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April

GERMANY — My notes were "crowded out" of the last number of the Commonweal— or rather their place was "better filled." Hence my reader must bear with me if I refer this month to certain events that would have been discussed then, and thai should not be passed by without recordal here. On the 7th of February two Anarchists, Reinsdorff and Küchler, were legally murdered at Halle — murdered for attempting to "commit an outrage" at the Niederwald celebration. They met their death calmly and bravely: so calmly that the reactionists, who cannot even understand the faith that is in such men, wondered. In its leader on this the Sozial-Democrat says:

"When a few days ago [i.e., shortly before the "execution"] the rumour went the round of the press that the condition of Reinsdorff (who at his trial was already in an advanced stage of consumption) had grown so much worse that his death was momentarily expected, there was a general belief the Government would be sensible enough — not to speak even of humanity — to abstain from dragging a dying man to the scaffold. Naive were they who thought thus! Little do they know the nature of our governors. What care these for reason, for humanity! In 'enlightened' Germany there reigns the most barbarous conception of criminal law... It is characteristic that the very people who demand capital punishment are thosd that profess the religion which declares vengeance to be the Lord's. This 'atonement' is in truth but revenge, retaliation. It is the adherents of the 'Religion of Love' who performed the bloody deed of executing a dying man... Reinsdorff gave us the real watchword when he cried 'Down with barbarism!' We are opponents of Anarchist dynamite tactics. We do not believe barbarism can be put an end to by appealing to mere brute force and to the most brutal instincts; but the most hideous of all crimes in our eyes is the deliberate murder, calmly carried out in the name of — Law. Death dealt in passion, despair, hatred, can be explained; political execution as a last resource of the oppressed who have no other means left of obtaining their rights, no one can straightway condemn; but legal murder, committed by a society that holds all means for self-protection — such a murder is indeed a barbarity."

The article concludes by saying — what we too can echo — that not merely Anarchists, but all Revolutionists, will "earnestly cry with Reinsdorff, 'Down with barbarism!'"

Rebel has called attention, in the Reichstag, to the shameful manner in which soldiers are set to work for their officers. The War Minister replied that the soldier's life was an ideal one. This week the Sozial Democrat publishes a letter from a soldier. The account that he gives of the food alone is horrible, but, "unfortunately, most of the men could get nothing else." They had to do "all the housemaid's work" for the officer's family, and were given only the worst and scantiest clothing. But all this has its good side. Ill-usage of this kind serves to remind soldiers that for them, as for all others, their only hope is in the Socialist movement.

The Bill for the "Protection of Workers" shall be more fully dealt with when all details are to hand. Meantime, I will only draw attention to the following resolution, calling on the Chancellor "(a) To summon an International Conference of the principal industrial States for the consideration, on a common basis, of a Law for the Protection of Workers, based upon a normal working day of 10 hours; the prohibition of labour for children under 14; prohibition, save in certain specified cases, of all night labour; (b) To instititute an inquiry into the condition of wage-labourers in regard to their wages."

Some very excellent speeches have recently been made in the Reichstag — the only place in Germany where they can speak — by certain of the Socialist deputies on the state of siege in Berlin and in Hamburg Altona. Liebknecht also spoke on the shameful law passed some six years since, by which the whole postal service was practically handed over to the police. Naturally neither Radicals, Progressists, nor Liberals supported the Socialists in their demand that this law should be abrogated, and, bearing in mind some of the English Government declarations with regard to violation of the postal service in Ireland, this need not surprise us.

In Germany, of course, there can be no open manifestation in commemoration of the Commune and all the other great revolutionary days of March, but none the less German Revolutionists, like those of all other lands, join in the cry that is at once a hope and a promise — Vive la Commune!

FRANCE.— Poor M. Jules Ferry! There is something almost pathetic in his efforts to get up a nice little street-riot in order to rid himself of obnoxious Socialists and Revolutionists at one swoop, and in his constant failures to do so. The good people of Paris refuse to let themselves be massacred pour la plus grande gloire de M. Ferry, and thanks to the recent revelations of M. Andrieux, prefect of police, they are now less likely than ever to oblige him. A few weeks ago a "Demonstration" was got up at the Place de l'Opéra. but the whole thing was so clearly a police dodge that not even the hot-headed enthusiasts who never resist a "revolutionary" speech, fell into the trap. A perfectly harmless crowd of ordinary sight-seers was charged by the troop — but this was the only satisfaction M. Ferry got for his pains. Then came the funeral of Jules Valles. Here was an excellent chance. Thousands of men and women followed the ex-member of the Commune to his grave — so magnificent a demonstration has not been seen in Paris for years. But the huge crowd marched along quietly, in orderly fashion, and gave no chance to the police. Some young men of the bourgeois and "upper" classes came to the aid of the gendarmes by attacking the German Socialists, whom they accused of crying "Vive la Prusse!" But this too failed to make the hoped-for disturbance. The unruly students were quietiy chastised by some French worktaen and that was all. No, not quite all. They have unconsciously done us a great service. They have helped to show outsiders — what we Socialists know already — that our movement is an International one, and that a Socialist can be no Ghauvin or Jingo. They have also helped to remind the world that while the French workers can never forget the attitude of German Socialists during the war, German workers can never forget that immediately after that war the people of Paris chose as member of their Commune, as their Minister of Public Works, the German, Leo Frankel.

The 18th March, the Anniversary of the Commune has also apparently passed over without so much as an arrest.

But certainly the most interesting event to be chronicled this month is the revelation, already referred to, of M. Andrieux, prefect of police. M. Andrieux is publishing his "Souvenirs" — and nice souvenirs they are. The part of them which most interests us is that now in course of publication. Here he gives a full account of the way in which the Anarchist journal La Révolution Sociale was founded, and of the infamous manner in which the unsuspecting Louise Michel, Gautier, etc., were entrapped. Some of my readers may remember this very "advanced" paper, which so strongly advocated dynamite and action par le fait while at the same time constantly denouncing those Socialists who were considered reactionary because they objected to the Révolution Sociale and dared to hint that such journals, either consciously or unconsciously, did the work of the police, and played into the hands of the government. M. Andrieux tells us how these people, constantly led by the nose by his own agents, were anxious to start a paper, and how he, the prefect of police, helped them to the necessary capital, by provided them with a "boss" who advanced money. "To give the Anarchists an organ," writes M. Andrieux, "was moreover to place a telephone between the hall of the conspirators and the room of the prefect of police. One can have no secrets from the man who finds the money, and I was about to learn, day by day, the most mysterious plans... Of course, do not imagine I offered the Anarchists the help of the prefect of police. I sent a well-dressed bourgeois to one of the most active and intelligent of them. He explained how he had made a fortune as a druggist, and how he desired to consecrate part of this fortune in forwarding Socialist propaganda. This bourgeois ... inspired the 4 'companions' with no doubts. Through him I gave the State the necessary 'caution money,' and the Révolution Sociale appeared. Every day, round the editorial table gathered the most acknowledged representatives of the 'party of action;' the international correspondence was read; the methods that science places at the service of the revolution were freely communicated. I was represented in their councils, and even, when necessary, gave my advice. My object was to watch more easily the honourable companions by grouping them round a journal. However, the Révolution Sociale rendered me a few other little extra services." And M. Andrieux goes on to tell how he used the Anarchist paper to attack men he considered dangerous — more especially those who, in the Lanterne, were doing what the Cri du Peuple does to-day — that is to say, were showing up the secrets of the police and its spies. M. Andrieux also points out, with some satisfaction, that he had himself violently attacked for appearance' sake. Then M. Andrieux gives a detailed account of the Saint Germain "outrage," in which the statue of M. Thiers was slightly blackened, explaining at the same time why the "conspirators" could not be prosecuted, since the Code pénal provides only for cases in which a "public monument has been destroyed." With the cynicism of a police agent, M. Andrieux tells the whole shameful story of the way In which he led on Louise Michel and her companions, now in prison for unconsciously doing M. Andrieux' work. The wife of one of these victims, Madame Emile Gautier, writes to La Justice, M. Clemenceau's organ, that "in this dirty story there is another detail M. Andrieux voluntarily or involuntarily passes over in silence. Yet it is important. It was the police-agent Serraux who was the promoter and the soul of the International Congress held in London in July, 1881. Now this Congress is one of the chief charges that served to convict my husband of affiliation to an International Association that ceased to exist in 1872, and that caused his condemnation. When I think that my husband, arrested twenty-nine months ago, forced to herd with the worst criminals, dragged from prison to prison, ... that he will be imprisoned two years more, without counting ten subsequent years of police surveillance, because of the manoeuvres and reports (what reports!) of a Serraux and his like, I cannot but feel a justifiable indignation against M. Andrieux, who prepared and paid for this infamy, and who speaks of it to-day as a capital joke." La Justice adds a note to this interesting letter, very naturally demanding the immediate release of Louise Michel, Gautier and Krapotkine, now clearly shown to have been nothing but the dupes and victims of the prefect of police.

