The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1901-10-01
building is q substantial one Of pleas
ing design and Billings is fortunate in
securing such q desirable addition to
it's public institutions.
ANARCHY AND SOCIALISM,

A Butte
scriber asks the Standard to explain
the difference between anarchy and
socialism, indicating in his query the
belief that they are the same thine
under different names. The Standard
gladly complies with the request. fol-
the reason that there is much popular
misinformation upon the subject.
Anarchy and socialism labor to.
wards the same ultimate end, that is
the realization Of perfect human hap.
piness upon it's social side, through
the reform and abolition of existing
social methods, both political and eco.
nomic. That, however, is where the
likeness ends. In their programmes
and methods socialists and anarchists
are Numerically opposed. They rep.
resent the two poles of the same root
idea-social betterment. The anarch.
lists way of realizing this ideal is by
the establishment of a society in
which there is no government and no
authority for the control Of individu.
ais save the moral recognition by
each Of the rights of the others. Soc
ialism, in it's broad sense, seeks to
attain it's goal by the gradual recon
struction Of society upon the basis
Of greater social equality enforced
by law or by the state. The method
of anarchy is no government. A
logical abyss separates the two sys-
tens. In their methods there is no
point Of sympathetic contact.
Anarchy, as originally conceived.
was the harmless doctrine of philo-
sophical theorists who held the belief
that society would in time become SO
perfect, it's members SO moral and
just, that all governmental control
would disappear as useless. The mod
ern anarchists seek this end by vio-
lence and revolution. They propose to
sweep away by fire and sword all ex-
listing institutions, and upon the
smoking ruins to build their ideal So
ciety. The programme is so horrible
in it's details that it finds advocates
only among those of unbalanced
minds and anti-social instincts, such
as the criminal class and the degen-
crates.
Socialism has a hundred different
phases, a fact which makes it defini-
ton impossible save in the broadcast
terms. In essence it demands the sub
ordination of the Individual will to
that of the community. 1t has been
termed the economic philosophy Of
the suffering classes" and the funda-
mental kernel Of principal appears to
be the termination of the s~o-called
divorce between the workers and the
means of subsistence and of culture.
Thus socialism is mainly economic,
while anarchy seeks a basis in politi-
cal philosophy.
Even a brief review of the various
theories of the socialistic state would
require the elbow-room of a big book.
But multitudinous as they are and
radically differing as they do among
themselves, every socialistic scheme
is essentially economic, involving a
fundamental change in the relations
of labor to land and capital, vitality
concerning both the production and
the distribution of wealth.
In opposition to the methods ef an
archy, violence is discountenanced by
socialism, education, persuasion: evo-
luton and the ballot being the means
by which it is sought to reconstruct
society upon a socialistic basis. Grave
injustice has been done well-meaning
socialists-sincere, even if misguided
by Identifying them with the horri-
bic propaganda of modern anarchy.
The socialist may have a kink in his
intelligence, but he is not a devotee
of murder.