FRENCH POLITICS
687
about keep step with the most pressing needs of a growing population.
Until this year, France--according to a United Nations report released
in Geneva in mid-September- had the melancholy distinction of being
the least progressive country in Europe where housing is concerned.
Last year the rate of construction was nine domiciles per thousand in–
habitants, against 23 in Holland, 24 in Britain and 27 in West Ger–
many.
It was against this background of crushing taxes, mounting deficits,
industrial stagnation, high prices, falling exports, inefficient farming
and non-existent housing, that M. Mendes-France last June came before
the National Assembly and boldly proposed an ambitious but vague pro–
gram of structural reforms, to be introduced in large part by decree
(with subsequent parliamentary sanction). One of his principal points
was the need to stimulate food production and get prices down, so as
to increase exports and at the same time bring relief to the hard-pressed
housewife. Everyone immediately understood what he was after, and
the Assembly shrank back; for though technically he came to grief over
Indo-China-most of the Gaullists and nearly all the conservative "In–
dependents" refusing to go along with his implied plea for a negotiated
peace and/or gradual withdrawal-the real obstacle was the farm prob–
lem: to make French farming more efficient means tackling the working
habits of the most numerous and politically powerful class of the com–
munity-its working habits, not its living standard, which is low and
should not be depressed. The share of agriculture in the national income
is only 20 percent, though 30 percent of the national labor force is em–
ployed on the land. The peasants, therefore, excepting the minority of
rich and efficient farmers, have some excuse for claiming that they can–
not pay more taxes. What they could and should do is grow more food.
But
this
either means "consolidation" of parceled-out land holdings, so
as to create economically viable units which can be mechanized, or–
some form of cooperative farming. As noted above, no French govern–
ment has so far had the heart to try either course.
There is thus some justification for the wry remark' now to be
encountered here and there that France is Europe's biggest underdevel–
oped area. This kind of statement, however, represents as a technical
operation what is in reality a social and political choice. It is easy
enough to agree on the facts: everyone knows by now that the French
economy is weighed down by an absurd system of taxation, by too many
middlemen, by the under-capitalization of agriculture and the consequent
flight from the land, and by the tendency of French investors to smuggle
