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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/2162-h.zip b/2162-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a8417d5 --- /dev/null +++ b/2162-h.zip diff --git a/2162-h/2162-h.htm b/2162-h/2162-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..49749aa --- /dev/null +++ b/2162-h/2162-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,9339 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<HTML> +<HEAD> + +<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> + +<TITLE> +The Project Gutenberg E-text of Anarchism and Other Essays, by Emma Goldman +</TITLE> + +<STYLE TYPE="text/css"> +BODY { color: Black; + background: White; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; + text-align: justify } + +P {text-indent: 4% } + +P.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +P.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-size: small } + +P.letter {font-size: small ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +P.footnote {font-size: small ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +P.intro {font-size: small ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +P.finis { text-align: center ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + + +</STYLE> + +</HEAD> + +<BODY> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Anarchism and Other Essays, by Emma Goldman + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Anarchism and Other Essays + +Author: Emma Goldman + +Posting Date: March 1, 2009 [EBook #2162] +Release Date: April, 2000 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ANARCHISM AND OTHER ESSAYS *** + + + + +Produced by Eva. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + +</pre> + + +<BR><BR> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +ANARCHISM AND OTHER ESSAYS +</H1> + +<BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +Emma Goldman +</H2> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +With Biographic Sketch by Hippolyte Havel +</H4> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CONTENTS +</H2> + +<H4> +<A HREF="#bio"> +Biographic Sketch +</A> +</H4> + +<H4> +<A HREF="#preface"> +Preface +</A> +</H4> + +<H4> +<A HREF="#anarchism"> +Anarchism: What It Really Stands For +</A> +</H4> + +<H4> +<A HREF="#minorities"> +Minorities Versus Majorities +</A> +</H4> + +<H4> +<A HREF="#violence"> +The Psychology of Political Violence +</A> +</H4> + +<H4> +<A HREF="#prisons"> +Prisons: A Social Crime and Failure +</A> +</H4> + +<H4> +<A HREF="#patriotism"> +Patriotism: A Menace to Liberty +</A> +</H4> + +<H4> +<A HREF="#ferrer"> +Francisco Ferrer and The Modern School +</A> +</H4> + +<H4> +<A HREF="#puritanism"> +The Hypocrisy of Puritanism +</A> +</H4> + +<H4> +<A HREF="#traffic"> +The Traffic in Women +</A> +</H4> + +<H4> +<A HREF="#suffrage"> +Woman Suffrage +</A> +</H4> + +<H4> +<A HREF="#emancipation"> +The Tragedy of Woman's Emancipation +</A> +</H4> + +<H4> +<A HREF="#marriage"> +Marriage and Love +</A> +</H4> + +<H4> +<A HREF="#drama"> +The Drama: A Powerful Disseminator of Radical Thought +</A> +</H4> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="bio"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +EMMA GOLDMAN +</H3> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="intro"> + Propagandism is not, as some suppose, a "trade," because + nobody will follow a "trade" at which you may work with + the industry of a slave and die with the reputation of a + mendicant. The motives of any persons to pursue such a + profession must be different from those of trade, deeper + than pride, and stronger than interest.<BR><BR> + GEORGE JACOB HOLYOAKE. +</P> + +<P> +Among the men and women prominent in the public life of America there +are but few whose names are mentioned as often as that of Emma +Goldman. Yet the real Emma Goldman is almost quite unknown. The +sensational press has surrounded her name with so much +misrepresentation and slander, it would seem almost a miracle that, +in spite of this web of calumny, the truth breaks through and a +better appreciation of this much maligned idealist begins to manifest +itself. There is but little consolation in the fact that almost +every representative of a new idea has had to struggle and suffer +under similar difficulties. Is it of any avail that a former +president of a republic pays homage at Osawatomie to the memory of +John Brown? Or that the president of another republic participates +in the unveiling of a statue in honor of Pierre Proudhon, and holds +up his life to the French nation as a model worthy of enthusiastic +emulation? Of what avail is all this when, at the same time, the +LIVING John Browns and Proudhons are being crucified? The honor and +glory of a Mary Wollstonecraft or of a Louise Michel are not enhanced +by the City Fathers of London or Paris naming a street after +them—the living generation should be concerned with doing justice to +the LIVING Mary Wollstonecrafts and Louise Michels. Posterity +assigns to men like Wendel Phillips and Lloyd Garrison the proper +niche of honor in the temple of human emancipation; but it is the +duty of their contemporaries to bring them due recognition and +appreciation while they live. +</P> + +<P> +The path of the propagandist of social justice is strewn with thorns. +The powers of darkness and injustice exert all their might lest a ray +of sunshine enter his cheerless life. Nay, even his comrades in the +struggle—indeed, too often his most intimate friends—show but +little understanding for the personality of the pioneer. Envy, +sometimes growing to hatred, vanity and jealousy, obstruct his way +and fill his heart with sadness. It requires an inflexible will and +tremendous enthusiasm not to lose, under such conditions, all faith +in the Cause. The representative of a revolutionizing idea stands +between two fires: on the one hand, the persecution of the existing +powers which hold him responsible for all acts resulting from social +conditions; and, on the other, the lack of understanding on the part +of his own followers who often judge all his activity from a narrow +standpoint. Thus it happens that the agitator stands quite alone in +the midst of the multitude surrounding him. Even his most intimate +friends rarely understand how solitary and deserted he feels. That +is the tragedy of the person prominent in the public eye. +</P> + +<P> +The mist in which the name of Emma Goldman has so long been enveloped +is gradually beginning to dissipate. Her energy in the furtherance +of such an unpopular idea as Anarchism, her deep earnestness, her +courage and abilities, find growing understanding and admiration. +</P> + +<P> +The debt American intellectual growth owes to the revolutionary +exiles has never been fully appreciated. The seed disseminated by +them, though so little understood at the time, has brought a rich +harvest. They have at all times held aloft the banner of liberty, +thus impregnating the social vitality of the Nation. But very few +have succeeding in preserving their European education and culture +while at the same time assimilating themselves with American life. +It is difficult for the average man to form an adequate conception +what strength, energy, and perseverance are necessary to absorb the +unfamiliar language, habits, and customs of a new country, without +the loss of one's own personality. +</P> + +<P> +Emma Goldman is one of the few who, while thoroughly preserving their +individuality, have become an important factor in the social and +intellectual atmosphere of America. The life she leads is rich in +color, full of change and variety. She has risen to the topmost +heights, and she has also tasted the bitter dregs of life. +</P> + +<P> +Emma Goldman was born of Jewish parentage on the 27th day of June, +1869, in the Russian province of Kovno. Surely these parents never +dreamed what unique position their child would some day occupy. Like +all conservative parents they, too, were quite convinced that their +daughter would marry a respectable citizen, bear him children, and +round out her allotted years surrounded by a flock of grandchildren, +a good, religious woman. As most parents, they had no inkling what a +strange, impassioned spirit would take hold of the soul of their +child, and carry it to the heights which separate generations in +eternal struggle. They lived in a land and at a time when antagonism +between parent and offspring was fated to find its most acute +expression, irreconcilable hostility. In this tremendous struggle +between fathers and sons—and especially between parents and +daughters—there was no compromise, no weak yielding, no truce. The +spirit of liberty, of progress—an idealism which knew no +considerations and recognized no obstacles—drove the young +generation out of the parental house and away from the hearth of the +home. Just as this same spirit once drove out the revolutionary +breeder of discontent, Jesus, and alienated him from his native +traditions. +</P> + +<P> +What role the Jewish race—notwithstanding all anti-semitic calumnies +the race of transcendental idealism—played in the struggle of the +Old and the New will probably never be appreciated with complete +impartiality and clarity. Only now are we beginning to perceive the +tremendous debt we owe to Jewish idealists in the realm of science, +art, and literature. But very little is still known of the important +part the sons and daughters of Israel have played in the +revolutionary movement and, especially, in that of modern times. +</P> + +<P> +The first years of her childhood Emma Goldman passed in a small, +idyllic place in the German-Russian province of Kurland, where her +father had charge of the government stage. At the time Kurland was +thoroughly German; even the Russian bureaucracy of that Baltic +province was recruited mostly from German JUNKERS. German fairy +tales and stories, rich in the miraculous deeds of the heroic knights +of Kurland, wove their spell over the youthful mind. But the +beautiful idyl was of short duration. Soon the soul of the growing +child was overcast by the dark shadows of life. Already in her +tenderest youth the seeds of rebellion and unrelenting hatred of +oppression were to be planted in the heart of Emma Goldman. Early +she learned to know the beauty of the State: she saw her father +harassed by the Christian CHINOVNIKS and doubly persecuted as petty +official and hated Jew. The brutality of forced conscription ever +stood before her eyes: she beheld the young men, often the sole +supporter of a large family, brutally dragged to the barracks to lead +the miserable life of a soldier. She heard the weeping of the poor +peasant women, and witnessed the shameful scenes of official venality +which relieved the rich from military service at the expense of the +poor. She was outraged by the terrible treatment to which the female +servants were subjected: maltreated and exploited by their BARINYAS, +they fell to the tender mercies of the regimental officers, who +regarded them as their natural sexual prey. The girls, made pregnant +by respectable gentlemen and driven out by their mistresses, often +found refuge in the Goldman home. And the little girl, her heart +palpitating with sympathy, would abstract coins from the parental +drawer to clandestinely press the money into the hands of the +unfortunate women. Thus Emma Goldman's most striking characteristic, +her sympathy with the underdog, already became manifest in these +early years. +</P> + +<P> +At the age of seven little Emma was sent by her parents to her +grandmother at Konigsberg, the city of Emanuel Kant, in Eastern +Prussia. Save for occasional interruptions, she remained there till her +13th birthday. The first years in these surroundings do not exactly +belong to her happiest recollections. The grandmother, indeed, was +very amiable, but the numerous aunts of the household were concerned +more with the spirit of practical rather than pure reason, and the +categoric imperative was applied all too frequently. The situation +was changed when her parents migrated to Konigsberg, and little Emma +was relieved from her role of Cinderella. She now regularly attended +public school and also enjoyed the advantages of private instruction, +customary in middle class life; French and music lessons played an +important part in the curriculum. The future interpreter of Ibsen +and Shaw was then a little German Gretchen, quite at home in the +German atmosphere. Her special predilections in literature were the +sentimental romances of Marlitt; she was a great admirer of the good +Queen Louise, whom the bad Napoleon Buonaparte treated with so marked +a lack of knightly chivalry. What might have been her future +development had she remained in this milieu? Fate—or was it +economic necessity?—willed it otherwise. Her parents decided to +settle in St. Petersburg, the capital of the Almighty Tsar, and there +to embark in business. It was here that a great change took place in +the life of the young dreamer. +</P> + +<P> +It was an eventful period—the year of 1882—in which Emma Goldman, +then in her 13th year, arrived in St. Petersburg. A struggle for +life and death between the autocracy and the Russian intellectuals +swept the country. Alexander II had fallen the previous year. +Sophia Perovskaia, Zheliabov, Grinevitzky, Rissakov, Kibalchitch, +Michailov, the heroic executors of the death sentence upon the +tyrant, had then entered the Walhalla of immortality. Jessie +Helfman, the only regicide whose life the government had reluctantly +spared because of pregnancy, followed the unnumbered Russian martyrs +to the etapes of Siberia. It was the most heroic period in the great +battle of emancipation, a battle for freedom such as the world had +never witnessed before. The names of the Nihilist martyrs were on +all lips, and thousands were enthusiastic to follow their example. +The whole INTELLIGENZIA of Russia was filled with the ILLEGAL +spirit: revolutionary sentiments penetrated into every home, from +mansion to hovel, impregnating the military, the CHINOVNIKS, factory +workers, and peasants. The atmosphere pierced the very casemates of +the royal palace. New ideas germinated in the youth. The difference +of sex was forgotten. Shoulder to shoulder fought the men and the +women. The Russian woman! Who shall ever do justice or adequately +portray her heroism and self-sacrifice, her loyalty and devotion? +Holy, Turgeniev calls her in his great prose poem, ON THE THRESHOLD. +</P> + +<P> +It was inevitable that the young dreamer from Konigsberg should be +drawn into the maelstrom. To remain outside of the circle of free +ideas meant a life of vegetation, of death. One need not wonder at +the youthful age. Young enthusiasts were not then—and, fortunately, +are not now—a rare phenomenon in Russia. The study of the Russian +language soon brought young Emma Goldman in touch with revolutionary +students and new ideas. The place of Marlitt was taken by Nekrassov +and Tchernishevsky. The quondam admirer of the good Queen Louise +became a glowing enthusiast of liberty, resolving, like thousands of +others, to devote her life to the emancipation of the people. +</P> + +<P> +The struggle of generations now took place in the Goldman family. +The parents could not comprehend what interest their daughter could +find in the new ideas, which they themselves considered fantastic +utopias. They strove to persuade the young girl out of these +chimeras, and daily repetition of soul-racking disputes was the +result. Only in one member of the family did the young idealist find +understanding—in her elder sister, Helene, with whom she later +emigrated to America, and whose love and sympathy have never failed +her. Even in the darkest hours of later persecution Emma Goldman +always found a haven of refuge in the home of this loyal sister. +</P> + +<P> +Emma Goldman finally resolved to achieve her independence. She saw +hundreds of men and women sacrificing brilliant careers to go V +NAROD, to the people. She followed their example. She became a +factory worker; at first employed as a corset maker, and later in the +manufacture of gloves. She was now 17 years of age and proud to earn +her own living. Had she remained in Russia, she would have probably +sooner or later shared the fate of thousands buried in the snows of +Siberia. But a new chapter of life was to begin for her. Sister +Helene decided to emigrate to America, where another sister had +already made her home. Emma prevailed upon Helene to be allowed to +join her, and together they departed for America, filled with the +joyous hope of a great, free land, the glorious Republic. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +America! What magic word. The yearning of the enslaved, the +promised land of the oppressed, the goal of all longing for progress. +Here man's ideals had found their fulfillment: no Tsar, no Cossack, +no CHINOVNIK. The Republic! Glorious synonym of equality, freedom, +brotherhood. +</P> + +<P> +Thus thought the two girls as they travelled, in the year 1886, from +New York to Rochester. Soon, all too soon, disillusionment awaited +them. The ideal conception of America was punctured already at +Castle Garden, and soon burst like a soap bubble. Here Emma Goldman +witnessed sights which reminded her of the terrible scenes of her +childhood in Kurland. The brutality and humiliation the future +citizens of the great Republic were subjected to on board ship, were +repeated at Castle Garden by the officials of the democracy in a more +savage and aggravating manner. And what bitter disappointment +followed as the young idealist began to familiarize herself with the +conditions in the new land! Instead of one Tsar, she found scores of +them; the Cossack was replaced by the policeman with the heavy club, +and instead of the Russian CHINOVNIK there was the far more inhuman +slave-driver of the factory. +</P> + +<P> +Emma Goldman soon obtained work in the clothing establishment of the +Garson Co. The wages amounted to two and a half dollars a week. At +that time the factories were not provided with motor power, and the +poor sewing girls had to drive the wheels by foot, from early morning +till late at night. A terribly exhausting toil it was, without a ray +of light, the drudgery of the long day passed in complete +silence—the Russian custom of friendly conversation at work was not +permissible in the free country. But the exploitation of the girls +was not only economic; the poor wage workers were looked upon by +their foremen and bosses as sexual commodities. If a girl resented +the advances of her "superiors", she would speedily find herself on +the street as an undesirable element in the factory. There was never +a lack of willing victims: the supply always exceeded the demand. +</P> + +<P> +The horrible conditions were made still more unbearable by the +fearful dreariness of life in the small American city. The Puritan +spirit suppresses the slightest manifestation of joy; a deadly +dullness beclouds the soul; no intellectual inspiration, no thought +exchange between congenial spirits is possible. Emma Goldman almost +suffocated in this atmosphere. She, above all others, longed for +ideal surroundings, for friendship and understanding, for the +companionship of kindred minds. Mentally she still lived in Russia. +Unfamiliar with the language and life of the country, she dwelt more +in the past than in the present. It was at this period that she met +a young man who spoke Russian. With great joy the acquaintance was +cultivated. At last a person with whom she could converse, one who +could help her bridge the dullness of the narrow existence. The +friendship gradually ripened and finally culminated in marriage. +</P> + +<P> +Emma Goldman, too, had to walk the sorrowful road of married life; +she, too, had to learn from bitter experience that legal statutes +signify dependence and self-effacement, especially for the woman. +The marriage was no liberation from the Puritan dreariness of +American life; indeed, it was rather aggravated by the loss of +self-ownership. The characters of the young people differed too +widely. A separation soon followed, and Emma Goldman went to New +Haven, Conn. There she found employment in a factory, and her +husband disappeared from her horizon. Two decades later she was +fated to be unexpectedly reminded of him by the Federal authorities. +</P> + +<P> +The revolutionists who were active in the Russian movement of the +80's were but little familiar with the social ideas then agitating +Western Europe and America. Their sole activity consisted in +educating the people, their final goal the destruction of the +autocracy. Socialism and Anarchism were terms hardly known even by +name. Emma Goldman, too, was entirely unfamiliar with the +significance of those ideals. +</P> + +<P> +She arrived in America, as four years previously in Russia, at a +period of great social and political unrest. The working people were +in revolt against the terrible labor conditions; the eight-hour +movement of the Knights of Labor was at its height, and throughout +the country echoed the din of sanguine strife between strikers and +police. The struggle culminated in the great strike against the +Harvester Company of Chicago, the massacre of the strikers, and the +judicial murder of the labor leaders, which followed upon the +historic Haymarket bomb explosion. The Anarchists stood the martyr +test of blood baptism. The apologists of capitalism vainly seek to +justify the killing of Parsons, Spies, Lingg, Fischer, and Engel. +Since the publication of Governor Altgeld's reason for his liberation +of the three incarcerated Haymarket Anarchists, no doubt is left that +a fivefold legal murder had been committed in Chicago, in 1887. +</P> + +<P> +Very few have grasped the significance of the Chicago martyrdom; +least of all the ruling classes. By the destruction of a number of +labor leaders they thought to stem the tide of a world-inspiring +idea. They failed to consider that from the blood of the martyrs +grows the new seed, and that the frightful injustice will win new +converts to the Cause. +</P> + +<P> +The two most prominent representatives of the Anarchist idea in +America, Voltairine de Cleyre and Emma Goldman—the one a native +American, the other a Russian—have been converted, like numerous +others, to the ideas of Anarchism by the judicial murder. Two women +who had not known each other before, and who had received a widely +different education, were through that murder united in one idea. +</P> + +<P> +Like most working men and women of America, Emma Goldman followed the +Chicago trial with great anxiety and excitement. She, too, could not +believe that the leaders of the proletariat would be killed. The +11th of November, 1887, taught her differently. She realized that no +mercy could be expected from the ruling class, that between the +Tsarism of Russia and the plutocracy of America there was no +difference save in name. Her whole being rebelled against the crime, +and she vowed to herself a solemn vow to join the ranks of the +revolutionary proletariat and to devote all her energy and strength +to their emancipation from wage slavery. With the glowing enthusiasm +so characteristic of her nature, she now began to familiarize herself +with the literature of Socialism and Anarchism. She attended public +meetings and became acquainted with socialistically and +anarchistically inclined workingmen. Johanna Greie, the well-known +German lecturer, was the first Socialist speaker heard by Emma +Goldman. In New Haven, Conn., where she was employed in a corset +factory, she met Anarchists actively participating in the movement. +Here she read the FREIHEIT, edited by John Most. The Haymarket +tragedy developed her inherent Anarchist tendencies: the reading of +the FREIHEIT made her a conscious Anarchist. Subsequently she was to +learn that the idea of Anarchism found its highest expression through +the best intellects of America: theoretically by Josiah Warren, +Stephen Pearl Andrews, Lysander Spooner; philosophically by Emerson, +Thoreau, and Walt Whitman. +</P> + +<P> +Made ill by the excessive strain of factory work, Emma Goldman +returned to Rochester where she remained till August, 1889, at which +time she removed to New York, the scene of the most important phase +of her life. She was now twenty years old. Features pallid with +suffering, eyes large and full of compassion, greet one in her +pictured likeness of those days. Her hair is, as customary with +Russian student girls, worn short, giving free play to the strong +forehead. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +It is the heroic epoch of militant Anarchism. By leaps and bounds +the movement had grown in every country. In spite of the most severe +governmental persecution new converts swell the ranks. The +propaganda is almost exclusively of a secret character. The +repressive measures of the government drive the disciples of the new +philosophy to conspirative methods. Thousands of victims fall into +the hands of the authorities and languish in prisons. But nothing +can stem the rising tide of enthusiasm, of self-sacrifice and +devotion to the Cause. The efforts of teachers like Peter Kropotkin, +Louise Michel, Elisee Reclus, and others, inspire the devotees with +ever greater energy. +</P> + +<P> +Disruption is imminent with the Socialists, who have sacrificed the +idea of liberty and embraced the State and politics. The struggle is +bitter, the factions irreconcilable. This struggle is not merely +between Anarchists and Socialists; it also finds its echo within the +Anarchist groups. Theoretic differences and personal controversies +lead to strife and acrimonious enmities. The anti-Socialist +legislation of Germany and Austria had driven thousands of Socialists +and Anarchists across the seas to seek refuge in America. John Most, +having lost his seat in the Reichstag, finally had to flee his native +land, and went to London. There, having advanced toward Anarchism, +he entirely withdrew from the Social Democratic Party. Later, coming +to America, he continued the publication of the FREIHEIT in New York, +and developed great activity among the German workingmen. +</P> + +<P> +When Emma Goldman arrived in New York in 1889, she experienced little +difficulty in associating herself with active Anarchists. Anarchist +meetings were an almost daily occurrence. The first lecturer she +heard on the Anarchist platform was Dr. A. Solotaroff. Of great +importance to her future development was her acquaintance with John +Most, who exerted a tremendous influence over the younger elements. +His impassioned eloquence, untiring energy, and the persecution he +had endured for the Cause, all combined to enthuse the comrades. It +was also at this period that she met Alexander Berkman, whose +friendship played an important part throughout her life. Her talents +as a speaker could not long remain in obscurity. The fire of +enthusiasm swept her toward the public platform. Encouraged by her +friends, she began to participate as a German and Yiddish speaker at +Anarchist meetings. Soon followed a brief tour of agitation taking +her as far as Cleveland. With the whole strength and earnestness of +her soul she now threw herself into the propaganda of Anarchist +ideas. The passionate period of her life had begun. Through +constantly toiling in sweat shops, the fiery young orator was at the +same time very active as an agitator and participated in various +labor struggles, notably in the great cloakmakers' strike, in 1889, +led by Professor Garsyde and Joseph Barondess. +</P> + +<P> +A year later Emma Goldman was a delegate to an Anarchist conference +in New York. She was elected to the Executive Committee, but later +withdrew because of differences of opinion regarding tactical +matters. The ideas of the German-speaking Anarchists had at that +time not yet become clarified. Some still believed in parliamentary +methods, the great majority being adherents of strong centralism. +These differences of opinion in regard to tactics led in 1891 to a +breach with John Most. Emma Goldman, Alexander Berkman, and other +comrades joined the group AUTONOMY, in which Joseph Peukert, Otto +Rinke, and Claus Timmermann played an active part. The bitter +controversies which followed this secession terminated only with the +death of Most, in 1906. +</P> + +<P> +A great source of inspiration to Emma Goldman proved the Russian +revolutionists who were associated in the group ZNAMYA. Goldenberg, +Solotaroff, Zametkin, Miller, Cahan, the poet Edelstadt, Ivan von +Schewitsch, husband of Helene von Racowitza and editor of the +VOLKSZEITUNG, and numerous other Russian exiles, some of whom are +still living, were members of this group. It was also at this time +that Emma Goldman met Robert Reitzel, the German-American Heine, who +exerted a great influence on her development. Through him she became +acquainted with the best writers of modern literature, and the +friendship thus begun lasted till Reitzel's death, in 1898. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The labor movement of America had not been drowned in the Chicago +massacre; the murder of the Anarchists had failed to bring peace to +the profit-greedy capitalist. The struggle for the eight-hour day +continued. In 1892 broke out the great strike in Pittsburg. The +Homestead fight, the defeat of the Pinkertons, the appearance of the +militia, the suppression of the strikers, and the complete triumph of +the reaction are matters of comparatively recent history. Stirred to +the very depths by the terrible events at the seat of war, Alexander +Berkman resolved to sacrifice his life to the Cause and thus give an +object lesson to the wage slaves of America of active Anarchist +solidarity with labor. His attack upon Frick, the Gessler of +Pittsburg, failed, and the twenty-two-year-old youth was doomed to a +living death of twenty-two years in the penitentiary. The +bourgeoisie, which for decades had exalted and eulogized tyrannicide, +now was filled with terrible rage. The capitalist press organized a +systematic campaign of calumny and misrepresentation against +Anarchists. The police exerted every effort to involve Emma Goldman +in the act of Alexander Berkman. The feared agitator was to be +silenced by all means. It was only due to the circumstance of her +presence in New York that she escaped the clutches of the law. It +was a similar circumstance which, nine years later, during the +McKinley incident, was instrumental in preserving her liberty. It is +almost incredible with what amount of stupidity, baseness, and +vileness the journalists of the period sought to overwhelm the +Anarchist. One must peruse the newspaper files to realize the +enormity of incrimination and slander. It would be difficult to +portray the agony of soul Emma Goldman experienced in those days. +The persecutions of the capitalist press were to be borne by an +Anarchist with comparative equanimity; but the attacks from one's own +ranks were far more painful and unbearable. The act of Berkman was +severely criticized by Most and some of his followers among the +German and Jewish Anarchists. Bitter accusations and recriminations +at public meetings and private gatherings followed. Persecuted on +all sides, both because she championed Berkman and his act, and on +account of her revolutionary activity, Emma Goldman was harassed even +to the extent of inability to secure shelter. Too proud to seek +safety in the denial of her identity, she chose to pass the nights in +the public parks rather than expose her friends to danger or vexation +by her visits. The already bitter cup was filled to overflowing by +the attempted suicide of a young comrade who had shared living +quarters with Emma Goldman, Alexander Berkman, and a mutual artist +friend. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Many changes have since taken place. Alexander Berkman has survived +the Pennsylvania Inferno, and is back again in the ranks of the +militant Anarchists, his spirit unbroken, his soul full of enthusiasm +for the ideals of his youth. The artist comrade is now among the +well-known illustrators of New York. The suicide candidate left +America shortly after his unfortunate attempt to die, and was +subsequently arrested and condemned to eight years of hard labor for +smuggling Anarchist literature into Germany. He, too, has withstood +the terrors of prison life, and has returned to the revolutionary +movement, since earning the well deserved reputation of a talented +writer in Germany. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +To avoid indefinite camping in the parks Emma Goldman finally was +forced to move into a house on Third Street, occupied exclusively by +prostitutes. There, among the outcasts of our good Christian +society, she could at least rent a bit of a room, and find rest and +work at her sewing machine. The women of the street showed more +refinement of feeling and sincere sympathy than the priests of the +Church. But human endurance had been exhausted by overmuch suffering +and privation. There was a complete physical breakdown, and the +renowned agitator was removed to the "Bohemian Republic"—a large +tenement house which derived its euphonious appellation from the fact +that its occupants were mostly Bohemian Anarchists. Here Emma +Goldman found friends ready to aid her. Justus Schwab, one of the +finest representatives of the German revolutionary period of that +time, and Dr. Solotaroff were indefatigable in the care of the +patient. Here, too, she met Edward Brady, the new friendship +subsequently ripening into close intimacy. Brady had been an active +participant in the revolutionary movement of Austria and had, at the +time of his acquaintance with Emma Goldman, lately been released from +an Austrian prison after an incarceration of ten years. +</P> + +<P> +Physicians diagnosed the illness as consumption, and the patient was +advised to leave New York. She went to Rochester, in the hope that +the home circle would help restore her to health. Her parents had +several years previously emigrated to America, settling in that city. +Among the leading traits of the Jewish race is the strong attachment +between the members of the family, and, especially, between parents +and children. Though her conservative parents could not sympathize +with the idealist aspirations of Emma Goldman and did not approve of +her mode of life, they now received their sick daughter with open +arms. The rest and care enjoyed in the parental home, and the +cheering presence of the beloved sister Helene, proved so beneficial +that within a short time she was sufficiently restored to resume her +energetic activity. +</P> + +<P> +There is no rest in the life of Emma Goldman. Ceaseless effort and +continuous striving toward the conceived goal are the essentials of +her nature. Too much precious time had already been wasted. It was +imperative to resume her labors immediately. The country was in the +throes of a crisis, and thousands of unemployed crowded the streets +of the large industrial centers. Cold and hungry they tramped +through the land in the vain search for work and bread. The +Anarchists developed a strenuous propaganda among the unemployed and +the strikers. A monster demonstration of striking cloakmakers and of +the unemployed took place at Union Square, New York. Emma Goldman +was one of the invited speakers. She delivered an impassioned +speech, picturing in fiery words the misery of the wage slave's life, +and quoted the famous maxim of Cardinal Manning: "Necessity knows no +law, and the starving man has a natural right to a share of his +neighbor's bread." She concluded her exhortation with the words: +"Ask for work. If they do not give you work, ask for bread. If they +do not give you work or bread, then take bread." +</P> + +<P> +The following day she left for Philadelphia, where she was to address +a public meeting. The capitalist press again raised the alarm. If +Socialists and Anarchists were to be permitted to continue agitating, +there was imminent danger that the workingmen would soon learn to +understand the manner in which they are robbed of the joy and +happiness of life. Such a possibility was to be prevented at all +cost. The Chief of Police of New York, Byrnes, procured a court +order for the arrest of Emma Goldman. She was detained by the +Philadelphia authorities and incarcerated for several days in the +Moyamensing prison, awaiting the extradition papers which Byrnes +intrusted to Detective Jacobs. This man Jacobs (whom Emma Goldman +again met several years later under very unpleasant circumstances) +proposed to her, while she was returning a prisoner to New York, to +betray the cause of labor. In the name of his superior, Chief +Byrnes, he offered lucrative reward. How stupid men sometimes are! +What poverty of psychologic observation to imagine the possibility of +betrayal on the part of a young Russian idealist, who had willingly +sacrificed all personal considerations to help in labor's +emancipation. +</P> + +<P> +In October, 1893, Emma Goldman was tried in the criminal courts of +New York on the charge of inciting to riot. The "intelligent" jury +ignored the testimony of the twelve witnesses for the defense in +favor of the evidence given by one single man—Detective Jacobs. She +was found guilty and sentenced to serve one year in the penitentiary +at Blackwell's Island. Since the foundation of the Republic she was +the first woman—Mrs. Surratt excepted—to be imprisoned for a +political offense. Respectable society had long before stamped upon +her the Scarlet Letter. +</P> + +<P> +Emma Goldman passed her time in the penitentiary in the capacity of +nurse in the prison hospital. Here she found opportunity to shed +some rays of kindness into the dark lives of the unfortunates whose +sisters of the street did not disdain two years previously to share +with her the same house. She also found in prison opportunity to +study English and its literature, and to familiarize herself with the +great American writers. In Bret Harte, Mark Twain, Walt Whitman, +Thoreau, and Emerson she found great treasures. +</P> + +<P> +She left Blackwell's Island in the month of August, 1894, a woman of +twenty-five, developed and matured, and intellectually transformed. +Back into the arena, richer in experience, purified by suffering. +She did not feel herself deserted and alone any more. Many hands +were stretched out to welcome her. There were at the time numerous +intellectual oases in New York. The saloon of Justus Schwab, at +Number Fifty, First Street, was the center where gathered Anarchists, +litterateurs, and bohemians. Among others she also met at this time +a number of American Anarchists, and formed the friendship of +Voltairine de Cleyre, Wm. C. Owen, Miss Van Etton, and Dyer D. Lum, +former editor of the ALARM and executor of the last wishes of the +Chicago martyrs. In John Swinton, the noble old fighter for liberty, +she found one of her staunchest friends. Other intellectual centers +there were: SOLIDARITY, published by John Edelman; LIBERTY, by the +Individualist Anarchist, Benjamin R. Tucker; the REBEL, by Harry +Kelly; DER STURMVOGEL, a German Anarchist publication, edited by +Claus Timmermann; DER ARME TEUFEL, whose presiding genius was the +inimitable Robert Reitzel. Through Arthur Brisbane, now chief +lieutenant of William Randolph Hearst, she became acquainted with the +writings of Fourier. Brisbane then was not yet submerged in the +swamp of political corruption. He sent Emma Goldman an amiable +letter to Blackwell's Island, together with the biography of his +father, the enthusiastic American disciple of Fourier. +</P> + +<P> +Emma Goldman became, upon her release from the penitentiary, a factor +in the public life of New York. She was appreciated in radical ranks +for her devotion, her idealism, and earnestness. Various persons +sought her friendship, and some tried to persuade her to aid in the +furtherance of their special side issues. Thus Rev. Parkhurst, +during the Lexow investigation, did his utmost to induce her to join +the Vigilance Committee in order to fight Tammany Hall. Maria +Louise, the moving spirit of a social center, acted as Parkhurst's +go-between. It is hardly necessary to mention what reply the latter +received from Emma Goldman. Incidentally, Maria Louise subsequently +became a Mahatma. During the free silver campaign, ex-Burgess +McLuckie, one of the most genuine personalities in the Homestead +strike, visited New York in an endeavor to enthuse the local radicals +for free silver. He also attempted to interest Emma Goldman, but +with no greater success than Mahatma Maria Louise of Parkhurst-Lexow +fame. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +In 1894 the struggle of the Anarchists in France reached its highest +expression. The white terror on the part of the Republican upstarts +was answered by the red terror of our French comrades. With feverish +anxiety the Anarchists throughout the world followed this social +struggle. Propaganda by deed found its reverberating echo in almost +all countries. In order to better familiarize herself with +conditions in the old world, Emma Goldman left for Europe, in the +year 1895. After a lecture tour in England and Scotland, she went to +Vienna where she entered the ALLGEMEINE KRANKENHAUS to prepare +herself as midwife and nurse, and where at the same time she studied +social conditions. She also found opportunity to acquaint herself +with the newest literature of Europe: Hauptmann, Nietzsche, Ibsen, +Zola, Thomas Hardy, and other artist rebels were read with great +enthusiasm. +</P> + +<P> +In the autumn of 1896 she returned to New York by way of Zurich and +Paris. The project of Alexander Berkman's liberation was on hand. +The barbaric sentence of twenty-two years had roused tremendous +indignation among the radical elements. It was known that the Pardon +Board of Pennsylvania would look to Carnegie and Frick for advice in +the case of Alexander Berkman. It was therefore suggested that these +Sultans of Pennsylvania be approached—not with a view of obtaining +their grace, but with the request that they do not attempt to +influence the Board. Ernest Crosby offered to see Carnegie, on +condition that Alexander Berkman repudiate his act. That, however, +was absolutely out of the question. He would never be guilty of such +forswearing of his own personality and self-respect. These efforts +led to friendly relations between Emma Goldman and the circle of +Ernest Crosby, Bolton Hall, and Leonard Abbott. In the year 1897 she +undertook her first great lecture tour, which extended as far as +California. This tour popularized her name as the representative of +the oppressed, her eloquence ringing from coast to coast. In +California Emma Goldman became friendly with the members of the Isaak +family, and learned to appreciate their efforts for the Cause. Under +tremendous obstacles the Isaaks first published the FIREBRAND and, +upon its suppression by the Postal Department, the FREE SOCIETY. It +was also during this tour that Emma Goldman met that grand old rebel +of sexual freedom, Moses Harman. +</P> + +<P> +During the Spanish-American war the spirit of chauvinism was at its +highest tide. To check this dangerous situation, and at the same +time collect funds for the revolutionary Cubans, Emma Goldman became +affiliated with the Latin comrades, among others with Gori, Esteve, +Palaviccini, Merlino, Petruccini, and Ferrara. In the year 1899 +followed another protracted tour of agitation, terminating on the +Pacific Coast. Repeated arrests and accusations, though without +ultimate bad results, marked every propaganda tour. +</P> + +<P> +In November of the same year the untiring agitator went on a second +lecture tour to England and Scotland, closing her journey with the +first International Anarchist Congress at Paris. It was at the time of +the Boer war, and again jingoism was at its height, as two years +previously it had celebrated its orgies during the Spanish-American +war. Various meetings, both in England and Scotland, were disturbed +and broken up by patriotic mobs. Emma Goldman found on this occasion +the opportunity of again meeting various English comrades and +interesting personalities like Tom Mann and the sisters Rossetti, the +gifted daughters of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, then publishers of the +Anarchist review, the TORCH. One of her life-long hopes found here +its fulfillment: she came in close and friendly touch with Peter +Kropotkin, Enrico Malatesta, Nicholas Tchaikovsky, W. Tcherkessov, +and Louise Michel. Old warriors in the cause of humanity, whose +deeds have enthused thousands of followers throughout the world, and +whose life and work have inspired other thousands with noble idealism +and self-sacrifice. Old warriors they, yet ever young with the +courage of earlier days, unbroken in spirit and filled with the firm +hope of the final triumph of Anarchy. +</P> + +<P> +The chasm in the revolutionary labor movement, which resulted from +the disruption of the INTERNATIONALE, could not be bridged any more. +Two social philosophies were engaged in bitter combat. The +International Congress in 1889, at Paris; in 1892, at Zurich, and in +1896, at London, produced irreconcilable differences. The majority +of Social Democrats, forswearing their libertarian past and becoming +politicians, succeeded in excluding the revolutionary and Anarchist +delegates. The latter decided thenceforth to hold separate +congresses. Their first congress was to take place in 1900, at +Paris. The Socialist renegade, Millerand, who had climbed into the +Ministry of the Interior, here played a Judas role. The congress of +the revolutionists was suppressed, and the delegates dispersed two +days prior to their scheduled opening. But Millerand had no +objections against the Social Democratic Congress, which was +afterwards opened with all the trumpets of the advertiser's art. +</P> + +<P> +However, the renegade did not accomplish his object. A number of +delegates succeeded in holding a secret conference in the house of a +comrade outside of Paris, where various points of theory and tactics +were discussed. Emma Goldman took considerable part in these +proceedings, and on that occasion came in contact with numerous +representatives of the Anarchist movement of Europe. +</P> + +<P> +Owing to the suppression of the congress, the delegates were in +danger of being expelled from France. At this time also came the bad +news from America regarding another unsuccessful attempt to liberate +Alexander Berkman, proving a great shock to Emma Goldman. In +November, 1900, she returned to America to devote herself to her +profession of nurse, at the same time taking an active part in the +American propaganda. Among other activities she organized monster +meetings of protest against the terrible outrages of the Spanish +government, perpetrated upon the political prisoners tortured in +Montjuich. +</P> + +<P> +In her vocation as nurse Emma Goldman enjoyed many opportunities of +meeting the most unusual and peculiar characters. Few would have +identified the "notorious Anarchist" in the small blonde woman, +simply attired in the uniform of a nurse. Soon after her return from +Europe she became acquainted with a patient by the name of Mrs. +Stander, a morphine fiend, suffering excruciating agonies. She +required careful attention to enable her to supervise a very +important business she conducted,—that of Mrs. Warren. In Third +Street, near Third Avenue, was situated her private residence, and +near it, connected by a separate entrance, was her place of business. +One evening, the nurse, upon entering the room of her patient, +suddenly came face to face with a male visitor, bull-necked and of +brutal appearance. The man was no other than Mr. Jacobs, the +detective who seven years previously had brought Emma Goldman a +prisoner from Philadelphia and who had attempted to persuade her, on +their way to New York, to betray the cause of the workingmen. It +would be difficult to describe the expression of bewilderment on the +countenance of the man as he so unexpectedly faced Emma Goldman, the +nurse of his mistress. The brute was suddenly transformed into a +gentleman, exerting himself to excuse his shameful behavior on the +previous occasion. Jacobs was the "protector" of Mrs. Stander, and +go-between for the house and the police. Several years later, as one +of the detective staff of District Attorney Jerome, he committed +perjury, was convicted, and sent to Sing Sing for a year. He is now +probably employed by some private detective agency, a desirable +pillar of respectable society. +</P> + +<P> +In 1901 Peter Kropotkin was invited by the Lowell Institute of +Massachusetts to deliver a series of lectures on Russian literature. +It was his second American tour, and naturally the comrades were +anxious to use his presence for the benefit of the movement. Emma +Goldman entered into correspondence with Kropotkin and succeeded in +securing his consent to arrange for him a series of lectures. She +also devoted her energies to organizing the tours of other well known +Anarchists, principally those of Charles W. Mowbray and John Turner. +Similarly she always took part in all the activities of the movement, +ever ready to give her time, ability, and energy to the Cause. +</P> + +<P> +On the sixth of September, 1901, President McKinley was shot by Leon +Czolgosz at Buffalo. Immediately an unprecedented campaign of +persecution was set in motion against Emma Goldman as the best known +Anarchist in the country. Although there was absolutely no +foundation for the accusation, she, together with other prominent +Anarchists, was arrested in Chicago, kept in confinement for several +weeks, and subjected to severest cross-examination. Never before in +the history of the country had such a terrible man-hunt taken place +against a person in public life. But the efforts of police and press +to connect Emma Goldman with Czolgosz proved futile. Yet the episode +left her wounded to the heart. The physical suffering, the +humiliation and brutality at the hands of the police she could bear. +The depression of soul was far worse. She was overwhelmed by +realization of the stupidity, lack of understanding, and vileness +which characterized the events of those terrible days. The attitude +of misunderstanding on the part of the majority of her own comrades +toward Czolgosz almost drove her to desperation. Stirred to the very +inmost of her soul, she published an article on Czolgosz in which she +tried to explain the deed in its social and individual aspects. As +once before, after Berkman's act, she now also was unable to find +quarters; like a veritable wild animal she was driven from place to +place. This terrible persecution and, especially, the attitude of +her comrades made it impossible for her to continue propaganda. The +soreness of body and soul had first to heal. During 1901-1903 she +did not resume the platform. As "Miss Smith" she lived a quiet life, +practicing her profession and devoting her leisure to the study of +literature and, particularly, to the modern drama, which she +considers one of the greatest disseminators of radical ideas and +enlightened feeling. +</P> + +<P> +Yet one thing the persecution of Emma Goldman accomplished. Her name +was brought before the public with greater frequency and emphasis +than ever before, the malicious harassing of the much maligned +agitator arousing strong sympathy in many circles. Persons in +various walks of life began to get interested in her struggle and her +ideas. A better understanding and appreciation were now beginning to +manifest themselves. +</P> + +<P> +The arrival in America of the English Anarchist, John Turner, induced +Emma Goldman to leave her retirement. Again she threw herself into +her public activities, organizing an energetic movement for the +defense of Turner, whom the Immigration authorities condemned to +deportation on account of the Anarchist exclusion law, passed after +the death of McKinley. +</P> + +<P> +When Paul Orleneff and Mme. Nazimova arrived in New York to acquaint +the American public with Russian dramatic art, Emma Goldman became +the manager of the undertaking. By much patience and perseverance +she succeeded in raising the necessary funds to introduce the Russian +artists to the theater-goers of New York and Chicago. Though +financially not a success, the venture proved of great artistic +value. As manager of the Russian theater Emma Goldman enjoyed some +unique experiences. M. Orleneff could converse only in Russian, and +"Miss Smith" was forced to act as his interpreter at various polite +functions. Most of the aristocratic ladies of Fifth Avenue had not +the least inkling that the amiable manager who so entertainingly +discussed philosophy, drama, and literature at their five o'clock +teas, was the "notorious" Emma Goldman. If the latter should some +day write her autobiography, she will no doubt have many interesting +anecdotes to relate in connection with these experiences. +</P> + +<P> +The weekly Anarchist publication, FREE SOCIETY, issued by the Isaak +family, was forced to suspend in consequence of the nation-wide fury +that swept the country after the death of McKinley. To fill out the +gap Emma Goldman, in co-operation with Max Baginski and other +comrades, decided to publish a monthly magazine devoted to the +furtherance of Anarchist ideas in life and literature. The first +issue of MOTHER EARTH appeared in the month of March, 1906, the +initial expenses of the periodical partly covered by the proceeds of +a theater benefit given by Orleneff, Mme. Nazimova, and their +company, in favor of the Anarchist magazine. Under tremendous +difficulties and obstacles the tireless propagandist has succeeded in +continuing MOTHER EARTH uninterruptedly since 1906—an achievement +rarely equalled in the annals of radical publications. +</P> + +<P> +In May, 1906, Alexander Berkman at last left the hell of +Pennsylvania, where he had passed the best fourteen years of his +life. No one had believed in the possibility of his survival. His +liberation terminated a nightmare of fourteen years for Emma Goldman, +and an important chapter of her career was thus concluded. +</P> + +<P> +Nowhere had the birth of the Russian revolution aroused such vital +and active response as among the Russians living in America. The +heroes of the revolutionary movement in Russia, Tchaikovsky, Mme. +Breshkovskaia, Gershuni, and others visited these shores to waken the +sympathies of the American people toward the struggle for liberty, +and to collect aid for its continuance and support. The success of +these efforts was to a considerable extent due to the exertions, +eloquence, and the talent for organization on the part of Emma +Goldman. This opportunity enabled her to give valuable services to +the struggle for liberty in her native land. It is not generally +known that it is the Anarchists who are mainly instrumental in +insuring the success, moral as well as financial, of most of the +radical undertakings. The Anarchist is indifferent to acknowledged +appreciation; the needs of the Cause absorb his whole interest, and +to these he devotes his energy and abilities. Yet it may be +mentioned that some otherwise decent folks, though at all times +anxious for Anarchist support and co-operation, are ever willing to +monopolize all the credit for the work done. During the last several +decades it was chiefly the Anarchists who had organized all the great +revolutionary efforts, and aided in every struggle for liberty. But +for fear of shocking the respectable mob, who looks upon the +Anarchists as the apostles of Satan, and because of their social +position in bourgeois society, the would-be radicals ignore the +activity of the Anarchists. +</P> + +<P> +In 1907 Emma Goldman participated as delegate to the second Anarchist +Congress, at Amsterdam. She was intensely active in all its +proceedings and supported the organization of the Anarchist +INTERNATIONALE. Together with the other American delegate, Max +Baginski, she submitted to the congress an exhaustive report of +American conditions, closing with the following characteristic +remarks: +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +"The charge that Anarchism is destructive, rather than constructive, +and that, therefore, Anarchism is opposed to organization, is one of +the many falsehoods spread by our opponents. They confound our +present social institutions with organization; hence they fail to +understand how we can oppose the former, and yet favor the latter. +The fact, however, is that the two are not identical. +</P> + +<P> +"The State is commonly regarded as the highest form of organization. +But is it in reality a true organization? Is it not rather an +arbitrary institution, cunningly imposed upon the masses? +</P> + +<P> +"Industry, too, is called an organization; yet nothing is farther +from the truth. Industry is the ceaseless piracy of the rich against +the poor. +</P> + +<P> +"We are asked to believe that the Army is an organization, but a +close investigation will show that it is nothing else than a cruel +instrument of blind force. +</P> + +<P> +"The Public School! The colleges and other institutions of learning, +are they not models of organization, offering the people fine +opportunities for instruction? Far from it. The school, more than +any other institution, is a veritable barrack, where the human mind +is drilled and manipulated into submission to various social and +moral spooks, and thus fitted to continue our system of exploitation +and oppression. +</P> + +<P> +"Organization, as WE understand it, however, is a different thing. +It is based, primarily, on freedom. It is a natural and voluntary +grouping of energies to secure results beneficial to humanity. +</P> + +<P> +"It is the harmony of organic growth which produces variety of color +and form, the complete whole we admire in the flower. Analogously +will the organized activity of free human beings, imbued with the +spirit of solidarity, result in the perfection of social harmony, +which we call Anarchism. In fact, Anarchism alone makes +non-authoritarian organization of common interests possible, since it +abolishes the existing antagonism between individuals and classes. +</P> + +<P> +"Under present conditions the antagonism of economic and social +interests results in relentless war among the social units, and +creates an insurmountable obstacle in the way of a co-operative +commonwealth. +</P> + +<P> +"There is a mistaken notion that organization does not foster +individual freedom; that, on the contrary, it means the decay of +individuality. In reality, however, the true function of +organization is to aid the development and growth of personality. +</P> + +<P> +"Just as the animal cells, by mutual co-operation, express their +latent powers in formation of the complete organism, so does the +individual, by co-operative effort with other individuals, attain his +highest form of development. +</P> + +<P> +"An organization, in the true sense, cannot result from the +combination of mere nonentities. It must be composed of +self-conscious, intelligent individualities. Indeed, the total of +the possibilities and activities of an organization is represented in +the expression of individual energies. +</P> + +<P> +"It therefore logically follows that the greater the number of +strong, self-conscious personalities in an organization, the less +danger of stagnation, and the more intense its life element. +</P> + +<P> +"Anarchism asserts the possibility of an organization without +discipline, fear, or punishment, and without the pressure of poverty: +a new social organism which will make an end to the terrible struggle +for the means of existence,—the savage struggle which undermines the +finest qualities in man, and ever widens the social abyss. In short, +Anarchism strives towards a social organization which will establish +well-being for all. +</P> + +<P> +"The germ of such an organization can be found in that form of trades +unionism which has done away with centralization, bureaucracy, and +discipline, and which favors independent and direct action on the +part of its members." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The very considerable progress of Anarchist ideas in America can best +be gauged by the remarkable success of the three extensive lecture +tours of Emma Goldman since the Amsterdam Congress of 1907. Each +tour extended over new territory, including localities where +Anarchism had never before received a hearing. But the most +gratifying aspect of her untiring efforts is the tremendous sale of +Anarchist literature, whose propagandist effect cannot be estimated. +It was during one of these tours that a remarkable incident happened, +strikingly demonstrating the inspiring potentialities of the +Anarchist idea. In San Francisco, in 1908, Emma Goldman's lecture +attracted a soldier of the United States Army, William Buwalda. For +daring to attend an Anarchist meeting, the free Republic +court-martialed Buwalda and imprisoned him for one year. Thanks to +the regenerating power of the new philosophy, the government lost a +soldier, but the cause of liberty gained a man. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +A propagandist of Emma Goldman's importance is necessarily a sharp +thorn to the reaction. She is looked upon as a danger to the +continued existence of authoritarian usurpation. No wonder, then, +that the enemy resorts to any and all means to make her impossible. +A systematic attempt to suppress her activities was organized a year +ago by the united police force of the country. But like all previous +similar attempts, it failed in a most brilliant manner. Energetic +protests on the part of the intellectual element of America succeeded +in overthrowing the dastardly conspiracy against free speech. +Another attempt to make Emma Goldman impossible was essayed by the +Federal authorities at Washington. In order to deprive her of the +rights of citizenship, the government revoked the citizenship papers +of her husband, whom she had married at the youthful age of eighteen, +and whose whereabouts, if he be alive, could not be determined for +the last two decades. The great government of the glorious United +States did not hesitate to stoop to the most despicable methods to +accomplish that achievement. But as her citizenship had never proved +of use to Emma Goldman, she can bear the loss with a light heart. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +There are personalities who possess such a powerful individuality +that by its very force they exert the most potent influence over the +best representatives of their time. Michael Bakunin was such a +personality. But for him, Richard Wagner had never written DIE KUNST +UND DIE REVOLUTION. Emma Goldman is a similar personality. She is a +strong factor in the socio-political life of America. By virtue of +her eloquence, energy, and brilliant mentality, she moulds the minds +and hearts of thousands of her auditors. +</P> + +<P> +Deep sympathy and compassion for suffering humanity, and an +inexorable honesty toward herself, are the leading traits of Emma +Goldman. No person, whether friend or foe, shall presume to control +her goal or dictate her mode of life. She would perish rather than +sacrifice her convictions, or the right of self-ownership of soul and +body. Respectability could easily forgive the teaching of theoretic +Anarchism; but Emma Goldman does not merely preach the new +philosophy; she also persists in living it,—and that is the one +supreme, unforgivable crime. Were she, like so many radicals, to +consider her ideal as merely an intellectual ornament; were she to +make concessions to existing society and compromise with old +prejudices,—then even the most radical views could be pardoned in +her. But that she takes her radicalism seriously; that it has +permeated her blood and marrow to the extent where she not merely +teaches but also practices her convictions—this shocks even the +radical Mrs. Grundy. Emma Goldman lives her own life; she associates +with publicans—hence the indignation of the Pharisees and Sadducees. +</P> + +<P> +It is no mere coincidence that such divergent writers as Pietro Gori +and William Marion Reedy find similar traits in their +characterization of Emma Goldman. In a contribution to LA QUESTIONE +SOCIALE, Pietro Gori calls her a "moral power, a woman who, with the +vision of a sibyl, prophesies the coming of a new kingdom for the +oppressed; a woman who, with logic and deep earnestness, analyses the +ills of society, and portrays, with artist touch, the coming dawn of +humanity, founded on equality, brotherhood, and liberty." +</P> + +<P> +William Reedy sees in Emma Goldman the "daughter of the dream, her +gospel a vision which is the vision of every truly great-souled man +and woman who has ever lived." +</P> + +<P> +Cowards who fear the consequences of their deeds have coined the word +of philosophic Anarchism. Emma Goldman is too sincere, too defiant, +to seek safety behind such paltry pleas. She is an Anarchist, pure +and simple. She represents the idea of Anarchism as framed by Josiah +Warrn, Proudhon, Bakunin, Kropotkin, Tolstoy. Yet she also +understands the psychologic causes which induce a Caserio, a +Vaillant, a Bresci, a Berkman, or a Czolgosz to commit deeds of +violence. To the soldier in the social struggle it is a point of +honor to come in conflict with the powers of darkness and tyranny, +and Emma Goldman is proud to count among her best friends and +comrades men and women who bear the wounds and scars received in +battle. +</P> + +<P> +In the words of Voltairine de Cleyre, characterizing Emma Goldman +after the latter's imprisonment in 1893: The spirit that animates +Emma Goldman is the only one which will emancipate the slave from his +slavery, the tyrant from his tyranny—the spirit which is willing to +dare and suffer. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +HIPPOLYTE HAVEL. +<BR> +New York, December, 1910. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="preface"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +PREFACE +</H3> + +<BR> + +<P> +Some twenty-one years ago I heard the first great Anarchist +speaker—the inimitable John Most. It seemed to me then, and for +many years after, that the spoken word hurled forth among the masses +with such wonderful eloquence, such enthusiasm and fire, could never +be erased from the human mind and soul. How could any one of all the +multitudes who flocked to Most's meetings escape his prophetic voice! +Surely they had but to hear him to throw off their old beliefs, and +see the truth and beauty of Anarchism! +</P> + +<P> +My one great longing then was to be able to speak with the tongue of +John Most,—that I, too, might thus reach the masses. Oh, for the +naivety of Youth's enthusiasm! It is the time when the hardest thing +seems but child's play. It is the only period in life worth while. +Alas! This period is but of short duration. Like Spring, the STURM +UND DRANG period of the propagandist brings forth growth, frail and +delicate, to be matured or killed according to its powers of +resistance against a thousand vicissitudes. +</P> + +<P> +My great faith in the wonder worker, the spoken word, is no more. I +have realized its inadequacy to awaken thought, or even emotion. +Gradually, and with no small struggle against this realization, I +came to see that oral propaganda is at best but a means of shaking +people from their lethargy: it leaves no lasting impression. The +very fact that most people attend meetings only if aroused by +newspaper sensations, or because they expect to be amused, is proof +that they really have no inner urge to learn. +</P> + +<P> +It is altogether different with the written mode of human expression. +No one, unless intensely interested in progressive ideas, will bother +with serious books. That leads me to another discovery made after +many years of public activity. It is this: All claims of education +notwithstanding, the pupil will accept only that which his mind +craves. Already this truth is recognized by most modern educators in +relation to the immature mind. I think it is equally true regarding +the adult. Anarchists or revolutionists can no more be made than +musicians. All that can be done is to plant the seeds of thought. +Whether something vital will develop depends largely on the fertility +of the human soil, though the quality of the intellectual seed must +not be overlooked. +</P> + +<P> +In meetings the audience is distracted by a thousand non-essentials. +The speaker, though ever so eloquent, cannot escape the restlessness +of the crowd, with the inevitable result that he will fail to strike +root. In all probability he will not even do justice to himself. +</P> + +<P> +The relation between the writer and the reader is more intimate. +True, books are only what we want them to be; rather, what we read +into them. That we can do so demonstrates the importance of written +as against oral expression. It is this certainty which has induced +me to gather in one volume my ideas on various topics of individual +and social importance. They represent the mental and soul struggles +of twenty-one years,—the conclusions derived after many changes and +inner revisions. +</P> + +<P> +I am not sanguine enough to hope that my readers will be as numerous +as those who have heard me. But I prefer to reach the few who really +want to learn, rather than the many who come to be amused. +</P> + +<P> +As to the book, it must speak for itself. Explanatory remarks do but +detract from the ideas set forth. However, I wish to forestall two +objections which will undoubtedly be raised. One is in reference to +the essay on ANARCHISM; the other, on MINORITIES VERSUS MAJORITIES. +</P> + +<P> +"Why do you not say how things will be operated under Anarchism?" is +a question I have had to meet thousands of times. Because I believe +that Anarchism can not consistently impose an iron-clad program or +method on the future. The things every new generation has to fight, +and which it can least overcome, are the burdens of the past, which +holds us all as in a net. Anarchism, at least as I understand it, +leaves posterity free to develop its own particular systems, in +harmony with its needs. Our most vivid imagination can not foresee +the potentialities of a race set free from external restraints. +How, then, can any one assume to map out a line of conduct for those +to come? We, who pay dearly for every breath of pure, fresh air, +must guard against the tendency to fetter the future. If we succeed +in clearing the soil from the rubbish of the past and present, we +will leave to posterity the greatest and safest heritage of all ages. +</P> + +<P> +The most disheartening tendency common among readers is to tear out +one sentence from a work, as a criterion of the writer's ideas or +personality. Friedrich Nietzsche, for instance, is decried as a +hater of the weak because he believed in the UEBERMENSCH. It does +not occur to the shallow interpreters of that giant mind that this +vision of the UEBERMENSCH also called for a state of society which +will not give birth to a race of weaklings and slaves. +</P> + +<P> +It is the same narrow attitude which sees in Max Stirner naught but +the apostle of the theory "each for himself, the devil take the hind +one." That Stirner's individualism contains the greatest social +possibilities is utterly ignored. Yet, it is nevertheless true that +if society is ever to become free, it will be so through liberated +individuals, whose free efforts make society. +</P> + +<P> +These examples bring me to the objection that will be raised to +MINORITIES VERSUS MAJORITIES. No doubt, I shall be excommunicated as +an enemy of the people, because I repudiate the mass as a creative +factor. I shall prefer that rather than be guilty of the demagogic +platitudes so commonly in vogue as a bait for the people. I realize +the malady of the oppressed and disinherited masses only too well, +but I refuse to prescribe the usual ridiculous palliatives which +allow the patient neither to die nor to recover. One cannot be too +extreme in dealing with social ills; besides, the extreme thing is +generally the true thing. My lack of faith in the majority is +dictated by my faith in the potentialities of the individual. Only +when the latter becomes free to choose his associates for a common +purpose, can we hope for order and harmony out of this world of chaos +and inequality. +</P> + +<P> +For the rest, my book must speak for itself. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Emma Goldman +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="anarchism"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +ANARCHISM: WHAT IT REALLY STANDS FOR +</H3> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> + ANARCHY. +</H4> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + Ever reviled, accursed, ne'er understood,<BR> + Thou art the grisly terror of our age.<BR> + "Wreck of all order," cry the multitude,<BR> + "Art thou, and war and murder's endless rage."<BR> + O, let them cry. To them that ne'er have striven<BR> + The truth that lies behind a word to find,<BR> + To them the word's right meaning was not given.<BR> + They shall continue blind among the blind.<BR> + But thou, O word, so clear, so strong, so pure,<BR> + Thou sayest all which I for goal have taken.<BR> + I give thee to the future! Thine secure<BR> + When each at least unto himself shall waken.<BR> + Comes it in sunshine? In the tempest's thrill?<BR> + I cannot tell—but it the earth shall see!<BR> + I am an Anarchist! Wherefore I will<BR> + Not rule, and also ruled I will not be!<BR><BR> + JOHN HENRY MACKAY.<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The history of human growth and development is at the same time the +history of the terrible struggle of every new idea heralding the +approach of a brighter dawn. In its tenacious hold on tradition, the +Old has never hesitated to make use of the foulest and cruelest means +to stay the advent of the New, in whatever form or period the latter +may have asserted itself. Nor need we retrace our steps into the +distant past to realize the enormity of opposition, difficulties, and +hardships placed in the path of every progressive idea. The rack, +the thumbscrew, and the knout are still with us; so are the convict's +garb and the social wrath, all conspiring against the spirit that is +serenely marching on. +</P> + +<P> +Anarchism could not hope to escape the fate of all other ideas of +innovation. Indeed, as the most revolutionary and uncompromising +innovator, Anarchism must needs meet with the combined ignorance and +venom of the world it aims to reconstruct. +</P> + +<P> +To deal even remotely with all that is being said and done against +Anarchism would necessitate the writing of a whole volume. I shall +therefore meet only two of the principal objections. In so doing, I +shall attempt to elucidate what Anarchism really stands for. +</P> + +<P> +The strange phenomenon of the opposition to Anarchism is that it +brings to light the relation between so-called intelligence and +ignorance. And yet this is not so very strange when we consider the +relativity of all things. The ignorant mass has in its favor that it +makes no pretense of knowledge or tolerance. Acting, as it always +does, by mere impulse, its reasons are like those of a child. +"Why?" "Because." Yet the opposition of the uneducated to Anarchism +deserves the same consideration as that of the intelligent man. +</P> + +<P> +What, then, are the objections? First, Anarchism is impractical, +though a beautiful ideal. Second, Anarchism stands for violence and +destruction, hence it must be repudiated as vile and dangerous. +Both the intelligent man and the ignorant mass judge not from a +thorough knowledge of the subject, but either from hearsay or false +interpretation. +</P> + +<P> +A practical scheme, says Oscar Wilde, is either one already in +existence, or a scheme that could be carried out under the existing +conditions; but it is exactly the existing conditions that one +objects to, and any scheme that could accept these conditions is +wrong and foolish. The true criterion of the practical, therefore, +is not whether the latter can keep intact the wrong or foolish; +rather is it whether the scheme has vitality enough to leave the +stagnant waters of the old, and build, as well as sustain, new life. +In the light of this conception, Anarchism is indeed practical. +More than any other idea, it is helping to do away with the wrong and +foolish; more than any other idea, it is building and sustaining new +life. +</P> + +<P> +The emotions of the ignorant man are continuously kept at a pitch by +the most blood-curdling stories about Anarchism. Not a thing too +outrageous to be employed against this philosophy and its exponents. +Therefore Anarchism represents to the unthinking what the proverbial +bad man does to the child,—a black monster bent on swallowing +everything; in short, destruction and violence. +</P> + +<P> +Destruction and violence! How is the ordinary man to know that the +most violent element in society is ignorance; that its power of +destruction is the very thing Anarchism is combating? Nor is he +aware that Anarchism, whose roots, as it were, are part of nature's +forces, destroys, not healthful tissue, but parasitic growths that +feed on the life's essence of society. It is merely clearing the +soil from weeds and sagebrush, that it may eventually bear healthy +fruit. +</P> + +<P> +Someone has said that it requires less mental effort to condemn than +to think. The widespread mental indolence, so prevalent in society, +proves this to be only too true. Rather than to go to the bottom of +any given idea, to examine into its origin and meaning, most people +will either condemn it altogether, or rely on some superficial or +prejudicial definition of non-essentials. +</P> + +<P> +Anarchism urges man to think, to investigate, to analyze every +proposition; but that the brain capacity of the average reader be not +taxed too much, I also shall begin with a definition, and then +elaborate on the latter. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> + ANARCHISM:—The philosophy of a new social order based on + liberty unrestricted by man-made law; the theory that all + forms of government rest on violence, and are therefore wrong + and harmful, as well as unnecessary. +</P> + +<P> +The new social order rests, of course, on the materialistic basis of +life; but while all Anarchists agree that the main evil today is an +economic one, they maintain that the solution of that evil can be +brought about only through the consideration of EVERY PHASE of +life,—individual, as well as the collective; the internal, as well +as the external phases. +</P> + +<P> +A thorough perusal of the history of human development will disclose +two elements in bitter conflict with each other; elements that are +only now beginning to be understood, not as foreign to each other, +but as closely related and truly harmonious, if only placed in proper +environment: the individual and social instincts. The individual and +society have waged a relentless and bloody battle for ages, each +striving for supremacy, because each was blind to the value and +importance of the other. The individual and social instincts,—the +one a most potent factor for individual endeavor, for growth, +aspiration, self-realization; the other an equally potent factor for +mutual helpfulness and social well-being. +</P> + +<P> +The explanation of the storm raging within the individual, and +between him and his surroundings, is not far to seek. The primitive +man, unable to understand his being, much less the unity of all life, +felt himself absolutely dependent on blind, hidden forces ever ready +to mock and taunt him. Out of that attitude grew the religious +concepts of man as a mere speck of dust dependent on superior powers +on high, who can only be appeased by complete surrender. All the +early sagas rest on that idea, which continues to be the LEIT-MOTIF +of the biblical tales dealing with the relation of man to God, to the +State, to society. Again and again the same motif, MAN IS NOTHING, +THE POWERS ARE EVERYTHING. Thus Jehovah would only endure man on +condition of complete surrender. Man can have all the glories of the +earth, but he must not become conscious of himself. The State, +society, and moral laws all sing the same refrain: Man can have all +the glories of the earth, but he must not become conscious of +himself. +</P> + +<P> +Anarchism is the only philosophy which brings to man the +consciousness of himself; which maintains that God, the State, and +society are non-existent, that their promises are null and void, +since they can be fulfilled only through man's subordination. +Anarchism is therefore the teacher of the unity of life; not merely +in nature, but in man. There is no conflict between the individual +and the social instincts, any more than there is between the heart +and the lungs: the one the receptacle of a precious life essence, the +other the repository of the element that keeps the essence pure and +strong. The individual is the heart of society, conserving the +essence of social life; society is the lungs which are distributing +the element to keep the life essence—that is, the individual—pure +and strong. +</P> + +<P> +"The one thing of value in the world," says Emerson, "is the active +soul; this every man contains within him. The soul active sees +absolute truth and utters truth and creates." In other words, the +individual instinct is the thing of value in the world. It is the +true soul that sees and creates the truth alive, out of which is to +come a still greater truth, the re-born social soul. +</P> + +<P> +Anarchism is the great liberator of man from the phantoms that have +held him captive; it is the arbiter and pacifier of the two forces +for individual and social harmony. To accomplish that unity, +Anarchism has declared war on the pernicious influences which have so +far prevented the harmonious blending of individual and social +instincts, the individual and society. +</P> + +<P> +Religion, the dominion of the human mind; Property, the dominion of +human needs; and Government, the dominion of human conduct, represent +the stronghold of man's enslavement and all the horrors it entails. +Religion! How it dominates man's mind, how it humiliates and degrades +his soul. God is everything, man is nothing, says religion. But out +of that nothing God has created a kingdom so despotic, so tyrannical, +so cruel, so terribly exacting that naught but gloom and tears and +blood have ruled the world since gods began. Anarchism rouses man to +rebellion against this black monster. Break your mental fetters, says +Anarchism to man, for not until you think and judge for yourself will +you get rid of the dominion of darkness, the greatest obstacle to all +progress. +</P> + +<P> +Property, the dominion of man's needs, the denial of the right to +satisfy his needs. Time was when property claimed a divine right, +when it came to man with the same refrain, even as religion, +"Sacrifice! Abnegate! Submit!" The spirit of Anarchism has lifted +man from his prostrate position. He now stands erect, with his face +toward the light. He has learned to see the insatiable, devouring, +devastating nature of property, and he is preparing to strike the +monster dead. +</P> + +<P> +"Property is robbery," said the great French Anarchist, Proudhon. +Yes, but without risk and danger to the robber. Monopolizing the +accumulated efforts of man, property has robbed him of his +birthright, and has turned him loose a pauper and an outcast. +Property has not even the time-worn excuse that man does not create +enough to satisfy all needs. The A B C student of economics knows +that the productivity of labor within the last few decades far +exceeds normal demand a hundredfold. But what are normal demands to +an abnormal institution? The only demand that property recognizes is +its own gluttonous appetite for greater wealth, because wealth means +power; the power to subdue, to crush, to exploit, the power to +enslave, to outrage, to degrade. America is particularly boastful of +her great power, her enormous national wealth. Poor America, of what +avail is all her wealth, if the individuals comprising the nation are +wretchedly poor? If they live in squalor, in filth, in crime, with +hope and joy gone, a homeless, soilless army of human prey. +</P> + +<P> +It is generally conceded that unless the returns of any business +venture exceed the cost, bankruptcy is inevitable. But those engaged +in the business of producing wealth have not yet learned even this +simple lesson. Every year the cost of production in human life is +growing larger (50,000 killed, 100,000 wounded in America last year); +the returns to the masses, who help to create wealth, are ever +getting smaller. Yet America continues to be blind to the inevitable +bankruptcy of our business of production. Nor is this the only crime +of the latter. Still more fatal is the crime of turning the producer +into a mere particle of a machine, with less will and decision than +his master of steel and iron. Man is being robbed not merely of the +products of his labor, but of the power of free initiative, of +originality, and the interest in, or desire for, the things he is +making. +</P> + +<P> +Real wealth consists in things of utility and beauty, in things that +help to create strong, beautiful bodies and surroundings inspiring to +live in. But if man is doomed to wind cotton around a spool, or dig +coal, or build roads for thirty years of his life, there can be no +talk of wealth. What he gives to the world is only gray and hideous +things, reflecting a dull and hideous existence,—too weak to live, +too cowardly to die. Strange to say, there are people who extol this +deadening method of centralized production as the proudest +achievement of our age. They fail utterly to realize that if we are +to continue in machine subserviency, our slavery is more complete +than was our bondage to the King. They do not want to know that +centralization is not only the death-knell of liberty, but also of +health and beauty, of art and science, all these being impossible in +a clock-like, mechanical atmosphere. +</P> + +<P> +Anarchism cannot but repudiate such a method of production: its goal +is the freest possible expression of all the latent powers of the +individual. Oscar Wilde defines a perfect personality as "one who +develops under perfect conditions, who is not wounded, maimed, or in +danger." A perfect personality, then, is only possible in a state of +society where man is free to choose the mode of work, the conditions +of work, and the freedom to work. One to whom the making of a table, +the building of a house, or the tilling of the soil, is what the +painting is to the artist and the discovery to the scientist,—the +result of inspiration, of intense longing, and deep interest in work +as a creative force. That being the ideal of Anarchism, its economic +arrangements must consist of voluntary productive and distributive +associations, gradually developing into free communism, as the best +means of producing with the least waste of human energy. Anarchism, +however, also recognizes the right of the individual, or numbers of +individuals, to arrange at all times for other forms of work, in +harmony with their tastes and desires. +</P> + +<P> +Such free display of human energy being possible only under complete +individual and social freedom, Anarchism directs its forces against +the third and greatest foe of all social equality; namely, the State, +organized authority, or statutory law,—the dominion of human +conduct. +</P> + +<P> +Just as religion has fettered the human mind, and as property, or the +monopoly of things, has subdued and stifled man's needs, so has the +State enslaved his spirit, dictating every phase of conduct. "All +government in essence," says Emerson, "is tyranny." It matters not +whether it is government by divine right or majority rule. In every +instance its aim is the absolute subordination of the individual. +</P> + +<P> +Referring to the American government, the greatest American +Anarchist, David Thoreau, said: "Government, what is it but a +tradition, though a recent one, endeavoring to transmit itself +unimpaired to posterity, but each instance losing its integrity; it +has not the vitality and force of a single living man. Law never +made man a whit more just; and by means of their respect for it, even +the well disposed are daily made agents of injustice." +</P> + +<P> +Indeed, the keynote of government is injustice. With the arrogance +and self-sufficiency of the King who could do no wrong, governments +ordain, judge, condemn, and punish the most insignificant offenses, +while maintaining themselves by the greatest of all offenses, the +annihilation of individual liberty. Thus Ouida is right when she +maintains that "the State only aims at instilling those qualities in +its public by which its demands are obeyed, and its exchequer is +filled. Its highest attainment is the reduction of mankind to +clockwork. In its atmosphere all those finer and more delicate +liberties, which require treatment and spacious expansion, inevitably +dry up and perish. The State requires a taxpaying machine in which +there is no hitch, an exchequer in which there is never a deficit, +and a public, monotonous, obedient, colorless, spiritless, moving +humbly like a flock of sheep along a straight high road between two +walls." +</P> + +<P> +Yet even a flock of sheep would resist the chicanery of the State, if +it were not for the corruptive, tyrannical, and oppressive methods it +employs to serve its purposes. Therefore Bakunin repudiates the +State as synonymous with the surrender of the liberty of the +individual or small minorities,—the destruction of social +relationship, the curtailment, or complete denial even, of life +itself, for its own aggrandizement. The State is the altar of +political freedom and, like the religious altar, it is maintained for +the purpose of human sacrifice. +</P> + +<P> +In fact, there is hardly a modern thinker who does not agree that +government, organized authority, or the State, is necessary ONLY to +maintain or protect property and monopoly. It has proven efficient +in that function only. +</P> + +<P> +Even George Bernard Shaw, who hopes for the miraculous from the State +under Fabianism, nevertheless admits that "it is at present a huge +machine for robbing and slave-driving of the poor by brute force." +This being the case, it is hard to see why the clever prefacer wishes +to uphold the State after poverty shall have ceased to exist. +</P> + +<P> +Unfortunately there are still a number of people who continue in the +fatal belief that government rests on natural laws, that it maintains +social order and harmony, that it diminishes crime, and that it +prevents the lazy man from fleecing his fellows. I shall therefore +examine these contentions. +</P> + +<P> +A natural law is that factor in man which asserts itself freely and +spontaneously without any external force, in harmony with the +requirements of nature. For instance, the demand for nutrition, for +sex gratification, for light, air, and exercise, is a natural law. +But its expression needs not the machinery of government, needs not +the club, the gun, the handcuff, or the prison. To obey such laws, +if we may call it obedience, requires only spontaneity and free +opportunity. That governments do not maintain themselves through +such harmonious factors is proven by the terrible array of violence, +force, and coercion all governments use in order to live. Thus +Blackstone is right when he says, "Human laws are invalid, because +they are contrary to the laws of nature." +</P> + +<P> +Unless it be the order of Warsaw after the slaughter of thousands of +people, it is difficult to ascribe to governments any capacity for +order or social harmony. Order derived through submission and +maintained by terror is not much of a safe guaranty; yet that is the +only "order" that governments have ever maintained. True social +harmony grows naturally out of solidarity of interests. In a society +where those who always work never have anything, while those who +never work enjoy everything, solidarity of interests is non-existent; +hence social harmony is but a myth. The only way organized authority +meets this grave situation is by extending still greater privileges +to those who have already monopolized the earth, and by still further +enslaving the disinherited masses. Thus the entire arsenal of +government—laws, police, soldiers, the courts, legislatures, +prisons,—is strenuously engaged in "harmonizing" the most +antagonistic elements in society. +</P> + +<P> +The most absurd apology for authority and law is that they serve to +diminish crime. Aside from the fact that the State is itself the +greatest criminal, breaking every written and natural law, stealing +in the form of taxes, killing in the form of war and capital +punishment, it has come to an absolute standstill in coping with +crime. It has failed utterly to destroy or even minimize the +horrible scourge of its own creation. +</P> + +<P> +Crime is naught but misdirected energy. So long as every institution +of today, economic, political, social, and moral, conspires to +misdirect human energy into wrong channels; so long as most people +are out of place doing the things they hate to do, living a life they +loathe to live, crime will be inevitable, and all the laws on the +statutes can only increase, but never do away with, crime. What does +society, as it exists today, know of the process of despair, the +poverty, the horrors, the fearful struggle the human soul must pass +on its way to crime and degradation. Who that knows this terrible +process can fail to see the truth in these words of Peter Kropotkin: +</P> + +<P> +"Those who will hold the balance between the benefits thus attributed +to law and punishment and the degrading effect of the latter on +humanity; those who will estimate the torrent of depravity poured +abroad in human society by the informer, favored by the Judge even, +and paid for in clinking cash by governments, under the pretext of +aiding to unmask crime; those who will go within prison walls and +there see what human beings become when deprived of liberty, when +subjected to the care of brutal keepers, to coarse, cruel words, to a +thousand stinging, piercing humiliations, will agree with us that the +entire apparatus of prison and punishment is an abomination which +ought to be brought to an end." +</P> + +<P> +The deterrent influence of law on the lazy man is too absurd to merit +consideration. If society were only relieved of the waste and +expense of keeping a lazy class, and the equally great expense of the +paraphernalia of protection this lazy class requires, the social +tables would contain an abundance for all, including even the +occasional lazy individual. Besides, it is well to consider that +laziness results either from special privileges, or physical and +mental abnormalities. Our present insane system of production +fosters both, and the most astounding phenomenon is that people +should want to work at all now. Anarchism aims to strip labor of its +deadening, dulling aspect, of its gloom and compulsion. It aims to +make work an instrument of joy, of strength, of color, of real +harmony, so that the poorest sort of a man should find in work both +recreation and hope. +</P> + +<P> +To achieve such an arrangement of life, government, with its unjust, +arbitrary, repressive measures, must be done away with. At best it +has but imposed one single mode of life upon all, without regard to +individual and social variations and needs. In destroying government +and statutory laws, Anarchism proposes to rescue the self-respect and +independence of the individual from all restraint and invasion by +authority. Only in freedom can man grow to his full stature. Only +in freedom will he learn to think and move, and give the very best in +him. Only in freedom will he realize the true force of the social +bonds which knit men together, and which are the true foundation of a +normal social life. +</P> + +<P> +But what about human nature? Can it be changed? And if not, will it +endure under Anarchism? +</P> + +<P> +Poor human nature, what horrible crimes have been committed in thy +name! Every fool, from king to policeman, from the flatheaded parson +to the visionless dabbler in science, presumes to speak +authoritatively of human nature. The greater the mental charlatan, +the more definite his insistence on the wickedness and weaknesses of +human nature. Yet, how can any one speak of it today, with every +soul in a prison, with every heart fettered, wounded, and maimed? +</P> + +<P> +John Burroughs has stated that experimental study of animals in +captivity is absolutely useless. Their character, their habits, +their appetites undergo a complete transformation when torn from +their soil in field and forest. With human nature caged in a narrow +space, whipped daily into submission, how can we speak of its +potentialities? +</P> + +<P> +Freedom, expansion, opportunity, and, above all, peace and repose, +alone can teach us the real dominant factors of human nature and all +its wonderful possibilities. +</P> + +<P> +Anarchism, then, really stands for the liberation of the human mind +from the dominion of religion; the liberation of the human body from +the dominion of property; liberation from the shackles and restraint +of government. Anarchism stands for a social order based on the free +grouping of individuals for the purpose of producing real social +wealth; an order that will guarantee to every human being free access +to the earth and full enjoyment of the necessities of life, according +to individual desires, tastes, and inclinations. +</P> + +<P> +This is not a wild fancy or an aberration of the mind. It is the +conclusion arrived at by hosts of intellectual men and women the +world over; a conclusion resulting from the close and studious +observation of the tendencies of modern society: individual liberty +and economic equality, the twin forces for the birth of what is fine +and true in man. +</P> + +<P> +As to methods. Anarchism is not, as some may suppose, a theory of +the future to be realized through divine inspiration. It is a living +force in the affairs of our life, constantly creating new conditions. +The methods of Anarchism therefore do not comprise an iron-clad +program to be carried out under all circumstances. Methods must grow +out of the economic needs of each place and clime, and of the +intellectual and temperamental requirements of the individual. The +serene, calm character of a Tolstoy will wish different methods for +social reconstruction than the intense, overflowing personality of a +Michael Bakunin or a Peter Kropotkin. Equally so it must be apparent +that the economic and political needs of Russia will dictate more +drastic measures than would England or America. Anarchism does not +stand for military drill and uniformity; it does, however, stand for +the spirit of revolt, in whatever form, against everything that +hinders human growth. All Anarchists agree in that, as they also +agree in their opposition to the political machinery as a means of +bringing about the great social change. +</P> + +<P> +"All voting," says Thoreau, "is a sort of gaming, like checkers, or +backgammon, a playing with right and wrong; its obligation never +exceeds that of expediency. Even voting for the right thing is doing +nothing for it. A wise man will not leave the right to the mercy of +chance, nor wish it to prevail through the power of the majority." +A close examination of the machinery of politics and its achievements +will bear out the logic of Thoreau. +</P> + +<P> +What does the history of parliamentarism show? Nothing but failure +and defeat, not even a single reform to ameliorate the economic and +social stress of the people. Laws have been passed and enactments +made for the improvement and protection of labor. Thus it was proven +only last year that Illinois, with the most rigid laws for mine +protection, had the greatest mine disasters. In States where child +labor laws prevail, child exploitation is at its highest, and though +with us the workers enjoy full political opportunities, capitalism +has reached the most brazen zenith. +</P> + +<P> +Even were the workers able to have their own representatives, for +which our good Socialist politicians are clamoring, what chances are +there for their honesty and good faith? One has but to bear in mind +the process of politics to realize that its path of good intentions +is full of pitfalls: wire-pulling, intriguing, flattering, lying, +cheating; in fact, chicanery of every description, whereby the +political aspirant can achieve success. Added to that is a complete +demoralization of character and conviction, until nothing is left +that would make one hope for anything from such a human derelict. +Time and time again the people were foolish enough to trust, believe, +and support with their last farthing aspiring politicians, only to +find themselves betrayed and cheated. +</P> + +<P> +It may be claimed that men of integrity would not become corrupt in +the political grinding mill. Perhaps not; but such men would be +absolutely helpless to exert the slightest influence in behalf of +labor, as indeed has been shown in numerous instances. The State is +the economic master of its servants. Good men, if such there be, +would either remain true to their political faith and lose their +economic support, or they would cling to their economic master and be +utterly unable to do the slightest good. The political arena leaves +one no alternative, one must either be a dunce or a rogue. +</P> + +<P> +The political superstition is still holding sway over the hearts and +minds of the masses, but the true lovers of liberty will have no more +to do with it. Instead, they believe with Stirner that man has as +much liberty as he is willing to take. Anarchism therefore stands +for direct action, the open defiance of, and resistance to, all laws +and restrictions, economic, social, and moral. But defiance and +resistance are illegal. Therein lies the salvation of man. +Everything illegal necessitates integrity, self-reliance, and +courage. In short, it calls for free, independent spirits, for "men +who are men, and who have a bone in their backs which you cannot pass +your hand through." +</P> + +<P> +Universal suffrage itself owes its existence to direct action. If +not for the spirit of rebellion, of the defiance on the part of the +American revolutionary fathers, their posterity would still wear the +King's coat. If not for the direct action of a John Brown and his +comrades, America would still trade in the flesh of the black man. +True, the trade in white flesh is still going on; but that, too, will +have to be abolished by direct action. Trade-unionism, the economic +arena of the modern gladiator, owes its existence to direct action. +It is but recently that law and government have attempted to crush +the trade-union movement, and condemned the exponents of man's right +to organize to prison as conspirators. Had they sought to assert +their cause through begging, pleading, and compromise, trade-unionism +would today be a negligible quantity. In France, in Spain, in Italy, +in Russia, nay even in England (witness the growing rebellion of +English labor unions) direct, revolutionary, economic action has +become so strong a force in the battle for industrial liberty as to +make the world realize the tremendous importance of labor's power. +The General Strike, the supreme expression of the economic +consciousness of the workers, was ridiculed in America but a short +time ago. Today every great strike, in order to win, must realize +the importance of the solidaric general protest. +</P> + +<P> +Direct action, having proven effective along economic lines, is +equally potent in the environment of the individual. There a hundred +forces encroach upon his being, and only persistent resistance to +them will finally set him free. Direct action against the authority +in the shop, direct action against the authority of the law, direct +action against the invasive, meddlesome authority of our moral code, +is the logical, consistent method of Anarchism. +</P> + +<P> +Will it not lead to a revolution? Indeed, it will. No real social +change has ever come about without a revolution. People are either +not familiar with their history, or they have not yet learned that +revolution is but thought carried into action. +</P> + +<P> +Anarchism, the great leaven of thought, is today permeating every +phase of human endeavor. Science, art, literature, the drama, the +effort for economic betterment, in fact every individual and social +opposition to the existing disorder of things, is illumined by the +spiritual light of Anarchism. It is the philosophy of the +sovereignty of the individual. It is the theory of social harmony. +It is the great, surging, living truth that is reconstructing the +world, and that will usher in the Dawn. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="minorities"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +MINORITIES VERSUS MAJORITIES +</H3> + +<BR> + +<P> +If I were to give a summary of the tendency of our times, I would +say, Quantity. The multitude, the mass spirit, dominates everywhere, +destroying quality. Our entire life—production, politics, and +education—rests on quantity, on numbers. The worker who once took +pride in the thoroughness and quality of his work, has been replaced +by brainless, incompetent automatons, who turn out enormous +quantities of things, valueless to themselves, and generally +injurious to the rest of mankind. Thus quantity, instead of adding +to life's comforts and peace, has merely increased man's burden. +</P> + +<P> +In politics, naught but quantity counts. In proportion to its +increase, however, principles, ideals, justice, and uprightness are +completely swamped by the array of numbers. In the struggle for +supremacy the various political parties outdo each other in trickery, +deceit, cunning, and shady machinations, confident that the one who +succeeds is sure to be hailed by the majority as the victor. That is +the only god,—Success. As to what expense, what terrible cost to +character, is of no moment. We have not far to go in search of proof +to verify this sad fact. +</P> + +<P> +Never before did the corruption, the complete rottenness of our +government stand so thoroughly exposed; never before were the +American people brought face to face with the Judas nature of that +political body, which has claimed for years to be absolutely beyond +reproach, as the mainstay of our institutions, the true protector of +the rights and liberties of the people. +</P> + +<P> +Yet when the crimes of that party became so brazen that even the +blind could see them, it needed but to muster up its minions, and its +supremacy was assured. Thus the very victims, duped, betrayed, +outraged a hundred times, decided, not against, but in favor of the +victor. Bewildered, the few asked how could the majority betray the +traditions of American liberty? Where was its judgment, its +reasoning capacity? That is just it, the majority cannot reason; it +has no judgment. Lacking utterly in originality and moral courage, +the majority has always placed its destiny in the hands of others. +Incapable of standing responsibilities, it has followed its leaders +even unto destruction. Dr. Stockman was right: "The most dangerous +enemies of truth and justice in our midst are the compact majorities, +the damned compact majority." Without ambition or initiative, the +compact mass hates nothing so much as innovation. It has always +opposed, condemned, and hounded the innovator, the pioneer of a new +truth. +</P> + +<P> +The oft repeated slogan of our time is, among all politicians, the +Socialists included, that ours is an era of individualism, of the +minority. Only those who do not probe beneath the surface might be +led to entertain this view. Have not the few accumulated the wealth +of the world? Are they not the masters, the absolute kings of the +situation? Their success, however, is due not to individualism, but +to the inertia, the cravenness, the utter submission of the mass. +The latter wants but to be dominated, to be led, to be coerced. As +to individualism, at no time in human history did it have less chance +of expression, less opportunity to assert itself in a normal, healthy +manner. +</P> + +<P> +The individual educator imbued with honesty of purpose, the artist or +writer of original ideas, the independent scientist or explorer, the +non-compromising pioneers of social changes are daily pushed to the +wall by men whose learning and creative ability have become decrepit +with age. +</P> + +<P> +Educators of Ferrer's type are nowhere tolerated, while the +dietitians of predigested food, a la Professors Eliot and Butler, are +the successful perpetuators of an age of nonentities, of automatons. +In the literary and dramatic world, the Humphrey Wards and Clyde +Fitches are the idols of the mass, while but few know or appreciate +the beauty and genius of an Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman; an Ibsen, a +Hauptmann, a Butler Yeats, or a Stephen Phillips. They are like +solitary stars, far beyond the horizon of the multitude. +</P> + +<P> +Publishers, theatrical managers, and critics ask not for the quality +inherent in creative art, but will it meet with a good sale, will it +suit the palate of the people? Alas, this palate is like a dumping +ground; it relishes anything that needs no mental mastication. As a +result, the mediocre, the ordinary, the commonplace represents the +chief literary output. +</P> + +<P> +Need I say that in art we are confronted with the same sad facts? +One has but to inspect our parks and thoroughfares to realize the +hideousness and vulgarity of the art manufacture. Certainly, none +but a majority taste would tolerate such an outrage on art. False in +conception and barbarous in execution, the statuary that infests +American cities has as much relation to true art, as a totem to a +Michael Angelo. Yet that is the only art that succeeds. The true +artistic genius, who will not cater to accepted notions, who +exercises originality, and strives to be true to life, leads an +obscure and wretched existence. His work may some day become the fad +of the mob, but not until his heart's blood had been exhausted; not +until the pathfinder has ceased to be, and a throng of an idealless +and visionless mob has done to death the heritage of the master. +</P> + +<P> +It is said that the artist of today cannot create because +Prometheus-like he is bound to the rock of economic necessity. +This, however, is true of art in all ages. Michael Angelo was +dependent on his patron saint, no less than the sculptor or painter +of today, except that the art connoisseurs of those days were far +away from the madding crowd. They felt honored to be permitted to +worship at the shrine of the master. +</P> + +<P> +The art protector of our time knows but one criterion, one +value,—the dollar. He is not concerned about the quality of any +great work, but in the quantity of dollars his purchase implies. +Thus the financier in Mirbeau's LES AFFAIRES SONT LES AFFAIRES points +to some blurred arrangement in colors, saying "See how great it is; +it cost 50,000 francs." Just like our own parvenues. The fabulous +figures paid for their great art discoveries must make up for the +poverty of their taste. +</P> + +<P> +The most unpardonable sin in society is independence of thought. +That this should be so terribly apparent in a country whose symbol is +democracy, is very significant of the tremendous power of the +majority. +</P> + +<P> +Wendell Phillips said fifty years ago: "In our country of absolute +democratic equality, public opinion is not only omnipotent, it is +omnipresent. There is no refuge from its tyranny, there is no hiding +from its reach, and the result is that if you take the old Greek +lantern and go about to seek among a hundred, you will not find a +single American who has not, or who does not fancy at least he has, +something to gain or lose in his ambition, his social life, or +business, from the good opinion and the votes of those around him. +And the consequence is that instead of being a mass of individuals, +each one fearlessly blurting out his own conviction, as a nation +compared to other nations we are a mass of cowards. More than any +other people we are afraid of each other." Evidently we have not +advanced very far from the condition that confronted Wendell +Phillips. +</P> + +<P> +Today, as then, public opinion is the omnipresent tyrant; today, as +then, the majority represents a mass of cowards, willing to accept +him who mirrors its own soul and mind poverty. That accounts for the +unprecedented rise of a man like Roosevelt. He embodies the very +worst element of mob psychology. A politician, he knows that the +majority cares little for ideals or integrity. What it craves is +display. It matters not whether that be a dog show, a prize fight, +the lynching of a "nigger," the rounding up of some petty offender, +the marriage exposition of an heiress, or the acrobatic stunts of an +ex-president. The more hideous the mental contortions, the greater +the delight and bravos of the mass. Thus, poor in ideals and vulgar +of soul, Roosevelt continues to be the man of the hour. +</P> + +<P> +On the other hand, men towering high above such political pygmies, +men of refinement, of culture, of ability, are jeered into silence as +mollycoddles. It is absurd to claim that ours is the era of +individualism. Ours is merely a more poignant repetition of the +phenomenon of all history: every effort for progress, for +enlightenment, for science, for religious, political, and economic +liberty, emanates from the minority, and not from the mass. Today, +as ever, the few are misunderstood, hounded, imprisoned, tortured, +and killed. +</P> + +<P> +The principle of brotherhood expounded by the agitator of Nazareth +preserved the germ of life, of truth and justice, so long as it was +the beacon light of the few. The moment the majority seized upon it, +that great principle became a shibboleth and harbinger of blood and +fire, spreading suffering and disaster. The attack on the +omnipotence of Rome was like a sunrise amid the darkness of the +night, only so long as it was made by the colossal figures of a Huss, +a Calvin, or a Luther. Yet when the mass joined in the procession +against the Catholic monster, it was no less cruel, no less +bloodthirsty than its enemy. Woe to the heretics, to the minority, +who would not bow to its dicta. After infinite zeal, endurance, and +sacrifice, the human mind is at last free from the religious phantom; +the minority has gone on in pursuit of new conquests, and the +majority is lagging behind, handicapped by truth grown false with +age. +</P> + +<P> +Politically the human race would still be in the most absolute +slavery, were it not for the John Balls, the Wat Tylers, the Tells, +the innumerable individual giants who fought inch by inch against the +power of kings and tyrants. But for individual pioneers the world +would have never been shaken to its very roots by that tremendous +wave, the French Revolution. Great events are usually preceded by +apparently small things. Thus the eloquence and fire of Camille +Desmoulins was like the trumpet before Jericho, razing to the ground +that emblem of torture, of abuse, of horror, the Bastille. +</P> + +<P> +Always, at every period, the few were the banner bearers of a great +idea, of liberating effort. Not so the mass, the leaden weight of +which does not let it move. The truth of this is borne out in Russia +with greater force than elsewhere. Thousands of lives have already +been consumed by that bloody regime, yet the monster on the throne is +not appeased. How is such a thing possible when ideas, culture, +literature, when the deepest and finest emotions groan under the iron +yoke? The majority, that compact, immobile, drowsy mass, the Russian +peasant, after a century of struggle, of sacrifice, of untold misery, +still believes that the rope which strangles "the man with the white +hands"[1] brings luck. +</P> + +<P> +In the American struggle for liberty, the majority was no less of a +stumbling block. Until this very day the ideas of Jefferson, of +Patrick Henry, of Thomas Paine, are denied and sold by their +posterity. The mass wants none of them. The greatness and courage +worshipped in Lincoln have been forgotten in the men who created the +background for the panorama of that time. The true patron saints of +the black men were represented in that handful of fighters in Boston, +Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, and +Theodore Parker, whose great courage and sturdiness culminated in +that somber giant, John Brown. Their untiring zeal, their eloquence +and perseverance undermined the stronghold of the Southern lords. +Lincoln and his minions followed only when abolition had become a +practical issue, recognized as such by all. +</P> + +<P> +About fifty years ago, a meteor-like idea made its appearance on the +social horizon of the world, an idea so far-reaching, so +revolutionary, so all-embracing as to spread terror in the hearts of +tyrants everywhere. On the other hand, that idea was a harbinger of +joy, of cheer, of hope to the millions. The pioneers knew the +difficulties in their way, they knew the opposition, the persecution, +the hardships that would meet them, but proud and unafraid they +started on their march onward, ever onward. Now that idea has become +a popular slogan. Almost everyone is a Socialist today: the rich +man, as well as his poor victim; the upholders of law and authority, +as well as their unfortunate culprits; the freethinker, as well as +the perpetuator of religious falsehoods; the fashionable lady, as +well as the shirtwaist girl. Why not? Now that the truth of fifty +years ago has become a lie, now that it has been clipped of all its +youthful imagination, and been robbed of its vigor, its strength, its +revolutionary ideal—why not? Now that it is no longer a beautiful +vision, but a "practical, workable scheme," resting on the will of +the majority, why not? With the same political cunning and +shrewdness the mass is petted, pampered, cheated daily. Its praise +is being sung in many keys: the poor majority, the outraged, the +abused, the giant majority, if only it would follow us. +</P> + +<P> +Who has not heard this litany before? Who does not know this +never-varying refrain of all politicians? That the mass bleeds, that +it is being robbed and exploited, I know as well as our vote-baiters. +But I insist that not the handful of parasites, but the mass itself +is responsible for this horrible state of affairs. It clings to its +masters, loves the whip, and is the first to cry Crucify! the moment +a protesting voice is raised against the sacredness of capitalistic +authority or any other decayed institution. Yet how long would +authority and private property exist, if not for the willingness of +the mass to become soldiers, policemen, jailers, and hangmen. The +Socialist demagogues know that as well as I, but they maintain the +myth of the virtues of the majority, because their very scheme of +life means the perpetuation of power. And how could the latter be +acquired without numbers? Yes, power, authority, coercion, and +dependence rest on the mass, but never freedom, never the free +unfoldment of the individual, never the birth of a free society. +</P> + +<P> +Not because I do not feel with the oppressed, the disinherited of the +earth; not because I do not know the shame, the horror, the indignity +of the lives the people lead, do I repudiate the majority as a +creative force for good. Oh, no, no! But because I know so well +that as a compact mass it has never stood for justice or equality. +It has suppressed the human voice, subdued the human spirit, chained +the human body. As a mass its aim has always been to make life +uniform, gray, and monotonous as the desert. As a mass it will +always be the annihilator of individuality, of free initiative, of +originality. I therefore believe with Emerson that "the masses are +crude, lame, pernicious in their demands and influence, and need not +to be flattered, but to be schooled. I wish not to concede anything +to them, but to drill, divide, and break them up, and draw +individuals out of them. Masses! The calamity are the masses. I do +not wish any mass at all, but honest men only, lovely, sweet, +accomplished women only." +</P> + +<P> +In other words, the living, vital truth of social and economic +well-being will become a reality only through the zeal, courage, the +non-compromising determination of intelligent minorities, and not +through the mass. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[1] The intellectuals. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="violence"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE PSYCHOLOGY OF POLITICAL VIOLENCE +</H3> + +<BR> + +<P> +To analyze the psychology of political violence is not only extremely +difficult, but also very dangerous. If such acts are treated with +understanding, one is immediately accused of eulogizing them. If, on +the other hand, human sympathy is expressed with the ATTENTATER,[1] one +risks being considered a possible accomplice. Yet it is only +intelligence and sympathy that can bring us closer to the source of +human suffering, and teach us the ultimate way out of it. +</P> + +<P> +The primitive man, ignorant of natural forces, dreaded their +approach, hiding from the perils they threatened. As man learned to +understand Nature's phenomena, he realized that though these may +destroy life and cause great loss, they also bring relief. To the +earnest student it must be apparent that the accumulated forces in +our social and economic life, culminating in a political act of +violence, are similar to the terrors of the atmosphere, manifested in +storm and lightning. +</P> + +<P> +To thoroughly appreciate the truth of this view, one must feel +intensely the indignity of our social wrongs; one's very being must +throb with the pain, the sorrow, the despair millions of people are +daily made to endure. Indeed, unless we have become a part of +humanity, we cannot even faintly understand the just indignation that +accumulates in a human soul, the burning, surging passion that makes +the storm inevitable. +</P> + +<P> +The ignorant mass looks upon the man who makes a violent protest +against our social and economic iniquities as upon a wild beast, a +cruel, heartless monster, whose joy it is to destroy life and bathe +in blood; or at best, as upon an irresponsible lunatic. Yet nothing +is further from the truth. As a matter of fact, those who have +studied the character and personality of these men, or who have come +in close contact with them, are agreed that it is their +super-sensitiveness to the wrong and injustice surrounding them which +compels them to pay the toll of our social crimes. The most noted +writers and poets, discussing the psychology of political offenders, +have paid them the highest tribute. Could anyone assume that these +men had advised violence, or even approved of the acts? Certainly +not. Theirs was the attitude of the social student, of the man who +knows that beyond every violent act there is a vital cause. +</P> + +<P> +Bjornstjerne Bjornson, in the second part of BEYOND HUMAN POWER, +emphasizes the fact that it is among the Anarchists that we must look +for the modern martyrs who pay for their faith with their blood, and +who welcome death with a smile, because they believe, as truly as +Christ did, that their martyrdom will redeem humanity. +</P> + +<P> +Francois Coppee, the French novelist, thus expresses himself +regarding the psychology of the ATTENTATER: +</P> + +<P> +"The reading of the details of Vaillant's execution left me in a +thoughtful mood. I imagined him expanding his chest under the ropes, +marching with firm step, stiffening his will, concentrating all his +energy, and, with eyes fixed upon the knife, hurling finally at +society his cry of malediction. And, in spite of me, another +spectacle rose suddenly before my mind. I saw a group of men and +women pressing against each other in the middle of the oblong arena +of the circus, under the gaze of thousands of eyes, while from all +the steps of the immense amphitheatre went up the terrible cry, AD +LEONES! and, below, the opening cages of the wild beasts. +</P> + +<P> +"I did not believe the execution would take place. In the first +place, no victim had been struck with death, and it had long been the +custom not to punish an abortive crime with the last degree of +severity. Then, this crime, however terrible in intention, was +disinterested, born of an abstract idea. The man's past, his +abandoned childhood, his life of hardship, pleaded also in his favor. +In the independent press generous voices were raised in his behalf, +very loud and eloquent. 'A purely literary current of opinion' some +have said, with no little scorn. IT IS, ON THE CONTRARY, AN HONOR TO +THE MEN OF ART AND THOUGHT TO HAVE EXPRESSED ONCE MORE THEIR DISGUST +AT THE SCAFFOLD." +</P> + +<P> +Again Zola, in GERMINAL and PARIS, describes the tenderness and +kindness, the deep sympathy with human suffering, of these men who +close the chapter of their lives with a violent outbreak against our +system. +</P> + +<P> +Last, but not least, the man who probably better than anyone else +understands the psychology of the ATTENTATER is M. Hamon, the author +of the brilliant work, UNE PSYCHOLOGIE DU MILITAIRE PROFESSIONEL, who +has arrived at these suggestive conclusions: +</P> + +<P> +"The positive method confirmed by the rational method enables us to +establish an ideal type of Anarchist, whose mentality is the +aggregate of common psychic characteristics. Every Anarchist +partakes sufficiently of this ideal type to make it possible to +differentiate him from other men. The typical Anarchist, then, may +be defined as follows: A man perceptible by the spirit of revolt +under one or more of its forms,—opposition, investigation, +criticism, innovation,—endowed with a strong love of liberty, +egoistic or individualistic, and possessed of great curiosity, a keen +desire to know. These traits are supplemented by an ardent love of +others, a highly developed moral sensitiveness, a profound sentiment +of justice, and imbued with missionary zeal." +</P> + +<P> +To the above characteristics, says Alvin F. Sanborn, must be added +these sterling qualities: a rare love of animals, surpassing +sweetness in all the ordinary relations of life, exceptional sobriety +of demeanor, frugality and regularity, austerity, even, of living, +and courage beyond compare.[2] +</P> + +<P> +"There is a truism that the man in the street seems always to forget, +when he is abusing the Anarchists, or whatever party happens to be +his BETE NOIRE for the moment, as the cause of some outrage just +perpetrated. This indisputable fact is that homicidal outrages have, +from time immemorial, been the reply of goaded and desperate classes, +and goaded and desperate individuals, to wrongs from their fellowmen, +which they felt to be intolerable. Such acts are the violent recoil +from violence, whether aggressive or repressive; they are the last +desperate struggle of outraged and exasperated human nature for +breathing space and life. And their cause lies not in any special +conviction, but in the depths of that human nature itself. The whole +course of history, political and social, is strewn with evidence of +this fact. To go no further, take the three most notorious examples +of political parties goaded into violence during the last fifty +years: the Mazzinians in Italy, the Fenians in Ireland, and the +Terrorists in Russia. Were these people Anarchists? No. Did they +all three even hold the same political opinions? No. The Mazzinians +were Republicans, the Fenians political separatists, the Russians +Social Democrats or Constitutionalists. But all were driven by +desperate circumstances into this terrible form of revolt. And when +we turn from parties to individuals who have acted in like manner, we +stand appalled by the number of human beings goaded and driven by +sheer desperation into conduct obviously violently opposed to their +social instincts. +</P> + +<P> +"Now that Anarchism has become a living force in society, such deeds +have been sometimes committed by Anarchists, as well as by others. +For no new faith, even the most essentially peaceable and humane the +mind of man has yet accepted, but at its first coming has brought +upon earth not peace, but a sword; not because of anything violent or +anti-social in the doctrine itself; simply because of the ferment any +new and creative idea excites in men's minds, whether they accept or +reject it. And a conception of Anarchism, which, on one hand, +threatens every vested interest, and, on the other, holds out a +vision of a free and noble life to be won by a struggle against +existing wrongs, is certain to rouse the fiercest opposition, and +bring the whole repressive force of ancient evil into violent contact +with the tumultuous outburst of a new hope. +</P> + +<P> +"Under miserable conditions of life, any vision of the possibility of +better things makes the present misery more intolerable, and spurs +those who suffer to the most energetic struggles to improve their +lot, and if these struggles only immediately result in sharper +misery, the outcome is sheer desperation. In our present society, +for instance, an exploited wage worker, who catches a glimpse of what +work and life might and ought to be, finds the toilsome routine and +the squalor of his existence almost intolerable; and even when he has +the resolution and courage to continue steadily working his best, and +waiting until new ideas have so permeated society as to pave the way +for better times, the mere fact that he has such ideas and tries to +spread them, brings him into difficulties with his employers. How +many thousands of Socialists, and above all Anarchists, have lost +work and even the chance of work, solely on the ground of their +opinions. It is only the specially gifted craftsman, who, if he be a +zealous propagandist, can hope to retain permanent employment. And +what happens to a man with his brain working actively with a ferment +of new ideas, with a vision before his eyes of a new hope dawning for +toiling and agonizing men, with the knowledge that his suffering and +that of his fellows in misery is not caused by the cruelty of fate, +but by the injustice of other human beings,—what happens to such a +man when he sees those dear to him starving, when he himself is +starved? Some natures in such a plight, and those by no means the +least social or the least sensitive, will become violent, and will +even feel that their violence is social and not anti-social, that in +striking when and how they can, they are striking, not for +themselves, but for human nature, outraged and despoiled in their +persons and in those of their fellow sufferers. And are we, who +ourselves are not in this horrible predicament, to stand by and +coldly condemn these piteous victims of the Furies and Fates? Are we +to decry as miscreants these human beings who act with heroic +self-devotion, sacrificing their lives in protest, where less social +and less energetic natures would lie down and grovel in abject +submission to injustice and wrong? Are we to join the ignorant and +brutal outcry which stigmatizes such men as monsters of wickedness, +gratuitously running amuck in a harmonious and innocently peaceful +society? No! We hate murder with a hatred that may seem absurdly +exaggerated to apologists for Matabele massacres, to callous +acquiescers in hangings and bombardments, but we decline in such +cases of homicide, or attempted homicide, as those of which we are +treating, to be guilty of the cruel injustice of flinging the whole +responsibility of the deed upon the immediate perpetrator. The guilt +of these homicides lies upon every man and woman who, intentionally +or by cold indifference, helps to keep up social conditions that +drive human beings to despair. The man who flings his whole life +into the attempt, at the cost of his own life, to protest against the +wrongs of his fellow men, is a saint compared to the active and +passive upholders of cruelty and injustice, even if his protest +destroy other lives besides his own. Let him who is without sin in +society cast the first stone at such an one."[3] +</P> + +<P> +That every act of political violence should nowadays be attributed to +Anarchists is not at all surprising. Yet it is a fact known to +almost everyone familiar with the Anarchist movement that a great +number of acts, for which Anarchists had to suffer, either originated +with the capitalist press or were instigated, if not directly +perpetrated, by the police. +</P> + +<P> +For a number of years acts of violence had been committed in Spain, +for which the Anarchists were held responsible, hounded like wild +beasts, and thrown into prison. Later it was disclosed that the +perpetrators of these acts were not Anarchists, but members of the +police department. The scandal became so widespread that the +conservative Spanish papers demanded the apprehension and punishment +of the gang-leader, Juan Rull, who was subsequently condemned to +death and executed. The sensational evidence, brought to light +during the trial, forced Police Inspector Momento to exonerate +completely the Anarchists from any connection with the acts committed +during a long period. This resulted in the dismissal of a number of +police officials, among them Inspector Tressols, who, in revenge, +disclosed the fact that behind the gang of police bomb throwers were +others of far higher position, who provided them with funds and +protected them. +</P> + +<P> +This is one of the many striking examples of how Anarchist +conspiracies are manufactured. +</P> + +<P> +That the American police can perjure themselves with the same ease, +that they are just as merciless, just as brutal and cunning as their +European colleagues, has been proven on more than one occasion. We +need only recall the tragedy of the eleventh of November, 1887, known +as the Haymarket Riot. +</P> + +<P> +No one who is at all familiar with the case can possibly doubt that +the Anarchists, judicially murdered in Chicago, died as victims of a +lying, bloodthirsty press and of a cruel police conspiracy. Has not +Judge Gary himself said: "Not because you have caused the Haymarket +bomb, but because you are Anarchists, you are on trial." +</P> + +<P> +The impartial and thorough analysis by Governor Altgeld of that +blotch on the American escutcheon verified the brutal frankness of +Judge Gary. It was this that induced Altgeld to pardon the three +Anarchists, thereby earning the lasting esteem of every liberty +loving man and woman in the world. +</P> + +<P> +When we approach the tragedy of September sixth, 1901, we are +confronted by one of the most striking examples of how little social +theories are responsible for an act of political violence. "Leon +Czolgosz, an Anarchist, incited to commit the act by Emma Goldman." +To be sure, has she not incited violence even before her birth, and +will she not continue to do so beyond death? Everything is possible +with the Anarchists. +</P> + +<P> +Today, even, nine years after the tragedy, after it was proven a +hundred times that Emma Goldman had nothing to do with the event, +that no evidence whatsoever exists to indicate that Czolgosz ever +called himself an Anarchist, we are confronted with the same lie, +fabricated by the police and perpetuated by the press. No living +soul ever heard Czolgosz make that statement, nor is there a single +written word to prove that the boy ever breathed the accusation. +Nothing but ignorance and insane hysteria, which have never yet been +able to solve the simplest problem of cause and effect. +</P> + +<P> +The President of a free Republic killed! What else can be the cause, +except that the ATTENTATER must have been insane, or that he was +incited to the act. +</P> + +<P> +A free Republic! How a myth will maintain itself, how it will +continue to deceive, to dupe, and blind even the comparatively +intelligent to its monstrous absurdities. A free Republic! And yet +within a little over thirty years a small band of parasites have +successfully robbed the American people, and trampled upon the +fundamental principles, laid down by the fathers of this country, +guaranteeing to every man, woman, and child "life, liberty, and the +pursuit of happiness." For thirty years they have been increasing +their wealth and power at the expense of the vast mass of workers, +thereby enlarging the army of the unemployed, the hungry, homeless, +and friendless portion of humanity, who are tramping the country from +east to west, from north to south, in a vain search for work. For +many years the home has been left to the care of the little ones, +while the parents are exhausting their life and strength for a mere +pittance. For thirty years the sturdy sons of America have been +sacrificed on the battlefield of industrial war, and the daughters +outraged in corrupt factory surroundings. For long and weary years +this process of undermining the nation's health, vigor, and pride, +without much protest from the disinherited and oppressed, has been +going on. Maddened by success and victory, the money powers of this +"free land of ours" became more and more audacious in their +heartless, cruel efforts to compete with the rotten and decayed +European tyrannies for supremacy of power. +</P> + +<P> +In vain did a lying press repudiate Leon Czolgosz as a foreigner. +The boy was a product of our own free American soil, that lulled him +to sleep with, +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + My country, 'tis of thee,<BR> + Sweet land of liberty.<BR> +</P> + +<P> +Who can tell how many times this American child had gloried in the +celebration of the Fourth of July, or of Decoration Day, when he +faithfully honored the Nation's dead? Who knows but that he, too, +was willing to "fight for his country and die for her liberty," until +it dawned upon him that those he belonged to have no country, because +they have been robbed of all that they have produced; until he +realized that the liberty and independence of his youthful dreams +were but a farce. Poor Leon Czolgosz, your crime consisted of too +sensitive a social consciousness. Unlike your idealless and +brainless American brothers, your ideals soared above the belly and +the bank account. No wonder you impressed the one human being among +all the infuriated mob at your trial—a newspaper woman—as a +visionary, totally oblivious to your surroundings. Your large, +dreamy eyes must have beheld a new and glorious dawn. +</P> + +<P> +Now, to a recent instance of police-manufactured Anarchist plots. +In that bloodstained city, Chicago, the life of Chief of Police +Shippy was attempted by a young man named Averbuch. Immediately the +cry was sent to the four corners of the world that Averbuch was an +Anarchist, and that Anarchists were responsible for the act. +Everyone who was at all known to entertain Anarchist ideas was +closely watched, a number of people arrested, the library of an +Anarchist group confiscated, and all meetings made impossible. It +goes without saying that, as on various previous occasions, I must +needs be held responsible for the act. Evidently the American police +credit me with occult powers. I did not know Averbuch; in fact, had +never before heard his name, and the only way I could have possibly +"conspired" with him was in my astral body. But, then, the police +are not concerned with logic or justice. What they seek is a target, +to mask their absolute ignorance of the cause, of the psychology of a +political act. Was Averbuch an Anarchist? There is no positive +proof of it. He had been but three months in the country, did not +know the language, and, as far as I could ascertain, was quite +unknown to the Anarchists of Chicago. +</P> + +<P> +What led to his act? Averbuch, like most young Russian immigrants, +undoubtedly believed in the mythical liberty of America. He received +his first baptism by the policeman's club during the brutal +dispersement of the unemployed parade. He further experienced +American equality and opportunity in the vain efforts to find an +economic master. In short, a three months' sojourn in the glorious +land brought him face to face with the fact that the disinherited are +in the same position the world over. In his native land he probably +learned that necessity knows no law—there was no difference between +a Russian and an American policeman. +</P> + +<P> +The question to the intelligent social student is not whether the +acts of Czolgosz or Averbuch were practical, any more than whether +the thunderstorm is practical. The thing that will inevitably +impress itself on the thinking and feeling man and woman is that the +sight of brutal clubbing of innocent victims in a so-called free +Republic, and the degrading, soul-destroying economic struggle, +furnish the spark that kindles the dynamic force in the overwrought, +outraged souls of men like Czolgosz or Averbuch. No amount of +persecution, of hounding, of repression, can stay this social +phenomenon. +</P> + +<P> +But, it is often asked, have not acknowledged Anarchists committed +acts of violence? Certainly they have, always however ready to +shoulder the responsibility. My contention is that they were +impelled, not by the teachings of Anarchism, but by the tremendous +pressure of conditions, making life unbearable to their sensitive +natures. Obviously, Anarchism, or any other social theory, making +man a conscious social unit, will act as a leaven for rebellion. +This is not a mere assertion, but a fact verified by all experience. +A close examination of the circumstances bearing upon this question +will further clarify my position. +</P> + +<P> +Let us consider some of the most important Anarchist acts within the +last two decades. Strange as it may seem, one of the most +significant deeds of political violence occurred here in America, in +connection with the Homestead strike of 1892. +</P> + +<P> +During that memorable time the Carnegie Steel Company organized a +conspiracy to crush the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel +Workers. Henry Clay Frick, then Chairman of the Company, was +intrusted with that democratic task. He lost no time in carrying out +the policy of breaking the Union, the policy which he had so +successfully practiced during his reign of terror in the coke +regions. Secretly, and while peace negotiations were being purposely +prolonged, Frick supervised the military preparations, the +fortification of the Homestead Steel Works, the erection of a high +board fence, capped with barbed wire and provided with loopholes for +sharpshooters. And then, in the dead of night, he attempted to +smuggle his army of hired Pinkerton thugs into Homestead, which act +precipitated the terrible carnage of the steel workers. Not content +with the death of eleven victims, killed in the Pinkerton skirmish, +Henry Clay Frick, good Christian and free American, straightway began +the hounding down of the helpless wives and orphans, by ordering them +out of the wretched Company houses. +</P> + +<P> +The whole country was aroused over these inhuman outrages. Hundreds +of voices were raised in protest, calling on Frick to desist, not to +go too far. Yes, hundreds of people protested,—as one objects to +annoying flies. Only one there was who actively responded to the +outrage at Homestead,—Alexander Berkman. Yes, he was an Anarchist. +He gloried in that fact, because it was the only force that made the +discord between his spiritual longing and the world without at all +bearable. Yet not Anarchism, as such, but the brutal slaughter of +the eleven steel workers was the urge for Alexander Berkman's act, +his attempt on the life of Henry Clay Frick. +</P> + +<P> +The record of European acts of political violence affords numerous +and striking instances of the influence of environment upon sensitive +human beings. +</P> + +<P> +The court speech of Vaillant, who, in 1894, exploded a bomb in the +Paris Chamber of Deputies, strikes the true keynote of the psychology +of such acts: +</P> + +<P> +"Gentlemen, in a few minutes you are to deal your blow, but in +receiving your verdict I shall have at least the satisfaction of +having wounded the existing society, that cursed society in which one +may see a single man spending, uselessly, enough to feed thousands of +families; an infamous society which permits a few individuals to +monopolize all the social wealth, while there are hundreds of +thousands of unfortunates who have not even the bread that is not +refused to dogs, and while entire families are committing suicide for +want of the necessities of life. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, gentlemen, if the governing classes could go down among the +unfortunates! But no, they prefer to remain deaf to their appeals. +It seems that a fatality impels them, like the royalty of the +eighteenth century, toward the precipice which will engulf them, for +woe be to those who remain deaf to the cries of the starving, woe to +those who, believing themselves of superior essence, assume the right +to exploit those beneath them! There comes a time when the people no +longer reason; they rise like a hurricane, and pass away like a +torrent. Then we see bleeding heads impaled on pikes. +</P> + +<P> +"Among the exploited, gentlemen, there are two classes of +individuals: Those of one class, not realizing what they are and what +they might be, take life as it comes, believe that they are born to +be slaves, and content themselves with the little that is given them +in exchange for their labor. But there are others, on the contrary, +who think, who study, and who, looking about them, discover social +iniquities. Is it their fault if they see clearly and suffer at +seeing others suffer? Then they throw themselves into the struggle, +and make themselves the bearers of the popular claims. +</P> + +<P> +"Gentlemen, I am one of these last. Wherever I have gone, I have +seen unfortunates bent beneath the yoke of capital. Everywhere I +have seen the same wounds causing tears of blood to flow, even in the +remoter parts of the inhabited districts of South America, where I +had the right to believe that he who was weary of the pains of +civilization might rest in the shade of the palm trees and there +study nature. Well, there even, more than elsewhere, I have seen +capital come, like a vampire, to suck the last drop of blood of the +unfortunate pariahs. +</P> + +<P> +"Then I came back to France, where it was reserved for me to see my +family suffer atrociously. This was the last drop in the cup of my +sorrow. Tired of leading this life of suffering and cowardice, I +carried this bomb to those who are primarily responsible for social +sufferings. +</P> + +<P> +"I am reproached with the wounds of those who were hit by my +projectiles. Permit me to point out in passing that, if the +bourgeois had not massacred or caused massacres during the +Revolution, it is probable that they would still be under the yoke of +the nobility. On the other hand, figure up the dead and wounded on +Tonquin, Madagascar, Dahomey, adding thereto the thousands, yes, +millions of unfortunates who die in the factories, the mines, and +wherever the grinding power of capital is felt. Add also those who +die of hunger, and all this with the assent of our Deputies. Beside +all this, of how little weight are the reproaches now brought against +me! +</P> + +<P> +"It is true that one does not efface the other; but, after all, are +we not acting on the defensive when we respond to the blows which we +receive from above? I know very well that I shall be told that I +ought to have confined myself to speech for the vindication of the +people's claims. But what can you expect! It takes a loud voice to +make the deaf hear. Too long have they answered our voices by +imprisonment, the rope, rifle volleys. Make no mistake; the +explosion of my bomb is not only the cry of the rebel Vaillant, but +the cry of an entire class which vindicates its rights, and which +will soon add acts to words. For, be sure of it, in vain will they +pass laws. The ideas of the thinkers will not halt; just as, in the +last century, all the governmental forces could not prevent the +Diderots and the Voltaires from spreading emancipating ideas among +the people, so all the existing governmental forces will not prevent +the Reclus, the Darwins, the Spencers, the Ibsens, the Mirbeaus, from +spreading the ideas of justice and liberty which will annihilate the +prejudices that hold the mass in ignorance. And these ideas, +welcomed by the unfortunate, will flower in acts of revolt as they +have done in me, until the day when the disappearance of authority +shall permit all men to organize freely according to their choice, +when we shall each be able to enjoy the product of his labor, and +when those moral maladies called prejudices shall vanish, permitting +human beings to live in harmony, having no other desire than to study +the sciences and love their fellows. +</P> + +<P> +"I conclude, gentlemen, by saying that a society in which one sees +such social inequalities as we see all about us, in which we see +every day suicides caused by poverty, prostitution flaring at every +street corner,—a society whose principal monuments are barracks and +prisons,—such a society must be transformed as soon as possible, on +pain of being eliminated, and that speedily, from the human race. +Hail to him who labors, by no matter what means, for this +transformation! It is this idea that has guided me in my duel with +authority, but as in this duel I have only wounded my adversary, it +is now its turn to strike me. +</P> + +<P> +"Now, gentlemen, to me it matters little what penalty you may +inflict, for, looking at this assembly with the eyes of reason, I can +not help smiling to see you, atoms lost in matter, and reasoning only +because you possess a prolongation of the spinal marrow, assume the +right to judge one of your fellows. