criminal association capable of checkmating the Conservatives.
At the time of the Empire the Government had tried to manipulate the benefit societies in such a way as to control the employes and a section of the artisans. Later on, it believed it might be possible to find, in the workmen's associations, a weapon with which it might be capable of ruining the authority which the Liberal party had with the people, and terrorising the rich classes, who had obstinately opposed the Government since 1863. Waldeck-Rousseau was inspired by these examples and hoped to organise among the workmen a hierarchy under the direction of the police.[1]
In a circular of August 25, 1884, Waldeck-Rousseau explained to the prefects that they ought not to confine themselves to their too limited function of enforcing respect for the law; they must stimulate the spirit of association and "smooth away the difficulties which were bound to arise from inexperience and lack of practice in this new liberty," their task would be so much the more useful and important if they succeeded in inspiring greater confidence in the workmen; in diplomatic terms the Minister advised them to undertake the moral leadership of the Syndicalist movement.[2] "Although the Government is not obliged by the law of 1884 to take any part in the search for the solutions of the great economic and social problems, it cannot be indifferent to them, and I am convinced that it is its duty to participate and to put its services and zeal at the disposal of all the parties
- ↑ I have pointed this out in the Ère nouvelle, March 1894, p. 339.
- ↑ According to the Socialist deputy, Marius Devèze, the Prefect du Gard undertook this leadership of the Syndicalist movement under the minister Combes (Études socialistes, p. 323). I find in the France du Sud-Ouest (January 25, 1904) a notice announcing that the Prefect of La Manche, delegated by the Government, together with the under-prefect, the mayor, and the municipality, officially inaugurated the Bourse du Travail at Cherbourg.
