"Two Resolutions of Local St. Louis, Socialist Party, January 4, 1903." The early Socialist Party was structured as a federation of semi-autonomous state organizations, governed by a strong "National Committee" of state representatives, with operations coordinated by a weak National Office. Day to day affairs of the National Office were to be handled by a paid National Executive Secretary working in conjuntion with 5 members of the local of the city in which the National Office was located, selected by the National Committee and called that committee's "Local Quorum." St. Louis was established as the first location of the National Office by the founding convention of the SPA in the summer of 1901. The 5 member Local Quorum from St. Louis, including Executive Secretary Greenbaum, sought to assert themselves in favor of the experiment in political alliance being conducted with some success in San Francisco -- an action condemned as anathema to the principles of the Socialist Party by many party members. These two resolutions, adopted at the January 1903 General Meeting of Local St. Louis, formally condemn the San Francisco "fusion" experiment, and call upon Executive Secretary Greenbaum and 3 members of the Local Quorum to resign, for having written and spoken in favor of the San Francisco model. One resolution cites the Socialist Party platform, which states: "The Democratic, Republican, the bourgeois public ownership parties, and all other parties which do not stand for a complete overthrow of the capitalist system of production, are alike political representatives of the capitalist class" as justification for this action. If Greenbaum and his associates refuse to submit their resignations, the second resolution calls for the National Committee to remove them. At the end of Jan. 1903, the annual meeting of the National Committee voted to move the National Office to Omaha, Nebraska, thus ending the St. Louis fusion controversy.

 

"Proceedings of the National Committee, SPA: St. Louis -- Jan. 29-31, 1903," by George E. Boomer Washington state's National Committeeman George Boomer provides this account of the annual meeting of the SPA's governing National Committee (approximating a Central Committee in function), which voted to move party headquarters from St. Louis to Omaha, effective immediately, and replaced Executive Secretary Leon Greenbaum of St. Louis with William Mailly of Massachusetts, and elected a new 5 member National Quorum (approximating the SPA's later National Executive Committee in form and function). In addition, Boomer notes the passage of a strong anti-Labor Party resolution, reading: "That no state or local organization or member of the party shall under any circumstances fuse, combine, or compromise with any political party or organization, or refrain from making nominations in order to further the interests of candidates of such parties or organizations." Boomer tersely concludes with a note that a "Line is being drawn between Agrarians and Proletarians" within the SPA.

 

"The ABC of Socialism," by Hermon F. Titus [Jan. 3, 1904] A brief agitational outline of the principles of socialism written for a special propaganda issue of The Socialist (Seattle) by Left Wing leader Hermon Titus. The goal of socialism is "abundance for all" writes Titus, and he declares the means to this end to be for the working class and its allies to "Take to ourselves these vast new inventions and use them for producing new wealth for all instead of producing it for a few." "The only reason we are not all well off now is that a few people own these great modern tools and refuse to let us work at them except when they can make a profit for themselves," he adds. "We are a very practical lot, we Socialists, we political Socialists," writes Titus, adding, "We indulge in no dreams or false hopes. We say to the worker, now destitute: 'Come with us, join our party, vote yourselves into power, use that power of government to capture back those means of wealth production which the capitalists have stolen from you, and then you will get all that abundance which modern inventions entitle you to.'" While his vision for obtaining power is electoral, Titus clearly envisions something approximating a proletarian vanguard party, when he writes: "The great present mission of the Socialist Party is to gather together all those workers whose real interests lie in abolishing the private ownership of the Means of Production, and also to shut out of the party the class whose real interests lie in the preservation of the present system." Includes short biography and portrait of Hermon F. Titus.

