KROPOTKIN'S "MUTUAL AID" m 



joy and plenty on the sons and daughters of 

 men for a thousand generations. These bar- 

 barian communists were thorough democrats, 

 and their folkmotes, where everybody gathered 

 and had their say, were the only semblance of 

 government they possessed, and so thoroughly 

 were its decisions respected that no officers 

 were needed to enforce them. They were also 

 our superiors not only in refusing to work their 

 children, but also in scorning to beat them. 

 They said: "The body of the child reddens 

 from the stroke, but the face of him who 

 strikes reddens from shame." 



The two chapters on "Mutual Aid in the 

 Medieval City" treat the guild as the chief 

 manifestation of the principle during this pe- 

 riod. A picture is presented, in some detail 

 of the struggle of the free cities against the 

 increasing encroachments of the centralizing 

 states. The medieval cities are finally defeat- 

 ed, the guilds destroyed, but the indestruct- 

 ible principle of mutual aid takes on new 

 forms and accommodates itself to new con- 

 ditions. 



This brings us to the closing chapters on 

 "Mutual Aid Among Ourselves." The first of 

 these two chapters is devoted almost entirely 

 to the mutual aid habits and institutions which 

 still survive in the present day villages of Rus- 



