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The Socialist Party of America

(1921)

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1921

JANURARY

“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

“Debate on the Press and the Society for Medical Aid to Soviet Russia at the 3rd Russian All-Colonial Congress: New York City,” by Bureau of Investigation Undercover Agent “P-132” [March 8, 1921] The Russian All-Colonial Congresses were ostensibly non-partisan biannual gatherings of the “Russian colony in the United States and Canada” sponsored by the anarchist Union of Russian Workers. This material is an extract from the report of the 3rd Russian All-Colonial Congress was provided by “P-132,” a Russian-speaking undercover Special Agent of the Bureau of Investigation (a full BoI employee who wrote his own reports, as opposed to a paid informer who funneled information to a reporting Special Agent). Topics of debate here are the ideological line to be pursued by the new official organ of the All-Colonial and the financial controversy over the Detroit branch of the Medical Aid to Soviet Russia organization. With regard to the press, the All-Colonial (Union of Russian Workers) had launched a paper called Amerikanskaia Izvestiia [American News] to replace the suppressed anarchist weeklies Rabochii i Krest’ianin and Khleb i Volia. Calls were made by anarchist delegates to the 3rd Congress for the publication to adopt an explicitly anarchist line. Delegate Mikhailov declares” “Comrades, you all know that we are Anarchists. Why should we cover up our beliefs and teachings by organizing schools and various educational societies? And that applies to Amerikanskaia Izvestiia. Once for all we ought to say clearly that it is an Anarchist newspaper and establish definitely its true character and purpose.” This perspective is opposed by Delegate Sivko, who states: “You are an Anarchist; well, I am a Communist, and if you demand the Anarchist policy I demand the Communist, and I will never consent that Anarchist propaganda be taught through Amerikanskaia Izvestiia.” Despite their control of the convention, the multi-tendency orientation of the newspaper was maintained by the final resolution of the 3rd All-Colonial Congress. That same evening a “special meeting or session” was held to deal with the alleged improprieties of the Medical Aid to Soviet Russia organization. At this “special session,” the same “Communist” delegate Sivko (probably a communist-anarchist as opposed to a CPA member) detailed the fraudulent practices which he uncovered in the Detroit organization of the Medical Aid for Soviet Russia organization. Rovin, Saks, Mendelsohn, and Boris Roustam-Bek are accused of having pocketed organizational funds, nearly $2,000 being unaccounted for by a snap audit. A parallel (anarchist) Medical Aid to Soviet Russia organization had been launched. Adding color is the comment by “P-132” that “during [Sivko’s] speech several members of the Communist Party were trying to break up the meeting, but they were beaten up by members of the Union of Russian Workers, especially by Kiselev, who threw them down the stairs."

 

“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

“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 analyse 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 anounces 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.

 

“The First Year: Reflections on the Origins of the New York Call,” by Algernon Lee [May 27, 1921]In honor of the paper’s 13th anniversary, founding editor of the Socialist daily New York Call, Algernon Lee, offers his brief recollections about the establishment of the publication. The paper began on the top floor of a shabby building on Park Avenue, Lee recalls, a sweltering single room filled with the hot air and lead fumes of the linotype machines. Pioneers of the project remembered by Lee included Harry Smith, George Gordon, Will Mailly, and Billy Feigenbaum. Mailly, a former Executive Secretary of the Socialist Party formerly associated with party radical Hermon Titus, is recalled with particular fondness: “if Will had lived twice as long he would still have died young. I never knew anyone so avid of life — so eager to know everything, to experience everything, to achieve everything. And how much he did learn and how much achieve, how intensely did he live, in the few short years after his entrance into the Socialist movement opened up to him all the vistas of literature, science, and art, and gave him the opportunity to realize himself in working for something bigger than self!” Working on the early Call was “fun,” Lee states, since “the very uncertainty whether The Call could live another week lent to the whole thing an air of adventure and gave us a sense of victory each day when the paper came from the press.”

 

“Yugoslavs, Who Left Partyin 1914, Come Back: Secretary of South Slavic Federation Says There Are 32 Branches Now Doing Active Work...” by Frank Petrich [May 28, 1921]Head of the Yugoslav Socialist Federation Frank Petrich offers a brief synopsis of his group’s relationship with the Socialist Party of America in this article prepared for the Socialist press. Petrich notes that prior to the 1919 split the South Slavic Federation had included 3200 dues-paying members. The federation had been suspended from the party during the faction fight between Regulars and the organized Left Wing section, however, and by the August 1920 return of the Yugoslav federation to SPA’s ranks, only 435 members in 32 branches remained. The Croatians had left the federation for the Communist movement, but the Slovenian and Serbian sections remaining had begun to slowly rebuild, with 12 new branches formed since the August 1920 reentry and the federation’s ranks back up to the 750 mark. This was regarded by Petrich as the tip of the iceberg, since 75,000 Slovenes alone were enrolled in national benefit societies. “If they have such a splendid “Red Cross” organization, they surely should have an equally powerful political fighting organization,” Petrich declared.

 

“Why Punish the Socialist Movement?” by Frank Petrich [May 30, 1921]Party loyalist Frank Petrich, head of the Socialist Party’s Yugoslav Federation, makes this complaint about proposed changes to the party constitution which will have the effect of forcing federation branches to participate directly in the affairs of their associated English-speaking locals to purchase dues stamps, instead of being able to purchase them directly through the language federation, as previously. Petrich declares that such an amendment aims “at the controlling point of the federations’ organization system” and is an attempt “to deprive Language Federations of their autonomy.” This would place the federations in the position of supplicants for funding from state and local committees, who would be under no obligation to aggressively carry on propaganda work in the languages in question. Petrich characterizes this change as centralization at any price and argues that it will have a negative effect on the party in general and the language federations in particular. “Who are the forces that are trying to lead the Socialist Party into a blind alley and through it to punish the Socialist movement?” Petrich asks

 

