Chapter II: Local Society Since 1830 (2)

Thus has the institution of the year VIII deviated (The France of the revolution corrected and decreed by Napoleon), no longer attaining its object. The prefects, formerly appointed to a department, like a pacier of the Middle Ages, imposed on it from above, ignorant of local passions, independent, qualified and fitted for the office, was, during fifty years, in general, able to remain the impartial minister of the law and of equity, maintaining the rights of each, and exacting from each his due, without heeding opinions and without respect to persons. Now he is obliged to become an accomplice of the ruling faction, govern for the advantage of some to the detriment of others, and to put into his scales, as a preponderating weight, every time he weighs judgment, a consideration for persons and opinions. At the same time, the entire administrative staff in his hands, and under his eye, deteriorates; each year, on the recommendation of a senator or deputy, he adds to it, or sees, intruders there, whose previous services are null, feeble in capacity and of weak integrity who do poor work or none at all, and who, to hold their post or get promoted, count not on their merits but on their sponsors. The rest, able and faithful functionaries of the old school, who are poor and to whom no path is open, become weary and lose their energy; they are no longer even certain of keeping their place; if they stay, it is for the dispatch of current business and because they cannot be dispensed with; perhaps to-morrow, however, they will cease to be considered indispensable; some political denunciation, or to give a political favorite a place, will put them by anticipation on the retired list. From now on they have two powers to consult, one, legitimate and natural, the authority of their administrative chiefs, and the other illegitimate and parasite, consisting of democratic influence from both above and below. For them, as for the prefect, public welfare descends to the second rank and the electoral interest mounts upward to the first rank. With them as with him self-respect, professional honor, the conscientious performance of duty, reciprocal loyalty go down; discipline relaxes, punctuality falters, and, as the saying goes, the great administrative edifice is no longer a well-kept house, but a barracks.

Naturally, under the democratic regime, the maintenance and service of this house becomes more and more costly;[4238] for, owing to the additional centimes, it is the rich and well-to-do minority which defrays the larger portion of the expense. Owing to universal suffrage, the poor or half-poor majority which dominate the elections so that the large majority with impunity can overtax the minority. At Paris, the parliament and the government, elected by this numerical majority, contrive demands in its behalf, force expenditure, augment public works, schools, endowments, gratuities, prizes, a multiplication of offices to increase the number of their clients, while it never tires in decreeing, in the name of principles, works for show, theatrical, ruinous, and dangerous, the cost of which they do not care to know, and of which the social import escapes them. Democracy, above as well as below, is short-sighted; it seizes whatever food it comes across, like an animal, with open jaws and head down; it refuses to anticipate and to calculate; it burdens the future and wastes every fortune it undertakes to manage, not alone that of the central state, but, again, those of all local societies. Up to the advent of universal suffrage, the administrators appointed above or elected below, in the department or in the commune, kept tight hold of the purse-strings; since 1848, especially since 1870, and still later, since the passage of the laws of 1882, which, in suppressing the obligatory consent of the heaviest taxed, let slip the last of these strings, this purse, wide open, is emptied in the street.--In 1851,[4239] the departments, all together, expended 97 millions; in 1869, 192 millions; in 1881, 314 millions. In 1836, the communes, all together, save Paris, expended 117 millions, in 1862, 450 millions, in 1877, 676 millions. If we examine the receipts covering this expenditure, we find that the additional centimes which supplied the local budgets, in 1820, with 80 millions, and, in 1850, with 131 millions, supplied them, in 1870, with 249 millions, in 1880, with 318 millions, and, in 1887, with 364 millions. The annual increase, therefore, of these superadded centimes to the principal of the direct taxes is enormous, and finally ends in an overflow. In 1874,[4240] there were already 24 departments in which the sum of additional centimes reached or surpassed the sum of the principal. "In a very few years," says an eminent economist,[4241] "it is probable that, for nearly all of the departments," the overcharge will be similar. Already, for a long time, in the total of personal taxation,[4242] the local budgets raised more than the state, and, in 1888, the principal of the tax real property, 183 millions, is less than the total of centimes joined with it, 196 millions. Coming generations are burdened over and beyond the present generation, while the sum of loans constantly increases, like that of taxation. The indebted communes, except Paris, owed, altogether, in 1868, 524 millions francs[4243], in 1871, 711 millions, and in 1878, 1322 millions francs.[4244] Paris, in 1868, already owed 1326 millions, March 30, 1878, it owed 1988 millions. In this same Paris, the annual contribution of each inhabitant for local expenses was, at the end of the first Empire, in 1813, 37 francs per head, at the end of the Restoration,[4245] francs, after the July monarchy, in 1848, 43 francs, and, at the end of the second Empire, in 1869, 94 francs. In 1887,45 it is 110 francs per head. [4246]

