"The Red Flag and the Stars & Stripes," by Morris Hillquit [Dec. 1912] In this short article from The Young Socialists' Magazine, Socialist Party leader Morris Hillquit asserts the "open and honest" allegiance of the Socialists to the Red Flag as a symbol of "worldwide peace, harmony, and brotherhood" in the "great international fight against corruption, exploitation, and oppression." Right Wing detractors are eager to flaunt the Stars & Stripes in provocative opposition to the Red Flag, but Hillquit demands: "What claim do you have to the emblem of American independence, democracy, and justice? You have ruthlessly destroyed the ideal of social equality, which was fondly woven into the texture of the American flag by the revolutionary founders of the republic, and have delivered the country and its people to a gang of financial freebooters. You have reared a purse-proud aristocracy more unbearable than ever was the rule of George III. You have driven millions of American men, women, and children into industrial slavery, misery, and destitution. You have banished the American ideals of civic righteousness, and have poisoned the public life of the nation by wholesale fraud, bribery, and corruption." The Red Flag is complementary to the Stars & Strips, Hillquit asserts. "When Socialism will win its battles, both emblems will flutter together from all huts and palaces, gaily proclaiming in their multiform colors that mankind is free."

 

"A National Organization is On Its Way!" by J. Louis Engdahl [April 1913] Powered by the success of the Los Angeles Young People's Socialist League, with 1200 members, and the support of State Secretary of the Socialist Party of California T.W. Williams, the establishment of the national YPSL organization was finally about to happen, according to this report by Chicago Socialist Louis Engdahl. An estimated 200 autonomous and "practically independent" Socialist youth organizations had sprung up in American, needing "only a centralized movement to put them in active operation," Engdahl indicated. In accordance with this objective, information was being gathered about the strength and resources of each for presentation to the forthcoming annual meeting of the Party's National Committee (essentially a convention with representatives present from each state organization). A debate was underway over the structure of such an organization, with some favoring a sovereign but associated organization electing its own National Secretary and 3 of 5 of the member s of its National Committee, while others favored creation of a subordinate youth department of the Socialist Party, akin to the structure already extant for women.

 

"The Finnish Young Socialists of the United States" by J. Louis Engdahl [May 1913] With a decision by the Socialist Party's National Committee on the organization of a national young people's section looming, Louis Engdahl analyzes the division of the youth sections on language lines, the most important section of which was the Finnish Gymnastic Societies organized by the various Socialist Party branches. There were some 53 of these societies at the end of 1911, Engdahl states: 22 in the Finnish Federation's Eastern District, 17 in the Middle District, and 14 in the Western District. A total of 1,156 young men and women were affiliated with these societies, which paid no dues to the Socialist Party but were funded by Party branches. In addition to these gymnastic societies, the Finns had choral societies, dramatic societies, dancing clubs, and other organized group activities -- projects that were advanced by the fact that many Finnish branches possessed their own halls. Engdahl notes that the Finnish and English language Socialist organizations had long remained segregated and that the task of integrating these sections of the party to work on matters of common concern remained largely unresolved.

 

"To Work with Young People," by James M. Reilly [June 1913] Short article in The Young Socialists' Magazine by a Socialist Party National Committee member from New Jersey announcing the May 1913 decision of the NC to establish a Youth Department attached to the National Office, effective October 1, 1913. Reilly states that "It is not the intention of the Party to interfere with any of the young people's Socialist organizations now in existence. The aim is rather to lend assistance and cooperation.....The department will also be a sort of clearing house for Socialist literature especially suitable for the young." He notes that "We Socialists do not believe in forcing our faith -- so to speak -- on anyone. We do not wish our children to be Socialists because we are. The true Socialist wants his children to do their own thinking, and of course form their own conclusions." However, the SPA had been negligent in providing even rudimentary information about itself to young people in any systematic way. Through this new department it was hoped that first steps would soon be taken in this regard.

