102 BELGIUM 



The people showed themselves grateful to their 

 pastors for having made them understand the value and 

 the absolute necessity for combination, and in many 

 parishes there were spontaneous demands made to the 

 priests that they should head the movement, and occupy 

 themselves with both the creation and the direction of 

 agricultural associations. 



So from such very small beginnings as these 

 there has sprung a great national movement, 

 the main results of which may be thus sum- 

 marized : — 



The original idea of checking the spread of 

 Socialism to the purely agricultural classes in 

 Belgium has been fully realized, for though the 

 Socialists have made vigorous efforts to establish 

 agricultural associations of their own in the 

 country districts, they have had very little 

 success, and the Socialist propaganda in general 

 is making scarcely any headway among the 

 cultivators of the soil. 



The State has further benefited by an expan- 

 sion of the national resources, by the greater 

 prosperity of the agricultural population, and 

 by the creation of more solid guarantees for the 

 maintenance of domestic peace. 



The Church has increased her hold upon the 

 peasantry by showing that she recognizes, and 

 will gladly help them to overcome, the practical 

 difficulties of their daily life ; while individually 



