. Now, and to the point, this
document was sent out to the Socialists of the world, and by them
was published everywhere in the magazines and newspapers. The point
is, not that the Socialists of the world were unafraid to do it,
but that they did it as a matter of routine, giving publication to
what might be called an official document of International
Revolutionary Movement."

August Bebel in "Unsere Ziele," page 44, expresses his sentiments on the
subject of violence quite as frankly as Jack London. "We must not
shudder," he tells us, "at the thought of the possible employment of
violence; we must not raise an alarm cry at the suppression of existing
rights, at violent expropriation, etc. History teaches that at all times
new ideas, as a rule, were realized by a violent conflict with the
defenders of the past, and that the combatants for new ideas struck
blows as deadly as possible at the defenders of antiquity. Not without
reason does Karl Marx, in his work on 'Capital' exclaim: 'Violence is
the obstetrician that waits on every ancient society which is about to
give birth to a new one; violence is in itself a social factor.'"

As reference has just been made to Karl Marx, it will be well to call
attention to the fact that the Father of modern Socialism, in "The Civil
War in France," page 78, claims that "the workingmen's Paris, with its
Commune, will forever be celebrated as the glorious harbinger of a new
society." The Commune, then, whose anniversary is celebrated on the 18th
of March, every year, by the Socialists all over the world, has been,
and still is considered the precursor of their contemplated state. The
reign of terror and rebellion in which tens of thousands of Frenchmen
met their death, while public buildings and priceless works of art were
being burned or destroyed and many beautiful churches pillaged, is the
boast of the Socialistic champions of universal peace. The Parisian mob
of criminals and revolutionists, which was finally subdued by 150,000
French troops, after men and women had run about the streets with
petroleum cans, firing public buildings and private houses and seizing
many victims whom they hurried off to death, is, therefore, considered
by the Socialists as one of the most illustrious gatherings of persons
recorded in history, and one worthy of special memory, honor and
respect.

Victor Berger of Wisconsin, speaking in the 1908 National Convention of
th