“PROGRAMME OF THE PEOPLE.
“A man with a heart,—a man greatly loved by the working classes, has lent his hand to the formation of a programme dictated by the popular will. The ideas on which it rests, treated as utopian yesterday, have no need to be discussed to-day. The last Revolution is an explosion of light which has dissipated the darkness. The Socialist ideas railed at yesterday, accepted to-day, will be realised to-morrow. Its principles are,—
“I. The rights of labour.—It is the duty of the state to furnish employment, and if necessary a minimum of wages, to all the members of society whom private industry does not employ.
“II. House of refuge for industry.
“III. Despotism must be for ever disarmed by the transformation of the army into industrial regiments, (en regiments industriels,) suited alike to the defence of the territory and the execution of the great works of the Republic.
“IV. Public education, equal, gratuitous, and obligatory upon all.
“V. Savings’ banks (caisses d’épargne) which keep capital dead, shall be vivified by labour: the people who produce all riches can afford to be their own bankers.
“VI. A universal reform of law courts, juries every where.
“VII. Absolute freedom of communications of thought.
“VIII. A progressive scale of taxation.
“IX. A progressional tax on machinery employed in industry.
“X. An effectual guarantee for a fair division of profits between the capitalists and the workmen.
“XI. A tax on luxury.
“XII. Universal suffrage.
“XIII. A national assembly.
“XIV. Annual elections by all.
“Vive la Republique!
Gardons nos armes!”[[4]]
To carry out these principles, they propose a general centralisation of all undertakings in the hands of government, to be brought under the direct control of a simple majority of universal suffrage electors. In the same journal we find the following proposals:—