ITERNATIONAL LABOUR
OFFICE
GENEVA
—

Studies and Reports
Series.K
No. 5

February 192-1.

The Eight Hour Day in Agriculture
before the French Chamber of Deputies.

A number of documents have already been published relative
to the regulation of agricultural labour, a question which has been
discussed at great length in the Press of different countries. The
object of this series is to malee known the various points of view
in the matter.
The French Press has made many references to a report by
M. Mercier, Deputy, proposing the rejection of a Socialist Bill
for the introduction of the eight hour day in agriculture. Below
are given the texts of the bill and of the report.

I.

BILL
for the Regulation of the Hours of Labour in

Agriculture,

presented by : MM. Chaussy, Compère-Morel, etc. (Here follow
the names of the whole Socialist group in the Chamber). 1
PREAMBLE

Gentlemen,
The question of agricultural labour has a particular interest
for deliberative assemblies.
There are -many complaints in agricultural circles that
immediately after the war, to which agricultural workers paid
such a heavy tribute, and at the moment when agriculture
lacks labour, many workers arc leaving the fields to go to the
towns.
1

Documents parlementaires. Chambre — 1920. —Appendix 687.

— 2 —

I t is well briefly to describe the reasons for this, in order to
consider remedies.
The first cause of migration is that the wages of agricultural
workers are very low and barely make life possible.
On the other hand, the accommodation of farm servants
leaves much to be desired; many of them sleep in byres and
stables, breathing the poisonous odour of the animals' litter.
Further, the social legislation which benefits the workers
of industry and commerce are unknown for them. In vain
they demand the laws on trades councils, on hygienic sleeping
accommodation in farms, on industrial accidents, passed by
the Chamber in 1915, but still waiting for adoption by the
Senate.
Finally, when in 1848, 1890. and 1919 the law intervened
to regulate t h e . hours of labour in industry and commerce,
agricultural workers did not enjoy the same advantages.
Thus, in certain districts where farming is on a large
scale, labourers Avork twelve and fourteen hours per day.
More and more agriculture is being industrialized; it will
have to be further industrialized to allow the earth to give
its maximum yield.
We see to-day a mechanic driving a tractor compelled
to work twelve hours a day, while in the neighbouring factory
a worker of the same trade has his day limited to eight hours.
I t is for these reasons that the agricultural labourers leave
the fields to go to the factory or public services, where they
will have better conditions of life.
It is thus urgently necessa,ry to regu.la.te the working day
of agricultural' labourers, and not to leave them as outcasts
of the working classes.
I t was with this object that at the request of the central
workers' organizations, the delegates of the workers' federations
in agriculture, horticulture, vine-growing, wood cutting, hoop
making and resin-cupping met the delegates of the great
agricultural, horticultural and vinegrowing associations at
the Ministry of Agriculture on July 30, 1919.
The Commissions on Agriculture of the Senate and of the
Chamber of Deputies were represented at this meeting.
After discussion, the text of the bill which Ave have the
honour to submit to you was adopted.
This scheme does not propose a rigid regulation of the
hours of labour; on the contrary, it can be adapted to different "
districts and different forms'of cultivation. •
Its object is to abolish excessÌATely long Avorking days, Avhich
prevent agricultural Avorkers enjoying any family life. •
It cannot in any way injure production, but will on the
contrary encourage OAvners to leave the old routine of the
past and to modernise their equipment.
Thanks to the development of machinery in agricolture,
the produce of the earth will be much increased.

— 3 —

The workers will see their lot improved, their position
becoming equal to that of the town workers, and they will
remain on the land.
Consequently, gentlemen, we have the honour to lay on
the table of the Chamber the following bill :
BILL
§ I. — In agricultural, horticultural and vinegrowing
undertakings, or in their subsidiary branches, of whatever
kind, whether public or private, secular or ecclesiastical, even
if they are of an educational or philanthropic nature, the
effective hours of work for manual and non-manual workers
of either sex and all ages shall not exceed eight hours per day,
forty-eight hours per week, or an equivalent limit calculated
on an annual basis of 2496 hours, always provided that the
working day shall never exceed ten effective hours, whatever
the season.
§ II. — The period within which and the conditions under
which the foregoing paragraph is to become operative shall
be fixed by administrative regulations, according to district
and form of cultivation, these districts to be established on
the publication of the Act.
These regulations shall be made either officially, or at the
request of one or more of the employers' or workers'
organisations concerned, whether national or regional. In
either case, the employers' and workers' organisations shall
be consulted.
These regulations shall refer to agreements made between
the employers' or workers' organisations concerned, whether
national or regional, where such exist.
The revision of a' regulation shall be compulsory, if the
time limits for action and the conditions laid down therein
are contrary to the stipulations of international conventions
on the subject.
§ III. — Administrative regulations shall further determine :
1. The distribution of the hours of work, so as to allow
a rest of one day in seven, as Avell as on Saturday afternoon,
or some other equivalent arrangement.
2. The time-limits within which the length of day at
present in force in agriculture or the industrial category
under consideration shall be reduced by one or more stages
to the limits fixed in § 1,
3. Temporary exemptions which may be granted in order
to deal with exceptional press of work, national emergencies,
or accidents, actual or impending.

— i —
à. The conditions in which, for certain classes of workers
Avhose work only requires that- they should be on watch
(e. g. shepherds, cowherds), permanent exemptions may be
allowed.
5. Methods of regulating hours of work and rest periods
and the duration of actual work, as well as the procedure by
which exemptions shall be granted or utilised.
§ IV. — The reduction of the hours of labour shall in no
case be a valid ground for the reduction of wages.
§ V. — Collective agreements actually in force shall be
abrogated in every district and for every industrial category
as from the application of administrative regulations to
the said industry or industrial category in the district concerned
§ VI. — This Act shall apply to Algeria and the Colonies.

II

REPORT
presented by Mr. Paul Mercier, deputy, on behalf of the
commission on agriculture charged with the examination of the
Bill, proposed by Mr. Chaussy and some of his colleagues, for
the regulation of the hours of labour in agriculture. %

Gentlemen, a number of deputies belonging to the Socialist
party have, during the present session, proposed a Bill for the
regulation of the hours of labour in agriculture. This Bill,
which was introduced by Messrs. Chaussy, Compère-Morel, and
Albert Thomas as chief signatories, was referred to the
commission on agriculture, which has instructed me to present
to you a report on the matter.
The vital clause in the Bill is as follows : "The effective hours
of work for manual and; non-manual workers of either sex and
all ages shall not exceed eight hours per day, forty-eight
hours per week, or an equivalent limit calculated on an annual
basis of 2,496 hours, always provided that the working day
shall never exceed ten effective hours, whatever the season. "
To begin with, it appears that of thè four limits proposed,
among the first three of which choice is free, only the annual
and daily maxima are of real importance.
2
Documents parlementaires.
of July 21, 1920.

— Chambre — Annexe N° 1323. Sitting

But before entering on an analysis of the reasons advanced
in support of the Bill, it is important to survey the history
of the question. Subsequent discussion cannot but be more
clearly defined thereby.
According to Mr. Manger, deputy, now Senator, "who
took an important part in the discussions on the general
eight hour question, the agricultural labourers have since
1890 or 1891 sought means of obtaining the benefits of the
legislation -applied to workers in industry, from which they
are generally excluded.
The eight-hour day has figured for thirty years in the
programme of working class demands. I t was, nevertheless,
only in 1905, at the agricultural congress of la Guerche, that
the same demand was for the first time formulated on behalf
of workers on the land.
In the course of the extraordinary session of Parliament
in 1910, Edouard Vaillant, Albert Poulain, Albert Thomas
and others of their colleagues introduced a Bill with the object
of establishing an eight-hour day and a minimum wage.
The
first clause, though very comprehensive, was nevertheless
far from taking into account agricultural labourers in general.
It only touched large-scale and industrial or intensive farming.
This omission, of great significance in a bill of a very
general character, is clearly explained by the preamble of
the Bill. The first promoters of the short working day sought
support almost exclusively in reasons of individual and social
hygiene. These same reasons were advanced in the course
of the discussion in the Chamber on the eight-hour day in
April, 1919. Mr. Pottevin recalled on this occasion, that in
1903 one of the men most justly famed throughout the world
as an authority on tuberculosis, Doctor Grancher, said :
" What shall we doctors do to cure or try to cure the
worker who has developed tuberculosis ? We shall simply
give him what he has hitherto lacked : air, nourishment,.
rest.
" Why not give him these beforehand, if such a thing is
possible ? And it is possible, since England has done it,
and by doing so has halved her infant mortality.
" Is not the eight-hour day under consideration in
Parliament ? Let our legislators pass it; it will contribute
enormously to the improvement of the condition of the
workers and to the battle with tuberculosis. "
" In these words ", adds Mr. Pottevin, " there was no
thought of opportunism.
I t was only a question of
conscience and scientific truth. "
It was the same scientific argument which Edouard
Vaillant developed in the preamble of the Eight-Hour Bill
in 1910.
" Work should be carried on," it was therein stated,
"in a healthy environment and at a healthy trade; it should

