THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY AND ITS CREED.

Waikato Times, Volume IV, Issue 237, 15 November 1873, Page 2

THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY AND ITS CREED.

(Daily TEiuonAwi.) • The police recently made a raid upon the pramisei of the> • K-iety at Rome, nt the moment when the meeting of the committee wad being held,;and at rested six individuals! with all the papers and documents belonging to the' societj. Thil branch of the International was 1 calleS the "Soeieta del Silenaia," and was an offspring of tlie Madrid International* from whom their patent and bye-laws emanated The paper* seized consist of proclamation*, bulletin* tfrcHlarj, and letters oi 1 a revolutionary kind, with copies of b'yelaYrs, regulation*, ana books of membership. Tim circulars ottd letters all end with the following conventional sentence, "Adieu, rery dear friend, in anarchy and Communism." Signor Gadda, the Prefect, has been for some time aw ore of the existence pf this society, but until this week lias been unable to discover iti leaders. The kocioty had for its objVct tiie fostering of strikes as a means to revolution. Its members were enrolled under the designation of ,'affiliates; each affiliate was compelled to take an oath of absolute obedience und all allegiance to the committee, and to subscribe nob less than 30e per week to the funds. Eight hundred members luve been enrolled in. Rome, and of these less than one-fourth are- natives of the 1 province. Each affiliate has a book in which his-subscriptiont are entered, each payment being sealed with the common seal > of the society. His name, number, and outh of allegiance to the society are printed on the first outside co*er, and on the 1 ist is a kind of Socialist catechism which every member is commanded to learn. As a specimen of the teaching inculcated by this and kindred societies, i quoU the following literal translation r — Question : What is a proletarian ? — Answer:. A proletarian i-< one who works to live, and is compelled to do so in view of waye* paid bv a master. A proletarian is one who worksand suffers under the control and tyranny ef a capitalist. Q. How are the proletarians to rise ? — A. Proletarians can only rise through a state of anarchy and social liquidation. Hie best means- of obtaining this condition of< things is for the workman, to cease working, and by this -method capital remains unproductive. From the {strike to t«# revolution there is but one hU>\j ; from revolution to anarchy another step ; from anarchy to Gomnuvnism only one step remains. Q. What is a workman ? — A. A workman is he who, for wages, spends his life producing for the benefit of* others. "'. Q. What daises are not workmen ? — A. The lawyers,, agents, newspaper editors, priests, ministers,, senators, deputies, kings or emperors, and worst of all these r who consume without producing, speculating oh the tears and fears of the poor. Q. What, then, should workmen da? — A. All workmen ; must strike; and, as they must live, the International Society will support their wants by a fund culled the Resistance Fund, and to this each affiliate must subscribe ten centimes weekly. . AH the documents closed with the words, "Long lire Anarchy ! Long live Communism !" The six men protested y loudly agaimt their arrest, and endeavoured by their shouts' ' to attract the attention of their dupes. A largo crowd of persons assembled near the door of the house, but the police had mustered in too strong force for a rescue to have been attempted with any chance of success ; and the affiliates, if" any such were present, observed the first rule of i their society, " silence," and that virtue which is described as the better part of ralour. By the seizure of the documents every member enrolled in Borne will be known to the police, and it is gratifying to learn that, although men of nearly every European nation are affiliates of' the society, there is no English- - man on' its roll of membership. |