"Anti-Draft Meeting is Prevented by Police: Squad of Patrolmen Sent to New Star Casino to Disperse Crowds: 'Democracy vs. Conscription' was to be Discussed -- Capt. Brady Takes Initiative." [Events of April 16-17, 1917] The lack of repressive federal legislation to impinge the constitutional rights of speech, press, and assembly of "radicals" opposed to militarism was no obstacle for enterprising professionals in the Law and Order industry, as this article from the New York Call demonstrates. An anti-conscription meeting scheduled for April 16, 1917 at the New Star Casino in New York was called off when Police Captain Brady of the 39th Precinct told the hall owners that "he would not permit the meeting." When the meeting organizer, Abraham Wilson of the Harlem Union Against Conscription went to the 39th Precinct station house to remonstrate, he was give the surly response that "all Socialists ought to be conscripted anyway." When the Captain was asked whether street meetings would be permitted, another refusal was issued, along with the comment that "You won't have any meetings in New Star Casino or anywhere else if we can help it." A $1,000 lawsuit was initiated against the owners of the hall by the Harlem Union Against Conscription for damages suffered by the abrupt cancellation of the meeting. Anti-conscription meetings were held by Socialists elsewhere in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Bronx throughout the week in opposition to pending draft legislation in Congress.

 

"Letter to Sen. Paul O. Husting in Washington, DC from Winfield R. Gaylord and A.M. Simons in Milwaukee, WI." [April 17, 1917] Three days after the close of the St. Louis Emergency National Convention, soon-to-be-former members of the Socialist Party Winfield Gaylord and Algie Simons were scurrying to their mailbox with a secret letter of denunciation of the "pro-German" actions of their party, addressed to conservative US Senator Paul Husting of Wisconsin. In addition to convention documents and clippings from the conservative Milwaukee Journal, Gaylord declares the convention to have been "irregular" and the decision of the delegates to immediately publish their anti-war resolution to have one purpose only: "to secure 'action' against the government in some 'mass' form, to embarrass the administration in its prosecution of the measures necessary for carrying on the war." Gaylord urges rapid state suppression of the Socialist Party's published declaration: "What should be accomplished, in the interests of fairness and for the protection of the public peace, is the withholding from circulation generally, for any purposes other than the referendum of party members, of this majority resolution document.... There is no need of estranging the great mass of Socialists and those who sympathize with them by any drastic action. There is occasion for the discreet use of authority for the prevention of general circulation of this pernicious propaganda." To this Simons adds: "I have read this and agree with it, and join in the hope that some action may be taken to prevent violence." Husting did not prove to be a discrete pen-pal for the Wisconsin duo, however, publicizing this April 17 letter in a bellicose May 11 speech on the Senate floor and inserting the content into the Congressional Record, thus ensuring an expeditious change in the party status of the duplicitous Gaylord and Simons.

 

"Why the Majority Report Should Be Defeated," by Allan L. Benson [April 22, 1917] The Joe Lieberman of American Socialism, Allan Benson (1916 SPA Presidential candidate, soon to be out of the party), takes a swipe at the majority report on War and Militarism adopted by the St. Louis Emergency National Convention. Benson dusts off one last time his utopian nostrum of requiring a plebiscite of the American people before conscription may be implemented: "If the American people should sufficiently petition Congress for the right to vote on conscription, Congress would not dare to try to enforce conscription. If the news were to reach Washington that the people, demanding the right to vote on conscription, were filling all the halls in the land, from the largest to the smallest, there would be no conscription act of Congress..." The legal mechanism for implementing such a plebiscite, given that Congress and Wilson had already committed America to the European war, is unclear, as is the manner in which boisterous masses "filling the halls" differed from the "mass action" filling Benson's heart with dread. The real point of Benson's harangue seems to be the harangue itself: the St. Louis Convention was "permeated" by a "spirit of intolerance," grumpy old Benson declares, adding that "young hotheads who were wearing knee breeches when many of the middle-aged men present became Socialists felt entirely prepared to brand such of these older men as disagreed with them with regard to tactics as 'traitors.'" In Benson's view, the convention majority consisted of an unholy alliance of "young hotheads," "pro-Germans," Hillquitian harmonizers, and naive new delegates wowed by the passion of the "ultra-radicals." The anti-war resolution was thus an amalgam of "stock words that a certain type of 'r-r-revolutionists' hold dear," "pro-Germanism," and utterances which Benson believes "were and are treasonable." Benson foresees mass executions of Socialist Party members in a grand replay of the Haymarket Affair: "I warn both the party and each member of the party against the ratification of a report which, in the event of a single unfortunate death, might and probably would be so construed by the courts that the signers of the report would be put to death and the Socialist Party hopelessly disgraced for a generation."

