"Membership Series by Language Federation for the Socialist Party of America: Dues Stamps Sold by Month -- January 1917 to March 1919." [compiled with footnotes by Tim Davenport] This document compiles and tallies complete dues information for 10 of the Socialist Party's 15 foreign language Federations as well as making use of incomplete statistics for the 5 others, drawing inferences from known statistics to fill in the blanks. It shows that far and away the largest Socialist Party Federation in the period was the Finnish, with a 1918 average membership in excess of 10,000; followed by the German (6150), Lithuanian (3,800), Jewish (nearly 3,800), and South Slavic (estimated at 2,300 in 1918 despite the disruption of having withdrawn from the party briefly in October over the question of the war). The figures show that in the 1st Quarter of 1919, the 15 language federations combined sold approximately 19,000 more dues stamps each month than they averaged during the previous year. This gain was not limited to the 7 federations summarily suspended by the National Executive Committee in May 1919, however, with the unsuspended Finnish Federation (+2,275), Jewish Federation (+2,450), German Federation (+1,800), Scandinavian Federation (+600), and Czech Federation (+450) accounting for nearly 40% of the total increase in the membership of the language groups in the period. The data shows a single gross dues anomaly among the suspended federations (March 1919 -- Ukrainian Federation) and potentially suspicious rates of growth in the 1st Quarter of 1919 in 2 others (Russian and Lithuanian). Dividing the sums of the Federation membership totals in the table into the known official paid memberships of the Socialist Party as a whole (1917 - 80,379; 1918 - 82,344; 1919-QI - 104,882) provides the information that an estimated 44.2% of SPA duespayers were members of foreign language federations in 1917, 45.8% in 1918, and 54.1% in the 1st Quarter of 1919.

 

"A Pledge of Americanism." (Constitutional Government League -- Spokane Centre) [1919] Given the exhaustive examination given to 20th Century Socialism in its various ideological permutations, it seems remarkable that so little scholarly attention has been paid to the primary concrete conservative ideology that was launched in direct opposition -- so-called "Americanism." This little leaflet from the Constitutional Government League, Spokane Center -- forerunner of the Constitutional Government League of America -- reduces "Americanism" to 9 affirmations: (1) "I am proud that the United States of America is my country, the Stars and Stripes my flag" (as opposed to the internationalism and red flag of the Left); (2) " I will uphold our officials in the administration of the law" (as opposed to those seeking an overturn of the bourgeoisie and its bureaucratic servitors); (3) "I will cherish and uphold the divine principles of freedom, equality, justice, and humanity, for which American patriots sacrificed their fortunes and their lives; and I pray God to bless my country and her people" (positing natural law and a theist worldview against the godless materialism of the Left); (4) "I believe my country's protection, her rights and privileges, her burdens and duties, should be justly distributed to all -- to the poor, the rich, the laborer, the capitalist" (as opposed to the Left's desire for working class domination and staunch taxation or expropriation of big capitalists); (5) " I will do my best to keep physically strong, morally clean, and mentally active; to know my country's history and the laws of my city, state, and nation, so that with the voice and vote of a citizen I may take an intelligent part in our government" (in contrast to the sometimes unhygienic non-voting aliens who comprised a significant percentage of the Left); (6) " I believe in the vital importance of education, the sacredness of the home and the marriage tie" (in contrast to the "free love" and libertine ways of the bohemian Left); (7) "Since our Constitution guarantees that no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification for public office, and since Congress can make no law to establish a religion or prohibit the free exercise thereof, I will never discriminate against any citizen because of his religion" (attempting here to place distance between wholesome "Americanism" and the reactionary and divisive religious chauvinism of the extreme Right); (8) " I hold in grateful memory the gallant service of our army and navy in defense of our liberty and our rights" (as opposed to the anti-nationalist and anti-militarist "anti-patriotism" of the Left); and (9) "Therefore, I PLEDGE to my country the love of my heart, a true, constant, and absolute loyalty. I pledge respect and obedience to her laws. I pledge my property, my service, my honor, and, if need be, my life to defend her. I pledge allegiance to my flag and the republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

JANUARY 1919

"Now For the Next Step," by C.E. Ruthenberg. [Jan. 1919] Text of a direct mail piece sent out to subscribers of the Socialist News [Cleveland] by Local Cuyahoga County, Socialist Party over the signature of Sec. C.E. Ruthenberg. Ruthenberg seeks to bolster the subscription roll of the newspaper in order to fund its expansion. The capitalist press was poisoning the minds of the workers, both with regard to the Russian Revolution and as to the nature of the American workers' movement itself, Ruthenberg states. "There will never be any hope for us unless we can build up newspapers pledged to the interests of the workers which will present the truth about the workers' cause and offset the lies of the capitalist press."

"The Turning Point in Human History," by Morris Hillquit [Jan. 1, 1919]  From his convalescence for tuberculosis at Saranac Lake, New York, Socialist Party leader Morris Hillquit greets the party upon the arrival of the new year. Hillquit declares that 1919 "will probably mark the turning point in human history," complete both with victories and conquests but also with great struggles and trials. Hillquit calls upon the rank and file to meet the coming challenges "like men" — "loyally, courageously, and unflinchingly." Hillquit greets the workers of the various nations of Europe, with place of honor given to the proletariat of Soviet Russia, for whom Hillquit wishes "unity and power, victory and peace, and deliverance from all reactionary onslaughts, domestic and foreign." The United States, on the other hand, is characterized as "the rearguard in the onward march of revolutionary international labor." For the American workers Hillquit modestly hopes the winning of "that position in the government of their country to which their numbers and economic importance entitle them."

 

"The Coming Struggle," by Mary Marcy  [Jan. 1, 1919]  This article by the co-editor of the recently terminated International Socialist Review gives voice to the revolutionary enthusiasm and illusions that swept the American radical movement in the aftermath of World War I. "To my mind the ultimate triumph of Socialism is as inevitable as the coming of the spring," Marcy declares. "The capitalist financial system is already crumbling. The spirit of revolution is already spreading beyond the boundaries of Russia into Germany, Bulgaria, Austria-Hungary, Italy, and down to Romania and far into Sweden and Finland." In response, capital was becoming internationally organized into a single world entity, with a single world army to defend its interests, Marcy says. In order to be effective in the future, "Socialism must become more and more international," she indicates. Forthcoming conflicts would "rock every nation" and "the greed of the capitalist class, the collapsing financial system upon which it is built, the enforced rebellion of the workers will be our opportunity." In the coming "real class war" Marcy says that equation of Socialism with electoral politics would be rejected by the working class; that instead the "rebellious force" must be organized and educated in "Industrial Socialism," which she defines as "shop-control by the workers."

"Like a Prairie Fire Labor Party Spreads: Movement Starts in Widely Scattered Localities -- Enthusiasm and Loyalty in Hundreds of Letters [unsigned article from The New Majority] [Jan. 4, 1919] This editorial from the debut issue of The New Majority, official organ of the Chicago Federation of Labor and the Labor Party of Cook County, trumpets the fact that a labor party movement was spreading "like wildfire." The movement had spontaneous origins, the editorialist opines: "It started in many widely scattered localities without prearrangement. No one tried to get it going in these different places, but like Topsy 'it just growed.' Local unions and city and state central bodies are organizing to get into politics. Letters and telegrams are being exchanged between officials of organizations and the wave grows bigger every hour. Men with long experience in the labor movement have never seen anything like this common desire, so enthusiastically expressed, for a new deal in America." Secretary Ed Nockels of the Chicago Federation of Labor, the organization which served as the advance guard of this new movement, is quoted as saying, "Never before in my 20 years' experience has there been such prompt and enthusiastic response to any proposition sent out to labor bodies as there has to this Labor Party plan."

"Russian Soviet Colonies in U.S. to Meet in N.Y.: Second Annual Convention of All-Russians to be held January 6 to 9." (NY Call) [Jan. 4, 1919]  News account detailing the forthcoming 2nd All-Russian Colonial Conference in New York City. Formally conducted under the auspices of the New York Soviet of Deputies of Russian Workers, the gathering brought together members of the emigre Russian-language speaking Socialist and Anarchist movements. The article notes the existence of a weekly newspaper by the New York Soviet, with a claimed circulation of 5,000 copies, and states that more than 100 branches of the organization had been established across the United States and Canada during the previous year. Headquarters were located at 133 E 15th Street, the article indicates. Charges made by Philadelphia police attempting to connect the radical Russians there with recent bomb incidents were explicitly denied by a spokesman for the group.

"Letter to 'Dr. Ball,' from John Reed in New York City, January 6, 1919."   Previously unpublished letter between war correspondent and future Communist Labor Party leader John Reed and a Socialist correspondent. Reed defers in providing answers specific questions, instead pointing his correspondent to articles on the Russian revolution published in The Liberator in 1918. Apparently the idea for the tome Ten Days That Shook the World (1919) was not formed at this date, as Reed writes "I am very sorry that I cannot help you more, but if I answered your questions I should have to write a book, and I haven’t the time." Reed notes that the Communists "are Marxians -- as a matter of fact, they call themselves the only real Marxists. They believe in proletarian revolt followed by a dictatorship of the proletariat and the forcible expropriation and socialization of private property." Reed takes pleasure in the "latest news from Russia" that the Bolsheviks were "whipping hell out of the Allies."

"1919 Nominations for Members of New York State Committee, Socialist Party" (NY Call) [Jan. 7, 1919]  With the list heavy with names of some of the top figures who would emerge as leaders of the Left Wing Section, this list of nominees for the New York State Committee from Local New York provides some circumstantial evidence that a Left Wing drive was underway for capture of the governing body of the Socialist Party of New York. Those eliminated from the ballot on the basis of the technicality that they had not been SPA members for at least two years included future CLP leaders John Reed and Gregory Weinstein, economist Scott Nearing, Irish radical Jim Larkin, journalist Louis Lochner, and black trade unionist A. Philip Randolph.

 

"The Situation in Ohio," by Eugene V. Debs. [Jan. 8, 1919] This article was written for The Ohio Socialist by Gene Debs, essentially the Socialist orator's hometown newspaper during from the tail end of 1918 into early 1919 during the legal persecution of Debs for his Canton speech. Prohibited from public speaking outside of the court's jurisdiction, Debs concentrated his efforts on rousing the Ohio Socialist movement. Debs portrayed the situation in the heavily industrialized state of Ohio as "extremely favorable" and noted that he was in the process of speaking to a series of large and enthusiastic crowds. " Let me ... bid you take advantage of the present favorable situation and combine all your energies to organize thoroughly the class-conscious forces of labor for the mighty task which now confronts it," Debs urged. Debs also noted the release from prison of leading Ohio Socialists Charles Baker, C.E. Ruthenberg, and Alfred Wagenknecht, "These comrades have been consecrated behind prison bars and will now rise to their full stature in the service of the revolutionary movement," Debs prophetically noted.

 

"International Socialist Delegates," by Louis Fraina [Jan. 11, 1919] This editorial by Louis Fraina in The Revolutionary Age sharply criticizes the National Executive Committee of the Socialist Party for arbitrarily appointing Algernon Lee, James Oneal, and John M. Work as delegation to a forthcoming international convention called by Camille Huysmans, while it was Morris Hillquit, Victor Berger, and Lee who had been elected delegates to an altogether different international gathering by party referendum a year previously. "The constitution of the Socialist Party provides for the election of delegates to International Socialist Conventions, it provides several ways in which they may be elected, but it does not provide that the National Executive Committee shall appoint delegates. The appointment of the present men in contrary to the constitution, it is arbitrary and it is illegal," Fraina charges. He notes that the NEC had been previously approached by various units of the party to call an Emergency National Convention in order to give the membership an opportunity of "expressing their will on all the matters arising out of the present crisis through which the world is passing," including the question of international affiliation and the selection of international delegates.

 

"Labor's 14 Points," by The Labor Party of Cook County [IL] [Jan. 11, 1919] Taking a page from the political playbook of President Wilson, the Labor Party of Cook County issued this set of "14 Points" as general demands of the emerging labor party movement. These "14 Points" included such venerable trade union demands as the right to organize, the 8-hour day in the 44-hour week, abolition of unemployment through government works programs, and the democratic control of industry. Also figuring largely were measures related to war and its aftermath, such as an end to profiteering through the establishment of cooperatives, liquidation of war debt through inheritance and graduated income taxes, extension of the government insurance provided to soldiers to the entire population and its expansion in scope, and the establishment of "a league of the workers of all nations pledged and organized to enforce the destruction of autocracy, militarism, and economic imperialism throughout the world, and to bring about worldwide disarmament and open diplomacy." The restoration of "all fundamental political rights" suspended during the war -- free speech, free press, and free assemblage -- "at the earliest possible moment" is sought. Seats for labor in government and the peace conference were also demanded as part of the Labor Party's "14 Points."

"Letter to Arthur E. Elmgreen in Chicago from Eugene V. Debs in Terre Haute, Jan. 11, 1919."  This Debs document was apparently conceived as an open letter directed to the delegates of the Mooney Labor Congress, convened in Chicago on Jan. 14, 1919. Debs proclaims jailed California labor leader Tom Mooney to be "absolutely innocent" and "the victim of the most infamous conspiracy in American history." He condemns Gov. William Stephens of California as a "tool of the corporations" and the state's courts as "debauched to the last degree" and urges united action of the working class and organized labor movement to win the freedom of Mooney and his associate Warren Billings, culminating if necessary in a general strike. "[I]f all entreaties are in vain and all measures fail, then as a last resort let a general strike be ordered and the industries of the nation paralyzed from end to end by an outraged working class determined upon rebuking crime and securing justice. ...The working class and the common people and all who sympathize with them must take this matter into their own hands and fearlessly meet the issue by stopping the wheels of industry long enough to compel the financial bandits and their mercenaries to realize that the honest workers have some rights they are bound to respect."


"Workers and Soldiers Council Organized in Portland." (Oregon Socialist Party Bulletin) [events of Jan. 9-13, 1919]  While the organization of "Soviets" in Winnipeg and Seattle in association with general strikes in these cities are remembered as major historical events, less widely noted is a short-lived effort to establish a Soviet in Portland, Oregon. This article from the monthly publication of the Socialist Party of Oregon reprints a solicitation letter written shortly after the Jan. 9, 1919 formation of the "Portland Council of Workers and Soldiers" over the signatures of the organization's "Temporary President," Harry M. Wicks (later of Proletarian Party and Communist Party fame) as well as its Recording Secretary, Joe Thornton of the Street Railway Men's Union. Although decked out in bright red revolutionary bunting, the modest main purpose of the organization seems to have been to provide a mechanism for the integration of returning soldiers into the labor movement and to thereby avoid the growth of right wing "patriotic" organizations and strikebreaking. The entity itself seems to have generally resembled a city central labor council, with all unions entitled to representation on the basis of 1 delegate for every 100 members in good standing, or major fraction thereof. Only a very few meetings of this stillborn organization were held.

 

"Summary Results of Voting for Candidates to Membership in the Executive Committee and for Secretary of the Russian Socialist Federation." [Jan. 15, 1919] Extract of an interesting (albeit highly esoteric) document seized by the Bureau of Investigation during the Palmer Raids of Jan. 1920 -- the tally sheet for the Russian Socialist Federation's election which closed Jan. 15, 1919. Candidates were nominated by the 4th Convention of the RSF (Sept. 28-Oct. 2, 1918) and the EC was elected by referendum vote of the rank and file. The race to replace Detroit resident V. Rich as Secretary of the RSF was not close, with Oscar Tyverovsky netting 627 votes to a combined 624 for his two opponents. The two top vote-getters in the contest for the 14 CEC slots were individuals whose names have not thus far been remembered by history -- Babich and Bogopolsky; Communist Party of America founder, New York DO, and Central Caucus chief George Ashkenuzi finished a respectable 3rd on the 24 name list. Two big names are missing: Russian Socialist Federation Translator-Secretary Alexander Stoklitsky was elected by the 4th Convention itself, as was Nicholas Hourwich (Nikolai Gurvich), elected editor of the Federation's organ, Novyi Mir. [Note finally that ASHKENUZI is the correct Library of Congress transliteration of that particular surname, as opposed to the 6 or so various other ways that the name has been spelled in the literature; ditto TYVEROVSKY, using terminal -Y instead of terminal -II.]

 

"The Necessity of an Emergency Convention," by Louis C. Fraina [Jan. 18, 1919] Left Wing theoretician Louis Fraina argues that during the recently complete world war, "contradictory elements" had been forced to make alliances; now that the war was over, "the real alignment of the conflicting forces of the world" began to emerge, the struggle between capitalism and socialism. In the revolutionary movements of Russia and Germany, the struggle between socialism and capitalism, had actually taken the form of a "fight between Socialists and Socialists," Fraina states -- with the same group of Majority Socialists that had rallied to their national flags during the world war continuing to lend every assistance to the bourgeoisie in the repression of these new revolutionary movements. The socialist movement was thus split into two camps -- on the one hand, the movement headed by Camille Huysmans, who had recently issued a call for a Congress in Europe, to which the Socialist Party's NEC had named delegates; on the other hand, the Third International called for by the Bolsheviks in Russia, the Spartacus Group in Germany, and their allies. "Socialists are fighting and dying in Europe that Socialism may triumph, mankind is trembling on the brink of worldwide Social Revolution. The action which the American movement takes now will commit it to the policy of Socialism or the policy of counterrevolution," Fraina declares. He states that "on such a momentous matter it is vitally necessary that the whole American Socialist movement decides on what policy to pursue and the only effective method of so deciding is the convocation of an Emergency National Convention." He calls for the NEC of the Socialist Party of America to immediately call such a convention and to recall its delegates to the Huysmans-called European Socialist Congress.

 

"A New Appeal," by John Reed [January 18, 1919] Substantial essay by famed journalist John Reed about the state of the Socialist Party and the task of the revolutionary socialist movement in America. Reed sees a dichotomy in the ranks of the SPA -- "American" members of the petty bourgeoisie and intellectuals and "Foreign-born" workers and intellectuals. He states that due to its vast size and seemingly limitless resources and fluidity of social boundaries "the American worker has always believed, consciously or unconsciously, that he can become a millionaire or an eminent statesman," no matter how far detached from reality is this premise. The American worker also views his world politically rather than economically, Reed says, having a healthy disgust for the "dirty" politicians of both the Republican and Democratic parties but viewing Socialism as an alien system "worked out in foreign countries, not born of his own particular needs and opposed to 'democracy' and 'fair play,' which is the way he has been taught to characterize the institutions of this country." The task of the Left Wing is not to pander for support of American workers at the ballot box, but rather to go to the workers, listen to their needs, and implement a practical program which not only meets those needs but raises the workers' thinking beyond these immediate wishes -- to "make them want the whole Revolution." It is not the ballot box but "revolutionary direct mass action" in the workplace that will bring about the Social Revolution, Reed states. He concludes that "the workers must be told that they have the force, if they will only organize it and express it; that if together they are able to stop work, no power in the universe can prevent them from doing what they want to do - if only they know what they want to do! And it is our business to formulate what they want to do."

 

"Ex-Alderman Buck Joins Labor's New Party: Leaves Republican Fold with Statement Charging No Difference Between Old Political Groups." [unsigned article from The New Majority] [Jan. 18, 1919] This article from the official organ of the Labor Party of Cook County (Illinois) documents an important addition to the organization -- former Chicago alderman and progressive Republican activist Robert M. Buck. The journalist Buck was soon to take over the reins as editor of The New Majority and along with Chicago Federation of Labor officials John Fitzpatrick and Ed Nockels would remain a leading figure in the burgeoning labor party movement throughout the first half of the 1920s. Buck declares that he had "long felt the uselessness of the struggle to make the Republican Party responsive to the first principles of democracy" but that since the war the situation had worsened and the party's leadership had commenced "hurtling the party further and further along the autocratic highway toward imperialistic enterprise" contrary to American values. The Democratic Party was deemed "no better," headed temporarily by Wilson "a forward looking man of conscience, intellect, and power" -- but handicapped by petty jealousies and insincerity in its program. As for the Socialist Party, Buck deems that it "lost the esteem of red-blooded Americans by its action on the war. When forward looking citizens, even those who doubted the sincerity of the war leaders, supported the war with the determination to do everything in their power to make it a war for democracy, the Socialist Party officially turned its face against such an effort." Consequently, Buck believes, a new political party was necessary to defend the interests of the workers, "who have been swindled out of that which is theirs" by their exploiters.

 

"A View of the Trial," by Adolph Germer. [Jan. 22, 1919] National Executive Secretary of the Socialist Party Adolph Germer (in the past a miner and United Mine Workers Union official, in the future one of the key participants in the 1919 Socialist-Communist split) briefly summarizes the results of the Trial of the Five Socialists, in which he was a leading defendant. The Guilty verdict was "disappointing though not in the least surprising," Germer states, as the jury pool was carefully screened by the prosecution against those with any knowledge of the labor movement and in favor of those "who are instinctively hostile to us." The trial was not of the individuals named as defendants, Germer says, but rather of the Socialist Party and its principles. Germer is unrepentant, declaring "I have nothing to regret and nothing for which to apologize. If the democracy of which we heard so much and for which we were told we entered this war can be had only through prison cells, I am willing to take my place with countless others who have been denied their liberties because of a conviction."

 

"The Background of Bolshevism," by John Reed [Jan. 25, 1919] On Jan. 15, 1919, over 2 months after conclusion of the World War, Dr. Morris Zucker was convicted of 4 counts of violating the Espionage Act for comments made in a speech protesting soldier attacks on Socialist meetings. In this article in The Revolutionary Age, John Reed addresses the question of factuality and viability of each of Zucker's "criminal" assertions: (1) "America is becoming today what Russia used to be in the old, old days...." (2) "Here in America they may tear the red flag from our hands, but they only implant it more firmly in our hearts...." (3)"While I confess, my friends, I claimed exemption in America, if I were in Germany or Russia I would only be too proud to fight in the first trench lines..." (i.e., in a Revolutionary Army). (4) "Yes, it is might that we are after...." (5) "Next Thanksgiving Day we will celebrated the fact that the United States recognizes the red flag as the flag of democracy...." With regard to the controversial statement that "it is might we are after," Reed declares: "When the official organs of justice themselves disregard the law, what is there left but 'might'? When the political ballot is canceled by the money power which corrupts or nullifies the men we elect to represent and govern us, what is there left but to oppose it with some other kind of power? When, in this 'land of the free,' men are sent to prison of 10 and 20 years for political offenses --punishments unparalleled in the Empire of the Russian Tsar -- when conscientious objectors are tortured more fiendishly, and military offenders broken more brutally, than ever under the autocracy of the German Kaiser, what are we to do but resist?" Reed only disagrees with Zucker's assertion that a revolution was proximate.

"The Bolshevists: Grave-Diggers of Capitalism," by C.E. Ruthenberg. [Jan. 29, 1919]  Ruthenberg, Secretary of the large Local Cuyahoga Country, Socialist Party organization, poses the question whether or not the Russian Bolsheviks actually represented "something new." While the capitalist press accused them of "anarchy, ...rioting and bloodshed, wholesale murder and destruction" leading to "the collapse of orderly society," Ruthenberg argues that the Bolsheviks represented instead the consistent application of the established principles of Marxian Socialism. After outlining the basic tenets of Marxism, Ruthenberg declares himself in favor of the latter proposition: "Bolshevism is not something strange and new. It is not a blind, raging force of destruction. If at present its triumph is accompanied by bloodshed and destruction it is because the bankruptcy of capitalism precipitated a cataclysm and the workers are obliged to build the new order amidst the wreckage of the old and with those who profited from their former oppression and exploitation placing every obstacle possible in their path. Bolshevism is Marxian Socialism in action. It is the social revolution underway. It is the workers on the road to victory and a better world." Ruthenberg later served as the first Executive Secretary of the Communist Party of America.

"Hermann Schlüter: The Man and His Work," by Algernon Lee [Jan. 29, 1919]  Memorial essay by veteran socialist Algernon Lee on the recently deceased Hermann Schlüter (Americanized spelling: Herman Schlueter), one of the editorial chiefs of the venerable New Yorker Volkszeitung -- at the time the longest running radical daily newspaper in America. Schlüter is characterized as a hard worker who never sought the spotlight or spoke publicly in English, preferring instead to dedicate himself to the writing of an estimated 10,000 to 12,000 articles and editorials for the Volkszeitung. Five books are mentioned, two published in English and three in German, with his 1910 history of the American brewing industry and brewery workers' union touted by Lee as his best work. Lee has Schlüter emigrating to Chicago in 1872 and becoming a radical there, contradicting what seems to be a more reliable obituary earlier in the same week which indicates emigration to America in 1880 following trouble with the authorities over his political activities in Germany. Schlüter is lauded for having played an immense role in developing and leading the German-speaking section of the American Socialist movement, which had been in the 1880s through the first decade of the 1900s the leading component of the American movement.

 

"Problems of American Socialism," by Louis C. Fraina [Feb. 1919] Lengthy theoretical article by one of the leading lights of the early American Communist movement, Louis Fraina. America had become the greatest capitalist power, in Fraina's view, with tremendous natural wealth within its borders, twice the financial wealth of its nearest competitor, Great Britain, geographic proximity that would allow it to make a play on the wealth of Central and South America, a large navy and the proven capacity to rapidly generate a large standing army. In short, Fraina declares, "American Capitalism has all the physical reserves for aggression and is becoming the gendarme of the world." It was therefore pivotal to the world socialist movement to challenge and defeat American capitalism. This task was not being accomplished, however, due in large measure to the petty bourgeois spirit which animated both the Socialist Party and the Socialist Labor Party. These organizations were both slaves to "the illusions of democracy," failed to aggressively participate in the industrial class struggle, failed to deliver aggressive support of the epochal Russian Revolution, and were trapped in petty bourgeois parliamentarism and anemic daily routine. Instead, it was the task of the Left Wing to revitalize the Socialist Party for the final struggle with capitalism and imperialism. "The revolutionary crisis in Europe is spreading, becoming contagious. It is admitted that if Germany becomes definitely Bolshevik, all Europe will become Bolshevik. And then? Inevitably, this will develop revolutionary currents in the United States, will develop other revolutions, will accelerate and energize the proletarian struggle. The United States will then become the center of reaction; and imperative will become our own revolutionary struggle." The victory of socialism in America is ultimately essential for the victory of socialism on world basis, in Fraina's view: "it is necessary that we prepare ideologically and theoretically for the final revolutionary struggle in our own country -- which may come in 6 months, or in 6 years, but which will come; prepare for that final struggle which alone can make the world safe for Socialism." Fraina urges that a revitalized Socialist Party take advantage of the future strike wave by promoting revolutionary industrial unionism, in contrast to the "reactionary trade unionism and laborism" of the Right Wing of the Socialist Party. "The problem of unionism, of revolutionary industrial unionism, is fundamental" since "the construction of an industrial state, the abolition of the political state, contains within itself the norms of the new proletarian state and the dictatorship of the proletariat," Fraina states. "The fatal defect of our party is that there is no discussion of fundamentals, no controversy on tactics," Fraina asserts, adding, "Let us integrate the revolutionary elements in the party, an organization for the revolutionary conquest of the party by the party!"

 

"The Day of the People,' by Eugene V. Debs [Feb. 1919] "From the crown of my head to the soles of my feet I am Bolshevik, and proud of it," famously declares Socialist Party leader Gene Debs in this article from Ludwig Lore's quarterly magazine, The Class Struggle. Debs salutes the Left Wing Socialist leaders of Germany, Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg, in their struggle against "Ebert and Scheidemann and their crowd of white-livered reactionaries," acting in concert with German reaction against the revolutionary movement in that country. Now "the battle is raging in Germany as in Russia, and the near future will determine whether revolution has for once been really triumphant or whether sudden reaction has again won the day." says Debs. "Scheidemann and his breed do not believe that the day of the people has arrived. According to them the war and the revolution have brought the day of the bourgeoisie," Debs notes, arguing that instead, "The people are ready for their day.... Who are the people? The people are the working class, the lower class, the robbed, the oppressed, the impoverished, the great majority of the earth. They and those who sympathize with them are the people..." Debs declares that "in Russia and Germany our valiant comrades are leading the proletarian revolution, which knows no race, no color, no sex, and no boundary lines. They are setting the heroic example for worldwide emulation. Let us, like them, scorn and repudiate the cowardly compromisers within our own ranks, challenge and defy the robber-class power, and fight it out on that line to victory or death!"

"What Is the 'Left Wing' Movement and Its Purpose?" by Edward Lindgren. [Feb. 1919] Lindgren, one of the organizers of the Left Wing section of the Socialist Party in New York City, outlines a brief history of the faction in this article published in Louis Fraina and Ludwig Lore's theoretical journal, The Class Struggle. Lindgren contends that while factions had long existed inside the SPA, firm dividing lines were not drawn up until 1912, when the Right Wing won firm control of the party apparatus and launched a purge around the "sabotage" clause of the party constitution. The test of the 1914 war and failure of the party leadership to act in a principled manner led to an alienation of the rank and file membership of the party, which demanded and received an Emergency Convention in 1917 to declare its antimilitarist principles in no uncertain terms. The violent splits of the socialist movement in Germany (majority socialists/Spartacists) and Russia (Mensheviks/Bolsheviks) made the situation in the American party clear to "almost anyone who understands the theory of the class struggle." The "Left Wing" group was thus "the logical outcome of a dissatisfied membership -- a membership that has been taught by the revolutionary activities of the European movements 'to compromise is to lose,'" says Lindgren. Includes a "Tentative Program" and "Immediate Demands" of the Left Wing section.

 

Manifesto of the Left Wing Section of the Socialist Party of America: As Modified by Local Cuyahoga County, Socialist Party. [Feb. 1919]. The Manifesto of the Left Wing Section is the fundamental theoretical document of the American Communist movement, an analysis and program that was systematically promoted by an organized faction within the Socialist Party of America intent on moving that party's orientation from the electoral to the revolutionary socialist path. The original document was collective work written in early February 1919, attributed by the historian Theodore Draper to the pens of Bertram Wolfe and John Reed, then extensively revised by Louis C. Fraina. Whatever its origin, this document was further extensively revised before being published in the pages of The Ohio Socialist on Feb. 26, 1919. Whether these changes were rendered by C.E. Ruthenberg, Alfred Wagenknecht, or some other figure in the Cleveland Socialist Party organization remains unknown -- although Ruthenberg would certainly seem the most likely candidate. The version reprinted here compares the text of the "official" New York variation with the revisions made in the document as published in Ohio.

"The Chicago Socialist Trial," by J. Louis Engdahl [Feb. 1919] A contemporary account of the Dec. 1918-Feb. 1919 Trial of the 5 Chicago Socialists written by one of the defendants. J. Louis Engdahl was the editor of "The American Socialist," the official monthly periodical of the Socialist Party of America. He was convicted along with his comrades of violating the infamous Espionage Act and was sentenced to a term of 20 years imprisonment at Leavenworth Penitentiary. This material was first published in the 1919-20 edition of "The American Labor Year-Book," published by the Rand School of Social Science.

 

"The Socialist Party on Trial," by William Bross Lloyd [Feb. 1919] An extensive report of the trial of Berger, Germer, Kruse, Engdahl, and Tucker by the financial angel of the Left Wing, published in the pages of The Liberator. The trial of the five began in Chicago on December 9, 1918, before Judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis for conspiracy under the so-called Espionage Law, which Lloyd characterizes as a "clumsily subtle way of lending to the Administration the aid of the courts in enforcing the official war morality.... Criminality under this law consists of any attempt to impugn the idealistic advertisement under which the war is being imposed. And conspiracy is a joint attempt." Lloyd provides brief character-sketches of the five principle defendants, as well as the judge and the chief accusers, District Attorney Clyne and Assistant District Attorney Fleming. He characterizes the trial as "twenty days of irritating stupidity" wrought by the prosecution, notes that the focus of the attack was on William Kruse, who as head of the Young People's Socialist League was cast as the leading figure in a conspiracy to subvert conscription (despite Kruse's personal decision to register for the draft), and comments extensively on the testimony of defense witness Carl Haessler, a Socialist already convicted and imprisoned under the so-called Espionage Act whom the prosecution approached in an attempt to construct its case against Victor Berger. When the prosecution was rebuffed, retaliatory action was taken against Haessler's wife, who lost her job as an Illinois teacher.

