What is Mutualism? published by the Vanguard Press April, 1927. MUTUALISM-A Social System Based on Equal Freedom, Reciprocity, and the Sovereignty of the Individual Over Himself, His Affairs, and His Products, Realized Through Individual Initiative, Free Contract, Cooperation, Competition, and Voluntary Association for Defense Against the Invasive and for the Protection of Life, Liberty and Property of the Non-invasive. PUBLISHER'S PREFACE This book is one of a series of Outlines of Social Philosophies published by the Vanguard Press. In publishing these outlines the Press has offered to each definitely crystallized social movement the privilege of telling its own story and presenting as cogently as possible the arguments which support its social philosophy. Each group arranged to have the material prepared in the way that seemed most suitable to it. All the outlines follow the same plan, so that the student of social philosophy will find it possible to make exact comparisons between any one and the others. The Mutualist Associates assumed responsibility for all arrangements covering this book and collaborated with Mr. Swartz in its preparation. As it is now published it has the approval of important Mutualist and Libertarian groups in the United States, particularly the following: The Mutualist associates The Libertarian League Foundation for Financial Research Mutual Credit League The Mutualist (E. H. Fulton, Publisher) -------------------------------------------- Mutualism Essentially Libertarian Here, then, is where Mutualism offers its solution. The Mutualist wants every person to have an equal right to do whatever he wills, at his own cost. That demand is too moderate for the man who says that his freedom is interfered with by a game of ball played on Sunday a mile or more away from his church or his home. It is too mild and too reasonable for him. He wants the freedom to do whatever he wills--at the other fellow's cost. He insists on doing on Sunday exactly what he wants to do, but also he insists that everyone who doesn't want to do what he wants to do be prevented from exercising the same liberty that he demands for himself. Even prohibition. has been saddled on the people in the name of freedom! The man who eats bread that contains more than three per cent of alcohol, and drinks tea, coffee, coca-cola and other highly sweetened beverages that are converted into alcohol in the bodily processes, says that it is a denial of his freedom for others to drink other beverages containing more than one-half of one per cent of alcohol. He doesn't prove such denial of freedom; he merely asserts it. It is, therefore, one of the purposes of Mutualists, not only to awaken in the people the appreciation of and desire for freedom, but also to arouse in them a determination to abolish the legal restrictions now placed upon non-invasive human activities and to institute, through purely voluntary associations, such measures as will liberate all of us from the exactions of privilege and the power of concentrated capital. Clearly enough, every product of a man's labor must be his own. As a corollary, any product of the labor of others, if it be given him or if he acquires it by exchanging the products of his own labor therefore is also a man's own. A man's claim to such a "right" cannot be disputed. But, in any discussion of rights, the question always arises, With just what rights is a human being born? As a matter of elemental ethics, it can not be argued that a human being is born with any right that he is not powerful enough to assert and maintain, since those that precede him are in nowise bound to see that he obtains the means of subsistence. Purely as a matter of abstract right, it is no concern of theirs whether the newcomer survive or perish. In other words, the theory that the world owes every man a living is a fallacy. Nevertheless, the will to live is such that a human being will fight to the limit for his existence if he is hindered or thwarted in his efforts to secure the satisfaction of his bodily needs. This being so, the history of civilization has been merely a record of attempts to compromise between the old resident and the new arrival; between the strong and the weak. Vested rights and priority considerations have been forced to yield here and there until today the masses are freer from this domination of the classes than ever before. And so the formulation of the principle of equal liberty, together with its application and practicalization in the system of Mutualism, is simply an attempt to carry this compromise to its logical conclusion --------------------------------------- Trial by Jury When the Magna Carta was wrested from King John, among the things which it granted was a trial by a jury of one's peers. The purpose of this provision was to take from the king and from the nobles the power to send a subject to prison for asserting the rights of the common man against the man of privilege. While the origin of trial by jury seems to be historically hazy, it is a certainty that it came to be most thoroughly established by the Magna Carta; and at that time trial by jury was, fundamentally, in a purer and better form than it has been at any time since. The obvious implications of that great instrument were that the jury was to judge independently and fearlessly everything involved in the charge, and especially its intrinsic justice, and give its decision thereupon; and this meant that the jury was to judge the law as well as the fact. Within a century of the time of the promulgation of that great instrument, its provisions had been so altered that courts were beginning to take away from juries the power to determine the justice of the laws. In the seven hundred years that have passed since that charter was granted, lawmakers and judges have so modified trial by jury that today the right of a jury to judge the law is hardly recognized. It is interesting to note, however, that, in