"Socialists of City Will Fight War Measures." (NY Call) [event of March 4, 1917] With the 1916 election successfully completed, Woodrow Wilson threw his pseudo-pacifistic election year pose into the nearest dumpster like a bankrobber's cheap disguise and began hurriedly pushing America into the European war. During the last days of peace, the Socialist Party attempted to stem the tide by conducting mass meetings as well as conclaves to set policy for the party. On March 4, 1917, a general party meeting was held in New York City at the Lenox Casino, limited to SP members who were residents of Manhattan. This news account indicates that the gathering approved the majority report on the war question over a more radical variant written by Leon Trotsky and Louis Fraina by a vote of 107 to 79. The majority resolution adopted reiterated the Socialist Party's "uncompromising opposition to war and militarism in all forms" and called for local party units to each conduct "anti-war meetings and demonstrations within its territory on as large a scale and at as frequent intervals as possible." The National Executive Committee of the party was urged to begin collecting signatures of protest against any move to conscription or to the adoption of draconian restrictions upon American civil liberties. In the event of war, the New York organization pledged to "support the workers in every concerted mass action against extortionate food prices and other sufferings of war, against any suspension of curtailment of their right to organize or strike, and against the tyranny of conscription and martial law, and take advantage of all such manifestations of revolt for the educations of the workers in the principles of enlightened class consciousness and international working class solidarity."

 

"The Minority Report: Letter to the Editor of the New York Call." by Louis C. Fraina [event of March 4, 1917] Although the Trotsky-Fraina minority resolution was defeated at the March 4, 1917 meeting of Manhattan Socialists by a vote of 107 to 79, the lack of a quorum at the physical meeting meant that the issue would be referred to mail vote of the membership for ratification. Louis Fraina again took up the banner for his radical Zimmerwald Left-style minority proposal, which pledged the party to "resist all efforts at recruiting, by means of mass meetings, street demonstrations, an aggressive educational propaganda, and by any other means in accord with Socialist principles and tactics that may suggest themselves." In the event conscription was initiated, the Trotsky-Fraina resolution declared that the SPA would "resist conscription, and support by all means in our power mass movements of the people organized to refuse compulsory military service." The resolution further insists that the Socialist Party "shall not allow the class struggle to relax; moreover, we affirm that the general revolutionary class struggle shall proceed with new vigor and increased intensity during the period of war. The Socialist Party of Local New York, in short, declares war upon war and the measures adopted by government for purposes of war. No 'civil peace'! No truce with the ruling class! War does not change the issue, but emphasizes it. War against capitalism! On with the class struggle!"

 

"Principles of Socialist Propaganda League: Letter to the Editor of the New York Call," by S.J. Rutgers [March 4, 1917] In this letter to the New York Call, the Dutch engineer Seybold Rutgers (a resident of the United States during the war) steps forward to defend the Left Wing Socialist Propaganda League against its critics, here in the form of New York Call editorial writer James Oneal. Rutgers' turgid prose inadvertently does little to defend against Oneal's main charge that the manifesto of the SPL is a "jargon of obscurantism," and a "mere assembling of words, mingled with revolutionary phrases, some of them obscure, others contradictory." Rutgers fares better attempting to refute Oneal's claim that the SPL program has "nothing new in it" compared to the historical program of the Socialist Party. The primacy of "mass action" is pivotal, Rutgers asserts, since "parliamentary action is powerless, unless the capitalists know or fear that the workers finally will use their mass power and political strikes." He adds that "if this is right, then it is our duty not to become a voting machine, but to strengthen the tendencies toward mass action and political strikers into a system, to consider political action as something more than parliamentary action and office seeking." Divining the 1919 split, Rutgers declares there are organizational imperatives which inevitably flowed from this orientation: "There is a very close relation between our vision of mass action as a means to exercise power against the capitalist class and the form of organization we stand for. But this, of course, does not appeal to bureaucrats, who will continue to be puzzled about the meaning of mass action until they are swept away by the tide."

 

"Socialists Call National Convention: War Crisis to Be Dealt With April 7." [March 12, 1917] With war in the wind and a membership referendum calling for an Emergency National Convention of the Socialist Party on the war question headed toward passage by an overwhelming majority, the National Executive Committee greatly accelerated the pace for the meeting's convocation by passing a similar resolution at its quarterly physical meeting and setting a date. The SP's state representatives, the National Committee, were additionally polled on the issue by telegraph and responded decisively in the positive. April 7, 1917, was the set for the opening of the convention, with the location still undetermined between St. Louis, Chicago, and Cleveland. Representation was to be on the basis of 1 delegate for each 550 members, with the party's Language Federations each allowed one fraternal delegate. A 3 point tentative order of business for the convention was approved, consisting of: (1) Political policies of the party in case of war; (2) Revision of the party program; (3) Revision of the constitution.