 

"The Yipsels and the Socialist Sedition Case: Part 1 -- The Prosecution's Case," by William F. Kruse. [Feb. 1919] One of the biggest show-trials conducted by the Wilson Administration against its radical opponents was the Trial of the Five Socialists -- a group of defendants which included former Congressman and NEC member Victor L. Berger, Socialist Party National Executive Secretary Adolph Germer, Secretary of the Young People's Socialist League William F. Kruse, Editor of the SPA's official publications J. Louis Engdahl, and former head of the SPA's Literature Department Irwin St. John Tucker. The five were indicted for alleged violation of the so-called "Espionage Act" on Feb. 2, 1918, and were finally brought before Judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis for trial beginning on Dec. 9, 1918 -- nearly a month after conclusion of the war. This article on the prosecutorial hijinks behind the trial was written by defendant Bill Kruse for the monthly magazine of the YPSL. This first installment of a three part series was published in the Feb. 1919 issue of The Young Socialists' Magazine.

"Party Extends Referendum Time Two Weeks: Socialist Locals Have Until Feb. 23 to Nominate Committeemen and Delegates." (NY Call) [Feb. 1, 1919]  Formal announcement by the National Office of the Socialist Party of America that the time for nominations for the 15 members of the governing National Executive Committee of the organization were to be extended two weeks, from Feb. 9 to Feb. 23, 1919. This was to be the second election in which five electoral districts were used, with 3 NEC members to be elected from each -- the intent being to make it more possible for local leaders to gain election rather than limiting the opportunity a narrow circle of nationally-known publicists. States included in each district are specified and the function of the International Secretary of the party is specified.

"Minutes of the New York City Committee, Left Wing Section, Socialist Party, Feb. 2, 1919."  Minutes of the first meeting of the New York City Committee of the Left Wing Section, Socialist Party, with Edward Lindgren in the chair. Election of committees took place, including a permanent 4 person "International Committee" consisting of Rose Pastor Stokes, Jim Larkin, Nick Hourwich, and Jack Reed; a 3 member Speakers Committee, including Bert Wolfe, Ed Lindgren, and Max Cohen; and a 5 person Press Committee, of Julius Hammer, Jay Lovestone, Fannie Horowitz, Harry Hiltzig, and a Comrade Spanier. The decision was made to print dues cards and to collect dues of 10 cents per month for members of the organized faction. County Organizers were selected for four boroughs as well as the Russian and Yiddish language branches. John Reed was named New York editor of The Revolutionary Age, published in Boston, with a Comrade Lehman made the circulation and business manager, with wages of $25 a week guaranteed. Temporary committees were established to investigate rental of an office and to put out the Left Wing Manifesto in pamphlet form.

 

"Declaration to the Members of the Socialist Party of America of the Communist Propaganda League: With comments by Alexander Stoklitsky, Feb. 6, 1919." While the nascent Left Wing of the Socialist Party of America in the years 1915 and 1916 was grouped around an organization called the Socialist Propaganda League, the Left-Right conflict was submerged under a panoply of greater issues during the years of American participation in the European war. On Nov. 7, 1918, with the war coming to a merciful close, the Left Wing's struggle against the Regular wing of the Socialist Party erupted anew, starting with the formation of a group based in Chicago called the Communist Propaganda League (CPL). According to this statement of the CPL, the organization was launched by bringing together members of the "Bolshevist Federation of the American Socialist Party" (i.e., the Russian Federation and the various Federations comprised of nationalities of the former Russian empire) as well as "several important active members of the local Socialist movement who thoroughly agree to the program and principles of the Russian Bolsheviks." The group is said to have been formed to discuss the current situation facing the Socialist Party and "to determine the methods and means of directing our American Socialist Party to the truly revolutionary way." According to the program of the CPL (included here), the Socialist Party "all in all does not take into consideration to a sufficient degree the importance of mass demonstrations of the proletariat, which are the only means of leading us to the revolution," but instead lent its support to the "pure parliamentary system." A key element of the CPL program declared that "Socialistic propaganda must be exclusively the revolutionary class struggle of the proletariat" and demanded an end to "the use of small bourgeois reforms as a basis for the activities of the Socialist Party." A professional, paid National Executive Committee at the head of the party, close party control over all officers and other officials, and a centralized party press and lecture bureau were also significant demands of the Communist Propaganda League. Nominal Secretary of the CPL was Isaac Ferguson, although it appears that mail was actually sent to the office of Alexander Stoklitsky, Translator-Secretary of the Russian Socialist Federation, at party headquarters in Chicago.

 

"Report of the Delegate of the Lithuanian Socialist Federation to the Conference of the Russian Immigrant Revolutionary Socialist Federations," by I.J. Kravcevic [held Feb. 9, 1919] Due to the high survival rate of periodicals and documents of the Anglophonic Left Wing movement of 1919 (and the ability of scholars to make use of them), we know a great deal more about the ideas and actions of the small band of English-speakers in New York than we do about a larger parallel movement in the ranks of the Socialist Party among those who spoke Russian, Lithuanian, Yiddish, Latvian, Croatian, Ukrainian, Finnish, Polish, or any other of about a half dozen languages. This translated document from the Lithuanian press helps enrich our understanding. On Feb. 9, 1919, a conference was held in New York City by delegates of the "Revolutionary Socialist Federations of the Socialist Party of America." It is not at this time known who planned this gathering or when the call for it went out -- planning certainly predated the first session of the Left Wing Section of Greater New York, which held its organizational meeting on Feb. 2, 1919. The Conference of "Russian Immigrant Revolutionary Socialist Federations" included delegates from the Russian, Latvian, Ukrainian, and Estonian language sections of the Socialist Party, this report by Lithuanian delegate I.J. Kravcevic notes. Radical discontent with "opportunist" policies of the Socialist Party leadership had been brewing, and the decision was made "there is need for organized and disciplined revolutionary action within the party now" -- a formal organization of revolutionary socialists within the SPA. "We have to combine all of these federations and separate groups within the party into a Left Wing of the SP, to start and organize a bitter fight with the opportunists within the party in order to establish a program of the principles that would fit the present revolutionary movement of the working class," Kravcevic noted, adding that "in order to discourage the opportunists from distorting these principles, there should be a party discipline and those not complying with it should be ejected from the party without further ado." Additional goals of the gathering were to make contact with the Russian Soviet government and to establish an information bureau on its behalf to make the real situation in Russia known to Americans.

 

"The End of War," by C.E. Ruthenberg. [Feb. 12, 1919] This article by the Secretary of Local Cuyahoga County, Socialist Party was published in the official organ of the Socialist Party of Ohio. In it Ruthenberg addresses the proposed League of Nations -- specifically its claim that it will be an institution able to abolish future wars. While acknowledging the desire of the capitalist class to avert destructive wars and the revolutions which they may well precipitate, Ruthenberg states that the division of the non-industrial world into "mandatories" would do nothing to alleviate the "inexorable conditions of capitalist production" that causes capitalist powers to compete for foreign markets. "In spite of all the machinery of arbitration and conciliation" the capitalist countries would be driven "to an appeal to arms in the struggle for survival," Ruthenberg says. He contrasts this with a system in which the full product is appropriated by the workers producing it, which would have no innate dynamic to secure foreign markets, with its products either consumed, traded to other countries for necessary products produced elsewhere, or production contracted through the reduction of working hours.

 

"Report on IWW or Bolsheviki Activities in the District of Massachusetts to William E. Allen, Acting Chief of the Bureau of Investigation in Washington," by Boston BoI Informant J.S. Peterson [Feb. 13, 1919] This document summarizes Bureau of Investigation reports on "recent developments in the IWW situation in this district" -- actually the doings of the revolutionary Socialist movement rather than syndicalist unionists. Individuals reported upon hailing from the Boston area included Louis C. Fraina, Eadmonn MacAlpine, Ludwig Lore, Gregory Weinstein, Nick Hourwich, Santeri Nuorteva, and Peter P. Cosgrove. Publications briefly mentioned include The Revolutionary Age (English), Il Pensiero (Italian), A Luz (Portuguese), Atbalss (Latvian), and Raivaaja (Finnish). Additional coverage is given for the Eastern, Southeastern, and Western regions of Massachusetts. Informant Peterson indicates that the "deportation of leaders may not solve the whole problem of industrial unrest," instead advocating a betterment of working conditions, housing, and recreational opportunities for the workers. Peterson states that he "has felt very keenly, on attending the various meetings in which the audience was largely foreign born, that to these people the radical meetings, instituted by the local socialists, and charging no admission, were a real enjoyment, purely from the opportunity it gave them on their free day to mingle with their own kind and enjoy the program. It seemed, therefore, that if the trouble had been taken on the part of the community, or some local organization, other than the radical elements, to provide such an afternoon, that the audience might have been as receptive to more healthy doctrines than those promulgated at these meetings."

"Resolution of Micrometer Lodge 460, IAM, to Secretary of Labor William B. Wilson and His Reply." [Feb. 18, 1919] On February 14, 1919, a Brooklyn local of the International Association of Machinists passed a resolution protesting the Labor Department's decision to deport more than 50 non-citizen members of the IWW from the United States "without due process of law." The group had been the subject of ongoing news coverage as part of a guarded train crossing the country from the Western states where the alien Wobblies had been arrested. Woodrow Wilson's Secretary of Labor, William B. Wilson, defends the administration's decision to deport the radical unionists. The New York Times quotes his reply in full: "When our own citizens desire to change the form of government they can do so peaceably in the manner provided by the Constitution. If we cannot make progress by the peaceable process by discussing and voting, we are not liable to make any progress by the riotous process of 'cussing and shouting.' The man who cannot be depended upon to vote right cannot be depended upon to shoot right. Those you refer to as radicals are being sent out of this country because they have been found advocating the overthrow of our Government by force."

 

"Speech to the Court at the Time of Sentencing," by J. Louis Engdahl [Feb. 20, 1919] Socialist editor John Louis Engdahl was one of five top leaders of the Socialist Party tried by the federal government for alleged violation of the so-called Espionage Act during the first part of 1919 -- the other defendants including National Executive Secretary Adolph Germer, former and future Socialist Congressman Victor Berger, youth section leader William F. Kruse, and Literature Department head Irwin Tucker. All five of the accused were found guilty and sentenced to 20 years in Federal prison by hangin' Judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis -- verdicts which were eventually reversed on appeal due to judicial prejudice. This is Engdahl's speech to the court at the time of his sentencing, as published in a pamphlet issued by the SPA. "I have noting to retract, at this crucial moment in my life. No valid argument presents itself why I should change any statement I have made, either through the printed or the spoken word," Engdahl declared. His view of the European conflagration in which Woodrow Wilson had embroiled America remained unchanged: "It was a capitalist war. It was born of the imperialistic ambitions of money-mad nations in the grip of the profit system. No nation can join in the struggle to create a free world until it has liberated itself from the social system that breeds both wealth and want, war, and woe." Engdahl saw the nationalist hysteria associated with American entry into the war as the direct cause of the repression: "For the time being extreme intolerance has usurped the places" of American constitutional guarantees of liberty, he declared. Engdahl depicted the Socialist movement as the vanguard of the 3rd American revolution -- the first two being independence from English monarchy and the defeat of the Southern "black slaveocracy." The legal structure of decaying capitalism was no more capable of rendering sound judgment on the adherents of the new day than the defenders of British despotism or of American chattel slavery had been in their own, Engdahl declared, adding of the prosecution in his case, "Coercion, intimidation, misrepresentation, and falsification -- all that, and more, is expected as a matter of course. Our trial, therefore, was no disappointment. No ends were too mean, no act too low, if it only lead to a conviction."

"The Left Wing," by Jack Carney  [Feb. 21, 1919]  Short editorial from the pages of Duluth Truth announcing publication of the Left Wing manifesto in the pages of that paper and promising the Left Wing the support of "the comrades of the Scandinavian and the English locals of Duluth" and the paper editorially. The Irish-born Carney writes: "The Left Wing manifesto and program comes at a time when it is most needed. It will arouse those comrades who have left the party disgusted with the opportunism of its leader. It will inspire those who have remained true to the cause of the International, before the war, during the war, and after the war. It will compel those who have stood still, to reconsider their position anew."

"Bolshevism Revealed." (leaflet of the Anti-Sabotage League) [February 22, 1919 ]  Four page leaflet first published February 22, 1919 by the Boston News Bureau. Reprinted by the Anti-Sabotage League of Rochester, NY. This short propaganda leaflet deals with the so-called "nationalization of women" practiced by the newly established Soviet regime of Soviet Russia in the city of Vladimir, which is (comically) asserted to have decreed that "Any girl having reached her eighteenth year and not having married is obliged, subject to the most severe penalty, to register at the Bureau of Free Love of the Commissariat of Surveillance. Having registered at the Bureau of Free Love, she has the right to choose from among the men between the ages of 19 and 50 a cohabitant husband...." Also included is text of a decree on the nationalization of women purportedly passed by the Soviet of the city of Saratov. Very rare item by an early anti-Communist organization, only two copies showing in OCLC WorldCat as of December 2011. Duplicate file uploaded to Archive.org.

 

"The Michigan Convention," by W.E. Reynolds [event of Feb. 24, 1919] This news report by CLP charter member W.E. Reynolds from the pages of the Left Wing weekly, The Ohio Socialist, sheds light on the unique and turbulent history on the Socialist Party of Michigan. On Feb. 24, 1919, 51 delegates gathered in Grand Rapids for the state convention of the Socialist Party of Michigan, Reynolds notes. The convention was a "harmonious gathering of boosters, the utopian element being either absent or without spokesmen," Reynolds indicates. Michigan State Secretary Bloomenberg resigned and was replaced by former State Secretary John Keracher (future founder and leader of the Proletarian Party). "A platform was adopted without any immediate demands and calling for the abolition of the wages system," Reynolds notes, and an amendment to the national SPA constitution calling for an end to such social reform planks on the national level proposed. "The convention adopted a part of the Left Wing program in its centering the attention of the abolition of capitalism instead of working for petty reform -- but it did not adopt the Left Wing program of urging economic organization amongst the workers," Reynolds observes.

"Killing the Socialist Party: An editorial in The Ohio Socialist, Feb. 26, 1919."  In January 1919 dues stamps sales suddenly exploded for the Socialist Party, as this editorial in left wing Ohio Socialist notes. Ohio's sales were up 85% from the figures of the previous month and more than triple those of January the previous year. Interestingly, this does not seem to have been directly related to the party's referendum election of a new National Executive Committee, hotly contested by the left wing, as the "regular" states of Wisconsin and Pennsylvania also seem to have posted unusually large January sales, this article intimates. Some 12,616 Socialist Party dues stamps were sold in Ohio in Jan. 1919, making it the third largest state in membership dues collected, following New York and Wisconsin and ahead of Illinois.

MARCH 1919
 

"Yipsels and the Socialist Sedition Trial: Part 2 -- The Defense." by Harry L. Gannes [March 1919] New Editor in Chief of The Young Socialists' Magazine continues the story of the "Trial of the 5 Chicago Socialists" (Berger, Germer, Engdahl, Kruse, and Tucker) begun in the previous issue of the magazine. The 18 year old Gannes provides a number of tidbits, fine detail, about the defense's argument in the trial, cross-examination, final arguments in the case, instructions to the jury, and the verdict and the reaction of the assembled Socialists thereto. Despite failing to prove the substance of its case, Kruse indicates that the government was able to sell a specious conspiracy argument, resulting in a guilty verdict against all five defendants after only four hours of deliberation. Gannes depicts the trial as a "baptism of fire" for the relatively new national Young People's Socialist League organization which it managed to withstand well, its witnesses performing ably without flinching or compromising.

"Fraina to Discuss New Party Policies." [article in Cleveland Socialist News, March 1, 1919] This brief news article in the organ of Local Cuyahoga County SPA documents the touring efforts of Louis C. Fraina on behalf of the program of the newly organized Left Wing Section of the Socialist Party. Fraina, just out from a 30 day jail term in New Jersey for speeches delivered against military conscription in 1917, was to speak three times in one week to Socialist audiences in Cleveland, the largest local organization of the Socialist Party of Ohio. Fraina was to speak on the Third International, the Proletarian Dictatorship in Soviet Russia, and matters relating to Socialist Party tactics, being joined at the first event by Alexander Bilan, later a member of the first five person National Executive Committee of the Communist Labor Party, speaking in Russian.

"Minutes of the New York City Committee Left Wing Section, Socialist Party, March 2, 1919."  Minutes of the second meeting of the City Central Committee of the Left Wing Section of the Socialist Party, Greater New York. A fairly mundane meeting, marked by the resignation of Carl Brodsky as organizer of New York County and a decision to send the Left Wing Manifesto to the printer for publication as a pamphlet the next day. Edward Lindgren is dispatched to Boston to work on the Revolutionary Age there. An office was rented out for the group's headquarters at a cost of $15 per month. Future Communist leaders J. Wilenkin and Rose Wortis make their appearance as delegates. Minutes were compiled by Ella Wolfe as Recording Secretary, wife of Bert.

 

"Is the 'Left Wing' Right? A Letter to the Editor of The New York Call, March 4, 1919," by Cameron King. The 1919 faction fight within the Socialist Party in general, and the Socialist Party of Greater New York in particular, was wound up in matters of personality, position, and power. This is a rare serious critique of the ideology of the opposite camp by one of the leaders of the New York Socialist Party establishment. King is critical of the contention in the Left Wing manifesto that the Socialist Party should eliminate reform planks from its platform limit itself to agitation for a complete revolutionary overturn of capitalism. He argues that the transition to Socialism will almost certainly be a long and protracted process, with initial victories in cities and several industrial states prior to the achievement of control of Congress and the Presidency by the Socialist Party. In the interval, the Socialist Party must actively improve the lot of the working class, or face defeat at the polls amidst charges of betrayal. Further, King cites a recent pamphlet by Lenin to validate his assertion that there is a roll for the political action of the central state in the administration and control of industry and distribution even after the revolutionary turnover of state power. The "Left Wing" doctrine on political action is inadequate and must be rejected because it does not recognize this essential policy of the pre-revolutionary socialist movement and the post-revolutionary state, King argues.

 

"Manifesto of the Workers', Soldiers', Sailors' and Farmers' Council of Buffalo and Erie County." [adopted March 4, 1919] On March 4, 1919, a short-lived Soviet called the "Workers', Soldiers', Sailors', and Farmer's Council" was established in Buffalo, New York, producing this manifesto on behalf of 35,000 unemployed workers of the area. A set of "immediate demands" are put forward, including institution of the 4-hour workday; the abolition of the collection of rent, taxes, and interest from unemployed workers; and the provision of office space and meeting halls for use of the Soviet. These were presented as transitional to "the ultimate aim" -- "the only solution to prevent a nationwide revolution is to make provision for plans to socialize all industries of America." A nationwide call was to be issued to all workers to organize on the same plan as the Buffalo Soviet. A total of 38,000 copies of this document were produced and distributed.

"A Proletarian Dictatorship vs. Parliamentarism," by Alexander Bilan [March 5, 1919] Article from the pages of The Ohio Socialist by future founding member of the National Executive Committee of the Communist Labor Party Alexander Bilan. Bilan states that "It is a mistake to believe that parliamentarism is a synonym for democracy. On the contrary, we find that where the parliamentary majority rules it is not democratic, and where it is approaching democracy parliamentary government becomes a weak institution." Victories of working class candidates in capitalist parliamentary elections do not lead to true democracy, Bilan observes, but rather to a powerless life in the margins. "As long as the working class representatives are few in number they are merely disturbers of the peace of the gay bourgeois company, to whom nobody is willing to listen unless compelled to. If the bourgeois have enough confidence in their strength and the support of the troublemakers is weak, they simply throw them out of the parliamentary body," he notes. If, on the other hand, working class representatives are elected in sufficient number, their votes can become decisive for certain reform legislation, although the question of their limits in participation soon arises. "The working class is denied the possibility of gaining a majority of the seats in parliament as long as the constitutions drawn by the ruling class exist," Bilan states. "Where free press, free speech, and freedom of assemblage exist, parliamentarism has played its part, just the same as has the capitalist system on the economic field. The best agitation and propaganda forces of the working class have to be employed outside of parliament in great mass meetings.... It is necessary that the rising power, the working class, organize as a class politically, but with the firm conviction that parliaments represent the dictatorship of the capitalist class, which must be replaced by the dictatorship of the working class. This dictatorship of the proletariat arouses the ire of the capitalist class because it abolishes all privileges and puts everybody in one class," Bilan concludes.

"Letter to Eugene V. Debs in Terre Haute, IN, from Ludwig Lore in New York City, March 5, 1919."  Letter from Ludwig Lore, first among equals on the editorial board of The Class Struggle, to his new, albeit nominal, co-editor Gene Debs. After asking for an article on American conditions, Lore raises the matter of the emerging Left Wing movement in the Socialist Party. He is, surprisingly, not an enthusiastic supporter of the organized faction: "Although I am in full agreement, as you know, with the fundamental principles that prompt these organizations, I personally feel that at this time they constitute a grave danger, not only to the party, but tot he very cause for which they are being created. So far as I have been able to discover, the membership of our party is radically inclined and will support the revolutionary position. But the propagation by organizations such as these within the party must inevitably, I feel, bring about a split in the movement. A split that will, moreover, not strengthen, but weaken revolutionary socialism in America by driving the rank and file into the arms of Right Wing leaders as a protest against the methods of the more radical minority." He invites Debs to submit a short statement of his own views on the matter. (The Class Struggle ultimately endorsed the Left Wing in its next issue, dated Feb. 1919, with co-editor Louis C. Fraina writing the editorial.)

 

"The Growth of the Left Wing," by Maximilian Cohen [March 8, 1919] A fascinating brief recounting of the history of the Left Wing Section of Local New York by the organized faction's Secretary, Max Cohen, who was present at the creation. Cohen notes that there had long been a Left-Right division in the Socialist Party of New York, dating back to the days before the world war. The betrayal of International Socialism by the Social Democratic parties of the Second International on the one hand, and the victory of the Bolshevik Revolution on the other, had energized and accelerated the pre-existing division. The support of the New York Socialist Aldermen for the Liberty Loan spurred the struggle between the Left and Right in the New York SPA, and trench lines were dug over efforts of the Left to discipline or formally criticize Congressman London for his war position. When a joint meeting of New York City Committees called to address the Aldermanic situation was sabotaged by Julius Gerber, as chairman of the meeting, a walkout ensured. "These delegates and comrades crowded in the corridor and forced Comrade [George] Goebel to give them a meeting room, a thing which he at first refused to do. There the Left Wing Section had its birth as an organization," Cohen states. A 14 member committee was elected to draft a temporary manifesto and program. An all-day convention was called for Feb. 15, 1919, and it was on that day that the Left Wing Section was formally launched, with the Manifesto and Program revised for publication, organizational rules adopted, officers elected, and The Revolutionary Age certified as the official organ of the group.

"Minutes of the New York City Committee Left Wing Section, Socialist Party, March 9, 1919."  Minutes of the third meeting of the City Committee of the Left Wing Section of Greater New York. A move has been made from a monthly to a weekly meeting schedule. Communications have begun to arrive from around the country asking for clarification about the nature of the Left Wing Section and its tactics, with freshly-printed copies of the Manifesto and Program of the Left Wing Section Socialist Party, Local Greater New York being sent out in reply. A decision is made to send someone to visit Eugene V. Debs in person, presumably to explain the situation. Tension is already showing between the Left Wing Section and the New York Call, which rejected an ad for the group, prohibiting its mention as a sponsoring organization in future meeting ads. A three member committee consisting of Jay Lovestone, Bert Wolfe, and Harry Hiltzig is elected to formally appeal this decision before a forthcoming meeting of the Call Association, the membership organization which was the publisher of that newspaper.

 

"Jobless Face Shotguns in Hands of Police: Meeting of Unemployed in Niagara Square is Ruthlessly Suppressed: Soldiers', Sailors', Workers' and Farmers' Council Denied Right of Assemblage -- Many Thousands of Hungry Toilers Throng Streets Converging on McKinley Monument." [events of March 6-10, 1919] The confrontation between the civic authorities of Buffalo, New York and the short-lived Buffalo Soviet proved to be a one-sided affair, as is documented in this article from The New Age, weekly organ of Local Buffalo, Socialist Party. A demonstration was called by the Workers' Council for March 10, 1919, to be held at the McKinley Monument in Niagara Square, downtown. The gathering was announced in advance in a letter to Mayor George S. Buck (reproduced here), and a request for facilities for a meeting of the demonstrators was made; Local Buffalo, Socialist Party was called into action to facilitate the demonstration on behalf of the Soviet's organizing committee. However, no such accommodation was made and the meeting of the Buffalo Soviet was banned by the city council and Mayor Buck, and a cordon of shotgun-bearing policemen were dispatched to prevent the planned meeting. Although thousands of workers milled in the streets surrounding the plaza in response to the distribution of 38,000 leaflets announcing the meeting (an unlikely estimate of 40,000 is reported here), police prevented a concentration at the plaza with little trouble or opposition.

 

"Left Wing Are Distruptionists," by Joseph Gollomb. [March 12, 1919] Text of a long letter to the Editor of The New York Call, in which SPA member Joseph Gollomb attacks the ideology and tactics of the Left Wing Section and its leaders in the struggle for control of the party apparatus in New York City. Gollomb charges that the so-called "Left Wing Section" is an internal enemy of the Socialist Party, "the spirit and purpose of old Michael Bakunin." These "anarchists, IWWs, and SLPs" have flocked into the SPA "not out of conversion, but with blackjacks behind their backs. They have organized a body within the party, with delegates from different branches, Central Committees, Executive Committees, State Committees, a National Committee, constitution, and membership cards, part for part with the organization of the party proper, with mandates on their members to be carried out at the meetings of the party." Gollomb cites concrete examples of Left Wing tactics at SP branch meetings, with specific charges directed at Nicholas Hourwich and Jim Larkin. Gollomb advises immediate action to stop the seizure of the party by an organized minority.

 

"A Left Wing -- And Why: A Statement of Cause and Effect," by N.S. Reichenthal [March 12, 1919] A lengthy and intelligent letter to the editor of the New York Call seeking a measured and open-minded approach to the emerging Left Wing Section of the Socialist Party. Reichenthal states that he is neither with the Left Wing and the "state within a state" in the Socialist Party nor a blind, epithet-spewing "loyalist." To these latter, "all those who are crudely attempting to change or modify party policy and tactics are rank disrupters, anarchists, or syndicalists" to be purged -- a mentality which Reichenthal believes is akin to the anti-liberal patriotic frenzy of the war years or the sectarian Socialist Labor Party regime in the factional war of 1899-1900: "Therefore, comrades, let's stop talking nonsense and imitating DeLeon and our own dear Security League. Let's discuss principles and tactics, not personalities and hare-brained metaphysics." Reichenthal states that the platform of the Socialist Party from 1900 to the one adopted in 1917 became steadily more "practical," to the point where "all reference to internationalism, to the party itself being the 'Left Wing' of the international proletariat striving to overthrow the capitalist state, is entirely eliminated." Combined with opportunistic local platforms and less-than-stellar performance in office by elected Socialist officials has been "disappointing and very disheartening, and seem to justify the conclusions arrived at by some that mere parliamentary action as encouraged and practiced by the Socialist Party is a snare and a delusion." On the trade union front "we became mere apologists for Gompers' unionism, and our policy compelled us to keep silent or defend many rotten deeds on the part of certain unions and their officials," resulting in the factional war of 1912-13 and the departure of thousands of supporters of the IWW and revolutionary industrial unionism. The Left Wing Section emerged as a direct response -- cause and effect -- to these factors. Reichenthal states that he has changed his own mind on these things since "we live in the midst of the revolution. Only action, revolutionary action, counts" and "the Russian Bolsheviki have demonstrated what a resolute, though 'ignorant,' proletariat and peasantry can do." Reichenthal calls for an honest discussion of the merits of the argument of the Left Wing Section rather than mechanically resorting to "parliamentary tricks" or "reorganization" to stifle dissent in the manner of Daniel DeLeon.

"Packed Meeting Holds Up Action on Left Wing Program." [event of March 16, 1919] News account from the Cleveland Socialist News of a March 16, 1919 meeting of Local Cuyahoga County addressed by Louis C. Fraina. Fraina sought the Local -- the largest unit of the Socialist Party of Ohio -- to endorse the Manifesto and Program of the Left Wing Section of the Socialist Party. About 325 party members were gathered, including about 175 new members of the local's Russian Branch. The Russians, said to have had a poor understanding of the English-language proceedings, were led by group leaders and acted as a bloc, voting in accordance with directives and shouting down debate. The meeting was effectively disrupted, with only a set of rules adopted providing for a vote on the Left Wing Manifesto as a whole as a basis for party policy and no action taken on the adoption of the program at that time. A follow-up meeting was called for March 30 for further discussion of the Left Wing program and final action on its proposed adoption.

 

"'Parliamentarism' and 'Political Action,'" by Jay Lovestone and William Weinstone. [March 17, 1919] Former City College of New York Young People's Socialist League leaders Jay Lovestone and William Weinstone co-authored this lengthy letter to the New York Call in response to New York Socialist leader Cameron King's critique of the Left Wing Manifesto published earlier in those pages. Lovestone and Weinstone conceive of the radical movement as being divided between "moderates" and "socialists." The pair conclude that "the moderate contends that the industries can be socialized by means of the present bourgeois state... Our conception of socialist political control is, to quote Marx, 'a transition period, in which the state cannot be anything else but a dictatorship of the proletariat.' We hold with the Communist Manifesto that 'the proletariat will use its political supremacy to wrest, by degrees, all capital from the bourgeoisie, to centralize all instruments of production in the hands of this state -- i.e., of the proletariat organized as the ruling class.'... It is not by attempting to solve the insolvable, capitalism's contradictions, but by 'teaching, propagating, and agitating exclusively for the overthrow of capitalism and the necessity of instituting of the proletarian dictatorship' that socialism can be attained!"

 

"'Wants a Conference," by J. Codkind [March 18, 1919] Letter to the Editor of The New York Call in reply to the long March 12 letter of Joseph Gollomb. Codkind, a Left Wing member of New York City's 17th Assembly District Branch states that Gollomb is a purveyor of inaccuracies, indicating that attendance at business meetings of the the 17th AD Branch had increased rather than decreased over 1918 and that no business had been conducted by the Left Wing in the wee hours. Codkind states: "Undoubtedly, there have been unfair tactics employed. In my opinion, this is much more prevalent among the Right Wingers than the Lefts, but both sides are equally guilty. Why people on both sides - undoubtedly honest and sincere in their convictions - should descent to the use of these methods is more than I can understand... Let us stop calling each other names. Let us act like real men, and not like kids. Let us face the absolute fact - that both sides are honest and sincere. Let us try to calm ourselves; and let both sides elect or select about five delegates to hold a conference through which our differences may be settled without a party split." Codkind suggests that the delegates to such a conference might be chosen by the factional caucuses of the Central Committee of Local New York.

"Eugene V. Debs’ Speech at West Side Turn Hall, Cleveland, Wednesday, March 19, 1919." Stenographic news account of the March 19, 1919, farewell speech of Socialist orator and publicist Eugene V. Debs before an audience of 3,000 in Cleveland, Ohio. Debs was soon to be imprisoned for having violated the so-called Espionage Act for a speech against militarism delivered in June 1918 in Canton, Ohio -- this despite the fact that by this time the war in Europe had come to a conclusion over four months previously. "I am going to speak to you as a Socialist, as a revolutionist, and, if you please, as a Bolshevist," Debs declares, noting that in Soviet Russia for the first time in history the working class stands unbowed and in control of the state apparatus. It is for this specific reason that he and his comrades were being jailed, Debs intimates. Debs states he is making his appeal to the masses rather than to the Supreme Court, which he characterizes as "begowned, befettered, bewhiskered old fossils, corporation lawyers, every one of them." Debs declares it "the finest thing I know is to carry yourself as a man — face humanity, look up into the sun and not feel ashamed of yourself; walk straight before the world, and live with it in terms of peace; look at yourself without a blush. Have you ever tried it? If you have, you are a Bolshevist." Debs declares that the working class paid the economic and physical costs of the recently concluded European war but that it was the master class making the terms of peace. "Russia is making a beginning; the Soviet is just an example," Debs states, allowing that the Bolsheviks "have shed some blood, they have made some mistakes, and I am glad they have. When you consider for a moment that the ruling class press of the world has been vilifying Lenin and Trotsky, you can make up your mind that they are the greatest statesmen in the modern world." He deems his forthcoming imprisonment to be a necessary tribute to be paid to the revolutionary cause.

