New-York tribune., 1879-01-02
FRENCH FACTORY LIFE.
PROVISION FOR WORK PEOPLE.

| there may be enough left of it to Iuake Euro
! pcan experiences still valuabe--come through
what channel they may. The nfOrmstion am going
! 10 offer to you is derived from source which
should hesitate to recommend as always, or usually,
| Trustworthy have said before now what think
| Of lie Figaro Of Paris. and it would not be good
manners TO repeat it, when have to acknowledge
that am borrowing my facts from it. In this case
! fancy it may I've trusted. The topic has only an
indirect relation to politics albeit the article of
! II. de Saint-Genest has the formidable land
! perhaps over-confdcnt heading, ~ Solution
of the Social Question Whether it be a
solution or not, won't attempt to say.
! But the article deals with a man who IS
interesting on another side; who is known to all
the world az a printer and publisher of books; one
Of the greatest now concerned III that business
/ u. Name. of Tours. have known NJ. Name for a
! loU Z time as "a maker OF books. / met with him
loT the first tame a social reformer, and am gong
| to suppose thot all. or nearly all of what " de
Saut-sicuest Sdys about him Is true. His value in
th.t character consist, n,t IN las theories # iheo.
ii-, be- have, bur m hia acts, as great employer Of
/ labor
Not the leost sagaciouS Of VI. Glmbctta's many
! sa2a'lOGS remarks This that there social
! question, bUt there are social quest IONS NJ. de
sau: Jeues who is at the opposite pole of politics,
/ tina, ;hoTc is merely a labor question which LaS
been stupidly named social question. And 1t IS the
/ labor q.c.tion winch N. MIme has dealt with.
It's not to be discovered from ". De Saint-Gentst
how many worknrn 81 Name employs, but the
number is certainly very large. though ore
may T. d,iY he permitted to doubt whether
il De large enongh 20 produce the 80, 600 volumes
day and jle 6,O0OOOO year which tins ivcy
winter assures us are the regular turnout of NJ.
Names e~tablishueut. lt is easier 10 believe III
tit 100 G-z"As Of skins consumed monthly IN the
4 btna!aC stops, and tAc 10000 sheep sacrificed
yearly 40 produce them. Perhaps 10 is tor the glory
. OF God. and more particularly Of the Cataolc
Church, that chrouicler has enlarged his figures
tte. N. Name one OF the great Catholic pub
li,her-. He was once known only or mainly as a
publ ,her Of devotional books. He is still 70 deyout
q son OF tue church that in adding edition Of
Pascal To- his great series of French classics he put
the editing of It into the hands of a priest and the
book viii remain TO all time illustration Of
1 Typography and Of JesuItieal hatred TO the great
Port Ro"allst; an observation for which N. Saint
Gcnrst j, IN uOw.se responsible.
What II. Name has done for his workmen may be
briefly stated. He has organized them into
a sort Of community. H. has established
nurseries where mothers may leave then babies as
they go to work recovering them on their return.
He ha. set up free schools for the older children,
who are taught what the priests permit to be
Taught: sewing, among other things not being
rrcAoued herctical or perlous to the soul. He has
organized hospitals where the sick are healed by
hs own doctor. You at once that here is proyi-
siou tor the weaker members Of whole households
and it is IA fact the idea of the family
which M Name has sought to develop.
! Father mother and children alike make part of
this vast establishment six eight persons of the
same household sometimes working together IN the
same shop. The craftsman has his separate cottage,
with It's own garden provided, as | infer from NJ.
de Saint-Genests not always quite explicit account,
by the great proprietor and presumably let by HIM
| AZ a moderate rent.
Beside all this, and more important than this u, !.
the mutual ald fund, 10 which the work people con-
tribute 10 cents a week ana from which they have
right to receive 80 cents day for each days ill
ness with medicines and doctor thrown In 2. the
fund for widows and orphans. which secures
! to the widow pension dnrng a number years equal
! 10 the years during which her husband has worked
for VI. Name 3. the retirement pension which en-
title, the workman at sixty to an allowance ofSl2O
| a wear without recourse, or OF $50 year with a
surviving right to the capital he may himself
have invested; fOnrth and lastly, the share of
profits granted the wOrkmen by the owner OF the
| business. with an arrangement by which third of
share Gi>trlbutttl 10 e;ch cHpiOye dhu l"O-
tlurds are reserved rs fund to be paid TO him
after twenty years service. ". Name himself cDn-
tributes SI2 900 year to this fand. The percent
age of profit, distributed l. not stated.
The result is says VI Name eulOgist. that the
yLolc body of employees Is secured against desti-
tuition: that drunkenness is unknown, and there
I, no staving away from work on Mon
days and tnat family life is taking the
pace of the hbertmism which IL ~ common
IN Industrial centres aud marriages are more
aud rIprr freq 1ent. Whether ther. no disputes
about wage, AMI no strikes are not told There
was great strik, in the printing business in Paris
tbls year One would rather like 10 know whether
II extended 10 NJ Mame'5 publishing family IN
Tours The Paris employers got the better OF their
vorkep who had no choice bat 20 GO back to their
ease, and presses on The old terms. What part dld
NJ Iane taLr in this crisis 1t would help to set
tie the labor question, perhaps. If that could he
stated Meantime there can be no doubt that he
i.,rry,, a good part Of I lie pan"gyrics which W. dc
,,u.,t thrrwise called BOnchcrOn, ilbeI-
alv Dc,tuN, on him.
There NAV T., other great French manufacturers
who rcuduct their business with q, much wise lib
crafty as the publisher If Tours. In England there
certainly are capitalists who have taken kindly
thou-At Tor their workm"n. aud devised institutions
ror ,hcIr btIei Titus Salt IS one AMI salthlrc
is famous the world over. | need not ~ into lhat,
hut # ~ de SaInt-lienests Article should by any
chance fall iato th" hands Of a reader who bears
of NJ mo- publications for the first Time II may d"
no harm to say that the praises IF them are slightly
oyeriJae NJ MLn.., We are told was moi
l,sinic stimulated ~ commercial hopes .>uch as
makrus a great fortune, OF by the worldly ambi-
tion of great fame. He inspired By religious
parpA,g Religious books before his time were
J badly printed on pOor paper; novels ana othtr
wicked books were clad III luxury he resolved
that the mis,as and moral treatiSes shoniu
have - chance and set himself {" compete with the