' you, on the contrary, say, 'We ought to get power at
once, or else give up the fight.' While we draw the attention of the
German workman to the undeveloped state of the proletariat in Germany,
you flatter the national spirit and the guild prejudices of the German
artisans in the grossest manner, a method of procedure without doubt the
more popular of the two. Just as the democrats made a sort of fetish of
the words 'the people,' so you make one of the word 'proletariat.' Like
them, you substitute revolutionary phrases for revolutionary
evolution."[18] This statement of Marx is one of the most significant
documents of the period and certainly one of the most illuminating we
possess of Marx's determination to disavow the insurrectionary ideas
then so prevalent throughout Europe. Although he had said the same thing
before in other words, there could be no longer any doubt that he
cherished no dreams of a great revolutionary cataclysm, nor fondled the
then prevalent theory that revolutions could be organized, planned, and
executed by will power alone.

It is clear, therefore, that Marx saw, as early as 1850, little
revolutionary promise in sectarian organizations, secret societies, and
political conspiracies. The day was past for insurrections, and a real
revolution could only arrive as a result of economic forces and class
antagonisms. And it is quite obvious that he was becoming more and more
irritated by the sentimentalism and dress-parade revolutionism of the
socialist sects. He looked upon their projects as childish and
theatrical, that gave as little promise of changing the world's history
as battles between tin soldiers on some nursery floor. He seemed no
longer concerned with ideals, abstract rights, or "eternal verities."
Those who misunderstood him or were little associated with him were
horrified at what they thought was his cynical indifference to such
glorious visions as liberty, fraternity, and equality. Like Darwin, Marx
was always an earnest seeker of facts and forces. He was laying the
foundations of a scientific socialism and dissecting the anatomy of
capitalism in pursuit of the laws of social evolution. The gigantic
intellectual labors of Marx from 1850 to 1870 are to-day receiving due
attention, and, while one after another of the later economists has been
forced reluctantly to acknowledge his genius, few now will take issue
with Professor Albion W. Small when he says, "I confidently predict that
in t