St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-08-23
THE CURE FOR ANARCHusM.

THE CURE FOR ANARCHIST.
Senator Hill is evidently of the opin-
ion that anarchislic ideas are an exotic
carried here by immigrants as cholera
and other contagious diseases are i'm
ported. and he would quarantine the
nation against them by preventing the
landing of those infected with, them,
turning them back to the countries
whence they came. The senate agrees
with him, aud has sent his measure to
the house, where it will have a thorough
ventilation and be discussed under less
hysterical conditions then prevail in the
conservative" senate.
The bill gives to the officers desig-
mated the power to decide that the ideas
held by any intending immigrant are
anarchistic, that the person is an an
archist and to debar his entrance. This
is an extraordinary power TO place any
where. even In court, in country
whose constitution prohibits congress
from '.abridging the freedom of speech"
and John Dewitt Warner did well to
interpose his objection to the Inn medi-
ate consideration of the bill OH that
ground. That provision was put into
the constitution because governments,
lay and ecclesiastical. had assumed the
right to represS speech raised i'll oppo-
SitiOn to them, and the basis of it is the
idea that not only is the greatest free
dom of speech one of the inherent
rights of free man, but that where the
ideas are utterly wrong, they are capa-
1, % Of mi n
repressed. Like explosives they are
harmless except when confined.
Anarchy has two very opposite mean
ings, The one given by its teachers, the
other the one entertained by the public
and derived in part from the acts OF
professcd anarchists and the careless
use of the word by newspaper writers
more deslrous of finding inflaming eX-
p-essions than accurate ones. In the
abstract the anarch believes that law
and government are simply the products
and the evidence of the evil dispositions
of men, and that when the command of
Christ to love our neighbor as we love
ourselves is universally obeyed there
will be no need of government or other
law than that In the concrete the
anarch is almost Invariably man who
has grown morbid i'll meditating on the
evil conditions of the race, who sees
law enacted for oppression. govern
ments beStowing privileges, sheltering
tyranny, denying equal rights; and
courts, tied down by precedent, or
moved by even less justifable motives.
administering justice with partial hand.
Seeing this and finding protests and
rem0nstrapce vain, there comes des-
perltion that finds its expression in
viol nee which is but protest against
ba / sociological conditions.
If Mr.. Hill and his fellow senators
were statesmen instead of politicians
eager to be in the forefront of popular
opinion, even where opinion Is nothing
but prejudice. they would see that an
archism in its popular Specification is
solely the result OF conditions existing
in the body polite; that it is social
carbunce indicating internal disorders;
that the only effective treatment is the
constitutional one removing the internal
causes, and that the application of eX
ternal boluses is not only not curative,
but absolutely more dangerous. An
archy is the outward expression of a
deep-seated discomfort that finds its
source in a conviction that rights are
denied, wrong is done, law is diverted
from its public to private functions, and
redress is denied. 1t is not an exotic,
but it is indigenous to any society where
the condit ions are favorable to its de-
velopment In its brutal form of force
and violence it has existed always
wherever oppression prevailed, and its
appearance here is only proof that our
social conditions have become such as
are favorable to It's growth.
The remedy lies not in the exclusion
of anarchists or their deportation, but
in the removal of the causes which Gre
ate conditions that breed III the minds
of men feeling of desperation. An
archism cannot breathe in the pure air
of freedom and equality of rights and
privileges. 1t can find no congenial soil
in land where men feel that no man
has greater advantage in or because
of law than another has. All men recog-
nize the inequalities of the mental and
physical powers with which men are
endowed, and are willing to accept the
conditions resulting if they are per-
suaded that this is their ONLY handicap.
ALI any man can ask is freedom of OPP
portunity, that ucb-denied birthright
of every human being born into this
world; and, given that. he is willing to
take his chances with his fellows in
getting his share of what his abilities
may enable his exertions to produce.
Restore to all men their ''inalienable
right to the pursuit OF life, liberty and
happiness" give to all equal rights
and deny special privileges TO any. and
the specter of anarchy will vanish from
our land. Continue the present condi-
lions, and Macaulay's prophecy of a
strong government or anarchy will be
f,,lE