MARCH
"Application of the Socialist
Party of America for Membership in the Communist International.
A letter from Otto Branstetter to Grigorii Zinoviev, March 12,
1920." Even after suspending
and expelling a majority of the members of the Socialist Party
for endorsing the program of a formal Left Wing faction within
the party, the rump of the organization approved via referendum
vote a minority plank on international affiliation calling for
the SP to immediately join the Communist International. This
is the letter which SP National Executive Secretary Otto Branstetter
composed and sent to Moscow in accordance with this decision
of the party membership. Branstetter's official letter, typed
up by future National Executive Secretary Bertha Hale White,
was pro forma and made no concrete case for inclusion of the
Socialist Party in the Comintern. It was dispatched to Russia
together with the rejected "Majority plank" and the
approved "Minority plank" on international affiliation.
"Draft of a Supplemental
Appeal to the Executive Committee of the Communist International
from the Socialist Party of America, circa March 12, 1920,"
by Otto Branstetter" While
the official application for inclusion in the Communist International
submitted on behalf of the Socialist Party of America by its
National Executive Secretary, Otto Branstetter, was tepid and
certain of immediate rejection, there was considered a strong
appeal affirming with vigor the SPA's credentials for membership.
This fascinating document is a draft of a supplemental appeal
to the ECCI composed by Branstetter. The Socialist Party's opposition
to the European war is characterized as militant, consistent,
and nearly unanimous. The SP's officials are characterized as
"no less loyal and devoted and steadfast in maintaining
the position of the Party," as exemplified by the draconian
legal action taken against them by the "black reaction"
of the capitalist state. "There was no split in the American
Socialist party on account of or during the war. The split in
this country occurred a year after the signing of the armistice"
and "was largely composed of comrades who had never been
affiliated with the Socialist Party until after the signing of
the armistice and of those who, though affiliated, were conspicuously
silent and inactive during the war." The courage and capability
of those Left Wing leaders is called into question by Branstetter,
who observes "the fact that the most prominent and influential
leaders in the recent split have fled to safety in foreign countries,
while their deluded and deserted followers are being thrown into
jails and penitentiaries by the thousands, is significant of
the caliber and character of those leaders." The leaders
of the Socialist Party are held up in contradistinction to the
successionists as the authentic representatives of American radicalism,
worthy of inclusion in the Communist International in their stead.
APRIL
"Letter on Unity to David
Karsner in New York City from Eugene V. Debs in Atlanta, April
30, 1920." In
this letter written from Atlanta Federal Penitentiary, Socialist
leader Gene Debs clarifies statements about Socialist unity that
he had made in person to New York Call journalist David
Karsner during a previous visit (published April 15, 1920). Debs
states that Karsner's published report of their meeting was correct
"in all essential particulars." Debs reiterates that
"there is no fundamental difference, in my opinion, between
the great majority of the rank and file of the three parties;
no difference that will not yield to sound appeal in the right
spirit." Debs notes that blunders had been made by members
of all three parties, errors which had been "aggravated
by the war hysteria," but by self-critical admission of
these mistakes "an understanding is possible that will embrace
a vast majority of all the factions that composed the party prior
to its separation." Debs adds that "I personally know
most of the members of all these factions, and I know them to
be equally loyal and true, and equally eager to serve the cause."
Debs states that due to the banning of the Communist Party of
America and the Communist Labor Party in various jurisdiction,
"we either have to enter the campaign as the Socialist Party
or not at all." Debs believes that common engagement of
all three parties in the campaign under the Socialist Party banner
would result in a unitary organization "so welded together,
so completely one in solidarity and sympathy and understanding
that there will be little inclination to part company and reestablish
a divided and discordant household." Debs declares that
"Differences there will always be, especially among Socialists,
and fortunately so, but wise men profit by their differences
and do not permit themselves to be throttled by them. For myself,
I have no stomach for factional quarreling and I refuse to be
consumed in it. If it has to be done others will have to do it.
I can fight capitalists but not comrades."
MAY
"An Open Letter to Eugene
V. Debs: Issued by the Central Executive Committee of the Communist
Party of America. [circa May 1919] The
May 1920 Convention of the Socialist Party of America nominated
Eugene V. Debs as its candidate for President for an unprecedented
fifth time. Although imprisoned in the Federal Penitentiary at
Atlanta, Debs accepted the nomination. The Communist Party of
America was aghast at Debs' decision and issued this "open
letter" to him as a leaflet. "We presume, Comrade Debs,
that you are ignorant of the facts and unacquainted with all
that transpired within the Socialist movement this last year,"
the open letter reads, detailing the opportunistic degeneration
of the party in 1919-20, particularly the ultra-patriotic defense
made in the context of the hearings over the suspension of the
five New York State Assemblymen. "Between the Communist
Party and the Socialist Party there can be no compromise. The
latter is the most dangerous enemy of the working class and as
such, we shall wage a bitter struggle against it. Their attempt
to use your name in order to fool the masses will avail them
of nothing. Their betrayal of Socialism has been too complete
and too cowardly. Not even your name can hide their counterrevolutionary
tendency. The class-conscious workers of America are through
with the stinking carcass that calls itself the Socialist Party
of America," the open letter rages.
"Socialism -- The Hope of
the World: Keynote Address to the 1920 Socialist Party Convention:
New York City -- May 8, 1920," by Morris Hillquit Morris Hillquit marks his return
to active political life with this keynote address to the 1920
convention of the Socialist Party of America. Hillquit's perspective
on the split of the Socialist movement is sanguine rather than
sanguinary, a byproduct of the world war and a difficulty through
which the SPA had steered a middle course between social-patriotism
on the one hand and revolutionary phrase mongering on the other:
"All over the world Socialism was split into contending
and antagonistic camps, ranging from those who had betrayed the
vital principles of the movement during the war and were cooperating
with its enemies after the war, to those who, in their impulse
of resentment and impatience, were ready to surrender the most
effective methods of the Socialist propaganda, the slow but certain
methods of political education and struggle. The question then
was whether the Socialists of America would remain true to the
fundamental principles and methods of the militant working class
Socialist Party, rejecting the suicidal compromises of the extreme
right as well as the sterile revolutionary phrases of the extreme
left. We did." In the current period, then external enemy
-- the forces of reaction -- represented the most grave threat
to the SPA. Hillquit declares that "within the last year
all the powers of darkness and reaction in the country have united
in a concerted attack upon the Socialist movement unparalleled
in ferociousness and lawlessness. The obvious object of the provocative
onslaught is to crush the spirit and paralyze the struggles of
the Socialist movement or to goad it into a policy of desperation
and lawlessness, thus furnishing its opponents the pretext for
wholesale violent reprisals and physical extermination."
Hillquit slams Woodrow Wilson for his hypocrisy and remains upbeat
about the SPA's prospects. "The only active and organized
force in American politics that combats reaction and oppression,
that stands for the large masses of the workers and for a social
order of justice and industrial equality is the Socialist Party,"
Hillquit states, adding the prediction that the party will "double
or treble its membership before the year is over and will poll
upward of 2 million votes for its Presidential candidates"
in the 1920 campaign.
"Debs and Socialist Unity."
(editorial from Communist Labor) [May 7, 1920] This editorial from the official
organ of the Communist Labor Party takes on the question of whether
the communists would be able to conduct united front action with
the Socialist Party around its Presidential candidate, the imprisoned
Eugene V. Debs. The question is answered with a resounding negative.
The experience of the German Social Democratic Party is cited,
in which a false unity was maintained for years between Right
and Left until suddenly on Aug. 4, 1914, "the Left was overwhelmed
by the Right and, for a moment at least, acquiesced in the betrayal
of the German working class by the Social Democratic Party."
Then when it gradually came to an understanding of the necessity
for a split, the German Left Wing was unable to successfully
achieve this break, due to the extraordinarily limits on the
ability to organize brought about by the war. The German Left
Wing was then "assassinated by these friends of capitalism
in the name of law and order." A direct correlation is drawn
between the German wartime experience and the situation in the
Socialist party, with Stedman, Hillquit, Waldman, and Berger
assuming the place of Scheidemann and Noske as the "rear
guard" of capitalism -- as opposed to the communists, who
were the "advance guard" of the working class, whose
purpose is "to replace the capitalist state by a proletarian
dictatorship, exercised through workers' councils. And the purpose
of this dictatorship is the creation of a free communist society,
thus abolishing the state." Either the communists must abandon
the working class or the socialists must abandon the bourgeoisie,
the editorialist opines. Thus unity "can only be accomplished
if the revolutionary workers gather around the banners of communism.
They must leave the Socialist Party and its leaders because those
leaders are misleading the working class. For a unity under the
banner of communism we are glad to join hands with Eugene V.
Debs. But the first provision is that Debs himself leave the
Scheidemanns and join the real forces of the proletarian revolution,
the communist movement of America."
