an party in the United States were to claim
as its own all the works of the republican spirit and principles of
government in the world from the party's organization to the present
time.

Sec. 21. #Alluring claims of party socialism.# In thus changing the
emphasis of its claims, the socialist party has been somewhat put to
it to retain any clear distinction between itself and other parties of
social reform. It has done this however by continuing to proclaim the
_ultimate_ desirability of reorganizing all society without leaving
any productive wealth in private hands. It has had no misgivings
prompted by the experience of the world. Its case continues to be far
the strongest in its negative aspect, the exposure of the evils in
present society. To many natures the claims of the socialist party
have all the allurements of patent medicine advertisements. These
describe the symptoms so exactly and promise so positively to cure
the disease, that they are irresistible--especially when the regular
physicians keep insisting that the only way to get well is to take
baths and exercise, and stop the use of whisky and tobacco.

Those attracted to the socialist party by its sweeping claims are of
two main types. The one is the low-paid industrial wage-worker; the
other is the sympathetic person of education or of wealth (or of
both), who has become suddenly aroused to the misery in our industrial
order. To both of these types, feeling intensely on the subject,
the socialist party appeals as the only party with promises sweeping
enough to be attractive. The one becomes the proletarian, the
other the intellectual, the one becomes the workshop, the other the
parlor-socialist. Many of the latter type are persons overburdened
either with unearned inherited wealth or with an undigested education.
Many of them, having enjoyed for a time the interesting experience of
radical thought and of bohemianism, come later to more moderate social
opinions.

Sec. 22. #Growth and nature of the socialist vote.# In 1912 the socialist
party in the United States polled 900,000 votes in the presidential
election. The socialist parties in the various lands have almost
steadily grown, and now cast votes numbering in the aggregate six
to ten million (as variously estimated, the name socialist being
elastic). The socialist parties may be expected to continue
growing. They will ultimately gather within their folds most of
the ultra-discontented, and others th