396 



SCIElSfCE. 



[Vol. IX., No. 23 



mission of one of the two managers (who were 

 chosen by election) should be fined, and if the 

 offence were repeated during the year, the fine 

 was doubled. 



Before the revolution of 1848 the French govern- 

 ment was very jealous of innovations not ema- 

 nating from itself or submitted for its approval ; 

 but after 1848 the right of workmen to associate 

 so as to enjoy the profits of their work was recog- 

 nized, and co-operation became popular. On July 

 5, 1848, the chamber passed a decree which pro- 

 vided, that, in order to encourage the spirit of co- 

 operation, a fund of three million francs should 

 be placed at the disposal of the minister of agri- 

 culture and commerce, to be divided among co- 

 operative associations spontaneously formed eithet 

 between workmen, or masters and vrorkmen. 

 Shortly afterwards a committee of sixteen met to 

 distribute this state aid. Five hundred requests 

 for loans from this fund were received in a single 

 year, and many associations came into existence 

 solely for the purpose of obtaining a share of the 

 subsidy. As a matter of fact, the major part of 

 the loan was given to employers in want of tem- 

 porary assistance, who failed to comply with the 

 provisions of the statutes as to their relations 

 with their vporkmen. The results of this govern- 

 ment aid are said to have been good, and some 

 saving was effected by employing these associa- 

 tions instead of contractors on publics works. 



The coup (Tetat of 1851 gave a shock to co- 

 operation in France, and the associations dis- 

 solved, fearing punishment as socialists. 



Whilst the movement was thus generally ar- 

 rested by the workmen's dread of the government, 

 a few new co-operative associations were quietly 

 started. The first of which there is any notice 

 was one of dyers, at Viilefranche, in 1856 ; in 

 1858 there were formed co-operations of tailors 

 at Toulouse, of carpenters in Paris, and of dyers at 

 Tarare ; in 1859, of house-painters in Paris ; and 

 in 1860 and 1862 co-operative workshops were 

 started at Marseilles and Montpellier. 



In 1864 the emperor showed that he had no op- 

 position to co-operation by protecting the first 

 branch of the famous Soci6te Internationale. In 

 1865 he went a step further, and caused to be 

 drawn a projet de loi creating a new form of as- 

 sociation for workmen's co-operative societies. 

 This effort was not wholly successful, and an in- 

 quiry into the whole working of co-operation was 

 instituted. The evidence was of much interest, 

 and tended to establish the fact that the labor of 

 an associated workman is better than that of the 

 unassociated. In 1868, when co-operation was 

 growing in favor, the failure of the Credit au tra- 

 vail — a society established to give credit to co- 



operation by discounting the paper of the associa- 

 tions, and by opening a credit with them on 

 suitable security — put a sudden stop to all co- 

 operative progress. The Credit au travail failed, 

 not because of losses, but because the capital of 

 the bank was locked up and unavailable. Neither 

 the Franco-German war nor the Commune seem 

 to have affected the co-operative societies. The 

 period between 1870 and 1880 was largely devoted 

 to talk and the elaboration of impracticable 

 schemes, and it was not until the strikes of 1879 

 and 1880 that general attention was again turned 

 to co-operation. A congress of workmen, meet- 

 ingat Paris in 1881, advocated co-operation through 

 the trades syndicates, and a number of societies 

 were formed in this way. In 1883 M. Waldeck- 

 Rousseau, minister of the interior, appointed a 

 commission to investigate co-operation, and the 

 results of the inquiry fill tw^o large volumes. The 

 evidence given before the commission by the 

 managers of thirty-four Paris co-operative work- 

 shops was very detailed and in many respects 

 valuable. The three principal names in connec- 

 tion with co-operative production in France are 

 those of M. Leclaire, the painter; M. Laroche 

 Joubert, the Angouleme paper-manufacturer ; and 

 M. Godin, the founder of the FamilistSre. What 

 the associations organized by these men have ac- 

 complished is well known. 



The details regarding co-operative credit institu- 

 tions in France present little that is new, and 

 building associations are very rarely found. In- 

 deed, no instance of workmen alone combining 

 for this object is known. One reference to educa- 

 tion in the statutes of a co-operative association 

 of tin-workers is worth noticing. It reads thus : 

 " As immorality proceeds from want of instruc- 

 tion, every member who has children is bound to 

 give them instruction according to his means, un- 

 der pain of exclusion from the society after two 

 warnings given at intervals of three months." 



Co-operative agricultural associations do not ex- 

 ist in France, and have proved a failure in Al- 

 geria. On the Mediterranean as on the Newfound- 

 land coasts, it is usual for the fishermen to share 

 the profits with the owners and masters of their 

 crafts. The usual plan of division in the neighbor- 

 hood of Marseilles is that half the take belongs to 

 the owner of the boat and gear, the other half to 

 the captain and crew pro rata. The system of 

 giving the hands regular wages instead of a share 

 in the profits is now on the increase. 



Dr. Emery of Brooklyn reports the poisoning 

 of thirty-two boys at an orphan-asylum in that 

 city from chewing the inner bark of the locust- 

 tree, which they stripped from fence-posts. 



