Biographies
Speakers of the annual meetings of the Semaines Sociales de France

Further biographical profiles will be added shortly.

(Fumay, 16/12/1847 - Le Dorat, 24/04/1921)

Jesuit father, Charles Antoine had received a technical, engineering education at the “École des mines”, and, very likely, had originally graduated from “École Polytechnique”, which at the time was the principal access to “École des mines”. He first taught “social economics” at the Jesuit college (scolasticat) in Jersey, UK. In 1892, these classes were published as “Eléments de science sociale, leçons professées à Jersey, par le P. Ch. Antoine” (Poitiers, Oudin, 1893), which a few years later became his more famous work, “Cours d’économie sociale” (Paris, Guillaumin, 1896).

Interventions in the Semaines Sociales de France:

  • 1904, Lyon: course on “Property”
  • 1905, Orléans: course on “Salary and Work Contracts”
  • 1906, Dijon: course on “Three necessary societies: family, profession, city”
  • 1907, Amiens: course on “Are there Christian principles in social economics”
  • 1908, Marseille: course “The idea of justice in social economics”
  • 1909, Bordeaux: course on “Minimum wage”
  • 1910, Rouen: course on “Taxation”
  • 1911, Saint-Étienne: course on “Justice in the wage contract: the necessary and the personal component of wages”
  • 1912, Limoges: course on “The statements of theology concerning the familial society”
    course on “The familial idea, its consequences from the perspective of property”

Sources:

(Dijon 8/03/1856 - Paris 31/07/1948)

Brother of the Catholic philosopher of action Maurice Blondel, Georges Blondel was a Catholic academic jurist, specialising in Germany. Entrusted with scientific mission to Germany in 1883 and 1895, he worked at the universities of Lyon, and of Lille. In 1900, he was nominated professor at the “École des sciences politiques”. During his career, he often replaced Jean Izoulet at the Chair of social philosophy at the “Collège de France”. He fought in the Great War. During the interwar period, though he was nominated a member of the executive committee of the “Ligue des patriotes”, he used his expertise on Germany to denounce the risks of the rising National Socialist party. He participated in various initiative in support of German Jews and victims of German antisemitism. His “Le triomphe du Germanisme” (Marcel Rivière, 1934) denounced national socialism and was banned by German authorities during the occupation.

Interventions at the Semaines Sociales de France:

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(Aix en Provence 11/12/1870 - Paris 31/01/1938)

Academic jurist, politician, and important social Catholic, Boissard was amongst the founding members of the “Semaines Sociales de France”. In 1896 he obtains his doctorate in law, and then begins an academic career in Catholic institutions. First, between 1896 and 1906, he is at the “Faculté Catholique de Lille” and then, from 1906 to 1931, at the “Institut Catholique de Paris”. In 1904, he is amongst the founders of the “Semaines Sociales”, together with Marius Gonin and others. After the war, he is elected to parliament, representing the Cote d’Or between 1919 and 1924, as a conservative republican. Author of a vast body of work on social questions, this work mostly appeared before 1914. It touched on subjects such as industrial relations, pensions, social and professional insurance, and strikes. Some of his papers are kept at the BNF (Nouvelles Acquisitions Françaises 27193).

Interventions at the Semaines Sociales de France:

  • 1904, Lyon: course on “Workers’ pensions”
  • 1905, Orléans: conference on “Workers’ pensions: latest developments and role of mutual aid”
  • 1907, Amiens: course on “The demands of justice in the wage relation”
  • 1908, Marseille: course on “The laws of social justice”
  • 1909, Bordeaux: course on “The right to strike”
    course on “The legalisation of strikes through the public law professional institutions”
  • 1910, Rouen: course on “Working class pensions and the 6 April 1910 law”
  • 1913, Versailles: course on “The bases of the tax obligation”
  • 1920, Caen: “The economic renewal of France and the financial problem”
  • 1921, Toulouse: “The new project of social insurance”

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(Lyon 1861-1954)

