No Legal Plunder: This Is The Principle

They Would Be The Shepherds Over Us, Their Sheep. Certainly Such An Arrangement Presupposes That They Are Naturally Superior To The Rest Of Us. And Certainly We Are Fully Justified In Demanding From The Legislators And Organizers Proof Of This Natural Superiority.

This Question Of Legal Plunder Must Be Settled Once And For All, And There Are Only Three Ways To Settle It: (1) The Few Plunder The Many. (2) Everybody Plunders Everybody. (3) Nobody Plunders Anybody.

Men Naturally Rebel Against The Injustice Of Which They Are Victims. Thus, When Plunder Is Organized By Law For The Profit Of Those Who Make The Law, All The Plundered Classes Try Somehow To Enter, By Peaceful Or Revolutionary Means, Into The Making Of Laws. According To Their Degree Of Enlightenment, These Plundered Classes May Propose One Of Two Entirely Different Purposes When They Attempt To Attain Political Power: Either They May Wish To Stop Lawful Plunder, Or They May Wish To Share In It.

Now Since Man Is Naturally Inclined To Avoid Pain - And Since Labor Is Pain In Itself - It Follows That Men Will Resort To Plunder Whenever Plunder Is Easier Than Work. History Shows This Quite Clearly. And Under These Conditions, Neither Religion Nor Morality Can Stop It. When, Then, Does Plunder Stop? It Stops When It Becomes More Painful And More Dangerous Than Labor. It Is Evident, Then, That The Proper Purpose Of Law Is To Use The Power Of Its Collective Force To Stop This Fatal Tendency To Plunder Instead Of To Work. All The Measures Of The Law Should Protect Property And Punish Plunder.

But We Assure The Socialists That We Repudiate Only Forced Organization, Not Natural Organization. We Repudiate The Forms Of Association That Are Forced Upon Us, Not Free Association. We Repudiate Forced Fraternity, Not True Fraternity. We Repudiate The Artificial Unity That Does Nothing More Than Deprive Persons Of Individual Responsibility. We Do Not Repudiate The Natural Unity Of Mankind Under Providence.