Undetermined Month

The Socialist Movement: Brief Outline of its Development and Differences in This Country. [1915] Text of a 1915 three cent pamphlet published by the Socialist Labor Party detailing that organization's differences with the Socialist Party of America. Five specific areas of difference are identified: Trade Union policy, Party Press Ownership, State Party Autonomy from the Center, Taxation Policy, and Immigration Policy. The SLP's vision of "industrial government" is outlined and contrasted to the program of the SPA, which is characterized as "anti-Socialist and bourgeois."


JANUARY 1915

The Western Comrade, v. 2, no. 9/10 [Jan. 1915]  Large file. Graphic pdf of the 20th issue of The Western Comrade, edited by Job Harriman and Frank E. Wolfe. Key Contents: Frank E. Wolfe: "Current Comment." A.F. Gannon: "Dugan." C.E. Russell: "The Madness of Capitalism." George D. Herron: "The Outlook in Europe." Mila Tupper Maynard; "Who Are the Ignorant Laborers?" Clarence Darrow: "Strangling by the State." Morris Hillquit: "Socialism and War." Homer Constantine: "Who's Fighting and Why!" Carl D. Thompson: "The Purpose of Socialism." Charlotte Perkins Gilman: "The Sentence." "Seven Months' Progress at Llano del Rio: Cooperative Colony Shows Remarkable Growth in Numbers and Prosperity." W.J. Ghent: "Hypocrisy and War." Samuel C. Meyerson: "War Brides." W.E.B.: "Reichstag Rebellion." Joshua Wanhope: "Need of the Hour." William E. Bohn: "Last Line of Defense." Thomas C. Hall: "Fear of Russian Invasion." Max Eastman: "The Great Socialist" (on Karl Liebknecht, from The Masses). Jessie Wallace Hughan: "What is Socialism?" A.M. Simons: "Crisis of the Hour." Upton Sinclair: "Worship Up to Date" (from New York World).


"Socialism and War," by Morris Hillquit [Jan. 1915]  Text of a short article by Socialist Party leader Morris Hillquit outlining the socialist position on war to a mass audience through the pages of the Metropolitan magazine. Hillquit notes the instinctive urge of socialists to support the oppressed class and the forces of progress in every armed conflict, citing the example of Karl Marx during the American civil war. However, he notes, in the current interval while just conflict in the name of liberty, progress, and civilization are generally supported, "the modern Socialist doctrine is that the people of each country must conquer their own political and economic emancipation, and that while the workers of all countries can and should help one another in their respective struggles, no nation can depend for its salvation entirely on another nation."

"Why Hillquit Will Not Attend Copenhagen Conference: Only Four Neutral Countries Will Attend International Gathering," by Morris Hillquit [event of Jan. 1, 1915]   Two letters from International Secretary of the Socialist Party Morris Hillquit detailing his decision not to participate in the scheduled January 17, 1915 conference of the Socialist parties of neutral nations aimed at forging a common program for the end to the European general war. Although the entire idea of the conference was American in origin, a series of cancellations of key organizations, such as those of Switzerland, Spain, and Italy, had reduced what might have been a broad and influential body to a small group of three Scandinavian countries and neighboring Holland, Hillquit notes. Hillquit indicates a belief that it would be neutral America to rebuild the shattered international following the end of the war and he therefore decides against participation in what had the prospect of being a "one-sided" gathering -- which would have lessened America's standing as a disinterested broker following conclusion of the war. Hillquit promises conference organizer Theodore Stauning that the United States would participate if in the future a more universal conference were organized.

"The Rise and Failure of an Unemployed League: Showing How Seattle Radicals Tried to Organize with a View to Conservative Slave Psychology and Failed," by Charles J. Schiffman [Jan. 5, 1915]  A decade and a half before the Communist Party established "Unemployment Leagues" in the 1930s, attempting to unite unemployed, unorganized, non-party workers to advance party objectives, individuals associated with the radical Industrial Workers of the World attempted to do the same thing in the city of Seattle, Washington. This article from the IWW press, written by the secretary of the "Unemployed League of Seattle," Charles J. Schiffman, documents the effort. Schiffman notes that police interference forced the fledgling group to operate under the auspices of the previously-existing  "Open Forum," operated left wing Socialist Party stalwart Hermon Titus. The organization raised funds, collected clothing, and distributed food to unemployed workers, seemingly attempting to reach these individuals with a radical message "through their stomachs." A newspaper was produced by the Unemployed League (no copies seemingly extant) and provided to the unemployed in bundles so that they might be sold, with "paper girls" keeping a portion of the 5 cent cover price. Four issues were produced. After two issues, leading activist and editor Joe Foley moved to Portland, Oregon. A factional split developed over the direction of the newspaper in Foley's absence, with radicals objecting to the conservative tone of issue 3 and winning control of the publication. The radical fourth issue alienated the mainstream businessmen who had been a source of financial support and the organization seems to have been merged away into another social service organization.


"Socialist Neutrality," by Morris Hillquit [Jan. 9, 1915] Socialist Party of America leader Morris Hillquit cautions party members to maintain emotional neutrality in the ongoing European bloodbath. "If any people can afford to take a sober and dispassionate view of the European catastrophe, it is the people of this country, about 4,000 miles removed from the fields of battle; and if any section of our people should be free from hysteria in its attitude toward the war, it is the Socialists," he insists. "American Socialists should not take sides with the Allies as against the Germans. The assertion that the forces of the Allied armies are waging a war of democracy against militarism is a hollow catchphrase devoid of true sense and substance. The governments of France and England are not fighting for the liberation of the German people from the yoke of their reactionary and militaristic government.... Nor should American Socialists favor the German side of this war as against that of the Allies. The claim that the German sword has been drawn in the interests of 'culture' is just as false and hypocritical as the contention that the Allies are fighting for democracy." Both sides in the conflict included unsavory allies -- Tsarist Russia on the one hand, reactionary Turkey on the other -- that belied their propagandistic claims, Hillquit observed. Presciently, Hillquit argues that "a decisive victory of either side is likely to foster a spirit of military overbearing and pseudo-patriotic exultation on the part of the victorious countries, lasting resentment and increased military activity on the part of the defeated nations, and a general condition of pan-European irritation with a tendency to another, perhaps more pernicious war." He concludes that "from the true Socialist viewpoint the most satisfactory solution of the great sanguinary conflict of the nations lies in a draw, a cessation of hostilities from sheer exhaustion without determining anything. Only in that case, only if it will become apparent to all the world that the heavy rivers of human blood have flown for nothing; that hundreds of thousands of human lives have been extinguished in vain... Only then will this war remain forever accursed in the memory of men, only then will it lead the people of all nations to revolt against any repetition of the frightful experience and to revolt against the capitalist system which leads to such paroxysms of human madness."

 

"Peace on Earth," by Eugene V. Debs [Jan. 9, 1915] Short essay by Socialist Party orator Debs on a topic assigned to him by an American newspaper chain. Debs asserts that "there has never been "Peace on earth and goodwill toward men;" and we shall have to go forward and not backward to realize that ideal. Civilization is still in a primitive, rudimentary state. It has taken countless ages to bring us from the brute, the caveman, and the savage to where we are today. The development has been painfully slow, but steady, and will continue to the farthest stretches of time." Debs indicates that peace will come to earth only "when the brute and savage shall have died in us and we have become human. In a word, peace will come to earth when humanity has been humanized, civilization civilized, and Christianity christianized." He sees the carnage in Europe as a turning point, in which the people are coming to see the economic basis of war based in the capitalist system. But that war inevitably will play itself out, Debs believes: "We cannot stop the European war. We can and will intervene when the time comes and do all in our power to restore peace. To end the war prematurely, were that possible, would simply mean another and perhaps even a bloodier catastrophe. Let us show the people the true cause of war. Let us arouse a sentiment against war. Let us teach the children to abhor war."

