BELGIUM'S WORKSHOPS
Belgium was slightly larger than the State of Massachusetts, yet she
ranked eighth among the nations in wealth, and sixth in commerce.
Antwerp was one of the five great ports of the world, with more
dock-room than New York.
Several favouring conditions enabled her to compete so successfully with
her big neighbours. Rivers and canals gave her inland cities easy access
to the sea. Much of the raw material for her foundries and factories was
to be found within her own boundaries, while fuel for her engines was
furnished cheaply by her own mines. Most important, perhaps, labour was
abundant, low of cost, and highly skilled. In her people really lay
Belgium's greatest strength, for they are hardy and thrifty, and
peculiarly skilled as mechanicians.
They used to say that while France furnished mankind with their
luxuries, Belgium supplied them with their necessities. But this is not
wholly true, for the smaller country is celebrated for its exquisite
lace and superb tapestries, while the gardens of Ghent raised orchids,
azaleas and camellias for the flower-markets of France, Germany, England
and even America.
These were the exports of Belgium, in the order of their importance:
coal, iron, steel and zinc; firearms; glass; cement; ceramics; cotton,
wool and flax; furniture and lace.
The centers of the metal, coal and glass industries were in the Walloon
districts, especially in Charleroi and Liège, while the textile centers
were, for the most part, in Flanders.
The story of how coal was first discovered in Belgium has been told a
thousand times, but rarely, I think, in America. It seems that in a
village not far from Liège there lived--some seven hundred years ago--a
poor blacksmith named Houllos. One day he found himself quite out of
money. He could not work to earn more, because he had no wood to heat
his forge. While he sat bewailing his fate a mysterious stranger
appeared and asked the cause of his woe. When he had heard the mournful
story, "Take a large sack," said he, "and go to the Mountain of the
People. There you must dig down three feet into the earth. You will find
a black, rocky substance, which you must put into the sack and bring
home. Break it up, and burn it in your forge." This is the reason why,
in Belgium, coal still bears the name of _huille_, in memory of the
blacksmith of Liège. Some think the stranger was an Englishman, since
coal was already in use in London. But tradition has insisted that
_ange_ and not _Anglais_, is the proper word, and that Houllos
entertained an angel.
Near Mons are the great mounds of slag which were begun in the earliest
times and look today not unlike the pyramids of Egypt. Whatever the
origin of the mining industry in Belgium, there is nothing idyllic about
the conditions there in modern times. The coal region of the Borinage is
known as Le Pays Noir, and it certainly deserves the name.
The miners are called _Borains_, or coal-borers. "They live both on the
earth and in the earth, delving amid the black deposits of vast primeval
forests." Owing to their former long hours, which have been somewhat
shortened in late years, the present generation is dwarfish, the men
often under five feet and the women still less. Most of them cannot read
or write, and they have little pleasure save what comes from beer. (More
beer was sold per head in Belgium than even in Germany.) Of the hundred
and twenty-five thousand miners in the country, three-quarters belonged
to Hainault.
There are in all over a hundred coal mines in Belgium, the area of those
that were worked amounting to over ninety thousand acres, and of those
not worked to forty thousand more. A new coal field has been discovered
in the north but has not been exploited as yet. Although the home
consumption was steadily increasing, and averaged nearly three tons per
capita, large amounts were exported to France and Holland. It was sold
at a closer margin than in any other of the mining countries.
Mining was commenced on the out-crops eight or nine hundred years ago,
but it was only when steam-engines were invented that the miners were
able to reach the deeper parts of the coal measures, and the yield was
greatly increased.
Firearms have been manufactured in Liège since midway in the fourteenth
century. The first portable arms were the cannon and handgun, both
adjusted to very heavy, straight butt-ends and very difficult to handle.
They were loaded with stones, lead or iron balls. The musket and
arquebus came later, and had matchlocks, an idea suggested by the
trigger of the crossbow.
The first exporters of Liège arms were naildealers, who possessed from
immemorial times commercial relations with the most distant countries.
After the invention of the flint-lock in the seventeenth century the gun
trade made rapid progress. The number of workmen became enormous. The
superiority of Liège arms was recognized all over the world, and the
gunworkmen received offers of high salaries to induce them to go to
France, England, Germany and Austria. Several of them were engaged to
work at the Royal Manufactory of Arms at Potsdam. Much of the best work
was done at the worker's own house, and in order to prevent any decline
in the individual skill of the men to whom Liège owed so much of its
fame, the union of manufacturers of arms created a professional school
of gunnery, where they could be specially trained. In this way they
hoped to avoid the danger that the facility which machinery gives the
workman would cause him to lose interest in his hand-work at home, which
requires such varied knowledge and ability.
Cotton spinning was one of the most important textile industries. Over a
million spindles were employed, most of them in the two provinces of
Hainault and Brabant, and in the city of Ghent. Most of the cotton came
from America and Egypt.