A silk merchant by trade, Jean Bornet was at the forefront in the struggle for “free school”, that is to say a mostly Catholic movement for a school independent from the free, secular, and compulsory state education provided by the Republic after Jules Ferry’s laws of 1881 and 1882. President of the “Union Sociale de Lyon”, in 1904 he wrote “L’école libre de demain” (Lyon, Geneste, 1904), where he advocated for a school independent from the state but also from the clergy, constituted through the efforts of families and stakeholders. In 1905, he was president of the “Union des associations scolaires de la région lyonnaise”. Testifying his concerns for the problems of education and childhood, from 1914 to 1943, he was president of the “Société lyonnaise pour le sauvetage de l’enfance”. From 1930 to 1945, he was also the headmaster of the “École de Sacuny” near Lyon.

Interventions in the Semaines Sociales de France:

  • 1904, Lyon: special communication on the “Free School of Tomorrow” 

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(Colmar, 4/07/1847 - Mulhouse, 17/11/1918)

Born in Colmar in a family with Italian origins, Cetty quickly yielded to his religious vocation, being ordained a priest in 1872. As Alsace-Lorraine passed in German hands, Cetty, who was bilingual, developed his apostolic work in the First Reich. Initially a private tutor for the Ritter family, in Guebwiller, he later went to Mulhouse, where he operated in the parish of St. Steven. It is from here that he developed a complex and articulated body of work, centred on the social question. Part of this pastoral work consisted in the creation of Catholic social institutions of the working class, to counter the rising influence of socialism, inspired by the SPD. His workers’ circle ("Cercle de Saint Joseph"), established in 1891 and which became famous across both the German Reich and the French Republic, comprised institutions that engaged with areas of social life ranging from entertainment to education, from mutualism to job placement. But Cetty was also very active politically, launching in 1892 the “Mülhauser Volksblatt” – a newspaper which ended up being banned by the German authorities. He mobilized for elections, both local and national, failing to be elected in the Reichstag in 1893, but managing some limited success at the local level. He was a Christian democrat, in favour of a centrist Catholic party. He was the author of many articles and pamphlets, mostly published in the journal “L’Action Populaire”, amongst which we can count “Le Centre et son action sociale au Parlement” (1907), “En Allemagne: associations professionnelles chrétiennes” (1907), and “Le Cercle ouvrier de St-Joseph de Mulhouse et ses institutions économiques” (1908).

Interventions at the Semaines Sociales de France:

  • 1904, Lyon: general conference “The Catholic workers’ action in Alsace”

Sources:

(Lyon 30/04/1860 - Lyon 20/03/1947)

Lyonnais social Catholic, writer and social reformer by profession. In the 1890s he wrote sexuality, the French revolution, and electoral reform, making a case for plural voting in his “La réforme électorale” (1899). Well embedded into the Chronique sociale group, at least since 1913 he is an editor (rédacteur) at the Chronique sociale de France. He continued in the area of social Catholicism and in 1938 he penned the first biography of Marius Gonin.

Interventions at the Semaines Sociales de France:

  • 1905, Orléans: conference “School through familial association” 
  • 1909, Bordeaux: course “Individualist and social perspectives in law”
    course “The German trade union movement”
  • 1910, Rouen: course “Social function of public powers. Some applications”
  • 1911, Saint-Étienne: course “General view on modes of production and on their growing complexity”
    course “The collective action of workers: its forms, its necessity, its effectiveness”
  • 1912, Limoges: course “Salary laws and the family”
  • 1913, Versailles: course “The applications of Christian social principles”
  • 1919, Metz: “The role of the family in the society of tomorrow”
  • 1921, Toulouse: “The bearer title and the abuses it generates”

Sources:

(Lyon 28/02/1861 - Ameugny 28/01/1936)

