[7] See Vme Congrès Général des Organisations Socialistes Français tenu à Paris du 3 au 8 Décembre. Compte-rendu sténographique officiel, 1900, p. 154 ff.
[8] A partial report of the debate of the Bordeaux congress is given in Ensor's Modern Socialism, pp. 163-184.
[9] See A. Lavy, L'Œuvre de Millerand, Paris, 1902, a sympathetic account of his work; contains also extracts from his speeches and state papers.
[10] See the Contemporary Review, August, 1906, for a brief abstract of this debate.
[11] One of the first laws passed with the aid of the Socialist vote was the "day of rest" law, commanding one day of the week as a day of rest. It met the obstinate opposition of the Conservatives. The operation of the law is of interest, and instructive. The workmen naturally rejoiced over this increased leisure. The employers, on the other hand, found themselves paying wages for hours in which no service was rendered. They lowered the wages; the workmen resisted. Finally the law was so amended as virtually to annul its effect, in certain trades. The Socialists became irritated to the verge of breaking their entente with the Radicals.
[12] Proceedings Chamber of Deputies, March 19, 1909.
[13] During this agitation the teachers of the public schools, who had formed a great number of associations, joined in the demand of the Syndicalists. One of their number who had signed a vitriolic circular was dismissed by M. Briand, the Minister of Education, and for a time a strike of schoolmasters was threatened, but it did not materialize.
[14] L'Humanité is the leading Socialist daily of Paris. Briand had written editorials for it in his "red" days.
[15] These sections declare that the employment, or abetting or instigating the employment, of any means of stopping or impeding railway traffic is a crime; and if it has been planned at a seditious meeting, the instigators are as liable to punishment as the authors of the crime, even if they did not intend to provoke the destruction of railway property. The penalties imposed are very severe.
[16] Placards displayed the bitterness of the men. "For our vengeance Briand will suffice" was read on the walls under flaming posters that quoted fiery sentences from Briand's earlier speeches.