OCR Text |
Show The Workingmen of France. Minister Ribot, of France, has issued a circular in which he claims thut the French workingman occupies a particularly particu-larly favorable position, as the principle of equality before the law has, as he says, inspired French legislation for a century, while during the last twenty years, under the benign influence of democratic institutions, insti-tutions, the interests of the laboring classes have been the object, in a special degree, of the fostering care of the legislature. legis-lature. He maintains that the political rights of French workmen are better protected than those of any other state in Europe; that their liberty of organization or-ganization is recognized under the broadest conditions; that efficacious measures are taken to protect the lives and the health of those engaged in dangerous occupations; that the work of children has been subjected to wholesome whole-some regulation, and that the public authorities au-thorities have exerted themselves to the utmost to secure both to adults and children chil-dren the means of obtaining instruction. Assistance has also been liberally given to the sick and the old, and individuals have come to the aid of the state in founding hospitals, creating relief funds, erecting homes for workmen, and in establishing es-tablishing co-operative institutions and societies for mutual aid. |