The Labor enquirer., 1886-10-16
SATURDAY OCTOBER
an armed conflict; meetings become
riots, and strikes lead to civil war.

4 +
Take all these facts together, analyzt
| their mutual action, and if you know
: what nations have been on the eve o
Revolutions, you will doubt no longer
the close approach of the Revolution o
the nineteenth century. .71
But few years will elapse before govern
ments will be overthrown on the cont
nent. Already in 1S4S the insurrection
in Italy spread all over the continent
barricades in Paris were immediately
repeated in the barricades at Vienna
and Berlin. Now that Europeans are SC
closely connected by steam and electric
ity; now that the same ideas inspire the
Norwegian workman and the Italian
peasant. the rapid spread of the Revolu-
ton is yet more inevitable. Govern,
ments viii be- oyerthrown. Republics
and Communes will be proclaimed
And upon these republics and Com
munes the masses will impose the modi-
fication of the present system of produc-
ton and political organization on new
principles.
Spanish and Russian, German and
French, Belgian and italian peasants
will seize the soil of which they have
been despoiled. Workmen in towns
will seize factories and mills. Acts of
appropriation will take pace. New
forms of life will be submitted to trial !;
new departures will be made in the in
dustrial and political life of societies.
Successful, or partially unsuccessful
all Revolutions have succeeded in a
measure. The Bourbons returned to
France, but the feudal institutions did
not return with them nor the absolute
rule of the king. Partially defeated or
not, the coming Revolution will give. as
it has always given, the watchword to
the evolution of the next century.
Will England remain untouched by
this movement? The middle classes of
England have the reputation of being
far-sighted enough to make the neces-
sarY concessions in time; will they be
able to do this again?
Forty years ago they could say to the
workmen in revolt: Be our political
equals, and in the industrial field let us
- n,f nF hn
world market. The situation ls no
longer the same, nor the points at issue.
The promise of continually enriching the
country by manufacturing for other peo
pie than the workers themselves has not
been kept. We're it again repeated, it
would be out of date. So also with rep
resentatlve government.
The points of contest are also not the
same. AS long as Germany and France
revoted to gain what was already real
lied in England, French and German
Revolutions could have no hold on En-
glsh minds. But the German and
French workmen 60 further now. They
ask economic equality, they ask for new
forms of economic life; their insurrec-
ton will be for Socialism, not for ::olltl'
Cal representation; and the ideas Of the
continental WOrkmen will find a living
echo in England.
Are the English middle classes pre-
| J -
ment, as they did IN that for parliament
ary reform? Are their leaders aware of
the new tendencies ? Do they recog-
nize their justice? No. And the waves
of the European Revolution will no
longer break against the cliffs of En-
gland; they will sweep some of them
awav.
1t is no use to sneer. and cry "Whv
these Revolutions No use for the
sailor to scorn the cyclone and to cry
"Whv should it approach my ship ?"
The gale has originated in times past, in
remote regions Cold mist and hot air
have been struggling long before the
great rupture OF equilibrium-the gale
was born.
So it is with social gales also. Centur-
les of injustice, ages of oppression and
misery, ages Of disdain of the subject
and poor have prepared the storm.
We, handful of men who see the
gale coming, and warn the careless, and
are pelted with stones for that warning,
we are as unable to prevent the storm
as to accelerate Its arrival. Its first
coming will depend on causes greater
than those we take hold of. But We
may, and must, show its real causes.
We must endeavor to discover and TO
enunclate in plain words the hopes, the
faint, indisUinct ideal which sets the
masses in motion. The better under
stood, the more warmly taken to heart,
the greater will be the results achieved,
and the less numerous the useless vic
TINS.
These hopes are hopes of getting rid
of capitalist Oppression, of abolishlng
the rule of man BY man, of Equality, Of
Freedom, of Socialism. And those who
fight for these tendencies-deeply rooted
In, and cherished by Humanity-will
win in the struggle! Without these
principles no society is posi- Dle.--Free
dom, (London). -
"Honorable MentiOn.'
For the Enquirer.
One loses faith in humanity in read
| ;Dx ho ronnlor IaiI, Doru and nj