| Show ROTTERDAM AND DUTCH WORKERS if any city in the world has a physiognomy of its own that city is rotterdam whichever way it is approached whether by the railway bridge or by the maas or through the new canal traversing the hoek of holland its unique character strikes the traveler from the viaduct which passes through the town connecting the rail railway way from belgium with that to south holland rotterdam appears a network of canals bristling with and masts and lined with trees and houses this SiD singular gular port has hae no docks in the ordinary sense thu the whole city being so to speak a great dock vessels coming from the I 1 udies indies and america lying moored within a short distance of the warehouses for which their freights are intended rotterdam has existed so that its origin is prehistoric aba its inhabitants were too much engaged in maintaining their awit existence to find time to worry or rob their neighbors however the universal enemy found them outa out th the eNorse norse pirates ever and anon paid them a visit aud and deA destroyed royed in iii a night the labor of years but the damage was repaired and rotterdam slowly grew the germ of a busy mart to which the four winds of heaven long brought the treasures of both hemispheres and with steam this old port took a new lease of its life its merchants having in the present generation advanced in prosperity beyond any other city in holland while the rhine trade through amsterdam steadily declines it il just as steadily increases by way of rotterdam and the respective progress of the two cities is reflected in that of the growth of their populations the increase during the last fifty years iu in rotterdam as compared with amsterdam being as three to two at the outlet of two such rivers as the rhine and the meuse with the thames gaping on the opposite shore to receive their produce rotterdam has an exceptional position germany is ever increasing her downpour of exports while a crowd of vessels mainly carrying the british flag fill the port although recognized as a city and affiliated to the league before the close of lf the thirteenth century the early progress of rotterdam was so slow that at the close of the war of independence it was not regarded as one of the great cities of the netherlands lut took its place in the states general as first among the minor cities it had biad endured something for the cause having been by an act of infamous treachery seized by the spaniards and four hundred of its inhabitants murdered the war of independence like the thirty years war created hordes of brigande brigands bri byi gands and the north sea was stained with many devilish acts act danl dunkirk irk was waa a pirate den and one ot of these fiends a certain admiral de wrecked Wa ecken made war on the dutch fishermen who being mennonites offered no do resistance pillaging a vc sael lie he threw the crew overboard or fastening them to the cabin and then scuttling the ship he left it to sink in 1603 a 9 dutch skipper lambein henrick hen captured the then admiral of the dunkirk pirate fleet and brought all tile the crew that remained i alive after the action to rotterdam where sixty of them were hanged the next day on their way to the gallows some made their escape and were not pursued though surrounded by a population who might have been expected to feel not only exasperated but vindictive the explanation can only be found in the fact just stated if ake the mass of the people in not professed mennonites they were so far affected by the doctrine of menno mendo that they would not even help to bring their most cruel enemies under the sword of justice an authority on anabaptist ailsto ry dr ludwig kellar archivist munster minister says aay the more I 1 examine examina the documents of the time at my command the more I 1 am astonished at the diffusion of anabaptist vie views vies s an extent of which no other investigator has had any knowledge and he fur furher her says the coast cities as of the north yea sea and east sea from flanders to dantzig were filled with Aria anabaptists baptists in 1530 there were was scarcely a village in the netherlands where they were not found one hundred and fifty years gatei a writer on oil the religion of tile the dutch divides the population of holland into three parts reformed roman catholics and anabaptists and tile the deac descendants nd of the latter people must to a great grea extent llave have remained the world working classes of holland for their creed cut them off from to the ruling class if it had been easy which it was not it is not lawful they said for christians to swear to exercise any charge of civil maje stracy or to make use of the sword not even to punish the wicked or to oppose force with force or to engage in a war upon any account or occasion the anabaptists suffered not only for the their ir attitude of reproof to all who took the sword of authority but also for the terror with which in the peasant revolt and in the fanatical outbreak at munster their predecessors had inspired the rulers their is full of touching incidents some of which occurred in rotterdam in 1539 anna taulden Ta returning from froin england where she had fled was denounced for having sung a hymn on her way to prison she asked a baker in the crowd to take