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Title: The Red Conspiracy
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The Red Conspiracy
BY
JOSEPH J. MERETO
1920
THE NATIONAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY
37 West 39th Street, New York
This book proves the existence of the Red Peril. We publish it to warn
America. We ask the help of every loyal American, organization and
institution to put "The Red Conspiracy" in every home, school and
library in the land. Price, cloth bound, $2.15 postpaid; in paper, $1.10
postpaid.
Chapters of the book and parts of chapters can also be supplied in
pamphlet and leaflet form for wide distribution. Write us for
particulars.
The National Historical Society
37 West 39th Street, New York
_Copyright, 1920, by
The National Historical Society_
INTRODUCTION
As a mark of sincere gratitude for all that he owes to his Country from
birth, the author of "The Red Conspiracy" hereby dedicates his work to
his fellow-countrymen, trusting that it will prove a bulwark of defense
for our Star-Spangled Banner and constitutional form of government, now
so violently assailed by disloyal American citizens, as well as by
Marxian rebels from abroad who have deceived many of the uneducated or
trained them in ways of evil.
While "The Red Conspiracy" will appeal strongly to all who are seeking a
clear and comprehensive knowledge of Socialism, Bolshevism, Communism
and I. W. W.'ism, it will be of special value to the workingmen of
America, as it will enable them easily to understand the fallacies of
the Revolutionists and at the same time make them realize the serious
dangers that would result from the adoption of any of the various
radical programs.
Friendship, indeed, the "Knights of the Red Flag" profess for the
laboring man. Such friendship, however, once it is understood will be
spurned, for it is one which would plunge the sons of toil into a
terrible abyss of injustice, deprivation and suffering--wrongs far
greater than those endured from abuses of capitalism and partial
corruption of some government officials.
At the very beginning of this work, the author wishes to express his
heartfelt sympathy for poor men and women who are treated unjustly by
employers, as well as with all who receive too small a recompense for
their wearisome labors. It is, indeed, a source of deep regret to us
that in consequence of injustice and uncharitableness, there are to be
found in this rich republic numbers of our fellow-countrymen, not merely
men and women but even innocent little children, who can scarcely
relieve the pangs of their hunger by the coarsest kinds of food and have
naught but rags for clothes and huts for homes. Feeling deep concern for
these poor people, and for all who suffer either from employers or from
defects of government, we trust that "The Red Conspiracy" will not only
help toward remedying many of the evils that now weigh heavily upon the
working class, but help to avert the far more dreadful evils that would
result from the adoption of Socialism, Bolshevism, Communism, and I. W.
W.'ism.
For many years the author has made a careful study of radicalism, and
during that time has read not only many thousands of Socialist and I. W.
W. papers, leaflets, pamphlets and books, but also most of the leading
works against Socialism in the English language. We have sought to
gather an illuminating collection of quotations, not merely from
standard Marxian publications, but from the speeches of Socialists of
unquestioned authority in the international movement. These open
confessions of the Revolutionists cannot fail to interest the reader and
will certainly arouse the deep indignation of every fair-minded person
against a propaganda of deception which is working fast to wreck modern
civilization.
No doubt the readers of "The Red Conspiracy" will be interested to learn
that many of the revelations made in this book are brought to light
through purchase by the author himself of revolutionary papers and
pamphlets on sale in the spring and summer of 1919 at the National
Headquarters of the Socialist Party, the Chas. H. Kerr Socialist
Publishing Company, and the National Headquarters of the I. W. W., all
in Chicago, and also in leading Socialist bookstores of Chicago, New
York, and Philadelphia. The matter obtained in these centres of
underworld corruption and anarchy could not have been procured had the
author ransacked every public library in the United States.
Though loyalty and patriotism should always inspire us to defend our
country against its foes, we must concede to the Socialists that human
government, whether national, state or municipal, is by no means free
from serious defects; and we are bound to admit that representatives of
the American people, as well as men engaged in business and commerce,
have too often been guilty of dishonesty, injustice and cruelty to the
suffering poor.
Law-abiding citizens, while very much regretting that wrongs such as
these should exist, confidently hope to reduce them to a reasonable
minimum by methods of social reform still more effective than those that
have already brought to an end not a few of the evils prevalent in days
gone by. Prudence and charity suggest to true social reformers
reasonable constitutional and lawful methods by which to correct abuses
instead of adding to their number by adopting Socialism. We have already
seen too much of the work of the "Reds" in Europe and in parts of
Mexico, and we do not wish to behold our fellow-countrymen shedding more
blood and suffering graver evils, under Socialism, than they did during
the terrible World War.
