The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-10-19

tAe'N HIS tSlllBOieNlg anu Spttlul uSGllS
 charged with misslons it seeks also to
 have permanent correspondents in for
 elgn parts. The services rendered by
 this last category of representatives
 are many. They send the Museum in- formation concerning the social move
 ment in their respective countries, the
 new institutions created there, the re- cent legislative measures, etc. If question is so important as to snerit special attention detailed report on 1t is made to the Museum, which is published in one of the Museum circu-
 lars or deposited in the library with the | accompanying documents. In this way
 there is growing up in the library mass of valuable original documents bearing on a large number of eco- | homie questions The Museum has
 now half dozen or more of these for | eign correspondents, tn e American rep resentative being w. F. Willoughby, of the Washington labor bureau,
 The information obtained by these specialists sent on missions is also pre- sented to the public in the form of lec- lures delivered during the winter in the commodious hall attached to the Museum. A dozen lectures of this kind
 are given every year on such subjects
 as English Trades Unions," Peasant
 Associations in Germany" "The
 Knights of Labor" Cooperation
 Among Italian Workingmen," How
 English Workingmen Organize and
 Hold Congress-" etc. The lectures for the last year were very we'll attended,
 though the managers are dis appointed
 in the small humber of workingmen who were present. But this is not to
 be wondered at when it is remembered
 that the Paris laoring classes hold, for
 the most part, views diametrically op-
 posed to those advocated by this in- stitution, whose aim is to preserve the present social systems while reforming it, whereas the Paris laboring classes are militant socialists and re volution- ists, bent on destroying what exists be- | fore building anew. Here, in fact, is
 the weak side of the Museum-it is forced to be academic in spite of it. sel,
 | The Museum circulars number score
 or more ach year. Some five thousand
 or six thousand copies are printed and are sent gratis to labor associations, cooperative societies, specialists, etc.
 Thee circulars are divided into two | categories-the first being of a more
 popular nature, and the second being
 devoted to more special and technical questions. The value of these publica-
 tions is shown by the fact that not | few readers subscribe annually for the | whole series
 | Another series of publications issued l IL. .ntvr complete reports of the special missions already referred to, and printed under
 the general title, Library of the So-
 cial Museum" So far half dozen vol
 umes have appeared, including Trade | Unionism in England" and "The Car
 maux Strike.''
 The founder of the Museum has plac- ed at it's disposal sum of 50000 francs
 to be meployed and for awarding a large prize of the value of 25,000 francs
 to be competed for by the authors of
 essays relative to the ameloration of the lot of the laboring classes. The first lot, twenty-five in number, con-
 sist of life income of 200 francs, &C., companied by medal, and are award | ed to workmen who have spent at least thirty ye ars with the same firm and whose life has been exemplary. The | first of these ceremonies occurred in | May, 1896, in the presence of the presi- dent of the republic, several ministers
 and other persons of distinction, and | the last a few days ago under most
 distinguished auspices.
 The Museum Is splendidly housed in | the early home of the founder, situated
 nj the heart of the old aristocratic dis l trict of Paris. the St. Germain quar- l ter, and this fact and the almost luxur- ious manner in which the big hotel is | furnished accentuate the bourgeois
 character of the institution. Neatly
 carpeted stirways, comfortable chairs 1 in the reading room and large lecture 1 hall, the lectric light, uniformed door 1 keepers and tn like, would naturally tend to create a suspicion in the mind
 of the Paris workman daily fed on col | lectivist literature But all this ren- ders more agreeable the sojourn there
 of students of social questions, to
 which class-and not class to be overlooked-the Museum seems so far to especially address itself.
 But the liberalty of Comte De Cham
 bruni the direction of social econ- | omy is not limited to tho Museum. He has founded two chairs of social econ
 omy-one in the School of Political Sci
 ences, in the Rue St. Guillaume, and
 another at tn Sorbonne. The latter
 chair is filled by M. Alfred Espinas, the scholar of Bordeaux university who has
 done so much to introduce Herbert
 Spencer to France. Professor Espinas
 has so far lectured on Sir Thomas
 More, Campanella, the philosophers and
 social economists of the French revolu- ton, as an effort to secure the happi-
 ness of the people-he is bringing out
 at this moment weighty book on this
 subject-on St. Simonionism, on
 Fourier, etc. 'The doctrines with
 which I occupy myself" remarked Pro-
 lessor Espinas to me recently, have in view happiness by means of economic
 reforms, which is my definition of so-
 cial economy" This lecture course is attracting more and more attention
 each year.
 Questioned by one of his relatives as
 to the ruling idea of the Social Muse um, Comte De Chambrun said. Ours is not a church charity nor a state
 charity But of these, in different ways, are doing good and will go on
 doing good indefinitely. Ours is work
 of ;,,3ixy;d,,a1 ipitiatye of free and spop