THE BELGIAN LABOR PARTY
I
In Belgium the physical, political, and economic environment is suited
to a symmetrical development of Socialism. It is a small country, "at
the meeting-point of the three great European civilizations,"
Vandervelde, the leader of the Belgian Socialists, has pointed out.
And his boast is true that the Belgian Socialists have absorbed the
leading characteristics of the social movement in each of these
countries. "From England Belgian Socialists have learned self-help,
and have copied their free and independent organizations, principally
in the form of co-operative societies. From Germany they have adopted
the political tactics and the fundamental doctrines which were
expressed for the first time in the 'Communist Manifesto.' From France
they have taken their idealistic tendencies, and the integral
conception of Socialism, considered as an extension of the
revolutionary philosophy and as a new religion, an extension and a
realization of Christianity."
This threefold growth would have been impossible if the environment
had not been favorable. The Belgian population is congested into
industrial towns that are thickly strewn over the country, like the
suburbs of one vast manufacturing community. These working people have
always been miserably housed and poorly fed. In 1903-05 a public
inquiry into housing conditions was instituted in Brussels. In the
most congested portions of the city, 564 households, comprising 2,224
persons, lived in one-room tenements. The houses were in miserable
condition.
The commission appointed after the riots of 1886 describes conditions
that are little better than those that prevailed in England in 1830.
Even as late as 1902, out of 750,000 working men and women one-tenth
only worked less than ten hours a day; the rest worked from ten to
twelve hours. One-fourth of these working people had a wage of 2
francs (40 cents) a day, another fourth had 2 to 3 francs (40 to 60
cents) a day, and the upper section only 3.50 to 4.50 francs (70 cents
to 90 cents) a day. The government inquiry in 1896 disclosed the
following rate of wages:
170,000 persons received less than 2 fr. (40c.) a day.
172,000 persons received less than 2-3 fr. (40-60c.) a day.
160,000 persons received less than 3-4 fr. (60-80c.) a day.
102,000 persons received more than 4 fr. (80c.) a day.[1]
In the low countries where agriculture is the leading occupation,
conditions are no better. The peasant is poor; the conditions of
tenancy hard, though recent legislation has modified them somewhat in
the tenant's favor; and the holdings small. Agricultural wages are
very low. The men in the Flemish district receive an average of 1.63
francs (33 cents) a day, without board, or about .90 francs (18 cents)
with board. The women receive 1.06 francs (21 cents) without board and
.64 francs (12-1/2 cents) with board.[2]
Here, then, is a population of industrial and peasant workers who are
barely able to make a living, who have little time and less
opportunity for education and general development. The percentage of
illiteracy is very great; and is equaled only by the most backward
countries of southern Europe. In 1902, out of every 1,000 militiamen,
101 were entirely illiterate; in France, 46; in England, 37; in
Holland, 23; in Switzerland, 20; in Denmark, .08; in Germany, .07. In
1909 Rowntree estimated the illiteracy in the four largest Belgian
cities to be 11.75 per cent.; in the Flemish communes, 34.69 per
cent.; and in the Walloon communes (excepting Liege), 17.34 per cent.
Outward circumstances have not been wanting to arouse this teeming
population into violent discontent. The government for years paid no
heed to their misery, and the Church, which is very powerful in
Belgium, was content to distribute charity and consolation, and to
admonish the employer to patriarchal care for his men.
The national status of the country is guaranteed by the powers; there
is no fear of invasion and no need for the intolerable military
burdens that weigh down the great countries of Europe. There have been
no international complications. This little country, with its clusters
of thriving towns, its mines, farms, and seaports, could settle down
contentedly to its daily tasks like a large family.
The great manufacturers and industrial leaders took even less interest
in the welfare of the working people than the state or the Church. No
one seemed to care how the worker fared, and when he himself learned
to care the first reactions were violent.
We will limit ourselves, in this inquiry, to the political development
of the labor movement.
Belgium is a constitutional monarchy. The Constitution, provides for a
parliament composed of the Senate and the Chamber of Representatives,
both elected by the people, the Representatives by direct, the
Senators by indirect, elections. The King has the veto power and the
power to prorogue parliament. A general election follows prorogation,
in which the whole membership of Senate and House are elected. The
communes are governed by elective communal councils.
From the establishment of the constitution, in 1831, there have been
two leading political parties--the Clerical or Catholic, and the
Liberal. The Clerical Party has been not merely conservative, it has
been reactionary. It clings not only to monarchic prerogatives, but to
ecclesiastical supremacy. This medieval policy it imposed upon school
and government and Church. The party has until very recently been in
the majority. It is strongest in the low counties, among the
agricultural Flemings. When the activity of the Socialists and
Radicals forced the question upon the country, a "left" wing of the
party began to interest itself in the laboring man, through the
traditional methods of the Church, rather than by means of state
interference.
