LABADIE COLLECTION
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN LIBRARY
>) )   5^5






DEPORTATION
Its Meaning and Menace


Last Message to the People of America
By
ALEXANDER BERKMAN
and
EMMA GOLDMAN


Ellis Island, New York, U. S. A., December, 1919
|~|- s ^^ ^ ^ ^--^_u_  __sd^    ^ ^^ __ ___ ^ ^ ^ ^




*e~sIWes MO stl  etrted to aviet
RiAsipa b7,the 7tunlt4SStt  Ot-!
and vqnney Auinti"fas.acorAlng  toa a nl
de  erjjqasn, 'the '4e~  of ý the
dMpatted party.,to-a6 riedtn.
The  CSS&&*wasmade public
b~n tgflhtby lsflrlgC6.A. Z


I le s  Wl
0,4tnd


nah'eLu. to -.ý,Thie mrpssoviet hert.itremendmeption w"s
hospitality
rr*tes:.are
State. They
Ointer they,
b are - Coley
sprit and
After t~wo
"mow.."




INTRODUCTION


IfTH pencil and scraps of paper concealed behind the persons
Sof friends who had come to say good-bye at the Ellis Island
Deportation Station, Alexander Berkman hastily scribbled the last
lines of this pamphlet.
I THINK it is the best introduction to this pamphlet to say that
before its writing was finished the rulers of America began deporting men directly and obviously for the offense of striking against
the industrial owners of America.
THE "Red Ark" is gone. In the darkness of early morning it
slipped away, leaving behind many wives and children destitute
of support. They were denied even the knowledge of the sailing
of the ship, denied the right of farewell to the husbands and
fathers they may never see again. After the boat was gone, women
and children came to the dock to visit the prisoners, bringing such
little comforts as are known to the working class, seedy overcoats
for the Russian winter, cheap gloves and odds and ends of food.
They were told that the ship was gone. The refined cruelty of the
thing was too much for them; they stormed the ferry-house, broke
a window, screamed and cried, and were driven away by soldiers.
THE "Red Ark" will loom big in American history. It is the
first picturesque incident of the beginning effort of the War Millionaires to crush the soul of America and insure the safety of the
dollars they have looted over the graves of Europe and through
the deaths of the quarter million soldier boys whom American
mothers now mourn.
YES, the "Red Ark" will go into history. Alexander Berkman
and Emma Goldman whom the screaming harlots of the yellow
press have chosen to call the "leaders" of those whose distinction
is that they have no leaders, are more fortunate than otherwise.
Berkman and Goldman have been deported as "Russians." They
were born in Russia, but they did their thirty years' work of enlightenment in this, our America. I think they are therefore Americans, in the best sense, and the best of Americans. They fought
for the elementary rights of men, here in our country when others
of us were afraid to speak, or would not pay the price. In all
3




the leading cities of this land, they have contributed to the intellectual life of the younger, aspiring generation. I venture to say
that there is hardly a liberal in the United States whose life has not
been influenced directly or indirectly and made better, by Alexander
Berkman and Emma Goldman.
ALEXANDER BERKMAN spent in American prisons more years than
I like to remember. He did it deliberately. He did it for the welfare of men, and the American portion of mankind. He never
hesitated to offer his life for his brother. I recall a picture; it is
in Russia. We were gathered in Moscow. It looked as though
the Revolution were going to its death. Everywhere the Soviet
armies were retreating, the masses were sinking into despair, the
German working class was not rising in rebellion as we had hoped,
the Austrians likewise; the White Terror was raising its head throughout Russia. A pallid girl, a Russian-American immigrant returned
to her native country, held in her hand the bulletin of the day's
news. "A hundred Alexander Berkmans distributed throughout
Europe at this time, and the history of Europe would be different!"
she exclaimed.
BERKMAN wrote a book, "Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist," which
is one of America's vital literary products. It won for him the
admiration of such intellectuals here as had the courage to admire.
THE "intellectuals" for the most part did not bid Emma Goldman
and Alexander Berkman good:bye. Most of those who dared to visit
the passengers of the "Red Ark" in their Ellis Island prison were
young men and women of the working class. That is as it should
be. It is in the working class where Goldman and Berkman's brave
work will find the growth that will count. American plutocracy
knew this. That is why American plutocracy deported Alexander
Berkman and Emma Goldman.
Tums pamphlet is the "good-bye message" of Alexander Berkman
and Emma Goldman; and I think it is in spirit the message of all
the passengers of the "Red Ark." As such it appears first in this
form and will appear later in history. Read it and keep it for
the future.
ROBERT MINOR.


4




DEPORTATION-Its Meaning and Menace


HfiE war is over,, but peace there is not. On a score of fronts
*I human slaughter is going on as before; men, women, and children are dying by the hundred thousands because of the blockade of
Russia; the "small nations" are still under the iron heel of the
foreign oppressor; Ireland, India, Egypt, Persia, Korea, and numerous other peoples, are being decimated and exploited even more
ruthlessly than before the advent of the Great Prophet of World
Democracy; "self-determination"' has become a by-word, nay, a
crime, and world-wide imperialism has gotten a strangle hold upon
humanity.
WHAT', then, has the Great War accomplished? To what purpose the sacrifice of millions of human lives, the unnamable loss
in blood and treasure? What, especially, has happened in these
United States?
FRESH in mind are still the wonderful promises made in behalf
of the War. It was to be the last war, a holy crusade of liberty
agyainst tyranny, a war upon all wars that was to sweep the earth
clear of oppression and misery, and make the world safe for true
democracy.
As with a sacred fire burned the heart of mankind. What soul
so small, what human so low, not to be inspired by the glorious
shibboleth of liberty and well-being for all! A tornado of social
enthusiasm, a new-born world consciousness, swept the United States.
The people were aflame with a new faith; they would slay the
Dragon of Despotism, and conquer the world for democracy.
TRUE., it was but yesterday their sovereign will registered a
mighty protest against human slaughter and bloodshed. With a
magnificent majority they had voted not to participate in the foreign
War, not to become entangled in the treacherous schemes of European despotisms. Triumphantly they had elected as President of
the United States the man who "kept them out of the war" that he
mnight still keep them out of it.
THEN suddenly, almost over night, came the change.. From Wall
Street sounded the bugle ordering the retreat of Humanity. Its
echo reverberated in Washington, and thence throughout the whole
country. There began a campaign of war publicity that roused tbp
tiger in man and fed his lust for blood and vengeance. The quiet,
5




phlegmatic German was transformed into the "Vicious Hun," and
made the villain of the wildest stories of "enemy" atrocities and
outrages. The nation-wide propaganda of hatred, persecution, and
intolerance carried its subtle poison into the hearts of the obscurest
hamlet, and the minds of the people were systematically confused
and perverted by rivers of printer's ink. The conscience of America.
wanting peace, was stifled in the folds of the national emblem,
and its voice drowned by the martial beat of a thousand war drums.
HERE and there a note of protest was heard. Radicals of various political and social faiths-Anarchists, Socialists, I. W. Ws.,
some pacifists, conscientious objectors, and other anti-militaristssought to stem the tide of the war hysteria. They pointed out that
the people of the United States had no interest in the European
War. That this country, because of its geographical location and
natural advantages, was beyond all danger of invasion. They
showed that the War was the result of European over-prepa redness
'for war, aggravated by a crisis in capitalist competition, old monarchical rivalries and ambitions of super-despotic rulers. The -peoples of Europe, the radicals emphasized, had neither say nor interest
in the war: they were the sheep led to slaughter on the altar of
Mammon contending against Baal. America's great humanitarian
mission, the war protestants insisted, was to keep out of the war,
and use its potent influence and compelling economic and financial
power to terminate the European slaughter and bring peace to the
bleeding nations of the old world.
BUT these voices of sanity and judgment were lost in the storm
of unloosed war passions. The brave men and women that dared
to speak in behalf of peace and humanity, that had the surpassing
integrity of remaining true to themselves and to their ideals, with
the courage of facing danger and death for conscience sake-these,
the truest friends of Man, had to bear the cross of Golgotha, as did
the Nazarene of yore, as the lovers of humanity have done all
through the centuries of human progress. The jail and lynch law
for them; execution and persecution by their contemporaries. But
if it be true that history repeats itself, surely these political "criminals" of today will be hailed tomorrow as martyrs and pioneers.
THE popular war hysteria was roused and especially successfully
cultivated by the alleged progressive, "intellectual" element in the
United States. Their notoriously overwhelming self-esteem and
vanity had been subtly flattered by their fellow-intellectual, the
college professor become President. This American intelligentzia
inclusive of a good many quite unintelligent suffragettes, was the
real "balance of power" in the re-election of Woodrow Wilson.




