15 Facts About Joseph Ruau

Joseph Ruau was a French lawyer and radical politician.

Joseph Ruau was deputy for Haute-Garonne from 1897 to 1914, and was Minister of Agriculture from 24 February 1905 to 2 November 1910.

Joseph Ruau was grandson of the mathematician Joseph Liouville and son of a director-general of the Mint.

Joseph Ruau obtained a doctorate in Law and joined the Toulouse bar as an attorney.

Joseph Ruau was reelected in 1898,1902,1906 and for the last time in 1910.

Joseph Ruau was secretary of the Chamber twice, in 1898 and 1899, and rapporteur for the agriculture budget several times.

Joseph Ruau was appointed Minister of Agriculture on 24 February 1905 in the cabinet of Maurice Rouvier and retained this office in the cabinets of Ferdinand Sarrien, Georges Clemenceau and Aristide Briand until 2 November 1910.

Joseph Ruau issued a decree to regulate the organization and operation of horse racing.

Joseph Ruau proposed measures to assist farm laborers who had suffered work accidents and southern wine growers ruined by the fall in the price of wine that followed the losses due to phylloxera.

On 5 July 1908 Joseph Ruau spoke at the second national conference on mutual credit and agricultural cooperation at Blois.

Joseph Ruau pointed out that the state was promoting a rural, property-owning democracy.

Joseph Ruau overstated the influence of his government in promoting rural cooperation, which had been developing for over a century but still had far to go.

Joseph Ruau supported the creation in 1910 of a radical federation of capitalist farmers of the Parisian Basin in competition to the very conservative Union Centrale des Syndicats des Agriculteurs de France.

Joseph Ruau suffered a physical and mental collapse due to the strain of office, and was placed in a nursing home in Ivry-sur-Seine in late 1910.

Joseph Ruau died there on 29 September 1923 at the age of 58.