Shipping from Europe with tracking number $20
- His name was given to the Paris Childcare School
- His name was given to the regional center for the fight against cancer in Alsace located in Strasbourg: the Paul-Strauss Center
- There is a rue Paul-Strauss in the 20th of Paris and one in Ronchamp (Haute-Saône) , his hometown.
Paul Strauss
| Paul Strauss | |
 Paul Strauss in 1913, senator. | |
| Functions | |
|---|---|
| Vice President of the Senate | |
| – ( 3 years and 1 day ) | |
| Election | |
| Minister of Hygiene, Social Assistance and Welfare | |
| – ( 2 years, 2 months and 13 days ) | |
| President | Alexandre Millerand |
| President of the council | Raymond Poincaré |
| Government | Poincaré II |
| Predecessor | Georges Leredu |
| Successor | Daniel Daniel-Vincent |
| Senator | |
| – ( 38 years, 11 months and 29 days ) | |
| Election | |
| Re-election | |
| Constituency | Seine |
| General Councilor of the Seine | |
| – ( 14 years, 2 months and 10 days ) | |
| Election | |
| Re-election | |
| Constituency | 9th arrondissement (Rochechouart ) |
| Predecessor | Paul Dubois |
| Successor | Félicien Paris |
| Biography | |
| Date of birth | |
| Date of death | (at age 89) |
| Nationality |  French |
| Political party | Radical-socialist Independent radicals |
| Spouse | Renée Bernard (1860-1933) |
| Residence | Seine |
to modify  | |
Paul Strauss , bornin Ronchamp ( Haute-Saône ) and died onin Hendaye , is a French journalist and politician . general advisor, senator and minister, during all these functions and for almost fifty years, he was always preoccupied with social questions, hygiene and public assistance.
He was director of the Revue philanthropique from 1887 to 1934 1 , president of the Association of Republican Journalists, following Arthur Ranc and vice-president of the Superior Council of Public Assistance 2 .
Paul Strauss has a keen interest in social issues: protection of mothers and children, as well as the elderly; social housing ; hygiene and health. It inspires the law of, sometimes called the Strauss law , which supplements the Siegfried law ofon cheap housing 3 .
Biography
Beginnings
Paul Strauss is the son of Isidore Strauss (1819-1906) 4 , a Jewish draper merchant from Haute-Saône , and Zélie Schwob (1825-1908), from the Schwob family of Héricourt.
Paul Strauss's childhood is ignored, since he remains very modest about this period of his life, including in his memoirs ( Souvenirs , 1934) 5 . The first known information begins with his arrival in Paris in October 1869, which represents an opportunity for social advancement. He remained in Paris until July 1870 5 .
Paul Strauss's political involvement was early, linked to his arrival in Paris, when he was only 17 years old and began by reading newspapers opposing the Second Empire, notably Le Réveil , La Marseillaise , Le Rappel . and participates in several public meetings. It is these readings which form his political commitment, notably by listening to Adolphe Crémieux , Léon Gambetta and by meeting for example Gustave Courbet and Eugène Varlin , all of whom are personalities who represent a challenge to the regime in place 5 .
During the day of September 4, 1870 , Paul Strauss was in Lure on vacation and expressed in his Memories the regret of not having been in Paris during this event 6 .
This appearance of political commitment and early political convictions, notably detestation of the Second Empire, anticlericalism and the defense of freedom, came into contradiction with a patriotic commitment. Despite this, he joined the military at the age of 17 during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 . On October 19, 1870, he was enlisted in the Lure National Guard . This commitment led him to carry out reconnaissance missions in civilian clothes, shortly before the Siege of Belfort , which were failures and he returned, he and his comrades, to his company and was assigned to the defense of Besançon. It was at this moment that he recounts in his story Memories , having met Léon Gambetta and Giuseppe Garibaldi 7 .
On November 18, 1870, Paul Strauss joined, at his request, the 4th battalion of the Haute-Saône national guard and was promoted to the rank of Corporal-fourrier . The order to retreat from Haut-Doubs surprised him. He arrived, accompanied by his comrades in Switzerland, on February 1 , 1871 and was disarmed. Despite everything, he manages to escape and undertakes a long journey on foot and by train to reach Lure . He was then forced to stay there, in a commune under German domination, because the sub-prefect refused passports for Paris 7 .
