Chapter 16 Chapter Eleven

free consent I Because of our inherited prejudices, imperfect education, false training, etc., we can't see anything except government, legislation, and administration. Therefore, some people believe that if there were no police, we human beings would be afraid. They will devour each other like wild animals; if the power is overthrown in the period of revolution, the world will be plunged into absolute chaos.In fact, at present many groups of human beings, without any legal interference, organize themselves freely, and obtain better results than those groups under the supervision of the government; such things are lightly overlooked by us. pass.

If you open a newspaper, you will see that what is recorded in it is nothing but the handling of events and political activities of the government.If a man in another world read it, he would be convinced that nothing could be done in Europe without the order of the master, except that of the Stock Exchange.On the contrary, there are no records about the various systems that grew and developed naturally without following the orders of the government.No - almost nothing!Even if there is a column titled "Miscellaneous News" (French newspapers often have a column of Faits Divers), it only records incidents related to the police.Family dramas and treasonous acts would never have been recorded in the papers had the police not been involved.

Three hundred and fifty millions of Europeans love or hate each other, or live on their earnings; and yet their lives, apart from literary and dramatic movements, are not interfered with in any way by the government, and newspapers would not Attention.Even history is the same.When it comes to the life of the King and what happens in Parliament, we know in great detail; all speeches, good or bad, of statesmen, even if, as an old MP puts it, "is the It will not have any influence" speech, which has been preserved to this day.The presence of kings, the tempers of statesmen, their wits and intrigues are carefully recorded for posterity.However, it is extremely difficult for us to know the state of the cities in the Middle Ages, to understand the huge trading institutions that existed between the cities of the Hanseatic League, and to know how the city of Rouen built its cathedral.Had a scholar devoted his life to the study of these questions, his writings would not have been known; yet the history of Parliament—which is an incomplete thing, for it deals with only one aspect of social life— However, it continued to be published, spread widely, and was used as a teaching material and taught in schools.

① This is the statistics of the 1880s. The population of Europe in 1914 was 452 million.According to recent surveys, it has exceeded 500 million. - translator ②Refer to the fifth and sixth chapters of "On Mutual Aid".The Hanseatic League was a commercial treaty concluded in the Middle Ages to protect Germany's coastal trade. - translator Thus we are not even aware of the gigantic work which is daily accomplished by the spontaneous associations of the people; indeed such work is the chief enterprise of the present century. We shall therefore point out some of the most remarkable phenomena, and show that men, if their interests are not absolutely in conflict, act harmoniously and in unison to accomplish collective enterprises of a very complex nature.

Obviously, in our society based on private property (that is to say, on the basis of plunder, but also on the basis of narrow and stupid individualism), such facts are rare, which is It's a natural thing.The so-called consent in today's society is often not completely free. Although its purpose is not accursed, it is often despicable. But what we care about is not to give a few examples that can be followed blindly (this is what the current society cannot provide us).What we want to do is to point out that, however much powerful individualism oppresses us, there is still a large part of our lives (taken as a whole) that operate only by free consent; and that there is no When it comes to government, things are easier than ordinary people think.

We have already cited railroads for the purpose of confirming our views, and we shall now return to them. We know that there are 175,000 kilometers of railways in Europe. In this network of railways, they run from north to south, from east to west, from Madrid to St. Petersburg, and from Cal to Constantinople. If you take a special If you travel by express train, you don't need to change trains halfway, you can reach your destination.And it's more convenient: you hand over your luggage to the station, no matter to Turkey or Central Asia, it can be delivered to you at the place where you get off. Just write down where you get off.

① This is also the previous statistics. According to the statistics in 1934, there were 391,600 kilometers of European railways. - translator To get this result, there are two methods.One way is to have a hero like Napoleon ① or Bismarck ② come out and conquer Europe, draw a railway map from Paris, Berlin, or Rome, and stipulate the driving time.Tsar Nicholas I of Russia dreamed of such power.When he saw the drawing of the railway between Moscow and St. Petersburg, he took a ruler and drew a straight line between the two capitals on the map of Russia, saying, "This is my plan." Constructed in a straight line, across deep valleys, and erected high iron bridges; however, after a few years, the work was abandoned, and a mile of railway was worth about £120,000 or even £150,000 pound.