Loyal and patriotic citizens of America, judging from the progress that
has been made in the past in matters of social reform, have every reason
for looking forward confidently to the success of their efforts--unless,
indeed, the Revolutionists, by greatly increasing their numbers, should
divide the workingmen of our country into two big parties, comprising,
respectively, the Socialists and the anti-Socialists, whose main purpose
it would then be to fight each other instead of joining forces against
social abuses. If the Revolutionists should gain very large numbers of
recruits, there would be, on the one hand, a great party consisting of
those whose object it would be to destroy our present form of
government, as well as the entire industrial system, and, on the other,
an opposition party, embracing good citizens and men of common sense and
intelligence, who, because of their realization of the blessings which
privately-owned industries and our constitutional form of government
have bestowed upon the people of America, would be determined to shed
the last drop of their blood in defense of them.
The Socialists, however, are not satisfied with social reform, but are
bent on the total destruction of our system of government and industry,
holding the system itself, rather than the faults and shortcomings of
men, to be by its very nature responsible for all the economic evils of
the day. "Down with the Stars and Stripes" is their cry. "Abolish
religion and the present form of marriage." "Atheism and free-love must
reign supreme." Then, trusting that workingmen will admire anything,
provided that it be adorned in sufficiently glowing colors, they paint
such fabulous pictures of Socialism as the following:
"Hundreds of thousands of former representatives of the state will
enter various professions, and by their intelligence and strength
will help to increase the wealth and comfort of society. Neither
political nor common crimes will be known in the future. Thieves
will have disappeared because private property will have
disappeared, and in the new society everybody will be able to
satisfy his wants easily and conveniently by work. Nor will there
be tramps and vagabonds, for they are the product of a society
founded on private property, and with the abolition of this
institution they will cease to exist. Murder? Why? No one can
enrich himself at the expense of others, and even murder for
hatred or revenge is directly or indirectly connected with the
social system. Perjury, false testimony, fraud, theft of
inheritance, fraudulent failures? There will be no private property
against which these crimes could be committed. Arson? Who should
find satisfaction in committing arson when society has removed all
cause for hatred? Counterfeiting? Money will be but a mere chimera,
it would be love's labor lost! Blasphemy? Nonsense! It will be left
to good Almighty God himself to punish whoever has offended him,
provided that the existence of God is still a matter of
controversy." ("Woman Under Socialism," by Bebel, page 436 of the
1910 edition in English.)
As an immense number of American citizens would not be led astray by
these foolish promises, or by others equally absurd--recalling how
political and common crimes, theft, murder, arson, perjury, worthless
currency, blasphemy and political corruption have ruined Socialist
Russia and made it a hell on earth--a dreadful revolution would be
necessary to compel our countrymen to surrender their cherished rights.
The Socialists, if victorious, after having set up a new form of
government, modeled on their own low ideas of morality, would not only
substitute a free-love regime for the present form of marriage, but,
going still further, would avail themselves of every opportunity for
destroying religion. The evils, however, would by no means end here, for
the new government, whose rapid decay would begin from the very day of
its birth, would in a short time collapse and fall, and then the
citizens of America would have neither a government to protect them from
the ravages of criminals, whose number would be legion, nor yet any
suitable system of organized industries for the employment of men and
the production of the necessaries of life. Consequently, trials and
sufferings incomparably greater than any of the present day would befall
the people in the reign of anarchy that would ensue.
It is to preserve our fellow-countrymen from ever having to endure such
calamities that we have undertaken this work, in which it is proven
conclusively that the "Reds," unless quickly thwarted, will overwhelm us
with unspeakable horrors of crime, rebellion, anarchy and destitution.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION iii
Scope of Book, iii; Value to Workingmen, iii; Sympathy for Labor,
iii; Quotations from Socialist Authorities, iv; Revolutionists Set
Back the Cause of Labor, v; Bebel's Fabulous Picture of Socialist
Possibilities, v; Socialism Means War, vi.
CHAPTER I
SOCIALISM IN OTHER LANDS 1
Modern Socialism Dates from "Communist Manifesto," 1848, 1; Karl
Marx, 1; Engels, 1; International Workingmen's Association, 1;
"Capital" by Marx, the Socialist Bible, 2; Socialism in Germany, 2;
in Bavaria, 4; in Russia, 4; Bolsheviks and Mensheviks, 5;
Socialism in Austria-Hungary, 5; in France, 5; in Great Britain, 8;
in Italy, 9; in Spain, 9; in Belgium, 10; in Holland, 10; in
Bohemia, 10; in Sweden, 11; in Norway, 11; in Argentina, 11; in
Canada, 12; in Bulgaria, 12; in Mexico, 12; in Other Foreign Lands,
12.
CHAPTER II
GROWTH OF SOCIALISM IN THE UNITED STATES 13
Introduced from Europe, 13; Workingmen's Party, 13; Socialist Labor
Party, 13; Socialist Democracy of America, 13; Socialist Party of
America, 13; Socialist Periodicals, 14; Socialist Party Strife and
Bossism, 14; The Internatonal, 16; The First International, 16; The
Second International, 16; International Socialist Bureau, 17;
American Socialists and the International, 17; The Berne
Conference, 18; The Third (Moscow) International, 18; Debs and
American Socialists Recognized by Lenine, 20; American Socialists'
Straddle Resolution on Berne and Moscow, 21.
