Unspecified Date

"Constitution of the Socialist Party of America." [Version in effect 1917-1919] This is the fundamental document of party law of the Socialist Party of America. The St. Louis Emergency Convention of April 1917 (later ratified by referendum vote) made a set of important changes to the form of governance of the organization, including most importantly the expansion of the National Executive Committee from 5 members to 15, the election of these NEC members by district rather than on an at-large basis, and the requirement of an annual conference of State Secretaries, NEC members, and Federation representatives in non-Convention years. This variant of the SPA constitution is particularly important in that it was the exact version in effect during the bitter party war of 1919; the legality or illegality of various actions of the factional forces can be correctly appraised by historians only when measured against the specific words here.

 

JANUARY

"Report to the National Executive Committee," by Adolph Germer [circa January 1, 1917] Written report of the National Executive Secretary of the Socialist Party of America to the members of the National Executive Committee sent just prior to the January 6-7, 1917 NEC meeting in Chicago. Germer provides a lengthy summary of the 1916 election, which marks as a "failure to roll up the vote that we so earnestly worked for and confidentially expected." Germer attributes this step backwards to a number of factors, including "general apathy that has prevailed in the party for the past three or four years" and the effective capture of the anti-militarist vote by the Democratic Party with the slogan "He kept us out of war," as well as the support of "the Adamson eight-hour law and a few other so-called labor laws" which were instrumental in the Democratic Party "befuddling the workers." Germer provides the 1903-1916 party membership series, numbers which indicated that the party's membership slide from the time of the 1912 Convention had been halted, although the miniscule increase was called "far from satisfactory in view of the campaign activities." Germer also provides data concerning the cost of producing the party's new monthly agitational leaflets and the official organ, The American Socialist. He further notes the existence of a new referendum being officially circulated for seconds calling for an extraordinary convention of the party in 1917 and advocates the NEC either dispense with the 1917 session of the National Committee in favor of this gathering or actively campaign against the convention in favor of the NC meeting, as there would be no need to undergo the expense of both.

 

"Constitution of the Socialist Propaganda League of America." [January 1917] Organizational law of the Socialist Propaganda League of America, the Boston-based forerunner of the "Left Wing Section of the Socialist Party." According to the group's state objective, "The SPLA declares emphatically and will work uncompromisingly in the economic and political fields for industrial revolution to establish industrial democracy by the mass action of the working class." This constitution reveals the SPLA as a dues-based organization (5 cents per month for members affiliated with local "branches," 10 cents per month for at-large members). The organization was to be governed by a "National Committee" of seven, who would in turn elect a National Secretary and National Treasurer to handle the day-to-day operations of the group. Major policy matters were to be determined by referendum vote of the organization, with 3% of the organization sufficient to call a vote on any matter, irrespective of where those members were located.

 

FEBRUARY

"A Criticism and a Confession," by Louis Kopelin [Feb. 3, 1917] The harmonious Socialist Party Presidential campaign of 1916 was met with a demoralizing result, which was the cause of soul-searching throughout the organization. The defeat of the Appeal to Reason's favorite son, columnist Allan Benson, was particularly hard to bear and it led the paper's editor, Louis Kopelin, to reassessment of the party's axiomatic assumptions. For the first time, the Socialist Party was not a young party in the process of growth, but an established minority party in malaise: "For the first time in the history of the Socialist movement in this country our national vote has shown a loss... Moreover, it is not only the loss in the national vote that we have to sorrowfully record. Our party organization has about half as many dues-paying members at this time as we had a few years ago. And our party press has suffered a severe slump in circulation and effectiveness." While the party Right blamed the Left for the defeat (and vice versa), Kopelin felt that something more fundamental was at work: "The Appeal firmly believes that our entire scheme of propaganda generally adopted by Socialists during the last 20 years has been built on preconceived notions not applicable to conditions in the United States. When we reflect upon the cumbersomeness and fruitlessness of our methods we are amazed that we have made such progress as we have. It is remarkable that American Socialism has grown in spite of the Socialists." Kopelin launches into a tirade of criticism of the party, including its "artificial and arbitrary plan for propagating Socialism," "rigid rules of discipline befitting the foreign military nations which gave them birth," literature with "stereotyped phrases have been imported and rammed down the unwilling throats of a people like ours whose language and logic are simple and direct," and the "un-American and undemocratic rule of centralized power in the hands of officials and committees, allowing no development and freedom of action on the part of the rank and file." A new "plan of action" is promised by Kopelin to his readers. It was, in short, the heart-wrenching 1916 Presidential defeat rather than the war and the Socialist Party's reaction to it which pushed the Appeal to Reason headed by Louis Kopelin to the right.

 

"'Socialize Now -- Railroads First!' That is the Appeal's Plan of Action," [editorial by the Appeal to Reason] [Feb. 10, 1917] One week after flinging down the gauntlet over the poor showing of the Socialist Party in the elections of 1916, Messrs. Kopelin and Haldeman-Julius of the Appeal to Reason come forward with their aggressive new program of constructive socialism. Rather than whiling away for a wholesale revolutionary change of society and its economic system, the Appeal posits the idea of pushing forward with a campaign for piecemeal nationalization, beginning with the nation's railway system -- among the largest industries of the nation. To this end, the paper was placing muckraking journalist Charles Edward Russell, author of Stories of the Great Railroads, in charge of the campaign by writing a series of articles on the topic -- which the thousands of members of the "Appeal Army" were to take to the people as part of a grassroots pressure campaign on the nation's political establishment. "First, we shall sow the seeds of education; later, we shall reap the harvest of organization and victory," Kopelin declares, failing to mention an associated bump which such a campaign might bring to the newspaper's circulation and coffers. "We are convinced that the American people are ready for this approach to the Cooperative Commonwealth," writes Kopelin, because "conditions are ripe" and dissatisfaction with the industry prevalent among the 2 million railway workers.

 

"'No War!' is Socialist Party Demand: Declaration of the National Executive Committee of the Socialist Party of America" [Feb. 17, 1917] This resolution of the Socialist Party's governing National Executive Committee blasts Woodrow Wilson for his unilateral executive decree breaking off diplomatic relations with the German empire and placing "the people of the United States in imminent danger of being actively drawn into the mad war of Europe." Instead of posturing for the rights of profiteers to make obscene profits by providing armaments and foodstuffs to combatants, Wilson should have banned Americans from the war zone, except those going at their own risk, the NEC statement indicates. "The policy of unrestricted and indiscriminate submarine warfare recently announced by the German government is most ruthless and inhuman, but so is war as a whole and so are all methods applied by both sides. War is murder! War is the climax of utter lawlessness, and it is idle to prate about lawful or lawless methods of warfare. The German submarine warfare does not threaten our national integrity or independence, not even our national dignity and honor. It was not aimed primarily at the United States and would not affect the American people. It would strike only those parasitic classes that have been making huge profits by manufacturing instruments of death or taking away our food and selling it at exorbitant prices to the fighting armies of Europe." Letters and telegrams to Wilson and to Congress are called for by the Socialist NEC: "Insist that the nation shall not be plunged into war for the benefit of plundering capitalists."

 

MARCH

"A Revolutionist's Career," by Leon Trotsky [March 1917] Article written in the spring of 1917 and published in Feb. 1918 by the Socialist Party weekly St. Louis Labor providing details of Leon Trotsky's life in his own words for a breathless public. The 38-year old Soviet leader draws a striking contrast between his politicized upbringing in Jewish Russia with the typical situation in the United States: "Here in America schoolboys seem to spend most of their time in sports, baseball and football. In Russia, the boys -- and girls, too, for that matter -- use their leisure for reading books like Buckle's History of Civilization, Marx's Capital, Kautsky's The Social Revolution, and our own great classics that throb with the passion of revolt. Our pastime is chiefly attending underground Socialist meetings and spreading the propaganda among workingmen in the city and peasants in the country." Trotsky does not hedge about his political affiliation during the pre-war period: "I was a Mensheviki of the extreme left, or a near-Bolsheviki." Trotsky describes his situation in America, where he arrived in Dec. 1916: "Here in New York I lived with my wife and two children in three rooms in a Bronx tenement, wrote for the Novyi Mir, the Russian Socialist daily, and spoke at Socialist meetings. I do not expect my stay here to be very long, however, for a revolution is bound to break out in Russia in a short time, and as soon as that happens I shall hasten to my home country and help in the work of Russia's liberation."

 

"Democratic Defense: A Practical Program for Socialism," by W.J. Ghent, et al. [March 1917] The approach of American entry into the European was spurred Socialists of all colors into action. This document was produced by a group of individuals on the SPA's Right, signing alphabetically and including prominently W.J. Ghent, the widow of Jack London, Upton Sinclair and his wife, William English Walling, and others. The statement states that there is a fundamental difference between "autocratic" and "democratic" governments, that disarmament is impossible while there are "autocratic" governments in the world, and that "the proper aim of Socialist world-politics at the present time is an alliance of the politically advanced nations for the defense of the democratic principle throughout the world." While seeking a democratization of foreign policy and the removal of the profit motive from armaments procurement, the SPA Right supports building up of the army and the navy and developing military preparedness through youth organizations like the Boy Scouts, with the use of conscription strongly implied. "To use only volunteers in national defense is to kill off the men of courage and character, and to breed from weakness and incompetence; and this is national suicide," the social-patriotic appeal declares.

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

"Letter to Eugene V. Debs in New York City from Ludwig Lore in New York City, March 9, 1917." Letter from Ludwig Lore of the New Yorker Volkszeitung to Debs attempting to win his cooperation in the launching of a new theoretical magazine, The Class Struggle. "A group of Socialists who endorse the position of the Zimmerwald and Kienthal Conferences has decided to start a new Socialist periodical, whose task shall be mainly to educate the intelligent rank and file of the Party," Lore notes. An article on "The Defense of the Fatherland" is sought from Debs, who is asked to send the material to Lore's co-editor, Louis Boudin, if he is able. Lore notes that the editors plan on regularly issuing articles from the journal as propaganda pamphlets -- a number of which were eventually issued under the imprint of the Socialist Publication Society.

 

"Socialist Party Referendum 'A' 1917." [Mailed March 10, 1917] The Ninth Ward Branch of Local Cook County, Illinois, proposed this referendum to call a special National Convention of the Socialist Party in Chicago to begin Sunday, Sept. 2, 1917. Two hundred delegates were to attend. Although it is not so stated, it was implied that the convention would be held to determine the SPA's position on the European War and the looming participation of America therein. The National Office was inundated with seconds of the motion, including some of the SPA's largest locals (Local New York City, with 3500 members; Local Kings Co. NY, with 1771; Local Philadelphia, with 1376) as well as from a vast number of Federation branches -- particularly German, Hungarian, South Slavic, Slovak, and Bohemian. The list of seconds is appended. The Referendum mailed to the membership of the SPA on Saturday, March 10, 1917, the same day the Executive Committee of the Party met in the National Office. The obvious popularity of the referendum pushed the Executive Committee into immediate action on the matter.

 

"Minutes of the National Executive Committee Meeting Held in Chicago, March 10-11, 1917." With a war crisis rapidly approaching and in view of a popular party referendum for a September 2 National Convention certified as seconded and mailed, the National Executive Committee of the Socialist Party (Comrades Berger, Hillquit, Maley, and Work) decided at its March 10-11 meeting to set aside the organization's constitution and to immediately issue a call for an Emergency National Convention. In accord with Referendum "A," 200 delegates were apportioned to the various states based upon average paid membership for 1916. These are the minutes for this seminal meeting of the NEC, as published for the record in the Socialist Party Bulletin.

 

"Replies of the National Committee to the Proposed Emergency National Convention of 1917." [March 12, 1917] With war looming and a popular referendum calling for a September Emergency National Convention qualified to be mailed, the National Executive Committee sprung into action and went outside the SPA's constitution to rush a convention to April 7 in lieu of the proposed September 2 conclave. The NEC submitted this proposal to the governing National Committee via telegram for an immediate vote by wire. These are the responses of various members of the National Committee of the Socialist Party of America to the proposal for an extraordinary Emergency National Convention to be held April 7, 1917.

 

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

 

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

 

"The Question of War: Letter to the Editor of the New York Call," by J.G. Phelps Stokes, Charles Edward Russell, William English Walling, W.J. Ghent, Upton Sinclair, et al. [March 24, 1917] The parade of defections on the Socialist Party's Right Wing began in earnest in March 1917 as irresistible force of Woodrow Wilson's policy and Congressonal opinion moved towards war and while the immovable object of the Socialist Party reaffirmed its unshakable commitment to anti-militarism and its opposition to the USA's intervention in the European Imperialist bloodbath. This open letter to the New York Call was signed by a number of the SPA's best-known public figures, including the muckraking writer Charles Edward Russell, author and formerly esteemed Left Wing analyst W.J. Ghent, millionaire leading light of the Intercollegiate Socialist Society Graham Phelps Stokes, popular novelist Upton Sinclair, and others. Wrapping their decision in words of Morris Hillquit pulled from a Jan. 1915 magazine article and a statement by Congressman Meyer London, Stokes and the social-patriotic signatories assert that the Socialist Party's refusal to recognize the right of national self-defense to be "unsound from the standpoint of Socialist theory and a betrayal of democracy." While still paying lip-service to anti-militarism, Stokes and the signatories declare: "A nation should neither sidestep its responsibilities to save itself some present suffering, nor bask behind bulwarks raised and defended by others. To refuse to resist international crime is to be unworthy of the name of Socialist. It is our present duty to the cause of Internationalism to support our government in any sacrifice it requires in defense of those principles of international law and order which are essential alike to Socialism and to civilization."

 

"Farewell to the Eleven: Letter to the Editor of the New York Call," by Algernon Lee [March 24, 1917] Rand School of Social Science head Algernon Lee issues a quick response to the pro-war declaration of Graham Phelps Stokes, C.E. Russell, William English Walling, Upton Sinclair, and 7 other leading Socialists (published in the edition of the New York Call that same day). "The 11 are ready to support the government in any sacrifice it may require," writes Lee. "Of them it will require but one, and that one they have already made -- the sacrifice of their class loyalty and their political independence. For the rest, they will support the government in forcing thousands of boys to sacrifice their lives; in forcing our unions to sacrifice their right to strike; in forcing our party to sacrifice freedom of speech and press; in forcing the whole working class to sacrifice its hopes of social reform and of emancipation from class rule." The 11 signatories have by their action helped pave the way for Prussian-style conscription, militarization of the schools, draconian censorship, and unfettered 1798-style "Anti-Sedition" legislation, Lee believes. The 11 social-patriots have "thrown upon the scrap heap whatever power they might have had to defend working class interests in the time of trial and enlisted themselves for noncombatant service in the domestic war for the supremacy of capital," Lee declares.

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

APRIL

"Who Says "Farewell"? Letter to the Editor of the New York Call," by A.M. Simons [April 5, 1917] Socialist Party founding member and former editor of the International Socialist Review Algie Simons comes to the defense of the social-patriots Stokes, Russell, Walling, Ghent, Sinclair & Co. against the criticism of Algernon Lee. "I would not have subscribed to everything in the statement of Stokes, Russell, Walling, et al.," says Simons, "but any Socialist could far better have signed that than the official statements of the NEC." Simons takes Lee to task for failing to protest "the indifference of party officials" to German submarine attacks of American shipping and other aspects of German propaganda and sabotage. "Algernon Lee would read out of the party everyone who refuses to bend the knee to Prussian autocracy and militarism or dares to stand in defense of democracy, Socialism, and humanity in an international struggle. Is he quite sure that he is the whole Socialist Party and can say 'farewell' to all who disagree with him?" Simons asks. He aggressively adds that "if Lee is authorized to say 'farewell' to every Socialist and every American in the Socialist Party, then, of course, we must go. But some of us who love Socialism and the Socialist Party more than we do the German kaiser and his form of autocracy will fight before we go."

 

"Real Patriotism: Letter to the Editor of the Milwaukee Leader," by James H. Dolsen [April 7, 1917] This letter to the editor of the Milwaukee Socialist daily published by Victor Berger was written by one of the founders of the Communist Labor Party in California, the 31 year old James Dolsen. Dolsen warns that "The conflict between the industrial and financial oligarchy which controls the nation through a feudal system, strikingly similar to that of medieval Europe, and the working people and consuming public under the form of a political democracy, is irreconcilable." He cites Abraham Lincoln's admonition that no nation can remain half-slave and half-free" "We can not exist as free men and women in a democracy where all the liberties guaranteed by our political institutions become a mockery under the tyranny of economic power concentrated in the hands of a small, irresponsible group." Dolsen indicates that the class struggle is reaching an acute stage in the United States and views the move to war as a diversionary maneuver by the American ruling class as a means of sidetracking the growing militancy of the workers. "Let us beware of that 'patriotism' rejoiced in by financiers, the intensity of which has a direct ration to its profitableness... We workers do not despise the 'patriotism' which finds the nation an organization worth preserving, but we raise above it the concept of patriotism which would secure to the humblest worker in our country the fullest possible opportunity of living a free, useful life," Dolsen declares.

 

"The Reds and the Yellows," by Henry Ollikainen [April 7, 1917] This letter to the editor of the Minneapolis New Times by moderate Finnish Socialist Henry Ollikainen takes English speaking Socialists of the state to task for favoring the syndicalist Left Wing of the Finnish Socialist Federation as the "only movement which represents the revolutionary spirit among the Finns." Ollikainen charges that the syndicalist wing, headed by the "ill-famous" Leo Laukki, had been engaged in "spreading all kinds of slanderous charges against the Finnish Socialist Federation among the English comrades" and that they had been likewise speaking in a derogatory manner about the majority of the Socialist Party itself. Laukki is characterized as a "shrewd politician" and an opportunistic charlatan who had posed as a Socialist merely to gain employment in a party institution upon coming to America. "When the Federation at its National Convention at Smithville, Minn., in July 1912 decided to stand firmly for international socialist principles and by a great majority rejected the syndicalistic ideas, Mr. Laukki, and his followers started the cry that the whole organization is rotten, and that it is lead by a few blind leaders who do not know and do not care anything about Socialism," Ollikainen charges, adding that an "underground movement" had been formed to "capture" the Finnish Socialist daily Työmies for the syndicalists. When the attempt on Työmies failed, the syndicalists established their own paper, Ollikainen notes. He also charges that Laukki and the syndicalists "captured about 30 locals, mostly in Minnesota, and the controlled the Socialist Party of Minnesota for the last two years and a half and the result was that the membership fell down nearly 3,000. Now they charge the Finnish Federation for their own fault."

 

"Keynote Address to the 1917 Emergency National Convention of the Socialist Party, St. Louis, MO -- April 7, 1917," by Morris Hillquit The 1917 St. Louis Emergency Convention of the SPA was held immediately on the heels of the American declaration of war on Germany, called to bring together 200 delegates of the party to set policy in the new drastically changed situation. The anti-militarist tenor of the gathering was fanned by Morris Hillquit, who delivered this keynote address to the convention. The SPA had been in decline since its previous convention in 1912, Hillquit noted, with fewer members, a diminished press, and a general loss of enthusiasm and energy. The collapse of the International Socialist movement associated with the eruption of hostilities in Europe had a profoundly depressing effect on the American movement. Now the war had come to America, said Hillquit, and "millions of our boys will be sent to the trenches to murder millions of other boys in foreign countries, and they will be for the most part boys of the working class on both sides." Furthermore: "War means reaction at home. War creates a mob spirit of unreason. War creates conditions under which all the powers of reaction, all the predatory powers of the country, can satisfy their desires, and accomplish their attacks upon popular liberty, upon popular rights with absolute impunity." Only one organization, the Socialist Party, "still retained a clear vision, an unclouded mind, in this general din of confusion, passion, and unreason; and it falls to us to continue our opposition to this criminal war, even now after it has been declared," said Hillquit. The war would ended by "the rebellious working class of Europe," in Hillquit's estimation, and he called on his comrades to fight against militarism and to stand ready to join the movement when the world once again resumed its struggle for liberty and social justice under the banner of International Socialism.

 

"Socialists Plan Delegates' Poll on War Question: Attitude of Speakers Indicates Party Convention Will Not Approve Conflict," by J. Louis Engdahl [events of April 7, 1917] First of 4 first-hand reports of the activities of the St. Louis Emergency National Convention published in the pages of the Milwaukee Leader by American Socialist editor J. Louis Engdahl. Engdahl writes that "Early indications are that a decisive and determined position on the question of war would be taken by the convention." Engdahl notes that the convention gave a standing ovation to Morris Hillquit during his keynote speech to the convention on its first day when he declared "It falls to us to continue our opposition to this war even now," again when he stated "the American people are opposed to this war," and a third time when he asserted that the predatory interests that profit from war must pay its costs. An effort was made by Left Wing delegate Ludwig Katterfeld to force each nominee for the pivotal Committee on War and Militarism to answer yes or no to the question: ""Are you opposed to all wars, offensive and defensive, except the wars of the working class against the capitalist?" After protracted debate, Katterfeld's motion was defeated 66-96, with the Center faction joining the Right to defeat the measure, which was viewed as being simplistic and demagogic.

 

"Socialists Have Big Opportunity on War Question: Hillquit at Convention Declares Party is Not Made Up of Pacifists," by J. Louis Engdahl [events of April 8, 1917] Second of 4 first-hand reports of the activities of the St. Louis Emergency National Convention published in the pages of the Milwaukee Leader by American Socialist editor J. Louis Engdahl. The 15 member Committee on War and Militarism was elected, Engdahl notes, consisting of Kate Richards O'Hare, Missouri; Morris Hillquit, Algernon Lee, and Louis B. Boudin, New York; Kate Sadler, Washington; Patrick Quinlan, New Jersey; C.E. Ruthenberg and Frank Midney, Ohio; Dan Hogan, Arkansas; Job Harriman, California; Victor L. Berger, Wisconsin; John Spargo, Vermont; Maynard Shipley, Maryland; Walter Dillon, New Mexico; and George Speiss, Connecticut. The committee immediately went into session, with Victor Berger expounding upon the relationship between nationalism and internationalism. Engdahl quotes Berger as telling the committee: "Without nations you can not have internationalism. I am both an American and a Socialist at the same time. If I didn't believe in nations, I wouldn't be a member of the Socialist Party and I wouldn't vote. Anti-nationalism is anarchism. It makes a great difference to me whether I am an American or a Chinaman." Louis Boudin asserted the primacy of the international organization over the national and briefly crossed swords with Morris Hillquit over the question of whether the International had collapsed during the war, Boudin arguing that it had and Hillquit maintaining that it had not.

 

"Fighting Big Capital: Letter to the Editor of the New York Call," by S.J. Rutgers [April 8, 1917] Left Wing Socialist Seybold Rutgers again raises his voice for "mass action" to advance the Socialist cause, citing the February Revolution in Russia as indicative, even if not a direct model for activity in America. Writes Rutgers: "What made the Russian mass action so particularly interesting to us is the fact that it shows practically that forms of action can be used with success quite different from the rigid, centralized, boss-ruled unions of the AF of L. And what makes it still more interesting is the fact that this form of action originated under and had results during the rule of the Iron Heel of an unscrupulous autocracy. This means that results were possible under conditions which lately developed, and continue to develop, in the United States, ruled by the money kings of Wall Street. Furthermore, the best results by the Russian mass action were gained in those centers where industry was most developed." If the IWW has been so far unsuccessful at organizing the steel industry, for example, at least they had done a better job than the AF of L, which had "not even attempted seriously to organize those industrial slaves." Rutgers declares that "the old methods fail and the old labor bureaucrats fail to see the new methods. To see them would mean to see their own doom as a mighty and privileged group. So the new methods have to develop from the bottom up and against the stubborn resistance of the old 'leaders.'"

 

"'Have We a Country to Defend?' Letter to the Editor of the New York Call," by William M. Feigenbaum [April 10, 1917] Prominent Socialist journalist William Feigenbaum writes in answer to the Left Wing "dogmatists" Edward Lindgren and M.D. Graubard in arguing that the working class does in actual fact have a country to defend. "The poor worker -- no matter how poor -- HAS a home. It may be a few poor rooms in a tenement. It may be a shack in a mining camp. But he has a home, and the few sticks of furniture that he has purchased with so much sacrifice, the few ornaments, the few dishes, mean more in actual life stuff to him than all the palaces of millionaires, who have homes in every summer and winter resort in the land." Further, Feigenbaum argues that it does matter whether the working class is subjected to one or another variant of national capitalism, that "to say that it makes no difference who exploits us -- Germans or Japs or Americans -- is to write oneself down as an imbecile." Feigenbaum states that the Socialist Party need not fly in the face of reality with inane slogans about the working class having no country, but should rather make the clear case that though there might be "great harm in a (hypothetical and improbable) invasion and occupation of this nation by another nation," there would result "far more harm in international war." "Let us not be fools, writes Feigenbaum: "We have a fine case against international war. Let us not spoil our perfectly good case by asinine 'arguments.' Our great fight is against capitalism."

