^{page 228 note 1} For a definition of employé see Viennet, Charles, Les Réformes Sociales concernant les Employés, in the report of the Semaine Sociale de France, IXe Session, Limoges 1912, Lyon 1912, p. 353Google Scholar. „The employé is the wage-earner who is concerned either with the handling, sale or delivery of manufactured goods, or with the keeping of accounts and with the administration of undertakings of all sorts.”

^{page 228 note 2} Viennet, Charles, Le Syndicat des Employés du Commerce et de l'lndustrie, Action Populaire, Série Sociale, No. 282, Paris 1915, p. 39.Google Scholar

^{page 229 note 1} Sangnier, Marc, Le Syndicalisme devant la République, Paris, n.d., p. 26.Google Scholar

^{page 229 note 2} Charles Viennet, op. cit., pp. 1 and 4.

^{page 229 note 3} Sée, Henri, Histoire Economique de la France, Tome z, Les Temps Modernes, 1789–1914, Paris 1951, p. 287, n. 8.Google Scholar

^{page 230 note 1} See Ministére du Commerce, Rapports et documents sur le réglementation du travail dans les bureaux et magasins, Paris 1901Google Scholar. Ministère du Commerce, Les Associations professionnelles ouvrières, Tome IV, Paris 1904, Associations des employés, pp. 606–721Google Scholar. Charles Viennét, Les Veilles dans le Commerce. Rapport à l'Association Nationale Française pour la Protection Légale des Travailleurs. Paris 1914. Charles Viennet, Les Réformes Sociales concernant les Employés.

^{page 230 note 2} Bodley, J. E. C., France, London 1899, p. 645.Google Scholar

^{page 230 note 3} L'Association Catholique, Revue des Questions Sociales et Ouvrierès, Vol. V, 1878, p. 605.Google Scholar

^{page 230 note 4} See Rollet, Henri, L'Action Sociale des Catholiques en France, Vol. I, 1871–1901, Paris 1948, pp. 130–154.Google Scholar

^{page 231 note 1} Pégat, Joseph, in the Bulletin de l'Union des Syndicats du Commerce et de l'lndustrie, April 1887Google Scholar, quoted in Verdin, Edouard, La Fondation du Syndicat des Employés du Commerce et de l'lndustrie, Paris 1929, p. 40.Google Scholar

^{page 231 note 2} Quoted in Rigault, Georges, Le Frère Joseph, Paris 1925, p. 215.Google Scholar

^{page 231 note 3} See, for example, Halévy, Daniel's comment in Essais sur le Mouvement Ouvrier en France, Paris 1901, pp. 172–175Google Scholar. „Under Louis-Philippe, Buchez could find Catholic workers to form a jewellers' co-operative. In 1849, members of the journeymen's associations (compagnonnages), when they admitted to membership workers of a new trade, still specified that they should be Catholics. In 1869 the practice of the trade mass was suppressed in all the journeymen's associations and the secular spirit triumphed; it is in these twenty years of reaction that the people became atheist. More violent than their masters, Voltaire, Rousseau, Michelet, Quinet, Victor Hugo, they rejected the belief in the eternal soul and in God; any mention of the other world revolted them, as a wanton lie, told to lull them to sleep in this world… The name of God was so much detested that it was even difficult to read the poems of Victor Hugo [to working-class audiences]. They complained strongly about his deism.”

^{page 231 note 4} Message to Cardinal Massaja, quoted by Brother Joseph in his circular of 21 November 1884, cited in Rigault, op. cit., pp. 246–247.

^{page 232 note 1} de Ségur, Marquis, vice-chairman of the Conseil Général des œuvres de la Jeunesse, in the Bulletin Mensuel des œuvres de la Jeunesse, 1894, pp. 141–142.Google Scholar

^{page 232 note 2} Leaflet, , in L'Association Catholique, Vol. XXXVII, 1894.Google Scholar

^{page 232 note 3} See Robert Frossard, L'Association de Saint-Labre 1882–1932, Paris n.d.

^{page 233 note 1} Verdin, op. cit., p. 22.

