Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-12-21
SOCIALISM AND FRENCH REVOLUTION.

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SOCIALISM AND FRENCH REVOLUTION.
The recently expressed desire of the young
German Emperor that, in place of teaching
the classics in the German schools, more at
tention should be given to history and espe-
cially that the terrors of the French revolu-
tion should be studied by the scholars in order
to counteract the demand for popular govern
ment, is thought by an Eastern cotemporary
to indicate that the young monarch is much
less favorably disposed toward socialism
than formerly.
Ii William II. regards the French revolu-
lion as an example of socialism, he is as ig-
norant of the character of that event as the
American newspaper which attributes that
idea to him. The French revolution may
have bearing on the question of democratic
Institutions. 1t is undoubtedly an example
of the excess to which a down-trodden Ia
tion is prone, when it regains its liberty
after centuries of degradation and tyranny,
But of socialism, beyond the principle which
we of this country will hardly recognize as
belonging to that school, that government
must be for the benefit of the whole
people, there was hardly a trace
in the French revolution. The acquisi-
ton of individual wealth went on as
freely under the republican government rs
under the royal or imperial rule. There
was no attempt on the part of the Govern
ment TO assume control of industrial opera
tions or to establish community of property,
or to limit private enterprise. 1t was sim
ply Republic, founded on the uncertain
basis of popular desire to be free and popu-
lar hatred and fear of the horrible tyranny
from which the nation just escaped.
As to taking the French revolution and
holding it up to the European nations as
bugaboo to warn them against democratic
institutions, that would be a very natural
predisposition of the young war lord of
Germany, and is the stock resort of the sup
porters of monarchy. But when we find
journals of public opinion in this country,
where any such idea should not receive the
slightest sympathy, inclined to take a SIM
liar view, there is necessity for reproving
such shallow view of that introduction of
a new epoch. The French Revolution is a
warning; but it is only a warning of the
results of privilege to the few and oppression
of the masses. Any student Of that event
who has taken the trouble to learn what was
the condition of society overthrown by the
revolt, must be very stupid if he does not
see that the violence of the revolution was
the necessary consequence of the expressions
which caused it. Beyond that, without
justiiying the excesses of the Reign of
Terror, any intelligent student ought to
know that they were not so bad as the
abuses Of the preceding centuries. The
victims who were hurried to the guillotine
by the Revolutionary Tribunals had at
least the chance of an open trial and
knowledge OF the accusation against them.
The men who were condemned to living
deaths by lettres de cachet neither had any
trial, nor any information of the accusation
against them. Nor indeed was it necessary
that they should be accused of anything,
the right to condemn them to long i'm
prisonment being exercised merely as a mat
ter OF court favor. The aristocrats who were
torn to pieces by infuriated mobs were sub
jected to less deliberate and cold-blooded
cruelty than the masses who for centuries
before that were subjected to the degrada-
tion and oppression OF the droits seignorial
As to the connection of socialism with
French Revolution a very good proof of the
fact that 1t is very slight is that there is to-
day more actual practice OF the socialistic
doctrines by the imperial government of
Germany than there ever was in the first
French republic. The German Government
has taken control of railways, has assumed
q paternal care of the workingmen and in
many minor details, has undertaken
the discharge by government of the func-
tions which socialism proposes to put in its
hands. Although the Socialists do not gen.
orally comprehend the fact their system is
not inconsistent with imperialism. 1t re-
quires a strongly centralized government,
discourages private enterprises, and limits
Individual rights. 1t is therefore not an
anomaly, but natural indication OF the
normal relations of State socialism, that the
examples of its actual practice are found
under the absolutism of Germany to a greater
extent than under the democr ratio systems OF
the world.
The fact is that democracy is more widely
separated from socialism than socialism is
from absolutism. But neither Socialists mol
tionship.