LABOR EXCHANGES. (1) A class of insti tutions founded by the followers of Robert ()wen (1832-35), which were designed to bring about the exchange of the products of labor without the intervention of money. Stores were founded which were to buy and sell commodities for 'labor notes,' the amount of time spent in pro ducing a conimodity being the basis on which it was valued. No difference was made for dif ferent kiwis of labor. The plan was soon found to be impracticable. (2) The term is frequently used to designate an ideal employment bureau under public management, which should obviate the common evil that at one and the same time a need for labor exists in sonic occupations or lo calities, while many men are unemployed. It is generally recognized that labor, owing to the ignorance and inertia of the laboring classes, does not readily respond to the competitive laws which tend to place productive forces where they are most efficient. The better distribution of labor, it is held, ought to be one of the cares of the State, since under present conditions so ciety loses much productive energy, while bea• ing an unnecessarily large burden of pauperism and crime.
So-called labor exchanges (bourses de travail) exist in numerous European cities, as well as in some of the American States and in Australasia; but they are not. equipped with machinery suf ficiently efficient to grapple with the larger prob lems of the distribution of labor. See EMPLOY
MENT BUREAUS.
LABORI,111'1Wriv, FERNAND GUSTAVE GASTON (1860—). A French law:ster. He was born at Rheims, studied law at Paris, in England, and in Germany. lle was called to the bar of the Court of Appeal in 1881, and in ISS7-88 was secretary of the Conference of .Advocates. He conducted several notaide eases, among them the defense of the assassins Duval and Cheval lereau, the anarchist Pini, and the dynamiter Vaillant. lie was advocate for Gabriel Com payr6 in his famous libel action against Noma Gilly, and defended Alfred Dreyfus (q.v.). On August 14, 1899, during the final trial of Drey fus at Rennes, a cowardly attempt. was made to kill Labori. Be was shot in the back while on his way to the court, and was dangerously wounded, but recovered sufficiently to resume his defense of Dreyfus. Ile has had charge of several literary eases, notably those of La Plume and the Theatre realiste. His defense of M. Zola, who was eharged with libeling the President end the army. was the occasion for a display of marked ability. In conjunction with others, M. Labori has undertaken the publication of the Repertoire eneyelopedique de droit franeais.