CHAPTER III
THE SOCIALIST PARTY OF AMERICA DEVELOPS A LEFT WING 23
Revolution Camouflaged as Evolution, 23; "Yellows," "Reds,"
"Rights" and "Lefts," 23; Origin of the Left Wing, 24;
Revolutionary Principles of the Left Wing, 24; Sympathy with
Russian Bolshevism, 25; Industrial Unionism Advocated, 26; Mass
Action and Strikes the Prelude to Armed Rebellion, 26; "Moderate"
Socialism Rejected by American Revolutionists, 28; To Overthrow the
United States Government, 30; Text of Call to Moscow International,
31; American Socialist Party for "Industrial Unionism," 34.
CHAPTER IV
THE FREE-FOR-ALL FIGHT BETWEEN THE RIGHT AND LEFT WINGS 35
Rowdies at Socialist Meetings, 35; Revolution in America "at Hand,"
36; "Existence of the Party at Stake," 37; "The Steering
Committee," 38; Hillquit Says Left Wing is Not "Too Radical," 40;
"Friendly Separation," 41; The Left Wing Gets More "Dictatorship"
Than It Wants, 42; The Rights Expel and Suspend Tens of Thousands,
42; The Socialists' "Immortal" Executive Committee, 42; Manifesto
of the Third (Moscow) International, 45.
CHAPTER V
BIRTH OF THE COMMUNIST AND COMMUNIST LABOR PARTIES 52
Left Wing Conference, 52; Left Wingers Split, 52; Call for a
Communist Convention, 53; Too Many Would-Be Lenines and Trotzkys,
54; The "Firing Squad," 55; National Emergency Convention, 55; Who
Called the "Cops"? 57; A Convention on Each Floor, 57; The
Communist and Communist Labor Parties Organize, 57; Their
Principles, 58; "Reds" No Worse Than "Yellows," 58; Bolshevism of
the Socialist Party, 59; Utterances at the Emergency Conference,
60; Revolutionary Character of the Socialist Party, 65;
Trachtenberg on Affiliation with Moscow International, 68;
Glassberg Letter, 69; Victor L. Berger, 70; American Socialists
Join the Third International, 74; Hillquit Encourages the
Communists, 74; The Socialist Party's Revolutionary Manifesto,
71-75.
CHAPTER VI
SOCIALISM IN THEORY 79
Socialist Office-holding is Not Socialism, 77, 85; Collective
Ownership, 80; I. W. W. Point of View, 80; Socialism Explained
Diversely by Its Leaders, 80; Hillquit's Notion, 81; Debs' Demand,
81; American Socialists to "Capture the Government," 82; Analysis
of Collective Ownership, 82; All Women to Work, 84; Atheism and
Free-Love, 85; Poetry from the "Call," 86; Don't Judge Socialism by
Reform Planks in Platforms, 87; Socialists Attack Their Own Social
Reform Program, 89; Unpatriotic Attitude of Socialists in the War,
92.
CHAPTER VII
SOCIALISM IN PRACTICE 94
Herron's Socialist Day Dream, 94; Communist Experiments in Russia
and Hungary, 94; Socialism in Yucatan, 96; "Zapata, Great Socialist
Leader of Southern Mexico," 97; Act of the Second: "Zapata, a
Tyrant, Who Played a Huge Joke on 100,000 Confiding Workers Whom He
Exploited," 101; Socialist Experiment in Russia, 103.
CHAPTER VIII
THE I. W. W. 105
A "Dangerous" Organization, 105; Its Origin, 105; Industrial
Unionism Explained, 106; Organization by Industries, 107; I. W. W.
Preamble, 107; Revolutionary Aims, 108; Conceptions of Right and
Wrong, 108; Violent Tactics, 100; Revolution by Means of the
"General Strike," 109; "Government Will Disappear," 110;
Remuneration for Work and the "Man-Day," 111; Doctrine and Examples
of Sabotage, 111.
CHAPTER IX
INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD IN ACTION 114
I. W. W. Trials and Socialist Support, 114; Revolutionary Threats,
115; Plotting Against the United States, 116; I. W. W.
Publications, 116; Propaganda Among Foreigners, 117; The Paterson
Strike, 117; The I. W. W. Atheistic and Anti-Religious, 118;
Arousing the Negro, 119; Arousing the Chinese, 120; I. W. W. Songs,
120; Socialists Favor the I. W. W., 122; Pretended Anti-Sabotage
Policy of the Socialist Party, 124; Gene Debs in Love with Bill
Haywood, 126; I. W. W. Attitude Toward Bolshevism, 128; Drawing
Together of Radicals, 129; "Left Wing" Socialists and the I. W. W.,
131; I. W. W. Help in Establishing Russian Bolshevism, 133;
Socialist Drift Toward I. W. W.'ism, 135; Growth of Syndicalism
Throughout the World, 136.
