Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 5.djvu/433

 NOTES AND ABSTRA CTS 4 1 9

destroying every vestige of authority attracts all social outcasts — the dissatisfied people who, not having succeeded in life, are filled with envy and bitterness — and all those on the border of crime, who find in militant anarchism a wide field for the assertion of their destructive impulses. In anarchism we find a confluence of two currents of social degeneration : intelligence which has proved incapable of social progress and is, therefore, forced into the regions of Utopia ; and character which has failed to yield to the exigencies of social adaptation and is, therefore, forced into the field of rebellion and violence. Thus it happens that the doctrines of anarchism are scattered among a body of desperate criminals. The unavoidable drift of the anar- chistic theory to become a channel for criminal instincts is proved by the fact that it has largely spread over the Romance countries, more profoundly contaminating those who show the highest rate of illiteracy and criminality. The coincidence of the diffu- sion of anarchism, a high percentage of illiteracy, and a heavy rate of criminality, goes to show that anarchism cannot find favorable conditions of development where' the social fiber is sound, where the criminal or antisocial tendencies are not strong enough to furnish a large body of people ready to accept its destructive formulas. The anarchist is an abnormal man, and must be suppressed or rendered impotent for doing evil. Whenever the two typical forms of crime — murder and theft — appear, the fact that they are essentially anti-social acts, incompatible with collective life, calls for prompt repression in the name of social defense. — Gustavo Tosti, \u Political Science Quarterly, September, 1899.

Socialism and Trade Unions. — Socialism is absolutely without the pale of the natural organization of working forces, which goes on developing by the coopera- tion of liberty of association and liberty of work. Trade unions were created in England at a time when there was no question of socialism, and it was the political economists and the statesmen of the school of "self-help" who freed them from the laws prohibiting coalitions and associations. It was the same in France, where the socialists never thought of abolishing the laws against coalitions at the very time when their ablest chief was prominent in the government. To the liberal propaganda of the liberal political economists is due the reform accomplished under the Ollivier ministry, and later on the law in respect to syndicates which the leaders of socialism considered' a mere bait. For a long time the socialists attributed no weight to the trade-union movement, and when the movement acquired a serious importance they only took part in it to turn it aside from the path of self-help. This has been called a division into old unionists and new unionists. The new unionists are no longer willing to have funds for life insurance, accident insurance, etc.; they want more legislation, more inspection, more taxation ; but they do not want self-help, they want the state to help them. Experience will force them back into the paths of the older unions ; the state cannot help them unless they help themselves. — G. DE Molinari, "La Guerre civile du capital et du travail," m Journal des £conomistes.