The right of suffrage is the greatest hoax of history. Direct action
is the only way."] There is a great deal of idealism among the advocates
of violence;[Footnote: Cf, for example, Giovannitti's poem, The Cage,
in the Atlantic Monthly, June, 1913.] there is a great deal of sympathy
on the part of the public with lawless strikers, with the I.W.W. gangs
that have recently invaded city churches, with all those under-dogs
who are now determining to have a share in the good things of life.
Unless the employing and governing classes meet their demands halfway,
gunpowder and dynamite pretty surely lie ahead. Will the spirit of
lawlessness spread? Ought we to slacken our process of lawmaking lest
we make the yoke too hard to bear? As a matter of fact, it is through
more laws, better laws, and a better mechanism for punishing infraction
of laws, that we can hope to check lawlessness. Lynching-as we noted
in chapter XXV-have been the product of inadequate legislation and
judicial procedure; as our laws against the worst crimes become
sharper, our police forces more efficient, and our court trials quicker
and less hampered by technicalities, they decrease in number. As
education on the liquor question spreads, violations of prohibition
laws become fewer. The kind of lawlessness that is on the increase
is that which exists as a protest against and a means of remedying
evils that the laws have not yet properly dealt with.
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