 

"Marx and Young People," by Eugene V. Debs [May 1918] This May 1918 article was written by Gene Debs for the magazine of the youth section of the Socialist Party to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Karl Marx (born May 5, 1818). Debs is effusive in his praise of Marx, the "founder of modern socialism and of the international socialist movement." Debs writes: "He had the exalted moral character to match his commanding genius. He was firm as an oak, yet tender as a babe. He was absolutely honest. He could not dissimulate. He knew not how to be hypocritical. He was a stranger to the ways of darkness. What he saw with his keen eye and thought with his clear brain and felt with his warm heart, he also had the courage to utter with his honest tongue and to stand or fall by without equivocation or compromise." Marx's commitment to the cause led to persecution and privation, a bitter fate shared by his wife Jenny von Westphalen. But Marx's unwillingness to "barter away his talents...at once sealed his doom and gave his name to glory."

 

"SSS Organizes on National Scale," by William Kruse [Sept. 1918] On July 27-28, 1918, a conclave was held in New York City bringing together representatives of the Socialist Sunday Schools movement from 6 Eastern cities and the National Office of the Socialist Party. The group made recommendations for the centralization of the SSS movement through the office of the SPA's Young People's Department in Chicago, suggested curriculum for each of three age groups, and elected a provisional National Executive Committee of 5 for the SSS movement, headed by Dr. Antoinette Konikow of Boston as Chairman and YPSL head William F. Kruse of Chicago as Secretary. The gathering also recommended the dropping of the counterproductive word "Sunday" from the SSS, suggesting instead the new name "Socialist Schools of Science" for the movement. This new name would be used in all future correspondence from the National Office, the conference indicated, and local organizations were advised to do likewise. "It is not at present the intention of making the SSS an iron-bound Party affair, but there must be some central point of contact between the various school organizations and it is but right that, as in the case of the YPSL, this point be the Young People's Dept. of our Party," this article stated.

 

"Gene Debs at the Socialist Conference," by William Kruse [Sept. 1918] In August 1918, State Secretaries and elected officials of the Socialist Party gathered in conference in Chicago to discuss the party's political position and to make plans for the forthcoming fall election campaign. The meeting featured a surprise appearance by the party's leading orator, soul, and conscience, Gene Debs -- who delivered a fiery oration that brought down the house. This report by YPSL National Secretary Bill Kruse (who attended the conference) directly quotes Debs' speech at some considerable length. Debs stated that "The party has been passing through what may be called a fiery ordeal during the past few weeks, subjected as perhaps never before to a test of the very fiber of its being; and during all this time the party has stood and withstood all of the attacks that have been made upon it... It is true that there have been certain desertions, but the party has not been weakened in that account. We are indebted to the master class for at least one service, and that is for having rid us of those who do not properly belong here. Numbers do not always count. We are stronger because of the test to which we have been subjected, and for myself, I believe the outlook for the party was never more encouraging and inspiring than it is today." Debs declared that "Now is the time for action," adding "In every hour of trial that has come they have stood staunch and true. With them I gladly share my life, and come good or ill as it may, we will not weaken, we will not compromise, we will not retreat an inch, we will stand our ground, we will fight together unitedly all along the battle line for victory for the International Socialist Movement."

 

"National Election in YPSL: Wanted -- A New National Secretary," by William Kruse [Dec. 1918] Two-term National Secretary of the Young People's Socialist League Bill Kruse decided not to run for re-election in 1919. This light-hearted article lists his picks as qualifications for his "ideal" successor. He thus indirectly illuminates many of the tasks which he fulfilled during his 4 years at the helm of the organization. Some concrete details about the size of the organization also trickle through -- a paid membership averaging about 5,000 per month (although slightly down in the 4th Quarter of 1918, it seems) with a magazine circulation to match. The YPSL maintain 8 state organizations and paid Kruse a salary as National Secretary of $23 a week. Kruse notes that his successor "should know what socialism is, and how to practice its ethical basis in his own dealings with his comrades, and he should be a disciple of Liebknecht and Debs rather than Scheidemann and Spargo."

