“Sure!” came from her grinning heckler, who seemed quite won over by her good humour.
So, an armistice established, Ilse plunged vigorously into her theme:
“Let me tell you something which you all know in 231 your hearts: any class revolution based on violence and terrorism is doomed to failure.”
“Don’t be too sure of that!” shouted a man.
“I am sure of it. And you will never see any reign of terror in America.”
“But you may see Bolshevism here––Bolshevist propaganda––Bolshevist ideas penetrating. You may see these ideas accepted by Labor. You may see strikes––the most senseless and obsolete weapon ever wielded by thinking men; you may see panics, tie-ups, stagnation, misery. But you never shall see Bolshevism triumphant here, or permanently triumphant anywhere.
“Because Bolshevism is autocracy!”
“The hell it is!” yelled an I. W. W.
“Yes,” said Ilse cheerfully, “as you have said it is hell. And hell is an end, not a means, not a remedy.
“Because it is the negation of all socialism; the death of civilisation. And civilisation has an immortal destiny; and that destiny is socialism!”