Freedom, Society, and State - Ludwig von Mises Institute

6. CONCLUSION: THE DECLINE OF PHILOSOPHICAL ANARCHISM
Phi losophical anarchism never did attract a large
following,(89) and after the mid-1890's the movement
began to decline. Between 1892 and 1897 Liberty
changed from a weekly to a bi-weekly publication, after
wh i ch it appeared only irregularly. Phi losophical anarchism
all but ceased to exist in 1908 when, after the
destruction of his book shop by fire, Tucker ceased
publication of Liberty altogether •. (90) For the next
twenty years, the only anarchism that remained in any
organized fashion in the United States was the anarchocommunism
of Emma Goldman'S journal Mother Earth.
The reasons for the decline of philosophical anarchism
are several. First, as Eunice Schuster points
out, since its proponents were neither wage nor class
con sci 0 us, i t wasspurn e d by bot h the cap ita lis t s, because
of "its demands to secure the just distribution
of wealth," and by labor, which "had had enough of what
it thought was competition and individualism."(91) Second,
the i r bel ief that the solut ion to the trust problem
and the concentration of wealth lay in less government
and freer competition, rather than in more government
and the regUlation of business, appeared hopeless­
I y n a i v e and, a s C ha r I e s Madis 0 n sa i d, "fa i led t 0 i mpress
anyone but themselves."(92) Third, as Victor
Ya r ro s no ted, a n arc his m ' s cry for the eli mina t ion of
g 0 v ern men twa s bee om i nginerea sing I Y i r rei e van t sinc e
" the wholet re ndin po 1 i tics and e con om i c s sinc e the
end of the last century had been away from individualism
and 1a iss e z - f air e - ism. The· s tat e, 0 b v i 0 us I y, wa s
not dying of inanition or making room for voluntary
ins tit uti 0 n s ," and "eve r y body, insh0 r t, wa s I 00king to
the state for aid and support."(93) And finally, philosophical.
anarchism continued to adhere to the labor
theory of value, apparently oblivious to the marginalist
revolution in economics occurring in the 1870'S.
Yet, des pit e its s h 0 r t com i n gs, wh i c h we r e nowh ere
more evident that in its economics, philosophical anarchism
must be acknOWledged as the first, and at that
tim e the 0 n I y, bra n d 0 fanarchism topr 0 po un d a complete
system, both a critique of government and a positive
alternative not founded on a previous transformation
of human nature. And in its depiction of the
institutional framework of an anarchist society, in
partiCUlar its views regarding the provision of police
and judicial services, nineteenth century philosophical
anarchism bears a marked similarity to its more sophis-
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