lodging house and elsewhere in Paris in 1897 it was found that over 6,000 were fitted for country work. This fact, if correct not only supports the contention of the superintendent of La Chalmelle that an agricultural colony is a desirable form of relief for the unemployed, but is also an interesting confirmation of the theory that probably most of those drawn from the country to the cities are unfitted for city life and likely to be eliminated in industrial competition.

Of the eighty-three new admissions at La Chalmelle in 1898 all but ten came during the winter months and had had some previous experience in the country. Of the ten who came in the summer months and represented diverse city occupations, eight left without securing agricultural employment, and two remained at the colony at the date of the report. Only fourteen of the eighty-three were natives of Paris or of the department of the Seine. The remainder had drifted into Paris from the other departments, and one was a native of the United States but of French parentage.

It is interesting to note the age classification. There is a larger percentage of young persons than would be found at the present time for example in the vacant lot farming of American cities, probably to be explained by the fact that the industrial opportunities in Paris in 1898 were fewer and the old men out of work were taken care of in other ways. Three were between 20 and 25 years of age, 22 between 25 and 30, 23 between 30 and 35, 24 between 35 and 40 and II between 40 and 45. The report states that it is very much easier to find places for those under forty than for those above that age.

The discipline at La Chalmelle is said to be excellent and to give no particular trouble. Four persons were expelled for repeated drunkenness and insulting conduct toward the superintendents. The colony has a library, and 878 books were loaned during the year, chiefly novels and books of travel. The cost of food per day per inhabitant of the colony was a little over one franc (1.055), the products of the farm being rated in this estimate at their market value and not at their cost of production. Out of 101 colonists who left La Chalmelle during the year 55 obtained stable employment and the year was one when the harvests were poor and the demand for agricultural labor less than usual.

The expected length of stay at the colony is four months, yet 13 found places in less than one month and 12 left within the same period; from 1 to 2 months' stay, 23 were placed and 8 left; 2 to 3 months, 8 placed and 7 left; 3 to 4 months, I placed and 6 left, which together with 2 expelled and 3 sent to a hospital accounts for 83 out of 101 inmates during the year. No one leaving the colony or having been expelled is readmitted. Those placed are readmitted, provided

they left their places for some other reason than merely to return to the colony, and have not returned in the meantime to Paris and have given the superintendent eight days' notice of their intention to return.

The farm of the colony comprises 260 hectares and produced 62,216.36 francs of which the animal products amounted to 18,027.61 francs, and the vegetable products to 44, 188.75 francs. The net cost of administration, etc., to the Municipal Council of Paris for the year seems to have been 34,000 francs or about $6,000.

The Department of Public Out-Door Relief of Paris1 has been laboring with a condition of deficit during the last twenty years, and its general budgetary report for 1900, presented by M. André Lefèvre, member of the Municipal Council and chairman of the Commission on Public Relief, gives a view of conditions not wholly encouraging. With the exception of the year 1888 and 1889, deficit has been added to deficit, since 1884, so that at the end of 1899 the total amount was 12,500,000 francs. Economies have been attempted each year in the voting of budgets but without result. This deficit is made up by borrowing reserve funds, of which the legal limit, one-tenth the value of personal property and real estate, has almost been reached.

The budget of 1899 calls for a total expenditure of 53,000,000 francs, almost all of which is to defray expenses, which may be considered wholly ordinary and which do not look toward paying any sums borrowed to cover the deficits.

These have not been due, to any great degree, to the dishonesty of officials. Nor have conditions of bad administration mainly brought them about. They have been the result rather of the expanding demands of the work of the great, growing city. In 1848 5,000,000 francs were expended by the municipality in aids raised through taxation. In this year the amount is 23,000,000. This marks the development of the city and the city's needs.

So unsatisfactory had the financial status of the Department of Public Out-Door Relief become that M. Jules Legrand, then Under Secretary of State, in a letter addressed to the president of the Municipal Council, declared himself unwilling to undertake any new services demanded by the needs of the department, nor did he feel justified to develop further a service already begun unless the resources for its performance were assured.

The commune was the first governmental unit to assume the functions of the natural family, when the latter became unable to exercise its responsibility. As early as 507 A. D. at the Council of Tours it was commanded to care for the sick in case the family could not do so.

In the course of the centuries since the Protestant Reformation the 1 Contributed by Mr. C. C. Carstens, Philadelphia.

support of charitable institutions has passed from a condition of almsgiving to that of public impost. Their autonomy has gradually disappeared and public control has grown up. During the nineteenth century the service has become more and more municipalized, and it is expected that the nation will soon relieve the municipality of the care of the aged by providing pensions for them.

Of the sources of income, that of municipal aid is growing most rapidly, while the revenue derived from personal property and real estate in the possession of the department, remains about the same.

This growing subsidy on the part of the municipality is urged as the strongest reason for its complete control and administration by the municipality. It is also pointed out that the teaching of history, the example of other nations, and the legislation of France itself favor this plan.

