ressman, and elected labor-union members as five
of the twelve Socialist councilmen, thus revealing the sympathy of the
working class for the cause. On January 1, 1912, over three hundred
towns and cities had one or more Socialist officers. The estimated
Socialist vote of these localities was 1,500,000. The 1039 Socialist
officers included 56 mayors, 205 aldermen and councilmen, and 148 school
officers. This was not a sectional vote but represented New England and
the far West, the oldest commonwealths and the newest, the North and the
South, and cities filled with foreign workingmen as well as staid towns
controlled by retired farmers and shopkeepers.

When the United States entered the Great War, the Socialist party became
a reservoir for all the unsavory disloyalties loosened by the shock
of the great conflict. Pacifists and pro-Germans found a common refuge
under its red banner. In the New York mayoralty elections in 1917 these
Socialists cast nearly one-fourth of the votes, and in the Wisconsin
senatorial election in 1918 Victor Bergen, their standard-bearer, swept
Milwaukee, carried seven counties, and polled over one hundred thousand
votes. On the other hand, a large number of American Socialists, under
the leadership of William English Walling and John Spargo, vigorously
espoused the national cause and subordinated their economic and
political theories to their loyalty.

The Socialists have repeatedly attempted to make official inroads upon
organized labor. They have the sympathy of the I.W.W., the remnant of
the Knights of Labor, and the more radical trades unions, but from the
American Federation of Labor-they have met only rebuff. A number
of state federations, especially in the Middle West, not a few city
centrals, and some sixteen national unions, have officially approved
of the Socialist programme, but the Federation has consistently refused
such an endorsement.

The political tactics assumed by the Federation discountenance a
distinct labor party movement, as long as the old parties are willing to
subserve the ends of the unions. This self-restraint does not mean that
the Federation is not "in politics." On the contrary, it is constantly
vigilant and aggressive and it engages every year in political maneuvers
without, however, having a partisan organization of its own. At its
annual conventions it has time and again urged local and state branches
to scrutinize the records of legislative candidates and t