The Labor enquirer., 1886-09-25
Which Continually Rises Up
Before the Robbers in
Europe.
1t is Extending and is Feared
by the Vultures
Who
Have Grown Fat on the Miseries Of the
People; but Their Race Of
Robbery is Nearly Run.


pondent, shows the pleasing progress
which is being made by the men who
preach the Universal Brotherhood of
Man:
PARIS, June 28.-Socialism is the red
spectre of Europe. 1t is ever in the
thought of kings, it clogs the wheels Of
legislation in parliaments, it alarms the
thoughtful and far seeing. and it is in all
European countries disturbing element
in politics and society. Governments,
politicians, the press and writers of
books are more and more taking it into
account, availing themselves of its inhu-
ences or using the material which it fur
nishes. The question Is constantly
asked, is it extending? The reasons for
believing that 1t is are many. The
strongest is that it is feared.
In France the ministry acts timi 1ly in
presence of its occult power. Bismarck,
who hoped that his law of 1878, pro-
scribing Socialism, would accomplish its
work, and efectually lay the spectre in
five years, has been compelled to renew
it. There are more Socialist deputies
to-day in the German parliament than
in 1878. In Russia Soci alism, less de-
fined in principle than elsewhere,
threatens the life of the czar and the
annihilation of all existing social and
political forms. In Austria, Italy, Spain
and England the public Is continually
made aware of its operations by the ex-
pressed discomfort of the working
classes and the imminency of Revolu-
tions.
But in spite of divisions the seeds of
Socialism having been sown went on
terminating from 1872 to 1875 without
either journal or great leader. The
publication of Socialist books had not
commenced. During three years the
conservatives were in the supremacy,
and watchful. Worklngmen spoke and
acted here and there, but timidly, for
the memory of the terrible DAYS Of the
Commune was too vivid in all memories.
Those who had been in the van as
thinkers and writers were absent In
the fourth in ernational congress, held
at Bale, in 1869, there were seventy
eight delegates present, and of these
titty-eight voted that the soil should be
considered as collective property, and
therefore subject to equal division. The
French delegation voted with the mi
nority, for the idea of property inherent
in the soil is necessarily widely difused
in France among 80 large q number OF
small property holders. 1t is question
which the Socialists of Paris in all posi-
tions still treat with the greatest deli
cacY.
Among the first vigorous signs Of
growth manifested by Socialism in Paris
was the efforts of the students to pro-
cure amnesty for the exiles of the Com
mune. In club established by them
first appeared Jules Guesde, who had in
1870 II defended the Commune in a
journal published at Montpelier. He
fed into Switzerland to escape proscrip'
ton, and there established section of
the International. He engaged in the
quarrel between the followers of Marx
and those of Bakunin, but allied him.
self with neither. He returned to
France in 1876, and began his propa-
ganda among the students. In the au-
tumn of that year he held his first work
ingmen's congress. The "Rights of
Man" was suppressed, also the Radical
Guesde's first journal, in 1877. He
afterwards established LEgalite, which
on account of certain financial obstacles
was printed at Meaux, though distrlb-
uted only at Paris.
In 1878 the German Socialists took
part, against serious opposition, with
their French brethren in congress held
at Lyons The idea of Socialism ex-
cludes patriotism, most important ele-
ment when we consider the hatred Of
the Germans which animates ninety
nine hundredths of the French nation
1t is, however. impossible it follow in
this place the'historY of French Social
lam or to sketch its prominent mem
bers, or to explain it's literature. In the
late election IN Paris its candidate,
Goulle, the journalist arrested for par
ticipation in the strike at Decazeville,
obtained 100000 votes,& The mum Der of
delegates to the chamber of deputies
who are Socialists, or who are closely al
lied to the order, is sixty, while they
have four members in the municipal
council of Paris, with many others of
similar tendencies.
The Socialist programme of all coun-
tries are strikingly similar. and .surpris-
ingly unpatriotic. All declare that all
the means or forms under which produc-
ton exists or which are necessary to
production, tools, etc., that is, all capi-
tai, should belong to the people collec-
tivelv. This ID the 81 distance Of that OF
The French wurklugmen. The G,rman
TContinued on fourth page.