 

"Hillquit Starts Debate on Party War Resolutions: Declares Report of Majority Takes Absolute Position Against Conflict: Scores Minority's Views." (report in Milwaukee Leader) [events of April 11, 1917] After a lull while the various committees of the St. Louis Convention conducted their work, activity on the convention floor again became fierce on April 11, when the Committee on War and Militarism made its report. This unsigned account from the Milwaukee Leader notes the speech of Morris Hillquit in reporting for the committee majority. Hillquit has kind words for the courage of John Spargo in vetting a (pro-war) report clearly at odds with the sentiment of the overwhelming majority of the convention. On the other hand, Hillquit pilloried Louis Boudin for his sectarian insistence on submitting a "Left Wing" minority report which was not greatly dissimilar from the majority statement. Boudin "submits minority reports on all occasions. He has a minority report in him and it has got to come out," Hillquit is said to have sarcastically remarked. All 3 reporters -- Hillquit, Boudin, and Spargo -- are said to have been "listened to with great earnestness, and liberally applauded" by the delegates. This news account also includes the full text of Arthur LeSueur's resolution on the Non-Partisan League, approved by a vote of 114 to 56. The resolution reaffirmed the long-standing principle that for the Socialist Party to compromise on the issue of political fusion "is to be swallowed up and utterly destroyed."

 

"First Minority Report of the Committee on War and Militarism," by Louis Boudin [April 11, 1917] Full text of the "Left Wing" minority report of the Committee on War and Militarism authored by Louis Boudin and signed by committee members Kate Sadler of Washington and Walter Dillon of New Mexico. The resolution adamantly declares "our unalterable opposition to all wars declared and prosecuted by any ruling class, no matter what the ostensible purpose." This refusal to acknowledge the validity of any sort of "defensive war," a corollary of the Left Wing slogan that "the workers have no country," was the fundamental point of departure from the majority resolution authored by Ruthenberg, Hillquit, and Lee and revised line by line in committee. The Boudin minority resolution asserts that "We deny that any of the nations engaged in this war fight for democracy, or that the ends of democracy in any way will be served by either side to the conflict winning a complete victory. This war is primarily the result of economic forces which have brought about the imperialistic era in which we live, and of the general reactionary trend which is one of the most essential characteristics of this era. Modern imperialism is a worldwide phenomenon, although it may be more pronounced in one country than in another.... The only hope of democracy, therefore, lies in those revolutionary elements of each country which are ready to fight imperialism in all its manifestation and wherever found."

 

"Second Minority Report of the Committee on War and Militarism," by John Spargo [April 11, 1917] Full text of the minority report authored and signed by John Spargo of the St. Louis Convention's Committee on War and Militarism, the position statement of a pro-war Right Wing faction which accounted for only 5 of the nearly 200 delegates to the gathering. The Spargo resolution soft-sells its acquiescence of America's entry into the European conflict, declaring "Our guiding principle in all that concerns our relations to the people of other lands is internationalism. We are internationalists and anti-militarists." The resolution asserts that the basis of internationalism is actually nationalism, and that "those who say that Socialism involves the view that the working class has no nation to call its own, that all nations are alike, that there is nothing to choose between a militarist autocracy and a democratic republic, do not preach Socialist internationalism, but pernicious reactionary nonsense." By extension, the right of nations to defend themselves is explicitly stated and blame for the European war is placed upon German militarism: "Germany began the war, and rejected all attempts at arbitration, because of the peculiar conjunction of economic conditions and political institutions and national ideals characteristic of her national life. The die for war was cast by the triple powers dominating Germany -- the autocratic monarchy, inspired by a great imperialistic vision, the great military class, and that section of the capitalist class closely associated with militarism." Indifference towards the outcome of the war is asserted to be "treachery" towards both the nation and to the principles of international Socialism. "Now that the war is an accomplished fact..we hold that it is our Socialist duty to make whatever sacrifices may be necessary to enable our national and its allies to win the war as speedily as possible." the Spargo resolution declares.

 

"Corridor Convention Chat," by Charles W. Ervin [April 11, 1917] This is a folksy, Appeal to Reason-style smorgasbord of short profiles of delegates to the St. Louis Emergency National Convention of the Socialist Party. Of particular interest is the substantial review of the ideas of former NEC member Arthur LeSeuer, who viewed the task of the Socialist Party not to win election for its own sake, but rather to serve as a sort of ideological vanguard for the two old parties, winning piecemeal adoption of its program yet remaining staunchly independent of the old parties and always winning the hearts and minds of the public and demanding more. Also of note is the extensive series of profiles of female delegates, who included Kate O'Hare, Anna Maley, Jane Tait, Kate Sadler, Mary Garber, Maud Ross, Margaret Prevey, Ida Biloof, Jennie McGene, Mary Raoul Millis, and Elda Conly.

 

"Party Demands Capitalists Pay Expense of Conflict," by J. Louis Engdahl [events of April 12, 1917] Third of 4 first-hand reports of the activities of the St. Louis Emergency National Convention published in the pages of the Milwaukee Leader by American Socialist editor J. Louis Engdahl. This report deals to a large extent with a proposal for the "conscription of incomes" over $5,000 (an idea incidentally first vetted in the pages of the pro-war New Republic magazine). An amendment to this effect to the resolution on war and militarism was made by Dan Hogan of Arkansas and, after extensive debate, was passed by a margin of 101-1/2 to 69. Two amendments to the majority resolution were passed on the floor of the convention making "more emphatic the party opposition to war." In addition, a platform demand for the socialization of all agricultural land was softened into a call for "the socialization and democratic management of all land and other natural resources now held out of use for monopolistic or speculative profit."

 

"Socialists Abolish National Committee: Convention Marked by Stirring Scenes Over Question of Constitutional Revisions," by Charles W. Erwin [April 13, 1917] While the question of the Socialist Party's position towards the European war assumed the greatest place on the agenda of the 1917 Emergency National Convention, organizational restructuring was also an object of attention. This news account from the New York Call reviews the major changes in the SPA's structure implemented by the St. Louis Convention. The National Committee, a body composed of state representatives which had met annually, was abolished. In place of the NC, an expanded National Executive Committee was launched, consisting of 15 members (instead of the previous 5), 3 of which were to be elected by each of 5 geographic districts. In this way, regional diversity would be assured, while the unwieldy and functionally duplicate National Committee would be replaced by a more streamlined and effective body. Meanwhile, an effort to open up membership in the Socialist Party to members of other political organizations, such as the Non-Partisan League, was defeated by a vote of 113 to 51. Finally, the bane of the Socialist Party's Left Wing, the controversial Section 6 of Article 2 which mandated expulsion of any party member who "opposes political action or advocates crime, sabotage, or other methods of violence as a weapon of the working class to aid in its emancipation" was stricken with little acrimony. The latter provision, enacted by the 1912 Convention and ratified by referendum, had been the cause of the mass departure of the syndicalist Left Wing in 1912-13 and was an ongoing aggravation to the element of the Socialist Party which had limited faith in the efficacy of parliamentarism.

 

"Socialists Avert Radical Changes in Party's Policy: Convention Ballots Down Suggestion of Compromise with Other Groups," by J. Louis Engdahl [events of April 13, 1917] Fourth of 4 first-hand reports of the activities of the St. Louis Emergency National Convention published in the pages of the Milwaukee Leader by American Socialist editor J. Louis Engdahl. Engdahl notes the defeat of a proposed change to the party constitution which would have legitimized party members voting for non-Socialist candidates in races in which there were no Socialist candidates standing (a reaffirmation of the party's long standing paranoia against "political trading" and "fusion"). Even the resounding 59-1/2 to 100-1/2 defeat of the proposal showed "much larger sentiment in favor of this change than had been expected," in Engdahl's view. John Kennedy of Illinois, the reporter for the Constitution Committee on the measure, argued the Socialist Party was only fighting the class struggle on paper and that it was not fighting the class struggle in fact, noting that in every European country Socialists were permitted to make their "second choice" in run-off elections from which the Socialist nominees had been eliminated. Engdahl also notes that by a 78 to 42 margin the convention had determined to print and distribute the majority resolution on war and militarism, with the resolution a tentative statement of party policy until formally ratified by the membership in referendum vote. At the same time, war supporter John Spargo unveiled an alternative resolution on war and militarism to which a sufficient number of delegates had attached their signatures to the written document to assure its referral to the membership along with the majority resolution. The complete text of the Spargo alternative report is included. (The party referendum later resoundingly approved the majority resolution over the Spargo alternative by a margin of approximately 9 to 1.)

 

"Reorganizing the International: Resolution of Socialist Party, Boston Lettish Branch No. 2," by Karlis Janson & J. Kreitz [pub. April 15, 1917] This resolution of Lettish Branch #2 of Boston, Socialist Party, while commending the efforts of the NEC to rejuvenate an international Socialist organization, took issue with the effort to revive the moribund 2nd International, rendered inoperative by the social-patriotism of its leading parties with regards to the European war. Instead, international organization should be rendered through the "International Socialist Commission of Berne," the resolution declares. The NEC should thus rescind its decision to call directly a meeting of the 2nd International's Bureau for the purpose of convening a Congress of that body, the resolution indicates. Organizer of Boston Lettish Branch 2 was Karlis Janson (note correct spelling of surname), better known as one of the 3 members of the Comintern's "American Agency" in 1920-21 under the pseudonym "Charles Scott" or the Americanized version of his name, "Charley Johnson."

 

"The Emergency Convention: Unsigned Editorial of the Milwaukee Leader, April 16, 1917." While this editorial from Victor Berger's Milwaukee Leader may not have been written by Berger himself, the unknown editorialist certainly dusts off a couple of Berger's well-worn aphorisms: "The Milwaukee Leader recognizes only two schools of Socialism -- the historical school and the hysterical school," he declares, adding "And only two classes of Socialists -- the Revolutionary Socialists and the Resolutionary Socialists." The editorialist acknowledges that the recently completed St. Louis Emergency Convention "to no small degree was dominated by the Impossibilist element of the party," but adds that "this is the occasion when some fanaticism for Socialism and for the brotherhood of man is very useful and very necessary for the progress of humanity." The end result of the convention is judged to have been "good," in spite of the position of relative strength held by the Left Wing. "This is not the moment for real Socialists to look for the little differences that separate us and to accentuate these differences until we would create a split in our movement. This is the time for Socialists to look for the great principles that unite us. We are facing a world crisis and we must face it together. And it was this thought that made it possible for men holding such different views in our movement as [Centrists] Morris Hillquit and Victor Berger on one side, and [Left Wingers] Maynard Shipley and Frank Midney on the other -- to honestly agree upon a declaration and a program for the guidance of the Socialist Party," the editorialist indicates.

 

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

 

"Radicals Join Pro-Germans: Platform Action of Socialists: Old Principles Discarded for 'Mass Action,'" by A.M. Simons [April 17, 1917] As soon as the train from St. Louis pulled into the station in Milwaukee, pro-war convention delegate Algie Simons apparently rushed to his typewriter to prepare this condemnatory article for the Milwaukee Journal, a conservative daily. Simons, a founding member of the Socialist Party of America, became unhinged in the atmosphere of war hysteria, piling on bizarre and demonstrably false accusations against his party. "It is not simply that [the St. Louis anti-war] resolution endorses a narrow jingoistic nationalism stamped with the Prussian double eagles," declares Simons. "That endorsement was secured only by an alliance between the friends of German militarism and the semi-anarchistic elements in the Socialist Party. That alliance consummated as despicable a piece of treachery as was ever perpetrated." Simons argues that a call for "mass action" -- meaning to him "riots, general strikes, great processions, and violent revolt" -- had been placed into the resolution by "pro-German nationalists" (i.e. Morris Hillquit and Victor Berger), working hand in glove with "sincere, devoted fanatics." These "Prussian nationalists" and "German jingoes" were intend upon luring "fanatics to death in the interest of German imperialism," Simons asserts. "I would be a traitor to America, to democracy, to Socialism, and to humanity if I left unexposed this murderous treason," Simons shrilly proclaims. (This article was mailed by Winfield Gaylord and Simons to conservative US Senator Paul Husting, who on May 11 inserted the text into The Congressional Record in conjunction with his floor speech in favor of adoption of so-called "Espionage Act" legislation.)

 

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

 

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

 

"Why I Am Against Conscription: An Open Letter to Members of Congress," by John Reed [April 21, 1917] In the wake of American entry into the European war and the introduction of legislation calling for military conscription, war correspondent and future Communist Labor Party leader John Reed published this open letter to members of Congress detailing the reasons for his opposition to the draft. Reed characterizes military conscription as un-democratic, physically unsound, unnecessary, and un-American. "Conscription not only drills men's bodies, but their minds. It makes them obedient to authority, whether right or wrong; takes away their power to think originally; makes them expert with guns, and therefore, eager to use them; and gives them a hatred of independent thought and contempt for human life," Reed asserts. Reed argues that the pending legislation "means inevitably universal military training, which is only universal military service in disguise. And that means that instead of being free to work for a larger measure of democratic progress in this country, American democrats must devote all their energies and their resources to fighting the extension of militarism in their country."

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

"Letter to Winfield R. Gaylord in Milwaukee from Adolph Germer, Executive Secretary of the Socialist Party of America in Chicago, April 27, 1917." The Socialist Party's April 1917 resolution on war and militarism drew the self-righteous wrath of a social-patriotic minority in the party, typified by Wisconsin state organizer (and delegate on the losing side of the question at the 1917 convention) Winfield Gaylord. This document is a responds to a letter written by Gaylord to the National Executive Committee of the SPA, which took the party majority to task for their "treasonable" action. In his reply, Executive Secretary Germer asks of Gaylord: "Treasonable to whom? Surely it cannot be treasonable to the people of America to keep them from being shot by others with whom they have no difference.... If the Socialists of every nation would take the same view that you do, there would be no rumbling in the respective governments. The ruling class would have the full support of the Socialists." Germer points out that the nationalist perspective of Gaylord is "not in harmony with the international Socialist movement." He indicates that Gaylord is both misguided in support of American intervention in the war and hypocritical in his assertion that the Socialist Party is lending de facto support to autocratic regimes. "You speak of the autocratic government of Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, and Turkey. How about the autocratic government of Serbia, Romania, Italy, Japan, and Belgium, and until very recently the despotism of Russia? Do you know of any degree of democracy existing in any of these countries? Do you know of the ruling class of those countries fighting for democracy and civilization? Why single out a few of the autocratic countries who happen to be allied on one side of this war?" Germer asks.

 

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

 

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

 

"Letter to the Editor of New Times," by A.L. Sugarman [April 28, 1917] The State Secretary of the Socialist Party of Minnesota, a Left Winger and card-carrying member of the IWW, takes issue here with the April 7, 1917, letter to Minneapolis Socialist weekly New Times by Henry Ollikainen. Sugarman charges that Ollikainen misrepresented the views of the revolutionary socialist Left Wing -- the so-called "Reds" -- in his letter, which he held actually differed from the the constructive socialist moderates as follows: "The difference lies chiefly in the fact that whereas the Reds want to educate the proletariat, the Yellows wish to elect aldermen. The Reds say that a political campaign is essentially a device of education, a trick to take advantage of the state of the public mind at elections to pound home the message of revolt; the Yellows say it is chiefly an attempt to gain power. The former adopt the logical course; an educated working class will not need to be told how to vote. The latter puts the cart after the horse; secures a vote, and then tries to teach the voter." Sugarman claims that only an insignificant minority of the Left Wing did not believe in any form of political action and invites the constructive socialists to back up their theoretical advocacy of the principles of industrial unionism with concrete action "by endorsing the one organization that stands for it" -- the IWW. Sugarman also charges that a bloc-voting Finnish "machine" is behind the effort to recall him as State Secretary as part of its effort to seize "control."

 

"Stand United!" [editorial by the Appeal to Reason] [April 28, 1917] The radical anti-militarist policy of the 1917 St. Louis Convention of the Socialist Party is met with approval in this editorial from the Appeal to Reason, probably authored by editor Louis Kopelin. The paper's longstanding policy is reaffirmed: "As a consistent and militant opponent of militarism, the Appeal has fought this war from the beginning and to the very last. Even though the controlled press has lashed Congress and the administration into declaring war against Germany, the Appeal can not and will not lend its support to this conflict. The Appeal is not disloyal to the government of the United States. The Appeal has no sympathies for the ruling class of Germany or of any other country. In the best sense the Appeal is pro-American and consequently pro-humanity." Kopelin notes that "We feel convinced that the present war is the inevitable result of the determination of American capitalists to carry on business as usual in spite of the military operations abroad." Kopelin urges the united effort of the Socialist Party in this moment of crisis: "At this time there ought not to be carping criticism of the various schools of thought and action. The forces of reaction are united and are working day and night. Let us not weaken the cause of humanity and Socialism by foolish and futile heresy hunts. We need the help of everyone who is in favor of overthrowing the present system of industry with its horrible results, such as war, prostitution, poverty, and the like."

 

"Socialists Play Berlin's Game: Take Pacifist Stand in America -- Refused to Do Same Thing at Meeting in Germany," by A.M. Simons [April 29, 1917] This breathlessly melodramatic article by Algie Simons, inserted by Senator Paul Husting into The Congressional Record, pretends to spill the beans on a "whispered" story "hotly denied by German nationalists" in the Socialist Party. Simons excitedly tells of the double standard held by fellow SPA delegates to the 1907 Stuttgart Congress of the Socialist International Morris Hillquit and Victor Berger on the question of militarism. The Social Democrats of Germany had been placidly allowed to skate by the International on the tactics to be pursued in the event of war. In lieu of an explicit resolution committing parties to engage in a general strike in the event of war (which would have drawn the ire of the German secret police) the Germans had made verbal assurances to this end -- which they had promptly broken in August 1914. To this Simons implicitly contrasts the actions of the Socialist Party at St. Louis in April 1917. Useful as a personal memoir of the 1907 Congress, seeming to have no bearing whatsoever on the events of 1917, despite Simons' anxiously revelatory tone.

 

MAY

"After the War Ends," by Anton Pannekoek [circa May 1, 1917] In this article from Ludwig Lore's journal, The Class Struggle, the Left Wing Dutch astronomer Anton Pannekoek advises his readers to prepare for post-war economic dislocation when the various economies move from uniform, controlled war production, based upon a large single buyer, to chaotic private peacetime production. "The old markets are gone. New markets must be found, new connections established. All this takes time. The enormous antebellum export to the belligerent countries cannot at once be resumed, upon that subject we need entertain no illusions. National hatred, influenced to a white heat will continue, and will create bitter antagonism on the industrial field," Pannekoek declares. As a result, Pannekoek anticipates an expanded roll for the state, "state socialism," as a means of mitigating the deficiencies of the economy and reducing the potency of class struggle. "The struggle for socialism is always a class struggle for the momentary interests of the proletariat," Pannekoek asserts, noting the opportunity and necessity for increased militancy during the transition period from war economy to post-war economy.

 

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

 

"Letter to Secretary of Labor William B. Wilson in Washington, DC, from William English Walling in Greenwich, Connecticut." [May 2, 1917] Winfield Gaylord and Algie Simons were not the only individuals from the Socialist Party orbit who engaged in duplicitous correspondence with authority figures from the old parties, this letter from author William English Walling reveals. Walling writes here to Secretary of Labor William B. Wilson in response to rumors of Socialist Party leader Morris Hillquit's appointment to the Root Commission to Russia. Walling notes: "I write now to point out that none of the official leaders of the Majority now in control of the American Party can be trusted. On the contrary, all of them are in bitter opposition to the American government and the American people, and all are for immediate peace absolutely regardless of the question as to whether it would be favorable to German militarism or not. While Meyer London, for example, is somewhat less rabid than Hillquit and Berger, he has been notoriously pro-German throughout the war." Walling declares that "The official Socialist Majority should not be represented in the delegation to Russia; the American Federation of Labor alone should represent our working people." Walling adds that "Allan Benson, A.M. Simons, Winfield Gaylord, and Job Harriman have all openly expressed the view that the St. Louis resolutions are nothing more nor less than treason under the statutes of the United States. To send a supporter of these resolutions to Russia would obviously be insane." He further indicates that "J.G. Phelps Stokes has just written a careful letter to [Frank] Polk of the State Department, giving at length the most urgent reasons why Hillquit and Berger should not even be permitted to sail for the so-called 'international' Socialist conference at Stockholm now being engineered by Berlin." The allegiance of the pro-war SPA Right Wing to the Wilson administration at the expense of their own ostensible political organization is clear.

 

"Our 'Party Killers': Unsigned Editorial in the Milwaukee Leader, May 3, 1917." This editorial from the Milwaukee Socialist Party daily ridicules the ham-handed amateur espionage efforts of such self-appointed "party killers" as Winfield Gaylord and Algie Simons. "It is lucky for the Socialist Party and unlucky for its enemies that there is no secrecy of any kind in the Socialist movement. All of our aims and principles, our fears and ambitions, are openly expressed in our meetings and in our papers.... The spy or the secret service agent simply wastes his time if he looks for secrets. Even the "worst" is always known, in fact we do all in our power to give it as much publicity as we can," the editorialist declares. The St. Louis manifesto, while "not quite satisfactory in its details," is held to be "frank and outspoken -- but most of these things have been said in the Congress of the United States -- especially in the Senate in much stronger language." Simons is held up for special scorn for having developed "the most virulent case of Germanophobia (German-baiting) known in this part of the country." A pacifist in 1914, Simons had lost his editorial position at the Leader and had thereafter turned to ultra-nationalism and secured a job as Wisconsin state organizer for the Patriotic Defense League. Similarly Gaylord had "suddenly changed front" on the war and thus become "entitled to all the advantages that this 'turnabout' will bring him in 'patriotic' circles." "He has conspired and advised with the United States District Attorney's office against the Socialist movement and acted the part of an 'informer' and instigator against the party," the editorialist observes. "There is no precedent for such perfidy in the history of the Socialist movement of any Western European country - at least not in England or Germany. We should have to look to Russia for a prototype," the editorialist declares.

 

"Member's Individual Ballot: National Referendum "B" 1917: Anti-War Proclamation and Program Adopted by the National Emergency Convention, St. Louis, Mo., April 7th to 14th, 1917. [May 5, 1917] A strong majority of the Emergency Convention (141 of 200 delegates) voted in favor of a report of the War and Militarism Committee which stated in no uncertain terms that "our entrance into the European war was instigated by the predatory capitalists in the United States." The war was one for crass profit, this report stated, since democracy could not be imposed nor militarism eliminated by force of arms. "We brand the declaration of war by our government as a crime against the people of the United States and against the nations of the world," stated the resolution, and "continuous, active, and public opposition to the war" and "vigorous resistance to all reactionary measures" were promised. A minority of the convention signed and forwarded to referendum vote an alternative manifesto and program which recognizied American participation in the war as an established fact and demanded the "conscription of wealth," preservation of civil rights, and the nationalization of monopolies, and the establishment of contact between the SPA with the socialist parties of "enemy" countries so that peace might be reestablished "on democratic terms" at the soonest possible moment. This is the text of the ballot which went out to Socialist Party members on May 5, 1917. Completed ballots were to be submitted to Local Secretaries by June 24, with final voting submitted to the National Office by Independence Day. The St. Louis Resolution easily carried over the Minority Resolution in this referendum of SPA members by a vote of 22,345 to 2,752.

 

"The Price We Pay," by Irwin St. John Tucker [May 5, 1917] A searing polemic prose-poem by the head of the Socialist Party's Literature Department. Tucker served only briefly at this post, leaving after but a few weeks due to a personality clash with Executive Secretary Adolph Germer, but this blistering statement of anti-militarist rage placed Tucker firmly in the Wilson Administration's gunsights. For this vitriolic explosion Tucker was prosecuted as part of a case which included Executive Secretary Germer, Congressman and newspaper publisher Victor Berger, editor of the SPA's official organ J. Louis Engdahl, and head of the party's youth section William Kruse as part of the Wilson regime's attempt to decapitate the Socialist Party. The five Socialists each were sentenced 20 year prison terms under the so-called Espionage Act, later overturned. The piece first appeared in print on the front page of the SPA's official organ, The American Socialist, on May 5, 1917.