 

"An Appeal to the Investigating Committee of the NEC." [Jan. 13, 1915] A very rare document, published as part of a special English language edition by the Duluth Finnish-language newspaper Sosialisti. This extremely lengthy article details the faction fight which raged in the Socialist Party's Finnish Language Federation from 1912-15, in which the constructive socialist Eastern District and those around its organ Raivaaja captured effective control of Executive Committee of the Federation the leftist organ of the Middle District, Työmies. In response, a new left wing daily newspaper was established in the Middle District, Sosialisti. Punitive expulsions of individuals and locals supporting the new periodical were begun by the Finnish Federation, which drew an appeal from the left wing to the National Executive Committee of the Socialist Party of America, since under the party constitution only the state organizations were granted the right of suspension and expulsion. The NEC of the SPA instructed the right wing majority group to reinstate the expelled left wingers and to settle the issue at a special convention of the Federation; this instruction was ignored by the Finnish Federation however, in an attempt to stack the forthcoming election of convention delegates. As a result, the left wing boycotted the election and renewed their appeal to the NEC. "The disruption within the Finnish Federation is very clearly and positively a result of a very fierce opposition in the main, of the officers in the organization against any criticism of their erroneous ideas, errors, or plain miscarriages in the offices," this appeal document argues.

 

FEBRUARY 1915

"Executive Committee Rule," by T.E. Latimer. In 1913-14 a serious factional struggle erupted in the Finnish Federation of the Socialist Party of America between a Right faction based in the Eastern US and a Left faction based in the Upper Midwest. Accusing its opponents of favoring sabotage, in contradiction to the SPA Constitution, the Right faction attempted to seize the daily newspaper and assets of the Left faction and engaged in a series of expulsions as part of this process, which centered on Local Negaunee, Michigan. The SPA's National Executive Committee was drawn into the controversy. This contemporary article reviews the issues behind the fight from a perspective sympathetic to the Finnish Left faction and hostile to the SPA NEC. Originally published in the Feb. 1915 issue of The International Socialist Review.

 

"Open Letter to President Wilson," by Kate Richards O'Hare [Feb. 1915] Socialist Party orator Kate Richards O'Hare delivers a stinging rebuke to the pious hypocrite in the White House with this open letter published in the radical monthly, The National Rip-Saw. With Europe reduced to a "vast charnel house" with its fields "trampled into quagmires soaked with human blood and polluted with rotting human flesh," Wilson had allowed American capitalism to cash in on the slaughter. O'Hare storms: "With millions of Americans shivering, unclad and unshod, the stored up labor of cotton farmers, fabric weavers, and shoemakers are being hurried across the water to clothe hostile armies while they kill. Iron mills are busy turning out shrapnel, factories are beating plows into bayonets and reapers into rifles. Shrapnel and dum-dum bullets that strew all Europe with dead men are the creation of the workers of the United States, and the inventive faculties of American people have been turned from the works of peace to the creation of the machines for murder." O'Hare declares that "the manly, Christian, statesmanlike thing would have been for you to have called the Congress of the United States into session and said, 'GO TO YOUR LEGISLATIVE HALLS, FRAME THERE A LAW THAT NOT ONE POUND OF FOOD, NOT ONE YARD OF CLOTH, NOT ONE PIECE OF AMMUNITION SHALL BE EXPORTED TO ANY EUROPEAN COUNTRY UNTIL PEACE IS DECLARED.'" Instead, Wilson had hypocritically sponsored "the neutrality of HELL, the Money Changer's pact with the War Demon, the Profit Monger's bargain with DEATH, Peace with DAMNATION, that the profits of a few capitalists may be enhanced!"

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


Letter to J. Stitt Wilson, member of the NEC of  the Socialist Party of America from Frans Bostrom in Tacoma, WA, Feb. 15, 1915.   The governing National Executive Committee elected by the Socialist Party in 1914 was among the most moderate in the organization's history. The group immediately took an interest in the ongoing political feud by the minority Center-Right and the majority Left Wing in the state of Washington, appointing a subcommittee headed by Christian Socialist and former mayor of Berkeley, California J. Stitt Wilson to investigate the situation. This February 1915 open letter to Wilson was sent by the radical State Secretary of the Socialist Party of Washington, Frans Bostrom. Bostrom takes an impossibilist line, declaring the root of the party's problems lay in its "incongruous, confused, inconsistent platform declarations in favor of every populistic reform ever conceived." Emphasizing the "uselessness" of such reforms, Bostrom argues that in a heterogeneous party the only way to ensure unity was to limit the party program to Socialists' lowest common denominator, the thing upon which all could agree: a "single demand" for "the conquest of the powers of government for the purpose of introduction of the cooperative commonwealth, i.e., the revolution."

 

MARCH 1915

The Western Comrade, v. 2, no. 11 [March 1915]  Large file. Graphic pdf of the 21th issue of The Western Comrade, edited by Job Harriman and Frank E. Wolfe. Key Contents: Frank E. Wolfe: "Comment on World Events." John M. Work: New Worlds to Conquer." Frank Harris: "Sees Progress in Defeat." A.F. Gannon: "Out to Sea" (fiction). "Colonists Clear and Plant Community Lands: Great Activity Shown in All Departments of Cooperative Enterprise." "Map of the City of Llano." Frank H. Ware: "Open Under New Management" (fiction). W.A. Jacobs: "Patriotism." Job Harriman: "Socialism Inevitable."


"I Denounce," by Kate Richards O'Hare [March 1915] "Never in all the history of the United States has the thoughtful intelligent citizenship of our nation had such cause to blush for the petty, sordid, groveling character of our so-called statesmen," declares Socialist Party agitator Kate O'Hare. She is sickened at the failure of American politicians to tackle the pivotal issues of war in Europe or unemployment in America. Hunger, crime, prostitution, suicide, and despair are said to be sweeping America, while in Europe millions had been slain, millions more would be slain, homes were destroyed, production ruined, and womanhood ravaged by invading armies. "The Congress of the United States has the power to stop the war in Europe almost instantly by forbidding the exportation of food and ammunition. Only gross ignorance, brutal stupidity, or hellish cupidity can explain the inaction of our President and Congress in this hour of world travail," O'Hare asserts, adding "BEFORE GOD AND MAN I DENOUNCE THEM AND DECLARE THEIR GUILT AND I CHALLENGE THEM TO ANSWER."


"The Question of Party Tactics: A Joint Discussion of Party Affairs between C.W. Barzee of Portland, Former State Secretary of the Socialist Party of Oregon and  Frans Bostrom of Tacoma, Former State Secretary  of the Socialist Party of Washington." [March 25, 1915]  The factional war within the Socialist Party of Washington was in 1915 one of the most greatest battles within the Socialist Party of America between its "constructive socialist" center-right and its "revolutionary socialist" left. This published debate between the center-right former State Secretary of the Socialist Party of Oregon and the radical former State Secretary of the Socialist Party of Washington delineates the difference in perspectives. Oregonian Barzee argues for the use of immediate demands to help win broad support for a program of socialist change, arguing for a commonality of interests between the working class and the rest of society for the establishment of a just society. Washingtonian Bostrom scoffs at Barzee's apparent rejection of the idea of the class struggle. "Appeals to the fair mindedness and generosity of the governing class has never given results," Bostrom declares, adding that the programmatic "sops" offered to the middle class as planks in the national SPA platform were a direct violation of the constitution of that organization, based upon acceptance of the class struggle. "To appeal to any class for fairness, justice, generosity, or mercy is utopian. To appeal to anyone for votes for Socialism under any other pretext than of absolute overthrow of capitalism is opportunism, which is a polite name for humbug," Bostrom asserts, adding that "force alone rules, now and always."