With such facts as these before us, bearing in mind the Wolf and Bondurand affair, that of Monceaux les Mines — in which the "outrage" was not only planned, but actually carried out by the police — how can we help asking once more who benefits by the dynamite outrages? We need not pause for a reply: M. Andrieux has given it.

SWITZERLAND.— Some hundreds of Anarchists and Socialists have been arrested, others expelled ; the Revolté suppressed, and it is to be feared that an extradition bill for "political" offences will be passed. All this has been brought about by some equally foolish and wicked dynamite "attempts," and the tall talk, breathing blood and thunder, of certain individuals. It is impossible to avoid asking — especially in the light of recent events elsewhere — who is the gainer in all this? If the threatened explosions were to come off, and an extradition bill were the consequence, who would benefit — the men and women who have found in Switzerland a comparatively free refuge from their persecutors in other lands, or the governments of those lands? Would the Social Revolution be much advanced if a few harmless and utterly unimportant Swiss bourgeois were killed, and some of the greatest and best Revolutionists handed over to the hangman? Would Socialism be the stronger if its representatives in Switzerland were ence again thrown into the dungeons of the Czar, the cells of Prussia and Austria, or given over to death in the mines or at the hands of the executioner? The various European governments have tried cajolery and threats before to induce Switzerland to give up to them the victims that have escaped them, and failed. Now the Swiss bourgeois is to be frightened by a cry of dynamite — for eyeryoue knows that the mildest-mannered bourgeois shows no mercy when he is frightened. The trick that entrapped Louise Michel, Gautier, Krapotkine, and so many more, is to be tried in Switzerland. It is worth noting at this moment that the Swiss press — those who clamour for an extradition bill and those (of which the reactionary and ultramontane Basler Volksblatt is one) that have the sense to protest against such a measure — all admit that the "foreign governments have largely augmented the number of police spies here." It is to be sincerely hoped that M. Andrieux' revelations will not be lost upon those men and women in Switzerland who are being made the tools of the very governments they are struggling against, and of the Society they want to overthrow.

RUSSIA.— In these March days, when the memory of Sophia Peroffska and her fellow martyrs is so present with us, we must not forget to chronicle the murder of another Russian hero — of Myschkine — one of the noblest as he was one of the most remarkable of the Russian Socialists. His splendid "defence" during the celebrated "Trial of the 193" of Moscow — a defence that was really a magnificent and unanswerable indictment of the government — stirred all Russia. For some years Myschkine had been in the Peter and Paul Fortress, and at Belgorod. But even these "houses of death" were too humane for such a criminal as Myschkine. Lately he was removed to Schusselbourg. Of this hideous fortress Stepniak writes: "Thence no plaint can ever reach us, for nature unites with man to completely isolate the unfortunates immured there. It is not a citadel built in the midst of a large town; Schusselbourg is a block of granite, entirely occupied by fortifications, and surrounded on all sides by the waves." Here the prisoners are of course entirely at the mercy of their brutal keepers. According to the account that reaches us, Myschkine struck one of the gaolers. What the provocation may have been, those who know something of Russian prisons can imagine for themselves. He was at once tried by court-martial, condemned, and there and then executed. All honour to his memory! It too will live "in the great heart of the people."

ELEANOR MARX-AVELING.

May

FRANCE. — In another column of the Commonweal our comrade Paul Lafargue gives us some account of M. Ferry's fall and the Tonkin crime. But here are a few details worth recording. On the day that the Ferry ministry was overthrown funds fell 3fr. 35c. On April 1st, Rochefort's paper the Intransigeant asserted — and this has not been contradicted — that on the preceding evening M. Ferry, "foreseeing" this fall, had given orders to sell largely. ("Des ordres considérables de vente.") The next day the Paris, a journal notoriously supported by the "reptile-fund," and which appears in the evening just when Bourse operations begin, announced that M. Ferry had been to M. Grevy and had assurred[sic] him that peace was concluded, and a treaty signed with China. Immediately the funds went up 1fr. 25c. People not unnaturally ask whom is this jobbing to profit? In the Chamber a Bonapartist Deputy, M. Jolibois, demanded that for the honour and dignity of the Chamber these "Coups de bourse" should be put a stop to. He was violently interrupted by a deputy belonging to the Majority, E. Cornudet, who exclaimed "Such words are ignoble." And the majority cheered frantically! "That such jobbery goes on in French politics," writes a Parisian friend, "and that a majority in the Chamber is ready to support and defend it, shows to what a corrupt condition our bourgeoisie has sunk. The victims and the defeats of the 'patrie' are now only so many pretexts for bourse speculation."

Though much has been written about the excitement that prevailed in Paris over this Tonkin business, few people in England have, I believe, realised what the condition of Paris really was. "We have been on the very brink of a revolution" a correspondent writes to me, "and for some time we all fully expected a street-riot. It is quite impossible to give you, or any one not living in this land of surprises an idea even of the state into which this Tonkin trouble has thrown us Parisians. We are at fever heat, and no one can say what the next few hours or days may bring forth."

Of course our Socialist friends have taken advantage of this ferment to "preach the doctrine." At all meetings on the subject of the war whether convened by themselves or others, they have proposed the three following resolutions: "1. Immediate peace with China; recall of all the unfortunate soldiers sent out, and retirement from Tonkin, Cochin China, and, if need be, from all Asiatic colonies. 2. Impeachment of the Ferry ministry. 3. The confiscation of all the goods and property of the ministers and of all deputies who voted in favour of the Tonkin expedition, in order to cover in part the cost of the war." The last two resolutions, it is interesting to know, were passed at all meetings, the third being especially applauded.

GERMANY. — English penny-a-liners have been "deeply moved" at the national birthday gift to Prince Bismarck. They have forgotten to tell their readers either the manner in which money was literally extorted — in some cases stopped out of their wages — from factory-workers, and obtained by threats. They have also forgotten to say that the whole thing was a gigantic swindle and that the money was obtained under entirely false pretences. When the idea was started it was announced that the money was to be devoted to "some great national object" — this would be the most appropriate, the most pleasing, etc., etc., etc., manner of showing the respect of Germany for her great Chancellor. But when the money was in hand the promoters calmly declared that, instead of the "great national object" the money should be handed over to Prince Bismarck personally in order that he might increase his landed property! This disgraceful affair has called forth protests, even from such papers as the Deutsche Tagblatt, to whom a correspondent writes: "We learn from the newspapers that the whole of the sums collected are to be handed over, for his personal use, to Prince Bismarck. This has made a most painful impression, not only on myself, but on other great admirers of the Prince. We stated to others, and were led to believe, that the object of the collection was to found some establishment for the good of all; it was only under this impression that we succeeded in getting subscriptions — more especially the smaller sums. If our promises are,therefore, not adhered to, we shall not only be seriously compromised, but the popularity of Prince Bismarck and respect for his person will be much shaken." Of course, Bismarck and his beloved disciples Bleichröder and Co., think money now-a-days more useful than popularity and respect. He has played the confidence trick, and can afford to laugh at the idiots who were taken in by it.

One of the most interesting events I have had to record for some time from Germany is the growth of the Socialist movement among the German women. A meeting was held lately in Berlin at which some 500 or 600 persons, mostly women, were present. Frau Stageman spoke admirably. She pointed out to the women and men that by united efforts alone could they achieve any measure of success. She called on the working women to join the Socialist movement and by their organisation become a power able to cope with their capitalist oppressors, who exploit the women even more hideously than the men, and who encourage "family-life" by forcing the wife to undersell her husband. "We must and will prove," she concluded "that the women of the proletariat are not less advanced than the men." This speech, and many others were received enthusiastically, and a "Union of the Working Women of Berlin" was started. I hope our English women will go and do likewise.

That considerable differences of opinion between the various sections of Socialist members of the Reichstag have arisen is well known; that some of these gentlemen objected to having their conduct in the Reichstag criticised by the Sozial Democrat is also known, but a few words on the actual "situation" may be of interest and service to English comrades. Of course our English friends must bear in mind that all public meetings, all public expression of opinion in Germany are impossible.

