have noted the prevalence of violence in
those countries and times where the courts are corrupt, where the law is
brutal and oppressive, or where men are convinced that no available
machinery exists to execute the ends of justice. This latter is the
explanation given for the numerous lynchings in America and also for
the practices of "popular justice" that used to be a common feature of
frontier life. In the absence of a properly constituted legal machinery
groups of men undertake to shoot, hang, or burn those whom they consider
dangerous to the public weal. In Russia it was inevitable that a
terrorist movement should arise. The courts were corrupt, the
bureaucracy oppressive. Furthermore, no form of freedom existed. Men
could neither speak nor write their views. They could not assemble, and
until recently they did not possess the slightest voice in the affairs
of government. Borne down by a most hideous oppression, the terrorist
was the natural product. The same conditions have existed to an extent
in Italy, and probably no other country has produced so many violent
anarchists. Caserio, Luccheni, Bresci, and Angiolillo have been
mentioned, but there are others, such as Santoro, Mantica, Benedicti,
although these latter are accused of being police agents. In Italy the
people have for centuries individually undertaken to execute their
conception of equity. Official justice was too costly to be available to
the poor, and the courts were too corrupt to render them justice. For
centuries, therefore, men have been considered justified in murdering
their personal enemies. Among all classes it has long been customary to
deal individually with those who have committed certain crimes. The
horrible legal conditions existing in both Spain and Italy have
developed among these peoples the idea of "self-help." They have taken
law into their own hands, and, according to their lights and passions,
have meted out their rude justice. Assassination has been defended in
these countries, as lynching has been defended recently, as some will
remember, by a most eminent American anarchist, the Governor of South
Carolina.

Lombroso says in his exhaustive study of the causes of violence, _Les
Anarchistes_: "History is rich in examples of the complicity of
criminality and politics, and where one sees in turn political passion
react on criminal instinct and criminal instinct on political passion.
While Pompey has on his side all honest people--Ca