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah! gentlemen, how little a thing is your assembly and your verdict +in the history of humanity; and human history, in its turn, is +likewise a very little thing in the whirlwind which bears it through +immensity, and which is destined to disappear, or at least to be +transformed, in order to begin again the same history and the same +facts, a veritably perpetual play of cosmic forces renewing and +transferring themselves forever." +</P> + +<P> +Will anyone say that Vaillant was an ignorant, vicious man, or a +lunatic? Was not his mind singularly clear, analytic? No wonder +that the best intellectual forces of France spoke in his behalf, and +signed the petition to President Carnot, asking him to commute +Vaillant's death sentence. +</P> + +<P> +Carnot would listen to no entreaty; he insisted on more than a pound +of flesh, he wanted Vaillant's life, and then—the inevitable +happened: President Carnot was killed. On the handle of the stiletto +used by the ATTENTATER was engraved, significantly, +</P> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> + VAILLANT! +</H4> + +<BR> + +<P> +Santa Caserio was an Anarchist. He could have gotten away, saved +himself; but he remained, he stood the consequences. +</P> + +<P> +His reasons for the act are set forth in so simple, dignified, and +childlike manner that one is reminded of the touching tribute paid +Caserio by his teacher of the little village school, Ada Negri, the +Italian poet, who spoke of him as a sweet, tender plant, of too fine +and sensitive texture to stand the cruel strain of the world. +</P> + +<P> +"Gentlemen of the Jury! I do not propose to make a defense, but only +an explanation of my deed. +</P> + +<P> +"Since my early youth I began to learn that present society is badly +organized, so badly that every day many wretched men commit suicide, +leaving women and children in the most terrible distress. Workers, +by thousands, seek for work and can not find it. Poor families beg +for food and shiver with cold; they suffer the greatest misery; the +little ones ask their miserable mothers for food, and the mothers +can not give them, because they have nothing. The few things +which the home contained have already been sold or pawned. All they +can do is beg alms; often they are arrested as vagabonds. +</P> + +<P> +"I went away from my native place because I was frequently moved to +tears at seeing little girls of eight or ten years obliged to work +fifteen hours a day for the paltry pay of twenty centimes. Young +women of eighteen or twenty also work fifteen hours daily, for a +mockery of remuneration. And that happens not only to my fellow +countrymen, but to all the workers, who sweat the whole day long for +a crust of bread, while their labor produces wealth in abundance. +The workers are obliged to live under the most wretched conditions, +and their food consists of a little bread, a few spoonfuls of rice, +and water; so by the time they are thirty or forty years old, they +are exhausted, and go to die in the hospitals. Besides, in +consequence of bad food and overwork, these unhappy creatures are, by +hundreds, devoured by pellagra—a disease that, in my country, +attacks, as the physicians say, those who are badly fed and lead a +life of toil and privation. +</P> + +<P> +"I have observed that there are a great many people who are hungry, +and many children who suffer, whilst bread and clothes abound in the +towns. I saw many and large shops full of clothing and woolen +stuffs, and I also saw warehouses full of wheat and Indian corn, +suitable for those who are in want. And, on the other hand, I saw +thousands of people who do not work, who produce nothing and live on +the labor of others; who spend every day thousands of francs for +their amusement; who debauch the daughters of the workers; who own +dwellings of forty or fifty rooms; twenty or thirty horses, many +servants; in a word, all the pleasures of life. +</P> + +<P> +"I believed in God; but when I saw so great an inequality between +men, I acknowledged that it was not God who created man, but man who +created God. And I discovered that those who want their property to +be respected, have an interest in preaching the existence of paradise +and hell, and in keeping the people in ignorance. +</P> + +<P> +"Not long ago, Vaillant threw a bomb in the Chamber of Deputies, to +protest against the present system of society. He killed no one, +only wounded some persons; yet bourgeois justice sentenced him to +death. And not satisfied with the condemnation of the guilty man, +they began to pursue the Anarchists, and arrest not only those who +had known Vaillant, but even those who had merely been present at any +Anarchist lecture. +</P> + +<P> +"The government did not think of their wives and children. It did +not consider that the men kept in prison were not the only ones who +suffered, and that their little ones cried for bread. Bourgeois +justice did not trouble itself about these innocent ones, who do not +yet know what society is. It is no fault of theirs that their +fathers are in prison; they only want to eat. +</P> + +<P> +"The government went on searching private houses, opening private +letters, forbidding lectures and meetings, and practicing the most +infamous oppressions against us. Even now, hundreds of Anarchists +are arrested for having written an article in a newspaper, or for +having expressed an opinion in public. +</P> + +<P> +"Gentlemen of the Jury, you are representatives of bourgeois society. +If you want my head, take it; but do not believe that in so doing you +will stop the Anarchist propaganda. Take care, for men reap what +they have sown." +</P> + +<P> +During a religious procession in 1896, at Barcelona, a bomb was +thrown. Immediately three hundred men and women were arrested. +Some were Anarchists, but the majority were trade unionists and +Socialists. They were thrown into that terrible bastille, Montjuich, +and subjected to most horrible tortures. After a number had been +killed, or had gone insane, their cases were taken up by the liberal +press of Europe, resulting in the release of a few survivors. +</P> + +<P> +The man primarily responsible for this revival of the Inquisition was +Canovas del Castillo, Prime Minister of Spain. It was he who ordered +the torturing of the victims, their flesh burned, their bones +crushed, their tongues cut out. Practiced in the art of brutality +during his regime in Cuba, Canovas remained absolutely deaf to the +appeals and protests of the awakened civilized conscience. +</P> + +<P> +In 1897 Canovas del Castillo was shot to death by a young Italian, +Angiolillo. The latter was an editor in his native land, and his +bold utterances soon attracted the attention of the authorities. +Persecution began, and Angiolillo fled from Italy to Spain, thence to +France and Belgium, finally settling in England. While there he +found employment as a compositor, and immediately became the friend +of all his colleagues. One of the latter thus described Angiolillo: +"His appearance suggested the journalist rather than the disciple of +Guttenberg. His delicate hands, moreover, betrayed the fact that he +had not grown up at the 'case.' With his handsome frank face, his +soft dark hair, his alert expression, he looked the very type of the +vivacious Southerner. Angiolillo spoke Italian, Spanish, and French, +but no English; the little French I knew was not sufficient to carry +on a prolonged conversation. However, Angiolillo soon began to +acquire the English idiom; he learned rapidly, playfully, and it was +not long until he became very popular with his fellow compositors. +His distinguished and yet modest manner, and his consideration +towards his colleagues, won him the hearts of all the boys." +</P> + +<P> +Angiolillo soon became familiar with the detailed accounts in the +press. He read of the great wave of human sympathy with the helpless +victims at Montjuich. On Trafalgar Square he saw with his own eyes +the results of those atrocities, when the few Spaniards, who escaped +Castillo's clutches, came to seek asylum in England. There, at the +great meeting, these men opened their shirts and showed the horrible +scars of burned flesh. Angiolillo saw, and the effect surpassed a +thousand theories; the impetus was beyond words, beyond arguments, +beyond himself even. +</P> + +<P> +Senor Antonio Canovas del Castillo, Prime Minister of Spain, +sojourned at Santa Agueda. As usual in such cases, all strangers +were kept away from his exalted presence. One exception was made, +however, in the case of a distinguished looking, elegantly dressed +Italian—the representative, it was understood, of an important +journal. The distinguished gentleman was—Angiolillo. +</P> + +<P> +Senor Canovas, about to leave his house, stepped on the veranda. +Suddenly Angiolillo confronted him. A shot rang out, and Canovas was +a corpse. +</P> + +<P> +The wife of the Prime Minister rushed upon the scene. "Murderer! +Murderer!" she cried, pointing at Angiolillo. The latter bowed. +"Pardon, Madame," he said, "I respect you as a lady, but I regret +that you were the wife of that man." +</P> + +<P> +Calmly Angiolillo faced death. Death in its most terrible form—for +the man whose soul was as a child's. +</P> + +<P> +He was garroted. His body lay, sun-kissed, till the day hid in +twilight. And the people came, and pointing the finger of terror and +fear, they said: "There—the criminal—the cruel murderer." +</P> + +<P> +How stupid, how cruel is ignorance! It misunderstands always, +condemns always. +</P> + +<P> +A remarkable parallel to the case of Angiolillo is to be found in the +act of Gaetano Bresci, whose ATTENTAT upon King Umberto made an +American city famous. +</P> + +<P> +Bresci came to this country, this land of opportunity, where one has +but to try to meet with golden success. Yes, he too would try to +succeed. He would work hard and faithfully. Work had no terrors +for him, if it would only help him to independence, manhood, +self-respect. +</P> + +<P> +Thus full of hope and enthusiasm he settled in Paterson, New Jersey, +and there found a lucrative job at six dollars per week in one of the +weaving mills of the town. Six whole dollars per week was, no doubt, +a fortune for Italy, but not enough to breathe on in the new country. +He loved his little home. He was a good husband and devoted father +to his BAMBINA, Bianca, whom he adored. He worked and worked for a +number of years. He actually managed to save one hundred dollars out +of his six dollars per week. +</P> + +<P> +Bresci had an ideal. Foolish, I know, for a workingman to have an +ideal,—the Anarchist paper published in Paterson, LA QUESTIONE +SOCIALE. +</P> + +<P> +Every week, though tired from work, he would help to set up the +paper. Until later hours he would assist, and when the little +pioneer had exhausted all resources and his comrades were in despair, +Bresci brought cheer and hope, one hundred dollars, the entire +savings of years. That would keep the paper afloat. +</P> + +<P> +In his native land people were starving. The crops had been poor, +and the peasants saw themselves face to face with famine. They +appealed to their good King Umberto; he would help. And he did. +The wives of the peasants who had gone to the palace of the King, +held up in mute silence their emaciated infants. Surely that would +move him. And then the soldiers fired and killed those poor fools. +</P> + +<P> +Bresci, at work in the weaving mill at Paterson, read of the horrible +massacre. His mental eye beheld the defenceless women and innocent +infants of his native land, slaughtered right before the good King. +His soul recoiled in horror. At night he heard the groans of the +wounded. Some may have been his comrades, his own flesh. Why, why +these foul murders? +</P> + +<P> +The little meeting of the Italian Anarchist group in Paterson ended +almost in a fight. Bresci had demanded his hundred dollars. His +comrades begged, implored him to give them a respite. The paper +would go down if they were to return him his loan. But Bresci +insisted on its return. +</P> + +<P> +How cruel and stupid is ignorance. Bresci got the money, but lost +the good will, the confidence of his comrades. They would have +nothing more to do with one whose greed was greater than his ideals. +</P> + +<P> +On the twenty-ninth of July, 1900, King Umberto was shot at Monzo. +The young Italian weaver of Paterson, Gaetano Bresci, had taken the +life of the good King. +</P> + +<P> +Paterson was placed under police surveillance, everyone known as an +Anarchist hounded and persecuted, and the act of Bresci ascribed to +the teachings of Anarchism. As if the teachings of Anarchism in its +extremest form could equal the force of those slain women and +infants, who had pilgrimed to the King for aid. As if any spoken +word, ever so eloquent, could burn into a human soul with such white +heat as the life blood trickling drop by drop from those dying forms. +The ordinary man is rarely moved either by word or deed; and those +whose social kinship is the greatest living force need no appeal to +respond—even as does steel to the magnet—to the wrongs and horrors +of society. +</P> + +<P> +If a social theory is a strong factor inducing acts of political +violence, how are we to account for the recent violent outbreaks in +India, where Anarchism has hardly been born. More than any other old +philosophy, Hindu teachings have exalted passive resistance, the +drifting of life, the Nirvana, as the highest spiritual ideal. Yet +the social unrest in India is daily growing, and has only recently +resulted in an act of political violence, the killing of Sir Curzon +Wyllie by the Hindu, Madar Sol Dhingra. +</P> + +<P> +If such a phenomenon can occur in a country socially and individually +permeated for centuries with the spirit of passivity, can one +question the tremendous, revolutionizing effect on human character +exerted by great social iniquities? Can one doubt the logic, the +justice of these words: +</P> + +<P> +"Repression, tyranny, and indiscriminate punishment of innocent men +have been the watchwords of the government of the alien domination in +India ever since we began the commercial boycott of English goods. +The tiger qualities of the British are much in evidence now in India. +They think that by the strength of the sword they will keep down +India! It is this arrogance that has brought about the bomb, and the +more they tyrannize over a helpless and unarmed people, the more +terrorism will grow. We may deprecate terrorism as outlandish and +foreign to our culture, but it is inevitable as long as this tyranny +continues, for it is not the terrorists that are to be blamed, but +the tyrants who are responsible for it. It is the only resource for +a helpless and unarmed people when brought to the verge of despair. +It is never criminal on their part. The crime lies with the +tyrant."[4] +</P> + +<P> +Even conservative scientists are beginning to realize that heredity +is not the sole factor moulding human character. Climate, food, +occupation; nay, color, light, and sound must be considered in the +study of human psychology. +</P> + +<P> +If that be true, how much more correct is the contention that great +social abuses will and must influence different minds and +temperaments in a different way. And how utterly fallacious the +stereotyped notion that the teachings of Anarchism, or certain +exponents of these teachings, are responsible for the acts of +political violence. +</P> + +<P> +Anarchism, more than any other social theory, values human life above +things. All Anarchists agree with Tolstoy in this fundamental truth: +if the production of any commodity necessitates the sacrifice of +human life, society should do without that commodity, but it can not +do without that life. That, however, nowise indicates that Anarchism +teaches submission. How can it, when it knows that all suffering, +all misery, all ills, result from the evil of submission? +</P> + +<P> +Has not some American ancestor said, many years ago, that resistance +to tyranny is obedience to God? And he was not an Anarchist even. +I would say that resistance to tyranny is man's highest ideal. So +long as tyranny exists, in whatever form, man's deepest aspiration +must resist it as inevitably as man must breathe. +</P> + +<P> +Compared with the wholesale violence of capital and government, +political acts of violence are but a drop in the ocean. That so few +resist is the strongest proof how terrible must be the conflict +between their souls and unbearable social iniquities. +</P> + +<P> +High strung, like a violin string, they weep and moan for life, so +relentless, so cruel, so terribly inhuman. In a desperate moment the +string breaks. Untuned ears hear nothing but discord. But those who +feel the agonized cry understand its harmony; they hear in it the +fulfillment of the most compelling moment of human nature. +</P> + +<P> +Such is the psychology of political violence. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[1] A revolutionist committing an act of political violence. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[2] PARIS AND THE SOCIAL REVOLUTION. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[3] From a pamphlet issued by the Freedom Group of London. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[4] THE FREE HINDUSTAN. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="prisons"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +PRISONS: A SOCIAL CRIME AND FAILURE +</H3> + +<BR> + +<P> +In 1849, Feodor Dostoyevsky wrote on the wall of his prison cell the +following story of THE PRIEST AND THE DEVIL: +</P> + +<P> +"'Hello, you little fat father!' the devil said to the priest. +'What made you lie so to those poor, misled people? What tortures of +hell did you depict? Don't you know they are already suffering the +tortures of hell in their earthly lives? Don't you know that you and +the authorities of the State are my representatives on earth? It is +you that make them suffer the pains of hell with which you threaten +them. Don't you know this? Well, then, come with me!' +</P> + +<P> +"The devil grabbed the priest by the collar, lifted him high in the +air, and carried him to a factory, to an iron foundry. He saw the +workmen there running and hurrying to and fro, and toiling in the +scorching heat. Very soon the thick, heavy air and the heat are too +much for the priest. With tears in his eyes, he pleads with the +devil: 'Let me go! Let me leave this hell!' +</P> + +<P> +"'Oh, my dear friend, I must show you many more places.' The devil +gets hold of him again and drags him off to a farm. There he sees +workmen threshing the grain. The dust and heat are insufferable. +The overseer carries a knout, and unmercifully beats anyone who falls +to the ground overcome by hard toil or hunger. +</P> + +<P> +"Next the priest is taken to the huts where these same workers live +with their families—dirty, cold, smoky, ill-smelling holes. The +devil grins. He points out the poverty and hardships which are at +home here. +</P> + +<P> +"'Well, isn't this enough?' he asks. And it seems as if even he, the +devil, pities the people. The pious servant of God can hardly bear +it. With uplifted hands he begs: 'Let me go away from here. Yes, +yes! This is hell on earth!' +</P> + +<P> +"'Well, then, you see. And you still promise them another hell. +You torment them, torture them to death mentally when they are +already all but dead physically! Come on! I will show you one more +hell—one more, the very worst.' +</P> + +<P> +"He took him to a prison and showed him a dungeon, with its foul air +and the many human forms, robbed of all health and energy, lying on +the floor, covered with vermin that were devouring their poor, naked, +emaciated bodies. +</P> + +<P> +"'Take off your silken clothes,' said the devil to the priest, 'put +on your ankles heavy chains such as these unfortunates wear; lie down +on the cold and filthy floor—and then talk to them about a hell that +still awaits them!' +</P> + +<P> +"'No, no!' answered the priest, 'I cannot think of anything more +dreadful than this. I entreat you, let me go away from here!' +</P> + +<P> +"'Yes, this is hell. There can be no worse hell than this. Did you +not know it? Did you not know that these men and women whom you are +frightening with the picture of a hell hereafter—did you not know +that they are in hell right here, before they die?'" +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +This was written fifty years ago in dark Russia, on the wall of one +of the most horrible prisons. Yet who can deny that the same applies +with equal force to the present time, even to American prisons? +</P> + +<P> +With all our boasted reforms, our great social changes, and our +far-reaching discoveries, human beings continue to be sent to the +worst of hells, wherein they are outraged, degraded, and tortured, +that society may be "protected" from the phantoms of its own making. +</P> + +<P> +Prison, a social protection? What monstrous mind ever conceived such +an idea? Just as well say that health can be promoted by a +widespread contagion. +</P> + +<P> +After eighteen months of horror in an English prison, Oscar Wilde +gave to the world his great masterpiece, THE BALLAD OF READING GOAL: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + The vilest deeds, like poison weeds,<BR> + Bloom well in prison air;<BR> + It is only what is good in Man<BR> + That wastes and withers there.<BR> + Pale Anguish keeps the heavy gate,<BR> + And the Warder is Despair.<BR> +</P> + +<P> +Society goes on perpetuating this poisonous air, not realizing that +out of it can come naught but the most poisonous results. +</P> + +<P> +We are spending at the present $3,500,000 per day, $1,000,095,000 per +year, to maintain prison institutions, and that in a democratic +country,—a sum almost as large as the combined output of wheat, +valued at $750,000,000, and the output of coal, valued at +$350,000,000. Professor Bushnell of Washington, D.C., estimates the +cost of prisons at $6,000,000,000 annually, and Dr. G. Frank Lydston, +an eminent American writer on crime, gives $5,000,000,000 annually as +a reasonable figure. Such unheard-of expenditure for the purpose of +maintaining vast armies of human beings caged up like wild beasts![1] +</P> + +<P> +Yet crimes are on the increase. Thus we learn that in America there +are four and a half times as many crimes to every million population +today as there were twenty years ago. +</P> + +<P> +The most horrible aspect is that our national crime is murder, not +robbery, embezzlement, or rape, as in the South. London is five +times as large as Chicago, yet there are one hundred and eighteen +murders annually in the latter city, while only twenty in London. +Nor is Chicago the leading city in crime, since it is only seventh on +the list, which is headed by four Southern cities, and San Francisco +and Los Angeles. In view of such a terrible condition of affairs, it +seems ridiculous to prate of the protection society derives from its +prisons. +</P> + +<P> +The average mind is slow in grasping a truth, but when the most +thoroughly organized, centralized institution, maintained at an +excessive national expense, has proven a complete social failure, the +dullest must begin to question its right to exist. The time is past +when we can be content with our social fabric merely because it is +"ordained by divine right," or by the majesty of the law. +</P> + +<P> +The widespread prison investigations, agitation, and education during +the last few years are conclusive proof that men are learning to dig +deep into the very bottom of society, down to the causes of the +terrible discrepancy between social and individual life. +</P> + +<P> +Why, then, are prisons a social crime and a failure? To answer this +vital question it behooves us to seek the nature and cause of crimes, +the methods employed in coping with them, and the effects these +methods produce in ridding society of the curse and horror of crimes. +</P> + +<P> +First, as to the NATURE of crime: +</P> + +<P> +Havelock Ellis divides crime into four phases, the political, the +passional, the insane, and the occasional. He says that the +political criminal is the victim of an attempt of a more or less +despotic government to preserve its own stability. He is not +necessarily guilty of an unsocial offense; he simply tries to +overturn a certain political order which may itself be anti-social. +This truth is recognized all over the world, except in America where +the foolish notion still prevails that in a Democracy there is no +place for political criminals. Yet John Brown was a political +criminal; so were the Chicago Anarchists; so is every striker. +Consequently, says Havelock Ellis, the political criminal of our time +or place may be the hero, martyr, saint of another age. Lombroso +calls the political criminal the true precursor of the progressive +movement of humanity. +</P> + +<P> +"The criminal by passion is usually a man of wholesome birth and +honest life, who under the stress of some great, unmerited wrong has +wrought justice for himself."[2] +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Hugh C. Weir, in THE MENACE OF THE POLICE, cites the case of Jim +Flaherty, a criminal by passion, who, instead of being saved by +society, is turned into a drunkard and a recidivist, with a ruined +and poverty-stricken family as the result. +</P> + +<P> +A more pathetic type is Archie, the victim in Brand Whitlock's novel, +THE TURN OF THE BALANCE, the greatest American expose of crime in the +making. Archie, even more than Flaherty, was driven to crime and +death by the cruel inhumanity of his surroundings, and by the +unscrupulous hounding of the machinery of the law. Archie and +Flaherty are but the types of many thousands, demonstrating how the +legal aspects of crime, and the methods of dealing with it, help to +create the disease which is undermining our entire social life. +</P> + +<P> +"The insane criminal really can no more be considered a criminal than +a child, since he is mentally in the same condition as an infant or +an animal."[3] +</P> + +<P> +The law already recognizes that, but only in rare cases of a very +flagrant nature, or when the culprit's wealth permits the luxury of +criminal insanity. It has become quite fashionable to be the victim +of paranoia. But on the whole the "sovereignty of justice" still +continues to punish criminally insane with the whole severity of its +power. Thus Mr. Ellis quotes from Dr. Richter's statistics showing +that in Germany, one hundred and six madmen, out of one hundred and +forty-four criminal insane, were condemned to severe punishment. +</P> + +<P> +The occasional criminal "represents by far the largest class of our +prison population, hence is the greatest menace to social +well-being." What is the cause that compels a vast army of the human +family to take to crime, to prefer the hideous life within prison +walls to the life outside? Certainly that cause must be an iron +master, who leaves its victims no avenue of escape, for the most +depraved human being loves liberty. +</P> + +<P> +This terrific force is conditioned in our cruel social and economic +arrangement. I do not mean to deny the biologic, physiologic, or +psychologic factors in creating crime; but there is hardly an +advanced criminologist who will not concede that the social and +economic influences are the most relentless, the most poisonous germs +of crime. Granted even that there are innate criminal tendencies, it +is none the less true that these tendencies find rich nutrition in +our social environment. +</P> + +<P> +There is close relation, says Havelock Ellis, between crimes against +the person and the price of alcohol, between crimes against property +and the price of wheat. He quotes Quetelet and Lacassagne, the +former looking upon society as the preparer of crime, and the +criminals as instruments that execute them. The latter find that +"the social environment is the cultivation medium of criminality; +that the criminal is the microbe, an element which only becomes +important when it finds the medium which causes it to ferment; EVERY +SOCIETY HAS THE CRIMINALS IT DESERVES."[4] +</P> + +<P> +The most "prosperous" industrial period makes it impossible for the +worker to earn enough to keep up health and vigor. And as prosperity +is, at best, an imaginary condition, thousands of people are +constantly added to the host of the unemployed. From East to West, +from South to North, this vast army tramps in search of work or food, +and all they find is the workhouse or the slums. Those who have a +spark of self-respect left, prefer open defiance, prefer crime to the +emaciated, degraded position of poverty. +</P> + +<P> +Edward Carpenter estimates that five-sixths of indictable crimes +consist in some violation of property rights; but that is too low a +figure. A thorough investigation would prove that nine crimes out of +ten could be traced, directly or indirectly, to our economic and +social iniquities, to our system of remorseless exploitation and +robbery. There is no criminal so stupid but recognizes this terrible +fact, though he may not be able to account for it. +</P> + +<P> +A collection of criminal philosophy, which Havelock Ellis, Lombroso, +and other eminent men have compiled, shows that the criminal feels +only too keenly that it is society that drives him to crime. A +Milanese thief said to Lombroso: "I do not rob, I merely take from +the rich their superfluities; besides, do not advocates and merchants +rob?" A murderer wrote: "Knowing that three-fourths of the social +virtues are cowardly vices, I thought an open assault on a rich man +would be less ignoble than the cautious combination of fraud." +Another wrote: "I am imprisoned for stealing a half dozen eggs. +Ministers who rob millions are honored. Poor Italy!" An educated +convict said to Mr. Davitt: "The laws of society are framed for the +purpose of securing the wealth of the world to power and calculation, +thereby depriving the larger portion of mankind of its rights and +chances. Why should they punish me for taking by somewhat similar +means from those who have taken more than they had a right to?" The +same man added: "Religion robs the soul of its independence; +patriotism is the stupid worship of the world for which the +well-being and the peace of the inhabitants were sacrificed by those +who profit by it, while the laws of the land, in restraining natural +desires, were waging war on the manifest spirit of the law of our +beings. Compared with this," he concluded, "thieving is an honorable +pursuit."[5] +</P> + +<P> +Verily, there is greater truth in this philosophy than in all the +law-and-moral books of society. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The economic, political, moral, and physical factors being the +microbes of crime, how does society meet the situation? +</P> + +<P> +The methods of coping with crime have no doubt undergone several +changes, but mainly in a theoretic sense. In practice, society has +retained the primitive motive in dealing with the offender; that is, +revenge. It has also adopted the theologic idea; namely, punishment; +while the legal and "civilized" methods consist of deterrence or +terror, and reform. We shall presently see that all four modes have +failed utterly, and that we are today no nearer a solution than in +the dark ages. +</P> + +<P> +The natural impulse of the primitive man to strike back, to avenge a +wrong, is out of date. Instead, the civilized man, stripped of +courage and daring, has delegated to an organized machinery the duty +of avenging his wrongs, in the foolish belief that the State is +justified in doing what he no longer has the manhood or consistency +to do. The majesty-of-the-law is a reasoning thing; it would not +stoop to primitive instincts. Its mission is of a "higher" nature. +True, it is still steeped in the theologic muddle, which proclaims +punishment as a means of purification, or the vicarious atonement of +sin. But legally and socially the statute exercises punishment, not +merely as an infliction of pain upon the offender, but also for its +terrifying effect upon others. +</P> + +<P> +What is the real basis of punishment, however? The notion of a free +will, the idea that man is at all times a free agent for good or +evil; if he chooses the latter, he must be made to pay the price. +Although this theory has long been exploded, and thrown upon the +dustheap, it continues to be applied daily by the entire machinery of +government, turning it into the most cruel and brutal tormentor of +human life. The only reason for its continuance is the still more +cruel notion that the greater the terror punishment spreads, the more +certain its preventative effect. +</P> + +<P> +Society is using the most drastic methods in dealing with the social +offender. Why do they not deter? Although in America a man is +supposed to be considered innocent until proven guilty, the +instruments of law, the police, carry on a reign of terror, making +indiscriminate arrests, beating, clubbing, bullying people, using the +barbarous method of the "third degree," subjecting their unfortunate +victims to the foul air of the station house, and the still fouler +language of its guardians. Yet crimes are rapidly multiplying, and +society is paying the price. On the other hand, it is an open secret +that when the unfortunate citizen has been given the full "mercy" of +the law, and for the sake of safety is hidden in the worst of hells, +his real Calvary begins. Robbed of his rights as a human being, +degraded to a mere automaton without will or feeling, dependent +entirely upon the mercy of brutal keepers, he daily goes through a +process of dehumanization, compared with which savage revenge was +mere child's play. +</P> + +<P> +There is not a single penal institution or reformatory in the United +States where men are not tortured "to be made good," by means of the +blackjack, the club, the straightjacket, the water-cure, the "humming +bird" (an electrical contrivance run along the human body), the +solitary, the bullring, and starvation diet. In these institutions +his will is broken, his soul degraded, his spirit subdued by the +deadly monotony and routine of prison life. In Ohio, Illinois, +Pennsylvania, Missouri, and in the South, these horrors have become +so flagrant as to reach the outside world, while in most other +prisons the same Christian methods still prevail. But prison walls +rarely allow the agonized shrieks of the victims to escape—prison +walls are thick, they dull the sound. Society might with greater +immunity abolish all prisons at once, than to hope for protection +from these twentieth century chambers of horrors. +</P> + +<P> +Year after year the gates of prison hells return to the world an +emaciated, deformed, willless, ship-wrecked crew of humanity, with +the Cain mark on their foreheads, their hopes crushed, all their +natural inclinations thwarted. With nothing but hunger and +inhumanity to greet them, these victims soon sink back into crime as +the only possibility of existence. It is not at all an unusual thing +to find men and women who have spent half their lives—nay, almost +their entire existence—in prison. I know a woman on Blackwell's +Island, who had been in and out thirty-eight times; and through a +friend I learn that a young boy of seventeen, whom he had nursed and +cared for in the Pittsburg penitentiary, had never known the meaning +of liberty. From the reformatory to the penitentiary had been the +path of this boy's life, until, broken in body, he died a victim of +social revenge. These personal experiences are substantiated by +extensive data giving overwhelming proof of the utter futility of +prisons as a means of deterrence or reform. +</P> + +<P> +Well-meaning persons are now working for a new departure in the +prison question,—reclamation, to restore once more to the prisoner +the possibility of becoming a human being. Commendable as this is, I +fear it is impossible to hope for good results from pouring good wine +into a musty bottle. Nothing short of a complete reconstruction of +society will deliver mankind from the cancer of crime. Still, if the +dull edge of our social conscience would be sharpened, the penal +institutions might be given a new coat of varnish. But the first +step to be taken is the renovation of the social consciousness, which +is in a rather dilapidated condition. It is sadly in need to be +awakened to the fact that crime is a question of degree, that we all +have the rudiments of crime in us, more or less, according to our +mental, physical, and social environment; and that the individual +criminal is merely a reflex of the tendencies of the aggregate. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +With the social consciousness awakened, the average individual may +learn to refuse the "honor" of being the bloodhound of the law. He +may cease to persecute, despise, and mistrust the social offender, +and give him a chance to live and breathe among his fellows. +Institutions are, of course, harder to reach. They are cold, +impenetrable, and cruel; still, with the social consciousness +quickened, it might be possible to free the prison victims from the +brutality of prison officials, guards, and keepers. Public opinion +is a powerful weapon; keepers of human prey, even, are afraid of it. +They may be taught a little humanity, especially if they realize that +their jobs depend upon it. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +But the most important step is to demand for the prisoner the right +to work while in prison, with some monetary recompense that would +enable him to lay aside a little for the day of his release, the +beginning of a new life. +</P> + +<P> +It is almost ridiculous to hope much from present society when we +consider that workingmen, wage slaves themselves, object to convict +labor. I shall not go into the cruelty of this objection, but merely +consider the impracticability of it. To begin with, the opposition +so far raised by organized labor has been directed against windmills. +Prisoners have always worked; only the State has been their +exploiter, even as the individual employer has been the robber of +organized labor. The States have either set the convicts to work for +the government, or they have farmed convict labor to private +individuals. Twenty-nine of the States pursue the latter plan. The +Federal government and seventeen States have discarded it, as have +the leading nations of Europe, since it leads to hideous overworking +and abuse of prisoners, and to endless graft. +</P> + +<P> +Rhode Island, the State dominated by Aldrich, offers perhaps the +worst example. Under a five-year contract, dated July 7th, 1906, and +renewable for five years more at the option of private contractors, +the labor of the inmates of the Rhode Island Penitentiary and the +Providence County Jail is sold to the Reliance-Sterling Mfg. Co. at +the rate of a trifle less than 25 cents a day per man. This Company +is really a gigantic Prison Labor Trust, for it also leases the +convict labor of Connecticut, Michigan, Indiana, Nebraska, and South +Dakota penitentiaries, and the reformatories of New Jersey, Indiana, +Illinois, and Wisconsin, eleven establishments in all. +</P> + +<P> +The enormity of the graft under the Rhode Island contract may be +estimated from the fact that this same Company pays 62 1/2 cents a +day in Nebraska for the convict's labor, and that Tennessee, for +example, gets $1.10 a day for a convict's work from the Gray-Dudley +Hardware Co.; Missouri gets 70 cents a day from the Star Overall Mfg. +Co.; West Virginia 65 cents a day from the Kraft Mfg. Co., and +Maryland 55 cents a day from Oppenheim, Oberndorf & Co., shirt +manufacturers. The very difference in prices points to enormous +graft. For example, the Reliance-Sterling Mfg. Co. manufactures +shirts, the cost of free labor being not less than $1.20 per dozen, +while it pays Rhode Island thirty cents a dozen. Furthermore, the +State charges this Trust no rent for the use of its huge factory, +charges nothing for power, heat, light, or even drainage, and exacts +no taxes. What graft! +</P> + +<P> +It is estimated that more than twelve million dollars' worth of +workingmen's shirts and overalls is produced annually in this country +by prison labor. It is a woman's industry, and the first reflection +that arises is that an immense amount of free female labor is thus +displaced. The second consideration is that male convicts, who +should be learning trades that would give them some chance of being +self-supporting after their release, are kept at this work at which +they can not possibly make a dollar. This is the more serious when +we consider that much of this labor is done in reformatories, which +so loudly profess to be training their inmates to become useful +citizens. +</P> + +<P> +The third, and most important, consideration is that the enormous +profits thus wrung from convict labor are a constant incentive to the +contractors to exact from their unhappy victims tasks altogether +beyond their strength, and to punish them cruelly when their work +does not come up to the excessive demands made. +</P> + +<P> +Another word on the condemnation of convicts to tasks at which they +cannot hope to make a living after release. Indiana, for example, is +a State that has made a great splurge over being in the front rank of +modern penological improvements. Yet, according to the report +rendered in 1908 by the training school of its "reformatory," 135 +were engaged in the manufacture of chains, 207 in that of shirts, and +255 in the foundry—a total of 597 in three occupations. But at this +so-called reformatory 59 occupations were represented by the inmates, +39 of which were connected with country pursuits. Indiana, like +other States, professes to be training the inmates of her reformatory +to occupations by which they will be able to make their living when +released. She actually sets them to work making chains, shirts, and +brooms, the latter for the benefit of the Louisville Fancy Grocery +Co. Broom making is a trade largely monopolized by the blind, shirt +making is done by women, and there is only one free chain factory in +the State, and at that a released convict can not hope to get +employment. The whole thing is a cruel farce. +</P> + +<P> +If, then, the States can be instrumental in robbing their helpless +victims of such tremendous profits, is it not high time for organized +labor to stop its idle howl, and to insist on decent remuneration for +the convict, even as labor organizations claim for themselves? In +that way workingmen would kill the germ which makes of the prisoner +an enemy to the interests of labor. I have said elsewhere that +thousands of convicts, incompetent and without a trade, without means +of subsistence, are yearly turned back into the social fold. These +men and women must live, for even an ex-convict has needs. Prison +life has made them anti-social beings, and the rigidly closed doors +that meet them on their release are not likely to decrease their +bitterness. The inevitable result is that they form a favorable +nucleus out of which scabs, blacklegs, detectives, and policemen are +drawn, only too willing to do the master's bidding. Thus organized +labor, by its foolish opposition to work in prison, defeats its own +ends. It helps to create poisonous fumes that stifle every attempt +for economic betterment. If the workingman wants to avoid these +effects, he should INSIST on the right of the convict to work, he +should meet him as a brother, take him into his organization, and +WITH HIS AID TURN AGAINST THE SYSTEM WHICH GRINDS THEM BOTH. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Last, but not least, is the growing realization of the barbarity and +the inadequacy of the definite sentence. Those who believe in, and +earnestly aim at, a change are fast coming to the conclusion that man +must be given an opportunity to make good. And how is he to do it +with ten, fifteen, or twenty years' imprisonment before him? The +hope of liberty and of opportunity is the only incentive to life, +especially the prisoner's life. Society has sinned so long against +him—it ought at least to leave him that. I am not very sanguine +that it will, or that any real change in that direction can take +place until the conditions that breed both the prisoner and the +jailer will be forever abolished. +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + Out of his mouth a red, red rose!<BR> + Out of his heart a white!<BR> + For who can say by what strange way<BR> + Christ brings his will to light,<BR> + Since the barren staff the pilgrim bore<BR> + Bloomed in the great Pope's sight.<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[1] CRIME AND CRIMINALS. W. C. Owen. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[2] THE CRIMINAL, Havelock Ellis. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[3] THE CRIMINAL. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[4] THE CRIMINAL. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[5] THE CRIMINAL. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="patriotism"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +PATRIOTISM: A MENACE TO LIBERTY +</H3> + +<BR> + +<P> +What is patriotism? Is it love of one's birthplace, the place of +childhood's recollections and hopes, dreams and aspirations? Is it +the place where, in childlike naivety, we would watch the fleeting +clouds, and wonder why we, too, could not run so swiftly? The place +where we would count the milliard glittering stars, terror-stricken +lest each one "an eye should be," piercing the very depths of our +little souls? Is it the place where we would listen to the music of +the birds, and long to have wings to fly, even as they, to distant +lands? Or the place where we would sit at mother's knee, enraptured +by wonderful tales of great deeds and conquests? In short, is it +love for the spot, every inch representing dear and precious +recollections of a happy, joyous, and playful childhood? +</P> + +<P> +If that were patriotism, few American men of today could be called +upon to be patriotic, since the place of play has been turned into +factory, mill, and mine, while deafening sounds of machinery have +replaced the music of the birds. Nor can we longer hear the tales of +great deeds, for the stories our mothers tell today are but those of +sorrow, tears, and grief. +</P> + +<P> +What, then, is patriotism? "Patriotism, sir, is the last resort of +scoundrels," said Dr. Johnson. Leo Tolstoy, the greatest +anti-patriot of our times, defines patriotism as the principle that +will justify the training of wholesale murderers; a trade that +requires better equipment for the exercise of man-killing than the +making of such necessities of life as shoes, clothing, and houses; a +trade that guarantees better returns and greater glory than that of +the average workingman. +</P> + +<P> +Gustave Herve, another great anti-patriot, justly calls patriotism a +superstition—one far more injurious, brutal, and inhumane than +religion. The superstition of religion originated in man's inability +to explain natural phenomena. That is, when primitive man heard +thunder or saw the lightning, he could not account for either, and +therefore concluded that back of them must be a force greater than +himself. Similarly he saw a supernatural force in the rain, and in +the various other changes in nature. Patriotism, on the other hand, +is a superstition artificially created and maintained through a +network of lies and falsehoods; a superstition that robs man of his +self-respect and dignity, and increases his arrogance and conceit. +</P> + +<P> +Indeed, conceit, arrogance, and egotism are the essentials of +patriotism. Let me illustrate. Patriotism assumes that our globe is +divided into little spots, each one surrounded by an iron gate. +Those who have had the fortune of being born on some particular spot, +consider themselves better, nobler, grander, more intelligent than +the living beings inhabiting any other spot. It is, therefore, the +duty of everyone living on that chosen spot to fight, kill, and die +in the attempt to impose his superiority upon all the others. +</P> + +<P> +The inhabitants of the other spots reason in like manner, of course, +with the result that, from early infancy, the mind of the child is +poisoned with blood-curdling stories about the Germans, the French, +the Italians, Russians, etc. When the child has reached manhood, he +is thoroughly saturated with the belief that he is chosen by the Lord +himself to defend HIS country against the attack or invasion of any +foreigner. It is for that purpose that we are clamoring for a +greater army and navy, more battleships and ammunition. It is for +that purpose that America has within a short time spent four hundred +million dollars. Just think of it—four hundred million dollars +taken from the produce of the PEOPLE. For surely it is not the rich +who contribute to patriotism. They are cosmopolitans, perfectly at +home in every land. We in America know well the truth of this. Are +not our rich Americans Frenchmen in France, Germans in Germany, or +Englishmen in England? And do they not squander with cosmopolitan +grace fortunes coined by American factory children and cotton slaves? +Yes, theirs is the patriotism that will make it possible to send +messages of condolence to a despot like the Russian Tsar, when any +mishap befalls him, as President Roosevelt did in the name of HIS +people, when Sergius was punished by the Russian revolutionists. +</P> + +<P> +It is a patriotism that will assist the arch-murderer, Diaz, in +destroying thousands of lives in Mexico, or that will even aid in +arresting Mexican revolutionists on American soil and keep them +incarcerated in American prisons, without the slightest cause or +reason. +</P> + +<P> +But, then, patriotism is not for those who represent wealth and +power. It is good enough for the people. It reminds one of the +historic wisdom of Frederic the Great, the bosom friend of Voltaire, +who said: "Religion is a fraud, but it must be maintained for the +masses." +</P> + +<P> +That patriotism is rather a costly institution, no one will doubt +after considering the following statistics. The progressive increase +of the expenditures for the leading armies and navies of the world +during the last quarter of a century is a fact of such gravity as to +startle every thoughtful student of economic problems. It may be +briefly indicated by dividing the time from 1881 to 1905 into +five-year periods, and noting the disbursements of several great +nations for army and navy purposes during the first and last of those +periods. From the first to the last of the periods noted the +expenditures of Great Britain increased from $2,101,848,936 to +$4,143,226,885, those of France from $3,324,500,000 to +$3,455,109,900, those of Germany from $725,000,200 to $2,700,375,600, +those of the United States from $1,275,500,750 to $2,650,900,450, +those of Russia from $1,900,975,500 to $5,250,445,100, those of Italy +from $1,600,975,750 to $1,755,500,100, and those of Japan from +$182,900,500 to $700,925,475. +</P> + +<P> +The military expenditures of each of the nations mentioned increased +in each of the five-year periods under review. During the entire +interval from 1881 to 1905 Great Britain's outlay for her army +increased fourfold, that of the United States was tripled, Russia's +was doubled, that of Germany increased 35 per cent., that of France +about 15 per cent., and that of Japan nearly 500 per cent. If we +compare the expenditures of these nations upon their armies with +their total expenditures for all the twenty-five years ending with +1905, the proportion rose as follows: +</P> + +<P> +In Great Britain from 20 per cent. to 37; in the United States from +15 to 23; in France from 16 to 18; in Italy from 12 to 15; in Japan +from 12 to 14. On the other hand, it is interesting to note that the +proportion in Germany decreased from about 58 per cent. to 25, the +decrease being due to the enormous increase in the imperial +expenditures for other purposes, the fact being that the army +expenditures for the period of 1901-5 were higher than for any +five-year period preceding. Statistics show that the countries in +which army expenditures are greatest, in proportion to the total +national revenues, are Great Britain, the United States, Japan, +France, and Italy, in the order named. +</P> + +<P> +The showing as to the cost of great navies is equally impressive. +During the twenty-five years ending with 1905 naval expenditures +increased approximately as follows: Great Britain, 300 per cent.; +France 60 per cent.; Germany 600 per cent.; the United States 525 per +cent.; Russia 300 per cent.; Italy 250 per cent.; and Japan, 700 per +cent. With the exception of Great Britain, the United States spends +more for naval purposes than any other nation, and this expenditure +bears also a larger proportion to the entire national disbursements +than that of any other power. In the period 1881-5, the expenditure +for the United States navy was $6.20 out of each $100 appropriated +for all national purposes; the amount rose to $6.60 for the next +five-year period, to $8.10 for the next, to $11.70 for the next, and +to $16.40 for 1901-5. It is morally certain that the outlay for the +current period of five years will show a still further increase. +</P> + +<P> +The rising cost of militarism may be still further illustrated by +computing it as a per capita tax on population. From the first to +the last of the five-year periods taken as the basis for the +comparisons here given, it has risen as follows: In Great Britain, +from $18.47 to $52.50; in France, from $19.66 to $23.62; in Germany, +from $10.17 to $15.51; in the United States, from $5.62 to $13.64; in +Russia, from $6.14 to $8.37; in Italy, from $9.59 to $11.24, and in +Japan from 86 cents to $3.11. +</P> + +<P> +It is in connection with this rough estimate of cost per capita that +the economic burden of militarism is most appreciable. The +irresistible conclusion from available data is that the increase of +expenditure for army and navy purposes is rapidly surpassing the +growth of population in each of the countries considered in the +present calculation. In other words, a continuation of the increased +demands of militarism threatens each of those nations with a +progressive exhaustion both of men and resources. +</P> + +<P> +The awful waste that patriotism necessitates ought to be sufficient +to cure the man of even average intelligence from this disease. Yet +patriotism demands still more. The people are urged to be patriotic +and for that luxury they pay, not only by supporting their +"defenders," but even by sacrificing their own children. Patriotism +requires allegiance to the flag, which means obedience and readiness +to kill father, mother, brother, sister. +</P> + +<P> +The usual contention is that we need a standing army to protect the +country from foreign invasion. Every intelligent man and woman +knows, however, that this is a myth maintained to frighten and coerce +the foolish. The governments of the world, knowing each other's +interests, do not invade each other. They have learned that they can +gain much more by international arbitration of disputes than by war +and conquest. Indeed, as Carlyle said, "War is a quarrel between two +thieves too cowardly to fight their own battle; therefore they take +boys from one village and another village; stick them into uniforms, +equip them with guns, and let them loose like wild beasts against +each other." +</P> + +<P> +It does not require much wisdom to trace every war back to a similar +cause. Let us take our own Spanish-American war, supposedly a great +and patriotic event in the history of the United States. How our +hearts burned with indignation against the atrocious Spaniards! +True, our indignation did not flare up spontaneously. It was +nurtured by months of newspaper agitation, and long after Butcher +Weyler had killed off many noble Cubans and outraged many Cuban +women. Still, in justice to the American Nation be it said, it did +grow indignant and was willing to fight, and that it fought bravely. +But when the smoke was over, the dead buried, and the cost of the war +came back to the people in an increase in the price of commodities +and rent—that is, when we sobered up from our patriotic spree—it +suddenly dawned on us that the cause of the Spanish-American war was +the consideration of the price of sugar; or, to be more explicit, +that the lives, blood, and money of the American people were used to +protect the interests of American capitalists, which were threatened +by the Spanish government. That this is not an exaggeration, but is +based on absolute facts and figures, is best proven by the attitude +of the American government to Cuban labor. When Cuba was firmly in +the clutches of the United States, the very soldiers sent to liberate +Cuba were ordered to shoot Cuban workingmen during the great +cigarmakers' strike, which took place shortly after the war. +</P> + +<P> +Nor do we stand alone in waging war for such causes. The curtain is +beginning to be lifted on the motives of the terrible Russo-Japanese +war, which cost so much blood and tears. And we see again that back +of the fierce Moloch of war stands the still fiercer god of +Commercialism. Kuropatkin, the Russian Minister of War during the +Russo-Japanese struggle, has revealed the true secret behind the +latter. The Tsar and his Grand Dukes, having invested money in +Corean concessions, the war was forced for the sole purpose of +speedily accumulating large fortunes. +</P> + +<P> +The contention that a standing army and navy is the best security of +peace is about as logical as the claim that the most peaceful citizen +is he who goes about heavily armed. The experience of every-day life +fully proves that the armed individual is invariably anxious to try +his strength. The same is historically true of governments. Really +peaceful countries do not waste life and energy in war preparations, +with the result that peace is maintained. +</P> + +<P> +However, the clamor for an increased army and navy is not due to any +foreign danger. It is owing to the dread of the growing discontent +of the masses and of the international spirit among the workers. It +is to meet the internal enemy that the Powers of various countries +are preparing themselves; an enemy, who, once awakened to +consciousness, will prove more dangerous than any foreign invader. +</P> + +<P> +The powers that have for centuries been engaged in enslaving the +masses have made a thorough study of their psychology. They know +that the people at large are like children whose despair, sorrow, and +tears can be turned into joy with a little toy. And the more +gorgeously the toy is dressed, the louder the colors, the more it +will appeal to the million-headed child. +</P> + +<P> +An army and navy represents the people's toys. To make them more +attractive and acceptable, hundreds and thousands of dollars are +being spent for the display of these toys. That was the purpose of +the American government in equipping a fleet and sending it along the +Pacific coast, that every American citizen should be made to feel the +pride and glory of the United States. The city of San Francisco +spent one hundred thousand dollars for the entertainment of the +fleet; Los Angeles, sixty thousand; Seattle and Tacoma, about one +hundred thousand. To entertain the fleet, did I say? To dine and +wine a few superior officers, while the "brave boys" had to mutiny to +get sufficient food. Yes, two hundred and sixty thousand dollars +were spent on fireworks, theatre parties, and revelries, at a time +when men, women, and children through the breadth and length of the +country were starving in the streets; when thousands of unemployed +were ready to sell their labor at any price. +</P> + +<P> +Two hundred and sixty thousand dollars! What could not have been +accomplished with such an enormous sum? But instead of bread and +shelter, the children of those cities were taken to see the fleet, +that it may remain, as one of the newspapers said, "a lasting memory +for the child." +</P> + +<P> +A wonderful thing to remember, is it not? The implements of +civilized slaughter. If the mind of the child is to be poisoned with +such memories, what hope is there for a true realization of human +brotherhood? +</P> + +<P> +We Americans claim to be a peace-loving people. We hate bloodshed; +we are opposed to violence. Yet we go into spasms of joy over the +possibility of projecting dynamite bombs from flying machines upon +helpless citizens. We are ready to hang, electrocute, or lynch +anyone, who, from economic necessity, will risk his own life in the +attempt upon that of some industrial magnate. Yet our hearts swell +with pride at the thought that America is becoming the most powerful +nation on earth, and that it will eventually plant her iron foot on +the necks of all other nations. +</P> + +<P> +Such is the logic of patriotism. +</P> + +<P> +Considering the evil results that patriotism is fraught with for the +average man, it is as nothing compared with the insult and injury +that patriotism heaps upon the soldier himself,—that poor, deluded +victim of superstition and ignorance. He, the savior of his country, +the protector of his nation,—what has patriotism in store for him? +A life of slavish submission, vice, and perversion, during peace; a +life of danger, exposure, and death, during war. +</P> + +<P> +While on a recent lecture tour in San Francisco, I visited the +Presidio, the most beautiful spot overlooking the Bay and Golden Gate +Park. Its purpose should have been playgrounds for children, gardens +and music for the recreation of the weary. Instead it is made ugly, +dull, and gray by barracks,—barracks wherein the rich would not +allow their dogs to dwell. In these miserable shanties soldiers are +herded like cattle; here they waste their young days, polishing the +boots and brass buttons of their superior officers. Here, too, I saw +the distinction of classes: sturdy sons of a free Republic, drawn up +in line like convicts, saluting every passing shrimp of a lieutenant. +American equality, degrading manhood and elevating the uniform! +</P> + +<P> +Barrack life further tends to develop tendencies of sexual +perversion. It is gradually producing along this line results +similar to European military conditions. Havelock Ellis, the noted +writer on sex psychology, has made a thorough study of the subject. +I quote: "Some of the barracks are great centers of male +prostitution.... The number of soldiers who prostitute themselves +is greater than we are willing to believe. It is no exaggeration to +say that in certain regiments the presumption is in favor of the +venality of the majority of the men.... On summer evenings Hyde +Park and the neighborhood of Albert Gate are full of guardsmen and +others plying a lively trade, and with little disguise, in uniform or +out.... In most cases the proceeds form a comfortable addition to +Tommy Atkins' pocket money." +</P> + +<P> +To what extent this perversion has eaten its way into the army and +navy can best be judged from the fact that special houses exist for +this form of prostitution. The practice is not limited to England; +it is universal. "Soldiers are no less sought after in France than +in England or in Germany, and special houses for military +prostitution exist both in Paris and the garrison towns." +</P> + +<P> +Had Mr. Havelock Ellis included America in his investigation of sex +perversion, he would have found that the same conditions prevail in +our army and navy as in those of other countries. The growth of the +standing army inevitably adds to the spread of sex perversion; the +barracks are the incubators. +</P> + +<P> +Aside from the sexual effects of barrack life, it also tends to unfit +the soldier for useful labor after leaving the army. Men, skilled in +a trade, seldom enter the army or navy, but even they, after a +military experience, find themselves totally unfitted for their +former occupations. Having acquired habits of idleness and a taste +for excitement and adventure, no peaceful pursuit can content them. +Released from the army, they can turn to no useful work. But it is +usually the social riff-raff, discharged prisoners and the like, whom +either the struggle for life or their own inclination drives into the +ranks. These, their military term over, again turn to their former +life of crime, more brutalized and degraded than before. It is a +well-known fact that in our prisons there is a goodly number of +ex-soldiers; while on the other hand, the army and navy are to a +great extent supplied with ex-convicts. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Of all the evil results, I have just described, none seems to me so +detrimental to human integrity as the spirit patriotism has produced +in the case of Private William Buwalda. Because he foolishly +believed that one can be a soldier and exercise his rights as a man +at the same time, the military authorities punished him severely. +True, he had served his country fifteen years, during which time his +record was unimpeachable. According to Gen. Funston, who reduced +Buwalda's sentence to three years, "the first duty of an officer or +an enlisted man is unquestioned obedience and loyalty to the +government, and it makes no difference whether he approves of that +government or not." Thus Funston stamps the true character of +allegiance. According to him, entrance into the army abrogates the +principles of the Declaration of Independence. +</P> + +<P> +What a strange development of patriotism that turns a thinking being +into a loyal machine! +</P> + +<P> +In justification of this most outrageous sentence of Buwalda, Gen. +Funston tells the American people that the soldier's action was a +"serious crime equal to treason." Now, what did this "terrible +crime" really consist of? Simply in this: William Buwalda was one of +fifteen hundred people who attended a public meeting in San +Francisco; and, oh, horrors, he shook hands with the speaker, Emma +Goldman. A terrible crime, indeed, which the General calls "a great +military offense, infinitely worse than desertion." +</P> + +<P> +Can there be a greater indictment against patriotism than that it +will thus brand a man a criminal, throw him into prison, and rob him +of the results of fifteen years of faithful service? +</P> + +<P> +Buwalda gave to his country the best years of his life and his very +manhood. But all that was as nothing. Patriotism is inexorable and, +like all insatiable monsters, demands all or nothing. It does not +admit that a soldier is also a human being, who has a right to his +own feelings and opinions, his own inclinations and ideas. No, +patriotism can not admit of that. That is the lesson which Buwalda +was made to learn; made to learn at a rather costly, though not at a +useless, price. When he returned to freedom, he had lost his +position in the army, but he regained his self-respect. After all, +that is worth three years of imprisonment. +</P> + +<P> +A writer on the military conditions of America, in a recent article, +commented on the power of the military man over the civilian in +Germany. He said, among other things, that if our Republic had no +other meaning than to guarantee all citizens equal rights, it would +have just cause for existence. I am convinced that the writer was +not in Colorado during the patriotic regime of General Bell. He +probably would have changed his mind had he seen how, in the name of +patriotism and the Republic, men were thrown into bull-pens, dragged +about, driven across the border, and subjected to all kinds of +indignities. Nor is that Colorado incident the only one in the +growth of military power in the United States. There is hardly a +strike where troops and militia do not come to the rescue of those in +power, and where they do not act as arrogantly and brutally as do the +men wearing the Kaiser's uniform. Then, too, we have the Dick +military law. Had the writer forgotten that? +</P> + +<P> +A great misfortune with most of our writers is that they are +absolutely ignorant on current events, or that, lacking honesty, they +will not speak of these matters. And so it has come to pass that the +Dick military law was rushed through Congress with little discussion +and still less publicity,—a law which gives the President the power +to turn a peaceful citizen into a bloodthirsty man-killer, supposedly +for the defense of the country, in reality for the protection of the +interests of that particular party whose mouthpiece the President +happens to be. +</P> + +<P> +Our writer claims that militarism can never become such a power in +America as abroad, since it is voluntary with us, while compulsory in +the Old World. Two very important facts, however, the gentleman +forgets to consider. First, that conscription has created in Europe +a deep-seated hatred of militarism among all classes of society. +Thousands of young recruits enlist under protest and, once in the +army, they will use every possible means to desert. Second, that it +is the compulsory feature of militarism which has created a +tremendous anti-militarist movement, feared by European Powers far +more than anything else. After all, the greatest bulwark of +capitalism is militarism. The very moment the latter is undermined, +capitalism will totter. True, we have no conscription; that is, men +are not usually forced to enlist in the army, but we have developed a +far more exacting and rigid force—necessity. Is it not a fact that +during industrial depressions there is a tremendous increase in the +number of enlistments? The trade of militarism may not be either +lucrative or honorable, but it is better than tramping the country in +search of work, standing in the bread line, or sleeping in municipal +lodging houses. After all, it means thirteen dollars per month, +three meals a day, and a place to sleep. Yet even necessity is not +sufficiently strong a factor to bring into the army an element of +character and manhood. No wonder our military authorities complain +of the "poor material" enlisting in the army and navy. This +admission is a very encouraging sign. It proves that there is still +enough of the spirit of independence and love of liberty left in the +average American to risk starvation rather than don the uniform. +</P> + +<P> +Thinking men and women the world over are beginning to realize that +patriotism is too narrow and limited a conception to meet the +necessities of our time. The centralization of power has brought +into being an international feeling of solidarity among the oppressed +nations of the world; a solidarity which represents a greater harmony +of interests between the workingman of America and his brothers +abroad than between the American miner and his exploiting compatriot; +a solidarity which fears not foreign invasion, because it is bringing +all the workers to the point when they will say to their masters, "Go +and do your own killing. We have done it long enough for you." +</P> + +<P> +This solidarity is awakening the consciousness of even the soldiers, +they, too, being flesh of the flesh of the great human family. A +solidarity that has proven infallible more than once during past +struggles, and which has been the impetus inducing the Parisian +soldiers, during the Commune of 1871, to refuse to obey when ordered +to shoot their brothers. It has given courage to the men who +mutinied on Russian warships during recent years. It will eventually +bring about the uprising of all the oppressed and downtrodden against +their international exploiters. +</P> + +<P> +The proletariat of Europe has realized the great force of that +solidarity and has, as a result, inaugurated a war against patriotism +and its bloody spectre, militarism. Thousands of men fill the +prisons of France, Germany, Russia, and the Scandinavian countries, +because they dared to defy the ancient superstition. Nor is the +movement limited to the working class; it has embraced +representatives in all stations of life, its chief exponents being +men and women prominent in art, science, and letters. +</P> + +<P> +America will have to follow suit. The spirit of militarism has +already permeated all walks of life. Indeed, I am convinced that +militarism is growing a greater danger here than anywhere else, +because of the many bribes capitalism holds out to those whom it +wishes to destroy. +</P> + +<P> +The beginning has already been made in the schools. Evidently the +government holds to the Jesuitical conception, "Give me the child +mind, and I will mould the man." Children are trained in military +tactics, the glory of military achievements extolled in the +curriculum, and the youthful minds perverted to suit the government. +Further, the youth of the country is appealed to in glaring posters +to join the army and navy. "A fine chance to see the world!" cries +the governmental huckster. Thus innocent boys are morally shanghaied +into patriotism, and the military Moloch strides conquering through +the Nation. +</P> + +<P> +The American workingman has suffered so much at the hands of the +soldier, State, and Federal, that he is quite justified in his +disgust with, and his opposition to, the uniformed parasite. +However, mere denunciation will not solve this great problem. What +we need is a propaganda of education for the soldier: anti-patriotic +literature that will enlighten him as to the real horrors of his +trade, and that will awaken his consciousness to his true relation to +the man to whose labor he owes his very existence. +</P> + +<P> +It is precisely this that the authorities fear most. It is already +high treason for a soldier to attend a radical meeting. No doubt +they will also stamp it high treason for a soldier to read a radical +pamphlet. But then, has not authority from time immemorial stamped +every step of progress as treasonable? Those, however, who earnestly +strive for social reconstruction can well afford to face all that; +for it is probably even more important to carry the truth into the +barracks than into the factory. When we have undermined the +patriotic lie, we shall have cleared the path for that great +structure wherein all nationalities shall be united into a universal +brotherhood,—a truly FREE SOCIETY. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="ferrer"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +FRANCISCO FERRER AND THE MODERN SCHOOL +</H3> + +<BR> + +<P> +Experience has come to be considered the best school of life. The +man or woman who does not learn some vital lesson in that school is +looked upon as a dunce indeed. Yet strange to say, that though +organized institutions continue perpetrating errors, though they +learn nothing from experience, we acquiesce, as a matter of course. +</P> + +<P> +There lived and worked in Barcelona a man by the name of Francisco +Ferrer. A teacher of children he was, known and loved by his people. +Outside of Spain only the cultured few knew of Francisco Ferrer's +work. To the world at large this teacher was non-existent. +</P> + +<P> +On the first of September, 1909, the Spanish government—at the +behest of the Catholic Church—arrested Francisco Ferrer. On the +thirteenth of October, after a mock trial, he was placed in the ditch +at Montjuich prison, against the hideous wall of many sighs, and shot +dead. Instantly Ferrer, the obscure teacher, became a universal +figure, blazing forth the indignation and wrath of the whole +civilized world against the wanton murder. +</P> + +<P> +The killing of Francisco Ferrer was not the first crime committed by +the Spanish government and the Catholic Church. The history of these +institutions is one long stream of fire and blood. Still they have +not learned through experience, nor yet come to realize that every +frail being slain by Church and State grows and grows into a mighty +giant, who will some day free humanity from their perilous hold. +</P> + +<P> +Francisco Ferrer was born in 1859, of humble parents. They were +Catholics, and therefore hoped to raise their son in the same faith. +They did not know that the boy was to become the harbinger of a great +truth, that his mind would refuse to travel in the old path. At an +early age Ferrer began to question the faith of his fathers. He +demanded to know how it is that the God who spoke to him of goodness +and love would mar the sleep of the innocent child with dread and awe +of tortures, of suffering, of hell. Alert and of a vivid and +investigating mind, it did not take him long to discover the +hideousness of that black monster, the Catholic Church. He would +have none of it. +</P> + +<P> +Francisco Ferrer was not only a doubter, a searcher for truth; he was +also a rebel. His spirit would rise in just indignation against the +iron regime of his country, and when a band of rebels, led by the +brave patriot, General Villacampa, under the banner of the Republican +ideal, made an onslaught on that regime, none was more ardent a +fighter than young Francisco Ferrer. The Republican ideal,—I hope +no one will confound it with the Republicanism of this country. +Whatever objection I, as an Anarchist, have to the Republicans of +Latin countries, I know they tower high above the corrupt and +reactionary party which, in America, is destroying every vestige of +liberty and justice. One has but to think of the Mazzinis, the +Garibaldis, the scores of others, to realize that their efforts were +directed, not merely towards the overthrow of despotism, but +particularly against the Catholic Church, which from its very +inception has been the enemy of all progress and liberalism. +</P> + +<P> +In America it is just the reverse. Republicanism stands for vested +rights, for imperialism, for graft, for the annihilation of every +semblance of liberty. Its ideal is the oily, creepy respectability +of a McKinley, and the brutal arrogance of a Roosevelt. +</P> + +<P> +The Spanish republican rebels were subdued. It takes more than one +brave effort to split the rock of ages, to cut off the head of that +hydra monster, the Catholic Church and the Spanish throne. Arrest, +persecution, and punishment followed the heroic attempt of the little +band. Those who could escape the bloodhounds had to flee for safety +to foreign shores. Francisco Ferrer was among the latter. He went +to France. +</P> + +<P> +How his soul must have expanded in the new land! France, the cradle +of liberty, of ideas, of action. Paris, the ever young, intense +Paris, with her pulsating life, after the gloom of his own belated +country,—how she must have inspired him. What opportunities, what a +glorious chance for a young idealist. +</P> + +<P> +Francisco Ferrer lost no time. Like one famished he threw himself +into the various liberal movements, met all kinds of people, learned, +absorbed, and grew. While there, he also saw in operation the Modern +School, which was to play such an important and fatal part in his +life. +</P> + +<P> +The Modern School in France was founded long before Ferrer's time. +Its originator, though on a small scale, was that sweet spirit, +Louise Michel. Whether consciously or unconsciously, our own great +Louise felt long ago that the future belongs to the young generation; +that unless the young be rescued from that mind and soul destroying +institution, the bourgeois school, social evils will continue to +exist. Perhaps she thought, with Ibsen, that the atmosphere is +saturated with ghosts, that the adult man and woman have so many +superstitions to overcome. No sooner do they outgrow the deathlike +grip of one spook, lo! they find themselves in the thralldom of +ninety-nine other spooks. Thus but a few reach the mountain peak of +complete regeneration. +</P> + +<P> +The child, however, has no traditions to overcome. Its mind is not +burdened with set ideas, its heart has not grown cold with class and +caste distinctions. The child is to the teacher what clay is to the +sculptor. Whether the world will receive a work of art or a wretched +imitation, depends to a large extent on the creative power of the +teacher. +</P> + +<P> +Louise Michel was pre-eminently qualified to meet the child's soul +cravings. Was she not herself of a childlike nature, so sweet and +tender, unsophisticated and generous. The soul of Louise burned +always at white heat over every social injustice. She was invariably +in the front ranks whenever the people of Paris rebelled against some +wrong. And as she was made to suffer imprisonment for her great +devotion to the oppressed, the little school on Montmartre was soon +no more. But the seed was planted, and has since borne fruit in many +cities of France. +</P> + +<P> +The most important venture of a Modern School was that of the great, +young old man, Paul Robin. Together with a few friends he +established a large school at Cempuis, a beautiful place near Paris. +Paul Robin aimed at a higher ideal than merely modern ideas in +education. He wanted to demonstrate by actual facts that the +bourgeois conception of heredity is but a mere pretext to exempt +society from its terrible crimes against the young. The contention +that the child must suffer for the sins of the fathers, that it must +continue in poverty and filth, that it must grow up a drunkard or +criminal, just because its parents left it no other legacy, was too +preposterous to the beautiful spirit of Paul Robin. He believed that +whatever part heredity may play, there are other factors equally +great, if not greater, that may and will eradicate or minimize the +so-called first cause. Proper economic and social environment, the +breath and freedom of nature, healthy exercise, love and sympathy, +and, above all, a deep understanding for the needs of the +child—these would destroy the cruel, unjust, and criminal stigma +imposed on the innocent young. +</P> + +<P> +Paul Robin did not select his children; he did not go to the +so-called best parents: he took his material wherever he could find +it. From the street, the hovels, the orphan and foundling asylums, +the reformatories, from all those gray and hideous places where a +benevolent society hides its victims in order to pacify its guilty +conscience. He gathered all the dirty, filthy, shivering little +waifs his place would hold, and brought them to Cempuis. There, +surrounded by nature's own glory, free and unrestrained, well fed, +clean kept, deeply loved and understood, the little human plants +began to grow, to blossom, to develop beyond even the expectations of +their friend and teacher, Paul Robin. +</P> + +<P> +The children grew and developed into self-reliant, liberty loving men +and women. What greater danger to the institutions that make the +poor in order to perpetuate the poor. Cempuis was closed by the +French government on the charge of co-education, which is prohibited +in France. However, Cempuis had been in operation long enough to +prove to all advanced educators its tremendous possibilities, and to +serve as an impetus for modern methods of education, that are slowly +but inevitably undermining the present system. +</P> + +<P> +Cempuis was followed by a great number of other educational +attempts,—among them, by Madelaine Vernet, a gifted writer and poet, +author of L'AMOUR LIBRE, and Sebastian Faure, with his LA RUCHE,[1] +which I visited while in Paris, in 1907. +</P> + +<P> +Several years ago Comrade Faure bought the land on which he built his +LA RUCHE. In a comparatively short time he succeeded in transforming +the former wild, uncultivated country into a blooming spot, having +all the appearance of a well kept farm. A large, square court, +enclosed by three buildings, and a broad path leading to the garden +and orchards, greet the eye of the visitor. The garden, kept as only +a Frenchman knows how, furnishes a large variety of vegetables for LA +RUCHE. +</P> + +<P> +Sebastian Faure is of the opinion that if the child is subjected to +contradictory influences, its development suffers in consequence. +Only when the material needs, the hygiene of the home, and +intellectual environment are harmonious, can the child grow into a +healthy, free being. +</P> + +<P> +Referring to his school, Sebastian Faure has this to say: +</P> + +<P> +"I have taken twenty-four children of both sexes, mostly orphans, or +those whose parents are too poor to pay. They are clothed, housed, +and educated at my expense. Till their twelfth year they will +receive a sound, elementary education. Between the age of twelve and +fifteen—their studies still continuing—they are to be taught some +trade, in keeping with their individual disposition and abilities. +After that they are at liberty to leave LA RUCHE to begin life in the +outside world, with the assurance that they may at any time return to +LA RUCHE, where they will be received with open arms and welcomed as +parents do their beloved children. Then, if they wish to work at our +place, they may do so under the following conditions: One third of +the product to cover his or her expenses of maintenance, another +third to go towards the general fund set aside for accommodating new +children, and the last third to be devoted to the personal use of the +child, as he or she may see fit. +</P> + +<P> +"The health of the children who are now in my care is perfect. Pure +air, nutritious food, physical exercise in the open, long walks, +observation of hygienic rules, the short and interesting method of +instruction, and, above all, our affectionate understanding and care +of the children, have produced admirable physical and mental results. +</P> + +<P> +"It would be unjust to claim that our pupils have accomplished +wonders; yet, considering that they belong to the average, having had +no previous opportunities, the results are very gratifying indeed. +The most important thing they have acquired—a rare trait with +ordinary school children—is the love of study, the desire to know, +to be informed. They have learned a new method of work, one that +quickens the memory and stimulates the imagination. We make a +particular effort to awaken the child's interest in his surroundings, +to make him realize the importance of observation, investigation, and +reflection, so that when the children reach maturity, they would not +be deaf and blind to the things about them. Our children never +accept anything in blind faith, without inquiry as to why and +wherefore; nor do they feel satisfied until their questions are +thoroughly answered. Thus their minds are free from doubts and fear +resultant from incomplete or untruthful replies; it is the latter +which warp the growth of the child, and create a lack of confidence +in himself and those about him. +</P> + +<P> +"It is surprising how frank and kind and affectionate our little ones +are to each other. The harmony between themselves and the adults at +LA RUCHE is highly encouraging. We should feel at fault if the +children were to fear or honor us merely because we are their elders. +We leave nothing undone to gain their confidence and love; that +accomplished, understanding will replace duty; confidence, fear; and +affection, severity. +</P> + +<P> +"No one has yet fully realized the wealth of sympathy, kindness, and +generosity hidden in the soul of the child. The effort of every true +educator should be to unlock that treasure—to stimulate the child's +impulses, and call forth the best and noblest tendencies. What +greater reward can there be for one whose life-work is to watch over +the growth of the human plant, than to see its nature unfold its +petals, and to observe it develop into a true individuality. My +comrades at LA RUCHE look for no greater reward, and it is due to +them and their efforts, even more than to my own, that our human +garden promises to bear beautiful fruit."[2] +</P> + +<P> +Regarding the subject of history and the prevailing old methods of +instruction, Sebastian Faure said: +</P> + +<P> +"We explain to our children that true history is yet to be +written,—the story of those who have died, unknown, in the effort to +aid humanity to greater achievement."[3] +</P> + +<P> +Francisco Ferrer could not escape this great wave of Modern School +attempts. He saw its possibilities, not merely in theoretic form, +but in their practical application to every-day needs. He must have +realized that Spain, more than any other country, stands in need of +just such schools, if it is ever to throw off the double yoke of +priest and soldier. +</P> + +<P> +When we consider that the entire system of education in Spain is in +the hands of the Catholic Church, and when we further remember the +Catholic formula, "To inculcate Catholicism in the mind of the child +until it is nine years of age is to ruin it forever for any other +idea," we will understand the tremendous task of Ferrer in bringing +the new light to his people. Fate soon assisted him in realizing his +great dream. +</P> + +<P> +Mlle. Meunier, a pupil of Francisco Ferrer, and a lady of wealth, +became interested in the Modern School project. When she died, she +left Ferrer some valuable property and twelve thousand francs yearly +income for the School. +</P> + +<P> +It is said that mean souls can conceive of naught but mean ideas. +If so, the contemptible methods of the Catholic Church to blackguard +Ferrer's character, in order to justify her own black crime, can +readily be explained. Thus the lie was spread in American Catholic +papers, that Ferrer used his intimacy with Mlle. Meunier to get +possession of her money. +</P> + +<P> +Personally, I hold that the intimacy, of whatever nature, between a +man and a woman, is their own affair, their sacred own. I would +therefore not lose a word in referring to the matter, if it were not +one of the many dastardly lies circulated about Ferrer. Of course, +those who know the purity of the Catholic clergy will understand the +insinuation. Have the Catholic priests ever looked upon woman as +anything but a sex commodity? The historical data regarding the +discoveries in the cloisters and monasteries will bear me out in +that. How, then, are they to understand the co-operation of a man +and a woman, except on a sex basis? +</P> + +<P> +As a matter of fact, Mlle. Meunier was considerably Ferrer's senior. +Having spent her childhood and girlhood with a miserly father and a +submissive mother, she could easily appreciate the necessity of love +and joy in child life. She must have seen that Francisco Ferrer was +a teacher, not college, machine, or diploma-made, but one endowed +with genius for that calling. +</P> + +<P> +Equipped with knowledge, with experience, and with the necessary +means; above all, imbued with the divine fire of his mission, our +Comrade came back to Spain, and there began his life's work. On the +ninth of September, 1901, the first Modern School was opened. It was +enthusiastically received by the people of Barcelona, who pledged +their support. In a short address at the opening of the School, +Ferrer submitted his program to his friends. He said: "I am not a +speaker, not a propagandist, not a fighter. I am a teacher; I love +children above everything. I think I understand them. I want my +contribution to the cause of liberty to be a young generation ready +to meet a new era." +</P> + +<P> +He was cautioned by his friends to be careful in his opposition to +the Catholic Church. They knew to what lengths she would go to +dispose of an enemy. Ferrer, too, knew. But, like Brand, he +believed in all or nothing. He would not erect the Modern School on +the same old lie. He would be frank and honest and open with the +children. +</P> + +<P> +Francisco Ferrer became a marked man. From the very first day of the +opening of the School, he was shadowed. The school building was +watched, his little home in Mangat was watched. He was followed +every step, even when he went to France or England to confer with his +colleagues. He was a marked man, and it was only a question of time +when the lurking enemy would tighten the noose. +</P> + +<P> +It succeeded, almost, in 1906, when Ferrer was implicated in the +attempt on the life of Alfonso. The evidence exonerating him was too +strong even for the black crows;[4] they had to let him go—not for +good, however. They waited. Oh, they can wait, when they have set +themselves to trap a victim. +</P> + +<P> +The moment came at last, during the anti-military uprising in Spain, +in July, 1909. One will have to search in vain the annals of +revolutionary history to find a more remarkable protest against +militarism. Having been soldier-ridden for centuries, the people of +Spain could stand the yoke no longer. They would refuse to +participate in useless slaughter. They saw no reason for aiding a +despotic government in subduing and oppressing a small people +fighting for their independence, as did the brave Riffs. No, they +would not bear arms against them. +</P> + +<P> +For eighteen hundred years the Catholic Church has preached the +gospel of peace. Yet, when the people actually wanted to make this +gospel a living reality, she urged the authorities to force them to +bear arms. Thus the dynasty of Spain followed the murderous methods +of the Russian dynasty,—the people were forced to the battlefield. +</P> + +<P> +Then, and not until then, was their power of endurance at an end. +Then, and not until then, did the workers of Spain turn against their +masters, against those who, like leeches, had drained their strength, +their very life-blood. Yes, they attacked the churches and the +priests, but if the latter had a thousand lives, they could not +possibly pay for the terrible outrages and crimes perpetrated upon +the Spanish people. +</P> + +<P> +Francisco Ferrer was arrested on the first of September, 1909. +Until October first, his friends and comrades did not even know what +had become of him. On that day a letter was received by L'HUMANITE, +from which can be learned the whole mockery of the trial. And the +next day his companion, Soledad Villafranca, received the following +letter: +</P> + +<P> +"No reason to worry; you know I am absolutely innocent. Today I am +particularly hopeful and joyous. It is the first time I can write to +you, and the first time since my arrest that I can bathe in the rays +of the sun, streaming generously through my cell window. You, too, +must be joyous." +</P> + +<P> +How pathetic that Ferrer should have believed, as late as October +fourth, that he would not be condemned to death. Even more pathetic +that his friends and comrades should once more have made the blunder +in crediting the enemy with a sense of justice. Time and again they +had placed faith in the judicial powers, only to see their brothers +killed before their very eyes. They made no preparation to rescue +Ferrer, not even a protest of any extent; nothing. "Why, it is +impossible to condemn Ferrer; he is innocent." But everything is +possible with the Catholic Church. Is she not a practiced henchman, +whose trials of her enemies are the worst mockery of justice? +</P> + +<P> +On October fourth Ferrer sent the following letter to L'HUMANITE: +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="letter"> + The Prison Cell, Oct. 4, 1909. +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> + My dear Friends—Notwithstanding most absolute innocence, the + prosecutor demands the death penalty, based on denunciations of + the police, representing me as the chief of the world's + Anarchists, directing the labor syndicates of France, and guilty + of conspiracies and insurrections everywhere, and declaring that + my voyages to London and Paris were undertaken with no other + object. +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> + With such infamous lies they are trying to kill me. +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> + The messenger is about to depart and I have not time for more. + All the evidence presented to the investigating judge by the + police is nothing but a tissue of lies and calumnious + insinuations. But no proofs against me, having done nothing at + all. +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> + FERRER. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +October thirteenth, 1909, Ferrer's heart, so brave, so staunch, so +loyal, was stilled. Poor fools! The last agonized throb of that +heart had barely died away when it began to beat a hundredfold in the +hearts of the civilized world, until it grew into terrific thunder, +hurling forth its malediction upon the instigators of the black +crime. Murderers of black garb and pious mien, to the bar of +justice! +</P> + +<P> +Did Francisco Ferrer participate in the anti-military uprising? +According to the first indictment, which appeared in a Catholic paper +in Madrid, signed by the Bishop and all the prelates of Barcelona, he +was not even accused of participation. The indictment was to the +effect that Francisco Ferrer was guilty of having organized godless +schools, and having circulated godless literature. But in the +twentieth century men can not be burned merely for their godless +beliefs. Something else had to be devised; hence the charge of +instigating the uprising. +</P> + +<P> +In no authentic source so far investigated could a single proof be +found to connect Ferrer with the uprising. But then, no proofs were +wanted, or accepted, by the authorities. There were seventy-two +witnesses, to be sure, but their testimony was taken on paper. They +never were confronted with Ferrer, or he with them. +</P> + +<P> +Is it psychologically possible that Ferrer should have participated? +I do not believe it is, and here are my reasons. Francisco Ferrer +was not only a great teacher, but he was also undoubtedly a marvelous +organizer. In eight years, between 1901-1909, he had organized in +Spain one hundred and nine schools, besides inducing the liberal +element of his country to organize three hundred and eight other +schools. In connection with his own school work, Ferrer had equipped +a modern printing plant, organized a staff of translators, and spread +broadcast one hundred and fifty thousand copies of modern scientific +and sociologic works, not to forget the large quantity of rationalist +text books. Surely none but the most methodical and efficient +organizer could have accomplished such a feat. +</P> + +<P> +On the other hand, it was absolutely proven that the anti-military +uprising was not at all organized; that it came as a surprise to the +people themselves, like a great many revolutionary waves on previous +occasions. The people of Barcelona, for instance, had the city in +their control for four days, and, according to the statement of +tourists, greater order and peace never prevailed. Of course, the +people were so little prepared that when the time came, they did not +know what to do. In this regard they were like the people of Paris +during the Commune of 1871. They, too, were unprepared. While they +were starving, they protected the warehouses, filled to the brim with +provisions. They placed sentinels to guard the Bank of France, where +the bourgeoisie kept the stolen money. The workers of Barcelona, +too, watched over the spoils of their masters. +</P> + +<P> +How pathetic is the stupidity of the underdog; how terribly tragic! +But, then, have not his fetters been forged so deeply into his flesh, +that he would not, even if he could, break them? The awe of +authority, of law, of private property, hundredfold burned into his +soul,—how is he to throw it off unprepared, unexpectedly? +</P> + +<P> +Can anyone assume for a moment that a man like Ferrer would affiliate +himself with such a spontaneous, unorganized effort? Would he not +have known that it would result in a defeat, a disastrous defeat for +the people? And is it not more likely that if he would have taken +part, he, the experienced ENTREPRENEUR, would have thoroughly +organized the attempt? If all other proofs were lacking, that one +factor would be sufficient to exonerate Francisco Ferrer. But there +are others equally convincing. +</P> + +<P> +For the very date of the outbreak, July twenty-fifth, Ferrer had +called a conference of his teachers and members of the League of +Rational Education. It was to consider the autumn work, and +particularly the publication of Elisee Reclus' great book, L'HOMME ET +LA TERRE, and Peter Kropotkin's GREAT FRENCH REVOLUTION. Is it at +all likely, is it at all plausible that Ferrer, knowing of the +uprising, being a party to it, would in cold blood invite his friends +and colleagues to Barcelona for the day on which he realized their +lives would be endangered? Surely, only the criminal, vicious mind +of a Jesuit could credit such deliberate murder. +</P> + +<P> +Francisco Ferrer had his life-work mapped out; he had everything to +lose and nothing to gain, except ruin and disaster, were he to lend +assistance to the outbreak. Not that he doubted the justice of the +people's wrath; but his work, his hope, his very nature was directed +toward another goal. +</P> + +<P> +In vain are the frantic efforts of the Catholic Church, her lies, +falsehoods, calumnies. She stands condemned by the awakened human +conscience of having once more repeated the foul crimes of the past. +</P> + +<P> +Francisco Ferrer is accused of teaching the children the most +blood-curdling ideas,—to hate God, for instance. Horrors! +Francisco Ferrer did not believe in the existence of a God. Why +teach the child to hate something which does not exist? Is it not +more likely that he took the children out into the open, that he +showed them the splendor of the sunset, the brilliancy of the starry +heavens, the awe-inspiring wonder of the mountains and seas; that he +explained to them in his simple, direct way the law of growth, of +development, of the interrelation of all life? In so doing he made +it forever impossible for the poisonous weeds of the Catholic Church +to take root in the child's mind. +</P> + +<P> +It has been stated that Ferrer prepared the children to destroy the +rich. Ghost stories of old maids. Is it not more likely that he +prepared them to succor the poor? That he taught them the +humiliation, the degradation, the awfulness of poverty, which is a +vice and not a virtue; that he taught the dignity and importance of +all creative efforts, which alone sustain life and build character. +Is it not the best and most effective way of bringing into the proper +light the absolute uselessness and injury of parasitism? +</P> + +<P> +Last, but not least, Ferrer is charged with undermining the army by +inculcating anti-military ideas. Indeed? He must have believed with +Tolstoy that war is legalized slaughter, that it perpetuates hatred +and arrogance, that it eats away the heart of nations, and turns them +into raving maniacs. +</P> + +<P> +However, we have Ferrer's own word regarding his ideas of modern +education: +</P> + +<P> +"I would like to call the attention of my readers to this idea: All +the value of education rests in the respect for the physical, +intellectual, and moral will of the child. Just as in science no +demonstration is possible save by facts, just so there is no real +education save that which is exempt from all dogmatism, which leaves +to the child itself the direction of its effort, and confines itself +to the seconding of its effort. Now, there is nothing easier than to +alter this purpose, and nothing harder than to respect it. +Education is always imposing, violating, constraining; the real +educator is he who can best protect the child against his (the +teacher's) own ideas, his peculiar whims; he who can best appeal to +the child's own energies. +</P> + +<P> +"We are convinced that the education of the future will be of an +entirely spontaneous nature; certainly we can not as yet realize it, +but the evolution of methods in the direction of a wider +comprehension of the phenomena of life, and the fact that all +advances toward perfection mean the overcoming of restraint,—all +this indicates that we are in the right when we hope for the +deliverance of the child through science. +</P> + +<P> +"Let us not fear to say that we want men capable of evolving without +stopping, capable of destroying and renewing their environments +without cessation, of renewing themselves also; men, whose +intellectual independence will be their greatest force, who will +attach themselves to nothing, always ready to accept what is best, +happy in the triumph of new ideas, aspiring to live multiple lives in +one life. Society fears such men; we therefore must not hope that it +will ever want an education able to give them to us. +</P> + +<P> +"We shall follow the labors of the scientists who study the child +with the greatest attention, and we shall eagerly seek for means of +applying their experience to the education which we want to build up, +in the direction of an ever fuller liberation of the individual. +But how can we attain our end? Shall it not be by putting ourselves +directly to the work favoring the foundation of new schools, which +shall be ruled as much as possible by this spirit of liberty, which +we forefeel will dominate the entire work of education in the future? +</P> + +<P> +"A trial has been made, which, for the present, has already given +excellent results. We can destroy all which in the present school +answers to the organization of constraint, the artificial +surroundings by which children are separated from nature and life, +the intellectual and moral discipline made use of to impose +ready-made ideas upon them, beliefs which deprave and annihilate +natural bent. Without fear of deceiving ourselves, we can restore +the child to the environment which entices it, the environment of +nature in which he will be in contact with all that he loves, and in +which impressions of life will replace fastidious book-learning. If +we did no more than that, we should already have prepared in great +part the deliverance of the child. +</P> + +<P> +"In such conditions we might already freely apply the data of science +and labor most fruitfully. +</P> + +<P> +"I know very well we could not thus realize all our hopes, that we +should often be forced, for lack of knowledge, to employ undesirable +methods; but a certitude would sustain us in our efforts—namely, +that even without reaching our aim completely we should do more and +better in our still imperfect work than the present school +accomplishes. I like the free spontaneity of a child who knows +nothing, better than the world-knowledge and intellectual deformity +of a child who has been subjected to our present education."[5] +</P> + +<P> +Had Ferrer actually organized the riots, had he fought on the +barricades, had he hurled a hundred bombs, he could not have been so +dangerous to the Catholic Church and to despotism, as with his +opposition to discipline and restraint. Discipline and +restraint—are they not back of all the evils in the world? +Slavery, submission, poverty, all misery, all social iniquities +result from discipline and restraint. Indeed, Ferrer was dangerous. +Therefore he had to die, October thirteenth, 1909, in the ditch of +Montjuich. Yet who dare say his death was in vain? In view of the +tempestuous rise of universal indignation: Italy naming streets in +memory of Francisco Ferrer, Belgium inaugurating a movement to erect +a memorial; France calling to the front her most illustrious men to +resume the heritage of the martyr; England being the first to issue a +biography:—all countries uniting in perpetuating the great work of +Francisco Ferrer; America, even, tardy always in progressive ideas, +giving birth to a Francisco Ferrer Association, its aim being to +publish a complete life of Ferrer and to organize Modern Schools all +over the country; in the face of this international revolutionary +wave, who is there to say Ferrer died in vain? +</P> + +<P> +That death at Montjuich,—how wonderful, how dramatic it was, how it +stirs the human soul. Proud and erect, the inner eye turned toward +the light, Francisco Ferrer needed no lying priests to give him +courage, nor did he upbraid a phantom for forsaking him. The +consciousness that his executioners represented a dying age, and that +his was the living truth, sustained him in the last heroic moments. +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + A dying age and a living truth,<BR> + The living burying the dead.<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[1] THE BEEHIVE. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[2] MOTHER EARTH, 1907. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[3] Ibid. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[4] Black crows: The Catholic clergy. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[5] MOTHER EARTH, December, 1909. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="puritanism"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE HYPOCRISY OF PURITANISM +</H3> + +<BR> + +<P> +Speaking of Puritanism in relation to American art, Mr. Gutzen +Burglum said: "Puritanism has made us self-centered and hypocritical +for so long, that sincerity and reverence for what is natural in our +impulses have been fairly bred out of us, with the result that there +can be neither truth nor individuality in our art." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Burglum might have added that Puritanism has made life itself +impossible. More than art, more than estheticism, life represents +beauty in a thousand variations; it is, indeed, a gigantic panorama +of eternal change. Puritanism, on the other hand, rests on a fixed +and immovable conception of life; it is based on the Calvinistic idea +that life is a curse, imposed upon man by the wrath of God. In order +to redeem himself man must do constant penance, must repudiate every +natural and healthy impulse, and turn his back on joy and beauty. +</P> + +<P> +Puritanism celebrated its reign of terror in England during the +sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, destroying and crushing every +manifestation of art and culture. It was the spirit of Puritanism +which robbed Shelley of his children, because he would not bow to the +dicta of religion. It was the same narrow spirit which alienated +Byron from his native land, because that great genius rebelled +against the monotony, dullness, and pettiness of his country. It was +Puritanism, too, that forced some of England's freest women into the +conventional lie of marriage: Mary Wollstonecraft and, later, George +Eliot. And recently Puritanism has demanded another toll—the life +of Oscar Wilde. In fact, Puritanism has never ceased to be the most +pernicious factor in the domain of John Bull, acting as censor of the +artistic expression of his people, and stamping its approval only on +the dullness of middle-class respectability. +</P> + +<P> +It is therefore sheer British jingoism which points to America as the +country of Puritanic provincialism. It is quite true that our life +is stunted by Puritanism, and that the latter is killing what is +natural and healthy in our impulses. But it is equally true that it +is to England that we are indebted for transplanting this spirit on +American soil. It was bequeathed to us by the Pilgrim fathers. +Fleeing from persecution and oppression, the Pilgrims of Mayflower +fame established in the New World a reign of Puritanic tyranny and +crime. The history of New England, and especially of Massachusetts, +is full of the horrors that have turned life into gloom, joy into +despair, naturalness into disease, honesty and truth into hideous +lies and hypocrisies. The ducking-stool and whipping post, as well +as numerous other devices of torture, were the favorite English +methods for American purification. +</P> + +<P> +Boston, the city of culture, has gone down in the annals of +Puritanism as the "Bloody Town." It rivaled Salem, even, in her +cruel persecution of unauthorized religious opinions. On the now +famous Common a half-naked woman, with a baby in her arms, was +publicly whipped for the crime of free speech; and on the same spot +Mary Dyer, another Quaker woman, was hanged in 1659. In fact, Boston +has been the scene of more than one wanton crime committed by +Puritanism. Salem, in the summer of 1692, killed eighteen people for +witchcraft. Nor was Massachusetts alone in driving out the devil by +fire and brimstone. As Canning justly said: "The Pilgrim fathers +infested the New World to redress the balance of the Old." The +horrors of that period have found their most supreme expression in +the American classic, THE SCARLET LETTER. +</P> + +<P> +Puritanism no longer employs the thumbscrew and lash; but it still +has a most pernicious hold on the minds and feelings of the American +people. Naught else can explain the power of a Comstock. Like the +Torquemadas of ante-bellum days, Anthony Comstock is the autocrat of +American morals; he dictates the standards of good and evil, of +purity and vice. Like a thief in the night he sneaks into the +private lives of the people, into their most intimate relations. +The system of espionage established by this man Comstock puts to +shame the infamous Third Division of the Russian secret police. Why +does the public tolerate such an outrage on its liberties? Simply +because Comstock is but the loud expression of the Puritanism bred in +the Anglo-Saxon blood, and from whose thraldom even liberals have not +succeeded in fully emancipating themselves. The visionless and +leaden elements of the old Young Men's and Women's Christian +Temperance Unions, Purity Leagues, American Sabbath Unions, and the +Prohibition Party, with Anthony Comstock as their patron saint, are +the grave diggers of American art and culture. +</P> + +<P> +Europe can at least boast of a bold art and literature which delve +deeply into the social and sexual problems of our time, exercising a +severe critique of all our shams. As with a surgeon's knife every +Puritanic carcass is dissected, and the way thus cleared for man's +liberation from the dead weights of the past. But with Puritanism as +the constant check upon American life, neither truth nor sincerity is +possible. Nothing but gloom and mediocrity to dictate human conduct, +curtail natural expression, and stifle our best impulses. +Puritanism in this the twentieth century is as much the enemy of +freedom and beauty as it was when it landed on Plymouth Rock. It +repudiates, as something vile and sinful, our deepest feelings; but +being absolutely ignorant as to the real functions of human emotions, +Puritanism is itself the creator of the most unspeakable vices. +</P> + +<P> +The entire history of asceticism proves this to be only too true. +The Church, as well as Puritanism, has fought the flesh as something +evil; it had to be subdued and hidden at all cost. The result of +this vicious attitude is only now beginning to be recognized by +modern thinkers and educators. They realize that "nakedness has a +hygienic value as well as a spiritual significance, far beyond its +influences in allaying the natural inquisitiveness of the young or +acting as a preventative of morbid emotion. It is an inspiration to +adults who have long outgrown any youthful curiosities. The vision +of the essential and eternal human form, the nearest thing to us in +all the world, with its vigor and its beauty and its grace, is one of +the prime tonics of life."[1] But the spirit of purism has so perverted +the human mind that it has lost the power to appreciate the beauty of +nudity, forcing us to hide the natural form under the plea of +chastity. Yet chastity itself is but an artificial imposition upon +nature, expressive of a false shame of the human form. The modern +idea of chastity, especially in reference to woman, its greatest +victim, is but the sensuous exaggeration of our natural impulses. +"Chastity varies with the amount of clothing," and hence Christians +and purists forever hasten to cover the "heathen" with tatters, and +thus convert him to goodness and chastity. +</P> + +<P> +Puritanism, with its perversion of the significance and functions of +the human body, especially in regard to woman, has condemned her to +celibacy, or to the indiscriminate breeding of a diseased race, or to +prostitution. The enormity of this crime against humanity is +apparent when we consider the results. Absolute sexual continence is +imposed upon the unmarried woman, under pain of being considered +immoral or fallen, with the result of producing neurasthenia, +impotence, depression, and a great variety of nervous complaints +involving diminished power of work, limited enjoyment of life, +sleeplessness, and preoccupation with sexual desires and imaginings. +The arbitrary and pernicious dictum of total continence probably also +explains the mental inequality of the sexes. Thus Freud believes +that the intellectual inferiority of so many women is due to the +inhibition of thought imposed upon them for the purpose of sexual +repression. Having thus suppressed the natural sex desires of the +unmarried woman, Puritanism, on the other hand, blesses her married +sister for incontinent fruitfulness in wedlock. Indeed, not merely +blesses her, but forces the woman, oversexed by previous repression, +to bear children, irrespective of weakened physical condition or +economic inability to rear a large family. Prevention, even by +scientifically determined safe methods, is absolutely prohibited; +nay, the very mention of the subject is considered criminal. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Thanks to this Puritanic tyranny, the majority of women soon find +themselves at the ebb of their physical resources. Ill and worn, +they are utterly unable to give their children even elementary care. +That, added to economic pressure, forces many women to risk utmost +danger rather than continue to bring forth life. The custom of +procuring abortions has reached such vast proportions in America as +to be almost beyond belief. According to recent investigations along +this line, seventeen abortions are committed in every hundred +pregnancies. This fearful percentage represents only cases which +come to the knowledge of physicians. Considering the secrecy in +which this practice is necessarily shrouded, and the consequent +professional inefficiency and neglect, Puritanism continuously exacts +thousands of victims to its own stupidity and hypocrisy. +</P> + +<P> +Prostitution, although hounded, imprisoned, and chained, is +nevertheless the greatest triumph of Puritanism. It is its most +cherished child, all hypocritical sanctimoniousness notwithstanding. +The prostitute is the fury of our century, sweeping across the +"civilized" countries like a hurricane, and leaving a trail of +disease and disaster. The only remedy Puritanism offers for this +ill-begotten child is greater repression and more merciless +persecution. The latest outrage is represented by the Page Law, +which imposes upon New York the terrible failure and crime of Europe; +namely, registration and segregation of the unfortunate victims of +Puritanism. In equally stupid manner purism seeks to check the +terrible scourge of its own creation—venereal diseases. Most +disheartening it is that this spirit of obtuse narrow-mindedness has +poisoned even our so-called liberals, and has blinded them into +joining the crusade against the very things born of the hypocrisy of +Puritanism—prostitution and its results. In wilful blindness +Puritanism refuses to see that the true method of prevention is the +one which makes it clear to all that "venereal diseases are not a +mysterious or terrible thing, the penalty of the sin of the flesh, a +sort of shameful evil branded by purist malediction, but an ordinary +disease which may be treated and cured." By its methods of +obscurity, disguise, and concealment, Puritanism has furnished +favorable conditions for the growth and spread of these diseases. +Its bigotry is again most strikingly demonstrated by the senseless +attitude in regard to the great discovery of Prof. Ehrlich, hypocrisy +veiling the important cure for syphilis with vague allusions to a +remedy for "a certain poison." +</P> + +<P> +The almost limitless capacity of Puritanism for evil is due to its +intrenchment behind the State and the law. Pretending to safeguard +the people against "immorality," it has impregnated the machinery of +government and added to its usurpation of moral guardianship the +legal censorship of our views, feelings, and even of our conduct. +</P> + +<P> +Art, literature, the drama, the privacy of the mails, in fact, our +most intimate tastes, are at the mercy of this inexorable tyrant. +Anthony Comstock, or some other equally ignorant policeman, has been +given power to desecrate genius, to soil and mutilate the sublimest +creation of nature—the human form. Books dealing with the most +vital issues of our lives, and seeking to shed light upon dangerously +obscured problems, are legally treated as criminal offenses, and their +helpless authors thrown into prison or driven to destruction and +death. +</P> + +<P> +Not even in the domain of the Tsar is personal liberty daily outraged +to the extent it is in America, the stronghold of the Puritanic +eunuchs. Here the only day of recreation left to the masses, Sunday, +has been made hideous and utterly impossible. All writers on +primitive customs and ancient civilization agree that the Sabbath was +a day of festivities, free from care and duties, a day of general +rejoicing and merry-making. In every European country this tradition +continues to bring some relief from the humdrum and stupidity of our +Christian era. Everywhere concert halls, theaters, museums, and +gardens are filled with men, women, and children, particularly +workers with their families, full of life and joy, forgetful of the +ordinary rules and conventions of their every-day existence. It is +on that day that the masses demonstrate what life might really mean +in a sane society, with work stripped of its profit-making, +soul-destroying purpose. +</P> + +<P> +Puritanism has robbed the people even of that one day. Naturally, +only the workers are affected: our millionaires have their luxurious +homes and elaborate clubs. The poor, however, are condemned to the +monotony and dullness of the American Sunday. The sociability and +fun of European outdoor life is here exchanged for the gloom of the +church, the stuffy, germ-saturated country parlor, or the brutalizing +atmosphere of the back-room saloon. In Prohibition States the people +lack even the latter, unless they can invest their meager earnings in +quantities of adulterated liquor. As to Prohibition, every one knows +what a farce it really is. Like all other achievements of Puritanism +it, too, has but driven the "devil" deeper into the human system. +Nowhere else does one meet so many drunkards as in our Prohibition +towns. But so long as one can use scented candy to abate the foul +breath of hypocrisy, Puritanism is triumphant. Ostensibly +Prohibition is opposed to liquor for reasons of health and economy, +but the very spirit of Prohibition being itself abnormal, it succeeds +but in creating an abnormal life. +</P> + +<P> +Every stimulus which quickens the imagination and raises the spirits, +is as necessary to our life as air. It invigorates the body, and +deepens our vision of human fellowship. Without stimuli, in one form +or another, creative work is impossible, nor indeed the spirit of +kindliness and generosity. The fact that some great geniuses have +seen their reflection in the goblet too frequently, does not justify +Puritanism in attempting to fetter the whole gamut of human emotions. +A Byron and a Poe have stirred humanity deeper than all the Puritans +can ever hope to do. The former have given to life meaning and +color; the latter are turning red blood into water, beauty into +ugliness, variety into uniformity and decay. Puritanism, in whatever +expression, is a poisonous germ. On the surface everything may look +strong and vigorous; yet the poison works its way persistently, until +the entire fabric is doomed. With Hippolyte Taine, every truly free +spirit has come to realize that "Puritanism is the death of culture, +philosophy, humor, and good fellowship; its characteristics are +dullness, monotony, and gloom." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[1] THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. Havelock Ellis. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="traffic"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE TRAFFIC IN WOMEN +</H3> + +<BR> + +<P> +Our reformers have suddenly made a great discovery—the white slave +traffic. The papers are full of these "unheard of conditions," and +lawmakers are already planning a new set of laws to check the horror. +</P> + +<P> +It is significant that whenever the public mind is to be diverted +from a great social wrong, a crusade is inaugurated against +indecency, gambling, saloons, etc. And what is the result of such +crusades? Gambling is increasing, saloons are doing a lively +business through back entrances, prostitution is at its height, and +the system of pimps and cadets is but aggravated. +</P> + +<P> +How is it that an institution, known almost to every child, should +have been discovered so suddenly? How is it that this evil, known to +all sociologists, should now be made such an important issue? +</P> + +<P> +To assume that the recent investigation of the white slave traffic +(and, by the way, a very superficial investigation) has discovered +anything new, is, to say the least, very foolish. Prostitution has +been, and is, a widespread evil, yet mankind goes on its business, +perfectly indifferent to the sufferings and distress of the victims +of prostitution. As indifferent, indeed, as mankind has remained to +our industrial system, or to economic prostitution. +</P> + +<P> +Only when human sorrows are turned into a toy with glaring colors +will baby people become interested—for a while at least. The people +are a very fickle baby that must have new toys every day. The +"righteous" cry against the white slave traffic is such a toy. It +serves to amuse the people for a little while, and it will help to +create a few more fat political jobs—parasites who stalk about the +world as inspectors, investigators, detectives, and so forth. +</P> + +<P> +What is really the cause of the trade in women? Not merely white +women, but yellow and black women as well. Exploitation, of course; +the merciless Moloch of capitalism that fattens on underpaid labor, +thus driving thousands of women and girls into prostitution. With +Mrs. Warren these girls feel, "Why waste your life working for a few +shillings a week in a scullery, eighteen hours a day?" +</P> + +<P> +Naturally our reformers say nothing about this cause. They know it +well enough, but it doesn't pay to say anything about it. It is much +more profitable to play the Pharisee, to pretend an outraged +morality, than to go to the bottom of things. +</P> + +<P> +However, there is one commendable exception among the young writers: +Reginald Wright Kauffman, whose work, THE HOUSE OF BONDAGE, is the +first earnest attempt to treat the social evil, not from a +sentimental Philistine viewpoint. A journalist of wide experience, +Mr. Kauffman proves that our industrial system leaves most women no +alternative except prostitution. The women portrayed in THE HOUSE OF +BONDAGE belong to the working class. Had the author portrayed the +life of women in other spheres, he would have been confronted with +the same state of affairs. +</P> + +<P> +Nowhere is woman treated according to the merit of her work, but +rather as a sex. It is therefore almost inevitable that she should +pay for her right to exist, to keep a position in whatever line, with +sex favors. Thus it is merely a question of degree whether she sells +herself to one man, in or out of marriage, or to many men. Whether +our reformers admit it or not, the economic and social inferiority of +woman is responsible for prostitution. +</P> + +<P> +Just at present our good people are shocked by the disclosures that +in New York City alone, one out of every ten women works in a +factory, that the average wage received by women is six dollars per +week for forty-eight to sixty hours of work, and that the majority of +female wage workers face many months of idleness which leaves the +average wage about $280 a year. In view of these economic horrors, +is it to be wondered at that prostitution and the white slave trade +have become such dominant factors? +</P> + +<P> +Lest the preceding figures be considered an exaggeration, it is well +to examine what some authorities on prostitution have to say: +</P> + +<P> +"A prolific cause of female depravity can be found in the several +tables, showing the description of the employment pursued, and the +wages received, by the women previous to their fall, and it will be a +question for the political economist to decide how far mere business +consideration should be an apology on the part of employers for a +reduction in their rates of remuneration, and whether the savings of +a small percentage on wages is not more than counter-balanced by the +enormous amount of taxation enforced on the public at large to defray +the expenses incurred on account of a system of vice, WHICH IS THE +DIRECT RESULT, IN MANY CASES, OF INSUFFICIENT COMPENSATION OF HONEST +LABOR."[1] +</P> + +<P> +Our present-day reformers would do well to look into Dr. Sanger's +book. There they will find that out of 2,000 cases under his +observation, but few came from the middle classes, from well-ordered +conditions, or pleasant homes. By far the largest majority were +working girls and working women; some driven into prostitution +through sheer want, others because of a cruel, wretched life at home, +others again because of thwarted and crippled physical natures (of +which I shall speak later on). Also it will do the maintainers of +purity and morality good to learn that out of two thousand cases, 490 +were married women, women who lived with their husbands. Evidently +there was not much of a guaranty for their "safety and purity" in the +sanctity of marriage.[2] +</P> + +<P> +Dr. Alfred Blaschko, in PROSTITUTION IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY, is +even more emphatic in characterizing economic conditions as one of +the most vital factors of prostitution. +</P> + +<P> +"Although prostitution has existed in all ages, it was left to the +nineteenth century to develop it into a gigantic social institution. +The development of industry with vast masses of people in the +competitive market, the growth and congestion of large cities, the +insecurity and uncertainty of employment, has given prostitution an +impetus never dreamed of at any period in human history." +</P> + +<P> +And again Havelock Ellis, while not so absolute in dealing with the +economic cause, is nevertheless compelled to admit that it is +indirectly and directly the main cause. Thus he finds that a large +percentage of prostitutes is recruited from the servant class, +although the latter have less care and greater security. On the +other hand, Mr. Ellis does not deny that the daily routine, the +drudgery, the monotony of the servant girl's lot, and especially the +fact that she may never partake of the companionship and joy of a +home, is no mean factor in forcing her to seek recreation and +forgetfulness in the gaiety and glimmer of prostitution. In other +words, the servant girl, being treated as a drudge, never having the +right to herself, and worn out by the caprices of her mistress, can +find an outlet, like the factory or shopgirl, only in prostitution. +</P> + +<P> +The most amusing side of the question now before the public is the +indignation of our "good, respectable people," especially the various +Christian gentlemen, who are always to be found in the front ranks of +every crusade. Is it that they are absolutely ignorant of the +history of religion, and especially of the Christian religion? Or is +it that they hope to blind the present generation to the part played +in the past by the Church in relation to prostitution? Whatever +their reason, they should be the last to cry out against the +unfortunate victims of today, since it is known to every intelligent +student that prostitution is of religious origin, maintained and +fostered for many centuries, not as a shame but as a virtue, hailed +as such by the Gods themselves. +</P> + +<P> +"It would seem that the origin of prostitution is to be found +primarily in a religious custom, religion, the great conserver of +social tradition, preserving in a transformed shape a primitive +freedom that was passing out of the general social life. The typical +example is that recorded by Herodotus, in the fifth century before +Christ, at the Temple of Mylitta, the Babylonian Venus, where every +woman, once in her life, had to come and give herself to the first +stranger, who threw a coin in her lap, to worship the goddess. Very +similar customs existed in other parts of Western Asia, in North +Africa, in Cyprus, and other islands of the Eastern Mediterranean, +and also in Greece, where the temple of Aphrodite on the fort at +Corinth possessed over a thousand hierodules, dedicated to the +service of the goddess. +</P> + +<P> +"The theory that religious prostitution developed, as a general rule, +out of the belief that the generative activity of human beings +possessed a mysterious and sacred influence in promoting the +fertility of Nature, is maintained by all authoritative writers on +the subject. Gradually, however, and when prostitution became an +organized institution under priestly influence, religious +prostitution developed utilitarian sides, thus helping to increase +public revenue. +</P> + +<P> +"The rise of Christianity to political power produced little change +in policy. The leading fathers of the Church tolerated prostitution. +Brothels under municipal protection are found in the thirteenth +century. They constituted a sort of public service, the directors of +them being considered almost as public servants."[3] +</P> + +<P> +To this must be added the following from Dr. Sanger's work: +</P> + +<P> +"Pope Clement II. issued a bull that prostitutes would be tolerated +if they pay a certain amount of their earnings to the Church. +</P> + +<P> +"Pope Sixtus IV. was more practical; from one single brothel, which +he himself had built, he received an income of 20,000 ducats." +</P> + +<P> +In modern times the Church is a little more careful in that +direction. At least she does not openly demand tribute from +prostitutes. She finds it much more profitable to go in for real +estate, like Trinity Church, for instance, to rent out death traps at +an exorbitant price to those who live off and by prostitution. +</P> + +<P> +Much as I should like to, my space will not admit speaking of +prostitution in Egypt, Greece, Rome, and during the Middle Ages. The +conditions in the latter period are particularly interesting, +inasmuch as prostitution was organized into guilds, presided over by +a brothel Queen. These guilds employed strikes as a medium of +improving their condition and keeping a standard price. Certainly +that is more practical a method than the one used by the modern wage +slave in society. +</P> + +<P> +It would be one-sided and extremely superficial to maintain that the +economic factor is the only cause of prostitution. There are others +no less important and vital. That, too, our reformers know, but dare +discuss even less than the institution that saps the very life out of +both men and women. I refer to the sex question, the very mention of +which causes most people moral spasms. +</P> + +<P> +It is a conceded fact that woman is being reared as a sex commodity, +and yet she is kept in absolute ignorance of the meaning and +importance of sex. Everything dealing with the subject is +suppressed, and persons who attempt to bring light into this terrible +darkness are persecuted and thrown into prison. Yet it is +nevertheless true that so long as a girl is not to know how to take +care of herself, not to know the function of the most important part +of her life, we need not be surprised if she becomes an easy prey to +prostitution, or to any other form of a relationship which degrades +her to the position of an object for mere sex gratification. +</P> + +<P> +It is due to this ignorance that the entire life and nature of the +girl is thwarted and crippled. We have long ago taken it as a +self-evident fact that the boy may follow the call of the wild; that +is to say, that the boy may, as soon has his sex nature asserts +itself, satisfy that nature; but our moralists are scandalized at the +very thought that the nature of a girl should assert itself. To the +moralist prostitution does not consist so much in the fact that the +woman sells her body, but rather that she sells it out of wedlock. +That this is no mere statement is proved by the fact that marriage +for monetary considerations is perfectly legitimate, sanctified by +law and public opinion, while any other union is condemned and +repudiated. Yet a prostitute, if properly defined, means nothing +else than "any person for whom sexual relationships are subordinated +to gain."[4] +</P> + +<P> +"Those women are prostitutes who sell their bodies for the exercise +of the sexual act and make of this a profession."[5] +</P> + +<P> +In fact, Banger goes further; he maintains that the act of +prostitution is "intrinsically equal to that of a man or woman who +contracts a marriage for economic reasons." +</P> + +<P> +Of course, marriage is the goal of every girl, but as thousands of +girls cannot marry, our stupid social customs condemn them either to +a life of celibacy or prostitution. Human nature asserts itself +regardless of all laws, nor is there any plausible reason why nature +should adapt itself to a perverted conception of morality. +</P> + +<P> +Society considers the sex experiences of a man as attributes of his +general development, while similar experiences in the life of a woman +are looked upon as a terrible calamity, a loss of honor and of all +that is good and noble in a human being. This double standard of +morality has played no little part in the creation and perpetuation +of prostitution. It involves the keeping of the young in absolute +ignorance on sex matters, which alleged "innocence," together with an +overwrought and stifled sex nature, helps to bring about a state of +affairs that our Puritans are so anxious to avoid or prevent. +</P> + +<P> +Not that the gratification of sex must needs lead to prostitution; it +is the cruel, heartless, criminal persecution of those who dare +divert from the beaten paths, which is responsible for it. +</P> + +<P> +Girls, mere children, work in crowded, over-heated rooms ten to +twelve hours daily at a machine, which tends to keep them in a +constant over-excited sex state. Many of these girls have no home or +comforts of any kind; therefore the street or some place of cheap +amusement is the only means of forgetting their daily routine. This +naturally brings them into close proximity with the other sex. It is +hard to say which of the two factors brings the girl's over-sexed +condition to a climax, but it is certainly the most natural thing +that a climax should result. That is the first step toward +prostitution. Nor is the girl to be held responsible for it. On the +contrary, it is altogether the fault of society, the fault of our +lack of understanding, of our lack of appreciation of life in the +making; especially is it the criminal fault of our moralists, who +condemn a girl for all eternity, because she has gone from the "path +of virtue"; that is, because her first sex experience has taken place +without the sanction of the Church. +</P> + +<P> +The girl feels herself a complete outcast, with the doors of home and +society closed in her face. Her entire training and tradition is +such that the girl herself feels depraved and fallen, and therefore +has no ground to stand upon, or any hold that will lift her up, +instead of dragging her down. Thus society creates the victims that +it afterwards vainly attempts to get rid of. The meanest, most +depraved and decrepit man still considers himself too good to take as +his wife the woman whose grace he was quite willing to buy, even +though he might thereby save her from a life of horror. Nor can she +turn to her own sister for help. In her stupidity the latter deems +herself too pure and chaste, not realizing that her own position is +in many respects even more deplorable than her sister's of the +street. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +"The wife who married for money, compared with the prostitute," says +Havelock Ellis, "is the true scab. She is paid less, gives much more +in return in labor and care, and is absolutely bound to her master. +The prostitute never signs away the right over her own person, she +retains her freedom and personal rights, nor is she always compelled +to submit to a man's embrace." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Nor does the better-than-thou woman realize the apologist claim of +Lecky that "though she may be the supreme type of vice, she is also +the most efficient guardian of virtue. But for her, happy homes +would be polluted, unnatural and harmful practice would abound." +</P> + +<P> +Moralists are ever ready to sacrifice one-half of the human race for +the sake of some miserable institution which they can not outgrow. +As a matter of fact, prostitution is no more a safeguard for the +purity of the home than rigid laws are a safeguard against +prostitution. Fully fifty per cent. of married men are patrons of +brothels. It is through this virtuous element that the married +women—nay, even the children—are infected with venereal diseases. +Yet society has not a word of condemnation for the man, while no law +is too monstrous to be set in motion against the helpless victim. +She is not only preyed upon by those who use her, but she is also +absolutely at the mercy of every policeman and miserable detective on +the beat, the officials at the station house, the authorities in +every prison. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +In a recent book by a woman who was for twelve years the mistress of +a "house," are to be found the following figures: "The authorities +compelled me to pay every month fines between $14.70 to $29.70, the +girls would pay from $5.70 to $9.70 to the police." Considering that +the writer did her business in a small city, that the amounts she +gives do not include extra bribes and fines, one can readily see the +tremendous revenue the police department derives from the blood money +of its victims, whom it will not even protect. Woe to those who +refuse to pay their toll; they would be rounded up like cattle, "if +only to make a favorable impression upon the good citizens of the +city, or if the powers needed extra money on the side. For the +warped mind who believes that a fallen woman is incapable of human +emotion it would be impossible to realize the grief, the disgrace, +the tears, the wounded pride that was ours every time we were pulled +in." +</P> + +<P> +Strange, isn't it, that a woman who has a kept a "house" should be +able to feel that way? But stranger still that a good Christian +world should bleed and fleece such women, and give them nothing in +return except obloquy and persecution. Oh, for the charity of a +Christian world! +</P> + +<P> +Much stress is laid on white slaves being imported into America. How +would America ever retain her virtue if Europe did not help her out? +I will not deny that this may be the case in some instances, any more +than I will deny that there are emissaries of Germany and other +countries luring economic slaves into America; but I absolutely deny +that prostitution is recruited to any appreciable extent from Europe. +It may be true that the majority of prostitutes in New York City are +foreigners, but that is because the majority of the population is +foreign. The moment we go to any other American city, to Chicago or +the Middle West, we shall find that the number of foreign +prostitutes is by far a minority. +</P> + +<P> +Equally exaggerated is the belief that the majority of street girls +in this city were engaged in this business before they came to +America. Most of the girls speak excellent English, are Americanized +in habits and appearance,—a thing absolutely impossible unless they +had lived in this country many years. That is, they were driven into +prostitution by American conditions, by the thoroughly American +custom for excessive display of finery and clothes, which, of course, +necessitates money,—money that cannot be earned in shops or +factories. +</P> + +<P> +In other words, there is no reason to believe that any set of men +would go to the risk and expense of getting foreign products, when +American conditions are overflooding the market with thousands of +girls. On the other hand, there is sufficient evidence to prove that +the export of American girls for the purpose of prostitution is by no +means a small factor. +</P> + +<P> +Thus Clifford G. Roe, ex-Assistant State Attorney of Cook County, +Ill., makes the open charge that New England girls are shipped to +Panama for the express use of men in the employ of Uncle Sam. Mr. +Roe adds that "there seems to be an underground railroad between +Boston and Washington which many girls travel." Is it not +significant that the railroad should lead to the very seat of Federal +authority? That Mr. Roe said more than was desired in certain +quarters is proved by the fact that he lost his position. It is not +practical for men in office to tell tales from school. +</P> + +<P> +The excuse given for the conditions in Panama is that there are no +brothels in the Canal Zone. That is the usual avenue of escape for a +hypocritical world that dares not face the truth. Not in the Canal +Zone, not in the city limits,—therefore prostitution does not exist. +</P> + +<P> +Next to Mr. Roe, there is James Bronson Reynolds, who has made a +thorough study of the white slave traffic in Asia. As a staunch +American citizen and friend of the future Napoleon of America, +Theodore Roosevelt, he is surely the last to discredit the virtue of +his country. Yet we are informed by him that in Hong Kong, Shanghai, +and Yokohama, the Augean stables of American vice are located. There +American prostitutes have made themselves so conspicuous that in the +Orient "American girl" is synonymous with prostitute. Mr. Reynolds +reminds his countrymen that while Americans in China are under the +protection of our consular representatives, the Chinese in America +have no protection at all. Every one who knows the brutal and +barbarous persecution Chinese and Japanese endure on the Pacific +Coast, will agree with Mr. Reynolds. +</P> + +<P> +In view of the above facts it is rather absurd to point to Europe as +the swamp whence come all the social diseases of America. Just as +absurd is it to proclaim the myth that the Jews furnish the largest +contingent of willing prey. I am sure that no one will accuse me of +nationalistic tendencies. I am glad to say that I have developed out +of them, as out of many other prejudices. If, therefore, I resent +the statement that Jewish prostitutes are imported, it is not because +of any Judaistic sympathies, but because of the facts inherent in the +lives of these people. No one but the most superficial will claim +that Jewish girls migrate to strange lands, unless they have some tie +or relation that brings them there. The Jewish girl is not +adventurous. Until recent years she had never left home, not even so +far as the next village or town, except it were to visit some +relative. Is it then credible that Jewish girls would leave their +parents or families, travel thousands of miles to strange lands, +through the influence and promises of strange forces? Go to any of +the large incoming steamers and see for yourself if these girls do +not come either with their parents, brothers, aunts, or other +kinsfolk. There may be exceptions, of course, but to state that +large numbers of Jewish girls are imported for prostitution, or any +other purpose, is simply not to know Jewish psychology. +</P> + +<P> +Those who sit in a glass house do wrong to throw stones about them; +besides, the American glass house is rather thin, it will break +easily, and the interior is anything but a gainly sight. +</P> + +<P> +To ascribe the increase in prostitution to alleged importation, to +the growth of the cadet system, or similar causes, is highly +superficial. I have already referred to the former. As to the cadet +system, abhorrent as it is, we must not ignore the fact that it is +essentially a phase of modern prostitution,—a phase accentuated by +suppression and graft, resulting from sporadic crusades against the +social evil. +</P> + +<P> +The procurer is no doubt a poor specimen of the human family, but in +what manner is he more despicable than the policeman who takes the +last cent from the street walker, and then locks her up in the +station house? Why is the cadet more criminal, or a greater menace +to society, than the owners of department stores and factories, who +grow fat on the sweat of their victims, only to drive them to the +streets? I make no plea for the cadet, but I fail to see why he +should be mercilessly hounded, while the real perpetrators of all +social iniquity enjoy immunity and respect. Then, too, it is well to +remember that it is not the cadet who makes the prostitute. It is +our sham and hypocrisy that create both the prostitute and the cadet. +</P> + +<P> +Until 1894 very little was known in America of the procurer. Then we +were attacked by an epidemic of virtue. Vice was to be abolished, +the country purified at all cost. The social cancer was therefore +driven out of sight, but deeper into the body. Keepers of brothels, +as well as their unfortunate victims, were turned over to the tender +mercies of the police. The inevitable consequence of exorbitant +bribes, and the penitentiary, followed. +</P> + +<P> +While comparatively protected in the brothels, where they represented +a certain monetary value, the girls now found themselves on the +street, absolutely at the mercy of the graft-greedy police. +Desperate, needing protection and longing for affection, these girls +naturally proved an easy prey for cadets, themselves the result of +the spirit of our commercial age. Thus the cadet system was the +direct outgrowth of police persecution, graft, and attempted +suppression of prostitution. It were sheer folly to confound this +modern phase of the social evil with the causes of the latter. +</P> + +<P> +Mere suppression and barbaric enactments can serve but to embitter, +and further degrade, the unfortunate victims of ignorance and +stupidity. The latter has reached its highest expression in the +proposed law to make humane treatment of prostitutes a crime, +punishing any one sheltering a prostitute with five years' +imprisonment and $10,000 fine. Such an attitude merely exposes the +terrible lack of understanding of the true causes of prostitution, as +a social factor, as well as manifesting the Puritanic spirit of the +Scarlet Letter days. +</P> + +<P> +There is not a single modern writer on the subject who does not refer +to the utter futility of legislative methods in coping with the +issue. Thus Dr. Blaschko finds that governmental suppression and +moral crusades accomplish nothing save driving the evil into secret +channels, multiplying its dangers to society. Havelock Ellis, the +most thorough and humane student of prostitution, proves by a wealth +of data that the more stringent the methods of persecution the worse +the condition becomes. Among other data we learn that in France, "in +1560, Charles IX. abolished brothels through an edict, but the +numbers of prostitutes were only increased, while many new brothels +appeared in unsuspected shapes, and were more dangerous. In spite of +all such legislation, OR BECAUSE OF IT, there has been no country in +which prostitution has played a more conspicuous part."[6] +</P> + +<P> +An educated public opinion, freed from the legal and moral hounding +of the prostitute, can alone help to ameliorate present conditions. +Wilful shutting of eyes and ignoring of the evil as a social factor +of modern life, can but aggravate matters. We must rise above our +foolish notions of "better than thou," and learn to recognize in the +prostitute a product of social conditions. Such a realization will +sweep away the attitude of hypocrisy, and insure a greater +understanding and more humane treatment. As to a thorough +eradication of prostitution, nothing can accomplish that save a +complete transvaluation of all accepted values—especially the moral +ones—coupled with the abolition of industrial slavery. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[1] Dr. Sanger, THE HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[2] It is a significant fact that Dr. Sanger's book has been excluded +from the U. S. mails. Evidently the authorities are not anxious that +the public be informed as to the true cause of prostitution. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[3] Havelock Ellis, SEX AND SOCIETY. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[4] Guyot, LA PROSTITUTION. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[5] Banger, CRIMINALITE ET CONDITION ECONOMIQUE. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[6] SEX AND SOCIETY. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="suffrage"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +WOMAN SUFFRAGE +</H3> + +<BR> + +<P> +We boast of the age of advancement, of science, and progress. Is it +not strange, then, that we still believe in fetich worship? True, +our fetiches have different form and substance, yet in their power +over the human mind they are still as disastrous as were those of +old. +</P> + +<P> +Our modern fetich is universal suffrage. Those who have not yet +achieved that goal fight bloody revolutions to obtain it, and those +who have enjoyed its reign bring heavy sacrifice to the altar of this +omnipotent deity. Woe to the heretic who dare question that +divinity! +</P> + +<P> +Woman, even more than man, is a fetich worshipper, and though her +idols may change, she is ever on her knees, ever holding up her +hands, ever blind to the fact that her god has feet of clay. Thus +woman has been the greatest supporter of all deities from time +immemorial. Thus, too, she has had to pay the price that only gods +can exact,—her freedom, her heart's blood, her very life. +</P> + +<P> +Nietzsche's memorable maxim, "When you go to woman, take the whip +along," is considered very brutal, yet Nietzsche expressed in one +sentence the attitude of woman towards her gods. +</P> + +<P> +Religion, especially the Christian religion, has condemned woman to +the life of an inferior, a slave. It has thwarted her nature and +fettered her soul, yet the Christian religion has no greater +supporter, none more devout, than woman. Indeed, it is safe to say +that religion would have long ceased to be a factor in the lives of +the people, if it were not for the support it receives from woman. +The most ardent churchworkers, the most tireless missionaries the +world over, are women, always sacrificing on the altar of the gods +that have chained her spirit and enslaved her body. +</P> + +<P> +The insatiable monster, war, robs woman of all that is dear and +precious to her. It exacts her brothers, lovers, sons, and in return +gives her a life of loneliness and despair. Yet the greatest +supporter and worshiper of war is woman. She it is who instills the +love of conquest and power into her children; she it is who whispers +the glories of war into the ears of her little ones, and who rocks +her baby to sleep with the tunes of trumpets and the noise of guns. +It is woman, too, who crowns the victor on his return from the +battlefield. Yes, it is woman who pays the highest price to that +insatiable monster, war. +</P> + +<P> +Then there is the home. What a terrible fetich it is! How it saps +the very life-energy of woman,—this modern prison with golden bars. +Its shining aspect blinds woman to the price she would have to pay as +wife, mother, and housekeeper. Yet woman clings tenaciously to the +home, to the power that holds her in bondage. +</P> + +<P> +It may be said that because woman recognizes the awful toll she is +made to pay to the Church, State, and the home, she wants suffrage to +set herself free. That may be true of the few; the majority of +suffragists repudiate utterly such blasphemy. On the contrary, they +insist always that it is woman suffrage which will make her a better +Christian and homekeeper, a staunch citizen of the State. Thus +suffrage is only a means of strengthening the omnipotence of the very +Gods that woman has served from time immemorial. +</P> + +<P> +What wonder, then, that she should be just as devout, just as +zealous, just as prostrate before the new idol, woman suffrage. As +of old, she endures persecution, imprisonment, torture, and all forms +of condemnation, with a smile on her face. As of old, the most +enlightened, even, hope for a miracle from the twentieth century +deity,—suffrage. Life, happiness, joy, freedom, independence,—all +that, and more, is to spring from suffrage. In her blind devotion +woman does not see what people of intellect perceived fifty years +ago: that suffrage is an evil, that it has only helped to enslave +people, that it has but closed their eyes that they may not see how +craftily they were made to submit. +</P> + +<P> +Woman's demand for equal suffrage is based largely on the contention +that woman must have the equal right in all affairs of society. No +one could, possibly, refute that, if suffrage were a right. Alas, +for the ignorance of the human mind, which can see a right in an +imposition. Or is it not the most brutal imposition for one set of +people to make laws that another set is coerced by force to obey? +Yet woman clamors for that "golden opportunity" that has wrought so +much misery in the world, and robbed man of his integrity and +self-reliance; an imposition which has thoroughly corrupted the +people, and made them absolute prey in the hands of unscrupulous +politicians. +</P> + +<P> +The poor, stupid, free American citizen! Free to starve, free to +tramp the highways of this great country, he enjoys universal +suffrage, and, by that right, he has forged chains about his limbs. +The reward that he receives is stringent labor laws prohibiting the +right of boycott, of picketing, in fact, of everything, except the +right to be robbed of the fruits of his labor. Yet all these +disastrous results of the twentieth century fetich have taught woman +nothing. But, then, woman will purify politics, we are assured. +</P> + +<P> +Needless to say, I am not opposed to woman suffrage on the +conventional ground that she is not equal to it. I see neither +physical, psychological, nor mental reasons why woman should not have +the equal right to vote with man. But that can not possibly blind me +to the absurd notion that woman will accomplish that wherein man has +failed. If she would not make things worse, she certainly could not +make them better. To assume, therefore, that she would succeed in +purifying something which is not susceptible of purification, is to +credit her with supernatural powers. Since woman's greatest +misfortune has been that she was looked upon as either angel or +devil, her true salvation lies in being placed on earth; namely, in +being considered human, and therefore subject to all human follies +and mistakes. Are we, then, to believe that two errors will make a +right? Are we to assume that the poison already inherent in politics +will be decreased, if women were to enter the political arena? The +most ardent suffragists would hardly maintain such a folly. +</P> + +<P> +As a matter of fact, the most advanced students of universal suffrage +have come to realize that all existing systems of political power are +absurd, and are completely inadequate to meet the pressing issues of +life. This view is also borne out by a statement of one who is +herself an ardent believer in woman suffrage, Dr. Helen L. Sumner. +In her able work on EQUAL SUFFRAGE, she says: "In Colorado, we find +that equal suffrage serves to show in the most striking way the +essential rottenness and degrading character of the existing system." +Of course, Dr. Sumner has in mind a particular system of voting, but +the same applies with equal force to the entire machinery of the +representative system. With such a basis, it is difficult to +understand how woman, as a political factor, would benefit either +herself or the rest of mankind. +</P> + +<P> +But, say our suffrage devotees, look at the countries and States +where female suffrage exists. See what woman has accomplished—in +Australia, New Zealand, Finland, the Scandinavian countries, and in +our own four States, Idaho, Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah. Distance +lends enchantment—or, to quote a Polish formula—"it is well where +we are not." Thus one would assume that those countries and States +are unlike other countries or States, that they have greater +freedom, greater social and economic equality, a finer appreciation +of human life, deeper understanding of the great social struggle, +with all the vital questions it involves for the human race. +</P> + +<P> +The women of Australia and New Zealand can vote, and help make the +laws. Are the labor conditions better there than they are in +England, where the suffragettes are making such a heroic struggle? +Does there exist a greater motherhood, happier and freer children +than in England? Is woman there no longer considered a mere sex +commodity? Has she emancipated herself from the Puritanical double +standard of morality for men and women? Certainly none but the +ordinary female stump politician will dare answer these questions in +the affirmative. If that be so, it seems ridiculous to point to +Australia and New Zealand as the Mecca of equal suffrage +accomplishments. +</P> + +<P> +On the other hand, it is a fact to those who know the real political +conditions in Australia, that politics have gagged labor by enacting +the most stringent labor laws, making strikes without the sanction of +an arbitration committee a crime equal to treason. +</P> + +<P> +Not for a moment do I mean to imply that woman suffrage is +responsible for this state of affairs. I do mean, however, that +there is no reason to point to Australia as a wonder-worker of +woman's accomplishment, since her influence has been unable to free +labor from the thralldom of political bossism. +</P> + +<P> +Finland has given woman equal suffrage; nay, even the right to sit in +Parliament. Has that helped to develop a greater heroism, an +intenser zeal than that of the women of Russia? Finland, like +Russia, smarts under the terrible whip of the bloody Tsar. Where are +the Finnish Perovskaias, Spiridonovas, Figners, Breshkovskaias? +Where are the countless numbers of Finnish young girls who cheerfully +go to Siberia for their cause? Finland is sadly in need of heroic +liberators. Why has the ballot not created them? The only Finnish +avenger of his people was a man, not a woman, and he used a more +effective weapon than the ballot. +</P> + +<P> +As to our own States where women vote, and which are constantly being +pointed out as examples of marvels, what has been accomplished there +through the ballot that women do not to a large extent enjoy in other +States; or that they could not achieve through energetic efforts +without the ballot? +</P> + +<P> +True, in the suffrage States women are guaranteed equal rights to +property; but of what avail is that right to the mass of women +without property, the thousands of wage workers, who live from hand +to mouth? That equal suffrage did not, and cannot, affect their +condition is admitted even by Dr. Sumner, who certainly is in a +position to know. As an ardent suffragist, and having been sent to +Colorado by the Collegiate Equal Suffrage League of New York State to +collect material in favor of suffrage, she would be the last to say +anything derogatory; yet we are informed that "equal suffrage has but +slightly affected the economic conditions of women. That women do +not receive equal pay for equal work, and that, though woman in +Colorado has enjoyed school suffrage since 1876, women teachers are +paid less than in California." On the other hand, Miss Sumner fails +to account for the fact that although women have had school suffrage +for thirty-four years, and equal suffrage since 1894, the census in +Denver alone a few months ago disclosed the fact of fifteen thousand +defective school children. And that, too, with mostly women in the +educational department, and also notwithstanding that women in +Colorado have passed the "most stringent laws for child and animal +protection." The women of Colorado "have taken great interest in the +State institutions for the care of dependent, defective, and +delinquent children." What a horrible indictment against woman's +care and interest, if one city has fifteen thousand defective +children. What about the glory of woman suffrage, since it has +failed utterly in the most important social issue, the child? And +where is the superior sense of justice that woman was to bring into +the political field? Where was it in 1903, when the mine owners +waged a guerilla war against the Western Miners' Union; when General +Bell established a reign of terror, pulling men out of beds at night, +kidnapping them across the border line, throwing them into bull pens, +declaring "to hell with the Constitution, the club is the +Constitution"? Where were the women politicians then, and why did +they not exercise the power of their vote? But they did. They +helped to defeat the most fair-minded and liberal man, Governor +Waite. The latter had to make way for the tool of the mine kings, +Governor Peabody, the enemy of labor, the Tsar of Colorado. +"Certainly male suffrage could have done nothing worse." Granted. +Wherein, then, are the advantages to woman and society from woman +suffrage? The oft-repeated assertion that woman will purify politics +is also but a myth. It is not borne out by the people who know the +political conditions of Idaho, Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah. +</P> + +<P> +Woman, essentially a purist, is naturally bigotted and relentless in +her effort to make others as good as she thinks they ought to be. +Thus, in Idaho, she has disfranchised her sister of the street, and +declared all women of "lewd character" unfit to vote. "Lewd" not +being interpreted, of course, as prostitution IN marriage. It goes +without saying that illegal prostitution and gambling have been +prohibited. In this regard the law must needs be of feminine nature: +it always prohibits. Therein all laws are wonderful. They go no +further, but their very tendencies open all the floodgates of hell. +Prostitution and gambling have never done a more flourishing business +than since the law has been set against them. +</P> + +<P> +In Colorado, the Puritanism of woman has expressed itself in a more +drastic form. "Men of notoriously unclean lives, and men connected +with saloons, have been dropped from politics since women have the +vote."[1] Could brother Comstock do more? Could all the Puritan +fathers have done more? I wonder how many women realize the gravity +of this would-be feat. I wonder if they understand that it is the +very thing which, instead of elevating woman, has made her a +political spy, a contemptible pry into the private affairs of people, +not so much for the good of the cause, but because, as a Colorado +woman said, "they like to get into houses they have never been in, +and find out all they can, politically and otherwise."[2] Yes, and +into the human soul and its minutest nooks and corners. For nothing +satisfies the craving of most women so much as scandal. And when did +she ever enjoy such opportunities as are hers, the politician's? +</P> + +<P> +"Notoriously unclean lives, and men connected with the saloons." +Certainly, the lady vote gatherers can not be accused of much sense +of proportion. Granting even that these busybodies can decide whose +lives are clean enough for that eminently clean atmosphere, politics, +must it follow that saloon-keepers belong to the same category? +Unless it be American hypocrisy and bigotry, so manifest in the +principle of Prohibition, which sanctions the spread of drunkenness +among men and women of the rich class, yet keeps vigilant watch on +the only place left to the poor man. If no other reason, woman's +narrow and purist attitude toward life makes her a greater danger to +liberty wherever she has political power. Man has long overcome the +superstitions that still engulf woman. In the economic competitive +field, man has been compelled to exercise efficiency, judgment, +ability, competency. He therefore had neither time nor inclination +to measure everyone's morality with a Puritanic yardstick. In his +political activities, too, he has not gone about blindfolded. He +knows that quantity and not quality is the material for the political +grinding mill, and, unless he is a sentimental reformer or an old +fossil, he knows that politics can never be anything but a swamp. +</P> + +<P> +Women who are at all conversant with the process of politics, know +the nature of the beast, but in their self-sufficiency and egotism +they make themselves believe that they have but to pet the beast, and +he will become as gentle as a lamb, sweet and pure. As if women have +not sold their votes, as if women politicians can not be bought! If +her body can be bought in return for material consideration, why not +her vote? That it is being done in Colorado and in other States, is +not denied even by those in favor of woman suffrage. +</P> + +<P> +As I have said before, woman's narrow view of human affairs is not +the only argument against her as a politician superior to man. There +are others. Her life-long economic parasitism has utterly blurred +her conception of the meaning of equality. She clamors for equal +rights with men, yet we learn that "few women care to canvas in +undesirable districts."[3] How little equality means to them compared +with the Russian women, who face hell itself for their ideal! +</P> + +<P> +Woman demands the same rights as man, yet she is indignant that her +presence does not strike him dead: he smokes, keeps his hat on, and +does not jump from his seat like a flunkey. These may be trivial +things, but they are nevertheless the key to the nature of American +suffragists. To be sure, their English sisters have outgrown these +silly notions. They have shown themselves equal to the greatest +demands on their character and power of endurance. All honor to the +heroism and sturdiness of the English suffragettes. Thanks to their +energetic, aggressive methods, they have proved an inspiration to some +of our own lifeless and spineless ladies. But after all, the +suffragettes, too, are still lacking in appreciation of real +equality. Else how is one to account for the tremendous, truly +gigantic effort set in motion by those valiant fighters for a +wretched little bill which will benefit a handful of propertied +ladies, with absolutely no provision for the vast mass of +workingwomen? True, as politicians they must be opportunists, must +take half measures if they can not get all. But as intelligent and +liberal women they ought to realize that if the ballot is a weapon, +the disinherited need it more than the economically superior class, +and that the latter already enjoy too much power by virtue of their +economic superiority. +</P> + +<P> +The brilliant leader of the English suffragettes, Mrs. Emmeline +Pankhurst, herself admitted, when on her American lecture tour, that +there can be no equality between political superiors and inferiors. +If so, how will the workingwoman of England, already inferior +economically to the ladies who are benefited by the Shackleton bill,[4] +be able to work with their political superiors, should the bill pass? +Is it not probable that the class of Annie Keeney, so full of zeal, +devotion, and martyrdom, will be compelled to carry on their backs +their female political bosses, even as they are carrying their +economic masters. They would still have to do it, were universal +suffrage for men and women established in England. No matter what +the workers do, they are made to pay, always. Still, those who +believe in the power of the vote show little sense of justice when +they concern themselves not at all with those whom, as they claim, it +might serve most. +</P> + +<P> +The American suffrage movement has been, until very recently, +altogether a parlor affair, absolutely detached from the economic +needs of the people. Thus Susan B. Anthony, no doubt an exceptional +type of woman, was not only indifferent but antagonistic to labor; +nor did she hesitate to manifest her antagonism when, in 1869, she +advised women to take the places of striking printers in New York.[5] +I do not know whether her attitude had changed before her death. +</P> + +<P> +There are, of course, some suffragists who are affiliated with +workingwomen—the Women's Trade Union League, for instance; but they +are a small minority, and their activities are essentially economic. +The rest look upon toil as a just provision of Providence. What +would become of the rich, if not for the poor? What would become of +these idle, parasitic ladies, who squander more in a week than their +victims earn in a year, if not for the eighty million wage workers? +Equality, who ever heard of such a thing? +</P> + +<P> +Few countries have produced such arrogance and snobbishness as +America. Particularly this is true of the American woman of the +middle class. She not only considers herself the equal of man, but +his superior, especially in her purity, goodness, and morality. +Small wonder that the American suffragist claims for her vote the +most miraculous powers. In her exalted conceit she does not see how +truly enslaved she is, not so much by man, as by her own silly +notions and traditions. Suffrage can not ameliorate that sad fact; +it can only accentuate it, as indeed it does. +</P> + +<P> +One of the great American women leaders claims that woman is entitled +not only to equal pay, but that she ought to be legally entitled even +to the pay of her husband. Failing to support her, he should be put +in convict stripes, and his earnings in prison be collected by his +equal wife. Does not another brilliant exponent of the cause claim +for woman that her vote will abolish the social evil, which has been +fought in vain by the collective efforts of the most illustrious +minds the world over? It is indeed to be regretted that the alleged +creator of the universe has already presented us with his wonderful +scheme of things, else woman suffrage would surely enable woman to +outdo him completely. +</P> + +<P> +Nothing is so dangerous as the dissection of a fetich. If we have +outlived the time when such heresy was punishable at the stake, we +have not outlived the narrow spirit of condemnation of those who dare +differ with accepted notions. Therefore I shall probably be put down +as an opponent of woman. But that can not deter me from looking the +question squarely in the face. I repeat what I have said in the +beginning: I do not believe that woman will make politics worse; nor +can I believe that she could make it better. If, then, she cannot +improve on man's mistakes, why perpetuate the latter? +</P> + +<P> +History may be a compilation of lies; nevertheless, it contains a few +truths, and they are the only guide we have for the future. The +history of the political activities of men proves that they have +given him absolutely nothing that he could not have achieved in a +more direct, less costly, and more lasting manner. As a matter of +fact, every inch of ground he has gained has been through a constant +fight, a ceaseless struggle for self-assertion, and not through +suffrage. There is no reason whatever to assume that woman, in her +climb to emancipation, has been, or will be, helped by the ballot. +</P> + +<P> +In the darkest of all countries, Russia, with her absolute despotism, +woman has become man's equal, not through the ballot, but by her will +to be and to do. Not only has she conquered for herself every avenue +of learning and vocation, but she has won man's esteem, his respect, +his comradeship; aye, even more than that: she has gained the +admiration, the respect of the whole world. That, too, not through +suffrage, but by her wonderful heroism, her fortitude, her ability, +will power, and her endurance in the struggle for liberty. Where are +the women in any suffrage country or State that can lay claim to such +a victory? When we consider the accomplishments of woman in America, +we find also that something deeper and more powerful than suffrage +has helped her in the march to emancipation. +</P> + +<P> +It is just sixty-two years ago since a handful of women at the Seneca +Falls Convention set forth a few demands for their right to equal +education with men, and access to the various professions, trades, +etc. What wonderful accomplishment, what wonderful triumphs! Who +but the most ignorant dare speak of woman as a mere domestic drudge? +Who dare suggest that this or that profession should not be open to +her? For over sixty years she has molded a new atmosphere and a new +life for herself. She has become a world power in every domain of +human thought and activity. And all that without suffrage, without +the right to make laws, without the "privilege" of becoming a judge, +a jailer, or an executioner. +</P> + +<P> +Yes, I may be considered an enemy of woman; but if I can help her see +the light, I shall not complain. +</P> + +<P> +The misfortune of woman is not that she is unable to do the work of +man, but that she is wasting her life force to outdo him, with a +tradition of centuries which has left her physically incapable of +keeping pace with him. Oh, I know some have succeeded, but at what +cost, at what terrific cost! The import is not the kind of work +woman does, but rather the quality of the work she furnishes. She +can give suffrage or the ballot no new quality, nor can she receive +anything from it that will enhance her own quality. Her development, +her freedom, her independence, must come from and through herself. +First, by asserting herself as a personality, and not as a sex +commodity. Second, by refusing the right to anyone over her body; by +refusing to bear children, unless she wants them; by refusing to be a +servant to God, the State, society, the husband, the family, etc.; by +making her life simpler, but deeper and richer. That is, by trying +to learn the meaning and substance of life in all its complexities, +by freeing herself from the fear of public opinion and public +condemnation. Only that, and not the ballot, will set woman free, +will make her a force hitherto unknown in the world, a force for real +love, for peace, for harmony; a force of divine fire, of life giving; +a creator of free men and women. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[1] EQUAL SUFFRAGE. Dr. Helen Sumner. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[2] EQUAL SUFFRAGE. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[3] Dr. Helen A. Sumner. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[4] Mr. Shackleton was a labor leader. It is therefore self-evident +that he should introduce a bill excluding his own constituents. The +English Parliament is full of such Judases. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[5] EQUAL SUFFRAGE. Dr. Helen A. Sumner. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="emancipation"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE TRAGEDY OF WOMAN'S EMANCIPATION +</H3> + +<BR> + +<P> +I begin with an admission: Regardless of all political and economic +theories, treating of the fundamental differences between various +groups within the human race, regardless of class and race +distinctions, regardless of all artificial boundary lines between +woman's rights and man's rights, I hold that there is a point where +these differentiations may meet and grow into one perfect whole. +</P> + +<P> +With this I do not mean to propose a peace treaty. The general +social antagonism which has taken hold of our entire public life +today, brought about through the force of opposing and contradictory +interests, will crumble to pieces when the reorganization of our +social life, based upon the principles of economic justice, shall +have become a reality. +</P> + +<P> +Peace or harmony between the sexes and individuals does not +necessarily depend on a superficial equalization of human beings; nor +does it call for the elimination of individual traits and +peculiarities. The problem that confronts us today, and which the +nearest future is to solve, is how to be one's self and yet in +oneness with others, to feel deeply with all human beings and still +retain one's own characteristic qualities. This seems to me to be +the basis upon which the mass and the individual, the true democrat +and the true individuality, man and woman, can meet without +antagonism and opposition. The motto should not be: Forgive one +another; rather, Understand one another. The oft-quoted sentence of +Madame de Stael: "To understand everything means to forgive +everything," has never particularly appealed to me; it has the odor +of the confessional; to forgive one's fellow-being conveys the idea +of pharisaical superiority. To understand one's fellow-being +suffices. The admission partly represents the fundamental aspect of +my views on the emancipation of woman and its effect upon the entire +sex. +</P> + +<P> +Emancipation should make it possible for woman to be human in the +truest sense. Everything within her that craves assertion and +activity should reach its fullest expression; all artificial barriers +should be broken, and the road towards greater freedom cleared of +every trace of centuries of submission and slavery. +</P> + +<P> +This was the original aim of the movement for woman's emancipation. +But the results so far achieved have isolated woman and have robbed +her of the fountain springs of that happiness which is so essential +to her. Merely external emancipation has made of the modern woman an +artificial being, who reminds one of the products of French +arboriculture with its arabesque trees and shrubs, pyramids, wheels, +and wreaths; anything, except the forms which would be reached by the +expression of her own inner qualities. Such artificially grown +plants of the female sex are to be found in large numbers, especially +in the so-called intellectual sphere of our life. +</P> + +<P> +Liberty and equality for woman! What hopes and aspirations these +words awakened when they were first uttered by some of the noblest +and bravest souls of those days. The sun in all his light and glory +was to rise upon a new world; in this world woman was to be free to +direct her own destiny—an aim certainly worthy of the great +enthusiasm, courage, perseverance, and ceaseless effort of the +tremendous host of pioneer men and women, who staked everything +against a world of prejudice and ignorance. +</P> + +<P> +My hopes also move towards that goal, but I hold that the +emancipation of woman, as interpreted and practically applied today, +has failed to reach that great end. Now, woman is confronted with +the necessity of emancipating herself from emancipation, if she +really desires to be free. This may sound paradoxical, but is, +nevertheless, only too true. +</P> + +<P> +What has she achieved through her emancipation? Equal suffrage in a +few States. Has that purified our political life, as many +well-meaning advocates predicted? Certainly not. Incidentally, it +is really time that persons with plain, sound judgment should cease +to talk about corruption in politics in a boarding-school tone. +Corruption of politics has nothing to do with the morals, or the +laxity of morals, of various political personalities. Its cause is +altogether a material one. Politics is the reflex of the business +and industrial world, the mottos of which are: "To take is more +blessed than to give"; "buy cheap and sell dear"; "one soiled hand +washes the other." There is no hope even that woman, with her right +to vote, will ever purify politics. +</P> + +<P> +Emancipation has brought woman economic equality with man; that is, +she can choose her own profession and trade; but as her past and +present physical training has not equipped her with the necessary +strength to compete with man, she is often compelled to exhaust all +her energy, use up her vitality, and strain every nerve in order to +reach the market value. Very few ever succeed, for it is a fact that +women teachers, doctors, lawyers, architects, and engineers are +neither met with the same confidence as their male colleagues, nor +receive equal remuneration. And those that do reach that enticing +equality, generally do so at the expense of their physical and +psychical well-being. As to the great mass of working girls and +women, how much independence is gained if the narrowness and lack of +freedom of the home is exchanged for the narrowness and lack of +freedom of the factory, sweat-shop, department store, or office? In +addition is the burden which is laid on many women of looking after a +"home, sweet home"—cold, dreary, disorderly, uninviting—after a +day's hard work. Glorious independence! No wonder that hundreds of +girls are willing to accept the first offer of marriage, sick and +tired of their "independence" behind the counter, at the sewing or +typewriting machine. They are just as ready to marry as girls of the +middle class, who long to throw off the yoke of parental supremacy. +A so-called independence which leads only to earning the merest +subsistence is not so enticing, not so ideal, that one could expect +woman to sacrifice everything for it. Our highly praised +independence is, after all, but a slow process of dulling and +stifling woman's nature, her love instinct, and her mother instinct. +</P> + +<P> +Nevertheless, the position of the working girl is far more natural +and human than that of her seemingly more fortunate sister in the +more cultured professional walks of life—teachers, physicians, +lawyers, engineers, etc., who have to make a dignified, proper +appearance, while the inner life is growing empty and dead. +</P> + +<P> +The narrowness of the existing conception of woman's independence and +emancipation; the dread of love for a man who is not her social +equal; the fear that love will rob her of her freedom and +independence; the horror that love or the joy of motherhood will only +hinder her in the full exercise of her profession—all these together +make of the emancipated modern woman a compulsory vestal, before whom +life, with its great clarifying sorrows and its deep, entrancing +joys, rolls on without touching or gripping her soul. +</P> + +<P> +Emancipation, as understood by the majority of its adherents and +exponents, is of too narrow a scope to permit the boundless love and +ecstasy contained in the deep emotion of the true woman, sweetheart, +mother, in freedom. +</P> + +<P> +The tragedy of the self-supporting or economically free woman does +not lie in too many but in too few experiences. True, she surpasses +her sister of past generations in knowledge of the world and human +nature; it is just because of this that she feels deeply the lack of +life's essence, which alone can enrich the human soul, and without +which the majority of women have become mere professional automatons. +</P> + +<P> +That such a state of affairs was bound to come was foreseen by those +who realized that, in the domain of ethics, there still remained many +decaying ruins of the time of the undisputed superiority of man; +ruins that are still considered useful. And, what is more important, +a goodly number of the emancipated are unable to get along without +them. Every movement that aims at the destruction of existing +institutions and the replacement thereof with something more +advanced, more perfect, has followers who in theory stand for the +most radical ideas, but who, nevertheless, in their every-day +practice, are like the average Philistine, feigning respectability +and clamoring for the good opinion of their opponents. There are, +for example, Socialists, and even Anarchists, who stand for the idea +that property is robbery, yet who will grow indignant if anyone owe +them the value of a half-dozen pins. +</P> + +<P> +The same Philistine can be found in the movement for woman's +emancipation. Yellow journalists and milk-and-water litterateurs +have painted pictures of the emancipated woman that make the hair of +the good citizen and his dull companion stand up on end. Every +member of the woman's rights movement was pictured as a George Sand +in her absolute disregard of morality. Nothing was sacred to her. +She had no respect for the ideal relation between man and woman. In +short, emancipation stood only for a reckless life of lust and sin; +regardless of society, religion, and morality. The exponents of +woman's rights were highly indignant at such representation, and, +lacking humor, they exerted all their energy to prove that they were +not at all as bad as they were painted, but the very reverse. Of +course, as long as woman was the slave of man, she could not be good +and pure, but now that she was free and independent she would prove +how good she could be and that her influence would have a purifying +effect on all institutions in society. True, the movement for +woman's rights has broken many old fetters, but it has also forged +new ones. The great movement of TRUE emancipation has not met with a +great race of women who could look liberty in the face. Their +narrow, Puritanical vision banished man, as a disturber and doubtful +character, out of their emotional life. Man was not to be tolerated +at any price, except perhaps as the father of a child, since a child +could not very well come to life without a father. Fortunately, the +most rigid Puritans never will be strong enough to kill the innate +craving for motherhood. But woman's freedom is closely allied with +man's freedom, and many of my so-called emancipated sisters seem to +overlook the fact that a child born in freedom needs the love and +devotion of each human being about him, man as well as woman. +Unfortunately, it is this narrow conception of human relations that +has brought about a great tragedy in the lives of the modern man and +woman. +</P> + +<P> +About fifteen years ago appeared a work from the pen of the brilliant +Norwegian, Laura Marholm, called WOMAN, A CHARACTER STUDY. She was +one of the first to call attention to the emptiness and narrowness of +the existing conception of woman's emancipation, and its tragic +effect upon the inner life of woman. In her work Laura Marholm +speaks of the fate of several gifted women of international fame: the +genius, Eleonora Duse; the great mathematician and writer, Sonya +Kovalevskaia; the artist and poet-nature, Marie Bashkirtzeff, who +died so young. Through each description of the lives of these women +of such extraordinary mentality runs a marked trail of unsatisfied +craving for a full, rounded, complete, and beautiful life, and the +unrest and loneliness resulting from the lack of it. Through these +masterly psychological sketches, one cannot help but see that the +higher the mental development of woman, the less possible it is for +her to meet a congenial mate who will see in her, not only sex, but +also the human being, the friend, the comrade and strong +individuality, who cannot and ought not lose a single trait of her +character. +</P> + +<P> +The average man with his self-sufficiency, his ridiculously superior +airs of patronage towards the female sex, is an impossibility for +woman as depicted in the CHARACTER STUDY by Laura Marholm. Equally +impossible for her is the man who can see in her nothing more than +her mentality and her genius, and who fails to awaken her woman +nature. +</P> + +<P> +A rich intellect and a fine soul are usually considered necessary +attributes of a deep and beautiful personality. In the case of the +modern woman, these attributes serve as a hindrance to the complete +assertion of her being. For over a hundred years the old form of +marriage, based on the Bible, "till death doth part," has been +denounced as an institution that stands for the sovereignty of the +man over the woman, of her complete submission to his whims and +commands, and absolute dependence on his name and support. Time and +again it has been conclusively proved that the old matrimonial +relation restricted woman to the function of a man's servant and the +bearer of his children. And yet we find many emancipated women who +prefer marriage, with all its deficiencies, to the narrowness of an +unmarried life; narrow and unendurable because of the chains of moral +and social prejudice that cramp and bind her nature. +</P> + +<P> +The explanation of such inconsistency on the part of many advanced +women is to be found in the fact that they never truly understood the +meaning of emancipation. They thought that all that was needed was +independence from external tyrannies; the internal tyrants, far more +harmful to life and growth—ethical and social conventions—were left +to take care of themselves; and they have taken care of themselves. +They seem to get along as beautifully in the heads and hearts of the +most active exponents of woman's emancipation, as in the heads and +hearts of our grandmothers. +</P> + +<P> +These internal tyrants, whether they be in the form of public opinion +or what will mother say, or brother, father, aunt, or relative of any +sort; what will Mrs. Grundy, Mr. Comstock, the employer, the Board of +Education say? All these busybodies, moral detectives, jailers of +the human spirit, what will they say? Until woman has learned to +defy them all, to stand firmly on her own ground and to insist upon +her own unrestricted freedom, to listen to the voice of her nature, +whether it call for life's greatest treasure, love for a man, or her +most glorious privilege, the right to give birth to a child, she +cannot call herself emancipated. How many emancipated women are +brave enough to acknowledge that the voice of love is calling, wildly +beating against their breasts, demanding to be heard, to be +satisfied. +</P> + +<P> +The French writer, Jean Reibrach, in one of his novels, NEW BEAUTY, +attempts to picture the ideal, beautiful, emancipated woman. This +ideal is embodied in a young girl, a physician. She talks very +cleverly and wisely of how to feed infants; she is kind, and +administers medicines free to poor mothers. She converses with a +young man of her acquaintance about the sanitary conditions of the +future, and how various bacilli and germs shall be exterminated by +the use of stone walls and floors, and by the doing away with rugs +and hangings. She is, of course, very plainly and practically +dressed, mostly in black. The young man, who, at their first +meeting, was overawed by the wisdom of his emancipated friend, +gradually learns to understand her, and recognizes one fine day that +he loves her. They are young, and she is kind and beautiful, and +though always in rigid attire, her appearance is softened by a +spotlessly clean white collar and cuffs. One would expect that he +would tell her of his love, but he is not one to commit romantic +absurdities. Poetry and the enthusiasm of love cover their blushing +faces before the pure beauty of the lady. He silences the voice of +his nature, and remains correct. She, too, is always exact, always +rational, always well behaved. I fear if they had formed a union, +the young man would have risked freezing to death. I must confess +that I can see nothing beautiful in this new beauty, who is as cold +as the stone walls and floors she dreams of. Rather would I have the +love songs of romantic ages, rather Don Juan and Madame Venus, rather +an elopement by ladder and rope on a moonlight night, followed by the +father's curse, mother's moans, and the moral comments of neighbors, +than correctness and propriety measured by yardsticks. If love does +not know how to give and take without restrictions, it is not love, +but a transaction that never fails to lay stress on a plus and a +minus. +</P> + +<P> +The greatest shortcoming of the emancipation of the present day lies +in its artificial stiffness and its narrow respectabilities, which +produce an emptiness in woman's soul that will not let her drink from +the fountain of life. I once remarked that there seemed to be a +deeper relationship between the old-fashioned mother and hostess, +ever on the alert for the happiness of her little ones and the +comfort of those she loved, and the truly new woman, than between +the latter and her average emancipated sister. The disciples of +emancipation pure and simple declared me a heathen, fit only for the +stake. Their blind zeal did not let them see that my comparison +between the old and the new was merely to prove that a goodly number +of our grandmothers had more blood in their veins, far more humor and +wit, and certainly a greater amount of naturalness, kind-heartedness, +and simplicity, than the majority of our emancipated professional +women who fill the colleges, halls of learning, and various offices. +This does not mean a wish to return to the past, nor does it condemn +woman to her old sphere, the kitchen and the nursery. +</P> + +<P> +Salvation lies in an energetic march onward towards a brighter and +clearer future. We are in need of unhampered growth out of old +traditions and habits. The movement for woman's emancipation has so +far made but the first step in that direction. It is to be hoped +that it will gather strength to make another. The right to vote, or +equal civil rights, may be good demands, but true emancipation begins +neither at the polls nor in courts. It begins in woman's soul. +History tells us that every oppressed class gained true liberation +from its masters through its own efforts. It is necessary that woman +learn that lesson, that she realize that her freedom will reach as +far as her power to achieve her freedom reaches. It is, therefore, +far more important for her to begin with her inner regeneration, to +cut loose from the weight of prejudices, traditions, and customs. +The demand for equal rights in every vocation of life is just and +fair; but, after all, the most vital right is the right to love and +be loved. Indeed, if partial emancipation is to become a complete +and true emancipation of woman, it will have to do away with the +ridiculous notion that to be loved, to be sweetheart and mother, is +synonymous with being slave or subordinate. It will have to do away +with the absurd notion of the dualism of the sexes, or that man and +woman represent two antagonistic worlds. +</P> + +<P> +Pettiness separates; breadth unites. Let us be broad and big. Let +us not overlook vital things because of the bulk of trifles +confronting us. A true conception of the relation of the sexes will +not admit of conqueror and conquered; it knows of but one great +thing: to give of one's self boundlessly, in order to find one's self +richer, deeper, better. That alone can fill the emptiness, and +transform the tragedy of woman's emancipation into joy, limitless +joy. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="marriage"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +MARRIAGE AND LOVE +</H3> + +<BR> + +<P> +The popular notion about marriage and love is that they are +synonymous, that they spring from the same motives, and cover the +same human needs. Like most popular notions this also rests not on +actual facts, but on superstition. +</P> + +<P> +Marriage and love have nothing in common; they are as far apart as +the poles; are, in fact, antagonistic to each other. No doubt some +marriages have been the result of love. Not, however, because love +could assert itself only in marriage; much rather is it because few +people can completely outgrow a convention. There are today large +numbers of men and women to whom marriage is naught but a farce, but +who submit to it for the sake of public opinion. At any rate, while +it is true that some marriages are based on love, and while it is +equally true that in some cases love continues in married life, I +maintain that it does so regardless of marriage, and not because of +it. +</P> + +<P> +On the other hand, it is utterly false that love results from +marriage. On rare occasions one does hear of a miraculous case of a +married couple falling in love after marriage, but on close +examination it will be found that it is a mere adjustment to the +inevitable. Certainly the growing-used to each other is far away +from the spontaneity, the intensity, and beauty of love, without +which the intimacy of marriage must prove degrading to both the woman +and the man. +</P> + +<P> +Marriage is primarily an economic arrangement, an insurance pact. It +differs from the ordinary life insurance agreement only in that it is +more binding, more exacting. Its returns are insignificantly small +compared with the investments. In taking out an insurance policy one +pays for it in dollars and cents, always at liberty to discontinue +payments. If, however, woman's premium is her husband, she pays for +it with her name, her privacy, her self-respect, her very life, +"until death doth part." Moreover, the marriage insurance condemns +her to life-long dependency, to parasitism, to complete uselessness, +individual as well as social. Man, too, pays his toll, but as his +sphere is wider, marriage does not limit him as much as woman. He +feels his chains more in an economic sense. +</P> + +<P> +Thus Dante's motto over Inferno applies with equal force to marriage. +"Ye who enter here leave all hope behind." +</P> + +<P> +That marriage is a failure none but the very stupid will deny. One +has but to glance over the statistics of divorce to realize how +bitter a failure marriage really is. Nor will the stereotyped +Philistine argument that the laxity of divorce laws and the growing +looseness of woman account for the fact that: first, every twelfth +marriage ends in divorce; second, that since 1870 divorces have +increased from 28 to 73 for every hundred thousand population; third, +that adultery, since 1867, as ground for divorce, has increased 270.8 +per cent.; fourth, that desertion increased 369.8 per cent. +</P> + +<P> +Added to these startling figures is a vast amount of material, +dramatic and literary, further elucidating this subject. Robert +Herrick, in TOGETHER; Pinero, in MID-CHANNEL; Eugene Walter, in PAID +IN FULL, and scores of other writers are discussing the barrenness, +the monotony, the sordidness, the inadequacy of marriage as a factor +for harmony and understanding. +</P> + +<P> +The thoughtful social student will not content himself with the +popular superficial excuse for this phenomenon. He will have to dig +deeper into the very life of the sexes to know why marriage proves so +disastrous. +</P> + +<P> +Edward Carpenter says that behind every marriage stands the life-long +environment of the two sexes; an environment so different from each +other that man and woman must remain strangers. Separated by an +insurmountable wall of superstition, custom, and habit, marriage has +not the potentiality of developing knowledge of, and respect for, +each other, without which every union is doomed to failure. +</P> + +<P> +Henrik Ibsen, the hater of all social shams, was probably the first +to realize this great truth. Nora leaves her husband, not—as the +stupid critic would have it—because she is tired of her +responsibilities or feels the need of woman's rights, but because she +has come to know that for eight years she had lived with a stranger +and borne him children. Can there be anything more humiliating, more +degrading than a life-long proximity between two strangers? No need +for the woman to know anything of the man, save his income. As to +the knowledge of the woman—what is there to know except that she has +a pleasing appearance? We have not yet outgrown the theologic myth +that woman has no soul, that she is a mere appendix to man, made out +of his rib just for the convenience of the gentleman who was so +strong that he was afraid of his own shadow. +</P> + +<P> +Perchance the poor quality of the material whence woman comes is +responsible for her inferiority. At any rate, woman has no +soul—what is there to know about her? Besides, the less soul a +woman has the greater her asset as a wife, the more readily will she +absorb herself in her husband. It is this slavish acquiescence to +man's superiority that has kept the marriage institution seemingly +intact for so long a period. Now that woman is coming into her own, +now that she is actually growing aware of herself as being outside +of the master's grace, the sacred institution of marriage is +gradually being undermined, and no amount of sentimental lamentation +can stay it. +</P> + +<P> +From infancy, almost, the average girl is told that marriage is her +ultimate goal; therefore her training and education must be directed +towards that end. Like the mute beast fattened for slaughter, she is +prepared for that. Yet, strange to say, she is allowed to know much +less about her function as wife and mother than the ordinary artisan +of his trade. It is indecent and filthy for a respectable girl to +know anything of the marital relation. Oh, for the inconsistency of +respectability, that needs the marriage vow to turn something which +is filthy into the purest and most sacred arrangement that none dare +question or criticize. Yet that is exactly the attitude of the +average upholder of marriage. The prospective wife and mother is +kept in complete ignorance of her only asset in the competitive +field—sex. Thus she enters into life-long relations with a man only +to find herself shocked, repelled, outraged beyond measure by the +most natural and healthy instinct, sex. It is safe to say that a +large percentage of the unhappiness, misery, distress, and physical +suffering of matrimony is due to the criminal ignorance in sex +matters that is being extolled as a great virtue. Nor is it at all +an exaggeration when I say that more than one home has been broken up +because of this deplorable fact. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +If, however, woman is free and big enough to learn the mystery of sex +without the sanction of State or Church, she will stand condemned as +utterly unfit to become the wife of a "good" man, his goodness +consisting of an empty brain and plenty of money. Can there be +anything more outrageous than the idea that a healthy, grown woman, +full of life and passion, must deny nature's demand, must subdue her +most intense craving, undermine her health and break her spirit, must +stunt her vision, abstain from the depth and glory of sex experience +until a "good" man comes along to take her unto himself as a wife? +That is precisely what marriage means. How can such an arrangement +end except in failure? This is one, though not the least important, +factor of marriage, which differentiates it from love. +</P> + +<P> +Ours is a practical age. The time when Romeo and Juliet risked the +wrath of their fathers for love, when Gretchen exposed herself to the +gossip of her neighbors for love, is no more. If, on rare occasions, +young people allow themselves the luxury of romance, they are taken +in care by the elders, drilled and pounded until they become +"sensible." +</P> + +<P> +The moral lesson instilled in the girl is not whether the man has +aroused her love, but rather is it, "How much?" The important and +only God of practical American life: Can the man make a living? can +he support a wife? That is the only thing that justifies marriage. +Gradually this saturates every thought of the girl; her dreams are +not of moonlight and kisses, of laughter and tears; she dreams of +shopping tours and bargain counters. This soul poverty and +sordidness are the elements inherent in the marriage institution. +The State and Church approve of no other ideal, simply because it is +the one that necessitates the State and Church control of men and +women. +</P> + +<P> +Doubtless there are people who continue to consider love above +dollars and cents. Particularly this is true of that class whom +economic necessity has forced to become self-supporting. The +tremendous change in woman's position, wrought by that mighty factor, +is indeed phenomenal when we reflect that it is but a short time +since she has entered the industrial arena. Six million women wage +workers; six million women, who have equal right with men to be +exploited, to be robbed, to go on strike; aye, to starve even. +Anything more, my lord? Yes, six million wage workers in every walk +of life, from the highest brain work to the mines and railroad +tracks; yes, even detectives and policemen. Surely the emancipation +is complete. +</P> + +<P> +Yet with all that, but a very small number of the vast army of women +wage workers look upon work as a permanent issue, in the same light +as does man. No matter how decrepit the latter, he has been taught +to be independent, self-supporting. Oh, I know that no one is really +independent in our economic treadmill; still, the poorest specimen of +a man hates to be a parasite; to be known as such, at any rate. +</P> + +<P> +The woman considers her position as worker transitory, to be thrown +aside for the first bidder. That is why it is infinitely harder to +organize women than men. "Why should I join a union? I am going to +get married, to have a home." Has she not been taught from infancy +to look upon that as her ultimate calling? She learns soon enough +that the home, though not so large a prison as the factory, has more +solid doors and bars. It has a keeper so faithful that naught can +escape him. The most tragic part, however, is that the home no +longer frees her from wage slavery; it only increases her task. +</P> + +<P> +According to the latest statistics submitted before a Committee "on +labor and wages, and congestion of population," ten per cent. of the +wage workers in New York City alone are married, yet they must +continue to work at the most poorly paid labor in the world. Add to +this horrible aspect the drudgery of housework, and what remains of +the protection and glory of the home? As a matter of fact, even the +middle-class girl in marriage can not speak of her home, since it is +the man who creates her sphere. It is not important whether the +husband is a brute or a darling. What I wish to prove is that +marriage guarantees woman a home only by the grace of her husband. +There she moves about in HIS home, year after year, until her aspect +of life and human affairs becomes as flat, narrow, and drab as her +surroundings. Small wonder if she becomes a nag, petty, quarrelsome, +gossipy, unbearable, thus driving the man from the house. She could +not go, if she wanted to; there is no place to go. Besides, a short +period of married life, of complete surrender of all faculties, +absolutely incapacitates the average woman for the outside world. +She becomes reckless in appearance, clumsy in her movements, +dependent in her decisions, cowardly in her judgment, a weight and a +bore, which most men grow to hate and despise. Wonderfully inspiring +atmosphere for the bearing of life, is it not? +</P> + +<P> +But the child, how is it to be protected, if not for marriage? After +all, is not that the most important consideration? The sham, the +hypocrisy of it! Marriage protecting the child, yet thousands of +children destitute and homeless. Marriage protecting the child, yet +orphan asylums and reformatories overcrowded, the Society for the +Prevention of Cruelty to Children keeping busy in rescuing the little +victims from "loving" parents, to place them under more loving care, +the Gerry Society. Oh, the mockery of it! +</P> + +<P> +Marriage may have the power to bring the horse to water, but has it +ever made him drink? The law will place the father under arrest, and +put him in convict's clothes; but has that ever stilled the hunger of +the child? If the parent has no work, or if he hides his identity, +what does marriage do then? It invokes the law to bring the man to +"justice," to put him safely behind closed doors; his labor, however, +goes not to the child, but to the State. The child receives but a +blighted memory of his father's stripes. +</P> + +<P> +As to the protection of the woman,—therein lies the curse of +marriage. Not that it really protects her, but the very idea is so +revolting, such an outrage and insult on life, so degrading to human +dignity, as to forever condemn this parasitic institution. +</P> + +<P> +It is like that other paternal arrangement—capitalism. It robs man +of his birthright, stunts his growth, poisons his body, keeps him in +ignorance, in poverty, and dependence, and then institutes charities +that thrive on the last vestige of man's self-respect. +</P> + +<P> +The institution of marriage makes a parasite of woman, an absolute +dependent. It incapacitates her for life's struggle, annihilates her +social consciousness, paralyzes her imagination, and then imposes its +gracious protection, which is in reality a snare, a travesty on human +character. +</P> + +<P> +If motherhood is the highest fulfillment of woman's nature, what +other protection does it need, save love and freedom? Marriage but +defiles, outrages, and corrupts her fulfillment. Does it not say to +woman, Only when you follow me shall you bring forth life? Does it +not condemn her to the block, does it not degrade and shame her if +she refuses to buy her right to motherhood by selling herself? Does +not marriage only sanction motherhood, even though conceived in +hatred, in compulsion? Yet, if motherhood be of free choice, of +love, of ecstasy, of defiant passion, does it not place a crown of +thorns upon an innocent head and carve in letters of blood the +hideous epithet, Bastard? Were marriage to contain all the virtues +claimed for it, its crimes against motherhood would exclude it +forever from the realm of love. +</P> + +<P> +Love, the strongest and deepest element in all life, the harbinger of +hope, of joy, of ecstasy; love, the defier of all laws, of all +conventions; love, the freest, the most powerful moulder of human +destiny; how can such an all-compelling force be synonymous with that +poor little State and Church-begotten weed, marriage? +</P> + +<P> +Free love? As if love is anything but free! Man has bought brains, +but all the millions in the world have failed to buy love. Man has +subdued bodies, but all the power on earth has been unable to subdue +love. Man has conquered whole nations, but all his armies could not +conquer love. Man has chained and fettered the spirit, but he has +been utterly helpless before love. High on a throne, with all the +splendor and pomp his gold can command, man is yet poor and desolate, +if love passes him by. And if it stays, the poorest hovel is radiant +with warmth, with life and color. Thus love has the magic power to +make of a beggar a king. Yes, love is free; it can dwell in no other +atmosphere. In freedom it gives itself unreservedly, abundantly, +completely. All the laws on the statutes, all the courts in the +universe, cannot tear it from the soil, once love has taken root. +If, however, the soil is sterile, how can marriage make it bear +fruit? It is like the last desperate struggle of fleeting life +against death. +</P> + +<P> +Love needs no protection; it is its own protection. So long as love +begets life no child is deserted, or hungry, or famished for the want +of affection. I know this to be true. I know women who became +mothers in freedom by the men they loved. Few children in wedlock +enjoy the care, the protection, the devotion free motherhood is +capable of bestowing. +</P> + +<P> +The defenders of authority dread the advent of a free motherhood, +lest it will rob them of their prey. Who would fight wars? Who +would create wealth? Who would make the policeman, the jailer, if +woman were to refuse the indiscriminate breeding of children? The +race, the race! shouts the king, the president, the capitalist, the +priest. The race must be preserved, though woman be degraded to a +mere machine,—and the marriage institution is our only safety valve +against the pernicious sex awakening of woman. But in vain these +frantic efforts to maintain a state of bondage. In vain, too, the +edicts of the Church, the mad attacks of rulers, in vain even the arm +of the law. Woman no longer wants to be a party to the production of +a race of sickly, feeble, decrepit, wretched human beings, who have +neither the strength nor moral courage to throw off the yoke of +poverty and slavery. Instead she desires fewer and better children, +begotten and reared in love and through free choice; not by +compulsion, as marriage imposes. Our pseudo-moralists have yet to +learn the deep sense of responsibility toward the child, that love in +freedom has awakened in the breast of woman. Rather would she forego +forever the glory of motherhood than bring forth life in an +atmosphere that breathes only destruction and death. And if she does +become a mother, it is to give to the child the deepest and best her +being can yield. To grow with the child is her motto; she knows that +in that manner alone can she help build true manhood and womanhood. +</P> + +<P> +Ibsen must have had a vision of a free mother, when, with a master +stroke, he portrayed Mrs. Alving. She was the ideal mother because +she had outgrown marriage and all its horrors, because she had broken +her chains, and set her spirit free to soar until it returned a +personality, regenerated and strong. Alas, it was too late to rescue +her life's joy, her Oswald; but not too late to realize that love in +freedom is the only condition of a beautiful life. Those who, like +Mrs. Alving, have paid with blood and tears for their spiritual +awakening, repudiate marriage as an imposition, a shallow, empty +mockery. They know, whether love last but one brief span of time or +for eternity, it is the only creative, inspiring, elevating basis for +a new race, a new world. +</P> + +<P> +In our present pygmy state love is indeed a stranger to most people. +Misunderstood and shunned, it rarely takes root; or if it does, it +soon withers and dies. Its delicate fiber can not endure the stress +and strain of the daily grind. Its soul is too complex to adjust +itself to the slimy woof of our social fabric. It weeps and moans +and suffers with those who have need of it, yet lack the capacity to +rise to love's summit. +</P> + +<P> +Some day, some day men and women will rise, they will reach the +mountain peak, they will meet big and strong and free, ready to +receive, to partake, and to bask in the golden rays of love. What +fancy, what imagination, what poetic genius can foresee even +approximately the potentialities of such a force in the life of men +and women. If the world is ever to give birth to true companionship +and oneness, not marriage, but love will be the parent. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="drama"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE MODERN DRAMA: A POWERFUL DISSEMINATOR OF RADICAL THOUGHT +</H3> + +<BR> + +<P> +So long as discontent and unrest make themselves but dumbly felt +within a limited social class, the powers of reaction may often +succeed in suppressing such manifestations. But when the dumb unrest +grows into conscious expression and becomes almost universal, it +necessarily affects all phases of human thought and action, and seeks +its individual and social expression in the gradual transvaluation of +existing values. +</P> + +<P> +An adequate appreciation of the tremendous spread of the modern, +conscious social unrest cannot be gained from merely propagandistic +literature. Rather must we become conversant with the larger phases +of human expression manifest in art, literature, and, above all, the +modern drama—the strongest and most far-reaching interpreter of our +deep-felt dissatisfaction. +</P> + +<P> +What a tremendous factor for the awakening of conscious discontent +are the simple canvasses of a Millet! The figures of his +peasants—what terrific indictment against our social wrongs; wrongs +that condemn the Man With the Hoe to hopeless drudgery, himself +excluded from Nature's bounty. +</P> + +<P> +The vision of a Meunier conceives the growing solidarity and defiance +of labor in the group of miners carrying their maimed brother to +safety. His genius thus powerfully portrays the interrelation of the +seething unrest among those slaving in the bowels of the earth, and +the spiritual revolt that seeks artistic expression. +</P> + +<P> +No less important is the factor for rebellious awakening in modern +literature—Turgeniev, Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Andreiev, Gorki, +Whitman, Emerson, and scores of others embodying the spirit of +universal ferment and the longing for social change. +</P> + +<P> +Still more far-reaching is the modern drama, as the leaven of radical +thought and the disseminator of new values. +</P> + +<P> +It might seem an exaggeration to ascribe to the modern drama such an +important role. But a study of the development of modern ideas in +most countries will prove that the drama has succeeded in driving +home great social truths, truths generally ignored when presented in +other forms. No doubt there are exceptions, as Russia and France. +</P> + +<P> +Russia, with its terrible political pressure, has made people think +and has awakened their social sympathies, because of the tremendous +contrast which exists between the intellectual life of the people and +the despotic regime that is trying to crush that life. Yet while the +great dramatic works of Tolstoy, Tchechov, Gorki, and Andreiev +closely mirror the life and the struggle, the hopes and aspirations +of the Russian people, they did not influence radical thought to the +extent the drama has done in other countries. +</P> + +<P> +Who can deny, however, the tremendous influence exerted by THE POWER +OF DARKNESS or NIGHT LODGING. Tolstoy, the real, true Christian, is +yet the greatest enemy of organized Christianity. With a master hand +he portrays the destructive effects upon the human mind of the power +of darkness, the superstitions of the Christian Church. +</P> + +<P> +What other medium could express, with such dramatic force, the +responsibility of the Church for crimes committed by its deluded +victims; what other medium could, in consequence, rouse the +indignation of man's conscience? +</P> + +<P> +Similarly direct and powerful is the indictment contained in Gorki's +NIGHT LODGING. The social pariahs, forced into poverty and crime, +yet desperately clutch at the last vestiges of hope and aspiration. +Lost existences these, blighted and crushed by cruel, unsocial +environment. +</P> + +<P> +France, on the other hand, with her continuous struggle for liberty, +is indeed the cradle of radical thought; as such she, too, did not +need the drama as a means of awakening. And yet the works of +Brieux—as ROBE ROUGE, portraying the terrible corruption of the +judiciary—and Mirbeau's LES AFFAIRES SONT LES AFFAIRES—picturing +the destructive influence of wealth on the human soul—have +undoubtedly reached wider circles than most of the articles and books +which have been written in France on the social question. +</P> + +<P> +In countries like Germany, Scandinavia, England, and even in +America—though in a lesser degree—the drama is the vehicle which is +really making history, disseminating radical thought in ranks not +otherwise to be reached. +</P> + +<P> +Let us take Germany, for instance. For nearly a quarter of a century +men of brains, of ideas, and of the greatest integrity, made it their +life-work to spread the truth of human brotherhood, of justice, among +the oppressed and downtrodden. Socialism, that tremendous +revolutionary wave, was to the victims of a merciless and inhumane +system like water to the parched lips of the desert traveler. Alas! +The cultured people remained absolutely indifferent; to them that +revolutionary tide was but the murmur of dissatisfied, discontented +men, dangerous, illiterate troublemakers, whose proper place was +behind prison bars. +</P> + +<P> +Self-satisfied as the "cultured" usually are, they could not +understand why one should fuss about the fact that thousands of +people were starving, though they contributed towards the wealth of +the world. Surrounded by beauty and luxury, they could not believe +that side by side with them lived human beings degraded to a position +lower than a beast's, shelterless and ragged, without hope or +ambition. +</P> + +<P> +This condition of affairs was particularly pronounced in Germany +after the Franco-German war. Full to the bursting point with its +victory, Germany thrived on a sentimental, patriotic literature, +thereby poisoning the minds of the country's youth by the glory of +conquest and bloodshed. +</P> + +<P> +Intellectual Germany had to take refuge in the literature of other +countries, in the works of Ibsen, Zola, Daudet, Maupassant, and +especially in the great works of Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, and Turgeniev. +But as no country can long maintain a standard of culture without a +literature and drama related to its own soil, so Germany gradually +began to develop a drama reflecting the life and the struggles of its +own people. +</P> + +<P> +Arno Holz, one of the youngest dramatists of that period, startled +the Philistines out of their ease and comfort with his FAMILIE +SELICKE. The play deals with society's refuse, men and women of the +alleys, whose only subsistence consists of what they can pick out of +the garbage barrels. A gruesome subject, is it not? And yet what +other method is there to break through the hard shell of the minds +and souls of people who have never known want, and who therefore +assume that all is well in the world? +</P> + +<P> +Needless to say, the play aroused tremendous indignation. The truth +is bitter, and the people living on the Fifth Avenue of Berlin hated +to be confronted with the truth. +</P> + +<P> +Not that FAMILIE SELICKE represented anything that had not been +written about for years without any seeming result. But the dramatic +genius of Holz, together with the powerful interpretation of the +play, necessarily made inroads into the widest circles, and forced +people to think about the terrible inequalities around them. +</P> + +<P> +Sudermann's EHRE[1] and HEIMAT[2] deal with vital subjects. I have +already referred to the sentimental patriotism so completely turning +the head of the average German as to create a perverted conception of +honor. Duelling became an every-day affair, costing innumerable +lives. A great cry was raised against the fad by a number of leading +writers. But nothing acted as such a clarifier and exposer of that +national disease as the EHRE. +</P> + +<P> +Not that the play merely deals with duelling; it analyzes the real +meaning of honor, proving that it is not a fixed, inborn feeling, but +that it varies with every people and every epoch, depending +particularly on one's economic and social station in life. We +realize from this play that the man in the brownstone mansion will +necessarily define honor differently from his victims. +</P> + +<P> +The family Heinecke enjoys the charity of the millionaire Muhling, +being permitted to occupy a dilapidated shanty on his premises in the +absence of their son, Robert. The latter, as Muhling's +representative, is making a vast fortune for his employer in India. +On his return Robert discovers that his sister had been seduced by +young Muhling, whose father graciously offers to straighten matters +with a check for 40,000 marks. Robert, outraged and indignant, +resents the insult to his family's honor, and is forthwith dismissed +from his position for impudence. Robert finally throws this +accusation into the face of the philanthropist millionaire: +</P> + +<P> +"We slave for you, we sacrifice our heart's blood for you, while you +seduce our daughters and sisters and kindly pay for their disgrace +with the gold we have earned for you. That is what you call honor." +</P> + +<P> +An incidental side-light upon the conception of honor is given by +Count Trast, the principal character in the EHRE, a man widely +conversant with the customs of various climes, who relates that in +his many travels he chanced across a savage tribe whose honor he +mortally offended by refusing the hospitality which offered him the +charms of the chieftain's wife. +</P> + +<P> +The theme of HEIMAT treats of the struggle between the old and the +young generations. It holds a permanent and important place in +dramatic literature. +</P> + +<P> +Magda, the daughter of Lieutenant Colonel Schwartz, has committed an +unpardonable sin: she refused the suitor selected by her father. For +daring to disobey the parental commands she is driven from home. +Magda, full of life and the spirit of liberty, goes out into the +world to return to her native town, twelve years later, a celebrated +singer. She consents to visit her parents on condition that they +respect the privacy of her past. But her martinet father immediately +begins to question her, insisting on his "paternal rights." Magda is +indignant, but gradually his persistence brings to light the tragedy +of her life. He learns that the respected Councillor Von Keller had +in his student days been Magda's lover, while she was battling for +her economic and social independence. The consequence of the +fleeting romance was a child, deserted by the man even before birth. +The rigid military father of Magda demands as retribution from +Councillor Von Keller that he legalize the love affair. In view of +Magda's social and professional success, Keller willingly consents, +but on condition that she forsake the stage, and place the child in +an institution. The struggle between the Old and the New culminates +in Magda's defiant words of the woman grown to conscious independence +of thought and action: "...I'll say what I think of you—of you +and your respectable society. Why should I be worse than you that I +must prolong my existence among you by a lie! Why should this gold +upon my body, and the lustre which surrounds my name, only increase +my infamy? Have I not worked early and late for ten long years? +Have I not woven this dress with sleepless nights? Have I not built +up my career step by step, like thousands of my kind? Why should I +blush before anyone? I am myself, and through myself I have become +what I am." +</P> + +<P> +The general theme of HEIMAT was not original. It had been previously +treated by a master hand in FATHERS AND SONS. Partly because +Turgeniev's great work was typical rather of Russian than universal +conditions, and still more because it was in the form of fiction, the +influence of FATHERS AND SONS was limited to Russia. But HEIMAT, +especially because of its dramatic expression, became almost a world +factor. +</P> + +<P> +The dramatist who not only disseminated radicalism, but literally +revolutionized the thoughtful Germans, is Gerhardt Hauptmann. His +first play VOR SONNENAUFGANG[3], refused by every leading German +theatre and first performed in a wretched little playhouse behind a +beer garden, acted like a stroke of lightning, illuminating the +entire social horizon. Its subject matter deals with the life of an +extensive landowner, ignorant, illiterate, and brutalized, and his +economic slaves of the same mental calibre. The influence of wealth, +both on the victims who created it and the possessor thereof, is +shown in the most vivid colors, as resulting in drunkenness, idiocy, +and decay. But the most striking feature of VOR SONNENAUFGANG, the +one which brought a shower of abuse on Hauptmann's head, was the +question as to the indiscriminate breeding of children by unfit +parents. +</P> + +<P> +During the second performance of the play a leading Berlin surgeon +almost caused a panic in the theatre by swinging a pair of forceps +over his head and screaming at the top of his voice: "The decency and +morality of Germany are at stake if childbirth is to be discussed +openly from the stage." The surgeon is forgotten, and Hauptmann +stands a colossal figure before the world. +</P> + +<P> +When DIE WEBER[4] first saw the light, pandemonium broke out in the +land of thinkers and poets. "What," cried the moralists, +"workingmen, dirty, filthy slaves, to be put on the stage! Poverty +in all its horrors and ugliness to be dished out as an after-dinner +amusement? That is too much!" +</P> + +<P> +Indeed, it was too much for the fat and greasy bourgeoisie to be +brought face to face with the horrors of the weaver's existence. It +was too much because of the truth and reality that rang like thunder +in the deaf ears of self-satisfied society, J'ACCUSE! +</P> + +<P> +Of course, it was generally known even before the appearance of this +drama that capital can not get fat unless it devours labor, that +wealth can not be hoarded except through the channels of poverty, +hunger, and cold; but such things are better kept in the dark, lest +the victims awaken to a realization of their position. But it is the +purpose of the modern drama to rouse the consciousness of the +oppressed; and that, indeed, was the purpose of Gerhardt Hauptmann in +depicting to the world the conditions of the weavers in Silesia. +Human beings working eighteen hours daily, yet not earning enough for +bread and fuel; human beings living in broken, wretched huts half +covered with snow, and nothing but tatters to protect them from the +cold; infants covered with scurvy from hunger and exposure; pregnant +women in the last stages of consumption. Victims of a benevolent +Christian era, without life, without hope, without warmth. Ah, yes, +it was too much! +</P> + +<P> +Hauptmann's dramatic versatility deals with every stratum of social +life. Besides portraying the grinding effect of economic conditions, +he also treats of the struggle of the individual for his mental and +spiritual liberation from the slavery of convention and tradition. +Thus Heinrich, the bell-forger, in the dramatic prose-poem, DIE +VERSUNKENE GLOCKE[5], fails to reach the mountain peaks of liberty +because, as Rautendelein said, he had lived in the valley too long. +Similarly Dr. Vockerath and Anna Maar remain lonely souls because +they, too, lack the strength to defy venerated traditions. Yet their +very failure must awaken the rebellious spirit against a world +forever hindering individual and social emancipation. +</P> + +<P> +Max Halbe's JUGEND[6] and Wedekind's FRUHLING'S ERWACHEN[7] are dramas +which have disseminated radical thought in an altogether different +direction. They treat of the child and the dense ignorance and +narrow Puritanism that meet the awakening of nature. Particularly +this is true of FRUHLING'S ERWACHEN. Young boys and girls sacrificed +on the altar of false education and of our sickening morality that +prohibits the enlightenment of youth as to questions so imperative to +the health and well-being of society,—the origin of life, and its +functions. It shows how a mother—and a truly good mother, at +that—keeps her fourteen-year-old daughter in absolute ignorance as +to all matters of sex, and when finally the young girl falls a victim +to her own ignorance, the same mother sees her daughter killed by +quack medicines. The inscription on her grave states that she died +of anaemia, and morality is satisfied. +</P> + +<P> +The fatality of our Puritanic hypocrisy in these matters is +especially illumined by Wedekind in so far as our most promising +children fall victims to sex ignorance and the utter lack of +appreciation on the part of the teachers of the child's awakening. +</P> + +<P> +Wendla, unusually developed and alert for her age, pleads with her +mother to explain the mystery of life: +</P> + +<P> +"I have a sister who has been married for two and a half years. I +myself have been made an aunt for the third time, and I haven't the +least idea how it all comes about.... Don't be cross, Mother, +dear! Whom in the world should I ask but you? Don't scold me for +asking about it. Give me an answer.—How does it happen?—You cannot +really deceive yourself that I, who am fourteen years old, still +believe in the stork." +</P> + +<P> +Were her mother herself not a victim of false notions of morality, an +affectionate and sensible explanation might have saved her daughter. +But the conventional mother seeks to hide her "moral" shame and +embarrassment in this evasive reply: +</P> + +<P> +"In order to have a child—one must love—the man—to whom one is +married.... One must love him, Wendla, as you at your age are +still unable to love.—Now you know it!" +</P> + +<P> +How much Wendla "knew" the mother realized too late. The pregnant +girl imagines herself ill with dropsy. And when her mother cries in +desperation, "You haven't the dropsy, you have a child, girl," the +agonized Wendla exclaims in bewilderment: "But it's not possible, +Mother, I am not married yet.... Oh, Mother, why didn't you tell +me everything?" +</P> + +<P> +With equal stupidity the boy Morris is driven to suicide because he +fails in his school examinations. And Melchior, the youthful father +of Wendla's unborn child, is sent to the House of Correction, his +early sexual awakening stamping him a degenerate in the eyes of +teachers and parents. +</P> + +<P> +For years thoughtful men and women in Germany had advocated the +compelling necessity of sex enlightenment. MUTTERSCHUTZ, a +publication specially devoted to frank and intelligent discussion of +the sex problem, has been carrying on its agitation for a +considerable time. But it remained for the dramatic genius of +Wedekind to influence radical thought to the extent of forcing the +introduction of sex physiology in many schools of Germany. +</P> + +<P> +Scandinavia, like Germany, was advanced through the drama much more +than through any other channel. Long before Ibsen appeared on the +scene, Bjornson, the great essayist, thundered against the +inequalities and injustice prevalent in those countries. But his was +a voice in the wilderness, reaching but the few. Not so with Ibsen. +His BRAND, DOLL'S HOUSE, PILLARS OF SOCIETY, GHOSTS, and AN ENEMY OF +THE PEOPLE have considerably undermined the old conceptions, and +replaced them by a modern and real view of life. One has but to read +BRAND to realize the modern conception, let us say, of +religion,—religion, as an ideal to be achieved on earth; religion as +a principle of human brotherhood, of solidarity, and kindness. +</P> + +<P> +Ibsen, the supreme hater of all social shams, has torn the veil of +hypocrisy from their faces. His greatest onslaught, however, is on +the four cardinal points supporting the flimsy network of society. +First, the lie upon which rests the life of today; second, the +futility of sacrifice as preached by our moral codes; third, petty +material consideration, which is the only god the majority worships; +and fourth, the deadening influence of provincialism. These four +recur as the LEITMOTIF in Ibsen's plays, but particularly in PILLARS +OF SOCIETY, DOLL'S HOUSE, GHOSTS, and AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE. +</P> + +<P> +Pillars of Society! What a tremendous indictment against the social +structure that rests on rotten and decayed pillars,—pillars nicely +gilded and apparently intact, yet merely hiding their true condition. +And what are these pillars? +</P> + +<P> +Consul Bernick, at the very height of his social and financial +career, the benefactor of his town and the strongest pillar of the +community, has reached the summit through the channel of lies, +deception, and fraud. He has robbed his bosom friend, Johann, of his +good name, and has betrayed Lona Hessel, the woman he loved, to marry +her step-sister for the sake of her money. He has enriched himself +by shady transactions, under cover of "the community's good," and +finally even goes to the extent of endangering human life by +preparing the INDIAN GIRL, a rotten and dangerous vessel, to go to +sea. +</P> + +<P> +But the return of Lona brings him the realization of the emptiness +and meanness of his narrow life. He seeks to placate the waking +conscience by the hope that he has cleared the ground for the better +life of his son, of the new generation. But even this last hope soon +falls to the ground, as he realizes that truth cannot be built on a +lie. At the very moment when the whole town is prepared to celebrate +the great benefactor of the community with banquet praise, he +himself, now grown to full spiritual manhood, confesses to the +assembled townspeople: +</P> + +<P> +"I have no right to this homage— ... My fellow-citizens must know +me to the core. Then let everyone examine himself, and let us +realize the prediction that from this event we begin a new time. The +old, with its tinsel, its hypocrisy, its hollowness, its lying +propriety, and its pitiful cowardice, shall lie behind us like a +museum, open for instruction." +</P> + +<P> +With A DOLL'S HOUSE Ibsen has paved the way for woman's emancipation. +Nora awakens from her doll's role to the realization of the injustice +done her by her father and her husband, Helmer Torvald. +</P> + +<P> +"While I was at home with father, he used to tell me all his +opinions, and I held the same opinions. If I had others I concealed +them, because he would not have approved. He used to call me his +doll child, and play with me as I played with my dolls. Then I came +to live in your house. You settled everything according to your +taste, and I got the same taste as you, or I pretended to. When I +look back on it now, I seem to have been living like a beggar, from +hand to mouth. I lived by performing tricks for you, Torvald, but +you would have it so. You and father have done me a great wrong." +</P> + +<P> +In vain Helmer uses the old philistine arguments of wifely duty and +social obligations. Nora has grown out of her doll's dress into full +stature of conscious womanhood. She is determined to think and judge +for herself. She has realized that, before all else, she is a human +being, owing the first duty to herself. She is undaunted even by the +possibility of social ostracism. She has become sceptical of the +justice of the law, the wisdom of the constituted. Her rebelling +soul rises in protest against the existing. In her own words: "I +must make up my mind which is right, society or I." +</P> + +<P> +In her childlike faith in her husband she had hoped for the great +miracle. But it was not the disappointed hope that opened her vision +to the falsehoods of marriage. It was rather the smug contentment of +Helmer with a safe lie—one that would remain hidden and not endanger +his social standing. +</P> + +<P> +When Nora closed behind her the door of her gilded cage and went out +into the world a new, regenerated personality, she opened the gate of +freedom and truth for her own sex and the race to come. +</P> + +<P> +More than any other play, GHOSTS has acted like a bomb explosion, +shaking the social structure to its very foundations. +</P> + +<P> +In DOLL'S HOUSE the justification of the union between Nora and +Helmer rested at least on the husband's conception of integrity and +rigid adherence to our social morality. Indeed, he was the +conventional ideal husband and devoted father. Not so in GHOSTS. +Mrs. Alving married Captain Alving only to find that he was a +physical and mental wreck, and that life with him would mean utter +degradation and be fatal to possible offspring. In her despair she +turned to her youth's companion, young Pastor Manders who, as the +true savior of souls for heaven, must needs be indifferent to earthly +necessities. He sent her back to shame and degradation,—to her +duties to husband and home. Indeed, happiness—to him—was but the +unholy manifestation of a rebellious spirit, and a wife's duty was +not to judge, but "to bear with humility the cross which a higher +power had for your own good laid upon you." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Alving bore the cross for twenty-six long years. Not for the +sake of the higher power, but for her little son Oswald, whom she +longed to save from the poisonous atmosphere of her husband's home. +</P> + +<P> +It was also for the sake of the beloved son that she supported the +lie of his father's goodness, in superstitious awe of "duty and +decency." She learned, alas! too late, that the sacrifice of her +entire life had been in vain, and that her son Oswald was visited by +the sins of his father, that he was irrevocably doomed. This, too, +she learned, that "we are all of us ghosts. It is not only what we +have inherited from our father and mother that walks in us. It is +all sorts of dead ideas and lifeless old beliefs. They have no +vitality, but they cling to us all the same and we can't get rid of +them.... And then we are, one and all, so pitifully afraid of +light. When you forced me under the yoke you called Duty and +Obligation; when you praised as right and proper what my whole soul +rebelled against as something loathsome; it was then that I began to +look into the seams of your doctrine. I only wished to pick at a +single knot, but when I had got that undone, the whole thing ravelled +out. And then I understood that it was all machine-sewn." +</P> + +<P> +How could a society machine-sewn, fathom the seething depths whence +issued the great masterpiece of Henrik Ibsen? It could not +understand, and therefore it poured the vials of abuse and venom upon +its greatest benefactor. That Ibsen was not daunted he has proved by +his reply in AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE. +</P> + +<P> +In that great drama Ibsen performs the last funeral rites over a +decaying and dying social system. Out of its ashes rises the +regenerated individual, the bold and daring rebel. Dr. Stockman, an +idealist, full of social sympathy and solidarity, is called to his +native town as the physician of the baths. He soon discovers that +the latter are built on a swamp, and that instead of finding relief +the patients, who flock to the place, are being poisoned. +</P> + +<P> +An honest man, of strong convictions, the doctor considers it his +duty to make his discovery known. But he soon learns that dividends +and profits are concerned neither with health nor principles. Even +the reformers of the town, represented in the PEOPLE'S MESSENGER, +always ready to prate of their devotion to the people, withdraw their +support from the "reckless" idealist, the moment they learn that the +doctor's discovery may bring the town into disrepute, and thus injure +their pockets. +</P> + +<P> +But Doctor Stockman continues in the faith he entertains for has +townsmen. They would hear him. But here, too, he soon finds himself +alone. He cannot even secure a place to proclaim his great truth. +And when he finally succeeds, he is overwhelmed by abuse and ridicule +as the enemy of the people. The doctor, so enthusiastic of his +townspeople's assistance to eradicate the evil, is soon driven to a +solitary position. The announcement of his discovery would result in +a pecuniary loss to the town, and that consideration induces the +officials, the good citizens, and soul reformers, to stifle the voice +of truth. He finds them all a compact majority, unscrupulous enough +to be willing to build up the prosperity of the town on a quagmire of +lies and fraud. He is accused of trying to ruin the community. But +to his mind "it does not matter if a lying community is ruined. It +must be levelled to the ground. All men who live upon lies must be +exterminated like vermin. You'll bring it to such a pass that the +whole country will deserve to perish." +</P> + +<P> +Doctor Stockman is not a practical politician. A free man, he +thinks, must not behave like a blackguard. "He must not so act that +he would spit in his own face." For only cowards permit +"considerations" of pretended general welfare or of party to override +truth and ideals. "Party programmes wring the necks of all young, +living truths; and considerations of expediency turn morality and +righteousness upside down, until life is simply hideous." +</P> + +<P> +These plays of Ibsen—THE PILLARS OF SOCIETY, A DOLL'S HOUSE, GHOSTS, +and AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE—constitute a dynamic force which is +gradually dissipating the ghosts walking the social burying ground +called civilization. Nay, more; Ibsen's destructive effects are at +the same time supremely constructive, for he not merely undermines +existing pillars; indeed, he builds with sure strokes the foundation +of a healthier, ideal future, based on the sovereignty of the +individual within a sympathetic social environment. +</P> + +<P> +England with her great pioneers of radical thought, the intellectual +pilgrims like Godwin, Robert Owen, Darwin, Spencer, William Morris, +and scores of others; with her wonderful larks of liberty—Shelley, +Byron, Keats—is another example of the influence of dramatic art. +Within comparatively a few years, the dramatic works of Shaw, Pinero, +Galsworthy, Rann Kennedy, have carried radical thought to the ears +formerly deaf even to Great Britain's wondrous poets. Thus a public +which will remain indifferent reading an essay by Robert Owen, on +Poverty, or ignore Bernard Shaw's Socialistic tracts, was made to +think by MAJOR BARBARA, wherein poverty is described as the greatest +crime of Christian civilization. "Poverty makes people weak, +slavish, puny; poverty creates disease, crime, prostitution; in fine, +poverty is responsible for all the ills and evils of the world." +Poverty also necessitates dependency, charitable organizations, +institutions that thrive off the very thing they are trying to +destroy. The Salvation Army, for instance, as shown in MAJOR +BARBARA, fights drunkenness; yet one of its greatest contributors is +Badger, a whiskey distiller, who furnishes yearly thousands of pounds +to do away with the very source of his wealth. Bernard Shaw, +therefore, concludes that the only real benefactor of society is a +man like Undershaft, Barbara's father, a cannon manufacturer, whose +theory of life is that powder is stronger than words. +</P> + +<P> +"The worst of crimes," says Undershaft, "is poverty. All the other +crimes are virtues beside it; all the other dishonors are chivalry +itself by comparison. Poverty blights whole cities; spreads horrible +pestilences; strikes dead the very soul of all who come within sight, +sound, or smell of it. What you call crime is nothing; a murder +here, a theft there, a blow now and a curse there: what do they +matter? They are only the accidents and illnesses of life; there are +not fifty genuine professional criminals in London. But there are +millions of poor people, abject people, dirty people, ill-fed, +ill-clothed people. They poison us morally and physically; they kill +the happiness of society; they force us to do away with our own +liberties and to organize unnatural cruelties for fear they should +rise against us and drag us down into their abyss.... Poverty and +slavery have stood up for centuries to your sermons and leading +articles; they will not stand up to my machine guns. Don't preach at +them; don't reason with them. Kill them.... It is the final test +of conviction, the only lever strong enough to overturn a social +system.... Vote! Bah! When you vote, you only change the name +of the cabinet. When you shoot, you pull down governments, +inaugurate new epochs, abolish old orders, and set up new." +</P> + +<P> +No wonder people cared little to read Mr. Shaw's Socialistic tracts. +In no other way but in the drama could he deliver such forcible, +historic truths. And therefore it is only through the drama that Mr. +Shaw is a revolutionary factor in the dissemination of radical ideas. +</P> + +<P> +After Hauptmann's DIE WEBER, STRIFE, by Galsworthy, is the most +important labor drama. +</P> + +<P> +The theme of STRIFE is a strike with two dominant factors: Anthony, +the president of the company, rigid, uncompromising, unwilling to +make the slightest concession, although the men held out for months +and are in a condition of semi-starvation; and David Roberts, an +uncompromising revolutionist, whose devotion to the workingman and +the cause of freedom is at white heat. Between them the strikers are +worn and weary with the terrible struggle, and are harassed and +driven by the awful sight of poverty and want in their families. +</P> + +<P> +The most marvellous and brilliant piece of work in STRIFE is +Galsworthy's portrayal of the mob, its fickleness, and lack of +backbone. One moment they applaud old Thomas, who speaks of the +power of God and religion and admonishes the men against rebellion; +the next instant they are carried away by a walking delegate, who +pleads the cause of the union,—the union that always stands for +compromise, and which forsakes the workingmen whenever they dare to +strike for independent demands; again they are aglow with the +earnestness, the spirit, and the intensity of David Roberts—all +these people willing to go in whatever direction the wind blows. It +is the curse of the working class that they always follow like sheep +led to slaughter. +</P> + +<P> +Consistency is the greatest crime of our commercial age. No matter +how intense the spirit or how important the man, the moment he will +not allow himself to be used or sell his principles, he is thrown on +the dustheap. Such was the fate of the president of the company, +Anthony, and of David Roberts. To be sure they represented opposite +poles—poles antagonistic to each other, poles divided by a terrible +gap that can never be bridged over. Yet they shared a common fate. +Anthony is the embodiment of conservatism, of old ideas, of iron +methods: +</P> + +<P> +"I have been chairman of this company thirty-two years. I have +fought the men four times. I have never been defeated. It has been +said that times have changed. If they have, I have not changed with +them. It has been said that masters and men are equal. Cant. There +can be only one master in a house. It has been said that Capital and +Labor have the same interests. Cant. Their interests are as wide +asunder as the poles. There is only one way of treating men—with +the iron rod. Masters are masters. Men are men." +</P> + +<P> +We may not like this adherence to old, reactionary notions, and yet +there is something admirable in the courage and consistency of this +man, nor is he half as dangerous to the interests of the oppressed, +as our sentimental and soft reformers who rob with nine fingers, and +give libraries with the tenth; who grind human beings like Russell +Sage, and then spend millions of dollars in social research work; who +turn beautiful young plants into faded old women, and then give them +a few paltry dollars or found a Home for Working Girls. Anthony is a +worthy foe; and to fight such a foe, one must learn to meet him in +open battle. +</P> + +<P> +David Roberts has all the mental and moral attributes of his +adversary, coupled with the spirit of revolt, and the depth of modern +ideas. He, too, is consistent, and wants nothing for his class short +of complete victory. +</P> + +<P> +"It is not for this little moment of time we are fighting, not for +our own little bodies and their warmth; it is for all those who come +after, for all times. Oh, men, for the love of them don't turn up +another stone on their heads, don't help to blacken the sky. If we +can shake that white-faced monster with the bloody lips that has +sucked the lives out of ourselves, our wives, and children, since the +world began, if we have not the hearts of men to stand against it, +breast to breast and eye to eye, and force it backward till it cry +for mercy, it will go on sucking life, and we shall stay forever +where we are, less than the very dogs." +</P> + +<P> +It is inevitable that compromise and petty interest should pass on +and leave two such giants behind. Inevitable, until the mass will +reach the stature of a David Roberts. Will it ever? Prophecy is not +the vocation of the dramatist, yet the moral lesson is evident. One +cannot help realizing that the workingmen will have to use methods +hitherto unfamiliar to them; that they will have to discard all those +elements in their midst that are forever ready to reconcile the +irreconcilable, namely Capital and Labor. They will have to learn +that characters like David Roberts are the very forces that have +revolutionized the world and thus paved the way for emancipation out +of the clutches of that "white-faced monster with bloody lips," +towards a brighter horizon, a freer life, and a deeper recognition of +human values. +</P> + +<P> +No subject of equal social import has received such extensive +consideration within the last few years as the question of prison and +punishment. +</P> + +<P> +Hardly any magazine of consequence that has not devoted its columns +to the discussion of this vital theme. A number of books by able +writers, both in America and abroad, have discussed this topic from +the historic, psychologic, and social standpoint, all agreeing that +present penal institutions and our mode of coping with crime have in +every respect proved inadequate as well as wasteful. One would +expect that something very radical should result from the cumulative +literary indictment of the social crimes perpetrated upon the +prisoner. Yet with the exception of a few minor and comparatively +insignificant reforms in some of our prisons, absolutely nothing has +been accomplished. But at last this grave social wrong has found +dramatic interpretation in Galworthy's JUSTICE. +</P> + +<P> +The play opens in the office of James How and Sons, Solicitors. The +senior clerk, Robert Cokeson, discovers that a check he had issued +for nine pounds has been forged to ninety. By elimination, suspicion +falls upon William Falder, the junior office clerk. The latter is in +love with a married woman, the abused, ill-treated wife of a brutal +drunkard. Pressed by his employer, a severe yet not unkindly man, +Falder confesses the forgery, pleading the dire necessity of his +sweetheart, Ruth Honeywill, with whom he had planned to escape to +save her from the unbearable brutality of her husband. +Notwithstanding the entreaties of young Walter, who is touched by +modern ideas, his father, a moral and law-respecting citizen, turns +Falder over to the police. +</P> + +<P> +The second act, in the court-room, shows Justice in the very process +of manufacture. The scene equals in dramatic power and psychologic +verity the great court scene in RESURRECTION. Young Falder, a +nervous and rather weakly youth of twenty-three, stands before the +bar. Ruth, his married sweetheart, full of love and devotion, burns +with anxiety to save the young man whose affection brought about his +present predicament. The young man is defended by Lawyer Frome, +whose speech to the jury is a masterpiece of deep social philosophy +wreathed with the tendrils of human understanding and sympathy. He +does not attempt to dispute the mere fact of Falder having altered +the check; and though he pleads temporary aberration in defense of +his client, that plea is based upon a social consciousness as deep +and all-embracing as the roots of our social ills—"the background of +life, that palpitating life which always lies behind the commission +of a crime." He shows Falder to have faced the alternative of seeing +the beloved woman murdered by her brutal husband, whom she cannot +divorce; or of taking the law into his own hands. The defence pleads +with the jury not to turn the weak young man into a criminal by +condemning him to prison, for "justice is a machine that, when +someone has given it a starting push, rolls on of itself.... Is +this young man to be ground to pieces under this machine for an act +which, at the worst, was one of weakness? Is he to become a member +of the luckless crews that man those dark, ill-starred ships called +prisons?... I urge you, gentlemen, do not ruin this young man. +For as a result of those four minutes, ruin, utter and irretrievable, +stares him in the face.... The rolling of the chariot wheels of +Justice over this boy began when it was decided to prosecute him." +</P> + +<P> +But the chariot of Justice rolls mercilessly on, for—as the learned +Judge says—"the law is what it is—a majestic edifice, sheltering +all of us, each stone of which rests on another." +</P> + +<P> +Falder is sentenced to three years' penal servitude. +</P> + +<P> +In prison, the young, inexperienced convict soon finds himself the +victim of the terrible "system." The authorities admit that young +Falder is mentally and physically "in bad shape," but nothing can be +done in the matter: many others are in a similar position, and "the +quarters are inadequate." +</P> + +<P> +The third scene of the third act is heart-gripping in its silent +force. The whole scene is a pantomime, taking place in Falder's +prison cell. +</P> + +<P> +"In fast-falling daylight, Falder, in his stockings, is seen standing +motionless, with his head inclined towards the door, listening. He +moves a little closer to the door, his stockinged feet making no +noise. He stops at the door. He is trying harder and harder to hear +something, any little thing that is going on outside. He springs +suddenly upright—as if at a sound—and remains perfectly motionless. +Then, with a heavy sigh, he moves to his work, and stands looking at +it, with his head down; he does a stitch or two, having the air of a +man so lost in sadness that each stitch is, as it were, a coming to +life. Then, turning abruptly, he begins pacing his cell, moving his +head, like an animal pacing its cage. He stops again at the door, +listens, and, placing the palms of his hands against it with his +fingers spread out, leans his forehead against the iron. Turning +from it, presently, he moves slowly back towards the window, holding +his head, as if he felt that it were going to burst, and stops under +the window. But since he cannot see out of it he leaves off looking, +and, picking up the lid of one of the tins, peers into it, as if +trying to make a companion of his own face. It has grown very nearly +dark. Suddenly the lid falls out of his hand with a clatter—the +only sound that has broken the silence—and he stands staring +intently at the wall where the stuff of the shirt is hanging rather +white in the darkness—he seems to be seeing somebody or something +there. There is a sharp tap and click; the cell light behind the +glass screen has been turned up. The cell is brightly lighted. +Falder is seen gasping for breath. +</P> + +<P> +A sound from far away, as of distant, dull beating on thick metal, is +suddenly audible. Falder shrinks back, not able to bear this sudden +clamor. But the sound grows, as though some great tumbril were +rolling towards the cell. And gradually it seems to hypnotize him. +He begins creeping inch by inch nearer to the door. The banging +sound, traveling from cell to cell, draws closer and closer; Falder's +hands are seen moving as if his spirit had already joined in this +beating, and the sound swells till it seems to have entered the very +cell. He suddenly raises his clenched fists. Panting violently, he +flings himself at his door, and beats on it." +</P> + +<P> +Finally Falder leaves the prison, a broken ticket-of-leave man, the +stamp of the convict upon his brow, the iron of misery in his soul. +Thanks to Ruth's pleading, the firm of James How and Son is willing +to take Falder back in their employ, on condition that he give up +Ruth. It is then that Falder learns the awful news that the woman he +loves had been driven by the merciless economic Moloch to sell +herself. She "tried making skirts ... cheap things.... I never +made more than ten shillings a week, buying my own cotton, and +working all day. I hardly ever got to bed till past twelve.... +And then ... my employer happened—he's happened ever since." At +this terrible psychologic moment the police appear to drag him back +to prison for failing to report himself as ticket-of-leave man. +Completely overwhelmed by the inexorability of his environment, young +Falder seeks and finds peace, greater than human justice, by throwing +himself down to death, as the detectives are taking him back to +prison. +</P> + +<P> +It would be impossible to estimate the effect produced by this play. +Perhaps some conception can be gained from the very unusual +circumstance that it had proved so powerful as to induce the Home +Secretary of Great Britain to undertake extensive prison reforms in +England. A very encouraging sign this, of the influence exerted by +the modern drama. It is to be hoped that the thundering indictment +of Mr. Galsworthy will not remain without similar effect upon the +public sentiment and prison conditions of America. At any rate, it +is certain that no other modern play has borne such direct and +immediate fruit in wakening the social conscience. +</P> + +<P> +Another modern play, THE SERVANT IN THE HOUSE, strikes a vital key +in our social life. The hero of Mr. Kennedy's masterpiece is Robert, +a coarse, filthy drunkard, whom respectable society has repudiated. +Robert, the sewer cleaner, is the real hero of the play; nay, its +true and only savior. It is he who volunteers to go down into the +dangerous sewer, so that his comrades "can 'ave light and air." +After all, has he not sacrificed his life always, so that others may +have light and air? +</P> + +<P> +The thought that labor is the redeemer of social well-being has been +cried from the housetops in every tongue and every clime. Yet the +simple words of Robert express the significance of labor and its +mission with far greater potency. +</P> + +<P> +America is still in its dramatic infancy. Most of the attempts along +this line to mirror life, have been wretched failures. Still, there +are hopeful signs in the attitude of the intelligent public toward +modern plays, even if they be from foreign soil. +</P> + +<P> +The only real drama America has so far produced is THE EASIEST WAY, +by Eugene Walter. +</P> + +<P> +It is supposed to represent a "peculiar phase" of New York life. If +that were all, it would be of minor significance. That which gives +the play its real importance and value lies much deeper. It lies, +first, in the fundamental current of our social fabric which drives +us all, even stronger characters than Laura, into the easiest way—a +way so very destructive of integrity, truth, and justice. Secondly, +the cruel, senseless fatalism conditioned in Laura's sex. These two +features put the universal stamp upon the play, and characterize it +as one of the strongest dramatic indictments against society. +</P> + +<P> +The criminal waste of human energy, in economic and social +conditions, drives Laura as it drives the average girl to marry any +man for a "home"; or as it drives men to endure the worst indignities +for a miserable pittance. +</P> + +<P> +Then there is that other respectable institution, the fatalism of +Laura's sex. The inevitability of that force is summed up in the +following words: "Don't you know that we count no more in the life of +these men than tamed animals? It's a game, and if we don't play our +cards well, we lose." Woman in the battle with life has but one +weapon, one commodity—sex. That alone serves as a trump card in the +game of life. +</P> + +<P> +This blind fatalism has made of woman a parasite, an inert thing. +Why then expect perseverance or energy of Laura? The easiest way is +the path mapped out for her from time immemorial. She could follow +no other. +</P> + +<P> +A number of other plays could be quoted as characteristic of the +growing role of the drama as a disseminator of radical thought. +Suffice to mention THE THIRD DEGREE, by Charles Klein; THE FOURTH +ESTATE, by Medill Patterson; A MAN'S WORLD, by Ida Croutchers,—all +pointing to the dawn of dramatic art in America, an art which is +discovering to the people the terrible diseases of our social body. +</P> + +<P> +It has been said of old, all roads lead to Rome. In paraphrased +application to the tendencies of our day, it may truly be said that +all roads lead to the great social reconstruction. The economic +awakening of the workingman, and his realization of the necessity for +concerted industrial action; the tendencies of modern education, +especially in their application to the free development of the child; +the spirit of growing unrest expressed through, and cultivated by, +art and literature, all pave the way to the Open Road. Above all, +the modern drama, operating through the double channel of dramatist +and interpreter, affecting as it does both mind and heart, is the +strongest force in developing social discontent, swelling the +powerful tide of unrest that sweeps onward and over the dam of +ignorance, prejudice, and superstition. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[1] HONOR. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[2] MAGDA. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[3] BEFORE SUNRISE. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[4] THE WEAVERS. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[5] THE SUNKEN BELL. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[6] YOUTH. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[7] THE AWAKENING OF SPRING. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Anarchism and Other Essays, by Emma Goldman + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ANARCHISM AND OTHER ESSAYS *** + +***** This file should be named 2162-h.htm or 2162-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/1/6/2162/ + +Produced by Eva. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Anarchism and Other Essays + +Author: Emma Goldman + +Posting Date: March 1, 2009 [EBook #2162] +Release Date: April, 2000 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ANARCHISM AND OTHER ESSAYS *** + + + + +Produced by Eva. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + + + + +ANARCHISM AND OTHER ESSAYS + +Emma Goldman + + + + +With Biographic Sketch by Hippolyte Havel + + + + +CONTENTS + + +Biographic Sketch + +Preface + +Anarchism: What It Really Stands For + +Minorities Versus Majorities + +The Psychology of Political Violence + +Prisons: A Social Crime and Failure + +Patriotism: A Menace to Liberty + +Francisco Ferrer and The Modern School + +The Hypocrisy of Puritanism + +The Traffic in Women + +Woman Suffrage + +The Tragedy of Woman's Emancipation + +Marriage and Love + +The Drama: A Powerful Disseminator of Radical Thought + + + + +EMMA GOLDMAN + + + + Propagandism is not, as some suppose, a "trade," because + nobody will follow a "trade" at which you may work with + the industry of a slave and die with the reputation of a + mendicant. The motives of any persons to pursue such a + profession must be different from those of trade, deeper + than pride, and stronger than interest. + GEORGE JACOB HOLYOAKE. + + +Among the men and women prominent in the public life of America there +are but few whose names are mentioned as often as that of Emma +Goldman. Yet the real Emma Goldman is almost quite unknown. The +sensational press has surrounded her name with so much +misrepresentation and slander, it would seem almost a miracle that, +in spite of this web of calumny, the truth breaks through and a +better appreciation of this much maligned idealist begins to manifest +itself. There is but little consolation in the fact that almost +every representative of a new idea has had to struggle and suffer +under similar difficulties. Is it of any avail that a former +president of a republic pays homage at Osawatomie to the memory of +John Brown? Or that the president of another republic participates +in the unveiling of a statue in honor of Pierre Proudhon, and holds +up his life to the French nation as a model worthy of enthusiastic +emulation? Of what avail is all this when, at the same time, the +LIVING John Browns and Proudhons are being crucified? The honor and +glory of a Mary Wollstonecraft or of a Louise Michel are not enhanced +by the City Fathers of London or Paris naming a street after +them--the living generation should be concerned with doing justice to +the LIVING Mary Wollstonecrafts and Louise Michels. Posterity +assigns to men like Wendel Phillips and Lloyd Garrison the proper +niche of honor in the temple of human emancipation; but it is the +duty of their contemporaries to bring them due recognition and +appreciation while they live. + +The path of the propagandist of social justice is strewn with thorns. +The powers of darkness and injustice exert all their might lest a ray +of sunshine enter his cheerless life. Nay, even his comrades in the +struggle--indeed, too often his most intimate friends--show but +little understanding for the personality of the pioneer. Envy, +sometimes growing to hatred, vanity and jealousy, obstruct his way +and fill his heart with sadness. It requires an inflexible will and +tremendous enthusiasm not to lose, under such conditions, all faith +in the Cause. The representative of a revolutionizing idea stands +between two fires: on the one hand, the persecution of the existing +powers which hold him responsible for all acts resulting from social +conditions; and, on the other, the lack of understanding on the part +of his own followers who often judge all his activity from a narrow +standpoint. Thus it happens that the agitator stands quite alone in +the midst of the multitude surrounding him. Even his most intimate +friends rarely understand how solitary and deserted he feels. That +is the tragedy of the person prominent in the public eye. + +The mist in which the name of Emma Goldman has so long been enveloped +is gradually beginning to dissipate. Her energy in the furtherance +of such an unpopular idea as Anarchism, her deep earnestness, her +courage and abilities, find growing understanding and admiration. + +The debt American intellectual growth owes to the revolutionary +exiles has never been fully appreciated. The seed disseminated by +them, though so little understood at the time, has brought a rich +harvest. They have at all times held aloft the banner of liberty, +thus impregnating the social vitality of the Nation. But very few +have succeeding in preserving their European education and culture +while at the same time assimilating themselves with American life. +It is difficult for the average man to form an adequate conception +what strength, energy, and perseverance are necessary to absorb the +unfamiliar language, habits, and customs of a new country, without +the loss of one's own personality. + +Emma Goldman is one of the few who, while thoroughly preserving their +individuality, have become an important factor in the social and +intellectual atmosphere of America. The life she leads is rich in +color, full of change and variety. She has risen to the topmost +heights, and she has also tasted the bitter dregs of life. + +Emma Goldman was born of Jewish parentage on the 27th day of June, +1869, in the Russian province of Kovno. Surely these parents never +dreamed what unique position their child would some day occupy. Like +all conservative parents they, too, were quite convinced that their +daughter would marry a respectable citizen, bear him children, and +round out her allotted years surrounded by a flock of grandchildren, +a good, religious woman. As most parents, they had no inkling what a +strange, impassioned spirit would take hold of the soul of their +child, and carry it to the heights which separate generations in +eternal struggle. They lived in a land and at a time when antagonism +between parent and offspring was fated to find its most acute +expression, irreconcilable hostility. In this tremendous struggle +between fathers and sons--and especially between parents and +daughters--there was no compromise, no weak yielding, no truce. The +spirit of liberty, of progress--an idealism which knew no +considerations and recognized no obstacles--drove the young +generation out of the parental house and away from the hearth of the +home. Just as this same spirit once drove out the revolutionary +breeder of discontent, Jesus, and alienated him from his native +traditions. + +What role the Jewish race--notwithstanding all anti-semitic calumnies +the race of transcendental idealism--played in the struggle of the +Old and the New will probably never be appreciated with complete +impartiality and clarity. Only now are we beginning to perceive the +tremendous debt we owe to Jewish idealists in the realm of science, +art, and literature. But very little is still known of the important +part the sons and daughters of Israel have played in the +revolutionary movement and, especially, in that of modern times. + +The first years of her childhood Emma Goldman passed in a small, +idyllic place in the German-Russian province of Kurland, where her +father had charge of the government stage. At the time Kurland was +thoroughly German; even the Russian bureaucracy of that Baltic +province was recruited mostly from German JUNKERS. German fairy +tales and stories, rich in the miraculous deeds of the heroic knights +of Kurland, wove their spell over the youthful mind. But the +beautiful idyl was of short duration. Soon the soul of the growing +child was overcast by the dark shadows of life. Already in her +tenderest youth the seeds of rebellion and unrelenting hatred of +oppression were to be planted in the heart of Emma Goldman. Early +she learned to know the beauty of the State: she saw her father +harassed by the Christian CHINOVNIKS and doubly persecuted as petty +official and hated Jew. The brutality of forced conscription ever +stood before her eyes: she beheld the young men, often the sole +supporter of a large family, brutally dragged to the barracks to lead +the miserable life of a soldier. She heard the weeping of the poor +peasant women, and witnessed the shameful scenes of official venality +which relieved the rich from military service at the expense of the +poor. She was outraged by the terrible treatment to which the female +servants were subjected: maltreated and exploited by their BARINYAS, +they fell to the tender mercies of the regimental officers, who +regarded them as their natural sexual prey. The girls, made pregnant +by respectable gentlemen and driven out by their mistresses, often +found refuge in the Goldman home. And the little girl, her heart +palpitating with sympathy, would abstract coins from the parental +drawer to clandestinely press the money into the hands of the +unfortunate women. Thus Emma Goldman's most striking characteristic, +her sympathy with the underdog, already became manifest in these +early years. + +At the age of seven little Emma was sent by her parents to her +grandmother at Konigsberg, the city of Emanuel Kant, in Eastern +Prussia. Save for occasional interruptions, she remained there till her +13th birthday. The first years in these surroundings do not exactly +belong to her happiest recollections. The grandmother, indeed, was +very amiable, but the numerous aunts of the household were concerned +more with the spirit of practical rather than pure reason, and the +categoric imperative was applied all too frequently. The situation +was changed when her parents migrated to Konigsberg, and little Emma +was relieved from her role of Cinderella. She now regularly attended +public school and also enjoyed the advantages of private instruction, +customary in middle class life; French and music lessons played an +important part in the curriculum. The future interpreter of Ibsen +and Shaw was then a little German Gretchen, quite at home in the +German atmosphere. Her special predilections in literature were the +sentimental romances of Marlitt; she was a great admirer of the good +Queen Louise, whom the bad Napoleon Buonaparte treated with so marked +a lack of knightly chivalry. What might have been her future +development had she remained in this milieu? Fate--or was it +economic necessity?--willed it otherwise. Her parents decided to +settle in St. Petersburg, the capital of the Almighty Tsar, and there +to embark in business. It was here that a great change took place in +the life of the young dreamer. + +It was an eventful period--the year of 1882--in which Emma Goldman, +then in her 13th year, arrived in St. Petersburg. A struggle for +life and death between the autocracy and the Russian intellectuals +swept the country. Alexander II had fallen the previous year. +Sophia Perovskaia, Zheliabov, Grinevitzky, Rissakov, Kibalchitch, +Michailov, the heroic executors of the death sentence upon the +tyrant, had then entered the Walhalla of immortality. Jessie +Helfman, the only regicide whose life the government had reluctantly +spared because of pregnancy, followed the unnumbered Russian martyrs +to the etapes of Siberia. It was the most heroic period in the great +battle of emancipation, a battle for freedom such as the world had +never witnessed before. The names of the Nihilist martyrs were on +all lips, and thousands were enthusiastic to follow their example. +The whole INTELLIGENZIA of Russia was filled with the ILLEGAL +spirit: revolutionary sentiments penetrated into every home, from +mansion to hovel, impregnating the military, the CHINOVNIKS, factory +workers, and peasants. The atmosphere pierced the very casemates of +the royal palace. New ideas germinated in the youth. The difference +of sex was forgotten. Shoulder to shoulder fought the men and the +women. The Russian woman! Who shall ever do justice or adequately +portray her heroism and self-sacrifice, her loyalty and devotion? +Holy, Turgeniev calls her in his great prose poem, ON THE THRESHOLD. + +It was inevitable that the young dreamer from Konigsberg should be +drawn into the maelstrom. To remain outside of the circle of free +ideas meant a life of vegetation, of death. One need not wonder at +the youthful age. Young enthusiasts were not then--and, fortunately, +are not now--a rare phenomenon in Russia. The study of the Russian +language soon brought young Emma Goldman in touch with revolutionary +students and new ideas. The place of Marlitt was taken by Nekrassov +and Tchernishevsky. The quondam admirer of the good Queen Louise +became a glowing enthusiast of liberty, resolving, like thousands of +others, to devote her life to the emancipation of the people. + +The struggle of generations now took place in the Goldman family. +The parents could not comprehend what interest their daughter could +find in the new ideas, which they themselves considered fantastic +utopias. They strove to persuade the young girl out of these +chimeras, and daily repetition of soul-racking disputes was the +result. Only in one member of the family did the young idealist find +understanding--in her elder sister, Helene, with whom she later +emigrated to America, and whose love and sympathy have never failed +her. Even in the darkest hours of later persecution Emma Goldman +always found a haven of refuge in the home of this loyal sister. + +Emma Goldman finally resolved to achieve her independence. She saw +hundreds of men and women sacrificing brilliant careers to go V +NAROD, to the people. She followed their example. She became a +factory worker; at first employed as a corset maker, and later in the +manufacture of gloves. She was now 17 years of age and proud to earn +her own living. Had she remained in Russia, she would have probably +sooner or later shared the fate of thousands buried in the snows of +Siberia. But a new chapter of life was to begin for her. Sister +Helene decided to emigrate to America, where another sister had +already made her home. Emma prevailed upon Helene to be allowed to +join her, and together they departed for America, filled with the +joyous hope of a great, free land, the glorious Republic. + + +America! What magic word. The yearning of the enslaved, the +promised land of the oppressed, the goal of all longing for progress. +Here man's ideals had found their fulfillment: no Tsar, no Cossack, +no CHINOVNIK. The Republic! Glorious synonym of equality, freedom, +brotherhood. + +Thus thought the two girls as they travelled, in the year 1886, from +New York to Rochester. Soon, all too soon, disillusionment awaited +them. The ideal conception of America was punctured already at +Castle Garden, and soon burst like a soap bubble. Here Emma Goldman +witnessed sights which reminded her of the terrible scenes of her +childhood in Kurland. The brutality and humiliation the future +citizens of the great Republic were subjected to on board ship, were +repeated at Castle Garden by the officials of the democracy in a more +savage and aggravating manner. And what bitter disappointment +followed as the young idealist began to familiarize herself with the +conditions in the new land! Instead of one Tsar, she found scores of +them; the Cossack was replaced by the policeman with the heavy club, +and instead of the Russian CHINOVNIK there was the far more inhuman +slave-driver of the factory. + +Emma Goldman soon obtained work in the clothing establishment of the +Garson Co. The wages amounted to two and a half dollars a week. At +that time the factories were not provided with motor power, and the +poor sewing girls had to drive the wheels by foot, from early morning +till late at night. A terribly exhausting toil it was, without a ray +of light, the drudgery of the long day passed in complete +silence--the Russian custom of friendly conversation at work was not +permissible in the free country. But the exploitation of the girls +was not only economic; the poor wage workers were looked upon by +their foremen and bosses as sexual commodities. If a girl resented +the advances of her "superiors", she would speedily find herself on +the street as an undesirable element in the factory. There was never +a lack of willing victims: the supply always exceeded the demand. + +The horrible conditions were made still more unbearable by the +fearful dreariness of life in the small American city. The Puritan +spirit suppresses the slightest manifestation of joy; a deadly +dullness beclouds the soul; no intellectual inspiration, no thought +exchange between congenial spirits is possible. Emma Goldman almost +suffocated in this atmosphere. She, above all others, longed for +ideal surroundings, for friendship and understanding, for the +companionship of kindred minds. Mentally she still lived in Russia. +Unfamiliar with the language and life of the country, she dwelt more +in the past than in the present. It was at this period that she met +a young man who spoke Russian. With great joy the acquaintance was +cultivated. At last a person with whom she could converse, one who +could help her bridge the dullness of the narrow existence. The +friendship gradually ripened and finally culminated in marriage. + +Emma Goldman, too, had to walk the sorrowful road of married life; +she, too, had to learn from bitter experience that legal statutes +signify dependence and self-effacement, especially for the woman. +The marriage was no liberation from the Puritan dreariness of +American life; indeed, it was rather aggravated by the loss of +self-ownership. The characters of the young people differed too +widely. A separation soon followed, and Emma Goldman went to New +Haven, Conn. There she found employment in a factory, and her +husband disappeared from her horizon. Two decades later she was +fated to be unexpectedly reminded of him by the Federal authorities. + +The revolutionists who were active in the Russian movement of the +80's were but little familiar with the social ideas then agitating +Western Europe and America. Their sole activity consisted in +educating the people, their final goal the destruction of the +autocracy. Socialism and Anarchism were terms hardly known even by +name. Emma Goldman, too, was entirely unfamiliar with the +significance of those ideals. + +She arrived in America, as four years previously in Russia, at a +period of great social and political unrest. The working people were +in revolt against the terrible labor conditions; the eight-hour +movement of the Knights of Labor was at its height, and throughout +the country echoed the din of sanguine strife between strikers and +police. The struggle culminated in the great strike against the +Harvester Company of Chicago, the massacre of the strikers, and the +judicial murder of the labor leaders, which followed upon the +historic Haymarket bomb explosion. The Anarchists stood the martyr +test of blood baptism. The apologists of capitalism vainly seek to +justify the killing of Parsons, Spies, Lingg, Fischer, and Engel. +Since the publication of Governor Altgeld's reason for his liberation +of the three incarcerated Haymarket Anarchists, no doubt is left that +a fivefold legal murder had been committed in Chicago, in 1887. + +Very few have grasped the significance of the Chicago martyrdom; +least of all the ruling classes. By the destruction of a number of +labor leaders they thought to stem the tide of a world-inspiring +idea. They failed to consider that from the blood of the martyrs +grows the new seed, and that the frightful injustice will win new +converts to the Cause. + +The two most prominent representatives of the Anarchist idea in +America, Voltairine de Cleyre and Emma Goldman--the one a native +American, the other a Russian--have been converted, like numerous +others, to the ideas of Anarchism by the judicial murder. Two women +who had not known each other before, and who had received a widely +different education, were through that murder united in one idea. + +Like most working men and women of America, Emma Goldman followed the +Chicago trial with great anxiety and excitement. She, too, could not +believe that the leaders of the proletariat would be killed. The +11th of November, 1887, taught her differently. She realized that no +mercy could be expected from the ruling class, that between the +Tsarism of Russia and the plutocracy of America there was no +difference save in name. Her whole being rebelled against the crime, +and she vowed to herself a solemn vow to join the ranks of the +revolutionary proletariat and to devote all her energy and strength +to their emancipation from wage slavery. With the glowing enthusiasm +so characteristic of her nature, she now began to familiarize herself +with the literature of Socialism and Anarchism. She attended public +meetings and became acquainted with socialistically and +anarchistically inclined workingmen. Johanna Greie, the well-known +German lecturer, was the first Socialist speaker heard by Emma +Goldman. In New Haven, Conn., where she was employed in a corset +factory, she met Anarchists actively participating in the movement. +Here she read the FREIHEIT, edited by John Most. The Haymarket +tragedy developed her inherent Anarchist tendencies: the reading of +the FREIHEIT made her a conscious Anarchist. Subsequently she was to +learn that the idea of Anarchism found its highest expression through +the best intellects of America: theoretically by Josiah Warren, +Stephen Pearl Andrews, Lysander Spooner; philosophically by Emerson, +Thoreau, and Walt Whitman. + +Made ill by the excessive strain of factory work, Emma Goldman +returned to Rochester where she remained till August, 1889, at which +time she removed to New York, the scene of the most important phase +of her life. She was now twenty years old. Features pallid with +suffering, eyes large and full of compassion, greet one in her +pictured likeness of those days. Her hair is, as customary with +Russian student girls, worn short, giving free play to the strong +forehead. + + +It is the heroic epoch of militant Anarchism. By leaps and bounds +the movement had grown in every country. In spite of the most severe +governmental persecution new converts swell the ranks. The +propaganda is almost exclusively of a secret character. The +repressive measures of the government drive the disciples of the new +philosophy to conspirative methods. Thousands of victims fall into +the hands of the authorities and languish in prisons. But nothing +can stem the rising tide of enthusiasm, of self-sacrifice and +devotion to the Cause. The efforts of teachers like Peter Kropotkin, +Louise Michel, Elisee Reclus, and others, inspire the devotees with +ever greater energy. + +Disruption is imminent with the Socialists, who have sacrificed the +idea of liberty and embraced the State and politics. The struggle is +bitter, the factions irreconcilable. This struggle is not merely +between Anarchists and Socialists; it also finds its echo within the +Anarchist groups. Theoretic differences and personal controversies +lead to strife and acrimonious enmities. The anti-Socialist +legislation of Germany and Austria had driven thousands of Socialists +and Anarchists across the seas to seek refuge in America. John Most, +having lost his seat in the Reichstag, finally had to flee his native +land, and went to London. There, having advanced toward Anarchism, +he entirely withdrew from the Social Democratic Party. Later, coming +to America, he continued the publication of the FREIHEIT in New York, +and developed great activity among the German workingmen. + +When Emma Goldman arrived in New York in 1889, she experienced little +difficulty in associating herself with active Anarchists. Anarchist +meetings were an almost daily occurrence. The first lecturer she +heard on the Anarchist platform was Dr. A. Solotaroff. Of great +importance to her future development was her acquaintance with John +Most, who exerted a tremendous influence over the younger elements. +His impassioned eloquence, untiring energy, and the persecution he +had endured for the Cause, all combined to enthuse the comrades. It +was also at this period that she met Alexander Berkman, whose +friendship played an important part throughout her life. Her talents +as a speaker could not long remain in obscurity. The fire of +enthusiasm swept her toward the public platform. Encouraged by her +friends, she began to participate as a German and Yiddish speaker at +Anarchist meetings. Soon followed a brief tour of agitation taking +her as far as Cleveland. With the whole strength and earnestness of +her soul she now threw herself into the propaganda of Anarchist +ideas. The passionate period of her life had begun. Through +constantly toiling in sweat shops, the fiery young orator was at the +same time very active as an agitator and participated in various +labor struggles, notably in the great cloakmakers' strike, in 1889, +led by Professor Garsyde and Joseph Barondess. + +A year later Emma Goldman was a delegate to an Anarchist conference +in New York. She was elected to the Executive Committee, but later +withdrew because of differences of opinion regarding tactical +matters. The ideas of the German-speaking Anarchists had at that +time not yet become clarified. Some still believed in parliamentary +methods, the great majority being adherents of strong centralism. +These differences of opinion in regard to tactics led in 1891 to a +breach with John Most. Emma Goldman, Alexander Berkman, and other +comrades joined the group AUTONOMY, in which Joseph Peukert, Otto +Rinke, and Claus Timmermann played an active part. The bitter +controversies which followed this secession terminated only with the +death of Most, in 1906. + +A great source of inspiration to Emma Goldman proved the Russian +revolutionists who were associated in the group ZNAMYA. Goldenberg, +Solotaroff, Zametkin, Miller, Cahan, the poet Edelstadt, Ivan von +Schewitsch, husband of Helene von Racowitza and editor of the +VOLKSZEITUNG, and numerous other Russian exiles, some of whom are +still living, were members of this group. It was also at this time +that Emma Goldman met Robert Reitzel, the German-American Heine, who +exerted a great influence on her development. Through him she became +acquainted with the best writers of modern literature, and the +friendship thus begun lasted till Reitzel's death, in 1898. + + +The labor movement of America had not been drowned in the Chicago +massacre; the murder of the Anarchists had failed to bring peace to +the profit-greedy capitalist. The struggle for the eight-hour day +continued. In 1892 broke out the great strike in Pittsburg. The +Homestead fight, the defeat of the Pinkertons, the appearance of the +militia, the suppression of the strikers, and the complete triumph of +the reaction are matters of comparatively recent history. Stirred to +the very depths by the terrible events at the seat of war, Alexander +Berkman resolved to sacrifice his life to the Cause and thus give an +object lesson to the wage slaves of America of active Anarchist +solidarity with labor. His attack upon Frick, the Gessler of +Pittsburg, failed, and the twenty-two-year-old youth was doomed to a +living death of twenty-two years in the penitentiary. The +bourgeoisie, which for decades had exalted and eulogized tyrannicide, +now was filled with terrible rage. The capitalist press organized a +systematic campaign of calumny and misrepresentation against +Anarchists. The police exerted every effort to involve Emma Goldman +in the act of Alexander Berkman. The feared agitator was to be +silenced by all means. It was only due to the circumstance of her +presence in New York that she escaped the clutches of the law. It +was a similar circumstance which, nine years later, during the +McKinley incident, was instrumental in preserving her liberty. It is +almost incredible with what amount of stupidity, baseness, and +vileness the journalists of the period sought to overwhelm the +Anarchist. One must peruse the newspaper files to realize the +enormity of incrimination and slander. It would be difficult to +portray the agony of soul Emma Goldman experienced in those days. +The persecutions of the capitalist press were to be borne by an +Anarchist with comparative equanimity; but the attacks from one's own +ranks were far more painful and unbearable. The act of Berkman was +severely criticized by Most and some of his followers among the +German and Jewish Anarchists. Bitter accusations and recriminations +at public meetings and private gatherings followed. Persecuted on +all sides, both because she championed Berkman and his act, and on +account of her revolutionary activity, Emma Goldman was harassed even +to the extent of inability to secure shelter. Too proud to seek +safety in the denial of her identity, she chose to pass the nights in +the public parks rather than expose her friends to danger or vexation +by her visits. The already bitter cup was filled to overflowing by +the attempted suicide of a young comrade who had shared living +quarters with Emma Goldman, Alexander Berkman, and a mutual artist +friend. + + +Many changes have since taken place. Alexander Berkman has survived +the Pennsylvania Inferno, and is back again in the ranks of the +militant Anarchists, his spirit unbroken, his soul full of enthusiasm +for the ideals of his youth. The artist comrade is now among the +well-known illustrators of New York. The suicide candidate left +America shortly after his unfortunate attempt to die, and was +subsequently arrested and condemned to eight years of hard labor for +smuggling Anarchist literature into Germany. He, too, has withstood +the terrors of prison life, and has returned to the revolutionary +movement, since earning the well deserved reputation of a talented +writer in Germany. + + +To avoid indefinite camping in the parks Emma Goldman finally was +forced to move into a house on Third Street, occupied exclusively by +prostitutes. There, among the outcasts of our good Christian +society, she could at least rent a bit of a room, and find rest and +work at her sewing machine. The women of the street showed more +refinement of feeling and sincere sympathy than the priests of the +Church. But human endurance had been exhausted by overmuch suffering +and privation. There was a complete physical breakdown, and the +renowned agitator was removed to the "Bohemian Republic"--a large +tenement house which derived its euphonious appellation from the fact +that its occupants were mostly Bohemian Anarchists. Here Emma +Goldman found friends ready to aid her. Justus Schwab, one of the +finest representatives of the German revolutionary period of that +time, and Dr. Solotaroff were indefatigable in the care of the +patient. Here, too, she met Edward Brady, the new friendship +subsequently ripening into close intimacy. Brady had been an active +participant in the revolutionary movement of Austria and had, at the +time of his acquaintance with Emma Goldman, lately been released from +an Austrian prison after an incarceration of ten years. + +Physicians diagnosed the illness as consumption, and the patient was +advised to leave New York. She went to Rochester, in the hope that +the home circle would help restore her to health. Her parents had +several years previously emigrated to America, settling in that city. +Among the leading traits of the Jewish race is the strong attachment +between the members of the family, and, especially, between parents +and children. Though her conservative parents could not sympathize +with the idealist aspirations of Emma Goldman and did not approve of +her mode of life, they now received their sick daughter with open +arms. The rest and care enjoyed in the parental home, and the +cheering presence of the beloved sister Helene, proved so beneficial +that within a short time she was sufficiently restored to resume her +energetic activity. + +There is no rest in the life of Emma Goldman. Ceaseless effort and +continuous striving toward the conceived goal are the essentials of +her nature. Too much precious time had already been wasted. It was +imperative to resume her labors immediately. The country was in the +throes of a crisis, and thousands of unemployed crowded the streets +of the large industrial centers. Cold and hungry they tramped +through the land in the vain search for work and bread. The +Anarchists developed a strenuous propaganda among the unemployed and +the strikers. A monster demonstration of striking cloakmakers and of +the unemployed took place at Union Square, New York. Emma Goldman +was one of the invited speakers. She delivered an impassioned +speech, picturing in fiery words the misery of the wage slave's life, +and quoted the famous maxim of Cardinal Manning: "Necessity knows no +law, and the starving man has a natural right to a share of his +neighbor's bread." She concluded her exhortation with the words: +"Ask for work. If they do not give you work, ask for bread. If they +do not give you work or bread, then take bread." + +The following day she left for Philadelphia, where she was to address +a public meeting. The capitalist press again raised the alarm. If +Socialists and Anarchists were to be permitted to continue agitating, +there was imminent danger that the workingmen would soon learn to +understand the manner in which they are robbed of the joy and +happiness of life. Such a possibility was to be prevented at all +cost. The Chief of Police of New York, Byrnes, procured a court +order for the arrest of Emma Goldman. She was detained by the +Philadelphia authorities and incarcerated for several days in the +Moyamensing prison, awaiting the extradition papers which Byrnes +intrusted to Detective Jacobs. This man Jacobs (whom Emma Goldman +again met several years later under very unpleasant circumstances) +proposed to her, while she was returning a prisoner to New York, to +betray the cause of labor. In the name of his superior, Chief +Byrnes, he offered lucrative reward. How stupid men sometimes are! +What poverty of psychologic observation to imagine the possibility of +betrayal on the part of a young Russian idealist, who had willingly +sacrificed all personal considerations to help in labor's +emancipation. + +In October, 1893, Emma Goldman was tried in the criminal courts of +New York on the charge of inciting to riot. The "intelligent" jury +ignored the testimony of the twelve witnesses for the defense in +favor of the evidence given by one single man--Detective Jacobs. She +was found guilty and sentenced to serve one year in the penitentiary +at Blackwell's Island. Since the foundation of the Republic she was +the first woman--Mrs. Surratt excepted--to be imprisoned for a +political offense. Respectable society had long before stamped upon +her the Scarlet Letter. + +Emma Goldman passed her time in the penitentiary in the capacity of +nurse in the prison hospital. Here she found opportunity to shed +some rays of kindness into the dark lives of the unfortunates whose +sisters of the street did not disdain two years previously to share +with her the same house. She also found in prison opportunity to +study English and its literature, and to familiarize herself with the +great American writers. In Bret Harte, Mark Twain, Walt Whitman, +Thoreau, and Emerson she found great treasures. + +She left Blackwell's Island in the month of August, 1894, a woman of +twenty-five, developed and matured, and intellectually transformed. +Back into the arena, richer in experience, purified by suffering. +She did not feel herself deserted and alone any more. Many hands +were stretched out to welcome her. There were at the time numerous +intellectual oases in New York. The saloon of Justus Schwab, at +Number Fifty, First Street, was the center where gathered Anarchists, +litterateurs, and bohemians. Among others she also met at this time +a number of American Anarchists, and formed the friendship of +Voltairine de Cleyre, Wm. C. Owen, Miss Van Etton, and Dyer D. Lum, +former editor of the ALARM and executor of the last wishes of the +Chicago martyrs. In John Swinton, the noble old fighter for liberty, +she found one of her staunchest friends. Other intellectual centers +there were: SOLIDARITY, published by John Edelman; LIBERTY, by the +Individualist Anarchist, Benjamin R. Tucker; the REBEL, by Harry +Kelly; DER STURMVOGEL, a German Anarchist publication, edited by +Claus Timmermann; DER ARME TEUFEL, whose presiding genius was the +inimitable Robert Reitzel. Through Arthur Brisbane, now chief +lieutenant of William Randolph Hearst, she became acquainted with the +writings of Fourier. Brisbane then was not yet submerged in the +swamp of political corruption. He sent Emma Goldman an amiable +letter to Blackwell's Island, together with the biography of his +father, the enthusiastic American disciple of Fourier. + +Emma Goldman became, upon her release from the penitentiary, a factor +in the public life of New York. She was appreciated in radical ranks +for her devotion, her idealism, and earnestness. Various persons +sought her friendship, and some tried to persuade her to aid in the +furtherance of their special side issues. Thus Rev. Parkhurst, +during the Lexow investigation, did his utmost to induce her to join +the Vigilance Committee in order to fight Tammany Hall. Maria +Louise, the moving spirit of a social center, acted as Parkhurst's +go-between. It is hardly necessary to mention what reply the latter +received from Emma Goldman. Incidentally, Maria Louise subsequently +became a Mahatma. During the free silver campaign, ex-Burgess +McLuckie, one of the most genuine personalities in the Homestead +strike, visited New York in an endeavor to enthuse the local radicals +for free silver. He also attempted to interest Emma Goldman, but +with no greater success than Mahatma Maria Louise of Parkhurst-Lexow +fame. + + +In 1894 the struggle of the Anarchists in France reached its highest +expression. The white terror on the part of the Republican upstarts +was answered by the red terror of our French comrades. With feverish +anxiety the Anarchists throughout the world followed this social +struggle. Propaganda by deed found its reverberating echo in almost +all countries. In order to better familiarize herself with +conditions in the old world, Emma Goldman left for Europe, in the +year 1895. After a lecture tour in England and Scotland, she went to +Vienna where she entered the ALLGEMEINE KRANKENHAUS to prepare +herself as midwife and nurse, and where at the same time she studied +social conditions. She also found opportunity to acquaint herself +with the newest literature of Europe: Hauptmann, Nietzsche, Ibsen, +Zola, Thomas Hardy, and other artist rebels were read with great +enthusiasm. + +In the autumn of 1896 she returned to New York by way of Zurich and +Paris. The project of Alexander Berkman's liberation was on hand. +The barbaric sentence of twenty-two years had roused tremendous +indignation among the radical elements. It was known that the Pardon +Board of Pennsylvania would look to Carnegie and Frick for advice in +the case of Alexander Berkman. It was therefore suggested that these +Sultans of Pennsylvania be approached--not with a view of obtaining +their grace, but with the request that they do not attempt to +influence the Board. Ernest Crosby offered to see Carnegie, on +condition that Alexander Berkman repudiate his act. That, however, +was absolutely out of the question. He would never be guilty of such +forswearing of his own personality and self-respect. These efforts +led to friendly relations between Emma Goldman and the circle of +Ernest Crosby, Bolton Hall, and Leonard Abbott. In the year 1897 she +undertook her first great lecture tour, which extended as far as +California. This tour popularized her name as the representative of +the oppressed, her eloquence ringing from coast to coast. In +California Emma Goldman became friendly with the members of the Isaak +family, and learned to appreciate their efforts for the Cause. Under +tremendous obstacles the Isaaks first published the FIREBRAND and, +upon its suppression by the Postal Department, the FREE SOCIETY. It +was also during this tour that Emma Goldman met that grand old rebel +of sexual freedom, Moses Harman. + +During the Spanish-American war the spirit of chauvinism was at its +highest tide. To check this dangerous situation, and at the same +time collect funds for the revolutionary Cubans, Emma Goldman became +affiliated with the Latin comrades, among others with Gori, Esteve, +Palaviccini, Merlino, Petruccini, and Ferrara. In the year 1899 +followed another protracted tour of agitation, terminating on the +Pacific Coast. Repeated arrests and accusations, though without +ultimate bad results, marked every propaganda tour. + +In November of the same year the untiring agitator went on a second +lecture tour to England and Scotland, closing her journey with the +first International Anarchist Congress at Paris. It was at the time of +the Boer war, and again jingoism was at its height, as two years +previously it had celebrated its orgies during the Spanish-American +war. Various meetings, both in England and Scotland, were disturbed +and broken up by patriotic mobs. Emma Goldman found on this occasion +the opportunity of again meeting various English comrades and +interesting personalities like Tom Mann and the sisters Rossetti, the +gifted daughters of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, then publishers of the +Anarchist review, the TORCH. One of her life-long hopes found here +its fulfillment: she came in close and friendly touch with Peter +Kropotkin, Enrico Malatesta, Nicholas Tchaikovsky, W. Tcherkessov, +and Louise Michel. Old warriors in the cause of humanity, whose +deeds have enthused thousands of followers throughout the world, and +whose life and work have inspired