176 THE CONQUEST OF BREAD who are certainly better organized for the rapid transit of travellers and goods than the French and German companies.
Moreover, that is not the question. Large Capital, favoured by the State, can always, if it be to its advantage, crush the lesser one. What is of importance to us is this: The agreement between hundreds of companies to whom the railways of Europe belong, was established without intervention of a central government laying down the law to the divers societies; it has subsisted by means of congresses composed of delegates, who discuss among themselves, and submit proposals, not laws, to their constituents. It is a new principle that differs completely from all governmental principle, monarchical or republican, absolute or parliamentarian. It is an innovation that has been timidly introduced into the customs of Europe, but has come to stay.
III
How often have we not read in the writings of State-loving Socialists: "Who, then, will undertake the regulation of canal traffic in future society? Should it enter the mind of one of your Anarchist 'comrades' to put his barge across a canal and obstruct thousands of boats, who will force him to yield to reason?"
Let us confess the supposition to be somewhat fanciful, yet it might be said, for instance:
