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Translator's Introduction

juster social organism will assume. It tends to clear up the ideas of Socialists themselves and may possibly serve as a stimulus to the imagination of those who dismiss the subject by saying: "Oh, yes, all very well in theory, but I can't imagine how you can put all that into practice." But such discussions have, after all, an interest which is chiefly academic: they cannot become of practical moment for many years.

VII

There is, however, a pressing practical question that touches Socialists very closely and divides them very bitterly: this is the problem of what steps "militant" Socialists should take to bring about the establishment of Socialism. As Jaurès is continually touching upon this problem in the following essays, and as he presupposes a certain familiarity with it on the part of his readers, it may perhaps be well to give a preliminary sketch here.

Upon the question of Method, as it is called, European Socialists are separated into two schools: the one, followers of the great militant, Karl Marx, are called Revolutionists, Marxists, or Orthodox; the other. Opportunists, Reformists, Revisionists, Fabians.

The Revolutionary Socialists do not necessarily believe in the use of force to obtain their ends. Indeed, as Jaurès points out, the partisans of the