 

"Rose Pastor Stokes Leaves the Pacifists: Believes in Peace, She Says, and Is 'Not a Patriot,' but Would Serve County." [March 19, 1917] With America's entry into the European war clearly in the offing and the Socialist Party showing no signs of vacating its time-honored position of anti-militarism, social-patriots began leaping from the train. One of the most surprising Right Wing Socialist defectors (given her later chameleon-like emergence on the Central Executive Committee of the Communist Party of America) was Rose Pastor Stokes. Stokes announced her departure from pacifist ranks with this open letter to the Woman's Peace Party. "I love peace, but I am not a pacifist. I would serve my country, but I am not a patriot. My love of peace does not blind me to the lessons of history," Stokes declares. In her vaguely Fabian worldview, Stokes expresses a belief both in "the long, slow rise of human society" in which civilization has "moved from less to more desirable systems" as well as a duty to assist her country in the coming crisis. "I would fight or serve if called upon, and I would recognize myself to be fighting and serving, not for national glory or for those petty "spheres of influence" which our loudest voiced patriots would, perhaps, be definitely seeking through the war, but as an infinitesimal part of a great instrument, in use since the beginning of history, for the perfecting of human unity and human freedom," Stokes proclaims.

 

"The Question of War: Letter to the Editor of the New York Call," by J.G. Phelps Stokes, Charles Edward Russell, William English Walling, W.J. Ghent, Upton Sinclair, et al. [March 25, 1917] The parade of defections on the Socialist Party's Right Wing began in earnest in March 1917 as irresistible force of Woodrow Wilson's policy and Congressional opinion moved towards war and while the immovable object of the Socialist Party reaffirmed its unshakable commitment to anti-militarism and its opposition to the USA's intervention in the European Imperialist bloodbath. This open letter to the New York Call was signed by a number of the SPA's best-known public figures, including the muckraking writer Charles Edward Russell, author and formerly esteemed Left Wing analyst W.J. Ghent, millionaire leading light of the Intercollegiate Socialist Society Graham Phelps Stokes, popular novelist Upton Sinclair, and others. Wrapping their decision in words of Morris Hillquit pulled from a Jan. 1915 magazine article and a statement by Congressman Meyer London, Stokes and the social-patriotic signatories assert that the Socialist Party's refusal to recognize the right of national self-defense to be "unsound from the standpoint of Socialist theory and a betrayal of democracy." While still paying lip-service to anti-militarism, Stokes and the signatories declare: "A nation should neither sidestep its responsibilities to save itself some present suffering, nor bask behind bulwarks raised and defended by others. To refuse to resist international crime is to be unworthy of the name of Socialist. It is our present duty to the cause of Internationalism to support our government in any sacrifice it requires in defense of those principles of international law and order which are essential alike to Socialism and to civilization."

 

"'Russia is Free!'"by Morris Hillquit [March 25, 1917] The February Revolution which overthrew the brutal dynasty of Nikolai Romanov and established for the first time the makings of a constitutional republic in Russia was greeted with joyous exaltation by tens of millions of Americans, including no small few who were born within the borders of the tsarist "prison house of nationalities." One of these was leading Socialist Party theoretical Morris Hillquit, an ethnic Jew born in Riga, Latvia. Hillquit hails the great change in Russia: "The government of the country is to be constituted by the free choice of the people. Russia, dark and dumb and joyless Russia, will henceforth be a free, democratic, and happy republic. The 200 million Russian subjects, enslaved and oppressed and persecuted and tortured for ages, have risen in their might and broken their chains. They are free, and no occult power on earth can enslave them again." Interestingly, Hillquit makes use of a non-class construct which came into vogue only in the last quarter of the 20th Century when he asserts that "the millions of Jews, Poles, Finns, and other oppressed races within the domain of the great Russian empire are at last to be accorded human rights." Hillquit calls for his readers to honor the memory of the revolutionary martyrs who died at the hands of the Romanov regime. "Let us remember that, if the harvest of popular freedom in Russia is abundant and resplendent, it was their blood that made its soil fertile," he writes. Hillquit reminds that the Russian revolution, the "first bright ray of light" to emerge from blood-drenched Europe, "was not accomplished by the liberal middle classes in the Duma," but was rather "born on the streets of Petrograd and forced by the workers in revolt against the war, its savagery, its sufferings, and its privation." "The spontaneous and victorious revolution in Russia, coming at this time and in this manner, means the beginning of the end of this war, and the end of all wars," Hillquit optimistically proclaims.

 

"As to Disrupters: Letter to the Editor of the New York Call," by William M. Feigenbaum [March 25, 1917] Prominent Socialist Party journalist cracks back at the criticism of Left Winger (and future Communist Labor Party founder) Jack Carney, who took exception to Feigenbaum's claim that virtually all the critics of official Socialist Party policy during the two periods of party controversy -- 1912-13 (syndicalist) and 1916-17 (Left Wing) -- "have been disrupters, consciously or unconsciously." "I held and I hold that there was a well-defined attempt to sabotage the party, and every old-timer -- not recent arrivals [like Carney] -- knows it. But the time was ripe for our work, and we prospered in spite of disrupters. The successes we won in 1912 and 1913 were in spite of their disruptive work." Feigenbaum answers Carney's challenge to "reveal" his stand with the following: "I stand for a 100%, undiluted, unhyphenated, undivided, unswerving devotion to the Socialist movement. I stand for it, and have stood for it for 15 years, and I have lived it every moment of those years. I am read to criticize and to suggest changes. I am ready to take any step that is needed to advance our cause. I am ready to fight for Socialism. Can it be said that those who strove with might and main in 1912 and 1913, and again in 1916, to scatter the strength of our movement are as loyal?" This document provided evidence that the true periodization of the famous 1919 party split was 1916-1919, albeit interrupted by the war.

