Anarchism and Other Essays (Version 2) — Biographic Sketch, pt. 3

During the Spanish-American war the spirit of chauvinism was at its highest tide.

To check this dangerous situation, and at the same time collect funds for the revolutionary Cubans, Emma Goldman became affiliated with the Latin comrades, among others with Gori, Esteve, Palaviccini, Merlino, Petruccini, and Ferrara.

In the year 1899 followed another protracted tour of agitation, terminating on the Pacific Coast.

Repeated arrests and accusations, though without ultimate bad results, marked every propaganda tour.

In November of the same year the untiring agitator went on a second lecture tour to England and Scotland, closing her journey with the first International Anarchist Congress at Paris.

It was at the time of the Boer war, and again jingoism was at its height, as two years previously it had celebrated its orgies during the Spanish-American war.

Various meetings, both in England and Scotland, were disturbed and broken up by patriotic mobs.

Emma Goldman found on this occasion the opportunity of again meeting various English comrades and interesting personalities like Tom Mann and the sisters Rossetti, the gifted daughters of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, then publishers of the Anarchist review, the TORCH.

One of her life-long hopes found here its fulfillment: she came in close and friendly touch with Peter Kropotkin, Enrico Malatesta, Nicholas Tchaikovsky, W. Tcherkessov, and Louise Michel.

Old warriors in the cause of humanity, whose deeds have enthused thousands of followers throughout the world, and whose life and work have inspired other thousands with noble idealism and self-sacrifice.

Old warriors they, yet ever young with the courage of earlier days, unbroken in spirit and filled with the firm hope of the final triumph of Anarchy.

The chasm in the revolutionary labor movement, which resulted from the disruption of the INTERNATIONALE, could not be bridged any more.

Two social philosophies were engaged in bitter combat.

The International Congress in 1889, at Paris; in 1892, at Zurich, and in 1896, at London, produced irreconcilable differences.

The majority of Social Democrats, forswearing their libertarian past and becoming politicians, succeeded in excluding the revolutionary and Anarchist delegates.

The latter decided thenceforth to hold separate congresses.

Their first congress was to take place in 1900, at Paris.

The Socialist renegade, Millerand, who had climbed into the Ministry of the Interior, here played a Judas role.

The congress of the revolutionists was suppressed, and the delegates dispersed two days prior to their scheduled opening.

But Millerand had no objections against the Social Democratic Congress, which was afterwards opened with all the trumpets of the advertiser's art.

However, the renegade did not accomplish his object.

A number of delegates succeeded in holding a secret conference in the house of a comrade outside of Paris, where various points of theory and tactics were discussed.

Emma Goldman took considerable part in these proceedings, and on that occasion came in contact with numerous representatives of the Anarchist movement of Europe.

Owing to the suppression of the congress, the delegates were in danger of being expelled from France.

At this time also came the bad news from America regarding another unsuccessful attempt to liberate Alexander Berkman, proving a great shock to Emma Goldman.

In November, 1900, she returned to America to devote herself to her profession of nurse, at the same time taking an active part in the American propaganda.

Among other activities she organized monster meetings of protest against the terrible outrages of the Spanish government, perpetrated upon the political prisoners tortured in Montjuich.

In her vocation as nurse Emma Goldman enjoyed many opportunities of meeting the most unusual and peculiar characters.

Few would have identified the "notorious Anarchist" in the small blonde woman, simply attired in the uniform of a nurse.

Soon after her return from Europe she became acquainted with a patient by the name of Mrs. Stander, a morphine fiend, suffering excruciating agonies.

She required careful attention to enable her to supervise a very important business she conducted,--that of Mrs. Warren.

In Third Street, near Third Avenue, was situated her private residence, and near it, connected by a separate entrance, was her place of business.

One evening, the nurse, upon entering the room of her patient, suddenly came face to face with a male visitor, bull-necked and of brutal appearance.

The man was no other than Mr. Jacobs, the detective who seven years previously had brought Emma Goldman a prisoner from Philadelphia and who had attempted to persuade her, on their way to New York, to betray the cause of the workingmen.

It would be difficult to describe the expression of bewilderment on the countenance of the man as he so unexpectedly faced Emma Goldman, the nurse of his mistress.

The brute was suddenly transformed into a gentleman, exerting himself to excuse his shameful behavior on the previous occasion.

Jacobs was the "protector" of Mrs. Stander, and go-between for the house and the police.

Several years later, as one of the detective staff of District Attorney Jerome, he committed perjury, was convicted, and sent to Sing Sing for a year.

