the existence of a
Socialist movement. The Socialism of this movement has never consisted
in ready-made formulas which were later subjected to "the comparative
test of experience"; it has always grown out of the experience of the
movement in the first instance.

Another typical article, in _Collier's Weekly_, admits that Socialism
is now a movement. But as the writer, like so many others, conceives of
Socialism as having been, in its inception, a "theory," a "doctrine"
promoted by "Utopian dreaming," "incendiary rhetoric," an "anti-civic
jargon," he naturally views it with little real sympathy and
understanding even in its present form. The same Socialism that was
accused of all this narrowness is suddenly and completely transformed
into a movement of such breadth that it has neither a new message nor
even a separate existence.

"It is merely a new offshoot of a very old faith indeed," we are now
told, "the ideal of the altruistic dreamers of all ages, an awakened
sense of brotherhood in men. Stripped of all its husks, Socialism stands
for no other aim than that. All its other teachings, the public
ownership of the land, for example, the nationalization of the means of
production and distribution, the economic emancipation of woman, have
only program values, as they lead to that one end. Whether, so stripped,
it ceases to be Socialism and becomes merely the advance guard of the
world-wide liberal movement is not, of course, a question of more than
academic interest."[6]

The moment it can no longer be denied that Socialism is a movement, it
is at once confused with other movements to which it is fundamentally
and irreconcilably opposed. Surely this is no mere mental error, but a
deep-seated and irrepressible aversion to what is to many a disagreeable
truth,--the rapid growth and development, in many countries, of
political parties and labor organizations more and more seriously
determined to annihilate the power of private property over industry and
government.

The radical misconceptions above quoted, almost universal where
Socialism is still young, are by no means confined to non-Socialists.
Many writers who are supposed, in some degree at least, to voice the
movement, are as guilty as those who wholly repudiate it. Mr. H. G.
Wells, for instance, says that Socialism is a "system of ideas," and
that "Socialism and the Socialist movement are two different things."[7]
If Socialism is indeed no more than a "growing