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Esteve Defies Police
Secret-Service Men Search Office of Anarchistic
Editor in Vain.
PATERSON, N. J., Sept.
10.—Piedro Esteve works on at his La Questione Sociale as if the
Government was at his back in getting out his Anarchistic sheet.
Six men from the Investigation Bureau, as he calls it—meaning Secret-Service
men—visited him to-day.
They asked to see the rooms adjoining
the composing rooms of his paper, which are used by the Right of
Existence Group as a meeting hall.
With a wave of the hand holding the
printer’s stick Esteve said: “There they are; go and see for yourselves.”
The Secret-Service men found nothing,
and left the building. They expected to find something, but they
found nothing. In Piedro Esteve the shrewdest sleuth will find a
foe mentally armed to the teeth at all times.
“I am afraid of nothing, God or man.
The Constitution of this country gives to every man free speech.
Until I do something the law cannot put its finger on me. There
is no human power capable of driving me back to the shores where
oppression and one-man power prevail. This is ridiculous to say
that we Anarchists here are responsible for the Buffalo affair.
“Suppose a Protestant should kill
another man, would all the Protestants throughout the land be responsible;
suppose a Democrat shot McKinley, would all the Democrats be blamed?
“We Anarchists oppose violence. They
call us revolutionists. Why, because we individually try to better
our cause. We want to change the present system of crime here. So
does any party when it tries to control the Government. Are they
not revolutionizers?
“There are no leaders in the Anarchistic
party. Each man does his part after the dictates of his belief.
I am not at all afraid of being driven from here, all this talk
of exterminating us is the talk of disordered minds.”
While he was talking Piedro kept on
filling his stick with type.
“Say,” he said, after a while, “do
you know what I think was the cause of this shooting? Well, I think
this fellow got his idea from the newspapers.”
Then he laughed.
“Are you going to say anything in
your paper about the attempted murder of the President?” asked the
reporter.
“Oh, yes; I will say something,” and
he shrugged his shoulders.
“Going to say you are sorry?”
“Oh, no; not that. Just say that I
have not heard officially yet whether Czolgosz is an Anarchist or
not. If I hear that he is one I will tell my people in the paper.
And say,” he continued, as his visitor was leaving, “I may extend
an invitation to Secretary Root to come here and see how peaceful
we Anarchists are in Paterson.”
The man who traps Piedro Esteve will
deserve special mention.
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