"Our Patriotism and Theirs," by Morris Hillquit [Nov. 4, 1916] Socialist Party leading luminary and Congressional candidate Morris Hillquit responds to charges made by the right that the Socialists are "devoid of patriotism." To this Hillquit responds that, quite to the contrary, only the Socialists stand for "true and enlightened patriotism." "True patriotism expresses itself in honest efforts to enhance the happiness and welfare of the great masses of the people, to help them in their struggles for more food, better homes, higher education, larger freedom, brighter, happier lives," Hillquit states. The candidates of the Republican and Democratic Parties, however, travel the country "prating about 'true Americanism,' they wave the American flag with rivaling frenzy, they flatter our national vanity, they appeal to our basest instincts, they foment racial antagonism at home and pave the ground for strife and war with foreign nations. Their agitation is harmful to the people, it is grossly unpatriotic." The Socialists alone believe in the words of the Declaration of Independence, that government exists for the purpose of ensuring "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" to all citizens and that "whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness." While the regime of the capitalist parties exists to preserve "Property, Authority, and the Pursuit of Profits," the Socialists seek to establish "a government organized to maintain human life and promote human happiness, a government based on industrial as well as political liberty, a true popular government for the benefit of the whole people."

 

"Wisconsin Socialist Platform." [as published Aug. 31, 1918] The Social Democratic Party of Wisconsin is sometimes caricatured as a parochial and racist organization, whose sole program was the winning of elective office to implement a laundry list of ameliorative liberal reforms. Those believing that this was the limit of the Wisconsin party's vision might be interested in investigating the organization's 1918 platform, which declared the organization's continued allegiance to international Socialism (i.e. Marxism), against the importation of European style militarism to American society, for a rapid end to the European conflagration without annexations or indemnities imposed on any party, against racism and mob rule and in favor of the freedoms of speech, press, and assemblage then being trampled by the Wilson regime and the Democratic-Republican bloc in Congress, and in favor of the principles of collectivism and cooperation and the policy of state ownership of trustified industry. The platform called upon "all lovers of freedom to rally round the banner of Socialism -- which represents the only genuine patriotism of today. Socialism will guarantee to every man the full fruit of his labor and thus do away with the main cause of wars. It will usher in a new civilization based upon the welfare of all."

 

"Does Conviction Mean Guilt? An Editorial on the Chicago IWW Trial from The Milwaukee Leader, September 3, 1918." During the Cold War, a mythology sprang up -- particularly among the Social Democratic Right -- about the ideology and practice of the Social Democratic Party of Wisconsin and its de facto official organ, Victor Berger's Milwaukee Leader. The Wisconsin party and the Leader were falsely represented as programatically ultra-minimalist, limiting their vision to patchwork reform policies and taking an unchanging "principled" stand against "extremism" and "Communism." In reality, the ideology of the Wisconsin movement in the 1910s and 1920s was considerably more left wing and nuanced than the politicized caricature propounded by the 1950s and 1960s SD Right -- as this Leader editorial demonstrates. The recent conviction and sentencing of 97 IWW defendants by Woodrow Wilson's Department of Justice and Judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis is likened to the persecution of Jesus Christ -- the guilty verdict having no more validity in real life than the one passed upon him by Pontius Pilate. Despite "a great diversity of opinion" about the divinity and doctrines arising around Jesus, "we do not know of even one person in the whole world who believes that Jesus was rightfully convicted and executed," the editorialist opines. "On the contrary, it is the unanimous opinion of the human race at the present time that He was infinitely superior to his persecutors. It is now the universal belief that His persecutors were the real criminals and that He was guiltless." Like Jesus, the Wobblies were guilty only of having new and unpopular ideas -- ideas that made it impossible to obtain a fair trial in the present supercharged climate of political hysteria. Complete solidarity is voiced: the IWWs "stand for principles which would result in real democracy -- industrial democracy," the editorial states. No matter what tactical errors the organization may have committed in the past, "that is no reason to believe that they were guilty. We are just as confident of their innocence as we were when they were tried." The conviction might actually have the opposite of its intended effect, in the editorialist's opinion, actually boosting the IWW: "t is entirely possible that, if the IWW is ready to drop its undesirable features, it may have a brilliant future as a labor organization. Certainly there is abundant room for a real labor organization in the industrial field in this country - one that is loyal to the working class -- one that will not barter its principles for a few loaves and fishes - one that understands the ultimate as well as the immediate needs of the workers."

