Workmen's advocate., 1886-12-12
THE SOCIALIST SPIRIT.
Ertraet from GroniundS "Co-operatirs
 COnlnOa,ceuHh."
CONTINUED FROM LAST WEEK l


 Through them their fellow workers are sure of getting Socialist hearts-the So- clalist heads will come in due time. And bear in mind, that 1t is these organized labor battalonS that are to form the lever by means of which the new ideas are to move Society.
 Just on account of these organizations, and because they will become invaluable skeletons on the establishment of the New Order tas we have emphasized in another place we think that the United States, but particularly Great Britain, are nearer the realization of Socialism than generally supposed.
 Most Americans remember the rising of the workingmen in July, 1877. That rising was to Socialists, also to those who held aloof from it, a most promising sign. The first revolt of American white slaves against their task masters
 That it was accompanied by eXcesses by the most neglected stratum of Society was unfortunate but unavoidable. This stratum is just the worst heritage which capitalism leaves on our hand.
 In very short time we shall have another series of years of hard time. Remember what we said about Crises in the second chapter We expect an- other revolt then, more serious than the first. That most likely will also be sup pressed with comparative ease.
 A few more years elapse. Another "crisis," yet more severe, shows its hide 0us head. The screws of distress are turned yet more on the wage-workers. Another most serious revolt. Possibly powder and shot will suppress that, too.
 But in the fulness of time we shall have a labor revolt that will not be put down. Then is the time for the energetic Social ist minority to exert its intluepce. There is nothing that the people in such crisis hail more than leaders. nothing they hunger and thirst more after than clear-cut definite solutions.
 All the horrors of the French Revolu- tion and the sad fact that Napoleon the First became necessity were due to the circumstance that the revolution had no leaders. We do not mean to say that the revolution was a failure, for it did accomplish every one of its objects: the abolition of privi- leges, the dispossession of the land owners and free competition, but the price paid was eXorbitant.
 In our civil war, on the other hand, it was the abolitionists that successfully assumed the leadership, and probably exerted all the influence to which they were entitled.
 That the Socialist minority must do when the crisis comes, and make out of revolt-another revolution.
 Be confident that the people win follow. In such times men become awake, shake off nightmares; the experience of years is crowded into hours Novelties which at first sight inspire dread become in few days familiar, then endurable, then attractive.
 That is one way in which Socialism may be realized.
 Again, we have heard of the "anti- monopoly" movement That is war, political and otherwise, of one class of tleecers against another class of tieecers; of industrial and mercantile cannibals against moneyed and corporate canni- bals. There is no love lost between the two classes, just as little as between two 1 NtIltdDlt NO one CtlI tell LO what eXtremites the war between them may not go. But the following cores pondence to the New York Sun from Titusville, Pa, of Nov. 4th, 1878, may give us an idea of possible comi.,g events:
 ''The fact is, the State of Pennsylva- mia has had a narrow escape from an in- ternal civil war Had certain men given the word, there would have been an outbreak that contemplated the seizure of the railroads and running them, the capture and control of the United Pipe Lines property, and in all probability the burning of all the property of the Stand ard Oil Company in the region. The men who would have done this, and may do it yet. are aOt idL0rers or trdntps.
 The Coming Revolution may arise out of similar struggle between our feec- ing classes. Revolutions. however, have no precedents. The wisest of us may err as much as Ulrich Von Hutten did in the days preceding the Reformation, Ulrich was far in advance of Luther when the latter took hold of his mission. Then he wrote in letter, still extant, to the effect that he heard that a monk had become rebellious. 1t de. lights me, he wrote in substance. "to hear of rebellion in the bosom of Holy Mother Church. How 1 wish the two parties may tear each other to pieces Y Yet 1t was just Luther and not the clear. sighted nobleman whom the logic of events selected as its organ. : Just as impossible it IS to say, when we may expect the Coming Revolution, But is worth rehect'ng on, that a prudent man iii 1853 would hardly have taken upon himself to foretell the abolition of slavery in 1885.
 But the Great Change is coming. In the words of Carlyle: IVY III not one French Revolution o,,f