Indeed, John, so revolutionary a program can never be brought about by anything less than the most violent of revolutions. It is true that there are Socialists who profess to believe that this end can be achieved by legal and political means; yet they themselves admit that this rule will hold good only in times and in countries where the purposes of the revolution can be accomplished by such peaceful methods. Where political means are wanting, or the Socialist majority is insufficient to overawe completely all opposition, recourse to violence must be had. We must not forget that, as Professor Woolsey says (“Communism and Socialism,” p. 228), “there never was a revolution since history told the story of the world so complete as this” (namely, that which Socialism proposes to effect); and, as he later remarks (p. 280), nothing short of the persuasion of violent revolution “can lead holders of property ... to acquiesce in so complete an overthrow of society and downfall of themselves, as modern Socialism contemplates.” Personally, with your knowledge of human nature, can you conceive of any other method by which Socialism can accomplish its aims? Do you deem it possible that such world-wide dispossession can come without a struggle on the part of those who are to be excluded from the enjoyment of what they have been brought up to believe they rightfully possess? Is it reasonable to expect that all holders of productive property, both large and small, will placidly surrender at the request of the Socialist demagogues? You don’t believe this could happen? Neither do the Socialists. In his “History of Socialism” (p. 10), Kirkup, who is anything but an extreme radical, admits that “the prevailing Socialism of the day is in large part based on the frankest and most outspoken revolutionary materialism”; while Hyndman, who is conspicuously the advocate of political action, writes in “Social Democracy” (p. 22): “We are not so foolish as to say we will not use force if it would bring us to a better period more rapidly. We do not say we are such men of peace.” Our own Charles H. Kerr, the head of the great American Socialist publishing house, takes a similar stand. In discussing the means by which American Socialists plan to overthrow capitalism, he says (“What to Read on Socialism,” p. 10): “As to the means by which the capitalist class is to be overthrown, the real question worth considering is what means will prove most effective. If it could best be done by working for ‘one thing at a time’ and bidding for the votes of the people who have no idea what the class-struggle means, we should no doubt favor that method. But history has made it very clear that such a method is a dead failure.... If, on the other hand, the working class could best gain power by taking up arms, just as the capitalist class did when it dislodged the land-holding nobility from power, why not?”