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PAGE FOURTEEN THE ANARCHISTS. Law is the basis of society, the foundation of the state. The social structure stands or falls with it. With its destruction the whole state collapses. Thus speak the defenders of the state, all those who have or believe they have an interest in the maintenance of the present order of society. They are right. Law is the basis of society, and upon the law rests the structure of the state. But a foundation must itself rest upon solid ground. A base must stand upon a firm substratum, a strong, stable, immovable support, without energy or resiliency, so that the weight resting upon it will not rock nor the structure tremble. This substratum is the people, the stolid masses, the laborers, the fourth es tate. Upon them rests the law —the foundation upon which society is built. They form the ground upon which the foundation is laid; the more compactly the ground is com pressed, the firmer the foundation, the safer and more enduring the su perstructure. Law, the foundation of the state, divides mankind into two quite sep arate strata; the upper, which is above the law; and a lower, which is beneath the law. Those of the up per stratum are those whom the structure serves. They are the property-holders who seize upon the state, the rich for whom “I’etat c’est moi.” Their edifice rests upon the law; they themselves are above the law. The lower stratum is com posed of the great masses upen whom the state rests, who have to bear the weight of the law —the- mil lions of the fourth estate, the work ing men. They are beneath the law. “The law is the protection of so ciety,” say jurists and statesmen. Protection against whom? Against those who have nothing. It is a protection to the rich against the poor, a protection to the few against the many. The rich need the law and use it without having to feel its weight; the poor support the law, but cannot use it. The poor are be neath the law, while the rich are above it. Those who are above the law do not bear its burden. To them it can be no burden. They are free. Their will is not restrained by the law, nor are their acts circumscribed by it. They are beyond it and above it and have no concern with it. They are exempt from law. They are the anarchists. The law commands and forbids. Thou shalt not steal; thou shalt not murder; thou shalt not bear false witness —all in the categorical im perative, which, however, only the destitute masses must obey. For them alone commands are made to resist their desires and suppress their voluntary actions; they are un der the law. But the wealthy are above the law; for them there is no necessity to commit acts forbidden by the law; their wealth removes all motive to commit such acts, or gives them the means of attaining their desires without becoming amen able to the law. Moreover, the penalties prescribed for the commission of forbidden acts are for the most part of such a na ture that they are severe punish ment for the poor, while the rich are WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN. quite insensible to them and are not to be restrained by them from the gratification of their desires. Os the thousands of provisions that crowd the statute books of all nations t only a small fraction can apply to the rich or restrain any act of theirs or in any way restrict their freedom. They are above the law. They are the anarchists. Suppose, for example, there were a law against coughing, or its result ant, expectorating. There is such a law, or a similar one, actually in force in many cities. Whoever coughs in a public place, then, vio lates the will of society, commits a misdemeanor, and shall be pun ished. This law would be appar ently just and impartial, directed equally against all classes. In real ity it touches only those who must cough, those with weak lungs who cannot take a deep breath without coughing; in order to live at all they must violate the law. The healthy whose lungs are sound need never fear such law. They do not come in conflict with it because they can breathe as deeply as they please without committing the misdemean or of coughing. Acts designated by the law as crimes are, for the most part, of such nature that those who have nothing, the masses, the short breathed majority, need commit them. Often they must commit them. These masses are always un der the law. But the happy minori ty, the people with full purses, are not obliged to commit crimes in the fulfillment of their normal, often of their abnormal, desires, because, with their wealth, they are not tempted to transgress, having al ways the means of attaining their objects without overstepping the bounds set by the law. This happy minority are above and beyond the law. They are the anarchists. Take a few examples from life: The millionaire and the tramp wish to perform the same perfectly natural act. They wish to eat. One has an appetite; the other is hun gry. One drives to a fashionable club and has the best foods and the most expensive wines set before him. He dines and is conducted to his car riage by a lackey. In the realiza tion of his desire he needs to break no law. But the tramp seizes a loaf on its way from the baker to the shopkeeper, is arrested and, since he cannot pay, is taken to jail. Ir. order to satisfy his hunger he had to come in conflict with the law. Mr. Parvenu would take a journey. However far it may be, however long it may take, his private car and his steam yacht are ready. He can make a journey around the world without encountering a prohibition. He is above the law. But the tramp who wishes to go to the next station, if he would ride must hide himself in a freight car or cattle wagon, and if he is discovered he is made to repent his pleasure trip in jail. He is under the law, and comes in con flict with it the moment he attempts to fulfill his de sire—the same desire as Mr. Parvenu’s. The poor expressman has his waq on filled with other men’s goods. Man and beast sweat under the strain of their burden. They pro ceed slowly