“Alas! The Commune breaks out, blood flows, the civil war adds its horrors to those of the France-Germany war ( Souvenirs , 1934, page 20)”
In May 1871, he returned to Paris and discovered a city emerging “from the smoking ruins of the Tuileries, the Court of Auditors, the Hôtel de Ville” ( Souvenirs , page 38). His story testifies to a trauma of the War and the Commune , he is among those who consider Gambetta as a “legend” having founded the Republic 7 .
From 1872, with students, young professors and apprentice journalists, Paul Strauss participated in the creation of the monthly newspaper La Joute, which only had a few issues. In this newspaper, young law or medicine students, republicans and anticlericals, advocate amnesty, compulsory education, equal service for all 8 . These demands echo the Belleville program of Léon Gambetta during his speech in 1869.
Paul Strauss began his career in politics within Republican networks. He is one of those who have had the same life journey and who rub shoulders with each other, notably the rise to Paris, the writing in republican newspapers, the creation of networks of friendships, a criticism and a fight against the Empire. The historian Jérôme Grévy calls these networks the “Gambettist nebula” 9 , composed of six circles of networks, more or less close, gathered around Léon Gambetta. He then frequented cafés, an emblematic place for republican sociability, where newspaper articles and parliamentary debates were discussed and debated. In his Memories , Paul Strauss cites the Café Voltaire or the Café Procope and names the cafés on the right bank, frequented by the Gambettist group, such as the Brasserie des Martyrs, the Café de Madrid (...) 10 . The right bank will be the place of entry into politics for Paul Strauss, since as Jérôme Grévy mentions, the “right bank, the Saint-Lazare station being the starting point and the arrival point of the trains of the parliamentarians”, and the place of sociability of the republican political class 11 .
Condemnation and exile
Paul Strauss, on August 30, 1873, joined a corps of nurses in order to do his military service by advance call-up. He was then, at the same time, a medical student and engaged in political journalism, and was pursued by the government because of an article for Le Radical 12 . This pursuit of the government is part of the crisis of May 16, 1877 and leads the Government to use pressure tactics to fight the Republicans. He wrote and signed this article on May 26, 1877, under the pseudonym “Paul Bouquet”, because “strauss” in German means “bouquet”. He was tried and convicted by the 11th criminal chamber of Paris for “complicity in the offenses of insulting the person of the President of the Republic and of condoning facts classified as crimes by law” 13 . Paul Strauss did not appear at the hearing, he was declared a deserter by the army on August 2, 1877 and sentenced to three years of imprisonment then was disbarred on February 2, 1878. Following this conviction, the publication of Radical is suspended and Paul Strauss prefers to flee his country which is tracking him because it is Republican 13 .
He will flee and go into exile in Strasbourg, then in Brussels 14 . During this exile, he began writing his first book, published in 1878, Universal Suffrage with the socialist bookstore of Henry Kistemaeckers . Divided into twelve chapters, this work is a history of universal suffrage since the French Revolution , within which it develops the idea that universal suffrage remains inseparable from the achievement of the Republic. In particular, he develops that education is essential because it prepares the “dissemination of political knowledge” (Universal suffrage, p.84) and that republican, free and compulsory school always remains an objective, wishing for an educational program “purified of any metaphysical or religious element” (p. 86) 15 .
The rest of his experience in exile is not known, he returned to Paris on April 8, 1879, a year after the amnesty law on press offenses, adopted by the Chamber of Deputies on February 24, 1878. From On his return, he spontaneously presented himself to the army and was imprisoned in the remand and correction center ( Cherche-Midi prison ) then was sentenced to three years of public works for desertion abroad. . He was incarcerated for two and a half months then released by a ministerial decision, following a letter written to the Minister of War . He was released on June 22, 1879 and released from his military obligations in 1881 16 .
Career as a journalist
The founding of the newspaper La République française , on November 7, 1871, was a landmark moment for the Republican Party, allowing it to resist attempts at monarchical restorations and the journalistic career of Paul Strauss. He made his first appearances in “risky” newspapers, in which exiles from the Commune and left-wing republicans published, under pseudonyms. He was notably an editor at Droits de l'Homme (created in February 1876) and at Radical 17 .
It was after his exile that his career as a parliamentary journalist began, whose freedom was guaranteed by the law of July 29, 1881 .
