1893 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
3o5 
THE PROSPECT. 
Belgium, with an area of 11,372 square miles and a 
population of over 6,000,000, is the most densely 
crowded hive of workers in Christendom. It has been 
an independent State only since 1830, when the King¬ 
dom of the Netherlands became disintegrated, form¬ 
ing the two smaller kingdoms of Holland and Belgium. 
In the following year Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg 
was elected king, and since then the government has 
heen a limited monarchy, with right of succession in 
the male line. Next to its splendid agriculture, unex¬ 
celled anywhere else, the production of coal, building 
stone and iron goods of all sorts forms the most import¬ 
ant industries of the country. About half the popula¬ 
tion speak Flemish, half French and one-hundreth 
both languages. The standing army on a peace foot¬ 
ing consists of about 50,000 troops of all arms, and on 
a war footing reaches a total of about 100,000. More¬ 
over, there’s a National guard of 125,000 or of 400,000 
including the reserves ; all able-bodied malesibetween 
21 and 40 having to bear arms. The legislative body 
consists of a Senate whose members serve eight years, 
and a House of Representatives whose members sit for 
four years. The elective franchise is vested in citizens 
who pay not less tkan 42 francs annually of direct 
taxes. The Representatives are paid about $20 per 
week each, but the Senators serve gratis. Titles of 
nobility are allowed by the constitution, but without 
particular privileges, all Belgians being nominally 
equal in the eyes of the law. 
t X X 
Owing to various pernicious influences, there is a 
vast amount of pauperism in the country, though the 
people are frugal and highly industrious. The wages, 
however, have been usually so low that a large pro¬ 
portion of them have been living from hand to mouth 
in a pitiable condition ; while the large class above 
these are always in straitened circumstances, and con¬ 
siderably less than 100,noo may be considered wealthy 
or even weU-to-do. This wretched condition of affairs 
the masses have for years attributed mainly to the 
excessive restriction of bhe franchise due to the high 
property qualification required for voters, and the con¬ 
sequent unjust legislation enacted by the wealthy few 
in favor of the “classes” to the injury of the “masses.” 
There are absolutely no laws whatever to protect the 
rights of the working people, a disgrace to be met 
with in no other European country except Russia. 
Out of the entire teeming population of upwards of 
6,000,000, less than 130,000 have to-day a monopoly of 
the suffrage, and for years the disfranchised multitudes 
have been clamorously demanding manhood suffrage 
under proper restrictions. The Senators and Repre¬ 
sentatives, however, as well as the handful of privi¬ 
leged voters who elect them, jealously tenacious of the 
power and influence within their grasp, much, if 
not all, of which must be lost if universal suffrage were 
granted, have obstinately refused for years to make 
any concessions to these demands, and hence turbu¬ 
lence and riot have been chronic evils among the un¬ 
represented masses of the country. 
t t X 
In all other countries strikes among laboring peo¬ 
ple have been due to the refusal of employers to grant 
higher wages, or shorter hours of labor, or both of 
these, or to discharge non-union hands. For years, 
however, in Belgium strikes, besides being frequent 
on these accounts, have often been used for political 
purposes—nearly always in attempting to coerce the 
government to enlarge the franchise. Such widespread 
labor troubles in a dense population of poverty-stricken 
toilers who have little or nothing to lose and hope to 
gain a great deal, paralyze commerce, trade and in¬ 
dustry, and though a large proportion of the idle 
workmen decently refrain from violence, the majority 
are ever ready for turbulent demonstrations of their 
demands and riotous manifestations of their resent- 
ments. \ \ \ 
Since January a determined effort has been kept 
up by the masses to secure manhood suffrage under 
proper restrictions, but the selfish oligarchy in power 
have obstinately refused any concessions whatever, so 
early last week a general strike was ordered for last 
Monday. At all the great labor centers, however, and 
still more in small industrial localities, scenes of tur¬ 
bulence and uproar were frequent during the last 
three days of the week, and conflicts with the police, 
and even with the troops called out to support them, 
were numerous and often disastrous and fatal. On 
Saturday over 100,000 men struck, being too impatient 
to wait till Monday, and at Brussels, Antwerp, Liege, 
Ghent, Mons and other industrial centers riot and 
bloodshed were the order of the day. Everywhere the 
troops belonging to the regular army were under 
arms day and night; but it was thought that the 
civic guards might prove unreliable in a conflict with 
the populace from whom they have sprung and of whom 
they are a part in every-day affairs. The police became 
worn out by constant watchfulness and frequent fight¬ 
ing, and the prisons were growing crowded owing to 
multitudinous arrests of rioters. 
X X X 
Meanwhile the latter were constantly reciving 
fresh accessions, and growing bolder and more bellig¬ 
erent. They were adepts in throwing up barricades, 
and demons in fighting behind and before them. 