The Liberal Party is a protest, not only against the predominant
influence of the Church in political affairs, but also against the
financial policies of the Conservatives. The Liberals early espoused
the cause of free schools, modified tariffs, greater local autonomy,
and liberal election laws.
The election laws confined the electorate to the few property-holders
and professional men of the country. In 1890, out of 1,800,000 male
citizens, 133,000 were qualified electors.
II
These were the conditions that prevailed when the Socialists quite
suddenly appeared on the scene. There had been a Socialist propaganda
for years in Belgium. Brussels was a city of refuge to many fleeing
revolutionists of 1848. In 1857 a labor union was organized among the
spinners and weavers of Ghent. The same year Colin published his book,
_What Is Social Science?_ This volume prepared the way for the
remarkable collectivist movement, which was stimulated into modern
activity by Anselee, a workingman of Ghent and organizer of the
Vooruit Co-operative Society. Caesar de Paepe, a disciple of Colin and
a man of remarkable intellectual endowments, tried to bring unity to
the Belgian movement. But the factionalism was not cast aside until
1885, when the Belgian Labor Party (Parti Ouvrier Belge) was
organized.
Now Socialists of all factions were drawn together. But, unlike
Socialists in other countries, they did not expend their energies on
political action. The Belgian labor movement had a threefold
origin--the co-operative movement of Colin, the labor-union movement,
and the Socialistic or political movement of de Paepe. These three
activities, united in the Labor Party, have continued to develop,
until they are a model for Socialists in all countries.
The organization of the party is simple. The various organizations are
federated into large groups, e.g., the co-operative group, each with
a separate organization. The provinces and communes have their local
committees for each separate activity. Over the entire party sits a
general council (conseil general). An executive committee of nine is
chosen from this council, and this committee has practical control of
the party. The annual convention is the supreme authority. It elects
the general council and decides, in democratic fashion, all important
questions of policy and activity. Every constituent organization, such
as the co-operative societies, etc., contributes from its funds to the
support of the party. The party is therefore a federation of many
societies with various activities, not a vast group of individual
voters, as the German Social Democracy. Its solidarity is not
individual, but federal.
The organization of the Labor Party proved a stimulus to all the
constituent societies. From 1885 to 1895 over 400 co-operative
societies were formed, and within a few years 7,000 mutual aid
societies were organized. The membership of the labor unions increased
from less than 50,000 in 1880 to 62,350 in 1889, and nearly 150,000 in
1905.
The Socialist movement had now achieved solidarity, and was prepared
to enter into a conflict for power. Its issues were two: universal
suffrage and free secular education. The second was necessarily
included in the first; for without parliamentary power it would be
impossible to secure liberal educational laws, and without a liberal
franchise it would be impossible to get parliamentary power. All their
political energies were therefore devoted to the reform of the
election laws.
It is in this activity that the Belgian movement forms for our
purpose one of the most instructive chapters of European Socialism.
Here is a proletarian horde deprived of participation in government in
a constitutional monarchy, struggling toward political recognition. It
is armed with all the weapons of militant Socialism: a revolutionary
tradition; a national history rich in mob violence, street brawls, and
conflicts with police and soldiers; possessed of a well-organized
party, a class solidarity, and capable and courageous leaders who are
willing to go, and do go, to the extreme of the general strike and
violence in order to achieve their goal.
In short, here we have the Socialist political ideal working itself
from theory into reality through class struggle. But there is the
usual important modification of the Marxian conditions; viz., the
liberal bourgeois prove a potent ally to the Socialists in the press
and on the floor of the Chamber of Representatives. While the
Socialists were surging in vehement earnestness around the Parliament
House, the Liberals were as earnestly pleading their cause within.
The definite fight for universal suffrage began a few years before the
organization of the Labor Party. In 1866 a group of workingmen issued
an appeal to their fellows to begin the battle for the ballot. In 1879
the Socialists issued a manifesto which stated the case as follows:
"'All powers are derived from the nation; all Belgians are equal
before the law,' says the Constitution of 1831.
"In reality all powers are derived from a small number of privileged
ones, and all the Belgians are divided into two classes--those who are
rich and have rights, and those who are poor and have burdens.
"We wish to see this inequality vanish, at least before the
ballot-box. For the most numerous class of society ought to be
represented in the Chamber of Representatives, because the people
whose daily bread depends upon the prosperity of the country should
have the power to participate in public affairs.
