"Socialist Unity in the United States," by Charles H. Kerr [Dec. 1907] Eminent Socialist publisher Charles H. Kerr presents the recent referendum put forward by Local Redlands, California calling for the amalgamation of the Socialist Party of America with the Socialist Labor Party on the basis of industrial unionism and a party-owned press. Kerr -- himself a Marxist and a partisan of industrial unionism -- argues assertively against both of these preconditions for merger. With regards to industrial unionism, Kerr states that while California Socialists may consider it a facile matter, on the actual battlefront in the industrial east, things were not so simple. Most Socialists in industrial Chicago were members of the unions of their craft, affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, Kerr states. These individuals "joined these trade unions long ago, and for the very good and very prosaic reason that they wanted better wages and depended on the unions to help get them, or perhaps found that they could not get jobs without carrying union cards. They remain inside these unions today for the most part because there are no industrial unions here in the trades in which they work. If they were to withdraw from the existing unions to join the budding organization of the Industrial Workers of the World, they would stand a very good chance of losing their jobs" and additionally be treated by their shopmates as scabs. It would be best not to mix the political and industrial questions, Kerr opines, instead putting forward the industrial union model as the only one suitable for meeting trustified industry across the bargaining table at anything approaching unity. With regard to party ownership of the press, Kerr is more negative still, noting that such a structure was traditional within the SLP and had led to a practical result which placed "the editor of The People [Daniel DeLeon], wielding the power of the National Executive Committee, in full control of the sources of information of the party membership, so that he has dominated and still dominates the opinions of the rank and file... I am decidedly opposed to a system placing such absolute power in the hands of any one man or small group of men." While unification of the American socialist movement would be a positive thing, in Kerr's view, the position of Local Redlands would have it "that the larger party should discard its successful methods and adopt the disastrous methods of the smaller party. I am for consolidation, but not on these terms."

 

"The Failure to Attain Socialist Unity," by Frank Bohn [June 1908] This article by former SLP member and current IWW activist Frank Bohn states that "unity of the Socialist movement should undoubtedly have been attained in 1901. Failure to secure the desired end by all of the then existing factions was due to a wrong position taken by some comrades, who will now pretty generally admit their error." Despite its "correct" tactical position since the convention of 1900, the Socialist Labor Party had failed to grow organizationally due to the attempt to separate its veteran revolutionary socialist membership from the rest of the movement, which was evolving towards its orientation, as well as an attempt to "draw about itself the veil of absolute sanctity," Bohn states, adding "The scientific truths at the bottom of the revolutionary upsweep were made over into the mumbled litany of a sectarian clique." Bohn states that in addition, the SLP used "wrong methods" of propaganda and organization: "Men and women who will develop into revolutionists worthwhile to the movement are sure to demand respect and decent treatment from their teachers while they are learning. This consideration the honest utopians and reformers in the movement (and all of us were such) have never received from The People, by which the work of the SLP is ever judged." In a second section of the article, Bohn relates the parable of the field, in which a "quack doctor" [DeLeon] and his servants, together with a number of energetic young men, fence themselves off from the rest of the community and stunt their own crops in the process -- the useful members of the community ultimately leaving through a hole in the fence to join the others while the "quack doctor" hides himself away in a patch of poison ivy with his retainers. "In the IWW we who uphold political action find no difficulty in working with those who do not. On the political field we industrialists can surely labor with equal success beside those who do not realize the efficiency and the ultimate revolutionary purpose of industrial unionism. For these reasons members of the IWW who favor political action should support the Socialist Party," Bohn concludes.

 

"'No War!' is Socialist Party Demand: Declaration of the National Executive Committee of the Socialist Party of America" [Feb. 17, 1917] This resolution of the Socialist Party's governing National Executive Committee blasts Woodrow Wilson for his unilateral executive decree breaking off diplomatic relations with the German empire and placing "the people of the United States in imminent danger of being actively drawn into the mad war of Europe." Instead of posturing for the rights of profiteers to make obscene profits by providing armaments and foodstuffs to combatants, Wilson should have banned Americans from the war zone, except those going at their own risk, the NEC statement indicates. "The policy of unrestricted and indiscriminate submarine warfare recently announced by the German government is most ruthless and inhuman, but so is war as a whole and so are all methods applied by both sides. War is murder! War is the climax of utter lawlessness, and it is idle to prate about lawful or lawless methods of warfare. The German submarine warfare does not threaten our national integrity or independence, not even our national dignity and honor. It was not aimed primarily at the United States and would not affect the American people. It would strike only those parasitic classes that have been making huge profits by manufacturing instruments of death or taking away our food and selling it at exorbitant prices to the fighting armies of Europe." Letters and telegrams to Wilson and to Congress are called for by the Socialist NEC: "Insist that the nation shall not be plunged into war for the benefit of plundering capitalists."