"Socialists Discuss Labor
Party League: National Convention to Decide Whether Union of
Forces May Become Possibility," by J.C. Laue [May 11, 1920]
Report from the
official organ of the Labor Party of the United States on the
deliberations of the Socialist Party of America with respect
to cooperation with non-socialist political organizations. Laue
is optimistic, writing: "It is almost certain that the convention
will recommend the party to continue its sympathetic attitude
toward all organizations that have cut loose from the dominant
political parties and that the way will be paved at this 1920
convention for a coalition of all radical groups in political
life after the fashion of the British Labour Party in which each
radical group will maintain its integrity but will 'go along'
without internal war against a common enemy." The Left Wing
Chicago delegation was opposed to this policy, the Right Wing
Wisconsin delegation in favor, the New York delegation taking
a center position, Laue believes, adding: "Practically every
delegate west of the Mississippi River is in favor of the coalition
and the outcome will be determined by the quality of the leadership
in the convention."
"Dictatorship and the International,"
by Morris Hillquit. [May 1920] Speech
by the International Secretary of the Socialist Party of America
delivered at the May 8-14, 1920 New York Convention of the party.
Hillquit, supportive of the Russian Revolution and the legitimacy
of Lenin and Trotsky's government, calls the Third International
"a nucleus, but no more than that, of a new International."
Hillquit objects to any international organization which might
impose theoretical interpretations and tactical policies on member
parties, noting that "the rule of self-determination in
matters of policy and matters of struggle" had been a fundamental
principle of both the First and Second Internationals. In particular,
Hillquit considers the Third International's interpretation of
the phrase "Dictatorship of the Proletariat" to be
historically erroneous (citing the phrase's origin in Marx's
1875 "Critique of the Gotha Program") and tactically
disastrous, opening the the Socialist movement to abrogation
of democratic norms and victimization by its bourgeois opponents.
Hillquit seeks the SPA's participation in a future International
including both the Russian Communist Party as well as the Independent
Labour Party of Britain, the Socialist Party of France, and the
Independent Socialists of Germany.
"The Winds of Reaction: News
of the Socialist Party Convention." (Communist Labor
Party News) [events of May 8 to 14, 1920] This hostile analysis of the 1920
convention of the Socialist Party by an unnamed Communist Labor
Party member seems to have been written from press accounts rather
than on the basis of actual attendance, which limits its utility
as a primary document of the SP. Nevertheless, the piece does
offer an interesting view of CLP doctrine and the group's political
horizons. The SPA Left Wing of Louis Engdahl and Bill Kruse is
the recipient of surprisingly harsh criticism, called "Centrist"
here. The CLP journalist argues that "staying in" the
party, the position advocated by Kruse and Engdahl, "means
nothing more than lending financial and moral support to the
counterrevolutionist who have firmly decided to keep the SP label
no matter how many members it costs them." There can be
no organizational unity between the pro-Third International Left
Wing and the dominant Regular Party faction, called the "Hillquit
faction" here. Hillquit is called the "oracle"
of the Socialist Party and the group is ridiculed for an inability
to even half fill the 12,000 seat Madison Square Garden to launch
its 1920 Presidential campaign. The writer analyzes the published
words of SP leaders Hillquit, Victor Berger, and James Oneal
and concludes that "the stand then of the Socialist Party
is not to overthrow bourgeois democracy, which in reality is
capitalist class dictatorship, and to establish in its place
a workers' dictatorship, but...to cry for the good old times
of long ago, to try to reestablish normal times so that bourgeois
democracy might again have an opportunity to be honest and fair."
The Socialist Party is dismissed as being "reactionary to
the core."
"The Socialist Party Convention,"
by Ammon A. Hennacy. [events of May 8 to 14, 1920] An uncommon document, a critical first-hand account
of the 1920 Socialist Party Convention in New York from the perspective
of the Left Wing minority. About 140 delegates were in attendance
at this convention, split about 2-to-1 between a Center-Right
bloc of party regulars (Morris Hillquit, Jacob Panken, James
Oneal, Victor Berger, Meyer London, John Work, Lazarus Davidow,
etc.) against an organized Left Wing group including J. Louis
Engdahl, William Kruse, Benjamin Glassberg, and Walter Cook.
A blow-by-blow account of the convention is given, with an emphasis
on the inconsistencies of the majority group and the focused
efforts of the majority to railroad its platform and terminate
debate of unpleasant matters. Hennacy notes that debate critical
of the "patriotic" defense of the five Socialist Assemblymen
expelled from the New York legislature was terminated through
machine methods and the entire record of the debate expunged
from the minutes and erased from the published record of the
gathering in the party press.
"The Socialist Party Convention,"
by Jack Carney [events of May 8 to 14, 1920] Communist Labor Party NEC member
and editor of Duluth Truth Jack Carney grudgingly provides
a brief commentary to the paper's readers on the May 8-14, 1920
Convention of the Socialist Party of America. The convention
had cynically and opportunistically nominated Debs as its Presidential
nominee in 1920, Carney notes. "They named Debs because
they realized that the wonderful personality and sterling integrity
of Debs would be the means of giving them a new lease of life.
They lied to and betrayed Debs. They lied about the Third International,
when they told Debs it was an organization confined solely to
Russia. They betrayed him when they adopted a program that they
knew Debs would repudiate. Only those workers who have no backbone
or brains will join the Socialist Party or maintain their allegiance
to it. The worker who has a serious purpose in life will shun
the Socialist Party like he would the little animal whose name
has become synonymous with odoriferous infamy." The decision
of the convention to continue to attempt to affiliate with the
Comintern with conditions was nothing more than a hypocritical
ploy, Carney states. "Let us not waste any more time over
the Socialist Party convention, but get down to business. We
need to hear the sound of marching men, marching along the road
to industrial freedom, rather than the marching of politicians
to the political pie-counter," Carney declares.
"Thumbs Down" is Socialists'
Edict: Can't See Labor Party -- Caution Governs Deliberations
at 8th Convention." (Unsigned news article from The New
Majority) [May 22, 1920] Contrary
to previous expectations, the Socialist Party did not liberalize
its anti-fusionism rules at its 1920 national convention. "The
Labor Party came in for a panning, and cooperation in this country
with other political groups whose views are in accord with those
contained in Socialist Party platforms was specifically turned
down by the convention," the article indicates. The report
indicates that a telegram signed by 30 delegates had been dispatched
to James Maurer of Pennsylvania, urging him to accept nomination
as Vice Presidential candidate on the Socialist Party ticket
but that "Maurer declined, as he had decided to link his
fortunes with the Labor Party of the United States."
JUNE
"The Socialist Convention,"
by Harry W. Laidler [June 1920] Since no official stenographic report of the 1920
Socialist Party Convention in New York City was kept, due to
the party's grim financial state, this lengthy and detailed article
on the gathering prepared for the readers of the magazine of
the Intercollegiate Socialist Society is of particular value
to historians of 1920s radicalism. Laidler includes what appears
to be a very nearly complete stenographic report of the keynote
speech of party leader Morris Hillquit, making his first appearance
at a party conclave in nearly two years. Hillquit blisters the
hypocrisy, militarism, and anti-democratic behavior of President
Woodrow Wilson and his regime, noting the purported pacifist
had drawn the nation into "the world's most frightful war,"
had established a large standing army and navy, had imposed conscription,
had wielded autocratic powers against his opponents, truncating
freedoms of speech, thought, and conscience, filling the nation's
jails with political prisoners and creating a climate that cast
such dubious fellows as Palmer, Burleson, Lusk, and Ole Hanson
to the political fore. "The only active and organized force
in American politics that combats reaction and oppression, that
stands for the large masses of the workers and for a social order
of justice and industrial equality is the Socialist Party,"
Hillquit declared. Three major matters were the subject of factional
fighting between Party Regulars and a Chicago-based Left Wing,
all of which were controlled by the regulars: a statement of
principles (103-33), a party platform (80-60), and the matter
of international affiliation (90-50). The convention nominated
imprisoned party orator Gene Debs as its Presidential standard-bearer
for the 5th time, with party founder Seymour Stedman his running
mate. The convention also voted to return the Young People's
Socialist League to party control and debated at length essentially
a United Front proposal aimed at reestablishing a unified socialist
movement.
"Police Spies and Agents
Provocateurs," by William M. Feigenbaum [June 17, 1920]
Leading Socialist
Party journalist William Feigenbaum offers commentary upon Santeri
Nuorteva's charge that Louis C. Fraina of the Communist Party
of America was actually an employee of the Department of Justice,
calling it "sensational, but hardly unexpected." Feigenbaum
notes that from the time of Fraina's joining the SP in 1913,
"I do not believe that he ever wrote an article or made
a speech that was designed to convert a non-Socialist to the
Socialist position. All his work was to convince the party members
that the party position was incorrect, or that it should have
taken some other stand," adding that "the dominant
note in all of Fraina's work was intolerance, bigotry, and heresy
hunting." Suspicion about Fraina's true allegiance had been
growing over the course of the last year, Feigenbaum states,
drawing a parallel between Fraina's behavior with spies in the
Russian revolutionary movement: "That is the kind of man
that the Russian revolutionary movement was accustomed to beware
of. When one protested his revolutionary devotion a little too
vehemently, the Russian comrades were in the habit of looking
up his antecedents." The Communist split of 1919 had the
effect of "sowing of a spirit of distrust among tens of
thousands of comrades" and "dispersing of hundreds
of party sub-divisions by the splitting of its members into quarreling
camps, and the consequent loss of hundreds of party headquarters
all over the country." He offers the specter of a vast conspiracy,
noting the recently completed 1920 SP Convention, despite "numerous
differences of opinion in principles and tactics" was able
to "honestly and decently" debate the issues within
the party organization, thereby illustrating "the deep cunning
of those who launched the movement of a year ago, and gives us
a hint of the motives of those who launched that movement."
