What the Clericals have done for Belgium.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 31, 31 July 1902, Page 2

What the Clericals have done for Belgium.

Artemus Ward once sarcastically remarked that Shakespeare would have been an utter failure as a modern newspaper correspondent because he ' lacked the requisite imagination.' An illustration of the up-to-date correspondent's powers of imagination is furnished by the accounts given in many of the newspapers of the recent serious riots in Belgium. When the outbreak occurred the correspondents were, for the most part, in a state of blissful ignorance of the political history and industrial conditions of that interesting little country ; but they got their imagination to work, and soon made the brilliant discovery that the Socialist outbreak, with all its attendant evils, was the direct result of the bad policy of the Catholic party in Belgium. One paper after another took up the foolish tale, and even a reputable journal like the American Review of Reviews lent its countenance to the silly fiction by finding space for the following :— 'The Clerical party is chiefly responsible, by its narrow and illiberal policy, for the rapid growth in Belgium of bitter Radicalism and turbulent Socialism.' Fortunately, the American Catholic Truth Society has an official representative— the Rev. Father Van Der Heyden— residing in Belgium, and he promptly sent a complete and crushing refutation of the wholly unwarranted statement made by the Review of Reviews. He gave a detailed account of the reforms— some of which were referred to in our columns a fortnight ago— effected by the Clerical party since their accession to power in 1884, and the record shows that Belgium is, as we have often contended, really one of the most progressive countries in the world, and has in many important respects anticipated the advanced legislation of our own country.

Here is the list, as given by Father Van Der Heyden, of the reforms achieved by the Catholic party since they assumed the reins of power. We quote from the Father's letter, dated Louvain, May 15, as it appeared in the Catholic Standard and Times. According to this, the Clerical party 'exempted all working men's homes from taxation, so that 52 per cent, of Belgian homes pay no personal taxes whatsoever. It passed a Bill pensioning aged workers, and at the present writing — one year after the passage of said Bill — 177,000 old men and women enjoy the benefit of this pension. It reduced to onefifth of a cent per mile the railroad fares of working men going to or coming from their work, whilst any other citizen pays one cent per mile in third class coaches, and almost three cents per mile in first class. It cut down by one-half, where working men are the interested parties, the legal expenses attendant upon the sale or transfer of property. It empowered the State to make loans at an interest of 2\ per cent., with every facility for payment of capital and interest, to help working men in securing their own homts. Eighteen thousand working men have in this way become proprietors of their homes in the last thirteen years, and the Government has 9,000, 000d01. standing cut now on these homes — an immense sum, considering the size of the country. It must be added that if the Government loans at 2\ per cent., where a working man wishes to buy or build a home for himself, it pays him 3 per cent, for the money he leaves with it at the postal savings bank.'

Nothwithstanding all these concessions to the working classes, the burden of taxation is very light — lighter, indeed, than any other country in Europe excepting Switzerland. * A Belgian,' says Father Van Der Heyden, ' pays seven dollars in t.nxes, a Frenchman fourteen, an Englishman eighteen.' On the political as well as on the economical side, the party has an excellent record. Since 1884 it ' greatly increased the list of eligibles for the Senate, which body is elected directly by the people. It granted plural suffrage, which is tempered universal suffrage. It produced proportional representat'on, which accords representatives to all parties, even to tlie parties in the minority, in proportion to the votes each list of candidates receives; whereas with the majority system, prevalent everywhere outside of Belgium and Switzerland, thousands who vote for a party in the minority are not represented at all in the legislative halls ol their country. By introducing this latter reform two years ago the Catholic party reduced its majority in the House of Deputies from 72 members to 20, and put the quasi-defunct Liberal party on its feet again.' These are not the acts of a ' narrow and illiberal party,' but of a disinterested and progressive party — a par ty trat is striving, and striving successfully, to improve the condition of all classes in thecomrnunity.