The silken cord (occasionally golden in spots) of mutual interest that
bound the President and the intellectual element ultimately proved
much stronger at their end that at his. The feeling of gratitude is
always more potent with the giver than with the recipient. Howbeit
the "liberals", the "radicals", were devoted heart and soul to the
professor,-they stood solidly behind the President, to use their own
intellectually expressive phrase.
SHAME upon the mighty power of the human mind! It was the
"radical intellectuals" who, as a class, turned traitors to the best interests of humanity, perverted their calling and traditions, and became
the bloodiest canines of Mars. With a power of sophistry that the
Greek masters of false logic never matched, they cited history, philosophy, science-aye, they called their very Christ to witness that the
killing of man by man is a most worthy and respectable occupation,
indeed a very Christian institution, and that wholesale human
slaughter, if properly directed and successfully conducted, is a
very necessary evolutionary factor, a great blessing in disguise.
IT was this "intellectual" element that by perversion of the human
mind turned a peace-demanding people into a war-mad mob. The
popular refusal to volunteer for Service was hailed by them as a
universal demand for military draft as "the most democratic expression of a free citizenship." Forced service became in their
interpretation "equality of contribution for rich and poor alike."
The protest of one's conscience against killing was branded by
them as high treason, and even mere disagreement regarding the
causes of the war, or the slightest criticism of the administration,
was condemned as disloyalty and pro-Germanism. Every expression
of humanity, of social sympathy, and understanding was cried down
with a Babel of high phrases, in which "patriotism" and "democracy" competed in volume. Oh, the tragedy of the human mind
that absorbs fine words and empty phrases, and is deaf to motives
and blind to deeds!
YET there lacked unanimity in the strenuously cultivated war
demand. There was no popular enthusiasm for American participation in the European holocaust. Mothers protested against their
children being torn from the home hearth; fathers hid their young
sons. The spirit of discontent was abroad. The Government had
to resort to drastic methods: the hand of white terror was lifted in
Washington. Again we raised our voices to warn the people,we, the revolutionists of various social views who remained true
to our ideal of human brotherhood and proletarian solidarity. We
pointed out that the masses of the world had nothing to gain and
everything to lose by war; that the chief sufferers of every war
7




were the workers, and that they were being used as mere pawns
in the game of international diplomacy and imperialist capitalism.
We reminded the toilers that they alone possessed the power to
wage war or' make peace, and that they-as the creators of the
world's wealth-were the true arbiters of the fate of humanity.
Their mission, we reiterated, is to secure peace on earth, and the
product of labor to the producers.
EMPHATICALLY We warned the people of Aerica against the
policy of suppression by the enactment of special legislation. Alleged war necessity was being used-we asserted-to incorporate
in the statute books new laws and new legal principles that would
remain operative after the war, and be effective for the continued
prohibition of governmentally unapproved thoughts and views. The
practice of stifling and choking free speech and press, established
and tolerated during the war, sets a most dangerous precedent for
after-war days. The principle of such outrages upon liberty once
introduced, it will require a long and arduous struggle to win back
the liberties lost. "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty."  Thus
we argued.
HERE again the "intellectuals" and radicals of chameleon hue
hastened to the rescue of the forces of reaction. We were scoffed
at, our "vain fears" ridiculed. It was all for the best interests of
the country-the sophists protested-for the greater security and
glory of Democracy.
Now reaction is in full swing. The actual reality is even darker
than our worst predictions. Liberty is dead, and white terror on
top dominates the country. Free speech is a thing of the past.
Not a city in the whole wide land but that forbids the least expression of an unpopular opinion. It is descriptive of the whole situation that after thirty years' activity in New York, we are unableupon our return from prison-to secure any hall, large or small,
to lecture even on the subject of prison life or to speak on the
question of amnesty for poltical and industrial prisoners. The
doors of every meeting place are closed to us, as well as to other
revolutionists, by order of the powers that be.
FREE press has been abolished, and every radical paper that dares
speak out, is summarily suppressed. Raids of public gatherings,
of offices, and private dwelling places, accomplished with utmost
brutality and uncalled for violence, are of daily occurrence throughout the United States. The headquarters of Anarchists, of Socialists,
of I. W. Ws., of the Union of Russian Workers, and numerous other
8




progressive and educational organizations, have been raided by
the local police and Federal agents in practically every city of
this country. Men and women are beaten up indiscriminately, fearfully clubbed and blackjacked without any provocation, frequently
to be released afterwards because no offence whatever could be
charged against them. Books and whole libraries of "radical centers" are confiscated, even text books of arithmetic or geography
torn to shreds, furniture destroyed, pianos and victrolas smashed
to kindling wood-all in the name of the new Democracy and for
the safety of the glorious, free Republic of these United States.
THE half-baked radicals, their hearts as soft as their heads, now
stand aghast at this terrible sight. They had helped to win the
war. Some had sacrificed fathers, brothers, husbands-all of them
had suffered an agony of misery and tears, to help the cause of
humanity, to make the world safe for democracy. Is this what we
fought and bled for? they are asking. Have we been misled by the
fine-sounding phrases of a Professor, and have we in turn helped to
delude the people, the suffering masses of the world? Is the great
prophet of the New Democracy strong only in rhetoric?
PITY the mind that awaits miracles and looks expectantly to a
universal Savior. The clear-sighted man, well informed, may reasonably foresee the inevitability of certain results from given causes.
But only a charlatan can play the great Savior, and only the fool
has faith in him. Individuals, however great, may profoundly
influence, but are powerless to control, the fate of mankind. Deep
socio-political causes produced the war. The Kaiser did not create
it, though the spirit of Prussianism no doubt accelerated its coming.
Nor is President Wilson responsible for the present bloody peace.
He did not make the war: he was made by it. He did not make
the peace: he was unmade by it. The social and economic forces
that control the world are stronger than any man, than any set
of men. These forces are inherent in the fundamental institutions
of our wage-slave civilization, in the social atmosphere created by
it, and in the individual mind. These forces are by no means
harmonious. The human heart and mind, eternally reaching out
for greater joy and beauty--the spirit of idealism, in short-is constantly at strife with the established, the institutionalized. These
contending social and human factors produce war, as they produce
revolution. "THE powers that succeeded in turning the instinctive current of
man's idealism into the channels of war, became the masters of
human destiny for the nonce. By a campaign of publicity and
advertising on a scale history had never,witnessed before, by
9




