Untitled

SEEKING THE CAUSES
ioi
every struggle for liberty and justice against religious,
political, or industrial oppression, some men are moved
to take desperate measures regardless of whether they
are Catholics, Protestants, or pagans.
Still other seekers after the causes of terrorism have
pointed out that the ethics of our time appear to justify
the terrorist and his tactics. History glorifies the deeds
of numberless heroes who have destroyed tyrants. The
story of William Tell is in every primer, and every
schoolboy
is thrilled with the tale of the hero who shot
from ambush Gessler, the tyrant.* From the Old Testament
down to even recent history, we find story after
story which make immortal patriots of men who have
committed assassination in the belief that they were serving
their country. And can anyone doubt that Booth
when he shot President Lincoln f or that Czolgosz when
he murdered President McKinley was actuated by any
other motive than the belief that he was serving a cause
It was the idea of removing an industrial tyrant that
actuated young Alexander Berkman when he shot Henry
C. Frick, of the Carnegie Company. These latter acts
are not recorded in history as heroic, simply and solely
* Bakounin, when endeavoring to save Nechayeff from being
arrested by the Swiss authorities and sent back to Russia, defends
him on precisely these grounds, claiming that Nechayeff
had taken the fable of William Tell seriously. Cf. CEuvres,
Vol. II, p. 29.
t Booth wrote, a day or so after killing Lincoln : "After
being hunted like a dog through swamps and woods, and last
night being chased by gunboats till I was forced to return, wet,
cold, and starving, with every man's hand against me, I am
here in despair. And why For doing what Brutus was honored
for— what made William Tell a hero; and yet I,
for striking
down an even greater tyrant than they ever knew, am looked
upon as a common cutthroat." Cf. "The Death of Lincoln,"
Laughlin, p. 135.
.