"Locals Cooperate to Buy National Headquarters." (Ohio Socialist)  [March 19, 1919]  One of the pieces of common property fought over most bitterly during the protracted divorce proceedings of the Socialist and Communist organizations was the newly obtained national headquarters building, located at 220 Ashland Blvd. in Chicago. This brief fundraising blurb, apparently originating from the national office, notes that the party sought to raise a $40,000 headquarters fund from its members, with a minimum suggested donation of $1.00 and all donors of that amount or more to receive in exchange an "ownership certificate." During the bitter 1919 National Convention in August this headquarters facility down the street from the convention hall was used as a staging grounds for the Regular faction, marshaled by National Secretary Adolph Germer and NEC chief James Oneal. Includes a published photo of the ponderous Gothic facility.

"Consul of Russian Republic Here to Open Trade with US; Authorized to Spend $200,000,000: His Official Statement of Conditions Lays Ghost of Lies and Slanders of Violence About Soviet Rule and Its Aims..." (NY Call) [March 21, 1919]  Initial report in the Socialist Party's New York Call announcing the formation of the Russian Soviet Government Bureau, headed by Ludwig C.A.K. Martens. Announcement of Marten's appointment as the official representative of the Soviet government to the United States was made March 20, 1919, according to the article, with Martens having been informed of the decision by cable "about three months ago" (i.e. at the end of December 1918). Martens attempts to whet the interest of the American capitalist class with a promise of an initial $200 million in purchases, paid up front in gold. Stating that previously Germany had been far and away the largest trading partner of the old Russian regime, in the light of Germany's own economic problems "in a trade sense, as well as in a political sense, Russia is starting anew." On behalf of the Soviet government, Martens seeks a negotiated end to the intervention and blockade of Russia. He declares Soviet Russia to have been the subject of "false and often absurdly silly reports about the nature of the institutions and measures" taken against its opponents, while acknowledging the Soviet government having had to "adopt stern measures against people who continuously and openly plot for a re-enslavement of the Russian workers and who resort to methods of violence in their fight." The article indicates that Martens had forwarded his credentials to the State Department in Washington, DC for decision.

 
Letter to Morris Hillquit in Upstate New York from Adolph Germer in Chicago, March 22, 1919. Historians of American Communism running the gamut from Theodore Draper to William Z. Foster have depicted Morris Hillquit as the master puppeteer behind the expulsions, suspensions, and split of the Socialist Party in 1919. As this letter from SPA National Executive Secretary Adolph Germer indicates, Hillquit was actually out of the loop during the critical months of 1919 -- at a sanitarium at Saranac Lake, New York, recovering from a bout of tuberculosis. Rather than the far-seeing General calling all the shots, Hillquit was resting and recuperating, receiving periodic updates of information by mail. In this letter, Germer notes that since the imprisoned Eugene Debs was $1400 in debt, the Socialist Party would be retaining him on the payroll at the rate of $50 a week, with periodic articles promised and some small chance of eventual repayment. Germer also expresses surprise at Kate O'Hare's decision to accept nomination for International Secretary and run against Hillquit in the 1919 SPA election, a reversal of her expressed opinion of a fortnight earlier. Germer also updated Hillquit on the plans of the Left Wing section, noting that based on information received from New York party leader Julius Gerber, "they are making a well organized campaign to capture the district. What is true of District 1 is true of every other district. The impossiblists are determined to capture the party. If they cannot do it by capturing the National Executive Committee, they intend to do it in convention. As usual, they have no sense of responsibility and are of the opinion that the all important thing is to 'propagate,' regardless of consequences."

 

"A Basis for Discussion: Letter to Editor of the New York Call,  signed by David P. Berenberg et al., March 23, 1919."  With an organized Left Wing Section beginning to organize itself in the Socialist Party, a rather eclectic assemblage of 13 of the party's leading lights attempted to stave off factionalism and a potential split by moving the party to the left in response to grassroots demands. Signing alphabetically, headed by David Berenberg, this group adocated the rapid convocation of an emergency national convention, the elimination of reform planks, the adoption of a uniform national program which would "agitate exclusively for the overthrow of capitalism and the establishment of an industrial democracy," the renouncing of any international congress called by so-called "moderate socialists," and the adoption of new radical party literature in line with these new tactics. Signatories include those who would be instrumental in the Regular faction's fight against the Left Wing Section in 1919 (Berenberg, Walter Cook), founding members of the Communist Labor Party (Ludwig Lore, Albert Pauly), future communists after the 1921 split (Benjamin Glassberg, Scott Nearing), among others.

 

"Letter to S.J. Rutgers in Moscow from unknown New York correspondent 'F.' with note from Ludwig Martens in New York, March 21 & 24, 1919." This is a fascinating handwritten archival document rescued from illegibility, written by an adherent of the Left Wing Section with a name initial "F." (not Fraina) to Seybold Rutgers, in Moscow for the founding of the Communist International. "F." notes that the Socialist Propaganda League had been terminated, replaced by an organized Left Wing Section, which would be transmitting credentials to Rutgers to serve as its delegate to the founding convention. "F." notes that he had asked the "International Relations Committee of the Left Wing Section" for a brief outline history, which is included here in full. This history notes that the Manifesto of the Left Wing had its roots in a February 15, 1919, convention in New York City. A postscript is added by Ludwig Martens noting "Since my appointment with all my heart and soul I am in the work. Doubtless we shall have results very soon." Martens adds that "We need all information in regard to your needs in machinery, supplies, etc. I think we will have the best chances in the world to create here a great organization which will be of greatest use for economical development of Russia."

"Minutes of the Central Committee of the Socialist Party of New York County,  Meeting of March 25, 1919."  Minutes of a single meeting of the governing body of Local New York, Socialist Party. Resolutions honoring the Hungarian Soviet revolution and greeting and promising support of Soviet Russia's new representative to the United States Ludwig C.A.K. Martens are passed. Of primary interest is the esoteric matters of the jostling for seats on the Central Committee between Left Wing and Regular factions, with an effort by the 8th Assembly District branch to recall Regulars John Block, Algernon Lee, and Louis Waldman and replace them with Left Wingers Max Cohen, Hyman Goldberg, and Fanny Horowitz rejected by the Central Committee upon protest that the recall was not regularly conducted. A new election of representatives to the Central Committee of Local New York is to be held by the 8th A.D. branch before such delegates are to be seated, the meeting decides. Also included is the lengthy report of a committee to investigate a disturbance in the 2nd Assembly District Yiddish language branch, said to have been related to incompatible personalities, marked by flooding of the branch by members of other New York Yiddish branches and by an unprecedented transfer to the 2nd A.D. Yiddish branch of 16 members from the Russian language branch.

"Minutes of the State Executive Committee, Socialist Party of New York, Meeting of March 26, 1919." These minutes are most important for what is not included -- nary a word on the Left Wing Section or any hint the split which was to rupture the New York organization in a matter of months. Sitting on the outgoing SEC was Alexander Trachtenberg, later one of the principles of the CP-affiliated International Publishers. A list of nominees for the 9 member SEC appears; included among the long list are a number of future Left Wing luminaries: Joseph Brodsky, Louis Boudin, Benjamin Gitlow, Ludwig Lore, Scott Nearing, Albert Pauly, and Alexander Trachtenberg. The majority of the new SEC fell into the hands of the SP Regulars, however, with drastic consequences for the Left Wing movement in the state.

 

"Assembly Votes to Spend $50,000 on Bolshevism Hunt: Socialists Ridicule Bill -- Probe Sleeping Sickness, and Start with Legislature
Is Claessens' Amendment -- Save Money, We’ll Tell You, Says Solomon." (NY Call) [March. 26, 1919]  Unsigned news story in the Socialist New York Call marking the establishment of the Lusk Committee by the state legislature on March 26, 1919. Facing landslide support for the measure among the two "old parties" in the Albany, Socialist Party Assemblymen Gus Claessens and Charles Solomon took to the floor to ridicule the proposal, urging a probe of sleeping sickness in the legislature which had caused such a high rate of absenteeism and lack of care in the affairs of the state. Solomon provocatively declared: "As far as I am concerned if there is any virtue in Bolshevism, I don't care whether it was born in Russia or Germany or anywhere else. I am ready to receive it with open arms for the virtue there is in it.... To the extent that what you call Bolshevism is opposed to capitalist government, the Socialist Party as represented in this chamber is in agreement with that purpose, and you gentlemen can make the most of it."

"Fighting the American Bolsheviki" (Ohio Socialist)  [March 26, 1919]  On Feb. 1, 1919, Attorney General Thomas Gregory pulled the plug on the American Protective League, an officially recognized private auxiliary to the nation's law enforcement and intelligence apparatus which had emerged during World War I. In response, the Cleveland APL created a successor organization, the Loyal American League. Both the radicals behind the Ohio Socialist and the LAL conservatives were eager to see the American situation through the Russian prism, with the LAL declaring its intent to fight "socialism, anarchy and bolshevism" and to work for the deportation of "traitorous alien and anarchist alien" elements. The "policy of Lenin and Trotsky" to be opposed by the nationalists is defined loosely: "to seize all public utilities, to fully maintain or increase war wages, to reduce working hours, to increase employers’ liabilities, and to force the employment of labor on public works." This, of course, provides fodder for the revolutionary socialists, who call the Loyal American League "un-American" and declare: "The capitalists say that if you demand better wages, shorter hours, and the right to work you are disloyal and a traitor and if you are an alien you ought to be deported. Answer them by organizing your power and sweeping them into oblivion."

"Letter to the Editor of the New York Call by Evans Clark in New York City, March 27, 1919."  With his name used as a political football by adherents of the Regular and Left Wing factions of the Socialist Party in the party press, research director for the Socialist members of the New York State Assembly Evans Clark wrote this letter to the New York Call to clarify his views. His words are prescient: "I believe that the criticisms of party theory and the general program of the “Left Wing” are, in the main, sound. I believe that they should be discussed in every branch and local. But I am heartily opposed to organized divisions in the Socialist Party. A Left Wing is desirable, but a Left Wing Section is suicidal. Organized divisionism subordinates principles to an unseemly squabble for personal and political power. It is inevitable. Organized division breeds organized opposition, hatred, bitterness, wrangling, and utter confusion. Either the party or the division must always die, if these methods are pursued."

 

"Proposal Ambiguous and Incomplete," by Algernon Lee. [March 29, 1919] Letter to the Editor of the New York Call by Lee, a founding member of the Socialist Party of America and leading figure of the New York constructive socialist faction. Lee takes issue with a proposal made by 13 members of the New York Left Wing for a reasoned settlement of party differences rather than proceeding down the path of mudslinging and factional trench warfare. Lee accuses the 13 of having advanced a "creed" and a "statement of ready-made conclusions," of being "ambiguous and incomplete" in their demand to eliminate all social reform planks from the party platform, and of sidestepping the fundamental questions of whether America would face a revolutionary crisis in the near future and whether a majority of the populus would support the program of a revolutionized Socialist Party in the crisis. If the crisis were instead to be fought between a revolutionary minority and a reactionary minority, Lee states that there was no consideration of which side was apt to win, and based upon that likelihood, whether the revolutionary crisis was to be sought or avoided by the party.

"Deportation -- Where?" by John Reed [March 30, 1919]   Deportation is "the most modern and most fashionable method employed by tyrants to get rid of their rebellious subjects," John Reed declares in this article in the Sunday magazine section of the Socialist Party's New York Call. He traces recent use of the practice to atrocities committed by the Turks against the Armenians and by the Germans against the Belgians, noting deportation's gaining of favor in Bisbee, Arizona (expelling 1,200 striking miners and their sympathizers to the desert) and Coatesville, Pennsylvania (where the black population of several hundred was expelled after the war). Now, Reed notes, it is foreign-born strikers who are being deported by the American government to the countries of their birth. But where? In the case of the Russian-born being held at Ellis Island for deportation, "If they are deported to any party of Russia, except Soviet Russia, they are doomed to certain death, either at the hands of their own master-class, the Finnish White Guards, or the Allied troops." Only by direct deportation to Soviet Russia via the Baltic Sea would these detainees avoid the fate of Mexican revolutionaries under the Roosevelt administration -- who were sent across the Rio Grande to be shot down by the forces of Mexican strongman Porfirio Diaz. Reed calls for the American government to open its frontiers to "those foreigners who want to leave this monstrous industrial tyranny of ours, where the laws are seemingly made to be obeyed by workingmen only." In such a case, Reed contends, "the 'alien agitators' will go home, and there will be such a rush for the seaports that there won’t be enough ships to carry them."

 

"Toledo Crowd Compels Release of Socialist Speakers: Audience Aroused Because Denied Freedom of Speech Disarm Policeman and Marches on Police Station." [events of March 30, 1919] News report of a little-known event of the turbulent year 1919 -- a near-riot in Toledo, Ohio, caused when the mayor arbitrarily decided to deny Eugene Debs uses of a city auditorium which had been rented out to a local union and transferred to the use of the Socialist Party. Even though Debs was ill in Akron and unable to make the trip, the facility was locked up by the city administration. A great mass of people, unable to attend an indoor rally at which state organizer Charles Baker was to speak, moved to a city park nearby -- where they were met by virtually the entire Toledo police department, who began arresting one person after another as they mounted the McKinley Monument and began to speak. The crowd swelled to as many as 10,000 people and grew more and more restive as the Socialists decided to take a stand for free speech by sending an endless list of speakers to the front, thus filling the jail and force the issues. Over 70 people were arrested and police control of the vast throng was slipping. To avert a riot, the city administration negotiated with Socialist leaders, who insisted upon the release of all those arrested in exchange for their work to pacify the mob. The mayor made this concession and the mood of the crowd was turned from anger to jubilation at the free speech victory won.

 

"Sidelights on Toledo Free Speech Fight," by Thomas Devine [events of March 30, 1919] Valuable participant's memoir of the March 30, 1919 Debs Rally Gone Awry in Toledo, Ohio. City Councilman Devine provides a colorful description of the events of the afternoon and evening, which was apparently triggered when the police interpreted a ban on Debs' use of a city auditorium as a ban on the constitutional right of Toledo Socialists to assemble and speak. When a Socialist soldier named Frank Serafin was roughly arrested by the police, the mood of the crowd turned hostile. Devine and Secretary of Local Toledo, Socialist Party, Frank Toohey were the two individuals with whom the city negotiated at the 11th hour to avert the riot which they nearly created. Devine characterizes the crowd as both orderly and disciplined and blames the trouble on Mayor Schreiber's poor decision to ban the Socialists as well as the local police for their unconstitutional behavior and excessive tactics. The jubilee in the streets with the freed soldier Frank Serafin hoisted aloft as a hero of liberty is characterized by Devine as the end to "a perfect day." A letter from the mayor to the Toledo Safety Director is appended in which Schreiber in which he states that "The order issued from the executive department closed Memorial Hall to Eugene V. Debs, but that was the full extent of the order" and that police had overstepped their authority by attempting to ban the further outdoor meeting of the Socialists, noting the "right of free speech is a fundamental right, clearly guaranteed by the constitution of the United States, and one to be jealously guarded. It prevails everywhere, both in public and in private places."

"Soviet Consul Again Greeted by Big Crowds: Martens Asserts that Soviet Russia is Now Supported by All Parties." (NY Call) [event of March 31, 1919]  Short news account of the second public appearance in New York City by Ludwig Martens, newly appointed Soviet Consul to the United States. Speaking before an enthusiastic overflow crowd, Martens spoke in Russian, and asserted that Right Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks had come over to support the Soviet government in the face of foreign intervention, owing to the "great dangers it involves to all liberty in Russia." He was joined on the platform by Louis Basky, a leading Hungarian-American radical, who spoke on behalf of the ongoing Hungarian Revolution (the Soviet government being in power in Hungary at the time). There was "only one way to help the Hungarian and Russian Soviet governments," according to Basky, that being "to revolutionize America" and to "wage an uncompromising class war against capitalism." Meeting chairman Nicholas Hourwich drew great applause for stating the "Left Wing proposes to bring Bolshevism to America," according to the article.

 

"An Evening's Experience," by Max Schonberg. [March 31, 1919] An interesting and rather illuminating first-hand report of hardball tactics employed at a March meeting of the 3rd-5th-10th AD Branch of Local New York, with "Big Jim" Larkin in the chair. Schonberg is sharply critical of Larkin's "shameful tirade of cheap, personal abuse" directed towards Joseph Gollomb, who had the floor representing a contrary position for 10 or 15 minutes. Larkin is also criticized for failing to follow correct rules of parliamentary procedure and for speaking against a motion made by 15 or so regular members against the Left Wing leadership of the branch, during the course of which "he began a vicious attack of bitter invective and vituperation upon each of the individuals whose names were appended to it." Later, Larkin is said to have rushed down from the platform with the intent of beating up Gollomb.

 

"Party Tactics," by Morris Zucker. [March 31, 1919] Letter to the Editor of the New York Call from Zucker, a prominent member of the Left Wing Section. Zucker is encouraged at what he sees as "almost unanimous acclaim" of the Left Wing Manifesto by the rank and file of the Socialist Party. He sees, however, a "Centrist element" which adheres to the Left Wing program but who "are opposed to the tactics of the Left Wing within the party as likely to cause a split in the organization." Loyalty to principle must take precedence over loyalty to the SP organization, Zucker contends, and a split on programmatic lines appears inevitable: "if, after making every honest and honorable effort, the Socialist Party does not, in substance, accept the program of the Left Wing, then it becomes the solemn duty of the Left Wing to organize a new party upon the basis of its principles and program. The party is merely an instrument for the accomplishment of a certain end, and not an end in itself." Zucker challenges the Right and Center factions to call a general party meeting of the various locals of Greater New York to debate the question, "Resolved: That the Socialist Party shall endorse and adopt the manifesto of the Left Wing as an expression of its principles and policies."

 

"Resolution Passed by the 3rd Congress of the Ukrainian Federation of the Socialist Party of America: New York, NY -- April 1919." This unanimous resolution of the April 1919 convention of the Ukrainian Federation of the Socialist Party proclaims that the Federation has "denounced in the past, we denounce now, and shall continue to denounce in the future, all groups and all parties which defend the old and corrupt social order." Expressing pride in the Bolshevik revolution, the Federation insists "we unreservedly adhere to the Ukrainian (and international) Communist-Bolshevik Party. We shall continue to support it as the sole representative of revolutionary aspirations, as the only party competent to free the workers of all lands and all races from the heavy yoke of capitalism, as the only party which, upon the ruins of existing society, will be able to upbuild the new order, the resplendent and just order of Communism... We hold ourselves ready to fight in person as soon as we shall have overcome the obstacles put in our way by our powerful enemies.
All hail to the universal revolution!"

"Letter to the Left Wing Section of Greater New York from Amy Colyer, Assistant Secretary pro tempore of Local Boston, Socialist Party regarding The Revolutionary Age, April 1, 1919." Esoteric letter from a responsible authority of Local Boston, Socialist Party -- publishers of the main organ of the Left Wing Section, The Revolutionary Age -- to the Left Wing Section of New York, which sought the move of the publication to that more important center. Colyer relates the results of a resolution passed the previous evening by Local Boston which stated "Local Boston intends to keep The Revolutionary Age in Boston, until a National Convention of Left Wing organizations shall be held. Organizations taking part in said convention should agree with the tactics of Bolshevik Russia and the Left Wing Manifesto as published in the March 22 [1919] issue of The Revolutionary Age. Delegates in said Convention should have voting power in proportion to membership represented. Local Boston intends to turn over the paper to the executive body elected by such Convention." (The publication was in fact moved to New York City after the June Conference of the Left Wing, where it was merged with John Reed and Ben Gitlow's New York Communist, effective with the issue of July 5, 1919.)

"Open Letter to Louis C. Fraina in Boston from Adolph Germer in Chicago, published April 2, 1919." Testy reply of Socialist Party Executive Secretary Adolph Germer to comments levied against him by Louis Fraina in the March 8, 1919 issue of The Revolutionary Age. Germer declares that "It is a thousand times easier to circulate a falsehood, and create distrust, than it is to instill confidence in the honesty and integrity of those who have been selected, wisely or unwisely, to administer the affairs of the Socialist Party. It seems to be human nature to believe that persons in official party positions always have 'ulterior motives.' There are also persons who regard it as a greater duty to carry on an internal quarrel, regardless of the consequences to the movement, than to enlist new converts to our cause." He outlines his personal opposition to an Emergency National Convention of the SPA in 1919, citing factors of cost and a previously planned platform and nominating convention in 1920. Germer states that Fraina's assertion that Germer had administratively disqualified the referendum motion of Local Queens County, NY to hold a 1919 convention was erroneous. He also indicates that the Socialist Party's effort to reach out to other organizations to generate mass pressure upon the Wilson regime to "regain victims for the wartime victims" (a United Front action, it should be noted) was a higher priority than holding a national convention to take a stand on international issues. Germer further indicates that the call for the convention is rather a matter of factional power-politics, writing "One of the champions of the convention idea put it very bluntly the other day when he said: 'We want to see who is boss in the party.' Others have expressed it more tactfully."

 

"A Reply to Algernon Lee: Letter to the Editor of the New York Call," by Moses Oppenheimer [April 3, 1919] Veteran Socialist Moses Oppenheimer responds to Algernon Lee's critique of the "Basis for Discussion" Letter to the New York Call, of which Oppenheimer was a signatory. He declares that "under the opportunist leadership of men like Hillquit, Berger, Ghent, and Robert Hunter, the struggle for [ameliorative] reforms has gradually overshadowed and supplanted the demand for the abolition of wage slavery. More and more it has resulted in petty tactics for vote catching. Berger's Old Age Pension bill was a glaring exhibit of opportunist incapacity." Oppenheimer argues that the worship of the ballot by the SP "opportunists" ignores the fact that half of the working class in America is disfranchised through lack of citizenship. "This lame policy of the opportunists follows logically from their desire to be considered safe and sane and respectable," Oppenheimer declares, adding "The old roar of opportunism led us nowhere, except to barren failure.... The time for picayune politics is irrevocably gone."

 

"Socialist Party Tactics and Policies: A Speech at Hunt's Point Palace, Bronx, NY -- April 4, 1919," by Louis Waldman New York Assemblyman Louis Waldman, a staunch adherent of the SP Regular faction, shared a platform in the Bronx with Left Winger Benjamin Gitlow at a meeting called to moot the factional controversy in the party. A stenographer was present to preserve these speeches -- Waldman's later being reprinted a month later in the factional newspaper the New York Socialist, edited by David Berenberg. Waldman presents a well-ordered summary of the Party Regulars' view of the controversy. Waldman denies he is a "Right Winger," adding "To my knowledge there is no such thing. I am aware of the fact that there is a group who organized and call themselves the 'Left Wing.' There is the Socialist Party and this so-called 'Left Wing.'" He ironically asks of his factional opponents: "You say the Socialist Party did not captivate the imagination of the workers because it was not revolutionary enough. Very well; what was the remedy? If we are weak because we have not been revolutionary enough, why is it that the SLP, claiming to be the 100% revolutionary article, has not only failed to captivate the imagination of the working class, but has gone down to ruin?" Waldman adds only 3 million of 18 million industrial wage-workers are unionized and asks "if the only reason the some 15 million workers are not organized is because the AF of L is not revolutionary, what about the Industrial Workers of the World? Why has it not crystallized this industrial revolutionary movement? The IWW had since 1905 to do it. Heaven knows they were not short on revolutionary phrases, if that is what the American working class wants." Waldman states that there is no revolution in sight and that only by fighting for immediate demands to correct the most grievous deficiencies of capitalism can the workers be won to the socialist movement. "I want to tell you cynical comrades we live in a time when we have not got the courage to face reality and our own convictions. We live in a time when we are afraid to listen to the truth. We deliver revolutionary speeches in a time when we cannot train ourselves in revolutionary action.... That is what the party is suffering from." He advises that "if our platform is not revolutionary enough, if our resolutions are not revolutionary enough, the thing to do is not to destroy the party, but to change them, as party members, within the party, and not as an outside organization foisting its will on the party."

"Service Men in Second Raid on People’s House: People Disperse Mob -- Lee Blames Hylan for Trouble -- Scab Herders in Crowd." (NY Call) [event of April 7, 1919]  News report from the Socialist New York Call detailing the April 7 raid on the Rand School of Social Science -- an adult educational facility operated in close connection with the SPA. The object of repeated repressive efforts, the Rand School was seen in an exaggerated way as a linchpin of Socialist authority and power by enemies of the radical movement in New York. This raid on the school, the second of the year conducted by organized bands of military personnel, is said to have been headed by a right wing Canadian soldier allegedly in the employ of the Tugboat Owners' Exchange as an agent for the hiring of strikebreakers. The invading soldiers shredded posters on the walls inside the Rand School building, stole office supplies and money and the records of the school, and smashed plate glass windows -- creating an estimated $1,000 worth of damage. The mob was dispersed by the New York police department, although no arrests were made for the vandalism committed. Educational Director of the Rand School and New York Alderman Algernon Lee blamed the city's mayor, John Hylan, for inciting the attack through his publicized rhetoric "referring to foreigners preaching murder and destruction." "These alarmist statements not based on fact are breeding prejudice and mob spirit," Lee declares, adding, "the Mayor does not seem to realize the danger of his utterances."

"Enemy Outside, Not Inside: A Letter to the Editor of the New York Call, April 7, 1919," by William M. Feigenbaum Socialist Party journalist William Feigenbaum writes to editor of the New York SP daily announcing that he had now taken a position in the "Left Wing" controversy that was sweeping the party -- in support of the "Regular" faction. Feigenbaum sarcastically remarks of the "Left Wing" that "most of them are such veterans in the movement, with such a record of fully six months each...that they must of necessity know all about us. They know that we are hidebound, reactionary, bourgeois, and no good generally. How do they know it? From our actions? Our thoughts? Our records? No. There is a better test. We are old-fashioned enough to care for the party that has meant so much to us. That is inexcusable to them. We have the illusive fetish of 'unity' and they (or many of them) in their superior way, will have us understand that there is something better than unity. And that is, jamming down an artificial 'program' at all costs -- even at the cost of wrecking the movement, if they can accomplish it in no other way." Feigenbaum asserts that the Socialist Party will stand upon the principles of class struggle and anti-militarism, but sees the Left Wing as comprised of newcomers who do not know the temper of the Socialist Party and who are intent on provoking a needless split. "Is this difference of opinion a sufficient basis for the wild accusations and countercharges that we are treated with today? I think not. And the vast majority of the comrades think not. The enemy is outside. Not inside," Feigenbaum states.

 

"The Russian Workingmen's Association, sometimes called the Union of Russian Workers (What It Is and How It Operates)," by Edgar B. Speer [April 8, 1919] This internal document of the Department's of Justice's Bureau of Investigation (BoI -- forerunner of the modern FBI), prepared in the Pittsburgh office, analyzes the nature and composition of the Union of Russian Workers, an anarchist political organization of Russian emigres in the United States. The URW dominated the Convention of Russian Colonies held in New York in January 1919, with its leader, Peter Bianki, declaring on the floor of the gathering that "the Union of Russian Workers deny any form of power and Government because where Government begins, Revolution ends and where there is Revolution there is no place for Government." Speer's report dates the origin of the organized Russian radical movement back to 1907 (i.e., the aftermath of the 1905 revolution), and the formation of an anarchist newspaper, Golos Truda (The Voice of Labor). Conventions were held of the emerging organized anarchists behind this publication in 1912 and 1914, with the Detroit convention of July 1914 particularly influential in establishing the formal Union of Russian Workers. The preamble and statutes of the organization are included here, with Speer's estimate of organizational strength at the time of writing in the 10,000 to 15,000 range. After defining various ideological terms for his readers, Speer declares that "the Russian Workingmen's Association as it exists today is divided between the advocates of Anarchist-Syndicalism and Anarchist-Communism."

 

"Socialists of Buffalo as One Man Swing Over to Left: The Largest Meeting of Party Members Ever Held Endorses Program Promulgated by Left Wing of Local New York." [event of April 13, 1919] This article from Buffalo Socialist Party weekly The New Age chronicles the move of the Buffalo party into the ranks of the fledgling Left Wing movement at a meeting held April 13, 1919. A special meeting held to consider the Left Wing program of Local New York, which was approved by a unanimous vote according to the article. The resolution sought the elimination of social reform agenda, declaring instead that "the party must teach, propagate, and agitate exclusively for the overthrown of capitalism, and the establishment of Socialism through a proletarian dictatorship." Demands were made for a party-owned press, repudiation of the Berne international in favor of a new international incorporating the Bolsheviks of Russia and the Spartacans of Germany, and for the immediate convocation of an Emergency National Convention of the Socialist Party.

 

"New York State Committee, Socialist Party Holds Annual Meeting: Walter Cook Elected State Secretary -- Locals Affiliating with Left Wing Have Charters Revoked -- Asks National Convention." [held April 13, 1919] Account of the seminal April 1919 annual meeting of the New York State Committee, which effectively made affiliation with the Left Wing Section a party crime meriting expulsion. The key resolution was proposed by David P. Berenberg of Local Queens County, calling for the State Executive Committee to revoke the charter of any local affiliating with the Left Wing Section of the Socialist Party or permitting any of its affiliated branches to do likewise. Berenberg's proposal spurred hours of heated debate, with the Party Regular faction winning the test of strength with the Left Wingers by a vote of 24-17, with 2 abstentions. The meeting also elected Walter Cook of the Bronx as State Secretary and a new State Executive Committee, consisting of Theresa Malkiel of New York; Simon Berlin, New York; Herbert Merrill, Schenectady; Nicholas Aleinikoff, New York; Esther Friedman, Bronx; James Sheehan, Albany; F.A. Ariand, Albany; Jacob Hillquit, New York; and Julius Gerber, New York. A group of resolutions on contemporary issues, reprinted here, were also passed.

 

"New York State Committee, Socialist Party Resolution on the Left Wing Section, Adopted April 13, 1919." On April 13, 1919, the State Committee of the Socialist Party of New York gathered in Albany for its annual meeting. A resolution was proposed by David Berenberg of Local Kings County which denounced and effectively banned the Left Wing Section as an organization "in violation of the spirit of the constitution." The New York State Executive Committee was instructed by Berenberg's resolution to "revoke the charter of any local that affiliates with any such organization or that permits its sub-divisions or members to be so affiliated." A heated debate followed which continued until 4:30 pm, with the final tally showing 24 in favor, 17 opposed, and 2 abstaining. This decision paved the way for a factional civil war in the Socialist Party of New York, which erupted immediately.

 

"BoI Agent Account of a Mass Meeting of the Left Wing Section of the Socialist Party: Minneapolis, MN," by Frank O. Pelto [April 13, 1919] This document chronicles the debut meeting of the Left Wing Section of the Socialist Party in Minneapolis on April 13, 1919. On the motion of Latvian socialist Charles Dirba (later Executive Secretary of the Communist Party of America), a committee was elected to arrange a mass meeting in honor of May Day 1919, "and if possible a demonstration." World war veterans in the party were to be appealed to to march in uniform in the parade in an effort to preempt police repression of the march. Next on the agenda at this meeting of about 75 Twin Cities Socialists was consideration of a Left Wing Manifesto, called the "Resolution of the Left Wing of the Twin Cities" (reproduced in full here). This resolution made the following "General" demands: (1) Revolution, nor Reform; (2) Revolutionary Mass Action, not mere Parliamentarism. (3) No Compromise in or out of the Party; (4) Dictatorship of the Proletariat, not Constituent Assemblies or Coalition Government; and (5) International Working Class Solidarity and Struggle Against the Capitalist Class at All Times, not limited by any nationalistic considerations. The resolution was passed and then Dirba addressed the gathering on the subject of the difference between "the so-called Left Wing Movement and the so-called Reform Socialists." According to Pelto, "another speaker took the floor who put a little dissension in the ranks by stating that the Left Wing Movement was drifting away from the principles upon which Socialism was built." Dirba answered by matching Marx quotation with Marx quotation. A.L. Sugarman was then given the floor, and he characterized Dirba's opponent as a "2-by-4 Non-Partisan Leaguer," provoking hostile comment and leading to the meeting adjourning in a state of disorder.

