, 1891-04-22
the PARIS LABOR EXCHANGE.
A Great Agency for n Announcements
the Interests of Workers.

Int PARIS C6Oh
A Great Agency for the Advancement Of
the Interests of workers.
An building has just been
completed in the Rue du Chateau d'Eu
in Paris. The nature of the use for
which it is intended is indicated by great
golden letters on its front, "Bourse du
Travail7-that is, labor exchange. The
building has five stories and a glass Gov
cred court, with a huge assembly room
of 80 feet high, 70 feet long and 60
feet wide. The seats for 1000 persons
are arranged in circles, rising as they
recede from the chairman's platform at
the center. The glass hoor of this hall
is supported by four iron pillars in an
other hall in the basement, some seventy
feet square.
This basement hall is to be a place of
assembly for day laborer5 and other
wOrkmen who are now obliged, when put
of work, to await engagement on street
orners and open squares. Adjoining
the nall are the rooms for the dynamos,
furnaces and ventilating machinery. On
the ground floor, to the right of the yes
thule, are the janitor's quarters, and, to
the left, the private telephone, telegraph
and postal offices of the exchange. On
the ground hoor are also the offices of
the general secretary, the committee and
administrative officers, and the bureau
of labor statistics, as well as a library
and reading room, with a combined floor
surface of eighty square yards. The
next four floors have a large meeting
room and thirty-three offices each; in all,
four assembly halls and 1872 offices. The
offices are let out to the executive of
fcials of the various workingmen's or
PLANTATIONS in Paris.
The special purpose of the labor ex-
change is TO help the laborers out of
work to new engagements. Its general
purpose, however, is more comprehen-
sive, to prepare the way for thorough
and wide reaching labor reforms. The
organization of the bureau of labor
statistics, after the model of the labor
bureau of the United States, has been
TO this end. All facts concerning the
working people of all France will be
collected, classified, discussed and con-
sidered at length by the committee in
whose respective departments they be-
long. The consequent conclusions will
be incorporated in legislative bills, given
into the hands of the legislative com
mittee, which will see that they are
brought before the French chamber by
Radical deputies.
The working organization of the ex-
change is mostly on the trades union
basis. 1t does not limit the benefits to
manual laborers, however, but includes
those who are usually known as Drain
workers" Trade, too, has its represen-
tation there, so that the various societies
present an infinite variety of occupation,
from school teaching to street sweeping,
from commercial travelling to rag pick
ing. Each of the $50 w~orkingmen So
cieties in Paris has a seat and vote in the
exchange. The delegates will be chosen
and seated annually. The eight general
committees of the exchange are consti-
tuted from these delegates. The execu-
tive committee consists of twenty-one of
the delegates, chosen pretty evenly from
the eight committees and reelected every
year. 1t is divided into five sub-com-
mittees-on finance, administration, agi-
%tation, press and statistics, and has the
responsibility of choosing from its mem
beers two secretaries, a cashier, a librarian
n an editor of the exchanges weekly
organ.
The salaries of the officers of the ex-
change are paid by the hour. The rate
for all officers alike is twenty cents. The
two secretaries, for instance, who work
eight hours daily, receive SLIGO zach a
day. Each secretary works regularly
throughout the year on all days except
Sundays and a few holidays, and re-
ceive, therefore, approximately $500 an
nually. The editor, on the other hand,
who labors but a little more than an
hour daily, gets only some ninety dol
lars annually. The unusual recognition
of the workingmen of brain work as be-
ing as essentially labor as work with the
hands is illustrated by the fact that the
editor gets just as much pay by the
hour as the i%anitor or engineer. An ap-
parent exception to the rule of rewards
is made in the case of the executive
committee, that sits once weekly from 0
o'clock till midnight. AS all members
cannot be actively engaged at once in
the work of these sittings, "a generously
rough estimate is made that every MEM
Der labors about n hour in the three,
and he therefore receives at the regular
rate, just twenty cents.-New York Sun.