^{page 233 note 2} Brother Hiéron (Jean Giraudias) was born at Ravel-Salmerange, in the Auvergne, on 22 July 1830; he began his noviciate at Clermont on 9 September 1846, served at Le Mans, Compiégne, and Paris, where he was particularly concerned with the care of apprentices and with evening classes; he took charge of the employment bureau in 1882; he died on I January 1905. See Bulletin de l'Institut des Frères, No. 118, July 1949.

^{page 233 note 3} Rainbeaux was chairman of the Conseil Général des œuvres and a generous benefactor of the Church schools; he had made a fortune in coal-mining in the Pas-de-Calais. Other members of the committee were: Le Camus, Le Comte du Pont, Emile Dognin, Waree, Simmonot-Godard, Babeur, Jusserand de Winter, Gilbert, Lefébure, H. Lemoine, Louvet, Madrières, Regniault. See Bulletin Mensuel des œuvres, February 1883.

^{page 233 note 4} 830 applications for employment; 652 offers of employment; 542 placed in employment – 1 engineer, 3 workshop managers, 3 foremen, 205 clerical workers, 330 manual workers. See Bulletin Mensuel des œuvres, January 1883.

^{page 233 note 5} Bulletin Mensuel des œuvres, November 1885.

^{page 234 note 1} Ibid., February 1886.

^{page 234 note 2} In August 1888 Pégat began the publication of a business news sheet entitled Correspondance Grise; the title was changed in 1891 to Compte-Rendu. It contained infor mation on business activities, property sales, bankruptcies, liquidations, dividends and a digest of the financial press.

^{page 234 note 3} Despont, one of the founder members, recollected, on the occasion of the SECI's golden jubilee in 1957 that „we joined much to please the good Brother than because forming a trade union seemed to us to be of any use.” L'Employé, September 1937.

^{page 235 note 1} Verdin, in La Fondation du Syndicat des Employés du Commerce et de l'lndustrie, and all other writers refer to the 17 young men who were present at the inaugural meeting. Nevertheless Verdin quotes from the minutes a list of 18 names. „The meeting was chaired by M. Dubois, assisted by M. Pégat, director of the services of the Union. There were present: MM. Dubois, Guignand Claudius, Despont, Boué, Martocq, Bizet, Schneckenburger, Lespinasse, Massu, Leraître, Guignand Charles, Chavanette, Hautreux, Pruneau, Grenier, Marecal Armand, Marécal Joseph, et Rempion.” Verdin, op. cit., p. 45. The minutes, which were apparently in Verdin's possession when he wrote in 1929, cannot be traced.

^{page 235 note 2} The relevant provisions of the Act were: „Art. 2. Trade unions or associations may be formed freely, without governmental authorisation by persons, even exceeding twenty in number, who follow the same occupation, similar trades or allied occupations concerned in the making of particular products. Art. 5. Trade unions have, as their exclusive object, the study and defence of economic, industrial, commercial and agricultural interests. Art. 9. Breaches of the provisions of articles 2, 3 … of the present Act will lead to the prosecution of the officers and officials of the union, who may be punished by a fine of from 16 to 200 francs. The court may, in addition, on the application of the Procureur de la République, pronounce the dissolution of the union.”

The opinion of a Catholic lawyer was that „according to the text of the basic law (1884) it is not illegal for Catholics to come together to form a trade union… I think that it is therefore clear that one can include in the rules the provisions that (a) an annual mass should be said, (b) that members who belong to secret societies should be excluded, (c) that Jews, Protestants, etc. should not be admitted to membership. However, while taking on this religious colouring, the union must preserve its concern with trade questions… If it transforms itself into an electoral committee and gives financial support to candidates and newspapers; if it turns itself into a religious brotherhood and organises retreats, sermons, pilgrimages; if, in a word, it devotes itself to political or religious activity it contravenes the 1884 Act. The Cour de Cassation held, in 1894, that it was a breach of the law when certain persons outside the industry were invited to meetings and took an active part in the work of the union… also that it was a breach of the law for the union to concern itself with questions outside the trade.” A. Crétinon, in La Chronique du Sud-Est, 31 March 1903, pp. 86–89.

