[71] Charles Franck, _Les Bourses du Travail et la Confédération Générale du Travail_ (Paris, 1910), p. 17. [72] G. de Molinari, _Les Bourses du Travail_ (Paris, 1893), p. 257. [73] Molinari, _op. cit._, p. 280. The first _Bourse du Travail_ was opened in Paris in 1887. The example of Paris was followed by other municipalities of France, and in a short time many of the larger cities of France had their _Bourses du Travail_. The Allemanists obtained the predominating influence in the _Bourses du Travail_, and they conceived the idea of opposing to the "National Federation of Syndicats"--which was an instrument in the hands of the Guesdists--a "Federation of _Bourses du Travail_," in which they would have the leading part.[74] The "Federation of _Bourses du Travail_" was organized in 1892 with the following program: (1) To unify the demands of the workingmen's syndicats and to bring about the realization of these demands; (2) To extend and to propagate the action of the _Bourses du Travail_, in the industrial and agricultural centers; (3) To nominate delegates to the National Secretariat of Labor; (4) To collect statistical data and to communicate them to the adhering Bourses, and at the same time to generalize the gratuitous service of finding employment for workers of both sexes and of all trades.[75] [74] Pelloutier, _op. cit._, p. 64. [75] Seilhac, _Les Congrès Ouvriers_, p. 230. The "National Secretariat of Labor" mentioned was created after the International Socialist Congress of Brussels in 1891. The Congress of Brussels had proposed to create in all countries National Secretariats in order to unify the labor and socialist movement of the world. In France, the National Secretariat of Labor soon experienced the fate of other organizations. In view of political differences, it was abandoned by the Guesdists, Independents, and Broussists. It therefore could not achieve the aim it had in view and lost all significance. Into this situation there now entered another factor, which was to determine the course of further groupings. This factor was the idea of the general strike. The idea was not new in the history of the labor movement and not original with France. It had been widely discussed in England during the 30's[76] and afterwards at the Congresses of the "International".[77] It reappeared in France in the second half of the 80's and seems to have been suggested by the wide strike movement in America during 1886-7. Its first propagandist in France seems to have been a French anarchist workingman, Tortelier, a member of the syndicat of carpenters.[78] [76] B. & S. Webb, _History of Trade Unionism_, pp. 118-122. [77] Dr. E. Georgi, _Theorie und Praxis des Generalstreiks in der modernen Arbeiterbewegung_ (Jena, 1908). [78] H. Lagardelle, _La Grève Générale et le Socialisme_ (Paris, 1905), p. 42.