the complicity of the Government with a philanthropic association which had turned into a criminal association, he hurled his avenging thunders against the protestors. Among the most comical of these protestors I pick out a political pastor of St-Etienne called I.. Comte. He wrote, in the extraordinary language employed by the members of the League of the Rights of Man: " I had hoped that the [Dreyfus] affair would have definitely cured us of the moral malaria from which we suffer, and that it would have cleansed the republican conscience of the clerical virus with which it was impregnated. It has done nothing. We are more clerical than ever." ^ Accordingly this austere man remained in the League I Protestant and middle-class logic! It is always possible, you see, that the League might one of these days be able to render some small service to the deserving ministers of the Gospel.
I have insisted rather lengthily on these grotesque incidents because they seem to me to characterise very aptly the moral ideas of the people who claim to lead us. Henceforth it must be taken for granted that politico- criminal associations which work by craft have a recog- nised place in any democracy that has attained its maturity. P. de Rousiers believes that America will one day cure itself of the evils which result from the guilty manoeuvres of its politicians. Ostrogorski, after making a long and minute inquiry into " Democracy, and the organisation of political parties,*' believes that he has found remedies which will enable modem states to free themselves from exploitation by political parties. These are platonic vows; no historical experience justifies the hope that a democracy can be made to work in a capitalist country, without the criminal abuses experienced everywhere now- adays. When Rousseau demanded that the democracy should not tolerate the existence in its midst of any private association, he reasoned from his knowledge of the republics ^ Cahiers de la quimaine, loc. cit. p. 13.
228 REFLECTIONS ON VIOLENCE of the Middle Ages; he knew that part of history better than his contemporaries did, and was struck with the enormous part played at that time by the politico- criminal associations; he asserted the impossibiUty of reconciling a rational democracy with the existence of such forces, but we ought to learn from experience that there is no way of bringing about their disappearance.^ Ill The preceding explanations enable us to understand the ideas about the proper function of the worker's syndicates formed by the enlightened democrats and the worthy progressives. Waldeck-Rousseau has often been congratulated on having carried the law on syndicates in 1884. In order to give an account of what was expected from this law we must recall the situation of France at that epoch. Severe financial embarrassments had com- pelled the Government to sign agreements with the rail- way companies which the Radicals denounced as acts of brigandage; the colonial policy gave opportunities for extremely violent attacks and was thoroughly unpopular \^ the discontent which a few years later took the form of Boulangism was already very marked, and in the elections of 1885 very nearly gave a majority to the Conservatives.
Waldeck-Rousseau, without being a very profound seer, was yet sharp enough to understand the danger which might threaten the opportunist republic, and C5mical enough to look for a means of defence in a politico- ^ Rousseau, stating the question in an abstract way, appeared to condemn every kind of association, and our Governments for a long time used his authority to subject every association to authority.
* In his Morale, published in 1883, Y. Guyot violently attacks this policy. " In spite of the disastrous experiences [of two centuries], we are taking Tunisia, we are on the point of going to Egypt, we are setting out for Tonkin, we dream of the conquest of Central Africa ' ' THE ETHICS OF VIOLENCE 22g criminal association capable of checkmating the Con- servatives.
At the time of the Empire the Government had tried to manipulate the benefit societies in such a way as to control the employes and a section of the artisans. Later on, it believed it might be possible to find, in the work- men's associations, a weapon with which it might be capable of ruining the authority which the Liberal party had with the people, and terrorising the rich classes, who had obstinately opposed the Government since 1863. Waldeck-Rousseau was inspired by these examples and hoped to organise among the workmen a hierarchy under the direction of the police.^ In a circular of August 25, 1884, Waldeck-Rousseau explained to the prefects that they ought not to confine themselves to their too limited function of enforcing respect for the law; they must stimulate the spirit of association and " smooth away the difficulties which were bound to arise from inexperience and lack of practice in this new liberty," their task would be so much the more useful and important if they succeeded in inspiring greater confidence in the workmen; in diplomatic terms the Minister advised them to undertake the moral leadership of the Syndicalist movement.^ ** Although the Govern- ment is not obliged by the law of 1884 to take any part in the search for the solutions of the great economic and social problems, it cannot be indifferent to them, and I am convinced that it is its duty to participate and to put its services and zeal at the disposal of all the parties * I have pointed this out in the Ere nouvelle, March 1894, p. 339.