APRIL 1915

The Western Comrade, v. 2, no. 12 [April 1915]  Large file. Graphic pdf of the 22nd issue of The Western Comrade, edited by Job Harriman and Frank E. Wolfe. Key Contents: Frank E. Wolfe: "Current Events." Homer Constantine: "Hostages of War." Henri LaFountaine: "Fighting to a Finish?" Edward P.E. Troy: "California Ground Hogs" (on giant farms). G.E. Moray: "How to Preach." "Colonists Celebrate May Day." "Merry Masqueraders at the Colony Ball." "Disemployment, Crime, Slaughter!" Franklin E. Wentworth: "Truth About Mexico." Kate Richards O'Hare: "Booze and Revolution." Eugene V. Debs: "The Silent Souls in the Ranks." Chester M. Wright: "An Appeal for Peace." Irvin Ray: "Overloads of Charity" (on inefficient charity administration). "Colonists and Rabbits."


"Booze and Revolution," by Kate Richards O’Hare [April 1915]  This short piece by Missouri rabble rouser Kate Richards O'Hare asserts a connection between sobriety and advancement of the revolutionary movement. "Sobriety means efficiency, and 'efficiency' movements have in all ages been the incubators in which revolutions were hatched," O'Hare declares. She adds that the ruling class's interest in "more efficient slaves" has also "produced a desire on the part of the slave to enjoy more," bringing about a spirit of revolt. So, too, with the revolutionary movement, in O'Hare's view: "A man whose brain is pickled in whiskey is of little value to the ruling class, and he is of inestimably less value to the working class. Efficiency oils the wheels of revolution.... We guarantee that if you can keep men sober, we will organize them for revolution."


"Silent Souls in the Ranks," by Eugene V. Debs [April 1915]  Short salute to the rank and file by the Socialist Party's four time Presidential candidate, Gene Debs. The quiet, selfless activity of these unnamed "Jimmy Higgenses" of the movement were the source of hope and confidence, Debs indicates. "These silent comrades never dispute about anything, but their hand can be seen in everything. They make no noise, although they are constantly at work doing the things that others argue about and split hairs over." Debs cites examples of extreme effort made by rank-and-file members in Idaho to attend a Socialist meeting and contrasts their behavior with that of party leaders. "Leaders may and often do disrupt a movement, but never make one," Debs declares. "The rank and file create always, but never destroy."


"My Ideal," by Eugene V. Debs [April 3 1915]  Short piece of Socialist enthusiasm by Indiana SPA publicist Gene Debs. Not a particularly important piece on the face of it, this is most interesting for its opening line ("My ideal is a thinker in overalls.") and for a bit of unconscious reflection on the price paid in his own life for his activism. Debs writes: "Whittier, the Quaker poet, once said that any great cause is bitterly opposed in its incipient stages. This has always been an established fact. It is easy for a person to be a nobody and drift along with the flow of the tide. But it takes a bit of courage to step out and join the despised minority." Debs notes that "united force" of the working class is "absolutely essential" for its triumph, calls the wage system "the final form of servitude," and professes a belief in the imminence of the fall of "capitalism and wage slavery."

 

MAY 1915

The Western Comrade, v. 3, no. 1 [May 1915]  Large file. Graphic pdf of the 23rd issue of The Western Comrade, edited by Job Harriman and Frank E. Wolfe. Key Contents: Frank E. Wolfe: "Editorial Comment." William Thurston Brown: "Business -- Legal Stealing." James P. Warbasse: "War and the Red Cross." Eugene V. Debs: "The People are Soft." "Colony Celebrates Anniversary." "Scenes at Llano del Rio Annual May Day Celebration." Harvey Armstrong: "Fellowship in Work." William J. Robinson: "Prevention of Conception." A. Neil Lyons: "The Soldier Who Wouldn't" (reprint from The Clarion). Carl Sandburg: "Murmurings in a Field Hospital" (poem). Job Harriman: "One Year's Achievement" (review of first year of ownership of publication).


"The People are Soft," by Eugene V. Debs [May 1915]  Short article by Socialist Party spiritual leader Gene Debs lambasting Congressional inability to solve the economic crisis then gripping the nation. Debs charges that with 20% of productive workers unemployed, Congress found itself able only to waste time filibuster legislation and to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on pork barrel projects before adjourning itself. Debs declares: "The fact is that capitalism has collapsed and that the political state of capitalism is paralyzed except in the function of creating bogus issues over which to humbug the people and keep them divided and fighting sham battles while they are being bled by the vampires that have seized upon the nation’s industries and control the government with no other object in view than to perpetuate their own plutocratic piracy and keep the people in poverty and subjection." Debs proposes the socialization of industry as the prescription for resolution of the crisis.


"The 'Collapse' of the International," by Morris Hillquit [May 1, 1915] Morris Hillquit, arguably the top theoretician of the Debsian Socialist Party of America, takes aim at "the peculiar brand of Socialists who rejoice in Socialist mistakes, fatten on Socialist defeats, and are enthusiastic only when they can point out some alleged faults of the Socialist movement," individuals who had lately been regaling themselves and their readers with the assertion that "the Socialist International has utterly collapsed in the face of the world war." Hillquit begs to differ. Capitalism's evolution has made it an international system, Hillquit observes, this process in turn giving birth to a parallel international labor movement. Socialists continued to share a common economic vision across national boundaries. While the eruption of nationalism and fratricidal war was a setback to the cause of international socialism, the economic basis underlying the Socialists' ideological system remained unchanged. Indeed, "the war will not check the growing internationalism of either capital or labor. Rather will it stimulate and accelerate the developments of both," Hillquit asserts. Therefore, "the soul of the Socialist International is thus bound to emerge from the ashes of the war strengthened and purified." "So far the Socialists engaged in the war have shown a most remarkable spirit of mutual understanding and forbearance. It is impossible to predict what situation may be produced if the war should continue much longer. The sense of irritation may become acute, and on the other hand a new turn of the war may alienate the Socialists from their governments and bring them together in common opposition to the continuance of the war," says Hillquit, adding his believe that the latter outcome is most likely. "Whether the Socialist International will maintain or change its form of organization after the war is at this time still uncertain. It is also quite immaterial," Hillquit states, arguing that International Socialism itself is imperishable.

 

"The 1915 National Committee Meeting: Reports of National Committeemen L.E. Katterfeld and James P. Reid." [held May 9-14, 1915] Report of the annual meeting of the Socialist Party's National Committee, held in Chicago May 9-14, 1915 by two Left Wing members of the NC, Washington State Secretary L.E. Katterfeld and Rhode Islander James P. Reid. Katterfeld sees the 1915 NC meeting as seminal, a "complete reversal of the policies that have dominated the party for the past three years." The process of centralization begun in 1912, which took the election of the governing National Executive Committee out of the hands of the membership and vested it in the National Committee, was undone. Rules for the initiation of referenda were also liberalized, with the number of required seconds reduced so that locals could once again initiate the process with some hope of success. The power of affirmative action between its annual physical gatherings was also restored to the National Committee, severely reducing the authority of the 5 member NEC, which reigned supreme under the model of 1912. All these things, once ratified by the party membership in referendum, meant "an absolute reversal of this autocratic policy and a return to democracy in the party's control," in Katterfeld's view. In his shorter assessment, James Reid adds that "The 'Finnish controversy' took up much time in the meeting and bodes danger to the party. It will be with us for some time to come." Reid notes that "the rank and file of the English-speaking comrades will have to become conversant with the element of danger to our movement which the structural connection of the foreign federation with our party means." Under the current system of attachment of the federations "ambitious persons in those federations can keep the whole party busy trying to settle their rows, and all to the detriment and delay of the work of organizing the American wing of the International Socialist movement," Reid observes.


