Page:May Walden - Woman and Socialism (1909).pdf/19

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WOMAN AND SOCIALISM
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feat! Later dispatches invariably give them a larger vote if not a greater representation.

In Germany, the Socialists have forty-three seats in the Reichtag, though they would have about twice as many if they had not been deprived of their representation. There are eighty-seven Socialists In the Austrian parliament. There are seven in the Prussian Landtag. In the Russian Duma, in spite of repressive measures to prevent the election of Socialists, over ninety were elected. The government disfranchised nine millions of peasantry and from 25 to 40 per cent of the city working classes in order to keep the Socialists out of the Duma. There are fifty-four Socialists in France representing the party. England has thirty-two in the House of Commons. Finland has the honor of having the largest percentage of Socialist representatives in parliament of any nation in the world. After a tremendous struggle for universal suffrage—which contrary to the usual meaning of the term included women as well as men—the first elections under the new law resulted in the election of eighty Socialist representatives out of a total of 114. Eighteen women were elected. of whom nine are Socialists.

In Holland, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Italy. Spain and Japan; in Argentine, Australia, Canada and other countries, the Socialist party is organized and at work trying to better the conditions of the common people. The Socialists of the United States number al-