lines of evolution which they are going to further; something of
the government which they are going to administer; something of the
task which they profess to be eager to accomplish."

It might seem that, after the first stage has been passed, the next
promising way to carry Socialism forward, the way actually to "fight"
the class struggle and to achieve something practical is, as Mr. Simons
says, to talk less and to go in and "administer a township."
Revolutionary Socialists agree that advertising, the teaching of a few
basic doctrines, emotional appeals, and the criticism of present society
have hitherto taken up the principal share of the Socialist agitation,
and that all these together are not sufficient to enable Socialists to
achieve their aim, or even to carry the movement much farther. They
agree that activity is the best teacher and that the class struggle must
be actually fought. But they propose other activities and feel that a
whole intermediate stage of Socialist evolution, including the capture
of national governments, lies between the Socialist agitation of the
past and any administration of a township that can do anything to bring
recruits to Socialism and not merely to "State Socialist" reform.

This is the view of the revolutionary majority of the international
movement. But the "reformist" minority is both large and powerful, and
since it draws far more recruits than does the revolutionary majority
from the ranks of the book educated and capitalistic reformers, its
spokesmen and writers attract a disproportionately large share of
attention in capitalistic and reform circles, and thus give rise to
widespread misunderstanding as to the position of the majority.

Not only are both the more or less Socialistic parties in Great Britain
and the Labour parties of the British colonies "reformist" to the extent
that they are either entirely outside or practically independent of the
international movement, but the parties of Belgium, Italy, and South
Germany have, for a number of years, concentrated their attention almost
exclusively on such reforms as the capitalist governments of their
countries are likely to allow to be enacted--the dominant idea being to
obtain all that can be obtained for the working classes at the present
moment, even when, for this purpose, it becomes necessary to subordinate
or to compromise entirely the plans and hopes of the future. And it is
only within the last year