In the revived prosperity of Belgium, her kings played a vital role.
Under Leopold the First, a favorite uncle of Queen Victoria of
England, a constitutional monarchy was established that was a model
of democracy. The taxes were light; only a small standing army was
maintained. The neutrality of the nation had been guaranteed by the
Treaty of London after the close of the war with Holland. “Freedom
reigns among us, without flaw and without infringement,” declared a
patriot-orator, forty years ago. Leopold the Second, who came to the
throne in 1865, advanced the agricultural, manufacturing and maritime
interests of the realm, and, a short while before his death, brought
the Congo Free State, over which he had held sovereignty for twenty
years, under the Belgian flag. With the acquisition of a colony eighty
times as large as the kingdom itself, Belgium became the dazzled
possessor of a treasure land of mines, arable acres and profitable
forests. Rail and water transportation were promoted by Belgian and
foreign companies, eager to enjoy the rich opportunities of the African
colony, and hundreds of trading-houses sprang up to handle the Congo’s
yield of palm oils, copal, rubber, cocoa, copper, gold, diamonds and
ivory.
Upon the death of his uncle in 1909, King Albert fell heir to the
most densely populated domain in the world. Over seven million people
inhabited a country comprising about eleven thousand square miles. If
all the people of the New England States were crowded within the bounds
of the State of Vermont, conditions of life would be comparable with
those of the little kingdom of Belgium. Its rulers, King Albert and
his consort, Queen Elizabeth, youngest daughter of the benevolent Duke
Charles of Bavaria, have always kept very close to the hearts of their
subjects, and have never permitted the exacting ceremonials of the
court to usurp time set aside for the consideration of the country’s
intimate needs. The daily picture of their “little Queen” driving
to and fro among the charitable institutions of Brussels is a sight
familiar to the people. The Belgians are frank to say that, should the
monarchy ever become a republic, Albert and Elizabeth would be elected
the President and First Lady of the land. Each inhabitant contributes
one franc a year toward the support of the King, the Queen, Prince
Leopold, Prince Charles, and Princess Marie José.
[Illustration: CHATEAU OF THE COUNTS OF FLANDERS (’S GRAVENSTEEN), GHENT
Begun in the 9th century, occupied by the Counts of Flanders in
medieval times, it is now restored and open to the public]
_Belgian Thrift_
With the active support of the State, provident societies and savings
banks exist to foster habits of thrift. A co-operative society, “The
People,” in Ghent, has a membership of many thousands of families. It
operates a bakery, a bank, a theater, and numerous stores and mills.
“The Peasants’ Union” owns assets valued at ten million dollars.
Trained advisers are employed by the Union to travel among the farmers
and suggest improved methods of raising crops and livestock. In point
of individual savings, Belgium held a place high on the list of nations
before the War.
Belgium was a veritable hive of contented, thrifty workers before the
German hordes crossed her borders. And today, after more than four
years of exhaustive warfare and abysmal suffering, the nation is again
rising to renew her forces, just as, so often in the past, she has been
constrained to rise and gird her industrial armor on after long periods
of oppression and abuse. In 1914 there were but five other countries
whose foreign trade was greater; in her output of steel, glass, railway
rolling stock, beet sugar and textiles, she could hold her own with
bigger rivals. Half her people were engaged in manufacturing and allied
pursuits, and half in the cultivation of the soil. Antwerp, “safest
harbor on the Continent,” ranked next to New York among the ports of
the world.
[Illustration: MONUMENTS ON THE BATTLEFIELD OF WATERLOO]
When King Albert returned to his capital after a tragic exile, this is
what he found: the Government railways, interurban lines and canals
almost entirely out of commission; the harbor of Antwerp closed;
three hundred thousand subjects homeless; scores of factories totally
destroyed or too badly damaged to operate; and sixteen hundred coke
furnaces, so vital to the manufacture of steel, completely demolished.
The national debt had more than quadrupled, and eight hundred thousand
laborers, through enforced idleness, were receiving their support from
the Government.
[Illustration: A LACE WORKER
In a community of nuns, Bruges. The long-armed stove and the fireplace
are characteristic of most Flemish cottages.]
_The Redemption of Belgium_
The unconquerable Belgians, in whom burns the indomitable flame of the
Belgae of old, are already winning against these seemingly insuperable
odds. Homes have been built by the aid of the King Albert Fund, which
has expended up to the present time about ten million dollars for this
purpose. The Government has lent an immense sum to householders and
manufacturers for the rebuilding of their own dwellings and factories.
Thousands of carloads of machinery have been recovered from Germany
through a well-organized “recuperation service,” authorized by the
Peace Treaty, and many mills, dismantled or destroyed by the enemy, are
running on part or full time. A large proportion of idle workmen have
found occupation at wages higher than they received before the War.
Nearly all of the one hundred steamship services leaving Antwerp for
world ports have resumed sailings. The thousand miles of railway lines
destroyed by the invaders are now relaid, and traffic is approaching
normal. All this, some of it with the financial aid of America, has
been achieved within a few months after the cessation of the most
destructive warfare in history. Belgium’s withered acres and ravaged
towns are rising like the phoenix, reborn through fire.
[Illustration: From a photograph by A. V. Onslow