Aristocrat, Baron of Contenson, he graduated in 1881 from the Saint-Cyr military school. In his career in the infantry, he was captain and then commander (chef de bataillon territorial). An accomplished writer on history and geography, in 1902 he was awarded the Montyon prize from the “Académie Française” for his book “Chrétiens et musulmans” (Paris, Plon, 1901). In the first decade of the 20th century, he wrote extensively on social subjects, including books such as “Les Retraites ouvrières” (Paris, de Soye, 1901), “Syndicats, mutualités, retraites” (Paris, Perrin, 1904), and “Les Syndicats professionnels féminins” (Paris, Bloud, 1909). In 1915, he received the “Legion d’Honneur”. For a period, he was the director of the “Revue d’Histoire Diplomatique”.

Interventions in the Semaines Sociales de France:

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(1840-1917)

Ordained priest in 1865, he initially operated in the Lyon area. Doctor in Theology. Preacher at the Dominican convent of S. Maximin, in the Var region. Teaches political economy at various institutions ("Faculté Libre de Lille", “Collège Libre des Sciences Sociales”, “Institut Catholique de Paris”). Close to the Action Française, from 1906 he teaches at their Institute. Collaborates with Paul Bourget and Édouard Drumont. Author of over 26 books, including “La Juiverie”, preface de Édouard Drumont (Paris, Henri Gautier,1887), “Le pouvoir social et l’ordre économique” (Lyon, Librairie Vitte et Pérussel, 1889), “Les Indulgences. Théorie et histoire” (Paris, Bloud, 1907), “Le régime corporatif et l’organisation du travail” (Paris, Bloud, 1908).

Interventions at the Semaines Sociales de France:

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(Paris 31/10/1860-14/03/1934)

After obtaining a degree ("licence") at the “École libre des sciences politiques”, a doctorate in law at the University of Paris (1886) and working as a lawyer for over a decade, he quit the legal profession to join the “Musée Social”, where, in 1897, he was entrusted with the responsibility of curator of the library. During the war, aged 56, he volunteered for military service and served in the infantry, gaining promotion to the grade of captain. After the war, he became secretary of the legal section of the “Musée Social” and, from 1925, city councillor in Versailles. An important figure of the reform networks of the pre-war period, he was, in 1913, an administrator of the “Société d’économie sociale”, revealing his proximity to Leplaysian networks. A committed social Catholic, he is the producer of a substantial body of work, centred around the questions of professional organizations and corporatism. Amongst his major works, we can cite “Histoire des corporations de métiers depuis leurs origines jusqu’à leur suppression en 1791” (Paris, Guillaumin, 1897), “Le compagnonnage” (Paris, Colin, 1901), “Syndicalisme ouvrier et syndicalisme agricole” (Paris, Payot, 1920), and “L'Encyclique ‘Rerum novarum’ et l'organisation professionnelle en France” (Milano, Vita e Pensiero, 1931).

Interventions at the Semaines Sociales de France:

  • 1904, Lyon: course on “Professional associations”
    conference on “Social duty today”
  • 1905, Orléans: course on “Professional unions and their economic institutions”
  • 1906, Dijon: general conference
  • 1907, Amiens: course: “Revolutionary syndicalism and the CGT”
  • 1908, Marseille: course: “The crisis of apprenticeship and the reform of professional apprenticeships”
  • 1910, Rouen: course: “The new tariff regime and its social consequences”
  • 1911, Saint-Étienne: course on “Justice in transactions”
  • 1912, Limoges: course on “The organization of credit for small retailers and small firms”
  • 1913, Versailles: course on “The general strike. Results from a Belgian experience”
  • 1914, Besançon (cancelled): course on “Commercial property"
  • 1919, Metz: “Professional organization and social Catholics”
  • 1920, Caen: “The backlashes of war and afterwar on consumption and cost of living”
  • 1921, Toulouse: “The current struggle against unemployment in France and abroad” 
    documentary session: “The National Association for the Legal Protection of Workers”

Sources:

(1873 - ?)