The legality of the SECI was challenged on a number of occasions by the Chambre Syndicale des Employés de la Seine, in connection with elections to the Conseil Supérieur du Travail. These protests were rejected by the Minister of Commerce, Trouillot (10 August 1903) and Dubief (15 March 1905). The latter ruled that the question was a matter for the courts and that, no adverse judgment having been made, the SECI should remain on the electoral lists.

^{page 236 note 1} Little is known about the Union des Syndicats or about the breakaway Syndicat des Employés, but it would appear that they favoured the establishment of a more restricted association of Catholics, employers and employees, whereas the SECI was moving towards a policy of protecting the economic interests of Catholic clerical workers, wherever they were employed. The chairman of the breakaway union told its first general meeting, on 2 March 1890, that the real danger came from foreigners and enemies of the faith, who were isolating Catholics and closing avenues of employment to them; what was necessary, the secretary insisted, was that Catholics should group together to act in common on economic questions. See Ministère du Commerce, Les Associations Professionnelles Ouvrières, Tome IV, Paris 1904, pp. 648–649.Google Scholar

Pégat appears to have supported the SECI. At about this time the Union des Syndicats moved from 30, Rue des Bourdonnais to 46, Rue de l'Abre Sec; his comments in Compte-Rendu show sympathy for the demands made by workers on employers. On 26 March 1891 he wrote „we are not revolutionaries far from that, but we declare that we consider that the way in which workers, shop assistants, clerks etc., etc., in fact employees of all sorts are treated most of the time is contrary to our principles as good Christians”. On 2 June 1891 he supported the demands of the employees of the Paris omnibus company, who were on strike for shorter hours. Later he expressed wholehearted approval for policy the SECI had adopted. Writing in the Bulletin for January – February 1897 he said that the SECI owed its success „to the absence of outside interference … its leaders felt that they were strong enough and responsible enough to manage their own affairs… The clerical workers who formed the SECI were Catholics united in a commercial union, not young men belonging to a Catholic trade union. They were the Catholics, not the union.”

^{page 237 note 1} Quoted in Verdin, op. cit., p. 63.

^{page 237 note 2} Verdin's phrase, op. cit., p. 66.

^{page 237 note 3} See, for example, the reference in the Bulletin, June 1898, to the work of Brother Pigménion, in the commercial schools of Saint-Roch, Saint-Michel, Saint-Antoine and Sainte-Clotilde. „He introduces (the pupils) to the SECI, teaches them to know it, and to understand it, to want the support of its strength, and he shows them, in the light of the experience of similar associations, how firm and solid our's is.”

^{page 238 note 1} See Ministère du Commerce, op. cit., pp. 646–648.

^{page 238 note 2} The Union Fraternelle was formed in 1891, largely on the initiative of Léon Harmel. It had its headquarters at 14, Rue des Petits-Carreaux. It described its aims as being (i) religious, the deployment of the flag of the Sacred Heart by business men, (ii) the reform of commercial standards, by the practice of Christian duty towards customers and employees, and the encouragement of trade between members, (iii) to prepare the way for the return to guild principles and (iv) to put pressure on Parliament. In some ways it continued the work of the Union des Syndicats du Commerce et de l'lndustrie, which was languishing. Unlike that body it was registered not as a trade association under the 1884 Act but as a joint stock company, whose purpose was the publication of a bulletin and an annual list of associated firms, and the provision of insurance services and information. It offered office accommodation and clerical assistance to members who wished to join together in trade associations, consumer societies, bulk-purchasing associations etc., an advertising service, for newspapers which wished to give the benefit of their columns only to Catholics, or at least only to people who respected Catholic beliefs, and an employment service. Its committee members included Dognin, Lefébure and Simmo-not-Godard. See Annuaire de l'Union Fraternelle du Commerce et de l'lndustrie, 1892 and 189;.

^{page 239 note 1} Verdin, op. cit., pp. 75 and 81.

^{page 238 note 2} See the article by Lerolle, Jean, in Le Sillon, 10 July, 1898, pp. 462–466Google Scholar. „The Union seeks to give its members some vocational and economic instruction, in order to enable them to surmount the difficulties of their lives; anyone who could come along to act as a voluntary teacher would be very welcome. That indeed would be a great act of solidarity-”

^{page 238 note 3} See Verdin, op. cit., p. 141.