 

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

 

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

 

"What Happened in St. Louis: Socialist Comments on Berger Defense: Sees a New World Republic Rising," by W.R. Gaylord [May 6, 1917] Former Wisconsin Socialist State Senator Winfield Gaylord explains his flip on the question of the European war in this article written for the conservative Milwaukee Journal. Gaylord cites "the savage ruthlessness of the German U-boat campaign" and the realignment of forces resulting from the replacement of the tsarist regime in Russia with a democratic government as causal factors behind his reappraisal of the international situation. Then came the April St. Louis Convention, when delegate Gaylord "saw those whom Mr. Berger called 'fanatics' following their pacifist doctrines to the logical limit" and heard "the syndicalist group denouncing all government and declaring that they had no choice between Kaiser and President." More unexpected was Morris Hillquit and Victor L. Berger, "tacitly renouncing their nationalist positions" and dropping their "constructive policies of many years" by letting the so-called fanatics" take the lead, and "bulldoze the convention into doing things which it could not be gotten ever to do again." Thus Gaylord had turned to the capitalist press to "sound a warning to all my comrades who could be reached that they were endangering themselves for a purpose which I believed to be foreign to the Socialist movement." Gaylord's secret correspondence with US Senator Paul Husting and advocacy of the assertion of state power to suppress the majority resolution on war and militarism of the St. Louis Convention goes unmentioned in this account.

 

"Russian-American Feels Hand of U.S. Tsardom." [re: Boris Reinstein] [May 11, 1917] Brief and unsigned news account about the repression meted out to Boris Reinstein of the Socialist Labor Party, in March 1919 a founding delegate of the Communist International. Reinstein, a naturalized citizen since 1897 and a resident of Buffalo, NY, had sought to return to Russia for a visit following its democratic revolution of March 1917. He had duly applied for a passport. However, when he went to the post office in New York, under the pretense of getting a letter for him, Reinstein had been held up long enough for Justice Department authorities to be contacted. "After a few minutes conversation in which he was asked for his passport, he was "invited" across the street to their office, where he was relieved of other papers and asked many questions. The burdens of all of this cross-examination was as to whether he intended to do anything to help bring about a separate peace between Russia and Germany, and as to what his ideas were as to Root's acting as a member of the commission going from this country," the report indicates. Reinstein had been released, but his passport was taken by the authorities. The targeting of Reinstein so soon after American entry into the European conflict seems indicative that the Justice Department had a political intelligence apparatus well in advance of the declaration of war.

 

"Letter of Acceptance to Woodrow Wilson in Washington, DC from Charles Edward Russell in Washington, DC." [May 11, 1917] Most of the leading social-patriotic defectors from the Socialist Party in 1917 were happy to make new pen pals of leading old party politicians and to fill the pages of the mainstream press with words of warning about the insidious activities of their erstwhile comrades. This "patriotic" activity earned the SPA's turncoat wing praise and place. For writer Charles Edward Russell this meant an appointment to the Root Commission to Russia as the group's token "Socialist" representative. In this letter to Woodrow Wilson, Russell gratefully accepts the appointment: "I am profoundly grateful to you for the opportunity your kindness has conferred upon me to serve the country we love and the great cause in which, under your leadership, we are enlisted. To be able to fill any post at such a time, or to render any service, whether great or small, must fill us with solemn joy.... In thanking you, Mr. President, may I not wish for you all health, strength, and fervent, loyal support in the great task that God has put into your hands for the freedom and advancement of man and the eternal vindication of democracy?"

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

"A Dastardly Attack: Unsigned Editorial in the Milwaukee Leader, May 17, 1917." This Milwaukee Leader article presciently charges that while a provision for the censorship of war news had been stricken from the pending Espionage Act, "an infinitely more dangerous and dastardly attempt against freedom and democracy...was put into the bill on motion of Senator P.O. Husting of Wisconsin,...at the instigation of A.M. Simons and W.R. Gaylord." This amendment provided "authority for the post office department to censor mails and exclude mail matter deemed seditious, anarchistic, or treasonable and making its mailing punishable under heavy penalties." The editorialist's take is uncanny in its accuracy: "This law makes the Postmaster General, or rather his subordinates -- post office inspectors and secret service men -- the sole judges whether a publication is anarchistic, treasonable, or seditious, and gives them the power of life and death over the Socialist press. To most post office inspectors all Socialism is anarchistic, seditious, and treasonable. Consequently, not a single Socialist book -- nor any trade union pamphlets or trade union papers or circulars which the postal department might consider syndicalistic under certain circumstances -- could be sent through the mails without the sender committing a crime and risking the heaviest penalties." "The Socialist and labor press of this country must be aroused to the danger that is confronting it. Under the pretext of fighting for an alleged democracy in Europe, we are just on the point of losing all democracy at home," the editorialist declares.

 

"Socialists Urge Russell to Leave Commission Post: Letter Tells Writer He Can Not Represent Party with His War Views." [May 17, 1917] As the addition of a representative of the American working class to the Root Commission to Russia was deemed politic, a brief search was held by the Wilson administration. Progressive author C.E. Russell, one of the first and most outspoken critics of the Socialist Party's anti-militarist line, was tapped for the honor. This prompted the "Emergency Committee" of the SPA's governing National Executive Committee (consisting of Executive Secretary Adolph Germer, Victor Berger, and John M. Work) to issue this instruction to Russell to decline the post. "Any Socialist serving on the commission to Russia should be one who really represents the Socialists of the United States, and should accept the appointment only on condition that he shall be completely at liberty to really represent them. You are, of course, aware that you do not represent them, and that you can not represent them so long as you hold your present views regarding the war.... The most fundamental dictates of good faith and honorable dealing require that you, or any other member of the slight minority, should decline such an appointment," the statement of the Emergency Committee reads. Russell went anyway.

 

"Dr. M. Goldfarb Will Return to Work in Russia: Revolution Has Opened Way for Him to Continue Work for the Bund, Halted in 1913 by the Romanov Autocracy -- He is Member of ACW of A." (news article in Advance) [May 18, 1917] News story from the American labor press detailing the return to his homeland of radical Russian Jewish activist Max Goldfarb, better known to history by his later Comintern pseudonym of "A.J. Bennett." Goldfarb was brought to America in the summer of 1913 to lecture the Jewish Federation of the Socialist Party of America, the article notes, and was now returning to revolutionary Russia as part of a group of 20 to 30 expatriates at the expense of the Provisional Government. The article indicates that Goldfarb entered the revolutionary movement through the Bund in the town of Berdichev in 1902, that he emigrated in 1903 to study in Paris, and that he had returned during the 1905 revolution to fight for Russian freedom on behalf of the Bund. After the failure of the revolution, Goldfarb had served 3 months in prison, before going abroad as a delegate to the 5th Congress of the RSDLP in London in 1907. Goldfarb had returned to Russia, where he gave measured public lectures between 1910 and 1913, attempting for election to the Duma on behalf of the Bund. Goldfarb had been imprisoned once more at the end of 1912 before being sponsored in America as a speaker and organizer for the JSF and the American Clothing Workers of America.

 

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

 

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

 

"Simons, Gaylord, and Others," by Oliver C. Wilson [May 19, 1917] This article by the State Secretary of the Socialist Party of Illinois takes aim at the Milwaukee pro-war renegades Algie Simons and Winfield Gaylord, along with other pro-war individuals from in or around the party, such as C.E. Russell, William English Walling, Ernest Poole, Max Eastman, and Graham Phelps Stokes. These had, when it appeared that sooner or later the Socialist Party "would become a great power and send many representatives into the halls of our legislative bodies...wrote long-winded articles about the glories of Socialism and the curse of capitalism, arranged long speaking tours, and became very prominent and popular in the movement." Now, however, "the millions of votes predicted failed to materialized and the easy picking of our popular speakers disappeared" and these literary mavens had opportunistically "turned to others ways and began to predict all over again." Wilson charges that "these gentlemen had at one time stood for peace and opposed war, and many and brilliant were the articles and books put forth by them, all of which proved that the wars of this age were the outgrowth of the capitalistic system. Then came the entrance of the United States into the war, and these gentlemen again changed front. They were for Wilson in the fall of 1916, because 'he kept us out of war.' Now they are for him because he 'sent us forth to war to slay autocracy.'" Simons and Gaylord are held in particularly low regard by the Centrist Wilson, who charges that the pair "got cold feet, turned yellow, and now are busy denouncing the party in the columns of the capitalist press." "Those who are not against war are for war and there is no place in the Socialist movement for the war advocate. There should be no delay. The Socialist party organization of Milwaukee should act at once. Simons and Gaylord must go and the sooner the better," Wilson asserts.

 

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

 

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

 

"Socialists Expel Simons, Gaylord: County Central Committee Vote Stands 63 For and 3 Against." [event of May 23, 1917] On May 23, 1917, the final gong was rung on the Socialist Party memberships of Algie Simons and Winfield Gaylord, as the expulsions of both were approved by the Milwaukee County Central Committee by the overwhelming vote of 63 to 3. The pair were convicted of (1) "Publicly slandering the Socialist Party and the Socialist convention in the capitalist press;" (2) "Publicly slandering members of the Socialist Party in the capitalist press;" and (3) "Bringing the Socialist Party into disrepute by accusing it of sending out treasonable matter and of treasonable conduct." The allegations of Simons and Gaylord sent to US Senator Paul Husting had been used against the party in the expansion of the Espionage Act, it was charged.

 

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

 

"The Majority Report," by Eugene V. Debs [May 26, 1917] Socialist Party leader Gene Debs lets fly here with both barrels at the "hitherto prominent members of the party" who attacked the majority resolution on war and militarism adopted at the St. Louis Convention as "treasonable." Debs declares: "We have not a bit of patience for this charge. To us it seems base and cowardly. Let the capitalist press, and not our own comrades, bring this charge. There are time when it is 'treasonable' to be law-abiding and when to be 'treasonable' is to be true to revolutionary principles and to the cause of humanity. We are aware without being reminded by our own comrades that the charge of treason may be brought against us by the servile hirelings of Wall Street who can construe the law to fasten the charge of treason upon any undesirable citizen, and that, like Karl Liebknecht, we may be put in jail or have to face a firing squad, but we would rather a thousand times meet such a fate than to be craven and cowardly as to resort to parlor tactics when red hell threatens to engulf us for feat of being deemed 'treasonable' by the wolves of Wall Street." Debs parries the charge that the St. Louis Resolution is "Pro-German": "We are neither pro-German nor pro-Ally. We are Socialists, international Socialists, and we have no use, not one bit, for capitalist wars. We have no enemies among the workers of other countries; and no friends among the capitalists of any country; the workers of all countries are our friends and the capitalists of all countries are our enemies. The class war is our war and our only war." Debs accuses the opponents of the St. Louis Resolution of lining up with "the vultures of Wall Street" and the most reactionary elements of the American foreign policy establishment in their support of the war. Debs heartily endorses the St. Louis majority report in the face of a split of the SPA's Right Wing, declaring: "We are for the majority report. It states our position in plain terms and we propose to stand by it. Those who believe that it is 'treasonable' and fear to be suspected of treason to capitalism, and those who believe that Wall Street is waging war to free the working class and democratize the world may leave the party but the party will live, it will appeal as never before to red-blooded Socialists, and it will bear its revolutionary banner proudly forward to victory."

 

"The Cleveland Speech of May 27, 1917: A Recounting for the Jury," by C.E. Ruthenberg Along with his comrades Alfred Wagenknecht and Charles Baker, in July 1917 Cleveland Socialist Party leader C.E. Ruthenberg was tried for allegedly attempting to obstruct the draft in violation of the so-called Espionage Law. Making the case that the remarks for which he was charged needed to be placed into context, Ruthenberg was able to recreate his May 27 speech for the jury -- the transcript of which was published as part of a pamphlet by Local Cuyahoga County. In his speech Ruthenberg characterized the European conflict not as a war for democracy, freedom, and liberty, but rather as "a war to secure the investments and the profits of the ruling class of this country." In addition to cravenly switching its position on American participation in the world war after election day, Ruthenberg charges the Wilson administration with having dumped "many beautiful platitudes about democracy" while at the same time putting the "most reactionary and autocratic law, the conscription law, on the books of this country." This law removed the youth of America "from their homes without their consent and sent out to the trenches to murder and be murdered for the profits of the ruling class of this country." Ruthenberg charged that conscription was a flagrant violation of the constitution of the United States: "If law means anything, if words mean anything, when the constitution says that there shall be no involuntary servitude in this nation except as a punishment for crime, it forbids specifically taking a man against his will and making him fight and murder his fellow human beings." Ruthenberg, Wagenknecht, and Baker were found guilty and sentenced to one year in jail on July 21, 1917. The constitutionality of their sentence was upheld by the US Supreme Court on Jan. 15, 1918, and they served their time at the Canton workhouse until being released at the end of their sentences on December 8, 1918.

 

"Thou Art Not Dead, O Liberty! While Plutocratic Interests Prussianize the United States, True Americans Who Believe in Democracy and Peace Hold Inspiring Conference at New York, and Organize Permanent People's Council to Fight for Freedom in this Country," [unsigned article in the Appeal to Reason] [events of May 30-31, 1917] This article from the Appeal to Reason reports on the establishment of the People's Council by the 1st American Conference for Peace and Democracy, held in New York City on May 30 and 31, 1917. The founding convention was addressed by Socialist stalwarts Morris Hillquit and Victor Berger, as well as Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones, Judah L. Magnes, Scott Nearing, and Lola M. LaFollette, daughter of Sen. Robert LaFollette. Topics of discussion included America's aims in the world war' conscription and the safety of free speech, free assemblage, and a free press; protection of the rights of labor during the war; as well as the Russian revolution and its influence upon the international situation. The gathering concluded with a mass meeting at Madison Square Garden the night of May 31, 1917 -- attended by 20,000 sympathetic individuals.

 

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

 

JUNE

"The Iron Fist Tightens Its Grip on Nation," by William F. Kruse [June 2, 1917] The head of the Socialist Party's youth section, the Young People's Socialist League, declares that "the powers of reaction, now triumphant in this country, are beginning to tighten their fast forming stranglehold upon the liberties of the American people" and details some of the Woodrow Wilson regime's repressive actions. These include: the raid without warrant of the Indiana SP office and holding Indiana State Secretary William Henry and his wife incommunicado before ultimately releasing them without charges preferred; arrest of a SP member in Seattle for instigating anti-conscription activity; raid of the Pittsburgh office of the SP without warrant and confiscation of all books and records, many of which were retained, and the arrest of 11 in connection with the raid; the breaking up by police of a peaceable 5,000 person overflow anti-war meeting at Grant Park; unconfirmed reports of disturbances in Cleveland caused when police broke up peaceable outdoor anti-war meetings; the refusal of the State Department to grant passports to Morris Hillquit, Algernon Lee, and Victor Berger, delegates to a Peace Conference in Stockholm; arrest of a Chicago YPSL for disorderly conduct for putting up an anti-war sticker; arrest of another YPSL in New Jersey for "Treason" for putting up the same sticker and another reading "Impeach Wilson." Kruse warns: "Recent history, in Russia should serve as an eloquent warning to potential despots in this country. There was no provision for impeaching the Tsar. The people could not lawfully remove him from office. Yet they found the means and methods by which his removal was made possible. In this country there are certain clearly marked legal steps that can be taken to remedy an unwise election of a Chief Executive whenever the American people desire to do so. These steps are set forth in the constitution, and if it be treason to request that these steps be taken by Congress, then there are a good many Americans who are guilty of the crime."

 

"What Will We Have, When We Have Enough?" by Irwin St. John Tucker [June 2, 1917] The Socialist Party's head of the Literature Department needles the Wilson Administration for its failure to declare war aims. "Since our entry into the war to abolish secret diplomacy, our State Department has muzzled every member of its staff, with the exception of Secretary Lansing and a newspaper man whom he has appointed chief of the Department of Public Intelligence," he states. Tucker notes that an understanding has been reached between Wilson and the official representatives of Britain and France without that understanding revealed to the public. Meanwhile, in the House of Commons, Robert Cecil on May 16 declared Britain's intention to retain German colonies in Africa after victorious conclusion of the war. "Is this a war for territorial aggrandizement? Are we now making war to transfer German colonies to the British flag?" Tucker asks.

 

"Spargo Resigns: Letter to Adolph Germer in Chicago from John Spargo." [circa June 7, 1917] One of 5 members of the governing National Executive Committee of the Socialist Party, John Spargo resigns his position and his party membership with this letter to Executive Secretary Adolph Germer. "I withdraw from the party without any ill-feeling or sense of personal grievance," writes Spargo, noting that "in my contributions to the discussion of our war policy I have frequently and vigorously dissented from what seems to be the majority view." Spargo states that his withdrawal does not mean a disavowal of Socialism, but that "for a long time it has been painfully clear to my mind that the Socialist Party is probably the greatest single obstacle to the progress of Socialism in America." The British-born Spargo indicates that he hopes to continue to work for Socialism in non-party organizations such as the Intercollegiate Socialist Society and clearly intimates that he will be attempting in the future to help establish a new political party in the future with other former Socialist Party members. In addition to his long-running critique of the party's St. Louis Resolution, Spargo now unleashes new, politically-charged accusation of pro-Germanism akin to those of the slightly deranged Algie Simons: "From the earliest days of the war the Socialist Party has, in actual practice, been committed to a program essentially un-neutral, un-American, and pro-German.... Through the utterances and actions of the National Executive Committee, the National Committee, and our press, the party has been placed in the position of favoring precisely the things desired by the German foreign office, and of opposing the things which the German foreign office opposed."

 

"Why You Should Fight," by Irwin St. John Tucker [June 9, 1917] When an agent of the Bureau of Investigation with whom he consulted flippantly suggested to Socialist Party propaganda chief Irwin St. John Tucker that he should prepare a pamphlet explaining to American workers why they should fight in the European war, Tucker took up the challenge. The result was this red-hot anti-militarist screed, ecclesiastical in tone, poetic in structure, and revolutionary in content. Tucker writes: "You must fight to destroy Kaiserism, for certainly the bloody rule of the Prussian junkers must be brought to an end. For the only thing on earth worse than the Prussian junkers is the National Association of Manufacturers, and our third-generation millionaires.... You must throw bombs and slaughter with machine guns to destroy the Prussian political Kaiser; in order that the American financial Kaiser may remain upon his throne at 26 Broadway and around the corner on Wall Street. You must shoot into the enemy the conviction that he should establish a Congress like ours; in order to convince ourselves that we really have a Congress worth the powder it would take to blow up a muskrat." To eradicate Kaiserism in Germany, the workers were being armed with dynamite and machine guns and bombs and high explosives. "Learn your lesson well, is all we ask. Your lesson is the destruction of tyranny; learn it," he implores. Then, when the battle for democracy is won abroad, "COME HOME WITH IT!"

 

"Speech Delivered at Blackhawk Park, Rockford, Illinois -- June 17, 1917," by Adolph Germer Executive Secretary of the Socialist Party Adolph Germer played a pivotal role in the Socialist Party split of 1919, for which he was attacked as a "Noske," a "Scheidemann," and a Right Winger by the adherents of the Left Wing Section. Such a characterization was not fair, however -- whatever his failings in the realm of party democracy and adherence to the rule of law, Germer was solidly part of the anti-militarist Marxist Center of the SPA, rather than of the social-patriotic Right. This lengthy speech, delivered to a public picnic and rally on a Sunday afternoon in Rockford, Illinois and saved for posterity courtesy of the United States Department of Justice, emphasizes Germer's fearless opposition to the imperialist war. "Since Congress declared that a state of war exists and since the mobilization of troops has increased from day to day, we are beginning to ask: 'What are we fighting for?' and the reply has been given us that we are fighting to make the world safe for democracy. But if we are to make the world safe for democracy, then why is it that we have singled out one country...when there are other countries in this world that we are trying to make safe for democracy that are just as undemocratic and just as autocratic as the government against which we have declared war. Is it that we are going to make the world safe for democracy only for Germany or are we going to make the world safe for democracy so far as Ireland is concerned, so far as India is concerned, so far as Austria is concerned, so far as Turkey and Belgium and Italy and Serbia and Romania? Are we going to make the entire world safe for democracy and if so, then why not declare war on every country in which democracy does not exist?" In reality the war was beneficial to big business, Germer states. He encourages mass enrollment by the working class in the ranks of the Socialist Party as the only possible way to end militarism and war and advance the cause of liberty and democracy. Includes a photo of Adolph Germer.

 

JULY

"A Statement to Our Readers," by J. Louis Engdahl [July 7, 1917] The Wilson administration wasted no time in putting the so-called Espionage Law of June 15, 1917 into effect, using it to declare the June 16, 1917 issue of the Socialist Party's official organ, The American Socialist, to have been non-mailable two weeks after the issue had been already delivered. This decision, never announced to the Socialist Party, set in motion a process whereby each of the future issues of this publication were deemed under suspicion and were consequently delayed until a final bureaucratic ruling on the mailability of each specific issue could be rendered. This culminated with the freezing of a special "Liberty Edition" of June 30. In response, American Socialist editor J. Louis Engdahl reduced the size of the July 7 issue from its usual 4 pages to 2, with this brief "Statement to Our Readers" outlining the cause of the delay of the previous issue. "Our paper will be published regularly. Every effort will be made to comply with the law and at the same time issue a publication that will be a credit to the Socialist movement," Engdahl declared. Only 9 more issues would be published before Socialist Party headquarters would be raided and the publication terminated.

 

AUGUST

"War's Heretics: A Plea for the Conscientious Objector," by Norman M. Thomas [Aug. 1917] In this pamphlet of the Civil Liberties Bureau of the American Union Against Militarism (forerunner of the ACLU) Rev. Norman Thomas of New York makes a case for the conscientious objectors of America. Thomas cites a broad array of motivations for opposition to participation in the world war, ranging from Tolstoyan non-resistance to evil to Christians, like Thomas, motivated by the biblical injunction against killing, to German-Americans for whom the slaughter of former countrymen and relatives is anathema, to "orthodox Socialists" who are opposed to participation in the current war for ideological reasons. Thomas rejects the common notion that conscientious objectors are anti-social violators of democratic rule, noting that the same individuals who make such a claim are the same who are most opposed to the "conscription of wealth" -- in the realm of which they are arch selfish individualists and therefore hypocrites. Thomas asserts that "We are lovers of America because we believe she still strives for democracy. It is the essence of democracy to believe that the state exists for the well-being of individuals; it is the essence of Prussianism to believe that individuals exist for the service of some unreal metaphysical entity called the state. True, the individual exists and finds his complete self-realization only in society -- an immeasurably greater concept than the state."

 

"The Green Corn Rebellion in Oklahoma," by Bertha Hale White [events of Aug. 3, 1917] The so-called "Green Corn Rebellion" was one of the seminal events of the socialist movement in Oklahoma, an uprising of radicalized impoverished farmers who purportedly planned to march to Washington, DC in conjunction with others around the country, eating green corn on their way for sustenance, in an effort to remove "Big Slick" Woodrow Wilson from power and establish the Cooperative Commonwealth. Or so the story goes. This 1922 article by soon-to-be Executive Secretary of the Socialist Party Bertha Hale White indicates that the motives of the farmers had been misrepresented, the specifics of the action had been grossly exaggerated, and the tale had grown with the telling as a sort of post-facto justification for the repression of the 175 individuals who were sentenced to terms ranging from 6 months in jail to 10 years in Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary. The "Working Class Union" behind the rebellion was a "non-political" organization of 20,000 based in Eastern Oklahoma, bringing together the region's illiterate tenant farmers for but one object -- to force down exploitative rents and usurious interest rates. Woodrow Wilson's hypocritical reversal on the question of American participation in the war had caused the WCU to abandon its anti-political stand. The WCU held secret meetings and determined to resist conscription by force: "They did not believe the people of the country would tamely submit to the violation of the pledges which had resulted in the re-election of President Wilson. And they decided they would not accept that violation. They agreed to hide their boys from the draft officers and to prevent troops from coming into the Seminole country." On Aug. 3, 1917, about 150 WCU supporters were encamped under arms on a hill near Sasakwa, OK; a posse of about 50 townsmen was formed and despite having no advantages of terrain or firepower, they bloodlessly disarmed the rebellious WCUs. "It has been asserted that the rebellion resulted in loss of life. That is not true. Not a single shot was fired by either side," White declares, noting that the event had been grossly exaggerated. "In Sasakwa, the Green Corn Rebellion is a story that provokes laughter," White remarks.

