When it was proposed that the universities be separated from the Church and brought under the control of the state, an attempt was made to make them by statute purely French. What was the right of private institutions became, when these institutions were made public, a challenge to the language and the culture of a majority of the people. About 3,000,000 Belgians are Walloons, speaking various dialects of French; 4,200,000 are Flemish, of whom 3,300,000 speak only Flemish and understand no French at all. The proposal was preposterous. So the question arose again. It died down temporarily when Belgium joined France in invading the Ruhr. But it is bound to be revived in the near future with growing force. The Flemish are too tenacious in language and traditions to accept the superiority of the Walloons, now that they have the powerful instrument of equal and universal suffrage. A growing number of intelligent Belgians, denied social equality because they are Flemish, and hit hard in their pocketbooks because Belgium is seconding French foreign policy, are beginning to contend that devotion to France must not be considered the test of patriotism. The Flemish did not hesitate to throw in their lot against the Teutons during the war. It never occurred to them not to do so. And now they do not see why any Walloons, just because they speak French, should subordinate the true interests of Belgium to the foreign policy of any other nation, however close in cultural ties. When you speak to them of the Flemish language movement being “pro-German” or of “playing Germany’s game,” they grow impatient with you and declare that you refuse to understand. They claim that they are fighting the great battle of democracy, that their record during the war should free them for ever from the charge of pro-Germanism, and that the triumph of their movement will not disrupt Belgium but will bring about the kind of solidarity we Americans have attained by organizing a state in which there is equality of opportunity for all men. CHAPTER XX GERMANY FROM 1918 TO 1923