The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-11-12
ANARCHISM DECLINING.

IL is not unprecedented that Anarchist
day' will ever amount to much IN this
country. On Sunday the followers Of the
men who were hanged because of their
connection with the Haymarket bomb
throwing, held second annual memorial
meetings in various parts of the country,
the largest being at Chicago, in the GENE
terry where the bones of the executed men
lie. Less than half the number who par
tlcipated in the similar services a year ago
were present, and the speeches were mild
and tame compared with the ordinary
public utterances of the revolutionary
orators. PAUL GRoTTKAU, who was given
to wild and threatening writings and talk
until he was sent to prison, was the prln-
cipal speaker, and he seemed meek enough
10 satisfy an audience of Sunday school
teachers. About the only thing said by him
that might be construed into offensiveness
was the assertion that ''only through blood
can white slavery be abolished" He viz
tually confessed that the anarchists were
on the Wane, but tried to keep up the
spirits of his few hearers by expressing
the hope that they would be successful in
their contest with ''the existing conditions. ]"
It was apparent that GRoTTKAU had lost
heart and courage both, and yet he is
recognized rs one of the ablest and most
courageous of the leaders. That tire-eat-
ing, sulphurous creature, Mrs. PARSONS,
contented herself with hanging out red
flag. which was at once torn down by a
policeman, and with weeping on the grave o f
her hanged husband. She also gave evil
dence of being broken in spirit, and OF hay
ing lost her old defiance which used to
make her such troublesome nuisance to
officials and her neighbors.
The celebrations in other cities were so
tame as to be scarcely interesting, the
speeches being mild and the attendance
light.
The fact is, anarchism Goes not thrive
on American soil Our country lacks what
the ugly ism feeds upon, and the missing
element cannot be brought across the ocean
with the Disconnected fellows wao come
from abroad. In the United States the
Door people-from which class anarchists
come-are too well fed, too well clothed
and are too highly respected to become
anarchists. It requires hereditary titled
class, aristocrats by birth and law, to de-
velop anarchists among the common
people. There is no such class in this
country. No child is so low born that he
may not reach even the presidency, all
places in society, in politics and In
official life being open to every
body, and neither the laws nor the senti-
ments of the people putting barriers in the
way of anyone who is worthy. Besides,
the only revolutions which the great mass
of the American people will countenance
or tolerate are those of the ballot box, like
rhat in Ohio last Tuesday, and that other
one in Iowa on the same day. If there are
evils in the government, if officials are
guilty of oppression or wrong doing, there
are ways for making matters right other
than those which contemplate blOodshed
and the use of bombs. The lowest and
poorest man in the land is the equal of him
of the bluest blood and largest fortune
when il comes to the correction of evils in
government and getting rid of corrupt
official or a bad political party. In fact,
while there may be cause and occasion for
men to turn anarchists in those countries
where the masses are little else than slaves
TO the favored few, there is no such cause
or occasion here, and can be none so long as
suffrage is general and the people make
and execute the law. 1t is the popular sen
timent of the American people, rather than
the enforcement of any laws against in
cendiary language and extravagant, threat
ening demonstrations which keeps anarch-
ism down in this country and makes it
thing ot to be seriously feared.