Tolstoy.....................................................................................................................................................1

Preface / Introduction ...............................................................................................................................1

CHAPTER I. GOODSPORTERS WHO WORK THIRTYSEVEN HOURS ...................................3

CHAPTER II. SOCIETY'S INDIFFERENCE WHILE MEN PERISH .................................................6

CHAPTER III. JUSTIFICATION OF THE EXISTING POSITION BY SCIENCE ............................7

MUST ENTER THE FACTORY SYSTEM ..........................................................................................8

CHAPTER V. WHY LEARNED ECONOMISTS ASSERT WHAT IS FALSE ................................11

CHAPTER VI. BANKRUPTCY OF THE SOCIALIST IDEAL .........................................................12

CHAPTER VII. CULTURE OR FREEDOM .......................................................................................14

CHAPTER VIII. SLAVERY EXISTS AMONG US ...........................................................................15

CHAPTER IX. WHAT IS SLAVERY? ...............................................................................................17

CHAPTER X. LAWS CONCERNING TAXES, LAND AND PROPERTY ......................................18

CHAPTER XI. LAWS THE CAUSE OF SLAVERY .........................................................................20

CHAPTER XII. THE ESSENCE OF LEGISLATION IS ORGANIZED VIOLENCE .....................21

GOVERNMENTS? ...............................................................................................................................23

CHAPTER XIV. HOW CAN GOVERNMENTS BE ABOLISHED? ................................................26

CHAPTER XV. WHAT SHOULD EACH MAN DO? ........................................................................30

AN AFTERWORD ................................................................................................................................33

NEARLY fifteen years ago the census in Moscow evoked in me a series of thoughts and feelings which I

expressed as best I could in a book called 'What Must We Do Then.' Towards the end of last year (1899) I

once more reconsidered the same questions, and the conclusions to which I came were the same as in that

book. But as I think that during these ten years I have reflected on the questions discussed in 'What Must We

Do Then' more quietly and minutely in relation to the teachings at present existing and diffused among us, I

now offer the reader new considerations, leading to the same replies as before. I think these considerations

may be of use to people who are honestly trying to elucidate their position in society and clearly to define the

The fundamental thought both of that book and of this article is the repudiation of violence. That repudiation

I learnt and understood from the Gospels, where it is most clearly expressed in the words: It was said to you,

'An Eye for an Eye,' that is, you have been taught to oppose violence by violence, but I teach you: 'turn the

other cheek when you are struck,' that is, suffer violence, but do not employ it. I know that the use of those

great wordsin consequence of the unreflectingly perverted interpretations alike of Liberals and of

Churchmen, who on this matter agreewill be a reason for most socalled cultured people not to read this

article, or to be biased against it; but, nevertheless, I place those words as the epigraph of this work.

I cannot prevent people who consider themselves enlightened from considering the Gospel teaching to be an

obsolete guide to lifea guide long outlived by humanity. But I can indicate the source from which I drew my

consciousness of a truth which people are as yet far from recognizing, and which alone can save men from

"Ye have heard that it was said, An Eye for an Eye, and a Tooth for a Tooth" (Matt. v.38; Ex. xxi. 24). "But I

say unto you, Resist not him that is evil; but whosoever smiteth thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other

also" (Matt. v.39). "And if any man would go to law with thee, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak

also" (Matt. v.40). "Give to every one that asketh thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not

again" (Luke vi. 30). "And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise" (Luke vi. 31).

"And all that believed were together, and had all things common" (Acts ii. 44)." "And Jesus said, When it is

evening, ye say, it will be fair weather, for the heaven is red" (Matt. xvi. 2). "And in the morning, It will be

foul weather today: for the heaven is red and lowering. Ye hypocrites, ye know how to discern the face of

"The system on which all the nations of the world are acting is founded in gross deception, in the deepest

ignorance, or a mixture of both; so that under no possible modification of the principles on which it is based

can it ever produce good to man; on the contrary, its practical results must ever be to produce evil

"We have much studied and much perfected of late the great civilized invention of the division of labor, only

we give it a false name. It is not, truly speaking, the labor that is divided, but the mendivided into mere

segments of men, broken into small fragments and crumbs of life; so that all the little piece of intelligence

that is left in a man is not enough to make a pin or a nail, but exhausts itself in making the point of a pin or

the head of a nail. Now, it is a good and desirable thing, truly, to make many pins a day; but if we could only

see with what crystal sand their points were polishedsand of human souls we should think there might be

"Men may be beaten, chained, tormented, yoked like cattle, slaughtered like summer flies, and yet remain in

one sense, and the best sense, free. But to smother their souls within them, to blight and hew into rotting

pollards the suckling branches of their human intelligence, to make the flesh and skin . . . into leathern thongs

to yoke machinery withthis is to be slavemasters indeed. . It is verily this degradation of the operative into

a machine which is leading the mass of the nations into vain, incoherent, destructive struggling for a freedom

of which they cannot explain the nature to themselves. Their universal outcry against wealth and against

nobility is not forced from them either by the pressure of famine or the sting of mortified pride. These do

much and have done much in all ages; but the foundations of society were never yet shaken as they are at this

"It is not that men are illfed, but that they have no pleasure in the work by which they make their bread, and,

"It is not that men are pained by the scorn of the upper classes, but they cannot endure their own; for they feel

that the kind of labor to which they are condemned is verily a degrading one, and makes them less than men.

Never had the upper classes so much sympathy with the lower, or charity for them, as they have at this day,

and yet never were they so much hated by them."From "The Stones of Venice," by John Ruskin, Vol. II,

AN acquaintance of mine who works on the MoscowKursk Railway as a weigher, in the course of

conversation mentioned to me that the men who load the goods on to his scales work for thirtyseven hours

Though I had full confidence in the speaker's truthfulness I was unable to believe him. I thought he was

But the weigher narrated the conditions under which this work is done so exactly that there was no room left

for doubt. He told me that there are two hundred and fifty such goodsporters at the Kursk station in

Moscow. They were all divided into gangs of five men, and were on piecework, receiving from one rouble

to iR. 15 (say two shillings to two and fourpence, or fortyeight cents to fiftysix cents) for one thousand

They come in the morning, work for a day and a night at unloading the trucks, and in the morning, as soon as

the night is ended, they begin to reload, and work on for another day. So that in two days they get one night's

Their work consists of unloading and moving bales of seven, eight, and up to ten poods (say 252, 280 and up

to nearly 364 pounds). Two men place the bales on the backs of the other three who carry them. By such

work they earn less than a ruble (two shillings, or fortyeight cents) a day. They work continually without

The account given by the weigher was so circumstantial that it was impossible to doubt it, but, nevertheless, I

Finding my acquaintance at the goodsstation, I told him that I had come to see what he had told me about.

Without replying to me, the weigher called to some one in a shed. "Nikita, come here."

The four other Workmen of his gang came up to us. They all wore torn coats and were without overcoats,

I began to ask them about the conditions of their work, and evidently surprised them by taking an interest in

such a simple and natural thing (as it seemed to them) as their thirtysix hour work.

They were all villagers; for the most part fellow countrymen of my ownfrom Tula; some, however, were

from ArIa', and some from Voro6nezh. They lived in Moscow in lodgings, some of them with their families,

but most of them without. Those who have come here alone send their earnings home to the village.

They board with contractors. Their food costs them ten rubles (say �1 Is., or five dollars per month). They

always eat meat, disregarding the fasts. Their work always keeps them occupied more than hours running,

because it takes more than half an hour to get to their lodgings and from their lodgings, and, besides, they are

Paying for their own food, they earn, by such thirty sevenhouronend work, about twentyfive rubles a

"We agree because we have to feed ourselves. 'If you don't like itbe off!' If one's even an hour late, one has

one's ticket shied at one, and is told to march; and there are ten men ready to take the place."

The men were all young, only one was somewhat older, perhaps about forty. All their faces were lean, and

had exhausted, weary eyes, as if the men were drunk. The lean workman to whom I first spoke struck me

especially by the strange weariness of his look. I asked him whether he had not been drinking today.

"I don't drink," answered he, in the decided way in which men who really do not drink always reply to that

"The work is not light, and a drink always adds to one's strength," said the older workman.

This workman had been drinking that day, but it was not in the least noticeable.

Passing long rows of all sorts of goods, I came to some workmen slowly pushing a loaded truck. I learned

afterwards that the men have to shunt the trucks them selves and to keep the platform dear of snow, without

being paid for the work. It is so stated in the "Conditions of Pay." These workmen were just as tattered and

emaciated as those with whom I had been talking. When they had moved the truck to its place I went up to

I was told that they had started work at seven o'clock, and had only just dined. The work had prevented their

"As it happens; sometimes not till ten o'clock," replied the men, as if boasting of their endurance. Seeing my

interest in their position, they surrounded me, and, probably taking me for an inspector, several of them

speaking at once, informed me of what was evidently their chief subject of complaintnamely, that the

apartment in which they could sometimes warm themselves and snatch an hour's sleep between the daywork

and the nightwork was crowded. All of them expressed great dissatisfaction at this crowding.

"There may be one hundred men, and nowhere to lie down; even under the shelves it is crowded," said

The room was certainly not large enough. In the thirtysixfoot room about forty men might find place to lie

Some of the men entered the room with me, and they vied with each other in complaining of the scantiness of

These men, who in twenty degrees of frost, without overcoats, carry on their backs 240 pound loads during

thirtysix hours; who dine and sup not when they need food, but when their overseer allows them to eat;

living altogether in conditions far worse than those of dray horses, it seemed strange that these people only

complained of insufficient accommodation in the room where they warm themselves. But though this seemed

to me strange at first, yet, entering further into their position, I understood what a feeling of torture these men,

who never get enough sleep, and who are halffrozen, must experience when, instead of resting and being

warmed, they have to creep on the dirty floor under the shelves, and there, in the stuffy and vitiated air,

Only, perhaps, in that miserable hour of vain attempt to get rest and sleep do they painfully realize all the

horror of their lifedestroying thirtysevenhour work, and that is why they are specially agitated by such an

Having watched several gangs at work, and having talked with some more of the men and heard the same

story from them all, I drove home, having convinced myself that what my acquaintance had told me was true.

It was true that for money, only enough to subsist on, people considering themselves free men thought it

necessary to give themselves up to work such as, in the days of serfdom, not one slaveowner, however

cruel, would have sent his slaves to. Let alone slaveowners, not one cab proprietor would send his horses

to such work, for horses cost money, and it would be wasteful, by excessive, thirtysevenhour work, to

To oblige men to work for thirtyseven hours continuously without sleep, besides being cruel is also

uneconomical. And yet such uneconomical expenditure of human lives continually goes on around us.

Opposite the house in which I live 1 is a factory of silk goods, built with the latest technical improvements.