From then on, Paul Strauss collaborated and wrote in small newspapers such as La Lanterne , Le Voltaire , Le nineteenth century , Le Figaro 18 .
On March 19, 1892, he created the newspaper La Ville and, five years later, another magazine devoted to social action, La Revue philanthropique, which he directed until the newspaper's disappearance in December 1934 18 .
As the historian Christian Delporte mentions in his work Les Journalistes en France (1880-1950) 19 , the parliamentary journalist becomes a reporter, the job consists of going from café to café, within the newsrooms, of going search for information. Paul Strauss frequents the Chamber of Deputies, looking for information, meetings, goes to the press gallery. The role of parliamentary journalist is then essential because all newspapers discuss and comment on the actions of the Government 20 .
General Councilor
In the elections of September 1883, Paul Strauss benefited from the support of his fellow journalists. Le Petit Journal , on the eve of the election and at the request of Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau , wrote an article extremely favorable to his candidacy. It is presented by the Republican Union committee and claims to be a moderate wing of radicalism 21 . The committee's text of support was published in the newspaper Le Siècle on August 25, 1883: "The committee of the Republican Union which, in August 1881, nominating Mr. Ranc for your votes, today recommends to you the candidacy of Mr. Paul Strauss for the municipal election […] » 22 .
On August 23, during a public meeting, the candidate presented the broad outlines of his program: the separation of Church and State, compulsory military service, the elimination of indirect taxes, all the measures advocated by the radical movement, inspired by the Belleville Program 23 .
During the campaign, several candidates, including the worker candidate, provoked controversies about Paul Strauss, notably on August 24 during a public meeting: “Does he have interests in the 9th arrondissement that are his own? No. Moreover, we know that Mr. Paul Strauss is Jewish. He makes fun of the separation of Church and State, the serious question of the budget for religions, the Concordat, etc. He comes from German parents and he has very extensive connections in Bismarck's entourage. Attacks which attempt to assimilate the candidate to a foreigner, in two different ways, since “from German parents”, his origin and “Israelite”, his religion and would therefore be linked to the enemy (Germany) 23 .
On September 1, 1883, the day before the election, the candidate's support committee published a final appeal to the inhabitants of the Rochechouart district and responded to the attacks: "Dear fellow citizens, Faithful to the traditions of concord and union which have given strength and the success of the Republican Party, we have been keen, since the start of the electoral period, to avoid all personal controversies. Our adversaries did not believe it necessary to observe the same reservation: we regret it for them” 24 .
Elected general councilor of the 9th arrondissement of Paris ( Rochechouart district ). Upon his election, he positioned himself on the center-left, between the radicals, socialists and conservatives. He is part of the “opportunist” minority of the group of “municipal republicans” 25 .
He was re-elected a year later,, from the first round with eight other “opportunists”. After this victory, the radicals will be less virulent towards the advisor and will demonstrate positive positions towards him in Le Radical 26 .
During the sessions in 1884, where the question of working hours was under discussion, he tabled an amendment limiting working hours to 10 hours per day and 6 days per week, an intermediate position between the proposal of 8 hours per day and 48 hours per week, as requested by Édouard Vaillant 27 and the liberal position of certain advisors. During this same discussion on work, he is in favor with his colleagues of the opening of a credit of 50,000 francs to be distributed to unemployed workers but votes against a socialist proposal which aims to give credits to support the strikers of the Anzin mines 28 .
After the elections of 1884, he was elected member of the 8th commission (Assistance publique Mont-de-Piété, of which he became president in 1890), member of the budget commission (and secretary thereof) and of the commission municipal health, which he initiated, following a threat of cholera. His influence goes beyond this assembly because he was elected Member of the Superior Council of Public Assistance from its creation in 1888. He is also a member of the Society of Public Medicine and Sanitary Engineering since 1883. He belongs to other commissions, including the Public Hygiene and Sanitation Council of the Seine Department 28 .
Paul Strauss intervenes and debates on all issues, everything seems to interest him, he then asserts his positions. Despite everything, he will devote himself in particular to the Mont-de-piété file (ancestor of Municipal Credit), this file will then build his expertise on the question of social reform. Thanks to the various councils and commissions, the general councilor will obtain notoriety thanks to his expertise and his positions on questions of finance, health and social protection 29 .
