New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1894-10-28

CATHOLIC ADVANCE TOWARD SOCIAL
IsM-FLEMINGs AND wALLOONs
-soCIALsTIC PROSPECT.
Brussels, October 16
a political happening like that of day before
yesterday will hardly be seen again by this gem
Grafton On Sunday October IA. the general cleo
lions TO the Belgian Parliament took place for
the first time under the regime Of universal
suffrage Moreover voting was compulsory
under penalty of a fine. which might be followed
by deprivation of the privileges of citizenship.
What is yet more over and above the exercise
OF manhood suffrage second vote has been
given to certain classes of taxpayers and an
other for certain qualifications of intelligence.
This plural system allows some citizens three
votes The only perfection of popular voting
which has not been put in practice is the pro-
portional representation OF minorites.
In sum- after sixty-three years of representa-
tive government, under twenty different admin
istrations. Catholic or Liberal or mixed Belgium
counted 1912 general electors whose qualiiica-
ton consisted in the payment Of at least So 80 Of
annual taxes. This year every citizen. who is
twenty-five years of age, resident in his dis
trict one year, and not otherwise disqualified
(as by penal sentence has the right and the
obligation to cast at least one vote. This gives
J. 351 900 electors. nearly ten times the number
OF individual citizens exercising the right OF
suffrage in previous years. Or these ZooVVo
have a right to two votes, either from the prop
erty or the intelligence qualifications While ga
900 uniting both extra qualifications. are entitled
to three votes. This raised the actual number
of votes to be cast to 2.066,7O0. or about fifteen
times the former number. Add to this that all
candidates to office must register their names
ten days before the election comes of. that all
the different party lists of these candidates are
furnished by the State itself on a common bal
lot to the elector. and that the latter marks of
those for whom he gives his vote in the secrecy
OF an 'isooir" and you have on paper at least,
a system of universal suffrage which ought fairly
to represent the opinion Of the sovereign peo-
pie. while ii safeguards the taxpayer and gives
its due to intelligence.
1t was to be expected that a first experience
would not be free from complications. Next
Sunday there will have 10 be second poll for
certain candidates but only for those heading
the list at the first The clumsiness of raw elect
ors and election officers has also had its effect
Still on the whole, universal and plural suffrage
has spoken in Belgium it will never do again,
that u.s. with an Ineligible voice as to the ten
denotes of the population at large Use and party
manoeuvres that were impossible at nrst trlal
will obscure the lesson in succeeding years.
OF the results Of the election which are already
known the striking is the sudden rise to
political power of the Socialist workingmen.
Next. and largely on account OF this hrst result
is the fatal defeat of that Radical Liberalism
which the English-speaking world has so long
been assured dertical with liberty ana
progress Third comes the persistence almost the
revival of that conservative spirit which has
been stigmatized as clericasm. and opposed to
all modern ideas. Last and not least is the.
working together Of Clehcas and Socialists
against Liberals as against the common enemy.
Now, these are precisely the tendencies when
arc al work everywhere on the Continent,
notably in France Italy and Germany. Those
who can clear their minds of the cant of labels
and vatchwords with which political parties
manage to accredit themselves. will see no great
reason to mourn over a dying Liberalism 1t
was the creed of "doctrinaires"-that is. of
politicians who wished TO govern the world by
abstract doctrines mainly learned in England.
Free trade was to make every one rich, educa-
ton without reference to the religious habits VI
the people was TO make men good, and so on for
the rest. The system has doubtless been Of use
in it's time if only by disciplining its adversaries
into a practical sense of the everyday needs OF
the people. But it was opposed to all scientific
ideas of the evolution Of society which grows
slowly and not by sudden winds OF doctrine. In
a small country like Belgium. with its teeming
population sharply divided by the way Of living.
il is easy for one who d)es not shut his eyes to
see the facts as they exist before him.
The Liberals are practically limited to GER
tain proportion of the respectable bourgeois, or
property holders. of towns and cities. They de-
eide all questions from the point of view of the
interests of property, and hand over workmen
to the law of competition peasants to free trade.
and look on the clergy with suspicion as favor
able to past nobility present poverty. To
them as to the English middle classes poverty
is a sin.
The Socialists, who have now come TO the
front are for the most part workingmen in
factories and mines In the mines their cOndi-
ton is wretched beyond that of their fellows in
other countries 1t is not astonishing that men
who work for 20 cents a day, with which to sup
port their families in comfortless novels, should
agtate for social reform In past years the
Liberals have ndoctrinated them with hatred
OF the clergy. They have taught themselves the
methods of political organization. and now, on
their first trial. they have united against their
Liberal teachers, who have given them words
and bread.
The Catholics dn this country. where all the
population is nominally Catholic. they are really
nothing more than Conservatives) have the i'm
mense majority Of the country population, plus
the religious portion Of the bourgeois, and of re-
cent years constantly increasing number OF
workmen in factories. The latter. under the
name Of Catholic Democrats" Go avoid that Of
Soc.asO. are beginning to form a distinct wing
in the party They are headed by priests, whose
bishops defend them against the attacks of the
Catholic bourgeois. In Al)st. for example. their
candidate a priest. has all but overthrow NJ.
Woeste the ex-leadei of the Clericas and an
ultra Catholic
Like the rise Of Socialism itself. this tendency
10 form a Catholic labor party Is one OF the
signs Of the times. 1t has very practcal pro-
eramme in the Encyclica II "the social Pope