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A THOUSAND RIOTERS
SELECTED WRITINGS OF

LUCY PARSONS








A Stroll Through the Streets o!
C

and

Ballot Humbu,







ToT

About Li



AND RIOTERS
TED WRITINGS OF

LUCY PARSONS

A THOU



ty
The Principles of Anarchism

Comrades and Friends:



Tthink Teannot open n
than by stating my experience



address more appropriately

1 my long conneetion with the









of 1877 that [first
what is known as the “Labor Qi
thousands of earnest, sineere people think.
in human society, known as

It was during the great railroad str



stion.” 1



uument in the hands of the
oppressed to alleviate their sufferings, But a closer study of the
that
derstand how organized govern-
ments used their concentrated power to retard progress by thi
iscontent if raised in



n. history and tendency of governments, c



is was a mistake: I eame to u





ever-ready voice of



ns of silencing
vigorous protest against the machinations of the scheming, few
ays did, always will and abw
of nations where majority rule is recognized as the only means
of adjusting the affairs of the people. I eame to understand that
ntrated power can be always wielded in th



who a 's must rule in the councils







such co terest of

the few and at the





pense of the many, Government in its last



analysis is this power reduced to a science. Govern
lead: they follow progress. When the prison, stake or seaffold

can no longer silence the voice of the protesting minority. prog-



ents never



ress moves on a step, but not until then,



I will state this contention in another way: I learned by
close study that it made no difference what fair prom
litical party, out of power might make to the people i
secure their confidence, when once securely established in con-
trol of the affairs of society that they were after all but human

5 a po-
order to










with all the human attr
are: First, to remain in power at all hazards: if not individu-
ally. th
administration must be kept in control. Second, in order to
keep in power, it is necessary to build up a powerful mac
one strong enough to erush all opposition and silence all vigor-

of the politician, Among these



ly the same views as th



those holding es:









‘ous murmurs of discontent, or the party machine might be
smashed and the party thereby lose control

When I came to realize the faults, failings, shortcom-
ings, aspirations and ambitions of fallible man, [concluded
that it would not he the safest nor best policy for society, as
anagement of all
nifold deviations and ramifications in the hands of
aged by the party which happened to
nd therefore was the majority party. nor did
ne partiele of difference to me
what a party, out of power may promise: it does not
allay my fears of a party, when entrenched and securely seated
power might do to crush opposition, and silence the voice of
the minority, and thus retard the onward step of progress.

a whole, to entrust thy affairs, with all
their m

finite m









it ten, nor does it now make



nd to







My
control of



«dis appalled at the thought of a political party
ha II the details that
total of our lives,

power shall have all a



ake up the sum
rty in
hority to dictate the kind of books that
shall be used in our schools and univer
ficials editing. printing, and circulating
mag ng of the tho






ties, government of-





literature, histories,



ines and press, to say not and and one



activities of life that civilized society



4 people engage in, in

‘To my mind, the struggle for liberty is too great and the
few steps we have
fice, for the s
consent to tu

ined have been won





sat mass of the people of this 20th century t0
¥y politic 'y the management of
affairs. For all who




over toa





‘our social and industr at all familiar




with history know that men will abuse power when they pos-
sess it, for these and other reasons, 1, after careful study, and

nest. political
al phase of Socialism, Anarchism, be-







Socialist to the ne
cause in its philosophy I believe I ean fi



id the proper conditions



for the fullest development of the individual units in society

which can never be the case under government restrictions.



‘The philosophy of anarchism is included in the word



Liberty”: yet it is comprehensive enough to include all things
else that are conducive to progress. No barrie
human pro}

whatever to



to thought, or investigat







anarchism: nothing is considered so true or so certain, tha
ture discoveries may not prove it false: therefore, it has but one
infallible, unchangeable motto, “Freedom.” Freedom to discover
any truth, freedom to develop, to live naturally and fully. Other
schools of thought are composed of crystallized ideas-principles
at are caught and impaled between the planks of lo
and considered too



plat-



fi

investigation, In all other “issues” there is always a limit: some

aered to be di



urbed by a close

imaginary boundary line beyond which the searching mind dare
not penetrate, lest some pet idea melt into a myth, But ana
chi nies to all

f the human
being and natural development, From the natural resources of
all ia
tures, and from universal truth, all bars of prejudice and supe

stition, that the mind may develop symmetrically.





is the usher of science



of truth, It would remove all barriers betw





the es tificial restrictions, that the body bed





iod of education must



Anarchists know that a long pe
precede
not believe in vote begging, nor political eampaigns, but rather
dividuals.