Thanks to this success in previous municipal elections and his municipal experience, Paul Strauss launched into the campaign for the legislative elections of 1885 . He presents himself under the label of “the Republican Alliance of Radical and Progressive Committees of the Seine” or “Tolain Committee”. The campaign is marked by speeches from the radical candidate focused on the social question, emphasizing “healthiness”, an essential issue for the “well-being of the working classes”. He is building the profile of a politician mixing social and health issues. He then failed in the first round, with 30,000 votes according to The Nineteenth Century 26 .
In March 1891, he supported the refusal to throw out all unemployed people received in temporary asylums, in the depths of winter, mainly construction workers, wood workers and mechanics (...). Despite everything, he wishes to eliminate this aid with the help of the administration and the assistance commission when measures to curb unemployment have been put in place 30 . He defends an intermediate position on the social question, the right to assistance, without defending a liberal vision of the economy 28 .
Favorite subjects: budget, hygiene and assistance
Budget and financial issues are one of the subjects that concerns Paul Strauss at the municipal council. According to him, "ordinary" expenses would be excessive and real savings should be sought, but he wants to invest in long-term projects. He therefore wants to reduce ordinary expenses as much as possible but invest in major projects, particularly in health. He was general rapporteur of the budget from 1889 to 1892 and established annual reports on borrowings. Until the end of his municipal mandate, Strauss remained attentive to the question of finances and his work demonstrated a desire to combine expenses and revenues in the general budget 31 .
On hygiene and public assistance, Paul Strauss makes it his favorite subject and will speak very frequently on various subjects. He is particularly interested in sewerage, the “intimate toilet” of Paris and the quality of water. The “mains sewer” is a modern system for evacuating fecal matter which involves bringing a large quantity of water into the city and into each home, with the installation of toilets. facilities and the installation of wastewater treatment plants outside the city. It is a complex subject that Strauss seems to have mastered while being attentive to technical advances and the recommendations of bacteriologists. Thus, he defends with some other councilors, the provision of special pipes, which would collect the waste materials, a system of “all-by-sewer”, in addition to all-to-sewer. According to Fabienne Chevallier, these questions are the basis of an objective of “democratization of personal hygiene, guarantor of public health” 32 .
Strauss's final favorite subject is the protection of mothers and children. As early as 1890, he proposed creating a “municipal asylum for women in childbirth and pregnant women”. The city of Paris then benefits from a building owned by Ledru-Rollin 's widow . Strauss, instead of selling this building, proposes that it be transformed into a convalescent asylum for women in childbirth. He will prepare a preliminary project with a city architect to accommodate 200 women and make a first phase. The second tranche will be carried out following a vote of funds to an institution which directly benefits from great success. He also suggested creating, on disused land in the Montparnasse cemetery, rue Boulard , a dormitory for pregnant women 33 . According to Strauss, this support system for mothers must be supplemented by the creation of several establishments for children. In particular, he introduced the ideas of the pediatrician Gaston Variot into a report on the Public Assistance budget of 1891 . By taking a model from England in particular, to create dispensary hospitals, therefore outpatient consultations attached to a hospital. He called for a “complete reform” of the hospitalization of children, which would result in 1901 with the creation of three new pediatric hospitals with consultations. These hospitals will be able to offer all modern pediatric and surgical services 33 .
Delinquent children are also a concern of the counselor. He is therefore concerned about the conditions of temporary detention of children arrested in the street. THE, he tabled with Georges Villain and Albert Pétrot , an agenda inviting the Public Assistance administration to set up, near the courthouse, a premises for these children to be placed temporarily, "instead of being mixed up, even for a few days to the crowd of vagabonds and thieves who clutter the depot.” His proposal was adopted. It is in this same logic of concern for children that he participates in the debates on the health service for prostitution in Paris. Thus, he would not like any minor girl engaging in prostitution and being suspected of being ill to be excluded from health checks in the prison setting. It was after a visit to the Saint-Lazare prison, where he met young girls under the age of 16 brought for health checks, that he demanded that they enter the ward for “morally abandoned” children. The advisor's proposals are adopted. He is therefore a major player and advisor on improving the conditions and care of children in public assistance. He acquired a certain authority on these issues during his mandates 34 .
