struction of France. Mr. Walling says: "The French project is perhaps the first reconstruction plan the world has seen which rests upon economic and not upon political democracy. It aims frankly to bring about by gradual and by peaceful means the substitution of industrial democracy in place of the present political state and the control of that state by private or capitalistic interests."

The new project consists not in a program of reforms but in a new method of evolving such a program. Let the C. G. T. speak for itself:

"The C. G. T., representing organized labor, examined the general problems that confronted the country immediately after the armistice and pointed out in a general way the solution of these problems through a National Economic Council.

"To its proposition to create this National Economic Council with the duty of confronting these difficult and essential problems the government replied only by offering to enact a grotesque caricature of the project. The General Confederation of Labor then decided itself to constitute an Economic Council of Labor.

"The C. G. T. intends to have recourse to the new form of organization and to introduce, by new methods, a changed direction into the entire economic activity of the country.

"In order to assure to the organism which it has created the necessary maximum of competency and authority, the C. G. T. has appealed to the following organizations of consumers and technicians, all of which have agreed to give it their undivided support:

"National Federation of Co-operatives;

"National Federation of Government Employees and Functionaries.

"Union of Technicians of Industry, Commerce and Agriculture.

"The Economic Council of Labor thus constituted is placed under the protection of the C. G. T. The end pursued is to contribute to economic reconstruction by means of practical principles aimed solely at the common good and giving to labor a just share in the management and control of production and distribution.

"Such work cannot be the result of fragmentary studies and discontinuous efforts."

Hence the establishment of this permanent council.

Most remarkable in this new plan is the appeal to "the common good" and not to the "class struggle." French labor here repudiated not only the Bolshevism which now completely dominates the French Socialist Party but also the whole Marxist "class struggle" dogma which underlies the entire political Socialist movement of Continental Europe and America. Undoubtedly the C. G. T. would still claim that it adheres to the "class struggle" but its new interpretation converts that doctrine into industrial democracy.

The C. T. G. then proceeds to throw over a second reactionary dogma of orthodox Marxism the proposition that the problem of production is now solved and that only the problem of a more equal distribution remains.

On the contrary, the French labor unions base their new project primarily on the proposition that the problem of production is not solved and that the present government and capitalistic methods cannot solve it. Therefore the new project. Let us again give the floor to the C. G. T.:

"The salvation of industry demands organization for increased production. This organization for increased production can only be realized by appealing for the help of (1) those who are participating in production itself, workingmen and the technical and managerial staff; (2) those who have, or rather should have, as their professional task the co-ordination of various activities the government functionaries and employees, and (3) finally, those who represent the interests of the consumers the co-operators. "Increased production is possible only under two conditions:

"First, it must be organized in such a way that the natural resources, the capacities of the people, the mechanical equipment of industry and the instrumentalities of exchange shall be exploited to the full, and that everybody shall participate in the labor which produces the objects necessary to the life of the individual and of society.

"Second, it is necessary that the producers, whose interests have been hitherto denied or not fully recog

nized, should have the certainty that their labor is for the benefit of all society and not for the benefit of private interests.

"In adopting the principle of industrialized nationalization the Economic Council of Labor does not by any means intend to perpetuate or to strengthen the present tendency toward governmentalism which has done practically nothing to justify the hopes that have been placed upon it.

"The nationalization which the labor movement demands consists in putting into the hands of the combined producers and consumers the means of production and exchange of which they have been dispossessed to the profit of a few." What are prospects that the plan of French Labor will receive a fair hearing and perhaps a fair trial?

These prospects are excellent because of the fact that France is in a more difficult economic position than any other country of western Europe and also because of the fact that the gov ernment has offered no plan whatever for dealing effectively with the situation.

The C. G. T. believes that France is headed towards bankruptcy and that the government has devised no method to save the country.

"A year after the end of hostilities there has been no improvement in the economic situation of the country. The continued rise in the cost of living is in itself a sufficient barometer of the disorder throughout the industry of any country. No measure has been proposed which might even be conceived as promising to put an end to this disorder; and to face the terrible financial burdens of France, the only plan devised by the government is the endless issue of banknotes. No general plan for industrial reconstruction has been devised and there has been no serious effort to put an end to speculation and to tax the scandalous profiteering that continues in France (as in other countries)." French Labor is aware that its project, though constructive and democratic, is also revolutionary.