VIII. Final result in a tendency to bankruptcy.

Such, in brief, is the history of local society from 1789 down to 1889. After the philosophic demolition of the Revolution and the practical constructions of the Consulate, it could no longer be a small patrimony, something to take pride in, an object of affection and devotion to its inhabitants. The departments and communes have become more or less vast lodging-houses, all built on the same plan and managed according to the same regulations one as passable as the other, with apartments in them which, more or less good, are more or less dear, but at rates which, higher or lower, are fixed at a uniform tariff over the entire territory, so that the 36,000 communal buildings and the 86 department hotels are about equal, it making but little difference whether one lodges in the latter rather than in the former. The permanent taxpayers of both sexes who have made these premises their home, have not obtained recognition for what they are, invincibly and by nature, a syndicate of neighbors, an involuntary, obligatory and private association, in which physical solidarity engenders moral solidarity, a natural, limited society whose members own the building in common, and each possesses a property right more or less great, according to the greater or lesser contribution he makes to the expenses of the establishment. Up to this time no room has yet been found, either in the law or in minds, for this very plain truth; its place is taken and occupied in advance by the two errors which, in turn or both at once, have led the legislator and opinion astray.

Taking things as a whole, it is admitted up to 1830 that the legitimate proprietor of the local building is the central state, that it may install its delegate therein, the prefect, with full powers; that, for better government, he consents to be instructed by the leading interested and most capable parties on the spot; that he should fix the petty rights he concedes to them within the narrowest limits; that he should appoint them; that, if he calls them together for consultation, it is from time to time and generally for form's sake, to add the authority of their assent to the authority of his omnipotence, on the implied condition that he shall not give heed to their objections if he does not like them, and not follow their advice if he does not choose to accept it.--Taking things as a whole, it is admitted that, since 1848, the legitimate proprietors of the building are its adult male inhabitants, counted by heads, all equal and all with an equal part in the common property, comprising those who contribute nothing or nearly nothing to the common expenditure of the house, the numerous body of semi-poor who lodge in it at half price, and the not less numerous body to whom administrative charity furnishes house comforts, shelter, light, and frequently provisions, gratuitously.--Between both these contradictory and false conceptions, between the prefect of the year VIII, and the democracy of 1792, a compromise has been effected; undoubtedly, the prefect, sent from Paris, is and remains the titular director, the active and responsible manager of the departmental or communal building; but, in his management of it he is bound to keep in view the coming elections, and in such a way as will maintain the parliamentary majority in the seats they occupy in parliament; consequently, he must conciliate the local leaders of universal suffrage, rule with their help, put up with the intrusion of their bias and cupidity, take their advice daily, follow it often, even in small matters, even in payments day by day of sums already voted, in appointing an office-clerk, in the appointment of an unpaid underling, who may some day or other take this clerk's place.[4247]--Hence the spectacle before our eyes: a badly kept establishment in which profusion and waste render each other worse and worse, where sinecures multiply and where corruption enters in; a staff of officials becoming more and more numerous and less and less serviceable, harassed between two different authorities, obliged to possess or to simulate political zeal and to neutralize an impartial law by partiality, and, besides performing their regular duties, to do dirty work; in this staff, there are two sorts of employees, the new-comers who are greedy and who, through favor, get the best places, and the old ones who are patient and pretend no more, but who suffer and grow disheartened; in the building itself, there is great demolition and reconstruction, architectural fronts in monumental style for parade and to excite attention, entirely new decorative and extremely tiresome structures at extravagant cost; consequently, loans and debts, heavier bills at the end of each year for each occupant, low rents, but still high, for favorites in the small rooms and garrets, and extravagant rents for the larger and more sumptuous apartments; in sum, forced receipts which do not offset the expenses; liabilities which exceed assets; a budget which shows only a stable balance on paper,--in short, an establishment with which the public is not content, and which is on the road to bankruptcy.

