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Vol. I.                   MARCH, 1906                   No. 1

MOTHER EARTH


[Illustration]


P. O. Box            EMMA GOLDMAN, Publisher      10c. a Copy
Madison Sq. Station, N. Y.




CONTENTS.

                                                         PAGE

Mother Earth    E. GOLDMAN and M. BAGINSKI                  1

The Song of the Storm-Finch    MAXIM GORKY                  4

Observations and Comments                                   5

The Tragedy of Women's Emancipation    E. GOLDMAN           9

Try Love    GRACE POTTER                                   18

Without Government    MAX BAGINSKI                         20

Vive Le Roi    FRANCES WAULS BJORKMAN                      27

Reflections of a Rich Man                                  28

Comstockery    JOHN R. CORYELL                             30

Don Quixote and Hamlet    TURGENIEFF                       40

On the Banks of Acheron    EDWIN BJORKMAN                  42

The British Elections and the Labor Parties    H. KELLY    44

And You?    BOLTON HALL                                    48

National Atavism    INTERNATIONALIST                       49

Mine Owners' Revenge    M. B.                              56

International Review                                       58

Literary Notes                                             61

Advertisements                                             63




10c. A COPY    $1.00 PER YEAR


Mother Earth


EMMA GOLDMAN, PUBLISHER
P. O. BOX MADISON SQ. STATION, N. Y. CITY


Vol. I       MARCH, 1906       No. 1


[Illustration]




MOTHER EARTH


There was a time when men imagined the Earth as the center of the
universe. The stars, large and small, they believed were created merely
for their delectation. It was their vain conception that a supreme
being, weary of solitude, had manufactured a giant toy and put them into
possession of it.

When, however, the human mind was illumined by the torch-light of
science, it came to understand that the Earth was but one of a myriad of
stars floating in infinite space, a mere speck of dust.

Man issued from the womb of Mother Earth, but he knew it not, nor
recognized her, to whom he owed his life. In his egotism he sought an
explanation of himself in the infinite, and out of his efforts there
arose the dreary doctrine that he was not related to the Earth, that she
was but a temporary resting place for his scornful feet and that she
held nothing for him but temptation to degrade himself. Interpreters and
prophets of the infinite sprang into being, creating the "Great Beyond"
and proclaiming Heaven and Hell, between which stood the poor, trembling
human being, tormented by that priest-born monster, Conscience.

In this frightful scheme, gods and devils waged eternal war against
each other with wretched man as the prize of victory; and the priest,
self-constituted interpreter of the will of the gods, stood in front of
the only refuge from harm and demanded as the price of entrance that
ignorance, that asceticism, that self-abnegation which could but end in
the complete subjugation of man to superstition. He was taught that
Heaven, the refuge, was the very antithesis of Earth, which was the
source of sin. To gain for himself a seat in Heaven, man devastated the
Earth. Yet she renewed herself, the good mother, and came again each
Spring, radiant with youthful beauty, beckoning her children to come to
her bosom and partake of her bounty. But ever the air grew thick with
mephitic darkness, ever a hollow voice was heard calling: "Touch not the
beautiful form of the sorceress; she leads to sin!"

But if the priests decried the Earth, there were others who found in it
a source of power and who took possession of it. Then it happened that
the autocrats at the gates of Heaven joined forces with the powers that
had taken possession of the Earth; and humanity began its aimless,
monotonous march. But the good mother sees the bleeding feet of her
children, she hears their moans, and she is ever calling to them that
she is theirs.

To the contemporaries of George Washington, Thomas Paine and Thomas
Jefferson, America appeared vast, boundless, full of promise. Mother
Earth, with the sources of vast wealth hidden within the folds of her
ample bosom, extended her inviting and hospitable arms to all those who
came to her from arbitrary and despotic lands--Mother Earth ready to
give herself alike to all her children. But soon she was seized by the
few, stripped of her freedom, fenced in, a prey to those who were
endowed with cunning and unscrupulous shrewdness. They, who had fought
for independence from the British yoke, soon became dependent among
themselves; dependent on possessions, on wealth, on power. Liberty
escaped into the wilderness, and the old battle between the patrician
and the plebeian broke out in the new world