About three thousand women and seven hundred men work and live there. As I sit in my room now I hear the

unceasing din of the machinery, and knowfor I have been therewhat that din means. Three thousand

women stand, for twelve hours a day, at the looms amid a deafening roar; winding, unwinding, arranging the

silk threads to make silk stuffs. All the women (except those who have just come from the villages) have an

unhealthy appearance. Most of them lead a most intemperate and immoral life. Almost all, whether married

or unmarried, as soon as a child is born to them send it off either to the village or to the Foundlings' Hospital,

where eighty per cent. of these children perish. For fear of losing their places the mothers resume work the

So that during twenty years, to my knowledge, tens of thousands of young, healthy womenmothershave

ruined and are now ruining their lives and the lives of their children in order to produce velvets and silk

I met a beggar yesterday, a young man on crutches, sturdily built, but crippled. He used to work as a navvy,

with a wheelbarrow, but slipped and injured himself internally. He spent all he had on peasantwomen

healers and on doctors, and has now for eight years been home less, begging his bread, and complaining that

How many such sacrifices of life there are that we either know nothing of, or know of, but hardly notice,

I know men working at the blastfurnaces of the Tula Iron Foundry who, to have one Sunday free each fort

night, will work for twentyfour hoursthat is, after working all day they will go on working all night. I have

seen these men. They all drink vodka to keep up their energy, and obviously, like those goodsporters on the

And what of the waste of lives among those who are employed on admittedly harmful workin

lookingglass, cartridge, match, sugar, tobacco, and glass factories; in mines or as gilders?

There are English statistics showing that the average length of life among people of the upper classes is fifty

five years, and the average of life among working people in unhealthy occupations is twentynine years.

Knowing this (and we cannot help knowing it), we who take advantage of labor that costs human lives

should, one would think (unless we are beasts), not be able to enjoy a moment's peace. But the fact is that we

welltodo people, liberals and humanitarians, very sensitive to the sufferings not of people only, but also of

animals, unceasingly make use of such labor, and try to become more and more richthat is, to take more and

For instance, having learned of the thirtysevenhour labor of the goodsporters, and of their bad room, we

at once send there an inspector, who receives a good salary, and we forbid people to work more than twelve

hours, leaving the workmen (who are thus deprived of onethird of their earnings) to feed themselves as best

they can; and we compel the railway company to erect a large and convenient room for the workmen. Then

with perfectly quiet consciences we continue to receive and dispatch goods by that railway, and we ourselves

continue to receive salaries, dividends, rents from houses or from land, etc. Having learned that the women

and girls at the silk factory, living far from their families, ruin their own lives and those of their children, and

that a large half of the washerwomen who iron our starched shirts, and of the typesetters who print the books

and papers that while away our time, get consumption, we only shrug our shoulders and say that we are very

sorry things should be so, but that we can do nothing to alter it, and we continue with tranquil consciences to

buy silk stuffs, to wear starched shirts and to read our morning paper. We are much concerned about the

hours of the shop assistants, and still more about the long hours of our own children at school; we strictly

forbid carters to make their horses drag heavy loads, and we even organize the killing of cattle in

slaughterhouses, so that the animals may feel it as little as possible. But how wonderfully blind we become

as soon as the question concerns those millions of workers who perish slowly, and often painfully, all around

THIS wonderful blindness which befalls people of our circle can only be explained by the fact that when

people behave badly they always invent a philosophy of life which represents their bad actions to be not bad

actions at all, but merely results of unalterable laws beyond their control. In former times such a view of life

was found in the theory that an inscrutable and unalterable will of God existed which foreordained to some

men a humble position and hard work and to others an exalted position and the enjoyment of the good things

On this theme an enormous quantity of books were written and an innumerable quantity of sermons preached.

The theme was worked up from every possible side. It was demonstrated that God created different sorts of

peopleslaves and masters; and that both should be satisfied with their position. It was further demonstrated

that it would be better for the slaves in the next world; and afterwards it was shown that although the slaves

were slaves and ought to remain such, yet their condition would not be bad if the masters would be kind to

them. Then the very last explanation, after the emancipation of the slaves, was that wealth is entrusted by

God to some people in order that they may use part of it in good works, and so there is no harm in some

These explanations satisfied the rich and the poor (especially the rich) for a long time. But the day came

when these explanations became unsatisfactory, especially to the poor, who began to understand their

position. Then fresh explanations were needed. And just at the proper time they were produced. These new

explanations came in the form of science political economy: which declared that it had discovered the laws

which regulate division of labor and of the distribution of the products of labor among men. These laws,

according to that science, are that the division of labor and the enjoyment of its products depend on supply

and demand, and capital, rent, wages of labor, values, profits, etc.; in general, on unalterable laws governing

Soon, on this theme as many books and pamphlets were written and lectures delivered as there had been

treatises written and religious sermons preached on the former theme, and still unceasingly mountains of

pamphlets and books are being written and lectures are being delivered; and all these books and lectures are

as cloudy and unintelligible as the theological treatises and the sermons, and they, too, like the theological

treatises, fully achieve their appointed purposethat is, they give such an explanation of the existing order of

things as justifies some people in tranquilly refraining from labor and in utilizing the labor of others.

The fact that, for the investigations of this pseudo science, not the condition of the people in the whole

world through all historic time was taken to show the general order of things, but only the condition of people

in a small country, in most exceptional circumstances England at the end of the Eighteenth and the

beginning of the Nineteenth Centuries this fact did not in the least hinder the acceptance as valid of the

result to which the investigators arrived; any more than a similar acceptance is now hindered by the endless

disputes and disagreements among those who study that science and are quite unable to agree as to the

meaning of rent, surplus value, profits, etc. Only the one fundamental position of that science is

acknowledged by allnamely, that the relations among men are conditioned, not by what people consider

right or wrong, but by what is advantageous for those who occupy an advantageous position.

It is admitted as an undoubted truth that if in society many thieves and robbers have sprung up who take from

the laborers the fruits of their labor, this happens not because the thieves and robbers have acted badly, but

because such are the inevitable economic laws, which can only be altered slowly by an evolutionary process

indicated by science; and therefore, according to the guidance of science, people belonging to the class of

robbers, thieves or receivers of stolen goods may quietly continue to utilize the things obtained by thefts and

Though the majority of people in our world do not know the details of these tranquilizing scientific

explanations any more than they formerly knew the details of the theological explanations which justified

their position, yet they all know that an explanation exists; that scientific men, wise men, have proved

convincingly, and continue to prove, that the existing order of things is what it ought to be, and that,

therefore, we may live quietly in this order of things without ourselves' trying to alter it.

Only in this way can I explain the amazing blindness of good people in our society who sincerely desire the

welfare of animals, but yet with quiet consciences devour the lives of their brother men.

THE theory that it is God's will that some people should own others satisfied people for a very long time. But

that theory, by justifying cruelty, caused such cruelty as evoked resistance, and produced doubts as to the

So now with the theory that an economic evolution is progressing, guided by inevitable laws, in consequence

of which some people must collect capital, and others must labor all their lives to increase those capitals,

preparing themselves meanwhile for the promised communization of the means of production; this theory,

causing some people to be yet more cruel to others, also begins (especially among common people not

For instance, you see goodsporters destroying their lives by thirtyseven hours' labor, or women in

factories, or laundresses, or typesetters, or all those millions of people who live in hard, unnatural conditions

of monotonous, stupefying, slavish toil, and you naturally ask, What has brought these people to such a state?

And how are they to be delivered from it? And science replies that these people are in this condition because

the railway belongs to this company, the silk factory to that gentle man, and all the foundries, factories,

typographies, and laundries to capitalists, and that this state of things will come right by workpeople

forming unions, cooperative societies, strikes, and taking part in government, and more and more swaying

the masters and the government till the workers first obtain shorter hours and increased wages, and finally all

the means of production will pass into their hands, and then all will be well. Meanwhile, all is going on as it

CHAPTER IV. THE ASSERTION OF ECONOMIC SCIENCE THAT RURAL LABORERS MUST ENTER THE FACTORY SYSTEM 8

This answer must seem to an unlearned man, and particularly to our Russian folk, very surprising. In the first

place, neither in relation to the goodsporters, nor the factory women, nor all the millions of other laborers

suffering from heavy, unhealthy, stupefying labor does the possession of the means of production by

capitalists explain anything. The agricultural means of production of those men who are now working at the

railway have not been seized by capitalists: they have land, and horses, and plows, and harrows, and all that is

necessary to till the ground; also these women working at the factory are not only not forced to it by being

deprived of their implements of production, but, on the contrary, they have (for the most part against the wish

of the elder members of their families) left the homes where their work was much wanted, and where they

Millions of workpeople in Russia and in other countries are in like case. So that the cause of the miserable

position of the workers cannot be found in the seizure of the means of production by capitalists. The cause

must lie in that which drives them from the villages. That, in the first place. Secondly, the emancipation of

the workers from this state of things (even in that distant future in which science promises them liberty) can

be accomplished neither by shortening the hours of labor, nor by increasing wages, nor by the promised

All that cannot improve their position, for the misery of the laborer's positionalike on the railway, in the silk

factory and in every other factory or workshop consists not in the longer or shorter hours of work

(agriculturists sometimes work eighteen hours a day, and as much as thirtysix hours on end, and consider

their lives happy ones), nor does it consist in the low rate of wages, nor in the fact that the railway or the

factory is not theirs, but it consists in the fact that they are obliged to work in harmful, unnatural conditions

often dangerous and destructive to life, and to live a barrack4ife in towns a life full of temptations and

Latterly the hours of labor have diminished and the rate of wages has increased; but this diminution of the

hours of labor and this increase in wages have not improved the position of the worker, if one takes into

account not their more luxurious habitswatches with chains, silk kerchiefs, tobacco, vodka, beef, beer, etc.

but their true welfarethat is, their health and morality, and chiefly their freedom.

At the silk factory with which I am acquainted, twenty years ago the work was chiefly done by men, who

worked fourteen hours a day, earned on an average fifteen rubles a month, and sent the money for the most

part to their families in the villages. Now nearly all the work is done by women working eleven hours, some

of whom earn as much as twentyfive rubles a month (over fifteen rubles on the average), and for the most

part not sending it home, but spend all they earn here chiefly on dress, drunkenness and vice. The diminution

The same thing is happening, to a greater or lesser extent, at all the factories and works. Everywhere,

notwithstanding the diminution of the hours of labor and the increase of wages, the health of the operatives is

worse than that of country workers, the average duration of life is shorter, and morality is sacrificed, as

cannot but occur when people are torn from those conditions which most conduce to moralityfamily life,

It is very possibly true that, as some economists assert, with shorter hours of labor, more pay, and improved

sanitary conditions in mills and factories, the health of the workers and their morality improve in comparison

with the former condition of factory workers. It is possible also that latterly, and in some places, the position

of the factory hands is better in external conditions than the position of the country population. But this is so

(and only in some places) because the government and society, influenced by the affirmation of science, do

all that is possible to improve the position of the factory population at the expense of the country population.

CHAPTER IV. THE ASSERTION OF ECONOMIC SCIENCE THAT RURAL LABORERS MUST ENTER THE FACTORY SYSTEM 9

If the condition of the factoryworkers in some places is (though only in externals) better than that of country

people, it only shows that one can, by all kinds of restrictions, render life miserable in what should be the best

external conditions, and that there is no position so unnatural and bad that men may not adapt themselves to it

The misery of the position of a factory hand, and in general of a townworker, does not consist in his long

hours and small pay, but in the fact that he is deprived of the natural conditions of life in touch with nature, is

deprived of freedom, is compelled to compulsory and monotonous toil at another man's will.

