nly be realized
when the Socialist aim is recalled. As employees of railroads, of
governments, and of industries become Socialists, they will not only be
ready to strike to raise their wages, or to protect the unions and the
Socialist Party, or to prevent military reaction, but also--when they
have the majority with them--to take possession of government.

An editorial in the _New York Call_ (October 31, 1911) shows how most
American Socialists expect the general strike to work:--

"The failure of one 'general' strike, or any attempt to carry out a
general strike, does not bankrupt or destroy the working class, for
the reason that it is that class which holds the future in its
hands. Nor does such failure help capitalism--the decaying
system--in any way. On the contrary, it helps disintegrate it, and
the failure itself is merely the necessary prelude to a still
stronger assault by the same method. The general strike seems to be
like what is said of democracy, that the cure for democracy is
still more democracy. In the same way the cure for the general
strike is to make it still more 'general' in character. The less
'general' it is, the less chance has it of success, and the more
'general' it can be made, the more certain is it of success.

"And that success may not, and very likely will not, take the form
hoped for by those who advocate it as a means of immediate or even
ultimate social revolution. But even this, if true, is no argument
against its use. It will, however, bring the social revolution
nearer in other ways.

"We hardly, for instance, expect to see the capitalists, paralyzed
by the most 'general' of general strikes surrender their property
offhand to the victorious proletariat in despair of being able to
operate it themselves. Much as we would like to see the working
class march in and take possession of the abandoned factories and
workshops in this manner, and commence operations under their
collective ownership, the vision can only remain while other
factors are disregarded. There is possibly much more flexibility
and elasticity in the capitalist system than is usually imagined by
Socialists. As William Morris tells old John Ball, the 'rascal
hedge-priest,' 'Mastership hath many shifts' before it finally goes
down and out.

"If we were to venture an op