great fundamental ehange in society, hence they do



in the development of self-thinking i

We look away from government for relief, because we

6
know that foree (legalized) invades the personal liberty of man.
upon the natural elements and intervenes between man
and natural laws: from this exercise of force through gov
ments flows nearly all the misery, poverty, crime and co
‘sisting in society









So, we perceive, there are actual, material harriers



blockading the way. These must be re
they would melt away, or be voted o1
we would be content to wait and v
frowning rocks towering betwe
dom, while the dark chasms of a hard-fought past yawn bel
nbling they may be with their own weight and the de«
aly stand under u

pved. IF we could hope
ed
and pray. But they ar
us and a land of fres

nto nothingness







us. Cr



of time, but to



in the crash. There is something to be done in a case like this-
the rocks must be removed, Passivity while slavery iss



over us is a crime, For the moment we must forget that was are

anarehists-when the work is accomplished we may forget that







we were revolutionists-hence most anarchists believe the coming
change can only come through a revolution
class will not allow a peaceful change to take place: still we
are willing to work for peace at any price, except at the price of

liberty



ecause the possess-





And what of the glowing beyond that is so br
1 the faces of the poor say itis a dre



those who gri
dream, itis the real, stripped of br
folds, mitres and guns. It is



istortions materiali





into thrones and se





on her own interior laws as in all her other associations. It





return to first principles: for were not the land, the water, the
light, all free before governments took shape and form? In thi
free state we will again forget to think of these things as “prop-
up to it, The idea
st that
1 thought,



erty.” It is real, for we, as a
of less restriction and more liberty, and a confiding.
nature is equal to her work, is permeating all mode







From the dark y
generally believed that 1
every human impul

ad every emot
vf
as far from nature's remedi
seized upon and d
thought-
has been swift and ste:
parent that in e
soverned least



not so long gone by-when it was
ly depraved
had: when every action, every the
1 was controlled and rest



nd
zh
an the

's soul was t









hu bled, dosed



uff

s possible: when th





ed and kept





cl was,





d before it had



al
nm those days to these years the progress of this idea
ly. Ie is becoming »
we are “governed best where we

to evolve











Still unsatisfied perhaps, the inqui
for ways
oon like hun

exchanging and de

seeks for details,
fores. How ill we go
ng and sleeping, w
ling, without government? So used have we

ms, and whys and w








ng and los





become to “organized
ordinarily
tions being
* Bur
ization of a fre
athority would be to plac the way of coming
generations. The est thought of today may become the useless

vagary of tomorrow, and to crystallize it

authority” in every department of life that
annot conceive of the most common-place avoca
ied on without their interference and “protec-
archism is not compelled to outline a complete








society. ‘To do so with any assumption of








ato a creed is to make
it unwieldy

We
mal, and inst





xperience that 1
tively affiliates with his kind co-ops



in groups, works to better a combined with his fellow

to the formation of co-







nization, regulations, leaders, ete.: it will institute
methods of direct communic

its own



th every member of tha







industrial branch in the we



1, and establish equitable rel


with all other branches. There would probably be conventions
of industry which delegates would attend, and where they would
t ct such business as was necessary, adjourn and from that
moment be delegates no longer, but simply members of a group.
‘To remain permanent members of @ continuous congress would
he to establish a power that is cert



soon or later to be abused,





No great, central power, like a con: sof men

who know nothi







of their constituents’ trades, interests, rights



or duties, would be over the various organi
iffs, poli
ved at while in se
of groups might profit by the knowledg
interchange of thought afforded by conventions if they choose.
but they will not be compelled to do so by any outside force,

ations or groups:

nor would they employ shi ailers to



\en, courts or



enforce the conclusions ar sion, The members





ned through mutual





Vested rights, privileges. charters, title deeds, upheld
by all the parapher
power-such as prison, seaffold and armies will have no existence.
‘There can be no privileges bought or sold, and the transaetion

kept sacred at the point of the bayonet. Every
aan equal footing with his brother in the race of life, and neither
Iidom nor metal dra
shall handicap the one to the advantage of the other



1 of government-the visible symbol of

an will stand on












Property will lose a certain attribute which sanctifies it






now. The absolute ownership of it-"the right 10 use or abuse”~
will be abolished, and possession, use, will be the only title. It
will be seen how impossible it would be for one person to “own



a million acres of land, without a title deed, backed by a gove
ment ready to protect the title at all hazards, even to the loss of
thousands of lives. He could not use the million acres himself,

nor could he wrest from its depths the possible resources it con-





tains,

People have become so used to seeing the evidences of

9


hority on every hand that most of them honestly believe t



they would s
club o the soldier's bayonet. But the anarchist says, “Remove
thes
inth

will respond to these better influences.