"Constitutions are not immutable, and what was solemnly promulgated on
one occasion may, without revolution, be altered on another."[3]
The proclamation then proceeded to call a meeting at Brussels for the
following January (1880). At this meeting it was decided to circulate
a monster petition asking Parliament to pass a liberal election law
and to organize a demonstration to be held in Brussels the following
summer. In this, the first of a long series of demonstrations, about
6,000 persons from various parts of the kingdom paraded the streets of
the capital. There was a clash with the police, and a number of
arrests were made. From 1881 to 1885 the Liberals tried to persuade
the Clericals to agree upon a constitutional revision; and the
Socialists brought to bear upon them all the pressure of the streets.
But the Clericals were firm. Then the Socialists tried another
manoeuver. They issued a manifesto "to the people of Belgium,"
complaining of the dominion of the Church over education, the dominion
of a few families over the nation, and the failure of the government
to grant liberty to the people. "The hour has come for all citizens to
rally under the republican flag."
Instead of a republican uprising, something more significant and
potent occurred; the Labor Party was organized, welding together all
the forces of discontent and unifying their demands into a protest so
strong that the government was finally compelled to yield. Not,
however, until it had exhausted almost every resource of resistance.
The party was organized just in the crux of time. A financial crisis
was beginning to increase the hardships of the industrial classes. The
unrest was intensified by an ingenious piece of propagandist
literature, a _Workingman's Catechism_ (_Catechism du Peuple_),
written by a workingman. Two hundred thousand copies in French and
60,000 in Flemish were scattered among the discontented people. Its
influence was wonderful. A few questions will indicate the power that
lay behind its simple questions and answers.
_Question._ "Who are you?"
_Answer._ "I am a slave."
_Q._ "Are you not a man?"
_A._ "From the point of view of humanity I am a man, but in
relation to society I am a slave."
_Q._ "What is the 25th article of the Constitution?"
_A._ "The 25th article of the Constitution says: 'All power is
derived from the nation.'"
_Q._ "Is this true?"
_A._ "It is a falsehood."
_Q._ "Why?"
_A._ "Because the nation is composed of 5,720,807 inhabitants,
about 6,000,000, and of this 6,000,000 only 117,000 are
consulted in the making of laws."
And so through every grievance, social, economic, and political. Every
workman learned his catechism. Those who could not read gathered in
groups around their more fortunate comrades and listened to the
effective questions and answers.
By the beginning of 1886 the little land was a seething caldron of
political and economic unrest. The strike movement began at Liege and
soon spread to Charleroi and other industrial centers. There was
enough destruction of property and clashing with police and soldiery
to create a panic in the country. In Brussels business was at a
standstill for days. The Socialist Party, in a circular issued to the
people, said: "The country is visited by a terrible crisis. The
disinherited classes are suffering. Strikes are multiplying, riots are
provoked by the misery. The constantly decreasing wages are spreading
consternation everywhere."
The disorder aroused a number of Anarchists in Brussels. They posted
anonymous placards inciting the people to violence. The Socialists
repudiated the Anarchists, and one of their orators said: "Do not let
yourselves be carried away by violence; that will only benefit your
adversaries."
A mass demonstration was planned, but the mayor of Brussels prohibited
it. The Labor Party, however, were allowed to hold their annual
convention and to march under their red flag, the government merely
requesting that the demonstrants refrain from shouting, "Vive la
Republique!" Thirty thousand laboring men joined in the demonstration.
The Liberals and Radicals refused to take part in it because they
claimed it was only a workingman's movement, and the Anarchists
refused because "elections lead to nothing." This demonstration was so
serious and imposing that it made a deep impression upon the people,
and was not without effect upon the government.
The crisis finally passed over. A great many rioters were imprisoned
in spite of the popular clamor for universal amnesty. The general
strike brought no immediate advantage to the workmen.
The next few years the Socialists devoted to organization. They were
determined not to enter upon extended strikes again without thorough
preparation. In the meantime the Liberal Party split. The Radicals, or
Progressists, at their first congress in 1877 declared themselves in
favor of the separation of Church and state, military reform,
compulsory education, social and electoral reform. They were, however,
not yet prepared to commit themselves to universal suffrage. They
favored rather an educational test for voters. This, however, they
abandoned in 1890, and virtually placed themselves upon the Socialist
platform.
On August 10, 1890, another great demonstration in favor of universal
suffrage took place in Brussels. Over 40,000 men joined in the parade.
The Progressists did not take part in the marching, but they were
stationed along the route to cheer the men in line. Before they
dispersed, all the participants united in taking a solemn oath that
they would not give up the fight "until the Belgian people, through
universal suffrage, should regain their fatherland." This is the
famous "Oath of August 10."
