CO-OPERATION. 19 



to office in one town niiglit defeat liini in tlie next, and if a 

 third candidate be in the field, a minority can elect its man, 

 while the majority go unrepresented. What is the real signifi- 

 cance of 8 over 7 ? Of course the 8 rule and the Y are ruined 

 until 1 goes over, when the 8 are ruined and the 7 rule, all by 

 a majority of one! \Yhat an- inviting field, where vested 

 interests are at stake, for bribery, lying, blackmail, bulldozing, 

 jerrymandering and 'returning boards!' Some call these the 

 corruption of the ballot box, but they seem to us to logically 

 flow from the rule of the majority. 



Now since all admit that thei-e should be some limit to ma- 

 jority rule, the only question is what shall it be if not the equal 

 liberty of all? For, che last minority, by the next step of liber- 

 ty, is expecting soon to be in the majority. The equal sover- 

 eignty of all, will then be the last majority. Politics follow 

 Protestantism; as George the Third was Pope, so now major- 

 ity rule is our political Bible. But every new protester 

 destroys its authority in favor of equal sovereignty. Yox 

 popull vox Dei, means the voice of Liberty, each and every 

 one of the people, not that of a mere majority. Majorities are 

 always wrong. God speaks only to individuals. "One with 

 God is a majority." 



CO-OPERATIOX versii^s. C ORPORATION. 



Co-operation is a natural Avord, corporation is a legal one. 

 One is free, voluntary, spontaneous: the other is chartered to 

 act as one body. But co-operation has all the strength there 

 is in each individual and, when occasion arises, can act as one 

 man. Why then become incorporated so that, whether you 

 will or not, you are obliged to act as one man? In order to 

 exclusively control, for private gain, nature's resources and so- 

 ciety's social franchises, such as the use of water, gas, trans- 

 portation, banking <fcc. It is an artificial, legal, man of straw, 

 with powers and privileges legislated into him, which are 

 denied to the natural man. In being addicted to stealing from 

 the public, it soon learns, tlirough a ring within a ring, to steal 

 from itself. What possible benefit can the whole people^ 

 under co-operation, derive from a cliarter save what is already 

 granted by nature under the right of private contract? They 



