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348 VIOLENCE AND THE LABOR MOVEMENT
want. The history of the last fifty years has taught
that. But, if the masses are to understand the line of
action that is necessary, we must work hard and continuously
to bring it home to them. That, indeed, is
what we are now engaged upon, and our success is
driving our opponents to despair. The irony of destiny
is turning everything topsy-turvy. We, the 'revolutionaries,'
are profiting more by lawful than by unlawful and
revolutionary means. The parties of order, as they call
themselves, are being slowly destroyed by their own
weapons. Their cry
is that of Odilon Barrot: 'Lawful
means are killing us.' . . .
We, on the contrary, are
thriving on them, our muscles are strong, and our cheeks
are red, and we look as though we intend to live forever!"
(8)
And if lawful means are killing them, so are science
and democracy. We no longer live in an age when any
suggestion of change is deemed a sacrilege. The period
has gone by when political, social, and industrial institutions
are supposed to be unalterable. No one believes
them fashioned by Divinity, and there is
nothing so sacred
in the worldly affairs of men that it cannot be questioned.
There is no law, or judicial decision, or decree,
or form of property, or social status that cannot be critically
examined; and, if men can agree, none is so firmly
established that it cannot be changed. It is
agreed that
men shall be allowed to speak, write, and propagate their
views on all questions, whether religious, political, or
industrial. In theory, at least, all authority, law, administrative
institutions, and property relations are decided
ultimately in the court of the people. Through their
press these things may be discussed. On their platform
these things may be approved or denounced. In their
assemblies there is freedom to make any declaration