Page:Jean Jaurès socialist and humanitarian 1917.djvu/94

 machinations of the priests. Clericalism in fact was seen to be the great enemy.

The common danger united advanced Republicans and caused them to seek an alliance with the Radical-Socialists, and with the Socialists of whom Jaurès was the leader. Millerand, one of the Socialists, was offered a post in the coalition cabinet under Waldeck-Rousseau, and he took office as Minister of Commerce and Industry in 1899. In the preface to the English edition of Jaurès' Studies in Socialism, we are told that Millerand succeeded in getting a law passed which limited the working day in factories, when men, women, and children are all employed, to ten hours, and in his own department he instituted an eight-hours day. He established certain good minimum conditions for all labour on contracts for national public works. He encouraged organized labour and created labour councils, the members of which were elected by the workers and by the masters. These councils form permanent boards of arbitration, which may be consulted in any dispute with a private employer, and must be consulted by the State as employer. They fix the standard rate of wages and hours for every district. Millerand made other efforts for the workers, but he sometimes voted against his own party, and as a member of the Government he had to take part in the reception of the Tzar.