tion to the capitalist
class. The means by which it seeks to attain that end are: agitation,
education, and the organisation of the working class into a
class-conscious political party--that is, a party clearly conscious of
the present position of the workers as a subject class, in consequence
of all the means of production being owned and controlled by another
class, and clearly conscious of its duty and mission to free them from
that position by the conquest of all the powers of the State, and by
making all the means of production collective common property, to be
used for the benefit of all instead of for the profit of a class. To
this end the Social-Democratic Federation proclaims and preaches the
class war."[1136]

"According to the report for the year ending March 1907 it has 186
branches and affiliated societies. One of its members sits in
Parliament as a member of the Labour party, and about 120 are members
of various local bodies. Its gross income and expenditure through, out
the country is estimated at _15,500l._ It has a weekly paper,
'Justice,' and a monthly magazine, 'The Social-Democrat.'[1137] "In
its own estimation "Justice" is "the most respected of Socialist
newspapers."[1138]

The various Socialist organisations do not love each other. The Fabian
Society caustically remarks: "The Federation runs a newspaper called
'Justice' which has not hitherto been worth a penny to any man whose
pence are so scarce as a labourer's, and which has made repeated
attacks on the ordinary working-class organisations without whose
co-operation Socialists can at present do nothing except cry in the
wilderness. The branches are expected to sell this paper at their
meetings."[1139] "The Social-Democratic Federation is virtually the
oldest Socialist society and is certainly the most conservative. It
was founded as the Democratic Federation about 1880, and adopted its
present name in 1884. Mr. H.M. Hyndman, its most prominent member,
imported its doctrines--which were of German origin--and the S.D.F.
(as it is familiarly called) has ever since endeavoured to maintain an
unshaken faith in all the teachings of Karl Marx. In fact, the S.D.F.
changes its doctrines not with the times, but a dozen years or so
after; so that it is always rather out of touch with the actualities
of politics and attracts the type of mind that prefers clear-cut
principles to practical political progress."[1140]

Other Socialist organisations which a