e Socialist Party of the
United States.

[229] _Die Neue Zeit_, June 16 and 30, 1911.

[230] A. M. Simons, "The American Farmer," pp. 160-162.

[231] The 1908 Convention of the Socialist Party of the United States.

[232] Reprinted at frequent intervals by the _Industrial Democrat,_
Oklahoma City.

[233] Mr. Simons's resolution also contains another proposition,
seemingly at variance with this, which would postpone Socialist action
indefinitely:--

"In the field of industry what the Socialist movement demands is the
social ownership and control of the socially operated means of
production, not of all means of production. Only to a very small extent
is it [the land] likely to be, for many years to come, a socially
operated means of production."

On the contrary, it would seem that "State Socialism," the basis on
which Socialists must build, to say nothing of Socialism, will bring
about a large measure of government ownership of land in the interest of
the farmer of the individually operated farm. Socialism, it is true,
requires besides government ownership, governmental operation, and
recognizes that this is practicable only as fast as agriculture becomes
organized like other industries. In the meanwhile it recognizes either
in gradual government ownership or in the taxation of the unearned
increment, the most progressive steps that can be undertaken by a
capitalist government and supports them _even where there is no
large-scale production or social operation_. For "wherever individual
ownership is an agency of exploitation," to quote Mr. Simons's own
resolution, "then such ownership is opposed by Socialism," _i.e.
wherever labor is employed_.

The Socialist solution, it is true, can only come with "social
operation," but that does not mean that Socialism has nothing to say
to-day. It still favors the reforms of collectivist capitalism. Where
extended national ownership of the land is impracticable there remains
the taxation of the future unearned increment. To drop this "demand"
also is to subordinate Socialism completely to small-scale capitalism.

CHAPTER III

SOCIALISM AND THE "WORKING CLASS"

If the majority of Socialists are liberal in their conception of what
constitutes the "working class," they are equally broad in their view as
to what classes must be reckoned among its opponents. They are aware
that on the other side in this struggle will be found all those classes
that are willing to s