And, therefore, the reply to the questions, why factory and town workers are in a miserable condition, and

how to improve their condition, cannot be that this arises because capitalists have possessed themselves of the

means of production, and that the workers' condition will be improved by diminishing their hours of work,

The reply to these questions must consist in indicating the causes which have deprived the workers of the

natural conditions of life in touch with nature, and have driven them into factory bondage, and in indicating

means to free the workers from the necessity of foregoing a free, country life, and going into slavery at the

And, therefore, the question why townworkers are in a miserable condition includes, first of all, the

question, What reasons have driven them from the villages, where they and their ancestors have lived and

might live, where, in Russia, people such as they do now live? and, What it is that drove and continues to

If there are workmen, as in England, Belgium, or Germany, who for some generations have lived by factory

work, even they live so not at their own free will, but because their fathers, grandfathers, and

greatgrandfathers were, in some way, compelled to exchange the agricultural life which they loved for life

which seemed to them hard, in towns and in factories. First, the country people were deprived of their land by

violence, says Karl Marx, were evicted and brought to vagabondage, and then, by cruel laws, they were

tortured with pincers, with redhot irons, and were whipped, to make them submit to the condition of being

hired laborers. Therefore, the question how to free the workers from their miserable position should, one

would think, naturally lead to the question how to remove those causes which have already driven some, and

are now driving or threatening to drive, the rest of the peasants from the position which they considered and

consider good, and have driven and are driving them to a position which they consider bad.

Economic science, although it indicates in passing the causes that drove the peasants from the villages, does

not concern itself with the question how to remove these causes, but directs all its attention to the

improvement of the worker's position in the existing factories and works, assuming, as it were, that the

worker's position at these factories and workshops is something unalterable, some thing which must at all

costs be maintained for those who are already in the factories, and must absorb those who have not yet left

Moreover, economic science is so sure that all the peasants have inevitably to become factory operatives in

towns, that though all the sages and all the poets of the world have always placed the ideal of human

happiness in the conditions of agricultural work; though all the workers whose habits are unperverted have

always preferred, and still prefer, agricultural labor to any other; though factory work is always unhealthy and

monotonous, while agriculture is the most healthy and varied; though agricultural work is free that is, the

peasant alternates toil and rest at his own willwhile factory work, even if the factory belongs to the

workmen, is always enforced, in dependence on the machines; though factory work is derivative, while

agricultural work is fundamental, and without it no factory could existyet economic science affirms that all

the country people not only are not injured by the transition from the country to the town, but themselves

CHAPTER IV. THE ASSERTION OF ECONOMIC SCIENCE THAT RURAL LABORERS MUST ENTER THE FACTORY SYSTEM 10

HOWEVER obviously unjust may he the assertion of the men of science that the welfare of humanity must

consist in the very thing that is profoundly repulsive to human feelingsin monotonous, enforced factory

laborthe men of science were inevitably led to the necessity of making this obviously unjust assertion, just

as the theologians of old were inevitably led to make the equally evident unjust assertion that slaves and their

masters were creatures differing in kind, and that the inequality of their position in this world would be

The cause of this evidently unjust assertion is that those who have formulated, and who are formulating, the

laws of science belong to the welltodo classes, and are so accustomed to the conditions, advantageous for

themselves, among which they live, that they do not admit the thought that society could exist under other

The condition of life to which people of the welltodo classes are accustomed is that of an abundant

production of various articles necessary for their comfort and pleasure, and these things are obtained only

thanks to the existence of factories and works organized as at present. And, therefore, discussing the

improvement of the workers' position, the men of science belonging to the well todo classes always have

in view only such improvements as will not do away with the system of factoryproduction and those

Even the most advanced economiststhe Socialists, who demand the complete control of the means of

production for the workersexpect production of the same or almost of the same articles as are produced now

to continue in the present or in similar factories with the present division of labor.

The difference, as they imagine it, will only be that in the future not they alone, but all men, will make use of

such conveniences as they alone now enjoy. They dimly picture to themselves that, with the communization

of the means of production, they, toomen of science, and in general the ruling classeswill do some work,

but chiefly as managers, designers, scientists or artists. To the questions, Who will have to wear a muzzle and

make white lead? Who will be stokers, miners, and cesspool cleaners? they are either silent, or foretell that

all these things will be so improved that even work at cesspools and underground will afford pleasant

occupation. That is bow they represent to themselves future economic conditions, both in Utopias such as that

According to their theories, the workers will all join unions and associations, and cultivate solidarity among

themselves by unions, strikes, and participation in Parliament till they obtain possession of all the means of

production, as well as the land, and then they will be so well fed, so well dressed, and enjoy such amusements

on holidays that they will prefer life in town, amid brick buildings and smoking chimneys, to free village life

amid plants and domestic animals; and monotonous, bellregulated machine work to the varied, healthy, and

Though this anticipation is as improbable as the anticipation of the theologians about a heaven to be enjoyed

hereafter by workmen in compensation for their hard labor here, yet learned and educated people of our

society believe this strange teaching, just as formerly wise and learned people believed in a heaven for

And learned men and their disciples, people of the welltodo classes, believe this because they must believe

it. This dilemma stands before them: either they must see that all that they make use of in their lives, from

railways to lucifer matches and cigarettes, represents labor which costs the lives of their brother men, and that

they, not sharing in that toil, but making use of it, are very dishonorable men; or they must believe that all

that takes place takes place for the general advantage in accord with unalterable laws of economic science.

Therein lies the inner psychological cause, compelling men of science, men wise and educated, but not

enlightened, to affirm positively and tenaciously such an obvious untruth as that the laborers, for their own

wellbeing, should leave their happy and healthy life in touch with nature, and go to ruin their bodies and

BUT even allowing the assertion (evidently unfounded as it is, and contrary to the facts of human nature) that

it is better for people to live in towns and to do compulsory machine work in factories rather than to live in

villages and work freely at handicrafts, there remains, in the very ideal itself, to which the men of science tell

us the economic revolution is leading, an insoluble contradiction. The ideal is that the workers, having

become the masters of all the means of production, are to obtain all the comforts and pleasures now possessed

by welltodo people. They will all be well clothed, and housed, and well nourished, and will all walk on

electrically lighted, asphalt streets, and frequent concerts and theaters, and read papers and books, and ride on

motor cars, etc. But that everybody may have certain things, the production of those things must be

apportioned, and consequently it must be decided how long each workman is to work.

Statistics may show (though very imperfectly) what people require in a society fettered by capital, by

competition, and by want. But no statistics can show how much is wanted and what articles are needed to

satisfy the demand in a society where the means of production will belong to the society itselfthat is, where

The demands in such a society cannot be defined, and they will always infinitely exceed the possibility of

satisfying them. Everybody will wish to have all that the richest now possesses, and, therefore, it is quite

Furthermore, how are people to be induced to work at articles which some consider necessary and others

If it be found necessary for everybody to work, say six hours a day, in order to satisfy the requirements of the

society, who in a free society can compel a man work those six hours, if he knows that part of the time is

It is undeniable that under the present state of things most varied articles are produced with great economy of

exertion, thanks to machinery, and thanks especially to the division of labor which has been brought to an

extreme nicety and carried to the highest perfection, and that those articles are profitable to the

manufacturers, and that we find them convenient and pleasant to use. But the fact that these articles are well

made and are produced with little expenditure of strength, that they are profitable to the capitalists and

convenient for us, does not prove that free men would, without compulsion, continue to produce them. There

is no doubt that Krupp, with the present division of labor, makes admirable cannons very quickly and

artfully; N. M. very quickly and artfully produces silk materials; X, Y. and Z. produce toiletscents, powder

to preserve the complexion, or glazed packs of cards, and K. produces whiskey of choice flavor, etc.; and, no

doubt, both for those who want these articles and for the owners of the factories in which they are made it is

very advantageous. But cannons and scents and whiskey are wanted by those who wish to obtain control of

the Chinese market, or who like to get drunk, or are concerned about their complexions; but there will be

some who consider the production of these articles harmful. And there will always be people who consider

that besides these articles, exhibitions, academies, beer and beef are unnecessary and even harmful. How are

But even if a means could be found to get all to agree to produce certain articles (though there is no such

means, and can be none, except coercion), who, in a free society, without capitalistic production, competition,

and its law of supply and demand, will decide which articles are to have the preference? Which are to be

made first, and which after? Are we first to build the Siberian Railway and fortify Port Arthur, and then

macadamize the roads in our country districts, or viceversa? Which is to come first, electric lighting or

irrigation of the fields? And then comes another question, insoluble with free workmen, Which men are to

do which work? Evidently all will prefer haymaking or drawing to stoking or cesspoolcleaning. How, in

No statistics can answer these questions. The solution can be only theoretical; it may be said that there will be

people to whom power will be given to regulate all these matters. Some people will decide these questions

But besides the questions of apportioning and directing production and of selecting work, when the means of

production are communalized, there will be another and most important question, as to the degree of division

of labor that can be established in a socialistically organized society. The now existing division of labor is

conditioned by the necessities of the workers. A worker only agrees to live all his life underground, or to

make the onehundredth part of one article all his life, or to move his hands up and down amid the roar of

machinery all his life, because he will otherwise not have means to live. But it will only be by compulsion

that a workman, owning the means of production and not suffering want, can be induced to accept such

stupefying and souldestroying conditions of labor as those in which people now work. Division of labor is

undoubtedly very profitable and natural to people; but if people are free, division of labor is only possible up

to a certain very limited extent, which has been far overstepped in our society.

If one peasant occupies himself chiefly with bootmaking, and his wife weaves, and another peasant plows,

and a third is a blacksmith, and they all, having acquired special dexterity in their own work, afterwards

exchange what they have produced, such division of labor is advantageous to all, and free people will

naturally divide their work in this way. But a division of labor by which a man makes one onehundredth of

an article, or a stoker works in 1500 of heat, or is choked with harmful gases, such divisions of labor is

disadvantageous, because though it furthers the production of insignificant articles, it destroys that which is

most preciousthe life of man. And, therefore, such division of labor as now exists can only exist where there

is compulsion. Rodbertus says that communal division of labor unites mankind. That is true, but it is only

If people decide to make a road, and one digs, another brings stones, a third breaks them, etc., that sort of

But if, independently of the wishes, and sometimes against the wishes, of the workers, a strategical railway is

built, or an Eiffel tower, or stupidities such as fill the Paris Exhibition, and one workman is compelled to

obtain iron, another to dig coal, a third to make castings, a fourth to cut down trees, and a fifth to saw them

up, without even having the least idea what the things they are making are wanted for, then such division of

And, therefore, with communalized implements of production, if people are free, they will only adopt

division of labour in so far as the good resulting will outweigh the evils it occasions to the workers. And as

each man naturally sees good in extending and diversifying his activities, such division of labor as now exists

To suppose that with communalized means of production there will be such an abundance of things as is now

produced by compulsory division of labor is like supposing that after the emancipation of the serfs the

domestic orchestras2 and theaters, the homemade carpets and laces and the elaborate gardens which

depended on serflabor would continue to exist as before. So that the supposition that when the Socialist

ideal is realized every one will be free, and will at the same time have at his disposal everything, or almost

everything, that is now made use of by the welltodo classes, involves an obvious self contradiction.

