Numerous strikes have been conducted or encouraged
by the I. W. W. and the Western Federation
of Miners. These strikes illustrate the class-war
in a more bitter and extreme form than is to be found
in any other part of the world. Both sides are always
ready to resort to violence. The employers have
armies of their own and are able to call upon the
Militia and even, in a crisis, upon the United States
Army. What French Syndicalists say about the
State as a capitalist institution is peculiarly true in
America. In consequence of the scandals thus arising,
the Federal Government appointed a Commission
on Industrial Relations, whose Report, issued in 1915,
reveals a state of affairs such as it would be difficult
to imagine in Great Britain. The report states that
``the greatest disorders and most of the outbreaks
of violence in connection with industrial `disputes
arise from the violation of what are considered
to be fundamental rights, and from the perversion
or subversion of governmental institutions''
(p. 146). It mentions, among such perversions,
the subservience of the judiciary to the mili-
tary authorities,[33] the fact that during a labor
dispute the life and liberty of every man within
the State would seem to be at the mercy of the
Governor (p. 72), and the use of State troops
in policing strikes (p. 298). At Ludlow (Colorado)
in 1914 (April 20) a battle of the militia and the
miners took place, in which, as the result of the fire