REVOLUTION, September 17.
Recent letters from our Paris correspondent have given accounts ofa series of labour disturbances in and about the French capital which mark a notable epoch in the history of labour organization. There have been more sanguinary riots than those which sprang, in the last days of July, from' the trumpery little dispute of Ville-nerve St. Georges and Corbeil but none that have more completely: illustrated the weakness of the aggressive section of trade unionism. To recapitulate briefly the course of events, it will be remembered that the dispute at Vil ye St. Georges (a small town a few miles south-east of Paris) was followed by the declaration of a twenty-four hours' general strike in the building trade, the members of which were called upon to march out and demonstrate in sympathy with their comrades at the sandpits. The inevitable conflict with the military took place; and three rioters were killed, although the soldiers behaved with the greatest self-restraint before bitter and unprovoked attacks. The whole demonstration had been stirred up, as others had been before it, by the General Confederation of Labour: and the Government, moved beyond endurance, stretched out its hand and arrested the bulk of the Confederation's managing officials. A new set was promptly elected and the Confederation declared a universal strike, as a sure and swift means of cowing authority into submission before the mighty forces of organized and united workers. Unfortunately for the Confederation's self-respect, the workers proved to be united only in their absolute refusal to obey the summons. None of the most important unions came out. Even the precautions taken by the Government to guard against mob violence were scarcely wanted. The universal strike was a triumphant failure.
Tt does not appear that the ordinary Parisian public was much alarmed by the prospective strike. Such threats had been made before without great results. Even the
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