JUNE
"Declaration of Principles
of The Social Democracy of America: Adopted at the Special Convention
Held Under the Auspices of the American Railway Union, June 15-21,
1897." On
June 15, 1897, a final convention of Eugene Debs' American Railway
Union was convened in Chicago, where it spent three days wrapping
up the affairs of the union. On Friday, June 18, the organization
officially changed its name to The Social Democracy in America
and the convention threw open its doors to delegates from other
organizations. This Declaration of Principles was adopted by
the new organization. The document asserts that "our despotic
system of economics is the direct opposite of our democratic
system of politics" and urges "all honest citizens
to unite under the banner of the Social Democracy of America,
so that we may be ready to conquer capitalism by making use of
our political liberty and by taking possession of the public
power, so that we may put an end to the present barbarous struggle,
by the abolition of capitalism, the restoration of the land,
and of all the means of production, transportation, and distribution,
to the people as a collective body, and the substitution of the
cooperative commonwealth for the present state of planless production,
industrial war, and social disorder." Eight "specific
demands for relief" are appended, including demands for
nationalization of monopolies, public utilities, mines and mineral
resources, reduction of hours of labor, inauguration of a system
of public works for the unemployed, free use of inventions, establishment
of postal savings banks, and adoption of the initiative and referendum.
JULY
"Milwaukee Enthused: Debs
Speaks to Tremendous Meetings in the Cream City." [July
15, 1897] Unsigned
report from the official organ of the Social Democracy of America
reporting an organizing speech by Executive Board Chairman Eugene
Debs. Debs stated that there were two antithetical schools of
economics long in conflict -- individualists and collectivists.
The former "claimed they had the right to live upon the
toil of others," while the latter "believed that 'the
earth and the fullness thereof' belonged to the people,"
Debs told the enthusiastic throng assembled July 7 at West Side
Turner Hall in Milwaukee. As a result of the hegemony of the
economic individualists, unemployment and poverty was rampant
and child labor scarred the land. Concentration of manufacturers
into trusts drove down wages, further impoverishing the working
people, Debs noted. The competitive system was "abnormal"
in that it produced "millionaires and millions of mendicants"
and perversely paid the hardest workers the least. The Social
Democracy was launched to change this capitalist system and "achieve
the Cooperative Commonwealth, where men would stand shoulder
to shoulder for the uplifting of our common humanity." Debs
also explained the Social Democracy's colonization strategy --
"to go to some state sparsely settled, which has been favored
by nature, and there mass sufficient people to get control of
the state government." Legal means were to be used and the
colonization plan was conceived as a temporary measure until
the Cooperative Commonwealth was achieved.
AUGUST
"A Call to the People,"
by Eugene V. Debs [Aug. 23, 1897] In the midst of a bitter coal mine strike, Eugene
Debs issued this appeal on the front page of the official organ
of the Social Democracy of America lending his support to an
August 30 conclave in St. Louis in support of the miners' job
action. Debs calls for an end to "cowardly, brutal, and
wholly un-American reign of injunctional government." He
states that "There is no relief in the courts. We have tried
them all, from the bottom to the top, and they are all against
labor. So far as I am a concerned we will appeal no more. We
will now appeal to the American people." Debs notes the
one-sided way in which law enforcement authorities "proceed
to shoot and club workingmen if they are not as servile and obedient
as if they were so many savages off their reservation."
He adds that "Injunctions, soldiers, marshals, deputies,
thugs, and jails are for the exclusive benefit of the workingmen."
Summoning the specter of 1776, Debs declares that "Judges
by the usurpation of power, playing the role of tyrants, have
annihilated the constitution, abrogated the right of trial by
jury, forbidden free speech, suppressed peaceable assemblage,
and transformed our republic into an absolute despotism. They
are guilty of judicial treason and should be made to answer at
the bar of an outraged people."
"To the Hosts of the Social
Democracy of America. [Labor Day Message -- 1897] by Eugene V.
Debs [Aug. 30, 1897] The
purple prose of Eugene Debs runneth over in this somewhat lengthy
Labor Day essay to Labor and the members of the newly organized
Social Democracy of America, published in the pages of the SDA's
official organ. Debs declares the situation of labor gloomy --
impoverished and denied their rights of free speech and free
assembly by the injunctions of a judiciary at the beck and call
of a heartless and soulless plutocracy. Yet there is hope on
this Labor Day, Debs declares amidst heavy Christian overtones:
"In this supreme hour, when hope is giving way to despair,
and stout-hearted men are yielding to what they term the 'decree
of fate,' the star of the Social Democracy, like that which the
wise men saw when Christ was born, blazes above the horizon and
hope revives and again is heard by ears attuned to the minstrelsy
of humanity, 'Peace on earth, goodwill toward men.'" Debs
states that "The Social Democracy deals with the possible,
with the practical, with axiomatic propositions in the everyday
affairs of life," and then ushers forth a 230 word sentence
poetically glorifying the new political organization that would
have reduced William Faulkner to astonished genuflection.
NOVEMBER
"The Social Democracy,"
by Cyrus Field Willard.
A fascinating
article, essentially the "missing link" between Eugene
V. Debs' American Railway Union and Julius A. Wayland's Ruskin
Colony in Tennessee. Williard, one of the three members of the
Colonization Commission of the Social Democracy of America (formed
by the final national convention of the ARU) talks about the
plans of that body to establish a socialist colony in Tennessee
and a proposal to the city of Nashville to construct 75 miles
of railway for the city -- a project which would put the (blacklisted)
unemployed workers of the ARU/Social Democracy of America to
work and help advance the cause of collective ownership in a
single stroke. First published in the November 1897 issue of
The New Time, published by Charles H. Kerr & Co.
MAY
"Against Fusion: Debs Reiterates
his Declaration for the Benefit of Doubters: He Urges the Importance
of the Convention, Where a National Platform Will Be Adopted,"
by Eugene V. Debs [May 19, 1898] The split of the Social Democracy of America in
two groups came suddenly, as evidenced by this article by Eugene
Debs published little more than 2 weeks before the fractious
first regular convention. Debs gives nary a hint of any fundamental
disagreements within the organization between colonization exponents
and advocates of political action. "We confidently look
forward to our first national convention as a Socialist convention
of such character and proportion as to immensely strengthen the
movement and inspire the whole membership with fresh zeal in
the cause," he enthusiastically declares. The main point
which Debs seeks to make with the article is that speculation
about a proposed fusion of the Social Democracy with the Populist
Party in the 1898 elections was idle, since the Social Democracy
was a socialist political party, whereas "the Populist Party
is a capitalist party and the Social Democracy will not fuse
with it any more than it will with the Republican or Democratic
Party." "The only object of such fusion would be the
securing of office -- the loaves and fishes. We are not after
office, we want Socialism. We care nothing about office except
in so far as it represents the triumph of Socialism," Debs
declares. Debs also denounces the war craze of 1898 in no uncertain
terms: "We are opposed to war, but if it ever becomes necessary
for us to enlist in the murderous business it will be to wipe
out capitalism, the common enemy of the oppressed and downtrodden
in all countries. We are not afflicted with the kind of patriotism
which makes the slaves of our nation itch to murder the slaves
of another nation in the interest of a plutocracy that wields
the same lash over them all."
JUNE
"Report of the Colonization
Commission to the First Annual Convention of the Social Democracy
of America," by C.F. Willard [delivered June 9, 1898] The definitive account of the
actions of the 3 member Colonization Commission of the Social
Democracy of America during the 10 months of its existence, from
its formation in Aug. 1897 through the first days of June 1898.
While the original scheme of the SD of A was to establish colonies
in a single relatively unpopulated western state -- Washington
or Idaho -- and to thereafter take over the state government
via the ballot box, late in September 1897 the Colonization Commission
received from a real estate broker an offer of sale of thousands
of acres in rural Tennessee at a favorable price. The commission
spent the better part of the year investigating this property,
negotiating terms of the deal, and establishing a legal entity,
the Cooperative Commonwealth Company, for the sale of bonds and
the holding of property deeds. The eruption of hostilities between
the United States and Spain seems to have disrupted financial
markets, however, and at the 11th hour the owner of the Tennessee
property proved unwilling to undergo the expense of deeding the
property and placing it into escrow pending the successful sale
of $2.5 million in interest-bearing bonds -- a dubious prosepect.
Finally on May 13, 1898 -- less than one month before the first
annual convention of the SD of A -- an impasse was declared and
the Tennessee land deal effectively scrapped. The Colonization
Commission then made the ill-advised decision to immediately
leap into an alternate proposal for a colony, this the purchase
of a Colorado gold mine for $5,000 within 90 days and $95,000
funded through the sale of bonds, to be paid off from gold extracted
from the mine. This was the colonization proposal taken to the
first (and only) regular convention of the Social Democracy of
America in June 1898, which resulted in a split of the political
actionist minority headed by Victor Berger to form the Social
Democratic Party of America.
"Speech to the First Annual
Convention of the Social Democracy of America, June 9, 1898 -
excerpt," by Eugene V. Debs Short extract from the hour-long speech delivered
by Chairman of the National Executive Board of the Social Democracy
of America, Eugene Debs, to the ill-fate Chicago convention of
that organization. During the course of his remarks, Debs comes
out for a reduction in the rate of dues from the current 15 cents
per month (dues were ultimately reduced to $1 per year) and says
of the SLP that "it is too narrow to appeal to the great
broad spirit of American Socialists." Although no doubt
tendentiously excerpted for use in the factional struggle agains
the political actionist minority headed by Victor Berger, Debs
is quoted as saying: "I have not changed in regard to our
procedure. Give me 10,000 men, aye, 1,000 in a western state,
with access to the sources of production, and we will change
the economic conditions and we will convince the people of that
state, win their hearts and their intelligence. We will lay hold
upon the reins of government, and plant the flag of Socialism
on the state house." Debs notes that the division of the
USA into states is a great boon for the American Socialist movement
not found in any European country: "We can take possession
of one state, and not wait until we get the whole United States.
We must get one state at a time."
Statement of Principles of the
Social Democratic Party: Adopted at Chicago, June 11, 1898. A first platform issued by the
fledgling socialist political organization which was to merge
with the insurgent so-called "Kangaroo" faction of
the Socialist Labor Party to form the Socialist Party of America
in 1901. In this document, the Social Democratic Party of America
categorized socialism as "the collective ownership of the
means of production for the common good and welfare" and
called upon "the wage-workers and all those in sympathy
with their historical mission to realize a higher civilization"
to sever ties with existing conservative capitalist and reformist
political parties and to instead work for "the establishment
of a system of cooperative production and distribution."
"The Convention: A Notable
Gathering of the People Representing Socialism: Stirring Events
in Which Those Who Stood For Political Action Exclusively Were
Defeated -- They Bolt." [June 16, 1898] Participant's account [by W.P.
Borland?] of the 1st regular convention of the Social Democracy
of America, held in Chicago from June 7-11, 1898, published in
the official organ of the pro-colonization faction. The author
reduces the struggle between the two groups to a battle between
"old German Socialist methods, with its 'class-consciousness'
club tactics" and "American Socialist methods."
The former position, that of the convention minority which bolted
the gathering to form the Social Democratic Party of America
on June 11, 1898, stood for political action alone. The latter
position, that of the convention majority, stood for "both
political action and colonization," in the words of the
author. This position had been supported at the convention in
an hour-long report delivered by National Executive Board Chairman
Eugene Debs on June 9. Factional leaders were Victor Berger of
Milwaukee and Isaac Hourwich of New York (father of future CPA
leader Nicholas Hourwich) for the adherents of the "old
German Socialist methods" and John F. Lloyd of Illinois
and James Hogan of Utah for the "American Socialism"
pro-colonization faction.
"A Weak Argument: Laurence
Gronlund Condemns the Action of the Bolters: Berger's Platform
Analyzed and Its Defects Pointed Out -- Americans Demand a Practical
Movement," by Laurence Gronlund [June 23, 1898] While Eugene Debs split with the
political action wing of the Social Democracy of America to help
found the Social Democratic Party in June 1898, the second "big
name" in the American movement stayed loyal to the SDA.
Laurence Gronlund, author of the enormously influential book
The Cooperative Commonwealth, published this critique
of the actions and program of Victor Berger and the political
actionists in the final issue of the official organ of the SDA.
Gronlund calls Berger and friends "childish" for refusing
to accede to the decision of the majority of the June convention
to proceed with colonization, thereby attempting "to break
up and destroy a new and splendid instrument for the emancipation
of the masses," the Social Democracy of America. "No
matter how right they have been on the question of political
action vs. colonization, they should for the time being have
bowed to the will of the majority and afterwards tried to persuade
and convince their comrades," Gronlund opines. Gronlund
likens the new SDP to the Socialist Labor Party, now 25 years
old and which "has just as little chance of winning an American
majority as a 50 year old maiden has of being married."
In the realm of ideas, Gronlund sharply criticizes Berger's adherence
to the "fatal German theory" of class consciousness,
which he characterizes as "entirely un-American." Gronlund
observes that "The theory of class consciousness means that
society is divided by a horizontal line into two sections: the
wage-earners below the line and the possessing classes above
the line, and then a class war is proclaimed between the two
sections.... There is, to be sure, a dividing line in society...but
it should be a vertical line through all classes, so that we
have friends of our cause in all classes, and unfortunately there
will to the last be workingmen who are our foes."
JULY
"American Socialism,"
by Victor L. Berger [July 9, 1898] The first regular convention of the Social Democracy
of America, held in Chicago June 7-11, 1898, was also its last,
resulting in a split of the organization between a majority faction
intent on pursuing the strategy of establishing cooperative colonies
in a western state and attempting to take over the state government
for socialism by democratic means, and a minority faction which
rejected the notion of rural communalism as retrograde and which
instead sought to win the entire nation for socialism via the
power of the ballot box. The minority faction bolted the organization
and on June 11, 1898, established the Social Democratic Party
of America. This article by SDP leader Victor Berger from the
debut issue of the party's official newspaper, The Social
Democratic Herald, explained the basic political ideas of
this new organization in contradistinction to the so-called "American
Socialism" of his factional opponents. Berger rejected out
of hand the notion that there was anything particularly American
about rural cooperative communes, which he derided as an alien
import to American soil, declaring "not one of the innumerable
communistic or cooperative colonies that have been founded and
failed in America, even if made up of American membership, was
of American origin. Not one. They were all founded upon the ideas
of French or German utopian Socialists -- notably Fourier, Cabet,
and Weitling." The recent spate of so-called socialist communities
influenced by the writings of Edward Bellamy -- including that
of the Social Democracy of America and the Ruskin Cooperative
Association in Tennessee -- were unconvincingly stripped of "American"
status due to the fact that Bellamy "had no original Socialist
ideas" but merely gave the ideas of German scientific socialists
in utopian form. As opposed to the implied barbarism of rural
cooperative colonies, Berger contrasts the idea of Socialism,
"the child of civilization," based upon the collective
ownership of large-scale modern productive machinery. Socialism's
success depended upon its adoption on a national scale, with
America alone possessing the size and economic independence that
might make socialism achievable in one nation alone. The mechanism
for winning power would be the electoral process, for "the
ballot, if used rightly, forms a far more powerful weapon in
this country than in any other." "We want to make use
of our political liberty and take possession of the public powers,"
Berger declares, adding that "while this process is going
on we also want to lighten the burdens on the shoulders of the
wage workers and producers in general by constantly agitating,
enacting, and enforcing laws in their favor, so as to strengthen
their power of resistance in the great struggle." In this
battle the Social Democratic Party would fight alone, "open
and aboveboard everywhere" and in opposition to all capitalist
parties alike, Berger indicates.
"The Future" by Eugene
V. Debs [July 16, 1898] Letter
from the former head of the industrial American Railway Union
and leading participant of the Social Democracy in America to
the members of the newly-formed Social Democratic Party of America.
Debs gives his wholehearted blessing to the new political organization
and remarks upon the recent split of the Social Democracy in
America between the SDP political action faction and the colonization
faction as follows: "The separation at the late convention
was inevitable. It had to come. The contemplation of division
was painful, as only those can fully realize who were party to
it. But painful as it was, the operation had to be performed."
Debs notest that all members of the new SDPA "are full fledged
Socialists. They are in accord with the program of International
Socialism. There is not only in the number opposed to independent
political action, not one that asks or expects anything from
any old capitalist party, by whatever name it may be called."
He adds that "There is harmony. There is oneness of purpose,
there is true-hearted fidelity to principle, there is unrelaxing
energy, and these qualities in alliance presage success."
JANUARY
"A Brief History of Socialism
in America." [Published January 1900] Morris Hillquit's 1903 History of Socialism
in the United States has been long regarded as the first
comprehensive history of the American Socialist movement in the
English language written by a participant. In actuality, Hillquit's
book was the second; this history of the American Socialist movement
by an unnamed founding member of the Social Democratic Party
of America predated Hillquit's work by over 3 1/2 years! First
put into print in January 1900 by the fledgling publishing house
of Eugene V. Debs as a primary part of The Social Democracy
Red Book, the section reproduced here picks up the story
with the coming of Marxian socialism to America in the 1850s
-- a lengthy discussion of the various permutations of communal
socialism in the 19th Century having been omitted. Detail is
strong for the history of the Socialist Labor Party of the late
1880s. The work is especially valuable for its account the formation
of the Social Democracy of America and the Social Democratic
Party of America which emerged from it. The fine detail relating
to the split at the 1898 convention indicates this unsigned work
was clearly the product of a participant -- although equally
clearly not that of Gene Debs himself. One passage of particular
interest demonstrates the deep fissure in the American Socialist
movement between Social Democratic and proto-Communist wings
even as early as 1900: "Social Democracy is but another
term for democratic Socialism. In this sketch of the development
of the Socialist movement in America, we have seen...in the Socialist
Labor Party, a kind of Socialism, or rather of Socialistic propaganda,
in which a hierarchy ruled, and which, besides heresy-hunting
among its own members, instinctively stood for a Socialist state
in which the administration of affairs would, to say the least,
be bureaucratic. Such an administration would be quite apt to
develop into a despotism. Presented in such a spirit, Socialism
had little attraction for the Yankee lover of freedom, and so
it had to make way historically for a truly democratic type --
for a party standing for social democracy." Historians interested
in the origins of the Socialist Party of America will want to
print out and preserve this 18 page document, which includes
illustrations of four early SDP activists: successful Massachusetts
politician James F. Carey, editor of the official organ A.S.
