The Conquest of Bread

distinguished from all former uprisings not only by its aim, but

n France during the last hundred years differ from eac

he Free Commune in 1871. Imbued with Jacobin ideas, this Government occupied itself first of all with political questions, such as the reorganization of the machinery of government, the purifying of the administration, the separation of Church and State, civic liberty, and such matters. It is true the workmen's clubs kept an

ld; words were spoken which still stir our hearts, at the interval

ital concealed itself. The master-the employer-had nothing to fear at such times, he fattened on his dividends, if indeed he di

-such famine as had hardly be

Commune. The Commune indeed concerned itself with the question of bread, and made heroic efforts to feed Paris. At Lyons, Fouché and Collot d'Herbois established city granaries, but th

r fifteen a day-servants and duchesses alike, especially servants, for the duchesses had gone to Coblentz.

out his wage, and the wage was not forthcoming. What dif

e ears of the worker. And little by little the rich took courage, emerged from their hiding-places, and flaunted their luxury in the face of the st

ry had at last to admit to himself that the cause was lost

d a counter-revolutionary stroke. The Revolution dead,

never idle, the prisons were crowded, while the pageant of rank an

rt-an effort which was drowned in blood. In 1871 the Commune perished for lack of combatants. It had taken measures for the separation of Church and State, but it neglected, alas, until too late, to take measures for providing the people wi

kitchens. But it was too late. Its days were already nu

read that the R

ations, in decorating themselves lavishly with officia

there is not a single man who lacks bread, not a single woman compelled to stand with the wearied crowd outside the

ass idea to harangue about "grea

middle-class ideas admire their own rhetoric in the "Talking Shops," and "practical people" are engaged in endless d

read, that there is bread enough for all, and that with th