388 



The Review of Reviews. 



SOCIAL SERVICE IN FRANCE AND GERMANY. 

 What Has Been Achieved dy Women. 



In the mid-March number of La Revue M. Eticnne 

 Antonelli gives an account of the Gartenluuben of 

 Germany. 



GARTENI.AIBEN COl, OKIES. 



Amongst the social institutions of Berlin, he writes, 

 one of the most interesting, as it is one of the most 

 original, is that of the Garlcnlaulien. fn Germany are 

 designated by this name small plots of land, put by 

 municipalities, private societies, or even owners, with 

 a philanthropic purpose, at a nominal rent, at the 

 disposal of the working classes in cities, who, after their 

 day's work in the office or the workshop, come there 

 to get a little of the healthy life of the fields. On these 

 plots the tenants construct Lauben or arbours, and in 

 these little dwellings they live with their families 

 during the summer months, and cultivate their plots. 



'The plots, which are established on the outskirts of 

 the quarters of the city occupied by the working 

 classes, are grouped into colonies of two to three 

 lumdred. The idea, however, originated in France 

 about twenty years ago, when, as a result of the expe- 

 rience of Mmc. Her\ieu of Sedan, a few convinced 

 zealots endeavoured to realise it in the " coin de terre-el 

 (hi foyer." Thence it spread to Belgium, and from 

 Belgium to Germany, where the results obtained are 

 most interesting and gratifying. All the large cities 

 now have their Gartenlauben, and the different local 

 societies have been federated into one National League 

 comprising some 30,000 workmen's garden-plots, and 

 including over 150,000 pe/sons. For the last five years 

 the League has run an official weekly paper, giving the 

 official news of the L'nion, and advice as to the culti- 

 \ation of \'egetables, gardening, and housekeeping. 



THE GARDEN COLONIES OF CHARLOTTENBURG. 



In the suburbs of Berlin there are several colonies 

 of Gartenlauben, but the oldest, established in 1901 

 under the patronage of the German Red Cross Society, 

 and thanks to the efforts of Dr. Bielefeldt and Mme, 

 flora Froenkel, is that at Charlottenburg, on a piece 

 of land let by the municipality. Beginning with ninety- 

 four plots, it has at the prcent time thirteen colonies 

 composed of 1,055 plol"^- fhe rent for each plot is 

 about 3d. a week during the summer months, or about 

 5s. a year, and the occupiers lay out their own gardens 

 and construct their own dwellings at their own expense. 

 'I'he society inter\-enes as little as possible in the 

 administration, each colony having a small committee 

 of management elected by the occupiers from amongst 

 themselves. Mmc. Froenkel, who is the soul of the 

 colony, told the writer of the article of her initial diffi- 

 culties to secure the patronage of the Red Cross and 

 the confidence of the municipality. The German 

 Empress once visited it, and showed her appreciation 

 by presenting to it 3,000 strawberry plants of a special 

 and rare sort. Distributed amongst the tenants these 

 plants have so increased that the workers of the colony 

 now derive considerable pecuniary profit from the sale 

 of the fruit in the markets of Berlin. When a tenant is 



obliged to change his abode special arrangements have 

 been made to take over his plot and to compensate him. 



Social Institutions for Women in FRANtE. 

 Writing in the Grande Revue of February 25, AL L. M. 

 Compain gives an account of some of the more recent 

 works of Social Service instituted by women for women 

 in France. Ever since Christian civili.sation penetrated 

 Europe, women, he observes, have gone out from their 

 homes to institute and carry on works of charity and 

 pity, but to-day they desire to extend their sphere of 

 activity to works of social service. Among the new 

 institutions of social service inaugurated by women in 

 France in the present century is a training-school for 

 attendants on the sick, apart from the hospitals, and 

 for a private cUentHe. It was founded by Mile. 

 Allegret. Another is the social League of Buyers, 

 founded in 1903 by Mme. Jean Brunhes. It publishes 

 White Lists of firms which do not work their staff 

 beyond a fixed number of hours or on Sundays. The 

 first White List contained nine names ; in 1911 there 

 were forty-eight. The writer thinks it should be more 

 combative, for there remains a great deal to be done in 

 the direction of reduced hours of work and higher 

 wages. The present stipulation is that girls shall not 

 work before nine a.m. or after nine p.m. 



. DOING the work WHICH MEN LEAVE UNDONE. 



The enterprise known as " L'Entre-Aide " was 

 founded by Mme. Duchene. Its object was to pay the 

 workers better wages, and yet sell the goods manu- 

 factured at the same price as that charged by the great 

 shops. The newspapers refused to give publicity to the 

 enterprise, but Mme. Duchene succeeded without them, 

 and more recently the business has lieen transformed 

 into a co-operative concern. The .Association of Women 

 Students was founded in 1909 with the object of 

 obtaining for women certain rights of admission to the 

 laboratories, etc., which had hitherto been denied them. 

 Mile. Sauna was the founder of an .Associatior. of 

 Certificated Women Teachers, whose object is to obtain 

 better conditions and prevent the e.xploitation of 

 qualified women. The " Villegiature " for working 

 women was founded under the auspices of Mile. Korn. 

 Homes have been opened for women needing rest and 

 change, and the charge for pension is very low. Mile. 

 I.ucile Morin has established cheap restaurants for 

 women ; and Mme. Braunschweig the " Rechauds de 

 Midi," where working women have a pleasant place to 

 warm and partake of their midday meal. Maternal 

 canteens were founded eight years ago by Mmc. 

 Coullct ; and other institutions ha\e fiecn started to 

 fight against alcoholism and consumption. 



It is in the name of all these works of social service 

 that women now seek an extension of power, admission 

 to more complete life, the life of citizens, which alone 

 will enable them to realise in the municipality and in 

 the State the good which would not be done without 

 them. Just as women are needed in the home, women 

 are needed in the State — not to do the work of men, 

 but to do what men leave undone. 



