village whose population
has scarcely varied since 1870, there were then four teachers and
one of them was town clerk; now there are twelve, not to speak of
two secularized nuns in the parochial school. The village has a regu-
lar town clerk, who is also librarian. Under the Republic an import-
ant highway service was created. This demanded the employment
of several men for repairs. A letter-carrier then spent three or four
hours a day to distribute a score or two of letters, and once a week
a dozen weekly papers. Now there is a regular post-office, with a
savings department, telegraph and telephone with three resident
women employees, not to speak of several letter-carriers who dis-
tribute letters and papers in as large a quantity as they would in a
busy American town of the same size. Money-orders, which under
the Empire could be sent only from the chef lieu de canffJ...n, are very
numerous at this office, as there is no bank in the community. The
telegraph and the telephone do a large business, while the Ravings-
bank department has become quite important. The two gardes
champêtres have scarcely changed their functions. This remarkable
increase of service entailed a corresponding increase in the number
of employees.
COl\I:\IERCE AND 'VEALTII 71
Such being the case, there is nothing abnormal
either in the s,velling of the number of public
servants from 285,000 in 1873 to 440,000 in 1906,
or in the increment of expense from 340,000,000
to 700,000,000 francs.!
Taxation has naturally increased at pretty
nearly the same rate as ,vealth. In a paper be-
fore the Société d' économie politique of Paris
I.
Neymarck has shown that the cost of collecting
the taxes has diminished ,vhile the methods have
grown gentler. 2 Again, the Budget had to be in-
creased so as to compensate for services formerly
paid by the public, but now free.. Under the
Empire a fee ,vas required in most of the com-
mon schools. Taxes have been removed from
salt, soap, oils, paper, and hygienic drinks. Let-
ter postage has been reduced from five to two
cents. There has been a similar reduction for
registered letters, money-orders, telegrams, and
other postal services. Newspapers have bene-
fited from an even greater diminution of rates.
Express packages and judiciary formalities have
been favoured in a similar manner.
Furthermore, French legislators have distrib-
uted taxes more equitably. But the tendency of
recent years has been to tax revenue with cumu-
lative rates and to proportion the tax to the
1 Le Siècle, l\Iay 30, 1909.
2 L'Illustration, l\Iay 25, 1901.
72 FRANCE UNDER TIlE REPUBLIC
ability to meet it. After considering all the ex-
tenuating circumstances for congested budgets,
there is no hiding of the fact that Socialists have
been singularly indifferent to sound finance.
There is further the depressing fact that the
national debt is increasing and that in 1905 it
had reached 30,460,000,000 francs. 1 Parallel
,vith this is the reassuring consideration that pub-
lic confidence has gro\vn ,vith the debt, as we may
see from the gradual decrease of interest. French
rentes, bonds, yielded 5.4 per cent of interest in
1872, 3.55 in 1890, and 2.98 in 1901. In June,
1871, 3 per cent bonds were quoted at 53.8, and
on November 30,
901, at 101 francs. 2 Even
during the panic of 1907 they never fell below
95 francs.
But why is it that the Republic can borrow
money at such low rates when the national debt
is increasing? Is it because of blind patriotic
feelings? In the first place, the people kn()\v
that, when an expense is incurred, the budget
makes provisions for its payment; that much
of the national debt was contracted by measures
of utility which will increase the people's wealth
and revenue, and that, \vhatever befalls, the
1 The Statesman's Year Book, 1907.
2 N eymarck, Paper read before the Société d' éco?Wmie politique;
Treme années financières; and Annuaire statistÜjue.
COMMERCE AND WEALTH 73
nation always pays its debts. This was seen
at the beginning. of the Republic, when some
politicians proposed not to honour the loan
which Gambetta had secured \vithout adequate
warrant during the war. The members of the
Assembly set aside the question of legal form,
and asked if the funds had been used for the
country. The affirmative ans,ver ,vas at once
follo,ved with the order to pay. There is also
the fact that before many years the French peo-
ple ,viII come into possession of the greater part
of the railroads of the country. In case the
government ,vishes to sell them, then the ,vhole
would more than cancel the national obligations;
and if it preferred to operate them, they would
remain good collateral assets. Again, an
im-
portant feature of this debt, which makes it dis-
tinct from that of some European powers, is that
it is held by Frenchmen. The interest paid does
not drain the country of so much, but goes to
multitudes of citizens ,vho thereby feel more
solicitude for the good order and prosperity of
the country. The coupons of French rentes are
statical forces on the side of good government.