① Refers to Napoleon I (Napoleon Bonaparte, 1769-1821), who was the emperor of France and the hero who conquered Europe from 1804 to 1814. - translator ②Otto Bismarck (1815-1898), a German statesman, was most credited with the unification of Germany and the establishment of the empire. - translator This is one method, but fortunately people have used other methods.Railways are built line by line, each line is connected with each other, and each line belongs to hundreds of different companies, when it comes to driving from car to car, and when passing through other lines from one line, the goods do not have to be controlled, and the goods come from all over the world. Vehicles have to pass through the entire line, etc., and various agreements have gradually been established.

All this can be accomplished only by free agreement, by the exchange of letters or proposals, or by conferences.In such conferences representatives of various companies meet to discuss a particular issue, and they come for a consensus, not to make laws.After the meeting, the representatives returned to the company. What they brought back was not the law, but the draft of the contract. As for the approval or rejection, it was still up to the company to decide. Naturally, there are times when difficulties are encountered.Because there are still very stubborn people in the world.But the common interest will eventually bring all into agreement.There is no need to invite the army to coerce those stubborn people.

This vast network of railways linked together, and the astonishing power of transport it has produced, is indeed the most remarkable achievement of the nineteenth century, and it is the result of free consent.Eighty years ago, if someone had predicted such a thing, our ancestors would have thought it was a madman or a madman.They must say: "You can't make the shareholders of more than a hundred companies listen to the truth! This is utopia, this is a myth. Only a central government and a strong-handed dictator can enforce such a thing." And the most interesting thing is that there is no central government of European railways in this organization!No!No Minister of Railways, no dictator.Not even a Continental Railway Council or Management Committee!All things are made by free agreement.

