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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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they were active in the way in which Father Haas was active here--I mean, they were not active in an offensive and obscurantist way at all. They were really concerned with a good trade union, and with the principles laid down in the encyclical in regard to these matters.

Interviewer:

Despite the materialism of these Socialist trade unions, was there anything other than that, different from what one usually thinks of as trade union practice?

Perkins:

In Belgium in particular, there's a very close situation, you see, because there are two populations, the Flemings and the Walloons, in addition to which they have the people who call themselves the Brusselois, who are neither. And you can't make out where they sprang from or what they are. They regard themselves as the intellectuals. Whether they are any different or not, I don't know. I never had time to look it up. I once said to a friend of mine who is a Brusselois, “What is the difference? Were your family Flemings or were they Walloons?”

“Oh, no, no, nothing of the sort.”

Anyhow, they've always lived around Brussels. They have that background. They take no part in this. But the Flemings are devout--I mean, perhaps they're as remarkably devout Roman Catholics as I've ever seen. And the Walloons are--not Protestant No This is where I got my great





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