factor among many others. Many important legislative
changes which have taken place in Italy since 1900, Mr. Thompson
accredits to the opportunist Socialist leader, Turati, with his handful
of members of the chamber, though it is certain that even at the present
moment the Socialists have not yet arrived at a position where they can
claim that they are shaping governmental action as strongly as their
Radical allies. Mr. Thompson states that the "Socialist Independent
Labour Party" of Great Britain had thirty-four representatives in
Parliament at a time when the larger non-Socialist Labour Party, which
included it, had only this number. He claimed that a majority of this
latter party were Socialists, when, as a matter of fact, only a minority
were members of any Socialist party even in the ultra-moderate sense in
which the term is employed in England, and he accredits all the chief
reforms brought about by the Liberal government to this handful of
"Socialists," including even the old age pensions which were almost
unanimously favored by the old parties.[96] He even lists among his
signs of the progress of Socialism the fact that, at the time of
writing, fifty-nine governments owned their railways, while a large
number had instituted postal savings banks.

The same tendency to claim everything good as Socialism is very common
in Great Britain. Even the relatively advanced Socialist, Victor
Grayson, avoids the question whether there is any social reform which is
not Socialism,[97] and it seems to be the general position of British
Socialists that every real reform is Socialism--more or less.

August Bebel, on the contrary, is quoted as saying, "_It is not a
question of whether we achieve this or that; for us the principal thing
is that we put forward certain claims which no other party can put
forward._" The great German Socialist sees clearly that if Socialism is
to distinguish itself from the other parties it must rest its claims
solely on demands which are made exclusively by Socialists. This is what
those who claim that every reform is Socialism, or is best promoted by
Socialists, fail to see. By trying to make the word, "Socialism" mean
everything, they inevitably make it mean nothing.

It is true that for a time the very advertisement of the word
"Socialism," by this method, and even the widest and loosest use of
Socialist phrases had the effect of making people think about Socialist
principles. But this cannot be