 

"President Wilson Has Heard the 'Voices of Humanity That Are in the Air' and Declares in Favor of Democratic Settlement of War," by Louis Kopelin [Dec. 15, 1917] While attempting to characterize the action as a continuation of previous editorial policy, this lead editorial by Appeal to Reason editor Louis Kopelin marks a major shift in that publication's editorial line toward American militarism in Europe. The earlier editorial policy of discrete silence was effectively ended for a new policy of outspoken cheerleading for Woodrow Wilson and his war. Kopelin intimates that Wilson had fundamentally altered the political situation the previous week in a speech making a "wholehearted avowal of a democratic peace" and swearing off "conquest and indemnity." In marked contrast "the Kaiser, autocrat of Germany," had "not yet specifically renounced conquest and indemnity,"Kopelin declares. Kopelin rationalizes continued intervention, stating: "Today we find that the Prussian military machine still is menacing the world. ...Teutonic troops have invaded Russia and Italy. No soil belonging to Germany and Austria-Hungary is today occupied by Allied soldiers. To make peace with the Teutonic powers while they are victorious and while they are silent on the terms of ending the war is to surrender almost unconditionally. The Allies have put their cards on the table. The Teutonic powers have not. Not until this impossible situation changes can any lover of liberty and democracy do else than vigorously support the position President Wilson has taken." Kopelin further asserts: "The thing to do is to hasten the end of the war through united effort since the menace of imperialism has been removed by the public espousal of a democratic peace on the part of our President." Kopelin sees the wartime situation as greatly improving the market for socialist ideas in America: "The world war has done more to stimulate the socialization of industry than a century of propaganda. A new era is dawning. The exigencies of war are dethroning all the sacred gods of capitalism. Government ownership and operation of the principle industries is now in sight. What we have been fighting for a score of years is now coming to pass. We can greatly accelerate these tremendous changes and have them permanently benefit the masses if we adjust ourselves to new conditions and take advantage of our opportunities." A "constructive, positive, educational" New Appeal is promised -- and the publication's name was so changed in the very next issue.

 

"St. Louis Resolution Must Be Repudiated is Decision of Loyal American Socialists," by Emanuel Haldeman-Julius [May 25, 1918] In the spring of 1918, sentiment among the social patriotic minority still inside the Socialist Party (and their apostate co-thinkers now outside of the party) began to build for the formation of a new political organization. This article by Managing Editor of The New Appeal Emanuel Haldeman-Julius reprints the text of a letter "To the Socialists of America" from Carl D. Thompson, William E. Rodriguez, and 33 rank-and-filers from the Chicago Socialist organization, endorsing the program of the Inter-Allied Socialist and Labor Conference as well as the stated war aims of Woodrow Wilson. The Thompson-Rodriguez letter states their logic as follows: "Collectivism alone is not Socialism, as we conceive it. To be true Socialism, collectivism must be under democratic control. Therefore, before we can hope for the realization of the Socialist ideal, we must achieve greater democracy. Militarism threatens to deprive the people of even that measure of democracy which has been achieved in all the struggles of the people of past generations. It is our duty not only to maintain what has been achieved by our forefathers, but to extend the rule of the people. To make that possible, militarism must be crushed. In that fight, the Socialists can well afford to combine their forces with all elements that are now engaged in the struggle against militarism." To advance this pious end, the Chicago Socialist signatories eagerly jumped aboard the bandwagon of Wilsonian militarism and the regime's denial of democratic rights in America, uncritically accepting Wilson's democratic-internationalist bluster at face value.