CHAPTER IV
THE NEW EDUCATION IN THE NEW
LIFE
I T is in the realm of education that we see
the greatest and the most abiding changes
under the Republic. People have become
enthusiastic in this direction. The old pious
doctrine of the social utility of ignorance has
been relegated to the domain of mischievous
superstitions. Nothing is further from popular
anxiety than Renan's fear of "the day for hu-
man society when light has penetrated into all
its strata." 1 After the Franco-Prussian 'Var
Frenchmen ,,"ere directed by the thought that it
was" the school-teacher who had won at Sedan,"
and that it was by education that France could
regain her position in the world.
Led by this conviction the nation shrank from
'"
no sacrifice. Beautiful school-houses, spitefully
called palais scola ires by the reactionaries,
have been erected in the villages, lycées and
1 Discours et conférences, 1887, p. 229.
74
EDUCATION IN THE NEW LIFE 75
college buildings in the cities. At one session,
on July 3, 1880, after extensive study of the
question, the Parliament voted that twenty-seven
lyeées be built.t In important centres fine edi-
fices have been constructed for higher education.
Twenty-five thousand school-houses have been
built or rebuilt, to which were devoted no less
than 800,000,000 francs. 2 From 1875 to 1905 the
number of primary schools increased from 71,-
000 to 81,000, the number of teachers from 110,-
000 to 151,000, and the pupils from 4,716,000 to
5,568,000. 3 In thirty-three years the illiterate
have fallen from 56,116 to 11,044. . The day of
dirty school-houses and of giving children differ-
ent instruction according to their poverty or
wealth is gone. 4 There is no longer the bane
des pauvres and the bane des riches, as they
existed in some towns. Attendance at school has
been made compulsory and tuition free.
The Republic recognises the birthright of
every child to a common education, and every-
thing is done for him to have it. If he is pre-
vented from attending school because he is
shoeless or because he has inadequate food, the
to\vn is bound to provide the imperative needs.
1 Rambaud, Jules Ferry, p. 166.
2 Delpech and Lamy, op. cit., p. 21.
a A nnuaire statistique.
4 Rambaud, Jules Ferry, p. 144.
76 FRANCE UNDER TIlE REPUBLIC
The State more and more compels parents to
send their children to school, and society to pro-
vide for their most essential wants. l\S a good
many children remained outside of this educa-
tion because of their mental deficiencies, the
government provided for the special instruction
of abnormal and backward pupils.
The teaching itself, but imperfectly accessible
to the masses under the Empire, has been raised,
from scant ability to read and write, a little
arithmetic, history, and the catechism, to a
standard equal to the best in any country. The
branches taught are morals and civics, read-
ing and writing Fr
nch, elements of French
literature, geography, history, elementary prin-
ciples of la,v and of political economy, dra,ving,
modelling, music. 1 An important innovation is
that of l' art à l' école,2 or art teaching in com-
mon schools, whereby is cultivated the love of
beauty so especially needed by the masses. The
moral teaching, which we discuss at length
elsewhere,s exerts a strong influence upon the
population. The schools have been made un-
1 V uibert, A nnuaire de 10, jeunesse. ,
2 An interesting society, Société nationa1e de ['art à l'éco1e, is doing
much for this valuable training. Its programme is: "L'école saine,
aérée, rationellement construite et meublée, attrayame et ornée. F or-
mation du gout par 1e décor; initiation de l' enfant à 10, beauté des
lignes, des cou1eurs, des formes, des mouvements, et des sons."
See chapter XI.
EDUCATION IN THE NEW LIFE 77
sectarian, but not godless, as affirmed in the de-
nunciatory reports of the clergy, for ,,,,horn a god-
less school is one in which they do not rule.
This education also has been so decidedly
differentiated as to adapt it better to the prac-
tical every-day life of French youth. There
have been opened schools of apprenticeship, nor-
mal schools of cutting and fitting for girls, im-
portant professional schools. 1 There have been
founded or transformed more than three hundred
schools of design and decorative art. In Paris
these schools contribute greatly to the superi-
ority of taste and form visible in most of the
fine goods made in that city. In many places
the technical character of the schools is de-
termined by local industries. In Roubaix the
institution is correlated with ,,,,eaving, in Åubus-
son (Creuze) with tapestry, in Limoges with
ceramics, in Nice with domestic decorations, in
Rennes ,vith sculpture, and in Calais ,,"ith lace.
l\iore than 100,000 pupils attend these schools. 2
The secondary schools have not undergone
such a profound transformation as the others,
but, as a ""hole, they have never been better nor
more numerous. The pupils have increased
1 Rambaud, Jules Ferry, p. 160. See also New England i\faga-
zine, July, 1900, p. 588, "'Vhat France does for Education."
