l
government would still be in vogue, and the contradictory fundamental
principle of Socialism could not be applied by the ruling Marxians.

Persons who judge the Socialist movement solely by the immediate demands
of its political platform, or by social reforms instituted after a
political victory, understand very little either about Socialism or the
methods and purposes of the Marxians. Yet this was the short-sighted
manner in which the press persistently, and for a long time, viewed the
tactics of Socialist politicians. Only a revolutionary movement far
enough advanced to neglect gradual transformation by means of immediate
demands would be able to sweep away by force, at a single stroke, all
the old conditions of production, together with our present form of
government, and the existing order of society.

The so-called "Immediate Demands" of the Socialists may be termed
political campaign Socialism or vote-catching Socialism. They are the
sugar coating of the poisonous pill of Socialism itself. Their object is
to attract and interest the voter, and at the same time keep his mind
off of the fallacies of Socialism proper. They keep him from asking too
many unanswerable questions about the detailed method of organization
under a Socialist form of government--for instance, how the millions
upon millions of government employes would be assigned to positions that
would suit them, and at the same time receive satisfactory remuneration
for their labors.

These same immediate demands also give the voter a chance to find fault
with our present system of government and to criticise it, thereby
rendering it less able to withstand successive Socialist assaults. The
immediate demands are, of course, meant for the present day and even if
they should materialize, under our present system, they could not be
continued in a Socialist state, that would be necessarily weak,
poverty-stricken, strife-ridden, politically corrupt and chaotic. It is
one thing to make demands, quite another thing to be able to grant them.
A highway robber can demand a million dollars from the person whom he
attacks, but that doesn't make the one assaulted able to surrender the
sum; nor would it prove that the robber himself could afford to pay a
like amount if he should afterwards be held up for a million.

The immediate demands of the 1918 Congressional Platform of the
Socialist Party are entirely too many conveniently to enumerate. They
are classed under