Alphonse Desjardins (1854-1920)

Collège de Lévis in 1893 (Collège de Lévis)

Gabriel-Alphonse Desjardins was born on November 5, 1854, in Lévis, across from Quebec City. He was the eighth of 15 children in a family of modest means. His father, François Roy "dit" Desjardins, was a day worker who never managed to hold a job for long. His mother, Clarisse Miville "dit" Deschênes, had to work for neighbours as a housekeeper to make ends meet.

Alphonse Desjardins attended Collège de Lévis. From 1864 to 1870, he completed the 4-year commercial course, and 1 year of the Latin course. His academic records show him to be a dedicated, diligent student. He did not let the fact that he had to repeat the third year of the commercial course discourage him. Instead, he was one of the first in his class and won many awards. The same went for the first year of the Latin course.

In addition to receiving a few awards, he was selected as a candidate for Académie Saint-Joseph, a society that rewarded the efforts of deserving Collège de Lévis students. Often absent from class, the young Desjardins became an average, inconsistent student, since family support began to run dry. In July of 1870, at age 15, he was forced to leave school, probably because of the cost of a classical education was just too steep.

The Ottawa Parliament before the fire of 1914 (BANQ)

Alphonse Desjardins continued to quietly edit the parliamentary debates. But in 1887 the situation changed when the Liberals, headed by Honoré Mercier (1840-1894), took power. Immediately, the Liberals considered taking the parliamentary debates away from Alphonse Desjardins to give them to another editor. He overcame these difficulties, but only for a time. On December 14, 1889, he learned that the Mercier government would no longer underwrite the publication of debates in an effort to reduce public expenditures. Clearly, a partisan motive lay behind these budgetary considerations. It is said that Alphonse Desjardins's refusal to make substantive changes to his report of a debate on funding for the inter-provincial conference of 1887, at the request of Honoré Mercier or one of his close collaborators, was the reason publication was halted. The "Desjardins debates" were published for the last time in winter 1890.

Overnight, Alphonse Desjardins found himself unemployed. Forced to make a career shift, he decided to return to journalism. On July 9, 1891, in Lévis, he launched a new daily, L'Union canadienne, in which he supported the program of the federal Conservative party. A true one-man band, he was both owner and publisher. But health problems forced him to cease publication of the paper on October 10, 1891, after only 3 months.

For the last time in his lifetime, Alphonse Desjardins used partisan politics to make a career shift. From 1890 to 1893, he was secretary of the Provincial Conservative Association in Lévis. In the winter of 1891, he worked for the Conservative party for the federal election. The Conservative government in Ottawa sought a way to reward the long-term activist. On April 22, 1892, the federal Parliament adopted a report from the debate committee recommending the appointment of Alphonse Desjardins to the position of French stenographer at the Ottawa House of Commons. He would hold the position until he retired in 1917. Wishing to keep his residence in Lévis, he resigned himself for 25 years to spending 6 months a year in Ottawa, 450 kilometres from his family. This new life helped him regain his interest in insurance and mutuality.

In 1893, he compiled notes for a study of life insurance in Notes pour servir à une étude sur l'assurance-vie. He also carefully studied the workings and activities of existing mutual aid societies in Lévis, in particular the local branch of Société des Artisans canadiens-français, opened in 1889, and Société de construction permanente de Lévis, founded 20 years earlier. From 1892 to 1895, he sat on the management board of the latter, which provided mortgages to its members. A tireless individual, he still found a way to teach stenography at Collège de Lévis from 1893 to 1900 in between parliamentary sessions in Ottawa.

In 1897, Desjardins heard, in the House of Commons in Ottawa, a debate that brought him awareness of the devastating effects of usury1. On April 6, Michael Quinn (1851-1903), Conservative member from Montréal-Sainte-Anne, introduced a bill to prevent usurious practices. Quinn cited, by way of an example, the case of a Montreal man who was sentenced to pay interest charges of $5,000 on an initial loan of $150. Stunned, Desjardins began to search libraries for a solution. The following year, he came across a work entitled People's Banks by British author Henry William Wolff (1840-1931), president of the International Co-operative Alliance. He immediately contacted the author and a long correspondence between the two men began. Wolff agreed to introduce Alphonse Desjardins to various European cooperators.

