From the Archives

Charles T. Fowler, “Prohibition” (1885)

Now no one disputes the evil of intemperance, suppose we call it the greatest of evils. If government can or ought to suppress the greatest, then it should try its hand at the next in importance. If two pigs are tearing up the sward in your yard is there any reason why, while driving out the one that weighs one hundred pounds, you should leave the other, which counts ninety and nine? That would be a discrimination only against one pound of rooting! […]

anarchist mutualism

Clarence Lee Swartz, “The Practicability of Mutualism” (1926)

Mutualism is applicable to every human relations. Throughout the whole gamut of existence, from birth to death, mutuality—voluntary association for reciprocal action—is everywhere and at every moment waiting to solve every problem of social intercourse, to decide every issue that arises in commerce and industry. In order to practice mutualism, it is necessary to name only two conditions; that the non-invasive individual shall not be coerced, and that no part of the product of any one’s labor shall be taken from him without his consent. With those negative generalizations thus postulated, thereby affirming the sovereignty of the individual, therefrom flows naturally the positive and constructive corollary—reciprocity; which implies individual initiative, free contract, and voluntary association. […]