Workmen's advocate. (New Haven, Conn.) 1883-1891, 1889-08-10
ECHOES OF THE CONGRESS.
Pen Sketches by Cunninghame Gra.
ham and William Morris.

ham and William Morris.
From a letter of Cunninghame Gra-
ham, NJ. P, the able representative of
trade unions in the House of Commons,
who presided over the deliberations of
the Marxist Congress on the last day of
its sitting, we make the following ex-
tracts:
at has always been the object of
some who wish to keep our British
worklngmen from entering into an in
ternatiOnal movement to represent to
them that all foreigners are revolution
lists, anarchists and men of violence
However, at the MarXist Conference the
contrary was the case. There were
without doubt, some violent men pres
ent, but who were they? Not above
seven or eight, after all. How were
they received? Chiefly in silence; and
when they persisted in disregarding the
ruling of the chair they were quietly
elected. Does this look as if the major
ity of foreign wOrkingmen were in favor
of violence?
"Imagine large hall filed with work
ingmen and workingwomen of every
nationality. At one end a high plat
form, on each side a row of boxes, SO
that when the hall was filled with peo-
pie the exact idea of the National AS
sembly of 1893 was realized. Picture
to yourselves the leaders of the advanced
thought of Europe mixed with the hard
handed workers. Colonel Lavroff, the
patriarchal Russian, expelled from his
country for advocating freedom OF the
working classes. He was patriarch,
tall, grey-haired, benevolent, a most
striking and venerable figure
"Cipriani, the picturesque Italian ex-
Deputy, thinker, a patriot, a man of
striking appearance, one who, though
no speaker, has by his actions endeared
himself to the poor and down-trodden
of his country. An imitator of st.
Paul, IN prisons oft, but in spite Of this
nine times elected Deputy during the
twenty years of his prison life.
Costa, the Italian Deputy, the son of
a small tradesman, writer, thinker, man
of action, the leader of the unemployed
in Rome last year.
"Anseele, well-knOwn trades union and
Socialist leader Of Ghent, a worthy de
SCendant of the stout burghers who in
the middle ages so often deiied their
Counts, who detied the whole power of
France and Spain, and laid the founda-
tion of economic freedom from feudal-
ism in Europe.
"Domela Nieuwenhuis, the Dutch
member of Parliament, fresh from his
nine months imprisonment for free
speech, tall, thoughtful, Iong-haired,
refined, very like Parnell in appearance,
a vegetarian, a teetotaller, good man,
if one exists, quiet thoughtful, a scien-
tifiC Socialist.
DE Paepe, the well-known Belgian
doctor, delegate to both congresses,
very ill., walking with difficulty, speak
ing with pain, pale, resolute and deter
mined, the scientist Of the advanced
movement.
"Vomar, the Prussian ex-captain Of
artillery, a giant, Samson Agonistes,
lame in the feet, our German translator,
a man of energy and courage, a man
trusted and loved by every one of the
eighty-two German Sorkmen who were
at the Congress. His Buffalo Bill hat,
of the pattern also affected by Guesde
and Cipriani, became him well.
"Bebel and Liebknecht, the German
members of Parliament, quiet, earnest,
self-contained, well-educated, self-re-
specting men of great eloquence,
"Basly, the French miners represen-
tative, resolute, talkative and like most
miners leaders. We all remembered
how he stood up alone and compelled
the French Chamber to discuss the
question of Monceaux-les- Mines dis
turbances.
Behind him ten or twelve miners
delegates from the centre and north of
France, quiet, silent men, their faces
bearing the traces of the explosions in
many a dark pit, their hands callous
with the pick-shaft. No speakers these
but determined. Says one of them, MIR.
President, | mean Citizen President, |
am no speaker, but We FROM the mines
agree with all that has been said, and
we are ready, BOO, 900 of us, to combine
or to fight, and to work or die to help
our class. That is all | have to say.
Net much, eh: But worth all your
orations.
william Morris, or, as the French
papers would have it, Williams Norris,
blue shirt, blue suit and all complete.
Our poet, our linguist, our honor to any