 

"Revolutionary Romanticists: Letter to the Editor of the New York Call," by Ralph Korngold [April 14, 1919] This letter to the New York Call by well-known SPA Regular Ralph Korngold attacks "certain literary gentlemen in New York, Boston, and elsewhere" for their impatient desire to immediately conduct a revolution in America: "They want it right away. They are tired of voting. They are tired of teaching the masses how to vote. They sneer at ballot box victories, laugh at ballot box defeats, speak with disdain of 'parliamentarianism' and parliamentary methods. They find education too slow a process, so they propose as a substitute Billy Sunday's method -- hysteria." Korngold likens these individuals to "impatient children," anxious to abandon one game for another. "The IWW was their plaything but yesterday; today it is the Soviet; tomorrow 'mass action,'" Korngold declares, adding "When you point out to them that the Socialist Labor Party, which has just received Lenin's approval, has had a more radical program, and has had even less success, they brush the fact aside with contempt. What care they for facts? Let us have the tom-toms, and hysteria, and barricades in the streets." At root, Korngold says, is the "anarchistic contempt of majority rule" because "they know they are the minority and have not the patience to await the test of discussion and time."

 

"The Third International and Its Place in History," by N. Lenin [V.I. Ul'ianov] [written April 15, 1919] This is an article by Lenin from the debut issue of the official organ of the Communist International which attempts to place the new organization in historical perspective. Lenin asserts that the Comintern "actually emerged in 1918" with the formation of Communist Parties in various countries as a byproduct of internal struggle in the socialist movement against "opportunism and social-chauvinism." The new international has "discarded the opportunist, social-chauvinist, bourgeois, and petty-bourgeois dross" of the 2nd International, and has "begun to implement the dictatorship of the proletariat," Lenin states. He contemptuously dismisses the socialist leaders who, "corrupted by opportunism,...continue to worship bourgeois democracy, which they call 'democracy' in general." This conception of "pure democracy" is "stupid" and "crude," according to Lenin, a cloak which disguises the facts that (1) "No bourgeois republic, however democratic, ever was or could have been anything but a machine for the suppression of the working people by capital, an instrument of the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, the political rule of capital;" and (2) ""Freedom" in the bourgeois-democratic republic was actually freedom for the rich." Only under the Soviet system had the real majority been given a chance to wield power to suppress the "exploiters and their accomplices" from the restoration of capitalism. Lenin also notes that "Leadership in the revolutionary proletarian International has passed for a time -- for a short time, it goes without saying -- to the Russians, just as at various periods of the 19th Century it was in the hands of the British, then of the French, then of the Germans." Due to peculiar historical conditions, in backwards Russia it had proven to be easier to "begin" proletarian revolution -- while it would be more difficult to "continue it and carry it to victory" in Russia than it would in the "advanced countries," Lenin declared.

Letter from Adolph Germer in Chicago to Morris Hillquit at Saranac Lake, NY, April 17, 1919. A very important letter from the National Executive Secretary to NEC member and leading party luminary, Morris Hillquit, then recuperating from tuberculosis at a sanitarium at Saranac Lake, New York. Germer acknowledges Hillquit's criticism of the party leadership and states the primary difficulty is one of lack of communication with party members, which the SP's Bulletin and The Eye Opener and first class mail stopped by Chicago postal authorities while the press of the Left Wing Section seemingly has free access to the mails. Germer states that most of the party's growth is in the language federations, particularly the Russian, Lithuanian, and Ukrainian, while "we are not reaching the American worker who, after all, is needed to achieve the revolution." Germer notes a new form of campaigning for referendum seconds and remarks on the first example of bloc voting for a slate of candidates, in this case 16 ballots from a Russian Branch of Local Willimatic, Connecticut. He notes that a motion has been made for a meeting of the NEC May 24 and states the "very important matter" of establishing "the organization to hold title of property for the property" remains. It is clear throughout that ideas and information with regard to the 1919 faction fight are flowing from Germer in Chicago to Hillquit in New York, not vice versa, contrary to the theme of the secondary literature of the 1919 faction fight.

 

"Socialist Tactics?" by John Reed [April 19, 1919] In the debut issue of The New York Communist, Left Wing Socialist John Reed editorializes about the fact that Secretary of Local New York Julius Gerber had spoken against the Left Wing Section by reading from an original copy of the Left Wing City Committee's meeting minutes. While "the Left Wing is not a secret organization" and the minutes would be subsequently published, Reed notes, "the important point is that an official of the Socialist Party reads from copies of minutes that he had no title to possess, to one of the highest delegate bodies of our organization. It was obvious to everyone present that he had not come by his copy openly, yet he was allowed to proceed without anyone making a protest." Reed sees as hypocritical the fact that the Socialist Party protests against government and private labor espionage, but " sits open-eared and prepares to act on the information" when its own officials practice similar espionage. "Are these the methods the Right Wing intends to use inn the future? Does the membership of the party support these methods?" Reed asks.

 

"The Party Situation in New York," by John Reed [April 19, 1919] The April 13, 1919, annual session of the New York State Committee effectively banned the Left Wing Section in the party, instructing the State Executive Committee to revoke the charters of all locals and branches supporting the Left Wing manifesto. This article by John Reed provides other details about the factional civil war in the Socialist Party of New York. First and foremost, Reed notes that membership access to the party was being restricted by the Party Regulars: "In the past the party has been very lax regarding the admission of new members, practically anyone who signed an application blank being admitted without question. This fact has often been pointed out by many of those members who now constitute the Left Wing, but without result. But those who suggested a change in the method of admitting new members had no idea of handing the control of the growth of the party in this city over to a few handpicked individuals." The filtering of Left Wingers at the time of their attempted entry of the party is "a direct attempt by those at present in control to perpetuate themselves," Reed believes, and he charges that hundreds of applications have been held up for factional reasons. A historically valuable first-hand account of the "inquisition" of the "amateur Overman Committee" to which new applicants in New York were forced to submit in the spring of 1919 is provided in full. Reed also charges that the Regulars engaged in other unscrupulous tactics in the factional fight, including failure to allocate the requisite number of seats on the City Central Committee to branches believed to be dominated by Left Wing sentiment; gerrymandering party districts to minimize Left Wing power; and banning of mention of Left Wing meetings or advertising of the Left Wing press from the dominant Socialist Party publications of New York City -- The Call and The Jewish Daily Forward.

 

"One Reason for an Organization Within an Organization: A circular letter to factional allies from Julius Gerber in New York, April 19, 1919." With the decision made for factional war to the knives in the Socialist Party at New York by decision of the State Executive Committee at its seminal meeting of April 13, 1919, the Regular faction of the Socialist Party commenced to organize itself. The primary leader of this faction was Julius Gerber, Secretary of the Socialist Party of New York County, who sent this organizational letter to a limited number of factional allies on April 19. In Gerber's view, "The reason the Left Wing has grown and is making converts is because they have an organization that does nothing else. They have their organs that give their side. They act as a group while we have neither organization, nor press (The Call should not be used for factional purposes) and our comrades act as individuals. Result is chaos on our side, organization, discipline, and success on their side." Gerber indicates that "The situation in the party is rather critical at this time, and it is almost too late now to stem the tide," noting that "the so-called Left Wing is determined to either capture or split the party." Gerber believes that "A split in the party will at this time do irreparable injury to our party and to the Cause, while the control of the party by these irresponsible people will make the party an outlaw organization, and break up the organization." He calls for an organizational meeting on the night of April 21 at the home of the Rand School of Social Science, in advance of the critical meeting of the Central Committee of Local New York. "At this meeting the die will be cast as far as Local New York is concerned. We ought to decide beforehand. We ought to know what we are to do," Gerber declares.

 

"Minutes of the Left Wing Section of Greater New York: First General Membership Meeting -- April 20, 1919." Minutes of what seems to be the first general membership meeting of the Left Wing Section of the Socialist Party in New York City, Chaired by Ben Gitlow. The minutes state that the organization originated with a bolting minority delegation at a City Central Committee meeting, which had grown to an organization of 4,000 in Greater New York, of whom "about 800" were in attendance at this meeting at the Manhattan Lyceum. The group heard a resolution sent in by Ludwig Martens of the Russian Soviet Government Bureau "extending his allegiance and support to the Left Wing movement." Resolutions were adopted calling for a strike on May Day, supporting the Lawrence Strike, and calling for establishment of a working class organization to fight for the freedom of Political Prisoners. A resolution was adopted supporting the candidacy of Max Cohen for Secretary of Local New York (running against Julius Gerber) and for three Left Wing candidates running for the NEC of the Socialist Party in the electoral district -- Louis Fraina, Nicholas Hourwich, and Edward Lindgren. The action of the New York City Committee of the Left Wing establishing the New York Communist was approved and a "Red Week" of fundraising to support that paper and the other recognized publication of the Left Wing Section, the Yiddish-language Der Kampf, was approved. There was a discussion about the State Executive Committee's dissolution and reorganization of the 17th Assembly District branch, and a committee of 7 was elected to cooperate with the 10 Left Wing members of the branch's Executive Committee ousted in the fight.

 

"State Committee Proposition: Letter to the Editor of the New York Call," by L. Basky [pub. April 23, 1919] Left Wing Hungarian Socialist Federation member L. Basky writes to the New York Call about the April 13, 1919, ruling of the New York State Committee finding the Left Wing Section to violate "the spirit of the constitution" and instruct its Executive Committee on that basis to revoke the charter of any local that affiliates with the Left Wing Section or which permits its subdivisions or members to be affiliated. Basky calls for the decision of the 24 members of the State Committee majority to be put to a referendum vote of the Socialist Party of New York. "The Left Wing is not a counter-organization to the Socialist Party," Basky states, but rather a reflection of the sentiment "that it was high time to set the party abreast of the revolutionary events" and "to make it a useful instrument in the darkest and bitterest and most critical hours of the class struggle instead of making it what the Social Democratic Party of Germany turned out to be -- the last fortress of the dying capitalist system." Changing the party's course required organization and a program, Basky notes. This program is reducible to a set of concrete propositions, he feels: "To abolish all reform planks in the Socialists' party platform; to strictly adhere to an uncompromising class struggle, the last phase of which will be the dictatorship of the proletariat; to propagate revolutionary industrial unionism; to have the party own all its official papers and institutions; to repudiate the Berne Congress and to elect delegates to an international congress proposed by the Communist Party of Russia." He calls for an electoral test to determine whether these values reflect majority opinion in the Socialist Party. However, "The fight is on," Basky notes, adding "I welcome the attack of the State Committee. We at least know some of those we would have to face in the critical hour. Might as well fight it out now, whether they or the Left Wing represents the party. Let us find out right now who is with us and who is against us."

 

"The Pink Terror, Part 1: The Rape of the 17th Assembly District Branch," by John Reed [events of April 17-23, 1919] With the April 13 decision of the New York State Executive Committee behind them, the Regular faction set about purging the Socialist Party of New York of Left Wing Locals and Branches. First on the list was the 17th Assembly District Branch of Manhattan -- the largest branch of Local New York, with about 400 members in good standing. Prompting action was an April 10 branch meeting which voted to recall the branches officials, have extended discussion of party principles, and elect new officers -- a motion which Reed states was approved by a vote of 27 to 7 (although Reed later notes that the branch's quorum was 46). Some of these recalled officials appeared before the Executive Committee of Local New York and requested the branch to be reorganized -- Left Wing EC member Julius Codkind being "beaten up" and expelled from the meeting in the process. The 17th AD hall was padlocked by order of the Executive Committee of Local New York prior to the weekly meeting of April 17, and on the next day branch members received a letter from the Socialist Party of New York County announcing the reorganization of the 17th AD branch at a special purging meeting held that same evening. Some 150 members showed up at this meeting and were forced to turn in their party cards. Each was questioned whether they were "a member of the Left Wing." Reed states that only 30 of those present were invited into the reorganized branch. This small group received a letter inviting them to another special meeting to reorganize the 17th AD branch, to be held April 20, with admission by presentation of the notification letter only. This meeting was guarded by 2 NYC policemen, Reed says, who made sure the banned Left Wingers were physically excluded from the meeting. Reed states that the episode concluded on April 23, when a moving van swept up to 17th AD branch headquarters and removed the furniture, also under police protection.

 

"The Situation in Local New York," by David P. Berenberg [event of April 22, 1919] Participant's account of the April 22 meeting of the Central Committee of Local New York. The first test of strength came with the election of the chairman, with Regular U. Solomon defeating Left Winger Max Cohen, 39 to 19. A protest was of the credentials of the delegates from the 17th Assembly District branch, the subject of a recall on the one hand and a branch reorganization on the other. A protracted debate of over an hour was conducted on the matter, the delegates of the 17th AD ultimately retaining their seats. Once it was clear that the majority was lost, the Left Wing proceeded to engage in dilatory tactics, says Berenberg, raising repeated points of order, challenging decisions of the chair, and demanding or fighting roll call votes in order to disrupt the meeting. "The hall was crowded with visitors -- mostly young boys and girls whose membership in the party is from a month to about a year," Berenberg states, and the Left Wing played to the crowd in an attempt to an environment in which no business could take place. "A motion was made and seconded and carried that the Central Committee adjourn subject to the call of the Executive Committee, and that the Executive Committee of Local New York be instructed to reorganize Local New York, and put it on a working basis before it calls the next meeting of the Central Committee. This motion was carried by a vote of 71 to 36, whereupon the meeting was adjourned," Berenberg writes, adding that the pandemonium generated by Left Wing committeemen and supporters attracted the attention of the police, who subsequently cleared the room.

 

"An Answer to Moses Oppenheimer: Letter to the Editor of the New York Call," by Israel Amter [April 25, 1919] In this letter to the New York Call, Left Winger Israel Amter takes on Centrist Moses Oppenheimer and his associates for bolting a recent meeting of Local Bronx, Socialist Party. "These comrades seem unable to grasp the first elements of democracy," Amter declares, adding "They complain that the meeting elected Dr. [Julius] Hammer to the chair for three consecutive sittings. It would appear obvious to anybody but a Right Winger that his constant re-election was due to the confidence of the assemblage in Dr. Hammer and to the democratic notion of majority rule." Amter complains that after three meetings of Local Bronx held to discuss tactics and the Left Wing Manifesto, Oppenheimer and his comrades were intent upon "dilly-dallying" and "preventing the assemblage from determining its own will" by sending the matter to a handpicked committee of 15 for further discussion. Amter indicates that the Left Wing Manifesto is "merely a basis upon which we can get together for revolutionary action" and adds that "no claim is made that it is a perfect document." Amter thunders that the Left Wing "shall not rest till the Socialist Party of America not only stands for, but lives up to, the revolutionary ideas that it originally propagated. We shall not rest till all the compromisers, surrenderers, and traitors have been swept out of the party. And do not forget that there are many more of this class in the party than left it in the wake of those arch-revolutionists, Russell, Spargo, Walling & Co."

 

"The Pink Terror, Part 2: The Pillage of the 18th-20th Assembly District Branch," by John Reed [event of April 25, 1919] Having purged and reorganized the 17th AD Branch, the reorganizers in New York set their sites on the 18th-20th AD Branch, located in Harlem. The branch's meeting of April 25 was characterized by Reed as "orderly," and it elected 6 new delegates to the Central Committee of Local New York. Reed states that the "Right Wing" declined to run for these positions, that 8 candidates were nominated and 6 affiliates of the Left Wing Section were elected. "The unanimous action of the Right Wingers showed that there was some sort of scheme on foot, so after the meeting the Propaganda Committee proceeded to copy the records of the branch, for fear that Alderman Calman and his moving van might swoop down and carry them off," Reed notes. This foreboding proved well placed, he adds, as the very next day the Financial Secretary's desk was broken into and party records were removed. The branch's facility was then padlocked. A meeting of the (Left Wing) branch was held on Sunday, April 27, at which it was decided to allow the Executive Committee of Local New York "to remove the furniture or take any other illegal action they pleased," but that under no circumstance would the Executive Committee's authority to reorganize the branch be recognized. "By the time this paper is off the press, we expect to hear that the 18th-20th AD has been thoroughly "reorganized," and that the great majority of the rank and file has joined the Party Bread Line," Reed concludes.

 

"The Pink Terror, Part 3: Frightfulness in the 2nd and 6th AD Branches," by John Reed [events of April 25, 1919] Friday, April 25, 1919, was the meeting night for the Socialist Party's 2nd AD and 6th Assembly District Branches, located in Manhattan. At the 2nd AD Branch the Left Wing faction elected the chairman for the evening, a certain Comrade Marks, which steered the course to the debate. The April 17 reorganization of the 17th AD Branch seems to have been the topic of extended and bitter debate, while the report of the Central Committee -- detailing the need for the purge -- was deferred to the next meeting. "there was terror in the ranks of the Right Wing Buccaneers. Here was another branch gone Left Wing -- another branch which must be reorganized and the high cost of furniture moving still on the increase," Reed mockingly declares. The situation at the meeting of the 6th AD Branch was altogether different. There the Regular faction elected the chairman for the evening, and those assembled heard reports on the reorganization of the 17th AD Branch and the meeting of the city Central Committee that reflected the Regular faction's views, delivered by a certain Comrade Beckerman. A motion was made and seconded not to concur with the State Committee's April 13 decision to expel branches and members affiliated with the Left Wing Section. According to read, the chairman called only those supporting the Regular faction in engineering a one-sided debate, which apparently scuttled the motion. Thereafter, by a 60-40 vote, the State Committee's purge was endorsed. "The entire Left Wing membership of the 6th AD was thus completely wiped out of existence and the branch 'made safe for democracy,'" Reed declares.

 

"Introductory Editorial of The Socialist," by David P. Berenberg [April 29, 1919] Rand School instructor David Berenberg announces the launch of a new publication, issued in response to the New York Communist issued by John Reed, Benjamin Gitlow, and the Left Wing Section of Local Greater New York. Berenberg declares that "A crisis has arisen in the Socialist Party. An enemy has appeared within our ranks. At a time when unity of purpose and unity of action are prime necessities, this enemy has raised the black banner of anarchy among us. It is to meet this enemy that The Socialist is published." Berenberg asserts that the Left Wing Section had revived "the insolence of DeLeonism" and "has arrogated to itself all the revolutionary phrases, all the revolutionary aims, and all the revolutionary ideals of the socialist movement. It has concocted a manifesto which it now seeks to force upon the party without giving the membership a chance to think it over, to discuss it fully, to work the thing out in all its far-reaching implications." "This organization has embarked on a policy of rule or ruin," Berenberg declares and adds that it "must be fought to a standstill for the good of the proletariat!"

"Debs Goes to Prison," by David Karsner. [May 1919]. Text of a pamphlet privately published in New York in May 1919, probably compiling material previously published in pages of The New York Call. Author David Karsner was the editor of the Call's Sunday supplement and a biographer of Debs. He traveled to Terre Haute to make the trip with Debs to Cleveland and thenceforth to prison in Moundsville, WV. Karsner was one of four friends of Debs making the journey with the Socialist writer and orator to the prison gates -- along with J. Louis Engdahl (who published a similar memoir), Alfred Wagenknecht, and Debs' brother-in-law, Arthur Bauer. Includes a number of direct quotations of Debs and other interesting and historically valuable observations about the trip.

 

"Debs in Prison: The Story of Convict No. 2253, Eugene Victor Debs," by J. Louis Engdahl. [May 1919]. First section of a pamphlet published by the National Office of the Socialist Party in May 1919, almost certainly reprinting material which first appeared in the pages of The American Socialist, which Engdahl edited. This is one of two first-hand accounts of the transfer of Eugene Debs from custody in Cleveland, Ohio, to prison in Moundsville, WV, a cloak-and-dagger operation involving a high-speed automobile chase and multiple train transfers as the authorities sought to elude Socialist protesters. Includes a number of direct quotations from Debs' last day of freedom, including his last message, "Tell my comrades that I entered the prison doors a flaming revolutionist, my head erect, my spirit untamed, and my soul unconquered."

***PUBLICATION*** The Proletarian, vol. 2, no. 1 [May 1919]  (Graphic pdf, large file, 2.3 megs.) Full issue of the official magazine of the Socialist Party of Michigan/Proletarian University faction headed by John Keracher. This issue contains: "Spartacan Sparks." John Keracher: "May Day, 1919." "Peace or Revolution?" Fred W. Hurtig: "The Mooney Strike." Oakley C. Johnson, "Radicalism a la Mode." Breit (Carl Berreiter): "Lions, Lambs, and Other Animals." John Keracher: "International Notes" (Germany, Russia, Great Britain, Canada, Poland, Italy). "Our First Anniversary." "The Proletarian University of America." Dennis E. Batt: "Right, Center, and Left." John O'London (pseud.): "Grant Allen: A Tribute to His Scientific Work." Robert Louis Stevenson: "The Woodman" (poem).

"Left, Right, and Center," by Dennis E. Batt [May 1919] Michigan Left Wing leader Dennis Batt analyzes the ideological schism in the ranks of the Socialist Party of America. He frankly attempts to view the American party in the light of European experience and in that means to "profit by the events which have taken place" and "understand which groups in our own movement represent counterrevolutionary tendencies." The "Right" Batt sees as exemplified by Victor Berger, Seymour Stedman, and National Secretary Adolph Germer -- reformists with the sole aim "to make the conditions of the workers' slavery a little more endurable." This they have attempted by building a "great vote-catching political machine" and "consciously and deliberately obscured the class character of the socialist movement" by forging alliances with the petty bourgeoisie. The "Center," on the other hand, is held to be "an even greater problem than the Right," according to Batt. He states that the Centrist socialists accept a part of the program of the revolutionary wing, but possess a "natural tendency to compromise" and attempt to build "harmony and unity" with the socialist Right. This forced compromise of "fundamental principles" represents a grave danger to the socialist movement, in Batt's view. The Left Wing of the Socialist Party was experiencing great growth; whatever its limitations, "the trend is in the right direction and unless we allow enthusiasm to get the best of our heads we will succeed in placing the Socialist Party upon a sound basis," Batt predicts. The greatest error of the emerging Left is a tendency to predicate its program "upon the idea that the revolution is just around the corner" -- an event for which Batt sees no evidence in current American capitalism. He advocates the establishment of study groups by every Socialist Party Local to assimilate the enthusiastic new members into the socialist movement.

 

"Manifesto and Program of the Left Wing Section Socialist Party, Local Greater New York. [pamphlet version, circa May 1919] The main programmatic document of the Left Wing Section, Socialist Party, was the "Left Wing Manifesto," authored in January or early February by Louis C. Fraina, Bertram Wolfe, and others. The text of the document evolved slightly over time, eventually taking final shape as the content of this pamphlet issued by Local Greater New York. This is the full text of the Left Wing Manifesto and Program as published in the May 1919 pamphlet.

 

"May Day 1919: A Challenge and a Greeting," by Rose Pastor Stokes [May 1, 1919] Facing an onslaught of prosecutions by the Wilson administration for alleged violations of the so-called Espionage Act, the Socialist Party launched a counterattack on May Day 1919, holding hundreds of May Day meetings across the country to build membership in the party and support for its objectives. This speech by Rose Pastor Stokes was part of the centrally prepared program for these meetings, published in a pamphlet by the SPA's Department of Organization and Propaganda and dramatically read to meetings by local party members along with shorter statements by other prominent party defendants. Stokes lauds the day as sweet-scented, declaring that "from far lands in the old world is borne to us the new odor of the flowers of our long-awaited Springtime -- the Springtime of Humanity." "We have allowed the Church, State, Press, Bourse, to drug, suppress, confuse, and swindle us," states Stokes. However, the artificially-divided working class was gaining class consciousness, and Stokes militantly declares "soon we shall have done toiling and starving, fighting and dying for you. Against your industrial chaos we shall oppose our industrial order; against your social rottenness we shall oppose our social sanity; against your war-breeding imperialism we shall oppose the fraternal interdependence of our Socialist Republics; against your Dictatorship of the Bourgeoisie we shall oppose our Dictatorship of the Proletariat."

 

"1919 May Day Speech," by Kate Richards O'Hare [May 1, 1919] Facing an onslaught of prosecutions by the Wilson administration for alleged violations of the so-called Espionage Act, the Socialist Party launched a counterattack on May Day 1919, holding hundreds of May Day meetings across the country to build membership in the party and support for its objectives. This speech by Kate Richards O'Hare (not included in the book of O'Hare's writings published by Philip S. Foner and Sally Miller) attempts to advance the idea that the American working class had the power within itself to end the imprisonment of conscientious and political objectors if only it would "DEMAND" the same: "There is a vast difference between petitioning or begging and demanding. Our old Colonial forefathers went to the King on bended knees with a petition, and every time they went on bended knees they were kicked out. Workers who have petitioned and begged have not fared any better. There is power in workers that are organized, and organized workers can DEMAND, have the power to DEMAND. When once organized workers learn how to demand, there is nothing they want that they cannot have." Also includes an interesting discussion of the evolution of the main slogans of the American bourgeoisie: from "He kept us out of war" to "War to make the world safe for Democracy" to "Americanism" to the bogey of "Bolshevism." O'Hare states that "whether or not blood is spilled" in the achievement of Socialism "depends upon the tyrants of today."

 

"1919 May Day Speech," by Eugene V. Debs [May 1, 1919] Facing an onslaught of prosecutions by the Wilson administration for alleged violations of the so-called Espionage Act, the Socialist Party launched a counterattack on May Day 1919, holding hundreds of May Day meetings across the country to build membership in the party and support for its objectives. This speech by Eugene Debs was the keynote speech in the centrally prepared program for these meetings. The speech was published in a pamphlet by the SPA's Department of Organization and Propaganda and was dramatically read to meetings by local party members. Debs acknowledges here that the doors of federal prison "yawn wide for me and my comrades" but he firmly asserts that prison holds no terror for him, that rather his only concern is "to preserve to the last the integrity of my own soul, and my loyalty to the only cause that is worth living for, fighting for, dying for." Debs likes the state oppression and bile spewed towards the Socialist opposition to three previous movements: the early ministry to the poor and downtrodden by the "Bolshevik" Jesus Christ, the American revolution (during which Washington, Jefferson, Henry, and Sam Adams were vilified), and the movement against chattel slavery led by Lincoln and Wendell Phillips. In all of these cases, the vilification proved fleeting, and the movement for liberation proved powerful and lasting. So to with the Socialist movement, Debs implies. "Great movements are shaking the foundations of all the countries of the world," Debs states, noting a process of radicalization in England, Italy, France, Hungary, and across Central Europe. The Bolshevik Revolution is the beacon for this vital movement, Debs asserts, noting "What they are calling 'Dictatorship of the Proletariat' simply means 'no work, no vote.' Unless one serves society he cannot enjoy the protection and comfort of society. Let us as workingmen establish the absolute rule that since Labor creates all wealth, all good things of right belong to those whose labor has produced them."

 

"First Authentic News of Cleveland May Day Demonstration," by Hortense Wagenknecht [event of May 1, 1919] Valuable first-hand account of the May Day 1919 Cleveland Riot -- the result of an unprovoked attack by Cleveland police and ultra-nationalist "patriots" against a peaceful procession and assembly of thousands of working class Clevelanders held under the auspices of the Socialist Party. Hortense Wagenknecht -- at the time the temporary State Secretary of the Socialist Party of Cleveland -- contends that the police attack was made against the assembly of supporters gathered in the Cleveland town square, rather than the more committed (and potentially more aggressive) marchers. "No more than 200 of the marchers in the parade ever entered the Square," Wagenknecht states. Mounted police and army trucks drove straight into the crowd, swinging drawn clubs. Fist-fights erupted and gang violence was practiced by the forces of so-called "law and order" against the demonstrators. "Those who attacked the marchers in every instance we can learn of, were not the bystanders, but police, detectives, APLs, soldiers, sailors, and hoodlums, who were selected for the work beforehand. These last were in the main youths from the ages of about 14 to 25 years, and many were drunk. Soldiers stood about in groups in many sections, pointing out to these ruffians who were willing to do their bidding, any who appeared to be 'Reds' or who had on red ties or badges. These were torn from the persons wearing them, and if protest was made by the wearer, the soldiers rushed to the spot and a free-for-all fight ensued. Hundreds of men were without hats and collars, and showed the marks of having their ties removed by these defenders of DEMOCRACY. Streets and sidewalks were strewn with bits of red cloth, with here and there spatterings of blood." Two were killed and hundreds hurt in the riot.

 

"Who is Splitting the Party? An Editorial in the New York Communist," by John Reed [May 1, 1919] In this editorial published in the New York Communist, editor John Reed asserts that the revolutionary Socialist Left Wing of the SPA had long endured the epithets of the ruling faction of the party. Now, however, the Left Wing represented the majority perspective among the rank and file of the organization and would no longer be cowed. "We have no intention of being forced out of the party by the Right Wing. We have no intention of 'splitting the party;' not because we are afraid of a split -- for on a question of principle it is better to split and keep on splitting rather than compromise with reaction -- but because we intend to capture the party machinery and mold the American movement into an effective weapon with which to fight the battles of the working class," Reed insists. In answer to the legitimate attempt of the Left Wing to win control of the party, the Right Wing in control of the Executive Committee of Local New York makes use of "brutal strong-arm tactics," according to Reed. "Who is splitting the party," asks Reed: "we, the Left Wing, who have announced our open intention of capturing the party by means of the majority vote of the delegates of the rank and file in Party Convention assembled? Or the Right Wing in New York, which is disrupting branch after branch, disenfranchising hundreds of comrades, by illegal action of the Executive Committee? The Executive Committee has indefinitely suspended the meetings of the Central Committee, a superior body, because the branches were electing a majority of Left wing delegates to that body. And behind closed doors the Executive Committee functions, hurling bulls of excommunication against all branches in which a Left Wing majority appears."

 

"Constitution of the Young People's Socialist League: Adopted by 1st National Convention -- Chicago, May 1-4, 1919." This seems to be the first formal constitution of the Young People's Socialist League, the youth section of the Socialist Party of America. Inspired by the experience of European Socialist parties in the field of youth organization, Young People's Socialist Leagues (under various names) began to spontaneously arise in the United States from about 1907. The movement was particularly strong in such cities as Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh. It was not until mid-October 1913 that a Young People's Department was established by the SPA National Office, with the YPSL national organization headed at first by a Secretary appointed by the National Committee of the SPA (J.A. Rogers, Jr.). Elections for National Secretary were held by referendum in 1915 (Bill Kruse), 1917 (Bill Kruse), and 1919 (Oliver Carlson). The first National Convention of the YPSL was held May 1-4, 1919, in Chicago -- at which this constitution was approved. Adoption of the YPSL constitution marked a de facto leap towards organizational independence, as no mechanism for SPA control was included in the specified framework. The YPSL was to issue its own dues stamps and collect its own funds, handle its own finances, elect its own officers, issue (or revoke) its own charters, and conduct its own propaganda. The organization was to be open to young Socialists between the ages of 15 and 30 without regard to gender, race, or creed. Governance was to be by a relatively powerful National Secretary, elected to a 2 year term. The National Secretary was subject to the control of a National Committee which was to consist of 1 member for each state organization or unorganized state with at least 100 average paid members, plus an additional delegate for every 500 average paid members. Supreme authority was to be vested in a bi-annual convention; elections to be held by referendum. Dues were established at 5 cents a month per member to the National Office (plus whatever state or local dues might be collected); 2 cents a month per member for Junior YPSL, open to children ages 12-16.

 

"Berenberg Resolution is Socialist Espionage Act: Letter to the Editor of the New York Call," by Charles W. Gasser [May 2, 1919] This brief letter to the New York Call by a New York Left Winger sharply criticizes David Berenberg's resolution to the New York State Committee (passed 24-17) which banned the Left Wing Section and began a purge of the Socialist Party of New York. Berenberg's resolution is nothing more than a Socialist Espionage Law, Gasser insists. The founding member of the Socialist Party continues: "If the constitution (either state or national) of the Socialist Party has been violated, why the Berenberg resolution? Why a referendum? Any one voting aye on the resolution adds to the constitution the power to expel any member or local advocating anything disagreeable to those in control. If the present constitution is being violated, said resolution is unnecessary."

 

"Fight Capitalism: Letter to the Editor of the New York Call," by J. Lederer [May 2, 1919] J. Lederer, a 30 year veteran of the socialist movement in America, writes to the New York Call with a sanguine view of the factional war within the Socialist Party. Between the Left and Right Wings of the Party "there is hardly any difference as to fundamentals," notes Lederer, "but as to tactics, or the question 'How to get there' in the quickest and surest possible manner, that was always, more or less, the bone of contention." Lederer remarks that "the old SLP split up on this question, and it seems to me that the present Left Wingers are almost identical with the old SLP, and if DeLeon were alive today he certainly would be a very happy man. After all, the time has come to admit that DeLeon was a master mind, and if not for some petty unfortunate personal and temperamental qualities he would have remained a great leader in the American socialist movement. But he made very much the same mistake as most of the present Left Wingers and some of the Right Wingers are doing today. Intolerance was his mistake, and above all I implore all comrades to learn to look upon each other with kindness and with tolerance." Lederer pleads that members of both factions should "remember there is nothing perfect in this world, and even the sun has its spots, and the Socialist Party, no doubt, has its faults, and always will have some, but be fair, be reasonable, and use common sense and comradeship in your discussions."