— 6 —

be made normal and human by guarantees which take into
account not merely physical accident, , but also more
particularly the individual and collective limits which protect
the working classes from fatigue and exhaustion, according
to age, sex, strength, the nature of the occupation, technical
education and experience.
" To avoid fatigue, there is a physiological limit to the
muscular and mental energy which are always combined in
any mechanical work, though in varying proportions, thus
a limit to the effort of action and attention, and to the
intervals between the renewals of it, which, if they are too
short, make impossible the nervous relaxation and partial
repair after each muscular contraction which allows the
continuance of work for a certain length of time. Work can
only exceed these limits of duration and intensity at great
risk to the worker ". '
The argument of Edouard Vaillant rests entirely on the
idea of industrial production.. He notes particularly that
sickness among the workers diminished in proportion as the
hours of work were decreased in the factories; it was the same
with the number of industrial accidents.
It is only by assimilation to industrial occupations that
he has included large scale and industrial or intensive farming
in his list.
As is well known, the movement in favour of the reduction
of. the working day to eight hours only began to spread among
the European nations after the armistice. Since 1917,
Russia and Finland have adopted the measure. The more
Western countries did not yield to the same pressure till a
year later. In France it was during the session of 1919, on
January 28th, that the bill for the application of the eighthour .day and the English week to industry and commerce
was introduced by Messrs. Pierre Eenaudel,. Lucien Voilin,
Joseph Lauche and Albert Thomas. In this the agricultural
labourers are passed over in complete silence.
It must be recognized that the authors of the bill advanced
purely opportunist arguments which may be summarised as
folio Avs :— the reduction of the hours of labour would make
it easier to overcome the crisis of unemployment which must
result from the cessation of war production and the return
of the soldiers to their homes ; on the other hand, France must
pass this measure rapidly, in order to have regained equilibrium
in her production, necessarily upset by the first application
of the shorter day, by the time that international competition
commenced to have full play.
Neither of these arguments were in any way applicable
to workers on the land; unemployment did not appear as a
threat in a country deprived by death or disablement of
1,600,000 rural workers. And on the other hand, as no other
nation proposed to establish the éight-hour limit in agriculture,

the theory of restoring equilibrium to production lost all
plausibility.
Further, the Bill presented on April 8, 1919, by the Minister
of Labour, Mr. Colliard, makes no mention of agricultural
workers.
The supplementary report of Mr. Justin Godart, secretary
to the Commission on Labour, also considers the question
from the point of view of industry and commerce. The same
arguments as we have just reviewed are to be found there.
The author insists, further, on the fact that technical progress
in industry is bound up with the introduction of the shorter
day. . The opponents of the regulation of labour seem to
him possessed by a spirit of routine which wishes to economize
in, mechanical improvements. The fundamental argument is
that the change from long working days to the eight-hour day
has not diminished the product, it has even in many cases
increased it. Numerous instances, says the secretary, quoted
in many Avorks, demonstrate this.
In summarising the more recent history of this fundamental
demand, he recalls the attitude adopted with regard to it during
the last weeks before the presentation of the report, by the
working classes as well as the employers.
In conformity with a wish formulated in general terms by
the International Trade Union Congress, the national committee of the C. G. T. expresses an opinion which one can
hardly doubt refers principally to the hours of labour in industry. " I t is in the improvement of its plant, by increasing its
production that French industry should find the means to
respond favourably to this demand. For— and this characterises the state of mind of the Trade Union leaders at that time —
this reduction in the hours of labour should not result in a
diminution in the production which is essential for the needs
of the people".
The question having been discussed in a commission on
which representatives, employers and workers, of the great
national industries sat, known as the Commission on International Labour Legislation, the employers' members expressed
the opinion that the principle of the eight-hour day ought
not to be inserted in the Peace Treaty; contrary to the
workers' opinion, it seemed to them that the eight-hour day
will involve a reduction of production which they estimated
at 50 %.
In brief, it appears from this debate that the principal
argument advanced in favour of the eight-hour day is
improvement in industrial hygiene. Its introduction ought
not to involve any decrease in production. The decreased
effort demanded of the worker would be compensated by an
improvement in machinery.
Up till then, the question might be said not to have arisien
as far as agricultural workers are concerned. The committee

of the C. G. T. did not speak in their name, and the Commission
on International Labour Legislation did not include a single
representative of them. Mr. Brancher, chief secretary for agricultural labour, and Mr. Hitier, secretary to the agriculturists
of France, alone represented the interests of agriculture on
the latter body. It was doubtless under their inspiration that
the employers' members drew attention to the consequences
which the introduction of the eight-hour day in industry
Avould have for agriculture; namely, to encourage the exodus
to the towns of the rural workers, whose losses in the war
actually represent about 55 % of the total losses of France.
In short, the eight-hour Act was only framed with a view
to .workers in industry and commerce. If the measure was
accepted, after a feeble opposition by the employers, it was
because the agricultural world had absolutely no concern with it.
The application of this same measure to agriculture has
only given rise to brief discussion in the course of the debates.
Mr. Justin Godart first devotes to it a few passing words
in the middle of his report. " The text of the commission," he
said, " makes it possible to frame measures according to the
necessities of different industries ; leaving aside all
arrangements in the month or the year other than the fortyeight hour week, it sets up a system, experience of which
will make it possible to achieve legal protection even for
agricultural workers."
I t was because of the nature of the scheme analysed above,
that the Mauger amendment, proposing to insert in article 6
after the words ; '.. .educational or charitable nature ", the phrase
" as well as in all branches of forestry, agriculture and vine
growing " was not accepted by the Chamber. Nevertheless,
it was a first attempt to compare agricultural workers with
those in industry. From this moment the arguments which
oppose this assimilation appear clearly, so much so, that in
the preamble of the present bill, its authors have preferred
not to attempt to establish this comparison. It is for entirely
new reasons t h a t they demand the reduction of the hours of
agricultural labour. We shall examine these shortly.
Mr. Mauger, in defending his amendment, was amazed that
in the conferences on international labour legislation no
reference was made to international legislation on agricultural
labour. This might be taken as an indication of a view
which refused to confuse, either abroad or in France, two
types of question, differing by their very nature, which it
was impossible consequently to treat as one.
Mr. Mauger refused to admit this distinction. He said
that the Chamber ought not to create two categories of workers:
it ought to recognize that there is an agricultural proletariat,
people who hire out their services in return for wages, and
when Mr. Brousse, observing that the seasons and inclemencies
of the weather regulate work on the land, he replied that these
were variations. From this it was clear how peculiar was

— 9 —
the nature of a regulation which was to allow for as many
variations as nature chose to impose on it, so that production
might not be affected.
After a short debate, the amendment was rejected, but
not before the Minister of Labour had made the following
statement : " The Government undertakes to consider the
question in the direction which has been indicated (namely,
the legal protection of agricultural workers) and to introduce
a bill, on which the Commission on Labour will, I am convinced,
report as soon as possible ". •
From the whole of this discussion it is important to
remember this also : it was generally recognized that the
admitted inadequacy of working class legislation as far as
workers on the land are concerned is due to the inadequacy
of their trade-union organization. " In the agricultural world
there has not been preparation for legislation by corporate
work ", as Mr. de Monzie pointed out. In other words, has
the shorter working day yet been the subject of a general
claim by the agrarian proletariat ?
Thus the Mauger
Amendment was framed without' any formally expressed
desire even of an inconsiderable majority of rural workers.
At this point the following conclusion must be drawn : if
the improvement of the condition of these workers is necessary,
there can be no question of applying to them a limitation of
hours of labour which they themselves would not desire and
which would cause them more inconvenience than advantage.
Here is the new argument propounded by the authors
of the bill which is being discussed to-day and which Mr. Emile
Dumas has already indicated ; the regulation of labour is
necessary to counteract the depopulation of the rural districts.
The contrast is too great between the long working day on
the land and the eight-hour day already in force in the towns.
Thus the principle has changed : the eight hour Act was
founded on the necessity for maintaining industrial hygiene.
It should be extended to the rural districts so that it may
cease to be a cause of attraction to urban centres. But this
Act was also a condition of the maintenance of production.
This is a consideration which must not be forgotten. Thus
two questions arise.
Will the application of the eight-hour day to agriculture
keep rural dwellers on the land ?
Will it allow the maintenance of agricultural production 1
The Act of April 23rd, 1919, having been passed by
Parliament, it remained to study the regulation of labour in
agriculture. With this end in view a Commission was set
up at the Ministry of Agriculture by order of June 10, 1919.
I t met on July 31st. Associations were there represented, both
on the employers' and employees' side, in agriculture, vineculture, horticulture and forestry.
Three questions were proposed by the Minister of
Agriculture for the consideration of the Commission :—

— 10 —
1. Is there an urgent necessity for limiting immediately
the hours« of work in agriculture ?
2. Ought this limitation and the resultant regulation to
be undertaken in Trance before similar measures have been
taken abroad ?
3. Having in view the essentially varied character of
agricultural undertakings, is it possible to set up precise
regulations, or should action be limited to general measures,
which administrative regulations will adapt to particular
cases?
Mr. Mauger, recalling the conditions in which his amendment
to the Act of August 23 had been rejected, put the question
in these terms :
"Agricultural wage-earners cannot continue to be
excluded from the law, the principle of which is : eight hours'
work, eight hours' family life, eight hours' rest ".
He
recognized, moreover, that compromises must be studied.
Whatever they might be, it was still clear that any movement
in favour of the eight-hour day has in view the division of the
day into three equal parts. It would be seen that where the
measure has been applied, it has only been very slightly
evaded. What is now under consideration is a day's work
lasting from dawn till dark.
The discussions of the commission consisted mainly in
an exchange of divergent opinions expressed by the employers'
and workers' delegates, as to the possibility of regulating
agricultural labour, some declaring that the shortage of
labour makes limitation of the working day more than ever
inopportune, others maintaining that it is possible to establish
it, on the example of Germany in particular, some, again,
insisting on the peculiar nature of work on the land, in no
way comparable to that in the factory. The use of machinery.
itself does not carry with it to the land the character of absolute
continuity, peculiar to the factory, from which industrial
fatigue arises. The efforts of the rural worker are always
intermittent. The suggestion of an annual limitation of
2496 hours having been made, the question arose whether in
fact the workers dò complete a total exceeding this maximum.
After a general discussion, the vote on the questions
propounded was negative as to the first two, viz, the urgency
of limitation and the possibility of a uniform regulation for the
whole of France. The commission accepted, on the other
hand, the idea of flexible regulation and of regional application
adapted to the conditions of each agricultural district, each
type of cultivation, and each category of agricultural workers.
At the end of the sitting the workers' delegates handed
to the president of the commission a scheme for the application
of the eight-hour day; it is this scheme that the authors of
the present bill have adopted.
The commission noted the deposit of this scheme in view
of a further study to be undertaken by the Ministry.

— 11 —
T H E P R O P O S E D B I L L AND T B A D E U N I O N

OPINIONS.