' According to the Sociahst deputy, Marius Devize, the Prefect du Gard undertook this leadership of the Syndicahst movement under the minister Combes {Etudes socialistes, p. 323). I find in the France du Sud-Ouest (January 25, 1904) a notice announcing that the Prefect of La Manche, delegated by the Government, together with the under- prefect, the mayor, and the municipality, officially inaugurated the Bourse du Travail at Cherbourg.
230 REFLECTIONS ON VIOLENCE concerned." It will be necessary to act with a great deal of prudence so as " not to excite mistrust," to show the workmen's associations how very much the Government interests itself in their development, and to advise them " when they make appHcations." The prefects must prepare themselves for " this role of counsellor and energetic collaborator by a thorough study of legislation, and of the similar organisations which exist in France and abroad."
In 1884 the Government did not in the least foresee that the sjmdicates might participate in a great revolu- tionary agitation, and the circular spoke with a certain irony of " the hypothetical peril of an anti-social federa- tion of the whole of the workers." Nowadays one is very tempted to smile at the ingenuousness of the man who has so often been represented to us as the prince of cunning; but to account for his illusions it is necessary to go back to the writings of the democrats of that period. In 1887, in the preface to the third edition of Sublime, Denis Poulot, an experienced manufacturer, former mayor of the nth arrondissement and a follower of Gambetta, said that the syndicates would kill strikes; he beUeved that the revolutionaries had no serious influence on the organised workmen, and he saw in the primary schools a sure means of bringing about the dis- appearance of Socialism; like nearly all the opportunists of that time, he was much more preoccupied with blacks than with reds} Yves Guyot himself does not seem to have had much more insight than Waldeck-Rousseau, because in his Morale (1883) he considered collectivism to be merely a word, he denounced the existing legislation which " aims at hindering the organisation of workmen for the sale of their labour at the highest possible price and for the discussion of their interests," and he expected that what the syndicates would lead to would be the * Blacks and reds — clericals and Socialists.
THE ETHICS OF VIOLENCE 931 " organisation of the sale of labour on a wholesale basis/' He makes violent attacks on the priests, and the Chagot family is denounced because it forces the miners of Monceau to go to Mass.^ Everybody then counted on the working men's organisations to destroy the power of the clerical party.
If the Waldeck-Rousseau had had the slightest fore- sight, he would have perceived the advantage that the Conservatives have tried to draw from the law on syndi- cates, with a view to attempting the restoration of social peace in the country districts imder their own leadership. For several years the peril which the RepubUc ran in the formation of an agrarian party has been denounced; * the result has not answered to the hopes of the promoters of agricultural syndicates, but it might have been serious. Waldeck-Rousseau never suspected it for an instant; he does not seem, in his circular, to have suspected even the material services which the new associations would render to agriculture.^ If he had had any idea of what might come to pass, he would have taken precautions in the drawing up of the law; it is certain that neither the minister who drew up the law, nor the '* rapporteur " * imderstood the importance of the word " agricultural ** which was intro- duced by means of an amendment proposed by D'Oudet, the senator for Doubs.*^ Workmen's associations directed by democrats, using cunning, threats, and sometimes even a certain amount « De Rocquigny, L«s Syndicats agricoles et leur ceuvre, pp. 42, 391-394.
* This is all the more remarkable since the syndicates are represented in the circular as capable of aiding French industry in its struggle against foreign competition.
* It was thought to be merely a question of permitting agricultural labourers to form themselves into syndicates; Tolain declared, in the name of the Committee, that he had never thought of excluding them from the benefits of the new law (De Rocquigny, op. cit. p. 10). As a rule, the agricultural syndicates have served as commercial agencies for farm bailifis, landowners, etc.