JULY
"Correspondence Relating
to the Application of the South Slavic Federation for Readmission
to the Socialist Party of America from Frank Petrich, Secretary.'
[July 1, 1920] The
Slovenian-dominated South Slavic Federation withdrew from the
Socialist Party on Sept. 20, 1918, over the issue of the war
(the Slovenian and Serbian members of the federation being generally
pro-war in orientation, the SPA maintaining a strong anti-militarist
line throughout). The anti-war and revolutionary socialist Croatian
section stayed within the SPA before leaving for the Communist
movement in 1919, but the changed situation after the termination
of the war left the Slovenians on the outside looking in. This
document collects several pieces of correspondence to and from
Frank Petrich, the Slovenian Secretary of the South Slavic Federation,
dealing with the federation's ongoing effort to gain readmission
to the Socialist Party. The NEC of the Socialist Party was in
no forgiving mood, it seems, as the first formal proposal for
readmission was defeated on June 1, 1920 by a vote of 6-1. Petrich
continued his campaign for readmission, however, writing an extensive
letter to NEC member William Henry of Indiana on June 26 attempting
to explain the situation within the South Slavic Federation.
Petrich unapologetically skirts the issue of the federation's
pro-war stance. "We were against the war then, as we are
against it today. But the war came in spite of our opposition.
...We could not believe that passivity in such a crisis is a
virtue of Socialism; we thought such tactics erroneous because
it does not allow to exploit the situation in the best interests
of international Socialism. There were many problems the war
had to settle -- problems in which the working class had interests.
Of course, our thought was wrong because we were in minority
-- and as a rule the minorities are always 'wrong," Petrich
coyly asserts. Petrich indicates that a section of the Slovenian
and Serbian socialists were coquetting with "Laborism"
[the Farmer-Labor Party], a trend which would "become impossible"
if the South Slavic Federation were readmitted. Petrich states
he would be in attendance at the forthcoming July 10, 1920, physical
meeting of the NEC, at which the matter of the South Slavic Federation's
readmission would be reconsidered.
"Kate O'Hare Visits Debs
in Atlanta," by Frank O'Hare [event of July 2, 1920] An account of the July 2, 1920,
prison visit by recently-released Socialist orator Kate O'Hare
to imprisoned Socialist orator Gene Debs, as published in the
Socialist Party's general propaganda weekly, The New Day.
The tone of the article is sappy and sentimental, playing up
Gene's watering eyes over the Wilson regime's oppression of youthful
anarchist Mollie Steimer and Kate's heartfelt gift of an autographed
family portrait. Debs is quoted as offering this analysis of
the factional situation in the American radical movement: "This
is no time for division. The rank and file will speak as they
have never spoken before. Although some of my most dear friends,
who are in the different factions and parties, who I know to
be absolutely sincere, will someday realize that they are mistaken
in their tactics, and they will discover that the Socialist Party
is best adapted for emancipating the American working class."
"The Farmer-Labor Party,"
by Upton Sinclair [July 25, 1920] Brief summary of the 2nd Convention of the Labor
Party of the United States (which changed its name to the Farmer-Labor
Party of the United States) by California Socialist author Upton
Sinclair. Sinclair writes that "Three or four days ago it
looked as if there were going to be a combination of all the
various liberal and labor parties, with Senator LaFollette as
candidate, and so I prepared a brief article, setting forth the
high opinion I had of Senator LaFollette, and how sorry I was
not to be able to support him for President. The next morning
I opened my paper and read that the various parties had swallowed
5/6ths of the Committee of Forty-Eight and the remaining 1/6th
of the committee had held a "rump" convention and had
adopted resolutions setting forth how disappointed it was. The
Farmer-Labor Party has nominated a man of whom I have never heard
before [Parley Parker Christensen], but he comes from the West
and is 6'4" high and weighs 287 pounds, and every pound
was found useful in handling a stormy convention." Sinclair
characterizes the Committee of Forty-Eight as having originated
with a "group of liberals who are tinged with Single Tax
thought," an ideology which Sinclair states was impractical
in the era of trustified industry. Sinclair characterizes such
parts of the Farmer-Labor platform as he has seen as "quite
wonderful reading" and indicates an ideological proximity
between the Farmer-Labor and Socialist Parties. "Apparently
it is too late to get the two groups together for this election,
so we who are going to support Debs can do no more than resolve
to do it as tactfully and persuasively as we can. If we must
oppose the candidate of the Farmer-Labor Party, let us at least
do it without bitterness and narrowness, without suspecting the
motives of those who have not traveled quite so far along the
path as we have," Sinclair volunteers.
AUGUST
"Debs Speaks from Atlanta,"
by Irwin St. John Tucker [Aug. 28, 1920] A de facto campaign speech from behind prison
bars by Gene Debs, running his 5th campaign for President of
the United States. Tucker provides extensive quotations from
Debs, who concentrates on the coal situation in America as the
"supreme and vital issue" in the coming campaign. The
preoccupation of the Democrat Cox and the Republican Harding
is with the false issue of American endorsement of the League
of Nations, Debs observes, while proclaiming that institution
to be dead: "Our entry into it could not revive it, could
only still further putrefy the corpse. And men who are fighting
on an issue such as that are degrading themselves." On the
other hand, the critical issue of the nation's coal supply --
which imperiled thousands -- was being pointedly ignored by Governor
Cox and Senator Harding. In contrast, Debs' outlines his plan:
"The Socialist proposition is this: we are proposing to
take possession of the coal fields, to pay the miners at work
the full value of all the coal they dig, so that they may build
decent homes, educate their children, and live in comfort; and
then charge to the public exactly what it costs to dig and distribute
the coal." Debs critically asserts that "We have some
comrades in our Party who have been too timid and who have patterned
after the capitalist politicians whom I utterly detest. These
comrades have no convictions about anything and are willing to
say or omit almost anything for the purpose of corralling votes."
This he considers an error, as those voters who are won by soft-selling
Socialist principles were sure to depart the cause when the reaction
counterattacked. "We have some comrades in our Party who
have been too timid and who have patterned after the capitalist
politicians whom I utterly detest. These comrades have no convictions
about anything and are willing to say or omit almost anything
for the purpose of corralling votes. I never could find it in
me to make a speech and withhold anything for fear that I might
shoo away a voter. If a man is shooable, I do not want him. I
want those who are responsive to my message and who will stick
when the crisis comes," Debs declares.
SEPTEMBER
"America Turns to Socialism,"
by Morris Hillquit [Sept. 4, 1920] An upbeat assessment of American Socialist prospects
in the 1920 campaign by the SPA's leading figure outside of prison
walls. Hillquit notes a trebling of the socialist vote throughout
Europe and sees the likelihood of a similar circumstance developing
in the USA: "The people here as elsewhere are disillusioned
with the war and its results. They feel that the colossal destruction
of life and property has been in vain; that the victory of our
arms brought to the world neither security nor social justice.
They know that true wages have been badly cut, that prime necessaries
of decent existence have been put beyond their reach through
monstrous price increases, and that their standards of life are
being steadily depressed, while profiteering capitalists have
made and are still making fabulous new fortunes. They see industries
dislocated, commerce disrupted, and the precarious world peace
menaced anew by the incapable and rapacious governments of the
ruling classes -- and they turn to Socialism for relief."
Hillquit notes that the success of the Bolshevik Revolution in
Russia had "opened new vistas to the oppressed of all nations,"
while the ham-handed intervention against the fledgling Soviet
Republic had "served to intensify class feelings."
Despite the economy's comparative strength in America, Hillquit
asserts that "our government has managed to create an immense
volume of political resentment through an absurd reactionary
policy of repression," alienating the workers of the primary
industries of coal and the railroads by one-sidedly enforcing
the employers' line on wages and hours. Hillquit does not see
the new Farmer-Labor Party as a significant threat to the SPA,
believing it to an "indigestible combination" of labor,
farmer, and middle class programs and as such "doomed to
failure." "The conservative trade unionists and farmers
will vote for the old parties. The radicals among them will vote
for Debs," Hillquit declares.
