The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1902-06-14
Clerical Party in Belgium.

TN THE May NUMBER of the Re-
view of Reviews a correspondent,
criticising the action Of the clerical
party as being the cause of bitter rad
icalism and turbulent socialism"
wrote: The clerical party is chiefly
responsible, by its narrow and illiberal
policy, for the rapid growth in Bel
GUM of bitter radicalism and turbulent
socialism"
:, Father Wander Heydon, who labored
as missionary for years in our neigh
boring state-Idaho-an who is at
present in Louvain, in a letter to the
Baltimore Mirror, tells how unjust and
untruthful, the criticism is. This he
does by stating facts which show that
the clerical Catholic party have, dur
ing their term of office, proved by their
legislation to be the best friends of
the masses of the people. That party
he writes, exempted all workingmen's
homes from taxation: so that 50 per
cent of Belgian homes pay no personal
taxes whatsoever. 1t passed bill pen
sioning aged workers, and at the pres
ent writing, one year after the passage
of said bill, III 900 old men and women
enjoy the benefit of this pension. 1t
Zreduced to one-fifth of cent per mile
the railroad fares of workingmen going
to or coming from their work: whilst
any other citizen pays 1 cent per mile
in third-class coaches and almost 8
cents per mile in first-class. 1t cut
down by one-half, where workingmen
are the interested parties, the legal ex-
penses attendant upon the sale or
transfer of property. It empowered
the state to make loans at an interest
of two and half per cent, with every
facility for payment of capital and
interest, to help workingmen in secur-
ing their own homes. Eighteen thou
sand workingmen have in this way be-
come proprietors of their homes in the
last thirteen years. and the government
has 100000 standing out now on these
homes-an immense sum, considering
the size of the country. 1t must be
added that if the government loans at
two and half per cent where work
ingman wishes to buy or build home
for himself, it pays him per cent for
the money he leaves with it at the pos
tai savings bank.
With all these benefits accorded to
one class Of citizens-the largest and
the most deserving of the states pa
ternal care-you may think that the
other classes are burdened down with
taxes-far from it; for Belgians pay
less taxes that the citizens of any
other European countrythe Swiss ex-
cepted-and also less than the citizens
of the United States. A Belgian pays
81 in taxes; a Frenchman, $14; an
Englishman, SIS. If the Belgian cleri-
cal party has been narrow, it has been
so in the sense of narrowing down to
the smallest possible quota the peoples
taxes; if it has been illiberal, it has
been SO for the benefit of the taxpayer,
whose money it did not squander."
After showing the many advantages
which have come to the common people
from clerical rule he winds up by tell
ing the cause of discomfort among the
radicals and socialists:
Thirst after power, spite at the fail
ure of all the schemes hitherto con-
trived to secure that power, accounts
for the bitterness of radicalism and the
of socialism. As for the
growth of these elements of disorder
the Belgians see nothing of it at pres
ent. On the contrary, radicals and So
cialists are losing ground. and the cleo
lions announced for the 25th of May
will prove it; for the forecast is admit
teddy in favor of greater success than
ever for the Catholic party"