The Autobiography of a Working Man

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1848. Excerpt: ... ening all the savings of industry, which we call capital, ' with annihilation. Woe unto France Her errors are neither royal nor republican.; they are economic. M. Chevalier is writing amid the tumult of the revolution of 1848, to correct some of the errors unhappily prevailing on the industrial questions of production and consumption. The following is a quotation from him; He is answering the allegation that France produces too inuch, and says of the present condition of the people: --' "The mass of all the products which France offers to the material wants of her population of 35,000,000 is differently estimated; it is probably an exaggeration to estimate it in money at ten millions. Supposing this to be divided at so much a head, it would give each Frenchman 78 centimes to expend per day in clothing, meat, lodging, instruction, and enjoyment, and it is out of that sum that any saving for a future day must be made. At the price at which all the necessaries of life are, can any thing like comfort be procured for 78 centimes per day? Evidently not. Even in the supposition that an equal division of the products could be made, France is not in a state to give to each of her inhabitants what is necessary for their comfort; the part which the poor would have would only keep them poor--the poor would only increase in number. There are, however, 15,000,000 of Frenchmen spread over the country, and in certain quarters of large cities, whose labour does not procure them even this average sum. I ask all those who have gone through the departments of the central plateau of France--those who have witnessed the existence of the peasants of the Hautes and Basses Alpes, who inhabit huts and live on black bread, cooked with cow-dung as their only fuel. I appeal to those w...