78 



BELGIUM. 



in the proportion of 1 to 6,000 of population. 

 To these were added a class confined to ex-rnin- 

 isters and high state functionaries. This pro- 

 posal was simply intended to open the discus- 

 sion and elicit the views of the parties. In the 

 course of the discussion the ministers advocated 

 making the Senate representative of interests 

 an idea that the King was supposed to favor. 

 The various projects, including representation 

 of interests, election by 2 degrees,* a combination 

 of both, and the fixing of the age of eligibility 

 at thirty-five or forty, were all rejected in the 

 Chamber by a majority of more than two thirds, 

 on June 22. Fresh proposals were rejected, 

 and on July 7, by agreement of the party 

 leaders, the matter was referred back to the 

 committee. At the end of two weeks votes 

 were taken on various revised proposals with no 

 better success. On July 25, a combination of 

 the ministers and the leaders of the Radical Left 

 secured a two-thirds majority for some of the 

 provisions of a compromise project. This makes 

 the future Senate consist of 76 Senators elected 

 by universal and plural suffrage, and 26 elected 

 by the provincial councils apportioned to the 

 population. The latter were exempted from all 

 property qualifications, but for eligibility by 

 universal suffrage the Government insisted on 

 requiring a candidate to be a taxpayer to the 

 amount of 1,500 francs a year. The Extreme 

 Left, though willing to restrict the suffrage to 

 men over thirty years of age, and to abandon 

 their stipulation that Senators should receive 

 pay, objected to the exclusion of all citizens ex- 

 cept the wealthy. The age qualification for can- 

 didates was fixed at forty years by general con- 

 sent. The Radicals suggested a taxpaying 

 qualification of 1,000 francs, and the admission 

 of candidates who had sat eight years in the 

 Chamber or were professors of universities or 

 officers of .certain trade bodies. When this com- 

 promise was rejected they proposed adding to 

 the persons paying 1,500 francs taxes others of 

 the largest taxpayers enough to make the list of 

 eligible candidates equal 1 in 3,000 of popula- 

 tion, or 2,000 for the whole kingdom, whereas 

 the Government project, to which the ministers 

 clung obstinately, would give only 1,200 quali- 

 fied candidates. 



Congress of Miners. An International Con- 

 gress of Miners was opened at Brussels on May 

 22. Among the delegates were six members of 

 the British Parliament, one of whom Samuel 

 Woods, President of the Lancaster Miners' As- 

 sociation was chosen president of the congress 

 for the English-speaking section. Two others, 

 Benjamin Pickard and Thomas Burt, were elected 

 secretary and treasurer, and Calvignac, the work- 

 ingman mayor of Carmaux, whose grievance 

 against his employers caused the great Carmaux 

 strike, was made president for the French lan- 

 guage. Two new presiding officers were chosen 

 each day. Two French Socialist delegates, Basly 

 and Lamendin, were expelled from Belgium by 

 order of the Government, and the Prime Min- 

 ister, on being questioned in the Chamber, was 

 sustained on the ground that these men had at- 

 tacked the rights of Belgian laborers in France. 

 They had declaimed against the importation of 

 Belgian miners to take the places of French 

 strikers in January, 1893, and in the congress 



they had been the most energetic advocates of 

 the principle of state interference against the 

 arguments of a large section of the strong Eng- 

 lish delegation, but in this they were supported 

 by nearly all the Continental delegates. The 

 authorities, when interceded with, adhered to 

 their determination, though no one could give an 

 intelligent explanation of their arbitrary act. 

 The object of the order of expulsion seemed to 

 the congress to be to bring its proceedings into 

 disrepute, and the motion to accept the invita- 

 tion of M. Calvignac to adjourn to Valenciennes 

 and conclude the deliberations on French soil 

 was only defeated by the argument of the Brit- 

 ish Labor members of Parliament, Fenwick and 

 Abraham, that this would be a surrender to the 

 enemy. A resolution was passed begging the 

 French and other foreign delegates to overlook 

 the insult and continue their attendance. The 

 British contingent was numerous enough to 

 dominate the proceedings, and it was divided in 

 opinion in regard to the legal eight-hour day, the 

 principal question before the congress. The 

 representatives of the Miners' National Union, 

 the great and wealthy trade union of the miners 

 of Northumberland, derided the policy of cring- 

 ing to Parliament and petitioning for the legis- 

 lative regulation of hours of labor, when by self- 

 help and independent effort workingmen can 

 obtain their demands, as they had before state 

 interference was thought of. The Miners' Fed- 

 eration of Great Britain, on the other hand, was 

 in favor of a legalized working day, and its 

 representatives were desirous of obtaining the 

 sanction of the congress for a universal strike to 

 obtain the eight-hour day. There were 38 Brit- 

 ish delegates present to represent the 339,500 

 trade unionists among the 560,000 miners of 

 Great Britain. The 92,000 miners of France 

 were represented by 14 delegates. The delegates 

 expected from Germany were either imprisoned 

 by their Government to prevent their attend- 

 ance, or were absorbed in the electoral struggle 

 then going on in their country, except one who 

 was present to speak for 183,000 miners of West- 

 phalia. There was also a single Austrian dele- 

 gate representing 100,000 miners of Bohemia. 

 Delegate Baily, of Nottingham, introduced the 

 important question of the meeting in the follow- 

 ing resolution :. 



That this congress alfirms the principle of the legal 

 eight-hour day from bank to bank. 



Boyle, of Northumberland, moved as an 

 amendment : 



That this congress, recognizing the great diversity 

 in the natural conditions existing in the several na- 

 tions, is of opinion that it is undesirable to delegate 

 to parliament or legislature the power or right to fix 

 the hours that adults shall labor in the mines, but 

 would strongly urge on every nation and district to 

 embrace every opportunity afforded them to reduce 

 their working hours as far as may be practicable, 

 without injuring themselves. 



Basly, who is a member of the French Cham- 

 ber, warmly defended the original proposition 

 before his expulsion, and Binger, the Austrian 

 delegate, Callewaert, in behalf of the Belgian 

 miners, and other delegates, took the same view. 

 In registering the vote the number of miners 

 represented were counted, not the number of dele- 

 gates or of trade societies that had delegates pres- 