We thus come to the proposed bill which is the subject
of this report. We should here analyse the preamble wihch
supports it. Later we shall on the one hand observe the
welcome which it has received from agricultural workers'
organisations and, on the other, study the general programme
to which it belongs. I t is, in fact, a question of an entire
agrarian programme. Its partisans invite us, by the publicity
they give this, to give it a place in the present summary.
The proposed bill may be summarised as follows :
Limitation of the hours of labour to 8 per day, 48 per week,
or an equivalent limitation calculated on an annual basis'
of 2,496 hours.
Maximum working day fixed at 10 hours.
Determination of the preceding conditions by administrative regulations according to district and type of cultivation ;
the districts will be established as from the publication of the
law (though it is not stated how).
Introduction of the English weekly rest. Determination
by administrative regulation of variations, whether temporary
in the different cases of force majeure, or permanent as regards
certain classes of workers.
Establishment by the same method of measures of control.
The authors of the bill have drawn their principal argument
from the ' rural exodus. This can only be remedied by
improving the conditions of the worker's life; the comparison
which he makes between his lot and that of the town worker,
protected by important social legislation, only obliged to work
eight hours, assured of a high wage, enjoying a more comfortable
and easy life, this comparison is far too eloquent.
The agricultural worker in effect is said to be badly paid,
badly housed, in no way protected, and forced to work long
hours.
There is some truth in this picture. The leading figures
of the agricultural world are the first to recognise this and to
seek means to improve the workers' lot. This grave question
was the subject of detailed reports by Messrs. Hitier and Anglade at the Congress of Tours.
To be able to judge of this problem in itself, it is necessary
to have an exact account of the actual conditions of lif e of the
rural worker in the different districts of Prance. The National
Federation of Agricultural Associations is at this moment
commencing an enquiry on this subject, an enquiry intended
for presentation for the. consideration of the international
conference on agricultural labour which will meet at Geneva
during 1921. One may say that it is only there that the
question will be sufficiently elucidated and that it will be
possible to arrive at decisions with full knowledge of the case.

— 12 —
We will consider further, after having reviewed legislation
in various foreign countries, whether it is opportune for France
to forestall the resolutions which will be passed at Geneva
by agreement b.etween the qualified representatives of the
countries interested. The question having been more fully
studied between now and then, it will be- less difficult to
ascertain to what extent the limitation of the hours of labour
will be of a kind to keep rural workers on the land.
The absence of any trade union organisation among the
majority of these workers makes it hardly possible to know
their opinion on this point. I t is nevertheless probable that
they do not consider the length of the working day as one of
the reasons for abandoning rural life. If on this point one
may believe Mr. Vandervelde, who has studied the question
of the rural exodus in a work with manifold references, the
abandonment of the rural district is in no way due to
psychological causes, — the desire for change, a taste for and
interest in amusement, the attraction of an easier life, — so
much as to economic causes. It is the impossibility of existence
which drives the peasants from the land. The rural exodus
is bound up far less with chance causes, capable of simple
remedies, than with a profound alteration in the economic
equilibrium of the world. Anyone seeking to check this
ought first, therefore, to determine if it is possible for this
equilibrium to be modified.
Will the depopulation of the land which has followed the
agricultural crises in many European countries be checked
when, by a decrease of agricultural" productivity, the number
of men able to extract a subsistence from the soil is smaller?
The argument is of such weight that it cannot have completely
escaped the responsible authors of the bill which is before you.
If they have neglected it, it is because another consideration
has attracted them. The reduction of the hours of labour,
together with various benefits granted to rural workers,
will not fail, doubtless, to make life easier for them. But it
will only do so for a small number. Measures of this kind,
when their scope is considered, seen much less likely to hasten
the repopulation of our country than to diminish its existing
capacity for supporting a population. A population which
lives on a given soil is more numerous according as it works
harder. The example of Germany before the war is one of
the most significant in this respect.
What do we know of the opinions of the rural working
class on questions which affect them? The first agricultural
congress, held at Limoges on April 4th and 5th 1920, expressed
itself on this subject.
What is represented by the Federation of Landworkers,
affiliated to the G. G. T., which held this congress? At Lyons,
in September 1919, the four federations united, among which
the agricultural trade unions had hitherto been divided,
namely :—

— 13 —
1. The Horticultural and Agricultural Federation of
France and the colonies, including the workers in market
gardens, gardens, horticulture and large scale farming, more
especially in the departments of Seine, Seine-et-Oise and Seineet-Marne.
2. The Federation of Woodmen, including in the central
departments (Cher, Nièvre, Yonne, etc), the woodcutters'
labourers who work in the forests in the winter and in the fields
in the summer.
3. The Federation of Agricultural Workers of the South,
including more particularly the vinedressers' labourers of the
South of France (Hérault, Aude, Pyrénées-Orientales, Gard
and the Arrondissement of Aries);
4. The General Union of Vinedressers of the Marne.
It is estimated that the Federation of Land workers now
comprises 30,000 members. What is the proportion of the
different categories of rural workers included in its
organisation 1 The exact figures are not known. We only
know — the figures are those published by the C. G. T. —
that in 1911 the Agricultural Federation of the South
comprised 5,000 members ; on August 1st 1914, the
Woodcutters' Federation had about 4,000 adherents ; at the
same date the Marne vinedressers numbered 1,050. As for
the Horticultural Federation, it had then fallen to the modest
figure of 350 supporters.
What, however, were the views expressed by the Congress
of last April as far as the labour problem is concerned ? The
phenomenon of the rural exodus having been considered, the
congress demanded, not to mention various other measures :—
a) Wages identical with those which are paid in industry
and commerce and which are in constant relation to the
needs and exigencies of life ;
b) The advantages of all social laws by which industrial
workers at present benefit ;
c) The regulation of the hours of labour and the fixing
of the working day at eight hours.
This passage from the report made by the secretary, on
the rural exodus in different European countries, clearly
marks the character of the phenomenon ; in proportion as
the rural districts of these countries grow empty and labour
scarce, agricultural employers improve their methods of
cultivation, perfect their machinery and obtain a higher yield.
By the development of mechanical cultivation and by the use
of chemical manures — in Germany three times as much
chemical manure is used as in France — it will be quite as
easy for us to produce twice as much from the soil as at present.

— 14 —
A diminution in the supply of labour is accompanied by
improvement in machinery. But has this improvement in
its turn the effect of requiring the presence in the fields of
a larger number, of workers ? If the contrary is true ; if in
proportion as machines multiply, fewer men are needed on
the land, one must conclude that any diminution in the yield
obtained by the traditional processes of cultivation, making
farming more difficult, leads to technical progress and reduces
the demand for labour : thus the position of the rural worker
becomes more difficult and the exodus is accentuated. Such
has always been, in effect, the process of development.
If we concern ourselves solely with the problem, which every
day becomes more pressing, of the depopulation of the rural districts, a solution must be sought in an entirely different direction.
Thus the resolutions passed by" the Congress of Limoges, as
well as the Socialist agrarian programme, tend towards a very
different-object : it is a question of a complete transformation
of the agrarian system of France, attacking, more or less
directly, individual property.
One can explain it in this way, that the question of production, on which depends the lot of the peasant masses, is at
the.back of all the problems which Avere considered by the
Federation of Landworkers. The resolution passed on the
subject of the eight hour day is as follows :
Application of the eight hour-day to agriculture, in general.
Couched in general terms, it is explained by the following
declarations :
"We wish to have the eight hour day. If climatic
necessities force us to accept variations, we consider that these
should be in the form of a forty-eight hour week, with a
maximum day of ten hours. "
"A new understanding of their interests and duties should
lead agricultural workers to acquire social rights corresponding
to those of industrial workers. When, in place of interminable
days,the peasant comes to know the three eights, he will find
means to acquire the technical. and social improvementwhich
is necessary for him."
It, will be observed that the views of the congress differ,
in the modes of application of the eight hour day, from the
scheme produced by the workers' delegates to the commission
which met in July 1919. Yet these delegates were the same
and represented the same organisations of rural workers.
This difference explains to us the disagreement which
now appears between the Federation of Landworkers and the
authors of the bill which we are considering. This bill is
identical in its text with the scheme mentioned above.
This divergence of views corresponds to the positions
which are adopted in their agrarian policy by the French

Socialist Party on the one side and on the other by the Agricultural Federation attached to the C. G-. T. 1
THE EIGHT HOUR DAY IN AGRICULTURE ABROAD.

Agrarian problems have ac'quired remarkable significance
in the different European countries in the last few years.
They are at the bottom of the Eussian as of the Hungarian
revolution. They dominate the entire social problem in
Italy. If in. England, Germany and France they are less
acute, it is because conditions there are different ; in the first
named country the agricultural population only forms 24 %
of the total. In Germany and Prance the small holdings
counterbalance the large, and the agricultural proletariat is
rather scattered.
There "can be no question here of drawing a complete
picture, but simply of summarizing the ideas which certain
people wish to apply to our country, to show what examples
have inspired them aud to emphasize the enormous differences
which stultify comparison between France and nations which
have been and are still disturbed by revolution.
First, in order to make matters clearer, let us sketch the
conditions by which the hours of labour in rural work have
been regulated in some countries of Europe.
Only a few have as yet taken legislative steps.
The Act passed by the National Assembly of Czechoslovakia, bearing the date December 19th, 1918, declares
that the limitation of the. hours of labour applies also to
persons regularly employed in agricultural and forestry undertakings, and to persons living outside the family of the owner
and receiving a daily, weekly, or monthly wage. In agreement
with the parties concerned, the Minister of Social Welfare
may allow certain industries, notably transport and agriculture,
to make a different arrangement of the working day from
that prescribed by the first clause of the Act (eight hours per
day and 48 per week), on condition that the total hours of
work do not exceed 192 per month. I t is said in another
clause that a maximum increase of two hours per day for
sixteen weeks per year may be authorized ; the extra hours
are paid separately. Auxiliary work, in which is included the
care of cattle, is allowed without particular authorization.
The staff employed in herding animals is only entitled to
twelve hours rest, of which eight are to be devoted to an
uninterrupted night's rest.
In Germany the agricultural labour code put into force
at the end of January, 1919 fixes the length of the working
day at an average of eight hours for four months, ten hours
for four other months and eleven hours for the remaining
1
The agrarian policy of the Socialist party was the subject of an article
recently published by the Bevue politique et parlementaire. ADelemer, 1920.

