Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1899-10-31
Anarchy and Socialism.

Anarchy was at one time closely af
fllated with socialism, and If not a
branch Of It, at any rate friendly RI
val At a socialist conference held at
The Hague in the early '7Os the an
archists, whose leader was a Russian
named Bakunin, declared that the So
clahst methods were too mild and too
slow. They advocated much more
thorough-gong reforms, They pro-
| posed to seize by violence all forms of
| property, and to abolish the State and
all fixed institutions altogether This
Of course, meant a secession from their
Connection with the socialists, who
wanted merely an ordinary conversion
of mankind to their views, and wished
to give the state a stronger position
than it had ever had before. So, with
their watchword, PROPAGANDA by
deed" meaning by bodily assault, if
necessary, the anarchists set up for
themselves. 1t is only fair to men
zion, however, that not all anarchists
lndorse the propaganda by deed"
In the first place, says the anarchist,
government by maiCrltlcs is based on
the assumption that might is right,
and the proof of the f2!lacy OF the sys-
tenn is chat over and ever again the
majority errs. So there must be no
laws, which are always made by ma
jorltes, but the members of the com
munity will act upon common accord.
1t will be quite easy say the anarchists,
for PEOPLE to come to amicable agree
ment on things in whose furtherance
all are interested. 1t is only matters
of general concern that will come up
for discussion, and mans passion for
solidarity will make him adhere vol
UNFAIRLY to anything mutually agreed
upon. Under this heading would
come the public services, such as the
postal delivery, which everyone would
wish to see promptly performed. Pat
riotism not only teaches men to hate
each other unreasonably, runs the an
archist creed, which also decries re-
llgion as being unscientiflc, and mar
riages as being binding upon people
who would really do better in their
own sober judgment, to separate. The
institution of marriages, say the an
archists is also vitiated by the scandal
of divorce. Education they believe to
be impractical, as it pays so much to
the ornamental side of life Lang
uages which are no longer spoken can
be of no use, and history, which only
relates the deeds of tyrants and de-
scrlbes battles, holds up no good ex-
amples. But the anarchlal ideas,
which if carried out, would prove the
most sweeping of reforms" refer to
what political economists call proper
ty. And this is how the anarchists
would dispose of property:
All the land and everything that can
be taken from it, in minerals, timber,
fruit, vegetables corn, and SO on, mus.
belong to everybody. All wealth ex-
isting, in the shape of manufactured
articles, or raw materials, or natural
products, will also become public pos
session. There is now overproducIion
so that evidently there Is enough for
everybody. and for this reason the
supply can not be exhausted if every
one takes fully as much as he requires.
No one will have an object in taking
more than he really needs, as the
earth never fails to yield more than
enough for the consumption of the
whole world, Under this plan of ev-
cry one helping himself freely to
what every one contributes in the
measure of his capacity, there can be
no place for employers employed, and
wages. The anarchists calculate that
their industrial scheme would probab-
ly reduce the working day to five
hours 1t is important to note that
TO begin with, real estate, houses.
capital, merchandise and all forms of
private property would simply be TAX
EN- away, without compensation, from
the individuals owning them.-Col-
lier's Weekly.