New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-08-10
ENEMIES OF SOCIETY.

That pestilent nuisance, John Most. appeared
before the immigration Investigating Commit
tee yesterday, and gave his views, or what
purported to be his views about Socialism ana
Anarchy. Neither his intelligence nor his can
dor is sufficiently pronounced to make his ut
terances important, but in the course OF his
testimony he made one statement which de-
serves to be rebuked. He said that he be-
lieved there were 2 900, 600 sympathizers with
Anarchy in this country. He believes nothing
of the Sort but it appeared to him worth while
to utter a glib insult to our civilization for the
purpose of magnifying his own office as an
apostle The man who assumes to speak for
1000, 600 people, he thought, is man to be
listened to with awe. But where he made his
mistake was in the personal application of his
theory. The emotion which he excites is not
awe, but contempt
Most would have the committee and the pub
lie believe that one in thirty of the population
of the United States, including women and
children, or at the most favorable calculation,
more than one for every five voters, are An
archists at heart. Rural communities have not
yet seen the light; great cities are the hotbeds
place in the ranks. 1t is not unfair therefore,
to assume that in this metropolis the proportion
of Anarchists to the whole population is at
least twice the general average, or one in fiji
teen. Nlosts followers are not less active on
their feet than the rest of mankind and hence
it follows from the premise that man who
walked up Broadway yesterday afternoon and
met at least forty persons on every block came
face to face with not fewer than one hundred
Anarchists between the Post Office and Union
Square. startling experience. truly, if he
had only known it
Recent events have shown that there are
in this country despite the freedom and the
opportunities which it bestows, altogether too
many avowed enemies Of social order, and that
Of these a dangerous percentage are ready to
put their utterly selfish and desperate theories
to the test of murder, arson and plllage. But
it is true here and everywhere that the An
archists arc never so numerous as their leaders
proclaim them to be. A deliberate design to
terrify society, or some lingering shred of re-
speciality which finds comfort in the thought
OF extensive association, always leads the
apostles to eXaggerate grossly the number Of
their followers. 1t is unfortunately true that
the discovery of high explosives has made it
possible for handful of outlaws to infict in
calculablc injury. 1t is, moreover, a lament
able fact that those communities which have
suffered have not learned all the lessons which
their experience ought to teach, and that there
are too many weak minded persons whose SYM
pathies are more easily aroused in behalf of
murderer than in behalf Of his victim. The
fact that the destruction which the enemies of
society are able to work is out of all proportion
to their numerical strength is most disqueting
but the real reproach to our civilization will
come when it sows or permits to be sown the
seeds of Anarchy in multitude Of lives. That
time has not yet arrived but the political
party that is now engaged in an effort to break
down our industries and reduce our laborers
to the Old World scale Of comfort and intelli-
gence is doing whatever is possible to be done
to make its approach sure and rapid.