KROPOTKIN'S "MUTUAL AID" 105 



the grass buried under a thin sheet of snow is 

 everywhere in abundance — but because of 

 the difficulty of getting it from beneath the 

 snow and this difficulty is the same for all 

 horses alike. * * * We can safely say that 

 their number are not kept down by competi- 

 tion; that at no time of the year they need 

 struggle, for food and that if they never reach 

 anything, approaching over-population, the 

 cause is in the climate, and not in competi- 

 tion." 



After citing the rodents that combine to 

 store food for the winter, or fall asleep about 

 the time competition should set in; and the 

 buffaloes which form immense herds to mig- 

 rate across a continent to where food is plen- 

 tiful; and beavers, which when they grow 

 numerous, divide into two parties, and go, the 

 old ones down the river, and the young ones 

 up the river and avoid competition; after cit- 

 ing these and many others, he declares the 

 mandate of nature to be: "Don't compete! — 

 competition is always injurious to the species, 

 and you have plenty of resources to avoid it! 

 * * * Therefore combine — practice mutual 

 aid! That is the surest means for giving to 

 each and to all the greatest safety, the best 

 guarantee of existence and progress, bodily, 

 intellectually, and morally." 



