ion. Of that small security the
Anarchist would deprive us. But without that nothing is of value and we
shall be willing to renounce all. Let us begin by depriving ourselves of
the Anarchist.

Our system of civilization being the natural outgrowth of our wretched
moral and intellectual natures, is open to criticism and subject
to revision. Our laws, being of human origin, are faulty and their
application is disappointing. Dissent, dissatisfaction, deprecation,
proposals for a better system fortified with better laws more
intelligently administered--these are permissible and should be welcome.
The Socialist (when he is not carried away by zeal to pool issues with
the Anarchist) has that in him which it does us good to hear. He may be
wrong b all else, yet right in showing us wherein we ourselves are
wrong. Anyhow, his mission is amendment, and so long as his paths are
peace he has the right to walk therein, exhorting as he goes. The
French Communist who does not preach Petroleum and It rectified is to be
regarded with more than amusement, more than compassion. There is room
for him and his fad; there are hospitable ears for his boast that Jesus
Christ would have been a Communist if there had been Communes. They
really did not "know everything down in Judee." But for the Anarchist,
whose aim is not amendment, but destruction--not welfare to the race,
but mischief to a part of it--not happiness for the future, but revenge
for the past--for that animal there should be no close season, for that
savage, no reservation. Society has not the right to grant life to one
who denies the right to live. The protagonist of reversion to the regime
of lacking noses should lack a nose.

It is difficult to say if the bomb-thrower, actual or potential, is
greater as scoundrel or fool. Suppose his aim is to compel concession by
terror. Can not the brute observe at each of his exploits a tightening
of "the reins of power?" Through the necessity of guarding against him
the mildest governments are becoming despotic, the most despotic more
despotic. Does he suppose that "the rulers of the earth" are silly
enough to make concessions that will not insure their safety? Can _he_
give them security?

III.

Of all the wild asses that roam the plain, the wildest wild ass that
roams the plain is indubitably the one that lifts his voice and heel
against that socialism known as "public ownership of public utilities,"
on the ground of "principle