"_the extra-parliamentary committee resumed its
sittings, on January_ 16, 1885!"

'Six years of the true Republic having now been spent in these desperate
efforts to deal with the "beautiful and generous idea," and the election
of a new Chamber being imminent for the autumn of 1885, M.
Waldeck-Rousseau, Minister of the Interior, proceeded to lay before the
re-awakened committee--what? A project of a law to relieve the
co-operative idea from the crushing weight of the Imperial law of 1867?
Not a bit of it!

'He proceeded (it is still Brother Doumer who speaks!) to lay before the
Committee "_a summary of the studies upon which it ought to enter_!"

'According to Brother Doumer this "summary" was truly grand and even
"vast." But alas! "the general elections," says Brother Doumer, sadly,
"and afterwards successive ministerial crises, _suspended the inquiry
during more than two years_! It was only in 1888 that the
extra-parliamentary committee resumed its labours!"

'The Universal Exposition of 1889 was then organising and
organising--let me ask you not for a moment to forget--with a specific
eye, not so much to the "principles of 1789," about which our worthy
ministers care as much as they do about the Edict of Nantes or the
philosophy of Pascal, as to the Legislative elections of 1889!

'So what did the extra-parliamentary committee do in this _ninth year_
of the one "true Republic" for the "beautiful and generous idea" of
co-operation?

'They adopted a decree--"a firm and practical decree"--promulgated June
6, 1888, "permitting several co-operative societies to contract for
public works, especially in connection with the Exposition"! and they
also adopted "two projects of laws"!

'"The first of these projects" (it is still Brother Doumer who speaks),
"aimed at the creation of a general provident fund, industrial,
commercial, and agricultural, to be managed by the 'Caisse des Depots et
Consignations.'"

'"This very interesting project," says Brother Doumer, "_has not yet
been submitted to the Chamber_. Sent up to be examined by the Ministry
of the Interior to the Ministry of Commerce, it is there undergoing _a
prolonged and inexplicable delay_!"

'No! no! Brother Doumer! "prolonged" if you like, but not
"inexplicable!"

'And so, after now _ten years_, we have the true Republic which got
complete possession in 1879 of all the machinery for giving force and
effect to the "beautiful and generous" idea of co-opera