The independent-reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1909-1955, 1912-11-21
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER, 81, 1912
A Party Of the Times

The exact figures giving the total
vote of the Socialist Party of Ameri-
ca Is not yet at hand and conse-
auently ii would be unwise to hazard
an attempt to argue intelligently the
real significance of the vote. in
creased or decreased here and there,
as compared with that of four years
ago. But the returns are sufficiently
complete TO show that the total vote
polled this year Is a surprisingly
heavy one. and this fact may he sufii-
Gent ground for one or two genera!
observations respecting this Party
and its present voting strength.
Time was when the very term So
eialism carried with it suggestion
of anarchy. It connoted red flags,
Incorporate language, bombs, and
general destruction of government
Time was when a member of the So
cialist Party was stunned by his as
sociates outside the party as one I'M
fit for pleasant company; he was in
the nature of menace to society and
the hangmans rope was frequently
suggested as a proper method of re-
moving dangerous characters from
the society of honest folks. No So
eialist in those older days-How old?
whether he spoke nationally about
the tenets of his party's faith or
talked learnedly and we'll about the
administration of government, ever
received fair hearing from his rel-
lows. Such was the connotative pow
or of Socialism.
But times have changed-and how
they are changing! Socialism has
lost very much if-not all of its ter
rors 1t no longer suggests red tags,
and Incorporate speech. bombs and
general destruction. Thus rapidly
has the nation grown to a full APP
probation of the faith of honest God
fearing men and women. Socialism
suggests to-day, at least to the aver
age mind, a certain form OF govern
ment, or government administered af-
ter certain laws of general applida-
ton. 1t suggests an attempt on the
part of many earnest thinking mon
and women to rid society of many OF.
its worst ills, embracing an attempt
to establish this society upon
broader basis of human rights, with
greater recognition of the rights of
the workingman.
Along with this change in the con-
notative power of the term Socialism
has gone saner methods of Socialists
lin getting their faith before the peo-
pie and In winning adherents to their
party standard They have organized
themselves into better fighting form
they have gone at their problem, that
of propagating party and princi-
ple. by a system of careful study, un-
TIL, if we may compare a little. they
are far better educated on the tenets
of their faith than are many Older
and apparently wiser advocates oil
other parties and other partisan prin-
ciples. They have grown in wisdom
and with wisdom has come increasing
numbers.
1t would seem from the, insufficient
figures at hand and from a study OF
the times that the Socialist Party had
come to stay. A one hundred per
cent increase in total vote over that
of 1908 is significant of this fact at
least. No one Is so unwise to de-
clare that the Socialists are without
judgment and reason in their faith.
They are right in much that they
preach for human betterment. III
they hold up an Utopian scheme for
society this is not to be charged up
against them; it is decidedly In their
favor. The party without vision is
dead. The joining of theory to prac-
tice ON a scale sufficiently broad to
determine the wisdom of the theory