New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1894-10-17
IN DEFENSE OF ANARCHY,
A Writer in the London Review Up
holds It.

Wordsworth Donisthorpe in an article
oAanarchy in the New London Review
clears up many queer notions relative to
anarchists. He says:
Advocacy of the doctrine Of anarchy
in no way involves the defense Of assassi-
ration or undue violence. Extremists
and fanatics adopt extreme methods, no
matter what social or religious systems
! they seek to uphold and enforce. Ne
| vertheless, such IS the prevailing ignor-
ance and misconception, that it may be
we'll presently to examine and explain
| the attitude of what is called Tor rather
miscalled) the ''party Of action" in the
Individualist or Anarchist camp. In
this theory of social organization the re
is nothing peculiarly offensive. Indeed,
| anarchists are of all men the least ag-
gressive. Their whole political philcso-
ply may be summed up in the words,
| ''Let be-
They hold that every man has right
to do whatever he chooses, so long as he
does not thereby violate the equal right
of his fellows. This is the creed of lib
erty. It is creed which no civilized
community can suppress, and which even
| Republican France cannot hope success
| fully to resist very long.
It is the fashion to divide anarchists
into several classes. Mr.. Brailsford
Bri ght sees an essential difference be-
tween .'black'' anarchists or the "party
of action" and EARN chair anarchists,
or the 'party Of what shall we call
it?" And Mr.. Auberon Herbert recog-
nizes two distinct kinds---the Individual
list anarchist and the communist anarch-
ist. With the latter, he says, he has not
the slightest sympathy, but with the
former he has much sympathy, although
he differs from them, because he believes
in ''the .rightful existence and necessity
of state" No anarchist believes in the
Ishmaelitic anarchy of the tiger. He
knows as we'll as the most confirmed
socialist that man is gregarious animal
and that individual welfare is bound up
with the welfare of the group. But So
ciety based wholly on voluntary COOP
Grafton is utopian. Yes, at the present
day it is probably unattainable. But
then what form Of political organization
is not utopian at one stage of social cvo-
luton or another? Because democracy
based on universal suffrage would be al
together unsuitable to Zulus or Maoris,
is it therefore eternally ridiculous? In
dividualists recognize the fact that soci-
ETY. is growing organism. They would
no more dream of thrusting highlyde-
veloped institutions prematurely upon
people than they would present an urch-
in of six summers with six-shooter.The
extreme anarchist is usually more san
guine and less patient-perhaps he is
more generous. He feels within himself
that he is capable of higher things, fit
for nobler form of social arrangement,
and he gives his citizens credit
for equally elevated sentiments.
One word in conclusion as to the right
and wrong Of resistance to authority. The
question is is no way bound up with
anarchy, but it is commonly supposed to
be. And, whether or no. it is subject
we'll worthy of more honest consideration
than it receives. 1t is wicked to break
the laws, we are told; it is very wrong
to disobey the authorities. Why, what
| driveling impertinence is this! Your ve.
! ry House of Commons was born in So,
dition. Your glorious Magma Charta
was illegally forced from the supreme
authority. The Pilgrim Fathers were
lawbreakers and sedition-mongers. If
brave men had not resisted authority
even to the blazing faggots, the black
pail of superstition would still lie on the
| face of this land as it lies on the face of
Spain. 1t is not so very long since that
arch-rebel, John Brown, resisted the
slave laws of the free Republic, and still
Ibis soul goes marching along How.
many among us to-day denounce the
crime of Charlotte Corday? Those only
who would again enthlone the Marats
and the Dantons.
To what conclusion, then, are we dr.
ven by this strange conflict of prejudicea
opinions? To repress force by force?
To answer the dagger and the bomb with
the rope and the gnillohne2 No; let us
rather ponder the advice of a Russian
| anarchist: ssRevolutionists are not sneaks
and towards; they are manly, brave and
generous. If propaganda by. deed did
not involve the risk of their own lives,
| they would never attempt the life Of any
4 mt,