Wauters, Joseph

Wauters, Joseph

 

Born Nov. 8, 1875; died June 30, 1929. Belgian political and state figure; socialist. Parliamentary deputy from 1908.

Wauters had a social chauvinist orientation during World War I. One of the leaders of the Belgian Socialist Party in German-occupied Belgium (1914-18), Wauters was minister of labor and social welfare from 1918 to 1921. During a period of rising revolutionary mass activity he carried through a number of reforms, including the introduction of pensions for the aged and the establishment of a fund to aid the unemployed. In the period 1910-29 he was political director of the newspaper Le Peuple, the central organ of the Belgian Socialist Party.