 

SEPTEMBER

"American Socialists and the War," by Morris Hillquit. [September 1917] The Socialist Party's New York mayoral attempts to clarify the "systematic campaign of misrepresentation" waged against it by "the capitalist press with the helpful cooperation of a group of 'patriotic' Socialist intellectuals." The Socialist Party of America has consistently opposed the "world carnival of slaughter," Hillquit notes, supporting a policy of strict neutrality, opposing rearmament, and continuing their opposition to the war even after American entry into the conflict. The war was "essentially commercial in its origin" and "largely waged for material gain, at least in so far as the governments of the leading belligerent countries are concerned," Hillquit states. The key to a permanent peace could be achieved without the total victory of socialism, in Hillquit's view, adding that the first step was for the governments of the world to be "divorced from capitalist interests." Thereafter, a program of immediate and complete disarmament, freedom of the seas and of trade, self-government of each nation, and establishment of an "international union for peaceful cooperation" would make possible a lasting peace. The reemergent international Socialist movement would play a key role in this new world as "a compelling power for the restoration of peace," Hillquit indicates.

 

"Text of the Search Warrant Served During the Raid of Socialist Party Headquarters and The American Socialist, September 5, 1917." On September 5, 1917, a raid was launched on the Chicago headquarters of the Socialist Party of America and its official organ, The American Socialist. This is the text of the search warrant served in conjunction with the raid. The warrant exhaustively lists any possible sort of document, publication, or picture that might be of use to the government's impending felony case against the officials of the party. Interesting is the rather incoherent list of publications for which the raiders expected to find back-issue files and printing plates, including anarchist publications like The Revolt and Mother Earth, the well-known New York Socialist publication The Masses, and the leaflet of an entirely different political organization, the SLP's "Manifesto of Socialist Labor Party on Present War Crisis."

 

"The American Socialist Martyred in the Great Cause of World Democracy and Peace," by J. Louis Engdahl [Sept. 15, 1917] American Socialist editor J. Louis Engdahl recounts the last two months of existence of the former official organ of the Socialist Party of America. Banned from the mails, the final (Sept. 8, 1917) issue of The American Socialist had been dispatched via rail express in bundles to major cities for local distribution. "To seek to serve all of our subscribers in this manner meant early and complete bankruptcy," Engdahl noted, adding that post office regulations would not allow The Eye-Opener to take over the old subscriber list under its 2nd Class permit unless the old publication was terminated. Three previous issues (June 16th, 23rd, and 30th, 1917) had been previously declared unmailable under the so-called Espionage Act, and the six issues following were "issued under a local censorship in Chicago," Engdahl states. A final effort had been made to gain a new 2nd Class permit for The American Socialist, without reply from the authorities until "we got our final answer on Wednesday afternoon, Sept. 5 [1917], when a score of operatives from the federal building in Chicago, reinforced by deputy marshals and local police, swooped down on our office and demanded everything in sight, from typewriters to mailing lists." Consequently, the decision was made to terminate The American Socialist and transfer the flag of the Socialist Party to the Chicago weekly, The Eye-Opener.

 

"Hillquit Scores Raids on Socialist Headquarters." [Sept. 22, 1917] Brief news story from the Socialist Party's de facto official organ containing SP leader and attorney Morris Hillquit's comments about the Sept. 5, 1917 raid of Socialist Party headquarters in Chicago. Hillquit declared that the coordinated raids of Sept. 5 were "part of a very definite policy on the part of the federal government to exterminate all organs of opposition and to stifle all voices of criticism of the war." Hillquit declared that ""I do not know of any country at war that is on the Allied side or in the Central Powers that has dared to go so far in the destruction of democratic institutions and civil rights of the people under pretexts of military necessity as has this country at the very outset of the war." Proclaiming the Wilson administration's actions to be "high-handed" and "lawless," Hillquit noted that the government's repressive policy, like that of the Tsarist autocracy, was driving the Socialist Party and various pacifist organizations to "methods of secret conspiracy activities" -- a state of affairs which did nothing to stave the revolution is Tsarist Russia.

 

NOVEMBER

"Rights of Democracy Menaced by Duluth Police Officials: Raid West End Meeting, Although Federal Authorities Acknowledge That Speeches Were Not Contrary to Federal Statutes: Scott Nearing Arrested: Trials Set for Wednesday Morning on Charges of Vagrancy Under Safety Commission Ordinance," by W.E. Reynolds [event of Nov. 12, 1917] News report from the pages of Duluth Truth by editor W.E. Reynolds detailing the Nov. 12, 1917 meeting of over 800 people in Duluth addressed by Scott Nearing that was raided by local authorities. After Reynolds had made a preliminary speech of about 5 minutes' duration, Dr. Nearing took the podium and spoke for about half an hour "mostly quoting statistics about labor conditions and reading from President Wilson's book, The New Freedom." About 40 uniformed officers suddenly filed into the hall. The meeting was ordered to disburse, which it did. Five persons were arrested, including Nearing, Reynolds, and Reynolds' wife Laura. These three were booked at the station "Captain Fiskett first giving sedition as the charge, then he changed it to 'making seditious speeches against the government in its conduct of the war.' Then he again changed his mind and ordered the charge left blank." The next day the zealous local police chieftain learned that no federal charges were to be preferred against any of those arrested. Nearing took a deal an plead guilty to a lesser charge of "disorderly conduct," paying a $52.50 fine and canceling the rest of a planned speaking tour, returning home instead. The other four refused to plead out on charges of disorderly conduct; one sat in jail on principle, while Reynolds, his wife, and one other woman were released on $100 bail pending court proceedings to answer a farcical charge of "vagrancy." In such ways were the constitutional rights of free speech and freedom of assembly crushed in the localities during the so-called "War to make the world safe for democracy."

 

DECEMBER

"Socialism as a Mental Disease," by Bertram D. Wolfe [Dec.4, 1917] Occasional contributor to the New York Call Bert Wolfe offers this tongue-in-cheek description of the "disease" of Socialism, defined as "a disease of the political forgettory, a faculty very necessary to the absolute mental tranquility and mental quiescence of the political creature, man." Socialists "suffer" from the "curse of a political memory," Wolfe states, and consequently they "cannot forget the campaign slogan of 1916, 'He kept us out of war.' Consequently, the Socialists are still stupidly standing behind the President in his long-forgotten efforts for 'Peace without victory.'" Wolfe whimsically notes that "It is said that this fearful disease is incurable except by an operation to remove the seat of any trouble, the brain, an organ that authorities have recently discovered to resemble the appendix in that each of them apparently serves no useful purpose and may at times become troublesome."

 

"Hourwich Asks 'Precise Charge': Government Shrouds Case with Mystery, Says Speaker Jailed for Talk on Russia." (NY Call) [Dec. 6, 1917] On November 18, 1917, Russian Socialist Federation leader Nicholas Hourwich was arrested in Bridgeport, Connecticut, along with 3 others, charged with treason. This is the full text of a Dec. 6 statement to the press released by Hourwich through his attorney, Charles Recht of New York. Hourwich denies having discussed political conditions in the United States during the hour-long speech for which he was arrested: ""The subject of my lecture was the necessity of holding a convention of Russian colonists in America under the auspices of the Russian embassy in this country. I was to speak also incidentally on the Russian Revolution insofar as it opened up new industrial possibilities for the skilled workman in Russia, and also about the change which has taken place in the attitude of the [Russian] embassy in America as a result of the March Revolution.... I did not speak about the political or industrial conditions in this country; in fact, there was no occasion for any remark of that sort."

 

"Fingerprint Each Person in America, Stevenson Demands." (NY Call) [Dec. 7, 1917] Elements of the American conservative movement have favored the adoption of national identity cards since the second decade of the 20th Century as a means for the state to isolate potential enemies of the state. The intellectual father of this prescribed tool of state repression was Archibald Stevenson, chairman of the Committee on Aliens of the mayor of New York's Committee on National Defense (later better known as chief investigator of the New York legislature's anti-red "Lusk Committee"). Stevenson advocates the adoption of a universal identification card for all Americans, with the documents toinclude signature, photograph, and fingerprints. Such cards were seen by Stevenson as the only means by which wartime "enemy alien" regulations could be properly enforced. "The passage of a law requiring all men and women to carry identification cards would give a sense of security to every loyal citizen, while enabling the public to put secret enemies where they ought to be," Stevenson states.

 

"$50 and 20 Days for Pamphlet: Portland Judge Puts Heavy Sentence on Socialist for Mild War Literature." (NY Call) [Dec. 10, 1917] This short news item from the New York Call documents the hysterical limitations of free speech and free press imposed on the citizens of America during the first world war. J.M. Beck, a Sacramento businessman, was arrested while on a business trip to Portland, Oregon, for distributing copies of John M. Work's "very tame" Socialist pamphlet, The Cause and Cure of War, without a license. "The very fact that it mentioned war in a critical manner was sufficient to arouse the judge...and bring down upon Beck the limit in the way of a fine and sentence," the article states. When told by Portland Municipal Judge Rossman of his sentence and fine, Beck requested an attorney, only to be told that he had already been convicted and that he must appeal the sentence to obtain assistance of an attorney.

 

"Girl Gets 10 Years for Anti-Draft Letters: Judge Pays Tribute to Her Intelligence as He Pronounces Sentence." (NY Call) [Dec. 13, 1917] News article noting the sentencing of Seattle philosophical anarchist Louise Olivereau to 75 years in prison for multiple counts of passing anti-draft material through the mails. Due to the sentences running concurrently, the young woman faced "only" 10 years behind bars for her ostensible crime: "Pointing to the flag and declaring that it stands for liberty and justice, Judge Neterer said: "I will not impose maximum penalties. On counts 1, 4, and 7, I sentence you to 10 years each, and on counts 3, 6, and 9 -- 5 years each, or a total of 45. These sentences may be served concurrently, which will make your imprisonment for a term of 10 years.'" The judge expressed his wishes that Ms. Olivereau would while behind bars in Colorado "change her ideas to conform to organized government." Olivereau ultimately served 2 full years of this term.

 

"President Wilson Has Heard the 'Voices of Humanity That Are in the Air' and Declares in Favor of Democratic Settlement of War," by Louis Kopelin [Dec. 15, 1917] While attempting to characterize the action as a continuation of previous editorial policy, this lead editorial by Appeal to Reason editor Louis Kopelin marks a major shift in that publication's editorial line toward American militarism in Europe. The earlier editorial policy of discrete silence was effectively ended for a new policy of outspoken cheerleading for Woodrow Wilson and his war. Kopelin intimates that Wilson had fundamentally altered the political situation the previous week in a speech making a "wholehearted avowal of a democratic peace" and swearing off "conquest and indemnity." In marked contrast "the Kaiser, autocrat of Germany," had "not yet specifically renounced conquest and indemnity,"Kopelin declares. Kopelin rationalizes continued intervention, stating: "Today we find that the Prussian military machine still is menacing the world. ...Teutonic troops have invaded Russia and Italy. No soil belonging to Germany and Austria-Hungary is today occupied by Allied soldiers. To make peace with the Teutonic powers while they are victorious and while they are silent on the terms of ending the war is to surrender almost unconditionally. The Allies have put their cards on the table. The Teutonic powers have not. Not until this impossible situation changes can any lover of liberty and democracy do else than vigorously support the position President Wilson has taken." Kopelin further asserts: "The thing to do is to hasten the end of the war through united effort since the menace of imperialism has been removed by the public espousal of a democratic peace on the part of our President." Kopelin sees the wartime situation as greatly improving the market for socialist ideas in America: "The world war has done more to stimulate the socialization of industry than a century of propaganda. A new era is dawning. The exigencies of war are dethroning all the sacred gods of capitalism. Government ownership and operation of the principle industries is now in sight. What we have been fighting for a score of years is now coming to pass. We can greatly accelerate these tremendous changes and have them permanently benefit the masses if we adjust ourselves to new conditions and take advantage of our opportunities." A "constructive, positive, educational" New Appeal is promised -- and the publication's name was so changed in the very next issue.

 

"Great Open Air Demonstration Tonight!" (advertisement) [Dec. 21, 1917] Machine readable pdf approximation of an ad which ran in the Dec. 21, 1917 edition of the New York Call advertising a "Great Open Air Demonstration" to support "the Bolsheviki demand for a GENERAL ARMISTICE and IMMEDIATE GENERAL PEACE." Speakers at the demonstration were to include Joseph D. Cannon, Frank Harris, Juliet Stuart Poyntz, and Ludwig Lore. The sponsoring committee, the "Friends of New Russia," included James Bagley, Isaac Hourwich, Vida Milholland, Lella Fay Secore, Rebecca Shelley, and J.P. Warbasse.

 

"The Bolsheviki -- Socialism in Action!" by Louis C. Fraina [Dec. 30, 1917] This lengthy letter to the editor of the Evening Call by New York Socialist Louis C. Fraina is fascinating on two counts: first, as an extremely early expression of the Bolshevik Revolution (which took place just 7 weeks previously) as the fulfillment of American revolutionary Socialist aspirations; second, as a very first emphasis in the New York Socialist press of an ideological division within the Socialist Party of America paralleling the split between Bolsheviks and Mensheviks in Russia. Fraina dismisses as "pseudo-Marxists" those believing that Socialist revolution was impossible in Russia due to that country's failure to have undergone first the "stage" of capitalist revolution. Whereas the Mensheviks in Russia had sought to forge a governing alliance between the revolutionary proletariat and the bourgeoisie, the Bolsheviks had rejected any such notion, instead turning to alliance with a radicalized peasantry and agricultural semi-proletariat. Despite the overwhelmingly pro-Bolshevik orientation of the Socialist Party's rank and file in support of the Bolsheviks and their call for an immediate general armistice, in Fraina's view Socialist officials had been criminally silent on the matter, both those of New York state as well as the party's National Executive Committee. "The Russian proletariat acts internationally, offers cooperation to the proletariat of the world, and our party is silent in this historic crisis!" Fraina protests. "Where does the Socialist Party stand? Let the membership declare itself!" Fraina demands, noting that this is a matter of pledging "moral support to the revolutionary Bolshevik peace policy, and in that way encourage the Russian proletariat and contribute toward the development of action in Europe." Fraina does not express an opinion that a revolutionary situation is pending in America in this letter; rather, his eyes are on Europe.

 

no month stated

"State Constitution of the Socialist Party of the State of New York." [1918] Perhaps the most bitter war zone during the 1919 factional struggle between the Regular and Left Wing factions of the Socialist Party of America was the state of New York, where Left Wing branches and locals were "reorganized" wholesale by the Regular-dominated State Executive Committee. Without access to the state constitution, the basic document of party law of the Socialist Party of the State of New York, it is impossible to appraise the legality (or lack thereof) of the various actions of the SEC and to weigh the merits (or lack thereof) of the Left Wing's criticism. This document is believed to be the variant of the New York constitution in effect during the turbulent year of 1919 and should be of great use to scholars of the factional war which gave rise to the American Communist movement.

 

JANUARY

"Seattle Labor Paper Wrecked by Sailor Mob: Men in Naval Militia Uniform Destroy Part of Plant, Burning Nearby Hotel." (NY Call) [Jan. 6, 1918] Yet another in a seemingly endless series of incidents of Right Wing thuggery which took place during and immediately after World War I. On Jan. 6, 1918, "Armed men in naval militia uniforms held up the printing plant of the Seattle Daily Call, a Socialist and labor newspaper, endangering the lives of hundreds and causing a fire which burned out a nearby hotel. A job for the Red Cross society was on the machines when the raid was made. Three linotypes and 4 presses were ruined but enough was left in the wreck so that the paper, which has antagonized the big shipbuilding interests, was issued today." Damage was estimated at $100,000, according to this press report. Anti-labor organizations like the 4 Minute Men had been organized and bankrolled by open shop employers and the Chamber of Commerce, it was charged. "It is feared that a violent war will open against labor in Seattle as it did in San Francisco, only in this case the capitalists opened the battle by attacking the citadel of the workers -- the vigorous daily which they have established within the last 6 months," the article declares.

 

"Letter to the Editor of the New York Evening Call," by Morris Zucker [Jan. 10, 1918] This letter to the editor of The Call by future Left Winger Morris Zucker expresses his personal sense of growing apathy towards the national Socialist Party of America. "Years ago I took as keen an interest in the elections in California as I do right here in Brownsville. I used to read of Tom Hickey and his Rebel. I marveled at the gigantic encampments of our Oklahoma comrades; I prayed for Socialist unity in Oregon, and waxed enthusiastic over our prospects in Ohio. While now my thoughts scarcely pass beyond the bounds of my Assembly or my Congress district. And this reflects the thoughts of most of my comrades," Zucker asserts. Zucker calls for the current "Million Dollar Fund" for the coming campaign to be made occasion for a revitalization of the rank and file's interest in and loyalty to the national SP organization.

 

"Socialist Peace Plan Wins! President Wilson Adopts Bolsheviki Policy: Socialists of Nation Rally to Back Them Up," unsigned article from St. Louis Labor [meeting of Jan. 13, 1918] After the overthrow of the Tsarist autocracy in November 1917, the perspective of many of the American Left turned from a position of unalterable hostility to American participation in the World War to one of critical support. On Jan. 13, 1918, Local St. Louis, Socialist Party, held a mass meeting at which the keynote speech was given by Irwin St. John Tucker. This unsigned news report from St. Louis Labor reports on the meeting and its extensive resolution adopted, which hailed Wilson's adoption of "the Bolsheviki policy of appealing to the radical forces in Germany against the forces of their own militarist caste." The resolution declares that "It is evident that the salvation of the world depends on the overthrow of the German militarist and junker party by the Socialist movement in their own land. President Wilson has recognized this, and his utterances tend steadily toward that end." The resolution continues that "President Wilson has followed the steps taken by the Russian Bolsheviki toward the realization of this great hope of the destruction of the cause of war, by making the principal aim of the strategy of the world the final overthrow of the militarist and imperialists classes by the Socialist, radical, and liberal forces." It adds that "In order that this judgment of the people may be intelligently formed and adequately expressed, we demand the restoration in this country of the right of free press, free speech, free assemblage, free petition, convinced that only by this means can the forces of justice and right unite the world over to overthrow the dark and bloody power of absolutism."

 

"Cleveland Socialists Go to Jail for Cause." [Statement by C.E. Ruthenberg] [Jan. 17, 1918] On Jan. 17, 1918, Ohio Socialist Party leaders C.E. Ruthenberg, Alfred Wagenknecht, and Charles Baker were informed of the US Supreme Court's decision to uphold the 1 year prison terms imposed upon the trio for violation of the Espionage Act by a Federal Court. Ruthenberg issued a short statement to the press on behalf of the three: "The crime for which we are convicted is truth telling. We believe in certain principles; we fought for those principles, and we go to jail ostensibly for inducing a certain Alphonse Schue not to register. The charge is merely an excuse. Neither of us knew Schue; neither of us heard of him until his name appeared in the indictment against us. The ruling class is always able to find a Judas. Schue was induced to say he heard our speeches, and had been influenced thereby not to register by the promise of his freedom. It is not the Judas that is important. The important fact is that the ruling class feared our message to the workers and tried to silence that message. That fact should make a hundred willing workers take up the work we lay down." The three were going to jail "smilingly" and would return a year hence to work for the cause in which they believed, Ruthenberg declares.

 

"Statement to the American Socialist Movement when Sentence was Affirmed," by Alfred Wagenknecht [circa Jan. 17, 1918] In July of 1917, leading Ohio Socialists Alfred Wagenknecht, C.E. Ruthenberg, and Charles Baker were sentenced to 1 year in jail on charges of having obstructed the draft by making anti-militarist speeches. This sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court on Jan. 15, 1918. This is the statement which Wagenknecht published in the radical monthly The International Socialist Review at the time of his incarceration. Wagenknecht boldly declares: "There's no fear of prison written on the face of sentenced Socialists.... In a day, the "underdogs" of Russia became the rulers of the land. In a day the overburdened, overworked, bent Russian straightened up, cast the parasites from his back, took a deep breath, and said: 'This is my Russia.' Only a year in jail! We gladly make the sacrifice. It is about the least we can do as our part in the work of freeing the workers from their masters."

 

"Rose Pastor Stokes Asks Privilege to Return to Socialist Party Ranks," by J. Louis Engdahl [Jan. 19, 1918] Rose Pastor Stokes, prominent lecturer, social worker, and future member of the Central Executive Committee of the Communist Party of America, had a "Zinoviev moment" in 1917 when she, together with her millionaire husband J.G. Phelps Stokes, exited the Socialist Party to help found the social-patriotic National Party shortly after the American declaration of war on Germany. While Graham Stokes never looked back, Rose Pastor Stokes thought better of her decision and wrote a letter appealing for readmission to the SPA in January of 1918 -- much of the content quoted verbatim in the news report reprinted here. Stokes' departure and return from the SP ranks has been noted by her biographers (Arthur and Pearl Zipster, Fire and Grace). What has been less definitely understood is that Stokes did not make her return as a fire-breathing radical, chastened by a momentary lapse of political judgment, but rather that she made her return amidst heartfelt declarations for consensus and unity. "Unless all individual Socialists and Socialist factions sink their minor differences and work together for national and international, social, economic, and industrial democracy," she wrote, "the ideals embodied in President Wilson's declarations and the principles embodied in the Russian endeavor, which have heartened and fortified the democratic and social democratic forces throughout the world, may easily fail of establishment." She advocated unified action of Right and Left Socialist forces in Germany and Russia, in Italy, France, and England. "If I see and deplore the results of disruption and desire unity for my Comrades abroad, I must surely strive for unity here," she declared. Such sentiments were absolutely NOT those of the revolutionary Socialist Left but were rather an expression of Social Democratic Centrism. Stokes clearly moved a very great intellectual distance between her exit from the Socialist Party to help form the National Party in 1917 and her exit from the Socialist Party to help form the Communist Party of America in 1919 -- a fact which is underappreciated.

 

"Open Letter to George Goebel, SPA NEC member, in Newark, NJ, from Louis Kopelin, Editor of The New Appeal, in Girard, KS, January 19, 1918." The Appeal to Reason did not change its name or its line on American participation in the world war until December of 1917, at which time it signed on to Woodrow Wilson's effort with little hesitation. This open letter from Appeal to Reason editor Louis Kopelin to Socialist Party National Executive Committee members George Goebel in reply to Goebel's inquiry for clarification illuminates the social-patriotic turn of the Kansas weekly. Kopelin states that while he hates war as much as he ever had in his 15 years in the Socialist movement, Wilson's declaration of democratic war aims on Dec. 4, 1917, had turned the tide. Kopelin writes: "I felt that the White House would be led to believe that the country did not care a snap about a democratic statement of aims because the newspapers and telegrams would feature the belligerent part of the address. I therefore came to the conclusion that so far as our paper was concerned we would stand by the President so long as he stood by a democratic peace such as we advocated. I telegraphed him to that effect." Kopelin asks "if the proposals made by the Bolsheviki, the United States, and Great Britain, are answered with a tremendous military offensive on soil not belonging to Germany, what in God's name are we to do? How can any sane and active Socialist or Socialist newspaper remain aloof in this greatest of all human crimes?"

 

"Socialist Party Offices Raided in Cleveland." (NY Call) [Jan. 23, 1918] On January 23, 1918, less than a week after the sentences of Socialist Party of Ohio leaders C.E. Ruthenberg, Alfred Wagenknecht, and Charles Baker to 1 year jail terms under the Espionage Law for their outspoken opposition of the European war had been upheld by the US Supreme Court, authorities conducted a raid against the SP's Cleveland headquarters. This brief article from the Socialist press documents this action, which lead to the seizure of 55,000 flyers produced on behalf of the 3 imprisoned Ohio Socialists. The plates for production of the leaflets were seized from a local printer after a warrant was obtained in the aftermath of the raid, which was conducted by US Deputy Marshals and the Secret Service department.

 

"John Reed Named Consul General to NY by Bolsheviki." (NY Call) [Jan. 30, 1918] The first effort of the Soviet Russian republic to establish a diplomatic presence in the United States apparently revolved around noted radical journalist John Reed, who is reported in this article to have been appointed Soviet "consul general" in New York on Jan. 30, 1918 -- less than 3 months after the Bolshevik Revolution. Reed is characterized as "one of the most brilliant of the younger group of American journalists" and a champion of "the cause of those struggling for better conditions." Reed, formerly on the staff of The Metropolitan Magazine, had left for Russia late in the summer of 1917 on behalf of The Masses and the New York Call, the article states. Only 2 dispatches from Russia were successfully received by The Call, however, and Reed's Russia journalism was to appear exclusively in The Liberator -- Max Eastman's successor to The Masses, which had been sunk by the Wilson administration's censorship. Reed had been indicted with other former associates of The Masses, the article notes.

