... Democracy is in _principle_ the suppression of class
government, though it is not yet the _actual_ suppression of
classes."[213]

Democracy, as we have hitherto known it, opposes class _government_, but
countenances the existence of classes. Socialism insists that as long as
social classes exist, class government will continue. The aim of
Socialism, "the end of class struggles and class rule," is not only
democratic, but the only means of giving democracy any real meaning.

"It is only the proletariat" (wage earners), writes Kautsky, "that has
created a great social ideal, the consummation of which will leave only
one source of income, _i.e._ labor, will abolish rent and profit, will
put an end to class and other conflicts, and put in the place of the
class struggle the solidarity of man. This is the final aim and goal of
the class struggle by the Socialist Party. The political representatives
of the class interests of the proletariat thus become representative of
the highest and most general interests of humanity."[214]

It is expected that nearly all social classes, though separated into
several groups to-day, will ultimately be thrown together by economic
evolution and common interests into two large groups, the capitalists
and their allies on the one side, and the anti-capitalists on the other.
The final and complete victory of the latter, it is believed, can alone
put an end to this great conflict. But in the meanwhile, even before our
capitalist society is overthrown and class divisions ended, the very
fusing together of the several classes that compose the anti-capitalist
party is bringing about a degree of social harmony not seen before.

Already the Socialists have succeeded in this way in harmonizing a large
number of conflicting class interests. The skilled workingmen were
united for the first time with the unskilled when the latter, having
been either ignored or subordinated in the early trade unions, were
admitted on equal terms into the Socialist parties. Then the often
extremely discontented salaried and professional men of small incomes,
having been won by Socialist philosophy, laid aside their sense of
superiority to the wage earners and were absorbed in large numbers.
Later, many agricultural laborers and even agriculturists who did all
their own work, and whose small capital brought them no return, began to
conquer their suspicion of the city wage workers. And, finally, many of
those small busi