Waterbury Democrat., 1901-11-20
ANARCHIC SOCIAL CONDITIONS
They Have Existed in Various Parts of
 the World in Our Day.

l face the surrounding dangers Of llfe alone, and so he had to apply for nu- l tual help to his fellowmen. Thus m 1 association of all the members of the ! tribe became necessity; but property | was communistic because it belonged : to everybody and to every one alike. The anarchic state of mankind lasted for a long time. and underwent q change only when the institution of private ownership of property was es- tablished There are. however, still a number of peoples living to-day whose social conditions are anarchic in the true sense of the word. A few extracts from the writings of promin- ent ethnologists will prove the truth of 1 this contention.
 Schoolcraft says of the Chippeway- ans: Though they have no regular government, as every man is lord in his own family, they are influenced more or less by certain principles which conduce to their general benefit" Of the unorganiZed Shoshones Bancroft writes: Every man does as he likes; Private revenge, of course, occasion ally overtakes the murderer, or, if the sympathies of the tribe be with the murdered man, he may possibly be publicly executed, but there are no fixed laws for such cases"
 From the Nagas of India we learn that they acknowledge no king among themselves. and deride the idea of such q parsonage among others; their viii 1ages are continually at feud.
 ''Every man being his own master, l. ,1of1 by his share of brute force" And then we read that petty disputes and dis agreements about property are settled by council of elders, the litigants vol untarily submitting to their arbitra- ton. But, correctly speaking, there is not the shadow of a constituted au- thority in the Naga community, and, wonderful as it may seem, this want of government does not lead to any marked degree of anarchy That is to say, anarchy is well at hand, but not in the form of q state of disorder.
 The Greenland Eskimos too are en- tirely without political control: having nothing which represents it more clear ly than the difference paid to the opin- don of some old man skilled in seal catching and the signs of the weather. But an Eskimo who is offended by an- other has his remedy in what is called singing combat. Heacomposes a sa- tirical poem and challenges his an- tagonist to q satiricaI duel in the face of the tribe: He Who has the last word wins the trial" Indeed, a very simple and harmless way to settle quarrelsl Of one of the tribes of the northwest coast we read that 'the Sa- fish can hardly be said to have any regular form of government" q fact that has been confirmed by Professor Boas of New York.
 Besides that form of government" ]" which indeed reminds us of our 4an- archistic principles" we find among primitive peoples another form of Jaw" which stands in a certain con- nection to the facts mentioned. After the death of q tribal chief it is custom ary among many West African peoples that for quite a while state of law lessness and liberty prevails in such a way that eyeryb dy does as hs please until new chief is elected, who re- establishes the old order. It was the same in the middle ages: when after the death of the pope people were al- lowed to sack the papal palace, in Lateran A similar outburst we may also recognize in the right given in Africa to young men who are to be circumcised, to steal and to plunder for a couple of weeks.
 Among the natives of New Zealand, called Muru, people are in the habit of plundering everything in the house of a family where crime has been com mitted or an unhappy event has oc- cured. This curious fact can, how ever, not be considered punishment" or revenge" because nobody sees any harm in it, nor does the house-owner conceal the names of the plunderers. The pillage reaches also sometimes those who had nothing to do with the crime. as it is reported by Captain Brown, who says that the home of chief was sacked because his wife had committed adultery In Japan the le- galized ''saclSing" is called ''Harai." It was formerly practiced i'll the houses of those who had lost T friend or relative. until the custom was sup pressed by an imperial edict.
 There is but one way of dealing with the anarchism of propaganda by action, namely, by means of ail open and fearless discussion of the social problem. and not by violent measures and speeches, Or by a suppression of free speech. l.. Hemming in the Open Court.