"Socialist Party National Committee Meeting: Report by Comrade W.L. Garver, National Committeeman from Missouri." [events of May 9-14, 1915]  Review of the recently completed session of the Socialist Party's National Committee by Missouri delegate W.L. Garver. The National Committee was used sporadically by the early Socialist Party, meeting once a year in non-convention years to bring together representatives of every state to decide measures of national import. This review notes the setting of a date and place for a 1916 national convention -- Chicago, to open June 11, 1916. This event was ultimately canceled, largely for economic reasons, and the party's nomination of a presidential slate was made by referendum vote. Also of note is discussion of the question of the Foreign Language Federations, which were said to be growing at a rate faster than that of the English-speaking membership and to already constitute one-third of the party membership. Garver writes: "The effort to divide the movement along the lines of foreign and American was deprecated and the spirit of internationalism was largely in the majority. The prevailing thought was that if the native-born Americans feared foreign dominance the thing to do was to increase the native-born membership and get a broader vision than that which finds expression in a purely nationalistic sentiment." The idea of fraternal delegates between English and non-English branches of each local was suggested as a means of reducing "future friction."


JUNE 1915

The Western Comrade, v. 3, no. 2 [June 1915]  Large file. Graphic pdf of the 24th issue of The Western Comrade, edited by Job Harriman and Frank E. Wolfe. Key Contents: Frank E. Wolfe: "Current Review." Thomas W. Williams: "Child Labor in the Mines." Edward N. Clopper: "Need of Cooperation." Wiley H. Swift: "Need Children for Profits." Owen R. Lovejoy: "The Laws Are Ignored" (child labor). Adelaide Maydwell: "Children and Community Life" (children at Llano del Rio). G.E. Bolton: "Our Unctious Hookworm." A.W. Ricker: "Filling the Dinner Pail." Edmund B. Brumbaugh: "Lawson -- Labor -- Liberty." Carl D. Thompson: "Is It Practical?" J. Stitt Wilson: "Impeachment of Capitalism." Mila Tupper Maynard: "Is Your Conscience Clear?" "Llano del Rio Cooperative Colony" (text-heavy, detailed ad).


"Is It Practical?" by Carl D. Thompson [June 1915]  Short article by Carl D. Thompson, one of the national leaders of the center-right "Constructive Socialist" tendency in the Socialist Party of America. Thompson addresses the critique of the socialist movement that while its analysis of capitalism is generally accurate, its program for change is impractical. Thompson declares it "of vital importance to make it clear...that the Socialist movement does have a constructive program" which is consistently followed by the party's elected officials. The party's ultimate objective does not prevent it from stubbornly engaging in "the struggle for immediate and temporary gains," Thompson notes, and fighting "for every measure that would improve the immediate conditions of the common people." Thompson concludes with what seems to have been even in 1915 an old Socialist adage: "it is better to vote for what you really want and not get it just yet than to vote for what you don't want and get it immediately."


"Woman and War," by Jessie Wallace Hughan [June 19, 1915]
  Pacifist feminist socialist Jessie Wallace Hughan published this piece in a special edition of the New York Call on behalf of the Anti-Enlistment League. Hughan asks of American women "Are we to sit mute while capitalists foment war, while workingmen declare war, and then to work and knit and suffer at home?" Hughan declares that "War settles nothing, achieves nothing, except the right of the strongest." She asserts that "there is but one political party in the world that knows it can gain nothing by war, and that is the Socialist Party. Socialism did not stop the war in Europe, only because the Socialists were not the majority. Read the manifesto of the American Socialist Party after the Lusitania disaster, and then find one non-Socialist political body in the world that has dared to approach its bold stand against war. A vote for Socialism is a vote for peace." A pledge form of the Anti-Enlistment League for signatures of those "against enlistment as a volunteer for any military or naval service in international war, and against giving my approval to such enlistment on the part of others" is included.

 

JULY 1915

The Western Comrade, v. 3, no. 3 [July 1915]  Large file. Graphic pdf of the 25th issue of The Western Comrade, edited by Job Harriman and Frank E. Wolfe. Key Contents: Frank E. Wolfe: "Review of Events." Morgan Smith: "The Deeper Crime" (war propaganda). Homer Constantine: "Abolish Assassination." Oscar Ameringer: "A Discontented Dog." G.E. Bolton: "Our Devil's Delight" (Panama-Pacific Exposition). "Cooperatives and Education." "Community Life at Llano del Rio: Industrial and Social Activity" (photos). Edmund R. Brumbaugh: "1776 -- Revolutionists -- 1915." John M. Work: "Original Sin." Carl D. Thompson: "Rent, Interest and Profit." Frank H. Ware: "Garbage-Fed Babies." A.J. Stevens: "Point Out the Error." "War and Alcohol."


"Bravo, German Comrades!" by William M. Feigenbaum [July 1, 1915]  Leading Socialist Party journalist William Morris Feigenbaum offers this salute to the Social Democratic Party of Germany -- the "foremost political party of the world" -- for being "true to itself, true to us, true to the human race" in coming out against the European war "as soon as the German arms had secured the integrity of German soil." "They have kept their promise to the letter," Feigenbaum declares, adding: "Quarrel we may from now until the day after the inauguration of the Cooperative Commonwealth over the goodness or the badness of the action of the German comrades in supporting the war for the reason they gave us. But the important thing is that they gave us their word that they meant it for the interests of the proletariat, and that they would work for peace as soon as the Russian danger cleared."


"Restoring Confidence: A Letter to the Editor of The American Socialist, July 3, 1915," by John M. Work After peaking in size in 1912, the Socialist Party entered a period of significant membership decline, with the organization losing nearly a third of its numbers by 1915. This substantial setback caused the National Committee at its May 1915 annual meeting to initiate a set of constitutional changes aimed at enhancing rank and file control over the organization in the hopes of rebuilding the spirit of participation. SPA founding member John Work wrote this letter to the editor of the SPA's official organ supporting these changes and attempting to focus attention on the need for structural reform of the organization. Work sees two great obstacles impeding the SPA's efforts -- "scatterization" (a myriad of privately owned publications and individualistic initiatives) and "want of confidence" (the rank and files growing unease with a bureaucratic and centralized party apparatus). In Work's view, the "want of confidence" crisis began in 1912 with a rightward turn of the party and the implementation of a set of constitutional changes lessening democratic control of the organization by the rank and file. This trend was continued by the National Committee at its 1914 annual meeting, Work indicates. The 1915 meeting of the National Committee attempted to reverse this trend, however, with initiatives intended to make it easier for the rank and file to propose constitutional changes and party referenda as well as to provide for direct election of the Executive Committee and the Executive Secretary of the Party by the membership. Work characterizes these changes as commendable, albeit imperfect.

 

AUGUST 1915

The Western Comrade, v. 3, no. 4 [Aug. 1915]  Large file. Graphic pdf of the 26th issue of The Western Comrade, edited by Job Harriman and Frank E. Wolfe. Key Contents: Frank E. Wolfe: "Current Topics." Frank E. Wolfe: "That Heavenly Mississippi" (public execution of blacks). "Llano Colony's Progress Rapid." Frank H. Ware: "Aid to Our KIngs." "Robert Minor: Cartoonist of the Revolt." Homer Constantine: "The Muddling Worker." John M. Work: "Do You Really Want Socialism?" Albert A. James: "Truth Will Conquer" (Christian socialism). "Recall This Judge!" (F.R. Willis). "Christian Balzac Hoffman" (obituary). Edmund R. Burmbaugh: "Let Men Live!" "Llano Dramatic Club."