 

"Our National Executive Committee," by Ludwig Lore [late Jan. 1918] This editorial appeared in Ludwig Lore's magazine The Class Struggle, one of the first proto-communist periodicals in the United States. Lore notes that some 9 weeks after the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, the timid NEC of the Socialist Party of America (Berger, Hillquit, Work, Stedman, and Maley) had yet to take a stand. In contrast to the decisive positions of European socialist parties, Lore charges that the American NEC "preferred to wait for developments in Russia, to see whether or not the Bolsheviki would be maintained in power." Lore declares for a new orientation for the SPA: "In the new epoch of severe social struggles into which the world is evolving, the Socialist movement of the world, and certainly that of the United States, will sorely need the socialist clearness, the revolutionary determination, the proletarian fearlessness and consistency of the Bolsheviki. Spirit and tactics of the Third International will be permeated with the spirit of the Bolsheviki, or it will cease to be. The new election of the National Executive that is already under way gives the Socialists of the United States the opportunity to "do their bit" in preparing the Socialist movement to cope with the problems that are awaiting it."

 

FEBRUARY

"John Reed, Bolshevik Envoy to the United States -- A Character Sketch," by Max Eastman [Feb. 3, 1918] This article by John Reed's friend and employer, Max Eastman of The Liberator, provides a brief character sketch of the charismatic young journalist, who was appointed consul general of Soviet Russia to the United States on Jan. 30, 1918. Eastman declares that "John Reed was born to fill a high place in revolutionary times. He is one of the few universal men - the men who combine that arrant imagination and headstrong will of adventure which are the attributes of poetic genius, with a diligent and real power to achieve and understand. There is nothing that needs to be done, either in the technical routine of a consul general's office, or in the extraordinary and delicate duties of a revolutionary emissary, that John Reed is not abundantly equipped to do." Eastman states that he has known Reed for 5 years and that he holds him in the highest regard, both as a skilled writer and astute ambassador from radical America to radical Russia. "I knew when we sent him to Russia we were sending a boon and counselor to the revolution," states Eastman, adding he also knows that Reed's historiography of "those great days at Petrograd will be a light in the world's literature."

 

"Bolsheviki Power Comes From Masses," by Louis C. Fraina [Feb. 9, 1918] Louis Fraina, characterizing himself as the "Director" of "the American Bolshevist Bureau of Information," writes this extensive letter to the editor of the New York Call to challenge assertions made to the press by the representative of the Russian Provisional Government in New York, A.J. Sack. Sack had characterized the Russian Party of Socialist Revolutionaries (PSR) as "the recognized party of the Russian peasantry" who would wage a "defensive fight" against "Bolshevik usurpation" and "Bolshevik tyranny." Fraina argues the unfairness of such a characterization -- since the Soviets had ratified the Bolshevik action of dissolving the Constituent Assembly. Nor did the PSR truly represent the peasantry as a whole, Fraina asserts, declaring that the PSR historically was "the party of the middle class peasants, whose bourgeois ideology and interests dictate a 'distribution' of the land along the old lines of capitalistic private property and accumulation. The great mass of the peasantry consists of men with a small patch of land and agricultural laborers without any land at all. This peasantry accepts the Bolshevist program of nationalization of the land, and have been organized by the Bolsheviki in accord with the revolution of the workers against the bourgeois propertied classes, industrial and agrarian." Fraina concludes that "The dissolution of the Constituent Assembly was neither unjust nor undemocratic. It was a necessary and a revolutionary act."

 

"Max Eastman -- A Portrait," by Irwin Granich ["Mike Gold"] [Feb. 9, 1918] With Max Eastman's new radical magazine, The Liberator, due to launch in the coming week, the future Mike Gold offers this character sketch of the grey-haired editorial savant to the readers of the weekend magazine section of the New York Call. Granich-Gold calls Eastman "many sided and subtle" -- a brilliant editor, an effective Socialist agitator, a perceptive literary critic, and a "humane and charming" man. Granich-Gold characterizes Eastman as "a synthesis of the two moods, of East and West, of meditation and action, of science and art." He astutely observes that Eastman "writes as a poet turned scientist, his own ideal; and he acts as a scientist turned poet, one urged by mystic necessity into the leadership of men." Granich-Gold indicates that "Max Eastman's natural bent" is to live on the "clear, high world of the mind, to be a teacher of beauty and science, to be the aristocrat untouched by the vulgarity of action." World events had moved him to action. As for his forthcoming magazine, Granich-Gold states that "The Liberator will be the old Masses, with the vital fire of Russia's revolution a new element in its composition. Russia has given a pulsing reality to all the abstractions we used so wearily to reiterate in the old days before the tsar fell. Men are dying for and living under the ideas we believed in; a whole nation has listened to our soapbox harangues, and has taken out its red card; and this has made all the difference in the world." A more realistic and practical new magazine would now emerge "because Socialists are being asked now to take over the management of the world's muddled affairs, and they must train themselves for the task," Granich-Gold states.

 

"The Campaign This Year," by Eugene V. Debs [Feb. 9, 1918] This article by Socialist Party leader Eugene Debs, prematurely declaring an end to state repression of the Socialist Party, is most interesting from the standpoint of irony: "The Socialist Party is emerging from another struggle crowned with victory. When the party declared its attitude toward war at the St. Louis convention [April 7-14, 1917] it was fiercely attacked from within as well as without as an anti-patriotic, seditious, traitorous organization.... Since that time and especially since President Wilson's recent message virtually recognizing the Bolsheviki and proposing to accept their peace terms there has been a marvelous change of sentiment toward socialists and the Socialist Party. The capitalist press is today actually covering Lenin and Trotsky with fulsome praise in the vain attempt to square itself for the foul abuse it has poured upon their heads.... No more speakers are being arrested and no more indictments are being found, and it is a sage prediction that acquittal will follow the trials of those under indictment if the trials ever taken place."

 

"Leaflet of the Socialist Propaganda League for a Meeting Held in New York City, Feb. 15, 1918." Machine-readable approximation of a promotional leaflet touting a mass meeting hosted by the Socialist Propaganda League (publishers of the proto-Communist journal, The Class Struggle). The "monster mass meeting" was entitled "Bolsheviki and World Peace," with a purpose of explaining "the international aspirations of the Bolsheviki." Speakers at the free meeting at the Harlem Casino on 116th St. in NYC were to include Louis Fraina, Ludwig Lore, and Nicholas Hourwich, with Justis Ebert sitting in the Chair.

 

"Towards the Rising Sun," by Eugene V. Debs [Feb. 15, 1918] The quasi-religious aspect of Socialist publicist Gene Debs' political faith are evident in this gushing paean to freedom from the pages of Duluth Truth: "Prophets and philosophers, catching the spirit of coming events, force and proclaim them; and as they approach, poets and pamphleteers, orators and agitators, dramatists and musicians, animated by the new spirit, acclaim the glad tidings of the sunrise of the morrow. These are the heralds of the dawn; the torchbearers of progress, the evangels of advancing civilization. Living, they are hated and reviled, crucified and damned. Dead, they live again and forever. Freedom is the universal shibboleth of the present age." Debs declares that "Freedom in its true sense is yet unknown to man. It cannot abide where slavery exists." Only with the abolition of wage-slavery can freedom be truly achieved, Debs indicates, adding "the earth is not yet fit for human habitation; but the long dark night is passing, and humanity is moving grandly towards the sunrise." Debs states as axiom that "The development of machinery necessitates the concentration of capital, and this in turn crushes out the middle class and compels the revolutionary organization of the working class." "Wage servitude in the capitalist system is the last phase of Labor's slavery. This system, like those that preceded it, must go the way of all things," he declares. Includes an extended prayer to Freedom in archaic and biblical King James English.

 

"Memorial: To the President and Congress of the United States from the NEC of the Socialist Party of America." [circa Feb. 15, 1918] This is a road map to peace in the European war issued by the governing National Executive Committee of the Socialist Party. The statement declared that "we endorse unreservedly the peace program of the Russian Socialist government" based upon 7 specific actions, including (1) evacuation of all territory occupied by hostile forces and its physical restoration from an international fund; (2) the right of all nations and inhabitants of disputed territories to determine their own destinies; (3) the unrestricted freedom of travel and transportation over land and sea; (4) full equality of trade conditions among all nations; (5) universal disarmament; (6) open diplomacy; and (7) an effective international organization to preserve peace, to protect the rights of the weaker peoples (including the natives in the colonies), and to insure the stability of international relations. Recognition of the Bolshevik government in Russia is urged, as is the immediate joining of the peace negotiations between Soviet Russia and the Central Powers -- an action which would "electrify the peoples of the world. It will taken the ground from under the crowned robbers of the Central Powers. It will deprive the autocrats of all arguments now used to deceive their people and maintain themselves in power."

 

"Proclamation to the People of of the United States from the NEC of the Socialist Party of America." [circa Feb. 15, 1918] This message to the American people was issued by the NEC of the Socialist Party (Berger, Hillquit, Maley, Stedman, and Work) at the same time as Memorial to President Wilson and Congress on ending the war. "Within a few short months, the war has threatened civil and political freedom in our country. The radical, labor, and Socialist papers have been despotically crushed by exclusion from the mails or by heavy burdens imposed upon them.... In violation of the Constitution of the United States and regardless of its provisions, free assemblage has been denied, meetings have been dissolved or prohibited, free speech has been suppressed, mob violence and personal assaults have been encouraged, and a vast army of paid secret service agents operating as detectives and spies has been foisted upon us...." While immediate attention is needed to halt these and other losses of liberty, the proclamation declares that two tasks face the working class: the establishment of an "immediate and democratic peace" and the costly process of rebuilding the war-torn areas. Open and public diplomacy and the principle of self-determination of all peoples is called for. "The responsibility for the world catastrophe is collective. The outrages of capitalism are national and international. The offense is that of a worldwide capitalist class. Therefore, the burden of restoration becomes an international obligation," the proclamation declares. The Bolshevik revolution is heralded: "They come with a message of proletarian revolution. We glory in their achievement and inevitable triumph." The proclamation expresses special concern that "our own country, which purports to be fighting for democracy, should itself become democratic. At present, it is one of the least democratic of all countries. It has neither political democracy nor industrial democracy. There is no other nation on earth in which the highest ruler has greater autocratic power than the President of the United States."

 

"Advertisement Announcing The Liberator," by Max Eastman [Feb. 16, 1918] Machine-readable pdf recreating an advertisement in The New Republic magazine which announced the creation of The Liberator by Max Eastman, former editor of the banned monthly,The Masses. The Liberator is touted as "a great magazine of liberty." "With the Russian people in the lead, the world is entering upon the experiment of industrial and real democracy. The possibilities of change in this day are beyond all imagination. We must unite our hands and voices to make the end of this war the beginning of an age of freedom and happiness for mankind undreamed by those whose minds comprehend only political and military events," the ad reads. Among the impressive editorial staff, place of honor and emphasis is given to "John Reed, Exclusive Correspondent in Russia."

 

MARCH

"Food Kaisers," by J. Louis Engdahl [March 1918] Organizational Leaflet No. 15 of the Socialist Party of America. In this newsprint agitational leaflet Left Wing journalist Louis Engdahl takes aim at the "five food kaisers" controlling the supply of meat in America -- Swift, Armour, Morris, Cudahy, and Wilson. Engdahl proclaims there is "no hope from the old parties" in curbing the excesses of the meat oligopoly and cites figures to demonstrate the great increase in profits of the meat industry during the war year of 1917. "Millions dying of neglect, millions on the brink of starvation, millions on the hunger line, other millions, even up into the ranks of the middle class; all help swell the increasing demand for liberation from the greatest evil of all ages -- THE PROFIT SYSTEM," Engdahl declares.

 

"Where Miss Strong Stands: Statement by Anna Louise Strong, Member of Seattle School Board," by Anna Louise Strong [March 2, 1918] Anna Louise Strong, a minister's daughter, was elected to the Seattle School Board in 1916. An outspoken radical, in February and March of 1918 Strong was subjected to a recall campaign for her alleged participation in anti-war activities. This is Strong's unsuccessful statement in her own defense, published in the pages of the Seattle Union Leader -- a publication for which she wrote regularly. Strong asserts that she is the victim of "false charges and twisted rumors." She states that her opposition to the war came before American entry and her opposition to conscription came before the passage of the draft law. She implies support for President Woodrow Wilson and his "war to make the world safe for democracy." Strong states that "I take patriotism to mean love of country and devotion to its service. My whole life has been given to the service of my country, in efforts to establish better and more wholesome conditions for its citizens, more equal opportunities for the children who are to build its future, and a steadier maintenance of those ideals for which this national was founded -- freedom of thought and expression and democratic control. This I take to be the essence of patriotism." Includes a photo of Anna Louise Strong from the time of the School Board Recall campaign.

 

"State Convention," by Alexis E. Georgian [March 2, 1918] In the aftermath of the Feb. 23-25, 1918 State Convention of the Socialist Party of Minnesota, constructive Socialist newspaper editor Alexis Georgian reflects upon the factional situation in Minnesota and across America. Georgian rejects the one-sided terminology of the "two fairly distinct factions" as "Reds" and "Yellows" -- instead opting to call them the "minority" and "majority" factions, respectively. Georgian states that there were two main points of departure between the constructive Socialist "majority" and the revolutionary Socialist "minority" factions: the place of immediate demands in the program and the question of recognition of the IWW. With regards to immediate demands, Georgian argues quite lucidly that those seeking to delete them from the Socialist program are "Utopians," likening the Socialist Party's pursuit of immediate demands in the political arena to the IWW's "daily struggle for immediate demands" in the economic sphere. "They can readily understand that it is only by waging a constant struggle on the industrial field for immediate demands to better the present condition of the workers that their organization is strengthened and that the workers acquire the necessary experience, intelligence, and numbers to accomplish the overthrow of capitalism," Georgian declares. As to the second question, Georgian states that the constructive Socialist "majority" faction already recognizes the superiority of industrial unionism over craft unionism, meeting the IWW more than half way, "but this does not satisfy the minority. They must have an endorsement of the IWW organization." Georgian believes this impossible unless and until "the IWW cease their opposition to independent political action of the working class."

 

"Resolution of the Executive Committee of the First United Russian Convention Sent to President Woodrow Wilson, March 4, 1918." This is the resolution sent by the first plenary session of the Executive Committee of the "First United Russian Convention," an organization which brought together liberal, socialist, and anarchist members of the "Russian colony" in America, claiming to represent members of some 200 organizations. The resolution declares "the Executive Committee of the First United Russian Convention in America expresses its deep indignation against the prospective attack on revolutionary Russia with the consent of the allies and declares that any intervention of Japan in the internal affairs of Russia regardless of the form of such intervention is nothing more than a badly disguised attempt to take advantage of the embarrassing situation of Russia in order to suppress in alliance with the German imperialists the struggle of the Russian proletariat for the liberation of the whole world from the yoke of capitalism." Three of the 5 signatories were prominent members of the Communist movement -- Gregory Weinstein (of the Russian Soviet Government Bureau and the Communist Labor Party), Alexander Stoklitsky (Translator-Secretary of the Russian Socialist Federation and founding member of the Communist Party of America), and Nicholas Hourwich (editor of Novyi Mir and founding member of the CPA).

 

"Imprisoned at McNeil's Island," by Floyd C. Ramp [March 6, 1918] Floyd C. Ramp, son of radical Oregon farmer named Benjamin Ramp, was one of the state's leading Communists, maintaining an unswerving allegiance to the party from 1919 until his death in 1984 at the age of 102. Ramp had joined the Socialist Party during the first decade of the 20th Century. Ramp graduated college in 1908 and later attended 3 years of law school. On Sept. 25, 1917, Ramp fell afoul of the law, however, arrested in his hometown of Roseburg for alleged conspiracy to obstruct the draft. Ramp defended himself in court in a much publicized case but was found guilty and sentenced to 2 years in prison. Ramp was sent to the facility at McNeil's Island, Washington, where he was incarcerated briefly until a mass food riot at the facility resulted in his being transferred to Leavenworth Penitentiary in Kansas, where he remained until his release in November 1919. Very nearly prose poetry, this brief document -- scrawled on a length of toilet tissue and rather miraculously preserved -- offers a reflection of the feelings of one locked behind bars. "Never to see the sun come up or go down for 2 long years. In a cage, behind great gray stone walls -- shut in from the beauties of a sunset, denied the inspiration of a glorious sunrise -- could anything be more wrong?"

 

"Special Socialist National Convention Proposed by Local St. Louis, Mo." [March 14, 1918] On March 4, 1918, Local St. Louis, SPA, passed a resolution calling on the National Executive Committee to "call a special national convention of the party, to be held not later than the second week in June of this year, time and place to be fixed by the NEC." This letter of March 14 to the NEC announced this decision and asserts that "the Russian situation and other most vital questions affecting the present and future policy and attitude of our national and international movement" demands "our close and conscientious consideration, which can only be given by the representatives of our Socialist Party from all parts of the country in national convention assembled." The letter was distributed to the Socialist press and a call made for the various State Secretaries of the SPA to take up the call for a special convention of the party in their own states.

 

"Views on the Double Attack on Russia," by Eugene V. Debs [March 16, 1918] Still more evidence of the thorough support for the Bolshevik revolution by American Socialists of all stripes in 1918 and 1919. Apparently written just prior to the Wilson administration's coordinated attempt in March 1918 to decapitate the Socialist Party and silence its most vigorous and vocal political opponents, Debs credits Wilson for attempting to "pave the way to the recognition of the Bolsheviki and back them up in their struggle to crown their revolution with victory." However, the Bolshevik call for a multilateral peace was not heeded by the combatants of the world, but rather, Soviet Russia was attacked simultaneously by the autocratic regimes of Germany in the West and Japan in the East. Debs laments that "It is a thousand pities from my point of view that the allies failed to lend a hand to the Bolsheviki in the hour of their crucial need... Instead of this, however, all the nations of earth, allies as well as the central powers, have sought either openly or covertly to discredit, defeat, and destroy the Bolsheviki and prevent the rise of the Russian people. The reason for this is obvious enough. If the Russian people could at one stroke rid themselves of their landlords, their capitalists, their exploiters, and their profiteers of all description, the people of all the other countries would speedily follow their example." Debs also has choice words for the "Prussianized" majority Socialists of Germany and their complete prostration before the militarist regime of that country.

 

"Indicted, Unashamed and Unafraid," by Eugene V. Debs [March 16, 1918] The March 10, 1918 announcement that federal indictments had been returned against 5 top officials in the Socialist Party of America for purported violation of the so-called "Espionage Act" came as a bolt from the blue, ending what seemed to the Socialists to be a brief moment of social peace. Little more than a month earlier Debs had written that "no more speakers are being arrested and no more indictments are being found" and that the SPA was emerging "crowned with victory" for its principled opposition to the war. Now, however, Debs declared that "the party indicted is brought in a flash completely to its senses." He railed "Free speech, free assemblage, and a free press, three foundation stones of democracy and self-government, are but a mockery under the espionage law administered and construed by the official representatives of the ruling class.... I am surprised only by the blind folly of the ruling masters. Their sublime stupidity has surpassed itself. They have aimed a blow at the Socialist Party that will give the party greater impetus and more vital force than could be imparted to it by a thousand of its most effective agitators." He declared that "If Germer, Berger, Engdahl, Kruse, and Tucker are guilty, so are we all. ...[T]he administration, to be logical and consistent, should indict, prosecute, and imprison not only the spokesmen of the party but its entire membership of more than 100,000 social rebels, who in opposing the damnable profiteering system which has precipitated this bloody deluge upon humanity are alike guilty of sedition and disloyalty in the bleared eyes of the autocratic rulers of this country."

 

APRIL

"The Onward March of the Socialist Party," by Adolph Germer. [April 1918] The National Executive Secretary of the Socialist Party of America reviews the party's fortunes after the first year of American involvement in the European War. "But few have faltered and fallen, in spite of the intimidation and threats by insane and drunken mobs and by nagging public politicians," Germer notes, stating that the SPA was at that moment numerically stronger than at any time since March 1916. Includes the official series of average dues stamps sold over the course of each year from 1903 through 1917.

 

"Miners' Organizer Lynched by Illinois Mob of 'Best People.'" (NY Call) [Event of April 4, 1918] On the night of April 4/5, 1918, a crowd of about 350 "patriots" in Collinsville, Illinois, confronted German-American union organizer Robert Prager, active in an ongoing strike of mine workers in the neighboring town of Maryville. The Dresdener Prager was dragged from his home by the rabid mob, which accused him of "disloyalty," and forced to repeatedly kiss the flag. Police rescued him from the rampaging reactionaries and took him to City Hall for his own safety. The 100% Americans stormed City Hall and an armed police guard failed to use their weapons to defend their charge. Prager was thrown to the ground and forced to praise Woodrow Wilson repeatedly. Then the mob dragged him down the road, bound him hand and foot, and hanged him from a tree until dead. Collinsville Captain of Police Frost was quoted as saying he did not believe that Prager was guilty of disloyalty, but rather "there has been considerable labor trouble at Maryville, a mining town near here, and I believe Prager became involved with the union." The mayor of the town echoed the sentiment that there was no evidence of any disloyalty by Prager, who had taken out his first papers and applied for full citizenship.

 

"Abraham Cahan," by William M. Feigenbaum [April 6, 1918] This sympathetic short biography of one of the leading lights of the Jewish-American Socialist movement was written by the son of one of Cahan's close comrades. Feigenbaum characterizes Cahan as simultaneously "a successful editor, a Socialist agitator, a recognized novelist" -- a man who had produced significant works of literature in both the Yiddish and English languages. Cahan's primary mission is characterized as seeking to build bridges between the Jewish immigrant community and native born Americans -- both by helping the native born to understand the common humanity that they shared with the immigrants and by teaching immigrants about the institutions and customs of their adopted land. Feigenbaum notes that Cahan was born in Vilna, Lithuania (part of the Russian empire) in 1860 and had emigrated to America in June 1882. Cahan was initially a participant in the anarchist movement, before eventually converting to social democracy. Cahan had, along with economist Isaac Hourwich (father of Nicholas Hourwich), been part of the 1897 split of the Socialist Labor Party, joining the Social Democratic Party of Eugene Debs two years before the great "Kangaroo" split of 1899. Cahan had founded the Jewish Forward in 1897, but was shortly forced out of the editorship for factional reasons, honing his craft as a "straight" journalist for the Mail and Express for several years before his triumphant return to The Forward. Feigenbaum indicates that the 57 year old Cahan remained invigorated with a bubbling youthful enthusiasm and commitment to the Socialist cause and that he continued to actively speak and campaign on behalf of the Socialist ticket. Includes a photograph of Abraham Cahan.

 

"Benson Scores Proposal to Withdraw US Army," by Allan L. Benson [April 6, 1918] In this article published in the pro-war New Appeal, former Socialist Presidential candidate Allan Benson voices his desire that the Socialist Party restate its position on the European conflict. "I have no reason to doubt that American Socialists are as loyal to the Allied cause as are any other Americans," Benson declares. Benson states that "tremendous excitement attendant upon the outbreak of war unsettled many judgments" at the party's 1917 St. Louis Emergency National Convention, that war profiteering was being combatted by the Wilson administration, and that Wilson "has given every indication of his desire to end the war on just terms, and we may be sure that he will continue this policy to the end."

 

"May Day Message," by C.E. Ruthenberg, A. Wagenknecht, and Charles Baker. [April 7, 1918] A short communique written by three imprisoned leaders of Local Cuyahoga County, Socialist Party to Cleveland party members. The trio call for their comrades to stand firm for the principles of International Socialism, as exemplified by Karl Liebknecht and his companions in Germany and "Trotsky and the Bolsheviki" in Russia.

 

"Letter to Adolph Germer in Chicago from Eugene V. Debs in Terre Haute, April 8, 1918." In this letter to Executive Secretary of the SPA Germer, Gene Debs urges the convocation of a special convention of the Socialist Party to refine its position on the war. "To enter the national campaign this year on the war platform adopted a year ago would be a colossal blunder and make of our campaign a losing one from the start. We cannot go before the country in the present state of affairs on that platform. A year ago when that declaration was adopted, barring certain unfortunate phrasing, it was all right. Today it is flagrantly wrong and it will not do at all. You cannot defend it nor can I or anyone else in its entirety." Debs indicates that the "ruthless" German invasion of Soviet Russia and its attempt to dismember the country and reduce the Russian people to "a Hohenzollern vassalage" had changed world sentiment towards the war. Debs also indicates his support for the recently concluded Inter-Allied Conference of representatives of Labor and Socialist organizations. "I feel that the Socialist Party of America should at this time make a similar declaration, defining clearly its present attitude toward the war and the policy it proposes shall be pursued in the making of the peace and in the reconstruction era that is to follow the war," Debs declares.

