HISTORY'S SUPREME TRAGEDY.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 3, Issue 53, 15 March 1912, Page 5

HISTORY'S SUPREME TRAGEDY.

So Says Coorgs D. Hsrron in his " Oration." I do not think -lliat. I need to tell tho Ftory of the l'aris Ootnnmii(\ as it is called, to sin jiuclieiKx , of Socialists. You know the story <n how tlio people of Paris lunst) in. revolt, in tho autumn of 1870, against tlio surrender of tlio city by tlio Ck'vcniment of Franc-O to 11 O"nri-nn coii'in'Tors ; liow tbo popul-ir iinrisiiiu Jifyiiiisfc tlio Gcrraivus viithoiiL ilh- v>';il!s suoii dovt'loped into tlio firmed pro tost of tho city fi£f)iii3t tlio cc'iM.raiijii.■(! and coriupb authority of tho Frcnrli Sl'.nto; how, as the* a'ar'inf'.l p' - opra-ti"fl. classoe withriroff ft'Oiii tiio sLiu.! , :.!',! l -., and as its burdon and tendency dopwioYd more and miuv uj> r )U tho working-class, it hecam-e ]>ri.ilo.l.a-rian. in characuM , and cconoTuin in Uα purpose-. Tho M<ir<l "commune" j.(',a!!y moan 'Voiminniity" ; il. was the (orm h,v wliH'h the townships or groups of in ike city were known in yrari'io. Tho rovolt of thy Coimmiiio of r:\ris nr;ait::;:L the Gornuins, ;ui<l iipjainst-i-h-.} i;-;urpiii.'. r f>'r.v<\iTuiiriiu of Fraxitx, true « cotiin.UiiiT.y b(-('king to rostorv soincl-liinc; lii;o thf , finciiMit, j»rivilfsoe "!" an. iiitlcpe!!'!.': , .!: frrp fit.y of the 'A'} li' , : Ago:'. Aα is c.'or the ease*, thu

re'il labor an J lighting d'M'ulvAcl iipan the wagoworkors, Civiuj w&om was drawn the best, ol what was fai<»Wi as tbeFrcneliNat.wHialGiiard, ( l'\\e. frightened "defendeis <vf order and nia<le terms n-jc-b tlu» Ooi'<wyijrt<ait \i the miserable Thiens at Voiwrtics, and abandoned th-' r.-al defe»«lm-« of JrVms to their fatefr.l struggle. 'f\m* <eajne the betrayals, the niisloadijig of the leaders, the iinal failure, and tiie Governmental murder of men w«ifleu and children to ihe numl>er of By the time the sprinii of l^\ was past, the capitalist class that jjftd betrayed tho revolt had appropriate! all its fruits.

It is «. Strang etory, this Jueent ejKK'h of the Paris Comnnutt. , -; and it is history's supreme tragedy, 'fliwe ie no martyrdom so splendid, n© sacrjfloe of a people so great. Them is not any protest of tlie common life jigalnst oppression so disinteii'sted -nsd &v truly noble, so worfliy of being suing «i and told in story.. ;is fchie martyrdom of the w'oHeing-eJaee 0f Paris in the spring of 1871. Ji jjwfo) the high lidos of human It _is a spectacle tnat surpasses in significance almost ovory otfwr ;»a?tj'«Jom of history—tlie spectacle ef -..a ])cople going not only to death but to accepted oblivion, to fonel<s*owjj and disgrace; a whfile in an ecstasy of devotion to ja betmyod and lost cause—girls and iqJu'Wren leading in this sublimit abttOj^atikMU.

And ia what kind of a ligjfet do the Communards still appear to theworidP The novelist and the historian. the politician and the priest and the Mug, and all the retainers of the ro&ng class, have, stamped the Conynunarae with infamy. The Paris ''Commune" in the popular mind was a tiitve of jned and meaningless terror; a time when the sheer lust of killing ai»i stealing jsund burning took possession «of the people. It is supposed that the ruftiaus and thugs, the assassins and the ,offs<aijurings of the nations gathered together in Paris in order to giui tWnselves with crime, with tho blood &n4 goods of the propertied and the res.pecta.ble.

And yet, as any sane or scientific study of tho period shows, <t-he time when tho working-class was in actual control of tho affairs of f,nee of ii;s own leaders, and getting along without govenvirieiit, ad-ministering society through the simple law of association for the common good, was A iiimo of unequalled human order, elemental taw and real liberty. At ho other time or place has life been so fuoc ajid safe, with so small an average of human -misery, with so large a fund-of aceui© fellowship, and with so hopeful <aiu3 xjomtnon a w--'ll-!><Miig. Kven -c-apiiiiOisfc properties were more sacredly prq.tected by the Com.inune than by the oapiitaflist administration itijflf, Indeed, the brief time when tlie. working-class was triumphant iii Paris, when it arose .above traitors wiUiiu ihe walls and t/Jia foreign foe without, when it dismissed or ignored the- government and became -its own law and order, is a .sort of ■oasis 'n tlie long desert of human .exploitation and tyranny; a sort of gkd and

beatific moment, a momentary and pro photic sprinprtime, in the long procession of the changing forms of parasitism aiif] hypocrisy and bnito fotw which w<: know as law and government. In. the day whon truth cae stand on its feotand facfi the world unafraid, naked and unashamed, and wliea tho poet comes who sliall siiiy tJ»* true epic of tho time which we to-d«y celobrat©, those fow days of the worlc-ing-class administration of Paris wiH lx> scevn a.s tho forerunner, the Jdm the Baptist, of tho better days thai will coino under tho co-operativo coemonwcalth, when thos* evil days «l oapit-alist misgovern ment, witli its prostitution of the common life, shall hare passed atvay forever.