Little by little, Alphonse Desjardins launched into a serious investigation of cooperation on an international scale. His main considerations were the social issues in Quebec. He saw the social devastation caused by industrialization, rural exodus, unemployment and emigration to the United States. In his opinion, the scourge of usury was only one of many telling example of the social problems. He criticized the government's inability to bring about effective reform, while neither the labour movement nor socialism could propose viable alternatives. Association and local development were at the heart of Desjardins's thinking, as well as the influence of Church social doctrine and the social economy in the same line of thought as the encyclical letter Rerum Novarum (On the Condition of Workers) by Pope Leo XIII (1810-1903).

Site where the first caisse was founded in 1900 (FCDQ)

The caisse populaire model is essentially a synthesis of 4 people's savings and credit systems: credit unions, the Schulze people's bank, the Raiffeisen rural lending bank, and most of all, the Luzzatti people's bank. Alphonse Desjardins's sources of inspiration were therefore basically European. He then took into account the North-American environment and experience, and defined a new type of institution adapted to the Quebec and Canadian context.

The readiness with which Alphonse Desjardins adopted the cooperative model can in large part be explained by the fact that he saw several points of convergence between the European cooperative experience and his own, acquired in Lévis's associative networks. In his European counterparts, he found values and organizational principles he had already experienced in various Lévis institutions. This is why he was easily able to make modifications to the European models and propose a new, original one.

After long, fruitful research in 1898 and 1900, Alphonse Desjardins came to the conclusion that the solution to social issues lay in a cooperative association. His caisse populaire model, whose operations were limited to the parish, was the first step in his cooperative project organization plan. His goal was not only to fight against the problem of usury; he also want to empower the working classes, give them the means to manage their own capital without interference from the state, develop the habit and desire to save, and finally, make credit more widely available.

The Desjardins family residence in 1906 (FCDQ)

On December 6, 1900, Alphonse Desjardins saw the crowning of all his efforts. Over 130 citizens were present at the founding of Caisse populaire de Lévis, the first savings and credit cooperative in North America, which launched its activities in January 1901. At the end of the first day, the amount collected came to only $26.40. A very modest start.

The first few years, most transactions were made either in the Desjardins family home, which housed the Caisse head office, or in the hall of the Lévis branch of Société des Artisans canadiens-français. Over the next 5 years, only 3 other caisses were founded: Saint-Joseph de Lévis in 1902, Hull in 1903 and Saint-Malo à Québec in 1905.

In the meantime, Caisse populaire de Lévis made fast progress thanks to the work and selfless devotion of Alphonse Desjardins, the support of the Lévis clergy, in particular the priests at Collège de Lévis, the quiet and effective work of local mutualists and the ongoing, willing collaboration of his wife, Dorimène Desjardins. In addition to keeping up the family home, Dorimène Desjardins oversaw Caisse business affairs. Between 1903 and 1906, she managed the Caisse, without title or salary, during her husband's extended stays in Ottawa.

Photo taken on March 5, 1907, by Lord Grey, Governor General of Canada from 1904 to 1911, during a visit to Caisse populaire de Lévis, of which he became a member (BANQ)

For more than 5 years, Desjardins made several repeated attempts to set up a legal framework for his caisse populaire project with both the provincial and federal governments. Early on, his preference was for the adoption of a federal law that would allow him to establish caisses populaires in all Canadian provinces. Shortly after Caisse populaire de Lévis was founded, he first approached the federal government, who lent a deaf ear.

To achieve their goal, Alphonse Desjardins and his associates would have to exert strong pressure on the federal government. Desjardins engaged in an intense propaganda campaign aimed at the public authorities. At first, he sought international recognition. In 1904, he became a member of the International Co-operative Alliance, which granted him the privilege of having membership as an individual. He would remain a member until 1910. But Alphonse Desjardins's efforts were mostly focused within the country. In 1904, for example, he founded L'Action populaire économique, an association devoted to expanding the realm of people's economic organizations and lobbying governments to pass legislation recognizing caisses populaires. But nothing would do and Ottawa refused to budge. Somewhat reluctantly, Desjardins turned to the Quebec government in 1905.

That year, Desjardins's initial attempts led to further delays. Exhausted by the wait, Alphonse and Dorimène were also more than a bit disappointed since their family was highly vulnerable to the risk associated with the legislative gap surrounding the caisses populaires. In the spring of 1905, on the verge of despair, the couple considered abandoning their project. Members of the Lévis clergy, particularly Msgr. Bégin (1840-1925), Archbishop of Quebec, encouraged them to persevere.

Things started moving in 1906. On March 5, the Quebec Legislative Assembly unanimously passed the Quebec Syndicates' Act, which received royal assent 4 days later. Upon hearing the long-awaited news, Alphonse Desjardins rejoiced. The caisses populaires had finally received legal recognition.