other thousands with noble idealism +and self-sacrifice. Old warriors they, yet ever young with the +courage of earlier days, unbroken in spirit and filled with the firm +hope of the final triumph of Anarchy. + +The chasm in the revolutionary labor movement, which resulted from +the disruption of the INTERNATIONALE, could not be bridged any more. +Two social philosophies were engaged in bitter combat. The +International Congress in 1889, at Paris; in 1892, at Zurich, and in +1896, at London, produced irreconcilable differences. The majority +of Social Democrats, forswearing their libertarian past and becoming +politicians, succeeded in excluding the revolutionary and Anarchist +delegates. The latter decided thenceforth to hold separate +congresses. Their first congress was to take place in 1900, at +Paris. The Socialist renegade, Millerand, who had climbed into the +Ministry of the Interior, here played a Judas role. The congress of +the revolutionists was suppressed, and the delegates dispersed two +days prior to their scheduled opening. But Millerand had no +objections against the Social Democratic Congress, which was +afterwards opened with all the trumpets of the advertiser's art. + +However, the renegade did not accomplish his object. A number of +delegates succeeded in holding a secret conference in the house of a +comrade outside of Paris, where various points of theory and tactics +were discussed. Emma Goldman took considerable part in these +proceedings, and on that occasion came in contact with numerous +representatives of the Anarchist movement of Europe. + +Owing to the suppression of the congress, the delegates were in +danger of being expelled from France. At this time also came the bad +news from America regarding another unsuccessful attempt to liberate +Alexander Berkman, proving a great shock to Emma Goldman. In +November, 1900, she returned to America to devote herself to her +profession of nurse, at the same time taking an active part in the +American propaganda. Among other activities she organized monster +meetings of protest against the terrible outrages of the Spanish +government, perpetrated upon the political prisoners tortured in +Montjuich. + +In her vocation as nurse Emma Goldman enjoyed many opportunities of +meeting the most unusual and peculiar characters. Few would have +identified the "notorious Anarchist" in the small blonde woman, +simply attired in the uniform of a nurse. Soon after her return from +Europe she became acquainted with a patient by the name of Mrs. +Stander, a morphine fiend, suffering excruciating agonies. She +required careful attention to enable her to supervise a very +important business she conducted,--that of Mrs. Warren. In Third +Street, near Third Avenue, was situated her private residence, and +near it, connected by a separate entrance, was her place of business. +One evening, the nurse, upon entering the room of her patient, +suddenly came face to face with a male visitor, bull-necked and of +brutal appearance. The man was no other than Mr. Jacobs, the +detective who seven years previously had brought Emma Goldman a +prisoner from Philadelphia and who had attempted to persuade her, on +their way to New York, to betray the cause of the workingmen. It +would be difficult to describe the expression of bewilderment on the +countenance of the man as he so unexpectedly faced Emma Goldman, the +nurse of his mistress. The brute was suddenly transformed into a +gentleman, exerting himself to excuse his shameful behavior on the +previous occasion. Jacobs was the "protector" of Mrs. Stander, and +go-between for the house and the police. Several years later, as one +of the detective staff of District Attorney Jerome, he committed +perjury, was convicted, and sent to Sing Sing for a year. He is now +probably employed by some private detective agency, a desirable +pillar of respectable society. + +In 1901 Peter Kropotkin was invited by the Lowell Institute of +Massachusetts to deliver a series of lectures on Russian literature. +It was his second American tour, and naturally the comrades were +anxious to use his presence for the benefit of the movement. Emma +Goldman entered into correspondence with Kropotkin and succeeded in +securing his consent to arrange for him a series of lectures. She +also devoted her energies to organizing the tours of other well known +Anarchists, principally those of Charles W. Mowbray and John Turner. +Similarly she always took part in all the activities of the movement, +ever ready to give her time, ability, and energy to the Cause. + +On the sixth of September, 1901, President McKinley was shot by Leon +Czolgosz at Buffalo. Immediately an unprecedented campaign of +persecution was set in motion against Emma Goldman as the best known +Anarchist in the country. Although there was absolutely no +foundation for the accusation, she, together with other prominent +Anarchists, was arrested in Chicago, kept in confinement for several +weeks, and subjected to severest cross-examination. Never before in +the history of the country had such a terrible man-hunt taken place +against a person in public life. But the efforts of police and press +to connect Emma Goldman with Czolgosz proved futile. Yet the episode +left her wounded to the heart. The physical suffering, the +humiliation and brutality at the hands of the police she could bear. +The depression of soul was far worse. She was overwhelmed by +realization of the stupidity, lack of understanding, and vileness +which characterized the events of those terrible days. The attitude +of misunderstanding on the part of the majority of her own comrades +toward Czolgosz almost drove her to desperation. Stirred to the very +inmost of her soul, she published an article on Czolgosz in which she +tried to explain the deed in its social and individual aspects. As +once before, after Berkman's act, she now also was unable to find +quarters; like a veritable wild animal she was driven from place to +place. This terrible persecution and, especially, the attitude of +her comrades made it impossible for her to continue propaganda. The +soreness of body and soul had first to heal. During 1901-1903 she +did not resume the platform. As "Miss Smith" she lived a quiet life, +practicing her profession and devoting her leisure to the study of +literature and, particularly, to the modern drama, which she +considers one of the greatest disseminators of radical ideas and +enlightened feeling. + +Yet one thing the persecution of Emma Goldman accomplished. Her name +was brought before the public with greater frequency and emphasis +than ever before, the malicious harassing of the much maligned +agitator arousing strong sympathy in many circles. Persons in +various walks of life began to get interested in her struggle and her +ideas. A better understanding and appreciation were now beginning to +manifest themselves. + +The arrival in America of the English Anarchist, John Turner, induced +Emma Goldman to leave her retirement. Again she threw herself into +her public activities, organizing an energetic movement for the +defense of Turner, whom the Immigration authorities condemned to +deportation on account of the Anarchist exclusion law, passed after +the death of McKinley. + +When Paul Orleneff and Mme. Nazimova arrived in New York to acquaint +the American public with Russian dramatic art, Emma Goldman became +the manager of the undertaking. By much patience and perseverance +she succeeded in raising the necessary funds to introduce the Russian +artists to the theater-goers of New York and Chicago. Though +financially not a success, the venture proved of great artistic +value. As manager of the Russian theater Emma Goldman enjoyed some +unique experiences. M. Orleneff could converse only in Russian, and +"Miss Smith" was forced to act as his interpreter at various polite +functions. Most of the aristocratic ladies of Fifth Avenue had not +the least inkling that the amiable manager who so entertainingly +discussed philosophy, drama, and literature at their five o'clock +teas, was the "notorious" Emma Goldman. If the latter should some +day write her autobiography, she will no doubt have many interesting +anecdotes to relate in connection with these experiences. + +The weekly Anarchist publication, FREE SOCIETY, issued by the Isaak +family, was forced to suspend in consequence of the nation-wide fury +that swept the country after the death of McKinley. To fill out the +gap Emma Goldman, in co-operation with Max Baginski and other +comrades, decided to publish a monthly magazine devoted to the +furtherance of Anarchist ideas in life and literature. The first +issue of MOTHER EARTH appeared in the month of March, 1906, the +initial expenses of the periodical partly covered by the proceeds of +a theater benefit given by Orleneff, Mme. Nazimova, and their +company, in favor of the Anarchist magazine. Under tremendous +difficulties and obstacles the tireless propagandist has succeeded in +continuing MOTHER EARTH uninterruptedly since 1906--an achievement +rarely equalled in the annals of radical publications. + +In May, 1906, Alexander Berkman at last left the hell of +Pennsylvania, where he had passed the best fourteen years of his +life. No one had believed in the possibility of his survival. His +liberation terminated a nightmare of fourteen years for Emma Goldman, +and an important chapter of her career was thus concluded. + +Nowhere had the birth of the Russian revolution aroused such vital +and active response as among the Russians living in America. The +heroes of the revolutionary movement in Russia, Tchaikovsky, Mme. +Breshkovskaia, Gershuni, and others visited these shores to waken the +sympathies of the American people toward the struggle for liberty, +and to collect aid for its continuance and support. The success of +these efforts was to a considerable extent due to the exertions, +eloquence, and the talent for organization on the part of Emma +Goldman. This opportunity enabled her to give valuable services to +the struggle for liberty in her native land. It is not generally +known that it is the Anarchists who are mainly instrumental in +insuring the success, moral as well as financial, of most of the +radical undertakings. The Anarchist is indifferent to acknowledged +appreciation; the needs of the Cause absorb his whole interest, and +to these he devotes his energy and abilities. Yet it may be +mentioned that some otherwise decent folks, though at all times +anxious for Anarchist support and co-operation, are ever willing to +monopolize all the credit for the work done. During the last several +decades it was chiefly the Anarchists who had organized all the great +revolutionary efforts, and aided in every struggle for liberty. But +for fear of shocking the respectable mob, who looks upon the +Anarchists as the apostles of Satan, and because of their social +position in bourgeois society, the would-be radicals ignore the +activity of the Anarchists. + +In 1907 Emma Goldman participated as delegate to the second Anarchist +Congress, at Amsterdam. She was intensely active in all its +proceedings and supported the organization of the Anarchist +INTERNATIONALE. Together with the other American delegate, Max +Baginski, she submitted to the congress an exhaustive report of +American conditions, closing with the following characteristic +remarks: + + +"The charge that Anarchism is destructive, rather than constructive, +and that, therefore, Anarchism is opposed to organization, is one of +the many falsehoods spread by our opponents. They confound our +present social institutions with organization; hence they fail to +understand how we can oppose the former, and yet favor the latter. +The fact, however, is that the two are not identical. + +"The State is commonly regarded as the highest form of organization. +But is it in reality a true organization? Is it not rather an +arbitrary institution, cunningly imposed upon the masses? + +"Industry, too, is called an organization; yet nothing is farther +from the truth. Industry is the ceaseless piracy of the rich against +the poor. + +"We are asked to believe that the Army is an organization, but a +close investigation will show that it is nothing else than a cruel +instrument of blind force. + +"The Public School! The colleges and other institutions of learning, +are they not models of organization, offering the people fine +opportunities for instruction? Far from it. The school, more than +any other institution, is a veritable barrack, where the human mind +is drilled and manipulated into submission to various social and +moral spooks, and thus fitted to continue our system of exploitation +and oppression. + +"Organization, as WE understand it, however, is a different thing. +It is based, primarily, on freedom. It is a natural and voluntary +grouping of energies to secure results beneficial to humanity. + +"It is the harmony of organic growth which produces variety of color +and form, the complete whole we admire in the flower. Analogously +will the organized activity of free human beings, imbued with the +spirit of solidarity, result in the perfection of social harmony, +which we call Anarchism. In fact, Anarchism alone makes +non-authoritarian organization of common interests possible, since it +abolishes the existing antagonism between individuals and classes. + +"Under present conditions the antagonism of economic and social +interests results in relentless war among the social units, and +creates an insurmountable obstacle in the way of a co-operative +commonwealth. + +"There is a mistaken notion that organization does not foster +individual freedom; that, on the contrary, it means the decay of +individuality. In reality, however, the true function of +organization is to aid the development and growth of personality. + +"Just as the animal cells, by mutual co-operation, express their +latent powers in formation of the complete organism, so does the +individual, by co-operative effort with other individuals, attain his +highest form of development. + +"An organization, in the true sense, cannot result from the +combination of mere nonentities. It must be composed of +self-conscious, intelligent individualities. Indeed, the total of +the possibilities and activities of an organization is represented in +the expression of individual energies. + +"It therefore logically follows that the greater the number of +strong, self-conscious personalities in an organization, the less +danger of stagnation, and the more intense its life element. + +"Anarchism asserts the possibility of an organization without +discipline, fear, or punishment, and without the pressure of poverty: +a new social organism which will make an end to the terrible struggle +for the means of existence,--the savage struggle which undermines the +finest qualities in man, and ever widens the social abyss. In short, +Anarchism strives towards a social organization which will establish +well-being for all. + +"The germ of such an organization can be found in that form of trades +unionism which has done away with centralization, bureaucracy, and +discipline, and which favors independent and direct action on the +part of its members." + + +The very considerable progress of Anarchist ideas in America can best +be gauged by the remarkable success of the three extensive lecture +tours of Emma Goldman since the Amsterdam Congress of 1907. Each +tour extended over new territory, including localities where +Anarchism had never before received a hearing. But the most +gratifying aspect of her untiring efforts is the tremendous sale of +Anarchist literature, whose propagandist effect cannot be estimated. +It was during one of these tours that a remarkable incident happened, +strikingly demonstrating the inspiring potentialities of the +Anarchist idea. In San Francisco, in 1908, Emma Goldman's lecture +attracted a soldier of the United States Army, William Buwalda. For +daring to attend an Anarchist meeting, the free Republic +court-martialed Buwalda and imprisoned him for one year. Thanks to +the regenerating power of the new philosophy, the government lost a +soldier, but the cause of liberty gained a man. + + +A propagandist of Emma Goldman's importance is necessarily a sharp +thorn to the reaction. She is looked upon as a danger to the +continued existence of authoritarian usurpation. No wonder, then, +that the enemy resorts to any and all means to make her impossible. +A systematic attempt to suppress her activities was organized a year +ago by the united police force of the country. But like all previous +similar attempts, it failed in a most brilliant manner. Energetic +protests on the part of the intellectual element of America succeeded +in overthrowing the dastardly conspiracy against free speech. +Another attempt to make Emma Goldman impossible was essayed by the +Federal authorities at Washington. In order to deprive her of the +rights of citizenship, the government revoked the citizenship papers +of her husband, whom she had married at the youthful age of eighteen, +and whose whereabouts, if he be alive, could not be determined for +the last two decades. The great government of the glorious United +States did not hesitate to stoop to the most despicable methods to +accomplish that achievement. But as her citizenship had never proved +of use to Emma Goldman, she can bear the loss with a light heart. + + +There are personalities who possess such a powerful individuality +that by its very force they exert the most potent influence over the +best representatives of their time. Michael Bakunin was such a +personality. But for him, Richard Wagner had never written DIE KUNST +UND DIE REVOLUTION. Emma Goldman is a similar personality. She is a +strong factor in the socio-political life of America. By virtue of +her eloquence, energy, and brilliant mentality, she moulds the minds +and hearts of thousands of her auditors. + +Deep sympathy and compassion for suffering humanity, and an +inexorable honesty toward herself, are the leading traits of Emma +Goldman. No person, whether friend or foe, shall presume to control +her goal or dictate her mode of life. She would perish rather than +sacrifice her convictions, or the right of self-ownership of soul and +body. Respectability could easily forgive the teaching of theoretic +Anarchism; but Emma Goldman does not merely preach the new +philosophy; she also persists in living it,--and that is the one +supreme, unforgivable crime. Were she, like so many radicals, to +consider her ideal as merely an intellectual ornament; were she to +make concessions to existing society and compromise with old +prejudices,--then even the most radical views could be pardoned in +her. But that she takes her radicalism seriously; that it has +permeated her blood and marrow to the extent where she not merely +teaches but also practices her convictions--this shocks even the +radical Mrs. Grundy. Emma Goldman lives her own life; she associates +with publicans--hence the indignation of the Pharisees and Sadducees. + +It is no mere coincidence that such divergent writers as Pietro Gori +and William Marion Reedy find similar traits in their +characterization of Emma Goldman. In a contribution to LA QUESTIONE +SOCIALE, Pietro Gori calls her a "moral power, a woman who, with the +vision of a sibyl, prophesies the coming of a new kingdom for the +oppressed; a woman who, with logic and deep earnestness, analyses the +ills of society, and portrays, with artist touch, the coming dawn of +humanity, founded on equality, brotherhood, and liberty." + +William Reedy sees in Emma Goldman the "daughter of the dream, her +gospel a vision which is the vision of every truly great-souled man +and woman who has ever lived." + +Cowards who fear the consequences of their deeds have coined the word +of philosophic Anarchism. Emma Goldman is too sincere, too defiant, +to seek safety behind such paltry pleas. She is an Anarchist, pure +and simple. She represents the idea of Anarchism as framed by Josiah +Warrn, Proudhon, Bakunin, Kropotkin, Tolstoy. Yet she also +understands the psychologic causes which induce a Caserio, a +Vaillant, a Bresci, a Berkman, or a Czolgosz to commit deeds of +violence. To the soldier in the social struggle it is a point of +honor to come in conflict with the powers of darkness and tyranny, +and Emma Goldman is proud to count among her best friends and +comrades men and women who bear the wounds and scars received in +battle. + +In the words of Voltairine de Cleyre, characterizing Emma Goldman +after the latter's imprisonment in 1893: The spirit that animates +Emma Goldman is the only one which will emancipate the slave from his +slavery, the tyrant from his tyranny--the spirit which is willing to +dare and suffer. + +HIPPOLYTE HAVEL. + +New York, December, 1910. + + + + +PREFACE + + +Some twenty-one years ago I heard the first great Anarchist +speaker--the inimitable John Most. It seemed to me then, and for +many years after, that the spoken word hurled forth among the masses +with such wonderful eloquence, such enthusiasm and fire, could never +be erased from the human mind and soul. How could any one of all the +multitudes who flocked to Most's meetings escape his prophetic voice! +Surely they had but to hear him to throw off their old beliefs, and +see the truth and beauty of Anarchism! + +My one great longing then was to be able to speak with the tongue of +John Most,--that I, too, might thus reach the masses. Oh, for the +naivety of Youth's enthusiasm! It is the time when the hardest thing +seems but child's play. It is the only period in life worth while. +Alas! This period is but of short duration. Like Spring, the STURM +UND DRANG period of the propagandist brings forth growth, frail and +delicate, to be matured or killed according to its powers of +resistance against a thousand vicissitudes. + +My great faith in the wonder worker, the spoken word, is no more. I +have realized its inadequacy to awaken thought, or even emotion. +Gradually, and with no small struggle against this realization, I +came to see that oral propaganda is at best but a means of shaking +people from their lethargy: it leaves no lasting impression. The +very fact that most people attend meetings only if aroused by +newspaper sensations, or because they expect to be amused, is proof +that they really have no inner urge to learn. + +It is altogether different with the written mode of human expression. +No one, unless intensely interested in progressive ideas, will bother +with serious books. That leads me to another discovery made after +many years of public activity. It is this: All claims of education +notwithstanding, the pupil will accept only that which his mind +craves. Already this truth is recognized by most modern educators in +relation to the immature mind. I think it is equally true regarding +the adult. Anarchists or revolutionists can no more be made than +musicians. All that can be done is to plant the seeds of thought. +Whether something vital will develop depends largely on the fertility +of the human soil, though the quality of the intellectual seed must +not be overlooked. + +In meetings the audience is distracted by a thousand non-essentials. +The speaker, though ever so eloquent, cannot escape the restlessness +of the crowd, with the inevitable result that he will fail to strike +root. In all probability he will not even do justice to himself. + +The relation between the writer and the reader is more intimate. +True, books are only what we want them to be; rather, what we read +into them. That we can do so demonstrates the importance of written +as against oral expression. It is this certainty which has induced +me to gather in one volume my ideas on various topics of individual +and social importance. They represent the mental and soul struggles +of twenty-one years,--the conclusions derived after many changes and +inner revisions. + +I am not sanguine enough to hope that my readers will be as numerous +as those who have heard me. But I prefer to reach the few who really +want to learn, rather than the many who come to be amused. + +As to the book, it must speak for itself. Explanatory remarks do but +detract from the ideas set forth. However, I wish to forestall two +objections which will undoubtedly be raised. One is in reference to +the essay on ANARCHISM; the other, on MINORITIES VERSUS MAJORITIES. + +"Why do you not say how things will be operated under Anarchism?" is +a question I have had to meet thousands of times. Because I believe +that Anarchism can not consistently impose an iron-clad program or +method on the future. The things every new generation has to fight, +and which it can least overcome, are the burdens of the past, which +holds us all as in a net. Anarchism, at least as I understand it, +leaves posterity free to develop its own particular systems, in +harmony with its needs. Our most vivid imagination can not foresee +the potentialities of a race set free from external restraints. +How, then, can any one assume to map out a line of conduct for those +to come? We, who pay dearly for every breath of pure, fresh air, +must guard against the tendency to fetter the future. If we succeed +in clearing the soil from the rubbish of the past and present, we +will leave to posterity the greatest and safest heritage of all ages. + +The most disheartening tendency common among readers is to tear out +one sentence from a work, as a criterion of the writer's ideas or +personality. Friedrich Nietzsche, for instance, is decried as a +hater of the weak because he believed in the UEBERMENSCH. It does +not occur to the shallow interpreters of that giant mind that this +vision of the UEBERMENSCH also called for a state of society which +will not give birth to a race of weaklings and slaves. + +It is the same narrow attitude which sees in Max Stirner naught but +the apostle of the theory "each for himself, the devil take the hind +one." That Stirner's individualism contains the greatest social +possibilities is utterly ignored. Yet, it is nevertheless true that +if society is ever to become free, it will be so through liberated +individuals, whose free efforts make society. + +These examples bring me to the objection that will be raised to +MINORITIES VERSUS MAJORITIES. No doubt, I shall be excommunicated as +an enemy of the people, because I repudiate the mass as a creative +factor. I shall prefer that rather than be guilty of the demagogic +platitudes so commonly in vogue as a bait for the people. I realize +the malady of the oppressed and disinherited masses only too well, +but I refuse to prescribe the usual ridiculous palliatives which +allow the patient neither to die nor to recover. One cannot be too +extreme in dealing with social ills; besides, the extreme thing is +generally the true thing. My lack of faith in the majority is +dictated by my faith in the potentialities of the individual. Only +when the latter becomes free to choose his associates for a common +purpose, can we hope for order and harmony out of this world of chaos +and inequality. + +For the rest, my book must speak for itself. + +Emma Goldman + + + + +ANARCHISM: WHAT IT REALLY STANDS FOR + + + ANARCHY. + + Ever reviled, accursed, ne'er understood, + Thou art the grisly terror of our age. + "Wreck of all order," cry the multitude, + "Art thou, and war and murder's endless rage." + O, let them cry. To them that ne'er have striven + The truth that lies behind a word to find, + To them the word's right meaning was not given. + They shall continue blind among the blind. + But thou, O word, so clear, so strong, so pure, + Thou sayest all which I for goal have taken. + I give thee to the future! Thine secure + When each at least unto himself shall waken. + Comes it in sunshine? In the tempest's thrill? + I cannot tell--but it the earth shall see! + I am an Anarchist! Wherefore I will + Not rule, and also ruled I will not be! + JOHN HENRY MACKAY. + + +The history of human growth and development is at the same time the +history of the terrible struggle of every new idea heralding the +approach of a brighter dawn. In its tenacious hold on tradition, the +Old has never hesitated to make use of the foulest and cruelest means +to stay the advent of the New, in whatever form or period the latter +may have asserted itself. Nor need we retrace our steps into the +distant past to realize the enormity of opposition, difficulties, and +hardships placed in the path of every progressive idea. The rack, +the thumbscrew, and the knout are still with us; so are the convict's +garb and the social wrath, all conspiring against the spirit that is +serenely marching on. + +Anarchism could not hope to escape the fate of all other ideas of +innovation. Indeed, as the most revolutionary and uncompromising +innovator, Anarchism must needs meet with the combined ignorance and +venom of the world it aims to reconstruct. + +To deal even remotely with all that is being said and done against +Anarchism would necessitate the writing of a whole volume. I shall +therefore meet only two of the principal objections. In so doing, I +shall attempt to elucidate what Anarchism really stands for. + +The strange phenomenon of the opposition to Anarchism is that it +brings to light the relation between so-called intelligence and +ignorance. And yet this is not so very strange when we consider the +relativity of all things. The ignorant mass has in its favor that it +makes no pretense of knowledge or tolerance. Acting, as it always +does, by mere impulse, its reasons are like those of a child. +"Why?" "Because." Yet the opposition of the uneducated to Anarchism +deserves the same consideration as that of the intelligent man. + +What, then, are the objections? First, Anarchism is impractical, +though a beautiful ideal. Second, Anarchism stands for violence and +destruction, hence it must be repudiated as vile and dangerous. +Both the intelligent man and the ignorant mass judge not from a +thorough knowledge of the subject, but either from hearsay or false +interpretation. + +A practical scheme, says Oscar Wilde, is either one already in +existence, or a scheme that could be carried out under the existing +conditions; but it is exactly the existing conditions that one +objects to, and any scheme that could accept these conditions is +wrong and foolish. The true criterion of the practical, therefore, +is not whether the latter can keep intact the wrong or foolish; +rather is it whether the scheme has vitality enough to leave the +stagnant waters of the old, and build, as well as sustain, new life. +In the light of this conception, Anarchism is indeed practical. +More than any other idea, it is helping to do away with the wrong and +foolish; more than any other idea, it is building and sustaining new +life. + +The emotions of the ignorant man are continuously kept at a pitch by +the most blood-curdling stories about Anarchism. Not a thing too +outrageous to be employed against this philosophy and its exponents. +Therefore Anarchism represents to the unthinking what the proverbial +bad man does to the child,--a black monster bent on swallowing +everything; in short, destruction and violence. + +Destruction and violence! How is the ordinary man to know that the +most violent element in society is ignorance; that its power of +destruction is the very thing Anarchism is combating? Nor is he +aware that Anarchism, whose roots, as it were, are part of nature's +forces, destroys, not healthful tissue, but parasitic growths that +feed on the life's essence of society. It is merely clearing the +soil from weeds and sagebrush, that it may eventually bear healthy +fruit. + +Someone has said that it requires less mental effort to condemn than +to think. The widespread mental indolence, so prevalent in society, +proves this to be only too true. Rather than to go to the bottom of +any given idea, to examine into its origin and meaning, most people +will either condemn it altogether, or rely on some superficial or +prejudicial definition of non-essentials. + +Anarchism urges man to think, to investigate, to analyze every +proposition; but that the brain capacity of the average reader be not +taxed too much, I also shall begin with a definition, and then +elaborate on the latter. + + ANARCHISM:--The philosophy of a new social order based on + liberty unrestricted by man-made law; the theory that all + forms of government rest on violence, and are therefore wrong + and harmful, as well as unnecessary. + +The new social order rests, of course, on the materialistic basis of +life; but while all Anarchists agree that the main evil today is an +economic one, they maintain that the solution of that evil can be +brought about only through the consideration of EVERY PHASE of +life,--individual, as well as the collective; the internal, as well +as the external phases. + +A thorough perusal of the history of human development will disclose +two elements in bitter conflict with each other; elements that are +only now beginning to be understood, not as foreign to each other, +but as closely related and truly harmonious, if only placed in proper +environment: the individual and social instincts. The individual and +society have waged a relentless and bloody battle for ages, each +striving for supremacy, because each was blind to the value and +importance of the other. The individual and social instincts,--the +one a most potent factor for individual endeavor, for growth, +aspiration, self-realization; the other an equally potent factor for +mutual helpfulness and social well-being. + +The explanation of the storm raging within the individual, and +between him and his surroundings, is not far to seek. The primitive +man, unable to understand his being, much less the unity of all life, +felt himself absolutely dependent on blind, hidden forces ever ready +to mock and taunt him. Out of that attitude grew the religious +concepts of man as a mere speck of dust dependent on superior powers +on high, who can only be appeased by complete surrender. All the +early sagas rest on that idea, which continues to be the LEIT-MOTIF +of the biblical tales dealing with the relation of man to God, to the +State, to society. Again and again the same motif, MAN IS NOTHING, +THE POWERS ARE EVERYTHING. Thus Jehovah would only endure man on +condition of complete surrender. Man can have all the glories of the +earth, but he must not become conscious of himself. The State, +society, and moral laws all sing the same refrain: Man can have all +the glories of the earth, but he must not become conscious of +himself. + +Anarchism is the only philosophy which brings to man the +consciousness of himself; which maintains that God, the State, and +society are non-existent, that their promises are null and void, +since they can be fulfilled only through man's subordination. +Anarchism is therefore the teacher of the unity of life; not merely +in nature, but in man. There is no conflict between the individual +and the social instincts, any more than there is between the heart +and the lungs: the one the receptacle of a precious life essence, the +other the repository of the element that keeps the essence pure and +strong. The individual is the heart of society, conserving the +essence of social life; society is the lungs which are distributing +the element to keep the life essence--that is, the individual--pure +and strong. + +"The one thing of value in the world," says Emerson, "is the active +soul; this every man contains within him. The soul active sees +absolute truth and utters truth and creates." In other words, the +individual instinct is the thing of value in the world. It is the +true soul that sees and creates the truth alive, out of which is to +come a still greater truth, the re-born social soul. + +Anarchism is the great liberator of man from the phantoms that have +held him captive; it is the arbiter and pacifier of the two forces +for individual and social harmony. To accomplish that unity, +Anarchism has declared war on the pernicious influences which have so +far prevented the harmonious blending of individual and social +instincts, the individual and society. + +Religion, the dominion of the human mind; Property, the dominion of +human needs; and Government, the dominion of human conduct, represent +the stronghold of man's enslavement and all the horrors it entails. +Religion! How it dominates man's mind, how it humiliates and degrades +his soul. God is everything, man is nothing, says religion. But out +of that nothing God has created a kingdom so despotic, so tyrannical, +so cruel, so terribly exacting that naught but gloom and tears and +blood have ruled the world since gods began. Anarchism rouses man to +rebellion against this black monster. Break your mental fetters, says +Anarchism to man, for not until you think and judge for yourself will +you get rid of the dominion of darkness, the greatest obstacle to all +progress. + +Property, the dominion of man's needs, the denial of the right to +satisfy his needs. Time was when property claimed a divine right, +when it came to man with the same refrain, even as religion, +"Sacrifice! Abnegate! Submit!" The spirit of Anarchism has lifted +man from his prostrate position. He now stands erect, with his face +toward the light. He has learned to see the insatiable, devouring, +devastating nature of property, and he is preparing to strike the +monster dead. + +"Property is robbery," said the great French Anarchist, Proudhon. +Yes, but without risk and danger to the robber. Monopolizing the +accumulated efforts of man, property has robbed him of his +birthright, and has turned him loose a pauper and an outcast. +Property has not even the time-worn excuse that man does not create +enough to satisfy all needs. The A B C student of economics knows +that the productivity of labor within the last few decades far +exceeds normal demand a hundredfold. But what are normal demands to +an abnormal institution? The only demand that property recognizes is +its own gluttonous appetite for greater wealth, because wealth means +power; the power to subdue, to crush, to exploit, the power to +enslave, to outrage, to degrade. America is particularly boastful of +her great power, her enormous national wealth. Poor America, of what +avail is all her wealth, if the individuals comprising the nation are +wretchedly poor? If they live in squalor, in filth, in crime, with +hope and joy gone, a homeless, soilless army of human prey. + +It is generally conceded that unless the returns of any business +venture exceed the cost, bankruptcy is inevitable. But those engaged +in the business of producing wealth have not yet learned even this +simple lesson. Every year the cost of production in human life is +growing larger (50,000 killed, 100,000 wounded in America last year); +the returns to the masses, who help to create wealth, are ever +getting smaller. Yet America continues to be blind to the inevitable +bankruptcy of our business of production. Nor is this the only crime +of the latter. Still more fatal is the crime of turning the producer +into a mere particle of a machine, with less will and decision than +his master of steel and iron. Man is being robbed not merely of the +products of his labor, but of the power of free initiative, of +originality, and the interest in, or desire for, the things he is +making. + +Real wealth consists in things of utility and beauty, in things that +help to create strong, beautiful bodies and surroundings inspiring to +live in. But if man is doomed to wind cotton around a spool, or dig +coal, or build roads for thirty years of his life, there can be no +talk of wealth. What he gives to the world is only gray and hideous +things, reflecting a dull and hideous existence,--too weak to live, +too cowardly to die. Strange to say, there are people who extol this +deadening method of centralized production as the proudest +achievement of our age. They fail utterly to realize that if we are +to continue in machine subserviency, our slavery is more complete +than was our bondage to the King. They do not want to know that +centralization is not only the death-knell of liberty, but also of +health and beauty, of art and science, all these being impossible in +a clock-like, mechanical atmosphere. + +Anarchism cannot but repudiate such a method of production: its goal +is the freest possible expression of all the latent powers of the +individual. Oscar Wilde defines a perfect personality as "one who +develops under perfect conditions, who is not wounded, maimed, or in +danger." A perfect personality, then, is only possible in a state of +society where man is free to choose the mode of work, the conditions +of work, and the freedom to work. One to whom the making of a table, +the building of a house, or the tilling of the soil, is what the +painting is to the artist and the discovery to the scientist,--the +result of inspiration, of intense longing, and deep interest in work +as a creative force. That being the ideal of Anarchism, its economic +arrangements must consist of voluntary productive and distributive +associations, gradually developing into free communism, as the best +means of producing with the least waste of human energy. Anarchism, +however, also recognizes the right of the individual, or numbers of +individuals, to arrange at all times for other forms of work, in +harmony with their tastes and desires. + +Such free display of human energy being possible only under complete +individual and social freedom, Anarchism directs its forces against +the third and greatest foe of all social equality; namely, the State, +organized authority, or statutory law,--the dominion of human +conduct. + +Just as religion has fettered the human mind, and as property, or the +monopoly of things, has subdued and stifled man's needs, so has the +State enslaved his spirit, dictating every phase of conduct. "All +government in essence," says Emerson, "is tyranny." It matters not +whether it is government by divine right or majority rule. In every +instance its aim is the absolute subordination of the individual. + +Referring to the American government, the greatest American +Anarchist, David Thoreau, said: "Government, what is it but a +tradition, though a recent one, endeavoring to transmit itself +unimpaired to posterity, but each instance losing its integrity; it +has not the vitality and force of a single living man. Law never +made man a whit more just; and by means of their respect for it, even +the well disposed are daily made agents of injustice." + +Indeed, the keynote of government is injustice. With the arrogance +and self-sufficiency of the King who could do no wrong, governments +ordain, judge, condemn, and punish the most insignificant offenses, +while maintaining themselves by the greatest of all offenses, the +annihilation of individual liberty. Thus Ouida is right when she +maintains that "the State only aims at instilling those qualities in +its public by which its demands are obeyed, and its exchequer is +filled. Its highest attainment is the reduction of mankind to +clockwork. In its atmosphere all those finer and more delicate +liberties, which require treatment and spacious expansion, inevitably +dry up and perish. The State requires a taxpaying machine in which +there is no hitch, an exchequer in which there is never a deficit, +and a public, monotonous, obedient, colorless, spiritless, moving +humbly like a flock of sheep along a straight high road between two +walls." + +Yet even a flock of sheep would resist the chicanery of the State, if +it were not for the corruptive, tyrannical, and oppressive methods it +employs to serve its purposes. Therefore Bakunin repudiates the +State as synonymous with the surrender of the liberty of the +individual or small minorities,--the destruction of social +relationship, the curtailment, or complete denial even, of life +itself, for its own aggrandizement. The State is the altar of +political freedom and, like the religious altar, it is maintained for +the purpose of human sacrifice. + +In fact, there is hardly a modern thinker who does not agree that +government, organized authority, or the State, is necessary ONLY to +maintain or protect property and monopoly. It has proven efficient +in that function only. + +Even George Bernard Shaw, who hopes for the miraculous from the State +under Fabianism, nevertheless admits that "it is at present a huge +machine for robbing and slave-driving of the poor by brute force." +This being the case, it is hard to see why the clever prefacer wishes +to uphold the State after poverty shall have ceased to exist. + +Unfortunately there are still a number of people who continue in the +fatal belief that government rests on natural laws, that it maintains +social order and harmony, that it diminishes crime, and that it +prevents the lazy man from fleecing his fellows. I shall therefore +examine these contentions. + +A natural law is that factor in man which asserts itself freely and +spontaneously without any external force, in harmony with the +requirements of nature. For instance, the demand for nutrition, for +sex gratification, for light, air, and exercise, is a natural law. +But its expression needs not the machinery of government, needs not +the club, the gun, the handcuff, or the prison. To obey such laws, +if we may call it obedience, requires only spontaneity and free +opportunity. That governments do not maintain themselves through +such harmonious factors is proven by the terrible array of violence, +force, and coercion all governments use in order to live. Thus +Blackstone is right when he says, "Human laws are invalid, because +they are contrary to the laws of nature." + +Unless it be the order of Warsaw after the slaughter of thousands of +people, it is difficult to ascribe to governments any capacity for +order or social harmony. Order derived through submission and +maintained by terror is not much of a safe guaranty; yet that is the +only "order" that governments have ever maintained. True social +harmony grows naturally out of solidarity of interests. In a society +where those who always work never have anything, while those who +never work enjoy everything, solidarity of interests is non-existent; +hence social harmony is but a myth. The only way organized authority +meets this grave situation is by extending still greater privileges +to those who have already monopolized the earth, and by still further +enslaving the disinherited masses. Thus the entire arsenal of +government--laws, police, soldiers, the courts, legislatures, +prisons,--is strenuously engaged in "harmonizing" the most +antagonistic elements in society. + +The most absurd apology for authority and law is that they serve to +diminish crime. Aside from the fact that the State is itself the +greatest criminal, breaking every written and natural law, stealing +in the form of taxes, killing in the form of war and capital +punishment, it has come to an absolute standstill in coping with +crime. It has failed utterly to destroy or even minimize the +horrible scourge of its own creation. + +Crime is naught but misdirected energy. So long as every institution +of today, economic, political, social, and moral, conspires to +misdirect human energy into wrong channels; so long as most people +are out of place doing the things they hate to do, living a life they +loathe to live, crime will be inevitable, and all the laws on the +statutes can only increase, but never do away with, crime. What does +society, as it exists today, know of the process of despair, the +poverty, the horrors, the fearful struggle the human soul must pass +on its way to crime and degradation. Who that knows this terrible +process can fail to see the truth in these words of Peter Kropotkin: + +"Those who will hold the balance between the benefits thus attributed +to law and punishment and the degrading effect of the latter on +humanity; those who will estimate the torrent of depravity poured +abroad in human society by the informer, favored by the Judge even, +and paid for in clinking cash by governments, under the pretext of +aiding to unmask crime; those who will go within prison walls and +there see what human beings become when deprived of liberty, when +subjected to the care of brutal keepers, to coarse, cruel words, to a +thousand stinging, piercing humiliations, will agree with us that the +entire apparatus of prison and punishment is an abomination which +ought to be brought to an end." + +The deterrent influence of law on the lazy man is too absurd to merit +consideration. If society were only relieved of the waste and +expense of keeping a lazy class, and the equally great expense of the +paraphernalia of protection this lazy class requires, the social +tables would contain an abundance for all, including even the +occasional lazy individual. Besides, it is well to consider that +laziness results either from special privileges, or physical and +mental abnormalities. Our present insane system of production +fosters both, and the most astounding phenomenon is that people +should want to work at all now. Anarchism aims to strip labor of its +deadening, dulling aspect, of its gloom and compulsion. It aims to +make work an instrument of joy, of strength, of color, of real +harmony, so that the poorest sort of a man should find in work both +recreation and hope. + +To achieve such an arrangement of life, government, with its unjust, +arbitrary, repressive measures, must be done away with. At best it +has but imposed one single mode of life upon all, without regard to +individual and social variations and needs. In destroying government +and statutory laws, Anarchism proposes to rescue the self-respect and +independence of the individual from all restraint and invasion by +authority. Only in freedom can man grow to his full stature. Only +in freedom will he learn to think and move, and give the very best in +him. Only in freedom will he realize the true force of the social +bonds which knit men together, and which are the true foundation of a +normal social life. + +But what about human nature? Can it be changed? And if not, will it +endure under Anarchism? + +Poor human nature, what horrible crimes have been committed in thy +name! Every fool, from king to policeman, from the flatheaded parson +to the visionless dabbler in science, presumes to speak +authoritatively of human nature. The greater the mental charlatan, +the more definite his insistence on the wickedness and weaknesses of +human nature. Yet, how can any one speak of it today, with every +soul in a prison, with every heart fettered, wounded, and maimed? + +John Burroughs has stated that experimental study of animals in +captivity is absolutely useless. Their character, their habits, +their appetites undergo a complete transformation when torn from +their soil in field and forest. With human nature caged in a narrow +space, whipped daily into submission, how can we speak of its +potentialities? + +Freedom, expansion, opportunity, and, above all, peace and repose, +alone can teach us the real dominant factors of human nature and all +its wonderful possibilities. + +Anarchism, then, really stands for the liberation of the human mind +from the dominion of religion; the liberation of the human body from +the dominion of property; liberation from the shackles and restraint +of government. Anarchism stands for a social order based on the free +grouping of individuals for the purpose of producing real social +wealth; an order that will guarantee to every human being free access +to the earth and full enjoyment of the necessities of life, according +to individual desires, tastes, and inclinations. + +This is not a wild fancy or an aberration of the mind. It is the +conclusion arrived at by hosts of intellectual men and women the +world over; a conclusion resulting from the close and studious +observation of the tendencies of modern society: individual liberty +and economic equality, the twin forces for the birth of what is fine +and true in man. + +As to methods. Anarchism is not, as some may suppose, a theory of +the future to be realized through divine inspiration. It is a living +force in the affairs of our life, constantly creating new conditions. +The methods of Anarchism therefore do not comprise an iron-clad +program to be carried out under all circumstances. Methods must grow +out of the economic needs of each place and clime, and of the +intellectual and temperamental requirements of the individual. The +serene, calm character of a Tolstoy will wish different methods for +social reconstruction than the intense, overflowing personality of a +Michael Bakunin or a Peter Kropotkin. Equally so it must be apparent +that the economic and political needs of Russia will dictate more +drastic measures than would England or America. Anarchism does not +stand for military drill and uniformity; it does, however, stand for +the spirit of revolt, in whatever form, against everything that +hinders human growth. All Anarchists agree in that, as they also +agree in their opposition to the political machinery as a means of +bringing about the great social change. + +"All voting," says Thoreau, "is a sort of gaming, like checkers, or +backgammon, a playing with right and wrong; its obligation never +exceeds that of expediency. Even voting for the right thing is doing +nothing for it. A wise man will not leave the right to the mercy of +chance, nor wish it to prevail through the power of the majority." +A close examination of the machinery of politics and its achievements +will bear out the logic of Thoreau. + +What does the history of parliamentarism show? Nothing but failure +and defeat, not even a single reform to ameliorate the economic and +social stress of the people. Laws have been passed and enactments +made for the improvement and protection of labor. Thus it was proven +only last year that Illinois, with the most rigid laws for mine +protection, had the greatest mine disasters. In States where child +labor laws prevail, child exploitation is at its highest, and though +with us the workers enjoy full political opportunities, capitalism +has reached the most brazen zenith. + +Even were the workers able to have their own representatives, for +which our good Socialist politicians are clamoring, what chances are +there for their honesty and good faith? One has but to bear in mind +the process of politics to realize that its path of good intentions +is full of pitfalls: wire-pulling, intriguing, flattering, lying, +cheating; in fact, chicanery of every description, whereby the +political aspirant can achieve success. Added to that is a complete +demoralization of character and conviction, until nothing is left +that would make one hope for anything from such a human derelict. +Time and time again the people were foolish enough to trust, believe, +and support with their last farthing aspiring politicians, only to +find themselves betrayed and cheated. + +It may be claimed that men of integrity would not become corrupt in +the political grinding mill. Perhaps not; but such men would be +absolutely helpless to exert the slightest influence in behalf of +labor, as indeed has been shown in numerous instances. The State is +the economic master of its servants. Good men, if such there be, +would either remain true to their political faith and lose their +economic support, or they would cling to their economic master and be +utterly unable to do the slightest good. The political arena leaves +one no alternative, one must either be a dunce or a rogue. + +The political superstition is still holding sway over the hearts and +minds of the masses, but the true lovers of liberty will have no more +to do with it. Instead, they believe with Stirner that man has as +much liberty as he is willing to take. Anarchism therefore stands +for direct action, the open defiance of, and resistance to, all laws +and restrictions, economic, social, and moral. But defiance and +resistance are illegal. Therein lies the salvation of man. +Everything illegal necessitates integrity, self-reliance, and +courage. In short, it calls for free, independent spirits, for "men +who are men, and who have a bone in their backs which you cannot pass +your hand through." + +Universal suffrage itself owes its existence to direct action. If +not for the spirit of rebellion, of the defiance on the part of the +American revolutionary fathers, their posterity would still wear the +King's coat. If not for the direct action of a John Brown and his +comrades, America would still trade in the flesh of the black man. +True, the trade in white flesh is still going on; but that, too, will +have to be abolished by direct action. Trade-unionism, the economic +arena of the modern gladiator, owes its existence to direct action. +It is but recently that law and government have attempted to crush +the trade-union movement, and condemned the exponents of man's right +to organize to prison as conspirators. Had they sought to assert +their cause through begging, pleading, and compromise, trade-unionism +would today be a negligible quantity. In France, in Spain, in Italy, +in Russia, nay even in England (witness the growing rebellion of +English labor unions) direct, revolutionary, economic action has +become so strong a force in the battle for industrial liberty as to +make the world realize the tremendous importance of labor's power. +The General Strike, the supreme expression of the economic +consciousness of the workers, was ridiculed in America but a short +time ago. Today every great strike, in order to win, must realize +the importance of the solidaric general protest. + +Direct action, having proven effective along economic lines, is +equally potent in the environment of the individual. There a hundred +forces encroach upon his being, and only persistent resistance to +them will finally set him free. Direct action against the authority +in the shop, direct action against the authority of the law, direct +action against the invasive, meddlesome authority of our moral code, +is the logical, consistent method of Anarchism. + +Will it not lead to a revolution? Indeed, it will. No real social +change has ever come about without a revolution. People are either +not familiar with their history, or they have not yet learned that +revolution is but thought carried into action. + +Anarchism, the great leaven of thought, is today permeating every +phase of human endeavor. Science, art, literature, the drama, the +effort for economic betterment, in fact every individual and social +opposition to the existing disorder of things, is illumined by the +spiritual light of Anarchism. It is the philosophy of the +sovereignty of the individual. It is the theory of social harmony. +It is the great, surging, living truth that is reconstructing the +world, and that will usher in the Dawn. + + + + +MINORITIES VERSUS MAJORITIES + + +If I were to give a summary of the tendency of our times, I would +say, Quantity. The multitude, the mass spirit, dominates everywhere, +destroying quality. Our entire life--production, politics, and +education--rests on quantity, on numbers. The worker who once took +pride in the thoroughness and quality of his work, has been replaced +by brainless, incompetent automatons, who turn out enormous +quantities of things, valueless to themselves, and generally +injurious to the rest of mankind. Thus quantity, instead of adding +to life's comforts and peace, has merely increased man's burden. + +In politics, naught but quantity counts. In proportion to its +increase, however, principles, ideals, justice, and uprightness are +completely swamped by the array of numbers. In the struggle for +supremacy the various political parties outdo each other in trickery, +deceit, cunning, and shady machinations, confident that the one who +succeeds is sure to be hailed by the majority as the victor. That is +the only god,--Success. As to what expense, what terrible cost to +character, is of no moment. We have not far to go in search of proof +to verify this sad fact. + +Never before did the corruption, the complete rottenness of our +government stand so thoroughly exposed; never before were the +American people brought face to face with the Judas nature of that +political body, which has claimed for years to be absolutely beyond +reproach, as the mainstay of our institutions, the true protector of +the rights and liberties of the people. + +Yet when the crimes of that party became so brazen that even the +blind could see them, it needed but to muster up its minions, and its +supremacy was assured. Thus the very victims, duped, betrayed, +outraged a hundred times, decided, not against, but in favor of the +victor. Bewildered, the few asked how could the majority betray the +traditions of American liberty? Where was its judgment, its +reasoning capacity? That is just it, the majority cannot reason; it +has no judgment. Lacking utterly in originality and moral courage, +the majority has always placed its destiny in the hands of others. +Incapable of standing responsibilities, it has followed its leaders +even unto destruction. Dr. Stockman was right: "The most dangerous +enemies of truth and justice in our midst are the compact majorities, +the damned compact majority." Without ambition or initiative, the +compact mass hates nothing so much as innovation. It has always +opposed, condemned, and hounded the innovator, the pioneer of a new +truth. + +The oft repeated slogan of our time is, among all politicians, the +Socialists included, that ours is an era of individualism, of the +minority. Only those who do not probe beneath the surface might be +led to entertain this view. Have not the few accumulated the wealth +of the world? Are they not the masters, the absolute kings of the +situation? Their success, however, is due not to individualism, but +to the inertia, the cravenness, the utter submission of the mass. +The latter wants but to be dominated, to be led, to be coerced. As +to individualism, at no time in human history did it have less chance +of expression, less opportunity to assert itself in a normal, healthy +manner. + +The individual educator imbued with honesty of purpose, the artist or +writer of original ideas, the independent scientist or explorer, the +non-compromising pioneers of social changes are daily pushed to the +wall by men whose learning and creative ability have become decrepit +with age. + +Educators of Ferrer's type are nowhere tolerated, while the +dietitians of predigested food, a la Professors Eliot and Butler, are +the successful perpetuators of an age of nonentities, of automatons. +In the literary and dramatic world, the Humphrey Wards and Clyde +Fitches are the idols of the mass, while but few know or appreciate +the beauty and genius of an Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman; an Ibsen, a +Hauptmann, a Butler Yeats, or a Stephen Phillips. They are like +solitary stars, far beyond the horizon of the multitude. + +Publishers, theatrical managers, and critics ask not for the quality +inherent in creative art, but will it meet with a good sale, will it +suit the palate of the people? Alas, this palate is like a dumping +ground; it relishes anything that needs no mental mastication. As a +result, the mediocre, the ordinary, the commonplace represents the +chief literary output. + +Need I say that in art we are confronted with the same sad facts? +One has but to inspect our parks and thoroughfares to realize the +hideousness and vulgarity of the art manufacture. Certainly, none +but a majority taste would tolerate such an outrage on art. False in +conception and barbarous in execution, the statuary that infests +American cities has as much relation to true art, as a totem to a +Michael Angelo. Yet that is the only art that succeeds. The true +artistic genius, who will not cater to accepted notions, who +exercises originality, and strives to be true to life, leads an +obscure and wretched existence. His work may some day become the fad +of the mob, but not until his heart's blood had been exhausted; not +until the pathfinder has ceased to be, and a throng of an idealless +and visionless mob has done to death the heritage of the master. + +It is said that the artist of today cannot create because +Prometheus-like he is bound to the rock of economic necessity. +This, however, is true of art in all ages. Michael Angelo was +dependent on his patron saint, no less than the sculptor or painter +of today, except that the art connoisseurs of those days were far +away from the madding crowd. They felt honored to be permitted to +worship at the shrine of the master. + +The art protector of our time knows but one criterion, one +value,--the dollar. He is not concerned about the quality of any +great work, but in the quantity of dollars his purchase implies. +Thus the financier in Mirbeau's LES AFFAIRES SONT LES AFFAIRES points +to some blurred arrangement in colors, saying "See how great it is; +it cost 50,000 francs." Just like our own parvenues. The fabulous +figures paid for their great art discoveries must make up for the +poverty of their taste. + +The most unpardonable sin in society is independence of thought. +That this should be so terribly apparent in a country whose symbol is +democracy, is very significant of the tremendous power of the +majority. + +Wendell Phillips said fifty years ago: "In our country of absolute +democratic equality, public opinion is not only omnipotent, it is +omnipresent. There is no refuge from its tyranny, there is no hiding +from its reach, and the result is that if you take the old Greek +lantern and go about to seek among a hundred, you will not find a +single American who has not, or who does not fancy at least he has, +something to gain or lose in his ambition, his social life, or +business, from the good opinion and the votes of those around him. +And the consequence is that instead of being a mass of individuals, +each one fearlessly blurting out his own conviction, as a nation +compared to other nations we are a mass of cowards. More than any +other people we are afraid of each other." Evidently we have not +advanced very far from the condition that confronted Wendell +Phillips. + +Today, as then, public opinion is the omnipresent tyrant; today, as +then, the majority represents a mass of cowards, willing to accept +him who mirrors its own soul and mind poverty. That accounts for the +unprecedented rise of a man like Roosevelt. He embodies the very +worst element of mob psychology. A politician, he knows that the +majority cares little for ideals or integrity. What it craves is +display. It matters not whether that be a dog show, a prize fight, +the lynching of a "nigger," the rounding up of some petty offender, +the marriage exposition of an heiress, or the acrobatic stunts of an +ex-president. The more hideous the mental contortions, the greater +the delight and bravos of the mass. Thus, poor in ideals and vulgar +of soul, Roosevelt continues to be the man of the hour. + +On the other hand, men towering high above such political pygmies, +men of refinement, of culture, of ability, are jeered into silence as +mollycoddles. It is absurd to claim that ours is the era of +individualism. Ours is merely a more poignant repetition of the +phenomenon of all history: every effort for progress, for +enlightenment, for science, for religious, political, and economic +liberty, emanates from the minority, and not from the mass. Today, +as ever, the few are misunderstood, hounded, imprisoned, tortured, +and killed. + +The principle of brotherhood expounded by the agitator of Nazareth +preserved the germ of life, of truth and justice, so long as it was +the beacon light of the few. The moment the majority seized upon it, +that great principle became a shibboleth and harbinger of blood and +fire, spreading suffering and disaster. The attack on the +omnipotence of Rome was like a sunrise amid the darkness of the +night, only so long as it was made by the colossal figures of a Huss, +a Calvin, or a Luther. Yet when the mass joined in the procession +against the Catholic monster, it was no less cruel, no less +bloodthirsty than its enemy. Woe to the heretics, to the minority, +who would not bow to its dicta. After infinite zeal, endurance, and +sacrifice, the human mind is at last free from the religious phantom; +the minority has gone on in pursuit of new conquests, and the +majority is lagging behind, handicapped by truth grown false with +age. + +Politically the human race would still be in the most absolute +slavery, were it not for the John Balls, the Wat Tylers, the Tells, +the innumerable individual giants who fought inch by inch against the +power of kings and tyrants. But for individual pioneers the world +would have never been shaken to its very roots by that tremendous +wave, the French Revolution. Great events are usually preceded by +apparently small things. Thus the eloquence and fire of Camille +Desmoulins was like the trumpet before Jericho, razing to the ground +that emblem of torture, of abuse, of horror, the Bastille. + +Always, at every period, the few were the banner bearers of a great +idea, of liberating effort. Not so the mass, the leaden weight of +which does not let it move. The truth of this is borne out in Russia +with greater force than elsewhere. Thousands of lives have already +been consumed by that bloody regime, yet the monster on the throne is +not appeased. How is such a thing possible when ideas, culture, +literature, when the deepest and finest emotions groan under the iron +yoke? The majority, that compact, immobile, drowsy mass, the Russian +peasant, after a century of struggle, of sacrifice, of untold misery, +still believes that the rope which strangles "the man with the white +hands"[1] brings luck. + +In the American struggle for liberty, the majority was no less of a +stumbling block. Until this very day the ideas of Jefferson, of +Patrick Henry, of Thomas Paine, are denied and sold by their +posterity. The mass wants none of them. The greatness and courage +worshipped in Lincoln have been forgotten in the men who created the +background for the panorama of that time. The true patron saints of +the black men were represented in that handful of fighters in Boston, +Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, and +Theodore Parker, whose great courage and sturdiness culminated in +that somber giant, John Brown. Their untiring zeal, their eloquence +and perseverance undermined the stronghold of the Southern lords. +Lincoln and his minions followed only when abolition had become a +practical issue, recognized as such by all. + +About fifty years ago, a meteor-like idea made its appearance on the +social horizon of the world, an idea so far-reaching, so +revolutionary, so all-embracing as to spread terror in the hearts of +tyrants everywhere. On the other hand, that idea was a harbinger of +joy, of cheer, of hope to the millions. The pioneers knew the +difficulties in their way, they knew the opposition, the persecution, +the hardships that would meet them, but proud and unafraid they +started on their march onward, ever onward. Now that idea has become +a popular slogan. Almost everyone is a Socialist today: the rich +man, as well as his poor victim; the upholders of law and authority, +as well as their unfortunate culprits; the freethinker, as well as +the perpetuator of religious falsehoods; the fashionable lady, as +well as the shirtwaist girl. Why not? Now that the truth of fifty +years ago has become a lie, now that it has been clipped of all its +youthful imagination, and been robbed of its vigor, its strength, its +revolutionary ideal--why not? Now that it is no longer a beautiful +vision, but a "practical, workable scheme," resting on the will of +the majority, why not? With the same political cunning and +shrewdness the mass is petted, pampered, cheated daily. Its praise +is being sung in many keys: the poor majority, the outraged, the +abused, the giant majority, if only it would follow us. + +Who has not heard this litany before? Who does not know this +never-varying refrain of all politicians? That the mass bleeds, that +it is being robbed and exploited, I know as well as our vote-baiters. +But I insist that not the handful of parasites, but the mass itself +is responsible for this horrible state of affairs. It clings to its +masters, loves the whip, and is the first to cry Crucify! the moment +a protesting voice is raised against the sacredness of capitalistic +authority or any other decayed institution. Yet how long would +authority and private property exist, if not for the willingness of +the mass to become soldiers, policemen, jailers, and hangmen. The +Socialist demagogues know that as well as I, but they maintain the +myth of the virtues of the majority, because their very scheme of +life means the perpetuation of power. And how could the latter be +acquired without numbers? Yes, power, authority, coercion, and +dependence rest on the mass, but never freedom, never the free +unfoldment of the individual, never the birth of a free society. + +Not because I do not feel with the oppressed, the disinherited of the +earth; not because I do not know the shame, the horror, the indignity +of the lives the people lead, do I repudiate the majority as a +creative force for good. Oh, no, no! But because I know so well +that as a compact mass it has never stood for justice or equality. +It has suppressed the human voice, subdued the human spirit, chained +the human body. As a mass its aim has always been to make life +uniform, gray, and monotonous as the desert. As a mass it will +always be the annihilator of individuality, of free initiative, of +originality. I therefore believe with Emerson that "the masses are +crude, lame, pernicious in their demands and influence, and need not +to be flattered, but to be schooled. I wish not to concede anything +to them, but to drill, divide, and break them up, and draw +individuals out of them. Masses! The calamity are the masses. I do +not wish any mass at all, but honest men only, lovely, sweet, +accomplished women only." + +In other words, the living, vital truth of social and economic +well-being will become a reality only through the zeal, courage, the +non-compromising determination of intelligent minorities, and not +through the mass. + + +[1] The intellectuals. + + + +THE PSYCHOLOGY OF POLITICAL VIOLENCE + + +To analyze the psychology of political violence is not only extremely +difficult, but also very dangerous. If such acts are treated with +understanding, one is immediately accused of eulogizing them. If, on +the other hand, human sympathy is expressed with the ATTENTATER,[1] one +risks being considered a possible accomplice. Yet it is only +intelligence and sympathy that can bring us closer to the source of +human suffering, and teach us the ultimate way out of it. + +The primitive man, ignorant of natural forces, dreaded their +approach, hiding from the perils they threatened. As man learned to +understand Nature's phenomena, he realized that though these may +destroy life and cause great loss, they also bring relief. To the +earnest student it must be apparent that the accumulated forces in +our social and economic life, culminating in a political act of +violence, are similar to the terrors of the atmosphere, manifested in +storm and lightning. + +To thoroughly appreciate the truth of this view, one must feel +intensely the indignity of our social wrongs; one's very being must +throb with the pain, the sorrow, the despair millions of people are +daily made to endure. Indeed, unless we have become a part of +humanity, we cannot even faintly understand the just indignation that +accumulates in a human soul, the burning, surging passion that makes +the storm inevitable. + +The ignorant mass looks upon the man who makes a violent protest +against our social and economic iniquities as upon a wild beast, a +cruel, heartless monster, whose joy it is to destroy life and bathe +in blood; or at best, as upon an irresponsible lunatic. Yet nothing +is further from the truth. As a matter of fact, those who have +studied the character and personality of these men, or who have come +in close contact with them, are agreed that it is their +super-sensitiveness to the wrong and injustice surrounding them which +compels them to pay the toll of our social crimes. The most noted +writers and poets, discussing the psychology of political offenders, +have paid them the highest tribute. Could anyone assume that these +men had advised violence, or even approved of the acts? Certainly +not. Theirs was the attitude of the social student, of the man who +knows that beyond every violent act there is a vital cause. + +Bjornstjerne Bjornson, in the second part of BEYOND HUMAN POWER, +emphasizes the fact that it is among the Anarchists that we must look +for the modern martyrs who pay for their faith with their blood, and +who welcome death with a smile, because they believe, as truly as +Christ did, that their martyrdom will redeem humanity. + +Francois Coppee, the French novelist, thus expresses himself +regarding the psychology of the ATTENTATER: + +"The reading of the details of Vaillant's execution left me in a +thoughtful mood. I imagined him expanding his chest under the ropes, +marching with firm step, stiffening his will, concentrating all his +energy, and, with eyes fixed upon the knife, hurling finally at +society his cry of malediction. And, in spite of me, another +spectacle rose suddenly before my mind. I saw a group of men and +women pressing against each other in the middle of the oblong arena +of the circus, under the gaze of thousands of eyes, while from all +the steps of the immense amphitheatre went up the terrible cry, AD +LEONES! and, below, the opening cages of the wild beasts. + +"I did not believe the execution would take place. In the first +place, no victim had been struck with death, and it had long been the +custom not to punish an abortive crime with the last degree of +severity. Then, this crime, however terrible in intention, was +disinterested, born of an abstract idea. The man's past, his +abandoned childhood, his life of hardship, pleaded also in his favor. +In the independent press generous voices were raised in his behalf, +very loud and eloquent. 'A purely literary current of opinion' some +have said, with no little scorn. IT IS, ON THE CONTRARY, AN HONOR TO +THE MEN OF ART AND THOUGHT TO HAVE EXPRESSED ONCE MORE THEIR DISGUST +AT THE SCAFFOLD." + +Again Zola, in GERMINAL and PARIS, describes the tenderness and +kindness, the deep sympathy with human suffering, of these men who +close the chapter of their lives with a violent outbreak against our +system. + +Last, but not least, the man who probably better than anyone else +understands the psychology of the ATTENTATER is M. Hamon, the author +of the brilliant work, UNE PSYCHOLOGIE DU MILITAIRE PROFESSIONEL, who +has arrived at these suggestive conclusions: + +"The positive method confirmed by the rational method enables us to +establish an ideal type of Anarchist, whose mentality is the +aggregate of common psychic characteristics. Every Anarchist +partakes sufficiently of this ideal type to make it possible to +differentiate him from other men. The typical Anarchist, then, may +be defined as follows: A man perceptible by the spirit of revolt +under one or more of its forms,--opposition, investigation, +criticism, innovation,--endowed with a strong love of liberty, +egoistic or individualistic, and possessed of great curiosity, a keen +desire to know. These traits are supplemented by an ardent love of +others, a highly developed moral sensitiveness, a profound sentiment +of justice, and imbued with missionary zeal." + +To the above characteristics, says Alvin F. Sanborn, must be added +these sterling qualities: a rare love of animals, surpassing +sweetness in all the ordinary relations of life, exceptional sobriety +of demeanor, frugality and regularity, austerity, even, of living, +and courage beyond compare.[2] + +"There is a truism that the man in the street seems always to forget, +when he is abusing the Anarchists, or whatever party happens to be +his BETE NOIRE for the moment, as the cause of some outrage just +perpetrated. This indisputable fact is that homicidal outrages have, +from time immemorial, been the reply of goaded and desperate classes, +and goaded and desperate individuals, to wrongs from their fellowmen, +which they felt to be intolerable. Such acts are the violent recoil +from violence, whether aggressive or repressive; they are the last +desperate struggle of outraged and exasperated human nature for +breathing space and life. And their cause lies not in any special +conviction, but in the depths of that human nature itself. The whole +course of history, political and social, is strewn with evidence of +this fact. To go no further, take the three most notorious examples +of political parties goaded into violence during the last fifty +years: the Mazzinians in Italy, the Fenians in Ireland, and the +Terrorists in Russia. Were these people Anarchists? No. Did they +all three even hold the same political opinions? No. The Mazzinians +were Republicans, the Fenians political separatists, the Russians +Social Democrats or Constitutionalists. But all were driven by +desperate circumstances into this terrible form of revolt. And when +we turn from parties to individuals who have acted in like manner, we +stand appalled by the number of human beings goaded and driven by +sheer desperation into conduct obviously violently opposed to their +social instincts. + +"Now that Anarchism has become a living force in society, such deeds +have been sometimes committed by Anarchists, as well as by others. +For no new faith, even the most essentially peaceable and humane the +mind of man has yet accepted, but at its first coming has brought +upon earth not peace, but a sword; not because of anything violent or +anti-social in the doctrine itself; simply because of the ferment any +new and creative idea excites in men's minds, whether they accept or +reject it. And a conception of Anarchism, which, on one hand, +threatens every vested interest, and, on the other, holds out a +vision of a free and noble life to be won by a struggle against +existing wrongs, is certain to rouse the fiercest opposition, and +bring the whole repressive force of ancient evil into violent contact +with the tumultuous outburst of a new hope. + +"Under miserable conditions of life, any vision of the possibility of +better things makes the present misery more intolerable, and spurs +those who suffer to the most energetic struggles to improve their +lot, and if these struggles only immediately result in sharper +misery, the outcome is sheer desperation. In our present society, +for instance, an exploited wage worker, who catches a glimpse of what +work and life might and ought to be, finds the toilsome routine and +the squalor of his existence almost intolerable; and even when he has +the resolution and courage to continue steadily working his best, and +waiting until new ideas have so permeated society as to pave the way +for better times, the mere fact that he has such ideas and tries to +spread them, brings him into difficulties with his employers. How +many thousands of Socialists, and above all Anarchists, have lost +work and even the chance of work, solely on the ground of their +opinions. It is only the specially gifted craftsman, who, if he be a +zealous propagandist, can hope to retain permanent employment. And +what happens to a man with his brain working actively with a ferment +of new ideas, with a vision before his eyes of a new hope dawning for +toiling and agonizing men, with the knowledge that his suffering and +that of his fellows in misery is not caused by the cruelty of fate, +but by the injustice of other human beings,--what happens to such a +man when he sees those dear to him starving, when he himself is +starved? Some natures in such a plight, and those by no means the +least social or the least sensitive, will become violent, and will +even feel that their violence is social and not anti-social, that in +striking when and how they can, they are striking, not for +themselves, but for human nature, outraged and despoiled in their +persons and in those of their fellow sufferers. And are we, who +ourselves are not in this horrible predicament, to stand by and +coldly condemn these piteous victims of the Furies and Fates? Are we +to decry as miscreants these human beings who act with heroic +self-devotion, sacrificing their lives in protest, where less social +and less energetic natures would lie down and grovel in abject +submission to injustice and wrong? Are we to join the ignorant and +brutal outcry which stigmatizes such men as monsters of wickedness, +gratuitously running amuck in a harmonious and innocently peaceful +society? No! We hate murder with a hatred that may seem absurdly +exaggerated to apologists for Matabele massacres, to callous +acquiescers in hangings and bombardments, but we decline in such +cases of homicide, or attempted homicide, as those of which we are +treating, to be guilty of the cruel injustice of flinging the whole +responsibility of the deed upon the immediate perpetrator. The guilt +of these homicides lies upon every man and woman who, intentionally +or by cold indifference, helps to keep up social conditions that +drive human beings to despair. The man who flings his whole life +into the attempt, at the cost of his own life, to protest against the +wrongs of his fellow men, is a saint compared to the active and +passive upholders of cruelty and injustice, even if his protest +destroy other lives besides his own. Let him who is without sin in +society cast the first stone at such an one."[3] + +That every act of political violence should nowadays be attributed to +Anarchists is not at all surprising. Yet it is a fact known to +almost everyone familiar with the Anarchist movement that a great +number of acts, for which Anarchists had to suffer, either originated +with the capitalist press or were instigated, if not directly +perpetrated, by the police. + +For a number of years acts of violence had been committed in Spain, +for which the Anarchists were held responsible, hounded like wild +beasts, and thrown into prison. Later it was disclosed that the +perpetrators of these acts were not Anarchists, but members of the +police department. The scandal became so widespread that the +conservative Spanish papers demanded the apprehension and punishment +of the gang-leader, Juan Rull, who was subsequently condemned to +death and executed. The sensational evidence, brought to light +during the trial, forced Police Inspector Momento to exonerate +completely the Anarchists from any connection with the acts committed +during a long period. This resulted in the dismissal of a number of +police officials, among them Inspector Tressols, who, in revenge, +disclosed the fact that behind the gang of police bomb throwers were +others of far higher position, who provided them with funds and +protected them. + +This is one of the many striking examples of how Anarchist +conspiracies are manufactured. + +That the American police can perjure themselves with the same ease, +that they are just as merciless, just as brutal and cunning as their +European colleagues, has been proven on more than one occasion. We +need only recall the tragedy of the eleventh of November, 1887, known +as the Haymarket Riot. + +No one who is at all familiar with the case can possibly doubt that +the Anarchists, judicially murdered in Chicago, died as victims of a +lying, bloodthirsty press and of a cruel police conspiracy. Has not +Judge Gary himself said: "Not because you have caused the Haymarket +bomb, but because you are Anarchists, you are on trial." + +The impartial and thorough analysis by Governor Altgeld of that +blotch on the American escutcheon verified the brutal frankness of +Judge Gary. It was this that induced Altgeld to pardon the three +Anarchists, thereby earning the lasting esteem of every liberty +loving man and woman in the world. + +When we approach the tragedy of September sixth, 1901, we are +confronted by one of the most striking examples of how little social +theories are responsible for an act of political violence. "Leon +Czolgosz, an Anarchist, incited to commit the act by Emma Goldman." +To be sure, has she not incited violence even before her birth, and +will she not continue to do so beyond death? Everything is possible +with the Anarchists. + +Today, even, nine years after the tragedy, after it was proven a +hundred times that Emma Goldman had nothing to do with the event, +that no evidence whatsoever exists to indicate that Czolgosz ever +called himself an Anarchist, we are confronted with the same lie, +fabricated by the police and perpetuated by the press. No living +soul ever heard Czolgosz make that statement, nor is there a single +written word to prove that the boy ever breathed the accusation. +Nothing but ignorance and insane hysteria, which have never yet been +able to solve the simplest problem of cause and effect. + +The President of a free Republic killed! What else can be the cause, +except that the ATTENTATER must have been insane, or that he was +incited to the act. + +A free Republic! How a myth will maintain itself, how it will +continue to deceive, to dupe, and blind even the comparatively +intelligent to its monstrous absurdities. A free Republic! And yet +within a little over thirty years a small band of parasites have +successfully robbed the American people, and trampled upon the +fundamental principles, laid down by the fathers of this country, +guaranteeing to every man, woman, and child "life, liberty, and the +pursuit of happiness." For thirty years they have been increasing +their wealth and power at the expense of the vast mass of workers, +thereby enlarging the army of the unemployed, the hungry, homeless, +and friendless portion of humanity, who are tramping the country from +east to west, from north to south, in a vain search for work. For +many years the home has been left to the care of the little ones, +while the parents are exhausting their life and strength for a mere +pittance. For thirty years the sturdy sons of America have been +sacrificed on the battlefield of industrial war, and the daughters +outraged in corrupt factory surroundings. For long and weary years +this process of undermining the nation's health, vigor, and pride, +without much protest from the disinherited and oppressed, has been +going on. Maddened by success and victory, the money powers of this +"free land of ours" became more and more audacious in their +heartless, cruel efforts to compete with the rotten and decayed +European tyrannies for supremacy of power. + +In vain did a lying press repudiate Leon Czolgosz as a foreigner. +The boy was a product of our own free American soil, that lulled him +to sleep with, + + My country, 'tis of thee, + Sweet land of liberty. + +Who can tell how many times this American child had gloried in the +celebration of the Fourth of July, or of Decoration Day, when he +faithfully honored the Nation's dead? Who knows but that he, too, +was willing to "fight for his country and die for her liberty," until +it dawned upon him that those he belonged to have no country, because +they have been robbed of all that they have produced; until he +realized that the liberty and independence of his youthful dreams +were but a farce. Poor Leon Czolgosz, your crime consisted of too +sensitive a social consciousness. Unlike your idealless and +brainless American brothers, your ideals soared above the belly and +the bank account. No wonder you impressed the one human being among +all the infuriated mob at your trial--a newspaper woman--as a +visionary, totally oblivious to your surroundings. Your large, +dreamy eyes must have beheld a new and glorious dawn. + +Now, to a recent instance of police-manufactured Anarchist plots. +In that bloodstained city, Chicago, the life of Chief of Police +Shippy was attempted by a young man named Averbuch. Immediately the +cry was sent to the four corners of the world that Averbuch was an +Anarchist, and that Anarchists were responsible for the act. +Everyone who was at all known to entertain Anarchist ideas was +closely watched, a number of people arrested, the library of an +Anarchist group confiscated, and all meetings made impossible. It +goes without saying that, as on various previous occasions, I must +needs be held responsible for the act. Evidently the American police +credit me with occult powers. I did not know Averbuch; in fact, had +never before heard his name, and the only way I could have possibly +"conspired" with him was in my astral body. But, then, the police +are not concerned with logic or justice. What they seek is a target, +to mask their absolute ignorance of the cause, of the psychology of a +political act. Was Averbuch an Anarchist? There is no positive +proof of it. He had been but three months in the country, did not +know the language, and, as far as I could ascertain, was quite +unknown to the Anarchists of Chicago. + +What led to his act? Averbuch, like most young Russian immigrants, +undoubtedly believed in the mythical liberty of America. He received +his first baptism by the policeman's club during the brutal +dispersement of the unemployed parade. He further experienced +American equality and opportunity in the vain efforts to find an +economic master. In short, a three months' sojourn in the glorious +land brought him face to face with the fact that the disinherited are +in the same position the world over. In his native land he probably +learned that necessity knows no law--there was no difference between +a Russian and an American policeman. + +The question to the intelligent social student is not whether the +acts of Czolgosz or Averbuch were practical, any more than whether +the thunderstorm is practical. The thing that will inevitably +impress itself on the thinking and feeling man and woman is that the +sight of brutal clubbing of innocent victims in a so-called free +Republic, and the degrading, soul-destroying economic struggle, +furnish the spark that kindles the dynamic force in the overwrought, +outraged souls of men like Czolgosz or Averbuch. No amount of +persecution, of hounding, of repression, can stay this social +phenomenon. + +But, it is often asked, have not acknowledged Anarchists committed +acts of violence? Certainly they have, always however ready to +shoulder the responsibility. My contention is that they were +impelled, not by the teachings of Anarchism, but by the tremendous +pressure of conditions, making life unbearable to their sensitive +natures. Obviously, Anarchism, or any other social theory, making +man a conscious social unit, will act as a leaven for rebellion. +This is not a mere assertion, but a fact verified by all experience. +A close examination of the circumstances bearing upon this question +will further clarify my position. + +Let us consider some of the most important Anarchist acts within the +last two decades. Strange as it may seem, one of the most +significant deeds of political violence occurred here in America, in +connection with the Homestead strike of 1892. + +During that memorable time the Carnegie Steel Company organized a +conspiracy to crush the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel +Workers. Henry Clay Frick, then Chairman of the Company, was +intrusted with that democratic task. He lost no time in carrying out +the policy of breaking the Union, the policy which he had so +successfully practiced during his reign of terror in the coke +regions. Secretly, and while peace negotiations were being purposely +prolonged, Frick supervised the military preparations, the +fortification of the Homestead Steel Works, the erection of a high +board fence, capped with barbed wire and provided with loopholes for +sharpshooters. And then, in the dead of night, he attempted to +smuggle his army of hired Pinkerton thugs into Homestead, which act +precipitated the terrible carnage of the steel workers. Not content +with the death of eleven victims, killed in the Pinkerton skirmish, +Henry Clay Frick, good Christian and free American, straightway began +the hounding down of the helpless wives and orphans, by ordering them +out of the wretched Company houses. + +The whole country was aroused over these inhuman outrages. Hundreds +of voices were raised in protest, calling on Frick to desist, not to +go too far. Yes, hundreds of people protested,--as one objects to +annoying flies. Only one there was who actively responded to the +outrage at Homestead,--Alexander Berkman. Yes, he was an Anarchist. +He gloried in that fact, because it was the only force that made the +discord between his spiritual longing and the world without at all +bearable. Yet not Anarchism, as such, but the brutal slaughter of +the eleven steel workers was the urge for Alexander Berkman's act, +his attempt on the life of Henry Clay Frick. + +The record of European acts of political violence affords numerous +and striking instances of the influence of environment upon sensitive +human beings. + +The court speech of Vaillant, who, in 1894, exploded a bomb in the +Paris Chamber of Deputies, strikes the true keynote of the psychology +of such acts: + +"Gentlemen, in a few minutes you are to deal your blow, but in +receiving your verdict I shall have at least the satisfaction of +having wounded the existing society, that cursed society in which one +may see a single man spending, uselessly, enough to feed thousands of +families; an infamous society which permits a few individuals to +monopolize all the social wealth, while there are hundreds of +thousands of unfortunates who have not even the bread that is not +refused to dogs, and while entire families are committing suicide for +want of the necessities of life. + +"Ah, gentlemen, if the governing classes could go down among the +unfortunates! But no, they prefer to remain deaf to their appeals. +It seems that a fatality impels them, like the royalty of the +eighteenth century, toward the precipice which will engulf them, for +woe be to those who remain deaf to the cries of the starving, woe to +those who, believing themselves of superior essence, assume the right +to exploit those beneath them! There comes a time when the people no +longer reason; they rise like a hurricane, and pass away like a +torrent. Then we see bleeding heads impaled on pikes. + +"Among the exploited, gentlemen, there are two classes of +individuals: Those of one class, not realizing what they are and what +they might be, take life as it comes, believe that they are born to +be slaves, and content themselves with the little that is given them +in exchange for their labor. But there are others, on the contrary, +who think, who study, and who, looking about them, discover social +iniquities. Is it their fault if they see clearly and suffer at +seeing others suffer? Then they throw themselves into the struggle, +and make themselves the bearers of the popular claims. + +"Gentlemen, I am one of these last. Wherever I have gone, I have +seen unfortunates bent beneath the yoke of capital. Everywhere I +have seen the same wounds causing tears of blood to flow, even in the +remoter parts of the inhabited districts of South America, where I +had the right to believe that he who was weary of the pains of +civilization might rest in the shade of the palm trees and there +study nature. Well, there even, more than elsewhere, I have seen +capital come, like a vampire, to suck the last drop of blood of the +unfortunate pariahs. + +"Then I came back to France, where it was reserved for me to see my +family suffer atrociously. This was the last drop in the cup of my +sorrow. Tired of leading this life of suffering and cowardice, I +carried this bomb to those who are primarily responsible for social +sufferings. + +"I am reproached with the wounds of those who were hit by my +projectiles. Permit me to point out in passing that, if the +bourgeois had not massacred or caused massacres during the +Revolution, it is probable that they would still be under the yoke of +the nobility. On the other hand, figure up the dead and wounded on +Tonquin, Madagascar, Dahomey, adding thereto the thousands, yes, +millions of unfortunates who die in the factories, the mines, and +wherever the grinding power of capital is felt. Add also those who +die of hunger, and all this with the assent of our Deputies. Beside +all this, of how little weight are the reproaches now brought against +me! + +"It is true that one does not efface the other; but, after all, are +we not acting on the defensive when we respond to the blows which we +receive from above? I know very well that I shall be told that I +ought to have confined myself to speech for the vindication of the +people's claims. But what can you expect! It takes a loud voice to +make the deaf hear. Too long have they answered our voices by +imprisonment, the rope, rifle volleys. Make no mistake; the +explosion of my bomb is not only the cry of the rebel Vaillant, but +the cry of an entire class which vindicates its rights, and which +will soon add acts to words. For, be sure of it, in vain will they +pass laws. The ideas of the thinkers will not halt; just as, in the +last century, all the governmental forces could not prevent the +Diderots and the Voltaires from spreading emancipating ideas among +the people, so all the existing governmental forces will not prevent +the Reclus, the Darwins, the Spencers, the Ibsens, the Mirbeaus, from +spreading the ideas of justice and liberty which will annihilate the +prejudices that hold the mass in ignorance. And these ideas, +welcomed by the unfortunate, will flower in acts of revolt as they +have done in me, until the day when the disappearance of authority +shall permit all men to organize freely according to their choice, +when we shall each be able to enjoy the product of his labor, and +when those moral maladies called prejudices shall vanish, permitting +human beings to live in harmony, having no other desire than to study +the sciences and love their fellows. + +"I conclude, gentlemen, by saying that a society in which one sees +such social inequalities as we see all about us, in which we see +every day suicides caused by poverty, prostitution flaring at every +street corner,--a society whose principal monuments are barracks and +prisons,--such a society must be transformed as soon as possible, on +pain of being eliminated, and that speedily, from the human race. +Hail to him who labors, by no matter what means, for this +transformation! It is this idea that has guided me in my duel with +authority, but as in this duel I have only wounded my adversary, it +is now its turn to strike me. + +"Now, gentlemen, to me it matters little what penalty you may +inflict, for, looking at this assembly with the eyes of reason, I can +not help smiling to see you, atoms lost in matter, and reasoning only +because you possess a prolongation of the spinal marrow, assume the +right to judge one of your fellows. + +"Ah! gentlemen, how little a thing is your assembly and your verdict +in the history of humanity; and human history, in its turn, is +likewise a very little thing in the whirlwind which bears it through +immensity, and which is destined to disappear, or at least to be +transformed, in order to begin again the same history and the same +facts, a veritably perpetual play of cosmic forces renewing and +transferring themselves forever." + +Will anyone say that Vaillant was an ignorant, vicious man, or a +lunatic? Was not his mind singularly clear, analytic? No wonder +that the best intellectual forces of France spoke in his behalf, and +signed the petition to President Carnot, asking him to commute +Vaillant's death sentence. + +Carnot would listen to no entreaty; he insisted on more than a pound +of flesh, he wanted Vaillant's life, and then--the inevitable +happened: President Carnot was killed. On the handle of the stiletto +used by the ATTENTATER was engraved, significantly, + + VAILLANT! + + +Santa Caserio was an Anarchist. He could have gotten away, saved +himself; but he remained, he stood the consequences. + +His reasons for the act are set forth in so simple, dignified, and +childlike manner that one is reminded of the touching tribute paid +Caserio by his teacher of the little village school, Ada Negri, the +Italian poet, who spoke of him as a sweet, tender plant, of too fine +and sensitive texture to stand the cruel strain of the world. + +"Gentlemen of the Jury! I do not propose to make a defense, but only +an explanation of my deed. + +"Since my early youth I began to learn that present society is badly +organized, so badly that every day many wretched men commit suicide, +leaving women and children in the most terrible distress. Workers, +by thousands, seek for work and can not find it. Poor families beg +for food and shiver with cold; they suffer the greatest misery; the +little ones ask their miserable mothers for food, and the mothers +can not give them, because they have nothing. The few things +which the home contained have already been sold or pawned. All they +can do is beg alms; often they are arrested as vagabonds. + +"I went away from my native place because I was frequently moved to +tears at seeing little girls of eight or ten years obliged to work +fifteen hours a day for the paltry pay of twenty centimes. Young +women of eighteen or twenty also work fifteen hours daily, for a +mockery of remuneration. And that happens not only to my fellow +countrymen, but to all the workers, who sweat the whole day long for +a crust of bread, while their labor produces wealth in abundance. +The workers are obliged to live under the most wretched conditions, +and their food consists of a little bread, a few spoonfuls of rice, +and water; so by the time they are thirty or forty years old, they +are exhausted, and go to die in the hospitals. Besides, in +consequence of bad food and overwork, these unhappy creatures are, by +hundreds, devoured by pellagra--a disease that, in my country, +attacks, as the physicians say, those who are badly fed and lead a +life of toil and privation. + +"I have observed that there are a great many people who are hungry, +and many children who suffer, whilst bread and clothes abound in the +towns. I saw many and large shops full of clothing and woolen +stuffs, and I also saw warehouses full of wheat and Indian corn, +suitable for those who are in want. And, on the other hand, I saw +thousands of people who do not work, who produce nothing and live on +the labor of others; who spend every day thousands of francs for +their amusement; who debauch the daughters of the workers; who own +dwellings of forty or fifty rooms; twenty or thirty horses, many +servants; in a word, all the pleasures of life. + +"I believed in God; but when I saw so great an inequality between +men, I acknowledged that it was not God who created man, but man who +created God. And I discovered that those who want their property to +be respected, have an interest in preaching the existence of paradise +and hell, and in keeping the people in ignorance. + +"Not long ago, Vaillant threw a bomb in the Chamber of Deputies, to +protest against the present system of society. He killed no one, +only wounded some persons; yet bourgeois justice sentenced him to +death. And not satisfied with the condemnation of the guilty man, +they began to pursue the Anarchists, and arrest not only those who +had known Vaillant, but even those who had merely been present at any +Anarchist lecture. + +"The government did not think of their wives and children. It did +not consider that the men kept in prison were not the only ones who +suffered, and that their little ones cried for bread. Bourgeois +justice did not trouble itself about these innocent ones, who do not +yet know what society is. It is no fault of theirs that their +fathers are in prison; they only want to eat. + +"The government went on searching private houses, opening private +letters, forbidding lectures and meetings, and practicing the most +infamous oppressions against us. Even now, hundreds of Anarchists +are arrested for having written an article in a newspaper, or for +having expressed an opinion in public. + +"Gentlemen of the Jury, you are representatives of bourgeois society. +If you want my head, take it; but do not believe that in so doing you +will stop the Anarchist propaganda. Take care, for men reap what +they have sown." + +During a religious procession in 1896, at Barcelona, a bomb was +thrown. Immediately three hundred men and women were arrested. +Some were Anarchists, but the majority were trade unionists and +Socialists. They were thrown into that terrible bastille, Montjuich, +and subjected to most horrible tortures. After a number had been +killed, or had gone insane, their cases were taken up by the liberal +press of Europe, resulting in the release of a few survivors. + +The man primarily responsible for this revival of the Inquisition was +Canovas del Castillo, Prime Minister of Spain. It was he who ordered +the torturing of the victims, their flesh burned, their bones +crushed, their tongues cut out. Practiced in the art of brutality +during his regime in Cuba, Canovas remained absolutely deaf to the +appeals and protests of the awakened civilized conscience. + +In 1897 Canovas del Castillo was shot to death by a young Italian, +Angiolillo. The latter was an editor in his native land, and his +bold utterances soon attracted the attention of the authorities. +Persecution began, and Angiolillo fled from Italy to Spain, thence to +France and Belgium, finally settling in England. While there he +found employment as a compositor, and immediately became the friend +of all his colleagues. One of the latter thus described Angiolillo: +"His appearance suggested the journalist rather than the disciple of +Guttenberg. His delicate hands, moreover, betrayed the fact that he +had not grown up at the 'case.' With his handsome frank face, his +soft dark hair, his alert expression, he looked the very type of the +vivacious Southerner. Angiolillo spoke Italian, Spanish, and French, +but no English; the little French I knew was not sufficient to carry +on a prolonged conversation. However, Angiolillo soon began to +acquire the English idiom; he learned rapidly, playfully, and it was +not long until he became very popular with his fellow compositors. +His distinguished and yet modest manner, and his consideration +towards his colleagues, won him the hearts of all the boys." + +Angiolillo soon became familiar with the detailed accounts in the +press. He read of the great wave of human sympathy with the helpless +victims at Montjuich. On Trafalgar Square he saw with his own eyes +the results of those atrocities, when the few Spaniards, who escaped +Castillo's clutches, came to seek asylum in England. There, at the +great meeting, these men opened their shirts and showed the horrible +scars of burned flesh. Angiolillo saw, and the effect surpassed a +thousand theories; the impetus was beyond words, beyond arguments, +beyond himself even. + +Senor Antonio Canovas del Castillo, Prime Minister of Spain, +sojourned at Santa Agueda. As usual in such cases, all strangers +were kept away from his exalted presence. One exception was made, +however, in the case of a distinguished looking, elegantly dressed +Italian--the representative, it was understood, of an important +journal. The distinguished gentleman was--Angiolillo. + +Senor Canovas, about to leave his house, stepped on the veranda. +Suddenly Angiolillo confronted him. A shot rang out, and Canovas was +a corpse. + +The wife of the Prime Minister rushed upon the scene. "Murderer! +Murderer!" she cried, pointing at Angiolillo. The latter bowed. +"Pardon, Madame," he said, "I respect you as a lady, but I regret +that you were the wife of that man." + +Calmly Angiolillo faced death. Death in its most terrible form--for +the man whose soul was as a child's. + +He was garroted. His body lay, sun-kissed, till the day hid in +twilight. And the people came, and pointing the finger of terror and +fear, they said: "There--the criminal--the cruel murderer." + +How stupid, how cruel is ignorance! It misunderstands always, +condemns always. + +A remarkable parallel to the case of Angiolillo is to be found in the +act of Gaetano Bresci, whose ATTENTAT upon King Umberto made an +American city famous. + +Bresci came to this country, this land of opportunity, where one has +but to try to meet with golden success. Yes, he too would try to +succeed. He would work hard and faithfully. Work had no terrors +for him, if it would only help him to independence, manhood, +self-respect. + +Thus full of hope and enthusiasm he settled in Paterson, New Jersey, +and there found a lucrative job at six dollars per week in one of the +weaving mills of the town. Six whole dollars per week was, no doubt, +a fortune for Italy, but not enough to breathe on in the new country. +He loved his little home. He was a good husband and devoted father +to his BAMBINA, Bianca, whom he adored. He worked and worked for a +number of years. He actually managed to save one hundred dollars out +of his six dollars per week. + +Bresci had an ideal. Foolish, I know, for a workingman to have an +ideal,--the Anarchist paper published in Paterson, LA QUESTIONE +SOCIALE. + +Every week, though tired from work, he would help to set up the +paper. Until later hours he would assist, and when the little +pioneer had exhausted all resources and his comrades were in despair, +Bresci brought cheer and hope, one hundred dollars, the entire +savings of years. That would keep the paper afloat. + +In his native land people were starving. The crops had been poor, +and the peasants saw themselves face to face with famine. They +appealed to their good King Umberto; he would help. And he did. +The wives of the peasants who had gone to the palace of the King, +held up in mute silence their emaciated infants. Surely that would +move him. And then the soldiers fired and killed those poor fools. + +Bresci, at work in the weaving mill at Paterson, read of the horrible +massacre. His mental eye beheld the defenceless women and innocent +infants of his native land, slaughtered right before the good King. +His soul recoiled in horror. At night he heard the groans of the +wounded. Some may have been his comrades, his own flesh. Why, why +these foul murders? + +The little meeting of the Italian Anarchist group in Paterson ended +almost in a fight. Bresci had demanded his hundred dollars. His +comrades begged, implored him to give them a respite. The paper +would go down if they were to return him his loan. But Bresci +insisted on its return. + +How cruel and stupid is ignorance. Bresci got the money, but lost +the good will, the confidence of his comrades. They would have +nothing more to do with one whose greed was greater than his ideals. + +On the twenty-ninth of July, 1900, King Umberto was shot at Monzo. +The young Italian weaver of Paterson, Gaetano Bresci, had taken the +life of the good King. + +Paterson was placed under police surveillance, everyone known as an +Anarchist hounded and persecuted, and the act of Bresci ascribed to +the teachings of Anarchism. As if the teachings of Anarchism in its +extremest form could equal the force of those slain women and +infants, who had pilgrimed to the King for aid. As if any spoken +word, ever so eloquent, could burn into a human soul with such white +heat as the life blood trickling drop by drop from those dying forms. +The ordinary man is rarely moved either by word or deed; and those +whose social kinship is the greatest living force need no appeal to +respond--even as does steel to the magnet--to the wrongs and horrors +of society. + +If a social theory is a strong factor inducing acts of political +violence, how are we to account for the recent violent outbreaks in +India, where Anarchism has hardly been born. More than any other old +philosophy, Hindu teachings have exalted passive resistance, the +drifting of life, the Nirvana, as the highest spiritual ideal. Yet +the social unrest in India is daily growing, and has only recently +resulted in an act of political violence, the killing of Sir Curzon +Wyllie by the Hindu, Madar Sol Dhingra. + +If such a phenomenon can occur in a country socially and individually +permeated for centuries with the spirit of passivity, can one +question the tremendous, revolutionizing effect on human character +exerted by great social iniquities? Can one doubt the logic, the +justice of these words: + +"Repression, tyranny, and indiscriminate punishment of innocent men +have been the watchwords of the government of the alien domination in +India ever since we began the commercial boycott of English goods. +The tiger qualities of the British are much in evidence now in India. +They think that by the strength of the sword they will keep down +India! It is this arrogance that has brought about the bomb, and the +more they tyrannize over a helpless and unarmed people, the more +terrorism will grow. We may deprecate terrorism as outlandish and +foreign to our culture, but it is inevitable as long as this tyranny +continues, for it is not the terrorists that are to be blamed, but +the tyrants who are responsible for it. It is the only resource for +a helpless and unarmed people when brought to the verge of despair. +It is never criminal on their part. The crime lies with the +tyrant."[4] + +Even conservative scientists are beginning to realize that heredity +is not the sole factor moulding human character. Climate, food, +occupation; nay, color, light, and sound must be considered in the +study of human psychology. + +If that be true, how much more correct is the contention that great +social abuses will and must influence different minds and +temperaments in a different way. And how utterly fallacious the +stereotyped notion that the teachings of Anarchism, or certain +exponents of these teachings, are responsible for the acts of +political violence. + +Anarchism, more than any other social theory, values human life above +things. All Anarchists agree with Tolstoy in this fundamental truth: +if the production of any commodity necessitates the sacrifice of +human life, society should do without that commodity, but it can not +do without that life. That, however, nowise indicates that Anarchism +teaches submission. How can it, when it knows that all suffering, +all misery, all ills, result from the evil of submission? + +Has not some American ancestor said, many years ago, that resistance +to tyranny is obedience to God? And he was not an Anarchist even. +I would say that resistance to tyranny is man's highest ideal. So +long as tyranny exists, in whatever form, man's deepest aspiration +must resist it as inevitably as man must breathe. + +Compared with the wholesale violence of capital and government, +political acts of violence are but a drop in the ocean. That so few +resist is the strongest proof how terrible must be the conflict +between their souls and unbearable social iniquities. + +High strung, like a violin string, they weep and moan for life, so +relentless, so cruel, so terribly inhuman. In a desperate moment the +string breaks. Untuned ears hear nothing but discord. But those who +feel the agonized cry understand its harmony; they hear in it the +fulfillment of the most compelling moment of human nature. + +Such is the psychology of political violence. + + +[1] A revolutionist committing an act of political violence. + +[2] PARIS AND THE SOCIAL REVOLUTION. + +[3] From a pamphlet issued by the Freedom Group of London. + +[4] THE FREE HINDUSTAN. + + + + +PRISONS: A SOCIAL CRIME AND FAILURE + + +In 1849, Feodor Dostoyevsky wrote on the wall of his prison cell the +following story of THE PRIEST AND THE DEVIL: + +"'Hello, you little fat father!' the devil said to the priest. +'What made you lie so to those poor, misled people? What tortures of +hell did you depict? Don't you know they are already suffering the +tortures of hell in their earthly lives? Don't you know that you and +the authorities of the State are my representatives on earth? It is +you that make them suffer the pains of hell with which you threaten +them. Don't you know this? Well, then, come with me!' + +"The devil grabbed the priest by the collar, lifted him high in the +air, and carried him to a factory, to an iron foundry. He saw the +workmen there running and hurrying to and fro, and toiling in the +scorching heat. Very soon the thick, heavy air and the heat are too +much for the priest. With tears in his eyes, he pleads with the +devil: 'Let me go! Let me leave this hell!' + +"'Oh, my dear friend, I must show you many more places.' The devil +gets hold of him again and drags him off to a farm. There he sees +workmen threshing the grain. The dust and heat are insufferable. +The overseer carries a knout, and unmercifully beats anyone who falls +to the ground overcome by hard toil or hunger. + +"Next the priest is taken to the huts where these same workers live +with their families--dirty, cold, smoky, ill-smelling holes. The +devil grins. He points out the poverty and hardships which are at +home here. + +"'Well, isn't this enough?' he asks. And it seems as if even he, the +devil, pities the people. The pious servant of God can hardly bear +it. With uplifted hands he begs: 'Let me go away from here. Yes, +yes! This is hell on earth!' + +"'Well, then, you see. And you still promise them another hell. +You torment them, torture them to death mentally when they are +already all but dead physically! Come on! I will show you one more +hell--one more, the very worst.' + +"He took him to a prison and showed him a dungeon, with its foul air +and the many human forms, robbed of all health and energy, lying on +the floor, covered with vermin that were devouring their poor, naked, +emaciated bodies. + +"'Take off your silken clothes,' said the devil to the priest, 'put +on your ankles heavy chains such as these unfortunates wear; lie down +on the cold and filthy floor--and then talk to them about a hell that +still awaits them!' + +"'No, no!' answered the priest, 'I cannot think of anything more +dreadful than this. I entreat you, let me go away from here!' + +"'Yes, this is hell. There can be no worse hell than this. Did you +not know it? Did you not know that these men and women whom you are +frightening with the picture of a hell hereafter--did you not know +that they are in hell right here, before they die?'" + + +This was written fifty years ago in dark Russia, on the wall of one +of the most horrible prisons. Yet who can deny that the same applies +with equal force to the present time, even to American prisons? + +With all our boasted reforms, our great social changes, and our +far-reaching discoveries, human beings continue to be sent to the +worst of hells, wherein they are outraged, degraded, and tortured, +that society may be "protected" from the phantoms of its own making. + +Prison, a social protection? What monstrous mind ever conceived such +an idea? Just as well say that health can be promoted by a +widespread contagion. + +After eighteen months of horror in an English prison, Oscar Wilde +gave to the world his great masterpiece, THE BALLAD OF READING GOAL: + + The vilest deeds, like poison weeds, + Bloom well in prison air; + It is only what is good in Man + That wastes and withers there. + Pale Anguish keeps the heavy gate, + And the Warder is Despair. + +Society goes on perpetuating this poisonous air, not realizing that +out of it can come naught but the most poisonous results. + +We are spending at the present $3,500,000 per day, $1,000,095,000 per +year, to maintain prison institutions, and that in a democratic +country,--a sum almost as large as the combined output of wheat, +valued at $750,000,000, and the output of coal, valued at +$350,000,000. Professor Bushnell of Washington, D.C., estimates the +cost of prisons at $6,000,000,000 annually, and Dr. G. Frank Lydston, +an eminent American writer on crime, gives $5,000,000,000 annually as +a reasonable figure. Such unheard-of expenditure for the purpose of +maintaining vast armies of human beings caged up like wild beasts![1] + +Yet crimes are on the increase. Thus we learn that in America there +are four and a half times as many crimes to every million population +today as there were twenty years ago. + +The most horrible aspect is that our national crime is murder, not +robbery, embezzlement, or rape, as in the South. London is five +times as large as Chicago, yet there are one hundred and eighteen +murders annually in the latter city, while only twenty in London. +Nor is Chicago the leading city in crime, since it is only seventh on +the list, which is headed by four Southern cities, and San Francisco +and Los Angeles. In view of such a terrible condition of affairs, it +seems ridiculous to prate of the protection society derives from its +prisons. + +The average mind is slow in grasping a truth, but when the most +thoroughly organized, centralized institution, maintained at an +excessive national expense, has proven a complete social failure, the +dullest must begin to question its right to exist. The time is past +when we can be content with our social fabric merely because it is +"ordained by divine right," or by the majesty of the law. + +The widespread prison investigations, agitation, and education during +the last few years are conclusive proof that men are learning to dig +deep into the very bottom of society, down to the causes of the +terrible discrepancy between social and individual life. + +Why, then, are prisons a social crime and a failure? To answer this +vital question it behooves us to seek the nature and cause of crimes, +the methods employed in coping with them, and the effects these +methods produce in ridding society of the curse and horror of crimes. + +First, as to the NATURE of crime: + +Havelock Ellis divides crime into four phases, the political, the +passional, the insane, and the occasional. He says that the +political criminal is the victim of an attempt of a more or less +despotic government to preserve its own stability. He is not +necessarily guilty of an unsocial offense; he simply tries to +overturn a certain political order which may itself be anti-social. +This truth is recognized all over the world, except in America where +the foolish notion still prevails that in a Democracy there is no +place for political criminals. Yet John Brown was a political +criminal; so were the Chicago Anarchists; so is every striker. +Consequently, says Havelock Ellis, the political criminal of our time +or place may be the hero, martyr, saint of another age. Lombroso +calls the political criminal the true precursor of the progressive +movement of humanity. + +"The criminal by passion is usually a man of wholesome birth and +honest life, who under the stress of some great, unmerited wrong has +wrought justice for himself."[2] + +Mr. Hugh C. Weir, in THE MENACE OF THE POLICE, cites the case of Jim +Flaherty, a criminal by passion, who, instead of being saved by +society, is turned into a drunkard and a recidivist, with a ruined +and poverty-stricken family as the result. + +A more pathetic type is Archie, the victim in Brand Whitlock's novel, +THE TURN OF THE BALANCE, the greatest American expose of crime in the +making. Archie, even more than Flaherty, was driven to crime and +death by the cruel inhumanity of his surroundings, and by the +unscrupulous hounding of the machinery of the law. Archie and +Flaherty are but the types of many thousands, demonstrating how the +legal aspects of crime, and the methods of dealing with it, help to +create the disease which is undermining our entire social life. + +"The insane criminal really can no more be considered a criminal than +a child, since he is mentally in the same condition as an infant or +an animal."[3] + +The law already recognizes that, but only in rare cases of a very +flagrant nature, or when the culprit's wealth permits the luxury of +criminal insanity. It has become quite fashionable to be the victim +of paranoia. But on the whole the "sovereignty of justice" still +continues to punish criminally insane with the whole severity of its +power. Thus Mr. Ellis quotes from Dr. Richter's statistics showing +that in Germany, one hundred and six madmen, out of one hundred and +forty-four criminal insane, were condemned to severe punishment. + +The occasional criminal "represents by far the largest class of our +prison population, hence is the greatest menace to social +well-being." What is the cause that compels a vast army of the human +family to take to crime, to prefer the hideous life within prison +walls to the life outside? Certainly that cause must be an iron +master, who leaves its victims no avenue of escape, for the most +depraved human being loves liberty. + +This terrific force is conditioned in our cruel social and economic +arrangement. I do not mean to deny the biologic, physiologic, or +psychologic factors in creating crime; but there is hardly an +advanced criminologist who will not concede that the social and +economic influences are the most relentless, the most poisonous germs +of crime. Granted even that there are innate criminal tendencies, it +is none the less true that these tendencies find rich nutrition in +our social environment. + +There is close relation, says Havelock Ellis, between crimes against +the person and the price of alcohol, between crimes against property +and the price of wheat. He quotes Quetelet and Lacassagne, the +former looking upon society as the preparer of crime, and the +criminals as instruments that execute them. The latter find that +"the social environment is the cultivation medium of criminality; +that the criminal is the microbe, an element which only becomes +important when it finds the medium which causes it to ferment; EVERY +SOCIETY HAS THE CRIMINALS IT DESERVES."[4] + +The most "prosperous" industrial period makes it impossible for the +worker to earn enough to keep up health and vigor. And as prosperity +is, at best, an imaginary condition, thousands of people are +constantly added to the host of the unemployed. From East to West, +from South to North, this vast army tramps in search of work or food, +and all they find is the workhouse or the slums. Those who have a +spark of self-respect left, prefer open defiance, prefer crime to the +emaciated, degraded position of poverty. + +Edward Carpenter estimates that five-sixths of indictable crimes +consist in some violation of property rights; but that is too low a +figure. A thorough investigation would prove that nine crimes out of +ten could be traced, directly or indirectly, to our economic and +social iniquities, to our system of remorseless exploitation and +robbery. There is no criminal so stupid but recognizes this terrible +fact, though he may not be able to account for it. + +A collection of criminal philosophy, which Havelock Ellis, Lombroso, +and other eminent men have compiled, shows that the criminal feels +only too keenly that it is society that drives him to crime. A +Milanese thief said to Lombroso: "I do not rob, I merely take from +the rich their superfluities; besides, do not advocates and merchants +rob?" A murderer wrote: "Knowing that three-fourths of the social +virtues are cowardly vices, I thought an open assault on a rich man +would be less ignoble than the cautious combination of fraud." +Another wrote: "I am imprisoned for stealing a half dozen eggs. +Ministers who rob millions are honored. Poor Italy!" An educated +convict said to Mr. Davitt: "The laws of society are framed for the +purpose of securing the wealth of the world to power and calculation, +thereby depriving the larger portion of mankind of its rights and +chances. Why should they punish me for taking by somewhat similar +means from those who have taken more than they had a right to?" The +same man added: "Religion robs the soul of its independence; +patriotism is the stupid worship of the world for which the +well-being and the peace of the inhabitants were sacrificed by those +who profit by it, while the laws of the land, in restraining natural +desires, were waging war on the manifest spirit of the law of our +beings. Compared with this," he concluded, "thieving is an honorable +pursuit."