THE GROWTH OF SOCIALISM.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 230, 26 September 1906, Page 4

THE GROWTH OF SOCIALISM.

The Congress of Social Democrats which has just been opened at Mannheim is a highly significant sign of the times. That a gathering of 10,000 advocates of a policy deliberately and ostentatiously opposed to the Imperialistic ideals of the Kaiser should be permitted in Germany, is in itself a remarkable indication of the success that the socialists have already achieved, even in the stronghold of continental despotism. But the CongTess stands for a great deal more than the eighty-two Social Democrats in the German Reichstag or the three million voters who sent them there. Representatives* of the workers of all civilised nations are ga.thered together in this assemblage to-com-pare gains and losses, to afford mutual sympathy and help, and to organise a policy for the future. The most impressive fact about continental Socialism to-day is that it is cosmopolitan. The Social Democrats know no distinction of race or creed, they are prepared to welcome and to assist all who will meet them on the common ground of social reform, aud will join them in their resolute efforts to secure for the world's workers a reasonable share in the products of their toiL For in spite of the portentous names that some of the socialistic organisations have assumed, the Social Democracy advocated by Bebel in Germany, and by Jaures in France does not aim at much more than the workers of NewZealand and Australia have already secured for themselves. It is true that the theory of .Social Democracy involves the nationalisation of most of the sources of public wealth and the extension of the functions of Government far beyond the limits hitherto fixed for them in the Old World. But'Bebel and his friends regard these objects as an ultimate ideal, to be realised only in some distant future. Meantime they keep steadily before their eyea as their immediate end the amelioration of the condition of the workers by every means that conic 'Within the scope of practical polities. The great majority of the Social Democrats, it cannot be too often repeated, arc working for the results that we have already seen secured by Democratic Liberalism in these colonies, and though the name of Socialism is still to many ears ominous of evil, we should not forget that its purposes aud ideals are ii-p to a certain point identical with those that the people of New Zealand have adopted as their own. Nor do the Social Democrats as a body advocate any but peaceful means for the attainment of their objects. Bebel and Singer and Jaures and Vollmar are all strenuous supporters of parliamentary and constitutional methods of reform; and it is through the -ballot-box, not by means of bombs and barricades that they hope to accomplish the great social revolution which is to secure for all men the rights aud liberties that alone make life worth living.

There is of course one obvious and striking exception to the general statement that we have just made; but the circumstances that have produced it are themselves exceptional if Dot unique in the "world's history. Among the delegates who are attending the Mannheim Congress arc Russians and Poles who have come professedly to gain sympathy for their country now struggling in the throes of revolution. Oui> cables inform ■as fhat these membeu* <rf ta&.ponisrgnoei.

liaVfi. 4 gilfeai sensation by assuring -fctieii- sociniistic f riexwls -fcticffc "fciae -workers of Kassia are assiduously preparing tafiftW W a W eonflU ■wit.li tile autocracy- Arms are "being gathered together; and the people are being organised for a general revolt in -vc-Mch they e:xpeet to be assisted, by tile army. Ever since the Russian Revolution became a tangible fact, the prospects of its success have turned upon the loyalty of the troops. If the Czar's soldiers are once won over to the side of the revolution, the autocracy- Trill toe helplessj aiid the Socialist Congress has ■been assured that this long-desired end will soon be attained. We have no grounds for conjecturing how far the Congress is prepared to identify itself with the policy of the Russian revolutionaries. But "when we are told that the Russians are thankful for the moral and material aid they - have received from the German Socialists, "we must remember that the great majority of men and ■women? throughout the -civilised world sincerely sympathise with the hopes and aspirations of the revolutionary party in Russia and Poland. It b.y no means follows that the Social Democrats of Germany or France are prepared to propagandize in favour of Anarchism. In Russia, through no fault of the people, matters have come to such a pass that no peaceful solution of the difficulty appears possible. But this does not imply that all Social Democrats are violent revolutionaries; and the spread of Social Democracy in Durope does not necessarily mean more than a fuller and wider recognition of the indefeasible and inalienable rights of man.