nd alterations of policy, though
it remained consistently _Radical_ and not socialistic. The Ministers
were often at loggerheads (even Clemenceau and Briand over the
Separation bill), and the Deputies were often mediocre politicians,
quick to vote themselves an increase of salary, but dilatory in other
achievements. The growth of socialism, with its theories of pacifism and
international brotherhood, encouraged the anti-militarists. The
brilliant leader Jaures openly advocated the abolition of the army and
the creation of a national militia. Some anti-militarists, like Herve,
carried their theories beyond all bounds and rhetorically talked of
dragging the national flag in the mire. Meanwhile the political methods
in the past of men like Andre in the War Department and Camille Pelletan
in the Navy had weakened those services, as Delcasse had found to his
cost in the controversy with Germany. The battleship _Iena_ blew up in
March, 1907, there was a suspicious fire at the Toulon Arsenal, and
many other things disquieted people.

The Government tried to cater to the labor parties, brought forward
plans for an income tax and for old-age pensions, and carried through a
law making compulsory one day of rest out of seven for workingmen.
Especially active were the efforts of the syndicalists and the
organizers of the anarchistic _Confederation generale du travail_, or
"C.G.T.," to promote every contest between capital and labor and to
bring about, if possible, a general strike of all labor. There were
strikes of miners, longshoremen, sailors, electricians among others.
Even more alarming was the formation of unions, affiliated with the
C.G.T., among state employees such as school teachers and postmen, and
efforts to disorganize the public service. These different movements
Clemenceau met with his customary seesaw of friendliness and harshness,
and the Government was usually victorious. Not less troublesome but
somewhat more picturesque was the quasi-revolutionary movement, in 1907,
of the wine-makers of the South, driven to desperation by overproduction
and low prices, attributed to the competition of adulterated wines. The
municipalities where these disturbances occurred were often in sympathy
with the creators of disturbance, not only in small towns, but in large
places like Beziers, Perpignan, Narbonne, and Carcassonne. Municipal
officials resigned or refused to carry out their duties, and some
regiments, made up of men recr