The Belgians are striking for a right the French obtained in 1876—equal suffrage. Yet who are the chief beneficiaries of the political democracy of France? The condition of the laborers is about the same as in Belgium. The only difference is that in France the industrial and urban capitalists now hold the balance of power between the laborers on the one hand and the reactionary agrarians, landlords and employing peasants on the other; while in Belgium the latter classes, which control the Catholic Party, have a Parliamentary majority over the laborers and urban middle classes combined. The Belgium Liberals then have had everything to win by a strike, which aims at establishing the French situation in that country. As for the Socialists, equal suffrage would undoubtedly have the effect of driving the Liberals and Catholics together into the same government, as in Germany, thus making the Socialists _the_ opposition party. It would also result ultimately in whatever social and labor reforms the Liberals might feel it to their interest to grant. But this is all. This is why thoughtful Socialists the world over, including several of the Belgian leaders (Vandervelde, Huysmans, De Brouckère and Bertrand) have been so dubious about the strike. They have seen that the burden of the contest will fall about equally on employers and employes. But the Liberal employers are playing for a splendid stake—Belgium; while the Socialists are playing only for such incidental and secondary benefits as will accrue to them from Liberal control of the country. Naturally they have had far more dread of the costs and risks which the strike involves. But whether the strike was to be lost or won it has been clear that it would interest the world’s millions of Socialists more deeply than ever in the possibilities and the limitations of the general strike. All Socialists favor the political general strike, most Socialists favor the general strike against war—including the conservatives like Keir Hardie and Jean Jaurès. The moderate Swedes had an economic general strike a few years ago and this form is favored also by the majority of French and Italian labor unionists. And now the British unionists are voting on the question whether they will all quit work each day after eight hours—which would mean a general lock-out, or practically a general strike.