Methods

~~,.".,.f~.).",.:~. It appears further from Mr. Hall's letter that the Single ~JJ'\Taxers prop~se firs~ to capture D~laware, and then to capture .i . r the AnarchIsts. Like the theatncal manager who prefers to I ,/Ii j test his new play in a country town before making a venture ..~. "t~)/ in the city, the Single Taxers will begin by CCtrying it on a v( ...b dog." If they succeed with the dog, then they will accept ~~..I1 .~,pur challenge. Our chances for a fight would be very bad, C""Y,., were it not that the dog, instead of giving bark for bark, I .1 .. J~\ ~.,...fj, is snapping at .,the Single Taxers' heels. If Delaware con tin.ues I' IJ to send Single Taxers to the lock-up, there is a bare chance "ll; 'that Delaware will be captured through its own stupidity, and " then the Anarchists' innings will begin. In view of Mr. Hall's honest admission that the Single Taxers are less intelligent than the Anarchists, the promised attempt ot the less to swallow the greater is indicative of more valor than discretion.

It is one thing for the less to worry the greater; it is quite an other to swallow it. METHODS REFUSAL TO PAY RENT In the matter of freeing the land, no less than in the other aspects of liberty, has there been a constant clamor for an explanation of the means to be adopted to secure the ends aimed at. It is notorious that, at one time, the Irish Land League had the landlords whipped if the League had had but sense and courage enough to follow INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY 245 up its advantage. It was not difficult, therefore, for the editoro£ Liberty to find· conspi~uous instances of an. ef fe~tive method of securing results, as he here pointed out: IRELAND'S chief danger: the liability of her people-besotted with superstition; trampled on by tyranny; ground into the dust beneath the weight of twO·despotisms, one religious, the 9ther political;. victims, on the one hand, of as cruel a Church and, on the other, of as heartless a .State as have ever blac.kened with ignQrance or reddened with blood 1:herecordsof civilized nations-to forget the wise.advice of their cooler leaders, give full· vent to the passions which their oppressors are aiming to :foment, .and rush headlong and blindly into riotous .and ruin ..

ous revolution. Ireland's true order: the wonderful Land League, the nearest approach,' on. a large scale, to perfect Anarchistic organization that ••.. the world. has yet· seen.' An immense number of .local groups, scatt~redover large sections' of tw~continents. sepa rated by three thousand miles of oceall; each group autono mous, each free; each composed of varying numbers of indi viduals of all ages, sexes, races, equally autonomous and free; each inspired by a common, central purpose; each supported entirely by volunt~ry contributions; each obeying its own judgment; each guided in the formation of its judgment and the .choice, of its conduct by the advice of a central council of.pickecl men,having no power to enforce its ,orders except that inherent in the convincing logic of the reasons on which the orders are based; all coordinated and federated, with a minimum ofma,chinery ,and with~ut sacrifice of spontaneity, into a vast workin.g u~it, whose unparalleled power makes . tyrants' tremble and armies ot no avail.

Ireland's shortest road to. success: no payment of rent now or hereafter; no payment of compulsory taxes now or here after; utter disregard of the British parliament and its so called laws; entire abstention from the polls henceforth; rig orous butnon~invasive ((boycotting" of deserters,'cowards, traitors, and oppressors; vigorous, intelligent, fearless prose. cution of the land !agi~ationbyvoice and pen; passive but stu1Jhorn resistance to every offensive act of police or mili tary; and, above·.all, universal readiness, tOigO tJ prison, and 2.46 I N D I V I D U ALL I B E R T Y promptness in filling. the places made vacant by those who may be sent to prison. Open revolution, terrorism, and the policy above outlined, which is Liberty, are the three courses from which Ireland now must choose one. Open revolution on the battle-field means sure defeat and another century of misery and oppression; terrorism, though preferable to revo lution, means years of demoralizing intrigue, bloody plot, base passion, and terrible revenges,-in short, all the horrors ofa long-continued national vendetta, with a doubtful issue at the end; Liberty mea.p.s certain, unhalting, and comparatively bloodless victory, the dawn of the sun of justice, andperpet ual peace and prosperity for a hitherto blighted land.

To the editor of the San Francisco People, Anarchism is evidently a new and puzzling doctrine. It having been pro pounded by an Anarchist from a public platform in that city that Anarchism must come about by peaceful methods and that physical force is never justifiable except in self-defense, the People declares that, except physical force, it can see but two methods of settling the labor question~ one the vol untary surrender of privileges by the privileged class, which it thinks ridiculous, and the other the ballot, which it rightly describes as another form of force. Therefore the People~ supposing itself forced to· choose between persuasion, the bal lot,· and direct physical force, selects the last. If I were forced to the alternative of leaving a question unsettled or attempting one of three ineffectual means of settling it, I think I should leave it unsettled. It would seem the wiser course to accept the situation. But the situation is not so hopeless. There is a fourth method of settling the difficulty, of which the People seems never to have heard,-the method of passive resistance, the most potent weapon ever wielded by man ~gainst oppression. Power feeds on its spoils, and dies when its victims refuse to be •despoiled. They can't persuade it to death; they can't vote it to death; they can't shoot it to death; but they can always starve it to death. When a deter mined body of people, sufficiently strong in numbers and force of character to command respect and make it unsafe to im prison them, shall agree to quietly close their doors in the faces of the tax-collector and the rentcollector, and shall, by issuing their own money in defiance of legal prohibition, at the same time cease paying tribute to the money-lord, governINDIVIDUAL LIBERTY ~47.

ment, with all the privileges which it grants and the monopo lies which it sustains, will go by the board. Does the People think this impracticable? I call its attention, then, to the vast work that was done 'six years ago in Ireland by the old Irish Land League, in defiance of perhaps the most powerful government on -earth, simply by shutting the door in the face of the rentcollector alone. Within a few short months from the '. inauguration of theCCNo-Rent" policy landlordry found itsell .upon, the verge, ot dissolution. It was •at its wits end. Confronted, by this intangible power, it knew not what to .do. It wanted nothing so much as to madden the stubborn peasantry ,into •becoming an actively belligerent mob which cOl.lldbe. mowed, down with •Gatling guns., But, barring a paltry" Qutbreak here"and. there" it ,was impossible to goad the farmers O'llt of their quiescence, and the grip of the landlords grew weaker every day.

ctAh! 'but" the movement failed," lean. hear the People reply•. Yes, it did fail; and why? Because the peasants Were actin.g,>not intelligently" in obedience to their wisdom, but blindly. in obedience to leaders who betrayed them at the critical moment. Thrown into jail by the government, these leaders, to secure their release, withdrew the CCNo-Rent Mani festo,"which they had issued i~ ,the first place not with any intention of freeing the peasants from the burden of. an CCim_ moral tax," but simply to make them. the tools of their politi cal advancement. Had the .people realized the power they were exercising and understood. the economic situation, they would not have. resumed the payment. of '. rent at. Parnell's bidding, and today they might have been free. The An archists do not propose to· repeat their mistake. That .. is why they are devoting themselves. entirely to the inculcation. of principles, especially of economic principles. In steadfastly pursuing this course regardless 'ofclamor, they alone are lay ingasure foundation for the successo£ the revolution, though to the People of San .Francisco, and to all people who are in such. a devil .0£ a hurry" that they can't .stop to think, they seem to be doing nothing at aU! .