Alphonse Desjardins did not abandon his goal of having a law passed by the federal government. He continued to believe that the provincial law's scope was too regional and only provided a provisional guarantee. He made yet another attempt with the help of Jacques-Cartier Conservative MP Frederick Debartzsch Monk (1856-1914), at the time in parliamentary opposition, who, on April 23, 1906, introduced to the House of Commons the Act respecting industrial and co-operative societies.

This time he met with success. Between December 18, 1906, and April 11, 1907, the House of Commons Special Committee in charge of studying the project heard several testimonies, including very favourable comments from Governor General of Canada and Honorary President of the International Co-operative Alliance, Lord Earl Grey (1851-1917). The committee recommended the government pass the measure. Less than a year later, on March 6, 1908, the House of Commons unanimously adopted the bill regarding cooperation.

The Senate, however, defeated the bill by a single vote on July 15 of the same year, on the grounds that it would infringe on the powers of the provinces. The result, no doubt, of a nationwide opposition campaign led by the Retail Merchants' Association of Canada, whose primary function was to prevent the development of consumer cooperatives. This new setback marked the end of Desjardins's efforts on the federal level. Until 1914, a few MPs would try to get legislation on cooperation passed, but to no avail. Faced with the federal government's inertia, Alphonse Desjardins would have to make the most of the provincial law, even if its scope seemed somewhat limited.

Quebec City Archbishop Msgr. Louis-Nazaire Bégin (BANQ)

In his work promoting caisses populaires, Alphonse Desjardins was carried by a social dynamic that allowed him to build a considerable social network. Despite initial reservations on the part of a few members of the high clergy, several bishops, in particular Msrg. Bégin of Quebec, actively supported Desjardins's work. Generally speaking, he preferred to receive explicit support from local priests before establishing a caisse populaire in their parish. He also invited the priests to take on the administration, even the management of the caisse. In several parishes, parish priests were the real organizers of caisses populaires.

Overall, the clergy responded favourably to the call launched by Alphonse Desjardins, but support was not unanimous. Convinced of the benefit the caisses populaires could bring to their faithful, several bishops recognized the caisses populaires as a Catholic social undertaking, which they recommended to their clergy's attention. Desjardins's reputation spread all the way to the Vatican. On April 12, 1913, a representative of Msgr. Bégin, Archbishop of Quebec, delivered to Alphonse Desjardins papal letters from Pius X (1835-1914), naming him Commander of the Order of St. Gregory the Great to reward him for his civil merit and contribution to Catholic social action.

Desjardins also used informal networks within the parish community as a foothold. Women were called upon to play a key role in his cooperative project. On a higher level, he could count on, crucial at the time, the support of organizations attached to the Catholic Church in Quebec: Action sociale catholique, Association catholique de la jeunesse canadienne-française, Ligues du Sacré-Cœur, École sociale populaire, social action diocesan committees, as well as agricultural and land settlement cooperatives.

Generally speaking, the clergy gave him direct and enthusiastic support, with a steadiness and efficiency dependent, however, on its priorities, as well as cyclical ups and downs. The clergy apart, Desjardins recruited the most ardent promoters of the caisses among nationalists such as Henri Bourassa (1868-1952) and his associate Omer Héroux (1876-1963) of newspaper Le Devoir, established in 1910. In comparison, he received only circumstantial support from unions and fraternal benefit societies. Over the years, Alphonse Desjardins's cooperative project gained recognition through the Catholic press, of course, but also by word of mouth, from one parish to another, finally expanding to all 4 corners of the province.

All of this support was very helpful to the caisses populaires, since Desjardins faced serious opposition, in particular from the Canadian Merchant's Association and the National Bank, who viewed the caisses as competitors.

On October 31, 1920, Alphonse Desjardins died in his home in Lévis, a few days shy of his 66th birthday. He was buried on November 4, 1920, following a stately funeral attended by several representatives of the Church and both governments. There were at that time some 140 caisses active in Quebec, with total assets of $6.3 million and 31,000 members.

Alphonse Desjardins left behind to his fellow citizens an instrument of cooperation and local development designed to meet the needs and aspirations of parish communities. When paying posthumous tribute to the founder of caisses populaires, several newspapers heralded the economic and social scope of his work. After designating Alphonse Desjardins as "one of the great benefactors of his race", Quebec City's L'Action catholique predicted that the caisses would become "the solid base of the French Canadian national fortune". In a similar frame of mind, Le Devoir stated that his name would remain "one of the major initiators and first artisans of the cooperative movement in Canada".