Revolution was in the air. The king was known to 
favor concessions, and there was a widespread opinion 
abroad that by a coup c£’ etat he would proclaim a new 
and more liberal constitution, and having dissolved 
the Parliament, order a new election under ii. 
Socialism has spread rapidly in Belgium of late years, 
and the Socialists were leaders everywhere among 
the discontented multitudes. They want a republic, 
and if matters were allowed to proceed to an ex¬ 
tremity, a republic might be proclaimed and the king 
and his family banished. This would inevitably pro¬ 
voke the armed intervention of Germany and Austria, 
who would at once seize the formidable fortress of 
Antwerp; France would n’t for a moment tolerate such 
action, and would instantly throw 150,000 troops into 
Belgium, and straightway Europe would be in a blaze, 
and a war begun, the results of which would change 
the map of the continent. In any case, Belgium must 
inevitably be a monumental sufferer. With this pros¬ 
pect ahead and a howling multitude around, and the 
passions of the country aflame, Parliament finally 
gave in last Tuesday, and ungraciously yielded to the 
general demand for manhood suffrage, with a pro¬ 
vision for plural voting by classes owning property, 
according to its amount and situation. The general 
strike was then declared “ off ” and the crisis has been 
overcome or deferred; foreign intervention, with its 
baleful consequences, has been avoided, at least tem¬ 
porarily ; but now the people, emboldened by success, 
are more clamorous than ever for universal suffrage, 
pure and simple. j. ^ j. 
The latest cablegrams tell us that the strikers have 
everywhere peaceably resumed work. The scheme of 
plural or cumulative voting gives a vote to every 
male citizen 21 years old, and confers an additional 
vote on those possessing the following qualifications : 
1, Every male citizen aged 25, married or a widower, 
who pays an annual tax of at least $1; 2, every such 
citizen who owns real estate worth $400, or has for 
two years owned government bonds or a savings bank 
account of $20; 3, every such citizen who holds a 
certificate of higher education or who is filling a posi¬ 
tion which implies that he possesses such a qualifi¬ 
cation. No person, however, is to have more than 
three votes, and voting is made compulsory. When 
the newly enfranchised masses elect the next legis¬ 
lature, they will demand manhood suffrage, pure and 
simple; and in order to qualify some of their own 
members for seats in the legislature, they will insist 
on the repeal of the $420 direct tax qualification now de¬ 
manded of Senators, as well as on larger pay for mem¬ 
bers of the Lower House, so as to enable their special 
representatives to live decently without resort to their 
former vocations. This peaceful revolution is a signal 
triumph for the “ masses ” against the “ classes,” for 
justice against oppression; for democracy against 
plutocracy and monarchy. 
X X X 
How many have any adequate idea of the extent to 
which commerce and shipbuilding on the great lakes 
have been developed within the last quarter of a cen¬ 
tury ? How many realize that the capacity of the ship¬ 
building yards there is now equal to that of all the 
seacoast and river yards combined ? It was not till 
1872 that iron shipbuilding began to be an important 
industry there, and five years later the bulk of the ton¬ 
nage was carried by wooden sailing vessels. Now, how¬ 
ever, the greater proportion of the tonnage is pro¬ 
pelled by steam in iron vessels, and soon the sailing 
freighter will be a thing of the past. The trade of 
London is the largest in the British empire, yet the 
entire annual trade of that port is 1,000,000 tons 
less than the tonnage that passes Detroit in a single 
year. The commerce of Cleveland last year was as 
great as that of Liverpool and twice that of Glasgow ; 
while in 1873 Liverpool’s tonnage was 6,339,376 tons 
and in 1872 Cleveland’s was only 963,861 tons. Small 
wonder, then, that there have been numerous projects 
of late years for giving this vast commerce an outlet 
to tidewater without breaking the bulk of the cargoes. 
The latest is represented by a bill now before the 
Dominion Parliament providing for the incorporation 
of the North American Canal Company. The capital 
stock, contributed by American, Canadian and English 
capitalists, will begin with $10,000,000. It is proposed 
to enlarge the canals between Lake Erie and Mon¬ 
treal so as to allow free passage to the largest lake 
vessels, even when one is descending and the other 
ascending. From Montreal toitidewater in the Hudson 
River a similar waterway is to be constructed, passing 
through Lake Champlain, and, where practicable, using 
the natural aDd artificial waterways already in exist¬ 
ence along the route. A charter is to be sought from 
New York Sttte, within whose limits the work would 
be entirely cc nfined in the United States, so that no 
national ci ar'er would be needed. Whether this 
project will ever be realized or not, there is no doubt 
that the immense commerce of the great lakes will 
soon find an outlet to the seaboard, whether the canal 
shall be constructed by State or National capital or, 
more likely, by private enterprise. 
