step in that direction. Moreover, a trade
union party of the British type, whether it takes the name Socialist or
not, if it acts as rival to a genuine Socialist Party, checks the
latter's growth.

When revolutionary labor organizations composed largely of genuine
Socialists enter into politics, the situation is completely
reversed--even when such organizations take the step primarily for the
sake of their unions rather than to aid the Socialist Party. This
situation I shall consider in the following chapter.

FOOTNOTES:

[240] Eugene V. Debs, "His Life and Writings," p. 140.

[241] John Mitchell, "Organized Labor," p. 208.

[242] Miss Hughan in her "American Socialism," p. 220, quotes an
expression of mine (see the _New York Call_, March 22, 1910) in which I
said that "petty reforms never have aroused and never will arouse the
enthusiasm of the working class and do not permit of its cooeperation,
but leave everything in the hands of a few self-appointed leaders."

Miss Hughan herself points out that I have never considered all
so-called reforms as petty (see "American Socialism of the Present Day,"
p. 216) and quotes (on p. 199) an expression from the very article above
mentioned in which I define what reforms I consider are of special
importance to the wage earners, namely, those protecting the strike, the
boycott, free speech, and civil government. I even mentioned labor
legislation on a national scale. The petty reforms I referred to were
State labor laws. These will not only be carried out by non-Socialists,
but receive very little attention from active labor bodies such as the
city and State federations, which are almost wholly absorbed in the
greater and more difficult task of defending the strike, boycott, free
speech, and sometimes civil government. Labor will do everything in its
power to promote child labor laws, workingmen's compensation etc.,
except to give them its chief attention instead of the struggle for
higher wages and the rights needed to carry it on effectively. As a
consequence these matters are left to a few selfish or unselfish
persons, who are "self-appointed leaders," even when the unions consent
to leave these particular matters in their hands. For active cooeperation
of the masses in the legal, economic, and political intricacies of such
legislation is not only undesirable, but impossible under the present
system of society and government. Labor must govern itself through
instructed _