^{page 240 note 1} Ibid., p. 72.

^{page 240 note 2} Ibid., p. 70.

^{page 240 note 3} Bulletin, , November 1890.Google Scholar

^{page 240 note 4} Report to the Congrès Ouvrier Chrétien, Reims, 1896, reprinted in the Bulletin Mensuel des œuvres, 1896, pp. 734–739.Google Scholar

^{page 241 note 1} Bulletin Mensuel des œuvres, June 1890.

^{page 241 note 2} Verdin, op. cit., p. 126.

^{page 242 note 1} L'Echo des Syndicats, 25 January, 1901.

^{page 242 note 2} L'Employé, November 1904.

^{page 242 note 3} The term „le régime corporatif” was currently used by social Catholics in the 1880s and was defined by Herve Bazin as a regime giving recognition and representation in the state to the organisation of labour. See Minutes of the committee of the œuvre des Cerdes, quoted in Rollet, op. cit., Vol. I, p. 68.

^{page 242 note 4} Rapport sur les associations professionnelles catholiques, 8 June 1878, reprinted in L'Association Catholique, Vol. XIII (1882), pp. 302–303.Google Scholar

^{page 242 note 5} Bulletin, , July/August 1891.Google Scholar

^{page 243 note 1} Viennet, op. cit., p. 4.

^{page 243 note 2} Bulletin Mensuel des œuvres, January 1890.

^{page 243 note 3} Bulletin, , August 1900Google Scholar, Charlet, L'Éducation Populaire. Notre Commission d'Études.

^{page 244 note 1} Bulletin, , July 1898Google Scholar; Jules Zirnheld, Simples Réflexions.

^{page 244 note 2} L'Employé, September 1937.

^{page 245 note 1} Action Catholique de la Jeunesse Française, Compte-Rendu du ler Congrès Social National, Chalon 7–10 May, 1903, pp. 7–13.Google Scholar

^{page 245 note 2} Bulletin, , October 1897.Google Scholar

^{page 246 note 1} L'Employé, September 1937.

^{page 246 note 2} Viennet, Charles, Chez les Employés, in Bulletin Mensuel des œuvres, 1914, pp. 30–32Google Scholar. ”The clerical worker who wants to rise, and who has the means (professional skill, luck, help etc.) is distinguished sharply from the one who remains, for a large number of reasons, a clerical worker all his life. Because of the development of commerce and industry this last category has increased considerably over the last fifty years, with the result that there is now a white-collar proletariat. Because this white-collar proletariat has a different background and different reactions from the manual worker proletariat, its demands are expressed in a particular idiom, doubtless more timid than that of the manual worker, but above all influenced by education and love of security.”

^{page 247 note 1} Report of the Congrèsd'Action Syndicate, 30 and 31 May 1909, in L'Employé, July 1909.

^{page 247 note 2} See, for example, Verdin's description of the general meeting of 26 June 1891. „Presiding over the assembly was M. Paul Lerolle, member of the Paris municipal council… Around him on the platform were the Reverend Father du Lac, who was later to found the mixed trade union for the clothing trade, Canon Paguelle de Follenay, Brothers Exupérien, Alban, Hiéron, the Abbé de Bessonie, Messrs E. Dognin, Pégat, Lefranc and several priests and laymen who were prominent in the youth associations… There were 150 people in the hall [of the Francs Bourgeois commercial school].” Verdin, op. cit., p. 118. (At this time the SECI had about 320 members).

^{page 247 note 3} Viennet, op. cit., p. 39.

^{page 247 note 4} L'Employé, February 1906.

^{page 248 note 1} Bulletin Mensuel des œuvres, 1892, p. 357.Google Scholar

^{page 248 note 2} Viennet, op. cit., p. 36.

