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248 VIOLENCE AND THE LABOR MOVEMENT
of Europe, but every step
it has taken was accompanied
with an attack upon the doctrines and the methods of
modern socialism. And, in fact, the syndicalists are most
interesting when they leave their own thoeries and turn
their guns upon the socialist parties of the present day.
In reading the now extensive literature on syndicalism,
one finds endless chapters devoted to pointing out the
weaknesses and faults of political socialism. Like the
Bakouninists, the chief strength of the revolutionary
unionists lies in criticism rather than in any constructive
thought or action of their own. The battle of to-day
is, however, a very unequal one. In the International,
two groups
— comparatively alike in size— fought over
certain theories that, up to that time, were not embodied
in a movement. They quarreled over tactics that were
yet untried and over theories that were then purely speculative.
To-day the syndicalists face a foe that embraces
millions of loyal adherents. At the international gatherings
of trade-union officials, as well as at the immense
international congresses of the socialist parties, the syndicalists
find themselves in a hopeless minority.* Socialism
is no longer an unembodied project of Marx. It is a
throbbing, moving, struggling force. It is in a daily fight
with the evils of capitalism. It is at work in every strike,
in every great agitation, in every parliament, in every
council. It is a thing of incessant action, whose mistakes
and whose failures stand out in relief. Those
are many
* At the Sixth International Conference of the National Trade
Union Centers, held in Paris, 1909, the French syndicalists endeavored
to persuade the trade unions to hold periodical international
trade-union congresses that would rival the international
socialist congresses. The proposition was so strongly opposed
by all countries except France that the motion was withdrawn.