Tu a Paris suburb, about twenty years ago, some workmen of atrongly Socialist opinions clubbed together to buy a piece of ground on which they could erect simple dwellings for themselves and their famil-fes.and be preserved from the. exactions of capitalistic landlords. Foreseeing the possibility that their experiment in ce-operation might. be spoiled and thwarted by the lure money, they all signed an agree-merit by which they bound themselves not to sell their shares. for more than the purchase price, which was only Frs, 240 per square metre, The original owners. still are in possession, but harmony Tonger reigns among them, The: market value of the land has risen more than tenfold; it is now in the neighbourhood of Frs, 80 per metre, and. this economic fact, whicl, is proof against all the theories in the world, has greatly modified the views of some of the proletarian proprietors. 'They want to sell out, while others, who stick to their principles, will not hear of any sal 'The would-be sellers, who noi see no reason why' the should be deprived of an' accretion in value (although they can hardly claim to have contributed thereto) find themselves obliged, no doubt. much against their politico pyineiples, to apply to a bourgeois court of justice for permission to cancel the agreement. No doubt they will plead that it is contrary to public policy. Tt would be rather piquant to find the aforesaid bourgeois justice upholding the "pure" Socialists who are standing out for the sanct ity of Jegal undertakings,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.