NEW POSTINGS TO EAM (07-33) Aug. 19, 2007

"The Socialist Party in Oklahoma," by J.O. Welday [Feb. 1915] This brief general introduction to the Socialist Party of Oklahoma was written for a general, politically-oriented readership. "The Socialist Party did not create class lines or class distinctions in this new commonwealth. The fact that 180,000 mortgaged and tenant farmers are producing wealth, the bulk of which is finally gotten hold of by a small group of non-producers, cannot be charged to socialist activity," Welday declares. The old parties had both delivered policy in defense of the interests of this small exploiting elite, in Welday's view. "The exploiting group has paid the bills of these parties and has in the main molded and directed their policies. Legislation has been both consciously and unconsciously shaped to the end that these propertied interests might be protected and secured." In opposition to both of the old parties, "the Socialist Party, with its clear cut and understandable discussion of the class struggle and its application of the same to conditions in Oklahoma, is rapidly becoming the political expression of the dispossessed class," Welday declares. Those who view the Socialist Party of Oklahoma as a milquetoast of agrarian ameliorative reform will be interested to note Welday's insistence that "no Bismarckian policy of partial restitution will satisfy those who have done and are now doing the hard and necessary work of the state," that things like "workmen's compensation acts, minimum wage laws, stringent usury statutes, actually enforced, loaning of state money for long periods at low rates of interest, statutes regulating the construction of dwellings on rented farms, state or county gins and elevators...will merely postpone the final result." This ideological perspective was reflective of the SP's Center or Left current rather than the Right Wing orientation stereotypically associated with the Oklahoma party.

"Circular Letter to All Locals of the Socialist Party of Ohio from Alfred Wagenknecht, State Secretary." [April 21, 1917] "LET'S ALL ENLIST!!" declares Socialist Party of Ohio State Secretary Alfred Wagenknecht in this mimeographed letter to the rank and file of the state organization, sent immediately after America's entry into the European bloodbath. He continues: "Let's enlist in the army of WORKING Socialists - Socialists who know that Socialism will never come if we do no more than dream for it." There is no letdown for Wagenknecht: "We are NEVER going to lose hope. If you'd see the amount of hope and enthusiasm and determination we have store up in the State Office which we intend releasing every now and then in small packages for quick consumption, you'd know what we mean when we say WE ARE NEVER going to lose hope." The future Communist Labor Party Executive Secretary Wagenknecht urges activity from the members, subscriptions to the state party newspaper, The Ohio Socialist, and donations to the party's $1,000 organization fund.

"UCP Membership Bulletin #1." [Aug. 14, 1920] In addition to a biweekly official organ, the United Communist Party began issuing a periodic mimeographed membership bulletin, of which this August 14, 1920 issue was the first. The publication was distributed by District Organizers through "party channels" down to the (10 person) group level -- with the bulletin to be read at the meeting by the group captain and then immediately destroyed. The bulletin was to be the vehicle for the transmission of internal party news, it is noted. The bulletin announces the launching of a "$50,000 Organization fund," with each group given the task of raising "$50, or $5 per member." This implies a party membership of about 10,000, it should be noted. Over complaints from two districts, party wage levels are defended by unanimous decision of the CEC: "The wage for these full-time Party workers had to be governed somewhat by the cost of living. Last year [1919] both the CP and the CLP paid $45 per week to married men. Since then the cost of living for families has gone up far more than the increase of $5 made by the CEC of the UCP. The standard that we have set is lower than the pay of skilled workers in the trades." The election of Abram Jakira as organizer (effectively the secretary) of the party's Russian language federation is ratified by the CEC, but the decision of the recently completed UCP Russian language Conference to establish a "Russian National Propaganda Committee" is sternly condemned and ordered by the CEC to disband or face expulsion (the UCP being based upon a strongly centralized unitary party rather than as a federation of semi-autonomous language groups as was the rival CPA). Changes are made in the District Organizers in the Chicago and Kansas City/St. Louis Districts, and a scheduled frequency for publication in non-English languages is decided. The UCP scheduled publication its OO in English, Russian, Polish, and Hungarian twice a month; German, Finnish , and Croatian; and occasionally in Jewish, Estonian, and Lithuanian.

