The Labor enquirer., 1886-06-12
Even Critics Ought Sometimes
to Know What They Are
Talking About.
The Chicago Bomb Thr0wer
Acted Solely Upon His Own
Responsibility.
Mr.. Griffin Says Anarchism Means
Freedom, and That it Has
Come to Stay.
For the ENQUIRER.


AS the Anarchists have received full
share of criticism of late, perhaps th'
critics will soon be enquir ng what An
archism means; and as even critic
ought sometimes to know what they art
talking about, perhaps an article settlnt
70 th the principles of Anarchy may bt
interesting.
"Arch," from the Greek, means head
or chief "Archy" means rulership.
"Mono" means one, and "Mon-archY'
means the rulership of one. Anarchy
is made of the two words Anti" against
Fand "Archy," rulership. Therefore An
archy simply means, Against ruler
ship"
People once believed that if monarchy
was a olshed or even disrespected all
would be disorder ond confusion" and
that peace and order depended solely
upon having ruler. Therefore, any
doctoring that opposed kingcraft was
Immediately denounced as the doctor
ing of "dsor ler and confusion, The
dictionaries still describe Anarchy" as
meaDing "disorder and confusion" sim
ply because it opposes rulership. The
American Declaration of Independence
is pure Anarchism. Our present gov
ernment, that was organized thirteen
years later, was a compromise or "sDlit
the difference" between Anarchy and
monarchy. This free will of the peo-
pie" and government" combined, or re
public, as We call it, was adopted by a
majority vote of the people; very
small majority, by the way, but sufi
cient to show that the people we're not
then ready for absolute freedom.
History has shown US that peace,
order, prosperity and morality Ave
reigned in proportion to the abolition of
government. In the same line of rea-
sonn3 absolute peace, absolute order,
absolute prosperity and absolute moral
ity are only possible anarchy. This is
why the Anarchists oppose all for MS of
government, fro IN a king to policeman.
The Anarchists are accused of holding
secret meetings, having sigus and pass
words, and banding together for inds-
criminate murder. This is all false.
They hold no Sc ret meetings, but hold
them all in the most open and public
manner. They have DO secret signs or
passwords, and no forms of initiation or
obligation. They do not band together
for any purpose except for public dis
cusslon. They do not believe in organ
izing to suppress an organized force, for
this is only creating one evil to SUD press
another. Most of them believe in and
publicly advocate assassination as the
most effective way to wipe out all ruler
ship, and keep it out of existence with
out being obliged to organize. They be-
lieVe and teach that each person should
act in these matters solely upon his own
responsibility.
The party who threw the bomb in
Chicago, if he was ar Anarchist, threw
it solely upon his own responsibility,
without e,en the advice, consent or
knowledge of any other human being.
And if he had as much regard for his
own neck as men are apt to have, he was
probably in disguise when he threw it.
1t is easy to seq that AnarChism compre-
hends the destruction and total abOll-
ton of all ruership without being
obliged to organize or hold any secret
meetings or have any signs or pass
words. These things are simply useless
to Anarchism.
The talk about acting with authority
and putting down all forms of Anarch-
ism with strong hand" is most ridicu'
lous nonsense. Anarchism is the natu
raj outgrowth of freedom of thought
speech and press, and only by suppre i,
sing these things can Anarchy be
suppressed. If the government could
and should abolish free speech anc
press, then the people would be obllgec
to rise again in an armed body and re
establish them, then Anarchy would
take care of itself again. The truth is
the people could not tolerate a condi
ton that would or could suppress An
archy. This talk about suppressing An
archy is therefore nonsense. Most sen
sible people believe that "fear is the be
ginning of wisdom" and the good sens
of the Anarchists leads them to the sam
} conclusion.
The London explosions, Hooking Val
ley explosions, the London not and th'
Chicago explosion each filled the world
f with fear and trembling and brought ou
more discussion. thought and conse
ouent wisdom in regard to the wants an
} rights and dem lnds of the people thar
HARMLESS preaching, writing and votini
could have accomplished in 10000 years
and all this great work was accom-
plishei with very littls bloodshed. Th,
one man who threw that one bomb il
Chicago did the world more good thai
all the peaceable assemblies ever accom-
plished put together.
or course peaceable assemblies arr
necessary to organize humanity and pu