ty stated, "What they [the Socialists] are doing [in Milwaukee] is not
essentially Socialistic, though some of the reforms they propose are
Socialistic in tendency." This need not be taken to mean that the
Milwaukee reforms are supposed to tend to Socialism as Socialists in
general understand it, but rather to that capitalistic collectivism to
which Mr. Taft refers when he says that in the present regulation of the
railroads "we have gone a long way in the direction of State Socialism."

Mr. Stokes's comment upon many widely published defenses of the
Milwaukee Socialists by anti-Socialists was published in a letter to the
_New York World_ which sums up admirably the International standpoint:
"It is surely public opinion out of office and not the party in office,"
wrote Mr. Stokes, "that does the most for progress in this country, and
it seems to me exceedingly doubtful whether any party in power has ever
led public opinion effectively at any time. I share with very many
Socialists the view that it is entirely fallacious to suppose that more
can be done at this stage of the world's progress through politics, than
through 'education, agitation, and perpetual criticism.'"

I have referred to Mr. Berger as a "reformist" to distinguish his
policies from the professed opportunism of some of the British
Socialists. But I have also noted that his tactics and philosophy, as
both he and they have publicly acknowledged, are alike at many points.
For example, his views, like theirs, often seem less democratic than
those of many non-Socialist radicals, or even of the average American.
Years after the labor unions and the farmers of most of the States had
indorsed direct legislation, and in a year when it was already becoming
the law of several States, Mr. Berger, looking out for the interests of
what he and his associates frankly call the "political machine" of the
Wisconsin Party, damned it by faint praise, though it was an element of
his own platform; and he had claimed credit for having first proposed it
in Wisconsin. He acknowledged that the Initiative and Referendum _make
towards_ Socialism and are the surest way in the end, but urged that
they are "also the longest way," and wrote in the _Social-Democratic
Herald_:--

"The real class conscious proletariat is still in a minority, and
liable to stay so for a time to come. It can only show results by
fighting as a well-organized, compact mass.

"But the i