 

"The Left Wing Manifesto," by David P. Berenberg [May 2, 1919 and subsequent]. David Berenberg, an instructor at the Rand School of Social Science, was one of the leaders of the anti-Left Wing movement in the Socialist Party of New York. He started a weekly newspaper in response to John Reed's New York Communist called the New York Socialist. (Reed later returned the favor by issuing a parody issue of the New York Socialist and sneaking a stack into the Rand School bookstore for distribution!) t was in the pages of the NY Socialist that this lengthy analytical critique of the "Manifesto and Program of the Left Wing Section" was published in serial form. Berenberg's critique was doubtlessly influential among party regulars in the hothouse that was Socialist Party politics in New York city during the spring and summer of 1919.

 

"The Emergency Convention: An Editorial in the New York Communist," by John Reed [May 8, 1919] John Reed acknowledges the launch of the "organ of the reactionary machine in Local New York," David Berenberg's The Socialist, and observes that this publication had urged sympathetic members to support the call for an Emergency National Convention of the Socialist Party. "The change of heart which The Socialist note would seem to indicate would therefore be welcome if it was inspired by honest conviction," says Reed, but he notes the change of position on the convention "indicates that the "leaders" are up to their old game -- apparently accepting the will of the membership while relying upon their control of the party machinery to carry out their own purposes." The situation is clear to Reed: "The attempts in New York to disfranchise the Left Wing through 'reorganization' schemes, and the New York State Committee resolution calling for the expulsion of Left Wing branches and locals, through which it is hoped to suspend the revolutionary section of the membership while the voting for delegates to the convention is taking place are a part of the general plan to control the coming convention."

 

"Circular Letter to the Members of Local New York, SPA, from the Executive Committee of Local New York, SPA." [May 8, 1919] This is an official communication from the Executive Committee of Local New York about the purge it was engaged in against branches and individuals endorsing the manifesto of the Left Wing Section. "Your Executive Committee is compelled to take unusual and vigorous measures to combat the disruptive efforts of an internal faction, which seeks to dominate the party by undemocratic and unsocialistic methods," the circular letter declared, adding "The so-called 'Left Wing Section' has a definite organization, with white membership cards, with branches within the party branches (wherever it has been able to form such), with a Central Committee, officers, treasury, and press, parallel with and in opposition to those of the party." This constituted a "party within the party," the communication of the Executive Committee declared. Such a situation was deemed a menace, for "openly ridiculing all ideas of democracy, they have sought to impose their will upon the party by the systematic use of machine methods utterly inconsistent with majority rule or party unity and self-discipline." The Left Wing Section was said to make use of dilatory tactics and rowdyism to disrupt meetings and to make use of factional discipline and unit voting to win majorities in ill-attended branch meetings. The situation necessitating the reorganization of the 17th Assembly District Branch is discussed in detail. While the assertion is made that there was "no intention on the part of the Executive Committee to censor opinions or to prevent free discussion of party questions," a decision had been made to cancel the scheduled May 13 meeting of the city Central Committee and to reorganize the whole of Local New York. "This committee will begin with such branches as are affiliated with the "Left Wing Section." No one will be excluded because of his opinions, but no one can retain a double membership, in the party and in the so-called 'Left Wing Section,'" the communique ominously declares.

 

"The Executive Committee's Statement: A Response to the Communique Issued by the EC of Local New York, Socialist Party," by Maximilian Cohen [May 8, 1919] Lengthy reply by Left Wing leader Max Cohen to the May 8 circular letter of the Executive Committee of Local New York which vilified the Left Wing Section and announced a party purge in the form of "reorganizations." Cohen states that the Executive Committee, headed by Julius Gerber, "is absolutely without any authority to reorganize any branches in New York, until the referendum issued by the State Committee has been passed." He indicates that the rush to suspend various Left Wing branches is little more than an effort to manipulate the result of this pending referendum. The assertion that the city Central Committee had ceded its authority to its Executive Committee and instructed that body to reorganize Local New York is called by Cohen "a deliberate lie," complete with falsified meeting minutes published in David Berenberg's organ, The Socialist. Cohen gives his first-hand account of the pivotal April 22 meeting of the Central Committee of Local New York, and the heated debate there over the reorganization of the 17th AD Branch -- the largest single branch of Local New York. The so-called "Right Wing's" position that adequate opportunity existed for alteration of party policies within the structure of the party organization is dismissed by Cohen as the illusory promises of a political machine intent on holding power: "They do not wish to revise the party's policies and tactics if they can help it; certainly they are not for the abolition of social reform planks; they are not for repudiating the Second International, they are not for affiliating with the Third International, called by the Communist Party of Russia (Bolsheviki). They are not for making revolutionary industrial unionism a part of its general propaganda." To the claim of the Regular faction that the Left Wing had formed "an organization within the organization," Cohen responds not with a denial but with an accusation that the Regulars had themselves formed "an organization outside of the organization," consisting of quasi-party institutions such as the New York Call and the Rand School of Social Science over which the rank and file had no control, these being controlled and carefully guarded by the SPA's ruling clique. Cohen calls for the recall of the Executive Committee of Local New York and Secretary Gerber and for a "no" vote on the pending party referendum to expel the Left Wing Section.

 

"Division That Weakens: Letter to the Editor of the New York Call," by Charles Hardy [May 9, 1919] This letter to the editor of the New York Call is presented as a bit of a horror story, the tale of a paper member of the 3rd Assembly District Branch, Bronx, attending a meeting of his organization and being met with a $100 assessment towards new headquarters, which Hardy states he was able "through hard bargaining" to reduce to $25. Hardy states that he read the Left Wing Manifesto and found it uninspiring; for example, it endorsed industrial unionism as if that were a major step forward, even though this was "something that the Socialist Party has done long before they dreamed of it; but that is only a display of ignorance on their part, and we can readily forgive them since they are so short a time in the Socialist Party." Local Bronx subsequently held a general membership meeting on the Left Wing Manifesto which was addressed by Ben Gitlow for the Left, Moses Oppenheimer for the Center, and Louis Waldman for the Right. "The only one who spoke on the subject properly was Waldman, for he has spoken on the issue and left out personalities. He has shown conclusively that we are being separated by a little egotistic group of men who are carried away with the enthusiasm of what is happening in Europe, overlooking the present economic conditions and the psychology of the workers in America," Hardy says. At two further meetings of Local Bronx, "the behavior of the Left Wingers was uncouth and disgusting," says Hardy. "They came to the meetings organized and prepared to cram into the throats of those assembled their manifesto at any price and without discussion." Chairman of the 3 meetings was Julius Hammer, a man who "disregarded all parliamentary ruling procedures," in Hardy's opinion. Hardy asserts that the Left Wing's "slogan that dooms them to fail" is: "We have organized within the party to capture the party, and if we cannot capture it, we will smash it." Hardy declares that the forthcoming Emergency National Convention of the Socialist Party "shall provide the necessary equipment for the party that will prevent a few disrupters in the future from organizing within the party, which naturally leads to a division that weakens our forces and defeats our purpose when facing our real enemies -- the capitalist class."

 

"The Cleveland May Day Demonstration," by C.E. Ruthenberg [May 10, 1919]. A disturbing tale of the crude and premeditated exercise of force and violence by a coordinated circle of conspirators against a law-abiding citizenry. On May 1, 1919, the Socialist Party of Ohio sponsored a massive May Day parade, in which a goodly number of unions and thousands of individuals participated. Despite disruptions by right wing provocateurs, including one wildly brandishing a handgun, the carefully-planned assembly was completely peaceable. This calm was shattered by the premeditated action of the Cleveland police department and their conservative vigilante allies, who violently attacked the marchers, crushing them with horses and beating them with clubs. In the riot which followed, two marchers were murdered by the police and scores arrested, and the headquarters of the Socialist Party of Ohio was vandalized under the winking eyes of the Cleveland constabulary. C.E. Ruthenberg, Secretary of Local Cuyahoga County, Socialist Party, was charged with "causing a disturbance" in connection with this violent episode of state savagery, which he ably chronicles here.

 

"Minutes of the Borough Committee of Local Kings Co., New York, SPA, Meeting of May 11, 1919." May 1919 was a month of heated factional activity in the Socialist Party of New York. These minutes of the Borough Committee of Local Kings County detail the form that the struggle took in a meeting attended by over 800 members of the party, including such prominent Left Wingers as Edward Lindgren, Will Weinstone, Morris Zucker, and Bert Wolfe; and such prominent Regulars as William Feigenbaum, David Berenberg, and Abraham Shiplacoff. Lengthy and heated debate over adoption of the Left Wing Manifesto resulted in time running out, a hasty adoption of a motion by Weinstone pledging financial and moral support "to the Left Wing propaganda and organization" and resolving "that all delegates, committees, and officials of Local Kings adhere strictly to this manifesto and program." But the time for rental of the hall was exhausted, "a general confusion and obstruction on the part of some members," and "the meeting had to be disbanded without finishing the order of business before the house."

 

"Dr. Aronson's Plea for Unity: Letter to the Editor of the New York Call," by M. Aronson [May 12, 1919] A desperate plea for reason from the New York Socialist Party factional war of April-May 1919. The Centrist Aronson enumerates the transgressions of "the administration of Local New York," headed by Julius Gerber, which had taken steps to make the non-factional New York Call into a factional organ; bypassed democratic proposals to resolve the conflict, such as a New York city convention, in favor of the methods of power politics; acted in caucus to use the State Committee to adopt "the most monstrous proposition of excluding from the party whole locals, branches, and groups containing any member or members having views not in accordance with the fanatical pharisees of the Right Wingers;" and seized the records and assets and reorganized the dissident 17th AD Branch without legal authority. "Still not satisfied, the administration announced from the headquarters that it is going to apply the same measures to all the branches not liked at. No more waiting for the report of the elected committee of 7, no more waiting for the results of the referendum concerning the Albany State Committee resolution, no more discussion. The iron is hot; we are in power; might is right; arbitrary rule is our life! Justice, solidarity, brotherly comradeship to the wind -- imagination, idealistic phrases!" Aronson writes. "Why all this terrific prosecution in the midst of our ranks? The so-called Left Wing printed a leaflet, a manifesto." Although he does not associate himself with this manifesto, neither is it a crime against the party, Aronson notes. Neither the dues collected by the Left Wing Section nor the membership cards "foolishly" issued by them constitute insurmountable barriers to party unity, in Aronson's view. "The world is aflame, capitalism is working with great intensity to create the real iron heel, the hopes of world peace and abolition of war are getting more and more illusory...; militarism to be adopted by the most civilized nations. Hunger and death, epidemic and desolation, prevail in most of the European countries, and in the United States the profiteers only are prosperous..." Yet, in this critical moment, the American Socialist movement was tearing itself apart. "Comrades, it is not too late yet. Drop this rubbish; let us be all united. We are so few and the enemies are so many. Amicable discussions and decisions. No disruptions, no closing up of branches, no State Resolutions! Forget and forgive... In unity there is strength," Aronson implores.

"Shrinking Shrimps," by J.O. Bentall [May 16, 1919]   Writing from Crow Wing County Jail in Brainerd, Minnesota, 1916 Socialist gubernatorial candidate Jacob Bentall delivers this short essay glorifying his fellow Socialist political prisoner Gene Debs in positively hagiographic terms. Debs is likened to Socrates, Jesus Christ, Galileo, and Lincoln by the former Christian Socialist and future Communist Oppositionist Bentall. Debs is depicted as a man who could no more be put into a dungeon than "they could get the Atlantic Ocean into a washtub." By way of contrast, those who legislated against, investigated, arrested, tried, and upheld the conviction against Debs are called "the shrinking shrimps of capitalism" -- vanishing from view just as Debs grew in stature through his imprisonment. The campaign of repression had only turned the working class into a "class conscious, wide-awake, clenched-fisted, fighting-mad, victory-bent, irresistible, unconquerable, unified mass," in Bentall's words. "Gag law and tyranny did overnight what we have been trying to do for half a century."

 

"A Statement," by Max S. Hayes [May 17, 1919] Published statement by long time Socialist stalwart Max Hayes explaining the thinking behind his decision to resign from the Socialist Party on May 7, 1919. Hayes lists three principle reasons for his decision: 1. A disagreement with the strongly anti-militarist St. Louis Resolution of 1917; 2. A fundamental disagreement with the Left Wing platform, a document which Hayes states was "foisted upon Local Cleveland largely by an element who were in the party organization less than 3 months and many of whom are not voters and who are admittedly anarchistic in their tactics"; and 3. A disagreement with the "foolish tactics" displayed at the May 1, 1919 parade in Cleveland, an event which culminated in a riot ending in 2 deaths and the ransacking of Socialist offices in the city by Right Wing mobs. "The SP officials seem to have deliberately invited trouble that might have been avoided by the use of ordinary tact," Hayes states, noting that civil liberties had been curtailed by the local regime in response to the troubles. "I am not an apostate and have not recanted my principles and ideals. The Socialist Party, and certainly not the Left Wingers, control no patent or copyright on socialism, which philosophy I shall continue to advocate most sincerely," Hayes declares. Includes a short biography of Max S. Hayes.

 

"Chicago Turns to the Left!" by I.E. Ferguson [events of May 17-18, 1919] Participant's account of the Socialist Party convention of Local Cook Co., Illinois by a prominent leader of the Left Wing Section. "This convention meant a decisive conquest of a local party unit of over 6,500 members," Ferguson trumpets, noting that the convention was held on "the basis of what is perhaps the most carefully and completely elaborated statement, in terms of platform and resolutions, of the Left Wing movement in this country." At the convention Left Wing candidates had received between 400 and nearly 450 votes to well under 200 for supporters of the Regular faction. The Left Wing triumph had led to a bolt of about 10% of the delegates, led by "Napoleon" Seymour Stedman. "This handful of delegates, who had been insistent for half a year that somebody was trying to split the party, when faced with the realization that the party was reorganized right under their eyes, without a murmur about a secession, decided to prove there was a desire to split the party by trying a little splitting on their own account," Ferguson ironically notes. "If anything further is heard of party-splitting in Chicago, Stedman and his dozen or so of official lieutenants will stand convicted of a pre-calculated design toward that end; at least, the deliberate raising of the vanity of personal opinion, or lack of basis for intelligent opinion, above the level of devotion to the socialist movement," Ferguson declares.

 

"Socialist Party in Swing to the Left," by Robert M. Buck [events of May 17-18, 1919] This short news snippet from the Labor Party of Cook County's official organ documents the heated proceedings at the recently completed convention of the Socialist Party of Cook County. The gathering had been dominated by a Left Wing majority, Buck states, with "William Bross Lloyd, multimillionaire" presiding and "Isaac E. Ferguson, lawyer" steering "the radical element to their triumph." The gathering had nearly erupted in a riot the first day of the gathering, Buck observes, "but the Sunday gathering was peaceful and orderly, after the withdrawal of the moderate delegates, led by Seymour Stedman." "There was talk of a dual organization during the heat of the conflict, but so far as could be learned no definite steps have yet been taken," Buck notes.

 

"The Socialist Task and Outlook," by Morris Hillquit [published May 21, 1919]. One of the seminal documents of the 1919 internal political struggle in the Socialist Party of America, first published prominently on the back page of the New York Call on May 21, 1919, This, Morris Hillquit's so-called "Clear the Decks" article, has been (wrongly) characterized by historian Theodore Draper as a directive for a party purge. Hillquit, one of the leading figures of the SPA and an individual with an enormous amount of personal influence within the organization, weighed in on the faction fight between the "Left Wing" and their opponents here, stating that a split of the SPA was inevitable owing to the establishment of the "Left Wing" as a "schismatic and disintegrating" movement within the party. Instead of conversion of their opponents, this group refused cooperation in favor of an effort to "capture" the party organization in a sort of "burlesque on the Russian Revolution," Hillquit stated. As a result, it would be "better a hundred times to have two numerically small socialist organizations, each homogeneous and harmonious within itself, than to have one big party torn by dissensions and squabbles, an impotent colossus on feet of clay." Hillquit called for the Left Wing to split "honestly, freely, and without rancor."

 

"Minutes of the State Executive Committee of the Socialist Party of New York, Special Meeting of May 21, 1919." Special meeting of the New York SEC called for the purpose of canvassing the vote on pending party referenda. State Secretary Walter Cook submitted a number of samples of ballots submitted by Ukrainian and Russian party branches for the inspection of the committee indicative of ballot box stuffing. Votes were cast, according to Cook, "entirely out of proportion to the dues stamps purchased by such locals during the last three months, but also showing that the individual ballots on their very face were either signed by one or a group of persons, or marked by the same person. The same mark appears on about fifty ballots in ink from one language local, while the signatures were mostly in pencil." In another case, ballots were submitted by a Russian language branch without an electoral meeting of that unit having been held. "In view of the above it was decided that the Secretary should correspond with the different locals having language branches, demanding a tabulation of the vote on the national referendums by branches, English as well as foreign languages; and also arrange to have all locals turn into the State Office the individual ballots from all their branches," the minutes indicate. In addition, "a statement should accompany same, explaining that the tabulation so filed was but tentative and that a final tabulation would be filed later, as soon as all the facts in connection with the irregularity of the vote on both referendums have been gathered together."

 

"Minutes of a Special Meeting of the Workmen's Cooperative Publishing Association: New York City -- May 22, 1919." The Workmen's Cooperative Publishing Association was the legally mandated corporate ownership entity behind the New York Call, the daily organ of the Socialist Party of Greater New York. These are the minutes of a special meeting called by the association to determine the paper's line in the increasingly turbulent factional war that was splitting the Socialist Party of the state. The gathering voted in favor of a recommendation by the paper's Board of Management "That The Call take a definite stand against the organization within the organization, such as the 'Left Wing' Section," by a vote of 29-17. The decision followed the State Committee of New York's decision to "practically outlaw" the Left Wing Section at its meeting held the previous day. The formerly non-factional Call was thus drawn into the ideological war as an explicit vehicle of the Regular tendency; thereafter, debate was tilted in favor of that faction at the expense of the Left Wing Section. The paper was wedded to the Regular SPA and inevitably followed the fortunes of that organization as imploded amidst a vast party purge, splits of entire federations, and defections of a mass of disillusioned rank and filers.

 

"Letter to the National Executive Committee of the Socialist Party of America preferring charges against Alfred Wagenknecht from Victor L. Berger, Member of the NEC, May 22, 1919." With this letter, Socialist NEC member Victor Berger officially prefers charges against his fellow NEC member, Left Wing leader Alfred Wagenknecht, for "willfully and maliciously using the position to which he was appointed in order to promote the organization and propaganda work of our party -- for the satisfaction of his own petty and contemptible personal hatred and for the purpose of injuring and sabotaging the good name" of Berger himself. Berger also additionally charges Wagenknecht with "willfully and maliciously sabotaging the Socialist Party in behalf of the so-called 'Left Wing' and of using his position as National Organizer perfidiously for that purpose." He calls for an investigation of Wagenknecht by the NEC and his removal if he is found guilty of said charges.

 

"Report to the NEC," by Adolph Germer [May 24, 1919]. The "nationality card" is played here for the first time by the National Executive Secretary of the Socialist Party of America, Adolph Germer. In the face of the overwhelming defeat of the old and familiar faces in the 1919 elections for the SPA's National Executive Committee, and with barely a month left in the lame duck outgoing NEC's constitution term of office, Secretary Germer sounds the alarm, noting that over half of the party's paid membership is affiliated with foreign language federations for the first time and declaring this "an abnormal and unhealthy condition." Germer further cries fraud on the part of the language groups, citing a 70% rate of growth in five carefully selected Slavic and Baltic language federations between dues stamp sales in April 1919 relative to December 1918. Germer charges that the members of the five mentioned federations (Russian, Ukrainian, South Slavic, Lithuanian, and Latvian) "do not vote, but are voted by the 'leaders' -- voted en bloc, with mathematical uniformity -- and all one way." Germer states that the question of whether the Socialist Party is to become the tail of its constituent language federations "must be frankly faced and wisely solved" by the outgoing NEC.

 

"Clearing the Decks: An Editorial in the New York Communist, May 24, 1919." Editorial reply to Morris Hillquit's "The Socialist Task and Outlook" from pages of the New York Communist, edited by John Reed. The "clever politician" Hillquit is said to have "emerged from his long retirement" to issue this "semi-official declaration" in the New York Call. "Now as ever, Hillquit is attempting to carry water on both shoulders; he flirts with the revolutionary sentiment that is now dominant in the movement; he coquettes with Proletarian Dictatorship in Russia and Hungary, while spurning it nearer to home; he implies a mild reproof to the majority socialists of Germany; he mentions the St. Louis platform and immediately sheers away, fearful of this test if applied to the 'leaders' of the party," the editorial states. In the postwar world, Hillquit is said to have seen the United States the strongest capitalist country in the world, with its liberal regime having become reactionary and the reformist protest movement having collapsed. To Hillquit, "it appears that the failure of peace, the governmental persecution and repression, the obscurantism of the capitalist press, terrorism, unemployment, and intensified exploitation will soon awaken the American workers;" he sees the Socialist Party's task as propaganda and organization, awaiting an awakening of the American working class, the editorial indicates. After years of advocating "unity," Hillquit and the SP leadership are said to have moved to advocacy of a split: "After months of agitation the Left Wing has broken down the opposition and succeeded in having a referendum taken on the necessity for a National Emergency Convention. The present attitude of the rank and file forecasts that such a convention will be another St. Louis, and Comrade Hillquit and the other 'leaders' doubt whether they can weather another storm. The only thing left is to split the party before the convention." According to the editorial, the Regulars were engaged in a conscious attempt to "disfranchise the revolutionary section of the membership, expel its spokesmen" and thereby make the party safe for its "official junta." But the Left Wing was in the driver's seat: "we refuse to split the party, that is not our purpose. We will capture the party and if the Right Wing wants to split, it must do the splitting, it must break away from the party. The rank and file is behind our position, we are the party, and when the time comes for clearing the decks we will handle the mop."

 

"Discussing Hillquit's Article: Letter to the Editor of the New York Call," by John J. Kallen [May 26, 1919] This rather temperate letter by a supporter of the Left Wing Section to the editor of the New York Call demonstrates that within the radical wing of the Socialist Party there were those who sought to avoid the catastrophe of an acrimonious split. With Hillquit's modest conclusion in his (wildly misinterpreted) "The Socialist Task and Outlook," that "there had better be a divided socialist house instead of one squabbling movement," Kallen thoroughly agrees. "But, if Comrade Hillquit truly expresses the opinions of the vast majority of 'non-Lefts,' I see no necessity for such a split," Kallen declares, noting that the Left Wing did monolithically seek the abolition of all social reform planks from the party platform. "Have we not here a basis for discussion and reconciliation? Had the 'leaders' been willing to permit honest discussion in the first place, no 'reconciliation' would now be necessary," Kallen asserts. Kallen tweaks Hillquit for inconsistency, noting that "If on Comrade Hillquit's own testimony, the American 'revolt' is near, why not be consistent and prepare for it with the thing he scorns as utopian and anti-socialistic? Why not, if 'revolt' and awakening from hypnosis is near, prepare for the one method of steering it on the highways of socialism: namely, the 'dictatorship of the American proletariat,"'the institution of the 'Soviet'? Were the "revolt" very distant, no revision of party tactics would be necessary. But Comrade Hillquit thinks differently, but fails to see the necessity of preparedness."

 

"Michigan Charter Voided by NEC: Socialist Committee Charges Members Have Violate National Constitution." (New York Call) [event of May 26, 1919] This unsigned news account from the pages of the New York Call notes the May 26th decision of the Socialist Party's National Executive Committee to expel the entire membership of the state of Michigan from the party in a single stroke by revoking the charter granted by the NEC to the State Committee. Reporter preferring charges was Executive Secretary Adolph Germer, who asserted this provision of the Michigan state constitution to be in violation with the national constitution: "Any member local, or branch of a local, advocating legislative reform or supporting organizations for the purpose of advocating such reforms, shall be expelled from the Socialist Party. The State Executive Committee is authorized to revoke the charter of any local that does not conform to this amendment." Although balloting on this provision had not yet been completed, Germer asserted, and the NEC found by a 7-3 vote, that the mere submission of this provision to referendum constituted a violation of Art. 2, Section 5 of the national constitution of the SPA. "The majority [Regulars] holds that the minority [Left Wing] is willing to connive at the breaking of the constitution in order to control the party and deliver it to the Left Wing. It also holds that the Michigan situation is only one phase of a systematic campaign for this purpose that will probably come up in other sessions," the article asserts.

 

"Indicting the Left Wing: A Speech to the NEC," by James Oneal [circa May 27, 1919]. On May 28, 1919, the lame duck National Executive Committee of the Socialist Party of America unilaterally suspended the entire memberships of seven constituent language federations, consisting of over 20,000 dues-paying rank-and-filers. This is the lengthy speech of NEC member James Oneal of New York to the gathering -- which included Translator-Secretaries of the affected federations and Left Wing NEC members Alfred Wagenknecht and L.E. Katterfeld. Oneal provides a brief history of previous "Left Wing" movements within the Socialist Party (all of which came to grief, often with leading participants jumping to the other side of the barricades). Oneal also sharply criticizes the current "Left Wing" Section for a lack of patience, a dictatorial attitude and an unwillingness to adhere to the spirit of the Socialist Party, a failure to follow the constitution of the party, and a pattern of destructive behavior. Oneal cites several articles of the SPA constitution in making his case -- none of which seem particularly germane to the actual factional situation existing in the party. The constitutionality of NEC action to put aside election results and to suspend entire federations is discussed not at all, it should be noted. Regardless, this is one of the most intelligent and extensive discussions of the thinking by a NEC member with regard to the insurgent Left Wing Section. The speech was taken stenographically at the meeting and reproduced in the pages of the factional weekly The New York Socialist at the behest of members of the NEC.

***PUBLICATION*** The Ohio Socialist: Issue 70 [May 28, 1919]

 

"NEC Suspends Defiant Groups of Foreign Born: Seven Language Federations Cut Off from Party Affiliation for Violation." (New York Call) [May 28, 1919] This unsigned news account from the pages of the New York Call notes the May 28th decision of the Socialist Party's National Executive Committee to unilaterally suspend 7 Language Federations of the Socialist Party -- the Russian, Lithuanian, Latvian, Ukrainian, Hungarian, Polish, and South Slavic -- for their endorsement of the Left Wing manifesto. There was no constitutional authority for such an action. The motion was carried by a vote of 7 to 2, with NEC members Ludwig Katterfeld and Alfred Wagenknecht voting in the minority. "Charges against offending federations included 11 counts, including frequent violations of the national constitution," according to the news report. Joseph Stilson of the Lithuanian Federation handled the defense for the language groups, the debate over which occupied most of two full days, May 27-28, 1919. The resolution adopted read in part "That for violations of the party constitution the National Executive Committee, fully conscious of its grave responsibility, herewith suspends the federations, together with such privileges as affiliation with the party gives them; that this decision, with the documentary evidence upon which it is based, be transmitted to special national convention, and that Secretaries of the federations affected be accorded full opportunity to present their case to the convention; that those members of federations who are not in agreement with defiant policies of their federations be welcomed as members of party by locals and branches of the several states."

 

"Jersey Socialist Convention Names Farr for Governor; Harwood Offers Resignation: Resolution Introduced to Condemn Expulsion of Slavic Language Federations -- New International of Left Wing European Parties Endorsed." [May 30, 1919] This is a news account of the 19th Annual Convention of the Socialist Party of New Jersey, held May 30, 1919 in Newark. The convention was characterized by State Secretary Fred Harwood as a Left Wing gathering, moderated by organizational influences. Harwood resigned the post of State Secretary at the convention due to an excessive workload, and the body elected Walter Gabriel of Newark as his successor. A resolution condemning the action of the NEC of the Socialist Party for expelling the state organization of Michigan and suspending 7 language federations for having endorsed the Left Wing manifesto was deferred in view of the lack of definitive information on the situation. A resolution proposing the election of the state committee by lower party bodies rather than by at large balloting of the membership was passed and referred to the State Committee for study. Another resolution proposed "the formation of shop committees, organization by industries, and election of industrial councils to prepare for taking over the large enterprises now in capitalist hands," according to this news report. The body seems to have walked a fine line between the factions, formally approving the principles of the Left Wing manifesto but condemning "a white card and separatist organization" within the Socialist Party.

 

"Clear the Decks! An Editorial in The Revolutionary Age, May 31, 1919." by Louis C. Fraina Left Wing leader Louis Fraina offers his perspective on the party controversy and Morris Hillquit's seminal article, "The Socialist Task and Outlook." Fraina observes that "Branch after branch of Local New York, affiliated with the Left Wing, has been expelled; and now the National Executive Committee, in session in Chicago, expels the whole Socialist Party of the state of Michigan, with threats of other expulsions." He states that these actions are "partly a criminal attempt to steal votes from Left Wing candidates, in order that the moderates may be 'elected'" as well as "a desperate attempt to 'isolate' the fires of revolutionary socialism." Fraina alleges that these actions are part of an orchestrated plot which is "formulated by that master strategist of the moderates, Morris Hillquit." Fraina accuses Hillquit of cleverly appropriating revolutionary socialist language -- but with an ulterior motive, for "every statement has a reservation." Fraina calls this "a sinister maneuver to mobilize indefinite revolutionary sentiment in the party for the moderate representatives" of the party leadership. Fraina accuses the SP leadership of hypocrisy: "They stigmatized the Left Wing as a secessionist movement, as working to split the party; but now, realizing that the Left Wing is conquering the party for revolutionary socialism, for the Bolshevik-Spartacan International, the moderates are adopting the policy they malignantly ascribed to the Left Wing -- split the party!" Fraina states that the Left Wing is perfectly willing for the SP Regulars to secede and join the ranks of the Labor Party; this, however, is not the intention of the waning leadership, as "they wish to retain control of the party, even if it is necessary to expel the bulk of the membership." These individuals are characterized by Fraina as "social-gangsters and traitors to socialism," practitioners of the same tactics as those used by the Ebert-Scheidemann pro-war socialists in Germany. "Clear the decks! Clear them -- Clean," Fraina implores organized the Left Wing of the Socialist Party.

 

JUNE 1919

"The Socialist Party of America," by R.W. Housley [June 1919]  Lengthy analysis of the turbulent situation in the American socialist movement written by a well-informed member of the impossibilist Socialist Party of Great Britain for members of that organization through its party press. Housley notes that pro-war elements had split away from the Socialist Party of America during the war and anti-war members had split into liberal pacifist and revolutionary camps. The growth of the Left Wing movement is seen as a promising development, although its eclecticism is dismissed as no great improvement over the eclecticism of the SPA itself. Unsurprisingly, Housley is hotly critical of Louis C. Fraina and his conception of "Mass Action," declaring as "absurd" his assertion that the working class is "instinctively revolutionary" and dismissing the Mass Action idea as an amorphous "shibboleth" useful as a means of postponing more serious debate among different sections of the Left Wing Section. The impossibilist Socialist Party of Michigan headed by John Keracher is singled out for praise and its entire February 1919 platform is reprinted in full in this article as is the passage of its constitution calling for the expulsion of "any member, Local, or Branch of a Local, advocating legislative reforms or supporting organizations formed for the purpose of advocating such reforms." In the best impossibilist tradition, even this SPGB-inspired program is singled out for two paragraphs of nit-picking criticism, however.

"To Prevent Disruption of the Party." [Motions by Local Cuyahoga County, Socialist Party, June 1, 1919]  Immediately after conclusion of the National Executive Committee's May 24-28, 1919 quarterly meeting in Chicago, at which the 7 Left Wing language federations were suspended and the Socialist Party of Michigan expelled from the Socialist Party, action was taken by the Left Wing to overturn the arbitrary and unconstitutional action. On Sunday, June 1, 1919 a joint meeting of the membership of the numerous branches of Local Cuyahoga County was held in Cleveland, with C.E. Ruthenberg elected chairman of the meeting. This set of resolutions were passed, propositions to be published for seconds of other locals from around the country in accordance with the party constitution's provisions for membership control through referendum voting. Four proposals were made in all: (1) Rescinding the Michigan expulsion; (2) Rescinding the Federation suspensions; (3) Rescinding the decision not to tabulate the 1919 party vote and instructing the NEC to do so; and (4) Rescinding the NEC's effort to place party-owned property irrevocably in the hands of a 9 person board of directors serving staggered 3 year terms (i.e. with no electoral takeover possible for six years). This constitutional check upon usurped executive authority ultimately proved too slow and cumbersome to stop the outgoing NEC's de facto organizational coup.

