of government employments. "Councils of
discipline are created where the employees are represented," but "in the
case of a collected or concerted cessation of work all disciplinary
penalties may be inflicted without the intervention of the councils of
discipline; courts may order the dissolution of any union at the request
of the ministry," which means that at any moment a police war may be
instituted against these organizations, in the true Russian style.

The reply of the postmen's organization to this kind of legislation is,
that the administration of the post office is an industrial and
commercial administration; that it is a vast enterprise of general
utility; that the notion of loyalty or treason is entirely misplaced in
this field. They have declared that the new legislation is wrong
"because it perpetuates the bureaucratic tradition; because with a
contempt for all the necessities of modern life it discountenances
organization of labor; because it has constituted a repressive legal
condition for wage earners; and because it is an act of authority which
has nothing in common with free contract."

Here we see the public employees, supported by the Socialists,
insisting on industrial and commercial considerations, on the rights of
individuals and on free contract, as against the capitalists and
governing classes, who claim to defend these very principles from
supposed Socialist attacks, but abandon them the moment they threaten
capitalist profits and capitalist rule. This attitude of the French
Socialist shows the very heart of the Socialist situation. In fact, it
is only as private capitalism becomes State capitalism, or "State
Socialism," that Socialists will be able to show what their position
really is. It is only then that the coercive aspect of capitalism, which
is now partly latent and partly obscured by certain functions that it
has still to fill in the development of society, will become visible to
all eyes.

The French railroad strike of October, 1910, brought the question of
organizations of government employees still more into international
prominence. Until the recent British upheaval it was, perhaps, the
greatest and most menacing strike in modern history. It is true that its
apparent object was only a few just, and relatively insignificant
economic concessions--which were granted for the most part immediately
after the struggle. But behind these, as every one realized, lay the
question of the righ