He is now probably employed by some private detective agency, a desirable pillar of respectable society.

In 1901 Peter Kropotkin was invited by the Lowell Institute of Massachusetts to deliver a series of lectures on Russian literature.

It was his second American tour, and naturally the comrades were anxious to use his presence for the benefit of the movement.

Emma Goldman entered into correspondence with Kropotkin and succeeded in securing his consent to arrange for him a series of lectures.

She also devoted her energies to organizing the tours of other well known Anarchists, principally those of Charles W. Mowbray and John Turner.

Similarly she always took part in all the activities of the movement, ever ready to give her time, ability, and energy to the Cause.

On the sixth of September, 1901, President McKinley was shot by Leon Czolgosz at Buffalo.

Immediately an unprecedented campaign of persecution was set in motion against Emma Goldman as the best known Anarchist in the country.

Although there was absolutely no foundation for the accusation, she, together with other prominent Anarchists, was arrested in Chicago, kept in confinement for several weeks, and subjected to severest cross-examination.

Never before in the history of the country had such a terrible man-hunt taken place against a person in public life.

But the efforts of police and press to connect Emma Goldman with Czolgosz proved futile.

Yet the episode left her wounded to the heart.

The physical suffering, the humiliation and brutality at the hands of the police she could bear.

The depression of soul was far worse.

She was overwhelmed by realization of the stupidity, lack of understanding, and vileness which characterized the events of those terrible days.

The attitude of misunderstanding on the part of the majority of her own comrades toward Czolgosz almost drove her to desperation.

Stirred to the very inmost of her soul, she published an article on Czolgosz in which she tried to explain the deed in its social and individual aspects.

As once before, after Berkman's act, she now also was unable to find quarters; like a veritable wild animal she was driven from place to place.

This terrible persecution and, especially, the attitude of her comrades made it impossible for her to continue propaganda.

The soreness of body and soul had first to heal.

During 1901-1903 she did not resume the platform.

As "Miss Smith" she lived a quiet life, practicing her profession and devoting her leisure to the study of literature and, particularly, to the modern drama, which she considers one of the greatest disseminators of radical ideas and enlightened feeling.

Yet one thing the persecution of Emma Goldman accomplished.

Her name was brought before the public with greater frequency and emphasis than ever before, the malicious harassing of the much maligned agitator arousing strong sympathy in many circles.

Persons in various walks of life began to get interested in her struggle and her ideas.

A better understanding and appreciation were now beginning to manifest themselves.

The arrival in America of the English Anarchist, John Turner, induced Emma Goldman to leave her retirement.

Again she threw herself into her public activities, organizing an energetic movement for the defense of Turner, whom the Immigration authorities condemned to deportation on account of the Anarchist exclusion law, passed after the death of McKinley.

When Paul Orleneff and Mme.

Nazimova arrived in New York to acquaint the American public with Russian dramatic art, Emma Goldman became the manager of the undertaking.

By much patience and perseverance she succeeded in raising the necessary funds to introduce the Russian artists to the theater-goers of New York and Chicago.

Though financially not a success, the venture proved of great artistic value.

As manager of the Russian theater Emma Goldman enjoyed some unique experiences.

M.

Orleneff could converse only in Russian, and "Miss Smith" was forced to act as his interpreter at various polite functions.

Most of the aristocratic ladies of Fifth Avenue had not the least inkling that the amiable manager who so entertainingly discussed philosophy, drama, and literature at their five o'clock teas, was the "notorious" Emma Goldman.

If the latter should some day write her autobiography, she will no doubt have many interesting anecdotes to relate in connection with these experiences.

The weekly Anarchist publication, FREE SOCIETY, issued by the Isaak family, was forced to suspend in consequence of the nation-wide fury that swept the country after the death of McKinley.

To fill out the gap Emma Goldman, in co-operation with Max Baginski and other comrades, decided to publish a monthly magazine devoted to the furtherance of Anarchist ideas in life and literature.

The first issue of MOTHER EARTH appeared in the month of March, 1906, the initial expenses of the periodical partly covered by the proceeds of a theater benefit given by Orleneff, Mme.

Nazimova, and their company, in favor of the Anarchist magazine.

Under tremendous difficulties and obstacles the tireless propagandist has succeeded in continuing MOTHER EARTH uninterruptedly since 1906--an achievement rarely equalled in the annals of radical publications.

In May, 1906, Alexander Berkman at last left the hell of Pennsylvania, where he had passed the best fourteen years of his life.

No one had believed in the possibility of his survival.

His liberation terminated a nightmare of fourteen years for Emma Goldman, and an important chapter of her career was thus concluded.