"Scuttling the Ship: A Statement of the Seven Suspended Language Federations, June 2, 1919." This is the joint protest statement of the 7 affected Language Federations of the SPA (Russian, Lithuanian, Ukrainian, Polish, Hungarian, South Slavic, and Latvian) in response to the May 27 action of the party's National Executive Committee to unilaterally suspend the entire memberships of these organizations. The "autocratic 7" members of the National Executive Committee who approved this action on "over 30,000 dues payers" are rebuked for failing to provide notification, time for preparation, or a trial. In addition, the NEC bloc of 7 suspended the party elections and expelled the Michigan organization of nearly 6,000 without trial, locked up the party headquarters in the hands of a private holding company outside of party control, and arbitrarily threw the Translator-Secretaries of the affected federations out of party headquarters without allowing time for them to locate new quarters. "In short, this group of seven National Committeemen, drunk with power they assumed, feeling aggrieved because these federations dared to criticize the National Executive Committee, made themselves guilty of an act which will discredit them forever in the International Socialist movement," the joint statement charged.

 

"Letter to Morris Hillquit at Saranac Lake, NY, from Adolph Germer in Chicago, June 2, 1919." Very illuminating letter from the National Executive Secretary of the Socialist Party to leading luminary Hillquit, then convalescing from tuberculosis at a sanitarium in upstate New York. Far from being the puppeteer behind the seminal June 24-30 plenum of the SPA's governing National Executive Committee, the disabled and out-of-the-loop Hillquit is here informed of the results after the fact. Germer sees Russian Federation Translator-Secretary Alexander Stoklitsky as the chief mover behind the Left Wing movement within the federations, with Joseph Stilson of the Lithuanian Federation his chief accomplice. "I had a private talk with the Translator-Secretary of the South Slavic Federation [George Selakovich] and I concluded from what he said that he regretted having become involved in this controversy," Germer notes, adding "the others, I believe, were drawn into it without fully realizing what the result would be." Alfred Wagenknecht of Ohio is portrayed as the chief protagonist for the Left Wing among the Anglophonic element.

 

"Circular Letter to Michigan Locals and Branches of the Socialist Party of America from Adolph Germer, Executive Secretary. [June 3, 1919] With this letter, Executive Secretary of the Socialist Party Adolph Germer notified the primary party organizations of state of Michigan of their having been expelled from the SPA by the governing National Executive Committee on May 24 for actions measures adopted at the state party convention. "The National Office will proceed at once with the reorganization, so that you will have representation at the National Convention of the Socialist Party to be held in Chicago on August 30th," Germer coyly notes. "At once call a special meeting of your Local or Branch...and inform us, without delay, whether you repudiate the section of the Michigan constitution above referred to and accept the present National Platform and Constitution as your guide until it is changed in the regular way," Germer demands. "Keep in mind that whenever a movement like ours grows and is on the verge of triumph, discordant elements creep into it and play into the hands of the enemy. This has happened time and time again. We have weathered it all. There is nothing surprising or disheartening about it," Germer notes.

***PUBLICATION*** The Ohio Socialist: Issue 71 [June 4, 1919]

 

"The National Executive Committee Acts," by David P. Berenberg [June 4, 1919]. Unsigned editorial in the New York Socialist, presumably penned by editor David P. Berenberg, reporting the decision of the National Executive Committee of the Socialist Party to revoke the charter of the organization of the Socialist Party of Michigan, thus effectively expelling the state from the party. This decision was made on Saturday, May 24, 1919, by a 7-3 vote, ostensibly on the grounds that the insertion of a plank in the state constitution instructing the Michigan State Committee to revoke the state charter of any local or branch "advocating reforms" put the entire state organization in violation of the national constitution of the Socialist Party. Michigan was a hotbed of the Left Wing section, and the purge of the Michigan organization was the first of a number of countermeasures taken by the NEC in response to the growing Left Wing movement in the party.

 

"The National Committee Meeting," by James Oneal. [June 4, 1919] The Socialist Party's most aggressive anti-Communist member of the NEC explains the actions of that body at its seminal May 24-30 plenary session, a riotous meeting which saw the expulsion of the entire Socialist Party of Michigan and the suspension of the party's Russian, Ukrainian, Hungarian, Polish, Lithuanian, Latvian, and South Slavic Language Federations -- a majority of the members of the entire organization. "Filled with an emotional ecstasy over the Russian revolution," these groups had formed a coalition intent on establishing "a dictatorship within the party," says Oneal. Citing examples, Oneal notes that election fraud in the 1919 SPA election was rife and the NEC justified in terminating the election and taking action against the Left Wing. "What is facing the Socialist Party is an anarcho-syndicalist revival that should play into the hands of capitalist reaction and give our enemies an opportunity to outlaw any socialist movement. Where the 'Left Wing' has developed it has driven out many members through sheer disgust," Oneal observes.

 

"Call for a National Conference of the Left Wing." [Published June 4, 1919] This is the call for the holding of a National Conference of the Left Wing Section of the Socialist Party, issued jointly by Local Boston, Socialist Party (Louis C. Fraina, Sec.); Local Cleveland, Socialist Party (C.E. Ruthenberg, Sec.); and the Left Wing Section of the Socialist Party of New York City (Maximilian Cohen, Sec.). The call indicated that all locals (or minority groups of locals, should a local refuse to participate) should elect 1 delegate for every 500 members, with no group to elect more than four delegates. Acceptance of the Manifesto of the Left Wing of the Socialist Party of Greater New York was provisionally to be the acid test for participation. The meeting was to discuss the crisis in the Socialist Party and to agree upon action thereon, to discuss ways and means to prevent the SPA from affiliating with any international organization other than the "Bolshevik-Spartacan Communist International," to establish some sort of "national council or bureau" to receive and disseminate information. A declaration of principles was also to be drafted -- although the actual meeting did not accomplish this latter task. Maximilian Cohen handled the formal correspondence related to this meeting, which was held in New York City.

 

"Debs on Prisons and Prisoners," by David Karsner [event of June 7, 1919] New York Call journalist and future Debs biographer David Karsner provides an account of his 4th and final visit to the imprisoned Socialist leader at Moundsville penitentiary in West Virginia. The genial warden, Joseph Z. Terrell, accompanied Karsner to meet Debs in his room inside the prison's two story hospital building, exchanging heartfelt pleasantries and sheepishly accepting a fistful of cigars from the generous Hoosier. Debs was wearing his own clothing, rather than prison garb and had a small shelf of neatly arranged books and a bouquet of flowers next to his writing table, while a magazine picture of Jesus Christ was tacked next to his bed. Debs seems to have transformed imprisonment into a practical test and ultimate confirmation of his socialist faith. His perspective of his fellow convicts glows in a quasi-religious light. As for the guilty among him, Debs declares to Karsner: "What sinless, spotless saint among us may pronounce them wicked and sentence them to hell? The very lowest and most degenerate of criminals is not one whit worse than I. The difference between us is against me, not him. All of my life I have been the favored one, the creature of fortune. We both did the best we could and the worst we knew how, and I am the beneficiary of society, of which he is the victim." The zeal and passion of a religious martyr burns within Debs. "I belong in this prison," he says. "I belong where men are made to suffer for the errors of society. I have talked about this thing and these social conditions all of my life, and now I am glad to have the opportunity to live out in practice the words I have spoken so many, many times. I belong to this stratum of society. The roots of the social system are here. They are nowhere else. These men - and I know many of them by their first names now - were workmen. For the most part they have been used and exploited. When they had nothing more to give, when they had given their all, when they strove to make the very best of a bad bargain and erred, society put them out of sight." Debs asks Karsner to convey to his comrades that he is "all right here" and living an active and fulfilling life in service to his fellows. Includes photo of the Moundsville prison hospital in which Debs lived and worked.

 

"Forty Thousand Expelled by Seven," by L.E. Katterfeld, Alfred Wagenknecht, and Louis C. Fraina [published June 7, 1919] An "official" Left Wing perspective of the May 24-30, 1919 plenum of the Socialist Party's National Executive Committee -- written by the two "minority" members of the NEC along with Left Wing leader Louis Fraina. The decisions and motivations of the "Willful Seven" are outlined, including the expulsion of the Michigan state party without trial, the arbitrary suspension of seven language federations in an effort to control the tenor and outcome of the forthcoming Emergency Convention, the locking up of party assets in a factional "holding company" not subject to party recall, and the unconstitutional abrogation of the SPA's 1919 referendum vote for officials. The statement indicates that "the 'moderates' on the National Executive Committee show no realization of the problems of the International Revolution. They do not see the need of reconstructing the Party policy in accord with the experience gained by our comrades in Europe, or, at any rate, do not act toward that end." Party members are called to stay in the party and to "build, build, build," since the "sabotage" of the "Willful Seven" is intended to cause the Left Wing to desert the party.

 

"The Counterrevolution in the Party: Report of the NEC Sessions in Chicago," by I.E. Ferguson [June 7, 1919] The definitive account of the seminal May 24-30 plenum of the Socialist Party's National Executive Committee which expelled the Socialist Party of Michigan and suspended the entire memberships of the Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Lithuanian, Latvian, Hungarian, and South Slavic Socialist Federations. Ferguson, one of the principles of the Left Wing movement, is scathing in his review of the machinations of the outgoing NEC. Ferguson sees the NEC as an accumulation of frightened and vindictive officeholders, spurred into frenzied and thoroughly unconstitutional action by the sudden realization that the reins of control of the party were slipping from the hands of the Right and into the hands of the Left Wing movement. The list of objectively illegal actions is impressive: Michigan expelled before e a pending referendum confirmed the action of its state convention, the Hungarian and South Slavic Federations suspended based on the signature of a single official (the Translator-Secretary of each) on a document protesting the action of the NEC. At root is a transparent effort to control the forthcoming Emergency National Convention of the Party by expelling political opponents, Ferguson indicates, the dirtiest of power politics.

 

"Italian Federation Endorses NEC Action: Resolution on the Expulsions and Suspensions of the Left Wing Section, June 8, 1919." At its June 8, 1919, meeting the Executive Committee of the Italian Federation passed a resolution on the crisis in the Socialist Party, which was already marked by the suspension of the entire state organization of Michigan and the suspension of seven of the Slavic, Baltic, and Finnish federations of the party. While on the one hand the suspensions and expulsion were seen as justifiable for fairly clear violations of the party constitution, the actions of the NEC were called "too drastic and very unwise" since they were taken by a retiring NEC which was itself called to stand down by the very same constitution. "In justice to all concerned and to show that the Socialist Party plays fair at all times and in all things it could, we believe, have found a less drastic way of disciplining these organizations and put the whole matter before the coming national convention for final solution," the resolution stated. The resolution was mailed out to the members of the NEC and the parties concerned by John LaDuca, the Translator-Secretary of the Italian Federation.

 

"Letter to Adolph Germer in Chicago, from Ludwig Katterfeld in Dighton, Kansas." [June 10, 1919] In this brief communication, Socialist Party NEC member L.E. Katterfeld requests Executive Secretary Adolph Germer -- a factional foe -- to poll the newly elected members of the NEC with a view to their holding an organizational meeting on July 1, 1919, the first day of their term of office under the party constitution. "I urge a meeting of the new NEC at this earliest possible date so that without loss of time we may call a halt to the party wrecking activities of the expiring committee," Katterfeld notes in the comment section attached to his motion. Knowing full well that Germer would be unlikely to circulate this motion to a group of individuals whose election had been recently abrogated by the seated NEC, Katterfeld asks for Germer's immediate notification if he did not poll the members of the newly elected committee.

 

"Speech at a Mass Meeting: Madison Square Garden -- June 10, 1919," by Dennis Batt The Lusk Committee of the New York legislature was immediately active in building a case against radical political and labor organizations with a nexus in that state. Surveillance was conducted at public meetings -- including stenographic reports of speeches, such as this one by Left Wing leader Dennis Batt, made at a mass meeting held at Madison Square Garden (probably held in protest of military intervention in Soviet Russia). Batt brings down the house when he exclaims: "We cannot expect, and neither do we expect, anything but a fight, and a very nasty fight from the capitalist class. We do not expect anything from them, except their iron heel, if they will give it to use, because we know...that there is only one thing that the capitalist class of this or any other country understands, there is just one argument that they can listen to -- and that is power. You can appeal to them and to their sense of justice. You can argue about right and wrong, but until such time as the working class of America has generated the force to overcome the position, until such time we will have to put up with such outrages as the raid upon the Bureau of the Soviet government, as the imprisonment of Eugene Victor Debs."

 

"The Enemy Within," by Abraham Tuvim [June 11, 1919]. The bitterness of the faction fight between the Left Wing section and the Socialist Party regulars in New York state is made clear in this article from the New York Socialist by adherent of the SP Right Abraham Tuvim. Tuvim details the actions of a June 2 meeting of the New York City Committee in repudiating the New York Call as a Socialist newspaper and deciding to move forward to the holding of a New York "City Convention" in contradiction of the instruction of the New York State Executive Committee on the matter. The meeting, which included at least two non-members of the SPA, according to Tuvim, voted 12 to 3 in favor of repudiation, leaving the question of recognition of the New York Communist as an official organ to the forthcoming City Convention. Tuvim calls the Left Wing Section a "counterrevolutionary and disruptive group" bent on "destroying our Party and its institutions" and states that "there must be no quarter" in the fight between Socialist Party loyalists and the insurgent Left Wing faction.

 

"Why the Foreign Language Federations Were Suspended," by David P. Berenberg [June 11, 1919]. While accompanied by brief editorial comment in support of the decision, this article presents the full text of the landmark resolution of the Socialist Party's National Executive Committee to suspend seven of the organization's Language Federations for a list of specific alleged violations of the party's constitution. Includes footnotes containing the complete text of each cited constitutional section so that the reader may better determine the merit or lack thereof of each particular charge levied by the NEC.

 

"Foreign Federations," by David P. Berenberg [June 11, 1919]. Unsigned editorial in the New York Socialist, presumably penned by editor David P. Berenberg, attempting to justify the action of the Socialist Party's National Executive Committee decision to summarily suspend the entire memberships of seven language federations from the party ultimately due to the endorsement of the Left Wing Manifesto by leading officials or sections of each. "These federations are made up of people who have had no experience whatsoever in political life at home. Being composed of a disfranchised group, and exercising no suffrage here, they naturally feel that the ballot is a useless scrap of paper, and that nothing can be accomplished by political action," Berenberg states, adding that such individuals provided a fertile field for syndicalist and anarchist propaganda. The suspension of the seven federations was a strong measure necessary for the preservation of the party, according to Berenberg, who adds that the party would have the capacity to ratify or overturn this decision at its forthcoming Emergency National Convention.

"A Rebuke from Prison," by Emil Herman [June 14, 1919]  Imprisoned member of the Socialist Party's governing National Executive Committee Emil Herman of Washington registers his protest of the "arbitrary and unconstitutional action" of the NEC in suspending 7 of the party's foreign language federations, expelling the Socialist Party of Michigan, and determining not to even count the vote from the 1919 party elections at its quarterly meeting held May 24-28 in Chicago. He notes that the vote had not been properly challenged and that constitutional guidelines for suspensions and expulsions were ignored. He further protests the "undemocratic, unparliamentary, and un-Socialistic procedure" of using his own honorary "presence" owing to federal incarceration for political activism to constitute a quorum where none existed so as to engage in these rogue actions.

 

"Immediate Demands," by Louis Waldman [June 14, 1919]. Prominent New York Socialist Louis Waldman (later one of the "5 Expelled Assemblymen of 1920") takes on the Left Wing's call for the elimination of immediate demands from the platform of the Socialist Party. Waldman notes that only nine months previously, at the NY Socialist Party State Convention, such Left Wingers as Bertram Wolfe, John Reed, and Eadmonn MacAlpine had voted in favor of immediate demands as part of that state's platform; now, despite no changes on the domestic or international front to merit such a shift, immediate demands were bitterly opposed. Waldman asserts that the antipathy of the Left Wing to immediate demands was misplaced, and that partial victories in the struggle for the improvement of the lives of the workers -- when the ultimate goal of complete emancipation through Socialism is maintained -- actually served to increase the class struggle and by implication the class-consciousness of the workers. Waldman dismissed the charge that immediate demands were inherently conservative, noting that the construction of revolutionary industrial unions by the most revolutionary segment of the union movement, the IWW, made extensive use of small actions for limited demands as part of their program of organizational development.

 

"Stevenson's 'Personally Conducted' Raid: An Editorial in the New York Call, June 15, 1919." This editorial from the New York City Socialist Party daily declares that "responsibility for the raid on the Soviet Bureau rests squarely on the shoulders of just one man" -- Archibald Stevenson. "He headed the band of private detectives and state constabulary that invaded the Soviet office. They all took orders from him directly. Every detail of the raid was under his specific direction," the editorialist asserts. Stevenson is revealed as a zealous member of the Union League Club in New York, which had moved that group to action pushing for a broad investigation of radicalism in the state. Stevenson had been appointed chairman of a special committee of that club established for that purpose and had parlayed this position into fame through testimony before the Overman Committee of the United States Senate and a decisive place in the Lusk Committee established by the New York legislature to investigate radicalism in the state. Stevenson had gained a measure of infamy (and a rebuke from Secretary of War Newton Baker) by reading into the testimony a list of 60 names of individuals which he, in his own judgment, proclaimed to be "pro-German," "even though he knew this act would damage them, no matter how false the allegation." The editorialist declares that "What is needed today is not so much a public investigation of the Soviet Bureau -- it has never shunned legitimate investigation -- but a thoroughgoing probe of Archibald E. Stevenson and his underground activities."

"Official Minutes of the General Committee of the Socialist Party of St. Louis, June 16, 1919."  The 1919 factional crisis in the Socialist Party began to be felt in the city of St. Louis in June 1919, when the National Executive Committee's May suspension of the Lithuanian and South Slavic Federations forced the General Committee (City Central Committee) to make a decision on how to handle its Lithuanian and South Slavic branch delegates. A special session of the General Committee was called for June 16. The meeting was dominated by Regulars, who approved publication of a lengthy statement on the party crisis written by editor G.A. Hoehn. After a marathon session of nearly 4 hours further debate and decision as whether to formally accept Hoehn's document as official party policy was suspended for one week, when a continuation of the special session of the General Committee was to be held.


"The Socialist Party of the United States -- Its Work in Past and Present: A Statement and an Appeal to the Socialists and Class-Conscious Wage Workers of America..." by G.A. Hoehn [June 16, 1919]  Although there seems to have been no significant "Left Wing" movement in the city prior to June 1919, Local St. Louis was pushed into the fray by the NEC's suspension of 7 language federations, two of which had functioning branches in the city. This 3800 word document by party editor G.A. Hoehn is essentially a reply to the Left Wing manifesto from the perspective of party regulars. "While the World War was on we never heard of a Left Wing, nor a Right Wing," Hoehn declares, noting that through it all the Socialist Party "remained true to the Red Banner of Internationalism." For its commitment to the cause of internationalism and peace, the Socialist Party paid with repression of its press, denial from use of the mails, and arrest and imprisonment of its leaders. "If these comrades are accused of being 'Right Wingers,' we fail to understand how all the so-called 'Left Wingers' succeed in keeping out of jail!" Hoehn remarks. He declares that Local St. Louis has been particularly steadfast in its commitment not only to peace, but to the nascent Russian Revolution, circulating 1 million pieces of literature propagandizing for the cause. "The Capitalist class failed to break up our Socialist Party by attacking it from the outside and by vicious persecution. Attempts will now be made to try the destructive work from the inside," Hoehn declares, intimating that the Left Wing movement as a "white card" party-inside-the-party plays directly into the hands of these enemies. Michigan had clearly written itself out of the SPA through its decision to ban political action, in violation of the national platform; the federation suspension would be investigated by a special committee named by the NEC and decision rendered at the forthcoming August convention, Hoehn indicates. He urges party members "not to act on any proposed referendum in this controversy and to await the action of the Special National Convention." He concludes: "We cannot see any good reason for the so-called 'Left Wing' movement in  our Socialist Party. To charge our national officers with being Scheidemann-Socialists and 'Right Wingers' is ridiculous. The only class that can gain by the Left Wing disturbance is the capitalist class that is organizing a nationwide campaign for the disruption and destruction of the Socialist Party.... Let us eliminate the entire 'Wing' business — left and right — and put our shoulders to the wheel in order that we may lead out movement to victory and success!"

 

"Letter to Ludwig Katterfeld in Dighton, KS from Adolph Germer in Chicago." [June 17, 1919] Socialist Party Executive Secretary Adolph Germer responds in no uncertain terms to Ludwig Katterfeld's attempt to convene a meeting of the disputed "new" National Executive Committee of the SPA: "With reference to your motion to call a meeting of the new National Executive Committee on July 1st [1919], let me say that I cannot submit this constitutionally or otherwise. Even if the election had not been attended by the worst kind of corruption and fraud, the new National Executive Committee would have no authority to make any motions until July 1st. Of course, I am not at all surprised that you would submit such a motion and when you did so, you knew that it was entirely out of order and that I had no right to send it out by wire or by mail. It is further evidence that you have no respect for the party laws - at the same time charging others with violating the constitution. Your motion is indeed suggestive but it will be well for you to know that your game with miscarry. There will be no meeting of what you may consider the 'new' National Executive Committee at party headquarters on July 1st."

 

"Letter to the Editor of the New York Call," by Irvin D. Cline [June 17, 1919] This letter to the New York Socialist Party daily expresses strong indignation over the National Executive Committee's decision to expel the Michigan state organization and to suspend 7 language federations from the party, while the New York State Executive Committee took parallel action against Locals Buffalo, Rochester, Bronx, Kings, and Queens. "Just think of it! One-half of the membership of our party thrown out or suspended because they dared think otherwise than the officialdom of the party!" Cline declares. The debate over the philosophy and tactics advocated by the Left Wing was a manifestation of an international controversy, Cline observes, and the matter "should be thrashed out by the coming National Emergency Convention and its recommendation submitted to a referendum vote of the membership." However, the Regular faction of the party had chosen to intervene. "The rank and file has been for a long time more radical than its leaders," Cline notes. "The Left Wing crystallized this sentiment into an organization for the purpose of making a more efficient effort to bring about a change. The rank and file began to flock towards them. The politicians in our party, those holding office and those aspiring to hold office, those employed by the party or the party-endorsed institutions, began to see their grip on the party machinery slipping and have resorted to drastic and in some cases questionable tactics far worse than those of which the Left Wing are alleged to be guilty." Cline states that he is not one of those affiliated with the Left Wing. "I agree with them in many things. In some I disagree. But I believe that it is unjust, undemocratic, unfair, and unsocialistic for one side which controls the machinery of the party to throw out the other side before the entire matter has been thoroughly discussed and the membership of the party given an opportunity to vote."

 

"'The Willful Group of Seven,'" by David P. Berenberg [June 18, 1919]. Unsigned front page commentary from the New York Socialist, presumably penned by editor David P. Berenberg. Here Berenberg responds to an article in The Communist by L.E. Katterfeld and Alfred Wagenknecht concerning the hearing of the seven federations prior to their suspension by the National Executive Committee. Berenberg contends the hearing was fair, conducted over a two day period, with Translator-Secretary Joseph Stilson of the Lithuanian Federation answering the charges seriatim on behalf of the other federations, who advised him and contributed to his arguments. Berenberg also defends the decision of the National Committee to place the Chicago headquarters of the Socialist Party in the hands of a nine member private holding company to place this asset out of reach of the Left Wing Section in any subsequent "capture" of the organization. Berenberg denies that there is any sort of "tidal wave" of the rank and file membership of the Socialist Party on behalf of the ideas of the Left Wing Section and describes an alleged model by which a Local of 1,000 members is captured by a small handful of "fanatics" through insinuation and disruptionist tactics. "Socialist Party members might as well recognized that there can be no compromise with these factionalists," Berenberg states, noting "if the Left Wing is successful it will drag the Socialist Party underground where it will disappear."

 

"Present Party Officialdom Overwhelmingly Repudiated by National Referendum. (A Tabulation of the 1919 Socialist Party Election)." [June 18, 1919] In the spring of 1919, the Socialist Party of America conducted a referendum vote to elect new officers for the organization, in accord with the constitution of the group. The term of office of the outgoing National Executive Committee, International Delegates, and International Secretary was set to expire on June 30, 1919. The Left Wing Section organized to elect its slate to the open positions and thus shift the line of the Socialist Party from the "constructive socialist" Center-Right that had historically dominated the party's high offices to the "revolutionary socialist" left. When the results of the election began coming in, National Executive Secretary Adolph Germer and the outgoing NEC quickly cried fraud, arbitrarily invalidated the vote, and instructed State Secretaries not to tabulate the results. A series of suspensions and expulsions of ideological opponents followed. Knowing full well that they had swept the elections, the Left Wing Section through its Cleveland organ The Ohio Socialist independently polled the various State Secretaries as to the vote in their state and published the results. While the State Secretaries of the large states of Illinois and New York refused to comply with the request of the Left Wing Section, enough states did send in their tallies for a very telling summary to be published. This document lists the vote for International Delegates and International Secretary by individual states, showing a massive defeat for the candidates loyal to the outgoing NEC. Numbers have been retabulated by computer for publication here, correcting a substantial published undercount of the vote for Morris Hillquit for International Secretary.

 

"The Crisis Within the Party," by Jack Carney [June 19, 1919] Carney, the Editor of Truth, a radical weekly from Duluth, Minnesota, believes he has isolated a problem in the Socialist Party -- lawyers and intellectuals. "Seymour Stedman, John M. Work, Victor L. Berger, and a few more of the NEC seem to think that it is their special duty to lead the rank and file. Now that the rank and file are alive to their policy of opportunism, they are in danger of being ousted at the coming election of a new NEC. Therefore in order to ensure their re-election, they expel all those that are in any way opposed to their opportunistic tactics," Carney declares. "The Social Revolution will never be achieved by simply electing a mayor in Dubbtown," Carney asserts. "The revolution will be a success when we have the workers organized and conscious of their strength to run industry. Therefore it naturally follows that the workers must work to set themselves free. That means that there is no room in our movement for lawyers, intellectuals (?), and other unnecessary beings that capitalism has created." Carney's opinion on the worthiness to the movement of the intellectuals Karl Marx and Frederich Engels or the lawyer Vladimir Ul'ianov is not recorded. "If the Left Wing wins out, then there is no room for Stedman, Hillquit, Berger, and their hangers-on," Carney declares. "Let us not be sentimental about this matter, but act like men and women and for the sake of the revolution let us act straight. The surgeon who shoves in the knife and digs down deep, soon heals the wounds."

 

"Circular Letter to the National Executive Committee of the Socialist Party of America from Adolph Germer, Executive Secretary." [June 21, 1919] This short letter from the Executive Secretary of the Socialist Party of America to the sitting members of the National Executive Committee (whose terms were constitutionally set to expire on June 30, 1919) passes along the content of a telegram from Left Wing NEC members Ludwig Katterfeld and Alfred Wagenknecht to the Socialist Party of Massachusetts charging the NEC with "flagrant procedure and violation of the party constitution" in excluding "40,000 members of our party." The aid of the Massachusetts party is solicited. Secretary Germer adds the remark that "in all the propaganda sent out by Katterfeld, Wagenknecht, and Fraina" the claim is made that "nearly 40,000 members were expelled." Germer states that "according to our records" the action recently taken by the NEC "involves around 27,000."

 

"Minutes of the New York State Executive Committee, SPA: New York City -- June 21, 1919." Official published record of the June meeting of the governing body of the Socialist Party of New York. The minutes make clear that the split of the Socialist Party in New York state was already an accomplished fact: the Central Committee of Local Bronx "decided to notify all branches that they must withdraw all delegates to the Central Committee who are members of the 'Left Wing,' and all branches affiliated with the 'Left Wing' section must withdraw or stand suspended." State Secretary Cook stated that he had attended a meeting of Local Queens "at which Organizer Paul was very bitter in his denunciation against the State Executive Committee. Paul did not submit a single letter of the State Executive Committee to the party meeting." The State Executive Committee, summarily and without charges, hearing, or trial, "empowered" State Secretary Cook "to use all efforts to reorganize Local Queens." Similarly, minutes of Local Buffalo had been received by Cook indicating the adoption of the Left Wing manifesto, which was met by immediate passage of a resolution "that the State Secretary be instructed to proceed to reorganize Local Buffalo as soon as possible." Cook was also instructed to reorganize Locals Utica and Rochester, the minutes note. Some 16 branches of Local Kings County had been reorganized, according to Cook, in addition to Local Bronx. National Secretary Adolph Germer had been informed of these reorganizations and asked to contact branches affiliated with non-English federations still not suspended, "particularly those of the German and Finnish, that they must affiliate with the locals recognized by the State Committee, and that they must withdraw their delegates and recognition from the 'Left Wing' locals, and should they fail to do so, these branches be suspended from their respective federations."

 

"Rand School, IWW Headquarters, and Communist Victims of Raids: Lusk Raiders Seize Letters and Documents of Local IWW: Search Warrant is Served on Rebel Worker - Union's Central Body Named: Trooper Draws Gun on Man Who Tries to Escape from Meeting Hall." [June 22, 1919] Unsigned news report from the Socialist daily The New York Call detailing the June 21 Lusk Committee raids on the New York headquarters of the IWW and The New York Communist. Primary attention is paid to the IWW raid, which was conducted by 20 state and local law enforcement officers, armed with a search warrant. The raiding party took assorted documents, providing a receipt to the IWW for materials taken. In the course of the raid, an IWW member attempted to escape through a back window, which was stymied by an officer drawing a gun.

 

"Frameup of Radicals Laid to Lusk Probers by Resigning Aide: Official Translator Quits Post, Asserting Committee Does Not Seek Truth But Tries to Influence and Arouse Public Opinion -- British Secret Service Chief Examined Papers, Is Charge." [June 22, 1919] This article will be of interest to specialists in espionage and counter-intelligence -- a news report from the Socialist Party's New York Call reprinting the press release of Feliciu Vexler, a Romanian-born linguist who abruptly resigned his post as a translator for Lusk Committee over what he characterized the "methods of the former Tsars of Russia" being pursued by the committee in their self-proclaimed attempt to "bust up the whole Socialist and radical gang." Vexler charges that British intelligence was working hand in glove with Archibald Stevenson, the driving force of the raid on the Russian Soviet Government Bureau. According to the news report, members of the raiding crew told Vexler frankly that "their purpose in making the raids was not to find the truth, but to 'frame up' a case against all radical groups in New York through the public press, and to show as plausibly as possible that a coordinated movement for the 'overthrow of the government' of the United States exists." Includes Vexler's complete press release and an account of a brief interview conducted with Vexler personally, during which Vexler stated "it appeared to me to be an attempt to 'frame up' certain persons for public obloquy.... Stevenson told me it was his purpose to link together all the various radical movements in an attempt to show that a widespread conspiracy existed by which it was intended to overthrow the government."

 

"St. Louis and the Left Wing: Statement of Local St. Louis," W.M. Brandt, Secretary. [June 23, 1919] The Left Wing controversy took a rather different form in St. Louis, being fought out at two meetings of the General Committee [City Central Committee] held on June 16 and 23, 1919. This lengthy discussion of the Left Wing controversy was approved by the gathering and sent out to the Socialist press for publication. The statement declares that during the tumultuous years of the war there was not talk of "Left" and "Right" Wings of the Socialist Party -- that the entire organization had acted as one against the European war and for the cause of international Socialism, suffering as one grave persecution and draconian punishment for its principled stand. Only three months after the armistice, in February 1919, did this split develop. "What has the Socialist Party of the United States done to necessitate or justify such deplorable effects? Where and when has the Socialist Party become so hopelessly reactionary or "right wingish" to necessitate or justify the creation of an underground organization in the party?" Local St. Louis asks. Michigan's actions clearly lay outside of the constitution and rules of the Socialist Party, the statement declared, and the only conscientious way to deal with the allegations against the language federations and the action of the NEC against them would be to let the forthcoming Emergency National Convention of the party, with national representation, sort the matter out. In short: "We cannot see any good reason for the so-called 'Left Wing' movement in our Socialist Party. To charge our national officers with being Scheidemann-Socialists and 'Right Wingers' is ridiculous. The only class that can gain by the Left Wing disturbance is the capitalist class that is organizing a nationwide campaign for the disruption and destruction of the Socialist Party."