» utterly to the bad if it were not for the policeman’s



evidence of brute force, and let man feel thi







ences of self responsibility and self c



he belief in a literal place of torment has nearly melted
away: and instead of the direful results predieted, we have a
higher and tr

dlo not eare to go to the bad when they





1 standard of manhood and womanhood. People
d they
own motives in doing






not. Individuals a of the
good, While acting out the
ings and condit
right path by some outside power, some restr
them by church or sta
right to rebel and secede, sacred to h



atures according to their surround






us, they still bel



eve they are being kept



nt thrown arou





So the objector believes that with the

m, he would forever be



rebelling and seceding, thereby creating constant confusion and

ely for the reason that



turmoil. Is it probable that he would, n

he could do so? Men are to a great extent creatures of habit, and



grow to love associations: under reasonably good conditions, he



would remain where he commences, if he wished to, and, if he
did not, who has any natural right to force him into relations
ul to him? Under the present order of affairs, persons do

interested members for






unite with societies and remain good, d




life, where the right to retire is always conceded.

What we anarchists contend for is a larger opportun
to develop the
right as a sound being to develop that which is broadest, noblest
h pped by any centralized
where he shall have to wait for his permits to be signed. sealed.
approved and handed down to him before he can engage in the
active pun We know th
all, as we er lil



its in society, that mankind








est and best li



jority









of life with his fellow by after




row more enlightened undei



ty, we

10





less and less for that exa

rial wealth, which, in our gree¢

so impossible to think upon carelessly. The man and woman of
think not Ih of the rie



irtured senses





loftier intellects, in the prese





to be gained by their efforts as of the good they ean do for their
pring of healthy
rushed and

n before his birth, that impels him on-



fellow creatures. Th



ction in








every hu ed by



1 being who bi
ty and drudgery fr







nd use the powers within him when

rose to bloom in the sunlight and



s in life than that, And so will it be when humanity

is once relieved from the press ion, want, and



slavery, it will be concerned, le: the ownership

mulations of wealth. $ ‘ions would be but
dl trouble, Wh
a day of easy, of healthful labor will produce all the comforts

es one , and the opportunity to labor is never
cople will become indifferent as to who owns the wealth
ed, Wealth will be below par, and it will be found
that men and women will not aecept it for pay, or be br
to do what they would not willingly and naturally do without
I will, supersede al for
spiration born in man to make the most




or four hours





weal by








it, Some higher ince





gold, The involunts
’s fellow-b



of one’s self, to be loved and appre \e.
to “make the world better for hay i.” will urge him



on the nobler deeds than ever the sordid and selfish incentive of





If, in the present ¢



neful struggle for exis

i
tence, when organized society offe
elty, and deceit, men can be fo
1 the than gold.
who suffer want and persecution rather than desert principle,
who can bravely walk to the scaffold for the good they ean do



a premium on greed, ¢
who stand aloof
ation to work for





ost



alone dete ood rathe







anity, what may we expeet from men when freed from the






necessity of selling the better part of themselves for

cad? The te
the awful alte

als in the serv






ible conditions under which labor is per
native if one does not prostitute talent and mot
© of mi





mon: and the power
wealth obtained by ev
coneepti«

And yer, there are

so unjust means, combined to make the
of free and vob ary labor almost a
amples of this principle even now. In a well
bred family each person has certain duties, whieh are performed
cheerfully. and are not n il for according to
ited members sit



mpossible one.








some pre-determined st



down to the well-filled ble to



ble, the stronger do not se
get the most, while the weakest do witho
around them more food than they ean possibly consume, Each
patiently and politely awaits his turn to be served, and leaves

or gather greedily



what he does not want: he is certain that when again hungry
plenty of good food will be provided. This pr



ple can be ex-



tended to include all society, when people are eivilized enow

wish it






the
exact return for the



of labor performed will render
absolute communism a y sooner or later. The land and

all it contains, without whieh labor cannot be exerted, belong to
no one man, but to all alike, The invention
are the common inheritance
nan takes the tree that nature fu



ad discoveries of




f the coming generations:
ished free, and



0 useful article, or a machine perfected and be~
n by many past generations, who is to determine

