September 24.
Mr. Rosert Bratcrorp's striking article upon the conduct! of the Belfast mob, which we reproduce to-day on another page, and Mr. Grayson's no less. striking exhortation to that moh to assail policemen with bricks and broken bottles are interesting exemplars of the two currents into which socialism, in its present state, almas! automatically divides itself. These currents have already received distinct names in other countries, notably in Italy, where socialist forces are divided into Revolutionaries under Signor Ferri, and Evolutionaries under Signor Turati. The few weeks which Mr. Grayson has spent in Parliament, if not long enough to teach him how much he has to learn of manners and common sense, have been quite enough to stamp him as a champion of the Revolutionaries. On the other hand Mr. Blatchford, judging at least Ly his opinion of the Belfast riots, adheres to evolutionary soci The names of these two parties sufficiently explain themselves: the revolutionaries are not afraid even of violence to attain their ends: the evolutionaries desire the same end, but would reach it peaceful modification of existing conditions. There is no reason to doubt that both parties believe faithfully in themselves and the efficacy of their respective methods. What they fail to see i that evolutionary methods are bound, at the last, to he overwhelmed by revolutionary; that in the long run the milder current must merge into the more vigorous. Of this fact the Belfast strike affords irrefutable evidence. It is the first great strike which has occurred since the passing the Trade Disputes Act, an in-inst inlistic piece of ion. And it is clear that the violence of the mob was intensified by liberties enjoyed under a law which has permitted peaceful picketing while it was blind to the impossibility of distinguishing between peace and war in the use of such x weapon. Thus at the first essay, socialism stands revealed for what it is, an ideal; noble, perhaps, in conception; but unsuited to our present state of evolution, and irreconcilable with the laws of animal Nature. For socialists to argue that they will educate the world up to that ideal is simply to confess that they are busily trying to put cart before horse; while there is a sad tendency among them, by substituting abstract and general
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.