FOOTNOTE:
[AF] The Supreme Court sustained the action of the military authorities, Chief Justice William H. Gabbert, Associate justice John Campbell, concurring, Associate Justice Robert W. Steele dissenting. The dissenting opinion of Justice Steele deserves a wider reading than it has received, and no doubt it will rank among the most important statements that have been made against the anarchy of the powerful and the tyranny of class government. See Report, U. S. Bureau of Labor, 1905, p. 243.
CHAPTER XII
VISIONS OF VICTORY
We left the socialists, on September 30, 1890, in the midst of jubilation over the great victory they had just won in Germany. The Iron Chancellor, with all the power of State and society in his hands, had capitulated before the moral force and mass power of the German working class. And, when the sensational news went out to all countries that the German socialists had polled 1,427,000 votes, the impulse given to the political organizations of the working class was immense. Once again the thought of labor throughout the world was centered upon those stirring words of Marx and Engels: "Workingmen of all countries, Unite!" First uttered by them in '47, repeated in '64, and pleaded for once again in '72, this call to unity began to appear in the nineties as the one supreme commandment of the labor movement. And, in truth, it is an epitome of all their teachings. It is the pith of their program and the marrow of their principles. Nearly all else can be waived. Other principles can be altered; other programs abandoned; other methods revolutionized; but this principle, program, and method must not be tampered with. It is the one and only unalterable law. In unity, and in unity alone, is the power of salvation. And under the inspiration of this call more and more millions have come together, until to-day, in every portion of the world, there are multitudes affiliated to the one and only international army. In '47 it was not yet born. In '64 efforts were made to bring it into being. In '72 it was broken into fragments. In '90 it won its first battle—its right to exist. Now, twenty-three years later, nothing could be so eloquent and impressive as the figures themselves of the rising tide of international socialism.
THE SOCIALIST AND LABOR VOTE, 1887-1913.
| ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— | |||||
| 1887 | 1892 | 1897 | 1903 | 1913 | |
| ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— | |||||
| Germany | 763,000 | 1,786,000 | 2,107,000 | 3,010,000 | 4,250,329 |
| France | 47,000 | 440,000 | 790,000 | 805,000 | 1,125,877 |
| Austria | 750,000 | 780,000 | 1,081,441 | ||
| United States | 2,000 | 21,000 | 55,000 | 223,494 | 931,406 |
| Italy | 26,000 | 135,000 | 300,000 | 825,280 | |
| Australia | 678,012 | ||||
| Belgium | 320,000 | 457,000 | 464,000[AG] | 600,000 | |
| Great Britain | 55,000 | 100,000 | 373,645 | ||
| Finland | 10,000 | 320,289 | |||
| Russia | 200,000 | ||||
| Sweden | 723 | 10,000 | 170,299 | ||
| Norway | 7,000 | 30,000 | 124,594 | ||
| Denmark | 8,000 | 20,000 | 32,000 | 53,000 | 107,015 |
| Switzerland | 2,000 | 39,000 | 40,000 | 70,000 | 105,000 |
| Holland | 1,500 | 13,000 | 38,000 | 82,494 | |
| New Zealand | 44,960 | ||||
| Spain | 5,000 | 14,000 | 23,000 | 40,725 | |
| Bulgaria | 25,565 | ||||
| Argentina | 54,000 | ||||
| Chile | 18,000 | ||||
| Greece | 26,000 | ||||
| Canada | 10,780 | ||||
| Servia | 9,000 | ||||
| Luxembourg | 4,000 | ||||
| Portugal | 3,308 | ||||
| Roumania | 2,057 | ||||
| ——————— | ————————— | ————————— | ————————— | —————————— | |
| Total | 823,500 | 2,657,723 | 4,455,000 | 5,916,494 | 11,214,076 |
| ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— | |||||
The above table explains, in no small measure, the quiet patience and supreme confidence of the socialist. He looks upon that wonderful array of figures as the one most significant fact in the modern world. Within a quarter of a century his force has grown from 800,000 to 11,000,000. And, while no other movement in history has grown so rapidly and traversed the entire world with such speed, the socialist knows that even this table inadequately indicates his real power. For instance, in Great Britain the Labor Party has over one million dues-paying members, yet its vote is here placed at 373,645. Owing to the peculiar political conditions existing in that country, it is almost impossible for the Labor Party to put up its candidates in all districts, and these figures include only that small proportion of workingmen who have been able to cast their votes for their own candidates. The two hundred thousand socialist votes in Russia do not at all represent the sentiment in that country. Everything there militates against the open expression, and, indeed, the possibility of any expression, of the actual socialist sentiment. In addition, great masses of workingmen in many countries are still deprived of the suffrage, and in nearly all countries the wives of these men are deprived of the suffrage. Leaving, however, all this aside, and taking the common reckoning of five persons to each voter, the socialist strength of the world to-day cannot be estimated at less than fifty million souls.
