Present and Future 1 1 Socialism

As the party socialists did more to improve the present, they talked less of the distant future state. They ceased their criti cisms of "mere temporizing" "bourgeois" reforms, and be gan to claim these as the achievements of the socialist party. They began to write of the remarkable growth of social legisla tion in Europe and America in the past half century under such titles as "socialism in practice" and "socialists at work." This was despite the fact that these reforms were all brought about by governments in which the socialist party had no part whatever or was a well-nigh insignificant minority. This bald sophistry, or self-deception, was easily possible by confusing the word "socialist" as relating to the abstract principle of social action, with socialist as applied to their own party or ganization. It is as if the Republican party in the United States were to claim as its own all the works of the republican spirit and principles of government in the world from the party's organization to the present time.

The German democratic revolution of November 1918, which drove the Kaiser into exile, brought the social-demo crats into power as the dominant party in Germany. The more moderate element is in the majority and, in alliance in parliament with various liberal parties, has thus far been administering the affairs of the state along economic lines little different from those of the old order. No serious modi fication of private property has been made. The situation is far from clear as yet. We seem to see here again the sobering effect of responsibility, and the definite unwilling ness of the German workingmen, with the example of Bol shevik ruin under their eyes at the East, to risk abolishing capitalism.

§ 14. Alluring claims of party socialism.

In becoming opportunist, the radical socialist party in every country has been somewhat put to it to retain any clear distinction be tween itself and other parties of social reform. It has done this however by continuing to proclaim the ultimate desir ability of re-organizing all society without leaving any pro ductive wealth in private hands; while in practice it has shown misgivings prompted by the experience of the world. Its case against the present order continues to be far the strongest in its negative aspect, the exposure of evils. To many natures the claims of the socialist party have all the allurements of patent medicine advertisements. These de scribe the symptoms so exactly and promise so positively to cure the disease, that they are irresistible, especially when the regular physicians keep insisting that the only way to get well is to adopt such troublesome and disagreeable methods as taking baths and exercise, and stopping the use of whiskey and tobacco.

Those attracted to the socialist party by its sweeping claims are of two main types. The one is the low-paid industrial

wage-worker to whom competition awards so small a share of the national income; the other is the sympathetic person of education or of wealth (or of both), who has become sud denly aroused to the misery in our industrial order. To both of these types, feeling intensely on the subject, the socialist party appeals as the only one with promises sweep ing enough to be attractive. The one becomes the proletarian, workshop socialist, the other the intellectual, parlor socialist. Many of the latter type are persons overburdened either with unearned wealth or with an undigested education. Many of them, having enjoyed for a time the interesting experi ence of radical thought and of bohemianism, come later to more moderate social opinions.

§ 15. Changes in the socialist party vote. The socialist vote in Europe and in the United States had been steadily growing in the forty years preceding the outbreak of the World War, and amounted in the aggregate at least to six and possibly to ten millions (as variously estimated, the name socialist being elastic). There were 3,000,000 social-demo cratic voters in Germany at the outbreak of the war, and the socialist party in the United States polled 900,000 votes in the presidential election of 1912. The socialist parties were made up of men of many shades of opinion. They included not only the radicals, but large numbers of the discontented, unable to find an alternative economic philosophy and a plan that inspired their hopes. They included many others who held only the mildest sort of socialistic philosophy. In Amer ica many men voted the socialist ticket as a protest against the inaction of the conservative parties, and barely one tenth regularly enrolled as members of the party. Similarly, in Germany before the war many voters supported the social democratic party merely as the most effective way to protest against Militarism, Kaiserism, and undemocratic class gov ernment.

The war affected profoundly the policies and fortunes of partizan socialism. In accord with the doctrine of the class conflict, Marx had exclaimed, in the Communist Manifesto, "Proletarians of all lands, unite." Marxian socialism con demned national patriotism and fostered in its place a spirit of internationalism. For years prominent Marxians had boldly announced that any attempt to bring on a European war would be blocked by a general strike declared by the socialist workers. But when German militarism precipitated war in 1914, only a feeble fraction of the German radical socialists stood out against it, and nearly all socialists in every country lined up with their fellow nationals. The immediate result was loss of prestige and of following for the socialist parties in the allied countries.