"Circular Letter on the Closing of the Chicago Office of the Soviet Russia Medical Relief Committee from Charles L. Drake." [Jan. 15, 1921] The Soviet Russia Medical Relief Committee was the medical relief arm of the Communist-directed Friends of Soviet Russia organization. The group worked hand in glove with the Russian Soviet Government Bureau headed by Ludwig Martens, which served as the official purchasing agent for the fundraising organization. Undercover investigation by the Department of Justice's Bureau of Investigation assured that authorities were well apprised of bitter criticism in the radical community of the ethics and accounting practices of Soviet Russia Medical Relief, charges levied with particular vehemence by the Anarchist-dominated Russian radical movement of the Detroit area. While the BoI believed that the "American Red Star League" organization which emerged in early 1921 was a parallel organization initiated as in response to the improprieties of the Soviet Russian Medical Relief Committee headed by A.M. Rovin and Boris Roustam-Bek, this document reveals an altogether different origin. Rather than an insurgent parallel organization motivated by accountability and fiscal reform, the Red Star League had its roots in the sudden decision of the New York main office to terminate its Chicago, headed by attorney Charles L. Drake. With the deportation of Martens and the shuttering of the Soviet Bureau clearing in the offing, the Soviet Medical Relief organization saw itself as left with no means of transporting its sanitary and medical supplies to Soviet Russia. The determination to shutter the Western Office was abrupt -- two days before Christmas a letter was sent by Secretary Joseph Michael to Drake in Chicago (reprinted here) instructing him to immediately terminate all engagements and close the office. Drake obtained an extension of this deadline to Friday, Jan. 15, 1921, which was the final day of operation of the Western Office of the Soviet Russia Medical Relief Committee. The American Red Star League seems to have been launched immediately thereafter, using the same physical office space being abandoned and with Drake taking on the role of Secretary and guiding figure of the new medical relief fundraising organization.

"The American Red Star League: First Aid to the Working Class." [circa Feb. 1, 1921] "The ghastly failure of the present organized relief forces to be of any real service to the working class and their official refusal in many cases to help the workers where help is most needed has made necessary the organization of a relief force that will be of, by, and for the working class, and for the working class alone," declares this leaflet of the newly-organized American Red Star League. This group is said to be "organized solely for the purpose of giving relief to members of the working class in acute need, everywhere in the world." While aid to the working class in war ravaged Europe was clearly a priority, the leaflet notes that "such need is not confined to foreign countries. The anti-labor drive which has been begun by the moneyed powers in this country, headed by the United States Steel Corporation and assisted by every Chamber of Commerce, will lead to terrible conflicts and nationwide destitution." The leaflet exhorts recipients to give financial donations to a $10 million Relief Fund: "The workers must be prepared now to aid their own distressed comrades. The want in Europe and Asia is terrible, appalling, and the official relief agencies use the contributions of Americans against the workers who are seeking to control their own governments. We must help them!"

"The American Red Star League $10,000,000 Relief Fund to Save the Women and Children of Soviet Russia: A leaflet of the American Red Star League." [leaflet, circa Feb. 1921] This leaflet by the new American Red Star League, a left wing rival medical relief organization to the American Red Cross, presents much of the case made by Irwin St. John Tucker in a longer pamphlet published by the Red Star League at about the same time. "Confronted with the terrific destitution in Europe as a result of wars and blockades, the working class of America has been asked to give generously for the relief of suffering in those countries. Millions of dollars have been raised in America for the relief of Europe. How much of this money has actually been of service to the working class? Two MILLION dollars' worth of medical supplies desperately needed in Russia were burned by the American Red Cross in the Crimea to prevent it falling into the hands of the Workers' Government. Supplies to the value of 10 MILLION dollars were allowed to rot at Archangel because the Red Cross would not permit the starving and dying Russians to use them." Capitalist machinations in Russia, Hungary, Austria, Italy, and elsewhere had given a political coloration to the Red Cross' work, while "under the leadership of Herbert Hoover a joint committee of relief organizations has been formed, which is openly using the funds collected for anti-labor propaganda," the leaflet asserts. In response to this ideological orientation of the American Red Cross, the American Red Star League had been formed. "THE AMERICAN RED STAR LEAGUE is organized as First Aid to the Working Class in every country. Our first and most pressing duty is to save the women and children of Soviet Russia!" the leaflet declares. Financial contributions to the organization for its work are solicited.