[5] + +Verily, there is greater truth in this philosophy than in all the +law-and-moral books of society. + + +The economic, political, moral, and physical factors being the +microbes of crime, how does society meet the situation? + +The methods of coping with crime have no doubt undergone several +changes, but mainly in a theoretic sense. In practice, society has +retained the primitive motive in dealing with the offender; that is, +revenge. It has also adopted the theologic idea; namely, punishment; +while the legal and "civilized" methods consist of deterrence or +terror, and reform. We shall presently see that all four modes have +failed utterly, and that we are today no nearer a solution than in +the dark ages. + +The natural impulse of the primitive man to strike back, to avenge a +wrong, is out of date. Instead, the civilized man, stripped of +courage and daring, has delegated to an organized machinery the duty +of avenging his wrongs, in the foolish belief that the State is +justified in doing what he no longer has the manhood or consistency +to do. The majesty-of-the-law is a reasoning thing; it would not +stoop to primitive instincts. Its mission is of a "higher" nature. +True, it is still steeped in the theologic muddle, which proclaims +punishment as a means of purification, or the vicarious atonement of +sin. But legally and socially the statute exercises punishment, not +merely as an infliction of pain upon the offender, but also for its +terrifying effect upon others. + +What is the real basis of punishment, however? The notion of a free +will, the idea that man is at all times a free agent for good or +evil; if he chooses the latter, he must be made to pay the price. +Although this theory has long been exploded, and thrown upon the +dustheap, it continues to be applied daily by the entire machinery of +government, turning it into the most cruel and brutal tormentor of +human life. The only reason for its continuance is the still more +cruel notion that the greater the terror punishment spreads, the more +certain its preventative effect. + +Society is using the most drastic methods in dealing with the social +offender. Why do they not deter? Although in America a man is +supposed to be considered innocent until proven guilty, the +instruments of law, the police, carry on a reign of terror, making +indiscriminate arrests, beating, clubbing, bullying people, using the +barbarous method of the "third degree," subjecting their unfortunate +victims to the foul air of the station house, and the still fouler +language of its guardians. Yet crimes are rapidly multiplying, and +society is paying the price. On the other hand, it is an open secret +that when the unfortunate citizen has been given the full "mercy" of +the law, and for the sake of safety is hidden in the worst of hells, +his real Calvary begins. Robbed of his rights as a human being, +degraded to a mere automaton without will or feeling, dependent +entirely upon the mercy of brutal keepers, he daily goes through a +process of dehumanization, compared with which savage revenge was +mere child's play. + +There is not a single penal institution or reformatory in the United +States where men are not tortured "to be made good," by means of the +blackjack, the club, the straightjacket, the water-cure, the "humming +bird" (an electrical contrivance run along the human body), the +solitary, the bullring, and starvation diet. In these institutions +his will is broken, his soul degraded, his spirit subdued by the +deadly monotony and routine of prison life. In Ohio, Illinois, +Pennsylvania, Missouri, and in the South, these horrors have become +so flagrant as to reach the outside world, while in most other +prisons the same Christian methods still prevail. But prison walls +rarely allow the agonized shrieks of the victims to escape--prison +walls are thick, they dull the sound. Society might with greater +immunity abolish all prisons at once, than to hope for protection +from these twentieth century chambers of horrors. + +Year after year the gates of prison hells return to the world an +emaciated, deformed, willless, ship-wrecked crew of humanity, with +the Cain mark on their foreheads, their hopes crushed, all their +natural inclinations thwarted. With nothing but hunger and +inhumanity to greet them, these victims soon sink back into crime as +the only possibility of existence. It is not at all an unusual thing +to find men and women who have spent half their lives--nay, almost +their entire existence--in prison. I know a woman on Blackwell's +Island, who had been in and out thirty-eight times; and through a +friend I learn that a young boy of seventeen, whom he had nursed and +cared for in the Pittsburg penitentiary, had never known the meaning +of liberty. From the reformatory to the penitentiary had been the +path of this boy's life, until, broken in body, he died a victim of +social revenge. These personal experiences are substantiated by +extensive data giving overwhelming proof of the utter futility of +prisons as a means of deterrence or reform. + +Well-meaning persons are now working for a new departure in the +prison question,--reclamation, to restore once more to the prisoner +the possibility of becoming a human being. Commendable as this is, I +fear it is impossible to hope for good results from pouring good wine +into a musty bottle. Nothing short of a complete reconstruction of +society will deliver mankind from the cancer of crime. Still, if the +dull edge of our social conscience would be sharpened, the penal +institutions might be given a new coat of varnish. But the first +step to be taken is the renovation of the social consciousness, which +is in a rather dilapidated condition. It is sadly in need to be +awakened to the fact that crime is a question of degree, that we all +have the rudiments of crime in us, more or less, according to our +mental, physical, and social environment; and that the individual +criminal is merely a reflex of the tendencies of the aggregate. + + +With the social consciousness awakened, the average individual may +learn to refuse the "honor" of being the bloodhound of the law. He +may cease to persecute, despise, and mistrust the social offender, +and give him a chance to live and breathe among his fellows. +Institutions are, of course, harder to reach. They are cold, +impenetrable, and cruel; still, with the social consciousness +quickened, it might be possible to free the prison victims from the +brutality of prison officials, guards, and keepers. Public opinion +is a powerful weapon; keepers of human prey, even, are afraid of it. +They may be taught a little humanity, especially if they realize that +their jobs depend upon it. + + +But the most important step is to demand for the prisoner the right +to work while in prison, with some monetary recompense that would +enable him to lay aside a little for the day of his release, the +beginning of a new life. + +It is almost ridiculous to hope much from present society when we +consider that workingmen, wage slaves themselves, object to convict +labor. I shall not go into the cruelty of this objection, but merely +consider the impracticability of it. To begin with, the opposition +so far raised by organized labor has been directed against windmills. +Prisoners have always worked; only the State has been their +exploiter, even as the individual employer has been the robber of +organized labor. The States have either set the convicts to work for +the government, or they have farmed convict labor to private +individuals. Twenty-nine of the States pursue the latter plan. The +Federal government and seventeen States have discarded it, as have +the leading nations of Europe, since it leads to hideous overworking +and abuse of prisoners, and to endless graft. + +Rhode Island, the State dominated by Aldrich, offers perhaps the +worst example. Under a five-year contract, dated July 7th, 1906, and +renewable for five years more at the option of private contractors, +the labor of the inmates of the Rhode Island Penitentiary and the +Providence County Jail is sold to the Reliance-Sterling Mfg. Co. at +the rate of a trifle less than 25 cents a day per man. This Company +is really a gigantic Prison Labor Trust, for it also leases the +convict labor of Connecticut, Michigan, Indiana, Nebraska, and South +Dakota penitentiaries, and the reformatories of New Jersey, Indiana, +Illinois, and Wisconsin, eleven establishments in all. + +The enormity of the graft under the Rhode Island contract may be +estimated from the fact that this same Company pays 62 1/2 cents a +day in Nebraska for the convict's labor, and that Tennessee, for +example, gets $1.10 a day for a convict's work from the Gray-Dudley +Hardware Co.; Missouri gets 70 cents a day from the Star Overall Mfg. +Co.; West Virginia 65 cents a day from the Kraft Mfg. Co., and +Maryland 55 cents a day from Oppenheim, Oberndorf & Co., shirt +manufacturers. The very difference in prices points to enormous +graft. For example, the Reliance-Sterling Mfg. Co. manufactures +shirts, the cost of free labor being not less than $1.20 per dozen, +while it pays Rhode Island thirty cents a dozen. Furthermore, the +State charges this Trust no rent for the use of its huge factory, +charges nothing for power, heat, light, or even drainage, and exacts +no taxes. What graft! + +It is estimated that more than twelve million dollars' worth of +workingmen's shirts and overalls is produced annually in this country +by prison labor. It is a woman's industry, and the first reflection +that arises is that an immense amount of free female labor is thus +displaced. The second consideration is that male convicts, who +should be learning trades that would give them some chance of being +self-supporting after their release, are kept at this work at which +they can not possibly make a dollar. This is the more serious when +we consider that much of this labor is done in reformatories, which +so loudly profess to be training their inmates to become useful +citizens. + +The third, and most important, consideration is that the enormous +profits thus wrung from convict labor are a constant incentive to the +contractors to exact from their unhappy victims tasks altogether +beyond their strength, and to punish them cruelly when their work +does not come up to the excessive demands made. + +Another word on the condemnation of convicts to tasks at which they +cannot hope to make a living after release. Indiana, for example, is +a State that has made a great splurge over being in the front rank of +modern penological improvements. Yet, according to the report +rendered in 1908 by the training school of its "reformatory," 135 +were engaged in the manufacture of chains, 207 in that of shirts, and +255 in the foundry--a total of 597 in three occupations. But at this +so-called reformatory 59 occupations were represented by the inmates, +39 of which were connected with country pursuits. Indiana, like +other States, professes to be training the inmates of her reformatory +to occupations by which they will be able to make their living when +released. She actually sets them to work making chains, shirts, and +brooms, the latter for the benefit of the Louisville Fancy Grocery +Co. Broom making is a trade largely monopolized by the blind, shirt +making is done by women, and there is only one free chain factory in +the State, and at that a released convict can not hope to get +employment. The whole thing is a cruel farce. + +If, then, the States can be instrumental in robbing their helpless +victims of such tremendous profits, is it not high time for organized +labor to stop its idle howl, and to insist on decent remuneration for +the convict, even as labor organizations claim for themselves? In +that way workingmen would kill the germ which makes of the prisoner +an enemy to the interests of labor. I have said elsewhere that +thousands of convicts, incompetent and without a trade, without means +of subsistence, are yearly turned back into the social fold. These +men and women must live, for even an ex-convict has needs. Prison +life has made them anti-social beings, and the rigidly closed doors +that meet them on their release are not likely to decrease their +bitterness. The inevitable result is that they form a favorable +nucleus out of which scabs, blacklegs, detectives, and policemen are +drawn, only too willing to do the master's bidding. Thus organized +labor, by its foolish opposition to work in prison, defeats its own +ends. It helps to create poisonous fumes that stifle every attempt +for economic betterment. If the workingman wants to avoid these +effects, he should INSIST on the right of the convict to work, he +should meet him as a brother, take him into his organization, and +WITH HIS AID TURN AGAINST THE SYSTEM WHICH GRINDS THEM BOTH. + + +Last, but not least, is the growing realization of the barbarity and +the inadequacy of the definite sentence. Those who believe in, and +earnestly aim at, a change are fast coming to the conclusion that man +must be given an opportunity to make good. And how is he to do it +with ten, fifteen, or twenty years' imprisonment before him? The +hope of liberty and of opportunity is the only incentive to life, +especially the prisoner's life. Society has sinned so long against +him--it ought at least to leave him that. I am not very sanguine +that it will, or that any real change in that direction can take +place until the conditions that breed both the prisoner and the +jailer will be forever abolished. + + Out of his mouth a red, red rose! + Out of his heart a white! + For who can say by what strange way + Christ brings his will to light, + Since the barren staff the pilgrim bore + Bloomed in the great Pope's sight. + + +[1] CRIME AND CRIMINALS. W. C. Owen. + +[2] THE CRIMINAL, Havelock Ellis. + +[3] THE CRIMINAL. + +[4] THE CRIMINAL. + +[5] THE CRIMINAL. + + + + +PATRIOTISM: A MENACE TO LIBERTY + + +What is patriotism? Is it love of one's birthplace, the place of +childhood's recollections and hopes, dreams and aspirations? Is it +the place where, in childlike naivety, we would watch the fleeting +clouds, and wonder why we, too, could not run so swiftly? The place +where we would count the milliard glittering stars, terror-stricken +lest each one "an eye should be," piercing the very depths of our +little souls? Is it the place where we would listen to the music of +the birds, and long to have wings to fly, even as they, to distant +lands? Or the place where we would sit at mother's knee, enraptured +by wonderful tales of great deeds and conquests? In short, is it +love for the spot, every inch representing dear and precious +recollections of a happy, joyous, and playful childhood? + +If that were patriotism, few American men of today could be called +upon to be patriotic, since the place of play has been turned into +factory, mill, and mine, while deafening sounds of machinery have +replaced the music of the birds. Nor can we longer hear the tales of +great deeds, for the stories our mothers tell today are but those of +sorrow, tears, and grief. + +What, then, is patriotism? "Patriotism, sir, is the last resort of +scoundrels," said Dr. Johnson. Leo Tolstoy, the greatest +anti-patriot of our times, defines patriotism as the principle that +will justify the training of wholesale murderers; a trade that +requires better equipment for the exercise of man-killing than the +making of such necessities of life as shoes, clothing, and houses; a +trade that guarantees better returns and greater glory than that of +the average workingman. + +Gustave Herve, another great anti-patriot, justly calls patriotism a +superstition--one far more injurious, brutal, and inhumane than +religion. The superstition of religion originated in man's inability +to explain natural phenomena. That is, when primitive man heard +thunder or saw the lightning, he could not account for either, and +therefore concluded that back of them must be a force greater than +himself. Similarly he saw a supernatural force in the rain, and in +the various other changes in nature. Patriotism, on the other hand, +is a superstition artificially created and maintained through a +network of lies and falsehoods; a superstition that robs man of his +self-respect and dignity, and increases his arrogance and conceit. + +Indeed, conceit, arrogance, and egotism are the essentials of +patriotism. Let me illustrate. Patriotism assumes that our globe is +divided into little spots, each one surrounded by an iron gate. +Those who have had the fortune of being born on some particular spot, +consider themselves better, nobler, grander, more intelligent than +the living beings inhabiting any other spot. It is, therefore, the +duty of everyone living on that chosen spot to fight, kill, and die +in the attempt to impose his superiority upon all the others. + +The inhabitants of the other spots reason in like manner, of course, +with the result that, from early infancy, the mind of the child is +poisoned with blood-curdling stories about the Germans, the French, +the Italians, Russians, etc. When the child has reached manhood, he +is thoroughly saturated with the belief that he is chosen by the Lord +himself to defend HIS country against the attack or invasion of any +foreigner. It is for that purpose that we are clamoring for a +greater army and navy, more battleships and ammunition. It is for +that purpose that America has within a short time spent four hundred +million dollars. Just think of it--four hundred million dollars +taken from the produce of the PEOPLE. For surely it is not the rich +who contribute to patriotism. They are cosmopolitans, perfectly at +home in every land. We in America know well the truth of this. Are +not our rich Americans Frenchmen in France, Germans in Germany, or +Englishmen in England? And do they not squander with cosmopolitan +grace fortunes coined by American factory children and cotton slaves? +Yes, theirs is the patriotism that will make it possible to send +messages of condolence to a despot like the Russian Tsar, when any +mishap befalls him, as President Roosevelt did in the name of HIS +people, when Sergius was punished by the Russian revolutionists. + +It is a patriotism that will assist the arch-murderer, Diaz, in +destroying thousands of lives in Mexico, or that will even aid in +arresting Mexican revolutionists on American soil and keep them +incarcerated in American prisons, without the slightest cause or +reason. + +But, then, patriotism is not for those who represent wealth and +power. It is good enough for the people. It reminds one of the +historic wisdom of Frederic the Great, the bosom friend of Voltaire, +who said: "Religion is a fraud, but it must be maintained for the +masses." + +That patriotism is rather a costly institution, no one will doubt +after considering the following statistics. The progressive increase +of the expenditures for the leading armies and navies of the world +during the last quarter of a century is a fact of such gravity as to +startle every thoughtful student of economic problems. It may be +briefly indicated by dividing the time from 1881 to 1905 into +five-year periods, and noting the disbursements of several great +nations for army and navy purposes during the first and last of those +periods. From the first to the last of the periods noted the +expenditures of Great Britain increased from $2,101,848,936 to +$4,143,226,885, those of France from $3,324,500,000 to +$3,455,109,900, those of Germany from $725,000,200 to $2,700,375,600, +those of the United States from $1,275,500,750 to $2,650,900,450, +those of Russia from $1,900,975,500 to $5,250,445,100, those of Italy +from $1,600,975,750 to $1,755,500,100, and those of Japan from +$182,900,500 to $700,925,475. + +The military expenditures of each of the nations mentioned increased +in each of the five-year periods under review. During the entire +interval from 1881 to 1905 Great Britain's outlay for her army +increased fourfold, that of the United States was tripled, Russia's +was doubled, that of Germany increased 35 per cent., that of France +about 15 per cent., and that of Japan nearly 500 per cent. If we +compare the expenditures of these nations upon their armies with +their total expenditures for all the twenty-five years ending with +1905, the proportion rose as follows: + +In Great Britain from 20 per cent. to 37; in the United States from +15 to 23; in France from 16 to 18; in Italy from 12 to 15; in Japan +from 12 to 14. On the other hand, it is interesting to note that the +proportion in Germany decreased from about 58 per cent. to 25, the +decrease being due to the enormous increase in the imperial +expenditures for other purposes, the fact being that the army +expenditures for the period of 1901-5 were higher than for any +five-year period preceding. Statistics show that the countries in +which army expenditures are greatest, in proportion to the total +national revenues, are Great Britain, the United States, Japan, +France, and Italy, in the order named. + +The showing as to the cost of great navies is equally impressive. +During the twenty-five years ending with 1905 naval expenditures +increased approximately as follows: Great Britain, 300 per cent.; +France 60 per cent.; Germany 600 per cent.; the United States 525 per +cent.; Russia 300 per cent.; Italy 250 per cent.; and Japan, 700 per +cent. With the exception of Great Britain, the United States spends +more for naval purposes than any other nation, and this expenditure +bears also a larger proportion to the entire national disbursements +than that of any other power. In the period 1881-5, the expenditure +for the United States navy was $6.20 out of each $100 appropriated +for all national purposes; the amount rose to $6.60 for the next +five-year period, to $8.10 for the next, to $11.70 for the next, and +to $16.40 for 1901-5. It is morally certain that the outlay for the +current period of five years will show a still further increase. + +The rising cost of militarism may be still further illustrated by +computing it as a per capita tax on population. From the first to +the last of the five-year periods taken as the basis for the +comparisons here given, it has risen as follows: In Great Britain, +from $18.47 to $52.50; in France, from $19.66 to $23.62; in Germany, +from $10.17 to $15.51; in the United States, from $5.62 to $13.64; in +Russia, from $6.14 to $8.37; in Italy, from $9.59 to $11.24, and in +Japan from 86 cents to $3.11. + +It is in connection with this rough estimate of cost per capita that +the economic burden of militarism is most appreciable. The +irresistible conclusion from available data is that the increase of +expenditure for army and navy purposes is rapidly surpassing the +growth of population in each of the countries considered in the +present calculation. In other words, a continuation of the increased +demands of militarism threatens each of those nations with a +progressive exhaustion both of men and resources. + +The awful waste that patriotism necessitates ought to be sufficient +to cure the man of even average intelligence from this disease. Yet +patriotism demands still more. The people are urged to be patriotic +and for that luxury they pay, not only by supporting their +"defenders," but even by sacrificing their own children. Patriotism +requires allegiance to the flag, which means obedience and readiness +to kill father, mother, brother, sister. + +The usual contention is that we need a standing army to protect the +country from foreign invasion. Every intelligent man and woman +knows, however, that this is a myth maintained to frighten and coerce +the foolish. The governments of the world, knowing each other's +interests, do not invade each other. They have learned that they can +gain much more by international arbitration of disputes than by war +and conquest. Indeed, as Carlyle said, "War is a quarrel between two +thieves too cowardly to fight their own battle; therefore they take +boys from one village and another village; stick them into uniforms, +equip them with guns, and let them loose like wild beasts against +each other." + +It does not require much wisdom to trace every war back to a similar +cause. Let us take our own Spanish-American war, supposedly a great +and patriotic event in the history of the United States. How our +hearts burned with indignation against the atrocious Spaniards! +True, our indignation did not flare up spontaneously. It was +nurtured by months of newspaper agitation, and long after Butcher +Weyler had killed off many noble Cubans and outraged many Cuban +women. Still, in justice to the American Nation be it said, it did +grow indignant and was willing to fight, and that it fought bravely. +But when the smoke was over, the dead buried, and the cost of the war +came back to the people in an increase in the price of commodities +and rent--that is, when we sobered up from our patriotic spree--it +suddenly dawned on us that the cause of the Spanish-American war was +the consideration of the price of sugar; or, to be more explicit, +that the lives, blood, and money of the American people were used to +protect the interests of American capitalists, which were threatened +by the Spanish government. That this is not an exaggeration, but is +based on absolute facts and figures, is best proven by the attitude +of the American government to Cuban labor. When Cuba was firmly in +the clutches of the United States, the very soldiers sent to liberate +Cuba were ordered to shoot Cuban workingmen during the great +cigarmakers' strike, which took place shortly after the war. + +Nor do we stand alone in waging war for such causes. The curtain is +beginning to be lifted on the motives of the terrible Russo-Japanese +war, which cost so much blood and tears. And we see again that back +of the fierce Moloch of war stands the still fiercer god of +Commercialism. Kuropatkin, the Russian Minister of War during the +Russo-Japanese struggle, has revealed the true secret behind the +latter. The Tsar and his Grand Dukes, having invested money in +Corean concessions, the war was forced for the sole purpose of +speedily accumulating large fortunes. + +The contention that a standing army and navy is the best security of +peace is about as logical as the claim that the most peaceful citizen +is he who goes about heavily armed. The experience of every-day life +fully proves that the armed individual is invariably anxious to try +his strength. The same is historically true of governments. Really +peaceful countries do not waste life and energy in war preparations, +with the result that peace is maintained. + +However, the clamor for an increased army and navy is not due to any +foreign danger. It is owing to the dread of the growing discontent +of the masses and of the international spirit among the workers. It +is to meet the internal enemy that the Powers of various countries +are preparing themselves; an enemy, who, once awakened to +consciousness, will prove more dangerous than any foreign invader. + +The powers that have for centuries been engaged in enslaving the +masses have made a thorough study of their psychology. They know +that the people at large are like children whose despair, sorrow, and +tears can be turned into joy with a little toy. And the more +gorgeously the toy is dressed, the louder the colors, the more it +will appeal to the million-headed child. + +An army and navy represents the people's toys. To make them more +attractive and acceptable, hundreds and thousands of dollars are +being spent for the display of these toys. That was the purpose of +the American government in equipping a fleet and sending it along the +Pacific coast, that every American citizen should be made to feel the +pride and glory of the United States. The city of San Francisco +spent one hundred thousand dollars for the entertainment of the +fleet; Los Angeles, sixty thousand; Seattle and Tacoma, about one +hundred thousand. To entertain the fleet, did I say? To dine and +wine a few superior officers, while the "brave boys" had to mutiny to +get sufficient food. Yes, two hundred and sixty thousand dollars +were spent on fireworks, theatre parties, and revelries, at a time +when men, women, and children through the breadth and length of the +country were starving in the streets; when thousands of unemployed +were ready to sell their labor at any price. + +Two hundred and sixty thousand dollars! What could not have been +accomplished with such an enormous sum? But instead of bread and +shelter, the children of those cities were taken to see the fleet, +that it may remain, as one of the newspapers said, "a lasting memory +for the child." + +A wonderful thing to remember, is it not? The implements of +civilized slaughter. If the mind of the child is to be poisoned with +such memories, what hope is there for a true realization of human +brotherhood? + +We Americans claim to be a peace-loving people. We hate bloodshed; +we are opposed to violence. Yet we go into spasms of joy over the +possibility of projecting dynamite bombs from flying machines upon +helpless citizens. We are ready to hang, electrocute, or lynch +anyone, who, from economic necessity, will risk his own life in the +attempt upon that of some industrial magnate. Yet our hearts swell +with pride at the thought that America is becoming the most powerful +nation on earth, and that it will eventually plant her iron foot on +the necks of all other nations. + +Such is the logic of patriotism. + +Considering the evil results that patriotism is fraught with for the +average man, it is as nothing compared with the insult and injury +that patriotism heaps upon the soldier himself,--that poor, deluded +victim of superstition and ignorance. He, the savior of his country, +the protector of his nation,--what has patriotism in store for him? +A life of slavish submission, vice, and perversion, during peace; a +life of danger, exposure, and death, during war. + +While on a recent lecture tour in San Francisco, I visited the +Presidio, the most beautiful spot overlooking the Bay and Golden Gate +Park. Its purpose should have been playgrounds for children, gardens +and music for the recreation of the weary. Instead it is made ugly, +dull, and gray by barracks,--barracks wherein the rich would not +allow their dogs to dwell. In these miserable shanties soldiers are +herded like cattle; here they waste their young days, polishing the +boots and brass buttons of their superior officers. Here, too, I saw +the distinction of classes: sturdy sons of a free Republic, drawn up +in line like convicts, saluting every passing shrimp of a lieutenant. +American equality, degrading manhood and elevating the uniform! + +Barrack life further tends to develop tendencies of sexual +perversion. It is gradually producing along this line results +similar to European military conditions. Havelock Ellis, the noted +writer on sex psychology, has made a thorough study of the subject. +I quote: "Some of the barracks are great centers of male +prostitution.... The number of soldiers who prostitute themselves +is greater than we are willing to believe. It is no exaggeration to +say that in certain regiments the presumption is in favor of the +venality of the majority of the men.... On summer evenings Hyde +Park and the neighborhood of Albert Gate are full of guardsmen and +others plying a lively trade, and with little disguise, in uniform or +out.... In most cases the proceeds form a comfortable addition to +Tommy Atkins' pocket money." + +To what extent this perversion has eaten its way into the army and +navy can best be judged from the fact that special houses exist for +this form of prostitution. The practice is not limited to England; +it is universal. "Soldiers are no less sought after in France than +in England or in Germany, and special houses for military +prostitution exist both in Paris and the garrison towns." + +Had Mr. Havelock Ellis included America in his investigation of sex +perversion, he would have found that the same conditions prevail in +our army and navy as in those of other countries. The growth of the +standing army inevitably adds to the spread of sex perversion; the +barracks are the incubators. + +Aside from the sexual effects of barrack life, it also tends to unfit +the soldier for useful labor after leaving the army. Men, skilled in +a trade, seldom enter the army or navy, but even they, after a +military experience, find themselves totally unfitted for their +former occupations. Having acquired habits of idleness and a taste +for excitement and adventure, no peaceful pursuit can content them. +Released from the army, they can turn to no useful work. But it is +usually the social riff-raff, discharged prisoners and the like, whom +either the struggle for life or their own inclination drives into the +ranks. These, their military term over, again turn to their former +life of crime, more brutalized and degraded than before. It is a +well-known fact that in our prisons there is a goodly number of +ex-soldiers; while on the other hand, the army and navy are to a +great extent supplied with ex-convicts. + + +Of all the evil results, I have just described, none seems to me so +detrimental to human integrity as the spirit patriotism has produced +in the case of Private William Buwalda. Because he foolishly +believed that one can be a soldier and exercise his rights as a man +at the same time, the military authorities punished him severely. +True, he had served his country fifteen years, during which time his +record was unimpeachable. According to Gen. Funston, who reduced +Buwalda's sentence to three years, "the first duty of an officer or +an enlisted man is unquestioned obedience and loyalty to the +government, and it makes no difference whether he approves of that +government or not." Thus Funston stamps the true character of +allegiance. According to him, entrance into the army abrogates the +principles of the Declaration of Independence. + +What a strange development of patriotism that turns a thinking being +into a loyal machine! + +In justification of this most outrageous sentence of Buwalda, Gen. +Funston tells the American people that the soldier's action was a +"serious crime equal to treason." Now, what did this "terrible +crime" really consist of? Simply in this: William Buwalda was one of +fifteen hundred people who attended a public meeting in San +Francisco; and, oh, horrors, he shook hands with the speaker, Emma +Goldman. A terrible crime, indeed, which the General calls "a great +military offense, infinitely worse than desertion." + +Can there be a greater indictment against patriotism than that it +will thus brand a man a criminal, throw him into prison, and rob him +of the results of fifteen years of faithful service? + +Buwalda gave to his country the best years of his life and his very +manhood. But all that was as nothing. Patriotism is inexorable and, +like all insatiable monsters, demands all or nothing. It does not +admit that a soldier is also a human being, who has a right to his +own feelings and opinions, his own inclinations and ideas. No, +patriotism can not admit of that. That is the lesson which Buwalda +was made to learn; made to learn at a rather costly, though not at a +useless, price. When he returned to freedom, he had lost his +position in the army, but he regained his self-respect. After all, +that is worth three years of imprisonment. + +A writer on the military conditions of America, in a recent article, +commented on the power of the military man over the civilian in +Germany. He said, among other things, that if our Republic had no +other meaning than to guarantee all citizens equal rights, it would +have just cause for existence. I am convinced that the writer was +not in Colorado during the patriotic regime of General Bell. He +probably would have changed his mind had he seen how, in the name of +patriotism and the Republic, men were thrown into bull-pens, dragged +about, driven across the border, and subjected to all kinds of +indignities. Nor is that Colorado incident the only one in the +growth of military power in the United States. There is hardly a +strike where troops and militia do not come to the rescue of those in +power, and where they do not act as arrogantly and brutally as do the +men wearing the Kaiser's uniform. Then, too, we have the Dick +military law. Had the writer forgotten that? + +A great misfortune with most of our writers is that they are +absolutely ignorant on current events, or that, lacking honesty, they +will not speak of these matters. And so it has come to pass that the +Dick military law was rushed through Congress with little discussion +and still less publicity,--a law which gives the President the power +to turn a peaceful citizen into a bloodthirsty man-killer, supposedly +for the defense of the country, in reality for the protection of the +interests of that particular party whose mouthpiece the President +happens to be. + +Our writer claims that militarism can never become such a power in +America as abroad, since it is voluntary with us, while compulsory in +the Old World. Two very important facts, however, the gentleman +forgets to consider. First, that conscription has created in Europe +a deep-seated hatred of militarism among all classes of society. +Thousands of young recruits enlist under protest and, once in the +army, they will use every possible means to desert. Second, that it +is the compulsory feature of militarism which has created a +tremendous anti-militarist movement, feared by European Powers far +more than anything else. After all, the greatest bulwark of +capitalism is militarism. The very moment the latter is undermined, +capitalism will totter. True, we have no conscription; that is, men +are not usually forced to enlist in the army, but we have developed a +far more exacting and rigid force--necessity. Is it not a fact that +during industrial depressions there is a tremendous increase in the +number of enlistments? The trade of militarism may not be either +lucrative or honorable, but it is better than tramping the country in +search of work, standing in the bread line, or sleeping in municipal +lodging houses. After all, it means thirteen dollars per month, +three meals a day, and a place to sleep. Yet even necessity is not +sufficiently strong a factor to bring into the army an element of +character and manhood. No wonder our military authorities complain +of the "poor material" enlisting in the army and navy. This +admission is a very encouraging sign. It proves that there is still +enough of the spirit of independence and love of liberty left in the +average American to risk starvation rather than don the uniform. + +Thinking men and women the world over are beginning to realize that +patriotism is too narrow and limited a conception to meet the +necessities of our time. The centralization of power has brought +into being an international feeling of solidarity among the oppressed +nations of the world; a solidarity which represents a greater harmony +of interests between the workingman of America and his brothers +abroad than between the American miner and his exploiting compatriot; +a solidarity which fears not foreign invasion, because it is bringing +all the workers to the point when they will say to their masters, "Go +and do your own killing. We have done it long enough for you." + +This solidarity is awakening the consciousness of even the soldiers, +they, too, being flesh of the flesh of the great human family. A +solidarity that has proven infallible more than once during past +struggles, and which has been the impetus inducing the Parisian +soldiers, during the Commune of 1871, to refuse to obey when ordered +to shoot their brothers. It has given courage to the men who +mutinied on Russian warships during recent years. It will eventually +bring about the uprising of all the oppressed and downtrodden against +their international exploiters. + +The proletariat of Europe has realized the great force of that +solidarity and has, as a result, inaugurated a war against patriotism +and its bloody spectre, militarism. Thousands of men fill the +prisons of France, Germany, Russia, and the Scandinavian countries, +because they dared to defy the ancient superstition. Nor is the +movement limited to the working class; it has embraced +representatives in all stations of life, its chief exponents being +men and women prominent in art, science, and letters. + +America will have to follow suit. The spirit of militarism has +already permeated all walks of life. Indeed, I am convinced that +militarism is growing a greater danger here than anywhere else, +because of the many bribes capitalism holds out to those whom it +wishes to destroy. + +The beginning has already been made in the schools. Evidently the +government holds to the Jesuitical conception, "Give me the child +mind, and I will mould the man." Children are trained in military +tactics, the glory of military achievements extolled in the +curriculum, and the youthful minds perverted to suit the government. +Further, the youth of the country is appealed to in glaring posters +to join the army and navy. "A fine chance to see the world!" cries +the governmental huckster. Thus innocent boys are morally shanghaied +into patriotism, and the military Moloch strides conquering through +the Nation. + +The American workingman has suffered so much at the hands of the +soldier, State, and Federal, that he is quite justified in his +disgust with, and his opposition to, the uniformed parasite. +However, mere denunciation will not solve this great problem. What +we need is a propaganda of education for the soldier: anti-patriotic +literature that will enlighten him as to the real horrors of his +trade, and that will awaken his consciousness to his true relation to +the man to whose labor he owes his very existence. + +It is precisely this that the authorities fear most. It is already +high treason for a soldier to attend a radical meeting. No doubt +they will also stamp it high treason for a soldier to read a radical +pamphlet. But then, has not authority from time immemorial stamped +every step of progress as treasonable? Those, however, who earnestly +strive for social reconstruction can well afford to face all that; +for it is probably even more important to carry the truth into the +barracks than into the factory. When we have undermined the +patriotic lie, we shall have cleared the path for that great +structure wherein all nationalities shall be united into a universal +brotherhood,--a truly FREE SOCIETY. + + + + +FRANCISCO FERRER AND THE MODERN SCHOOL + + +Experience has come to be considered the best school of life. The +man or woman who does not learn some vital lesson in that school is +looked upon as a dunce indeed. Yet strange to say, that though +organized institutions continue perpetrating errors, though they +learn nothing from experience, we acquiesce, as a matter of course. + +There lived and worked in Barcelona a man by the name of Francisco +Ferrer. A teacher of children he was, known and loved by his people. +Outside of Spain only the cultured few knew of Francisco Ferrer's +work. To the world at large this teacher was non-existent. + +On the first of September, 1909, the Spanish government--at the +behest of the Catholic Church--arrested Francisco Ferrer. On the +thirteenth of October, after a mock trial, he was placed in the ditch +at Montjuich prison, against the hideous wall of many sighs, and shot +dead. Instantly Ferrer, the obscure teacher, became a universal +figure, blazing forth the indignation and wrath of the whole +civilized world against the wanton murder. + +The killing of Francisco Ferrer was not the first crime committed by +the Spanish government and the Catholic Church. The history of these +institutions is one long stream of fire and blood. Still they have +not learned through experience, nor yet come to realize that every +frail being slain by Church and State grows and grows into a mighty +giant, who will some day free humanity from their perilous hold. + +Francisco Ferrer was born in 1859, of humble parents. They were +Catholics, and therefore hoped to raise their son in the same faith. +They did not know that the boy was to become the harbinger of a great +truth, that his mind would refuse to travel in the old path. At an +early age Ferrer began to question the faith of his fathers. He +demanded to know how it is that the God who spoke to him of goodness +and love would mar the sleep of the innocent child with dread and awe +of tortures, of suffering, of hell. Alert and of a vivid and +investigating mind, it did not take him long to discover the +hideousness of that black monster, the Catholic Church. He would +have none of it. + +Francisco Ferrer was not only a doubter, a searcher for truth; he was +also a rebel. His spirit would rise in just indignation against the +iron regime of his country, and when a band of rebels, led by the +brave patriot, General Villacampa, under the banner of the Republican +ideal, made an onslaught on that regime, none was more ardent a +fighter than young Francisco Ferrer. The Republican ideal,--I hope +no one will confound it with the Republicanism of this country. +Whatever objection I, as an Anarchist, have to the Republicans of +Latin countries, I know they tower high above the corrupt and +reactionary party which, in America, is destroying every vestige of +liberty and justice. One has but to think of the Mazzinis, the +Garibaldis, the scores of others, to realize that their efforts were +directed, not merely towards the overthrow of despotism, but +particularly against the Catholic Church, which from its very +inception has been the enemy of all progress and liberalism. + +In America it is just the reverse. Republicanism stands for vested +rights, for imperialism, for graft, for the annihilation of every +semblance of liberty. Its ideal is the oily, creepy respectability +of a McKinley, and the brutal arrogance of a Roosevelt. + +The Spanish republican rebels were subdued. It takes more than one +brave effort to split the rock of ages, to cut off the head of that +hydra monster, the Catholic Church and the Spanish throne. Arrest, +persecution, and punishment followed the heroic attempt of the little +band. Those who could escape the bloodhounds had to flee for safety +to foreign shores. Francisco Ferrer was among the latter. He went +to France. + +How his soul must have expanded in the new land! France, the cradle +of liberty, of ideas, of action. Paris, the ever young, intense +Paris, with her pulsating life, after the gloom of his own belated +country,--how she must have inspired him. What opportunities, what a +glorious chance for a young idealist. + +Francisco Ferrer lost no time. Like one famished he threw himself +into the various liberal movements, met all kinds of people, learned, +absorbed, and grew. While there, he also saw in operation the Modern +School, which was to play such an important and fatal part in his +life. + +The Modern School in France was founded long before Ferrer's time. +Its originator, though on a small scale, was that sweet spirit, +Louise Michel. Whether consciously or unconsciously, our own great +Louise felt long ago that the future belongs to the young generation; +that unless the young be rescued from that mind and soul destroying +institution, the bourgeois school, social evils will continue to +exist. Perhaps she thought, with Ibsen, that the atmosphere is +saturated with ghosts, that the adult man and woman have so many +superstitions to overcome. No sooner do they outgrow the deathlike +grip of one spook, lo! they find themselves in the thralldom of +ninety-nine other spooks. Thus but a few reach the mountain peak of +complete regeneration. + +The child, however, has no traditions to overcome. Its mind is not +burdened with set ideas, its heart has not grown cold with class and +caste distinctions. The child is to the teacher what clay is to the +sculptor. Whether the world will receive a work of art or a wretched +imitation, depends to a large extent on the creative power of the +teacher. + +Louise Michel was pre-eminently qualified to meet the child's soul +cravings. Was she not herself of a childlike nature, so sweet and +tender, unsophisticated and generous. The soul of Louise burned +always at white heat over every social injustice. She was invariably +in the front ranks whenever the people of Paris rebelled against some +wrong. And as she was made to suffer imprisonment for her great +devotion to the oppressed, the little school on Montmartre was soon +no more. But the seed was planted, and has since borne fruit in many +cities of France. + +The most important venture of a Modern School was that of the great, +young old man, Paul Robin. Together with a few friends he +established a large school at Cempuis, a beautiful place near Paris. +Paul Robin aimed at a higher ideal than merely modern ideas in +education. He wanted to demonstrate by actual facts that the +bourgeois conception of heredity is but a mere pretext to exempt +society from its terrible crimes against the young. The contention +that the child must suffer for the sins of the fathers, that it must +continue in poverty and filth, that it must grow up a drunkard or +criminal, just because its parents left it no other legacy, was too +preposterous to the beautiful spirit of Paul Robin. He believed that +whatever part heredity may play, there are other factors equally +great, if not greater, that may and will eradicate or minimize the +so-called first cause. Proper economic and social environment, the +breath and freedom of nature, healthy exercise, love and sympathy, +and, above all, a deep understanding for the needs of the +child--these would destroy the cruel, unjust, and criminal stigma +imposed on the innocent young. + +Paul Robin did not select his children; he did not go to the +so-called best parents: he took his material wherever he could find +it. From the street, the hovels, the orphan and foundling asylums, +the reformatories, from all those gray and hideous places where a +benevolent society hides its victims in order to pacify its guilty +conscience. He gathered all the dirty, filthy, shivering little +waifs his place would hold, and brought them to Cempuis. There, +surrounded by nature's own glory, free and unrestrained, well fed, +clean kept, deeply loved and understood, the little human plants +began to grow, to blossom, to develop beyond even the expectations of +their friend and teacher, Paul Robin. + +The children grew and developed into self-reliant, liberty loving men +and women. What greater danger to the institutions that make the +poor in order to perpetuate the poor. Cempuis was closed by the +French government on the charge of co-education, which is prohibited +in France. However, Cempuis had been in operation long enough to +prove to all advanced educators its tremendous possibilities, and to +serve as an impetus for modern methods of education, that are slowly +but inevitably undermining the present system. + +Cempuis was followed by a great number of other educational +attempts,--among them, by Madelaine Vernet, a gifted writer and poet, +author of L'AMOUR LIBRE, and Sebastian Faure, with his LA RUCHE,[1] +which I visited while in Paris, in 1907. + +Several years ago Comrade Faure bought the land on which he built his +LA RUCHE. In a comparatively short time he succeeded in transforming +the former wild, uncultivated country into a blooming spot, having +all the appearance of a well kept farm. A large, square court, +enclosed by three buildings, and a broad path leading to the garden +and orchards, greet the eye of the visitor. The garden, kept as only +a Frenchman knows how, furnishes a large variety of vegetables for LA +RUCHE. + +Sebastian Faure is of the opinion that if the child is subjected to +contradictory influences, its development suffers in consequence. +Only when the material needs, the hygiene of the home, and +intellectual environment are harmonious, can the child grow into a +healthy, free being. + +Referring to his school, Sebastian Faure has this to say: + +"I have taken twenty-four children of both sexes, mostly orphans, or +those whose parents are too poor to pay. They are clothed, housed, +and educated at my expense. Till their twelfth year they will +receive a sound, elementary education. Between the age of twelve and +fifteen--their studies still continuing--they are to be taught some +trade, in keeping with their individual disposition and abilities. +After that they are at liberty to leave LA RUCHE to begin life in the +outside world, with the assurance that they may at any time return to +LA RUCHE, where they will be received with open arms and welcomed as +parents do their beloved children. Then, if they wish to work at our +place, they may do so under the following conditions: One third of +the product to cover his or her expenses of maintenance, another +third to go towards the general fund set aside for accommodating new +children, and the last third to be devoted to the personal use of the +child, as he or she may see fit. + +"The health of the children who are now in my care is perfect. Pure +air, nutritious food, physical exercise in the open, long walks, +observation of hygienic rules, the short and interesting method of +instruction, and, above all, our affectionate understanding and care +of the children, have produced admirable physical and mental results. + +"It would be unjust to claim that our pupils have accomplished +wonders; yet, considering that they belong to the average, having had +no previous opportunities, the results are very gratifying indeed. +The most important thing they have acquired--a rare trait with +ordinary school children--is the love of study, the desire to know, +to be informed. They have learned a new method of work, one that +quickens the memory and stimulates the imagination. We make a +particular effort to awaken the child's interest in his surroundings, +to make him realize the importance of observation, investigation, and +reflection, so that when the children reach maturity, they would not +be deaf and blind to the things about them. Our children never +accept anything in blind faith, without inquiry as to why and +wherefore; nor do they feel satisfied until their questions are +thoroughly answered. Thus their minds are free from doubts and fear +resultant from incomplete or untruthful replies; it is the latter +which warp the growth of the child, and create a lack of confidence +in himself and those about him. + +"It is surprising how frank and kind and affectionate our little ones +are to each other. The harmony between themselves and the adults at +LA RUCHE is highly encouraging. We should feel at fault if the +children were to fear or honor us merely because we are their elders. +We leave nothing undone to gain their confidence and love; that +accomplished, understanding will replace duty; confidence, fear; and +affection, severity. + +"No one has yet fully realized the wealth of sympathy, kindness, and +generosity hidden in the soul of the child. The effort of every true +educator should be to unlock that treasure--to stimulate the child's +impulses, and call forth the best and noblest tendencies. What +greater reward can there be for one whose life-work is to watch over +the growth of the human plant, than to see its nature unfold its +petals, and to observe it develop into a true individuality. My +comrades at LA RUCHE look for no greater reward, and it is due to +them and their efforts, even more than to my own, that our human +garden promises to bear beautiful fruit."[2] + +Regarding the subject of history and the prevailing old methods of +instruction, Sebastian Faure said: + +"We explain to our children that true history is yet to be +written,--the story of those who have died, unknown, in the effort to +aid humanity to greater achievement."[3] + +Francisco Ferrer could not escape this great wave of Modern School +attempts. He saw its possibilities, not merely in theoretic form, +but in their practical application to every-day needs. He must have +realized that Spain, more than any other country, stands in need of +just such schools, if it is ever to throw off the double yoke of +priest and soldier. + +When we consider that the entire system of education in Spain is in +the hands of the Catholic Church, and when we further remember the +Catholic formula, "To inculcate Catholicism in the mind of the child +until it is nine years of age is to ruin it forever for any other +idea," we will understand the tremendous task of Ferrer in bringing +the new light to his people. Fate soon assisted him in realizing his +great dream. + +Mlle. Meunier, a pupil of Francisco Ferrer, and a lady of wealth, +became interested in the Modern School project. When she died, she +left Ferrer some valuable property and twelve thousand francs yearly +income for the School. + +It is said that mean souls can conceive of naught but mean ideas. +If so, the contemptible methods of the Catholic Church to blackguard +Ferrer's character, in order to justify her own black crime, can +readily be explained. Thus the lie was spread in American Catholic +papers, that Ferrer used his intimacy with Mlle. Meunier to get +possession of her money. + +Personally, I hold that the intimacy, of whatever nature, between a +man and a woman, is their own affair, their sacred own. I would +therefore not lose a word in referring to the matter, if it were not +one of the many dastardly lies circulated about Ferrer. Of course, +those who know the purity of the Catholic clergy will understand the +insinuation. Have the Catholic priests ever looked upon woman as +anything but a sex commodity? The historical data regarding the +discoveries in the cloisters and monasteries will bear me out in +that. How, then, are they to understand the co-operation of a man +and a woman, except on a sex basis? + +As a matter of fact, Mlle. Meunier was considerably Ferrer's senior. +Having spent her childhood and girlhood with a miserly father and a +submissive mother, she could easily appreciate the necessity of love +and joy in child life. She must have seen that Francisco Ferrer was +a teacher, not college, machine, or diploma-made, but one endowed +with genius for that calling. + +Equipped with knowledge, with experience, and with the necessary +means; above all, imbued with the divine fire of his mission, our +Comrade came back to Spain, and there began his life's work. On the +ninth of September, 1901, the first Modern School was opened. It was +enthusiastically received by the people of Barcelona, who pledged +their support. In a short address at the opening of the School, +Ferrer submitted his program to his friends. He said: "I am not a +speaker, not a propagandist, not a fighter. I am a teacher; I love +children above everything. I think I understand them. I want my +contribution to the cause of liberty to be a young generation ready +to meet a new era." + +He was cautioned by his friends to be careful in his opposition to +the Catholic Church. They knew to what lengths she would go to +dispose of an enemy. Ferrer, too, knew. But, like Brand, he +believed in all or nothing. He would not erect the Modern School on +the same old lie. He would be frank and honest and open with the +children. + +Francisco Ferrer became a marked man. From the very first day of the +opening of the School, he was shadowed. The school building was +watched, his little home in Mangat was watched. He was followed +every step, even when he went to France or England to confer with his +colleagues. He was a marked man, and it was only a question of time +when the lurking enemy would tighten the noose. + +It succeeded, almost, in 1906, when Ferrer was implicated in the +attempt on the life of Alfonso. The evidence exonerating him was too +strong even for the black crows;[4] they had to let him go--not for +good, however. They waited. Oh, they can wait, when they have set +themselves to trap a victim. + +The moment came at last, during the anti-military uprising in Spain, +in July, 1909. One will have to search in vain the annals of +revolutionary history to find a more remarkable protest against +militarism. Having been soldier-ridden for centuries, the people of +Spain could stand the yoke no longer. They would refuse to +participate in useless slaughter. They saw no reason for aiding a +despotic government in subduing and oppressing a small people +fighting for their independence, as did the brave Riffs. No, they +would not bear arms against them. + +For eighteen hundred years the Catholic Church has preached the +gospel of peace. Yet, when the people actually wanted to make this +gospel a living reality, she urged the authorities to force them to +bear arms. Thus the dynasty of Spain followed the murderous methods +of the Russian dynasty,--the people were forced to the battlefield. + +Then, and not until then, was their power of endurance at an end. +Then, and not until then, did the workers of Spain turn against their +masters, against those who, like leeches, had drained their strength, +their very life-blood. Yes, they attacked the churches and the +priests, but if the latter had a thousand lives, they could not +possibly pay for the terrible outrages and crimes perpetrated upon +the Spanish people. + +Francisco Ferrer was arrested on the first of September, 1909. +Until October first, his friends and comrades did not even know what +had become of him. On that day a letter was received by L'HUMANITE, +from which can be learned the whole mockery of the trial. And the +next day his companion, Soledad Villafranca, received the following +letter: + +"No reason to worry; you know I am absolutely innocent. Today I am +particularly hopeful and joyous. It is the first time I can write to +you, and the first time since my arrest that I can bathe in the rays +of the sun, streaming generously through my cell window. You, too, +must be joyous." + +How pathetic that Ferrer should have believed, as late as October +fourth, that he would not be condemned to death. Even more pathetic +that his friends and comrades should once more have made the blunder +in crediting the enemy with a sense of justice. Time and again they +had placed faith in the judicial powers, only to see their brothers +killed before their very eyes. They made no preparation to rescue +Ferrer, not even a protest of any extent; nothing. "Why, it is +impossible to condemn Ferrer; he is innocent." But everything is +possible with the Catholic Church. Is she not a practiced henchman, +whose trials of her enemies are the worst mockery of justice? + +On October fourth Ferrer sent the following letter to L'HUMANITE: + + + The Prison Cell, Oct. 4, 1909. + + My dear Friends--Notwithstanding most absolute innocence, the + prosecutor demands the death penalty, based on denunciations of + the police, representing me as the chief of the world's + Anarchists, directing the labor syndicates of France, and guilty + of conspiracies and insurrections everywhere, and declaring that + my voyages to London and Paris were undertaken with no other + object. + + With such infamous lies they are trying to kill me. + + The messenger is about to depart and I have not time for more. + All the evidence presented to the investigating judge by the + police is nothing but a tissue of lies and calumnious + insinuations. But no proofs against me, having done nothing at + all. + + FERRER. + + +October thirteenth, 1909, Ferrer's heart, so brave, so staunch, so +loyal, was stilled. Poor fools! The last agonized throb of that +heart had barely died away when it began to beat a hundredfold in the +hearts of the civilized world, until it grew into terrific thunder, +hurling forth its malediction upon the instigators of the black +crime. Murderers of black garb and pious mien, to the bar of +justice! + +Did Francisco Ferrer participate in the anti-military uprising? +According to the first indictment, which appeared in a Catholic paper +in Madrid, signed by the Bishop and all the prelates of Barcelona, he +was not even accused of participation. The indictment was to the +effect that Francisco Ferrer was guilty of having organized godless +schools, and having circulated godless literature. But in the +twentieth century men can not be burned merely for their godless +beliefs. Something else had to be devised; hence the charge of +instigating the uprising. + +In no authentic source so far investigated could a single proof be +found to connect Ferrer with the uprising. But then, no proofs were +wanted, or accepted, by the authorities. There were seventy-two +witnesses, to be sure, but their testimony was taken on paper. They +never were confronted with Ferrer, or he with them. + +Is it psychologically possible that Ferrer should have participated? +I do not believe it is, and here are my reasons. Francisco Ferrer +was not only a great teacher, but he was also undoubtedly a marvelous +organizer. In eight years, between 1901-1909, he had organized in +Spain one hundred and nine schools, besides inducing the liberal +element of his country to organize three hundred and eight other +schools. In connection with his own school work, Ferrer had equipped +a modern printing plant, organized a staff of translators, and spread +broadcast one hundred and fifty thousand copies of modern scientific +and sociologic works, not to forget the large quantity of rationalist +text books. Surely none but the most methodical and efficient +organizer could have accomplished such a feat. + +On the other hand, it was absolutely proven that the anti-military +uprising was not at all organized; that it came as a surprise to the +people themselves, like a great many revolutionary waves on previous +occasions. The people of Barcelona, for instance, had the city in +their control for four days, and, according to the statement of +tourists, greater order and peace never prevailed. Of course, the +people were so little prepared that when the time came, they did not +know what to do. In this regard they were like the people of Paris +during the Commune of 1871. They, too, were unprepared. While they +were starving, they protected the warehouses, filled to the brim with +provisions. They placed sentinels to guard the Bank of France, where +the bourgeoisie kept the stolen money. The workers of Barcelona, +too, watched over the spoils of their masters. + +How pathetic is the stupidity of the underdog; how terribly tragic! +But, then, have not his fetters been forged so deeply into his flesh, +that he would not, even if he could, break them? The awe of +authority, of law, of private property, hundredfold burned into his +soul,--how is he to throw it off unprepared, unexpectedly? + +Can anyone assume for a moment that a man like Ferrer would affiliate +himself with such a spontaneous, unorganized effort? Would he not +have known that it would result in a defeat, a disastrous defeat for +the people? And is it not more likely that if he would have taken +part, he, the experienced ENTREPRENEUR, would have thoroughly +organized the attempt? If all other proofs were lacking, that one +factor would be sufficient to exonerate Francisco Ferrer. But there +are others equally convincing. + +For the very date of the outbreak, July twenty-fifth, Ferrer had +called a conference of his teachers and members of the League of +Rational Education. It was to consider the autumn work, and +particularly the publication of Elisee Reclus' great book, L'HOMME ET +LA TERRE, and Peter Kropotkin's GREAT FRENCH REVOLUTION. Is it at +all likely, is it at all plausible that Ferrer, knowing of the +uprising, being a party to it, would in cold blood invite his friends +and colleagues to Barcelona for the day on which he realized their +lives would be endangered? Surely, only the criminal, vicious mind +of a Jesuit could credit such deliberate murder. + +Francisco Ferrer had his life-work mapped out; he had everything to +lose and nothing to gain, except ruin and disaster, were he to lend +assistance to the outbreak. Not that he doubted the justice of the +people's wrath; but his work, his hope, his very nature was directed +toward another goal. + +In vain are the frantic efforts of the Catholic Church, her lies, +falsehoods, calumnies. She stands condemned by the awakened human +conscience of having once more repeated the foul crimes of the past. + +Francisco Ferrer is accused of teaching the children the most +blood-curdling ideas,--to hate God, for instance. Horrors! +Francisco Ferrer did not believe in the existence of a God. Why +teach the child to hate something which does not exist? Is it not +more likely that he took the children out into the open, that he +showed them the splendor of the sunset, the brilliancy of the starry +heavens, the awe-inspiring wonder of the mountains and seas; that he +explained to them in his simple, direct way the law of growth, of +development, of the interrelation of all life? In so doing he made +it forever impossible for the poisonous weeds of the Catholic Church +to take root in the child's mind. + +It has been stated that Ferrer prepared the children to destroy the +rich. Ghost stories of old maids. Is it not more likely that he +prepared them to succor the poor? That he taught them the +humiliation, the degradation, the awfulness of poverty, which is a +vice and not a virtue; that he taught the dignity and importance of +all creative efforts, which alone sustain life and build character. +Is it not the best and most effective way of bringing into the proper +light the absolute uselessness and injury of parasitism? + +Last, but not least, Ferrer is charged with undermining the army by +inculcating anti-military ideas. Indeed? He must have believed with +Tolstoy that war is legalized slaughter, that it perpetuates hatred +and arrogance, that it eats away the heart of nations, and turns them +into raving maniacs. + +However, we have Ferrer's own word regarding his ideas of modern +education: + +"I would like to call the attention of my readers to this idea: All +the value of education rests in the respect for the physical, +intellectual, and moral will of the child. Just as in science no +demonstration is possible save by facts, just so there is no real +education save that which is exempt from all dogmatism, which leaves +to the child itself the direction of its effort, and confines itself +to the seconding of its effort. Now, there is nothing easier than to +alter this purpose, and nothing harder than to respect it. +Education is always imposing, violating, constraining; the real +educator is he who can best protect the child against his (the +teacher's) own ideas, his peculiar whims; he who can best appeal to +the child's own energies. + +"We are convinced that the education of the future will be of an +entirely spontaneous nature; certainly we can not as yet realize it, +but the evolution of methods in the direction of a wider +comprehension of the phenomena of life, and the fact that all +advances toward perfection mean the overcoming of restraint,--all +this indicates that we are in the right when we hope for the +deliverance of the child through science. + +"Let us not fear to say that we want men capable of evolving without +stopping, capable of destroying and renewing their environments +without cessation, of renewing themselves also; men, whose +intellectual independence will be their greatest force, who will +attach themselves to nothing, always ready to accept what is best, +happy in the triumph of new ideas, aspiring to live multiple lives in +one life. Society fears such men; we therefore must not hope that it +will ever want an education able to give them to us. + +"We shall follow the labors of the scientists who study the child +with the greatest attention, and we shall eagerly seek for means of +applying their experience to the education which we want to build up, +in the direction of an ever fuller liberation of the individual. +But how can we attain our end? Shall it not be by putting ourselves +directly to the work favoring the foundation of new schools, which +shall be ruled as much as possible by this spirit of liberty, which +we forefeel will dominate the entire work of education in the future? + +"A trial has been made, which, for the present, has already given +excellent results. We can destroy all which in the present school +answers to the organization of constraint, the artificial +surroundings by which children are separated from nature and life, +the intellectual and moral discipline made use of to impose +ready-made ideas upon them, beliefs which deprave and annihilate +natural bent. Without fear of deceiving ourselves, we can restore +the child to the environment which entices it, the environment of +nature in which he will be in contact with all that he loves, and in +which impressions of life will replace fastidious book-learning. If +we did no more than that, we should already have prepared in great +part the deliverance of the child. + +"In such conditions we might already freely apply the data of science +and labor most fruitfully. + +"I know very well we could not thus realize all our hopes, that we +should often be forced, for lack of knowledge, to employ undesirable +methods; but a certitude would sustain us in our efforts--namely, +that even without reaching our aim completely we should do more and +better in our still imperfect work than the present school +accomplishes. I like the free spontaneity of a child who knows +nothing, better than the world-knowledge and intellectual deformity +of a child who has been subjected to our present education."[5] + +Had Ferrer actually organized the riots, had he fought on the +barricades, had he hurled a hundred bombs, he could not have been so +dangerous to the Catholic Church and to despotism, as with his +opposition to discipline and restraint. Discipline and +restraint--are they not back of all the evils in the world? +Slavery, submission, poverty, all misery, all social iniquities +result from discipline and restraint. Indeed, Ferrer was dangerous. +Therefore he had to die, October thirteenth, 1909, in the ditch of +Montjuich. Yet who dare say his death was in vain? In view of the +tempestuous rise of universal indignation: Italy naming streets in +memory of Francisco Ferrer, Belgium inaugurating a movement to erect +a memorial; France calling to the front her most illustrious men to +resume the heritage of the martyr; England being the first to issue a +biography:--all countries uniting in perpetuating the great work of +Francisco Ferrer; America, even, tardy always in progressive ideas, +giving birth to a Francisco Ferrer Association, its aim being to +publish a complete life of Ferrer and to organize Modern Schools all +over the country; in the face of this international revolutionary +wave, who is there to say Ferrer died in vain? + +That death at Montjuich,--how wonderful, how dramatic it was, how it +stirs the human soul. Proud and erect, the inner eye turned toward +the light, Francisco Ferrer needed no lying priests to give him +courage, nor did he upbraid a phantom for forsaking him. The +consciousness that his executioners represented a dying age, and that +his was the living truth, sustained him in the last heroic moments. + + A dying age and a living truth, + The living burying the dead. + + +[1] THE BEEHIVE. + +[2] MOTHER EARTH, 1907. + +[3] Ibid. + +[4] Black crows: The Catholic clergy. + +[5] MOTHER EARTH, December, 1909. + + + + +THE HYPOCRISY OF PURITANISM + + +Speaking of Puritanism in relation to American art, Mr. Gutzen +Burglum said: "Puritanism has made us self-centered and hypocritical +for so long, that sincerity and reverence for what is natural in our +impulses have been fairly bred out of us, with the result that there +can be neither truth nor individuality in our art." + +Mr. Burglum might have added that Puritanism has made life itself +impossible. More than art, more than estheticism, life represents +beauty in a thousand variations; it is, indeed, a gigantic panorama +of eternal change. Puritanism, on the other hand, rests on a fixed +and immovable conception of life; it is based on the Calvinistic idea +that life is a curse, imposed upon man by the wrath of God. In order +to redeem himself man must do constant penance, must repudiate every +natural and healthy impulse, and turn his back on joy and beauty. + +Puritanism celebrated its reign of terror in England during the +sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, destroying and crushing every +manifestation of art and culture. It was the spirit of Puritanism +which robbed Shelley of his children, because he would not bow to the +dicta of religion. It was the same narrow spirit which alienated +Byron from his native land, because that great genius rebelled +against the monotony, dullness, and pettiness of his country. It was +Puritanism, too, that forced some of England's freest women into the +conventional lie of marriage: Mary Wollstonecraft and, later, George +Eliot. And recently Puritanism has demanded another toll--the life +of Oscar Wilde. In fact, Puritanism has never ceased to be the most +pernicious factor in the domain of John Bull, acting as censor of the +artistic expression of his people, and stamping its approval only on +the dullness of middle-class respectability. + +It is therefore sheer British jingoism which points to America as the +country of Puritanic provincialism. It is quite true that our life +is stunted by Puritanism, and that the latter is killing what is +natural and healthy in our impulses. But it is equally true that it +is to England that we are indebted for transplanting this spirit on +American soil. It was bequeathed to us by the Pilgrim fathers. +Fleeing from persecution and oppression, the Pilgrims of Mayflower +fame established in the New World a reign of Puritanic tyranny and +crime. The history of New England, and especially of Massachusetts, +is full of the horrors that have turned life into gloom, joy into +despair, naturalness into disease, honesty and truth into hideous +lies and hypocrisies. The ducking-stool and whipping post, as well +as numerous other devices of torture, were the favorite English +methods for American purification. + +Boston, the city of culture, has gone down in the annals of +Puritanism as the "Bloody Town." It rivaled Salem, even, in her +cruel persecution of unauthorized religious opinions. On the now +famous Common a half-naked woman, with a baby in her arms, was +publicly whipped for the crime of free speech; and on the same spot +Mary Dyer, another Quaker woman, was hanged in 1659. In fact, Boston +has been the scene of more than one wanton crime committed by +Puritanism. Salem, in the summer of 1692, killed eighteen people for +witchcraft. Nor was Massachusetts alone in driving out the devil by +fire and brimstone. As Canning justly said: "The Pilgrim fathers +infested the New World to redress the balance of the Old." The +horrors of that period have found their most supreme expression in +the American classic, THE SCARLET LETTER. + +Puritanism no longer employs the thumbscrew and lash; but it still +has a most pernicious hold on the minds and feelings of the American +people. Naught else can explain the power of a Comstock. Like the +Torquemadas of ante-bellum days, Anthony Comstock is the autocrat of +American morals; he dictates the standards of good and evil, of +purity and vice. Like a thief in the night he sneaks into the +private lives of the people, into their most intimate relations. +The system of espionage established by this man Comstock puts to +shame the infamous Third Division of the Russian secret police. Why +does the public tolerate such an outrage on its liberties? Simply +because Comstock is but the loud expression of the Puritanism bred in +the Anglo-Saxon blood, and from whose thraldom even liberals have not +succeeded in fully emancipating themselves. The visionless and +leaden elements of the old Young Men's and Women's Christian +Temperance Unions, Purity Leagues, American Sabbath Unions, and the +Prohibition Party, with Anthony Comstock as their patron saint, are +the grave diggers of American art and culture. + +Europe can at least boast of a bold art and literature which delve +deeply into the social and sexual problems of our time, exercising a +severe critique of all our shams. As with a surgeon's knife every +Puritanic carcass is dissected, and the way thus cleared for man's +liberation from the dead weights of the past. But with Puritanism as +the constant check upon American life, neither truth nor sincerity is +possible. Nothing but gloom and mediocrity to dictate human conduct, +curtail natural expression, and stifle our best impulses. +Puritanism in this the twentieth century is as much the enemy of +freedom and beauty as it was when it landed on Plymouth Rock. It +repudiates, as something vile and sinful, our deepest feelings; but +being absolutely ignorant as to the real functions of human emotions, +Puritanism is itself the creator of the most unspeakable vices. + +The entire history of asceticism proves this to be only too true. +The Church, as well as Puritanism, has fought the flesh as something +evil; it had to be subdued and hidden at all cost. The result of +this vicious attitude is only now beginning to be recognized by +modern thinkers and educators. They realize that "nakedness has a +hygienic value as well as a spiritual significance, far beyond its +influences in allaying the natural inquisitiveness of the young or +acting as a preventative of morbid emotion. It is an inspiration to +adults who have long outgrown any youthful curiosities. The vision +of the essential and eternal human form, the nearest thing to us in +all the world, with its vigor and its beauty and its grace, is one of +the prime tonics of life."[1] But the spirit of purism has so perverted +the human mind that it has lost the power to appreciate the beauty of +nudity, forcing us to hide the natural form under the plea of +chastity. Yet chastity itself is but an artificial imposition upon +nature, expressive of a false shame of the human form. The modern +idea of chastity, especially in reference to woman, its greatest +victim, is but the sensuous exaggeration of our natural impulses. +"Chastity varies with the amount of clothing," and hence Christians +and purists forever hasten to cover the "heathen" with tatters, and +thus convert him to goodness and chastity. + +Puritanism, with its perversion of the significance and functions of +the human body, especially in regard to woman, has condemned her to +celibacy, or to the indiscriminate breeding of a diseased race, or to +prostitution. The enormity of this crime against humanity is +apparent when we consider the results. Absolute sexual continence is +imposed upon the unmarried woman, under pain of being considered +immoral or fallen, with the result of producing neurasthenia, +impotence, depression, and a great variety of nervous complaints +involving diminished power of work, limited enjoyment of life, +sleeplessness, and preoccupation with sexual desires and imaginings. +The arbitrary and pernicious dictum of total continence probably also +explains the mental inequality of the sexes. Thus Freud believes +that the intellectual inferiority of so many women is due to the +inhibition of thought imposed upon them for the purpose of sexual +repression. Having thus suppressed the natural sex desires of the +unmarried woman, Puritanism, on the other hand, blesses her married +sister for incontinent fruitfulness in wedlock. Indeed, not merely +blesses her, but forces the woman, oversexed by previous repression, +to bear children, irrespective of weakened physical condition or +economic inability to rear a large family. Prevention, even by +scientifically determined safe methods, is absolutely prohibited; +nay, the very mention of the subject is considered criminal. + + +Thanks to this Puritanic tyranny, the majority of women soon find +themselves at the ebb of their physical resources. Ill and worn, +they are utterly unable to give their children even elementary care. +That, added to economic pressure, forces many women to risk utmost +danger rather than continue to bring forth life. The custom of +procuring abortions has reached such vast proportions in America as +to be almost beyond belief. According to recent investigations along +this line, seventeen abortions are committed in every hundred +pregnancies. This fearful percentage represents only cases which +come to the knowledge of physicians. Considering the secrecy in +which this practice is necessarily shrouded, and the consequent +professional inefficiency and neglect, Puritanism continuously exacts +thousands of victims to its own stupidity and hypocrisy. + +Prostitution, although hounded, imprisoned, and chained, is +nevertheless the greatest triumph of Puritanism. It is its most +cherished child, all hypocritical sanctimoniousness notwithstanding. +The prostitute is the fury of our century, sweeping across the +"civilized" countries like a hurricane, and leaving a trail of +disease and disaster. The only remedy Puritanism offers for this +ill-begotten child is greater repression and more merciless +persecution. The latest outrage is represented by the Page Law, +which imposes upon New York the terrible failure and crime of Europe; +namely, registration and segregation of the unfortunate victims of +Puritanism. In equally stupid manner purism seeks to check the +terrible scourge of its own creation--venereal diseases. Most +disheartening it is that this spirit of obtuse narrow-mindedness has +poisoned even our so-called liberals, and has blinded them into +joining the crusade against the very things born of the hypocrisy of +Puritanism--prostitution and its results. In wilful blindness +Puritanism refuses to see that the true method of prevention is the +one which makes it clear to all that "venereal diseases are not a +mysterious or terrible thing, the penalty of the sin of the flesh, a +sort of shameful evil branded by purist malediction, but an ordinary +disease which may be treated and cured." By its methods of +obscurity, disguise, and concealment, Puritanism has furnished +favorable conditions for the growth and spread of these diseases. +Its bigotry is again most strikingly demonstrated by the senseless +attitude in regard to the great discovery of Prof. Ehrlich, hypocrisy +veiling the important cure for syphilis with vague allusions to a +remedy for "a certain poison." + +The almost limitless capacity of Puritanism for evil is due to its +intrenchment behind the State and the law. Pretending to safeguard +the people against "immorality," it has impregnated the machinery of +government and added to its usurpation of moral guardianship the +legal censorship of our views, feelings, and even of our conduct. + +Art, literature, the drama, the privacy of the mails, in fact, our +most intimate tastes, are at the mercy of this inexorable tyrant. +Anthony Comstock, or some other equally ignorant policeman, has been +given power to desecrate genius, to soil and mutilate the sublimest +creation of nature--the human form. Books dealing with the most +vital issues of our lives, and seeking to shed light upon dangerously +obscured problems, are legally treated as criminal offenses, and their +helpless authors thrown into prison or driven to destruction and +death. + +Not even in the domain of the Tsar is personal liberty daily outraged +to the extent it is in America, the stronghold of the Puritanic +eunuchs. Here the only day of recreation left to the masses, Sunday, +has been made hideous and utterly impossible. All writers on +primitive customs and ancient civilization agree that the Sabbath was +a day of festivities, free from care and duties, a day of general +rejoicing and merry-making. In every European country this tradition +continues to bring some relief from the humdrum and stupidity of our +Christian era. Everywhere concert halls, theaters, museums, and +gardens are filled with men, women, and children, particularly +workers with their families, full of life and joy, forgetful of the +ordinary rules and conventions of their every-day existence. It is +on that day that the masses demonstrate what life might really mean +in a sane society, with work stripped of its profit-making, +soul-destroying purpose. + +Puritanism has robbed the people even of that one day. Naturally, +only the workers are affected: our millionaires have their luxurious +homes and elaborate clubs. The poor, however, are condemned to the +monotony and dullness of the American Sunday. The sociability and +fun of European outdoor life is here exchanged for the gloom of the +church, the stuffy, germ-saturated country parlor, or the brutalizing +atmosphere of the back-room saloon. In Prohibition States the people +lack even the latter, unless they can invest their meager earnings in +quantities of adulterated liquor. As to Prohibition, every one knows +what a farce it really is. Like all other achievements of Puritanism +it, too, has but driven the "devil" deeper into the human system. +Nowhere else does one meet so many drunkards as in our Prohibition +towns. But so long as one can use scented candy to abate the foul +breath of hypocrisy, Puritanism is triumphant. Ostensibly +Prohibition is opposed to liquor for reasons of health and economy, +but the very spirit of Prohibition being itself abnormal, it succeeds +but in creating an abnormal life. + +Every stimulus which quickens the imagination and raises the spirits, +is as necessary to our life as air. It invigorates the body, and +deepens our vision of human fellowship. Without stimuli, in one form +or another, creative work is impossible, nor indeed the spirit of +kindliness and generosity. The fact that some great geniuses have +seen their reflection in the goblet too frequently, does not justify +Puritanism in attempting to fetter the whole gamut of human emotions. +A Byron and a Poe have stirred humanity deeper than all the Puritans +can ever hope to do. The former have given to life meaning and +color; the latter are turning red blood into water, beauty into +ugliness, variety into uniformity and decay. Puritanism, in whatever +expression, is a poisonous germ. On the surface everything may look +strong and vigorous; yet the poison works its way persistently, until +the entire fabric is doomed. With Hippolyte Taine, every truly free +spirit has come to realize that "Puritanism is the death of culture, +philosophy, humor, and good fellowship; its characteristics are +dullness, monotony, and gloom." + + +[1] THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. Havelock Ellis. + + + + +THE TRAFFIC IN WOMEN + + +Our reformers have suddenly made a great discovery--the white slave +traffic. The papers are full of these "unheard of conditions," and +lawmakers are already planning a new set of laws to check the horror. + +It is significant that whenever the public mind is to be diverted +from a great social wrong, a crusade is inaugurated against +indecency, gambling, saloons, etc. And what is the result of such +crusades? Gambling is increasing, saloons are doing a lively +business through back entrances, prostitution is at its height, and +the system of pimps and cadets is but aggravated. + +How is it that an institution, known almost to every child, should +have been discovered so suddenly? How is it that this evil, known to +all sociologists, should now be made such an important issue? + +To assume that the recent investigation of the white slave traffic +(and, by the way, a very superficial investigation) has discovered +anything new, is, to say the least, very foolish. Prostitution has +been, and is, a widespread evil, yet mankind goes on its business, +perfectly indifferent to the sufferings and distress of the victims +of prostitution. As indifferent, indeed, as mankind has remained to +our industrial system, or to economic prostitution. + +Only when human sorrows are turned into a toy with glaring colors +will baby people become interested--for a while at least. The people +are a very fickle baby that must have new toys every day. The +"righteous" cry against the white slave traffic is such a toy. It +serves to amuse the people for a little while, and it will help to +create a few more fat political jobs--parasites who stalk about the +world as inspectors, investigators, detectives, and so forth. + +What is really the cause of the trade in women? Not merely white +women, but yellow and black women as well. Exploitation, of course; +the merciless Moloch of capitalism that fattens on underpaid labor, +thus driving thousands of women and girls into prostitution. With +Mrs. Warren these girls feel, "Why waste your life working for a few +shillings a week in a scullery, eighteen hours a day?" + +Naturally our reformers say nothing about this cause. They know it +well enough, but it doesn't pay to say anything about it. It is much +more profitable to play the Pharisee, to pretend an outraged +morality, than to go to the bottom of things. + +However, there is one commendable exception among the young writers: +Reginald Wright Kauffman, whose work, THE HOUSE OF BONDAGE, is the +first earnest attempt to treat the social evil, not from a +sentimental Philistine viewpoint. A journalist of wide experience, +Mr. Kauffman proves that our industrial system leaves most women no +alternative except prostitution. The women portrayed in THE HOUSE OF +BONDAGE belong to the working class. Had the author portrayed the +life of women in other spheres, he would have been confronted with +the same state of affairs. + +Nowhere is woman treated according to the merit of her work, but +rather as a sex. It is therefore almost inevitable that she should +pay for her right to exist, to keep a position in whatever line, with +sex favors. Thus it is merely a question of degree whether she sells +herself to one man, in or out of marriage, or to many men. Whether +our reformers admit it or not, the economic and social inferiority of +woman is responsible for prostitution. + +Just at present our good people are shocked by the disclosures that +in New York City alone, one out of every ten women works in a +factory, that the average wage received by women is six dollars per +week for forty-eight to sixty hours of work, and that the majority of +female wage workers face many months of idleness which leaves the +average wage about $280 a year. In view of these economic horrors, +is it to be wondered at that prostitution and the white slave trade +have become such dominant factors? + +Lest the preceding figures be considered an exaggeration, it is well +to examine what some authorities on prostitution have to say: + +"A prolific cause of female depravity can be found in the several +tables, showing the description of the employment pursued, and the +wages received, by the women previous to their fall, and it will be a +question for the political economist to decide how far mere business +consideration should be an apology on the part of employers for a +reduction in their rates of remuneration, and whether the savings of +a small percentage on wages is not more than counter-balanced by the +enormous amount of taxation enforced on the public at large to defray +the expenses incurred on account of a system of vice, WHICH IS THE +DIRECT RESULT, IN MANY CASES, OF INSUFFICIENT COMPENSATION OF HONEST +LABOR."[1] + +Our present-day reformers would do well to look into Dr. Sanger's +book. There they will find that out of 2,000 cases under his +observation, but few came from the middle classes, from well-ordered +conditions, or pleasant homes. By far the largest majority were +working girls and working women; some driven into prostitution +through sheer want, others because of a cruel, wretched life at home, +others again because of thwarted and crippled physical natures (of +which I shall speak later on). Also it will do the maintainers of +purity and morality good to learn that out of two thousand cases, 490 +were married women, women who lived with their husbands. Evidently +there was not much of a guaranty for their "safety and purity" in the +sanctity of marriage.[2] + +Dr. Alfred Blaschko, in PROSTITUTION IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY, is +even more emphatic in characterizing economic conditions as one of +the most vital factors of prostitution. + +"Although prostitution has existed in all ages, it was left to the +nineteenth century to develop it into a gigantic social institution. +The development of industry with vast masses of people in the +competitive market, the growth and congestion of large cities, the +insecurity and uncertainty of employment, has given prostitution an +impetus never dreamed of at any period in human history." + +And again Havelock Ellis, while not so absolute in dealing with the +economic cause, is nevertheless compelled to admit that it is +indirectly and directly the main cause. Thus he finds that a large +percentage of prostitutes is recruited from the servant class, +although the latter have less care and greater security. On the +other hand, Mr. Ellis does not deny that the daily routine, the +drudgery, the monotony of the servant girl's lot, and especially the +fact that she may never partake of the companionship and joy of a +home, is no mean factor in forcing her to seek recreation and +forgetfulness in the gaiety and glimmer of prostitution. In other +words, the servant girl, being treated as a drudge, never having the +right to herself, and worn out by the caprices of her mistress, can +find an outlet, like the factory or shopgirl, only in prostitution. + +The most amusing side of the question now before the public is the +indignation of our "good, respectable people," especially the various +Christian gentlemen, who are always to be found in the front ranks of +every crusade. Is it that they are absolutely ignorant of the +history of religion, and especially of the Christian religion? Or is +it that they hope to blind the present generation to the part played +in the past by the Church in relation to prostitution? Whatever +their reason, they should be the last to cry out against the +unfortunate victims of today, since it is known to every intelligent +student that prostitution is of religious origin, maintained and +fostered for many centuries, not as a shame but as a virtue, hailed +as such by the Gods themselves. + +"It would seem that the origin of prostitution is to be found +primarily in a religious custom, religion, the great conserver of +social tradition, preserving in a transformed shape a primitive +freedom that was passing out of the general social life. The typical +example is that recorded by Herodotus, in the fifth century before +Christ, at the Temple of Mylitta, the Babylonian Venus, where every +woman, once in her life, had to come and give herself to the first +stranger, who threw a coin in her lap, to worship the goddess. Very +similar customs existed in other parts of Western Asia, in North +Africa, in Cyprus, and other islands of the Eastern Mediterranean, +and also in Greece, where the temple of Aphrodite on the fort at +Corinth possessed over a thousand hierodules, dedicated to the +service of the goddess. + +"The theory that religious prostitution developed, as a general rule, +out of the belief that the generative activity of human beings +possessed a mysterious and sacred influence in promoting the +fertility of Nature, is maintained by all authoritative writers on +the subject. Gradually, however, and when prostitution became an +organized institution under priestly influence, religious +prostitution developed utilitarian sides, thus helping to increase +public revenue. + +"The rise of Christianity to political power produced little change +in policy. The leading fathers of the Church tolerated prostitution. +Brothels under municipal protection are found in the thirteenth +century. They constituted a sort of public service, the directors of +them being considered almost as public servants."[3] + +To this must be added the following from Dr. Sanger's work: + +"Pope Clement II. issued a bull that prostitutes would be tolerated +if they pay a certain amount of their earnings to the Church. + +"Pope Sixtus IV. was more practical; from one single brothel, which +he himself had built, he received an income of 20,000 ducats." + +In modern times the Church is a little more careful in that +direction. At least she does not openly demand tribute from +prostitutes. She finds it much more profitable to go in for real +estate, like Trinity Church, for instance, to rent out death traps at +an exorbitant price to those who live off and by prostitution. + +Much as I should like to, my space will not admit speaking of +prostitution in Egypt, Greece, Rome, and during the Middle Ages. The +conditions in the latter period are particularly interesting, +inasmuch as prostitution was organized into guilds, presided over by +a brothel Queen. These guilds employed strikes as a medium of +improving their condition and keeping a standard price. Certainly +that is more practical a method than the one used by the modern wage +slave in society. + +It would be one-sided and extremely superficial to maintain that the +economic factor is the only cause of prostitution. There are others +no less important and vital. That, too, our reformers know, but dare +discuss even less than the institution that saps the very life out of +both men and women. I refer to the sex question, the very mention of +which causes most people moral spasms. + +It is a conceded fact that woman is being reared as a sex commodity, +and yet she is kept in absolute ignorance of the meaning and +importance of sex. Everything dealing with the subject is +suppressed, and persons who attempt to bring light into this terrible +darkness are persecuted and thrown into prison. Yet it is +nevertheless true that so long as a girl is not to know how to take +care of herself, not to know the function of the most important part +of her life, we need not be surprised if she becomes an easy prey to +prostitution, or to any other form of a relationship which degrades +her to the position of an object for mere sex gratification. + +It is due to this ignorance that the entire life and nature of the +girl is thwarted and crippled. We have long ago taken it as a +self-evident fact that the boy may follow the call of the wild; that +is to say, that the boy may, as soon has his sex nature asserts +itself, satisfy that nature; but our moralists are scandalized at the +very thought that the nature of a girl should assert itself. To the +moralist prostitution does not consist so much in the fact that the +woman sells her body, but rather that she sells it out of wedlock. +That this is no mere statement is proved by the fact that marriage +for monetary considerations is perfectly legitimate, sanctified by +law and public opinion, while any other union is condemned and +repudiated. Yet a prostitute, if properly defined, means nothing +else than "any person for whom sexual relationships are subordinated +to gain."[4] + +"Those women are prostitutes who sell their bodies for the exercise +of the sexual act and make of this a profession."[5] + +In fact, Banger goes further; he maintains that the act of +prostitution is "intrinsically equal to that of a man or woman who +contracts a marriage for economic reasons." + +Of course, marriage is the goal of every girl, but as thousands of +girls cannot marry, our stupid social customs condemn them either to +a life of celibacy or prostitution. Human nature asserts itself +regardless of all laws, nor is there any plausible reason why nature +should adapt itself to a perverted conception of morality. + +Society considers the sex experiences of a man as attributes of his +general development, while similar experiences in the life of a woman +are looked upon as a terrible calamity, a loss of honor and of all +that is good and noble in a human being. This double standard of +morality has played no little part in the creation and perpetuation +of prostitution. It involves the keeping of the young in absolute +ignorance on sex matters, which alleged "innocence," together with an +overwrought and stifled sex nature, helps to bring about a state of +affairs that our Puritans are so anxious to avoid or prevent. + +Not that the gratification of sex must needs lead to prostitution; it +is the cruel, heartless, criminal persecution of those who dare +divert from the beaten paths, which is responsible for it. + +Girls, mere children, work in crowded, over-heated rooms ten to +twelve hours daily at a machine, which tends to keep them in a +constant over-excited sex state. Many of these girls have no home or +comforts of any kind; therefore the street or some place of cheap +amusement is the only means of forgetting their daily routine. This +naturally brings them into close proximity with the other sex. It is +hard to say which of the two factors brings the girl's over-sexed +condition to a climax, but it is certainly the most natural thing +that a climax should result. That is the first step toward +prostitution. Nor is the girl to be held responsible for it. On the +contrary, it is altogether the fault of society, the fault of our +lack of understanding, of our lack of appreciation of life in the +making; especially is it the criminal fault of our moralists, who +condemn a girl for all eternity, because she has gone from the "path +of virtue"; that is, because her first sex experience has taken place +without the sanction of the Church. + +The girl feels herself a complete outcast, with the doors of home and +society closed in her face. Her entire training and tradition is +such that the girl herself feels depraved and fallen, and therefore +has no ground to stand upon, or any hold that will lift her up, +instead of dragging her down. Thus society creates the victims that +it afterwards vainly attempts to get rid of. The meanest, most +depraved and decrepit man still considers himself too good to take as +his wife the woman whose grace he was quite willing to buy, even +though he might thereby save her from a life of horror. Nor can she +turn to her own sister for help. In her stupidity the latter deems +herself too pure and chaste, not realizing that her own position is +in many respects even more deplorable than her sister's of the +street. + + +"The wife who married for money, compared with the prostitute," says +Havelock Ellis, "is the true scab. She is paid less, gives much more +in return in labor and care, and is absolutely bound to her master. +The prostitute never signs away the right over her own person, she +retains her freedom and personal rights, nor is she always compelled +to submit to a man's embrace." + + +Nor does the better-than-thou woman realize the apologist claim of +Lecky that "though she may be the supreme type of vice, she is also +the most efficient guardian of virtue. But for her, happy homes +would be polluted, unnatural and harmful practice would abound." + +Moralists are ever ready to sacrifice one-half of the human race for +the sake of some miserable institution which they can not outgrow. +As a matter of fact, prostitution is no more a safeguard for the +purity of the home than rigid laws are a safeguard against +prostitution. Fully fifty per cent. of married men are patrons of +brothels. It is through this virtuous element that the married +women--nay, even the children--are infected with venereal diseases. +Yet society has not a word of condemnation for the man, while no law +is too monstrous to be set in motion against the helpless victim. +She is not only preyed upon by those who use her, but she is also +absolutely at the mercy of every policeman and miserable detective on +the beat, the officials at the station house, the authorities in +every prison. + + +In a recent book by a woman who was for twelve years the mistress of +a "house," are to be found the following figures: "The authorities +compelled me to pay every month fines between $14.70 to $29.70, the +girls would pay from $5.70 to $9.70 to the police." Considering that +the writer did her business in a small city, that the amounts she +gives do not include extra bribes and fines, one can readily see the +tremendous revenue the police department derives from the blood money +of its victims, whom it will not even protect. Woe to those who +refuse to pay their toll; they would be rounded up like cattle, "if +only to make a favorable impression upon the good citizens of the +city, or if the powers needed extra money on the side. For the +warped mind who believes that a fallen woman is incapable of human +emotion it would be impossible to realize the grief, the disgrace, +the tears, the wounded pride that was ours every time we were pulled +in." + +Strange, isn't it, that a woman who has a kept a "house" should be +able to feel that way? But stranger still that a good Christian +world should bleed and fleece such women, and give them nothing in +return except obloquy and persecution. Oh, for the charity of a +Christian world! + +Much stress is laid on white slaves being imported into America. How +would America ever retain her virtue if Europe did not help her out? +I will not deny that this may be the case in some instances, any more +than I will deny that there are emissaries of Germany and other +countries luring economic slaves into America; but I absolutely deny +that prostitution is recruited to any appreciable extent from Europe. +It may be true that the majority of prostitutes in New York City are +foreigners, but that is because the majority of the population is +foreign. The moment we go to any other American city, to Chicago or +the Middle West, we shall find that the number of foreign +prostitutes is by far a minority. + +Equally exaggerated is the belief that the majority of street girls +in this city were engaged in this business before they came to +America. Most of the girls speak excellent English, are Americanized +in habits and appearance,--a thing absolutely impossible unless they +had lived in this country many years. That is, they were driven into +prostitution by American conditions, by the thoroughly American +custom for excessive display of finery and clothes, which, of course, +necessitates money,--money that cannot be earned in shops or +factories. + +In other words, there is no reason to believe that any set of men +would go to the risk and expense of getting foreign products, when +American conditions are overflooding the market with thousands of +girls. On the other hand, there is sufficient evidence to prove that +the export of American girls for the purpose of prostitution is by no +means a small factor. + +Thus Clifford G. Roe, ex-Assistant State Attorney of Cook County, +Ill., makes the open charge that New England girls are shipped to +Panama for the express use of men in the employ of Uncle Sam. Mr. +Roe adds that "there seems to be an underground railroad between +Boston and Washington which many girls travel." Is it not +significant that the railroad should lead to the very seat of Federal +authority? That Mr. Roe said more than was desired in certain +quarters is proved by the fact that he lost his position. It is not +practical for men in office to tell tales from school. + +The excuse given for the conditions in Panama is that there are no +brothels in the Canal Zone. That is the usual avenue of escape for a +hypocritical world that dares not face the truth. Not in the Canal +Zone, not in the city limits,--therefore prostitution does not exist. + +Next to Mr. Roe, there is James Bronson Reynolds, who has made a +thorough study of the white slave traffic in Asia. As a staunch +American citizen and friend of the future Napoleon of America, +Theodore Roosevelt, he is surely the last to discredit the virtue of +his country. Yet we are informed by him that in Hong Kong, Shanghai, +and Yokohama, the Augean stables of American vice are located. There +American prostitutes have made themselves so conspicuous that in the +Orient "American girl" is synonymous with prostitute. Mr. Reynolds +reminds his countrymen that while Americans in China are under the +protection of our consular representatives, the Chinese in America +have no protection at all. Every one who knows the brutal and +barbarous persecution Chinese and Japanese endure on the Pacific +Coast, will agree with Mr. Reynolds. + +In view of the above facts it is rather absurd to point to Europe as +the swamp whence come all the social diseases of America. Just as +absurd is it to proclaim the myth that the Jews furnish the largest +contingent of willing prey. I am sure that no one will accuse me of +nationalistic tendencies. I am glad to say that I have developed out +of them, as out of many other prejudices. If, therefore, I resent +the statement that Jewish prostitutes are imported, it is not because +of any Judaistic sympathies, but because of the facts inherent in the +lives of these people. No one but the most superficial will claim +that Jewish girls migrate to strange lands, unless they have some tie +or relation that brings them there. The Jewish girl is not +adventurous. Until recent years she had never left home, not even so +far as the next village or town, except it were to visit some +relative. Is it then credible that Jewish girls would leave their +parents or families, travel thousands of miles to strange lands, +through the influence and promises of strange forces? Go to any of +the large incoming steamers and see for yourself if these girls do +not come either with their parents, brothers, aunts, or other +kinsfolk. There may be exceptions, of course, but to state that +large numbers of Jewish girls are imported for prostitution, or any +other purpose, is simply not to know Jewish psychology. + +Those who sit in a glass house do wrong to throw stones about them; +besides, the American glass house is rather thin, it will break +easily, and the interior is anything but a gainly sight. + +To ascribe the increase in prostitution to alleged importation, to +the growth of the cadet system, or similar causes, is highly +superficial. I have already referred to the former. As to the cadet +system, abhorrent as it is, we must not ignore the fact that it is +essentially a phase of modern prostitution,--a phase accentuated by +suppression and graft, resulting from sporadic crusades against the +social evil. + +The procurer is no doubt a poor specimen of the human family, but in +what manner is he more despicable than the policeman who takes the +last cent from the street walker, and then locks her up in the +station house? Why is the cadet more criminal, or a greater menace +to society, than the owners of department stores and factories, who +grow fat on the sweat of their victims, only to drive them to the +streets? I make no plea for the cadet, but I fail to see why he +should be mercilessly hounded, while the real perpetrators of all +social iniquity enjoy immunity and respect. Then, too, it is well to +remember that it is not the cadet who makes the prostitute. It is +our sham and hypocrisy that create both the prostitute and the cadet. + +Until 1894 very little was known in America of the procurer. Then we +were attacked by an epidemic of virtue. Vice was to be abolished, +the country purified at all cost. The social cancer was therefore +driven out of sight, but deeper into the body. Keepers of brothels, +as well as their unfortunate victims, were turned over to the tender +mercies of the police. The inevitable consequence of exorbitant +bribes, and the penitentiary, followed. + +While comparatively protected in the brothels, where they represented +a certain monetary value, the girls now found themselves on the +street, absolutely at the mercy of the graft-greedy police. +Desperate, needing protection and longing for affection, these girls +naturally proved an easy prey for cadets, themselves the result of +the spirit of our commercial age. Thus the cadet system was the +direct outgrowth of police persecution, graft, and attempted +suppression of prostitution. It were sheer folly to confound this +modern phase of the social evil with the causes of the latter. + +Mere suppression and barbaric enactments can serve but to embitter, +and further degrade, the unfortunate victims of ignorance and +stupidity. The latter has reached its highest expression in the +proposed law to make humane treatment of prostitutes a crime, +punishing any one sheltering a prostitute with five years' +imprisonment and $10,000 fine. Such an attitude merely exposes the +terrible lack of understanding of the true causes of prostitution, as +a social factor, as well as manifesting the Puritanic spirit of the +Scarlet Letter days. + +There is not a single modern writer on the subject who does not refer +to the utter futility of legislative methods in coping with the +issue. Thus Dr. Blaschko finds that governmental suppression and +moral crusades accomplish nothing save driving the evil into secret +channels, multiplying its dangers to society. Havelock Ellis, the +most thorough and humane student of prostitution, proves by a wealth +of data that the more stringent the methods of persecution the worse +the condition becomes. Among other data we learn that in France, "in +1560, Charles IX. abolished brothels through an edict, but the +numbers of prostitutes were only increased, while many new brothels +appeared in unsuspected shapes, and were more dangerous. In spite of +all such legislation, OR BECAUSE OF IT, there has been no country in +which prostitution has played a more conspicuous part."[6] + +An educated public opinion, freed from the legal and moral hounding +of the prostitute, can alone help to ameliorate present conditions. +Wilful shutting of eyes and ignoring of the evil as a social factor +of modern life, can but aggravate matters. We must rise above our +foolish notions of "better than thou," and learn to recognize in the +prostitute a product of social conditions. Such a realization will +sweep away the attitude of hypocrisy, and insure a greater +understanding and more humane treatment. As to a thorough +eradication of prostitution, nothing can accomplish that save a +complete transvaluation of all accepted values--especially the moral +ones--coupled with the abolition of industrial slavery. + + +[1] Dr. Sanger, THE HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. + +[2] It is a significant fact that Dr. Sanger's book has been excluded +from the U. S. mails. Evidently the authorities are not anxious that +the public be informed as to the true cause of prostitution. + +[3] Havelock Ellis, SEX AND SOCIETY. + +[4] Guyot, LA PROSTITUTION. + +[5] Banger, CRIMINALITE ET CONDITION ECONOMIQUE. + +[6] SEX AND SOCIETY. + + + + +WOMAN SUFFRAGE + + +We boast of the age of advancement, of science, and progress. Is it +not strange, then, that we still believe in fetich worship? True, +our fetiches have different form and substance, yet in their power +over the human mind they are still as disastrous as were those of +old. + +Our modern fetich is universal suffrage. Those who have not yet +achieved that goal fight bloody revolutions to obtain it, and those +who have enjoyed its reign bring heavy sacrifice to the altar of this +omnipotent deity. Woe to the heretic who dare question that +divinity! + +Woman, even more than man, is a fetich worshipper, and though her +idols may change, she is ever on her knees, ever holding up her +hands, ever blind to the fact that her god has feet of clay. Thus +woman has been the greatest supporter of all deities from time +immemorial. Thus, too, she has had to pay the price that only gods +can exact,--her freedom, her heart's blood, her very life. + +Nietzsche's memorable maxim, "When you go to woman, take the whip +along," is considered very brutal, yet Nietzsche expressed in one +sentence the attitude of woman towards her gods. + +Religion, especially the Christian religion, has condemned woman to +the life of an inferior, a slave. It has thwarted her nature and +fettered her soul, yet the Christian religion has no greater +supporter, none more devout, than woman. Indeed, it is safe to say +that religion would have long ceased to be a factor in the lives of +the people, if it were not for the support it receives from woman. +The most ardent churchworkers, the most tireless missionaries the +world over, are women, always sacrificing on the altar of the gods +that have chained her spirit and enslaved her body. + +The insatiable monster, war, robs woman of all that is dear and +precious to her. It exacts her brothers, lovers, sons, and in return +gives her a life of loneliness and despair. Yet the greatest +supporter and worshiper of war is woman. She it is who instills the +love of conquest and power into her children; she it is who whispers +the glories of war into the ears of her little ones, and who rocks +her baby to sleep with the tunes of trumpets and the noise of guns. +It is woman, too, who crowns the victor on his return from the +battlefield. Yes, it is woman who pays the highest price to that +insatiable monster, war. + +Then there is the home. What a terrible fetich it is! How it saps +the very life-energy of woman,--this modern prison with golden bars. +Its shining aspect blinds woman to the price she would have to pay as +wife, mother, and housekeeper. Yet woman clings tenaciously to the +home, to the power that holds her in bondage. + +It may be said that because woman recognizes the awful toll she is +made to pay to the Church, State, and the home, she wants suffrage to +set herself free. That may be true of the few; the majority of +suffragists repudiate utterly such blasphemy. On the contrary, they +insist always that it is woman suffrage which will make her a better +Christian and homekeeper, a staunch citizen of the State. Thus +suffrage is only a means of strengthening the omnipotence of the very +Gods that woman has served from time immemorial. + +What wonder, then, that she should be just as devout, just as +zealous, just as prostrate before the new idol, woman suffrage. As +of old, she endures persecution, imprisonment, torture, and all forms +of condemnation, with a smile on her face. As of old, the most +enlightened, even, hope for a miracle from the twentieth century +deity,--suffrage. Life, happiness, joy, freedom, independence,--all +that, and more, is to spring from suffrage. In her blind devotion +woman does not see what people of intellect perceived fifty years +ago: that suffrage is an evil, that it has only helped to enslave +people, that it has but closed their eyes that they may not see how +craftily they were made to submit. + +Woman's demand for equal suffrage is based largely on the contention +that woman must have the equal right in all affairs of society. No +one could, possibly, refute that, if suffrage were a right. Alas, +for the ignorance of the human mind, which can see a right in an +imposition. Or is it not the most brutal imposition for one set of +people to make laws that another set is coerced by force to obey? +Yet woman clamors for that "golden opportunity" that has wrought so +much misery in the world, and robbed man of his integrity and +self-reliance; an imposition which has thoroughly corrupted the +people, and made them absolute prey in the hands of unscrupulous +politicians. + +The poor, stupid, free American citizen! Free to starve, free to +tramp the highways of this great country, he enjoys universal +suffrage, and, by that right, he has forged chains about his limbs. +The reward that he receives is stringent labor laws prohibiting the +right of boycott, of picketing, in fact, of everything, except the +right to be robbed of the fruits of his labor. Yet all these +disastrous results of the twentieth century fetich have taught woman +nothing. But, then, woman will purify politics, we are assured. + +Needless to say, I am not opposed to woman suffrage on the +conventional ground that she is not equal to it. I see neither +physical, psychological, nor mental reasons why woman should not have +the equal right to vote with man. But that can not possibly blind me +to the absurd notion that woman will accomplish that wherein man has +failed. If she would not make things worse, she certainly could not +make them better. To assume, therefore, that she would succeed in +purifying something which is not susceptible of purification, is to +credit her with supernatural powers. Since woman's greatest +misfortune has been that she was looked upon as either angel or +devil, her true salvation lies in being placed on earth; namely, in +being considered human, and therefore subject to all human follies +and mistakes. Are we, then, to believe that two errors will make a +right? Are we to assume that the poison already inherent in politics +will be decreased, if women were to enter the political arena? The +most ardent suffragists would hardly maintain such a folly. + +As a matter of fact, the most advanced students of universal suffrage +have come to realize that all existing systems of political power are +absurd, and are completely inadequate to meet the pressing issues of +life. This view is also borne out by a statement of one who is +herself an ardent believer in woman suffrage, Dr. Helen L. Sumner. +In her able work on EQUAL SUFFRAGE, she says: "In Colorado, we find +that equal suffrage serves to show in the most striking way the +essential rottenness and degrading character of the existing system." +Of course, Dr. Sumner has in mind a particular system of voting, but +the same applies with equal force to the entire machinery of the +representative system. With such a basis, it is difficult to +understand how woman, as a political factor, would benefit either +herself or the rest of mankind. + +But, say our suffrage devotees, look at the countries and States +where female suffrage exists. See what woman has accomplished--in +Australia, New Zealand, Finland, the Scandinavian countries, and in +our own four States, Idaho, Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah. Distance +lends enchantment--or, to quote a Polish formula--"it is well where +we are not." Thus one would assume that those countries and States +are unlike other countries or States, that they have greater +freedom, greater social and economic equality, a finer appreciation +of human life, deeper understanding of the great social struggle, +with all the vital questions it involves for the human race. + +The women of Australia and New Zealand can vote, and help make the +laws. Are the labor conditions better there than they are in +England, where the suffragettes are making such a heroic struggle? +Does there exist a greater motherhood, happier and freer children +than in England? Is woman there no longer considered a mere sex +commodity? Has she emancipated herself from the Puritanical double +standard of morality for men and women? Certainly none but the +ordinary female stump politician will dare answer these questions in +the affirmative. If that be so, it seems ridiculous to point to +Australia and New Zealand as the Mecca of equal suffrage +accomplishments. + +On the other hand, it is a fact to those who know the real political +conditions in Australia, that politics have gagged labor by enacting +the most stringent labor laws, making strikes without the sanction of +an arbitration committee a crime equal to treason. + +Not for a moment do I mean to imply that woman suffrage is +responsible for this state of affairs. I do mean, however, that +there is no reason to point to Australia as a wonder-worker of +woman's accomplishment, since her influence has been unable to free +labor from the thralldom of political bossism. + +Finland has given woman equal suffrage; nay, even the right to sit in +Parliament. Has that helped to develop a greater heroism, an +intenser zeal than that of the women of Russia? Finland, like +Russia, smarts under the terrible whip of the bloody Tsar. Where are +the Finnish Perovskaias, Spiridonovas, Figners, Breshkovskaias? +Where are the countless numbers of Finnish young girls who cheerfully +go to Siberia for their cause? Finland is sadly in need of heroic +liberators. Why has the ballot not created them? The only Finnish +avenger of his people was a man, not a woman, and he used a more +effective weapon than the ballot. + +As to our own States where women vote, and which are constantly being +pointed out as examples of marvels, what has been accomplished there +through the ballot that women do not to a large extent enjoy in other +States; or that they could not achieve through energetic efforts +without the ballot? + +True, in the suffrage States women are guaranteed equal rights to +property; but of what avail is that right to the mass of women +without property, the thousands of wage workers, who live from hand +to mouth? That equal suffrage did not, and cannot, affect their +condition is admitted even by Dr. Sumner, who certainly is in a +position to know. As an ardent suffragist, and having been sent to +Colorado by the Collegiate Equal Suffrage League of New York State to +collect material in favor of suffrage, she would be the last to say +anything derogatory; yet we are informed that "equal suffrage has but +slightly affected the economic conditions of women. That women do +not receive equal pay for equal work, and that, though woman in +Colorado has enjoyed school suffrage since 1876, women teachers are +paid less than in California." On the other hand, Miss Sumner fails +to account for the fact that although women have had school suffrage +for thirty-four years, and equal suffrage since 1894, the census in +Denver alone a few months ago disclosed the fact of fifteen thousand +defective school children. And that, too, with mostly women in the +educational department, and also notwithstanding that women in +Colorado have passed the "most stringent laws for child and animal +protection." The women of Colorado "have taken great interest in the +State institutions for the care of dependent, defective, and +delinquent children." What a horrible indictment against woman's +care and interest, if one city has fifteen thousand defective +children. What about the glory of woman suffrage, since it has +failed utterly in the most important social issue, the child? And +where is the superior sense of justice that woman was to bring into +the political field? Where was it in 1903, when the mine owners +waged a guerilla war against the Western Miners' Union; when General +Bell established a reign of terror, pulling men out of beds at night, +kidnapping them across the border line, throwing them into bull pens, +declaring "to hell with the Constitution, the club is the +Constitution"? Where were the women politicians then, and why did +they not exercise the power of their vote? But they did. They +helped to defeat the most fair-minded and liberal man, Governor +Waite. The latter had to make way for the tool of the mine kings, +Governor Peabody, the enemy of labor, the Tsar of Colorado. +"Certainly male suffrage could have done nothing worse." Granted. +Wherein, then, are the advantages to woman and society from woman +suffrage? The oft-repeated assertion that woman will purify politics +is also but a myth. It is not borne out by the people who know the +political conditions of Idaho, Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah. + +Woman, essentially a purist, is naturally bigotted and relentless in +her effort to make others as good as she thinks they ought to be. +Thus, in Idaho, she has disfranchised her sister of the street, and +declared all women of "lewd character" unfit to vote. "Lewd" not +being interpreted, of course, as prostitution IN marriage. It goes +without saying that illegal prostitution and gambling have been +prohibited. In this regard the law must needs be of feminine nature: +it always prohibits. Therein all laws are wonderful. They go no +further, but their very tendencies open all the floodgates of hell. +Prostitution and gambling have never done a more flourishing business +than since the law has been set against them. + +In Colorado, the Puritanism of woman has expressed itself in a more +drastic form. "Men of notoriously unclean lives, and men connected +with saloons, have been dropped from politics since women have the +vote."[1] Could brother Comstock do more? Could all the Puritan +fathers have done more? I wonder how many women realize the gravity +of this would-be feat. I wonder if they understand that it is the +very thing which, instead of elevating woman, has made her a +political spy, a contemptible pry into the private affairs of people, +not so much for the good of the cause, but because, as a Colorado +woman said, "they like to get into houses they have never been in, +and find out all they can, politically and otherwise."[2] Yes, and +into the human soul and its minutest nooks and corners. For nothing +satisfies the craving of most women so much as scandal. And when did +she ever enjoy such opportunities as are hers, the politician's? + +"Notoriously unclean lives, and men connected with the saloons." +Certainly, the lady vote gatherers can not be accused of much sense +of proportion. Granting even that these busybodies can decide whose +lives are clean enough for that eminently clean atmosphere, politics, +must it follow that saloon-keepers belong to the same category? +Unless it be American hypocrisy and bigotry, so manifest in the +principle of Prohibition, which sanctions the spread of drunkenness +among men and women of the rich class, yet keeps vigilant watch on +the only place left to the poor man. If no other reason, woman's +narrow and purist attitude toward life makes her a greater danger to +liberty wherever she has political power. Man has long overcome the +superstitions that still engulf woman. In the economic competitive +field, man has been compelled to exercise efficiency, judgment, +ability, competency. He therefore had neither time nor inclination +to measure everyone's morality with a Puritanic yardstick. In his +political activities, too, he has not gone about blindfolded. He +knows that quantity and not quality is the material for the political +grinding mill, and, unless he is a sentimental reformer or an old +fossil, he knows that politics can never be anything but a swamp. + +Women who are at all conversant with the process of politics, know +the nature of the beast, but in their self-sufficiency and egotism +they make themselves believe that they have but to pet the beast, and +he will become as gentle as a lamb, sweet and pure. As if women have +not sold their votes, as if women politicians can not be bought! If +her body can be bought in return for material consideration, why not +her vote? That it is being done in Colorado and in other States, is +not denied even by those in favor of woman suffrage. + +As I have said before, woman's narrow view of human affairs is not +the only argument against her as a politician superior to man. There +are others. Her life-long economic parasitism has utterly blurred +her conception of the meaning of equality. She clamors for equal +rights with men, yet we learn that "few women care to canvas in +undesirable districts."[3] How little equality means to them compared +with the Russian women, who face hell itself for their ideal! + +Woman demands the same rights as man, yet she is indignant that her +presence does not strike him dead: he smokes, keeps his hat on, and +does not jump from his seat like a flunkey. These may be trivial +things, but they are nevertheless the key to the nature of American +suffragists. To be sure, their English sisters have outgrown these +silly notions. They have shown themselves equal to the greatest +demands on their character and power of endurance. All honor to the +heroism and sturdiness of the English suffragettes. Thanks to their +energetic, aggressive methods, they have proved an inspiration to some +of our own lifeless and spineless ladies. But after all, the +suffragettes, too, are still lacking in appreciation of real +equality. Else how is one to account for the tremendous, truly +gigantic effort set in motion by those valiant fighters for a +wretched little bill which will benefit a handful of propertied +ladies, with absolutely no provision for the vast mass of +workingwomen? True, as politicians they must be opportunists, must +take half measures if they can not get all. But as intelligent and +liberal women they ought to realize that if the ballot is a weapon, +the disinherited need it more than the economically superior class, +and that the latter already enjoy too much power by virtue of their +economic superiority. + +The brilliant leader of the English suffragettes, Mrs. Emmeline +Pankhurst, herself admitted, when on her American lecture tour, that +there can be no equality between political superiors and inferiors. +If so, how will the workingwoman of England, already inferior +economically to the ladies who are benefited by the Shackleton bill,[4] +be able to work with their political superiors, should the bill pass? +Is it not probable that the class of Annie Keeney, so full of zeal, +devotion, and martyrdom, will be compelled to carry on their backs +their female political bosses, even as they are carrying their +economic masters. They would still have to do it, were universal +suffrage for men and women established in England. No matter what +the workers do, they are made to pay, always. Still, those who +believe in the power of the vote show little sense of justice when +they concern themselves not at all with those whom, as they claim, it +might serve most. + +The American suffrage movement has been, until very recently, +altogether a parlor affair, absolutely detached from the economic +needs of the people. Thus Susan B. Anthony, no doubt an exceptional +type of woman, was not only indifferent but antagonistic to labor; +nor did she hesitate to manifest her antagonism when, in 1869, she +advised women to take the places of striking printers in New York.[5] +I do not know whether her attitude had changed before her death. + +There are, of course, some suffragists who are affiliated with +workingwomen--the Women's Trade Union League, for instance; but they +are a small minority, and their activities are essentially economic. +The rest look upon toil as a just provision of Providence. What +would become of the rich, if not for the poor? What would become of +these idle, parasitic ladies, who squander more in a week than their +victims earn in a year, if not for the eighty million wage workers? +Equality, who ever heard of such a thing? + +Few countries have produced such arrogance and snobbishness as +America. Particularly this is true of the American woman of the +middle class. She not only considers herself the equal of man, but +his superior, especially in her purity, goodness, and morality. +Small wonder that the American suffragist claims for her vote the +most miraculous powers. In her exalted conceit she does not see how +truly enslaved she is, not so much by man, as by her own silly +notions and traditions. Suffrage can not ameliorate that sad fact; +it can only accentuate it, as indeed it does. + +One of the great American women leaders claims that woman is entitled +not only to equal pay, but that she ought to be legally entitled even +to the pay of her husband. Failing to support her, he should be put +in convict stripes, and his earnings in prison be collected by his +equal wife. Does not another brilliant exponent of the cause claim +for woman that her vote will abolish the social evil, which has been +fought in vain by the collective efforts of the most illustrious +minds the world over? It is indeed to be regretted that the alleged +creator of the universe has already presented us with his wonderful +scheme of things, else woman suffrage would surely enable woman to +outdo him completely. + +Nothing is so dangerous as the dissection of a fetich. If we have +outlived the time when such heresy was punishable at the stake, we +have not outlived the narrow spirit of condemnation of those who dare +differ with accepted notions. Therefore I shall probably be put down +as an opponent of woman. But that can not deter me from looking the +question squarely in the face. I repeat what I have said in the +beginning: I do not believe that woman will make politics worse; nor +can I believe that she could make it better. If, then, she cannot +improve on man's mistakes, why perpetuate the latter? + +History may be a compilation of lies; nevertheless, it contains a few +truths, and they are the only guide we have for the future. The +history of the political activities of men proves that they have +given him absolutely nothing that he could not have achieved in a +more direct, less costly, and more lasting manner. As a matter of +fact, every inch of ground he has gained has been through a constant +fight, a ceaseless struggle for self-assertion, and not through +suffrage. There is no reason whatever to assume that woman, in her +climb to emancipation, has been, or will be, helped by the ballot. + +In the darkest of all countries, Russia, with her absolute despotism, +woman has become man's equal, not through the ballot, but by her will +to be and to do. Not only has she conquered for herself every avenue +of learning and vocation, but she has won man's esteem, his respect, +his comradeship; aye, even more than that: she has gained the +admiration, the respect of the whole world. That, too, not through +suffrage, but by her wonderful heroism, her fortitude, her ability, +will power, and her endurance in the struggle for liberty. Where are +the women in any suffrage country or State that can lay claim to such +a victory? When we consider the accomplishments of woman in America, +we find also that something deeper and more powerful than suffrage +has helped her in the march to emancipation. + +It is just sixty-two years ago since a handful of women at the Seneca +Falls Convention set forth a few demands for their right to equal +education with men, and access to the various professions, trades, +etc. What wonderful accomplishment, what wonderful triumphs! Who +but the most ignorant dare speak of woman as a mere domestic drudge? +Who dare suggest that this or that profession should not be open to +her? For over sixty years she has molded a new atmosphere and a new +life for herself. She has become a world power in every domain of +human thought and activity. And all that without suffrage, without +the right to make laws, without the "privilege" of becoming a judge, +a jailer, or an executioner. + +Yes, I may be considered an enemy of woman; but if I can help her see +the light, I shall not complain. + +The misfortune of woman is not that she is unable to do the work of +man, but that she is wasting her life force to outdo him, with a +tradition of centuries which has left her physically incapable of +keeping pace with him. Oh, I know some have succeeded, but at what +cost, at what terrific cost! The import is not the kind of work +woman does, but rather the quality of the work she furnishes. She +can give suffrage or the ballot no new quality, nor can she receive +anything from it that will enhance her own quality. Her development, +her freedom, her independence, must come from and through herself. +First, by asserting herself as a personality, and not as a sex +commodity. Second, by refusing the right to anyone over her body; by +refusing to bear children, unless she wants them; by refusing to be a +servant to God, the State, society, the husband, the family, etc.; by +making her life simpler, but deeper and richer. That is, by trying +to learn the meaning and substance of life in all its complexities, +by freeing herself from the fear of public opinion and public +condemnation. Only that, and not the ballot, will set woman free, +will make her a force hitherto unknown in the world, a force for real +love, for peace, for harmony; a force of divine fire, of life giving; +a creator of free men and women. + + +[1] EQUAL SUFFRAGE. Dr. Helen Sumner. + +[2] EQUAL SUFFRAGE. + +[3] Dr. Helen A. Sumner. + +[4] Mr. Shackleton was a labor leader. It is therefore self-evident +that he should introduce a bill excluding his own constituents. The +English Parliament is full of such Judases. + +[5] EQUAL SUFFRAGE. Dr. Helen A. Sumner. + + + + +THE TRAGEDY OF WOMAN'S EMANCIPATION + + +I begin with an admission: Regardless of all political and economic +theories, treating of the fundamental differences between various +groups within the human race, regardless of class and race +distinctions, regardless of all artificial boundary lines between +woman's rights and man's rights, I hold that there is a point where +these differentiations may meet and grow into one perfect whole. + +With this I do not mean to propose a peace treaty. The general +social antagonism which has taken hold of our entire public life +today, brought about through the force of opposing and contradictory +interests, will crumble to pieces when the reorganization of our +social life, based upon the principles of economic justice, shall +have become a reality. + +Peace or harmony between the sexes and individuals does not +necessarily depend on a superficial equalization of human beings; nor +does it call for the elimination of individual traits and +peculiarities. The problem that confronts us today, and which the +nearest future is to solve, is how to be one's self and yet in +oneness with others, to feel deeply with all human beings and still +retain one's own characteristic qualities. This seems to me to be +the basis upon which the mass and the individual, the true democrat +and the true individuality, man and woman, can meet without +antagonism and opposition. The motto should not be: Forgive one +another; rather, Understand one another. The oft-quoted sentence of +Madame de Stael: "To understand everything means to forgive +everything," has never particularly appealed to me; it has the odor +of the confessional; to forgive one's fellow-being conveys the idea +of pharisaical superiority. To understand one's fellow-being +suffices. The admission partly represents the fundamental aspect of +my views on the emancipation of woman and its effect upon the entire +sex. + +Emancipation should make it possible for woman to be human in the +truest sense. Everything within her that craves assertion and +activity should reach its fullest expression; all artificial barriers +should be broken, and the road towards greater freedom cleared of +every trace of centuries of submission and slavery. + +This was the original aim of the movement for woman's emancipation. +But the results so far achieved have isolated woman and have robbed +her of the fountain springs of that happiness which is so essential +to her. Merely external emancipation has made of the modern woman an +artificial being, who reminds one of the products of French +arboriculture with its arabesque trees and shrubs, pyramids, wheels, +and wreaths; anything, except the forms which would be reached by the +expression of her own inner qualities. Such artificially grown +plants of the female sex are to be found in large numbers, especially +in the so-called intellectual sphere of our life. + +Liberty and equality for woman! What hopes and aspirations these +words awakened when they were first uttered by some of the noblest +and bravest souls of those days. The sun in all his light and glory +was to rise upon a new world; in this world woman was to be free to +direct her own destiny--an aim certainly worthy of the great +enthusiasm, courage, perseverance, and ceaseless effort of the +tremendous host of pioneer men and women, who staked everything +against a world of prejudice and ignorance. + +My hopes also move towards that goal, but I hold that the +emancipation of woman, as interpreted and practically applied today, +has failed to reach that great end. Now, woman is confronted with +the necessity of emancipating herself from emancipation, if she +really desires to be free. This may sound paradoxical, but is, +nevertheless, only too true. + +What has she achieved through her emancipation? Equal suffrage in a +few States. Has that purified our political life, as many +well-meaning advocates predicted? Certainly not. Incidentally, it +is really time that persons with plain, sound judgment should cease +to talk about corruption in politics in a boarding-school tone. +Corruption of politics has nothing to do with the morals, or the +laxity of morals, of various political personalities. Its cause is +altogether a material one. Politics is the reflex of the business +and industrial world, the mottos of which are: "To take is more +blessed than to give"; "buy cheap and sell dear"; "one soiled hand +washes the other." There is no hope even that woman, with her right +to vote, will ever purify politics. + +Emancipation has brought woman economic equality with man; that is, +she can choose her own profession and trade; but as her past and +present physical training has not equipped her with the necessary +strength to compete with man, she is often compelled to exhaust all +her energy, use up her vitality, and strain every nerve in order to +reach the market value. Very few ever succeed, for it is a fact that +women teachers, doctors, lawyers, architects, and engineers are +neither met with the same confidence as their male colleagues, nor +receive equal remuneration. And those that do reach that enticing +equality, generally do so at the expense of their physical and +psychical well-being. As to the great mass of working girls and +women, how much independence is gained if the narrowness and lack of +freedom of the home is exchanged for the narrowness and lack of +freedom of the factory, sweat-shop, department store, or office? In +addition is the burden which is laid on many women of looking after a +"home, sweet home"--cold, dreary, disorderly, uninviting--after a +day's hard work. Glorious independence! No wonder that hundreds of +girls are willing to accept the first offer of marriage, sick and +tired of their "independence" behind the counter, at the sewing or +typewriting machine. They are just as ready to marry as girls of the +middle class, who long to throw off the yoke of parental supremacy. +A so-called independence which leads only to earning the merest +subsistence is not so enticing, not so ideal, that one could expect +woman to sacrifice everything for it. Our highly praised +independence is, after all, but a slow process of dulling and +stifling woman's nature, her love instinct, and her mother instinct. + +Nevertheless, the position of the working girl is far more natural +and human than that of her seemingly more fortunate sister in the +more cultured professional walks of life--teachers, physicians, +lawyers, engineers, etc., who have to make a dignified, proper +appearance, while the inner life is growing empty and dead. + +The narrowness of the existing conception of woman's independence and +emancipation; the dread of love for a man who is not her social +equal; the fear that love will rob her of her freedom and +independence; the horror that love or the joy of motherhood will only +hinder her in the full exercise of her profession--all these together +make of the emancipated modern woman a compulsory vestal, before whom +life, with its great clarifying sorrows and its deep, entrancing +joys, rolls on without touching or gripping her soul. + +Emancipation, as understood by the majority of its adherents and +exponents, is of too narrow a scope to permit the boundless love and +ecstasy contained in the deep emotion of the true woman, sweetheart, +mother, in freedom. + +The tragedy of the self-supporting or economically free woman does +not lie in too many but in too few experiences. True, she surpasses +her sister of past generations in knowledge of the world and human +nature; it is just because of this that she feels deeply the lack of +life's essence, which alone can enrich the human soul, and without +which the majority of women have become mere professional automatons. + +That such a state of affairs was bound to come was foreseen by those +who realized that, in the domain of ethics, there still remained many +decaying ruins of the time of the undisputed superiority of man; +ruins that are still considered useful. And, what is more important, +a goodly number of the emancipated are unable to get along without +them. Every movement that aims at the destruction of existing +institutions and the replacement thereof with something more +advanced, more perfect, has followers who in theory stand for the +most radical ideas, but who, nevertheless, in their every-day +practice, are like the average Philistine, feigning respectability +and clamoring for the good opinion of their opponents. There are, +for example, Socialists, and even Anarchists, who stand for the idea +that property is robbery, yet who will grow indignant if anyone owe +them the value of a half-dozen pins. + +The same Philistine can be found in the movement for woman's +emancipation. Yellow journalists and milk-and-water litterateurs +have painted pictures of the emancipated woman that make the hair of +the good citizen and his dull companion stand up on end. Every +member of the woman's rights movement was pictured as a George Sand +in her absolute disregard of morality. Nothing was sacred to her. +She had no respect for the ideal relation between man and woman. In +short, emancipation stood only for a reckless life of lust and sin; +regardless of society, religion, and morality. The exponents of +woman's rights were highly indignant at such representation, and, +lacking humor, they exerted all their energy to prove that they were +not at all as bad as they were painted, but the very reverse. Of +course, as long as woman was the slave of man, she could not be good +and pure, but now that she was free and independent she would prove +how good she could be and that her influence would have a purifying +effect on all institutions in society. True, the movement for +woman's rights has broken many old fetters, but it has also forged +new ones. The great movement of TRUE emancipation has not met with a +great race of women who could look liberty in the face. Their +narrow, Puritanical vision banished man, as a disturber and doubtful +character, out of their emotional life. Man was not to be tolerated +at any price, except perhaps as the father of a child, since a child +could not very well come to life without a father. Fortunately, the +most rigid Puritans never will be strong enough to kill the innate +craving for motherhood. But woman's freedom is closely allied with +man's freedom, and many of my so-called emancipated sisters seem to +overlook the fact that a child born in freedom needs the love and +devotion of each human being about him, man as well as woman. +Unfortunately, it is this narrow conception of human relations that +has brought about a great tragedy in the lives of the modern man and +woman. + +About fifteen years ago appeared a work from the pen of the brilliant +Norwegian, Laura Marholm, called WOMAN, A CHARACTER STUDY. She was +one of the first to call attention to the emptiness and narrowness of +the existing conception of woman's emancipation, and its tragic +effect upon the inner life of woman. In her work Laura Marholm +speaks of the fate of several gifted women of international fame: the +genius, Eleonora Duse; the great mathematician and writer, Sonya +Kovalevskaia; the artist and poet-nature, Marie Bashkirtzeff, who +died so young. Through each description of the lives of these women +of such extraordinary mentality runs a marked trail of unsatisfied +craving for a full, rounded, complete, and beautiful life, and the +unrest and loneliness resulting from the lack of it. Through these +masterly psychological sketches, one cannot help but see that the +higher the mental development of woman, the less possible it is for +her to meet a congenial mate who will see in her, not only sex, but +also the human being, the friend, the comrade and strong +individuality, who cannot and ought not lose a single trait of her +character. + +The average man with his self-sufficiency, his ridiculously superior +airs of patronage towards the female sex, is an impossibility for +woman as depicted in the CHARACTER STUDY by Laura Marholm. Equally +impossible for her is the man who can see in her nothing more than +her mentality and her genius, and who fails to awaken her woman +nature. + +A rich intellect and a fine soul are usually considered necessary +attributes of a deep and beautiful personality. In the case of the +modern woman, these attributes serve as a hindrance to the complete +assertion of her being. For over a hundred years the old form of +marriage, based on the Bible, "till death doth part," has been +denounced as an institution that stands for the sovereignty of the +man over the woman, of her complete submission to his whims and +commands, and absolute dependence on his name and support. Time and +again it has been conclusively proved that the old matrimonial +relation restricted woman to the function of a man's servant and the +bearer of his children. And yet we find many emancipated women who +prefer marriage, with all its deficiencies, to the narrowness of an +unmarried life; narrow and unendurable because of the chains of moral +and social prejudice that cramp and bind her nature. + +The explanation of such inconsistency on the part of many advanced +women is to be found in the fact that they never truly understood the +meaning of emancipation. They thought that all that was needed was +independence from external tyrannies; the internal tyrants, far more +harmful to life and growth--ethical and social conventions--were left +to take care of themselves; and they have taken care of themselves. +They seem to get along as beautifully in the heads and hearts of the +most active exponents of woman's emancipation, as in the heads and +hearts of our grandmothers. + +These internal tyrants, whether they be in the form of public opinion +or what will mother say, or brother, father, aunt, or relative of any +sort; what will Mrs. Grundy, Mr. Comstock, the employer, the Board of +Education say? All these busybodies, moral detectives, jailers of +the human spirit, what will they say? Until woman has learned to +defy them all, to stand firmly on her own ground and to insist upon +her own unrestricted freedom, to listen to the voice of her nature, +whether it call for life's greatest treasure, love for a man, or her +most glorious privilege, the right to give birth to a child, she +cannot call herself emancipated. How many emancipated women are +brave enough to acknowledge that the voice of love is calling, wildly +beating against their breasts, demanding to be heard, to be +satisfied. + +The French writer, Jean Reibrach, in one of his novels, NEW BEAUTY, +attempts to picture the ideal, beautiful, emancipated woman. This +ideal is embodied in a young girl, a physician. She talks very +cleverly and wisely of how to feed infants; she is kind, and +administers medicines free to poor mothers. She converses with a +young man of her acquaintance about the sanitary conditions of the +future, and how various bacilli and germs shall be exterminated by +the use of stone walls and floors, and by the doing away with rugs +and hangings. She is, of course, very plainly and practically +dressed, mostly in black. The young man, who, at their first +meeting, was overawed by the wisdom of his emancipated friend, +gradually learns to understand her, and recognizes one fine day that +he loves her. They are young, and she is kind and beautiful, and +though always in rigid attire, her appearance is softened by a +spotlessly clean white collar and cuffs. One would expect that he +would tell her of his love, but he is not one to commit romantic +absurdities. Poetry and the enthusiasm of love cover their blushing +faces before the pure beauty of the lady. He silences the voice of +his nature, and remains correct. She, too, is always exact, always +rational, always well behaved. I fear if they had formed a union, +the young man would have risked freezing to death. I must confess +that I can see nothing beautiful in this new beauty, who is as cold +as the stone walls and floors she dreams of. Rather would I have the +love songs of romantic ages, rather Don Juan and Madame Venus, rather +an elopement by ladder and rope on a moonlight night, followed by the +father's curse, mother's moans, and the moral comments of neighbors, +than correctness and propriety measured by yardsticks. If love does +not know how to give and take without restrictions, it is not love, +but a transaction that never fails to lay stress on a plus and a +minus. + +The greatest shortcoming of the emancipation of the present day lies +in its artificial stiffness and its narrow respectabilities, which +produce an emptiness in woman's soul that will not let her drink from +the fountain of life. I once remarked that there seemed to be a +deeper relationship between the old-fashioned mother and hostess, +ever on the alert for the happiness of her little ones and the +comfort of those she loved, and the truly new woman, than between +the latter and her average emancipated sister. The disciples of +emancipation pure and simple declared me a heathen, fit only for the +stake. Their blind zeal did not let them see that my comparison +between the old and the new was merely to prove that a goodly number +of our grandmothers had more blood in their veins, far more humor and +wit, and certainly a greater amount of naturalness, kind-heartedness, +and simplicity, than the majority of our emancipated professional +women who fill the colleges, halls of learning, and various offices. +This does not mean a wish to return to the past, nor does it condemn +woman to her old sphere, the kitchen and the nursery. + +Salvation lies in an energetic march onward towards a brighter and +clearer future. We are in need of unhampered growth out of old +traditions and habits. The movement for woman's emancipation has so +far made but the first step in that direction. It is to be hoped +that it will gather strength to make another. The right to vote, or +equal civil rights, may be good demands, but true emancipation begins +neither at the polls nor in courts. It begins in woman's soul. +History tells us that every oppressed class gained true liberation +from its masters through its own efforts. It is necessary that woman +learn that lesson, that she realize that her freedom will reach as +far as her power to achieve her freedom reaches. It is, therefore, +far more important for her to begin with her inner regeneration, to +cut loose from the weight of prejudices, traditions, and customs. +The demand for equal rights in every vocation of life is just and +fair; but, after all, the most vital right is the right to love and +be loved. Indeed, if partial emancipation is to become a complete +and true emancipation of woman, it will have to do away with the +ridiculous notion that to be loved, to be sweetheart and mother, is +synonymous with being slave or subordinate. It will have to do away +with the absurd notion of the dualism of the sexes, or that man and +woman represent two antagonistic worlds. + +Pettiness separates; breadth unites. Let us be broad and big. Let +us not overlook vital things because of the bulk of trifles +confronting us. A true conception of the relation of the sexes will +not admit of conqueror and conquered; it knows of but one great +thing: to give of one's self boundlessly, in order to find one's self +richer, deeper, better. That alone can fill the emptiness, and +transform the tragedy of woman's emancipation into joy, limitless +joy. + + + + +MARRIAGE AND LOVE + + +The popular notion about marriage and love is that they are +synonymous, that they spring from the same motives, and cover the +same human needs. Like most popular notions this also rests not on +actual facts, but on superstition. + +Marriage and love have nothing in common; they are as far apart as +the poles; are, in fact, antagonistic to each other. No doubt some +marriages have been the result of love. Not, however, because love +could assert itself only in marriage; much rather is it because few +people can completely outgrow a convention. There are today large +numbers of men and women to whom marriage is naught but a farce, but +who submit to it for the sake of public opinion. At any rate, while +it is true that some marriages are based on love, and while it is +equally true that in some cases love continues in married life, I +maintain that it does so regardless of marriage, and not because of +it. + +On the other hand, it is utterly false that love results from +marriage. On rare occasions one does hear of a miraculous case of a +married couple falling in love after marriage, but on close +examination it will be found that it is a mere adjustment to the +inevitable. Certainly the growing-used to each other is far away +from the spontaneity, the intensity, and beauty of love, without +which the intimacy of marriage must prove degrading to both the woman +and the man. + +Marriage is primarily an economic arrangement, an insurance pact. It +differs from the ordinary life insurance agreement only in that it is +more binding, more exacting. Its returns are insignificantly small +compared with the investments. In taking out an insurance policy one +pays for it in dollars and cents, always at liberty to discontinue +payments. If, however, woman's premium is her husband, she pays for +it with her name, her privacy, her self-respect, her very life, +"until death doth part." Moreover, the marriage insurance condemns +her to life-long dependency, to parasitism, to complete uselessness, +individual as well as social. Man, too, pays his toll, but as his +sphere is wider, marriage does not limit him as much as woman. He +feels his chains more in an economic sense. + +Thus Dante's motto over Inferno applies with equal force to marriage. +"Ye who enter here leave all hope behind." + +That marriage is a failure none but the very stupid will deny. One +has but to glance over the statistics of divorce to realize how +bitter a failure marriage really is. Nor will the stereotyped +Philistine argument that the laxity of divorce laws and the growing +looseness of woman account for the fact that: first, every twelfth +marriage ends in divorce; second, that since 1870 divorces have +increased from 28 to 73 for every hundred thousand population; third, +that adultery, since 1867, as ground for divorce, has increased 270.8 +per cent.; fourth, that desertion increased 369.8 per cent. + +Added to these startling figures is a vast amount of material, +dramatic and literary, further elucidating this subject. Robert +Herrick, in TOGETHER; Pinero, in MID-CHANNEL; Eugene Walter, in PAID +IN FULL, and scores of other writers are discussing the barrenness, +the monotony, the sordidness, the inadequacy of marriage as a factor +for harmony and understanding. + +The thoughtful social student will not content himself with the +popular superficial excuse for this phenomenon. He will have to dig +deeper into the very life of the sexes to know why marriage proves so +disastrous. + +Edward Carpenter says that behind every marriage stands the life-long +environment of the two sexes; an environment so different from each +other that man and woman must remain strangers. Separated by an +insurmountable wall of superstition, custom, and habit, marriage has +not the potentiality of developing knowledge of, and respect for, +each other, without which every union is doomed to failure. + +Henrik Ibsen, the hater of all social shams, was probably the first +to realize this great truth. Nora leaves her husband, not--as the +stupid critic would have it--because she is tired of her +responsibilities or feels the need of woman's rights, but because she +has come to know that for eight years she had lived with a stranger +and borne him children. Can there be anything more humiliating, more +degrading than a life-long proximity between two strangers? No need +for the woman to know anything of the man, save his income. As to +the knowledge of the woman--what is there to know except that she has +a pleasing appearance? We have not yet outgrown the theologic myth +that woman has no soul, that she is a mere appendix to man, made out +of his rib just for the convenience of the gentleman who was so +strong that he was afraid of his own shadow. + +Perchance the poor quality of the material whence woman comes is +responsible for her inferiority. At any rate, woman has no +soul--what is there to know about her? Besides, the less soul a +woman has the greater her asset as a wife, the more readily will she +absorb herself in her husband. It is this slavish acquiescence to +man's superiority that has kept the marriage institution seemingly +intact for so long a period. Now that woman is coming into her own, +now that she is actually growing aware of herself as being outside +of the master's grace, the sacred institution of marriage is +gradually being undermined, and no amount of sentimental lamentation +can stay it. + +From infancy, almost, the average girl is told that marriage is her +ultimate goal; therefore her training and education must be directed +towards that end. Like the mute beast fattened for slaughter, she is +prepared for that. Yet, strange to say, she is allowed to know much +less about her function as wife and mother than the ordinary artisan +of his trade. It is indecent and filthy for a respectable girl to +know anything of the marital relation. Oh, for the inconsistency of +respectability, that needs the marriage vow to turn something which +is filthy into the purest and most sacred arrangement that none dare +question or criticize. Yet that is exactly the attitude of the +average upholder of marriage. The prospective wife and mother is +kept in complete ignorance of her only asset in the competitive +field--sex. Thus she enters into life-long relations with a man only +to find herself shocked, repelled, outraged beyond measure by the +most natural and healthy instinct, sex. It is safe to say that a +large percentage of the unhappiness, misery, distress, and physical +suffering of matrimony is due to the criminal ignorance in sex +matters that is being extolled as a great virtue. Nor is it at all +an exaggeration when I say that more than one home has been broken up +because of this deplorable fact. + + +If, however, woman is free and big enough to learn the mystery of sex +without the sanction of State or Church, she will stand condemned as +utterly unfit to become the wife of a "good" man, his goodness +consisting of an empty brain and plenty of money. Can there be +anything more outrageous than the idea that a healthy, grown woman, +full of life and passion, must deny nature's demand, must subdue her +most intense craving, undermine her health and break her spirit, must +stunt her vision, abstain from the depth and glory of sex experience +until a "good" man comes along to take her unto himself as a wife? +That is precisely what marriage means. How can such an arrangement +end except in failure? This is one, though not the least important, +factor of marriage, which differentiates it from love. + +Ours is a practical age. The time when Romeo and Juliet risked the +wrath of their fathers for love, when Gretchen exposed herself to the +gossip of her neighbors for love, is no more. If, on rare occasions, +young people allow themselves the luxury of romance, they are taken +in care by the elders, drilled and pounded until they become +"sensible." + +The moral lesson instilled in the girl is not whether the man has +aroused her love, but rather is it, "How much?" The important and +only God of practical American life: Can the man make a living? can +he support a wife? That is the only thing that justifies marriage. +Gradually this saturates every thought of the girl; her dreams are +not of moonlight and kisses, of laughter and tears; she dreams of +shopping tours and bargain counters. This soul poverty and +sordidness are the elements inherent in the marriage institution. +The State and Church approve of no other ideal, simply because it is +the one that necessitates the State and Church control of men and +women. + +Doubtless there are people who continue to consider love above +dollars and cents. Particularly this is true of that class whom +economic necessity has forced to become self-supporting. The +tremendous change in woman's position, wrought by that mighty factor, +is indeed phenomenal when we reflect that it is but a short time +since she has entered the industrial arena. Six million women wage +workers; six million women, who have equal right with men to be +exploited, to be robbed, to go on strike; aye, to starve even. +Anything more, my lord? Yes, six million wage workers in every walk +of life, from the highest brain work to the mines and railroad +tracks; yes, even detectives and policemen. Surely the emancipation +is complete. + +Yet with all that, but a very small number of the vast army of women +wage workers look upon work as a permanent issue, in the same light +as does man. No matter how decrepit the latter, he has been taught +to be independent, self-supporting. Oh, I know that no one is really +independent in our economic treadmill; still, the poorest specimen of +a man hates to be a parasite; to be known as such, at any rate. + +The woman considers her position as worker transitory, to be thrown +aside for the first bidder. That is why it is infinitely harder to +organize women than men. "Why should I join a union? I am going to +get married, to have a home." Has she not been taught from infancy +to look upon that as her ultimate calling? She learns soon enough +that the home, though not so large a prison as the factory, has more +solid doors and bars. It has a keeper so faithful that naught can +escape him. The most tragic part, however, is that the home no +longer frees her from wage slavery; it only increases her task. + +According to the latest statistics submitted before a Committee "on +labor and wages, and congestion of population," ten per cent. of the +wage workers in New York City alone are married, yet they must +continue to work at the most poorly paid labor in the world. Add to +this horrible aspect the drudgery of housework, and what remains of +the protection and glory of the home? As a matter of fact, even the +middle-class girl in marriage can not speak of her home, since it is +the man who creates her sphere. It is not important whether the +husband is a brute or a darling. What I wish to prove is that +marriage guarantees woman a home only by the grace of her husband. +There she moves about in HIS home, year after year, until her aspect +of life and human affairs becomes as flat, narrow, and drab as her +surroundings. Small wonder if she becomes a nag, petty, quarrelsome, +gossipy, unbearable, thus driving the man from the house. She could +not go, if she wanted to; there is no place to go. Besides, a short +period of married life, of complete surrender of all faculties, +absolutely incapacitates the average woman for the outside world. +She becomes reckless in appearance, clumsy in her movements, +dependent in her decisions, cowardly in her judgment, a weight and a +bore, which most men grow to hate and despise. Wonderfully inspiring +atmosphere for the bearing of life, is it not? + +But the child, how is it to be protected, if not for marriage? After +all, is not that the most important consideration? The sham, the +hypocrisy of it! Marriage protecting the child, yet thousands of +children destitute and homeless. Marriage protecting the child, yet +orphan asylums and reformatories overcrowded, the Society for the +Prevention of Cruelty to Children keeping busy in rescuing the little +victims from "loving" parents, to place them under more loving care, +the Gerry Society. Oh, the mockery of it! + +Marriage may have the power to bring the horse to water, but has it +ever made him drink? The law will place the father under arrest, and +put him in convict's clothes; but has that