chicanery and lying, by exaggeration and misrepresentation, by
persistent and long-continued appeals to the' basest as well as to
the noblest traits of man, by every imaginable and unprecedented
manner and method, the great financial interests, eager for war and
aided by the international Junkers, thrust humanity into the great
world war. Whatever of noble impulse and unsophisticated patriotism there was in the hearts of the masses, in and out of uniform,
was soon almost totally drained in the fearsome rivers of human
blood, in the brutal, filthy, degrading charnel house of elemental
passions set on fire.  But the tiger in man, once thoroughly awakened, grew strong and more vicious with the sights he witnessed
and the food he was fed on. The basest propensities unchained, the
anti-social tendencies engendered and encouraged by the war, and
the war propaganda, are now let loose upon the country. Hatred,
intolerance, persecution and suppression-the efficient "educational"
factors in the preparedness and war campaign-are now permeating
the very heart of this country and propagating its virulent poison
into every phase of our social life.
BUT there is no more "Hun" to be hated and lynched. Commerce and business know their interests. We must feed Germanyat a good profit. We must do business with its people. Exit the
Hun-der Moor hat seine Schuldigkeit gethan. What a significant
side-light on the artificiality and life-brevity of national and racial
antagonisms, when the fires of mutual distrust and hatred are not fed
by the interested stokers of business and religion! But the Frankenstein and intolerance and suppression cultivated by the war campaign is there, alive and vital, and must find some vent for his
accumulated bitterness and misery.
OH, there, the radical, the Bolshevik! What better prey to be
cast to the Frankenstein monster?
THE powers that be-the plutocratic imperialist and the jingoprofiteer-all heave a happy sigh of relief.
THE after-war conditions in the United States are filling the
Government and the more intelligent, class-conscious capitalists with
trepidation. Revolution is stalking across Europe. Its spectre is
threatening America. Disquieting signs multiply daily. A new
d iscontent, boding ill and full of terrible possibilities, is manifest
in every walk of life. The war has satisfied no one. Only too
obviously the glorious promises failed of fulfilment. Excepting the
great financial interests and some smaller war profiteers, the American people at large are aching with a poignant disappointment.
10




Some vaguely, other more consciously and clearly, but almost all
feel themselves in some way victimized. They had brought supreme
sacrifices, suffered untold misery and pain, in the confident hope of
a great change to come into their lives after the victorious war, in
the assurance of a radically changed and bettered world.
THE people feel cheated. Not yet have they been able to fix their
gaze definitely upon the specific source of their disappointments, to
define the true causes of their discontent. But their impatience with
existing conditions is passionate and bitter, and their former faith
in the established order profoundly shaken. Significant symptoms
of a social breakdown! Revolutions begin in the heart and in the
mind. Action follows in due course. Political and industrial institutions, bereft of the people's faith in them, are doomed. The
changed attitude toward the once honored and sacred conditions,
now evident throughout the land, symbolizes the complete bankruptcy
of the existing order. The old conceptions and ideas underlying
present-day society are fast disintegrating. New ideals are germinating in the hearts of the masses-a prolific soil, rich with the
promise of a brighter future. America is on the threshold of the
Social Revolution.
ALL this is well realized by the financial and political masters
of this country. The situation is profoundly disquieting. But most
terrifying to them is the new attitude of labor. It is unprecedented,
intolerable in its complete disregard of long accepted standards
and conditions, its open rebellion against Things as They Are, its
"shameless demands," its defiance of constituted authority. Is it
possible, the masters wonder, that we had gone too far in our
war-time promises of democracy and freedom, of justice to the
workers, of well-being for all? Too reckless was our motto, "Labor
will win the war": it has given the toilers a sense of their power,
it has made them arrogant, aye, menacing. No more are they
satisfied with "a fair day's wage for a fair day's work"; no, not
even with wages doubled and trebled. They are laying sacriligious
hands upon the most sacrosanct institution of private ownership,
they challenge the exclusive mastery of the owner in his own mine
and mill, they demand actual participation in industry, even in
the most secret councils that control production and manipulate dis.
tribution,-aye,they even dare suggest the taking over by labor
of all industry.
UNHEARD of impudence! Yet this is not all. More menacing
still is the revolutionary spirit that is beginning to transfuse itself
through every rank of labor, from the highest-paid to the lowest,
organized and the unorganized as well. Disobedience is rampant.
11




pone is the good old respect for orders, the will of superiors is
secretly thwarted or openly defied, the mystic power of contracts
has lost its old hold. Labor is in rebellion-in rebellion against
State and Capital,, aye, even against their own leaders that have
so long held them in check.
No time is to be lost! Quick, drastic action is necessary. Else
the brewing storm will overwhelm us, and the workers deprive us
of the wealth we have been at such pains to accumulate. Even
now there are such terribly disquieting rumblings, as if the very
earth were shaking beneath our feet-rumors of "the dictatorship
of the proletariat," of "Soviets of workers, soldiers and sailors."
Horrible thought! Why, if the soldiers should join these discontented workers, what would become of us poor capitalists? Indeed,
have not the police of Boston already set the precedent-made
common cause with labor, these traitors to their masters!
"SOVIET OF WORKERS," dictatorship of the Proletariat"! Why,
that's the Russian idea, the terrible Bolshevik menace. Never shall
this, the most heinous crime, be forgiven Soviet Russial! Readily
would we overlook their repudiation of the Czar's numerous obligations and even their refusal to pay their debts to the American
and European money lenders. We'd find some way to recuperate
our losses, at a reasonable. profit, maybe.  But that they have
broken down the very pillars of capitalism, abolished profits, given
to the peasants the masters' lands for cultivation and use, pro.
claimed all wealth common property, and subjected the aristocrat
and capitalist to the indignity of working for a living-this hellish
arch-crime they shall never be forgiven.
THAT such things should threaten the rich men of this free country is intolerable. Nothing must be left undone to prevent such a
calamity. It would be terrible to be put on a level with the common laborer, and we with all our millions unable to procure champagne, because, forsooth, some hod-carrier's brat-illegitimate, perchance-did not get his milk for breakfast. Unthinkable! That is
chaos, anarchy! We must not permit our beloved country to come
to such a pass. Labor rebellion and discontent must be crushed,
energetically, forthwith. Bolsheviki ways and Soviet ideas must
gain no foothold in America. But the thing must be done diplomatically; the workers must not be permitted to look into our cards.
We should be strong as a lion, subtle as the snake.
IV
THE war-time anti-Hun propaganda is now directed against the
"Bolshevik,," "the radical,".. and particularly against the Slav or
12




anything resembling him. The man or woman of Russian birth
or nationality is made the especial target. The press, the pulpit,
all the servile tools of capitalism and imperialism combine to paint
Russia, Soviet Russia, in colors of blood and infamy. No misrepresentation, no lie too base to be flung at Russia. Falsehood.
and forgery the weapons where guns and bayonets have failed.
The direct result of this poison propaganda is now culminating
in American pogroms against Russians, Bolsheviki, communists,
radicals, and progressives in general.
THE United States has fortunately always been free -from the
vicious spirit '.of race hatred and persecution of the foreigner. The
native negro excepted, this country has known no race problem.
The American people were never guilty of harboring bitterness
or- deep-seated prejudice against members of other nationalities.
In truth, the great majority of them are themselves of foreign birth
or descent, the only true native being the American Indian. Whatever racial differences there may exist between the various nationalities or stocks, they have never. assumed the form of active strife.
On the contrary, they have always been of a superficial nature, due
to misunderstanding or other temporary causes, and have never
manifested themselves in anything save light, good-humored banter.
Even the much-advertised antagonism of the West toward the Chinese and Japanese is not due to any inherent 'hatred,, but rather
to very definite commercial and industrial factors. In the case of
the Russians especially, as well as in regard to members of the
various branches of the Slavic race, the people of America have
always been particularly friendly and well-disposed. But suddenly all the war-time hatred toward the "Hun enemy," the blindest
intolerance and persecution are poured upon the head of the Russian, the Slav. Great indeed is the power of propaganda! Great
is the power of the American thought controller-the capitalist
press. The Russian has become the victim of American pogroms!
OFTEN and again in the past have we Anarchists pointed out
that the feudal lords of this land would follow., in their march to
imperialism, in the footsteps of the Czars of old Russia, and even
outdo their preceptors.  Our liberal friends denounced us as
fanatics, alarmists, and pessimists. Yet now we are confronted with
a state of affairs in democratic America which, in point of brutality
and utter repudiation of every fundamental libertarian principle,
surpasses the worst autocratic methods the Czars of Russia ever
dared apply against political dissenters.
THE world is familiar with the story of the pogrom horrors practiced upon the Jews of Czarist Russia. But what the world, espe's
1                   13




