Chapter 13 - The Miners of Borinage

Print Email

CHAPTER XIII

THE MINERS OF THE BORINAGE

ONE of the most remarkable centers of national life is to be found in the coal-mining districts known as "le Borinage," which signifies the place of boring. Here is to be found a state of society that does not exist in any other part of the country, and tha miners are a type quite distinct from the rest of their countrymen. It would be unfair to judge other Belgians by the mining population, which has been allowed to sink - not merely by the character of their work, but by the deficiencies of education supplemented by the poisonous effect of the fiery and deleterious beverages which the miners too freely imbibe - into a state of physical and mental decay.

The Borinage district lies south of Mons, but it extends westward as far as Quievrain, on the line to Valenciennes. The mines now extend further north than the original Borinage district, and the railway from Tournai to Charleroi, passing by Mons and Marchienne, traverses for a great part of the distance the mining district, the trollies passing from the collieries to railway trucks, or canal barges overhead, as the train glides along. The whole of the southern portion of the province of Hainaut is given up to mining operations, and more than 100,000 persons are actually employed there. Some idea of the importance of this industry may be gathered from the fact that whereas the output sixty years ago was only two million tons a year, it now exceeds twenty-four million tons. The mines are owned by joint-stock companies ; there are no royalties to land-owners, and the State has waived any claim to participate in the profits, because the main object has been to develop national industry. The mines of Hainaut have, therefore, been exploited to exceedingly great profit by the small body of capitalists who became interested in them in the first place, and who tried to keep them a close preserve until the shares were got rid of at high premiums on the Bourse. The halcyon days of the mine-owners were those before the organization of labor. Then the Belgian miners toiled for as many hours underground as he would have done above, and he received a wage which, in the most favorable case, did not reach $5 a week. That is many years ago, but it had been the general practice during more than two generations, and it has left a deep if not indellible mark on the old mining families. Among these it seems as if there had sprung up a fresh race of dwarfs, men under four feet eight inches, women shorter still, and children who look as if they never will reach even this height. They are stunted and emaciated, and they are easily distinguishable from the rest of the population as the third and fourth generation of the old mining population. At Frameries and Paturages, where mining has been in existence for a century, this type is very obtrusive.

In no country of Europe did the miners have a harder battle to fight in order to obtain more indulgent treatment and a fairer living wage than in Belgium. The extreme ignorance and illiteracy of the miners left them more or less at the mercy of their masters, and outside sympathy and support were long arrested by the grave assurance that, if the miners were to work fewer hours and to receive more wages, the Belgian mines could not compete with foreign mines, and would have to close altogether. Of course, there was not the least ground for this assertion, but it served its turn, and enabled the owners to remain for a longer time masters of the situation. This state of things could not have endured as long as it did but for the extremely small sum upon which a Belgian workman can maintain his family and himself.

There comes an end, however, to any system that does not take into account the actual necessities and the natural aspirations of the men who support it. Capital had ruled the roost in Belgium for so many years that it looked as if its position were inexpungable, and as if the miners were consigned to perform the part of helots to the end of the chapter. But the labor party had been growing steadily in influence and organization long before its members possessed a vote, and the spread of Socialism was, it must be admitted, strengthened by the legitimate grievances of the labor classes. The movement of the Parti Ouvrier reached its height in the year 1892, when a general strike was carried out, and after intense suffering the mining population rose in what was practically armed rebellion the following year. At Charleroi, and throughout the Borinage generally, riots occurred and even when the military were called out the result was left doubtful. A more serious calamity indeed seemed not impossible, as the loyalty of the young troops was called in question. At this juncture the mine-owners gave way under pressure from the Government, and a new scale of payment was introduced which, if not all that the men desired, was fair and reasonable. By this scale the average miner's wage was raised to between twenty-five and thirty-five shillings ($6.25 and $8.75), and that of women and boys from $3 to $5. The maxima might, indeed, be greater but for the protective measures adopted by the miners themselves in the restriction of the output. The labor party organized a scale of production which, while it restricts the maximum earnings of any workman, ensures the prolonged existence of the mines themselves. The limit thus placed on the output of any single mines has rendered it more necessary to discover fresh mines both in Hainaut and elsewhere. And the great increase in production in recent years is due to the new fields discovered in a region known as the Campine. This tract of country is a barren moorland in the province of Limburg, and the town of Hasselt may be taken as its central point. The discovery that coal could be worked here in paying quantities was made in the year 1900, but before the State would give the license to exploit it the question of the rights in new mines had to be discussed in the Chamber, and fresh legislation passed on the subject. A fresh national asset had been revealed, but for a time it looked as if the Government did not know how to deal with it. The rights of the discoverer, the land-owner, and the State had to be defined, and the miners were propitiated by new laws restricting the hours of labor to eight below ground. It was not until 1909 that all these matters were settled* and the first joint-companies were formed to work the new mines. Several shafts have been sunk, and it is understood that the mines are promising, but no statistics are yet available as to the output.