The immense and unexpected success at the last elections seems to have turned the heads of a few of the elected, who seem to think that the voice of the people has invested them with quite superior powers. This appears to be especially the case with what may be called the right wing of the Parliamentary Party. Every political party must necessarily be composed of one set of men who will act fully up to the principles of the party, and draw all the consequences evolving from them; and another set of men, who will be more cautious and more easily prepared to compromise with their Parliamentary neighbours. Thus it goes with Socialist parties too. As long as the class next adjoining the working class, both in social status and general education, is the class of small tradesmen, and as long as this class of small tradesmen, by the crushing competition of the large capitalist, is more and more ground down, and its individual members more and more brought down to the level of the working class, so long will the Socialist party in every country include men who from habit and education retain trains of thought more appropriate to the status of the small trading class, than to that of the proletariat. In other words, a Socialist party will have a Left Wing, representing thorough-going proletarian revolutionary Communism, and a Right Wing, holding views of a more diluted nature, and eager, above all, to prove to their political opponents how little they deserve the opprobrious names heaped upon them. In Germany, from very self-evident reasons, the anti-Socialist law appears to have given a majority of deputies to the Right Wing of the Party — the only real harm, by the bye, that law has so far inflicted upon German Socialism. This new majority, finding itself in contradiction with the "official" organ of the party, on a particular point of policy, considered it necessary to proclaim the discrepancy to the world by an act of publicity of a more than unusual character. There the matter will probably end. The Sozial Democrat will remain what it has been, and proclaim the same revolutionary principles as heretofore. The offended deputies will be satisfied with the publicity they have given to their difference of opinion, for they know too well that after all they will have to conform to the will of their electors — though the electors have at present no power to express their will in public meetings — and that the vast majority of these electors are working men and not small tradesmen. Of course a large number of the Revolutionary deputies have cordially approved the conduct of the Sozial Democrat in condemning the action of certain deputies.

AMERICA.— The news that comes to us from the United States is of so interesting a nature, there are so many facts to record, events to chronicle, that to do anything like justice to the subject in this short summary is impossible. All I can hope to do is to help our friends to some faint idea of the condition of things there. We do not in Europe, sufficiently realise either the frightful condition of a large mass of the people of America, or the magnitude of the Revolutionary movement there. The great miners' strike in the Hocking Valley has been now and again referred to, and English Socialists will hardly be surprised to hear that the "Union" there is much what are the "Trades Unions" here; in a word, to quote the correspondent of a New York Socialist paper, "a milch-cow for the 'leaders.'" This same correspondent adds: "The strike has, however, had one good result. We have founded a section of the Socialist Party, whose numbers grow daily. We could do even more if we had more speakers, and if friends would send us more Socialist literature. The soil is splendid..."

But the Hocking Valley strike is only one of hundreds into which the workers are willy-nilly, and often to their own great disadvantage forced by the capitalists. One of these strikes is specially worthy [of] our notice. The hat-makers of South Nowalk, to the number of 400, struck work — that is work for their exploiters, but instead of allowing themselves to be starved into submission they have opened a large co-operative store entirely conducted by themselves, one large branch of which has been started in New York. Thanks to the hearty support of other workers both undertakings seem to be prospering. As a last resource the capitalist press asserted that the New York store had nothing to da with the strikers. But the working men have not been taken in by thia lie.

Perhaps one of the most infamous of the many infamous "Bills" against the people is that one lately become law, directed apparently against so-called tramps, but in reality against any one out of work. An enormous meeting to protest against this iniquitous Act was lately held in New York. At this meeting Frederic Haller, Secretary of the Cigar Makers' Progressive Union, pointed out that at the present time there were in New York alone seventy thousand unemployed workers; in the United States at least six hundred thousand, everyone of whom could in fact be comprehended under the Tramp Bill. He showed how by this Bill employers could get their work done — work of the heaviest kind — in return for one meal a day, and concluded by saying that as things were going "Tramps" would soon be an "overwhelming majority in the land, and would then make a law by which the lazy and rich non-producers would be thrown into prison instead of, as to-day, the willing workers." The resolution passed by this large meeting runs thus: "Considering that in New York alone there are 70,000 unemployed... anyone of whom may be called a 'tramp.' ... we brand this Bill as a villainy of the exploiters against the workers whose very blood they drain, and see in it a fresh proof that political freedom must be a lie as long as private capital and wage-slavery exist," I must not omit to add that Germans and Americans both took part in and spoke at this meeting.

Some sanitary inspectors have lately made reports respecting the housing (?) of certain of the poorest classes in New York that throw the "Bitter Cry" of London quite into the shade. These facts are the more interesting that the "Tenement House Commission" had quite recently issued a rose-coloured report, in which everything was represented as very nice and pleasant. Police Inspector Gastlin now gives a quite different account. He describes more especially some of the docks and landing-places at North and East River. A great number of the unfortunates here are Italians, "who live in this filth like rabbits in a warren. They all sleep in the midst of pestilential smells... The floors in some of these 'huts' were three inches deep in dirt. Adjoining these 'rooms' were others, containing large cases of stinking bones and rags. ... The stench from some of these places, filled with refuse from the markets and putrid meat, could be noticed fifty feet off." What wonder that Socialist papers in America constantly warn their European friends not to come over to this hell upon earth.

Perhaps the most interesting matter to record is the "Labour Convention" just held in San Francisco. Over two hundred delegates were present, and an earnest debate was carried on for three days. Finally the following resolution, and others which space forbids our reproducing, were passed.

"Resolved. That, in the opinion of this convention, 'hard times* are the result of a monopolisation by non-producers of the natural resources, the tools of production and the medium of exchange, and must occur periodically until these monopolies are abolished.

"Whereas the continued invention of machinery, the monopolisation of the natural resources, competition, profit, production and the concentration of capital are fast reducing the working classes to absolute slavery;

"Resolved. That it is imperative that every branch of wage-workers be organised, and that, when so organised, the work of agitation, organisation, federation and education be unceasingly pursued.

"Resolved. That this convention, while not condemning strikes for shorter hours or higher pay as temporary measures of relief, regards the nationalisation of land, of the means of transportation, of the circulating medium and of the implements of production as the only satisfactory solution of the labour question.

"Resolved. That this convention, having regard to the strained relations at present existing between employer and employed, looks with the gravest apprehension upon the virtual establishment of a standing army in this country by the continued enrolment of new militia corps, and the employment by the capitalists of armed detectives, and that this convention commends this matter to the serious attention of the labour organisations of the coast."

So significant a fact as the passing of such resolutions unanimously by two hundred delegates from Trades' Unions as well as Socialist bodies needs no comment.

ELEANOR MARX AVELING.

June

FRANCE. — When we were told some few weeks ago that in consequence of the damning revelations of M. Andrieux, ex-prefect of police, the "political prisoners" would be amnestied, everyone believed the statement. It seemed impossible even for a bourgeois Republic to avoid such an act of common decency. But we had reckoned without our virtuous and patriotic Republicans. The political prisoners are not to be amnestied. A "pardon" was indeed offered Louise Michel, but she refused to accept it. It is so difficult for the average bourgeois of "sated virtue" and "solvent morals" to understand the motives that actuate such a woman as Louise Michel that her refusal to leave her prison is looked on as but one more sign of madness. But could an honourable woman have done anything else? Louise Michel and a number of other persons were condemned — Louise being denounced and generally looked upon as the "leader" of the others. She naturally asks why should the leader be spared when the followers are punished? And until all her fellow prisoners are amnestied, Louise will continue in gaol with them; she shared their "crime" and will share the penalty.

The number of persons receiving "relief" in Paris has augmented to an almost incredible extent withn the last ten or twelve years. The following figures will give some idea of how the misery of the people in Republican and Malthusian Paris has grown. The number of "paupers" was, in 1861, 90,287; 1863, 101,570; 1866, 105,119; 1869, 111,357; 1872, 101,719; 1874, 113,713; 1877, 113,317; 1880, 123,735; 1883, 123,324. On the subject of the present condition of the workers, a Parisian friend has given me some very interesting details. For example, in the street where he lives, a sort of "bureau" has been opened, where working men, by applying at 8 o'clock in the morning, can get a piece of bread and glass of water. Be it noted that respectable working men (not even the most unhappy class of the permanently unemployed) only are admitted, and yet, from 3 o'clock in the morning, a crowd draws up in front of the bureau, and, to get a piece of bread and glass of water, hundreds wait there for hours!