"Manifesto to Socialist Youth:
Adopted by the Reorganizational Conference of the New York Young
People's Socialist League, September 5 & 6, 1920." The New York state organization
of the Socialist Party's youth section reorganized itself at
a conference held in New York city on Sept. 5-6, 1920, which
issued this "Manifesto to Socialist Youth." It briefly
recounts the history of the YPSL during the 1919-1920 period:
"A few of the younger comrades, influenced by the older
ones, who were opposed to the Socialist Party, tried to bring
the party differences into the YPSL. Instantaneously, the YPSL
was turned into a battleground, where the whole "Left Wing"
controversy took up the time of the organization. Instead of
fighting capitalism, the comrades fought themselves." As
a result and "Independent YPSL" was launched, according
to this manifesto. This group was "independent in name only,"
however, it being "a guise under which a group of Communist
leaders could put through their aims," according to manifesto.
The 1920 conventions of the Socialist Party of America and the
Socialist Party of New York called for a YPSL under the direction
of the National Executive Committee of the SPA, which this reorganized
New York YPSL pledged to be, adding its pledge to work for the
Debs-Stedman ticket in the fall Presidential campaign.
"The Moscow International,"
by Morris Hillquit [Sept. 23, 1920] One of the infrequent high profile public pronouncements
of Socialist Party leader Morris Hillquit from the pages of the
New York Call. After silently enduring in the name of
Left Wing conciliation a barrage of personal attacks dating back
more than a year, Hillquit returns fire at the "bombastic
'manifestos' of the chairman of the Moscow Executive Committee,
G. Zinoviev, which have become so chronic and aggressive that
they can no longer be allowed to go unnoticed and unchallenged."
Hillquit notes that "on several other occasions the stern
chairman of the Moscow International has nailed me to the cross
as an agent of the bourgeoisie" along with Iulii Martov,
Victor Chernov, Friedrich Adler, and Ramsay MacDonald. Hillquit
states that the "sole specification of offense" against
these Social Democratic leaders is that they cannot and do not
"lead the struggle for the soviet power of the proletariat."
Hillquit argues that Zinoviev's "arbitrary and faulty"
analysis is a double absurdity, in that it presumes the universality
of the soviet model for transformation in the first place, and
presumes the immediacy of revolutionary overturn in America and
Western Europe in the second place. "American capitalism
is not in a condition of collapse, nor are the American workers
in a state of revolution. The war and the resultant economic
upheavals have weakened the foundations of the capitalist system
in the United States, but they have not destroyed them. The capitalist
rule is still powerfully entrenched in the whole industrial and
political system of the country," Hillquit declares. "The
trouble with the Moscow International is that it is not international,
but intensely and narrowly national. It is a purely Russian institution,
seeking to impose its rule upon the Socialist movement of the
world. Its policy is one of spiritual imperialism. It does not
strive to unify all revolutionary working class forces in the
general struggle for the abolition of capitalism, leaving them
free to choose the methods most suitable in each case, but insists
upon working class salvation strictly according to the Koran
of the Bolshevik prophets," Hillquit powerfully asserts.
"The Wall Street Explosion,"
by Eugene V. Debs [Sept. 25, 1920] In this short news article, written from his prison
cell at Atlanta, Socialist Party Presidential nominee Gene Debs
likens the anti-radical hysteria surrounding the Wall Street
bombing to the frenzy against radicalism at the time of the assassination
of William McKinley in 1901. Debs intimates that the state will
delegate a victim to take the fall for the crime: "The Wall
Street explosion must be proved the result of a plot and fastened
upon some red conspirator. Mr. Palmer, the red expert, and his
army of trained spies should have no difficulty in apprehending
the culprit and convicting him of his crime. In the meantime,
there will be a harvest of fat pickings for a fresh American
Legion of sleuths, sneaks, spotters, and spies, as choice a lot
as ever infested the land of the Tsar." The old parties,
headed by Cox and Harding, loved nothing more than such a diversion
of the attention of the working class from the real crime, exploitation:
"With them it is anything to keep the people's eyes on the
jugglers whirling balls while the coal trust, the beef trust,
et al., are going through their pockets." "As long
as the industrial machinery that feeds and clothes and shelters
the people is the private property of the 2 percent minority
of exploiting capitalists, the people will be poor, life will
be wretched struggle for existence, the divine in human nature
will never be realized, and this world will still be nearer to
the jungles than to any real civilization," Debs declares,
noting that only the Socialist Party offered any prospect of
changing this bitter reality.
OCTOBER
"Rebuilding the Socialist
Party," by James Oneal [Oct. 1923] This article by Socialist Party leader James Oneal
attempts to spin the SPA's precipitous decline in membership
as a normal aspect of a labor movement in retreat across the
country. "One striking fact regarding working class organizations
since the end of the World War is that all of them, conservative
and radical, have suffered a heavy loss in membership,"
writes Oneal, noting the American Federation of Labor had shed
over 1 million members, falling from 4 million to under 3 million
in the years 1919-1923. Oneal ignores the magnitude of the SPA's
catastrophic decline, with the party losing approximately 90%
of its members during the same interval -- an avalanche triggered
in large part by NEC member Oneal's own motions and votes to
suspend 7 foreign language federations and various state party
organizations in 1919. "The Socialist Party also lost members.
Government and 'patriotic' persecution destroyed many branches.
Communism destroyed many more. Now we have reached the period
of party building," Oneal blandly states and optimistically
concludes. Oneal sees hope in the experience of the British fraternal
party of the SPA, the Independent Labour Party, which had emerged
from its own demoralization and funk to provide 32 elected Members
of Parliament, including Ramsay MacDonald as Labour Party speaker
in Commons. "What the ILP has done the Socialist Party can
do," Oneal declares.
"Debs to the Socialist Party,"
by William M. Fiegenbaum [Oct. 7, 1920] Although he was prohibited from writing on party
affairs, Federal prisoner Eugene Debs was allowed to meet with
members of the Socialist Party's Campaign Committee at Atlanta
Federal Penitentiary to coordinate his campaign for President
of the United States in the November 1920 election. Campaign
Committee member William Fiegenbaum recorded Debs' words in the
form of direct quotations for publication in the official organ
of the SPA. Debs remained upbeat about his situation and advocated
waiting out the Wilson administration rather than pleading on
bended knee for clemency for Socialist political prisoners --
defense of " the right of anyone, under all circumstances,
to exercise the right of free speech" was held to be worth
fighting for. Debs advocated a strong attempt be made to win
the support of new female voters, citing the long-running Socialist
Party support of woman suffrage, even in the days "when
it was unpopular, when it meant outrageous persecution."
With regard to the rebuff of the Socialist Party's ongoing effort
to affiliate with the Third International at Moscow, Debs is
scornful. "If you were to commit the party in America to
the International program laid down by Lenin, you would kill
the party. The angry wrangling over the Moscow program is disrupting
parties everywhere. What we need before everything else is a
party to affiliate somewhere. We must not enter a policy that
means disruption. The Moscow program would commit us to a policy
of armed insurrection. The Moscow comrades have arrogated to
themselves the right to dictate the very terms, the tactics,
the conditions of our work here. It is outrageous, autocratic,
ridiculous." Fiegenbaum quotes Debs as adding that "Moscow
wants us to change our name to 'Communist Party.' They require
adherence to a Communist program. I am not a Communist; I am
a Socialist. My party is not a Communist party; it is a Socialist
party. We cannot go in."
"Rand School Begins 15th
Year as Workers' Educational Center," by Marion Lucas Bird
[Oct. 10, 1920] A
brief historical summary of the Socialist Party's popular educational
institute, the object of 2 years' worth of harsh repression by
the Right Wing New York state legislature and the militaristic
Wilson regime in Washington. Bird notes that the Rand School
had been preceded by the American Socialist Society, a socialist
lyceum bureau established in 1901. The American Socialist Society
had envisioned a formal school from the outset, a dream turned
into reality in 1906 through an endowment by Carrie Rand. From
modest beginnings, 250 students during its first year, the Rand
School had grown to the point where over 5,000 people attended
its courses and formal lectures in the 1918-19 academic year.
An account is given of the concerted attacks by Right Wing mobs
and state and federal authorities, dating back to Nov. 25, 1918.
After 4 failed attempts at gutting the Rand School, the Lusk
Committee had been created, which by means of "clearly illegal"
search warrants in which state officials were assisted by former
members of the ultra-nationalist American Protective League had
seized books and records of the organization. The Rand School
had thus far deflected the attack and was preparing for a new
academic year. An impressive list of instructors and lecturers
for the 1920-21 academic year is included.
"Radicalism in America,"
by Morris Hillquit. [October 15, 1920] This
article by Socialist Party NEC member Morris Hillquit in the
party's official organ reviews the two new political organizations
to emerge in post-war America -- the Labor Party (which transformed
itself to the Farmer-Labor Party) and the Communist Party. Hillquit
states that the Labor Party began from a principled position,
seeking fundamental change of capitalist society, but was quick
to sacrifice principle for expedience on the campaign trail,
destroying its working-class nature through a merger with the
"nebulous aggregation of middle-class liberals known as
the 'Committee of 48.'" To this amalgam was added the "purely
imaginary forces of the farming community," resulting in
an eclectic mish-mash slated for quick political extinction.
