The Labor enquirer., 1886-07-17
arms in their hands, to the conquest of

In the midst IF complaints, of palav
erings, of theoretical discussions, Rev
olutionarY act, individual or collective
takes place, summing up the leading as
pirations of the moment. The masses
necessarily remain Indifferent at first
While fully admir1ng the courage of the
individual, or the group that tiok the
initiative, they must of necessity follow
at first the wiseacres, the cautious folk,
who hurry to condemn this act of folly
and to say that ''the tools, the hot-heads
are going to compromise everything
| They had calculated 80 we'll, these wise
and cautious fellows, that their party
carrying on its work slowly, would in
the course of 100, or 200, or 300 years
perhaps, have managed to conquer the
whole world and, look you, this unex-
pected occurrence has thrown every
thing into confusion. The unexpected,
of course, is Just what they did not fore
see, these wise and cautious gentlemen.
Whoever knows anything of history
and has anything like a fairly we'll
balanced brain, knows well enough be-
forehand that the theoretical propa
ganda of the Revolution necessarily
translates Itself into acts, long before the
| theorists have decided that the time for
action has arrived; Notwithstanding
which the wise theorists fly into rage
against the fools" eXcommunicate and
anathematize them. But the fools
find sympathy, the N ass of the people
secretly applaud their daring, and they
find imitators. AS fast as the first
among them are sent to people the goals
and prisons, others come forward to
continue their work; the acts of ldwless
protest, of revolt and of vengeance null
tlply.
From that time forth Indifference is
impossible. Those who, at the start,
never even asked themselves s,what it
was that the fools" wanted, are COM
PEELED to study the question, to discuss
their ideas, to take one side or the
other. Thanks to the acts forcing them
selves upon public attention, the new
idea filters into peoples heads, and wins
itself proselytes. A single act makes in
a few days more propaganda than thou
sands of pamphlets.
Above all it awakens the spirit of Re-
volt, it gives rise to boldness. The old
regime, the army of policemen, of mag
istrates, of gendarmes and of soldiers,
seemed immovable as that old Bastile
fortress. which, also appeared impreg-
nable TO the eyes of the unarmed people
assem- bled under its lofty walls, lined
with cannon ready to open fire upon
them. But people soon perceive that
the established regime has not got the
force it is supposed to have. Such and
such bold act has been sufficient to
upset for daYs together the whole ma
chinery of government, and to shake the
colossus; such and such an outbreak
turned a whole prov lnce toDsy-
turvy, and the military, which ALWAYS
cuts 50 imposing a figure, las recolled
before handful of peasants armed with
sticks and stones the people perceive
that the monster is not as terrible as he
was thought to be, it commences to
catch a glimpse of the fac! that only
few energetic efforts are required to ter
rorize it. Hope springs up in their
hearts, and We must remember that II
evaporation often drives people to an
outbreak, it is always hope, the hope of
conquerlng, that causes Revolutions.
The government resists, it RACES fur
iously. But, if repression formerly
killed the energy of the oppressed, now,
in times of effervescence, it has the con-
trary effect. 1t provokes new acts Of
Revolt, individual and collective; 1t
forces the RevoIters TO deeds of heroism
and step by step these acts gain ground,
become general and develop. The Rev
olutionary party is reinforced by eIe-
ments which have been hitherto hos
tile to it, or which stagnated in indtfer-
ence The government, the directing
and privileged classes become demOral-
lied some are for resistance 10 the
death, others pronounce themselves in
favor of concessions, others go 80 far as
to declare themselves ready to renOunce
for the moment their privileges, with a
view to paclfying the spirit Of Revolt,
even if they have to master 1t later. The
cohesion of the government and the
privileged classes is broken.
The governing classes can still try to
have recourse to furious reaction. But
the time for that has passed; the strife
only becomes more acute, more terrlble
and the Revolution which is announc-
ing itself will but be the bloodier. On
! the other hand the smallest concessio on
on the part of the governing classes,
since they have now come too late, and
have been wrung from them by strife
only awaken further the spirit Of Re-
volt. The people which would at an
earlier date have been contented with
such concessions, now perceives that the
enemy is giving way. 1t forsees victory.
it feels its boldness grow, and the very
men who formerly, broken down by
misery, were fain to sigh in secret, now
lift their heads and march proudly tc