AROUND THE WORLD

Paced by Britain's triumphant Labor Party, socialism the world over rose to a high-water mark in the immediate postwar years. An ebb has now set in.

In NEW ZEALAND last November, after 14 years of power, the socialist Labor Party lost at the polls, turned over the government to the free-enterprising National Party.

In AUSTRALIA last December, after eight years of power, the socialist Labor Party also went down in elections before resurgent conservatives.

In ITALY of 1946, the Socialists ranked as the second largest party. Today they are ineffectual and split three ways.

In GERMANY last August, the Social Democrats (before Hitler, Germany's largest party) were nosed out by the Christian Democrats.

In FRANCE, the Socialists still rank as third largest party (behind the Popular Republicans and Communists). But their parliamentary strength has declined.

In BELGIUM, SWITZERLAND, THE NETHERLANDS, NORWAY, SWEDEN, DENMARK, FINLAND and AUSTRIA, socialist parties have faded slightly or just about held their own.

In JAPAN, the Social Democrats emerged from the April 1947 elections as the largest party. In the January 1949 elections they fell badly behind the Democratic Liberals.

In INDIA, BURMA and INDONESIA, organized socialism has made negligible headway.

In LATIN AMERICA it has made even less.

The tally sheet thus points clearly to a general decline of socialist parties. But socialist ideas and influence have permeated other parties everywhere, including the U.S. and Canada. The conservatives and liberals of Britain, Australia and New Zealand, the Christian democrats of Europe, the new nationalist leaders in India and Southeast Asia have generally accepted the ideal of the social welfare state and a belief in some degree of nationalization for key industries.

In short, doctrinaire socialism has lost converts as experiment shows up its defects; yet the socialist scar tissue continues to grow inside other doctrines which have not developed sufficiently vigorous answers to the 20th Century problem of want amid the possibility of plenty.

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