DECURTINS, GASPAR. — Sociologist, born on 23 November 1855 at Truns (Canton of Grisons), died there on 30 May 1916. He studied at the monastery of Disentis, then at the grammar school in Chur, and finally at the Universities of Munich, Strasbourg, and Heidelberg. Leader of the Swiss Catholic party, he began his public life in 1878 as president of the Disentis Circle and deputy to the Council of Grisons; in 1881 he became a deputy to the Swiss National Council.
He soon realized the importance of economic and social problems and studied them through a comparative examination of Christian and socialist doctrines, rapidly becoming one of the leading figures in the Swiss Catholic social movement. He was a severe critic of the liberal policies then predominant, and a convinced advocate of State intervention for the protection of labour.
A firmly convinced Catholic, he did not exclude collaboration with socialist organizations, both political and trade-union, when this proved a necessary premise for the implementation of social reforms. In this spirit, the Arbeiterbund was established in 1886, a broad workers’ organization whose purpose was to protect the interests of wage-earners without distinctions of party or faith. D. also took the initiative in establishing the “People’s Secretariat,” charged with promoting the protection of workers’ interests and ensuring its effective implementation. In order to encourage the study and also the theoretical development of the Christian social movement, he organized the Catholic University of Fribourg in 1889.
D.’s name remains particularly associated with international labour legislation: in 1888, in agreement with the socialist deputy Favon, he had the Swiss National Council approve a motion urging the Government to resume negotiations (begun in 1880 by the Swissman Emilio Frey) with the European governments in order to prepare common labour legislation (La question de la protection ouvrière internationale. Mémoire présenté au Département fédéral de l'Industrie et de l'Agriculture par le dr. G. D., conseiller national, Berna 1889). D. was in fact entrusted with preparing the programme of the international conference that the Swiss government intended to convene at Berne in 1889; but, when numerous countries had already agreed to participate, the German Emperor, Guglielmo II, intervened with a plan for a similar conference, which did indeed take place in Berlin in 1890. At its Congress in Bienne in 1894, the Arbeiterbund commissioned D. to convene a meeting of delegates of organized workers from the various countries, and the initiative was expressly approved by Pope Leone XIII in a brief addressed to D. The invitation was limited to those who accepted the principle of State intervention for the protection of labour; and, after various difficulties, the Congress was convened at Zurich (23–28 August 1897), with the participation both of representatives of Christian organizations (abbé Hitze, abbé Beck, De Viart, Axmann, etc.) and of socialist organizations (Bebel, Vandervelde, etc.). The Congress concluded with the unanimous approval of D.’s proposal for the establishment of an international office for the protection of workers, with responsibilities for study, documentation, and information, and for the convening of an international congress on labour legislation. Indeed, the International Congress for Labour Legislation, held in Paris in 1890, led to the establishment, with its headquarters in Switzerland, of the International Association for the Legal Protection of Labour.
With the beginning of the pontificate of Pio X, D. withdrew almost completely from active life in order to devote himself to study, and held the chair of the history of civilization, established on his initiative as early as 1889. Because of his resolute opposition to modernism (Tre lettere ad un giovane amico, trad. it., Roma 1911; A study on modernism, in The catholic Review, luglio 1913, p. 191), he received a letter of praise from Pope Pio X dated 15 September 1910 (AAS, 2 [1910], pp. 738–40).