— 16 —
four months. All work done beyond these limits must
be paid for at an increase of 50% on the wage-scale taken
as a basis by the National Insurance Act. The time necessary
to reach and return from work is counted in the length- of
the actual working day. Neither periods of rest nor time
spent in tending or feeding cattle are, however, included in
the day's work. Work done on Sundays or holidays is paid
on a scale double that set up by the National Insurance code.
During the summer, work must be interrupted for at least
two hours a day.
It should be noted with what prudence Germany sets up
legislative limitation of the hours of work, at the same time
that the most audacious measures are being introduced in
the social sphere.
If the number of hours' work per year is totalled for the
only two countries which have as yet extended regulation to
rural workers^ Czecho-Slovakia gives 2,618 hours, Germany
about 2,900, time given to cattle being excluded.
I t is in Italy that regulation has been pushed furthest, but
it should be noted that here it is the result of a powerful
spontaneous agitation of the peasant class. The rural
proletariat south of the Alps is known, in fact, to be very
highly organised. Italy is and has long been celebrated for
her rural strikes.
Large holdings predominate still in the greater part of
the country, in the rice-grounds of the west and north west
of Milan (Novarais, Vereillais, Lonnellina), in the Po plain
(Placentin, Parmesan, Ferrarais),' in the Roman Campagna
as well as in the whole of South Sicily. Métayage is hardly
ever found except in Tuscany and the surrounding districts.
In consequence, the work of the fields is almost entirely done
by day labourers (braccianti) grouped in a powerful federation
of land workers. Since the cessation of hostilities, Italy has
been agitated by a violent agrarian movement, breaking out,
especially at harvest time, in frequent strikes, which have
resulted in several cases in collective labour contracts, by
which the eight hour day is sanctioned, almost without
variation.
I t is admitted in a general 'way that if there is a risk of
losing the crop, always provided that there is no agricultural
labour available in the commune or the adjacent communes,
more than eight hours work may be authorized by agreement
between the contracting parties, on condition that they are paid
at a higher rate. One might quote as examples of collective
contracts those of the Lomallini, dating even from 1909, long
before the problem began to arise in industry, of Novarra,
Portomaggiore (Ferrara), Vercelli, Padua and Milan. According to the Padua agreement, concluded in December, 1919,
the length of the working day is as follows for the different
months.^

— 17 —
April and October, 8 hours.
May, June and July, 10 hours.
August and September, 9 hours.
March and February, 7 hours.
January, November and December, 6 hours.
These contracts are characterized in general by two
significant points :
First, the farm servants are excluded from the benefits
of the contract arrangements; second, the trade unions
undertake to allow a more extensive use of machinery.
Here, in fact, appears the essential difference between Italy
and France. Alone among European nations, Italy saw
her population increase during the war. Not only was
emigration checked, but many emigrants returned to their
mother
country,
either
because
they
had
to
fulfil their military obligations there or because they were
hindered by economic difficulties from finding work in countries
where the surplus of Italian labour was usually absorbed.
These circumstances have increased the complexity of the
social problem. Poor in industry, unable therefore to employ
an increasing number of workers, Italy has nothing to support
them but the resources of the soil. It followed, therefore,
that the greater part of her unemployed energies were directed
against the system of landed property.
A general movement- appeared in the districts of Rome,
Naples and Sicily : this was known as the invasion of the
uncultivated land, otherwise the large holdings which were
kept in a state of extreme unproductivity. Elsewhere there
were strikes, and shorter hours of labour were obtained. But
note this : there it was a question solely of finding employment
for the largest possible amount of labour. And far from
contemplating the general use of machinery as a means of
increasing the demand for labour, it was only tolerated so long
as it did not produce unemployment.
It is hardly necessary to point out how different the situation
is in France; instead of a surplus of labour there is a shortage;
unemployment, if it appears, is in no way comparable to
what it is there; when one speaks here of checking unemployment it is simply a question of the inherent irregularity
of work in the fields, where in the winter the workers, few
as they are, are partly unoccupied. Finally, while the
demand for the eight hour day is general and spontaneous in
Italy, it only emanates in France from a small fraction of the
rural proletariat placed in peculiar conditions.
Account must be taken of these observations to avoid
misunderstanding of the scope of the eight hour Act in Italy,
which states in its second clause that " in agricultural
undertakings the provisions of the present Act apply to the
work of day labourers and in general to work paid by wage".

— 18 —

•

Outside the three countries mentioned, there is no legislative
regulation in Europe. In Great Britain the Committee on
Agricultural Wages decided, it is true, that the maximum
number of hours of work which should be paid at the normal
rate should be fifty per week in the summer and forty-eight in
winter, and that overtime must be paid at a higher rate than
that fixed for normal hours. But the British Government has
always refused to give agricultural workers as well as sailors
the benefit of the provisions of the Eight Hour Bill, which in
any case has not yet passed into law. As far as seamen in
particular were concerned, while by the law of August 2nd
1919, France gave them the benefit of the eight hour day,
England refused to allow the same rule.
In a question on which depends in part the economic
supremacy of this country, opinion is clearly expressed.
Possibly from the congress now being held at Genoa resolutions
will emerge favourable to the extension of the eight hour day.
Let us, nevertheless, be warned that as such resolutions
must be ordinarily submitted, with a*year's grace, for the
ratification of the countries represented at the discussion,
there is reason to expect stubborn opposition on the part of
our ally. Supposing that the eight hour Act should be applied
in France to agriculture before the Geneva Conference of 1921,
a very similar situation would arise. But while the merchant
marine plays a subordinate part in the national economy of
France, agriculture holds a predominant place there. This
is a sufficient reason for France not to embark on a doubtful
project except with great prudence.
Eegulation of agricultural labour also exists in a few
countries : Australia, Indo-China, Mexico and Ecuador. In
certain others the eight hour Act does not apply to farm labour,
either because it is not included in the legal definition (Bussia,
Poland, Austria, Spain) or because it is explicitly excluded
(Finland, Sweden).
From the foregoing one may conclude that most states
have only legislated for industry and commerce in the question
which concerns us, which confirms the general idea that work
on thè land is not subject to the same conditions as work
in the factory. Where regulation has nevertheless intervened,
it usually omits domestic work (herding and tending cattle),
and ordinarily implies an annual total - of more than 2,496
hours ; applied in stricter fashion, in Italy especially, it can
be explained by peculiar "circumstances.
T H E ACTIVE AGRICULTURAL POPULATION.
— CONDITIONS OF LIFE. — T H E ACTUAL DURATION OP WORK.

In order to be in a position to • calculate exactly the
consequences which regulation of the hours of labour would
have in agriculture, one must know the actual conditions which

— 19 —
govern work on the land. It is, unfortunately, difficult to
summarise and tabulate them, however roughly, owing to
their extreme variability, according to district and cultivation.
This variability is recognised by the Socialist Bill itself, since
it leaves it to administrative regulation to determine delays
and conditions of application of the general measure enacted,
according to districts and types of cultivation. It thus
appears from the beginning that there is a contradiction in
wishing to impose on agriculture a uniform system of labour,
which must at once be infinitely diversified, and which
doubtless could not be diversified as much as was demanded
b>y the very nature of things and the custom of the peasants.
The transformation of established and deeply-rooted
•customs can hardly be accomplished
without
the
•accompaniment of revolutions, more or less serious. And
revolutions are only legitimate — this is our democratic
idea — when they arise from the irresistible will of the people.
We must be careful not to force them. Are the authors of
this proposal under discussion certain that they have behind
them the consent of the majority of the country folk whose
interests will be affected by such a measure ?
And first, how is the rural population distributed ? It
is doubtless impossible to know exactly, since up to the present
we are ignorant of the significance of this figure of 1,600,000
which represents the losses suffered by agriculture through
the war. How many rural employers and workers are there
in this total ?
' This can only be partially determined. The 1,600,000
men lost to work on the land are divided as follows :—
Killed or missing
1,000,000
Seriously disabled
350,000
Rural workers taken from the country to replace
missing urban workers
250,000
I t may be concluded that these 250,000 men are predominantly
labourers. It is impossible to distinguish directly between
the remaining 1,350,000.
We can only arrive at an
approximate calculation.
The most recent enquiry to which reference must be made
for the exact position of rural workers is that instituted by
the Ministry of Labour in 1912. By comparing it with the
last census of the population in 1911, we can. form some idea
of the state of the French rural population before the war.
According to the 1911 census, it totalled 8,517,000 persons:
— 5,279,000 males and 3,238,000 females.
Of this total of 8,517,000, the employers, including managers, numbered 5,219,534, workers, including foremen,
3,297,766.

•

—

20

—

As far as the workers are concerned, the total figure may
itself be divided into several categories. There are some
discrepancies on this point between the census of 1911, carried
out by the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, and the
enquiry carried out by the Ministry of Agriculture in 1912.
The following are the figures as given, by the two sources :
Census of Ì911
- Agricultural population according to status :
Masters : Owners, tenant-farmers, métayers
Gardeners . . •

. .

5,119,825
99,639
5,219,464

Workers : Agricultural Day Labourers
Farm Servants
. . .
.
Farm Carters . . . . . . * . . . .
Gardeners

Enquiry

of Ministry

Agricultural Workers :
Labourers with small holdings
Labourers without holdings
Farm servants

2,403,445
744,937
28,595
115,038
3,292,015

of Agriculture 1912
508,087
537,029
980,656
2,023,782

According to the report made to the Agricultural Congress
of 1919 by Messrs. Braucher and Vuigner, the above figure
of 2,023,782 is increased to 2,312,357 when completed by
indications given elsewhere.
The important discrepancies between the two estimates
affect the two following categories :
1. Labourers, which the 1911 Census puts at 2,403,445,
while the 1912 enquiry estimates only 1,043,116 both for
small-holders and non-holders.
2. Farm-servants, which according to. the Census are
about 770,000, and according to the enquiry little short of
1,000,000.
Under these circumstances it is extremely difficult to give
an exact account of the present situation. The rural exodus
has taken from the land, since the beginning of the war, 250,000
workers, as we have seen previously. There is reason to
believe that t h e category of day labourers, those least
connected with the farming processes, has been most affected.

. .