cially the American world, does not know is that every pogrom
in Russia was directly incited, financed, and prepared by the Govermnent as a means of distracting the attention of the Russian people
from the corrupt despotic regime under which they suffered-a
deliberate method of confusing and checking the fast growing discontent and holding back the rising tide of revolutionary upheaval.
BUT thoughtful people in Russia were not long deceived by this
hellish stratagem. That is why Russians of character and intelligence never lent themselves to the practice of Jew-baiting and persecution. The authorities frequently had to resort to importing the
huiman dregs of distant communities, fill them with vodka, and
then turn them loose on the defenceless Jews. These Black Hundreds and* hooligans of Czarist Russia were the infamous regime
now forever cast into the abyss of oblivion by the awakened and
regenerated spirit of New Russia. There have been no pogroms
in Soviet Russia.
BUT the Black Hundreds and the hooligans have now come to
life again-in democratic America. Here they are more mad and
pernicious than their Russian colleagues in crime had ever been.
Their wild orgies of assault and destruction are directed, not against
the Jew, but against the more comprehensive scape-goat of Capitalism, "the alien," the "radical." These are being made the lightning rod upon which is to be drawn all the fury of the storm that
is menacing the American plutocracy. As the Czars pointed at the
Jew as the sole source and cause of the Russian people's poverty
and servitude, so the feudal lords of America have chosen the
"foreign radical," "the Bolshevik" as the vicarious victim for the
sins of the capitalist order. But while no intelligent and self-resp)ecting Russian ever degraded himself with the Czar's bloody work,
we see in our democracy so-called cultured people, professional
men and women, "good Americans," inspired and aided by the
"6respectable, reputable" press, turn into bestial mobs. We see high
Government officials, State and Federal, play the part of the hooligans, encouraging and aiding the American Black Hundred of
legionaries, in a frenzied crusade against the "foreigner," whose
sole crime consists in taking seriously the American guarantees of
free speech, free press, and free assembly.
THE war hate against everything German was vicious enough,
though the people of America were repeatedly assured that we were
not making war against the German people. One can understand
also, though not countenance, the vulgar clamor against the best
and finest expressions of German culture, the stupid prohibition
of the language of Goethe and Schiller, of the revolutionary music
14




of Wagner and Beethoven, the poetry of Heine, the writings of
Nietzsche, and all the other great creative works of Teuton genius.
But what possible reason is there for the post-war hatred toward
aliens in general and Russians in particular? The outrages and
cruelties perpetrated upon Germans in America during the war
pale almost into insignificance compared with the horrible treatment the Russians in the United States are now subjected to. In
fact, the Czarist pogroms, barring a few exceptions, never rivaled
the fearful excesses now happening almost daily in various American cities, their victims, men and women, guilty only of being
Russians.
THIS state of affairs is the more significant because Russians,
and the Slavic people in general, were hitherto always welcomed
to these shores as the best offering Europe contributed to the Moloch
of American industry. The Slav was so good natured, and docile,
such a patient slave, so appreciative of the liberties he enjoyed in
the new land-"liberties" which the socially conscious American
had long since learned to see as a delusion and a snare. But to
the unsophisticated Russian peasant, always half-starved and browbeaten, they seemed real and resplendant, the symbol of paradise
found. By the thousands he flocked to the promised land, swarmed
into the centers of industry to build our railroads, forge iron, dig
coal, till the soil, weave cloth, and toil at scores of other useful occupations, his reward a mere pittance.
NOR was it only the workers in fields and factories who were
welcomed here from Russia. Russian culture was an honored guest
in America. The great literature of the Slav, his music, his dancing-all found the most generous reception and fullest appreciation.
Above all, the Russian intelligentzia, the political refugees, exiles,
and active revolutionists that came to America, and came-most
of them-not merely to express their opinions but rather to plot
the forcible overthrow of the Russian autocracy, all found sympathetic hearing and generous purses in this country, aye, even at
the seat of Government.
AND now? Now it is considered the most heinous crime to have
been born in Russia.
WHAT has caused this peculiar change?  What is back of this
sudden reversal of feeling?
IT is the Russian Revolution. Not, of course, the MiliukovKerensky revolution, but the real revolution that gave birth to Soviet
Russia. The submissive, enslaved, long-suffering Russian people
unexpectedly transformed into a free, daring Giant breaking a
new path for the progress of mankind---that is the reason for the
15




changed attitude of the capitalistic world. It is one thing to help
Russian revol 'utionists, to overthrow the Czar and to put in his place
a "democratic" form of government which has proven such a boon
to our own Czars of commerce and industry. But it is quite a
different thing- to see the Prometheus of labor rise in his might, strike
off his chains, and with the full consciousness of his complete
economic power bring to life the dreams and aspirations of a thousand years,-the economic, political, and spiritual emancipation
of the masses of the world. This pioneer social experiment now
being tried in Russia-the greatest and most fundamental ever
witnessed in all historya-is the guiding star to all the oppressed
and disinherited of the world. Already its magic light is spreading over the whole European horizon, the harbinger of the approaching Dawn of Man. What if it should traverse the ocean and embrace our own shores within its orbit? The whole social order
of the financial Czars, industrial Kaisers, and land Barons of
America is at stake: the "order" maintained by club and gun, by
jail and lynch law in and out of court; the "order" founded on
robbery and violence, built upon sham and unreason, artificiality
and insanity, and supported by misery and starvation, by the watercure, the dungeon and straitjacket; an "order" that transcends all
chaos and daily makes confusion worse confounded.
SUCH social "order" is doomed. It bears within itself the virus
of disintegration. Already the conscience of America is awakening.
The war marked the crisis. Already American men have chosen
imprisonment,, torture, and death, rather than become participants
in an unholy war. Already American men and women are beginning to realize the anti-social destructive character and purpose of
authority and government by violence, force, and fraud. Already
the workers of America are outgrowing the vicious circle of craftunionism, learning the lesson and the power of solidarity of the
international proletariat, and gaining confidence in their own initiative and judgment, to the confusion and terror of their antiquated,
spineless leadership. Already they are seeing through the sham
of "equality before the law," and are in open rebellion to government by injunction.
A SPARK from the glowing flame of Soviet Russia, and the purseproud autocracy of America may be swept away by the social
c~onflagration.
WHEREFORE the united chorus of all Czars and Kaisers, "Death
to the Bolsheviki, the aliens, the I. W. Ws., the Communists, the
Anarchists!"
16




