After the evolution of society through brute force and the first stages of militarism, comes civil government. In its forms and methods civil government differs from military government, but in its essence, its real purpose and effect, it is the same. Civil government, like military government, rests on violence and force. As society reaches the industrial stage, it is easier and costs less waste of energy for the ruling class to maintain its supremacy through the intricate forms and mazes of civil government, than through the direct means of soldiers and guns. Civil governments, like military governments, are instituted and controlled by the ruling class. Their purpose is to keep the earth and its resources in the hands of those who directly and indirectly have taken it for themselves. This can only be done by the establishment and maintenance of certain rules and regulations concerning the disposition of property and the fate of men. A vast army of officials, governors, legislators, tax-gatherers, judges, sheriffs, policemen, and the like are maintained by the governing class to enforce these rules and regulations and keep the exploited in their place. The decrees of courts and the various orders of civil government are enforced by violence, differing only in kind from the general’s commands. The decrees of courts, whether rightful or wrongful, must be obeyed, and the penalty of disobedience is the forcible taking of property, the kidnapping and imprisoning of men, and if need be, the taking of human life. If it shall ever occur that the civil authorities have not sufficient force to compel obedience, the whole power of the army and navy may at once be made subservient to the civil power. The vast army which is charged with enforcing and maintaining civil law is drawn largely from the ruling class and those who contribute as their willing tools. This class must be supported and maintained in greater luxury than that enjoyed by the ordinary man, and the support entails ceaseless and burdensome exactions from the producing class. These exactions are a portion of the price that the worker pays for the privilege of being ruled. It is true that a portion of the money forcibly taken through the machinery of government is used for those coöperative commercial purposes that are incident to a complex social life, but it has never yet been shown that an autocratic power like a political state is needed to provide the common resources incident to social life.