 

"Dishonesty and Treason," by A.M. Simons [April 25, 1917] Writing on a topic in which by his own recent actions he had demonstrated a savant's expertise, paid state organizer of the Wisconsin Defense League and frequent Milwaukee Journal contributor Algie Simons starts swinging at Socialist Party leader Morris Hillquit, one of the primary authors of the St. Louis Resolution against War and Militarism, and Victor Berger, publisher of the Milwaukee Leader. "It requires language so strong that it sounds like the use of epithets to describe the scuttling of the Socialist Party by German nationalistic jingoes and anarchistic impossibilists at St. Louis," Simons rails. Simons declares that the resolution is "dishonest," it advocates "extrapolitical violence," it is "filled with almost grotesque falsehoods," is "insolently false and foolish," and "technically and insultingly treasonable." Simons casts Hillquit and Berger as two-faced and cowardly, "willing to incite honest fanatics and syndicalists into violence against the United States in time of war, and in aid of German autocracy, while they will remain in their offices." "This program was fastened upon a political party in the United States by a combination of nationalistic pro-Germans, violent syndicalists, and foreign-speaking organizations ignorant of American institutions. It is an insulting slap in the face to every Socialist," Simons shrilly protests.

 

"As to Treason," by Morris Hillquit [April 26, 1917] Having been called out in his hometown party press by former Socialist Presidential candidate Allan Benson and fellow party founder Algie Simons for having co-authored a "treasonable" majority report on War and Militarism at the recently completed St. Louis Convention, Morris Hillquit responds. Ever the lawyer and diplomat, Hillquit responds to the provocation temperately: "As one of the drafters and signers of the resolution, I have carefully scrutinized and considered every phrase and word of it, and with my limited knowledge of the law, I have been utterly unable to detect any expression of 'treason' in the document, except inasmuch as any opposition to the interests of the ruling classes may be considered as treasonable from the latter's point of view." Hillquit accuses Benson and Simons of "borrowing unnecessary trouble" by raising a ruckus over purported "treason," assuring the worthies that the United States government had a secret police and prosecutorial apparatus that would "deal with the offenders promptly and drastically" if there were anything that could be twisted into a violation of the law. "Why should any Socialist go out of his way to volunteer information to the authorities and to furnish them 'evidence' and 'points' against their fellow Socialists?" Hillquit asks, pointedly adding, "There are some things even baser than treason."

 

"The Russian Revolution and Finland," by George Halonen [April 27, 1917] Current Finnish Socialist Federation member and editor of Säkeniä and future member of the Workers Party of America George Halonen describes for an English language readership the exciting political situation of the socialist movement in Finland. The "beautiful spring days of liberty" had arrived in Finland with the fall of Nikolai Romanov in Russia, Halonen states. The Finnish parliament, the Diet, formerly stripped of its authority by the tsarist regime, had been thrust to center stage by rapidly evolving events. The last parliamentary elections (June 1916) had seen a majority of 103 of the Diet's 200 seats won by Socialists, who had accordingly split the 12 member executive body, the Senate, down the middle with the conservatives, headed by the Socialist Oskari Tokoi. Despite their parliamentary majority, Halonen states that the Socialists "will have to overcome many profound difficulties which will arise when they touch the sacred body of the capitalist system in order to fulfill their work for the emancipation of the working class," since "the Finnish bourgeoisie is not going to give way an inch without resistance." The fact that Finland was a small nation surrounded by capitalist states meant that it was not in a position to become "a complete Socialist state, free of all capitalist oppression," in Halonen's estimation. The "Red Parliament" had begun the long suppressed work of constitutional revision and were united against the European war, Halonen states, adding that despite tremendous difficulties and complicated problems, "the Finnish comrades will do their work in such a manner that it will arouse astonishment throughout the world."

 

"As to Treason," by Allan L. Benson [April 28, 1917] Round 2 begins with Socialist author Allan Benson answering Morris Hillquit's April 26 letter to the New York Call. Benson notes that while he respects Hillquit's ability as a lawyer, several other lawyers in the Socialist Party had offered contrary opinions as to the treasonability of the St. Louis Resolution which Hillquit had co-authored. Californian Job Harriman, Milwaukee resident Winfield Gaylord, and an unnamed third person were the contrarian lawyers in question. " This is no time, nor is this report the place, to use language as to the meaning of which even Socialist lawyers cannot agree," Benson declares.

 

"Shall We Commit Suicide? Letter to the Editor of the New York Call," by Job Harriman [May 2, 1917] California lawyer and socialist commune patriarch Job Harriman offers free legal advice in this letter to the New York Call. Harriman contends that the St. Louis Resolution on War and Militarism is "exceedingly unwise and extremely dangerous," both "devoid of wisdom and are pregnant with unnecessary danger." Harriman notes that opposition to the war plans of the Wilson regime will have dire consequences for the Socialist Party: "if the policy outlined by the convention is adopted by the party, it will lay the foundation for an attack upon our organization which will create consternation in our ranks throughout the land. This document will support a charge of conspiracy to violate the federal statutes. The prison doors will open and gulp in our members by the thousands. No good can come to the movement by such a course." Harriman advocates that the SPA follow the path traveled by the Socialist parties in the other belligerent nations, rallying around the national government and working to advance the long-term cause of the workers and of socialism by taking advantage of the drive towards state building inherent in times of war. This is depicted as a preferable alternative to the defiantly anti-militarist St. Louis Resolution, which would put the party "in such a position that our services will be spurned, and that the people, who do not understand us, will turn against us and rend us."

