The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-04-24
THE FOUNDATIONS OF MODERN
SOCIETY

From the Pail Mall Gazette.
The fragility the basis on which th9
complex fabric of modern society rests IA
shown with startling clearness by the events
in Paris. The story is made less ineligible
than it might be by the ordinations of horror
and disgust with which it is usually told, but
in itself it is simple enough. For the purpose
of defending Paris against the German be-
siegers 1t became necessary to arm even the
humblest classes of the population and to
turn them into National Guards, and
during the whole period of the siege these
classes obtained very nearly as large share
of whatever comforts and necessaries
were to be had as the richest part of the
Partisan population. When the city
capitulated it was intended to put an
end to what was system of practical COM
munism-ac it may be added, by
that general scarcity which would probably
follow all attempts to try communistic ex-
periments on large scale; but the lower
orders of National Guards refused to go back
to the ordinary arrangements of society The
working men, as we should call them, de-
clined to retarn to a life of arduous daily
labor, of fiuctuating wages, and of depen-
dence on employers. They had arms in their
hands, and announced that they should use
them if the State withdrew the subsistence
with which it had provided them for several
mouths. The professional army was then or
dered to force them back to their old posi-
ton, but ii would not act against them, and
the whole city is therefore for the time at
their mercy.
Here we have the very foundations of our
social system laid absolutely bare. The ulti-
mate conditions of the maintenance of the
present order of things, multifold as it is, are
the non-possession by the masses of artificial
facilities for effectually using the force which
naturally belongs to numbers and the fidelity
of the professional guardians of society,
whether called soldiery or police, to the Gov
ernment which employs them Both these
conditions must fail in order that there may
be an actual collapse Of the social fabric; but
if they do fail, the crust which ordinarily
feels so solid has been broken through, and
the volcanic forces underneath it have their
way. There are of course in many countries
in our own probably more than in any
other-a great variety of influences which
tend to keep the masses quiet and the
public force loyal. But we have not
as yet taken sufficient notice of the fact
that in several communities which cannot
be placed beyond the pale of civilization both
the Ultimate securities for the preservation
of the social system to which we belong have
for many years past given way over and over
agsin. In Spain and in all the Spanish Ame-
rlcan States, the populace, which in fact has
never been disarmed as has been the civil
part of the rest of Europe for about two GEN.
turles, has many times broken out in revolt,
and the professional army has Joined it or
has begun insurrections on its own account
On the whole, the most wonderful thing
about these spanish and Spanish American
movements has been the little comparative
injury which they have done to the States
which have been their theatre But the ex-
PLANTATION appears TO lie first in the compara-
lively low level of Spanish civilization, aud
next in the simplicity and sobristy of habits
which unquestionably distinguish the Spanish
race. spanish mob does not aim at much;
and, even II 1t did, there Is very little to be
got. But now the malady has reached
society Of \ very different sert During the
last half-century France has created for itself
social system only second in point Of COM