y to enforce this selfish
demand by means of the cowardly weapons of the assassin.

Both these views are now, happily, well-nigh extinct. There is still a
great deal of misconception of the meaning of Socialism; the ignorance
concerning it which is manifested upon every hand is often
disheartening, but neither of these puerile misrepresentations is
commonly encountered in serious discussion. It is true that the average
newspaper editorial confounds Socialism with Anarchism, often enlisting
the prejudice which exists against the most violent forms of Anarchism
in attacking Socialism, though the two systems of thought are
fundamentally opposed to each other; it is likewise true that Socialists
are not infrequently asked to explain their supposed intention to have a
great general "dividing-up day" for the equal distribution of all the
wealth of the nation. The Chancellor of a great American university
returns from a sojourn in Norway, and naively hastens to inform the
world that he has "refuted" Socialism by asking the members of some
poor, struggling sect of Communists what would happen to their scheme of
equality if babies should be born after midnight of the day of the equal
division of wealth!

Recognizing it to be the supreme issue of the age, the Republican Party,
in its national platform,[1] defines Socialism as meaning equality of
ownership as against equality of opportunity, notwithstanding the fact
that every recognized exponent of Socialism would deny that Socialism
means equality of ownership, or that it goes beyond equality of
opportunity; that the voluminous literature of Socialism teems with
unequivocal and unmistakable disavowals of any desire for the periodic
divisions of property and wealth which alone could make equality of
ownership possible for brief periods.

Still, when all this has been said, it must be added that these
criticisms do not represent the attitude of the mass of people toward
the Socialist movement to the same extent as they once did. In serious
discussions of the subject among thinking people it is becoming quite
rare to encounter either of the two criticisms named. Most of those who
seriously and honestly discuss the subject know that modern Socialism
comprehends neither assassination nor the equal division of wealth. The
enormous interest manifested in Socialism during recent years and the
steady growth of the Socialist vote throughout the world bear witness to
the fact that the v