X X X 
While in the East, Massachusetts, after spending 
out of her own treasury tens of thousands of dollars 
in the attempt to exterminate the Gypsy Moth in¬ 
troduced a few years ayo by a careless experimenter, 
is now seeking to obtain from the National Govern¬ 
ment an appropriation to aid in the work, an im¬ 
ported vegetable pest has already inflicted heavy dam¬ 
ages on the farmers of the Northwest and is threaten¬ 
ing dire disaster to them and the agriculturists of the 
rest of the country The pest is called the Russian 
thistle or cactus, though closely related to the tumble 
weed. It is an annual growing from seed, and from 
six inches to three feet ia height with branches form¬ 
ing a dense bush. As it ripens, its pulpy green seeds 
become dry and gray : when the ground becomes 
frozen its small roots shrivel and the prairie winds 
roll it across the country in the form of a compact 
ball, scattering its seeds at every bound. When 
prairie fires rage the in flammable balls readily catch 
fire and, leaping across the fire breaks, spread the con¬ 
flagration with the speed of the wind, setting ablaze 
barns, dwellings and s’acks before any precautions 
can be taken. The first seeds were imported 15 years 
ago to Bon Homme County, South Dakota, mixed with 
Russian flax seeds, and already ab ut 30 000 square 
miles of territory in Minnesota and the two Dakotas 
are infested by it. and ib is estimated that in the two 
latter States it inflicted a loss of at least $2,500,000 on 
the farmers last year. The pest spreads with marvel¬ 
ous rapidity, taking possession of the infested land to 
the exclusion of everything else. The people of that 
section appear to have become thoroughly alive to the 
necessity of prompt action in combatting the pest, and 
have, like their afflicted E istern brethren, applied to 
the Department of Agricu ture for assistance. 
X x X 
While in this country it is yearly becoming more 
fashionable for rich city folks to have country seats, 
the reverse is the case in the United Kingdom where 
many of the manor houses are either doted up and 
empty or falling into decay, while the rural magnates 
with their families seek the cities or the continent. 
Recent laws in favor of “ Hodge ” have had much 
to do with this state of affairs. The old patriarchal 
relations between the sqci-e, parson and peasant no 
longer exist. Hodge is no longer subservient or rev¬ 
erential ; the Squire no longer omnipotent in the 
country-side. The former has lost all the old-time 
awe of the latter, and has often come to regard him 
with disrespect if not downright hatred. The new 
parish councils are elective and not only has every 
laboring man a vote, but he is also eligible to member¬ 
ship, having precisely the same rights as the lord of 
the manor. In future the laborers will elect the men 
who are to govern the littie community, and these 
can compel the squire to sell pieces of his park and 
farm lands for village allotments, to close time-worn 
footpaths here and there and to subject him to a host 
of annoyances It is not he but the village council 
which is henceforth to control the school, the sani¬ 
tary affairs and even the common law of the parish. 
His power in his ancestral home has gone forever; 
what wonder if he goes away with it? Then again, 
he and his family are no longer content with simple 
rural sports and amiuements. Hunting, shooting, 
eating and drinking no longer satisfy his progressive 
aspirations; nor do looking after the village’s welfare, 
croquet, lawn tennis, wool work, embroidery and tap¬ 
estry nowadays satisfy ids women 'oiks. Absenteeism, 
therefore, is becoming the rule arm ng the rural gen¬ 
try of the United Kingdom, and the lords of the manor 
in these days seldom remain more than a month or 
two each year in the homes that sheltered their fore¬ 
fathers the year round. 
What a revolution there has been In farm machinery to be sure! 
Think of the comparatively rude methods of cultivation used during 
the boyhood of men not yet past middle age. The plow and the h»e 
were the principal tools used In the corn Held, and the cultivators 
then sparingly used were rude In construction, and exceedingly 
meager In beneficial results. We are led to these thoughts just now 
by a casual review of a little catalogue just received, describing the 
Kraus Sulky cultivator. The writer has left the handles of the corn 
plow and cultivator many an evening tired and weary-footed after 
a long day’s walk back and forth from one furrow to another. It Is 
true that the idea of a cultivator like the Kraus Sulky had occurred 
to us at such times, but we could hardly have conceived this Imple¬ 
ment In all Its apparent perfection. The two gangs In this cultivator, 
consisting of four shovels in each gang, are geared to a sulky with 
pivot, axle and levers, so tnat the Implement can be operated and 
controlled by the driver on the seat as easily as an ordinary hoe In 
a man’s hand. Crooked rows are cultivated about as easily and effec¬ 
tively as straight ones, and hillsides as well as the level field. Sulky 
cultivators are certainly a decided improvement on the old man- 
klllers, and the Kraus seems to have some exclusive and most de¬ 
sirable features of Its own. It would be difficult to show these feature 
without an Illustration, b ut any one Interested can get full description 
by sending hls.address to the Akron Tool Company, Akron, Q, 
