70 



BELGIUM. 



frustrated by a strong cordon of troops and po- 

 lice who kept the demonstrating bands out of the 

 neutral zone around the houses of Parliament, 

 the royal palace and the ministries, within which 

 political demonstrations are forbidden. The 

 question was soon brought up in the Chamber. 

 Liberals, Democrats, and Christian Socialists 

 joined in the demand for a revision of the Consti- 

 tution. From the various groups working for a 

 change in the electoral law motions were offered 

 in the Chamber for a similar change in the mu- 

 nicipal and provincial voting franchise, which can 

 be effected by the legislative action of Parlia- 

 ment without alteration of the national Consti- 

 tution. Every such motion was rejected. The 

 Moderate and Progressist sections of the Liberal 

 party united on a program calling for the abo- 

 lition of plural voting and for proportional rep- 

 resentation, though the Moderates reserved the 

 option of proposing a double vote either for 

 heads of families or for men who have reached a 

 certain age. The Premier said that the Govern- 

 ment was determined not to alter the present 

 system of plural voting, as a safeguard against 

 the Socialists who threatened to use the extended 

 franchise as an instrument to accomplish their 

 ideals. The Socialist demonstrations grew 

 threatening and violent when the Government re- 

 fused to discuss a compromise. The Minister of 

 War called out the reserves. Coal-miners began 

 to strike and bomb outrages were committed 

 against Clerical party leaders when the Cham- 

 bers reassembled in April and the Socialists and 

 Liberals were ready to press the question in Par- 

 liament. On the night of April 10, when mobs 

 attempted to erect barricades in the streets of 

 Brussels after a stormy debate in the Chamber, 

 the troops fired volleys and used their bayonets. 

 The Socialist leaders threatened a general strike 

 if the Government used force to suppress the 

 popular demonstrations. It became evident that 

 the Government could no longer rely on the 

 troops as heretofore to turn their weapons 

 against the populace. The ministers still resisted 

 the discussion of revision in Parliament, deter- 

 mined not to yield once more to popular tumults. 

 The Socialists threatened to order a general strike 

 and stoppage of business as well as a legislative 

 deadlock. The Government insisted that provi- 

 sional credits should be voted first sufficient for 

 the needs of administration till the end of Octo- 

 ber. The number of members by which the 

 Chamber should be increased, to correspond with 

 the increase in the population, was also given 

 precedence. The third Government measure was 

 mi extraordinary budget of 100,000,000 francs for 

 public works. The Socialists carried on obstruc- 

 tion for five days without being able to prevent 

 the first two points of the Government pro- 

 gram from being acted upon. Their violent 

 behavior in the Chamber and the street disturb- 

 ances that followed estranged the Liberals, who 

 were as desirous of electoral reform as the So- 

 cialists. Whenever in the opinion of the minis- 

 ters a demand for a revision of the Constitution 

 IB ripe for action the two Chambers resolve them- 

 wlves into a Constituent Assembly. After a gen- 

 eral strike of working men had occurred in 1891 

 and another in 1893 in favor of universal suf- 

 frage a compromise was accepted by the Clerical 

 party, which had then been in power since 1884 

 and still remains in power. The Constituent As- 

 sembly enacted the present franchise law giving 

 vote to every man twenty-five years of age, 

 2 votes to husbands or widowers of thirty-five 

 having legitimate issue or to owners of real 

 estate worth 2.000 francs, and 3 votes to those 



possessing either of these qualifications who are 

 university graduates or professional men. The 

 number of qualified electors was increased from 

 135,000 to 1,400,000 with over 2,000,000 votes. 

 This extension of the franchise admitted Social- 

 ists to the Chamber, but was unsatisfactory to 

 the Liberals, who carried through a system of 

 proportional representation in 1899. Until this 

 was adopted the scrutin de liste frequently left 

 the Liberals without representation in districts 

 where they almost had a majority. The Belgian 

 system of proportional representation is worked 

 out by dividing the total vote for each list by the 

 number of members to be elected; the quotient 

 is the electoral divisor which regulates the divi- 

 sion of seats among the candidates of the differ- 

 ent parties by the number of times it is con- 

 tained in the total number of votes cast for each 

 party ticket. The result for the whole country 

 in 1900 was to give still to the Clericals an un- 

 duly large proportionate representation. In a 

 total ballot of 2,075,000 the Clericals cast 1,040,- 

 000 votes, the Liberals and Progressists 535,000, 

 the Socialists over 500,000. In the allotment of 

 seats the Clericals obtained 85, the Liberals and 

 Radicals 33, the Socialists 33, the Christian 

 Democrats 1, giving the Catholics a majority of 

 18 over the united Opposition parties, who polled 

 a popular vote about equal to theirs and in the 

 true proportion would have as many seats. 

 Hence the old Liberals as well as the Radicals 

 entered into coalition with the Socialists, willing 

 to sacrifice, if necessary, to political expediency 

 Janson's old scheme of allowing men who have 

 reached the age of thirty-five or forty or married 

 men to vote twice, and to accept the Socialist pro- 

 gram of one man one vote, while the Socialists on 

 their side agreed to adopt the favorite Liberal 

 principle of proportional representation. The So- 

 cialists and Liberals proposed to lower the voting 

 age to twenty-one and to alter the composition 

 of the Senate. The Catholics proposed to couple 

 woman suffrage with the Socialist plan of an 

 equal franchise for all electors. This innovation 

 was resisted by the Liberals, who anticipated 

 that the influence the clergy can exert over the 

 female mind, especially in the more ignorant 

 classes, would secure to the Clericals a perma- 

 nent majority. The Government bill increasing 

 the number of Deputies from 152 to 166 and the 

 number of Senators from 76 to 83 passed the 

 Chamber on April 12 without opposition. The 

 arrest of M. Vandervelde, the Socialist leader, 

 on April 12 led to a serious riot in Brussels. 

 The troops charged with fixed bayonets and fired 

 volleys, while the rioters used revolvers and 

 glass bombs filled with corrosive fluids. Dis- 

 turbances occurred in other towns. This out- 

 break caused a breach between the Socialists and 

 the Liberals, who wished to withdraw from the 

 alliance and urged the Government to dissolve 

 Parliament when the Socialists decreed a general 

 strike. The strike began in the coal-mines and 

 spread to all the trades. In three days more 

 than 200.000 men quit work. On April 17 Count 

 de Smet de Naeyer gave his decision not to bring 

 forward equal suffrage because the majority of 

 the people did not want it, because there was 

 no chance of a two-thirds majority in the Con- 

 stituent Assembly in its favor, and above all be- 

 cause the Government would not yield to mob 

 rule and allow the proceedings of Parliament to 

 be dictated from the street or the action of the 

 Government to be influenced by strikes, intimi- 

 dation, and violence. By 84 votes to 64 the 

 Chamber on April 18 decided not to admit the 

 question of revision to consideration. The un- 