Those nationalists often say: "Even for the mere regulation of traffic, there must be a central government." We have to ask them: Then, why do European railways have no government? okay?How can those millions of passengers and mountains of goods pass through the whole of Europe?Since the various railway companies can agree with each other, why can't the laborers who will occupy the railways in the future not be able to agree with each other?If the railway companies of the St. Petersburg-Warsaw line and the Paris-Belfort line can work in harmony without having to set up a useless common management agency; What about the government? II The present organization of society, taken as a whole, is utterly irrational; yet even in such a society, where men's interests do not directly conflict, they can get what they want without the interference of power—we will cite When giving examples to prove this, we also need to know in advance the objections that others will raise. The examples we have cited naturally have some shortcomings, because there is really no organization where the strong prey on the weak, and the rich prey on the poor.That is why the statists say to us with their proud reasoning: "State intervention is necessary to abolish this plunder!" However, they have forgotten the lessons of history.Originally, the state created the proletariat and put it in the hands of the plunderers, which has helped the present system a lot, and they don't say anything about these things.They also forgot to tell us whether it is actually possible to abolish plunder while allowing the first cause of plunder—private capital and poverty (two-thirds of which is deliberately created by the state)—to continue. When we talk about the agreements concluded among the railway companies, I think those who admire the bourgeois state will say: "Don't you see that the railway companies are not suppressing and ill-treating employees and passengers? Well, for The state has to intervene to protect workers and the public." But haven't we repeatedly said that as long as there are capitalists, there will be no end to this abuse of power?The monopoly that the corporations have today is given by the nation that claims to be our benefactor.Didn't the state create leaseholds and guarantees?Didn't the country send troops to suppress the railway personnel who had gone on strike?In the first experiments (as we have recently seen in Russia), did not the state extend the privileges of the railway tycoons and even forbid the newspapers to report accidents on the railways, in order to keep the stocks it guaranteed from falling?Hasn't the state favored Vanderbilt, Polyakov, P. L． M．Company, C． p. R．Do the giants of the Corporation, Saint Gottard, etc. - the so-called "princes of the present day" - give them the monopoly? So if we take as an example the tacit agreement among the railway companies, we do not regard it as an ideal of economic management, nor as an ideal of technical organization.This just proves that even those capitalists who aim at benefiting themselves at the expense of others can manage the railways and make huge profits without trying to set up any international department; better. Here comes another objection.At first glance, this objection seems more serious.Some people say that the consensus we are talking about is not completely free, but that big companies issue laws to small companies.For example, a wealthy German company, subsidized by the state, compels travelers from Berlin to Basel to pass the Leipzig railway, and to take the route of Kölnney and Frankfurt.Another company, in order to please its powerful stockholders, made a detour of 130 miles when transporting its goods, thus deteriorating the secondary line.The same is true in the United States. In order to make a large amount of gold dollars flow into Vanderbilt's private pockets, the company often makes passengers and goods go on many tortuous routes in a daze. To this our answer remains the same: as long as there are capitalists, the big capitalists will oppress the small capitalists.Yet oppression is not only the result of capital.Big corporations are able to oppress small corporations only with the help of the state and the monopolies that the state creates for them. The early Anglo-French socialists had already pointed out how English legislation did all it could to bring about the downfall of small industry, to impoverish the peasantry, and to compel countless numbers of people to work for wealthy industrial employers, regardless of wages.The railway legislation serves exactly the same purpose.Whether it is the military line or the subsidy line, and those companies that have won the monopoly of the Universal Post; everything is carried out in the direction of increasing the interests of the wealthy capitalists.When Rothschild, the creditor of all European countries, invests in railways, his loyal servants (that is, the ministers) will try to make him get more profits. In the United States, the ideal democracy of the power theorists, everything connected with the railroads is extremely fraudulent.Thus, if a company knocks out a competitor cheaply, it is often able to do so because it can receive compensation from land gifts from the state.Documents recently published concerning the American wheat merchants suffice to demonstrate how the state helps the strong to prey on the weak.The power of accumulated capital is multiplied tenfold or a hundredfold by the aid of the state.Thus, when we see that a federation of railroad companies (the offspring of free consent) can successfully protect small companies against large ones, the power of this free consent should be able to preserve itself against the almighty capital which enjoys the favor of the state, ——We cannot but be amazed by such a thing. In fact, regardless of the favoritism of the state, small companies still exist.If we see only five or six large corporations in centralized France, let us remember that in the British Empire