Now they were really shocked, and they sat wordless, until Mr. Owen murmured: 

“We would not go into the militia.  That would settle it.  We would not be so foolish.”

Ernest laughed outright.

“You do not understand the combination that has been effected.  You could not help yourself.  You would be drafted into the militia.”

“There is such a thing as civil law,” Mr. Owen insisted.

“Not when the government suspends civil law.  In that day when you speak of rising in your strength, your strength would be turned against yourself.  Into the militia you would go, willy-nilly.  Habeas corpus, I heard some one mutter just now.  Instead of habeas corpus you would get post mortems.  If you refused to go into the militia, or to obey after you were in, you would be tried by drumhead court martial and shot down like dogs.  It is the law.”

“It is not the law!” Mr. Calvin asserted positively.  “There is no such law.  Young man, you have dreamed all this.  Why, you spoke of sending the militia to the Philippines.  That is unconstitutional.  The Constitution especially states that the militia cannot be sent out of the country.”

“What’s the Constitution got to do with it?” Ernest demanded.  “The courts interpret the Constitution, and the courts, as Mr. Asmunsen agreed, are the creatures of the trusts.  Besides, it is as I have said, the law.  It has been the law for years, for nine years, gentlemen.”

“That we can be drafted into the militia?” Mr. Calvin asked incredulously.  “That they can shoot us by drumhead court martial if we refuse?”

“Yes,” Ernest answered, “precisely that.”

“How is it that we have never heard of this law?” my father asked, and I could see that it was likewise new to him.

“For two reasons,” Ernest said.  “First, there has been no need to enforce it.  If there had, you’d have heard of it soon enough.  And secondly, the law was rushed through Congress and the Senate secretly, with practically no discussion.  Of course, the newspapers made no mention of it.  But we socialists knew about it.  We published it in our papers.  But you never read our papers.”

“I still insist you are dreaming,” Mr. Calvin said stubbornly.  “The country would never have permitted it.”

“But the country did permit it,” Ernest replied.  “And as for my dreaming—­” he put his hand in his pocket and drew out a small pamphlet—­“tell me if this looks like dream-stuff.”

He opened it and began to read: 

“’Section One, be it enacted, and so forth and so forth, that the militia shall consist of every able-bodied male citizen of the respective states, territories, and District of Columbia, who is more than eighteen and less than forty-five years of age.’

“’Section Seven, that any officer or enlisted man’—­remember Section One, gentlemen, you are all enlisted men—­’that any enlisted man of the militia who shall refuse or neglect to present himself to such mustering officer upon being called forth as herein prescribed, shall be subject to trial by court martial, and shall be punished as such court martial shall direct.’