La Salute è in voi

La Salute è in voi! was an early 1900s bomb-making handbook associated with the Galleanisti, followers of anarchist Luigi Galleani. Translated as "Health Is within You!" or "Salvation Is within You!", its anonymous authors believed that committed, amateur revolutionaries would be able to build explosives by following simple directions. It advocated for workers to lose their despair and partake in individual, revolutionary acts. Its contents included a glossary, basic chemistry training, and safety procedures.

The Italian-language handbook was likely authored by Ettore Molinari, a chemist, anarchist, and friend of Galleani. Its contents were not novel, but otherwise available in encyclopedias, applied chemistry books, and industrial sources. It was first advertised in Galleani's Cronaca Sovversiva anarchist newspaper, read by his American followers, in 1906. Police and historians would use the handbook to profile anarchists and imply guilt by possession. A decade after its release, La Salute è in voi figured prominently in the prosecution of the 1915 Bresci Circle failed bombing of New York City's St. Patrick's Cathedral, in which the case revolved around the anarchists' right to read. Ultimately, the perpetrators of successful political bombings from this era had backgrounds in explosives from their occupation, and the idea of amateurs learning to make bombs from simple instructions was impractical.

Contents

The how-to handbook and anarchist manifesto encouraged workers to forgo their anguish, which only furthered their impoverishment, and instead commit to revolutionary acts. It wrote that workers could not foment revolution without the technical means. Thus, La Salute è in voi gave readers plain directions for producing explosives.[1] Chapters include "Explosive Material", "Nitroglycerin", "Capsule and Petard", "Dynamite", "Fulminate of Mercury", and "Preparation of Fuses".[2]

Its opening appeals to collective gain from individual action, with the example of an Italian town in 1890 where rice laborers went on strike for wages. At their march to city hall, one hit a guard with a rock and the police fired on the crowd, killing three workers and wounding more, but ultimately getting the laborers their raise by dint of those martyred.[3]

The handbook's chemistry training includes using a Baumé scale to measure liquid density and determine the potency of compounds.[4] It also included safety procedure (e.g., if a reader drank nitric acid) and a glossary of terms and definitions, akin to a textbook.[5] The handbook treated its measurements like a farmer's almanac by giving potential household uses for chemicals alongside their density information.[4]

Publication

The 48-page La Salute è in voi was written for those who lacked expertise in chemistry and engineering. Like John Most's Revolutionäre Kriegswissenschaft, the handbook wanted to make military technology accessible to common people. And it did, to textile workers and anarchist writers of the eastern United States, inspired by other bombings but otherwise lacking occupational access to dynamite and the practical expertise to bomb-making. [6] While its detail to chemical handling technique elevated the handbook from mere anarchist manifesto,[4] none of its contents were new. Its simple information was available in normal encyclopedias, applied chemistry books, and industrial sources, such as the Martin Eissler's 1897 standard manual on explosives. La Salute è in voi did not contain complex formula or time detonator instructions.[3]

La Salute è in voi was written anonymously.[7] Its authors called themselves "the compilers"[3] and showed a working familiarity with basic chemistry. This emphasis on science separated La Salute è in voi from other manifestos and is likely owed to Ettore Molinari, a chemist and anarchist believed to have drafted an early version of the handbook, if not the full book.[4] In Paris, Molinari had met the Italian anarchist Luigi Galleani,[4] whose Italian-language anarchist newspaper, Cronaca Sovversiva (Subversion Chronicle), first advertised La Salute è in voi for sale in 1906 in the United States, where his followers—the Galleanisti—would have read it.[7]

The handbook's title, which translates to "Health Is within You!" or "Salvation Is within You!", potentially refers to Christian anarchist Leo Tolstoy, whose The Kingdom of God Is Within You shares its Italian title with the bomb-making handbook. Contrarily, Tolstoy favored passive resistance and considered violence incompatible with Christian morality.[7]

The printing contains a prominent typographical error in which an "i", displayed as "1", would severely undercut the proportion of sulfuric acid in the nitroglycerin formula. Cronaca Sovversiva later ran a correction. While some historians surmised that this error led to errant explosions, realistically, the incorrect formula would have produced a mess of acids rather than the much more volatile nitroglycerin.[4]

Application
"Mere possession of this wicked treatise would suggest that the owner was up to no good."