*****

[Footnote 4201: Laws of March 21, 1831, and July 18, 1837, June 22, 1833, and May 10, 1838. The municipal electors number about 2,250,000 and form the superior third of the adult masculine population; in the choice of its notables and semi-notables, the law takes into account not only wealth and direct taxation but likewise education and services rendered to the public.--The department electors number about 200,000, about as many as the political electors. The reporter observes that "an almost complete analogy exists between the choice of a deputy and the choice of a department councilor, and that it is natural to confide the election to the same electoral body otherwise divided, since the object is to afford representation to another order of interests."]

[Footnote 4202: Laws of July 3, 1848.]

[Footnote 4203: Laws of Aug. 12, 1876, March 28, 1882, and April 5, 1884; law of Aug. 10, 1871.]

[Footnote 4204: The prefect, who is directed and posted by the minister of the Interior in Paris.]

[Footnote 4205: "The Revolution," vol. I., book VIII. (Laff. I. pp. 467-559.)]

[Footnote 4206: And in 1880 it certainly excluded the female side of human nature. (SR.)]

[Footnote 4207: It must have been evident that nature gives to each worker, hunter, farmer or fisherman in accordance with their competence and industry. (SR.)]

[Footnote 4208: Construction of roads, canals, sewers, highways etc and protection against calamities.]

[Footnote 4209: Paul Leroy-Beaulieu, "Traité de la science des finances," 4th edition, I., p. 303: "The personal tax, levied only as principal, oscillates between the minimum of 1 fr. 50 and the maximum of 4 fr. 50 per annum, according to the communes."--Ibid., 304: "In 1806 the personal tax produced in France about sixteen millions of francs, a little less than 0 fr. 50 per head of the inhabitants."]

[Footnote 4210: Ibid., I., 367 (on the tax on doors and windows). According to the population of the commune, this is from 0 fr. 30 to 1 fr. for each opening, from 0 fr. 45 to 1 fr. 50 for two openings, from 0 fr. 90 to 4 fr. 50 for three openings, from 1 fr. 60 to 6 fr. 40 for four openings, and from 2 fr. 50 to 8 fr. 50 for five openings. The first of these rates is applied to all communes of less than 5000 souls. We see that the poor man, especially the poor peasant, is considered; the tax on him is progressive in an inverse sense.]

[Footnote 4211: De Foville, "La France Economique" (1887), p.59: "Our 14,500 charity bureaux gave assistance in 1883 to 1,405,500 persons;.... as, in reality, the population of the communes aided (by them) is only 22,000,000, the proportion of the registered poor amounts to over six per cent."]

[Footnote 4212: Paul Leroy-Beaulieu, "Essai sur la répartition des richesses," p.174, et seq.--In 1851, the number of land-owners in France was estimated at 7,800,000. Out of these, three millions were relieved of the land tax, as indigent, and their quotas were considered as irrecoverable.]

[Footnote 4213: Paul Leroy-Beaulieu, "Traité de la science des finances," p.721.]

[Footnote 4214: De Foville, p.419. (In 1889.)]

[Footnote 4215: Cf ante, on the characteristics of indirect taxation.]

[Footnote 4216: Here it is the estimated rent, which stands to the real rent as four to five; an estimated rent of 400 francs indicates a real rent of 500 francs.]

[Footnote 4217: De Foville, p.57.]

[Footnote 4218: Paul Leroy-Beaulieu," Essai sur la répartition de richesses," p. 174.]

[Footnote 4219: Ibid., p.209: In 1878, in Paris, 74,000 houses with 1,022,539 rentals, 337,587 being for trade and commerce, and 684,952 for dwelling purposes. Among the latter, 468,641 have a locative value inferior to 300 francs a year; 74,360 are between 500 and 750 francs; 21,147 are between 750 and 1000 francs. All these lodgings are more or less exempt from the personal tax: those between 1000 and 400 francs pay it with a more or less great reduction: those under 400 francs pay nothing. Above 1000 francs, we find 17,202 apartments from between 1000 and 1250 francs; 6198 from between 1250 and 1500 francs; 21,453 from 1500 to 3000 francs. These apartments are occupied by more or less well-to-do people.--14,858 apartments above 3000 francs are occupied by the richer or the wealthy class. Among the latter 9985 are from 3000 to 6000; 3040 are from 6000 to 10,000; 1443 are from 10,000 to 20,000; 421 are above 20,000 francs. These two latter categories are occupied by the really opulent class.--According to the latest statistics, instead of 684,952 dwelling rentals there are 806,187, of which 727,419 are wholly or partly free of the personal tax. ("Situation au 1ère Janvier, 1888," report by M. Lamouroux, conseiller-municipal.)]