1 is his and his alone? Primitive n

queathed to h
what proporti






ave I
with hi
hour

a rude resemblance to
modern worker has occupied an
al value than the rude
toiled the longes

week fashion rticle





clumsy tools, whe



he finished article is of far more
wo. and yet the primi








le long







his hands so restless, that wealth wi ing like magic, ready
We will become

of the world









aarrel over its posse
the food spread before us o
this,” the objector urges, “is very b
when we become angels. [t would not do now to abolish govern-

legal 6



loaded table.



al in the far off future,



traints: people are not prepared for it






ding history, that
woved the people
herty, Once it was considered ne
essary 10 compel men to sav 1 of gover
eh racks and stakes, Until the foundation
I

is a question, We have
old-

have not abused their new



wheres fiction has been







cir souls, with thi



mental scaffolds, el
cof the A
that gov





republic it was considered absolutely esse



uments should second the efforts of the church,
we: and yet it is found that
ed since they

ple to attend the means of g











if they prefer it
uld not work if the over-
return to the old




removed: they
of profit now that ex-slave owners would
system if they could

So many able writers have shown that the unjust institu-







‘h work so nisery and s ses



whole existence to
1 help but believe
and every

root in governments, and ow:
the power derived from govern
that were eve





y title deed. ev

13


police officer or soldier abolished tomorrow with one sweep. we
would be better off than now. The actual, material things that
u nd skill would r
1 their force and the

-es of life made free to all the people that they would need







needs would still exist; his strength





and his instinetive social inclinations r





no force but that of society and the opinion of fellow beings to
Keep them moral and upright

Freed from the systems that made him wretched be-
fore, he is not likely to make himself more wretched for



them. Much more is ¢



ined in the thought that condit
make man what he is, and not the laws and penalties made for
dance, th

his ion, We have



1 is supposed by careless observ



zh to make



laws, jails, courts, armies, guns and armories
Il, if they were the true preven
know they do not prevent crime: that wickedness and depray







exist in spite of them, nay, inerease as the struggle between class=
Ith greater and more powerful and poverty
and desperate









To the governing class the anarchists say: “Gentle
we ask no privilege, we propose no restriction: nor, on the other







will we permit it, We have no new shackles to propose, we
k emancipation from shackles. We ask no le
for co-oper
will we per
of the social unit




ative sanction,



ion asks only for a free field and no






1 their interference.(*2) It asserts that in freedox



s the freedom of the social state. It asserts
L utilize soil lie social happi
and progress and the death of rent, It asserts that order ¢
liberty prevails, and th
follows order. It asse

tha



freedom to possess



exist w



progress leads and never
mancipat

augurate liberty, equality, fraternity, That the ¢

ess, if it ever had any is I believe



finally, that mn will in-



sting industrial



syster



admitted by all who have give



serions thought to this phase of
| conditions.



4


‘The manifestations of discontent now looming upon
side show that society is conducted on wrong prineiples
and that somet e soon or the wa



ge class



has got to be do:
will sink into a slavery worse than was the feudal serf. I say to
the wagi clearly and act quickly. or you are lost
Strike not for a few cents more an hour, because the price of
living will he raised faster still, but strike for all you earn, be
content with noth











2 less,







Following are definitions which will appear in all of the
new standard Dictionaries:

Anarchism-The philosophy of a new social order based
on liberty unrestricted by man made law, the theory that all
forms of government are based on violence-hence wrong and
harmful, as well as unnecessary

A
regard of
condition of society regulated by voluntary agree
government

archy-Absence of government: disbelief im and dis-



avasion and authority based on coercion and force:
ent instead of



Anarchist-No. 1. A bel
to all forms of coercive government
One who advocates Anarchy, or absence of gover
ideal of political lib



sm: one opposed
ad invasive authority. 2
ment, as the





nd social harmony







Published as a pamphlet
circa 1905-1910
Are Class Interests Identical?
is of the Aims and Objects of the
ial Workers of the World








working cl
interests, that country is America. The wage-
a this country where every man’
president of these United States, there ean be no elasses
wccept this kind of “jollying” without q