 

"National Defense vs. Socialist Principle: Letter to the Editor of the New York Call," by Edward Lindgren [March 26, 1917] In this letter to the editor of the New York Call, future CLP founder Edward Lindgren aims coiled leather at the posterior of favored whipping boy of the Left Wing, the Kautskian Marxist Morris Hillquit. Influenced by the use of Hillquit's words by Stokes, Russell, and the social-patriotic leaders for ideological cover Lindgren charges that it is the position of Hillquit on the question of militarism and national defense which is most deserving of condemnation. The Call editorialist (James Oneal) endorsed the purported position of Hillquit and London and declared it to be the Socialist position. Lindgren asks: "If this is true, why shout against militarism in any form or degree? Why split hairs about the action" of the Stokes & Co. vs. Hillquit and London? "If we agree that national defense is a Socialist principle, there can be no condemnation for those who advocate militarism, whether it is on a large or small scale," Lindgren insists. Lindgren remarks further that "this viewpoint may be accepted as a Socialist principle by parlor Socialists, lawyers, other professional people, and property-owning members of the Socialist Party, but not so by the enlightened working class members, who understand that the fundamental principle of Socialist agitation is the class struggle; that Socialists when they line up for the defense of any nation with a capitalist government must necessarily suspend this class struggle in order to join hands with their exploiters, to defend their (the exploiters') territory." Lindgren's vitriol flows in his conclusion: "It is high time that you, and others like you, be removed from positions in the party and editors of party papers where you have opportunities to destroy instead of building up a working class movement."

 

"On Stokes, Russell & Co.: Letter to the Editor of the New York Call," by Morris Hillquit [March 27, 1917] His words used as a protective blanket by the social-patriots, for which he was skewered by Edward Lindgren and the Socialist Party Left Wing, Morris Hillquit eloquently sets the record straight. Stokes, Russell & Co. "have done me the unexpected honor of quoting me in support of their position," Hillquit declares, gracefully thrusting home the foil: "In declining the unmerited honor, I wish to remind our good friends, most of whom are professional writers, that the practice of fragmentary quotations, of 'tearing the text from the context,' is a measure of ruthless warfare which cannot be justified, even by excess of patriotic zeal." Hillquit points out the original context of the material quoted, appearing in a popular magazine article to explain the situation facing European governments. America's situation was completely different, Hillquit notes: "The United States is not surrounded by 'armed neighbors and rivals,' but by two immense and perfectly well-meaning oceans, a peaceful English colony, and a weak republic. The question before the American people today is not one of progressive as against complete disarmament, but, one of increase of armament; not one of changing an existing large army based on compulsory service into an army of the people organized on democratic principles, but one of creating a new and large standing army recruited by compulsory enlistment. The purpose of the Socialists of Europe before the war was to gradually diminish and ultimately abolish an established and deep-rooted system of militarism. The task to which our pro-war American Socialists are volunteering their support is one of building up a new system of militarism, where practically none has heretofore existed." Hillquit asks: "Can our American 'internationalists' of the new brand learn nothing from the lessons of history?"

 

"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.

 

"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 Conference of Russian Branches of the American Socialist Party in Chicago: Organization, Representation, and Activities," by Jacob Spolansky [events of March 24 to Aug. 9, 1919] This Bureau of Investigation intelligence report by Special Agent Jacob Spolansky reviews the history of the awkwardly named creation of Alexander Stoklitsky, the "Conference of the Russian Branches of the American Socialist Party in Chicago who share the Program of the Communist Party" The Chicago Conference of Russian Branches was dominated by the Russian language branches, which contributed 36 of the 49 delegates, joined by 9 Latvian, 3 Ukrainian, and 1 Lithuanian delegate. The Chicago Conference of Russian Branches elected delegates to the Chicago Communist Propaganda League, which Spolansky states will join with various English comrades and "pave their way for a Communist Party of America." A constitution for the Chicago Conference of Russian Branches was adopted at a meeting held April 16, 1919. Elected Secretary of the organization was the Russian Federationist Berezhovsky. The meeting of May 21 elected 4 delegates to the June National Conference of the Left Wing (Alexander Stoklitsky, Joseph Stilson, Dr. Kopnagel, and William Bross Lloyd). Spolansky states that at the June 5 meeting "various committees to cover various propaganda lines were elected and instructions were given to those committees to pave the way for a Communist Party in America." "The following several meetings were organization meetings of the now existing Communist Party of America," writes Spolansky in this report, several weeks before the "founding convention" of the CPA on September 1 [emphasis mine, --T.D.]. Spolansky provides a list of 24 Russian branches from around the country "who have adopted the program of the Communist Party."

 

