f methods has always been
a vital matter to the labor movement, and, for a hundred years at least,
the quarrels now dividing syndicalists and socialists have disturbed
that movement. In the Chartist days the "physical forcists" opposed the
"moral forcists," and later dissensions over the same question occurred
between the Bakouninists and the Marxists. Since then anarchists and
social democrats, direct actionists and political actionists,
syndicalists and socialists have continued the battle. I have attempted
here to present the arguments made by both sides of this controversy,
and, while no doubt my bias is perfectly clear, I hope I have presented
fairly the position of each of the contending elements. Fortunately, the
direct actionists have exercised a determining influence only in a few
places, and everywhere, in the end, the victory of those who were
contending for the employment of peaceable means has been complete.
Already in this country, as a result of the recent controversy, it is
written in the constitution of the socialist party that "any member of
the party who opposes political action or advocates crime, sabotage, or
other methods of violence as a weapon of the working class to aid in its
emancipation shall be expelled from membership in the party."[D] Adopted
by the national convention of the party in 1911, this clause was
ratified at a general referendum of all the membership of the party. It
is clear, therefore, that the immense majority of socialists are
determined to employ peaceable and legal methods of action.

It is, of course, perfectly obvious that the methods to be employed in
the struggles between classes, as between nations, cannot be
predetermined. And, while the socialists everywhere have condemned the
use of violent measures and are now exercising every power at their
command to keep the struggle between labor and capital on legal ground,
events alone will determine whether the great social problems of our day
can be settled peaceably. The entire matter is largely in the hands of
the ruling classes. And, while the socialists in all countries are
determined not to allow themselves to be provoked into acts of despair
by temporary and fleeting methods of repression, conditions may of
course arise where no organization, however powerful, could prevent the
masses from breaking into an open and bloody conflict. On one memorable
occasion (March 31, 1886), August Bebel uttered some impressive words o