306 Evolution and Social Reform: 



An ideal state of society in miniature may be seen in every 

 drawing-room where ladies and gentlemen, as we call well- 

 bred men and women, come together for social intercourse. 

 There is no compulsion. They talk, dance, eat and drink; 

 groups form and disperse; individuals, with freedom and 

 polite regard for the rights of others, move about, come 

 and go. And if one habitually disregards the proprieties 

 of such assemblages he is not arrested and dragged to 

 prison ; he is dealt with far more effectively ; he is not 

 invited to come, again ; he is dropped, shunned, boycotted. 

 The "four hundred" as well as the Irish peasantry know 

 the value of the boycott. 



The New York Grocers' Association is an almost purely 

 Anarchistic institution, and may be used as o'lie example of 

 many. I am informed that the wholesale grocers of Xew 

 York have lost faith in the efficacy of governmental laws 

 for the collection of debts, and have formed an Association 

 which has proved very satisfactory in its results, to protect 

 themselves against loss by bad debts. They no longer 

 depend upon governmental machinery. If a debtor to any 

 grocery house in New York exhibits signs of business 

 weakness or lack of integrity he is visited by a represent- 

 ative of the Association. If this visit has no salutary 

 effect upon him it becomes impossible for him to l)uy goods, 

 except for cash, anywhere in New York. That is all tliat 

 happens to him ; but out-of-town buyers are said to be 

 much more afraid of the Grocers' Association than of the 

 government. The staid business-men of New York who 

 compose this Association would, perhaps, be shocked to 

 know that, in one particular, they are true Anarchists ; but 

 such is the fact. Their Association does not serve them 

 with ideal perfection, but it is better for them tlian the 

 system of collecting debts by physical force. And this is 

 all that Anarchists claim for their proposed arrangement 

 of society : that it is practicable, that it is better than 

 government by physical force, and tliat it is capable of 

 constantly approaching ideal perfection. 



Let us now glance briefly at the economic principles of 

 Anaroliism. 



Anarcliists regard poverty as the misfortune that causes 

 most of tlie unhapi)iness and crime with which tlie human 

 race is afflicted. I do not, of course, mean that poverty 

 which individuals might, under any social system, choose 