"The Martens Affair: Report of CEC Representative Gurin to the 5th Regular Convention of the Federation of Russian Branches, Communist Party of America: Detroit, MI -- Aug. 22, 1919." The published historiographical literature indicates there was bad blood between the Russian Socialist Federation headed by Translator-Secretary Alexander Stoklitsky and Secretary Oscar Tyverovsky and the Soviet Russian Government Bureau in New York headed by Ludwig Martens. Little background has been provided, a crude grasp to expropriate Soviet funds has been intimated. This report by Russian Federation CEC member Gurin to the 5th Convention of the RF presents the full tale of the battle between the Russian Federation and the Martens Bureau for the first time. Rather than a grab for cash, the antagonism between Martens and the RF is depicted as the by-product of a struggle to submit the one-man managed RSGB to workers' control, the members of the RF seen as expatriate but fully vested members of the Russian working class abroad. Free of any external supervision and inspection, Martens had made a series of "errors," Gurin states. Particularly galling was the fact that for every staff position at the RSGB, "Martens has appointed either a Right Wing Socialist or an impartial person. You will find there an anti-Bolshevist Nuorteva, Lomonosov, and Mensheviki -- old man [Isaac] Hourwich [father of Novyi Mir editor Nicholas, incidentally], who sheds tears at the thought of the dispersal of the Constituent Assembly, and the well known [Morris] Hillquit." Gurin continues by noting "We are not against the inviting of bourgeois experts to these jobs. But at the very moment when any blind man could see that any day there might be a break in the Socialist Party, filling vacancies in the local Soviet mission by Right Wing Socialists would mean that the sympathy of the Soviet Bureau was with the Right Wing Socialists in their struggle with the Left. Just think! The representatives of Revolutionary Socialism in the US supports the Right Socialists in their struggle with the Revolutionary Socialists!" After a stream of orators spoke on the question, almost universally expressing condemnation of Martens for failing to submit to workers' control of the activities of his bureau, Martens had been given the last word in the debate, not subject to ordinary time limit. "Comrade Martens in his reply continued to state that he could not fulfill the demands of control over his activity... His opinion was that he as a representative of Soviet Russia had a right to present any demands to the Federation and the Federation must execute them." Martens asked the RF to renounce its demands for supervisory control over the activities of the RSGB. In the reply to debate, reporting CEC member Gurin unleashed a withering barrage at Martens: Martens had thrown representatives of the RF out of his office, had threatened to have his opponents blacklisted in Soviet Russia, had broken his promises, and had refused to submit to the reasonable authority of the Russian revolutionary socialist movement in America. A resolution was moved declaring that "all the activities of Comrade Martens as a local representative of the Russian worker-peasant government, as well as the activity of the Bureau and its clerks, must be under the complete control of the local Bolshevik (Communist) organizations." This resolution was approved in a massive landslide by the RF, 127 in favor, 8 opposed, and 15 abstaining.

 

"Preparations for the National Convention to Organize the Communist Party of America," by Louis Loebl [events of Aug. 27, 1919] This Bureau of Investigation report was written by Louis Loebl, a Special Agent who worked undercover in St. Louis, attending various meetings under the guise of a radical. Loebl went to Communist Party headquarters on Blue Island Avenue in Chicago with a view to meeting I.E. Ferguson, who he had heard speak in St. Louis the week previous. Ferguson was not there at CPA headquarters, but Loebl was able to talk at length with Michiganders Dennis Batt and Oakley Johnson, learning that they expected between 280 and 300 delegates to be in attendance at the founding convention, scheduled to open on Sept. 1. Loebl spotted Hungarian communist J. Frankel in another room at headquarters, whom he had played a part in arresting in 1914, and had felt himself compelled to leave the premises rather than risk having his cover blown.

 

"Communist Labor Party Convention: Day 2," by L. Loebl [Sept. 1, 1919] This report was written by Louis Loebl, an undercover Bureau of Investigation based in St. Louis who attended the founding convention of the Communist Labor Party as a guest. Loebl passes on to his superiors a complete list of delegates successfully passing muster of the Credentials Committee, including 16 from the state of Ohio (including C.E. Ruthenberg, who departed) and 10 from New York. Loebl notes that the gathering was in limbo awaiting the return of its 5 member unity committee, appointed to seek merger with the Communist Party on the basis of organizational parity. As the committee did not return until after noon, the morning was spent composing a "Bolshevik War Cry," an "Official Convention Yell," and singing various songs. The afternoon was spent hearing the report of the unity committee, delivered by Jasper Bauer of California, as well as the individual reports of committee members. "Every one of them were of the belief that the members of the Communist Party were absolutely hostile to them and that the Russian delegates are controlling the situation, who are against any kind of a unity of those two parties," Loebl reports. Consequently, late in the afternoon "it was finally decided to organize definitely and to go on with the order of business regardless of the Communist Convention." Loebl predicts that no amalgamation of the two parties would be possible so long as the bitterly anti-federationist John Reed and Ben Gitlow remained in the leadership of the CLP.

 

"Communist Party Convention: Day 1," by James O. Peyronnin [Sept. 1, 1919] In addition to having a "confidential informant" as a delegate on the floor of the founding convention of the Communist Party of America (N. Nagorowe, Gary, IN), the Department of Justice's Bureau of Investigation had one of its Special Agents sitting at the press table, taking notes in shorthand, and other agents mingling in the guest area. The BoI's "journalist" was James O. Peyronnin, who contributed daily reports of the activity of the convention to his superiors. This is Peyronnin's account of the opening day of the CPA convention. Peyronnin notes that prior to the opening, officers of the Chicago Police Department removed red decorations from the convention floor, presumably to bring it into compliance with a state or local "red flag law" -- political speech not enjoying any substantive constitutional protection in this period. A local attorney acting on behalf of the CPA was summarily arrested when he remonstrated over the removal of the red signs, streamers, and bunting. The convention was opened by Michigander Dennis Batt, representing the organizing committee. Louis Fraina was elected Temporary Chairman and delivered a keynote address. The all-important Credentials Committee was elected, 7 members from a field of 18. The committee was chaired by Lithuanian Federation leader Joseph Stilson and additionally included Elbaum (Polish Fed.), Olkin (Russian), Kopnagel (Russian), Lunin (Jewish), Forsinger (Latvian), and Baltrusaitis (Lithuanian) -- a clean sweep for the Federationist faction. Peyronnin estimated that 150 delegates and approximately 300 visitors were gathered for the first day's session. The Credentials Committee reported out, a process which took 90 minutes and generated a neat list of convention delegates for Peyronnin and his superiors -- list included here. Following the report of the Credentials Committee, the convention formally opened, with the Michigan faction's Al Renner topping the Left Wing National Caucus faction's I.E. Ferguson in balloting for Chairman of the Day. The Left Wing National Caucus' John Ballam was elected Vice Chairman. Rules and an order of business were passed. A motion by Ferguson to establish and elect a committee of 5 to conduct unity negotiations with the Communist Labor Party group was defeated and initial dissatisfaction with Russian Federation Control began to brew, with Missouri delegate Henry Tichenor bolting for the CLP gathering and challenged Californian Irene Smith gavelled down by Chairman Renner "and interfered with by the delegates at her table."