New York bomb squad chief Thomas Tunney[2]

The police used the handbook to profile anarchist attackers, and historians used the handbook as proof of Galleanist responsibility for crimes.[7] La Salute è in voi had a low profile for the nine years prior to the 1915 Bresci Circle failed bombing of New York City's St. Patrick's Cathedral.[8] Though the handbook was never mentioned by name, it figured prominently in the prosecution of the Bresci Circle members,[9] where the prosecution used it to vilify the defendants despite no proof of its connection to the crime.[10] (Though during and prior to arraignment one of the anarchists had credited the handbook with deranging him,[9] the failed bomb components approximated that of a firework, not of one of the handbook's design.[10]) The police insinuated possession of the handbook as evidence of the defendants' technical expertise and bad intentions, and La Salute è in voi was the most sensational of the prosecution's seditious books used to show the anarchists' intents.[9] The anarchists' legal defense revolved around their right to read any books of any kind,[9] including bomb-making handbooks. They were ultimately found guilty.[10] The case rekindled fear of easily accessible bomb-making instructions and sensationalism around anarchism.[10]

While the handbook's authors believed that amateurs would be able to build explosives by following simple directions, in actuality, the era's successful perpetrators of political bombings had backgrounds in explosives from their respective industries. Workers in industries such as agriculture, construction, and mining had their own means for learning to make bombs or steal dynamite. Literature professor Ann Larabee wrote that the idea that untrained laborers could create bombs at home was and remains impractical, no more than an intellectual exercise.[6] The book did contain elements for neophytes, such as safety procedure and household uses for chemicals, which could double as cover stories and enhanced the handbook's subversiveness.[5] There is no evidence that Galleanists relied on La Salute è in voi, but if they did, the fact that their bombs hit only themselves, bystanders, and never their intended capitalist and government targets would indicate that the handbook provided insufficient preparation for an attack.[11]

When Sacco and Vanzetti were denied appeal and condemned to death, they ended their message to supporters with "La Salute è in voi". Its invocation represented a power through threat of violence. Though there is no direct evidence that they had or used a copy, especially as a bomb was not involved in their case, detectives and historians have thought of the handbook as evidence of Galleanist conspiracy, such as when J. Edgar Hoover pursued a copy of the handbook when investigating the Wall Street bombing. After Sacco and Vanzetti, La Salute è in voi disappeared from public view, owing partially to its limited accessibility, based on its Italian language requirement, and limited topical interest.[12] A 1979 presentation at the Boston Public Library's Sacco and Vanzetti conference renewed interest in the booklet.[13]

References
  1. Larabee 2015, pp. 37–38.
  2. Gage 2009, p. 209.
  3. Larabee 2015, p. 39.
  4. Larabee 2015, p. 40.
  5. Larabee 2015, pp. 40–41.
  6. Larabee 2015, p. 38.
  7. Larabee 2015, p. 37.
  8. Larabee 2015, p. 41.
  9. Larabee 2015, p. 43.
  10. Larabee 2015, p. 44.
  11. Larabee 2015, p. 45.
  12. Larabee 2015, p. 46.
  13. Larabee 2015, pp. 197–198.

Bibliography
  • Gage, Beverly (2009). The Day Wall Street Exploded: A Story of America in Its First Age of Terror. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-514824-4. OCLC 779913767.
  • Larabee, Ann (2015). "Sabotage". The Wrong Hands: Popular Weapons Manuals and Their Historic Challenges to a Democratic Society. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 36–63. ISBN 978-0-19-020117-3. OCLC 927145132.

Further reading
  • Avrich, Paul (1996). Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-02604-6.
  • D'Attilio, Robert (1982). "La Salute è in Voi: The Anarchist Dimension". Sacco-Vanzetti, developments and reconsiderations, 1979: conference proceedings. Boston: Trustees of the Public Library of the City of Boston. ISBN 978-0-89073-067-6. OCLC 7672624.
  • Russell, Francis (1986). Sacco & Vanzetti: The Case Resolved. Harper & Row. ISBN 978-0-06-015524-7.
  • Tejada, Susan (2012). In Search of Sacco and Vanzetti: Double Lives, Troubled Times, and the Massachusetts Murder Case That Shook the World. Northeastern. ISBN 978-1-55553-730-2.
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