ever stilled the hunger of +the child? If the parent has no work, or if he hides his identity, +what does marriage do then? It invokes the law to bring the man to +"justice," to put him safely behind closed doors; his labor, however, +goes not to the child, but to the State. The child receives but a +blighted memory of his father's stripes. + +As to the protection of the woman,--therein lies the curse of +marriage. Not that it really protects her, but the very idea is so +revolting, such an outrage and insult on life, so degrading to human +dignity, as to forever condemn this parasitic institution. + +It is like that other paternal arrangement--capitalism. It robs man +of his birthright, stunts his growth, poisons his body, keeps him in +ignorance, in poverty, and dependence, and then institutes charities +that thrive on the last vestige of man's self-respect. + +The institution of marriage makes a parasite of woman, an absolute +dependent. It incapacitates her for life's struggle, annihilates her +social consciousness, paralyzes her imagination, and then imposes its +gracious protection, which is in reality a snare, a travesty on human +character. + +If motherhood is the highest fulfillment of woman's nature, what +other protection does it need, save love and freedom? Marriage but +defiles, outrages, and corrupts her fulfillment. Does it not say to +woman, Only when you follow me shall you bring forth life? Does it +not condemn her to the block, does it not degrade and shame her if +she refuses to buy her right to motherhood by selling herself? Does +not marriage only sanction motherhood, even though conceived in +hatred, in compulsion? Yet, if motherhood be of free choice, of +love, of ecstasy, of defiant passion, does it not place a crown of +thorns upon an innocent head and carve in letters of blood the +hideous epithet, Bastard? Were marriage to contain all the virtues +claimed for it, its crimes against motherhood would exclude it +forever from the realm of love. + +Love, the strongest and deepest element in all life, the harbinger of +hope, of joy, of ecstasy; love, the defier of all laws, of all +conventions; love, the freest, the most powerful moulder of human +destiny; how can such an all-compelling force be synonymous with that +poor little State and Church-begotten weed, marriage? + +Free love? As if love is anything but free! Man has bought brains, +but all the millions in the world have failed to buy love. Man has +subdued bodies, but all the power on earth has been unable to subdue +love. Man has conquered whole nations, but all his armies could not +conquer love. Man has chained and fettered the spirit, but he has +been utterly helpless before love. High on a throne, with all the +splendor and pomp his gold can command, man is yet poor and desolate, +if love passes him by. And if it stays, the poorest hovel is radiant +with warmth, with life and color. Thus love has the magic power to +make of a beggar a king. Yes, love is free; it can dwell in no other +atmosphere. In freedom it gives itself unreservedly, abundantly, +completely. All the laws on the statutes, all the courts in the +universe, cannot tear it from the soil, once love has taken root. +If, however, the soil is sterile, how can marriage make it bear +fruit? It is like the last desperate struggle of fleeting life +against death. + +Love needs no protection; it is its own protection. So long as love +begets life no child is deserted, or hungry, or famished for the want +of affection. I know this to be true. I know women who became +mothers in freedom by the men they loved. Few children in wedlock +enjoy the care, the protection, the devotion free motherhood is +capable of bestowing. + +The defenders of authority dread the advent of a free motherhood, +lest it will rob them of their prey. Who would fight wars? Who +would create wealth? Who would make the policeman, the jailer, if +woman were to refuse the indiscriminate breeding of children? The +race, the race! shouts the king, the president, the capitalist, the +priest. The race must be preserved, though woman be degraded to a +mere machine,--and the marriage institution is our only safety valve +against the pernicious sex awakening of woman. But in vain these +frantic efforts to maintain a state of bondage. In vain, too, the +edicts of the Church, the mad attacks of rulers, in vain even the arm +of the law. Woman no longer wants to be a party to the production of +a race of sickly, feeble, decrepit, wretched human beings, who have +neither the strength nor moral courage to throw off the yoke of +poverty and slavery. Instead she desires fewer and better children, +begotten and reared in love and through free choice; not by +compulsion, as marriage imposes. Our pseudo-moralists have yet to +learn the deep sense of responsibility toward the child, that love in +freedom has awakened in the breast of woman. Rather would she forego +forever the glory of motherhood than bring forth life in an +atmosphere that breathes only destruction and death. And if she does +become a mother, it is to give to the child the deepest and best her +being can yield. To grow with the child is her motto; she knows that +in that manner alone can she help build true manhood and womanhood. + +Ibsen must have had a vision of a free mother, when, with a master +stroke, he portrayed Mrs. Alving. She was the ideal mother because +she had outgrown marriage and all its horrors, because she had broken +her chains, and set her spirit free to soar until it returned a +personality, regenerated and strong. Alas, it was too late to rescue +her life's joy, her Oswald; but not too late to realize that love in +freedom is the only condition of a beautiful life. Those who, like +Mrs. Alving, have paid with blood and tears for their spiritual +awakening, repudiate marriage as an imposition, a shallow, empty +mockery. They know, whether love last but one brief span of time or +for eternity, it is the only creative, inspiring, elevating basis for +a new race, a new world. + +In our present pygmy state love is indeed a stranger to most people. +Misunderstood and shunned, it rarely takes root; or if it does, it +soon withers and dies. Its delicate fiber can not endure the stress +and strain of the daily grind. Its soul is too complex to adjust +itself to the slimy woof of our social fabric. It weeps and moans +and suffers with those who have need of it, yet lack the capacity to +rise to love's summit. + +Some day, some day men and women will rise, they will reach the +mountain peak, they will meet big and strong and free, ready to +receive, to partake, and to bask in the golden rays of love. What +fancy, what imagination, what poetic genius can foresee even +approximately the potentialities of such a force in the life of men +and women. If the world is ever to give birth to true companionship +and oneness, not marriage, but love will be the parent. + + + + +THE MODERN DRAMA: A POWERFUL DISSEMINATOR OF RADICAL THOUGHT + + +So long as discontent and unrest make themselves but dumbly felt +within a limited social class, the powers of reaction may often +succeed in suppressing such manifestations. But when the dumb unrest +grows into conscious expression and becomes almost universal, it +necessarily affects all phases of human thought and action, and seeks +its individual and social expression in the gradual transvaluation of +existing values. + +An adequate appreciation of the tremendous spread of the modern, +conscious social unrest cannot be gained from merely propagandistic +literature. Rather must we become conversant with the larger phases +of human expression manifest in art, literature, and, above all, the +modern drama--the strongest and most far-reaching interpreter of our +deep-felt dissatisfaction. + +What a tremendous factor for the awakening of conscious discontent +are the simple canvasses of a Millet! The figures of his +peasants--what terrific indictment against our social wrongs; wrongs +that condemn the Man With the Hoe to hopeless drudgery, himself +excluded from Nature's bounty. + +The vision of a Meunier conceives the growing solidarity and defiance +of labor in the group of miners carrying their maimed brother to +safety. His genius thus powerfully portrays the interrelation of the +seething unrest among those slaving in the bowels of the earth, and +the spiritual revolt that seeks artistic expression. + +No less important is the factor for rebellious awakening in modern +literature--Turgeniev, Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Andreiev, Gorki, +Whitman, Emerson, and scores of others embodying the spirit of +universal ferment and the longing for social change. + +Still more far-reaching is the modern drama, as the leaven of radical +thought and the disseminator of new values. + +It might seem an exaggeration to ascribe to the modern drama such an +important role. But a study of the development of modern ideas in +most countries will prove that the drama has succeeded in driving +home great social truths, truths generally ignored when presented in +other forms. No doubt there are exceptions, as Russia and France. + +Russia, with its terrible political pressure, has made people think +and has awakened their social sympathies, because of the tremendous +contrast which exists between the intellectual life of the people and +the despotic regime that is trying to crush that life. Yet while the +great dramatic works of Tolstoy, Tchechov, Gorki, and Andreiev +closely mirror the life and the struggle, the hopes and aspirations +of the Russian people, they did not influence radical thought to the +extent the drama has done in other countries. + +Who can deny, however, the tremendous influence exerted by THE POWER +OF DARKNESS or NIGHT LODGING. Tolstoy, the real, true Christian, is +yet the greatest enemy of organized Christianity. With a master hand +he portrays the destructive effects upon the human mind of the power +of darkness, the superstitions of the Christian Church. + +What other medium could express, with such dramatic force, the +responsibility of the Church for crimes committed by its deluded +victims; what other medium could, in consequence, rouse the +indignation of man's conscience? + +Similarly direct and powerful is the indictment contained in Gorki's +NIGHT LODGING. The social pariahs, forced into poverty and crime, +yet desperately clutch at the last vestiges of hope and aspiration. +Lost existences these, blighted and crushed by cruel, unsocial +environment. + +France, on the other hand, with her continuous struggle for liberty, +is indeed the cradle of radical thought; as such she, too, did not +need the drama as a means of awakening. And yet the works of +Brieux--as ROBE ROUGE, portraying the terrible corruption of the +judiciary--and Mirbeau's LES AFFAIRES SONT LES AFFAIRES--picturing +the destructive influence of wealth on the human soul--have +undoubtedly reached wider circles than most of the articles and books +which have been written in France on the social question. + +In countries like Germany, Scandinavia, England, and even in +America--though in a lesser degree--the drama is the vehicle which is +really making history, disseminating radical thought in ranks not +otherwise to be reached. + +Let us take Germany, for instance. For nearly a quarter of a century +men of brains, of ideas, and of the greatest integrity, made it their +life-work to spread the truth of human brotherhood, of justice, among +the oppressed and downtrodden. Socialism, that tremendous +revolutionary wave, was to the victims of a merciless and inhumane +system like water to the parched lips of the desert traveler. Alas! +The cultured people remained absolutely indifferent; to them that +revolutionary tide was but the murmur of dissatisfied, discontented +men, dangerous, illiterate troublemakers, whose proper place was +behind prison bars. + +Self-satisfied as the "cultured" usually are, they could not +understand why one should fuss about the fact that thousands of +people were starving, though they contributed towards the wealth of +the world. Surrounded by beauty and luxury, they could not believe +that side by side with them lived human beings degraded to a position +lower than a beast's, shelterless and ragged, without hope or +ambition. + +This condition of affairs was particularly pronounced in Germany +after the Franco-German war. Full to the bursting point with its +victory, Germany thrived on a sentimental, patriotic literature, +thereby poisoning the minds of the country's youth by the glory of +conquest and bloodshed. + +Intellectual Germany had to take refuge in the literature of other +countries, in the works of Ibsen, Zola, Daudet, Maupassant, and +especially in the great works of Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, and Turgeniev. +But as no country can long maintain a standard of culture without a +literature and drama related to its own soil, so Germany gradually +began to develop a drama reflecting the life and the struggles of its +own people. + +Arno Holz, one of the youngest dramatists of that period, startled +the Philistines out of their ease and comfort with his FAMILIE +SELICKE. The play deals with society's refuse, men and women of the +alleys, whose only subsistence consists of what they can pick out of +the garbage barrels. A gruesome subject, is it not? And yet what +other method is there to break through the hard shell of the minds +and souls of people who have never known want, and who therefore +assume that all is well in the world? + +Needless to say, the play aroused tremendous indignation. The truth +is bitter, and the people living on the Fifth Avenue of Berlin hated +to be confronted with the truth. + +Not that FAMILIE SELICKE represented anything that had not been +written about for years without any seeming result. But the dramatic +genius of Holz, together with the powerful interpretation of the +play, necessarily made inroads into the widest circles, and forced +people to think about the terrible inequalities around them. + +Sudermann's EHRE[1] and HEIMAT[2] deal with vital subjects. I have +already referred to the sentimental patriotism so completely turning +the head of the average German as to create a perverted conception of +honor. Duelling became an every-day affair, costing innumerable +lives. A great cry was raised against the fad by a number of leading +writers. But nothing acted as such a clarifier and exposer of that +national disease as the EHRE. + +Not that the play merely deals with duelling; it analyzes the real +meaning of honor, proving that it is not a fixed, inborn feeling, but +that it varies with every people and every epoch, depending +particularly on one's economic and social station in life. We +realize from this play that the man in the brownstone mansion will +necessarily define honor differently from his victims. + +The family Heinecke enjoys the charity of the millionaire Muhling, +being permitted to occupy a dilapidated shanty on his premises in the +absence of their son, Robert. The latter, as Muhling's +representative, is making a vast fortune for his employer in India. +On his return Robert discovers that his sister had been seduced by +young Muhling, whose father graciously offers to straighten matters +with a check for 40,000 marks. Robert, outraged and indignant, +resents the insult to his family's honor, and is forthwith dismissed +from his position for impudence. Robert finally throws this +accusation into the face of the philanthropist millionaire: + +"We slave for you, we sacrifice our heart's blood for you, while you +seduce our daughters and sisters and kindly pay for their disgrace +with the gold we have earned for you. That is what you call honor." + +An incidental side-light upon the conception of honor is given by +Count Trast, the principal character in the EHRE, a man widely +conversant with the customs of various climes, who relates that in +his many travels he chanced across a savage tribe whose honor he +mortally offended by refusing the hospitality which offered him the +charms of the chieftain's wife. + +The theme of HEIMAT treats of the struggle between the old and the +young generations. It holds a permanent and important place in +dramatic literature. + +Magda, the daughter of Lieutenant Colonel Schwartz, has committed an +unpardonable sin: she refused the suitor selected by her father. For +daring to disobey the parental commands she is driven from home. +Magda, full of life and the spirit of liberty, goes out into the +world to return to her native town, twelve years later, a celebrated +singer. She consents to visit her parents on condition that they +respect the privacy of her past. But her martinet father immediately +begins to question her, insisting on his "paternal rights." Magda is +indignant, but gradually his persistence brings to light the tragedy +of her life. He learns that the respected Councillor Von Keller had +in his student days been Magda's lover, while she was battling for +her economic and social independence. The consequence of the +fleeting romance was a child, deserted by the man even before birth. +The rigid military father of Magda demands as retribution from +Councillor Von Keller that he legalize the love affair. In view of +Magda's social and professional success, Keller willingly consents, +but on condition that she forsake the stage, and place the child in +an institution. The struggle between the Old and the New culminates +in Magda's defiant words of the woman grown to conscious independence +of thought and action: "...I'll say what I think of you--of you +and your respectable society. Why should I be worse than you that I +must prolong my existence among you by a lie! Why should this gold +upon my body, and the lustre which surrounds my name, only increase +my infamy? Have I not worked early and late for ten long years? +Have I not woven this dress with sleepless nights? Have I not built +up my career step by step, like thousands of my kind? Why should I +blush before anyone? I am myself, and through myself I have become +what I am." + +The general theme of HEIMAT was not original. It had been previously +treated by a master hand in FATHERS AND SONS. Partly because +Turgeniev's great work was typical rather of Russian than universal +conditions, and still more because it was in the form of fiction, the +influence of FATHERS AND SONS was limited to Russia. But HEIMAT, +especially because of its dramatic expression, became almost a world +factor. + +The dramatist who not only disseminated radicalism, but literally +revolutionized the thoughtful Germans, is Gerhardt Hauptmann. His +first play VOR SONNENAUFGANG[3], refused by every leading German +theatre and first performed in a wretched little playhouse behind a +beer garden, acted like a stroke of lightning, illuminating the +entire social horizon. Its subject matter deals with the life of an +extensive landowner, ignorant, illiterate, and brutalized, and his +economic slaves of the same mental calibre. The influence of wealth, +both on the victims who created it and the possessor thereof, is +shown in the most vivid colors, as resulting in drunkenness, idiocy, +and decay. But the most striking feature of VOR SONNENAUFGANG, the +one which brought a shower of abuse on Hauptmann's head, was the +question as to the indiscriminate breeding of children by unfit +parents. + +During the second performance of the play a leading Berlin surgeon +almost caused a panic in the theatre by swinging a pair of forceps +over his head and screaming at the top of his voice: "The decency and +morality of Germany are at stake if childbirth is to be discussed +openly from the stage." The surgeon is forgotten, and Hauptmann +stands a colossal figure before the world. + +When DIE WEBER[4] first saw the light, pandemonium broke out in the +land of thinkers and poets. "What," cried the moralists, +"workingmen, dirty, filthy slaves, to be put on the stage! Poverty +in all its horrors and ugliness to be dished out as an after-dinner +amusement? That is too much!" + +Indeed, it was too much for the fat and greasy bourgeoisie to be +brought face to face with the horrors of the weaver's existence. It +was too much because of the truth and reality that rang like thunder +in the deaf ears of self-satisfied society, J'ACCUSE! + +Of course, it was generally known even before the appearance of this +drama that capital can not get fat unless it devours labor, that +wealth can not be hoarded except through the channels of poverty, +hunger, and cold; but such things are better kept in the dark, lest +the victims awaken to a realization of their position. But it is the +purpose of the modern drama to rouse the consciousness of the +oppressed; and that, indeed, was the purpose of Gerhardt Hauptmann in +depicting to the world the conditions of the weavers in Silesia. +Human beings working eighteen hours daily, yet not earning enough for +bread and fuel; human beings living in broken, wretched huts half +covered with snow, and nothing but tatters to protect them from the +cold; infants covered with scurvy from hunger and exposure; pregnant +women in the last stages of consumption. Victims of a benevolent +Christian era, without life, without hope, without warmth. Ah, yes, +it was too much! + +Hauptmann's dramatic versatility deals with every stratum of social +life. Besides portraying the grinding effect of economic conditions, +he also treats of the struggle of the individual for his mental and +spiritual liberation from the slavery of convention and tradition. +Thus Heinrich, the bell-forger, in the dramatic prose-poem, DIE +VERSUNKENE GLOCKE[5], fails to reach the mountain peaks of liberty +because, as Rautendelein said, he had lived in the valley too long. +Similarly Dr. Vockerath and Anna Maar remain lonely souls because +they, too, lack the strength to defy venerated traditions. Yet their +very failure must awaken the rebellious spirit against a world +forever hindering individual and social emancipation. + +Max Halbe's JUGEND[6] and Wedekind's FRUHLING'S ERWACHEN[7] are dramas +which have disseminated radical thought in an altogether different +direction. They treat of the child and the dense ignorance and +narrow Puritanism that meet the awakening of nature. Particularly +this is true of FRUHLING'S ERWACHEN. Young boys and girls sacrificed +on the altar of false education and of our sickening morality that +prohibits the enlightenment of youth as to questions so imperative to +the health and well-being of society,--the origin of life, and its +functions. It shows how a mother--and a truly good mother, at +that--keeps her fourteen-year-old daughter in absolute ignorance as +to all matters of sex, and when finally the young girl falls a victim +to her own ignorance, the same mother sees her daughter killed by +quack medicines. The inscription on her grave states that she died +of anaemia, and morality is satisfied. + +The fatality of our Puritanic hypocrisy in these matters is +especially illumined by Wedekind in so far as our most promising +children fall victims to sex ignorance and the utter lack of +appreciation on the part of the teachers of the child's awakening. + +Wendla, unusually developed and alert for her age, pleads with her +mother to explain the mystery of life: + +"I have a sister who has been married for two and a half years. I +myself have been made an aunt for the third time, and I haven't the +least idea how it all comes about.... Don't be cross, Mother, +dear! Whom in the world should I ask but you? Don't scold me for +asking about it. Give me an answer.--How does it happen?--You cannot +really deceive yourself that I, who am fourteen years old, still +believe in the stork." + +Were her mother herself not a victim of false notions of morality, an +affectionate and sensible explanation might have saved her daughter. +But the conventional mother seeks to hide her "moral" shame and +embarrassment in this evasive reply: + +"In order to have a child--one must love--the man--to whom one is +married.... One must love him, Wendla, as you at your age are +still unable to love.--Now you know it!" + +How much Wendla "knew" the mother realized too late. The pregnant +girl imagines herself ill with dropsy. And when her mother cries in +desperation, "You haven't the dropsy, you have a child, girl," the +agonized Wendla exclaims in bewilderment: "But it's not possible, +Mother, I am not married yet.... Oh, Mother, why didn't you tell +me everything?" + +With equal stupidity the boy Morris is driven to suicide because he +fails in his school examinations. And Melchior, the youthful father +of Wendla's unborn child, is sent to the House of Correction, his +early sexual awakening stamping him a degenerate in the eyes of +teachers and parents. + +For years thoughtful men and women in Germany had advocated the +compelling necessity of sex enlightenment. MUTTERSCHUTZ, a +publication specially devoted to frank and intelligent discussion of +the sex problem, has been carrying on its agitation for a +considerable time. But it remained for the dramatic genius of +Wedekind to influence radical thought to the extent of forcing the +introduction of sex physiology in many schools of Germany. + +Scandinavia, like Germany, was advanced through the drama much more +than through any other channel. Long before Ibsen appeared on the +scene, Bjornson, the great essayist, thundered against the +inequalities and injustice prevalent in those countries. But his was +a voice in the wilderness, reaching but the few. Not so with Ibsen. +His BRAND, DOLL'S HOUSE, PILLARS OF SOCIETY, GHOSTS, and AN ENEMY OF +THE PEOPLE have considerably undermined the old conceptions, and +replaced them by a modern and real view of life. One has but to read +BRAND to realize the modern conception, let us say, of +religion,--religion, as an ideal to be achieved on earth; religion as +a principle of human brotherhood, of solidarity, and kindness. + +Ibsen, the supreme hater of all social shams, has torn the veil of +hypocrisy from their faces. His greatest onslaught, however, is on +the four cardinal points supporting the flimsy network of society. +First, the lie upon which rests the life of today; second, the +futility of sacrifice as preached by our moral codes; third, petty +material consideration, which is the only god the majority worships; +and fourth, the deadening influence of provincialism. These four +recur as the LEITMOTIF in Ibsen's plays, but particularly in PILLARS +OF SOCIETY, DOLL'S HOUSE, GHOSTS, and AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE. + +Pillars of Society! What a tremendous indictment against the social +structure that rests on rotten and decayed pillars,--pillars nicely +gilded and apparently intact, yet merely hiding their true condition. +And what are these pillars? + +Consul Bernick, at the very height of his social and financial +career, the benefactor of his town and the strongest pillar of the +community, has reached the summit through the channel of lies, +deception, and fraud. He has robbed his bosom friend, Johann, of his +good name, and has betrayed Lona Hessel, the woman he loved, to marry +her step-sister for the sake of her money. He has enriched himself +by shady transactions, under cover of "the community's good," and +finally even goes to the extent of endangering human life by +preparing the INDIAN GIRL, a rotten and dangerous vessel, to go to +sea. + +But the return of Lona brings him the realization of the emptiness +and meanness of his narrow life. He seeks to placate the waking +conscience by the hope that he has cleared the ground for the better +life of his son, of the new generation. But even this last hope soon +falls to the ground, as he realizes that truth cannot be built on a +lie. At the very moment when the whole town is prepared to celebrate +the great benefactor of the community with banquet praise, he +himself, now grown to full spiritual manhood, confesses to the +assembled townspeople: + +"I have no right to this homage-- ... My fellow-citizens must know +me to the core. Then let everyone examine himself, and let us +realize the prediction that from this event we begin a new time. The +old, with its tinsel, its hypocrisy, its hollowness, its lying +propriety, and its pitiful cowardice, shall lie behind us like a +museum, open for instruction." + +With A DOLL'S HOUSE Ibsen has paved the way for woman's emancipation. +Nora awakens from her doll's role to the realization of the injustice +done her by her father and her husband, Helmer Torvald. + +"While I was at home with father, he used to tell me all his +opinions, and I held the same opinions. If I had others I concealed +them, because he would not have approved. He used to call me his +doll child, and play with me as I played with my dolls. Then I came +to live in your house. You settled everything according to your +taste, and I got the same taste as you, or I pretended to. When I +look back on it now, I seem to have been living like a beggar, from +hand to mouth. I lived by performing tricks for you, Torvald, but +you would have it so. You and father have done me a great wrong." + +In vain Helmer uses the old philistine arguments of wifely duty and +social obligations. Nora has grown out of her doll's dress into full +stature of conscious womanhood. She is determined to think and judge +for herself. She has realized that, before all else, she is a human +being, owing the first duty to herself. She is undaunted even by the +possibility of social ostracism. She has become sceptical of the +justice of the law, the wisdom of the constituted. Her rebelling +soul rises in protest against the existing. In her own words: "I +must make up my mind which is right, society or I." + +In her childlike faith in her husband she had hoped for the great +miracle. But it was not the disappointed hope that opened her vision +to the falsehoods of marriage. It was rather the smug contentment of +Helmer with a safe lie--one that would remain hidden and not endanger +his social standing. + +When Nora closed behind her the door of her gilded cage and went out +into the world a new, regenerated personality, she opened the gate of +freedom and truth for her own sex and the race to come. + +More than any other play, GHOSTS has acted like a bomb explosion, +shaking the social structure to its very foundations. + +In DOLL'S HOUSE the justification of the union between Nora and +Helmer rested at least on the husband's conception of integrity and +rigid adherence to our social morality. Indeed, he was the +conventional ideal husband and devoted father. Not so in GHOSTS. +Mrs. Alving married Captain Alving only to find that he was a +physical and mental wreck, and that life with him would mean utter +degradation and be fatal to possible offspring. In her despair she +turned to her youth's companion, young Pastor Manders who, as the +true savior of souls for heaven, must needs be indifferent to earthly +necessities. He sent her back to shame and degradation,--to her +duties to husband and home. Indeed, happiness--to him--was but the +unholy manifestation of a rebellious spirit, and a wife's duty was +not to judge, but "to bear with humility the cross which a higher +power had for your own good laid upon you." + +Mrs. Alving bore the cross for twenty-six long years. Not for the +sake of the higher power, but for her little son Oswald, whom she +longed to save from the poisonous atmosphere of her husband's home. + +It was also for the sake of the beloved son that she supported the +lie of his father's goodness, in superstitious awe of "duty and +decency." She learned, alas! too late, that the sacrifice of her +entire life had been in vain, and that her son Oswald was visited by +the sins of his father, that he was irrevocably doomed. This, too, +she learned, that "we are all of us ghosts. It is not only what we +have inherited from our father and mother that walks in us. It is +all sorts of dead ideas and lifeless old beliefs. They have no +vitality, but they cling to us all the same and we can't get rid of +them.... And then we are, one and all, so pitifully afraid of +light. When you forced me under the yoke you called Duty and +Obligation; when you praised as right and proper what my whole soul +rebelled against as something loathsome; it was then that I began to +look into the seams of your doctrine. I only wished to pick at a +single knot, but when I had got that undone, the whole thing ravelled +out. And then I understood that it was all machine-sewn." + +How could a society machine-sewn, fathom the seething depths whence +issued the great masterpiece of Henrik Ibsen? It could not +understand, and therefore it poured the vials of abuse and venom upon +its greatest benefactor. That Ibsen was not daunted he has proved by +his reply in AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE. + +In that great drama Ibsen performs the last funeral rites over a +decaying and dying social system. Out of its ashes rises the +regenerated individual, the bold and daring rebel. Dr. Stockman, an +idealist, full of social sympathy and solidarity, is called to his +native town as the physician of the baths. He soon discovers that +the latter are built on a swamp, and that instead of finding relief +the patients, who flock to the place, are being poisoned. + +An honest man, of strong convictions, the doctor considers it his +duty to make his discovery known. But he soon learns that dividends +and profits are concerned neither with health nor principles. Even +the reformers of the town, represented in the PEOPLE'S MESSENGER, +always ready to prate of their devotion to the people, withdraw their +support from the "reckless" idealist, the moment they learn that the +doctor's discovery may bring the town into disrepute, and thus injure +their pockets. + +But Doctor Stockman continues in the faith he entertains for has +townsmen. They would hear him. But here, too, he soon finds himself +alone. He cannot even secure a place to proclaim his great truth. +And when he finally succeeds, he is overwhelmed by abuse and ridicule +as the enemy of the people. The doctor, so enthusiastic of his +townspeople's assistance to eradicate the evil, is soon driven to a +solitary position. The announcement of his discovery would result in +a pecuniary loss to the town, and that consideration induces the +officials, the good citizens, and soul reformers, to stifle the voice +of truth. He finds them all a compact majority, unscrupulous enough +to be willing to build up the prosperity of the town on a quagmire of +lies and fraud. He is accused of trying to ruin the community. But +to his mind "it does not matter if a lying community is ruined. It +must be levelled to the ground. All men who live upon lies must be +exterminated like vermin. You'll bring it to such a pass that the +whole country will deserve to perish." + +Doctor Stockman is not a practical politician. A free man, he +thinks, must not behave like a blackguard. "He must not so act that +he would spit in his own face." For only cowards permit +"considerations" of pretended general welfare or of party to override +truth and ideals. "Party programmes wring the necks of all young, +living truths; and considerations of expediency turn morality and +righteousness upside down, until life is simply hideous." + +These plays of Ibsen--THE PILLARS OF SOCIETY, A DOLL'S HOUSE, GHOSTS, +and AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE--constitute a dynamic force which is +gradually dissipating the ghosts walking the social burying ground +called civilization. Nay, more; Ibsen's destructive effects are at +the same time supremely constructive, for he not merely undermines +existing pillars; indeed, he builds with sure strokes the foundation +of a healthier, ideal future, based on the sovereignty of the +individual within a sympathetic social environment. + +England with her great pioneers of radical thought, the intellectual +pilgrims like Godwin, Robert Owen, Darwin, Spencer, William Morris, +and scores of others; with her wonderful larks of liberty--Shelley, +Byron, Keats--is another example of the influence of dramatic art. +Within comparatively a few years, the dramatic works of Shaw, Pinero, +Galsworthy, Rann Kennedy, have carried radical thought to the ears +formerly deaf even to Great Britain's wondrous poets. Thus a public +which will remain indifferent reading an essay by Robert Owen, on +Poverty, or ignore Bernard Shaw's Socialistic tracts, was made to +think by MAJOR BARBARA, wherein poverty is described as the greatest +crime of Christian civilization. "Poverty makes people weak, +slavish, puny; poverty creates disease, crime, prostitution; in fine, +poverty is responsible for all the ills and evils of the world." +Poverty also necessitates dependency, charitable organizations, +institutions that thrive off the very thing they are trying to +destroy. The Salvation Army, for instance, as shown in MAJOR +BARBARA, fights drunkenness; yet one of its greatest contributors is +Badger, a whiskey distiller, who furnishes yearly thousands of pounds +to do away with the very source of his wealth. Bernard Shaw, +therefore, concludes that the only real benefactor of society is a +man like Undershaft, Barbara's father, a cannon manufacturer, whose +theory of life is that powder is stronger than words. + +"The worst of crimes," says Undershaft, "is poverty. All the other +crimes are virtues beside it; all the other dishonors are chivalry +itself by comparison. Poverty blights whole cities; spreads horrible +pestilences; strikes dead the very soul of all who come within sight, +sound, or smell of it. What you call crime is nothing; a murder +here, a theft there, a blow now and a curse there: what do they +matter? They are only the accidents and illnesses of life; there are +not fifty genuine professional criminals in London. But there are +millions of poor people, abject people, dirty people, ill-fed, +ill-clothed people. They poison us morally and physically; they kill +the happiness of society; they force us to do away with our own +liberties and to organize unnatural cruelties for fear they should +rise against us and drag us down into their abyss.... Poverty and +slavery have stood up for centuries to your sermons and leading +articles; they will not stand up to my machine guns. Don't preach at +them; don't reason with them. Kill them.... It is the final test +of conviction, the only lever strong enough to overturn a social +system.... Vote! Bah! When you vote, you only change the name +of the cabinet. When you shoot, you pull down governments, +inaugurate new epochs, abolish old orders, and set up new." + +No wonder people cared little to read Mr. Shaw's Socialistic tracts. +In no other way but in the drama could he deliver such forcible, +historic truths. And therefore it is only through the drama that Mr. +Shaw is a revolutionary factor in the dissemination of radical ideas. + +After Hauptmann's DIE WEBER, STRIFE, by Galsworthy, is the most +important labor drama. + +The theme of STRIFE is a strike with two dominant factors: Anthony, +the president of the company, rigid, uncompromising, unwilling to +make the slightest concession, although the men held out for months +and are in a condition of semi-starvation; and David Roberts, an +uncompromising revolutionist, whose devotion to the workingman and +the cause of freedom is at white heat. Between them the strikers are +worn and weary with the terrible struggle, and are harassed and +driven by the awful sight of poverty and want in their families. + +The most marvellous and brilliant piece of work in STRIFE is +Galsworthy's portrayal of the mob, its fickleness, and lack of +backbone. One moment they applaud old Thomas, who speaks of the +power of God and religion and admonishes the men against rebellion; +the next instant they are carried away by a walking delegate, who +pleads the cause of the union,--the union that always stands for +compromise, and which forsakes the workingmen whenever they dare to +strike for independent demands; again they are aglow with the +earnestness, the spirit, and the intensity of David Roberts--all +these people willing to go in whatever direction the wind blows. It +is the curse of the working class that they always follow like sheep +led to slaughter. + +Consistency is the greatest crime of our commercial age. No matter +how intense the spirit or how important the man, the moment he will +not allow himself to be used or sell his principles, he is thrown on +the dustheap. Such was the fate of the president of the company, +Anthony, and of David Roberts. To be sure they represented opposite +poles--poles antagonistic to each other, poles divided by a terrible +gap that can never be bridged over. Yet they shared a common fate. +Anthony is the embodiment of conservatism, of old ideas, of iron +methods: + +"I have been chairman of this company thirty-two years. I have +fought the men four times. I have never been defeated. It has been +said that times have changed. If they have, I have not changed with +them. It has been said that masters and men are equal. Cant. There +can be only one master in a house. It has been said that Capital and +Labor have the same interests. Cant. Their interests are as wide +asunder as the poles. There is only one way of treating men--with +the iron rod. Masters are masters. Men are men." + +We may not like this adherence to old, reactionary notions, and yet +there is something admirable in the courage and consistency of this +man, nor is he half as dangerous to the interests of the oppressed, +as our sentimental and soft reformers who rob with nine fingers, and +give libraries with the tenth; who grind human beings like Russell +Sage, and then spend millions of dollars in social research work; who +turn beautiful young plants into faded old women, and then give them +a few paltry dollars or found a Home for Working Girls. Anthony is a +worthy foe; and to fight such a foe, one must learn to meet him in +open battle. + +David Roberts has all the mental and moral attributes of his +adversary, coupled with the spirit of revolt, and the depth of modern +ideas. He, too, is consistent, and wants nothing for his class short +of complete victory. + +"It is not for this little moment of time we are fighting, not for +our own little bodies and their warmth; it is for all those who come +after, for all times. Oh, men, for the love of them don't turn up +another stone on their heads, don't help to blacken the sky. If we +can shake that white-faced monster with the bloody lips that has +sucked the lives out of ourselves, our wives, and children, since the +world began, if we have not the hearts of men to stand against it, +breast to breast and eye to eye, and force it backward till it cry +for mercy, it will go on sucking life, and we shall stay forever +where we are, less than the very dogs." + +It is inevitable that compromise and petty interest should pass on +and leave two such giants behind. Inevitable, until the mass will +reach the stature of a David Roberts. Will it ever? Prophecy is not +the vocation of the dramatist, yet the moral lesson is evident. One +cannot help realizing that the workingmen will have to use methods +hitherto unfamiliar to them; that they will have to discard all those +elements in their midst that are forever ready to reconcile the +irreconcilable, namely Capital and Labor. They will have to learn +that characters like David Roberts are the very forces that have +revolutionized the world and thus paved the way for emancipation out +of the clutches of that "white-faced monster with bloody lips," +towards a brighter horizon, a freer life, and a deeper recognition of +human values. + +No subject of equal social import has received such extensive +consideration within the last few years as the question of prison and +punishment. + +Hardly any magazine of consequence that has not devoted its columns +to the discussion of this vital theme. A number of books by able +writers, both in America and abroad, have discussed this topic from +the historic, psychologic, and social standpoint, all agreeing that +present penal institutions and our mode of coping with crime have in +every respect proved inadequate as well as wasteful. One would +expect that something very radical should result from the cumulative +literary indictment of the social crimes perpetrated upon the +prisoner. Yet with the exception of a few minor and comparatively +insignificant reforms in some of our prisons, absolutely nothing has +been accomplished. But at last this grave social wrong has found +dramatic interpretation in Galworthy's JUSTICE. + +The play opens in the office of James How and Sons, Solicitors. The +senior clerk, Robert Cokeson, discovers that a check he had issued +for nine pounds has been forged to ninety. By elimination, suspicion +falls upon William Falder, the junior office clerk. The latter is in +love with a married woman, the abused, ill-treated wife of a brutal +drunkard. Pressed by his employer, a severe yet not unkindly man, +Falder confesses the forgery, pleading the dire necessity of his +sweetheart, Ruth Honeywill, with whom he had planned to escape to +save her from the unbearable brutality of her husband. +Notwithstanding the entreaties of young Walter, who is touched by +modern ideas, his father, a moral and law-respecting citizen, turns +Falder over to the police. + +The second act, in the court-room, shows Justice in the very process +of manufacture. The scene equals in dramatic power and psychologic +verity the great court scene in RESURRECTION. Young Falder, a +nervous and rather weakly youth of twenty-three, stands before the +bar. Ruth, his married sweetheart, full of love and devotion, burns +with anxiety to save the young man whose affection brought about his +present predicament. The young man is defended by Lawyer Frome, +whose speech to the jury is a masterpiece of deep social philosophy +wreathed with the tendrils of human understanding and sympathy. He +does not attempt to dispute the mere fact of Falder having altered +the check; and though he pleads temporary aberration in defense of +his client, that plea is based upon a social consciousness as deep +and all-embracing as the roots of our social ills--"the background of +life, that palpitating life which always lies behind the commission +of a crime." He shows Falder to have faced the alternative of seeing +the beloved woman murdered by her brutal husband, whom she cannot +divorce; or of taking the law into his own hands. The defence pleads +with the jury not to turn the weak young man into a criminal by +condemning him to prison, for "justice is a machine that, when +someone has given it a starting push, rolls on of itself.... Is +this young man to be ground to pieces under this machine for an act +which, at the worst, was one of weakness? Is he to become a member +of the luckless crews that man those dark, ill-starred ships called +prisons?... I urge you, gentlemen, do not ruin this young man. +For as a result of those four minutes, ruin, utter and irretrievable, +stares him in the face.... The rolling of the chariot wheels of +Justice over this boy began when it was decided to prosecute him." + +But the chariot of Justice rolls mercilessly on, for--as the learned +Judge says--"the law is what it is--a majestic edifice, sheltering +all of us, each stone of which rests on another." + +Falder is sentenced to three years' penal servitude. + +In prison, the young, inexperienced convict soon finds himself the +victim of the terrible "system." The authorities admit that young +Falder is mentally and physically "in bad shape," but nothing can be +done in the matter: many others are in a similar position, and "the +quarters are inadequate." + +The third scene of the third act is heart-gripping in its silent +force. The whole scene is a pantomime, taking place in Falder's +prison cell. + +"In fast-falling daylight, Falder, in his stockings, is seen standing +motionless, with his head inclined towards the door, listening. He +moves a little closer to the door, his stockinged feet making no +noise. He stops at the door. He is trying harder and harder to hear +something, any little thing that is going on outside. He springs +suddenly upright--as if at a sound--and remains perfectly motionless. +Then, with a heavy sigh, he moves to his work, and stands looking at +it, with his head down; he does a stitch or two, having the air of a +man so lost in sadness that each stitch is, as it were, a coming to +life. Then, turning abruptly, he begins pacing his cell, moving his +head, like an animal pacing its cage. He stops again at the door, +listens, and, placing the palms of his hands against it with his +fingers spread out, leans his forehead against the iron. Turning +from it, presently, he moves slowly back towards the window, holding +his head, as if he felt that it were going to burst, and stops under +the window. But since he cannot see out of it he leaves off looking, +and, picking up the lid of one of the tins, peers into it, as if +trying to make a companion of his own face. It has grown very nearly +dark. Suddenly the lid falls out of his hand with a clatter--the +only sound that has broken the silence--and he stands staring +intently at the wall where the stuff of the shirt is hanging rather +white in the darkness--he seems to be seeing somebody or something +there. There is a sharp tap and click; the cell light behind the +glass screen has been turned up. The cell is brightly lighted. +Falder is seen gasping for breath. + +A sound from far away, as of distant, dull beating on thick metal, is +suddenly audible. Falder shrinks back, not able to bear this sudden +clamor. But the sound grows, as though some great tumbril were +rolling towards the cell. And gradually it seems to hypnotize him. +He begins creeping inch by inch nearer to the door. The banging +sound, traveling from cell to cell, draws closer and closer; Falder's +hands are seen moving as if his spirit had already joined in this +beating, and the sound swells till it seems to have entered the very +cell. He suddenly raises his clenched fists. Panting violently, he +flings himself at his door, and beats on it." + +Finally Falder leaves the prison, a broken ticket-of-leave man, the +stamp of the convict upon his brow, the iron of misery in his soul. +Thanks to Ruth's pleading, the firm of James How and Son is willing +to take Falder back in their employ, on condition that he give up +Ruth. It is then that Falder learns the awful news that the woman he +loves had been driven by the merciless economic Moloch to sell +herself. She "tried making skirts ... cheap things.... I never +made more than ten shillings a week, buying my own cotton, and +working all day. I hardly ever got to bed till past twelve.... +And then ... my employer happened--he's happened ever since." At +this terrible psychologic moment the police appear to drag him back +to prison for failing to report himself as ticket-of-leave man. +Completely overwhelmed by the inexorability of his environment, young +Falder seeks and finds peace, greater than human justice, by throwing +himself down to death, as the detectives are taking him back to +prison. + +It would be impossible to estimate the effect produced by this play. +Perhaps some conception can be gained from the very unusual +circumstance that it had proved so powerful as to induce the Home +Secretary of Great Britain to undertake extensive prison reforms in +England. A very encouraging sign this, of the influence exerted by +the modern drama. It is to be hoped that the thundering indictment +of Mr. Galsworthy will not remain without similar effect upon the +public sentiment and prison conditions of America. At any rate, it +is certain that no other modern play has borne such direct and +immediate fruit in wakening the social conscience. + +Another modern play, THE SERVANT IN THE HOUSE, strikes a vital key +in our social life. The hero of Mr. Kennedy's masterpiece is Robert, +a coarse, filthy drunkard, whom respectable society has repudiated. +Robert, the sewer cleaner, is the real hero of the play; nay, its +true and only savior. It is he who volunteers to go down into the +dangerous sewer, so that his comrades "can 'ave light and air." +After all, has he not sacrificed his life always, so that others may +have light and air? + +The thought that labor is the redeemer of social well-being has been +cried from the housetops in every tongue and every clime. Yet the +simple words of Robert express the significance of labor and its +mission with far greater potency. + +America is still in its dramatic infancy. Most of the attempts along +this line to mirror life, have been wretched failures. Still, there +are hopeful signs in the attitude of the intelligent public toward +modern plays, even if they be from foreign soil. + +The only real drama America has so far produced is THE EASIEST WAY, +by Eugene Walter. + +It is supposed to represent a "peculiar phase" of New York life. If +that were all, it would be of minor significance. That which gives +the play its real importance and value lies much deeper. It lies, +first, in the fundamental current of our social fabric which drives +us all, even stronger characters than Laura, into the easiest way--a +way so very destructive of integrity, truth, and justice. Secondly, +the cruel, senseless fatalism conditioned in Laura's sex. These two +features put the universal stamp upon the play, and characterize it +as one of the strongest dramatic indictments against society. + +The criminal waste of human energy, in economic and social +conditions, drives Laura as it drives the average girl to marry any +man for a "home"; or as it drives men to endure the worst indignities +for a miserable pittance. + +Then there is that other respectable institution, the fatalism of +Laura's sex. The inevitability of that force is summed up in the +following words: "Don't you know that we count no more in the life of +these men than tamed animals? It's a game, and if we don't play our +cards well, we lose." Woman in the battle with life has but one +weapon, one commodity--sex. That alone serves as a trump card in the +game of life. + +This blind fatalism has made of woman a parasite, an inert thing. +Why then expect perseverance or energy of Laura? The easiest way is +the path mapped out for her from time immemorial. She could follow +no other. + +A number of other plays could be quoted as characteristic of the +growing role of the drama as a disseminator of radical thought. +Suffice to mention THE THIRD DEGREE, by Charles Klein; THE FOURTH +ESTATE, by Medill Patterson; A MAN'S WORLD, by Ida Croutchers,--all +pointing to the dawn of dramatic art in America, an art which is +discovering to the people the terrible diseases of our social body. + +It has been said of old, all roads lead to Rome. In paraphrased +application to the tendencies of our day, it may truly be said that +all roads lead to the great social reconstruction. The economic +awakening of the workingman, and his realization of the necessity for +concerted industrial action; the tendencies of modern education, +especially in their application to the free development of the child; +the spirit of growing unrest expressed through, and cultivated by, +art and literature, all pave the way to the Open Road. Above all, +the modern drama, operating through the double channel of dramatist +and interpreter, affecting as it does both mind and heart, is the +strongest force in developing social discontent, swelling the +powerful tide of unrest that sweeps onward and over the dam of +ignorance, prejudice, and superstition. + + +[1] HONOR. + +[2] MAGDA. + +[3] BEFORE SUNRISE. + +[4] THE WEAVERS. + +[5] THE SUNKEN BELL. + +[6] YOUTH. + +[7] THE AWAKENING OF SPRING. + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Anarchism and Other Essays, by Emma Goldman + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ANARCHISM AND OTHER ESSAYS *** + +***** This file should be named 2162.txt or 2162.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/1/6/2162/ + +Produced by Eva. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +Prepared by: +eva +eva@mrow.net + + + + + +ANARCHISM AND OTHER ESSAYS + +Emma Goldman + + + + +With Biographic Sketch by Hippolyte Havel + + + + +CONTENTS + + +Biographic Sketch + +Preface + +Anarchism: What It Really Stands For + +Minorities Versus Majorities + +The Psychology of Political Violence + +Prisons: A Social Crime and Failure + +Patriotism: A Menace to Liberty + +Francisco Ferrer and The Modern School + +The Hypocrisy of Puritanism + +The Traffic in Women + +Woman Suffrage + +The Tragedy of Woman's Emancipation + +Marriage and Love + +The Drama: A Powerful Disseminator of Radical Thought + + + + +EMMA GOLDMAN + + + + Propagandism is not, as some suppose, a "trade," because + nobody will follow a "trade" at which you may work with + the industry of a slave and die with the reputation of a + mendicant. The motives of any persons to pursue such a + profession must be different from those of trade, deeper + than pride, and stronger than interest. + GEORGE JACOB HOLYOAKE. + + +Among the men and women prominent in the public life of America there +are but few whose names are mentioned as often as that of Emma +Goldman. Yet the real Emma Goldman is almost quite unknown. The +sensational press has surrounded her name with so much +misrepresentation and slander, it would seem almost a miracle that, +in spite of this web of calumny, the truth breaks through and a +better appreciation of this much maligned idealist begins to manifest +itself. There is but little consolation in the fact that almost +every representative of a new idea has had to struggle and suffer +under similar difficulties. Is it of any avail that a former +president of a republic pays homage at Osawatomie to the memory of +John Brown? Or that the president of another republic participates +in the unveiling of a statue in honor of Pierre Proudhon, and holds +up his life to the French nation as a model worthy of enthusiastic +emulation? Of what avail is all this when, at the same time, the +LIVING John Browns and Proudhons are being crucified? The honor and +glory of a Mary Wollstonecraft or of a Louise Michel are not enhanced +by the City Fathers of London or Paris naming a street after +them--the living generation should be concerned with doing justice to +the LIVING Mary Wollstonecrafts and Louise Michels. Posterity +assigns to men like Wendel Phillips and Lloyd Garrison the proper +niche of honor in the temple of human emancipation; but it is the +duty of their contemporaries to bring them due recognition and +appreciation while they live. + +The path of the propagandist of social justice is strewn with thorns. +The powers of darkness and injustice exert all their might lest a ray +of sunshine enter his cheerless life. Nay, even his comrades in the +struggle--indeed, too often his most intimate friends--show but +little understanding for the personality of the pioneer. Envy, +sometimes growing to hatred, vanity and jealousy, obstruct his way +and fill his heart with sadness. It requires an inflexible will and +tremendous enthusiasm not to lose, under such conditions, all faith +in the Cause. The representative of a revolutionizing idea stands +between two fires: on the one hand, the persecution of the existing +powers which hold him responsible for all acts resulting from social +conditions; and, on the other, the lack of understanding on the part +of his own followers who often judge all his activity from a narrow +standpoint. Thus it happens that the agitator stands quite alone in +the midst of the multitude surrounding him. Even his most intimate +friends rarely understand how solitary and deserted he feels. That +is the tragedy of the person prominent in the public eye. + +The mist in which the name of Emma Goldman has so long been enveloped +is gradually beginning to dissipate. Her energy in the furtherance +of such an unpopular idea as Anarchism, her deep earnestness, her +courage and abilities, find growing understanding and admiration. + +The debt American intellectual growth owes to the revolutionary +exiles has never been fully appreciated. The seed disseminated by +them, though so little understood at the time, has brought a rich +harvest. They have at all times held aloft the banner of liberty, +thus impregnating the social vitality of the Nation. But very few +have succeeding in preserving their European education and culture +while at the same time assimilating themselves with American life. +It is difficult for the average man to form an adequate conception +what strength, energy, and perseverance are necessary to absorb the +unfamiliar language, habits, and customs of a new country, without +the loss of one's own personality. + +Emma Goldman is one of the few who, while thoroughly preserving their +individuality, have become an important factor in the social and +intellectual atmosphere of America. The life she leads is rich in +color, full of change and variety. She has risen to the topmost +heights, and she has also tasted the bitter dregs of life. + +Emma Goldman was born of Jewish parentage on the 27th day of June, +1869, in the Russian province of Kovno. Surely these parents never +dreamed what unique position their child would some day occupy. Like +all conservative parents they, too, were quite convinced that their +daughter would marry a respectable citizen, bear him children, and +round out her allotted years surrounded by a flock of grandchildren, +a good, religious woman. As most parents, they had no inkling what a +strange, impassioned spirit would take hold of the soul of their +child, and carry it to the heights which separate generations in +eternal struggle. They lived in a land and at a time when antagonism +between parent and offspring was fated to find its most acute +expression, irreconcilable hostility. In this tremendous struggle +between fathers and sons--and especially between parents and +daughters--there was no compromise, no weak yielding, no truce. The +spirit of liberty, of progress--an idealism which knew no +considerations and recognized no obstacles--drove the young +generation out of the parental house and away from the hearth of the +home. Just as this same spirit once drove out the revolutionary +breeder of discontent, Jesus, and alienated him from his native +traditions. + +What role the Jewish race--notwithstanding all anti-semitic calumnies +the race of transcendental idealism--played in the struggle of the +Old and the New will probably never be appreciated with complete +impartiality and clarity. Only now are we beginning to perceive the +tremendous debt we owe to Jewish idealists in the realm of science, +art, and literature. But very little is still known of the important +part the sons and daughters of Israel have played in the +revolutionary movement and, especially, in that of modern times. + +The first years of her childhood Emma Goldman passed in a small, +idyllic place in the German-Russian province of Kurland, where her +father had charge of the government stage. At the time Kurland was +thoroughly German; even the Russian bureaucracy of that Baltic +province was recruited mostly from German JUNKERS. German fairy +tales and stories, rich in the miraculous deeds of the heroic knights +of Kurland, wove their spell over the youthful mind. But the +beautiful idyl was of short duration. Soon the soul of the growing +child was overcast by the dark shadows of life. Already in her +tenderest youth the seeds of rebellion and unrelenting hatred of +oppression were to be planted in the heart of Emma Goldman. Early +she learned to know the beauty of the State: she saw her father +harassed by the Christian CHINOVNIKS and doubly persecuted as petty +official and hated Jew. The brutality of forced conscription ever +stood before her eyes: she beheld the young men, often the sole +supporter of a large family, brutally dragged to the barracks to lead +the miserable life of a soldier. She heard the weeping of the poor +peasant women, and witnessed the shameful scenes of official venality +which relieved the rich from military service at the expense of the +poor. She was outraged by the terrible treatment to which the female +servants were subjected: maltreated and exploited by their BARINYAS, +they fell to the tender mercies of the regimental officers, who +regarded them as their natural sexual prey. The girls, made pregnant +by respectable gentlemen and driven out by their mistresses, often +found refuge in the Goldman home. And the little girl, her heart +palpitating with sympathy, would abstract coins from the parental +drawer to clandestinely press the money into the hands of the +unfortunate women. Thus Emma Goldman's most striking characteristic, +her sympathy with the underdog, already became manifest in these +early years. + +At the age of seven little Emma was sent by her parents to her +grandmother at Konigsberg, the city of Emanuel Kant, in Eastern +Prussia. Save for occasional interruptions, she remained there till her +13th birthday. The first years in these surroundings do not exactly +belong to her happiest recollections. The grandmother, indeed, was +very amiable, but the numerous aunts of the household were concerned +more with the spirit of practical rather than pure reason, and the +categoric imperative was applied all too frequently. The situation +was changed when her parents migrated to Konigsberg, and little Emma +was relieved from her role of Cinderella. She now regularly attended +public school and also enjoyed the advantages of private instruction, +customary in middle class life; French and music lessons played an +important part in the curriculum. The future interpreter of Ibsen +and Shaw was then a little German Gretchen, quite at home in the +German atmosphere. Her special predilections in literature were the +sentimental romances of Marlitt; she was a great admirer of the good +Queen Louise, whom the bad Napoleon Buonaparte treated with so marked +a lack of knightly chivalry. What might have been her future +development had she remained in this milieu? Fate--or was it +economic necessity?--willed it otherwise. Her parents decided to +settle in St. Petersburg, the capital of the Almighty Tsar, and there +to embark in business. It was here that a great change took place in +the life of the young dreamer. + +It was an eventful period--the year of 1882--in which Emma Goldman, +then in her 13th year, arrived in St. Petersburg. A struggle for +life and death between the autocracy and the Russian intellectuals +swept the country. Alexander II had fallen the previous year. +Sophia Perovskaia, Zheliabov, Grinevitzky, Rissakov, Kibalchitch, +Michailov, the heroic executors of the death sentence upon the +tyrant, had then entered the Walhalla of immortality. Jessie +Helfman, the only regicide whose life the government had reluctantly +spared because of pregnancy, followed the unnumbered Russian martyrs +to the etapes of Siberia. It was the most heroic period in the great +battle of emancipation, a battle for freedom such as the world had +never witnessed before. The names of the Nihilist martyrs were on +all lips, and thousands were enthusiastic to follow their example. +The whole INTELLIGENZIA of Russia was filled with the ILLEGAL +spirit: revolutionary sentiments penetrated into every home, from +mansion to hovel, impregnating the military, the CHINOVNIKS, factory +workers, and peasants. The atmosphere pierced the very casemates of +the royal palace. New ideas germinated in the youth. The difference +of sex was forgotten. Shoulder to shoulder fought the men and the +women. The Russian woman! Who shall ever do justice or adequately +portray her heroism and self-sacrifice, her loyalty and devotion? +Holy, Turgeniev calls her in his great prose poem, ON THE THRESHOLD. + +It was inevitable that the young dreamer from Konigsberg should be +drawn into the maelstrom. To remain outside of the circle of free +ideas meant a life of vegetation, of death. One need not wonder at +the youthful age. Young enthusiasts were not then--and, fortunately, +are not now--a rare phenomenon in Russia. The study of the Russian +language soon brought young Emma Goldman in touch with revolutionary +students and new ideas. The place of Marlitt was taken by Nekrassov +and Tchernishevsky. The quondam admirer of the good Queen Louise +became a glowing enthusiast of liberty, resolving, like thousands of +others, to devote her life to the emancipation of the people. + +The struggle of generations now took place in the Goldman family. +The parents could not comprehend what interest their daughter could +find in the new ideas, which they themselves considered fantastic +utopias. They strove to persuade the young girl out of these +chimeras, and daily repetition of soul-racking disputes was the +result. Only in one member of the family did the young idealist find +understanding--in her elder sister, Helene, with whom she later +emigrated to America, and whose love and sympathy have never failed +her. Even in the darkest hours of later persecution Emma Goldman +always found a haven of refuge in the home of this loyal sister. + +Emma Goldman finally resolved to achieve her independence. She saw +hundreds of men and women sacrificing brilliant careers to go V +NAROD, to the people. She followed their example. She became a +factory worker; at first employed as a corset maker, and later in the +manufacture of gloves. She was now 17 years of age and proud to earn +her own living. Had she remained in Russia, she would have probably +sooner or later shared the fate of thousands buried in the snows of +Siberia. But a new chapter of life was to begin for her. Sister +Helene decided to emigrate to America, where another sister had +already made her home. Emma prevailed upon Helene to be allowed to +join her, and together they departed for America, filled with the +joyous hope of a great, free land, the glorious Republic. + + +America! What magic word. The yearning of the enslaved, the +promised land of the oppressed, the goal of all longing for progress. +Here man's ideals had found their fulfillment: no Tsar, no Cossack, +no CHINOVNIK. The Republic! Glorious synonym of equality, freedom, +brotherhood. + +Thus thought the two girls as they travelled, in the year 1886, from +New York to Rochester. Soon, all too soon, disillusionment awaited +them. The ideal conception of America was punctured already at +Castle Garden, and soon burst like a soap bubble. Here Emma Goldman +witnessed sights which reminded her of the terrible scenes of her +childhood in Kurland. The brutality and humiliation the future +citizens of the great Republic were subjected to on board ship, were +repeated at Castle Garden by the officials of the democracy in a more +savage and aggravating manner. And what bitter disappointment +followed as the young idealist began to familiarize herself with the +conditions in the new land! Instead of one Tsar, she found scores of +them; the Cossack was replaced by the policeman with the heavy club, +and instead of the Russian CHINOVNIK there was the far more inhuman +slave-driver of the factory. + +Emma Goldman soon obtained work in the clothing establishment of the +Garson Co. The wages amounted to two and a half dollars a week. At +that time the factories were not provided with motor power, and the +poor sewing girls had to drive the wheels by foot, from early morning +till late at night. A terribly exhausting toil it was, without a ray +of light, the drudgery of the long day passed in complete +silence--the Russian custom of friendly conversation at work was not +permissible in the free country. But the exploitation of the girls +was not only economic; the poor wage workers were looked upon by +their foremen and bosses as sexual commodities. If a girl resented +the advances of her "superiors", she would speedily find herself on +the street as an undesirable element in the factory. There was never +a lack of willing victims: the supply always exceeded the demand. + +The horrible conditions were made still more unbearable by the +fearful dreariness of life in the small American city. The Puritan +spirit suppresses the slightest manifestation of joy; a deadly +dullness beclouds the soul; no intellectual inspiration, no thought +exchange between congenial spirits is possible. Emma Goldman almost +suffocated in this atmosphere. She, above all others, longed for +ideal surroundings, for friendship and understanding, for the +companionship of kindred minds. Mentally she still lived in Russia. +Unfamiliar with the language and life of the country, she dwelt more +in the past than in the present. It was at this period that she met +a young man who spoke Russian. With great joy the acquaintance was +cultivated. At last a person with whom she could converse, one who +could help her bridge the dullness of the narrow existence. The +friendship gradually ripened and finally culminated in marriage. + +Emma Goldman, too, had to walk the sorrowful road of married life; +she, too, had to learn from bitter experience that legal statutes +signify dependence and self-effacement, especially for the woman. +The marriage was no liberation from the Puritan dreariness of +American life; indeed, it was rather aggravated by the loss of +self-ownership. The characters of the young people differed too +widely. A separation soon followed, and Emma Goldman went to New +Haven, Conn. There she found employment in a factory, and her +husband disappeared from her horizon. Two decades later she was +fated to be unexpectedly reminded of him by the Federal authorities. + +The revolutionists who were active in the Russian movement of the +80's were but little familiar with the social ideas then agitating +Western Europe and America. Their sole activity consisted in +educating the people, their final goal the destruction of the +autocracy. Socialism and Anarchism were terms hardly known even by +name. Emma Goldman, too, was entirely unfamiliar with the +significance of those ideals. + +She arrived in America, as four years previously in Russia, at a +period of great social and political unrest. The working people were +in revolt against the terrible labor conditions; the eight-hour +movement of the Knights of Labor was at its height, and throughout +the country echoed the din of sanguine strife between strikers and +police. The struggle culminated in the great strike against the +Harvester Company of Chicago, the massacre of the strikers, and the +judicial murder of the labor leaders, which followed upon the +historic Haymarket bomb explosion. The Anarchists stood the martyr +test of blood baptism. The apologists of capitalism vainly seek to +justify the killing of Parsons, Spies, Lingg, Fischer, and Engel. +Since the publication of Governor Altgeld's reason for his liberation +of the three incarcerated Haymarket Anarchists, no doubt is left that +a fivefold legal murder had been committed in Chicago, in 1887. + +Very few have grasped the significance of the Chicago martyrdom; +least of all the ruling classes. By the destruction of a number of +labor leaders they thought to stem the tide of a world-inspiring +idea. They failed to consider that from the blood of the martyrs +grows the new seed, and that the frightful injustice will win new +converts to the Cause. + +The two most prominent representatives of the Anarchist idea in +America, Voltairine de Cleyre and Emma Goldman--the one a native +American, the other a Russian--have been converted, like numerous +others, to the ideas of Anarchism by the judicial murder. Two women +who had not known each other before, and who had received a widely +different education, were through that murder united in one idea. + +Like most working men and women of America, Emma Goldman followed the +Chicago trial with great anxiety and excitement. She, too, could not +believe that the leaders of the proletariat would be killed. the +11th of November, 1887, taught her differently. She realized that no +mercy could be expected from the ruling class, that between the +Tsarism of Russia and the plutocracy of America there was no +difference save in name. Her whole being rebelled against the crime, +and she vowed to herself a solemn vow to join the ranks of the +revolutionary proletariat and to devote all her energy and strength +to their emancipation from wage slavery. With the glowing enthusiasm +so characteristic of her nature, she now began to familiarize herself +with the literature of Socialism and Anarchism. She attended public +meetings and became acquainted with socialistically and +anarchistically inclined workingmen. Johanna Greie, the well-known +German lecturer, was the first Socialist speaker heard by Emma +Goldman. In New Haven, Conn., where she was employed in a corset +factory, she met Anarchists actively participating in the movement. +Here she read the FREIHEIT, edited by John Most. The Haymarket +tragedy developed her inherent Anarchist tendencies: the reading of +the FREIHEIT made her a conscious Anarchist. Subsequently she was to +learn that the idea of Anarchism found its highest expression through +the best intellects of America: theoretically by Josiah Warren, +Stephen Pearl Andrews, Lysander Spooner; philosophically by Emerson, +Thoreau, and Walt Whitman. + +Made ill by the excessive strain of factory work, Emma Goldman +returned to Rochester where she remained till August, 1889, at which +time she removed to New York, the scene of the most important phase +of her life. She was now twenty years old. Features pallid with +suffering, eyes large and full of compassion, greet one in her +pictured likeness of those days. Her hair is, as customary with +Russian student girls, worn short, giving free play to the strong +forehead. + + +It is the heroic epoch of militant Anarchism. By leaps and bounds +the movement had grown in every country. In spite of the most severe +governmental persecution new converts swell the ranks. The +propaganda is almost exclusively of a secret character. The +repressive measures of the government drive the disciples of the new +philosophy to conspirative methods. Thousands of victims fall into +the hands of the authorities and languish in prisons. But nothing +can stem the rising tide of enthusiasm, of self-sacrifice and +devotion to the Cause. The efforts of teachers like Peter Kropotkin, +Louise Michel, Elisee Reclus, and others, inspire the devotees with +ever greater energy. + +Disruption is imminent with the Socialists, who have sacrificed the +idea of liberty and embraced the State and politics. The struggle is +bitter, the factions irreconcilable. This struggle is not merely +between Anarchists and Socialists; it also finds its echo within the +Anarchist groups. Theoretic differences and personal controversies +lead to strife and acrimonious enmities. The anti-Socialist +legislation of Germany and Austria had driven thousands of Socialists +and Anarchists across the seas to seek refuge in America. John Most, +having lost his seat in the Reichstag, finally had to flee his native +land, and went to London. There, having advanced toward Anarchism, +he entirely withdrew from the Social Democratic Party. Later, coming +to America, he continued the publication of the FREIHEIT in New York, +and developed great activity among the German workingmen. + +When Emma Goldman arrived in New York in 1889, she experienced little +difficulty in associating herself with active Anarchists. Anarchist +meetings were an almost daily occurrence. The first lecturer she +heard on the Anarchist platform was Dr. A. Solotaroff. Of great +importance to her future development was her acquaintance with John +Most, who exerted a tremendous influence over the younger elements. +His impassioned eloquence, untiring energy, and the persecution he +had endured for the Cause, all combined to enthuse the comrades. It +was also at this period that she met Alexander Berkman, whose +friendship played an important part throughout her life. Her talents +as a speaker could not long remain in obscurity. The fire of +enthusiasm swept her toward the public platform. Encouraged by her +friends, she began to participate as a German and Yiddish speaker at +Anarchist meetings. Soon followed a brief tour of agitation taking +her as far as Cleveland. With the whole strength and earnestness of +her soul she now threw herself into the propaganda of Anarchist +ideas. The passionate period of her life had begun. Through +constantly toiling in sweat shops, the fiery young orator was at the +same time very active as an agitator and participated in various +labor struggles, notably in the great cloakmakers' strike, in 1889, +led by Professor Garsyde and Joseph Barondess. + +A year later Emma Goldman was a delegate to an Anarchist conference +in New York. She was elected to the Executive Committee, but later +withdrew because of differences of opinion regarding tactical +matters. The ideas of the German-speaking Anarchists had at that +time not yet become clarified. Some still believed in parliamentary +methods, the great majority being adherents of strong centralism. +These differences of opinion in regard to tactics led in 1891 to a +breach with John Most. Emma Goldman, Alexander Berkman, and other +comrades joined the group AUTONOMY, in which Joseph Peukert, Otto +Rinke, and Claus Timmermann played an active part. The bitter +controversies which followed this secession terminated only with the +death of Most, in 1906. + +A great source of inspiration to Emma Goldman proved the Russian +revolutionists who were associated in the group ZNAMYA. Goldenberg, +Solotaroff, Zametkin, Miller, Cahan, the poet Edelstadt, Ivan von +Schewitsch, husband of Helene von Racowitza and editor of the +VOLKSZEITUNG, and numerous other Russian exiles, some of whom are +still living, were members of this group. It was also at this time +that Emma Goldman met Robert Reitzel, the German-American Heine, who +exerted a great influence on her development. Through him she became +acquainted with the best writers of modern literature, and the +friendship thus begun lasted till Reitzel's death, in 1898. + + +The labor movement of America had not been drowned in the Chicago +massacre; the murder of the Anarchists had failed to bring peace to +the profit-greedy capitalist. The struggle for the eight-hour day +continued. In 1892 broke out the great strike in Pittsburg. The +Homestead fight, the defeat of the Pinkertons, the appearance of the +militia, the suppression of the strikers, and the complete triumph of +the reaction are matters of comparatively recent history. Stirred to +the very depths by the terrible events at the seat of war, Alexander +Berkman resolved to sacrifice his life to the Cause and thus give an +object lesson to the wage slaves of America of active Anarchist +solidarity with labor. His attack upon Frick, the Gessler of +Pittsburg, failed, and the twenty-two-year-old youth was doomed to a +living death of twenty-two years in the penitentiary. The +bourgeoisie, which for decades had exalted and eulogized tyrannicide, +now was filled with terrible rage. The capitalist press organized a +systematic campaign of calumny and misrepresentation against +Anarchists. The police exerted every effort to involve Emma Goldman +in the act of Alexander Berkman. The feared agitator was to be +silenced by all means. It was only due to the circumstance of her +presence in New York that she escaped the clutches of the law. It +was a similar circumstance which, nine years later, during the +McKinley incident, was instrumental in preserving her liberty. It is +almost incredible with what amount of stupidity, baseness, and +vileness the journalists of the period sought to overwhelm the +Anarchist. One must peruse the newspaper files to realize the +enormity of incrimination and slander. It would be difficult to +portray the agony of soul Emma Goldman experienced in those days. +The persecutions of the capitalist press were to be borne by an +Anarchist with comparative equanimity; but the attacks from one's own +ranks were far more painful and unbearable. The act of Berkman was +severely criticized by Most and some of his followers among the +German and Jewish Anarchists. Bitter accusations and recriminations +at public meetings and private gatherings followed. Persecuted on +all sides, both because she championed Berkman and his act, and on +account of her revolutionary activity, Emma Goldman was harassed even +to the extent of inability to secure shelter. Too proud to seek +safety in the denial of her identity, she chose to pass the nights in +the public parks rather than expose her friends to danger or vexation +by her visits. The already bitter cup was filled to overflowing by +the attempted suicide of a young comrade who had shared living +quarters with Emma Goldman, Alexander Berkman, and a mutual artist +friend. + + +Many changes have since taken place. Alexander Berkman has survived +the Pennsylvania Inferno, and is back again in the ranks of the +militant Anarchists, his spirit unbroken, his soul full of enthusiasm +for the ideals of his youth. The artist comrade is now among the +well-known illustrators of New York. The suicide candidate left +America shortly after his unfortunate attempt to die, and was +subsequently arrested and condemned to eight years of hard labor for +smuggling Anarchist literature into Germany. He, too, has withstood +the terrors of prison life, and has returned to the revolutionary +movement, since earning the well deserved reputation of a talented +writer in Germany. + + +To avoid indefinite camping in the parks Emma Goldman finally was +forced to move into a house on Third Street, occupied exclusively by +prostitutes. There, among the outcasts of our good Christian +society, she could at least rent a bit of a room, and find rest and +work at her sewing machine. The women of the street showed more +refinement of feeling and sincere sympathy than the priests of the +Church. But human endurance had been exhausted by overmuch suffering +and privation. There was a complete physical breakdown, and the +renowned agitator was removed to the "Bohemian Republic"--a large +tenement house which derived its euphonious appellation from the fact +that its occupants were mostly Bohemian Anarchists. Here Emma +Goldman found friends ready to aid her. Justus Schwab, one of the +finest representatives of the German revolutionary period of that +time, and Dr. Solotaroff were indefatigable in the care of the +patient. Here, too, she met Edward Brady, the new friendship +subsequently ripening into close intimacy. Brady had been an active +participant in the revolutionary movement of Austria and had, at the +time of his acquaintance with Emma Goldman, lately been released from +an Austrian prison after an incarceration of ten years. + +Physicians diagnosed the illness as consumption, and the patient was +advised to leave New York. She went to Rochester, in the hope that +the home circle would help restore her to health. Her parents had +several years previously emigrated to America, settling in that city. +Among the leading traits of the Jewish race is the strong attachment +between the members of the family, and, especially, between parents +and children. Though her conservative parents could not sympathize +with the idealist aspirations of Emma Goldman and did not approve of +her mode of life, they now received their sick daughter with open +arms. The rest and care enjoyed in the parental home, and the +cheering presence of the beloved sister Helene, proved so beneficial +that within a short time she was sufficiently restored to resume her +energetic activity. + +There is no rest in the life of Emma Goldman. Ceaseless effort and +continuous striving toward the conceived goal are the essentials of +her nature. Too much precious time had already been wasted. It was +imperative to resume her labors immediately. The country was in the +throes of a crisis, and thousands of unemployed crowded the streets +of the large industrial centers. Cold and hungry they tramped +through the land in the vain search for work and bread. The +Anarchists developed a strenuous propaganda among the unemployed and +the strikers. A monster demonstration of striking cloakmakers and of +the unemployed took place at Union Square, New York. Emma Goldman +was one of the invited speakers. She delivered an impassioned +speech, picturing in fiery words the misery of the wage slave's life, +and quoted the famous maxim of Cardinal Manning: "Necessity knows no +law, and the starving man has a natural right to a share of his +neighbor's bread." She concluded her exhortation with the words: +"Ask for work. If they do not give you work, ask for bread. If they +do not give you work or bread, then take bread." + +The following day she left for Philadelphia, where she was to address +a public meeting. The capitalist press again raised the alarm. If +Socialists and Anarchists were to be permitted to continue agitating, +there was imminent danger that the workingmen would soon learn to +understand the manner in which they are robbed of the joy and +happiness of life. Such a possibility was to be prevented at all +cost. The Chief of Police of New York, Byrnes, procured a court +order for the arrest of Emma Goldman. She was detained by the +Philadelphia authorities and incarcerated for several days in the +Moyamensing prison, awaiting the extradition papers which Byrnes +intrusted to Detective Jacobs. This man Jacobs (whom Emma Goldman +again met several years later under very unpleasant circumstances) +proposed to her, while she was returning a prisoner to New York, to +betray the cause of labor. In the name of his superior, Chief +Byrnes, he offered lucrative reward. How stupid men sometimes are! +What poverty of psychologic observation to imagine the possibility of +betrayal on the part of a young Russian idealist, who had willingly +sacrificed all personal considerations to help in labor's +emancipation. + +In October, 1893, Emma Goldman was tried in the criminal courts of +New York on the charge of inciting to riot. The "intelligent" jury +ignored the testimony of the twelve witnesses for the defense in +favor of the evidence given by one single man--Detective Jacobs. She +was found guilty and sentenced to serve one year in the penitentiary +at Blackwell's Island. Since the foundation of the Republic she was +the first woman--Mrs. Surratt excepted--to be imprisoned for a +political offense. Respectable society had long before stamped upon +her the Scarlet Letter. + +Emma Goldman passed her time in the penitentiary in the capacity of +nurse in the prison hospital. Here she found opportunity to shed +some rays of kindness into the dark lives of the unfortunates whose +sisters of the street did not disdain two years previously to share +with her the same house. She also found in prison opportunity to +study English and its literature, and to familiarize herself with the +great American writers. In Bret Harte, Mark Twain, Walt Whitman, +Thoreau, and Emerson she found great treasures. + +She left Blackwell's Island in the month of August, 1894, a woman of +twenty-five, developed and matured, and intellectually transformed. +Back into the arena, richer in experience, purified by suffering. +She did not feel herself deserted and alone any more. Many hands +were stretched out to welcome her. There were at the time numerous +intellectual oases in New York. The saloon of Justus Schwab, at +Number Fifty, First Street, was the center where gathered Anarchists, +litterateurs, and bohemians. Among others she also met at this time +a number of American Anarchists, and formed the friendship of +Voltairine de Cleyre, Wm. C. Owen, Miss Van Etton, and Dyer D. Lum, +former editor of the ALARM and executor of the last wishes of the +Chicago martyrs. In John Swinton, the noble old fighter for liberty, +she found one of her staunchest friends. Other intellectual centers +there were: SOLIDARITY, published by John Edelman; LIBERTY, by the +Individualist Anarchist, Benjamin R. Tucker; the REBEL, by Harry +Kelly; DER STURMVOGEL, a German Anarchist publication, edited by +Claus Timmermann; DER ARME TEUFEL, whose presiding genius was the +inimitable Robert Reitzel. Through Arthur Brisbane, now chief +lieutenant of William Randolph Hearst, she became acquainted with the +writings of Fourier. Brisbane then was not yet submerged in the +swamp of political corruption. He sent Emma Goldman an amiable +letter to Blackwell's Island, together with the biography of his +father, the enthusiastic American disciple of Fourier. + +Emma Goldman became, upon her release from the penitentiary, a factor +in the public life of New York. She was appreciated in radical ranks +for her devotion, her idealism, and earnestness. Various persons +sought her friendship, and some tried to persuade her to aid in the +furtherance of their special side issues. Thus Rev. Parkhurst, +during the Lexow investigation, did his utmost to induce her to join +the Vigilance Committee in order to fight Tammany Hall. Maria +Louise, the moving spirit of a social center, acted as Parkhurst's +go-between. It is hardly necessary to mention what reply the latter +received from Emma Goldman. Incidentally, Maria Louise subsequently +became a Mahatma. During the free silver campaign, ex-Burgess +McLuckie, one of the most genuine personalities in the Homestead +strike, visited New York in an endeavor to enthuse the local radicals +for free silver. He also attempted to interest Emma Goldman, but +with no greater success than Mahatma Maria Louise of Parkhurst-Lexow +fame. + + +In 1894 the struggle of the Anarchists in France reached its highest +expression. The white terror on the part of the Republican upstarts +was answered by the red terror of our French comrades. With feverish +anxiety the Anarchists throughout the world followed this social +struggle. Propaganda by deed found its reverberating echo in almost +all countries. In order to better familiarize herself with +conditions in the old world, Emma Goldman left for Europe, in the +year 1895. After a lecture tour in England and Scotland, she went to +Vienna where she entered the ALLGEMEINE KRANKENHAUS to prepare +herself as midwife and nurse, and where at the same time she studied +social conditions. She also found opportunity to acquaint herself +with the newest literature of Europe: Hauptmann, Nietzsche, Ibsen, +Zola, Thomas Hardy, and other artist rebels were read with great +enthusiasm. + +In the autumn of 1896 she returned to New York by way of Zurich and +Paris. The project of Alexander Berkman's liberation was on hand. +The barbaric sentence of twenty-two years had roused tremendous +indignation among the radical elements. It was known that the Pardon +Board of Pennsylvania would look to Carnegie and Frick for advice in +the case of Alexander Berkman. It was therefore suggested that these +Sultans of Pennsylvania be approached--not with a view of obtaining +their grace, but with the request that they do not attempt to +influence the Board. Ernest Crosby offered to see Carnegie, on +condition that Alexander Berkman repudiate his act. That, however, +was absolutely out of the question. He would never be guilty of such +forswearing of his own personality and self-respect. These efforts +led to friendly relations between Emma Goldman and the circle of +Ernest Crosby, Bolton Hall, and Leonard Abbott. In the year 1897 she +undertook her first great lecture tour, which extended as far as +California. This tour popularized her name as the representative of +the oppressed, her eloquence ringing from coast to coast. In +California Emma Goldman became friendly with the members of the Isaak +family, and learned to appreciate their efforts for the Cause. Under +tremendous obstacles the Isaaks first published the FIREBRAND and, +upon its suppression by the Postal Department, the FREE SOCIETY. It +was also during this tour that Emma Goldman met that grand old rebel +of sexual freedom, Moses Harman. + +During the Spanish-American war the spirit of chauvinism was at its +highest tide. To check this dangerous situation, and at the same +time collect funds for the revolutionary Cubans, Emma Goldman became +affiliated with the Latin comrades, among others with Gori, Esteve, +Palaviccini, Merlino, Petruccini, and Ferrara. In the year 1899 +followed another protracted tour of agitation, terminating on the +Pacific Coast. Repeated arrests and accusations, though without +ultimate bad results, marked every propaganda tour. + +In November of the same year the untiring agitator went on a second +lecture tour to England and Scotland, closing her journey with the +first International Anarchist Congress at Paris. It was at the time of +the Boer war, and again jingoism was at its height, as two years +previously it had celebrated its orgies during the Spanish-American +war. Various meetings, both in England and Scotland, were disturbed +and broken up by patriotic mobs. Emma Goldman found on this occasion +the opportunity of again meeting various English comrades and +interesting personalities like Tom Mann and the sisters Rossetti, the +gifted daughters of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, then publishers of the +Anarchist review, the TORCH. One of her life-long hopes found here +its fulfillment: she came in close and friendly touch with Peter +Kropotkin, Enrico Malatesta, Nicholas Tchaikovsky, W. Tcherkessov, +and Louise Michel. Old warriors in the cause of humanity, whose +deeds have enthused thousands of followers throughout the world, and +whose life and work have inspired other thousands with noble idealism +and self-sacrifice. Old warriors they, yet ever young with the +courage of earlier days, unbroken in spirit and filled with the firm +hope of the final triumph of Anarchy. + +The chasm in the revolutionary labor movement, which resulted from +the disruption of the INTERNATIONALE, could not be bridged any more. +Two social philosophies were engaged in bitter combat. The +International Congress in 1889, at Paris; in 1892, at Zurich, and in +1896, at London, produced irreconcilable differences. The majority +of Social Democrats, forswearing their libertarian past and becoming +politicians, succeeded in excluding the revolutionary and Anarchist +delegates. The latter decided thenceforth to hold separate +congresses. Their first congress was to take place in 1900, at +Paris. The Socialist renegade, Millerand, who had climbed into the +Ministry of the Interior, here played a Judas role. The congress of +the revolutionists was suppressed, and the delegates dispersed two +days prior to their scheduled opening. But Millerand had no +objections against the Social Democratic Congress, which was +afterwards opened with all the trumpets of the advertiser's art. + +However, the renegade did not accomplish his object. A number of +delegates succeeded in holding a secret conference in the house of a +comrade outside of Paris, where various points of theory and tactics +were discussed. Emma Goldman took considerable part in these +proceedings, and on that occasion came in contact with numerous +representatives of the Anarchist movement of Europe. + +Owing to the suppression of the congress, the delegates were in +danger of being expelled from France. At this time also came the bad +news from America regarding another unsuccessful attempt to liberate +Alexander Berkman, proving a great shock to Emma Goldman. In +November, 1900, she returned to America to devote herself to her +profession of nurse, at the same time taking an active part in the +American propaganda. Among other activities she organized monster +meetings of protest against the terrible outrages of the Spanish +government, perpetrated upon the political prisoners tortured in +Montjuich. + +In her vocation as nurse Emma Goldman enjoyed many opportunities of +meeting the most unusual and peculiar characters. Few would have +identified the "notorious Anarchist" in the small blonde woman, +simply attired in the uniform of a nurse. Soon after her return from +Europe she became acquainted with a patient by the name of Mrs. +Stander, a morphine fiend, suffering excruciating agonies. She +required careful attention to enable her to supervise a very +important business she conducted,--that of Mrs. Warren. In Third +Street, near Third Avenue, was situated her private residence, and +near it, connected by a separate entrance, was her place of business. +One evening, the nurse, upon entering the room of her patient, +suddenly came face to face with a male visitor, bull-necked and of +brutal appearance. The man was no other than Mr. Jacobs, the +detective who seven years previously had brought Emma Goldman a +prisoner from Philadelphia and who had attempted to persuade her, on +their way to New York, to betray the cause of the workingmen. It +would be difficult to describe the expression of bewilderment on the +countenance of the man as he so unexpectedly faced Emma Goldman, the +nurse of his mistress. The brute was suddenly transformed into a +gentleman, exerting himself to excuse his shameful behavior on the +previous occasion. Jacobs was the "protector" of Mrs. Stander, and +go-between for the house and the police. Several years later, as one +of the detective staff of District Attorney Jerome, he committed +perjury, was convicted, and sent to Sing Sing for a year. He is now +probably employed by some private detective agency, a desirable +pillar of respectable society. + +In 1901 Peter Kropotkin was invited by the Lowell Institute of +Massachusetts to deliver a series of lectures on Russian literature. +It was his second American tour, and naturally the comrades were +anxious to use his presence for the benefit of the movement. Emma +Goldman entered into correspondence with Kropotkin and succeeded in +securing his consent to arrange for him a series of lectures. She +also devoted her energies to organizing the tours of other well known +Anarchists, principally those of Charles W. Mowbray and John Turner. +Similarly she always took part in all the activities of the movement, +ever ready to give her time, ability, and energy to the Cause. + +On the sixth of September, 1901, President McKinley was shot by Leon +Czolgosz at Buffalo. Immediately an unprecedented campaign of +persecution was set in motion against Emma Goldman as the best known +Anarchist in the country. Although there was absolutely no +foundation for the accusation, she, together with other prominent +Anarchists, was arrested in Chicago, kept in confinement for several +weeks, and subjected to severest cross-examination. Never before in +the history of the country had such a terrible man-hunt taken place +against a person in public life. But the efforts of police and press +to connect Emma Goldman with Czolgosz proved futile. Yet the episode +left her wounded to the heart. The physical suffering, the +humiliation and brutality at the hands of the police she could bear. +The depression of soul was far worse. She was overwhelmed by +realization of the stupidity, lack of understanding, and vileness +which characterized the events of those terrible days. The attitude +of misunderstanding on the part of the majority of her own comrades +toward Czolgosz almost drove her to desperation. Stirred to the very +inmost of her soul, she published an article on Czolgosz in which she +tried to explain the deed in its social and individual aspects. As +once before, after Berkman's act, she now also was unable to find +quarters; like a veritable wild animal she was driven from place to +place. This terrible persecution and, especially, the attitude of +her comrades made it impossible for her to continue propaganda. The +soreness of body and soul had first to heal. During 1901-1903 she +did not resume the platform. As "Miss Smith" she lived a quiet life, +practicing her profession and devoting her leisure to the study of +literature and, particularly, to the modern drama, which she +considers one of the greatest disseminators of radical ideas and +enlightened feeling. + +Yet one thing the persecution of Emma Goldman accomplished. Her name +was brought before the public with greater frequency and emphasis +than ever before, the malicious harassing of the much maligned +agitator arousing strong sympathy in many circles. Persons in +various walks of life began to get interested in her struggle and her +ideas. A better understanding and appreciation were now beginning to +manifest themselves. + +The arrival in America of the English Anarchist, John Turner, induced +Emma Goldman to leave her retirement. Again she threw herself into +her public activities, organizing an energetic movement for the +defense of Turner, whom the Immigration authorities condemned to +deportation on account of the Anarchist exclusion law, passed after +the death of McKinley. + +When Paul Orleneff and Mme. Nazimova arrived in New York to acquaint +the American public with Russian dramatic art, Emma Goldman became +the manager of the undertaking. By much patience and perseverance +she succeeded in raising the necessary funds to introduce the Russian +artists to the theater-goers of New York and Chicago. Though +financially not a success, the venture proved of great artistic +value. As manager of the Russian theater Emma Goldman enjoyed some +unique experiences. M. Orleneff could converse only in Russian, and +"Miss Smith" was forced to act as his interpreter at various polite +functions. Most of the aristocratic ladies of Fifth Avenue had not +the least inkling that the amiable manager who so entertainingly +discussed philosophy, drama, and literature at their five o'clock +teas, was the "notorious" Emma Goldman. If the latter should some +day write her autobiography, she will no doubt have many interesting +anecdotes to relate in connection with these experiences. + +The weekly Anarchist publication, FREE SOCIETY, issued by the Isaak +family, was forced to suspend in consequence of the nation-wide fury +that swept the country after the death of McKinley. To fill out the +gap Emma Goldman, in co-operation with Max Baginski and other +comrades, decided to publish a monthly magazine devoted to the +furtherance of Anarchist ideas in life and literature. The first +issue of MOTHER EARTH appeared in the month of March, 1906, the +initial expenses of the periodical partly covered by the proceeds of +a theater benefit given by Orleneff, Mme. Nazimova, and their +company, in favor of the Anarchist magazine. Under tremendous +difficulties and obstacles the tireless propagandist has succeeded in +continuing MOTHER EARTH uninterruptedly since 1906--an achievement +rarely equalled in the annals of radical publications. + +In May, 1906, Alexander Berkman at last left the hell of +Pennsylvania, where he had passed the best fourteen years of his +life. No one had believed in the possibility of his survival. His +liberation terminated a nightmare of fourteen years for Emma Goldman, +and an important chapter of her career was thus concluded. + +Nowhere had the birth of the Russian revolution aroused such vital +and active response as among the Russians living in America. The +heroes of the revolutionary movement in Russia, Tchaikovsky, Mme. +Breshkovskaia, Gershuni, and others visited these shores to waken the +sympathies of the American people toward the struggle for liberty, +and to collect aid for its continuance and support. The success of +these efforts was to a considerable extent due to the exertions, +eloquence, and the talent for organization on the part of Emma +Goldman. This opportunity enabled her to give valuable services to +the struggle for liberty in her native land. It is not generally +known that it is the Anarchists who are mainly instrumental in +insuring the success, moral as well as financial, of most of the +radical undertakings. The Anarchist is indifferent to acknowledged +appreciation; the needs of the Cause absorb his whole interest, and +to these he devotes his energy and abilities. Yet it may be +mentioned that some otherwise decent folks, though at all times +anxious for Anarchist support and co-operation, are ever willing to +monopolize all the credit for the work done. During the last several +decades it was chiefly the Anarchists who had organized all the great +revolutionary efforts, and aided in every struggle for liberty. But +for fear of shocking the respectable mob, who looks upon the +Anarchists as the apostles of Satan, and because of their social +position in bourgeois society, the would-be radicals ignore the +activity of the Anarchists. + +In 1907 Emma Goldman participated as delegate to the second Anarchist +Congress, at Amsterdam. She was intensely active in all its +proceedings and supported the organization of the Anarchist +INTERNATIONALE. Together with the other American delegate, Max +Baginski, she submitted to the congress an exhaustive report of +American conditions, closing with the following characteristic +remarks: + + +"The charge that Anarchism is destructive, rather than constructive, +and that, therefore, Anarchism is opposed to organization, is one of +the many falsehoods spread by our opponents. They confound our +present social institutions with organization; hence they fail to +understand how we can oppose the former, and yet favor the latter. +The fact, however, is that the two are not identical. + +"The State is commonly regarded as the highest form of organization. +But is it in reality a true organization? Is it not rather an +arbitrary institution, cunningly imposed upon the masses? + +"Industry, too, is called an organization; yet nothing is farther +from the truth. Industry is the ceaseless piracy of the rich against +the poor. + +"We are asked to believe that the Army is an organization, but a +close investigation will show that it is nothing else than a cruel +instrument of blind force. + +"The Public School! The colleges and other institutions of learning, +are they not models of organization, offering the people fine +opportunities for instruction? Far from it. The school, more than +any other institution, is a veritable barrack, where the human mind +is drilled and manipulated into submission to various social and +moral spooks, and thus fitted to continue our system of exploitation +and oppression. + +"Organization, as WE understand it, however, is a different thing. +It is based, primarily, on freedom. It is a natural and voluntary +grouping of energies to secure results beneficial to humanity. + +"It is the harmony of organic growth which produces variety of color +and form, the complete whole we admire in the flower. Analogously +will the organized activity of free human beings, imbued with the +spirit of solidarity, result in the perfection of social harmony, +which we call Anarchism. In fact, Anarchism alone makes +non-authoritarian organization of common interests possible, since it +abolishes the existing antagonism between individuals and classes. + +"Under present conditions the antagonism of economic and social +interests results in relentless war among the social units, and +creates an insurmountable obstacle in the way of a co-operative +commonwealth. + +"There is a mistaken notion that organization does not foster +individual freedom; that, on the contrary, it means the decay of +individuality. In reality, however, the true function of +organization is to aid the development and growth of personality. + +"Just as the animal cells, by mutual co-operation, express their +latent powers in formation of the complete organism, so does the +individual, by co-operative effort with other individuals, attain his +highest form of development. + +"An organization, in the true sense, cannot result from the +combination of mere nonentities. It must be composed of +self-conscious, intelligent individualities. Indeed, the total of +the possibilities and activities of an organization is represented in +the expression of individual energies. + +"It therefore logically follows that the greater the number of +strong, self-conscious personalities in an organization, the less +danger of stagnation, and the more intense its life element. + +"Anarchism asserts the possibility of an organization without +discipline, fear, or punishment, and without the pressure of poverty: +a new social organism which will make an end to the terrible struggle +for the means of existence,--the savage struggle which undermines the +finest qualities in man, and ever widens the social abyss. In short, +Anarchism strives towards a social organization which will establish +well-being for all. + +"The germ of such an organization can be found in that form of trades +unionism which has done away with centralization, bureaucracy, and +discipline, and which favors independent and direct action on the +part of its members." + + +The very considerable progress of Anarchist ideas in America can best +be gauged by the remarkable success of the three extensive lecture +tours of Emma Goldman since the Amsterdam Congress of 1907. Each +tour extended over new territory, including localities where +Anarchism had never before received a hearing. But the most +gratifying aspect of her untiring efforts is the tremendous sale of +Anarchist literature, whose propagandist effect cannot be estimated. +It was during one of these tours that a remarkable incident happened, +strikingly demonstrating the inspiring potentialities of the +Anarchist idea. In San Francisco, in 1908, Emma Goldman's lecture +attracted a soldier of the United States Army, William Buwalda. For +daring to attend an Anarchist meeting, the free Republic +court-martialed Buwalda and imprisoned him for one year. Thanks to +the regenerating power of the new philosophy, the government lost a +soldier, but the cause of liberty gained a man. + + +A propagandist of Emma Goldman's importance is necessarily a sharp +thorn to the reaction. She is looked upon as a danger to the +continued existence of authoritarian usurpation. No wonder, then, +that the enemy resorts to any and all means to make her impossible. +A systematic attempt to suppress her activities was organized a year +ago by the united police force of the country. But like all previous +similar attempts, it failed in a most brilliant manner. Energetic +protests on the part of the intellectual element of America succeeded +in overthrowing the dastardly conspiracy against free speech. +Another attempt to make Emma Goldman impossible was essayed by the +Federal authorities at Washington. In order to deprive her of the +rights of citizenship, the government revoked the citizenship papers +of her husband, whom she had married at the youthful age of eighteen, +and whose whereabouts, if he be alive, could not be determined for +the last two decades. The great government of the glorious United +States did not hesitate to stoop to the most despicable methods to +accomplish that achievement. But as her citizenship had never proved +of use to Emma Goldman, she can bear the loss with a light heart. + + +There are personalities who possess such a powerful individuality +that by its very force they exert the most potent influence over the +best representatives of their time. Michael Bakunin was such a +personality. But for him, Richard Wagner had never written DIE KUNST +UND DIE REVOLUTION. Emma Goldman is a similar personality. She is a +strong factor in the socio-political life of America. By virtue of +her eloquence, energy, and brilliant mentality, she moulds the minds +and hearts of thousands of her auditors. + +Deep sympathy and compassion for suffering humanity, and an +inexorable honesty toward herself, are the leading traits of Emma +Goldman. No person, whether friend or foe, shall presume to control +her goal or dictate her mode of life. She would perish rather than +sacrifice her convictions, or the right of self-ownership of soul and +body. Respectability could easily forgive the teaching of theoretic +Anarchism; but Emma Goldman does not merely preach the new +philosophy; she also persists in living it,--and that is the one +supreme, unforgivable crime. Were she, like so many radicals, to +consider her ideal as merely an intellectual ornament; were she to +make concessions to existing society and compromise with old +prejudices,--then even the most radical views could be pardoned in +her. But that she takes her radicalism seriously; that it has +permeated her blood and marrow to the extent where she not merely +teaches but also practices her convictions--this shocks even the +radical Mrs. Grundy. Emma Goldman lives her own life; she associates +with publicans--hence the indignation of the Pharisees and Sadducees. + +It is no mere coincidence that such divergent writers as Pietro Gori +and William Marion Reedy find similar traits in their +characterization of Emma Goldman. In a contribution to LA QUESTIONE +SOCIALE, Pietro Gori calls her a "moral power, a woman who, with the +vision of a sibyl, prophesies the coming of a new kingdom for the +oppressed; a woman who, with logic and deep earnestness, analyses the +ills of society, and portrays, with artist touch, the coming dawn of +humanity, founded on equality, brotherhood, and liberty." + +William Reedy sees in Emma Goldman the "daughter of the dream, her +gospel a vision which is the vision of every truly great-souled man +and woman who has ever lived." + +Cowards who fear the consequences of their deeds have coined the word +of philosophic Anarchism. Emma Goldman is too sincere, too defiant, +to seek safety behind such paltry pleas. She is an Anarchist, pure +and simple. She represents the idea of Anarchism as framed by Josiah +Warrn, Proudhon, Bakunin, Kropotkin, Tolstoy. Yet she also +understands the psychologic causes which induce a Caserio, a +Vaillant, a Bresci, a Berkman, or a Czolgosz to commit deeds of +violence. To the soldier in the social struggle it is a point of +honor to come in conflict with the powers of darkness and tyranny, +and Emma Goldman is proud to count among her best friends and +comrades men and women who bear the wounds and scars received in +battle. + +In the words of Voltairine de Cleyre, characterizing Emma Goldman +after the latter's imprisonment in 1893: The spirit that animates +Emma Goldman is the only one which will emancipate the slave from his +slavery, the tyrant from his tyranny--the spirit which is willing to +dare and suffer. + +HIPPOLYTE HAVEL. + +New York, December, 1910. + + + + +PREFACE + + + +Some twenty-one years ago I heard the first great Anarchist +speaker--the inimitable John Most. It seemed to me then, and for +many years after, that the spoken word hurled forth among the masses +with such wonderful eloquence, such enthusiasm and fire, could never +be erased from the human mind and soul. How could any one of all the +multitudes who flocked to Most's meetings escape his prophetic voice! +Surely they had but to hear him to throw off their old beliefs, and +see the truth and beauty of Anarchism! + +My one great longing then was to be able to speak with the tongue of +John Most,--that I, too, might thus reach the masses. Oh, for the +naivety of Youth's enthusiasm! It is the time when the hardest thing +seems but child's play. It is the only period in life worth while. +Alas! This period is but of short duration. Like Spring, the STURM +UND DRANG period of the propagandist brings forth growth, frail and +delicate, to be matured or killed according to its powers of +resistance against a thousand vicissitudes. + +My great faith in the wonder worker, the spoken word, is no more. I +have realized its inadequacy to awaken thought, or even emotion. +Gradually, and with no small struggle against this realization, I +came to see that oral propaganda is at best but a means of shaking +people from their lethargy: it leaves no lasting impression. The +very fact that most people attend meetings only if aroused by +newspaper sensations, or because they expect to be amused, is proof +that they really have no inner urge to learn. + +It is altogether different with the written mode of human expression. +No one, unless intensely interested in progressive ideas, will bother +with serious books. That leads me to another discovery made after +many years of public activity. It is this: All claims of education +notwithstanding, the pupil will accept only that which his mind +craves. Already this truth is recognized by most modern educators in +relation to the immature mind. I think it is equally true regarding +the adult. Anarchists or revolutionists can no more be made than +musicians. All that can be done is to plant the seeds of thought. +Whether something vital will develop depends largely on the fertility +of the human soil, though the quality of the intellectual seed must +not be overlooked. + +In meetings the audience is distracted by a thousand non-essentials. +The speaker, though ever so eloquent, cannot escape the restlessness +of the crowd, with the inevitable result that he will fail to strike +root. In all probability he will not even do justice to himself. + +The relation between the writer and the reader is more intimate. +True, books are only what we want them to be; rather, what we read +into them. That we can do so demonstrates the importance of written +as against oral expression. It is this certainty which has induced +me to gather in one volume my ideas on various topics of individual +and social importance. They represent the mental and soul struggles +of twenty-one years,--the conclusions derived after many changes and +inner revisions. + +I am not sanguine enough to hope that my readers will be as numerous +as those who have heard me. But I prefer to reach the few who really +want to learn, rather than the many who come to be amused. + +As to the book, it must speak for itself. Explanatory remarks do but +detract from the ideas set forth. However, I wish to forestall two +objections which will undoubtedly be raised. One is in reference to +the essay on ANARCHISM; the other, on MINORITIES VERSUS MAJORITIES. + +"Why do you not say how things will be operated under Anarchism?" is +a question I have had to meet thousands of times. Because I believe +that Anarchism can not consistently impose an iron-clad program or +method on the future. The things every new generation has to fight, +and which it can least overcome, are the burdens of the past, which +holds us all as in a net. Anarchism, at least as I understand it, +leaves posterity free to develop its own particular systems, in +harmony with its needs. Our most vivid imagination can not foresee +the potentialities of a race set free from external restraints. +How, then, can any one assume to map out a line of conduct for those +to come? We, who pay dearly for every breath of pure, fresh air, +must guard against the tendency to fetter the future. If we succeed +in clearing the soil from the rubbish of the past and present, we +will leave to posterity the greatest and safest heritage of all ages. + +The most disheartening tendency common among readers is to tear out +one sentence from a work, as a criterion of the writer's ideas or +personality. Friedrich Nietzsche, for instance, is decried as a +hater of the weak because he believed in the UEBERMENSCH. It does +not occur to the shallow interpreters of that giant mind that this +vision of the UEBERMENSCH also called for a state of society which +will not give birth to a race of weaklings and slaves. + +It is the same narrow attitude which sees in Max Stirner naught but +the apostle of the theory "each for himself, the devil take the hind +one." That Stirner's individualism contains the greatest social +possibilities is utterly ignored. Yet, it is nevertheless true that +if society is ever to become free, it will be so through liberated +individuals, whose free efforts make society. + +These examples bring me to the objection that will be raised to +MINORITIES VERSUS MAJORITIES. No doubt, I shall be excommunicated as +an enemy of the people, because I repudiate the mass as a creative +factor. I shall prefer that rather than be guilty of the demagogic +platitudes so commonly in vogue as a bait for the people. I realize +the malady of the oppressed and disinherited masses only too well, +but I refuse to prescribe the usual ridiculous palliatives which +allow the patient neither to die nor to recover. One cannot be too +extreme in dealing with social ills; besides, the extreme thing is +generally the true thing. My lack of faith in the majority is +dictated by my faith in the potentialities of the individual. Only +when the latter becomes free to choose his associates for a common +purpose, can we hope for order and harmony out of this world of chaos +and inequality. + +For the rest, my book must speak for itself. + +Emma Goldman + + + + +ANARCHISM: WHAT IT REALLY STANDS FOR + + + + ANARCHY. + + Ever reviled, accursed, ne'er understood, + Thou art the grisly terror of our age. + "Wreck of all order," cry the multitude, + "Art thou, and war and murder's endless rage." + O, let them cry. To them that ne'er have striven + The truth that lies behind a word to find, + To them the word's right meaning was not given. + They shall continue blind among the blind. + But thou, O word, so clear, so strong, so pure, + Thou sayest all which I for goal have taken. + I give thee to the future! Thine secure + When each at least unto himself shall waken. + Comes it in sunshine? In the tempest's thrill? + I cannot tell--but it the earth shall see! + I am an Anarchist! Wherefore I will + Not rule, and also ruled I will not be! + JOHN HENRY MACKAY. + + +The history of human growth and development is at the same time the +history of the terrible struggle of every new idea heralding the +approach of a brighter dawn. In its tenacious hold on tradition, the +Old has never hesitated to make use of the foulest and cruelest means +to stay the advent of the New, in whatever form or period the latter +may have asserted itself. Nor need we retrace our steps into the +distant past to realize the enormity of opposition, difficulties, and +hardships placed in the path of every progressive idea. The rack, +the thumbscrew, and the knout are still with us; so are the convict's +garb and the social wrath, all conspiring against the spirit that is +serenely marching on. + +Anarchism could not hope to escape the fate of all other ideas of +innovation. Indeed, as the most revolutionary and uncompromising +innovator, Anarchism must needs meet with the combined ignorance and +venom of the world it aims to reconstruct. + +To deal even remotely with all that is being said and done against +Anarchism would necessitate the writing of a whole volume. I shall +therefore meet only two of the principal objections. In so doing, I +shall attempt to elucidate what Anarchism really stands for. + +The strange phenomenon of the opposition to Anarchism is that it +brings to light the relation between so-called intelligence and +ignorance. And yet this is not so very strange when we consider the +relativity of all things. The ignorant mass has in its favor that it +makes no pretense of knowledge or tolerance. Acting, as it always +does, by mere impulse, its reasons are like those of a child. +"Why?" "Because." Yet the opposition of the uneducated to Anarchism +deserves the same consideration as that of the intelligent man. + +What, then, are the objections? First, Anarchism is impractical, +though a beautiful ideal. Second, Anarchism stands for violence and +destruction, hence it must be repudiated as vile and dangerous. +Both the intelligent man and the ignorant mass judge not from a +thorough knowledge of the subject, but either from hearsay or false +interpretation. + +A practical scheme, says Oscar Wilde, is either one already in +existence, or a scheme that could be carried out under the existing +conditions; but it is exactly the existing conditions that one +objects to, and any scheme that could accept these conditions is +wrong and foolish. The true criterion of the practical, therefore, +is not whether the latter can keep intact the wrong or foolish; +rather is it whether the scheme has vitality enough to leave the +stagnant waters of the old, and build, as well as sustain, new life. +In the light of this conception, Anarchism is indeed practical. +More than any other idea, it is helping to do away with the wrong and +foolish; more than any other idea, it is building and sustaining new +life. + +The emotions of the ignorant man are continuously kept at a pitch by +the most blood-curdling stories about Anarchism. Not a thing too +outrageous to be employed against this philosophy and its exponents. +Therefore Anarchism represents to the unthinking what the proverbial +bad man does to the child,--a black monster bent on swallowing +everything; in short, destruction and violence. + +Destruction and violence! How is the ordinary man to know that the +most violent element in society is ignorance; that its power of +destruction is the very thing Anarchism is combating? Nor is he +aware that Anarchism, whose roots, as it were, are part of nature's +forces, destroys, not healthful tissue, but parasitic growths that +feed on the life's essence of society. It is merely clearing the +soil from weeds and sagebrush, that it may eventually bear healthy +fruit. + +Someone has said that it requires less mental effort to condemn than +to think. The widespread mental indolence, so prevalent in society, +proves this to be only too true. Rather than to go to the bottom of +any given idea, to examine into its origin and meaning, most people +will either condemn it altogether, or rely on some superficial or +prejudicial definition of non-essentials. + +Anarchism urges man to think, to investigate, to analyze every +proposition; but that the brain capacity of the average reader be not +taxed too much, I also shall begin with a definition, and then +elaborate on the latter. + + ANARCHISM:--The philosophy of a new social order based on + liberty unrestricted by man-made law; the theory that all + forms of government rest on violence, and are therefore wrong + and harmful, as well as unnecessary. + +The new social order rests, of course, on the materialistic basis of +life; but while all Anarchists agree that the main evil today is an +economic one, they maintain that the solution of that evil can be +brought about only through the consideration of EVERY PHASE of +life,--individual, as well as the collective; the internal, as well +as the external phases. + +A thorough perusal of the history of human development will disclose +two elements in bitter conflict with each other; elements that are +only now beginning to be understood, not as foreign to each other, +but as closely related and truly harmonious, if only placed in proper +environment: the individual and social instincts. The individual and +society have waged a relentless and bloody battle for ages, each +striving for supremacy, because each was blind to the value and +importance of the other. The individual and social instincts,--the +one a most potent factor for individual endeavor, for growth, +aspiration, self-realization; the other an equally potent factor for +mutual helpfulness and social well-being. + +The explanation of the storm raging within the individual, and +between him and his surroundings, is not far to seek. The primitive +man, unable to understand his being, much less the unity of all life, +felt himself absolutely dependent on blind, hidden forces ever ready +to mock and taunt him. Out of that attitude grew the religious +concepts of man as a mere speck of dust dependent on superior powers +on high, who can only be appeased by complete surrender. All the +early sagas rest on that idea, which continues to be the LEIT-MOTIF +of the biblical tales dealing with the relation of man to God, to the +State, to society. Again and again the same motif, MAN IS NOTHING, +THE POWERS ARE EVERYTHING. Thus Jehovah would only endure man on +condition of complete surrender. Man can have all the glories of the +earth, but he must not become conscious of himself. The State, +society, and moral laws all sing the same refrain: Man can have all +the glories of the earth, but he must not become conscious of +himself. + +Anarchism is the only philosophy which brings to man the +consciousness of himself; which maintains that God, the State, and +society are non-existent, that their promises are null and void, +since they can be fulfilled only through man's subordination. +Anarchism is therefore the teacher of the unity of life; not merely +in nature, but in man. There is no conflict between the individual +and the social instincts, any more than there is between the heart +and the lungs: the one the receptacle of a precious life essence, the +other the repository of the element that keeps the essence pure and +strong. The individual is the heart of society, conserving the +essence of social life; society is the lungs which are distributing +the element to keep the life essence--that is, the individual--pure +and strong. + +"The one thing of value in the world," says Emerson, "is the active +soul; this every man contains within him. The soul active sees +absolute truth and utters truth and creates." In other words, the +individual instinct is the thing of value in the world. It is the +true soul that sees and creates the truth alive, out of which is to +come a still greater truth, the re-born social soul. + +Anarchism is the great liberator of man from the phantoms that have +held him captive; it is the arbiter and pacifier of the two forces +for individual and social harmony. To accomplish that unity, +Anarchism has declared war on the pernicious influences which have so +far prevented the harmonious blending of individual and social +instincts, the individual and society. + +Religion, the dominion of the human mind; Property, the dominion of +human needs; and Government, the dominion of human conduct, represent +the stronghold of man's enslavement and all the horrors it entails. +Religion! How it dominates man's mind, how it humiliates and degrades +his soul. God is everything, man is nothing, says religion. But out +of that nothing God has created a kingdom so despotic, so tyrannical, +so cruel, so terribly exacting that naught but gloom and tears and +blood have ruled the world since gods began. Anarchism rouses man to +rebellion against this black monster. Break your mental fetters, says +Anarchism to man, for not until you think and judge for yourself will +you get rid of the dominion of darkness, the greatest obstacle to all +progress. + +Property, the dominion of man's needs, the denial of the right to +satisfy his needs. Time was when property claimed a divine right, +when it came to man with the same refrain, even as religion, +"Sacrifice! Abnegate! Submit!" The spirit of Anarchism has lifted +man from his prostrate position. He now stands erect, with his face +toward the light. He has learned to see the insatiable, devouring, +devastating nature of property, and he is preparing to strike the +monster dead. + +"Property is robbery," said the great French Anarchist, Proudhon. +Yes, but without risk and danger to the robber. Monopolizing the +accumulated efforts of man, property has robbed him of his +birthright, and has turned him loose a pauper and an outcast. +Property has not even the time-worn excuse that man does not create +enough to satisfy all needs. The A B C student of economics knows +that the productivity of labor within the last few decades far +exceeds normal demand a hundredfold. But what are normal demands to +an abnormal institution? The only demand that property recognizes is +its own gluttonous appetite for greater wealth, because wealth means +power; the power to subdue, to crush, to exploit, the power to +enslave, to outrage, to degrade. America is particularly boastful of +her great power, her enormous national wealth. Poor America, of what +avail is all her wealth, if the individuals comprising the nation are +wretchedly poor? If they live in squalor, in filth, in crime, with +hope and joy gone, a homeless, soilless army of human prey. + +It is generally conceded that unless the returns of any business +venture exceed the cost, bankruptcy is inevitable. But those engaged +in the business of producing wealth have not yet learned even this +simple lesson. Every year the cost of production in human life is +growing larger (50,000 killed, 100,000 wounded in America last year); +the returns to the masses, who help to create wealth, are ever +getting smaller. Yet America continues to be blind to the inevitable +bankruptcy of our business of production. Nor is this the only crime +of the latter. Still more fatal is the crime of turning the producer +into a mere particle of a machine, with less will and decision than +his master of steel and iron. Man is being robbed not merely of the +products of his labor, but of the power of free initiative, of +originality, and the interest in, or desire for, the things he is +making. + +Real wealth consists in things of utility and beauty, in things that +help to create strong, beautiful bodies and surroundings inspiring to +live in. But if man is doomed to wind cotton around a spool, or dig +coal, or build roads for thirty years of his life, there can be no +talk of wealth. What he gives to the world is only gray and hideous +things, reflecting a dull and hideous existence,--too weak to live, +too cowardly to die. Strange to say, there are people who extol this +deadening method of centralized production as the proudest +achievement of our age. They fail utterly to realize that if we are +to continue in machine subserviency, our slavery is more complete +than was our bondage to the King. They do not want to know that +centralization is not only the death-knell of liberty, but also of +health and beauty, of art and science, all these being impossible in +a clock-like, mechanical atmosphere. + +Anarchism cannot but repudiate such a method of production: its goal +is the freest possible expression of all the latent powers of the +individual. Oscar Wilde defines a perfect personality as "one who +develops under perfect conditions, who is not wounded, maimed, or in +danger." A perfect personality, then, is only possible in a state of +society where man is free to choose the mode of work, the conditions +of work, and the freedom to work. One to whom the making of a table, +the building of a house, or the tilling of the soil, is what the +painting is to the artist and the discovery to the scientist,--the +result of inspiration, of intense longing, and deep interest in work +as a creative force. That being the ideal of Anarchism, its economic +arrangements must consist of voluntary productive and distributive +associations, gradually developing into free communism, as the best +means of producing with the least waste of human energy. Anarchism, +however, also recognizes the right of the individual, or numbers of +individuals, to arrange at all times for other forms of work, in +harmony with their tastes and desires. + +Such free display of human energy being possible only under complete +individual and social freedom, Anarchism directs its forces against +the third and greatest foe of all social equality; namely, the State, +organized authority, or statutory law,--the dominion of human +conduct. + +Just as religion has fettered the human mind, and as property, or the +monopoly of things, has subdued and stifled man's needs, so has the +State enslaved his spirit, dictating every phase of conduct. "All +government in essence," says Emerson, "is tyranny." It matters not +whether it is government by divine right or majority rule. In every +instance its aim is the absolute subordination of the individual. + +Referring to the American government, the greatest American +Anarchist, David Thoreau, said: "Government, what is it but a +tradition, though a recent one, endeavoring to transmit itself +unimpaired to posterity, but each instance losing its integrity; it +has not the vitality and force of a single living man. Law never +made man a whit more just; and by means of their respect for it, even +the well disposed are daily made agents of injustice." + +Indeed, the keynote of government is injustice. With the arrogance +and self-sufficiency of the King who could do no wrong, governments +ordain, judge, condemn, and punish the most insignificant offenses, +while maintaining themselves by the greatest of all offenses, the +annihilation of individual liberty. Thus Ouida is right when she +maintains that "the State only aims at instilling those qualities in +its public by which its demands are obeyed, and its exchequer is +filled. Its highest attainment is the reduction of mankind to +clockwork. In its atmosphere all those finer and more delicate +liberties, which require treatment and spacious expansion, inevitably +dry up and perish. The State requires a taxpaying machine in which +there is no hitch, an exchequer in which there is never a deficit, +and a public, monotonous, obedient, colorless, spiritless, moving +humbly like a flock of sheep along a straight high road between two +walls." + +Yet even a flock of sheep would resist the chicanery of the State, if +it were not for the corruptive, tyrannical, and oppressive methods it +employs to serve its purposes. Therefore Bakunin repudiates the +State as synonymous with the surrender of the liberty of the +individual or small minorities,--the destruction of social +relationship, the curtailment, or complete denial even, of life +itself, for its own aggrandizement. The State is the altar of +political freedom and, like the religious altar, it is maintained for +the purpose of human sacrifice. + +In fact, there is hardly a modern thinker who does not agree that +government, organized authority, or the State, is necessary ONLY to +maintain or protect property and monopoly. It has proven efficient +in that function only. + +Even George Bernard Shaw, who hopes for the miraculous from the State +under Fabianism, nevertheless admits that "it is at present a huge +machine for robbing and slave-driving of the poor by brute force." +This being the case, it is hard to see why the clever prefacer wishes +to uphold the State after poverty shall have ceased to exist. + +Unfortunately there are still a number of people who continue in the +fatal belief that government rests on natural laws, that it maintains +social order and harmony, that it diminishes crime, and that it +prevents the lazy man from fleecing his fellows. I shall therefore +examine these contentions. + +A natural law is that factor in man which asserts itself freely and +spontaneously without any external force, in harmony with the +requirements of nature. For instance, the demand for nutrition, for +sex gratification, for light, air, and exercise, is a natural law. +But its expression needs not the machinery of government, needs not +the club, the gun, the handcuff, or the prison. To obey such laws, +if we may call it obedience, requires only spontaneity and free +opportunity. That governments do not maintain themselves through +such harmonious factors is proven by the terrible array of violence, +force, and coercion all governments use in order to live. Thus +Blackstone is right when he says, "Human laws are invalid, because +they are contrary to the laws of nature." + +Unless it be the order of Warsaw after the slaughter of thousands of +people, it is difficult to ascribe to governments any capacity for +order or social harmony. Order derived through submission and +maintained by terror is not much of a safe guaranty; yet that is the +only "order" that governments have ever maintained. True social +harmony grows naturally out of solidarity of interests. In a society +where those who always work never have anything, while those who +never work enjoy everything, solidarity of interests is non-existent; +hence social harmony is but a myth. The only way organized authority +meets this grave situation is by extending still greater privileges +to those who have already monopolized the earth, and by still further +enslaving the disinherited masses. Thus the entire arsenal of +government--laws, police, soldiers, the courts, legislatures, +prisons,--is strenuously engaged in "harmonizing" the most +antagonistic elements in society. + +The most absurd apology for authority and law is that they serve to +diminish crime. Aside from the fact that the State is itself the +greatest criminal, breaking every written and natural law, stealing +in the form of taxes, killing in the form of war and capital +punishment, it has come to an absolute standstill in coping with +crime. It has failed utterly to destroy or even minimize the +horrible scourge of its own creation. + +Crime is naught but misdirected energy. So long as every institution +of today, economic, political, social, and moral, conspires to +misdirect human energy into wrong channels; so long as most people +are out of place doing the things they hate to do, living a life they +loathe to live, crime will be inevitable, and all the laws on the +statutes can only increase, but never do away with, crime. What does +society, as it exists today, know of the process of despair, the +poverty, the horrors, the fearful struggle the human soul must pass +on its way to crime and degradation. Who that knows this terrible +process can fail to see the truth in these words of Peter Kropotkin: + +"Those who will hold the balance between the benefits thus attributed +to law and punishment and the degrading effect of the latter on +humanity; those who will estimate the torrent of depravity poured +abroad in human society by the informer, favored by the Judge even, +and paid for in clinking cash by governments, under the pretext of +aiding to unmask crime; those who will go within prison walls and +there see what human beings become when deprived of liberty, when +subjected to the care of brutal keepers, to coarse, cruel words, to a +thousand stinging, piercing humiliations, will agree with us that the +entire apparatus of prison and punishment is an abomination which +ought to be brought to an end." + +The deterrent influence of law on the lazy man is too absurd to merit +consideration. If society were only relieved of the waste and +expense of keeping a lazy class, and the equally great expense of the +paraphernalia of protection this lazy class requires, the social +tables would contain an abundance for all, including even the +occasional lazy individual. Besides, it is well to consider that +laziness results either from special privileges, or physical and +mental abnormalities. Our present insane system of production +fosters both, and the most astounding phenomenon is that people +should want to work at all now. Anarchism aims to strip labor of its +deadening, dulling aspect, of its gloom and compulsion. It aims to +make work an instrument of joy, of strength, of color, of real +harmony, so that the poorest sort of a man should find in work both +recreation and hope. + +To achieve such an arrangement of life, government, with its unjust, +arbitrary, repressive measures, must be done away with. At best it +has but imposed one single mode of life upon all, without regard to +individual and social variations and needs. In destroying government +and statutory laws, Anarchism proposes to rescue the self-respect and +independence of the individual from all restraint and invasion by +authority. Only in freedom can man grow to his full stature. Only +in freedom will he learn to think and move, and give the very best in +him. Only in freedom will he realize the true force of the social +bonds which knit men together, and which are the true foundation of a +normal social life. + +But what about human nature? Can it be changed? And if not, will it +endure under Anarchism? + +Poor human nature, what horrible crimes have been committed in thy +name! Every fool, from king to policeman, from the flatheaded parson +to the visionless dabbler in science, presumes to speak +authoritatively of human nature. The greater the mental charlatan, +the more definite his insistence on the wickedness and weaknesses of +human nature. Yet, how can any one speak of it today, with every +soul in a prison, with every heart fettered, wounded, and maimed? + +John Burroughs has stated that experimental study of animals in +captivity is absolutely useless. Their character, their habits, +their appetites undergo a complete transformation when torn from +their soil in field and forest. With human nature caged in a narrow +space, whipped daily into submission, how can we speak of its +potentialities? + +Freedom, expansion, opportunity, and, above all, peace and repose, +alone can teach us the real dominant factors of human nature and all +its wonderful possibilities. + +Anarchism, then, really stands for the liberation of the human mind +from the dominion of religion; the liberation of the human body from +the dominion of property; liberation from the shackles and restraint +of government. Anarchism stands for a social order based on the free +grouping of individuals for the purpose of producing real social +wealth; an order that will guarantee to every human being free access +to the earth and full enjoyment of the necessities of life, according +to individual desires, tastes, and inclinations. + +This is not a wild fancy or an aberration of the mind. It is the +conclusion arrived at by hosts of intellectual men and women the +world over; a conclusion resulting from the close and studious +observation of the tendencies of modern society: individual liberty +and economic equality, the twin forces for the birth of what is fine +and true in man. + +As to methods. Anarchism is not, as some may suppose, a theory of +the future to be realized through divine inspiration. It is a living +force in the affairs of our life, constantly creating new conditions. +The methods of Anarchism therefore do not comprise an iron-clad +program to be carried out under all circumstances. Methods must grow +out of the economic needs of each place and clime, and of the +intellectual and temperamental requirements of the individual. The +serene, calm character of a Tolstoy will wish different methods for +social reconstruction than the intense, overflowing personality of a +Michael Bakunin or a Peter Kropotkin. Equally so it must be apparent +that the economic and political needs of Russia will dictate more +drastic measures than would England or America. Anarchism does not +stand for military drill and uniformity; it does, however, stand for +the spirit of revolt, in whatever form, against everything that +hinders human growth. All Anarchists agree in that, as they also +agree in their opposition to the political machinery as a means of +bringing about the great social change. + +"All voting," says Thoreau, "is a sort of gaming, like checkers, or +backgammon, a playing with right and wrong; its obligation never +exceeds that of expediency. Even voting for the right thing is doing +nothing for it. A wise man will not leave the right to the mercy of +chance, nor wish it to prevail through the power of the majority." +A close examination of the machinery of politics and its achievements +will bear out the logic of Thoreau. + +What does the history of parliamentarism show? Nothing but failure +and defeat, not even a single reform to ameliorate the economic and +social stress of the people. Laws have been passed and enactments +made for the improvement and protection of labor. Thus it was proven +only last year that Illinois, with the most rigid laws for mine +protection, had the greatest mine disasters. In States where child +labor laws prevail, child exploitation is at its highest, and though +with us the workers enjoy full political opportunities, capitalism +has reached the most brazen zenith. + +Even were the workers able to have their own representatives, for +which our good Socialist politicians are clamoring, what chances are +there for their honesty and good faith? One has but to bear in mind +the process of politics to realize that its path of good intentions +is full of pitfalls: wire-pulling, intriguing, flattering, lying, +cheating; in fact, chicanery of every description, whereby the +political aspirant can achieve success. Added to that is a complete +demoralization of character and conviction, until nothing is left +that would make one hope for anything from such a human derelict. +Time and time again the people were foolish enough to trust, believe, +and support with their last farthing aspiring politicians, only to +find themselves betrayed and cheated. + +It may be claimed that men of integrity would not become corrupt in +the political grinding mill. Perhaps not; but such men would be +absolutely helpless to exert the slightest influence in behalf of +labor, as indeed has been shown in numerous instances. The State is +the economic master of its servants. Good men, if such there be, +would either remain true to their political faith and lose their +economic support, or they would cling to their economic master and be +utterly unable to do the slightest good. The political arena leaves +one no alternative, one must either be a dunce or a rogue. + +The political superstition is still holding sway over the hearts and +minds of the masses, but the true lovers of liberty will have no more +to do with it. Instead, they believe with Stirner that man has as +much liberty as he is willing to take. Anarchism therefore stands +for direct action, the open defiance of, and resistance to, all laws +and restrictions, economic, social, and moral. But defiance and +resistance are illegal. Therein lies the salvation of man. +Everything illegal necessitates integrity, self-reliance, and +courage. In short, it calls for free, independent spirits, for "men +who are men, and who have a bone in their backs which you cannot pass +your hand through." + +Universal suffrage itself owes its existence to direct action. If +not for the spirit of rebellion, of the defiance on the part of the +American revolutionary fathers, their posterity would still wear the +King's coat. If not for the direct action of a John Brown and his +comrades, America would still trade in the flesh of the black man. +True, the trade in white flesh is still going on; but that, too, will +have to be abolished by direct action. Trade-unionism, the economic +arena of the modern gladiator, owes its existence to direct action. +It is but recently that law and government have attempted to crush +the trade-union movement, and condemned the exponents of man's right +to organize to prison as conspirators. Had they sought to assert +their cause through begging, pleading, and compromise, trade-unionism +would today be a negligible quantity. In France, in Spain, in Italy, +in Russia, nay even in England (witness the growing rebellion of +English labor unions) direct, revolutionary, economic action has +become so strong a force in the battle for industrial liberty as to +make the world realize the tremendous importance of labor's power. +The General Strike, the supreme expression of the economic +consciousness of the workers, was ridiculed in America but a short +time ago. Today every great strike, in order to win, must realize +the importance of the solidaric general protest. + +Direct action, having proven effective along economic lines, is +equally potent in the environment of the individual. There a hundred +forces encroach upon his being, and only persistent resistance to +them will finally set him free. Direct action against the authority +in the shop, direct action against the authority of the law, direct +action against the invasive, meddlesome authority of our moral code, +is the logical, consistent method of Anarchism. + +Will it not lead to a revolution? Indeed, it will. No real social +change has ever come about without a revolution. People are either +not familiar with their history, or they have not yet learned that +revolution is but thought carried into action. + +Anarchism, the great leaven of thought, is today permeating every +phase of human endeavor. Science, art, literature, the drama, the +effort for economic betterment, in fact every individual and social +opposition to the existing disorder of things, is illumined by the +spiritual light of Anarchism. It is the philosophy of the +sovereignty of the individual. It is the theory of social harmony. +It is the great, surging, living truth that is reconstructing the +world, and that will usher in the Dawn. + + + + +MINORITIES VERSUS MAJORITIES + + + +If I were to give a summary of the tendency of our times, I would +say, Quantity. The multitude, the mass spirit, dominates everywhere, +destroying quality. Our entire life--production, politics, and +education--rests on quantity, on numbers. The worker who once took +pride in the thoroughness and quality of his work, has been replaced +by brainless, incompetent automatons, who turn out enormous +quantities of things, valueless to themselves, and generally +injurious to the rest of mankind. Thus quantity, instead of adding +to life's comforts and peace, has merely increased man's burden. + +In politics, naught but quantity counts. In proportion to its +increase, however, principles, ideals, justice, and uprightness are +completely swamped by the array of numbers. In the struggle for +supremacy the various political parties outdo each other in trickery, +deceit, cunning, and shady machinations, confident that the one who +succeeds is sure to be hailed by the majority as the victor. That is +the only god,--Success. As to what expense, what terrible cost to +character, is of no moment. We have not far to go in search of proof +to verify this sad fact. + +Never before did the corruption, the complete rottenness of our +government stand so thoroughly exposed; never before were the +American people brought face to face with the Judas nature of that +political body, which has claimed for years to be absolutely beyond +reproach, as the mainstay of our institutions, the true protector of +the rights and liberties of the people. + +Yet when the crimes of that party became so brazen that even the +blind could see them, it needed but to muster up its minions, and its +supremacy was assured. Thus the very victims, duped, betrayed, +outraged a hundred times, decided, not against, but in favor of the +victor. Bewildered, the few asked how could the majority betray the +traditions of American liberty? Where was its judgment, its +reasoning capacity? That is just it, the majority cannot reason; it +has no judgment. Lacking utterly in originality and moral courage, +the majority has always placed its destiny in the hands of others. +Incapable of standing responsibilities, it has followed its leaders +even unto destruction. Dr. Stockman was right: "The most dangerous +enemies of truth and justice in our midst are the compact majorities, +the damned compact majority." Without ambition or initiative, the +compact mass hates nothing so much as innovation. It has always +opposed, condemned, and hounded the innovator, the pioneer of a new +truth. + +The oft repeated slogan of our time is, among all politicians, the +Socialists included, that ours is an era of individualism, of the +minority. Only those who do not probe beneath the surface might be +led to entertain this view. Have not the few accumulated the wealth +of the world? Are they not the masters, the absolute kings of the +situation? Their success, however, is due not to individualism, but +to the inertia, the cravenness, the utter submission of the mass. +The latter wants but to be dominated, to be led, to be coerced. As +to individualism, at no time in human history did it have less chance +of expression, less opportunity to assert itself in a normal, healthy +manner. + +The individual educator imbued with honesty of purpose, the artist or +writer of original ideas, the independent scientist or explorer, the +non-compromising pioneers of social changes are daily pushed to the +wall by men whose learning and creative ability have become decrepit +with age. + +Educators of Ferrer's type are nowhere tolerated, while the +dietitians of predigested food, a la Professors Eliot and Butler, are +the successful perpetuators of an age of nonentities, of automatons. +In the literary and dramatic world, the Humphrey Wards and Clyde +Fitches are the idols of the mass, while but few know or appreciate +the beauty and genius of an Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman; an Ibsen, a +Hauptmann, a Butler Yeats, or a Stephen Phillips. They are like +solitary stars, far beyond the horizon of the multitude. + +Publishers, theatrical managers, and critics ask not for the quality +inherent in creative art, but will it meet with a good sale, will it +suit the palate of the people? Alas, this palate is like a dumping +ground; it relishes anything that needs no mental mastication. As a +result, the mediocre, the ordinary, the commonplace represents the +chief literary output. + +Need I say that in art we are confronted with the same sad facts? +One has but to inspect our parks and thoroughfares to realize the +hideousness and vulgarity of the art manufacture. Certainly, none +but a majority taste would tolerate such an outrage on art. False in +conception and barbarous in execution, the statuary that infests +American cities has as much relation to true art, as a totem to a +Michael Angelo. Yet that is the only art that succeeds. The true +artistic genius, who will not cater to accepted notions, who +exercises originality, and strives to be true to life, leads an +obscure and wretched existence. His work may some day become the fad +of the mob, but not until his heart's blood had been exhausted; not +until the pathfinder has ceased to be, and a throng of an idealless +and visionless mob has done to death the heritage of the master. + +It is said that the artist of today cannot create because +Prometheus-like he is bound to the rock of economic necessity. +This, however, is true of art in all ages. Michael Angelo was +dependent on his patron saint, no less than the sculptor or painter +of today, except that the art connoisseurs of those days were far +away from the madding crowd. They felt honored to be permitted to +worship at the shrine of the master. + +The art protector of our time knows but one criterion, one +value,--the dollar. He is not concerned about the quality of any +great work, but in the quantity of dollars his purchase implies. +Thus the financier in Mirbeau's LES AFFAIRES SONT LES AFFAIRES points +to some blurred arrangement in colors, saying "See how great it is; +it cost 50,000 francs." Just like our own parvenues. The fabulous +figures paid for their great art discoveries must make up for the +poverty of their taste. + +The most unpardonable sin in society is independence of thought. +That this should be so terribly apparent in a country whose symbol is +democracy, is very significant of the tremendous power of the +majority. + +Wendell Phillips said fifty years ago: "In our country of absolute +democratic equality, public opinion is not only omnipotent, it is +omnipresent. There is no refuge from its tyranny, there is no hiding +from its reach, and the result is that if you take the old Greek +lantern and go about to seek among a hundred, you will not find a +single American who has not, or who does not fancy at least he has, +something to gain or lose in his ambition, his social life, or +business, from the good opinion and the votes of those around him. +And the consequence is that instead of being a mass of individuals, +each one fearlessly blurting out his own conviction, as a nation +compared to other nations we are a mass of cowards. More than any +other people we are afraid of each other." Evidently we have not +advanced very far from the condition that confronted Wendell +Phillips. + +Today, as then, public opinion is the omnipresent tyrant; today, as +then, the majority represents a mass of cowards, willing to accept +him who mirrors its own soul and mind poverty. That accounts for the +unprecedented rise of a man like Roosevelt. He embodies the very +worst element of mob psychology. A politician, he knows that the +majority cares little for ideals or integrity. What it craves is +display. It matters not whether that be a dog show, a prize fight, +the lynching of a "nigger," the rounding up of some petty offender, +the marriage exposition of an heiress, or the acrobatic stunts of an +ex-president. The more hideous the mental contortions, the greater +the delight and bravos of the mass. Thus, poor in ideals and vulgar +of soul, Roosevelt continues to be the man of the hour. + +On the other hand, men towering high above such political pygmies, +men of refinement, of culture, of ability, are jeered into silence as +mollycoddles. It is absurd to claim that ours is the era of +individualism. Ours is merely a more poignant repetition of the +phenomenon of all history: every effort for progress, for +enlightenment, for science, for religious, political, and economic +liberty, emanates from the minority, and not from the mass. Today, +as ever, the few are misunderstood, hounded, imprisoned, tortured, +and killed. + +The principle of brotherhood expounded by the agitator of Nazareth +preserved the germ of life, of truth and justice, so long as it was +the beacon light of the few. The moment the majority seized upon it, +that great principle became a shibboleth and harbinger of blood and +fire, spreading suffering and disaster. The attack on the +omnipotence of Rome was like a sunrise amid the darkness of the +night, only so long as it was made by the colossal figures of a Huss, +a Calvin, or a Luther. Yet when the mass joined in the procession +against the Catholic monster, it was no less cruel, no less +bloodthirsty than its enemy. Woe to the heretics, to the minority, +who would not bow to its dicta. After infinite zeal, endurance, and +sacrifice, the human mind is at last free from the religious phantom; +the minority has gone on in pursuit of new conquests, and the +majority is lagging behind, handicapped by truth grown false with +age. + +Politically the human race would still be in the most absolute +slavery, were it not for the John Balls, the Wat Tylers, the Tells, +the innumerable individual giants who fought inch by inch against the +power of kings and tyrants. But for individual pioneers the world +would have never been shaken to its very roots by that tremendous +wave, the French Revolution. Great events are usually preceded by +apparently small things. Thus the eloquence and fire of Camille +Desmoulins was like the trumpet before Jericho, razing to the ground +that emblem of torture, of abuse, of horror, the Bastille. + +Always, at every period, the few were the banner bearers of a great +idea, of liberating effort. Not so the mass, the leaden weight of +which does not let it move. The truth of this is borne out in Russia +with greater force than elsewhere. Thousands of lives have already +been consumed by that bloody regime, yet the monster on the throne is +not appeased. How is such a thing possible when ideas, culture, +literature, when the deepest and finest emotions groan under the iron +yoke? The majority, that compact, immobile, drowsy mass, the Russian +peasant, after a century of struggle, of sacrifice, of untold misery, +still believes that the rope which strangles "the man with the white +hands"* brings luck. + +---------- +* The intellectuals. +---------- + +In the American struggle for liberty, the majority was no less of a +stumbling block. Until this very day the ideas of Jefferson, of +Patrick Henry, of Thomas Paine, are denied and sold by their +posterity. The mass wants none of them. The greatness and courage +worshipped in Lincoln have been forgotten in the men who created the +background for the panorama of that time. The true patron saints of +the black men were represented in that handful of fighters in Boston, +Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, and +Theodore Parker, whose great courage and sturdiness culminated in +that somber giant, John Brown. Their untiring zeal, their eloquence +and perseverance undermined the stronghold of the Southern lords. +Lincoln and his minions followed only when abolition had become a +practical issue, recognized as such by all. + +About fifty years ago, a meteor-like idea made its appearance on the +social horizon of the world, an idea so far-reaching, so +revolutionary, so all-embracing as to spread terror in the hearts of +tyrants everywhere. On the other hand, that idea was a harbinger of +joy, of cheer, of hope to the millions. The pioneers knew the +difficulties in their way, they knew the opposition, the persecution, +the hardships that would meet them, but proud and unafraid they +started on their march onward, ever onward. Now that idea has become +a popular slogan. Almost everyone is a Socialist today: the rich +man, as well as his poor victim; the upholders of law and authority, +as well as their unfortunate culprits; the freethinker, as well as +the perpetuator of religious falsehoods; the fashionable lady, as +well as the shirtwaist girl. Why not? Now that the truth of fifty +years ago has become a lie, now that it has been clipped of all its +youthful imagination, and been robbed of its vigor, its strength, its +revolutionary ideal--why not? Now that it is no longer a beautiful +vision, but a "practical, workable scheme," resting on the will of +the majority, why not? With the same political cunning and +shrewdness the mass is petted, pampered, cheated daily. Its praise +is being sung in many keys: the poor majority, the outraged, the +abused, the giant majority, if only it would follow us. + +Who has not heard this litany before? Who does not know this +never-varying refrain of all politicians? That the mass bleeds, that +it is being robbed and exploited, I know as well as our vote-baiters. +But I insist that not the handful of parasites, but the mass itself +is responsible for this horrible state of affairs. It clings to its +masters, loves the whip, and is the first to cry Crucify! the moment +a protesting voice is raised against the sacredness of capitalistic +authority or any other decayed institution. Yet how long would +authority and private property exist, if not for the willingness of +the mass to become soldiers, policemen, jailers, and hangmen. The +Socialist demagogues know that as well as I, but they maintain the +myth of the virtues of the majority, because their very scheme of +life means the perpetuation of power. And how could the latter be +acquired without numbers? Yes, power, authority, coercion, and +dependence rest on the mass, but never freedom, never the free +unfoldment of the individual, never the birth of a free society. + +Not because I do not feel with the oppressed, the disinherited of the +earth; not because I do not know the shame, the horror, the indignity +of the lives the people lead, do I repudiate the majority as a +creative force for good. Oh, no, no! But because I know so well +that as a compact mass it has never stood for justice or equality. +It has suppressed the human voice, subdued the human spirit, chained +the human body. As a mass its aim has always been to make life +uniform, gray, and monotonous as the desert. As a mass it will +always be the annihilator of individuality, of free initiative, of +originality. I therefore believe with Emerson that "the masses are +crude, lame, pernicious in their demands and influence, and need not +to be flattered, but to be schooled. I wish not to concede anything +to them, but to drill, divide, and break them up, and draw +individuals out of them. Masses! The calamity are the masses. I do +not wish any mass at all, but honest men only, lovely, sweet, +accomplished women only." + +In other words, the living, vital truth of social and economic +well-being will become a reality only through the zeal, courage, the +non-compromising determination of intelligent minorities, and not +through the mass. + + + + +THE PSYCHOLOGY OF POLITICAL VIOLENCE + + + +To analyze the psychology of political violence is not only extremely +difficult, but also very dangerous. If such acts are treated with +understanding, one is immediately accused of eulogizing them. If, on +the other hand, human sympathy is expressed with the ATTENTATER,* one +risks being considered a possible accomplice. Yet it is only +intelligence and sympathy that can bring us closer to the source of +human suffering, and teach us the ultimate way out of it. + +---------- +* A revolutionist committing an act of political violence. +---------- + +The primitive man, ignorant of natural forces, dreaded their +approach, hiding from the perils they threatened. As man learned to +understand Nature's phenomena, he realized that though these may +destroy life and cause great loss, they also bring relief. To the +earnest student it must be apparent that the accumulated forces in +our social and economic life, culminating in a political act of +violence, are similar to the terrors of the atmosphere, manifested in +storm and lightning. + +To thoroughly appreciate the truth of this view, one must feel +intensely the indignity of our social wrongs; one's very being must +throb with the pain, the sorrow, the despair millions of people are +daily made to endure. Indeed, unless we have become a part of +humanity, we cannot even faintly understand the just indignation that +accumulates in a human soul, the burning, surging passion that makes +the storm inevitable. + +The ignorant mass looks upon the man who makes a violent protest +against our social and economic iniquities as upon a wild beast, a +cruel, heartless monster, whose joy it is to destroy life and bathe +in blood; or at best, as upon an irresponsible lunatic. Yet nothing +is further from the truth. As a matter of fact, those who have +studied the character and personality of these men, or who have come +in close contact with them, are agreed that it is their +super-sensitiveness to the wrong and injustice surrounding them which +compels them to pay the toll of our social crimes. The most noted +writers and poets, discussing the psychology of political offenders, +have paid them the highest tribute. Could anyone assume that these +men had advised violence, or even approved of the acts? Certainly +not. Theirs was the attitude of the social student, of the man who +knows that beyond every violent act there is a vital cause. + +Bjornstjerne Bjornson, in the second part of BEYOND HUMAN POWER, +emphasizes the fact that it is among the Anarchists that we must look +for the modern martyrs who pay for their faith with their blood, and +who welcome death with a smile, because they believe, as truly as +Christ did, that their martyrdom will redeem humanity. + +Francois Coppee, the French novelist, thus expresses himself +regarding the psychology of the ATTENTATER: + +"The reading of the details of Vaillant's execution left me in a +thoughtful mood. I imagined him expanding his chest under the ropes, +marching with firm step, stiffening his will, concentrating all his +energy, and, with eyes fixed upon the knife, hurling finally at +society his cry of malediction. And, in spite of me, another +spectacle rose suddenly before my mind. I saw a group of men and +women pressing against each other in the middle of the oblong arena +of the circus, under the gaze of thousands of eyes, while from all +the steps of the immense amphitheatre went up the terrible cry, AD +LEONES! and, below, the opening cages of the wild beasts. + +"I did not believe the execution would take place. In the first +place, no victim had been struck with death, and it had long been the +custom not to punish an abortive crime with the last degree of +severity. Then, this crime, however terrible in intention, was +disinterested, born of an abstract idea. The man's past, his +abandoned childhood, his life of hardship, pleaded also in his favor. +In the independent press generous voices were raised in his behalf, +very loud and eloquent. 