BELGIUM: THE INNOCENT BYSTANDER 



253 



has over 400,000 of its natives living in 

 this country. 



BUSY industrie;s 



Belgium is noted for its manufacturing 

 enterprises. At Seraing, a suburb of 

 Liege, are located the vast works of 

 Cockerill, vv^here many of the famous 

 Belgian engines which rendered such 

 wonderful service on the Panama Canal 

 were built. This plant could, before the 

 outbreak of the present war, build 150 

 locomotives, 2,000 traction and station- 

 ary engines, and 15,000 tons of bridge 

 material a year. It covers 260 acres of 

 ground and gave employment to 15,000 

 people. The plant was established by 

 an Englishman named Cockerill, who 

 won the confidence of William I of the 

 Netherlands to such an extent that he 

 put up half the money for the founding 

 of the business. Later Cockerill bought 

 out the King's share and conducted it as 

 his private business until 1840. 



Malines, or, as the Flemings call it, 

 Mechlin, is the city that gave to Mechlin 

 lace its name, and Brussels the city that 

 gave to a famous kind of carpet its name. 

 In southern Belgium there are rich coal 

 deposits, and the mining industry there 

 goes hand in hand with the manufactur- 

 ing industry, just as it does in the indus- 

 trial district of Pennsylvania. 



A LARGE FORIIIGN BUSINESS 



The vastness of Belgium's industries in 

 proportion to area and population may 

 be shown strikingly by a comparison. 

 If Pennsylvania exported goods to the 

 same value in proportion to area that 

 Belgium does, its export trade would 

 amount to $3,000,000,000 a year. In 

 the case of imports, on that basis, Penn- 

 sylvania would buy nearly $4,000,000,- 

 000 worth of goods. When it is re- 

 membered that the exports of the whole 

 United States amount to less than $2,- 

 500,000,000 a year, and our imports to 

 less than $2,000,000,000, it will be seen 

 how significant these figures are. 



If the United States imported as much 

 per capita as Belgium, we would buy 

 upward of $12,000,000,000 worth of 

 goods abroad, and if it exported as much 

 per capita we would send goods to for- 



eign ports to a value of nearly $10,000,- 

 000,000. 



BELGIAN BEGINNINGS 



While Belgium began its existence as . 

 a separate nation in 1830, its separa- 

 tion from the northern provinces which 

 now constitute the Netherlands started 

 centuries before — in 1579- — as a result 

 of religious differences. The southern 

 provinces declared their adherence to the 

 Spanish king and the northern group 

 later proclaimed their adherence to 

 France. For many years the Belgic 

 provinces were the football of continental 

 politics, kicked hither and thither as the 

 battle surged from one end of the field 

 of diplomacy and war to the other. At 

 the close of the i8th century they be- 

 came a part of France, but when the 

 Congress of Vienna undertook to remake 

 the map of Europe after Napoleon had 

 unmade it, that body took the Belgic 

 provinces in hand and reunited them with 

 the provinces of Netherlands, in 181 5, 

 as the Kingdom of Netherlands. 



But the reunion was not long to en- 

 dure, for religion as well as diversity 

 of tongue and blood prevented the grout 

 of European pressure from solidifying 

 the structure and binding it together in 

 one compact and fast-holding union. So 

 it happened that in 1830 the Belgic prov- 

 inces held a little Independence Hall 

 movement of their own, and formulated 

 a European edition of the Declara- 

 tion of Independence, setting forth the 

 reasons why they could not live in peace 

 and harmony with the Dutch. The Bel- 

 gians felt that it was a case of the tail 

 wagging the dog; for although they had 

 a population of 3,400,000 as against Hol- 

 land's 2,000,000, the Dutch had always a 

 majority in the legislative body, they had 

 the King, six out of seven of the minis- 

 ters were Dutch, the Bank was Dutch, 

 and so on all the way down the line. 



THE WAR OE SEPARATION 



The war of separation was a short 

 one. The Belgians rose up, started to 

 make war, and in two months had the 

 Dutch where their King was asking the 

 great powers to step in and arrange a 

 peace. Meanwhile the Belgians were 



