Simplon

Title: Simplon

Canton: Valais

Available online: 5 January 1907 - 19 December 1908 (103 issues, 416 pages)

Bibliografic information (Helveticat): http://permalink.snl.ch/bib/sz991018085426703976

Rights: public domain

Segmentation level: article level

Description: Le Simplon, a weekly successor to Le Bas-Valaisan, was published in Monthey from August 4, 1906 to December 19, 1908. It described itself as "a frankly liberal-democratic and clearly anti-clerical newspaper [which] will know neither the yoke of the aristocrats, nor that of the clergy ". It formed part of what it called "the duel between obscurantism and free will, between ignorance and science", designating the clergy and the conservatives as the forces opposing the canton’s progress. In an often biting tone, it did not hesitate to snipe at the members and defenders of the Church as well as other Valais newspapers. On November 23, 1907, it abandoned its original subtitle, Journal radical, for that of Feuille d’avis du Bas-Valais and now claimed that it was independent, "neutral on all issues" and desired political appeasement.