JUST what happened when serfdom existed is now being repeated. Then the majority of the serfowners and

of people of the welltodo classes, if they acknowledged the serf's position to be not quite satisfactory, yet

recommended only such alterations as would not deprive the owners of what was essential to their profit;

now, people of the welltodo classes, admitting that the position of the workers is not altogether

satisfactory, propose for its amendment only such measures as will not deprive the welltodo classes of

their advantages. As welldisposed owners then spoke of "paternal authority," and, like Go'g~,1 advised

owners to be kind to their serfs, and to take care of them, but would not tolerate the idea of emancipation,2

considering it harmful and dangerous, just so the majority of welltodo people today advise employers to

look after the wellbeing of their work people, but do not admit the thought of any such alteration of the

And just as advanced Liberals then, while considering serfdom to be an immutable arrangement, demanded

that the government should limit the power of the owners, and sympathized with the serfs' agitation, so the

Liberals of today, while considering the existing order immutable demand that government should limit the

powers of capitalists and manufacturers, and they sympathize with unions, and strikes, and, in general, with

the workers' agitation. And just as the most advanced men then demanded the emancipation of the serfs, but

drew up a project which left the serfs dependent on private land owners, or fettered them with tributes and

landtaxes, so now the most advanced people demand the emancipation of the workmen from the power of

the capitalists, the communalisation of the means of production, but yet would leave the workers dependent

on the present apportionment and division of labor, which, in their opinion, must remain unaltered.

The teachings of economic science which are adopted, though without closely examining their details by all

those of the welltodo classes who consider themselves enlightened and advanced, seem on a superficial

examination to be liberal and even radical, containing as they do attacks on the wealthy classes of society; but

essentially that teaching is in the highest degree conservative, gross and cruel. One way or another the men of

science, and in their train all the welltodo classes, wish at all cost to maintain the present system of

distribution and division of labor, which makes possible the production of that great quantity of goods which

they make use of. The existing economic order is, by the men of science and, following them, by all the

welltodo classes, called culture; and in this culturerailways, telegraphs, telephones, photographs,

Roentgen rays, clinical hospitals, exhibitions, and, chiefly, all the appliances of comfort they see something

so sacrosanct that they will not allow even a thought of alterations which might destroy it all, or but endanger

a small part of these acquisitions. Everything may, according to the teachings of that science, be changed

except what it calls culture. But it becomes more and more evident that this culture can exist only while the

workers are compelled to work. Yet men of science are so sure that this culture is the greatest of blessings

that they boldly proclaim the contrary of what the lawyers once said, Fiat justitla, pereat mundus! They now

And they not only say it, but act accordingly. Everything may be changed in practice and in theory, but not

culture; not all that is going on in workshops and factories, and certainly not what is being sold in the shops.

But I think that enlightened people, professing the Christian law of brotherhood and love to one's neighbor,

Electric lights and telephones and exhibitions are excellent, and so are all the pleasuregardens, with concerts

and performances, and all the cigars, and matchboxes, and braces, and motor cars, but they may all go to

perdition, and not they alone, but the railways, and all the factorymade chintz stuffs and cloths in the world,

if to produce them it is necessary that ninetynine per cent. of the people should remain in slavery and perish

by thousands in factories needed for the production of these articles. If, in order that London or Petersburg

may be lighted by electricity, or in order to construct exhibition buildings, or in order that there may be

beautiful paints, or in order to weave beautiful stuffs quickly and abundantly, it is necessary that even a very

few lives should be destroyed, or ruined, or shortenedand statistics show us how many are destroyedlet

London or Petersburg rather be lit by gas or oil; let there rather be no exhibition, no paints, or materials, only

let there be no slavery, and no destruction of human lives resulting from it. Truly enlightened people will

always agree rather to go back to riding on horses and using packhorses, or even to tilling the earth with

sticks or with one's hands, than to travel on railways which regularly every year crush so many people as is

done in Chicagomerely because the proprietors of the railway find it more profitable to compensate the

families of those killed than to build the line so that it should not kill people. The motto for truly enlightened

people is not, Fiat cultura, pereat justitia, but Fiat justitia, pereat cultura. But culture, useful culture, will not

be destroyed. Let justice be done, though the world perish. It will certainly not be necessary for people to

revert to tillage of the land with sticks or to lighting up with torches. It is not for nothing that mankind, in

their slavery, have achieved such great progress in technical matters. If only it is understood that we must not

sacrifice the lives of our fellowmen for our pleasure, it will be possible to apply technical improvements

without destroying men's lives, and to arrange life so as to profit by all such methods giving us control of

nature as have been devised and can be applied without keeping our brother men in slavery.

IMAGINE a man from the country quite different from our own, with no idea of our history or of our laws,

and suppose that, after showing him the various aspects of our life, we were to ask him what was the chief

difference he noticed in the lives of people of our world? The chief difference which such a man would notice

in the way people live is that some peoplea small number who have clean, white hands, and are well

nourished and clothed and lodged, do very little and very light work, or even do not work at all, but only

amuse themselves, spending on these amusements the results of millions of days devoted by other people to

severe labor; but other people, always dirty, poorly clothed and lodged and fed, with dirty, horny hands, toil

unceasingly from morning to night, and sometimes all night long, working for those who do not work, but

If between the slaves and slaveowners of today it is difficult to draw as sharp a dividing line as that which

separated the former slaves from their masters, and if among the slaves of today there are some who are

only temporarily slaves and then become slaveowners, or some who, at one and the same time, are slaves

and slave owners, this blending of the two classes at their points of contact does not upset the fact that the

people of our time are divided into slaves and slaveowners as definitely as, in spite of the twilight, each

If the slaveowner of our times has no slave, John, whom he can send to the cesspool, he has five shillings,

of which hundreds of such Johns are in such need that the slaveowner of our times may choose any one out

of hundreds of Johns and be a benefactor to him by giving him the preference, and allowing him, rather than

The slaves of our times are not all those factory and workshop hands only who must sell themselves

completely into the power of the factory and foundryowners in order to exist, but nearly all the agricultural

laborers are slaves, working, as they do, unceasingly to grow another's corn on another's field, and gathering

it into another's barn; or tilling their own fields only in order to pay to bankers the interest on debts they

cannot get rid of. And slaves also are all the innumerable footmen, cooks, porters, housemaids, coachmen,

bathmen, waiters, etc., who all their life long perform duties most unnatural to a human being, and which they

Slavery exists in full vigor, but we do not perceive it, just as in Europe at the end of the Eighteenth Century

People of that day thought that the position of men obliged to till the land for their lords, and to obey them,

was a natural, inevitable, economic condition of life, and they did not call it slavery.

It is the same among us: people of our day consider the position of the laborer to be a natural, inevitable

economic condition, and they do not call it slavery. And as, at the end of the Eighteenth Century, the people

of Europe began little by little to understand that what formerly seemed a natural and inevitable form of

economic lifenamely, the position of peasants who were completely in the power of their lordswas wrong,

unjust and immoral, and demanded alteration, so now people today are beginning to understand that the

position of hired workmen, and of the working classes in general, which formerly seemed quite right and

The question of the slavery of our times is just in the same phase now in which the question of serfdom stood

in Europe towards the end of the Eighteenth Century, and in which the questions of serfdom among us and of

The slavery of the workers in our time is only beginning to be admitted by advanced people in our society;

A thing that helps people to day to misunderstand their position in this matter is the fact that we have, in

Russia and in America, only recently abolished slavery. But in reality the abolition of serfdom and of slavery

was only the abolition of an obsolete form of slavery that had become unnecessary, and the substitution for it

of a firmer form of slavery and one that holds a greater number of people in bondage. The abolition of

serfdom and of slavery was like what the 'Tartars of the Crimea did with their prisoners. They invented the

plan of slitting the soles of the slaves' feet and sprinkling choppedup bristles into the wounds. Having

performed that operation, they released them from their weights and chains. The abolition of serfdom in

Russia and of slavery in America, though it abolished the former method of slavery, not only did not abolish

what was essential in it, but was only accomplished when the bristles had formed sores in the soles, and one

could be quite sure that without chains or weights the prisoners would not run away, but would have to work.

(The Northerners in America boldly demanded the abolition of the former slavery because among them the

new, monetary slavery had already shown its power to shackle the people. The Southerners did not perceive

the plain signs of the new slavery, and, therefore, did not consent to abolish the old form.)

Among us in Russia serfdom was abolished only when all the land had been appropriated. When land was

granted to the peasants it was burdened with payments, which took the place of the landslavery. In Europe

taxes that kept the people in bondage began to be abolished only when the people had lost their land, were

unaccustomed to agricultural work and, having acquired town tastes, were quite dependent on the capitalists.

Only then were the taxes on corn abolished in England. And they are now beginning, in Germany and in

other countries, to abolish the taxes that fall on the workers and to shift them on to the rich, only because the

majority of the people are already in the hands of the capitalists. One form of slavery is not abolished until

another has already replaced it. There are several such forms. And if not one, then another (and sometimes

several of these means together) keeps a people in slaverythat is, places it in such a position that one small

part of the people has full power over the labor and the life of a larger number. In this enslavement of the

larger part of the people by a smaller part lies the chief cause of the miserable condition of the people. And,

therefore, the means of improving the position of the workers must consist in this: First, in admitting that

among us slavery exists not in some figurative, metaphorical sense, but in the simplest and plainest sense;

slavery which keeps some people the majorityin the power of othersthe minority; secondly, having

admitted this, in finding the causes of the enslavement of some people by others; and thirdly, having found

IN what does the slavery of our time consist? What are the forces that make some people the slaves of others?

If we ask all the workers in Russia and in Europe and in America alike in the factories and in various

situations in which they work for hire, in towns and villages, what has made them choose the position in

which they are living, they will all reply that they have been brought to it either because they bad no land on

which they could and wished to live and work (that will be the reply of all the Russian workmen and of very

many of the Europeans), or that taxes, direct and indirect, were demanded of them, which they could only pay

by selling their labor, or that they remain at factory work ensnared by the more luxurious habits they have

adopted, and which they can gratify only by selling their labor and their liberty.

The first two conditions, the lack of land and the taxes, drive men to compulsory labor; while the third, his

We can imagine that the land may be freed from the claims of private proprietors by Henry George's plan,

and that, therefore, the first cause driving people into slaverythe lack of landmay be done away with. With

reference to taxes (besides the singletax plan) we may imagine the abolition of taxes, or that they should be

transferred from the poor to the rich, as is being done now in some countries; but under the present economic

organization one cannot even imagine a position of things under which more and more luxurious, and often

harmful, habits of life should not, little by little, pass to those of the lower classes who are in contact with the

rich as inevitably as water sinks into dry ground, and that those habits should not become so necessary to the

workers that in order to be able to satisfy them they will be ready to sell their freedom.

So that this third condition, though it is a voluntary onethat is, it would seem that a man might resist the

temptationand though science does not acknowledge it to be a cause of the miserable condition of the

Workmen living near rich people always are infected with new requirements, and obtain means to satisfy

these requirements only to the extent to which they devote their most intense labor to this satisfaction. So that

workmen in England and America, receiving sometimes ten times as much as is necessary for subsistence,

Three causes, as the workmen themselves explain, produce the slavery in which they live; and the history of

their enslavement and the facts of their position confirm the correctness of this explanation.