THE, following his election as Senator of the Seine, he sent his resignation to the municipal council. The President paid tribute to “one of the most hardworking in our assembly”: “we do not lose such a collaborator without regret. Reminding the Municipal Council of his work is useless; everyone knows her and she is no stranger to her appointment as senator […] In fact our colleague is not leaving us; he remains one of us […]”. Indeed, despite everything, he remains, at his request, a member of special commissions. Thus during his mandate as senator, despite the management of national affairs, he remained committed to defending the capital and its inhabitants, which is demonstrated by the example of the Seine flood of 1910 . Paul Strauss will question the President of the Council Aristide Briand on what the Government will do to avoid the return of such floods 35 .
Senator
After his failures in the legislative elections of 1885 , 1889 and 1893 , he ran for the Senate in 1897 and was elected at the age of 45. Paul Strauss will build his own strategy and political philosophy, without any affiliation to a political party, while keeping firm conditions: A moderate secular Republican working on “social” issues. He became a specialist in public assistance and child protection 36 .
Strauss' career and senatorial profile is both typical and atypical. He has a typical profile because like many other senators, he began his political career at the age of 31, with local mandates and was elected senator after fourteen years in office (the average is fifteen years). His profile is also atypical because he is one of the very rare Protestant (fifteen) and Jewish (six) Seine parliamentarians elected between 1871 and 1936 37 , 38 .
As when he was a municipal councilor, Paul Strauss is an active senator with sustained activity, speaking on a wide variety of subjects, submitting legislative proposals, he writes more than 130 reports, proposes petitions, he is active within commissions, asks many questions to ministers. He was a member of the Army Commission during the First World War (1914 to 1921), Foreign Affairs in 1917 and 1920, and Health from 1921 to 1935 .
The first bill he tabled, on January 20, 1898, concerns compulsory assistance for elderly people and indigent women. The second, filed on July 5, 1898, aims to suppress the publicity of capital executions, which aims to prohibit executions in public places so that they can be carried out within prisons. The bill and its amendments were rejected 39 .
A social reformer in the Senate
Senator Paul Strauss will be concerned with several social issues during his mandate, such as the cause of children (abnormal, abused), the elderly, or even the condition of workers and the fight against abortion.
The question of the fight against abortion is particular for Paul Strauss, his thinking is part of a desire to fight against depopulation, but despite everything is part of the conservatives, wanting a repressive policy, while the radicals bring out the social question of abortion, and Strauss wants a policy of support in the face of the distress and misery of mothers and families. The question of abortion emerged in the years 1909 and 1910, notably with a bill from Senator Odilon Lannelongue , wishing to combat depopulation through pronatalist measures and fighting against single people and at the same time a bill from the Minister of Justice Louis Barthou , aiming to modify article 317 of the penal code which punishes abortion. After a few years of calmed or interrupted debates, the question resumed in 1914 when the proposed law of Lannelongue, who died in 1911, was taken up by Louis Barthou and Louis-Lucien Klotz and transformed into a law repressing abortion, contraceptive propaganda and wishing to monitor birthing centers 40 .
It is at this moment that Paul Strauss's discourse is constructed, and adopts with other radicals such as Paul Cazeneuve , a repressive discourse, and at the same time a discourse taking into account the importance and effectiveness of preventive assistance and a social policy, wishing to see the adoption of maternity leave compensation, assistance for large families, shelters for pregnant women (...). The debate on the law was interrupted by the war in 1914, despite everything the discussions of the articles resumed from the on the denunciation of abortion in violation of medical confidentiality. The debates reveal deep divergences, in particular Cazeneuve's proposal which calls for an obligation for doctors to testify, while Strauss is firmly opposed to this, according to him the priority is medical. Finally, he agreed with a “transactional” amendment, drafted by Cazeneuve and Henry Chéron , establishing the freedom of the doctor to judge for himself whether he must testify to a crime of abortion. This amendment and the entire proposal was adopted on. This rallying of Paul Strauss to natalist proposals suggests his future ministerial action on the subject 40 .
As vice-president of the interparliamentary group “Social Welfare for Children and Adolescents” 41 , Paul Strauss is concerned with all issues concerning the protection of children, children who are victims of violence, abandoned or disabled. The senator's first intervention on the subject ended in failure during a debate on the repression of violence and attacks committed against children which would lead to the law of April 19, 1898, but nevertheless demonstrating the experience and the commitment of the future minister on the subject. He proposes an amendment, alongside Théophile Roussel , aimed at allowing certain child protection associations the right to become a civil party. He mentions that public authorities must open up to associations in order to find out about cases of violence and abuse against children because they are not capable of dealing with and responding to all cases. It is a failure since the amendment is refused, despite everything, this failure will be decisive for the senator because he draws a lesson from this parliamentary debate, his proposals must not emerge too abruptly and opinion must be prepared and parliamentarians with new ideas, particularly through his books, articles and speeches 42 .
