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William English Walling - Socialism As It Is

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William English Walling Socialism As It Is

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Transcriber's Note:
Footnotes have been corrected and moved to the end of chapters.
SOCIALISM AS IT IS
A SURVEY OF THE WORLD-WIDE
REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT
BY
WILLIAM ENGLISH WALLING
New York
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1918
All rights reserved

COPYRIGHT, 1912,
By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.
Set up and electrotyped. Published April, 1912. Reprinted October, 1912; January, 1915.
Norwood Press
J. S. Cushing Co.Berwick & Smith Co.
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.

PREFACE
The only Socialism of interest to practical persons is the Socialism of the organized Socialist movement. Yet the public cannot be expected to believe what an organization says about its own character or aims. It is to be rightly understood only through its acts. Fortunately the Socialists' acts are articulate; every party decision of practical importance has been reached after long and earnest discussion in party congresses and press. And wherever the party's position has become of practical import to those outside the movement, it has been subjected to a destructive criticism that has forced Socialists from explanations that were sometimes imaginary or theoretical to a clear recognition and frank statement of their true position. To know and understand Socialism as it is, we must lay aside both the claims of Socialists and the attacks of their opponents and confine ourselves to the concrete activities of Socialist organizations, the grounds on which their decisions have been reached, and the reasons by which they are ultimately defended.
Writers on Socialism, as a rule, have either left their statements of the Socialist position unsupported, or have based them exclusively on Socialist authorities, Marx, Engels, and Lasalle, whose chief writings are now half a century old. The existence to-day of a well-developed movement, many-sided and world-wide, makes it possible for a writer to rely neither on his personal experience and opinion nor on the old and familiar, if still little understood, theories. I have based my account either on the acts of Socialist organizations and of parties and governments with which they are in conflict, or on those responsible declarations of representative statesmen, economists, writers, and editors which are not mere theories, but the actual material of present-day polities,though among these living forces, it must be said, are to be found also some of the teachings of the great Socialists of the past.
It will be noticed that the numerous quotations from Socialists and others are not given academically, in support of the writer's conclusions, but with the purpose of reproducing with the greatest possible accuracy the exact views of the writer or speaker quoted. I am aware that accuracy is not to be secured by quotation alone, but depends also on the choice of the passages to be reproduced and the use made of them. I have therefore striven conscientiously to give, as far as space allows, the leading and central ideas of the persons most frequently quoted, and not their more hasty, extreme, and less representative expressions.
I have given approximately equal attention to the German, British, and American situations, considerable but somewhat less space to those of France and Australia, and only a few pages to Italy and Belgium. This allotment of space corresponds somewhat roughly to the relative importance of these countries in the international movement. As my idea has been not to describe, but to interpret, I have laid additional weight on the first five countries named, on the ground that each has developed a distinct type of labor movement. As I am concerned with national parties and labor organizations only as parts of the international movement, however, I have avoided, wherever possible, all separate treatment and all discussion of features that are to be found only in one country.
The book is divided into three parts; the first deals with the external environment out of which Socialism is growing and by which it is being shaped, the second with the internal struggles by which it is shaping and defining itself, the third with the reaction of the movement on its environment. I first differentiate Socialism from other movements that seem to resemble it either in their phrases or their programs of reform, then give an account of the movement from within, without attempting to show unity where it does not exist, or disguising the fact that some of its factions are essentially anti-Socialist rather than Socialist, and finally, show how all distinctively Socialist activities lead directly to a revolutionary outcome.
I am indebted to numerous persons, Socialists and anti-Socialists, who during the twelve years in which I have been gathering materialin nearly all the countries mentionedhave assisted me in my work. But I must make special mention of the very careful reading of the whole manuscript by Mr. J. G. Phelps Stokes, and of the numerous and vital changes made at his suggestion.

CONTENTS
"STATE SOCIALISM" AND AFTER
  • CHAPTER
  • The Capitalist Reform Program
  • The New Capitalism
  • The Politics of the New Capitalism
  • "State Socialism" and Labor
  • Compulsory Arbitration
  • Agrarian "State Socialism" in Australasia
  • "Equality of Opportunity"
  • The "First Step" Towards Socialism
THE POLITICS OF SOCIALISM
  • "State Socialism" within the Movement
  • "Reformism" in France, Italy, and Belgium
  • "Laborism" in Great Britain
  • "Reformism" in the United States
  • Reform by Menace of Revolution
  • Revolutionary Politics
  • The Revolutionary Trend
SOCIALISM IN ACTION
  • Socialism and the "Class Struggle"
  • The Agricultural Classes and the Land Question
  • Socialism and the "Working Class"
  • Socialism and Labor Unions
  • Syndicalism; Socialism through Direct Action of Labor Unions
  • The "General Strike"
  • Revolution in Defense of Civil Government
  • Political and Social Revolution
  • The Transition to Socialism

INTRODUCTION
The only possible definition of Socialism is the Socialist movement. Karl Marx wrote in 1875 at the time of the Gotha Convention, where the present German party was founded, that "every step of the real movement is of more importance than a dozen programs," while Wilhelm Liebknecht said, "Marx is dear to me, but the party is dearer." What was this movement that the great theorist put above theory and his leading disciple valued above his master?
What Marx and Liebknecht had in mind was a social class which they saw springing up all over the world with common characteristics and common problemsa class which they felt must and would be organized into a movement to gain control of society. Fifty years before it had been nothing, and they had seen it in their lifetime coming to preponderate numerically in Great Britain as it was sure to preponderate in other countries; and it seemed only a question of time before the practically propertyless employees of modern industry would dominate the world and build up a new society. This class would be politically and economically organized, and when its organization and numbers were sufficient it would take governments out of the hands of the old aristocratic and plutocratic rulers and transform them into the instruments of a new civilization. This is what Marx and Liebknecht meant by the "party" and the "movement."
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