"The organizations of producers and consumers which compose the new council, have weighed the immensity of the task to be accomplished. The new order must arise out of the disorder of the regime that is passing away.

To disarm the State while making it evolve towards the time when it will no longer be anything more than the representative of the collective organizations of production and distribution to take away from the hands of capital the direction of industry such is the work to be accomplished."

The ultimate aim of the C. G. T. plan for social reconstruction may be revolutionary. The method proposed is evolutionary. The government is not to be overthrown; on the contrary, it is to be made to evolve towards that time when it will meet the requirements of industrial democracy.

The new project of the C. G. T. is to be compared with the constructive plans of British labor unions.

A slight amendment to Mr. Walling's comparison between the plans of French and British would be that the French plan is far more like that of the National guilds of Great Britain than that of the trade unions.

The official point of view of the American Socialist party as to the attitude of French Socialists is expressed in the following statement in the American Labor Year Book for 1919-20.

FRENCH SOCIALISM DURING THE WAR

"In France as in other European countries Socialism passed through a profound crisis during the war. But in France the crisis was more serious than elsewhere, because from the morrow of the declaration of war the abdication of the French Socialist Party was complete, and it was only after long tenacious efforts on the part of obscure party members that French Socialism returned to the principles and tactics of opposition to the war, class struggle, internationalism and revolution.

"A few months before the outbreak of the war, in May, 1914, the party won a great victory at the legislative elections, receiving some 1,400,000 votes and electing 100 deputies. The party had at that time 72,000 dues-paying members, and its daily paper, “L'Humanité," printed 150,000 copies daily.

"The assassination of Juares and the declaration of war were two mortal blows for the party. The deputies and leaders of the party could not or dared not resist the wave of chauvinism. The parliamentary group voted the military credits without discussion, accorded unlimited confidence to the bourgeois government, and joined the "Union Sacrée" (political truce), thus

disavowing its political past and renouncing Socialism. Two Socialist deputies, Jules and Marcel Sembat, entered on August 28, 1914, the bourgeois ministry.

"To justify their attitude the Socialist leaders invoked the "national defense theory." They declared that France had been attacked by Germany and that Socialists should participate in a war of defense, help defeat imperialist Germany, abolish Prussian militarism and establish a just and democratic peace.

"This treason of the Socialist leaders led to the collapse of the entire party. Those who remained clear-visioned and faithful to Socialism could not make their voices heard; all civil liberties were suppressed, meetings were forbidden, the censor blanked in the newspapers every expression of a point of view different from the official and governmental view of the war.

"The party, most of whose members were mobilized, had lost its best forces. The locals and federations no longer met. Political life was suspended. For a year it was a veritable eclipse of Socialism.

"Toward the middle of 1915, when the majority of the party was increasing its responsibilities by approving the entry of Albert Thomas into the ministry (May 22, 1915) and subscribing to the policy of the capitalist rulers, Socialist and trade union men began to raise their voices in protest.

"The locals began to meet again, letters from the front told of the sufferings of the combatants and revealed the horror of the massacres, the mistakes of the generals, the horrible waste of every kind. Discontent increased, the spirit of criticism reawoke. The flag of opposition was raised in the party by the Federation of the Haute-Vienne which in June sent to the other federations of the party a circular letter calling attention to the attitude of Liebknecht and his friends in Germany, recalling the decisions of the international congresses, and proposing to take advantage of any opportunity for peace.

"The spirit of opposition grew in the ranks of the party. A group of Russian Socialists, among them Leon Trotzky, sustained the international elements and helped their propaganda. Bourderon, Loriot, Rappoport, Louis Saumonneau, were the spokesmen of the Extreme Left. Longuet, Pressemane, Mistral, Mayeras, Verfeuil, Delepine, Frossard, Maurin, and others were the spokesmen of the more moderate Left which was forming.

"The Zimmerwald Conference with German and other Social