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312 VIOLENCE AND THE LABOR MOVEMENT
flict When men combine to commit depredations, destroy
property, and murder individuals, society must deal
with them— no matter how harshly. But it is an altogether
different matter to permit privately paid criminals
to create whenever desired a state of anarchy, in order
to force the military to carry out ferocious measures of
repression against those who have been in no wise
responsible for disorder.
If we will look into this matter a little, we shall discover
certain sinister motives back of this work of the
detective agencies. It is well enough understood by them
that violence creates a state of reaction. One very keen
observer has pointed out that "the anarchist tactics are
so serviceable to the reactionaries that, whenever a draconic,
reactionary law is required, they themselves manufacture
an anarchist plot or attempted crime." (43) Kropotkin
himself, in telling the story of "The Terror in
Russia," points out that a certain Azeff, who for sixteen
years was an agent of the Russian police, was also
the chief organizer of acts of terrorism among the social
revolutionists. (44) Every conceivable crime was committed
under his direct instigation, including even the
murder of some officials and nobles. The purpose of
the work of this police agent was, of course, to serve the
Russian reactionaries and to furnish them a pretext and
excuse for the most bloody measures of repression. In
America "hireling assassins," ex-convicts, and thugs in
the employ of detective agencies commit very much the
same crimes for the same purpose. And the men on
strike, who have neither planned nor dreamed of planning
an outrage, suddenly find themslves faced by the
military forces, who have not infrequently in the past
shot them down. That the lawless situations which make
these infamous acts possible, and to the general public