The excitement in Paris over the possible war, or wars, has thrown all other matters into the shade. For the time being, however, the coming election is begining to occupy public opinion. On the subject of the election a correspondent in Paris writes that, "the manner of voting will be changed: it will be by scrutin de liste, and takes place in this wise. The town of Paris formerly elected twenty deputies, each person voting for a deputy in bis own quarter. For the future every elector will vote for a list of twenty deputies, who will represent the department of the Seine, instead of voting by arrondissement (quarter). This voting by list forces fractions of the same colour to coalesce in order to make common cause in the electoral struggle. The monarchists, Legitimists and Orleanists, "pure" and "impure," and the dirtiest of Bonapartists will join hands to get out one monarchical list. The Opportunists are trying to get M. Clemenceau and a portion of the Radicals to join them; they even announce that M. Clemenceau and other Radicals will be placed upon their list. It is probable that Clemenceau will have to protest against this use of his name for electioneering purposes.

The Socialist party wishes to make use of the scrutin de liste in order to bring union into its ranks. For some years the Socialist party in France, and especially in Paris, has been much divided, and consequently it has not been represented in electoral bodies as it might be. At the present time a central committee has united eighty-two syndical chambers (i.e., trades unions) and Socialist organisations. So the union of all the Socialist bodies has fairly begun."

GERMANY.— In connection with the recent police outrage at the Working Men's Club, in St. Stephen's Mews, the following facts as to a similar outrage committed by the Berlin police may not be without interest. A public meeting — to which I believe I referred briefly in the first number of the Commonweal — was held in the 6th electoral district of Berlin to celebrate the return to the Reichstag of the Socialist deputy Pfaunkuch. This meeting, although carried on in the most orderly fashion, was forcibly broken up by the police. Many persons were violently assaulted, and when, after they had been attacked in the most brutal fashion, they defended themselves and refused to allow the police to ill-use them, were arrested for "assault." It was, of course, perfectly clear to everyone that the whole thing had been got up by the police in order to cause a disturbance at the meeting, and to get a chance of arresting a certain number of Socialists. The case has now been tried in Berlin, and although the reactionary press had indignantly denied the responsibility of the police in the whole business, it was indisputably proved that it was an organised assault on the part of the police. Police-Lieutenant Zieske, "one of those silly people who are too stupid even for the Prussian police," admitted in his evidence that he had received orders to provoke the meeting — which was affected to be a large one — into making a riot by forcibly dissolving it without any pretext whatever. Other witnesses also spoke to the brutality of the police. The accused, four in number, were, despite this evidence, not contradicted by the police, respectively condemned to from four months imprisonment and two weeks of arrest to two months imprisonment.

While Socialists were being thus dealt with in Berlin, two other trials, of a somewhat similar nature — i.e., for assaults on officers in the discharge of their duties — were going on at Ebling and at Hanover. In the first town some "respectable" persons, arrested at a Conservative meeting, which had become so riotous and disorderly that the interference of the military was necessary, were either acquitted, or, in extreme cases, sentenced to four weeks' imprisonment; and in the second some drunken officers, who had assaulted the night-watch and beaten them with their drawn swords, were, though sentenced to a few days' imprisonment, released immediately after. A correspondent of the Sozial Democrat contrasts these light sentences passed on riotous Conservatives and drunken officers with those inflicted upon Socialists "who had been provoked in the most infamous fashion, and who are punished with four months' imprisonment. Such is the 'equality in the eyes of the law' in our capital, as administered by 'irresponsible' judges."

ITALY. — That this land of sunshine and of beauty is yet, so far as its people are concerned, one of the poorest and most wretched in all Europe, in all the world, is a well-known fact. That the peasants are at least trying to make some stand against the land thieves is good news, and from the papers I see that an important movement has begun among the agricultural labourers in Mantua. It is true these men at present ask from their landlords only such a wage as shall buy them their daily bread, but their exploiters, at all events, have understood that this "means mischief," and have denounced their labourers as Socialists and demanded military support from the Government. Hereupon larger districts in the province were occupied by the military, and the officials of all the agricultural labourers' unions, over 200 men, were arrested, and sent off to the prison at Mantua. In all villages the funds of the unions were seized, all letters and lists of members taken away, and this it would appear simply by order of the police. Of course, the peasants are accused of "outrages," and it is said a few vines were hurt, and even some cattle maimed; but on the showing of the police itself, there was nothing to warrant such an arrest en masse. What the Government actually intend doing with all the troops called out it is impossible to say, but bad as this beginning has been, probably "worse remains behind." Meantime a large demonstration by the agricultural labourers has been prevented, but one of the papers asks, "Will this prevent their going to the towns to demand with violence the liberation of those arrested? The numerous cavalry patrols that constantly occupy the high roads may possibly prevent the arrival of the peasants for a time. But will minds be pacified in this manner, and is the Government itself competent — has it the power — to bring about an understanding between the masters and labourers on this great question of agricultural production? It must not be forgotten that it is the most bitter need that is driving the peasantry to such acts."

DENMARK. — The political situation here is very strained. The ministry has been in a minority for ten years. Three times the Folkething has been dissolved, and three times has the Opposition returned, each time stronger than before. In the 1884 eleetion three Socialists were returned — Holm, tailor; Hordum, shoemaker; Trier, professor. The situation has been aggravated of late by the Government, although the Folkething had refused the budget, arranging the finances and thus violating the constitution. The Opposition appealed to the shocked public spirit, advising the entering of the rifle corps and the habituating themselves to the use of arms. The people replied by joining the corps en masse. Then the Government forbade the importation of arms into Denmark, and began to bring pressure to bear on the rifle corps. All State officials (especially the schoolmasters) were attacked if they took part in the organisation of these corps. Journals, especially the Socialist ones, are constantly being prosecuted. All this does not intimidate the people. The last Sunday in April the ministerial party called their adherents together in the Hippodrome. They only mustered 3,000 — 4,000. At Norrefeld (a place of exercise for the garrison) 70,000 met under the Socialist flag to protest against the action of the Government. The Social Democrat spoke out clearly of the revolutionary character of the meeting. Most of the journals said it was the largest ever organised, and the reactionary papers did not dare to speak of the numbers present. The Socialist party has not felt it a duty or a wisdom to especially initiate the movement against the Government; or, in other words, to pull the chestnuts out of the fire for the Radicals. But through its representatives it has declared that if the Opposition is consistent in its conduct, it can always reckon on the labour classes. Denmark has two daily Socialist papers — the Social Democrat (Copenhagen) 18,000 subscribers, and Democraten (Aarhuus).

AMERICA. — The London papers published a short cablegram a few weeks ago, stating that eight "tenement houses" in New York had all collapsed, causing considerable damage. No more, at least so far as I am aware, has here been said about the matter, but it is one that deserves more than a passing notice, not only because of the sensation it has created in New York, nor because the "damage" included the death of one working man and severe injuries to many others, but because the whole affair is so characteristic of our modern commercial system. These eight houses that have all literally fallen to pieces were built by one Buddensiek, an ex-butcher, who had taken to house speculation. A few words as to this gentleman's antecedents. He was, as I have said, by trade a butcher and had a butcher's shop. Some years ago, however, he turned his attention to building and constructed a large tenement house in Second Avenue. The house soon let, but almost as soon, it was found, not only that the basement filled with water, but that "a hideous stench filled all the rooms." Illness broke out, and finally workmen had to be called in to examine the building. It was found that Buddensiek instead of having the chief drain of the large house made to communicate with the canal, had found it cheaper to have it taken only some twenty-five feet off, and there covered over. His next exploit was to build some houses in Fifty-two Street. Here again, they had hardly been let before malaria, diphtheria, etc., broke out among the lodgers, and on examination it again appeared that so bad were the materials and so careless the workmanship of the various pipes and drains that "the water from closets and sinks dripped into the cellars, turning them into a regular death-giving swamp." Nothing daunted, it appears from the Sanitary Commission of 1879 that thirteen charges were brought against Buddensiek, and since then he has on ten different occasions been prosecuted. Disgusted at such unwarranted interference with his individual liberty, Buddensiek took to using "men of straw," in whose name he carried on his business of builder. Of these men one or two were arrested, but on the ground of a technical error escaped punishment. So much for Mr. Buddensiek's past. So far, it will be seen, that he has been invariably successful, and but for the collapse of the houses alluded to, nothing of all this would probably have come to light. But the authorities, much against the grain, for it has since been proved that many of the building inspectors, and other officials, had been bribed by the ex-butcher, have been forced to take steps against him, as the death of the working man Walter, caused by the fall of the houses, had to be examined into before the coroner. "Witness after witness was called, and proved that it was absolutely impossible that the houses (I should add that these were philaothropically built for the "benefit" of the working classes) could possibly hold together any length of time, and that "the only wonder is how they could be run up at all." C. B. Malone, of the Bricklayers' Union said: "The stuff used for mortar was clay and bad lime instead of sand and good lime. But sand costs two to three dollars a load, and clay costs nothing. To enrich himself, and other contractors, Buddensiek risks the life of his workmen and the unfortunates who are forced to live in such miserable jerry-houses. Buddensiek constantly employs 'scabs' who work under the union wages, and it is most marvellous that more of these houses have not fallen in." Evidence like this by competent workmen, far too voluminous to quote here, has been brought forward.

