See also: Lagrange

Léo Lagrange (born with the Borough-on-Gironde, on November 28th 1900 - died with Évergnicourt, on June 9th 1940) was a Socialiste French, under-secretary of State to the sports and the organization of the leisures under the Popular front. Member of the Scouts of France in his youth, it joined SFIO after the Scission of Turns in 1920 and becomes writer with the Populaire , the press agency of the SFIO. Elected official appointed in 1932 at the time of the second Trust of the lefts, it is then named under-secretary of State under the government Blum. He supports also the behavior of the popular Olympiades in Barcelona, organized in counterpoint with OJ of Berlin instrumentalized by the Nazisme.

Biography

Child, it is registered with the Éclaireurs of France, movement of scouting laic. At the end of its studies to the College Henri-Iv, in August 1917, it engages in the army. On its return, it is registered in Faculty of Law and with the Institut of political sciences. The shortly after the Congress of Turns (December 1920), it adheres to SFIO, directed by Paul Faure, Jean Longuet and Leon Blum and joined the group of the socialist students.

Become lawyer, it is registered in 1922 at the bar of Paris. Touched by the horrors of the war, it holds, in particular its services with the Tuberculeux, the patients of the lungs and with the Gaz be. He marries Madeleine Veiller in 1925. The following year, it meets André Malraux and Jean Prévost. Léo Lagrange mixes then with the intellectual boiling with the the Thirties, being linked with many writers, historians, artists and scientists. Become writer with the newspaper Popular the , body of the SFIO, it reports there, in its chronicle, the legal topicality.

It is presented to the legislative elections in 1928, in the XI {{E}} district of Paris but it is beaten there. At the time of the elections of May 1932, it is designated as socialist candidate to reconquer the first district of Avesnes-on-Helpe, in the Northern . At the public meetings, it stresses the need, for the working class, to be educated and organized if she wants to direct one day. Once elected, it is then named under-secretary of State to the Sports and the organization of the Leisures near the Minister for the Public health Henri Sellier under the government of the Popular front, in 1936.

Its mission is not addressed exclusively to youth but to all the company. It is based nevertheless on this one because it constitutes the future of a company righter without the embrigader
(" … It cannot be a question in a democratic country of militarizing the distractions and the pleasures of the popular masses and of transforming the joy skilfully distributed into means of not penser.").
It gets busy to develop the sporting, tourist and cultural leisures. It is at the origin of the creation of the popular ticket of annual leaves which grants 40% of reduction on the rail-bound transports, while it encourages and impels the movement of the inns of youth. They are the first departures towards snow with the special trains and cheap rates on the cable cars, of popular cruisings will also be born.

Léo Lagrange also deals with the popular Olympiades, Olympic Games alternative which were to replace OJ of Berlin. Envisaged in Barcelona, the qualificative official tests for these popular Olympiads proceed on July 4th, 1936 with the Stade Pershing in Paris. Léo Lagrange chairs these days in person. Through their club, FSGT, or individually, 1.200 French athletes are registered with these Olympiads antifascists. However, on July 9th, all the line votes " pour" the participation of France in the OJ of Berlin, while the whole of the left (PCF included/understood) abstains from - except notable for Pierre Mendès France. Nevertheless, of the French sportsmen go all the same to Barcelona, where the Olympiads are stopped on July 18th, 1936 by the military Pronunciamento of the general Franco.

After having left the under-secretary's department, he then becomes president of the laic Committee of the inns of youth. With the declaration of war, in 1939, then parliamentary, it voluntarily joined the military command, before being killed on June 9th, 1940 with Évergnicourt of a glare of shell.

“It died in courage, the research of the truth and dignity. It was a man whom we love. ”

Andre Malraux

Sport of mass, Sports professional

quotation of other speeches of Léo Lagrange:
  • “In the sport, we must choose between two designs:
    - the first is summarized in the sport spectacle and practice restricted with a relatively small number of privileged people,
    - according to the second design, while not neglecting the side spectacle and the creation of the champion, it is side of the great masses which should be carried largest effort.
    We want that the workman, the peasant and the unemployed find in the leisure the love of life and the direction of their dignity”.
    Léo Lagrange, speech of June 10th, 1936.
  • “Our goal simple and human, is to allow the masses French youth to find sports in practice, the joy and health and to build an organization of the leisures such as the workers can find a relaxation and a reward with their hard labor”.
    Léo Lagrange, Under Secretary of State to Youth and the Leisures, 1936.
  • “Our concern is less to create champions and to lead on the stage 22 actors in front of 40.000 or 100.000 spectators, to incline the youth of our country has to regularly go on the stage, on the playing field, with the swimming pool”.
    Léo Lagrange, discussion of the budget to the House of Commons, 1937, cité by J.P.Callède, ibid
  • “If we have to make an joint effort in the sporting field, as in good of others, it is an effort of morality. I listened with great interest Mr. Temple which revealed the frightening dangers of the development of the professional sport. Alas! when it is accepted that a human gesture which, by nature must be not involved, becomes the source of profit important, right measurement is very difficult with déterminer.
    I believe that the day when it was admitted that the play on the stage could be the occasion of important profits, one strongly reached morality known sport.
    Aussi, of all my forces and whatever criticisms, sometimes severe, whose my action could be the object, I will oppose the development of the professional sport in our country. I hold at the Parliament the responsibility of serve the interests of all French youth, and not to create a new spectacle of circus”.
    Léo Lagrange, Under Secretary of State to the Sports, the Leisures and Physical education - Minister for the sports, lays down and specifies its policy and that of the Popular front, on December 3rd, 1937, with the platform of the House of Commons.

Posthumous homage

The Socialist party created an association of popular education bearing its name: the National federation Léo-Lagrange. A station of the Parisian underground railway network bears its name on line 7, in the commune of Villejuif. It is on the southern branch of the line.

Source

External bond

  • Caricature

  • Memorial in Évergnicourt
  • Madeleine Léo Lagrange, indefinite present, memories of a life , on Livropolis.com, Editions Corsair

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