[Illustration: _An Old Lacemaker_]
Verviers, in Liège, was the center of the wool-spinning industry. Here
again the superior skill of the artisans established the reputation of
the Belgian article. Most of the wool came from Australia and the Cape.
For its flax spindles, however, Belgium raised its own material. The
flax of Courtrai was considered the best in all Europe. More than half
the finished thread was exported to England. The abundance of this
material doubtless led to the early development of lace-making, for
which the women of the country became so famous.
Flanders claims to be the birthplace of pillow-lace--_dentelles aux
fuseaux_--and disputes with Italy the invention of lace generally. In
earlier times drawn or cut work was often confused with lace, as was
embroidery of one sort or another, and for this reason it is difficult
to trace the art definitely back to its beginning. Ornamental needlework
was done in Old Testament days, for Isaiah mentions those who "work in
fine flax and weave networks." But real lace-making--the interweaving of
fine threads of flax, cotton, silk, of silver, gold or hair, to form a
network--did not appear till the time of the Renaissance, when all the
arts of Europe awoke to life. In a chapel at St. Peter's, in Louvain,
was an altar-piece painted in 1495 by Quentin Matsys, which showed a
girl making lace on a pillow like those still in use to this day.
The manufacture of lace began in Brussels about the year 1400. The city
excelled from the first in the quality of the work done there. This was
due to the fineness of the thread of Brabant, which the women spun inch
by inch with such painstaking care that it defied competition. A pound
of flax was sometimes transmuted into lace worth several thousand
dollars.
The lace industry was the only one in Flanders which survived the
upheavals of the sixteenth century. Its prosperity alone tided the
distracted people over their difficulties and saved them from the ruin
which threatened. The women plodded on at their slow task, hour after
hour, thread after thread, for a pitiful few cents a day, and never knew
that they had saved their country. "They are generally almost blind
before thirty years of age," wrote an early chronicler.
The women of Belgium have always been specially adept with the needle,
and it may be that the rainy weather so prevalent there had something to
do with the development of this indoor industry. Certainly lace-making
is--or was, until very recently--practised in all the provinces except
Liège, and in some districts it could be said that every woman, young or
old, handled the bobbins or the needle. It was, indeed, the national
industry.
As a rule, the women worked to order and by contract, and were paid by
the piece. The lace, when finished, was handed over to the local
middleman, who, in turn, sold it to the contractors in the cities. The
children learned the art from their mother or--more often--from the nuns
in the various convent schools. They would enter these schools when six
or eight years old, and often remained there till their marriage. The
nuns did much to keep up the ancient traditions of the art, and even in
their convents in the Far East today they make a point of teaching the
native children to copy European laces.
There are two kinds of lace, point and pillow. The former is made with a
needle, and its characteristic feature is the "set-off" of the flowers.
The needle laces, of Belgium are divided into Brussels point, Brussels
appliqué, Venice, rose and Burano points.
Several classes of workers are needed for each piece--those who make the
openwork ornaments and the flowers, and those who apply them on to the
background, a very delicate task. Brussels point is the finest example
of this form of lace, and indeed of any lace made in Belgium at the
present time. The designs are very elaborate, with the flowers often in
relief. Modern Brussels point is, however, too frequently an imitation,
with flowers sewn on to a machine-made net that is often rather coarse,
while the application is done by unskilled fingers.
Of pillow lace there are many kinds, and their chief characteristic is
the outline of the design. The lace is made on a cushion or pillow which
stands on a frame, with little spools or bobbins for the threads, and
pins for fixing the lace on the pattern.
The best kinds of pillow lace are duchess, Mechlin, and Valenciennes.
"Valenciennes the eternal," they called it, because by working fourteen
hours a day for a year you made less than half a yard. Marie Therèse had
a dress of it which took a year to make and cost fourteen thousand
dollars. Considering that the workers received barely a cent an hour,
one gets some idea of the magnitude of the task. The Béguinage in Ghent
was the headquarters for the manufacture of this lace, but only a few
old nuns remain there now who know the secrets of its making.
Machine-made imitations flood the market, and the former process is too
costly to make it worth any one's while to master it.
[Illustration: BRUSSELS POINT LACE.]
Mechlin is the Flemish name for the town of Malines, and both words are
used in connection with the lace which originated there. Mechlin is the
airiest and most exquisite of laces, but its very delicacy made it too
costly, and since it could be so easily and cheaply imitated, it is no
longer made by hand. It was constructed in one piece, with no
application, a flat thread forming the flower and giving it almost the
appearance of embroidery. Napoleon, who admired it greatly, cried out
when he saw the delicate spire of Antwerp Cathedral that it was like
"_la dentelle de Malines_."
