.

The work of one other congress must be mentioned. At Lyons (1901) it was
decided that an inquiry should be sent out to all the affiliated unions
to find out exactly how the proposed great social revolution was to be
carried out. For several years the Confederation had sought to launch a
revolutionary general strike, but so many of the rank and file were
asking, "What would we do, even if the general strike were successful?"
that it occurred to the leaders it might be well to find out. As a
result, they sent out the following list of questions:

"(1) How would your union act in order to transform itself from a group
for combat into a group for production?

"(2) How would you act in order to take possession of the machinery
pertaining to your industry?

"(3) How do you conceive the functions of the organized shops and
factories in the future?

"(4) If your union is a group within the system of highways, of
transportation of products or of passengers, of distribution, etc., how
do you conceive of its functioning?

"(5) What will be your relations to your federation of trade or of
industry after your reorganization?

"(6) On what principle would the distribution of products take place,
and how would the productive groups procure the raw material for
themselves?

"(7) What part would the _Bourses du Travail_ play in the transformed
society, and what would be their task with reference to the statistics
and to the distribution of products?"[6]

The report dealing with the results of this inquiry contains such a
variety of views that it is not easy to summarize it. It seems, however,
to have been more or less agreed that each group of producers was to
control the industry in which it was engaged. The peasants were to take
the land. The miners were to take the mines. The railway workers were
to take the railroads. Every trade union was to obtain possession of the
tools of its trade, and the new society was to be organized on the basis
of a trade-union ownership of industry. In the villages, towns, and
cities the various trades were then to be organized into a federation
whose duty would be to administer all matters of joint interest in their
localities. The local federations were then to be united into a General
Confederation, to whose administration were to be left only those public
services which were of national importance. The General Confederation
was also to serve as an intermediary between the various trades