Jasper County Democrat, Volume 5, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 April 1902 — HOT TIME IN BELGIUM [ARTICLE]

HOT TIME IN BELGIUM

POLITICAL DISTURBANCES CULMINATE IN OPEN RIOT. Little Country in an Uproar Which May Mark the Turning Point in the General Evolution of the Universal Suffrage Principle. The spirit of unrest has broken out in Brussels. The visit of a delegation of Spanish republican deputies was the signal for demonstrations by the socialists. When the Spaniards were ordered out of the country indignation took the form of a riot II the railroad station as they were leaving, and when King Leopold happened by from Biarritz a forest of red flags greeted him, and he barely escaped a mobbing. Since then the little country has been in an uproar that may not culminate without a serious clash between the soldiery and the people. The labor situation is ominous, while the cry for universal suffrage has become more and more Imperative. Apparently Belgium is about to furnish an interesting test of the extent to which the idea of universal suffrage is making headway in monarchical Europe. After months Of violent political disturbances, occasionally leading to open riot, the Belgian government confronts a serious crisis. The socialists, with the support of the liberal party, are demanding a revision of the election’ laws and the adoption of the “one man one vote” principle. Ostensibly Belgium has universal suffrage now, but the restrictions as to voting are such that one man may cast three ballots where another casts but one. A Belgian may vote once if he has no property, twice if he has a little real estate or a certain sum in the bank and three times if he has both property and certain educational qualifications. In this way about 2,100,000 votes are cast by a total of only 1,400,000 voters. To complicate matters still further, the Belgian parliament in 1899 adopted an intricate system of “proportional representation,” which has the effect of perpetuating the present party in power and preventing coalitions among the socialists, liberals and radicals.

A dispatch from La Louviere, a town in the Province of Hainaut, announces that in accordance with the decision of the labor leaders a general strike has been begun in the coal mines, glass works and factories of the central districts, including Mariemont and Bascoup. Advices from Liege say that a general strike has been started in the coal mines of the Seraing district, and at the Kettin foundries at Solessin. The quarrymen of the Ambleve Valley also have struck. From Mons troops have started for different points in the Borinage district. At Cuestnes, a town in the Province of Hainaut, 5,000 strikers assembled around the state arsenal with the object of stopping work. The weavers of Ghent are ceasing work, and a general strike of the weaving trade will be declared. The great strike has begun at Charleroi, where 15,000 of the 40,000 coal miners have stopped work. A general strike has been declared in most of the large boot and shoe factories. Adequate measures have been taken to enable the soldiers to re-enforce the police at a moment’s notice at any point required. As a similar strike ordered in 1899 very nearly put a stop to all Industrial activity in Belgium, the threat is serious. Behind it lies the still more serious menace of an actual revolt, for the more hot-headed socialists are ripe for action, and it is a question whether King Leopold’s conscript army would be loyal to him as against the strikers. Altogether the situation is typical of a well-defined tendency in those States wherein monarchical or aristocrat'c forms exist side by side with a strong popular impulse toward absolute democracy. As the present crisis may mark a turning point in the general evolution of the universal suffrage principle, it will be well worth watching.