Edwards, pioneer Texas Socialist W.E. Farmer, and little-known
SDP founding member Margaret Haile. (Rather large file,
425 k.)
"A Trip to Girard,"
by "Wayfarer" [Jan. 1900] Brief first hand account of a trip by a pseudonymous
Midwestern member of the Social Democratic Party to the "modern
Mecca of Socialism," Girard, Kansas to visit the editor
of the seminal socialist weekly newspaper, The Appeal to Reason,
J.A. Wayland. "Wayfarer" manages to become closely
acquainted with Wayland, and remarks on Wayland's dedication
to the ideas of John Ruskin. He quotes Wayland as saying that
"The Appeal editorials are simply Ruskin turned into
the language of the common people." Wayland relates the
story of how he became involved in the socialist movement to
"Wayfarer," giving credit to a Pueblo, Colorado shoe
store proprietor named "Bredfield" who plied him with
conversation and radical literature -- in the first place Gronlund's
The Cooperative Commonwealth. The story of Wayland's unsuccessful
Ruskin colony is related, featuring a scam in which purported
colonists were misrepresenting the situation in the colony and
using funds earmarked for the Tennessee group's development were
instead misdirected to quarter the colonists at a hotel at Tennessee
City, at which they were "living in luxury on the money
[Wayland] had forwarded." Wayland is proclaimed to be "decidedly
my kind of good fellow" by the author of the piece.
SEPTEMBER
"Why I Am a Socialist,"
by George Herron. [Sept. 1900]
A speech by Professor
George D. Herron to a campaign meeting of the Social Democratic
Party held at Central Music Hall in Chicago on September 29,
1900. Herron argues that three main historical lines were coming
together in the struggle for socialism in America: the "dogmatic"
European Marxist trend exemplified by the Socialist Labor Party;
the historic trend seeking individual liberty in the tradition
of Rousseau, Jefferson, and the French Revolution; and a new
religious sensibility seeking spiritual freedom through common
economic liberation. Herron states that neither existing party
was conscious of the reconstructive task facing society but rather
sought to prop up the brute lawlessness of capitalism. Only common
ownership of the resources and productive tools needed jointly
by all would allow for the "full liberty of the human soul,"
Herron stated, and only the action of the working class itself
could win this liberty.
NOVEMBER
"A Plea for Unity of American
Socialists," by George Herron. [Nov. 1900] The stenographic report of a speech
delivered by Christian Socialist stalwart George Herron to a
mass meeting of Chicago Socialists on Nov. 18, 1900. Herron states
that only disunity and factional strife could derail the socialist
movement from ultimate victory ("for a generation or a century")
and arguing that a united movement could make use of the quasi-religious
sensibilities of the educated segment of society in a mass movement
for human liberation. An excellent exposition of SPA ideology
from the university professor who co-founded the Rand School
of Social Science.
MARCH
"Crimes of Carnegie,"
by Eugene V. Debs [March 30, 1901] Socialist orator and publicist Gene Debs takes
aim at "the alleged philanthropy" of steel magnate
Andrew Carnegie and those who accept it in this article from
The Missouri Socialist. "The reckless prodigality
of Carnegie with the plunder of his victims brings into boldest
prominence the crimes he committed when they protested against
his monstrous rapacity," Debs declares. The memory of the
bloody Homestead strike is recalled, in which "an army of
300 Pinkerton mercenaries were hired by this bloody benefactor
to kill the men whose labor had made him a millionaire."
Debs continues: "Not only were the Pinkerton murderers hired
by Carnegie to kill his employees, but he had his steel works
surrounded by wires charged with deadly electric currents and
by pipes filled with boiling water so that in the event of a
strike or lockout he could shock the life out of their wretched
bodies or scald the flesh from their miserable bones. And this
is the man who proposes to erect libraries for the benefit of
the working class - and incidentally for the glory of Carnegie."
Debs remarks that "Some years ago, when Carnegie endowed
the first library for the alleged benefit of workingmen, I objected.
And I object now with increased emphasis. Such a library is monumental
of the degeneracy of the working class. It is a lasting rebuke
to their intelligence and their integrity." "Let honest
workingmen everywhere protest against the acceptance of a gift
which condones crime in the name of philanthropy," Debs
insists.
APRIL
"Socialists Who Would Emasculate
Socialism," by Eugene V. Debs [April 20, 1901] In this column from the official
organ of the Social Democratic Party of America, Eugene Debs
takes aim at middle class reformers who deny the reality of the
class struggle and thus "betray their trusting victims to
the class that robs them without pity and riots in the proceeds
without shame." Debs asserts that "We count every one
against us who is not with us and opposed to the capitalist class,
especially those 'reformers' of chicken hearts who are for everybody,
especially themselves, and against nobody." While he acknowledges
that while most such reformers are "honest and well-meaning,
I know that some of them, by no means inconspicuous, are charlatans
and frauds. They are the representatives of middle class interests,
and the shrewd old politicians of the capitalist parties are
not slow to perceive and take advantage of their influence. They
are 'Socialists' for no other purpose than to emasculate Socialism.
Beaten in the capitalist game by better shufflers, dealers, and
players, they have turned 'reformers' and are playing that for
what there is in it. They were failures as preaches and lawyers
and politicians and capitalists. In their new role as "reformers"
they dare not offend the capitalist exploiters, for their revenue
depends upon their treason to the exploited slaves over whom
they mourn dolefully and shed crocodile tears." In an unrelated
tidbit, Debs provides bulletin board material for Left Wing professors
everywhere: "Free speech is not tolerated in the Stanford
University, nor in any other university, and whatever may be
the boast of the educators in such institutions, the fact remains
that they are as certainly the wage-slaves of capitalism as are
the coal diggers in the anthracite mines of Pennsylvania."
JUNE
"The July Convention,"
by Eugene V. Debs [June 15, 1901] With the July 1901 Socialist Unity Conference
approaching, Social Democratic Party leader Eugene Debs shared
the following thoughts with the party faithful in the organization's
official organ, the Social Democratic Herald. All parties
except for the (Regular) SLP had accepted the invitation to the
Indianapolis convention, Debs said. While regrettable in one
sense, at the same time Debs thought that this might be for the
best, since "it must be admitted that more or less danger
attends the converging of factions which have long been divided
and are still (being human) influenced by their prejudices and
their antipathies." Debs expressed his belief that a united
party was "inevitable" and expressed the view that
a primary necessity for the new organization would be "a
platform that will bear the test of critical analysis. By this
I do not mean that we shall quibble and split hairs, but that
so far as the fundamental principles of Socialism are concerned,
they shall be stated with such clearness as to silence all reasonable
question as to our party being free from the taint of compromise
and in harmonious alliance with the Socialist movement of the
world." He expressed a strong preference for a decentralized
organization, one in which "every state absolutely control
its own affairs, thus leaving little for the national party to
do except in years of Presidential campaigns. In this particular
we can safely follow the methods of the old parties, whose leaders
are adepts at organization." Interestingly, Debs foresees
a problem in rapid organizational growth, calling it "a
danger which will threaten the Socialist movement more and more
as it advances to political prominence."
"Some of the Theories of
Party Organization: Before the Form of an Instrument is Decided
There Must be a Clear Conception of the Use to be Made of It,"
by Margaret Haile [June 22, 1901] Social Democratic Party National Executive Board
member Margaret Haile published this rather lengthy article in
the official organ of the party in an attempt to advance discussion
in the ranks of the SDP as to what form of organization it desired
in the forthcoming Socialist Party. Haile advocated a modified
form of current party structure, noting "At the present
juncture we are in danger of tinkering too much with the form
of organization, without reference to the work that has to be
done.... We are not striving after an association which shall
exemplify the principles of pure democracy, as the primary object
of its existence; nor yet a political party whose first object
shall be to boost men with political hankerings into their desired
haven." Instead, she saw the party's task as primarily educational,
that of converting a "majority of the people" to the
cause of socialism. "The election of a socialist to office
here and there is not so important as new recruits in our ranks
are apt to imagine, except for its educational effect. What kind
of a benefit has socialism received from having a socialist may
here and there or a socialist representative or two in the state
house? Principally the advertising it gives the movement and
the strength and courage imparted to us by success," she
states. Rather, the most pressing need she saw was for a careful
analysis of the labor situation in America, followed by the creation
and propagation of a specialized literature, targeted to specific
groups and written in a comprehensible language. Early SDP political
successes had both advantages and disadvantages, in Haile's view:
"They have infected many of us with the political fever,
to the detriment of the great work of national education. It
is possible for a new party to carry too much political sail
for the depth of its educational keel and the weight of its numerical
ballast. Socialism must not be cramped into ward politics any
more than into colonies." Structurally, Haile favors an
idea which had gained currency in the party -- a "National
Committee" composed of a representative of each state in
the new organization -- but seeks retention of centralized national
organization, of which state and local units were to be an intrinsic
part, and continuation of membership dues rather than a new form
of voluntary financing. She asks for further comments on her
ideas or alternative proposals.
JULY
"'The Mission of Socialism
is Wide as the World': Speech at Chicago, Illinois," by
Eugene V. Debs [July 4, 1901] Lengthy Independence Day speech by Eugene Debs,
never republished since its original appearance in the pages
of the Social Democratic Herald. Debs takes a rather more
radical position on the American flag than he would a decade
hence, declaring "I am not of those who worship the flag.
I have no respect for the stars and stripes, or for any other
flag that symbolizes slavery. It does not matter to me what others
may think, say, or do.... Not very long ago the President of
the country [William McKinley], in the attitude of mock heroics,
asked who would haul down the flag. I will tell him. Triumphant
Socialism will haul down that flag and every other that symbolizes
capitalist class rule and wage slavery." Debs adds that
"I am a patriot, but in the sense that I love all countries,"
giving the highest praise for an aphorism of Thomas Paine: "Where
liberty is honored, that is my country." Debs explains the
rise and fall of chattel slavery and its replacement by wage
slavery as a by-product of the development of industrial technology.
He calls upon the working class to organize itself and to assert
its class interests as vigorously as the capitalist class advances
theirs. He tells his audience "It will not do for you to
go to the polls and vote for some good men on some of the tickets
and expect relief in that way. What can a good man do if he should
happen to get to Congress? What could he do? Why, he simply would
be polluted or helpless, or both. What we want is not to reform
the capitalist system. We want to get rid of it." Debs states
that "The revolution is under way, but, like all revolutions,
it is totally blind. It is in the nature of great social forces
that they sometimes sweep humanity down. Let us work so that
this revolution may come in peace. Socialists are organized to
pave the way for its peaceful culmination." He adds that
whether socialism comes "next year or next century, or in
a thousand centuries" is of no particular concern to him,
that if but a single Socialist should survive "I would be
that one against the world" -- and he advises his listeners
to think likewise.
"The Task of the Convention:
An Unparalleled Opportunity to Organize the Socialist Forces
for Future Progress," by Morris Hillquit [July 28, 1901]
Leader of the
Springfield SDP (former SLP Right) Morris Hillquit offers his
perspective on the forthcoming founding convention of the Socialist
Party of America, to be held in Indianapolis in a matter of days.
Thousands of American workers were "ripe for Socialism,"
Hillquit states, lacking only a political organization "to
shape those popular currents and to organize these elements in
a well directed battle against the forces of capital." Hillquit
states that the forthcoming convention "will either create
such a party, and thus become one of the greatest landmarks in
the history of our movement, or it will miss the splendid opportunity
and thus become a lamentable failure. Whether it will do the
one or the other the future will show." Hillquit states
that the ideal Socialist party is one which has two things: (1)
a clear and definite understanding of scientific Socialism as
applied to the social conditions of the country in which it is
organized (a good platform); and (2) an intelligent, active,
and enthusiastic membership working in unison for the propaganda
of Socialism on a well planned system of division of labor and
in complete harmony with each other (an efficient form of organization).
Hillquit offers a rather muted critique of Victor Berger's conception
of state autonomy; such a model might work suitably for a fully
developed organization, in Hillquit's opinion, but excessive
state autonomy would retard the growth and success of a fledgling
organization. "While the party is weak and scattered in
small organizations all over the country, a central administrative
body with large powers is the only thing that will united these
scattered bodies into one compact party, and extend and strengthen
the organization," Hillquit states. As the organization
develops, the need for such a strong central authority will diminish,
in his view.
"The Socialist Party. Indianapolis
Convention Effects Union of All Parties Represented in Response
to Call of the Social Democratic Party: State Autonomy Guaranteed:
Immediate Demands Adopted After Prolonged Debate -- Headquarters
Located in St. Louis - The New Constitution." [events of
July 29-Aug. 1, 1901] This
is an extremely important document, the definitive newspaper
account of the Joint Unity Convention which established the Socialist
Party of America. Amalgamating were two main groups -- the "Chicago"
Social Democratic Party of Victor Berger, the Debs Bros., Margaret
Haile, and youngsters John Work and James Oneal; and the "Springfield
(MA)" Social Democratic Party of Morris Hillquit, Henry
Slobodin, James Carey, Max Hayes, William Mailly, and Job Harriman.
Also joining the unification party were independent state socialist
parties from Texas, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, and Kentucky. Chairman
of the convention by acclamation was Christian Socialist George
Herron -- a pro-unity independent figure married to neither post-SLP
Kautskyianism or post-Populist Bernsteinism. This lengthy document
(9 pages) includes a sketch of daily happenings, committee assingments,
text of various resolutions, the full text of the SPA's platform
and constitution, and a complete list of delegates. Published
in the (now Milwaukee) Social Democratic Herald and thus indicative
of the Berger SDP's perspective, rather than that of the Hillquit
group. Includes copious footnotes. An indispensable resource
for those interested in the history of 20th Century American
Socialism -- print and save.
"Convention at Indianapolis:
Delegates Execute the Mandate of the Rank and File and Secure
a United Socialist Party -- Synopsis of the Proceedings -- Selection
of Committees -- "Immediate Demands" -- Platform, Constitution,
and Resolutions -- Name "Socialist Party" Adopted -
St. Louis Selected as Seat of National Committee with Greenbaum
as National Secretary -- Harmony Marks the Entire Proceedings..."
by A.M. Simons [events of July 29-Aug. 1, 1901] Algie Simons, former member of
the SLP, editor of the Chicago Workers' Call and International
Socialist Review, was one of the leading figures of the Left
Wing at the founding convention of the Socialist Party of America
in 1901 -- an advocate of the abolition of all "Immediate
Demands" from the party platform. This is his account of
the convention, which he characterized as enormously successful
and the turning point from which "a new era had arisen in
the history of socialism." Simons provides a day-by-day
account of events and lists the two biggest topics of debate
as the question of "Immediate Demands" (the inclusion
of which was decided by a vote of 5,358 to 1,325 proxies) and
the matter of "State Autonomy" (as opposed to a centralized
party) decided in favor of autonomous state organizations and
a weak national office, though Simons provides no detail on this
debate. A resonant quotation appears in Simons' concluding remarks,
when he says: "the spirit of stupid intolerance has been
largely eradicated, while not an atom of the revolutionary position
has been abandoned. Disruption, based upon personalities and
misunderstandings which accumulate in intensity as opponents
obstinately resolve not to understand or make reasonable allowances
for each other's position, differences on minor details of tactics,
we may assert with tolerable assurance, will never again be permitted
to occur.... Disruption can only come in the future when fundamental
principles are threatened. In such cases it seems unavoidable,
and on the whole perhaps it is best that this should be so. If
there is any tendency in the future which will bring fundamental
differences of principle into the Socialist ranks...then internal
struggles will break forth anew despite our efforts; but if not,
it devolves upon us entirely to see that minor questions and
disputes and misunderstandings are not permitted to produce an
effect that can only be reasonably caused by divergence on essential
principles."
AUGUST
"Minority Report of the Platform
Committee Made to the Socialist Unity Convention, Indianapolis,
IN -- August 1, 1901," by A.M. Simons Chicago journalist Algie Simons represented the
Left Wing at the founding convention of the Socialist Party of
America, reporting out of the Platform Committee as a committee
of 1 and addressing the convention with his proposal to eliminate
all planks calling for ameliorative reform from the platform
of the new party. Simons argues that "economic development
demands that we should stand clear-cut and square on the fact
that between us and capitalism there is no common ground; that
between us there is naught but an abyss into which he who seeks
to bridge it will only fall into absolute oblivion. " This
was not to be confused with an absolute rejection of all ameliorative
reform, he notes, but rather the set of proposals advocated in
the Socialist platform. He challenges his opponents that "It
devolves upon you to demonstrate that these measures are ameliorative
to the working class of America. You will have made a strong
point if you can demonstrate that these immediate demands are
something of which the benefit to the laborers will be commensurate
with the sidetracking of the Socialist movement, with the turning
aside of the forces of revolution, and with the energy that must
be exerted in order to push them forward." Simons implores,
"Let us stand as the representatives of the clearest-cut
opposition to capitalism the world has ever seen; let us stand
in the forefront of the revolutionary movement of the world;
let us send out from here a platform that will represent revolutionary
socialism..."