 

"Minutes of the National Left Wing Conference: New York City," by Fannie Horowitz [events of June 21-24, 1919] These rather skeletal minutes only hint at the great controversy that gripped the June National Conference of the Left Wing in New York City, but still managed to provide a rough outline of the factional conflict. Division first took place over the question as to whether the various language federations would be allowed their own voting delegates, in addition to those federationists already elected through regular channels. The federation delegates were seated with voice and vote, yet remained in the minority at the Conference. A "National Council of the Left Wing" was elected, none of the 9 members elected being a Federationist. This body replaced an "Emergency National Council" elected earlier that same day, which had included no fewer than 2 Federation representatives. The evening of the second day the main bone of contention became clear -- the tactical question of whether the organized Left Wing Section should continue its fight to enforce its victory in the abrogated 1919 party elections by fighting out the matter at the forthcoming Emergency National Convention of the party (reporter in support of this idea being would-be Executive Secretary Alfred Wagenknecht); or whether the Left Wing should immediately declare itself "the Communist Party of America" and endorse the already existing Michigan call for a September 1, 1919, founding convention to formalize the organization (reporter being Nick Hourwich). A resolution proclaiming the establishment of the Communist Party of America was hastily drawn up by C.E. Ruthenberg and Hourwich. After lengthy discussion, this resolution was defeated and the the tactic of continuing the fight within the Socialist Party thus endorsed. Contrary to popular belief, the Federationists and Michiganders did not immediately bolt the conference over the issue, however; nor, truth be told, did they technically bolt the convention at all. Participation continued briefly, with Michigan partisan Dennis Batt resigned from the Manifesto Committee on the afternoon of the third day. Only at a later session that night did the Federationists Hourwich and Alex Stoklitsky resign their committee posts and was an announcement read indicating that 31 Federationist delegates had "decided to withhold their activities from the Conference until such time as they see fit to resume them." The Federationists remained present throughout -- perhaps in an effort to ensure their travel expenses would be covered, perhaps in hopes that the tactical decision causing the split would be reconsidered. It was only at the end of the session held the 4th day that Latvian Federationist John Anderson [Kristap Beika] resigned from the Organization Committee. At the conclusion of the Conference, a formal split was looming rather than an accomplished fact.

 

"Report of the National Left Wing Conference (Extracts): New York -- June 21-24, 1919." The unity of the Left Wing Section of the Socialist Party was shattered by the coup of the outgoing NEC of the Socialist Party in the late spring and summer of 1919, suspending and expelling tens of thousands of party members. These members thrown outside the organization were less inclined to remain steadfast to a strategy of winning over the organization through normal internal processes of party decision-making, instead seeking immediate establishment of a new Communist Party. This material, published in the August 2, 1919 issue of the organ of the Left Wing Section, The Revolutionary Age, provides a range of perspectives on the situation facing the left wing from the time of relative unity of purpose. Includes the speeches of Louis C. Fraina, Dennis Batt (Michigan Party), I.E. Ferguson (Sec. of National Left Wing Council), John Ballam (Massachusetts Party), Alexander Stoklitsky (Russian Federation), and Harry Hiltzik (Jewish Left Wing Federation). Most interesting of the group are the perspectives of Ballam and Ferguson, who at this time were still staunch advocates of conducting the fight within the SPA. These two later became founding members of the Communist Party of America.

 

"Manifesto of the Left Wing National Conference: Issued on Authority of the Conference by the Left Wing National Council." [adopted June 21-24, 1919] This lengthy document is the second of two "Left Wing Manifestos" -- not to be confused with the earlier and better known "Manifesto of the Left Wing Section of Greater New York." This second manifesto was issued on behalf of the June 1919 National Conference of the Left Wing, held in New York City, and it attempts to provide a theoretical analysis of the situation facing the Revolutionary Socialist movement in America in the midst of the rapidly changing events of the summer of 1919. It was this explicit document -- not the earlier manifesto -- that was published in the pages of The Revolutionary Age and which was cited as the basis of the prosecution of the editors and leaders of the Left Wing for purported violation of the so-called New York "Criminal Anarchy" law. The manifesto posits a dichotomy between "dominant Moderate Socialism" and "revolutionary Socialism." As for the former, "Moderate Socialism is compromising, vacillating, treacherous, because the social elements it depends upon -- the petite bourgeoisie and the aristocracy of labor -- are not a fundamental factor in society; they vacillate between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, their social instability produces political instability; and, moreover, they have been seduced by Imperialism and are now united with Imperialism." By way of contrast, "Revolutionary Socialism does not propose to 'capture' the bourgeois parliamentary state, but to conquer and destroy it. Revolutionary Socialism, accordingly, repudiates the policy of introducing Socialism by means of legislative measures on the basis of the bourgeois state.... As long as the bourgeois parliamentary state prevails, the capitalist class can baffle the will of the proletariat, since all the political power, the army and the police, industry and the press, are in the hands of the capitalists, whose economic power gives them complete domination. The revolutionary proletariat must expropriate all these by the conquest of the power of the state, by annihilating the political power of the bourgeoisie, before it can begin the task of introducing Socialism."

 
"The National Left Wing Conference," by Louis C. Fraina. [events of June 21-24, 1919] Originally an unsigned report from the pages of The Revolutionary Age, attributed to Fraina based upon his editorship and content. This article details the First (and only) National Conference of the Left Wing Section of the Socialist Party, held in New York City from June 21-24, 1919. The session was attended over 90 delegates hailing from about 20 different states. The opening address was given by Fraina, who said that "the proletarian revolution in action has modified the old tactical concepts of Socialism; and the inspiration of the Bolshevik conquests, joining with the original minority Socialism in the Socialist Party, has produced the Left Wing." Includes a discussion of major issues at the Conference, first and foremost the question of whether to proceed immediately to the formation of a Communist Party or to continue the struggle for control of the Socialist Party's Emergency National Convention in the face of mounting expulsions, reorganizations, and suspensions. Interesting mention of a dismissed alternative in which the Central Committees of the Language Federations would have each been entitled to a seat on the governing National Council of the Left Wing. Defeated on the question of immediate formation of a party and a federative National Council, 31 delegates of the Federations and Michigan caucused and declined further participation from the third day, thus moving towards a factionalized movement in September.

"Official Minutes of the General Committee of the Socialist Party of St. Louis, June 23, 1919."  Conclusion of the special meeting of the General Committee (City Central Committee) of the Socialist Party of St. Louis, called in response to the brewing factional controversy in the Socialist Party of America. An request to print G.A. Hoehn's statement, "The Socialist Party of America -- Its Work in Past and Present" was tabled. The motion to make this statement the official statement of Local St. Louis and to send it out to the Socialist press of the country was carried by a vote of 23 to 10, however. The next meeting of the General Committee was scheduled for Monday, July 7, 1919.

"Letter to Marion Sproule, State Secretary of the Socialist Party of Massachusetts from Adolph Germer, Executive Secretary of the Socialist Party of America." [June 25, 1919] In this letter to the State Secretary of the Socialist Party of Massachusetts, SP Executive Secretary Adolph Germer passes along news of the expulsion of the Massachusetts Party by the National Executive Committee of the Socialist Party in a vote of 8 to 1. "I am sure the revocation of the charter was not unexpected in view of the action taken by your recent State Convention, which constitutes a repudiation of the Socialist Party platform and a violation of the sections above cited," Germer tells the Left Wing State Secretary, Ms. Sproule. "The revocation of the charter cancels the election of delegates to the Special National Convention to be held in Chicago, August 30th, 1919," Germer notes as a casual aside. The voiding of a large Left Wing delegate slate was, of course, the entire reason for the NEC's rush to draconian action, Germer's crocodile tears about regretting the necessity of the action notwithstanding.

 

"British Provost Marshal Aided Lusk Probers with Documents: Nathan, Who Took Leading Part in Raid, Just a 'Junior' Officer: Head of Organization Says He Furnished Record of Martens but Didn't 'Butt In.'" [June 25, 1919] This article from the New York Call follows up on linguist Feliciu Vexler's charge that British intelligence was working with Archibald Stevenson and the Lusk Committee in their raid on the Russian Soviet Government Bureau and their attempt to link various liberal and radical persons and institutions in a grand conspiracy plot. The Call reporter went to the office of the British consulate attempting to find a certain "Nathan" on the staff, purported to be the head of British intelligence in America. The reporter ironically interviewed Norman Thwaites, who was ironically William Wiseman's chief intelligence officer in the US. Despite two other employees playing dumb to the reporter, Thwaites obligingly acknowledged that there was a "junior" of unspecified duties on his staff by the name of Nathan -- actually his top assistant specializing in gathering data on nationalist and radical movements and individuals, Robert Nathan. Thwaites told the reporter he "wasn't sure of Nathan's initials, but thought they were J.R." -- and stated that Nathan had "taken some records concerning L.C.A.K. Martens to the raiders" following the seizure of documents from the RSGB. Thwaites is quoted as saying "this office had nothing whatever to do with the Lusk Committee" and that "this office would not think of butting into such an affair as this. Even if we had been invited to participate -- though, since this is not our business, I don't see why we should have been -- I should have absolutely refused to take part."

 

"Another Victory for Uncompromising Socialism: New National Executive Committee of Left Wing Socialists." [June 25, 1919] The results of the SPA vote for National Executive Members in the party's five electoral districts (arbitrarily voided by the outgoing NEC) were also independently gathered, tabulated, and published by the Left Wing Section in their weekly publication The Ohio Socialist. These results showed a strong Left Wing majority in the candidates who should have been elected: "These tabulations show that Fraina, Hourwich, and Lindgren were elected upon the new National Executive Committee from the First District; Ruthenberg, Prevey, and Harwood from the Second District; Keracher, Batt, and Lloyd from the Third District; Nagle, Millis, and Hogan from the Fourth District; Katterfeld, Wicks, and Herman from the Fifth District." Of these, only the 3rd district candidates plus Harwood in the Second District and Herman in the Fifth, were Left Wing Candidates. Had the election not been invalidated, this evidence demonstrates fairly conclusively that the Left Wing Section would have "captured" the party via the democratic will of the membership in the Spring 1919 election.

 

"Duncan Brands Hanson as Liar and Impostor: Strikebreaking Mayor Stripped of Patriotic Veneer by Seattle Union Leader." [event of June 25, 1919] This is a New York Call report of a public speech by Seattle trade unionist James Duncan, who takes aim at the city's self-promoting king of the red baiters, former Mayor Ole Hanson. Hanson is called a "liar" for pretending to have broken the Seattle general strike of 1919, which was called off by the unions themselves. Duncan lets fly in front of a delighted standing room only crowd in New York City: "Ole Hanson is a liar. Ole Hanson is an impostor parading as a patriot. Ole Hanson had nothing to do with the calling off of the strike. If he says so, he is imposing himself upon the good nature of the people. Ole Hanson is the biggest four-flushing politician. He's about as big a liar as ever came down the pike." Duncan also sticks up for Bolshevik Russia in his speech, saying: "America and Russia have something in common. They were both born out of revolution. We can look each other in the eye. American workers should wish the Russian workers well and should aid them as well as they know how... We don't say that we want Bolshevism in America, but if the workers want Bolshevism in Russia, it's their right, and their privilege. And we should say: 'Hands off and give them a chance.'"

 

"Imprisoned Member Protests NEC Action: Herman Characterizes Expulsion of Michigan State Organization and Suspension of Language Federations as Undemocratic, Unparliamentary, and Unsocialistic," by Emil Herman [June 26, 1919] Alfred Wagenknecht and Ludwig Katterfeld were not the only members of the Socialist Party's 15 member National Executive Committee who objected to the NEC's draconian action taken in June of 1919 suspending 7 of the SPA's language federations and expelling the Michigan state organization. This letter from imprisoned NEC member Emil Herman of Washington reveals that Herman shared the misgivings of the two Communist Labor Party founders. Herman expressly records his "no" vote against these actions and writes: "The NEC has at all its meetings seen fit to consider as 'present' all its members who are by action of the government prevented from personally attending. As an expression of sentiment and comradely sympathy I, as one so detained, appreciate this graceful tribute very sincerely. But when, as appears from the minutes of the recent NEC meeting, this imaginary 'presence' is made use of in an attempt to constitute a quorum when no quorum exists, in order to make wholesale expulsions from the party and to deprive the membership of expression through the referendum, I am constrained to protest, and this most vigorously, such an undemocratic, unparliamentary, and unsocialistic procedure. Surely as Socialists we cannot afford to stoop to the use of such petty, political trickery, nor should we wish to do so."

 

"Letter to the New York Call ... including Full Text of Letter to NY State Secretary Walter Cook, dated June 12, 1919," by Nicholas Aleinikoff [June 27, 1919] Perhaps the most vocal supporter of the besieged Left Wing section of the Socialist Party sitting on the New York State Executive Committee was Nicholas Aleinikoff. Aleinikoff was sharply critical of the perceived unconstitutional behavior of the SEC and State Secretary Walter Cook in their draconian reorganizations of locals endorsing the Left Wing manifesto. On June 12, Aleinikoff addressed a letter to Cook formally objecting to the decisions taken by the SEC at its May 21 meeting against Locals Kings, Queens, and Bronx. Aleinikoff states that these actions were "taken in clear violation of the provisions of the state constitution" as "there was no evidence before the committee that any of the locals above mentioned had willfully adopted and adhered to a constitution or platform in violation of the national or state constitutions of the Socialist Party." Cook did not transmit Aleinkoff's objections to the full state committee however, basing his action upon a constitutional provision banning appeals by SEC members to the full State Committee (a decision formally approved by the SEC at its June 21 session). The actions of the SEC and Cook are said to have been based upon vagaries of matters having merely "come to their attention" rather than upon formal investigation, preference and defense of charges, and decision based upon these hearings. Aleinikoff appeals to The Call to publish his communication as the only means possible for him to communicate with the rest of the New York State Committee, given the obstruction of State Secretary Cook.

"Report of the State Secretary to the 1919 State Convention of the Socialist Party of Ohio," by Alfred Wagenknecht and Hortense Wagenknecht [June 27, 1919]  This summary of the activity of the Socialist Party of Ohio demonstrates just how little structural difference existed in practice between such a "Left Wing" state socialist party as this and the "Regular" organizations of other states. Speaker routing, literature sales, campaign organization, operation of the state office, and maintenance of the party press were the main concerns of both. That such an organization would be suspended within days by the outgoing NEC, essentially to prevent participation of a 19 member Left Wing delegation in the forthcoming Emergency National Convention, illustrates the raw power politics which motivated the national leadership of the party. The interesting takeaway here is the size and strength of the Ohio Socialist, the largest party-owned weekly in America with a circulation of 20,000 and running in the black economically. This publication would follow the Socialist Party of Ohio out of the SPA and into the Communist Labor Party, where it would become (successively) The Toiler, The Worker, and The Daily Worker. A complete financial report is included, which shows a comparatively small shift from "regular" dues stamps sold to "foreign branch" dues stamps sold -- indication that at least in this state no tidal shift in membership composition took place.

"Resolution on Party Controversy: Adopted by the State Convention of the Socialist Party of Ohio, Cincinnati, June 28, 1919."  The full text of the "Resolution on Party Controversy" adopted by the Socialist Party of Ohio brings home the inevitability of a split of the Socialist Party of America. Unless the Regular faction of Executive Secretary Adolph Germer and the outgoing National Executive Committee was defeated in its attempt to control the forthcoming Emergency National Convention, Ohio delegates were instructed to join the September 1 convention called to form a Communist Party. Moreover, in the event of Ohio's participation being blocked from the convention or the postponement of the convention, the Socialist Party of Ohio was to affiliate with the new organization established September 1. The campaign of suspensions and expulsions conducted by the Regular leadership is called "a desperate effort on the part of the repudiated national officers of the party and their satellites in similar positions in state and local organizations, to maintain their control of the party in spite of the will of the rank and file." The possibility of Ohio's expulsion from the SPA is acknowledged, with the organization to immediately begin buying its dues stamps from the National Council of the Left Wing in this eventuality.

"Ohio Socialist Convention Makes Party History: Endorses Left Wing Program and Instructs Delegates to the National Convention to Work for its Adoption by that Body." (Ohio Socialist) [events of June 27-28, 1919]  Summary of the 1919 annual convention of the Socialist Party of Ohio, which endorsed the Left Wing Manifesto of the Left Wing National Conference, prompting the group's unconstitutional expulsion by the outgoing National Executive Committee. Assembling in Cincinnati, the convention broke into committees for work. After hearing the report of State Secretary Alfred Wagenknecht, the Committee on Program and Municipal Platform reported the Left Wing Manifesto, which was debated throughout the entire first evening before being approved by a vote of 47 to 7. "It is not meant, nor for that matter is any left Wing Program so far adopted meant, to constitute a Socialist Party platform. The program is a criticism of past party tactics and a statement of changes which are essential if we are ever to function as the party of the working class," this article in The Ohio Socialist insists. Resolutions condemning the NEC's expulsion of the Socialist Party of Michigan and suspension of 7 Left Wing foreign language federations were also passed, among other matters. Conduct of the State Office of the party was approved and the delegates "adjourned in the greatest enthusiasm."

 

"Left Wingers Capture the Ohio Socialist Convention: Resolve to Rule or Wreck National Party -- 'Communist Party' to Be Formed," by Joseph W. Sharts [events of June 27-29, 1919] On June 27-28, 1919, the Socialist Party of Ohio held its state convention in Cincinnati. The gathering was attended by about 55 delegates -- the big majority of which were supporters of the Left Wing movement in the Socialist Party. This news account by SP Regular Joseph Sharts notes that the convention, after 3 hours of debate, voted 47-7 in favor of a pre-prepared state program presented by C.E. Ruthenberg of Cleveland which "declared unequivocally for the 'Left Wing,' viz. for limiting political action, relegating it to a mere auxiliary and subordinate position under industrial action, cutting out all agitation for immediate palliative measures, such as municipal ownership, and insisting upon the abolition of the entire capitalist system through the dictatorship of the proletariat." The day following the convention was held the Ohio state picnic of the Socialist Party, which was addressed by Ruthenberg, Charles Baker, Margaret Prevey, and John Keracher of Detroit.

"Answers Aleinikoff: Letter to the Editor of the New York Call," by Walter M. Cook [June 28, 1919] New York Socialist Party State Secretary Walter Cook is quick to answer the charges of State Executive Committee member Nicholas Aleinikoff that the SEC had engaged in unconstitutional practices in its May 21 move against Locals Kings, Queens, and Bronx. "Comrade Aleinikoff claims the SEC did not have "evidence" before it when taking action. A sub-committee was appointed to secure that evidence and no one ever before denied that these locals have not adopted the Left Wing manifesto as their official platform and affiliated themselves with that organization," writes Cook. "Certainly the body which has the power to issue a charter has also the power to revoke same for good and sufficient reasons," Cook adds. "Had Comrade Aleinikoff (and others of a similar mind) lived up to the duties of the office he held in the Socialist Party, and had studied the state and national constitutions, as faithfully to defend them against the avowed purpose of the party's internal enemies to "split" off from what a few individuals styled the Right, as he is now doing in playing for time with them, he would hardly have left the Socialist Party as he has done," Cook concludes.

JULY 1919

"Testing the Water," a cartoon by Art Young [July 1919]. ***PDF GRAPHIC FILE (460 k.) This cartoon by Art Young appeared in the July 1919 issue of Max Eastman's monthly,The Liberator. Untitled in the original, the drawing features a geriatric "U.S. Socialist Party" sitting beneath the tree of "petit-bourgeois respectability" dipping his toe in the "Communist International" pond.

"The Soviet Republic," by Santeri Nuorteva [July 1919] This eloquent defense of the Bolshevik revolution by the Secretary of the Russian Soviet Government Bureau was published in the pages of an American academic journal. Nuorteva states that all the Soviet government wants is an end to military intervention and trade relations. An organized blockade had disrupted not only supplies into the country, but information from the country as well, he states, quoting an unnamed Western press correspondent who told Nuorteva that 95 percent of his telegraph dispatches from Soviet Russia had been intentionally delayed or stopped, particularly those mentioning in any way positive aspects of Soviet construction. The Russian revolution was not a simple matter of personalities taking specific actions, Nuorteva states, but rather a massive sociological upheaval based upon the land question and the peasant nature of the Russian army. He declares that "the peasants just took the land. Whether you approve of it or not, it doesn't matter because you can't change it any more than you can change the course of the sun or the moon." Only the Bolsheviks were willing to accept this reality at face value and to conduct a set of sweeping economic changes which were a logical consequence of the collapse of the land ownership and banking system. Russia was not any more chaotic than the rest of Central and Eastern Europe, Nuorteva states -- indeed, rather stable compared to other nations. Further, it was hypocritical of the press to obsess upon the 3,000 or so killed in the Russian Red Terror when 15,000 had been executed and 10,000 systematically starved to death during the same period by the conservatives in Finland and while the anti-Bolshevik White Army of Kolchak took no prisoners and systematically murdered government officials in villages falling under its control. Victory by Kolchak would mean an exponentially more vicious bloodbath than the rather limited violence practiced by the Bolsheviks, Nuorteva indicates.

 

"The Parting of the Ways," by Dennis Batt [July 1919] Fundamental splits of Socialist parties are inevitable, writes Michigan Left Wing Section leader Dennis Batt in this article from The Proletarian: in some countries this takes place before the revolution and in others during the revolution itself. The reason, Batt indicates, is that at some point in the process "the understanding minority becomes the majority, and is in a position to take control of the organization, a split is imminent; for the petty bourgeois-minded conservatives within the ranks of the Socialist movement can not, and will not, accept a real Socialist position. Rather than do so they would wreck the organization." The Socialist Party of America was at this juncture currently, he writes. Instead of performing what Batt believed to be the fundamental task of a Socialist party -- "training and organizing the working class for the conquest of political power" -- the SPA had filled its platform with "all kinds of nonsensical reforms, old age pensions, government ownership, penal reforms, etc., etc., ad naseum." This had the effect of attracting non-Socialist elements to the party, individuals who had proven their instability and disloyalty in times of crisis. The NEC of the Socialist Party is singled out for its hypocrisy in allowing its petty bourgeois allies to flirt with the Non-Partisan League, in clear violation of the SP loyalty pledge, while at the same time expelling adherents of the Left Wing Section for purported violation of the same pledge. The "National Office clique" falsely claimed to be constructive, actually constructing nothing, and have "even been unable to develop a press fit to read," Batt bitterly complains. This series of failures resulted in the repudiation of the "reactionaries in office" in the 1919 Party election, an event which prompted the NEC to show "their true colors -- a genuine black streaked with yellow" by invalidating the vote and proceeding to suspend and expel their opponents. "We congratulate them upon their maintaining control at the expense of wrecking the organization. They have expelled or suspended nearly 40,000 members and will expel that many more in order to remain in the saddle of power," Batt declares, adding "the split in America has come.

 

"Let Party Membership Function Now," by L.E. Katterfeld [July 2, 1919]  With the Regular-dominated outgoing National Executive Committee well on the way to stacking the August 1919 Emergency National Convention through mass expulsion of Left Wing members, L.E. Katterfeld makes an appeal to Ohio Socialist locals to second Local Cuyahoga County's motions to reverse controversial NEC actions. Katterfeld bitterly notes the hypocrisy of the NEC, which on the one hand asks the rank and file to "wait for the convention" to make a determination on its actions, while at the same time accelerating its program of suspensions and expulsions. Katterfeld -- himself one of just two Left Wing members of the NEC -- reveals that the NEC is in the process of a referendum by telegraph to summarily expel the Socialist Party of Massachusetts. The New York and Connecticut State Committees were similarly selectively targeting their Left Wing members for expulsion, Katterfeld notes. He indicates that in May the NEC had already discussed postponement of the convention if it could not capture a majority in the run-up to the event. Katterfeld argues that if a protest is to be made about the 1919 party elections, the correct procedure should be first to tally and announce vote totals, then to level protests, then to appoint a disinterested body to investigate the charges. Instead, he declares that the NEC has "usurped powers that are not theirs" and "trampled roughshod over all constitutional limitations." He optimistically asserts that "no matter how many thousands the party officialdom 'discipline' with its paper expulsions, of those that remain the Left Wing will still be the majority," making the Left Wing "unconquerable."

"The Left Wing and the Truth," by Adolph Germer [July 2, 1919]. The National Executive Secretary makes a spirited defense of the decision of the party's governing National Executive Committee to expel the state organization of Michigan for violation of the constitution of the Socialist Party. Germer quotes the newly revised constitution of Michigan and its mandate that "any member, local, or branch of a local, advocating legislative reforms or supporting organizations formed for the purpose of advocating such reforms, shall be expelled from the Socialist Party" and notes the patent contradiction of this clause with the national constitution of the SPA. Germer notes that neither of the two Left Wing partisans on the NEC --- Alfred Wagenknecht and Ludwig Katterfeld -- disputed the fundamental validity of this charge and details how the Michigan State Secretary, John Keracher, rushed to the May 1919 meeting of the NEC in Chicago and then refused to answer questions that might have put the position of Michigan in a more favorable light. Germer further quotes correspondence from a Detroit Jewish branch suspended by the Michigan Executive Committee to confirm the reality of the Michigan position in actual practice.

"Official Minutes of  the General Committee of the Socialist Party of St. Louis, July 7, 1919."  Minutes of a regularly scheduled meeting of the St. Louis General Committee (i.e. City Central Committee). This document indicates what appears to be the emergence of an organized left wing movement in the city, with the 8th-9th Ward Branch announcing in a communication their endorsement of the Left Wing Manifesto -- an action which was noted with formal disapproval by the General Committee. The city's Gravois German branch communicated with the General Committee, intimating that the German- and English-language party press was suppressing news of the factional struggle by failing to print Lenin's "Letter to American Workers" and not reporting news of the suspension of "40,000" members of the language federations by the National Executive Committee of the Socialist Party. In reply, City Secretary William Brandt noted that the actual number of members suspended was "less than 28,000" and that the decision had been made to keep the SPA's dirty laundry in terms of factional warfare out of the broadly read official party press (St. Louis Labor and the Arbeiter-Zeitung).

 

"Minor Ordered Released by US Army Officer: All Charges Against Him Understood to Have Been Dropped -- May Return to Paris." (New York Call) [July 7, 1919] After over a month in detention to answer charges leveled by the British that he had spread radical propaganda among British and American troops, this article announces journalist Robert Minor's release by army officials "after word had been passed from officialdom believed close to the Peace Commission.... Lincoln Steffens, who assisted in the report handed the American peace commission on Russia, learned of Minor's arrest and sought the aid of Colonel House, the President's confidential adviser, to secure Minor's liberty.... The father of Robert Minor, Judge Minor of Texas, also appealed to the government, and after a month's confinement the journalist was finally set at liberty." The account states that "no official announcement has been made concerning Minor's release, but it is understood that all charges against him have been dropped and that he will immediately return to Paris."

 

"Minnesota Socialists Expel Van Lear for War Stand: State Referendum by 1,500 to 800 Also Reads His Local Out of the Party." (New York Call) [July 8, 1919] This news report details the expulsion from the Socialist Party of former Minneapolis mayoral candidate Thomas Van Lear by referendum vote of the Socialist Party of Minnesota by a margin of approximately 1,500 to 800. The charges for the expulsion of Van Lear were his pro-war activities and his repudiation of the majority report of the St. Louis Convention and for having joined the American Alliance for Labor and Democracy, the article notes. State Secretary Charles Dirba (later a top leader of the Communist Party of America) is said to have declared the vote to be both a repudiation of Van Lear's policies and an approval of the policies of those he termed "the educators."

"Circular Letter to Bureau of Investigation Special Agents in Charge from J. Edgar Hoover, in the name of Acting Chief J.T. Suter, July 11, 1919." This circular letter authored by the Justice Department's chief Red-fighter, J. Edgar Hoover, over the formal signature of his boss illustrates that federal plans for the mass arrest and deportation of "alien radical leaders" preceded the formation of the Communist Party of America. "I desire that you forward to me at once a list giving the names of the leading alien radical leaders in your territory whom you believe now or are likely in the future to become subject to deportation," Hoover asks of each of the 50 or so Special Agents in Charge of the Bureau of Investigation's local offices. Intelligence reports are to be scoured, Hoover instructs, and if these "do not contain definite information concerning his place of birth, his arrival in the United States, and his citizenship status at the present time, you should immediately determine his citizenship status and forward this information without delay." The resulting master list compiled through this research was ultimately used during the Justice Department's mass raids conducted during the night of January 2/3, 1920.

 

"Minutes of the Meeting of the New York State Executive Committee, Socialist Party of America, Sunday, July 13, 1919." In the summer of 1919, the State Executive Committee of the Socialist Party of New York conducted a series of charter revocations of many of the state's local and county organizations which supported the program of the Left Wing Section or refused to terminate participation of members of locals affiliated with suspended language federations. These revocations were followed by immediate "reorganizations" of locals hostile to the Left Wing Section and loyal to the SPA's Old Guard. These minutes of the July 13 meeting of the SEC in Albany detail the repressive measures taken against to following groups: Local Kings County, Local Queens County, Local Utica, Local Syracuse, Local Rochester. In a related matter, tension ran hot over an editorial run by Ludwig Lore in the New Yorker Volkszeitung represented as urging Socialists in Kings and Queens Counties not to recognize the actions of the State Executive Committee in reorganizing those organizations, but rather to remain loyal to the deposed organizations. An interest esoteric tidbit: a proposal to hold an emergency New York State Convention -- presumably a tactic that would have benefited the Left Wing Section -- failed on a tie 12 to 12 vote of the State Executive Committee, with future member of the Communist Party Alexander Trachtenberg voting in the negative. In his vote, which effectively defeated the proposal, Trachtenberg joined such Old Guard stalwarts as Julius Gerber, Bertha Mailly, Benjamin Orr, Barney Berlin, Morris Hillquit, and Louis Waldman. Had Trachtenberg voted the other way, the crushing polices of the New York SEC would have been fought out and decided on the convention floor.

 

"'Left Wing' Convention is as Secret as Paris Conference: Next Move of Faction Will be Attempt to Capture Socialist Party's Emergency Convention in August, says James Oneal," by James Oneal [July 15, 1919] The Socialist Party regulars kept a close eye on the development of the Left Wing Section throughout the summer of 1919. This report on the Left Wing National Conference held in New York City from June 21-24, 1919 pays close attention to internal divisions within the "Left Wing" camp. The anglophonic element of the Left wing Section "were up against the same proposition" previously faced by the Socialist Party, in Oneal's view -- an attempt by the foreign language federations to achieve double representation on the governing Left Wing National Council and to thus control the organization. Oneal notes that the Left Wing had altered its program at the gathering, but had no specific details about the changes rendered. As early as this date, six weeks before the Emergency National Convention of the SPA, Oneal offers political analysis that is eerily prescient: "...[U]unless the Socialist Party is willing to submit to the dictatorship of the 'Left Wing,' the latter is prepared to organize its motley elements into another political party. The split, in other words, is here and the 'lefts' have made doubly sure of it. It is just as well that they have, as one year of a Communist Party that talks of the 'conquest of the bourgeois state by the revolutionary mass action of the proletariat' cannot live in this country as a political organization of the working class. It will be driven underground. It cannot remain on the ballot in any state as soon as this program becomes generally known. It must become a secret society." Oneal adds that the heterogeneous Left Wing was held together only by "common hatred of the Socialist Party." As soon as the Emergency Convention was concluded, "they will be thrown upon their own resources and they can be relied upon to tear each other to pieces," Oneal predicted.

"Circular Letter to All Members of the Russian Socialist Federation from Alexander Stoklitsky, Translator-Secretary, in Chicago." [circa July 15, 1919] Translator-Secretary Alexander Stoklitsky of the Russian Socialist Federation details plans for the forthcoming establishment of the Communist Party of America at a convention to be held September 1 in Chicago. "Our local sections must immediately begin get to work. Immediately summon representatives of the other Bolshevik Federations standing upon our position. Those sharing our position are the Lithuanian, Latvian, Ukrainian, Polish, and South Slavic Federations. Organize at once Communist Locals or Conferences in your communities." Stoklitsky notes the basis of representation for the foundation convention: "1 delegate, plus 1 delegate for each 500 organized members in the state. For instance, if Michigan has 6,750 organized members, it is entitled to 15 delegates: 1 delegate for the state, 13 delegates each representing a quota of 500 members, and 1 delegate for the major fraction of 500 members." Delegates to the CPA convention were also required to provide $50 towards the organization's finances, which was to be used to cover the traveling expenses of out-of-town delegations.

