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Show Challenge of the Socialists. The growth of the Socialist vote in the United i States continues to excite the interest of statesmen . and" pojiticians. From a meager 20G8 votes in 1888, ;it has grown through successinve stages until it is . ! estimated that fully 600.000 votes were cast in favor j of Eugene V. Debs for President in the recent elec-' elec-' tion. ' , The vote by vears as shown by compiled infor-jmation infor-jmation has been: 1888, 20G8; 1892, 21,512; 1891, -j 30.120; 189G, 36,275; 1898, 82,204; 1900, 9H24j 1902, ' j 225,903; 1904, GOO.000. N Not by a sudden bound, but in steady; never-de-: creasing proportion, has the Socialist strength been ' i gained, so ttiat now it is a host to be reckoned with, j ' In some States the Socialists have cast enough j , rotes to be entitled to a place on the official ballot ;' irlthout the usual resort to petition. ; There is something -fundamental to Socialism, that charaeaterizes it from mushroom growths like (Populism, which flourished and faded away. It is LOthing at all if it is not in its very essence funda-; funda-; mental. It is a revolutionary movement that aims. ,to pull down society to its foundation, and upon a i new foundation to build a new society, where s.haU f reign order, equity and justice. ''The capitalist must go," is its battlecry. "The brotherhood of man has waited long enough." There is a challenge in the vote for Debs that may have to be answered as early'as 1908.' ' ', |