Esteve Defies Police

Secret-Service Men Search Office of Anarchistic Editor in Vain.

(Special to The Evening World.)

     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.