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Was in conformity with Le Play's method that Carroll
D. Wright, liead of the Boston Bureau of Statistics
and later Commissioner of Labour at Washington,
had 6000 monographs dealing with labour problems
compiled ; in acknowledging the influence of the study
of Le Play, he says, "I received from it a new inspira-
tion which completely changed the trend of my
thoughts." Le Play had intended to add to "Les
ouvriers europeens" a final chapter setting forth cer-
tain doctrinal conclusions, but at the last he held them
back to let them mature, and simply wrote: "If
required to point out the force which, operating at
each extremity of the social scale, suffices, strictly
speaking, to render a people prosperous, we should
unhesitatingly answer: at the bottom, foresight; at
the top, religion. In analysing facts and comparing
figures, social science always leads real observers to the
principles of the Divine law." In 1856 Le Play
founded the Soci^te d'Economie Sociale with the
intention of preparing public opinion to accept his
conclusions.
In 1855 (second period) Napoleon III appointed Le Play councillor of State and reposed in him a con- fidence which steadily increased. He also requested Le Play to write a book on the social principles which seemed to him requisite for the prosperity of society. Le Play consented and, in 1864, published his "Re- forme sociale en France, deduite de I'observation comparee des peuples europeens". In the first chap- ter, " La religion", he defends the religious idea against Darwinism and Scepticism, but at that date the va- rious religions seemed to him but external forms, equally respectable and inspired by the same religious sentiment; he does not decide in favour of any. He defends God, respects Jesus Christ, but fails to appre- ciate the Church. From his observations he concluded that the doctrine of the original goodness of man is false, tliat the tendency to eWl is ingrained in human nature, that, therefore, a law is needed to compel man to do good in order to attain happiness, and he hails this law in the Decalogue but makes little account of the Gospel. The work was a sort of social apologetic for the Decalogue: "the erring", he writes, "on whom the traditional truths have no longer any influence, are led back by the facts which the method of observation brings to hght." The book met with great success. Sainte-Beuve proclaimed him "a rejuvenated Bonald, progressive and scientific". Montalembert wrote: "Le Play has produced the most original, most use- ful, most courageous, and, in every respect, the strong- est book of the century. He not only possesses more eloquence than the illustrious Tocqueville, but much more practical perspicacity and above all greater moral courage. I repeat, what I admire most in him is the courage which impels him to fight with raised visor against most of the dominant prejudices of his time and country. In this, even more than in his pro- digious knowledge of facts, will consist his true great- ness in the intellectual history of the nineteenth cen- tury." Napoleon III entrusted the organization of the Exposition Universelle of 1867 to Le Play, whom he made commissary general, and, at his request, the emperor created a new order of reward in favour of "establishments and localities throughout the world which give the best examples of social peace". But despite public opinion and the sympathy of the em- peror, the jurists opposed Le Play's ideas regard- ing testamentary liberty. As early as 1865 Baron de V^auce, a member of the corps legislatif, pro- posed that the Government should study the modifi- cation of the laws of inheritance, but his proposal received the votes of only forty-one deputies. The emperor, however, on two occasions had investiga- tions made with a view to the establishment of tes- tamentary freedom in favour of small holdings, but the project was opposed by the jurists and failed. In November, 1869, he urged Le Play to make another
effort to win over five senators to this view, but this
attempt, also, was unsuccessful.
It was at the emperor's suggestion that, in January, 1870, Le Play in his " L'organisation du travail" gave a resume of the principles expounded in "La Reforme sociale". The emperor also asked him to present to two of his ministers the conclusions of this book as expressing the imperial opinion, but further action was prevented by the outbreak of war and the fall of the empire. In 1871, after the war and the Commune, Le Play published his book "L'organisation de la famille" and his pamphlet on "La paix sociale apres le desastre", and to propagate his ideas he founded in France " Unions de la paix sociale". His ideas met with little political success; the project laid before the National Assembly, 25 June, 1871, for the modifica- tion of the laws of inheritance was without result. Le Play grouped about him eminent economists such as Focillon, Claudio Jannet, Cheysson, and Rostand. In 1875 he published "La Constitution de I'Angle- terre"; in 1S76, " La reforme en Europe et le salut de la France"; in 1877-79, the second edition of his "Ouvriers europeens", which, enriched with new de- tails, is a sort of compendium of the social history of Europe from 1855; and in 1881, "La Constitution essentielle de I'humanite". In 1881 also appeared the review, "La reforme sociale", which, even to-day, propagates Le Play's ideas.
The social doctrine elaborated in his works is as follows: In all prosperous nations there are certain institutions which accompany and explain this pros- perity. These institutions are (1) the observance of the Decalogue; (2) public worship — on this point Le Play devotes some beautiful passages to the rule of the CathoUc clergy in the United States and in Canada (which he calls the model nation of our time), ex- presses his fear that the concordatory regime in France will produce a Church of bureaucrats, and dreams of a liberty such as exists in America for the Church of France; (3) testamentary freedom, which according to him distinguishes peoples of vigorous expansion while the compulsory division of inheritances is the system of conquered races and inferior classes. It is only, he asserts, under the former system that familles-souches can develop, which are established on the soil and are not afraid of being prolific; (4) legislation punishing seduction and permitting the investigation of paternity; (5) institutions founded by large land owners or industrial leaders to uplift the condition of the workman. Le Play feared the intervention of the State in the labour system and considered that the State should encourage the social authorities to exercise what he calls "patronage", and should reward the heads of industry who founded philanthropic institutions. The League for Social Service, organized at New York in 1898 by Mr. Tolman, applied these ideas of Le Play; (6) liberty of instruction, i. e. freedom from State control; (7) decentralization in the State. He greatly admired the English ideas of self-government. In his latest works the Catholic tendency becomes more and more clearly defined. Le Play desired to collaborate with the clergy in the work of social reform; he believed that fidelity to God's law, an essential need of societies, could not be better guaranteed than by the doctrines, sacraments, and worship of the Catholic Church. One of his last public acts was a proceeding in behalf of the Church's right to teach, which was threatened by the projects of M. Jules Ferry. He obtained from his friend St. George Mivart a statement, signed by Gladstone, Lord Rosebery, and numerous professors of Oxford, Cambridge, and London, regarding the English idea and practice of liberty of instruction.
Le Play was very influential in Catholic circles. In his Lenten pastoral for 18S1, Cardinal de Bonnechose compared him to "those ancient sages of Greece who went to Egypt and the most remote countries of the