there are more than a hundred small corporations that manage very harmoniously, and that, as regards the organization of the rapid transport of passengers and goods, there is no doubt that It is much better than companies in France and Germany. And, the problem is not that.Big capital, under the patronage of the state, can often overwhelm small capital if it is in its favor.What we regard as important is this: the agreement among the hundreds of capitalist companies to which the European railways belong is established without the intervention of a central government which regulates the various companies by law, this agreement is composed of representatives Conferences are maintained; and the delegates, when they have discussed among themselves, bring back proposals, not laws, to those who sent them.This is a new principle, completely different from all political principles such as monarchy or republic, dictatorship or representative system.This innovation, which was introduced with trepidation into the customs of Europe, has now stagnated. III We often read in the writings of those state-loving socialists: "If so, then in the future society, who will lay down the rules of the canal traffic? If one of your anarchist "comrades" Who will stop him, who will force him to obey reason, when he wants to lay his barge across the middle of the canal, blocking the passage of most of the boats?" We have to say that this imagining is somewhat comical.However, there is also this saying: "If a certain commune, or a combination of communes, wants to have its cargo ships set out ahead of those of other communes, it may block the canal for the purpose of transporting its own stones. But the wheat urgently needed by other communes had to be parked and waited for duty. Then, if there is no government, who can promulgate the rules for the transportation of cargo ships?" Practical life, however, shows that even in this, as everywhere else, things go on just as well without government.Free agreement, free organization, takes the place of the pernicious and costly system, and can do it better. We know what canals are like in the Netherlands.This is really a road in Holland.We also know that the traffic on the canal there is extremely lively.What we transport by rail and road, in the Netherlands we need to use canal boats to transship.There, if your ship tries to start first, there will be quarrels.The government also has to intervene practically in order to maintain order in transport traffic. However, this is not the case.The Dutch have settled all matters in a more practical way, and long ago they had established a kind of guild, the Boatmen's Union.It was a free association born of a real need of navigation.The right of way of the ships is all in the order recorded in the navigation register; one by one according to their own rounds.No one can go ahead of other ships. If someone breaks the rules, they will be expelled from the guild.There is also a certain time for stopping the ship, and no one can stay on the dock for a moment longer; if a certain ship is not loaded with cargo during that certain time, the owner of the ship is even more unlucky, and the empty ship should be sailed away immediately to let other ships Come to moor.Thus, if competition among shipowners still persists, the obstacle is removed.This agreement is all the more sincere when even the rivalry among the shipowners is overcome. Whether or not the shipowners should join the boatmen's union is not necessary to say here, that is their own business; but most of them have already joined.Moreover, the benefits provided by such associations are so great that they can develop along the Rhine-Wesel-Oder rivers and even extend to Berlin.The boatmen did not wait for a great Bismarck to come out and annex the Netherlands to Germany, and then appoint a "General Director of the National Canal Navigation Bureau", and sew many gold borders on his sleeves. official title.The boatmen are willing to obtain an international coordination by themselves.In addition, many ship owners who sailed between Germany and Scandinavia, and even Russia, joined these associations in order to regulate the traffic of the Baltic Sea, and to make the interlacing and harmonization of ships.Such associations are freely initiated and joined by voluntary assents, and have nothing to do with the so-called government. Of course, there are also things about big capital oppressing small capital here.These federations also have a tendency to become a monopoly, especially in the federations that have been protected by the state. The state will naturally come out to aid the federations it protects.Let us not forget that these federations are nothing but associations whose members have only private interests; and that, after production, consumption, and trade have become socialized, the shipowners, in order to satisfy their wants, are compelled to join the associated communes. , or hundreds of other associations, the situation must have been different then.Shipowners who are powerful at sea have no power on land, and they have to make some concessions when they make contracts with railroads, factories, and other groups. The future is left aside for the time being; but at any rate there are still spontaneous groups organized away from the government.We would like to give some examples. Since we are talking about ships, we cannot fail to mention one of the wonderful associations that arose in the nineteenth century, of which we can be proud--the Lifeboat Association. Everyone knows that more than a thousand ships are wrecked off the coast of England every year.A strong ship is not afraid of storms at sea.It is only when you are close to the coast that you are easy to encounter dangers-such as big waves that break the stern bone, blow off the mast and sails, waves that make the ship rough and difficult to steer, sandy beaches and hidden reefs that make the ship run aground, etc. Convenient and easy to come across