 

"Benson on Majority Report: Letter to the Editor of the New York Call," by C.E. Ruthenberg [May 6, 1917] Cleveland Left Wing Socialist C.E. Ruthenberg, one of the three primary authors of the St. Louis Resolution on War and Militarism, responds to the ongoing discussion in the pages of the New York Call over the position and tactics of the Socialist Party towards the European war. Ruthenberg is critical of Benson for misrepresenting the atmosphere at the St. Louis Emergency National Convention, which was actually far from "intolerant," putting John Spargo on the Committee on War and Militarism despite being aware of his social-patriotic leanings and then listening patiently to Spargo's minority report. Rather it was Benson who demonstrated uncomradely behavior, exploding on the floor of the convention when his position had been defeated in a vote, "You are a lot of frauds, frauds--" and sulking in the lobby of the Planters' Hotel, while the convention went about its work. Ruthenberg charges that Benson grossly misrepresents both the size and motive of the German-born delegates, who were "not over 15 in number" and who were "Socialists first" rather than cheerleaders for national advantage in war. Ruthenberg describes the process by which the St. Louis Resolution was drafted and declares that it was no crude compromise between convention factions, as Benson charged, but rather an "uncompromising adherence to Socialist principles, to which the convention gave support by an overwhelming vote. It was not an intolerant spirit which secured support for the majority report. It was the firm determination of the majority of the delegates that the Socialist Party of the United States should not prove traitor to its ideals."

 

"The St. Louis Convention and Its Anti-War Program," by Morris Hillquit [May 6, 1917] New York Socialist Party leader Morris Hillquit takes some time to review the April 1917 St. Louis Emergency National Convention and its Resolution on War and Militarism in this article written for the Sunday magazine supplement of the New York Call. Hillquit asserts that the convention was not an irregular and homogeneous body, but rather " a true and pulsating cross-section of the people of our vast and diversified country." Not only was the war question broached, but the gathering ably dealt with revision of the party platform, program, and constitution, Hillquit notes. The process of drafting the majority resolution of the 15 member War and Militarism Committee is described, with a subcommittee of 3 -- consisting of Hillquit, C.E. Ruthenberg, and Algernon Lee -- named. The trio spent a full day composing the basic document, and then "the committee as a whole went over it, line by line and word by word, cutting, amplifying, and polishing the instrument until it met the full approval of the majority," Hillquit states. The charge that this was a "compromise resolution" is true only with regards to method of its construction rather than the document's actual content, Hillquit indicates. Hillquit states that the St. Louis Resolution is no more "ultra-radical" than international Socialist resolutions against war issued in 1907 and 1910, which were deemed safe even for the Socialists of Prussia. Hillquit declares that while to pro-war Socialists the majority report is "quite naturally extremely irrational and dangerous," given an attitude of "genuine and uncompromising opposition to war, and particularly to our war, the resolution of the St. Louis Convention is a perfectly sane document -- sane none the less because it is strong."

 

"The Provisional Government of Russia and Separate Peace: As Viewed by Socialists," by Morris Hillquit [May 13, 1917] Socialist leader Morris Hillquit attempts to help curb the right wing's vilification of post-tsarist Russia on the ground that it sought a separate peace with Germany. "The bulk of the Russian Socialists support the revolutionary government of Russia and oppose a separate peace," Hillquit notes. Hillquit presents a very orthodox Kautskian reading of the situation facing the Provisional Government in Russia: "With the exception of a small group of extremists, the Socialists are free from the illusion that the present political upheaval in Russia offers an opportunity for the establishment of a Socialist regime. Neither industrially nor politically is Russia ripe for the 'cooperative commonwealth.' The Russian Revolution has done for Russia what the great French Revolution has done for France. It has destroyed autocracy and the rule of the landed nobility. It has enthroned democracy and the political leadership of the industrial and commercial middle classes.... The political foundations of Russian are still in the making. Whether she will emerge from her struggles as a limited monarchy, an oligarchic republic, or a true democracy, will be determined by the play of the divergent social forces that will share in the writing of her permanent political constitution." Hillquit makes the very intelligent observation that turbulence in revolutionary situations is normal, and that "The administration of Russia today is a revolutionary government, resting solely upon the tacit sanction of the people" -- not only the "official" cabinet but also the "unofficial" Soviet of Workers' and Peasants' Deputies. "The peace which the Russian Socialists strive for is a general peace, and they have so stated in clear and emphatic terms on numerous occasions.... They urge the workers of all countries, including those in the Central Powers, to exert pressure upon their governments to end the war at once and on a basis which they believe will further world democracy and perpetual peace among nations," Hillquit declares.