 

"South Slavic Federations Withdraw From Socialist Party; May Combine with Social Democratic League," by Emanuel Haldeman-Julius [event of Sept. 20, 1918] The war in Europe was a divisive issue within the South Slavic Federation of the Socialist Party of America, with the radical Croatian component staunchly supporting the party's unbending anti-militarist position, while the large Slovenian and small Serbian component bitterly disagreeing. The federation effectively split over this issue, with the Slovenian and Serbian Federationists voting to separate from the SPA at a conference held in Springfield, Ill. on Sept. 20, 1918. The main resolution of the Slovenian-dominated South Slavic conference states that the tactics of the Socialist Party had "estranged the American toiling masses, thus making itself impossible of representing them politically or otherwise" and effectively excluded socialists "from all actual participation in the peace conference, and also from cooperation in reconstruction after the war." In effect, the Socialist Party had rendered itself "merely a pacifistic sect," in the judgment of the Slovenian socialists, who withdrew. This event was gleefully reported by Managing Editor Emanuel Haldeman-Julius of The New Appeal, the social-patriotic incarnation of The Appeal to Reason, who breathlessly speculates that the Slovenian socialists might well soon join the upstart Social Democratic League which Haldeman-Julius "provisionally" headed. Pouring on the invective, Haldeman-Julius calls the action of the Slovenian socialists "additional proof that The New Appeal was entirely justified in its policy against the party's treasonable stand against the government and against the democratic ideals of the Entente." About 6 weeks later, the war would end, effectively terminating Haldeman-Julius' delusions of grandeur as a party leader. A few months after that Haldeman-Julius again altered his personal business plan, turning to the mass marketing of "Little Blue Books" -- a rather more effective means to the fame and fortune he so anxiously desired.

 

"Circular Letter to Comintern-Affiliated Parties on Parliamentarism and the Soviets from Grigorii Zinoviev, President of ECCI, September 1, 1919." This communique from the President of the Executive Committee of the Communist International to affiliated Communist organizations around the world (received and published in the United States in February 1920) deals with the hot-button topic of parliamentarism. Communist elements were uniting across Europe and in America around the slogan of Soviet Power and "at all costs" needed to implement "uniform tactics," Zinoviev states in the September 1 letter. Zinoviev indicates that the "universal unifying program" of the revolutionary socialist Communists and those whom they left behind in the "official Social Democratic parties" was "at the present moment the recognition of the struggle for the dictatorship of the proletariat in the form of the Soviet power." Citing precedent in Russia, Sweden, Bulgaria, and Germany, Zinoviev forcefully argues for the "complete admissibility and usefulness" of parliamentary campaigns and use of the parliamentary tribune by socialist revolutionaries. He continues: "Such 'parliamentary work' demands peculiar daring and a special revolutionary spirit; the men there are occupying especially dangerous positions; they are laying mines under the enemy while in the enemy's camp; the enter parliament for the purpose of getting this machine in their hands in order to assist the masses behind the walls of the parliament in the work of blowing it up." Zinoviev emphasizes his position by asking and answering a rhetorical question: "Are we for the maintenance of the bourgeois 'democratic' parliaments as the form of the administration of the state? No, not in any case. We are for the Soviets." Noting that the Russian Bolsheviks variously boycotted and participated in Duma campaigns depending upon the situation which they faced, Zinoviev allows that concrete national conditions must be considered in the matter of electoral participation: "The matter of taking part in the election at a given time during a given electorial campaign, depends upon a whole string of concrete circumstances which, in each country, must be particularly considered at each given time."

 

"Socialist Party Going Strong!" by Jack Carney [Jan. 23, 1920] Sarcastically titled commentary on the state of the rival Socialist Party of America from Communist Labor Party NEC member and newspaper editor Jack Carney of Duluth, Minnesota. Carney argues that the SPA's actions in the matter of the 5 expelled New York Socialist assemblymen validates the Communist analysis of the SPA. The expulsion "was a deathblow to the Socialist Party until -- prominent capitalist politicians, lawyers, and masters of industry sensed that this action on the part of the New York Assembly proved the contention of the communists that simple political action would never emancipate the working class and that the capitalist class dictatorship would never permit a working class majority in any legislative assembly to function, even in a pseudo-revolutionary manner." The bourgeoisie thus came to the aid of the Socialist Party in its own class defense with legal defense fundraising and contributions of personal service, Carney indicates.

 

"The Socialist Party Convention," by Jack Carney [May 21, 1920] Communist Labor Party NEC member and editor of Duluth Truth Jack Carney grudgingly provides a brief commentary to the paper's readers on the May 8-14, 1920 Convention of the Socialist Party of America. The convention had cynically and opportunistically nominated Debs as its Presidential nominee in 1920, Carney notes. "They named Debs because they realized that the wonderful personality and sterling integrity of Debs would be the means of giving them a new lease of life. They lied to and betrayed Debs. They lied about the Third International, when they told Debs it was an organization confined solely to Russia. They betrayed him when they adopted a program that they knew Debs would repudiate. Only those workers who have no backbone or brains will join the Socialist Party or maintain their allegiance to it. The worker who has a serious purpose in life will shun the Socialist Party like he would the little animal whose name has become synonymous with odoriferous infamy." The decision of the convention to continue to attempt to affiliate with the Comintern with conditions was nothing more than a hypocritical ploy, Carney states. "Let us not waste any more time over the Socialist Party convention, but get down to business. We need to hear the sound of marching men, marching along the road to industrial freedom, rather than the marching of politicians to the political pie-counter," Carney declares.