[Footnote 4220: The following appropriations for 1889 are printed on my tax-bill: "To the State, 51%.; to the Department, 21%; to the commune, 25%." On business permits: "To the State, 64%.; to the Department, 12%; to the commune, 20%. The surplus of taxes is appropriated to the benevolent fund and for remission of taxes."]

[Footnote 4221: Paul Leroy-Beaulieu, "Traité de la science des finances," I., pp. 367-368: "In communes under 5000 inhabitants the principal of the tax on doors and windows is, for houses with one opening, 0 fr. 30 per annum; for those with four openings, 1 fr. 60." Now, "a house with five openings pays nearly nine times as much as a house with one opening." The small taxpayers are accordingly largely relieved at the expense of those who pay heavy and average taxes, the magnitude of this relief being appreciable by the following figures: In 1885, out of 8,975,166 houses, 248,352 had one opening, 1,827,104 two openings, 1,624,516 three openings, and 1,165,902 four openings. More than one-half of the houses, all of those belonging to the poor or straitened, are thus relieved, while the other half, since the tax is an impost, not a quota, but an apportionment, is overcharged as much.]

[Footnote 4222: One result of this principle is, that the poor who are exempt from taxation or who are on the poor list have no vote, which is the case in England and in Prussia.--Through another result of the same principle, the law of May 15, 1818, in France, summoned the heaviest taxpayers, in equal number with the members of the municipal council, to deliberate with it every time that "a really urgent expenditure" obliged the commune to raise extra additional centimes beyond the usual 0 fr. 05. "Thus," says Henrion de Pancey ("Du pouvoir municipal," p.109), "the members of the municipal councils belong to the class of small land-owners, at least in a large number of communes, voted the charges without examination which only affected them insensibly."--This last refuge of distributive justice was abolished by the law of April 5, 1882.]

[Footnote 4223: Max Leclerc, "Le Vie municipale en Prusse." (Extrait des "Annales de l'Ecole libre des sciences politique," 1889, a study on the town of Bonn.) At Bonn, which has a population of 35,810 inhabitants, the first group is composed of 167 electors: the second, of 471; the third, of 2607, each group elects 8 municipal councilors out of 24.]

[Footnote 4224: De Foville, "La France économique," p. 16 (census of 1881).--Number of communes, 36,097; number below 1000 inhabitants, 27,503; number below 500 inhabitants, 16,870.--What is stated applies partly to the two following categories: 1st, communes from 1000 to 1500 inhabitants, 2982; 2nd, communes from 1500 to 2000 inhabitants, 1917.--All the communes below 2000 inhabitants are counted as rural in the statistics of population, and they number 33,402.]

[Footnote 4225: See Paul Leroy-Beaulieu, "L'État moderne et ses fonctions," p. 169. "The various groups of inhabitants, especially in the country, do not know how to undertake or agree upon anything of themselves. I have seen villages of two or three hundred people belonging to a large scattered commune wait patiently for years and humbly petition for aid in constructing an indispensable fountain, which required only a contribution of 200 or 300 francs, 5 francs per head, to put up. I have seen others possessing only one road on which to send off their produce and unable to act in concert, when, with an outlay of 2000 francs, and 200 or 300 francs a year to keep it in order, it would easily suffice for all their requirements. I speak of regions relatively rich, much better off than the majority of communes in France."]

[Footnote 4226: In French villages, on one of the walls of a public building on the square are notices of all kinds, of interest to the inhabitants, and among these, in a frame behind a wire netting, the latest copy of the government official newspaper, giving authentic political items, those which it thinks best for the people to read. (Tr.)]

