ulgaria and other countries are following Holland and
Hungary. The latest and most extraordinary example is undoubtedly the
use of soldiers by the "Socialist" Briand to break the recent railroad
strike in democratic France.[279]

Even peaceful countries like Belgium and Switzerland, Great Britain,
and the United States, are developing and changing their military
systems so rapidly as to make it almost certain that they would take
similar measures if occasion should arise.

The agitation for universal conscription in England may succeed before
many years, and the plans for reorganizing the militia in the United
States will also make of it a force that can be far more useful in
breaking strikes than the present one, and more ready to be used in case
of a nation-wide strike crisis. Indeed, the Dick military law made every
possible provision for the use of the military in internal disturbances,
up to the point of enlisting every citizen and making a dictator of the
President.

Similar tendencies exist on the Continent of Europe. Formerly the
militia of Switzerland was quite democratically organized, and each man
kept his gun and ammunition at home, but the government is gradually
doing away with this system and modeling the army every year more
closely on that of the larger and less democratic European powers. In
Belgium a similar movement can be seen in the creation of a Citizens'
Guard, entirely for use at home and especially against strikers.

Here, then, is a situation to which every Socialist is forced to give
constant thought, no matter how peace-loving and law-abiding he may be.
What is there in modern systems of government to prevent these large
military forces already employed so successfully for the ominous
function of strike breaking, from being used for other reactionary and
tyrannical purposes--for putting an end to democratic government, when
it is attempted to apply it to property and industry? So everywhere
Socialists and labor unions are giving special attention to agitation
against militarism. Years ago even the most conservative unions began
forbidding their members to join the militia, and the practice has
become general, while the Boy Scout movement is everywhere denounced and
repudiated. Not only is every effort being made by the Socialists, in
connection with other democratic elements, to cut off the financial
supplies for the army and navy, but they also sought to inspire all the
youth, and parti