Fergus County argus. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1886-1946, 1906-05-29
The Duty Of Every Man.

/ What is 1t we must do, according
to your opinion?' was asked the
other day by a member of the cars
court, who owns an estate near my
home. What do you advise us to do
to get out of the present intolerable
conditions?"
The answer to a question like this is
very definite, applicable and practica.
BILE, for it demands only the activity
of that one person over whom each of
us has real rightful and unquestionable
pOwer-namely, ones self-and it con.
sists in this, that If a man really wish.
es to better, not his position alone, but
the position Of people in general. he
must not himself do those wrong things
which enslave him and his brothers.
And in order not to do the evil
which produces misery for himself and
for his brothers, he should, first of all,
neither willingly nor under compulsion
take any part in governmental activ-
ity, and should, therefore, be neither
a soldier nor field marshal nor a
minister of state, nor tax collector.
nor a witness, nor an alderman, nor
juryman, nor a governor, nor a men,
Der of parliament, nor, in fact. hold
any office connected with violence.
That is the one thing
Secondly, a man should not volun-
tarily pay taxes to governments, eth
err directly or indirectly, nor should
he accept money collected by taxes,
either as salary or as pension, or as a
reward, nor should he make use of any
governmental institutions, supported
by taxes collected by violence from
the people. That is the second thing.
Thirdly, man who desires to pro-
mote, not his own we'll being alone,
but to better the position of people in
general, should not appeal to govern
mental violence for the protection of
his own possessions in land or other
things, nor to defend him or his fam
lily, but should only possess land and
all products of his own or other peo-
pies toll in so far as others do not
claim them for him.
But such activity is impossible. To
refuse all participation in government
tai affairs means to refuse to live, is
what people will say.
A man who refuses military service
will be imprisoned; man who does
not pay taxes will not be punished and
the tax collected from his property.
A man who, having no other means
of livelihood, refuses government ser
vice, will perish of hunger with his
family.
The same will befall man who re
jects government protection for his
property and his person. Not to make
use of things that are taxed or of gov
eminent institutions is quite impossi
Bile, as the most necessary articles are
often taxed, and just in the same way
it is impossible to do without govern
ment institutions, such as the mai
service, the roads, etc.
1t is quite true that it is difficult
for a man of our times to stand aside
from all participation in government
tai violence. But the fact that not ev
cry man can SO arrange his life as no
to participate in some degree in gov
ernmental violence does not all show
that it is not possible to free one:
self from it more and more.
Not every man will have the strength
to refuse CONSUMPTION, but each cal
abstain from voluntarily entering thu
army, the police force and the judicia
l preference to poorly paid private ser
vice rather than to better paid pub
lie service.
! Not every man will have tn
, strength to renounce his landed es
5 tates, but every man can, understand
l ing the wrongfulness of such property
diminish its extent.
o Between the existing order, base
l. on brute force, and the ideal of sc
|. ciety based on reasonable agreemen
Z confirmed by custom, there are an il
/ finite number of steps which mankin
l. are ascending, and the approach to tn
9 ideal is only accomplished to the e>
o tent to which people free themselve
from participation in violence, fror
taking advantage Of it, and from be
Il ing accustomed to it.
y We do not know when and to wha
extent voluntary agreement, confirm
ed by custom, will replace violence i
each society and in the whole worl'
+ but it will depend on the strength an
T. clearness of the peoples consciou
i ness and on the number of individual
who make this consciousness the
u own.
Each of us is a separate persol
and each can be participation in tn
r general movement of humanity by h
greater or lesser clearness of recOgn
ton of the aim before us. or he ca
70 be an opponent of progress.
n Each will have to make his choic
r to oppose the will of God, building u
e. on the sands the unstable house of h
Ia brief Elusive life, or to join in Il
t,,r