gaining full political _supremacy_ by a
revolution (peaceful or otherwise) that they are to socialize industry
step by step. Marx and his successors do not advise the working people
to concentrate their efforts on the centralization of the instruments of
production in the hands of governments as they now are (capitalistic),
but only _after_ they have become completely transformed into the tools
of the working people "organized as the ruling class," to use Marx's
expression.[93]

The central idea of the "reformist" Socialists is, on the contrary, that
before Socialism has captured any government, and even before it has
become an imminent menace, it is necessary that Socialists should take
the lead in the work of social reform, and should devote their energies
very largely to this object. It is recognized that capitalistic or
non-Socialist reformers have taken up many of the most urgent reforms
and will take up more of them, and that being politically more powerful
they are in a better position to put them into effect. But the
"reformist" Socialists, far from allowing this fact to discourage them,
allege it as the chief reason why they must also enter the field. The
non-Socialist reformers, they say, are engaged in a popular work, and
the Socialists must go in, help to bring about the reforms, and claim
part of the credit. They then propose to attribute whatever success they
may have gained, not to the fact that they also have become reformers
like the rest, but to the fact that they happen to be Socialists. The
non-Socialist reformers, they say again, are gaining a valuable
experience in government; the Socialists must go and do likewise.
Reforms which were steps in capitalism thus become to them steps in
Socialism. It is not the fashion of "reformists" to try to claim that
they are very great steps--on the contrary, they usually belittle them,
but it is believed that agitation for such reforms as capitalist
governments allow, is the best way to gain the public ear, the best kind
of political practice, the most fruitful mode of activity.

One of the leading American Socialist weeklies has made a very clear and
typical statement of this policy:--

"_If we leave the field of achievement to the reformer, then it is
going to be hard to persuade people that reform is not sufficient.
If Socialists take every step forward as part of a general
revolutionary program_, and never fail to point out that these