result of the free and arbitrary choice of men, but the logical outcome of a definite process of historical development, and that the underlying structure of such foundation is at all times the economic system upon which society is organized.

As a logical sequence from these views it follows that a form of society cannot be changed at any given time unless the economic development has made it ripe for the change, and that the future of mankind must be looked for, not in the ingenious schemes of inventive social philosophers, but in the tendencies of economic development.

The Marxian Socialists base their hopes on the tendency of modern industries toward centralization and socialization, the inadequacy and wastefulness of the individual and competitive system of production, and the growing revolt of the working classes against the iniquities and hardships involved in that system.

Marxist Socialism

Modern Socialists address themselves not so much to the humane sentiments of society at large as to the self-interests of the working class, as a class primarily concerned in the impending social change. They do not indulge in miniature social experiments or in political conspiracies, but direct their efforts toward the education and political and industrial organization of the working class, so as to enable that class to steer the ship of state from individualism into collectivism, when the time is ripe for it, and to hasten that time.

This phase of the Socialist movement may be said to date from the publication of the celebrated 'Communist Manifesto." The "Manifesto" is a brief pamphlet written conjointly by Marx and Engels; it has since been translated into almost all modern languages, and has remained to this day the classical exposition of modern evolutionary socialism.

The "Communist Manifesto" appeared in 1848. The great revolutionary movement of that year, and the long period of European reaction following upon its defeat, temporarily paralyzed the young Socialist movement inaugurated by Marx and his comrades. For almost fifteen years the movement was confined to a few scattered circles of "intellectuals" in the different countries of Europe without penetrating into the masses anywhere. The general political and social awakening which marks the beginning of the sixties of the last century in all principal countries of Europe and in the U. S. of America did not pass without affecting the working classes. labor movement grew up in the most advanced countries of Europe, and a large portion of it fell under the spiritual leadership of the Socialists.

A strong

The first fruit of these renewed Socialist and labor activities was the organization of the International Working Men's Association (com

The International extended over England, France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Switzerland, Poland, Australia, and the U. S. of America, and at one time was considered a great power in European politics. Its active career embraced a period of about eight years, from 1864 to 1872, during which time it held six conventions. These conventions were largely devoted to the discussion of social and labor problems, and served to impress the Socialist movement of the world with a uniform and harmonious character.

The dissolution of the organization was brought about by a number of factors, not the least of which was the fate of the Paris Commune.

The Commune, proclaimed in Paris on March 18, 1871, in its inception had no connection whatever with the International or the Socialist agitation of the time. Its name was not intended to imply any sympathy with the doctrines of communism; it was merely meant to signify the communal or municipal autonomy of Paris. The proclamation of the Commune was a result of the revolt of the Parisians against the excessive centralization of government in France.

But the deciding blow to the life of the International was dealt by the growing spirit of anarchism within its ranks.

Up to about 1869 the International was under the undisputed control of the Marxian wing of socialism, but in the later years of its existence the school of individual anarchism steadily gained ground in the councils of the society under the leadership of the apostle of the new creed, Michael Bakounin (1814-76).

Anarchism threatened to become a power in the International, and Marx and his friends decided to avert the danger by sacrificing the organization. In 1872 the seat of its General Council was transferred to New York, and three years later the International was formally dissolved.

The International, however, had fully accomplished its purpose, and during its activity the Socialist movement of Europe had developed to such dimensions that it became impossible to confine it within the bounds of one central organization. Hereafter we will have to follow the varying fortunes of the movement in the different countries coming under its sway.

Chief among such countries is, of course,

GERMANY

In Germany the present-day Socialist movement runs in an unbroken chain from the days of the agitation of Ferdinand Lassalle (1825-64). Of extraordinary eloquence, profound learning, and indomitable energy, Lassalle was probably the most powerful popular tribune produced by the nineteenth century.

His active work in the cause of socialism is practically confined to the last two years of his life. But during that short period he succeeded in thoroughly rousing the phlegmatic working class of his country by his ringing speeches and powerful writings. In his social views he was a disciple of Marx, but the principal issues of his agitation were the demands for universal suffrage and the establishment of cooperative workshops with State credit.

In 1863 he organized the General German Working Men's Association, which at the time of its founder's death numbered only 4,610 members,

but grew considerably in later years, notwithstanding one serious schism within its ranks.

In the meanwhile a new Socialist party, more strictly Marxian, was organized in 1869 under the leadership of Wilhelm Liebknecht and August Bebel, and the six years following are marked by a bitter feud between the rival organizations. The feud was terminated in 1875 by the amalgamation of all Socialist organizations at the Gotha Convention; the present Social Democratic Party of Germany was thus born. Since then the progress of the Socialist movement has been rapid and steady. Even the period of the most unrelenting government persecution inaugurated by the Exceptional Laws did not succeed in checking its growth. These laws were designed to suppress all forms of Socialist propaganda, and their enforcement was attended by the imprisonment and exile of large numbers of the most active Socialists. They were enacted in 1878 after two successive attempts by irresponsible individuals on the life of the emperor, and were abandoned in 1890 after their utter futility had been demonstrated in practise. The growth of socialism in Germany can be best seen by studying the steady growth of the Socialist vote in the empire.

