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THE FIGHT FOR EXISTENCE 197
Brousse, Guillaume, and others opposed
this view with
such heat, however, that Hales was forced to respond :
"I combat anarchy because the word and the thing that
it
represents are the synonyms of dissolution. Anarchy
spells individualism, and individualism is the basis of
the existing society that we desire to destroy.
. . .
Let us suppose, for example, a strike. Can one hope to
triumph with an anarchist organization Under this
regime each one, being able to do what he pleases, can,
according to his will, work or not work. The general
interest will be sacrificed to individual caprice. The
veritable application of the anarchist principle would be
the dissolution of the International, and this congress has
precisely an opposite end, which is to reorganize the International.
One should not confound authority and
organization, We are not authoritarians, but we must be
organizers. Far from approving anarchy, which is the
present social state, we ought to combat it by the creation
of a central commission and by the organization of
collectivism. Anarchy is the law of death ; collectivism,
that of life." (4) This was, as Hales soon discovered,
the very essence of heresy, and, when the vote was taken,
he was overwhelmed by those opposed to any centralized
organization.
The anarchists were not, however, content merely with
having no central council, and they began to discuss
whether or not the various federations should vote upon
questions of principle. The commission that was dealing
with the revision of the by-laws recommended that
views should be harmonized by discussion and that any
decisions made by the congress should be enforced only
among those federations which accepted
its decisions.
Costa of Italy approved of these ideas. "For that which
concerns theory, we can only discus and seek to per-