 

"An Erroneous Impression: Letter to the Editor of the New York Call," by Patrick Quinlan [May 13, 1917] Irish-born Left Wing Socialist from Passaic New Jersey Patrick Quinlan, a delegate to the recent St. Louis Emergency National Convention, takes issue with the characterization of the alternative resolution on War and Militarism being put to a referendum vote as a "minority report." In reality, Quinlan notes, the two minority reports emerging from the Committee on War and Militarism, those of Louis Boudin and John Spargo, were both handily defeated by the convention. The alternate report in question, the so-called "minority report," was actually a "hastily written and ill-considered document on war" which was "drafted by a few delegates" and allowed to go to referendum vote without even being discussed at the convention by merit of the collection of delegate signatures. "This should never have happened were it not for the well meaning, but absurd, notion that many delegates had on democracy and the rights of minorities. They signed a document which they did not approve of, and when the results of their hasty and ill-considered signatures dawned on them, many of the signers openly regretted having penned their names to what is now mistakenly termed 'the minority report,'" Quinlan declares.

 

"A Change of Front: Letter to the Editor of the New York Call," by Jack Carney [May 13, 1917] The Left Wing movement in the Socialist Party of America was far from homogeneous. This letter to The Call by Irish-born Left Winger Jack Carney illustrates the point, being directed not at the pro-war Right Wing of the SPA, but rather at the ideological views of Dutch-born Left Winger Seybold Rutgers. "It is quite a simple thing" for Rutgers and his Socialist Propaganda League "to denounce the AF of L and boost the IWW and should mass action from the house tops, but it is quite another thing to back up your arguments with sound reasoning," Carney asserts. "You may find fault with Sam Gompers and his satellites, but when you attack the AF of L because they do not go fast enough for you, you are doing more harm than good. The mistake we have made, myself included, is that we have restricted our vocabulary to such expressions as 'labor fakirs, traitors,' and no progress has been made. Why? For the simple reason that within the AF of L there are good, sound union men, and when you attack the leaders and make general statements, these men resent it." In the changed wartime situation, isolation was especially damaging, Carney infers, declaring "The party is needed now more than it ever was. The union leaders have gone with the tide of popular feeling. Let us now work with the union men, and the best place to work with him is in the union hall, not on Broadway on a soap box."

 

"Worse Than Treason: Letter to the Editor of the New York Call," by A.M. Simons [May 13, 1917] Two days after his treacherous collaboration with conservative Wisconsin Senator Paul Husting came to light in a belligerent anti-Socialist rant by the later on the floor of the US Senate and two days prior to the US Government's declaration of war on the Socialist Party with the raid and literature seizure at Indiana State Headquarters, Algie Simons makes an unrepentant curtain call in the pages of the New York Call. Simons makes no pretense about his position, the polite appellation "Comrade" does not pass his lips. Says Simons: Hillquit knew when he claimed he could find no treason in the St. Louis Resolution, that the National Office of the Socialist Party had been notified that it was "treasonous" and that based on this had subsequently tampered with the text of a reprint of the resolution. National Secretary Germer had refused to explain the omission. "Are not these kind of tactics worse than treason?" Simon asks. He continues: "Hillquit and Berger knew very well that the use of the phrase 'mass movement' meant the use of violence" -- words which "are inserted now to outlaw American Socialists." And more: "Hillquit and Berger served with Scheidemann at Copenhagen [1907] and Hillquit at Stuttgart [1910]. Both worked with him at St. Louis. Both are helping on his Russian intrigue today. There are some things baser than treason." Simons' clicks his heels and covers his heart with his hand: "Hillquit came from the tyranny of Russia to enjoy that measure of democracy which my ancestors, in common with many others, shed their blood to establish here. Now he is using that liberty and democracy to assist the tyranny of Germany. There are some things worse than treason." Simons claims that "of hundreds of Americans with whom I have talked, fully 90 percent declare that they were converted to the imperative necessity of war by the lying, intriguing activity of German-American propagandists. I can tell some things of this work within the Socialist Party that will not make nice reading for those who are responsible for scuttling of the Socialist Party." And he would attempt to do just that during the war, as Literature Director of the ultra-nationalist Wisconsin Loyalty Legion. But first, in less than 2 weeks, it would be SPA founding member Simons who was scuttled from Local Milwaukee, Socialist Party by a vote of 63 to 3.

