anization are prescribed for all parties by law. By the primary laws
of a number of States, anybody who for any reason has voted for
Socialist candidates may henceforth have a voice not only in selecting
candidates, but in forming the party organization, and in constructing
its platform. In some States even, any citizen may vote at any primary
he pleases. This makes it possible for capitalist politicians to direct
or disrupt the Socialist Party at any moment, until the time arrives
when it has secured a majority or a very large part of the electorate,
not only as Socialist voters, but as members of the Socialist
organization. As Socialists do not expect this to happen for some years
to come, or until the social revolution is at hand, it is evident that
this new legislation may destroy Socialist parties as they have been,
and necessitate the direction of Socialist politics by leagues or
political committees of Socialist labor unions--while the present
Socialist parties become Populist or Labor parties of the Australian
type. _This might create a revolution for the better in that it would
free the new Socialist organization from office seeking and other forms
of political corruption._ But it would at the same time mark the
complete abandonment of the present Socialist method, _i.e._ the strict
control of all persons elected to office by an independent organization
which in turn controls its conditions of admission to membership.

One of the most widely circulated of the leaflets issued from the
national headquarters of the American Socialist Party, entitled
"Socialist Methods" appeals for public support largely on the ground
that "in nominating candidates for public offices the Socialists require
the nominee to sign a resignation of the office with blank date, which
is placed in the hands of the local organization to be dated and
presented to the proper officer in case the candidate be elected and
fails to adhere to the platform, constitution, or mandates of the
membership."

The newer primary laws taken in connection with the recall, as practiced
in many American cities and several States, threaten this most valuable
of all Socialist methods and may even undermine the Socialist Party as
at present organized. The initiative in this process of disruption
comes, of course, from Socialist officeholders who owe either their
nomination or their election or both, in part at least, to declared
non-Socialists, and still more lar