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THE  SOCIALISM  OF  TO-DAY.

CHAPTER  IX.
THE  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  INTERNATIONAL.
W E  often  speak  of  the  International,  and  generally  without ­
  knowing  either  its  constitution  or  its  history.  We
fancy  that  we  see  the  hand  of  this  terrible  society  in  all  the  acts
of  violence  of  Socialism  :  strikes,  insurrections,  incendiary  fires
in  our  cities,  as  in  Paris;  bombs,  as  at  Florence  and  Pisa;
attempts  at  regicide,  as  at  Berlin,  Naples,  Madrid,  or  St.  Petersburg. ­
  It  is  the  red  spectre  everywhere  present,  everywhere
threatening,  and  secretly  undermining  the  fabric  of  the  society
in  which  we  live.  The  International,  however,  never  was  a
secret  society.  Its  head-quarters  were  well  known.  Its  proclamations ­
  were  signed  and  published;  and,  m  s  ort,  it  is  t  e
form  to  which  the  present  Socialistic  movement  must  logically
come.  Is  not  everything  in  our  days  becoming  international
Have  we  not  international  exhibitions,  banks  of  international
credit,  international  tariffs  for  the  post,  the  telegrap  s,  an  t  e
railways,  international  treaties  for  the  extradition  o  crimina  s,
for  commercial  law,  for  certain  usages  of  war,  for  exc  ange,
and  international  financial  societies  without  number
“Internationalism”  is  the  natural  consequence  of  the  grea
process  of  assimilation  which  is  taking  place  t  roug  out  t  e
world.  Nations  are  becoming  more  and  more  1  e  e^  ot  er,
and  their  mutual  relations  more  and  more  close.  e  same
economic  and  religious  problems,  the  same  commercia  an
industrial  crises,  the  same  class  antagonisms,  the  same  strugg  es
between  capitalists  and  labourers  arise  in  all  civilized  countries,
whether  their  form  of  government  be  republican  or  monarchica.
The  “  solidarity”  of  nations  is  no  longer  an  empty  phrase.  So