 

"The 'Majority Report' -- A Criticism," by John Spargo [May 14, 1917] The social-patriotic Right Wing of the Socialist Party -- soon to depart en masse -- were not ideologically monochrome. While some funneled party documents and anti-party talking points to old party politicians, or sold a ceaseless barrage of anti-party propaganda to the capitalist press, or even more shamelessly went directly on the payroll of the ultra-nationalist movement, there were others who briefly attempted to blaze a middle path the between flag-waving renegades on the one hand and the anti-militarist Center-Left coalition that solidly dominated the Socialist Party on the other. One of the most thoughtful of the social-patriots during the initial phase of the war was the English-born John Spargo, a prolific author and early biographer of Karl Marx. This lengthy piece written for the New York Call attempts to make sense of the recent St. Louis convention of which he was a part. Not crotchety and embittered (like Allan Benson) or hysterically anti-German and delusional (like Simons), Spargo instead may be described as pensive, characterizing the convention as a missed opportunity at a critical juncture of American history. The SP had failed to adapt itself to the new reality of the Non-Partisan League, instead remaining cloistered within the sectarian doctrinal shell exemplified by the slogan "No Compromise -- No Political Trading." Dominated by its urban component and unwilling to explore new ideas from the periphery, the Socialist Party had thus doomed itself in states like Oklahoma and Kansas and the Dakotas, Spargo believed. In Spargo's words, the party was "entirely out of touch with American life and American needs," and thus "utterly incompetent to build an American Socialist movement." At the Convention, the war debate had been little more than stump speeches against militarism, Spargo indicates, and the resulting St. Louis Resolution was "ambiguous and evasive where definiteness is most needed; unsound in theory, especially in its treatment of the causes of the war; inaccurate and misleading in its statements upon matters of fact; out of harmony with Socialist principles; ethically reprehensible and demagogic in the character of its appeal." Yet, despite the sharpness of his critique, for Spargo the issue still boiled down to a single axiomatic belief which limited his days in the Socialist Party. Whereas the Center-Left saw the European carnage that had slaughtered and maimed untold millions, a war into which America was gleefully marching behind a hypocritical piper in the White House, suppressing civil liberties, cancerously expanding the military, and imposing the anti-American practice of conscription, Spargo felt "the struggle is between the most autocratic nations in the world on the one side and the most advanced and democratic on the other." And so he stepped away.

 

"US Raids Socialist Headquarters: Tsarism Reigns in Indianapolis: State Secretary Henry's Wife Held Incommunicado by United States Officers, Who Seek Distributors of the Party's Majority Report on War." [events of May 15, 1917] The crows came home to roost for the Socialist Party of America on May 15, 1917, when a raid was launched on the state headquarters of the Socialist Party of Indiana. Without warrant, the forces of so-called "Law and Order" raided the premises, seized all literature bearing upon the war, and took the wife of State Secretary William Henry for questioning, holding her incommunicado. Two others were arrested for having made "anti-war utterances." In addition, news of the Friday May 11 speech of US Senator Paul Husting of Wisconsin is here broken for Call readers, along with the announcement that he had received documents from Winfield Gaylord, a former Socialist State Senator from Milwaukee, in cahoots with Algie Simons. The trenches were dug between state power and radical principle, and the process of hardening on both sides of the line began.

 

"The Majority Report Should Be Carried Overwhelmingly: Letter to the Editor of the New York Call," by Jacob Panken [May 16, 1917] On May 15, 1917, state headquarters of the Socialist Party of Indiana were raided and fisticuffs began in earnest between the Woodrow Wilson regime and the Socialist Party of America. Simultaneously, news broke that two prominent members of the SP Right who had recently attended the St. Louis Emergency National Convention as delegates, Winfield Gaylord and Algie Simons, had supplied a US Senator with documents and urged the "discreet" use of state power to suppress the St. Louis Anti-War Resolution. An enormous uproar ensued in the party and the Center and Left of the SPA joined forces against their common enemies. This letter to the New York Call by Centrist jurist Jacob Panken excoriates Gaylord and Simons for their duplicity. "These comrades have attempted to inspire prosecution of all those who do not agree with them in their jingoism, and now we have reached the crowning act of treachery by Gaylord and Simons," Panken declares. The forthcoming party referendum of War Resolutions seems a simple matter to Panken: "The majority report should receive, in my opinion, the support of every Socialist; the minority report should receive the vote only of those who are willing to make the Socialist movement the tail to the kite of opportunism and jingoism."

 

"Example of Democracy," by Adolph Germer [May 19, 1917] Executive Secretary of the Socialist Party Adolph Germer denounces the raid of Indiana State headquarters of the Socialist Party by federal authorities as "a splendid example of the 'democracy and human rights' for which, we are told, this country has joined in war. If that is their idea of democracy, I want none of it." Germer also has choice words for Wisconsin delegate to the St. Louis Convention Winfield Gaylord: "What do I think of Gaylord for turning official documents over to Senator Husting and for writing him the letter published in the Congressional Record on May 11? Well, what do Americans think of Benedict Arnold? The world holds an informer in contempt. All the documents and "evidence" Gaylord furnished to Senator Husting 3 days after the St. Louis Convention adjourned reveal no secrets. The secret service agents attended our convention, and were informed of everything that happened. Gaylord simply scabbed on them." Furthermore Germer denies the charge made "that Hillquit and Berger committed a forgery, and dropped certain phrases from the war resolution." Germer calls this "a base falsehood" and blames the omission on a line of type accidentally omitted by a Chicago printer when resetting the document.

