" - As to old and infirm
farmers or craftsmen, also poor mothers, wives and widows of artisans
and farmers, we keep in each department a "big ledger of national
welfare;" we inscribe thereon for every thousand inhabitants, four
farmers, two mechanics, five women, either mothers or widows; each
registered person shall be pensioned by the State, the same as a
maimed soldier; labor-invalids are as respectable as war-invalids. -
Over and above those who are thus aided on account of poverty, we
relieve and elevate the entire poor class, not alone the thirteen
hundred thousand destitutes counted in France,[69] but, again, all
who, having little or no means on hand, live from day to day on what
they can earn. We have passed a law[70] by which the public treasury
shall, through a tax on large fortunes, "furnish to each commune or
district the necessary funds for adapting the price of bread to the
rate of wages." Our representatives in the provinces impose on the
wealthy the obligation of "lodging, feeding, and clothing all infirm,
aged, and indigent citizens and orphans of their respective
cantons."[71] Through the decree on monopolization and the
establishment of the "maximum" we bring within reach of the poor all
objects of prime necessity.
Pages:
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167