The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-06-01
THE COMMUNE AND LIBERTY.
he N. Y, Time,

THE COMMUNE AND LIBERTY.
From the ~ Y. Times.
One of the saddest things about the errors
or extravaRances of a good cause is that
they infict irreparable injury on the cause
itself. In Europe, for many years to
come, the crimes of the Partisan social
istic democracy will be charged upon
liberty, and the first demands of the
laboring classes and the cities of the
Continent will be confused with the wild
ideas and savage crimes of the French Com
munists. If the excesses of the socialistio
werkmen in Paris produce such a profound
impression of horror and disgust here, we
can imagine what the sentiment of the mid
die and intelligent classes of Europe must
be concerning these crimes Everything
tends to make these excesses appalling and
hideous to the world. The outbreak of the
Iaboring classes was not against q tyranny in
the flush of its power. 1t was not, like the
revolution of '98, an explosion of the masses
against the abuses and wrongs of centuries,
inflicted by the powerful. The Government
which was attacked so fercely was the choice
of the peoples it was, at least nominally, re-
public. The moment chosen was when the
country lay bleeding and PROSTATE beneath
q foreign invader, whom these very laborers
had not the courage to attack. The authori-
ties whom the masses thus attempted to over
bHfOW were bQ6D1S6lV6b WehhouOu ny bu0lI
long struggle with the public enemy.
AS if to defy the peculiar and most cher
ished sentiments Of France and Europe, the
war-governing power in Paris declared war,
not only against their bleeding country, but
against art, property, and religion-against
civilization itself. For time, the world
was favored with the spectacle Of a city
governed by its day-laborers and "cLaSSes
ddngereases." They heard property declared
q robbery, religion q superstition, and the
arts memorial of barbarism. The ancient
monuments of glory were overthrown;
churches sacked and desecrated; the obliga-
tions of business declared broken; marriage
made contract at pleasure; and the minis-y
ters of religion banishsd or murdered. Toa
crown all, the working men in their defeati
attempted to, destroy the city they could mott
govern; and Ewith theriff-raff of allenations4
and both sexes who gatherln the slums of as
great city, they defaced and sburnedworks of /.
immortal geniusSand ruined and demolisheF
what no wealth or culture can ever restore n
They die at last, amid the blaekened andy
blood-stained ruins of the capital they hadS
professed to desire to free from the control
of their countrymen.
Now, such horrors and crimes as these put
back the cause the Partisan laborers had at
heart at least half century. The very name
of working mems organizations" "assooia-
tions," and unions" will smell in the nos
trils of Europe for generations. 1t is un-
doubtedly true that the laboring classes of
Europe have not had their fair share of the
blessings of life. The rich and the capital
lists have used their labor for centuries, and
have taken an undue proportion Of the
profits. They have fair claim to more than
they now get of the worlds good things.
They were, through universal suffrage,
and, above all, through international trades
unions, beginning to obtain more of their
Just rights. But suddenly there comes blow
upon them from the house of their friends.
''What the laboring class will do with their
power, when they get it, is shown in Paris"
will be the ready objection to every new
prove what trades unions and working mems
associations lead to!" Such will be the feeling
of Europe at any proposed political elevation
of the working class, or at the prospect OF
greater power in the trades associations.
The municipal idea of the Paris Commu-
nists had, undoubtedly, much justice In it.
They seem to have demanded for Paris ex-
actly what all English-speaking peoples give
to their large cities-the election of their own
city officials, the control of their education
ndmilitia, and, in most branches, a thorough
self-government. They are privileges which
ought to be granted to every French city,
and would constitute the best means of polit-
ical education. 1t seems, at this distance, a
piece of stupidity that the Versailles Govern
ment did not at once concede them. The
result, however, now is that municipal gov
ernment is set back also, with other reforms,
throughout France. The cities will still be
governed by central power. The crimes of
the Communists have destroyed the Com
mune. The people will attach all the horrors
and outrages of the last four days to the very
name of Communal independence, and
France, under any Government that may be
established, will still be centralized admin
iatrafion