^{page 249 note 1} Verdin's report to the Reims Congrès Ouvrier Chrétien, 1896, quoted in the Bulletin Mensuel des œuvres, 1896, p. 738.Google Scholar

^{page 249 note 2} Bulletin, , May-June 1895.Google Scholar

^{page 249 note 3} Zirnheld (who was treasurer at the time) says that the SECI's income was 26,608 francs in 1906. (Cinquante Années de Syndicalisme Chrétien, Paris, 1957, p. 51Google Scholar). The member ship was 5,974. If one makes allowance for members undergoing military service and assumes that three-quarters of the contributions due were collected it may be estimated that about 15,000 francs represented members' contributions; the estimated share of dividends on members' purchases amounts to 2,500 francs, which leaves just over 9,000 francs to come from subscriptions to the Bulletin and from other sources. Cf. Guillebert's figures for contributions due and paid, in Appendix.

^{page 250 note 1} L'Employé, July 1909.

^{page 251 note 1} Zirnheld, addressing the 1903 International Congress of Clerical Workers' Unions, Brus sels, quoted in Claverie, C., Syndicat des Employés du Commerce et de l'lndustrie, Monographie Syndicale, L'Action Populaire, Paris, n.d., p. 34.Google Scholar

^{page 251 note 2} L'Association Catholique, Vol. XLV (1908), pp. 194–195.Google Scholar

^{page 251 note 3} Sangnier, Marc, Le Syndicalisme devant la République, Paris, n, d., p. 82 n.Google Scholar

^{page 251 note 4} Bulletin, , March 1891.Google Scholar

^{page 251 note 5} Bulletin, , January-February 1897.Google Scholar

^{page 251 note 6} Bulletin, , March, 1891.Google Scholar

^{page 252 note 1} Verdin, op. cit., p. 85.

^{page 252 note 2} L'Employé, August 1901.

^{page 253 note 1} The incident is described at length by Verdin, op. cit., pp. 112–115. He adds „no whisper of this ever got beyond the meetings of the Council [of the SECI].”

^{page 253 note 2} Zirnheld, op. cit., p. 50.

^{page 254 note 1} See Biétry, Pierre, Les Jaunes de France et la Question Ouvriére, Paris, 1906.Google Scholar

^{page 254 note 2} Speech to the Union de la Paix Sociale, reported in L'Echo des Syndicats, 25 June 1901.

^{page 254 note 3} L'Association Catholique, Vol. LXI (1906), p. 172.Google Scholar

^{page 255 note 1} Viennet, Charles, Le Péril Jaune, in Le Sillon, 25 July 1906.Google Scholar

^{page 256 note 1} L'Employé, 5 June 1906.

^{page 256 note 2} L'Association Catholique, Vol. LXV (1908), pp. 187–188.Google Scholar

^{page 256 note 3} The conseils des prud'hommes were local trade tribunals, abolished by the Revolution but re-established by Napoleon in 1809, whose function was to resolve individual disputes between employers and workers or apprentices; they consisted of equal numbers of employer and worker representatives, separately elected within trade colleges. Conseils des prud'hommes for commerce were set up by an Act of 27 March 1907.

^{page 256 note 4} Bulletin, , October 1900.Google Scholar

^{page 257 note 1} L'Employé, July 1902.

^{page 257 note 2} L'Employé, October 1903.

^{page 257 note 3} The Fédération Nationale des Employés was set up at a congress held in Paris on 15 and 16 July 1893. Its main support came from the Chambre Syndicale des Employés de la Seine, and its leaders included a number of socialist politicians from the Possibilist Fédération des Travailleurs Socialistes de France, Andre Gély, Lavy, Victor Dalle, and Arthur Rozier, all of whom became members of parliament. Dalle was elected in 1900 as a clerical workers' representative on the Conseil Supérieur du Travail. In 1902 the Fédération claim ed to have 15,460 members in 17 organisations, of which 8 were in Paris and the rest in Amiens, Angers, Le Mans, Nantes, Orléans, Rouen, Toulon, Troyes and Versailles. Although it pledged itself initially to work with manual workers' unions for the complete emancipation of the proletariat, its policies became increasingly moderate and at its 1902 congress it rejected a motion claiming that „the real solution to the social problem could only be obtained by social revolution” and warned its members against the disadvantages of strike action, compared with direct negotiation with employers, appeals to public opinion and approaches to public authorities.

