^90 THE SOC/A Z/SM OF TO-DAY. 
of different nationalities, and influenced sometimes by divergent 
currents of ideas, to make use of publicity as the sole means 
of propaganda, and yet to escape the repressive laws of different 
States, was evidently no easy task. How could it possibly have 
lasted after the only man capable of directing it had been 
ostracized ? The cause of the failure was not accidental ; it 
was part of the very essence of the attempt. The proletariat 
will not follow middle-class radicals, because political liberties, 
republican institutions, and even universal suffrage, which the 
latter claim or are ready to decree, do not change the relations 
of capital and labour. On the other hand, the working man is 
evidently incapable of directing a revolutionary movement which 
IS to solve the thousand difficulties created by any complete 
change in the economic order. Revolutionary Socialism thus 
leads to an insoluble dilemma and to practical impotence. 
A further cause contributed to the rapid fall of the Inter 
national, namely, personal jealousies. As in the midst of the 
Commune of 1871, there were divisions of opinion, there were 
suspicions and hard words, and soon followed final secessions 
No authority was set over it; all understanding became im 
possible; the association fell to pieces in anarchy, and, to use 
a vulgar but expressive word, in a “mess.” There is yet 
another warning. What ! you want to abolish the State and 
suppress the industrial head, and you count upon order arising 
spontaneously from the free action of federal corporations? 
But if you, who constitute apparently the pick of the working 
class, if you were unable to come to a sufficient understanding 
with each other to keep going a society which demanded from 
you no sacrifice, and which had only one aim desired by all 
war against accursed capital,” how do you suppose that 
ordinary working men will remain united, when, in their daily 
life, they shall have to regulate constantly opposed interests 
and to take decisions touching each other’s remuneration? 
You were unwilling to submit to a general council which 
imposed no task upon you ; how, in the workshop, will you 
obey the orders of your chiefs who will have to determine your 
duties and direct your labour ? 
The International is dead, not through the severity of the