All the workers are brought to their present state and are kept in it by these three causes. These causes, acting

on people from different sides, are such that none can escape from their enslavement. The agriculturalist who

has no land, or who has not enough, will always be obliged to go into perpetual or temporary slavery to the

landowner, in order to have the possibility of feeding himself from the land. Should he in one way or other

obtain land enough to be able to feed himself from it by his own labor, such taxes, direct and indirect, are

If to escape from slavery on the land he ceases to cultivate land, and, living on some one else's land, begins to

occupy himself with a handicraft, or to exchange his produce for the things he needs, then, on the one hand,

taxes, and on the other hand, the competition of capitalists producing similar articles to those he makes, but

with better implements of production, compel him to go into temporary or perpetual slavery to a capitalist. If

working for a capitalist he might set up free relations with him, and not be obliged to sell his liberty, yet the

new requirements which he assimilates deprive him of any such possibility. So that one way or another the

laborer is always in slavery to those who control the taxes, the land, and the articles necessary to satisfy his

THE German Socialists have termed the combination of conditions which put the worker in subjection to the

capitalists the iron law of wages, implying by the word "iron'' that this law is immutable. But in these

conditions there is nothing immutable. These conditions merely result from human laws concerning taxes,

land, and, above all, concerning things which satisfy our requirementsthat is, concerning property. Laws are

framed and repealed by human beings. So that it is not some sociological "iron law," but ordinary, manmade

law that produces slavery. In the case in hand the slavery of our times is very clearly and definitely produced

not by some "iron" elemental law, but by human enactments about land, about taxes, and about property.

There is one set of laws by which any quantity of land may belong to private people, and may pass from one

to another by inheritance, or by will, or may be sold; there is another set of laws by which every one must pay

the taxes demanded of him unquestioningly; and there is a third set of laws to the effect that any quantity of

articles, by whatever means acquired, may become the absolute property of the people who hold them. And

We are so accustomed to all these laws that they seem to us just as necessary and natural to human life as the

laws maintaining serfdom and slavery seemed in former times; no doubt about their necessity and justice

seems possible, and no one notices anything wrong in them. But Just as a time came when people, having

seen the ruinous consequences of serfdom, questioned the justice and necessity of the laws which maintained

it, so now, when the pernicious consequences of the present economic order have become evident, one

involuntarily questions the justice and inevitability of the legislation about land, taxes and property which

As people formerly asked, Is it right that some people should belong to others, and that the former should

have nothing of their own, but should give all the produce of their labor to their owners? so now we must ask

ourselves, Is it right that people must not use land accounted the property of other people; is it right that

people should hand over to others, in the form of taxes, whatever part of their labor is demanded of them? Is

it right that people may not make use of articles considered to be the property of other people?

Is it right that people should not have the use of land when it is considered to belong to others who are not

It is said that this legislation is instituted because landed property is an essential condition if agriculture is to

flourish, and if there were no private property passing by inheritance people would drive one another from

the land they occupy, and no one would work or improve the land on which he is settled. Is this true? The

answer is to be found in history and in the facts of to day. History shows that property in land did not arise

from any wish to make the cultivator's tenure more secure, but resulted from the seizure of communal lands

by conquerors and its distribution to those who served the conqueror. So that property in land was not

established with the object of stimulating the agriculturalists. Presentday facts show the fallacy of the

assertion that landed property enables those who work the land to be sure that they will not be deprived of the

land they cultivate. In reality, just the contrary has everywhere happened and is happening. The right of

landed property, by which the great proprietors have profited and are profiting most, has produced the result

that all, or mostthat is, the immense majority of the agriculturalistsare now in the position of people who

cultivate other people's land, from which they may be driven at the whim of men who do not cultivate it. So

that the existing right of landed property certainly does not defend the rights of the agriculturalists to enjoy

the fruits of the labor he puts into the land, but, on the contrary, it is a way of depriving the agriculturalists of

the land on which they work and handing it over to those who have not worked it; and, therefore, it is

certainly not a means for the improvement of agriculture, but, on the contrary, a means of deteriorating it.

About taxes it is said that people ought to pay them because they are instituted with the general, even though

silent, consent of all, and are used for public needs to the advantage of all. Is this true?

The answer to this question is given in history and in presentday facts. History shows that taxes never were

instituted by common consent, but, on the contrary always only in consequence of the fact that some people

having obtained power by conquest, or by other means over other people, imposed tribute not for public

needs, but for themselves. And the same thing is still going on. Taxes are taken by those who have the power

of taking them. If nowadays some portion of these tributes, called taxes and duties, are used for public

purposes, for the most part it is for public purposes that are harmful rather than useful to most people.

For instance, in Russia onethird of the revenue is drawn from the peasants, but only OneFiftieth of the

revenue is spent on their greatest need, the education of the people; and even that amount is spent on a kind

of education which, by stupefying the people, harms them more than it benefits them. The other Fortynine

Fiftieths are spent on unnecessary things harmful for the people, such as equipping the army, building

strategical railways, forts and prisons, or supporting the priesthood and the Court, and on salaries for military

and civil officialsthat is, on salaries for those people who make it possible to take this money from the

people. The same thing goes on not only in Persia, Turkey and India, but also in all the Christian and

constitutional states and democratic republics; money is taken from the majority of the people quite

independently of the consent or nonconsent of the payers, and the amount collected is not what is really

needful, but as much as can be got (it is known how Parliaments are made up, and how little they represent

the will of the people), and it is used not for the common advantage, but for what the governing classes

consider necessary for themselveson wars in Cuba or the Philippines, on taking and keeping the riches of

the Transvaal, and so forth. So that the explanation that people must pay taxes because they are instituted

with general consent, and are used for the common good, is as unjust as the other explanation that private

Is it true that people should not use articles needful to satisfy their requirements if these articles are the

It is asserted that the rights of property in acquired articles is established in order to make the worker sure that

It is only necessary to glance at what is done in our world, where property rights are defended with especial

strictness, in order to be convinced how completely the facts of life run counter to this explanation.

In our society, in consequence of property rights in acquired articles, the very thing happens which that right

is intended to preventnamely, all articles which have been, and continually are being, produced by working

people are possessed by, and as they are produced are continually taken by, those who have not produced

So that the assertion that the right of property secures to the workers the possibility of enjoying the products

of their labor is evidently still more unjust than the assertion concerning property in land, and it is based on

the same sophistry; first, the fruit of their toil is unjustly and violently taken from the workers, and then the

law steps in, and these very articles which have been taken from the workmen unjustly and by violence are

Property, for instance, a factory acquired by a series of frauds and by taking advantage of the workmen, is

considered a result of labor and is held sacred; but the lives of those workmen who perish at work in that

factory and their labor are not considered their property, but are rather considered to be the property of the

factory owner, if he, taking advantage of the necessities of the workers, has bound them down in a manner

considered legal. Hundreds of thousands of bushels of corn, collected from the peasants by usury and by a

series of extortions, are considered to be the property of the merchant, while the growing corn raised by the

peasants is considered to be the property of some one else if he has inherited the land from a grandfather or

greatgrandfather who took it from the people. It is said that the law defends equally the property of the

millowner, of the capitalist, of the landowner, and of the factory or country laborer. The equality of the

capitalist and of the worker is like the equality of two fighters when one has his arms tied and the other has

weapons, but during the fight certain rules are applied to both with strict impartiality. So that all the

explanations of the justice and necessity of the three sets of laws which produce slavery are as untrue as were

the explanations formerly given of the justice and necessity of serfdom. All those three sets of laws are

nothing but the establishment of that new form of slavery which has replaced the old form. As people

formerly established laws enabling some people to buy and sell other people, and to own them, and to make

them work, and slavery existed, so now people have established laws that men may not use land that is

considered to belong to some one else, must pay the taxes demanded of them, and must not use articles

THE slavery of our times results from three sets of lawsthose about land, taxes, and property. And,

therefore, all the attempts of those who wish to improve the position of the workers are inevitably, though

One set of people repeal taxes weighing on the working classes and transfer them on to the rich; others

propose to abolish the right of private property in land, and attempts are being made to put this in practice

both in New Zealand and in one of the American States (the limitation of the landlord's rights in Ireland is a

move in the same direction) ; a third setthe Socialistspropose to communalise the means of production, to

tax incomes and inheritances, and to limit the rights of capitalistemployers. It would, therefore, seem as if

the legislative enactments which cause slavery were being repealed, and that we may, therefore, expect

slavery to be abolished in this way. But we need only look more closely at the conditions under which the

abolition of those legislative enactments is accomplished or proposed to be convinced that not only the

practical, but even the theoretical projects for the improvement of the workers' position are merely the

substitution of one legislation producing slavery for another establishing a newer form of slavery. Thus, for

instance, those who abolish taxes and duties on the poor, first abolishing direct dues and then transferring the

burden of taxation from the poor to the rich, necessarily have to retain, and do retain, the laws making private

property of landed property, means of production, and other articles, on to which the whole burden of the

taxes is shifted. The retention of the laws concerning land and property keeps the workers in slavery to the

landowners and the capitalists, even though the workers are freed from taxes. Those who, like Henry George

and his partisans, would abolish the laws making private property of land, propose new laws imposing an

obligatory rent on the land. And this obligatory land rent will necessarily create a new form of slavery,

because a man compelled to pay rent, or the single tax, may at any failure of the crops or other misfortune

have to borrow money from a man who has some to lend, and he will again lapse into slavery. Those who,

like the Socialists, in theory, wish to abolish the legislation of property m land and in means of production,

retain the legalization of taxes, and must, moreover, inevitably introduce laws of compulsory laborthat is,

So that, this way or that way, all the practical and theoretical repeals of certain laws maintaining slavery in

one form have always and do always replace it by new legislation creating slavery in another and fresh form.

What happens is something like what a jailer might do who shifted a prisoner's chains from the neck to the

arms, and from the arms to the legs, or took them off and substituted bolts and bars. All the improvements

that have hitherto taken place in the position of the workers have been of this kind.

The laws giving a master the right to compel his slaves to do compulsory work were replaced by laws

allowing the masters to own all the land. The laws allowing all the land to become the private property of the

masters may be replaced by taxationlaws, the control of the taxes being in the hands of the masters. The

taxationlaws are replaced by others defending the right of private property in articles of use and in the

means of production. The laws of right of property in land and in articles of use and means of production it is

So it is evident that the abolition of one form of legalization producing the slavery of our time, whether taxes,

or landowning, or property in articles of use or in the means of production, will not destroy slavery, but will

only repeal one of its forms, which will immediately be replaced by a new one, as was the case with the

abolition of chattelslavery, of serfdom, and with the repeals of taxes. Even the repeal of all three groups of

laws together will not abolish slavery, but evoke a new and as yet unknown form of it, which is now already

beginning to show itself and to restrain the freedom of labor by legislation concerning the hours of work, the

age and state of health of the workers, as well as by demanding obligatory attendance at schools, deductions

for oldage insurance or accidents, by all the measures of factory inspection, the restrictions on

All this is nothing but the transference of legalization preparing a new and as yet untried form of slavery.

So that it becomes evident that the essence of slavery lies not in those three roots of legislation on which it

now rests, and not even in such or such other legislative enactments, but in the fact that legislation exists; that

there are people who have power to decree laws profitable for themselves, and that as long as people have

Formerly it was profitable for people to have chattel slaves, and they made laws about chattelslavery.

