The record-union., 1893-12-13
THE ANARCHISTS AGAIN.

The anarchists are at il again: this time
the bomb was thrown into the lower
house Of the French Parliament while
the body was in session. About a dozen
people were wounded, and at least three
of them severely so. Had the bomb not
exploded in the air the results would
have been more terrible.
If there is any State in Europe where
bomb throwing is less excusable than in
another it is France. The people are
prosperous, far more so than in any other
part of the continent. The State is strong,
even aggressively so, and, save for the
Panama scandal, public affairs are econ
omically administered under President
Carnot. Nor is legislation oppressive or
directed to the burdening of the people
with onerous taxation or unjust exac-
tions. Why then should the anarchists
throw bombs in France? There is no
answer to be given, any more than to the
suggestion ''Why should they pursue
their work of destruction in the United
States?"
1t would seem that, having demon
strated that murder and arson do not ad-
vance their cause particle, the anarch-
lists of the day would abandon such
methods. But they are fanatics of the
most unreasonable order; monomaniacs
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therefore to be treated as unreasoning be-
ings. To ''stab the law'' is their highest
aim evidently. since beyond blotting out
few lives and destroying some property
and puzzlng the officials who seek their
arrest, they seem to be content to make
no advance or any other kind of move
ment than that OF offense to the law of
order.
Just how anarchism is to be suppressed
or guarded against is the problem of the
hour.
It is by some held-and not without a
good deal of strength in the argument
that the wisest policy to pursue toward
their preaching; to encourage them to
come from under cover and debate their
doctrines and engage in controversy as to
the same in the open; to let them under
stand that no one is afraid of truth, and
that there is no desire to suppress free de-
bate, to the end that truth may be devel-
oped. 1t is held that under such a system
the anarchist would be more than half
disarmed: that the error in his creed
would become so apparent that he would
cease to have followers; that, like dank
breeding places of foul disease, if he and
his following are no longer given to hid
ing, and are encouraged into the sun
light they will cease to be powerful for
evil.
On the other baud rarely have anarch-
ist meetings been suppressed. In this
country they are held with perfect free
dom, and the anarchist press has as wide
liberty as any. Their documents circu-
late through the mails unimpeded, and
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streets of the cities without hindrance.
Only when there is some invasion of the
criminal law is there any interference
with the anarchistic methods.
But it is said that our public men and
speakers do not attend these anarchistic
meetings and engage in their debates; nor
do the people disagreeing go to these
assemblies and hear; they are held in out
of the way places, and are usually sur
rounded by police, on the watch for op-
portunity to arrest for Indictment to
crime. By this policy the anarchist is
made martyr, at least in his own opin-
ion, and hence he has the food to feed on
that sustains martyrs.
But if the anarchist were called to
ventilate his doctrine upon the general
rostrum, and meet antagonists in debate
as do the proponents of opposing political
policies, would he do so? Would he do
SO any more than he does now, when he
simply denounces conditions upon false
premises and there rests stubbornly?
The destruction of wealth and the pro-
hibition of accumulation; the provision
by the State for all, and each. and the con-
tribution by each to the State to the full