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RICARDO FLORES MAGON
Land and Liberty

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other of the most intelligent among them. The panic spreads, and the mass of the workingmen becomes resigned and returns to breaking its back and being made the subject of humiliations. Will Martin tell you that Authority is a good thing for the poor?

V.

Before daybreak Epifania was afoot, filling carefully a big basket with cabbage lettuce, tomatoes, green chilies and onions, gathered in her little garden, and with the burden on her back she reached the city marker, to realize on her humble merchandise and buy the medicine needed for her aged father and the bread of which her little brothers stood in want. Before she had sold a couple of bunches of onions the tax-gatherer appeared, demanding, in the name of the Government, the money needed to pay ministers, deputies, senators, judges, gendarmes, soldiers, place-men, governors, sheriffs, and jailers. Epifania is not able to pay and her little stock is seized by the Government, since neither the poor woman's prayers nor arguments can melt the heart of the public functionary. Will Epifania tell you that Authority is a good thing for the poor?

VI.

What, then, is the use of Authority? It serves to inculcate respect for the law which, written by the rich and by educated men in the service of the rich, has for its object the guaranteeing them a tranquil possession of their riches and exploitation of human labor. In other words, authority we must first have done with capital. Let us organize production, and the means of transportation. Let us organize production and consumption communally, bringing it about that all shall be the property of all, and then it will not be necessary to pay officials to guard capital kept in a few hands, for every man and every woman will be at once a producer and a guardian of the social wealth.

Mexicans, your future is in your own hands. Today, when, thanks to popular rebellion, authority has lost its power is the opportune moment to lay your hands on the law and rend it in pieces; to lay your hands on private property and make it the property of all; of each and every one of the human beings of whom is composed the Reputable of Mexico.

Let us not permit, therefore, the formation of a powerful government. To the work of expropriation, therefore, without delay. And if, unhappily, some other individual should climb to the Presidency of the Republic, let s war against him and his followers, to percent him from becoming strong, continuing meanwhile the work of expropriation.

R.F.M

When, more than three centuries ago, England was truly great; when she hurled defiance at Rome, drove the Spanish armadas from her shores and, by asserting the right to express thoughts freely, paved the way for that great movement of emancipation which created modern literature and gave birth to science, the struggle was fought and won on very different lines. Men perished at the stake, but in so doing they bade their comrades "be of good cheer. Since we have this day lighted a candle that shall never be extinguished." They could not know where the battle would be waged or around what particular standard the fighting would be fiercest; but they knew the battle was on; they knew it was for what seemed then the greatest thing in life, viz., liberty of conscience; they knew, as all who have the genius of combat to know, that "the letter killeth and spirit giveth life." Standing for authority and the privilege the "Los Angeles Daily Times" knows well that the spirit regenerated in mexico is the most dangerous of foes, and we also, who are of the opposite side, know that in that spirit lies the promise of a future which will not be denied. The candle of economic freedom has been lit and shall not be extinguished.

ANARCHY ARCHIVES

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