2 Trouillot, Pour l'idée laïque, p. 253.
78 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC
from 129,000 to 193,000. 1 'The military and the
monastic spirit, so prominent in them under the
Empire, has lost much of its power. Eleven
years ago the proviseur of one of the finest lycées
in Paris told the writer that he, the proviseur,
was in his institution like a colonel at the head
of his regiment. No Paris lycée director ,vould
use such language now. The monachal ten-
dency to isolate the pupil from home and soci-
ety is growing less. The former antithesis be-
tween school- and life is melting away before
pedagogic intelligence, and the school tends to
become life. The best school is not only the
one in which the stud
nts stand high at exami
a-
tions, but the one in which they lead the best
life.
This desire to bring education closer to life
has led educators to recast their methods with
results disappointing to many, but above all to
reformers. As most of these reformers were state
professors, it followed that they were the sever-
est censors of their own work. The representa-
tives of sectarian institutions 2 find their own
schools perfect, but this only shows the greater
independence and the higher pedagogical ideals
of the secular masters. The curricula, without
1 A nnuaire statistique.
a See Du Lac (R. P.), Jésuites, p. 227.
EDUCATION IN THE NE'V LIFE 79
breaking all connection ,vith Latin and Greek,
have been thoroughly modernised, and German,
as ,veIl as English, has no, v an important place.
Recognising the disciplinary and cultural value
of the ancient classical languages, educators
have made it possible for students prepared in
modern languages to acquire the others in the
latter part of their course. Sciences have a
place that is ever gro,ving. Philosophy, which
""as scarcely taught at all during the Empire,
is required for all complete secondary studies.
"Thile much has been done for young men in
this particular field, a new era has also been
opened for young women. Some nòble attempts
to provide higher education for them by l\Iinister
Duruy had relatively failed, because of the op-
position of the bishops. Jules Ferry placed the
whole matter upon a broad educational basis. 1
This movement has now acquired considerable
momentum. The reasonableness of the higher
education of women is so thoroughly accepted
that no one discusses it no,v, and its former op-
ponents impart it in their own institutions. In
1 When the question was debated in Parliament amidst the un-
reasonable opposition of conservatives, Ferry spoke of women
who asked him the questions: "But what is the use of all this learn-
ing? What is it for? . . ." He continued: "I could answer,
4 To raise your children,' and it would be a good answer, though
trivial, but I prefer to say, 'To raise your husbands.'" (Rambaud,
Jules Ferry, p. 135.)
80 FRANCE UNDER TI-IE REPUBLIC
1881 there were but few secondary schools for
women; in 1906 there were 41 lycées and 68
other institutions giving to women a partial
secondary education. The attendance has in-
creased from 4,500 to 32,500. In 1909 3,500
young women had matriculated in the universi-
ties of the land. 1 Meanwhile it was recognised
that women would be efficient for the moral
teaching of boys.2 Numerous schools for
women were created to prepare an able corps
of primary teachers, and one was established at
Sèvres to give the professors of secondary insti-
tutions for girls the high training which they
need. In speaking
f this institution we must
put away from our thought the peculiar educa-
tion associated with normal schools in this
country. Sèvres lacks only the classics to make
its work the be
t given to women anywhere.
Only candidates of great ability, recruited from
all parts of France, may be admitted into the
institution after the severest tests. It is not a
common distinction to be a Sévrienne.
We must, perhaps, look to the realm of su-
perior education for the most marked advance.
Freed from the clerical interference which was
formerly a disturbing force at every point, it is
1 Le Siècle, March 30, 1909.
2 l,'éducation morale dans l'université, 1901, p. 73.
EDUCATION IN THE NE'V LIFE 81
conducted by a large body of men who have done
extensive scientific research or ,yon a command-
ing position in scientific teaching. There are,
first of all, the faculties doing graduate work.
In thirteen years, from 1876 to 1889, the number
of chairs has risen from 625 to 1,211, the num-
ber of medical students from 3,868 to 6,455, the
scientific students from 121 to 1,355, and the
advanced students of letters from 188 to 2,358. 1
From 1876 to 1906 the total number of students
has sprung from 6,000 to 35,670. 2 From 1871
to 1905 the number of degerees of all kinds in-
creased from 8,936 to 11,900 annually. The
degrees of doctor of medicine rose' from 308 to
1,101, and those of doctor of letters, doctor of
science, and doctor of la,v, from 73 to 560.