As for the Communist Party, Hillquit stated that while it was
"desirable" to have "extreme" groups within
the Socialist Party as a counterbalance to "any existing
tendencies to opportunism," in the current case the Left
Wing's position was not a "legitimate reaction" since
the SPA had taken "the most advanced international socialist
position" during and after the war. Instead, it was a "quixotic"
attempt to duplicate the Bolshevik Revolution in the United States
-- and effort which had shattered by "endless internecine
strife and successive splits" as soon as the negative program
of opposition to the SPA leadership was replaced by the positive
task of organization building. As a result, neither of the new
political groups had made "any essential contribution"
to American radicalism. "The Socialist Party still holds
the leadership in radical politics in the United States,"
Hillquit notes.
NOVEMBER
"Why Are We Not Stronger?"
by Eugene V. Debs. [Nov. 1920] During
his 5th and final campaign for the Presidency in 1920, the government's
information blackout on the imprisoned Eugene V. Debs seems to
have been abated and he was in periodic contact with some of
his comrades in the Socialist Party. Debs even wrote a few columns
on current affairs for the party press, as was the case with
this article for the November issue of the SPA's official organ,
The Socialist World. Debs asks the question of why there
is no strong socialist movement in America after 42 years of
concerted effort and points to factionalism as the culprit: "Socialists,
communists, anarchists, syndicalists, and IWWs spend more time
and energy fighting each other than they do fighting capitalism.
Each faction assumes that it is entirely right and that all others
are entirely wrong, a very human way of seeing things, but far
better calculated to prevent than to promote the effective organization
of the workers." To avoid a "disastrous if not fatal"
blow to the socialist movement from factional bitterness, Debs
strongly counsels his readers to show a "more decent, tolerant,
and truly revolutionary spirit" towards those with whom
they differ. Debs also states in this article that having now
seen Zinoviev's 21 Conditions for admission to the Communist
International, unconditional membership in that body is now impossible:
"No American party of the workers can subscribe to those
conditions and live," Debs writes.
"Hillquit Excommunicates
the Soviet," by Max Eastman [Nov. 1920] Lengthy reply to Morris Hillquit's
Sept. 23rd article, "The Moscow International," from
the pages of The Liberator by editor Max Eastman. Eastman
adroitly sidesteps HIllquit's main arguments: (1) that Soviets
were not a universal model for socialist transformation but rather
were an institution specific to the Russian revolution; (2) that
there was no imminent revolutionary upsurge in the offing in
America or Western Europe, the proximity of which alone might
justify Comintern head Grigorii Zinoviev's impassioned attack
of Hillquit and other Social Democrats as "anti-socialist"
for their failure to pretend to lead the workers to the barricades;
(3) that the Comintern was in essence a nationalistic Russian
construct, an institution which had practiced "spiritual
imperialism" by "seeking to impose its rule upon the
Socialist movement of the world." Instead, Eastman allows
only that the Comintern had used intemperate language against
its Social Democratic opponents (regrettably but understandably
in Eastman's view) and proceeds to argue at considerable length
over the question of whether Lenin and the Bolsheviks pushed
the slogan "All Power to the Soviets" from the standpoint
of principle (Eastman's view) or crass political expedience (Hillquit's
view).
"The Socialist Party and
Moscow: Statement Issued by the NEC in Reply to An Inquiry by
the Executive Committee of the Finnish Socialist Federation.
[Nov. 1920] A Minority Resolution
initiated on the floor of the 1919 Chicago Emergency Convention
and ratified by the membership of the Socialist Party via a referendum
vote called for the party to affiliate in an international organization
along with the Russian Bolsheviki and the German Sparticans.
An application was duly sent to Moscow by National Executive
Secretary Otto Branstetter on March 4, 1920. By the time of the
SPA's 1920 Convention, no answer had been given from Moscow.
Following the close of the 1920 Convention, membership of the
SPA again reaffirmed their desire for affiliation with Moscow
via referendum, placing more restrictions upon this allegiance.
Shortly thereafter, the content of the "21 Conditions"
for affiliation to the Communist International became known,
throwing a wrench into the works. This report of the National
Executive Committee of the SPA is intended to explain this political
situation and to answer a request made by the Finnish Socialist
Federation to "state clearly the attitude of the Party on
the question of affiliation with the Communist International."
"Greetings on the Third Anniversary
of the Russian Revolution: Read at the Celebration Meeting of
Local Cook Co., SPA, Chicago," by Eugene V. Debs [Nov. 7,
1920] This short
message of revolutionary greetings on the occasion of the 3rd
anniversary of the Russian Revolution was released by Socialist
Party leader Gene Debs from behind prison bars at the Atlanta
Federal Penitentiary. Debs declares: "The proletarian world
and lovers of liberty everywhere are thrilled with joy at the
news of the great victory of the Russian people. The triumph
of the workers' cause in Russia is a historic milestone in the
progress of the world, and its influence for good has circled
the earth, and shall direct the course of the future. The emancipation
of Russia and the establishment of the Workers' Republic is an
inspiration to the workers of the world. This people's government
is a bright star in the political heavens, and shall light the
way of the world. It is the great hope of the human race, and
its example will lead to the emancipation of the workers of the
world."
"Another One Caught: Joseph
Krieg of St. Louis a Spy." [Nov. 15, 1920] Documentation of a spy and agent provocateur expelled
on Sept. 17, 1920, from Machinists' Union no. 41 for spying on
behalf of the Industrial Service Corporation. Krieg had joined
Local St. Louis, Socialist Party on May 26, 1917 and was said
to have been a consistent and vocal supporter of the Left Wing
Section during the faction fight of 1919, leaving the SPA at
the time of the August 1919 split. This short article was published
in the official organ of the Socialist Party of America as part
of its ongoing effort to discredit the communist movement, rather
than as an indictment of the authorities who wormed the undercover
provocateur into the ranks of the radical movement.
JANUARY
"Hillquit Repeats His Error,"
by Max Eastman [Jan. 1921] In
the fall of 1920, Morris Hillquit responded to Max Eastman's
article entitled "Hillquit Excommunicates the Soviet,"
which drew this additional lengthy round of polemical prose from
The Liberator's editor. Eastman accuses Hillquit of failing
to accurately know or to accurately state the position of the
Left Wing. "The essential point of the Communist position,
in contrast to the position of the 'Centrists,' is its absolute
and realistic belief in the theory of the class struggle, and
the theory that all public institutions -- whether alleged to
be democratic or not -- will prove upon every critical occasion
to be weapons in the hands of the capitalist class," Hillquit
declares. All of Hillquit's errors are held by Eastman to flow
from this fundamental blunder. Eastman also upbraids Hillquit
for failure to read and contemplate the writings of the Socialist
Party's Left Wing, which predated by years the Russian Revolution.
The revolutionary Socialist perspective of the Communists is
in no way "new," as Hillquit claims, but rather a restatement
of long-existing Marxian tenants. "The actual experience
of a successful revolution has only confirmed the opinions of
the revolutionary or thoroughgoing Marxian factions in all the
Socialist parties of the world. It is transforming these factions
from weak and seemingly 'academic' minorities into powerful and
active majorities everywhere," Eastman asserts. While Hillquit
claims the Bolsheviks are both "dogmatic" and "opportunistic,"
Eastman characterizes them as highly principled and unwilling
to water down their revolutionary doctrine, but conscious that
they are engaged in hand-to-hand combat with capitalism and thus
willing to "grab every advantage, every probability of defeating
the enemy" that comes to mind. Eastman then returns to the
question of the Soviets v. the Constituent Assembly in Russia,
arguing convincingly the long time theoretical support of the
Bolsheviks for the institution of the Soviets and attempting
to force Hillquit to "lay aside all his pride of authority
and acknowledge that he was flatly and absolutely wrong"
in asserting that the Bolsheviks' support of the institution
of the Soviets was hastily and opportunistically put forward
only when they had won a majority in the All-Russian Congress
of Soviets.
MARCH
"Branstetter in Interview
With Eugene V. Debs: Wilson Gag on Socialist Prisoner."
[Milwaukee Leader] [March 19, 1921] Following the November 1920 election, Atlanta
prison authorities, apparently acting on directions of officials
in the Wilson administration, seem to have cracked down on imprisoned
Socialist leader Gene Debs, taking away his privilege to send
or receive mail or to receive visitors. This period of holding
Debs incommunicado was finally broken in March 1921 with a visit
by Executive Secretary of the SPA Otto Branstetter to Debs in
prison. Branstetter dispelled rumors that Debs had been physically
mistreated, noting that ""His guards have the deepest
respect and even affection for him, and the matter of personal
mistreatment is unthinkable." Branstetter states that Debs'
"rights have been restored, at the discretion of the warden,
and it seems as if the matter of his gagging is an ugly incident
of the past, the last foul smelling act of the discredited Wilson
regime." The article also makes not that Debs' fellow political
prisoner in Atlanta Joseph Coldwell of Rhode Island, had refused
an opportunity at parole on more than one occasion with the words,
""While Gene is in, I will not voluntarily get out."