charge of her infant the child bore the name of jessiah de lind and lived ta become burgomaster its mother was drowned in company with another woman the betrayer throwing herself into the water immediately after about the same time several men were be headed and other women were drowned one of the latter was a girl of fourteen who among other things said 1 I will risk my body and my goods I 1 will deny my friends and give up all for jesus sake 11 the elevation of soul which enabled these poor people to face their dreadful fate fale cumes comes out A in another woman thus murdered who left four children to whom she wrote a long along letter containing this prayers 0 holy ol 01 y father sanctify the 35 children of thy servant in thy truth and preserve them from all evil and injustice for the sake of thy holy name 0 almighty father I 1 commit them to thee for they are thy creatures take care of them tor for they are the work of thy hanis hands let them walk in thy ways amen in 1558 the rotterdam people rose in rebellion against these atrocities the executioner doing his work very got exasperated and proceeding from one point to another drove away the judge and his officers stormed the prison and delivered all who were to have been burnt thus it is clear the rotterdam people were much affect ed with anabaptist views and that even when in religious profession bession they were roman catholics or reformed forn aed A proof that this sympathy was common to the townsfolk is the way the rotterdam authorities intervened ter on behalf of anabaptists badly treated in switzerland they addressed a long letter to the council at berne entreating them to do justi justice ceto to their mennonite subjects and assuring them chem that they had no cause to regret the liberty which had been accorded to anabaptists in hl holland through the inflexible determination of william williamon df of orange and that notwithstanding the opposition el of the most powerful of liis his followers the great leader inthe in the war of I 1 independence seems to have understood what later represented the heart and soul of the people they on their part had the true instinct of national life recognizing in william of orange a heaven sent protected pro when they brought him their contributions towards the struggle he asked them if they made any demand none they replied but tile the friendship of your grace if god grants you the government of tile the netherlands this friendship continued by prince maurice secured the mennonites toleration and they seemed to have recovered their numbers which had been thinned by persecution at the close of the seventeenth ceia century tury the cities of the netherlands were full of mennonites who had their public assemblies and an absolute liberty of exercising their religion T this his alliance between the house of orange and the people of tile the united provinces was a necessity under a constitution which permitted the entire domination of tile the states to fall into the hands handsol of the influential citizens of the towns As every city was like every province a state in itself the united Iro provinces vinces formed a federation of independent communities each ruled by a few families strong in their common interests and their complete knowledge of the management of public affairs in Ove groningen greningen Gro and middleburg th the a I 1 inhabitants U had some part in the election of their rulers but in utrecht and in holland generally the rulers recruited themselves with the help of a small number of privileged electors to whom they gave a share of the official sweets the dislike of the dutch people to the he oligarchy displayed itself effectively during the minority of william III afterwards king of england under the same title the oligarchy had completed its own power b hy y suppressing the altogether in 1658 there was great popular pc pular agitation at Rutter rotterdam dam the prince princ WE party being so strong that the regents could not prevent it making levies on the fleet in 1672 there was a general rising in holland and in rotterdam by the complicity of the city guard the orange party surrounded the great church of st lawrence during worship compelling the citizens as they came out to td declare for the prince or the stated the result was a demand for the nomination of a stadt holder and the hoisting of them the orange flag on st lawrence Lawren cels an intimation being conveyed to the members of the city council that their houses would be destroyed if they did not sanction the resolution with one or two exceptions they obeyed and it was next morn ing conveyed to the prince thus urged the deities of better dam took the lead in proposing to the states general the restoration of the and the prince of orange was elected under the style and title of william ill III but the people suspicious of the influence in bence of the party which had ruled so long wished to purify the state of all its ita adherents and the hostility between the latter and the dutch democracy may be gathered from the words of a contemporary there are people who considering that foreign domination Is far less intolerable than an anarchy and that the tyra tyranny of the populace is the most unsupportable of all domination would have better liked to submit themselves to