Page:James Ramsay MacDonald - Socialism To-day (1909).djvu/4

The year that has just gone has been of no small importance to our Party. In numbers, in activities and in power, we have grown. Our affiliation fees, amounting to £1103 last year, are now £1432. The number of our branches is now just within touching distance of a thousand, and above all, the intellectual activity of the Party, and the interest taken in it outside, as shown by our sales of literature, are thoroughly satisfactory. Moreover, the splendid results which the recent elections for the District Councils in England have given, indicate that the electors are renewing their confidence in the Party.

Need we marvel at our progress? Consider the events of the year. Do they not add to the already convincing wealth of proof that our general conception of industrial evolution is sound? Depression has followed boom, and unemployment has trod hard upon the heels of overtime. During the last ten years, the amount of wealth assessed for Income Tax has increased by £250,000,000, whilst wages, in many trades, have actually decreased, and, in most of the other trades, have failed to do more than keep to an average level. To-day, at the beginning of 1909, the working classes are receiving a share of the national wealth less by £2,000,000 per annum than they were ten years ago, although in the meanwhile that wealth has enormously increased. The display of riches has become more barbaric, more impertinent, more gross, both in its forms and in its lavishment. The unsavoury details of the private lives of the
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