There can be no better index of the progress of
superior studies under the Republic.
In attaining these results the municipalities
have united ",.ith the State, which, in this ,york,
has been nobly sustained by the nation. In
1907 the municipal council of Paris voted to
support nine chairs of higher learning in the
city, to say nothing of other encouragements
given to different forms of scientific work. Other
cities have voted important sums to encourage
1 Rambaud, Jules Ferry, p. 176.
2 Delpech and Lamy, op. cit., p. 25, and Annuaire statistique.
82 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC
local universities. Individuals have come for-
ward with generous gifts, ,vhile the Parliament
bas been most constant in its liberal support.
New institutions have been created, some of
which constitute absolutely new departures, such
as the Practical School of High Studies of the
Sorbonne, the Sèvres School for "
omen, the
School of High Social Studies, the College of
Social Sciences, the School of the Louvre, the
Thiers Foundation, the National Agronomic In-
stitute, the Colonial School, the School of
Physics and Industrial Chemistry, the Pasteur
Institute of Paris, the Pasteur Institute of LiIIe,
the Free School of Political Sciences, the Social
1\Iuseum, the Pedagogical l\Iuseum, the School
of Anthropology, the School of High Commercial
Studies, etc. Even in Algiers institutions have
been founded with the vie,v of making there,
sooner or later, a great African university and
a great African academy. A law was passed
during the last days of 1889 to create this uni-
versity. By the side of the celebrated French
art schools of Rome, and of Athens, there ,vere
established schools of history and of archæ-
ology, not to speak of kindred institutions at
Cairo, in Indo-China, or in Tunis.
One of the most fruitful steps for the advance
of higher learning has been the enlargement of
EDUCATION IN THE NE'V LIFE 83
the National Library with greatly increased facil-
ities of research. The museums of Paris and,
to some extent, of the provinces, have been in-
creased and multiplied. The Louvre has been
enriched by grants from the government, by the
co-operation of the Société des amis du Louvre,
and by large gifts of individuals. The legacy
of the late l\I. Chauchard will attain a value of
at least 40,000,000 francs. Individuals have cre-
ated the establishments kno,vn as the Cernushi,
Guimet, de Caen, GaIIiera, and Gustave l\Ioreau
museums. Recently ,vas founded the l\Iuseum
of Decorative Arts. Dutuit gave a collection
worth many millions which, elsewhere than in
Paris, would be called a museum. Broca left
materials for the :NIuseum of Anthropology, and
Count de Chambrun made possible the accumu-
lation of data bearing upon the social question at
the Social l\Iuseum. Equally important is the
Pedagogic J\tIuseum, where are centred all data
needed by teachers. To the number of these
institutions should be added the
Iuseum of
Comparative Sculpture, the l\Iuseum of Ethnog-
raphy, the Carnavalet l\Iuseum, the Colonial
l\iuseum, the Artillery l\iuseum, the Museum of
the Palace of Justice, etc. All these, in their
own way, are potent agencies of national edu-
cation.
84 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC
Paris has not been alone in this direction, for
museums have sprung up everywhere in large
centres. The Guimet Museum, a museum of the
religions of the Far East, was started in Lyons,
though later on transported to Paris. In ArIes,
the poet Mistral founded the Arlesian Museum,
devoted to relics and mementos of Provençal
life. A local society interested in its provincial
past founded the admirable museum, the Vieux-
IIonßeur,t in Honßeur. In Bayonne was in-
augurated the Musée Bonnat. M. Hector-De-
passe organised the Société du musée cantonal de
Fresnay-sur-Sarthe. M. Jules Lambart insti-
tuted also a museuITI; in Doullens (Somme). It
would be tedious to mention all that has been
done both by individuals and by the govern-
ment, in creating these foundations, instructive
by \vhat they contain as well as by the educa-
tion
work done in iliem.
Among the most important agencies have been
those of laboratories, to which we refer more
fully later on, of scientific missions, of explora-
tions in connection with the Ministry of Public
Instruction. An achievement second to none
has been the revival of old universities, and the
creation of new ones. This is bound to raise the
general level of life all over the country. It is
I La Revue, Sept. 25, 1909.
EDUCATION IN THE NEW LIFE 85
also a step forward in the direction of educa-
tional decentralisation so much needed, a step
in keeping ,vith the new 
