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most Anarchists have advocated physical violence, for there are some
Anarchists who are as much opposed to physical violence as you or I,
Jonathan, and it is only fair and just that we should recognize the
fact. It has always seemed to me that Anarchism logically leads to
physical force by individuals against individuals, but, logical or no,
there are many Anarchists who are gentle spirits, holding all life
sacred and abhorring violence and assassination. When there are so
many ready to be unjust to them, we can afford to be just to the
Anarchists, even if we do not agree with them, Jonathan.

Sometimes an attempt is made by Socialists to explain the difference
between themselves and Anarchists by saying that Anarchists want to
destroy all government, while Socialists want to extend government and
bring everything under its control; that Anarchists want no laws,
while Socialists want more laws. But that is not an intelligent
statement of the difference. We Socialists don't particularly desire
to extend the functions of government; we are not so enamoured of laws
that we want more of them. Quite the contrary is true, in fact. If we
had a Socialist government to-morrow in this country, one of the first
and most important of its tasks would be to repeal a great many of the
existing laws.

Then there are some Socialists who try to explain the difference
between Socialism and Anarchism by saying that the Anarchists are
simply Socialists of a very advanced type; that society must first
pass through a period of Socialism, in which laws will be necessary,
before it can enter upon Anarchism, a state in which every man will be
so pure and so good that he can be a law unto himself, no other form
of law being necessary. But that does not settle the difficulty. I
think you will see, friend Jonathan, that in order to have such a
society in which without laws or penal codes, or government of any
kind, men and women lived happily together, it would be necessary for
every member to cultivate a social sense, a sense of responsibility to
society as a whole. Each member of society would have to become so
thoroughly socialized as to make the interests of society as a whole
his chief concern in life. And such a society would be simply a
Socialist society perfectly developed, not an Anarchist society. It
would be a Socialist society simply because it would be dominated by
the essential principle of Socialism--the idea of solidarity, of
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