Methods

76 INDIVIDUAL LIBRR TY METHODS PASSIVE RESISTANCE How are you going to put your theories into practice? is the eternal question propounded by students of· sociol ogy to the expounders of Anarchism. To one of those inquirers the editor of Liberty; made this reply: UEDGEWORTH" makes appeal to me through Lucifer to know how I propose to Hstarve out Uncle Sam." Light on this subject he, would Hrather have than roast beef and plum pud ding for dinner in scecula sceculorum." It puzzles him to knpw whether by' the clause Hresistance to taxation" on the Usphynx head of Liberty on CGod and the State'" I mean that CCttueAnarchists should advertise their principles by allowing property to be seized by the sheriff and sold at auction, in order by such personal sacrifices to become known to each other as men and women of a common faith, true to that faith'in the teeth of their interests and trustworthy for combined action." If I do mean this, he ventures to (Cdoubt the policy of a test which depletes, not that enormous vampire, Uncle Sam, but our own little purses, so needful for our propaganda of ideas, several times a year, distrain ment by the sheriff being in many parts of the country practi cally equivalent to tenfold taxes." If, on the other hand, I have in view a minority capable of cCsuccessfullywithdrawing the supplies from Uncle Sam's treasury," he would like to inquire (Chow any minority, however respectable in numbers and intelligence, is to withstand the sheriff 'backed by /the army, and to withhold tribute to the State."

Fair and pertinent questions these, which I take pleasure in answering. In the first place, then, the policy to be pursued by individual and isolated Anarchists is dependent upon cir cumstances. I, no more than ((Edgeworth," believe in any foolish waste of needed material. It is not wise warfare to throw your ammunition to the enemy unless you throw it from the cannon's mouth., But if you can compel the enemy to waste his ammunition' by drawing his fire on some thorINDlVIDUAL LIBERTY 77 oughly protected spot; if you can, by annoying and goading andharas~inghirn in all .possible ways~drive him to the last resort of stripping bare ..• his tyrannous and invasive. purposes.' and··put him· in the attitude of a designing villain assailing honest men •for. purposes·of •. plunder,-there is .no better strat egy.Let no Anarchist, then, place.his property within reach of the sheriff'scl~tch. But some. year, wllenhe feels ex ceptionally strong and.independent, when his conduct can im...

p!lir .. no serious personal obligations,. when on the whole.'he would a little rather go to jail thanl1ot,and when his prop'" erty is in such shape that he can successfully conceaLit,let him declare to· the assessor property of a •certain. value,. and then defy the collector to .collect. Or, if he. have no prop erty, lethim.decHneto pay his poll tax... The State will then bep-gt to its trumps .. O£twothings one,-either it will let him alone, and then he will tell his neighbors all aboutit,re suIting the. next year· in· an alarming disposition on their part. to keep .their own· money· in their own pockets; or else it will imprison him, and then by the requisite legalptocesses he will demand andsec-greall the rights of a civil prisoner and live thusad~cently. comfortable life until the State shall get tired of supporting him. and the increasing number of per sons.• who. will follow .. his example. Unless, indeed,. the State, 'in desperation, shall)see fit to 11lake.its laws regarding imprison ment for. taxes more rigorQus, and then, if our Anarchist be a determined man, we shall:6.nd out how tat a republicangov ernment, ccderiving its just powers from the consent of the govetned," is ready to go to procure that uconsent,"~whether itwiJI stop at. solitary· confinement ~ a dark cell or join with the Czar. of Russia in administering torture by .elec..., tricity. The_ farther· it shall go the better it. will be for Anarchy, ••••~s every student of. the history of·•• reform, well knows,", Who can estimate .the power for propagandismofa ,few cases of this .kind, backed .by a well-organized foxce of agitators without the prison walls? So much, then, for. indi...