JUNE

“For the Adoption of the Communist Exclusion Plan,” by Otto Branstetter [June 4, 1921] The Executive Secretary of the Socialist Party of America takes aim at prominent SPA left winger Louis Engdahl in this New York Call article. Engdahl, a staunch supporter of affiliating the Socialist Party to the Third International, had challenged the veracity of Branstetter’s assertion that the party’s application for membership had been rejected and intimated that a purge of supporters of left wing supporters of affiliation was in the offing at the behest of the party leadership at the forthcoming 1921 National Convention. Branstetter retorts here that Engdahl was lying, “in the approved Communist manner,” and was dodging the real issues involved in favor of the spreading of “misrepresentation, insinuation, half truths, and deliberate misstatements of fact.” Branstetter states that the proposal for the expulsion of left wingers actually came from below, via a resolution of Chicago’s 13th Ward Branch, rather than through the initiative of the party leadership. That said, Branstetter minces no words about what he feels should happen to the left wingers still in the Socialist Party: “The issue is clearly drawn.... Shall we expel Hillquit or Engdahl? I vote enthusiastically for Engdahl. After all, we are still a Socialist party, and Hillquit is a Socialist. Let us keep Hillquit, Oneal, Shiplacoff, Maurer, and the other loyal, devoted Socialist comrades and permit Engdahl to obey his master’s voice and join the United Communist Party.”

 

“International Affiliation at the Detroit Convention,” by James Oneal [June 8, 1921] With the 1921 convention of the Socialist Party of America looming, National Executive Committee member James Oneal uses this article in the New York Call to attempt to disabuse his comrades of the notion of affiliation with the Third International in Moscow, as advocated by the SPA’s left wing. A laundry list of requirements would face the SPA in affiliating, Oneal indicates, including the purging of longstanding party veterans, establishment of an illegal organization, acceptance of armed insurrection and dictatorship, and the taking of orders from Moscow, among other things. Oneal notes that this program had roots in the “Bakunin anarchists” who had wrecked the First International as well as the Chicago-based anarchist movement of the 1880s which had ended in the Haymarket bombing and the repression which followed. The Left Wing of 1919 “did us a service by leaving us, and we would do ourselves injury by returning to them,” Oneal declares. “If they think that by playing hide and seek with secret service agents, and that hurling leaflets from buildings urging ‘armed insurrection’ is the thing, we should allow them a monopoly of this stupidity.” He seeks the coming convention to “draw the line in these matters.”

 

“Regeneration of Party Depends on Convention: Dissension on Points Raised by World Events Must Be Ended by Clear Cut Stand before Real Work Can Be Resumed — New Split Seen Possible,” by William M. Feigenbaum [June 13, 1921] New York Call journalist William Morris Feigenbaum notes the critical importance of the forthcoming 1921 convention of the Socialist Party of America for the party. According to Feigenbaum, although the Socialist Party had 110,000 members, it was “not in a healthy condition” owing to the war. The war had previously caused a severe attrition of regular party members, in Feigenbaum’s account, who were quietly replaced by “tens of thousands of Russians, Poles, Hungarians, Ukrainians, Letts [Latvians], Slovenians, and others” who joined in the wake of the armistice, inspired by the Russian Revolution. A split and formation of the Communist parties followed, which resulted in demoralization and further atrophy of the party ranks, a process accentuated by the Palmer Raids. In 1920 the SPA was again subjected to a split between Morris Hillquit-led regulars and a left wing faction headed by journalist J. Louis Engdahl. The regulars had controlled the gathering, going so far as to expunge from the record a left wing-presented resolution highly critical of Hillquit and the defense in the case of the suspended New York Assemblymen.

“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 ofthe 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.”

 

“Put Federations to Work,” by David P. Berenberg [June 15, 1921] With the 1921 National Convention of the Socialist Party in the offing, the Rand School of Social Science’s David Berenberg offers thoughts on the future role of the Foreign Language Federations in the SPA. Berenberg wants the federations to become a “clearing house for the foreign workers,” teaching newcomers English “with the greatest possible speed.” This would not only get the newcomer ready for participation in the English-speaking Socialist movement, but would also “save the worker from the contaminating influence of the usual night classes in English for foreigners.” As soon as English was learned, newcomers would leave the federation altogether and join one of the “regular” branches of the party, under Berenberg’s scheme. Federations should also prepare immigrants for American citizenship and continue to conduct Socialist propaganda in their own language directed to workers who do not know English, Berenberg believes.

 

“Enemies Within the Party,” by Abraham Tuvim” [June 18, 1921] Party regular Abraham Tuvim continues the National Office’s agitation for an expulsion of the left wing at the forthcoming 1921 National Convention of the Socialist Party. “Frankly, there are enemies within our ranks,” Tuvim declares, “Men who hate the Socialist Party with a vindictiveness which makes a Security Leaguer a friend by comparison. Men who never speak of our party without an accompanying sneer. Men who garble the truth, misrepresent, and slander. Men who are doing more to keep the party from functioning than then enemy outside of our ranks — the defender of capitalism.” He calls for the expulsion of these “Engdahls, Trachtenbergs, and Glassbergs.” Honest criticism and disagreement with party policy should remain acceptable, but “active opposition” should not. In addition to divorcing itself from the left wing, the coming convention should forbid affiliation with “anti-Socialist Party organizations and periodicals, including all Communist groups and publications or independent anti-party groups,” Tuvim opines.

 

“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.”

