[2] The principal object of the organization was to acquaint the women, young girls, and children of Switzerland with the fact that the use of alcohol in any form seriously endangers the health and happiness of their country.
[1] The society differed from the Swiss Women's Abstinence League (Schweizerischer Bund abstinenter Frauen [de]) in that it admitted without distinction both abstainers and non-abstainers to membership.
That fact perhaps accounted for the extremely rapid growth of the Ligue in the beginning (at the end of the first five years the membership had increased to 4,000), and the somewhat slower progress which it made subsequently.
At first, a considerable amount of difficulty was experienced by the Ligue in overcoming the many prejudices of the educational authorities, but it was finally successful in persuading them to permit temperance instruction to be added to the school programs.
A key point made was that until that time, Switzerland did not dare to fight against alcoholism by real means, by effective action by schools.
[4] By 1904, wwo comfortable anti-alcohol restaurants were set up by the Ligue, and a kiosk-restaurant for Electric Tramway employees was installed at La Jonction.
[5] The Ligue sent out surveys during the year 1912 to the most important Swiss manufacturing firms to ascertain the extent to which these were discouraging the use of alcoholic drinks and supplying substitutes instead.
Many of them became nurses in the military hospitals along the Swiss frontiers, where they were given the opportunity to distribute temperance literature among the sick and wounded soldiers of the various nations fighting in that vicinity.
The Ligue was also successful in the establishment of a number of non-alcoholic rest rooms for the soldiers in the military camps along the Swiss borders.