The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1898-03-27
SUNDAY. MARCH %, 1898.
srnANGE INCONSISTENCIES.

The cable brought TO this country Fri
dav a statement from Madrid that at
largely attended meeting Of Socialists
there on Thursday night a resolution was
adopted urging Cuban Socialists to aban-
don the instruction and exhortins
American Socialists not to make COM
mon cause with "the middle class that
IS merely seeking personal gain"
II would be hard 10 find in all the con-
fusing reports one sees and hears any
thing more confusing than this cable.
Everybody understands that Spanish So
ciallsts are almost in rebellion against
Spanish rule. The recent assassination
of Canovas was by a fellow who called
himself an Anarchist, st is true, but there
is no practical difference between an
avowed Anarchist in his order Of life and
an avowed Socialist in the same order,
The leading llgh.s IN Anarchy and the
leading lights in Socialism differ because
the ore says we should have no law,
while the other says the State should
regulate all the relations Of life by law.
But when We get down TO the orders
that attend gatherings in subteranean
beer saloons reeking with foul air and
tobacco smoke. we find the man who
calls himself a Socialist sitting "oheek
by jowl" with the man who calls him.
SELF an Anarchist, both being bent upon
oyerturning the established order, and
neither troubling himself much about
what order is to prevail after the exist
ing one IS destroyed. IL was doubtless
Socialist meeting Of this sort that pass
ed the resolutions in question. and how
such a body as was assembled there
could advise their fellows in Cuba to
abandon their Instruction against the
government It Is hard TO understand,
Their own whole lives are an insurrec-
tlon against the same government in
Spain and one would have expected TO
hear from them nothing but words OF
encouragement to the Cuban instruction
lists. with God speed TO them in their in
surrecton.
This resolution shows also curious
ignorance upon the part OF those who
passed Il Of the conditions existing in the
United States. It urges American So
clalists to repudiate all association with
'the middle class that IS merely seeking
personal gain"
1t is1lot surprising OF course. that an
ignorant Spanish rabble does not know
that we have no "classes" in the United
states. A spaniard sees nothing but
classes ood orders. He sees the SOW
oreign who constitutes a class alone.
Then comes an order OF nobility just n
little below that S. a class TO itself and
that looks down upon the class below e.
and so It goes on down by class after
class until the wretched rabble is reach
cd that is driven into its Social and An
archistc instruction because the
"classes' appropriate all the grain in the
country and leave It nothing but the
husks. But, God be thanked. we have
no classes here. An Americans are free
men. and each stands before the law the
peer of every other one. and each has as
good en- opportunity 10 reach the top OF
the ladder as any other one. An may
struggle to benefit their own conditions
with the full assurance that IL economy,
prudence. sobriety and industry bring
them rewards they will be secured and
protected in the possession and enjoyment
OF those rewards. and they and their
children viii be just as wen of through
their own honest toll as any Spanish no.
bleman can be through the robbery Of
his fellow men that his country's laws
accord TO his birth.
II IS not surprising that the ignorant
spanish peasant. VINO sees and knows no.
thing but classes" that Cypress him.
should not know Of our blessed state OF
freedom here for ali men. but It does
sound q little curious 10 hear him adyis-
ing his fellow Socialists in America
aga.nst consorting with the mid
die class" one would have sup
posed that no would have been
warning his fellow Socialist against the
higher classes. as. II he supposed us to
have classes at all. ne would naturally