[Footnote 4227: On the communal system in France, and on the reforms which, following the example of other nations, might be introduced into it, cf. Joseph Ferrand (formerly a prefect), "Les Institutions administratives en France et à l'étranger"; Rudolph Gneist, "Les Réformes administratives en Prusse accomplies par la legislation de 1872," (especially the institution of Amtsvorsteher, for the union of communes or circumscriptions of about 1500 souls); the Duc de Broglie, "Vues sur le gouvernement de la France" (especially on the reforms that should be made in the administration of the commune and canton), p. 21.--"Deprive communal magistrates of their quality as government agents; separate the two orders of functions; have the public functionary whose duty it is to see that the laws are executed in the communes, the execution of general laws and the decisions of the superior authority carried out, placed at the county town."]

[Footnote 4228: De Foville, ibid., p. 16.--The remarks here made apply to towns of the foregoing category (from 5000 to 10,000 souls), numbering 312. A last category comprises towns from 2000 to 5000 souls, numbering 2160, and forming the last class of urban populations; these, through their mixed character, assimilate to the 1817 communes containing from 1500 to 2000 inhabitants, forming the first category of the rural populations.]

[Footnote 4229: Max Leclerc, "La Vie municipale en Prusse," p 17.--In Prussia, this directing mind is called "the magistrate," as in our northern and northeastern communes. In eastern Prussia, the "magistrate" is a collective body; for example, at Berlin, it comprises 34 persons, of which 17 are specialists, paid and engaged for twelve years, and 17 without pay. In western Prussia, the municipal management consists generally of an individual, the burgomaster, salaried and engaged for twelve years.]

[Footnote 4230: Max Leclerc, ibid., p.20.--"The present burgomaster in Bonn was burgomaster at Münchens-Gladbach, before being called to Bonn. The present burgomaster of Crefeld came from Silesia.... A lawyer, well known for his works on public law, occupying a government position at Magdeburg," was recently called "to the lucrative position of burgomaster" in the town of Münster. At Bonn, a town of 30,000 inhabitants, "everything rests on his shoulders he exercises a great many of the functions which, with us, belong to the prefect."]

[Footnote 4231: Max Leclerc, ibid., p. 25.--Alongside of the paid town officers and the municipal councilors, there are special committees composed of benevolent members and electors "either to administer or superintend some branch of communal business, or to study some particular question." "These committees, subject, moreover, in all respects to the burgomaster, are elected by the municipal council."--There are twelve of these in Bonn and over a hundred in Berlin. This institution serves admirably for rendering those who are well disposed useful, as well as for the development of local patriotism, a practical sense and public spirit.]

[Footnote 4232: Aucoc, p. 283.]

[Footnote 4233: Paul Leroy-Beaulieu, "L'administrateur locale en France et en Angleterre," pp.26, 28, 92. (Decrees of March 25, 1852, and April 13, 1861.)]

[Footnote 4234: J. Ferrand, ibid., p. 169, 170 (Paris, 1879): "In many cases, general tutelage and local tutelage are paralyzed.... Since 1870-1876 the mayors, to lessen the difficulties of their task, are frequently forced to abandon any rightful authority; the prefects are induced to tolerate, to approve of these infractions of the law.... For many years one cannot read the minutes of a session of the council general or of the municipal council without finding numerous examples of the illegality we report.... In another order of facts, for example in that which relates to the official staff, do we not see every day agents of the state, even conscientious, yield to the will of all-powerful political notabilities and entirely abandon the interests of the service?"--These abuses have largely increased within the past ten years.]

