Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1912-07-09
BELGIAN CONFRONTED
WITH new TROUBLES
Industrial Masses Object TO Plural
Vote. as Offensive 10 the Rights
CT Man.

BruSSeiS, July o.-lne Tttenl eieS-
ton rioting throughout Belgium.
which stopped just short Of an open
revolution. has fixed the minds OF
the leading men of the country up
on the problems involved in the dis
pute and the likelihood for the flu
ture of Belgium. The general belief
il that trouble will break out anew
unless the government makes some
concession to the oppositions on the
two great questions which are the
basis Of the differences, namely, the
suffrage and the schools.
The industrial masses, especially
those in the Walloon provinces. seem
to be convinced that their rights
are restricted in a political nj
through the existence of the plural
system of voting. They declare that
the time has gone in the world, es-
pecially in a modern and civilized
country like Belgium, when an in
dividual can have more than n
vote. To them the idea that a man
may have two and three votes be-
cause he owns property or because
he has a superior education is an Of
fensive attack against the rights of
man.
Everybody in Belgium is careful TO
point out that the school question
should o be represented by in any
way assuming that it is a religious
question. Practically the entire popu-
Ilation of Belgium Is Catholic, and
no question Of religion, as such, has
been or is involved in the Belgian
physical and polemical farfare. The
the language question, which in turn
is a result Of the old time difference
between the Flemish or Dutch people
in the northwest and the Walloon
or French-speaking population in
the south and southeast. The Flem-
lish recently succeeded in their fight
to obtain an obligatory teaching OF
Flemish as well as French in the pub
lie schools of Belgium. This has been
accepted by the Walloon provinces,
but the latter claim that the Elem
ish have gone too far in this res
pect and are really wasting much
valuable time of the inhabitants of
belgium in the teaching of a lang
uage which is more or less of a dead
tongue.
The clerical question may be said
to have the Flemish on the clerical
side and the Walloons on the anti
clerical. 1t is in the Flemish depart
ments that the influence of the plu-
raj vote is mostly felt, and which,
even under the present system of
proportional representation in the ell
ection of deputies, gave to the cler-
ical party an important victory at
the last elections. The clerical or
church schools have increased con-
siderably in recent years in the fol-
lowing manner Every commune in
Belgium has the right t. a public
school, but every commune is not
rich enough to support such al in
stitution. In a large number of cases,
when this condition existed, the
church stepped in and offered to
found a church school, and TO pal
lall Of the expenses therein incurr-
ed. The liberals and socialists con-
tend that this initiative OF the church
has sometimes even prevented the es-
tablishment of a public school as
the communes, attracted by the idea
of having a good school which would
cost them nothing. have accepted
the church schools, when otherwise
they might have founded the public
or neutral school. Suggestions by
the present, as well as the preceding
government, to reimburse the cleri-
cal schools in some form of subsidy,
was what Immediately aroused agi-
tation upon the general school ques-
ition.
The racial differences between the
Flemish and the Walloons which
have long been on the point of an
%outburst, fastened the recent clash.
Although it is not expected that the
Walloon provinces will do anything
as yet toward approaching France,
il would o surprise many people
If they insisted at least upon an
administrative separation and some
Aind of autonomy.
The danger Of the present situa-
ton lies in the convictions Of the
liberals and socialists that without
the universal single suffrage there
is no chance for them to get into
power. They realize that the single
vote cannot be obtained without a