"30,000 Babies Starving!! A leaflet of the American Red Star League," by Charles L. Drake [circa Feb. 1921] This leaflet of the new American Red Star League makes use of a cable of the American Friends' Service Committee from Moscow highlighting the shortage of milk, cod liver oil, and soap in Moscow which had resulted in an infant mortality rate estimated at an astronomical 40%. "America's warehouses are full to bursting with good things. Let us send them to Russian babies! In the name of Humanity, ACT NOW!" the leaflet implores, noting that a $10 donation "will save 10 Russian babies."

"In the Matter of Abraham Zanan, Under Telegraphic Warrant of Arrest: Philadelphia -- Feb. 11, 1921." (Interview of Abraham Zanan of the CPA by A.G. Benkhart, Immigrant Inspector.) Attempting a social history of the early American Communist movement is problematic. While there are many hundreds, even thousands, of Slavic and Baltic and Hungarian names and addresses recorded in the voluminous records of the Department of Justice's Bureau of Investigation -- readily available on microfilm as part of the National Archives and Records Administration's collection M-1085 -- these are ultimately faceless mentions of individuals deported from or absorbed into America without leaving a trace. Those interrogation transcripts which are extant, a fraction of the larger whole, tend to be uninformative , the prisoners understandably tending to lie and obfuscate in the interest of self-preservation rather than to truthfully enlighten their interrogators. This particular document, however, provides a significant glimpse at the history of American Communist Party life "from below," from the perspective of a committed rank and file member. Abraham Zanan answered the questions of Immigration Inspector A.G. Benkhart fully and truthfully because he was (somewhat lamentedly) seeking deportation to Soviet Russia. Zanan was a 20 year old unemployed garment cutter from Philadelphia, a member of the Young Peoples Socialist League (youth section of the Socialist Party) from 1915 and the Yiddish language federation of the Socialist Party of America not long thereafter, a founding member of the Communist Party of America who departed the old CPA with the Ruthenberg group in 1920 to membership in the United Communist Party. Zanan provides details of group life in the UCP, with meetings held at rotating homes at irregular intervals, rare activity in distributing the leaflets of the organization, the organization collecting its 75 cent monthly dues without the use of receipt stamps or party cards. Zanan attempts to explain to the inspector the UCP's position on force and violence, that it was both defensive and inevitable in the struggle for state power. He takes umbrage to the government's assertion that he and his party are "Anarchist" or against all organized government -- these being, along with the charge advocacy of force and violence, the sole statutory rationale for state repression of the Communists. Unable to find employment in his trade for a protracted period and not seeking to be a burden to his family, Zanan turned himself in to the authorities on Feb. 3, 1921, and confessed his party membership, believing himself to be a fugitive from justice since the unsuccessful raid of his home during the so-called Palmer Raids of Jan. 2/3, 1920. He sought deportation to Soviet Russia, believing that he might there find employment and make a living, despite the testimony of his mother and uncle, included here, to keep the "good boy" Zanan in America.

"Letter to Attorney General of the US Harry Daugherty in Washington, DC from Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover in Washington, DC." [March 16, 1921] New Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover lost little time in preferring charges against the American Red Star League, which he did with this letter to new Attorney General Harry Daugherty a short time after the installation of the new Republican administration of which he was a part. Hoover was provided with printed material of the Red Star League by the mayor of Portland, Oregon, who noted the group's charge that Hoover had aided anti-labor forces during the conduct of his activities as American food administrator in Europe. Hoover writes to Daugherty of the American Red Star League: "I am certain there is no method on earth by which these people can send either shipments or money into Russia, and aside from the bold character of its literature, my impression is that this group will stand investigation from the point of view of fraud." Such an investigation followed, resulting in a report issued by special assistant to the Attorney General Warren W. Grimes around the 1st of May 1921.

