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GOVERNMENT  liY  INTERESTS

The  Government  has  undertaken  to  organize  group-
ings in  order  to  offset  the  predominance  of  the  C.  G.  T.
In  Marcli,  1919,  M.  Clementel,  INIinister  of  Commerce,
organized  a  Federation  of  the  Employers  of  Labor.  M.
Victor  Boret,  ]\Iinister  of  Agriculture,  seemed  to  be  re-
sponsible for  the  organization  of  a  General  Confedera-
tion of  Agriculture,  to  include  the  peasant  workers  of
France  and  to  be  independent  of  the  General  Confed-
eration of  Labor.  'Anotlier  organization  among  the
peasants  has  been  effected  in  the  Liguc  des  Paysans,
whose  purpose  is  ''the  extension  of  individual  property
and  the  protection  of  the  interests  of  all  the  producers
of  the  soil."

Among  the  employers  149  Chambers  of  Commerce
provide  the  most  general  organization.  The  French
Association  of  Industry  and  Agriculture ;  the  Society  of
Agriculturers ;  the  Committee  of  Forges ;  the  Committee
of  Forests ;  the  National  Confederation  of  Commerce  and
Industry,  composed  of  150  employers'  syndicates;  the
General  Association  of  Textile  Commerce  and  Industry;
the  Syndical  Alliance  of  Commerce  and  Industry;  the
Union  of  National  Industries ;  the  Union  of  Commerce
and  Industry;  the  Federation  of  French  IManufacturers
and  Merchants;  and  the  Central  Committee  of  Coal
Mines  of  France,  are  other  examples  of  the  extended
organization  among  French  business  men.
•  The  Union  of  Economic  Interests,  not  solely  a  pro-
fessional organization,  but  existing  for  propagandist
purposes,  is  composed  of  the  largest  employers'  organi-
zations in  France,  containing  about  seventy-five  Asso-
ciations, Syndical  Chambers,  Federations,  Alliances,  and
Committees,  from  the  greatest  diversity  of  industries.
This  organization  represents  one  of  the  first  attempts
toward  the  representation  of  interests  in  Parliament.
