Ligue de femmes Suisses contre l'alcoolisme (League of Swiss Women Against Alcoholism) was a women's temperance organization of Switzerland, founded at Geneva on November 3, 1899. The headquarters were located at Rue Etienne-Dumont, 22, Geneva. A Central Committee, composed of 24 members, had charge of the affairs of the League.[1]
History
editThe principal object of the organization was to acquaint the women, young girls, and children of Switzerland with the fact that the use of alcohol in any form seriously endangers the health and happiness of their country. Although its name gives the impression that it was a national organization, the activities of the League were practically limited to the town and canton of Geneva.[1]
The society differed from the Swiss Women's Abstinence League (Schweizerischer Bund abstinenter Frauen) in that it admitted without distinction both abstainers and non-abstainers to membership. That fact perhaps accounted for the extremely rapid growth of the League in the beginning (at the end of the first five years the membership had increased to 4,000), and the somewhat slower progress which it made subsequently.[1]
One of the first major achievements of the League was in connection with the juvenile phase of the temperance movement in Switzerland. An agreement was made with the teachers in the public schools of the canton, by which antialcoholic instruction was given to the children of Geneva. At first, a considerable amount of difficulty was experienced by the League in overcoming the many prejudices of the educational authorities, but it was finally successful in persuading them to permit temperance instruction to be added to the school programs.[1]
On November 27, 1903, a conference on anti-alcohol education took place at the University of Geneva, organized by the Ligue, and at which the Department of Public Education invited members of the teaching staff. The agenda included a report from Mr. Grandjean, a teacher in Neuchâtel, on the state of the question in Switzerland, and a conference by Mr. Dr. Legrain, chief physician of the asiles d'aliénés de la Seine (Seine insane asylums). In addition to State Councilors, two women representing the Ligue, Mrs. Victor Gautier and Mrs. John Rehfous, were seated on the platform. A key point made was that until that time, Switzerland did not dare to fight against alcoholism by real means, by effective action by schools. The country had allowed itself to be overtaken by other nations. No anti-alcohol education had been yet seriously organized and included in the programs.[2]
In 1909, the League awarded a prize to the winner of a public-school temperance essay contest, and made it an annual custom ever since.[1]
In the summer of 1911, the Ligue facilitated a children's flower contest. Cuttings of pea geraniums and fuchsias were given to girls. The object was for the children to grow these cuttings into beautiful house plants to demonstrate how beauty in the home induces men to prefer staying at home instead of visiting a saloon.[3]
The organization maintained an active temperance propaganda in and around Geneva by means of antialcoholic conferences, public meetings to which prominent speakers were brought from abroad, temperance exhibitions, and scientific lectures on alcoholism and its various phases at the University of Geneva. In addition, group meetings for mothers and special temperance catechism classes for small children were held.[1]
It was probably due to this form of temperance activity on the part of the League and other similar local organizations that the canton of Geneva was the first to prohibit the sale of absinth, a popular vote for the prohibition showing a majority of 6,000.[1]
Due to the demoralizing effects of World War I and the severe economic crisis which followed it, the work of the League became hampered. However, the War aided the temperance women of the Swiss Republic in one way: it permitted them to put into practise some of the principles for which they had been striving for 20 years. Many of them became nurses in the military hospitals along the Swiss frontiers, where they were given the opportunity to distribute temperance literature among the sick and wounded soldiers of the various nations fighting in that vicinity. The League was also successful in the establishment of a number of non-alcoholic rest rooms for the soldiers in the military camps along the Swiss borders.[1]
Although greatly embarrassed by the lack of funds and energetic active members, the League resumed most of its pre-War activities after World War I.[1]
Organ
editThe League published a monthly paper, Bulletin Mensuel, a four-page periodical.[1]
References
edit- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Cherrington, Ernest Hurst (1928). "LIGUE DE FEMMES SUISSES CONTRE L' ALCOOLISME". Standard encyclopedia of the alcohol problem., Vol IV. Kansas-Newton. Westerville, Ohio: American Issue Publishing Co. pp. 1551–52. Retrieved 22 July 2024 – via Internet Archive.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
- ^ "A conference on anti-alcohol education". L'éducateur et bulletin corporatif (in French). Société pédagogique de la Suisse romande. 1903. Retrieved 22 July 2024.
- ^ "A travers les Sociétés" (pdf). ETH-Bibliothek. 1912. p. 2. Retrieved 22 July 2024.
Bibliography
edit- Guy Hayler, Prohibition Advance in all Lands, Westerville, Ohio, 1914
- Bulletin Mensuel, February 1924
- Joris, Elisabeth (2016). Frauengeschichte(n) - Dokumente aus zwei Jahrhunderten zur Situation der Frauen in der Schweiz. Limmat Verlag. ISBN 9783038550662.