 

"Protest Letter Regarding Jay Lovestone to the CEC of the Communist Party of America from the CPA's Boston District Organization, March 24, 1920." Jay Lovestone's coy and unilluminating testimony as a witness subpoenaed by the prosecution in the trial of Harry Winitsky was not well received by many in the ranks of the Communist Party of America, as this heated protest from the Boston District Organization to the national office amply attests. Lovestone is charged with having made statements on the stand in direct contradiction to the manifesto and program of the CPA: "At a time when all activity of the party is in abeyance, when the membership is burning with the desire to place the truth about capitalism and, in particular, about the Communist Party before the American working class -- in which work they are sadly left without assistance both by their leaders and their officials -- it is necessary that no one regarded as a spokesman for the party be allowed to manipulate party principles to suit his own wishes." The Boston organization charged that Lovestone's testimony was the result either of "ignorance, irresponsibility, or cowardice" and demanded his immediate removal from the Central Executive Committee and the National Council of the CPA.

 

"Report on CPA Sub-District 4-C [Detroit] to Executive Secretary C.E. Ruthenberg from SDO "E.A. Carroll." March 25, 1920." This report of the Detroit Sub-District Organizer of the Communist Party of America is an interesting source of local detail. The situation is difficult, the yet-unidentified SDO "Carroll" remarks, noting that "all English locals in Michigan are infested with the Proletarian Party stuff." The matter is made more difficult by the SDO's absolute lack of concrete information about the source of the split between the CPA and the Michigan Proletarian University group: "I must immediately have a copy of the controversy in detail which took place in the NEC in regard to the expulsion of the Michiganites. I was up to Bay City yesterday. They have an English Local of six members to whom I talked and convinced that we must have the new form of organization but before they will decide to cast their lot with us they insist on wanting to know why [the Michigan Proletarian University people] were ousted by the CEC. I was unable to give them a proper answer because I am not familiar with what happened myself. Please send a report of this in detail with argument at once. I cannot get along on the next trip without it." The move towards mass expulsions of the supporters of the Michigan group had been set in motion by the CPA's CEC at its Nov. 17, 1919 meeting, due to the Proletarian University's routing of speakers around the country independent of the CEC and the advocacy by these speakers of the "Michigan program" in opposition to the program of the CPA.

 

"Circular Letter on Transfer of Party Funds, to CPA Federation and District Organizers from Executive Secretary C.E. Ruthenberg, March 25, 1920." Extremely short and rather esoteric memo to DOs of the newly underground Communist Party of America which indicates (1) that dues were transmitted from the various DOs to the center by means of blank bank drafts payable to "James T. Browning" and (2) that illegal leaflets were distributed en masse on a single assigned day.

 

"Letter to C.E. Ruthenberg in New York from Leonid Belsky in Chicago, March 28, 1920." This extremely important letter from Chicago District Organizer Leonid Belsky ["Ed Fisher"] to Executive Secretary C.E. Ruthenberg demonstrates that it was not Ruthenberg's personal dissatisfaction with the pace of unity negotiations with the Communist Labor Party or sudden aversion to the nature or tactics of the component language federations of the CPA that prompted the April 1920 party split, but rather that this break was the result of factional war within the party with volition coming from the Chicago organization, not Ruthenberg. DO Belsky notes that the Chicago District Organization "unanimously decided to get rid of Andrew's [Nicholas Hourwich's] gang. No more funds to be sent to NY, a reorganization conference will be called by us, consisting of the representatives of all Districts and all Federations for the purpose of election of a Reorganization Committee to conduct the business of the Party and to call a Convention IMMEDIATELY." Nor was this an anglophonic revolt against non-english speakers, as the Russian Federationist Belsky indicates "We are unanimous in the whole [Chicago] District and have the whole Polish and South Slavic Federations with us, also Russian, Jewish, and other District Organizations, which decided not to send any funds to their Federation Executive Committees." Nor was the idea to bolt and abscond with the CPA's party fund's the original idea of Ruthenberg, as Belsky demands "We expect you to bring the funds on hand and all the important documents to Chicago. You are the Executive Secretary and your duty is to save the property of the Party from the criminal gang, which has at the present the upper hand and which must be swept by the loyal rank and file and thrown out of the Party."

