y enabled to call an
international congress in Paris in the year of the Great Exhibition, and
at this congress the Association was actually founded, and its statutes,
provisionally drafted by Professor Mahaim and presented by the Belgian
committee, were adopted. A president, a general secretary, and an
international committee were provisionally appointed. The functions of
the Association were also defined. It was designed to serve as a bond
between all those who, in industrial countries, are convinced supporters
of the principle of protective legislation; to facilitate the study of
labour legislation by the publication of the labour laws of the
different States, and of reports on their administration; to assist in
the compilation of international statistics of labour and of all studies
tending to bring into harmony the existing national industrial codes;
and finally, it was charged with the duty of organizing the meetings of
international congresses in which labour legislation should be
considered. A very important part of its business was to consist in the
publication in German, French, and English of a periodical collection of
all labour laws newly in force in different countries.

This has been, from the first, the work of the International Labour
Office, the fixed head-quarters of the Association, which serves as an
exchange and clearing-house for all information pertinent to the
Association's work. It is in perpetual session at Basle, and to it all
reports and inquiries are addressed by the national sections, while from
it issue circulars for the sections' consideration and requests for
national investigation of problems which appear ripe for international
treaty. The spade work of the Association is done by the national
sections in their own countries, all action of the Association being
necessarily based in the first instance on the reports received from
them at head-quarters. There are now fifteen[31] such national
sections--an increase of eight on the original group of seven formed in
1901. The actual membership of the Association has trebled in ten years.
The seven sections to which belongs the place of honour at the head of
the roll, are those of Germany, Austria, Hungary, Holland, Belgium,
France, and Switzerland. Great Britain did not form a section till
1904, and it was not till 1910 that the British Government sent official
representatives to the biennial meetings. The official representatives
constitute