Excerpt from Socialism: The Nation of the Fatherless Children
When in 1903 we presented the first edition of "Socialism. The Nation of Fatherless Children" to the public we had only a very few friends, true blue. The public press paid but little attention to socialist propaganda; and to the general public the movement was known by a phrase or two which signified condemnation without understanding or by those of approval which rested upon equally unknown ground.
This indifference had given to socialists a foothold in the nation. Abnormal fortunes were matched by abnormal ambitions that had been aroused here and there amongst the members of the working class. These proletarian comrades in association with their intellectual leaders were preying upon the hopes and fears of their fellow workers, many of whom were receiving an unjust wage and were even so in constant dread of unemployment.
On the other hand the occasion was ripe for interesting the illy educated middle class in the science of poverty - that it is all due to the system - and for enlisting its sympathy for the under dog, as their own fortunes were feeling the blight of "the trusts."
This much was certain, that for socialist wares it was a rapidly rising market, and that for anti-socialist literature there was none at all.
We were neither disturbed nor disappointed at the reception of the book by the socialist press. Indeed we forecasted precisely what its reception would be, namely, silence more or less deep so long as the book had no added strength behind it; and then, for we were confident that the time would come when some force in the country would awaken to the menace of socialism, the knights of the quill would say what they would say. We had learned that the code of ethics of the morally irresponsible demanded successful propaganda. Hence those means were right that made progress.
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