Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1878-09-28
POOLING THE ISSUES.

Dennis Kearney, the Californian
apostle of anarchy, calls upon all
who are disconnected with the pres
emit order of things to ignore their
differences, 'pool their issues" and
Join with him in his onslaught upon
Church and State, Democrat and
capital in every form,
whether invested in manufactures,
bonds or real property-make
clean sweep of all these and then
settle among themselves what is to
be the established order in the place
of all this.
We do not propose to occupy |
much of the present paper with Mr..
Kearney or his new ally, Gen. But
Ter; they are dangerous at present |
rather to existing party organiza-
tions than to the existing order of
society; but we do propose to con-
slider elsewhere the effects which
may arise from this, pooling the
issues, by the Disseminated, and for
that purpose invite our readers to
cross the Atlantic with us and study
the deep social perturbations which
are threatening society, religion,
property and all else which stands
between the human race and cha
otto conflict compared with which
the first French revolution was
small affair. Communism in France,
socialism in Germany and nihilism
in Russia are in all these nations
lust so far formidable as they are
able to ally themselves with some
thing better than themselves. They
represent the chronic discomfort,
which is no where entirely absent,
of the poor, ignorant and dissolute
with the rich, the enlightened and
the respectable; and under ordinary
circumstances the cohesive forces of
society are much too strong to be
endangered by them but when dis
content becomes universal, when all
classes find the action of government
intOlerable, when the enlightened,
the refined, the industrious find the
oppression of their government in
creased and rendered intolerable in
proportion to their enlightenment,
refinement and industry, then these
classes find themselves driven in
despair to an alliance with the
grosser elements of discomfort, and
the descriptive and cohesive forces
which are always acting on society
conflict now in such a manner as to
render its equilibrium alarmingly
precarious.
The two nations which are at this
time most endangered by this con-
flict are Germany and Russia.
France has obtained the Republican
form of government she has so long
been bent upon and her people
are too eagerly intent upon preserv-
ing it from the intrigues of imperial
and royal malcOntents to have much
thought for social grievance ; but in
Russia radicalimplacable discomfort
has gained possession of all classes
and the socialists and nihilists count
their adherents among students and
professors, wealthy merchants,
high-born mobiles and titled ladies.
The infection has made its way into
the courts, the legislature, the uni
versities, the Bourse, and inspires
dread in all quarters, its magnitude
being magnified in in mems imagi.
nation by the mystery and secresy
with which it works.
Such a state of things necessarily
implies causes of discomfort bearing
us heavy burdens upon all classes o
society, and we have not to traVe
far to seek them. In both Germany
and Russia the master grievance i,
the vast standing army kept up by
the Governments of the two nations
In Germany especially the army
laws of thecountry fall with a heav!
weight upon all classes of society
The mechanic has but half-maStereC
his trade when he is drafted and ha
to serve till he fOrgets what he hat
learned, and moreover has failed t
acquire those habits of patient in
dustry which are acquired in youth
or never; the student has finished
his college course and is just read.
to enter his noviciate in profession
and he is put into the army wher
instead of his profession he has t
acquire the mechanical discipline O
the rank and file; the young maj
of rank quits all the social amenitie
for which his age and rank adap
him and is drilled into mere ma
chine. The expenses of all this i'm
pose a crushing burden on tn
nation, and the financial principl
by which it is maintained is tina
which came into vogue during on
civil war and which the Republica
party desires to perpetuate anon
us-a heavy system of duties o
imported goods, SO heavy as t
crush all business activity, eked on
by a system Of credit the basis {
which i bonds payable in gol
alone. What makes this Systei
the more intOlerable is that Gel
many is a very highly educated an
cultivated ration. The regimen {
brute force above described migl
be tolerated by an ignorant, sem
blrbarous nation, but with the int
lectual Germans it touches point
acutely sensitive wherever it presse
and it presses everywhere. I'll
army and the bureaucracy (whic
is nothing but the OficehOldeTs an
their dependents) uphold it; all ell:
is discOntented with it to the degr,
of evaporation. This condition
Germany resembles what the geol
gists describe rs that of our plan
when it was first cooling down to
- s.