he detective agencies. It is well
enough understood by them that violence creates a state of reaction. One
very keen observer has pointed out that "the anarchist tactics are so
serviceable to the reactionaries that, whenever a draconic, reactionary
law is required, they themselves manufacture an anarchist plot or
attempted crime."[43] Kropotkin himself, in telling the story of "The
Terror in Russia," points out that a certain Azeff, who for sixteen
years was an agent of the Russian police, was also the chief organizer
of acts of terrorism among the social revolutionists.[44] Every
conceivable crime was committed under his direct instigation, including
even the murder of some officials and nobles. The purpose of the work of
this police agent was, of course, to serve the Russian reactionaries and
to furnish them a pretext and excuse for the most bloody measures of
repression. In America "hireling assassins," ex-convicts, and thugs in
the employ of detective agencies commit very much the same crimes for
the same purpose. And the men on strike, who have neither planned nor
dreamed of planning an outrage, suddenly find themselves faced by the
military forces, who have not infrequently in the past shot them down.
That the lawless situations which make these infamous acts possible, and
to the general public often excusable, are the deliberate work of
mercenaries, is, to my mind, open to no question whatever.

Anyone who cares to look up the history of the labor movement for the
last hundred years will find that in every great strike private
detectives and police agents have been at work provoking violence. It is
almost incredible what a large number of criminal operations can be
traced to these paid agents. From 1815 to the present day the bitterness
of nearly every industrial conflict of importance has been intensified
by the work of these spies, thugs, and _provocateurs_. "It was not until
we became infested by spies, incendiaries, and their dupes--distracting,
misleading, and betraying--that physical force was mentioned among us,"
says Bamford, speaking of the trade-union activity of 1815-1816. "After
that our moral power waned, and what we gained by the accession of
demagogues we lost by their criminal violence and the estrangement of
real friends."[45] Some of the notable police agents that appear in the
history of labor are Powell, Mitchell, Legg, Stieber, Greif, Fleury,
Baron von Ungern-Sternberg, Schroeder-Brennwald, Kr