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INSIDE
1
A Little Regular Maintenance Keeps Finances on Track
2
Will Social Security Run Out? A Realistic Look at What’s Ahead
3
Simple Lifestyle Tweaks to Keep Your Blood Sugar in Check
4
Remembering the Great French Mustache Strike
SOLUTION
The Great French Mustache Strike of 1907 Advisory services are offered through Landmark Wealth Management Inc, dba McBeath Financial Group, an SEC Registered Investment Advisor firm. Insurance products and services are offered through McBeath Tax and Financial Services, LLC. McBeath Financial Group and McBeath Tax and Financial Services, LLC are affiliated. All content of this newsletter is for informational purposes only. Opinions expressed herein are solely those of McBeath Financial Group and our editorial staff. Material presented is believed to be from reliable sources; however, we make no representations as to its accuracy or completeness. All information and ideas should be discussed in detail with your individual financial professional prior to implementation. © 2025 McBeath Financial Group.
Workers usually go on strike to improve wages and working conditions. Leave it to the French to mount a historic strike for the right to grow a mustache. A full mustache was a prestigious mark of men’s social class in Europe in the early 20th century. Policemen were required to grow them to project authority and masculinity. Waiters rebelled when restaurant owners forced servers to shave their faces clean as a sign of their lower-class social status. During the dinner hour on April 17, 1907, an
They had support in Parliament, where one socialist deputy proposed a bill to outlaw mustache bans (which also applied to domestic servants and priests). The deputy called the restaurants’ mustache rule “grotesque and humiliating.” After 16 days, restaurant owners caved to servers’ mustache demands and implemented a fairer pay structure. The waiters, however, lost their bid for one day off each week.
constitutional right in France, whether you are a union member or not.
And the mustache had long been a mark of status in Europe. Centuries earlier, Germany only permitted soldiers who had distinguished themselves in battle to grow mustaches. In France, the military requirement to wear mustaches became so strict that soldiers who couldn’t grow one had to wear a fake mustache. No wonder the French waiters took their facial hair so seriously. Being required to shave relegated them to the domestic servant class. As one French newspaper of the time declared, the waiters’ victory secured the right “to finally show that they are men, free men … who can wear at their ease this symbol of the all- powerful male, the mustache. Oh! The beautiful independence!”
estimated 500 servers stopped
The French have long been famously quick to stage work stoppages.
dishing food, took off their aprons, and walked out, clustering on the street as diners looked on.
At 112 days on average, the country leads the industrialized West in days lost to strikes each year. The nation’s strike culture is linked to its history of revolt, including the 1789 French Revolution. Withholding one’s labor is a
The waiters also demanded a share of diners’ tips and the right to take one day off a week.
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