 

Socialists Open Convention  in Detroit Today: Delegates Gather at 10 This Morning to Deal with Vital Problems of Party — NEC on Scene, by William M. Fiegenbaum [June 24, 1921] With yet another left wing split in the wind, delegates to the 1921 Socialist Party convention assembled in Detroit in an attempt to stabilize the floundering organization. New York Call reporter William Morris Fiegenbaum was on the scene to report the situation to the Socialist daily’s readers. A break of the Bohemian (Czech) language federation and some portion of the Chicago organization over failure to affiliate with the Communist International was anticipated — a split which was estimated by Fiegenbaum to potentially remove another 200 to 300 members from the SPA’s dwindling ranks. An end to the SPA’s foreign language federations was predicted by Fiegenbaum: “When there were a few federations, with a tenth of the party membership, there wasn’t any trouble; but when the federations had 55 percent of the membership there was a lot of trouble.” Fiegenbaum felt that the Finnish Federation was in favor of ending the old semi-autonomous federation system, while Frank Petrich of the Yugoslav (Slovenian) Federation was bitterly opposed. Adding to the confusion was the fact that the SPA was flat broke. National Secretary Otto Branstetter was “worried nearly sick over the party’s finances,” and was faced with the task of getting “the convention over with and [getting] the delegates sent home. And with an empty treasury it is no mean job.”

 

Letter to William F. Kruse in Chicago from Joseph M. Coldwell in Atlanta Federal Penitentiary. [written before June 24, 1921] This letter from Socialist political prisoner Joseph Coldwell to Bill Kruse, head of the party’s youth section, summarizes the frustration of Comintern-friendly radicals in an increasingly conservative SPA. “Just now I am without a home, politically,” Coldwell writes, “as I cannot quite go the CP and the SP, as constituted at present, does not come up to my ideas of what a working class party should be. I believe in political action, based on working class needs, and backed up by a class-conscious membership.” He wishes Kruse and party editor Louis Engdahl success at the forthcoming party convention: “Personally, I hope you and Engdahl will succeed in having the convention adopt a sane policy. The latest Van Lear fiasco should be a good argument against the old pure and simple policy. We have had too many politicians of that type in the party. Politicians who looked upon the securing of public office as the goal, the Lunn type, seems to predominate the party.”

 

“Socialist Party’s Stand on International Settled: Four-Hour Debate Presents Every Argument, Pro and Con, Before Vote.” (NY Call) [June 25, 1921] News report of the first day of the 1921 National Convention of the Socialist Party of America, highlighted by a four hour debate on the question of international affiliation. As anticipated, the pro-Moscow affiliation/pro-21 points faction headed by Bill Kruse and Louis Engdahl was routed on the convention floor in four hours of debate. Motions for Comintern affiliation, conditional Comintern affiliation, and affiliation with the Vienna international were defeated in favor of a 4th option, non-affiliation — backed by Victor Berger and Morris Hillquit.

 

The Socialist Party Convention, by James Oneal [events of June 25-29, 1921] Perennial Socialist Party National Executive Committee member James Oneal offers a relatively mixed response to the decisions the recently completed annual Socialist Party National Convention for readers of the New York Call. Oneal lists a number of decisions not to act, including the turning back of a provision for ideologically-based expulsions, agreement not to seek unconditional affiliation with the Third International and a similar decision not to pursue affiliation with the 2-1/2 International in Vienna, and the tabling of resolutions relating to sabotage, direct action, and mass action. The convention did move on matters of fundraising, production of propaganda leaflets, and expanding outreach to women. A proposal to “ call a congress of various organizations to unite in one organization” — the essential idea of the Conference for Progressive Political Action — was rejected. The party's language federation system, targeted for elimination by some in the party, was instead retained. Oneal criticizes the efforts of “ hostile elements” inside and outside the party to join with outside radical forces to undermine official SPA amnesty and defense efforts, seeking “ revolutionary action” rather than “ petit bourgeois” fundraising and political pressure tactics. “ In this 21st anniversary year it remains for the Socialists of the nation, those who were not deceived by the imperialist powers of darkness; those who were never lured by the specious pleas of apostates; those who were never swerved by the emotional hysteria and morbid expectations within our own ranks, to register the will to rebuild the Socialist movement,” Oneal declares.

 

JULY

“Berger’s Convention,” by John Keracher [July 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.

 

“’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 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.

 

Legion Mob Kidnaps Kate O’Hare in Idaho: Driven for Hours Through Desert by Band of 20, Socialist Lecturer is Released, Penniless, in Nevada. (NY Call) [event of July 1, 1921] On the night of July 1, 1921, recently released Federal prisoner Kate Richards O'Hare was kidnapped from her room in Twin Falls, Idaho, by a mob of about 20 right wing nationalists, driven by automobile for hours, and dumped without funds over the Nevada state line. While the first of this report gives telegraphic details of the incident, including the facts that 10 arrests of American Legion kidnappers followed, the great bulk of the piece recalls O'Hare's arrest and imprisonment for 13 months under the so-called Espionage Act during World War I for an anti-war speech delivered in North Dakota. O'Hare promised to return to Twin Falls to fulfill her speaking engagement rather than to be bowed by the actions of the anti-socialist mob, according to this report.

 

Jesse Molle and the Socialist Party,” by Bertha Hale White [July 3, 1921] Socialist Party affiliation with Moscow is now a dead issue, declares high party functionary Berth Hale White, soon to become National Executive Secretary of the organization. She details the efforts of the SPA to carry out the instruction of its rank and file to seek membership in the Comintern — first in a letter sent through the Italian Socialist Party (via the British ILP) late in 1919, a message repeated in April 1920 in a letter hand carried to Moscow by SPA organizer Jesse Molle and her husband Mitri Schwartz. “We are told that our application for affiliation when presented to the Communist International caused considerable merriment,” White notes. She adds that it was “preposterous” to think that the SPA would accept the Comintern’s terms, which declared “that there shall be a Communist Party in this country to which comrades like Morris Hillquit may not be admitted, and that will submit to an iron-bound Moscow domination.” The question of affiliation with Moscow is moot, White observes, for “ We are not invited and no matter how humbly we knock at the door and beg admittance we shall be refused. Socialists of America have been told in no uncertain terms that if they want recognition their credentials must be issued by another organization.”