'A purely literary current of opinion' some +have said, with no little scorn. IT IS, ON THE CONTRARY, AN HONOR TO +THE MEN OF ART AND THOUGHT TO HAVE EXPRESSED ONCE MORE THEIR DISGUST +AT THE SCAFFOLD." + +Again Zola, in GERMINAL and PARIS, describes the tenderness and +kindness, the deep sympathy with human suffering, of these men who +close the chapter of their lives with a violent outbreak against our +system. + +Last, but not least, the man who probably better than anyone else +understands the psychology of the ATTENTATER is M. Hamon, the author +of the brilliant work, UNE PSYCHOLOGIE DU MILITAIRE PROFESSIONEL, who +has arrived at these suggestive conclusions: + +"The positive method confirmed by the rational method enables us to +establish an ideal type of Anarchist, whose mentality is the +aggregate of common psychic characteristics. Every Anarchist +partakes sufficiently of this ideal type to make it possible to +differentiate him from other men. The typical Anarchist, then, may +be defined as follows: A man perceptible by the spirit of revolt +under one or more of its forms,--opposition, investigation, +criticism, innovation,--endowed with a strong love of liberty, +egoistic or individualistic, and possessed of great curiosity, a keen +desire to know. These traits are supplemented by an ardent love of +others, a highly developed moral sensitiveness, a profound sentiment +of justice, and imbued with missionary zeal." + +To the above characteristics, says Alvin F. Sanborn, must be added +these sterling qualities: a rare love of animals, surpassing +sweetness in all the ordinary relations of life, exceptional sobriety +of demeanor, frugality and regularity, austerity, even, of living, +and courage beyond compare.* + +---------- +* PARIS AND THE SOCIAL REVOLUTION. +---------- + +"There is a truism that the man in the street seems always to forget, +when he is abusing the Anarchists, or whatever party happens to be +his BETE NOIRE for the moment, as the cause of some outrage just +perpetrated. This indisputable fact is that homicidal outrages have, +from time immemorial, been the reply of goaded and desperate classes, +and goaded and desperate individuals, to wrongs from their fellowmen, +which they felt to be intolerable. Such acts are the violent recoil +from violence, whether aggressive or repressive; they are the last +desperate struggle of outraged and exasperated human nature for +breathing space and life. And their cause lies not in any special +conviction, but in the depths of that human nature itself. The whole +course of history, political and social, is strewn with evidence of +this fact. To go no further, take the three most notorious examples +of political parties goaded into violence during the last fifty +years: the Mazzinians in Italy, the Fenians in Ireland, and the +Terrorists in Russia. Were these people Anarchists? No. Did they +all three even hold the same political opinions? No. The Mazzinians +were Republicans, the Fenians political separatists, the Russians +Social Democrats or Constitutionalists. But all were driven by +desperate circumstances into this terrible form of revolt. And when +we turn from parties to individuals who have acted in like manner, we +stand appalled by the number of human beings goaded and driven by +sheer desperation into conduct obviously violently opposed to their +social instincts. + +"Now that Anarchism has become a living force in society, such deeds +have been sometimes committed by Anarchists, as well as by others. +For no new faith, even the most essentially peaceable and humane the +mind of man has yet accepted, but at its first coming has brought +upon earth not peace, but a sword; not because of anything violent or +anti-social in the doctrine itself; simply because of the ferment any +new and creative idea excites in men's minds, whether they accept or +reject it. And a conception of Anarchism, which, on one hand, +threatens every vested interest, and, on the other, holds out a +vision of a free and noble life to be won by a struggle against +existing wrongs, is certain to rouse the fiercest opposition, and +bring the whole repressive force of ancient evil into violent contact +with the tumultuous outburst of a new hope. + +"Under miserable conditions of life, any vision of the possibility of +better things makes the present misery more intolerable, and spurs +those who suffer to the most energetic struggles to improve their +lot, and if these struggles only immediately result in sharper +misery, the outcome is sheer desperation. In our present society, +for instance, an exploited wage worker, who catches a glimpse of what +work and life might and ought to be, finds the toilsome routine and +the squalor of his existence almost intolerable; and even when he has +the resolution and courage to continue steadily working his best, and +waiting until new ideas have so permeated society as to pave the way +for better times, the mere fact that he has such ideas and tries to +spread them, brings him into difficulties with his employers. How +many thousands of Socialists, and above all Anarchists, have lost +work and even the chance of work, solely on the ground of their +opinions. It is only the specially gifted craftsman, who, if he be a +zealous propagandist, can hope to retain permanent employment. And +what happens to a man with his brain working actively with a ferment +of new ideas, with a vision before his eyes of a new hope dawning for +toiling and agonizing men, with the knowledge that his suffering and +that of his fellows in misery is not caused by the cruelty of fate, +but by the injustice of other human beings,--what happens to such a +man when he sees those dear to him starving, when he himself is +starved? Some natures in such a plight, and those by no means the +least social or the least sensitive, will become violent, and will +even feel that their violence is social and not anti-social, that in +striking when and how they can, they are striking, not for +themselves, but for human nature, outraged and despoiled in their +persons and in those of their fellow sufferers. And are we, who +ourselves are not in this horrible predicament, to stand by and +coldly condemn these piteous victims of the Furies and Fates? Are we +to decry as miscreants these human beings who act with heroic +self-devotion, sacrificing their lives in protest, where less social +and less energetic natures would lie down and grovel in abject +submission to injustice and wrong? Are we to join the ignorant and +brutal outcry which stigmatizes such men as monsters of wickedness, +gratuitously running amuck in a harmonious and innocently peaceful +society? No! We hate murder with a hatred that may seem absurdly +exaggerated to apologists for Matabele massacres, to callous +acquiescers in hangings and bombardments, but we decline in such +cases of homicide, or attempted homicide, as those of which we are +treating, to be guilty of the cruel injustice of flinging the whole +responsibility of the deed upon the immediate perpetrator. The guilt +of these homicides lies upon every man and woman who, intentionally +or by cold indifference, helps to keep up social conditions that +drive human beings to despair. The man who flings his whole life +into the attempt, at the cost of his own life, to protest against the +wrongs of his fellow men, is a saint compared to the active and +passive upholders of cruelty and injustice, even if his protest +destroy other lives besides his own. Let him who is without sin in +society cast the first stone at such an one."* + +---------- +* From a pamphlet issued by the Freedom Group of London. +---------- + +That every act of political violence should nowadays be attributed to +Anarchists is not at all surprising. Yet it is a fact known to +almost everyone familiar with the Anarchist movement that a great +number of acts, for which Anarchists had to suffer, either originated +with the capitalist press or were instigated, if not directly +perpetrated, by the police. + +For a number of years acts of violence had been committed in Spain, +for which the Anarchists were held responsible, hounded like wild +beasts, and thrown into prison. Later it was disclosed that the +perpetrators of these acts were not Anarchists, but members of the +police department. The scandal became so widespread that the +conservative Spanish papers demanded the apprehension and punishment +of the gang-leader, Juan Rull, who was subsequently condemned to +death and executed. The sensational evidence, brought to light +during the trial, forced Police Inspector Momento to exonerate +completely the Anarchists from any connection with the acts committed +during a long period. This resulted in the dismissal of a number of +police officials, among them Inspector Tressols, who, in revenge, +disclosed the fact that behind the gang of police bomb throwers were +others of far higher position, who provided them with funds and +protected them. + +This is one of the many striking examples of how Anarchist +conspiracies are manufactured. + +That the American police can perjure themselves with the same ease, +that they are just as merciless, just as brutal and cunning as their +European colleagues, has been proven on more than one occasion. We +need only recall the tragedy of the eleventh of November, 1887, known +as the Haymarket Riot. + +No one who is at all familiar with the case can possibly doubt that +the Anarchists, judicially murdered in Chicago, died as victims of a +lying, bloodthirsty press and of a cruel police conspiracy. Has not +Judge Gary himself said: "Not because you have caused the Haymarket +bomb, but because you are Anarchists, you are on trial." + +The impartial and thorough analysis by Governor Altgeld of that +blotch on the American escutcheon verified the brutal frankness of +Judge Gary. It was this that induced Altgeld to pardon the three +Anarchists, thereby earning the lasting esteem of every liberty +loving man and woman in the world. + +When we approach the tragedy of September sixth, 1901, we are +confronted by one of the most striking examples of how little social +theories are responsible for an act of political violence. "Leon +Czolgosz, an Anarchist, incited to commit the act by Emma Goldman." +To be sure, has she not incited violence even before her birth, and +will she not continue to do so beyond death? Everything is possible +with the Anarchists. + +Today, even, nine years after the tragedy, after it was proven a +hundred times that Emma Goldman had nothing to do with the event, +that no evidence whatsoever exists to indicate that Czolgosz ever +called himself an Anarchist, we are confronted with the same lie, +fabricated by the police and perpetuated by the press. No living +soul ever heard Czolgosz make that statement, nor is there a single +written word to prove that the boy ever breathed the accusation. +Nothing but ignorance and insane hysteria, which have never yet been +able to solve the simplest problem of cause and effect. + +The President of a free Republic killed! What else can be the cause, +except that the ATTENTATER must have been insane, or that he was +incited to the act. + +A free Republic! How a myth will maintain itself, how it will +continue to deceive, to dupe, and blind even the comparatively +intelligent to its monstrous absurdities. A free Republic! And yet +within a little over thirty years a small band of parasites have +successfully robbed the American people, and trampled upon the +fundamental principles, laid down by the fathers of this country, +guaranteeing to every man, woman, and child "life, liberty, and the +pursuit of happiness." For thirty years they have been increasing +their wealth and power at the expense of the vast mass of workers, +thereby enlarging the army of the unemployed, the hungry, homeless, +and friendless portion of humanity, who are tramping the country from +east to west, from north to south, in a vain search for work. For +many years the home has been left to the care of the little ones, +while the parents are exhausting their life and strength for a mere +pittance. For thirty years the sturdy sons of America have been +sacrificed on the battlefield of industrial war, and the daughters +outraged in corrupt factory surroundings. For long and weary years +this process of undermining the nation's health, vigor, and pride, +without much protest from the disinherited and oppressed, has been +going on. Maddened by success and victory, the money powers of this +"free land of ours" became more and more audacious in their +heartless, cruel efforts to compete with the rotten and decayed +European tyrannies for supremacy of power. + +In vain did a lying press repudiate Leon Czolgosz as a foreigner. +The boy was a product of our own free American soil, that lulled him +to sleep with, + + My country, 'tis of thee, + Sweet land of liberty. + +Who can tell how many times this American child had gloried in the +celebration of the Fourth of July, or of Decoration Day, when he +faithfully honored the Nation's dead? Who knows but that he, too, +was willing to "fight for his country and die for her liberty," until +it dawned upon him that those he belonged to have no country, because +they have been robbed of all that they have produced; until he +realized that the liberty and independence of his youthful dreams +were but a farce. Poor Leon Czolgosz, your crime consisted of too +sensitive a social consciousness. Unlike your idealless and +brainless American brothers, your ideals soared above the belly and +the bank account. No wonder you impressed the one human being among +all the infuriated mob at your trial--a newspaper woman--as a +visionary, totally oblivious to your surroundings. Your large, +dreamy eyes must have beheld a new and glorious dawn. + +Now, to a recent instance of police-manufactured Anarchist plots. +In that bloodstained city, Chicago, the life of Chief of Police +Shippy was attempted by a young man named Averbuch. Immediately the +cry was sent to the four corners of the world that Averbuch was an +Anarchist, and that Anarchists were responsible for the act. +Everyone who was at all known to entertain Anarchist ideas was +closely watched, a number of people arrested, the library of an +Anarchist group confiscated, and all meetings made impossible. It +goes without saying that, as on various previous occasions, I must +needs be held responsible for the act. Evidently the American police +credit me with occult powers. I did not know Averbuch; in fact, had +never before heard his name, and the only way I could have possibly +"conspired" with him was in my astral body. But, then, the police +are not concerned with logic or justice. What they seek is a target, +to mask their absolute ignorance of the cause, of the psychology of a +political act. Was Averbuch an Anarchist? There is no positive +proof of it. He had been but three months in the country, did not +know the language, and, as far as I could ascertain, was quite +unknown to the Anarchists of Chicago. + +What led to his act? Averbuch, like most young Russian immigrants, +undoubtedly believed in the mythical liberty of America. He received +his first baptism by the policeman's club during the brutal +dispersement of the unemployed parade. He further experienced +American equality and opportunity in the vain efforts to find an +economic master. In short, a three months' sojourn in the glorious +land brought him face to face with the fact that the disinherited are +in the same position the world over. In his native land he probably +learned that necessity knows no law--there was no difference between +a Russian and an American policeman. + +The question to the intelligent social student is not whether the +acts of Czolgosz or Averbuch were practical, any more than whether +the thunderstorm is practical. The thing that will inevitably +impress itself on the thinking and feeling man and woman is that the +sight of brutal clubbing of innocent victims in a so-called free +Republic, and the degrading, soul-destroying economic struggle, +furnish the spark that kindles the dynamic force in the overwrought, +outraged souls of men like Czolgosz or Averbuch. No amount of +persecution, of hounding, of repression, can stay this social +phenomenon. + +But, it is often asked, have not acknowledged Anarchists committed +acts of violence? Certainly they have, always however ready to +shoulder the responsibility. My contention is that they were +impelled, not by the teachings of Anarchism, but by the tremendous +pressure of conditions, making life unbearable to their sensitive +natures. Obviously, Anarchism, or any other social theory, making +man a conscious social unit, will act as a leaven for rebellion. +This is not a mere assertion, but a fact verified by all experience. +A close examination of the circumstances bearing upon this question +will further clarify my position. + +Let us consider some of the most important Anarchist acts within the +last two decades. Strange as it may seem, one of the most +significant deeds of political violence occurred here in America, in +connection with the Homestead strike of 1892. + +During that memorable time the Carnegie Steel Company organized a +conspiracy to crush the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel +Workers. Henry Clay Frick, then Chairman of the Company, was +intrusted with that democratic task. He lost no time in carrying out +the policy of breaking the Union, the policy which he had so +successfully practiced during his reign of terror in the coke +regions. Secretly, and while peace negotiations were being purposely +prolonged, Frick supervised the military preparations, the +fortification of the Homestead Steel Works, the erection of a high +board fence, capped with barbed wire and provided with loopholes for +sharpshooters. And then, in the dead of night, he attempted to +smuggle his army of hired Pinkerton thugs into Homestead, which act +precipitated the terrible carnage of the steel workers. Not content +with the death of eleven victims, killed in the Pinkerton skirmish, +Henry Clay Frick, good Christian and free American, straightway began +the hounding down of the helpless wives and orphans, by ordering them +out of the wretched Company houses. + +The whole country was aroused over these inhuman outrages. Hundreds +of voices were raised in protest, calling on Frick to desist, not to +go too far. Yes, hundreds of people protested,--as one objects to +annoying flies. Only one there was who actively responded to the +outrage at Homestead,--Alexander Berkman. Yes, he was an Anarchist. +He gloried in that fact, because it was the only force that made the +discord between his spiritual longing and the world without at all +bearable. Yet not Anarchism, as such, but the brutal slaughter of +the eleven steel workers was the urge for Alexander Berkman's act, +his attempt on the life of Henry Clay Frick. + +The record of European acts of political violence affords numerous +and striking instances of the influence of environment upon sensitive +human beings. + +The court speech of Vaillant, who, in 1894, exploded a bomb in the +Paris Chamber of Deputies, strikes the true keynote of the psychology +of such acts: + +"Gentlemen, in a few minutes you are to deal your blow, but in +receiving your verdict I shall have at least the satisfaction of +having wounded the existing society, that cursed society in which one +may see a single man spending, uselessly, enough to feed thousands of +families; an infamous society which permits a few individuals to +monopolize all the social wealth, while there are hundreds of +thousands of unfortunates who have not even the bread that is not +refused to dogs, and while entire families are committing suicide for +want of the necessities of life. + +"Ah, gentlemen, if the governing classes could go down among the +unfortunates! But no, they prefer to remain deaf to their appeals. +It seems that a fatality impels them, like the royalty of the +eighteenth century, toward the precipice which will engulf them, for +woe be to those who remain deaf to the cries of the starving, woe to +those who, believing themselves of superior essence, assume the right +to exploit those beneath them! There comes a time when the people no +longer reason; they rise like a hurricane, and pass away like a +torrent. Then we see bleeding heads impaled on pikes. + +"Among the exploited, gentlemen, there are two classes of +individuals: Those of one class, not realizing what they are and what +they might be, take life as it comes, believe that they are born to +be slaves, and content themselves with the little that is given them +in exchange for their labor. But there are others, on the contrary, +who think, who study, and who, looking about them, discover social +iniquities. Is it their fault if they see clearly and suffer at +seeing others suffer? Then they throw themselves into the struggle, +and make themselves the bearers of the popular claims. + +"Gentlemen, I am one of these last. Wherever I have gone, I have +seen unfortunates bent beneath the yoke of capital. Everywhere I +have seen the same wounds causing tears of blood to flow, even in the +remoter parts of the inhabited districts of South America, where I +had the right to believe that he who was weary of the pains of +civilization might rest in the shade of the palm trees and there +study nature. Well, there even, more than elsewhere, I have seen +capital come, like a vampire, to suck the last drop of blood of the +unfortunate pariahs. + +"Then I came back to France, where it was reserved for me to see my +family suffer atrociously. This was the last drop in the cup of my +sorrow. Tired of leading this life of suffering and cowardice, I +carried this bomb to those who are primarily responsible for social +sufferings. + +"I am reproached with the wounds of those who were hit by my +projectiles. Permit me to point out in passing that, if the +bourgeois had not massacred or caused massacres during the +Revolution, it is probable that they would still be under the yoke of +the nobility. On the other hand, figure up the dead and wounded on +Tonquin, Madagascar, Dahomey, adding thereto the thousands, yes, +millions of unfortunates who die in the factories, the mines, and +wherever the grinding power of capital is felt. Add also those who +die of hunger, and all this with the assent of our Deputies. Beside +all this, of how little weight are the reproaches now brought against +me! + +"It is true that one does not efface the other; but, after all, are +we not acting on the defensive when we respond to the blows which we +receive from above? I know very well that I shall be told that I +ought to have confined myself to speech for the vindication of the +people's claims. But what can you expect! It takes a loud voice to +make the deaf hear. Too long have they answered our voices by +imprisonment, the rope, rifle volleys. Make no mistake; the +explosion of my bomb is not only the cry of the rebel Vaillant, but +the cry of an entire class which vindicates its rights, and which +will soon add acts to words. For, be sure of it, in vain will they +pass laws. The ideas of the thinkers will not halt; just as, in the +last century, all the governmental forces could not prevent the +Diderots and the Voltaires from spreading emancipating ideas among +the people, so all the existing governmental forces will not prevent +the Reclus, the Darwins, the Spencers, the Ibsens, the Mirbeaus, from +spreading the ideas of justice and liberty which will annihilate the +prejudices that hold the mass in ignorance. And these ideas, +welcomed by the unfortunate, will flower in acts of revolt as they +have done in me, until the day when the disappearance of authority +shall permit all men to organize freely according to their choice, +when we shall each be able to enjoy the product of his labor, and +when those moral maladies called prejudices shall vanish, permitting +human beings to live in harmony, having no other desire than to study +the sciences and love their fellows. + +"I conclude, gentlemen, by saying that a society in which one sees +such social inequalities as we see all about us, in which we see +every day suicides caused by poverty, prostitution flaring at every +street corner,--a society whose principal monuments are barracks and +prisons,--such a society must be transformed as soon as possible, on +pain of being eliminated, and that speedily, from the human race. +Hail to him who labors, by no matter what means, for this +transformation! It is this idea that has guided me in my duel with +authority, but as in this duel I have only wounded my adversary, it +is now its turn to strike me. + +"Now, gentlemen, to me it matters little what penalty you may +inflict, for, looking at this assembly with the eyes of reason, I can +not help smiling to see you, atoms lost in matter, and reasoning only +because you possess a prolongation of the spinal marrow, assume the +right to judge one of your fellows. + +"Ah! gentlemen, how little a thing is your assembly and your verdict +in the history of humanity; and human history, in its turn, is +likewise a very little thing in the whirlwind which bears it through +immensity, and which is destined to disappear, or at least to be +transformed, in order to begin again the same history and the same +facts, a veritably perpetual play of cosmic forces renewing and +transferring themselves forever." + +Will anyone say that Vaillant was an ignorant, vicious man, or a +lunatic? Was not his mind singularly clear, analytic? No wonder +that the best intellectual forces of France spoke in his behalf, and +signed the petition to President Carnot, asking him to commute +Vaillant's death sentence. + +Carnot would listen to no entreaty; he insisted on more than a pound +of flesh, he wanted Vaillant's life, and then--the inevitable +happened: President Carnot was killed. On the handle of the stiletto +used by the ATTENTATER was engraved, significantly, + + VAILLANT! + + +Santa Caserio was an Anarchist. He could have gotten away, saved +himself; but he remained, he stood the consequences. + +His reasons for the act are set forth in so simple, dignified, and +childlike manner that one is reminded of the touching tribute paid +Caserio by his teacher of the little village school, Ada Negri, the +Italian poet, who spoke of him as a sweet, tender plant, of too fine +and sensitive texture to stand the cruel strain of the world. + +"Gentlemen of the Jury! I do not propose to make a defense, but only +an explanation of my deed. + +"Since my early youth I began to learn that present society is badly +organized, so badly that every day many wretched men commit suicide, +leaving women and children in the most terrible distress. Workers, +by thousands, seek for work and can not find it. Poor families beg +for food and shiver with cold; they suffer the greatest misery; the +little ones ask their miserable mothers for food, and the mothers +can not give them, because they have nothing. The few things +which the home contained have already been sold or pawned. All they +can do is beg alms; often they are arrested as vagabonds. + +"I went away from my native place because I was frequently moved to +tears at seeing little girls of eight or ten years obliged to work +fifteen hours a day for the paltry pay of twenty centimes. Young +women of eighteen or twenty also work fifteen hours daily, for a +mockery of remuneration. And that happens not only to my fellow +countrymen, but to all the workers, who sweat the whole day long for +a crust of bread, while their labor produces wealth in abundance. +The workers are obliged to live under the most wretched conditions, +and their food consists of a little bread, a few spoonfuls of rice, +and water; so by the time they are thirty or forty years old, they +are exhausted, and go to die in the hospitals. Besides, in +consequence of bad food and overwork, these unhappy creatures are, by +hundreds, devoured by pellagra--a disease that, in my country, +attacks, as the physicians say, those who are badly fed and lead a +life of toil and privation. + +"I have observed that there are a great many people who are hungry, +and many children who suffer, whilst bread and clothes abound in the +towns. I saw many and large shops full of clothing and woolen +stuffs, and I also saw warehouses full of wheat and Indian corn, +suitable for those who are in want. And, on the other hand, I saw +thousands of people who do not work, who produce nothing and live on +the labor of others; who spend every day thousands of francs for +their amusement; who debauch the daughters of the workers; who own +dwellings of forty or fifty rooms; twenty or thirty horses, many +servants; in a word, all the pleasures of life. + +"I believed in God; but when I saw so great an inequality between +men, I acknowledged that it was not God who created man, but man who +created God. And I discovered that those who want their property to +be respected, have an interest in preaching the existence of paradise +and hell, and in keeping the people in ignorance. + +"Not long ago, Vaillant threw a bomb in the Chamber of Deputies, to +protest against the present system of society. He killed no one, +only wounded some persons; yet bourgeois justice sentenced him to +death. And not satisfied with the condemnation of the guilty man, +they began to pursue the Anarchists, and arrest not only those who +had known Vaillant, but even those who had merely been present at any +Anarchist lecture. + +"The government did not think of their wives and children. It did +not consider that the men kept in prison were not the only ones who +suffered, and that their little ones cried for bread. Bourgeois +justice did not trouble itself about these innocent ones, who do not +yet know what society is. It is no fault of theirs that their +fathers are in prison; they only want to eat. + +"The government went on searching private houses, opening private +letters, forbidding lectures and meetings, and practicing the most +infamous oppressions against us. Even now, hundreds of Anarchists +are arrested for having written an article in a newspaper, or for +having expressed an opinion in public. + +"Gentlemen of the Jury, you are representatives of bourgeois society. +If you want my head, take it; but do not believe that in so doing you +will stop the Anarchist propaganda. Take care, for men reap what +they have sown." + +During a religious procession in 1896, at Barcelona, a bomb was +thrown. Immediately three hundred men and women were arrested. +Some were Anarchists, but the majority were trade unionists and +Socialists. They were thrown into that terrible bastille, Montjuich, +and subjected to most horrible tortures. After a number had been +killed, or had gone insane, their cases were taken up by the liberal +press of Europe, resulting in the release of a few survivors. + +The man primarily responsible for this revival of the Inquisition was +Canovas del Castillo, Prime Minister of Spain. It was he who ordered +the torturing of the victims, their flesh burned, their bones +crushed, their tongues cut out. Practiced in the art of brutality +during his regime in Cuba, Canovas remained absolutely deaf to the +appeals and protests of the awakened civilized conscience. + +In 1897 Canovas del Castillo was shot to death by a young Italian, +Angiolillo. The latter was an editor in his native land, and his +bold utterances soon attracted the attention of the authorities. +Persecution began, and Angiolillo fled from Italy to Spain, thence to +France and Belgium, finally settling in England. While there he +found employment as a compositor, and immediately became the friend +of all his colleagues. One of the latter thus described Angiolillo: +"His appearance suggested the journalist rather than the disciple of +Guttenberg. His delicate hands, moreover, betrayed the fact that he +had not grown up at the 'case.' With his handsome frank face, his +soft dark hair, his alert expression, he looked the very type of the +vivacious Southerner. Angiolillo spoke Italian, Spanish, and French, +but no English; the little French I knew was not sufficient to carry +on a prolonged conversation. However, Angiolillo soon began to +acquire the English idiom; he learned rapidly, playfully, and it was +not long until he became very popular with his fellow compositors. +His distinguished and yet modest manner, and his consideration +towards his colleagues, won him the hearts of all the boys." + +Angiolillo soon became familiar with the detailed accounts in the +press. He read of the great wave of human sympathy with the helpless +victims at Montjuich. On Trafalgar Square he saw with his own eyes +the results of those atrocities, when the few Spaniards, who escaped +Castillo's clutches, came to seek asylum in England. There, at the +great meeting, these men opened their shirts and showed the horrible +scars of burned flesh. Angiolillo saw, and the effect surpassed a +thousand theories; the impetus was beyond words, beyond arguments, +beyond himself even. + +Senor Antonio Canovas del Castillo, Prime Minister of Spain, +sojourned at Santa Agueda. As usual in such cases, all strangers +were kept away from his exalted presence. One exception was made, +however, in the case of a distinguished looking, elegantly dressed +Italian--the representative, it was understood, of an important +journal. The distinguished gentleman was--Angiolillo. + +Senor Canovas, about to leave his house, stepped on the veranda. +Suddenly Angiolillo confronted him. A shot rang out, and Canovas was +a corpse. + +The wife of the Prime Minister rushed upon the scene. "Murderer! +Murderer!" she cried, pointing at Angiolillo. The latter bowed. +"Pardon, Madame," he said, "I respect you as a lady, but I regret +that you were the wife of that man." + +Calmly Angiolillo faced death. Death in its most terrible form--for +the man whose soul was as a child's. + +He was garroted. His body lay, sun-kissed, till the day hid in +twilight. And the people came, and pointing the finger of terror and +fear, they said: "There--the criminal--the cruel murderer." + +How stupid, how cruel is ignorance! It misunderstands always, +condemns always. + +A remarkable parallel to the case of Angiolillo is to be found in the +act of Gaetano Bresci, whose ATTENTAT upon King Umberto made an +American city famous. + +Bresci came to this country, this land of opportunity, where one has +but to try to meet with golden success. Yes, he too would try to +succeed. He would work hard and faithfully. Work had no terrors +for him, if it would only help him to independence, manhood, +self-respect. + +Thus full of hope and enthusiasm he settled in Paterson, New Jersey, +and there found a lucrative job at six dollars per week in one of the +weaving mills of the town. Six whole dollars per week was, no doubt, +a fortune for Italy, but not enough to breathe on in the new country. +He loved his little home. He was a good husband and devoted father +to his BAMBINA, Bianca, whom he adored. He worked and worked for a +number of years. He actually managed to save one hundred dollars out +of his six dollars per week. + +Bresci had an ideal. Foolish, I know, for a workingman to have an +ideal,--the Anarchist paper published in Paterson, LA QUESTIONE +SOCIALE. + +Every week, though tired from work, he would help to set up the +paper. Until later hours he would assist, and when the little +pioneer had exhausted all resources and his comrades were in despair, +Bresci brought cheer and hope, one hundred dollars, the entire +savings of years. That would keep the paper afloat. + +In his native land people were starving. The crops had been poor, +and the peasants saw themselves face to face with famine. They +appealed to their good King Umberto; he would help. And he did. +The wives of the peasants who had gone to the palace of the King, +held up in mute silence their emaciated infants. Surely that would +move him. And then the soldiers fired and killed those poor fools. + +Bresci, at work in the weaving mill at Paterson, read of the horrible +massacre. His mental eye beheld the defenceless women and innocent +infants of his native land, slaughtered right before the good King. +His soul recoiled in horror. At night he heard the groans of the +wounded. Some may have been his comrades, his own flesh. Why, why +these foul murders? + +The little meeting of the Italian Anarchist group in Paterson ended +almost in a fight. Bresci had demanded his hundred dollars. His +comrades begged, implored him to give them a respite. The paper +would go down if they were to return him his loan. But Bresci +insisted on its return. + +How cruel and stupid is ignorance. Bresci got the money, but lost +the good will, the confidence of his comrades. They would have +nothing more to do with one whose greed was greater than his ideals. + +On the twenty-ninth of July, 1900, King Umberto was shot at Monzo. +The young Italian weaver of Paterson, Gaetano Bresci, had taken the +life of the good King. + +Paterson was placed under police surveillance, everyone known as an +Anarchist hounded and persecuted, and the act of Bresci ascribed to +the teachings of Anarchism. As if the teachings of Anarchism in its +extremest form could equal the force of those slain women and +infants, who had pilgrimed to the King for aid. As if any spoken +word, ever so eloquent, could burn into a human soul with such white +heat as the life blood trickling drop by drop from those dying forms. +The ordinary man is rarely moved either by word or deed; and those +whose social kinship is the greatest living force need no appeal to +respond--even as does steel to the magnet--to the wrongs and horrors +of society. + +If a social theory is a strong factor inducing acts of political +violence, how are we to account for the recent violent outbreaks in +India, where Anarchism has hardly been born. More than any other old +philosophy, Hindu teachings have exalted passive resistance, the +drifting of life, the Nirvana, as the highest spiritual ideal. Yet +the social unrest in India is daily growing, and has only recently +resulted in an act of political violence, the killing of Sir Curzon +Wyllie by the Hindu, Madar Sol Dhingra. + +If such a phenomenon can occur in a country socially and individually +permeated for centuries with the spirit of passivity, can one +question the tremendous, revolutionizing effect on human character +exerted by great social iniquities? Can one doubt the logic, the +justice of these words: + +"Repression, tyranny, and indiscriminate punishment of innocent men +have been the watchwords of the government of the alien domination in +India ever since we began the commercial boycott of English goods. +The tiger qualities of the British are much in evidence now in India. +They think that by the strength of the sword they will keep down +India! It is this arrogance that has brought about the bomb, and the +more they tyrannize over a helpless and unarmed people, the more +terrorism will grow. We may deprecate terrorism as outlandish and +foreign to our culture, but it is inevitable as long as this tyranny +continues, for it is not the terrorists that are to be blamed, but +the tyrants who are responsible for it. It is the only resource for +a helpless and unarmed people when brought to the verge of despair. +It is never criminal on their part. The crime lies with the +tyrant."* + +---------- +* THE FREE HINDUSTAN. +---------- + + +Even conservative scientists are beginning to realize that heredity +is not the sole factor moulding human character. Climate, food, +occupation; nay, color, light, and sound must be considered in the +study of human psychology. + +If that be true, how much more correct is the contention that great +social abuses will and must influence different minds and +temperaments in a different way. And how utterly fallacious the +stereotyped notion that the teachings of Anarchism, or certain +exponents of these teachings, are responsible for the acts of +political violence. + +Anarchism, more than any other social theory, values human life above +things. All Anarchists agree with Tolstoy in this fundamental truth: +if the production of any commodity necessitates the sacrifice of +human life, society should do without that commodity, but it can not +do without that life. That, however, nowise indicates that Anarchism +teaches submission. How can it, when it knows that all suffering, +all misery, all ills, result from the evil of submission? + +Has not some American ancestor said, many years ago, that resistance +to tyranny is obedience to God? And he was not an Anarchist even. +I would say that resistance to tyranny is man's highest ideal. So +long as tyranny exists, in whatever form, man's deepest aspiration +must resist it as inevitably as man must breathe. + +Compared with the wholesale violence of capital and government, +political acts of violence are but a drop in the ocean. That so few +resist is the strongest proof how terrible must be the conflict +between their souls and unbearable social iniquities. + +High strung, like a violin string, they weep and moan for life, so +relentless, so cruel, so terribly inhuman. In a desperate moment the +string breaks. Untuned ears hear nothing but discord. But those who +feel the agonized cry understand its harmony; they hear in it the +fulfillment of the most compelling moment of human nature. + +Such is the psychology of political violence. + + + + +PRISONS: A SOCIAL CRIME AND FAILURE + + + +In 1849, Feodor Dostoyevsky wrote on the wall of his prison cell the +following story of THE PRIEST AND THE DEVIL: + +"'Hello, you little fat father!' the devil said to the priest. +'What made you lie so to those poor, misled people? What tortures of +hell did you depict? Don't you know they are already suffering the +tortures of hell in their earthly lives? Don't you know that you and +the authorities of the State are my representatives on earth? It is +you that make them suffer the pains of hell with which you threaten +them. Don't you know this? Well, then, come with me!' + +"The devil grabbed the priest by the collar, lifted him high in the +air, and carried him to a factory, to an iron foundry. He saw the +workmen there running and hurrying to and fro, and toiling in the +scorching heat. Very soon the thick, heavy air and the heat are too +much for the priest. With tears in his eyes, he pleads with the +devil: 'Let me go! Let me leave this hell!' + +"'Oh, my dear friend, I must show you many more places.' The devil +gets hold of him again and drags him off to a farm. There he sees +workmen threshing the grain. The dust and heat are insufferable. +The overseer carries a knout, and unmercifully beats anyone who falls +to the ground overcome by hard toil or hunger. + +"Next the priest is taken to the huts where these same workers live +with their families--dirty, cold, smoky, ill-smelling holes. The +devil grins. He points out the poverty and hardships which are at +home here. + +"'Well, isn't this enough?' he asks. And it seems as if even he, the +devil, pities the people. The pious servant of God can hardly bear +it. With uplifted hands he begs: 'Let me go away from here. Yes, +yes! This is hell on earth!' + +"'Well, then, you see. And you still promise them another hell. +You torment them, torture them to death mentally when they are +already all but dead physically! Come on! I will show you one more +hell--one more, the very worst.' + +"He took him to a prison and showed him a dungeon, with its foul air +and the many human forms, robbed of all health and energy, lying on +the floor, covered with vermin that were devouring their poor, naked, +emaciated bodies. + +"'Take off your silken clothes,' said the devil to the priest, 'put +on your ankles heavy chains such as these unfortunates wear; lie down +on the cold and filthy floor--and then talk to them about a hell that +still awaits them!' + +"'No, no!' answered the priest, 'I cannot think of anything more +dreadful than this. I entreat you, let me go away from here!' + +"'Yes, this is hell. There can be no worse hell than this. Did you +not know it? Did you not know that these men and women whom you are +frightening with the picture of a hell hereafter--did you not know +that they are in hell right here, before they die?'" + + +This was written fifty years ago in dark Russia, on the wall of one +of the most horrible prisons. Yet who can deny that the same applies +with equal force to the present time, even to American prisons? + +With all our boasted reforms, our great social changes, and our +far-reaching discoveries, human beings continue to be sent to the +worst of hells, wherein they are outraged, degraded, and tortured, +that society may be "protected" from the phantoms of its own making. + +Prison, a social protection? What monstrous mind ever conceived such +an idea? Just as well say that health can be promoted by a +widespread contagion. + +After eighteen months of horror in an English prison, Oscar Wilde +gave to the world his great masterpiece, THE BALLAD OF READING GOAL: + + The vilest deeds, like poison weeds, + Bloom well in prison air; + It is only what is good in Man + That wastes and withers there. + Pale Anguish keeps the heavy gate, + And the Warder is Despair. + +Society goes on perpetuating this poisonous air, not realizing that +out of it can come naught but the most poisonous results. + +We are spending at the present $3,500,000 per day, $1,000,095,000 per +year, to maintain prison institutions, and that in a democratic +country,--a sum almost as large as the combined output of wheat, +valued at $750,000,000, and the output of coal, valued at +$350,000,000. Professor Bushnell of Washington, D.C., estimates the +cost of prisons at $6,000,000,000 annually, and Dr. G. Frank Lydston, +an eminent American writer on crime, gives $5,000,000,000 annually as +a reasonable figure. Such unheard-of expenditure for the purpose of +maintaining vast armies of human beings caged up like wild beasts!* + +---------- +* CRIME AND CRIMINALS. W. C. Owen. +---------- + +Yet crimes are on the increase. Thus we learn that in America there +are four and a half times as many crimes to every million population +today as there were twenty years ago. + +The most horrible aspect is that our national crime is murder, not +robbery, embezzlement, or rape, as in the South. London is five +times as large as Chicago, yet there are one hundred and eighteen +murders annually in the latter city, while only twenty in London. +Nor is Chicago the leading city in crime, since it is only seventh on +the list, which is headed by four Southern cities, and San Francisco +and Los Angeles. In view of such a terrible condition of affairs, it +seems ridiculous to prate of the protection society derives from its +prisons. + +The average mind is slow in grasping a truth, but when the most +thoroughly organized, centralized institution, maintained at an +excessive national expense, has proven a complete social failure, the +dullest must begin to question its right to exist. The time is past +when we can be content with our social fabric merely because it is +"ordained by divine right," or by the majesty of the law. + +The widespread prison investigations, agitation, and education during +the last few years are conclusive proof that men are learning to dig +deep into the very bottom of society, down to the causes of the +terrible discrepancy between social and individual life. + +Why, then, are prisons a social crime and a failure? To answer this +vital question it behooves us to seek the nature and cause of crimes, +the methods employed in coping with them, and the effects these +methods produce in ridding society of the curse and horror of crimes. + +First, as to the NATURE of crime: + +Havelock Ellis divides crime into four phases, the political, the +passional, the insane, and the occasional. He says that the +political criminal is the victim of an attempt of a more or less +despotic government to preserve its own stability. He is not +necessarily guilty of an unsocial offense; he simply tries to +overturn a certain political order which may itself be anti-social. +This truth is recognized all over the world, except in America where +the foolish notion still prevails that in a Democracy there is no +place for political criminals. Yet John Brown was a political +criminal; so were the Chicago Anarchists; so is every striker. +Consequently, says Havelock Ellis, the political criminal of our time +or place may be the hero, martyr, saint of another age. Lombroso +calls the political criminal the true precursor of the progressive +movement of humanity. + +"The criminal by passion is usually a man of wholesome birth and +honest life, who under the stress of some great, unmerited wrong has +wrought justice for himself."* + +---------- +* THE CRIMINAL, Havelock Ellis. +---------- + +Mr. Hugh C. Weir, in THE MENACE OF THE POLICE, cites the case of Jim +Flaherty, a criminal by passion, who, instead of being saved by +society, is turned into a drunkard and a recidivist, with a ruined +and poverty-stricken family as the result. + +A more pathetic type is Archie, the victim in Brand Whitlock's novel, +THE TURN OF THE BALANCE, the greatest American expose of crime in the +making. Archie, even more than Flaherty, was driven to crime and +death by the cruel inhumanity of his surroundings, and by the +unscrupulous hounding of the machinery of the law. Archie and +Flaherty are but the types of many thousands, demonstrating how the +legal aspects of crime, and the methods of dealing with it, help to +create the disease which is undermining our entire social life. + +"The insane criminal really can no more be considered a criminal than +a child, since he is mentally in the same condition as an infant or +an animal."* + +---------- +* THE CRIMINAL. +---------- + +The law already recognizes that, but only in rare cases of a very +flagrant nature, or when the culprit's wealth permits the luxury of +criminal insanity. It has become quite fashionable to be the victim +of paranoia. But on the whole the "sovereignty of justice" still +continues to punish criminally insane with the whole severity of its +power. Thus Mr. Ellis quotes from Dr. Richter's statistics showing +that in Germany, one hundred and six madmen, out of one hundred and +forty-four criminal insane, were condemned to severe punishment. + +The occasional criminal "represents by far the largest class of our +prison population, hence is the greatest menace to social +well-being." What is the cause that compels a vast army of the human +family to take to crime, to prefer the hideous life within prison +walls to the life outside? Certainly that cause must be an iron +master, who leaves its victims no avenue of escape, for the most +depraved human being loves liberty. + +This terrific force is conditioned in our cruel social and economic +arrangement. I do not mean to deny the biologic, physiologic, or +psychologic factors in creating crime; but there is hardly an +advanced criminologist who will not concede that the social and +economic influences are the most relentless, the most poisonous germs +of crime. Granted even that there are innate criminal tendencies, it +is none the less true that these tendencies find rich nutrition in +our social environment. + +There is close relation, says Havelock Ellis, between crimes against +the person and the price of alcohol, between crimes against property +and the price of wheat. He quotes Quetelet and Lacassagne, the +former looking upon society as the preparer of crime, and the +criminals as instruments that execute them. The latter find that +"the social environment is the cultivation medium of criminality; +that the criminal is the microbe, an element which only becomes +important when it finds the medium which causes it to ferment; EVERY +SOCIETY HAS THE CRIMINALS IT DESERVES."* + +---------- +* THE CRIMINAL. +---------- + +The most "prosperous" industrial period makes it impossible for the +worker to earn enough to keep up health and vigor. And as prosperity +is, at best, an imaginary condition, thousands of people are +constantly added to the host of the unemployed. From East to West, +from South to North, this vast army tramps in search of work or food, +and all they find is the workhouse or the slums. Those who have a +spark of self-respect left, prefer open defiance, prefer crime to the +emaciated, degraded position of poverty. + +Edward Carpenter estimates that five-sixths of indictable crimes +consist in some violation of property rights; but that is too low a +figure. A thorough investigation would prove that nine crimes out of +ten could be traced, directly or indirectly, to our economic and +social iniquities, to our system of remorseless exploitation and +robbery. There is no criminal so stupid but recognizes this terrible +fact, though he may not be able to account for it. + +A collection of criminal philosophy, which Havelock Ellis, Lombroso, +and other eminent men have compiled, shows that the criminal feels +only too keenly that it is society that drives him to crime. A +Milanese thief said to Lombroso: "I do not rob, I merely take from +the rich their superfluities; besides, do not advocates and merchants +rob?" A murderer wrote: "Knowing that three-fourths of the social +virtues are cowardly vices, I thought an open assault on a rich man +would be less ignoble than the cautious combination of fraud." +Another wrote: "I am imprisoned for stealing a half dozen eggs. +Ministers who rob millions are honored. Poor Italy!" An educated +convict said to Mr. Davitt: "The laws of society are framed for the +purpose of securing the wealth of the world to power and calculation, +thereby depriving the larger portion of mankind of its rights and +chances. Why should they punish me for taking by somewhat similar +means from those who have taken more than they had a right to?" The +same man added: "Religion robs the soul of its independence; +patriotism is the stupid worship of the world for which the +well-being and the peace of the inhabitants were sacrificed by those +who profit by it, while the laws of the land, in restraining natural +desires, were waging war on the manifest spirit of the law of our +beings. Compared with this," he concluded, "thieving is an honorable +pursuit."* + +---------- +* THE CRIMINAL. +---------- + +Verily, there is greater truth in this philosophy than in all the +law-and-moral books of society. + + +The economic, political, moral, and physical factors being the +microbes of crime, how does society meet the situation? + +The methods of coping with crime have no doubt undergone several +changes, but mainly in a theoretic sense. In practice, society has +retained the primitive motive in dealing with the offender; that is, +revenge. It has also adopted the theologic idea; namely, punishment; +while the legal and "civilized" methods consist of deterrence or +terror, and reform. We shall presently see that all four modes have +failed utterly, and that we are today no nearer a solution than in +the dark ages. + +The natural impulse of the primitive man to strike back, to avenge a +wrong, is out of date. Instead, the civilized man, stripped of +courage and daring, has delegated to an organized machinery the duty +of avenging his wrongs, in the foolish belief that the State is +justified in doing what he no longer has the manhood or consistency +to do. The majesty-of-the-law is a reasoning thing; it would not +stoop to primitive instincts. Its mission is of a "higher" nature. +True, it is still steeped in the theologic muddle, which proclaims +punishment as a means of purification, or the vicarious atonement of +sin. But legally and socially the statute exercises punishment, not +merely as an infliction of pain upon the offender, but also for its +terrifying effect upon others. + +What is the real basis of punishment, however? The notion of a free +will, the idea that man is at all times a free agent for good or +evil; if he chooses the latter, he must be made to pay the price. +Although this theory has long been exploded, and thrown upon the +dustheap, it continues to be applied daily by the entire machinery of +government, turning it into the most cruel and brutal tormentor of +human life. The only reason for its continuance is the still more +cruel notion that the greater the terror punishment spreads, the more +certain its preventative effect. + +Society is using the most drastic methods in dealing with the social +offender. Why do they not deter? Although in America a man is +supposed to be considered innocent until proven guilty, the +instruments of law, the police, carry on a reign of terror, making +indiscriminate arrests, beating, clubbing, bullying people, using the +barbarous method of the "third degree," subjecting their unfortunate +victims to the foul air of the station house, and the still fouler +language of its guardians. Yet crimes are rapidly multiplying, and +society is paying the price. On the other hand, it is an open secret +that when the unfortunate citizen has been given the full "mercy" of +the law, and for the sake of safety is hidden in the worst of hells, +his real Calvary begins. Robbed of his rights as a human being, +degraded to a mere automaton without will or feeling, dependent +entirely upon the mercy of brutal keepers, he daily goes through a +process of dehumanization, compared with which savage revenge was +mere child's play. + +There is not a single penal institution or reformatory in the United +States where men are not tortured "to be made good," by means of the +blackjack, the club, the straightjacket, the water-cure, the "humming +bird" (an electrical contrivance run along the human body), the +solitary, the bullring, and starvation diet. In these institutions +his will is broken, his soul degraded, his spirit subdued by the +deadly monotony and routine of prison life. In Ohio, Illinois, +Pennsylvania, Missouri, and in the South, these horrors have become +so flagrant as to reach the outside world, while in most other +prisons the same Christian methods still prevail. But prison walls +rarely allow the agonized shrieks of the victims to escape--prison +walls are thick, they dull the sound. Society might with greater +immunity abolish all prisons at once, than to hope for protection +from these twentieth century chambers of horrors. + +Year after year the gates of prison hells return to the world an +emaciated, deformed, willless, ship-wrecked crew of humanity, with +the Cain mark on their foreheads, their hopes crushed, all their +natural inclinations thwarted. With nothing but hunger and +inhumanity to greet them, these victims soon sink back into crime as +the only possibility of existence. It is not at all an unusual thing +to find men and women who have spent half their lives--nay, almost +their entire existence--in prison. I know a woman on Blackwell's +Island, who had been in and out thirty-eight times; and through a +friend I learn that a young boy of seventeen, whom he had nursed and +cared for in the Pittsburg penitentiary, had never known the meaning +of liberty. From the reformatory to the penitentiary had been the +path of this boy's life, until, broken in body, he died a victim of +social revenge. These personal experiences are substantiated by +extensive data giving overwhelming proof of the utter futility of +prisons as a means of deterrence or reform. + +Well-meaning persons are now working for a new departure in the +prison question,--reclamation, to restore once more to the prisoner +the possibility of becoming a human being. Commendable as this is, I +fear it is impossible to hope for good results from pouring good wine +into a musty bottle. Nothing short of a complete reconstruction of +society will deliver mankind from the cancer of crime. Still, if the +dull edge of our social conscience would be sharpened, the penal +institutions might be given a new coat of varnish. But the first +step to be taken is the renovation of the social consciousness, which +is in a rather dilapidated condition. It is sadly in need to be +awakened to the fact that crime is a question of degree, that we all +have the rudiments of crime in us, more or less, according to our +mental, physical, and social environment; and that the individual +criminal is merely a reflex of the tendencies of the aggregate. + + +With the social consciousness awakened, the average individual may +learn to refuse the "honor" of being the bloodhound of the law. He +may cease to persecute, despise, and mistrust the social offender, +and give him a chance to live and breathe among his fellows. +Institutions are, of course, harder to reach. They are cold, +impenetrable, and cruel; still, with the social consciousness +quickened, it might be possible to free the prison victims from the +brutality of prison officials, guards, and keepers. Public opinion +is a powerful weapon; keepers of human prey, even, are afraid of it. +They may be taught a little humanity, especially if they realize that +their jobs depend upon it. + + +But the most important step is to demand for the prisoner the right +to work while in prison, with some monetary recompense that would +enable him to lay aside a little for the day of his release, the +beginning of a new life. + +It is almost ridiculous to hope much from present society when we +consider that workingmen, wage slaves themselves, object to convict +labor. I shall not go into the cruelty of this objection, but merely +consider the impracticability of it. To begin with, the opposition +so far raised by organized labor has been directed against windmills. +Prisoners have always worked; only the State has been their +exploiter, even as the individual employer has been the robber of +organized labor. The States have either set the convicts to work for +the government, or they have farmed convict labor to private +individuals. Twenty-nine of the States pursue the latter plan. The +Federal government and seventeen States have discarded it, as have +the leading nations of Europe, since it leads to hideous overworking +and abuse of prisoners, and to endless graft. + +Rhode Island, the State dominated by Aldrich, offers perhaps the +worst example. Under a five-year contract, dated July 7th, 1906, and +renewable for five years more at the option of private contractors, +the labor of the inmates of the Rhode Island Penitentiary and the +Providence County Jail is sold to the Reliance-Sterling Mfg. Co. at +the rate of a trifle less than 25 cents a day per man. This Company +is really a gigantic Prison Labor Trust, for it also leases the +convict labor of Connecticut, Michigan, Indiana, Nebraska, and South +Dakota penitentiaries, and the reformatories of New Jersey, Indiana, +Illinois, and Wisconsin, eleven establishments in all. + +The enormity of the graft under the Rhode Island contract may be +estimated from the fact that this same Company pays 62 1/2 cents a +day in Nebraska for the convict's labor, and that Tennessee, for +example, gets $1.10 a day for a convict's work from the Gray-Dudley +Hardware Co.; Missouri gets 70 cents a day from the Star Overall Mfg. +Co.; West Virginia 65 cents a day from the Kraft Mfg. Co., and +Maryland 55 cents a day from Oppenheim, Oberndorf & Co., shirt +manufacturers. The very difference in prices points to enormous +graft. For example, the Reliance-Sterling Mfg. Co. manufactures +shirts, the cost of free labor being not less than $1.20 per dozen, +while it pays Rhode Island thirty cents a dozen. Furthermore, the +State charges this Trust no rent for the use of its huge factory, +charges nothing for power, heat, light, or even drainage, and exacts +no taxes. What graft! + +It is estimated that more than twelve million dollars' worth of +workingmen's shirts and overalls is produced annually in this country +by prison labor. It is a woman's industry, and the first reflection +that arises is that an immense amount of free female labor is thus +displaced. The second consideration is that male convicts, who +should be learning trades that would give them some chance of being +self-supporting after their release, are kept at this work at which +they can not possibly make a dollar. This is the more serious when +we consider that much of this labor is done in reformatories, which +so loudly profess to be training their inmates to become useful +citizens. + +The third, and most important, consideration is that the enormous +profits thus wrung from convict labor are a constant incentive to the +contractors to exact from their unhappy victims tasks altogether +beyond their strength, and to punish them cruelly when their work +does not come up to the excessive demands made. + +Another word on the condemnation of convicts to tasks at which they +cannot hope to make a living after release. Indiana, for example, is +a State that has made a great splurge over being in the front rank of +modern penological improvements. Yet, according to the report +rendered in 1908 by the training school of its "reformatory," 135 +were engaged in the manufacture of chains, 207 in that of shirts, and +255 in the foundry--a total of 597 in three occupations. But at this +so-called reformatory 59 occupations were represented by the inmates, +39 of which were connected with country pursuits. Indiana, like +other States, professes to be training the inmates of her reformatory +to occupations by which they will be able to make their living when +released. She actually sets them to work making chains, shirts, and +brooms, the latter for the benefit of the Louisville Fancy Grocery +Co. Broom making is a trade largely monopolized by the blind, shirt +making is done by women, and there is only one free chain factory in +the State, and at that a released convict can not hope to get +employment. The whole thing is a cruel farce. + +If, then, the States can be instrumental in robbing their helpless +victims of such tremendous profits, is it not high time for organized +labor to stop its idle howl, and to insist on decent remuneration for +the convict, even as labor organizations claim for themselves? In +that way workingmen would kill the germ which makes of the prisoner +an enemy to the interests of labor. I have said elsewhere that +thousands of convicts, incompetent and without a trade, without means +of subsistence, are yearly turned back into the social fold. These +men and women must live, for even an ex-convict has needs. Prison +life has made them anti-social beings, and the rigidly closed doors +that meet them on their release are not likely to decrease their +bitterness. The inevitable result is that they form a favorable +nucleus out of which scabs, blacklegs, detectives, and policemen are +drawn, only too willing to do the master's bidding. Thus organized +labor, by its foolish opposition to work in prison, defeats its own +ends. It helps to create poisonous fumes that stifle every attempt +for economic betterment. If the workingman wants to avoid these +effects, he should INSIST on the right of the convict to work, he +should meet him as a brother, take him into his organization, and +WITH HIS AID TURN AGAINST THE SYSTEM WHICH GRINDS THEM BOTH. + + +Last, but not least, is the growing realization of the barbarity and +the inadequacy of the definite sentence. Those who believe in, and +earnestly aim at, a change are fast coming to the conclusion that man +must be given an opportunity to make good. And how is he to do it +with ten, fifteen, or twenty years' imprisonment before him? The +hope of liberty and of opportunity is the only incentive to life, +especially the prisoner's life. Society has sinned so long against +him--it ought at least to leave him that. I am not very sanguine +that it will, or that any real change in that direction can take +place until the conditions that breed both the prisoner and the +jailer will be forever abolished. + + Out of his mouth a red, red rose! + Out of his heart a white! + For who can say by what strange way + Christ brings his will to light, + Since the barren staff the pilgrim bore + Bloomed in the great Pope's sight. + + + + +PATRIOTISM: A MENACE TO LIBERTY + + + +What is patriotism? Is it love of one's birthplace, the place of +childhood's recollections and hopes, dreams and aspirations? Is it +the place where, in childlike naivety, we would watch the fleeting +clouds, and wonder why we, too, could not run so swiftly? The place +where we would count the milliard glittering stars, terror-stricken +lest each one "an eye should be," piercing the very depths of our +little souls? Is it the place where we would listen to the music of +the birds, and long to have wings to fly, even as they, to distant +lands? Or the place where we would sit at mother's knee, enraptured +by wonderful tales of great deeds and conquests? In short, is it +love for the spot, every inch representing dear and precious +recollections of a happy, joyous, and playful childhood? + +If that were patriotism, few American men of today could be called +upon to be patriotic, since the place of play has been turned into +factory, mill, and mine, while deafening sounds of machinery have +replaced the music of the birds. Nor can we longer hear the tales of +great deeds, for the stories our mothers tell today are but those of +sorrow, tears, and grief. + +What, then, is patriotism? "Patriotism, sir, is the last resort of +scoundrels," said Dr. Johnson. Leo Tolstoy, the greatest +anti-patriot of our times, defines patriotism as the principle that +will justify the training of wholesale murderers; a trade that +requires better equipment for the exercise of man-killing than the +making of such necessities of life as shoes, clothing, and houses; a +trade that guarantees better returns and greater glory than that of +the average workingman. + +Gustave Herve, another great anti-patriot, justly calls patriotism a +superstition--one far more injurious, brutal, and inhumane than +religion. The superstition of religion originated in man's inability +to explain natural phenomena. That is, when primitive man heard +thunder or saw the lightning, he could not account for either, and +therefore concluded that back of them must be a force greater than +himself. Similarly he saw a supernatural force in the rain, and in +the various other changes in nature. Patriotism, on the other hand, +is a superstition artificially created and maintained through a +network of lies and falsehoods; a superstition that robs man of his +self-respect and dignity, and increases his arrogance and conceit. + +Indeed, conceit, arrogance, and egotism are the essentials of +patriotism. Let me illustrate. Patriotism assumes that our globe is +divided into little spots, each one surrounded by an iron gate. +Those who have had the fortune of being born on some particular spot, +consider themselves better, nobler, grander, more intelligent than +the living beings inhabiting any other spot. It is, therefore, the +duty of everyone living on that chosen spot to fight, kill, and die +in the attempt to impose his superiority upon all the others. + +The inhabitants of the other spots reason in like manner, of course, +with the result that, from early infancy, the mind of the child is +poisoned with blood-curdling stories about the Germans, the French, +the Italians, Russians, etc. When the child has reached manhood, he +is thoroughly saturated with the belief that he is chosen by the Lord +himself to defend HIS country against the attack or invasion of any +foreigner. It is for that purpose that we are clamoring for a +greater army and navy, more battleships and ammunition. It is for +that purpose that America has within a short time spent four hundred +million dollars. Just think of it--four hundred million dollars +taken from the produce of the PEOPLE. For surely it is not the rich +who contribute to patriotism. They are cosmopolitans, perfectly at +home in every land. We in America know well the truth of this. Are +not our rich Americans Frenchmen in France, Germans in Germany, or +Englishmen in England? And do they not squander with cosmopolitan +grace fortunes coined by American factory children and cotton slaves? +Yes, theirs is the patriotism that will make it possible to send +messages of condolence to a despot like the Russian Tsar, when any +mishap befalls him, as President Roosevelt did in the name of HIS +people, when Sergius was punished by the Russian revolutionists. + +It is a patriotism that will assist the arch-murderer, Diaz, in +destroying thousands of lives in Mexico, or that will even aid in +arresting Mexican revolutionists on American soil and keep them +incarcerated in American prisons, without the slightest cause or +reason. + +But, then, patriotism is not for those who represent wealth and +power. It is good enough for the people. It reminds one of the +historic wisdom of Frederic the Great, the bosom friend of Voltaire, +who said: "Religion is a fraud, but it must be maintained for the +masses." + +That patriotism is rather a costly institution, no one will doubt +after considering the following statistics. The progressive increase +of the expenditures for the leading armies and navies of the world +during the last quarter of a century is a fact of such gravity as to +startle every thoughtful student of economic problems. It may be +briefly indicated by dividing the time from 1881 to 1905 into +five-year periods, and noting the disbursements of several great +nations for army and navy purposes during the first and last of those +periods. From the first to the last of the periods noted the +expenditures of Great Britain increased from $2,101,848,936 to +$4,143,226,885, those of France from $3,324,500,000 to +$3,455,109,900, those of Germany from $725,000,200 to $2,700,375,600, +those of the United States from $1,275,500,750 to $2,650,900,450, +those of Russia from $1,900,975,500 to $5,250,445,100, those of Italy +from $1,600,975,750 to $1,755,500,100, and those of Japan from +$182,900,500 to $700,925,475. + +The military expenditures of each of the nations mentioned increased +in each of the five-year periods under review. During the entire +interval from 1881 to 1905 Great Britain's outlay for her army +increased fourfold, that of the United States was tripled, Russia's +was doubled, that of Germany increased 35 per cent., that of France +about 15 per cent., and that of Japan nearly 500 per cent. If we +compare the expenditures of these nations upon their armies with +their total expenditures for all the twenty-five years ending with +1905, the proportion rose as follows: + +In Great Britain from 20 per cent. to 37; in the United States from +15 to 23; in France from 16 to 18; in Italy from 12 to 15; in Japan +from 12 to 14. On the other hand, it is interesting to note that the +proportion in Germany decreased from about 58 per cent. to 25, the +decrease being due to the enormous increase in the imperial +expenditures for other purposes, the fact being that the army +expenditures for the period of 1901-5 were higher than for any +five-year period preceding. Statistics show that the countries in +which army expenditures are greatest, in proportion to the total +national revenues, are Great Britain, the United States, Japan, +France, and Italy, in the order named. + +The showing as to the cost of great navies is equally impressive. +During the twenty-five years ending with 1905 naval expenditures +increased approximately as follows: Great Britain, 300 per cent.; +France 60 per cent.; Germany 600 per cent.; the United States 525 per +cent.; Russia 300 per cent.; Italy 250 per cent.; and Japan, 700 per +cent. With the exception of Great Britain, the United States spends +more for naval purposes than any other nation, and this expenditure +bears also a larger proportion to the entire national disbursements +than that of any other power. In the period 1881-5, the expenditure +for the United States navy was $6.20 out of each $100 appropriated +for all national purposes; the amount rose to $6.60 for the next +five-year period, to $8.10 for the next, to $11.70 for the next, and +to $16.40 for 1901-5. It is morally certain that the outlay for the +current period of five years will show a still further increase. + +The rising cost of militarism may be still further illustrated by +computing it as a per capita tax on population. From the first to +the last of the five-year periods taken as the basis for the +comparisons here given, it has risen as follows: In Great Britain, +from $18.47 to $52.50; in France, from $19.66 to $23.62; in Germany, +from $10.17 to $15.51; in the United States, from $5.62 to $13.64; in +Russia, from $6.14 to $8.37; in Italy, from $9.59 to $11.24, and in +Japan from 86 cents to $3.11. + +It is in connection with this rough estimate of cost per capita that +the economic burden of militarism is most appreciable. The +irresistible conclusion from available data is that the increase of +expenditure for army and navy purposes is rapidly surpassing the +growth of population in each of the countries considered in the +present calculation. In other words, a continuation of the increased +demands of militarism threatens each of those nations with a +progressive exhaustion both of men and resources. + +The awful waste that patriotism necessitates ought to be sufficient +to cure the man of even average intelligence from this disease. Yet +patriotism demands still more. The people are urged to be patriotic +and for that luxury they pay, not only by supporting their +"defenders," but even by sacrificing their own children. Patriotism +requires allegiance to the flag, which means obedience and readiness +to kill father, mother, brother, sister. + +The usual contention is that we need a standing army to protect the +country from foreign invasion. Every intelligent man and woman +knows, however, that this is a myth maintained to frighten and coerce +the foolish. The governments of the world, knowing each other's +interests, do not invade each other. They have learned that they can +gain much more by international arbitration of disputes than by war +and conquest. Indeed, as Carlyle said, "War is a quarrel between two +thieves too cowardly to fight their own battle; therefore they take +boys from one village and another village; stick them into uniforms, +equip them with guns, and let them loose like wild beasts against +each other." + +It does not require much wisdom to trace every war back to a similar +cause. Let us take our own Spanish-American war, supposedly a great +and patriotic event in the history of the United States. How our +hearts burned with indignation against the atrocious Spaniards! +True, our indignation did not flare up spontaneously. It was +nurtured by months of newspaper agitation, and long after Butcher +Weyler had killed off many noble Cubans and outraged many Cuban +women. Still, in justice to the American Nation be it said, it did +grow indignant and was willing to fight, and that it fought bravely. +But when the smoke was over, the dead buried, and the cost of the war +came back to the people in an increase in the price of commodities +and rent--that is, when we sobered up from our patriotic spree--it +suddenly dawned on us that the cause of the Spanish-American war was +the consideration of the price of sugar; or, to be more explicit, +that the lives, blood, and money of the American people were used to +protect the interests of American capitalists, which were threatened +by the Spanish government. That this is not an exaggeration, but is +based on absolute facts and figures, is best proven by the attitude +of the American government to Cuban labor. When Cuba was firmly in +the clutches of the United States, the very soldiers sent to liberate +Cuba were ordered to shoot Cuban workingmen during the great +cigarmakers' strike, which took place shortly after the war. + +Nor do we stand alone in waging war for such causes. The curtain is +beginning to be lifted on the motives of the terrible Russo-Japanese +war, which cost so much blood and tears. And we see again that back +of the fierce Moloch of war stands the still fiercer god of +Commercialism. Kuropatkin, the Russian Minister of War during the +Russo-Japanese struggle, has revealed the true secret behind the +latter. The Tsar and his Grand Dukes, having invested money in +Corean concessions, the war was forced for the sole purpose of +speedily accumulating large fortunes. + +The contention that a standing army and navy is the best security of +peace is about as logical as the claim that the most peaceful citizen +is he who goes about heavily armed. The experience of every-day life +fully proves that the armed individual is invariably anxious to try +his strength. The same is historically true of governments. Really +peaceful countries do not waste life and energy in war preparations, +with the result that peace is maintained. + +However, the clamor for an increased army and navy is not due to any +foreign danger. It is owing to the dread of the growing discontent +of the masses and of the international spirit among the workers. It +is to meet the internal enemy that the Powers of various countries +are preparing themselves; an enemy, who, once awakened to +consciousness, will prove more dangerous than any foreign invader. + +The powers that have for centuries been engaged in enslaving the +masses have made a thorough study of their psychology. They know +that the people at large are like children whose despair, sorrow, and +tears can be turned into joy with a little toy. And the more +gorgeously the toy is dressed, the louder the colors, the more it +will appeal to the million-headed child. + +An army and navy represents the people's toys. To make them more +attractive and acceptable, hundreds and thousands of dollars are +being spent for the display of these toys. That was the purpose of +the American government in equipping a fleet and sending it along the +Pacific coast, that every American citizen should be made to feel the +pride and glory of the United States. The city of San Francisco +spent one hundred thousand dollars for the entertainment of the +fleet; Los Angeles, sixty thousand; Seattle and Tacoma, about one +hundred thousand. To entertain the fleet, did I say? To dine and +wine a few superior officers, while the "brave boys" had to mutiny to +get sufficient food. Yes, two hundred and sixty thousand dollars +were spent on fireworks, theatre parties, and revelries, at a time +when men, women, and children through the breadth and length of the +country were starving in the streets; when thousands of unemployed +were ready to sell their labor at any price. + +Two hundred and sixty thousand dollars! What could not have been +accomplished with such an enormous sum? But instead of bread and +shelter, the children of those cities were taken to see the fleet, +that it may remain, as one of the newspapers said, "a lasting memory +for the child." + +A wonderful thing to remember, is it not? The implements of +civilized slaughter. If the mind of the child is to be poisoned with +such memories, what hope is there for a true realization of human +brotherhood? + +We Americans claim to be a peace-loving people. We hate bloodshed; +we are opposed to violence. Yet we go into spasms of joy over the +possibility of projecting dynamite bombs from flying machines upon +helpless citizens. We are ready to hang, electrocute, or lynch +anyone, who, from economic necessity, will risk his own life in the +attempt upon that of some industrial magnate. Yet our hearts swell +with pride at the thought that America is becoming the most powerful +nation on earth, and that it will eventually plant her iron foot on +the necks of all other nations. + +Such is the logic of patriotism. + +Considering the evil results that patriotism is fraught with for the +average man, it is as nothing compared with the insult and injury +that patriotism heaps upon the soldier himself,--that poor, deluded +victim of superstition and ignorance. He, the savior of his country, +the protector of his nation,--what has patriotism in store for him? +A life of slavish submission, vice, and perversion, during peace; a +life of danger, exposure, and death, during war. + +While on a recent lecture tour in San Francisco, I visited the +Presidio, the most beautiful spot overlooking the Bay and Golden Gate +Park. Its purpose should have been playgrounds for children, gardens +and music for the recreation of the weary. Instead it is made ugly, +dull, and gray by barracks,--barracks wherein the rich would not +allow their dogs to dwell. In these miserable shanties soldiers are +herded like cattle; here they waste their young days, polishing the +boots and brass buttons of their superior officers. Here, too, I saw +the distinction of classes: sturdy sons of a free Republic, drawn up +in line like convicts, saluting every passing shrimp of a lieutenant. +American equality, degrading manhood and elevating the uniform! + +Barrack life further tends to develop tendencies of sexual +perversion. It is gradually producing along this line results +similar to European military conditions. Havelock Ellis, the noted +writer on sex psychology, has made a thorough study of the subject. +I quote: "Some of the barracks are great centers of male +prostitution. . . . The number of soldiers who prostitute themselves +is greater than we are willing to believe. It is no exaggeration to +say that in certain regiments the presumption is in favor of the +venality of the majority of the men. . . . On summer evenings Hyde +Park and the neighborhood of Albert Gate are full of guardsmen and +others plying a lively trade, and with little disguise, in uniform or +out. . . . In most cases the proceeds form a comfortable addition to +Tommy Atkins' pocket money." + +To what extent this perversion has eaten its way into the army and +navy can best be judged from the fact that special houses exist for +this form of prostitution. The practice is not limited to England; +it is universal. "Soldiers are no less sought after in France than +in England or in Germany, and special houses for military +prostitution exist both in Paris and the garrison towns." + +Had Mr. Havelock Ellis included America in his investigation of sex +perversion, he would have found that the same conditions prevail in +our army and navy as in those of other countries. The growth of the +standing army inevitably adds to the spread of sex perversion; the +barracks are the incubators. + +Aside from the sexual effects of barrack life, it also tends to unfit +the soldier for useful labor after leaving the army. Men, skilled in +a trade, seldom enter the army or navy, but even they, after a +military experience, find themselves totally unfitted for their +former occupations. Having acquired habits of idleness and a taste +for excitement and adventure, no peaceful pursuit can content them. +Released from the army, they can turn to no useful work. But it is +usually the social riff-raff, discharged prisoners and the like, whom +either the struggle for life or their own inclination drives into the +ranks. These, their military term over, again turn to their former +life of crime, more brutalized and degraded than before. It is a +well-known fact that in our prisons there is a goodly number of +ex-soldiers; while on the other hand, the army and navy are to a +great extent supplied with ex-convicts. + + +Of all the evil results, I have just described, none seems to me so +detrimental to human integrity as the spirit patriotism has produced +in the case of Private William Buwalda. Because he foolishly +believed that one can be a soldier and exercise his rights as a man +at the same time, the military authorities punished him severely. +True, he had served his country fifteen years, during which time his +record was unimpeachable. According to Gen. Funston, who reduced +Buwalda's sentence to three years, "the first duty of an officer or +an enlisted man is unquestioned obedience and loyalty to the +government, and it makes no difference whether he approves of that +government or not." Thus Funston stamps the true character of +allegiance. According to him, entrance into the army abrogates the +principles of the Declaration of Independence. + +What a strange development of patriotism that turns a thinking being +into a loyal machine! + +In justification of this most outrageous sentence of Buwalda, Gen. +Funston tells the American people that the soldier's action was a +"serious crime equal to treason." Now, what did this "terrible +crime" really consist of? Simply in this: William Buwalda was one of +fifteen hundred people who attended a public meeting in San +Francisco; and, oh, horrors, he shook hands with the speaker, Emma +Goldman. A terrible crime, indeed, which the General calls "a great +military offense, infinitely worse than desertion." + +Can there be a greater indictment against patriotism than that it +will thus brand a man a criminal, throw him into prison, and rob him +of the results of fifteen years of faithful service? + +Buwalda gave to his country the best years of his life and his very +manhood. But all that was as nothing. Patriotism is inexorable and, +like all insatiable monsters, demands all or nothing. It does not +admit that a soldier is also a human being, who has a right to his +own feelings and opinions, his own inclinations and ideas. No, +patriotism can not admit of that. That is the lesson which Buwalda +was made to learn; made to learn at a rather costly, though not at a +useless, price. When he returned to freedom, he had lost his +position in the army, but he regained his self-respect. After all, +that is worth three years of imprisonment. + +A writer on the military conditions of America, in a recent article, +commented on the power of the military man over the civilian in +Germany. He said, among other things, that if our Republic had no +other meaning than to guarantee all citizens equal rights, it would +have just cause for existence. I am convinced that the writer was +not in Colorado during the patriotic regime of General Bell. He +probably would have changed his mind had he seen how, in the name of +patriotism and the Republic, men were thrown into bull-pens, dragged +about, driven across the border, and subjected to all kinds of +indignities. Nor is that Colorado incident the only one in the +growth of military power in the United States. There is hardly a +strike where troops and militia do not come to the rescue of those in +power, and where they do not act as arrogantly and brutally as do the +men wearing the Kaiser's uniform. Then, too, we have the Dick +military law. Had the writer forgotten that? + +A great misfortune with most of our writers is that they are +absolutely ignorant on current events, or that, lacking honesty, they +will not speak of these matters. And so it has come to pass that the +Dick military law was rushed through Congress with little discussion +and still less publicity,--a law which gives the President the power +to turn a peaceful citizen into a bloodthirsty man-killer, supposedly +for the defense of the country, in reality for the protection of the +interests of that particular party whose mouthpiece the President +happens to be. + +Our writer claims that militarism can never become such a power in +America as abroad, since it is voluntary with us, while compulsory in +the Old World. Two very important facts, however, the gentleman +forgets to consider. First, that conscription has created in Europe +a deep-seated hatred of militarism among all classes of society. +Thousands of young recruits enlist under protest and, once in the +army, they will use every possible means to desert. Second, that it +is the compulsory feature of militarism which has created a +tremendous anti-militarist movement, feared by European Powers far +more than anything else. After all, the greatest bulwark of +capitalism is militarism. The very moment the latter is undermined, +capitalism will totter. True, we have no conscription; that is, men +are not usually forced to enlist in the army, but we have developed a +far more exacting and rigid force--necessity. Is it not a fact that +during industrial depressions there is a tremendous increase in the +number of enlistments? The trade of militarism may not be either +lucrative or honorable, but it is better than tramping the country in +search of work, standing in the bread line, or sleeping in municipal +lodging houses. After all, it means thirteen dollars per month, +three meals a day, and a place to sleep. Yet even necessity is not +sufficiently strong a factor to bring into the army an element of +character and manhood. No wonder our military authorities complain +of the "poor material" enlisting in the army and navy. This +admission is a very encouraging sign. It proves that there is still +enough of the spirit of independence and love of liberty left in the +average American to risk starvation rather than don the uniform. + +Thinking men and women the world over are beginning to realize that +patriotism is too narrow and limited a conception to meet the +necessities of our time. The centralization of power has brought +into being an international feeling of solidarity among the oppressed +nations of the world; a solidarity which represents a greater harmony +of interests between the workingman of America and his brothers +abroad than between the American miner and his exploiting compatriot; +a solidarity which fears not foreign invasion, because it is bringing +all the workers to the point when they will say to their masters, "Go +and do your own killing. We have done it long enough for you." + +This solidarity is awakening the consciousness of even the soldiers, +they, too, being flesh of the flesh of the great human family. A +solidarity that has proven infallible more than once during past +struggles, and which has been the impetus inducing the Parisian +soldiers, during the Commune of 1871, to refuse to obey when ordered +to shoot their brothers. It has given courage to the men who +mutinied on Russian warships during recent years. It will eventually +bring about the uprising of all the oppressed and downtrodden against +their international exploiters. + +The proletariat of Europe has realized the great force of that +solidarity and has, as a result, inaugurated a war against patriotism +and its bloody spectre, militarism. Thousands of men fill the +prisons of France, Germany, Russia, and the Scandinavian countries, +because they dared to defy the ancient superstition. Nor is the +movement limited to the working class; it has embraced +representatives in all stations of life, its chief exponents being +men and women prominent in art, science, and letters. + +America will have to follow suit. The spirit of militarism has +already permeated all walks of life. Indeed, I am convinced that +militarism is growing a greater danger here than anywhere else, +because of the many bribes capitalism holds out to those whom it +wishes to destroy. + +The beginning has already been made in the schools. Evidently the +government holds to the Jesuitical conception, "Give me the child +mind, and I will mould the man." Children are trained in military +tactics, the glory of military achievements extolled in the +curriculum, and the youthful minds perverted to suit the government. +Further, the youth of the country is appealed to in glaring posters +to join the army and navy. "A fine chance to see the world!" cries +the governmental huckster. Thus innocent boys are morally shanghaied +into patriotism, and the military Moloch strides conquering through +the Nation. + +The American workingman has suffered so much at the hands of the +soldier, State, and Federal, that he is quite justified in his +disgust with, and his opposition to, the uniformed parasite. +However, mere denunciation will not solve this great problem. What +we need is a propaganda of education for the soldier: anti-patriotic +literature that will enlighten him as to the real horrors of his +trade, and that will awaken his consciousness to his true relation to +the man to whose labor he owes his very existence. + +It is precisely this that the authorities fear most. It is already +high treason for a soldier to attend a radical meeting. No doubt +they will also stamp it high treason for a soldier to read a radical +pamphlet. But then, has not authority from time immemorial stamped +every step of progress as treasonable? Those, however, who earnestly +strive for social reconstruction can well afford to face all that; +for it is probably even more important to carry the truth into the +barracks than into the factory. When we have undermined the +patriotic lie, we shall have cleared the path for that great +structure wherein all nationalities shall be united into a universal +brotherhood,--a truly FREE SOCIETY. + + + + +FRANCISCO FERRER AND THE MODERN SCHOOL + + + +Experience has come to be considered the best school of life. The +man or woman who does not learn some vital lesson in that school is +looked upon as a dunce indeed. Yet strange to say, that though +organized institutions continue perpetrating errors, though they +learn nothing from experience, we acquiesce, as a matter of course. + +There lived and worked in Barcelona a man by the name of Francisco +Ferrer. A teacher of children he was, known and loved by his people. +Outside of Spain only the cultured few knew of Francisco Ferrer's +work. To the world at large this teacher was non-existent. + +On the first of September, 1909, the Spanish government--at the +behest of the Catholic Church--arrested Francisco Ferrer. On the +thirteenth of October, after a mock trial, he was placed in the ditch +at Montjuich prison, against the hideous wall of many sighs, and shot +dead. Instantly Ferrer, the obscure teacher, became a universal +figure, blazing forth the indignation and wrath of the whole +civilized world against the wanton murder. + +The killing of Francisco Ferrer was not the first crime committed by +the Spanish government and the Catholic Church. The history of these +institutions is one long stream of fire and blood. Still they have +not learned through experience, nor yet come to realize that every +frail being slain by Church and State grows and grows into a mighty +giant, who will some day free humanity from their perilous hold. + +Francisco Ferrer was born in 1859, of humble parents. They were +Catholics, and therefore hoped to raise their son in the same faith. +They did not know that the boy was to become the harbinger of a great +truth, that his mind would refuse to travel in the old path. At an +early age Ferrer began to question the faith of his fathers. He +demanded to know how it is that the God who spoke to him of goodness +and love would mar the sleep of the innocent child with dread and awe +of tortures, of suffering, of hell. Alert and of a vivid and +investigating mind, it did not take him long to discover the +hideousness of that black monster, the Catholic Church. He would +have none of it. + +Francisco Ferrer was not only a doubter, a searcher for truth; he was +also a rebel. His spirit would rise in just indignation against the +iron regime of his country, and when a band of rebels, led by the +brave patriot, General Villacampa, under the banner of the Republican +ideal, made an onslaught on that regime, none was more ardent a +fighter than young Francisco Ferrer. The Republican ideal,--I hope +no one will confound it with the Republicanism of this country. +Whatever objection I, as an Anarchist, have to the Republicans of +Latin countries, I know they tower high above the corrupt and +reactionary party which, in America, is destroying every vestige of +liberty and justice. One has but to think of the Mazzinis, the +Garibaldis, the scores of others, to realize that their efforts were +directed, not merely towards the overthrow of despotism, but +particularly against the Catholic Church, which from its very +inception has been the enemy of all progress and liberalism. + +In America it is just the reverse. Republicanism stands for vested +rights, for imperialism, for graft, for the annihilation of every +semblance of liberty. Its ideal is the oily, creepy respectability +of a McKinley, and the brutal arrogance of a Roosevelt. + +The Spanish republican rebels were subdued. It takes more than one +brave effort to split the rock of ages, to cut off the head of that +hydra monster, the Catholic Church and the Spanish throne. Arrest, +persecution, and punishment followed the heroic attempt of the little +band. Those who could escape the bloodhounds had to flee for safety +to foreign shores. Francisco Ferrer was among the latter. He went +to France. + +How his soul must have expanded in the new land! France, the cradle +of liberty, of ideas, of action. Paris, the ever young, intense +Paris, with her pulsating life, after the gloom of his own belated +country,--how she must have inspired him. What opportunities, what a +glorious chance for a young idealist. + +Francisco Ferrer lost no time. Like one famished he threw himself +into the various liberal movements, met all kinds of people, learned, +absorbed, and grew. While there, he also saw in operation the Modern +School, which was to play such an important and fatal part in his +life. + +The Modern School in France was founded long before Ferrer's time. +Its originator, though on a small scale, was that sweet spirit, +Louise Michel. Whether consciously or unconsciously, our own great +Louise felt long ago that the future belongs to the young generation; +that unless the young be rescued from that mind and soul destroying +institution, the bourgeois school, social evils will continue to +exist. Perhaps she thought, with Ibsen, that the atmosphere is +saturated with ghosts, that the adult man and woman have so many +superstitions to overcome. No sooner do they outgrow the deathlike +grip of one spook, lo! they find themselves in the thralldom of +ninety-nine other spooks. Thus but a few reach the mountain peak of +complete regeneration. + +The child, however, has no traditions to overcome. Its mind is not +burdened with set ideas, its heart has not grown cold with class and +caste distinctions. The child is to the teacher what clay is to the +sculptor. Whether the world will receive a work of art or a wretched +imitation, depends to a large extent on the creative power of the +teacher. + +Louise Michel was pre-eminently qualified to meet the child's soul +cravings. Was she not herself of a childlike nature, so sweet and +tender, unsophisticated and generous. The soul of Louise burned +always at white heat over every social injustice. She was invariably +in the front ranks whenever the people of Paris rebelled against some +wrong. And as she was made to suffer imprisonment for her great +devotion to the oppressed, the little school on Montmartre was soon +no more. But the seed was planted, and has since borne fruit in many +cities of France. + +The most important venture of a Modern School was that of the great, +young old man, Paul Robin. Together with a few friends he +established a large school at Cempuis, a beautiful place near Paris. +Paul Robin aimed at a higher ideal than merely modern ideas in +education. He wanted to demonstrate by actual facts that the +bourgeois conception of heredity is but a mere pretext to exempt +society from its terrible crimes against the young. The contention +that the child must suffer for the sins of the fathers, that it must +continue in poverty and filth, that it must grow up a drunkard or +criminal, just because its parents left it no other legacy, was too +preposterous to the beautiful spirit of Paul Robin. He believed that +whatever part heredity may play, there are other factors equally +great, if not greater, that may and will eradicate or minimize the +so-called first cause. Proper economic and social environment, the +breath and freedom of nature, healthy exercise, love and sympathy, +and, above all, a deep understanding for the needs of the +child--these would destroy the cruel, unjust, and criminal stigma +imposed on the innocent young. + +Paul Robin did not select his children; he did not go to the +so-called best parents: he took his material wherever he could find +it. From the street, the hovels, the orphan and foundling asylums, +the reformatories, from all those gray and hideous places where a +benevolent society hides its victims in order to pacify its guilty +conscience. He gathered all the dirty, filthy, shivering little +waifs his place would hold, and brought them to Cempuis. There, +surrounded by nature's own glory, free and unrestrained, well fed, +clean kept, deeply loved and understood, the little human plants +began to grow, to blossom, to develop beyond even the expectations of +their friend and teacher, Paul Robin. + +The children grew and developed into self-reliant, liberty loving men +and women. What greater danger to the institutions that make the +poor in order to perpetuate the poor. Cempuis was closed by the +French government on the charge of co-education, which is prohibited +in France. However, Cempuis had been in operation long enough to +prove to all advanced educators its tremendous possibilities, and to +serve as an impetus for modern methods of education, that are slowly +but inevitably undermining the present system. + +Cempuis was followed by a great number of other educational +attempts,--among them, by Madelaine Vernet, a gifted writer and poet, +author of L'AMOUR LIBRE, and Sebastian Faure, with his LA RUCHE,* +which I visited while in Paris, in 1907. + +---------- +* THE BEEHIVE. +---------- + +Several years ago Comrade Faure bought the land on which he built his +LA RUCHE. In a comparatively short time he succeeded in transforming +the former wild, uncultivated country into a blooming spot, having +all the appearance of a well kept farm. A large, square court, +enclosed by three buildings, and a broad path leading to the garden +and orchards, greet the eye of the visitor. The garden, kept as only +a Frenchman knows how, furnishes a large variety of vegetables for LA +RUCHE. + +Sebastian Faure is of the opinion that if the child is subjected to +contradictory influences, its development suffers in consequence. +Only when the material needs, the hygiene of the home, and +intellectual environment are harmonious, can the child grow into a +healthy, free being. + +Referring to his school, Sebastian Faure has this to say: + +"I have taken twenty-four children of both sexes, mostly orphans, or +those whose parents are too poor to pay. They are clothed, housed, +and educated at my expense. Till their twelfth year they will +receive a sound, elementary education. Between the age of twelve and +fifteen--their studies still continuing--they are to be taught some +trade, in keeping with their individual disposition and abilities. +After that they are at liberty to leave LA RUCHE to begin life in the +outside world, with the assurance that they may at any time return to +LA RUCHE, where they will be received with open arms and welcomed as +parents do their beloved children. Then, if they wish to work at our +place, they may do so under the following conditions: One third of +the product to cover his or her expenses of maintenance, another +third to go towards the general fund set aside for accommodating new +children, and the last third to be devoted to the personal use of the +child, as he or she may see fit. + +"The health of the children who are now in my care is perfect. Pure +air, nutritious food, physical exercise in the open, long walks, +observation of hygienic rules, the short and interesting method of +instruction, and, above all, our affectionate understanding and care +of the children, have produced admirable physical and mental results. + +"It would be unjust to claim that our pupils have accomplished +wonders; yet, considering that they belong to the average, having had +no previous opportunities, the results are very gratifying indeed. +The most important thing they have acquired--a rare trait with +ordinary school children--is the love of study, the desire to know, +to be informed. They have learned a new method of work, one that +quickens the memory and stimulates the imagination. We make a +particular effort to awaken the child's interest in his surroundings, +to make him realize the importance of observation, investigation, and +reflection, so that when the children reach maturity, they would not +be deaf and blind to the things about them. Our children never +accept anything in blind faith, without inquiry as to why and +wherefore; nor do they feel satisfied until their questions are +thoroughly answered. Thus their minds are free from doubts and fear +resultant from incomplete or untruthful replies; it is the latter +which warp the growth of the child, and create a lack of confidence +in himself and those about him. + +"It is surprising how frank and kind and affectionate our little ones +are to each other. The harmony between themselves and the adults at +LA RUCHE is highly encouraging. We should feel at fault if the +children were to fear or honor us merely because we are their elders. +We leave nothing undone to gain their confidence and love; that +accomplished, understanding will replace duty; confidence, fear; and +affection, severity. + +"No one has yet fully realized the wealth of sympathy, kindness, and +generosity hidden in the soul of the child. The effort of every true +educator should be to unlock that treasure--to stimulate the child's +impulses, and call forth the best and noblest tendencies. What +greater reward can there be for one whose life-work is to watch over +the growth of the human plant, than to see its nature unfold its +petals, and to observe it develop into a true individuality. My +comrades at LA RUCHE look for no greater reward, and it is due to +them and their efforts, even more than to my own, that our human +garden promises to bear beautiful fruit."* + +---------- +* MOTHER EARTH, 1907. +---------- + +Regarding the subject of history and the prevailing old methods of +instruction, Sebastian Faure said: + +"We explain to our children that true history is yet to be +written,--the story of those who have died, unknown, in the effort to +aid humanity to greater achievement."* + +---------- +* Ibid. +---------- + +Francisco Ferrer could not escape this great wave of Modern School +attempts. He saw its possibilities, not merely in theoretic form, +but in their practical application to every-day needs. He must have +realized that Spain, more than any other country, stands in need of +just such schools, if it is ever to throw off the double yoke of +priest and soldier. + +When we consider that the entire system of education in Spain is in +the hands of the Catholic Church, and when we further remember the +Catholic formula, "To inculcate Catholicism in the mind of the child +until it is nine years of age is to ruin it forever for any other +idea," we will understand the tremendous task of Ferrer in bringing +the new light to his people. Fate soon assisted him in realizing his +great dream. + +Mlle. Meunier, a pupil of Francisco Ferrer, and a lady of wealth, +became interested in the Modern School project. When she died, she +left Ferrer some valuable property and twelve thousand francs yearly +income for the School. + +It is said that mean souls can conceive of naught but mean ideas. +If so, the contemptible methods of the Catholic Church to blackguard +Ferrer's character, in order to justify her own black crime, can +readily be explained. Thus the lie was spread in American Catholic +papers, that Ferrer used his intimacy with Mlle. Meunier to get +possession of her money. + +Personally, I hold that the intimacy, of whatever nature, between a +man and a woman, is their own affair, their sacred own. I would +therefore not lose a word in referring to the matter, if it were not +one of the many dastardly lies circulated about Ferrer. Of course, +those who know the purity of the Catholic clergy will understand the +insinuation. Have the Catholic priests ever looked upon woman as +anything but a sex commodity? The historical data regarding the +discoveries in the cloisters and monasteries will bear me out in +that. How, then, are they to understand the co-operation of a man +and a woman, except on a sex basis? + +As a matter of fact, Mlle. Meunier was considerably Ferrer's senior. +Having spent her childhood and girlhood with a miserly father and a +submissive mother, she could easily appreciate the necessity of love +and joy in child life. She must have seen that Francisco Ferrer was +a teacher, not college, machine, or diploma-made, but one endowed +with genius for that calling. + +Equipped with knowledge, with experience, and with the necessary +means; above all, imbued with the divine fire of his mission, our +Comrade came back to Spain, and there began his life's work. On the +ninth of September, 1901, the first Modern School was opened. It was +enthusiastically received by the people of Barcelona, who pledged +their support. In a short address at the opening of the School, +Ferrer submitted his program to his friends. He said: "I am not a +speaker, not a propagandist, not a fighter. I am a teacher; I love +children above everything. I think I understand them. I want my +contribution to the cause of liberty to be a young generation ready +to meet a new era." + +He was cautioned by his friends to be careful in his opposition to +the Catholic Church. They knew to what lengths she would go to +dispose of an enemy. Ferrer, too, knew. But, like Brand, he +believed in all or nothing. He would not erect the Modern School on +the same old lie. He would be frank and honest and open with the +children. + +Francisco Ferrer became a marked man. From the very first day of the +opening of the School, he was shadowed. The school building was +watched, his little home in Mangat was watched. He was followed +every step, even when he went to France or England to confer with his +colleagues. He was a marked man, and it was only a question of time +when the lurking enemy would tighten the noose. + +It succeeded, almost, in 1906, when Ferrer was implicated in the +attempt on the life of Alfonso. The evidence exonerating him was too +strong even for the black crows;* they had to let him go--not for +good, however. They waited. Oh, they can wait, when they have set +themselves to trap a victim. + +---------- +* Black crows: The Catholic clergy. +---------- + +The moment came at last, during the anti-military uprising in Spain, +in July, 1909. One will have to search in vain the annals of +revolutionary history to find a more remarkable protest against +militarism. Having been soldier-ridden for centuries, the people of +Spain could stand the yoke no longer. They would refuse to +participate in useless slaughter. They saw no reason for aiding a +despotic government in subduing and oppressing a small people +fighting for their independence, as did the brave Riffs. No, they +would not bear arms against them. + +For eighteen hundred years the Catholic Church has preached the +gospel of peace. Yet, when the people actually wanted to make this +gospel a living reality, she urged the authorities to force them to +bear arms. Thus the dynasty of Spain followed the murderous methods +of the Russian dynasty,--the people were forced to the battlefield. + +Then, and not until then, was their power of endurance at an end. +Then, and not until then, did the workers of Spain turn against their +masters, against those who, like leeches, had drained their strength, +their very life-blood. Yes, they attacked the churches and the +priests, but if the latter had a thousand lives, they could not +possibly pay for the terrible outrages and crimes perpetrated upon +the Spanish people. + +Francisco Ferrer was arrested on the first of September, 1909. +Until October first, his friends and comrades did not even know what +had become of him. On that day a letter was received by L'HUMANITE, +from which can be learned the whole mockery of the trial. And the +next day his companion, Soledad Villafranca, received the following +letter: + +"No reason to worry; you know I am absolutely innocent. Today I am +particularly hopeful and joyous. It is the first time I can write to +you, and the first time since my arrest that I can bathe in the rays +of the sun, streaming generously through my cell window. You, too, +must be joyous." + +How pathetic that Ferrer should have believed, as late as October +fourth, that he would not be condemned to death. Even more pathetic +that his friends and comrades should once more have made the blunder +in crediting the enemy with a sense of justice. Time and again they +had placed faith in the judicial powers, only to see their brothers +killed before their very eyes. They made no preparation to rescue +Ferrer, not even a protest of any extent; nothing. "Why, it is +impossible to condemn Ferrer; he is innocent." But everything is +possible with the Catholic Church. Is she not a practiced henchman, +whose trials of her enemies are the worst mockery of justice? + +On October fourth Ferrer sent the following letter to L'HUMANITE: + + + The Prison Cell, Oct. 4, 1909. + + My dear Friends--Notwithstanding most absolute innocence, the + prosecutor demands the death penalty, based on denunciations of + the police, representing me as the chief of the world's + Anarchists, directing the labor syndicates of France, and guilty + of conspiracies and insurrections everywhere, and declaring that + my voyages to London and Paris were undertaken with no other + object. + + With such infamous lies they are trying to kill me. + + The messenger is about to depart and I have not time for more. + All the evidence presented to the investigating judge by the + police is nothing but a tissue of lies and calumnious + insinuations. But no proofs against me, having done nothing at + all. + + FERRER. + + +October thirteenth, 1909, Ferrer's heart, so brave, so staunch, so +loyal, was stilled. Poor fools! The last agonized throb of that +heart had barely died away when it began to beat a hundredfold in the +hearts of the civilized world, until it grew into terrific thunder, +hurling forth its malediction upon the instigators of the black +crime. Murderers of black garb and pious mien, to the bar of +justice! + +Did Francisco Ferrer participate in the anti-military uprising? +According to the first indictment, which appeared in a Catholic paper +in Madrid, signed by the Bishop and all the prelates of Barcelona, he +was not even accused of participation. The indictment was to the +effect that Francisco Ferrer was guilty of having organized godless +schools, and having circulated godless literature. But in the +twentieth century men can not be burned merely for their godless +beliefs. Something else had to be devised; hence the charge of +instigating the uprising. + +In no authentic source so far investigated could a single proof be +found to connect Ferrer with the uprising. But then, no proofs were +wanted, or accepted, by the authorities. There were seventy-two +witnesses, to be sure, but their testimony was taken on paper. They +never were confronted with Ferrer, or he with them. + +Is it psychologically possible that Ferrer should have participated? +I do not believe it is, and here are my reasons. Francisco Ferrer +was not only a great teacher, but he was also undoubtedly a marvelous +organizer. In eight years, between 1901-1909, he had organized in +Spain one hundred and nine schools, besides inducing the liberal +element of his country to organize three hundred and eight other +schools. In connection with his own school work, Ferrer had equipped +a modern printing plant, organized a staff of translators, and spread +broadcast one hundred and fifty thousand copies of modern scientific +and sociologic works, not to forget the large quantity of rationalist +text books. Surely none but the most methodical and efficient +organizer could have accomplished such a feat. + +On the other hand, it was absolutely proven that the anti-military +uprising was not at all organized; that it came as a surprise to the +people themselves, like a great many revolutionary waves on previous +occasions. The people of Barcelona, for instance, had the city in +their control for four days, and, according to the statement of +tourists, greater order and peace never prevailed. Of course, the +people were so little prepared that when the time came, they did not +know what to do. In this regard they were like the people of Paris +during the Commune of 1871. They, too, were unprepared. While they +were starving, they protected the warehouses, filled to the brim with +provisions. They placed sentinels to guard the Bank of France, where +the bourgeoisie kept the stolen money. The workers of Barcelona, +too, watched over the spoils of their masters. + +How pathetic is the stupidity of the underdog; how terribly tragic! +But, then, have not his fetters been forged so deeply into his flesh, +that he would not, even if he could, break them? The awe of +authority, of law, of private property, hundredfold burned into his +soul,--how is he to throw it off unprepared, unexpectedly? + +Can anyone assume for a moment that a man like Ferrer would affiliate +himself with such a spontaneous, unorganized effort? Would he not +have known that it would result in a defeat, a disastrous defeat for +the people? And is it not more likely that if he would have taken +part, he, the experienced ENTREPRENEUR, would have thoroughly +organized the attempt? If all other proofs were lacking, that one +factor would be sufficient to exonerate Francisco Ferrer. But there +are others equally convincing. + +For the very date of the outbreak, July twenty-fifth, Ferrer had +called a conference of his teachers and members of the League of +Rational Education. It was to consider the autumn work, and +particularly the publication of Elisee Reclus' great book, L'HOMME ET +LA TERRE, and Peter Kropotkin's GREAT FRENCH REVOLUTION. Is it at +all likely, is it at all plausible that Ferrer, knowing of the +uprising, being a party to it, would in cold blood invite his friends +and colleagues to Barcelona for the day on which he realized their +lives would be endangered? Surely, only the criminal, vicious mind +of a Jesuit could credit such deliberate murder. + +Francisco Ferrer had his life-work mapped out; he had everything to +lose and nothing to gain, except ruin and disaster, were he to lend +assistance to the outbreak. Not that he doubted the justice of the +people's wrath; but his work, his hope, his very nature was directed +toward another goal. + +In vain are the frantic efforts of the Catholic Church, her lies, +falsehoods, calumnies. She stands condemned by the awakened human +conscience of having once more repeated the foul crimes of the past. + +Francisco Ferrer is accused of teaching the children the most +blood-curdling ideas,--to hate God, for instance. Horrors! +Francisco Ferrer did not believe in the existence of a God. Why +teach the child to hate something which does not exist? Is it not +more likely that he took the children out into the open, that he +showed them the splendor of the sunset, the brilliancy of the starry +heavens, the awe-inspiring wonder of the mountains and seas; that he +explained to them in his simple, direct way the law of growth, of +development, of the interrelation of all life? In so doing he made +it forever impossible for the poisonous weeds of the Catholic Church +to take root in the child's mind. + +It has been stated that Ferrer prepared the children to destroy the +rich. Ghost stories of old maids. Is it not more likely that he +prepared them to succor the poor? That he taught them the +humiliation, the degradation, the awfulness of poverty, which is a +vice and not a virtue; that he taught the dignity and importance of +all creative efforts, which alone sustain life and build character. +Is it not the best and most effective way of bringing into the proper +light the absolute uselessness and injury of parasitism? + +Last, but not least, Ferrer is charged with undermining the army by +inculcating anti-military ideas. Indeed? He must have believed with +Tolstoy that war is legalized slaughter, that it perpetuates hatred +and arrogance, that it eats away the heart of nations, and turns them +into raving maniacs. + +However, we have Ferrer's own word regarding his ideas of modern +education: + +"I would like to call the attention of my readers to this idea: All +the value of education rests in the respect for the physical, +intellectual, and moral will of the child. Just as in science no +demonstration is possible save by facts, just so there is no real +education save that which is exempt from all dogmatism, which leaves +to the child itself the direction of its effort, and confines itself +to the seconding of its effort. Now, there is nothing easier than to +alter this purpose, and nothing harder than to respect it. +Education is always imposing, violating, constraining; the real +educator is he who can best protect the child against his (the +teacher's) own ideas, his peculiar whims; he who can best appeal to +the child's own energies. + +"We are convinced that the education of the future will be of an +entirely spontaneous nature; certainly we can not as yet realize it, +but the evolution of methods in the direction of a wider +comprehension of the phenomena of life, and the fact that all +advances toward perfection mean the overcoming of restraint,--all +this indicates that we are in the right when we hope for the +deliverance of the child through science. + +"Let us not fear to say that we want men capable of evolving without +stopping, capable of destroying and renewing their environments +without cessation, of renewing themselves also; men, whose +intellectual independence will be their greatest force, who will +attach themselves to nothing, always ready to accept what is best, +happy in the triumph of new ideas, aspiring to live multiple lives in +one life. Society fears such men; we therefore must not hope that it +will ever want an education able to give them to us. + +"We shall follow the labors of the scientists who study the child +with the greatest attention, and we shall eagerly seek for means of +applying their experience to the education which we want to build up, +in the direction of an ever fuller liberation of the individual. +But how can we attain our end? Shall it not be by putting ourselves +directly to the work favoring the foundation of new schools, which +shall be ruled as much as possible by this spirit of liberty, which +we forefeel will dominate the entire work of education in the future? + +"A trial has been made, which, for the present, has already given +excellent results. We can destroy all which in the present school +answers to the organization of constraint, the artificial +surroundings by which children are separated from nature and life, +the intellectual and moral discipline made use of to impose +ready-made ideas upon them, beliefs which deprave and annihilate +natural bent. Without fear of deceiving ourselves, we can restore +the child to the environment which entices it, the environment of +nature in which he will be in contact with all that he loves, and in +which impressions of life will replace fastidious book-learning. If +we did no more than that, we should already have prepared in great +part the deliverance of the child. + +"In such conditions we might already freely apply the data of science +and labor most fruitfully. + +"I know very well we could not thus realize all our hopes, that we +should often be forced, for lack of knowledge, to employ undesirable +methods; but a certitude would sustain us in our efforts--namely, +that even without reaching our aim completely we should do more and +better in our still imperfect work than the present school +accomplishes. I like the free spontaneity of a child who knows +nothing, better than the world-knowledge and intellectual deformity +of a child who has been subjected to our present education."* + +---------- +* MOTHER EARTH, December, 1909. +---------- + +Had Ferrer actually organized the riots, had he fought on the +barricades, had he hurled a hundred bombs, he could not have been so +dangerous to the Catholic Church and to despotism, as with his +opposition to discipline and restraint. Discipline and +restraint--are they not back of all the evils in the world? +Slavery, submission, poverty, all misery, all social iniquities +result from discipline and restraint. Indeed, Ferrer was dangerous. +Therefore he had to die, October thirteenth, 1909, in the ditch of +Montjuich. Yet who dare say his death was in vain? In view of the +tempestuous rise of universal indignation: Italy naming streets in +memory of Francisco Ferrer, Belgium inaugurating a movement to erect +a memorial; France calling to the front her most illustrious men to +resume the heritage of the martyr; England being the first to issue a +biography:--all countries uniting in perpetuating the great work of +Francisco Ferrer; America, even, tardy always in progressive ideas, +giving birth to a Francisco Ferrer Association, its aim being to +publish a complete life of Ferrer and to organize Modern Schools all +over the country; in the face of this international revolutionary +wave, who is there to say Ferrer died in vain? + +That death at Montjuich,--how wonderful, how dramatic it was, how it +stirs the human soul. Proud and erect, the inner eye turned toward +the light, Francisco Ferrer needed no lying priests to give him +courage, nor did he upbraid a phantom for forsaking him. The +consciousness that his executioners represented a dying age, and that +his was the living truth, sustained him in the last heroic moments. + + A dying age and a living truth, + The living burying the dead. + + + + +THE HYPOCRISY OF PURITANISM + + + +Speaking of Puritanism in relation to American art, Mr. Gutzen +Burglum said: "Puritanism has made us self-centered and hypocritical +for so long, that sincerity and reverence for what is natural in our +impulses have been fairly bred out of us, with the result that there +can be neither truth nor individuality in our art." + +Mr. Burglum might have added that Puritanism has made life itself +impossible. More than art, more than estheticism, life represents +beauty in a thousand variations; it is, indeed, a gigantic panorama +of eternal change. Puritanism, on the other hand, rests on a fixed +and immovable conception of life; it is based on the Calvinistic idea +that life is a curse, imposed upon man by the wrath of God. In order +to redeem himself man must do constant penance, must repudiate every +natural and healthy impulse, and turn his back on joy and beauty. + +Puritanism celebrated its reign of terror in England during the +sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, destroying and crushing every +manifestation of art and culture. It was the spirit of Puritanism +which robbed Shelley of his children, because he would not bow to the +dicta of religion. It was the same narrow spirit which alienated +Byron from his native land, because that great genius rebelled +against the monotony, dullness, and pettiness of his country. It was +Puritanism, too, that forced some of England's freest women into the +conventional lie of marriage: Mary Wollstonecraft and, later, George +Eliot. And recently Puritanism has demanded another toll--the life +of Oscar Wilde. In fact, Puritanism has never ceased to be the most +pernicious factor in the domain of John Bull, acting as censor of the +artistic expression of his people, and stamping its approval only on +the dullness of middle-class respectability. + +It is therefore sheer British jingoism which points to America as the +country of Puritanic provincialism. It is quite true that our life +is stunted by Puritanism, and that the latter is killing what is +natural and healthy in our impulses. But it is equally true that it +is to England that we are indebted for transplanting this spirit on +American soil. It was bequeathed to us by the Pilgrim fathers. +Fleeing from persecution and oppression, the Pilgrims of Mayflower +fame established in the New World a reign of Puritanic tyranny and +crime. The history of New England, and especially of Massachusetts, +is full of the horrors that have turned life into gloom, joy into +despair, naturalness into disease, honesty and truth into hideous +lies and hypocrisies. The ducking-stool and whipping post, as well +as numerous other devices of torture, were the favorite English +methods for American purification. + +Boston, the city of culture, has gone down in the annals of +Puritanism as the "Bloody Town." It rivaled Salem, even, in her +cruel persecution of unauthorized religious opinions. On the now +famous Common a half-naked woman, with a baby in her arms, was +publicly whipped for the crime of free speech; and on the same spot +Mary Dyer, another Quaker woman, was hanged in 1659. In fact, Boston +has been the scene of more than one wanton crime committed by +Puritanism. Salem, in the summer of 1692, killed eighteen people for +witchcraft. Nor was Massachusetts alone in driving out the devil by +fire and brimstone. As Canning justly said: "The Pilgrim fathers +infested the New World to redress the balance of the Old." The +horrors of that period have found their most supreme expression in +the American classic, THE SCARLET LETTER. + +Puritanism no longer employs the thumbscrew and lash; but it still +has a most pernicious hold on the minds and feelings of the American +people. Naught else can explain the power of a Comstock. Like the +Torquemadas of ante-bellum days, Anthony Comstock is the autocrat of +American morals; he dictates the standards of good and evil, of +purity and vice. Like a thief in the night he sneaks into the +private lives of the people, into their most intimate relations. +The system of espionage established by this man Comstock puts to +shame the infamous Third Division of the Russian secret police. Why +does the public tolerate such an outrage on its liberties? Simply +because Comstock is but the loud expression of the Puritanism bred in +the Anglo-Saxon blood, and from whose thraldom even liberals have not +succeeded in fully emancipating themselves. The visionless and +leaden elements of the old Young Men's and Women's Christian +Temperance Unions, Purity Leagues, American Sabbath Unions, and the +Prohibition Party, with Anthony Comstock as their patron saint, are +the grave diggers of American art and culture. + +Europe can at least boast of a bold art and literature which delve +deeply into the social and sexual problems of our time, exercising a +severe critique of all our shams. As with a surgeon's knife every +Puritanic carcass is dissected, and the way thus cleared for man's +liberation from the dead weights of the past. But with Puritanism as +the constant check upon American life, neither truth nor sincerity is +possible. Nothing but gloom and mediocrity to dictate human conduct, +curtail natural expression, and stifle our best impulses. +Puritanism in this the twentieth century is as much the enemy of +freedom and beauty as it was when it landed on Plymouth Rock. It +repudiates, as something vile and sinful, our deepest feelings; but +being absolutely ignorant as to the real functions of human emotions, +Puritanism is itself the creator of the most unspeakable vices. + +The entire history of asceticism proves this to be only too true. +The Church, as well as Puritanism, has fought the flesh as something +evil; it had to be subdued and hidden at all cost. The result of +this vicious attitude is only now beginning to be recognized by +modern thinkers and educators. They realize that "nakedness has a +hygienic value as well as a spiritual significance, far beyond its +influences in allaying the natural inquisitiveness of the young or +acting as a preventative of morbid emotion. It is an inspiration to +adults who have long outgrown any youthful curiosities. The vision +of the essential and eternal human form, the nearest thing to us in +all the world, with its vigor and its beauty and its grace, is one of +the prime tonics of life."