XIII
THE QUESTION OF METHOD
The Socialist party is split into factions at the present time,[1] and I might be accused of dreaming of a “mystic union” if I were to say that these divisions were really only superficial. I do not think that they are irreconcilable, but that they come from serious differences of opinion, or rather from serious misconceptions, in regard to the method to be pursued. It is the very development of our party, the growing power of our idea,—I must be forgivin this optimistic back-sliding,—that have created these differences of opinion by forcing us all to offer some solution to the question of method. How shall Socialism be realised? That is a problem we cannot evade; and to make vague and uncertain answers is to evade it. Or, on the other hand, if we bring forward in 1901 the answers of our predecessors and our masters of fifty years ago, we deceive ourselves.
There is one undoubted fact which transcends
- ↑ Written in 1901. The party was reunited in 1905. See Introduction.
