Catholic Belgium

New Zealand Tablet, Volume 08, 8 October 1908, Page 7

Catholic Belgium

•cJ^> T- g lUm ,^ hamber Of De P uties (s^s a writer in the Catholic Times') ,s renewed on the system of half the members retiring every two years, the retiring member being eligible for re-election The fact that the elections, just ' held have resulted in a decrease of the Catholic working majority has been" made by some of our non-Catholic contemporaries the text for unfriendly remarks on the administration of the Catholic Party and predictions jhat its long term of power is nearing its end

The Belgian Chamber is a much smaller body- than our House. of Commons. There are between 160 and 170 members. There are three parties, Catholics or Conservatives, Liberals, and Socialists. The Liberals are Secularist "and « anti-clerical ' in their-policy, and the party name in Belgium-has a much narrower meaning than in, England. The Catholics, on the other hand, hold a Conservativism of a much more democratic type than that of stalwarts of the Primrose League. Before the elections the Catholics had a majority of twelve over the united forces, of their opponents. This majority is now reduced to eight. It would roughly correspond to a Government majority of about twenty-four in the House of Commons. .Governments have worked successfully on a narrower margin, especially where they have to face an opposition made up of two sections. The fall in the majority has been the result of forces that always tend to- come into play when a party has been long in power. Organisation becomes relaxed, differences arise on' minor points of policy, personal ambitions tend to disunion. But there is no doubt the next two years will see a general pulling together of the Catholic Party's organisation, and that at the next biennial elections they will hold their own, even if they* do^-'not gain ground. By that time, too, certain questions on which the politicians of the party are' divided will have been settled, "notably the constitution of the new Congo Colony. ,t, t -During its long term of power the Catholics have been distinctly progressive in their policy. They have widened the electoral franchise, introduced a new code of labor laws, and settled the education question on lines that secure Catholic teaching for Catholics without infringing in any way the freedom of those who do not belong to the Faith. The Catholics came into power in virtue of an overwhelming vote of the electors against the .system of enforced secular education imposed by the Liberals. In view of the oft-repeated fable thaf Catholicism is opposed to national prosperity it is interesting to note the marvellous economic progress of Belgium, under Catholic rule. The Liberal Government left as a legacy to their Catholic successors a large deficit This was swept away in the first year, and without additional taxation, and only by means of good administration there has been a surplus ever since; this, too, in spite of the fact that there has to be a large extra expenditure on \hi national defences. The steady expansion of the revenue under the influence of growing prosperity provided for this. In France the population increased in the twenty years between 1885 and 1905 from 38 millions to 39,300,000, an increase of only three per cent. But for foreign immigration and' the 'higher birth-rate of the Catholic districts there would have been a decrease. In Belgium in the same period the population rose from 5,800,000 in 1885 to 7,100,000 in 1905, an increase of 22$ per -cent. Belgium is the most densely populated country in Europe, but with a thrifty, hard-working people under a good Government.