CHAPTER X
BOLSHEVIST RULE IN RUSSIA 138
Rise of Russian Bolshevists, 138; Bolshevist Constitution, 139;
Land Confiscation in Socialist Russia, 140; Peasant Warfare, 141;
The Russian Soviets, 142; "Liberty" in Socialist Russia, 145;
Justice in Bolsheviki-land, 146; Bolshevist Atheism and Religious
Persecution, 146; Church and State "Separated," 147; Michigan Left
Wing "Lets the Cat Out of the Bag," 149; Education Under Lenine's
Government, 151.
CHAPTER XI
RUSSIA RED WITH BLOOD AND BLACK WITH CRIME 153
The Red Terror, 153-5; "Take Our Lives But Spare Our Children,"
156; 500 Butchered in a Night, 157; Horrors of Bolshevik Prisons,
158; Atrocities and Tortures, 159; Petrograd, "City of the Dead,"
160; 76 Uprisings, 161; "Criminal Element" in Office, 161; "A Lapse
Into Barbarity," 162; Nationalization of Women, 163; "The Bureau of
Free Love," 166; Forcible Abolition of Celibacy, 167; The "Call"
Lauds Bolshevism, 168; "S. O. S., An Appeal to Humanity," 169;
"Every Pore" of Russia's "Body Shedding Blood," 170; Lenine Working
for World-Wide Bolshevism,[1] 170; Official Bolshevist[2] Organ in
New York, 172; American Socialists Want Bolshevism, 173;
Bolshevism's Economic Failure Revealed by Lincoln Eyre, 173; After
Destroying "Capitalism" Lenine Seeks "Foreign Capital," 174;
Bolshevism Has Sacrificed "the Health of Future Generations," 175;
Trotzky Offers "Foreign Capitalists" a "Share of the Profits" from
Russian Conscript Labor, 175.
CHAPTER XII
EUROPEAN SPARTACIDES AND COMMUNISTS 177
Spartacides of Germany, 177; Origin of Name, 177; Violent
Principles, 177; Rowdies and Ruffians Approved by American
Socialists, 177; Spartacan Terrorism, 178; Communists of Bavaria,
178; Terrorism in Munich, 179; The Peasants Rise While the
Communists Plunder, 179; American Socialists Allied With the Scum
of Bavaria, 179; Communists of Hungary, 180; Free-Lovers, 180;
Churches Converted Into Music Halls, 180; Budapest Painted Red,
180; American Socialists Lined Up With European Thugs, 181.
CHAPTER XIII
THE BOLSHEVISM OF AMERICAN SOCIALISTS 182
Pink Booklet "About Russia," 182; Lenine Tells Why Bolshevism
Requires "A World Revolution," 183; American Socialists "Greet"
Bolshevist "Ambassador," 184; Poem on Liebknecht, 185; The "Call"
Endorses Communism, Bolshevism and Spartacism, 186; Hillquit Hails
Foreign Radicals, 188; American Socialist Papers Are Bolshevist,
188-93; Debs a "Bolshevik" and "Flaming Revolutionist," 194.
CHAPTER XIV
VIOLENCE, BLOODSHED AND ARMED REBELLION 196
Socialist Riots, 196; Trouble at Gary, 197; Haywood Says Socialists
are Conspirators Against U. S. Government, 199; Jack London on the
International "Fighting Organization," 200; Berger Says Socialists
"Must Shoot," 201; "Blow Open the Vaults of the Banks," 202;
Haywood and Bohn Say the Socialist "Does Not Hesitate to Break" the
Laws, 203; "I am Law Abiding Under Protest," Says Debs, "and Bide
My Time," 203; Scott Nearing "Wants War," 205.
CHAPTER XV
PATRIOTISM RIDICULED AND DESPISED 207
Socialists Against Patriotism, 207; American Flag Scouted, 207;
"Honor the Uniform? No, Spit on It," 208; The "Call" Derides Our
Soldiers Returning from France, 208; "I Spit Upon Your Flag! I
Loathe the Stars and Stripes! To Hell With Your Flag! Down With the
Stars and Stripes! Run Up the Red Flag!" 210; Debs Attacks the
American Flag, 210.
