VANDERVELDE, EMILE (1866-1938), Belgian states man, was born on Jan. 25, 1866 at Ixelles near Brussels. He stud ied law at Brussels university and in 1885 took his doctorate in social science. In the following year he joined the Belgian Labour Party and soon became its acknowledged leader. He first entered parliament in 1894 as Socialist member for the Charleroi constitu ency, but after 1900 was returned continuously by Brussels. In the chamber he achieved both influence and prestige and played a prominent part in the struggle to attain universal suffrage, a struggle which resulted in more than one national general strike. On the outbreak of the World War, Vandervelde devoted himself to the problems of national defence, the liberation of his invaded country, and in Aug. 1914 was summoned to join the Government as minister of state, later becoming member of the cabinet. At the time of peace negotiations and the signing of the Versailles Treaty, he used his influence to obtain the insertion of labour clauses, relating especially to the eight-hour day. As minister of justice in the "Liberal-Catholic-Socialist" cabinet formed after the war, Vandervelde effected great humanitarian and scientific reforms in the prison system. After the important successes achieved by the Labour Party at the general elections of 1925 he entered the "Socialist-Catholic Coalition" cabinet as minister for foreign affairs and played an important part in negotiating the Locarno Pact in 1925, which he signed on behalf of Belgium. He retained the portfolio of foreign affairs in M. Jaspar's ministry of "National
Unity." He came to be regarded abroad as well as in Belgium as essential in Belgian foreign policy, partly because of his success at Locarno and the high esteem in which he was held by his for eign colleagues at Geneva. But he was constantly subjected to criticism because of his genuine internationalism, and early in 1927 he had some difficulty in soothing his non-Socialist critics. In internal politics he fought for a reduction of the term of mili tary service to six months and thorough reorganization of the army system. This attitude of the Socialist members of the Jaspar cabinet was the immediate cause of its fall. Vandervelde was min ister without portfolio, 1935-36, and Minister of Public Health, 1936-37.
Considered by some to be the most powerful Socialist orator in the French language since Jaures, Vandervelde played a very con spicuous role in all the international Socialist congresses since the beginning of the present century. In 1924 he was made professor of political economy at the University of Brussels.
BIBLIooRAPHY.—Among his works are Le socialisme en Belgique, with J. Destree (1898) ; Le collectivisme et l'evolution industrielle (190o, trans. by R. P. Farley 1907) ; Essais sur la question agraire en Belgique (1902) ; La Belgique et le Congo 0910 ; La greve generale en Belgique, avril 1913 (1914) ; Le socialisme contre l'itat (1918); Reali sations socialistes (1923) ; Le parti ouvrier beige, 1885-1925 (1925).