 

"Out-Scheidemanning Scheidemann," by Morris Hillquit [May 19, 1917] Whatever his infractions against the International Socialist movement committed for Kaiser and country by German social-patriot Philipp Scheidemann, Morris Hillquit calls him "at best a bungling amateur compared with our own accomplished masters in the art of party treachery" like Algie Simons, Graham Phelps Stokes, and William English Walling: "Scheidemann has not libeled his party in the capitalist press. They have. Scheidemann has not denounced his fellow Socialists who differ with him in their views on war as traitors to their country. They have. Scheidemann has not turned spy and informer against his comrades or invited criminal prosecution against them. They have." The loathsome trio have "filled the eager columns of the capitalist press from one end of the country to the other with venomous attacks upon the Socialist Party, branding it as a dangerous and criminal aggregation of foreign-born and pro-German traitors." Winfield Gaylord and Simons are particularly reprehensible, in Hillquit's estimation, for having "obligingly furnished" documents and suggestions to "the reactionary Senator from Wisconsin" -- material which was subsequently employed against the Socialist Party. "I know of no instance of such brazen treachery in the whole history of the international Socialist movement. I know of no Socialist Party in the world that would stand for such 'comradeship,'" Hillquit declares.

 

"Warns Against 'Cold Feet,'" by James M. Reilly [May 20, 1917] New Jersey Left Winger James Reilly, a delegate to the recent St. Louis Emergency National Convention, begs to differ with Allan Benson's characterization of the convention. Reilly writes that Benson "did not see the convention as it was. He was absent from most of its sessions. After his war program had been defeated he attended none of the remaining sessions. It is doubtful if another delegate took less interest in the convention than Comrade Benson. With regard to his assertion that the delegates were 'intolerant,' I can only say that in 15 years' party membership, during which time I have attended 4 national conventions, I have never attended one at which a greater degree of tolerance for all viewpoints was maintained." Reilly is sanguine about the Socialist Party's brash declaration against the European War: "This report may be construed as treasonable by the courts. So may the substitute. From present indications, any criticism of the government, to say nothing of opposition to the war, is apt to be construed as treasonable before very long. War having been declared, the Socialist convention had to declare in favor either of supporting or opposing it. The majority of the convention delegates took the view that the interests of the working class required that the party oppose the war. If this is treason, I suppose we must take the consequences."

 

"Lee and Spargo Debate Party's Report on War: Thousand Socialists at New Star Casino Hear Arguments Pro and Con." [event of May 20, 1917] In New York City on evening of May 20, 1917, a much heralded face-off took place between co-author of the St. Louis Resolution on War and Militarism Algernon Lee and perhaps the most intelligent of the Resolution's critics in the SPA, John Spargo. For nearly four hours the pair traded barbs and analysis before an audience of approximately 1,000 members of the Socialist Party. This document reproduces long stenographic extracts from the presentation of each, recording for posterity the thinking of Lee and Spargo on the most decisive and divisive issue of the decade. For Lee, the St. Louis Resolution is reducible to one of its lines: "The Socialist Party of the United States in the present grave crisis solemnly reaffirms its allegiance to the principle of internationalism and working class solidarity the world over, and proclaims its unalterable opposition to the war just declared by the government of the United States." He contrasts the situation in Europe, in which the war was the outcome of a long process of militarization of the governments, despite the objection of their Socialist oppositions. This he contrasts to the situation in America: "The United States was not threatened with invasion, subjugation, dismemberment, or domination" and "fortunately free of militarism." Nor had it "yet become irrevocably committed to the policy of economic imperialism, as compared to England, France, Germany, and Japan." The people had not wanted war and it had been the duty of the United States to ultimately impose a peace upon blood soaked Europe which would lead to "simultaneous, progressive, and ultimately complete disarmament." Yet it had went to war instead; a pivotal opportunity missed. "I am convinced that this statement is not superfluous, not exaggerated, but say that "no war in modern times has been more unjustifiable," Lee states. For Spargo the St. Louis Resolution is deeply flawed. He bases his critique on 4 points: "1. That it is unsound in theory generally, and especially in its treatment of the economic causes of the war. 2. That it is inaccurate and misleading in important statements of fact and record. 3. That it is a betrayal of fundamental Socialist principles. 4. That it contains a program of action well calculated to strengthen all the greatest and most dangerous enemies of the international Socialist movement, to hinder the progress of our movement throughout the world, and to disrupt and to destroy the Socialist Party in this country." Spargo argues compellingly that the St. Louis Resolution is based upon a crude economic-determinist explanation for the war -- the competition of advanced capitalist states for colonial markets in which to dispose of their surplus products. He finds this idea flawed; the war erupted in the East, but Russia and several other leading participants not faced with large industrial surpluses to dump -- nor was the ownership of a colony necessary for capitalists of other countries to profit therein. Spargo blames the war on Germany, the decision-makers of which he describes as "an absolute monarchical government, with big dynastic ambitions to be served, together with the professional aspiration of her military caste, plus the interest of a small and important, but not dominant, section of the capitalist class, the iron and steel interests." It was the internationalist duty of America and American Socialists to halt the aggression of this nation, Spargo indicates.

