SOME SOCfALfST LEADERS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 4774, 14 October 1893, Page 1

SOME SOCfALfST LEADERS.

The following accounts of some of the leading European Socialists are taken by the London Quarterly Review from 1 M. de Wyzewa's book :— WILIiIAM MOBRIS, POKT AND SOCIALIST. Among the English Socialists, the best account is given of Mr William Morris. He says : — On the pavement with his head uncovered, I saw a solid ■ little man vociferating and gesticulating in the wildest way. He seemed to be a man of fifty, with a crimson countenance, from which there shone the light of two large steelblue eyes. Incapable of standing still, he marched about, incessantly. The abundance of hia gestures shook hiß frame from top to toe; his black hair, like amanej flowed to and fro;, and all the time he brandished in the air, or ground between his teeth, a deeply-coloured little wooden pipa. With all the force of bis strong lungs, and in the affected tone which Englishmen riEsumo when speaking in the open air, this improvised apostle was demonstrating, ,ppt, ss might have been expected, th& advaniayo of ' coiniug to Christ and the inconveniences o£ damnation, but the necessity of a class struggle* and the certainty of social revolution. "Oj H&inlet, what a falling off wes there I" The energetic orator to whom we have b96n listening is the author of "The Esrbhly Paradise," and the selfrejected poet laureate to the English crown. Poet -or no poet, the little man was causing an obstruction, acid, refusing to desist, off he was marched to the Btation-house, Btill vociferating' aud still brandishing his pipe. Mr Morris Bhowa no signa of recantation. His zeal in writing, lecturing, agitating knows no bounds. No means »ro too laborious or humiliating for diffusing his ideas. Now you see him spending weeks together in the wilds of Scotland, Btirring up the people to revolt against the owners of the soil ; now you see him standing at the corners of the streets in London trying to convert the passerg-by; now handing leaflets and prospectuses to the crowds of passengers at railway stations or inside the cars. In his home at Hammersmith he holds meetings for the workmen of the district. A GBRHAN SOCIALIST LOYOLA. 08 the German leaders, the most interesting account is of Von Tollman M. de Wyzewa says :■— Vollmar — for the moment we may drop the " Von" — is, as this prefix indicates, an aristocrat. He was born at Munich in 1850, and belongs fco one of the oldest families in Bavaria. Until his fifteenth year he was in the hands of the Augsburg Benedictine Fathers, who gave him an education suited to his station: In 18G5 he entered a cavalry regiment, and the. ye»r following went through 'the Austrian campaign* Not content with the life ot an officer in time of peace he gave up 'his commission and offered his sword to the Pope, who was at that time recruiting volunteers. It was not until 1870 that he rejoined tho Bavarian army to take part in the Franco-German war. While passing through the region of- the Loire, at the head of a telegraph corps, tho young man was severely wounded. In hia efforts to complete his taste he fall and broke both legs. The fracture, complicated with a lesion of the spine, left him a cripple for life. He was then but twenty-one, and never since that time ha 3 he been able to move without crutches. The least step Btill oosts a painful effort to his crooked limbs. With indomitable energy, however, Vollmar set himself, through tbe long yeara of his convalescence, to complete his early education* There is not a science or an art he has not approached. There is not a language in Europe he cannot speak. The most important result of his studies, however, was his conversion f torn Catholicism to Socialism. When Vollmar left the military hospital he was an ardent follower of' Marx. THE FOUNDER OF LABOUR DAT. M. Guesde, the Frenchman, is the originator of the May-Day Labour Demonstration.' When M. de Wyzewa saw him first, about ten years ago, M. Guesde Was addressing an audience in a small provincial theatre. "On entering, I saw upon the stage a great big devil, black -"bearded, hairy, vociferating without modulation, grinding out his words with teeth and arms as if he were a mere machine. * * * No fine phrases, no high-sounding talk about ideal justice or the rights of labour, no appeal to sentiment ; the only appeal was to the needs, the instincts and the appetites of the audience." / More recently M. Wyzewa has had the opportunity of seeing the great agitator in his home in Paris. Ho is still in his prime, and his thick black beard retains its raven gloss. In his own house you see him to advantage, and find out almost immediately the secret of his power. He is a "magnetic " man, and " one of tho most extraordinary chambßr orators of the time. He is not a mau ; he is a machine, an intellectual machine, an automatic dialectician, a sort o£ animated marionnotte wound up once for all." He ia also one of the most disinterested of men. "He knows neither ambition nor jealously, nor passion for gain. He is not even aa exalte, And yet in epite of poverty and calumny and Bicknosa and imprisonment, he haa pursued his propaganda, and for twenty

/ years haß acted a 8 a chief of French Collectivism." " , THE EDITOB OF THE " EEVTJB SOCIALISTS!." M. Guesde is for revolution and Violent overturn, but the other eminent Socialist leader in France advocates more' of the Fabian polioy :— ./' M. Malon, after many fluctuations, preaches patience, and, in place of revolution, advocates reform. He woa born of peasant par eats at Prfitient in 1841* At first he was a shepherd, but he afterwards ■obtained employment in Paris as a dyer. There he studied science; got np strikes, and made his mark among the Socialists. His leisure waß devoted ,to poetry. During the closing yeara ot the Empire he became one of the chiefs of Socialism, took a prominent part in the agitations of the famous " International," waa often sent to prison, became successively a deputy and a member, of the Commune, and, on his banishment from Paris, spent some time with Bnkouniue in Switzerland and Italy. After the amnesty he returned to Paris, founded the Revue Socialists, became the editor of more than one French newspaper, and constituted himself the historian, the expounder, and the populariser of Collectivism.