CATHOLICISM IN FRANCE.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1650, 6 January 1914, Page 6

CATHOLICISM IN FRANCE.

-———♦ ■■ EEMAKKABLK SOCIAL PROPAGANDA. "Wc'Shall neveriltHOw accurately all tho influences to which we must ascribo tho undoubted recovery of Catholicism which is taking place in France," says the "Statesman." "To the present writer it seems as if much should bo credited to the really considerable contributions which tho French Catholics havo in this generation been making to practical social reform and- an active social reform propaganda.

"We liavCi for instance, in this country nothing comparable to the work of 'L'Action Pojiulaire, , of Eeiins, wbieh deserves iitt-cntion. Hero wo have, ijnd«r disinterested management, in fullest ■odour of sanctity, not only an ly active publishing business, jun without regard to profit, but also au output of popular pamphlets in tliree different series, coverinc' overy department of social reform, which apparently rivals that of tho Fabian Society itself." But it is tho intellectual and literary character of this Catholic popular sociology that is so remarkable. ' In 'he Mouvolcent Social,' for instance, the two-franc monthly magazine, ivo find articles of fifst-class quality dealijiK, on quite oricinal lineSi with such questions as tho prospects of tile Co-operative Movement and' its relation to Syndicalism, tho extent to whicli Trade Unionism can bo regarded as justified.by natural law, the measures to be taken against.indecent literature, _ and the action of Governments against tho adulteration of food.

"Even more .unique than the monthly magazine is the lieavy annual, 'L'Atinee Sociulo Internationale, , now in its third year, which gives, for nine francs, in nearly a thousand closely packed pages, sin elaborate survey of social pro' gross in . Franco and other countries. There arc the papal and episcopal deliverance on different- subjects of 'social reform. But there aro also tho now laws and the. bills, in Parliament; there are summaries of contents.of the different Government'publications; there is, for each subject,, an elaborato bi-. bliojri'apliy; ; and there aro a series of articles in which tlio .Catholic world is kept informed of the best and the newest tliat is to bo learned.

"The. range is a. wide one. We have first the-whole posi.tion.ns to-tho population in Franco, an iiti'orinatioii ns to the steps liiken to counteract the restriction of the. birth-rate, To this there, follow surveys as to tho Housinc problem ; the prevention of sickness'; tho problems of alcohojism, ))ornogra.ph.v, and'erinie.-high prices and' their effect on the family budget and on saving; the position of, the woman (household training, divorce, tlio white, slave traffic, ctp.); Trade Unionism (Collo'ctivc Bargaining, apprenticeship, tho organise* tio.ii of workmg-olass leisure, women's unions, profit-slm'riuj;, -workmen's eonRresses, co-operative production, etc.); acricultnral co-operation; factory legislation ; .public assistance; the co-opera-tive-morciiient in all its forms, Fnendlv. Societies, credit bauks, sodial iinstirnnce, and what not. Social trw* sss is thus sufvey-ed in thirty different countries, ,*- ■ ■

"Wo know of nothing analogous in Great Britain cjtiito so well turned out as tlm productions-- (if 'I/Aetion Popiikire'.in Franco." Tlie.v aro obtainable in England of Messrs. Burns and Gates. ■■ .