 

On the Situation in Latvian Branches of former CPA: Report to the Organization Department of the Central Executive Committee of the unified CPA, July 21, 1921, by Dan Collins (pseud.) This esoteric archival document provides some details about the evolution of the Lettish (Latvian) Federation of the Socialist Party. The federation first left the SPA for the old CPA in the Summer 1919 split; a second split followed in Sept. 1920 when the powerful Boston organization, joined by part of New York, “declared the CEC of the whole Federation recalled and elected a new CEC for the whole Federation.” Fundamental point of difference seems to have been whether the officers of the organization were to be chosen by convention or referendum vote. “Collins,” the DO of the CPA faction favoring strong centralization and convention-based elections, forced a split, declaring the advocates of referendum voting and attention to the cooperative movement to be “revolutionaries in words, but reactionaries in deeds” and outside of the party. According to “Collins” the federation was completely disrupted by the factional war, he indicates. An effort at reorganization was made in January 1921 with former members apparently rejoining en masse, only to see the factional war renewed. The ongoing disruption apparently had a nationalist component, with some party members “stating that there are a bunch of Jews in the CEC,” “Collins” indicates. “Collins” seeks permission of the CEC to begin a series of expulsions of troublemakers to establish party discipline — “if not, the situation will grow every day.” “Collins” opens the question of another reorganization operation in order to “get rid of the former leaders and allow the sincere members to do positive instead of negative work.”

 

O’Hare Outrage Planned Six Weeks Ahead: Report to Civil Liberties Union Reveals Nearly All Groups in Twin Falls Implicated. (NY Call) [events of May 15-July 2, 1921] This follow-up report on the abduction of touring Socialist speaker Kate Richards O’Hare by Idaho “patriots” indicates that the crime was not spontaneous, but was rather the result of six weeks of planning by the local post of the American Legion. According to an American Civil Liberties Union investigator, agitation by the American Legion began about May 15, with representatives of the group visiting other civil and fraternal groups seeking pledges of support for any action which the Legion might take in the matter in the name of “Americanism.” Planning became intense on the evening of June 29, during which a meeting of 25 or 30 representatives of civic organizations was held. The Knights of Pythias, Elks, Moose, Pan-Hellenic Club of Women, GAR, and Kiwanis supported the Legion’s anti-O’Hare efforts, but not the Odd Fellows, Masons, or churches, the report indicates. Indictment of the kidnappers as a violation of federal law was sought but conviction was deemed “difficult” based on previous rulings of the court, “entirely aside from the difficulties of overcoming the organized prejudices and misrepresentation which would surround such a proceeding.”

 

Engdahl Quits Chicago Office: Editor and Third International Partisan Resigns County Secretaryship. (NY Call) [July 21, 1921] Following the unquestionable victory of the party regulars at the 1921 Socialist Party National Convention a new exodus of Left Wing members began. One of the most important losses to the Communist movement was party journalist J. Louis Engdahl, former editor of the SPA’s official organ, The American Socialist, and one of five top party leaders indicted by the US government in 1918 and sentenced to 20 years imprisonment in a prominent public trial. “Engdahl’s resignation followed the action of the County Delegate Committee in removing him as editor of the Chicago Socialist, the official party publication and the only party organ espousing affiliation with the Third International,” the news report indicates.

 

AUGUST

 

“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 cynicism 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.”

 

“Mrs. Hazlett to Sue Ringleader of Legion Mob: $20,000 Damage Action to Be Brought Against Son of Banker Who Kidnapped Her.” (NY Call) [event of Aug. 16, 1921] Having received no satisfaction with the partisan application of criminal law in the small town of Shenandoah, Iowa, Socialist Party organizer Ida Crouch Hazlett took her kidnapping by American Legion thugs to civil court for remedy, announcing that a $20,000 lawsuit was being launched against the ringleader of the crime for having violated her civil rights. In announcing her intention to bring suit, Hazlett revealed additional details of her kidnapping, charging that alleged ringleader Thomas Murphy had raised his hand to strike her and that she had boldly averted injury by challenging the 8 Legionnaires to go the full measure and to kill her. “Riding down the road at terrific speed,” Hazlett recounted, “I suggested that they kill me. I pictured my body hacked to pieces and scattered along the road. I implied that it would certainly add to the sweet memories of their mothers. Then I switched the picture. I suggested the possibility that the car might be wrecked and all of us killed. Their mothers would not like to see that, would then? That twist changed their minds. And when I suggested that the only thing to do was to turn back, they simply had to obey.”

 

SEPTEMBER

“A Call for United Action: To All Labor Unions, Farmers’ Organizations, and Other Economic, Political, Cooperative, and Fraternal Organizations of the Producing Class”. . [Sept. 1921] The origin of the Conference for Progressive Political Action has long been attributed to a joint decision of the 16 main railway unions, which sponsored a founding conference in Chicago in February of 1922. This September 1921 appeal for just such an organization, written and transmitted to the varioius unions by the National Executive Committee of the Socialist Party, lends support for the theory that this idea actually originated outside the 16 railway brotherhoods. The Socialist Party’s vision was of a loose alliance which brought together various labor groups in joint political action “similar to that of the federated organizations of the British Labour Party.” According to the appeal, America was embroiled in “the worst industrial depression we have ever experienced,” with six million workers unemployed, armed anti-union bands given free reign under the moniker of “detective agencies,” while other bands of thugs like the American Legion and the Ku Klux Klan operated outside the rule of law altogether. Employers shamelessly used the legislative and judicial arms of the state to conduct an open shop drive which threatened the very existence of the organized labor movement. In response, a “united front” joining the forces of “every progressive, liberal, and radical organization of the workers must be mobilized to repel these assaults and to advance the industrial and political power of the working class,” according to the NEC’s appeal.

