| Publication information |
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Source: Truth Seeker Source type: magazine Document type: letter to the editor Document title: “The Archist and the Anarchist” Author(s): Wilson, J. A. Date of publication: 30 November 1901 Volume number: 28 Issue number: 48 Pagination: 762 |
| Citation |
| Wilson, J. A. “The Archist and the Anarchist.” Truth Seeker 30 Nov. 1901 v28n48: p. 762. |
| Transcription |
| full text |
| Keywords |
| Francis B. Livesey; Christianity; anarchism; assassination; governments (criticism); law (criticism). |
| Named persons |
| Jesus Christ; Francis B. Livesey [misspelled below]; J. A. Wilson. |
| Notes |
| Click here to view the letter to the editor by Francis B. Livesey referenced below. |
| Document |
The Archist and the Anarchist
.
In a recent number of your paper, Mr. Livezey
advises the Anarchists to change their name, because of the general misconception
of the word.
I would suggest, if the masses are so ignorant
as that, instead of changing the name it would be well to enlighten them. Mr.
Livezey claims to be a Christian. In view of the crimes committed by the followers
of Jesus, I think Mr. Livezey would do well to drop the Christian name before
advising others.
The history of Christianity is written in blood
and the history of all governments is a record of crime, while there is no record
of any act of violence on the part of an Anarchist which was not committed against
one who claimed the right and made the threat to kill any one who refused to
submit to his authority.
It is said that all Anarchists should be annihilated,
because they believe in the assassination of rulers. In the first place, all
Anarchists do not believe in the assassination of rulers, and especially in
America, but very few believe in acts of violence at all, preferring to submit
to outrage, trnsting that edncation [sic] will in time enable men to reach that
high state of civilization in which they will have no desire to rule or be ruled.
But admitting that there is now and then an Anarchist who believes in assassinating
rulers, how is he any more a criminal than the ruler? Is there not with every
law a threat to kill all who resist it?
There is no stretch of the imagination which can
make it a crime for me to sell the product of my labor to any one who wants
to buy it, and yet the law denies me such an opportunity. The law forbids me
selling a cabbage of my own growing to a man who wants to buy it. The law forbids
me to ask a man to buy a pound of sugar. The law forbids me to express my honest
thoughts to people who want to hear them. If I protest and defend my right to
do these things, the rulers murder me in cold blood. Who is the greater criminal,
the Archist or the Anarchist[?]
| Cal. |
J. A. W.
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