. It may be followed by a
step in the opposite direction. _No advance can be permanently held
until the organizations of non-capitalists have become superior to or at
least as powerful as those of the capitalists._ An actual step _in_
Socialism, moreover, as distinct from such an insecure political step
_towards_ Socialism, depends in no degree upon the action of
non-Socialist governments (and still less on local Socialist
administrations subject to higher non-Socialist control) unless such
governments are already practically vanquished, and so forced to obey
Socialist orders. An actual installment of Socialism awaits, first, a
certain development of Socialist parties and labor unions, and second,
on these organizations securing control of a sovereign and independent
government (if there be any such), or of a group of industries that
dominates it. And if the governments of the various capitalistic
countries are as interdependent as they seem, a number of them will have
to be captured before the possession of any is secure.

_The essential problem before the Socialists under State capitalism,
with every reform now under serious discussion already in force, will be
fundamentally the same as it is under the private capitalism of to-day._
The capitalists will be even more powerful than they are, the _relative_
position of the non-capitalists in government and industry still more
inferior than it now is. However, with better health, more means,
greater leisure, superior education, with a better organized and more
easily comprehended social system, with the enemy more united and more
clearly defined, Socialists believe that the conditions for the
successful solution of this problem will be far more favorable.

The evolution of industry and government under capitalism sets the
problems and furnishes the conditions necessary for the solution, but
the solution, if it comes at all, must come from the Socialists
themselves. I have shown what the Socialists are doing to-day to gain
supreme control over governments. What do they expect to do when they
have obtained that power? I have given little attention to the steps
they will probably take at that time because the question belongs to the
future, and has not yet been practically confronted. It is impossible to
tell how any body of men will answer any question until it is before
them and they know their answer must be at once translated into acts.
Yet a few concrete statements as