— 21 —

On the other hand, if we refer to the total figure for the
active agricultural population in 1911, viz., 8,517,000, Ave
find that this number comprised 5,279,000 male persons who
were sub-divided into 2,872,935 masters and 2,406,540
workers ; in other words, the number of male workers was then
almost equal to that of the masters of the same sex. Thus we
may roughly estimate the losses sustained by each category
in killed, missing and disabled at one-half of the total. As
this total is 1,350,000, we must reckon that about 650,000
agricultural workers have been removed from field work.
The proportion of masters to workers would therefore
be to-day as follows :
Masters : 5,219,464 — 700,000 = 4,519,464.
Workers : 3,292,014 — 900,000 = 2,392,015.
Is it possible to estimate how far the number of agricultural
labourers, properly so-called, has been reduced?
To begin with, ák was stated earlier, the rural exodus
must have affected this" category almost exclusively. I t
seems that the places of farm servants must be filled as soon
as they are vacant, and these servants cannot ' fail to be
recruited from among the labourers.
The figure of 2,405,445- can thus be decreased by 250,000
to 2,153,000. On the other hand, the agricultural labourers
were, according to the 1911 census, in a proportion of 5 to 2 to
other rural workers. The losses due to the war are therefore
divided in this proportion as 464,000 for labourers and 184,000
for other workers, thus :
2,153,000 — 474,000 = 1,699,000 labourers.
889,370 — 184,000 =
705,350 servants. .
If we now compare the figures of 1911 with those at which
we have arrived, we find that the proportion of masters to
workers has noticeably increased.
Whereas, in 1911, there were :
Masters
Workers

. . . . . .

5,219,000
3,297,000

there are now :
Masters
Workers

4,519,000
2,592,000

The proportion has therefore changed from three workers
to five masters to one worker to two masters. This shows
that the majority of masters, very pronounced even in 1911 r
has but been accentuated by the fact of war. Is this a reason
for refusing to the country workers the just satisfaction to
which they have a right? Certainly not; but it is a sufficient
one for examining with even more circumspection a proposal

—

22

—•

on which only a small minority of the eventual beneficiaries
have expressed, an opinion, and which canno^fail on the other •
hand to arouse keen opposition from .a majority of those
concerned.
What are the conditions of life of this population of rural
workers, as far as we can know them?
We must here distinguish from the beginnning between the different categories of workers.
The labourer is essentially the field worker. He hires '
out his labour by the day. He is not necessarily employed
for the whole year. Nevertheless, he is generally distinct
from the seasonal workers who are employed in gangs under
a foreman, and which 'sometimes undertake definite tasks
for the farm, e. g., reaping, mowing. These latter do not
belong to the local population. They come at the periods
of heavy work from other districts and more especially from
abroad.
' A labourer, whether a "small holder or not, is a country
man. If he is a small holder, the land he owns is not enough
to support him, and he is obliged to hire his strength to earn
a livelihood. If he has ho holding, he lives in a house. he
rents, but escapes the more complete dépendance of the
farm servant.
The farm servant does the general work of the farm. If
single, he usually lives at the farm. When he marries, he
receives a separate house, and sometimes a stable for a cow
which he may graze on his master's pasture, and a plot of
ground which is cultivated with the rest of the farm. This
is the system which one would gladly see extended, as the
most likely to attach the rural worker to the farm and to wed
the man to the land, from which union springs the peasant's
deep sense of ownership.
Having established these main distinctions, we must fill
in the details of the outlines of our picture, which would not
be complete unless each district could be described in turn, with
the essential characteristics which govern the work carried
on there. Unfortunately, documents are not as plentiful at the
moment as one could wish. The data are already out of date
or sparse and fragmetary. Soon - in a few months - we shall
have precise data. In preparation for the International
Congress on Agricultural Labour, which will be held at Geneva
in 1921, and which will submit recommendations and resolutions for the. approval of the states participating, the National
Federation of Agricultural Associations is at this moment
instituting enquiries into the present conditions of life of
the worker in France. Until this work is complete, we can
only make use of the existing documents.
The enquiry into agricultural wages,' instituted at the
request of the" Ministry of Agriculture in 1911, is. the only
complete piece of information. The questions addressed to

— 23 —

professors of agriculture in the departments bore especially
on the following points :
.1. Statistics of the different categories of agricultura];
workers, including labourer-proprietors, and an estimate of
the number of seasonal workers;
2. Wages.
3. Hours of labour.
4. Conditions of life.
5. The question of the rural exodus.
We could find there all the data we need, but how far have
things changed since then? .p
r ¡- •
* . '
["" As far as statistics of the workers are concerned, it is impossible to obtain anything but the approximate round figures
indicated above.
The movement of wages is known to us in. its broad
outlines :
1. Through the enquiry instituted in 1916 by the Department of Agricultural Instruction, which rectifies the data of
the great enquiry of 1912, pursued by the same department on
behalf of the Ministry of Agriculture;
2. Through the table of average wages of agricultural
workers in 1915 and in 1918-1919, published in the Bulletin
of the Ministry of Labour of. March 1919 ; the table summarizes
the information given for each department by the prefect.
The decree of May 27th 1915, setting up an administrative
system in pursuance of the law of July 15th 1914, which
extends to forestry the provisions of the law of April 9th 1898
on industrial accidents, set up conditions, in effect, by which
the average wage of agricultural workers in each department
must be determined. This must be done by the prefect,
after consultation with mixed commissions, and an administrative enquiry, in the course of which all useful information
was to be brought up to date, from associations of masters
and workers, the director of agricultural services and other
competent persons.
This table provides some extremely brief and fragmentary
indications of the hours of labour in vogue in different
•departments. On this point we are forced to refer again to
the enquiry of 1912, which alone provides complete, if not
extensive or detailed, indications. Have the hours of labour
changed much since this time? In the opinion of more competent
authorities it seems not, if one excepts districts immediately
adjacent to the great industrial towns, where the reduction
of hours in the factory has reacted to some extent on the
country. There the force of events, which ceaselessly exerts
its influence on economic problems, and usually succeeds in
establishing a certain social equilibrium, made itself felt ;

— 24 —

and the farmer consented to,reduce the hours of work to
the extent necessary to retain the essential supply of labour
on his land.
Will it not always be so, and is it particularly useful to
seek to create by regulation, a state of things which will,
establish itself wherever circumstances demand it? When
we have examined the consequence of a reduction of hours of
labour on the economic system, especially in the rise in price
of products and the inevitable increase in the cost of living, we
shall be able to balance them against the advantages this
measure would have for the rural worker, advantages which
the master concedes himself, when necessity forces him to it,
and ¿o the extent to which the system of economic competition
will allow it. We shall thus be brought to the question,
whether the rural worker really demands the regulation of the
working day, regardless of conditions of cultivation, which are
subject to atmospheric variations.
As far as the conditions of life and the causes of the rural
exodus are concerned, the information provided by the enquiry
of 1912 has not lost all value. The housing question remains
as it was before the war, owing'to the fact that all building
has been suspended for a long time. The causes of the rural
exodus, on the other hand, are psychological as well as economic.
They are similar to-day to what they were then.
There need be no question of summarizing here the great
enquiry of 1912. Anyone can easily consult it. But it
seeiiis useful to condense very briefly its essential data as far
as the hours of labour are concerned, that being the subject
of the present report.
"What is the length of the working day, according to the
season?" This was one of the questions asked.
There is one fairly common rule ; the working day lasts
from sunrise to sunset : including rests, its maximum duration
during summer reaches 14 or 15 hours. The rests,, during
which meals are taken, reduce it to a maximum of actual
work of'12 to 13 hours. Note that the proposed Bill submitted
to Parliament institutes a daily maximum of ten hours. The
maximum of 12 to 13 hours should only be understood to
apply to days when the maximum effort is achieved, that
is to say, when atmospheric conditions do not hinder full
work. I t is quite another question to ascertain the total
annual average of hours of work accomplished. This total
can only be obtained by empirical calculations and for
particular cases.
,

25

DEPARTMENT

WINTER

Ain
Aisne
Allier. — S e r v a n t s . .
„
Labourers.
Basses-Alpes
Hautes-Alpes
. . . .
Alpes-Maritimes . . .
Ardèchè
Ardennes
. . . ; . .
Aube
Aude. —Vine-growing
district . . . .
Agricultural . . . .
Avignon.
. . . . . . .
Bouches-du-Ehône. .
Calvados
Cantal
Charente
Charente-Inférieure
Cher
Corrèze
Corsica
Côte-d'Or

8
8-9 (four
months)
10
8
7-9
7-8
9
7-8
10

10-12

6-7

—

In

12
10
8-11
8-11

11
10

SUMMER

15
10-11%
(8 m o n t h s )
14-15
14-15
11-12
11-12
10
9-10
13
11-12

8 (occasionally more-)
5
—
7
principle, from d a w n to d u s k .

7-8
9-10

—
—

8-10
11-12

REMARKS

Rests i n c l u d e d .
Rests n o t i n c l u d e d .
Actual working hours
in s u m m e r 12-13.

Collective C o n t r a c t s .

T e n d e n c y t o reduce'
h o u r s of w o r k .
Taskmasters work
longer.
Rests i n c l u d e d .

16-17
10-12
11-14
Sunrise t o sunset ; h o u r a n d a^half's rest d u r i n g h e a v y w o r k .
10

9-10

.

6-8
7

Creuse
Côtes-du-Nord....
Dordogne
Doubs
Drôme
Eure
Eure-et-Loire . . . .
F i n i s t è r e .Gard
Haute-Garonne . . .
Gers
•
Gironde
Hérault

AUTÜMN
AND S P R I N G

•• •

9-10
11-13

T h e increased u s e of
m a c h i n e r y h a s caused a r e d u c t i o n of
from 1-1% h o u r s per
day.
Rests i n c l u d e d .

12-14
10-12
10-11
(Spring)
Sunrise t o sunset. R e s t s : winter 1 h o u r , s u m m e r 1 % h o u r s .
. T h e work is n o t usually v e r y h e a v y .
11
10
Surince to sunset
8-8%
11
9
10-11
8-10
Sunrise to sunset.
8-10
6-8
8-10
10-12
6-8
10-12
Rests i n c l u d e d .
13-14
7-8
P e r c e p t i b l e decrease in
10-11
7-8
recent y e a r s .
9 10
6-9
68
V i n t a g e , 7-8 h r s . '

— 26 -r-

DEPARTMENT

AUTUMN

WINTER

AND S P R I N G

Ille-et-Vilaine .

Indre
. . . . . . .
Indre-et-Loire . . .
Isère
Jura
Landes
Loire-et-Cher
. . .
Loire
Loire ( H a u t e ) . . .
Loire (Inférieure) .
Loiret........
Lot
L o t - e t - G a r o n n e . '.
Lozère
Maine-et-Loire. . .
Manche
Marne.
. . . . . . .
Marne (Haute). . .