"Daugherty Acts on Debs Monday:
Gene Returns to Cell from Capital Without Guards: Leaves Washington
After Secret Conference with Attorney General on Case - Trial
Judge Also Called: Prisoner Came and Left in Silence," by
Paul Hanna [March 25, 1921] This article distributed by the Federated Press
details a surprising and largely unknown episode from the life
of Eugene Debs -- that in March 1921 he was permitted to leave
the federal penitentiary in Atlanta without escort to travel
by train to meet with new Attorney General Daugherty. ""I
could not go to see Debs, so Debs came to see me," Daugherty
told reporters after Debs had safely returned to Atlanta. "I
wanted his own answer to certain questions and Debs gave them,"
Daugherty said. Debs was sworn to silence on the trip, a promise
which he did not violate."His sensational round trip from
Atlanta to Washington is regarded as being in part a move by
the administration to show the public that Eugene V. Debs is
a man of spotless personal honor, no less than of unflinching
devotion to his political principles. The administration has
learned how to share in the drama of Debs, and to set off the
villain's role played by a prominent Democrat," reporter
Paul Hanna remarks. The Attorney General also sought the counsel
of Judge Westenhaver of Ohio, who sentenced Debs to 10 years
imprisonment on Sept. 11, 1918. Resolution of the call for amnesty
in the case of Debs and all other political prisoners remaining
from the late European war was expected shortly.
APRIL
"The Workers' Council:
An Organ for the Third International," by Benjamin Glassberg
[April 1, 1921] Unsigned
lead editorial announcing the formation of a new publication
aiming to "become the expression of revolutionary Socialism"
and to carry agitation for the Third International "into
working class circles that have never been reached before."
The Workers' Council was clearly intended as a publication
rather than as a political organization, and was closely linked
to the Left Wing still inside the Socialist Party. Secretary
of the Editorial Board was Benjamin Glassberg, and Secretary
of the publishing association which produced the journal was
Walter M. Cook -- a person depicted as a sort of Party Regular
alter-ego of Julius Gerber and Adolph Germer in the pages of
Theodore Draper's history of the early Communist American Communist
movement. Mounting frustration with the Socialist Party is clear,
the organization being characterized as "vacillating between
the Second and the Third International, standing upon a platform
of ineffectual reforms and parliamentarism of the kind that have,
since the war, been discarded by every European socialist party
outside of the Second International" and thus "not
today the instrument of revolutionary working class education
and action."
"Debs Tried Out One Big Union
of Railroads: Plan Weakened Craft Bodies, Says Foster,"
by William Z. Foster [April 6, 1921] This article distributed by the Federated Press
by the former syndicalist and future Communist leader emphasizes
Foster's anti-dual union perspective. While the spirit behind
the effort of Gene Debs to establish a militant industrial union
of railway workers in 1893 is embraced, Foster ultimately declares
that the ARU's "brilliant" early victory only lead
to "overconfidence" and a smashing of the union. "The
advent of the American Railway Union, as is always the case with
dual organizations, did great harm to the railroad craft unions.
All of them were weakened and some nearly destroyed. Thousands
of their best members quit them to take part in the ARU, only
to find themselves blacklisted out of the railroad service later
because of the lost strike," Foster declares. He adds that
"The case of Debs himself is a striking example of the damage
done. When he resigned his position as General Secretary-Treasurer
and editor of the official journal of the Brotherhood of Locomotive
Firemen in order to form the ARU, he was a great force for progress
in the old unions. Had Debs stayed with them he would have been
a big factor in their future development. But he was lost to
them, and that they have suffered much in consequence no unbiased
observer will deny." Foster does not recognize or emphasize
that the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, from whence Debs
sprung, was a fraternal and benefit society rather than a union
per se -- providing cultural opportunities and accident insurance
rather than engaging in collective bargaining.
MAY
"William D. Haywood, Communist
Ambassador to Russia," by David Karsner. [May 1, 1921] In 1921, the Supreme Court of the United States
affirmed the conviction and 20 year sentence of IWW leader William
D. Haywood under the so-called Espionage Act. Rather than return
to the federal penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas, Haywood instead
jumped bail and emigrated to Soviet Russia. This article, published
in the illustrated Sunday supplement of the Socialist Party-affiliated
New York Call assesses "Big Bill" Haywood's
career as a revolutionary labor leader and attempts to analyze
the thinking behind Haywood's decision to escape American justice
for foreign shores. The author of this article, David Karsner,
the editor of The Call's Sunday magazine and the first
biographer of Eugene Debs, was not unsympathetic to Haywood's
plight.
"Stedman's Red Raid,"
by Robert Minor. [May 1, 1921]
Full text of a
pamphlet produced by the UCP's Toiler Publishing Association
detailing a particularly disgusting footnote to the 1919 split
of the Socialist Party. Minor indicates that in the immediate
aftermath of Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer's anti-red raid
of January 2, 1920, Socialist Party attorneys Seymour Stedman
and Lazaras Davidow attempted to expropriate the assets of the
Socialist Party of Michigan under the flimsy pretext that as
"Communists" the expelled Michiganites of the party's
holding company were participants in a criminal organization
which "advocated the overthrow of the government by force
and violence." At bottom of this scheme was a Detroit headquarters
building owned by the Michigan party, represented by Minor as
having approximately $90,000 of equity. Stedman issued a Bill
of Complaint paralleling the criminal charges of the state against
the unfortunate Michigan party members already jailed for alleged
violation of the state's Criminal Syndicalism law. He then red-baited
the members of the legitimate holding company on the stand in
an attempt to have the property awarded to a hastily gathered
and miniscule Michigan "organization" retaining ties
to the national SPA. Minor states that when they were at last
confronted about their uncomradely behavior by concerned Socialist
Party members, Stedman and Davidow thereafter lied and mislead
their inquisitors as to their actions and had a further smoke
screen laid by SPA National Executive Secretary Otto Branstetter
with a fallacious news release of his own to the socialist press.
A sordid tale of greed, deceit, and foul play...
"1920 Financial Report of
Charles H. Kerr & Co., Book Publishers." [May 5, 1921]
A mimeographed financial report
sent out by America's largest socialist publisher, Charles H.
Kerr & Co. to its cooperative stockholders. Kerr announces
the forthcoming publication of The Shop Book, planned
to be an occasional publication, to replace the suppressed International
Socialist Review. It is noted that 1920 export trade was
"almost entirely cut off" by the depreciation of the
pound, which made it impossible for English booksellers to buy
Kerr publications economically. In addition, "the price
of paper, printing, and binding almost doubled," resulting
in a large increase in unsold inventories. One of three highlighted
new publications, William Z. Foster's The Railroaders' Next
Step, was actually published by the Trade Union Educational
League -- another sign of the waning influence of Kerr as the
leading radical publisher in America. Includes a full financial
report of Receipts v. Expenditures and Assets v. Liabilities.
"Wherefore Stand Ye Divided?"
by William Z. Foster [May 28, 1921] This article is a bit of a curiosity -- a piece
written by closeted Communist union leader William Z. Foster
and published in The New Day, propaganda weekly of the
Socialist Party of America (probably distributed by the Federated
Press as the conduit). Foster outlines the fundamental principles
of his union philosophy: "For a generation virtually the
whole radical movement has been wasting itself on utopian union
projects," Foster declares, dedicating themselves to futile
radical dual unions and abandoning the mass organizations to
the control of a conservative bureaucracy. In Foster's view the
dual unions violate what Foster calls "the first principle
of unionism, namely the solidarity of labor." Foster states
that the dual unions are essentially utopian attempts to bypass
the normal development of mass unions -- which in other countries
typically include a broad array of ideological tendencies, including
"Anarchists, Socialists, Communists, Catholics, Protestants,
atheists, craft unionists, industrial unionists, etc.,"
instead basing themselves on narrow ideological tenets "not
held by the great masses." The normal course of union development
includes 3 phases, Foster believes, including "(1) Isolation;
(2) Federation; and (3) Amalgamation." Foster bitterly notes:
"but our dual unionists ignore it all. They have their spick
and span, blueprinted, perfected organizations. And they ask
an ignorant working class, habituated to craft unionism, to throw
aside their old unions, built through 40 years of strife and
struggle, and to join themselves forthwith to the highly advanced
type they propose. They would abolish the law of labor union
development. That's all. Is it any wonder that the American radical
movement stagnates, resting as it does upon such a bizarre and
unworkable economic program?"
JUNE
"Moscow and the Socialist
Party of the United States," by Bertha Hale White. [June
11, 1921] White, one of the leading
female members of the Socialist Party, writes in a pre-convention
discussion bulletin that any discussion about SPA affiliation
with the Third International in Moscow is moot, since the question
has already been answered in no uncertain terms in the negative.
Interesting for its discussion of the lengths taken by National
Executive Secretary to make application to the Comintern for
membership in 1920 -- as he was instructed to do by party referendum.