After this demonstration the Progressists joined with the Socialists
in a conference for discussing ways and means for securing universal
suffrage.[4] This conference is notable because it drew Radicals,
Progressists, and Socialists into a united campaign for suffrage
reform. The conference resolved to organize demonstrations in every
corner of the kingdom and to memorialize Parliament. This was to be a
final peaceful appeal. If it remained unheeded a general strike would
follow. The bourgeois Progressists assented to this ultimatum.
A few days before the Socialist-Progressist conference met, a clerical
social congress had convened at Liege. The agitation of the Labor
Party had at last aroused the Conservatives. The resolutions of this
conference were pervaded by the traditional apostolic paternalistic
spirit of the Church. It demanded social reform, amelioration of harsh
conditions, state arbitration, industrial insurance; but it set its
face against universal suffrage. On the wings of an awakened
conservatism it tried to ride the whirlwind of Socialism.
But no halfway measures would now placate the agitators. The great
mass of Belgian workmen were aroused, and nothing but the ballot would
satisfy them.
A propaganda was begun in the army. The enlistment laws were favorable
to the rich, who could purchase freedom from military service. The
poor conscripts were especially susceptible to the Socialist
propaganda.
In the autumn of 1890 at the Labor Party's annual convention it was
suggested that, inasmuch as the parliament of the Few had not heeded
the wishes of the nation, a parliament of the People should be called,
to be composed of as many members as the existing parliament, but
chosen by universal suffrage. Even a program was proposed for this
fancied parliament.
By this time the petitions prepared by the suffrage congress were
ready. In every arrondissement there were demonstrations. In Brussels
8,000 men marched to the city hall and handed the mayor their petition
protesting against the privileged election laws and demanding
universal suffrage. From every village in the kingdom protests were
brought to the government demanding universal suffrage.
Finally on November 27, 1890, a Liberal member in the Chamber of
Representatives proposed a change in the Constitution enlarging the
electoral franchise. He explained the injustice of the limited
franchise, dwelt on the dangers of strikes and riots, and said that he
believed the Belgian workmen as capable of exercising the rights of
citizenship as those of neighboring countries. All parties agreed to
discuss the amendment. The debate held popular excitement in abeyance.
But as it became more and more evident that nothing would be done the
workingman became restive. Early in 1892 riots broke out in various
cities. The situation became acute. Socialists and Radicals organized
a popular referendum on the question. It was not an official
referendum, and its results were not binding. But it was an effective
method of propaganda, and in many of the communes the councils gave it
their sanction, thereby lending it the color of legality.
Five propositions were submitted to the voters: (1) manhood suffrage
at twenty-one years; (2) manhood suffrage at twenty-five years; (3)
exclusion of illiterates and persons in receipt of public or private
charity; (4) household suffrage and mental capacity defined by law;
(5) the exclusion of all who have not passed an elementary educational
standard. As a rule the Clericals refused to participate in the
referendum.
In Brussels, out of 72,465 entitled to vote only 38,217 voted, with
the following results: manhood suffrage at twenty-one years, 29,949;
manhood suffrage at twenty-five years, 5,253; all other propositions
together, 3,015. In Huy, out of 3,513 voters only 1,800 voted, and
1,700 of these were in favor of universal suffrage. In Antwerp, where
Liberals and Clericals are about evenly divided, only forty-three per
cent. of the electors voted, and of 18,701 votes cast, 15,704 were for
universal suffrage.
This referendum, and all the demonstrations, had very little effect
upon parliament. The deputies were in favor of revision, but could not
agree upon a plan. The Radicals were in favor of universal suffrage,
the Clericals unalterably opposed to it, and the Liberals only
sympathetic towards it.
Finally, in April, all the proposals were voted down by the Chamber of
Representatives. The Socialists immediately ordered a general strike.
It began in the coal mines of Hainault, spread to the weavers and
spinners of Ghent, to the glass and iron works of the Walloon
districts, to the printers and pressmen of Brussels, and to the docks
at Antwerp. Two hundred thousand men stopped work in the course of a
few days. While the mills and mines were idle the police and soldiers
were busy. Six men were killed at Joliment, six killed and twelve
wounded at Mons. In Brussels the mob pried up the paving-stones for
weapons; the city guards patrolled the city, meetings were forbidden,
the streets were cleared of people, and the mayor was wounded in a
melee. A band of "communists" threw a barricade across Rue des
Eperonniers, the last of the barricades. The troops made short work of
it. Scores of arrests were made in the various cities and the
offenders received sentences varying from six years' imprisonment to a
fine of fifty francs.
In the height of the excitement the Chamber of Representatives
convened and agreed upon a franchise amendment. Immediately the
general council of the Labor Party met and declared the strike off. It
sent out this pronouncement: "The Labor Party through its general
council records the insertion of manhood suffrage in the Constitution.