«ls of them do really believe we have no classes here.
Because one man in thirteen or fourteen million men is elected.
J of being born to rule, they accept this a



indisputable



is difficult to drive ly
American mind, is that the belon
t to wh

to the
ngs to an entirely different lass









Ih the employi
class oce





ss. he thinks maybe



himself to keep quiet, while wro
every hand. If he joins his union, itis as a sort of temporary
ft, or conver







ence, as he expeets to become a business-




arn a profession or hi






or his da rry arich
of the kind will happen: so he goes on from year to year
himself: meanwhile his condition and that of his class
are and more hopel





bribing
becom





upon wrong pre



es, in so far as they
terests between capital and labor,” If the interests of capital and
labor are identical, why do they not broth belo



16


ation? We need to view from thi



t standpoint the elass
struggle: hence when an organization is founded fro the express
purpose of teaching the working elas correct and fundamental
principles underly own relation to
the employing class, and when we

to be taught in the
hail sueh an 0









ng, the wage-system and the
stand these lesson



ss of the unions, then
ion as a real blessing!



gani

‘The Industrial Worke
July 8th, 1905 with the avowed purpose of de

the work ni the employ
mon.” That the readers of The Liberator may understand what
the Industrial Workers of the World really stand for, we
Preamble of the Constitution:

of he World was launched in Chieago,
ing that










IWW Pres



le
‘The working class and he employing class have no jon. These ean he
no peace so long as hunger and want are found among the millions of working
people, and the few, who make up the employ





class, have all the good th
st go on until

her on the political, as well as on the industrial field, and the take andl hold
that which they produce by their labo

working class without affiliation with
wealth and canter



‘of life. Between these two classes a strugel the toilers con





hrough an evonomic organization of the
ny political party: The rapid gathering of
nent of the industries into fewer and fewer
ble to cope with the ever-g
trades unions foster a state of things which




of the mans



nds make the trades unions 1



rowing power of



‘employing elass, because the

allows one set of workers to be pitted against another set af workers in the
lustry, thereby helping to defeat one another
unions aid the e ‘lass to mislead the workers into the belief that the
ion with their employers. These sad cond
d and the interests of the working elass upheld only by an












working class have interests in co



“organization for hers in any one industry





fo in all industries, if necessary; cease work whenever a strike or a lockout is





‘on int any department thereof, thus 1





Chicago, The Liberator, September 3, 1906
A Stroll Through the
Streets of Chicago




the sudden stoppage of the big whes



been played in the industrial ranks generally, The wheels in the
factories



xd to revolve, the fires have be




drawn, and
nis of the wage-carning elass have been.
upon the highways in the country and the city





Reade




ize its effects? Mayhe not, so let us
take a stroll the



reets of this wonderful city



It is two pam. The afternoon papers are j a thou-
sand or more people are buying them, perhaps paying out their
last penny: They read the ly: off they dash pell mel

i other in their mad r
1 the boss h










mad race,





ing to outstrip ¢



i the job. So



IY appe







This is no overdrawn picture: it actually occ

in this eity, and of eo

every day
n hundreds of



inhi
other cities,



dlreds of pla



‘The free

fee wi
the polic
are filled to suffocation.
the robb

and itis



ns and soup kitchens are in full
stations and cheap lodgir





parity is the dope being handed out by




1 pre:




to the poor people to keep them quiet
stu



ast for the time being.

Coffee wagons, soup kitchen



and cheap lodging-houses
are being patronized by men only. What has become of the

1S
women? About as many women as men were discharged, To the



‘under-world” they soon will sink, some of them never to rise
again!

And this panie is only two months old! What. in the
name of justiee is in store fe




In the face of these hellish conditions there are radi-
cals who preach to us about peace, intellectual education, and
the like, Why should all the ka
the working elass? Why should they be quiet while st



like peace be on the side of





receiving just sufficient for their laborious toil to keep body



soul together and to produce more slaves for the bosses? The



spirit of resistance seems to have forsaken the working class.

[believe in peach at any prie



xcept at the price of lib-
erty. But this precious gift the wealth-prod ady seem to
have lost. Life -mere existence- they have: but what is life worth
when it lacks those elements which make for enjoyment?





ike

Advocating peach i
many other t be overworked.

a good thi



x in its way: but,



In this city where are fully 100,000 persons out of em-
t, and the number is on the increase,



ployn

‘The Wheel af



The Demonstrator, January 16, 1908 (excexpts): or



19
Crime and Criminals

Our saintly Christians and other goody-goody people
throw up their h ‘emplating the prevaler
of crime among rimes, or unsociable aets



the “lower classes.



