As I said at the beginning, no other country has this form of anarchy to
contend with. In all countries, no doubt, there are associations of
criminals, and everywhere, perhaps, it is possible for wealthy men to
employ criminals to work for them. But even the Mafia, the Camorra, and
the Black Hand do not exist for the purpose of collecting and organizing
mercenaries to serve the rich and powerful. Nor anywhere else in the
world are these criminals made special officers, deputy sheriffs,
deputy marshals, and thus given the authority of the State itself. The
assumption is so general that the State invariably stands behind the
private detective that few seem to question it, and even the courts
frequently recognize them as quasi-public officials. Thus, the State
itself aids and abets these mercenary anarchists, while it sends to the
gallows idealist anarchists, such as Henry, Vaillant, Lingg, and their
like. That the State fosters this "infant industry" is the only possible
explanation for the fact that in every industrial conflict of the past
the real provokers and executors of arson, riot, and murder have escaped
prison, while in every case labor leaders have been put in jail--often
without warrant--and in many cases kept there for many months without
trial. Even the writ of _habeas corpus_ has been denied them repeatedly.
Without the active connivance of the State such conditions could not
exist. However, the State goes even further in its opposition to labor.
The power of a state governor to call out the militia, to declare even a
peaceful district in a state of insurrection, and to abolish the writ of
_habeas corpus_ is a very great power indeed and one that is
unquestionably an anomaly in a republic. If that power were used with
equal justice, it might not create the intense bitterness that has been
so frequently aroused among the workers by its exercise. Again and again
it has been used in the interest of capital, but there is not one single
case in all the records where this extraordinary prerogative has been
exercised to protect the interest of the workers. It is not, then,
either unreasonable or unjustifiable that among workmen the sentiment is
almost unanimous that the State stands invariably against them. The
three instances which I have dealt with here at some length prove
conclusively that there is now no penalty inflicted upon the capitalist
who hires thugs to invade a community and shoot down its citizens, or
upon those who hire him these assassins, or upon the assassins
themselves. Nor are the powerful punished when they collect a great army
of criminals, drunkards, and hoodlums and make them officials of the
United States to insult and bully decent citizens. Nor does there seem
to be any punishment inflicted upon those who manage to transform the
Government itself into a shield to protect toughs and criminals in their
assaults upon men and property, when those assaults are in the interest
of capital.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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