Nowhere had the birth of the Russian revolution aroused such vital and active response as among the Russians living in America.

The heroes of the revolutionary movement in Russia, Tchaikovsky, Mme.

Breshkovskaia, Gershuni, and others visited these shores to waken the sympathies of the American people toward the struggle for liberty, and to collect aid for its continuance and support.

The success of these efforts was to a considerable extent due to the exertions, eloquence, and the talent for organization on the part of Emma Goldman.

This opportunity enabled her to give valuable services to the struggle for liberty in her native land.

It is not generally known that it is the Anarchists who are mainly instrumental in insuring the success, moral as well as financial, of most of the radical undertakings.

The Anarchist is indifferent to acknowledged appreciation; the needs of the Cause absorb his whole interest, and to these he devotes his energy and abilities.

Yet it may be mentioned that some otherwise decent folks, though at all times anxious for Anarchist support and co-operation, are ever willing to monopolize all the credit for the work done.

During the last several decades it was chiefly the Anarchists who had organized all the great revolutionary efforts, and aided in every struggle for liberty.

But for fear of shocking the respectable mob, who looks upon the Anarchists as the apostles of Satan, and because of their social position in bourgeois society, the would-be radicals ignore the activity of the Anarchists.

In 1907 Emma Goldman participated as delegate to the second Anarchist Congress, at Amsterdam.

She was intensely active in all its proceedings and supported the organization of the Anarchist INTERNATIONALE.

Together with the other American delegate, Max Baginski, she submitted to the congress an exhaustive report of American conditions, closing with the following characteristic remarks: "The charge that Anarchism is destructive, rather than constructive, and that, therefore, Anarchism is opposed to organization, is one of the many falsehoods spread by our opponents.

They confound our present social institutions with organization; hence they fail to understand how we can oppose the former, and yet favor the latter.

The fact, however, is that the two are not identical.

"The State is commonly regarded as the highest form of organization.

But is it in reality a true organization?

Is it not rather an arbitrary institution, cunningly imposed upon the masses?

"Industry, too, is called an organization; yet nothing is farther from the truth.

Industry is the ceaseless piracy of the rich against the poor.

"We are asked to believe that the Army is an organization, but a close investigation will show that it is nothing else than a cruel instrument of blind force.

"The Public School!

The colleges and other institutions of learning, are they not models of organization, offering the people fine opportunities for instruction?

Far from it.

The school, more than any other institution, is a veritable barrack, where the human mind is drilled and manipulated into submission to various social and moral spooks, and thus fitted to continue our system of exploitation and oppression.

"Organization, as WE understand it, however, is a different thing.

It is based, primarily, on freedom.

It is a natural and voluntary grouping of energies to secure results beneficial to humanity.

"It is the harmony of organic growth which produces variety of color and form, the complete whole we admire in the flower.

Analogously will the organized activity of free human beings, imbued with the spirit of solidarity, result in the perfection of social harmony, which we call Anarchism.

In fact, Anarchism alone makes non-authoritarian organization of common interests possible, since it abolishes the existing antagonism between individuals and classes.

"Under present conditions the antagonism of economic and social interests results in relentless war among the social units, and creates an insurmountable obstacle in the way of a co-operative commonwealth.

"There is a mistaken notion that organization does not foster individual freedom; that, on the contrary, it means the decay of individuality.

In reality, however, the true function of organization is to aid the development and growth of personality.

"Just as the animal cells, by mutual co-operation, express their latent powers in formation of the complete organism, so does the individual, by co-operative effort with other individuals, attain his highest form of development.

"An organization, in the true sense, cannot result from the combination of mere nonentities.

It must be composed of self-conscious, intelligent individualities.

Indeed, the total of the possibilities and activities of an organization is represented in the expression of individual energies.

"It therefore logically follows that the greater the number of strong, self-conscious personalities in an organization, the less danger of stagnation, and the more intense its life element.

"Anarchism asserts the possibility of an organization without discipline, fear, or punishment, and without the pressure of poverty: a new social organism which will make an end to the terrible struggle for the means of existence,--the savage struggle which undermines the finest qualities in man, and ever widens the social abyss.

In short, Anarchism strives towards a social organization which will establish well-being for all.

"The germ of such an organization can be found in that form of trades unionism which has done away with centralization, bureaucracy, and discipline, and which favors independent and direct action on the part of its members."

The very considerable progress of Anarchist ideas in America can best be gauged by the remarkable success of the three extensive lecture tours of Emma Goldman since the Amsterdam Congress of 1907. Each tour extended over new territory, including localities where Anarchism had never before received a hearing.

