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VIOLENCE AND THE LABOR MOVEMENT
the socialists everywhere have condemned the use of violent
measures and are now exercising every power at
their command to keep the struggle between labor and
capital on legal ground, events alone will determine
whether the great social problems of our day can be settled
peaceably. The entire matter is largely in the hands
of the ruling classes. And, while the socialists in all
countries are determined not to allow themselves to be
provoked into acts of despair by temporary and fleeting
methods of repression, conditions may of course arise
where no organization, however powerful, could prevent
the masses from breaking into an open and bloody conflict.
On one memorable occasion (March 31, 1886),
August Bebel uttered some impressive words on this
subject in the German Reichstag. "Herr von Puttkamer,"
said Bebel, "calls to mind the speech which I
delivered in 1881 in the debate on the Socialist Law a
few days after the murder of the Czar. I did not then
glorify regicide. I declared that a system like that prevailing
in Russia necessarily gave birth to Nihilism and
must necessarily lead to deeds of violence. Yes, I do
not hesitate to say that if you should inaugurate such
a system in Germany it would of necessity lead to
deeds of violence with us as well. (A deputy called
out: 'The German Monarchy') The German Monarchy
would then certainly be affected, and I do not hesitate
to say that I should be one of the first to lend a hand
in the work, for all measures are allowable against such
a *
system." I take it that Bebel was, in this instance,
simply pointing out to the German bureaucracy the inevitable
consequences of the Russian system. A.t that
very moment he was restraining hundreds of thousands
* Quoted by Dawson, "German Socialism and Ferdinand Lassane,"
p. 272.