A wartime parliamentarian (1915-1922)
When the First World War broke out, Paul Strauss was sixty-two years old and could not join the fighting. Despite everything, he took an active part in events as vice-president of the Armed Forces Commission, responsible for health problems. It is this role that will mark his commitment during the war. His wife, Renée, a nurse, became head of the operating room department at auxiliary hospital 117, at the Janson-de-Sailly high school from April 1914. She held this position for the duration of the war, until May 1919 43 .
Since the outbreak of war, Parliament has been absent for several months (from August to December 1914) but the Senate meets again during an extraordinary session on December 22 and 23, 1914. During these two sessions, the High Assembly decides to resume its work permanently and to ensure control of the conduct of the war. Parliament equips itself with different means; hearings of members of the Government, reports, committee meetings. Despite this, the usual legislative work continues 44 , 45 .
Thus, the Senate Armed Forces Committee is one of the “major committees”. Created in 1891, it is made up of 27 members and 36 members during the war. The commission then plays a major role, unlike that of the Chamber of Deputies 46 . Paul Strauss was appointed to the commission at the beginning of 1915. It met several times a week, sometimes several times a day, with hearings or group meetings. For example, the Army committee met 113 times in 1915 compared to 75 times for the Finance committee 47 . Despite the fast pace, the senator is very diligent and his absences are very often justified; notably those of September 1915 which are excused by missions on the front. Despite everything, Paul Strauss is not the only senator so active within the commission; historian Fabienne Bock speaks of “really active” and “activist” senators, most of whom belong to the Democratic Left group 47 .
Paul Strauss was elected vice-president of the commission with 24 votes to 25, linked to a reshuffle following the departure of commission president Georges Clemenceau . During several sessions in 1917 and 1918, the senator chaired sessions in the absence of President Louis Boudenoot and his first vice-president Henry Chéron . This demonstrates an important, almost central position 45 .
The Senate Army Committee has a particular working method which explains its important place; all senators' reports must be submitted to the subcommittees, such as those on armaments and supplies (...). A subcommittee of the Army health service was created on, of which Paul Strauss is a member, as is the aeronautics subcommittee. He wrote a total of 13 reports, including 7 in 1916, which is little compared to other senators, but he spoke many times during the sessions, and on all subjects 48 .
By remaining faithful to his favorite subjects, Paul Strauss takes care of the issue of contagious diseases. Prevention becomes central and the war accelerates the need to fight against diseases. The timing is striking on tuberculosis and venereal diseases 49 . Paul Strauss will then present a report on the subject with the aim of creating venereology services before the health service commission on April 10, 1916. The reactions are multiple; Henry Chéron mentions that the subject is “extremely serious”, that it is a “national peril”. Paul Cazeneuve agrees with Paul Strauss's observation and recommends that it is necessary to “organize dispensaries where contaminated soldiers would be received and treated”. The Undersecretary of State for War in charge of the Military Health Service Justin Godart , for his part, mentions that “this is a little ridiculous and absolutely ineffective. We should have the courage to talk to young people about syphilis, to show them how to prevent it if possible. » 50 .
Strauss' position was renewed when he submitted a second report on the same subject in January 1917; the "venereal danger" was imminent and was spreading among the military but also among the civilian population. At the same time, the Undersecretary of State for the Military Health Service created a control plan with the objective of prevention in the army with two visits per month for each soldier, or even more effective treatment of the sick. Paul Strauss' report was adopted on, this recommends the creation of prophylactic antivenereal stations, with the aim of allowing soldiers to access intimate hygiene and to access preventive care after sexual intercourse 51 , 52 .
In the immediate post-war period, Paul Strauss' activity continued, from 1919 to 1922, the senator proposed 3 laws, was rapporteur for 26 projects or proposed laws and spoke more than 100 times. In 1920, he became vice-president of the army commission and member of the special Alsace-Lorraine commission and in 1921, president of the Hygiene, Assistance, Insurance and Welfare Commission. social 53 .
