which concerns itself much more actively with
squeezing percentages out of the industries than with balancing the
national budgets of France. Must not all taxes be paid by the ultimate
consumer? What with these taxes and with the higher wage of labour in
France, the stearine works of Marseilles find themselves taken at
advantage by the energetic manufacturers of Holland. In the Fournier
Works the average workman earns a daily wage of from 3 frs. 25 c. to 3
frs. 50 c.; the average workwomen, who do chiefly the clean and even
pretty work of moulding the candles, making them up into packets, in
large, very well ventilated and well ordered rooms, earn an average
daily wage of 2 frs. 50 c. Both men and women work about ten hours a
day. The 'eight-hours' doctrine of the political Socialists finds no
more favour here with the real working people apparently than elsewhere
in France. In Holland and Belgium and at Roubaix the average wage is
about one franc less for both sexes.

The Christian Corporation of the Fournier Works is organised upon the
principles, but not exactly upon the lines, of the Harmel system. It is
formed by a union of five religious associations among the workpeople,
made up of the men, the married women, the young men, the young girls,
and the children. Character and conduct are the conditions of
membership, and under the direction of a General Council in which the
employers take an active part, the Corporation has founded and
administers for the common benefit a Consumers' Society which maintains
an economical kitchen with refectories, a recreation hall with a bar,
(not limited to soda water, lemonade, and tea), and a circulating
library. The statutes of this Society leave the members a wide range of
liberty, and the managers are chosen by the members. Of the profits five
per cent first go to the reserve fund; dividends may then be declared of
not more than ten per cent, on the capital stock of 10,000 francs, and
the surplus, if any, forms a supplementary reserve. The economical
kitchen is so well managed that it gives a customer (who must be
employed in the works, but need not be a member of the Association) for
55 centimes, or a little more than fivepence, a bowl of soup, a large
helping of meat and vegetables, half a pound of bread, and a third of a
bottle of wine. A cafe-cognac (and the cognac good) may be had for 25
centimes more.

In August of last year, with the help of the owners of the works, a
M