According to the Philadelphia correspondent of the Times, - the anarchists
of the Union have given up the canted. That is to say, they have agreed during the recent Socialist Conyers- tion at Buffalo to merge themselves in the general Socialist organisation, which, again, repudiates physical force, and expects to prevail by starting newspapers and preaching in all great -centres its peculiar doctrines. The Association, or rather sect, will hold itself aloof from all labour organizations, and will endeavour to make its biennial congress so powerful, that it will -supersede the National Congress, when it will claim, and of course obtain, the supreme power. Considering that nearly 70 per cent, of all Americans are possessed of property, generally freehold land, that is rather a dreamy programme ; but it is not opposed to the laws or to social order, and if the Socialists can succeed in persuading human nature to take itself out of the way, they may become a majority. It is a strange fact that the sect should make so many converts in -the most prosperous of countries ; but it is the well-off who are attracted by the selfsacrificing creeds. A large proportion of Trappists were once rich men, and a community governed on Socialist principles would not be much more unhappy than a Monastery of La Trappe.
































Previous page