 

"Hillquit, Berger, and Lee Can't Sail: State Department Bars Party from Sending Delegates to Stockholm Conference." [May 23, 1917] The constitutional freedoms of speech, press, and assembly weren't the only American civil rights under assault during World War I -- so, too, was the right of travel. On May 23, 1917, the State Department refused passports to the Socialist Party's elected international delegates to a forthcoming international Socialist conference at Stockholm. Morris Hillquit, former Congressman Victor Berger, and Algernon Lee were thus barred from meeting with their peers in a neutral setting with a view to working to end the European War. Should they attend the conference despite the lack of passports, the trio were threatened with prosecution under the 1779 Logan Law, prohibiting American citizens from conferring or negotiating with representatives of an enemy government. Hillquit met with top State Department officials in Washington in an effort to present his case, but was informed by Counselor Polk that "he had definitely made up his mind that the Stockholm Conference was a pro-German affair intended to promote a separate peace." Hillquit denounced this decision as "puerile, arbitrary, and shortsighted" and noted that the American delegates were being denied the very same "freedom of the seas" that the Wilson regime claimed was at the root of American entry into the war itself.

 

"Jewish Socialist Federation Endorses Majority War Resolution: Calls for Expulsion of Russell, Walling, & Stokes -- To Establish Socialist Schools." [May 31, 1917] For 30 days after the closing of the St. Louis Convention, the Socialist Party's position towards the war in Europe was hotly debated in party ranks. After the raid on the headquarters of the Socialist Party of Indiana, the exposure of the treachery of Winfield Gaylord and Algie Simons, and a tidal wave of hostile writing by such worthies as C.E. Russell, William English Walling, and Graham Stokes in the capitalist press, the party closed ranks. This short item from the New York Call notes that the convention of the Jewish Socialist Federation held in New York from May 26 to 30 passed a resolution endorsing the St. Louis majority resolution on War and Militarism, and another calling for the expulsion of Charles E. Russell, William English Walling, and J.G. Phelps Stokes for their public endorsement of the Wilson regime's war work. Max Ludlow and J.B. Salutsky were nominated by the Convention for Secretary of the Federation, the story notes, with the final decision on the post to be determined by vote of the membership.

 

"Report of Executive Secretary to the National Executive Committee: Chicago, Illinois," by Adolph Germer [Aug. 8, 1918] This exhaustive and lengthy (20 pp. in this format) report was delivered by Socialist Party Executive Secretary Adolph Germer to the August 1918 convention of State Secretaries and Elected Officials, a conclave mandated by the constitutional revision of 1917 in lieu of meetings of the national committee in non-convention years. The document provides a comprehensive report of SPA activities in the interval since the completion of the St. Louis Emergency National Convention of 1917. A complete list of court cases in which the SPA is involved is included and an extensive, although not complete, list of similar legal activity at the state level. Germer also provides an extremely useful set of dues figures for the organization for the entire year of 1917 and the first half of 1918, breaking down the dues stamp sales for each state, month by month. Germer's statistics indicate a slight drop of dues payers for the year 1917, less that 3,000 out of an organization of 82,000, a deficit almost completely recovered in the first half of 1918. In short, the loss of the SPA Right Wing due to the organization's staunch anti-war stance was both minimal and temporary. Also included is a month-by-month accounting of dues revenue from each of the Socialist Party's Foreign Language Federations, including salary expenditures on those party divisions. This material shows that the Federations (later denounced by Germer and the Regular faction of the SPA when they began to flex their political muscle) were actually a cash cow for the financially-strapped party, generating nearly $10,000 in surplus for the National Office for the 18 month interval.

 