The Fédération des Employés de France was set up at a congress held in Beauvais, on 14 and 15 August 1894, attended by delegates from a number of trade unions which were opposed to the revolutionary temper of the Fédération Nationale and to the dominating role of the Paris trade unions within it. It had its headquarters first in Beauvais then in Rouen (1897). It sent delegates to, the sixth national congress of the Fédération Nationale, and to the international congress in 1900, but opposed the idea of a single federation of clerical workers, because of its conviction that „politics should be excluded from trade-union organisations, which should not serve as a stepping stone to enable pseudo-clerical workers to obtain some sort of political office.” In 1902 the federation claimed to have 5,293 members, in 24 towns. Among its leaders were Adolphe and Saint-Cyr, from Beauvais, Bourdin and Vergne, from Rouen, Trénit, from Bordeaux. See du Commerce, Ministère, Les Associations Professionnelles Ouvrières, Tome IV, Paris, 1904, pp. 690–717.Google Scholar

^{page 258 note 1} Ruche Syndicale, La, October 1907.Google Scholar

^{page 258 note 2} Viennet, op. cit., pp. 11–12.

^{page 258 note 3} See, for example, the report on wages, presented to the 1914 congress of the Fédération Française des Syndicats d'Employés Catholiques, which contained a proposal to limit the numbers of foreign clerical workers. Reported in L'Employé, July 1914.

^{page 258 note 4} See, for example, Thévenin's article in the Bulletin Mensuel des œuvres, 1910, pp. 481–485Google Scholar, with its references to the machinations of Comrade Trukosoff of the CGT.

^{page 259 note 1} L'Employé, October 1910.

^{page 259 note 2} The Syndicat Ouvrier de la Métallurgie, for example, founded in 1898, declared its belief that social inequalities were one of the consequences of human existence and admitted that wages could not be uniform within the trade, but that everyone must be paid according to his intrinsic value. See L'Echo des Syndicats, 1901, passim.

^{page 259 note 3} Le Mouvement Social (previously L'Association Catholique, until December 1908) Vol. IV (1914), pp. 372–377, report of survey of membership of trade unions of Catholic workers, made by La Vie Syndicale.

^{page 260 note 1} Viennet, , in Le Sillon, 10 July 1898.Google Scholar

^{page 260 note 2} Sections of the SECI in Angers, Arras, Calais, Chalons-sur-Marne, Cherbourg, Laval, Le Mans, Morlaix, Nantes, Orléans, Rennes, Saint-Nazaire, Tours and Vannes. Separate unions affiliated to the federation in Amiens, Dijon, Dunkerque, Fougères, Grenoble, Lille, Limoges, Lyon (2), Marseille, Moulins, Paris (the SECI and two other unions of women clerical workers), Reims, Roubaix and Toulouse.

^{page 260 note 3} Viennet, op. cit., p. 22. Cf. Viennet, 's lecture at the Semaine Sociale de France, IXe Session Limoges 1912, p. 359Google Scholar. „In Paris many clerical workers aged between twenty and thirty earn less than 5 francs a day. In the provinces it is by no means uncommon to find men of the same age earning wages of 110, 90 and even 75 francs a month.”

^{page 260 note 4} Viennet, op. cit., p. 28.

^{page 261 note 1} Questions Actuelles, 15 March, 1908, pp. 229–230.Google Scholar

^{page 261 note 2} Ibid.

^{page 261 note 3} L'Employé, December 1907.

^{page 261 note 4} L'Employé, April 1909.

^{page 262 note 1} Deputation consisted of Rossin, Zirnheld and Guillebert.

^{page 262 note 2} Viennet, , Bulletin Mensuel des œuvres, 1914, pp. 50–32.Google Scholar

^{page 263 note 1} L'Employé, July 1906.

^{page 263 note 2} L'Employé, March 1902

^{page 265 note 1} of which 25 active and 5 associate.

^{page 265 note 2} of which 211 active and 58 associate.

^{page 265 note 3} of which 549 in Sections.

^{page 265 note 4} of which 807 in Sections.