Obituaries Australia

At Villa Rica, Paraguay, South America, on 1st March, from the effects of an accident, died a pioneer of the advanced social movement in Victoria— Lawrence D. Petrie, also known as George Frederick Howard, he who was charged with causing the dynamite explosion on the steamer Aramac, on the way between Sydney and Brisbane in the course of the maritime Strike of 1893.

He was a Scot, born, if I remember rightly what he told me, in one of the Western Isles. The name of Howard was adopted in deference to the wishes of a relative of that ilk in Scotland, to whom he had to look when disabled by a carriage accident, for financial assistance. Later, he found it convenient for the purpose of breaking through the boycott which was being applied against agitators. In fact, outside of the movement and of his circle of old acquaintances it was the name by which he was commonly known, and nothing could be further from the truth than the impression that in travelling on the Aramac he assumed a fictitious name, Howard, as a disguise for the occasion.

I met him first at the Melbourne Anarchists' Club. In these days the newspapers have succeeded in creating for the word Anarchist a new and utterly irrelevant meaning — 'dynamiter,' or 'regicide,' etc.; but when the club was founded, that interpretation had never yet been given in any part of the world. It was not until the second year of the club's existence that this idea about Anarchism was conveyed to the general public, by the Chicago affair. In that year, 1886, there was an Eight Hours agitation, accompanied by a strike, in Chicago. The capitalists employed a Pinkerton 'private detective' to burst up the movement. This was done by securing that the police should violently attack a lawful open-air meeting as soon as the Mayor, who presided, had left; whereupon the agent, waiting at the top of a building, threw a bomb down on to the advancing police. The agitators, who were speaking at the meeting (some of whom were Anarchists, in the old conception of the word, which referred solely to the form of social organisation they desired ) were arrested and blamed. It was admitted by the prosecution that they were not guilty, and had no knowledge of the affair, but it was maintained that as agitators, they necessarily stirred up discontent and class bitterness, and should therefore be held indirectly guilty of causing some person unknown to throw the bomb. Upon this extraordinary contention they were convicted, and four of them were hanged. In 1893 the survivors were released by the Governor of Illinois, who officially condemned the trial and hanging as judicial crimes. But the mischief was already done, not only to those who had wrongfully suffered, but inasmuch as the public, who knew nothing about what Anarchism really was, had been taught to believe that it meant a creed of 'Dynamite and ''the Dagger.'

We see fraud and oppression practised by means of the law as well as by breaking it, and in fact on a larger and more serious scale. But why should the words of a statute or precedent be permitted to sanctify and give privilege to wrong? The Anarchists simply contended that public opinion especially when trained to a higher moral standard than that of mere "legality," would be a truer guide than any set of laws and should be relied on instead of enactments which can be twisted into means of oppression. That was Petrie's Anarchism. Contrary to the prevailing views of the members of the Anarchists' Club at the time, who were mostly (the religious aspect apart) what would now be called Tolstoyans, he was, however, an ardent revolutionist, believing that an armed revolt for the emancipation of the workers and the regaining of the land and wealth now monopolised by the few, was a matter of necessity. He was also in opposition to the majority of members of the Club in being a Communist. They advocated the principle 'to each according to his works'— rent, profit, and interest being not works, but robberies — but Petrie was too warm-hearted to form a social ideal based on accounts and arithmetic, however equitable, and for him the vital principle was 'from each according to his capacity, to each according to his needs, which he not only preached for the future, but made the everyday principle of his private life, doing his best to help friends and strangers in need as well as the movement, at any cost of self-sacrifice.

He spoke frequently at the Queen's Wharf, which was then as the Yarra Bank is now, but much more largely attended. Getting his living by travelling with tea, he took every opportunity thus afforded to get into conversation with the women folk about land-lordism, sweating, etc., and endeavour to instil into them the ideal of a Communistic state of society. It was also his frequent practice to visit the slums, which then abounded in the city, for the purpose of holding such conversation with the dwellers there, and particularly with those termed 'fallen women,' for whom he had a deep sympathy. He was one of the founders of the first Socialist League formed in Melbourne, a broadly constituted body which was established when the Anarchists' Club had decayed through internal dissensions and tendencies to dogmatism. The League met at the Golden Fleece Hotel, Russell- street, and did good propagandist work until its constitution was changed by a gross breach of faith on the part of the ''State Socialist" section, headed by S. A. Roea. Petrie was also instrumental in forming a small branch of the American "Knights of Labour'' in Melbourne, and endeavoured, without success, to institute a Six Hours Movement.

