ement--such as certain Socialist
aldermen--seem to have lost the road altogether until even Mr. Berger
has been forced to call a halt. For the leader of a "political machine,"
to use Mr. Berger's own expression, may allow himself certain liberties;
but when his followers do the same, disintegration is in sight. Witness
Mr. Berger's words, written only a few weeks after the Socialist victory
in Milwaukee; words which seem to indicate that the tendencies he
complains of were the direct result, not of slow degeneration, but of
the local Party's reformistic teachings and campaign methods:--

"The most dangerous part of the situation is that some of our
comrades seem to forget that we are a Socialist Party.

"They not only begin to imitate the ways and methods of the old
parties, but even their reasoning and their thoughts are getting to
be more bourgeois and less proletarian. To some of these men the
holding of the office--whatever the office may be--seems to be the
final aim of the Socialist Party. These poor sticks do not know
that there are many Socialists who deplore that the necessity of
electing and appointing officeholders will make it twice as hard to
keep the Socialist Party pure in this country, than in other
countries where the movement is relieved of this duty and danger.

"And even some of the aldermen seem to have lost their Socialist
class consciousness--if they ever had any."

It is difficult to see how Mr. Berger can expect to maintain respect for
principles that he teaches and applies so loosely himself. It is,
furthermore, difficult to understand how he expects submission to the
decisions of his organization when he himself has been on the verge of
revolt both against the national and international movement. He has
always avowed his profound disagreement with the methods of the
Socialists in practically every State but his own. He and his associates
were at one moment so far from the national and international principle
that they sought to support a non-Socialist candidate for judge--on the
specious ground that no Socialist was nominated. But the National
Congress condemned and forbade such action by an overwhelming majority.
Mr. Berger's unwillingness to act with his organization even went so far
at one point that he was punished by a temporary suspension from the
National Executive Committee. And, finally, he even threatened in
Soci