CHAPTER XVI
THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST OUR COUNTRY 212
I. W. W. Conspirators, 213; "The Future of Socialism Lies in the
General Strike, Armed Insurrection and Forcible Overthrow of All
Existing Social Conditions," 213; Left Wing Socialists by Strikes
and Industrial Unions to Establish "the Dictatorship of the
Proletariat," 215; Government Raids, 215; Communist Parties for
Overthrow of Government, 215-219; Socialist Party More Dangerous
Than the Communists, 219-21; American Socialists Part of the
"Invisible Empire," 222-4; Secret Resignations in the Socialist
Party, 225-6; Socialist Party for "Mass Action," "General Strikes"
and "Industrial Unionism" to Seize "the Industries and Control of
the Government of the United States," 227-32; Winnipeg General
Strike, 230-1; The Socialist Party Joins the Third (Moscow)
International, 232-7; Imitates Moscow's Program and Methods,
237-40; Socialists Acclaim Debs, the Convict, 242-5; Hillquit
Threatens the New York Legislature with a General Strike, 245-6;
Socialists Disguise Their Principles at the New York Assembly
Trial, 246-51; Walling Rejects Socialist Peace Pretensions, 251;
The Russian Soviet Government Talks Peace While Its International
Plots War, 252-7; Wholesale Law-Breaking of American Socialists
Justified at the Assembly Trial, 257-62; Their Traitorous
Principles and Propaganda, 263-66; Socialists "Enter the
Government" to Destroy It, 266; Forewarned Is Forearmed, 266-7.
CHAPTER XVII
SOCIALISM A PERIL TO WORKINGMEN 268
Socialist Chaos and Anarchy, 268; Discontent in the Socialist
State, 269; Perils of Confiscation, 270-2; Liberty Bonds and
Insurance, 273; Unworkable Labor Schemes, 273-7; Forcing Women to
Work, 277; Political Corruption, 277; Quarrels Over Religion and
Free-Love, 278; Lincoln Eyre Reveals Socialism's Economic Failure
in Russia, 279-91; "Lenine and Trotzky More Absolute Than Any
Czar," 281; Starvation and Disease, 282-3; Military Confiscation of
Russian Labor, 283-8; Lenine and Trotzky Invite "Foreign Capital"
to Share the Profits from Exploiting the Wage-Slaves of
Bolsheviki-land, 288-9; Death for Russian Wage-Slaves Who Strike
Against Their Socialist Task-Masters, 290.
CHAPTER XVIII
THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST RELIGION ABROAD 292
Ingersoll Argument Refuted, 293; Economic Determinism, 293; Atheism
of European Socialists, 294-5; "There Must Be War Between Socialism
and the Church," 296; Socialists "All more or Less Avowed
Atheists," 297; "No Man Can Be Consistently Both a Socialist and a
Christian," 298; Socialism Persecutes Religion in Yucatan, 298.
CHAPTER XIX
THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST RELIGION IN AMERICA 301
Socialism Turns Ministers Into Atheists, 301-2; Spargo Says
Socialism Cannot Tolerate Religious Schools, 302; Anti-Religious
Poems in "Call," 303; The "Call" Has "No Use" for "Christ," 304;
"Religion Spells Death to Socialism," as Socialism "Does to
Religion," 305; "Socialism Logical Only When It Denies the
Existence of God," 306; "Christmas Is a Crime," 307; Blasphemous
Socialist Catechism for Children, 308; A Socialist Says "Socialism
Is Anti-Christ," 309; Hypocrisy of Hillquit, Berger and Other
Leaders in Concealing the Socialist Party's Irreligion to Get
Votes, 310-15; Hillquit Says "Ninety-Nine Per Cent of Us" Are
"Agnostic," 311.
CHAPTER XX
THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST THE FAMILY 317
Socialist Books Advocate Free-Love, 317; Socialists Dodge the Truth
by Arguments About Prostitution, 318-19; The "Call's" Poem on "The
Harlot," 320; Socialist Advocates of Free-Love, 320-2; Victor
Berger's Milwaukee Company Sells Free-Love Literature, 322;
Free-Love Stuff Sold by Kerr and Company and the National Office of
the Socialist Party, 323-9.
CHAPTER XXI
THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST THE RACE 330
The "Call," chief Organ of the Socialist Party in New York, An
Obscene Vehicle of Propaganda for Race-Suicide, Teaching "All
Within Its Polluting Reach to Violate One of the Laws of the State
of New York," 330-41.
CHAPTER XXII
SOCIALIST ORGANIZATION AND "BORING IN" 342
Organizing Activity of Socialists, 342; Dues-Paying Members, Locals
and Branches, 342; 400 Socialist Periodicals in the United States,
343; Use of Books and Leaflets, 344; Financial Support by Rich
Radicals, 345; Red Propaganda to Proselytize Labor and Promote
Strikes, 346; Effect on the American Federation of Labor, 347; I.
W. W.'s "Boring from Within," 348; William R. Foster, An I. W. W.,
Leads the A. F. of L. Steel Strike, 348-9.
CHAPTER XXIII
ENLISTING RECRUITS FOR THE CONSPIRACY 350
Socialist Sunday Schools, 350; "Catch Them Young," 351; Lesson 24
from the "Socialist Primer," 352; Socialist Propaganda Among School
Children by Townley's Non-Partisan League, 353; The Teachers' Union
of New York City, 354; The Inter-Collegiate Socialist Society, 355;
Radical College Professors, 356; The Rand School, 357; Socialist
Propaganda Among Immigrants, 358; Socialist Naturalization Bureau,
359; The Red Curse Among Women, 359; Among Soldiers and Sailors,
360; Socialist Cartoons and Movie Films, 360; Making Rebels of
Negroes, 361.