A visit to the Borinage is not a pleasant experience, and the closer the acquaintance made with the life of the mining population the less attractive does it appear. All mining work, apparently, must be accompanied by a deterioration in the moral as well as the physical qualities of the population so engaged, and this must be especially marked where the education of the people has been notoriously backward and neglected for generations. In Hainaut the majority of the miners are illiterate, and this condition of things will not be altered until the State makes education compulsory, and places restrictions in the way of the indiscriminate employment of children in the mines; for their non-employment underground is no real remedy. No one has interested himself in the moral and intellectual development of this class of the population, because the State, in carrying out its theory of perfect liberty, does not concern itself with such matters, and leaves the whole responsibility to the commune and the parent, while the Church having lost all influence over the mining population, is only too glad that these hostile classes should be left in a condition of almost utter ignorance.

But the most potent of all the reasons which produce this result is that boys and girls, as soon as they have physical strength, which is supposed to be at twelve years of age, are taken on the mining establishment and employed above ground. They thus become bread-winners, and the smattering of learning that they may have acquired as infants is soon reduced to the capacity of signing their names. The employment of children of tender years lies at the root of the ignorance of the people of the greater part of a large province. It is this practice which has led to the gross immorality among the mining population - especially that immorality that takes the form of girlmothers. It has always been the concomitant of the close employment of the two sexes in mines and mining operations, and if it seems somewhat worse in Hainaut than in our own mining districts, it is because the mining population of Belgium is so completely detached and cut off from the rest of the community. To the proprietors, with rare exceptions, the miners are mere beasts of burden, in whom they do not effect to feel the least interest. No steps whatever are taken to improve the lot of the miners, to elevate their ideas, or even to provide them with amusement or recreations. There are no clubs, except the cercles of the Socialists, and the only places of resort are the estaminets and cabarets that are to be found in practically every third or fourth house. A premium is placed on illegitimate children. The miner seeks as a wife the woman who has had the greatest number of illegitimate children, because they will contribute to the household expenditure. It is quite a common thing to find in a miner's house a married man with one or two children of his own, and four or even more sons and daughters of the wife by different men in the prenuptial state. It is scarcely going too far to say that morality does not exist in the Borinage; but the greatest curse in this community is the large number of immature mothers, and the consequent inseparable deterioration of the whole race. The evil has been allowed to reach such a pass that the success of any remedies must now be slow and uncertain, and as yet none are even talked of. But certainly something could be done to improve education and to restrain the employment of children. No doubt the miners themselves would at first be most determined opponents of any such change, because the existing evils are mainly due to their own selfishness and evil habits. The consequent diminution in the earnings of the family could, however, be made up by the increased exertions of the men.