"In Defense of 'Immediate
Demands': A Reply to A.M. Simons at the Socialist Unity Convention,
Indianapolis, IN -- August 1, 1901," by Gustav A. "Gus"
Hoehn Veteran
St. Louis Socialist Gus Hoehn takes on Algie Simons for proposing
the deletion of all "immediate demands" from the platform
of the new Socialist Party of America. Hoehn contends that far
from being a clear-cut expression of revolutionary Socialism,
Simons' position is "the most ridiculous and most reactionary
position that was ever taken by any labor representative in the
Socialist movement." Hoehn warns that "if a platform
of this kind should be adopted by the Social Democratic Party,
the Social Democratic Party would be a thing of the past. Because
you cannot feed the people on wind, and all that your so-called
revolutionary position amounts to is to go out to the people
of the country, to the wage working class, and preach revolutionary
wind. " Hoehn cites the example of the 1880s social revolutionist
trend in the SLP, which interrupted the progress of a socialist
party that had elected officials to city and state offices by
adopting a platform which went to "the extreme of adopting
the Communist Manifesto of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels; and
to show that they were the revolutionary party, that they were
the true Socialist Party, they cut out of the Communist Manifesto
the immediate demands." For the Socialist Party to do the
same thing "would lead us right back into the old anarchist
movement, and in less than 5 years, instead of having a Socialist
movement, you would have another anarchist movement," Hoehn
warns, adding that such a state of events is exactly what the
capitalist politicians of America desired.
"A Veteran's Appeal for Unity:
Address to the Founding Convention of the Socialist Party of
America, Indianapolis, IN -- August 1, 1901," by Julius
Vahlteich Vahlteich,
a 61 year old German-American with 44 years' participation in
the Socialist movement in Germany and America, delivered the
first English-language speech in his life to the Socialist Unity
Convention that established the Socialist Party of America. Regarding
the possible failure to achieve unity by the convention as a
potential disaster, Vahlteich states that he considers it his
duty to "at least attempt to bring to bear my influence
on the hot-headed in our camp, inasmuch that they learn to know
and appreciate the first duty of every soldier of the Revolution
-- the subordination of personal interests, personal feelings
and thoughts to the common interest of all." Vahlteich acknowledges
that throughout the history of modern socialism "there are
two principal views which struggle with each other." On
the one hand are those who "proclaim themselves as loudly
as possible to be revolutionists." This tendency "speak
warmly against compromise, and would like to see the socialist
army corps guarded against every touch of the non-socialists.
They have a keen scent for traitors in their own ranks, mistrust
all who are not toilers, and are impatient to deliver the last
deciding stroke for the foundation of socialist society."
On the other hand are those who "do not believe in the theory
of a catastrophe, but rather in the organic growth of the old
society into the new one." This group "do not fear
compromises or temporary companionship with non-socialistic parties.
They do not want to restrict their activity to participation
in elections, but also seek to influence the people in an educational
way, especially by furthering the cooperative work." Vahlteich
notes that programs change over time and cites the example of
the unification of the German movement at Gotha in 1875 as a
model for the American socialist movement to emulate. Though
Marx is called right in his criticism of specifics of the program,
the German movement was still more right to unite on the basis
of that program -- "never since 1875 have the German socialists
given to the world the disgraceful spectacle of political disruption
in the fight against the common foe," Vahlteich notes.
"Constitution of the Socialist
Party of America: Adopted by the Socialist Unity Convention,
Indianapolis, IN -- July 29 to Aug. 1, 1901." Basic document of party law of
the newly established Socialist Party of America. The initial
SPA Constitution provided for "state autonomy" -- an
extremely weak central organization, funded by 5 cent contributions
per member per month by the various state organizations. It was
the state organizations which were to retain "sole jurisdiction
of the members residing within their respective territories,
and the sole control of all matters pertaining to the propaganda,
organization, and financial affairs within such state or territory,
and the National Executive Committee and sub-committees or officers
thereof shall have no right to interfere in such matters without
the consent of the respective state or territorial organizations."
Authority between conventions was vested in a governing National
Committee of the party, consisting of one elected Committeeman
from each state, plus five additional members from the headquarters
city named as a "Local Quorum" to act in an executive
capacity. The National Committee was to meet regularly no more
than once each year. It was given the power to select the National
Secretary and the Local Quorum, but the constitution expressly
stated that it "shall neither publish nor designate any
official organ." The result was a federation of largely
autonomous state organizations, each of which "may organize
in such way or manner, and under such rules and regulations,
as it may determine, but not in conflict with the provisions
of this constitution."
"Constitution of the Socialist
Party of America: Adopted in National Convention at Indianapolis,
Ind., August 1, 1901 -- as revised." This is the version of the SPA's constitution
in effect on the eve of the 1904 Party Convention, with editorial
footnotes indicating the specific alterations made to the document
over the party's first 2-1/2 years. Chief among the changes made
in this interval were a respecification of the Local Quorum --
a 5 member body that approximated the National Executive Committee
in function; the alteration of the position of National Secretary
to a position with a fixed 1 year term of office; and the elimination
of constitutionally-required reporting by the Executive Secretary
and the National Committee to the state organizations. Also apparently
removed was a paragraph that was probably regarded as superfluous
at the time but which would be a matter of extreme import 15
years hence, specifically: "The platform of the Socialist
Party, adopted in convention or by referendum vote, shall be
the supreme declaration of the party, and all state and municipal
organizations shall, in the adoption of their platforms, conform
thereto." This fundamental position remains in less strenuous
language in Art. VI, Sec. 1: "Each state or territory may
organize in such way or manner, and under such rules and regulations,
as it may determine, but not in conflict with the provisions
of this constitution."
"Negro Resolution Adopted
by Indianapolis Convention." [adopted August 1, 1901] There were two primary resolutions
passed by the Unity Convention which established the Socialist
Party of America, both widely reprinted: one on labor and the
trade union movement and a second on the so-called negro question.
This "Negro Resolution" remarks that "both the
old political parties and educational and religious institutions
alike betray the negro in his helpless struggle against disfranchisement
and violence, in order to receive the economic favors of the
capitalist class." The resolution declares the black worker's
interests are identical with "the interests and struggles
of the workers of all lands, without regard to race, or color,
or sectional lines" and that "the causes which have
made the victim of social and political inequality are the effects
of the long exploitation of his labor-power." Further, it
is asserted that "all social and race prejudices spring
from the ancient economic causes which still endure, to the misery
of the whole human family." The black worker is invited
"to membership and fellowship with us in the world movement
for economic emancipation by which equal liberty and opportunity
shall be secured to every man and fraternity become the order
of the world." Evidence that the question of racism was
not blindly ignored but was rather given consideration and attention
by the Socialist Party of America from the time of its origin.
"Letter to State, Territorial,
and Local Organizations of the Socialist Party of America, August
10, 1901," by Leon Greenbaum Initial communication to the members of the newly
established Socialist Party from first Executive Secretary of
the organization, Leon Greenbaum. Greenbaum announces that he
and the provisional St. Louis Local Quorum are officially ready
for action, with the first task at hand designing new charters
for Locals of the organization, to be obtained through exchange
for the charters in hand of the old constituent parties of the
organization. The National Committee is to be funded by a 5 cent
per member per month assessment, to be paid by state organizations
and the locals themselves in unorganized states and territories.
"The amount and character of the work performed by your
National Committee depends in a great measure on the promptness
with which said committee is supplied with funds," he reminds
the party members.
Undetermined
Month
"Socialism and the Negro
Problem," by Charles H. Vail [1902]. Full text of a pamphlet by Rev. Charles H. Vail,
National Organizer for the Socialist Party of America. Vail states
that it was the unprofitableness of the chattel slavery system
that led to its abandonment in the northern states, replaced
by the even more onerous system of wage slavery, in which workers
were placed in the unenviable position of competing against one
another to sell their labor-power on the market. According to
Vail, "The chattel method was fully as desirable for the
slave, for the owner, having a stake in the life and health of
his slave, desired to keep him in good condition. The wage slave-owner
however, does not particularly care whether his wage slave lives
or dies, for he has no money invested in him, and there are thousands
of others to take his place." The race question was largely
an element of the main question: capitalist exploitation of all
labor. In Vail's view the solution of this lay in "the abolition
of wage slavery and the emancipation of both black and white
from the servitude to capitalist masters." Under socialism,
educational opportunities for workers of all races would be developed
and racial bigotry would be gradually eliminated since "race
prejudice cannot exist with true enlightenment." Vail declares
that "Socialism recognizes no class nor race distinction.
It draws no line of exclusion. Under Socialism the negro will
enjoy, equally with the whites, the advantages and opportunities
for culture and refinement. In this higher education we may be
sure race prejudices will be obliterated."
JANUARY
"Secretary's Full Report:
Doings of the National Organization Since Unity Convention Set
Forth: Numerous Issues Have Been Raised," by Leon Greenbaum
[Jan. 24, 1902] This
is a seminal document, the extremely lengthy status report of
Executive Secretary Leon Greenbaum about the status and affairs
of the Socialist Party during its first 5 months of operation
(Aug. 1 to Dec. 31, 1901). A few observations: (1) It is evident
from this report that, contrary to previous belief, the first
Executive Secretary of the SPA was quite competent from an administrative
standpoint, and precise records were maintained. In fact, based
on this detailed report an exact 1901 monthly average of "Dues
Actually Paid" for the SPA can be calculated for the first
time -- 3,971. (Bear in mind not all states were paying
dues regularly and reliably and the number of individuals identifying
themselves with the organization may well have been approximately
double this figure.) (2) Greenbaum and the St. Louis Quorum obviously
placed primacy on the task of forging ties between the Socialist
Party and the mainstream of the American labor movement embodied
in the American Federation of Labor; more trade unionist than
political actionist; (3) The early SPA was impoverished and on
the brink of insolvency; despite this and the fact that the party
did not produce an official organ, the paid staff of the National
Office swelled to 4; (4) Many organizations, including the powerful
Social Democratic Party of Wisconsin, did not pay ONE SINGLE
MONTHLY DUES NICKEL to the National Office of the Socialist Party
in 1901; despite this, they remained affiliated with the organization
and represented on its National Council; (5) As with the Socialist
Labor Party before it and the Communist movement after it, the
Socialist Party of America experienced ongoing factional warfare
from its birth to the present day, exemplified in this report
by summaries of the situation in Kansas and New Hampshire. Intra-party
factionalism seems to be the norm among political organizations
in general and radical political organizations in particular.
Includes photos of Leon Greenbaum, Charles H. Vail, and John
C. Chase.
"Good Work Well Done: National
Committee Holds 3 Days' Session and Accomplishes Much Work: Minutes
of Meeting Show What Was Done." [Jan. 24-26, 1902] Despite the self-congratulatory
headline in St. Louis Labor, the first annual gathering
of the National Committee of the Socialist Party of America much
hot air and little sweat was generated by the meeting. Regardless
of the NC's ponderous pace, there were fundamental decisions
taken which shaped the form of the organization for years to
come: (1) The extensive report of National Secretary Leon Greenbaum
was received and acted upon; (2) A list of approved party speakers
was to be established and made available to the various state
organizations, with arrangements to be made by the national office
directly with locals if necessary (a softening of the "state
autonomy" concept); (3) Decision was made to establish a
uniform system of national dues stamps and cards since during
the last 5 months of 1901 several states apparently made use
of their own stamps for dues collections or used no stamps at
all; (4) NC member George Boomer was dispatched by the National
Committee as a plenipotentiary to Utah in order to resolve the
faction fight gripping that state. (This marked an extension
of the power of the center over the semi-autonomous state party
organizations); (5) A referendum was initiated establishing a
logo for the party, pitting clasped hands superimposed over a
globe against a red flag design. (The clasped hands logo eventually
won in the ensuing 1902 referendum.)
JULY
"Immediate Demands"
by Seymour Steadman. [July 1902] The
case for support of a "minimum program" for the Socialist
Party of America is made here by Seymour Steadman, a Chicago
lawyer who remained an important member of the Socialist Party
for the rest of his life. Incremental improvement of the life
of the workers weakened the grip of the capitalist class, Steadman
argued, while failure to support a program of social reform would
"leave no program for a possible elected candidate, and
the conceit of it will breed sterility, and make DeLeon the true
Messiah." A document making clear the ideological division
of the SPA between reformist and revolutionary trends dated back
to the initial days of the party.
AUGUST
"Lines of Division in American
Socialism," by A.M. Simons [Aug. 1902] Editorial from the pages of the
International Socialist Review by Editor Algie Simons.
Simons notes the division of the American socialist movement
between a Western-based, rural, agrarian element, largely native-born,
which came to socialism through daily struggles and an Eastern-based,
urban, trade union element, largely immigrant in ethnic origin,
which came to socialism "quite largely through direct ideological
propaganda." The process of amalgamation of these two sometimes
contradictory tendencies was imcomplete and the potential for
a split was great due to a lack of mutual understanding and an
ill-conceived insistence of the Eastern group to dictate to the
indigenous radicals from the frontier. "The older Socialist
of the cities lays great stress on certain phrases and forms
of organization and manners of transacting business, and he uses
the knowledge of these phrases and compliance with these forms
and mannerisms as tests of the orthodoxy of his Western comrade
of the prairies," Simons says. The Western farmers, on the
other hand, are "in revolt against capitalism" and
when they are "met with a catechism especially prepared
for the factory wage-worker" and put forward by those who
are many times "most ridiculously ignorant of the economic
conditions surrounding" these farmers, a sharply negative
reaction results. Just as urban socialists would receive poorly
a propagandist who was a farmer with no conception of the workings
to the factory or the place of the unions, neither should urban
Eastern socialists presume to lecture to the agrarian radicals
of the West, Simons states. The farmers, possessors of greater
individual initiative than the industrial wage-workers of the
East, "are going to revolt politically whether the Socialists
have the sagacity to work with them or not," he states.
Both the Eastern trade unionists and the Western radicalized
agrarians provide promising fields for the Socialist Party's
work -- the latter being "equally rich, if not richer"
than the former, according to Simons.
SEPTEMBER
"Socialist Agitation Among
Farmers in America," by Karl Kautsky (translated by Ernest
Untermann) [Sept. 1902] The
dean of European Marxism weighs in on American capitalism in
the pages of Die Neue Zeit. Kautsky indicates that the
torch has been passed in the capitalist world, that "while
in the middle of the last [19th] century it was necessary to
study England in order to understand the tendencies of modern
capitalism, our knowledge on this subject today must be derived
from America." Further, more information was available about
the "last phase" of capitalism through the study of
Germany than England. As for America, "Nowhere are all the
means of political power so shamelessly purchasable as in America:
administration, popular representation, courts, police and press;
nowhere are they so directly dependent on the great capitalists."
Kautsky sees America as dominated by an Anglo-Saxon national
character: "The Anglo-Saxon is of an eminently practical
nature. He prefers inductive reasoning in science to the deductive
method, and keeps as much as possible out of the way of generalizing
statements. In politics he only approaches problems that promise
immediate success, and he prefers to overcome arising difficulties
as he meets them instead of penetrating to the bottom of them."
In politics the Anglo-American workers consequently pursued a
"shortsighted policy which should take heed only of the
moment and regard it more practical to run after a bourgeois
swindler who promises real successes for tomorrow, instead of
standing by a party of their own class which is honest enough
to confess that it has nothing but struggles and sacrifices in
store for the next future, and which declares it to be foolish
to expect to reap immediately after sowing." Kautsky then
delves at length into the new book by International Socialist
Review editor Algie Simons, The American Farmer, which
he touts as a "welcome beginning" of a "new scientific
literature for the American socialist movement. While acknowledging
Simons' statistic that farmers make up 40% of American voters
compared to the mere 25% represented by industrial workers, Kautsky
remains clear to whom the Socialist Party should make its appeal:
"At present it is not a question of winning the political
power, but taking root in the popular mind. For this purpose
the industrial proletariat is certainly better fitted than the
farming population. To agitate among farmers when the mass of
the city workers are still strangers to Socialism is equivalent
to bringing rocky soil under cultivation at great expense and
leaving fertile soil untouched from lack of labor power."
Kautsky declares that "It is the class struggle of the present
which forms parties and keeps them together. But in this struggle
the farmers have different interests than the industrial laborers";
therefore it would be a mistake to make a concentrated appeal
to them. "A new attempt to unite large farmers and proletarians
in the same party would end the same way as the Greenback and
the Populist movement, or, what is more likely, will fail in
the outset," Kautsky emphatically states.
"Semi-Annual Report of the
National Committee of the Socialist Party, Sept. 12, 1902."
This 2nd constitutionally-required
report of the Socialist Party's governing National Committee,
prepared by the St. Louis Local Quorum, is sharply critical of
structural defects which revealed themselves in the first year
of the organization's operations. "We are fast becoming
a mere 'federation of Socialist Parties,' each of these parties
having its territorial limits and jealously guarding against
any encroachment upon its domain," the NC Report charges.
The national organization was entirely at the mercy of the various
State Committees, which turned in their per capita assessments
late and without adequate documentation. Seven state organizations
(including the major SPA states of Illinois, New York, and Wisconsin)
were in arrears for various lengths of time, the report noted,
adding that "the national constitution makes it mandatory
upon State Committees to pay national dues monthly, but the National
Committee has no power to enforce this provision, which the State
Committees for the most part have not lived up to." State
Committees failed to make their required semi-annual reports
to the National Committee including their locals and membership
counts. "As a consequence, the National Secretary [Leon
Greenbaum] is unable to determine whether the states are forwarding
their full quota of national dues," the NC Report states,
adding that as a result "It has been impossible since the
Unity Convention [July-Aug. 1901] to determine the number of
locals and membership of the party in the United States."