But the most gratifying aspect of her untiring efforts is the tremendous sale of Anarchist literature, whose propagandist effect cannot be estimated.

It was during one of these tours that a remarkable incident happened, strikingly demonstrating the inspiring potentialities of the Anarchist idea.

In San Francisco, in 1908, Emma Goldman's lecture attracted a soldier of the United States Army, William Buwalda.

For daring to attend an Anarchist meeting, the free Republic court-martialed Buwalda and imprisoned him for one year.

Thanks to the regenerating power of the new philosophy, the government lost a soldier, but the cause of liberty gained a man.

A propagandist of Emma Goldman's importance is necessarily a sharp thorn to the reaction.

She is looked upon as a danger to the continued existence of authoritarian usurpation.

No wonder, then, that the enemy resorts to any and all means to make her impossible.

A systematic attempt to suppress her activities was organized a year ago by the united police force of the country.

But like all previous similar attempts, it failed in a most brilliant manner.

Energetic protests on the part of the intellectual element of America succeeded in overthrowing the dastardly conspiracy against free speech.

Another attempt to make Emma Goldman impossible was essayed by the Federal authorities at Washington.

In order to deprive her of the rights of citizenship, the government revoked the citizenship papers of her husband, whom she had married at the youthful age of eighteen, and whose whereabouts, if he be alive, could not be determined for the last two decades.

The great government of the glorious United States did not hesitate to stoop to the most despicable methods to accomplish that achievement.

But as her citizenship had never proved of use to Emma Goldman, she can bear the loss with a light heart.

There are personalities who possess such a powerful individuality that by its very force they exert the most potent influence over the best representatives of their time.

Michael Bakunin was such a personality.

But for him, Richard Wagner had never written DIE KUNST UND DIE REVOLUTION.

Emma Goldman is a similar personality.

She is a strong factor in the socio-political life of America.

By virtue of her eloquence, energy, and brilliant mentality, she moulds the minds and hearts of thousands of her auditors.

Deep sympathy and compassion for suffering humanity, and an inexorable honesty toward herself, are the leading traits of Emma Goldman.

No person, whether friend or foe, shall presume to control her goal or dictate her mode of life.

She would perish rather than sacrifice her convictions, or the right of self-ownership of soul and body.

Respectability could easily forgive the teaching of theoretic Anarchism; but Emma Goldman does not merely preach the new philosophy; she also persists in living it,--and that is the one supreme, unforgivable crime.

Were she, like so many radicals, to consider her ideal as merely an intellectual ornament; were she to make concessions to existing society and compromise with old prejudices,--then even the most radical views could be pardoned in her.

But that she takes her radicalism seriously; that it has permeated her blood and marrow to the extent where she not merely teaches but also practices her convictions--this shocks even the radical Mrs. Grundy.

Emma Goldman lives her own life; she associates with publicans--hence the indignation of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

It is no mere coincidence that such divergent writers as Pietro Gori and William Marion Reedy find similar traits in their characterization of Emma Goldman.

In a contribution to LA QUESTIONE SOCIALE, Pietro Gori calls her a "moral power, a woman who, with the vision of a sibyl, prophesies the coming of a new kingdom for the oppressed; a woman who, with logic and deep earnestness, analyses the ills of society, and portrays, with artist touch, the coming dawn of humanity, founded on equality, brotherhood, and liberty."

William Reedy sees in Emma Goldman the "daughter of the dream, her gospel a vision which is the vision of every truly great-souled man and woman who has ever lived."

Cowards who fear the consequences of their deeds have coined the word of philosophic Anarchism.

Emma Goldman is too sincere, too defiant, to seek safety behind such paltry pleas.

She is an Anarchist, pure and simple.

She represents the idea of Anarchism as framed by Josiah Warrn, Proudhon, Bakunin, Kropotkin, Tolstoy.

Yet she also understands the psychologic causes which induce a Caserio, a Vaillant, a Bresci, a Berkman, or a Czolgosz to commit deeds of violence.

To the soldier in the social struggle it is a point of honor to come in conflict with the powers of darkness and tyranny, and Emma Goldman is proud to count among her best friends and comrades men and women who bear the wounds and scars received in battle.

In the words of Voltairine de Cleyre, characterizing Emma Goldman after the latter's imprisonment in 1893: The spirit that animates Emma Goldman is the only one which will emancipate the slave from his slavery, the tyrant from his tyranny--the spirit which is willing to dare and suffer.

HIPPOLYTE HAVEL.

New York, December, 1910.