answer to
this, the Federation's organ said, "Mrs. Stokes is a woman of
intelligence and doubtless knows that States are not overturned by
ballots." Here is a categorical denial on the part of an organ
representing the most powerful privileged element in the country, of the
possibility of _peaceful_ political revolution, which can only mean that
if a majority desires such a peaceful revolutionary change, the minority
now in power will use violence to prevent it. An article by one of the
Federation's officials, Ada C. Sweet, in the same number, makes still
further disclosures. Among the "fantastic projects and schemes of
Socialism," she says, are the demand "that the Constitution be made
amendable by a majority vote," and the demand for the abolition of that
feature of our government "which makes the Supreme Court the final
interpreter and guardian of the federal Constitution." These demands, of
course, are becoming common outside of the Socialist Party, and would
simply move the United States up to the semi-democratic level of
constitutions made during the last half century. Indeed, the judicial
precedents that have created an oligarchy of judges in this country,
though they have existed for a century, have never been imitated by any
country on earth, civilized or uncivilized, with the single exception of
Australia. It is these demands, which would not be held even as radical
in other countries, which Miss Sweet says cannot be accomplished without
violence. If this is so, it means that violence will come from above,
and the Socialists would be cowards indeed if they were not ready to
resist it.

Miss Sweet contends that "to bring about the first practical
experiments" demanded by Socialism "would start such a civil war as the
world has never yet seen in all its long history."[287] No doubt the
writer, who has held a responsible position with the Civic Federation
for years, represents the opinions of her associates. Her prediction may
be correct, and if so it would indicate that the people who at present
control this country and its government, and who have the power to
initiate such a civil war, are determined to do so.

While Socialists have no desire for revolutionary violence, being
convinced, as they are, that the present generation will see the
majority of the voters of every modern country in their ranks, and
Socialists by right in possession of the legal powers of government,
they nevertheless have never been b