Having at length to quit Melbourne, he went to the North-Eastern district where he had not been long, before he met with the accident which deprived him of his arm. After this, he went to Sydney, where he was secretary of the General Labourers' Union, during its brief existence. He then went into the country with a mate, the latter doing odd jobs, sharpening saws, etc; while Petrie secured the customers for the work. The next thing heard of him was that he had been arrested on a charge of causing the explosion which occurred on the Aramac on July 27, 1893.

As told in The Tocsin about a year ago there had been for some months a capitalistic move to create a dynamite scare for financial reasons, and certain agitators had received warning, confidentially, that they would be the ones, upon whom the guilt of what was to be done would be thrown when "it would not be Chicago this time, but Sydney." It was ascertained that Petrie was one of these probable victims, and he was implored to be cautious, lest he should be led into some compromising action, for which he was hot-headed and bold enough, but he laughed at the forebodings, (The methods of the enemy were two; they worked by pimps, and by fizgig's or agents provocateurs. A pimp creates actual circumstantial evidence of a kind that will appear to corroborate a false accusation intended to be made. Thus, the Frenchman, a detective's employe, who endeavoured, on the pretence that he had made an invention which he wanted to place on the market, but did not know the English name of the chemicals, to get from me a recipe for an explosive in my handwriting, was a pimp; whilst he who seeks to induce or inspire someone to really do something, with a view to arresting him for it, is a fizgig, or, if the object is less the arrest of the person doing the deed than to create a pretext for general repressive measures, an agent provocateur.) About seven months later came this Aramac case. 

Petrie was kept in prison for a long time, and subjected to extraordinary treatment to try and elicit a confession from him; but by the time his health was broken down, the attempt had to be abandoned. No evidence against him was forthcoming from on board the Aramac, and the only thing brought forward by the prosecution was the statement of a notorious bad character named Fitzpatrick that, when he was employed on some road works, where explosives were used, Petrie came and offered to buy some dynamite if he would steal it. Petrie told me, on the eve of his departure for New Australia, that as a matter of fact Fitzpatrick came to him and offered to steal some dynamite and sell it cheap if Petrie would buy it; and as three or four people made precisely similar overtures to members of the Active Service Brigade, Petrie's version bears the hall-mark of exact truth. Anyhow, he was never called on to make a defence, for the prosecution was withdrawn by the Crown without coming to court.

After this Petrie came to Melbourne, where he had hard times with poverty and ill-health. He wandered about for awhile, and eventually made arrangements to join New Australia. The last time I saw him was just prior to the Royal Tar's departure. I had just served three months' imprisonment for having my imprint on the back of a pamphlet, instead of on both back and front and the last words he said to me were, ' You see it's better to be prosecuted for something.' This remark has been construed by some as an admission that he did attempt to blow up the Aramac as a lesson to the Ship-owners, but I understood it quite otherwise, as meaning that a serious charge cannot be so readily dealt with in a prejudiced manner, without fair trial, or made the means of a persecuting conviction, as a trivial and technical one. He made no statement whatever as to what occurred on the Aramac, and it must remain a matter of opinion as to why he preferred to keep silence. It may be that the promptings agents provocateurs had taken root in his fiery mind and borne fruit at the time of the strike, or it may be that he chose to remain under suspicion in order to prevent it fastening upon the real perpetrator, or perhaps upon others entirely innocent.

When New Australia divided, he threw in his lot with the Gilbert Casey party, whilst the followers of Lane withdrew to establish Osme Colony. But Petrie maintained cordial relations with Cosme, and the friendly feeling that existed was manifested by repeated mention of him in the Cosmo news. He maintained also an interest in Old Australia, and the Labour press has published occasional letters from his pen since his settling in Paraguay. — A.