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 CHAPTER III

THE SYNDICALIST REVOLT

arose in France as a revolt against political Socialism, and in order to understand it we must trace in brief outline the position attained by Socialist parties in the various countries.

After a severe set-back caused by the Franco-Prussian War, Socialism gradually revived, and in all the countries of Western Europe Socialist parties have increased their numerical strength almost continuously during the last forty years, but, as is invariably the case with a growing sect, the intensity of faith has diminished as the number of believers has increased.

In Germany the Socialist Party became the strongest fraction of the Reichstag, and in spite of differences of opinion amongst its members, it preserved its formal unity with that instinct for military discipline which characterizes the German nation. In the Reichstag election of 1912 it polled a third of the total number of votes cast, and returned no members out of a total of 397. After the death of Bebel, the Revisionists, who received their first impulse from Bernstein, overcame the more strict Marxians, and

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