Socialism And Communism Both Demand A Degree

Miss Goldman Is A Communist; I Am An Individualist. She Wishes To Destroy The Right Of Property, I Wish To Assert It. I Make My War Upon Privilege And Authority, Whereby The Right Of Property, The True Right In That Which Is Proper To The Individual, Is Annihilated. She Believes That Co-operation Would Entirely Supplant Competition; I Hold That Competition In One Form Or Another Will Always Exist, And That It Is Highly Desirable It Should.

If The Believers In Liberty Wish The Principles Of Liberty Taught, Let Them Never Intrust That Instruction To Any Government; For The Nature Of Government Is To Become A Thing Apart, An Institution Existing For Its Own Sake, Preying Upon The People, And Teaching Whatever Will Tend To Keep It Secure In Its Seat.

And Now, What Has Anarchism To Say To All This, This Bankruptcy Of Republicanism, This Modern Empire That Has Grown Up On The Ruins Of Our Early Freedom? We Say This, That The Sin Our Fathers Sinned Was That They Did Not Trust Liberty Wholly. They Thought It Possible To Compromise Between Liberty And Government, Believing The Latter To Be 'a Necessary Evil,' And The Moment The Compromise Was Made, The Whole Misbegotten Monster Of Our Present Tyranny Began To Grow. Instruments Which Are Set Up To Safeguard Rights Become The Very Whip With Which The Free Are Struck.

If You Choose The Liberty And Pride And Strength Of The Single Soul, And The Free Fraternization Of Men, As The Purpose Which Your Life Is To Make Manifest Then Do Not Sell It For Tinsel. Think That Your Soul Is Strong And Will Hold Its Way; And Slowly, Through Bitter Struggle Perhaps The Strength Will Grow.

I Die, As I Have Lived, A Free Spirit, An Anarchist, Owing No Allegiance To Rulers, Heavenly Or Earthly.