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THE FIGHT FOR EXISTENCE 203
1878. A Danish socialist labor party was formed the
same year by an agreement with the trade unions. In
the early eighties the Social-Democratic Federation was
founded in England, and in 1881 a congress of various
groups of radicals, socialists, and republicans launched
a political
movement in Italy. In Germany the socialists
had already built up a great political organization. This
had been done directly under the guidance of Marx and
Engels through Liebknecht and Bebel. Marx's ideas
were there perfectly worked out, and nothing so much
as that living, growing thing incensed the anarchists.
Indeed, they seemed to be convinced that there was more
of menace to the working class in these growing organizations
of the socialists than in the power of the bourgeoisie
itself.
The controversial literature of this period is not pleasant
reading. The socialists and anarchists were literally
at each other's throats, and the spirit of malignity that
actuated many of their assaults upon
each other is revolting
to those of to-day who cannot appreciate the intensity
of this battle for the preservation of their most
cherished ideas. And in all this period the socialist and
labor movement was overrun with agents provocateurs,
and every variety of paid police agents sent to disrupt
and destroy these organizations. And, as has always
been the case, these "reptiles," as they were called, were
advocating among the masses those deeds which the chief
anarchists were proclaiming as revolutionary methods.
Riots, insurrections, dynamite outrages, the shooting of
individuals, and all forms of violence were being
preached to the poor and hungry men who made up the
mass of the labor movement. Under the guise of anarchists,
these "reptiles" were often looked upon as heroic
figures, and everywhere, even when they did not sue-