vidual resistance.' Bui,if individuals cando so much~ what shall be said of the en.ormous and utterly irresistible power ora large and intelli,. gent 11linority, cornprisin-gsay one-fifth of the pppulationin allY. given .. locality?· .1,'conceive.that on this .point I .need .do n(:.l.lI1ore.th.an ~al1 UEdgeWQrth's" attention ·to, thewonde'r78 INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY fully instructive history of the Land League movement in Ireland, the most potent and instantly effective revolutionary force the world has ever known so long as it stood by its {)riginal policy of CCPay No Rent," and which lost nearly all its strength the day it abandoned that policy. ccOh, but it -did abandon it?" CCEdgeworth"will exclaim. Yes, but why? Because there the peasantry, instead of being an intelligent minority following the lead of principles, were an ignorant, -though enthusiastic and earnest, body of men following blindly the lead of unscrupulous. politicians like Parnell, who really wanted anything but the, abolition of rent, but were willing to temporarily exploit any sentiment or policy that would float them into power and influence. But it was pursued far -enough to show that the British government was utterly powerless before it; and it is scarcely too much to say, in my opinion, that, had it been persisted in, there would not to-day be a landlord in Ireland. It is easier to resist taxes in this country than it is to resist rent in Ireland; and such a policy would be as much more potent here than there as the intelligence of the people is greater, providing always that you can enlist in it a sufficient number of earnest and determined men and women. If one-fifth of the people were to resist tax ation, it would cost more to collect their taxes, or try to col lect them, than the other four-fifths would consent to pay :into the treasury, The force· needed for this bloodless fight Liberty is slowly but surely recruiting, .and sooner or later it will organize for action. Then, Tyranny and Monopoly, down goes your house!

(CPassive resistance,". said Ferdinand Lassalle, with an ob tuseness thoroughly German, ((is the resistance which does not resist." Never was there a greater mistake. It is the only resistance which in these days of military discipline resists with any result. There is not a tyrant in the civilized world to-day who would not do anything in his power to precipitate a bloody revolution rather than see himself confronted by any large fraction of his subjects determined not to obey. An insurrection is easily quelled; but no army is willing or able to train its guns on inoffensive people who do not even gather in the streets but stay at home and stand back on their rights. Neither the ballot nor the bayonet is to play any great part in the coming struggle; passive resistance' is the instrument by INDIVIDUA·L LIBERTY 79 which the revolutionary force is destined to secure in the last great ,. cQnflict .the people's rights forever.

The .idea. that· .Anarchy .can· be inaugurated< by ·£orce is as fallacious.as the idea.that .• it '.can.be sustained· by force. Force cannot '. preserve Anarchy ; neither can it. bring it. In. fact, one of the inevitable .• influences of the use of force'is to postpone Anarchy. The only thing that force can ever do for us is to save •us ftom ~~tiflCtiof1, ,to, give Ug .!l longer le1!u~ of life in which to try to secure Anarchy by the only. methods that can ever bring it. But this adv~ntage is always purchased at im mensecost, and its attainme~t is·always attended by frightful risk. The attempt should be made only when the risk of any other ·course is greater .•, Wb.en a· physician sees that his pa tient's strength is being exhausted so rapidly by theinten~ity of his agony .that .. h~·wil1 dieI ofexha ustion before the medical processes inaugurated have a !chance to 40 their curative work, headrninisters an 0riate. B*tagood physician is always loth to do so, knowing that one of the influences of the. opiate is to interfere with .•. and Idefeat. t,ne medical'·processes.·themselves.

He never. does it e~ceptas· ~,choice of .• evils. ... It is the same with the use of fotce, whe~her of the mob or of the State, upon. diseased ·SQciety; ·and. not only· those. who prescribe its indiscriminate use·,jas ·a.• sov~reign remedy and •. a permanent tonic,· but all ,wh0j.ver propose it as a cure, and ,even all who would lightly and unnecessal1ilyresort to it,not as a cure, but as an expedient,are social ,quacks. , The power of passive resistance has beenstrikinglyillus tratedin Russiaf 1905 -6] .•.She has had three Ugeneral strikes," and only .• the first one. was. truly ,m'agnificently successful. It was absolutely pacific; it was of the sort that Tolstoi has been. urging •for ,.ears.· Workmen, clerks,profession,al men, even government employees and dvorniks(janitors' converted into spies< and informers) ,simply dropped their· tools, .briefs, <iocuments,and what not, and refused to carryon the actiyi ties of industrial and political life. The result, onthegov ernment's side, was panic. A. constitution was granted; a wnoleseries. o£ re£orms-on paper-followed. , The. second strike was called when ~he ,circumstances were un£aVe)rable·and the <causesdistincdy doubtful •in· the opin80 IN D I V I D U ALL I BE R T Y ion of the majority of the government's enemies. It failed, and the consequent bitterness and apprehension led tp a third strike, with an appeal to arms at Moscow. That appeal was most unfortunate; the revolutionary elements had overesti mated their strength, and greatly underestimated that of the autocratic-bureaucratic machine. The army was loyal, and the CCrevolution"was crushed. Now the government has regained its confidence, and is reviving the Plehve tactics. It is suppress ing not merely revolutionary bodies and manifestations, but liberal and constitutional ones as well. Reaction is admittedly a strong probability, and the really substantial victories of October may be forfeited.