 

“My Interview with Debs in his Prison”, by James H. Maurer [event of Sept. 1, 1921] First-hand account of a Sept. 1, 1921 visit by Socialist Party leader James Maurer to Gene Debs at Atlanta Federal Penitentiary, quoting an extensive letter written to Socialist Party Executive Secretary Otto Branstetter at the time. “What made the greatest impression on me was Gene’s mental and physical condition. He has a healthy color, looks like a farmer, tanned as though he had worked on a farm. I mentioned to him that he looked as though he was enjoying good health, and he assured me that he was feeling fine. As to his mental faculties, I can truthfully say they are as keen as ever. All this talk about his being a mental wreck is rot,” Maurer writes. Branstetter and Maurer had been concerned about the efforts of the Communists to win Debs’ allegiance. “From my conversation with Gene I feel sure that the “impossibilists” have not succeeded in fooling him. We talked about the much-heralded revolution which is now years overdue, and we both enjoyed a good laugh. I asked him not to commit himself to any‘ism’ until he had an opportunity of looking the field over after his discharge, and his answer was that I could rest easy on that point,” Maurer writes.

 

“Working Class Political Unity,” by Morris Hillquit [Sept. 7, 1921] This article in the New York Call by the Socialist Party’s most respected strategist, Morris Hillquit, delves into the shift of the Socialist Party towards cooperation with progressive elements from outside the party, a marked departure from the party’s historical orientation against “fusion” with external elements. Hillquit notes that the decision of the 1921 Detroit Convention to explore the field. Hillquit notes that this decision is less monumental than some believed: that the tactic would need to be reported to the next convention and approved, and ratified by the membership. Hillquit indicates his support for an electoral alliance through a British-style Labor Party, in which the constituent organizations would continue to run their own candidates for state governorships in order to retain their electoral status, but through which “candidates for other offices would be distributed among the different cooperating organizations with regard to their respective strength in different political districts.” Hillquit’s thinking is intensely practical: “To continue as a movement of the select few, as a small priesthood charged with the duty of keeping the sacred flame alive and protected from the profane gaze of the multitude, is not an object which in our agitated days will commend itself to the workers of this country. We must have the workers with us, if we are to succeed and we must go to them if they do not come to us.”

 

“Can We Work for Socialism Outside the Socialist Party?” by William M. Feigenbaum [Sept. 9, 1921] In this article published in the Socialist Party’s New York daily, journals William Feigenbaum—son of one of the fathers of the Yiddish language Federation of the SPA—takes aim at the Communists for disrupting the cause of Socialism in America, exemplified by their behavior at the recently completed special convention of the Jewish Socialist Federation. Feigenbaum questions the motives of the Left Wing of the JSF in waiting so long to break with the national Socialist Party, seeing in the delay an effort “to do as much damage to the Socialist Party as they could in their withdrawal.” Feigenbaum thus characterizes the Left Wing of the Federation as “wreckers and disrupters” whose work, “together with the work of the Ku Klux and the American Legion, had borne fruit.” Feigenbaum contends that the 2 years of Communist independent action had been an abysmal failure: “Not a single new member was gained, but more than nine-tenths of the old went out. Not a stroke of organization work has been done, except to throw a few manifestos from elevated trains and roofs. Instead of sections of a united party, the few hundred remaining men are two angrily quarreling ‘parties,’ periodically ‘uniting,’ and then splitting again.” Feigenbaum argues that this was a necessary result of the fact that the “Communist movement was born as a negative drive against the Socialist Party, rather than as a positive movement for some ideal or some method of organization.” Instead, Feigenbaum declares that despite its various “faults and shortcomings, the only work for Socialism of any consequence that has been done within the past 2 years since the ‘new’ methods were evolved, is the direct result of the Socialist Party’s work.” Feigenbaum insists: “Those who want to see Socialism grow can work for Socialism. Let all others get out of the way.”

 

“Cahan Says the Forward Supports the Party: Editor of Great Jewish Daily, Back from Europe, Declares Seceders Will be Fought—Praises Germans and Scores Communists Abroad,” by William M. Feigenbaum [Sept. 11, 1921] On Sept. 11, 1921, the powerful and widely respected editor of the Jewish Daily Forward, Abraham Cahan, returned to America after a 14 week stay in Europe, centered in Berlin. There Cahan had exchanged views with a wide range of leaders of the European Socialist movement, including representatives of the Soviet government. Upon his return, Cahan was met at the docks by about 75 prominent Jewish-American leaders, who sat together in a luncheon at the Hotel Brevoort in New York. In his address to the gathering, Cahan declared in no uncertain terms that “no man can write against the Socialist Party and remain on the Forward... I am sorry that we must lose some of our best people,but if they are against the party, that settles it. No one who is against the party can be on the Forward. The Forward was established for the party, not the party for the Forward. Some of the intellectuals want the Third International. For an American to speak of the Third International is a sign of absolute idiocy—if not of a police spy. In Europe, people know that the Third International is an absolute failure. It is a joke. Lenin would like to get rid of it if he could. No one takes it seriously any more. The Third International has done 1,000 times more damage to the Socialist movement than good.” Cahan noted the vitality of the Social Democratic Party in Germany and stated that “the Communist there amount to nothing.... The leading Communist members of the Soviet government that I spoke to admit that the whole Communist movement, and the hope of a world revolution, on which the Communist International is based, is done for.”