In their verdict the jury declare Buddensiek and his partner Frank chiefly responsible fur the death of the man Walter, but that this is also due in part to the "incompetence and the neglect of duty of Inspectors Dailey and Mackey." In consequence of this verdict, Buddensiek and his accomplice, Charles Frank, as also Inspectors Dailey and Mackey, have been placed under arrest.

At the coroner's inquest the insolent manner of Buddensiek has caused no little indignation. The following passage from the report of the inquest is interesting. One of the witnesses, a mason, pointed out that the bricks used were so bad that "some crumbled up in one's hand, while others were so damp and soft, they stuck together." "Who stuck together?" asked the defendant's lawyer. "The bricks," explained the coroner. "Oh! I thought the working men," answered the lawyer, laughing. The coroner was silent for a moment, and then said: "I should not wonder if the working men would stick together one fine day, but for a different purpose!"

The indignation of the working classes in New York has been so great there were "fears" that Mr. Buddensiek might be lynched. A large meeting was called to consider the whole matter — for in New York alone there are 1,500 houses built by this enterprising butcher on the same ingenious plan. The police were extremely anxious to prevent this meeting (for there is not the shadow of a doubt that, besides the two Inspectors who have been arrested, a large number of the "officials" in New York are compromised in the affair), and, in order to stop it, resorted to the usual police tactics. The meeting was to be held at Wendel's Assembly Rooms, and Police-Inspector Walling wrote to the proprietor of the hall that "the Socialists intended to make a riot, and that he would do wisely not to let his hall for such a purpose." But Captain Wendel answered that he should certainly not break his contract, and that he would not prevent the meeting. Then "Walling instructed the Commander of the 22nd district, Captain Kililea, to call on Wendel and put the matter to him again. Kililea sent a detective to Wendel, who, however, could not induce him to alter his determination, and was obliged to report that Wendel would not let himself be intimidated. When Captain Kililea heard this he had the alarm-bell rung and called out all his reserves — thirty men — and ordered them off to the hall. They were armed with revolvers and bludgeons." Of course they could not prevent the meeting, at which thousands were present, while thousands had to remain outside for want of room in the hall. The resolution passed at the meeting, besides denouncing the "professional murderer Buddensiek" and his accomplices, the "bribed officials," declares that the meeting "sees in men like Buddensiek and his fellow-criminals the necessary product of the method of capitalistic production, with its con- sequences of wild hunting after wealth and contempt for human life," and "calls on the workers of New York to have a care that severe justice be dealt out, not only to this one villain, but to work with all their strength to bring about a juster social condition, that will put an end to all Buddensieks." This resolution was enthusiastically carried, and Captain Kililea's thirty men, having stayed to the end of the meeting and made no sign, then marched back again to the station-house to report.

Eleanor Marx-Aveling.

July

FRANCE. — Everyone who has observed the tactics of the French government — and it matters little whether that government be represented by the infamous Ferry or the virtuous Brisson — has long known ♦hat its chief aim and object of late has been to provoke a street riot, in order that advantage might be taken of any such disturbance to shoot down or arrest the men who are "dangerous," because, like Cassius, "they think too much." Despite many efforts, some of which have been noted in this "Record," the precious plan had generally failed. But on May 25 last an enticing opportunity presented itself — an opportunity so excellent, that the austere and virtuous Brisson could not resist.

Since the amnesty was granted the Communards six years ago, it has been their habit to go every year, on the anniversary of that terrible May week of 1871, to Père Lachaise, where lie so many of their comrades, to place flowers and wreaths upon the tombs of the martyrs, and, carrying the red flag of the revolution, remind themselves and their brother-revolutionists that after "Whit-Sunday, 1871, there can be neither peace nor truce possible between the working men of France and the appropriators of their produce."

This year, as on previous occasions, a meeting of all revolutionary societies and clubs had been organised, and the Socialists of Paris proceeded in large numbers to the cemetery. But here, without rhyme or reason, without the shadow of a pretext, these absolutely unarmed and quiet persons are suddenly attacked by armed police and soldiers, who, according even to the reactionary press wildly and indiscriminately charged men, women and children. The accounts of this brutal assault, of the numbers of men and women dangerously wounded by the banditti of "order" given even by the bourgeois penny-a-liners are enough to prove how ferocious and how cowardly the attack was. I need here enter into no details, as these are now well known. I would only again remind our English Socialists that for six years like demonstrations had been held and not interfered with; that there is no law that prohibits the carrying of red flags; and that the persons taking part in the demonstration were unarmed, and had no intention of creating any kind of disturbance.

One asks oneself what the French Republican (!) Government can possibly hope to gain by such an act. They have thereby only again shown the people that a bourgeois government is the worst of all. They have given the French proletariat — aye and the proletariat of the whole world — two Whit Sundays to remember instead of one. And vengeance is not only the Lord's!

A few days after this massacre two funerals of Communards took place: those of Amouroux and Cournet. A fresh riot was feared, but matters pased off quietly. The funeral of Victor Hugo also was undisturbed.

This massacre is bad enough, but another infamy calls equally for our attention. No doubt all our friends remember the so-called " dynamite attempts" at Monceaux les Mines, and how it was absolutely proved that the whole affair was got up by the police. The action of the police in this matter has never been disputed or denied. And yet the men arrested on the charge of committing the outrage have been condemned to twenty, twelve and ten years' penal servitude. This, it seems to me, is almost worse than an open attack by soldiers. These condemned men were many of them known as earnest Socialists, and they have in this monstrous fashion been got rid of.

SWEDEN. — The Social Democrat, of Zurich, publishes a most interesting letter from a Swede, which, for the benefit of English readers, I translate: "As news from our far-off land reaches you so seldom, I believe you and your readers may like to have some information respect- ing the social movement in our country.

"Two years ago Socialism was known to us only through the calumnies of the reactionary press. This new theory was everywhere passed over with mockery and contempt. But the position has changed. We have already a small Social-Democratic party, and the 'Red Spectre' is no longer mocked at, it is beginning to be feared...

"Two years ago a large working-men's movement was started in Stockholm. ... This movement, brought about in the first place by the oppression of the workers, was, however, soon misled into a wrong direction. One of our greatest capitalists, the 'brandy-king' L. O. Smith, made a desperate and energetic effort to place himself at the head of the movement, so that he might exploit the workers for his own ends. A great many were, in fact, taken in by him, and in consequence of Smith's representations the movement grew so quickly that within a few months 20,000 persons in Stockholm, and many thousands in the country, became his followers. But gradually the real objects of the man became evident; the people would have no more to do with him, and the whole movement has collapsed. But the stirring up of the workers has been of the greatest service. They are learning that they have a common interest to defend against the capitalist class; they have at last learnt that they are a power. At the same time as the movement referred to above, another had begun. ... A Swedish tailor expelled from Germany, August Palm, began preaching in Stockholm and other large towns a new, to us still unknown Labour Gospel — the Gospel of Socialism. He spoke everywhere in the open air, for no halls were let him, and he started a small paper, the 'Will of the People.' In short, with the smallest means he carried on a most energetic propaganda. This poor persecuted, despised tailor has among us, the real people, sown the first seeds of Socialism. He has already succeeded in forming a small party, and our prospects are not now nearly so dreary as a short time since."

AUSTRIA. — Of the massacre of workmen by the soldiery at Brüun I have as yet no further details than those given in the bourgeois press. I hope to have a full account of the terrible affair next month.

Eleanor Marx-Aveling.

August

GERMANY. — Lieske, accused of assassinating Police-inspector Rumpff (one of the worst specimens of the police-agent, who after doing more than one man to death was himself stabbed, as my readers may remember, at Frankfort); Lieske, has been "found guilty" and condemned. Bearing in mind the many cases in which bourgeois judges and bourgeois juries have legally murdered men; remembering the Manchester and the Clerkenwell martyrs, the many French, German and the recent dynamite trials; remembering all these, I think I may still say that not one of them has been more infamously unjust than this Frankfort trial. I cannot, like some of our Socialist German papers say that "only in Germany" would such an iniquity be possible. I believe that exactly the same thing would, under the circumstances happen with French bourgeois judges, or with a "respectable" British jury. But this does not make the infamy less. The interest is increased if we can take this trial as typical of bourgeois "justice" in general rather than as an example of German bourgeois injustice in particular.

