Montana news., 1906-01-24
FROM REVOLUTION to REVOLUTION
Brief of Prof George D. Famous
for Socialists

failures. In preparing the follow
ing digest of one of the strongest
and most beautiful expressions that
the American socialist movement
has called into being, no attempt
has been made at originality. The
wording of the author has been, in
most cases, strictly followed. 1t is
sufficient if our people can be
brought to see its beauty and power.
Professor Herron's address for the
socialist clubs of Massachusetts in
Fanueil hall, in March, 1909, on
The Paris Commune. and Its Les,
sons" is one of the best analyses
existent of remarkable demonstra-
ton in the struggle of the race to-
wards freedom. The story of the
Commune" is we'll known to every
well-read socialist. At the close Of
the Franco Prussian war in 1870,
the people of Paris we're so outraged
at the surrender of the city by the
despisable Little Napolean." the
emperor of the slums," to Bis
marck, that they revolted against
both the German and French gov
ernments. They were supported by
the national guards. For two
months, in the spring of 1871, the
workingmen held Paris in the most
efficient government that much be-
leaguered city had ever known. The
propertied class, the frightened de
tenders of law and order" made
terms with the government of the
miserable Theirs at Versailles, and
the result was the governmental muir
der of men, women and children to
the number of so, 900.
Dr. Heron calls the epoch, his
tory's supreme tragedy" There is
no martyrdom so splendid, no sac
riice of people so great. There
is not any protest of the common
life against oppression so disinter-
ested and so truly noble, so worthy
of being sung in epic and told in
story, as this mighty martyrdom of
the working class of Paris in the
spring of IS7I-the spectacle of
whole people going not only to
death, but to accepted oblivion, to
foreknown obloquy and disgrace.
The novelist and the historian, the
politician, and the priest and the
king, and all the retainers of the
ruling class, have stamped the com
munards with infamy, yet at no
other time or place has life been so
free and safe, with so small an aver
age of human misery. Even capi-
talist properties were more sacredly
protected by the commune than by
the capitalist administration itself.
In that glad day when truth can
stand on its feet and face the world
naked and unashamed those few days
of the working class administration
of Paris will be seen as the forerun-
ner of the better days that will come
under the cooperative common
wealth, when these evil days of cap
italist misgovernment, with its pros.
titution of the common life, shall
have passed away forever.
Speaking after the manner of men,
it was failure; it died in the trench
es. What are the lessons of this
failure to the socialist movement of
this timer
One factor was inadequate leader
ship. The working class of Paris
depended upon leaders outside of
its own experience. The men who
first led the communist revolt we're
men without knowledge of the real
mission of the working class in hu-
man evolution. They were for the
most part discredited military lead
ers, or politicians who had lost
their games in the old political
parties. They were only interested
in using the working class to place
and perpetuate themselves.
1t is from within, from ifs own