Bonners Ferry herald. [volume] (Bonners Ferry, Idaho) 1904-current, 1920-08-24
PLAN TO REBUILD
lOUvAIN LIBRARY
American Educators Launch
Movement to Raise Nee
essary Funds.
DESTROYED EARLY IN WAR
Geographic Society criticizes Acts OF
German invaders in Wantonly
Wrecking Belgian Art-Great
Seat of Learning.

Washington, d. C.-American edu-
Gators are launching a movement to
raise funds to rebuild the famous Ii
brary of the University of Louvain,
destroyed by thee German invaders
early in the war. The city of Louvain,
the "Oxford of the low countries" is
described in the following bulletin
from the Washington headquarters Of
the National Geographic society:
mot only the University of Louvain,
but the city is an object lesson In
Belgium and France by the German
army Early in 1915 a group of uni
versity professors of other countries
drew up petition expressing strong
indignation and adherence at the
wholesale destruction of ancient build
ings that has marked the invasion of
Belgium and France by the Ger
strongest terms against the continu-
ance of so barbarous and reckless
policy.
German Professors Make Reply.
ITO this a group of German univer-
sity professors, among them Gerhart
Hauptmann, Max Reinhardt and Ru-
dolph Eucken, replied that it was not
true that their troops had treated Bel
GUM brutally but that, ANYWAY, we
must decidedly refuse to buy Ger
man defeat at the cost of saving a
work of art
"If Louvain has contributed little
to scientific achievement it had tre-
mendous effect upon philosophic and
religious thought. It has been said
that the citys chief product was the
ology. But Germany's contempt for
that kind of culture is reflected un-
consciously in Baedeker's guidebook
of 1910, which describes it is "a dull
place with 1920 inhabitants
THUS the German guide casually
dismisses the cradle of Belgian indie
pendence, an early home of the Euro
pean weaving industry, and a treasure
house of marvellous art works. In one
of his most famous pastorals, Cardinal
MERCER, now a visitor in the United
States, describes the havoc wrought
In Louvain thus:
I'm this dear city of Louvain, per-
petually in my thoughts, the magnifi-
cent Church of st. Peter will never re-
cover its former splendor. The an
cient College of st. Ives. the art
schools, the consular and commercial
schools of the university, the old mar
kets, our rich library with its collec-
lions, its unique and unpublished man
uscripts, its archives, its gallery of
great portraits of illustrious rectors,
chancellors, professors dating from the
time of its foundation, which pre-
served for masters and students alike
q noble tradition, and were an incite-
ment in their studies, all this accumu-
lation of intellectual, of historic and
of artistic riches, the fruits of the la
bors of five centuries-all is in dust
"The city of Louvain ever will be
remembered as the scene of the grant
ing to the Belgian people by Duke
Wenceslaus of the Joyous entry and
the university will be associated with
that characters preservation, more
than four centuries later, when Kaiser
Joseph, the crowned anarchist of Aus
tria, tried to deprive Belgians of their
ancient rights.
1.-THE circumstances of that resist
ance form one more bond of union be-
tween Belgium and the United States
of America, for it took place just ten
years after the Declaration of indie
pendence was signed, an act which left
deep impress upon the Belglans.
Joseph's Move Against Holland.
ut will be recalled that Emperor
Joseph, brother of Marie Antoinette,
had tried to abolish Holland frontier
forts. He won a temporary victory
because Holland at that time was en-
broiled with Great Britain over the
formers recognition Of the United
States of America.
Next he turned to Belgium with a
project for reforming the church, but
the Belgians were determined that
such reformation should not be i'm
posed from without. When the Bel
gians resisted he declared its consti.
tuition annulled, sent an armed force
into the country, and was met with a
declaration that he no longer was
duke Of Brabant, and that the Belgians
henceforth would be an Independent
people, to be known as the United
States of Belgium.
Though the Belgian United States
was short lived. largely because the
great powers of Europe declined to
set precedent by recognizing it, and
encouraged Joseph's successor in re-
conquering 1t, the seed Of independence
thus planted by the historic university