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The above table explains, in no small measure, the quiet patience and
supreme confidence of the socialist. He looks upon that wonderful array
of figures as the one most significant fact in the modern world. Within
a quarter of a century his force has grown from 800,000 to 11,000,000.
And, while no other movement in history has grown so rapidly and
traversed the entire world with such speed, the socialist knows that
even this table inadequately indicates his real power. For instance, in
Great Britain the Labor Party has over one million dues-paying members,
yet its vote is here placed at 373,645. Owing to the peculiar political
conditions existing in that country, it is almost impossible for the
Labor Party to put up its candidates in all districts, and these figures
include only that small proportion of workingmen who have been able to
cast their votes for their own candidates. The two hundred thousand
socialist votes in Russia do not at all represent the sentiment in that
country. Everything there militates against the open expression, and,
indeed, the possibility of any expression, of the actual socialist
sentiment. In addition, great masses of workingmen in many countries are
still deprived of the suffrage, and in nearly all countries the wives of
these men are deprived of the suffrage. Leaving, however, all this
aside, and taking the common reckoning of five persons to each voter,
the socialist strength of the world to-day cannot be estimated at less
than fifty million souls.

Coming to the parliamentary strength of the socialists, we find the
table on the following page illuminating.

SOCIALIST AND LABOR REPRESENTATIVES IN PARLIAMENT.

Number of Seats Per
in Lower House. Cent.
Total Socialist. Socialist
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Australia 75 41 54.61
Finland 200 90 45.00
Sweden 165 64 38.79
Denmark 114 32 28.07
Germany 397 110 27.71
Belgium 186 39 20.96
Norway 123 23 18.70
Holland 100 17 17.00
Austria 516 82 15.89
Italy 508 78 15.35
Luxembourg 53 7 13.21
France 597