and painfully. At last the poor animal goes lame. In spite of help from the man and of blows from his whip the horse sinks to the ground. A policeman seizes the poor driver, himself almost fainting, and drags him before a Justice whe sends him to jail for cruelty to ani mals. He is under the law. But a rich railroad magnate has a horse lit the Derby. For weeks it has been trained. A highly paid jockey has been ordered to overcome all- obsla cles«and to win the prize at any cost. The decisive moment arrives. Rider and horse, inspired by the desire of the owner and spurred bv his will, fly like an arrow. The goal is near. Suddenly the horse stum bles, throws the rider over his head, and with broken necks they both li« dead. Is the owner, the magnate in whose interest and by whose wiT the death of both man and beast oc curred, held responsible? No; he is above the law. A workman who by frugality has saved a little money and bought a bicycle, rides through the park fast er than the law allows. A park po liceman arrests him, and since he cannot give bail, keeps him in the police station until a time to sentence him to pay a fine and costs, that is to say, to so many days in jail, for he has no money. He is under the law. But a rich banker scorches through the same park in his Parisian automobile, threatening the life of eve y pedes trian. He is stopped by the same policeman and taken before the same Justice, bat not for a mom- ut is he deprived of his freedojn. The maximum fine is no punishment, and can in no wise serve to restrain l”m from committing the same offense in future. The very same day he may whirl as madly through the same park. He is above the law. All the thousand misdemeanors punishable by a fine, and all tne eth er crimes which admit of bail, arc examples of the differen <e with which the law treats the two strata of society, while it imposes the same nominal penalty upia both. The one class, made up of the mil lions who have nothing, ar.» by that means held under the law; the eth er, made up of a few milimuaires, are lifted by the same mennj above the law. The crimes of the one class, since they cannot pay their fines, must be expiated : n person, by loss of freedom, separation from their families, forfeiture of fresh air and healthful surround n.s. They are the ants who shall be thrown into the water. But for these same crimes the other class prv a little of their money, lhe loss of which de prives them of no comfort or lux ury, in the accumulation <f which they often have no part. They are virtually exempt from punishment. They are the sharks who shall be thrown into the water. History tells of royal children whose offenses were expiated by their playmates; for whose naughty deeds their comrades must be whipped, 'lhe worse the conduct of the princes, the more blows fell upon the backs of their poor playfellows. The statutes of all civilized peoples treat their favorites in the same way. The offenses of the rich are punshed by a fine; that is. by money which represents the labor of others. The rich themselves suffer no cur tailment of personal freedom. They are virtually exempt They are above the law and need give it no attention. They are the anarchists. To be sure, rich men may be hanged if they murder. But rich men do not murder, at least not if they know how to use their money. The lethal weapon of the rich is of gold, not iron. “Ban au as! Bananas! ’ ’ screams the shrill voice of a ragged Italian. He is a peddler who has paid his hard-earnecF money to a wholesaler for tainted fruit. But suddenly his call stops. A policeman appears and with the iron hand of the law dumps the contents of the cart into a garb age can and the poor sinner into prison for selling unwholesome fruit. But rich army contractors who sacrifice the lives of hundreds of our soldiers with poisonous sub stitut s and rotten so ds, thereby add ng thousands to their millions, are not observed by the law and are never reached by its punitive arm. They are above the law. They are the ana: chists. “A very sad occurrence occupied the court,” says a daily paper. The defendant, a grocer, had been an noyed by rats, and to rid himself of them he pimped some bowls of rat poi on in the closets. His little six year-old daughter accidentally drank from one of the bowls and died in a few hours The grief-stricken fath er was tried for criminal careless ness. The Judge recognized that the def ndant was to be pitied but im posed a sentence of one month’s im prisonment for his negligence. Even in his misfortune the poor grocer is under the law. But in aisen c, phosphorus and lead factories thou x sands of workmen are exposed to the cruel, hideous tortures of chroi ic poisoning and are systematically killed, and these manufacturers and “captains of industry” are not held accountable to the law. The rich packers combine to raise t the pi ice of food, violating several statutes intended ostensibly to pre vent jst such combinations. A suit in equity is brought against them, but they do not worry. The worst that can happen is a fine amounting to less than one day’s profits, and this not until they have had the full advantage of the law’s delays. They do not fear the law. They are above it. They are the anarchists. But their teamsters strike for higher wages or shorter hours. A meat wagon is diiven through the s reels and a disturb ance occurs. The police make ar rests right and left. After the law’s delays the poor devils are sent to jail. They are under the law. These examples might be multi plied indefinitely. Every one may see them for himself in the daily life of the country. Almost every paragraph in the law books of ail civilized peoples furnishes such ex amples. Almost every penalty fur nishes the magic formula that places the many under the law and the few above it. Only those who have lit tle or nothing are subject to it. On ly the poor stumble over its prohi bitions. The life of the rich is free from temptations and crimes, from laws and punishments. The ants are thrown into the water; so are the sharks. f