The federative structure of the party and lack of state compliance
with the constitution had left the national organization underfunded
and unable to finance necessary national propaganda or even to
pay off the party's creditors, the NC Report charges, resulting
in costly and spasmodic state and local efforts on a piecemeal
basis and "embarrassment" on the part of the Local
Quorum. Further, extreme state autonomy had also been a boon
to disruptive factionalism, with faction fights taking place
in 5 state organizations during the SPA's first 18 months. The
Local Quorum consequently recommends the convocation of a special
national convention to address these defects.
NOVEMBER
"The Western Labor Movement,"
by Eugene V. Debs [Nov. 1902] Socialist leader Gene Debs takes strong exception
to the "uncalled for, unwise, and wholly unaccountable official
pronunciamento of the St. Louis 'Quorum,' purporting to speak
for the National Committee" which asserted that "While
the Socialist Party in national convention has solemnly pledged
itself to the unification of the trade unions, yet a contrary
policy has been set up in the West by comrades acting in a dual
capacity as organizers of the American Labor Union and the Socialist
Party, thus misrepresenting the attitude of our party and compromising
it in their attempts to build up a rival organization to the
American Federation of Labor." Debs charges that "Stripped
of unnecessary verbiage and free from subterfuge, the Socialist
Party has been placed in the attitude of turning its back upon
the young, virile, class-conscious union movement of the West,
and fawning at the feet of the 'pure and simple' movement of
the East." He expounds the history of the American Labor
Union from its origins in the Western Federation of Miners, which
felt itself abandoned in the midst of a bitter strike by the
other member unions of the American Federation of Labor (to which
the UFM also affiliated). In response, the Western Federation
of Miners left the AF of L to help for the Western Labor Union
-- an organization which later styled itself anew as the American
Labor Union, a Socialist labor federation on a national scale.
Debs asserts it was not the ALU which was the cause of dualism
and factional struggle in the labor movement, but rather the
crushing policies of the AF of L, which threatened destruction
of the ALU and its affiliates if it did not return to the AF
of L umbrella. Debs reveals himself supportive of radical dualism
in the labor movement when he declares: "There is one way
and one only to unite the American trade union movement. The
American Federation of Labor must go forward to the American
Labor Union; the American Labor Union will never go back to the
American Federation of Labor. Numbers count for nothing; principle
and progress for everything."
DECEMBER
"The American Labor Movement:
A reply to Eugene Debs," by G.A. Hoehn [Dec. 1902] Editor of St. Louis Labor,
Socialist Party Local Quorum member, and partisan of the American
Federation of Labor Gustav "Gus" Hoehn responds to
Gene Debs' Nov. 1902 International Socialist Review article,
"The Western Labor Movement" with an ISR piece
of his own. Hoehn declares that "the relationship between
trade unionism and Socialism, i.e., the attitude of the politically
organized Socialists toward the Trade Union and general labor
movement, is the most vital question in the American Socialist
movement." He sees in the fledgling American Labor Union
a repetition of the grave error of Daniel DeLeon and his associates
in establishing a dual federation, the Socialist Trades &
Labor Alliance, in opposition to the American Federation of Labor
in 1896. The ST&LA conducted a "warfare of revenge and
destruction on the economic field," Hoehn states, leading
to "the demoralization and the suicidal work of the Socialist
Labor Party itself" when the party was inexorably drawn
into factional turmoil within the various national unions themselves.
The forerunner of the Socialist Party of America broke with the
SLP's trade union policy and based itself on a separation of
the economic (trade union) and political (party) wings of the
labor movement. While "every Socialist applauded" the
Western Labor Union's decision to endorse Socialism at its 1902
convention, Hoehn notes that "the Western Labor Union changed
its name into American Labor Union and decided to extend its
field of operation to the Eastern states" -- thus unleashing
disruptional factional war in the union movement. "Our Socialist
Party movement cannot afford, has no right, to be dragged into
a fight between two national Federations of Trade Unions,"
Hoehn declares, adding "The St. Louis "Quorum"
took action on the ALU matter after it was called upon to issue
an organizer's commission of the Socialist Party to a general
officer and organizer of the American Labor Union, and after
considerable confusion had been created amongst our comrades
in various parts of the country, which goes to show that an attempt
was made to drag the Socialist Party right into this trade union
controversy and rivalry."
JANUARY
"Auguries for the New Year:
E.V. Debs Writes of His Late Tour," by Eugene V. Debs [Jan.
3, 1903] Report
from the road by Socialist leader Gene Debs. Debs notes that
he had visited 10 states during his most recent trip and everywhere
lectured before enthusiastic crowds filling the house. Whereas
a few years hence he would have been met with derision, in this
latest outing he had been welcomed by city fathers and important
dignitaries in many of the communities he visited, marking an
advance in the status of the socialist movement. Debs spoke in
schools, colleges, churches, and in local opera houses under
a wide variety of auspices -- only twice at meetings sponsored
by Socialist locals themselves. Debs declares that "the
people everywhere are not only ready for the gospel of Socialism,
but receive it with every mark of enthusiasm, and the telling
points in a speaker's argument are applauded just as heartily
in a church or school room as they are in a Socialist propaganda
meeting."
"Two Resolutions of Local
St. Louis, Socialist Party, January 4, 1903." The early Socialist Party was
structured as a federation of semi-autonomous state organizations,
governed by a strong "National Committee" of state
representatives, with operations coordinated by a weak National
Office. Day to day affairs of the National Office were to be
handled by a paid National Executive Secretary working in conjuntion
with 5 members of the local of the city in which the National
Office was located, selected by the National Committee and called
that committee's "Local Quorum." St. Louis was established
as the first location of the National Office by the founding
convention of the SPA in the summer of 1901. The 5 member Local
Quorum from St. Louis, including Executive Secretary Greenbaum,
sought to assert themselves in favor of the experiment in political
alliance being conducted with some success in San Francisco --
an action condemned as anathema to the principles of the Socialist
Party by many party members. These two resolutions, adopted at
the January 1903 General Meeting of Local St. Louis, formally
condemn the San Francisco "fusion" experiment, and
call upon Executive Secretary Greenbaum and 3 members of the
Local Quorum to resign, for having written and spoken in favor
of the San Francisco model. One resolution cites the Socialist
Party platform, which states: "The Democratic, Republican,
the bourgeois public ownership parties, and all other parties
which do not stand for a complete overthrow of the capitalist
system of production, are alike political representatives of
the capitalist class" as justification for this action.
If Greenbaum and his associates refuse to submit their resignations,
the second resolution calls for the National Committee to remove
them. At the end of Jan. 1903, the annual meeting of the National
Committee voted to move the National Office to Omaha, Nebraska,
thus ending the St. Louis fusion controversy.
"Resolutions of National
Executive Committee, Socialist Party of America: St. Louis, Missouri
-- January 29-31, 1903." One of the great issues of the early Socialist
Party of America was the role of that organization in relation
to other working class political organizations sharing the field.
No issue burned so hot as the question of "fusioin"
-- whether the SPA should periodically terminate its participation
in local, state, or national campaigns in favor of joint campaign
activity with other political organizations in an attempt to
win power and thereby enact palliative change. The St. Louis
Local Quorum -- the body which handled day-to-day operations
of the SPA -- seems to have favored and engaged in "fusion"
activities with other labor political organizations. This provided
a sound pretext for the annual meeting of the party's highest
body, the National Committee, to remove the SPA's headquarters
from St. Louis to Omaha, Nebraska in January 1903. The National
Committee adopted the resolutions (1) establishing a party lecture
bureau; (2) delineating the role of the SPA to the bitterly divided
union movement (establishing a policy of non-interference in
union affairs and maintaining separation of the union organizations
from SPA affairs); (3) encouraging the German Socialist movement;
and (4) enacting a strict anti-fusion provision that called for
the expulsion of any state organization engaging in fusion activities
or allowing its locals to engage in fusion activites.
"Proceedings of the National
Committee, SPA: St. Louis -- Jan. 29-31, 1903," by George
E. Boomer Washington
state's National Committeeman George Boomer provides this account
of the annual meeting of the SPA's governing National Committee
(approximating a Central Committee in function), which voted
to move party headquarters from St. Louis to Omaha, effective
immediately, and replaced Executive Secretary Leon Greenbaum
of St. Louis with William Mailly of Massachusetts, and elected
a new 5 member National Quorum (approximating the SPA's later
National Executive Committee in form and function). In addition,
Boomer notes the passage of a strong anti-Labor Party resolution,
reading: "That no state or local organization or member
of the party shall under any circumstances fuse, combine, or
compromise with any political party or organization, or refrain
from making nominations in order to further the interests of
candidates of such parties or organizations." Boomer tersely
concludes with a note that a "Line is being drawn between
Agrarians and Proletarians" within the SPA.
"National Committee: The
Policy of the Socialist Movement Outlined for Another Year: An
Enthusiastic Gathering: St. Louis, Missouri -- Jan. 29-Feb. 1,
1903," by Allan W. Ricker Leading Appeal to Reason journalist Allan
Ricker leaves this account of the seminal 1903 annual gathering
of the National Committee of the Socialist Party -- a conclave
similar in form and content (if not size) to a national convention.
Ricker approvingly notes the disavowal of the St. Louis Quorum's
policy of fusionism with the emerging Union Labor Party movement,
including the text of the resolution on the matter which concluded,
"in no uncertain tones" that "no state or local
organization, or member of the party shall under any circumstances,
fuse, combine, or compromise with any political party or organization,
or refrain from making nominations in order to further the interests
of candidates of such parties or organizations." Ricker
also notes the choice of William Mailly of Massachusetts over
W.G. Critchlow of Ohio as the new National Secretary of the SPA.
Ricker hints at the division of the 22 delegates into two camps:
the post-Populist "West" and the international Socialist
"East." With regards to the National Secretary, he
states: "The West...wished to be generous with the East,
and while considerable distrust of Western Socialists was manifested
on the part of Comrades Carey, of Massachusetts, and Hillquit,
of New York, and while the West by uniting could have selected
both the Secretary and the headquarters, yet they manifested
no purpose to exert their power, and on the final vote, Berlyn,
of Illinois, and Christensen, of Omaha, voted for Mailly, thus
electing him." The Western Socialists did win the day on
the question of location of headquarters however, with Omaha
chosen. "Omaha is the center of the revolutionary section
of the United States. No argument need be adduced to prove this
to a Western man," Ricker declares. Ricker includes very
brief character sketches of a few of the National Committee members
as well as the text of the Resolution on Trade Unions, which
reaffirmed the line of the 1901 Unity Convention delineating
between the Socialist Party and the union movement as the distinct
and specific political and economic arms of the labor movement.
Ricker summarizes the policy: "The Socialist Party will
assist and support every union in its economic conflicts with
capitalism, whether that union has endorsed Socialism or not,
because its true mission is to fight the political battles of
the working class. It will not enter any internal conflicts between
labor organizations [i.e. the AFL vs. the ALU]... The Socialist
Party will adopt the honorable course of confining its efforts
to converting individuals to the philosophy of Socialism, and
will content itself with the knowledge that in due time all union
men will become Socialists."
"Review of National Committee
Meeting: St. Louis - Jan. 29-Feb. 1, 1903," by Victor L.
Berger Wisconsin
National Committee member Victor Berger presents his contrarian
account of the seminal 1903 National Committee meeting, which
renounced the tactics of the St. Louis Quorum, elected a new
National Secretary, moved party headquarters from St. Louis to
Omaha, and reaffirmed the party's anti-interventionist trade
union policy. Berger indicates that a "really remarkable
change" had taken place over the course of the past year
among the members of the NC on the question nearest and dearest
to his heart, that of "state autonomy" within the SPA.
"Thanks to the conduct of the St. Louis Quorum, the sentiment
of almost all the committeemen was outspoken in favor of state
autonomy. Every member felt that the success of the party last
year was due in no small degree to the many organizations of
the many states and to the consequent multiplied intensity of
energy. Indeed our party would have been lost if in last fall's
elections it had been even left to the initiative of the Local
Quorum in St. Louis," Berger declares. Berger emphasizes
that the majority of NC members in 1903 had been relative newcomers
to Socialism, former "middle of the roader" Populists
for whom "fusionism" was as a curse word. Berger is
critical of the majority's lynch mob attitude toward the St.
Louis Quorum and National Secretary Leon Greenbaum and for their
"rather high-handed" interpretation of the party constitution
in moving headquarters without resort to party referendum and
for completely restructuring the governing Local Quorum without
resort to constitutional amendment. Berger believes the newly
selected Local Quorum shows a "strong agrarian coloring"
which "would be absolutely out of touch with the proletarian
masses of the country which the Socialist Party must win before
all things if it wants to have success." Referenda to overturn
both of these erroneous decisions were forthcoming, Berger indicates.
FEBRUARY
"Cooperation in Publishing
Socialist Literature," by Charles H. Kerr [Feb. 1903] The man behind America's leading
Marxist publishing house of the first two decades of the 20th
Century explains his operation to prospective financial supporters
in this essay, published as a pamphlet in 1903. Kerr notes the
origins of Charles H. Kerr & Co. as a publisher of Unitarian
literature in 1886; his turn to populism in 1893, which severed
him from his Unitarian base of support; his launching in 1897
of the magazine The New Time, with former editor of The
Arena B.O. Flower of Boston at the editorial helm; and his move
to "International Socialism" in 1899 and hiring of
A.M. Simons, former editor of The Chicago Socialist, in
1900. Kerr explains the economics of book publishing in some
detail, as well as his plan of selling $10 shares of stock in
the company, which entitled the shareholder to purchase socialist
publications at cost. Kerr also makes a pitch for donations and
loans (interest free or 5%) to fund an advertising campaign to
spread the message of scientific socialism through ads in the
socialist and capitalist press.
APRIL
"How I Became a Socialist"
by Federic F. Heath. [April 1903] Autobiographical account of the intellectual journey
of Milwaukee Socialist Frederic Heath from liberal Republican
to Bellamy Nationalist to founding member of the Social Democracy
in America. While acknowledging the role played by Socialist
Labor Party literature in formation of his personal philosophy,
Heath draws a sharp line between his own views, which he believes
steeped in "democracy," and those of the SLP. A "Cooperative
Commonwesath secured through cataclysm" is called a "wild
dream," utopian and contrary to the teaching of history.
Further evidence of the long-running division of the American
movement between the proto-Bolshevik SLP and the dominant social
democratic trend in the Socialist Party of America.
MAY
"In Dixie: Things Seen from
a Car Window -- New Machinery for Cotton Production -- The Negro
and Politics," by Allan W. Ricker [May 9, 1903] The Debsian Socialist Party has
been charged -- with some justification -- with having turned
a blind eye to the question of racism and the struggle for emancipation
by American blacks, rather piously reducing the great question
of systemic racism to a minor footnote of the colorblind class
struggle. But facts show that the Socialist Party was not entirely
silent on the matter. This article by leading Appeal to Reason
columnist A.W. Ricker deals at some length with the so-called
"Negro problem." Ricker describes his conversation
with a group of Southerners in a rail car en route to Birmingham,
using the quoted remarks of a Mississippi county clerk to expose
racist thinking and the anti-democratic nature of one party Yellow
Dog Democratic rule in the South: "In the land of democracy,
there is no democracy, for whenever this Democratic machine is
threatened, it will attempt to count out the white working class
of the South, along with the colored. I imagine that if I were
Mr. Bryan I would feel awfully proud of having been the representative
of a political party that its national platform mourns over a
few million barbarians who have come under the rule of American
capitalism, while my chief political support came from a region
that has denied self-government not only to 5 or 10 millions
of penurious negroes, but about one-fourth of that many whites,"
Ricker declares. Against this reactionary Southern Democratic
machine are allayed two progressive forces, "the Republican
Party, representing the capitalist class," and "the
Socialist Party, representing the working class." Citing
the proletarian nature of the region, Ricker makes note of the
little-known base of support for the Populist Party -- and by
extension, Socialism -- in the deep South. He notes: "The
People's Party carried both Georgia and Alabama, but were counted
out by the Democratic machine. In Alabama the Populists carried
by big majorities 30 counties, tied the Democrats in 30 more,
and then the Democratic machine returned enough majority in the
6 black counties to overcome all of the foregoing. The democracy
counted all the negroes for the Democratic ticket. Now the Democratic
politicians, thinking all opposition destroyed, has disfranchised
the negro vote, and by so doing have severed their own jugulars."
Prospects for Socialist organization in the region are thus positive,
he believes.
JUNE
"On the Color Question,"
by Eugene V. Debs [June 20, 1903] Extended excerpt of an article written by Socialist
Party publicist Gene Debs at the invitation of the editor for
the Indianapolis World -- a "Negro" newspaper.
Debs sees an economic basis for the racism of those unions denying
black workers the right of membership: "There was a time
when organized labor in the main was hostile to the Negro, and
it must be admitted in all candor that certain unions, such as
the railroad brotherhoods, still ignorantly guard the trades
they represent, as well as their unions, against invasion by
the colored man, and in this they have always had the active
support of the corporation in whose interest it is to have workingmen
at each others' throats, that they may keep them all, black and
white, in subjection." Debs asserts that by way of contrast
"the Socialist Party, the political wing of the labor movement,
is absolutely free from color prejudice." He optimistically
indicates his belief that the labor union, the economic wing
of the labor movement is rapidly becoming free of racist prejudice,
and that "in the next few years not a trace of it will remain
even in the so-called black belt of Southern States." Racism
is nothing more than an aspect of the class struggle, in Debs'
view: "There is no 'Negro problem,' apart from the general
labor problem. The Negro is no one whit worse off than thousands
of white slaves who throng the same labor market to sell their
labor-power to the same industrial masters. The workers, white
and black, want land and mines and factories and machinery, and
they are organizing to put themselves in possession of these
means of production and then they will be their own employers,
they will get all they produce and the problem will be solved."
