iews expressed in the satirical distich of the poet's
fancy and the blood-curdling cartoon of the artist's invention are no
longer the potent appeals to prejudice they once were.

The reason for the changed attitude of the public toward the Socialist
movement and the Socialist ideal lies in the growth of the movement
itself. There are many who would change the order of this proposition
and say that the growth of the Socialist movement is a result of the
changed attitude of the public mind toward it. In a sense, both views
are right. Obviously, if the public mind had not revised its judgments
somewhat, we should not have attained our present strength and
development; but it is equally obvious that if we had not grown, if we
had remained the small and feeble band we once were, the public mind
would not have revised its judgments much, if at all. It is easy to
enlist prejudice against a small body of men and women when they have no
powerful influence, and to misrepresent and vilify them.

But it is otherwise when that small body has grown into a great body
with far-reaching influence and power. So long as the Socialist movement
in America consisted of a few poor workingmen in two or three of the
largest cities, most of them foreigners, it was very easy for the
average man to accept as true the wildest charges brought against them.
But when the movement grew and developed a powerful organization, with
branches in almost every city, and a well-conducted press of its own, it
became a very different matter. The sixteen years from 1888 to 1904 saw
the Socialist vote in the United States grow steadily from 2068 in the
former year to 442,402 in the latter. Europe and America together had in
1870 only about 30,000 votes, but by 1906 the number had risen to
considerably over 7,000,000. These figures constitute a vital challenge
to the thoughtful and earnest men and women of the world.

It is manifestly impossible for a great world-wide movement, numbering
its adherent by millions, and having for its advocates many of the
foremost thinkers, artists, and poets of the world, to be based upon
either sordid selfishness or murderous hate and envy. If that were true,
if it were possible for such a thing to be true, the most gloomy
forebodings of the pessimist would fall far short of the real measure of
Humanity's impending doom. It is estimated that no less than thirty
million adults are at present enrolled in the ranks of the Socialists