V
WHATEVER might be said of the American plutocracy and the
Government, no one can accuse them of originality. The methods
used by them to confuse and confound the people are but cheap
imitations of the old tactics long resorted to by the despotic. rulers
of Europe. Even before the world war Washington had borrowed
inany a trick from London. And all through the war American
militarism, with its conscription, espionage, torture of conscientious
objectors, and suppressive legislation, was but aping---stupidly and
destructively-the modus operandi of the bankrupt imperialism of
the Old World. For lack of originality and ideas, American officialdom was content to be the echo of the military and court circles of
London and Paris. And now again we witness Washington* following in the exact footsteps of the worst autocracy of modern times.
For the hue and cry against the "alien" is a faithful replica of the
persecution of the Jews by the Czars of Russia, and the American
pogroms against radicals are the exaggerated picture of Russian
Jew-baiting.
AND., finally, the most infam 'ous and most inhuman method of
Czarist Russia, the method that sacrificed hundreds of thousands
of the finest and bravest men and women of Russia, and systematically robbed the country of the very flower of its youth, is now
being transplanted on American soil, in these great United States,
the freest democracy on earth. The dreaded Russian administrative process the newest American institutions!  Sudden seizure,
anonymous denunciation, star chamber proceedings, the third degree, secret deportation and banishment to unknown lands.  0
shades of Jefferson, Thomas Paine, and Patrick Henry! That you
must witness the bloodiest weapon of Czarism rescued from the
ruins of defunct absolutism and introduced into the country for
whose freedom you had fought so heroically!
WHAT means the administrative process?
IT means the suppression and elimination of the political protestant and social rebel. It is the practice of picking men upon the
street, on the merest suspicion of "political untrustworthiness," of
arresting them in their club rooms or homes, tearing them away
from their families, locking them up in jails or detention pens,
holding them incommunicado for weeks and months, depriving' them
of a hearing in open court, denying them trial by jury, and finally
deporting them or banishing them to unknown shores. All this,
not for any crime committed or even any punishable act -charged,
but merely on the denunciation of an enemy or the irresponsible
I 1 ~17                                1




accusation by a Secret Service man that the "suspect"~ holds certain unpopular or "forbidden" opinions.
LEST the truth or accuracy of this statement be called in question,
let it be stated that at this very moment there are one hundred such
"4political suspects" held at Ellis Island, with several hundred more
in the various Immigration Detention jails, every one of them a
victim of the administrative process described above. Not one of
them is charged with any specific crime; one and all are accused of
entertaining "illegal" views on political or Social questions. Nearly
all of them have been seized on the street or arrested in their
homes or reading-rooms while engaged in the dangerous pursuit of
studying the English language, mathematics, or American history.
(The latter seems lately to be regarded by the authorities as a
particularly dangerous occupation, and those guilty of it a prima
facie menace to our American institutions.)  Others were arrested
in the factory, at their work bench, or in the numerous recent raids
of homes and peaceful meetings. Many of them were beaten and
clubbed most brutally, the wounds of some necessitating hospital
treatment. In the police stations they were subjected to the third
degree, threatened, tortured, and finally thrust into the bull pens
of Ellis Island. Here they are treated as dangerous felons, kept
all. the time under lock and key, and allowed to see their wives and
families only once a week, with a screen between them and malicious
guards constantly at their side. Here their mail is subjected to the
most stringent censorship, and their letters delivered or not, according to the whims of the petty officials in charge. Here some
of them, because they dared protest against their isolation and the
putrid food, were placed in the insane asylum. Here it was that
the brutal treatment and unbearabe conditions of existence drove
men and women, the politicals awaiting deportation, to the desperate
extremity of a hunger strike, the last resort of defenseless beings,
the paradoxical self-defense of despair. For weeks and months
these men have now been kept prisoners at Ellis Island, tortured
by the thought of their wives and children whom the Government
has ruthlessly deprived of support, and living in constant uncertainty of the fate that is awaiting them, for the good American Government, refinedly cruel, is keeping their destination secret, and
certain death may be the goal of the deportees when the hour of
departure finally strikes.
SUCH is the treatment and the fate of the first group of Russian
refugees from American "democracy." Such is the process known
as the afixinistrative methods, penalizing governmentally unap18




proved Thought, suppressing disbelief in the omniscence of the
powers that be.
IN enlightened, free America. Not in Darkest Russia.
WHEN the terrible significance of the administrative process practiced in Russia became known in Europe, civilization stood aghast.
It caused a storm of protest in the British Parliament, and called
forth violent interpellations in the Italian Diet and the French
Chamber. Even the German Reichstag, in the days of the omni"potent Kaiser, ventured a heated debate of the barbaric administrative process which doomed thousands of innocents to underground dungeons and the frozen taigas of Siberia.
ARE the Czar's methods, the Third Section, the secret political
spy organizations, anonymous denunciations, star chamber proceedings, deprivation of trial, wholesale deportations and banishment,
to become an established American institution? Let the people
speak.
THE full significance of the principle of deportation is becoming
daily more apparent. The field of its menace is progressively
broadening. Not only the alien social rebel is to be crushed by the
new White Terror. Its hand is already reaching out far for the
naturalized American whose social views are frowned upon by the
Government. And yet deeper it strikes. One hundred per cent
Americanism is to root out the last vestige, the very memory, of
traditional American freedom.   Not alone foreigners, but the
naturalized citizen and the native-born are to be mentally fumigated, made politically "reliable" and governmentally kosher, by
eliminating the social critics and industrial protestants, by denaturalization and banishment, by exile to the Island of Guam or to
Alaska, the future Siberia of the United States.
FOLLOWING the "alien radical," the naturalized American is the
first victim of the Czarification of America. Patriotic profiteers
and political hooligans are united in the cry for the "Americanization" of the foreigner in the United States. He is to be "naturalized," intellectually sterilized and immunized to Bolshevism, so that
he may properly appreciate the glorious spirit of American democracy. Simultaneously, however, the Federal Government is introducing the new policy of summarily depriving the naturalized American of his citizenship, in order to bring him when so desired, within
the scope of the administrative process which subjects the victim
to deportation without trial.
A MOST important precedent had already been set. The case
of Emma Goldman affords significant proof to what lengths the
19




.Government will go to rid itself of a disquieting social rebel, though
he be a citizen for a quarter of a century.
THE story is interesting and enlightening. More than eight years
agro Secret Service men of the Federal Government were ordered to
gather "material" in Rochester, N. Y., or elsewhere, that would
enable the authorities to disfranchise a certain Rochester citizen.
The man in question was of no concern whatever to Washington, as
subsequent events proved. He was an ordinary citizen, a quiet working man, without any interest in social or political questions. He
was never known to entertain any unpopular views or opinions.
As a matter of fact, the man had long been considered dead by his
local friends and acquaintances; since he had disappeared from his
home years previously and no clue to his whereabouts or any sign
that he was still among -the living could be found; indeed, has not
been found till -this day, notwithstanding the best efforts. At great
expense, and with considerable winking at its own rules and regulation&F in such matters, the United States Government finally disfranchised the man-the corpse, perhaps, for anything known to
the contrary. The proceeding necessitated a good deal of secrecy
and subterfuge, for even the wife of the man in question, whose
status as citizen by right of her marriage was involved, was not
apprised by the Government of its intended action. On the pretext
that the man was not fully of legal age at the time of his naturalization-about 20 years before-the mighty Republic of America declared the citizenship of the man of unknown whereabouts and
against whom no crime or offence of any kind was ever charged, as
null and void.
TEN years passed. The disfranchised citizen, so far as humanly
known, was still as dead as at the time of his denaturalization. No
trace of him could be found, and nothing more was heard of the
motives and purposes of the Government in depriving of citizenship
a man who had apparently been dead for years. Dark and peculiar
are the ways of Government.
MORE time passed. Then it became known that the United States
Government intended to deport Emma Goldman. But Emma Goldman had acquired -citizenship by marriage 30 years before, and,
as a citizen, she could not be deported under the present laws of the
United States. But lo and behold! The Government suddenly
announced that Ema Goldman was a citizen no more,, because her
husband had been disfranchised ten years ago!
DARK and peculiar indeed are the ways of government. But
there is method in its madness.
20