It declares that this first victory of the party has been won under
pressure of a general strike. It is resolved to persist in the work of
propaganda until it has won universal political equality and has
suppressed the plural voting privilege."
The new electoral law (1893) was a compromise suggested by Professor
Albert Nyssens of the University of Louvain. It recognized the three
principal demands of the three parliamentary factions: universal
suffrage of the Radicals, property qualifications of the Clericals,
and educational qualifications of the Liberals. Universal suffrage was
granted to all male citizens twenty-five years of age. But this was
modified in favor of property and education by the granting of
additional votes. One additional vote was give (1) to every voter
thirty-five years of age who was the head of a family and paid a
direct tax of 5 francs (one dollar); (2) to every owner of real
property valued at 2,000 francs ($400.00), or who had an annual income
of 200 francs ($40.00) derived from investments in the Belgian public
funds. Two additional votes were given to the holders of diplomas from
the higher schools, to those who were or had been in public office,
and to those who practised a profession for which a higher education
was necessary. No one was allowed more than three votes.
Whatever may be said of this fancy franchise, it is at least
ingenious. It satisfied the first popular hunger after the ballot. The
workmen could vote. The conditions imposed for the casting of two
votes seem very liberal and the majority of American voters could
qualify under them. But in Belgium, the land of low wages and
congested populations, they were real barricades. Nearly two-thirds of
the voters failed to reach even this low standard.
Voting made compulsory. Election was by _scrutin de liste_.[5]
III
Under these conditions the Socialists went into battle. There were
1,370,687 electors; 855,628 with one vote 293,678 with two votes,
223,380 with three votes. The Socialists polled 346,000 votes, the
Clericals 927,000, the Liberals 530,000. The new parliament was
composed as follows: Chamber of Representatives--Clericals, 104;
Liberals, 19; Socialists, 29; Senate--Clericals 71; Liberals, 21;
Socialists, 2.[6]
From the first the Socialists in Belgium have not been reluctant in
making election arrangements with other parties. In this their first
election they united with the Progressists. In Brussels on the second
ballot they proposed terms to the Liberals, which were refused. The
Socialists, however, instructed their followers to vote against the
Clericals in every instance. Wherever there were no Radical or
Socialists lists they supported the Liberals.[7]
The same widespread alarm that the first Socialist parliamentary
accessions aroused everywhere, was caused by these twenty-nine Belgian
Socialist representatives, especially as some of their number were
promoted from prison to parliament, and one striker was given his
liberty for the time being so that he could attend the session.
Vandervelde allayed popular apprehension when he announced the program
of his party, which combined with the usual labor legislation the
demand for the state purchase of coal mines, state monopoly of the
liquor business, and communal election reforms. The proposals of the
Belgian Socialists in parliament have invariably been practical, not
revolutionary or visionary. One of the first bills introduced by them
provided for the reduction of the stamp tax and the tax on the
transfer of property and leases. This tax was extremely high, nearly
seven per cent., and worked a peculiar hardship on the small tenant.
The bill failed of passage. But the government was so impressed by the
facts presented in debate that it brought in a law reducing the tax on
transfers for all small estates.
It is by this indirect method, by their presence in the Chamber, and
by their powers in debate that the Belgian Socialists have achieved
many practical reforms. They have not the hauteur and aloofness of
the German Social Democrat, nor the fiery passion for idealistic
propaganda of the French; they are more sensible than either. Since
their entrance into parliament a Secretary of Labor has been added to
the cabinet, and every department of labor legislation has felt their
influence. The delegation is in constant touch with the party in the
various districts. An old-age pension act has been passed, great
reductions have been made in military expenditure, the conscript laws
have been modified, and the Socialists led in the opposition to the
Belgian policy in the Congo.
Their two main contentions have been over the educational laws and the
electoral laws. A school law was passed by the Clericals in 1895. It
was regarded as reactionary by the Socialists, and stormy scenes
accompanied its enactment. Its provisions are still the source of
constant agitation among Socialists and Liberals. They protest
especially against the teaching of religion in the communal schools.
It is true that any parent may have his child excused from attending
such instruction for reasons of conscience on written application to
the proper authorities. But they insist that this subjects the
objecting parent to harsh treatment in Clerical communities.[8]
The provincial and communal election laws were less favorable to the
Socialists than the national law. In 1895 the government brought in a
new local election bill which fixed the voting age at thirty,
required three years' residence in a commune, and strengthened the
plural voting system by giving a fourth vote to the large
land-holders. The Socialists and Radicals united in contesting 507 of
the communes (about one-fourth of the whole number). They won a
majority in eighty and a considerable minority in 180 of these
communal councils. Necessity had cemented the alliance of Radicals and
Socialists. The Radicals were now called "_Chevre-choutiers_" because
they tried to carry the goat and the cabbage, Liberals and Socialists,
across the stream in the same boat.
