The Paris Commune.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 3, Issue 54, 22 March 1912, Page 2

The Paris Commune.

AN AWFUL RETROSPECT. To the Socialist a Dirge and a War-cry. (Ky Burnette G. Haskell.) Tho splendid struggle of tin- Comnumo of 1871 has been characterised by the Edinburgh "Review" as tho "greatest and most determined attempt tliat history has ever seen to settle tho social question by fort* of arms, the greatest: and most (l-torinined attempt ou the part of the workmen and their loaders to conquer a position, from iihich they could, in the near .future,, j regulate- society in their own way." i Viewed from tho simplo : historical standpoint, this is exactly what it was. i Looked at by tho Tx>et, the tale of those five ■ weeks' struggle is a page torn from tho epic of tho heroic age. To the economist it is the most brilliant uprising of the people in favor of; a. principle that tho world has ever seen/ To tho moralist it is an overwhelming proof of the nobility of man. To the' Socialist it in at once a.dirge and a war-cry. A dirge for tho dead, but not,! a sad one, for the dead were ours.. j They who laid down their lives so magnificently were striking for 'us.' These men. and women and little childV l r*n, whom Immortality has gathered to' her side, were of and for us, the be-" , cursed,- kicked and scourged wage-: slaves of the world. They (Tared to striko where wo da.ro not move a finger. They dared to die where we tremble: even in living. And our masters, finding their'backs' not bent so meekly to the whip'as are ours, shot them down in their tracks as wild beasts are shot. And not content with this,'they have lied to us about, these'heroic ■■■martyrs' who have died to set us free. Not contout with their robbery while living-*----their murder When they dared resist-— they have' for 13 years defamed tho dead.

It is time, at least, if. we 'ourselves aro too cowardly to break our own chains, that we hi\ye the decency to defend tho memory of those who tried to break them for us. ■

The blood of the men, the women, the : little children of the Commune .calls out to us from the shuddering to-day for vindication: Lot us heed that, call now, and then to world And by that work, unceasing, let us hope and. pray that .ere long, when that blood shall call r a3 well for vengeance, wo can respond s men and not aa quailing slaves. Friends, methinks we have but this,ono thing to do, to spread the light, to record the crimes of the robber class, to print that record by the million and , send it to every nook and corner of this land to make freedom sure. Even upon the report of Thiers himself we aro content to rest our case. He rp-.. ported this: Number of insurgents at-" rested from May 28, 1871, to January 1, 1872, 38,578; died, 967; acquitted,' 3147; condemned to prison, 10,131; handed over to the civil courts, 212; dismissed, 1090; shot, 21,121!!!

But Lissagaray, who chronicle our sido of tho story, swells this record by 20,000 more who fell unknown and unrecorded. Mind you, these people were not killed in battle, but after victory, singly, in. couple's, squads, and droves, men, women and children —for tho solo purpose of stamping out forever in Franco tii-tj docLrinea which would emancipate, when put in prac-. tico, tho working people of the world.

After the tight was over, for one' whole week in Paris the slaughter, of; the working people., on. Tii« 21,000 shoemalters of Paris were reduced to 12,000; tho bronze trade was reduced from 2500, to 1500; tho tailor? from 30,000 to 2.2,000;' and other trades in proportion. Every .'sub-lieutenant, of tho conquering army was armed with , power to execute prisoum summarily, In forty places every day, firing p.ariie.i were kept at work from morning until la to at night, at tho bloody tusk. Tito proof of guilt was to smell of powder or to wear a Mouse,

'■Tito cfwidoamwl J»*r<? ?ont 1-o ilio firing parties in bands of from six to twenty; they fell in heaps in all positions—a sanguinary nuns. . Of course, many refuted and oilii/rs threw themselves at the feet of the soldiers, protesting thoir innocence, embracing their knoes, and crying for mercy—mercy which wa3 never accorded. Sometimes there was a wit\> who came in with her husband to bid him adieu; another timo a father with his son, sometimes both or all, .and even little children. But onco in, mono wont forth again. Li other places tho mitrailleuse inow.vl them down like gra3i. Against tho eastern wall of Pere. la Chaise, 1148 souls Vi'ero sent to eternity at once. A long trench had been dug, and the prisoners ranged alnn-; t!ie of it wero shot and made to fall in their own grave?, and whiht in i-Ii«» throes of death or agony were covered with earth. In one Fosse Commune reposo 80S and in another 300." The words quoted above are from the history of the Commune, written by John Leigliton, H.S.A., who said that this slaughter wn? a '■retribution for the crime of desecrating the holy precincts of God's acre, nnd on that day of days, the Sabbath," referring to the last stand made on Sunday by the insurgents in the cemetery of Pore la Chaise.