Afterwards it became profitable to own land, to take taxes, and to keep things one had acquired, and they

made laws correspondingly. Now it is profitable for people to maintain the existing direction and division of

labor; and they are devising such laws as will compel people to work under the present apportionment and

division of labor. Thus the fundamental cause of slavery is legislation, the fact that there are people who have

There exists a whole science, more ancient and more mendacious and confused than political economy, the

servants of which in the course of centuries have written millions of books (for the most part contradicting

one another) to answer these questions. But as the aim of this science, as of political economy, is not to

explain what now is and what ought to be, but rather to prove that what now is what ought to be, it happens

that in this Science (of jurisprudence) we find very many dissertations about rights, about object and subject,

about the idea of a state and other such matters which are unintelligible both to the students and to the

teachers of this science, but we get no clear reply to the question, What is legislation?

According to science, legislation is the expression of the will of the whole people; but as those who break the

laws, or who wish to break them, and only refrain from fear of being punished, are always more numerous

than those who wish to carry out the code, it is evident that legislation can certainly not be considered as the

For instance, there are laws about not injuring telegraph posts, about showing respect to certain people, about

each man performing military service or serving as a juryman, about not taking certain goods beyond a

certain boundary, or about not using land considered the property of some one else, about not making

money tokens, not using articles which are considered to be the property of others, and about many other

All these laws and many others are extremely complex, and may have been passed from the most diverse

There is but one general characteristic of all these lawsnamely, that if any man does not fulfil them, those

who have made them will send armed men, and the armed men will beat, deprive of freedom, or even kill the

If a man does not wish to give as taxes such part of the produce of his labor as is demanded of him, armed

men will come and take from him what is demanded, and if he resists he will be beaten, deprived of freedom,

and sometimes even killed. The same will happen to a man who begins to make use of land considered to be

the property of another. The same will happen to a man who makes use of things he wants, to satisfy his

requirements or to facilitate his work, if these things are considered to be the property of some one else.

Armed men will come and will deprive him of what he has taken, and if he resists they will beat him, deprive

him of liberty, or even kill him. The same thing will happen to any one who will not show respect to those

whom it is decreed that we are to respect, and to him who will not obey the demand that he should go as a

For every nonfulfillment of the established laws there is punishment: the offender is subjected by those who

Many constitutions have been devised, beginning with the English and the American, and ending with the

Japanese and the Turkish, according to which people are to believe that all laws established in their country

are established at their desire. But every one knows that not in despotic countries only, but also in the

countries nominally most freeEngland, America, Francethe laws are made, not by the will of all, but by the

will of those who have power; and, therefore, always and everywhere are only such as are profitable to those

who have power, whether they are many, a few, or only one man. Everywhere and always the laws are

to obey the will of othersthat is, by blows, by deprivation of liberty, or by murder. There can be no other

It cannot be otherwise; for laws are demands to execute certain rules; and to compel some people to obey

certain rules (that is, to do what other people want of them) cannot be done except by blows, by deprivation

of liberty, or by murder. If there are laws, there must be the force that can compel people to obey them, and

there is only one force that can compel people to obey rules (that is, to obey the will of others), and that is

violence; not the simple violence which people use to one another in moments of passion, but the organized

violence used by people who have power, in order to compel others to obey the laws they (the powerful) have

And so the essence of legislation does not lie in the subject or object, in rights or in the idea of the dominion

of the collective will of the people, or in other such indefinite and confused conditions; but it lies in the fact

that people who wield organized violence have the power to compel others to obey them and to do as they

So that the exact and irrefutable definition of legislation, intelligible to all, is that: Laws are rules made by

people who govern by means of organized violence, for compliance with which the noncomplier is

This definition furnishes the reply to the question, What is it that renders it possible for people to make laws?

The same thing makes it possible to establish laws as enforces obedience to the organized violence.

THE cause of the miserable condition of the workers is slavery. The cause of slavery is legislation.

It follows that an improvement in the condition of the people is possible only through the abolition of

"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 people will revert to their

It is usual not only for those to whom the existing order is profitable, but even for those to whom it is

evidently unprofitable, but who are so accustomed to it they cannot imagine life without governmental

violence, to say we must not dare to touch the existing order of things. The destruction of government will,

say they, produce the greatest misfortunes riot, theft, and murdertill finally the worst men will again seize

power and enslave all the good people. But not to mention the fact that allthat is, riots, thefts and murders,

followed by the rule of the wicked and the enslavement of the good all this is what has happened and is

happening, the anticipation that the disturbance of the existing order will produce riots and disorder does not

Only touch one brick of the thousand bricks piled into a narrow column several yards high and all the bricks

will tumble down and smash! But the fact that any brick extracted or any push administered will destroy such

a column and smash the bricks certainly does not prove it to be wise to keep the bricks in such an unnatural

and inconvenient position. On the contrary, it shows that bricks should not be piled in such a column, but that

they should be rearranged so that they may lie firmly, and so that they can be made use of without destroying

It is the same with the present state organizations. The state organization is extremely artificial and unstable,

and the fact that the least push may destroy it not only does not prove that it is necessary, but, on the contrary,

shows that, if once upon a time it was necessary it is now absolutely unnecessary, and is, therefore, harmful

CHAPTER XIII. WHAT ARE GOVERNMENTS? IS IT POSSIBLE TO EXIST WITHOUT GOVERNMENTS? 23

It is harmful and dangerous because the effect of this organization on all the evil that exists in society is not to

lessen and correct, but rather to strengthen and confirm that evil. It is strengthened and confirmed by being

All that wellbeing of the people which we see in socalled wellgoverned states, ruled by violence, is but

an appearance a fiction. Everything that would disturb the external appearance of wellbeingall the hungry

people, the sick, the revoltingly vicious are all hidden away where they cannot be seen. But the fact that we

do not see them does not show that they do not exist; on the contrary, the more they are hidden the more there

will be of them, and the more cruel towards them will those be who are the cause of their condition. It is true

that every interruption, and yet more, every stoppage of governmental action that is, of organized

violencedisturb this external appearance of wellbeing in our life, but such disturbance does not produce

disorder, but merely displays what was hidden, and makes possible its amendment.

Until now, say till almost the end of the nineteenth century, people thought and believed that they could not

live without governments. But life flows onward, and the conditions of life and people's views change. And

notwithstanding the efforts of governments to keep people in that childish condition in which an injured man

feels as if it were better for him to have some one to complain to, people, especially the labouring people,

both in Europe and in Russia, are more and more emerging from childhood and beginning to understand the

"You tell us but that for you we should be conquered by neighbouring nationsby the Chinese or the

Japanese" men of the people now say, "but we read the papers, and know that no one is threatening to attack

us, and that it is only you who govern us who, for some aims, unintelligible to us, exasperate each other, and

then, under pretence of defending your own people, ruin us with taxes for the maintenance of the fleet, for

armaments, or for strategical railways, which are only required to gratify your ambition and vanity; and then

you arrange wars with one another, as you have now done against the peaceful Chinese. You say that you

defend landed property for our advantage; but your defence has this effectthat all the land either has passed

or is passing into the control of rich banking companies, which do not work, while we, the immense majority

of the people, are being deprived of land and left in the power of those who do not labour. You with your

laws of landed property do not defend landed property, but take it from those who work it. You say you

secure to each man the produce of his labour, but you do just the reverse; all those who produce articles of

value are, thanks to your pseudoprotection, placed in such a position that they not only never receive the

value of their labour, but are all their lives long in complete subjection to and in the power of nonworkers."

Thus do people, at the end of the century, begin to understand and to speak. And this awakening from the

lethargy in which governments have kept them is going on in some rapidly increasing ratio. Within the last

five or six years the public opinion of the common folk, not only in the towns, but in the villages, and not

It is said that without governments we should not have those institutions, enlightening, educational and

But why should we suppose this? Why think that nonofficial people could not arrange their life themselves

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, cooperative societies, railway companies, artels,* 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

CHAPTER XIII. WHAT ARE GOVERNMENTS? IS IT POSSIBLE TO EXIST WITHOUT GOVERNMENTS? 24

question are really useful for everybody? Why suppose that there cannot be tribunals without violence? Trial

by people trusted by the disputants has always existed and will exist, and needs no violence. We are so

depraved by longcontinued slavery that we can hardly imagine administration without violence. And yet,

again, that is not true: Russian communes migrating to distant regions, where our government leaves them

alone, arrange their own taxation, administration, tribunals, and police, and always prosper until government

violence interferes with their administration. And in the same way, there is no reason to suppose that people

I have known peopleCossacks of the Oural who have lived without acknowledging private property in

land. And there was such prosperity and order in their commune as does not exist in society, where landed

property is defended by violence. And I now know communes that live without acknowledging the right of

Within my recollection the whole Russian peasantry did not accept the idea of landed property.**

The defence of landed property by governmental violence not merely does not abolish the struggle for landed

property, but, on the contrary, strengthens that struggle, and in many cases causes it.

Were it not for the defence of landed property, and its consequent rise in price, people would not be crowded

into such narrow spaces, but would scatter over the free land, of which there is still so much in the world. But

as it is, a continual struggle goes on for landed property; a struggle with the weapons government furnishes

by means of its laws of landed property. And in this struggle it is not those who work on the land, but always

It is the same with reference to things produced by labour. Things really produced by a man's own labour,

and that he needs, are always defended by custom, by public opinion, by feelings of justice and reciprocity,

Tens of thousands of acres of forestlands belonging to one proprietor, while thousands of people close by

have no fuel, need protection by violence. So, too, do factories and works where several generations of

workmen have been defrauded, are still being defrauded. Yet more do hundreds of thousands of bushels of

grain, belonging to one owner, who has held them back till a famine has come, to sell them at triple price. But

no mail, however depraved, except a rich man or a government official, would take from a countryman living

by his own labour the harvest he has raised or the cow he has bred, and from which he gets milk for his

children, or the sokha's,*** the scythes, and the spades he has made and uses. If even a man were found who

did take from another articles the latter had made and required, such a man would rouse against himself such

indignation from every one living in similar circumstances that he would hardly find his action profitable for

himself. A man so unmoral as to do it under such circumstances would be sure to do it under the strictest

"Only attempt to abolish the rights of property in land and in the produce of labour, and no one will take the

trouble to work, lacking the assurance that he will not be deprived of what he has produced."

We should say just the opposite: the defence by violence of the rights of property immorally obtained, which

is now customary, if it has not quite destroyed, has considerably weakened people's natural consciousness of

justice in the matter of using articlesthat is, the natural and innate right of propertywithout which humanity

And, therefore, there is no reason to anticipate that people will not be able to arrange their lives without

CHAPTER XIII. WHAT ARE GOVERNMENTS? IS IT POSSIBLE TO EXIST WITHOUT GOVERNMENTS? 25

Of course, it may be said that horses and bulls must be guided by the violence of rational beingsmen; but

why must men be guided, not by some higher beings, but by people such as themselves? Why ought people

to be subject to the violence of just those people who are in power at a given time? What proves that these

The fact that they allow themselves to use violence toward human beings indicates that they are not only not

more wise, but are less wise than those who submit to them. The examinations in China for the office of

mandarin do not, we know, ensure that the wisest and best people should be placed in power.