WHAT a striking comment this case afford on the true character
of government, and the chicanery and subterfuge it resorts to when
legal means fail to achieve its purposes. Long did the United
States Government bide its time. The moment was not propitious
to get rid of Emma Goldman. But she must be gotten rid of, by
fair means or foul. Yet public sentiment was not ready for such
things as deportation and banishment. Patience! The hour of a
great popular hysteria will come, will be made, if necessary, and
then we shall deport this bete noir of government.
THE moment has now come. It is here. The national hysteria
against radicals, inspired and fed by the bourgeois press, pulpit,
and politicians, has created the atmosphere needed to introduce
in America the principle and practice of banishment. At last the
Government may deport Emma Goldman, for through the width
and breadth of the country there is not a Judge-and possibly not
even a jury-with enough integrity and courage to give this en/ant
terrible a fair hearing and an unprejudiced examination of her claim
to citizenship.
THEREFORE Emma Goldman is to be deported.
BUT her case sets a precedent, and American life is ruled by legal
precedents. Henceforth the naturalized citizen may be disfranchised, on one pretext or another, and deported because of his or
her social views and opinions. Already Congress is preparing to
embody this worthy precedent in our national legislation by passing
special laws providing for the disenfranchisement of naturalized
Americans for reasons satisfactory to our autocratic regime.
THUS another link is forged to chain the great American people.
For it is against the liberties and welfare of the people at large
that these new methods are fundamentally directed. Not merely
against Emma Goldman, the Anarchists, the I. W. Ws., Communists,
and other revolutionists. These are but the primary victims, the
prologue which introduces and shadows forth the tragedy about to
be enacted.
THE ultimate blow of the imperialist plutocracy of America is
aimed at Labor, at the increasing discontent of the masses, their
growing class-consciousne'ss, and their progressive aspiration for
more joy and. life and beauty. The fate of America is in the
balance.
THAT is the true meaning and the real menace of the principle
of deportation, banishment, and exile, now being introduced in the
life of the United States. That is the purpose of the State and
Federal Anti-Anarchist laws, criminal-syndicalist -legislation, and all
21




similar weapons that the master class is forging for the defeat of
the awakening proletariat of America.
SHALL the United States, once the land of opportunity, the refuge
of all the oppressed, be Prussianized, Czarified? Shall the melting pot of the world be turned into a fiery caldron brewing strife
and slaughter, spitting tyranny and assassination? Shall we here,
on this soil baptized with the sacred blood of the great heroes of
the Revolutionary War, engage in the sanguinary struggle of brother
against brother? Shall we re-enact in this land the frightful nightmare of Darkest Russia? Shall this land re-echo the horrible tramp,
tramp of a thousand feet, on their way to an American Siberia?
Tortured bodies,, manacled hands, clanking chains, in weary, endless procession-shall that be the heritage of our youth? Shall the
songs of mothers be turned into a dirge, and little babies be suckled
with the teat of hate?
No, it shall not be. There is yet time to pause, to turn back.
High time, high time for the voice of every true man and woman,
of every lover of liberty, to thunder forth such a mighty collective
protest that shall reverberate from North to South, and East to
West, and rouse the awakened manhood of America to a heroic stand
for Liberty and Justice.
BUT if not,-if our warning prediction unhappily come true and
the fearful tragedy be played to its end, yet shall we not despair,
nor misdoubt the finale.
HATEFUL is the Dream of Oppression. And as vain. Where the
man who could name the judges that doomed Socrates? Where the
persecutors of the Gracchi, the banishers of Aristides, the excominunicators of Spinoza and Tolstoy? Their very memory is obliterated by the footsteps of Progress. Unceasingly it marches, forward
and upward, all obstacles notwithstanding, keeping time with the
heart beats of Humanity. Vain the efforts to halt it, to banish -ideas,
to strangle thought. Vain the frenzied struggle to turn back the
hands of Time. The mightiest Goliath of Reaction has fought his
last fight-his final gesture, Old Russia, a hopeless surrender. Too
late to revive this corpse. It is beyond resurrection. Attempts
there may be, aye, will be, for the Bourbons never learn,-and
the people are long suffering. But attempts useless, destructive,
utterly fatal to their purpose. The' Dream of Reaction ends in
abysmal nightmare.
IT is darkest before dawn, in history as in nature. But the dawn
has begun. In Russia. Its light is a promise and the hope of the
world.
22




WHAT'S TO BE DONE?
MEN and women of America, there is much work to be done.
If you hate injustice and tyranny, if you love liberty and beauty,
there is work for you. If oppression rouses your indignation, and
the sight of misery and-ugliness makes you unhappy, there is work
for you. If your country is dear to you and the people your kin,
there is work for you. There is much to be done.
WHOEVER you are, artist or educator, writer or worker-be you
but a true man or true woman-there is important work for you.
Let not prejudice and narrow-mindedness blind you. Let not a
false press mislead you. Permit not this country to sink to the
depths of despotism. Do not stand supinely by, while every pass.
ing day strengthens reaction. Rouse yourself and others to resent
injustice and every outrage on liberty. Demand an open mind and
fair hearing for every idea. Hold sacred the right of expression:
protect the freedom of speech and press. Suffer not Thought to be
forcibly limited and opinions proscribed. Make conscience free,
undisciplined. Allow no' curtailment of aspirations and ideals.
These are the levers of progress, the fountain-head of Joy and
beauty.
JOIN your efforts, lovers of humanity. Do not uphold the hand
That strangles Life. Align yourselves with the dreamers of the
Better Day. The cause is worthy, the need urgent. The future
looks towards you, its voice calls you, calls.
MAY it not call in vain.
AND YOU, fellow workers in factory, mine, and field, a great mission is yours. You, the feeders of the world and the creators of
its wealth, you are the most interested in the fate of your country.
The menace of despotism is greatest to you. Long has your masters'
service humiliated and degraded you. Will you permit yourselves
to be driven into still more abject slavery? Your emancipation is
your work. Others may help, but you albne can win. In shop and
union, take up this your greatest problem. Let not the least of you
be victimized. Remember, an injury to one is the concern of all.
No worker can stand alone in the face of organized capitalism with
all its legislative and military weapons. Learn solidarity: each
with a common purpose, all with a common effort. Know your
enemy-: there is no "mutual interest" between the robber and the
robbed. Understand your true friends. You'll always find them
maligned and persecuted by your enemies. The idealists, the seekers of the slaveless world, speak from your heart. Give them
hearing.
YOUR fate, the fate of the country, is in your hands. Yours is
23R




