alists believe: "So soon as Socialism becomes popular,
great statesmen and philosophers will arise and take their stand boldly
with the people in their fight for industrial freedom."[1179] There are
more than 2,000,000 trade unionists in Great Britain, and Socialism is
spreading rapidly among them. "Already the working-class movement is
largely a Socialistic movement and is in continual process of becoming
more so."[1180] The political character of the trade unionists is
changing owing to the influence of Socialism and of the new unions.
"The differences between the 'old' and 'new' unions are becoming more
and more accentuated. The former adhere to the 'No politics' cry,
_i.e._ no working-class politics, and still pin their faith to the
Liberal or even Tory party; while the latter, like their Continental
comrades, understand that their emancipation can only be achieved by
means of political action as a class."[1181] "It is not possible for
the working-class movement to dissociate itself from the Socialists, or
from Socialism, because Socialism, however vaguely the fact may yet be
recognised, is as essentially the political expression of that movement
as Toryism was the political expression of landlordism and Liberalism
is that of the bourgeoisie. In other words, there can be no
working-class movement as such without Socialism."[1182] "It is true
that the present Parliamentary Labour party is committed to
independence on 'Labour questions only,' but no one has yet defined
what is a 'Labour question,' and still less has anyone attempted to
show what political questions are not labour questions."[1183] The
letters printed on pages 141-143 of this book show that Socialism and
Labour are commingling.

Socialism and Socialist influence have grown far more rapidly in Great
Britain than is generally known. Their growth can be gauged not so
much by the result of the General Election of 1906, and of some
startling by-election results, as by the reports of the Socialist
societies, and especially by the sale of their literature. Therefore
the following facts indicating the growth of British Socialism should
prove to be of considerable interest.

The Independent Labour Party reported at its yearly meeting held at
Derby on April 1 and 2, 1907:

"No department of our activities has been more encouraging in its work
this year than that of literature. Last year our literature sales
amounted to _1,200l._, which was _600l._ more than t