SUMMER

REMARKS

u p t o 16.

R e s t s included. H o u r s
of w o r k n o w h e r e
well arranged. F a r m
s e r v a n t s work p r o p o r t i o n a t e l y more.

11-12
9-10
7-8
12-13
8-9
IO-IOV2
8-9
12-14
9-10
, 7-8
10-11
7-8
12
7'
(maximum)
(minimum)
13
7
(maximum)
(minimum)
12-13
10-11
8
10-15
7
10-15
9
10
(spring)
9
11-12
9-10
. 8-9
11
14
9
Sunrise t o sunset.
13'

10

Hi/2
12-14

101/2

10

16-17

Mayenne

Meurthe-et-Moselle.
Meuse. — L a b o u r e r s
„
Servants
Morbihan
Nièvre .
Nord . .
Oise. . .
• Orne . .
Pas-de-Calais
Puy-de-Dôme

P y r é n é e s (Basses) .

E x c l u d i n g 2 !_houTs'
rest.
Extreme
maximum
when t h e ; weather
necessitates it.

12-13
15
16-17

10

8-9
10
12

. Sunrise to sunset.
8-10
8-10
8I/2-91/2

81/2-9
7i/ 2 -8i/ 2
8-10
(deadseason'

9%-ioy2
9-12
(ordinary
work)

8-9

10-12
10-12 Va
11 Vä
IOI/2-II
10 '/2
10-15
(heavy
season)
11-12
10-11

Pyrénées (Hautes) .
Pyrénées-Orientales
Haut-Rhin
. . . .

T w o h o u r s for meals,
one h o u r ' s rest i n
summer.

6
12

7-9
14

8-12
u p t o 17.

A c t u a l work. Sunrise
t o sunset.
The servants' day is
m u c h longer.

— 27 —

DEPARTMENT

Rhône . . .
Haute-Saône
Saône-et-Loire
Sarthe . . .
Savoie . . .
Haute-Marne
Seine . . . .
Seine - Inf érieure
Seine-et-Marne
Seine-et-Oise
Deux-Sèvres
Somme .
Tarn . .
Var . . .
Vaueluse
Vendée
Vienne
Haute-Vienne
Vosges . . '.

WINTER

AUTUMN
AND S P R I N G

SUMMER

REMARKS

12
14 h o u r s ' a c t u a l w o r k in h e a v y season.
12 h o u r s ' a c t u a l work in s u m m e r .
12
10
11
3 hours' rest.
Sunrise to sunset.
12
About 8 hours' actual work, winter a n d summer.
10-12
9-10
u p t o 14 d u r i n g h a r v e s t .
9-10
Including 3 hours'
15
rest.
10-12
8
According t o district.
10-14
7-10
8-10
6-8
R e s t s 2-3 h o u r s
Sunrise to sunset.
according t o season.
10-14
8-9
H a r v e s t 16-17
10-11
14-15
including r e s t s .
12
14-15
9-10
8-9
Sunrise t o sunset.
Sunrise t o sunset.

I t will be noted how often in the foregoing table the total
number of hours of actual work exceeds 10. But does this
mean that the average hours of work, taken over the whole
year, are much above this figure ? Short days in winter are
found no less frequently than long ones in summer, being
ordinarily about 8 hours, and often falling below this. In
any case the foregoing table emphasises the extreme irregularity
of field work, thus differing most completely from a table of
hours of work in a factory. And this is only an average,
corresponding but imperfectly to the facts of the case, which
could only be realized if one could reckon in the course of a
year the distribution of hours of labour for a number of workers
in different districts, cultivations and categories of labour.
It is. only in this w7ay that the effect of atmospheric conditions
on labour can be measured.
In order to emphasise the difficulty of applying precise
regulation to that which is subject directly to the effects of
natural forces, we will quote two instances only.
Analysing the causes of the shortage in the crop of 1919,
Mr. Henri Hitier points out the grave importance of the bad

— 28 —
'weather which prevailed during this year 3. In the" autumn
of 1918 sowing was at first carried out under good conditions ;
at the end of November continual and general rain interrupted
the sowing on all sides in the districts of the Midi, Aquitaine,
the South West, and the Centre ; it was said to be impossible
to plant wiî'h corn all the land which had been prepared for it,
Snow and rain persisted practically throughout the winter
iind into the middle of April, so that the March corn could not
be sown till very late, with the soil in the worst state of
preparation — so much so that many farmers gave it up.
Meteorological conditions were no more favourable to the
growing of the corn; in March and April heavy crops are assured
by working on the cornfields, harrowing, rolling, ploughing
and weeding them. This year, however, it was impossible
to touch a cornfield, as the soil was sodden.
Suddenly on this period of continuous and excessive rain
there followed one of drought and east wind. The wet
ground dried under the influence of sun and wind; in many
cases it became a kind of concrete, in which the roots of the
corn found themselves shut up and could not develop ordinarily.
" W e know for certain", adds the author, " o f many
farms where, from the end of November to April, all work in
the fields was suspended; the carters were employed in
exercising the horses on the roads to keep them in condition.
During bad Aveather one racked.one's brains to find occupation
for the staff; one had to keep them for the days when, on the.
contrary, work could and must be done as quickly as possible;
but while waiting, the general expenses of the farm were
increased enormously in a way unknown to the factory, where
the yield of the workers' labour is the same whatever the
weather ".
Such are the conditions of agricultural labour.
Supposing regulations to be introduced, will it be impossible,
in years when work is interrupted for longer or shorter periods,
to get from the worker even this maximum of 2496 hours?
In such conditions, the position of the rural worker cannot
but grow worse, since his master, who during bad weather
bears the cost which he cannot avoid lest he lose his staff, is
unable to bear it in good weather unless the worker's yield
repays him.
We have just seen what a year can be in agriculture — not
merely an imaginary year, but one in recent memory. What
the system would be under regulation one can imagine from
the system occasionally put. into practice during the war.
" The agricultural gangs behind the line ", writes M.
Emile Guillaurnin in the Information of March 12th, 1919,
" have given professionals a fine opportunity for laughter or
3
Bulletin de la Société d'encouragement pour l'industrie
September and October, 1919, pp. 257 et seq.

nationale,

— 29 —
wrath. There. triumphed and flourished a strictly regulated
system; two spells per day of equal duration, no matter what
the weather ".
I remember a military farm on the plateau of Pfterhouse,
not far from the Swiss frontier, where they were trenching
potatoes with horse-hoes in heavy rain, the animals sinking
knee-deep in the sodden ground. The crop was' small help to
the authorities. In the same district, corn with the ear formed,
with blackened thin straw, wilted lamentably, still uncut at
' seed-time. And fodder already cut rotted quietly in the. green
of the growing second grass. This fodder had been well cut
at the right time on some sunny mornings. But when it
was dry in the afternoon, the right time arrived to return to
camp and soup. There was an end of it for that day. And
the next day it rained, and the following days too, as usual.
If elementary common sense had need of support, these
examples would have more than confirmed it. Exact rules
are incompatible with the work of cultivation.
SUMMARY OP FOREGOING ARGUMENTS.
GENERAL DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION.

In the course of the foregoing report, Ave have advanced
the arguments which naturally come to mind and which
prohibit a favourable pronouncement on the bill now before
the Chamber for the regulation of the hours of labour on the
land.
Let us here summarize these arguments.
It was shown in the first section of this report, in which
the history of the eight hour question was sketched, that
the motives supporting the bill have no feature in common
with those which formed the principle of the eight hour day
in industry.
There the fundamental reason, admitted even by certain
medical authorities, is its necessity for industrial hygiene.
This necessity was not denied at the very moment when the
eight hour day was introduced. Its adversaries chiefly
emphasized the fact that it was inopportune to enact such
a measure at a time when the economic recovery of the
country seemed to demand the maximum effort.
The bill for the regulation of hours of labour in agriculture
is based on entirely different motives. Here it is a question
of checking the rural exodus and the depopulation of the
rural districts by improving the conditions of the agricultural
worker.
But if this is so, the question should be considered entirely
on its merits, and no assimilation of urban to rural workers
should be attempted. The question before us does not deal
with humanitarian considerations. There is no reason to
safeguard the physical and moral welfare of one class of the
French population. The problem is purely one of economics.

•—

30

—

At this stage a number of points need examination. We
have already mentioned them in turn in the course of this
xeport, reserving their juxtaposition until now.
1. What is the international situation in this respect ?
2. Will the application of the eight hour day to agriculture
keep rural workers on the land 1
3. Will it affect the maintenance of agricultural production?
1. — The International

Situation.

France is essentially an agricultural country ; her agricultural
prosperity is for her the fundamental element of her economic
life.
Is she encouraged by the example of foreign countries
to impose a regulation of the working day í Is there urgent
need for her to legislate on this matter 1
We have passed in review the countries which have laws
on the subject. In Europe there are three : Czecho-Slovakia,
Germany, and, practically, Italy.
In Germany the limitation is very wide as regards length
of day; in Czecho-Slovakia the supplementary hours raise
the total to a higher figure than that provided for in France,
and the work done by the farm servants (care of cattle)
is not included; in Italy, the situation is radically different.
Is it urgent for France to legislate % The question will
be discussed in all its bearings at the International Congress
at Geneva in 1921. If resolutions ensue, all the nations will
have to declare their intentions at the same time. If it were
a question of pure humanity, one might maintain that the
traditional generosity of France compels her to set the
example. I t is not s.o. There is no suggestion here of any
but an economic problem. The fascination which the towns
have for the country workers proves how easily they can
withdraw from the conditions, of their country life as soon
as they wish. We can, therefore, consider the problem
entirely dispassionately and withoiit introducing sentimental
considerations, which rival nations in competition with
France are not wont to advance in discussion of facts which
affect them. France has no reason for not imitating the
example which England has just set her over the application
of the eight hour day to the merchant marine.
Deeply affected by the question, England did not feel
it necessary to forestall the recent conference at Genoa. Far
from limiting her liberty of action by imposing one or more
general laws on the eight hour day, England is content to
live under a system of agreements freely entered into, which
necessarily conform to the position of affairs. The average
working day is no longer than in France. Short days have
been established for an even longer period, but not where they
are impracticable. Unhampered by rigid legislative rules,

