The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1881-07-06


of an assassin.
-.<-s-z--4---------u So.
GENERAL GRANT, in speaking of the at
tempted assassination Of the President said !:
.sIf this is the outgrowth of Nihilism, am
in favor Of crushing il out utimmediately." In
this sentiment he expresses the unyoiced con-
yiction of the American people. But the
task would be far more hopeless than was
the killing of the hydra BY the Theban Her
cules The conflict between individualism
and communism is the peculiar outgroWth
Of the present century, fungus thriving IN
the reeking shades Of intense competition
and automatic machinery, which latter has
taken the tools from the laborer and given
them to the apitalist, and reduced him to
part of the machine he works and does not
own, leaving him with the only alternative
Of combination to control the machine he
runs or destroying it. This thing is not q
phenomenon which will i've for day and
then disappear, but is as Natural as the events
that have given it birth and which are fur
nishing it the nutriment for vigorous
growth And it is in free America that its
growth has been most spontaneous, and
least affected BY the old fendal traditions Of
the Old world. And if i has been less posi-
tive in its manifestation, it's because it has
met with less resistance. How very natural
| the growth Of the communal principle is,
may be seen in the rapid growth of farmers
granges il the numberless mutual insurance
schemes, in the organization of the trades
| unions into compact, national body, in the
subversion of individual interests by gigantic
railroad pools, in the vast aggregation of
capital and labor which is now required to
further the movements of.commerce and
more THAI all combined, tnd the cause of
| them all, separate or eomol4ed, iasthe abso-
lutte dependence which every part Of the So
cial scale has on every other part-the de-
pendence which every section has on every
other section; species of dependence which
| the railroad and steam navigation and auto
matte machinery have wrought in half Gen.
tury, and which ia reducing all society into
/ two planes-one whose expression is money
and another whose expression is poverty
and the two are slowly grinding the in
dividualism that lies between them into
nothingness, few rising, but the majority
| falling into the abyss Of poverty and depend
ence.
| We see The decline Of faith in old tradi-
/ ions and ideas accelerating with an increas-
| ing ratio Religion as an element of faith
has been reduced by material philosophy into
a system of ethics, or measure Of personal
opinion. The common school and the al
most universal dissemination of learning
are reducing humanity to an intellectual
plane, just as commerce and the machine are
reducing it to an economic one. The hope
lessness of poverty clothed with an education
that fits it for plane beyond its reach, but
which it sees too plainly, has caused it to
insist that the divine right Of government
whether Of kings or Of presidents-sho
center on it, as also the right to live and to
enjoy, or if this be not granted, then on
it's right to revolutionize or its power to
destroy, and 1t has at this moment the fatal
consciousness of both its right and its
power. When indiyidualism drew its in
spiration first from Greek philosophy and
the Christian religion it found itself opposed
by the communal theocratic institutions
which had been the growth of the centuries
| following the dawn of civilization, and had
grown into vast and oppressive institution
| Individualism was then represented by the
povertY-stricken fanatic who braVed death
| for the sake of the mania that possessed him,
as the fanatic Of to-day braves his, with this
| difference-the faith of the ancient martyr
| caused him to endure death for the sake OF
| his opinion, while the modern ieonCclast de-
| ies death to defend his, and IN the defending
strikes his foe. Through twenty centuries
the tree of indiYidaalism has grown into full
| maturity, and borne the fruit OF modern civ
| ization. but under its dense shade the vermin
have gnaWed at its roots, Vermln that have
nonrished on It until now it is whitening and
changing its foliage to blood-red hue, that
| casts shadow more and more lurid and dis
closes the yermin in their resting places, but
too late now to save it.
| All in authority wear their honors with
dread as potent hanging over them as over
hung the mythical Damocles It is insignifi-
cance defying power, and overcoming it by
means of its insignidcance We in America
have looked on this thing with only passing
interest, while the world has wondered at our