The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-08-15
A New Force in Politics.

Macon Telegraph,
 The Independence" Party. to all ap- pearanees, is a mere bubble that will soon cease to exist. The Populist Par tv has lost ground. Neither seems likely long to remain as a refuge for the discontented voter Of the two great political organizations That refuge from now on is evidently to be fur nished by the Socialist Party, for the United States is at last beginning to feel the effect of the movement Whlch has long caused concern In E9,tops. . campaign in 1888 boiled only 2,O6S votes. Four years ago its votes mum hered 4Os 230, and since 1904 the dues paying membership of the socialist Party is said to have nearly quadruss qs pled. A vote of a million Is predicted for next November. The Socialist Far ty Is no longer regarded as one or the little freak" organizations of the coun- try but as a force in politics to be
 According to an account fin the Phil- adelphia Ledger. many voters have long been in sympathy with tne s0ciab,ss 0s shsy thought 1t worth while to become mem" bers of the organization strange as 1t may seem to some readers the new recruits are from the wealthy and Tn" tellectual classes as well as from the iabor clement Says The Ledger;
 1First among those who have recent ly come into the party snould oe men ehs
 
 group that used to be rather contemp- | tuously referred to as the "Intsllectu. l als.' A list of some of those who; last | winter, took this decisive step includes | some names that are often seen In the maRazines. Mary Heaton Worse, Mar l tha Hensley Bruere, Ernest Poole; Le" roy Scott, Edwin B1orkman William1 l a good many other writers all belong 1 fo one focal. Messrs. Robert Bruere, the socia worker: Henry Frank the lecturer Bruno Himm' .ns the Sr;tsr seIpfS5 Es mond Kelly, the lawyer, J. G. Phelps Stokes and Robert Hunter are other re- | cent additions to the party from the l 'Intellectuar ranks. inent Intellectuals' like Colonel Hig- ginson, David Graham Phillips, Charles | Edward Russell and others who are l still outside the party organization, bus those who have not yet taken the de- cisive step are in the minority today. Some of these belong to the Intercol- legiate Socialist Society. founded three years ago chiefly through the exer- lions of J. c. p Stokes. Upton Sin clair. Jack London and W. T. Ghent | These gentlemen are themselves all | party Socialists. but considerable pro- portion of the society Is not. It Is to this branch of socialism that Col. T. W. Higginson belongs.
 AS to what it will hereafter be nec- essary for those to do who dlstrust fear and would oppose Nhe new move ment in American politics, The Ledger's article very pointedly observes: "It will not do merely to proclaim againsl it in general terms of denunclation. If this country as a whole want to fight Socialism it will have to drop gilt tering generalities about the greatest menace of the age,' the evil force. de- structive of the marriag tie. the fam. fly, personal initiative and private property and all the other vagu, phrases which have answered very wei up to date. People have got to fnt just what Socialism Is. and have got to fight 1t detail by detail, if they don't ike it. It isn't a freak. 1t isn't hyste' ria, 1t isn't a buEaboo, 1t is a req force" l only necessary to remember that thir new twenty-year -old party already claims a million votes, and the Demo
 cratic and Republican parties averag, only about 5,oo0.000 votes apiece