organize_ the
campaign against military service instead of leaving it to the
individual, and _after_ they had converted a sufficient majority to
their views they would not hesitate to use any kind of force that seemed
necessary to put an end to government by force. But they would not
proceed to such lengths until their political and economic modes of
action were forcefully prevented from further development. If civil
government is suspended to combat the great general strike towards which
Socialists believe society is moving they will undertake to restore it
or to set up a new one to replace that which the authorities have
"legally" destroyed. I say _legally_ because all capitalist governments
have provided for this contingency by giving their executives the right
to suspend government when they please--on the pretext that its
existence is threatened by internal disorder. It has been generally and
publicly agreed among capitalist authorities that this power shall be
used in the case of a general strike--as the British government
declared, at the time of the recent railway strike, _whether there is
extensive popular violence or not_.

I have shown that the Socialists contemplate the use of the general
strike whenever, in vital matters, governments refuse to bow to the
clearly expressed will of the majority, and that they recognize the
difficulties to be overcome before such a measure can be used
successfully. Of course the overwhelming majority of the population will
have to be against the government. But the military aspect of the
question may possibly make it necessary that the majority to be secured
will have to be even greater than was at first contemplated, and that an
even more intense struggle will have to be carried on. The Bismarcks of
the world are already using armies as strike breakers and training them
especially for this purpose, while even the more democratic and peaceful
States, like England and France, are rapidly following in the same
direction. Of course, as Bismarck said, not all of a large army can be
so used, but there is a strong tendency in Russia and Germany, which may
be imitated elsewhere, for the military leaders to concentrate their
efforts and attention on the picked and more or less professional part
of their armies, and it is this part that is being used for
strike-breaking purposes.

No one has dealt more ably with this struggle between the working people
and coercive government than Ka