The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1913-09-20
OF SOCIALISM
A FALLING OFF IN MEMBERSHIP
AND CONTRIBUTIONS TRoU-
BILE WITHIN THE PARTY IT.
SELF.

| Ill lie NEW IISVlSW, HERMAN S1mQ
son, the editor, publishes a leading
editorial pointing out a crisis in So
cialism in this country.
He refers to the great increase OF
the Socialist vote in 1912, in spite OF
the entrance of the Progressive party
into politics, and then shows that
since that time there has been a tire
mendous falling off in membership
and in contributions. Mr.. Simpson
says that the rise of the |. w. w. is
not responsible for the falling off, nor
was it due to popular revulsion from
the crime of the McNamaras, who
were not Socialists at all.
Mr.. Simpson thinks the trouble is in
the Socialist party itself. He thinks
that the party has become too much
of machine and has taken to ostra-
cizing certain elements instead of CO.
ordinating them in effort for the new
dispensation.
He emphasizes the significance of
the mortality among Socialist publica-
tions-the Coming Nation, the Chicago
Daily Socialist, the Cleveland Socialist,
the absorption of a Washington paper
in the Appeal to Reason, and the des-
perate plight of the publications that
survive.
William M. Reedy, in the st. Louis
Mirror, says:
"Mr. Simpson knows, and judge by
the frantic appeals of the Appeal to
Reason, that there is real difficulty
in keeping up to the standard of evan
gelistic energy that is required What
is the matter? l don't presume to be
able to give the correct answer. But
it may be that we have been mistaken
as to signs and portents. Socialism
doesn't invite Americans. 1t means
too much regulation. It attacks pri-
vate property. 1t attacks marriage.
(This is true because it is necessary
to attack marriage to get rid of pri-
vate property. Socialism is mixed up
with Syndicalism and sabotage in the
public mind.
and the acute Yankee sees under
the generalities of sentimentalist hui
manitarism the steel glove of a tyr
amy, as bad as, if not worse than that
of capitalism. So that the more So
cialist books there are read, the more
people are DETECTED from scientific
Socialism. AS for the Socialist papers,
they are hopelessly one-sided. They
are extravagantly exaggerated in all
their utterances. They are inhumanly
purposive and they are f1endishly un-
charitable. They all sound out one
note, and of that the most willing
readers weary SOON They offend
much more than they ingratiate.
'Now for the political. l think the
Socialists mistook the meaning of the
enormous increase of the vote for
Debs for president last year. Every
body who voted for Debs was not a
Socialist. / voted for half dozen
Socialist candidates for state offices
in Missouri, but / am not a Socialist
The vote for Debs was a vote signify.
ing, in large measure, nothing but con.
fusion. The excitement dies down. 1t
is natural that the Socialist party di-
minishes in size in 1913 from what
it was in 1912. And as for subscrip.
lions of cash, even in five-cent pieces
they would naturally fall off with the
cessation of spell-binding and with the
tightening of money. The l. W. w
must have lured away many of the
Socialists as result of the successful
Lawrence strike, the trials of EttoI
and Giovanniti and the Joan d'Arcism
of Miss Elizabeth Gurley Flynn. There
are enough reasons in sight, super
fetal reasons, to account for the So
cialist slump, and one that | should
not forget is, that Socialism in Office
at Milwaukee, and Schenectady an6
other places, didn't make good II
wasn't bad government, but it simply
had to play politics to try to curry
favor with the electorate, to make
compromises, and could not inaugu
rate any real Socialism"