CHAPTER XXIV
EXPERTS IN THE ART OF DECEPTION 363
Must Socialism Be Good Because Something Else Is Bad? 363;
Socialist Party Platform Planks Unreliable, 365; Socialists
Disagree on Land Ownership, 365-8; Government Ownership of Public
Utilities Is Not Socialism, 369; Double-Faced Socialists, 370; The
Burden of Proof Rests on the Socialist, 371; The "Lunatic"
Sophistry, 372; Sophistry That Labor Earns All Wealth, 373;
Vote-Getting by Advocating Popular Schemes, 375; Latest Dodge of
Red Organizations to Hide from Prosecution by Changing Their Names,
375; The Socialist Party Not a Real Workingmen's Party, 376.
CHAPTER XXV
THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE REDS 377
High Time to Fight the Reds, 377; Read and Circulate Anti-Socialist
Literature, 378; Warn Our School Children, 379; Quiz the Soap-Box
Orators, 380; Expel Socialist School Teachers, 380; Tasks for the
National Government, 381; Oppose Socialism in a Nation-Wide
Campaign of Education, 382.
INDEX 383
APPENDIX 391
Convention of the Socialist Party of the United States, May 8-14,
1920.
CHAPTER I
SOCIALISM IN OTHER LANDS
Modern Socialism may be said to date from the year 1848 when Marx and
Engels published their "Communist Manifesto," a pamphlet that has since
been translated into almost all modern European languages and has to
this day remained the classical exposition of international Socialism.
Karl Marx, the chief founder of the movement, was born of Jewish parents
at Treves, Germany, May 5, 1818. After studying at Jena, Bonn, and
Berlin, he became a private professor in 1841, and about a year later
assumed the editorship of the "Rhenish Gazette," a democratic-liberal
organ of Cologne, that was soon suppressed for its radical utterances.
In 1843 he moved to Paris where he became greatly interested in the
study of political economy and of early Socialistic writings and where
he subsequently made the acquaintance of Frederick Engels, his
inseparable companion and life-long friend.
Engels was born at Barmen, Rhenish Prussia, in 1820. He remained in
Germany until he had completed his military service, and then moved to
Manchester, England, where he engaged in the cotton business with his
father. In 1884, while traveling, he met Karl Marx, and was banished
with him from France in 1847, and expelled from Belgium in 1848, the
very year that witnessed the appearance of the "Communist Manifesto."
Not long after this, Marx and Engels returned to Germany, and were
instrumental in fomenting a revolution in the Rhine Province in 1849.
The revolt having been suppressed in the same year, both men sought
refuge in England. Here Engels was the author of numerous German books
on Socialism and became best known by editing, after Marx's death, the
second and third volumes of the latter's works.
While in England Marx took up his abode in London where he became the
first president of the International Workingmen's Association, whose
influence was not limited to England, but extended to France, Germany,
Austria, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Switzerland,
Poland, and even the United States of America. The active career of this
association embraced a period of about eight years, from 1864 to 1872.
Its six conventions were largely devoted to the discussion of social and
labor problems and it produced a lasting effect upon the Socialist
Movement by impressing upon it a harmonious and world-wide character. By
1876 the International Workingmen's Association was ruined by the
quarrels that had taken place between the more moderate faction under
the leadership of Marx, and the anarchistic element under Bakunin. It
had, however, by this time contributed wonderfully towards the spread of
Socialism, for it had taught the working classes of Europe the
international nature both of their own grievances and of capitalism.
Closely rivaling the success of the International Workingmen's
Association in furthering the cause of Socialism was a book known as
"Capital," an economic work the first volume of which was published in
1867 by Karl Marx. The author never lived to edit the second and third
volumes, though after his death in London, March 14, 1883, they were
published from his notes by Frederick Engels. This work, to which the
Father of the Revolutionary Movement gave the German title "Das
Kapital," has long been known as the Bible of Socialism. Its
systematized philosophic and economic doctrines besides having supplied
the various national branches of the party with a common theory and
program, in the main still constitute the creed of the immense majority
of the Socialists the world over. Though "Capital" has suffered severely
from the criticism of economists of many schools, and though not a few
of its doctrines have been rejected by present-day Socialists, its
powerful influence still persists to a very marked degree.
Supplementing this short historical sketch of the origin of the modern
Socialist movement, short comments will be added concerning the
Revolutionary organization in the different countries of the world.
