a stage intolerable to disinterested and self-respecting men. On its economic side, the pinching cost of living had stung these discontents into sharper expression. In larger and in smaller towns, I asked teachers, professional and business men, small shopkeepers and clergymen, why they had cast off allegiance to the Republican or Democratic party. A teacher active in the socialist propaganda gave this answer, which stands fairly enough for many others. "I stuck to the Republican Party for years after I knew it was affiliated with interests which made anything like honest government impossible in this city. Twice I voted for Democrats who, after some moral sputtering, fell down abjectly under machine influence. Once more I tried my old party, until I saw it had just rotted out. I'm not going to be fooled by this socialism. I see it promises a good many things it never can deliver, but I shall stick to it. I shall give it what money and time I can afford, just as long as it shows its present spirit."
When I asked what he meant by this socialist "spirit," he said: "I mean its political disinterestedness. It probably uses a lot of big words it doesn't half understand, but it has none of the palaver of cant and humbug that characterized Republicans and Democrats alike when they addressed the working class. These Socialists really do act as unselfishly as they talk and no big interests are behind them." He then told me the story of unpaid drudgery which hundreds of hard working men and women gave on Sundays and the hours before and after their long working days. It was the tale I had heard or the thing