 

"Communist Party Convention: Day 1," by August H. Loula [Sept. 1, 1919] August Loula was a Special Agent of the Bureau of Investigation who attended the first day of the founding convention of the Communist Party of America as a "visitor," using an IWW card to gain admission. Loula reassures his superiors that "Our Confidential Informant No. 121 [N. Nagorowe], who has been directed by Division Superintendent Edward J. Brennan to attend this convention, has been elected as a delegate and is taking an active part in the proceedings, and any secret sessions of the heads of the Communist movement or any other secret procedure that may be contemplated by the radicals outside of the convention hall are concerned, will be taken care of by him." Loula passes on the exact vote totals of the 7 leading candidates for election to the Credentials Committee, with the Polish Federation's Daniel Elbaum leading the way with 89 votes, followed by Lithuanian Federationist Joseph Stilson with 87. The keynote speech of Louis C. Fraina is quoted at great length. "The beginning of this movement has its roots many years back and has but now reached the stage where it can proceed as the dominant one. Our work here is to formulate the position and structure of an organization that will be the weapon by which the working class will train and organize itself for a conquest of political power. The party is here. The movement is here. It is for you to shape its structure. The Communist Party of America is a fact," Fraina declared. With regard to the Left Wingers who were to emerge as the Communist Labor Party, Fraina stated: "Events of the last few days in this city have amply established the truth of our contention that it was futile to participate in the Socialist Party Convention. The Communists who are still of the opinion that they should participate have since been forced by the contemptible acts of the rules of the Socialist Party to leave that convention. There is no question but what these Communistic elements will eventually be lined up with us. There is also the possibility that a third movement will be organized." Fraina added: "The American proletariat, I am confident, does not lack the intelligence and courage to follow the path lighted by the Moscow International to a conquest of political power."

 

"Communist Party Convention: Day 2," by Jacob Spolansky [Sept. 2, 1919] Report of the proceedings at the the 2nd day of the founding convention of the Communist Party of America by Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Jacob Spolansky. Spolansky sees the convention as being "ruled" by a Russian Federation clique including Alex Stoklitsky, Nick Hourwich, Oscar Tyverovsky, George Ashkenuzi, and Alex Bittelman. Always with a flair for the melodramatic, Spolansky reports that "the convention elected an Emergency Committee of 19. Before the election of this committee took place, Alex Stoklitsky and several other Russian radicals appealed personally to every delegate not to inquire as to the purpose of this committee. Employee ascertained that the real purpose of this committee is the creation of a RED GUARD." While Michigan leader Dennis Batt played a key role in organizing the convention, Spolansky states that he actually "has no influence whatever and the delegates don't pay any attention to his suggestions or motions which he makes." On the other hand, "Stoklitsky is the czar and Stoklitsky is the man who gives instructions to all the delegates how to vote. They all look upon him and as soon as he raises his hand everybody follows him." Spolansky also makes known that the Military Intelligence Division had placed one of its own as a delegate at the rival Communist Labor Party convention: "An undercover representative of the Military Intelligence [who] is attending the Communist Labor Party convention as a delegate informed Employee that Ludwig E. Martens has advanced a considerable sum of money for the organization and propaganda work of the new Communist Labor Party."

 

"'Bulletin No. 1' to Local Units of the SPA and SLP from C.E. Ruthenberg, Exec. Sec. of the CPA in Chicago." [Sept. 18, 1919] Immediately after formally organizing itself at its founding convention, Sept. 1-7, 1919, the Communist Party of America attempted to win adherents en masse to the CPA banner. This typeset flyer was sent to various branches of the Socialist Party of America and Socialist Labor Party, attempting to win the allegiance of entire branches and locals previously affiliated with these organizations. Noting the move for organization of a third party by the bolting delegates from the SPA convention, Executive Secretary Ruthenberg states: "It is still possible to attain unity between all the workers who are ready to support Communist principles. If every branch which stands for those principles endorses and becomes part of the Communist Party, which already has 50,000 members, no second organization can come into existence."

