23 2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



instance of a considerable country in which poverty and want can 

 be fairly attributed to the pressure of an increasing population." 

 You will notice how he qualifies " country " by the word " consid- 

 erable." And in a foot-note he explains the meaning of the words 

 "considerable country/' by stating that there may be small isl- 

 lands, such as Pitcairn's, which may seem to offer examples in 

 point. Now, if the " fundamental truth to be grasped and never 

 let go " is, that laws applicable to a small and crude society hold 

 equally " in its most highly developed forms/' why is not the law 

 of the pressure of population against subsistence which reigns in 

 Pitcairn's and other small islands applicable likewise to societies 

 everywhere ? And if not, why propound such a theory ? 



This same style of argument occurs likewise among socialistic 

 and anarchistic writers, and is one of the props necessary to sus- 

 tain their conclusions. For example, the socialist witnessing that, 

 with the formation of trusts, the cheapening and facilitating of 

 production goes on wherever the combination and co-operation of 

 capital takes place, argues that production will reach its limit of 

 perfection by the appropriation of all capital and of all the means 

 of production by the state — an error disproved every day by the 

 inability of the people collectively, through their representatives, 

 to even pave their own streets, manufacture an average quality 

 of gas, or supply themselves with decent water. 



The anarchists, observing that many laws work injustice and 

 wrong to thousands, and that great advantages have been brought 

 about by the repeal of them, reason that the summit of human 

 happiness will be attained by the repeal of all laws and the aboli- 

 tion of all government, strangely forgetting that mankind have 

 found both government and law essential to the organization and 

 stability of society, forgetting also that well-merited punishment 

 is very generally meted out to criminals by law. It does not fol- 

 low that, because within certain limits the benefits of a given 

 system are found to vary in a direct ratio with its extent of appli- 

 cation, this same ratio will be continued ad infinitum. "Trees 

 do not grow up to the skies." 



The man who gradually reduced his donkey's daily rations in 

 hopes of eventually accustoming him to do without food, suc- 

 ceeded in accomplishing his purpose. But the donkey died. May 

 I ask my anarchist friends if they have contemplated under their 

 scheme the possibility of the death of their donkey — society ? * 



State socialism and philosophical anarchism are generally sup- 

 posed to be antipodal to each other, the one achieving its results 

 by the welding of men into a rigid whole, the other dividing 

 society into its units. 



* Ruskin, Government and Co-operation, p. 64. 



