Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1878-05-18

is in France peculiar to
the great cities, but is hated and
dreaded in the country, where the
possession of property is universal.
How much the commune is hated
and dreaded in the country is man.
Tested from the recent revulsions of
political feeling. 1t is the expert
ence of the French that the COM
mune can only get the upper hand
in periods of revolution, and conse-
they were, ten years ago,
to submit to any amount of
despOtism on the part of the Impe-
rial Government rather than face
the revolution which alone could
displace it, knowing that with the
comes the commune.
On the other hand, now that the
republic is established, and men see
that communism is as furiously OPP
posed to it as it was to the empire,
the practical. property-holding, law
abiding country people are as de-
termined in their support of the
republic as they were in that of the
empire.
The feature, then, of French soci-
ETY. which has given shape to its
history for eighty years is the exist
ence of a dangerous communistic
element in Paris and the great man.
ufacturing cities in close contact
with a strong conservative element
in the country; the communistic
element largely in the minority,
but always dangerous, because in
times of disturbance it is ready to
act in masses, while the forces OPP
posed to it are diffused and incapable
of being brought to bear upon a
given point when wanted.
Is there no danger of this sort in
this country. Men in GAINESVILLE,
in Montgomery county, in Tennes-
see are little disposed to recognize
any such danger. The possibility
of any teachers acquiring danger
Gus influence here who might pro-
mitigate the abolition of property,
marriage and religion would fail to
elicit a serious thought; it would be
unnecessary even to condemn it,
for in Tennessee ninety-nine people
OutOfa hundred either own property
or are trying to own it, with every
prospect of success, but it is not so
in our great cities. In all of them
there is a dangerous element and
that peculiarly so at the present
time on account of the universal
depression of business which has
thrown large bodies of men out OF
employment. 1t did not need the
recent revelations of cOmmunistiC
dOings in New York, Chicago, Gin
cinnati and San Francisco to prove
that this is really a dangerous ele-
ment; the events of the railroad
strikes two years ago showed that
it is a smouldering fire, never ex-
tinguished and always ready to blaze
forth. 1t is true that then the in
surrectiOnary forces were promptly
quelled as soon as society was
awakened to its danger, because,
while the machinery of law was
very imperfectly organized, the In
surrectionary forces were not organ
lied at all. 1t would not be so in
future outbreaks of the sort.
But we have nearly transcribed
the space at our disposal and must
indicate briefly the provisions we
would offer as bulwarks against the
always imminent danger we have
been endeavoring to reveal. The
first and most obvious step towards
diminishing the dangers above de-
scribed is to abate its most serious
cause. The cOmmunistic clubs OF
New York and Chicago would be OF
trivial importance but for the hOrdes
of unemployed wOrkmen, with
whom discomfort and disaffectiOn
to the governing powers has become
a chronic affection. Repeal the re-
strictive measures which strangle
our commerce, abolish our prOhib-
itOry tariffs and barbarOus naviga-
ton laws, and let industry find its
natural fields of exertiOn, and let
the interchange of its products cir
culate as freely as the blood circu-
lates in a healthy body, and COM
munists will have lost half the forces
they are enlisting in their nefariOus
schemes half, we say, not all I'M
happily there has grown up among
us a large, vicious, idle population
which does not seek honest employ
ment, and these must be handled
without gloves, We deny the right
of such a class to exist in a free and
civilized country. They subsist on
other mems work and those who
work for their subsistence are their
slaves. We deny the right of great
bodies of men to form regiments
and practice military drill without
control of the executive and munic-
ipal authorities. 1t is as much the
right and duty of civil government
to prevent this as it is to prohibit
the carrying of concealed weapons ;
and on the other hand, while mill
tary organizations should be pro-
hibited to bodies uncontrolled by
the law, it should be fOstered as an
engine allied with the law. The
citizen, soldier or the standing army
is the alternative upon which we
shall sooner or later have to decide.
At our late disturbances the forces
of anarchy were not organized and
those of law imperfectly so. The
consequence was that the eHeUte
was suppressed, but not without
much mischief i'm the interim while
the powers Of government were
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