And just as little is this ensured by inheritance, or the whole machinery of promotions in rank, or the

elections in constitutional countries. On the contrary, power is always seized by those who are less

It is said, "How can people live without governments that is, without violence?" But it should, on the

contrary, be asked, "How can people who are rational live, acknowledging that the vital bond of their social

One of two thingseither people are rational or irrational beings. If they are irrational beings, then they are all

irrational, and then everything among them is decided by violence; and there is no reason why certain people

should and others should not have a right to use violence. And in that case governmental violence has no

justification. But if men are rational beings, then their relations should be based on reason, and not on the

violence of those who happen to have seized power; and, therefore, in that case, again, governmental violence

* The artel in its most usual form is an association of workmen, or employees, for each of whom the artel is

** Serfdom was legalized about 1597 by Boris Godunoff, who forbade the peasants to leave the land on

which they were settled. The peasants' theory of the matter was that they belonged to the proprietor, but the

land belonged to them. "We are yours, but the land is ours," was a common saying among them till their

emancipation under Alexander II., when many of them felt themselves defrauded by the arrangement which

*** The sokha is a light plough, such as the Russian peasants make and use.Trans.

SLAVERY results from laws, laws are made by governments, and, therefore, people can only be freed from

All attempts to get rid of governments by violence have hitherto, always and everywhere, resulted only in

this: that in place of the deposed governments new ones established themselves, often more cruel than those

Not to mention past attempts to abolish governments by violence, according to the Socialist theory, the

coming abolition of the rule of the capitaliststhat is, the communalisation of the means of production and the

new economic order of societyis also to be carried out by afresh organization of violence, and will have to

be maintained by the same means. So that attempts to abolish violence by violence neither have in the past

nor, evidently, can in the future emancipate people from violence nor, consequently, from slavery.

Apart from outbursts of revenge or anger, violence is used only in order to compel some people, against their

own will, to do the will of others. But the necessity to do what other people wish against your own will is

slavery. And, therefore, as long as any violence, designed to compel some people to do the will of others,

All the attempts to abolish slavery by violence are like extinguishing fire with fire, stopping water with water,

Therefore, the means of escape from slavery, if such means exist, must be found, not in setting up fresh

violence, but in abolishing whatever renders governmental violence possible. And the possibility of

governmental violence, like every other violence perpetrated by a small number of people upon a larger

number, has always depended, and still depends, simply on the fact that the small number are armed while the

large number are Unarmed, or that the small number are better armed than the large number.

That has been the case in all the conquests: it was thus the Greeks, the Romans, the Knights, and Pizarros

conquered nations, and it is thus that people are now conquered in Africa and Asia. And in this same way in

As of old, so now, people rule over other people only because some are armed and others are not.

In olden times the warriors, with their chiefs, fell upon the defenceless inhabitants, subdued them and robbed

them, and all divided the spoils in proportion to their participation, courage and cruelty; and each warrior saw

clearly that the violence he perpetrated was profitable to him. Now, armed men (taken chiefly from the

working classes) attack defenceless people: men on strikes, rioters, or the inhabitants of other countries, and

subdue them and rob themthat is, make them yield the fruits of their labournot for themselves, but for

The difference between the conquerors and the governments is only that the conquerors have themselves,

with their soldiers, attacked the unarmed inhabitants and have, in cases of insubordination, carried their

threats to torture and to kill into execution; while the governments, in cases of insubordination, do not

themselves torture or execute the unarmed inhabitants, but oblige others to do it who have been deceived and

specially brutalised for the purpose, and who are chosen from among the very people on whom the

Thus, violence was formerly inflicted by personal effort, by the courage, cruelty and agility of the conquerors

So that if formerly, in order to get rid of armed violence, it was necessary to arm one self and to oppose

armed violence by armed violence, now when people are subdued, not by direct violence, but by fraud, in

order to abolish violence it is only necessary to expose the deception which enables a small number of people

The deception by means of which this is done consists in the fact that the small number who rule, on

obtaining power from their predecessors, who were installed by conquest, say to the majority: "There are a lot

of you, but you are stupid and uneducated, and cannot either govern yourselves or organize your public

affairs, and, therefore, we will take those cares on ourselves; we will protect you from foreign foes, and

arrange and maintain internal peace among you; we will set up courts of justice, arrange for you and take care

of public institutionsschools, roads, and the postal service and in general we will take care of your

wellbeing; and in return for all this you only have to fulfil those slight demands which we make, and,

among other things, you must give into our complete control a small part of your incomes, and you must

yourselves enter the armies which are needed for your own safety and government.

And most people agree to this, not because they have weighed the advantages and disadvantages of these

conditions (they never have a chance to do that), but because from their very birth they have found

If doubts suggest themselves to some people as to whether all this is necessary, each one thinks only about

himself, and fears to stiffer if he refuses to accept these conditions; each one hopes to take advantage of them

for his own profit, and every one agrees, thinking that by paying a small part of his means to the government,

and by consenting to military service, he cannot do himself very much harm. But, in reality, submission to the

And when the soldiers are enrolled, and hired, and armed, they are subjected to a special training called

discipline, introduced in recent times, since soldiers have ceased to share the plunder.

Discipline consists in this, that by complex and artful methods, which have been perfected in the course of

ages, people who are subjected to this training and remain under it for some time are completely deprived of

man's chief attribute, rational freedom, and become submissive, machinelike instruments of murder in the

hands of their organized hierarchical stratocracy. And it is in this disciplined army that the essence of the

As soon as the government has the money and the soldiers, instead of fulfilling their promises to defend their

subjects from foreign enemies, and to arrange things for their benefit, they do all they can to provoke the

neighbouring nations and to produce war; and they not only do not promote the internal wellbeing of their

In the Arabian Nights there is a story of a traveler who, being cast upon an uninhabited island, found a little

old man with withered legs sitting on the ground by the side of a stream. The old man asked the traveler to

take him on his shoulder and to carry him over the stream. The traveler consented; but no sooner was the old

man settled on the traveler's shoulders than the former twined his legs round the latter's neck and would not

get off again. Having control of the traveler, the old man drove him about as he liked, plucked fruit from the

trees and ate it himself, not giving any to his bearer, and abused him in every way.

This is just what happens with the people who give soldiers and money to the governments. With the money

the governments buy guns and lure or train up by education subservient, brutalised military commanders.

And these commanders, by means of an artful system of stupefaction, perfected in the course of ages and

called discipline, make those who have been taken as soldiers into a disciplined army. When the governments

have in their power this instrument of violence and murder, that possesses no will of its own, the whole

people are in their hands, and they do not let them go again, and not only prey upon them, but also abuse

them, instilling into the people, by means of a pseudoreligious and patriotic education, loyalty to an(l even

adoration of themselves that is, of the very men who keep the whole people in slavery and torment them.

It is not for nothing that all the kings, emperors, and presidents esteem discipline so highly, are so afraid of

any breach of discipline, and attach the highest importance to reviews, maneuvers, parades, ceremonial

marches and other such nonsense. They know that it all maintains discipline, and that not only their power,

A disciplined army is not even required for a defensive war, as has often been shown in history and as was

again demonstrated the other day in South Africa. A disciplined army is only needed for conquest that is,

for robbery, or for fratricide or parricide, as was expressed by that most stupid or insolent of crowned

personages, William II., who made a speech to l]i~ recruits telling them they had sworn obedience to him,

and ought to be ready to kill their own brothers and fathers should he desire it. Disciplined armies are the

means by which they, without using their own hands, accomplish the greatest atrocities, the possibility of

And, therefore, the only means to destroy governments is not force, but it is the exposure of this fraud. It is

necessary people should understand : First, that in Christendom there is no need to protect the peoples one

from another; that all the enmity of the peoples, one to another, are produced by the governments themselves,

and that armies are only needed by the small number of those who rule for the people it is not only

unnecessary, but it is in the highest degree harmful, serving as the instrument to enslave them. Secondly, it is

necessary that people should understand that the discipline which is so highly esteemed by all the

governments is the greatest of crimes that man can commit, and is a clear indication of the criminality of the

aims of governments. Discipline is the suppression of reason and of freedom in man, and can have no other

aim than preparation for the performance of crimes such as no man can commit while in a normal condition.

It is not even needed for war, when the war is defensive and national, as the Boers have recently shown. It is

wanted and wanted only for the purpose indicated by William II. for the committal of the greatest crimes,

The terrible old man who sat on the traveler's shoulders behaved in the same way: he mocked him and

insulted him, knowing that as long as he sat on the traveler's neck the latter was in his power.

And it is just this fraud, by means of which a small number of unworthy people, called the government, have

power over the people, and not only impoverish them, but do what is the most harmful of all actionspervert

whole generations from childhood upwardsjust this terrible fraud which should be exposed, in order that the

abolition of government and of the slavery that results from it may become possible.

The German writer Eugen Schmitt, in the newspaper Ohne Staat, that he published in BudaPesth, wrote an

article that was profoundly true and bold, not only in expression, but in thought. In it he showed that

governments, justifying their existence on the ground that they ensure a certain kind of safety to their

subjects, are like the Calabrian robberchief who collected a regular tax from all who wished to travel in

safety along the highways. Schmitt was committed for trial for that article, but was acquitted by the jury.

We are so hypnotized by the governments that such a comparison seems to us an exaggeration, a paradox, or

a joke; but in reality it is not a paradox or a joke; the only inaccuracy in the comparison is that the activity of

all the governments is many times more inhuman and, above all, more harmful than the activity of the

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 any one to join his band, the

governments generally enroll 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. Most of all, the emperors, kings and presidents are protected (with

their perpetual bodyguards), and they can spend the largest share of the money collected from the taxpaying

subjects; next in the scale of participation in the governmental crimes come the commandersinchief, the

ministers, the heads of police, governors, and so on, down to the policemen, who are least protected, and who

Those who do not take any part in the crimes of government, who refuse to serve, to pay taxes, or to go to

law, are subjected to violence; as among the robbers. The robber does not intentionally vitiate people, but the

governments, to accomplish their ends, vitiate whole generations from childhood to manhood with false

religions and patriotic instruction. Above all, not even the most cruel robber, no Stenka Razin* or

Cartouche** can be compared for cruelty, pitilessness and ingenuity in torturing, I will not say with the

villain kings notorious for their crueltyJohn the Terrible, Louis XI., the Elizabeths, etc.but even with the

present constitutional and liberal governments, with their solitary cells, disciplinary battalions, suppressions

Towards governments, as towards churches, it is impossible to feel otherwise than with veneration or

aversion. Until a man has understood what a government is and until he has understood what a church is he

cannot but feel veneration towards those institutions. As long as he is guided by them his vanity makes it

necessary for him to think that what guides him is something primal, great and holy; but as soon as he

understands that what guides him is not something primal and holy, but that it is a fraud carried out by

unworthy people, who, under the pretence of guiding him, make use of him for their own personal ends, he

cannot but at once feel aversion towards these people, and the more important the side of his life that has

People must feel that their participation in the criminal activity of governments, whether by giving part of

their work in the form of money, or by direct participation in military service, is not, as is generally supposed,

an indifferent action, but, besides being harmful to one's sons and to one's brothers, is a participation in the

crimes unceasingly committed by all governments and a preparation for new crimes, which governments are

The age of veneration for governments, notwithstanding all the hypnotic influence they employ to maintain

their position, is more and more passing away. And it is time for people to understand that governments not

only are not necessary, but are harmful and most highly immoral institutions, in which a selfrespecting,

honest man cannot and must not take part, and the advantages of which he cannot and should not enjoy.

And as soon as people clearly understand that, they will naturally cease to take part in such deedsthat is,

cease to give the governments soldiers and money. And as soon as a majority of people ceases to do this the

fraud which enslaves people will be abolished. Only in this way can people be freed from slavery.

