Paris, Feb, 14. (Delayed in Transmission)
The French Parliament is eng ed in the curious task of rebuilding a ples of ta own machlonry sod trying to discover how people can best be made provident in spite of themselves. In 1928 it passed what is called the Social Insurance Act, designed to protect the working classes against the consequences of sickness, accident, infirmity and old age. The main idea was that every wage-earner should et aside] 5 per cent. of his or her wage the employer contributing a similar amount,+so as to form a fund out of which the cost of medicines medical attendance, doles, pension and 10 on could be met, with the assistance of the State, which was. to cover any deficit. The details, were left to the Government departments concerned, with instructions to draw up a" complete set of regulations which were to be considered as forming part of the Act. This measure was put through rather hurriedly, at the end of a session. It attracted little attention at the time and was soon forgotten by the public, The Burden of Industry 'The departments put their heads together and produced a most elaborate code, which, under a clause in the Act, was to take effect ten months after' publication, thnt is to say, on February 5, 1930. Few people took the trouble to wade through the regulations, which contained about 250 clauses, until was reported that officials of the Labour Ministry were negotiating for the purchase of large buildings to be used 28 offices for administering the Act, and it was at Inst realized that' the country was com: mitted to-a colossal social experi-tment leading to a large capital outlay and the employment of thousands of functionaries. Tt was also discovered that several hundred expensive calculating machines had been ordered from American makers and were being warehoused in Paris because no department would accept the responsibility of taking delivery.
the economical instincts of the French people were aroused, and a storm of criticism was directed st the scheme. It was pointed out that work of the same kind was already being done at very tle cost by the friendly societies, which have an elaborate organization throughout the country, and that it was quite unnecessary to create another Government department, The Bureaucrat's Chance A. still graver objection is the burden which the measure would place on industry. A small manufacturer employing, let is say, 100 men at an average wage of Frs. 1,000 a month, or Frs. 12,000 a year, would have to set aside 5 er cent, of Frs. 1,200,000, that is to say, Frs. 60,000 a year. He would be obliged fo add this amount to his costs of production, with the inevitable result that the prices of manufactured goods would rise, thus adding to the already high least of living and reducing the ability of the French manufacturer, to compete in foreign markets. A very objectionable feature of the measure is that it makes the employer responsible for the: contribu-. tions. If the employee refuses to' accept the deduction of 5 per cent. from the wages, the employer must cither pay it himself or break with his employee, The amount of friction that will follow can' be. readily imagined, Rarely has any Act of Parliament created so much confusion and irritation. Half-a-dozen amending, ills have been drafted, and the Senate is now trying to straighten out the tangle. To keep the supporters of the Left quiet, Tardieu has pledged himself to put: some form of social insurance into operation before July 1, in the hope, no doubt, that some workable scheme will be' devised before then, The Defence of Indo-China The anti-Bolshevik feeling induce ed in Paris by the mysterious disappearance of General Koutepoff, whose fate is still a mystery, has been stimulated by the news of the mutiny in Indo-China, which everyone attributes to Red propaganda filtered through China, The presence of Bolshevik agents in the French possessions was of well known; the military el fof the revolt at Yenbay is a surprise, and the advisability strengthening the small force in Indo-China is being considered. It and two battalions of the Foreign Legion, The weak point in the organiz tion is that the French officers are pet in sufficiently close touch with the men, and this is due, curiously enough, to the French thirst for equality. The pay and allowances of officers in Indo-China are much higher than in France, and the War Office holds that these advantages should be open to the largest possible number of young officers. For this reason, those who go out are not allowed to renew their engagement, and the result is that the native regiments have a new set of officers every two years, which is far too short a period to enable an officer to pick up the language of the country and understand. the mentality of his men. He is obliged to rely on his native non-commissioned officers and cannot obtain the personal influence which is. 30 indispensable to a leader when trouble comes. According to an jeffieer of the colonial army, quoted by the *Journal," only about twenty officers in Indo-China can speak Annamite.
The Old Street Cries Of the numerous street cries which used to be heard in Pat the sing-song of the old-clothes the hardiest survivor. does not reverberate with its. old clearness, and it is frequently drowned in the deafening roar of the traffic; yet in the morning hour, after the rush to business hat ceased, the listener can sometimes hear "Habits, babite!" pitched in a th a front window, and, if the itinerant dealer happens be on sufficiently good terms with the concierge, a more mellifluous "Chand habits!" resounds thyough the courtyard. The old clothes man survives because he is a necessity these expensive days..'The middle-class housewife must keep an attentive eye on every sou and get what she can for her husband's cast-off garments, which are more! saleable than feminine things.
The voice of the chair-mender occasionally heard in quiet side: streets; in the busier and noisier ones he plays quaint flourishes on 'a tin trumpet. The Pyrenean herdsman and his flock of goats, who were the last survivors of the com-Paratively bucolic age, have vanish. ed. They were discovered to be unhygienic and obstructive to traffic, and they have been diverted to less heetie cities, The grounds] seller, who called "Mouron pour lee petits oiseaue!" is also extinct, except perhaps in the suburbe." A few. more years, and these and other: street cries will rejoin those of the. water-carriers and torch-bearers, familiar to the grandfathers of the Present generation and will be: classed among the curiosities antiquity. The motor horn has) killed them
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.