Léon Mougeot
| Léon Paul Gabriel Mougeot | |
|---|---|
Mougeot in 1902
|
|
| Minister of Agriculture | |
|
In office 7 June 1902 – 24 January 1905 |
|
| Preceded by | Jean Dupuy |
| Succeeded by | Joseph Ruau |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
10 November 1857 Montigny-le-Roy, Haute-Marne, France |
| Died | 25 October 1928 (aged 70) Rochevilliers, Haute-Marne, France |
| Nationality | French |
Léon Paul Gabriel Mougeot (10 November 1857 – 25 October 1928) was a French politician who was under-secretary of state for Posts and Telegraphs from 1898 to 1902, and Minister of Agriculture from 1902 to 1905. He was responsible for introducing cast-iron "mougeottes", letter boxes that displayed the day and last pick-up made, and for subsidizing the use of bicycles by postmen.
Léon Paul Gabriel Mougeot was born on 10 November 1857 in Montigny-le-Roy, Haute-Marne, son of a notary. He attended the lycées of Chaumont and Nancy for his secondary education, then studied law in Dijon and Paris. At the age of 24 he became an attorney in Langres. He gained attention in 1892 for successfully defending a notary accused of abuse of confidence. In 1893 he was the founding president of the Horticulture and Wine growing Society of Haute-Marne. He and Édouard Dessein (1875–1961) co-founded several agricultural mutual funds. Mougeot was an active Freemason and belonged to the Chaumont lodge L'Étoile de la Haute-Marne.
Mougeot was elected to the Langres municipal council in 1884, and was mayor from 1888 to 1898. In 1898 he became a member of the general council of the department of Haute-Marne, and was president of the departmental assembly from 1907 to 1920. He was one of the leaders of the Radical Party in Haute-Marne and dominated local politics, particularly during the phylloxera crisis, when he defended the winemakers and distillers. He ran for election as a deputy in 1889 but was defeated. In 1893 Mougeot was elected deputy for Haute-Marne. At first he sat with the Progressive Left, of which he was secretary, then moved further left. He was secretary of the chamber from 1896 to 1898.
Mougeot was under-secretary of state for Posts and Telegraphs from 5 July 1898 to 7 June 1902 in the cabinets of Henri Brisson, Charles Dupuy and Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau. On 18 May 1899 there was a strike of postmen in Paris due to the Senate having refused to agree with a decision by the deputies to pay Parisian postmen higher rates than their rural colleagues. Rather than agree to a general pay increase, the Senators refused any pay increase at all. Mougeot arranged to requisition several hundred soldiers and national guards to distribute the mail in Paris, which caused the strike to be cancelled immediately.
...
Wikipedia