Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1871-06-19
THE COMMUNISTS.
The Men who were nj the Head OF
the Movement.

ciples and plans of the Communists,
whose schemes have just perished in the
flames Of Paris. The Nation-which is
as likely to be we'll informed as anybody
says:
The men who were at the head of the
Communist movement throughout-the
Duyals, Bergerets, Courbets, Pyats,
Blanquis, and Assys-were either com
mon adventurers in search of living,
and for whom all forms of government
which give them power and notoriety
possess equal attractions, or else enthu-
siasts who, long ago, repudiated all re-
gard for political forms which had not
some new mode of distributing property
as their end The political arrangements
which have for their object the protection
of the rights of minorities, and the proper
distribution of functions among different
classes of officers, which occupy so much
of the attention of the old school OF poll
ticians, have not, and have not had TOR
many years, the slightest interest for the
class of men. who led the French Com
munists. They care nothing about
checks and balances" about the indie
pendence of the judiciary, the freedom
of the press, the protection oil personal
or local selfgovernment, personal liber-
ty, or any of the other great questions
over which the Western world has so
long coiitended. They care nothing
even about republican form of govern
ment, as Americans understand it. Mu-
nicipal independence, too, such as
American cities and towns enjoy, in
which property and liberty are shielded
by the Constitution as expounded by
the courts, from the attacks of the ma
iority for the time being, would excite in
their minds nothing but ridicule and
contempt. The Republic they ask for
is what Louis Blanc called in l84S the
"republique applique that is, not a
government providing certain modes of
choosing officers or imposing certain re-
strictions on their authority, but a gov
ernment which should actively superin-
tend the work of production, and the di-
vision of the results Of production among
the workers. No machinery of admins
tration and no distribution of the pow
ers of government which do not serve
as a means to this end, possesses the
slightest value in their eyes, and any
body in America who fancies that what
the Communists have been fighting for
is that power of managing their own
local concerns which is enjoyed by the
inhabitants of an American city or
town. only does so because he is ignor-
ant of the history of the French Social
list. The pretense that they have during
the last two months been fighting for
autonomy was only set up when they
found that they should have to fight, and
that the Versailles Government was not
going to be swept away by series OF
" determinations on the part OF the
regularstroops. Their real creed, which
was temporarily kept in the background
to avoid creating too great a panic
in the city, and on which the Communal
Government in Paris was to be based,
in case they had triumphed, in
cluded the total denial of the existence
of God and of fnture life, the preven-
ton of any religious observances, and
the treatment of priests and ministers as
impostors; the abolition of marriage, and
the substitution of temporary connec-
tions, based on the inclination of either
of the parties; the rearing and educa-
ton of children by the Commune as in q
vast founding hospital; the outlawry oi
all persons not living by the labor oi
their hands, or, in other words, the crea-
ton OF an aristocracy Of curriers'; the
expulsion of the literary or educated
class from all places of trust or dignity;
the substitution of natural justice in the
courts of law for all artificial systems Of
jurisprudence; the appropriation Of all
property to public use, and the provision
of labor for all persons able to labor, and
support for those who were not able out
of the public purse.
One of the most remarkable features
IA the history of the Commune is, that as
much stress as its champions and sym,
pathizers have laid on the ignorance OF
the peasantry as a reason why there
should be political separation between
town and country, not one word has
there come from them about the posi-
bility of building up better state OF
things, and uniting them both once more
in happy, prosperous, and intelligent
France, by educating the peasantry.
Of the thirty-eight millions OF honest,
industrious, simple-minded people who
till the fields of France, fight her battles,
fill her treasury with gold, and IN the
long run pay the cost Of all the faults
and follies Of the capital, neither Com
munists nor Comtists have, during all
the recent discussions, ever spoken, eX-
cent with hatred and contempt Of
the desirableness of enlightening
them, and elevating them, of any
sense of responsibility for them or COM
munity of interest with them, we venture
TO say there is not to be found in their
speeches or writings a single mention.
And yet no intelligent man can doubt
that in the peasantry, great as their
faults may be, the hopes of France for
the future much rest. What OF honor,
of loyalty, of selfsacriice, Of patriot
ism, of love of home and industry,
there is left in the country is to be found
amongst them, and not among the crazy
and unclean charlatans, loaters and
apes who make revolutions in Paris and
Lyons. 1t was the peasants who, un-
drilled, and unoiiicered, and unorgan-
lied, faced the Prussian batteries all
over France last winter, when the Paris
ian patriots were giving tongue in the
clubs, and guzzling under the ramparts,
and cursing Bismarck at long range.
The peasant marched and fought, it is
true often blindly, but he gave all he
had to the country.
The GentfIes in Utah.