Untitled

THE OLDEST ANARCHISM 323
deputy marshals, and thus given the authority of the
State itself. The assumption
is so general that the State
invariably stands behind the private detective that few
seem to question it, and even the courts frequently recognize
them as quasi-public officials. Thus, the State itself
aids and abets these mercenary anarchists, while it sends
to the gallows idealist anarchists, such as Henry, Vaillant,
Lingg, and their like. That the State fosters this "infant
industry" is the only possible explanation for the fact
that in every industrial conflict of the past the real provokers
and executors of arson, riot, and murder have
escaped prison, while in every case labor leaders have
been put in jail
— often without warrant — and in many
cases kept there for many
the writ of habeas corpus
months without trial. Even
has been denied them repeatedly.
Without the active connivance of the State
such conditions could not exist. However, the State goes
even further in its opposition to labor. The power of a
state governor to call out the militia,
to declare even a
peaceful district in a state of insurrection, and to abolish
the writ of habeas corpus
is a very great power indeed
and one that is
unquestionably an anomaly in a republic.
If that power were used with equal justice, it
might not create the intense bitterness that has been so
its exercise.
frequently aroused among the workers by
Again and again it has been used in the interest of capital,
but there is not one single case in all the records where
this extraordinary prerogative has been exercised to protect
the interest of the workers. It is not, then, either
unreasonable or unjustifiable that among workmen the
sentiment is almost unanimous that the State stands invariably
against them. The three instances which I have
dealt with here at some length prove conclusively that
there is now no penalty inflicted upon the capitalist who