Born in 1873, as early as 1904, he is a lawyer in the Paris appeals court. By this time, however, he has already developed a professional standing as a Catholic social reformer. Between 1903 and 1906 there is a substantial written production by Dédé on social and religious issues. The focus is on Catholic mutual aid societies: in 1903 he publishes a study on the “Union Mutualiste des Femmes de France” (UMFF – not an actual mutual aid society, much more of an association dedicated to the study of mutual aid) and in 1904 his major work “Les sociétés de secours mutuels” contains a preface by Albert de Mun and is dedicated to the president of the UMFF, the Comtesse de Kersaint. For this book, he wins the Fabien prize from the Académie Française in 1905. In that same year, he begins the directorship of the publication “Le mutualiste français”, which lasts until 1939. Date of death is unknown.

Interventions at the Semaines Sociales de France:

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(Lyon 6/12/1851 - Vaugernay 27/07/1906)

Landowner in Saint-Lager, north of Lyon, he was amongst the first rural trade unionist and organizers. Close to Albert de Mun, he established, between 1884 and 1887, the “Union du Sud Est”, a rural union of local landowners, of which he was also president from 1893 until his death in 1906. Author of mostly technical works on viniculture ("Remarques pratiques sur la culture de la vigne en Beaujolais", Lyon, Typographie J. Gallet, 1887), he has a close relationship with the MP Hyacinthe de Gailhard-Bancel, with whom he consulted regularly to advance the cause of agricultural syndicalism.

Interventions at the Semaines Sociales de France:

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(Lyon 1859-1916)

Lawyer from Lyon, his name is linked to the development of rural credit unions – “Caisses Rurales” in French. Close to the “Union du Sud Est” and to Émile Duport, in 1890 he was tasked by this union to study the proposal for rural credit by Jules Méline. He thus discovered the Raffeisen system and became the promoter of this solution especially with regards to agriculture. In 1891, he published the results of his studies in “Le Crédit agricole en France et à l'étranger” (Paris, Chevalier Marescq, 1891) and in 1893 he set up the “Union des caisses rurales et ouvrières à responsabilité illimitée” (UCROF). A lifelong supporter of the development of rural credit unions, he published numerous works on the subject. His position tended to be liberal, i.e. sceptical towards the idea of the involvement of the state in the provision of rural credit.

Interventions in the Semaines Sociales de France: 

  • 1904, Lyon: session on “Rural Credit” in the course on “Rural Institutions”

Sources:

(Roubaix 16/06/1869 - Lille 21/05/1944)

Important figure not just in the “Semaines Sociales” but also more widely in the French social Catholic milieu. He was born in Roubaix in 1869, in a bourgeois family of some standing. Immediately drawn to social questions, he considered becoming a priest, but then enrolled in the Catholic faculty of Law in Lille. In 1892 he became doctor of law and chose an academic career. He became “maître de conferences” in the Catholic institution where he had studied and in 1898 he was nominated to a full professorship. He established a section of social and political sciences in the Lille Catholic faculty and was its director from 1905 to 1932. Involved in many Catholic associations beyond the academic world – the “Association Catholique de la Jeunesse Française”, the “Ligue Sociale d’Acheteurs”, the Lille chapter of the “Union de la Paix Sociale” – he was part of the “Semaines Sociales” organization from the beginning in 1904. Though he had some incursions in political life – he was a local councilor in Roubaix from 1898 to 1907, and was an advocate for proportional representation, writing a book, “Le suffrage de demain” (Perrin, 1901), and establishing a publication, “Le proportionnaliste”, on the subject – he chose to do politics from the university and through associations focused on the social question. Before the war, together with the “Semaines Sociales”, he was warned by Rome of having crossed a limit – he redacted a letter of submission to Rome, while the “Semaines Sociales” publicly sworn their allegiance to the social teachings of the Church. He fought in the Great War at Verdun and, in 1919, at the death of Henri Lorin, he was made president of the “Semaines Sociales”. During the interwar period he multiplied his social Catholic initiatives, becoming the president of the “Union intérnationale des études sociaux” in 1921 but continuing his activity with the “Semaines Sociales”. In the 1940s, he condemned the French resistance and was loyal to Petain’s regime, proposing a constitution and publishing “Rénovation française: l’apport des Semaines sociales” (Flammarion, 1942). The book, prefaced by Joseph Vialatoux, enrolled the institution in the support of Vichy France. He died in 1944.

