Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1881-09-08
DYNAMITE AND PANIC.
The Destructive Forces at the Com
r1and of Mankind---An English Jour.
nal Upon the Perils of the Time.

The Destructive Forces at the Com
nnand of Mankind---An English Jour.
nal Upon the Perils of the Time.
The London Pail Mall Gazette, in a
recent issue, says: scientific inven-
ton has increased tenfold the destruc-
tive forces at the command of man.
kind; the power of attack exceeds for
the moment the power Of social de-
tense. The means of destruction are
placed at the disposal of every man, so
to speak, who has the wickedness, the
folly, and the audacity to use them.
Any villain, certainly any three or
four villains who can club a little
money together, may, by the use of
little invention and the purchase of
little dynamite, obtain fair chance of
producing catastrophes rivaliug or ex-
ceeding the slaughter planned by Guy
Fawkes and his confederates. AS
crime itself has, like other things, its
fashion, assassination is for a moment
in vogue; every country has its share,
and many countries good deal more
than their share, of madmen, lunatics,
and scoundrels. There are ten thous-
and chances to one against the success
of such plots. Still there is a chance
in their favor, and wise man should
accustom himself to the thought that
we may hear any day that explosives
have scattered a steamer to atoms,
have wrecked town, or have de-
strOyed the life Of a man worth, in a
national point of view, more than the
lives of thousand common persons.
There is TIE further, and perhaps more
imminent, danger that some such catas-
trophe should OverpOwer our own self
control and firmness. At present it
seems as if dynamite could destroy not
only mems lives but also their princi-
Piles and beliefs. A belief in law, in
freedom, in justice, in all the princi-
piles the practice of which makes up
civilization, is absolutely essential to
the welfare of the world; yet no calm
observer can doubt that such crimes
shake g the foundation the moral
faith of mankind. 1t takes no prophet
to forete' that should some dire catas-
trophe actually take place there will be
cry raised by at least half England
that freedom of action, freedom of
speech, liberty of every kind, and every
legal security for liber.y must be sac
rifced to secure existence. Panic may
at any moment Danish prudence if we
do not keep our heads c ear and calmly
adopt whatever spec ic means can
best be devised to meet a specific evil
We are resourceful people. 1t lies
within the capacity of Englishmen to
frame laws and regulations which may
make the unauthorized carriage or
dealing with e. ,losives difficult and
penal. Certainly is / general much
more efficient than severity of punish
ment' the policeman can do Ear more
than the executioner; but there need
be no Scruple IN this matter in making
punishIdentS rs severe as policy de-
mands. The civilized wo. ID may well
enough act to yether to guard against
dangers fatal to civilization. When,
however, we have once resolved to
adopt whatever specific cautions are
possible against this new peril we can
do no more than keep our minds free
from panic. To suppose that some
how or other the sacrifice OF freedom
would protect us from dynamite OF
gun-cottOn is sentiment on the level
with the belief, which has caused more
useless cruelty than almost any other
delusion, that severity of torture was
n security against the prevalence of
crime.
"The suppression of freedom has
been tried before our eyes with com.
pleteness with which it cannot be tried
i'm gl..nd, and has utterly failed of
its hoped-for result. No ministry select
ed on, of the sternest tories i'm this coun.
try could or would adopt half the precau
tiOns adopted by Russian generals and
statesmen to protect the car. These
precautions did not save Alexander
III. from q horrible death, nor do they
enable Alexander III. to walk in safety
through his own capital. The meas
ures suggested by fear absolutely coun
teract their own object. If we sup
pose, as many Englishmen assume
that Feniaus sent the internal machines
from America, then the suggestion
that Rosa and men like him should bt
gagged is. in fact, proposal that VIZ
should deprive ourselves of the only
clue we have to the perpetrators o.
such crimes and of the only WARNING
afforded us Of the intentions of the as
sassins. The old truth that to suppress.
, freedom OF speech is to cause, stimu
late and protect reel essness of actor
} is a old truth, but it is one which
needs repetition in every crisis Of tn,
world history. To create secresy il
to prOtect conspiratOr5; the publicit,
of crime is the protection Of homes
men. Another rejection is that eacl
age has its peculiar perils, and that
9 is folly to think that because the dan
: gers Of our own time s-e to some ex
, teri new in form we are surrounde,
/, by unheard-of difficulties which re
E quire monstrous remedies. There is a
!, least one era in which historical SD
dents may find traits Of likenesses Z
the PRESENT During the sixteenth an,
I seventeenth centuries increase in sci
2 entific knowledge conceded with a dis
, turbance in mems moral, religious an,
political notions far greater and NOR
I searching than the kind of disinteOra
ton OF beliefs which is so striking
: phenomenon at the present day. Tn
death of William the Silent, the mas
z sacre of st. Bartholomew, the assassin
: alton of the Duke o. Guise, of Henry III
! and Of Henry ~, the tragedy of Kirk
! of-fold, and the gunpowder plot ar
I. examples Of the condition O
moral and social feeling un
der which assassination in ON,
shape or another was almost the &C
cepted lot of statesmen. Then, as now
different men and different countrie,
: thought of different courses to NEE
the special perils Of the time. Vic
lence, inhumanity, torture, and all tn,
cruel resources of terrified despotisn
} recommended themselves far and wild,
to statesmen and to the populace a
: the only means n. proteci inc themaalve.