In 1899 the government brought in its new election bill in which it
proposed to concede to the demand for proportional representation. But
only the large constituencies were to be included in the change,
leaving the smaller districts, mostly in the Flemish section, to the
Clerical majorities that prevailed there. The measure was unpopular.
The people organized protests against it in every city in the land. In
Brussels a mob gathered in front of the Chamber of Deputies.
Paving-stones were ripped up and hurled through the windows, and there
was charging and counter-charging between police and populace. Inside
the Chamber the scene was not less tumultuous. The Socialists tried to
prevent business by mob tactics. Desk-lids were banged, there was
shouting and singing, one deputy had provided himself with a horn. The
government was compelled to adjourn the session. All that night (June
28) there was rioting in Brussels. When the Chamber met the following
day the wild scenes were re-enacted, when a Clerical deputy moved that
any member causing a disturbance be expelled. In the debate that
followed the government declared itself willing to adjourn and study
the various proposals of the opposition. This cooled the crowd waiting
outside the Chamber, and at Vandervelde's suggestion the mob quietly
dispersed.
In the meantime the mayors of Brussels, Ghent, Antwerp, and Liege
waited on the King and told him they would no longer be responsible
for the maintenance of order in their cities if the minister did not
withdraw the obnoxious electoral bill. The Liberals now joined the
Socialists and Radicals in their processions in every town, singing
their war-songs and carrying placards and banners of protest.
All this had its effect on the government. A committee representing
all the groups in the Chamber was appointed to consider all the
proposals that had been introduced. Vandervelde, in supporting the
committee, said that he "spoke for the country that had so effectively
demonstrated its power and achieved a victory." Soon after this the
reactionary ministry fell, and the new government brought in a bill
providing uniform proportional representation for all the districts.
This bill was promptly enacted into law.
The first general election under this law resulted as follows:
Total vote cast 2,105,270
Socialists 467,326, electing 32 deputies.
Clericals 995,056 " 85 "
Liberals 449,521 " 31 "
Radicals 47,783 " 3 "
Christian Democrats 55,737 " 1 "
The Clerical majority was cut from seventy to eighteen and at last the
Liberal elements were hopeful of gaining the government and effecting
universal suffrage "pure and simple."
We have now seen how popular agitation wrested, first, a law
permitting plural voting; second, a law permitting proportional
representation, from an unwilling government. The contest for
universal suffrage "pure and simple" has continued to the present day.
In 1901 the Labor Party at its congress at Liege decided to renew the
agitation in favor of universal suffrage, "even to the extent of the
general strike, and agitation in the streets, and not to cease until
after the conquest of political equality." Vandervelde introduced a
bill into the Chamber providing for "one man, one vote," and it was
defeated by a vote of 92 to 43. Immediately Vandervelde and the
Radical leader proposed a revision of the Constitution. The debate on
this motion continued until the spring of 1902. All the old spirit of
unrest and violence broke out anew. To the violence of protesting mobs
was added the coercive force of the general strike. Three hundred
thousand men stopped work and began demonstrating. Troops were called
out to guard the government buildings in Brussels and to hold the
crowds at bay in the provinces. In Louvain eight strikers were killed
by the soldiers, and in other localities there was bloodshed and
destruction of property.
Finally the Chamber of Representatives voted to close the debate and
dismiss the question entirely for the session. The strike was declared
off and quiet restored.
In the elections the following May the Socialists lost three seats.
This had its effect. A meeting of the party was called and it was
decided not to resort to further violence. A delegate from Charleroi,
the seat of the most tumultuous element in the party, expressed regret
that the Labor Party had compromised with the bourgeois parties in
calling off the strike. Vandervelde defended the action of the council
on the ground that the continuance of the strike threatened internal
dissensions because of the misery of the strikers and the violence of
the government.
The party organ, _Le Peuple_, said on June 5, 1902: "We are no longer
in 1848. The days of barricades have gone by. The narrow little
streets of former years have expanded into wide avenues. The soldiers
are armed with Albinis and Mausers. Even if all the people were armed
it would only be necessary to plant a few cannon at strategic places
in the city to put down an insurrection in spite of the greatest
heroism of the insurgents."[9]
Van Overbergh, in his history of the strike, says: "The period of
romantic Socialism in Belgium is past; the days of realism have
commenced."[10] And Bertrand, the historian, adds the reason: "Its [the
general strike's] effect was to keep down the vote. Even in the
elections of 1904 and 1906 the vote has remained quite stationary."[11]
Whether this means the apotheosis of the general strike in Belgium
will depend no doubt upon circumstances, it is significant that the
words were uttered, and still more significant that political
coalition has taken the place of industrial warfare. The Liberals and
Radicals now plan with the Socialists. They no longer stand aside and
let the Socialists march, but they join step with them and carry
banners.
