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Speech That Turned Young Czolgosz’s Head
(By Special Wire to The Courier.)
Cleveland, O., Sept. 7—An address
delivered in this city, May 6th last, by Emma Goldman, is very largely
responsible for the attempt on the life of President McKinley.
The Goldman woman spoke here twice
on that date, and a copy of her address was found in the pocket
of Leon Czolgosz when searched [?] the Buffalo police. In the audience
[at?] No. 170 Superior Street on that occasion was the man who tried
to kill the President and his associates now recall that he was
one of the most enthusiastic in his applause of the utterances of
Miss Goldman. The hall in which the lecture was delivered is at
No. 170 Superior Street, the same hall in which [?] Anarchists now
meet in this city.
FULL OF FIRE.
In the course of her address [?]
May 6th Miss Goldman first outlined the principles of Anarchism
and detailed the methods whereby she hoped to accomplish the ends
of Anarchy. Her talk was full of forceful passages and in some cases
more notable for their strength than for their elegance.
“Men under the present state of society,”
she said, “are mere products of circumstances under the [g]alling
yoke of government, ecclesiasti[cism?] and a bond of custom and
prejudice[s?]. It is impossible for the individual to work out his
own career as he could wish. Anarchism aims at a new and complete
freedom. It strives to bring about the freedom which is not only
[?] freedom from within, but a freedom from without, which will
prevent [?] man from having a desire to interfere in any way with
the liberty of his neighbor.
AWAY WITH GOVERNMENT.
“Vanderbilt says: ‘I am a free man
within myself, but the others be damned.’ This is not the freedom
we are striving for. We merely desire complete individual liberty,
and this can never be obtained as long as there is an existing government.
“We do not favor the Socia[list?]
idea of converting men and women into mere producing machines under
the eye of a paternal government. We go to the opposite extreme
and demand the fullest and most complete liberty for each and every
person to [work?] out his own salvation upon any [?] that he pleases.
The degrading notions of men and women as breeding machines are
far from our ideals of life.
“Anarchism has nothing to do with
future governments or economic arrangements. We do not favor any
particular settlement in this line, but merely seek to do away with
the present evils. The future will provide these arrangements after
our work has been done. Anarchism deals merely with social relations
and not with economic arrangements.”
SUPPORTS MURDER.
The speaker then deprecated the idea
that all Anarchists were in favor of violence or bomb throwing.
She declared that nothing was further from the principles they support.
She went on, however, into a detailed explanation of the different
crimes committed by Anarchists lately, declaring that the motive
was good in each case and that these acts were merely a matter of
temperament. Some men were so constituted, she said, that they were
unable to stand idly by and see the wrong that was being endured
by their fellow mortals. She herself did not believe in these methods,
but she did not think they should be condemned in view of the high
and noble motives which prompted their perpetration.
“Some believe we should first obtain
by force and let the intelligence and education come afterwards.”
UPHOLDS VICE.
Miss Goldman then dwelt on the most
revolting forms of the social evil, and assigned to each its cause.
Some of the vices which are most abhorrent to the sense of modern
civilization were upheld by Miss Goldman.
She bitterly attacked the churches
and the modern systems of education as responsible for most of the
social evil. She did not hesitate to put forward a number of sentiments
far more radical and sensational than any ever publicly advanced
here.
During Miss Goldman’s lecture a strong
detail of police were in the hall to keep her from uttering sentiments
which were regarded as too radical. This accounts for the fact that
the speaker did not give free rein to her thoughts on this occasion.
By reason of Anarchistic uprisings elsewhere it was thought best
by the city officials to curb the utterances of the Goldman woman.
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