 

"The Strike That Should Have Won," by Eugene V. Debs [April 13, 1918] This little-known article from the New York Call's magazine section about a failed strike in 1888 is very illuminating about the causes of Socialist leader Gene Debs' discontent with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen -- a deep dissatisfaction which caused him to leave his old organization and to establish a new industrial union, the American Railway Union. Debs is disdainful of the division of the various railroad workers by craft, with hegemony exerted by the arrogant Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, headed by P.M. Arthur. The self-assured Arthur had arbitrarily dismissed the aid of the unions of the brakemen and switchmen, characterizing the strike as a matter between the engineers and the Burlington line. A boycott of Burlington cars across other roads, in which the switchmen played a decisive part, had paralyzed the lines. The decisive moment came when an injunction was granted against the boycott, and Arthur had immediately caved in, rather than face jail time by defying and fighting the ruling of the court. "A finer, braver, more loyal and determined army of strikers I have never seen. They had the strike won from the start but were betrayed into defeat through the cowardly and stupid leadership," Debs asserts.

 

"Free Press Fight in America On As Masses Trial Opens: Eastman, Rogers, Young, Dell, and Miss Bell Appear as Defendants in Case Being Tried Before Judge Hand; Eight Jurors Chosen." [April 16, 1918] On April 16, 1918, jury selection began in one of the landmark censorship cases of the World War I period, pitting the Woodrow Wilson regime against the New York radical artistic and political magazine, The Masses. There were initially 5 defendants in the box, including most prominently editor Max Eastman, writer Floyd Dell, and illustrator Art Young. Heading the defense were prominent New York attorneys Morris Hillquit and Dudley Field Malone. This first article from the New York Call details the jury selection process and the steep road faced by the defense, forced to work with an aged, economically self-satisfied, and politically conservative jury pool. The article notes: "Some of them confessed that they did not even know what Socialism was; others had heard of it but had never studied it; but all were majestically sure they were prejudiced against it, and that it was unworkable, unreasonable, and probably somehow un-American. Their feelings about pacifism were as absolute and uninformed. They evidently thought it meant non-resistance. They thought all pacifists were traitors, and one belligerent juryman said he thought all pacifists ought to be interned as an answer to their insidious teachings." Despite the shortcomings of the jury pool, 8 jurors had been seated at the end of the first day of jury selection, the Call article indicates.

 

"Letter to Eugene V. Debs in Terre Haute from Adolph Germer in Chicago, April 18, 1918." In the tendentious mythology of the wartime Socialist Party, Eugene V. Debs was a faultless anti-militarist and Adolph Germer a bureaucratic frontman for the duplicitous SPA Right. This reply to Debs' April 8 letter and a follow-up query belies both of these commonly accepted caricatures. Germer takes issue with Debs' willingness to lend critical support to the Wilson war effort in light of the German invasion of Soviet Russia: "In view of what the Democratic Administration has done to the members of the Socialist Party all over the country, and in view of the merciless suppression of the press and the interference with our general propaganda, I don't see how we can consistently support the policy of the Democratic Administration." While Germer agrees with Debs and most SP members who have corresponded with the National Office or spoken with Germer in person that some restatement of the SP position on the war was necessary, Germer asserts that "In my opinion we should formulate a policy that will command the confidence of the working classes of all the countries, a policy of clearly defined Democratic aims, and then insist that the Allied governments adopt them as a basis for peace negotiations at the earliest possible moment. If the governments adopt such a policy, then we will have something to get into the war for. If they refuse, we have a right to be suspicious of them and to refuse our support." He believes that the constitutionally necessary annual meeting of State Secretaries should be combined with a session of the SPA's NEC to formulate this revised program, which would then be submitted to referendum. Such a meeting was preferable to a convention for reasons of both speed and economy, in Germer's view.

 

MAY

"Marx and Young People," by Eugene V. Debs [May 1918] This May 1918 article was written by Gene Debs for the magazine of the youth section of the Socialist Party to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Karl Marx (born May 5, 1818). Debs is effusive in his praise of Marx, the "founder of modern socialism and of the international socialist movement." Debs writes: "He had the exalted moral character to match his commanding genius. He was firm as an oak, yet tender as a babe. He was absolutely honest. He could not dissimulate. He knew not how to be hypocritical. He was a stranger to the ways of darkness. What he saw with his keen eye and thought with his clear brain and felt with his warm heart, he also had the courage to utter with his honest tongue and to stand or fall by without equivocation or compromise." Marx's commitment to the cause led to persecution and privation, a bitter fate shared by his wife Jenny von Westphalen. But Marx's unwillingness to "barter away his talents...at once sealed his doom and gave his name to glory."

 

"Karl Marx the Man: An Appreciation," by Eugene V. Debs [May 4, 1918] Eugene Debs is best remembered by many as a self-styled revolutionary Christian Socialist. The fact is, however, that Debs was at the same time a Marxian international socialist, a publisher of an edition of "The Communist Manifesto" back in 1901. In this article, published in St. Louis Labor, Debs pays tribute to Marx on the 100th anniversary of his birth: "Karl Marx as a scientific and scholarly investigator, writer and author in the field of economic, political, and social research, stands preeminent before the world. As the triumphant awakener of the long asleep and the revolutionary leader of the long-enslaved masses of mankind he towers above us a titan and without a peer in history. But it is in his character as a man that he stands supreme and challenges the respect and love, the admiration and emulation of the modern world.... Marx the Man towered even above Marx the intellectual titan of his day. Stern, inflexible, self-forgetting, and rigidly scrupulous and honest, he presents to us today the inspiring figure of a man." Marx's self-abnegation and unflinching commitment to the socialist cause brings Debs' most glowing compliments: "Had he but consented to negotiate, to bargain, to compromise with the ruling powers he and his loved ones would never have been driven into the desert and compelled to eat in cold and hunger and tears the bitter bread of poverty and exile. But Karl Marx was immeasurably above and beyond temptation; his loft character disdained all dickering and temporizing, he stood at all times and in all situations inflexible as granite in his moral rectitude, and though he and his dear ones might be thrown into the street and perish of cold and starvation, he would not, could not pervert or prostitute his ideas and ideals, the children of his brain and soul."

 

"The Right Socialist Platform," by Carl D. Thompson [May 4, 1918] Christian Socialist Carl Thompson hails the program of the February 1918 Inter-Allied Socialist and Labor Conference as "the most logical, constructive, and consistently socialistic program that has so far appeared" in this article published in the pro-war New Appeal. Thompson notes the conference's endorsement of the policy and war aims of the Woodrow Wilson administration and its declaration that it is "inflexibly resolved to fight until victory is achieved" for these principles -- "the continuance of the struggle that the world may henceforth be made safe for democracy." Thompson urges the Socialist Party to take this "practical, constructive, statesmanlike" position, which Thompson asserts is furthermore "thoroughly consistent with the principles of Socialism." Thompson throws down the gauntlet to his party, announcing that "from this time on, I am for the vigorous prosecution of the war until we have secured a peace based upon the principles laid down by the Inter-Allied Socialist and Labor Conference and affirmed by President Wilson."

 

"Socialists Must Clean House or Begin Anew." [editorial in The New Appeal] [May 18, 1918] New Appeal Editor Louis Kopelin ratchets up the rhetoric with this editorial in the pro-war Socialist weekly, accusing the Socialist Party's leadership of pro-Germanism: "The Kaiser, Von Hertling, Hindenburg, and Ludendorff could not have devised a more cunning and hypocritical excuse to avert an expression of a majority than Hillquit, Berger, Stedman, and Germer, the bosses of the Socialist Party, have just announced to prevent the rank and file of the American Socialists from repudiating the un-American and anti-internationalist platform adopted by the party convention last year." By rejecting reconsideration of the Socialist Party's war program established by its 1917 St. Louis Emergency National Convention, Kopelin shrilly asserts that the "wreckers of the Socialist Party and the besmirchers of the name of Socialism" have prevented the party "from taking its rightful place in the worldwide struggle against autocracy and militarism." The St. Louis Resolution is dismissed as a "pro-German...official pronunciamento of an organization claiming to be the Socialist Party of America." Kopelin demands either a purge of the party's leadership or a split of the organization: "The New Appeal, as the leading organ of the Socialists of America, publicly calls attention to this situation and demands that the party either purge itself of its disloyal platform and leaders or prepare itself for a new political alignment that will serve both our country and the cause and not the disloyalists and Central Powers." Kopelin appeals both to the "Americanism" and the "internationalism" of his readers in rallying "to the support of our country and the Western European democracies in their life and death struggle against the most ruthless and powerful military despotism in human history."

 

"The Russian Revolution and the Germans [excerpt]," by Eugene V. Debs [May 18, 1918] The pro-war Right of the Socialist Party attempts to wrap themselves in the mantle of popular party leader Gene Debs with this tendentiously-introduced excerpt. Debs declares the war situation to be "radically different" for the Socialist Party in the wake of the Bolshevik revolution and decries the failure of the German Socialist movement to rise up against the German autocracy. "The German war lords, their junker allies, and the military hordes that do their bidding, no longer are in disguise with reference to the Bolsheviki. They have shown to the world beyond cavil that they propose to annihilate social democracy in Russia and reduce that great people to a nation of vassals. That is their naked, shameless purpose, in violation of their own treaty, and with but feeble protest on the part of the German people." Debs continues in this harshly critical vein: "The Russian revolution may be crushed, the unarmed proletariat overwhelmed, and the noble and aspiring peasants and workers reduced to vassals; the Bolsheviki may be overthrown, and the nascent democracy may lie weltering in its own blood and ruins; province after province may be wrested from a subjugated and helpless people; Poland may be outraged, Finland seized, and Bohemia persecuted; Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg may be thrown into prison; every Socialist aspiration may be strangled and every blood-bought democracy ground beneath the iron heel of the Kaiser, but the German people may not audibly protest. The much-vaunted social democratic movement of Kaiserland is as helpless as if it consisted of so many babes."

 

"St. Louis Resolution Must Be Repudiated is Decision of Loyal American Socialists," by Emanuel Haldeman-Julius [May 25, 1918] In the spring of 1918, sentiment among the social patriotic minority still inside the Socialist Party (and their apostate co-thinkers now outside of the party) began to build for the formation of a new political organization. This article by Managing Editor of The New Appeal Emanuel Haldeman-Julius reprints the text of a letter "To the Socialists of America" from Carl D. Thompson, William E. Rodriguez, and 33 rank-and-filers from the Chicago Socialist organization, endorsing the program of the Inter-Allied Socialist and Labor Conference as well as the stated war aims of Woodrow Wilson. The Thompson-Rodriguez letter states their logic as follows: "Collectivism alone is not Socialism, as we conceive it. To be true Socialism, collectivism must be under democratic control. Therefore, before we can hope for the realization of the Socialist ideal, we must achieve greater democracy. Militarism threatens to deprive the people of even that measure of democracy which has been achieved in all the struggles of the people of past generations. It is our duty not only to maintain what has been achieved by our forefathers, but to extend the rule of the people. To make that possible, militarism must be crushed. In that fight, the Socialists can well afford to combine their forces with all elements that are now engaged in the struggle against militarism." To advance this pious end, the Chicago Socialist signatories eagerly jumped aboard the bandwagon of Wilsonian militarism and the regime's denial of democratic rights in America, uncritically accepting Wilson's democratic-internationalist bluster at face value.

 

JUNE

"Prager Lynch Murder Trial Ends in Miscarriage of Justice." (St. Louis Labor) [event of June 1, 1918] On June 1, 1918, a jury in Collinsville, Illinois, took 39 minutes to acquit 11 nationalist "patriots" of the murder of German-American mine union organizer Robert Paul Prager. Prager had been dragged from City Hall on the night of April 4/5, forced to kiss the flag and praise Woodrow Wilson, and then was dragged to the edge of town and hung by the neck from a tree. This news account from St. Louis Labor recounts: "When the verdict was read there was a wild demonstration in the courtroom which the authorities could not halt. Hats were thrown into the air and the spectators ran to the front of the courtroom cheering the defendants, shaking their hands, and patting them on the back." One of the victorious defense attorneys said after the verdict that "we wanted to show that the men who did the hanging were good, patriotic American citizens. But this man Prager was not loyal. He was a pro-German and the people not only of Madison County know it, but the people in other places where this man moved about unmolested." Even Assistant Attorney General Middlekauff of the prosecution seems to have been caught up in the frenzy of 100% Americanism, declaring "If Prager was a pro-German he is where he belongs -- in his grave," before adding "he ought to be dead, but the courts should have passed sentence."

 

"So Long, Louis! Our Hearts Are With You!" by Emanuel Haldeman-Julius [June 8, 1918] New editor of The New Appeal, Emanuel Haldeman-Julius, bids farewell to former editor of the paper Louis Kopelin, headed from his home in southeastern Kansas to service in the American Army in the European war. No sooner has Kopelin melodramatically been waved out of town by Haldeman-Julius than the future father of the "Little Blue Books" has moved into his patented crass hucksterism: "You are going to be given a chance to show your loyalty to The New Appeal right now. I want you to demonstrate your conviction that The New Appeal should climb to new achievements, to new victories. You will do this by going among your friends and getting them to subscribe for this paper -- you will do it NOW, so that I can send word to Louis that the Army is standing by and there will be not the slightest let-up.... Undoubtedly you little expected The New Appeal to give copies of its Socialist Classics as premiums for subscriptions, but it is true. The New Appeal wants to spread the good message of international democracy and Socialism and it wants your help. Get busy today and secure four 20-week subscriptions at 25 cents each, making a dollar for the four subscriptions. Send us the dollar and the book you covet will be sent postpaid by return mail. There are 12 volumes in this set and you will want to get all of them."

 

"A Convention to Restate, Not Apologize," by Eugene V. Debs [June 21, 1918] Somehow Gene Debs ambiguous statements about the necessity of reworking the SPA's 1917 St. Louis platform in the face of changed war conditions and his unconditioned support for the proceedings of the Inter-Allied Socialist and Labor Conference (which supported the war effort) leaked to the press, prompting Debs to issue this angry denunciation of editorials appearing in the capitalist papers. "Years ago I declared there was only one war in which I would enlist, and that was the war of the workers of the world against the exploiters of the world. I declared, moreover, that the working class had no interest in the wars declared and waged by the ruling classes of the various countries upon one another for conquest and spoils. That is my position today. I have not changed in the slightest, and any report to the contrary is absolutely untrue and is hereby branded accordingly," Debs declares. In view of the fact that "certain propositions stated" in the St. Louis platform which are "now impossible," Debs advocates the rapid convocation of a party convention to clearly and fearlessly restate the party position on the war. Various ambiguities and problems in Debs' argument are pointed out in extensive footnotes.

 

JULY

"The Russian Gay-Girls and the War," by Louise Bryant [July 1918] This article from Pearson's Magazine by Left Wing journalist Louise Bryant mixes autobiography with analysis in considering the issue of prostitution during the period of the Great War in Europe. Bryant tells the tale of her girlhood in a small Nevada town and the unkind and discriminatory treatment meted out to prostitutes in that milieu. Bryant notes her long-running concern for the "unhappy girls" of the western sex industry, to whom she says she weekly brought flowers, candy, magazines, and sympathy at the local jail. Bryant took her interest in the subject with her when she went to Europe as a war reporter. She compares the wartime prostitution policies of France (negligent non-concern, refusal of rations) with Germany ("systematic, brutal, and efficient" organization of prostitutes "into a huge army" with superfluous individuals sent into the munitions manufacturing industry). To these she contrasts the enlightened Russian policy of "love and understanding" in which "since the revolution prostitutes have been allowed to become nurses and to enlist in the women's regiments." Bryant asserts that "The only place where prostitution still thrives in Russia is in the cafes frequented by rich speculators and foreigners." Bryant declares: "There is no economic reason for being a prostitute now in Russia, and it isn't even a disgrace to be one, and so the whole pitiful business is just toppling over. With the most lax marriage laws, prostitution banished, and divorces as easy to get as a cup of tea, there is less immorality in Russia than anywhere in the world! It seems to me that it wouldn't be a bad idea for some of the professional soul savers with elaborate systems for saving the 'fallen' to ponder a little on the simple methods of the much-maligned Bolsheviki."

 

"Labor and the War," by Morris Hillquit [July 6, 1918] Socialist Party leader Morris Hillquit makes clear that the world was paying a terrible price through war for the continuation of capitalist hegemony: "The millions of human lives that have been destroyed and wrecked, all the misery of the nations of the world, would have been spared if the people, the working class, had ruled instead of their employers." Even greater than the war in world historical terms, according to HIllquit, was the Russian Revolution. "I believe I am safe in saying that for the historian of the future the revolution in Russian will be of greater importance than the war itself," Hillquit states: "The war will pass some day! It cannot last forever. But the fact that one of the greatest countries in the world has broken away from the old capitalistic moorings, has turned a new page in history and proclaimed the rule of the people instead of the rulers - this cannot pass without the most vital effect upon the whole future of the human race. The present regime in Russia may change, but whether or not there is any chance in the administration, on thing is certain - autocracy, capitalism, and oppression are dead in Russia."

 

"A Dream No Longer," by Abraham Cahan [July 13, 1918] Given his later vehement and vocal opposition to the regime in Soviet Russia and its American adherents, this article by renowned Yiddish Socialist editor Abraham Cahan rings ironic. "A statue of Karl Marx in the Kremlin! A monument to the father of the Socialist movement in the "holy of holies" of Russian darkness and Russian despotism! It sounds incredible, but it is true nevertheless. It is a gorgeous piece of historical reality.... What has been one of our golden dreams has become an inspiring reality. It seems to me that in view of that glorious monument to Marx which now stands in the Kremlin, the most bitter opponent of the Bolsheviki among our comrades should forget his former feeling and become inspired with affection and enthusiasm for them.... We have criticized them; some of their utterances often irritate us; but who can help rejoicing in their triumph? Who can help going into ecstacy over the Socialist spirit which they have enthroned in the country, which they now rule?"

 

"The IWW Scare," by Jack Carney [July 26, 1918] This editorial by future member of the NEC of the Communist Labor Party Jack Carney in the pages of Duluth Truth appeals to Socialist Party members to support the Industrial Workers of the World in their time of need. The specter of the IWW had been used by the capitalists as a bogey to split the working class, Carney asserts. "Get out and prove your loyalty to your class. If you allow the IWW to march down the plank of capitalist oppression, then stop and pause for a moment, for your turn is next. Self-preservation commands you to stand by the IWW now, when your time comes do not whine if the gods show you as little mercy as they are showing the IWW," Carney states. Carney urges his readers to each send a dollar to the IWW for their legal defense fund and declares: "By all the powers that be, you have GOT to help. It is your bounden duty. If you fail, then tear up your card and hide your head in shame. For let it be known that in the fight for human liberty, you stood idly by and allowed the wolves of capitalism to tear your own fellow-workers limb from limb." Includes photo of Jack Carney.

 

AUGUST

"Sunday Night Lectures by H.M. Wicks, Socialist Candidate for Congress, Third District of Oregon." [August 1918] Text of a rare leaflet produced by Local Portland Oregon, Socialist Party, touting the "second season of the lecture courses with H.M. Wicks as permanent lecturer." Wicks is remembered as the mean-spirited editor of the official organ of the United Toilers of America, Workers Challenge, a stint as a pugilistic writer for The Daily Worker, and for his ultimate downfall in 1938 amidst allegations of government spying. What is less frequently appreciated is that this CPA founder had his roots in the Socialist Party of Michigan -- an organization with its own distinct ideology, marrying an educationalist and majoritarian view of the revolutionary process with a very narrow and sectarian interpretation of ideology, placing an emphasis upon the struggle against religious superstition as a key to emancipation. This orientation shows through in the subject matter of the 10 lectures to be made by Congressional candidate Wicks. Fellow Michigander Oakley Johnson later recalled of Wicks: "He was a master of profanity and invective, and his speeches and articles were full of both. He had extraordinary intellectual vanity (knew everything, was always right), and very little charm. He was a fattish man, with plump hips, eyes that were round and small, and a red face. I was relieved to learn, years afterward, of his defection from the Left."

 

"Letter to Morris Hillquit at Saranac Lake, NY, from Adolph Germer in Chicago, August 3, 1918." With the constitutionally mandated "Conference of State Secretaries and Party Officials" around the corner, Executive Secretary of the Socialist Party Adolph Germer sent this note to Morris Hillquit expressing disappointment that he would not be on hand to assist with the delicate task of formulating a new party program on the war. Of particular note is Germer's statement of disapproval regarding Hillquit's desire to resign from the NEC for reasons of health: "I advise against it not only for fear that it might be misconstrued, but for other good and legitimate reasons. It may make an opening for disturbing elements on the NEC," Germer writes -- this several months in advance of the Left Wing Section's emergence as a concrete faction in the party. Germer notes that he is sure that Seymour Stedman and Victor Berger feel likewise on this matter and he tells Hillquit that he will have them write with their opinions on the matter in the near future.

 

"Socialist Party Protests Allied Invasion of Russia: Resolution of the National Executive Committee, Aug. 1918." Still more evidence that whatever the issues were behind the Socialist Party's 1919 factional war, position of the organization towards the Bolshevik Revolution was not one of them -- all factions of the SPA earnestly supported the Bolsheviki and their fledgling state without reservation in the years 1917-1919. "Since the French Revolution established a new high mark of political liberty in the world, there has been no other advance in democratic progress and social justice comparable to the Russian Revolution," the NEC declares. The use of Czechoslovak troops in Russia as a counterrevolutionary force and their advocacy of an invasion from the east is denounced as "utterly incompatible with any principle of democratic or international decency." The NEC urged "all true believers in democracy in the United States to join with us in urging our government to recognize the Russian Soviet Republic," which "In spite of the hostility of the most powerful forces, it has endured for 10 months, successfully performing the great task of reconstructing the social and economic life of Russia. The Socialist Party of America declares itself in accord with revolutionary Russia and urges our government and our people to cooperate with it and to assist it to the end that democratic forces of the world may be victorious and autocracy and imperialism banished forever."

 

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

 

"Raymond Robins," by William Hard [Aug. 10, 1918] Magazine article by the future author of the book, Raymond Robins' Own Story, attempting to explain the controversial public figure of the day to a propagandized public. Hard cites incidents from his own personal acquaintance with "our principal present witness about Russia" to demonstrate that far from being a secret Bolshevik, Robins "knows more arguments against socialism than any other man I have ever listened to. He specializes on arguments against socialism. And he specializes on saving people from socialism." Hard characterizes Robins as an inveterate and intense orator, "the only American I would gamble on to talk a Bolshevik under the table." The former social worker and progressive Republican is described as a committed evangelist constantly in debate with "impossibilists" and "regular" socialists alike. "How many really competent witnesses, competent to tell a Bolshevik from a Menshevik without looking at their labels, have we received back from Russia?" Hard asks, noting that the Germans were stepping in where the Americans seemingly feared to tread. "Till Robins' testimony about Russia is undermined by testimony equally competent and more voluminous, it stands strong," Hard declares.

 

"Sugarman Replies to Työmies: Says Finnish Machine is Menace to Party: Urges Election of Dirba as State Secretary," by A.L. Sugarman [Aug. 16, 1918] This testy letter from the outgoing State Secretary of the Socialist Party of Minnesota attacking the Finnish Socialist daily Työmies for a laundry list of alleged misdemeanors against the cause and touting the candidacy of Charles Dirba for new State Secretary may seem like an esoteric factional quibble -- and perhaps it is. Nevertheless, this letter demonstrates several interesting things at variance with Customary Belief. (1) Both publications embroiled in this war of words were publications from the Socialist Party's "Left Wing" -- Truth [Duluth] was later a publication closely associated with the Communist Labor Party, Työmies with the Workers Party of America. The Left Wing was heterogeneous, with personal rivalries and antipathies (Sugarman hated Finnish Secretary Henry Askeli) and policy disagreements (Työmies was hostile to the IWW, Truth supportive of it). (2) There was quite clearly debate back and forth across linguistic lines; Sugarman takes umbrage to Finnish language journalism published in Työmies; Työmies editor Eemeli Parras is offended and rebukes Sugarman and Truth for charges levied in the English language. Language groups were clearly not strict enclaves, but rather related with one another at least to some limited extent. (3) Dirba, the future Executive Secretary of the old Communist Party of America and leader of the Central Caucus faction's Communist Party of America, is depicted as someone very well qualified for the specific tasks of party secretaryship: "Dirba is so far superior to [competitor Anna] Maley that there can be little comparison. By trade a bookkeeper and stenographer, he is easily able to handle the work of the office. His wide propaganda experience as Secretary of the Hennepin County organization makes him far the best fitted for the position.... Dirba is not an IWW, but he believes that socialism means socialism and nothing else. Both in matters of policy and efficiency, Dirba will make a secretary that will help the movement grow, whereas if Miss Maley is elected, it can be expected that our organization will lose its identity in a sea of Non-Partisanism."