Of course, human nature is human nature, and it were both idle and unfair to blame the distracted and exasperated Russian radicals for the turn events have taken. Witte has not been honest; the Bourbons were at no time in actual fear of his liberalism. Quite likely any other. body of men would have acted as the Russian intellectuals and proletariat committees have acted. Still the fact remains that, had the pol icy of strictly passive resistance been continued, and had not the strike and boycott weapon been too recklessly used, the cause of freedom and progress in Russia would to-day rejoice in .much brighter prospects. Whatever reform Russia shall be shown by developments to have secured she will certainly owe to the peaceful demonstration of the uRed Sunday" and to the passive strike. Passive resistance and boycotting are now prominent fea tures of every great national movement. Hungary having been threatened with absolutism, and being, probably, too weak to risk war with Austria, what does she do? Her na tional leaders talk about a boycott against Austrian products and passive resistance to the collection of taxes and the r~ cruiting of troops. In some localities the resistance has al ready been attempted, with results as painful as demoralizing to· the agents of· the Austrian government. The. boycotting of Austrian products mayor may not be irrational, but this tendency to resort to boycotting is a sign of the times.

Of the superior effectiveness of passive resistance to arbi trary and invasive policies it is hardly necesary to speak. It may be noted, however, that the labor members of the Brit ish Parliament seem to appreciate the full power of this method INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY 81 of defence. The Balfour...clerical education bill, a reactionary measure, has largely been nullified in Wale$by the refusal of its opponents to pay the school rates. The labor group demands legislation throwing the burden of schoo1.supportand main tenance on the" national treasury. Under such a. system, passive.resistance to the school. act would be rendered almost impossible, for riationaltaxation is largely indirect. The reactionaries perceive .. this) and are not at all· averse to the proposal. . Local autonomy in taxationand direct local rates are very advantageous to passive resisters, and labor is short sighted in .giving up the adavantage.

THE· FUTILITY OF. THE BALLOTI No superstition was so tirelessly and so mercilessly attacked by· the editor of. Liberty as that of· the ballot. To·those· who defended it and .advocated it as a means ~f sl\~w:ing liberty h~ was alWayt ready with a biting answer. lfere are .some samples of uch: GENERAL· BUTLER'S long-expected letter .[in acceptance of the nomination for· the presidency given him by the labor party] is out at last. The question now is how many it. will lioodwink.Among these at le.ast will not be.Liberty. Would that as much could· be asserted of all who think they believe in Liberty. But the political habit is a clinging one; the fasci nations of political warfare seldom altogether lose their charm over those who have once been under its influence; traceso£ faith in its efficacy still linger in the minds of .those who sup pose themselves emancipated; the old majority superstition yet •taints the. reformer's blood, and, in .f,ace of the evils tha_t threaten society's life, he appeals to its saving grace with the same curious.·mixture of doubt and· confidence that sometimes leads a. wavering and timorous Infidel, when brought face to face 'iith the fancied terrors of death, to re-embrace the theo logical superstition from •which his· good sense has once re volted and to declare his pelief on the Lord Jesus, lest, as one of them is said to have profanely put it, «there maybe, after 82 IN D I V I D U ALL I B E R T Y all, a God, or a Christ, or a Hell, or some damned thing or other ." To such as these, then, Butler will look for some of his strength, and not be disappointed.

The audacity of this demagogue's utterances, the fearlessness with which he exposes'such shams and frauds and tyrannies as he does not himself champion, the fury of his onslaught on those hypocrites in high places to dislodge whom for his own benefit and glory he himself hypocritically espouses the cause of the people, all tend to fire such radical hearts as have no radical heads to guide them, and accordingly we see on every hand reformers ,of every stripe, through their press and on their platforms, enlisting in the service of this incarnation of reac tion, this personification of absolutism, this total stranger to the principle of Liberty, this unscrupulous plunderer of labor" this servant of the fearful trinity of the people's enemies, being at once an insincere devotee of the Church, a steadfast lover of a mammoth and omnipotent State, and a bloated benefi ciary of the exactions of Capital.