Minister of Hygiene, Assistance and Social Welfare [ edit | edit code ]
Appointment and establishment of the cabinet
The appointment of Paul Strauss to the Ministry of Hygiene, Assistance and Social Welfare takes place in a particular context. Since in January 1922, as historian Serge Berstein mentions , the Radical Party “adopted an ambiguous attitude towards the Poincaré government located halfway between opposition and support” 54 . Thus, Édouard Herriot and Gaston Doumergue refused to enter Poincaré's cabinet. The Radical Party consults the groups of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate and their members refuse participation in the Government. At the last minute, Alexandre Bérard , a radical senator, declined the offer of a portfolio mixing Work and Hygiene and it is in these circumstances that Poincaré, on January 15, proposed to Senator Strauss, registered within the Democratic Left , the portfolio of Hygiene and Insurance, which he accepts. It will ultimately be three members of the Radical Party who will agree to enter the Government, against the advice of their party, Albert Sarraut , Strauss and Paul Laffont 55 .
From the start of his ministry, Strauss set up his office and surrounded himself with 10 people, including 2 close relatives. Notably René-Raoul Strauss, aged 57, his chief of staff or even Serge Veber, aged 24, who is his head of the private secretariat, that is to say his pen, they are both his nephews. The minister's office is located at 4 rue Saint-Romain in the 6th arrondissement 56 .
The attributions and skills of the Minister
Paul Strauss wishes to directly safeguard within the scope of his ministry and its responsibilities the question of public and private assistance, foresight and wishes to strengthen the question of “public health”, which sometimes rubs shoulders with “social hygiene”. According to him, these two components support and reinforce each other. When Paul Strauss was Chairman of the Committee on Hygiene, Social Assistance and Welfare in the Senate, it did not debate the attribution of a Ministry of “Hygiene”. It will only be when he is appointed minister that the commission will discuss this issue. Some senators will then be in favor of a grouping of the hygiene services of the different ministries within that of Strauss and others want the new minister to simply have the right to review the hygiene issues of the other ministries but without the power to 'actions. This debate lasted until February 8, 1920 and Paul Strauss had difficulty building a space for action on health issues 56 .
The role of a minister may seem routine, that is to say appointing, promoting and moving administrative personnel, and which is accompanied by answers to written questions. However, Paul Strauss takes a liberty and will award decorations. By the decree of July 19, 1923, he modified the rule according to which proposals for medals relating to assistance, epidemics and hygiene must go through specific commissions. From now on, the minister can decorate and award medals without any control from these same commissions. Thus, Strauss will decorate numerous medical doctors, notably those who developed radiotherapy and child protection, such as Doctor Mafran, known for his work in children's medicine, a conservative Catholic who was awarded the decoration of Commander of the Legion of Honor, or even nuns and women at the origin of foundations, such as Marie-Thérèse Budin, named knight and creator of the Budin Foundation 57 .
The Minister's action
Paul Strauss' first action is to strengthen the already existing laws, including the launch of several surveys to take stock of the situation in order to prepare circulars. For example, a survey which aims to take a census and observe the activity of bacteriology and social hygiene laboratories, in May 1922. The, Paul Strauss sent the prefects a circular with the aim of carrying out an investigation into the functioning of institutions of public assistance, private charity and social hygiene, and of carrying out a census of establishments according to the departments 58 . THE, the minister addresses a circular to the prefects, which draws up a quantitative inventory of “national solidarity services” established by the survey. The text mentions 1,860 hospitals or hospices, 82 insane asylums, 22,000 charity offices, 17 municipal hygiene offices (...) and evokes the responsibility of the State, municipalities and departments to ensure the proper functioning of these institutions 58 .
Paul Strauss will be concerned with several facets of social hygiene, that is to say depopulation, the childcare worker, social assistance, beggars, cheap housing (...). These concerns led him to publish several books; Unhappy Childhood , 1901; Depopulation and childcare , 1902; The Public Health Protection Act , 1902 (with Filassier); Social assistance, poor and beggars , 1903; The health crusade , 1903; Cheap Housing , 1905; The popular home , 1913 59 .
Paul Strauss leads other innovative actions, such as a meeting which takes place twice a year at the ministry, an interministerial health commission with civil servants, and representatives of the ministries of Foreign Affairs, War, Navy and Colonies. Participants exchange information on public health issues and the coordination of measures .
