or traffic with the other classes, for whom it possesses only hatred and contempt.
Furthermore, THE POLITICAL PARTY IS MERELY AN ARTIFICIAL GROUPING OF PEOPLE OF ALL CLASSES, UNITED BY A TEMPORARY AGREEMENT OF OPINION—fickle, uncertain, undisciplined, irresponsible, catering to votes and evaporating its sympathy whenever its popularity is threatened; while THE CLASS IS AN ORGANIC DIVISION OF THE PEOPLE, COMPOSED OF THOSE SUBJECTED TO THE SAME ECONOMIC INFLUENCES, THOSE WHO LIVE AND WORK ON THE SAME PLANE OF MATERIAL INTEREST—therefore, constant, stable, harmonious, and capable of discipline and responsibility. These facts appeal with irresistible force to the proletariat, which finds itself in the midst of a continuous and cumulative economic warfare, requiring the constant and harmonious efforts of all its units. Back of the political skirmishers lies a vast economic army and it can only be opposed with organized economic power. Organization on the field of production is therefore the proletariat's means of expression—there is where it functions—there is where it daily meets its enemy.
That Apocalyptic vision of a future condition known as the Socialist State, or Co-operative Commonwealth, is rather too vague a notion to convey much to the minds of the proletarians, who, living at the base of modern society and functioning at the machinery of production, deal constantly with the CONCRETE. They have neither time nor inclination for speculation, and the usual cry of the Socialist Politician "Vote the Co-operative Commonwealth into existence at the polls" lacks practicality, so far as they can see, because they, who need that commonwealth, are in a sad minority at the polls through lack of the electoral qualifications; and it is quite unbelievable that the privileged classes would