the mightiest power. There is no strength in the Government, except
you give it. No strength in your masters, except you suffer it.
The only true mastery is in you, the working class, in your power
to feed and clothe the world and make it joyous. The greatest
power, for good or evil. Use it for liberty, for justice. Allow no
suppression of the freedom of thought and speech, for it is a snare
for your undoing. Sooner or later every suppression comes home
to labor, for its greater enslavement. Realize the menace of deportation, of the principle of banishment and exile. 'Tis the latest
method of the American plutocracy to silence the discontent of
the workers. Lose no time.. It is of the, most vital importance to
you. It threatens you, your union, your very existence. Take
the matter up in your organizations. The fortunes of labor in
America are at stake. Only your united effort can conquer the
peril that menaces you. Take action. Rouse the workers of the
whole country. In union and solidarity, in clear purpose and
courage is your only salvation.
Quotations from American and Foreign Authors Which Would FallUnder the Criminal Anarchy Law, Espionage Law, Etc.
THESE authors, distinguished thinkers, philosophers and humanitarians of world~wide renown would, if still alive and of foreign
birth, not be permitted on American shores if they tried to land
here, or, if born Americans, they would be threatened by deportation to the Island of Guam.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
THE man who will not investigate both sides of a question is dishonest.
THE cause 'of civil liberty must not be surrendered at the end of
one- or even one hundred defeats.
THE authors of the Declaration of Independence meant it to be a
stumbling block to those who' in after times might seek to turn free
people back into the paths of despotism.
I HAVE always thought that all men should be free, but if any
should be slaves, it should be first those who desire it for themselves, and secondly those who desire it for others.
IF there is anything that it is the duty of the whole people never
to intrust to any hands but their own, that thing is the preservation
and perpetuity of their own liberties.,
249.A




THOMAS JEFFERSON
ALL eyes are opening to the right of man. The general spread of
the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has' not been born with saddles
on their backs, nor a -favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride
them legtimately, by the grace of God.
SOCIETIES exist under three forms, sufficiently distinguishable: (1)
Without government, as among our Indians. (2) Under governments wherein the- will of every one has a just influence; as is'the
case in England,' in a slight degree, and in our States, in a great
one. (3) Under governments of force; as is the case in all other
monarchies, and in most of the other republics. To have an idea
of the curse of existence under these last, they must be seen. It is
a government of wolves over sheep. It is a problem, not clear in my
mind, that the first condition is not the best., But I believe it to be
inconsistent with any great degree of population. The second state
has a great deal of good in it. The mass of mankind under that,
enjoys a precious degree of liberty and happiness. It has its evils,
too; the principal of which is the turbulence to which it is subject.
But weight this against the oppressions of monarchy, and it becomes
nothing. Even this evil is productive of good. It prevents the
degeneracy of governments, and nourishes a general attention to
the public affairs. I hold it, that a little rebellion, now and then,
is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms
in the physical. Unsuccessful rebellions, indeed, generally establish
the encroachments on the rights' of the people, which have produced
them., An observation of this truth should render honest republican
governors so mild in their punishment of rebellions, as not to discourage them too much. It is a medicine necessary for the sound
health of governments'.
WE have long enough suffered under the base prostitution of law
to party passions in one judge, and the imbecility of another.
IT is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth
can stand by itself.
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON
LIBERTY for each, for all, and forever.
No person will rule over me with my consent. I will rule over no
man.




ENSLAVE the liberty of but one human being and the liberties of
the world are put in peril.
WHEN I look at these crowded thousands, and see them trample
on their consciences and the rights of their fellowmen at the bidding
of a piece of parchment, I say, my curse be on the Constitution of
the United States.
WHY, sir, no freedom of speech or inquiry is conceded to me in
this land. Am I not vehemently told both at the North and the South
that I have no right to meddle with 'the question of slavery? And my
right to speak on any other subject, in opposition to public opinion,
is equally denied to me.
I Am aware that many object to the severity of my language; but
is there not cause for severity? I will be as harsh as Truth, and as
uncompromising as Justice. On this subject I do not wish to think,
or speak, or write, with moderation. No! No! Tell a man whose
house is on fire to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately
rescue his wife from the hands of the ravisher; tell the mother
to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen
-but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present.
I am in earnest-I will not equivocate-I will not excuse-I will
not retreat a single- inch-and I will be heard. The apathy of the
people is enough to make every statue leap from its pedestal and
hasten to the resurrection of the dead.-In the first issue of the
Liberator, January 1, 1831.
WENDELL PHILLIPS
IF there is anything that cannot bear free thought, let it crack.
NOTHING but Freedom, Justice, and Truth is of any permanent
advantage to the mass of mankind. To these society, left to itself,
is always tending.
"THE right to think, to know and to utter," as John Milton said,
is the dearest of all liberties. Without this right, there can be no
liberty to any people; with it, there can be no slavery.
WHEN you have convinced thinking men that it is right, and
humane men that it is just, you will gain your cause. Men always
lose half of what is gained by violence. What is gained by argument, is gained forever.
THE manna of liberty must be gathered each day, or it is rotten.
ONLY by unintermitted agitation can a people be kept sufficiently
awake to principle not to let liberty be smothered in material prosperity.
26




LET us believe that the whole truth can never do harmn to the
whole of virtue; and remember that in order to get the whole of
truth, you must allow every man, right or wrong, freely to utter
his conscience, and protect him in so doing. Entire unshackled
freedom for every man's life, no matter how wide its range. The
community which dares not protect its humblest and most hated
member in the free utterance of his opinions, no matter how false
or hateful, is only a gang of slaves.
STEPHEN PEARL ANDREWS
GOVERNMENTS have hitherto been established, and have apologized for the unseemly fact of their existence, from the necessity
ot establishing and maintaining order; but order has never yet been
maintained, revolutions and violent outbreaks have never yet been
ended, public peace and harmony have never yet been secured, for
the precise reason that the organic, essential, and indestructible
natures of the objects which it was attempted to reduce to order
have always been constricted and infringed by every such attempt.
Just in proportion as the effort is less and less made to reduce men
to order, just in that proportion they become more orderly, as witness the difference in the state of society in Austria and the United
States. Plant an army of one hundred thousand soldiers in New
York, as at Paris, to preserve the peace, and we should have a bloody
revolution in a week; and be assured that the only remedy for what
little of turbulence remains among us, as compared with European
societies, will be found to be more liberty. When there remain
positively no external restrictions, there will be positively no disturbance, provided always certain regulating principles of justice,
to which I shall advert presently, are accepted and enter into the
public mind, serving as substitutes for every species of repressive
laws.
HENRY GEORGE
IN our time, as in times before, creep on the insidious forces
that, producing inequality, destroy Liberty. On the horizon the
clouds begin to lower. Liberty calls to us again. We must follow
her further; we must trust her fully. Either we must wholly accept
her or she will not stay. It is not enough that men should vote;,
it is not enough that they should be theoretically equal before the
law. They must have liberty to avail themselves of the opportunities and means of life; they must stand on equal terms with
reference to the bounty of nature. Either this, or Liberty withdraws
2 7




her light! Either this, or darkness comes on, and the very forces
that progress has evolved turn to powers that work destruction.
This is the universal law. This is the lesson of the centuries. Unless
its foundations be laid in justice the social structure cannot stand.
HENRY DAVID THOREAU
LAW never made men a whit more just; and, by means of their
respect for it, even the well-disposed are daily made the agents of
injustice. A common and natural result of an undue respect for
law is that you may see a file of soldiers, colonel, captain, corporal,
privates, powder-monkeys, and all, marching in admirable order
over hill and dale to the wars, against their wills, aye, against their
common sense and consciences, which makes it very steep marching
indeed, and produces a palpitation of the heart. They have no
doubt that it is a damnable business in which they are concerned;
they are all peaceably inclined. Now, what are they? Men at all?
or small movable forts and magazines, at the service of some unscrupulous man in power?
THE mass of men serve the State thus, not as men mainly, but
as machines, with their bodies. They are the standing army, and
the militia., gaolers, constables, posse comitatus, etc. In most cases
there is no free exercise whatever of the judgment or of the moral
sense; but they put themselves on a level with wood and earth and
stones; and wooden men can perhaps be manufactured that will
serve the purpose as well. Such command no more respect than men
of straw or a lump of dirt. They have the same sort of worth only
as horses and dogs. Yet such as these even are commonly esteemed
good citizens.
OTHERS-as most legislators, politicians, lawyers, ministers, and
office-holders-serve the State chiefly with their heads; and as they
rarely make any moral distinctions, they are as likely to serve the
devil, without inte)hding it, as God.
How does it become a man to behave toward -this American govermient today? I answer, that he cannot without disgrace, be associated with it. I cannot for an instant recognize that political organizaion as rmy government which is the slave's government also.
ALL men recognize the right of revolution; that is, the right to
refuse allegiance to, and to resist., the government, when its tyranny
or its inefficiency are great and unendurable.
28




