nceived of as a
panacea, an unfailing weapon that obviates the necessity of political
parties, parliamentary work, or any action tending toward the capture of
political power. It is granted that it must end in civil war, but it is
thought that this war cannot fail; it must result in a complete social
revolution. Even more significant is the thought that it will burst
forth suddenly, without requiring any preliminary education, extensive
preparations, or even widespread organization. In one line it is
proposed as an automatic revolution; in another it is said that the
militant workingmen are expected to force the others to quit work. Out
of 11,000,000 toilers in France, about 1,000,000 are organized. Out of
this million, about 400,000 belong to the Confederation, and, out of
this number, it is doubtful if half are in favor of a general strike.
The proposition of Guerard then presents itself as follows: that a
minority of organized men shall force not only the vast majority of
their fellow unionists but twenty times their number of unorganized men
to quit work in order to launch the war for emancipation. Under the
compulsion of 200,000 men, a nation of 40,000,000 is to be forced
immediately, without palaver or delay, to revolutionize society.

The next year, at Toulouse, the French unions again assembled, and here
it was that Pouget and Delesalle, both anarchists, presented the report
which outlined still another war measure, that of sabotage. The newly
arrived was there baptized, and received by all, says Pouget, with warm
enthusiasm. This sabotage was hardly born before it, too, made a tour of
the world, creating everywhere the same furore of discussion that had
been aroused by syndicalism. It presents itself in such a multitude of
forms that it almost evades definition. If a worker is badly paid and
returns bad work for bad pay, he is a _saboteur_. If a strike is lost,
and the workmen return only to break the machines, spoil the products,
and generally disorganize a factory, they are _saboteurs_. The idea of
sabotage is that any dissatisfied workman shall undertake to break the
machine or spoil the product of the machines in order to render the
conduct of industry unprofitable, if not actually impossible. It may
range all the way from machine obstruction or destruction to dynamiting,
train wrecking, and arson. It may be some petty form of malice, or it
may extend to every act advocated by our old friends, the terrorists