 

"The Martens Controversy in the Russian Federation of the CPA: Undercover Report of a Meeting in Chicago," by Jacob Spolansky [events of Nov. 26-27, 1919] BoI Special Agent Spolansky passes on information generated by "Confidential Informant #3" about a meeting of the Federation of the Russian Branches of the Communist Party of America, called by the Russian Federation's Executive Committee to discuss a resolution asserting that Ludwig C.A.K. Martens' Russian Soviet Government Bureau "should be turned over to the Federation for their control." Alexander Stoklitsky and Dr. Kopnagel spoke in favor of the resolution, while Jake Feldmark of the 1st Russian Branch spoke in opposition. To bolster his position, Feldmark quoted from a letter dispatched by Soviet People's Commissar of Foreign Affairs Georgii Chicherin. Spolansky continues: "Alexander Stoklitsky also introduced a resolution demanding from Feldmark that those documents should be turned over to the Executive Committee of the Federation, which Feldmark refused to do, and upon the refusal of the said Feldmark, this meeting expelled the entire 1st Branch of the Communist Party from the Federation."

 

"Report on the New York City Communist Movement," by M.J. Davis [Dec. 4, 1919] Beginning with an order issued by J. Edgar Hoover on Nov. 18, 1919, and throughout the month of December, the Department of Justice's Bureau of Investigation gathered data on targets for a massive operation against non-citizen members of the Communist Party of America and the Communist Labor Party. This mass dragnet was to be conducted simultaneously through all 33 of the BoI's district offices and was ultimately launched on Jan. 2, 1920. This massive report by Special Agent M.J. Davis on the Communist movement is the epitome of this intelligence gathering operation. Davis lists the physical addresses of 78 branches of the CPA and the CLP (not differentiating between the organizations on the list); the names and physical addresses of a dozen Communist publications in the greater New York area; compiles a list of leaflets issued by the radical organizations of the city; and provides an alphabetical listing of 178 prominent Communist activists in the New York area, placing an emphasis upon members of the Russian and Jewish Communist Federations. The quality of the biographical information is not spectacular, but the job faced by the agent was vast and his performance notable.

 

"Letter to Anthony Caminetti, Commissioner General of Immigration from J. Edgar Hoover, Special Assistant to the Attorney General in Washington." [Dec. 16, 1919] As Special Agents of the Bureau of Investigation gathered information about non-citizen members of the Communist movement in their locales, J. Edgar Hoover set the table for a mass operation to round up and deport the alien members of the organization, with a view to its annihilation in the same way that the anarchist Union of Russian Workers had been effectively liquidated in November and early December 1919. Hoover asks in this letter to Commissioner of Immigration Anthony Caminetti whether membership in the Communist Party will be viewed as a per se violation of the Immigration Act of Oct. 16, 1918, which "permits the deportation of a person who is a member of an organization advocating and teaching the overthrow by force and violence, the government of the United States," Hoover says. "I would appreciate it if you would advise me of your ruling of this matter, as this Department is prepared to submit to you a considerable number of affidavits covering the activities of members of the Communist Party," Hoover writes.

 

"Executive Motions of the Central Executive Committee of the Communist Party of America." [submitted Dec. 17, 1919] During its few short months of legal existence, the early Communist Party of America conducted its executive business in the same manner as its predecessor, the Socialist Party of America -- by mail through use of executive motions. Members of the Central Executive Committee would propose motions to the Executive Secretary, sometimes accompanied by comment; the Executive Secretary would distribute these motions to the members of the CEC, who would vote on the matter at hand by mail or (in rare emergency cases) by telegram. Two motions (#7 & #8) were initiated by Russian Federationist Nick Hourwich, aimed at starting an investigation of his old nemesis at the Russian Soviet Government Bureau, the Social Democrat Santeri Nuorteva, concerning Nuorteva's relationship to "the informer-agent of the Department of Justice" [Ferdinand Peterson], with a view of carrying documents on the matter to Moscow. A substitute motion is offered by Ruthenberg, putting aside the request for another investigation and instead ordering the distribution of the transcript of the Fraina party trial, in which the Nuorteva affair figured large, to Moscow for disposition. A final motion (#10) is put forward by Alex Bittelman, seeking to censure acting editor of The Communist I.E. Ferguson for ideological ad libbing in the pages of the official organ when he appended to an article his commentary, including the words "the members of the Communist Party are among the most ardent supporters of the revolutionary industrial unionism of the IWW character."

 

"Cable to Bliss Morton, BoI Special Agent in Cleveland, from Frank Burke, Assistant Director and Chief of the Bureau of Investigation in Washington, DC." [Dec. 30, 1919] Interesting cable sent to Agent in Charge of the Cleveland office of the Bureau of Investigation, Bliss Morton, answering a query as to whether the Bureau should make use of members of the Loyal American League, an ultra-nationalist vigilante organization, in conjunction with the forthcoming mass operation against the Communist Party of America and Communist Labor Party. The official answer, issued over the name of BoI Chief Frank Burke: "Do not use members of this organization or any gratuitous assistance in making these Communist roundups. Secure cooperation of police on receipt of instructions from me to take these subjects into custody." Anecdotal evidence indicates that Right Wing vigilantes were used in various locales -- this was, however, contrary to official policy, this communication indicates.