This table is the best answer to the statement sometimes made that the Socialist Party in Germany lost ground in 1907. It did not lose ground because, in spite of an unprecedented opposition, it increased its vote. It lost scats in the Reichstag not because of weakened strength, but because the elections of 1903 showed the Social Democratic Party to be so strong that in this election the various groups of the Bourgeoisie and Liberal parties largely combined against it. They put forth every effort, led by the government itself. After the election of 1903, a Reichsverband (Imperial Union) was formed, the one purpose of which was to work in every way to unite the Bourgeoisie and defeat socialism. The union aided Conservatives here and Liberals there in any way that would mean the defeat of a Socialist candidate. It sent out false statements against socialism and had them published in over 1,000 journals. After the election it reported that it had distributed 10,149,330 pamphlets against socialism. It sent speakers and lecturers into every possible social or literary club. It raised the cry of patriotism, declaring that Germany was attacked. It raised large sums of money from the capitalists and spent it for the election. It roused the small country proprietors who, in Eastern Prussia and the less enlightened districts, terrified the peasants into voting against socialism. The so-called Christian Unions (Evangelical) and the Roman Catholic, so called, Christian Social

ists voted against the party. Not a stone was left unturned. As the result thirty-eight Socialist seats were captured by combinations against them. Yet in spite of all this the party increased its vote by a quarter of a million. The real strength of the party was never more shown. It was said in the Antisozialistische Correspondenz after the election: "The working classes have stood by and will stand by the Social Democratic Party. . . . The party is now more than ever a class party, the revolutionary party of the proletariat, and from the point of view of the proletariat and the revolutionary, the party in this political baptism of fire has now received revolutionary power, while in the election of 1903 it only stood for a certain movement toward democracy.'

It should be remembered, too, that by the constitution of the German Empire, in the union of the various German states, the representation in the Reichstag is so arranged that some of the states and districts with comparatively small populations have very much more representation than others. Particularly have the great cities where the Social Democracy has its strength but small representation in proportion to their population. This largely reduces the Socialist representation in the Reichstag. If each vote counted alike the Social Democrats would have elected not 43 but 116 representatives. They cast 3,258,968 votes and only seated 43 representatives, 73 less than they were entitled to, while the Center (Roman Catholic) cast 2,183,384 votes but seated 108 representatives (30 more than they were entitled to), the Conservatives 1,070,658 votes, seating 60 representatives (22 more than they were entitled to). The Socialist press in Germany is very strong. There are 79 Socialist political orThe Vorwärts, of Berlin, has a circulation gans. of 112,000; the Hamburger Echo has 40,000; the Volkszeitung, 30,000. There are two comic weeklies and one scientific weekly.

The party is thoroughly united, tho allowing of some differences of opinion. Of late years Edouard Bernstein has led a wing of the party advocating a less doctrinaire and more opportunist policy than his critics in the party; yet it has not produced the split that the enemies of the party predicted; the wise leaders of the party have allowed differences of opinion and yet held the party as a unit in action for whatever view the majority held.

Industrially the party works in the tradeunions, which are said to have gained 913,000 new members in Germany since 1905. In every

way the party holds the working classes. The number elected as councilors in German communes is over 2,000.

AUSTRIA

The Socialist movement in Austria is closely linked with that of Germany, so much so that in their earlier stages the two movements were hardly differentiated. In the famous Convention of Eisenach, held in 1868, the Austrian Socialists were represented as well as their German comrades. But notwithstanding the common beginnings and intellectual identity of socialism in both countries, the movement in Austria soon fell behind that of Germany. There were many reasons for this phenomenon, chief among them being the industrial backwardness of Austria, and the difficulty of carrying on a systematic and uni

form propaganda of socialism among the many heterogeneous nationalities constituting the Austrian Empire.

The beginnings of the Socialist movement in Austria appear in 1867, when the Imperial Council granted a partial right of assembly and association to the people of Austria. Two years later the movement was strong enough to force the government to revoke its ban against Socialist propaganda by a most remarkable and unexpected demonstration on the streets of Vienna (Dec. 13, 1869). The succeeding period (18701888) is principally noteworthy for the internal dissensions within the movement. The practical disfranchisement of the working class and the brutal government persecution had bred among the more radical working men a spirit of embittered pessimism which made them unusually susceptible to the propaganda of anarchism, then in its prime all over Europe, and the main work of Austrian Social Democracy during that period was to combat the anarchist movement. The turning-point of the Socialist movement in Austria may be considered the Hainsfeld Congress (1888) which marked the final victory of Social Democracy over anarchism in the Austrian labor movement, and created a unified and well-organized party which has since been making rapid and steady progress. Its efforts recently have been mainly directed toward attaining universal suffrage by steady agitation, monster demonstrations, till at last the government has been compelled to yield, and in the parliamentary elections of 1907, for the first time held on the basis of universal suffrage, the Social Democratic Party polled over 1,000,000 votes, electing no less than eighty-seven deputies to the Reichsrat.

