Quiz: Why Is There No Socialism in the United States?

All 30 questions. A perfect score earns the gold medal; 80% earns silver.

1. 1. How did the steel trust try to bind its workers to the company in 1903?

   By building model villages with schools and libraries By recognising their union By granting an eight-hour day without loss of pay By selling them preferred shares on easy terms
2. 2. Why did the letter-carriers’ leader Edward Gainor object to workers becoming public officials?

   Officials are paid less than skilled miners and mechanics Officials must swear an oath of loyalty to the Constitution Officials cannot join trade unions An official cannot become rich by his own strength
3. 3. Which socialist periodical, according to the preface, reprinted most of Sombart’s articles?

   The Appeal to Reason of Girard, Kansas Die Neue Zeit, Kautsky’s Stuttgart weekly The American Federationist of the A. F. of L. The International Socialist Review
4. 4. What does Sombart consider above all the explanation of the American worker’s peaceable mood?

   Free homestead land in the West The high tariff The prohibition of alcohol in many states The influence of the churches and their temperance societies
5. 5. How many officials, on average, must a citizen of Ohio choose each year?

   About 7 About 2 About 100 About 22
6. 6. What is the “spoils system”, as Sombart describes it?

   The purchase of votes with liquor Filling offices by party loyalty, not merit The division of conquered western land among veterans The sharing of trust profits with the workers who earned them
7. 7. Why can neither party take a firm stand on the alcohol question?

   The temperance societies have pledged their votes to both parties in equal numbers The Irish are mostly Democrats and the Germans mostly Republicans, and both drink Both parties are financed entirely by brewers in the big eastern cities Prohibition is already written into federal law for every state and territory
8. 8. What is the first trait Sombart attributes to the “normal” American worker?

   He opposes all technical innovation He hates those who live in superfluity He is not dissatisfied with the present state of things He is hostile to the state
9. 9. Why, according to Sombart, are Germans “born minority politicians”?

   Their workers cannot vote Their constitution forbids majority government They are a minority in Europe Their parliament has little power, so they value fine speeches over influence
10. 10. About what share of the presidential vote did the socialist candidates win in 1904, according to Sombart?

    About 25 per cent About 2½ per cent About 10 per cent Under 0.1 per cent
11. 11. What, according to Sombart, interests the American in sport?

    Only who will win, heightened by the wager The beauty of the individual performance The health benefits of exercise The elegance of the style, as at a bullfight
12. 12. How does the American worker’s diet differ from the German’s?

    Meat, fruit and wheaten bread, not potatoes and rye bread Mainly beer and bread Mostly fish and rice, with meat only on Sundays and holidays Exactly the same foods as the German worker, at higher prices
13. 13. According to Sombart, from which three sources do the American parties draw their funds?

    Rich contributors, assessments on officials, and payments by candidates Foreign governments, churches and trade unions Customs duties, land sales and bank loans State subsidies, membership dues and lotteries
14. 14. On what, in Sombart’s famous phrase, did all socialist utopias come to grief?

    Whisky, tobacco and the saloon Gold and silver from the western mines Bread and circuses at the ballot-box Roast beef and apple pie
15. 15. To what does Sombart compare the two great American parties?

    Giant trusts that shut out competitors Religious sects held together by revivals Medieval guilds of craftsmen guarding their trades Rival armies of mercenaries under their captains
16. 16. Why, according to Sombart, is the weakness of American socialism a theoretical problem?

    Because America had the oldest socialist party in the world Because the Constitution forbids private property in land If socialism follows from capitalism, the most capitalist country should have the strongest socialism Because Americans are racially inclined to socialism
17. 17. What is the “Winnetka system” adopted by the AFL?

    Questioning candidates and voting by their answers A method of settling strikes by arbitration A system of profit-sharing in the factories of the West A plan for a separate labour party on the British model
18. 18. Which labour organisation, says Sombart, “has only a past”?

    The American Labor Union The United Mine Workers The American Federation of Labor The Knights of Labor
19. 19. How does the typical American worker’s housing differ from the German’s?

    He lives in a tenement barrack, as in Berlin He lives in a one- or two-family house, not a barrack He lives in company barracks owned by the mining companies He lodges in his employer’s house, as a journeyman would
20. 20. What contrast does Sombart draw between Nuremberg and Chicago?

    Nuremberg is industrial; Chicago is still agricultural Nuremberg grew organically like a village; Chicago is a rational, artificial town Both are equally products of capitalist planning Nuremberg is larger; Chicago is a provincial town
21. 21. Which “third” party does Sombart call the most successful so far?

    The People’s Party (Populists) The Prohibition Party, founded in 1872 The Anti-Masonic Party of the 1830s The Know-nothings of the Native American movement
22. 22. Why does Sombart reject the “Anglo-Saxon race” explanation?

    Because race has no influence on politics at all Because the census does not record origins Anglo-Saxons have embraced socialism elsewhere, and most American workers are not Anglo-Saxon Because the Anglo-Saxons are the most socialist of all races
23. 23. What does Sombart predict at the end of the book?

    That Europe will become like America and abandon socialism That America will never have socialism That the Populists will return to power That socialism will flourish in America in the next generation
24. 24. What happened to the socialist vote in Colorado after the great strikes of 1903?

    The socialists won the governorship It fell by half, as workers voted Democratic to beat Governor Peabody It stayed exactly the same It doubled, just as the German experience of persecution would predict
25. 25. Why did the young Sombart find it hard to choose between the American parties?

    Both names, “Democratic” and “Republican”, sounded equally good He disliked both of their leaders Their programmes both seemed socialist to a young German student He could not read English
26. 26. What can the American worker proudly say, according to Sombart?

    “Workers of the world, unite” “De te fabula narratur” “Laissez faire, laissez passer” “Civis americanus sum”
27. 27. To what does Sombart compare the number killed on American railways in 1898–1900?

    The victims of the San Francisco earthquake The English dead of the Boer War The German dead of the Franco-Prussian War The Union dead at Gettysburg
28. 28. What does Sombart conclude about American money wages compared with German?

    They are about the same They are two to three times as high They are lower, but prices are lower still They are 10–20 per cent higher
29. 29. On what, according to Sombart, does the German worker spend the larger share of income left after necessities?

    Savings in the bank Trade-union dues and insurance Education and books for the children Alcoholic drinks
30. 30. How does Sombart open his account of the United States?

    As the classic land of socialism As the land where capitalism is still in its infancy As Canaan for capitalism, the land of promise As a half-feudal society ruled by planters