In Belgium socialism is one of the strongest of the present political forces. It is natural to find in that country a fertile field in which to spread socialistic doctrines, for it is a country with a at industrial population and a comparatively small number who devote themselves to agriculture. The greatest energy is shown there in the sytematic inculcation of socialistic ideas. Not only is there thorough organization in the cities, but the proselyting is pushed out into the agricultural districts. On Sundays in Belgium it is a common thing to see squads of bicycle riders passing along the country roads distributing socialistic literature to the peasants or waiting outside the doors of the little country churches to hand out their socialist tracts.
“The Maison du Peuple,” Brussels, one of the most important of the coöperative societies of Belgium.
In the cities the strength of the socialists became so great that the railroad administration, which is in the hands of the Government, thought to help the industrial employers and increase the supply of workmen by organizing a series of working men’s trains. Greatly reduced fares were put in force on these trains, and they transported to the cities and to the industrial centers great numbers of working men who lived in the country and who had not yet taken up socialist ideas. The Government’s expectation of making headway against the working men’s combinations has not been realized. It has turned out that the new laborers thus brought to the cities have quickly taken up the doctrines and ideas of the dwellers in the towns, and the recent progress of the Socialist party has been mainly made among the inhabitants of those small villages. Among the peasants, those who are actually workers in the fields, little headway is made by the propaganda of the working men’s party.
Socialism in Belgium has developed largely in the direction of coöperative enterprises. In that particular it has taken a firmer hold in that country than elsewhere. Coöperative evolution is already too far advanced for any opposition by the state to be effective. There are many huge co-operative organizations, and their energies are directed toward almost every phase of economic life. In the main they may be said to be successful; certainly they are far more successful than any attempts at co-operation which we have seen in America. Without doubt their influence is beneficent. Most of the great coöperative associations have their own libraries, devoted particularly to economic and social science. In the Vooruit, at Ghent, I have seen a collection of many thousand volumes devoted to these two subjects.
