The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-12-18
THE ASARcHIsrs UTOPIA.

Our work Is frightful. complete. im- piacable. universal destruction" Rg
 kounine, the founder of Anarchism, once declared; and his followers ac- cepted his words as their official pro
 gram. That was some twenty years ago. Q time when Anarchists almost without exception were mere icono- clasts, with no thought beyond pull Ing down, no ambition beyond win ming their spurs as Attllas. Since then, however, things have changed, though only within quite recent days. The more responsible members of the party are now hard at work laying plans for the future. thinking of what shall be when all that Is will have ceased to exist. Already they have a scheme for the regeneration of society complete, worked out to its mnutest detail-a proof that some among
 them have nimble wits and fervent im- aginations. In the "Conquete du
 ~@,b U pNVh III II full account is given of this scheme and a very interesting scheme 1t Is. in-
 teresting intrinsically, as well as from
 the fact of It's being the Anarchists maiden attempt at construction.
 The "Conquete du Pain" Is a curious
 work; 1t is sort of Anarchist book of Revelation. In 1t Prince Krapotkine
 nIlfl into u,nr1o h., .e,v,s,.
 party to which he belongs; he tells of
 the dreams they dream, of the hopes they cherish, of the ideal for which they are striving. He shows how our present system might be replaced by one better, purer and nobler, as he be- Heves. He describes the world as 1t would be, he maintains. if society were organized on an Anarchistic basis. It Is a veritable Utopia that he depicts; as one reads of 1t one thinks involun- tarily of early Christian communities, Quaker settlements and all kinds of peace-loving associations. It is satis- factory, though somewhat startling, to find that, according to the testimony of one of their leaders, Anarchists, even
 "A1ShA AiiOoL luIlliCSs5 III lIlelI utdllUkS, are strictly humanitarian in their in tentions. Every blow. they strike, no matter how hard it be, is struck, it seems, to hasten the coming of the day when peace shall prevail on earth, and good will among men.
 Prince Krapotkine begins by announ- cing that popular upheaval is at hand. He does not know, he says, when or where the first shot will be fired; but some day, probably during strike, in some great city-Paris, Vien- ma, London, no matter which-the pop ulace will rise. overthrow the govern ment, and take the management of af- fairs into their own hands. He then describes how, in his opinion, the great social revolution will be effected. He passes over the first phase of the movement in silence; for, as he tells us, "c'est settlement apres la defaite des anciens governments que commence Poeuvre reelle de Ia revolution" He begins his narrative on the morrow of a great battle which the people are supposed to have fought and won. Al- ready the city is in the hands of the mob; the authorities have fled; the army and the police have fraternized; and the Commune has been pro- claimed. All property is confscated; and capitalists as a class have been removed" Productive work is at a standstill, and the whole population is clamoring for food.
 According to the author, hitherto all attempts to bring about social revo- lution have failed, because their organ izers have forgotten that men cannot live without food. At the critical mo- ment Ion parle beaucoup de questions politiques, on public la question du pain." The capitalists have always rendered themselves masters of the sit uation simply by securing the control of the food supply of the rebels. It is easy to dictate terms to starving men. The Anarchists are fully alive to this danger, and are resolved to guard against it. Whereas in other rebel lions the first care has always been to collect firearms. in theirs it will be to find a solution for the bread question, "Let others dispute about political lib- erties," they say "our task shall be to act in such way that, from the first day of the revolution and so long as it lasts, not a man in the rebel territory shall lack bread, not 8 woman shall be forced to wait her turn before ba- ker's shop, and there have her dole of wretched flour thrown at her as a char ity." In order to secure this result, all the food in the city will be handed over to certain persons-gens de bonne vo- lonte-who will distribute it among the inhabitants, giving to each a share pro- portionate to his needs. not his merits. Each district will have several little bands of these persons of bonne vo- lonte, chosen by the populace, who will the management of the af- fairs of the district. They will have no authority excepting what they derive from the support of public opinion, and will have to rely entirely on their own force of character for inducing the pop ulation to. submit to their guidance. The office will be open to all who are to accept Loyalty the new state of things, quite irrespective of their past lives, for let bygones be by zones will be the general watchword.
 To the ordinary man of the world it night seem that these dividers out | would have difficult task to perform, if supplies ran short. Prince however, is convinced, and le speaks as one having authority hat the very riffraff of the population, wen though starving. would become yentle and amenable in their behavior f once freed from the demoralizinp in-