Q 232 REFLECTIONS ON VIOLENCE of violence, could have been of the greatest service to the Government in the struggle against the Conservatives, then so threatening. Those people who have recently transformed Waldeck-Rousseau into the father of his country will probably protest against such a disrespectful interpretation of his policy; but this interpretation will not seem altogether improbable to the people who remember the cynicism with which he, who is now repre- sented as a great Liberal, governed; one had the impression that France was about to enter on a regime which would recall the follies, the luxuries, and the brutality of the Caesars. Moreover, when unforeseen circumstances brought back Waldeck-Rousseau to power, he immediately resumed his former policy and tried to use the syndicates against his adversaries.
In 1899 it was no longer possible to attempt to put the workmen's associations under the direction of the prefects in the way indicated by the circular of 1884; but there were other methods which might be tried, and in including Millerand in his ministry, Waldeck-Rousseau thought he had earned out a master-stroke. As Millerand had been able to make himself the leader of the Socialists, who had, until then, been divided into irreconcilable gi-oups, might he not become the broker who would discreetly manipulate the syndicates by influencing their leaders? Every means of seduction was employed in order to bring the workmen to reason, and to inspire them with confidence in the higher ofhcials of the " Government of Republican Defence.'* One cannot help being reminded of the policy that Napoleon, in signing the Concordat, intended to follow; he had recognised that it would not be possible for him, as for Henry VIII., to directly influence the Church. " Failing that method," said Taine, " he adopts another, which leads to the same end. He does not want to change THE ETHICS OF VIOLENCE 233 the opinions of his people, he respects spiritual things and wishes to control them without interfering with them and without becoming entangled himself in them; he wants to make them square with his policy, but by the influence of temporal things." ^ In the same way, Millerand was commissioned to assure the workmen that their Socialist convictions would not be interfered with; the Government only wanted to direct the action of the syndicates and to make them fit in with its own policy.
Napoleon had said, " You will see how I shall be able to utilise the priests." ^ Millerand was instructed to gratify in every way the vanity of the leaders of the syndicates,^ while the mission of the prefects was to induce the employers to grant material advantages to the workers; it was thought that this Napoleonic policy would give results as considerable as those obtained from the policy pursued in regard to the Church. Dumay, the Minister of Public Worship, had succeeded in creating a docile episcopacy formed of men whom the ardent Catholics contemptuously called the " prefets violets."^ Might it not be possible, by putting a shrewd principal clerk in the office of the minister, to create *' prefets rouges.'* An this was fairly well thought out and corre- sponded perfectly with the kind of talent possessed by Waldeck-Rousseau, who was all his life a great partisan of the Concordat and was fond of negotiating with Rome. It was not impleasing to him. to negotiate with the reds \ the very originality of the enterprise would have been enough to chaxm a mind Hke his, that deUghted in subtlety.
^ Taine, Le Regime moderne, vol. ii. p. 10.
2 Taine, loc. cit. p. 11, ' This is what Mme. Georges Renard very sensibly points out in her report of a workmen's fete given by Millerand (L. de Seilhac, Le Monde socialiste, p. 308).
• [Prefets violets; this expression was used ironically by several papers to designate bishops who were too submissive to the Govern- ment. Catholic bishops wear a violet robe. — Trans. Note.]
234 REFLECTIONS ON VIOLENCE In a speech on December i, 1905, Marcel Sembat, who had been in a particularly good position to know how things happened in the time of Millerand, related several anecdotes which very much astounded the Chamber. He told them how the Government, in order to make itself disagreeable to the nationalist mimicipal councillors of Paris, and to reduce their influence on the Bourse du Travail,! had asked the syndicates **to make applications to it that would justify " the reorganisation of that establishment. A certain amount of scandal was caused by the march past of the red flags before the official plat- form at the inauguration of the monument to Dalou in the Place de la Nation. We now know that this happened as the result of negotiations; the prefect of police had hesitated, but Waldeck-Rousseau had authorised these revolutionary ensigns. The fact that the Government denied having any relations with the syndicates is of no importance — a lie more or less would not trouble a pohtician of Waldeck-Rousseau's calibre.