"Open Letter on Poverty," by Eugene V. Debs [Aug. 7, 1915]   The flame of moral indignation burns white and hot in the breast of Terre Haute, Indiana's most famous Socialist, four time Presidential candidate Eugene Debs, as he fumes in this letter to his local newspaper. Local ministers, it seems, had advised their parishioners against providing money or sustenance to the so-called "unworthy" poor -- a position which Debs found to be hypocritical, morally repugnant, callous, and brutal. Debs asks such "Christian gentlemen" whether "the great Teacher they profess to follow ever made any discrimination between the 'worthy' poor and the 'unworthy' poor." Rather, Debs declares, Jesus Christ sprang from the poor himself, lived his life with the poor and moreover "when he made any distinction among them it was wholly in favor of the 'unworthy' poor, by forgiving them much because they had suffered much. He did not condemn them to starvation and suicide upon the hypocritical pretext that they were 'unworthy,' but he did apply the lash of scorpions without mercy to those self-righteous and “eminently respectable” gentlemen who robbed the poor and then despised them for their poverty; who made long prayers, where they could be see of men, while they devoured widows’ houses and bound burdens upon the backs of their victims that crushed them to the earth." Debs declares that if he himself were consigned to misery as were so many "I, too, would probably get drunk as often as I had the chance." He insists that the poor should no more be blamed for their situation "than if he were the victim of cancer or epilepsy." In Debs' vision, Socialism would bring about a new democracy in which "men will be brothers, war will cease, poverty will be a hideous nightmare of the past, and the sun of a new civilization will light the world."


"War and Hell or Peace and Starvation," by Eugene V. Debs [Aug. 14, 1915]   Socialist publicist Gene Debs argues that the options facing the working class under the rule of capitalism are not war and death vs. peace and prosperity -- but rather war and death vs. unemployment and starvation. He quotes an AP press report dealing with the dire situation faced by families in Southern Ohio mining country owing to the closure of the mines. Debs bitterly observes that in large measure the suffering miners have nobody but themselves to blame, as the "overwhelming majority" of them have helped perpetuate the broken economic system with their own votes -- "belong[ing] to the same capitalist party their masters do and cast[ing] their votes with scrupulous fidelity to perpetuate the boss ownership of the mine in which they work and their own exclusion and starvation at their master’s will." Debs waxes sarcastic: "Blessed be the private ownership of the mines, for without it the miners and their wives would lose their individuality, their homes would be broken up, their morality destroyed, their religion wiped out, and they would be denied forever the comfort and solace of poverty and starvation!" Workers' power is needed to change the situation, in Debs' view: "When the miners themselves control the mines, once they have learned how to control themselves, they will not lock themselves out and starve themselves and their loved ones to death.... The bosses lose their power and along with it their jobs when the workers find theirs."


"My Political Faith," by Eugene V. Debs [Aug. 28, 1915
]   Debs revisits and expands a piece published in 1913 called "Labor, the Life of the Race" to expound his millennial political philosophy.  "The emancipation of labor is essential to the freedom of humanity," Debs declares.  For centuries across many societies, those who have toiled have been exploited and abused by parasitical masters. "There can be no morals in any society based upon the exploitation and consequent misery of the class whose labor supports society," Debs pronounces, "There can be no freedom while workers are in fetters." Competition has "engendered the spirit of selfishness, jealousy, and hate," while the cooperative future will lead to the practice of "mutual kindness and mutual aid," Debs indicates -- poverty, ignorance, disease, and crime will disappear in the new society of universal prosperity. The rulers are few and the workers many, Debs observes: "When the workers realize the power that is inherent in themselves, when they cut loose from capitalist parties and build up their own, when they vote together against the capitalist instead of voting for the capitalist, there will be a change." He urges the "brawny-armed millions" of workers to "get together in the union of your class and in the party of your class for emancipation!"


"Party Membership Endorses Constitutional Amendments Proposed by National Committee: Report on Referendum A, 1915." [Aug. 28, 1915] The year 1915 saw a significant overhaul of the constitution of the Socialist Party of America. Aiming to stave off the attrition of the organization's membership, a set of changes were proposed to the membership aiming at streamlining the party organization and bringing elected officials under party discipline on the issue of spending on the military. The nominations for President and Vice President were to be made by referendum vote, the Executive Committee and Executive Secretary were to be elected by the direct vote of the rank and file for 2 year terms, and Language Federations were to be held to a higher standard of 1,000 paid members in order to receive office space and salary for a Translator-Secretary. The relationship between units of the various Federations and the Young People's Socialist League on the one hand and the regular party apparatus of locals, county, and state organizations on the other, was spelled out. All 17 changes proposed by the National Committee were ratified seriatim by the rank and file in a referendum vote by wide margins. This article from the SPA's official organ announces the vote tallies for each.

 
SEPTEMBER 1915

The Western Comrade, v. 3, no. 5 [Sept. 1915]  Large file. Graphic pdf of the 27th issue of The Western Comrade, edited by Job Harriman and Frank E. Wolfe. Key Contents: Frank E. Wolfe: "Facts and Comment." Morgan Smith: "Third Circle of Might." Frank H. Ware: "Hell for Its Makers" (fiction). George E. Cantrell: "Busting the Iron Law." Irwin [St. John] Tucker: "Where Is the Home?" R.K. Williams: "Community Grows in Power" (Llano del Rio). "Industrial Activity at Llano del Reio Community" (photos). "Our Wonderful School" (Llano del Rio Montessori school). Leo Tolstoy: "A Remarkable Prediction." A.E. Briggs: "Peace or War?" Albert A. James: "Should Sanity Strike."


"The Uninteresting War," by Max Eastman [September 1915]  Lengthy impressionistic perspective on the war by the editor of The Masses following a trip to Europe. Rather than accepting a crude Marxist perspective that the European bloodbath was the result of a battle for colonial possessions and export markets, Eastman indicates the likelihood of a multiplicity of causes, with nationalism in the first place and German militarism and the actions of its war party the most culpable. Eastman expresses a great fondness for French culture but argues against absolutes in the conflict; German victory would not result in the end of culture but rather would only be a nominal result, since in the long run "the civilization of France would conquer that of Germany, whether she was defeated in arms or not, because of the greater degree of happiness and human fun there is in it." Eastman sees the war as a mass industrial slaughterhouse, the "regular businesslike killing and salting down of the younger men of each country involved — 20,000 a day, perhaps, all told." He tells of little popular taste for the bloodshed, devoid of recognizable battles or achievements, and expresses profound doubt "whether the plain folks of Russia and France and England have enough enthusiasm for this war to do much more than fight to a draw with Germany."


"Socialist Sunday School," by Eugene V. Debs [September 4, 1915]  "Every child is a potential revolutionist," Socialist Party leader Gene Debs enthusiastically asserts, adding that "whether he becomes one in fact will depend upon his intellectual environment and training during the formative period of his career." Debs pronounces the Socialist Sunday School movement as an opportunity to "checkmate" the ideological offensive of capitalism in the minds of children. "All the institutions of capitalism, including the state, the church, the press, the schools, and even the places of amusement, conspire to poison the receptive mind of the child of the worker," Debs asserts. To combat this, Debs urges Socialist parents to teach their children "the songs of the revolution, and, above all, teach him the revolutionary character of Jesus -- the worker; teach him the religion of Love and Human Brotherhood; teach him to despise war and the fomenters of war."


"The Rand School of Social Science: 140 E 19th Street, New York: What the Rand School Is." (St. Louis Labor) [Sept. 4, 1915]   Reasonably detailed short history of New York's Rand School of Social Science, written by one of the school's insiders, probably first published in the New York Call. Since its origins in 1906 about 10,000 people had participated in the Rand School's program, the writer notes, including night classes at the main campus, extension sites, and a permanent East Side satellite facility (est. 1913), as well as correspondence students since 1913. A full-time option became available in 1911, according to this history, and the first four years saw the graduation of 46 students from this 6-month program. The school had shown steady growth in participation, with some 2,000 people taking part in the institution's various activities in 1914-15. Participants were approximately evenly divided between men and women, with party membership being held by from 40 to 60% of the school's students, depending on the year. The governing body of the school was the American Socialist Society with an expanding membership of 119 Socialist Party members; this group elected a Board of Directors, who in turn chose the school's executive secretary and educational director, the story notes.