 

"Letter to C.E. Ruthenberg in New York from I.E. Ferguson in Chicago, March 31, 1920." Another important early letter shedding light upon the April 1920 CPA split. Ferguson, regarded as Ruthenberg's closest political associate in this period, clearly was not the source of anger and action against the CPA's CEC majority, writing (in contrast to Chicago DO Belsky's March 28 letter): " I am glad there is rebellion against the CEC, that goes without saying; but I have yet no fixed opinion about how it should proceed, and I will hold any opinion open until I have discussed the situation with you. One thing I hope, that if there is something in the nature of a complete repudiation of the CEC that you will not stand as the defender of the Hourwichites. That would be a calamity to the party. If a break must come -- and I am not at all sure it is inevitable -- I certainly hope you will not raise the loyalty banner in behalf of those who have engendered the revolt." This document further illustrates that it was not Ruthenberg who premeditated and caused the 1920 split, but rather that the division was a byproduct of the feud between the Chicago organization (headed by DO Belsky) with the CEC majority of Nicholas Hourwich and his associates, as well as the emerging factional politics of the CEC itself.

 

"Letter to Leonid Belsky in Chicago from C.E. Ruthenberg in New York, April 7, 1920." With a split of the CPA between the Chicago organization and the New York-based CEC majority fairly clearly in the cards, Executive Secretary C.E. Ruthenberg writes to Chicago DO Belsky to announce whether or not he would actively support the revolt (his statement to the CEC not included with the archival document). Ruthenberg writes: "I have written my statement so that it will make a propaganda appeal against the majority and I suggest that you prepare to have it printed in various languages so that we can go to the membership at once IF THE BREAK COMES. I am placing myself in your hands by sending this statement to you and am trusting to you to take no action and make no use of it unless the other side precipitates matters by an attempt to remove you." Alex Bittelman had been delegated by the CEC majority to come to Chicago as plenipotentiary, Ruthenberg notes, although whether Bittelman would actually attempt to decapitate the Chicago party organization was still unclear. "It may be that the majority of the council will be so foolhardy as to attempt to remove me as Executive Secretary and Acting Party Editor when they receive my statement. Such action would of course precipitate matters at once," Ruthenberg notes.

 

"Letter to C.E. Ruthenberg in New York from Leonid Belsky in Chicago, April 10, 1920." With CPA Executive Secretary's Ruthenberg's ultimatum to the CEC majority in hand, Chicago DO Belsky writes back to reassure him: "Your stand is clear and excellent and without doubt will voice the opinion of the membership throughout the country. I will follow your suggestions in every respect and you can count on the unanimous support of our district. Am awaiting your further communications in regard to the action of the CEC following the presentation of your statement. WE WILL TAKE NO ACTION unless YOU WOULD INITIATE IT." Belsky notes that the Chicago District organization was engaged in unity negotiations with the rival Communist Labor Party on their own: "We are making very strenuous efforts for reaching an organizational unity with the CLP in our territory and I believe they finally will join us and support our every move, including a call for similar unity action throughout the country, regardless of their NEC. We had two conferences, in which we have succeeded in splitting them, getting the best and most active of their committee with us."

 

"Letter to C.E. Ruthenberg in New York from Charles Dirba in New York, April 18, 1920." On April 18, 1920, Executive Secretary C.E. Ruthenberg and a handful of close associates walked out of the meeting of the CPA's Central Executive Committee. This note from new Acting Executive Secretary Charles Dirba to Ruthenberg passes on a resolution passed by the meeting: "To instruct Acting Secretary Bunte [Dirba] to send to the Executive Secretary request to notify us in writing whether he will recognize the authority of the Central Executive Committee. If not, we demand of him to turn over all property of the Communist Party - records, funds, etc. - to the Acting Secretary for the Central Executive Committee."

 

"Letter from Leonid Belsky in Chicago to C.E. Ruthenberg in New York, April 20, 1920." This brief letter from Chicago DO Belsky to factional leader C.E. Ruthenberg notes that the faction's manifesto ["Make the Party a 'Party of Action'"] was in the hands of the printer, with the manifesto to be published in 6 languages: English, Russian, Lithuanian, Polish, Yiddish, and Croatian. The Chicago District Executive Committee had unanimously endorsed the April split of the CPA and a Chicago District convention of the Russian Federation had been held and done likewise, severing themselves from the national CPA Russian Federation and going so far as to expel Alexander Stoklitsky and "Kaplan" from the organization.

 

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