Interventions in the Semaines Sociales:

  • 1905, Orléans: course on “The legal protection of workers”
  • 1906, Dijon: course on “Women’s work”
  • 1907, Amiens: course on “The work contract”
  • 1908, Marseille: course on “Unemployment”
  • 1909, Bordeaux: course on “Facts and trade union legislation”
    course on “The enlargement of the field of activity of unions through collective bargaining” 
    course on “The role of unions in the preparation and application of laws relative to professional interests”
  • 1910, Rouen: course on “Usurious injustice in the face of modern law”
    course on “Trade unions and associations”
  • 1911, Saint-Étienne: course “The preponderant role of capital in the contemporary regime of production”
  • 1912, Limoges: course on “Which social orientations emerge from traditional doctrines against usury”
  • 1913, Versailles: course on “The idea of responsibility in public law”
  • 1914, Besançon (cancelled): Course on “Legislative work and its methods”
  • 1919, Metz: opening speech “The Semaines Sociales de France: what they have been in the past, what they want to be in the future”
    closing remarks
  • 1920, Caen: opening lecture “Contemporary problems in production from the perspective of Christian sociology”
  • 1921, Toulouse: opening lecture “The crisis of public probity and economic disorder”

Sources:

Collaborator of Émile Duport, his main area of activity are rural unions and associations. From 1894, he is the director of the “Coopérative Agricole du Sud Est”, and from 1906 he is an administrator for the “Union du Sud Est”. He writes numerous articles for the “Bulletin de l'Union du Sud Est des syndicats agricoles”, the official organ of the “Union du Sud Est”. He is also the author of a volume on insurance for rural business, “Simples notes sur les assurances contre les accidents agricoles” (Lyon, Imprimerie du Salut Public, 1896).

Interventions in the Semaines Sociales de France:

  • 1904, Lyon: session on “Rural insurance” in the course on “Rural Institutions”

Sources:

(Paris 24/07/1874 - Paris 12/01/1915)

Born in 1874 in a family of Catholic intellectuals, Laurentie was a historian and a polemist. In 1896 he completed his studies at the “École Normale”, and passed the “agrégation delettres” in1900. He then became a professor of rhetoric at the “Collège Stanislas”, an important Catholic high school in Paris. This position was the same one that had been held by his grandfather, the legitimist intellectual Pierre-Sébastien Laurentie. His work as a historian focused on the fate of the French monarchy after the revolution, with works on Louis XVII and the Comte de Chambord and on the history of French Catholicism. As a journalist and pamphleteer, he, very coherently, polemized with the republican historian of the French revolution Alphonse Aulard in “Le cas de M. Aulard” (Paris, L. de Soye, 1914). In January 1915, he died in war. The “Academie Française” awarded him the “Thérouanne” prize. He is buried in the Panthéon, alongside another 559 intellectuals “morts pour la France”.

Interventions in the Semaines Sociales de France:

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(Changy 4/06/1860 - Lyon 30/01/1936)

Issuing from a white-collar background, the financial ruin of her family forced her into the job market. Catholic, in 1899 she established two unions specifically dedicated to women: one for women employed in the commercial sector, which she will preside, and one for female silk workers. These syndical endeavours will produce two publications: “Le Travail de la femme à Lyon, monographie de syndicats de femmes” (Paris, 1901) and “Syndicats d’ouvrières lyonnaises” (Paris, V. Lecoffre, 1904). Though partially undemocratic (an initial steering committee was exempt from re-election), these unions were based not only on the principle of accepting only women, but, more radically, they were real workers’ union, closed to managers and business owners. Together with the core union activities, these institutions offered job market placement services and, above all, took care of the education of the workforce, developing a programme of courses offered to their members.

