his, it stated that _occupancy and use shall be the sole
title to land_. ("The 1912 Platform of the Socialist Party"--Cf. "The
Call," May 19, 1912.)

It is noteworthy that the Convention of 1908 had previously voted down
this proposition to make occupancy and use the sole title to land, after
the proposition had been denounced as being anarchistic, unsocialistic,
nonsensical, foolish, and a dream ("Proceedings of 1908 National
Convention of the Socialist Party," pages 188, 189 and 191.) One of the
foremost opponents of the proposition was Delegate Morris Hillquit, who
asked:

"What does the amendment mean? Occupancy and use the basis of title
to land. How do we know whether the co-operative commonwealth will
infer and arrange it in that way? Aren't we taking a long excursion
into the domain of the future and into the domain of speculation?
It may be true that the dream of the dreamer may become a reality,
if this dream is the dream of the nation. But we have not come here
to dream dreams and leave it to the future to realize them or to
show them to be just mere pipe dreams.... The Socialist state may
just as well decide on an entirely different basis for the
distribution of land. It may not at all be bound to our resolution
here today that occupation forms a title." ("Proceedings of 1908
National Convention of the Socialist Party," page 189.)

When the Marxians are brought face to face with the charge of adopting a
program today, rejecting it tomorrow, hesitating about it on the next
day and compromising it on the fourth, as they did in respect to the
collective ownership of "all" the land, let them not argue that such
changes are to be expected in the evolution of Socialism. They should be
forced to confess that they acted in such a way solely to gain votes.
Confront them with the speeches delivered in their National Convention
of 1908 and in their National Congress of 1910, both by the delegates
who advocated the collective ownership of "all" the land and by those
who opposed it. For the convenience of the reader passages from some of
these speeches will now be given:

Delegate Cannon of Arizona: "I contend that the public ownership of
all machinery and land is one of the things for which the Socialist
Party is working. If some of the Comrades get up and tell us in
Germany they are not working for that, I move that we inform the
G