The French Government is trying to put down the International
Society of Workmen by charging its members with the offence of belonging to a secret association. Thirty-eight members are now under trial in Paris. It is asserted in the act of accusation that the Society includes 443,785 French members, 42,226 Swiss, 80,000 English, 150,000 Germans, and 100,000 Austrians, or say 800,000 men in all; that its object is to foment strikes ; that it has caused strikes in different places ; that it advocates the democra- tic and social Republic, taxation on real property, and the aboli- tion of conscription ; that it was at the bottom of the recent Parisian enzeutes ; and that it approves and plans the assassina- tion of the Emperor. There is a good deal of Lothair about all that ; but there can be little doubt that a society of workmen does exist on the Continent which is in sympathy with the ex- treme Reds, though it probably does not approve assassination. The evidence, such as it is, rather tends to show that its Parisian leaders have endeavoured to bring science to their aid for a street fight, not for an act of murder.
Previous page