Interventions in the Semaines Sociales de France:

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(Solliers 13/11/1848 - Orléans 23/09/1926)

Born near Bayeux, in Normandy, he became a priest in 1872, and in 1894 he was nominated to the seat of the Bishop of Orléans. During his tenure, he dedicated himself to the cause for the canonisation of Joan of Arc.

Interventions at the Semaines Sociales de France:

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(Bordeaux 23/02/1866 - Vivier 22/07/1943)

Sociologist, social reformer, and jurist. In 1901, he won the Juteau-Duvigneaux Prize (500 Francs) from the “Académie Française” for his book “L’Education populaire” (Paris, Lecoffre, 1900). He obtained his Doctorate in Political and Economic Sciences from the Faculty of Law of the University of Paris in 1903. By 1905, he had begun teaching at the “Collège Libre de Sciences Sociales”. In 1906, he was again rewarded by the “Academie Francaise” for his book “Initiatives Féminines” (Paris, Victor Lecoffre, 1905), which was awarded the “Prix Montyon” (500 Francs). In 1906, he became an adjunct profession in business management (Gestion d’entreprise) at the University of Fribourg, in Switzerland, an important hub of European social Catholicism. In 1909, he became full professor at this institution, covering the role of Dean of the Faculty of Law for two years during the Great War. Between 1918 and 1936, he was full professor of Political Economy at the Zurich Polytechnic, while still maintaining his position in Fribourg. In the interwar period, he wrote extensively on Christian syndicalism, most notably in his “Le syndicalisme chrétien en France” (Paris, Valois, 1929) and collaborated with the ILO’s “International Labour Review”.

Interventions at the Semaines Sociales de France:

  • 1904, Lyon: course on “Post-scholastic education”
  • 1905, Orléans: conference on “Popular education”
  • 1906, Dijon: course on “The feminist movement”
  • 1907, Amiens: course on “Coalitions of producers. Cartels and trusts”
  • 1909, Bordeaux: Course on “A social movement in a democratic country: insurance in Switzerland”
  • 1912, Limoges: Course on “Referenda in Switzerland: the case of the social referendum of the 4th February 1912”
  • 1919, Metz: “Contemporary achievements of social Catholicism in industrial organization: factory councils and bonuses”
  • 1920, Caen: “The relationship between production and the banking regime of a country”
  • 1921, Toulouse: “The exchange rate crisis”

Sources:

(Paris 9/11/1876 - Paris 18/12/1940)

Prominent figure in French Catholic trade unionism, and in French trade unionism tout court. Son of an Alsatian who fought for and eventually chose France in 1870-1871, he studied in Catholic schools before working as an accountant and, in 1900, becoming a civil servant in the Bank of France. His main activity was the organization of workers. In the 1890s and 1900s he joined the Catholic “Syndicat des employés du commerce et de l’industrie” (SECI) and rose through the ranks, contributing to research activities, to international delegations, becoming treasurer and eventually, in 1906, president of the union. Before the war, he engaged in various conflicts, both against socialist unions, as well as inside the Catholic world, where his good relations with Rome protected him against the hostility of the less progressive forces of French Catholicism. He fought in the Great War and returned to union activities in the interwar period. His interwar activity consisted in the consolidation of Catholic unionism, in successfully defending himself in Rome against the Catholic right and Catholic bosses. In this period, he became increasingly close to the “Semaines Sociales” and repeatedly intervened in their yearly meetings. He opposed the Vichy regime in the last years of his life, before dying in 1940.

Interventions at the Semaines Sociales de France:

  • 1905, Orléans: course on “Employees’ unions”
  • 1919, Metz: "The role of unions in the signing of collective agreements”
    “The confederation of Christian Unions”
  • 1921, Toulouse: documentary session “The state of the cooperative movement in France”

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