Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1877-08-04
SORE PLACES.

a
with tranquil observation at the con-
dition of the body polite exposed
by this CONFUSION. For this rail-
road trouble of ours has unquestion-
ably opened to its vital centres the
structure and constitution of society,
especially in our great cities, and it
will bean unfortunate waste ofoppor-
tunity should we fail to study any of |
the diseased points in our social an
atomy which may have been thus
exposed.
We propose to examine some of
thesein detail and commence with
First, Conansl0lisDa-T The past week
has demonstrated the existence of
decided and jealous communists
among US; it has also demonstrated
the very limited extent of their
members or their influence. They
seem to be, as we anticipated, al
most exclusively foreigners. Com
munism, in fact, is purely an exotic
in this country and there is neither
climate nor soil favorable to its
growth here; property is too easily
acquired, and too many are In pos
session of 1t and therefore inter
ested in its maintenance, to leave
any hopeful field for the pro-
pagation of communism, which
is only dangerous in those COM
munities where property is in
the hands of only few. The only
neeedful remedy for it here is to
show plainly its true nature, for
which purpose we reprint the fol-
lowing from Il communistic speech
made ut New York during our re-
cent troubles:
1.-The means that we expect TO adopt in
] benefiting wOrkingmen are summed up in
! a word, namely, what call the 'eXpropria-
] ton of property. We shall, by the ballot
/ box, get control ofthe Legislatures, and then
| we shall appropriate to the State all proper
/ ty for the benefit Ofthe people, just as II now
| runs the postal service, the army and the
and the State should have control of it. Let
/ me make myself clear. We are going to act
| just as the AbOlitlonists acted few years
/ ago. They agitated, and agltated, ana tnen
| had their way. The Southerners wanted to
keep their slave property. The abolitlonlSts
said that it was not right TO do so; that 1t
| should not be done. They out-vOted the
| Southerners, and therefore became the Gov
eminent. The SOutherners resisted, rebelled.
The Government appropriated their slave
property. Now don't you see the working
men are in slavery, and that the capitalists
own them? Butwe intend to do just what
the Abolitionists did: first, agitate; and
secondly, to become the majority, and so
to become the Government OF the country"
Communism like that is an inn
ported article and would die out in
a year but for fresh impOrtatiOns.
Twelve months hence the man who
who made that speech will own
property himselfand his ideas about
appropriation will be wonderfully
modified by that time. The only
population among whom such no
tiOns spread is that which consists
of uen too lazy, imprOVident and
profigate to acquire property them
selves, and these only become dam
gerOus when crowded together in
large cities, and when the times are
out of joint so as to releaX for
while the power of the nation to
hold in check its disorderly elements.
The constable for a long while will
be sufficient to take care of COM
munism in this country.
Negro riOters-The negro in his
| -, -, 81
is a very initiative animal, and his
proceedings in Louisville last We'd
nesday week for the hours he had to
himself were a ludicrOus caricature
of those of the trade unions; the
ease which they were suppressed as
soon as the more orderly classes were
aroused to their duty shows that
there is but little danger in the race.
The African may safely be let alone,
only let him be encouraged as little
as possible to congregate in great
cities.
Bog riOterS-Here we believe
really serious evil has been eX-
posed; the! large number, namely,
unemployed, untaught and undis-
ciplined boys who thrOng the streets
of our great cities, and are always
ready forriOtOus assemblages, which,
in their estimation, amount to little
more than a school-bOy frolic, but
which are pregnant with mischief
to society and to themselves. It's
not, however, the mischief they may
do on special occasions of disorder
like this, which is the true source of
our solicitude, it is the chronic rath-
er than the acute disorder which we |
are contemplating-the permanent |
existence in our large cities of hun
dreds if not thousands of boys band
ed together for evil and utterly hope
less for good. We confess to having |
read with a sickening sensation the
details of killed and wounded in the
riots of Chicago and Baltimore when
we found how large a proportion of
the killed and wounded were boys
of seventeen and eighteen years of
age; not that we doubt in the least
the necessity of the vigorous meas
ures of repression by which these
unhappy youths came to their end,
but that we deplored the state of af-
fairs which has thrown 50 large Il
number of them in the ranks of the
rioters. This is an evil unlike COM
munism) which is spreading and
taking root in native soil. The dis
tinction of classes is much less strict
ly observed among boys than among
men, and there is no class in society
which is not liable to furnish recruits
to this the nucleus of the dangerous
classes in our cities. No measures
necessary to its extinction ought to
be hesitated at; compulsory educa-
ton, rcfOrmatOries, well digested
systems for apprenticing boys to in