The greatest of all Belgian demonstrations for universal suffrage and
free schools took place in August, 1911. In spite of the extreme
heat, nearly 200,000 Radicals, Liberals, and Socialists gathered in
the capital, "not so much to impress the government," a Socialist
leader said to me, "but to impress the people that we are in earnest,
and then to prepare for the coming elections."
IV
It must not be inferred from this rapid survey of its warfare for
political privilege that Belgian Socialism has forgotten the
co-operative movement and all the various activities that were blended
in the making of the Labor Party. Belgian Socialism is primarily
economic. This makes it unique. It has succeeded in becoming economic,
in building dairies and bake-shops, in running dry-goods stores and
grocery stores and butcher shops, in the present dispensation; and it
has succeeded in doing so by accommodating itself to the present
conditions. It adopts the eight-hour day when it can, but it is not
averse to ten hours when necessary. It pays its employees the highest
wage it can, but it recognizes talent and ability like the bourgeois
shopkeeper across the street. It has insurance funds that draw
interest at the same rate that is paid by bourgeois banks, and it has
no scruples about putting the latest approved machinery into its
workshops and bakeries.
In all this, their activities have remained Socialistic. They compete
with the bourgeois, but co-operate among themselves. The profits of
their activities go to the members of their societies and to the
party. Their competition has brought ruin to the door of many a
shopkeeper who finds his customers flocking to their own shop.
Government commissions have inquired into the movement at the nervous
requests of merchants and tradesmen, but only to find every
co-operative enterprise carefully conducted and thriving.
The Belgian Socialist leaders all emphasize the importance of this
unity of economic and political activity, and the priority of the
economic over the political. It has been a splendid stimulant for the
Belgian workman. It has aroused him out of the lethargy that has been
his greatest enemy for years. It has taught him to work with others,
the value of mass movement, the futility of separateness. It has
schooled him, not only in reading and arithmetic, in the night classes
established everywhere; but in business, in weights and measures; in
percentage, in profit and loss; and most of all, in the real hardships
that meet tradespeople and commercial men everywhere in their endeavor
to get on. Workingmen often think that a business man is a necromancer
juggling profits out of other people's necessities. The Belgian
co-operativist has found out that trading is a commonplace and tedious
task which requires constant alertness and is merely the drudgery of
detail. This experience has taught him, moreover, the futility of laws
and the utility of effort. In Belgium I was impressed most of all by
the nonchalance, almost contempt, that the workman displays toward
mere legislation. "Why should I toy with words when I have this?" And
he points proudly to his co-operative store.
The Belgian workman has been taught through his co-operative
experience the value of patient toil and frugality. Slowly he has
built up these institutions out of his own savings. When he thought
his scant wages were barely enough for bread, he discovered means
somehow to pay his dues in the "Mutualite." As an instance of his
thrift, he saves every year a little fund which is used by the family
for an annual holiday, usually a short excursion to a neighboring
place of interest. Every member of the family contributes to this
fund, and, no matter how poor, they look forward to their yearly
holiday.
The Belgian Socialist has also been successful in another field. While
in other countries the Socialists have tried usually in vain to lure
the peasant and small farmer, the Belgians have made constant progress
in this direction. The agrarian movement began with the organizing of
the Labor Party.[12]
Vandervelde and Hector Dennis, a Professor of Economics in the
University at Brussels, have been constant in their zeal for the
agrarian interests. Again, the lure is not Socialism in the abstract,
nor the gospel of discontent. It is practical, business co-operation.
Dairies, stores, markets are proving powerful propagandists, even in
the Catholic lowlands. Dr. Steffens-Frauenweiler quotes from a
conservative newspaper: "From different sides we have heard the remark
that Socialism would never penetrate into the country. In
contradiction to this opinion we must observe that those who express
this view, and presume to laugh away the Socialistic movement among
the peasants and farmers, are either not well informed or are
submitting themselves to illusions. Only a serious attempt to fight
Socialism through positive reforms will prove a lasting check upon the
ambitions of Socialists."[13]
In Belgium the general strike has been used as an aid in the warfare
for political power. We have seen how the first strike was premature,
the second effective, and the third proved a boomerang in its reaction
upon the Labor Party.
