Untitled

HO
VIOLENCE AND THE LABOR MOVEMENT
ever, prepare it far more for the part of a bribed tool of
reactionary intrigue." (22) The truth of this statement
has been amply illustrated in the numerous outbreaks
that have occurred since it was written. The use by the
Bakouninists in Spain of the criminal elements there,
the repeated exploits of the police agents in discrediting
every uprising by encouraging the criminal elements to
outrageous acts, and the terrible barbarities of the criminal
classes at the time of the Paris Commune are all examples
of how useful to reaction the rotting layers of
old society may become. Even when they do not serve
as a bribed tool of the reactionary elements, their atrocities,
both cruel and criminal, repel the self-respecting and
conscientious elements. They discredit the real revolutionists,
who must bear the stigma that attaches to the
inhuman acts of the "dangerous class."
That the European governments have used the terrorists
in exactly this manner in order to discredit popular
movements, is not, I think, open to any question. The
money of the anarchists' bitterest enemy has helped to
make anarchy so well known. The politics of Machiavelli
is the politics of nearly every old established European
government. It is the politics of families who have
been trained in the profession of rulership. And this
mastership, as William Morris has said, has many shifts.
And one that has been most useful to them is that of
their acts
subsidizing those persons or elements who by
promote reaction. In Russia it is an old custom to foment
and provoke minor insurrections. Police agents
enter a discontented district and do all possible to irritate
the troublesome elements and to force them "to
come into the street." In this manner the agitators and
leaders are brought to the front, where at one stroke
they may all be shot. Furthermore, the police agents