America, there has of late been a tendency to travel back toward the original purpose and scope of trials by jury. A case in point is that of Scarf vs. United States (156 U. S. 61), in which the view of the majority of the court was that it is the duty of a jury in a criminal case to receive the law from the court and to apply it as laid down by the court, subject to the condition that in giving a general verdict the jury may incidentally determine both law and fact as compounded in the issues submitted to them in the particular case; and it was further held that the power to give a general verdict enables the jury to take its own view of the terms and the merits of the law involved. If juries were properly chosen by lot, out of the whole population of a community, and not, as they are now, taken out of a certain limited panel, the jury would be representative of the sentiment of the community. With all the invasive laws that are now on the books, and with. all those that the busybodies are adding from time to time, the ordinary citizen has need of a new Magna Carta, so that he may not be smothered in this maze of laws as the common man in King John's time was crushed by the privileges exercised by the rulers of that day. A return to the kind of jury employed in that period would partly do away with this maze, and invasive laws could be vetoed by the simple expedient of declining to enforce them. If any law is to be enforced, a jury must convict the alleged lawbreaker. If the jury is representative of the general sentiment of the community (and it will be, if fairly drawn by lot from the whole community), there will be, on an average, the same proportion of men on the jury who are opposed to the invasive law as there is among the people in general. Let it be supposed, for instance, that one-twelfth of the community is opposed to a certain invasive law. This is only a small portion of the majority necessary to repeal it by voting, and at the ballot box that one-twelfth would be powerless. But that one man, in every twelve, who is opposed to that law can, if on a jury, prevent a verdict from being rendered. Thus, if only nine per cent of the community are opposed to a bad law, they can prevent its enforcement. This is less than one-fifth of the number necessary to repeal a law through the medium of an election. message of the libertarian carries no weight. Their eyes are blind to scenes of rapine and murder; their ears are deaf to pleadings for justice; their hearts are cold to appeals for fair-dealing; and, above all, their reasoning faculties are impotent in the face of arguments of expediency. But let all sentiment be laid aside, and it may still be shown that freedom pays. And it pays from whatever point of view it is regarded. It pays because it costs less in actual cash; it pays because it is simpler and more easily applied; it pays because it reduces the possibility of error to the lowest conceivable-point; it pays because it iS in line with the process.of evolution; and finally, and this is the greatest asset of all, it pays because it is productive of the largest degree of happiness. The libertarian ideal is the only concept that paves the way for the operation of Mutualism. Perfect Mutualism could not exist under any form of authority; it would be thwarted and emasculated at every turn. Just as today every social and economic evil that serves to enslave humanity is the result of some form of governmental interference with freedom and with natural processes, so would the same or similar forces tend to nullify and counteract, to some extent, the advantages to be derived from the application of the principles of Mutualism. It is a plant that requires the fertile soil of liberty in which to make its unimpeded growth. On the other hand, the merit of the system is that it may be inaugurated without any cataclysmic disturbance of the present regime. Indeed, for the most important phase of Mutualism-that of mutual banking-but one federal law, together with its counterpart in a number of states, would need to be repealed in order to pave the way for the realization of this great liberating idea. Again, in other directions, Mutualism may be initiated in spite of the untoward aspect of constituted authority. In mercantile and industrial lines, voluntary cooperation and other associative activities may be carried on without any change in present laws. In many instances, such operations would be facilitated by the removal of certain legal restrictions and obstacles, but the start can be made, once there are enough individuals so minded, without the abolition of a single provision. As a matter of fact, there are now many voluntary mutualistic associations being conducted with fair success, whose activities would be immensely simplified and whose accomplishments would be greatly augmented if they could be relieved of the handicaps which the law now places upon them. It is one of the cardinal purposes of Mutualism to free them, as rapidly as possible, of these obstacles. ------------------------------------------------------------- Cooperation Is Libertarian Will the Cooperative Movement increase individual liberty? One of the tests of any reform movement with regard to personal liberty is this: will the movement prohibit or abolish private property? If it does, it is an enemy of liberty. For one of the most important criteria of freedom is the right to private property in the products of one's labor. State Socialists, Communists, Syndicalists, and Communist-Anarchists deny private property. Even some of the cooperators, while admitting the right of private property, believe that the individual is better off when owning capital jointly, as if there were some particular evil in the individual ownership of capital. But, happily, there are a great many cooperators who realize that private property is a prime essential for individuals, making them independent, thrifty, responsible-effects