The Hood River Glacier

MUCH MISERY IN FRANCE.
Result of Dock Strike at Marseilles-Floods Add to Distress.

PARIS, April 3.-The masters persist in their refusal to discuss a day of eight hours, which has all along been regarded by the strikers as the crucial point in the dispute. In spite of the increasing number of freight dockers now working, quantities of perishable goods lie rotting on the docks. Twenty-one steamers are awaiting discharge.

The general strike, while it lasted and the continued suspension of work, has done enormous injury to the commerce and industry of Marseilles. The calculations show an industrial loss of some 25,000,000 francs while the men have lost 2,000,000 francs in wages. A curious illustration of the bitterness which the strike has engendered between the men and masters is seen in the fact that the strikers instructed their delegates to give formal notification to the minister of finance of frauds in the oil seed trade, pointing out that oil seeds were imported in bags, which the custom officers have not been in the habit of opening, with the result that articles subject to a much higher import duty are smuggled in. The commerce of Marseilles is, for the time being, almost at a complete standstill. Foods which are imported are scarce. The prices of sugar, coffee, flour and other necessities have increased. A number of factories have been obliged to close. These conditions, added to the serious damage done by the floods and hail, have thrown the whole population into deep misery. The store keepers and merchants intend to appeal to the government to remit the taxes for the first three months of the year.