[Footnote 4235: See "La République et les conservateurs," in the Revue des Deux Mondes of March 1, 189?, p.108.--"I speak of this de visu from experience, (SR.): I take my own arrondissement. It is in one of the eastern departments, lately represented by radicals. This time it was carried by a conservative. An attempt was first made to annul the election, which had to be given up as the votes in dispute were too many. Revenge was taken on the electors. Gendarmes, in the communes, investigated the conduct of the curés, forest-guard, and storekeeper. The hospital doctor, a conservative, was replaced by an opportunist. The tax-comptroller, a man of the district, and of suspicious zeal, was sent far into the west. Every functionary who, on the even of the election, did not have a contrite look, was threatened with dismissal. A road-surveyor was regarded as having been lukewarm, and accordingly put on the retired list. There is no petty vexation that was not resorted to, no insignificant person, whom they disdained to strike. Stone breakers were denounced for saying that they ought not to have their wages reduced. Sisters of charity, in a certain commune, dispensed medicine to the poor; they were forbidden to do this, to annoy the mayor living in Paris. The custodians of mortgages had an errand-boy who was guilty of distributing, not voting-tickets, but family notices (of a marriage) on the part of the new deputy; a few days after this, a letter from the prefecture gave the custodian notice that the criminal must be replaced in twenty-four hours. A notary, in a public meeting, dared to interrupt the radical candidate; he was prosecuted in the court for a violation of professional duties, and the judges of judiciary reforms condemned him to three months 'suspension.' This took place, "not in Languedoc, or in Provence, in the south among excited brains where everything is allowable, but under the dull skies of Champagne. And when I interrogate the conservatives of the West and the Center, they reply: "We have seen many beside these, but is long since we have ceased to be astonished!"]

[Footnote 4236: Ibid., p.105: "Each cantonal chief town has its office of informers. The Minister of Public Worship has himself told that on the first of January, 1890, there were 300 curés deprived of their salary, about three or four times as many as on the first of January, 1889."]

[Footnote 4237: These figures are taken from the latest statistical reports. Some of them are furnished by the chief or directors of special services.]

[Footnote 4238: Taine could hardly have imagined how costly the modern democracy would, 100 years later, become. How could he have imaged that the "Human Rights" should become the right to live comfortably and well at the expense of an ever more productive society.]

[Footnote 4239: De Foville, pp.412, 416, 425, 455; Paul Leroy-Beaulieu, "Traité de la science des finances," I., p.717.]

[Footnote 4240: "Statistiques financières des communes en 1889":--3539 communes pay less than 15 common centimes; 2597 pay from 0 fr. 15 to 0 fr. 30; 9652 pay from 0 fr. 31 to 0 fr. 50; 11,095 from 0 fr. 51 to 1 franc, and 4248 over 1 franc.--Here this relates only to the common centimes; to have the sum total of the additional local centimes of each commune would require the addition of the department centimes, which the statistics do not furnish.]

[Footnote 4241: Paul Leroy-Beaulieu, ibid., I., pp.690, 717.]

[Footnote 4242: Ibid.: "If the personal tax were deducted from the amount of personal and house tax combined we would find that the assessment of the state in the product of the house tax, that is to say the product of the tax on rentals, amounts to 41 or 42 millions, and that the share of localities in the product of this tax surpasses that of the state by 8 or 9 millions (Year 1877.)"]

[Footnote 4243: Between 1805 and 1900 the French franc was tied to the gold standard. A 20 francs coin thus weighed 7,21 grams. Its price is today in 1998 1933.--francs. Taine's figures have to be multiplied by app. ten in order to compare with today's prices. No real comparison can, however, be made since production per capita has multiplied by a large factor and so have taxes.]

[Footnote 4244: "Situation financière des department et des communes," published in 1889 by the Minister of the Interior. Loans and indebtedness of the departments at the end of the fiscal year in 1886, 630,066,102 francs. Loans and indebtedness of the communes Dec. 30, 1886, 3,020,450,528 francs.]

[Footnote 4245: De Foville, p.148; Paul Leroy-Beaulieu, "L'État moderne et ses fonctions," p. 21.]

[Footnote 4246: During the 110 years since Taine wrote his somber previsions the French have had to pay the same penalty as other ill managed Democracies; Bankruptcies direct or indirect with galloping inflation and enormous devaluations with as a consequence impoverishment of naive depositors and credulous pension fund participants, wars for which France was badly prepared with millions of dead and prisoners and with occupation of France as a result. The culprits, the elected politicians, have either died or anyhow lived out their lives comfortably on the indexed retirements which the oligarchy generally reserves for themselves. (SR.)]

[Footnote 4247: Paul Leroy-Beaulieu, "L'Administration locale en France et en Angleterre," p. 28. (Decrees of March 25, 1852, and April 13, 1861.) List of offices directly appointed by the prefect and on the recommendation of the heads of the service, among others the supernumeraries of telegraph lines and of the tax offices.]

End of The Modern Regime, Volume 1 [Napoleon]