As to Julius Lieske there is no, absolutely no, evidence against him. Those who have followed the whole trial will admit that I am not exaggerating in making this statement. But readers of the Commonweal shall judge for themselves. I will simply give the facts. I will not suppress or seek to attenuate a single one, but state them exactly as they were brought forward by the prosecution.

Rumpff, it may be remembered, was found dying from a wound inflicted by a sharp instrument, in the front garden of his house, on January 15 of this year. No trace of the assassin could be found. Many persons were passing the streets at ihe time, and many swore to having seen the assassin. Of their evidence presently. On January 19 a young working man was arrested at Hockenheim. The incriminating circumstances against hira were these. (I reproduce them almost verbatim). When arrested he behaved in a fashion that showed he had "something on his conscience;" he offered resistance to the gendarmes, trying to shoot one. It was found that the papers he presented were not his; that up to the Rumpff affair he had been at Frankfort; that in Switzerland Lieske had belonged to an Anarchist club, and that "witnesses" (!) were there to prove he had spoken "threateningly." Further, he had a wound on his left hand. This is all. Now we will admit that this might be enough to authorize an inquiry. But if these "incriminating circumstances" did not lead to further discoveries, they would mean nothing. But this would not do. A victim must be found, and Lieske being to hand, probably he would do as well as any other for the purposes of the police.

For five months the "inquiry" was carried on, and at last Lieske is placed on his trial. Rumpff had been killed by a wound from "some sharp instrument." Note that none of the doctors and experts could say what kind of instrument. But no sooner is it known that Lieske is a shoemaker, than it is taken for "absolutely proved" that the wound "must have been indicted" by a double-edged knife, such as is used by shoemakers. This is the first piece of weighty evidence. Then comes the wound on the left hand, which was made the piece de resistance by the prosecution. But in face of the actual facts, this wound, far from proving against Lieske, proves for him. It is pretty certain that the assassin of Rumpff seized him by the throat (the likeliest thing, both to stop cries and get a stronger hold), while the stab was struck in the left side, straight at the heart. Now if, as the prosecution alleged, the wound in Lieske's hand had been inflicted by himself while holding his "victim," he would have had to simply seize him by the coat, and thus give him a chance of struggling. Is this, I ask anyone, probable? It was shown by the doctors that the wound had been struck straight and with great force. How, then, could the striker have managed to cut his own hand? Yet, impossible as it will seem, this hand-wound was the "chief count." Sa important was it considered, that the prison doctors stooped to the infamy of preventing it to heal. It was artificially kept open and made worse! There yet remain the "witnesses" who "saw" the accused commit the act. Not two of these gave the same evidence. Each contradicted the other in a fashion that, were it not so horribly tragic, and were not an innocent man's life in question, would be simply grotesque. Neither as to appearance, dress, actions, did two of these credible persons swear the same thing. Yet on this evidence has Lieske been condemned to death. All reports are unanimous that the sentence has created the greatest sensation, and that the public "fully expected Lieske's acquittal." The venal bourgeoise press have since tried to show that, though there was no real evidence, "the man's behavior after the sentence proved his guilt." Was there ever such logic ?

Let us note here that this "behaviour after his trial" refers to his excited demand for proof of guilt. "You say I am a murderer," he cried, "give the proofs — the proofs!" And, on being led away, he shouted to the multitude, "Throw dynamite bombs!" What does this prove? All through the trial, from beginning to end — Lieske is hot-tempered, and easily loses his head — he has strenuously denied everything in the counts against him; has denied being an Anarchist, or connected with Anarchists; has denied any desire to remove Rumpff or any other police-agent. And probably that cry of his means only that since such iniquities are possible, dynamite is the only weapon left. I have no desire to represent Lieske as a hero. He has strongly denied being an Anarchist or Socialist. But if the German Government kills him, it will be one of the most horrible murders ever committed even by the German Government. There may be truth in the suggestion that Lieske knows who the actual executioner of Rumpff is, and that all his denials are only cloaks to hide what he is too brave and generous to betray. If this is so, Lieske is doubly a martyr. But in any case his name will not be forgotten, nor those of the criminals who have done this innocent man to death.

E. M. A.

[There is not much space left for the "Record" this month, I have therefore thought it better to give readers a full account of a matter every one of us should take to heart, and of which but little can be learned from the ordinary press, and to leave over all other news for next month.]

September

AMERICA. — The following are some extracts which English comrades are sure to find interesting, taken from a letter sent us on the organi- sation of the International Working Men's Association in California. One of its secretaries tells us that their "system is the formation of groups for the study of a prescribed course of Socialistic reading... Each student gets a red card. When he is 'educated' and has formed a group of his own, he gets a white card. All white card-holders in San Francisco are members of the committee... A managing committee of twelve divides this coast into districts, and each member has the charge of the correspondence of a district. There are two Eastern correspondents, and an English and German foreign correspondent... The objects we specially aim at are the formation of groups throughout the country. We are very poor, but we have one lecturer out, and hope soon to have another. We also strive to get our men to move about from place to place to form fresh groups. We take great interest in all Trades' Unions here, striving to pick out the leaders and educate them... For this purpose, in addition to our two meetings per week, a speaking class is held weekly, which is well attended. We have since March last organised the coasting seamen into a union 2,000 strong ... We have formed a Central Labour Union ... and we are engaged in federating all the trades of the water-front. Our own paper, Truth, went under... but against this we can place the conversion of two established papers in San Fris., to which one of us manages regularly to contribute; the founding of a paper at Eureka, Cal., and one at Salem, Oregon, both of which flourish, and the transfer of all our subscription list to the Denver Labour Enquirer, which is doing great work among the miners and railroad men... I need not tell you that our work is being done with a view to ultimate action, which we conceive is, for many reasons, more feasible at an early date here than elsewhere... In most of our judgments events are like to move too quickly with us... I am an Englishman, and know something of England, having travelled all over that country. I read all I can lay hands on as to the progress of Socialism there, and I can- not but think that matters are moving more quickly by far both here and in the East... The feeling on both sides, of rich and poor, seems to me incomparably more bitter than in the old country." In conclusion, our comrade suggests opening a regular correspondence with English Socialists, as this would be "encouraging and beneficial to both you in England and to us here."

It is certainly very encouraging to us to know such good work is being done in America, and all letters like these are beneficial to us.

A propos of our correspondent's conviction that "events are moving faster" in the new world than the old, I may quote a passage from a most valuable series of articles by Paul Lafargue in the Neue Zeit on the American agricultural labourer, or rather that large portion of them "who possess not a foot of land ; the roof above them, the very bed on which they sleep, the spoon with which they eat, are not their own; ... they can call nothing theirs but the food they eat and the rags that cover them. They have no regular dwellings in the country, which they leave for towns as soon as the work for which they were engaged is done. They are hired by the day, week or month. ... In the autumn they are dismissed, and in the winter only a few remain on the farm to look after the cattle and mind the machinery. The workers go to the towns and villages, where they try to get along as best they can. These men, without property, without a home or a family (for only single men are employed) constantly driven hither and thither from town to country and country to town, these men with the bodily strength and perseverance of the peasant and the intelligence of the town labourer, are destined to form a class that will be incomparably more dangerous to capitalism than is that of the industrial proletariat." The ferocious Acts against "tramps" show that the capitalists are begining to understand their danger.

The recent strike riot at Chicago was much more serious than would appear from the newspaper reports. Regular barricades seem to have been thrown up, and the police — these gentry are the same all the Wdrld over — "fell upon the people, striking them in the most brutal manner, and severely wounding many persons." A number of arrests were made, and over a hundred men are to be prosecuted.

GERMANY. — It was not to be expected that the police of the holy German Empire would let itself be outdone by the gendarmerie of a Republic. The achievements of the French police at Père Lachaise have fired the ambition of their German colleagues, who have just had a field-day at Frankfurt. The funeral of the Socialist, Hugo Hiller, attended by thousands of Socialists, offered an opportunity that was not to be neglected. So when some red crowns, sent from various parts of Germany, had been deposited upon the grave of the comrade who had worked so hard for the cause, and was now at last taking his well-earned rest, when red flowers had been strewn, and a Socialist began to speak, Police Commissary Meyer stepped forth, summoned the people to disperse, and, without waiting to see what they would do, gave the order to u draw swords and drive the mob away." A terrible scene ensued. Men, women and children fell bleeding beneath the sabres of the brave saviours of society. The fact that several children were badly wounded is even reported in such a radically respectable piper as the Frankfurter Zeitung. We need no further details. We know this old story of brutal attacks upon unarmed peaceful citizens only too well.

