Albuquerque morning journal., 1910-12-28
REvoLuTIoNIsM.


Berger Of Milwaukee and his adher
ents stands was that made recently
by Rev. Dr. ]. Wesley Hin, pastor OF
the Metropolitan Temple. in New
York. and one of the prominent
Methodist diyines of that city. DIR
Hill took up the assertion attributed
TO Berger that the Catholic church
is the only barrier TO socialism," and
appealed TO the Protestant churches
TO repudiate the stigma that they we're
Indifferent 10 the menace Of such men
as Berger, and his ideas.
1T was not socialism," said DR..
Hill, that won the day In Milwau-
kee, but mere plan of municipal re-
form such as has become familiar
throughout several cities OF the
country in the last ten years. Berger
and his followers did not dare go be-
fore the people OF Milwaukee on a
platform of genuine, simon pure So
cialism, with all that IL implies to the
institutions of property. religion and
the family. He made socialism fit the
occasion, not the occasion fit social
ism. TO such extremes did he and
his followers go In their mad pursuit
of votes that since then hot Goals of
criticism have been heaped on their
heads.
among those socialists who have
become incensed at his methods and
have shown an inclination to read him
out of the party are Anson Phelps
Stokes and his wife. The former Bit
terly criticised the compromised tac-
tics OF the Berger machine of Mil
waukee at a dinner held by the Col
lectivists' society In this city two
weeks ago. Mrs. Stokes was even
more critical. In an open letter to
Victor Berger, published in the New
York Can. she asked him this ques-
tion: why did you compromise ?
Were you merely looking for office? /?
or was Il because the comet vote in
had a non-socialist body
and you feared to tie the disgraceful
tin can OF socialism to the tail lest it,
the tail, not the tin can---break OFF,
"These shots went home, for In the
very next issue of Berger's paper he
his followers that the
time had come to leave off the mask
of municipal reformsm. SO well
Needed were his words that the state
Of the party. held a few
days afterwards. adopted constitu-
tion In which the socialists OF the
state reaffirmed their allegiance TO
the international movement. In this
they demanded. first, the taking over
of all property and making II the COM
mon possession Of the poistariat. How
they are to do so no word Is vouch-
safed us. They did not stop here. They |
demanded also that the federal con-
and the constitutions of each
Of the forty-seven states be abolished |
reduced TO scrap paper.
"what now must those voters of
not actually socialists
think Of their judgment in having |
given their confidence to a party that
breathes revolution at every pore, as
It's latest and more orthodox utter
ances show?
This convention was under the |
master hand of Berger. and we read
In his paper that he II was who urged |
The adoption Of the plank demanding |
the abolition of the organic law of
The country. Those who have known |
lhe man and have known for what /
his movement everywhere stands are /
not surprised by these declarations of /
purpose. For in this not the Berger
who in the national convention of the /
socialist party In 1908, according to
The official reports of that gathering.
declared:
~ have no doubt that in the last
analysis We must shoot. and when Il |
comes 10 shooting. Wisconsin win be
there. We always make gooti,'"