FERRER THE ANARCHIST.

King Country Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 201, 21 October 1909, Page 5

FERRER THE ANARCHIST.

Francisco Ferrer, the revolutionist who was shot by order of the Spanish court-martial, was a remarkable man. widely known throughout Europe. The Spanish Government has made several attempts to implicate him in anarchist and revolutionary plots, and the charge against him of having inspired the Barcelona riots was quite probably trumped op by police agents. He was accused, it may be recalled, of having taken part in the conspiracy to assassinate the King and Queen of Spain on their wedding day. In bis evidence before the Court on that occasion he declared that he had learned of the crime with surprise, and denied that he bad any knowledge of the plot or of the bomb-thrower. The persecution of rerrer was really directed against the "Modern Schools" movement which he founded. The "Modern Schools" according to the "Manchester Guardian,"are "free voluntary schools in which the intellectual atmosphere is Liberal and secular in a country whose general educational system is enslaved *,to clericalism," Ferrer bimsef belonged to the philosophical school of Anarchism. Anarchism proper is not concerned with the assassination of princes and rulers; it attacks institutions. The use of the bomb and the pistol belongs properly to Russia, when particular Cum and Ministers have been identified with policies of oppression, and the anarchist, or, more properly, the Nihilist clubs and societies attacked those in authority partly out of vindictivcness and partly as • protest. The idea of assassination as a means of protest spread rapidly and it is still harboured parti-1 cutarly in Spain. But Anarchism as a creed is not to be confounded with the policy of the dagger and the bomb. The moat inAoential Anarchists in Europe are said to be gentle scholarly men. ' Ferrer himself has been described as a fanatic for personal freedom, but be was an enthusiast rather than a fanatic. He was a pore philanthropist. If there had been a tittle of evidence to justify the police in regarding him as a conspirator he would not have escaped in 1906, bat the closest examination of bis record revealed no questionable dealings. He WW doubtless a revolutionist by conviction. but he was not an active organiser of revolution. It will probably be found that he expressed sympathy with the 1200 men arrested in connection with the Barcelona riots, and that some such slender and unconvincing evidence was made the excuse for getting rid of him.