The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-10-05
Some Confessions of HillQuit

ment by which one class maintains
its domination over another class.
In the Communist Manifesto Marx
and Engels distinctly repudiate the
contention that the Communists, the
vanguard of the proletariat are only
concerned about "the immediate eff
fects of their proposed measures"
The Manifesto states:
"The Communists are, prac-
tically, the most aggressive and
resolute section of the working
class of all Countries; they have,
theoretically, the advantage over
the great mass of the proletariat
of understanding the conditions
and the final goal of the prole-
tartan movement"
Hillquit's conception is of a
gradual growing into" socialism,
which he childishly expresses in his
Current History article and which
he reduced to absurdity in pam
phlet published by the Rand School
of Social Science in 1914, under the
title Socialism Summed Up"
wherein he compared the growth of
socialism within the capitalist state
to the development of chicken in
the egg. This stupid poultry yard
socialism certainly has nothing to
do with Marxism. In the Manifesto
il, is explicitly stated that "the first
step in the revolution by the work
ing class is the raising of the pro-
+ letariat to the position of the ruling
class. Of the manner in which this
can be realized the Manifesto says:
The Communists disdain to
conceal their views and aims.
They openly declare that their
ends can only be attained by the
forcible overthrow of existing
social conditions. Let the ruling
class tremble at a Communistic
revolution"
According to Hillquit, the ideal
form of socialist action is attained
when socialists (?) are permitted
to assume the governments of their
countries without capitalist opposi-
ton, violent or otherwise, even be-
fore they mustered a majority of
the popular suffrage or in parlia-
ment." Instead of trembling before
such Socialists" the ruling classes
of Europe welcomed Hillquit's COM
rades as loyal upholders of the
right of the capitalists to rule the
working class through terror.
Marx on Evolution.
That the judgment of the Mani
festo was not mere verbal flour
ish, a passionate appeal on the eve
of the wave of revolutions that
surged through Europe in 184S, is
proved conclusively time and again
in the writings of Marx and Engels.
Never, at any time, were they under
opportunistic illusions regarding
the necessity for decisive class ac-
ton by the proletariat in the strug-
gle to conquer the bourgeoisie.
In his famous reply to Proudhon,
in 1867, Marx set forth his posi-
ton on evolution" and revolution"
Lest Hillquit charge that this is
part of the earlier" works of Marx
which he abandoned later, I remind
him that Frederick Engels, in an
introduction written in 1884, after
the death of Marx, fully approved
that portion of his book, which is
crushing refutation of Hillquit's
contention that Marxism is "essen-
TALLY evolutionary" Said Marx:
ut is only in an order of
things in which there will no
/ longer be classes or class antag-
onism that social evolutions will
cease to be political revolutions.
Until then, on the eve of each
general reconstruction of society
the last word of social science
will ever be- Combat or death.
bloody struggle or extinction. 1t
is thus that the question is ir-
resistably put. THE Poverty
Of PhifNsc~hv" l90-l91; ,
Charles Fl. Kerr edition.
Concluded tomorrow with reply
to Hillquit's attack on Bolshevism
| and tho Soviet Union