The San Antonio light. (San Antonio, Tex.) 1883-1886, 1884-02-08
ANTI-C0MNUNE.
A CORRESPONDENT GIVES HIS VIEWS
ON THE QUESTION.
Too Much Consideration and federation Extended
10 Communists, Reyolutionisis and
cranks Generally.
Editor San Antonio Light.

Editor san Antonio Light.
The influx of Socialists and Commun-
lists from all the nations of Europe into
the United States and the license given
them TO speak and publish their wild
and disorganlzlng sentiments, have de-
bauched the virtue and corrupted the
minds of thousands of men in all the
walks of life. These foreign Socialists
and Communists are cranks, or else have
been crazed by oppression, for "oppres-
sion makes the wise man mad" but
whether they are cranky, or demented,
does not render the poison distilled by
them one particle less deadly In its eff
fects, when II Is injected into the public
mind daily and hourly. These men de-
serve the unstinted execration of every
true hearted American. Why should
they endeavor to SOW broad cast the fatal
seed of disintegration, disorganization,
pessimism, class antagonism and social
disruption In nation which has given
them an asylum with more generosity
than discretionp They re-enact the part
of the "frozen viper" in the fable, by
singing the hand that warmed it back
into life.
These foreign revolutionists and So
oialists are flrebrands and missionaries
of evil. Herr Most and O'Donovan Rosa
should be banished out of the country,
upon the same principle, that n contage-
Gus disease is shut out by quarantine.
Now, in France, the Commune means
merely the municipal government of
city, or town, local antagonism to CEN
tralsm. Guizot, in his "IIistory of Civ
ilizations, notices at considerable length
and with his characteristic clearness Of
style, the struggle of the Communes
against their feudal superiors. This de-
votion TO the Commune is still strong in
France, where the widest theories ever
spawned by a distempered Imagination
are received with eolat and invested
with prestige.
Localization of government involves
the disintegratlon of governments and
is fully as blighting in its consequences
as centralism. Municipal matters should
be transacted and conducted by local
governments in strict subordination to
the general or national government, but
this is an essentially different thing from
giving each municipality Independent
power.
But a parcel of ociologists-ideolo-
gists, to use n phrase of NapOleOn's-
have demanded community of good,
and the adjustment of all rights Of sepa-
rate property and have been styled
Communists, from this circumstance.
But communism has no connection with
the commune or municipal government
question. was good deal surprised
to see that Senator Houston, in his
speech against the "rerrell bill," used
the phraze commune several times as
though its Specification was Identical
with community Of goods or COM
munism. If he will consult GuiZot's
history of civilization, or Michelet's
history of France, upon the phrase, COM
mune, he will hardly again fall into the
gross mistake of confounding 1t with
communism, or community Of goods.
Nor does the word commune imply the
rule or ascendancy of the common peo-
pie, but only of the municipality or
urban government, corporate authori-
ties, as we should term 1t in America.
Community ofproperty has for many ages
been the dream of enthusiasts and dream
ers, who were the slaves of their distem-
pered imaginations, or were Disguised
with the inequalities Of worldly fortune,
which we stumble over at every step.
This dream has been over and over again
attempted to be carried into execution,
but in every instance its practical opera
tons have disappointed the hopes and
falsfied the predictions Of its authors and
friends. A moments thought or grain
of common sense, Is sufficient to explode
this wild theory as to community Of
goods and to convict its advocates of an
entire want of knowledge of human
nature. The idle and the indolent would
not labor-they would be drones in the
hive and would subsist Off of the fruits Of
the industry of others. The prodigal
would expend more than they had
earned, and this of itself would be re-
sented by the frugal portion of the COM
munity as fraud upon them. For the
same reason, the Industrious portion of
the community would be discouraged at
the prospect Of having to labor for a
swarm of idlers, drones, loafers and dead
heads. 1t is n notorious fact now that
although all the fruits of their labor be-
long to them Individually, that thousands
of men refuse to work at all, and it is
preposterous to argue that such men
would show any greater inclination for
work in case community of goods was
adopted. Nature is supreme. Man can