ully against the consolidated and ever more
consolidating force of the capitalists. Never will the labor
unions, who may be in possession of a few miserable millions, be
able to fight against the economic power of the multimillionaires,
who are always supported by the military force. Just as little is
there a way out as is proposed by other Socialists, by getting
possession of the majority of the Parliament. Such a majority in
the Parliament will not attain anything, so long as the army is in
the hands of the governments. The moment the decrees of the
Parliament are opposed to the interests of the ruling classes, the
government will close and disperse such a parliament, as has been
so frequently done and as will be done so long as the army is in
the hands of the government."

Tolstoi, in spite of his contrary impression, here reaches conclusions
which are the same as those of the Socialists; for they are well aware
that armies are likely to be used to dissolve Parliaments and labor
unions.

"The introduction of socialistic principles into the army will not
accomplish anything," Tolstoi continues. "The hypnotism of the army
is so artfully applied that the most free-thinking and rational
person will, _so long as he is in the army_, always do what is
demanded of him. Thus there is no way out by means of revolution or
in Socialism."

Here Tolstoi is again mistaken, for at this point also Socialists agree
with him completely. The soldier, they agree, must be reached, and some
think must even be led to act, _before_ he reaches the barracks--whether
he is about to enter them for military training in times of peace or for
service in times of war.

"If there is a way out," concludes Tolstoi, "it is the one which
has not been used yet, and which alone incontestably destroys the
whole consolidated, artful, and long-established governmental
machine for the enslavement of the masses. This way out consists in
refusing to enter into the army, before one is subjected to the
stupefying and corrupting influence of discipline.

"This way out is the only one which is possible and which at the
same time is inevitably obligatory for every individual
person."[278]

Socialists differ from the great Russian, not in their analysis of the
situation, but in their more practical remedy. They would _