cialist members of the German
Reichstag, who made a tour of this country in 1881 to stir up interest
in the cause. It was soon apparent that the growth of the Socialist
party organization was hindered by the fact that its methods were too
studious and its discussions too abstract to suit the energetic temper
of the times. Many Socialists broke away to join revolutionary clubs
which were now organized in a number of cities without any clearly
defined principle save to fight the existing system of government.

At this critical moment in the process of social disorganization, the
influence of foreign destructive thought made itself felt. The
arrival of Johann Most from Europe, in the fall of 1882, supplied this
revolutionary movement with a leader who made anarchy its principle.
Originally a German Socialist aiming to make the State the sole landlord
and capitalist, he had gone over to anarchism and proposed to dissolve
the State altogether, trusting to voluntary association to supply
all genuine social needs. Driven from Germany, he had taken refuge in
England, but even the habitual British tolerance had given way under
his praise of the assassination of the Czar Alexander in 1881 and his
proposal to treat other rulers in the same way. He had just completed
a term of imprisonment before coming to the United States. Here, he was
received as a hero; a great mass meeting in his honor was held in Cooper
Union, New York, in December, 1882; and when he toured the country he
everywhere addressed large meetings.

In October 1883, a convention of social revolutionists and anarchists
was held in Chicago, at which a national organization was formed called
the International Working People's Association. The new organization
grew much faster than the Socialist party itself, which now almost
disappeared. Two years later, the International had a party press
consisting of seven German, two Bohemian, and only two English papers.
Like the Socialist party, it was, therefore, mainly foreign in its
membership. It was strongest in and about Chicago, where it included
twenty groups with three thousand enrolled members. The anarchist
papers exhorted their adherents to provide themselves with arms and even
published instructions for the use of dynamite.

Political and industrial conditions thus supplied material for an
explosion which came with shocking violence. On May 4, 1885, towards the
close of an anarchist meeting held in Chicago, a dynam