The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1899-04-15
Com1llllnei /
rible Struggle by the Late
= s:~ g.: .:9 Mr. Pixley.
tMr. Pixley was one Of the most dis
tinguished and conservative Journalists
on the Pacific cOast.)

tNfr: Pixley was one Of the most dis dis
tinguished and conservative journalists.
on the Pacific coast.)
TWAS in the city of Paris during the
| entire period that the commune nm ,lI'lts 4
held sway. There was the Bank Of
France with it's boarded wealth of coin.
the House of Rothchilds, the Bank OF
the Hopes of Amsterdam; there Wei''. ,eis.
the great magazines and storehouses
filled with costly fabrics: shops with
jewels of untold value; palaces with
costliest gems of art; pictures and mar
bles of inestimable price. There was
!, vast population which had forsss4 for
months endured privation, hunger and
distress. The gendarnnes had been
driven out. and there was no other
government than that of the communc. mmu
And yet during five weeks weeks OF
menace from without and suffering
within-I saw and heard of no single {
act of pilage and murder.
From b,rricade to barricade, from
one open space to another, fighting
inch by; inch, in despernt zion the Sold
iers of the commune, with their wives
fighting at their sides, sullenly dis
putting: every. stone, block and curb
stone, gretreated to the cemetery, and
there amid the graves of the dead the
la st of the communists laid down their 4
lives in hopeless, desperate valor: hey
may, have been wrong and mmissg,uitd MI e seadss
but that they were thieves, ml murder ! d. ~
els and incendiaries, I most indits;:-#33 81
1lantly deny. During five weeks 4 z saw
no act of vandalism; [ saw no plunder:
saw organization and order. A 5sa
During; the week of government vicrrss3
tory ! saw scenes of unparalelled
brutality, 7 saw a hundred inexcusable3
bloody acts. I saw a well-dressed ma
tt on stabbed to death in the, back 3 and AZ
flung like a wild beast, into an ope;l
port cochere in the boulevard Huss..
man, because she Jagged behind i'm tllss
train of prisoners. saw five little
girls lying dead in q heap near the tbs
Palace d'Industrie, with their petit
coats thrown over their, faces, shot s. ,ss
petroleuses by Versailles soldiers.
saw a man torn from his carriage and
killed by a hundred deadly bayonet#$ 4
thrusts. L saw hundreds and hundreds
of communists fusi1aded and buried II.
a trench near the river Seine. 5s s1ss
I do not believe that the communists
either burned or attempted to burn
Paris. The commune was composed sOs
the scholars and thinkers of France.
1t was a band Of patriots. # it had a, II /
it the mad element of fanaticism, it
may be excused. IF oppressed labor
classes looked to it for relief, twas
but natural. If fanaticism and disor-
der enrolled themselves to fight under
its banners, it was because it was tha
first and only flag where they might
enlist. If poverty, distress and des-;;
peration looked to it for a change, irss 4
was but rational. fEsEs 35ate
The history Of the commune is writ
ten by its enemies. Like all lost causes,
it will be misrepresented. What there
was of good in it will be suppressed;
what there was of bad. inS it will be
exaggerated. Let London, or NV
York, or San Francisco fall under thsyls
control Of it's worst citizens, and We 4
should see scenes of pillage, rapine q
violence, drunkenness, theft and mllr-i
der. Yet in this great city Of Paris,
given over to the commune for five g I
weeks, with all it's wealth and wine, Isl
saw order, sobriety and respect to per-
sons and property. Hence I feel it my
duty to say that communism does not
mean a forcible and unlawful distribu-8
ton of property, nor is the word CONS
nunist' a synonym for every crime.
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