In Germany the Socialist movement first took shape in 1862 under the
influence of Ferdinand Lassalle. It made comparatively slow progress
until 1874 when the 450,000 Socialist voters returned ten members to the
Reichstag. An attempt on the part of the German Government to suppress
the movement failed, and henceforth the party under the leadership of
August Bebel, Karl Kautsky, George Von Vollmar, and Wilhelm Liebknecht
steadily continued to grow in strength. Shortly before the outbreak of
the World War the Socialists, besides occupying 110 seats in the
Reichstag out of a total of 397, polled about 4,252,000 votes and
published 158 papers, but a faction under the leadership of Bernstein
had made great progress in its endeavors to transform the Revolutionary
organization into an opportunist party.
Most of the German Socialists supported the war and the majority of
their members in the Reichstag voted for the war credits. Some, however,
like Karl Liebknecht, the son of Wilhelm Liebknecht, opposed the
imperial government and were imprisoned. Pressure, however, finally
forced the government to release Liebknecht, who then delivered
impassioned speeches throughout the country, stirring up the people
against Kaiserism and the war profiteers and urging the soldiers to turn
their weapons against the imperial government itself. While Liebknecht
was defying the authorities, the naval forces mutinied at Kiel. The
Socialists then called a general strike for November 11, 1918, as a
prelude to the revolution. Scheidemann and Ebert had been supporting the
government of Prince Max of Baden, the successor of Von Hertling, as
chancellor of the empire, and had deprecated the idea of a revolution.
But when Scheidemann saw that the revolution was certainly coming and
that he and his colleagues would probably be left stranded, he joined
the movement with his powerful organization, stepped in and grasped the
power. A national council of soldiers, sailors and workmen was formed at
Berlin, but the provisional government was shaped by Scheidemann, Ebert
and others of the majority Socialists by virtue of their excellent
political machinery. The Ebert-Scheidemann government fought many a
bitter struggle with growing radicalism. Their government represented
the most moderate group of the Socialists and received the support of
the Centerists and others because these were far more opposed to the
Socialists of the extreme left, such as the Spartacan Communists.
Several revolts engineered by the Spartacans were put down with
considerable bloodshed. In January, 1919, soon after the defeat of the
Spartacides in Berlin, Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg, their
leaders, were put to death, and their minority party seemed to diminish
in strength. In the latter part of May, 1919, the majority Socialists of
the reactionary Ebert-Scheidemann group were at first opposed to the
signing of the Treaty of Paris, whereas the Spartacans, and also the
Independent Socialists under the leadership of Hugo Haase and Karl
Kautsky, tried to force their opponents to sign it, so that the people
of Germany might soon blame the "reactionaries" for the humiliation,
and rise in rebellion to overthrow them.
In Bavaria the anti-war sentiment spread rapidly, fostered by the
efforts of Kurt Eisner. King Ludwig abdicated the throne on November 16,
1918, and Eisner took up the reins of power, forming a Socialist
government. After a few weeks Eisner broke with the Ebert-Scheidemann
government of Berlin, and soon after was assassinated. Not long after
this the Bavarian communists imposed the Soviet form of government on
the country, much to the dislike of many of the inhabitants, especially
those living outside of Munich. The peasants of Bavaria rebelled against
the communist-soviet government of Munich, which finally fell, after the
Noske-Ebert-Scheidemann forces had marched against the city.
Very many years ago Socialists began to spread their doctrines as best
they could in the realms of the Czar. Many a Marxian was arrested for
attempting to undermine the Russian government and sent into exile in
Siberia. The World War having broken out, Russia suffered terribly, and
this suffering, especially of the masses, caused great discontentment
and made the people an easy prey to the revolutionary forces of
Socialism. The bureaucratic Czarist regime finally broke down in March,
1917, as soon as the revolution started. Three main contending parties
attempted to ride into power on the revolutionary tide; the Cadets, the
Moderate Socialists (i.e., the Mensheviki, and Social Revolutionists)
and the Bolsheviki or revolutionary Socialists. The Cadets were the
first to gain the upper hand, but were soon swept away, for they strove
to satisfy the soldiers, workers and peasants with abstract, political
ideals. The Mensheviki and Social Revolutionists succeeded the Cadets.
The demand for a Constitutent Assembly was one of the main aspirations
of the Russian Revolution. It was on the eve of its realization that
Bolsheviki, in November, 1917, by a _coup d'etat_ seized the reins of
power. The elections for the assembly took place after the Bolsheviki
had gained the upper hand and the Bolsheviki were defeated. The
Constituent Assembly was actually convened in Petrograd in January,
1918, but the Bolsheviki dispersed the parliament at the point of the
bayonet. Russia was then ruled by Lenine, head of the soviet system of
government. The government was a "dictatorship of the proletariat,"
characterized by injustice, violence, oppression, and bloodshed, the
Soviets being little more than tribunals of punishment and execution,
instruments of terror in the hands of the Autocrat Lenine. The
Bolshevist government has met with continual opposition from the
opposing groups of Socialists in Russia and has been attacked by the
Allies, principally on the Archangel front and in the Gulf of Finland.