 

“Jewish Group in Party Will Convene Today: Federation, 500 Weak Now, Thought Certain to be Destroyed, No Matter What Action is Taken: Once Numbered 5,000: Organized as Autonomous Body in 1912, Its Officials Have Fought Party Since Albany Trial.” (NY Call) [Sept. 3, 1921] From Sept. 3-5, 1921, a special convention of the Jewish Socialist Federation was held to decide the question of that organization’s future affiliation with the Socialist Party of America. The Executive Committee of the JSF sought to sever ties with the parent organization, in favor of some sort of affiliation with the Third International—although there was very little support remaining within the Federation for the underground tactics of the CPA (the Left Wing of the organization having already departed in 1919-20). This is the first of 4 reports in the Socialist Party’s New York daily detailing the proceedings of the JSF special convention. The loss of the JSF is seen as a foredrawn conclusion by the reporter, who notes that with the 1921 convention “an important chapter in the Socialist movement comes to a close.” The importance of this change is minimized, the unnamed reporter noting that from a peak membership of 5,000 to 6,000, the JSF had fallen to barely 500 dues-paying members. The history of the Jewish Federation is detailed here, from the organization of the “Jewish Agitation Bureau” by Benjamin Feigenbaum, Meyer Gillis, Max Kaufman, and others in 1908; to full Federation status in 1912. The Federation’s turn to a “nationalistic viewpoint” is blamed on Max Goldfarb ["A.J. Bennett"], a former member of the Bund who returned to Soviet Russia in 1917. The decisive turning point is said to have occurred in 1920, with the trial of the 5 Socialist Assemblymen by the New York Legislature, an event which was denounced as obsequious parliamentarism by the Left Wing of the JSF, headed by Jacob Salutsky.

 

“Jewish Group Seats Enemies of Party Unity: Loyal Delegates Beaten in Every Fight Against Executive Committee—Move for Split: Kahn Flays Bolters: Some Leaders Charged at Opening of Federation Congress with Being Supporters of World War.” (NY Call) [Sept. 4, 1921] This is the 2nd of 4 reports in the Socialist Party’s New York daily detailing the proceedings of the JSF special convention, called to determine the JSF’s future relationship to the Socialist Party of America. In this unsigned article, it is intimated that the secessionists had successfully won control of the convention at the first day’s sessions, as in the evening “the Credentials Committee and the Convention was seating every contested delegate who had expressed a desire to see the Federation withdraw from the party and unseating every contested delegate who was loyal to the party.” Two slates had vied for seats on the Credentials Committee, with the Left Wing supporters of the Executive Committee defeating slate of the the insurgent party loyalists by about 40 to 25, with all delegates—even those under challenge—permitted to vote. “At the time of going to press the loyal party delegates were still fighting every anti-party delegate, but, realizing that, with the contesting delegates voting on their own cases, and with a Central Office eager for the withdrawal plan, it was hopeless to expect to carry the convention,” the reporter indicates, adding that the decision on affiliation was the sole item on the agenda of the special convention. Otto Branstetter had previously addressed the convention on behalf of the National Office of the SPA, stating: “There is no other party in the world in any of the great countries that stood so true to international Socialism as did our party. In other countries, minorities stood straight. In America, the official position of the party was straight. What have the Communists done? They went out of the party; they said they were going to organize the workers and make the revolution, but to date they have done nothing except to weaken the Socialist Party. And much as they want all the honor for this, they must divide that honor with the American Legion, with the Department of Justice, and with the Chambers of Commerce.”

 

“Loyal Jewish Socialists Quit Seceding Body: Federation Convention Votes, 41 to 34, to Leave Party—New Group is Immediately Organized...: Bigger and More Active Movement Promised by Those Who Refuse to Bolt Organization.” (NY Call) [Sept. 5, 1921] This is the 3rd of 4 reports in the Socialist Party’s New York daily detailing the proceedings of the JSF special convention, called to determine the JSF’s future relationship to the Socialist Party of America. This installment notes the result of the final vote on affiliation after 6 hours of debate on Sept. 4, won by the withdrawal forces over the SP loyalists, 41 to 34. The main speech for the secessionists was delivered by Jacob Salutsky, while Nathan Chain of the United Hebrew Trades made the opening speech for the loyalists. Upon the decision, the 34 loyalists bolted the convention, meeting in another room of Forward Hall. Speeches were made to the loyalists assembled by Jacob Panken; J. Baskin (General Secretary of the Workmen’s Circle), Alexander Kahn of the Forward, and SPA Executive Secretary Otto Branstetter. A committee of 9 was elected to draw up plans for the Jewish Federation loyalists, to report back on the ensuing day.

 

“New Alliance is Created by Jewish Group: Loyal Socialists Organize in Opposition to Seceding Federation with Endorsement of Labor Unions...: United Hebrew Trades Secretary Assures Delegates of Support in Movement for Strong Party.” (NY Call) [Sept. 6, 1921] This is the 4th of 4 reports in the Socialist Party’s New York daily detailing the proceedings of the JSF special convention, called to determine the JSF’s future relationship to the Socialist Party of America. This installment reports the formation of the Jewish Socialist Alliance (Verbund) of the Socialist Party by the bolting minority delegates. Nathan Chanin was elected General Secretary of the new organization. Meanwhile, the JSF majority voted 43 to 3 to affiliate with the Communist International, despite their misgivings about the institutionalized underground tactics of the Communist Party of America. The organization prepared for a period of independence, setting its dues at 50 cents per month. (The secessionist JSF soon merged with the “Committee for the 3rd International” in the SP to establish itself as the Workers’ Council).

 

“Some Plain Words,” by Charles W. Ervin [Sept. 10, 1921] Managing Editor of the New York Call Charles Ervin fires a broadside in the direction of the Communist Party’s Friends of Soviet Russia organization, appealing for funds for Russian famine relief, to be collected and distributed outside of the FSR apparatus. The Call’s fund will be administered without the deduction of a single cent for operational expenses, Ervin indicates. Alternatively, Call readers are encouraged by Ervin to donate to Russian famine relief through their trade unions. Ervin notes the hostility of the FSR to parallel relief efforts, and cites the group’s antipathy to the efforts of the ACWU and ILGWU as “proof positive to us of a desire to sabotage other funds being collected, and a total disinclination to really unify the activities taking place among the working class.”Ervin declares that “we are used to the abuse of the Communists in this country. All the energies that in Russia go to the doing of constructive work seem to be employed by the Communists in America in factional strife. Not content with going their own way and attacking capitalism, they spend much of their time in a vain effort to destroy the existing labor unions by intriguing within their ranks and by seeking to interfere in every way possible with the activity of other groups of workers who do not happen to believe in their tactics.”Ervin characterizes the CPA’s efforts under the FSR banner as the “antics”of “long-distance revolutionists”who are “working under false colors, or posing like some cheap detective in ridiculous disguise”and indicates that the paper will not hesitate to “show them up as thoroughly as we know how”when they are caught vilifying others.

