STATE WORKSHOPS.

New Zealand Times, Volume LVI, Issue 2213, 23 May 1894, Page 3

STATE WORKSHOPS.

TO THE EDITOR.

Sib, —The cry is being raised in Now Zealand for a State workshop. Tho experiment has been tried once, and tho result was enormous waste of money and the slaughter of thousands of people. Surely those who are now raising tho cry mffst bo ignorant of French history. Let mo quote k passage from the story of tho second Republic. It ted cmly been in existence three days when, ‘''The Socialists

insisted that it is tho duty of a Republic to provide employment for every citizen requiring it. This doctrine was embodied in a decree of February 27th, 18-18 (carried in spite of the earnest remonstrances of M- Lamartine) announcing tho Organization (lit 'lkatictiil and tho Institution of National WofkshOps, in which all applicants wero to gain a fait remuneration for their labour at tho expense of tho State. The rate of payment offered to the Workman was at first five francs (four shillings) a day. This was reduced by degrees to two francs, ono franc and a half, and at last to eight francs per week. By the bogirinin# of March no less than 40,000 individuals' wore Maintained in those shops. Official reports showed that from March 9 to June 15 alone the expenditure amounted to no less than .£567,000! Then an' indignant outcry arose against tho absurd aUlierS nationaux. It was evident to all reasonable persons that the enterprise was a gigantic and ruinous mistake, but it was also evident that the error could not be repaired except at tho expense of a renewed and calamitous civil strife. A decree of the Assembly on June 22nd ordered a certain number of tho workmen to enrol themselves in tho army ; in case of refusal they wero no longer to be received in the shops. The consequence was a terrible and sanguinary insurrection of tho operatives on tho 22nd and Several following days. On tho 24th Paris was declared in a stato of siego.- No less than eleven generals were killed Or wounded, and on the 27th the venerable Archbishop of Paris, Monsignor A'l'ro, lost his life by a random shot from the barricade on the Place de la Bastille while endoavouringto interpose his mediation to put an ond to the frightful carnage. Still the Anarchists fought on with desperate courage j and it was not till the 28th, when tho last barricade «f the Faubourg and St. Antoine had been stormed and destroyed by the troops, that they at length surrendered unconditionally, and the triumph of tho friends of order was complete. On tho 4th of July a decree was issued in very concise and peremptory terms suppressing altogether tho national workshops. It was submitted to In silence. The apostles of Socialism, after Inundating Paris with tho blood of thousands of her citizens, wero for the moment thoroughly cowed and prostrated/’ Another authority says, " The national losses caused by this outbreak were estimated at £1,200,0CX); 1(1,000 persons wore killed and wounded, and 8000 prisoners taken.” This occurred less than 50 years. With such an example before us will the present agitation bo persisted in ?—I am, &0., . A.H.W.