White states the SPA must rebuild its shattered organization
into a powerful force before being able to affiliate with Moscow
on its own terms rather than be subject to conditions amounting
to "tyranny."
"A Cook County Socialist
Conference: Bureau of Investigation Report on the Special Meeting
of Local Cook County, SPA: Machinists' Hall, Chicago," by
August H. Loula [June 19, 1921] This document reproduces the report of Chicago
Bureau of Investigation August Loula concerning the bitterly
contested June 19, 1921, meeting of Local Cook County, Socialist
Party -- a conclave which pitted SPA Executive Secretary Otto
Branstetter and his supporters against the last enclave of a
quasi-Communist Left Wing, headed by Louis Engdahl and Hyman
Schneid. The meeting rejected a proposal recommending the Socialist
Party's affiliation with the Third International on the basis
of the Comintern's "21 points" by a vote of 50-74;
this result prompted a walk out by 21 Bohemian delegates, who
favored affiliation. A second resolution, declaring for reservation
without reservations, was thereafter defeated by a vote of 36
to 44. A proposal favoring affiliation with the 2-1/2 International
was severely trounced, the resolution garnering only 5 votes
from the assembled delegates. Instead, a resolution was passed
59 to 24, stating that the Socialist Party should not affiliate
with any international organization, but should instead spend
its efforts building "a powerful, revolutionary, Socialist
organization in this country." A further proposal by Executive
Secretary Branstetter, calling for the expulsion of those who
continued to advocate affiliation with the 3rd International,
died when the convention voted to adjourn rather than to take
action. Instead a similar proposal was made by Branstetter a
week later at the SPA's annual convention, held in Detroit.
"Report of the National Executive
Committee to the National Convention of the Socialist Party,
Detroit, MI -- June 25, 1921," by Otto Branstetter This is the organizational report
of the Socialist Party delivered to the June 1921 Detroit Convention
by Executive Secretary Otto Branstetter, published in the official
organ of the party. It contains a plethora of information about
the SPA's various activities over the previous 12 months -- the
1920 Presidential campaign, the Amnesty Campaign, the party press,
and the ongoing debate about international affiliation. Of particular
note are comprehensive membership statistics, showing an average
membership of 26,766 (46.5% language federation) in calendar
1920, and 17,464 (23.9% language federation) in the first 5 months
of calendar 1921 -- the primary cause of this drop in the non-English
contingent being the departure of the Finnish Federation on Dec.
31, 1920. Month by month figures are provided for each of the
party's 6 remaining language federations: Yiddish, Italian, Czech,
German, Slovenian, and Lithuanian. Details on pamphlets published
and press runs are given. Due to the party's extremely poor finances,
running at a projected monthly deficit of $668 per month, organizers
were being eliminated from the road and the funding agreement
with the Language Federations changed, with Branstetter stating
that "instead of helping to support the National Office,
the Federations are a liability and cost us from $30 to $100
each per month." Party headquarters, the title held by a
3 person trust including Regulars Robert Howe and Adolph Germer
as well as Communist leader Alfred Wagenknecht, were unable to
be transferred to a new holding company due to Wagenknecht's
refusal to sign off on the deal, Branstetter says, noting that
legal proceedings to remove Wagenknecht were forthcoming. The
headquarters building had gained between $10,000 and $15,000
in value, but a $15,000 payment loomed on March 3, 1923, and
as yet the $1,175 tax bill for the year remained to be paid.
"Proceedings of the SP National
Convention at Detroit: Nationalistic Spirit Rules. Delegates
Repudiate Affiliation with 3rd International. Left Wing Hopelessly
Weak. 'Milwaukee Socialism' in Complete Control," by Thurber
Lewis [events of June 25-29, 1921] An extensive first-hand account of the 1921 Socialist
Party convention in Detroit, at which the SPA stepped away definitively
from any possible affiliation with the Third International. Since
no stenogram exists for this gathering , Lewis' account has the
effect of filling in blank spots in our information. One scene
related by Lewis is particularly dramatic: on the last day of
the gathering, some 100 nationalists from the "Disabled
Veterans of the World War" marched into the high school
auditorium where the convention was being held. There were only
39 regular and 11 fraternal delegates to the convention -- they
were thus outnumbered by 2:1. Their spokesman, a man named Horr
from Seattle, attempted intimidation, as Lewis recounts: "He
said that the news had reached them that there was evidence of
disloyalty at the convention. He 'hoped to God the reports were
untrue.' But if it were true that someone said the red flag of
Internationalism was the only flag (Engdahl), if there were those
here who advocated force, he went on in a passion, let them come
outside. Of course, no one arose to comply. He then warned the
convention that 'force would be met with force.'" Lewis
expresses grudging admiration for the brave response by the Socialists'
chairman of the day, Cameron King of California, who told the
veterans: "As Americans we demand the right of free speech,
free press, and free assemblage. You have suffered, it is true,
but we, too have suffered," he went on. "If we had
had our way, you would not have had to suffer." Lewis comments
that "The Vets were of course whipped, and they showed it
as they meekly filed out," although he cattily remarks that
the Right Wing veterans had been "applauded by the delegation,
coming in and going out."
"Berger's Convention,"
by John Keracher [events of June 25-29, 1921] This is an interesting perspective
of the 1921 Detroit Convention of the Socialist Party of America,
written by the leader of the Proletarian Party of America (based
in Detroit) and published in that organization's official organ.
Keracher sees the 1921 SPA Convention as a triumph of "Bergerism,"
with the new SPA "Left Wing" based around the publication
The Workers Council and the Chicago party organization
tiny, isolated, and decisively defeated. "These delegates
had practically no support, a fact that was quickly taken advantage
of by Berger, who made them the target for his shafts of wit,"
Keracher notes, adding that the most controversial matter --
the question of international affiliation -- readily disposed
of on the first day of the proceedings, with association with
the 3rd and 2-1/2 Internationals defeated handily and a decision
not to affiliate with any international body passed by a vote
of 31 to 8. Berger mockingly referred to the Left Wing as "Chicago
Communists," Keracher notes, adding that he talked down
to Left Wing leader William Kruse "like a daddy talking
to a wayward boy, hoping that he would bye and bye grow into
a great big man." Keracher also emphasizes the debate over
the question of the "Dictatorship of the Proletariat,"
with the Left Wing's endorsement of the concept of a "Dictatorship
of the Proletariat" in the transition period from Capitalism
to Communism defeated by a big majority. Thus "these 'pure
democrats' who expelled only 60 percent of their membership expressed
themselves as 'opposed to the rule of any Minority,'" Keracher
snidely observes. A further split of the SPA Left Wing in the
near future is anticipated by Keracher.
JULY
"'Farewell!' to the Socialist
Party: An Appeal to Its Remaining Members: Statement by the Committee
for the Third International of the Socialist Party to the Members
of the Socialist Party." [Circa July 1921]. The Committee for the Third International was
the organized faction for Left Wing realignment of the Socialist
Party of America in 1920-21, after the departure of the great
bulk of the Left Wing Section for the Communist Party of America,
Communist Labor Party of America, and Proletarian Party of America.
Headed by Secretary J. Louis Engdahl and including such future
Communist leadership cadres as William F. Kruse, Benjamin Glassberg,
Alexander Trachtenberg, J.B. Salutsky, and Moissaye Olgin, the
Committee for the Third International formally left the SPA with
this statement, published as a pamphlet in the aftermath of the
June 25-29, 1921 Convention of the party. "A new home for
constructive revolutionary Socialism must be built. Another political
party of the working class must be established with the passing
of the Socialist Party," the farewell statement declared.
In the interim, a formal organization called The Workers' Council
was established -- a group which merged with the American Labor
Alliance and elements of the majority underground CPA to form
the Workers Party of America in December 1921.
"The Future of the Socialist
Party," by Thurber Lewis [July 23, 1921] Communist commentator on the Socialist
Party Thurber Lewis provides a surprisingly analysis of the future
path of the SPA in this article from The Toiler, a legal
weekly of the Communist Party. Lewis, having recently attended
the June 1921 convention of the SPA in Detroit, is well versed
on the situation facing the party -- its membership down from
a 100,000 to about 15,000 in just 2 years, its finances depleted
to the point that organizers were being pulled in, $20,000 in
debt staring the organization in the face. Lewis foresaw three
possible outcomes: a Left line in which the party would endorse
the Third International, cleanse itself of a major part of its
remaining membership, and liquidate itself to become part of
the Communist Party (which Lewis saw as an extraordinarily unlikely
possibility); a Center line in which the group attempted to tread
water -- condemning the Third International but refusing to form
alliances with other organizations; and a Right line (pushed
by the powerful Milwaukee organization) in which fusion with
other like-minded political organizations would prove the order
of the day. Lewis saw this move to opportunistic alliance with
other "progressive" groups to be by far the most likely
outcome for the SPA, as in alliance with the Farmer-Labor Party
and the Non-Partisan League the Socialist Party would prove an
adept partner, would regain organizational strength and prestige,
and would be saved from financial oblivion. Failure to achieve
this alliance in a broad Labor Party on the British model, on
the other hand, would consign the SPA to the position of an irrelevant
sect. Failure to form a broad alliance would, n Lewis' view,
render the party "a politically lifeless organization, destined
to travel much the same road as the SLP has so unwillingly yet
gloriously traversed for the past years, a sterile admiration
society."