 

“The ‘Legal’ Communists: Letter to the Editor of the New York Call,” by Adolph Germer [Sept. 11, 1921] The former Executive Secretary of the Socialist Party and current assistant to Greater New York Secretary Julius Gerber, Adolph Germer, writes this letter in support of Charles Ervin’s editorial of the previous day attacking the Friends of Soviet Russia. “It is high time that the unsuspecting public, especially the progressing working class, among whom they carry on their panhandling, understand these self-appointed ‘saviors of the proletarian revolution’.... It should require no argument to convince any open-minded person that anyone, or any group, that carries on a persistent campaign to divide the ranks of labor, no matter in whose name it is done or to what pretended purpose, is an enemy of the working class - a far greater and more dangerous enemy than the paid hireling of the employers,”Germer declares.

 

“W.Z. Foster, Back from Europe, Pins Faith on Economic Action: Labor Man Slips Quietly Into US After Months in Russia, Italy, Germany, France, England—Confident of Soviets’ Success and Leadership of ACW Here.” (NY Call) [Sept. 15, 1921] This article from the pages of the Socialist Party’s New York Call documents the return of William Z. Foster from his extended tour of Russia, Germany, Italy, England, and France on behalf of the Federated Press. The friendly writer of this piece indicates that “There are two things of which Foster remains sincerely convinced: that the Russian revolution is a success and that the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America will continue to be the leader among American labor organizations.”Foster is characterized as “an optimist, confident of the ultimate victory of the working class in the very near future,”despite his belief that the world was enmeshed in a “trough of reaction,”with the revolutionary movement stilted across Europe. The Call writer says that Foster argued that one of the most serious problems facing the European labor movement was “the lack of restraint of the younger men.”Foster recalled that in Germany and Italy “the workers were continually called on strike, how often at intervals of only 2 or 3 days, for Mooney, for Russia, because some leader had been assaulted, and for hundreds of trifling incidents in the course of events. The workers have struck time and again and nothing has happened. They have become tired of striking.”The revolutionary moment had particularly passed in Germany, in Foster’s estimation, where “with 9 million members in the unions alone and the workers thoroughly conscious of their political power, the average workman laughs when asked about the revolution.”

 

“Gale to Squeal Way to Liberty, Inquiry Shows: Renegade Radical to Give State’s Evidence to Escape Penalty for Evading the Draft.” (NY Call) [Sept. 17, 1921] This article from the New York Call notes the transformation of draft resister and radical publisher Linn Gale from “a rabid Communist to a prisoner willing to incriminate other radicals, betraying their confidences.”In view of Gale’s decision to collaborate with Federal authorities after his deportation from Mexico, the American Civil Liberties Union had declined to come to the aid of Gale’s legal defense. An Aug. 26 letter of ACLU head Roger Baldwin is cited: “The Civil Liberties Union has no interest whatever in the case of Linn A.E. Gale. He is not and never was a ‘conscientious objector.’ His activities as a radical in Mexico are open to grave charges of unscrupulous conduct, to put it mildly. His attitude since his arrest and the character of his efforts to secure support for his defense make it clear that he is unworthy of the confidence of those interested in civil liberty. We advise our friends not to contribute to his defense fund.”In response to a communication from Baldwin, Gale’s lawyer issued a statement declaring “my client has authorized me to make public the information that he has renounced his former political beliefs and convictions, that he has completely severed his connections with the radical movement, and consequently would not be justified in receiving any further aid or support from them. My client, Linn Gale, desires to state that he is absolutely sincere in the repudiation of his former radical opinions, as expressed through Gale’s Magazine, and that at no time in the future will he engage in radical activities.”

 

“The Detroit Resolution,” by James Oneal [Sept. 19, 1921] Socialist Party NEC member James Oneal offers his perspective on the decision of the June 1921 Detroit Convention to survey the field with a view to eventual work with other radical organizations in an umbrella organization patterned after the British Labour Party. Oneal states that the NEC had followed the instructions of the convention and dispatched a survey to likely political partners. Oneal notes that the NEC did not have authority to act upon the replies it received—it would take approval of the next convention and ratification by referendum vote of the party to call a conference of progressive organizations to formally organize the new multi-party alliance. The model and goal advocated by Oneal is quite clear: “In England, whether the candidate is a member of the Independent Labour Party or any other Socialist organization, whether he is a member of an affiliated trade union or cooperative society, he wages the contest in the name of the Labour Party. The same procedure would be taken here.”Oneal critically observes that “for a generation the Socialist movement of the United States has been cursed with theoreticians and dogmatists”and declares that “one advantage of the British form of political organization of the workers is that it throws the Socialists into intimate contact with other organizations of the working class and brings these workers into contact with us.”Oneal indicates he personally sees 2 million adherents to the new umbrella organization as the essential minimum for the tactic to be pursued. He rules out alliance with the progressive capitalist “Committee of 48”but does see the Non-Partisan League as being ideologically close enough to the SP to merit interest. Oneal is critical of the “no less than a dozen Communist priesthoods “ which emerged from the 1919 split of the Socialist Party and maintains little interest in alliance with those who indulge in “introspective brooding”and who “burn incense in honor of the Communist ritual.”