* The Cossack leader of a formidable insurrection in the latter half of the seventeenth century.Trans.

** The chief of a Paris band of robbers in the early years of the eighteenth century.Trans.

"BUT all these are general considerations, and whether they are correct or not, they are inapplicable to life,"

will be the remark made by people accustomed to their position, and who do not consider it possible, or who

"Tell us what to do, and how to organize society," is what people of the welltodo classes usually say.

People of the welltodo classes are so accustomed to their role of slave owners that when there is talk of

improving the workers' condition, they at once begin, like our serf owners before the emancipation, to devise

all sorts of plans for their slaves; but it never occurs to them that they have no right to dispose of other

people, and that if they really wish to do good to people, the one thing they can and should do is to cease to

do the evil they are now doing. And the evil they do is very definite and clear. It is not merely that they

employ compulsory slave labour, and do not wish to cease from employing it, but that they also take part in

establishing and maintaining this compulsion of labour. That is what they should cease to do.

The working people are also so perverted by their compulsory slavery that it seems to most of them that if

their position is a bad one, it is the fault of the masters, who pay them too little and who own the means of

production. It does not enter their heads that their bad position depends entirely on themselves, and that if

only they wish to improve their own and their brothers' positions, and not merely each to do the best he can

for himself, the great thing for them to do is themselves to cease to do evil. And the evil that they do is that,

desiring to improve their material position by the same means which have brought them into bondage, the

workers (for the sake of satisfying the habits they have adopted), sacrificing their human dignity and

freedom, accept humiliating and immoral employment or produce unnecessary and harmful articles, and,

above all, they maintain governments, taking part in them by paying taxes and by direct service, and thus they

In order that the state of things may be improved, both the welltodo classes and the workers must

understand that improvement cannot be effected by safeguarding one's own interests. Service involves

sacrifice, and, therefore, if people really wish to improve the position of their brother men, and not merely

their own, they must be ready not only to alter the way of life to which they are accustomed, and to lose those

advantages which they have held, but they must be ready for an intense struggle, not against governments,

but against themselves and their families, and must be ready to suffer persecution for nonfulfillment of the

And, therefore, the reply to the question, What is it we must do? is very simple, and not merely definite, but

always in the highest degree applicable and practicable for each man, though it is not what is expected by

those who, like people of the welltodo classes, are fully convinced that they are appointed to correct not

themselves (they are already good), but to teach and correct other people; and by those who, like the

workmen, are sure that not they (but only the capitalists) are in fault for their present bad position, and think

that things can only be put right by taking from the capitalists the things they use, and arranging so that all

might make use of those conveniences of life which are now only used by the rich. The answer is very

definite, applicable, and practicable, for it demands the activity of that one person over whom each of us has

real, rightful, and unquestionable power namely, one's selfand it consists in this, that if a man, whether

slave or slave owner, really wishes to better not his position alone, but the position of people in general, he

And in order not to do the evil which produces misery for himself and for his brothers, he should, first of all,

neither willingly nor under compulsion take any part in governmental activity, and should, therefore, be

neither a soldier, nor a fieldmarshal, nor a minister of state, nor a tax collector, nor a witness, nor an

alderman, nor a juryman, nor a governor, nor a member of Parliament, nor, in fact, hold any office connected

Secondly, such a man should not voluntarily pay taxes to governments, either directly or indirectly; nor

should he accept money collected by taxes, either as salary, or as pension, or as a reward; nor should he make

use of governmental institutions, supported by taxes collected by violence from the people. That is the second

Thirdly, a man who desires not to promote his own wellbeing alone, but to better the position of people in

general, should not appeal to governmental violence for the protection of his own possessions in land or in

other things, nor to defend him and his near ones; but should only possess land and all products of his own or

But such an activity is impossible; to refuse all participation in governmental affairs means to refuse to live,

is what people will say. A man who refuses military service will be imprisoned; a man who does not pay

taxes will be punished and the tax will be collected from his property; a man who, having no other means of

livelihood, refuses government service, will perish of hunger with his family; the same will befall a man who

rejects govern mental protection for his property and his person; not to make use of things that are taxed or

of government institutions, is quite impossible, as the most necessary articles are often taxed; and just in the

same way it is impossible to do without government institutions, such as the post, the roads, etc.

It is quite true that it is difficult for a man of our times to stand aside from all participation in governmental

violence. But the fact that not every one can so arrange his life as not to participate in some degree in

governmental violence does not at all show that it is not possible to free one's self from it more and more. Not

every man will have the strength to refuse conscription (though there are and will be such men), but each man

can abstain from voluntarily entering the army, the police force, and the judicial or revenue service; and can

give the preference to a worse paid private service rather than to a better paid public service. Not every man

will have the strength to renounce his landed estates (though there are people who do that), but every man

can, understanding the wrongfulness of such property, diminish its extent. Not every man can renounce the

possession of capital (there are some who do) or the use of articles defended by violence, but each man can,

by diminishing his own requirements, be less and less in need of articles which provoke other people to envy.

Not every official can renounce his government salary (though there are men who prefer hunger to dishonest

governmental employment), but every one can prefer a smaller salary to a larger one for the sake of having

duties less bound up with violence; not every one can refuse to make use of government schools (although

there are some who do), but every one can give the preference to private schools, and each can make less and

Between the existing order, based on brute force, and the ideal of a society based on reasonable agreement

confirmed by custom, there are an infinite number of steps, which mankind are ascending, and the approach

to the ideal is only accomplished to the extent to which people free themselves from participation in violence,

We do not know and cannot see, still less, like the pseudoscientific men, foretell, in what way this gradual

weakening of governments and emancipation of people will come about; nor do we know what new forms

man's life will take as the gradual emancipation progresses, but we certainly do know that the life of people

who, having understood the criminality and harmfulness of the activity of governments, strive not to make

use of them, or to take part in them, will be quite different and more in accord with the law of life and our

own consciences than the present life, in which people themselves participating in governmental violence and

taking advantage of it, make a pretence of struggling against it, and try to destroy the old violence by new

The chief thing is that the present arrangement of life is bad; about that all are agreed. The cause of the bad

conditions and of the existing slavery lies in the violence used by governments. There is only one way to

abolish governmental violence: that people should abstain from participating in violence. And, therefore,

whether it be difficult or not, to abstain from participating in governmental violence, and whether the good

results of such abstinence will or will not be soon apparent, are superfluous questions; because to liberate

To what extent and when voluntary agreement, confirmed by custom, will replace violence in each society

and in the whole world will depend on the strength and clearness of people's consciousness and on the

number of individuals who make this consciousness their own. Each of us is a separate person, and each can

be a participator in the general movement of humanity by his greater or lesser clearness of recognition of the

aim before us, or he can be an opponent of progress. Each will have to make his choice : to oppose the will of

God, building upon the sands the unstable house of his brief, illusive life, or to join in the eternal, deathless

But perhaps I am mistaken, and the right conclusions to draw from human history are these, and the human

race is not moving toward emancipation from slavery; perhaps it can be proved that violence is a needful

factor of progress, and that the state, with its violence, is a necessary form of life, and that it will be worse for

people if governments are abolished and if the defence of our persons and property is abolished.

Let us grant it to be so, and say that all the foregoing reasoning is wrong; but besides the general

considerations about the life of humanity, each man has also to face the question of his own life; and

notwithstanding any considerations about the general laws of life, a man cannot do what lie admits to be not

"Very possibly the reasonings showing the state to be a necessary form of the development of the individual,

and governmental violence to be necessary for the good of Society, can all be deduced from history, and are

all correct," each honest and sincere man of our times will reply; "but murder is an evil, that I know more

certainly than any reasonings ; by demanding that I should enter the army or pay for hiring and equipping

soldiers, or for buying cannons and building ironclads, you wish to make me an accomplice in murder, and

that I cannot and will not be. Neither do I wish, nor can I, make use of money you have collected from

hungry people with threats of murder; nor do I wish to make use of land or capital defended by you, because I

"I could do these things when I did not understand all their criminality, but when I have once seen it, I cannot

"I know that we are all so bound up by violence that it is difficult to avoid it altogether, but I will,

nevertheless, do all I can not to take part in it; I will not be an accomplice to it, and will try not to make use of

"I have but one life, and why should I, in this brief life of mine, act contrary to the voice of conscience and

"And what will come of this? I do not know. Only I think no harm can result from acting as my conscience

So in our time should each honest and sincere man reply to all the arguments about the necessity of

governments and of violence, and to every demand or invitation to take part in them.

So that the supreme and unimpeachable judgethe voice of conscienceconfirms to each man the conclusion

But this is again the same old sermon: on the one hand, urging the destruction of the present order of things

without putting anything in its place; on the other hand, exhorting to nonaction, is what many will say on

reading what I have written. "Governmental action is bad, so is the action of the landowner and of the man of

business; equally bad is the activity of the Socialist and of the revolutionary Anarchiststhat is to say, all real,

practical activities are bad, and only some sort of moral, spiritual, indefinite activity which brings everything

to utter chaos and inaction is good." Thus I know many serious and sincere people will think and speak!

What seems to people most disturbing in the idea of no violence is that property will not be protected, and

that each man will, therefore, be able to take from another what he needs or merely likes, and to go

unpunished. To people accustomed to the defence of property and person by violence it seems that without

such defence there will be perpetual disorder, a constant struggle of every one against every one else.

I will not repeat what I have said elsewhere to show that the defence of property by violence does not lessen,

but increases, this disorder. But allowing that in the absence of defence disorder may occur, what are people

to do who have understood the cause of the calamities from which they are suffering?

If we have understood that we are ill from drunkenness, we must continue to drink, hoping to mend matters

by drinking moderately, or continue drinking and take medicines that shortsighted doctors give us.

And it is the same with our social sickness. If we have understood that we are ill because some people use

violence to others, it is impossible to improve the position of society either by continuing to support the

governmental violence that exists, or by introducing a fresh kind of revolutionary or socialist violence. That

might have been done as long as the fundamental cause of people's misery was not clearly seen. But as soon

as it has become indubitably clear that people suffer from the violence done by some to others, it is already

impossible to improve the position by continuing the old violence or by introducing a new kind. The sick

man suffering from alcoholism has but one way to be cured: by refraining from intoxicants which are the

cause of his illness; so there is only one way to free men from the evil arrangement of societythat is, to

refrain from violencethe cause of the sufferingfrom personal violence, from preaching violence, and from

And not only is this the sole means to deliver people from their ills, but we must also adopt it because it

coincides with the moral consciousness of each individual man of our times. If a man of our day has once

understood that every defence of property or person by violence is obtained only by threatening to murder or

by murdering, he can no longer with a quiet conscience make use of that which is obtained by murder or by

threats of murder, and still less can he take part in the murders or in threatening to murder. So that what is

wanted to free people from their misery is also needed for the satisfaction of the moral consciousness of

every individual. And, therefore, for each individual there can be no doubt that both for the general good and

to fulfil the law of his life he must take no part in violence, nor justify it, nor make use of it.

8. CHAPTER IV. THE ASSERTION OF ECONOMIC SCIENCE THAT RURAL LABORERS MUST ENTER THE FACTORY SYSTEM , page = 11

17. CHAPTER XIII. WHAT ARE GOVERNMENTS? IS IT POSSIBLE TO EXIST WITHOUT GOVERNMENTS? , page = 26