THE SOCIALIST VOTE

The feeling that voting a minority ticket is essentially futile, is this year only less rampant than in 1928, the campaign in which America succeeded beyond its farthest hopes in Making Every Vote Count. With a supreme gesture of condescension the Republican "Herald" comments editorially: "To vote for Thomas on November 8 is merely to make a gesture of futility. . . The practical effect will be equally nil, whether he gets as few votes as in 1928, or a million or two." Such arguments are common. The shabby logic on which they are based must he apparent even to the intelligent conservative, Republican or Democratic.

One of the chief bulwarks of anti socialism in the argument that America is a two-party country. A Socialist will grant that we have two political organizations, but he fails to see any advantage in this situation when neither of them are concerned with principles he considers paramount. To a man who wants broad, all kinds of soda-pop are equally obnoxious. The bi-partisan system of government is vitiated when both parties have substantially the same conservative platform, as is the case in America. This system has always served to blind the electorate to real issues, and it continues to do that in this election year.

What does the common warning against "throwing one's vote away" come down to? That no individual has any influence in determining the election if he votes a minority ticket. Excalibur in two-edged here, and cuts both him who uses it and him whom it is used against; no single vote, Republican, Democratic, or Socialist, ever counts. On close examination this shibboleth against the Ephraimites of socialism is irrelevant, except as it gainsays any action at all, on any side. Innovation must always come about by infinitesimal stages, and in history, changes start in the footnotes and work up to the chapter heads. By the sterile view in question, the efforts of the early Christians and the first humanitarian reformers are alike "wasted votes" and gestures of futility.

A minority, whether it is destined to held office or not, can be effective as a prod to those in power, and a large progressive vote can frighten a government controlled by vested interests into correcting at least its grosser delinquencies. Moreover, a strong Socialist vote will have the effect of consolidating the issues, which are not properly brought out by Democratic-Republican rivalry. It will give the conservative stand one core, instead of its separate and erratic spheres of action in the two old parties, and will make a vote for, or a vote against this stand, both more decisive.

The only course for the believers is to adhere to their faith. Those who look for the social democracy will not be throwing their votes away by voting for Thomas. On the contrary, that is their only way not to throw them away.