Socialism-Old and New

...Compromise won all along the line in the countries of constitutional government, and the "classconscious proletariat" vanished into the limbo of discarded political ideals...

...The average Englishman does at last understand that the Democratic party is not really anti-republican, nor the Republican antidemocratic...

...All that panorama, with its flaming revolutionary announcements, is gone...

...In France, especially, the procession from Socialism to positions of place and power—positions, perhaps, not less honorable and certainly more advantageous financially than the posts surrendered in the upward march—has been peculiarly attractive...

...and has been snatched up by Communists...

...Now this was "all wery capital" as Mr...

...But the retention of the word "Socialism" in European politics has no more significance than the use of the words "Democracy" and "Republicanism" to characterize the political organizations of America...

...And so vast was the panorama of the promised land, so tremendous and revolutionary the coming change to be accomplished in society, that many hesitated before committing themselves to so adventurous a creed...

...The faithful minority found themselves no nearer to the social revolution, for their electoral victories, more particularly in Germany, were too often accomplished by strategy and tactics of doubtful merit...

...The word in Europe today announces no social revolution...

...All three parties profess to put the welfare of the nation first, and stress the need for social reform...

...When a majority of these class-conscious and incorruptible ones had been, duly elected, then the time had come for a Socialist government, and the revolution might be safely inaugurated...

...The dilemma was terrible: either to wait indefinitely for the growth of a "class-conscious proletariat," or to compromise in order to get immediate reforms and remedial measures...

...Socialists became like other people in politics...

...As the English demagogue John Wilkes avowed himself no Wilkesite, so Marx might well declare himself no Marxist...

...In either case, the nationalist spirit is predominant and Socialism is scouted as the cry for an out-of-date fashion...

...It began before the war and its beginnings are to be found in the willingness of Socialist politicians to take office in bourgeois governments...

...it is not different in essence...

...Weller, senior, once observed in a different connection, but the players simply couldn't or wouldn't carry out the performance...

...The leaders of social democratic and other Socialist parties must not be held to cleave to the visions of the nineteenth century, or to be in pursuit of the new order of society which those visions spread before the eyes of people desolate and desponding...

...which religion and monarchy they were bidden in the name of social democracy to repudiate and utterly cast out...

...When, forty years back, men like William Morris and H. M. Hyndman preached Socialism, they preached a new order of society, and were prepared to welcome this new order no matter what the cost...

...by politicians it is supported, or opposed, as a theory of government...

...In Great Britain, it was formerly as an economic theory that Socialism was advocated or denounced...

...Other proletarians achieved wealth and had no further use for Socialism...

...The war hastened the change and showed in all its nakedness the bankruptcy of the Socialist International...

...in others, it was sufficient to announce a change of front...

...The years since the war have been the years of nationalism—the nationalism of the new countries called back to independent existence, of the older countries triumphing in victory or mourning in defeat...

...and to be a Socialist in England today means to be an opportunist favorable to government control, a social reformer and a believer in municipal ownership...

...British Socialism, with its municipal ownership of tramways and its greater educational facilities for everyone is not objectionable to Catholics...

...They were compelled to bargain for votes, and to learn, in the work of committees, that the problems of administration are not solved by political enthusiasm or party fervor, that the art of government—be it only the government of a county 714 area—has to be acquired, and that it is not given to all to acquire it...

...It perceives the business of government to be the prosperity of the whole community, and will not hesitate to tax the incomes of the rich in order to promote the education of poor children, or to relieve the destitute...

...In some cases, this willingness made necessary a frank abandonment of Socialism...

...The program of Socialism in Great Britain, the program, that is, of the Labour party, may differ in detail from the programs of the Conservative and Liberal parties...

...Similarly, the Liberal inclines to the anarchist—for both rank personal right above the safety and health of the community...

...By seizing power they would by themselves make the social revolution and leave to the future the growth of the extremely dilatory "class-conscious proletariat...

...Socialism, once the token of a new order—a battle-cry of revolutionary forces, to many a message of hope, to as many more the threat of approaching doom—has ceased to alarm and terrify, and is no longer the slogan for a working-class in revolt...

...The change in political Socialism is no sudden or startling affair...

...What really happened to provoke the change of front was this: The founders of modern Socialism, and Marx above all, arranged the program for a social revolution...

...Millerand, Briand, Viviani are by no means the only notables in that procession...

...too large a proportion of them were already peasant proprietors, and strongly attached to the ancient religion and ancient form of monarchy in their respective lands...

...Socialism may still be discussed in debating societies as an economic theory...

...It has ceased to be a revolutionary proposal for the downfall of all persons living on rent and interest, and the setting up in their places of a victorious proletariat...

...In England the Liberals have always favorably esteemed the more philosophic anarchists, and the welcome extended to Miss Emma Goldman comes from avowed Liberals rather than from the leaders of the Labour party...

...just as he quite understands that his Liberal and Conservative parties are respectively committed neither to any particular form of liberalism nor to any special conserving of existing conditions...

...it is merely the symbol of a party, worn as a button is worn at election times—the symbol of a party which has revised the program of social democracy and reformed the doctrine of Karl Marx...

...In fact, in less than fifty years, Socialism has passed from an inspiration to a tradition, from a creed to a formula...

...The old words may be retained by Socialists, much as the modernist still retains the expressions of the Faith he has lost, and recites the credo, which he openly disbelieves, because it is a valuable and interesting historical pronouncement "revealing a bygone and childish psychology...

...so that while the party grew in numbers its members seemed less and less anxious for the desired revolution...

...In Russia, Lenin and his handful of Bolshevists faced the dilemma boldly in 1917, and declined to wait...

...According to that program, the working people of Europe were to become a "classconscious proletariat...

...and in that capacity, they were to elect to their various parliaments representatives equally class-conscious and invincible in their social democratic belief, and entirely incorruptible...

...The red flag has dropped from the hands of the Socialists, to the exceeding great relief of many persons embarrassed by the flapping and displeased with the color, which they pronounced too crude...

...It is quite probable that Marx, were he living in these days, would be enrolled with the revisionists and reformers...

...It does not contemplate any radical change in society...

...The working people of Europe, for one thing, declined to become a "class-conscious proletariat...

...There is an actual affinity between the Conservative and the Socialist of the Labour party, for both put the good government of the whole as the first duty of the state, and are inclined to think lightly of individual rights...

...and its present leaders are desirous of enlisting all people of good will in the cause of social reform...