elle, Le Socialisme Ouvrier (Paris), 1911.

[265] _Le Mouvement Socialiste_, 1909, article entitled, "Classe Sociale
et Parti Politique."

[266] Hubert Lagardelle, "Syndicalisme et Socialisme" (Paris), p. 52.

[267] Hubert Lagardelle, "Syndicalisme et Socialisme" (Paris), p. 50.

[268] Paul Louis, "Le Syndicalisme contre l'Etat," pp. 4-7.

[269] Paul Louis, "Le Syndicalisme contre l'Etat," p. 244.

[270] Karl Kautsky, "Parlamentarismus und Demokratie," pp. 136 and 137.

CHAPTER VI

THE "GENERAL STRIKE"

Nearly all strikes are more or less justified in Socialist eyes. But
those that involve neither a large proportion of the working class nor
any broad social or political question are held to be of secondary
importance. On the other hand, the "sympathetic" and "general" strikes,
which are on such a scale as to become great public issues, and are
decided by the attitude of public opinion and the government rather than
by the employers and employees involved, are viewed as a most essential
part of the class struggle, especially when in their relation to
probable future contingencies.

The social significance of such sympathetic or general strikes is indeed
recognized as clearly by non-Socialists as by Socialists--even in
America, since the great railroad strike of 1894. The general strike of
1910 in Philadelphia, for instance, was seen both in Philadelphia and in
the country at large as being a part of a great social conflict. "The
American nation has been brought face to face for the first time with a
strike," said the _Philadelphia North American_, "not merely against the
control of an industry or a group of allied industries, but _a strike of
class against class, with the lines sharply drawn_.... And it is this
antagonism, this class war, intangible and immeasurable, that
constitutes the largest and most lamentable hurt to the city. It is,
moreover, felt beyond the city and throughout the entire nation." (My
italics). It goes without saying that all organs of non-Socialist
opinion feel that such threatening disturbances are lamentable, for they
certainly may lead towards a revolutionary situation. Both in this
country and Great Britain the great railway strike of 1911 was almost
universally regarded in this light.

The availability of a general strike on a national scale as a means of
assaulting capitalism at some future crisis or as a present means of
defending the ballot or the rights of labor organ