erefore ill
becomes the Catholic clergy to attack socialism on the ground of
regicide, as not one socialist book or one socialist leader has ever yet
been known to advocate even tyrannicide. On the other hand, while
terrorism has been extraordinarily prevalent in Catholic countries, such
as France, Italy, and Spain, no socialist will seriously seek to lay the
blame on the Catholic Church. The truth is that the forces which produce
terrorism affect the Catholic mind as they affect the Protestant mind.
In every struggle for liberty and justice against religious, political,
or industrial oppression, some men are moved to take desperate measures
regardless of whether they are Catholics, Protestants, or pagans.

Still other seekers after the causes of terrorism have pointed out that
the ethics of our time appear to justify the terrorist and his tactics.
History glorifies the deeds of numberless heroes who have destroyed
tyrants. The story of William Tell is in every primer, and every
schoolboy is thrilled with the tale of the hero who shot from ambush
Gessler, the tyrant.[M] From the Old Testament down to even recent
history, we find story after story which make immortal patriots of men
who have committed assassination in the belief that they were serving
their country. And can anyone doubt that Booth when he shot President
Lincoln[N] or that Czolgosz when he murdered President McKinley was
actuated by any other motive than the belief that he was serving a
cause? It was the idea of removing an industrial tyrant that actuated
young Alexander Berkman when he shot Henry C. Frick, of the Carnegie
Company. These latter acts are not recorded in history as heroic, simply
and solely because the popular view was not in sympathy with those
acts. Yet had they been committed at another time, under different
conditions, the story of these men might have been told for centuries to
admiring groups of children.

In Carlyle's "Hero Worship" and in his philosophy of history, the
progress of the world is summarized under the stories of great men.
Certain individuals are responsible for social wrongs, while other
individuals are responsible for the great revolutions that have righted
those wrongs. In the building up, as well as in the destruction of
empires, the individual plays stupendous roles. This egocentric
interpretation of history has not only been the dominant one in
explaining the great political changes of the past, it is now the
re