In the twenty district offices there was distributed in money or goods a sum amounting to 7,000,000 francs to 50,469 indigent families or individuals during the last year, an average of 122 francs per family or individual applicant. Among the sums expended by the department 850,000 francs were destined for pensions of the employes of the department.

The report does not hesitate to criticise the careless work of the accountants, and it demands a revision of the methods pursued. At the same time it calls for a rejection of all methods that make the demands seem smaller and the resources larger than they actually are, so that the whole work may be put upon a strict business basis in the near future.

The Bourse du Travail of Paris1 has entered upon a new period of prosperity, after its two years of inactivity. The recent report of the labor committee of the Municipal Council and the supplementary report of the Advisory Council recommend that a sum of $64,150 be appropriated for the expenses of this institution during the current year.

It will be remembered that in 1893 the Bourse was closed by the municipal authorities on account of alleged propagandism of socialism throughout the various labor organizations which were connected 1 Contributed by Mr. C. C. Carstens, Philadelphia.

with it. In the fall of 1895 it was reopened and the number of unions has again become equal to the number associated with it at the time it was suppressed by the police.

Beside furnishing offices for the trade unions and meeting places for them, it encourages the establishment of employment bureaus connected with each trade. Where these are established in accordance with the municipal plan and are kept open six hours of the day, a substantial aid is granted. This varied from 2,400 francs paid to the stronger bodies in 1899, to 96 francs as a minimum.

This municipal liberality has not been without its dangers. To prevent trade unions from dividing up into many locals the aid is apportioned by trades, of which the various local bodies receive only their pro-rata share. Even here the enemies of trade-unionism found their opportunity to injure the efficiency of the organizations by starting large numbers of locals, each asking for its share. To prevent this, no payments are now made to unions that have not existed regularly for one full year and cannot show necessity for their establishment. The separate unions in the wards of Paris have not gained individual recognition in the distribution of the funds.

The budget for 1900 provides, besides the work previously done, for a bureau of municipal statistics, translation, and social economy. This is an experiment, but it is the design of the promoters of this bureau to bring into use information which can be collected in France, and translate monographs and reports written in foreign lands so that they may become accessible to the laboring men of Paris and other industrial centres. While the budget does not yet provide for publication, it is hoped that this may soon be taken up by the municipality.

Of 266 unions connected with the Bourse of Paris in 1899, 137 asked for municipal aid; 123 were able to satisfy the requirements of the city regarding the labor bureau, and received aid. The growth of the number of unions and of the work undertaken by them is so great that the large structure completed for the Bourse in 1892 at a cost of 2,000,000 francs, as well as the "Annex A," previously occupied, have become inadequate, and plans are already discussed for important improvements.

There are fifty-nine bourses located in the centres of industrial life of France. These are all federated by the one in Paris, so that a report, from each to all, every month, gives information concerning the number of unemployed, the demand for labor, the hours of labor and the wage scale, of each trade. It is the policy of the bourse to encourage the mobility of labor so that local demands may be readily satisfied and the wage level be maintained. To encourage this a member of one bourse seeking transfer to a bourse in another community is paid a small sum as a "viaticum."

The International Association for the Advancement of Science, Arts and Education.'—The initial steps toward the organization of an International Association for the Advancement of Science, Arts aud Education were taken at the meetings of the British and French Associations for the Advancement of Science at Dover and Boulogne, in September, 1899. General committees were appointed by both French and British associations, the British committee including about five hundred members of the British association alone. The first meeting of the general committee was held in London in October and elected M. Léon Bourgeois as its president, with Rt. Hon. James Bryce and Sir Archibald Geike as vice-presidents, and Prof. Patrick Geddes as secretary.

A similiar meeting was held in Paris at the Ministry of Education, with the result that M. Gréard, member of the French Academy and rector of the University of Paris, was elected president of the French group. M. Léon Bourgeois was nominated general president of the whole association, with M. Liard, Permanent Secretary of State for Higher Education, as general secretary. Final action on these and other nominations will be taken during the meeting of the assembly in Paris.

In America, a group has been formed with Dr. William T. Harris, U. S. Commissioner of Education, and Dr. R. S. Woodward, president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, as vicepresidents.

The general object of the international association is to advance and supplement the progress and development of our common civilization, to record the manifold results in science, arts and education and in social improvement, and to make these more and more widely accessible, extending their educational usefulness and furthering their practical application. To this end it is proposed to institute intellectual co-operation between different countries, particularly by the establishment of a central bureau to maintain permanent relations between learned societies, scientific organizations, universities and educational establishments.

The immediate work and one which has a direct relation to the permanent office of the association is the creation of an international assembly to be held at Paris this summer in connection with the Exposition. This assembly will be in fact a great international summer school, taking advantage of the two characteristic aspects of modern expositions, the vast development of congresses, no less than that of their great material departments.

1 Contributed by Chas. S. Lecky, 105 East Twenty-second Street, New York City.