Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-01-23

penses Of society and enjoyed all its advant-
ages. As the institution of the commune Of
the Middle Ages broke the chain of feudalisu
30 the revolution broke the remnants Of feudal
ism lingering in the nobility and the clergy
Equality and liberty-tbese two words sum up
the whole revolution, says Lamartine. There
were depiorable excuses, but the excuses
were not the revolution; they were the COM
mune. Their emancipation was to them an in
toxlcation of gladness, an exultation of hu-
mainly which induced France to embrace the
whole world in her ardent patriotism. Drunk
With liberty, crazed with equality. the
people could not remain under the
guidance Of men like Lafayette and
Mirabeau. who desired to have the
revolution conform to the American type. Led
away by the fervid and vague declamations of
those whose only idea Of civil freedom was the
absence of all restraint, the people broke sue
cessively through all the ties of organized soci-
ETY., morality, religion and even of common
humanity. Passing from the reign of terror to
later days the lecturer briefly reviewed the
history of French communism during the first
half OF the present century until it finally
worked out its own ruin. He then turned his
attention to
AMERICAN COMMUNISM,
which, he said, presents strong and pleasing
contrast to the French article. Without going
into its detailed history, it is sufficient to say
that it has SO far been based on a religious
foundation. 1t came with Robert Owen. a
wealthy English manufacturer, in 1928 when
he founded at his own expense a communist
society at New Harmony, Ind There were a
few years ago not less than ~ communes in the
United States, numbering over 5, 600 persons and
possessing capital OF over S12.000.000 They
all have as their bond of union some form of
religious belief, and their members are usually
Christians. They all believe in owning property
IN common. and some in the community of
wives, although the Shakers are celibates in
principle. They have all been founded to
remedy the wrongs of society, and, while they
have fourished in a material point of view, it
is because the world is not communistic, and
they traffic with the world. These American
experiments have been peaceful, and have
done no perceptible harm. The members are
working out problem, the solution of which
must be looked for by all honest-minded men
how can poverty be removed The history, ex-
perlence. customs and habits of these Ameri-
can communes furnish interesting material for
a large volume. but the limits of an address
preclude their more specific consideration.
CONCLUSIONS.
To what conclusions do all the various ex-
periments we have cited lead us2 The fatality
of communism is that it leads to evils a thous-
and times more devilish than those it seeks to
remedy. Its antiquity is, We have seen, the
antiquity OF the human race, and the opponents
OF 1t usually fear to refer to it's antiquity, but,
TO me, this is the great argument against it,
for 1t proves that it is but national infancy and
that to adopt it is to go back to the time when
was born for it is but the feeble cry
Of the infant. 1t is not even the creeping age
Of civilization. 1t is extreme democracy, or
democracy gone to seed, for it demands not
only all laws to be made by the people in their
aggregate capacity but the control of all prop
erty interests by the same power.