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.&quo