Untitled

SEEKING THE CAUSES
ill
themselves commit or provoke such atrocious crimes that
the people are terrified and welcome the strong arm of
the Government. Literally scores of instances might be
given where, by well-planned work of this sort, the active
leaders are cut down, the sources of agitation destroyed,
and through the robberies, murders, and dynamite outrages
of police agents the people are so terrified that they
welcome the intervention of even tyranny itself.
An immense sensation throughout Europe was created
by an address by Jules Guesde in the French Chamber
of Deputies, the 19th of July, 1894. The deeds of Ravachol,
Vaillant, and Henry were still the talk of Europe,
and, three weeks before, the President of the Republic
had been stabbed to death by Caserio. It was in that
critical period, amidst commotions, interruptions, protests,
and exclamations of amazement, that Guesde
brought out his evidence that the chief of police of Paris
had paid regular subsidies to promote and extend both
the preaching and the practice of violent anarchism. He
introduced, in support of his remarks, portions from the
Memoirs of M. Andrieux, our old friend of Lyons and
later the head of the Paris police. "The anarchists," says
Andrieux, "wished to have a newspaper to spread their
doctrines. If I
fought their Propaganda of the Deed,
I at least favored the spread of their doctrines by means
of the press, and I have no reasons for depriving myself
longer of their gratitude.* The companions were
looking for some one to advance funds, but infamous
* Kropotkin tells of the effort made by the agents of Andrieux
to persuade him and Elisee Reclus to collaborate in the publication
of this so-called anarchist paper. He also says it was a
paper of "unheard-of violence; burning, assassination, dynamite
bombs— there was nothing but that in it."— "Memoirs of a Revolutionist,"
pp. 478-480.