ul, the burning, surging passion that makes the storm
inevitable."[28] Such explosions of rage one would expect from the
unreasonable and the childlike. They are bursts of passion that end in
the knocking of one's head against a stone wall. This may in truth be
the psychology of the violent, yet it cannot be the psychology of a
reasoning mind. This may explain the action of those who have lost all
control over themselves or even the action of a class that has not
advanced beyond the stages of futile outbursts of passion, of aimless
and suicidal violence, and of self-destructive rage. But it is
incredible that it should be considered by anyone as reasonable or
intelligent, or, least of all, revolutionary.

Probably still other causes of terrorism exist, but certainly the chief
are those above mentioned. The writings of Bakounin, Nechayeff,
Kropotkin, and Most; the miserable conditions which surround the life of
a multitude of impoverished people; the often savage repression of any
attempts on the part of the workers to improve their conditions; corrupt
courts and parliaments and unjust laws; a false conception of ethics; a
high-wrought nervous tension combined with compassion; the egocentric
philosophy which deifies the individual and would press its claims even
to the destruction of all else in the world; these are no doubt the
chief underlying causes of the terrorism of the last forty years. Yet,
as I have said, there is one force making for terrorism that throws a
confusing light on the whole series of tragedies. Why should the
governments of Europe subsidize anarchy? Why should their secret police
encourage outrages, plant dynamite, and incite the criminal elements to
become anarchists, and in that guise to burn, pillage, and commit
murder? Why should that which assumes to stand for law and order work to
the destruction of law and order? What is it that leads the corrupt,
vicious, and reactionary elements in the official world to turn thus to
its use even anarchy and terrorism? What end do the governments of
Europe seek?

I have already suggested the answers to the above questions, but they
will not be understood by the reader unless he realizes that throughout
all of last century the democratic movement has been to the privileged
classes the most menacing spectacle imaginable. Again and again it arose
to challenge existing society. In some form, however vague, it lay back
of every popular movement. At moments the p