 

"Constitution of the Socialist Party of America: Adopted in National Convention at Indianapolis, Ind., August 1, 1901 -- as revised." This is the version of the SPA's constitution in effect on the eve of the 1904 Party Convention, with editorial footnotes indicating the specific alterations made to the document over the party's first 2-1/2 years. Chief among the changes made in this interval were a respecification of the Local Quorum -- a 5 member body that approximated the National Executive Committee in function; the alteration of the position of National Secretary to a position with a fixed 1 year term of office; and the elimination of constitutionally-required reporting by the Executive Secretary and the National Committee to the state organizations. Also apparently removed was a paragraph that was probably regarded as superfluous at the time but which would be a matter of extreme importance 15 years hence, specifically: "The platform of the Socialist Party, adopted in convention or by referendum vote, shall be the supreme declaration of the party, and all state and municipal organizations shall, in the adoption of their platforms, conform thereto." This fundamental position remains in less strenuous language in Art. VI, Sec. 1: "Each state or territory may organize in such way or manner, and under such rules and regulations, as it may determine, but not in conflict with the provisions of this constitution."

 

"The Working Class Convention: National Convention of Socialist Party at Chicago, May 1 to May 6, 1904," by Hermon F. Titus Eyewitness account of the 2nd Convention of the Socialist Party of America by Washington delegate Hermon F. Titus -- Socialist publisher, medical doctor, and former Baptist preacher. Titus makes use of language of a religious revivalist in hailing the convention as a gathering of comrades "aflame with an enthusiasm born of awakening class consciousness and determined to effect their own emancipation," who saw their "enthusiasm and determination" made more intense by the "sense of fellowship and union which gradually developed during those 6 days' sessions." Titus declares that "Suspicions and differences disappeared as it became evident that the great majority of the delegates stood unmistakably for the working class first, last, and all the time. Factions and schemes were annihilated before the proletarian will that asserted itself in every test vote. There were no combinations or caucuses to effect this result." Titus asserts that there was an effort on the part of the delegates of Kansas, Missouri, and Wisconsin to arrive at slates for key convention committees ahead of the gathering, but that this effort came to nothing and "there were no more caucuses during that convention." The sharpest points of contention came upon the Trade Union resolution and the new program for the party. The contentious "immediate demands" which divided the founding convention in 1901 were reduced to a "Program for State and Municipal Socialist Officials," a set of "mere suggestions for action where we succeed in electing candidates before our full triumph." Includes short biography and picture of Hermon F. Titus.

 

"The Chicago Convention: National Socialist Party Convention Held at Chicago, Ill., May 1-6, 1904: Official Report of H.F. Titus, Delegate-at-Large from State of Washington." Delegate Hermon Titus details for the membership of the Socialist Party of Washington his actions on their behalf at the 2nd Convention of the Socialist Party of America. Titus notes three challenges of delegates before the Committee on Credentials on which he sat, those of Gridley of Indiana (for being a city engineer for a capitalist government), J. Stitt Wilson of California (for sending a congratulatory telegram to a Mayoral victor who was a member of another party), and Charles Randall of Utah (who was the delegate of a Walter Thomas Mills-backed faction embroiled in a dispute with another recognized Utah state organization with ties to the radical Socialist Party of Washington). Titus also details his work on the platform committee and notes that he made the nominating speech for Ben Hanford for Vice President of the United States -- a nomination which received many seconds and which was approved unanimously by the convention. Mills notes his additional efforts to stir up enough locals around the country to demand the submission of the constitution, platform, and resolutions of the Chicago Convention to the membership for ratification by referendum vote. "I freely said and still maintain that the platform adopted at Indianapolis and confirmed by referendum of the party, remains our national platform until another is adopted by the party membership itself," Titus notes. Titus also points out two actions he took in an attempt to reduce overhead costs of the SPA -- the reduction of the party's representation to the forthcoming International Socialist Congress from 3 to 1 (successful), and to scale back the salary of the National Secretary from $1500 to $1200 per year (failed). "I urged that our dues are paid by workingmen on small wages and that we must economize in every possible way," Titus reports.

