The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1892-09-21
aae gefald and Yelps.
LOOKING FORWARD.

sermon to working people which has
caused much establishment and cri.i-
cism. He is reported as saying:
Cali Allgoyernment, as it at present ex-
lists, is an enemy to the advance of
mankind in general, and prevents an
equal distribution CT wealth among
men."
This is in itself startling, coming
from high authority in denomina-
tion always noted for its conservatism
and including in its membership
very large proportion of the .represen-.
tatives of the wealth of the country.
Yet more startling, however, was this
statement:
.aThe anarchist is even deserving of
sympathy. Although his measures are
violent and barbarous, he is acting
upon the principle of the survival of
the fittest and fighting in his way for
natural rights"
He told his hearers:
''If you are to cheat men you must
combine. Capital asks the State to
help it to rob the laberer. Organized
human society is againstallsuch pirates
and sharks. The aim of the brother
hood should be to get more equal dis
tribution of wealth, and to give men q
chance to gain living"
It is good to discuss these matters
frankly and fearlessly. Bishop Thomp-
son deserves credit for having the cour-
age of his convictions, and although he
is wrong he has probably done good
service 10y turning the minds of the
people to whom he breaches and among
whom he works to an interesting and
important subject. We all talk ofanar-
ehism and communism as very dread
ful things, but few of us understand
what they are; and most Of us have an
idea that the best and only possible
thing for the l,Hman race to do is TO
remain about as it is.
The truth is, our race is in process of
evolution. We caa not know whether
we came originally from some minute
germ and on through a succession of
quadrupeds, bipeds and tailed animals.
Ali we can know of that part of it is
that there is stupendous, brain defy
ing mystery of origin and history be-
hind us. We do know, however, that
we came from scattered and wandering
tribes of barbarians who fought with
wild beasts for meat and clothing and
with each other for women, using stones
and cudgels before there was wit enough
to invent even a flint axe for strik-
ing or spear sharp enough TO iDfict a
wound. The gorillas of Africa are very
nearly as advanced in their lives and
methods as our ancestors were.
We have now. come to the period
where brains have taken the place that
muscle and sinew held in the race in
that old time. When it was stick
against stick and store against stone
the strongest and most agile was mas
ter. Then some Intellectual giants de-
vised the bow and arrow, the axe and
spear and knife and sword, perhaps to
supply deficiencies in weight Of body
er power of ARM Fine qualities were
enlisted in war and it was no longer a
question Of simple brute strength.
Brains have told more and more as
we have been gradually forced to make
our Hvings and conquest by other
means than war. The forces of money
aud property have been brought in.
Man has come further and further
away from his natural conditions and
has created governments for his own
protection. But it is a significant fact
that the more people advance in civili-
ton the easier their governments be-
come, the more the people govern
themselves. We have passed from the
absolute supremacy and ownership of
the chief of tribe or clan through all
the stages Of kings and emperors and
on to this day Of limited monarchies,
republics and representative bodies
chosen by the people dividing power
with sovereigns, where hereditary SOW
ereigns remain.
The basis of the anarchist doctrine is
that all property is robbery, that all
government is tyranny, that all re-
lgion is superstition. That seems to
Us to be reactionary. It's tendency is
to carry US back to the time before
tribes were formed. All the govern
meut undertakes to do-now is to
guard the individual in the possession
of what Bishop Thompson calls his
natural rights" Those natural rights
in the old time were to hold as long as
he could the cave and the wife or wives
he ha6 taken possession OF or won from
somebody else. They are now to enjoy
VIC IdAOSJ AOuSSS, 4QINttu1C, UOueS,
bonds or other property he may have
acquired by his industry or skill or
shrewdness or luck, or has inherited
from somebody who so acquired them.
The peoples party movement, OF
which we hear so much now, is in the
same general direction as the purpose
advanced by the Anarchists. Instead
Of abolishing the government, how
ever, it proposes to use the government
SIS an engine Of confscation, machine
for taking property from those who
have it and giving all or part of it
to those who have none. A large and
Increasing number of people believe
that there should be some limit to the
quantity Of property to be held by in
dividuals, an enforced distribution of
parts of great holdings among those
who can earn or honestly secure it by
the regular methods of labor of trade.