— 31 —
England will no doubt be freer to correct the particular
agreement on any given point, which no longer meets the
needs of the moment.
In agricultural matters, France should only forestall
international conventions if her economic interest invites her
to do so. Is this the case?
2. — Will the application of the eight hour day to agriculture
Iceep rural workers on the land ?
Nothing leads one .to think so. If the opinion of the
agricultural working classes had been clearly expressed on
this subject; if they demanded with great energy, as they
are doing in Italy, the reduction of the hours of labour, one
might hesitate. But, as we have seen, only the Federation
of Agricultural Workers has made its voice heard. While
the active agricultural population comprises seven or eight
million souls, and of this number servants and labourers form
about 2,400,000 after the War, the federation comprises at
the most 30,000 members, of whom categories of specialised
workers form a majority, if not almost the whole. It cannot,
therefore, be said that the agricultural workers have expressed
a desire for shorter working days.
Are they silent because they are not organised? Suppose
that they were organised, what demands would they make?
Would they claim the eight hours? The agricultural trade
unions in Italy have claimed and almost always obtained
them, but was the reason the desire for less work? ÏTot at all.
We have seen previously that it was the wish to provide work
for an excessive supply of labour which prompted them. And
the use of machinery was only agreed to by them so long as
it did not lessen the demand for labour. In striking contrast,
the French rural districts are depopulated, and in this very
fact is to be found the reason for the lack of organisation among
rural labourers. If they did not find in the towns a perpetual
method of escape, and were forced to choose between remaining
on the land and emigration in the last resort, no doubt they
would combine in unions to demand conditions of work allowing
all of them to live.
Thus we are brought again to the rural exodus, and this
is the moment to examine more closely into its causes.
Among the various attractions which the town offers to the
rural worker, is the prospect of short and easy work the deciding
factor? Let-us hear some authoritative opinions. We shall
see that his desire is pre-eminently to get a fixed wage.
Just now we heard the opinion of Vandervelde that the
rural exodus was caused by the impossibility of living on
the land, which has for many years driven country dwellers
to the towns. Others give us almost the same opinion. The
town offers its inhabitants economic advantages of all kinds.
Before the^war the cause of the exodus^was especially the

.

— 32 —

agricultural crisis, when the price of agricultural products
remained at a high level in spite of tariff protection, owing
to the competition of countries which, were large producers
of cereals. At present it arises from the general crisis in
the supply of labour, resulting from the losses suffered by
Prance owing to the war. The same phenomenon appears
in a different form. The invaded districts, where the demand
for labour evoked by the work of reconstruction is keen, drain
Avorkers from all parts of France, and especially rural workers
from adjacent districts.
The enquiry by the Ministry of Agriculture in 1912 included
two questions on the rural exodus expressed thus :—
Concerning especially labourers who have very small
holdings, can a figure be given of those who sell their holdings
and leave the country ?
What is the most frequent reason for this sale and departure?
Some of the replies are given here : they emphasize economic
difficulties (no doubt this is a question especially of small
holding labourers, but the effects must be the same for those
without holdings.)
Alpes-Maritimes. — The persistance of poor olive crops
discourages small proprietors and leads them to leave the
country... The horticultural prosperity of the coast attaches
the peasant closely to the soil. Stock farming in the mountains
and the development of agricultural co-operative undertakings*
give the small proprietors sufficient advantages to assure
them a comfortable subsistance and to deter them from
seeking means of subsistance elsewhere.
Ardèche. — Sales generally occur as a result of the poor
productivity of the soil, and often of the lack of the necessary
capital to develop it.
Ariège. — The exodus is caused by the difficulties of
mountain cultivation, the small produce of the soil, and the
multiplication of factories offering the worker a higher and
more certain wage.
A u b e . — I n the south of the Department, the exodus is
caused by the vine growing crisis, which no longer allows
the vine-dresser to live as formerly.
The introduction, in the chalk district of Champagne, of
improved agricultural machinery and the use of chemical
manures, have consigned the very small proprietor to an
inferior position.
Cher. — I t is especially the small holding vine-dressers
who, not gaining a. sufficient reward for their labour, let or
sell their small holdings in order to rent a shop or work in a
factory.
Côte-d'Or. — The cause of the decrease in small holdings
is the difficulties experienced by young peasant proprietors
in establishing themselves on their return from military

— 33 —

service, difficulties resulting from the lack of advances by
which they might acquire a holding large enough to be
cultivated economically, and the scarcity or absence of credit
to extend and to buy up-to-date farming equipment and live
stock.
These quotations could be multiplied. I t would certainly
not be without interest to make a complete analysis of the
position of rural small holdings, those which do not suffice
to support the owner, in the different parts of France. Great
diversity would be found to exist among them. Taking
everything into account, the desertion of the country by
peasant proprietors would rather appear exceptional. Many
are the replies which indicate a very slight exodus among
peasant proprietors. With all the better reason, shall we
conclude, at the present time ? '
For workers with no stake in the land, the attraction
of the towns is beyond question more powerful today than
before the war. As far as they are concerned, the causes of
the rural exodus have been frequently pointed out : the
uprooting caused by military service, the prospect of higher
wages and less tiring work, the hope of greater comfort and
an easier life, the attraction exerted by big businesses ; the
better education given to girls, which makes them despise
rural life and prefer the small clerk. Elsewhere mention is
also made of the development of agricultural'machinery, the
high cost of labour, the low birth rate, and the irregularity
of farm work, which implies a long period of unemployment
in winter.
On the whole, the causes are very numerous. They are
summarised in the advantages of the town over the country.
I t seems not uninteresting to reproduce here part
of the reply furnished for Charente-Inférieure. It shows with
peculiar clearness the evolution of the phenomenon.
" Labour is becoming more and more difficult and scarce.
Cultivation is upset, through lack of the necessary care at
the right moment ; whole crops are spoiled through remaining
exposed too long to the weather. Many farmers are wondering
anxiously whether they will be able to continue cultivation
under these conditions ; proprietors are letting the farms
which they used to prefer to farm directly. In short,
complaints are unanimous and very bitter. "
How many economists have tried to analyse the causes
of the rural exodus. The irresistible attraction of the town
and its pleasures ; compulsory education, and military service
have been produced in turn after many other causes. In the
same way many remedies have been proposed ; some, for
example, thought that it would be enough to extol the charms
and advantages of the country to the children to stem the
tide. Today one no more pays attention to these secondary
causes of the rural exodus then one believes in the efficacy

— 34 —

of such palliatives. The inadequate wages and frequent
unemployment of the rural districts must be mentioned as
the chief culprits, so that the rural exodus will only be
effectively checked by raising wages ; it will only come to an
end when the agricultural worker reaches a wage proportionate
to that of the industrial worker, that is to say, when he can
live as freely on the land as his comrade in the town, and when
he is in a position to supply Avith similar ease his needs and
those of his family.
The causes of the rural exodus having been thus described,
we come to the third question ; .
3. — In the present position of affairs, will the application of „
. the Eight Hour Act affect the maintenance of agricultural
production ?
'
This depends, first of all, on the question whether the
establishment of short working days will be enough in itself
to check the rural exodus. Its causes are, as we have seen,
complex. The longer hours of labour on the land are one
of them, but not the most important. How can one imagine
that by removing this one the problem will be solved ?
Will wages increase at the same time 1 I t might perhaps .
be said that with the fixing of a limit implying the permission
of overtime the latter would be put on a higher rate. But
this is only a small aspect of the question. The question is
whether agriculture will be in a position to give the worker a
higher wage for a smaller product.
For his product cannot fail to be smaller. The least
experience of agricultural work shows that it is essentially of
the kind Avhich is carried out slowly and continuously. Tne
effort is prolonged but not intense. Will this be altered Ì
But nature wills it so. Will it be maintained that technical
progress will make it possible to reduce the duration of effort !
But let us note first that the use of machinery in agriculture
is in no way comparable to its use in industry. There it
rules man ; here man still rules it. And, moreover, the general
application of mechanical cultivation, supposing that it
can be further greatly extended, even through it decreases
the difficulty of farming to employers who are short of labour,
in no way solves the fundamental problem on which the authors
of the bill base their argument : namely, the depopulation of
the Trench rural districts. The machine tends to replace the
man, not to increase the demand for workers to cultivate the
soil.
If the worker's product is decreased as a result of the short
working day, wages cannot but decrease equally in the long
run. We have seen that the inadequacy of wages was, together with insecurity of employment, the chief cause of the
rural exodus. The reduction of the hours of labour tends
away from the end in view.

— 35 —
2í"eed one insist on the peculiar conditions of field work,
dominated tyrannically by weather conditions? Taking into
account, on the one hand, the impossibility of controlling
conditions of wind and weather, and, on the other, the gravity
of the social phenomenon of the desertion of the country-sides,
we must consider the causes of the latter according to their
order of importance, if we wish successfully to combat its
effects.
To this the agricultural associations, being primarily
interested in the solution of the problem, have given their
attention. From what has been said previously, it appears
that the principal causes of the rural exodus are :—
1. The low level of wages;
2. The insecurity of work;
3. The exodus only affects workers with small holdings,
even labourers, to a relatively small extent, and then only
when particularly serious economic difficulties arise, e. g.,
the destruction of the vines by phylloxera, in îformandy the
ruin of certain famibes by drunkenness.
From this we conclude that the attempt to prevent the
abandonment of the land should be on the following lines :—
a) by increasing the yield of the land, to endeavour to
increase the workers' remuneration.
b) to find remedies for the irregularity of work in such a
way that from one year's end to the other the greater part
of the rural population may be able to earn a useful living ;
c) to increase the comfort of rural life; on this point the
most effective remedy is none other than means for the worker
to acquire small holdings; failing this capital progress, all
that is necessary is to establish him, at least for the period of
bis engagement, in a dwelling which shall be his own, to which
is attached a plot of ground sufficient to give him both victuals
and work.
Here we enter a sphere foreign to the subject of the present
report. The different means of keeping the agricultural
worker on the land were studied at the recent French Agricultural Congress at Tours. Two reports were devoted to this
kind of problem ; one, of which Mr. Henri Hitier was the author,
concerned the participation of the workers in the results of
the farming, considered in the form of premiums allotted
according to the quantity of the products ; the other, presented
by Mr. Anglade, studied the question of rural housing and
considered the kinds of credit which would facilitate the
erection of rural dwellings and the acquisition by workers of
small holdings.
We will summarise as follows the conclusions of the present
report :
The application of the eight hour day to agriculture is not
justified on humanitarian grounds, nor by the need of
safeguarding the race.