Ignorance and immorality explain the low condition to which the mining population has sunk, but even these causes would not have been supplemented and aided by the prevalence of drunkenness. As there is no restriction on the sale of drink, every house can retail intoxicating liquors, and in many places where it is procurable there is no external appearance of the place being a drinking shop. The room of the cottage will contain a few chairs and benches, besides a table, and the liquor comes from a cupboard or an inner room. In warm weather the table and chairs are placed outside, and on Sundays and feast days there is not one of these houses which will not be crowded with visitors. The only amusement known to these people is to drink and get drunk. There are no abstainers or half abstainers among them. The only distinction between beer-drinkers and spiritdrinkers, the beer-drinkers are the more reasonable drunkards of the two. Having soaked themselves with faro, they sleep it off. Not so the spirit-drinkers, for when they have finished their orgies they are half mad with the poisonous alcohol which they have imbibed, and the greater number of crimes are perpetrated by this class among the miners. Crime of all kinds is prevalent, and the reports of the Hainaut assizes are not pleasant reading. The true explanation of the evils that follow this spirit-drinking is to be found in the character of the spirit itself. In name it is gin or geniezre, but it bears little or no trace of that origin. What it is, no one outside the place of manufacture - which appears to be unknown - can correctly declare, but by the smell it would seem to be mainly composed of paraffin oil. This beverage, called schnick, is the favorite spirit with the miners. It is sold at one penny for a large glass and one-half penny for a small glass, and official statistics show that a large majority of the miners drink a pint of this stuff every day of their lives, while it is computed that there are not less than fifty thousand who drink a quart. In the latter total are no doubt included many who are not miners, but the majority of them are. In Belgium the drink question is aggravated by the poisonous nature of the intoxicant and by the admitted inability of the Government to devise any means of preventing adulteration. Lest the reader should imagine that there is some exaggeration in the figures just given, it may be mentioned that the total consumption of spirits in the country during a year exceeds fifty quarts per head of the population. This being the case, it will not appear surprising that an extreme toper consumes a quart of the spirits a day. The consequence of this excess are to be seen in the increasing number of lunatics and alcohol-maniacs confined in the State asylums, and it is observed that of late years the proportion of women has been largely increasing, so that it is now not much short of one to two.

The Government of Belgium is, of course, aware of these facts, and a visit to the Borinage will quickly convince the most skeptical of the extent of the mischief already done, which becomes more glaring every year. But it has been afraid to grapple with the difficulty by passing' for instance, a law to oblige all places where drink is on sale to have a license. The absolute immunity of the drink-shop from all control, the tacit permission given to every house to be at the will of its occupant a public-house, and the fact thai there is in existence one drinking-place for every five adults, explain the situation. The State has refrained from interference so long, through its regard for the liberty inscribed in its Constitution, which includes its citizens' liberty to get drunk, that the difficulty has assumed appalling proportions. To interfere with a practice in which every one can put forward some evidence of a vested interest is a perilous step.

On the other hand, the Government is confronted with the prospect that if the evil is allowed to continue unabated, the deterioration of the race which has become marked in certain districts like the Borinage, must bring about a national decline that will constitute a grave peril to the country. If the Government is afraid to diminish the number of houses by imposing licenses, it might well grapple with the minor problem of arresting adulteration, and putting an end to the consumption of pernicious substitutes for gin. Unless it does something practical for the mitigation of the evil, it will be confronted one of these days with a peril that may overtax its resources, and that must damage its reputation. Ignorance, immorality, and drunkenness have made the mining districts of Belgium a black spot in the national life, and the sooner an era of reform is commenced the better.

Besides the coal mines in Belgium, there are extensive quarries of limestone, red sandstone, granite, and marble. They are to be found in the Ardennes (Luxemburg), the Condroz district (Meuse Valley), the district between Sambre and Meuse, and parts of Hainaut. The Ambleve Valley is remarkable for its red sandstone range. Slate quarries abound in the southern parts of Luxemburg. Lime is largely worked in the valley of the Meuse, and the cement industry is one of the most important in Belgium.

One of the most interesting quarries in Belgium is that of St. Remy, from which a beautiful red marble is excavated. This quarry has been worked at for centuries, and is still in full use. It originally belonged to the famous Abbey of St. Remy, which lies about a mile north of the town of Rochefort, and was long the burial place of the Counts of that name who were ruling princes, coining their own money. Little of the Abbey remains owing to the ravages of time and of the sans cuhttes in 1795, and the Trappists, who had it some years ago, contented themselves with using it as a farm and brewery. Lately it has passed into the possession of the Benedictines, who are engaged in restoring the Abbey to something approaching its original form. The quarry lies about half a mile north of the Abbey, and has been cut out of the side of the rock. Curiously enough it is only at this particular spot that the marble is found. Many other quarries have been opened in the neighborhood with the object of penetrating into the same mountain from different sides, but on finding no trace of marble these have, one after another, been abandoned. The quarry which, before the French Revolution, was the property of the monks, has long been worked by a private company. The stone is not merely of a rich color, but is beautifully grained, and has been largely used for the interior decoration of Belgian churches. In 1908 Belgium exported from her quarries of all kinds stone of the weight of 1,477,058 tons of a total value of $8,121,500.

Source: Boulger, Demetrius C. Belgium. Detroit: Published for the Bay View Reading Club, 1913. Print.