 

“For a Mass Movement,” by Adolph Dreifuss [Sept. 22, 1921] This article by the leader of the Socialist Party’s German Federation, Adolph Dreifuss, speaks to the hot issue in party ranks—the move towards organized cooperation with other Left Wing organizations in an American version of the British Labour Party. Dreifuss notes that this represented “a deviation from the tactics hitherto pursued by the Socialist Party”and attempts to explain that the decision to pursue the tactic was not the province of the SP Right, but rather was the considered opinion of all tendencies at the Detroit Convention, including Left Wingers Louis Engdahl and Bill Kruse. Dreifuss notes that “the object is to bring about an organization similar to that of the British Labour Party, which is composed from autonomous parties and groups, like the Independent Labour Party, the Social Democratic Federation, the Fabian Society, the various labor unions, etc. Each one of these parties retains its integrity and autonomy... Each of these organizations has its own platform, based on its own principles. But the struggle of the present against their common enemy they fight together.”Dreifuss notes that the United States has “no opposition that amounts to much.”He declares that “none of the ‘revolutionary’ parties, however they may call themselves, reach the masses”and observes that the ongoing economic crisis has made the working class “servile”and “submissive.”“It must be every worker’s aim to get out of this slough to strengthen his class. To cooperate with others is one means to achieve liberty of movement,”Dreifuss declares—thus the move towards joint action has been supported by all tendencies in the SPA, “from Engdahl to Berger.”

 

“Rand School is Voted to Be SP Auxiliary: Controlling Society, 38 to 20, Fixes Its Stand—Six Directors Resign from Board.” (NY Call) [event of Sept. 23, 1921] On Sept. 23, 1921, at the start of the academic year, the membership of the American Socialist Society met and, after lengthy and heated debate, adopted a resolution declaring the Rand School of Social Science to be a Socialist Party institution and determined that “the teachers of history, economics, political science, and related subjects, therefore, ought to be in the main either members of or avowed sympathizers with the Socialist Party.”Furthermore, the resolution asserted that “The American Socialist Society considers it inconsistent for any person to act as an officer or director of the society or as an officer of the Rand School whose views or activities are hostile to those of the Socialist Party or who cannot heartily accept the foregoing instruction.”Passage of the resolution prompted the resignation of 6 directors of the American Socialist Society—Benjamin Glassberg, Augusta Holland, Jacob Purchin, Eugene Schoehn, Alexander Trachtenberg, and Rose Weiner. Complete text of the resolution is included here.

 

“Communists Try to Disrupt Socialist Rally: Create Uproar at Brownsville Labor Lyceum During Address by London—Disturbers are Ejected...: Incident Stimulates Enthusiasm of Workers for Socialist Message...” (NY Call) [event of Sept. 23, 1921] On Sept. 23, 1921, Socialist Congressman Meyer London spoke on behalf of his party before a crowd of 1,500 at an electoral rally held in Brownsville, NY. During the course of London’s remarks, a Communist Party member in the audience shouted “Traitor!”-- prompting “a group of workers began battering away at the disturber.”The scuffle expanded when friends of the heckler came to his aid; the outnumbered Communists were expelled from the meeting by the Socialists, with the aid of a policeman. According to this news account in the New York Call, “when quiet was restored, Representative London warned the Communists who remained hidden in the hall that in the future the Socialists will not be responsible for what happens to those who try to break up Socialist meetings.”“These disrupters will be treated in the same way as a scab is treated by a good union man,”London aggressively shouted, “No decent working man will tolerate them in their midst.”A demonstration lasting several minutes followed.

 

“Socialist Vote Will Have Worldwide Effect: Speech at the Lexington Theater, New York City,” by Morris Hillquit [Sept. 25, 1921] Text of a speech by Socialist Party leader Morris Hillquit kicking off the party’s 1921 electoral campaign. Hillquit characterizes the New York City mayoral campaign as a meaningless choice of evils between a “self-confessed ‘friend of the people’” and “the avowed candidate of the vested interests.” Neither will solve the fundamental problems faced by the city’s working class. Hillquit argues that the 1921 election does have an important aspect, however—"The election separates and groups the voters of the whole city into distinct camps or parties, which voice their political views, aims, and aspirations. The vote cast on election day is a faithful mirror of the mental and moral caliber of the electorate.... The only manifestation of an awakening working class intelligence, the only ray of hope that the election may offer, will be in the votes cast for the Socialist Party.” A crisis is approaching, in Hillquit’s view, wherein “the delicate industrial machine of capitalism is cracking, and the shortsighted capitalist master machinists are making frantic efforts to repair it with sledgehammers.” However, the union-busting efforts of the capitalist class will be thwarted, Hillquit believes: “There will be no return to capitalist normalcy. There is nothing but war and strife ahead of mankind unless the entire discord-breeding machine of capitalism is scrapped, and the workers of the world take hold of the governments and industries and run them rationally and peacefully for the equal benefit and happiness of all people and all peoples.” Hillquit also makes a plea for Russian famine relief, under the slogan “Give till it hurts.”

OCTOBER

 

“Where We Stand,” by Charles W. Ervin [Oct. 13, 1921] This statement by managing editor of the Socialist Party’s New York Call, Charles Ervin, contrasts the ideology of the SPA with that of the Communist movement. Ervin neatly summarizes the Social Democratic ideology: “From the very first this paper not only adhered to the Socialist movement of the world at large, but it was one of the organs of the Socialist Party of America. It believed then, as it believes now, in the immense value of political education. It does not go into a political campaign merely for the sake of bringing its ideas to the people. It believes in striving for political power to use it in securing industrial control. It believes, and always has believed, in the great importance of immediate demands. If it did not, it certainly would not support the battle of the labor unions as it does. It believes that every advantage, no matter how slight, that is wrested from the capitalist class puts the workers in a position where they will be able to secure still further advantages until they become sufficiently organized to stretch out and grasp all the good things of life. This paper does not believe that things have to get worse before they get better. It does not believe that when men and women rise to a higher standard of life they become so contented that they cease to strive to reach toward higher things. On the contrary, it strives for and welcomes every improvement in the human mind and body, every improvement in physical environment, every step toward a higher spiritual development that mankind succeeds in making.”

 

 

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