The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-12-09
STORY OF ANANARCHIST GROUP
THE MEN WHO GAVE PATERSON
4 BAD NAME.
The NOV ement Dead There Now, Though
Once 10 Wa 80 Powerful Tfa II Led
Z o the Assassination OF King Humbert
OF Italy-Good Times Killed u.

was travelling last summer on the Continent
of Europe.
-Whatl You Come from Paterson2 From
the city Of anarchistsH You live there?"
Such were the questions put TO him in
France, Germany, Spain and Italy. He
discovered that his home town was known
as the Anarchist City In places where he
Silk City had never been heard of.
He might have gone further and heard
the same impression wherever he went.
! Paterson Is known the world over as a hot
bed for anarchist Of the explosive per-
suasion. This impression has gone so far
that the city has twice been subjected to
private Investigation by agents Of the
Italian Government.
That Paterson was for years a centre
of active anarchist propaganda, hat for
years its Italian group Of anarchists alone
were more numerous than the whole police
force Of the city, that during those years
meetings Of the various groups we're held
weekly or o~ftener, that at those meetings
violence was often preached without much
secrecy, and that the lesson was sometimes
carried out, lie true. After such a record,
what Is the situation OF the anarchists in
Paterson to-day
The movement is practically dead. The
Italian Right of Existence" group is still
nominally alive. It's numbers, once more
than a hundred, have dwindled to a paltry
twenty, who hold meetings at irregular
periods and different places.
h celebrated sheet OF the sect, La
QUESTION: SocidLe, is still published in Pater-
son. though neither its name nor that Of
it's editor appears in any directory of the
city. IL is no longer what it was for seven
years, the mouthpiece of a united group.
Its circulation in Paterson has fallen to
some fifty or sixty copies.
The word anarchists is still much heard
in the talk Of Paterson people; it is used as
q standing joke or as a familiar bit Of slang.
Outsiders who hear it used translate il as
fake, or humbug.
Four years ago Mcqueen, a confessed
anarchist, suspected Of having ~instigated
a riot in the city, was there sentenced to a
term Of Imprisonment. Popular sentiment
ran high. Anarchism was not thought a
joking matter then.
Since that time the movement has died
out so completely that people can afford
TO laugh at II. Whether IL might serve
again in future hard times is hard to tell.
To-day the movement seems dead.
The old anarchist leaders that formed
the real menace TO the public peace in the
city were several. They have all left.
There were MalateSta, Luigi G~alliano,
Pedro Esteve, Luigi Granotti. Gaetano
Bresci, and Luigi Caminita of the Italian
group; Dumas among the French and Swiss,
Mcqueen, the Englishman, and Grossman
| the German.
Mcqueen is in the New Jersey peniten-
tiary, Grossman is in refuge in England,
whittier he fed FORGETTING 5000 bail, Can't
nita still edits La QuestiOne Socidle, but
lives in another State; several others
went elsew here, and Bresci was executed
for the assassination OF King Humbert Of
Italy. The story OF these men lie the story
| Of anarchism in Paterson.
Luigi Galliano il the most important
of these figures. Others might actually
carry out his ideas; but the IDEAS were
of his devising.
He became prominent among the group
after the return OF Malatesta, the italian
leader, 10 Europe, following a years stay
In the Paterson colony. Malatesta did
much to bring the group together. He
was a leader whose European notoriety
gave him influence. But Gslliano was
the real leader.
He was a striking figure. Benjamin
Mazzotta, now a reformed anarchist and a
peaceable printer who publishes an italian
comic paper. was in the old days often his
bitter opponent in the meetings. yet cannot
withhold his enthusiasm even now in speak,
ing OF the man. He describes him:
"A big man. Tall, fine, handsome. He
was made that way so that he quarrelled with
everybody. So quick he would get worked
I'D. Nobody could bear him.
"Yet, when he came into a big meeting,
30 big and fine and handsome, everybody
would get up and yell, before he could say
a word. And he could talk like nobody
else. When they listened 10 him, he could
make them do anything at ALL"
Galliano, says Mazzotta. came to this
country when ebout 30. He learned his
anarchism long before that. That he
came here at all was due to his fearless
~seamanship in a small boat; it was 50 that
he had TO escape from Italian soil.
Born at Vercelli in Novara, Galliano was
put to school at the University Of Turin 10
learn law. His social and political theories
grew faster than his knowledge of statutes,
80 instead of getting his degree he was
bauished by the Italian Government 20 the
convict settlement OF Pantelleris.
In spite OF the rocky shores and the Tor
lom position of this bit OF land, he found
means TO cast loose in a small boat one
rough night when the guard was careless.
The next land that he stepped upon was
Egypt. After awhile, through friends,
he managed TO communicate with the
comrades in Paterson, already a we'll known
colony, and shipped hither.
He was a Red among the Reds. He was
a man Of the sort that pushed ahead while
others doubted. Having a measure of
the hasty radioalism of the comrades,
he naturally took the lead.
He became editor Of the weekly La Que
tone SociGle, and gave It local influence.
II was then less a national and rather a
local organ. IL p~enetrates once a week
among hundreds Of readers, through the
silk mills, silk weavers, silk dyers, and the
other imported skilled workmen from
Italy.
II il these silk workers that rave always
formed the backbone OF all mob trouble in
Paterson. There are several thousands of
them. They are thinking men, neither