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and reformist. It fought honestly and valiantly for various kinds ofsocial and political reforms because it was moved by an interest inthe welfare of the masses as well as a devotion to this country. Sinceit could not force socialism out of hand it battled for such mitigationsof the lot of the common man as seemed possible, and itcollaborated with the liberal groups to that end. The Communistparty fights for no reforms. It takes up various sore spots andirritants in American society. But it has no thought of trying toremedy these evils. On the contrary, it seeks to expand them anduse them to further activate them as great irritants. It would beeasy to give examples of communist agitators leading movementsfor perfectly reasonable reforms, yet all the time doing everythingpossible to make those reforms impossible. The evils aimed at servethe communist purpose as long as they exist as sores into which theycan rub sand. In addition to this, the general objective of the partyis to produce confusion—confusion everywhere and about everything.The presence of communists in various spots of the New Dealnaturally led people to identify New Deal policy as communist.Another reason for the confusion is the character of the men whoare authentic and honest New Dealers but who were not communists.Many of these men are ex-socialists or academic or parlorpinks who had never become outright socialists. This gentry,numerous in New York City, used almost all of the socialistdiagnosis of the evils of capitalism and, when on that subject, seemedto be talking the doctrine of socialism. But they always held themselvesa little above socialism. They were a kind of radical elite.They flourished on the circumference of the radical movements,never quite forming part of them. The black history of Moscowsettled their hash as potential communist philosophers. But it didnot end their careers as radical aristocrats. They began to flirt withthe alluring pastime of reconstructing the capitalist system. Theybecame the architects of a new capitalist system. And in the processof this new career they began to fashion doctrines that turned outto be the principles of fascism. Of course they do not call themfascism, although some of them frankly see the resemblance. Butthey are not disturbed, because they know that they will never burnbooks, they will never hound the Jews or the Negroes, they will*S4