Lrading Articles in the Reviews. 



317 



technical, arc organised by them. At the present 

 moment the women's unions of Lyons have seventy- 

 eight teachers, who give instruction in commercial and 

 industrial subjects. All the unions ha\e employment 

 bureaux, and the free unions give legal advice to 

 members. To counteract sweating, co-operative 

 institutions of production have been created. In 

 1908 the .Syndicat lilondelu, the first co-operati\e 

 institution of [iroduction in Paris organised by women, 

 was founded. So far it has answered pretty well. 

 At Grenoble the glove-workers have adopted a similar 

 plan ; and elsewhere the same method has been taken 

 up. The co-operative idea has even been extended to 

 the purchase of materials. The trade union buys 

 needles, thread, etc., wholesale, and retails them to 

 the workers at cost price. 



LEGISL.\TION NEEDED. 



Hut the women's trade unions have not lost sight 

 of the fact that all their institutions merely constitute 

 palliatives. Suitable legislation alone can improve 

 their condition, especially that of the home-workers. 

 While the unions belonging to the Confederation of 

 Labour reject Parliamentary intervention, those 

 grouped under the Catholic banner approve of State 

 intervention to aid by social laws the efforts of the 

 unions. Three bills are before Parliament to establish 

 a minimum wage. The unions all agree with the 

 principle, but they complain that home-workers are 

 not suffi( ic-ntly taken into account. Coupled with the 

 (|uestion of the minimum wage is that of the hours 

 of labour. Twelve to fourteen hours a daiy is c[uite a 

 usual thing. Some groups have tried to get the week 

 limited to sixty hours ; others demand the English 

 week (the Saturday hulf-holiday), arguing that their 

 .Sunday is practically devoted to household duties, 

 which is not the case with men. 



Mutual ai<l is much more encouraged in women's 

 unions than in those composed of men. Pere Du Lac 

 introduced the system, and Mile. Rochebillard developed 

 it. In the matter of maternity benefit, however, 

 lrani:c is very much behindhand. Parliament ought 

 to take up the ijuestion of helping and jirotecting liie 

 mother, and the friendly societies shouhl include 

 rjiaternily benefit in their schemes. Creches, too, are 

 b.idlv needed. 



WOAIKNS RESTAURANTS IN PARIS. 

 Writing in the Correspotidanl of August 10, Abbe 

 |. de Muislrc describes the Women's Restaurants of 

 Paris. 



TIIK Rf-,rnAi;D. 



Thousands and thousands of working people invade 

 Paris every day to go to their work, a very large number 

 of them being young girls employed in shops, oflices, 

 or factories. The .Xlibe, who is full of sympathy for 

 the poor girls whose wages do not permit them to enter 

 an ordinarv restaurant, tells how hi' has seen them 

 partaking of their miserable lunch, seated on a Ijench 



in a public garden or sheltering in a doorway, and he 

 realises with others how these girls are thus exposed 

 to all sorts of dangers. Christian charity has made an 

 effort to .supply the wants of these people by founding 

 rechauds and restaurants for women onh'. 



The rechaud consists of a room furnished with tables 

 and seats, utensils, gas-warmers, and water. The 

 customer pays ten centimes, for which she has the 

 use of the gas 

 and the uten- 

 sils to warm 

 her food, and 

 before leaving 

 she must wash 

 what utensils 

 she has used. 



A few re- 

 c ha lid s sell 

 vegetables and 

 sweets, and 

 even tea or 

 coffee, but on 

 no condition 

 may they sell 

 wine. 



MEALS A I.A 

 CARTE. 



The tired 

 girl who pa- 

 tronises the re- 

 chaud has to 

 prepare her 

 food and clear 

 everything 

 away, while 

 her meal is 

 often insufii- 

 cient and un- 

 appetising, and 

 these are 

 serious draw- 

 backs to 

 workers with 

 long hours. 

 The .Abb c, 

 therefore, re- 

 < o m m e n d s 

 restaurants. 

 Some of those 

 established for 

 women serve 

 me;ds at fixed 



prices, but here the choice of dishes is apt to be 

 limited. He therefore advocates such restaurants as 

 that founded by Pere Du Lir, the first restaurant for 

 young girls established in Paris. He who names the 

 restaurant Stanisla<; at the Palais-Royal founded in 

 honour of Pere Du Lai-. Opened two years ago, in 

 the first year it served .|o,ooo meals, and in the second 



K'liuliitradtilsch.] Ilicrliii. 



'I'liK Starving .st:i traci -i 11: : " I 

 will mil cil my soup — no, 1 «ill not cat iiiy 

 soup I " 