 

"First Telegram to Agents in Charge of Offices of the Bureau of Investigation, from J. Edgar Hoover in the name of Frank Burke, Assistant Director and Chief." [Dec. 31, 1919] One of the great misnomers of early 20th Century American history is the designation of the coordinated anti-Communist raids of Jan. 2/3, 1920 as the "Palmer Raids," after Attorney General Mitchell Palmer. In reality, the tactical commander at the head of the operation was Palmer's young special assistant, J. Edgar Hoover. This is the first of two telegrams which Hoover sent on Wednesday, Dec. 31, 1919, to the various Special Agents in Charge of the Bureau of Investigation's 33 offices. Hoover emphasizes the desirability of taking down any aliens who were connected with the editorial boards of Communist papers in each district -- with a clear intent to decapitate the organizations and to render their reorganization difficult or impossible. Agents were also to get in touch with their local Immigration Inspectors on the morning of the mass operation so that they might work hand-in-hand in the roundup of Communist aliens. "Every effort should be made by you to definitely establish fact of subject being an alien and member of Communist Party or of Communist Labor Party before arrests. Policy of bureau is to have perfect cases rather than a large number of arrests," Hoover insists. "No seizure of personal effects or belongings not necessary for evidence should be made by you. Documentary evidence connecting subject with party or documentary evidence on party is the only evidence which should be taken," Hoover further instructs.

 

"Second Telegram to Agents in Charge of Offices of the Bureau of Investigation, from J. Edgar Hoover in the name of Frank Burke, Assistant Director and Chief." [Dec. 31, 1919] This is the text of the second long telegram sent by J. Edgar Hoover to the various Special Agents in Charge of local offices of the Bureau of Investigation, issuing further instructions on the forthcoming January 2, 1920, raids targeting non-citizen members of the Communist Party of America and Communist Labor Party. Citizens were to be exempted from the dragnet, Hoover unmistakably states: "No arrests should be made of persons not aliens and who are not members of or affiliated with Communist Party of America or Communist Labor Party. Under no conditions are American citizens to be apprehended. Where any mistake of this nature is made and a citizen is taken into custody his case is to be immediately referred to state authority for action." The Bureau itself was to provide the bulk of the manpower for the operation: "Effort has been made to supply sufficient agents for the purpose of carrying out arrests in your district. Assistance of local police authorities should only be used where absolutely necessary and should not be requested until a few hours before arrests in order to avoid any leak." It was to be the two Communist Parties which were targeted, not the IWW or various anarchist organizations: "No arrests should be made of any persons connected with other organizations than the Communist Party and the Communist Labor Party." Hoover seems to have had laughably unrealistic expectations for the pace of the operation. "Arrests should all be completed and examinations concluded by Saturday morning January 3rd, 1920," Hoover insists.

 

"Military Intelligence Department Undercover Surveillance Report of the Communist Labor Party." [events of Dec. 30, 1919 to Jan. 3, 1920] Jacob Spolansky's Sept. 2, 1919 report indicated that the US Military Intelligence Department had a mole (employee or informer not specified) on the floor as a delegate to the founding convention of the Communist Labor Party. This report, written by an MID operative and accompanied by a Jan. 12, 1920 cover letter from Gen. M. Churchill, head of Military Intelligence, makes this fact even more interesting -- rather than an obscure figure from the hinterlands, it is clear that MID had its representative in the very highest councils of the CLP. The MID agent arrived in New York City on Dec. 30, 1919 (implying that he was not a New Yorker). He "immediately visited the Communist Labor Party headquarters at 208 E 12th St., top floor," clearly indicating that he was of sufficient stature within the CLP organization to know such things. He notes that Ruthenberg and Ferguson (of the CPA) were present in at a meeting there, along with Ludwig Katterfeld (#2 man in the CLP), Big Jim Larkin, Ben Gitlow, and others. Wagenknecht was expected in New York, but remained in Cleveland, the former headquarters of the CLP organization. "At the request of those present Katterfeld wired Wagenknecht to the Cleveland headquarters that I was in New York and for him to return at once," the report notes -- again clearly implying the non-New York origins and high status of the cloaked MID agent. "I took most of the leaders to lunch and learned from Ruthenberg that a tip had been sent out by Ludwig Martens from Washington, DC, that raids on radical organizations will be made between Jan. 5th and Jan. 10, 1920, and that no meetings should be held during that time" -- indicating that news of J. Edgar Hoover's forthcoming mass raids against non-citizen members of the CPA and CLP was leaking to the targeted organizations. Wagenknecht wired back that he would be in New York on Jan. 1 and that he had to meet a bill of $250 for a printing press. The MID agent was approached for money (indicating an ongoing financial role with the CLP) and when he declined to "come across with any money" was consequently"treated fairly cool all morning." Only by kicking in $75 for the CLP and Gitlow-Larkin Defense Fund (a substantial sum) was the MID operative able to succeed in "buying" the confidence of Katterfeld. A meeting of the "Provisional Executive Board" (?) was called for Jan. 1 to discuss the situation; a message was received indicating that a raid was imminent and Katterfeld "secured a suitcase and filled it with mailing and membership lists," packing the sensitive material to his home, an undisclosed location. At the meeting of the "Provisional Executive Board," Gitlow asked "why Martens had not sent the usual remittance" (indicating an ongoing financial relationship between the Russian Soviet Government Bureau and the CLP). An order was issued to terminate all party meetings until Jan. 11, 1920 -- that is, after the anticipated window for the Hoover Raids. On Jan. 3 (the day after the mass raids), the MID operative arrived in Chicago, where he was promptly arrested not once but twice visiting radical bookstores -- lying about his identity and preserving his cover.

