{Socialism of the chair} [G. katheder socialismus], a term
applied about 1872, at first in ridicule, to a group of
German political economists who advocated state aid for
the betterment of the working classes. Sock \Sock\, v. t.
[Perh. shortened fr. sockdolager.]
To hurl, drive, or strike violently; -- often with it as an
object. [Prov. or Vulgar] --Kipling.
[Socialism] was first applied in England to Owen's
theory of social reconstruction, and in France to those
also of St. Simon and Fourier . . . The word, however,
is used with a great variety of meaning, . . . even by
economists and learned critics. The general tendency is
to regard as socialistic any interference undertaken by
society on behalf of the poor, . . . radical social
reform which disturbs the present system of private
property . . . The tendency of the present socialism is
more and more to ally itself with the most advanced
democracy. --Encyc. Brit.
We certainly want a true history of socialism, meaning
by that a history of every systematic attempt to
provide a new social existence for the mass of the
workers. --F. Harrison.