BAKUNIN THE APOSTLE OF NIHILISM. 213
decline of the power of the International. The general
council, which, in accordance with the decision of the Congress
of the Hague, had fixed its seat at New York, exercised no
influence there and soon ceased to exist. Nevertheless, the
seeds sown by the International grew apace. The struggle
of labourers against capitalists is organized everywhere to-day,
and the Labour newspapers constantly notify strikes. In the
late elections in California a large number of Socialists were
returned. Macaulay's famous prophecy of the barbarians that
will one day appear in the midst of the American cities does
not seem so improbable as it did thirty years ago. The
remarkable book, “ Progress and Poverty,” recently published
by Mr. Henry George, at San Francisco, graphically describes
the circumstances that are bringing these “ barbarians ” into
existence.
The only efficacious preservative against revolutionary
Socialism is the diffusion of property. A new proof of this
IS presented by the fact that, in the Scandinavian countries,
e International was the less successful in proportion as the
agrarian system was the more democratic ; that is to say not
at all in Norway, to a small extent in Sweden, and more in
Denmark. The International penetrated into Denmark in
the spring of 1871, a short time after the fall of the Commune
1 he apostle of the association was Pio, a retired militant
officer. He found a devoted lieutenant in Paul Geleff who
used to write in an Ultramontane newspaper, Heimdal. Geleff
went through the different towns preaching the “ glad tidinirs ”
amihesm:ceak:d infoumffi^rs^^rionsinriie gmakr number
of them, at Aalborg, Randers, Aarhuus, Skanderborg, Horsens
Cklem.,, ^id Nakskov: /Lt the beginning of 1872 thele section:
already counted eight thousand members, of whom five
thousand belonged to the capital. Many women joined the
1 tookiflace fi-om this time forth.
. ..:z,
