Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1878-10-10
down to the time of Charlemagne
since then Dad thing.

l
but now almost exclusively Amer
can--a curious compound of religious
enthusiasm and worldly thrift; Nor
| manism, great national humiliation
taking the bad blood OF all Europe
to keep it going and other Com
munistic societies in the United
States (these last, numbering in al
! aboat $500 persons in fourteen set.
tlements-one French, two Ameri
| can, and the rest mostly Germany
we're delineated in their particular
features by DR.. Hitchcock. Antique
W lends charm to practical com.
munism akin to that felt in looking
at the plows, hand-mills and looms
still to be seen in the Orient. Its
antiquity, however, is more agains,
it than for it. The real age of GOLD
is not behind with heathen poets, but
before us with Hebrew prophets
The resort TO Communism, 40 fer.
vently urged, would be retrogres
sion towards barbarism.
Speculative communism, in its bril-
liant history, beginning 5000 years
before Christ, with Phaieas, whom
Milton speaks Of as the first to roc
ommend the equalization of proper,
orty, was next considered. The lit.
erature of the subject from Plato and
Socrates to Sir Thomas More's Tito
pia and Harrington's Oceana, OIL
Cromwell's time, was traced and
classified as poetico-political /; asth,
etc, scholarly, humane and hopeful
not battles, not half battles not ad.
dressed to the masses, but opl !,
bright, wild dreams of tired soldiers
in the pauses of battle. ~
Communistic books with iron 10
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iron for Attilla--
are not only modern but recent
Modern communism, now grown sc
surly and savage, everywhere began
mildly enough. AS a system it il
mostly French, name and all. Among
the famous writer's are St. Simon
Fourier, Considerant, and Louis
Blanc
| The earlier apostles Simon
who died five years before, and Fou.
pier, who died seven years after the
Revolution of 1880, which they did
so much to bring about--had for
their deciples the aristocratic youth
of France. They were followed by
Considerant, whose "Destinee Soci.
ale"appeared between 1884 and 1874
These men were philosophers of the
dreamy sort, reconstructing society
as the walls of Troy were built, with
strains of Olympian music. The
whole tone was serenely academic
they appealed only to what is most
generous in human sentiment.
In CADETS "Voyage en- Icarie'
! (lS42)and still more in Louis Blanc's
"L'Organization du Travail" (I840,
we begin to hear the ring of steeI
forging into something sharper than
trowels La 1910 Proudhon tolls
France and tells Europe that "prop.
erty is robbery" More pestilent
words were never spken In 184e
this short sentence was the dagger
that stabbed the republic of Lamar.
tine. The man on horseback soon
hove in sight. The new Empire
rode in, bringing with it the pros
perity that comes of order, the bur-
dens that come of glory. Then fol
lowed championship of the Latin
races, the Mexican proteetorate, the
Suez pageant, wicked war with Ger
many and terrible Sedan. France
went mad. The wild Marsellaise
rang ont, the Commune stamped It's
angry foot. evil spirits answered the
call, and the streets of Paris were
hot and red with flames and blood as
never before, and probably never to
be again So persisted communism
in France.
Persisted in Francs but not in Eu.
rope or America. La Russia less
than twenty years ago, it began as
it did in France with scholars and
students, invading and injecting the
universities. Now it polsons the
blood and maddens the brains of ar.
tisans and peasants. Self christened
Nihiism describes it we'll ats am
bition is MOTTO reconstruct but sim.
ply to destroy.
German communism is hardly OF
age yet, but old for its years. Its
recent growth has been rapid, 40.
tagonizing the rapid development OF
the New German Empire, whose
"Blood and Iron" Blut and Esen)
it delests, denounces and defes Like
almost everything else German, Bis
marck and his Empire, of course, ex-
cepted, it is eminently scholastic
wears glasses. studies science, and
whether it builds or fights, always
observes the rules. DIR. Hitchcock
sketched the career of its chief apos-
ties, Ferdinand, LaSaIle, and Karl
| Marx Marx still lives and is
tho leader of German Communism
From his cottage in London he keeps
his glass upon the field and directs
every movement. Loudly proclaim
ing allegiance 10 labor, he lives. as
did LaSalle. in luxurv. Private cap
ital must be abolished /; all industries
adopted, organized and managed by
the state. Money must be advanced
by the State as needed in develop-
ment of new enterprises, wages in
creased. family life reconstructed and
God dethroued.
Such is German communism. Lum-
bering pedantic volumes; condensed
in countless pamphlets inouIcated
by moro than forty journals sus-
tanned in 1877 by nearly halt mill
lion of voters out of FIVE and a hall
millions; as yet only every eleventh
voter, but represented in Parliament
by steadily growing party that
may soon hold the balance of power.
1t blundered when it fred once and
again at the brave old Emperor.
La america we are getting the ref.
ugees Frencbmen disguised that
Paris proposes no more barbados ;
Germans willing to endure less
science if they may only find more
safety. Not much ike these English
refugees 80 long ago, who said their
prayers and sung their hymns, "On