 

"First Telegram to Agents in Charge of Offices of the Bureau of Investigation, from J. Edgar Hoover in the name of Frank Burke, Assistant Director and Chief." [Jan. 2, 1920] First set of final instructions to Special Agents in charge of the 33 offices of the Bureau of Investigation wired by the chief planner of the operation, J. Edgar Hoover. Since Hoover was technically a "special assistant" to Attorney General Mitchell Palmer, all of his key communications to Special Agents in the field appear over the signature of the agents' superior, Chief of the Bureau of Investigation Frank Burke. Hoover wires: "All instructions previously issued to you for carrying out arrests of Communists should be executed in detail. Several requests have been made for change of date but no change or delay under any condition will be granted. As previously stated the arrests are to take place Friday January 2nd commencing 9 p.m. eastern time." Hoover reminds the agents that "particular attention is again called to the securing of evidence sufficient to hold subject for deportation."

 

"Second Telegram to Agents in Charge of Offices of the Bureau of Investigation, from J. Edgar Hoover in the name of Frank Burke, Assistant Director and Chief." [Jan. 2, 1920] This cable is apparently the last communication sent by J. Edgar Hoover to the Agents in Charge of offices of the Bureau of Investigation -- instructions to the agents on issuing statements to the press. Instead of maintaining silence until the morning after the big operation, now the agents are freed to make statements immediately after arrests were completed on the night of Jan. 2nd -- enabling the story to make a splash in the morning editions on Jan. 3rd. "Your statement should cover only local situation and may contain fact that arrests are nationwide in scope and being directed by Attorney General," Hoover indicates.

 

"Circular Letter to All Federation Secretaries from C.E. Ruthenberg, Executive Secretary of the Communist Party of America Regarding Revision of District Territories. [Feb. 2, 1920] This is a missing link of sorts, a message from Executive Secretary Ruthenberg specifying an adjustment of the territories of the newly established underground "districts" of the Communist Party of America -- material in the Comintern Archive does not seem to include news of this change. The initial 8 district structure is condensed into 6, with the Detroit district merged into the Cleveland district and the St. Louis-Midwestern district merged into the Chicago district. Of these 6 districts, D6 for the "Pacific Coast" remained without a District Organizer and with only a skeletal CPA organization in existence. Footnotes indicate the further revisions made to the district territories of the old CPA. The entire evolution of the district boundaries of the old CPA (1920-21) is now known.

 

"To All Sections of the Russian Communist Federation: A leaflet from the Executive Committee of the Russian Communist Federation of the CPA." [mailed Feb. 24, 1920] The so-called Palmer Raids of Jan. 2/3, 1920, was intended as a massive kill shot of the Russian Communist organization in America -- an attempt to obliterate the various "Russian Federations" just as the anarchist Union of Russian Workers had been annihilated a mere 6 weeks earlier. The Communist movement proved to be rather more resilient, however, emerging from the repression, its members freed on bail, and the actions of the federal government challenged in the courts. This typeset leaflet was mailed to all sections of the Russian Communist Federation by the organization's Central Executive Committee, urging the members to "stand firmly at your posts, and not break up the divisions of our Communist Federation." Despite the arrest of the head of the organization, Oscar Tyverovsky, and the crushing of its official organ, Novyi Mir, the arrests had only "temporarily stopped our work." The leaflet observes that "the idea has been created in some sections that our Federation no longer exists, that there is no Federation, and that the Communist Party is shattered, and has therefore decided to disband." This was not the case, however, as "the CC of the Russian Federation is now reorganized and has taken up the work anew upon the plan adopted by the National Committee of the Communist Party." The leaflet concludes: "Dear comrades, we hope you will continue the work begun for the liberation of the working class from the yoke of capital, and that no sort of prison or deportation from America may be capable of terrifying the class-conscious fighters for freedom."

 

"Letter to George E. Kelleher, Bureau of Investigation Agent in Boston from J. Edgar Hoover in the name of Frank J. Burke in Washington." [April 21, 1920] J. Edgar Hoover attempts to set the record straight by providing what might anachronistically described as "talking points" to Special Agent in Charge of the Boston office of the Bureau of Investigation, George E. Kelleher. Habeas Corpus proceedings in Boston had given the impression in the press "that agents of the Department of Justice have engaged in provocateur work in the Communist Party and that they have assisted in stimulating the activities of this organization and disseminating some of its literature." This Hoover stoutly denies: "I...can most emphatically state that no testimony of any nature truthfully given could in any way lead to the conclusion that agents or confidential employees of the Bureau of Investigation of the Department of Justice have ever engaged actively in the activities of the Communist Party of America. One of the long standing rules of the Bureau of Investigation, with which you are no doubt familiar, is to the effect that none of the employees of the Bureau of Investigation who may be engaged upon investigations of organizations charged with radical activities are to in any way participate actively in the councils of such organizations." Hoover acknowledges having obtained information from undercover informants in the Communist movement, but states that "the persons who were engaged upon these investigations were persons who had been specially trained and who were well conversant with the instructions issued to all employees of the Bureau of Investigation." He further justifies this action by noting that "it is common knowledge to those who are in any way conversant with radical activities that the same groups of persons who were pro-German during the period of the war are to a large extent pro-Bolshevik at the present time and will continue to participate in any movement which has for its purpose the embarrassment of the Government of the United States and the undermining of its institutions and form." Hoover goes on to explain the rationale behind the controversial confidential letter of Dec. 27, 1919, in which undercover associates of the BoI were to encourage the holding of meetings on the night of Friday, Jan. 2, 1920 -- the night of the raids --- so that party members might be conveniently concentrated in one place for the arresting officers. "Friday evening was the usual meeting night for communists to assemble" and thus it was no provocation to agitate for the holding of regularly-scheduled meetings, Hoover dubiously claims.

 

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