Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 11.djvu/191

 SOCIAL SOLIDARITY IN FRANCE 175

by the fact that 93,438 persons were cared for in asylums, of whom 40,000 were old or incurable. In these institutions 30,000 were under ecclesiastical and 7,000 under laic care.

3. The essential factors in the new law. An analysis of the Senate bill, as compared with the bill previously adopted by an almost unanimous vote of the Chamber of Deputies, will give concrete expression of the principle of social solidarity as now accepted by French public opinion. The two bills are almost identical in language, and they are in entire agreement in matters of principle, although there are minor variations in details, and various amendments will be required before agreement has been reached.

There are six titles : the organization of assistance, admission to relief, modes of relief, ways and means, jurisdiction, and mis- cellaneous provisions.

TITLE I. ORGANIZATION OF ASSISTANCE

The vital principle of social legislation is expressed in the first article : " Every Frenchman who is deprived of resources, is of the age of seventy years, is afflicted and sick of an incurable dis- ease, and is thus unable to provide for his own wants by labor, is to receive, under the conditions here recited, the relief provided by the present law." This solemn declaration of the law-making representatives of the nation assures to every citizen, when he is indigent and helpless, the friendly aid of the whole people. The law explicitly requires that no citizen shall be left to the chance of being discovered and aided by some charitable agency. Caprice is excluded, and the local authorities are legally required to act so as to make relief certain. 7 An alien is to be guaranteed the same relief as a citizen, if, by treaty or other legal arrangement, the government to which the alien belongs has bound itself to treat indigent Frenchmen within its territory in the same way.

7 One difference in phrase is significant. The Chamber of Deputies had said : " Tout Francais .... a droit . . . . au service de solidarite sociale institue sous forme d'assistance obligatoire par la presente loi." The Senate document says : " Tout Francais .... recoit .... 1'assistance institue par la presente loi." The idea of the legal right to relief and the rather vague phrase " solidarity " are avoided in the Senate bill.