— 36 —
It can only be justified on economic grounds.
Put in this way, the question does not appear urgent, and
it is to be hoped that Prance will at the very least await the
results of the first international congress on agricultural
labour.
Moreover, it does not seem that such regulation could be
considered in any way as a specific remedy for the.rural exodus.
On the other hand, there is little doubt that it would involve
a diminution of production, a correlated diminution in wages
and in consequence an aggravation of the crisis which always
weighs more or less heavily on the agricultural economy, a crisis
which is in no way lessened, in spite of the advantages accruing
at present to agriculture, by the relaxation or temporary
absence of international competition. It appears, consequently, that there is no reason to seek
in this direction a remedy for the depopulation crisis.
But the question of depopulation having arisen, it is of the
greatest importance that the most suitable means should be
sought to diminish the -attraction exerted by the towns on
the country.
This result will only be achieved if the lot of the rural
worker improves so as to be roughly equal to that of the
industrial worker, all advantages and inconveniences being
balanced.
Such a study necessitates an exact knowledge of the
conditions of life of these two categories of workers and
a comparative estimate of their wages. I t arises from the
present distribution of labour. It is bound up with the
whole political economy of our country.
It could not be successfully undertaken unless account were
taken of the enormous difference in habit and in conditions
of life and of work which separates the rural from the urban
worker. These differences are admitted by common-sense,
and also by the most authoritative Socialist statesmen. To
prove this, one need only quote, in conclusion, these lines from
a course of lectures delivered by Vandervelde at the University
of Brussels in 1906.
" One may admit that the Socialist Party is pre-eminently
/ ' t h e party of industrial and agricultural wage-earners,
" w i t h o u t thereby concluding that a programme inspired
" principally by conditions of industrial labour can be
" sufficient, since many reforms which are excellent
" f o r industrial workers are inapplicable, or. applicable only
" with difficulty, to agricultural workers. Doubtless, if an
" Old Age Pensions Act were passed, the Act could be applied
" t o all workers without questioning whether they were
" agricultural or industrial.
" But suppose it were a question of an act to regulate the
" hours of labour. Could you apply to the varying
" forms of agricultural labour, with the irregularities which

— 37 —

" result from the passage of the seasons, the rules which you
" apply to industry? "
In the same way, pass an act on accidents of employment
and immediately you state that what holds in industry does
not hold in agriculture. There is, therefore, a great deal
of adaptation to be carried out before reforms originally
demanded for the industrial proletariat can be applied to the
agricultural proletariat.
The one modification of the principle of the eight hour day,
which the- authors of the bill under consideration
have introduced, is to admit a double maximum of 10 hours
per day, or 2496 hours per year; when one thinks that on one
side it is extremely difficult to estimate the actual amount
of work done in a year, and on the other that the maximum
limit of ten hours per day is constantly exceeded during the
summer without any regularity, one may say that the proposed
regulation would involve a revolution in the cultivation of
the soil in France.
It is for these reasons that your commission recommends
the rejection of the Bill.

— 38 —

STUDIES AND REPORTS

-

already issued
Where the English or French text of a Report has not yet been published it
•will be issued at a later date.

Series A.
N ° 1.

THE

AGREEMENT

BETWEEN

T H E SPANISH

WORKERS'

SATIONS, issued S e p t e m b e r 25th. 1920. French
"

"

2.

3.

T H E DISPUTE

IN

THE

METAL

INDUSTRY

UNION

CONTROL O F I N D U S T R Y ,

French

and

ANNUAL

issued

4.

IN

ITALY.

September

OF

THE

TRADES

INTERNATIONAL

CONGRESS

OF

UNION

and

5.

CONGRESS

T H E MINERS'

French
6.

WORKERS

and

IN

T H E FOOD AND

7.

T H E CONGRESS

T H E MINERS'

1920.
"

8.

FEDERATION,

issued

OF T H E LABOUR

9.

INTERNATIONAL

French

and

T H E INTERNATIONAL

THE

INTERNATIONAL

and

CONGRESS,

issued

LABOUR

ORGANISATION.

CONGRESS

and

OF

and

I N T H E METAL

T H E FOURTH

INTERNATIONAL

T H E M I N E R S ' STRIKE I N

1920.
" 14.

A

METAL

INDUSTRY

French

and

GREAT

COMPARISON,

WORKERS,

IN ITALY.

and

TRADE

issued

15..

OF BOOKBINDERS,

issued

English.

BRITAIN,

issued

December

21st

T H E XVth
CONGRESS
OF T H E GENERAL
CONFEDERATION OF
L A B O U R ( C O N F É D É R A T I O N G É N É R A L E D U TRAVAIL) h e l d a t O r l e a n s

T H E INTERNATIONAL

.CONGRESS

O F GENERAL

TENDENCIES

THE

and

FACTORY

GROWTH

OF

TRADE

UNIONISM

and

issued

WORKERS,

English.

OF EUROPEAN LABOUR LEGISLATION

issued F e b r u a r y l l t h 1921. French
" 17.

UNION

English.

issued J a n u a r y 2 4 t h 1921. French
" 16.

issued

November

the
27th
S e p t e m b e r t o t h e 2 n d October " 1920,
D e c e m b e r 23rd 1920. French and English.
"

issued

FEDERATION OF
THE
GOVERN-

ALLIANCE,

part)

CONGRESS

N o v e m b e r 26th 1920. French
" 13.

19th

English.

CONTROL O F I N D U S T R Y . (Second
4 t h 1920. French and English.
" 12.

October

English.

T H E BRITISH GOVERNMENT
AND THE MINERS'
GREAT
BRITAIN.
CONFERENCE
BETWEEN

T H E DISPUTE

INTERNATIONAL,

English:

MENT
AND THE TRIPLE
INDUSTRIAL
O c t o b e r 2 6 t h 1920. French and English.
" 11.

1 1 t h 1920.

English.

O c t o b e r 22nd 1920. French
" 10.

English.

October

A N D SOCIALIST

issued October 21st 1920. French
"

and

English.

issued October 1 4 t h 1920. French
"

1920,

T H E B R I T I S H GOVERNMENT
AND THE MINERS' FEDERATION OF
GREAT BRITAIN.
CONFERENCE
BETWEEN S I R ROBERT
HORNE

AND
"

TRADE

2 5 t h 1920.

English.

D R I N K TRADES, issued October 1 1 t h 1920. French
"

ORGANI-

English.

English.

MEETING

issued October 4 t h 1920. French
"

and

SINCE

THE WAR,

English.

DURING

1910-1919, issued F e b r u a r y 16th 1921. French

THE TEN

and

YEARS

English.

— 39 —

Series B
N° 1.

COAL

PRODUCTION

IN THE RUHR

DISTRICT.

Enquiry

by

the

International Labour Office, end of May 1920, issued
tember 1st 1920. French and English.
OF INTERNATIONAL
OF RAW MATERIALS

Sep-

"

2.

PAPERS RELATING TO SCHEMES
TION FOR THE DISTRIBUTION

ORGANISAAND FOOD

"

3.

T H E CONDITIONS OF LABOUR AND PRODUCTION I N THE UPPER SILESIAN

STUFFS, issued October 5th. 1920. French and English.
COALFIELD, issued December 10th 1920.
" 4.

French and English.

T H E SOCIALISATION OF COAL MINES I N GERMANT,

issued

January

25th 1921. French and English.
" 5.

T H E ESSEN

MEMORANDUM

ON THE SOCIALISATION

OF THE COAL

MINES I N GERMANY (6 Nov. 20), issued 28th January 1921.
French and English.
" 6. WORKS COUNCILS IN GERMANY, issued January 29th 1921, French

and English
Series C.
N° 1.

BRITISH

LEGISLATION

ON UNEMPLOYMENT

INSURANCE,

issued

October 26th 1920. French and English.
" 2.

GOVERNMENT ACTION IN DEALING WITH UNEMPLOYMENT IN ITALY,

issued October 27th 1920. French and English.
" 3. T H E BULGARIAN LAW ON COMPULSORY LA^ouB, issued November
4th 1920. French and English.
" 4.

T H E ACTION

OF THE SWISS

GOVERNMENT

UNEMPLOYMENT, issued. November
English.

IN

DEALING

WITH

13th 1920. French and

" T H E ORGANISATION OF UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE AND EMPLOYMENT

EXCHANGES IN FRANCE, issued February 21th 1921. French and
English.
Series D.
N° 1.

STAFF

REGULATIONS

ON

THE FEENCH

RAILWAYS,

issued

Sep-

tember 4th 1920. French and English.

Series F.
N° 1.

CANCER OF THE BLADDER AMONG WORKERS I N ANILINE FACTORIES,

issued February 23th 1921. French and English.
Series H.
N° 1.

CONSUMERS'

CO-OPERATIVE

SOCIETIES

IN

1919

(Denmark

and

Sweden), issued September 8th 1920. French and English.
"

2.

SEVENTH

CONGRESS

OF T H E BELGIAN'

CO-OPERATIVE

issued September 25t;h 1920. French and English.

OFFICE,

— 40 —

S e r i e s K.
N° 1.

F I R S T INTERNATIONAL
AFFILIATED TO T H E

CONGRESS OF
INTERNATIONAL

LAND-WORKERS'
UNIONS
FEDERATION OF TRADE

UNIONS, issued November 1920. French and English.
" 2.

AGRARIAN

CONDITIONS

IN SPAIN, issued November

10th 1920.

French and English.
" 3.

SMALL

HOLDINGS

I N SCOTLAND,

issued

November 12th 'Ì920.

French and English.
" '4.

THE

EIGHT-HOUR

DAY

IN

ITALIAN

AGRICULTURE,

issued

De-

cember 10th 1920. French and English.
" 5.

T H E EIGHT-HOUR

DAY IN AGRICULTURE,

BEFORE

THE

FRENCH

CHAMBER, OF DEPUTIES, issued February 10th 1921. French and
English.

K=