(i) The Cantines Scolaires in Paris
Paris has long offered to other cities an inspiring example of an efficient and uniform system for feeding poor school children. She was the first to make systematic provision on a large scale. She had a basis of organisation ready to her hand in the Caisses des Ecoles. These bodies correspond in some degree to the English Care Committees, though with a far wider sphere of action. The original object of these school funds was to encourage school attendance by rewards to industrious pupils and help to the needy. The first Caisse was established in 1849 by the National Guard in the second arrondissement, and gradually the system spread. In 1867 a law was passed encouraging the formation of Caisses in every commune, and directing that their revenues were to consist of voluntary subscriptions and subventions by the commune, department or state.[[584]] This law was merely permissive, but in 1882, by the Compulsory Education Law, the establishment of these organisations was made obligatory.[[585]] A Caisse was accordingly set up in each of the twenty arrondissements of Paris. Attendance at school being now compulsory, and it being therefore no longer so necessary to provide incentives to attendance, the Caisses, though they still continued to grant prizes, turned their attention more and more to the physical needs of the children, boots, clothing, food, country holidays and, later, crèches, Savings Banks, skilled apprenticeship and medical treatment. The Caisse was a voluntary body, but was officially recognised by the municipality. The General Committee was composed of the Mayor, the members of the Municipal Council, and the school inspector for the district, together with from twenty to twenty-four persons elected by the subscribers.[[586]]
As in other towns, the early attempts at feeding poor school children were due to private initiative; meals were provided by the Caisses des Ecoles or other voluntary associations or by philanthropic individuals. These attempts were unco-ordinated and inadequate to deal with the evil of underfeeding. In 1879 the Municipal Council made an enquiry into the whole question. As a result a scheme was drawn up to place the work on a more satisfactory and uniform basis under public control. The provision of meals was entrusted in each arrondissement to the Caisses des Ecoles, and a grant of 480,000 francs was voted by the Municipal Council to aid them in this work.[[587]]
It is interesting to note that it was seriously considered whether the meals should not be supplied free for all children attending the schools. The Council, however, came to the conclusion that, "in freeing the parents of all responsibility with regard to their children, and in accustoming them to evade their duties, they would be running the risk of weakening the family spirit, to the great detriment of the morality both of the children and of the parents."[[588]] It was, therefore, decided that free provision should be limited to necessitous children. At the same time it would be difficult to exclude children who were willing to pay for their meals, hence provision should be made for these too.
The voluntary subscriptions which had supported the work before 1880 continued in theory to be the chief resource of the new Cantines Scolaires. These voluntary subscriptions rapidly decreased, being either withdrawn altogether or diverted to the other objects of the Caisses. At the same time both the number of meals provided and the proportion of free meals increased no less markedly. In 1880, the first year in which meals were provided under the new system, only 33 per cent. of the meals were supplied free (the remainder being paid for by the parents); in 1898 this proportion had nearly doubled, being 63 per cent. The municipal subsidy rose correspondingly, and in 1899 amounted to 1,017,000 francs. The Council took fright and appointed a Commission to consider the question, with the result that the grant was restricted to 1,000,000 francs.[[589]] This limit has been fairly strictly adhered to, for the grant amounts now to only 1,050,000 francs, though the proportion of free meals has continued slowly to increase.[[590]]
Each Caisse is allowed a free hand in the actual details of administration, hence the arrangements vary in the different arrondissements. The want of uniformity has obvious disadvantages, and a proposal was recently made that the system should be centralised, but this would have necessitated the appointment of a large and expensive staff, and it was felt desirable to leave the initiative and responsibility to voluntary workers.[[591]] Everywhere the meal is served on the school premises, a kitchen being established for each school or group of schools. The meal is cooked by the cantinières, and is sometimes provided by them at a fixed price per head; more often the Caisse prefers to purchase the materials itself, a more economical method, and one which ensures a better quality of food.[[592]] The dinner may consist of one, two or three courses. The food is plentiful and good, well-cooked and well-served, and the menu sufficiently varied. The meals are made as attractive as possible to encourage the better-class parents to make use of them. The price charged varies from 1d. to 2d.; in almost all the arrondissements the charge appears to be below the cost price. No difference is made between the children who pay and those who are on the free list. The teachers do not assist in serving the food, as in England, but are always present to supervise the children, and, in some schools at any rate, they eat their dinner with them. At first the supervision was undertaken voluntarily, but since 1910 the teachers have received an extra remuneration of 1·50 francs a day for this duty.[[593]] This sharing in a common meal by all classes alike, together with the presence of the teacher, has had a marked influence on the children's manners. Besides the mid-day meal, which is given by all the Caisses, breakfasts of soup are sometimes supplied to the children who are receiving free dinners, while in some arrondissements, e.g., the eighteenth, a small meal is also given at four o'clock to these children if they remain at school for the "classe de garde."[[594]] A further extension has recently been made in the seventeenth arrondissement, where it was decided in 1912 to try the experiment of a "classe de garde" till eight o'clock in the evening, with a supper, for children of widows or widowers who were at work till late, or for other especially poor children, or children with bad homes, the object being both to secure them adequate nourishment and to remove them from the temptations of the streets. For this purpose the Municipal Council voted a sum of 10,000 francs.[[595]] Weakly children have codliver oil given to them in winter and syrup of iodide of iron or phosphate of lime in the summer.
The methods of enquiry vary in the different arrondissements. Usually the enquiries are made by a paid investigator, but the numbers of children on the free list are so large that the investigation is as a rule very superficial. The necessity of keeping secret the fact that a child is receiving the meals free also militates against any effective enquiry into the parents' circumstances. The meals are granted for a school year, hence it frequently happens that a child continues to receive them long after the need has passed away.[[596]] The enquiries are, as might be expected, the least satisfactory part of the Paris system. In granting the meals the Caisses usually take a generous view; it is held, for instance, that a man earning up to 30s. a week cannot adequately feed and clothe more than three children, and if his family is larger than this the Caisses are prepared to assist him; while widows' children are invariably fed if application is made.[[597]]
An interesting feature of the Paris system is the provision of clothes. The municipality insists that the children shall come to school properly clothed; it is ready to provide the requisite garments, but it insists that they shall be kept clean and tidy. Frequent inspections are made for this purpose. The result is a notable raising of the level of cleanliness and tidiness in the schools, both the parents and the children themselves learning to take a pride in their appearance.[[598]] So far, indeed, from the work of the Caisses having undermined parental responsibility, it would appear that the reverse is the case, the parents responding to the higher standard demanded of them.
What strikes one in comparing the Paris system with that obtaining in English towns is the thoroughness with which the problem is tackled in Paris and the widespread interest taken by the citizens generally in the work of the Caisses. No half measures content them. From the first the work has been educational, the primary object of the Caisses being to encourage school attendance rather than to relieve distress. The educational progress of the children, the improvement in their physique, the raising of the standard of manners and cleanliness, all show that the results have amply justified the expenditure.[[599]]