This is how the police disturbed the funeral of a Socialist at Frankfurt. At Birmen thay would not allow another Socialist to be buried at all by his friends, but actually "confiscated" the corpse. This sounds like a ghastly joke. But it is an actual fact. This man had died on the Wednesday, and was to be buried on the Sunday — twentyfour hours beyond the legal time, it is true, but this extension is usual when the legal time falls on a Saturday. It was known that a baod was to accompany the funeral procession, and the police, duly informed of this, offered no opposition at first. But on the Saturday afternoon the organisers of the funeral were informed that "any gathering at the churchyard was prohibited" by the Anti-Socialist Law, and that no bands would be permitted to enter. This, however, was not enough. The sagacious police-officer found that a large number of people would gather, music or no music, and that this must, at all costs, be prevented. But how? In this predicament a doctor — Strauss by name — came to the rescue. Acoompaniei by a commissary of police, this gentleman proceeded to the house of the deceased, and declared that, on sanitary grounds, the body must there and then be removed. Not only the brothers, but several independent doctors, protested against this unheard-of and quite unnecessary interference — to no purpose. Another commissary, three more policemen and four carriers, appeared on the scene, broke open the locked door of the room in which the dead man lay, and carried off the corpse with no more ado to the churchyard. The next day, however, thousands of persons — the numbers doubled through this shameful police outrage — assembled at the house of the deceased Socialist, formed into a large cortège, and proceeded to the cemetery, bearing large crowns tied with red ribbon. At the cemetery the procession found the gates locked, but these, despite the efforts of the police, were burst open, the crowns placid upon the new-made grave, and speeches made. The police stood by helpless. After the speeches the crowd quietly dispersed.

DENMARK. — Our fellow-organ, the Sozial Democrat, of Copenhagen, on the 25th of July issued a special number to celebrate the fact that it now publishes twenty thousand copies daily, a fact of which it and our Danish comrades may well be proud. This "special" number gives some interesting and instructive details as to the movement in Denmark, and contains an account of the paper since its foundation. A few years ago the Sozial Democrat was a small weekly. It is now, as I have already said, a daily, of large siza, consisting of twenty-eight columns, or about 168,000 letters in all. With such results, it may well say that Socialism is a power in Denmark! Those who cannot read Danish would do well to get this number all the same, for it contains a map of Denmark, well worth studying, in which the spread of Socialism in the country can be seen at a glance, the various groups, unions, etc., in various parts, being marked off in red. Altogether our comrades are to be heartily congratulated; when we think of the 20,000 subscribers to this paper, we can only wish we would go and do likewise.

FRANCE. — On Sunday, August 9, the monument to Auguste Blanqui was unveiled at Père Lachaise, in the presence of thousands of Socialists and representatives of most of the different Socialist organisations. The monument, by Dalou, which represents Blanqui lying upon his bier, is said to be an artistic masterpiece. To speak of Auguste Blanqui is to speak of one of the noblest, truest, most heroic of the many noble men who have given their lives for the people. His was not the enthusiasm of a few short years or months; his was not one single act of heroism. His whole long life was that of a martyr. Forty years of imprisonment under every kind of government, all manner of persecution, the cruellest sufferings of body and mind, had been powerless to shake the iron energy, to destroy the unconquerable faith, of this man. At every revolution — when he was not in prison — we find him to the fore; and when the Commune offered to Versailles the Archbishop, and I know not how many other hostages thrown in, in exchange for the single Blanqui, the Versaillists very wisely refused to give him up. Blanqui in prison was more valuable to them than a wilderness of archbishops. "No god or master" was Blanqui's motto. And in the ordinary sense of those words he was true to them. In the higher, nobler sense, Blanqui acknowledged both god and master. Truth was his god, and his master was that cause he served so faithfully.

There is a great stir in France anent the approaching elections I hope to give a full account of the action taken by the various groups next month.

Eleanor Marx Aveling.

November

GERMANY. — The celebrated Chemnitz trial has at last come off — and the nine accused have had to be acquitted! And that after the Prussian Government had spent eighteen months in preparing "evidence," and the indictment alone formed an imposing volume of over a hundred folio pages. Poor Bismarck! It is quite appalling to think of the amount of brandy he will consume to comfort himself for all the labour lost. The nine prosecuted Socialists were, it may be remembered, accused of taking part a year and a half ago in the Congress held by the German Socialists at Copenhagen, and of belonging to a secret society whose aim is the overthrow of existing laws, and of circulating by millions Socialistic pamphlets, fly-sheets and the prohibited Social Democrat. Of course, the statement as to the "secret society" is absurd, and despite all efforts of the police, the verdict could be no other — even in Germany — than it was. Meantime, however, the police is "taking it out" of the Socialists. Heine has just been sentenced to six month's imprisonment; Kroecker's printing press has been seized and confiscated; Liebknecht has a month for insulting two police-agents (how policeman H 17, who thought we were disrespectful to him, must regret he isn't in Germany!) There are some eight or nine other trials pending.

I know that in England there is an idea that German prisons are not at all unpleasant places — and certainly persons condemned for "press offences" are better off than they would be here. But that political prisoners may be as cruelly tortured in Germany as Fenian prisoners were in England, the following facts prove. My readers probably remember that at the so-called "Niederwald trial," the shoemaker Holzhauer was condemned to ten years' hard labour. On the 19th of September, Holzhauer committed suicide by hanging himself in his cell at Halle. I quote from the Social Democrat: — "Holzhauer was driven to this deed of despair through continual tortures Thus — as we are informed on reliable authority — he was not occupied as shoemaker, but was set to do work of which, owing to his excessive shortsightedness, he could not do the given amount. The consequence was one "disciplinary" punishment after the other. His request for spectacles was refused. That he was also made to suffer from cold is evident from his last letter to his wife... His family, living in Barmen, only learnt his death from the local papers; the prison authorities did not think proper till five days after Holzhauer's death to communicate with his relations." ... May this poor shoemaker's name be added to the long list of the martyrs of our cause. Let all of us that are Socialists remember Holzhauer."

The English bourgeois press always has long telegrams and gushing articles anent the German military manoeuvres. I do not think any one of them has found space to record these "details." I take only a very few facts from many given: — "On the 14th of September, near Durlach, the manoeuvres of the 14th Army corps — attended, of course, by the German Emperor and many foreign officers — took place. ... On the morning of the 15th September the troops set forth from their quarters merrily and in good health — between four and five in the evening they returned — but how? The condition of the soldiers is hardly describable; they no longer walked, they dragged themselves despairingly along... Over 400 fainted. 9 men were picked up dead. On the 16th of September the number of 'fallen' was 800... At Karlsruhe over 50 men were left lying on the field, of whom 5 died." ... There can be no comment on such facts. But the soldiers in Germany are beginning to understand that they, like the workers, are victims of the hideous bourgeois society of to-day — and they are coming over to us.

FRANCE. — The elections have come, and by the time I am writing gone — though I do not know the results of the final "ballotages." To me it seems that the most important points in regard to these elections are the joining of hands of various Socialist parties, and the clean knocking over of the Opportunists. With the single exception of the followers of M. Brousse — whose Socialism is a very doubtful quantity — all other parties worked together. The number, more or less, of votes recorded, it seems to me matters very little (I confess I don't know what the numbers are) — but I think that the good propagandist work done all over France matters much. And that the Radicals à la Clemenceau — who temper their Radicalism with Socialism, and their Socialism with Opportunism — should be left practically face to face with the reactionists, is to our advantage alone. If Clemenceau kills Opportunism, or Opportunism Clemenceau, "each way makes our gain."

In the Socialiste of 10th October, Paul Lafargue gives a short account of a visit to Louise Michel. I regret that I have not space to translate it. Our heroic Louise is what she has ever been — the gentlest, tenderest, most womanly of women, while at once the strongest, most uncompromising, and determined of revolutionists. She is spending much of her time in preparing good school books for little children — surely admirable work — and suffering is as ever incapable of weakening this strong woman's heart. Lafargue tried to prove to her that she could without hesitation accept an amnesty — since she does not admit the right of the Government to condemn her, and since on coming out from prison she would carry on her good work of propaganda for the revolution. But till all her fellow-prisoners — Krapotkin and the rest — are amnestied, Louise will not hear of any "mercy" for herself. Let me just add that Lafargue could only see her behind her horrible prison-bars, and could not even touch her hand.

