Complete Life of William McKinley and Story of His Assassination: An Authentic and Official Memorial Edition, Containing Every Incident in the Career of the Immortal Statesman, Soldier, Orator and PatriotEverett, Marshall
History
Complete Life of William McKinley and Story of His Assassination: An Authentic and Official Memorial Edition, Containing Every Incident in the Career of the Immortal Statesman, Soldier, Orator and Patriot
“Men under the present state of society,” she said, “are mere products
of circumstances. Under the galling yoke of government, ecclesiasticism,
and a bond of custom and prejudice, it is impossible for the individual
to work out his own career as he could wish. Anarchism aims at a new and
complete freedom. It strives to bring about the freedom which is not
only the freedom from within but a freedom from without, which will
prevent any man from having a desire to interfere in any way with the
liberty of his neighbor.
“Vanderbilt says, ‘I am a free man within myself, but the others be
damned.’ This is not the freedom we are striving for. We merely desire
complete individual liberty, and this can never be obtained as long as
there is an existing government.
“We do not favor the socialistic idea of converting men and women into
mere producing machines under the eye of a paternal government. We go to
the opposite extreme and demand the fullest and most complete liberty
for each and every person to work out his own salvation upon any line
that he pleases. The degrading notion of men and women as machines is
far from our ideals of life.
“Anarchism has nothing to do with future governments or economic
arrangements. We do not favor any particular settlement in this line,
but merely ask to do away with the present evils. The future will
provide these arrangements after our work has been done. Anarchism deals
merely with social relations, and not with economic arrangement.”
The speaker then deprecated the idea that all Anarchists were in favor
of violence or bomb throwing. She declared that nothing was further from
the principles they support. She went on, however, into a detailed
explanation of the different crimes committed by Anarchists lately,
declaring that the motive was good in each case, and that these acts
were merely a matter of temperament.
Some men were so constituted, she said, that they were unable to stand
idly by and see the wrong that was being endured by their
fellow-mortals. She herself did not believe in these methods, but she
did not think they should be condemned in view of the high and noble
motives which prompted their perpetration. She continued: “Some believe
we should first obtain by force and let the intelligence and education
come afterwards.”
Miss Goldman did not hesitate to put forward a number of sentiments far
more radical and sensational than any ever publicly advanced here.
During Miss Goldman’s lecture a strong detail of police was in the hall
to keep her from uttering sentiments which were regarded as too radical.
This accounts for the fact that the speaker did not give free rein to
her thoughts on that occasion. Because of anarchistic uprisings
elsewhere it was thought best by the city officials to curb the
utterances of the woman.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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