The Idaho world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1864-1918, 1874-03-05
COMMUNISM IN AMERICA.

nccP Ill luo Ddck.RrOunu Tue IdCC CndC causes
produce effects both in material and moral ma
ture, and that the effect produced is never
greater than the cause which produced it, In
accordance with this law, the existence of" La
bor Unions, Protective Unions, Working-men's
Societies." and all of the forms which Opposi-
tlon to monopOles has assumed in this country,
are but the effects of an existing cause equiva-
lent t.. their production. Into these organza-
tions it is possible that few bad men and dem
agogues have entered but that the laborers of
America, nearly all of whom belong to one or
another of the various labor organizations of
the country-forced into them as means of
selEdetense-are more lawless than the Re
publican writer, who has grown rich off the
sweat of Others brows, is a conjuraton of his
own brain:
If the financial panic has done nothing else
which entities it to grateful remembrance, 1t
has at least afforded intelligent observers of
passing events an opportunity to tamlllarlze
| themselves with the programme and practical
workings of the most dangerous social elements
of modern times. AS long as money is easy,
work abundant, and wages liberal there is no
inducement for the laboring classes to rebel
against the established order of things, and it
is, therefore, impossible for those professional
acitators-as numerous and unscrupulous IN
America rs in Europe-to find material for the
advancement of their incendiary doctrines.
But whenever from any cause the wheels OF
national prosperity cease to revolve and the
various branches of commercial and industrial
enterprise are brought to Il temporary stand
still, then we hear those ominous mutterinss
from beneath which Disrrli appropriately calls
:" the meanings OF the approaching Storm So
| it came Ia pass that befor. the crash in Wall
street had scarcely subsided, there rose in New
York Cincinnati and Chicago n grim spectre
which the world calls the Commune.
The name, around which cl1ng so many ter
rible associations. is not rs yet assumed here;
but whether designated as the Internatlonale,
Labor Unions, Protective Unions or Working-
mems Societies the fundamental principles are
the same, and The ideas promulgated are, as
near rs NAV be. identical. That the tree has
lost little or nothing of its peculiar character
by a VOYAGE across the Atlantic is sufficiently
manifest by the temper and utterances ot the
meetings recently held in New York and CHI
caso. Reading the speeches and resolutions
we are reminded st once OF the .Jacobin Club
or the first French Revolution, aud OF the fierce
clamors Of the faction, which ruled Paris dur
inc those gloomy months which Immediately
foowed the downfall of the second Empire.
We are transported again to those soinbre
scenes which echo with the fiery eloquence OF
Danton. Camille ID smoulins Robespierre and
Marat. and are Illuminated by the confagration
of the noblest capital of Europe. Time and
circumstance, which have changed all else,
have not changed the Commune. 1t is to-day
what it was in 1892 and in 1870: 1t Is IN the
United States what it was and is in France; 1t
is. under free and benignant Government,
what it was when procaming undying hostility
to the accumulated despotism of centuries OF
Bourbon misrule and we see no reason to sup
nose that its chief characteristics Will ever
undergo any important modification while 1t
exists all.
We are too apt to think that the establish
ment of n Republic must necessarily revo"-
tionize. or at least remodel, the untutored IN
stiacts of the masses and elevate the subord-
mate strata of population to pitch OF enl'eht-
eminent which will always make them suscept-
;blo to the influences of sound argument and
common sense This is fatal error Whlch
should be discarded as soon rs possible, lest IL
breed deusion which may culminate in ruin
Human nature is the same everywhere. Inc
preiudices and passions which rouse it into ac-
tivty in one country and one era, will rouse 1t
another country and another era. 1t certain
sharp points are, by combination OF unfortu-
nate events, driven into the consciousness OF
,oon,e who own the ballotbox, they will re-
spopd as quickly and strike as bitterly and as
unreasonably as if their necks had been galled
for ages by the yoke of kineley tyranny. The
fact that they are their own rulers, ana can
,,.ke and unmake laws to suit themselves, does
not always induce them to guide their zeal by
.he dictates of discretion. They only know
that something is wrong, that they are plnched
in the stomach or in the pocket, and forthwith
nroceed to inaugurate measures OF reform
..,;.hout stonpinc to inquire whether the reme-