FALLON, VALÈRE

Economist, moralist, and pioneer of the family movement in Belgium; b. Namur, Belgium, May 24, 1875; d. Louvain, Belgium, Jan. 21, 1955. Fallon entered the Society of Jesus in 1892 and was ordained in 1907. He studied political and social sciences at the Universities of Louvain, Berlin, and Munich from 1909 to 1914 and received a doctorate in political and social sciences in 1913. His thesis, "La Plus-value et l'impôt," received a special award from the Belgian government and the University of Louvain. He taught moral philosophy and economics (1909–43) at the Jesuit college, Louvain, and social economics (1922–49) at the Institut Technique Supérieur Zénobe Gramme, Liège. His Principes d' économie sociale ran to seven editions and was translated into Dutch, Spanish, Italian, and English.

Fallon served as chaplain to Belgian forces, from 1914 to 1918 and from 1939 to 1940. With Colonel Lemercier and a few others, he founded (1921) Ligue des Familles Nombreuses and remained its effectual leader until his death. He promoted demographic studies in Belgium and participated in founding the International Population Union in 1928. Among his works are: Les Allocations familiales en Belgique (Louvain 1926, translated into Dutch), La Population belge et son avenir (Bruxelles 1934), La Sécurité sociale et les allocations familiales (Bruxelles 1945), Les Deux régimes d'allocations familiales (Bruxelles 1952).

[c. r. mertens]