"Why Hold a National Convention?" by Otto Pauls [Sept. 4, 1915]   The idea for the Socialist Party to suspend its 1916 national convention originated in the last half of 1915, with one early supporter of the idea Otto Pauls, a columnist for the influential socialist weekly St. Louis Labor. Pauls notes that the decision had already been made for the Socialist Party to nominate its 1916 Presidential slate via referendum vote. Existing programmatic documents from the 1912 campaign were sufficient, needing only slight revision, he adds. Therefore, unless the constitution was set aside, a gathering of 300 delegates at the enormous cost of $25,000 would be taking place, with little substantial to accomplish. This would drain the party's coffers and undermine any possibility of a vigorous campaign in 1916, he declares. Pauls recommends that the sitting National Executive Committee handle any platform changes necessary, with members making contributions by mail and decisions made by referendum vote, so as to save the SPA about $24,000 for the fall campaign.


"Why Hold a National Convention?" Letter to the Editor of The American Socialist, by Otto Pauls [Sept. 11, 1915] St. Louis rank-and-filer Otto Pauls points out to the membership of the Socialist Party of America that since the organization had recently changed its constitution to provide for nomination of the party's Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates by referendum vote, there was now no significant function for the next quadrennial convention of the party, slated for June 1916. Pauls notes that unless action is taken by the SP to set aside the provision of its constitution calling for such a gathering "we will be compelled to hold a national convention next year, consisting of 300 delegates and costing about $25,000, for the sole purpose of adopting a platform." Instead, Pauls suggests this money would be better spent on the campaign itself, and that the "fairly representative" NEC consisting of George Goebel, James Maurer, Adolph Germer, Emil Seidel, and Arthur LeSueur could solicit suggestions for slightly adapting the existing "excellent" platform and "splendid" statement of principles from the 1912 campaign, and submitting that for approval by the SPA membership by referendum. "It will be just as satisfactory as any convention platform and will save the party about $25,000 -- the difference between a rousing campaign and no campaign at all," Pauls asserts.

 

"The School for the Masses: The People's College of Fort Scott, Kansas," by Eugene V. Debs [Sept. 18, 1915] The People's College was a private venture closely associated with the Socialist Party -- an attempt to create a working class institution of higher education. Eugene Debs was Chancellor of this institution, located just up the road from Girard (home of The Appeal to Reason) in Southeastern Kansas. President and Dean of the Law Department was SP NEC member Arthur LeSueur; Vice President and Director of the English Department was Alva George. Sitting on the 10 member Advisory Board included such SP worthies as Debs, Charles Edward Russell, John Work, Charles Steinmetz, George Kirkpatrick, Frank P. Walsh, and Kate Richards O'Hare. The article here was published in the official organ of the Socialist Party as a means of publicizing the People's College venture, which was begun in the fall of 1914. Debs writes that " colleges and universities are without exception "endowed" by the rich with funds taken from the poor for the purpose of controlling educational influences in a way to keep the rich and poor respectively where they are, and to impress the public with the wonderful work the philanthropists are doing in spreading the light when all the time their cunning ingenuity is being taxed behind the curtains to keep the people in darkness." This Debs contrasts with the People's College, "the greatest school for the education of the masses ever instituted among men," founded and funded and democratically administered in the interests of the working class.

 

"Constitution of the Lithuanian Workers Literature Society, (Organized Sept. 20, 1915)." [Published in 1919]. A rare document seized and saved for posterity by the Lusk Committee. The Lithuanian Workers Literature Society was a membership-based adjunct of the Lithuanian Socialist Federation of America dedicated to "the publishing of such writings which would raise throughout the masses of workers class consciousness, socialistic intellect, and solidarity, and otherwise broaden the boundaries of their knowledge." Annual dues of $1 funded the society, which published its works through the Brooklyn, NY "Laisves" publishing house, and entitled members to purchase the publications of the LWLS at half price. Meetings were held monthly, conventions were held in conjunction with the conventions of the LSFA, and the society maintained a "Scholar's Fund" to finance additional work in the Lithuanian language. This is the basic document of organizational law for the LSFA, originally published as a pamphlet in 1919 in both Lithuanian and English.

 

OCTOBER 1915

The Western Comrade, v. 3, no. 6 [Oct. 1915]  Large file. Graphic pdf of the 28th issue of The Western Comrade, edited by Job Harriman and Frank E. Wolfe. Key Contents: Frank E. Wolfe: "Current Topics." Job Harriman: "Fanaticism Means Failure" (on Socialist Party). Frank H. Ware: "War's Pentecost." Rose Sharland: "Daughters of Joy" (from The Clarion). R.K. Williams: "Industrial Activity Inspiring" (Llano del Rio). "Glipse of the Diverse Activities at the Llano Community" (photos). "How We Live at Llano." Prudence Stokes Brown: "Learn Living and Loving" (Llano Montessori School). "Capitalism's Justice -- 1915" (extract of M.A. Schmidt/LA Times trial). John M. Work: "The Goal in Sight."


"Fanaticism Means Failure," by Job Harriman [Oct. 1915]  With war raging in Europe, food prices skyrocketing, and unemployment sweeping the nation, Western Comrade editor Job Harriman wonders the cause of the Socialist Party's membership malaise, with tens of thousands of dues-payers vanished. Harriman asserts that the problem was the party's tendency to make a "religion of our theories." He states that "abstract principles must be tested and sustained by practical, concrete experience," otherwise doctrine would devolve into fanaticism and the Socialist Party would continue down the path previously traversed by the ultra-orthodox, sectarian Socialist Labor Party. Harriman predicts a change of course would come through increased participation in the labor movement and in "cooperative enterprises," otherwise the party would inevitably dissolve. "Capitalism will be overthrown by an organization that can deliver more comforts to the people than Capitalism can deliver, or it will not be overthrown at all -- talk, teach, preach, and argue as we may," Harriman declares.


"The Finnish Federation," by Leo Leino [October 1, 1915]  Lengthy statement of the factional position of the Center-Right majority group in the Finnish Socialist Federation. Leino provides the rationale behind the Finnish Federation's ban of the pro-IWW weekly Socialisti. He asserts: "The Finnish Federation never abridged the freedom of its members by forbidding them to read whatever they wished to read, but it is true that it does forbid the membership from supporting a paper [Socialisti] that has been established with the intention of destroying the means of education, the party papers, and also the oldest and strongest language organization of the American Socialist Party." With respect to the trade union movement, Leino indicates: "It is true we do not agree with the “radicals” in their contention that the IWW is the only industrial union that is worthy of working class consideration. We contend that the AF of L is being modified by the process of industrial evolution into an industrial union, and that this change in the nature of the organization is taking place just as fast as this new form of organization becomes more beneficent to the workers than the old form of trade unionism." A lengthy official document on the faction fight passed by the November 1914 convention of the Finnish Socialist Federation is also reproduced here.


"Organization," by Dan Hogan [October 18, 1915] High rates of membership turnover were by no means limited to the Communist Party of later days -- all political organizations show similar sorts of rapid membership turnover. In this article leading Arkansas Socialist Dan Hogan shares for the first time his "most serious doubts" about the ability of the American Socialist movement to "democratically direct and control our movement when it shall have reached its high tide of popular manifestation." The Socialist Party is racked by low levels of participation, Hogan observes -- fewer than 100,000 of a population of American socialists which he estimates at approximately 2 million, based on vote returns and so forth. Of this limited percentage of the whole, only a tiny fraction actually participates in the active direction of the socialist movement through participation in party affairs. "Not 1 in each 100 locals organized 'stick,'" Hogan asserts -- instead, they typically gather, elect a secretary and appoint committees, meet for 2 or 3 months, and disappear. The cause of this enormous turnover of membership revolves around the fact that "we have come to regard the Socialist movement as a pure and simple political party and appealing to mankind upon purely political grounds," Hogan believes. The same people who drop out of the Socialist Party ostensibly claiming lack of time and funds loyally support various fraternal and benevolent organizations, Hogan notes, freely giving them time and money. The explanation for this behavior lies in the realm of material self-interest, Hogan thinks: "the lodges and fraternal orders serve their immediate economic interests. Their lodges and fraternal orders supply and offer a necessary function and fulfillment of their economic and social desires." Hogan does not say how the Socialist Party might alter its nature to make it similarly fill this sort of necessary functions and social desires.

