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338 VIOLENCE AND THE LABOR MOVEMENT
time in their history. It was still a question whether the
German movement could survive, while in the other countries
the socialists were still little more than sects. That
was just thirty years ago, while to-day, as we have seen,
over ten millions of workingmen, scattered throughout
the entire world, fight every one of their battles on the
lines laid down by Marx. The tactics and principles he
outlined are now theirs. The unity of the workers he
pleaded for is rapidly being achieved throughout the entire
world, and everywhere these armies are marching
toward the goal made clear by his life and labor. "Although
I have seen him to-night," writes Engels to Liebknecht,
March 14, 1883, "stretched out on his bed, the
face rigid in death, I cannot grasp the thought that this
genius should have ceased to fertilize with his powerful
thoughts the proletarian movement of both worlds.
Whatever we all are, we are through him ;
and whatever
the movement of to-day is, it is
through his theoretical
and practical work ;
without him we should still be stuck
in the mire of confusion." (2)
What was this mire If we will cast our eyes back
to the middle of last century we cannot but realize that
the ideas of the world have undergone a complete revolution.
When Marx began his work with the labor movement
there was absolute ignorance among both masters
and men concerning the nature of capitalism. It was a
great and terrible enigma which no one understood.
The working class itself was broken up into innumerable
guerilla bands fighting hopelessly, aimlessly, with the most
antiquated and ineffectual weapons. They were in misery
but why, they knew not. ; They left their v/ork to riot
for days and weeks, without aim and without purpose.
They were bitter and sullen. They smashed machines
and burned factories, chiefly because they were totally