While it packed the socialist meetings with mad enthusiasm, it was impervious to the wiles of the old-party politicians.

The old-party orators were usually greeted with empty halls, though occasionally they encountered full halls where they were so roughly handled that more than once it was necessary to call out the police reserves.
History was making fast.

The air was vibrant with things happening and impending.

The country was on the verge of hard times,* caused by a series of prosperous years wherein the difficulty of disposing abroad of the unconsumed surplus had become increasingly difficult.

Industries were working short time; many great factories were standing idle against the time when the surplus should be gone; and wages were being cut right and left.
* Under the capitalist regime these periods of hard times were as inevitable as they were absurd.