among the “lower Classes. re only a reflex of crimes or robber-
ies of the upper or “be

they are born, How many thousands, yea millions, of mothers



classes.” We rob our children before



e there who see a thousand and on
ney whieh their appetite craves
re unable to gratify it? They walk

among the working el



articles while in a state of pr







or their heart desires, and yet



the streets, gazing at the gorgeous displays, everything to a
tract the eye and cause the heart to wish for. yet unable, owing
to poverty, to gratify such na



igs. What is the conse~






The unborn child
pointment that the mother f
robbed it before its birth, it
fied.

its growing years: the desire grows stronger hecause of poverty

apressed, it feels the s



e disap-
Is: it is impressed upon it, We have
rs the world with an unsatis-





rasping nature. This proclivity grows steadily: upon it with



and, finally. the child reaches forth and takes son ses

y. This is theft, it is illegally done: the society for the first
time takes an interest in this huma
p
of its own false, unnatural, inhuman system. How
wiser and cheaper it would have been to make conditions n
ral and social so that the child could have seen the light of Earth
under the best conditions possible, instead of -as is often the





prope



being. It comes forward to



sh the child it is now ready to infliet tort



re upon the vietim



h better





case- under the worst conditions,



Id be than to have to build

at, gloomy prisons, superintended by guardsmen, who harden

How much better this we





J debase their 1



tures still more. And the case holds good

20


with murders, legal and il



|, or Iynchings. The sensation







press gives all the gory de
slaving headlines, They cate I the eye of thousands of prospec:
1 its detains

tive moth pressed by the horror






and they is born
it reaches 1
path, and the old p
ful deed is committed

where

's and woman’s estate, some adversity crosses its
upon it and an aw
ed and wonders





tal impressic





ne community is sh








could have come from, Another candidate





starts for the prison or the gallows. Thus the long procession





is ever wending
throws up her hands in “holy” horror whe
her children commits an awful deed, She never recognizes the
e reflex of her own mi:

s way trough the ages. The hoary-headed old



one of





social disease

When society has grown wise enough to supplant the
prison with the schoolhouse, the teacher for the hangman and
kind tr al substituting
kindness for brut
and ¢



eand










The Liberator, March 25, 1906
The Ballot Humbug

Whatever we hear from all quarters we are very apt to
believe, whether it requires some effort to believe, whether it is
true or not, especially if it requires some effort to examine it, Of
all the modern delusions, the ballot has certainly been the great

est. Yet most of the people believe in it





In the first place. peiple that
the majority shall lead and the minority must Follow (no mat=
ter wheth



founded on the p






it will he any advantage to the
minority follow them or not). Let us take a body of le

absolutely honest, and see what they can do, A.B and C





each a distinet principle to ¢



ry out, and there is no good





why each one should



ot earry out his principle to a certain e:



tent without interfe





with the other two. Pol



ies steps in and
patter by the ballot, for that is fair, What
? A. and C finally reach a comprom
» a portion of their ideas. A and C are then the major-
ity and B’s principles get no further consideration, but a simply
ruled out of existence. This is the majority rule

says: let us decide the



is the resu



ve and unite by







Notice the rest



Instead of three well-de



xl principles
that might have been continued, developed and enjoyed. we
rupted the other two. This is
nevitable result of majority rule in a le

have lost one altogether, and e





attempts to manufacture laws to enforce upon people of large



ities who have all kinds of conlliet



Of course it is better to have majority rule if it repre=
sents the real wishes of a large number of people than to have

minority rule which is only in the interest of the few, as is the



he interests of the



case today, where all laws are practically
capitalistic class, But the prineipal of rulership is in itself wrong:




> man has 3 nother man



yy right to rule

Of course, if one is invading the rights of another, he
tulership, but self-preservation
F law factories are operated. A

jority as follows; He hires a tool called
nd t

trained. This is no





apitol and but
nit to them his
in the brightest colors and in a way that will





it
appear to be a great blessing to the country. In this way, together
th



sually gets the votes of the majority of t



Ifthe scheme to be put through is so barefaced that the
majority ea

done by a con
Dill is all right, and B, being opposed to
other scheme that A oppo:

to vote for the bill on the condition that A will vote for B's bill



not be mislead into voting for it, then the job is
ded A that the





lobbyist has per





s-it is only necessary to get B to agree



This scheme is ealled honest, or at least “all
polities.” The lobbyist who is running A might
have put the two jobs up with the lobbyist who is running A
might have put the two jobs up with the lobbyist who was run-
ning B,

when it comes







T do our lobbyists use one member of the legisla
bodies against another to pry a fat job out of the people for th
henefit of the moneybags. It makes no differenee who the mem
ber of cong be. or what hi he- the job
can be worked on him just the same, Therefore, what does the













people's voting amount to in the choice of members?