The ordinary time of a Minister [ edit | edit code ]
During his ministerial experience, Strauss will travel across France to publicize the activity and skills of a still new ministry. The minister will attend the back-to-school meeting of the Superior Council of Public Assistance of which he has been a member since its creation in 1889. He will deliver his first official speech there on, insisting on a methodical organization of the private sector and expresses the wish to quickly obtain the vote of Parliament on laws concerning the control of establishments and private charity. This is how throughout his role as minister, Strauss went each year to the sessions of the higher council in order to report on his action on Public Assistance 60 .
THE, the minister is in Biarritz to inaugurate a preventorium which will receive young girls from the liberated regions. A month later the minister inaugurated an exhibition of the Seine-Inférieure Social Hygiene Office in Rouen. During the years 1923 and 1924, Paul Strauss went to Nantes, Marseille, Lyon, Brussels (...) to inaugurate various establishments, these visits and trips reflect a progressive establishment and recognition by the Minister of these institutions. At the same time, this allows the minister to consolidate ministerial responsibilities regarding assistance and charity, social hygiene, mutuality 61 .
The archives of René-Raoul Strauss show that the minister delegated certain speeches and trips to his chief of staff for less important trips. Paul Strauss honors his presence only during important events. Records show a greater number of speeches delivered on behalf of the minister rather than delivered directly by Paul Strauss, however he appears to have supervised and corrected almost all of them. For example, René-Raoul Strauss wentat the town hall of the 6th arrondissement to meet the French rescue workers. He evokes and salutes this “assembly of elite souls united in the same impulse of altruism” 61 .
Recent years
Final efforts and recognition
The end of Paul Strauss's life is marked by the return of a fight he led during his mandates, the desire to strengthen gender equality and women's right to vote, while having a traditional vision of role of women 62 . During the return to the Senate of Paul Dussaussoy 's bill , tending to grant women the right to vote in elections to municipal councils, district councils and general councils, voted onby the Chamber of Deputies , the High Assembly, therefuses discussion of the articles of the bill. It was the group of the Democratic Left which blocked the text (32 for and 115 against), the Government having declared itself neutral, nevertheless, of the 6 senators who make up the second Poincaré cabinet , 4 of them voted for the examination of the articles, notably Poincaré himself, Flaminius Raiberti , Henry Chéron and Paul Strauss 63 , 64 .
On January 12, 1933, Paul Strauss was elected vice-president of the Senate, a position he held until 1936, the year in which his re-election failed . His wife, Renée Bernard, aged 62, died on, as a result of an illness. Paul Strauss dedicated his Souvenirs to her (1934, page 5), “To Renée Paul Strauss, my wife tenderly loved and passed away too soon” 65 .
On March 22, 1934, a celebration for the fifty years of public mandates of Paul Strauss took place at the Paris City Hall , it was the commemoration of the "golden wedding anniversary of Paul Strauss and politics" , as 'recalls his great-nephew Gérard Strauss. Among the well-known personalities, there are notably Jules Jeanneney and Théodore Steeg and other less well-known personalities but with important roles, such as municipal councilors, senators, civil servants, journalists and doctors 66 .
“I am deprived of a dear presence. The one who shared my life for forty-three years, that is to say during the greater part of the duration of my mandates […] is no longer by my side (Homage by Paul Strauss to his wife during the ceremony at City Hall) »
Death [ edit | edit code ]
Paul Strauss died onin Hendaye 67 .
Private life
Paul Strauss married at the age of 37 to Renée Bernard, his eighth cousin (bornin Besançon) on Monday. The Bernard-Strauss marriage took place and was celebrated at the town hall of the 8th arrondissement , the wife's place of residence . It is then completed the same day with a religious ceremony at home. The marriage certificate is established at the Synagogue de la Victoire , an Ashkenazi synagogue of the Parisian bourgeoisie, the month of marriage (November) and the day (Monday), correspond to the Israeli religious prescriptions and the social norms of their environment 68 , 69 .
Following the election of Paul Strauss to the Senate, the couple left the 9th arrondissement to settle in an apartment on Avenue de Wagram, in the 17th arrondissement . The Strausses employ servants; two in 1926, three in 1931 and 1936. Including chambermaids, “maids”, cook, and a driver from 1931 69 .
According to the Social Directory , Renée Strauss receives her family and friends on Wednesdays, without holding a “salon”, an activity still very fashionable at the turn of the 20th century. 6