 

"Ruthenberg is Jailed Under New Ohio Law: Socialist Locked Up on Charge of "Criminal Syndicalism" -- Called War "Mass Murder." (New York Call) [July 18, 1919] In the evening of July 18, Cleveland Socialist leader C.E. Ruthenberg was addressing a local crowd, making his first speech of the 1919 mayoral campaign. About 30 minutes into his speech he was interrupted by a squad of policemen headed by Chief of Police Smith, who placed Ruthenberg under arrest for allegedly violating the new Ohio Criminal Syndicalism Law. Six others were also held "for investigation by Federal authorities" as a result of the operation, which was aided by the Right Wing "Loyal American League." At issue was Ruthenberg's statement that World War I had been a period of "mass murder." "If it is possible for the government to take over the steamships and railroads, telephone and telegraph lines and other public utilities in time of war in order to make mass murder more efficient, why is it not possible for these same industries to be publicly controlled for the common good of all in times of peace?" candidate Ruthenberg had asked. A further reminder that American civil liberties were not granted on a platter by forefathers in powdered wigs and defended by uniformed soldiers of the standing army abroad, but rather were fought and won over time by frequently unpopular (and sometimes despised) political radicals who had to courage to hold forth unpopular truths in the face of massive pressure by the armed state and its conservative vigilante allies, a vengeful judiciary, and an apathetic citizenry.

 

Report on Radical Leaders in Boston Submitted to J.T. Suter, Acting Chief, Bureau of Investigation, Washington from George E. Kelleher, Division Superintendent, Boston, July 19, 1919. This exemplifies the sort of reports obtained by J. Edgar Hoover as a result of his July 11, 1919 circular letter to Special Agents in Charge of the local offices of the Bureau of Investigation of the US Department of Justice. Boston Division Superintendent George Kelleher provides summaries of intelligence gathered on a number of Boston area radicals, including Louis C. Fraina, Finnish journalist Santeri Nuorteva of Raivaaja, Frank Mack, Irish radical Eadmonn MacAlpine, Italian editor Angelo Faggi, and Spanish anarchist Francesco Lopez. A number of other area radicals are mentioned in passing, including Irish agitator "Big Jim" Larkin and P.P. Cosgrove, a man "whose citizenship status has not as yet been settled is at the present time," according to Kelleher.

"'Long Live the Soviet Republic!" An Editorial in The Milwaukee Leader -- July 19, 1919. The Socialist Party daily The Milwaukee Leader and its founder and editor, Victor L. Berger, have been regarded as hailing from the SPA's Right Wing, generally by those who have never seen the paper or read Berger. In reality, Berger and Hillquit composed a SPA Center -- anti-militarist in sentiment, analytically Marxist, internationalist in perspective (the true SPA Right Wing departed en masse in the aftermath of the St. Louis Emergency Convention of 1917). Although not written by Berger, who was in the midst of legal proceedings for purported violation of the so-called Espionage Act, this editorial in Berger's paper emphasizes once again that whatever the ideological and personal differences were between the dissident Left Wing Section and the establishment SPA Center, political perspective on the nature of the Bolshevik Revolution and the role of American Socialists with regard to that revolution was emphatically NOT part of the equation. In 1919, all factions of the Socialist Party of America were in solid support of Lenin and Trotsky and their cause. This editorial accuses President Wilson of practicing "the opposite of what he preaches" by rendering aid to the interventionists in Soviet Russia. "It is because Soviet Russia is a Socialist nation.... Should the Socialist government of Russia be allowed to succeed and become permanent, its good example to the workers of the other countries would be such that these workers would establish Socialism in their countries, too. Therefore, the Soviet government of Russia must be destroyed..."

 

"Call for a National Convention for the Purpose of Organizing a Communist Party in America." [July 19, 1919] This is the text of the extensive "Federations-Michigan Convention Call" for the formation of an American Communist Party. The call states that "the National Executive Committee of the Socialist Party of America has evidenced by its expulsion of nearly half of the membership that they will not hesitate at wrecking the organization in order to maintain their control." These suspensions and expulsions had made it "manifestly impossible to longer delay the calling of a convention to organize a new party," notes the call, but unfortunately "the majority of the delegates to the Left Wing Conference in New York meekly neglected to sever their connections with the reactionary National Executive Committee," instead continuing to "mark time as Centrists in the wake of the Right." No other course was possible than the immediate formation of a Communist Party in Chicago at a convention to begin Sept. 1, 1919. A set of organizational principles and an organizational program are provided. The call specifies that convention representation is to be on the basis of one delegate for each organization, and one additional delegate for every 500 members or major fraction thereof.

 

"On the Party Horizon," by Alexander Stoklitsky [July 19, 1919] Translator-Secretary of the Russian Federation Alexander Stoklitsky takes aim at the "Centrists" who continue to follow the strategy of "capturing the Socialist Party for revolutionary socialism." Stoklitsky mocks: "Every bridge leading to the old, rotten structure of opportunism must be destroyed.... The capture of the old party for 'revolutionary socialism' is but a declaration of war upon windmills by the Don Quixotes of the Center." Stoklitsky asks, "Why capture the old party? Is the name of the Socialist Party so dear to the working class? No. The name of the Socialist Party is no longer dear to the proletariat. Years of reformatory and treacherous activity have covered it with mud and slime." Further, the SPA's structure and apparatus is unsuited for the revolutionary movement and its literature "only fit to be destroyed." Stoklitsky declares that "BECAUSE THE SPLIT IN THE PARTY IS AN ACTUAL FACT IT BECOMES OUR SACRED DUTY TO CONSTRUCT A COMMUNIST PARTY." Stoklitsky offers an analysis that would be dominant in the CPA over the next three years, declaring the American Socialist movement had, in parallel of the Socialist movement of Europe, split into three tendencies: Right, Center, and Left. However, Stoklitsky equates the dominant SPA Party Regular tendency of Hillquit and Berger (anti-militarist, Marxist opponents of the national regime) with the pro-war, government Majority Socialists of Germany, calling them "Right." Similarly, the revolutionary socialists continuing their effort to win control of the Socialist Party in hopes of converting it to a revolutionary socialist are rather speciously equated with the Independent Socialists in Germany as "wishy-washy Centrists" who are pursuing a "pitiful" strategy. "Down with the Socialist Party! Down with the wavering Center! Long live the militant Communist Party of America!" Stoklitsky declares.

 

"Adolph the Truth Seeker," by John Keracher [July 19, 1919] In contrast to the barrage of ultra-Left hostility vented by Alexander Stoklitsky in the same issue of the official organ of the faction of the Federation-Michigan alliance, Michigan leader John Keracher is surprisingly temperate in his criticism of SPA Executive Secretary Adolph Germer and his cohorts. Germer is said to be a man of honest opinions and sincere convictions -- albeit one willing to engage in a campaign of half-truths and distortions to bolster his cause. The central fact of the crisis in the Socialist Party in the Summer of 1919 was this, Keracher believes: "the membership has voted the old gang out of office, and they prefer to split the party rather than give up their control!" Everything else is a pretext to justify this naked grab for power, Keracher believes. The issue behind the suspension of the Jewish Branches of Local Detroit had been misrepresented in the SP party press by Germer, Keracher indicates. The SPA's NEC had taken draconian actiona against Michigan with factional purpose; queries made by Michigan State Secretary Keracher had been answered dishonestly. The Emergency Convention in Michigan which had followed the NEC's revocation of the Michigan charter had been legally called, contrary to the assertions of Germer. In the final analysis, all of the NEC's arguments are nothing more than "quibbling," in Keracher's estimation: "This split, which they deliberately precipitated, was inevitable due to the development going on within the party. What difference does it make if the division takes the form of expulsion or withdrawal? Those who desire to participate in real socialist propaganda will send delegates to Chicago on September 1st [1919] to organize the Communist Party of America."

 

"Socialist Party of St. Louis Makes Appeal for Unity in Organization: Party War Record Does Not Justify 'Wing' Row, is Plea." [July 19, 1919] A lengthy and thoughtful summary of the case against the factional war launched by the Socialist Party's insurgent Left Wing made by Local St. Louis, an organization comprised of SPA Regulars. "While the world war was on we never heard of a Left Wing nor of a Right Wing," the statement declares, as during the days of discouragement of 1914-16, the Socialist Party "remained true to the Red Banner of Internationalism," while after American entry into the conflict in 1917 the party went further and issued a "revolutionary declaration" against the conflict. The SPA had suffered for its principled anti-militarist stand: papers had been suppressed, the National Office had been raided, and leaders and rank and filers alike had been hauled before the courts by the Woodrow Wilson regime. There was simply no claim to be made against the party for failure to stand true to its values during the war, the St. Louis appeal notes. Furthermore, the party had loyally supported the Russian Revolution from its earliest phase in March 1917 until the present day. "Mass meetings were held, demonstrations in behalf of Soviet Russia were arranged, our Socialist press gave all possible support to counteract the sinister work of the American capitalist press," Local St. Louis notes. The party's position had been taken actively to the American people. "The capitalist class failed to break up our Socialist Party by attacking it from the outside and by vicious persecution. Attempts will now be made to try the destructive work from the inside. There are many ways of procedure, which are best known to the secret agents and agents provocateurs. It is unfortunate that at this most critical time, when the Socialist Party ought to show a united and solid front to resist the offensive of destruction launched by our common enemy, our organization should be checked and hindered in its work by a so-called Left Wing movement, and that a 'White Card' underground organization should be formed in the party. We can see neither rhyme nor reason in such a sideshow movement," Local St. Louis declares.

 

"Statement on the Situation of the Socialist Party in Philadelphia," by Charles Sehl [July 20, 1919] Brief account of the Left-Right factional war which took place in the Socialist Party of Pennsylvania by a SPA Regular active in reorganized Local Philadelphia. Spurred by advice personally delivered by NEC Regulars James Oneal and George Goebel, a July 13 informal conference on the party situation had been followed by an immediate secret "executive session" of the State Executive Committee. The Pennsylvania SEC had determined to follow the path taken by the SEC of New York State, ordering State Secretary Birch Wilson to travel to Philadelphia and to arbitrarily revoke the charter of Local Philadelphia, the majority of which had endorsed the Left Wing manifesto. Local Philadelphia had refused to recognized the authority of the State Secretary in this matter, and Wilson had immediately moved to reorganize a rump of 300 "loyal" members of the party as a new Local Philadelphia. Those joining Wilson's new (truly white card) local had to sign the following loyalty oath, not provided for in the state party's constitution: "I, the undersigned, declare that while a member of the Socialist Party I shall be guided by the National and State Platforms of the Socialist Party. I do not belong to any organization within or without the party which has a platform or constitution in violation of the National constitution or the State constitution of the Socialist Party. I am not and have not been a member of the so-called Left Wing." The reorganization of the organization was approved by a rushed telegram vote of a non-quorum of the State Executive Committee. Thus was New York's Tammany-style power politics made "legal" in Pennsylvania. The Emergency National Convention of the Socialist Party was less than 6 weeks away.

 

"'Local Cleveland's Referendum," by James Oneal [July 22, 1919] Immediately after the Socialist Party's NEC abrogated the 1919 election, expelled Michigan, and suspended the entire memberships of 7 of the party's language federations, the Left Wing Section sprang into action, with Local Cleveland, Ohio putting forward a party referendum aimed at overturning the NEC's actions within 24 hours. This article by NEC member and arch-anti-Left Winger James Oneal challenges the competence of those supporting such an effort, asking, "have any of these members seen the evidence upon which alone the suspensions were made? Have they seen the mass of evidence regarding election frauds? Not at all. Here are questions that involve the violation of the party constitution and party principles. A general vote of the members cannot decide whether the evidence was sufficient to warrant our actions." Oneal calls for the matter to be decided not via referendum but at the forthcoming Emergency National Convention (a gathering that clearly would be stacked in favor of the party administration, not accidentally). Oneal characterizes the Left Wing Section as a rival political organization, banned by party statute, rather than as an organized faction within the SP. He mockingly refers to the Left Wing Section a "self-constituted 'dictatorship of the proletariat'" and encourages locals to throw their request for seconds to their referendum "into the wastebasket."

 

"Statement of Socialist Party of Philadelphia." [published July 22, 1919] The details of the 1919 factional struggle within the Socialist Party of America are well-known for the party's main cities -- Chicago and New York. Details of the fight are less clear outside of those two main centers. This letter to the Milwaukee Leader details the battle in Philadelphia through the eyes of the faction loyal to the party NEC. The troubles began, it is stated, after the signing of the Armistice [Nov. 11, 1918], at which time " a small element which is un-Socialistic, and which quietly crept into the party, began to assert itself." First the Executive Committee was removed by a "small meeting of the County Committee," and new party members were admitted "wholesale" -- thus bolstering the support of the insurgent Left Wing. This Left Wing drove "faithful" members of the SP from meetings, not fearing to resort to "rowdyism" to disgust and frighten off the "decent people, whose object was to serve Socialism, and who had no time to mix in street gutter politics and squabble." In control of the apparatus, the Left Wing revealed their intent to "sell out the party to a mongrel combination of anti-Socialist and anarchistic ideas and practices such as would put the party out of business." At a special meeting held July 9, 1919, the minority faction loyal to the SP NEC demanded the exclusion of members suspended by the national party from participating in local business. Defeated in a vote, the Right Wing bolted, moving to another hall and declaring themselves to be the official "Local Philadelphia," electing officers and passing resolutions.

"Proclamation of the Finnish Socialist Federation," by Henry Askeli [July 23, 1919]  This lengthy manifesto issued by Henry Askeli of the Finnish Socialist Federation, while not fully endorsing the Left Wing Section and its program, effectively puts the majority Regular faction of the Socialist Party on notice that an adjustment of the party's ideological course to the left is demanded. The Finns express a position very close to that of the Left Wing on the taboo issue of "force and violence," declaring: "Violence and bloodshed do not make any movement revolutionary, and essentially they have noting in common.... But in its attempt to capture political power the working class cannot reject any weapon and the form of its revolution will finally depend upon prevailing conditions, and especially upon the opposition directed against its right of suffrage, other political rights, and against all other activities for gathering the forces of the working class, and against is endeavors for social reform." The leadership of the Finnish Federation -- largest language group in the Socialist Party including perhaps 10% of total party membership -- further provocatively declares: "Be the form whatever it may by which the transfer of power will occur, the rise to power of the organized workers will be followed by an era of proletarian dictatorship." The "absolute parliamentarism" of the Regular faction is "condemned," and the Finnish Federation announces that "mass action of the working class is shown by history to be the principle form to which the struggle will lead." The Finnish Federation declares itself to be of the Left Wing with this document, but the contend that party unity is "the all important matter" and acknowledge that "the organizing of a distinct organization within the party as such is a crime against the spirit of the constitution." Nevertheless the Finns "condemn the expulsions absolutely" and demand restoration of full rights immediately to those suspended or expelled from the party on the basis of "mere contentions, and without any formal investigations and hearings." The NEC had struck a blow "with a few strokes of the pen which disrupts the party completely," the Finns declare.

"Legislation Against Anarchy," by Zechariah Chafee, Jr. [July 23, 1919] Zechariah Chafee, Jr., an Assistant Professor at Harvard Law School and member of the Rhode Island bar, reviews the current spate of anti-radical legislation that was sweeping the country, concentrating his attention on the Overman bill pending in the United States Senate. Chafee argues that existing normal law already sufficiently covers the crimes of assassination, destruction of property, and incitement to revolution and he asks whether "in the haste and excitement of the moment our legislators may not be going much too far." "As far as state prosecutions are concerned, there has been very little need of specific legislation against anarchy and criminal syndicalism. Actual violence against the government, life, and property is punishable everywhere. Those who plan or counsel such violence are liable even if they do not actively participate," Chafee declares. Furthermore, "no Congressional legislation is needed to make criminal any scheme to overthrow the United States government by bombs or any other means," Chafee indicates. The article is lengthy and includes numerous citations of law, including a footnote detailing specific measures covering the entire gamut of related crimes for four key locales: New York, the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, and Washington state. Chafee makes a civil libertarian argument that the current campaign to enact criminal syndicalism, criminal anarchism, and red flag legislation only has the effect of making opinion and thought illegal and violating the constitutional rights of press, assembly, and association rather than protecting society against actual criminal deeds. In contrast to this anti-libertarian trend, Chafee states that "normal criminal law is willing to run risks for the sake of open discussion, believing that truth will prevail over falsehood if both are given a fair field, and that argument and counter-argument are the best method which man has devised for ascertaining the right course of action for individuals or a nation. It holds that error is its own cure in the end, and the worse the error, the sooner it will be rejected." Chafee concludes with a very detailed critique of the excesses of the Overman bill currently being touted in the Senate.

 

"People Ready for Socialism; Party Starting Work -- Germer." [July 24, 1919]. As the faction fight heated up in the summer of 1919, National Executive Secretary Adolph Germer traveled from Chicago to New York City for consultations with leaders of his faction. This article contains the content of an interview which Germer granted to the New York Socialist Party daily, the New York Call. Germer held a "rosy" view of the SP's immediate future: "The situation as it existed last winter was wonderfully promising. If we had been able to remain united, nothing would have been too much to hope for. The time is ripe, and rotten ripe, for our propaganda. But the internal discussions and wranglings have sterilized our efforts to a very large extent." Germer added that "There are thousands of old-time Comrades who had relapsed into inactivity, and who are only awaiting some stirring event to recall them to life. The time has come now. When the party gets rid of its internal disorders, when the decks are cleared, when we point our craft at the goal, we will be ready for work, and they will come back to us." Germer exuded confidence as to the future result of the forthcoming Emergency Convention of the party: "The national convention that will meet on August 30 will take a strong stand, a resolute stand. Then, all those who do not care to remain with us can go their way. We will go our way, as we have always gone."

 

"Fred C. Ellis Plunges 5 Stories; Hits Walk: Cartoonist Escapes with Minor Fractures When Painters' Swing Rope Breaks," by Robert M. Buck [event of July 24, 1919] A short anecdotal sidebar to the tumultuous history of 1919, this news story documents the near-fatal fall of Fred C. Ellis, one of the great political cartoonists of his generation. Ellis, a regular contributor to The Liberator and The New Majority, was working at his craft putting up an outdoor advertising sign on the side of a 6 story building in Chicago's North Side, when one of the ropes holding the scaffold from which he was working frayed and broke, sending Ellis crashing feet-first to the sidewalk 60 feet below. Miraculously, Ellis escaped with fractures to both feet, his right hand, and his back -- another sign painter had been killed in a similar accident nearby just a few days previously when he fell through the roof of a car. "I knew I was due for a drop," said Ellis, "I was too far over to grab the guide line -- so I just set myself for the spill. I figured if I could keep my head up I would have a chance. It seemed like I was standing in the air while I was dropping to the sidewalk. I remember seeing the fellows come over and scoop me off the sidewalk -- then I lost consciousness." Includes a photograph of a youthful Fred Ellis.

 

"The National Left Wing," by Isaac E. Ferguson [published July 25, 1919] An open letter from the Secretary of the National Council of the Left Wing Section, established by the June 1919 National Conference of the Left Wing held in New York. Ferguson announces that the National Council is to conduct "the work of publicity and preparation on a national scale" for the August 30 Emergency National Convention of the Socialist Party, to be held in Chicago. "The Left Wing triumph in the party elections makes emphatically clear what the membership wants.... It must not be annulled by the brazen dictation of a repudiated National Executive Committee which insists upon ruling the party in spite of the ending of its term on July 1st." The dual strategy of the National Council that was to lead to the division of the Communist movement into two rival parties is already in evidence; Ferguson states "The Left Wing must control the regular party Emergency Convention, with the delegates instructed by the membership to undo the manipulations of the old NEC to join the party unreservedly with the Communist International, and to adopt a program of revolutionary socialism for all party activities. Or, if three-fourths of the party shall be expelled or suspended by August 30th, as appears now to be a definite possibility, or if the Emergency Convention shall be sidetracked by the rump NEC, the Left Wing delegates from all over the country must be brought together to organize an American Party of Communism." Ferguson pleads for donations to the National Council and notes that 25˘ Special Propaganda Stamps are for sale.

 

"One Lie Nailed," by Ludwig E. Katterfeld [July 26, 1919] Left Wing Section partisan Ludwig Katterfeld goes on the offensive in response to a charge by NEC member James Oneal that the outgoing National Executive Committee was not repudiated by the referendum of 1919 -- the results of which were suppressed by the self-same outgoing NEC. Katterfeld asserts that in reality, the 20,764 votes independently tabulated by The Ohio Socialist from 26 reporting states represented nearly "TWICE AS MANY" votes as the same states produced in the previous year's national election. Oneal is further tweaked for having received a mere 1,726 votes in those same 26 states, as compared to the tally of 16.074 racked up by the leading vote-getter in the race, John Reed. Katterfeld pulls no punches in making his charge: "In view of these facts, what becomes of Oneal's assertions and allegations? I commend these figures to our would-be "historian" James Oneal. Was he ignorant of these facts, or did he deliberately lie in his efforts to defend the defeated and discredited party officialdom and to prejudice the membership against the Left Wing and Revolutionary Socialism?"

 

"Report to the Incoming National Executive Committee of the Socialist Party on the Party Press and Publishing, Lyceum Bureau, and Party School," by L.E. Katterfeld [July 27, 1919] There is a tendency to see the Left Wing Section of the Socialist Party as intent upon seizing the Socialist Party and utterly deconstructing its form and substance. This report of Ludwig Katterfeld to the sole physical meeting of the "new" NEC elected by the abrogated party election of 1919 offers a tantalizing glimpse of what seems to have far more constrained initial objective of the faction. Rather than construction of vanguard revolutionary organization, Katterfeld posits a modest restructuring of the Socialist Party along its traditional lines. Katterfeld advocates a systematically planned party-owned press based on regional territories instead of the current "anarchistic" system of competing private newspapers. Katterfeld postulates the division of the country into geographic districts, each served by a weekly paper which was to be developed to the point of daily frequency. These territorial papers were to cooperate in the costly task of news-gathering. An extremely low-cost national propaganda paper was to be published by the party itself in addition to a periodic paper to the national membership. The SPA was also to seek negotiations with Charles H. Kerr & Co. with a view to bringing that Marxist publishing house under party auspices and was to further study the economics of owning its own physical plant (unlike Kerr & Co., which jobbed out its press work). The Party was also to once again take over the routing of national speakers, replacing the current system based upon individuals negotiating their own lecture tours. Finally, Katterfeld advocates the immediate establishment of a party-owned training school to immediately set about training hundreds of young party members as speakers and efficient local secretaries. "In the past these duties have fallen largely upon those who received special training in a capitalist environment before they become Socialists. Practiceless lawyers, pulpitless preachers, and busted businessmen have almost had a monopoly of these positions and thereby influenced our movement our of all proportion to their number. The way to overcome this condition is to train up our own young people, working men and women who were Socialists first," Katterfeld asserts.

 

"The New NEC Meets: Report of the Meeting of the National Executive Committee, Socialist Party -- Chicago, July 26-27, 1919," by Louis C. Fraina The constitution of the Socialist Party of America called for a new term of office of its governing National Executive Committee to begin July 1, 1919. The outgoing NEC had refused to tabulate the votes reported by SPA State Secretaries, however, and had instead began a mass campaign of suspensions and expulsions of their Left Wing opponents. A substantial, albeit partial, tabulation was compiled by the Left Wing and published in the June 18, 1919, edition of The Ohio Socialist, and a group of ostensible winners named based upon these returns. Ostensible winner of the balloting for Executive Secretary Alfred Wagenknecht called the "new" NEC together for its first physical meeting in Chicago, where it met July 26-27, 1919. This is the report of the gathering published by new NEC member Louis Fraina, who was a participant. The session was chaired by L.E. Katterfeld and Alfred Wagenknecht served as Secretary. A committee was appointed to tabulate the vote of the 1919 NEC referendum, reporting back that the quorum of 8 of the 15 had been "duly elected with a vote so large as to dispose of the lying charge of fraud." A demand was issued to Executive Secretary demanding that he turn over the headquarters building to the new NEC and appear at its sessions; this he refused. Germer's position was declared vacant and Wagenknecht elected as the temporary Executive Secretary, pending the convention. The outgoing NEC was reversed and the Massachusetts and Michigan state organizations reinstated, as were the 7 suspended Language Federations. State Secretaries were urged to withhold convention funds and refrain from purchasing dues stamps from Germer's National Office. Interestingly, Harry Wicks seems to have broken discipline with his Michigan comrades for the first time at this moment by attending this NEC session -- Dennis Batt and John Keracher of the Michigan organization were also elected to the new NEC, but boycotted the July session, as did Russian Federation leader Nicholas Hourwich. Wicks' participation was important in that only 8 of 15 NEC members-elect were in attendance -- the participation of each vital for the gathering's ability to be represented as being attended by "a majority and a quorum of the whole committee."

 

"NEC Declaration to the Party: Issued by the [new] National Executive Committee of the Socialist Party -- An American Communist Party Urged." [adopted July 27, 1919] Official declaration made by the "new" NEC elected in the abrogated SPA election of 1919 to the membership of the party, detailing their actions and issuing a call for the forthcoming Emergency National Convention in Chicago. Drafted by a committee of 3, including L.E. Katterfeld, Louis C. Fraina, and Harry Wicks, the document announces "The old NEC is dead; it throttled the will of the revolutionary masses in the party; you comrades, must act; we meet simply to provide you the opportunity to act and assert your supremacy." Decisions taken by the new NEC at its July 26-27, 1919, meeting are reviewed, including the declaration of the office of National Secretary vacant and the election of Alfred Wagenknecht to the position on a temporary basis, pending decision of the August convention. The document indicates that the new NEC determined that it would "assume full control of the Emergency National Convention" and would "shortly inform you of the place where the Convention will meet, together with the roster of delegates." This action, which would in practice the organization of a parallel convention on August 30, does not seem to have been executed by Wagenknecht, who only rented a room downstairs from the main, Germer-organized convention, for a gathering of bolting delegates. The document optimistically (some might say delusionally or hysterically) declares that "August 30, in the Chicago Convention, will mark the end of the Left Wing controversy. Revolutionary Socialism will control. You will crush the moderates. You will act! You will transform our party into a Communist Party, to express the mass struggle of the proletariat. Then -- action! Then -- the revolutionary struggle!" Includes the full text of another statement issued by the new NEC at its July 26-27 meeting, "Issues of the Convention," which was composed by a committee of 3 consisting of new NEC members C.E. Ruthenberg, Fred Harwood, and Louis Fraina.

Memorandum to Frank Burke, Assistant Director and Chief of the Bureau of Investigation in Washington from J. Edgar Hoover, Special Assistant to the Attorney General in Washington, July 29, 1919. A short memo from Mitchell Palmer's right hand man, young anti-radicalism expert J. Edgar Hoover, to the head of the Justice Department's Bureau of Investigation. Palmer names Special Agent Anatol L. Rodau as an individual who had successfully engaged in undercover work among radicals in Baltimore and asks whether he should be dispatched to Chicago to attend the foundation convention of the Communist Party of America, scheduled for Sept. 1-7, 1919.

 

"Letter to Adolph Germer, Executive Secretary SPA, in Chicago from Fred Krafft, Member NEC SPA, in Ridgefield, NJ, July 29, 1919." This brief note from Socialist Party National Executive Committee member Fred Krafft to Executive Secretary Adolph Germer illuminates the politics behind the scenes leading to the suspension of the entire Socialist Party of Ohio by the outgoing NEC (which was to have retired according to the party constitution as of July 1, 1919). Krafft writes: "You ask me to wait a few days with the motion which I made to revoke the charter of Ohio. Let me say that I regret very much not to have made this motion several weeks ago, and especially so since reading the action of the 'new' NEC. These fellows mean business and they proceed regardless of what we think about their actions, and it is high time to disregard their opinions in whatever we do, or contemplate to do. If the NEC deserves any censure in the entire controversy, it is because of its misplaced tolerance and hesitancy."

 

"Letter to Adolph Germer in Chicago from Alfred Wagenknecht in Chicago, July 29, 1919." The constitution of the Socialist Party of America called for a new term of office of its governing National Executive Committee to begin July 1, 1919. The outgoing NEC had refused to tabulate the votes reported by SPA State Secretaries, however, and had instead began a mass campaign of suspensions and expulsions of their Left Wing opponents. A substantial, albeit partial, tabulation was compiled by the Left Wing and published in the June 18, 1919, edition of The Ohio Socialist, and a group of ostensible winners named based upon these returns. Ostensible winner of the balloting for Executive Secretary Alfred Wagenknecht called the "new" NEC together for its first physical meeting in Chicago, where it met July 26-27, 1919. The group passed the resolution transmitted to the SPA's National Office here: ""That the office of the National Executive Secretary be declared vacant inasmuch as the present incumbent refuses to perform his duties as National Secretary by refusing to tabulate the vote in referendums expressing the will of the membership and further refuses to recognize the regularly elected National Executive Committee." This communication was signed by Alfred Wagenknecht as "Executive Secretary, Pro Tem."

 

"Circular to All Locals, Branches, and Young People's Socialist Leagues from Alfred Wagenknecht, July 29, 1919." Official communique of the New National Executive Committee and Executive Secretary pro tem Alfred Wagenknecht mailed to all units of the Socialist Party of America and its youth section. The circular notes that "the national constitution ended the term of the old National Executive Committee on July 1st [1919]" and announces that "the new National Executive Committee met in Chicago on July 26 and 27, reversed the actions of the old committee in its attempt to wreck the party, reinstated all expelled state organizations and suspended federations -- more than 35,000 members in all -- and renewed the call for an Emergency National Convention, to be held August 30th." While the circular states that " the new National Executive Committee will take charge of this convention," it is not clear that Wagenknecht & Co. did any more than arrange to rent a room downstairs from the main convention in Machinists' Hall -- preparations remained firmly in the grasp of standing Executive Secretary Adolph Germer and his allies. Mileage money is promised by the new NEC to convention delegates and the circular solicits contributions and loans from party units to the new NEC.

 

"The Split in the Socialist Party," by Joseph B. Stilson [July 30, 1919] The Translator-Secretary of the Lithuanian Socialist Federation, one of the leading players in the 1919 crisis in the SPA, provides a lengthy perspective on the history of the party split. One of the definitive views of the thinking of non-Anglo members of the Left Wing Section, Stilson (arguably) dates the origin of the conflict to the 1916 Presidential candidacy of Allan Benson, a referendum-nominated SP candidate who dodged all mention of the class struggle, in marked contrast to the fire-and-brimstone rhetoric of perennial party nominee Gene Debs. Stilson saw the war as an important turning point in the radicalization of the SP rank and file, one that tipped the majority of the party against its centrist office holders. Faced with electoral defeat in the party election of 1919, the SP leadership began acting in a manner befitting of Tammany Hall, expelling and suspending its opponents without trial, backed by the flimsiest of excuses, hypocritically framed. "That these politicians knew that the Left Wing had been in existence for over two years was frankly admitted by [NEC member George] Goebel, who said that he kept on his files a copy of each manifesto, program, and paper of the Left wingers. It was evident therefore that the Left Wing was tolerated as long as it did not threaten the control of the reactionary machine... Only when the Left Wing touched the nest of the Opportunists did it become a 'violation of the party Constitution,'" Stilson asserts.

 

"Excerpt of Testimony Before Executive Session of the Lusk Committee of the New York Legislature by Archibald E. Stevenson, Associate Counsel, New York City -- July 31, 1919." Archibald Stevenson was the chief researcher of the radical movement employed by the Lusk Committee of the New York legislature in 1919-20 (and author of the committee's massive 4 volume final report). This brief passage of his testimony before a closed session of the committee goes far to explain the aggressive repression delivered by the committee upon the Socialist Party and its affiliated institution, the Rand School of Social Science. When asked whether the SP had split into "two so-called wings," Stevenson responds: "In the last 6 or 8 months the Socialist Party has been split on a question of tactics. The more conservative of the present membership of the Socialist Party remaining in what is termed the Right Wing of that party, and the more impatient or virulent organizing what is now known as the Left Wing Section of the Socialist Party. The only difference between these two sections that is apparent from a study of the controversy is that the members of the Left Wing are more outspoken in their desire for immediate and direct action methods for obtaining socialism. It must be borne in mind, however, that both Right and Left Wings took this revolutionary stand, and consequently it should be understood that the Right Wingers are not the conservative evolutionary Socialist who were either expelled or resigned from the Socialist Party at the time of the St. Louis Convention [April 7-14, 1917]."

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