Anarchism and Other Essays | Page 8

America. John Most, having lost his seat in the
Reichstag, finally had to flee his native land, and went to London.
There, having advanced toward Anarchism, he entirely withdrew from
the Social Democratic Party. Later, coming to America, he continued
the publication of the FREIHEIT in New York, and developed great
activity among the German workingmen.
When Emma Goldman arrived in New York in 1889, she experienced
little difficulty in associating herself with active Anarchists. Anarchist
meetings were an almost daily occurrence. The first lecturer she heard
on the Anarchist platform was Dr. A. Solotaroff. Of great importance to
her future development was her acquaintance with John Most, who
exerted a tremendous influence over the younger elements. His
impassioned eloquence, untiring energy, and the persecution he had
endured for the Cause, all combined to enthuse the comrades. It was
also at this period that she met Alexander Berkman, whose friendship
played an important part throughout her life. Her talents as a speaker
could not long remain in obscurity. The fire of enthusiasm swept her
toward the public platform. Encouraged by her friends, she began to
participate as a German and Yiddish speaker at Anarchist meetings.
Soon followed a brief tour of agitation taking her as far as Cleveland.
With the whole strength and earnestness of her soul she now threw
herself into the propaganda of Anarchist ideas. The passionate period of
her life had begun. Through constantly toiling in sweat shops, the fiery
young orator was at the same time very active as an agitator and
participated in various labor struggles, notably in the great
cloakmakers' strike, in 1889, led by Professor Garsyde and Joseph
Barondess.

A year later Emma Goldman was a delegate to an Anarchist conference
in New York. She was elected to the Executive Committee, but later
withdrew because of differences of opinion regarding tactical matters.
The ideas of the German-speaking Anarchists had at that time not yet
become clarified. Some still believed in parliamentary methods, the
great majority being adherents of strong centralism. These differences
of opinion in regard to tactics led in 1891 to a breach with John Most.
Emma Goldman, Alexander Berkman, and other comrades joined the
group AUTONOMY, in which Joseph Peukert, Otto Rinke, and Claus
Timmermann played an active part. The bitter controversies which
followed this secession terminated only with the death of Most, in
1906.
A great source of inspiration to Emma Goldman proved the Russian
revolutionists who were associated in the group ZNAMYA.
Goldenberg, Solotaroff, Zametkin, Miller, Cahan, the poet Edelstadt,
Ivan von Schewitsch, husband of Helene von Racowitza and editor of
the VOLKSZEITUNG, and numerous other Russian exiles, some of
whom are still living, were members of this group. It was also at this
time that Emma Goldman met Robert Reitzel, the German-American
Heine, who exerted a great influence on her development. Through him
she became acquainted with the best writers of modern literature, and
the friendship thus begun lasted till Reitzel's death, in 1898.
The labor movement of America had not been drowned in the Chicago
massacre; the murder of the Anarchists had failed to bring peace to the
profit-greedy capitalist. The struggle for the eight-hour day continued.
In 1892 broke out the great strike in Pittsburg. The Homestead fight,
the defeat of the Pinkertons, the appearance of the militia, the
suppression of the strikers, and the complete triumph of the reaction are
matters of comparatively recent history. Stirred to the very depths by
the terrible events at the seat of war, Alexander Berkman resolved to
sacrifice his life to the Cause and thus give an object lesson to the wage
slaves of America of active Anarchist solidarity with labor. His attack
upon Frick, the Gessler of Pittsburg, failed, and the
twenty-two-year-old youth was doomed to a living death of twenty-two
years in the penitentiary. The bourgeoisie, which for decades had

exalted and eulogized tyrannicide, now was filled with terrible rage.
The capitalist press organized a systematic campaign of calumny and
misrepresentation against Anarchists. The police exerted every effort to
involve Emma Goldman in the act of Alexander Berkman. The feared
agitator was to be silenced by all means. It was only due to the
circumstance of her presence in New York that she escaped the
clutches of the law. It was a similar circumstance which, nine years
later, during the McKinley incident, was instrumental in preserving her
liberty. It is almost incredible with what amount of stupidity, baseness,
and vileness the journalists of the period sought to overwhelm the
Anarchist. One must peruse the newspaper files to realize the enormity
of incrimination and slander. It would be difficult to portray the agony
of soul Emma Goldman experienced in those days. The persecutions of
the capitalist press were to be borne by an Anarchist with comparative
equanimity; but the attacks