 

"To The Socialist and Its Readers," by Eugene V. Debs [July 10, 1904] When Hermon Titus' Left Wing weekly The Socialist ran into financial trouble in the summer of 1904, SPA Presidential hopeful Eugene V. Debs immediately contributed a full-length article expressing his support for the publication and upbraiding Socialists for lack of support of the party press. Debs insists that readers of The Socialist make an immediate 50 cent contribution to help put the publication on its feet financially: "Socialists are not consistent, to put it mildly, when they talk continually about 'education' while they let their own press starve to death. Socialists, who stand against exploitation, have no right to exploit those who serve them." Debs notes that "Trade unionists, made up wholly of workers, manage to support their press, at least a large part of it, in decent order, so that the press can live comfortably and serve instead of starving and dying. I have always been opposed to a two-for-five press. I want to see a substantial paper, the best that can be produced, and a reasonable price paid for it, instead of a flimsy sheet on crutches that manages to limp from one issue to another, almost a walking epitaph." Debs demands that "The Socialist must be put upon its feet, and at once. Dr. Titus and his colleagues have done their whole duty and gone far beyond it, and now we have got to show some inclination to do ours."

 

"The Fight For Free Streets: Record of Fight. Reports of State Organizer and Secretary of the Free Speech Committee Alfred Wagenknecht and Secretary of Local Seattle Elmer T. Allison." [events of Oct. 21 to Dec. 2, 1907] A reminder that the freedoms of assembly and speech weren't a magical gift from great white fathers in powdered wigs, but rather were rights won through an ongoing process of struggle between a persistent and dedicated (sometimes pesky and annoying) left and various anti-libertarian local regimes. This is the historically valuable diary of the Seattle Free Speech Fight of 1907, a day-by-day account kept primarily by the paid organizer of the action, Alfred Wagenknecht (better known as the Executive Secretary of the Communist Labor and United Communist Parties in the 1919-20 period and a lifelong Communist). At issue was whether the freedom of assembly and speech in public spaces by Socialists could be trumped by the demands against "obstructions" and for order made by Mayor Moore and the Seattle City Council (religiously enforced by the Anti-Socialist Chief of Police). The operation was clearly well coordinated, bringing together activists from Bellingham to Tacoma. Initial arrests in October 1907 took place almost instantly in front of mere handfuls of people, but by November momentum was gained by the Free Speech Movement, with speeches successfully being delivered in front of enthusiastic crowds of up to 500. The campaign was run on a total budget of $385 and generated 42 arrests for speaking without a permit -- only 3 of which were eventually tried in police court and dismissed. "Seems to us as if victory is ours," states Wagenknecht in his final report, noting that the campaign had been taken over by the newly reorganized Local Seattle, headed by Wagenknecht's brother-in-law, Elmer Allison (also later a CLP/UCP/CPA stalwart).

 

"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.

 

"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 Beckeman. 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.

 

"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 Pink Terror, Part 4: Bloody Thursday in the 8th Assembly District Branch," by John Reed [events of May 8, 1919] On May 8, 1919, the Executive Committee of Local New York, Socialist Party, headed by Julius Gerber, set about reorganizing the Manhattan's 8th Assembly District Branch. A letter was transmitted to the branch organizer, Sam Dauber, stating that the 8th AD Branch was suspended from the organization, and a meeting was called for 8:30 pm to reorganize the unit. "Discussion of party matters are always desirable, but there is no room for another organization within the organization, and only such comrades who are not members of the "Left Wing Section" or who have ceased to be affiliated and left the "Left Wing" will be admitted to membership," stated the call for the reorganization meeting. A gauntlet had to be done at the door, party cards shown and queries asked about whether the member was a "member of the Left Wing." About 30 or 40 gained admittance, according to Reed. Once inside, the meeting was run without the election of a chairman (a violation of SPA practice), and a protest of this transgression was ruled out of order and unappealable (a flagrant violation of parliamentary procedure). "It was then decided by the Executive Committee's mercenaries that only questions were in order," says Reed. After a few perfunctory queries from the floor, the meeting was adjourned and names and addresses of individuals loyal to the Regular faction taken down. "It is authoritatively stated that the net results of the meeting were about 12 names and addresses. Waldman claims 71, but his knowledge of the facts doubtless equals his knowledge of socialism," Reed asserts. At the same time, a meeting of the Left Wing supporters of the 8th AD Branch was being held elsewhere. A motion was passed to disregard the action of the Executive Committee of Local New York, a guard formed for the protection of furniture and other assets of a branch, and an appeal made to the State Committee. "The plot for the political butchery of the 8th AD fizzled out," in Reed's estimation.

 

"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.

 

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