The platform announced in his letter is a ridiculous tissue of contradictions and absurdities. Anti-monopoly only. in name, it sanctions innumerable monopolies and privileges, and avowedly favors class legislation. As far as it is not nonde script, it is the beginning of State Socialism,-that is, a long step towards the realization of the most gigantic and appalling monopoly ever conceived by the mind of man. One sentence in it, however, commands my approbation ((The laboring man votes for his Fetich, the Democratic party, and the farmer votes for his Fetich, the Republican party, and the result is that both are handed over as captives to the corruptionists and monopolists, whichever side wins. Mark this: the laborersana the people never win!" True, every word of it! But why not go alittle farther? Suppose both laborer and farmer vote for their new Fetich, Ben Butler and his party of State Socialism, what will be the result then? Will not both be handed over as captives to a band of corruptionists as much larger and greedier as the reach and resources of the government are made vaster, all in the service and pay, not of a number of distinct and relatively weak monopolies, but of one consolidated mo nopoly whose rapacity will know no bounds? No doubt about it whatever. Let those who will, then, bow before this idol, no Anarchistic knee shall bend. We Anarchists have not come INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY 83 for. that. We .come to. shatter Fetiches, not to kneel before them ,---no more before Fetich Butler than Fetich Blaine or Fetich Cleveland ••orFetich .~t ..John. ·.Weare here. to. let in the light of Liberty upon political superstition, and from that policy can result no captivity to corruption, nO subserviency to monopoly, only a world· of free .laborers controlling the products of their labor and growing richer every day.

. 1 greatlyadmirefiugh O. Pentecost. lie is a growing and a fair-minded man. His Twentieth Century, now published weekly·in an enlarged form, is doing a useful work. He al.. ready. accepts Anarchy· as an ultimate, and. the whole tenor of his writings -is•leading him on, it seems to me, to a casting .. off of his devotion to the· single-tax •movement and to reforms stillmore distinctly State Socialistic, and to a direct advocacy of Anarchistic principles and methods. It is because.I believe thi$ that I ·feel.like reasoning .·with him .regarding a vital·in consistency in his· discourse of· January 13 on CCBallots or Btllletst"· in which, moreover, the.· tendency referred to is marked. After laying it down as a principle that force is never justi... nable (and, by the. way,· I cannot accept so absolute a denial of£orce as this,. though I heartily agree .that force is futile in almost all circumstances) ,he goes on as follows: ((If it is not justifiable for the establishment· and maintenance of .govern..

ment,.neither is it justifiable for the·overthrow or modification of .. governm.ent.l. • • The intellectual and moral process. of reg.eneration is ~lowerthan force, but it is right; and when the·work is thu~ done, it has the merit of having been done properly and thtroughIY." So far, excellent. But mark the next sentence: .cThe balfot is the people's agency even for correcting its 0 n evils, and it seems to me a social criqle to refrain· from· it .use for .regenerative purposes until it is absolutely demo strated that· it is a failure as an instrument for. freedom." .' Now, what is,~he. ballot?. It is neither more nor less than a paper representa ive of the bayonet, the billy, and the bullet. It is a labor-savi g device forascertmning on which side force lies and bowing to the inevitable. The voice of the majority saveshloodshed, but it is no less•• the arbitrament of .force than is the. decree of the· most absolute of despots backed by the 84 I N D I V I D U ALL I B E R T Y most powerful of armies. Of course it may be claimed that the struggle to attain to the majority involves an incidental use of intellectual and moral proc~&ses; but these influences woul~ exert themselves still more powerfully in other chan nels if there were no such thing as the ballot, and, when used as subsidiary to the ballot, they represent only a striving for the time when physical force can be substituted for. them.

Reason devoted to politics fights for its own dethronement. The moment the minority becomes the majority, it ceases to reason and persuade, and begins to command and enforce and punish. If this be true,-and I think that Mr. Pentecost will have difficulty in gainsaying it,-it follows that to use the ballot for the modification· of government is to use force for the modification of government; which sequence makes it at .once evident that Mr. Pentecost in his conclusion pronounces it a social crime to avoid that course which in his premise he declares unjustifiable. It behooves Mr. Pentecost to examine this charge of in consistency carefully, for his answer to it must deeply affect his career. If he finds that it is well-founded, the sincerity of his nature will oblige him to abandon all such political measures as the taxation of land values and the government ownership of banks. and railroads and devote himself to Anarchism, which offers not only the goal that he seeks,.but confines itself to those purely educational methods of reach ing it with which he finds himself in sympathy.

