We have reached the extreme of rampant _laissez-faire_. Our youthful vigor and material wealth have kept us buoyant. Politically we will become more radical, economically less individualistic, in the next cycle of our development. There is no magic that saves a people except the magic of opportunity. In a democracy especially it is necessary to constantly purge society by free-moving currents of talent and virtue. This replenishing stream has its sources in the sturdy, healthy workers of the nation. The movement is from the depths upward. It is the supreme function of the state to keep these sources unclogged. FOOTNOTES: [1] J. RAMSAY MACDONALD, _Ethical Democracy_, pp. 61-71. [2] J. RAMSAY MACDONALD, _Socialism and Government_, Vol. II, p. 117. [3] FREDERICK ENGELS' Introduction to MARX' _Klassenkampf_, pp. 16-17, 1895. [4] The coal strike in England in March, 1912, brought the question of a legalized minimum wage before the people. [5] On November 28, 1905, a vast army of working men and women, estimated at 300,000 by the anti-Socialist papers, marched under the red flag through the streets of Vienna as a protest against the existing franchise laws. They were given the right of way and walked in silence through the streets of the capital. Their orderliness was more impressive than their vast numbers. It was an object-lesson that the government did not forget. [6] JEAN JAURÈS, _Studies in Socialism_, Eng. ed., p. 25. [7] What the so-called Progressive Party will accomplish, in this direction, remains to be seen. [8] The Socialist vote in the United States is as follows: 1892 21,164 1896 36,274 1900 87,814 1904 402,283 1908 402,464 1910 607,674 1911 1,500,000 (estimated) The vast increase shown in 1911 was made in municipal and other local elections. On January 1, 1912, 377 villages, towns, and cities in 36 States had some Socialist officers. Several important cities have been under Socialist rule, notably Milwaukee and Schenectady, where the Socialists captured the entire city machinery. In 1912 the Socialists lost control of Milwaukee, although their vote increased 3,000. Their overthrow was accomplished by the coalescing of the old parties into a Citizens' Party, a line-up between radicalism and conservatism that will probably become the rule in American local politics. The party is organized along the lines of the German Social Democracy. Its membership has grown as follows: 1903 15,975 1904 20,764 1905 23,327 1906 26,784 1907 29,270 1908 41,751 1909 41,479 1910 48,011 1911 84,716 1912 (May) 142,000