ver reached to the extent they do now.

"'The comrades of the workshop count on them to spread among those
around ideas of revolt and rebellion,' is an extract from a letter
read by M. Georges Berry in Parliament, and he added that he had a
score of such letters emanating from the unions. In M. Jaures's
organ, _L Humanite_, there appeared an article on December 22,
1910, inviting all the conscripts of the Labor Federation to send
in their names so that financial aid might be sent to help them in
organizing 'insubordination and desertion.'"

When the Caillaux Ministry came into power in 1911, a large number of
the most prominent leaders of the Federation of Labor were arrested for
participation in this agitation. But for every arrest many other
unionists signed declarations favoring identical principles, and as the
whole Federation is wedded to this propaganda, it is more than doubtful
if the whole million can be arrested and the propaganda done away with.

This agitation is not directed primarily against possible war, or even
exclusively against compulsory military service. Just as the
preparations for an insurrectionary general strike in case of war tend
to break down the power and prestige of the army, even if war is never
declared, so the teaching of insubordination and desertion have the same
effect, even if the compulsory armies are replaced by a compulsory
militia, having only a few weeks of drill every year, as in Australia,
or by a voluntary militia, as in this country. The Socialist world
accepts the word of the American Socialists that a militia, if less
burdensome, and less obnoxious in many ways than a standing army, may be
just as thoroughly reactionary, and quite as hostile to the working
class. The French Socialists and unionists encourage all general and
organized movements among common soldiers. And their ideal in this
regard is reached when a whole body of soldiers, for any good cause,
revolts--especially at a time of popular demonstrations. During the wine
troubles in the south of France, a whole regiment refused to march--and
for years afterwards was toasted at Socialist gatherings.

"Military strikes" have also been frequent in Russia as well as in
France--and have received the unanimous approval of the Socialists of
all countries. No matter how small the causes, Socialists usually
justify them, because they consider military discipline in itself wholly
a