often. In ancient times the inhabitants of the coast used to light fires to lure ships towards the reef, in order to plunder their cargo. This practice was not surprising at the time, but even then they often tried to save the victims. difficult crew.If they see a ship in distress, they immediately take their boats to rescue the sailors in distress, even if they themselves are drowned in the waves, they don't care.In every village by the sea there are some heroic deeds of men or women who rescued shipwrecked crew members. Naturally, countries and scientists have tried their best to reduce the number of deaths.Lighthouses, signals, charts, and weather warnings have greatly reduced the number of deaths, yet more than a thousand ships and thousands of lives still need to be rescued every year. A few good men have therefore devoted their energies to this work.Being good sailors and navigators themselves, they invented lifeboats which could withstand storms without being broken or overturned, endeavored to interest the public in their cause, and raised the money necessary to construct lifeboats, which they stationed along the coast, wherever they were. Wherever lifeboats are needed, they are to berth there. These people are not Jacobins, so they are not leaning towards the side of the government.They knew that the complete success of their attempt depended only on the cooperation of all.Enthusiasm and knowledge of the region, above all indispensable is the sailor's spirit of sacrifice.They also knew that when the first signal was sent, they had to drive the boat out into the waves. At night, darkness and big waves were unavoidable; they struggled with the violent wind and waves for five or six hours, or even more than ten hours. Later, they were able to reach the wrecked ship—those who were prepared to sacrifice their lives to save others were indeed inspired by a feeling of solidarity and a spirit of sacrifice that no badge can buy.This is entirely a spontaneous movement of free will and personal will.Hundreds of local groups have been formed along the coast.Promoters are the ones who understand, they don't take out the master's shelf.They seek wise men in fisherman's cottages, and if a certain rich man wants to set up a refuge in a village by the sea, and donates a thousand pounds for its equipment, after he has handed over the donation, the address is It is up to the local fishermen and sailors to decide what to choose and so on. The style of new lifeboats is also not regulated by the Admiralty.A report of this association once said: "Because it is extremely important that the crew of a lifeboat should trust the ship he is driving, this committee advocates that the construction and equipment of the lifeboat should be decided according to the wishes expressed by the crew." Therefore, every year There will be new improvements. This enterprise is undertaken entirely by volunteers uniting in organizing committees and local groups; it is accomplished entirely by agreement and mutual assistance. --Ah!Anarchists!Moreover, they do not withdraw money from taxpayers, they only accept automatic donations, and they can receive at least 40,000 pounds a year. As for the achievements, please see: in 1891, the society had a total of 293 lifeboats, and in that year, it saved 33 ships in distress and 601 sailors; from its establishment to the present, the lifeboat society has saved a total of Thirty-two thousand six hundred and seventy-one people. In 1886 three lifeboats sank at sea with their crews on board. Immediately hundreds of new volunteers came out to form local groups. As a result, twenty new boats were built.We also need to know that this society will also give the best barometers to fishermen and sailors every year, and get back three times less than the market price.This popularizes the knowledge of meteorology and alerts members to sudden changes in weather forecast by scientists. We also need to know that the organization of these hundreds of committees and regional groups, regardless of class, is composed entirely of volunteers, crew members and people who have an interest in the cause.The so-called Central Committee is only the center of communication and contact, and has no duty to interfere. If a local tax or education question were to be voted on somewhere, the National Lifeboat Society members would not participate in the discussion. ——It is a pity that the members of the parliament will not follow such a humble attitude.But with regard to saving lives, these brave men will not allow those who have not weathered the storm to legislate for them.At the first signal of distress, they ran into the lifeboats and marched forward.They wanted no badges, no uniforms with gold; it was all out of benevolence. Let us take another group of the same kind, that is, the Red Cross. Let us not care about its name, but now let us examine its content. Let us imagine that someone said something like this more than 50 years ago: "A country can only kill 20,000 people and injure more than 50,000 people a day, but it is not capable of rescuing its own wounded; as long as there is war, it is necessary." Individuals will intervene, and those good people must form an international organization for this humanitarian cause." The man who dared to say such a thing did not know what kind of ridicule he had received at that time!At first he will be denounced as a dreamer; and if he lets others speak, he will hear the following: "This is nonsense! Volunteers will be lacking where the need for your volunteers is felt most. The hospitals of your volunteers are concentrated in safe places, and there is nothing in the field hospitals. Dreamers like you have completely forgotten the enmity of the state, which is what keeps poor soldiers from getting help and dying. "Such a depressing argument has been echoed by many commentators.Who among us has not heard such arguments? Now we see the truth of the matter.Red Cross Societies formed themselves freely and