exactly opposite to those produced by public ownership. The Cooperative Movement is founded on the principle of voluntary association. Any member may withdraw from his Cooperative, taking with him that which belongs to him. In other words, he is free, in that respect. And, since the ultimate aim of the movement is the gradual disappearance of monopolistic and compulsory institutions, the individual will enjoy a progressively larger freedom than he does now, if this aim is reached. A cooperative association can tolerate criticism; it can be threatened by any member with non-support, or even with opposition; any number of members may actually secede and be free to start a counter organization, without being shot for treason. In fact, a true cooperative is a creature of its members; it has no power over them except what has been accepted by voluntary agreement; they can overthrow it at any time; and it will only be able to exist if it gives the service for which it was intended. This is freedom; and, because cooperators acknowledge this freedom, there is hope that, in the course of time, they will acknowledge freedom as the most important requirement in all the relations of men. Moreover, they will, no doubt, also find that the only liberty possible in human relations is equal liberty-that is, the largest amount of personal liberty that is compatible with the like liberty of all. The fact that the Cooperatives are purely voluntary associations, and are, as far as they go, wholly libertarian, gives them a high place in the esteem of Mutualists, who maintain that the world's best work is done in the absence of compulsion, and in spite of, rather than with the aid of, the arbitrary power of organized authority. It is this characteristic of their structure, in the view of Mutualists, that renders the Cooperatives of peculiar value in advancing the principles of Mutualism and in developing its processes. It is a significant fact that the Bolsheviks, after trying to squeeze the Russian Cooperative Movement into their State capitalism, were forced by the bad results to give back to the Cooperatives their freedom, and that they now expect more help in the socialization of Russian economic life from the cooperatives than from any other agency. But, if these remain true cooperatives, the Communists will be sadly disappointed in their expectations. --------------------------------------- Rights Not Natural or Inalienable In discussions, such as this, in which ethics is mingled with politics, the word "rights" is often loosely and vaguely used. Fundamentally and elementally, of course, there is only one right-the right of might. To talk about "natural" rights and "inalienable" rights is to talk about something that does not exist. To speak of natural rights implies that there is an unquestioned or an indisputable right of some kind that is inherent in the individual when he is born. If that were really true, then the right of might could not operate against it. In order that the right of might could not so operate, the inherent or natural or inalienable right would have to be of such a nature that no force could overcome it. Merely to state the case in that way is sufficient to show the nonsense of the notion that there can be anything superior to the right of might; unless there is some metaphysical meaning attached to those three adjectives that is not fathomable by the finite mind. The real truth of the matter is that, since there is no right superior to that of might, all other rights, of whatever nature, exist only by sufferance; in other words, by contract or agreement. For certain considerations (such as the desire for peace and tranquillity and other things that make for happiness) the strongest have agreed to yield, in certain fields, their prerogative; they have consented to forego the privileges which their strength assures them-and thereby there come into existence the elements of modern society. It should be emphasized that the term "society," as used herein, refers to that social organism which, in its abstract sense, implies the union or sum of relations by which the individuals of any group are associated, and not to that political organization known as "government" or "state." The difference between the two is fundamental and vital, and, if not clearly distinguished in the mind of the student, serious confusion of thought will result. All political states and governments are founded on physical force, and, as explained in Chapter I, are necessarily aggressive and invasive in character. Considering their origin and functions, they must be of that nature in order to survive. Society, on the other hand, has no such origin and has no such functions. Out of it may issue and from it may be adapted any organization that, in the course of evolution, may arise. Society, then, as thus defined, is constituted of myriads of compacts, both express and implied, which are supposed to enable all, regardless of individual strength, to live in peace and harmony, since all recognize, more or less clearly, that that is a necessary condition of happiness. And s Mutualists, since they are keenly aware of this fundamental condition, are concerned with what they consider to be the best adaptation of means to the end. Accepting frankly the ethical concept outlined above, they hold that they have devised a social system that will conform in the best possible way to all the conditions of modern life, since it is based on equal freedom and reciprocity and the sovereignty of the individual over himself, his affairs, and the product of his labor, to be realized through individual initiative, free contract, and voluntary association. Mutualism means that there shall be no coercion by society of any person who commits no antisocial act, and that all the collective affairs of society shall be conducted by voluntary associations, wherein payment shall be made for services rendered, and for nothing else.