Gentle Woman Again.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXVII, Issue XII, 21 September 1901, Page 537

Gentle Woman Again.

The woman who, according to the French proverb, is supposed to be at the bottom of every trouble, has not had to be searched for in the ease of the Anarchist outrage in America. Czolgosy, the watched assassin of the President, declared at once that what first put it into his head to commit the deed was a lecture by Miss Goldman, in which the lady declared that all rulers should be exterminated; and Miss Goldman is now in gaol. It would be a nice point to decide t-o what extent this interesting lady is a participator with Czolgosy in his crime. It would be impossible, I am afraid, to prove her legally responsible in the matter, and therefore she cannot be held legally guilty. As to her moral responsibility or guilt, if the position is as Czolgosy states, she certainly stands condemned by the voice of the world. Her hand it was in this case, sowed the seed of murder, and she seems to have been sowing it so broadcast that there is not so much to be wondered at that some fell on fruitful soil. Yet the authorities in America do not contemplate any wholesale measure against Anarchists, we are told. They are to be left in peace, one infers, to spread their doctrine of destruction abroad through the States. Miss Goldman will emerge from prison clothed with a greater authority than •ver to preach the word of death, and more than ever emboldened to preach it with no uncertain meaning. As propagandists generally, women have not been very prominent, but perhaps

there is no cause in which they might figure as such more successfully than in spreading the doctrine of Anarchy. The less logic the teacher has in such cases the better, and a woman has this great advantage over a man. that she can give murderous counsel without being exp< cted to practise what she preaches. We know how the burghers in South Africa have been kept in the field by the taunts of their women folk. The female Anarchist is more to be dreaded than her brother of the terrible creed. If she is silent she can the better work unsuspected because she is a woman. If she speaks it is with a greater freedom, for her sex protects her. She can carry per-’ suasion nearer to the point of a command when she would incite to evil because men would not lie thought to lag behind a woman. What she is Ixild enough to suggest they must be bold enough to do. No doubt Czolgosy had listened to many Anarchist lecturers of his own sex, who failed to l ouse him to action, but Miss Goldman found him a willing disciple, quick to apply the general principles which she propounded. Who knows how soon she may find others. As a fact Czolgosy is an excellent advertisement for her, and will give to her lectures in future a new eharm and force. And America will still allow it apparently. o o o o o