 

"Correspondence Relating to the Application of the South Slavic Federation for Readmission to the Socialist Party of America from Frank Petrich, Secretary.' [July 1, 1920] The Slovenian-dominated South Slavic Federation withdrew from the Socialist Party on Sept. 20, 1918, over the issue of the war (the Slovenian and Serbian members of the federation being generally pro-war in orientation, the SPA maintaining a strong anti-militarist line throughout). The anti-war and revolutionary socialist Croatian section stayed within the SPA before leaving for the Communist movement in 1919, but the changed situation after the termination of the war left the Slovenians on the outside looking in. This document collects several pieces of correspondence to and from Frank Petrich, the Slovenian Secretary of the South Slavic Federation, dealing with the federation's ongoing effort to gain readmission to the Socialist Party. The NEC of the Socialist Party was in no forgiving mood, it seems, as the first formal proposal for readmission was defeated on June 1, 1920 by a vote of 6-1. Petrich continued his campaign for readmission, however, writing an extensive letter to NEC member William Henry of Indiana on June 26 attempting to explain the situation within the South Slavic Federation. Petrich unapologetically skirts the issue of the federation's pro-war stance. "We were against the war then, as we are against it today. But the war came in spite of our opposition. ...We could not believe that passivity in such a crisis is a virtue of Socialism; we thought such tactics erroneous because it does not allow to exploit the situation in the best interests of international Socialism. There were many problems the war had to settle -- problems in which the working class had interests. Of course, our thought was wrong because we were in minority -- and as a rule the minorities are always 'wrong," Petrich coyly asserts. Petrich indicates that a section of the Slovenian and Serbian socialists were coquetting with "Laborism" [the Farmer-Labor Party], a trend which would "become impossible" if the South Slavic Federation were readmitted. Petrich states he would be in attendance at the forthcoming July 10, 1920, physical meeting of the NEC, at which the matter of the South Slavic Federation's readmission would be reconsidered.

 

"The Farmer-Labor Party Convention: Chicago -- July 11-14, 1920," by Robert M. Buck The second convention of the Labor Party of the United States, held in Chicago July 11-14, 1920, accomplished three major things: the change of the organizational name to Farmer-Labor Party of the United States, the nomination of the group's first Presidential campaign ticket (Parley Parker Christensen for President and Max S. Hayes for Vice President), and the amalgamation with a major part of the Committee of Forty-Eight, a national liberal organization whose political line was exemplified by the magazines The New Republic and The Nation. This day-to-day account of the convention from the pages of the official organ of the FLP, The New Majority, recounts the ebb and flow of the convention and ongoing efforts within it to unite the organization around a progressive Presidential candidacy of Wisconsin Senator Robert LaFollette.

 

"'May It Please the Court': Trial of Communist Labor Party Commences. State Opens Its Side. Trial Expected to Last 6 Weeks," by Jack Carney [July 12, 1920] On July 12, 1920, a mass trial of 20 members of the Communist Labor Party was begun in Chicago, charged with violation of the Illinois "Overthrow Statute," which "makes it unlawful for any person openly to advocate, by word of mouth, or by writing, the reformation or overthrow of the government by violence or any other unlawful means." This initial news report by defendant Jack Carney includes an extensive excerpt of the opening statement of the prosecution, delivered by Assistant State Attorney Lloyd D. Heth. Heth asserted: "We are going to show that these defendants, besides stating that they stand by the Moscow manifesto [of the Comintern], also expressly state in their platform and program that they stand for the overthrow of the government of the United States and all states, the capture of the power of the state, and vesting it in the dictatorship of the proletariat. They state that in accomplishing this end, the use of the political machinery is only of secondary importance; that not one of the great teachers of socialism has ever said it is possible to achieve the socialist revolution by the ballot. They advocate mass action -- in other words, proceeding from the shops and factories to capture and annihilate the apparatus of government. They tell the workers the constitution of the United States can not be amended in their behalf, and therefore it must be destroyed."