 

"The Third International," by Alexandra Kollontai [Oct. 23, 1915] Prominent Russian Bolshevik Alexandra Kollontai made her way to the United States in the Fall of 1915, where she conducted a brief lecture tour under the auspices of the German Federation of the Socialist Party of America. This article by Kollontai, published in the official organ of the SPA, is believed to be the first exposition published in the American English language radical press advocating the establishment of a new revolutionary International to replace the failed Second International. The old International had floundered on the principle of "Defense of the Fatherland," Kollontai states -- a progressive principle in a bygone epoch when the danger was one of the republic being attacked by the last vestiges of feudalism, but a reactionary principle in a time of imperialism. This slogan of the "great" and "old" men must be cast aside in favor of the higher principle of the international solidarity of labor, Kollontai argues. It would be primarily the radical youth who could be counted upon to put an end to the false ideas of bygone years, she believed. In Germany, Russia, England, Italy, and France there were emerging a new "left" movement in opposition to militarism and "civil peace" -- the kernel of a new, third International. (Kollontai interestingly includes the Independent Labour Party -- the British sister of the Socialist Party of America -- among the short list of the worthy.) This Third International must be established on 3 fundamental principles, Kollontai states: (1) organic, organized unity of the movement rather than superficial alliance of member parties; (2) commitment to revolutionary tactics; (3) decisive and relentless battle against war and militarism and the "civil peace" with which it is linked.

 

"Comrades of the Revolution: Letter to the Editor of The American Socialist from the State Executive Committee of the Socialist Party of Washington, Oct. 23, 1915." This letter to the Socialists of Washington state reprinted in the official organ of the Socialist Party of America illustrates the very limited tactical vision of the unorganized Left Wing of the Socialist Party in 1915. State Secretary L.E. Katterfeld and the radical Washington State Executive Committee declare that "The time has come for ACTION instead of talking. Never in the history of our movement were the conditions so favorable for carrying on our propaganda. Let us too begin a Great Drive, not irregularly and spasmodically here and there with no unity of action, but with a hearty cooperation along the whole line of front. Let us pierce the enemy's line and capture his trenches at every point." Peeling away this aggressive bluster, for the Washingtonians it is only the "systematic and statewide distribution of leaflets" that is "the secret" and "the Comrades of Oklahoma" ("organized so that they can reach every home in their state with Socialist propaganda") which serves as the model. A series of 12 monthly leaflets to be distributed statewide in Washington state is announced, including among the first set of four rather pedestrian and previously released material by John Work, Fred Warren, and Daniel K. Young.

 
NOVEMBER 1915

The Western Comrade, v. 3, no. 7 [Nov. 1915]  Large file. Graphic pdf of the 29th issue of The Western Comrade, edited by Job Harriman and Frank E. Wolfe. Key Contents: Frank E. Wolfe: "Editorial Review." G.E. Bolton: "Murderers -- You and I!" Clara R. Cushman: "Sophy" (fiction).  Frank H. Ware: "The Job" (fiction). J.E. Beum: "Socialism and Farmers." Edmund R. Brumbugh: "Sunday and Socialism." Frank E. Wolfe: "Age Limit a Tragedy" (Llano del Rio). R.K. Williams: "Snow Caps Greet Colonists" (Llano del Rio).  "Llano del Rio Cooperative Community As It Is Today" (photos). R.K. Williams: "Life on the Llano." Albert A. James: "The Church and Llano." William E. Bohn: "Ballots Will Educate."



"President Wilson’s Militarism Will Drive Nation to Disaster: His Program of Preparedness, If Carried Out, Would Be the Beginning of Competitive Armament Between Nations..." by G.A. Hoehn  [event of Nov. 5, 1915]   Beneath a banner headline in a newspaper not typically using them, St. Louis Socialist G.A. Hoehn marks Woodrow Wilson's November 5, 1915 policy speech to the exclusive Manhattan Club of New York as a major turn of America towards militarism and war. An extensive extract of Wilson's speech is presented, in which he calls for an expansion of the country's military by 400,000 "citizen soldiers" over the next three years -- extensively trained for fast mobilization but not part of the regular army. Wilson also announced a desire to bring the US Navy up to "a point of extraordinary force and efficiency as compared with the other navies of the world." Hoehn notes that similar militarization for ostensible purposes of "defense" had taken place in Russia, Germany, France, England and Austria-Hungary: "Neither the Tsar, nor the Kaiser, nor any other warlord, ever told the people that they would arm for offensive purposes but always for defense." Former Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan is quoted at length in support of the perspective that rhetoric about preparation for defense was in reality preparation for war: "If there is any truth in our religion, a nation must win respect as an individual does, not by carrying arms, but by an upright, honorable course that invites confidence and insures good will. This nation has won its position in the world without resorting to the habit of toting a pistol or carrying a club. Why reverse our policy at this time?"


"Letter to C.W. Fitzgerald in Beverly, Massachusetts from N. Lenin [V.I. Ul'ianov] in Berne, Switzerland. [Written between Nov. 13 and Nov. 22, 1915.] Text of a letter from Lenin to the head of the fledgling "Socialist Propaganda League" approving of a recent letter which had been sent and outlining the position faced by the revolutionary socialist movement in the current international political environment. "We say and we prove that all bourgeois parties, all parties except the working-class revolutionary Party, are liars and hypocrites when they speak about reforms. We try to help the working class to get the smallest possible but real improvement (economic and political) in their situation and we add always that no reform can be durable, sincere, serious if not seconded by revolutionary methods of struggle of the masses," Lenin states, adding "We do not preach unity in the present (prevailing in the Second International) socialist parties. On the contrary we preach secession with the opportunists. The war is the best object-lesson. In all countries the opportunists, their leaders, their most influential dailies and reviews are for the war, in other words, they have in reality united with "their" national bourgeoisie (middle class, capitalists) against the proletarian masses.... And we are for secession with nationalistic opportunists and unity with international revolutionary Marxists and working-class parties." Lenin sends his best wishes for the success of the new organization.

 

"The War Censor Arrives in America: United States Postal Officials Deny Mails to Jack London's Article 'The Good Soldier,'"by J. Louis Engdahl [Nov. 20, 1915] The Woodrow Wilson regime did not begin its offensive on freedom of speech and freedom of the press in 1917 after American entry into the European war, but rather in 1915, during the first days of the "preparedness" campaign. Postmaster General Albert S. Burleson's first move was a ban of a short anti-militarist article by renowned Socialist author Jack London from the mails. This banning of London's piece, "The Good Soldier," prompted editor of the Socialist Party's official organ Louis Engdahl to publish this article under banner headlines -- complete with London's article in bold type, on page 1 above the fold. Military censorship is characterized by Engdahl as a "great power of darkness that stops up the human brain, while the human body goes ignorant to the slaughter," an institution of the most reactionary militarist regimes of Europe. "The War Censor is out of place in a republic. He has no place or function in a democracy," Engdahl declares. Engdahl cites a recent poll showing an overwhelming majority of Democrats and Republicans in Congress in agreement with Wilson's program for the militarization of America. "Does the Democratic administration intend to maintain this majority by gagging the utterances of the American people? We hope not," says Engdahl. London's original article, basically a prose poem, declares: "The lowest aim in your life is to become a soldier. The good soldier never tries to distinguish right from wrong. He never thinks; never reasons; he only obeys... A good soldier is a blind, heartless, soulless, murderous machine. He is not a man. He is not a brute, for brutes only kill in self-defense. All that is human in him, all that is divine in him, all that constitutes the man has been sworn away when he took the enlistment oath.... Down with the army and the navy. We don't need killing institutions. We need life-giving institutions."