 

"Socialism, Revolution, & Civilization," by Victor L. Berger [Aug. 19, 1918] Milwaukee, Wisconsin Socialist leader Victor Berger editorializes on the need for socialism and its relationship to revolution in the turbulent European world. Berger sees an increasing division of every country into "two nations": "One nation will be very large in number, but semi-civilized, half-fed, half-educated, and degenerated from overwork and misery; the other nation will be very small in number, but over-civilized, overfed, over-cultured, and degenerated from too much leisure and too much luxury." Unless something is done to bring capital under society's ownership and control, the day approaches when "there will be a volcanic eruption. The hungry millions will turn against the overfed few. A fearful retribution will be enacted on the capitalist class as a class -- and the innocent will suffer with the guilty." Berger notes that such a revolutionary upheaval will be "retrograde" and push society back towards barbarism. He sees a real threat of such a revolutionary upheaval in England, France, and Italy, and indicates that "there will undoubtedly be a revolution in Germany and Austria." He calls upon honest and practical men and thinking patriots to shortcircuit this drift towards a revolutionary bloodbath by working for the socialization of productive capital.

 

"Työmies Reply to Sugarman," by Eemeli Parras [Aug. 23, 1918] Työmies Editor Eemeli Parras takes umbrage to State Secretary A.L.Sugarman's claim that "Työmies advocated scabbery during the Mesaba strike." He challenges Sugarman to immediately produce evidence backing up this claim. Parras' tone is arrogant and dismissive, as he condescendingly calls the outgoing State Secretary "an enthusiastic young comrade in the party" who "may still be a socialist sometime in the future, when he matures and is schooled." Similar treatment is dealt to Truth Editor Jack Carney, who is chastised for "boyishness that is befitting only to a youngster" for having pecked at Työmies. " For some reason - we do not know what - the Truth has written against the Työmies. And the Työmies has not given any reason for it," Parras writes. In a rejoinder, Editor Carney (a founding member of the CLP National Executive Committee) hammers Työmies for allowing syndicalist leader Leo Laukki to be mocked while he was jailed by the Wilson administration. Carney declares: "We may be boyish, but we have never been guilty of making sport out of a comrade who is in prison: Työmies someday will recognize the fact that the members of the IWW are members of the working class, and they will also understand that the basic principle of the Socialist Party is: AN INJURY TO ONE IS THE CONCERN OF ALL. Until they recognize the foregoing, let them forever hold their peace." Includes a short biographical footnote on Eemeli Parras, a prolific journalist and writer who was deported from the United States to Soviet Russia in 1931 and who perished during the last days of the Ezhovshchina, in January 1939.

 

"Wisconsin Socialist Platform." [as published Aug. 31, 1918] The Social Democratic Party of Wisconsin is sometimes caricatured as a parochial and racist organization, whose sole program was the winning of elective office to implement a laundry list of ameliorative liberal reforms. Those believing that this was the limit of the Wisconsin party's vision might be interested in investigating the organization's 1918 platform, which declared the organization's continued allegiance to international Socialism (i.e. Marxism), against the importation of European style militarism to American society, for a rapid end to the European conflagration without annexations or indemnities imposed on any party, against racism and mob rule and in favor of the freedoms of speech, press, and assemblage then being trampled by the Wilson regime and the Democratic-Republican bloc in Congress, and in favor of the principles of collectivism and cooperation and the policy of state ownership of trustified industry. The platform called upon "all lovers of freedom to rally round the banner of Socialism -- which represents the only genuine patriotism of today. Socialism will guarantee to every man the full fruit of his labor and thus do away with the main cause of wars. It will usher in a new civilization based upon the welfare of all."

 

SEPTEMBER

"SSS Organizes on National Scale," by William Kruse [Sept. 1918] On July 27-28, 1918, a conclave was held in New York City bringing together representatives of the Socialist Sunday Schools movement from 6 Eastern cities and the National Office of the Socialist Party. The group made recommendations for the centralization of the SSS movement through the office of the SPA's Young People's Department in Chicago, suggested curriculum for each of three age groups, and elected a provisional National Executive Committee of 5 for the SSS movement, headed by Dr. Antoinette Konikow of Boston as Chairman and YPSL head William F. Kruse of Chicago as Secretary. The gathering also recommended the dropping of the counterproductive word "Sunday" from the SSS, suggesting instead the new name "Socialist Schools of Science" for the movement. This new name would be used in all future correspondence from the National Office, the conference indicated, and local organizations were advised to do likewise. "It is not at present the intention of making the SSS an iron-bound Party affair, but there must be some central point of contact between the various school organizations and it is but right that, as in the case of the YPSL, this point be the Young People's Dept. of our Party," this article stated.

 

"Gene Debs at the Socialist Conference," by William Kruse [Sept. 1918] In August 1918, State Secretaries and elected officials of the Socialist Party gathered in conference in Chicago to discuss the party's political position and to make plans for the forthcoming fall election campaign. The meeting featured a surprise appearance by the party's leading orator, soul, and conscience, Gene Debs -- who delivered a fiery oration that brought down the house. This report by YPSL National Secretary Bill Kruse (who attended the conference) directly quotes Debs' speech at some considerable length. Debs stated that "The party has been passing through what may be called a fiery ordeal during the past few weeks, subjected as perhaps never before to a test of the very fiber of its being; and during all this time the party has stood and withstood all of the attacks that have been made upon it... It is true that there have been certain desertions, but the party has not been weakened in that account. We are indebted to the master class for at least one service, and that is for having rid us of those who do not properly belong here. Numbers do not always count. We are stronger because of the test to which we have been subjected, and for myself, I believe the outlook for the party was never more encouraging and inspiring than it is today." Debs declared that "Now is the time for action," adding "In every hour of trial that has come they have stood staunch and true. With them I gladly share my life, and come good or ill as it may, we will not weaken, we will not compromise, we will not retreat an inch, we will stand our ground, we will fight together unitedly all along the battle line for victory for the International Socialist Movement."

 

"Does Conviction Mean Guilt? An Editorial on the Chicago IWW Trial from The Milwaukee Leader, September 3, 1918." During the Cold War, a mythology sprang up -- particularly among the Social Democratic Right -- about the ideology and practice of the Social Democratic Party of Wisconsin and its de facto official organ, Victor Berger's Milwaukee Leader. The Wisconsin party and the Leader were falsely represented as programatically ultra-minimalist, limiting their vision to patchwork reform policies and taking an unchanging "principled" stand against "extremism" and "Communism." In reality, the ideology of the Wisconsin movement in the 1910s and 1920s was considerably more left wing and nuanced than the politicized caricature propounded by the 1950s and 1960s SD Right -- as this Leader editorial demonstrates. The recent conviction and sentencing of 97 IWW defendants by Woodrow Wilson's Department of Justice and Judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis is likened to the persecution of Jesus Christ -- the guilty verdict having no more validity in real life than the one passed upon him by Pontius Pilate. Despite "a great diversity of opinion" about the divinity and doctrines arising around Jesus, "we do not know of even one person in the whole world who believes that Jesus was rightfully convicted and executed," the editorialist opines. "On the contrary, it is the unanimous opinion of the human race at the present time that He was infinitely superior to his persecutors. It is now the universal belief that His persecutors were the real criminals and that He was guiltless." Like Jesus, the Wobblies were guilty only of having new and unpopular ideas -- ideas that made it impossible to obtain a fair trial in the present supercharged climate of political hysteria. Complete solidarity is voiced: the IWWs "stand for principles which would result in real democracy -- industrial democracy," the editorial states. No matter what tactical errors the organization may have committed in the past, "that is no reason to believe that they were guilty. We are just as confident of their innocence as we were when they were tried." The conviction might actually have the opposite of its intended effect, in the editorialist's opinion, actually boosting the IWW: "t is entirely possible that, if the IWW is ready to drop its undesirable features, it may have a brilliant future as a labor organization. Certainly there is abundant room for a real labor organization in the industrial field in this country - one that is loyal to the working class -- one that will not barter its principles for a few loaves and fishes - one that understands the ultimate as well as the immediate needs of the workers."

 

"Debs Trial Opens Monday [Sept. 9]; Defendant Makes Speeches As Lawyers Prepare Case: Seymour Stedman, Attorney for Defense, Says No Attempt Will Be Made to Excuse or Apologize for Any Statement by Veteran Socialist -- Recognizes Trial as Attack on Socialism," by J. Louis Engdahl [Sept. 9, 1918] With war hysteria at a fever pitch the Wilson administration pushed forward its agenda of stomping out left wing dissent by the exertion of crude state power. Four time Socialist Party Presidential candidate Eugene V. Debs was hauled before the bar on September 9, 1918, to answer for spoken words he uttered to the Ohio Socialist Party convention at Canton in June. This pre-trial report by J. Louis Engdahl quotes lead lawyer Seymour Stedman as saying that "No attempt will be made to excuse or apologize for any statement made by Debs in his Canton speech. Debs and those associated with him recognized this case as an attack on Socialism and the freedom of discussion." As for the defendant, Debs is quoted as saying "I amount to nothing in this. Tens of thousands have gone to prison; thousands have been executed; who am I that I should do less for the cause that means so much to the working class? I propose to keep my self-respect, and I can not retract anything that I have said and do so. I would rather go to prison with the consciousness of being true to myself than to escape through any subtleties of the law." Engdahl makes clear the jury venire is stacked against Debs and lists previous repressive action in the venue, including the sentencing of Socialist school board member A.L. Hitchcock to 15 years in federal prison for his words; of Ohio party leaders C.E. Ruthenberg, Alfred Wagenknecht, and Charles Baker to 1 year in the Toledo workhouse for their words; of Ukrainian Socialist editors Paul Ladan and Charles Switenko to 3 months in jail for failing to file a translation of their stories with the post office and the subsequent seizure (without warrant) of printing equipment owned by the Robitnyk Printing & Pub. Co. by the Federal government; as well as the collaboration of Democrats and Republicans to expel two elected Socialist members of the Cleveland city council without cause (nearly 2 years before the same sort of anti-democratic power politics was practiced by New York state Assembly).

 

"Seven Socialists at Debs Trial Held for Applause After Stedman's Speech: Outburst Follows Attorney's Acceptance of Challenge by Prosecution -- Jury Made up Mostly of Farmers Accepted -- Average Age of Jurors 70. Prosecution Omits Parts of Canton Speech," by J. Louis Engdahl [Sept. 10, 1918] Report of the first day of the Debs trial for violation of the so-called Espionage Act, as reported in the pages of the Milwaukee Leader. The first day of the trial [Sept. 9, 1918] was dedicated in large measure to jury selection, with a group of 12 men ultimately selected, ranging in age from 52 to 73 and including a large percentage of retired or current farmers, real estate men, or businessmen. The opening statement for the defense by lead attorney Seymour Stedman was met with applause in the court, which caused Judge Westenhaver to round up 7 Socialists (including Marguerite Prevey and Rose Pastor Stokes) for this "riotous" conduct -- fines of from $10 to $25 were dispensed the next day [Sept. 10].

 

"C.E. Ruthenberg Hurried from Canton Workhouse to Testify in Debs' Free Speech Trial: Prosecution Introduces St. Louis Program Over Objections by Stedman -- Government Trusts Boy Office Stenographer with Taking Down Address on which Indictment is Based," by J. Louis Engdahl [Sept. 11, 1918] Report of the second day of the Debs trial for violation of the so-called Espionage Act, as reported in the pages of the Milwaukee Leader. The day featured the surprise calling of C.E. Ruthenberg as a witness by the prosecution in an attempt to tie Debs with the 1917 St. Louis anti-war manifesto which Ruthenberg had co-authored with Morris Hillquit and Algernon Lee. Ruthenberg's appearance on the stand, "gaunt and emaciated" from his imprisonment, was for dramatic effect, with the testimony actually linking Debs with the St. Louis resolution actually coming from a journalist employed by The Cleveland Plain Dealer. Testimony also revealed that the Wilson administration's Department of Justice had entered into an active collaboration with Hearst's Chicago Herald Examiner, with reporters of that paper acting as government informants on "anything that happened at Socialist meetings that they thought would be of interest" to the federal agents. Appearing for the defense was a stenographer employed by the Socialist Party who read the complete transcript of the Debs Canton speech -- between 25 to 30% of which was said to have been missed by the DoJ's 20 year old rookie stenographer. Both the prosecution and the defense rested their cases, with the forthcoming closing statements to the jury limited to 2 hours and 15 minutes by the court.

 

"Jury in Eugene Debs' Trial on Free Speech Gets Its Instructions: Former Candidate for President Makes Address in Own Defense, Refusing to Retract Anything Uttered in his Canton Talk -- Case Will Be Appealed if Jury Returns Verdict of Guilty," by J. Louis Engdahl [Sept. 12, 1918] Report of the third day of the Debs trial for violation of the so-called Espionage Act, as reported in the pages of the Milwaukee Leader. Having rested its case without presenting a single witness in Debs' behalf, the defense let defendant Debs address the jury at length to make his case that the Canton, Ohio speech for which he was being tried was protected free speech under the constitution. "I am not guilty of the charges in the indictment. What I have said I felt that I was justified in saying under the law of the land," Debs declared, noting that this was the first time in his life that he had appeared before a jury charged with a crime. "I wish to admit the truth of what has been testified to in the proceedings here. I have no disposition to deny anything that is true. I would not retract a word I have uttered, that I believe to be true, to save myself from going to the penitentiary for the remainder of my days," Debs told the 12 assembled jurors. "There isn't a word in that speech to warrant the charges in the indictment against me. In what I had to say there, my purpose was to educate the people to understand something about the social system in which we live, and to prepare them to change this system by perfectly orderly means into what I conceive to be a real democracy," Debs declared, adding that contrary to the assertions of the prosecution, "I have never advocated force or violence in any form." Debs announced his sympathy with other Socialists convicted exercising their right to free speech before him, including specifically C.E. Ruthenberg, Alfred Wagenknecht, Charles Baker, Kate O'Hare, and Rose Pastor Stokes. He defended the Bolshevik revolution for having "written a chapter of glorious history that will stand to their credit forever," and noted that minorities rather than majorities had generally been correct at the turning points of history that Washington had been called a "disloyalist," Samuel Adams an "incendiary," and Patrick Henry a "traitor." Moreover, Abraham Lincoln, Charles Sumner, Daniel Webster, and Henry Clay had characterized the Mexican-American war as a crime against humanity in their day and none of these figures had been prosecuted during wartime for sedition. Reporter Engdahl records that Debs had read the section of the constitution dealing with free assemblage to the jury, declaring its English so plain that a child could understand it, and that the revolutionary fathers had mean just what they said when they adopted it. "That is the right I exercised at Canton," declared Debs. "For exercising that right I am here."

 

"Debs Held Guilty on Three Counts, Will File Appeal: Veteran Socialist Received Verdict Which May Mean 20 Years in Prison with Same Congenial Smile that has Endeared Him to Millions. Declares He has No Fault to Find with Decision. Sentence May be Passed Saturday [Sept. 14]," by J. Louis Engdahl [Sept. 13, 1918] Report of the jury verdict, coming after the 3 day trial in Cleveland of Eugene Debs for alleged violation of the so-called Espionage Act. After six full hours of deliberation, the jury returned a verdict of Guilty on 3 of 4 counts against Debs, with a Not Guilty verdict returned on the 4th charge of opposition to the cause of the United States in the war. An appeal was planned, with sentencing expected to follow the next day. Debs remained free on the $10,000 bail put up for him by Marguerite Prevey of Akron.

 

"Debs Sentenced to 10 Years Jail on Three Counts: Socialist is Allowed Bail Pending Hearing on Appeal Only on Condition He Return to Home in Terre Haute, Ind., and Remain There Until Case is Passed On: To Serve Time in Moundsville, W.Va.," by J. Louis Engdahl [Sept. 14, 1918] Final report of J. Louis Engdahl to the readers of the Milwaukee Leader on the 4 day Debs free speech trial of Sept. 1918. On Saturday, Sept. 14, Debs was sentenced to 10 year concurrent sentences for each of the three counts under the so-called Espionage Law of which he was convicted. Bail was continued throughout the appeals process, conditional upon Debs' return home to Terre Haute, Indiana and his removal from political speaking. Engdahl states that Debs spent a day in "peace and quiet" at the home of his bondsman Marguerite Prevey in Akron on Sept. 13, and that he remained in fine spirits, holding a very friendly meeting there with his legal defense team to consider appeals strategy. A request for a new trial was to be made on the grounds of incompetent evidence and a faulty indictment, Engdahl reports, although expressing doubts as to whether this request would be granted. Engdahl recalled Debs' words to the jury that "If it be a crime punishable under the laws of the United States for me to exercise my constitutional right of free speech in time of war as well as in peace, then I am willing to be clothed in the stripes of a convict and spend the rest of my days in a cell."

 

"South Slavic Federations Withdraw From Socialist Party; May Combine with Social Democratic League," by Emanuel Haldeman-Julius [event of Sept. 20, 1918] The war in Europe was a divisive issue within the South Slavic Federation of the Socialist Party of America, with the radical Croatian component staunchly supporting the party's unbending anti-militarist position, while the large Slovenian and small Serbian component bitterly disagreeing. The federation effectively split over this issue, with the Slovenian and Serbian Federationists voting to separate from the SPA at a conference held in Springfield, Ill. on Sept. 20, 1918. The main resolution of the Slovenian-dominated South Slavic conference states that the tactics of the Socialist Party had "estranged the American toiling masses, thus making itself impossible of representing them politically or otherwise" and effectively excluded socialists "from all actual participation in the peace conference, and also from cooperation in reconstruction after the war." In effect, the Socialist Party had rendered itself "merely a pacifistic sect," in the judgment of the Slovenian socialists, who withdrew. This event was gleefully reported by Managing Editor Emanuel Haldeman-Julius of The New Appeal, the social-patriotic incarnation of The Appeal to Reason, who breathlessly speculates that the Slovenian socialists might well soon join the upstart Social Democratic League which Haldeman-Julius "provisionally" headed. Pouring on the invective, Haldeman-Julius calls the action of the Slovenian socialists "additional proof that The New Appeal was entirely justified in its policy against the party's treasonable stand against the government and against the democratic ideals of the Entente." About 6 weeks later, the war would end, effectively terminating Haldeman-Julius' delusions of grandeur as a party leader. A few months after that Haldeman-Julius again altered his personal business plan, turning to the mass marketing of "Little Blue Books" -- a rather more effective means to the fame and fortune he so anxiously desired.

 

"Shiplacoff is Indicted with John Reed for Bronx Speech: Socialist Assemblyman Who is Candidate for Congress and Famed Writer Charged with Violation of Espionage Act -- What Offending Words Were." (NY Tribune) [event of Sept. 23, 1918] On Sept. 23, 1918, nearly 2 weeks after armistice was declared in the European war, indictments were returned against New York Assemblyman Abraham Shiplacoff and radical journalist John Reed for comments which each made at a Sept. 13 meeting in the Bronx held under the auspices of the Socialist Party. Shiplacoff's purported offense was making the following statement about the American military occupation of Soviet Russia: "You will remember with what bitter feelings your teachers have tried to plant in you a sort of hatred toward the Hessians, those soldiers who came from the other side, hired to do the work of King George III against the American colonists, and those were only the ragtag off the people; they were the hired murderers who came to do the bidding of King George III -- think how much better the Russian people of today have a right to feel against the people who in the name of democracy, in the name of everything that seems sacred, come there to hand out the same dose to Russia today that was handed out by the Hessians to the American Republic." As for John Reed, his so-called crime was making the following: "This intervention that I am talking to you about is here not allowed to be spoken about in any way other than the government wants it to be spoken about, but in every other country in the world -- in France, in Italy -- this intervention is characterized very boldly as a direct adventure of brigands."

 

"The Fourth Liberty Loan," by Victor L. Berger [Sept. 28, 1918] Excerpt from an Victor Berger "Current Topics" column in which he urges Socialist Party members and readers of The Milwaukee Leader to actively purchase bonds from the 4th Liberty Loan, "not because the Socialists or the readers of The Leader endorse this war, or any other war -- but because the government has the power to tax the citizens of this country for manpower and money. And I consider the various Liberty loans a tax put upon the people which they must pay." Berger states that "it would be foolish and contrary to Socialist tactics to try and resist them in any other way than through the ballot" -- and he urges his readers to turn out on Nov. 5 to vote a Socialist ticket, as the Socialist Party "represents the only party today that is against all wars, except revolutionary wars, wars of emancipation, and wars to repel actual invasion."

 

"Minutes of the 4th Convention of the Russian Socialist Federation: New York City -- Sept. 28-Oct. 2, 1918." On September 28, 1918, 34 delegates representing 38 divisions of the Russian Socialist Federation in 11 states, met in New York. Owing to ongoing federal government surveillance a a desire to conduct its councils frankly, without being heard or influenced by the Socialist Party administration (the party with which it was affiliated), the meeting was held in conditions of secrecy. Delegates first sent to the office of the federation's organ, Novyi Mir, to get the actual convention address at the last minute -- a private apartment. Location of the convention changed each day thereafter, a precaution which successfully kept the gathering from being penetrated by federal agents posing as newspaper reporters. This lengthy report includes reports on the status of each of 31 local divisions of the Russian Socialist Federation. According to the report of the federation's Secretary, V. Rich of Detroit, the Russian Socialist Federation had 51 divisions and some 2,500 members at the time of this gathering. The 4th Convention elected Alexander Stoklitsky as Translator-Secretary of the RSF -- the representative of the federation to maintain an office at Socialist Party headquarters in Chicago and to serve as a conduit between the SPA and the RSF. Elected as the new Secretary of the Federation itself was Oscar Tyverovsky of New York. The party's official organ, Novyi Mir, was in a state of crisis, owing to Wilson administration authorities not only taking away not only its right to send out issues at a subsidized Second Class rate, but also taking away its "privilege" to receive First Class Mail. Income from subscriptions was effectively cut off. Plans for reorganization of the paper were set aside by the convention for the incoming Executive Committee. The 4th Convention of the Russian Federation girded its loins for a forthcoming factional struggle in the Socialist Party, adopting a resolution on parliamentarism and the SPA which read in part: "Considering it inevitable that sooner or later a schism, signs of which are appearing, will arise in the American Socialist Party as it has already happened in other countries between the revolutionary and non-revolutionary factions, the Russian Socialist Federation deems it its duty to revolutionize, as much as possible, its ranks in the spirit of Bolshevik principles and union of its Left Wing in anticipation of the inevitable schism." Another resolution called for the convocation of a conference of the various "Russian Federations" (i.e. Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Lithuanian, Latvian, South Slavic, Yiddish) of the Socialist Party "to effect unity of action of all Russian Federations and organizations by one united center."

 

"Report on the 4th Convention of the Russian Socialist Federation: New York City - Sept. 28-Oct. 2, 1918," by R.W. Finch The Justice Department's Bureau of Investigation, a secret intelligence-gathering apparatus, maintained close surveillance over the Russian Socialist Federation as well as all other liberal and radical political organizations. Acting on a tip from an informant, probably an individual in the office of the newspaper Novyi Mir, New York BoI Agent R.W. Finch learned of the forthcoming 4th Convention of the RSF and attempted to locate the gathering and to gain admission. A copy of the convention call for the gathering and an agenda (reproduced in Finch's report here) had been previously obtained by an operative of the Treasury Department's Secret Service. "We made every effort to get one of our undercover men into the meeting but without success for the reason that only duly accredited delegates with proper credentials were admitted," Finch notes to headquarters. Finch details the cat-and-mouse game he played during the first day of the convention attempting to locate the site of the gathering -- a private apartment identified only after the meeting for the day had adjourned. "We ascertained that the convention, although lasting 5 days, was not held at the same place 2 days in succession. Each day the delegates would call at at least 3 addresses before they would be taken to the address for the day at which the convention was to be held. Rather than take any further chances of uncovering our men, we made arrangements to secure the minutes of this meeting when the convention was over, and let the matter rest at that," Finch reports. He included with his report a copy of the meeting minutes obtained from his informant. "We believe that the minutes prove conclusively a contention we have long maintained, i.e., that the Russians in the US intend to organize for the purpose of allying themselves with those parties who are opposed to the present American form of government. From day to day we hear a great deal about the fact that they are planning to campaign upon the termination of hostilities in Europe for the purpose of bringing about some change in the governmental situation in the United States. We have heard the names of the Non-Partisan League, the IWW, followers of the People's Council, etc., etc., all lining up their forces for this action," Finch states.