JULY
"State Secretary Reports."
[July 1903] In
July of 1903, the weekly Appeal to Reason published a
special issue which included individual reports by 23 of the
State Secretaries of the Socialist Party of America. Many of
these recounted the history of the socialist movement in their
state up to that juncture, details difficult to uncover from
any other source. The result is an extremely important primary
source document, an excellent starting place for in depth research
of specific state histories. State Secretaries reporting here
included those from Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado,
Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota,
Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania,
South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Vermont, and Wisconsin.
SEPTEMBER
"Italian Socialist Convention:
West Hoboken, NJ -- Sept. 6-7, 1903," by Silvio Origo In September of 1903 the Federazione
Socialista Italiana held its first convention in West Hoboken,
NJ -- a conclave attended by 33 delegates from 8 states. The
gathering marked the start of a turn of the Italian-American
radical movement, built around the daily newspaper Il Proletario,
away from the Socialist Labor Party and to the upstart Socialist
Party of America. A resolution indicating that the Italian Federation
was "on general principles with the SLP" but which
made it "optional for comrades in places where there was
no SLP to vote for the uncompromising candidates of the other
Socialist Party" was rejected by the official delegate of
the SLP as an unacceptable half-measure. In response, a new resolution
was put forward, causing the Italian Federation "sever all
connections and alliances with the SLP, and constitute themselves
into an independent organization." This resolution was passed
by a vote of 19 to 15, and disaffiliation was thus accomplished.
The gathering also discussed the federation's position towards
the trade unions and the cooperative movement and took steps
to establish an "Immigration Bureau" designed to keep
the "poor and simple Italian" new arrival to America
from the clutches of "the padrone, the banker, and many
other colonial sharks."
OCTOBER
"What Revolutionary Socialism
Means," by Carl D. Thompson [Oct. 1903] Very explicit exposition of the term "Revolutionary
Socialism" by a leading figure in Victor D. Berger's Social
Democratic Party of Wisconsin. Rev. Thompson quotes Karl Kautsky
at length to "settle" his assertion that "revolutionary
Socialism" has no connection to violent overthrow of the
state, but is rather a synonym for "scientific Socialism"
-- meaning one who believes in the use of "the independent
political party to capture the powers of government by a hitherto
oppressed class as a means of securing Socialism." While
the term "revolutionary Socialism" is misunderstood
by an "ordinary audience," it remains a phrase necessary
to "distinguish us as Socialists from those who merely wish
to patch up the present system and keep it," according to
Thompson. "It is to make the point of difference clear and
to distinguish sharply between [reform] programs and Socialism
that the Socialists use the term 'revolutionary.' We are not
'reformers' -- we are 'revolutionists.'" Thompson continues
by stating, "It is safe to say that every scientific Socialist
in the world would regard it a calamity to the cause, as well
as to humanity, to have a violent upheaval in society.... Socialism
offers a possible, a peaceful solution."
"The Disintegration of the
SLP and the Establishment of the Socialist Party of America,"
by Morris Hillquit [Oct. 1903] Section from Hillquit's History of Socialism in
the United States (1903) in which he relates the story of the
1899 split in the Socialist Labor Party and the subsequent negotiations
of the SLP's "Rochester faction" (so-called "Kangaroos)
for unity with the Social Democratic Party of America -- two
events in which Hillquit was himself a primary participant. Hillquit
lists two primary factors behind the split of the SLP: the Socialist
Trade and Labor Association, the umbrella association of dual
unions "sprung as a surprise on the convention of 1896,"
which was billed as being a tool for "organization of the
unorganized" but which instead "within a few years
succeeded in placing the party in a position of antagonism to
organized labor, as well as to all socialistic and semi-socialistic
elements outside of the party organization;" secondly, an
intolerant internal party regime in which the "strict disciplinarians"
developed into "intolerant fanatics." " Every
criticism of their policy was resented by them as an act of treachery,
every dissension from their views was decried as an act of heresy,
and the offenders were dealt with unmercifully. Insubordinate
members were expelled by scores, and recalcitrant 'sections'
were suspended with little ceremony," according to Hillquit.
Hillquit also provides the best extant memoir of the negotiations
between the insurgent SLP Right with which he was associated
and the Social Democratic Party -- a process which resulted in
a split of the SDP before eventual reunification at the founding
convention of the Socialist Party of America in 1901. Includes
a photograph of SDP member John C. Chase.
NOVEMBER
"The Negro and the Class
Struggle," by Eugene V. Debs [Nov. 1903] A fearless and principled defense
of black Americans delivered by the past and future candidate
of the Socialist Party of America. While acknowledging that "malign
spirit of race hatred" was so pervasive in the south that
even some socialists had succumbed to the reactionary ideology,
Debs unflinchingly stated that "The whole world is under
obligation to the negro, and that the white heel is still upon
the black neck is simply proof that the world is not yet civilized.The
history of the negro in the United States is a history of crime
without a parallel." Debs argued that the whole question
of "social equality" was inseparably linked to the
struggle for economic freedom, for socialism -- "there never
was any social inferiority that was not the shrivelled fruit
of economic inequality," he says. The prescription was clear
to Debs: "Our position as socialists and as a party is perfectly
plain. We have simply to say: 'The class struggle is colorless.'
The capitalists, white, black, and all other colors, on the other
side."
JANUARY
"The ABC of Socialism,"
by Hermon F. Titus [Jan. 3, 1904] A brief agitational outline of the principles
of socialism written for a special propaganda issue of The
Socialist (Seattle) by Left Wing leader Hermon Titus. The
goal of socialism is "abundance for all" writes Titus,
and he declares the means to this end to be for the working class
and its allies to "Take to ourselves these vast new inventions
and use them for producing new wealth for all instead of producing
it for a few." "The only reason we are not all well
off now is that a few people own these great modern tools and
refuse to let us work at them except when they can make a profit
for themselves," he adds. "We are a very practical
lot, we Socialists, we political Socialists," writes Titus,
adding, "We indulge in no dreams or false hopes. We say
to the worker, now destitute: 'Come with us, join our party,
vote yourselves into power, use that power of government to capture
back those means of wealth production which the capitalists have
stolen from you, and then you will get all that abundance which
modern inventions entitle you to.'" While his vision for
obtaining power is electoral, Titus clearly envisions something
approximating a proletarian vanguard party, when he writes: "The
great present mission of the Socialist Party is to gather together
all those workers whose real interests lie in abolishing the
private ownership of the Means of Production, and also to shut
out of the party the class whose real interests lie in the preservation
of the present system." Includes short biography and portrait
of Hermon F. Titus.
APRIL
"The Multnomah County, Oregon,
Socialist Party Convention of 1904: Two Reports from the Contemporary
Press. An esoteric piece of local history,
this file consists of two pieces of newspaper reportage on the
Multnomah County Convention held by the Socialist Party of Oregon
in Portland in April 1904. The convention nominated a complete
slate of candidates for the November 1904 election, a complete
list of which appears in the article. A demonstration of the
deep roots of the early SPA in the periphery of America, far
away from the urban meccas of Chicago and New York.
"Constitution of the Socialist
Party of America: Adopted in National Convention at Indianapolis,
Ind., August 1, 1901 -- as revised." This is the version of the SPA's constitution
in effect on the eve of the 1904 Party Convention, with editorial
footnotes indicating the specific alterations made to the document
over the party's first 2-1/2 years. Chief among the changes made
in this interval were a respecification of the Local Quorum --
a 5 member body that approximated the National Executive Committee
in function; the alteration of the position of National Secretary
to a position with a fixed 1 year term of office; and the elimination
of constitutionally-required reporting by the Executive Secretary
and the National Committee to the state organizations. Also apparently
removed was a paragraph that was probably regarded as superfluous
at the time but which would be a matter of extreme import 15
years hence, specifically: "The platform of the Socialist
Party, adopted in convention or by referendum vote, shall be
the supreme declaration of the party, and all state and municipal
organizations shall, in the adoption of their platforms, conform
thereto." This fundamental position remains in less strenuous
language in Art. VI, Sec. 1: "Each state or territory may
organize in such way or manner, and under such rules and regulations,
as it may determine, but not in conflict with the provisions
of this constitution."
MAY
"Report of the National Secretary
of the Socialist Party of America: Delivered to the 1904 Chicago
Convention, May 3, 1904," by William Mailly Annual statement of party achievements
and shortcomings by the Executive Secretary of the Socialist
Party of America, made to the 2nd Convention of the party (May
1904). Mailly, a radical former miner and journalist who would
latter work together on a Socialist newspaper with left wing
leader Hermon Titus, is sharply critical of the tendency of members
to cast themselves in the glorious role of speechmakers rather
than to seek to perform the unheralded-but-essential job of efficient
administrators of Socialist locals. Mailly chastens members for
conceiving of the SPA as an organization of unrestricted individualism
(of persons and state organizations) rather than ordered cooperation.
He arrives at an ideal conception of the party member's duty
heading towards the notion of "democratic centralism":
"True democracy involves cooperation, and upon our ability
to cooperate successfully everything depends. And cooperation
in turn involves adaptation to one another; the ability to accept
the will of the majority wherever and whenever expressed, as
our individual will, until such time as our individual will can
be expressed by the majority. And this again in turn involves
faith in the movement as an organized force, the exercise of
charity toward each other, and the prevalence of the spirit of
comradeship throughout the movement." There are some Socialists
who fear such an arrangement, with its strong National Office,
calling it "bureaucratic," Mailly says. These "have
yet to learn that the purest and highest individualism is that
which can subserve itself when occasion requires, to the social
will and social good. The real bureaucracy to fear is that which
would make a few people the ungoverned and ungovernable authorities
and dictators of the movement. There need be no fear of any kind
of a bureaucracy so long as the party machinery remains in the
hands and under the control of an alert and enlightened membership."
The party must steer a careful center course between extreme
state autonomy, with its inefficient duplication of simple functions,
which "makes towards anarchy," and an overly centralized
apparatus which denies rank and file democracy and "makes
towards absolutism," Mailly states. Mailly objects to the
current structure of a National Committee, based on 1 delegate
per state, as contributing towards sectionalism and factionalism,
in favor of a new executive body, a 7 or 9 National Executive
Committee elected at large. Mailly states his opposition to the
establishment of an official organ. The specter of the Socialist
Labor Party is present: "Past experience in this direction
should be ample warning against its adoption," Mailly states.
"Speech of Acceptance of
the Presidential Nomination of the Socialist Party: Chicago --
May 6, 1904," by Eugene V. Debs The 1904 Convention of the Socialist Party nominated
Indiana orator and journalist Gene Debs as the party's standard-bearer
in the forthcoming Presidential campaign. Debs made the trek
to Chicago to accept the party's nomination and made the following
speech of acceptance to the assembled faithful. Debs' characterization
of the situation sounds familiar: "There is a Republican
Party -- the dominant capitalist party of this time; the party
that has its representative in the White House; the party that
rules in both branches of Congress; the party that controls the
Supreme Court; the party that commands the press; the party that
gives inspiration to the subsidized pulpit; the party that guides
every force of government; the party that is in absolute power
in every department of our public affairs. And as a necessary
result we find that corruption is rampant... There is a Democratic
Party; a party that has not stock enough left to proclaim its
own bankruptcy; (laughter and applause) an expiring party that
totters upon the crumbling foundations of a dying class; a party
that is torn by dissension; a party that cannot unite; a party
that is looking backward and hoping for the resurrection of the
men who gave it inspiration a century ago; a party that is appealing
to the cemeteries of the past; a party that is trying to vitalize
itself by its ghosts, by its corpses, by those who cannot be
heard in their own defense. Thomas Jefferson would scorn to enter
a modern Democratic convention. He would have as little business
there as Abraham Lincoln would have in a latter-day Republican
convention. If they were living today they would be delegates
to this convention."
"The Working Class Convention:
National Convention of Socialist Party at Chicago, May 1 to May
6, 1904," by Hermon F. Titus Eyewitness account of the 2nd Convention of the
Socialist Party of America by Washington delegate Hermon F. Titus
-- Socialist publisher, medical doctor, and for over a decade
a former Baptist preacher. Titus makes use of language of a religious
revivalist in hailing the convention as a gathering of comrades
"aflame with an enthusiasm born of awakening class consciousness
and determined to effect their own emancipation," who saw
their "enthusiasm and determination" made more intense
by the "sense of fellowship and union which gradually developed
during those 6 days' sessions." Titus declares that "Suspicions
and differences disappeared as it became evident that the great
majority of the delegates stood unmistakably for the working
class first, last, and all the time. Factions and schemes were
annihilated before the proletarian will that asserted itself
in every test vote. There were no combinations or caucuses to
effect this result." Titus asserts that there was an effort
on the part of the delegates of Kansas, Missouri, and Wisconsin
to arrive at slates for key convention committees ahead of the
gathering, but that this effort came to nothing and "there
were no more caucuses during that convention." The sharpest
points of contention came upon the Trade Union resolution and
the new program for the party. The contentious "immediate
demands" which divided the founding convention in 1901 were
reduced to a "Program for State and Municipal Socialist
Officials," a set of "mere suggestions for action where
we succeed in electing candidates before our full triumph."
Includes short biography and picture of Hermon F. Titus.
"The Chicago Convention:
National Socialist Party Convention Held at Chicago, Ill., May
1-6, 1904: Official Report of H.F. Titus, Delegate-at-Large from
State of Washington." Delegate
Hermon Titus details for the membership of the Socialist Party
of Washington his actions on their behalf at the 2nd Convention
of the Socialist Party of America. Titus notes three challenges
of delegates before the Committee on Credentials on which he
sat, those of Gridley of Indiana (for being a city engineer for
a capitalist government), J. Stitt Wilson of California (for
sending a congratulatory telegram to a Mayoral victor who was
a member of another party), and Charles Randall of Utah (who
was the delegate of a Walter Thomas Mills-backed faction embroiled
in a dispute with another recognized Utah state organization
with ties to the radical Socialist Party of Washington). Titus
also details his work on the platform committee and notes that
he made the nominating speech for Ben Hanford for Vice President
of the United States -- a nomination which received many seconds
and which was approved unanimously by the convention. Mills notes
his additional efforts to stir up enough locals around the country
to demand the submission of the constitution, platform, and resolutions
of the Chicago Convention to the membership for ratification
by referendum vote. "I freely said and still maintain that
the platform adopted at Indianapolis and confirmed by referendum
of the party, remains our national platform until another is
adopted by the party membership itself," Titus notes. Titus
also points out two actions he took in an attempt to reduce overhead
costs of the SPA -- the reduction of the party's representation
to the forthcoming International Socialist Congress from 3 to
1 (successful), and to scale back the salary of the National
Secretary from $1500 to $1200 per year (failed). "I urged
that our dues are paid by workingmen on small wages and that
we must economize in every possible way," Titus reports.
JULY
"The Federal Government and
the Pullman Strike: Eugene V. Debs' Reply to Grover Cleveland's
Magazine Article," by Eugene V. Debs [circa July 7, 1904"
The 10 year anniversary
of the seminal 1894 Pullman Strike was the inspiration for former
President Grover Cleveland to pen a tendentious history of the
event, published in the pages of McClure's magazine. Cleveland's
one-sided misrepresentation of the affair drew the ire of former
head of the American Railway Union, Eugene V. Debs, who wrote
this lengthy article in reply (rejected by McClure's and ultimately
published in the pages of The Appeal to Reason). Cleveland's
triumphalist self-vindication was based on inaccurate information;
Cleveland had seemingly not even bothered to consult the report
of his own hand-picked commission to investigate the strike,
Debs states. The strike had been peacefully and effectively won
by the strikers, Debs indicates, before the organized railway
managers in collusion with a railroad lawyer appointed by President
Cleveland as special counsel to the government, gained relief
through the courts via an injunction against the ARU. Working
hand-in-glove with the Chicago police, the railroads had thousands
of unsavory "thugs, thieves, and ex-convicts" hired
as "deputy marshals," who caused acts of violence,
including the burning of boxcars and the cutting of fire hoses
to insure the spreading of the flames. This ploy in turn gave
the Cleveland administration a pretext to intervene with federal
troops -- against the explicit recommendations of the Mayor of
Chicago and the Governor of Illinois. Thereafter, an effort was
made to decapitate the ARU by trial of its officers for "conspiracy"
-- but before documents could be brought into the trial proving
the culpability of the Railway Managers' Association and winning,
the trial was suddenly halted due to the suspicious "illness"
of a juror. Instead, the ARU officers were summarily sentenced
to jail terms ranging from 3 to 6 months for "contempt of
court" by the judge -- a procedure of dubious legality which
was finally upheld by a bought-and-paid-for Supreme Court composed
of former corporate lawyers, in Debs' view.
