Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-09-22

to give. to the public But II may be
doubted whether even the police can deter
mine what relations the criminal side OF
the movement has with the theoretical or
doctrinal side.
Might Have Been Expected.
Novel and alarming as the phenomena
are. little reflection shows us that they
might have been looked for in an age like
our own. 1t has been, as regards moral
AM social ideas. a revolutionary age. Over
many parts Of Europe the old restraints
which religion had imposed have complete
ly vanished from the minds of a large part
or the laborng class in the towns. and have
oeen replaced Ito great extenD by posi-
tive hatred of religion and those who are
specially associate with It,
This has been particularly the case In
France, in Italy and In Spain. In these
countries the ruling church was most COM
pieteiy identified with the state and the
most powerful for repression. 1t is there
Tore, in them that the recoil has been most
.loient to which We may perhaps add that
IN Spain and in Italy there is a greater
tendency to violent methods than in north
ern Europe.
Along with the removal or loosening OF
religious restraints there has been all over
Europe diminution of the old respect for
rank, the old habit of looking I'D to the So
called upper classes" the old acuuiescence
In the established order of society as being
natural. rlghtful, necessary. In many
toI l'S9l have worked upon the minds of
me more ignorant part of the industrial
urban population alcohol works upon a
lsepie braln The ancient respect for au-
tHofity mas been turned into a blind hatred
of authority ~
Political liberty, widely extended in most
countries of Europe, has not bettered the
colldlton OF the industrial class as it was
expected to do. Power still remains largely
In the hands of the rich The luxury ~
the new rich, which is much in evidence
eNcites more envy than did the luxury Of
'ne ltieu srandees Of last century.
Longing for Change.
mus there is in large sections of TIE in
dustrlal urban population of continental
europe for the conditions of Britain are
quite differently a sullen sense of wrong and
an angry longing for change which In the
more excitable or criminal mind rises into
a sort of wild fury against all existing in
sutuuons, and especially against govern
ments as the repressive powers which are
deemed TO hold the people down.
Auu 10 these facts the now almost uni
sersal haplt tamong the urban populations)
" reading and the excitement maintained
by the constant diffusion of news and the
removal by the press of the veil of stately
oDscur1ty which used to conceal the person
any OK rulers from the eyes OF subjects
add all these things together, and it will he
seen that the spread of what we called an
archistc principles might well have been
predicted for the criminal manifestations
associated, whether rightly or wrongly
with those principles The number of ner
sons with more or less disordered brains IL
so large and increases so fast that WHEREBY
er there Is widely diffused excitement one
must expect 1t to break out in fierce or
vicious natures. into savage crime such
natures do not ask themselves, ''of what
use is the crime, and how will IL bring any
nearer tne overturn of established institu-
lions which we desire?' Argument is lost
on them, as the fear of punishment has
proved to be.
Preventive Measures
For the last ten years or more the gov
ernments of continental Europe have been
busying themselves with schemes for deal
ing with the evil, but they seem to get no
rurther. Six or seven years ago, after the
dynamite outrages at Barcelona the Brit
lsh government was invited to join in some
severely repressive measures, but In Brit
ain, as in the United States the settled
maxims and rules of law and administra-
ton make it impossible to take the kind of
arbitrary action which is permitted in most
continental countries. Nor do those wider
police powers which continental govern
ments command seem to succeed for the
evil goes on. 1t is even possible that great
er severity might aggravate
Nevertheless, one cannot but regret that
capital punishment has been abolished in
Italy. and cannot but stand astonished at
what has happened in Belgium, where Sipi-
do has been allowed. through the weak
ness, first, of the jury, and then of the adj
minstra ton, to escape scot free. Perhaps
there is nothing to be done but see that
every assassin receives punishment and
wait patiently till the epidemic dies out of
itself, as other epdemics of crime and fol-
ly have done before. New conditions have
engendered 1t, or have at least aggravated
the tendencies to it. When those condi-
uons have themselves become modified it.
too, may decline and disappear But 1t is
one of the most depressing features of the
closing century; one of the most painful
proofs that the hopes of rapid human pro-
gress which were so rife in the world for
ty years ago were too sanguine
TOrre1In. he Lion,