Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1893-05-18
BY TELEGRAPH.
VOx POPULI, vOx DEL.
How the Common People Of Belgium
Won Their Victory.
visIeace No Longer pz.sa. as 4 Successful
Reform Measure.

BRtssELs. Nav i..-BslsIums popui2ce
for the third time in the present century
has scared the government INTO new
and liberal policy. This, more than
either Of the others. was distinctly tri-
umph of the people, and it Is to be traced
directly to the fact that the worst paid
workingmen in western Europe, living
in the most densely populated European
country and honeycombed with social
ism and all other forms of radicalism,
have come to realize their power A
movement attended with riots in the great
cities of Belgium brought about the rev.
olution of 1880. France had just driven
out her king, and the mob Of Brussels
went about plundering public and pr
vate buildings with the cry, Let Us I'M
itate the Parisians."
The middle classes joined III the move
ment, and Belgium was separated from
the kingdom of the Netherlands. A pop
ular assembly vote-174 in favor Of a
constitutional monarchy to ID for re-
public-and the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-
Gotha was called to the throne with the
title of Leopold l. He was to be royal
fgurehead with ministry responsible
TO the lower house of parliament. He
married daughter OF Louis Philippe,
the citizen king" Of the French, and
was SO popular when the French drove
out that monarch in 1913 that the peo-
pie of Belgium would not listen to
proposition Of the kings to resign his
crown. while pitiful little rising by the
~ I3,rtssal-
down iii day
Leopold II succeeded his father in 1865,
welded a daughter of an Austrian arch
duke and in due time became the father
Of that hapless princess who is the wild
ow of the suicide Rudolf. heir to the
Austrian throne. The second popular
triumph came five years after Leopold
Ii assembled the throne, when riotous
demonstrations in this city led to the dis
missal Of al unpopular ministry. The
movement OF 1870 was the natural fore
runner of the recent demonstration that
brought about universal suffrage. and it
marked the Belgian common peoples ac-
tive cooperation III the great continental
radical movement.
Belgium is and long has been the most
denseiy populated European country.
She maintains a population of more than
5000. 900 upon an area of less than II 400
square miles. and her working people are
worse paid than those of any other coun-
try in western Europe. Ever since the
triumph Of 1870 the Belgian masses have
been working up to what happened the
other day
The most Variable lands are in the
hands of the wealthy few, while an old
and proud aristocracy has long been at
the head of affairs.
1t was these conditions that prepared
The people Of Belgium to welcome the In
ternational and the radical propaganda
that went along with it. The Interna-
tional. body Of workingmen through
ont the civilized world organized, as
they declared, to promote peace and
brotherhood and to bring about in one
way or another IA democratic social sys-
TEN for mankind, grew out of visit to
England by a band of French working
men at the time of the London EXPOSE
| ton almost 30 years ago. This visit was
made at the suggestion of some manu-
facturers in France. and out of it came
the international conference of work
lngmen at London in 1864. From that
came the International, and its first CON
gress was held at Geneva in 1866. The
body represented almost every trade of
European ralicalism from state social
ism to wild anarchism. The Belgian
workinginen joined the organization by
thousands. At its strongest the order
was estimated to have somewhere be
tween 1U0.GUo and 2o0.G00 members III
Belgium.
The third congress was held at Brus-
sells in 1865. That year the troops had
to be called ont to suppress great strikes
among the wHrkingmcn of Belgium, and
the army WAS strt ngthened. The strikes
were ascritct to the International,
though perhaps unjustly. Two years
later came the riots that brought about
the fall Of tie Belgian ministry. The
international was felt almost all over
| Europe and nowhere more than in Bel
GUM. Every political assassination and
nearly all striA-, were ascribed to the
international. 1t was denounced as a
secret body, though as a matter of fact
1t was not secret.
All these things working together have
finally brought about new triumph for
the people, and the socialists, who advo-
cate political agitation rather than mere
violence. ore in asoendancy over the anar
clists. Every Belgian % years of age will
hereafter have a vote, and the plural vot-
ing permitted by the new arrangement
cannot long keep the people in a minor
ity at the polls, The monarchy is prob
ably safe, for the king is, according to
the constitution, a fgurehead. while his
interferances have usually been in aid of
the popular side. Meanwhile the tri-
umphant people will probably next at
tack the senate, where property quail
fication for membership keeps the aris-
tocracy mtrenched.