The Windham County reformer. (Battleboro, Vt.) 1876-1897, 1894-06-29

II itself, is the crime of this wild beast of anai
II oh ism to be deplored. OF the four heads O
e nations who have fallen by assassination il
Y the past 80 years, three have been president
Il of the great republics of the world, our owl
t Lincoln and Garfield and now Carnot. Sucl
4 coincidence as this cannot fail to be a poten
t argument in the hands of reactionism. In TIN
nat ure of The case it is true that monarchica
institutions and isolation give surer protection
to the heads of government than republican
when the protection needed is against thu
frenzied foes of all law and order just as ready
to murder man of CARROTS kindness ant
record of generous endeavor for his fellow
men as the most ruthless despot. Macauley
long ago warned the world that If revolution
airy violence was allowed to proceed un
u checked 1t might become necessary to destroy
liberty in order to preserve civilization and il
is unquestionable that Sunday nights crime
will give strong impetus to this consulnma-
ton.
France, for nearly % years now, has been
earnestly at work to solve the problems of
human advancement and her progress has
been steady and wonderful towards larger
liberty and wider opportunities for all men.
AS Jefferson said of his hopes of the First
Republic in its earlier days, it has
aimed to accomplish ''resurrection to new
life" of the peoples of the old world, aground
down by centuries of wrong and oppression"
And yet the Anarchist activity has been fully
as great and as savage against this govern
ment, as against the worst and most aristo-
cratic in the world. The fact, however dis
couraging for the present, and however i'll its
effect on progressive thought for the time
being, cannot fail to be destructive to anarch-
ism itself and, al its allied theories in the end.
Anarchism may be very pretty and winsome
thing in abstract philosophizing, and in
world of angels it might answer but in human
affairs the concrete fact about it is that it I'M
does no wrong, brings no improvement to
men, but it does furnish an avenue for the
savagery of the slums, for minds disordered
by crime or disease, for the morally insane of
the time, to satisfy criminal instincts under
the pretense of principle. Theorists who are
inclined to be attracted by the arguments of
such leaders as Kropotkin cannot fail to see
this, and to conclude that ideas that blossom
in such undiscriminating crime and butchery
as we have seen in France, cannot have merit
in them. and the result will be an intensified
,ut
Satl-C arnOt, the murdered president, was
lot quite 81 years old, being born at Lumiges
Aug. II, 1887. He was the grandson of''Car-
lot of the Directory the war minister of the
First Revolution, the man who organized the
ictory which the young republic won over
llied Europe and the reactonaries of France
tself-one of the most marvellous examples
# the energy of high ideas and purposes in
III history. His son, and the father of the
ate president, Laxare Hippolyte Carnot, in
lerted these republican principles to the full,
vas one of the leaders of the revolution of
S4S, minister of public education while the
epublic lasted, a man who would never take |
he oath Of allegiance to Louis Ma :
'oeon, life senator under the third !,
epublic, and man of literary fame espec- !
lily in oriental lines. Sadi-Carnot, the third t
this illustrious line, was educated as civil {
ngineer, graduated at the head OF :
is class in the Ecale DIES Ports O
Chaussees, constructed the great Collonge t
ridge on the Rhone, near the Swiss frontier, y
hen he inaugurated new process of tubular c
undation and during the Franco-Prussian r
ter the republic was declared had charge war y
the national defense in Normandy. He n
anslated John Stuart Mills essay on the s.
Revolution of 1S4S and its Detractors' and o
was an ardent follower of Milrs philoso- :,
by. He was elected to the national assemb- Il
of February, 1871 and has since been con- u
nuously in public service being minister of IL
lblic works in the De Freycinet ministry
nd minister of finance in the Russian minis @;
v. contributing much to the country's =,
rowth by his large engineering knowledge II
the former position and exhibiting great n
i'll in the intricate questions of national fin 20
ice in the latter. In the assembly he was a u,
ember of the Left, or the extreme Republic 80
ms, and for years was its secretary but since .;
s elevation to the presidency in 1887, has :.
Ell as much of an opportunist as Gambetta .,
er was. He has had to deal as president :,
18th succession of threatening crises in the :,
eDuke of Orleans the difficulties with Rome, r.
e great labor troubles and the Panama ~
auds, and has handled them with such III
gacity, such moderation and such we'll
Oh unquestioned integrity as to bring the -,
public out stronger in every case, exposing III
,r,1a for no nj nj al :
nturer he was, exhibiting the power of the ~
" i'm the arrest of the Duke of Orleans, and 81
en- preventing unreasonable sympathy by II,
rdoning him in due time, bringing the IN
'pe to practical concession of the suprem- n.
Y of the civil law over ecclesiastics. and -,
securing expressions of friendship from o.
Is most liberal Pontiff of recent centuries ~.
d achieving more nearly a separation of arr
! church and state than France has ever n,
IN. The French system of government is g..
with responsibility thrown on NO
e ministry and designed to make com
rative figure head of the executive; but in
tie of the fact there has been no question "
Carnot's influence, quiet but persuasive, tol
been the predominating factor in all this ~,
AT progressive work. He has been under am
od to have favored moderate attitude Mi
ward the labor question in itself, with the VI. om
Icy of severity toward anarchists, or any TB
ID of law-breakers who defy the public
ice in the name of labor and the people co,
has favored the severe legislation against
irchsts, and the strict police measures
ich have led TO the arrest and punishment
90 many of the bomb-throwing. murderous J
,wd, and his life has paid the penalty of u d. !.