Austria has an extensive Socialist press-2 dailies, of which the Arbeiter Zeitung, of Vienna, is the most important; 24 periodical journals, and 36 trade-union papers. Besides these Bohemia has 2 dailies, 15 periodical organs, and 19 tradeunion journals. Austria in 1904 reported 526 Socialists elected communal councilors. Bohemia in 1907 reported no less than 1,953 local unions with 130,000 members connected with the Socialist Party.

GREAT BRITAIN

Notwithstanding the fact that England is the most industrial country of Europe, its Socialist movement has been rather tardy in appearing and in growth.

The organized Socialist movement of England may be dated from the formation of the Democratic Federation in 1881. The federation, called into life by H. M. Hyndman, Herbert Burrows, and a few other well-known Socialists, was originally not of outspoken Socialist views, but became so in 1883, when it was reorganized under the name of Social Democratic Federation. The federation has ever since continued a somewhat uneventful existence, and is to-day the orthodox representative of Marxian socialism in England. It has now two members of Parliament, and about 100 in various municipal or county councils and boards. Its organ is Justice.

In 1893, however, another political party of socialism was founded principally through the efforts of Keir Hardie. The organization assumed the name of the Independent Labor Party, adopted a somewhat broader platform than the Social Democratic Federation, and laid more

stress on the political side of the movement. But contrary to the expectations of its founders, it did not acquire a larger influence among the working classes of England than the older organization, and works to-day with the newly formed Labor Party. (See below.)

Besides these two parties, the Socialist movement of England is also represented by the wellknown Fabian Society, founded in 1883, principally for the purpose of educational propaganda along Socialist lines. The society has published a large number of tracts on the main aspects of theoretical socialism and has achieved considerable success in the field of municipal reform, and in influencing the middle classes. The outspoken Socialist organizations in England have been, till recently, a factor of but mediocre importance in the social and political life of the country, but it would be a mistake to measure the strength of the Socialist movement in England only by its organized portions.

The Socialist movement in England largely expresses itself in the radical or 'new" tradeunions, many of which are avowedly socialistic in their views. The formation of the Labor Representative Committee, which has recently elected twenty-nine members to Parliament, and has taken the name of "The Labor Party," is principally the work of these unions aided by the Socialist organizations, and it is the masses behind that committee which to-day must be considered as the main factor of English socialism and as the nucleus of a larger and more influential Socialist movement in England.

Not only has the English labor movement 29 representatives to Parliament, but some 800 members of town, county, urban, or rural councils and boards of guardians, etc. The distinctively Socialist press of Great Britain is not large, consisting of only 12 papers, representing the different movements; but there are besides 16 local labor papers and 25 trade-union journals; and socialism is discust largely in many other English papers, and not seldom at least partially favorably.

FRANCE

If the Socialist movement of Germany may be considered a model of orderly and methodic growth, that of France has, on the contrary, a most bewildering and stormy career.

With the fall of the Paris Commune the movement in France received a blow from which it recovered but very slowly. For a number of years after 1871 the only manifestation of Socialist activity was to be found in the students' circles organized by Gabriel Deville and Jules Guèsde, and the main efforts of these circles were directed toward the propaganda of socialism among the trade-unions. In these efforts they gained a partial success in 1878, when the general trade-union congress of Lyons pledged its support to some socialist candidates, and several large trade organizations indorsed the entire Socialist program. The arrest of Guèsde and thirtythree other labor leaders in 1879 for participation in a political labor conference, and the brilliant defense of Guèsde on that occasion, largely served to increase the sympathies of the working population for socialism, and the general trade-union congress of Marseilles held in the same year unreservedly declared itself in favor of the movement.

But this declaration made by the delegates

tion of the country, principally the farm-laborers. The membership of the Socialist Party is largely made up of them, and the Socialist Party also took the initiative of organizing these laborers into an independent national organization. In 1900 that organization numbered over 200,000 members. The organized Socialist movement of Italy is divided into several camps on questions of policy and methods, but that does not seem to interfere with its work or progress.

The course of the party, however, has been somewhat tempestuous. Strikes have been numerous, wide-spread, and heated. There is a strong party press-5 dailies, of which Avanti, published at Rome, and edited by Enrico Ferri, is the party organ; 65 weeklies, and 23 tradeunion journals. Many Socialist communal councilors have been elected, and in over 100 communes they have the majority.