"Minutes of the National Left Wing Conference: New York City," by Fannie Horowitz [events of June 21-24, 1919] These rather skeletal minutes only hint at the great controversy that gripped the June National Conference of the Left Wing in New York City, but still managed to provide a rough outline of the factional conflict. Division first took place over the question as to whether the various language federations would be allowed their own voting delegates, in addition to those federationists already elected through regular channels. The federation delegates were seated with voice and vote, yet remained in the minority at the Conference. A "National Council of the Left Wing" was elected, none of the 9 members elected being a Federationist. This body replaced an "Emergency National Council" elected earlier that same day, which had included no fewer than 2 Federation representatives. The evening of the second day the main bone of contention became clear -- the tactical question of whether the organized Left Wing Section should continue its fight to enforce its victory in the abrogated 1919 party elections by fighting out the matter at the forthcoming Emergency National Convention of the party (reporter in support of this idea being would-be Executive Secretary Alfred Wagenknecht); or whether the Left Wing should immediately declare itself "the Communist Party of America" and endorse the already existing Michigan call for a September 1, 1919, founding convention to formalize the organization (reporter being Nick Hourwich). A resolution proclaiming the establishment of the Communist Party of America was hastily drawn up by C.E. Ruthenberg and Hourwich. After lengthy discussion, this resolution was defeated and the the tactic of continuing the fight within the Socialist Party thus endorsed. Contrary to popular belief, the Federationists and Michiganders did not immediately bolt the conference over the issue, however; nor, truth be told, did they technically bolt the convention at all. Participation continued briefly, with Michigan partisan Dennis Batt resigned from the Manifesto Committee on the afternoon of the third day. Only at a later session that night did the Federationists Hourwich and Alex Stoklitsky resign their committee posts and was an announcement read indicating that 31 Federationist delegates had "decided to withhold their activities from the Conference until such time as they see fit to resume them." The Federationists remained present throughout -- perhaps in an effort to ensure their travel expenses would be covered, perhaps in hopes that the tactical decision causing the split would be reconsidered. It was only at the end of the session held the 4th day that Latvian Federationist John Anderson [Kristap Beika] resigned from the Organization Committee. At the conclusion of the Conference, a formal split was looming rather than an accomplished fact.

 

"Debate on the Press and the Society for Medical Aid to Soviet Russia at the 3rd Russian All-Colonial Congress: New York City," by Bureau of Investigation Undercover Agent "P-132" [March 8, 1921] The Russian All-Colonial Congresses were ostensibly non-partisan biannual gatherings of the "Russian colony in the United States and Canada" sponsored by the anarchist Union of Russian Workers. This material is an extract from the report of the 3rd Russian All-Colonial Congress was provided by "P-132," a Russian-speaking undercover Special Agent of the Bureau of Investigation (a full BoI employee who wrote his own reports, as opposed to a paid informer who funneled information to a reporting Special Agent). Topics of debate here are the ideological line to be pursued by the new official organ of the All-Colonial and the financial controversy over the Detroit branch of the Medical Aid to Soviet Russia organization. With regard to the press, the All-Colonial (Union of Russian Workers) had launched a paper called Amerikanskaia Izvestiia [American News] to replace the suppressed anarchist weeklies Rabochii i Krest'ianin and Khleb i Volia. Calls were made by anarchist delegates to the 3rd Congress for the publication to adopt an explicitly anarchist line. Delegate Mikhailov declares" "Comrades, you all know that we are Anarchists. Why should we cover up our beliefs and teachings by organizing schools and various educational societies? And that applies to Amerikanskaia Izvestiia. Once for all we ought to say clearly that it is an Anarchist newspaper and establish definitely its true character and purpose." This perspective is opposed by Delegate Sivko, who states: "You are an Anarchist; well, I am a Communist, and if you demand the Anarchist policy I demand the Communist, and I will never consent that Anarchist propaganda be taught through Amerikanskaia Izvestiia." Despite their control of the convention, the multi-tendency orientation of the newspaper was maintained by the final resolution of the 3rd All-Colonial Congress. That same evening a "special meeting or session" was held to deal with the alleged improprieties of the Soviet Russia Medical Relief Committee. At this "special session," the same "Communist" delegate Sivko (probably a communist-anarchist as opposed to a CPA member) detailed the fraudulent practices which he uncovered in the Detroit organization of the Soviet Russia Medical Relief Committee. Rovin, Saks, Mendelsohn, and Boris Roustam-Bek are accused of having pocketed organizational funds, nearly $2,000 being unaccounted for by a snap audit. A parallel (anarchist) Medical Aid to Soviet Russia organization had been launched. Adding color is the comment by "P-132" that "during [Sivko's] speech several members of the Communist Party were trying to break up the meeting, but they were beaten up by members of the Union of Russian Workers, especially by Kiselev, who threw them down the stairs."

 

"Brief Report on the 1st World Congress of RILU: Moscow," by Evan E. Young [events of July 3-19, 1921] Session-by-session outline of the principle activities of the first World Congress of the Red International of Labor Unions, held in Moscow from July 3 to 19, 1921. Note particularly the concluding date of this gathering, which rather surprisingly does not seem to exist elsewhere in the English-language literature. The author of the report, a member of the US State Department staff in Riga, Latvia, apparently compiled this material from reports in the Soviet press. Tension among the American delegates between their Communist and syndicalist/IWW members is noted, a division reflected in the convention as a whole, which ultimately adopted a resolution of A. Lozovsky making explicit the organic connection of the two international groups by a vote of 270 (mandates) to 28. A total of 16 sessions were held by the Congress. Includes a complete list of members of the Executive Bureau (which Young calls the "Soviet") of RILU, with Nicholas Hourwich and Earl Browder representatives of the United States.

 

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