"Circular Fundraising Letter of the American Red Star League by Charles L. Drake, Secretary." [April 15, 1921] This fundraising letter from the head of the American Red Star League notes that "Conditions in the Russian Republic are far from satisfactory to those who have an interest in their fellow men. Plagues that have swept the country since the war began are still raging unchecked and taking their toll by the thousands. Women and children, because of their inherent weakness, are of course the chief sufferers. The Soviet Government is sending out a call for aid to the workers of the world. Surely you are willing to do your part to help the brave Russian people overcome the last and greatest enemy, disease? With the deadly plague of typhus under control the nation would be in fair condition to forge ahead with its constructive work and give the world an example of what a free people can accomplish unfettered by commercialism." One railroad car of soap had been shipped to Moscow in March and the shipping of 10 more cars of soap in April was projected, Drake states, the soap to be an important means of alleviating the spread of disease. "Ten dollars will sent 150 pounds of soap to the women and children. Five dollars will furnish them with 75 pounds. Will you send 150 pounds of soap to your Russian friends? If not, forward 75, 50, or 25 pounds, it will be most gratefully received."

"The American Red Star League: A Report by the Bureau of Investigation," by Warren W. Grimes [circa May 1, 1921] This is the final report of the Department of Justice on an investigation set in motion by Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover on March 16, 1921. Hoover had charged that the American Red Star League was raising money under false pretenses, as he was certain "there is no method on earth by which these people can send either shipments or money into Russia." In response, the Bureau of Investigation had analyzed the claims and activities of the American Red Star League, a radical competitor to the American Red Cross to see if charges of fraud could be sustained. Grimes indicates that the American Red Star League had been "created after numerous protests by local communists against the misappropriation of funds collected by the Soviet Russia Medical Relief Society" headed by A.M. Rovin and Boris Roustam-Bek. "The affairs of that Society were turned over to a committee of the United Communist Party of Detroit and Chicago," Grimes states, with Charles L. Drake, formerly head of the Western Office of the Soviet Russian Medical Relief Society, and Mrs. Moses Stroud the most active individuals behind the new organization. Officers of the American Red Star League included Drake as Secretary, Illinois labor leader Duncan McDonald as President, Swan Johnson as Treasurer, Rev. Irwin St. John Tucker as organizer, Dr. R.B. Green as medical adviser, and Lincoln Steffens as lecturer. Grimes concludes: "From the information at hand, I can find nothing tangible on which to base an assumption of fraud or, in fact, a violation of any law. Inevitably, of course, there will be irregularities -- there always have been in organizations of this kind. The Soviet Russia Medical Relief Society experienced them -- and this very scheme grew out of those irregularities. But the evidence shows that both organizations have at least made shipments. While the 'Declaration of Principles' and the personnel of the directorate clearly indicate the likelihood of both questionable faith and propaganda opportunities which undoubtedly will be worked to the limit; and while the activities of the organization and its officers should and will be followed closely, there appears nothing on which the Department could take extraordinary action at present."

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Brief organizational history of the Soviet Russia Medical Relief Committee and the American Red Star League (1919-1922).

An initial outline history of two related left wing "mass organizations." The Soviet Russia Medical Relief Committee was a semi-autonomous offshoot of Ludwig Martens' Russian Soviet Government Bureau, given the task of raising funds for the purchase and transportation of sanitary and medical supplies to Soviet Russia. Due to the impending closure of the Martens Bureau as a result of action of the American authorities, the Soviet Russia Medical Relief Committee issued an instruction to Charles L. Drake, head of its Chicago-based "Western Office," to end his engagements and liquidate the office by Jan. 15, 1921. Drake instead changed the nameplate on the door and launched a new medical and sanitary relief organization on that date, the American Red Star League. Both Soviet Russia Medical Relief and the Red Star League seem to have committed their energy to the purchase and transport of soap to Soviet Russia in the hope of controlling the spread of disease.

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