* But the spirit of purism has so perverted +the human mind that it has lost the power to appreciate the beauty of +nudity, forcing us to hide the natural form under the plea of +chastity. Yet chastity itself is but an artificial imposition upon +nature, expressive of a false shame of the human form. The modern +idea of chastity, especially in reference to woman, its greatest +victim, is but the sensuous exaggeration of our natural impulses. +"Chastity varies with the amount of clothing," and hence Christians +and purists forever hasten to cover the "heathen" with tatters, and +thus convert him to goodness and chastity. + +---------- +* THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. Havelock Ellis. +---------- + +Puritanism, with its perversion of the significance and functions of +the human body, especially in regard to woman, has condemned her to +celibacy, or to the indiscriminate breeding of a diseased race, or to +prostitution. The enormity of this crime against humanity is +apparent when we consider the results. Absolute sexual continence is +imposed upon the unmarried woman, under pain of being considered +immoral or fallen, with the result of producing neurasthenia, +impotence, depression, and a great variety of nervous complaints +involving diminished power of work, limited enjoyment of life, +sleeplessness, and preoccupation with sexual desires and imaginings. +The arbitrary and pernicious dictum of total continence probably also +explains the mental inequality of the sexes. Thus Freud believes +that the intellectual inferiority of so many women is due to the +inhibition of thought imposed upon them for the purpose of sexual +repression. Having thus suppressed the natural sex desires of the +unmarried woman, Puritanism, on the other hand, blesses her married +sister for incontinent fruitfulness in wedlock. Indeed, not merely +blesses her, but forces the woman, oversexed by previous repression, +to bear children, irrespective of weakened physical condition or +economic inability to rear a large family. Prevention, even by +scientifically determined safe methods, is absolutely prohibited; +nay, the very mention of the subject is considered criminal. + + +Thanks to this Puritanic tyranny, the majority of women soon find +themselves at the ebb of their physical resources. Ill and worn, +they are utterly unable to give their children even elementary care. +That, added to economic pressure, forces many women to risk utmost +danger rather than continue to bring forth life. The custom of +procuring abortions has reached such vast proportions in America as +to be almost beyond belief. According to recent investigations along +this line, seventeen abortions are committed in every hundred +pregnancies. This fearful percentage represents only cases which +come to the knowledge of physicians. Considering the secrecy in +which this practice is necessarily shrouded, and the consequent +professional inefficiency and neglect, Puritanism continuously exacts +thousands of victims to its own stupidity and hypocrisy. + +Prostitution, although hounded, imprisoned, and chained, is +nevertheless the greatest triumph of Puritanism. It is its most +cherished child, all hypocritical sanctimoniousness notwithstanding. +The prostitute is the fury of our century, sweeping across the +"civilized" countries like a hurricane, and leaving a trail of +disease and disaster. The only remedy Puritanism offers for this +ill-begotten child is greater repression and more merciless +persecution. The latest outrage is represented by the Page Law, +which imposes upon New York the terrible failure and crime of Europe; +namely, registration and segregation of the unfortunate victims of +Puritanism. In equally stupid manner purism seeks to check the +terrible scourge of its own creation--venereal diseases. Most +disheartening it is that this spirit of obtuse narrow-mindedness has +poisoned even our so-called liberals, and has blinded them into +joining the crusade against the very things born of the hypocrisy of +Puritanism--prostitution and its results. In wilful blindness +Puritanism refuses to see that the true method of prevention is the +one which makes it clear to all that "venereal diseases are not a +mysterious or terrible thing, the penalty of the sin of the flesh, a +sort of shameful evil branded by purist malediction, but an ordinary +disease which may be treated and cured." By its methods of +obscurity, disguise, and concealment, Puritanism has furnished +favorable conditions for the growth and spread of these diseases. +Its bigotry is again most strikingly demonstrated by the senseless +attitude in regard to the great discovery of Prof. Ehrlich, hypocrisy +veiling the important cure for syphilis with vague allusions to a +remedy for "a certain poison." + +The almost limitless capacity of Puritanism for evil is due to its +intrenchment behind the State and the law. Pretending to safeguard +the people against "immorality," it has impregnated the machinery of +government and added to its usurpation of moral guardianship the +legal censorship of our views, feelings, and even of our conduct. + +Art, literature, the drama, the privacy of the mails, in fact, our +most intimate tastes, are at the mercy of this inexorable tyrant. +Anthony Comstock, or some other equally ignorant policeman, has been +given power to desecrate genius, to soil and mutilate the sublimest +creation of nature--the human form. Books dealing with the most +vital issues of our lives, and seeking to shed light upon dangerously +obscured problems, are legally treated as criminal offenses, and their +helpless authors thrown into prison or driven to destruction and +death. + +Not even in the domain of the Tsar is personal liberty daily outraged +to the extent it is in America, the stronghold of the Puritanic +eunuchs. Here the only day of recreation left to the masses, Sunday, +has been made hideous and utterly impossible. All writers on +primitive customs and ancient civilization agree that the Sabbath was +a day of festivities, free from care and duties, a day of general +rejoicing and merry-making. In every European country this tradition +continues to bring some relief from the humdrum and stupidity of our +Christian era. Everywhere concert halls, theaters, museums, and +gardens are filled with men, women, and children, particularly +workers with their families, full of life and joy, forgetful of the +ordinary rules and conventions of their every-day existence. It is +on that day that the masses demonstrate what life might really mean +in a sane society, with work stripped of its profit-making, +soul-destroying purpose. + +Puritanism has robbed the people even of that one day. Naturally, +only the workers are affected: our millionaires have their luxurious +homes and elaborate clubs. The poor, however, are condemned to the +monotony and dullness of the American Sunday. The sociability and +fun of European outdoor life is here exchanged for the gloom of the +church, the stuffy, germ-saturated country parlor, or the brutalizing +atmosphere of the back-room saloon. In Prohibition States the people +lack even the latter, unless they can invest their meager earnings in +quantities of adulterated liquor. As to Prohibition, every one knows +what a farce it really is. Like all other achievements of Puritanism +it, too, has but driven the "devil" deeper into the human system. +Nowhere else does one meet so many drunkards as in our Prohibition +towns. But so long as one can use scented candy to abate the foul +breath of hypocrisy, Puritanism is triumphant. Ostensibly +Prohibition is opposed to liquor for reasons of health and economy, +but the very spirit of Prohibition being itself abnormal, it succeeds +but in creating an abnormal life. + +Every stimulus which quickens the imagination and raises the spirits, +is as necessary to our life as air. It invigorates the body, and +deepens our vision of human fellowship. Without stimuli, in one form +or another, creative work is impossible, nor indeed the spirit of +kindliness and generosity. The fact that some great geniuses have +seen their reflection in the goblet too frequently, does not justify +Puritanism in attempting to fetter the whole gamut of human emotions. +A Byron and a Poe have stirred humanity deeper than all the Puritans +can ever hope to do. The former have given to life meaning and +color; the latter are turning red blood into water, beauty into +ugliness, variety into uniformity and decay. Puritanism, in whatever +expression, is a poisonous germ. On the surface everything may look +strong and vigorous; yet the poison works its way persistently, until +the entire fabric is doomed. With Hippolyte Taine, every truly free +spirit has come to realize that "Puritanism is the death of culture, +philosophy, humor, and good fellowship; its characteristics are +dullness, monotony, and gloom." + + + + +THE TRAFFIC IN WOMEN + + + +Our reformers have suddenly made a great discovery--the white slave +traffic. The papers are full of these "unheard of conditions," and +lawmakers are already planning a new set of laws to check the horror. + +It is significant that whenever the public mind is to be diverted +from a great social wrong, a crusade is inaugurated against +indecency, gambling, saloons, etc. And what is the result of such +crusades? Gambling is increasing, saloons are doing a lively +business through back entrances, prostitution is at its height, and +the system of pimps and cadets is but aggravated. + +How is it that an institution, known almost to every child, should +have been discovered so suddenly? How is it that this evil, known to +all sociologists, should now be made such an important issue? + +To assume that the recent investigation of the white slave traffic +(and, by the way, a very superficial investigation) has discovered +anything new, is, to say the least, very foolish. Prostitution has +been, and is, a widespread evil, yet mankind goes on its business, +perfectly indifferent to the sufferings and distress of the victims +of prostitution. As indifferent, indeed, as mankind has remained to +our industrial system, or to economic prostitution. + +Only when human sorrows are turned into a toy with glaring colors +will baby people become interested--for a while at least. The people +are a very fickle baby that must have new toys every day. The +"righteous" cry against the white slave traffic is such a toy. It +serves to amuse the people for a little while, and it will help to +create a few more fat political jobs--parasites who stalk about the +world as inspectors, investigators, detectives, and so forth. + +What is really the cause of the trade in women? Not merely white +women, but yellow and black women as well. Exploitation, of course; +the merciless Moloch of capitalism that fattens on underpaid labor, +thus driving thousands of women and girls into prostitution. With +Mrs. Warren these girls feel, "Why waste your life working for a few +shillings a week in a scullery, eighteen hours a day?" + +Naturally our reformers say nothing about this cause. They know it +well enough, but it doesn't pay to say anything about it. It is much +more profitable to play the Pharisee, to pretend an outraged +morality, than to go to the bottom of things. + +However, there is one commendable exception among the young writers: +Reginald Wright Kauffman, whose work, THE HOUSE OF BONDAGE, is the +first earnest attempt to treat the social evil, not from a +sentimental Philistine viewpoint. A journalist of wide experience, +Mr. Kauffman proves that our industrial system leaves most women no +alternative except prostitution. The women portrayed in THE HOUSE OF +BONDAGE belong to the working class. Had the author portrayed the +life of women in other spheres, he would have been confronted with +the same state of affairs. + +Nowhere is woman treated according to the merit of her work, but +rather as a sex. It is therefore almost inevitable that she should +pay for her right to exist, to keep a position in whatever line, with +sex favors. Thus it is merely a question of degree whether she sells +herself to one man, in or out of marriage, or to many men. Whether +our reformers admit it or not, the economic and social inferiority of +woman is responsible for prostitution. + +Just at present our good people are shocked by the disclosures that +in New York City alone, one out of every ten women works in a +factory, that the average wage received by women is six dollars per +week for forty-eight to sixty hours of work, and that the majority of +female wage workers face many months of idleness which leaves the +average wage about $280 a year. In view of these economic horrors, +is it to be wondered at that prostitution and the white slave trade +have become such dominant factors? + +Lest the preceding figures be considered an exaggeration, it is well +to examine what some authorities on prostitution have to say: + +"A prolific cause of female depravity can be found in the several +tables, showing the description of the employment pursued, and the +wages received, by the women previous to their fall, and it will be a +question for the political economist to decide how far mere business +consideration should be an apology on the part of employers for a +reduction in their rates of remuneration, and whether the savings of +a small percentage on wages is not more than counter-balanced by the +enormous amount of taxation enforced on the public at large to defray +the expenses incurred on account of a system of vice, WHICH IS THE +DIRECT RESULT, IN MANY CASES, OF INSUFFICIENT COMPENSATION OF HONEST +LABOR."* + +---------- +* Dr. Sanger, THE HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. +---------- + +Our present-day reformers would do well to look into Dr. Sanger's +book. There they will find that out of 2,000 cases under his +observation, but few came from the middle classes, from well-ordered +conditions, or pleasant homes. By far the largest majority were +working girls and working women; some driven into prostitution +through sheer want, others because of a cruel, wretched life at home, +others again because of thwarted and crippled physical natures (of +which I shall speak later on). Also it will do the maintainers of +purity and morality good to learn that out of two thousand cases, 490 +were married women, women who lived with their husbands. Evidently +there was not much of a guaranty for their "safety and purity" in the +sanctity of marriage.* + +---------- +* It is a significant fact that Dr. Sanger's book has been excluded +from the U. S. mails. Evidently the authorities are not anxious that +the public be informed as to the true cause of prostitution. +---------- + +Dr. Alfred Blaschko, in PROSTITUTION IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY, is +even more emphatic in characterizing economic conditions as one of +the most vital factors of prostitution. + +"Although prostitution has existed in all ages, it was left to the +nineteenth century to develop it into a gigantic social institution. +The development of industry with vast masses of people in the +competitive market, the growth and congestion of large cities, the +insecurity and uncertainty of employment, has given prostitution an +impetus never dreamed of at any period in human history." + +And again Havelock Ellis, while not so absolute in dealing with the +economic cause, is nevertheless compelled to admit that it is +indirectly and directly the main cause. Thus he finds that a large +percentage of prostitutes is recruited from the servant class, +although the latter have less care and greater security. On the +other hand, Mr. Ellis does not deny that the daily routine, the +drudgery, the monotony of the servant girl's lot, and especially the +fact that she may never partake of the companionship and joy of a +home, is no mean factor in forcing her to seek recreation and +forgetfulness in the gaiety and glimmer of prostitution. In other +words, the servant girl, being treated as a drudge, never having the +right to herself, and worn out by the caprices of her mistress, can +find an outlet, like the factory or shopgirl, only in prostitution. + +The most amusing side of the question now before the public is the +indignation of our "good, respectable people," especially the various +Christian gentlemen, who are always to be found in the front ranks of +every crusade. Is it that they are absolutely ignorant of the +history of religion, and especially of the Christian religion? Or is +it that they hope to blind the present generation to the part played +in the past by the Church in relation to prostitution? Whatever +their reason, they should be the last to cry out against the +unfortunate victims of today, since it is known to every intelligent +student that prostitution is of religious origin, maintained and +fostered for many centuries, not as a shame but as a virtue, hailed +as such by the Gods themselves. + +"It would seem that the origin of prostitution is to be found +primarily in a religious custom, religion, the great conserver of +social tradition, preserving in a transformed shape a primitive +freedom that was passing out of the general social life. The typical +example is that recorded by Herodotus, in the fifth century before +Christ, at the Temple of Mylitta, the Babylonian Venus, where every +woman, once in her life, had to come and give herself to the first +stranger, who threw a coin in her lap, to worship the goddess. Very +similar customs existed in other parts of Western Asia, in North +Africa, in Cyprus, and other islands of the Eastern Mediterranean, +and also in Greece, where the temple of Aphrodite on the fort at +Corinth possessed over a thousand hierodules, dedicated to the +service of the goddess. + +"The theory that religious prostitution developed, as a general rule, +out of the belief that the generative activity of human beings +possessed a mysterious and sacred influence in promoting the +fertility of Nature, is maintained by all authoritative writers on +the subject. Gradually, however, and when prostitution became an +organized institution under priestly influence, religious +prostitution developed utilitarian sides, thus helping to increase +public revenue. + +"The rise of Christianity to political power produced little change +in policy. The leading fathers of the Church tolerated prostitution. +Brothels under municipal protection are found in the thirteenth +century. They constituted a sort of public service, the directors of +them being considered almost as public servants."* + +---------- +* Havelock Ellis, SEX AND SOCIETY. +---------- + +To this must be added the following from Dr. Sanger's work: + +"Pope Clement II. issued a bull that prostitutes would be tolerated +if they pay a certain amount of their earnings to the Church. + +"Pope Sixtus IV. was more practical; from one single brothel, which +he himself had built, he received an income of 20,000 ducats." + +In modern times the Church is a little more careful in that +direction. At least she does not openly demand tribute from +prostitutes. She finds it much more profitable to go in for real +estate, like Trinity Church, for instance, to rent out death traps at +an exorbitant price to those who live off and by prostitution. + +Much as I should like to, my space will not admit speaking of +prostitution in Egypt, Greece, Rome, and during the Middle Ages. The +conditions in the latter period are particularly interesting, +inasmuch as prostitution was organized into guilds, presided over by +a brothel Queen. These guilds employed strikes as a medium of +improving their condition and keeping a standard price. Certainly +that is more practical a method than the one used by the modern wage +slave in society. + +It would be one-sided and extremely superficial to maintain that the +economic factor is the only cause of prostitution. There are others +no less important and vital. That, too, our reformers know, but dare +discuss even less than the institution that saps the very life out of +both men and women. I refer to the sex question, the very mention of +which causes most people moral spasms. + +It is a conceded fact that woman is being reared as a sex commodity, +and yet she is kept in absolute ignorance of the meaning and +importance of sex. Everything dealing with the subject is +suppressed, and persons who attempt to bring light into this terrible +darkness are persecuted and thrown into prison. Yet it is +nevertheless true that so long as a girl is not to know how to take +care of herself, not to know the function of the most important part +of her life, we need not be surprised if she becomes an easy prey to +prostitution, or to any other form of a relationship which degrades +her to the position of an object for mere sex gratification. + +It is due to this ignorance that the entire life and nature of the +girl is thwarted and crippled. We have long ago taken it as a +self-evident fact that the boy may follow the call of the wild; that +is to say, that the boy may, as soon has his sex nature asserts +itself, satisfy that nature; but our moralists are scandalized at the +very thought that the nature of a girl should assert itself. To the +moralist prostitution does not consist so much in the fact that the +woman sells her body, but rather that she sells it out of wedlock. +That this is no mere statement is proved by the fact that marriage +for monetary considerations is perfectly legitimate, sanctified by +law and public opinion, while any other union is condemned and +repudiated. Yet a prostitute, if properly defined, means nothing +else than "any person for whom sexual relationships are subordinated +to gain."* + +---------- +* Guyot, LA PROSTITUTION. +---------- + +"Those women are prostitutes who sell their bodies for the exercise +of the sexual act and make of this a profession."* + +---------- +* Banger, CRIMINALITE ET CONDITION ECONOMIQUE. +---------- + +In fact, Banger goes further; he maintains that the act of +prostitution is "intrinsically equal to that of a man or woman who +contracts a marriage for economic reasons." + +Of course, marriage is the goal of every girl, but as thousands of +girls cannot marry, our stupid social customs condemn them either to +a life of celibacy or prostitution. Human nature asserts itself +regardless of all laws, nor is there any plausible reason why nature +should adapt itself to a perverted conception of morality. + +Society considers the sex experiences of a man as attributes of his +general development, while similar experiences in the life of a woman +are looked upon as a terrible calamity, a loss of honor and of all +that is good and noble in a human being. This double standard of +morality has played no little part in the creation and perpetuation +of prostitution. It involves the keeping of the young in absolute +ignorance on sex matters, which alleged "innocence," together with an +overwrought and stifled sex nature, helps to bring about a state of +affairs that our Puritans are so anxious to avoid or prevent. + +Not that the gratification of sex must needs lead to prostitution; it +is the cruel, heartless, criminal persecution of those who dare +divert from the beaten paths, which is responsible for it. + +Girls, mere children, work in crowded, over-heated rooms ten to +twelve hours daily at a machine, which tends to keep them in a +constant over-excited sex state. Many of these girls have no home or +comforts of any kind; therefore the street or some place of cheap +amusement is the only means of forgetting their daily routine. This +naturally brings them into close proximity with the other sex. It is +hard to say which of the two factors brings the girl's over-sexed +condition to a climax, but it is certainly the most natural thing +that a climax should result. That is the first step toward +prostitution. Nor is the girl to be held responsible for it. On the +contrary, it is altogether the fault of society, the fault of our +lack of understanding, of our lack of appreciation of life in the +making; especially is it the criminal fault of our moralists, who +condemn a girl for all eternity, because she has gone from the "path +of virtue"; that is, because her first sex experience has taken place +without the sanction of the Church. + +The girl feels herself a complete outcast, with the doors of home and +society closed in her face. Her entire training and tradition is +such that the girl herself feels depraved and fallen, and therefore +has no ground to stand upon, or any hold that will lift her up, +instead of dragging her down. Thus society creates the victims that +it afterwards vainly attempts to get rid of. The meanest, most +depraved and decrepit man still considers himself too good to take as +his wife the woman whose grace he was quite willing to buy, even +though he might thereby save her from a life of horror. Nor can she +turn to her own sister for help. In her stupidity the latter deems +herself too pure and chaste, not realizing that her own position is +in many respects even more deplorable than her sister's of the +street. + + +"The wife who married for money, compared with the prostitute," says +Havelock Ellis, "is the true scab. She is paid less, gives much more +in return in labor and care, and is absolutely bound to her master. +The prostitute never signs away the right over her own person, she +retains her freedom and personal rights, nor is she always compelled +to submit to a man's embrace." + + +Nor does the better-than-thou woman realize the apologist claim of +Lecky that "though she may be the supreme type of vice, she is also +the most efficient guardian of virtue. But for her, happy homes +would be polluted, unnatural and harmful practice would abound." + +Moralists are ever ready to sacrifice one-half of the human race for +the sake of some miserable institution which they can not outgrow. +As a matter of fact, prostitution is no more a safeguard for the +purity of the home than rigid laws are a safeguard against +prostitution. Fully fifty per cent. of married men are patrons of +brothels. It is through this virtuous element that the married +women--nay, even the children--are infected with venereal diseases. +Yet society has not a word of condemnation for the man, while no law +is too monstrous to be set in motion against the helpless victim. +She is not only preyed upon by those who use her. but she is also +absolutely at the mercy of every policeman and miserable detective on +the beat, the officials at the station house, the authorities in +every prison. + + +In a recent book by a woman who was for twelve years the mistress of +a "house," are to be found the following figures: "The authorities +compelled me to pay every month fines between $14.70 to $29.70, the +girls would pay from $5.70 to $9.70 to the police." Considering that +the writer did her business in a small city, that the amounts she +gives do not include extra bribes and fines, one can readily see the +tremendous revenue the police department derives from the blood money +of its victims, whom it will not even protect. Woe to those who +refuse to pay their toll; they would be rounded up like cattle, "if +only to make a favorable impression upon the good citizens of the +city, or if the powers needed extra money on the side. For the +warped mind who believes that a fallen woman is incapable of human +emotion it would be impossible to realize the grief, the disgrace, +the tears, the wounded pride that was ours every time we were pulled +in." + +Strange, isn't it, that a woman who has a kept a "house" should be +able to feel that way? But stranger still that a good Christian +world should bleed and fleece such women, and give them nothing in +return except obloquy and persecution. Oh, for the charity of a +Christian world! + +Much stress is laid on white slaves being imported into America. How +would America ever retain her virtue if Europe did not help her out? +I will not deny that this may be the case in some instances, any more +than I will deny that there are emissaries of Germany and other +countries luring economic slaves into America; but I absolutely deny +that prostitution is recruited to any appreciable extent from Europe. +It may be true that the majority of prostitutes in New York City are +foreigners, but that is because the majority of the population is +foreign. The moment we go to any other American city, to Chicago or +the Middle West, we shall find that the number of foreign +prostitutes is by far a minority. + +Equally exaggerated is the belief that the majority of street girls +in this city were engaged in this business before they came to +America. Most of the girls speak excellent English, are Americanized +in habits and appearance,--a thing absolutely impossible unless they +had lived in this country many years. That is, they were driven into +prostitution by American conditions, by the thoroughly American +custom for excessive display of finery and clothes, which, of course, +necessitates money,--money that cannot be earned in shops or +factories. + +In other words, there is no reason to believe that any set of men +would go to the risk and expense of getting foreign products, when +American conditions are overflooding the market with thousands of +girls. On the other hand, there is sufficient evidence to prove that +the export of American girls for the purpose of prostitution is by no +means a small factor. + +Thus Clifford G. Roe, ex-Assistant State Attorney of Cook County, +Ill., makes the open charge that New England girls are shipped to +Panama for the express use of men in the employ of Uncle Sam. Mr. +Roe adds that "there seems to be an underground railroad between +Boston and Washington which many girls travel." Is it not +significant that the railroad should lead to the very seat of Federal +authority? That Mr. Roe said more than was desired in certain +quarters is proved by the fact that he lost his position. It is not +practical for men in office to tell tales from school. + +The excuse given for the conditions in Panama is that there are no +brothels in the Canal Zone. That is the usual avenue of escape for a +hypocritical world that dares not face the truth. Not in the Canal +Zone, not in the city limits,--therefore prostitution does not exist. + +Next to Mr. Roe, there is James Bronson Reynolds, who has made a +thorough study of the white slave traffic in Asia. As a staunch +American citizen and friend of the future Napoleon of America, +Theodore Roosevelt, he is surely the last to discredit the virtue of +his country. Yet we are informed by him that in Hong Kong, Shanghai, +and Yokohama, the Augean stables of American vice are located. There +American prostitutes have made themselves so conspicuous that in the +Orient "American girl" is synonymous with prostitute. Mr. Reynolds +reminds his countrymen that while Americans in China are under the +protection of our consular representatives, the Chinese in America +have no protection at all. Every one who knows the brutal and +barbarous persecution Chinese and Japanese endure on the Pacific +Coast, will agree with Mr. Reynolds. + +In view of the above facts it is rather absurd to point to Europe as +the swamp whence come all the social diseases of America. Just as +absurd is it to proclaim the myth that the Jews furnish the largest +contingent of willing prey. I am sure that no one will accuse me of +nationalistic tendencies. I am glad to say that I have developed out +of them, as out of many other prejudices. If, therefore, I resent +the statement that Jewish prostitutes are imported, it is not because +of any Judaistic sympathies, but because of the facts inherent in the +lives of these people. No one but the most superficial will claim +that Jewish girls migrate to strange lands, unless they have some tie +or relation that brings them there. The Jewish girl is not +adventurous. Until recent years she had never left home, not even so +far as the next village or town, except it were to visit some +relative. Is it then credible that Jewish girls would leave their +parents or families, travel thousands of miles to strange lands, +through the influence and promises of strange forces? Go to any of +the large incoming steamers and see for yourself if these girls do +not come either with their parents, brothers, aunts, or other +kinsfolk. There may be exceptions, of course, but to state that +large numbers of Jewish girls are imported for prostitution, or any +other purpose, is simply not to know Jewish psychology. + +Those who sit in a glass house do wrong to throw stones about them; +besides, the American glass house is rather thin, it will break +easily, and the interior is anything but a gainly sight. + +To ascribe the increase in prostitution to alleged importation, to +the growth of the cadet system, or similar causes, is highly +superficial. I have already referred to the former. As to the cadet +system, abhorrent as it is, we must not ignore the fact that it is +essentially a phase of modern prostitution,--a phase accentuated by +suppression and graft, resulting from sporadic crusades against the +social evil. + +The procurer is no doubt a poor specimen of the human family, but in +what manner is he more despicable than the policeman who takes the +last cent from the street walker, and then locks her up in the +station house? Why is the cadet more criminal, or a greater menace +to society, than the owners of department stores and factories, who +grow fat on the sweat of their victims, only to drive them to the +streets? I make no plea for the cadet, but I fail to see why he +should be mercilessly hounded, while the real perpetrators of all +social iniquity enjoy immunity and respect. Then, too, it is well to +remember that it is not the cadet who makes the prostitute. It is +our sham and hypocrisy that create both the prostitute and the cadet. + +Until 1894 very little was known in America of the procurer. Then we +were attacked by an epidemic of virtue. Vice was to be abolished, +the country purified at all cost. The social cancer was therefore +driven out of sight, but deeper into the body. Keepers of brothels, +as well as their unfortunate victims, were turned over to the tender +mercies of the police. The inevitable consequence of exorbitant +bribes, and the penitentiary, followed. + +While comparatively protected in the brothels, where they represented +a certain monetary value, the girls now found themselves on the +street, absolutely at the mercy of the graft-greedy police. +Desperate, needing protection and longing for affection, these girls +naturally proved an easy prey for cadets, themselves the result of +the spirit of our commercial age. Thus the cadet system was the +direct outgrowth of police persecution, graft, and attempted +suppression of prostitution. It were sheer folly to confound this +modern phase of the social evil with the causes of the latter. + +Mere suppression and barbaric enactments can serve but to embitter, +and further degrade, the unfortunate victims of ignorance and +stupidity. The latter has reached its highest expression in the +proposed law to make humane treatment of prostitutes a crime, +punishing any one sheltering a prostitute with five years' +imprisonment and $10,000 fine. Such an attitude merely exposes the +terrible lack of understanding of the true causes of prostitution, as +a social factor, as well as manifesting the Puritanic spirit of the +Scarlet Letter days. + +There is not a single modern writer on the subject who does not refer +to the utter futility of legislative methods in coping with the +issue. Thus Dr. Blaschko finds that governmental suppression and +moral crusades accomplish nothing save driving the evil into secret +channels, multiplying its dangers to society. Havelock Ellis, the +most thorough and humane student of prostitution, proves by a wealth +of data that the more stringent the methods of persecution the worse +the condition becomes. Among other data we learn that in France, "in +1560, Charles IX. abolished brothels through an edict, but the +numbers of prostitutes were only increased, while many new brothels +appeared in unsuspected shapes, and were more dangerous. In spite of +all such legislation, OR BECAUSE OF IT, there has been no country in +which prostitution has played a more conspicuous part."* + +---------- +* SEX AND SOCIETY. +---------- + +An educated public opinion, freed from the legal and moral hounding +of the prostitute, can alone help to ameliorate present conditions. +Wilful shutting of eyes and ignoring of the evil as a social factor +of modern life, can but aggravate matters. We must rise above our +foolish notions of "better than thou," and learn to recognize in the +prostitute a product of social conditions. Such a realization will +sweep away the attitude of hypocrisy, and insure a greater +understanding and more humane treatment. As to a thorough +eradication of prostitution, nothing can accomplish that save a +complete transvaluation of all accepted values--especially the moral +ones--coupled with the abolition of industrial slavery. + + + + +WOMAN SUFFRAGE + + + +We boast of the age of advancement, of science, and progress. Is it +not strange, then, that we still believe in fetich worship? True, +our fetiches have different form and substance, yet in their power +over the human mind they are still as disastrous as were those of +old. + +Our modern fetich is universal suffrage. Those who have not yet +achieved that goal fight bloody revolutions to obtain it, and those +who have enjoyed its reign bring heavy sacrifice to the altar of this +omnipotent deity. Woe to the heretic who dare question that +divinity! + +Woman, even more than man, is a fetich worshipper, and though her +idols may change, she is ever on her knees, ever holding up her +hands, ever blind to the fact that her god has feet of clay. Thus +woman has been the greatest supporter of all deities from time +immemorial. Thus, too, she has had to pay the price that only gods +can exact,--her freedom, her heart's blood, her very life. + +Nietzsche's memorable maxim, "When you go to woman, take the whip +along," is considered very brutal, yet Nietzsche expressed in one +sentence the attitude of woman towards her gods. + +Religion, especially the Christian religion, has condemned woman to +the life of an inferior, a slave. It has thwarted her nature and +fettered her soul, yet the Christian religion has no greater +supporter, none more devout, than woman. Indeed, it is safe to say +that religion would have long ceased to be a factor in the lives of +the people, if it were not for the support it receives from woman. +The most ardent churchworkers, the most tireless missionaries the +world over, are women, always sacrificing on the altar of the gods +that have chained her spirit and enslaved her body. + +The insatiable monster, war, robs woman of all that is dear and +precious to her. It exacts her brothers, lovers, sons, and in return +gives her a life of loneliness and despair. Yet the greatest +supporter and worshiper of war is woman. She it is who instills the +love of conquest and power into her children; she it is who whispers +the glories of war into the ears of her little ones, and who rocks +her baby to sleep with the tunes of trumpets and the noise of guns. +It is woman, too, who crowns the victor on his return from the +battlefield. Yes, it is woman who pays the highest price to that +insatiable monster, war. + +Then there is the home. What a terrible fetich it is! How it saps +the very life-energy of woman,--this modern prison with golden bars. +Its shining aspect blinds woman to the price she would have to pay as +wife, mother, and housekeeper. Yet woman clings tenaciously to the +home, to the power that holds her in bondage. + +It may be said that because woman recognizes the awful toll she is +made to pay to the Church, State, and the home, she wants suffrage to +set herself free. That may be true of the few; the majority of +suffragists repudiate utterly such blasphemy. On the contrary, they +insist always that it is woman suffrage which will make her a better +Christian and homekeeper, a staunch citizen of the State. Thus +suffrage is only a means of strengthening the omnipotence of the very +Gods that woman has served from time immemorial. + +What wonder, then, that she should be just as devout, just as +zealous, just as prostrate before the new idol, woman suffrage. As +of old, she endures persecution, imprisonment, torture, and all forms +of condemnation, with a smile on her face. As of old, the most +enlightened, even, hope for a miracle from the twentieth century +deity,--suffrage. Life, happiness, joy, freedom, independence,--all +that, and more, is to spring from suffrage. In her blind devotion +woman does not see what people of intellect perceived fifty years +ago: that suffrage is an evil, that it has only helped to enslave +people, that it has but closed their eyes that they may not see how +craftily they were made to submit. + +Woman's demand for equal suffrage is based largely on the contention +that woman must have the equal right in all affairs of society. No +one could, possibly, refute that, if suffrage were a right. Alas, +for the ignorance of the human mind, which can see a right in an +imposition. Or is it not the most brutal imposition for one set of +people to make laws that another set is coerced by force to obey? +Yet woman clamors for that "golden opportunity" that has wrought so +much misery in the world, and robbed man of his integrity and +self-reliance; an imposition which has thoroughly corrupted the +people, and made them absolute prey in the hands of unscrupulous +politicians. + +The poor, stupid, free American citizen! Free to starve, free to +tramp the highways of this great country, he enjoys universal +suffrage, and, by that right, he has forged chains about his limbs. +The reward that he receives is stringent labor laws prohibiting the +right of boycott, of picketing, in fact, of everything, except the +right to be robbed of the fruits of his labor. Yet all these +disastrous results of the twentieth century fetich have taught woman +nothing. But, then, woman will purify politics, we are assured. + +Needless to say, I am not opposed to woman suffrage on the +conventional ground that she is not equal to it. I see neither +physical, psychological, nor mental reasons why woman should not have +the equal right to vote with man. But that can not possibly blind me +to the absurd notion that woman will accomplish that wherein man has +failed. If she would not make things worse, she certainly could not +make them better. To assume, therefore, that she would succeed in +purifying something which is not susceptible of purification, is to +credit her with supernatural powers. Since woman's greatest +misfortune has been that she was looked upon as either angel or +devil, her true salvation lies in being placed on earth; namely, in +being considered human, and therefore subject to all human follies +and mistakes. Are we, then, to believe that two errors will make a +right? Are we to assume that the poison already inherent in politics +will be decreased, if women were to enter the political arena? The +most ardent suffragists would hardly maintain such a folly. + +As a matter of fact, the most advanced students of universal suffrage +have come to realize that all existing systems of political power are +absurd, and are completely inadequate to meet the pressing issues of +life. This view is also borne out by a statement of one who is +herself an ardent believer in woman suffrage, Dr. Helen L. Sumner. +In her able work on EQUAL SUFFRAGE, she says: "In Colorado, we find +that equal suffrage serves to show in the most striking way the +essential rottenness and degrading character of the existing system." +Of course, Dr. Sumner has in mind a particular system of voting, but +the same applies with equal force to the entire machinery of the +representative system. With such a basis, it is difficult to +understand how woman, as a political factor, would benefit either +herself or the rest of mankind. + +But, say our suffrage devotees, look at the countries and States +where female suffrage exists. See what woman has accomplished--in +Australia, New Zealand, Finland, the Scandinavian countries, and in +our own four States, Idaho, Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah. Distance +lends enchantment--or, to quote a Polish formula--"it is well where +we are not." Thus one would assume that those countries and States +are unlike other countries or States, that they have greater +freedom, greater social and economic equality, a finer appreciation +of human life, deeper understanding of the great social struggle, +with all the vital questions it involves for the human race. + +The women of Australia and New Zealand can vote, and help make the +laws. Are the labor conditions better there than they are in +England, where the suffragettes are making such a heroic struggle? +Does there exist a greater motherhood, happier and freer children +than in England? Is woman there no longer considered a mere sex +commodity? Has she emancipated herself from the Puritanical double +standard of morality for men and women? Certainly none but the +ordinary female stump politician will dare answer these questions in +the affirmative. If that be so, it seems ridiculous to point to +Australia and New Zealand as the Mecca of equal suffrage +accomplishments. + +On the other hand, it is a fact to those who know the real political +conditions in Australia, that politics have gagged labor by enacting +the most stringent labor laws, making strikes without the sanction of +an arbitration committee a crime equal to treason. + +Not for a moment do I mean to imply that woman suffrage is +responsible for this state of affairs. I do mean, however, that +there is no reason to point to Australia as a wonder-worker of +woman's accomplishment, since her influence has been unable to free +labor from the thralldom of political bossism. + +Finland has given woman equal suffrage; nay, even the right to sit in +Parliament. Has that helped to develop a greater heroism, an +intenser zeal than that of the women of Russia? Finland, like +Russia, smarts under the terrible whip of the bloody Tsar. Where are +the Finnish Perovskaias, Spiridonovas, Figners, Breshkovskaias? +Where are the countless numbers of Finnish young girls who cheerfully +go to Siberia for their cause? Finland is sadly in need of heroic +liberators. Why has the ballot not created them? The only Finnish +avenger of his people was a man, not a woman, and he used a more +effective weapon than the ballot. + +As to our own States where women vote, and which are constantly being +pointed out as examples of marvels, what has been accomplished there +through the ballot that women do not to a large extent enjoy in other +States; or that they could not achieve through energetic efforts +without the ballot? + +True, in the suffrage States women are guaranteed equal rights to +property; but of what avail is that right to the mass of women +without property, the thousands of wage workers, who live from hand +to mouth? That equal suffrage did not, and cannot, affect their +condition is admitted even by Dr. Sumner, who certainly is in a +position to know. As an ardent suffragist, and having been sent to +Colorado by the Collegiate Equal Suffrage League of New York State to +collect material in favor of suffrage, she would be the last to say +anything derogatory; yet we are informed that "equal suffrage has but +slightly affected the economic conditions of women. That women do +not receive equal pay for equal work, and that, though woman in +Colorado has enjoyed school suffrage since 1876, women teachers are +paid less than in California." On the other hand, Miss Sumner fails +to account for the fact that although women have had school suffrage +for thirty-four years, and equal suffrage since 1894, the census in +Denver alone a few months ago disclosed the fact of fifteen thousand +defective school children. And that, too, with mostly women in the +educational department, and also notwithstanding that women in +Colorado have passed the "most stringent laws for child and animal +protection." The women of Colorado "have taken great interest in the +State institutions for the care of dependent, defective, and +delinquent children." What a horrible indictment against woman's +care and interest, if one city has fifteen thousand defective +children. What about the glory of woman suffrage, since it has +failed utterly in the most important social issue, the child? And +where is the superior sense of justice that woman was to bring into +the political field? Where was it in 1903, when the mine owners +waged a guerilla war against the Western Miners' Union; when General +Bell established a reign of terror, pulling men out of beds at night, +kidnapping them across the border line, throwing them into bull pens, +declaring "to hell with the Constitution, the club is the +Constitution"? Where were the women politicians then, and why did +they not exercise the power of their vote? But they did. They +helped to defeat the most fair-minded and liberal man, Governor +Waite. The latter had to make way for the tool of the mine kings, +Governor Peabody, the enemy of labor, the Tsar of Colorado. +"Certainly male suffrage could have done nothing worse." Granted. +Wherein, then, are the advantages to woman and society from woman +suffrage? The oft-repeated assertion that woman will purify politics +is also but a myth. It is not borne out by the people who know the +political conditions of Idaho, Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah. + +Woman, essentially a purist, is naturally bigotted and relentless in +her effort to make others as good as she thinks they ought to be. +Thus, in Idaho, she has disfranchised her sister of the street, and +declared all women of "lewd character" unfit to vote. "Lewd" not +being interpreted, of course, as prostitution IN marriage. It goes +without saying that illegal prostitution and gambling have been +prohibited. In this regard the law must needs be of feminine nature: +it always prohibits. Therein all laws are wonderful. They go no +further, but their very tendencies open all the floodgates of hell. +Prostitution and gambling have never done a more flourishing business +than since the law has been set against them. + +In Colorado, the Puritanism of woman has expressed itself in a more +drastic form. "Men of notoriously unclean lives, and men connected +with saloons, have been dropped from politics since women have the +vote."* Could brother Comstock do more? Could all the Puritan +fathers have done more? I wonder how many women realize the gravity +of this would-be feat. I wonder if they understand that it is the +very thing which, instead of elevating woman, has made her a +political spy, a contemptible pry into the private affairs of people, +not so much for the good of the cause, but because, as a Colorado +woman said, "they like to get into houses they have never been in, +and find out all they can, politically and otherwise."** Yes, and +into the human soul and its minutest nooks and corners. For nothing +satisfies the craving of most women so much as scandal. And when did +she ever enjoy such opportunities as are hers, the politician's? + +---------- +* EQUAL SUFFRAGE. Dr. Helen Sumner. +** EQUAL SUFFRAGE. +---------- + +"Notoriously unclean lives, and men connected with the saloons." +Certainly, the lady vote gatherers can not be accused of much sense +of proportion. Granting even that these busybodies can decide whose +lives are clean enough for that eminently clean atmosphere, politics, +must it follow that saloon-keepers belong to the same category? +Unless it be American hypocrisy and bigotry, so manifest in the +principle of Prohibition, which sanctions the spread of drunkenness +among men and women of the rich class, yet keeps vigilant watch on +the only place left to the poor man. If no other reason, woman's +narrow and purist attitude toward life makes her a greater danger to +liberty wherever she has political power. Man has long overcome the +superstitions that still engulf woman. In the economic competitive +field, man has been compelled to exercise efficiency, judgment, +ability, competency. He therefore had neither time nor inclination +to measure everyone's morality with a Puritanic yardstick. In his +political activities, too, he has not gone about blindfolded. He +knows that quantity and not quality is the material for the political +grinding mill, and, unless he is a sentimental reformer or an old +fossil, he knows that politics can never be anything but a swamp. + +Women who are at all conversant with the process of politics, know +the nature of the beast, but in their self-sufficiency and egotism +they make themselves believe that they have but to pet the beast, and +he will become as gentle as a lamb, sweet and pure. As if women have +not sold their votes, as if women politicians can not be bought! If +her body can be bought in return for material consideration, why not +her vote? That it is being done in Colorado and in other States, is +not denied even by those in favor of woman suffrage. + +As I have said before, woman's narrow view of human affairs is not +the only argument against her as a politician superior to man. There +are others. Her life-long economic parasitism has utterly blurred +her conception of the meaning of equality. She clamors for equal +rights with men, yet we learn that "few women care to canvas in +undesirable districts."* How little equality means to them compared +with the Russian women, who face hell itself for their ideal! + +---------- +* Dr. Helen A. Sumner. +---------- + +Woman demands the same rights as man, yet she is indignant that her +presence does not strike him dead: he smokes, keeps his hat on, and +does not jump from his seat like a flunkey. These may be trivial +things, but they are nevertheless the key to the nature of American +suffragists. To be sure, their English sisters have outgrown these +silly notions. They have shown themselves equal to the greatest +demands on their character and power of endurance. All honor to the +heroism and sturdiness of the English suffragettes. Thanks to their +energetic, aggressive methods, they have proved an inspiration to some +of our own lifeless and spineless ladies. But after all, the +suffragettes, too, are still lacking in appreciation of real +equality. Else how is one to account for the tremendous, truly +gigantic effort set in motion by those valiant fighters for a +wretched little bill which will benefit a handful of propertied +ladies, with absolutely no provision for the vast mass of +workingwomen? True, as politicians they must be opportunists, must +take half measures if they can not get all. But as intelligent and +liberal women they ought to realize that if the ballot is a weapon, +the disinherited need it more than the economically superior class, +and that the latter already enjoy too much power by virtue of their +economic superiority. + +The brilliant leader of the English suffragettes, Mrs. Emmeline +Pankhurst, herself admitted, when on her American lecture tour, that +there can be no equality between political superiors and inferiors. +If so, how will the workingwoman of England, already inferior +economically to the ladies who are benefited by the Shackleton bill,* +be able to work with their political superiors, should the bill pass? +Is it not probable that the class of Annie Keeney, so full of zeal, +devotion, and martyrdom, will be compelled to carry on their backs +their female political bosses, even as they are carrying their +economic masters. They would still have to do it, were universal +suffrage for men and women established in England. No matter what +the workers do, they are made to pay, always. Still, those who +believe in the power of the vote show little sense of justice when +they concern themselves not at all with those whom, as they claim, it +might serve most. + +---------- +* Mr. Shackleton was a labor leader. It is therefore self-evident +that he should introduce a bill excluding his own constituents. The +English Parliament is full of such Judases. +---------- + +The American suffrage movement has been, until very recently, +altogether a parlor affair, absolutely detached from the economic +needs of the people. Thus Susan B. Anthony, no doubt an exceptional +type of woman, was not only indifferent but antagonistic to labor; +nor did she hesitate to manifest her antagonism when, in 1869, she +advised women to take the places of striking printers in New York.* +I do not know whether her attitude had changed before her death. + +---------- +* EQUAL SUFFRAGE. Dr. Helen A. Sumner. +---------- + +There are, of course, some suffragists who are affiliated with +workingwomen--the Women's Trade Union League, for instance; but they +are a small minority, and their activities are essentially economic. +The rest look upon toil as a just provision of Providence. What +would become of the rich, if not for the poor? What would become of +these idle, parasitic ladies, who squander more in a week than their +victims earn in a year, if not for the eighty million wage workers? +Equality, who ever heard of such a thing? + +Few countries have produced such arrogance and snobbishness as +America. Particularly this is true of the American woman of the +middle class. She not only considers herself the equal of man, but +his superior, especially in her purity, goodness, and morality. +Small wonder that the American suffragist claims for her vote the +most miraculous powers. In her exalted conceit she does not see how +truly enslaved she is, not so much by man, as by her own silly +notions and traditions. Suffrage can not ameliorate that sad fact; +it can only accentuate it, as indeed it does. + +One of the great American women leaders claims that woman is entitled +not only to equal pay, but that she ought to be legally entitled even +to the pay of her husband. Failing to support her, he should be put +in convict stripes, and his earnings in prison be collected by his +equal wife. Does not another brilliant exponent of the cause claim +for woman that her vote will abolish the social evil, which has been +fought in vain by the collective efforts of the most illustrious +minds the world over? It is indeed to be regretted that the alleged +creator of the universe has already presented us with his wonderful +scheme of things, else woman suffrage would surely enable woman to +outdo him completely. + +Nothing is so dangerous as the dissection of a fetich. If we have +outlived the time when such heresy was punishable at the stake, we +have not outlived the narrow spirit of condemnation of those who dare +differ with accepted notions. Therefore I shall probably be put down +as an opponent of woman. But that can not deter me from looking the +question squarely in the face. I repeat what I have said in the +beginning: I do not believe that woman will make politics worse; nor +can I believe that she could make it better. If, then, she cannot +improve on man's mistakes, why perpetuate the latter? + +History may be a compilation of lies; nevertheless, it contains a few +truths, and they are the only guide we have for the future. The +history of the political activities of men proves that they have +given him absolutely nothing that he could not have achieved in a +more direct, less costly, and more lasting manner. As a matter of +fact, every inch of ground he has gained has been through a constant +fight, a ceaseless struggle for self-assertion, and not through +suffrage. There is no reason whatever to assume that woman, in her +climb to emancipation, has been, or will be, helped by the ballot. + +In the darkest of all countries, Russia, with her absolute despotism, +woman has become man's equal, not through the ballot, but by her will +to be and to do. Not only has she conquered for herself every avenue +of learning and vocation, but she has won man's esteem, his respect, +his comradeship; aye, even more than that: she has gained the +admiration, the respect of the whole world. That, too, not through +suffrage, but by her wonderful heroism, her fortitude, her ability, +will power, and her endurance in the struggle for liberty. Where are +the women in any suffrage country or State that can lay claim to such +a victory? When we consider the accomplishments of woman in America, +we find also that something deeper and more powerful than suffrage +has helped her in the march to emancipation. + +It is just sixty-two years ago since a handful of women at the Seneca +Falls Convention set forth a few demands for their right to equal +education with men, and access to the various professions, trades, +etc. What wonderful accomplishment, what wonderful triumphs! Who +but the most ignorant dare speak of woman as a mere domestic drudge? +Who dare suggest that this or that profession should not be open to +her? For over sixty years she has molded a new atmosphere and a new +life for herself. She has become a world power in every domain of +human thought and activity. And all that without suffrage, without +the right to make laws, without the "privilege" of becoming a judge, +a jailer, or an executioner. + +Yes, I may be considered an enemy of woman; but if I can help her see +the light, I shall not complain. + +The misfortune of woman is not that she is unable to do the work of +man, but that she is wasting her life force to outdo him, with a +tradition of centuries which has left her physically incapable of +keeping pace with him. Oh, I know some have succeeded, but at what +cost, at what terrific cost! The import is not the kind of work +woman does, but rather the quality of the work she furnishes. She +can give suffrage or the ballot no new quality, nor can she receive +anything from it that will enhance her own quality. Her development, +her freedom, her independence, must come from and through herself. +First, by asserting herself as a personality, and not as a sex +commodity. Second, by refusing the right to anyone over her body; by +refusing to bear children, unless she wants them; by refusing to be a +servant to God, the State, society, the husband, the family, etc.; by +making her life simpler, but deeper and richer. That is, by trying +to learn the meaning and substance of life in all its complexities, +by freeing herself from the fear of public opinion and public +condemnation. Only that, and not the ballot, will set woman free, +will make her a force hitherto unknown in the world, a force for real +love, for peace, for harmony; a force of divine fire, of life giving; +a creator of free men and women. + + + + +THE TRAGEDY OF WOMAN'S EMANCIPATION + + + +I begin with an admission: Regardless of all political and economic +theories, treating of the fundamental differences between various +groups within the human race, regardless of class and race +distinctions, regardless of all artificial boundary lines between +woman's rights and man's rights, I hold that there is a point where +these differentiations may meet and grow into one perfect whole. + +With this I do not mean to propose a peace treaty. The general +social antagonism which has taken hold of our entire public life +today, brought about through the force of opposing and contradictory +interests, will crumble to pieces when the reorganization of our +social life, based upon the principles of economic justice, shall +have become a reality. + +Peace or harmony between the sexes and individuals does not +necessarily depend on a superficial equalization of human beings; nor +does it call for the elimination of individual traits and +peculiarities. The problem that confronts us today, and which the +nearest future is to solve, is how to be one's self and yet in +oneness with others, to feel deeply with all human beings and still +retain one's own characteristic qualities. This seems to me to be +the basis upon which the mass and the individual, the true democrat +and the true individuality, man and woman, can meet without +antagonism and opposition. The motto should not be: Forgive one +another; rather, Understand one another. The oft-quoted sentence of +Madame de Stael: "To understand everything means to forgive +everything," has never particularly appealed to me; it has the odor +of the confessional; to forgive one's fellow-being conveys the idea +of pharisaical superiority. To understand one's fellow-being +suffices. The admission partly represents the fundamental aspect of +my views on the emancipation of woman and its effect upon the entire +sex. + +Emancipation should make it possible for woman to be human in the +truest sense. Everything within her that craves assertion and +activity should reach its fullest expression; all artificial barriers +should be broken, and the road towards greater freedom cleared of +every trace of centuries of submission and slavery. + +This was the original aim of the movement for woman's emancipation. +But the results so far achieved have isolated woman and have robbed +her of the fountain springs of that happiness which is so essential +to her. Merely external emancipation has made of the modern woman an +artificial being, who reminds one of the products of French +arboriculture with its arabesque trees and shrubs, pyramids, wheels, +and wreaths; anything, except the forms which would be reached by the +expression of her own inner qualities. Such artificially grown +plants of the female sex are to be found in large numbers, especially +in the so-called intellectual sphere of our life. + +Liberty and equality for woman! What hopes and aspirations these +words awakened when they were first uttered by some of the noblest +and bravest souls of those days. The sun in all his light and glory +was to rise upon a new world; in this world woman was to be free to +direct her own destiny--an aim certainly worthy of the great +enthusiasm, courage, perseverance, and ceaseless effort of the +tremendous host of pioneer men and women, who staked everything +against a world of prejudice and ignorance. + +My hopes also move towards that goal, but I hold that the +emancipation of woman, as interpreted and practically applied today, +has failed to reach that great end. Now, woman is confronted with +the necessity of emancipating herself from emancipation, if she +really desires to be free. This may sound paradoxical, but is, +nevertheless, only too true. + +What has she achieved through her emancipation? Equal suffrage in a +few States. Has that purified our political life, as many +well-meaning advocates predicted? Certainly not. Incidentally, it +is really time that persons with plain, sound judgment should cease +to talk about corruption in politics in a boarding-school tone. +Corruption of politics has nothing to do with the morals, or the +laxity of morals, of various political personalities. Its cause is +altogether a material one. Politics is the reflex of the business +and industrial world, the mottos of which are: "To take is more +blessed than to give"; "buy cheap and sell dear"; "one soiled hand +washes the other." There is no hope even that woman, with her right +to vote, will ever purify politics. + +Emancipation has brought woman economic equality with man; that is, +she can choose her own profession and trade; but as her past and +present physical training has not equipped her with the necessary +strength to compete with man, she is often compelled to exhaust all +her energy, use up her vitality, and strain every nerve in order to +reach the market value. Very few ever succeed, for it is a fact that +women teachers, doctors, lawyers, architects, and engineers are +neither met with the same confidence as their male colleagues, nor +receive equal remuneration. And those that do reach that enticing +equality, generally do so at the expense of their physical and +psychical well-being. As to the great mass of working girls and +women, how much independence is gained if the narrowness and lack of +freedom of the home is exchanged for the narrowness and lack of +freedom of the factory, sweat-shop, department store, or office? In +addition is the burden which is laid on many women of looking after a +"home, sweet home"--cold, dreary, disorderly, uninviting--after a +day's hard work. Glorious independence! No wonder that hundreds of +girls are willing to accept the first offer of marriage, sick and +tired of their "independence" behind the counter, at the sewing or +typewriting machine. They are just as ready to marry as girls of the +middle class, who long to throw off the yoke of parental supremacy. +A so-called independence which leads only to earning the merest +subsistence is not so enticing, not so ideal, that one could expect +woman to sacrifice everything for it. Our highly praised +independence is, after all, but a slow process of dulling and +stifling woman's nature, her love instinct, and her mother instinct. + +Nevertheless, the position of the working girl is far more natural +and human than that of her seemingly more fortunate sister in the +more cultured professional walks of life--teachers, physicians, +lawyers, engineers, etc., who have to make a dignified, proper +appearance, while the inner life is growing empty and dead. + +The narrowness of the existing conception of woman's independence and +emancipation; the dread of love for a man who is not her social +equal; the fear that love will rob her of her freedom and +independence; the horror that love or the joy of motherhood will only +hinder her in the full exercise of her profession--all these together +make of the emancipated modern woman a compulsory vestal, before whom +life, with its great clarifying sorrows and its deep, entrancing +joys, rolls on without touching or gripping her soul. + +Emancipation, as understood by the majority of its adherents and +exponents, is of too narrow a scope to permit the boundless love and +ecstasy contained in the deep emotion of the true woman, sweetheart, +mother, in freedom. + +The tragedy of the self-supporting or economically free woman does +not lie in too many but in too few experiences. True, she surpasses +her sister of past generations in knowledge of the world and human +nature; it is just because of this that she feels deeply the lack of +life's essence, which alone can enrich the human soul, and without +which the majority of women have become mere professional automatons. + +That such a state of affairs was bound to come was foreseen by those +who realized that, in the domain of ethics, there still remained many +decaying ruins of the time of the undisputed superiority of man; +ruins that are still considered useful. And, what is more important, +a goodly number of the emancipated are unable to get along without +them. Every movement that aims at the destruction of existing +institutions and the replacement thereof with something more +advanced, more perfect, has followers who in theory stand for the +most radical ideas, but who, nevertheless, in their every-day +practice, are like the average Philistine, feigning respectability +and clamoring for the good opinion of their opponents. There are, +for example, Socialists, and even Anarchists, who stand for the idea +that property is robbery, yet who will grow indignant if anyone owe +them the value of a half-dozen pins. + +The same Philistine can be found in the movement for woman's +emancipation. Yellow journalists and milk-and-water litterateurs +have painted pictures of the emancipated woman that make the hair of +the good citizen and his dull companion stand up on end. Every +member of the woman's rights movement was pictured as a George Sand +in her absolute disregard of morality. Nothing was sacred to her. +She had no respect for the ideal relation between man and woman. In +short, emancipation stood only for a reckless life of lust and sin; +regardless of society, religion, and morality. The exponents of +woman's rights were highly indignant at such representation, and, +lacking humor, they exerted all their energy to prove that they were +not at all as bad as they were painted, but the very reverse. Of +course, as long as woman was the slave of man, she could not be good +and pure, but now that she was free and independent she would prove +how good she could be and that her influence would have a purifying +effect on all institutions in society. True, the movement for +woman's rights has broken many old fetters, but it has also forged +new ones. The great movement of TRUE emancipation has not met with a +great race of women who could look liberty in the face. Their +narrow, Puritanical vision banished man, as a disturber and doubtful +character, out of their emotional life. Man was not to be tolerated +at any price, except perhaps as the father of a child, since a child +could not very well come to life without a father. Fortunately, the +most rigid Puritans never will be strong enough to kill the innate +craving for motherhood. But woman's freedom is closely allied with +man's freedom, and many of my so-called emancipated sisters seem to +overlook the fact that a child born in freedom needs the love and +devotion of each human being about him, man as well as woman. +Unfortunately, it is this narrow conception of human relations that +has brought about a great tragedy in the lives of the modern man and +woman. + +About fifteen years ago appeared a work from the pen of the brilliant +Norwegian, Laura Marholm, called WOMAN, A CHARACTER STUDY. She was +one of the first to call attention to the emptiness and narrowness of +the existing conception of woman's emancipation, and its tragic +effect upon the inner life of woman. In her work Laura Marholm +speaks of the fate of several gifted women of international fame: the +genius, Eleonora Duse; the great mathematician and writer, Sonya +Kovalevskaia; the artist and poet-nature, Marie Bashkirtzeff, who +died so young. Through each description of the lives of these women +of such extraordinary mentality runs a marked trail of unsatisfied +craving for a full, rounded, complete, and beautiful life, and the +unrest and loneliness resulting from the lack of it. Through these +masterly psychological sketches, one cannot help but see that the +higher the mental development of woman, the less possible it is for +her to meet a congenial mate who will see in her, not only sex, but +also the human being, the friend, the comrade and strong +individuality, who cannot and ought not lose a single trait of her +character. + +The average man with his self-sufficiency, his ridiculously superior +airs of patronage towards the female sex, is an impossibility for +woman as depicted in the CHARACTER STUDY by Laura Marholm. Equally +impossible for her is the man who can see in her nothing more than +her mentality and her genius, and who fails to awaken her woman +nature. + +A rich intellect and a fine soul are usually considered necessary +attributes of a deep and beautiful personality. In the case of the +modern woman, these attributes serve as a hindrance to the complete +assertion of her being. For over a hundred years the old form of +marriage, based on the Bible, "till death doth part," has been +denounced as an institution that stands for the sovereignty of the +man over the woman, of her complete submission to his whims and +commands, and absolute dependence on his name and support. Time and +again it has been conclusively proved that the old matrimonial +relation restricted woman to the function of a man's servant and the +bearer of his children. And yet we find many emancipated women who +prefer marriage, with all its deficiencies, to the narrowness of an +unmarried life; narrow and unendurable because of the chains of moral +and social prejudice that cramp and bind her nature. + +The explanation of such inconsistency on the part of many advanced +women is to be found in the fact that they never truly understood the +meaning of emancipation. They thought that all that was needed was +independence from external tyrannies; the internal tyrants, far more +harmful to life and growth--ethical and social conventions--were left +to take care of themselves; and they have taken care of themselves. +They seem to get along as beautifully in the heads and hearts of the +most active exponents of woman's emancipation, as in the heads and +hearts of our grandmothers. + +These internal tyrants, whether they be in the form of public opinion +or what will mother say, or brother, father, aunt, or relative of any +sort; what will Mrs. Grundy, Mr. Comstock, the employer, the Board of +Education say? All these busybodies, moral detectives, jailers of +the human spirit, what will they say? Until woman has learned to +defy them all, to stand firmly on her own ground and to insist upon +her own unrestricted freedom, to listen to the voice of her nature, +whether it call for life's greatest treasure, love for a man, or her +most glorious privilege, the right to give birth to a child, she +cannot call herself emancipated. How many emancipated women are +brave enough to acknowledge that the voice of love is calling, wildly +beating against their breasts, demanding to be heard, to be +satisfied. + +The French writer, Jean Reibrach, in one of his novels, NEW BEAUTY, +attempts to picture the ideal, beautiful, emancipated woman. This +ideal is embodied in a young girl, a physician. She talks very +cleverly and wisely of how to feed infants; she is kind, and +administers medicines free to poor mothers. She converses with a +young man of her acquaintance about the sanitary conditions of the +future, and how various bacilli and germs shall be exterminated by +the use of stone walls and floors, and by the doing away with rugs +and hangings. She is, of course, very plainly and practically +dressed, mostly in black. The young man, who, at their first +meeting, was overawed by the wisdom of his emancipated friend, +gradually learns to understand her, and recognizes one fine day that +he loves her. They are young, and she is kind and beautiful, and +though always in rigid attire, her appearance is softened by a +spotlessly clean white collar and cuffs. One would expect that he +would tell her of his love, but he is not one to commit romantic +absurdities. Poetry and the enthusiasm of love cover their blushing +faces before the pure beauty of the lady. He silences the voice of +his nature, and remains correct. She, too, is always exact, always +rational, always well behaved. I fear if they had formed a union, +the young man would have risked freezing to death. I must confess +that I can see nothing beautiful in this new beauty, who is as cold +as the stone walls and floors she dreams of. Rather would I have the +love songs of romantic ages, rather Don Juan and Madame Venus, rather +an elopement by ladder and rope on a moonlight night, followed by the +father's curse, mother's moans, and the moral comments of neighbors, +than correctness and propriety measured by yardsticks. If love does +not know how to give and take without restrictions, it is not love, +but a transaction that never fails to lay stress on a plus and a +minus. + +The greatest shortcoming of the emancipation of the present day lies +in its artificial stiffness and its narrow respectabilities, which +produce an emptiness in woman's soul that will not let her drink from +the fountain of life. I once remarked that there seemed to be a +deeper relationship between the old-fashioned mother and hostess, +ever on the alert for the happiness of her little ones and the +comfort of those she loved, and the truly new woman, than between +the latter and her average emancipated sister. The disciples of +emancipation pure and simple declared me a heathen, fit only for the +stake. Their blind zeal did not let them see that my comparison +between the old and the new was merely to prove that a goodly number +of our grandmothers had more blood in their veins, far more humor and +wit, and certainly a greater amount of naturalness, kind-heartedness, +and simplicity, than the majority of our emancipated professional +women who fill the colleges, halls of learning, and various offices. +This does not mean a wish to return to the past, nor does it condemn +woman to her old sphere, the kitchen and the nursery. + +Salvation lies in an energetic march onward towards a brighter and +clearer future. We are in need of unhampered growth out of old +traditions and habits. The movement for woman's emancipation has so +far made but the first step in that direction. It is to be hoped +that it will gather strength to make another. The right to vote, or +equal civil rights, may be good demands, but true emancipation begins +neither at the polls nor in courts. It begins in woman's soul. +History tells us that every oppressed class gained true liberation +from its masters through its own efforts. It is necessary that woman +learn that lesson, that she realize that her freedom will reach as +far as her power to achieve her freedom reaches. It is, therefore, +far more important for her to begin with her inner regeneration, to +cut loose from the weight of prejudices, traditions, and customs. +The demand for equal rights in every vocation of life is just and +fair; but, after all, the most vital right is the right to love and +be loved. Indeed, if partial emancipation is to become a complete +and true emancipation of woman, it will have to do away with the +ridiculous notion that to be loved, to be sweetheart and mother, is +synonymous with being slave or subordinate. It will have to do away +with the absurd notion of the dualism of the sexes, or that man and +woman represent two antagonistic worlds. + +Pettiness separates; breadth unites. Let us be broad and big. Let +us not overlook vital things because of the bulk of trifles +confronting us. A true conception of the relation of the sexes will +not admit of conqueror and conquered; it knows of but one great +thing: to give of one's self boundlessly, in order to find one's self +richer, deeper, better. That alone can fill the emptiness, and +transform the tragedy of woman's emancipation into joy, limitless +joy. + + + + +MARRIAGE AND LOVE + + + +The popular notion about marriage and love is that they are +synonymous, that they spring from the same motives, and cover the +same human needs. Like most popular notions this also rests not on +actual facts, but on superstition. + +Marriage and love have nothing in common; they are as far apart as +the poles; are, in fact, antagonistic to each other. No doubt some +marriages have been the result of love. Not, however, because love +could assert itself only in marriage; much rather is it because few +people can completely outgrow a convention. There are today large +numbers of men and women to whom marriage is naught but a farce, but +who submit to it for the sake of public opinion. At any rate, while +it is true that some marriages are based on love, and while it is +equally true that in some cases love continues in married life, I +maintain that it does so regardless of marriage, and not because of +it. + +On the other hand, it is utterly false that love results from +marriage. On rare occasions one does hear of a miraculous case of a +married couple falling in love after marriage, but on close +examination it will be found that it is a mere adjustment to the +inevitable. Certainly the growing-used to each other is far away +from the spontaneity, the intensity, and beauty of love, without +which the intimacy of marriage must prove degrading to both the woman +and the man. + +Marriage is primarily an economic arrangement, an insurance pact. It +differs from the ordinary life insurance agreement only in that it is +more binding, more exacting. Its returns are insignificantly small +compared with the investments. In taking out an insurance policy one +pays for it in dollars and cents, always at liberty to discontinue +payments. If, however, woman's premium is her husband, she pays for +it with her name, her privacy, her self-respect, her very life, +"until death doth part." Moreover, the marriage insurance condemns +her to life-long dependency, to parasitism, to complete uselessness, +individual as well as social. Man, too, pays his toll, but as his +sphere is wider, marriage does not limit him as much as woman. He +feels his chains more in an economic sense. + +Thus Dante's motto over Inferno applies with equal force to marriage. +"Ye who enter here leave all hope behind." + +That marriage is a failure none but the very stupid will deny. One +has but to glance over the statistics of divorce to realize how +bitter a failure marriage really is. Nor will the stereotyped +Philistine argument that the laxity of divorce laws and the growing +looseness of woman account for the fact that: first, every twelfth +marriage ends in divorce; second, that since 1870 divorces have +increased from 28 to 73 for every hundred thousand population; third, +that adultery, since 1867, as ground for divorce, has increased 270.8 +per cent.; fourth, that desertion increased 369.8 per cent. + +Added to these startling figures is a vast amount of material, +dramatic and literary, further elucidating this subject. Robert +Herrick, in TOGETHER; Pinero, in MID-CHANNEL; Eugene Walter, in PAID +IN FULL, and scores of other writers are discussing the barrenness, +the monotony, the sordidness, the inadequacy of marriage as a factor +for harmony and understanding. + +The thoughtful social student will not content himself with the +popular superficial excuse for this phenomenon. He will have to dig +deeper into the very life of the sexes to know why marriage proves so +disastrous. + +Edward Carpenter says that behind every marriage stands the life-long +environment of the two sexes; an environment so different from each +other that man and woman must remain strangers. Separated by an +insurmountable wall of superstition, custom, and habit, marriage has +not the potentiality of developing knowledge of, and respect for, +each other, without which every union is doomed to failure. + +Henrik Ibsen, the hater of all social shams, was probably the first +to realize this great truth. Nora leaves her husband, not--as the +stupid critic would have it--because she is tired of her +responsibilities or feels the need of woman's rights, but because she +has come to know that for eight years she had lived with a stranger +and borne him children. Can there be anything more humiliating, more +degrading than a life-long proximity between two strangers? No need +for the woman to know anything of the man, save his income. As to +the knowledge of the woman--what is there to know except that she has +a pleasing appearance? We have not yet outgrown the theologic myth +that woman has no soul, that she is a mere appendix to man, made out +of his rib just for the convenience of the gentleman who was so +strong that he was afraid of his own shadow. + +Perchance the poor quality of the material whence woman comes is +responsible for her inferiority. At any rate, woman has no +soul--what is there to know about her? Besides, the less soul a +woman has the greater her asset as a wife, the more readily will she +absorb herself in her husband. It is this slavish acquiescence to +man's superiority that has kept the marriage institution seemingly +intact for so long a period. Now that woman is coming into her own, +now that she is actually growing aware of herself as being outside +of the master's grace, the sacred institution of marriage is +gradually being undermined, and no amount of sentimental lamentation +can stay it. + +From infancy, almost, the average girl is told that marriage is her +ultimate goal; therefore her training and education must be directed +towards that end. Like the mute beast fattened for slaughter, she is +prepared for that. Yet, strange to say, she is allowed to know much +less about her function as wife and mother than the ordinary artisan +of his trade. It is indecent and filthy for a respectable girl to +know anything of the marital relation. Oh, for the inconsistency of +respectability, that needs the marriage vow to turn something which +is filthy into the purest and most sacred arrangement that none dare +question or criticize. Yet that is exactly the attitude of the +average upholder of marriage. The prospective wife and mother is +kept in complete ignorance of her only asset in the competitive +field--sex. Thus she enters into life-long relations with a man only +to find herself shocked, repelled, outraged beyond measure by the +most natural and healthy instinct, sex. It is safe to say that a +large percentage of the unhappiness, misery, distress, and physical +suffering of matrimony is due to the criminal ignorance in sex +matters that is being extolled as a great virtue. Nor is it at all +an exaggeration when I say that more than one home has been broken up +because of this deplorable fact. + + +If, however, woman is free and big enough to learn the mystery of sex +without the sanction of State or Church, she will stand condemned as +utterly unfit to become the wife of a "good" man, his goodness +consisting of an empty brain and plenty of money. Can there be +anything more outrageous than the idea that a healthy, grown woman, +full of life and passion, must deny nature's demand, must subdue her +most intense craving, undermine her health and break her spirit, must +stunt her vision, abstain from the depth and glory of sex experience +until a "good" man comes along to take her unto himself as a wife? +That is precisely what marriage means. How can such an arrangement +end except in failure? This is one, though not the least important, +factor of marriage, which differentiates it from love. + +Ours is a practical age. The time when Romeo and Juliet risked the +wrath of their fathers for love, when Gretchen exposed herself to the +gossip of her neighbors for love, is no more. If, on rare occasions, +young people allow themselves the luxury of romance, they are taken +in care by the elders, drilled and pounded until they become +"sensible." + +The moral lesson instilled in the girl is not whether the man has +aroused her love, but rather is it, "How much?" The important and +only God of practical American life: Can the man make a living? can +he support a wife? That is the only thing that justifies marriage. +Gradually this saturates every thought of the girl; her dreams are +not of moonlight and kisses, of laughter and tears; she dreams of +shopping tours and bargain counters. This soul poverty and +sordidness are the elements inherent in the marriage institution. +The State and Church approve of no other ideal, simply because it is +the one that necessitates the State and Church control of men and +women. + +Doubtless there are people who continue to consider love above +dollars and cents. Particularly this is true of that class whom +economic necessity has forced to become self-supporting. The +tremendous change in woman's position, wrought by that mighty factor, +is indeed phenomenal when we reflect that it is but a short time +since she has entered the industrial arena. Six million women wage +workers; six million women, who have equal right with men to be +exploited, to be robbed, to go on strike; aye, to starve even. +Anything more, my lord? Yes, six million wage workers in every walk +of life, from the highest brain work to the mines and railroad +tracks; yes, even detectives and policemen. Surely the emancipation +is complete. + +Yet with all that, but a very small number of the vast army of women +wage workers look upon work as a permanent issue, in the same light +as does man. No matter how decrepit the latter, he has been taught +to be independent, self-supporting. Oh, I know that no one is really +independent in our economic treadmill; still, the poorest specimen of +a man hates to be a parasite; to be known as such, at any rate. + +The woman considers her position as worker transitory, to be thrown +aside for the first bidder. That is why it is infinitely harder to +organize women than men. "Why should I join a union? I am going to +get married, to have a home." Has she not been taught from infancy +to look upon that as her ultimate calling? She learns soon enough +that the home, though not so large a prison as the factory, has more +solid doors and bars. It has a keeper so faithful that naught can +escape him. The most tragic part, however, is that the home no +longer frees her from wage slavery; it only increases her task. + +According to the latest statistics submitted before a Committee "on +labor and wages, and congestion of population," ten per cent. of the +wage workers in New York City alone are married, yet they must +continue to work at the most poorly paid labor in the world. Add to +this horrible aspect the drudgery of housework, and what remains of +the protection and glory of the home? As a matter of fact, even the +middle-class girl in marriage can not speak of her home, since it is +the man who creates her sphere. It is not important whether the +husband is a brute or a darling. What I wish to prove is that +marriage guarantees woman a home only by the grace of her husband. +There she moves about in HIS home, year after year, until her aspect +of life and human affairs becomes as flat, narrow, and drab as her +surroundings. Small wonder if she becomes a nag, petty, quarrelsome, +gossipy, unbearable, thus driving the man from the house. She could +not go, if she wanted to; there is no place to go. Besides, a short +period of married life, of complete surrender of all faculties, +absolutely incapacitates the average woman for the outside world. +She becomes reckless in appearance, clumsy in her movements, +dependent in her decisions, cowardly in her judgment, a weight and a +bore, which most men grow to hate and despise. Wonderfully inspiring +atmosphere for the bearing of life, is it not? + +But the child, how is it to be protected, if not for marriage? After +all, is not that the most important consideration? The sham, the +hypocrisy of it! Marriage protecting the child, yet thousands of +children destitute and homeless. Marriage protecting the child, yet +orphan asylums and reformatories overcrowded, the Society for the +Prevention of Cruelty to Children keeping busy in rescuing the little +victims from "loving" parents, to place them under more loving care, +the Gerry Society. Oh, the mockery of it! + +Marriage may have the power to bring the horse to water, but has it +ever made him drink? The law will place the father under arrest, and +put him in convict's clothes; but has that ever stilled the hunger of +the child? If the parent has no work, or if he hides his identity, +what does marriage do then? It invokes the law to bring the man to +"justice," to put him safely behind closed doors; his labor, however, +goes not to the child, but to the State. The child receives but a +blighted memory of his father's stripes. + +As to the protection of the woman,--therein lies the curse of +marriage. Not that it really protects her, but the very idea is so +revolting, such an outrage and insult on life, so degrading to human +dignity, as to forever condemn this parasitic institution. + +It is like that other paternal arrangement--capitalism. It robs man +of his birthright, stunts his growth, poisons his body, keeps him in +ignorance, in poverty, and dependence, and then institutes charities +that thrive on the last vestige of man's self-respect. + +The institution of marriage makes a parasite of woman, an absolute +dependent. It incapacitates her for life's struggle, annihilates her +social consciousness, paralyzes her imagination, and then imposes its +gracious protection, which is in reality a snare, a travesty on human +character. + +If motherhood is the highest fulfillment of woman's nature, what +other protection does it need, save love and freedom? Marriage but +defiles, outrages, and corrupts her fulfillment. Does it not say to +woman, Only when you follow me shall you bring forth life? Does it +not condemn her to the block, does it not degrade and shame her if +she refuses to buy her right to motherhood by selling herself? Does +not marriage only sanction motherhood, even though conceived in +hatred, in compulsion? Yet, if motherhood be of free choice, of +love, of ecstasy, of defiant passion, does it not place a crown of +thorns upon an innocent head and carve in letters of blood the +hideous epithet, Bastard? Were marriage to contain all the virtues +claimed for it, its crimes against motherhood would exclude it +forever from the realm of love. + +Love, the strongest and deepest element in all life, the harbinger of +hope, of joy, of ecstasy; love, the defier of all laws, of all +conventions; love, the freest, the most powerful moulder of human +destiny; how can such an all-compelling force be synonymous with that +poor little State and Church-begotten weed, marriage? + +Free love? As if love is anything but free! Man has bought brains, +but all the millions in the world have failed to buy love. Man has +subdued bodies, but all the power on earth has been unable to subdue +love. Man has conquered whole nations, but all his armies could not +conquer love. Man has chained and fettered the spirit, but he has +been utterly helpless before love. High on a throne, with all the +splendor and pomp his gold can command, man is yet poor and desolate, +if love passes him by. And if it stays, the poorest hovel is radiant +with warmth, with life and color. Thus love has the magic power to +make of a beggar a king. Yes, love is free; it can dwell in no other +atmosphere. In freedom it gives itself unreservedly, abundantly, +completely. All the laws on the statutes, all the courts in the +universe, cannot tear it from the soil, once love has taken root. +If, however, the soil is sterile, how can marriage make it bear +fruit? It is like the last desperate struggle of fleeting life +against death. + +Love needs no protection; it is its own protection. So long as love +begets life no child is deserted, or hungry, or famished for the want +of affection. I know this to be true. I know women who became +mothers in freedom by the men they loved. Few children in wedlock +enjoy the care, the protection, the devotion free motherhood is +capable of bestowing. + +The defenders of authority dread the advent of a free motherhood, +lest it will rob them of their prey. Who would fight wars? Who +would create wealth? Who would make the policeman, the jailer, if +woman were to refuse the indiscriminate breeding of children? The +race, the race! shouts the king, the president, the capitalist, the +priest. The race must be preserved, though woman be degraded to a +mere machine,--and the marriage institution is our only safety valve +against the pernicious sex awakening of woman. But in vain these +frantic efforts to maintain a state of bondage. In vain, too, the +edicts of the Church, the mad attacks of rulers, in vain even the arm +of the law. Woman no longer wants to be a party to the production of +a race of sickly, feeble, decrepit, wretched human beings, who have +neither the strength nor moral courage to throw off the yoke of +poverty and slavery. Instead she desires fewer and better children, +begotten and reared in love and through free choice; not by +compulsion, as marriage imposes. Our pseudo-moralists have yet to +learn the deep sense of responsibility toward the child, that love in +freedom has awakened in the breast of woman. Rather would she forego +forever the glory of motherhood than bring forth life in an +atmosphere that breathes only destruction and death. And if she does +become a mother, it is to give to the child the deepest and best her +being can yield. To grow with the child is her motto; she knows that +in that manner alone can she help build true manhood and womanhood. + +Ibsen must have had a vision of a free mother, when, with a master +stroke, he portrayed Mrs. Alving. She was the ideal mother because +she had outgrown marriage and all its horrors, because she had broken +her chains, and set her spirit free to soar until it returned a +personality, regenerated and strong. Alas, it was too late to rescue +her life's joy, her Oswald; but not too late to realize that love in +freedom is the only condition of a beautiful life. Those who, like +Mrs. Alving, have paid with blood and tears for their spiritual +awakening, repudiate marriage as an imposition, a shallow, empty +mockery. They know, whether love last but one brief span of time or +for eternity, it is the only creative, inspiring, elevating basis for +a new race, a new world. + +In our present pygmy state love is indeed a stranger to most people. +Misunderstood and shunned, it rarely takes root; or if it does, it +soon withers and dies. Its delicate fiber can not endure the stress +and strain of the daily grind. Its soul is too complex to adjust +itself to the slimy woof of our social fabric. It weeps and moans +and suffers with those who have need of it, yet lack the capacity to +rise to love's summit. + +Some day, some day men and women will rise, they will reach the +mountain peak, they will meet big and strong and free, ready to +receive, to partake, and to bask in the golden rays of love. What +fancy, what imagination, what poetic genius can foresee even +approximately the potentialities of such a force in the life of men +and women. If the world is ever to give birth to true companionship +and oneness, not marriage, but love will be the parent. + + + + +THE MODERN DRAMA: A POWERFUL DISSEMINATOR OF RADICAL THOUGHT + + + +So long as discontent and unrest make themselves but dumbly felt +within a limited social class, the powers of reaction may often +succeed in suppressing such manifestations. But when the dumb unrest +grows into conscious expression and becomes almost universal, it +necessarily affects all phases of human thought and action, and seeks +its individual and social expression in the gradual transvaluation of +existing values. + +An adequate appreciation of the tremendous spread of the modern, +conscious social unrest cannot be gained from merely propagandistic +literature. Rather must we become conversant with the larger phases +of human expression manifest in art, literature, and, above all, the +modern drama--the strongest and most far-reaching interpreter of our +deep-felt dissatisfaction. + +What a tremendous factor for the awakening of conscious discontent +are the simple canvasses of a Millet! The figures of his +peasants--what terrific indictment against our social wrongs; wrongs +that condemn the Man With the Hoe to hopeless drudgery, himself +excluded from Nature's bounty. + +The vision of a Meunier conceives the growing solidarity and defiance +of labor in the group of miners carrying their maimed brother to +safety. His genius thus powerfully portrays the interrelation of the +seething unrest among those slaving in the bowels of the earth, and +the spiritual revolt that seeks artistic expression. + +No less important is the factor for rebellious awakening in modern +literature--Turgeniev, Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Andreiev, Gorki, +Whitman, Emerson, and scores of others embodying the spirit of +universal ferment and the longing for social change. + +Still more far-reaching is the modern drama, as the leaven of radical +thought and the disseminator of new values. + +It might seem an exaggeration to ascribe to the modern drama such an +important role. But a study of the development of modern ideas in +most countries will prove that the drama has succeeded in driving +home great social truths, truths generally ignored when presented in +other forms. No doubt there are exceptions, as Russia and France. + +Russia, with its terrible political pressure, has made people think +and has awakened their social sympathies, because of the tremendous +contrast which exists between the intellectual life of the people and +the despotic regime that is trying to crush that life. Yet while the +great dramatic works of Tolstoy, Tchechov, Gorki, and Andreiev +closely mirror the life and the struggle, the hopes and aspirations +of the Russian people, they did not influence radical thought to the +extent the drama has done in other countries. + +Who can deny, however, the tremendous influence exerted by THE POWER +OF DARKNESS or NIGHT LODGING. Tolstoy, the real, true Christian, is +yet the greatest enemy of organized Christianity. With a master hand +he portrays the destructive effects upon the human mind of the power +of darkness, the superstitions of the Christian Church. + +What other medium could express, with such dramatic force, the +responsibility of the Church for crimes committed by its deluded +victims; what other medium could, in consequence, rouse the +indignation of man's conscience? + +Similarly direct and powerful is the indictment contained in Gorki's +NIGHT LODGING. The social pariahs, forced into poverty and crime, +yet desperately clutch at the last vestiges of hope and aspiration. +Lost existences these, blighted and crushed by cruel, unsocial +environment. + +France, on the other hand, with her continuous struggle for liberty, +is indeed the cradle of radical thought; as such she, too, did not +need the drama as a means of awakening. And yet the works of +Brieux--as ROBE ROUGE, portraying the terrible corruption of the +judiciary--and Mirbeau's LES AFFAIRES SONT LES AFFAIRES--picturing +the destructive influence of wealth on the human soul--have +undoubtedly reached wider circles than most of the articles and books +which have been written in France on the social question. + +In countries like Germany, Scandinavia, England, and even in +America--though in a lesser degree--the drama is the vehicle which is +really making history, disseminating radical thought in ranks not +otherwise to be reached. + +Let us take Germany, for instance. For nearly a quarter of a century +men of brains, of ideas, and of the greatest integrity, made it their +life-work to spread the truth of human brotherhood, of justice, among +the oppressed and downtrodden. Socialism, that tremendous +revolutionary wave, was to the victims of a merciless and inhumane +system like water to the parched lips of the desert traveler. Alas! +The cultured people remained absolutely indifferent; to them that +revolutionary tide was but the murmur of dissatisfied, discontented +men, dangerous, illiterate troublemakers, whose proper place was +behind prison bars. + +Self-satisfied as the "cultured" usually are, they could not +understand why one should fuss about the fact that thousands of +people were starving, though they contributed towards the wealth of +the world. Surrounded by beauty and luxury, they could not believe +that side by side with them lived human beings degraded to a position +lower than a beast's, shelterless and ragged, without hope or +ambition. + +This condition of affairs was particularly pronounced in Germany +after the Franco-German war. Full to the bursting point with its +victory, Germany thrived on a sentimental, patriotic literature, +thereby poisoning the minds of the country's youth by the glory of +conquest and bloodshed. + +Intellectual Germany had to take refuge in the literature of other +countries, in the works of Ibsen, Zola, Daudet, Maupassant, and +especially in the great works of Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, and Turgeniev. +But as no country can long maintain a standard of culture without a +literature and drama related to its own soil, so Germany gradually +began to develop a drama reflecting the life and the struggles of its +own people. + +Arno Holz, one of the youngest dramatists of that period, startled +the Philistines out of their ease and comfort with his FAMILIE +SELICKE. The play deals with society's refuse, men and women of the +alleys, whose only subsistence consists of what they can pick out of +the garbage barrels. A gruesome subject, is it not? And yet what +other method is there to break through the hard shell of the minds +and souls of people who have never known want, and who therefore +assume that all is well in the world? + +Needless to say, the play aroused tremendous indignation. The truth +is bitter, and the people living on the Fifth Avenue of Berlin hated +to be confronted with the truth. + +Not that FAMILIE SELICKE represented anything that had not been +written about for years without any seeming result. But the dramatic +genius of Holz, together with the powerful interpretation of the +play, necessarily made inroads into the widest circles, and forced +people to think about the terrible inequalities around them. + +Sudermann's EHRE* and HEIMAT** deal with vital subjects. I have +already referred to the sentimental patriotism so completely turning +the head of the average German as to create a perverted conception of +honor. Duelling became an every-day affair, costing innumerable +lives. A great cry was raised against the fad by a number of leading +writers. But nothing acted as such a clarifier and exposer of that +national disease as the EHRE. + +---------- +* HONOR. +** MAGDA. +---------- + +Not that the play merely deals with duelling; it analyzes the real +meaning of honor, proving that it is not a fixed, inborn feeling, but +that it varies with every people and every epoch, depending +particularly on one's economic and social station in life. We +realize from this play that the man in the brownstone mansion will +necessarily define honor differently from his victims. + +The family Heinecke enjoys the charity of the millionaire Muhling, +being permitted to occupy a dilapidated shanty on his premises in the +absence of their son, Robert. The latter, as Muhling's +representative, is making a vast fortune for his employer in India. +On his return Robert discovers that his sister had been seduced by +young Muhling, whose father graciously offers to straighten matters +with a check for 40,000 marks. Robert, outraged and indignant, +resents the insult to his family's honor, and is forthwith dismissed +from his position for impudence. Robert finally throws this +accusation into the face of the philanthropist millionaire: + +"We slave for you, we sacrifice our heart's blood for you, while you +seduce our daughters and sisters and kindly pay for their disgrace +with the gold we have earned for you. That is what you call honor." + +An incidental side-light upon the conception of honor is given by +Count Trast, the principal character in the EHRE, a man widely +conversant with the customs of various climes, who relates that in +his many travels he chanced across a savage tribe whose honor he +mortally offended by refusing the hospitality which offered him the +charms of the chieftain's wife. + +The theme of HEIMAT treats of the struggle between the old and the +young generations. It holds a permanent and important place in +dramatic literature. + +Magda, the daughter of Lieutenant Colonel Schwartz, has committed an +unpardonable sin: she refused the suitor selected by her father. For +daring to disobey the parental commands she is driven from home. +Magda, full of life and the spirit of liberty, goes out into the +world to return to her native town, twelve years later, a celebrated +singer. She consents to visit her parents on condition that they +respect the privacy of her past. But her martinet father immediately +begins to question her, insisting on his "paternal rights." Magda is +indignant, but gradually his persistence brings to light the tragedy +of her life. He learns that the respected Councillor Von Keller had +in his student days been Magda's lover, while she was battling for +her economic and social independence. The consequence of the +fleeting romance was a child, deserted by the man even before birth. +The rigid military father of Magda demands as retribution from +Councillor Von Keller that he legalize the love affair. In view of +Magda's social and professional success, Keller willingly consents, +but on condition that she forsake the stage, and place the child in +an institution. The struggle between the Old and the New culminates +in Magda's defiant words of the woman grown to conscious independence +of thought and action: ". . .I'll say what I think of you--of you +and your respectable society. Why should I be worse than you that I +must prolong my existence among you by a lie! Why should this gold +upon my body, and the lustre which surrounds my name, only increase +my infamy? Have I not worked early and late for ten long years? +Have I not woven this dress with sleepless nights? Have I not built +up my career step by step, like thousands of my kind? Why should I +blush before anyone? I am myself, and through myself I have become +what I am." + +The general theme of HEIMAT was not original. It had been previously +treated by a master hand in FATHERS AND SONS. Partly because +Turgeniev's great work was typical rather of Russian than universal +conditions, and still more because it was in the form of fiction, the +influence of FATHERS AND SONS was limited to Russia. But HEIMAT, +especially because of its dramatic expression, became almost a world +factor. + +The dramatist who not only disseminated radicalism, but literally +revolutionized the thoughtful Germans, is Gerhardt Hauptmann. His +first play VOR SONNENAUFGANG*, refused by every leading German +theatre and first performed in a wretched little playhouse behind a +beer garden, acted like a stroke of lightning, illuminating the +entire social horizon. Its subject matter deals with the life of an +extensive landowner, ignorant, illiterate, and brutalized, and his +economic slaves of the same mental calibre. The influence of wealth, +both on the victims who created it and the possessor thereof, is +shown in the most vivid colors, as resulting in drunkenness, idiocy, +and decay. But the most striking feature of VOR SONNENAUFGANG, the +one which brought a shower of abuse on Hauptmann's head, was the +question as to the indiscriminate breeding of children by unfit +parents. + +---------- +* BEFORE SUNRISE. +---------- + +During the second performance of the play a leading Berlin surgeon +almost caused a panic in the theatre by swinging a pair of forceps +over his head and screaming at the top of his voice: "The decency and +morality of Germany are at stake if childbirth is to be discussed +openly from the stage." The surgeon is forgotten, and Hauptmann +stands a colossal figure before the world. + +When DIE WEBER* first saw the light, pandemonium broke out in the +land of thinkers and poets. "What," cried the moralists, +"workingmen, dirty, filthy slaves, to be put on the stage! Poverty +in all its horrors and ugliness to be dished out as an after-dinner +amusement? That is too much!" + +---------- +* THE WEAVERS. +---------- + +Indeed, it was too much for the fat and greasy bourgeoisie to be +brought face to face with the horrors of the weaver's existence. It +was too much because of the truth and reality that rang like thunder +in the deaf ears of self-satisfied society, J'ACCUSE! + +Of course, it was generally known even before the appearance of this +drama that capital can not get fat unless it devours labor, that +wealth can not be hoarded except through the channels of poverty, +hunger, and cold; but such things are better kept in the dark, lest +the victims awaken to a realization of their position. But it is the +purpose of the modern drama to rouse the consciousness of the +oppressed; and that, indeed, was the purpose of Gerhardt Hauptmann in +depicting to the world the conditions of the weavers in Silesia. +Human beings working eighteen hours daily, yet not earning enough for +bread and fuel; human beings living in broken, wretched huts half +covered with snow, and nothing but tatters to protect them from the +cold; infants covered with scurvy from hunger and exposure; pregnant +women in the last stages of consumption. Victims of a benevolent +Christian era, without life, without hope, without warmth. Ah, yes, +it was too much! + +Hauptmann's dramatic versatility deals with every stratum of social +life. Besides portraying the grinding effect of economic conditions, +he also treats of the struggle of the individual for his mental and +spiritual liberation from the slavery of convention and tradition. +Thus Heinrich, the bell-forger, in the dramatic prose-poem, DIE +VERSUNKENE GLOCKE*, fails to reach the mountain peaks of liberty +because, as Rautendelein said, he had lived in the valley too long. +Similarly Dr. Vockerath and Anna Maar remain lonely souls because +they, too, lack the strength to defy venerated traditions. Yet their +very failure must awaken the rebellious spirit against a world +forever hindering individual and social emancipation. + +---------- +* THE SUNKEN BELL. +---------- + +Max Halbe's JUGEND* and Wedekind's FRUHLING'S ERWACHEN** are dramas +which have disseminated radical thought in an altogether different +direction. They treat of the child and the dense ignorance and +narrow Puritanism that meet the awakening of nature. Particularly +this is true of FRUHLING'S ERWACHEN. Young boys and girls sacrificed +on the altar of false education and of our sickening morality that +prohibits the enlightenment of youth as to questions so imperative to +the health and well-being of society,--the origin of life, and its +functions. It shows how a mother--and a truly good mother, at +that--keeps her fourteen-year-old daughter in absolute ignorance as +to all matters of sex, and when finally the young girl falls a victim +to her own ignorance, the same mother sees her daughter killed by +quack medicines. The inscription on her grave states that she died +of anaemia, and morality is satisfied. + +---------- +* YOUTH. +** THE AWAKENING OF SPRING. +---------- + +The fatality of our Puritanic hypocrisy in these matters is +especially illumined by Wedekind in so far as our most promising +children fall victims to sex ignorance and the utter lack of +appreciation on the part of the teachers of the child's awakening. + +Wendla, unusually developed and alert for her age, pleads with her +mother to explain the mystery of life: + +"I have a sister who has been married for two and a half years. I +myself have been made an aunt for the third time, and I haven't the +least idea how it all comes about. . . . Don't be cross, Mother, +dear! Whom in the world should I ask but you? Don't scold me for +asking about it. Give me an answer.--How does it happen?--You cannot +really deceive yourself that I, who am fourteen years old, still +believe in the stork." + +Were her mother herself not a victim of false notions of morality, an +affectionate and sensible explanation might have saved her daughter. +But the conventional mother seeks to hide her "moral" shame and +embarrassment in this evasive reply: + +"In order to have a child--one must love--the man--to whom one is +married. . . . One must love him, Wendla, as you at your age are +still unable to love.--Now you know it!" + +How much Wendla "knew" the mother realized too late. The pregnant +girl imagines herself ill with dropsy. And when her mother cries in +desperation, "You haven't the dropsy, you have a child, girl," the +agonized Wendla exclaims in bewilderment: "But it's not possible, +Mother, I am not married yet. . . . Oh, Mother, why didn't you tell +me everything?" + +With equal stupidity the boy Morris is driven to suicide because he +fails in his school examinations. And Melchior, the youthful father +of Wendla's unborn child, is sent to the House of Correction, his +early sexual awakening stamping him a degenerate in the eyes of +teachers and parents. + +For years thoughtful men and women in Germany had advocated the +compelling necessity of sex enlightenment. MUTTERSCHUTZ, a +publication specially devoted to frank and intelligent discussion of +the sex problem, has been carrying on its agitation for a +considerable time. But it remained for the dramatic genius of +Wedekind to influence radical thought to the extent of forcing the +introduction of sex physiology in many schools of Germany. + +Scandinavia, like Germany, was advanced through the drama much more +than through any other channel. Long before Ibsen appeared on the +scene, Bjornson, the great essayist, thundered against the +inequalities and injustice prevalent in those countries. But his was +a voice in the wilderness, reaching but the few. Not so with Ibsen. +His BRAND, DOLL'S HOUSE, PILLARS OF SOCIETY, GHOSTS, and AN ENEMY OF +THE PEOPLE have considerably undermined the old conceptions, and +replaced them by a modern and real view of life. One has but to read +BRAND to realize the modern conception, let us say, of +religion,--religion, as an ideal to be achieved on earth; religion as +a principle of human brotherhood, of solidarity, and kindness. + +Ibsen, the supreme hater of all social shams, has torn the veil of +hypocrisy from their faces. His greatest onslaught, however, is on +the four cardinal points supporting the flimsy network of society. +First, the lie upon which rests the life of today; second, the +futility of sacrifice as preached by our moral codes; third, petty +material consideration, which is the only god the majority worships; +and fourth, the deadening influence of provincialism. These four +recur as the LEITMOTIF in Ibsen's plays, but particularly in PILLARS +OF SOCIETY, DOLL'S HOUSE, GHOSTS, and AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE. + +Pillars of Society! What a tremendous indictment against the social +structure that rests on rotten and decayed pillars,--pillars nicely +gilded and apparently intact, yet merely hiding their true condition. +And what are these pillars? + +Consul Bernick, at the very height of his social and financial +career, the benefactor of his town and the strongest pillar of the +community, has reached the summit through the channel of lies, +deception, and fraud. He has robbed his bosom friend, Johann, of his +good name, and has betrayed Lona Hessel, the woman he loved, to marry +her step-sister for the sake of her money. He has enriched himself +by shady transactions, under cover of "the community's good," and +finally even goes to the extent of endangering human life by +preparing the INDIAN GIRL, a rotten and dangerous vessel, to go to +sea. + +But the return of Lona brings him the realization of the emptiness +and meanness of his narrow life. He seeks to placate the waking +conscience by the hope that he has cleared the ground for the better +life of his son, of the new generation. But even this last hope soon +falls to the ground, as he realizes that truth cannot be built on a +lie. At the very moment when the whole town is prepared to celebrate +the great benefactor of the community with banquet praise, he +himself, now grown to full spiritual manhood, confesses to the +assembled townspeople: + +"I have no right to this homage--. . .My fellow-citizens must know +me to the core. Then let everyone examine himself, and let us +realize the prediction that from this event we begin a new time. The +old, with its tinsel, its hypocrisy, its hollowness, its lying +propriety, and its pitiful cowardice, shall lie behind us like a +museum, open for instruction." + +With A DOLL'S HOUSE Ibsen has paved the way for woman's emancipation. +Nora awakens from her doll's role to the realization of the injustice +done her by her father and her husband, Helmer Torvald. + +"While I was at home with father, he used to tell me all his +opinions, and I held the same opinions. If I had others I concealed +them, because he would not have approved. He used to call me his +doll child, and play with me as I played with my dolls. Then I came +to live in your house. You settled everything according to your +taste, and I got the same taste as you, or I pretended to. When I +look back on it now, I seem to have been living like a beggar, from +hand to mouth. I lived by performing tricks for you, Torvald, but +you would have it so. You and father have done me a great wrong." + +In vain Helmer uses the old philistine arguments of wifely duty and +social obligations. Nora has grown out of her doll's dress into full +stature of conscious womanhood. She is determined to think and judge +for herself. She has realized that, before all else, she is a human +being, owing the first duty to herself. She is undaunted even by the +possibility of social ostracism. She has become sceptical of the +justice of the law, the wisdom of the constituted. Her rebelling +soul rises in protest against the existing. In her own words: "I +must make up my mind which is right, society or I." + +In her childlike faith in her husband she had hoped for the great +miracle. But it was not the disappointed hope that opened her vision +to the falsehoods of marriage. It was rather the smug contentment of +Helmer with a safe lie--one that would remain hidden and not endanger +his social standing. + +When Nora closed behind her the door of her gilded cage and went out +into the world a new, regenerated personality, she opened the gate of +freedom and truth for her own sex and the race to come. + +More than any other play, GHOSTS has acted like a bomb explosion, +shaking the social structure to its very foundations. + +In DOLL'S HOUSE the justification of the union between Nora and +Helmer rested at least on the husband's conception of integrity and +rigid adherence to our social morality. Indeed, he was the +conventional ideal husband and devoted father. Not so in GHOSTS. +Mrs. Alving married Captain Alving only to find that he was a +physical and mental wreck, and that life with him would mean utter +degradation and be fatal to possible offspring. In her despair she +turned to her youth's companion, young Pastor Manders who, as the +true savior of souls for heaven, must needs be indifferent to earthly +necessities. He sent her back to shame and degradation,--to her +duties to husband and home. Indeed, happiness--to him--was but the +unholy manifestation of a rebellious spirit, and a wife's duty was +not to judge, but "to bear with humility the cross which a higher +power had for your own good laid upon you." + +Mrs. Alving bore the cross for twenty-six long years. Not for the +sake of the higher power, but for her little son Oswald, whom she +longed to save from the poisonous atmosphere of her husband's home. + +It was also for the sake of the beloved son that she supported the +lie of his father's goodness, in superstitious awe of "duty and +decency." She learned, alas! too late, that the sacrifice of her +entire life had been in vain, and that her son Oswald was visited by +the sins of his father, that he was irrevocably doomed. This, too, +she learned, that "we are all of us ghosts. It is not only what we +have inherited from our father and mother that walks in us. It is +all sorts of dead ideas and lifeless old beliefs. They have no +vitality, but they cling to us all the same and we can't get rid of +them. . . . And then we are, one and all, so pitifully afraid of +light. When you forced me under the yoke you called Duty and +Obligation; when you praised as right and proper what my whole soul +rebelled against as something loathsome; it was then that I began to +look into the seams of your doctrine. I only wished to pick at a +single knot, but when I had got that undone, the whole thing ravelled +out. And then I understood that it was all machine-sewn." + +How could a society machine-sewn, fathom the seething depths whence +issued the great masterpiece of Henrik Ibsen? It could not +understand, and therefore it poured the vials of abuse and venom upon +its greatest benefactor. That Ibsen was not daunted he has proved by +his reply in AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE. + +In that great drama Ibsen performs the last funeral rites over a +decaying and dying social system. Out of its ashes rises the +regenerated individual, the bold and daring rebel. Dr. Stockman, an +idealist, full of social sympathy and solidarity, is called to his +native town as the physician of the baths. He soon discovers that +the latter are built on a swamp, and that instead of finding relief +the patients, who flock to the place, are being poisoned. + +An honest man, of strong convictions, the doctor considers it his +duty to make his discovery known. But he soon learns that dividends +and profits are concerned neither with health nor principles. Even +the reformers of the town, represented in the PEOPLE'S MESSENGER, +always ready to prate of their devotion to the people, withdraw their +support from the "reckless" idealist, the moment they learn that the +doctor's discovery may bring the town into disrepute, and thus injure +their pockets. + +But Doctor Stockman continues in the faith he entertains for has +townsmen. They would hear him. But here, too, he soon finds himself +alone. He cannot even secure a place to proclaim his great truth. +And when he finally succeeds, he is overwhelmed by abuse and ridicule +as the enemy of the people. The doctor, so enthusiastic of his +townspeople's assistance to eradicate the evil, is soon driven to a +solitary position. The announcement of his discovery would result in +a pecuniary loss to the town, and that consideration induces the +officials, the good citizens, and soul reformers, to stifle the voice +of truth. He finds them all a compact majority, unscrupulous enough +to be willing to build up the prosperity of the town on a quagmire of +lies and fraud. He is accused of trying to ruin the community. But +to his mind "it does not matter if a lying community is ruined. It +must be levelled to the ground. All men who live upon lies must be +exterminated like vermin. You'll bring it to such a pass that the +whole country will deserve to perish." + +Doctor Stockman is not a practical politician. A free man, he +thinks, must not behave like a blackguard. "He must not so act that +he would spit in his own face." For only cowards permit +"considerations" of pretended general welfare or of party to override +truth and ideals. "Party programmes wring the necks of all young, +living truths; and considerations of expediency turn morality and +righteousness upside down, until life is simply hideous." + +These plays of Ibsen--THE PILLARS OF SOCIETY, A DOLL'S HOUSE, GHOSTS, +and AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE--constitute a dynamic force which is +gradually dissipating the ghosts walking the social burying ground +called civilization. Nay, more; Ibsen's destructive effects are at +the same time supremely constructive, for he not merely undermines +existing pillars; indeed, he builds with sure strokes the foundation +of a healthier, ideal future, based on the sovereignty of the +individual within a sympathetic social environment. + +England with her great pioneers of radical thought, the intellectual +pilgrims like Godwin, Robert Owen, Darwin, Spencer, William Morris, +and scores of others; with her wonderful larks of liberty--Shelley, +Byron, Keats--is another example of the influence of dramatic art. +Within comparatively a few years, the dramatic works of Shaw, Pinero, +Galsworthy, Rann Kennedy, have carried radical thought to the ears +formerly deaf even to Great Britain's wondrous poets. Thus a public +which will remain indifferent reading an essay by Robert Owen, on +Poverty, or ignore Bernard Shaw's Socialistic tracts, was made to +think by MAJOR BARBARA, wherein poverty is described as the greatest +crime of Christian civilization. "Poverty makes people weak, +slavish, puny; poverty creates disease, crime, prostitution; in fine, +poverty is responsible for all the ills and evils of the world." +Poverty also necessitates dependency, charitable organizations, +institutions that thrive off the very thing they are trying to +destroy. The Salvation Army, for instance, as shown in MAJOR +BARBARA, fights drunkenness; yet one of its greatest contributors is +Badger, a whiskey distiller, who furnishes yearly thousands of pounds +to do away with the very source of his wealth. Bernard Shaw, +therefore, concludes that the only real benefactor of society is a +man like Undershaft, Barbara's father, a cannon manufacturer, whose +theory of life is that powder is stronger than words. + +"The worst of crimes," says Undershaft, "is poverty. All the other +crimes are virtues beside it; all the other dishonors are chivalry +itself by comparison. Poverty blights whole cities; spreads horrible +pestilences; strikes dead the very soul of all who come within sight, +sound, or smell of it. What you call crime is nothing; a murder +here, a theft there, a blow now and a curse there: what do they +matter? They are only the accidents and illnesses of life; there are +not fifty genuine professional criminals in London. But there are +millions of poor people, abject people, dirty people, ill-fed, +ill-clothed people. They poison us morally and physically; they kill +the happiness of society; they force us to do away with our own +liberties and to organize unnatural cruelties for fear they should +rise against us and drag us down into their abyss. . . . Poverty and +slavery have stood up for centuries to your sermons and leading +articles; they will not stand up to my machine guns. Don't preach at +them; don't reason with them. Kill them. . . . It is the final test +of conviction, the only lever strong enough to overturn a social +system. . . . Vote! Bah! When you vote, you only change the name +of the cabinet. When you shoot, you pull down governments, +inaugurate new epochs, abolish old orders, and set up new." + +No wonder people cared little to read Mr. Shaw's Socialistic tracts. +In no other way but in the drama could he deliver such forcible, +historic truths. And therefore it is only through the drama that Mr. +Shaw is a revolutionary factor in the dissemination of radical ideas. + +After Hauptmann's DIE WEBER, STRIFE, by Galsworthy, is the most +important labor drama. + +The theme of STRIFE is a strike with two dominant factors: Anthony, +the president of the company, rigid, uncompromising, unwilling to +make the slightest concession, although the men held out for months +and are in a condition of semi-starvation; and David Roberts, an +uncompromising revolutionist, whose devotion to the workingman and +the cause of freedom is at white heat. Between them the strikers are +worn and weary with the terrible struggle, and are harassed and +driven by the awful sight of poverty and want in their families. + +The most marvellous and brilliant piece of work in STRIFE is +Galsworthy's portrayal of the mob, its fickleness, and lack of +backbone. One moment they applaud old Thomas, who speaks of the +power of God and religion and admonishes the men against rebellion; +the next instant they are carried away by a walking delegate, who +pleads the cause of the union,--the union that always stands for +compromise, and which forsakes the workingmen whenever they dare to +strike for independent demands; again they are aglow with the +earnestness, the spirit, and the intensity of David Roberts--all +these people willing to go in whatever direction the wind blows. It +is the curse of the working class that they always follow like sheep +led to slaughter. + +Consistency is the greatest crime of our commercial age. No matter +how intense the spirit or how important the man, the moment he will +not allow himself to be used or sell his principles, he is thrown on +the dustheap. Such was the fate of the president of the company, +Anthony, and of David Roberts. To be sure they represented opposite +poles--poles antagonistic to each other, poles divided by a terrible +gap that can never be bridged over. Yet they shared a common fate. +Anthony is the embodiment of conservatism, of old ideas, of iron +methods: + +"I have been chairman of this company thirty-two years. I have +fought the men four times. I have never been defeated. It has been +said that times have changed. If they have, I have not changed with +them. It has been said that masters and men are equal. Cant. There +can be only one master in a house. It has been said that Capital and +Labor have the same interests. Cant. Their interests are as wide +asunder as the poles. There is only one way of treating men--with +the iron rod. Masters are masters. Men are men." + +We may not like this adherence to old, reactionary notions, and yet +there is something admirable in the courage and consistency of this +man, nor is he half as dangerous to the interests of the oppressed, +as our sentimental and soft reformers who rob with nine fingers, and +give libraries with the tenth; who grind human beings like Russell +Sage, and then spend millions of dollars in social research work; who +turn beautiful young plants into faded old women, and then give them +a few paltry dollars or found a Home for Working Girls. Anthony is a +worthy foe; and to fight such a foe, one must learn to meet him in +open battle. + +David Roberts has all the mental and moral attributes of his +adversary, coupled with the spirit of revolt, and the depth of modern +ideas. He, too, is consistent, and wants nothing for his class short +of complete victory. + +"It is not for this little moment of time we are fighting, not for +our own little bodies and their warmth; it is for all those who come +after, for all times. Oh, men, for the love of them don't turn up +another stone on their heads, don't help to blacken the sky. If we +can shake that white-faced monster with the bloody lips that has +sucked the lives out of ourselves, our wives, and children, since the +world began, if we have not the hearts of men to stand against it, +breast to breast and eye to eye, and force it backward till it cry +for mercy, it will go on sucking life, and we shall stay forever +where we are, less than the very dogs." + +It is inevitable that compromise and petty interest should pass on +and leave two such giants behind. Inevitable, until the mass will +reach the stature of a David Roberts. Will it ever? Prophecy is not +the vocation of the dramatist, yet the moral lesson is evident. One +cannot help realizing that the workingmen will have to use methods +hitherto unfamiliar to them; that they will have to discard all those +elements in their midst that are forever ready to reconcile the +irreconcilable, namely Capital and Labor. They will have to learn +that characters like David Roberts are the very forces that have +revolutionized the world and thus paved the way for emancipation out +of the clutches of that "white-faced monster with bloody lips," +towards a brighter horizon, a freer life, and a deeper recognition of +human values. + +No subject of equal social import has received such extensive +consideration within the last few years as the question of prison and +punishment. + +Hardly any magazine of consequence that has not devoted its columns +to the discussion of this vital theme. A number of books by able +writers, both in America and abroad, have discussed this topic from +the historic, psychologic, and social standpoint, all agreeing that +present penal institutions and our mode of coping with crime have in +every respect proved inadequate as well as wasteful. One would +expect that something very radical should result from the cumulative +literary indictment of the social crimes perpetrated upon the +prisoner. Yet with the exception of a few minor and comparatively +insignificant reforms in some of our prisons, absolutely nothing has +been accomplished. But at last this grave social wrong has found +dramatic interpretation in Galworthy's JUSTICE. + +The play opens in the office of James How and Sons, Solicitors. The +senior clerk, Robert Cokeson, discovers that a check he had issued +for nine pounds has been forged to ninety. By elimination, suspicion +falls upon William Falder, the junior office clerk. The latter is in +love with a married woman, the abused, ill-treated wife of a brutal +drunkard. Pressed by his employer, a severe yet not unkindly man, +Falder confesses the forgery, pleading the dire necessity of his +sweetheart, Ruth Honeywill, with whom he had planned to escape to +save her from the unbearable brutality of her husband. +Notwithstanding the entreaties of young Walter, who is touched by +modern ideas, his father, a moral and law-respecting citizen, turns +Falder over to the police. + +The second act, in the court-room, shows Justice in the very process +of manufacture. The scene equals in dramatic power and psychologic +verity the great court scene in RESURRECTION. Young Falder, a +nervous and rather weakly youth of twenty-three, stands before the +bar. Ruth, his married sweetheart, full of love and devotion, burns +with anxiety to save the young man whose affection brought about his +present predicament. The young man is defended by Lawyer Frome, +whose speech to the jury is a masterpiece of deep social philosophy +wreathed with the tendrils of human understanding and sympathy. He +does not attempt to dispute the mere fact of Falder having altered +the check; and though he pleads temporary aberration in defense of +his client, that plea is based upon a social consciousness as deep +and all-embracing as the roots of our social ills--"the background of +life, that palpitating life which always lies behind the commission +of a crime." He shows Falder to have faced the alternative of seeing +the beloved woman murdered by her brutal husband, whom she cannot +divorce; or of taking the law into his own hands. The defence pleads +with the jury not to turn the weak young man into a criminal by +condemning him to prison, for "justice is a machine that, when +someone has given it a starting push, rolls on of itself. . . . Is +this young man to be ground to pieces under this machine for an act +which, at the worst, was one of weakness? Is he to become a member +of the luckless crews that man those dark, ill-starred ships called +prisons? . . . I urge you, gentlemen, do not ruin this young man. +For as a result of those four minutes, ruin, utter and irretrievable, +stares him in the face. . . . The rolling of the chariot wheels of +Justice over this boy began when it was decided to prosecute him." + +But the chariot of Justice rolls mercilessly on, for--as the learned +Judge says--"the law is what it is--a majestic edifice, sheltering +all of us, each stone of which rests on another." + +Falder is sentenced to three years' penal servitude. + +In prison, the young, inexperienced convict soon finds himself the +victim of the terrible "system." The authorities admit that young +Falder is mentally and physically "in bad shape," but nothing can be +done in the matter: many others are in a similar position, and "the +quarters are inadequate." + +The third scene of the third act is heart-gripping in its silent +force. The whole scene is a pantomime, taking place in Falder's +prison cell. + +"In fast-falling daylight, Falder, in his stockings, is seen standing +motionless, with his head inclined towards the door, listening. He +moves a little closer to the door, his stockinged feet making no +noise. He stops at the door. He is trying harder and harder to hear +something, any little thing that is going on outside. He springs +suddenly upright--as if at a sound--and remains perfectly motionless. +Then, with a heavy sigh, he moves to his work, and stands looking at +it, with his head down; he does a stitch or two, having the air of a +man so lost in sadness that each stitch is, as it were, a coming to +life. Then, turning abruptly, he begins pacing his cell, moving his +head, like an animal pacing its cage. He stops again at the door, +listens, and, placing the palms of his hands against it with his +fingers spread out, leans his forehead against the iron. Turning +from it, presently, he moves slowly back towards the window, holding +his head, as if he felt that it were going to burst, and stops under +the window. But since he cannot see out of it he leaves off looking, +and, picking up the lid of one of the tins, peers into it, as if +trying to make a companion of his own face. It has grown very nearly +dark. Suddenly the lid falls out of his hand with a clatter--the +only sound that has broken the silence--and he stands staring +intently at the wall where the stuff of the shirt is hanging rather +white in the darkness--he seems to be seeing somebody or something +there. There is a sharp tap and click; the cell light behind the +glass screen has been turned up. The cell is brightly lighted. +Falder is seen gasping for breath. + +A sound from far away, as of distant, dull beating on thick metal, is +suddenly audible. Falder shrinks back, not able to bear this sudden +clamor. But the sound grows, as though some great tumbril were +rolling towards the cell. And gradually it seems to hypnotize him. +He begins creeping inch by inch nearer to the door. The banging +sound, traveling from cell to cell, draws closer and closer; Falder's +hands are seen moving as if his spirit had already joined in this +beating, and the sound swells till it seems to have entered the very +cell. He suddenly raises his clenched fists. Panting violently, he +flings himself at his door, and beats on it." + +Finally Falder leaves the prison, a broken ticket-of-leave man, the +stamp of the convict upon his brow, the iron of misery in his soul. +Thanks to Ruth's pleading, the firm of James How and Son is willing +to take Falder back in their employ, on condition that he give up +Ruth. It is then that Falder learns the awful news that the woman he +loves had been driven by the merciless economic Moloch to sell +herself. She "tried making skirts. . .cheap things. . . . I never +made more than ten shillings a week, buying my own cotton, and +working all day. I hardly ever got to bed till past twelve. . . . +And then. . .my employer happened--he's happened ever since." At +this terrible psychologic moment the police appear to drag him back +to prison for failing to report himself as ticket-of-leave man. +Completely overwhelmed by the inexorability of his environment, young +Falder seeks and finds peace, greater than human justice, by throwing +himself down to death, as the detectives are taking him back to +prison. + +It would be impossible to estimate the effect produced by this play. +Perhaps some conception can be gained from the very unusual +circumstance that it had proved so powerful as to induce the Home +Secretary of Great Britain to undertake extensive prison reforms in +England. A very encouraging sign this, of the influence exerted by +the modern drama. It is to be hoped that the thundering indictment +of Mr. Galsworthy will not remain without similar effect upon the +public sentiment and prison conditions of America. At any rate, it +is certain that no other modern play has borne such direct and +immediate fruit in wakening the social conscience. + +Another modern play, THE SERVANT IN THE HOUSE, strikes a vital key +in our social life. The hero of Mr. Kennedy's masterpiece is Robert, +a coarse, filthy drunkard, whom respectable society has repudiated. +Robert, the sewer cleaner, is the real hero of the play; nay, its +true and only savior. It is he who volunteers to go down into the +dangerous sewer, so that his comrades "can 'ave light and air." +After all, has he not sacrificed his life always, so that others may +have light and air? + +The thought that labor is the redeemer of social well-being has been +cried from the housetops in every tongue and every clime. Yet the +simple words of Robert express the significance of labor and its +mission with far greater potency. + +America is still in its dramatic infancy. Most of the attempts along +this line to mirror life, have been wretched failures. Still, there +are hopeful signs in the attitude of the intelligent public toward +modern plays, even if they be from foreign soil. + +The only real drama America has so far produced is THE EASIEST WAY, +by Eugene Walter. + +It is supposed to represent a "peculiar phase" of New York life. If +that were all, it would be of minor significance. That which gives +the play its real importance and value lies much deeper. It lies, +first, in the fundamental current of our social fabric which drives +us all, even stronger characters than Laura, into the easiest way--a +way so very destructive of integrity, truth, and justice. Secondly, +the cruel, senseless fatalism conditioned in Laura's sex. These two +features put the universal stamp upon the play, and characterize it +as one of the strongest dramatic indictments against society. + +The criminal waste of human energy, in economic and social +conditions, drives Laura as it drives the average girl to marry any +man for a "home"; or as it drives men to endure the worst indignities +for a miserable pittance. + +Then there is that other respectable institution, the fatalism of +Laura's sex. The inevitability of that force is summed up in the +following words: "Don't you know that we count no more in the life of +these men than tamed animals? It's a game, and if we don't play our +cards well, we lose." Woman in the battle with life has but one +weapon, one commodity--sex. That alone serves as a trump card in the +game of life. + +This blind fatalism has made of woman a parasite, an inert thing. +Why then expect perseverance or energy of Laura? The easiest way is +the path mapped out for her from time immemorial. She could follow +no other. + +A number of other plays could be quoted as characteristic of the +growing role of the drama as a disseminator of radical thought. +Suffice to mention THE THIRD DEGREE, by Charles Klein; THE FOURTH +ESTATE, by Medill Patterson; A MAN'S WORLD, by Ida Croutchers,--all +pointing to the dawn of dramatic art in America, an art which is +discovering to the people the terrible diseases of our social body. + +It has been said of old, all roads lead to Rome. In paraphrased +application to the tendencies of our day, it may truly be said that +all roads lead to the great social reconstruction. The economic +awakening of the workingman, and his realization of the necessity for +concerted industrial action; the tendencies of modern education, +especially in their application to the free development of the child; +the spirit of growing unrest expressed through, and cultivated by, +art and literature, all pave the way to the Open Road. Above all, +the modern drama, operating through the double channel of dramatist +and interpreter, affecting as it does both mind and heart, is the +strongest force in developing social discontent, swelling the +powerful tide of unrest that sweeps onward and over the dam of +ignorance, prejudice, and superstition. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg Etext Anarchism & Other Essays, by Emma Goldman + diff --git a/old/nrcsm10.zip b/old/nrcsm10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7ea1d8d --- /dev/null +++ b/old/nrcsm10.zip |