In spite of the fact that the art of making lace had fallen upon hard
days, the lacemakers' ball was still an important event of the season
when we were in Brussels. It came in carnival week, and was the occasion
on which the Société de la Grande Harmonie received the King and Queen.
It interested me to see how Their Majesties were welcomed by such a
representative body of middle-class citizens--there was the most genuine
enthusiasm I have ever seen shown towards royalty.
The Diplomatic Corps had been invited to attend, and we were taken to a
platform at the end of a great room, where the royal chairs were
placed, and chairs in rows for the Corps and the Court and the Ministers
of State. Beyond the columns which divided the hall into three parts
were arranged the seats for the members of the society. The center of
the floor remained clear, and here the tableaux and pageants
representing the various stages in the history of lace were performed.
In their pageant the lacemakers all wore examples of their craft.
One of the prettiest incidents occurred when the groups of costumed
personages separated and there passed along the length of the ballroom
floor two little children, a boy and a girl, dressed as a page and a
miniature lady-in-waiting. They advanced slowly, and presented to the
King and Queen books which told of the evening's entertainment. The
Queen rose and apparently questioned the president of the society about
the little girl who stood so shyly before her. Then, taking the book,
she stooped down and kissed her. It was very prettily and naturally
done, and caused a round of appreciative applause and cries of "Long
live the Queen!"
Another attractive feature was that of the tiny children who represented
the Flemish lacemakers, each one wearing the costume of the trade. They
passed in procession before the Queen and each, with a little courtesy,
laid a bouquet of flowers at her feet.
I was surprised to find that Brussels was the market for lace from all
over the world, and that foreign laces of every description were copied
there by the skilful _dentellières_. This was still true, in spite of
the marked decline which the industry had shown of late, especially
since the introduction of machinery.
Where a generation ago one hundred and fifty thousand women were
employed, in 1910 there were barely twenty thousand. Their product had
lost in quality, too, as well as in quantity. The old nuns who did the
wonderful, intricate stitches, were dying off and there were none to
take their places. The pattern-makers, also, were contenting themselves
with easier designs. Belgium was "speeding up," with the rest of the
world, and the painstaking arts had to suffer. Modern laces are
carelessly made, in comparison with those of former days, and from
inferior designs.
The wages paid those who still work at the craft seem low indeed,
especially when the long years of apprenticeship are considered.
Verhaegen, in statistics collected in 1910, cites a girl of thirteen who
was working ten hours a day, making in fifty-five hours a meter of Cluny
lace for which she received about fifty cents. Children of fourteen
were working seventy-two hours a week for something less than a cent an
hour, and grown women earned little more. The workers were not
organized, and the middlemen seem to have prospered accordingly.
But the pay was low in all branches of industry, even those which were
well organized. An English writer noted that the rate of wages per hour
for men in Belgium was only about half that prevailing in Britain, while
the cost of living was nearly the same. The average earnings of the
breadwinner of the family were about $165 a year. These facts certainly
account for the development of coöperation.
This movement, which had a great vogue throughout the country, started
in Ghent in 1873. Bread was scarce, and famine prices prevailed. A group
of poor weavers conceived the idea of baking for themselves and their
friends at cost. Their capital consisted of the vast sum of seventeen
dollars and eighteen cents. Their bakery was in a cellar, and their
utensils were antiquated. They could not afford a dog to deliver their
wares, which were taken from door to door in a basket. But this was only
the beginning. The "free bakers," as they called themselves, came to
have for their headquarters one of the finest buildings in Ghent.
A few years later Edouard Anseele, realizing the power of the new
movement, decided that it should be identified with Socialism for their
mutual benefit. To that end was organized the Vooruit, which has
branches all over Belgium, and in other countries as well.
Instead of returning the profits made on bread sold at market prices to
the purchasers, as had been originally done, a percentage was retained
for the support of the organization in its various departments. There
was a mutual benefit fund, for instance: bread was sent to members out
of work; a doctor went to those who were ill; a trained nurse was at
hand to look after the first baby and to instruct the mother in its
care.
When the Church set up rival bakeries, the Vooruit went farther. It
established its first "_maison du peuple_," which has since been
duplicated in many places. Every need of the people was supposed to find
here its satisfaction. There was a café, with tables in the park, and
lights and music. There were lectures, dances, debates, concerts,
movies. There was a theater where the actors and the plays were chosen
by the vote of the audience, which, by the way, strongly favoured their
own Maeterlinck. Besides a library and a day nursery, there was a big
department store, and in the same building were the headquarters for all
the allied and friendly organizations--trade unions, coöperative and
socialistic societies, and so on.
One of the most interesting activities of the Vooruit was the traveling
club for children, bands of whom went from town to town, picking up
recruits as they went, seeing their own land first, then--this was
before the war--crossing the border into France or Germany, where the
local Vooruits made them welcome. A common practice was for children of
the French and Flemish parts of the country to be exchanged for long
visits, so that they might have a chance to learn each other's language.
