n all its
_material_ bases either of a political or of an economic character. The
fact of political strikes can change this in no way. The working class
can no more conquer economically, through starvation, than it can
through the use of powers of the same kind which the State employs,
that is, through force. In only one point is the working class
altogether superior to the ruling class--in purpose.... Governmental and
working class organizations are of entirely different dimensions. The
first is a coercive, the second a voluntary, organization. The power of
the first rests primarily on its means of physical force; that of the
latter, which lacks these means, can break the physical superiority of
the State only by its moral superiority." It is almost needless to add
that by "moral superiority" Roland-Holst means something quite concrete,
the willingness of the working people to perform tasks and make
sacrifices for the Socialist cause that they would not make for the
State even under compulsion. It is only through advantages of this kind,
which it is expected will greatly increase with the future growth of the
movement, that Socialists believe that, supported by an overwhelming
majority of the people, a time may arrive when they can make a
successful use of the nation-wide general strike. It is hoped that the
support of the masses of the population will then make it impossible for
governments to operate the railroads by military means, as they have
hitherto done in Russia, Hungary, France, and other countries. It is
thought by many that the general strike of 1905 in Russia, for example,
might have attained far greater and more lasting results if the peasants
had been sufficiently aroused and intelligent to destroy the bridges and
tracks, and it is not doubted that a Socialist agricultural population
consisting largely of laborers (see Chapter II) would do this in such a
crisis.

Here, then, are the two conditions under which it is thought by
Roland-Holst and the majority of Socialists that the general strike may
some day prove the chief means of bringing about a revolution: the
active support of the majority of the people, and the superior
organization and methods and the revolutionary purpose of the working
classes.

In the preparation of the working people to bring about a general strike
when the proper time arrives, lies a limitless field for immediate
Socialist activity. Both Jaures and Bebel feel that it is even