Mackey – Encyclopedia Of Freemasonry Vol. 1

126 SECRET SOCIETIESwanted to destroy their former workshops and drive awaythe mogs that had taken their places. Fortunately we restrainedthem, but we are greatly bothered by this affair(noes sommes bier emblt& par cette a faire) ."5 11 . Attempt to Revive the International .-An InternationalTrades Union Congress was held in London in 1888 for theavowed purpose of reviving the International, which collapsedin 1871, though branches of it, such as the Jurassic Federationof Workmen, the International Brethren, the Council ofDynamite, at whose meetings in Chicago the editor of Freiheitpresided, continue to vegetate . But the discussions as to themeans of physically and morally raising the working classesas yet remain mere talk . As one of the speakers at theLondon Congress remarked, "The chief difficulty in the wayof the reconstruction of the International lies in the apathyand indifference of the workmen themselves," which showsthat the workmen are after all not such fools as agitatorsthink or wish them to be .512 . Anarchists.-The fear of hell, the only means knownto the churches of all denominations, to keep men fromvice, has never been an efficient one for that purpose . Inthe Middle Ages, which, we are told, were permeated bydeep religious feeling, club-law, persecution of the Jews,and inhuman cruelties indulged in by Church and Statewere the rule. The latter two have in our days becomemore civilised, but the masses retain their sting, and menare driven by wretchedness to attempt its removal by thedestruction of all existing order . Karl Marx in 1864 firstthought of consolidating this principle by a secret society,the International Union of Working-Men. In 1868 theRussian, Michael Bakunin, and the Belgian, Victor Dave,infused into the association the poison of Anarchism, whichin 1871 produced the Paris Commune . But disputes arosebetween the more moderate members, the Social Democrats,and the Anarchists in 1872, who thenceforth formed twodistinct camps . The social democrat and bookbinder, JohnMost (born 1846), joined the Anarchists, and in 1879founded in London the Freiheit, an Anarchist paper of themost violent character. In 1883 the Anarchists attemptedto blow up the German Emperor and those around him atthe unveiling of the monument in the Niederwald ; the tworingleaders were caught and beheaded, but in 1885 Dr .Rumpf, a high police official, who had been instrumentalin securing the conviction of the criminals, was assassinatedat Frankfort-on-the-Main ; only the least important of the