1911
SSF meeting 31 July-6 August 1911, Saint-Étienne

(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:

• Antoine Savoye - Charles Antoine, S. J. [FRA]
• Catalogue BNF 1 - Charles Antoine, S. J. [FRA]
• Catalogue BNF 2 - Charles Antoine, S. J. [FRA]

(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:

• 1905, Orléans: conference “German trade unions”
• 1909, Bordeaux: conference “The organization of commercial ports”
• 1911, Saint-Étienne: conference “Trade union for minors in the Ruhr valley in Germany”

Sources:

• Wikipedia - Georges Blondel [FRA]

(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:

• La Critique du Liberalisme - Augustin Crétinon [FRA]
• Marie-Emanuelle Chessel - Augustin Crétinon [FRA]

(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:

• Catalogue BNF - Etienne Martin de Saint-Léon [FRA]
• Academie des sciences morales et politiques - Etienne Martin de Saint-Léon [FRA]
• École nationale des chartes - Etienne Martin de Saint-Léon [FRA]
• Christian Topalov (ed.), Laboratoires du nouveau siècle (Paris, EHESS, 1999), pp. 61-94.

(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:

• Wikipedia - Eugène Duthoit [FRA]
• Maitron - Eugène Duthoit [FRA]