"To The Socialist
and Its Readers," by Eugene V. Debs [July 10, 1904] When Hermon Titus' Left Wing weekly
The Socialist ran into financial trouble in the summer
of 1904, SPA Presidential hopeful Eugene V. Debs immediately
contributed a full-length article expressing his support for
the publication and upbraiding Socialists for lack of support
of the party press. Debs insists that readers of The Socialist
make an immediate 50 cent contribution to help put the publication
on its feet financially: "Socialists are not consistent,
to put it mildly, when they talk continually about 'education'
while they let their own press starve to death. Socialists, who
stand against exploitation, have no right to exploit those who
serve them." Debs notes that "Trade unionists, made
up wholly of workers, manage to support their press, at least
a large part of it, in decent order, so that the press can live
comfortably and serve instead of starving and dying. I have always
been opposed to a two-for-five press. I want to see a substantial
paper, the best that can be produced, and a reasonable price
paid for it, instead of a flimsy sheet on crutches that manages
to limp from one issue to another, almost a walking epitaph."
Debs demands that "The Socialist must be put upon
its feet, and at once. Dr. Titus and his colleagues have done
their whole duty and gone far beyond it, and now we have got
to show some inclination to do ours."
"Letter to S.S. McClure in
New York from Eugene V. Debs in Terre Haute, July 22, 1904."
On the occasion
of the 10th anniversary of the Pullman Strike of 1894, McClure's
magazine published a lengthy article on the affair by former
President Grover Cleveland. Cleveland's one-sided account inspired
strike leader Eugene Debs to write an extensive article in reply.
This Debs article was rejected by publisher S.S. McClure, who
wrote to Debs that "Instead of giving a plain narrative
of the strike seen from your point of view, you have taken up
most of your space in calling to witness the unfairness of the
other side and abusing the same." He invited Debs to rewrite
the piece for publication -- which Debs rejected in no uncertain
terms with this July 22, 1904 letter. Debs replied that "If
a statement of absolute facts taken from the official records
and made in decorous language is not a 'sober' statement it is
simply because the facts do not admit of sober treatment. I quite
realize that there is "nothing so eloquent as the facts,"
but when the facts prove the highest public official of a great
nation to have debauched his trust at the behest of corporate
capital they may not appear so eloquent to him or to his friends,
but they lose none of their charm of eloquence for men whose
record and character are such that they can face the facts without
fear of dishonor." Debs adds that "In answering Mr.
Cleveland I wrote under great restraint to keep within the bounds
of prudent expression and I would rather far have the article
rejected than have it appear emasculated, a miserable apology,
deserving of contempt."
AUGUST
"Apostrophe to Liberty,"
by Eugene V. Debs [Aug. 27, 1904] Short florid prose poem dripping with florid language
and dedicated to the importance of liberty by the 2-time Presidential
candidate Gene Debs: "If liberty is ostracized and exiled,
man is a slave, and the world rolls in space and whirls around
the sun a gilded prison, a domed dungeon, and though painted
in all the enchanting hues that inÞnite art could command,
it must stand forth a blotch amidst the shining spheres of the
sidereal heavens, and those who cull from their vocabularies
of nations, living or dead, their flashing phrases with which
to apostrophize Liberty, are engaged in perpetuating the most
stupendous delusion the ages have known. Strike down liberty,
no matter by what subtle and infernal art the deed is done, the
spinal cord of humanity is sundered and the world is paralyzed
by the indescribable crime."
DECEMBER
"1904 Average Paid Membership
by States, Socialist Party of America." Alphabetical listing of official
state-by-state totals of average paid membership in the SPA.
Data for all 37 organized states is included. Top five state
memberships included: Illinois (1,851), New York (1,791), California
(1,566), Washington (1,146), and Massachusetts (1,101). There
was an average paid membership of just 145 in Oklahoma in 1904,
while Wisconsin surprisingly finished behind the state of Missouri,
775 to 650.
FEBRUARY
"Aid for Russia." [An
appeal published in The International Socialist Review,
Feb. 1905] As revolution against
the oppressive Tsarist regime swept the vast Russian empire,
a group of 15 leading luminaries of the Socialist Party of America
consituted themselves as a fundraising committee, placing this
appeal in the socialist press. "The cowardly murder of thousands
of peaceful workingmen and women has revealed to the world the
brutality of the Russian governing classes in all its hideous
nakedness, and has made the hitherto inert masses of the Russian
population susceptible to the world-redeeming gospel of socialism,"
the appeal declared, adding that the financial resources of the
Russian Social Democratic Workers Party were entirely inadequate
to the grand task. Socialists were called upon to send funds
for the RSDRP to Dr. S. Interman of New York, who would in turn
cable the money to the Russian party. "If there ever was an occasion for a practical
demonstration of the international solidarity of the socialist
movement, this is the occasion. If it ever was our duty to assist
our struggling brethren abroad, this is our duty now." This
appeal was signed by Victor Berger, John Chase, Eugene Debs,
Ben Hanford, Max Hayes, Morris Hillquit, S. Interman, Alexander
Jonas, Jack London, William Mailly, Algie Simons, Henry Slobodin,
and Julius Wayland.
MARCH
"Editorial in Opposition
to Paul Carpenter for County Court Judge," by Victor L.
Berger [March 18, 1905] This
editorial by newly-elected member of the Socialist Party's National
Executive Committee Victor L. Berger ignited a firestorm in the
party, culminating in his removal by the National Committee and
subsequent reinstatement by party referendum. At issue was Berger's
endorsement of former Milwaukee mayor Emil Wallber against sitting
judge Paul Carpenter in a non-partisan race for County Judge
-- an election for which the Social Democratic Party of Wisconsin
(state affiliate of the SPA) did not field candidates. Berger
stated that Carpenter had spoken against Socialism and the Socialist
Party at a meetings of Catholic societies and had used his position
to assign dependent children to Catholic charities rather than
to the public institution established for that purpose. Berger's
endorsement of a non-Socialist political candidate was considered
a brazen violation of the party constitution's prohibition of
"fusion" with other political organizations, and great
hay was made of the transgression by Berger's Left Wing opponents,
who immediately moved to have him removed from the NEC.
"Motion to the National Committee,
SPA [on Apparent Fusionism in Milwaukee]," by William Trautmann
[March 23, 1905] Text
of the motion of Left Wing SPA National Committee member William
Trautmann of Ohio, which "calls upon the State Executive
Board of Wisconsin to proceed at once with an investigation"
as to whether there was collusion between Local Milwaukee SPA
and any capitalist political party surrounding the endorsement
by Victor Berger of former Milwaukee mayor Emil Wallber in the
race for the judicial seat held by Paul Carpenter. Includes text
of Berger's editorials and Trautmann's explanation of the thinking
behind the action. Trautman states: "It is absolutely necessary
for the Socialist Party as a whole to find out whether it is
in line with Socialist tactics, discipline, and the integrity
of the party to allow such bargain counter and counter-bargaining
deals prevail in any part of the Union. If the party membership
of Milwaukee has sanctioned such policy, then the Socialists
all over the United States ought to know it; if they have not,
then they will demand and give themselves such an explanation
as will set them clear before the Socialists, and bring those
who are responsible for this to give account for."
APRIL
"Letter to the National Committee,
SPA from Victor L. Berger, National Committeeman for Wisconsin."
[published April 1, 1905] Reply
by Victor Berger to the motion of William Trautmann calling for
an investigation of the published endorsement of a non-Socialist
judicial candidate which he made in March 1905. Berger calls
Trautmann's insinuation that "there is a collusion, or secret
or open understanding in the city of Milwaukee between the Social
Democratic Party organization or a member or members thereof
and representatives of capitalist parties" a "miserable
and cowardly slander." Berger explains the thinking behind
the decision of Milwaukee Socialist organization not to run candidates
in the judicial campaign and the reasoning behind his call for
negative action against sitting judge Paul Carpenter, a "Catholic
zealot" and avowed enemy of Socialism. Berger states that
he in no way violated the constitution of the Socialist Party,
which he interprets as providing "the absolute and irrevocable
duty of every Social Democrat" to vote a straight Socialist
ticket whenever the party names one, but "whenever and wherever
the Social Democratic Party has no ticket in the field, any member
individually has a right to vote or not to vote just as he pleases."
Berger claims personal motives behind Trautmann's motion against
him: "Trautmann is simply bitter, because I refused to endorse
his plan of splitting up the national trade union movement. After
trying to split the economic movement of the working class, Trautmann
would like also to split up the political movement of the working
class." Berger declares that "we are a political party,
not a politico-religious order. We are not Dominicans nor Franciscans.
We want strict party discipline, and there is no man who stands
for good discipline more than I do. But whenever discipline turns
into oppressive fanaticism, then I oppose it."
"At the Parting of the Ways,"
by Hermon F. Titus [April 8, 1905] In this important article by Left Wing Socialist
Hermon Titus, Titus argues that the simultaneous eruption of
"Impossibilism" and "Opportunism" has brought
the Socialist Party "sharply, but not unexpectedly, to the
parting of the ways." On the one hand he cites the example
of Thomas J. Hagerty, a radical industrial unionist who advocated
the doctrine that "economic organization of the working
class must precede and dominate political organization."
Titus characterizes this as the same sort of "ruinous"
thinking long espoused by Daniel DeLeon, a "propaganda of
expletives, of misrepresentations, of meaningless mouthings of
revolutionary phrases" -- leading ultimately to suspicion
and distrust of the Socialist Party and political action in general
and the subjugation of the political movement to the temporal
needs of the trade union movement. At the other pole, Titus states,
is the "opportunism" of Victor Berger. Berger and the
doctrine of "state autonomy" which he espoused implied
an inability of the national Socialist Party to enforce its principles
-- "especially the principle of no compromise with capitalism."
Titus observes that "state autonomy is not the cause of
compromise, any more than industrial unionism is the cause of
impossibilism. State autonomy is but the shield behind which
compromise can hide. As the doctrine of states' rights was used
to defend and uphold chattel slavery, so can state autonomy in
our day be used to cover and bolster up compromise in the Socialist
movement." It is for this reason that Berger must be reined
in for his transgressions and his doctrine of state autonomy
crushed, in Titus' view. "If the impossibilists stand for
anything it is for a species of Socialism which would ultimately
make political action impossible, magnify the importance of economic
action, and end with the 'general strike,' the anarchist method
of revolution. To follow opportunism, fortified by state autonomy,
to its logical conclusion would be to make the state independent
of the national organization, the local of the state, and the
individual of the local, thus arriving also at individualism,
the essence of anarchism, and establishing an affinity between
the impossibilist and the opportunist of which they are perhaps
both unaware," Titus declares.
MAY
"Moderation, Comrades!"
by Morris Hillquit [May 6, 1905] New York's SPA National Committee representative
Morris Hillquit weighs in on the Berger Affair with this letter
to the Toledo Socialist, a Left Wing weekly edited by
Hermon Titus, the business manager of which was former SPA Executive
Secretary William Mailly. Hillquit states that while he disapproved
"unqualifiedly" of Berger's decision to endorse a friendly
capitalist judicial candidate over an unfriendly capitalist judicial
candidate, at the same time "I am opposed to any punishment
or disciplinary measures against the organization of the state
of Wisconsin or that of the city of Milwaukee or against Victor
L. Berger personally." Instead, the Socialist Party needed
to "adopt clear and unambiguous rules against the recurrence
of such conditions as have brought about the Milwaukee trouble."
Hillquit states that "I believe that as soon as a fallacious
or injurious tendency is noticed in any quarter of our movement,
it should be energetically combatted, but combatted by argument
and not by punishment -- by discussion, not by expulsion. Our
comrades are voluntary fighters for a great cause, not soldiers
in compulsory service. We can maintain the purity and integrity
of our party by educating the membership to a proper understanding
of the nature and spirit of our movement, but never by a system
of rigid discipline." Hillquit states that while he greatly
respects Titus and Mailly, at the same time they had come to
take their self-appointed task of the preservation of Socialist
Party purity "a trifle too strenuously." "Within
the comparatively short career of our movement we have managed
to develop two new types within our ranks, the 'Opportunist'
and the 'Impossibilist,' and I hardly think it will be conducive
to our welfare to enrich our anthropological museum by a new
species, that of the "Alarmist," Hillquit declares.
"Shield No One: A Reply to
Morris Hillquit," by William Mailly [May 6, 1905] Business manager of the Toledo
Socialist, NEC member, and former Executive Secretary
of the Socialist Party William Mailly responds to Morris HIllquit's
defense of Victor Berger with this article. Mailly notes that
Hillquit expresses agreement with his strong disapproval of Berger's
actions in endorsing a non-Socialist judicial candidate in Milwaukee,
but had thereupon retreated into a sort of "Tolstoian nonresistance
to evil." Mailly declares that "I...believe that any
party member who willfully supports a capitalist candidate for
any office is not qualified to represent the Socialist Party
in any capacity and in this immediate case the offense is all
the greater because the offender has been honored by the national
party with a place on its National Executive Committee and he
therefore owed and still owes a duty to the national party which
rises above any petty, local political interest." Berger
was well aware of precedent in this matter, Mailly insists, yet
he still unapologetically chose to proceed along a prohibited
course of action, and he should be subject to disciplinary measures
the same as any other less famous party member. Further, contrary
to Hillquit's pooh-poohing of the assertion that Berger was planning
to split from the Socialist Party and form a new organization
if events turned against him, in fact Berger had declared this
very thing at the most recent meeting of the National Executive
Committee. "Impossibilism exists because Opportunism has
been allowed to flourish. One is the complement of the other.
Let the national party go on record in favor of placating (and
that is all it will be) Opportunism and compromise, and Impossibilism
will receive an impetus from which it will take the party years
to recover," Mailly insists.
JUNE
"Berger and His Opponents,"
by Eugene V. Debs [June 17, 1905] Eugene Debs chimes in on the Berger Affair in
this letter to the editor of Hermon Titus' Left Wing Socialist
weekly, The Socialist, the publication which broke the
story of Berger's transgression and which stirred the pot most
vigorously after the matter came to a boil. Debs declares that
while Berger's actions were "wrong, flagrantly wrong, in
my judgment," it was excessive to remove him from the National
Executive Committee, a "position of trust in a party he
helped to organize and for which he worked with all his strength
of mind and body." Debs argues that for his error, Berger
"should have been called to account, but there was, and
is, nothing in the case to warrant the extreme measures that
have been taken against him and that, if carried into effect,
would make of an unfortunate tactical blunder an act of foulest
treason." The excessiveness of the penalty will serve only
to make Berger a martyr among many in the party, defeating the
efficacy of his punishment. "A reasonable rebuke would have
served a good purpose, while extreme harshness will react in
favor of the accused and make his offense the means of praise
instead of blame," Debs warns. "Let us preserve the
party purity and vigilantly guard its uncompromising tactics,
but let us not be too swift to condemn a mistake as a crime and
an erring comrade as a vicious traitor," Debs declares.
Debs seeks an end to the matter: "Let us have done with
the Berger case. He has been more than punished and the incident
should now be closed. There is no danger of repetition of the
offense."
JULY
"What Socialists Think,"
by Charles H. Kerr [July 1905] A concise exposition of pre-Bolshevik American
Marxist political philosophy. Kerr briefly outlines the concepts
of historical materialism and the labor theory of value and makes
note of the change iof the capitalist class from actual participants
in the production process to idle holders of stocks and bonds.
Kerr states that "when the battle lines are drawn for the
final contest between the capitalist and the laborer," the
capitalists will count "only those whole live by owning
and those who can be fooled, or bribed, into voting against the
interests of the class to which they really belong." Kerr
estimates the true correlation of forces to be "less than
10% of the people" as true members of the capitalist class
vs. "more than 90% of the people" being of the working
class. Small shopkeepers are unhesitatingly counted by Kerr among
the working class, their "profits" being "nothing
more or less than wages, and usually very low wages, for the
labor [expended] in taking care of his shop and selling goods."
We see in Kerr's analysis a final objective NOT of a "Dictatorship
of the Proletariat" but rather of the establishment of the
"Cooperative Commonwealth," which Kerr defines as "a
society in which the good things of life shall not be produced
for the profit of a part of the people, but for the use of all
the people, and where on one who is able to work shall have the
privilege of living on the labor of others." Kerr states
that "reform" may be bloody and "revolution"
bloodless, and reduces the true difference between the two concepts
to the simple question of whether a new class comes to political
power to implement societal change. He states the Socialist Party,
as the political agent of the rising working class, thus represents
an agency of revolutionary change rather than social reform.
Tactically, he notes the vast mechanized military force in the
hands of the capitalist state and the availability of the ballot
box as a mechanism to alter control of the command structure.
Armed struggle and civil war are not seen by Kerr as an essential
or inevitable part of revolutionary change -- again, a marked
difference with the ideology of American Communism that would
emerge after 1917. Kerr finally states that the Socialists "do
not want to do away with the freedom of the individual. On the
contrary, they realize that today it is only a few here and there
who have nay freedom worth speaking of. What they mean to do
is make individual freedom a real thing for all." Equality
of opportunity through expanded education, and allocation of
labor through differential pay rates between tasks are part of
Kerr's programatic vision.
"The Industrial Workers:
The Convention and Its Work," by Eugene V. Debs [July 29,
1905] This article
on the recent founding of the Industrial Workers of the World
(IWW) by prominent Socialist Gene Debs written for The Socialist,
published by Hermon Titus in Toledo, Ohio. Debs characterizes
the new union as a major step forward for the American working
class, the existing structure unions hopelessly splintered, bureaucratic,
and supportive of the capitalist regime. "To me it seems
not only impossible but absurd to expect the American Federation
of Labor, under its capitalistic Civic Federation supervision,
to turn itself inside out, as certain of our comrades expect
it will do in the course of a few years or centuries," Debs
writes. As for the charge made against the IWW of "splitting"
the trade union movement, Debs cites the myriad of competing
unions already in the field and calls the charge "something
so silly and stupid about it in the light of existing facts that
it seems nothing less than idiotic." Under the umbrella
of the American Federation of Labor "every handful of men
that are ground through the hopper of industrial evolution must
have a separate union, separate jurisdiction, and above all,
and most important of all, a separate set of 'grand' or 'supreme'
officers, of whom there is an army and to whose personal interest
it is to keep the workers divided into innumerable petty factions,"
Debs states. "The working class are going to unite, economically
and politically, for their emancipation," Debs declares,
and he indicates that the formation of the IWW is a historic
step forward down this path.