 

OCTOBER

"Punishment of Political Offenders in Germany and America," by Victor L. Berger [Oct. 10, 1918] An Victor Berger "Current Topics" column in which he ironically describes the forthcoming amnesty of political prisoners in "autocratic" Germany with the draconian punishment meted out to political objectors for exercising their free speech rights in what Berger called "the American 'democracy,' so called." While German Socialist leaders Karl Liebknecht and Wilhelm Dittmann had received sentences of 30 months and 5 years, respectively (to be amnestied) for comparatively major crimes against the state, in the United States such Socialists as Eugene Debs and Rose Pastor Stokes had received 10 years in prison for the comparatively innocuous statement that the European war was capitalistic in nature, and 20 religious pacifist Mennonites in Kansas had received sentences of 20 and 25 years for adhering to the tenets of their religion. Moreover, in Germany the Socialist press was in full swing, with only the occasional repressed issue, whereas in the United States post office regulations had terminated the great majority of the Socialist press. The contrast alluded to by Berger was stark.

 

"Prosecution or Persecution?" from The Milwaukee Leader [Oct. 17, 1918] Unsigned article from the front page of the Milwaukee Leader revealing the highly suspicious timing of a Federal Grand Jury indictment returned and pressed against Victor Berger. The original secret indictment was returned Feb. 2, 1918, but not announced until more than a month later, two weeks before the election for an open seat in the US Senator for which Berger was a candidate -- timing which smacked of campaign-related foul play. Then this case sat dormant for 7 full months, until 2 weeks before the fall election for US House, for which Berger was a candidate. The coincidence was amazing or the sabotage of the Socialist Party's electoral efforts intentional.

 

"Face to Face with Facts," by Eugene V. Debs [Oct. 17, 1918] Brief campaign-related article by Socialist Party orator Gene Debs. Debs gives no evidence of any minimum demands in the coming campaign, declaring " The issue -- the one and only issue -- in this campaign is Socialism," presenting a quasi-fundamentalist dichotomy: "Socialism or capitalism. Freedom or slavery? Which?" Debs places high priority on the election of Congressmen in the forthcoming election, seeking the election of "score of Socialist Congressmen and at least double the Socialist vote ever cast before in the United States." He also calls for a staunch defense of the constitutional guarantees of freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of assembly, challenging the premise that these rights may be suspended by the governing regime during wartime: "Had it been intended that this constitutional guarantee should be suspended in time of war the constitution itself would have explicitly so provided. In war as in peace we believe in the fundamental democratic right of free speech and upon that rock we shall fight it out without compromise to the end." He also calls for funds to provide for the defense of the myriad of Socialists under arrest or indictment.

 

"Autocracy, Democracy, Hypocrisy," by Victor L. Berger [Oct. 18, 1918] Unsigned editorial from the front page of the Milwaukee Leader attributed to Victor L. Berger. Berger ironically contrasts the continued operation and access to the mails of left wing newspapers Vorwaerts and Unsere Zeit in "autocratic" Germany with the banning of similar publications from the mails of "democratic" America by the whim of one man, Postmaster General Albert Burleson. "Under this law ONE MAN, the Postmaster General, upon EVIDENCE SATISFACTORY TO HIM, may deprive any person or any concern of the use of the mail. Under this law, one man, without judge or jury, without due process of law, may ruin the business of any person or any concern by simply cutting off its mail. Not since the interdict has wielded by the Popes of medieval times has so much power been placed in the hands of one man. Under this law, Mr. Burleson can bankrupt any Republican or Democratic newspaper in the country. His whim is law. There is no appeal. 'The king can do no wrong.' But so far, the law has only been applied to The Milwaukee Leader." Berger vows to fight on despite the so-called Espionage Act.

 

"In the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave," by Victor L. Berger [Oct. 19, 1918] Another indictment of Woodrow Wilson's Postmaster General, Albert Burleson, and the "cowed Congress" which passed the unconstitutional "Espionage Act," which Berger states stood in violation of "every principle of Americanism." Since the Milwaukee Leader had lost its mailing privileges on Oct. 3, 1917, a loss of $70,000 in subscription money and $50,000 in advertising revenue was claimed. "This tremendous loss of $120,000 was the result of the act of one man -- the Postmaster General of the United States," Berger charges, adding that this autocratic power to seize property and destroy business stood in opposition to the US constitution, which stated clearly that "No property shall be confiscated without due process of law." Berger remains unbent: "Go on, gentlemen, and do your worst! Someday a bruised and outraged people will rise in holy anger and cast you on the rubbish pile of history. Hiding behind the plea of making the 'world safe for democracy' you are assassinating the freedom of the American people themselves."

 

"Letter to Morris Hillquit at Saranac Lake, NY from Santeri Nuorteva in New York City, October 23, 1918." This document is useful as an illumination of the political perspective of Santeri Nuorteva -- a translator of John Spargo and close personal friend of Morris Hillquit on the one hand; an opponent of the anti-Bolshevik stance of Raivaaja managing editor Frans Josef Syrjälä on the other. Nuorteva calls Syrjälä "an honest Socialist and I value his friendship much, but he is one of those 'old fashioned' Socialists who feel themselves quite uneasy when something happens which on the surface of it is not in strict accordance with the rules laid by Kautsky. He takes his theories too literally and it seems to him impossible that the evolution [sic.?] in Russia may take a course somewhat different from that in other countries." One implication of this, of course, is that Nuorteva viewed the Russian revolution as an "acceptable deviation" from Socialist theory, rather than as a universalist prescription for socialist change in the future. Nuorteva had clashed with Syrjälä repeatedly on the matter, and he tells Hillquit that he suspects that Raivaaja had denounced his, Nuorteva's, activities on behalf of the Russian Revolution to alleviate the Post Office Department's threats upon the publication's mailing privileges. Nuorteva states that Syrjälä had a "general fear that my activities in the interest of the Russian revolution would incite the authorities into a prosecution of Finns in America and thus damage the many institutions we have built up in the past 15 years" and that this had further influenced Raivaaja's editorial policy, which had increased the difficulty of Nuorteva's work. Includes a biographical footnote on Santeri Nuorteva.

 

"Five Russians Jailed for Distributing Nuorteva Reply: Three Men who Circulated Denunciation of Creel 'Exposé' of Bolsheviki Get 20 Years -- Woman 15." [Oct. 26, 1918] Unsigned news report from the Milwaukee Leader detailing the draconian sentences levied upon anarchists Samuel Lippman, Jacob Abrams, Hyman Lachowsky, and Mollie Steimer and the lesser sentence meted to their erstwhile comrade Hyman Rosanzky, who flipped to become state's evidence. The four main defendants received sentences of from 15 to 20 years in the federal penitentiary for distributing leaflets publicizing the claim of Santeri Nuorteva of the Finnish government bureau that the so-called "Sisson Papers" purporting Lenin's sponsorship by the Imperial German regime, published by Wilson Administration propaganda chief George Creel's Committee on Public Information, were fabrications. The defendants were prevented from calling Creel and Sisson in the trial to defend the documents in question, or Raymond Robins to challenge them. The defendants were also cut short by the presiding judge from making an appeal to the jury, Judge Henry D. Clayton decreeing that he would not allow the accused to "make themselves out as martyrs." The convicted anarchists ultimately sat in prison until Oct. 23, 1921, when their sentences were commuted and they were deported to Soviet Russia.

 

NOVEMBER

"The Trial of Eugene Debs," by Max Eastman [November 1918] Account of the Sept. 10-12, 1918 trial of "spiritual chief and hero of American socialism" Eugene Debs in Cleveland for alleged violation of the so-called Espionage Act. Eastman, editor of The Liberator, writes for his readers that due to postal regulations he would make no effort to quote Debs' words concerning the war in Europe -- the essense of the trial -- but would rather limit himself to description of the procedings and Debs' general statements on Socialism. Consequently, this account is of greatest value as a historical document for its descriptions of character and scene: (1) the judge ("Judge Westenhaver has the broad jowl and tightly gripped mouth of the dominant, magisterial man of affairs. His lips are so well clamped down at the corners that they remain taut when he speaks, keeping his aspect as stern as though he were silent. And yet his words come rather courteous -- softly, and with a precise lilt that trails off through long sentences into silence and grammatical uncertainty. I do not think he is quite so magisterial as he looks.... Judge Westenhaver was a young lawyer in the farmertown of Martinsburg, West Virginia. He was Newton Baker's partner there, and probably owes his appointment to the Secretary of War. He could not go to college, but he aspired to be educated, to be citified, to be 'correct,' to pass in any company as a 'man of culture and attainment' -- in short, to get away as far as possible from the small-town lawyer that he was."); (2) the jury ("...their character and probable reaction to a prophet of proletarian revolt was more simple to predict. They were about 72 years old, worth $50 to 60 thousand, retired from business, from pleasure, and from responsibility for all troubles arising outside of their own family. An investigator for the defense computed the average age of the entire venire of 100 men; it was 70 years."); (3) witness C.E. Ruthenberrg ("His quietness, his gracious demeanor, his thin, keen, agile face -- he is like a smiling hawk -- seemed to testify to the absurdity of sending any of them to jail."); (4) Debs' speech to the jury ("It was dark when Debs began speaking, though only two o'clock in the afternoon, and as he continued it grew steadily darker, the light of the chandeliers prevailing, and the windows looking black as at nighttime with gathering thunderclouds. His utterance became more clear and piercing against that impending shadow, and it made the simplicity of his faith seem almost like a portent in this time of terrible and dark events.")

 

"Joseph A. Weil Devised Arm and Torch Emblem for NY Socialist Party." [Nov. 3, 1918] This unsigned article from The New York Call of Sunday, Nov. 3, 1918, was published to promote the candidacy of longtime member Joseph A. Weil for NY State Assembly. Weil, a member of the Socialist Labor Party from 1895 and participant in the 1899 split of that party, was revealed in this article as the creator of the SP's "arm and torch" logo -- one of the two primary emblems of the Socialist Party of America. Includes a photograph of Weil from the original article and a color shot of a vintage "arm and torch" pinback button.

 

"To Our Russian Comrades!" by Eugene V. Debs [Nov. 7, 1918] Short salute from the Socialist Party of America's most popular leader to the Russian Soviet Republic and its Bolshevik leadership in commemoration of the first year of the regime's existence. Debs neither hesitates nor hedges in his support of the Soviet Republic, stating, "When the Revolution in Russia occurred a year ago and the actual toiling and producing masses came into power under the leadership and inspiration of Lenin and Trotsky, all the ruling class powers on earth, the United States not excepted, instinctively arrayed themselves against the newborn working class Republic... But in spite of all these stupendous reactionary and destructive forces, the Soviet has survived and the Russian proletariat, thanks to its heroic and uncompromising leadership and its own inflexible determination..." Debs stated that American Socialists pledged not only to protest their government's meddling and interference in Soviet affairs, but also "to strive with all our energy to emulate your inspiring example by abolishing our imperialistic capitalism, driving our plutocratic exploiters and oppressors from power, and establishing the working class Republic, the Commonwealth of Comrades."

 

"Lenin -- An Appreciation," by Louis C. Fraina [Nov. 7, 1918] Article from a magazine published by the Socialist Publication Society of Brooklyn in commemoration of the first anniversary of the Russian Revolution. Class Struggle co-editor Louis C. Fraina provides a well-informed synopsis of the significance of V.I. Ul'ianov (N. Lenin) as a Marxist thinker and revolutionary leader. Lenin's primary significance, in Fraina's view was, was that of rescuer of revolutionary Marxism from opportunist degeneration: "During the past twenty-five years, Marxism has experienced a transformation, becoming the means of interpreting history and a fetish of controversy, instead of a maker of history and an instrument of revolutionary action. This degrading conception of Marxism was dominant in the old International.... Lenin used Marx against these pseudo-Marxists, insisted on making Marxism an instrument of revolutionary action, built upon the basis of Marxism and amplified its scope." Fraina lauded Lenin's ability to bring together theoretical acumen with uncompromising revolutionary action -- "every opportunity, every crisis, every strength, weakness, and peculiarity of the social alignment becomes the subject of study and appropriate action." The theoretical work of Lenin will "become a source of inspiration in the coming reconstruction of Socialism, supplemented by the accomplishments of the proletarian revolution in Russia," Fraina states.

 

"Leon Trotsky," by Ludwig Lore [Nov. 7, 1918] Article from a magazine published by the Socialist Publication Society of Brooklyn in commemoration of the first anniversary of the Russian Revolution. Class Struggle co-editor Ludwig Lore provides an absolutely invaluable account of the ten month tenure of Leon Trotsky in New York -- Lore crediting Trotsky and his fellow Russian expatriates with a leading role in the establishment of an organized Left Wing faction in the Socialist Party. The list of the Russian luminaries who assembled in a Brooklyn apartment together with American revolutionary socialists is impressive: Trotsky, Bukharin, Kollontai, Vorovsky... While Bukharin advocated the immediate formation of a new organization with its own official organ, his proposal was defeated, Lore says; instead Trotsky's idea to establish a Left Wing bi-monthly theoretical magazine as an initial step was accepted -- the end result being the magazine The Class Struggle. Lore calls Trotsky a born leader, able to stir audiences of thousands but unprepossessed enough to speak intimately with smaller gatherings, a voluminous and perceptive journalist and pamphleteer, a gifted theoretician able to propagate his ideas clearly and in an interesting manner. Lore states that Trotsky was adament about the Left Wing of the Socialist movement needing to organize itself for action, quoting him as saying, " "The European proletariat is vitally interested in the growth of a strong, revolutionary American movement. For your democracy is the only hope, the last refuge of the European bourgeoisie, who will appeal to your capitalists for help."

 

"In re: Socialist Meetings in Boston," by BoI Special Agent Albert W. Lyon [Nov. 11, 1918] This report of Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Albert Lyons details a march through the streets of Boston and subsequent celebratory meeting in honor of armistice in the European war and the 1st anniversary of the Russian Revolution. The Bureau was tipped off about the demonstration by a phone call to headquarters; agents were scrambled to investigate. The evening session was held from 8:00 to 10:30 pm and was addressed by journalist and lecturer Louis C. Fraina. Fraina announced the formation of a new newspaper, to be called Revolutionary News, which was to be launched the following Saturday and issued 3 times a week. A $2,000 target for initial subscriptions was set. (The paper to have been called Revolutionary News was ultimately launched on Nov. 16, 1918 as The Revolutionary Age.)

 

"In re: Socialist Activities in Boston," by BoI Special Agent William E. Hill [Nov. 11, 1918] Report of Bureau of Investigation Special Agent William Hill about the bureau's response to a report that "Socialists were parading the streets of Boston bearing red flags." Hill attended an evening mass meeting at the Dudley Street Opera House, which was addressed by Louis C. Fraina, editor of The New International and The Class Struggle. Hill confirms that Fraina announced the imminent launch of a new thrice-weekly publication to be known as The Revolutionary News, which was to be published simultaneously in "Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, and all large cities in the US." The newspaper about which Fraina spoke debuted less than a week later following an 11th Hour name change as The Revolutionary Age. Another meeting was planned the next Sunday, featuring revolutionary music and speeches by prominent revolutionary socialists John Reed, Santeri Nuorteva, Louis C. Fraina, and Gregory Weinstein.

 

"In re: Bolsheviki Activities," by BoI Special Agent Charles M. Robinton [Nov. 11, 1918] This report of BoI Special Agent Charles Robinton documents the Nov. 11, 1918 march of "a body of 'Reds'...carrying red banners and red signs." A total of 43 participants were counted, marching under the slogans "Long Live the Workers' Republic," "Workers Unite and Break Your Chains," "Red Dawn," and "Open the Jail and Free Debs." That evening at Dudley Street Opera House, the headquarters of the Latvian Socialist Federation, about 200 listeners heard Louis Fraina announce the establishment of a new revolutionary socilaist newspaper, to be called Revolutionary News. The paper was planned to launch as a thrice-weekly, eventually becoming a daily publication. At this meeting some $500 was raised for the new publication and "cheers were then given for the American Bolshevik Republic, for the Russian Soviet Government, for the German Revolution and Bolshevik Movements, for Tom Mooney and for Debs," according to Robinton. Robinton also notes that the meeting was addressed in Russian by Jacob Klawa, a Latvian revolutionary socialist, and that an extended debate took place afterwards in the Latvian language. "In his Russian remarks [Klawa] referred to the freedom which the Russian workers have established for themselves and which the German workers were just establishing and he hoped soon to see such freedom established here in the United States and he hoped it would not be long before a war would be started for such freedom here," Robinton states.

 

"The Common Laborer," by Eugene V. Debs [Nov. 11, 1918] This article by Socialist Party orator and publicist Gene Debs extols the place of the so-called "common laborer," the of-scorned "chief prop in the social fabric and the main support of all civilization." Debs charges that among the worst offenders in the marginalization of "unskilled" labor are certain "insolent" and snobbish trade unions, with high initiation fees barring the way to admission. However, the leveling influence of mechanized production was rapidly eliminating the distinction between skilled craft and "unskilled" labor. "The common laborer today is no longer ignored or treated with scant decency by the labor movement," writes Debs. "He may still be ostracized in certain select craft union circles but he is taking his rightful place in the great industrial movement that is spreading over the world. The common laborer is the chief sufferer and the most aggrieved victim of the capitalist system.... The fate and destiny of not only the whole working class but the whole of humanity are irrevocably bound up in the common laborer and his emancipation is the condition of the emancipation of the race." Debs exclaims: "All hail the common laborer wherever he may be found! He is the stuff of which the revolution is made, the revolution which will lift common labor out of common slavery and make it the common glory of mankind."

 

"Beware of Red Flag Exploiters! An Editorial from St. Louis Labor," by G.A. Hoehn [Nov. 30, 1918] In this editorial in St. Louis Labor, Editor Gus Hoehn condemns the recent unprovoked attack of a New York mob of soldiers and sailors on a peaceful meeting featuring Scott Nearing -- and their attempting to blame the victims for the violence. "The fact of the matter is that the meeting did proceed peacefully and adjourned peacefully, and it was not until the exits were opened to let the thousands of people out quietly and peacefully that the soldiers and sailors broke through the lines of police officers and brutally attacked the men, women, and children. Women were brutally beaten because they wore red roses in their hair or red carnations in their coats. Men were knocked down because they wore red neckties, etc." The New York police were to blame for their inability to contain the "uniformed rowdyism" of the Right Wing mob. This violence was glorified in the capitalist press, Hoehn notes, "because their masters need these riots. Because their capitalist masters want to exploit these riots as a means of propaganda not only against the European revolutions, but against the American Socialist and Labor movement!" Indeed, it was not the participants who were to blame, in Hoehn's view, but rather the capitalist puppeteers pulling the strings: "Don't blame those soldier and sailor boys in New York for what they did; but look for the powers behind the scenes that managed the 'Red Flag Riots' for national and worldwide stage effect!"

 

"The Crisis and the Socialist Party," by Louis C. Fraina [Nov. 30, 1918] This article from an early issue of The Revolutionary Age by editor Louis Fraina moves the focus of the publication from European events to the situation in America. Fraina saw the European situation as "more potential of great success or infinite disaster," with the European proletariat in the process of "preparing itself for the final struggle against Capitalism and Imperialism." Reaction to the European situation was marshaling its forces in America, according to Fraina; however, he adds, "In this crisis, the Socialist Party as represented by its national administration, is not measuring to the opportunity." Fraina declares that "Never, in the history of the world, have more momentous events developed than during the past two months. The crash of thrones and of Capitalism, the coming of peace with all its hopes and fears, the development of revolutionary Socialism in action, the emergence of the international class struggle between Socialism and Capitalism -- these are unprecedented historical events, the realization in life of the concepts of Socialism. Two months -- in which hours represented years, in which every minute issued a call to international Socialism -- and our National Executive Committee has been silent, inert." Fraina calls for the convocation of an Emergency National Convention of the Socialist Party as "the only body that can adequately express the attitude of the membership on the momentous events that are at present shaping the destiny of the generations to come."

 

DECEMBER

"National Election in YPSL: Wanted -- A New National Secretary," by William Kruse [Dec. 1918] Two-term National Secretary of the Young People's Socialist League Bill Kruse decided not to run for re-election in 1919. This light-hearted article lists his picks as qualifications for his "ideal" successor. He thus indirectly illuminates many of the tasks which he fulfilled during his 4 years at the helm of the organization. Some concrete details about the size of the organization also trickle through -- a paid membership averaging about 5,000 per month (although slightly down in the 4th Quarter of 1918, it seems) with a magazine circulation to match. The YPSL maintain 8 state organizations and paid Kruse a salary as National Secretary of $23 a week. Kruse notes that his successor "should know what socialism is, and how to practice its ethical basis in his own dealings with his comrades, and he should be a disciple of Liebknecht and Debs rather than Scheidemann and Spargo."

 

"Woman," by Eugene V. Debs [Dec. 1918] Lest one mistakenly think that Gene Debs was nothing but a fire-breathing rabble rouser, here is a prime example of Debs' periodic output of gushing, sentimental fluff. "Man may make the nation, but woman does more -- she makes the home. When I think of what the world would be without the inspiring influence of woman, I am ashamed of what the world has done with her. She has done everything for the world, and man has done everything evil to her. He has filled her delicate hands with weights she could not bear, and laid upon her shoulders burdens that crushed her to the earth; and though she stumbled on uncomplainingly, kissing the hand that smote her, he has taunted her as an inferior and ruled her as if she were a slave." Etc. etc.

 

"Organizational Preamble of the Communist Propaganda League of Chicago. (Adopted Dec. 6, 1918.)" Organizational manifesto calling for a fundamental change in the form and course of the Socialist Party, demanding that "the personnel of our party officialdom and our candidates for public office...must be brought into harmony with the revolutionary character of our movement. The preamble was signed by a prominent group of members of the Socialist Party of America including the Translator-Secretaries of the Russian, Lithuanian, Latvian, German, and Scandinavian Federations. Secretary of the group was I.E. Ferguson.

 

"The Fundamentals of Bolshevism," by N.I. Hourwich [Dec. 7, 1918] A brief exposition of the fundamental premises of Russian Bolshevism, written by a Contributing Editor of The Revolutionary Age for the readership of that paper. Nicholas Hourwich, the son of a radical Jewish lawyer who emigrated from Tsarist Russia to America, was an editor of the New York-based Russian language newspaper Novyi Mir and was better versed than most on matters of Bolshevik history and ideology. Hourwich characterized the Bolsheviks as "first of all a party of revolutionary action, a party of dynamic Socialism." Their unswerving object was "the revolutionary seizure of power by the proletariat, as an inevitable and necessary condition for the accomplishment of the transition from Capitalism to Socialism," Hourwich stated. Key to the equation was the Bolsheviks' melding of "democracy with centralism, of democracy with iron discipline," in Hourwich's view. While the Mensheviks refused to take revolutionary measures but instead made alliances with the counterrevolutionary bourgeoisie, the Bolsheviks and their revolutionary allies were uncompromising in their efforts to establish the proletarian dictatorship and to overturn the capitalist world, thus their success in becoming the "'government party' of the first Socialist republic on earth.

 

"Bolshevism in America," by John Reed [Dec. 18, 1918] This article by Jack Reed in the leading weekly affiliated with the Left Wing Section of the Socialist Party belies the claim that he was blinded by romantic revolutionary fantasies. Reed had no illusions whatsoever about the proximity of Socialist revolution in America. Reed classically remarks: "The American working class is politically and economically the most uneducated working class in the world. It believes what it reads in the capitalist press. It believes that the wage system is ordained by God. It believes that Charley Schwab is a great man, because he can make money. It believes that Samuel Gompers and the American Federation of Labor will protect it as much as it can be protected. It believes that under our system of government the Millennium is possible. When the Democrats are in power, it believes the promises of the Republicans, and vice versa. It believes that Labor laws mean what they say. It is prejudiced against Socialism." Little hope is held for the Socialist Party, as Reed asserts that "with the exception of the Jewish workers, other foreigners, and a devoted sprinkling of Americans, the Socialist Party is made up largely of petty bourgeois, for the most part occupied in electing Aldermen or Assemblymen to office, where they turn into time-serving politicians, and in explaining that Socialism does not mean Free Love. The composition of the English-speaking branches is: little shopkeepers, clerks, doctors, lawyers, farmers (in the Middle West), a few teachers, some skilled workers, and a handful of intellectuals." Reed states that "nothing teaches the American working class except hard times and repression. Hard times are coming, repression is organized on a grand scale." If current trends continue, Reed asserts that a revolutionary movement might emerge in the United States within about 5 years' time.