Daily Los Angeles herald., 1881-11-04
Whas sns Commun,sts Realty
Aim AZ.

There has been lately at Paris a
revival of intsrest in the plans of
the conn6unists. There is such q
general misapprehension of what
these are that q short review of
the matter is not Inappropriate at
this time. The scheme of govern
mont contemplated by such men
as Delescluze, who is rightly re-
garded as the statesman, philos-
opher, and martyr OF the Paris
Commune, deserves the highest
commentator from theoretical
point of view, though it's practioa-
bllity in the case of France Is
doubtful. Delescluze was q pro.
found student of political science,
and he had observed that the
habit of self-goverDment, gen.
Grated and sustained by local au'
: tonomy, is the root of republican
polity. the seemingly indispensa-
BILE condition of representative in
stitutions. He saw that in the large
measure OF power exercised by
towns and counties in England and
the United States, lay the secret of
the popular control over the GEN.
trail authority in those countries;
and that the absence of such guar
antees rendered the permanent ex.
istence and effective working of q
parliamentary system extremely
questionable. Looking back over
the history Of France, he perceived
that the whole course of events for
upward Of two centuries had tend
ed to the subversion of local liber-
ties; to the Remuneration of self
counsel and self-heIp on the part
Of the governed, and the habit of
dependence on the rulers of the
heur. During the long eclipse of
the States.G General, between 1914
and 1889, the royal power had con.
tinually been siren gthened at the
cost of communal privileges and
the rights of provincial parlia.
ments. Some bulwarks of local
Independence had withstood, how
ever, the encroachments of the
0seisn regime, but these were all
swept away in the tremendous
death grappIe of republican France
with its foreign and intestine enc
mics. The bloody and hard
won victory of the Jacobins over
The Girondists may fairly be con.
sidered, in its constitutional as
poets, as the conclusive triumph
Of the centralizing over the fedora
tive principle. The impulse thus
given to unificstion constantly
acquired momentum under the
ensuing changes of regime. until
the Mayor and Town Council. the
Constables and Justices of the
Peace, in every village as we'll as
town and city Of France, vera APP
pointed by the central authority.
Few persons, indeed, appreciate to
what extraordinary and deplora-
bic lengths the process of central
ixations has been pushed in France,
and how completely the peasant
and artisan, during upward of
three generations, have lost the
habit OF self-government. A clear
apprehension of this fact and its
Inevitable outgrowths will prob.
ably go far to explain the political
fluctuations of France during the
past ninety years.
Delsscluze and those honest
friends of the Commune who
shared his opinions, proposed to
undo the centralizing work of the
past two centuries, and begin
again( at the foundation. He
wished to resurrect the political
anti, and on the basis of local in
dependence to rear q federal union
not unlike that of the United
States. He would have defined
and limited with the utmost strict.
ness the powers lodged In the Fed.
eral Legislature and Executive,
and he would have shielded in all
possible ways the rights of every
oily, town and hamlet In France TO
manage its own affairs. In a word,
he asked little more than we in
10 America enjoy to-day, and be
demanded this because OF his CON.
viction that without local indie
psndsnce, any attempt to found a
republican form of government
must, sooner or later, prove illu-
sorry and abortive.
Such was the theory of govern
mont advocated by Delescluze, an
which, az he we'll knew, the mon.
archical assembly first convened
ut Bordeaux would never volunta.
rily approve. Hence the outbreak,
the struggle, and the collapse Of
that movement whose true pur.
pose has long been hidden by the
sinister scenes amid which 1t
ended. The ideas, however, which
were then supposed to be hope
iessiy discredited, have never
ceased to find steadfast and out.
spoken partizans In all of the
great centres Of population and in.
dustry; In Lyons, for example, in
MaFnnfilaa. and oan.~t.yt