AUGUST
"The Industrial Convention,"
by Eugene V. Debs. [Aug. 1905]
Socialist Party leader Debs attacks what he claims was systematic
and intentional misrepresentation and distortion in its reporting
of the founding convention of the Industrial Workers of the World.
Debs alleged that these papers "resorted to downright mendacity
to accomplish their purpose of defeating a body of men who by
their records had proved that they were above the corrupting
influences of capitalist bribery and whose object it was to unite
the working clas for their emancipation from wage-slavery."
The capitalist press was loyal to the AF of L, Debs charged,
adding that "silly and stupid falsehoods" about DeLeon
"capturing" the organization or Debs being "disgusted"
with it would "have no effect" upon the body.
NOVEMBER
"Winning a World," by
Eugene V. Debs [Nov. 1905]. Article from the November 1905 issue of Wilshire's
Magazine, believed to be republished here for the first time.
Debs waxes eloquent as to the lofty task of the Socialist movement,
"to win the world -- the whole world -- from animalism,
and consecrate it to humanity." This is to be achieved as
a result of releasing the "imprisoned productive forces
from the vandal horde that has seized them, that they may be
operated, not spasmodically and in the interest of a favored
class, as at present, but freely and in the common interest of
all." For this the working class must be "roused"
and Debs urges his readers to "Spread Wilshire's Magazine,
the weekly Socialist papers, the pamphlets, tracts, and leaflets
among the people" and thereby educate the working class.
He calls for both economic and political action, "One Great,
All-embracing Industrial Union and One Great, All-embracing Political
Party, and both revolutionary to the core -- two hearts with
but a single soul." Includes a photographic image of Debs
from a circa 1904 postcard.
"Class Unionism: Speech at
South Chicago," by Eugene V. Debs [Nov. 24, 1905] In 1905, Socialist leader Gene
Debs went on the campaign trail on behalf of the newly organized
Industrial Workers of the World, singing the organization's praises.
This is one of Debs' longest preserved speeches, an analysis
of the evolution of trade unionism from its "old and outgrown
and out-of-date" origins in craft association to its present
necessity for organization on an industrial basis to correspond
with the concentration and enlargement of industry. Debs characterizes
the situation as thus: "You have this great body of workers
parceled out among scores of petty and purposeless unions, which
are in ceaseless conflict with each other, jealous to preserve
their craft identity. As long as this great army of workers is
scattered among so many craft unions, it will be impossible for
them to unite and act in harmony together. Craft unionism is
the negation of class solidarity." Debs cites his previous
experience attempting to organize the American Railway Union
on an industrial basis in 1894 and the way in which state power
was brought to bear in an attempt to crush that fledgling labor
organization. The Industrial Workers of the World is depicted
as the continuation of the spirit and practice of the ARU on
a broader basis. Debs hails the revolutionary industrial union,
leading strikes of "class-conscious, revolutionary workingmen,
who, while they are striking for an immediate advantage, at the
same time have their eyes clearly fixed upon the goal. And what
is that goal? It is the overthrow of the capitalist system, and
the emancipation of the working class from wage-slavery."
Debs declares: "We have declared war upon the capitalist
class, and upon the capitalist system. We are of the working
class. We say: Arouse, you workingmen! It is in your power to
put an end to this system. It is your duty to build tip this
great revolutionary economic organization of your class, to seize
and take control of the tools with which you work, and make yourselves
the masters instead of being the slaves of industry. Wipe out
the wage system, so that you can walk this earth free men!"
DECEMBER
"1905 Average Paid Membership
by States, Socialist Party of America." Alphabetical listing of official
state-by-state totals of average paid membership in the SPA.
Data for all 38 organized states is included. Top five state
memberships included: Illinois (2,412), New York (2,083), California
(1,710), Wisconsin (1,666 -- a massive gain from the previous
year's total), and Ohio (1,541). Other states with more than
1,000 average paid members included Pennsylvania, Massachusetts,
Washington, and New Jersey. Oklahoma membership was up to 505,
still trailing the unlikely state of Missouri.
MARCH
"Arouse, Ye Slaves!"
by Eugene V. Debs [March 10, 1906] If Debs' Sept. 1914 call for the mine workers
of America to arm themselves and resist the violence of their
employers by force wasn't the most militant statement ever made
by the Hoosier Socialist, this editorial written in response
to the kidnapping of William Haywood and Charles Moyer and their
transport to Idaho to face charges of capital murder certainly
was. The kidnapping is called "a foul plot; a damnable conspiracy;
a hellish outrage," and Debs calls the governors of Idaho
and Colorado "brazen falsifiers and venal villains, the
miserable tools of the mine owners who, themselves, if anybody,
deserve the gibbet." Debs declares that "Nearly twenty
years ago the capitalist tyrants put some innocent men to death
for standing up for labor. They are now going to try it again.
Let them dare! There have been twenty years of revolutionary
education, agitation, and organization since the Haymarket tragedy,
and if an attempt is made to repeat it, there will be a revolution
and I will do all in my power to precipitate it." Debs actively
advocates the possibility of armed struggle around the Haywood-Moyer
case: "Get ready, comrades, for action! ... Capitalist courts
never have done, and never will do, anything for the working
class.... A special revolutionary convention of the proletariat
at Chicago, or some other central point, would be in order, and,
if extreme measures are required, a general strike could be ordered
and industry paralyzed as a preliminary to a general uprising.
If the plutocrats begin the program, we will end it."
MAY
"Rand School of Social Science:
Important Auxiliary for Socialist Movement: The Work of the School
to Begin on Oct. 1 -- Systematic Instruction of Social Sciences
and Training of Speakers and Writers the Objects in View."
[May 19, 1906] This
first press announcement from the New York Worker details
the forthcoming establishment of the Rand School of Social Science
and Library in New York City. The will of Elizabeth D. Rand,
mother of Carrie Rand Herron, bequeathed an endowment for a school
of social science, which was to be "an auxiliary to the
Socialist Party," the article notes. The American Socialist
Society, a New York group founded back in 1901, was chosen as
the operating body under state law. The American Socialist Society
had leased a large residence building located at 112 E 19th Street,
and was to take possession on July 1, 1906. Ground floor rooms
were to be made into a library, reading room, archive, office,
and book shop, and the rooms of the second floor were to be made
into class rooms. A sum of $1,000 had been made available for
the purchase of socialist books and pamphlets, and SPA members
were called upon to make additional loans and donations of rare
and out of print materials to the library, for which a planned
opening date of July 15 was scheduled. A list of planned courses
was also announced and is listed here, with instruction slated
to commence on Oct. 1, 1906. Officers of the American Socialist
Society were Algernon Lee, President; Morris Hillquit, Treasurer;
and W.J. Ghent, Secretary; with additional directors Leonard
D. Abbott, John C. Chase, Benjamin C. Gruenberg, T. Levene, and
Hermann Schlueter.
"The IWW and DeLeonism: Letter
to the Editor of The Worker," by A.M. Simons [May
22, 1906] At the
end of 1905 and during the first half of 1906 there was a strong
movement on the part of the Left Wing of the Socialist Party
to forge organic unity with the rival Socialist Labor Party.
The formation of the radical Industrial Workers of the World,
endorsed both by the SP Left and the Socialist Labor Party, had
seemingly reduced the ideological differences between the two
feuding organizations to a negotiable level. The move to unite
with Daniel DeLeon's SLP was a red flag, so to speak, to those
like Algie Simons, who had formerly been active members in the
SLP and who had fought a bitter political and legal war in 1899-1900
for control of the organization against DeLeon and the SLP Regulars.
In this lengthy article to The Worker Simons professes
allegiance to the IWW and its tactics and slams Daniel DeLeon,
calling DeLeonism "the worst enemy of the IWW." Distrust
of DeLeon based upon his history of "tricky dishonesty in
the labor and Socialist movement" was putting off many solid
unionists from joining the fledgling IWW and stilting the organization's
growth, Simons claims. DeLeon had craftily "fastened himself
upon the IWW" in order to add "a few new dupes...to
those select few who still cling to him," Simons asserts,
and this clique was attempting to make loyalty to DeLeon a prime
component of IWW doctrine. "Anyone who refused to do this
was at once assaulted by all the mud batteries at the command
of the Professor of Lying and Vilification," Simons declares.
Simons provides an extensive and historically valuable account
of the 1899-1900 split from the perspective of insurgent Section
Chicago, in which he indicates that Daniel DeLeon in his role
of editor of The People suppressed party communications
for factional reasons. Simons is scornful of the movement among
the SPA's Left for establishment of a "party-owned press"
(a central tenet of DeLeon), declaring "It speaks poorly
for the intelligence of some members of the SP that they have
bit at such thinly disguised gudgeon bait."
JULY
"As to Unity with the SLP:
Letter to the Editor of The Worker," by Ben Hanford
[July 21, 1906] Former
and future Socialist Party Vice Presidential nominee Ben Hanford
adds his voice to those in opposition to the drive for unity
between his party and the Socialist Labor Party guided by party
editor Daniel DeLeon. Hanford bitterly notes that for the previous
7 years since the 1899 party split "the SLP has at all times,
so far as it had power of expression by print or speech, denounced,
anathematized, and vilified the trade union movement of the United
States" and had heckled propaganda meetings and leafleted
against the Socialist Party. "Year after year the members
of the Socialist Party have had to devote almost as much of their
effort and their slender means to meeting the attacks of the
SLP as we did to the battle with the capitalist class,"
Hanford declares. Hanford believes that the two organizations
are based upon fundamentally different sets of tactics: "Briefly
stated, the Socialist Party allows its individual members and
its constituent organizations to work for Socialism in their
own way, only resorting to disciplinary measures when they pursue
a way or resort to means that stultifies the end. On the other
hand, the editor of the Party-Owned Press, by printing what he
desires them to know and omitting those things of which he wants
them to remain ignorant, decides what is the best way to work
for Socialism in the Socialist Labor Party and then uses the
party machinery to make others work HIS way." Hanford notes
that he favors unity with all genuine Socialists, for whom the
door to the Socialist Party of America remains open, but a forced
unity on the basis of the New Jersey Unity Manifesto would mean
"we would only unite to fight and divide" -- in short,
a new split would inevitably result and that no lasting unity
with DeLeon and the SLP was possible.
"The Socialist Party and
the Trade Unions: Contribution to a Symposium in The Worker,"
by Eugene V. Debs [July 28, 1906] Eugene Debs responds to a set of questions issued
by the New York Worker on the question of industrial unionism
with this lengthy definition and analysis. For Debs, industrial
unionism is more than simple "unification of all the industrial
workers within one comprehensive organization, divided and subdivided
into departments corresponding to their various industries;"
it also implies a revolutionary ideological content. "Industrial
unionism is class-conscious in character and revolutionary in
aim, its mission being not only to mitigate the ills of the workers,
but to abolish the wage-system and achieve complete emancipation.
Without this character and ultimate end in view the mere solidarity
of the trade amounts to nothing more than "pure and simpledom,"
and cannot properly be called industrial unionism," Debs
declares. Debs reject the charge that the IWW are dual unionists
starting new rival organizations, noting that the members of
the IWW are, "as a rule, seasoned old unionists; they did
not drop from the skies, nor come up out of the seas; they are
not interlopers nor new beginners, but they are of the very heart
and marrow of the labor movement, and I think their records as
fighters and builders in point of time and character of service
will compare favorably with those of their reactionary critics;
and when credit is claimed for what has been done in the past
let it be remembered that the members of the IWW figured in it
all and are entitled to their full share of it." He adds
that it is "better a thousand times that labor is divided
fighting for freedom than united in the bonds of slavery."
Debs additionally weighs in strongly in favor the SPA Left Wing's
campaign for unity -- economically in the IWW and political through
unification with the Socialist Labor Party. "Let us pursue
the straight course and stick without wavering to the clear-cut
revolutionary movement, and hew to the line of industrial and
political unity for the overthrow of wage slavery," Debs
declares.
SEPTEMBER
"No Impossibilism for Us!"
by Victor L. Berger [September 1906] A
succinct philosophical manifesto of the "constructive"
Socialist political philosophy, originally published as an editorial
in the Social-Democratic Herald by that paper's editor,
Victor L. Berger. Berger declares war upon "IWW element
of our party," of which he says that "most of whom
are as ignorant as they are fanatical and hypocritical ."
The AF of L for all its shortcomings is in every way preferable
to the IWW, Berger contends. Berger states that a great deal
has been done "for the working class and for humanity"
within present society, with much more to be achieved or "Socialism
will never be possible." Berger says that "we believe
in a policy of steady change very much in the social system per
se, unless economic conditions (besides also the education and
enlightenment of the people) are favorable towards a complete
change. Otherwise, we might simply change masters." A "moral,
physical, and intellectual strengthening of the proletariat"
is called for, as well as the formation of a "class alliance
with farmers" -- in this way society can "grow into"
Socialism. In conclusion, Berger advocates the arming of the
whole people: "Not for the sake of 'revolution,' but for
the sake of peace and progress. An armed people are always a
free people. Even the demagogues then would have a great
deal less to say than they have today. An armed people is always
a strong people." Step-by-step constructive action
is called for and "impotent and good for nothing REVOLUTIONARY
PHRASES and holy words" are held in the lowest regard by
Berger in this biting manifesto.
JUNE
"Plans and Resolutions Adopted
at the 2nd Annual Conference of the Christian Socialist Fellowship,
Chicago, Ill. -- June 1-4, 1907." The Right Wing of the Socialist Party of America
were a group of individuals clustered around a non-party propaganda
organization called the Christian Socialist Fellowship (CSF).
The CSF was established in June of 1906 by the editor of The
Christian Socialist, Rev. Edward Ellis Carr, and this semi-monthly
publication served as the official organ of the faction, which
explicitly sought the amelioration of the class struggle through
policies of enlightened and humane reform. This document collects
the various "plans and resolutions" adopted at the
2nd Conference of the CSF -- actions which expanded the group's
structure to include "District Secretaries" who were
to maintain district offices funded by a portion of the dues
they collected and subscriptions they sold. The 2nd Conference
also defined the relationship of the CSF to the Socialist Party:
stating that while the CSF thoroughly accepted "the economic
interpretation of social and political causes, and have no desire
to qualify it by any revisionist demand," it also asserted
that "the party ought strictly to avoid every form of religious
and anti-religious theory or dogma on the lecture platform and
in the party publications; and that such opinion should be regarded
as a private matter, everyone having the fullest liberty of belief
and expression as an individual." The CSF also declared
it to be a group capable of helping "to make the professed
followers of Jesus the propagandists of Socialism that they should
be" and it offered its services to the party "in presenting
the Socialist economic doctrine in any church, in the YMCA, or
in any other organization which is closed to a Socialist propaganda
that does not come under the name 'Christian.'"
AUGUST
"The Christian Socialist
Fellowship: A Brief Account of its Origin and Progress,"
by E.E. Carr [Aug. 15, 1907] This thumbnail history of the Christian Socialist
movement in America by founding spirit of the Christian Socialist
Fellowship Edward Ellis Carr provides a set of names and details
for further exploration by any scholar seeking to do original
work in this relatively unplowed field of American radical history.
Carr states that the first Christian Socialist publication in
America (outside of the publications of the various communal
sects) was The Dawn, published in Boston from the 1880s
by Rev. W.D.P. Bliss with the aid of Rufus W. Weeks. The second
main center of the Christian Socialist movement emerged in the
1890s around the publication The Social Crusader, including
George Herron, J. Stitt Wilson, and others. The Collectivist
Society of Rufus Weeks also merits mention, as does, of course,
Carr's own Christian Socialist Fellowship, which included prominently
such Socialist luminaries as the young Assistant Editor of The
Christian Socialist, Rev. Jacob O. Bentall (later active in the
Communist Labor Party and Lovestone organization) and Harvey
P. Moyer. Other names dropped as participants or supporters of
the Christian Socialist movement read like a veritable who's
who of the early SP Right, including Walter Mills, Charles Vail,
John Spargo, and Carl Thompson.
SEPTEMBER
"The Fellowship and the Parties,"
by E.E. Carr [Sept. 1, 1907] This reply by Christian Socialist Editor
Edward Ellis Carr to an unspecified article asserts positively
that there was complete unanimity at the founding conference
of the Christian Socialist Fellowship with regards to its endorsement
of the Socialist Party. "so far as I know, every member
of the Fellowship who enjoys the ballot votes the Socialist Party
ticket, though this is not a test of membership in the Fellowship,"
Carr emphasizes. Carr declares the nature of the Christian Socialist
Fellowship thusly: "The Fellowship is a propaganda society,
not a political party. The place to join the Socialist Party
is at the 'branch,' or, if the party means those who merely vote
the ticket, at the election booth. A propaganda society, like
the 'Collectivist Society' and the 'Commonwealth Club,' does
not usually require party membership for admission." (It
might parenthetically be noted that support of a similarly structured
propaganda society collecting membership dues called the "Left
Wing Section of the Socialist Party" was suddenly deemed
to be an expellable offense after the result of the 1919 party
election became known to the outgoing 1918-19 NEC. The fact that
the Left Wing Section collected dues and admitted non-members
of the SP to its councils were disingenuously held up as the
primary reasons that the group being declared anathema.) Carr
declares that while the CSF seeks the establishment of Socialism
and "recognizes" the class struggle, "it was not
deemed wise for the Fellowship to commit itself constitutionally
to any particular party because there are two Socialist parties
in the United States and two in Canada, all within our direct
field of propaganda, and we wished to leave the Fellowship door
open to every Socialist who believes in our objects as expressed
in the Constitution." Carr concludes that the CSF is "rooting
deep and growing fast and bids fair to help largely in arousing
the people for the glorious revolution which shall realize the
highest dreams of saints and sages for humanity, that shall bring
real liberty and peace, real prosperity and Christianity to all
men."
