Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-11-17

THEIR literature, procama tions and full
l. limitations were as violent as ANYTHING
their present day successors have dared to
issue.
The blue and brass of a polceman's uni
form made them fairly bubble at the mouth.
while a presidential proclamation Just about
threw them into conniption fit. They hated
law They despised government They re-
vicd the masses as capitalistic dupes worthy
of the bastinado or the bomb, according to
the degree of their infamy.
In raid on one of their headquarters in
February, 1885. a distant forerunner of the
secret service raids of today. thousands of
circulars were captured, printed in their
favorite carmine Typography, that breathed
forth threatenings and slaughter against all
mankind-except their sacred selves ,,
THE most interesting as well as the most
l. characteristic gem of the captured col
lection was a circular headed "Proclama-
ton followed by these instructions ITO
be issued on the day of the impending uni
versal rising or revolution
Either the day was not fixed for the
butchery or the date slipped the memory of
Messrs. Most and Schwab, or their mutual
bank account received the necessary accre-
tions which rendered the "Revolution'' su-
perhuous. Whatever the cause. it was not
pulled off at that particular time.
The following choice excerpts may be
compared with some of the present -day
maledctions of the red brotherhood:
1.-THE present system will be more readily
and easily vanquished if those in authority
be they kings kaisers or presidents, be at
once destroyed. In the meantime massacres
of the enemies of the people should be or
ganized.
For the Reds of that day, and their leaders
at least were Germans. it must be said thew
were thoroughly impartial in the proposed
distribution OF their favors The kaiser was
linked up lndiscrmnately with other poten-
tates in their weasand Sitting program.
Another choice piece of instruction was
this:
'1nsurrcctions must be excited in the dis
tricts round and about the revolted com
muncs.
The old and advanced socialistic theory.
which after all is the foundation stone of all
communistic organizations that seek the de-
struction of government and society, the
common division of property and the abro-
CATION OF all legal restraint upon human
passions, crops out most beautifully in.
another passage:
I'm order to solve the ecoromic question
more quickly and completely. all lands and
movables shall be declared the property of
the respective cOmmuncs."
AT THAT time the nihilists of Russia
~ were aiming to reach the throat of their
government To a great extent. largely be-
cause the struggle was for an uniformed ideal
and was regarded as the yearning for lib-
erty of an oppressed people, the movement
had. more or less, the sympathy of many
people in this country.
Since then the world. and the United
States in particular, has had the oppor-
tunity of witnessing the working out of the
real principles that heretofore, like the
maggot in the apple, were enshrined in the
aspirations of the terrorists of Russia. They
have reached the throat of its government:
likewise the throats of its people.
The wreck of mighty nation the dis
semination, world wide of the doctrine of
freedom without restraint. of unbridled
license, the ultimate destruction of all law.
government and society, has presented the
| theory in its horrible actuality.
The present struggle. not only in Phils
delphia, but in the entire country, is against
the legitimate successors of the anarchists
| of thirty four years ago. 1t is estimated
| that in Philadelphia today there are in
heart at least. five times as many members
| of this cult as there were in 1855
And it is not pleasant thought to enter-
tain.