To be without a State is to prowl backwards from the divinity
before us to the beast behind us.
The power the State exerts is a spiritual power, acting on or through
the will of man. The volunteer armies do not really march to die with
more readiness than the conscript armies. The sacrifice is not readily
explicable by material causes. There is no material reason why the
proletarian--who has no property to defend, who is more or less sure as
a skilled craftsman of employment under any ruler--should concern
himself whether his ruler be King, Kaiser, or President. But not one in
a hundred proletarians really thinks like that. It is not the hope of
personal profit works upon men to risk life. Let some exploiter of
industry desire to employ a thousand men at dangerous work, with the
risks of death or disablement equal to those of war; let it be known
that one in six will be killed and another be disabled, and what sum
will purchase the service of workers? They will risk life for the
State, though given a bare subsistence or a pay which they would
describe as inhuman if offered by one of the autocrats of industry.
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