OCTOBER
"The Parlor Socialists,"
by Ellis O. Jones [Oct. 1907] This is one of the most thoughtful and well-crafted
essays of the Debsian period of the Socialist Party of America
-- a defense of the so-called "parlor socialists,"
published in the pages of the International Socialist Review.
Jones, a rank-and-file socialist from Columbus, Ohio, states
that up until as few as 5 years previously socialism had received
scant attention in America, dismissed as an idiosyncratic preoccupation
of peculiar European immigrants. The Socialist Party, founded
in 1901, had at last struck root in the ranks of the native American
population, Jones indicates. "...The phenomenon which the
paragrapher lightly dubs Parlor Socialism is nothing more or
less than an unmistakable sign of the Americanization of Socialism,
leading the paragrapher gently but powerfully and relentlessly
past the point where he can define Socialism as the unintelligible
ravings of a handful of unnatural and unnaturalized bomb-throwing
aliens plotting against duly constituted authority," Jones
declares. Unable to label and dismiss these eminently reasonable
American socialists to the hackneyed stereotypes of the past,
a new epithet was invented on the fly -- "parlor socialists."
Jones sees a dichotomy among American socialists between the
largely uneducated individuals of proletarian origin and vocation,
and the new group of "intellectual" adherents to the
socialist cause, young and often college educated individuals
who (unlike most of their peers) takes time to "examine
the general manner of money --making and weigh it in ethical
scales, asking the question as to why he, young and inexperienced,
should possess so much without effort while thousands whom he
sees about him possess but little or nothing with the maximum
of effort. He is led into investigating the sources of wealth
and soon comes to the obvious conclusion that wealth is produced
by labor and that therefore he is living on the labor of others."
Ultimately, the so-called "parlor socialists" arrive
at "the conclusion that true luxury is impossible so long
as a large majority of his fellow beings live in squalor and
destitution." Jones concludes that "Parlor Socialism
as a characterization is ephemeral. It will disappear when the
Socialist movement is thoroughly Americanized, that is, when
the Parlor Socialists are sufficiently numerous to cease to invite
individual comment and when, through the lapse of time, they
have given unmistakable evidence that they are not merely victims
of a passing fad or fancy."
"The Fight For Free Streets:
Record of Fight. Reports of State Organizer and Secretary of
the Free Speech Committee Alfred Wagenknecht and Secretary of
Local Seattle Elmer T. Allison." [events of Oct. 21 to Dec.
2, 1907] A reminder
that the freedoms of assembly and speech weren't a magical gift
from great white fathers in powdered wigs, but rather were rights
won through an ongoing process of struggle between a persistent
and dedicated (sometimes pesky and annoying) left and various
anti-libertarian local regimes. This is the historically valuable
diary of the Seattle Free Speech Fight of 1907, a day-by-day
account kept primarily by the paid organizer of the action, Alfred
Wagenknecht (better known as the Executive Secretary of the Communist
Labor and United Communist Parties in the 1919-20 period and
a lifelong Communist). At issue was whether the freedom of assembly
and speech in public spaces by Socialists could be trumped by
the demands against "obstructions" and for order made
by Mayor Moore and the Seattle City Council (religiously enforced
by the Anti-Socialist Chief of Police). The operation was clearly
well coordinated, bringing together activists from Bellingham
to Tacoma. Initial arrests in October 1907 took place almost
instantly in front of mere handfuls of people, but by November
momentum was gained by the Free Speech Movement, with speeches
successfully being delivered in front of enthusiastic crowds
of up to 500. The campaign was run on a total budget of $385
and generated 42 arrests for speaking without a permit -- only
3 of which were eventually tried in police court and dismissed.
"Seems to us as if victory is ours," states Wagenknecht
in his final report, noting that the campaign had been taken
over by the newly reorganized Local Seattle, headed by Wagenknecht's
brother-in-law, Elmer Allison (also later a CLP/UCP/CPA stalwart).
DECEMBER
"Socialist Unity in the United
States," by Charles H. Kerr [Dec. 1907] Eminent Socialist publisher Charles
H. Kerr presents the recent referendum put forward by Local Redlands,
California calling for the amalgamation of the Socialist Party
of America with the Socialist Labor Party on the basis of industrial
unionism and a party-owned press. Kerr -- himself a Marxist and
a partisan of industrial unionism -- argues assertively against
both of these preconditions for merger. With regards to industrial
unionism, Kerr states that while California Socialists may consider
it a facile matter, on the actual battlefront in the industrial
east, things were not so simple. Most Socialists in industrial
Chicago were members of the unions of their craft, affiliated
with the American Federation of Labor, Kerr states. These individuals
"joined these trade unions long ago, and for the very good
and very prosaic reason that they wanted better wages and depended
on the unions to help get them, or perhaps found that they could
not get jobs without carrying union cards. They remain inside
these unions today for the most part because there are no industrial
unions here in the trades in which they work. If they were to
withdraw from the existing unions to join the budding organization
of the Industrial Workers of the World, they would stand a very
good chance of losing their jobs" and additionally be treated
by their shopmates as scabs. It would be best not to mix the
political and industrial questions, Kerr opines, instead putting
forward the industrial union model as the only one suitable for
meeting trustified industry across the bargaining table at anything
approaching unity. With regard to party ownership of the press,
Kerr is more negative still, noting that such a structure was
traditional within the SLP and had led to a practical result
which placed "the editor of The People [Daniel DeLeon],
wielding the power of the National Executive Committee, in full
control of the sources of information of the party membership,
so that he has dominated and still dominates the opinions of
the rank and file... ...I am decidedly opposed to a system placing
such absolute power in the hands of any one man or small group
of men." While unification of the American socialist movement
would be a positive thing, in Kerr's view, the position of Local
Redlands would have it "that the larger party should discard
its successful methods and adopt the disastrous methods of the
smaller party. I am for consolidation, but not on these terms."
FEBRUARY
"Shall the Two Parties Unite?"
by Carl D. Thompson [Feb. 15, 1908] The years 1907 and 1908 saw an effort by the Left
Wing of the Socialist Party to bring about unity between that
organization and the Sociailst Labor Party. This concentrated
effort of course drew a response from those opposing the revolutionary
Socialist agenda. One prominent Socialist who was particularly
outspoken in his opposition to the proposal was Wisconsin state
organizer Carl D. Thompson, who contributed this two-part article
to the constructive Socialist organ The Christian Socialist.
Thompson outlines the turbulent history of the Socialist
Labor Party and its various "unity" efforts of the
past -- with the anarchist movement, with the Greenback Labor
movement, with the Henry George campaign. These efforts at a
unity of weakness are contrasted with the early history of the
Socialist Party, which built its organizational size and strength
through an essential and timely split with the utopian communalists
who had won the day at the convention of 1898. Thompson declares
that the SLP had been responsible for disruption with the labor
movement with its dualist Socialist Trades & Labor Alliance
and support of the Industrial Workers of the World; that it held
a sectarian position on the agrarian question, which had served
as inspiration for a long-running melee in the Socialist Party
of Nebraska; and undermined party democracy, State Autonomy,
and freedom of the press through its dogmatic belief in party
ownership of the press and strict party centralization. The addition
of the SLP en masse to the ranks of the Socialist Party would
additionally bolster the "Impossibilist" wing of the
party, in Thompson's view, thus setting back the work of years
to lessen the influence of this wing in the party's councils.
"Therefore if these people wish to join the Socialist Party
the door is open to them as individuals, the same as to all others.
By accepting our platform, our program, constitution, and tactics,
they may come in. And upon no other ground. For them to propose
any other bears upon its face a sinister suggestion. Let them
apply as others do to the individual branches. And let the branches
be the judge of their individual fitness and right as in the
case with all others," Thompson concludes.
MAY
"Buck Niggers and Politics,"
by Seth McCallen ["Col. Dick Maple"] [May 1908] This article was one of the most
vile manifestations of white supremacy in the Socialist Party
of America. "Col. Dick Maple" (Seth McCallen) was the
co-founder and editor of The National Rip-Saw, a Socialist
monthly published in St. Louis. The editorial here is a full-out
Ku Kluxer racist rant -- a piece that makes Kate O'Hare's unprincipled
and pandering 1912 Rip-Saw pamphlet, "'Nigger' Equality,"
sound positively erudite. McCallen rails against "buck niggers"
installed into positions of power and remuneration by Republican
President Theodore Roosevelt in a brazen effort to win black
voters to the Republican ticket. McCallen shrieks that "the
political axe in the hands of 'Teddy' will be wielded with considerable
vim from now on until the election, and many a white-skinned
clerk will be decapitated to make room for foul-smelling 'bucks'
with ebony hides, as you know the 'coon's' vote is a very valuable
asset to the Republican Party." Etc. etc. An illustration
of from whence The National Rip-Saw came and documentation
of the existence of a virulent racist wing in the early Socialist
Party of America -- to which organization this privately-held
publication claimed allegiance.
"Report of the Finnish Translator
to the Convention of the Socialist Party of America, May 10,
1908," by Victor Watia Extensive report of the Translator of the Organization
of Finnish Socialists (Finnish Federation) to the 1908 Chicago
convention of the SPA. Watia provides a number of interesting
details about the oriigin of the Finnish movement inside the
SPA, noting the pivotal decisions of the Federation's 1906 convention
which set the table for closer participation of the organization
with the party. Watia reveals that the concept of a "Translator"
emerged spontaneously in several states of the upper midwest,
in which Finnish socialists found themselves in need of assistance
converting documents between Finnish and English and employed
their own translators. The Finnish organization determined to
establish the post of National Translator and made every effort
to have this individual located inside SPA headquarters for convenience.
This office soon came to serve as the central office of the Finnish
organization itself. Watia notes the mutually beneficial nature
of this post and advocates the placing of skilled SPA organizers
in the field among the various language groups and committing
itself to develop Translators for other language groups desiring
them. Also includes the budget of the Finnish federation for
first 16 months of its affiliation with the SPA (which began
Jan. 1, 1907). Watia's report includes a lengthy prohibition
resolution of the Finnish Federation which caused Victor Berger
to get grumpy.
"Report of Committee on Foreign
Speaking Organizations to the National Convention of the Socialist
Party, May 17, 1908." Committee
report to the 1908 SPA Convention in Chicago, delivered by S.A.
Knopfnagel. The Committee advocated the acceptance of all foreign
language organizations seeking affiliation with the Socialist
Party, subject to 5 conditions: "(1) They are composed of
Socialist Party members only. (2) Any foreign speaking organization
having a national form of organization of its own be recognized
only if all the branches composing this organization having been
chartered by the national, state, or local Socialist Party organizations,
and pay their dues to the respective Socialist Party organizations.
(3) No foreign speaking organization asking the Socialist Party
for recognition shall issue their own particular national, state,
or local charters. Same to be issued only by the respective organizations
of the Socialist Party, as the case may require. (4) All foreign
speaking organizations affiliated with the Socialist Party must
and shall conform in every respect with the Socialist Party national,
state, and local constitutions, platforms, and resolutions. (5)
They should function only as agitation, education, and organization
bureaus of the Socialist Party." Includes an amendment made
from the floor but not published in the SP's Official Bulletin
(probably due to incompetence rather than malice) prohibiting
the refusal of admission to the SPA on account of race or language.
"A Short Speech Amongst Friends:
Girard, Kansas -- May 21, 1908," by Eugene V. Debs After the conclusion of the 1908
Socialist Party convention in Chicago, a number of prominent
Socialists made their way to southeastern Kansas to tour the
new facilities of The Appeal to Reason. A cake and ice
cream banquet was arranged bringing together leading Girard Socialists
with their out of town guests, including the party's recently
renominated Presidential standard bearer, Gene Debs. An Appeal
to Reason stenographer was present to record the evening
for posterity, the procedings published as a small circulation
souvenir pamphlet. This is the full transcript of Debs' remarks
to the gathering. Debs likens the former hostility and later
acceptance of anti-slavery forces among the people of Kansas
to the current warming of popular temperament towards Socialism
and Socialists. He also likens the fellowship of assembled Socialists
to the human relations that will be evident in the Socialist
society of the future: "We may not live to see the full
fruition of our work, nor does it matter; so insidiously can
a man feel Socialism, so completely consecrated can he be to
the Cause of Socialism that he lives within the realization of
it, even now." As is often the case with Debs, quasi-religious
sentiment abounds: "Looking into your faces and catching
your spirit I feel myself rising to exaltation. Socialism to
us is something more than a mere conviction. It courses in our
veins; it throbs in our hearts; it fires and sanctifies our souls;
and it consecrates us to the service of humanity."
JUNE
"The Failure to Attain Socialist
Unity," by Frank Bohn [June 1908] This article by former SLP member and current
IWW activist Frank Bohn states that "unity of the Socialist
movement should undoubtedly have been attained in 1901. Failure
to secure the desired end by all of the then existing factions
was due to a wrong position taken by some comrades, who will
now pretty generally admit their error." Despite its "correct"
tactical position since the convention of 1900, the Socialist
Labor Party had failed to grow organizationally due to the attempt
to separate its veteran revolutionary socialist membership from
the rest of the movement, which was evolving towards its orientation,
as well as an attempt to "draw about itself the veil of
absolute sanctity," Bohn states, adding "The scientific
truths at the bottom of the revolutionary upsweep were made over
into the mumbled litany of a sectarian clique." Bohn states
that in addition, the SLP used "wrong methods" of propaganda
and organization: "Men and women who will develop into revolutionists
worthwhile to the movement are sure to demand respect and decent
treatment from their teachers while they are learning. This consideration
the honest utopians and reformers in the movement (and all of
us were such) have never received from The People, by
which the work of the SLP is ever judged." In a second section
of the article, Bohn relates the parable of the field, in which
a "quack doctor" [DeLeon] and his servants, together
with a number of energetic young men, fence themselves off from
the rest of the community and stunt their own crops in the process
-- the useful members of the community ultimately leaving through
a hole in the fence to join the others while the "quack
doctor" hides himself away in a patch of poison ivy with
his retainers. "In the IWW we who uphold political action
find no difficulty in working with those who do not. On the political
field we industrialists can surely labor with equal success beside
those who do not realize the efficiency and the ultimate revolutionary
purpose of industrial unionism. For these reasons members of
the IWW who favor political action should support the Socialist
Party," Bohn concludes.
DECEMBER
"The Tour of the Red Special,"
by Charles Lapworth [Dec. 1908] This is a valuable primary source document, a
participant's account of the famed Socialist Party Presidential
"Red Special" of 1908. This lengthy memoir from the
pages of The International Socialist Review is in addition
rather fun to read -- its colloquial tone and sometimes snide
commentary not entirely dissimilar in form from a punk rock tour
diary from a 1990s fanzine. The Red Special, a chartered train
which crisscrossed the country in the late summer and early fall
of 1908, was met everywhere by large and enthusiastic crowds,
many of whom paid admissions to hear silver-tonged Presidential
candidate Gene Debs and other Socialist luminaries expound upon
the party program. Speeches from the train at depots across the
nation were additionally coordinated with successful evening
meetings, Lapworth makes clear. The result was an explosion of
excitement and energy around the Socialist Party campaign (albeit
not reflected in the disappointing 1908 Socialist Presdidential
vote count). The Red Special's very real media success has been
emulated over the years by "whistle stop" tours of
the candidates of the two major parties and additionally finds
its echo each campaign season as primary candidates charter busses
and planes and crisscross the nation attempting to generate media
attention with their sundry road extravaganzas.
No Date Specified
"Socialist Party Membership
Data: A survey circulated in 1908." Compiled by Emma Pischel.
In December 1907,
the NEC of the Socialist Party determined to survey the entire
party membership in attempt to better understand the social composition
and demographic makeup of the organization. While certain state
organizations in the industrial Northeast (MA, NJ, CT) and the
Socialist strongholds of Wisconsin and Oklahoma and the big Western
state of California did not respond, an excellent sample of over
15% of party members did. This document quantifies the 6,310
survey replies and provides an unparalleled quantitative snapshot
of the Debsian Socialist Party. The first myth smashed by the
1908 membership survey is the tendentious assertion that the
Socialist Party was little more than a conglomeration of shopkeepers
and professionals. Nearly 2/3 of survey respondents were of the
proletariat -- with "craftsmen" outnumbering "laborers"
by a margin of 2-1, both of these groups dwarfing the number
of transportation workers. Another 17% of respondents were farmers
-- a percentage probably slightly inflated by the lack of participation
in the survey by the various industrial centers. Less than 10%
of the party was involved in commerce and less than 5% in professional
occupations, according to the survey. The second myth shattered
by the 1908 survey was the depiction of the Debsian SPA as comprised
of innumerable youthful idealists and few greyheads. An astounding
70% of survey respondents were over the age of 30, with over
30% of the party over the age of 45. The survey also shows that
over 3/4 of survey respondents were of American birth and that
the most widely subscribed Socialist publication -- by a wide
margin -- was The Appeal to Reason, with nearly 2/3 of
respondents receiving that publication each week. Also interesting
(given the Socialist movement's obsession with the medium) is
the very low efficacy of leaflets in the swaying of political
views, with less than 5% listing this as their own factor of
primary importance.