Let us take this stature is com-
posed of ninety

five will make an



ample: Suppose a leg

1 members: on the above sche







jority, even if all are present: the twenty-five
swap jobs with twenty-five more and thus make fifty votes
Phe lobbyist makes it his business to know how
e sick or absent, or



majority of one.



e strives to bet the worst opponents



on commissions or investigating committees out of town, But
there is much in trading votes, for each member generally feels
like keeping his trades to himself, or
therefore it is easy to trade Vs vote with B, C.D and E and make
each one think that he alone traded with A. In this way ten such
Fa majority of ninety-nine, and ten
nd when eapital has use for them,







he persuaded to do so.











as A can easily get fo



such men are not hard to

But this is not the end, A cannot trade with F, so A ine

troduces a bill or an






mendment repulsive to F



to drop it on condition that F will either vote for the
absent when it comes up. These are some of the tricks played in





Can you blame an Anarchist who declares tha
made laws are not seared? Soc
to barbarism if laws were done away with, With thousands of
laws bei
tricks, what becomes of the vo
becomes of his refor



ety would not disband or revert

acted and hundreds of corruptionists playing their
Viewory at the polls? What

se of the ballot? So:
il it is repealed
vanity?







ig all things by the





long as he is willing to submit to a bad law



what better leverage do rogues want on hu



he fact is money and not votes is what rules the people.
And the capitalists no longer care to buy the voters, they
buy the “servants” after they have heen elected to “serve
idea that the poor man’s vote amounts to anything is the veriest
delusion,





ne ballot is only the paper veil that hides the tricks.

Can you blame an Anarchist when he sees a politieal
b

anything sacred about him, or his laws? We know there never

mer conniving for a job in a law factory that he fails to see


was a law passed that ever prevented one single crime form be-
ommitied, We know crime will cease only when men are
kes them happier to do right
than wrong, We know that if passing laws would have prevented
crime or made men better that we would all be angels by now.







taught to do good, because it

We say: Turn the law factories
entists in them to teach the truths of hun
raternity, and make th
the means of life, and mankind will quickly develop that whieh



to schools and place sei-
solidarity, love and
possible by abolishing monopoly in





is best, noblest and purest in his



Chieago, The Liberator, September 10, 1905

25
TO TRAMPS,

‘The Unemployed, the Disi



herited, and Miserable.



A word to the 35,000 now tramping the streets
of this great city, with hands in pockets, gazing listlessly
about you at the evidence of wealth and pleasure of which
you own no part, not sufficient even to purchase yourself
a bit of food with wh







ich to appease the pangs of hu
now knawing at your vitals. It is with you and the hun-



ger

dreds of thousands of others similarly situated in this
great land of plenty, that I wish to have a word.



Have you not worked hard all your life, since you

e old enough for your





bor to be of use in the j
duetion of wealth? Haye you not toiled long, hard and
laboriously in producing wealth? And in all those years
of drudgery do you not know you have produced thou-
sand upon thousands of dollars’ worth of wealth, which
you did not th











1, do not now, and unless you ACT, never





will, own any part in? Do you not know that when you
were harnessed to a machine and that machine ha
to steam, and thus you toiled your 10, 12 and 16 hours
in the 24. that during this time in all these years you





rnessed.





received only enough of your labor product to furnish
yourself the bare, coarse necessaries of life, and that when
you wished to pure nything for yourself and family
it always had to be of the cheapest quality? If you wanted
to go anywhere you had to wait until Sunday, so little did





you receive for your unremitting toil that you dare not
stop for a moment, as it were? And do you not know that
with all your squeezi ching and economizing you
never were enabled to keep but a few days ahead of the





26
wolves of wa
employer saw fit to create an artific
production, that the
the iron horse to which you had been harnessed was stilled:

ut? And that at last when the eaprice of your
famine by limiting
es in the furnace were extinguished







the factory door locked up, you turned upon the highway
a tramp, with hunger in your stomach and rags upon your

back?

Yet your ¢



ployer told you that it was overproduction
which made him close up. Who eared for the bitter tears and
he



t-pangs of your loving wife and helpless children, when yo
bid them a loving “God bless you" and turned upon the tramp-



er’s road to seck employment elsewhere? I say, who cared for
dl pal np now, to be

execrated and denounced as a “worthless tramp and a vagrant

those heartach 7 You were only a







by that very class who had been engaged all those years in rob-

bing you and yours. Then can you not see that the “good boss’



or the “bad boss” euts no figure whatever? that you are the com-
mon prey of both, and that their mission is simply robbery? Ci
you not see that it is the INDUSTRIAL SYSTEM and not the
boss” which must be ch







god?

