PEKILS. — SOCIALISM. 14:3 



papers are wholly devoted to the propagation of social- 

 ism, and there are many others which are more or less 

 socialistically inclined. Some six years ago, or more. 

 President Seelye, of Amherst College, said : ' ' There are 

 probably 100,000 men in the United States to-day whose 

 animosity against all existing social institutions is hardly 

 less than boundless/' And Prof. Ely says: ^ " If I 

 wished to venture a guess, — a rash thing to do, — I should 

 say that there might be half a million adherents of the 

 general principles of moderate and peaceful sociahsm in 

 the United States." Since this opinion was expressed, 

 some five years since, the class referred to has undoubt- 

 edly had a rapid growth. 



There are many labor organizations, which are more 

 or less socialistic in their sympathies and ideas, though 

 not avowedly connected with any of the socialistic 

 parties. The Vorhote, of Chicago, says: "You might as 

 well suppose the military organizations of Europe were 

 for play and parade, as to suppose labor organizations 

 were for mere insurance and pacific helpfulness. They 

 are organized to protect interests, for which, if the time 

 comes, they would fight." But the present strength of 

 socialistic organizations in the United States concerns 

 us less than their prospective numbers. Let us look 

 at the conditions favoi-able to the growth of social- 

 ism. 



1. Most of the Internationals, the anarchic socialists, 

 and a larger proportion of the Socialistic Labor Party in 

 this country are Germans, whose numbers are con- 

 stantly being recruited by immigration. The rapid 

 increase of socialism in Germany w^ll, therefore, natur- 

 ally influence its growth here. The following statistics 

 of votes for members of the Reichstag show its increase 

 in the last twenty years. 



1 The Labor Movement in America, p. 283. 