 

"Eugene V. Debs Declines Presidential Nomination," by J. Louis Engdahl [Nov. 27, 1915] Short news article from The American Socialist announcing that 4-time Socialist Party Presidential standard bearer Eugene V. Debs had sent in a form to the national office of the SPA declining the party's nomination for President in the 1916 campaign. In a telegram to Engdahl, Debs stated "I do not think I ought to make a public statement, for I really have nothing to say that would be of any interest to anyone, and it would likely seem presumptuous in me to offer an explanation not asked for and not expected. I have no special reason for declining other than that there are thousands of comrades who are at least as well qualified as I am for the nomination." Debs ultimately ran an unsuccessful race for the US House of Representatives in Indiana in the 1916 campaign.

 

"The Zimmerwald Conference and its Endorsement by the Party NEC," by Arthur LeSueur [Nov. 27, 1915] Member of the Socialist Party's governing National Executive Committee Arthur LeSueur offers this explanation to the party for the NEC's recent endorsement of the manifesto of the Zimmerwald Conference. Despite the conference's unofficial status, its manifesto "contains a clear-cut, definite statement of the principles which should guide us in the future," LeSueur writes, adding that such an endorsement was "all the more necessary because of the fact that many of the members high in the councils of the party had expressed themselves in sympathy with the attitude of the officials of the party in Germany, France, Belgium, etc., in their abandonment of the theory of the class struggle, and the class character of the state, and their adoption of a nationalism that placed their necks beneath the feet of their masters." LeSueur ponders the reason that the European workers were led to the slaughter so easily, theorizing that it was an overemphasis of the socialist movement on economics rather than internationalist idealism that left the rank and file intellectually disarmed. LeSueur states that the NEC cannot bind the party to any certain manifesto, nor would it try, but that the NEC had endorsed the Zimmerwald declaration in order to start the debate in the party over the matter of internationalism. He seeks to change the traditional hesitancy of the international socialist movement to "go on record unequivocally for labor and against war, with a pledge as binding as can be made not to assist or in any way further the war of nations, and never to bear arms against each other, and to bear arms against those who order murder in order to prevent the greater cataclysm, and to do this each in his own country at no matter what cost to themselves..."


"Why a National Socialist Convention? An Editorial from the New Yorker Volkszeitung."  [Nov. 27, 1915]   Sentiment within the Socialist Party to abandon its constitutionally mandated 1916 national convention for financial reasons was not universal, as this editorial from the Socialist Party German-language daily, the New Yorker Volkszeitung indicates. Although a formal referendum motion had been launched by Local Cincinnati calling for amendment of the party constitution to make elimination of the convention possible, the Volkszeitung declared this should be defeated and the convention held on schedule: "Where the highest interests of the party are at stake, financial obstacles must be overcome.... Only a national convention composed of the best minds of our movement can determine the attitude of our Socialist Party toward the armament problem in America; only such a convention will have the required authority to unify the many prevailing opinions and to find ways and means whereby an effectual action on the part of the American working class against these efforts of militarism can be brought about." The fall 1916 campaign would revolve around the issue of "Preparedness," the Volkszeitung predicted, making an informed and unified Socialist perspective, crafted by the "duly-elected, ablest minds of the movement" essential. As a means of economizing, a reduction of the number of delegates from 300 to 200 is called for, as well as a transfer of the costs of attendance from the National Office to local organizations -- which would be able to hold local fundraising events.


"Charles Edward Russell Pleads for Preparedness: Philadelphia Audience Gasps as Leading Socialist Declares Country Must Arm For Protection Against Germany..." (Philadelphia Ledger)  [event of Nov. 29, 1915]   So-called social patriotism within the ranks of the Socialist Party of America did not start with American entry into the first world war, as this news article from the Philadelphia mainstream media demonstrates. In November 1915 prominent muckraking journalist-turned-Socialist Charles Edward Russell was bold enough to advocate publicly the expansion of military spending and personnel being advanced by Woodrow Wilson and other nationalist politicians and public figures under the banner of "Preparedness." Russell's first sensational public pronouncement came before an audience of 2,000 in Philadelphia. Russell advanced the specter of German invasion of the American homeland: "The day of the English empire is coming to an end. Already Germany is stretching across Europe; she will cross Asia, then strike at Canada, and the rest will be easy.... Canada is Germany’s western goal; and with that country in her possession there will be forts along the borders and armaments on the lakes. This will mean friction and inevitable war." Japan, similarly, was poised to seize American territorial possessions in the Pacific, Russell declares. According to the news account, Russell had "attacked foreign-born citizens who, as Socialists, continually were finding fault with the country. He said that only the native American could feel true patriotism and the need of preparedness." This met with a hostile response from the audience, who in question time at the end of the lecture had peppered Russell with questions indicating "his remarks were not those of a real Socialist and that he was employed by the 'Armament Trust.'" Russell's dissident position on militarism and war had effectively eliminated his chances as the Socialist Party's presidential nominee, the article indicates.

 

DECEMBER 1915

The Western Comrade, v. 3, no. 8 [Dec. 1915]  Large file. Graphic pdf of the 30th issue of The Western Comrade, edited by Job Harriman and Frank E. Wolfe. Key Contents: Frank E. Wolfe: "Trend of the Hour."  Clara R. Cushman: "Socialism Strikes Millville." Frank H. Ware: "In the Name of Christ -- Amen!" (fiction). A.F. Gannon: "Solid Ivory." G.E. Bolton: "Rescue the Desorientes." Edmund R. Brumbaugh: "Among the Immortals" (Joe Hill). J. Louis Engdahl: "One Big Union" (Miners amalgamation). John Dequer: "Llano del Rio." R.K. Williams: "Llano Colonists Are Undauted by Storm." Joseph D. Cannon: "The Wonders of Llano." "Cartoonist Joins Colony" (Matthew A. Kempf).


"Duty of the Working Class Today," by Adolph Germer [Dec. 4, 1915] Socialist Party National Executive Committee member Adolph Germer declares that "the paramount duty of the American working class today is to counteract the pernicious doctrine of pro-Militarism that is spread throughout the land." He makes note of an ideological offensive on all sides by the forces of reaction, making use of schools, churches, fraternal organizations, theater, and cinema (Germer specifically names the films "The Battle Cry of Peace," "Neill of the Navy," and "Guarding Old Glory" as examples of "preparedness" propaganda movies). "Every atom of our energy should be put forth to frustrate the use of hundreds of millions of dollars of the people's money to strengthen the means of destruction of property, the product of labor, and the murder of human beings -- while millions of our comrades are jobless, hungry, ill-clad, and unhoused," Germer declares. He urges party members to flood Congress and President Wilson with letters protesting the attempt to turn America towards militarism. Includes a short biography of Adolph Germer.

 

"The Social Spirit," by Eugene V. Debs [Dec. 11, 1915] Socialist Party leading light Gene Debs briefly upbraids many Socialists for their overdeveloped individualism and their underdeveloped "social spirit." He then moves from party criticism to more familiar terrain, flatly stating that "typical capitalists are barren of the social spirit," while he paints Socialist interpersonal relations in glowing and effusive neo-religious terms: "How differently two Socialist comrades shake hands! Their hearts are in their palms and the joy of greeting is in their eyes. They have the social spirit. Their interests are mutual and their aspirations kindred. If one happens to be strong and the other weak, the stronger shares the weakness and the weaker shares the strength of his comrade. The base thought of taking a mean advantage, one of the other, does not darken their minds or harden their hearts. They are joined together in the humanizing bonds of fellowship." Debs asserts that "the end of the reign of anarchistic individualism is in sight." Until then "we need to be more patient, more kindly, more tolerant, more sympathetic, helpful, and encouraging to one another, and less suspicious, less envious, and less contentious," and thereby to motivate others to join the Socialist cause through the power of example.

 




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