france than to remain exposed to the insolence of an insurrectionary and furious f rabble the residence of william ill III in england had a serious effect on this popular attachment to the house of orange and under his successors that attachment grew weaker and in the later half of the i eighteenth century the republicans became the real national party an insurrection lu in 1787 suppressed by the assistance of the king of prussia gave warning of the change that had taken place in the popular mind I 1 and when towards the close of 1794 the french revolutionary army under Piche gru menaced holland the stadt holder found himself hirn self deserted nd the proposal to flood theroun the country as on former occasions when tile the national at stake energetic energetically aily oppose dby i the dutch dut ch people tile the bearer lueader th the e art frt franch neit armies drew to the confines of tile the united provinces the bolder ano and more explicit was the avowal of the I 1 i people at large of a determined par in their favor so much ja deed was this the case thata x own party was itself affected and ald could not resist the general enthusiasm A severe sev eft j winter enabled Piche kru gru to antem holland over thet ther icebound rivers the french armies entered rotte 31 dam on january 20 and amsterdam Amster dai daW on the twenty second scenes 0 popular rejoicing occurred re recalling calling the great days of the french revolution ol ution the writer possesses two large prints of the time representing the great square in fronton front of the town hall at amsterdam filled with thousands of people mostly of 1 the humbler classes A circle of 0 men women and children are area I 1 dancing round a pole surmounted I 1 bythe by the cap of liberty and bev several eral ai A smaller parties are engaged another in other H parts of the square in the balne festive manner this change oft of 1 feeling towards the house of orange shows that its former basis had been the belief the people entertained thit that A it was their best palladium again stA tyranny that with reference to their i rights it would fulfil fulfill its ab maintien drai but when the fell into the same vice as the oli old rulers and supported itself on an oligarchy it lost its hold bold on an the people and the last stadt holder william of orange left the hague in 1795 1793 pursued by popular execration but the ad mission admission ot the french into holland proved a mistake napoleon having given the coup de gram grace to the revolution nyut ar t his foot on the neck of republican P fiance r anee and upon those of her allies H holland olland was chained to his triumphal car and without having struck a blow the dutch saw their whole history reversed once more thea they associated the national cause t with the house of orange and william V welcomed back in 1815 was created king ot of the netherlands with the title of william 1 I it tt was a veritable reaction for with him came back the oligarchic rule and thus notwithstanding all its revolutions holland is as it has ever been ruled by a small class of influential people the suffrage is limited to three hundred thousand elve electors tors not one workman in twenty possessing it in rotterdam not a single dock laborer has a vote for either the deputies to the second 40 hamber or the city councillors the e mass have as ever no part or lot in appointing their rulers or in making juskie the laws they have to obey no N 0 wonder that the interests interest 3 of the workers akers have not only been neglect had but powerfully opposed ct is clear however that among e dutch ruling class there are e who struggle for justice and evne e or two Ois disgraceful graceful laws have recently been removed from the penal al code and a few positive re farms ami have passed into I 1 law aw until 72 it was penal for workmen to attempt any combination whatever which tended to fetter work or raise i vie uw price ce of labor any one joining fe such a combination or in a de Buncia tion of particular directors or managers Ms of a factory for such euch an end was liable to imprisonment from one vie month to three and the leaders originators to two to five years r rison ment with subsequent ice ce surveillance for another three five years other efforts have w U almost stifled by governmental C jElila in 1863 a commission was appointed to inquire into the clit ions of child labor in the fac lirlea lir leB es but eight years elapsed before the e report was published and then other her three years passed away were before a law was enacted prohibiting afee e labor of children except in under twelve years of ge f 9 and it was not until fifteen wars re later still that is in 1889 that at a second law was obtained limit agas the ae labor of women and rig persons under sixteen f rs of age to eleven hours with a pause of one them from night fad d sunday labor another mission into the con condition didon of working class commenced its diries ries in 1887 but it has only yet a fraction of the country here has also been considerable in the dwellings of poor it is a peculiar trait in dutch family life to desire to ba have v e a house to itself however small anus there are many streets in the suburbs of rotterdam composed of houses of two rooms if larger ones are erected they are |