The exposure of these manoeuvres shows us that the ministry depended on the syndicates to frighten the Con- servatives. Ever since then it has been easy to imder- stand the attitude they have adopted in the course of several strikes: on the one hand, Waldeck-Rousseau proclaimed with great fervour the necessity of giving 1 Millerand did not keep on the former Director of the Office du Travail, who was doubtless not pliant enough for the new policy. It seems to me to be clearly established that at that time considerable attention was being given in this Government department to a kind of enquiry as to the state of feeling among the miUtants of the syndicates, evidently in order to ascertain in what way they might be advised. This was revealed by Ch. Guieysse in the Pages libres of December 10, 1904; the protestations of the department and those of Millerand do not appear to have been very serious {Voix du peuple, December 18, 25, 1904, January i, 1905, June 25, August 27). [The Office du Travail is a ministerial office, which makes enquiries about labour and publishes statistics; it was created principally in the hope that it would serve to put the Government into connection with the leaders of the syndicates. — Trans.]
THE ETHICS OF VIOLENCE 235 the protection of public force to every single workman who wished to work in spite of the strikers; on the other hand, he has more than once shut his eyes to acts of violence. The reason of this is, that he found it necessary to annoy and frighten the progressists,^ and because he meant to reserve to himself the right of forcible inter- vention at the moment when his political interests require the disappearance of all disorder. In the pre- carious state of his authority in the country he believed it possible to govern only by fear and by imposing himself as the supreme arbitrator in industrial disputes.^ Since 1884 Waldeck-Rousseau's plan had been to trans- form the syndicates into politico-criminal associations which could serve as auxiliaries to the democratic Govern- ment. The syndicates were to play a part analogous to that played by the lodges, the latter being useful in sppng on the officials, and the former designed to threaten- ing the interests of those employers who were not on the side of the administration; the freemasons being re- warded by decorations and favours given to their friends, the workmen being authorised to extract extra wages from their employers. This poUcy was simple and cheap.
In order that this system may work properly, a certain moderation in the conduct of the workmen is necessary. Not only must violence be used with discretion, but the workmen's demands also must not exceed certain limits. The same principles must be applied in this case as in the case of the bribery of politicians. Everybody approves * It may be questioned whether Waldeck-Rousseau did not go too far, and thus started the Government on a very different road from that which he wanted it to take; I do not think that the law about associa- tions would have been voted except under the influence of fear, but it is certain that its final wording was much more anti-clerical than its promoter would have wished.
* In a speech on June 21, 1907, Charles Benoist complains that the Dreyfus case had thrown discredit on " reasons of State," and had led the Government to appeal to the elements of disorder in the nation in order to create order.
236 REFLECTIONS ON VIOLENCE of that as long as the politicians are reasonable in their demands. People who are in business know that there is quite a complete art of bribery; certain intermediaries have acquired a special skill in estimating the amount of the presents that should be offered to high officials, or to deputies who can get bills passed. If financiers are almost always obliged to have recourse to the services of specialists, there is all the more reason why the workmen, ^^ho are quite unaccustomed to the customs of this world, must need intermediaries to fix the sum which they can exact from their employers without exceeding reasonable limits.^ We are thus led to consider arbitration in an entirely new light and to understand it in a really scientific manner, since, instead of allowing ourselves to be duped by abstrac- tions, we shall explain it by means of the dominant ideas of middle-class society, who invented it, and who want to impose it on the workers. It would be evidently absurd to go into a pork butcher's shop, order him to sell us a ham at less than the marked price, and then ask him to submit the question to arbitration; but it is not absurd to promise to a group of employers the advantages to be derived from the fixity of wages for several years, and to ask the specialistsvfhdX present remuneration this guarantee is worth; this remuneration may be considerable if business is expected to be good during that time. Instead of bribing some influential person the employers raise their workmen's wages; from their point of view there is no difference. As for the Government, it becomes the benefactor of the people, and hopes that it will do well in the elections; to the pohtician, the electoral advantages which result from a successful conciliation are worth more than a very large bribe.
It is easy to understand now why all politicians have ^ I suppose that no one is ignorant of the fact that no important undertaking is carried through without bribery.