 

"Yipsels and the Socialist Sedition Trial," 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.

 

"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.

 

"The Last Days with John Reed: A Letter to Max Eastman in New York, From Louise Bryant in Moscow, November 14, 1920." John Reed's death in Moscow and subsequent burial at the foot of the Kremlin wall was a political event -- a first widely-known American martyr for the Communist cause. His political views during the last months of his life were the subject of a right wing counter-narrative, depicting Reed as disaffected from the revolution and embittered. This account by Reed's common-law wife, Louise Bryant, should be regarded as definitive for Reed's final month, from his return to Moscow from Baku on Wednesday, Sept. 15, 1920 until his untimely death from typhus on Oct. 17 -- three days shy of his 33rd birthday. Bryant says not a word about Reed's alienation from the Bolshevik cause. Instead, she writes "I found him older and sadder and grown strangely gentle and aesthetic. His clothes were just rags. He was so impressed with the suffering around him that he would take nothing for himself. I felt shocked and almost unable to reach the peak of fervor he had attained." In his last days, Bryant says that Reed "was consumed with a desire to go home. I felt how tired and ill he was -- how near a breakdown and tried to persuade him to rest. The Russians told me that he often worked twenty hours a day." Reed's final illness lasted 20 days, Bryant records, during which he was delusional. Five days before he died the right side of Reed's body was paralyzed, Bryant notes.

 

"The Aims and Methods of Young Workers Education," by Oliver Carlson [August 1927] Oliver Carlson was a former National Secretary of the Young People's Socialist League (1918-1919) who joined the Workers Party of America and was an active leader of the Young Workers League. From 1925-1928 he was annually the Director of Communist Summer Schools sponsored by the Workers (Communist) Party, including the very first of these events (Waino, WI). This article was written by Carlson for the 1927 YWL Winlock, Washington Camp Yearbook. Analytical and pedagogical in tone, Carlson first addresses the possible criticism that the curriculum at the Summer Schools are "biased": "We were determined that a definite working class outlook should permeate every subject studied. We openly admitted that all education is of necessity biased, especially that which deals with social, economic, and political problems. Ours was biased in favor of the proletariat. For the benefit of those who demand 'pure truth,' let me point out that the working class view on social sciences is far more correct than that "impartial" view which is dished out to the unsuspecting in the public educational institutions." After discussing the relative effectiveness of various methods of instruction, Carlson advocates relatively older rather than younger students in the schools: "The boy or girl of 14, 15, or 16 years who is still in school has not as yet been forced to shift for himself, to make his own living, and to feel the pressure of the class struggle. To such a one the class war and all other theories relating to it cannot be duly appreciated." He also advocates a skewing of more males than females for a similar reason, that more men than women are wage workers, particularly in the "more basic industries where the need for theoretical and practical leadership is the greatest."

 

"History of the American Socialist Youth Movement to 1929," by Shirley Waller [circa 1946] A summary history of the early Socialist and Communist youth movement in America written circa 1946 by a member of a small Trotskyist organization, the Workers Party. This material is an extended excerpt of that first published as two small circulation WP bulletins. These bulletins quickly went out of print and were brought back only as a mimeographed pamphlet in 1959 (with additional material) by the Socialist Workers Party. Waller's history is encumbered with an orthodox Trotskyist periodization which declares a "beginning of the degeneration of the YCL" from late 1923 and makes an ahistorical declaration of an "abrupt halt" to the "organic process of the youth movement" from 1925. These dates obviously were chosen based upon the political position of one Soviet Russian Communist Party leader vis-a-vis the others rather than on the basis of objectively observed and persuasively documented historical events in the YCL itself. That said (and despite several glaring factual inaccuracies corrected here in the footnotes) this history is not without interest as a thumbnail sketch of the evolution of the Socialist Party of America's youth movement into the Communist youth movement of the 1920s.

 

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