Now, when all these bright summer and autumn days are



going by and you have no employment, and consequently
can save up nothing, and when the winter's blast sweeps
down from the north and all the earth is wrapped in a
shroud of ice, hearken not to the voice of the hyprocrite
who will tell you that it was ordained of God that “the poor





ye have always”: or to the arrogant robber who will say to
you that you “drank up all your wages last summer when
you had work. and that is the reason why you have nothing
now, and the workhouse or the workyard is too good for
you: that you ought to be shot.” And shoot you they will if







you present your petitions in too emphatic a maner. So

by


not to them, but list! Next winter w
ly

your feet through the holes in your worn-out shoes

the cold blasts
nts, when the



h the rents in your se



frost is bi



and w wretcheduess seems to have nd upon



you, when mise for her own



is he-
den and existence





come iockery, when you have walked
the streets by di slept upon hard boards by night, and
at last determine by your own hand to take your life, - for you
















an existe
you determine to
rather th

1e which has becon en - so, perehanee.
of the lake



ther z you can do to insure those whom you are about to
orph
mockery of your rash act; but stroll you down the
rich and look th cent plate windows into

voluptuous homes, and here you will discover the very identi-



n

inst a like fate? The waves will only dash over y



avenues of the
the





cal robbers who hi id yours. Then let your



we dlespoiled y



tragedy be enacted here! Awaken them from their wanton sport



at your expense! Send forth your petition and let them read it




by the red glare of destruction, Thus when you



long
that you have spoken
tn they have ever been
Wve never yet deigned to notice

k behind” you can be assur




lingering lo



to these robbers in the only k xe wh
able to understand, for they
ny petition from their slaves that they were not compelled to

read by the red glare L





ing, from thi













was not handed to them upon the point of the sword, You ne
no organization when you mind to present this
kind of petition, In fact, n would be a detriment



to you: b of yo
ayail yourselves of those little methods of



has placed in the hands of the poor man, and you will b
power



this or any other land,





cof explosives!

Dedicated to the tramps by Lucy E, Pars
Marm, October 4, 1884.



28



nd 1853
Black.
nost likely

is believed to have been born
xed her






speculated to be of
Mexican and Native Amer
slaves, although not much can be confirmed about her early life
wey married Albert Parsons around 1870 and moved to €
go. She had two sons, and supported her family through vari





san, Her parents we








seamstress jobs.

In 1879 Lucy joined the Working Women’s Union, Also
in the early 1880s she joined the Knights of Labor and helped
to orga stresses. In 1883 she helped found the Interna-
tional Working People’s Association (WPA) in which she wrote
for their newspaper, The Alarm. Mong with her husband Albert
and | 1s and workers she joined the
struggle for the 8 hour we On May 4th 1886 during
arket Square area of Chicago,








reds of other



Jabor demonstration in the Hayr



a bomb was thrown by a



known person, Lucy's husband Al-
ert was not present during the demonstration, although he was
tied and hung alox
being no evidence against any of them. Luey believed that it was
the police that threw the bomb.



with four other Anarchists despite there

Lucy spent a short time mourning her husband's death
ted on a Haymarket de paign, She went on
speaking tour covering seventeen sta
story of her husband's death and the Hayn





in which she told the
rket affair





he wrote pieces against Iynchings in a news-
«dom. In 1905 she helped co-found the radical
ndustrial Workers of the World (IWW) in which
svspaper The Liberator. In 1927 she joined
the National Com tee of the Inter
which was a communist led labor organization, She died in
1941, about the age of 89. in a fire






paper c



lal
she wrote for thei




tional Labor Defense.



More about Lucey
www lueyparso



project.org
Lucy Parsons: Freedom, Equality and Solidarity

29


unemployment protest at the Hull House in Chicago


“Of all the modern delusions, the ballot has certainly been the
greatest. The fact is money and not votes is what rules the people.”

cy Parsons political life spans over 60 y
jovements, Her writin
ce, that a Chicago police officer called her
an a thousand rioters.” Despite this influ-
be Jooked, even nat Goldn

dow of her white husband Albi
booklet contains six of her texts.




ist and Labor









+ Parsons,





Please re-print, re-produce + revolt. Anti-copyright.