Fairhaven herald. [volume] (Fairhaven, Wash.) 1890-????, 1893-05-12
The Peoples Cause In Belgium.

and senators have been hitherto elected
= by the votes of male citizens 81 years old
and over who paid annual taxes to the
q amount of about So Of our money. This
Q of course cut off nearly all the Belgian
5 workingmen from voting. AS a matter
: of fact, the Belgian legislature has been
elected by vote of about in 10 of the
adult males of the country. The nation
, was practically run and owned by the
rich manufacturers and middle class.
King Leopold himself has been in favor
of universal manhood suffrage, but the
rich bourgeois would not permit it. They
elected whom they pleased to the as
sembly, and their tools passed exactly
the laws the masters demanded. The
lot of the Belgian factory operative, me
chanic or laborer was in consequence
harder than that of any other of his class
in Europe, except perhaps in Russia.
No legislation shortening hours of work
or fixing the duties and liabilities Of en-
ployers could be passed.
/ This was the distinctive grievance of
the common people in Belgium. A spe-
cial session Of parliament had been called
to revise the Belgium constitution. The
extension of suffrage was the burn
ing question they had to deal with. The
chamber of representatives voted against
taking it up at all. Then the working
paoTla oil ovar palo;,,n, st,,,ol, x,,o-i-
and marched through the streets of the
towns rioting, fighting and demanding
revision of the vote Of the representa-
tives under threat of revolution. There
were fights between the police and the
workingmen and women. The first mar
tyr to the cause of universal suffrage
was woman in Jolimont, who was
killed by a policeman's sword stroke
while she was working for the right of
men to vote.
Dynamite was brought to bear to en-
force the strikers demand for manhood
suffrage. In staid old Client there was
tremendous riot. The strikers drove off
the police who tried to dispense them,
and it was not till military troop ar
rived and charged them that they scat
tered. In Antwerp the very women and
children left their homes and marched
through the streets with guns in their
hands to help the downtrodden work
ingman gain his rights. The only thing
that at all detracts from the story is the
fact that in many instances the down.
trodden workingman got crazy drunk
and acted shamefully.
There is scarcely a shadow of doubt
that in few days more a revolution
would have occurred and Belgium been
proclaimed republic. But the men,
bers of the chamber of representatives,
frightened out of their senses, huddled
together in a hurry and decided that
they would take up the question of suf-
frage at this session and do it immedi-
ately. Then, with a dynamite bomb
practically under their seats, they quick
ly passed an act granting suffrage to all
male Belgians 81 years old and over, but
giving two votes TO heads of families
who own a certain amount of property
and three TO those who in addition to
property have also a certain amount of
learning. The politico-industrial strikers
accept that for the present, and SO one of
the great historic steps in the march of
human progress was taken. The strikers
say they will agitate peacefully till they
obtain the rest of their demands, which
is plain manhood suffrage without any
frills.
If the chamber of representatives had
persisted in its refusal to revise the suf-
frage law, the streets of Brussels would
have run with blood. An army of %, 900
desperate strikers stood waiting to en-
force their right to vote by fighting for
it, We congratulate the working people
of Belgium on their great victory. We
approve of all they did except getting
drunk. 1t was labor strike to gain
political rights.