BELGIUM

It was from Brussels that Marx and Engels issued their "Manifesto" of 1848, and in Belgium the International early took root, but the split of the International in 1872 divided the local movement into two hostile camps, the Marxists and Bakuninists, or Social Democrats and Anarchists, and in this division the movement finally disappeared, so far as that phase was concerned.

The first distinctly Socialist political organization was founded in 1885 under the name of the Socialist Labor Party of Belgium. Notwithstanding the frequent dissensions and heated disputes between the Belgian Socialists, the movement has made rapid progress. In 1903 the party undertook a general agitation for universal suffrage (Belgium still having a plural vote seriously discriminating against the working classes). This, however, did not succeed, and in 1904 the party vote was reduced to 463,967 and its representatives in the Chamber of Deputies reduced to 28.

In 1906, however, the vote was 469,094 with 30 representatives. The party besides has elected 7 senators, 91 provincial councilors, 650 councilors in 193 communes, and holds the majority in 22 communes. The party press includes II dailies, 20 weeklies, 7 monthlies, and 18 Socialist trade-union journals. The leading weekly is Le Peuple of Brussels. The party has also connected with it 252 trade-unions, 229 political societies, 25 artistic, and 180 mutual.

The activity of the Belgian Socialists is principally marked by their repeated and embittered struggles for universal suffrage, as above stated, and by their successful organization of cooperative enterprises. Of these there were in 1903 no less than 1,200 establishments with a membership variously estimated at 130,000 to 200,000, and their combined annual business amounted to 40,000,000 francs. The most important of these cooperatives are the "Vooruit, established in Ghent in 1880, and the "Maison du Peuple," founded in Brussels in 1884.

HOLLAND

The movement in Holland, as in Belgium, began with the International, but developed a still stronger anarchistic tendency, and one from which it more slowly freed itself.

The first political organization of socialism in Holland was the Social Democratic Union, founded in 1878, but it made but little progress until

1893, when the anarchistic elements under the leadership of the eloquent Domela Nieuvenhuis withdrew from it. Since then the party has grown, tho not rapidly. It had in 1906 167 sections with 7,471 members, and cast in 1905 65,743 votes, electing 7 deputies. It is represented also in 30 communal councils. The party press has 1 daily, the Het Volk, of Amsterdam, and 7 weeklies. Trade-unionism in Holland also long suffered from its connection with anarchism, but in 1905 a federation of Dutch tradeunions was formed, which is now composed of 18 national organizations, with about 28,400 members, and which works sympathetically with the Social Democratic Party.

THE SCANDINAVIAN COUNTRIES

The Socialist history of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway may be reviewed together. The movement in Denmark is the oldest. It dates back to the days of the International (1870-72), but the present Socialist organization of the country, the Social Democratic Union, was founded in 1878. In 1889 the Danish Socialists elected one deputy to the Folkething (Parliament), out of a total of 114; in 1903 the number of their representatives rose to 16, and in 1906 to 24. The Socialist vote was 77,000; 4 representatives were also elected to the Landsting (Senate). The party has no less than 25 daily papers and 2 weeklies, the leading daily being the Sociale Democraten. In municipal politics the Socialists have elected over 400 municipal councilors in different cities and towns.

The movement in Sweden was initiated under Danish influence in 1881, and grouped itself around three Socialist papers, the Social Democrat, published in Stockholm since 1885; the Arbetet (Worker), established in Malmo in 1887. and the Ny Tid (New Times), founded in Gotheburg in 1889. As in the case of Belgium and Holland, the main activity of the Socialist Party has been for years directed toward the conquest of universal suffrage, and its campaign in that behalf was as picturesque as it was energetic and effective. The party has now elected 15 members to the Second Chamber out of 230. It cast in 1905 30,000 votes.

The Socialist organization of Norway, the Norwegian Labor Party, was organized in 1887, but it constituted itself as a Socialist political party only two years later. In the elections to the Storthing in 1906 the party polled about 45.000 votes and elected 10 deputies; it also has about 330 representatives in the various municipal councils, a number of them being women. The party press includes 4 dailies (the Social-Demokraten, of Christiania, the most important), 9 others, two or more times a week, 2 weeklies, and 3 reviews.

The 25,308 members of the united labor-unions of Norway also support the Labor Party. Indeed, the distinguishing feature of the Socialist movement in the three Scandinavian countries is its complete fusion and unity with the tradeunion organizations. In fact the organized working men of each of these countries up to a very few years ago constituted but one party, operating simultaneously or alternately on the economic and political fields. The types and methods of the Socialist movement in the three countries are similar to such a point that joint conferences or conventions of the Socialists of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway are quite frequent.