everywhere in various countries; when the Franco-Prussian War broke out in 1870-1871, volunteer corps were organized and set to work.Both men and women try to serve.Numerous hospitals and field hospitals have been organized successfully; field hospitals are set up on trains, and food, gauze and medicine are transported to the field of battle.British committees, to aid in the cultivation of lands that have been laid waste by war, send food, clothing, utensils, sown corn, burdened oxen and horses into the country, even the steam plow and the man who uses it!Just read the book "Red Cross" by Mownier, and you will be amazed at the magnitude of the cause it has accomplished. ① Gustave Moynier (1820-1910) Swiss philanthropist, one of the founders of the Red Cross. - translator As for those prophets, they often deny the courage, zeal, and wisdom of others, and believe that they alone can rule the world with a whip, but what they prophesy has never come true.The bravery of the Red Cross Volunteer Team cannot be described or praised in words.They only went looking for dangerous positions; however, when the Prussian army approached, the military doctors who were paid by the state fled with their staff; He endured the mistreatment of Bismarck and the generals of Napoleon III, and was eager to rescue the wounded from all over the world.The Dutch, Italians, Swedes, Belgians and even the Chinese and Japanese are also doing a great job in synergy.They set up hospitals and field hospitals according to their needs.They pay special attention to the sanitation of the hospital.To this day we still hear some Frenchmen express their deep gratitude for the careful care they received from the Dutch or German volunteers in the Red Cross field hospital.However, from the perspective of a power theory, what does it feel like?His ideal person is the military doctor who is paid by the state.As for the Red Cross and its hygienic hospitals, he doesn't want to take care of them, because the nurses are not officials! There is an organization which was only recently established, and immediately has hundreds of thousands of members; there are many field hospitals, hospital trains, and new methods of treating the wounded; score. Some people may say that in this organization, the state has a little bit of power.Yes, the state reached out to take the organization into its hands.The cadres are now commanded by what the sycophants call "blood princes."The Emperor and Empress also did their best to protect their own councils.But the success of this organization is not due to the strength of this patronage; it is due to the thousands of local chapters in various countries, the activities of individuals, and the dedication of all those who strive to relieve the wounded of war.This devotion can only be further developed if the state does not intervene. In short, the British, Japanese, Swedes, and Chinese rose up to aid the wounded in 1871, not because they were ordered by the International Cadres Committee.Moreover, setting up hospitals in the occupied areas and moving field hospitals to the battlefield was not because of orders from international cadres.This was made possible by volunteers from various countries.When they got there, they did not fight immediately, as the Jacobins of various countries had expected; they worked together, forgetting the differences of countries. We must regret that so much effort is spent on something like war, and we shall ask like the poet's son, "Why wound them first, when they are to be healed later?" The power of the capitalists and the power of the middle class must immediately stop the massacre called war.We want the volunteers of the Red Cross to join us in our efforts to eradicate war, not to aid the wounded; we mention this large organization here only as a result of free agreement and free support Just another description of . If we want to list the technologies that exterminate human beings one by one, it is really too numerous to mention.It suffices to mention the many groups that helped to strengthen the German army.The strength of the German army is not as the world believes. Only by training, the strength of the various groups whose purpose is to popularize military knowledge is also great. At the most recent General Assembly of the Military League, a total of 151,712 representatives of 2,452 federations attended the meeting.There were also many groups for shooting, military games, military competitions, climatic studies, etc.—these were the knowledge workshops for developing the technology of the German army, but the schools attached to the regiments were nothing.This is really a program for connecting various groups, including soldiers and civil servants; geographers and sportsmen; hunters and craftsmen; probing.It is these voluntary free associations that form the real backbone of the German army. Their purpose is accursed.This is maintaining the empire.But what we pay attention to is: Even though the organization of the military is the "great mission of the country," this part must also be done by the free consent of the group and the free will of the individual in order to achieve greater success. Even matters related to war must rely on the power of free consent.In order to prove our proposition more fully, we cite the Swiss voluntary corps of climate surveys (who have studied the mountain roads in detail), the French flying corps, the British Volunteer Corps of 300,000 men, the British National Artillery Union, The British Coastal Defense Society, which is being organized, and the new organization of the merchant marine, bicycle fleet, and private automobiles and motorboats all have to rely on the power of free consent. Everywhere the state is constantly yielding its sacred functions to private individuals.Liberal organizations everywhere have invaded the realm of the state.The facts mentioned above are only a rough indication of the general consensus that awaits us when the country is destroyed in the future.