VOLUNTARY COOPERATION A REMEDY; Mr. Wordsworth Donisthorpe, of London, wrote a lengthy plaint in Liberty, setting forth his woes as a citizen beset with various difficulties. He wished to be informed if Anarchism could free him from those woes, whereupon Mr. Tucker tried to lead him to the light: THE Anarchists never have claimed that liberty will bring perfection; they simply say that its results are vastly preferINDIVIDUAL LIBERTY 85 able tothos~ that follow authority. Under liberty Mr. Don· isthorpe may have to listen for some minutes every day to the •. barrel-organ (though I really think that. it will never lodge him in. the mad-house), hut· at •least he will have the privilege of going to the music-hall inthe evening; w~ereas, uncler authority, even in its most honest .and consistent form, he will get rid of the barrel-organ only at the expense of' being deprived of the music-hall, and, in its less honest, .less con·~istent, ~ndmoreprobable lorm, he may lose the Inuslc hall at the same time that he ·is· forced to endure the barrel.

organ.Asa choice of blessings, liberty is the greater; jasa choice of evils, liberty is the smaller. Then liberty always, say the Anarchists. No use of· force, except against the in, vader; and in /thosecases where it is difficult to tell whether the alleged offend.eris an invad,eror not, stiIlnol1se of force except where the necessity of. immediate. solution is so im perative that' we must· use it to save ourselves.. Andinthese few cases where we must use. it, let' us do so frankly and squarely, acknowledging it as a matter of necessity, without seeking to harmonize 0tU" action with any political ideal or constructing any far-fetched theory ofa State. or collectivity having prerogatives and rights superior to those of individuals' and aggregations of individuals and exempted. from the. opera tionofthe ethical priJ;lcipleswhich individuals are expected to .. observe•. But to say. all.. this to Mr. Donisthorpe is like carrying coals to N ewcatsle. • He knows as.well. as I do that cCliherty is not the· daughter, but the mother of order."

I. will.try to deal briefly·with Mr•.Donisthorpe's questions. To •• his· first: CCI-Iowfar may voluntary· cooperators invade the liberty of others?" . I answer: Not at .all. Under this head I. have. previously made. answer to Mr.. Donisthorpe and this is the best rule that I can frame, as a guide to vohJntary cooperators. To apply ittoqnly one of Mr. Donis thorpe's cas~s, I think •that u llder a .• ststem of. Anarchy, even if. it were. admitted that. there. was isome ground.· for considering an unvaccinated person. an inrader, it would be generally recp,gnized.. that. such invasion,•. was not of a •character to require treatment .l"yforce,an4. that any attempt to treat it by .force would. be regarded .a~. itself .an .. invasion ofa less 86 INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY ooubtful and more immediate nature, requiring as such to be resisted. But under a system of Anarchy how is such resistance to be made? is Mr. Donisthorpe's second question. By another band of voluntary cooperators. But are we then, Mr. Don isthorpe will ask, to have innumerable bands of voluntary co~operators perpetually at war with each other? Not at all.

A system of Anarchy in actual operation implies a previous education of the people in the principles of Anarchy, and that in turn implies such a distrust and hatred of interference that the only band of voluntary cooperators which could gain support sufficient to enforce its will would be that which either entirely refrained from interference or reduced it to a minimum. This would. be my answer to Mr. Donisthorpe~ were I to admit his assumption ofa state of Anarchy super vening upon a sudden collapse of Archy. But I really scout this assumption as absurd. Anarchists work for the aboli tion of the State, but by this they mean not its overthrow~ but, as Proudhon put it, its dissolution in the economic or ganism. This being the case, the question before us is not, as Mr. Donisthorpe supposes, what measures and means of inter ference we are justified in instituting, but which ones of those already existing we should first lop off. And to this the Anarchists answer that unquestionably the first to go should be those that interfere most fundamentally with a free market, and that the economic and moral changes that would result.

from this would act as a solvent upon all the remaining forms of interference. (tIs compulsory cooperation ever desirable?" Compulsory cooperation is simply one form of invading the liberty of others, and voluntary cooperators will not be justified in re sorting to it-that is, in becoming compulsory cooperators any more than resorting to any other form of invasion. tCHow are we to remove the injustice of allowing one man to enjoy what another has earned?" I do not expect it ever to be removed altogether. But I believe that for every dollar that would be enjoyed by tax-dodgers under Anarchy, a thou sand dollars are now enjoyed by men who have got possession of the earnings of others through special industrial, com mercial, and :financial privileges granted them by authority in violation of a free market.