THE ETHICS OF VIOLENCE 237 SO great an admiration for arbitration; it is because an enterprise conducted without bribery is inconceivable to them. Many of our poUticians are lawyers, and clients who confide their cases to them attach great weight to their Parliamentary influence. It is for this reason that a former Minister of Justice is always sure of getting remunerative law-suits even when he is not very talented, because he has means of influencing the magistrates, with whose faihngs he is very famihar, and whom he could ruin if he wished. The great political advocates are sought out by financiers who have serious difficulties to overcome in the law courts, who are accustomed to bribe on a large scale and in consequence pay royally. The world of employers thus appears to our rulers as a world of adventurers, gamblers, and parasites of the stock ex- change; they consider that this rich and criminal class must expect to submit from time to time to the demands of other social groups. Their conception of the ideal capitalist society would be a compromise between con- flicting appetites under the auspices of political lawyers.^ The Catholics would not be sorry, now they are in * I borrow from a celebrated novel by Leon Daudet a description of the character of the barrister Mederbe. " The latter was a curious character, tall, thin, of a well-set-up figure, surmounted by a head like a dead fish, green impenetrable eyes, oiled and flattened hair, his whole appearance being frozen and rigid...He had chosen the profession of a barrister as being one which would supply his own and his wife's need of money...He took part chiefly in financial cases, on account of the large profit to be made out of them, and of the secrets he learned from them; he was employed in such cases on account of his semi- political, semi-judicial relations, which always secured him victory in any case he pleaded. He charged fabulous fees. What he was paid for was certain acquittal. This man then had enormous power...He gave one the impression of a bandit armed for social Ufe and sure of impunity..." {Les Morticoles, pp. 2S7-28S). It is clear that many of these traits are copied from those of the man the Socialists so often called the Eiffel barrister, before they made him the de mi-god of Republican Defence. [In the Panama affair, Eiffel was prosecuted for having illegally appropriated a large sum. Waldeck-Rousseau defended him in the law courts. — Trans.} ^SS REFLECTIONS ON VIOLENCE Opposition, to find support in the working classes. It is not only flattery that they address to the workers, in order to convince them that it would be greatly to their advantage to abandon the SociaUsts. They also would very much like to organise politico-criminal associations, just as Waldeck-Rousseau hoped to do twenty years ago; but the results they have obtained up till now have been very moderate. Their aim is to save the Church, and they think that the well-disposed capitalists might sacrifice a part of their profits to give to the Christian syndicates the concessions necessary to assure the success of this reUgious pohcy. A well-informed CathoHc, who interests himself in social questions, lately told me that in a few years the workers would be obhged to recognise that their prejudices against the Church had no foundation. I think that he deluded himself as much as Waldeck-Rousseau did when in 1884 he regarded the idea of a revolutionary federation of syndicates as ridiculous, but the material interest of the Church so blinds Cathohcs that they are capable of every kind of stupidity.
The Social Cathohcs ^ have a way of looking at economic questions that makes them resemble our vilest poUticians very closely. In fact it is difficult for the clerical world to conceive that things can happen otherwise than by grace, favouritism, and bribery.
I have often heard a lawyer say that a priest can never be made to understand that certain actions which the Code never pimished are nevertheless villainies; and I have been told by a bishop's lawyer, that while a clientele composed of convents is an excellent one, yet at the same time it is very dangerous, because convents frequently want fraudulent deeds drawn up. Many people seeing during the last fifteen years so many gorgeous monuments 1 [The "catholiques soceaun " form a definite party. De Mutz has been for a long time the recognised leader of the party and still exercises considerable influence. — Trans. Note.]
THE ETHICS OF VIOLENCE 9S9 erected by the religious congregations have wondered if a wave of madness was not passing over the Church. They are unaware that these building operations enable a crowd of pious rascals to live at the expense of the Church treasury. The imprudence of those congrega- tions which persist in carrying on long and costly law- suits against the pubHc treasury has often been pointed out, for such tactics enable the Radicals to work up a Hvely agitation against the monks by denouncing the avarice of people who claim to have taken vows of poverty. But these law-suits make plenty of business for the army of pious rascaUty. I do not think I am exaggerating when I say that more than a third of the fortune of the Church has been wasted for the benefit of these vampires.