The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-08-15
RESTLESSNESS OF THE MASSES.

IN the hearts and minds of the people
that now and then it seeks expression in
performance that shocks the better sense
and VIKINGS condemnation even from
those who are broadly and literally dis
posed toward the cause of the masses.
And yet it is doubtful if these same con-
formations will stand before a mature
and more philosophic sweep of the sub
ject.
We had largely in mind, of course, in
writing the above the assassination of
Premier Canovas. But the eye passes
apidly from this to other features of the
restless panorama. The German Emperor
in his visit to the Gar is preceded by
safeguards against an assassin who was
rumored as lying in wait. Berlin is at
war with the masses of the German en-
pire. 1t goes so far that even on the
occasion the other day of proposed relief
or the flood sufferers, the Emperor hest
tated because the relief was urged by
the socialist papers. Queen Victoria is
aricatured in a way that even the
American cartoonist would consider
heartless. Cuba and Hawaii are as two
tumults in the sea, while the Transvaal
and the Nile are chess-boards for the
persistent English play. Japan is feeling
the first electric thrill of European life
and modern invention, and a strange con-
vulsion seems pervasive as if from the
TRANSMISSION of blood. In America the
surface is never still; sometimes being
more at a dead level than at other
times. Now the story that attracts atten-
ion is that of the miners who are trying
to get more money for their labor. The
method of these miners is very interest
ng from a sociological point of view. II
the court now enjoins the miners from
marching to mines in order to persuade
others not to work, they reply that they
will hold public meetings by which they
hope to accomplish their object equally
s well. The important conclusion seem
ingly from the uprising of these thou
sands of miners is that the peaceful
Methods of making themselves heard has
advanced among the masses to a point
hitherto unknown. Outside of trifing
blow, there has been no clash with the
aw or otherwise during the existence of
his strike.
Holding all these events thus touched
upon in review, we may in estimating the
restlessness on the surface probably be
safe in saying that the problem above all
others today is the uplifting of the poor
masses. Every outbreak has that problem
omewhere in its depths. As to the meth
DDS for its solving, there is the rub. The
method of the anarchist must fail, lack
ng fundamentally, as it does, the quality
of justice. But it no less emphasizes the
resistless energy by which institutions
as they exist are constantly feenng the
impact of the common people. In this
light, those turbulences may not be alto
gether unwholesome. If they were we
might look back with regret upon the
light Of liberty with which Rousseau was
mong the first to illumine France, with
regret, too, upon the French Revolution
that worked out the present Republic,
though We may turn almost faintingly
away from the scenes enacted about
Robespierre and Marat. What is going
on now is by comparison a mud continue
ion of the efforts that have been making
to break the shackles from liberty ever
since the fresh brood of the Goths over
flowed the corruption of Rome stagnant
under romanticism and superstition.
When they broke over the Alps the great
! rst step had been taken to overcome bar
riers. Then came Huss and Luther and
Melanchthon and Ridley and Latimer
and Wesley and Whitfield and Cromwell
and the Crimean war, the freedom of Rus
sian serfs, the almost twin-birth of
America and of France. The methods
who can order them? The problem and
the results we know-the people have
Tome to a knowledge of their rights and
to the moral height of fighting for them
peacefully. AS sure as Buckles History
/ Civilization was found on the shelf Of
Russian serf, who was forbidden even
to read, so sure has the stimulus of a
higher citizenship taken hold now of the
common people everywhere. We need not
/ ook for Gains, but we need look to the
Individual outbreaks as incidents only in
la movement of the masses upward. The
panorama of the great upward struggle is
! ne to put men in closer touch with what
is conceived to be the omnipotent plan of
opening this old world until it is ready
n a scheme of which we dare not dream.