When the organization, which had always before refused to sell alcoholic
drinks, found itself bitterly opposed by the liquor interests,
especially in the mining districts, it built breweries of its own. In
this way it was able to give the working men pure beer at a very low
cost.
The Maison du Peuple in Brussels was established in 1881, with a capital
of about one hundred dollars. It began, like the one in Ghent, as a
bakery, and owned a dog and a small cart to make deliveries. At last
accounts the society had over ninety dogs. It is amusing to read that
these had their own kitchens, where their cooking was done, and their
bathrooms, where they were kept clean.
And when one is speaking of the workers of Belgium, the dogs should not
be forgotten, for the larger breeds were very useful members of the
industrial system. Laundresses, bakers and vendors used them in
distributing their wares, and they were of great service on the farm.
But perhaps the commonest sight was that of a dog hitched to a cart
filled with shining brass and copper milk cans. They were all carefully
inspected to see that their harness fitted properly, and that they were
provided with a drinking bowl and with a mat to lie down on when they
were tired.
The Government made a point, indeed, of seeing that conditions were as
comfortable as possible for the animals. The poor cannot afford to keep
a dog simply for a pet; there are no scraps from the table to feed him,
because no thrifty housewife leaves any scraps; he must do his share and
earn his keep like the others.
At a time when France laid a heavy tax on imported laces, dogs made
excellent smugglers. They were kept for a time on the French side of the
line, petted and well fed; then they were sent over into Belgium, where
they were allowed to become thoroughly homesick. Skins of larger dogs
were lined with contraband lace and tied on to them, and they were
headed for home and set free. Of course they naturally sought their own
firesides, and the lace went with them. When the ruse was discovered,
over forty thousand of them were captured and put to death.
Since the war began, dogs have been of great service in dragging the
mitrailleuses, the light machine-guns, as well as in helping their
masters carry their household goods to a place of safety. The police
dogs were wonderfully trained, and have been used by the Red Cross to
find the wounded in remote places and to carry first aid.
The same high standards of efficiency by which Belgian workmen made a
national reputation for their various manufactures showed also in the
cultivation of the ground. The whole western part of the country was one
vast market-garden, but it was no happy chance of soil and climate that
made it so. Generations of unbroken toil on the part of a patient,
skilful peasantry, equipped with the most primitive tools but with a
positive genius for their work, were necessary. So recently as the first
half of the nineteenth century there was a wild stretch of land west of
the Scheldt known as the Pays de Waes, which was uncultivated and
desolate. Today it is wonderfully fertile, its little truck farms
supporting five hundred people to the mile.
[Illustration: "SINCE THE WAR BEGAN, DOGS HAVE BEEN OF GREAT SERVICE IN
DRAGGING THE MITRAILLEUSES."]
Flanders as a whole, indeed, had poor soil, often "an almost hopeless
blowing sand." The method of reclamation usually began with the planting
of oats, rye or broom. This was used three years for forage and then
plowed in, after which the land became capable of producing clover. The
rotation of crops was worked out with great care, according to the
special needs of the soil. The Belgian wheat crop averaged thirty-seven
bushels to the acre in 1913, while in the same year "up-to-the-minute"
America raised only fifteen bushels.
The soil is particularly suited to hemp and flax, the latter furnishing
not only oil but fiber, of which the British markets bought ten million
dollars' worth annually. Poppies were grown for oil. Tobacco yielded two
tons to the acre, and white carrots eight hundred bushels.
The Flemish farmer did most of his work by hand, with no other implement
than a spade, which has been called the national tool. The population
was so large that human labour was cheaper than animal. In sixteen days
a man could dig up an acre of land as well as a horse could plow it. A
farmer was able to support himself, his wife and three children, keep a
cow and fatten a hog, on two and a half acres. With another acre he had
a surplus product to carry to market. A man with a capable wife and
children could do all the work on six acres and have time left for
outside interests. If he was fortunate enough to have horses they were
the pride of his heart and he kept them always finely groomed and in the
pink of condition.
The women of the country married early, raised large families, and
worked hard. They were good managers, especially in the Walloon
districts where they often carried on some industry besides their
housekeeping. For centuries their chief employment was making lace. The
Government established schools of housekeeping, where the girls learned
domestic economy in every branch; they were sent to market, for
instance, with six cents to buy the materials for a meal, which they
afterwards cooked and served.
The Government indeed did everything it could to improve conditions in
the country districts and to encourage farming. It established schools
of agriculture, with dairy classes for the girls, and aided in starting
coöperative societies. Its policies were far-seeing and marked by a
really paternal interest, as well they might have been, for to her
sturdy peasants--and to the peasants' sturdy wives--were due the
foundations of Belgian prosperity.