AMERICA. — There is much interesting news to be given from various countries, but our American news is so specially interesting this month that I am tempted to leave out many notes — space being limited — to make way for it. First, I must say that the struggle with the police at Dod Street has caused the utmost excitement and interest, all the papers — bourgeois as well as our own — giving long accounts of what occurred. As to Morris's arrest our friends all rejoice at it as the best thing that could have happened. I don't know that Morris will quite agree with them, but I certainly do. The New Yorker Volkszeitung (a daily Socialist paper with a very large circulation) gives in its issue of the 1st October, a report of a crowded meeting held in New York on the "Gagging Affair in London." A resolution — too long, unfortunately, for insertion here — was passed, stating that the "shameful events in London" only go to prove that there must be solidarity among all people of the earth; that all workers can learn a lesson from this; and that they (i.e., the Socialists at this meeting) greet with all their hearts the advance made on the heretofore unpropitious soil of England, of the eternal Socialist Idea, and that they wish their English comrades good luck in their energetic conduct." The resolution ends with the words, "May the day of our emancipation soon dawn."

A new English Socialist paper is about to be started in New York. This is good news. There are already two German Socialist papers, but since the Voice of the People ceased to appear two years ago there has been no English one.

The recent report of the Bureau of Statistics is of the utmost importance for us Socialists. But a letter has just come from San Francisco containing such interesting news that I cannot resist giving at least a few extracts from it, and. leaving over, for the present, my notes on the "report" For the many interesting facts concerning organisation in the "small scattered towns" I have not room, and I can only get in a few general ones. "The International have extended their operations ... have two lecturers afield, and are doing all they can in distributing literature. ... No comrades are working harder than those at Topeka, Kansas. ... In Stockton, California, one of our largest towns, we have got quite a footing ; have captured the leading paper, and are holding extremely good weekly meetings. ... We have sent a man specially to Seattle (Washington Territory), another to Victoria, etc., etc. From all these we have had numerous letters. We have letters from Oregon, from Canada, where there is much discontent ... but the best work is being done in Central California, the most thickly peopled portion of the State. ... A large mass meeting was held some three weeks ago to advocate Government ownership of railroads and telegraphs. Some 3000 had a lot of Socialism talked to them. ... Two of our most energetic comrades are now organising a free employment agency for the unemployed — of whom there will be in this city (San Francisco) alone some 15,000 this winter." Our correspondent goes on to say how the Chinese question is one of their greatest difficulties. We understand the difficulty in some respects, but surely that will be lessened when our American Socialists explain that not the unhappy Chinese but the exploiters who import them are to blame — that the latter not the former should be attacked. In conclusion, our comrade writes that the Commonweal "is eagerly read here, and largely quoted from in our labour papers," and he, too, says "the news of Morris's arrest has reached us, and we take that to be the best thing that has happened for a long time. That very day an attempt to suppress free speech was made here, and a League for its Defence promptly formed. We expect an enormous crowd in consequence this afternoon." All good be with our comrades in the West !

Eleanor Marx Aveling.

[Notes from Holland, Spain, and Italy must stand over for want of space.]

December

Within the last few days two murders — murders the more foul and hideous in that they were committed in cold blood and after the sanguinary farce of "legal" trials and "legal" sentences — have been perpetrated by the Governments of England and of Germany. Louis Riel and Julius Lieske have been murdered — the one by the "free English," the other by the despotic German Government — to satisfy the insensate cry for revenge of a cowardly and frightened ruling class. One hardly knows which feeling is uppermost — shame and horror that such things can be, or absolute bewilderment at the idiotcy of the Governments that thus help to dig their own graves. Germany will not easily forget Julius Lieske. And it requires no prophetic vision to foresee "Canadian difficulties" ahead.

To the details of Riel's case I need only refer here. All my readers remember the rising of the "half-breeds" — driven to this revolt, be it borne in mind, by the terrible wrongs under which they suffer. These wrongs no one has denied. Indeed, a pretence at redressing some of the more crying ones has been made. And yet the man who helped to tell the world what these wrongs were, whose only crime was that he took the only means in his power to help his people — this man has been done to death. At his trial he never faltered. It was not he who set up a plea of "insanity" — he declared that if to love his people, if to wish to redress their wrongs were insanity, then he was insane, but not otherwise. His death was brave and calm. His memory will live in the hearts of his people — and French Canadians will be ready to hold out a hand to the United States whenever the States may feel disposed to include Canada in the Union.

But monstrous as is the murder of Riel, that of Julius Lieske outdoes it in infamy — for here we have a man murdered for a "crime" he has not committed, and simply as a "warning example." In the August number of the Commonweal I gave an account of his trial, and I refer my readers to that. In addition to the facts given there I have only these to add. Firstly, it has now been indubitably proved that the chief "witness" against Lieske, one Mrs. Camphausen, was not only an altogether unreliable witness, but that she was in the pay of the police. [I] have not space here to give details, but German-reading friends will find them in the Sozial Democrat of November 19th. At his trial Lieske declared he waa innocent. In a letter — which I regret I cannot reproduce here in full — to his brother he says: "I swear to you, dear brother, I have not done it (i.e., assassinated Rumpff). I did not even take part in it; they have condemned an innocent man. ... You, dearest brother, must know I have not done this deed. There is no blood upon my hands." His last words on the scauold were "I am innocent." And let it not be forgotten that here was no case of mistaken identity, of a juridical error. Lieske is the victim of a foul police plot. His innocent blood be upon the heads of his dastardly murderers. For ourselves, let us remember Louis Riel and Julius Lieske.

DENMARK, NORWAY AND SWEDEN. — Nowhere, probably, is our movement making greater strides than in Scandinava. With the "increased wealth of the country" (i.e. of the exploiting class) and the "development of trade and commerce" (i.e. of the Capitalistic system with all its train of horrors), the people are growing poorer and more wretched, and are beginning to under stand — the sturdy Norwegian peasant as well as the town workers — that "things are not what they seem," and that the Capitalistic is not the best world possible. The fact that has peculiar interest and significance with regard to Scandinavia is that the peasants are beginning to work with us. For example, the great Copenhagen strike that has gone on now for over three months, has been kept up to a great extent by the country folk. They have not only contributed money to help their brethren of the town, but have received into their own homes the families of the strikers. The importance of such facts cannot be over-rated. And Scandinavia affords another proof of that which we Socialists always maintain — that thoughtful and honest men of all classes must come to us. Not only Scandinavia, but we Socialists of all lands have reason to be proud that such a man as Björnson sympathises with us. Above all, we may be proud that the greatest dramatist of modern times, one of the great dramatists of all time, Henrick Ibsen, has declared himself a Socialist. For years Ibsen has dealt in his great plays with matters of deepest social import as no other living dramatist has dared to do. So boldly and bravely did he speak, that his country became too hot for him, and for many years he has lived abroad. A few months ago he returned to his native land. Time had brought his revenge, and Ibsen was fêted everywhere — but at Drontheim, Ibsen was received by the working-man's club, and there he declared himself a Socialist. "Mere democracy," he said, "cannot solve the question (i.e., the social question) ... An element of aristocracy must be introduced into our life ... of course, I do not mean the aristocracy of birth or of the purse, or even the aristocracy of intellect. I mean the aristocracy of character, of will, of mind. That only can free us. From two groups will this aristocracy I hope for come to our people — from our women and our workmen. The revolution, now preparing in Europe, in the social condition, is chiefly concerned with the future of the workers and the women. In this I place all my hopes and expectations; for this I will work all my life and with all my strength."

FRANCE. — On the motion of our friend Vaillant, the Paris Municipal Council has passed a resolution (though the good bourgeois Radicals would not vote the resolution "urgent"!) demanding an amnesty for all political offenders, whether condemned for debits de droits commun (i.e., as ordinary criminals) or not. The same resolution will be brought forward by Clovis Hugues next Monday in the Chamber. His proposition has already received 110 signatures, but naturally the Government will move heaven and earth to keep Louise Michel, Bernard, Kropotkine, and their companions in their clutches. Of course, Clemenceau and his followers are pledged to support Clovis Hugues.

Some friends have asked whether there is any truth in the statement that the "reactionary vote" at the late election was intended as a censure on the anti-Catholic policy of the Government. Any one who knows anything of France or French political. and social life would hardly ask such a question. France was simply disgusted with the "foreign policy" of the "Tonkinois" Ferry; the vote was meant as an unqualified protest against the "little wars" in which Bourse speculators have embarked, and had nothing whatever to do with the "religious question."

The present crisis in Lyons is as terrible as the one of 1831-32, and the unhappy weavers after a long struggle have, "vanquished by famine," been forced to accept the 20 per cent reduction of their wages imposed by their exploiters. But even after this concession the employers have, for the most part, not re-opened their factories. This, of course, means absolute starvation for thousands. And now the manufacturers of Rheims are following the good example of their dear colleagues of Lyons, and are reducing the starvation wages paid from 10 to 20 per cent.

Eleanor Marx-Aveling.