The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-05-23
COLLAPSE or THE COMMUNE.


The late dispatches from Paris confirm pre-
vious reports of the rapid overthrow of the
last vestiges of the Commune, and it is now
expiring amid terrible confagrations and
awful massacres It's career was disgraced by
so many acts of folly, cruelty, violence, and
vandalism, that there will be few to mourn
its overthrow; and yet, amid all its extrava-
gance and wickedness, there seems to have
been interviewer an idea which in itself was
worthy of the support of Frenchmen.
1t is inconceivable that the
Parisians should have prolonged up to this
time desperate and hopeless contest if some
of their leaders had not represented, as tho
ultimate object to be obtained, boon that
was worth a desperate struggle. This was
the principle of local self-government, as
contrasted with the absolute domination of
centralized power. Paris demanded a free
voice in the selection of her Mayors and local
officials, as well as in the choice of members
of the National Assembly. The moment
chosen for the assertion of this doctrine was
fearfully unpropitious; the reasons used to
enforce it were at once criminal and
foolish; the other avowed objects of the
Commune were nearly all unjust, visionary,
sanguinary, or impracticable; but the fact
that Paris has so long maintained an attitude
of resistance against all France is attributable
mainly to her devotion to one rational notion
intermingled with a hundred follies, and to
her possession of a single political virtue,
stained though it was with a thousand
crimes.
Although the Commune is about to perish
(justly, in view of its follies and atrocities),
the leading idea it was organized to enforce
possesses too much inherent vitality to be
extinguished. 1t may yet become a part of
the governmental system of France, and that
country will never be really free or perma-
nently prosperous until this doctrine is prac-
tically applied to all her municipalities.
The career of the Commune, therefore,
was not altogether without a practical use.
The misery, distraction, destruction, and
terror it has occasioned, though horrible in
themselves, will still serve the impor-
tant purpose of impressing French
men with the necessity of begin
ming the great work of political reform that
awaits them at the foundation. They will
learn that they must make free towns and
free cities before they can hope to organize a
free nation. Whoever may the ruler of
France, a party of varying strength will al
ways be ready to contend for local liberty,
and to deny the right of an Emperor, King,
or President to exercise despotic sway over
all the minute details affecting the welfare oi
various departments and their respective sub
divisions. While the Commune dies, and
while its bad deeds and bad doctrines will die
with it, its single spark of craftsmanship and
Justice will live to find more worthy and more
successful defenders; and, in the end, to save
France, if she ever is to be saved, from he
furious factions and her fanatical follies.
M. Theirs, at the head of the Constituen
Assembly, represents one great and vita
principle, that the superior power OF tn
nation should be exercised only by an au
thority created by the whole people. Th
Commune has contended for another doc
trine equally important, that local freedom o
self lf-goverRment should be respected an
maintained. France, to ensure her futur
welfare, must combine all that is good il
both these systems.