 

"The Farmer-Labor Party," by Upton Sinclair [July 25, 1920] Brief summary of the 2nd Convention of the Labor Party of the United States (which changed its name to the Farmer-Labor Party of the United States) by California Socialist author Upton Sinclair. Sinclair writes that "Three or four days ago it looked as if there were going to be a combination of all the various liberal and labor parties, with Senator LaFollette as candidate, and so I prepared a brief article, setting forth the high opinion I had of Senator LaFollette, and how sorry I was not to be able to support him for President. The next morning I opened my paper and read that the various parties had swallowed 5/6ths of the Committee of Forty-Eight and the remaining 1/6th of the committee had held a "rump" convention and had adopted resolutions setting forth how disappointed it was. The Farmer-Labor Party has nominated a man of whom I have never heard before [Parley Parker Christensen], but he comes from the West and is 6'4" high and weighs 287 pounds, and every pound was found useful in handling a stormy convention." Sinclair characterizes the Committee of Forty-Eight as having originated with a "group of liberals who are tinged with Single Tax thought," an ideology which Sinclair states was impractical in the era of trustified industry. Sinclair characterizes such parts of the Farmer-Labor platform as he has seen as "quite wonderful reading" and indicates an ideological proximity between the Farmer-Labor and Socialist Parties. "Apparently it is too late to get the two groups together for this election, so we who are going to support Debs can do no more than resolve to do it as tactfully and persuasively as we can. If we must oppose the candidate of the Farmer-Labor Party, let us at least do it without bitterness and narrowness, without suspecting the motives of those who have not traveled quite so far along the path as we have," Sinclair volunteers.

 

"Eugene V. Debs, Prisoner No. 9653, Interviewed in Prison," by Norman Hapgood [Oct. 23, 1920] Prison interview by conservative editor Norman Hapgood with Socialist Presidential candidate Eugene Debs, conducted in the visiting room of Atlanta Federal Penitentiary, where Debs was housed. Hapgood attempts to provoke Debs by quoting Lenin's epithet against the British Labour Party as being "a pack of traitors" to the cause of the working class. Debs' reply is interesting: "'I don't like the glib use of a word like "traitors," he said, a little lower than his usual tone, with his eyes for a moment looking away. 'I realize what Lenin has done. To me he and Trotsky are monumental figures. But I have been puzzled by what he has said recently about other Socialist parties, if he is authentically reported. The British Labour Party saved him. Without that party England would have been fully in the war against him... The British Labour Party did a great thing. It did all that in the circumstances it could do... If for me to say that is to become a traitor, then a traitor I am willing to be." Debs attributes this attitude of Lenin to "ignorance": "I don't believe Lenin and his men around him understand anything about some other countries. They seem actually to believe that England is ready for a revolution like the one in Russia." Hapgood is won over by the magnetic personality and earnestly held beliefs of Debs. "Nothing embitters him. Injustice, oppression, persecution, savagery doe not embitter him. It is a stirring, an uplifting thing to find a man who has suffered so much and remains so ardent and so pure. I wish we had a Zola to do him justice; to awaken the country until it cared to insist that the persecution of him end," Hapgood declares.

 

"Statement to the Central Executive Committee of the Communist Party of America from the Lithuanian Bureau on the Proposed Reorganization of the Party," by K. Povas [circa March 1923] Communique of the Secretary of the Lithuanian Bureau of the unified CPA to the governing Central Executive Committee taking issue with the decision to amalgamate the underground and legal wings of the organization. "The latest reorganization of the proposed CEC is contrary to the decisions and spirit of the 2nd Convention [Bridgman, MI: Aug. 17-22, 1922]; it actually forces upon the Party such a basic reform for which the CEC has no mandate," Povas notes. Povas adds: "The attempt to force the Party into open existence is in full swing at a time when the CEC itself admits that the underground organization is still very weak. Such an experiment may result in a great chaos among the membership and may entirely cast aside the most important task of the hour -- the reorganization of the underground Party and the strengthening of its forces... If in view of the proposed reorganization we will start a discussion on the advisability of coming into the open, then the most important campaign, the slogan to build up the Party will be in vain; it will disappear in the midst of a pro and con talk about liquidation." Povas declares that "in its attempt to artificially raise the Party to open existence, the CEC should have had at least the majority of the Party membership solidly behind the proposed plan. Is this so? The overwhelming rejection of the CEC's plan by the membership almost everywhere in the presence of the representatives of the CEC does not indicate such a condition."

 

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