Vandervelde distinguishes between the general strike as a means toward
social revolution, and the general strike as a political weapon used
for securing a _definite_ object.[14] He says: "The revolutionary
general strike is itself the revolution. The reformist general strike,
on the contrary, is the attempt of the proletariat to secure partial
concessions from the government without questioning the existence of
the government, and especially the administration that represents the
government." To effect this, it is not essential that all the workmen
go out, but only enough to interrupt "the normal course of business,
even if the majority of the workers remain at work."[15]
The political general strike has its example, then, in the Belgian
movement for the electoral franchise. Whether it would succeed in
wresting other political privileges from the state, is conjecture;
that it would not succeed except under the most favorable conditions,
is certain.
The Belgian movement has displayed great absorptive powers and
facility of adaptation. It has absorbed all the labor activities of
the Radical and Socialist workmen. It has adapted itself to the
necessities of the hour, giving up the daydreams of intangible things.
In all this, it has displayed a saneness, in spite of its
revolutionary traditions and anarchistic blood.[16] It has the most
"modern" program of the European Socialist parties, and the most
worldly efficiency.
In visiting one of the large workingmen's clubhouses found in the
cities, the visitor is impressed with the beehive qualities of the
Belgian movement. At the "Maison du Peuple" in Brussels--that was
built by these underpaid workmen at a cost of 1,000,000 francs--you
find activity everywhere. The savings-bank department is swarming with
women and children, come to conduct the business of the family. The
cafe, the headquarters of the party, the offices of the co-operative
societies, all are busy. In the evening there are debates, gymnasium
contests, moving-picture shows, classes for instruction in the
elementary branches, in art, and literature.[17] A temperance
movement, started by the workmen some years ago, has attained a great
deal of influence. Placards are on the walls of the clubhouses,
setting forth the evils of the drink habit.
Or you visit a co-operative bakery or butcher-shop or grocery store,
and the same spirit of diligence, thrift, and reasonableness is there.
And you are quite convinced that here is Socialism approximating
somewhere near its ultimate form. If the Belgian Labor Party should
secure control of the government to-morrow it would be more competent
to assume the actual obligations of power than would the Socialists in
any other European country. For they have not built a structure in
mid-air, with merely an underpinning of more or less indifferent
theories.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] _L'Enquete Gouvernementale_, Vol. XVIII.
[2] _L'Annuaire Statistique._
[3] BERTRAND, _Histoire de la Democratie et du Socialisme en Belgique
depuis 1830_, Vol II, p. 331.
[4] This conference sent the following telegram to the King: "You have
asked what is the watchword of the country; the watchword is universal
suffrage."
[5] The candidates are arranged in groups or "lists," and the voter
votes the list as well as for the individual names on the list. Any
100 electors may prepare such a list. The successful candidate must
receive a majority. This often necessitates a second ballot between
the two receiving the highest number of votes.
[6] BERTRAND, _Histoire_, Vol. II, p. 552.
[7] One of the significant incidents of this election was the contest
against Frere Orban, for thirty years a parliamentary leader and one
of the greatest politicians of his day. His seat was contested by an
obscure workingman, and the distinguished parliamentarian was
compelled to submit to the ordeal of a second ballot.
[8] The Clerical forces are gradually retreating before the repeated
onslaughts of Liberals and Socialists. But the loyalty to the Church
remains undiminished. On May 17, 1901, a Clerical deputy remarked in
the Chamber that he would like to see the temporal power of the pope
restored. The Socialists immediately started an uproar which ended in
their singing their "Marseillaise" and the adjournment of the sitting.
[9] BERTRAND, _Histoire_, II, p. 590.
[10] _La Greve Generale Belge d'Avril_, 1902, Brussels, 1902.
[11] _Histoire_, II, p. 592.
[12] See DR. STEFFENS-FRAUENWEILER, _Der Agrar-Sozialismus in Belge_.
[13] _Op. cit._, p. 37.
[14] See an article by E. VANDERVELDE, "_Der General Streik_," in
_Archiv fuer Sozial-wissenschaft und Sozial-Politik_, Tuebingen, May,
1908. The same article was published, same date, in _Revue du Mois_,
Paris.
[15] _Supra cit._, p. 541.
[16] Bakunin had a large following in Belgium during the days of the
"Old International," and Anarchists have never entirely ceased their
activities in the large cities.
[17] On the walls of the "Maison du Peuple" you will find noble
paintings. Here labored Constantine Meunier, the sculptor, on his
notable "Monument au Travail." Three remarkable sections of this
monument, "La Mine," "L'Industrie," "La Glebe," can be seen in the
Gallery of Modern Art, in Brussels. There are evidences everywhere of
the art interest of these alert working people. One of them, with
sincere indignation, pointed out to me the large pile of stone that
surmounts the heights of the city, the Palace of Justice, completed in
1883, and said its "bourgeois Babylonian hideousness is the high-water
mark of bourgeois taste in art and bourgeois power in politics."