hat a large part of the regular Socialist
membership is composed of discontented men who have but a lukewarm
interest in collectivism, or believe that it can never be
realized.... If a change should come over Germany, if Prussia
should get rid of its plutocratic suffrage reform and give real
ballot reform, if the protective duties should be reduced in the
interest of the poorest class of consumers,--it may be safely
assumed that the tide of Socialism would soon begin to ebb."[201]

If Mr. Dreher had added the reduction of military burdens to tariff
reform and equal Reichstag election districts, an extended suffrage
for Prussia, and a responsible ministry, there would have been at
least this truth in his statement--that _if all these things were
accomplished_, the tide of Socialist _votes_ would for the moment
be checked. His interpretation of the situation, however, is
typical of the illogical statements now so commonly made concerning
the growth of the German movement. That political tide which is
wrongly assumed to be wholly Socialist would indeed be suddenly and
greatly checked; but there is no reason to suppose that the
Socialist tide proper, as indicated by growth of the Socialist
Party membership, would be checked, nor that the Socialist vote
even, after having been purified of the accidental accretions,
which are its greatest hindrance, would rise less rapidly than
before.

The German Socialist situation is important internationally for the
decisive defeat of the "revisionists," and for the light it throws on
party unity, but it is still more important for the _means_ that have
been adopted for preserving that unity. If Socialist parties are to
reconstruct society, they must first control their own members in all
matters of common concern, especially those who are elected to public
office. For before a new society can arise against the resistance of the
old, the Socialist parties, according to the prevailing Socialist view,
must form a "State within a State."

This principle is soon to be put to a severe test in the United States.
The policy which says that the Socialist movement must be directed by
organized Socialists, who can be taxed, called on for labor, or expelled
by the Party, and not by mere voters, over whom the Party has no
control, becomes of the first moment when forms and methods of
org