AUGUST
"The American Labor Alliance:
An Editorial," by Otto Branstetter [Aug. 1921] The formation of the American
Labor Alliance for Trade Relations with Soviet Russia, an open
adjunct of the United Communist Party, was the cause of great
mirth for some officials of the beleaguered Socialist Party of
America. This editorial in the SP's official organ declared that
the formation of the ALA by the Communists constituted "an
admission that their theories and their methods were wrong."
Citing a number of specific instances, Branstetter chortled that
the Left Wing had "arrogantly assumed to themselves all
revolutionary wisdom and were the self-appointed and infallible
interpreters and executors of Marx and Engels. They assumed to
be Neo-Marxists, Neo-Socialists, and Neo-Revolutionists when
in reality they were merely Neo-Nuts." "The Communists
have utterly failed to make good in America. Their pet theories
are all exploded and their plans for the immediate overthrow
of the capitalist system through 'revolutionary mass action'
have been abandoned," Branstetter declared, adding that
the only thing the communists had done effectively was split
and weaken the Socialist Party and the radical labor movement
in America, generating "fundamentally reactionary"
results.
"The Strength of American
Socialism," by James Oneal [Aug. 7, 1921] New York party leader James Oneal
attempts to make the case that "the comparatively small
increase of the Socialist vote cast in 1920" is in no way
indicative of a decline in the prestige, power, and organization
of the Socialist Party. While acknowledging that the SP had been
left with a "wreck of an organization" by the "coercion
and persecution" of the Wilson administration and Right
Wing elements around the country. Nevertheless, wherever the
party had been able to maintain its presence, its vote totals
had increased in 1920, Oneal states. Oneal is optimistic about
the party's prospects, noting that for the first time since 1893,
an insurgent movement had developed in the ranks of American
labor seeking independent working class political action, taking
the form of the Farmer-Labor Party, while in the Upper Midwest
a radical agrarian movement had emerged under the banner of the
Non-Partisan League. Illusions had been smashed by the imperialist
outcome of the world war and cyncicism had become rampant. Oneal
likens the Socialist Party's current moment to the 15 year period
prior to the Civil War during which abolitionist forces consolidated
themselves from various tributaries into the radical 3rd Party
known as the Republican Party, which was soon swept to power.
Oneal is upbeat: "I have no fears as to the future of the
Socialist movement in this country. In fact, a close study of
many financial journals for the past year convinces me that the
"best minds" of the present social order are much more
puzzled about the future of capitalism. The whole world drifts,
the statesmen and financiers known not where. They hope for the
best and yet are possessed with fear. The old order seethes with
economic contradictions which they are unable to solve."
"Legion Mob Kidnaps Mrs.
Hazlett in Iowa: Banker's Son, Who is Local Commander, Leads
Gang That Seizes Socialist Speaker, and Drives Her 20 Miles in
Country and Back -- Mayor Refuses Protection." (NY Call)
[event of Aug. 11, 1921] News
account briefly detailing the kidnapping of Socialist Party organizer
Ida Crouch Hazlett by a car full of ultra-nationalist American
Legion thugs when the party founder was attempting to speak in
the little town of Shenandoah, Iowa. Hazlett was pulled down
from the automobile from which she was speaking and thrust into
a waiting car, which drove away at high speed. The 8 Right Wing
goons menaced Hazlett, instructing her not to speak any more
in Shenandoah; Hazlett boldly refused to agree. Eventually, the
kidnappers thought better of their action and turned around,
returning Hazlett to her hotel unharmed. Hazlett immediately
complained to the authorities, who refused to either arrest her
kidnappers or promise her future protection. The Aug. 11 kidnapping
was the 5th in a series of abuses against Hazlett by the American
Legion, which had previously systematically harassed at Newton,
Des Moines, and Boone. ""The state of Iowa is in the
hands of an American Legion mob of kids," Hazlett declared.
"The Party and the Future,"
by Victor L. Berger [Aug. 13, 1921] The year 1921 was a watershed for the Socialist
Party of America. The internecine war of 1919 had been "won"
by the Regular faction and control of the party maintained --
but the administration had managed to both rule and ruin. Mass
purges and ongoing disillusionment had caused party membership
to plummet from more than 100,000 in the first half of 1919 to
less than 15,000 by the middle of 1921. A severe financial crisis
had followed. The vision of an inevitably glorious future for
the SPA had vanished in the wind, and a broad fundamental reevaluation
of the party's ideology and tactics followed. This article by
the Socialist Party's leading realist, Victor Berger, is based
upon the observation that the SPA had failed to become "the
great opposition party against capitalism" during the subsequent
half decade. Berger places blame for this failure on the fragmented
American working class, consisting of dozens of nationalities,
combined with the revival of "innumerable national prejudices
and race hatreds that had slumbered for years" as a byproduct
of American entry into the world war. The SPA had additionally
be trapped between what Berger likens to "two millstones"
--one being the opposition to the party's principled opposition
to the war, the other being the "Communistic ideas among
the workers, especially those of foreign birth," developing
because of the war. Its membership atrophied by these external
factors, Berger states that the party's development was additionally
handicapped by "an impossible and ironclad set of rules
that were considered sacred - from the old and defunct Socialist
Labor Party." "It was and is actually considered a
crime to vote for anybody who is not a regular card member,"
Berger observes, arguing that the net result was the reduction
of the party to a sort of "perfectionist sect." Berger
concludes that sectarian tactics must be cast aside and "we
must by all means support, strengthen, and uphold our Socialist
organization at the present time as well as in the future. At
the same time, however, we must show our willingness to cooperate
with any radical group - no matter what its makeup or complexion
-- that is willing to assist us and to cooperate with us on the
political or economic field in our continuous and ceaseless battle
against the capitalist system."
"Volkszeitung Recovers
Its Mailing Rights: Hays, in Announcing Restoration of Paper's
Status, Declares Post Office Censorship is Gone...: All Papers
Carried in Mails at All are Entitled to Second-Class Rights,
is Postmaster's View," by Laurence Todd [event of Aug. 14,
1921] With the
coming to power of the Warren Harding administration, the draconian
anti-libertarian policies of the Wilson regime came under new
scrutiny. Subject to particular liberalization was the application
of statute by the post office department, with new Postmaster
General Will Hays reconsidering the Burleson policy of the mass
voiding of 2nd Class mailing privileges of the opposition press.
On Aug. 14, 1921, the 2nd Class mailing privilege of the Marxist
New Yorker Volkszeitung was restored, with Postmaster
General Hays issuing an extensive statement reflecting upon the
official change of policy (reproduced in full here). While noting
statutory prohibition of certain matter from the mails, Hays
states: "I want again to call the attention of the publishers
to the fact that I am not, and will not allow myself to be made,
a censor of the press. I believe that any publication that is
entitled to use of the mails at all is entitled to the 2nd Class
privileges, provided that it meets the requirements of the law
for 2nd Class matter.... I will at all times act with moderation
and consideration for the freedom of the press, but I must and
will enforce in good faith, without evoking technicalities..."
Solicitor Edwards echoed these views, telling Laurence Todd of
the Federated Press that "It is not our purpose or duty
to advocate or oppose any school of political though so long
as it does not violate any existing law interpreted liberally
to permit mailability."
"Finn Federation Report Pledges
Aid for Party: Reorganized Socialist Division now has 3,300 Members
with 66 Locals in 14 States...: Convention Decides Central Office
Will Be Moved from Chicago to Fitchburg, Mass."(NY Call)
[events of Aug. 13-15, 1921] This unsigned news report in the Socialist Party's
New York Call announces the results of an August 1921
convention reorganizing the Finnish Socialist Federation, which
had declared its independence from the SPA at the end of 1920
and slowly moved towards the Communist orbit. The reorganization
convention had been attended by 12 delegates, each representing
approximately 300 members of the Finnish Federation. The reorganized
Finnish Socialist Federation included 66 locals in 14 states,
predominantly in New England and elsewhere in the East. New organizational
rules for the reorganized Finnish Socialist Federation were adopted
and headquarters for the group were moved from Chicago to Fitchburg,
MA -- location of the federation's daily newspaper, Raivaaja.
The unknown Finnish-American writer optimistically notes: "Our
Federation is now smaller than it has been for many years. But
the days of dissension and dissolution are past. The agitated
and chaotic state of the European Socialist movement, which has
reacted upon our movement here, is slowly subsiding. The progress
of events demonstrated that the new revolutionary theories, built
by the Russian Communists upon the moment's expediency, are false.
The workers, and especially the Socialists, received an object
lesson in Marxian theory that there is no shortcut to Socialism.
And this lesson will be of immense value for the Socialist movement
in the future. It will save it from destructive emotionalism."