RALPH WALDO EMERSON


IT will never make any difference to a hero what the laws are.
*   *    *
For what avail the plough or sail
Or land or life, if freedom fail?
*   *    *
THE wise know that foolish legislation is a rope of sand which
perishes in the twisting.
OUR distrust is very expensive. The money we spend for courts
and prisons is very ill laid out.
*   *    *
EVERY actual State is corrupt. Good men must not obey the
laws too well. What satire on government can equal the severity of
censure conveyed in the word politics which now for ages has signified cunning, intimating that the State is a trick?
*   *    *
No law can be sacred to me but that of my nature. Good and
bad are but names very readily transferable to that or this; the
only right is what is after my constitution, the only wrong what is
against it. A man is to carry himself in the presence of all opposition, as if everything were titular and ephemeral but him. -I am
ashamed to think how easily we capitulate to badges and names, to
large societies and dead institutions.
*   *    *
EDMUND BURKE
ALL writers on the science of policy are agreed, and they agree
with experience, that all governments must frequently infringe the
rules of justice to support themselves; that truth must give way
to dissimulation, honesty to convenience, and humanity to the reigning interest. The whole of this mystery of iniquity is called the
reason of state. It is a reason which I own I cannot penetrate. What
sort of a protection is this of the general right, that is maintained
by infringing the rights of particulars? What sort of justice is
this which is enforced by breaches of its own laws? These paradoxes
I leave to be solved by the able heads of legislators and politicians.
For my part, I say what a plain man would say on such occasion.
I can never believe that any institution, agreeable to nature, and
proper for mankind, could find it necessary, or even expedient, in
any case whatsoever, to do what the best and worthiest instinct of
mankind warn us to avoid. But no wonder that what is set up in
29




opposition to the state of nature should preserve itself by trampling
upon the law of nature.
THOMAS PAINE
To argue with a man who has renounced his reason is like giving
medicine to the dead.
THE more perfect civilization is,9 the less occasion has it for government, because the more does it regulate its Own affairs, and
govern itself; but so contrary is the practice of old governments to
the reason of the case, that the expenses of them increase in the
proportion they ought to diminish. It is but few general laws that
civilized life requires, and those of such common usefulness, that
whether they are enforced by the forms of government or not, the
effect will be nearly the same. If we consider what the principles
are that first condense man into society, and what the motives that
regulate their mutual intercourse afterwards, we shall find, by the
time we arrive at what is called government, that nearly the whole
of the business is performed by the natural operation of the parts
upon each other.
SOCIETY in every state is a blessing, but government, even in its
best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable
one.
THE trade of governing has always been monopolized by the most
ignorant and the most rascally individuals of mankind.
JOHN STUART MILL
MANKIND can hardly be too often reminded, that there was once
a man named Socrates, between whom and the legal authorities
and public opinion of his time, there took place a memorable collision. Born in an age and country abounding in individual greatness, this man has been handed down to us by those who best knew
both him and the age, as the most virtuous man in it; while we
know him as the head ond prototype of all subsequent teachers of
virtue, the source equally of the lofty inspiration of Plato and the
judicious utilitarianism of Aristotle, the two headsprings of ethical
as of all other philosophy. Their acknowledged master of all the
eminent thinkers who have since lived-whose fame, still growing
after more than two thousand years, all but outweighs the whole
fi0




remainder of the names which make his native city illustrious-was
put to death. by his countrymen, after a judicial conviction, for
impiety and immorality. Impiety, in denying the Gods recognized
by the State; indeed his accusers asserted (see the "Apologia") that
he believed in no gods at all. Immorality, in being, by his doctrines
and instructions, a "corrupter of youth." Of these charges the
tribunal, there is every ground for believing, honestly found him
guilty, and condemned the man who probably of all then born had
deserved best of mankind, to be put to death as a criminal.
HERBERT SPENCER
WHEN we have made our constitution purely democratic, thinks
to himself the earnest reformer, we shall have brought government
into harmony with absolute justice. Such a faith, though perhaps
needful for the age, is a very erroneous one. By no process can
coercion be made equitable. The freest form of government is only
the least objectionable form. The rule of the many by the few
wve call tyranny: the rule of the few by the many is tyranny also,
only of a less intense kind. "'You shall do as we will, and not as
you will," is in either case the declaration; and, if the hundred
make it to ninety-nine instead of the ninety-nine to the hundred, it
is only a fraction less immoral. Of two such parties, which ever
fulfills this declaration, necessarily breaks the law of equal freedom:
the only difference being that by the one it is broken in the persons
of ninety-nine, whilst by the other it is broken in the persons of a
hundred. And the merit of the democratic form of government consists solely in this,-that it trespasses against the smallest number.
THE very existence of majorities and minorities is indicative of
an immoral state. The man whose character harmonizes with the
moral law, we found to be one who can obtain complete happiness
without establishing the happiness of his fellows. But the enactment of public arrangements by vote implies a society consisting of
men otherwise constituted-implies that the desires of some cannot
be satisfied without sacrificing the desires of others-implies that
in the, pursuit of their happiness the majority inflict a certain amount
of unhappiness on the minority-implies, therefore, organic immorality. Thus, from another point of view, we again perceive that
even in its most equitable form it is impossible for government to
disassociate itself from evil; and further, that, unless the right to
ignore the State is recognized, its acts must be essentially criminal.




LYOF N. TOLSTOY
THE cause of the miserable condition of the workers is slavery.
The cause of slavery is legislation. Legislation rests on organized
violence, It follows that an improvement in the condition of the
people is possible only through the abolition of organized violence.
"But organized violence is government, and how can we live without
governments? Without governments there will be chaos, anarchy;
all the achievements of civilization will perish, and the people will
revert to their primitive barbarism." But why should we suppose
this? Why think that non-official people could not arrange it, not
for themselves, but for others?  We see, on the contrary, that in
the most diverse matters people in our times arrange their own
lives incomparably better than those who govern them arrange for
them. Without the least help from government, and often in spite
of the interference of government, people organize all sorts of social
undertakings-workmen's unions, co-operative societies, railway
companies, and syndicates. If collections for public works are
needed, why should we suppose that free people could not without
violence voluntarily collect the necessary means, and carry out all
that is carried out by means of taxes, if only the undertakings in
question are really useful for anybody? Why suppose that there
cannot be tribunals without violence?
THE robber generally plundered the rich, the governments generally plunder the poor and protect those rich who assist in their
crimes. The robber doing his work risked his life, while the governments risk nothing, but base their whole activity on lies and
deception. The robber did not compel anyone to join his band,
the governments generally enrol their soldiers by force. All who
paid the tax to the robber had equal security from danger. But in
the state, the more any one takes part in the organized fraud the
more he receives not merely of protection, but also of reward.
Ten Cents A Copy
Order from M. E. FITZGERALD, 857 Broadway, New York City
I