THE ANARCHISTS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 8, 11 January 1899, Page 8

THE ANARCHISTS.

THE LEADER OF THEREMARKABLE

SOCIETY

FACTS REGARDING THIS WIDE-

SPREAD MOVEMENT,

The conference just held at Rome for the purpose of devising means for the : suppression of the Anarchist movement I recalls to the writer a somewhat peculiar i interview in which he participated over 15 j years ago. An intimate friend was connected with one of the foreign Legations at Geneva, and was greatly interested in j the study of Socialist matters generally, | and the then comparatively new move- j ment organised in 18SS which has since j become world-famous as Anarchism. In . Geneva, then as now, lived the most pro- j minent leader of the cuit, ex-Professor Dragomanoff, in whose house Vera Sassoulitch took refuge after her escape from Russia, on being acquitted of the charge of shooting General Trepoff, Chief of the St. Petersburg police. DRAGOMANOFF'S PERSONALITY. A more kindly-appearing man 'never scuttled ship or cut a throat.' His kindly eyes regarded one genially through spectacles. His face beamed with good nature *om a forest of reddish hair and beard. Not for a moment would one imagine that he was the originator of the notable series of Anarchist outrages that have shaken Europe to its centre, culminating in the murder of the Empress of Austria, whose remains lay in state at the Hotel Beau-Rivage in the very city of Geneva in which that far-away night Dragomanoff expounded his doctrines and theories on the cheerful gospel of regicide. A PROPHECY. Carried away by his exposition of his dynamitic theories, he predicted a series of practical demonstrations of the doctrine of assassination he so ably preached. The explosion at the Winter Palace, in which 20 officers and servants lost their lives, and the assassination of the Czar followed in swift succession, the nitroglycerine explosives having been made in Geneva, doubtless under the supervision of the gentle-toned Professor Dragomanoff. The theories expounded and abiy argued that night in Geneva are identical with those advanced by the assassin of the Empress Elizabeth of Austria, and they both coincide with those of Bakounine, founder of the Anarchist movement in the same city of Geneva in IS6S. BAKOUNINE. Born a nobleman, Baron Bakounine, in youth a page of the Czar Nicholas, rejoiced in the unique distinction of being a giant in stature and an ogre of horror • in appearance.lt was his conception to , improve on the levelling doctrines of Socialism by substituting Anarchy—the gos- • pel of total destruction of the existing ' social fabric. This gloomy prophet goes . no further than this; offers no improved state to follow. Simply destroy all exist--1 ing creations as being rotten-^the State, _ religion, laws, morality,-family, and property. Leave it to a better and more en--1 lightened generation to formulate a new condition of social order.

It will thus be seen that Anarchy and Nihilism are identical, and at the Congress of the International at Geneva, in 186S, Bakounine thus laid down his gospel of infamy:— NIHILIST. PRINCIPLES. 'Brethren, I announce to you a new gospel. Thisgospel admits of no half measures "or" hesitations. The old world."" must be destroyed and replaced by a new one. The lie must be stamped out, and give way to truth. It is our mission to destroy the lie. Might invented the fiction of Right to insure and strengthen her reign. Might should be in the hands of the majority. Once penetrated with the conviction of your own Might you will be able to destroy this mere notion of Right. Your minds once tnus freed, then all the remaining chains that bind you, and which are -called civilisation, property, marriage, morality, and justice, will snap asunder like thread. Let yodr own happiness be your only. law. But, in order to get this law recognised, you must destroy everything, as it now exists, the good with the bad, for if but an atom of this old world retrains the hew will never be created.' This cheerful doctrine has led to the assassination of many people high in rank and office, including a Czar, the last victim being an Empress, entirely aloof from the political and social life attacked. What direct advantage may be gained by the assassination of a young, girl such as the Queen of Holland? But the justification from the Anarchist point of view is simply this:, THE JUSTIFICATION. Such deeds, justify themselves by the necessity of eradicating from men's minds' the habitual respect for the powers that exist. According to the explanations of the Anarchist leaders, the more frequent the attacks on people of rank and power, the more will the respect for rank and power diminish. Veneration for crowned heads has been their protection for centuries. Destruction of crown-, ed heads, therefore, will show the people that this veneration has no. fpnndationjn, fact, and the selection of victims high in rank terrifies alike both government and the different grades of society. The higher the' representative of law and order,? the greater the moral effect. But in the event of not being able to strike higher, kill off twenty Or thirty policemen in. a bunch, as happened in Chicago in 1885. 4 For the past thirty years this organisation, despite all manner of special legislation, has gained power in Europe, and to-day is stronger than ever, and a greater menace to society. It has established itself in the United States as an organised body, and one has only to go to the. Domain of a Sunday to hear similar doctrines expounded on Austrian soil. ANARCHIST ORGANISATION In every capital of the old world, and in the principal cities of the new, Nihilism exists in organised form. Its agents are established in London, Manchester, and Birmingham; in New York, Chicago, and St. Louis. The propaganda is particularly active in manufacturing centres among the: Labour Socialists of the Continent, and in such centres of commerce as Lyons and Marseilles. The lodges, of this Order of Death and Destruction have their. collections, of photographs for purposes of identification of officials and dignitaries. The methods adopted by detectives, and disguises, assumed by them, are known, and-a record of them kept. It has its secret printing offices for revolutionary manifestos, by whjeh its propaganda is carried on. The black books of an Anarchist lodge are open to the inspection of anyone who will serve" the cause by assassination. Altogether it is the most carefully and completely organised murder society ever known in the history of civilisation, and its disciples are gaining in numbers daily.

Nether the constant watchfulness of the Russian Third Section, the stern mea-

sures of merciless repression pursued in other Continental countries, nor the swift

vengeance visited upon the advocates of this creed of horror in the United States, have effected the end desired. A frightful retaliation of justice may some day succeed in stamping it out. But the cowardly advocates of Bakounine's 'new gospel' work in Secret, and strike without

warning. Communism and Socialism are merely isms: but Anarchy is a positive fact, menacing not only the foundations of law and order, but the holiest associations and beliefs of mankind generally. It will be curious to watch the effort of the conference at Rome upon the dynamiters making up the ranks of this precious Association of Social Disorder. For, irrespective of mode of government or religious belief, the microbe of Anarchism has developed in many countries, in Holy Russia; in Protestant England; in intellectual Germany; in Catholic Italy, Austria, and Spain; in atheistical France; in the freedom of the United States, this insidious bacteria has thriven with increasing vigour for over a quarter of a century. It may well be that the occurrence of such another social revolution as gave the death blow to Communism may be needed to finally 1 wipe this gospel of the hopeless out of j existence. —'Sydney Nov.:;. .