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Show A SOCIAL PALACE. The Famious "Familistere" of Paris. HUNDREDS OF FAMILIES UNDER DUE RJOF A Co-operative Factory Ea3y Hours of Labor. From his boyhood 31. Godin had beon a StU'ieut and follower of the social ideus of Fourier and Per Enfant in. Now, having rwiehc-d a position of power and independence, independ-ence, he dcttrimiiwl to put those theoritxi into practice. Ilia plan was to make one great family of all his work people, with common mutual inten.-sts in the general welfare, wel-fare, lie- accordingly erected a large building, build-ing, to which additions have since from time to time bettu made, until it now has a frontage front-age of nearly liOO feet. This he divided into suites of rooms for his workmen and their , families, lie called it the "Palais Social." But it is more commonly known as tho "Fumilistcru." At tiret the workmen did not like the idea. They thought it would diminish their independence to live in such an institution. But M. Uoden soon per- , suaded them that the system would make them really more independent, beside eua- i bling them to li ve far more cheaply and there- , fore save fur more money. In addition to the main building various I wings and nddilionnl buildings have been erected, until now more than 400 families are lodged in tho "Palais Social." Were these in ordinary city tenements they would solidly occupy a street more than a mile long. Thu buildings are all of brick, and are practically fireproof, and constructed with every possible device for the comfort und sanitation of tha occupants. The buildings are four stories high, and each story bus a clear height of ten feet. There is on abundant supply of water in every room. There is also a lurge courtyard attached to each building, paved with cement and roofed with glass, serving as a playground for the children in bad weather. The doors of the buildings are never fastened, and there are no watchmen nor special rules, so thut all tho occupants are as free to come and go and do as they please, as though each family lived in a cottage of its own. Koch family may rent as many rooms as it pleases, and its apartments are entirely separate from those of its neighbors, excepting, of course, that they open upon a general public hallway. hall-way. Indeed the system is very much like that of of ono of the huge apartment houses which have become- so common in American cities. The cost of the buildings has been about $200 for each inmate, and the rent charged averages about $1 per month for each room. I may add that M. Godin him-self him-self had always occupied a set of rooms in tho "Palais Social," differing from those of his workman in no respect save tho furniture, I etc., he put into them. Connected with the establishment thoro are also free schools, which aro of a higher grade than the public schools of France, free libraries libra-ries and reading rooms; a well equipped theatre, the-atre, the prices of admission to which range from Qvo cents to forty cents; gardens and parks, co-operative stores, at which everything every-thing can be purchased at the lowest possible prices and then pay an annual dividend of profit to tho purchasers; a cafe, a nursery, and numerous minor institutions. There are also two flourishing choral societies whose occasional oc-casional musical festivities are events of real artistic interest. Tho nursery is the most valuable of all these adjuncts to the "Palais Social." It is a large, cheery budding In charge of a corps of nurses, where mothers may leave their children for the day while thev are at work. For there is much em-ployffTent em-ployffTent for tut women, f" the stores, tho laundry and the stocking factory There an cradles for the very young babies, and playroom play-room and kindergarten for the older. liven here M. Godin's inventive play came into skill, in devising new kinds of cradles, etc., for tho babies, by which the comfort and welfare of the little ones is insured. Such is the place where the people live. Near by is their workshop. Tho manufactories manufacto-ries cover nearly four acres of ground, and, os much of the building is several stories high, there must be in all at least fifteen acres of floor room. There are flvo miles of tramway connecting the various portions of the works, and fully 1,200 are constantly employed. em-ployed. The bulk of the business done is tho niauitfacturo of stoves, ranges, furnaces, grates and their settings, coal scuttles, and other domestic utensils of cast iron. It is said the finest casting in the world is done there. Perhaps so. I have never seen any finer. Tho magnitude of tho business may be reckoned from the fact that there are usually on hand, in stock, from 30,000 to 40,-000 40,-000 stoves and cook ranges ready for shipment. ship-ment. M. Godin believes in easy hours of labor. According to his theory, a man ought not to work more than three or four hours at a stretch. So he had them all go to work at 6 in the morning and keep at it till 0. Then there was an hour'B intermission for rest and recuperation. From 10 to 1 :'60 they worked again, and then rested for an hour and a half. Another stretch from S to G:30 finished the day's work. In all, therefore, ten hours' work was done. But by being broken up into three sections it fatigued the men less than eight hours' continued toil would have done. You will understand how low wages are in France when I say that the average j pay of these workmen has not boon much above $5 a week each, and yet i they are better paid than the hands in most Qthor French factories. However, their wages do not represent all their income. From the outset M. Godin established tho principle of giving each workman a share in the profits of capital proportionate to bis share In tho work of producing those profits, The capital of tho establishment is $900,000. The auuual dividend of profit to the workmen work-men averages about 8 per cent, on this, or $72,000. This pays about $100 a year each to the workmen who live in tho Palais Social, for of the 1,200 hands employed some 500 are mere outsiders, who live in tha village of Guise and come to tho shops merely for their wages, like workmen in any ordinary fae; torjt Far tho agod and crippled there are var( ous pension and insurance funds. There is a pharmacy fund, by wluch the sick can procure pro-cure needed medicines without cost. There is no hospital connected with the establishment, establish-ment, however. II. Godin held that it was best for the sick to be attended to in their own homes. Neither is there any chapel on the premises, nor any religious instruction given in tho schools. M. Godin did not believe be-lieve in religiou und did his best to discourage discour-age the religious sentiment among his people, peo-ple, although, of course, he did not positively forbid it, nor in any way attempt to coerc'o tho people to his own way of thinking. As a rule, however, the inhabitants of the PulaU Social have been and aro unbelievers In any religion. Their children aro not baptized, and when uuy one dies his funeral is conducted con-ducted with no religious rites whatever. Tha result of this upon the morals of tho community commu-nity does uot appear to be bad. Adolf Hous-sayo Hous-sayo in Chicago Tribuno, |