The Finns, Lithuanians, Poles, Czecho-Slovaks, Rumanians, Ukranians, and
especially Admiral Kolchak's Siberian forces waged a relentless warfare
against the Bolsheviki tyranny either for political reasons or to rescue
the countless millions of Russians who suffered so terribly from the
Lenine system of dictatorship. By the latter part of February, 1920, the
Lenine government seemed to be overcoming all military opposition.[A]
The Socialists in Austria-Hungary as far back as 1907 could count
1,121,948 votes and 58 newspapers. Shortly before the end of the World
War the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy fell. Austria and Hungary separated
from each other and each became a republic. Count Karolyi was head of
the new Hungarian government, socialistic in tendency. In the early
spring of 1919, when Hungary was being invaded by Czecho-Slovak troops,
Italians and Rumanians, and was threatened with an invasion from the
Allies Count Karolyi fled and the government fell into the hands of the
radical Socialist, Bela Kun, who soon established intimate relations
with the Bolshevist government at Moscow. One difficulty after another,
however, especially the attacks of the Rumanians, soon taxed the
strength of the crimson-red government; and in the summer of 1919 it
succumbed to pressure brought to bear on it by the Allies.
Notwithstanding the Bolshevist propaganda carried on in Vienna, the
Austrian government down to February, 1920, has resisted all inducements
to adapt Bolshevism.
Modern Socialism in France was rather inactive previous to the outbreak
of the Commune in 1871. Then, after the victory of the government forces
over the revolutionists, many leaders of the Commune declared for
Anarchism, but subsequently abandoned it as impracticable and devoted
themselves to the propaganda of Marxian Socialism. After Jules Guesde
and other communards were permitted to return to France, by the amnesty
of 1879, the party at first developed considerable strength, but soon
split up into several factions, with Guesde as the leader of the more
radical wing and Jaures and Millerand at the head of the moderate
parliamentarian group. In the election of May, 1914, the United
Socialists under Jaures polled 1,357,192 votes, while the Radical
Socialists and their allies in the Caillaux combination cast 2,227,176
votes. During the World War most of the Socialists, especially those in
parliament, supported the government.
After the War the Longuet faction of the Socialist Party became the
majority party, took over control of the great Paris Socialist daily
L'Humanite and chose Cashin as editor. On April 6, 1919, a great
demonstration took place in Paris in honor of Jaures, the Socialist
leader of France, who had been assassinated at the beginning of the
World War. This and the decisions taken at the Socialist party congress
of the Federation of the Seine on March 13th, demonstrated the decided
turn to the left that the Socialist Party had taken since its previous
congress in October, 1918. In the demonstration, consisting, perhaps, of
50,000 Socialists, cries of "Revolution!" "Down with the War!" "Down
with Clemenceau!" "Long live the Soviet!" and "Long live Russia!" filled
the air for three hours.
"The Call," New York, May 19, 1919, thus comments:
"The Socialist papers for several days appeared uncensored, though
every line breathed revolution. Most startling of all, there were
as many soldiers as civilians marching.
"Seven days later the representatives of each Socialist local in
the Department of the Seine met in convention to decide upon which
of three resolutions they should recommend the coming national
congress of the Socialist Party to adopt. The discussion was hot,
and more or less revolved around the personalities of the three
leaders, Albert Thomas, Right Socialist, Jean Longuet, Left
Socialist, and F. Loriot, Communist or Bolshevist. Broadly
speaking, the Thomas resolution based its faith upon present
political action and future political power; the Longuet resolution
advocated a third International, without indorsing the third
International held in Moscow in March, and the Loriot resolution
indorsed the Zimmerwald resolutions (against all wars) and
recognized the existence of the Third International established by
the Russian Bolshevik party.
"Most of the discussion hinged upon affairs in Russia with hoots of
derision at every uncomplimentary mention of Bolshevism, until the
speaker either had to take his seat or qualify his criticism of the
Soviet republic.
"Both the Longuet and Loriot resolutions called the war the
consequence of imperialistic anarchy and bourgeois ambition, both
denounced the imposition upon Germany of an unjust, or Bismarckian,
peace, such as was imposed upon France in 1871, and both mourned
the assassination of Karl Liebknecht, Rosa Luxemburg, and Kurt
Eisner.
"The Longuet resolution was as strong in its declaration of
solidarity with the Soviet republic of Russia as the Loriot
resolution was in opposition to all annexation of the Sarre Valley
by France."
The National Congress of the Socialist parties of France was held from
April 19 until April 22, 1919. A motion by M. Kienthaliens demanding the
adhesion of French Socialists to the Internationale at Moscow, under the
leadership of Premier Lenin of the Bolshevist government polled only 270
votes. This resolution failed to pass probably because the Longuet
majority faction desired the union of all the French Socialist parties.
The Congress adopted by a majority of 894 votes, a resolution offered by
Jean Longuet to the effect that the French Socialists are willing to
continue to form a part of the Second Internationale, provided that all
those who are Socialists in name only shall be excluded.
On May Day, 1919, the Socialists manoeuvered a general strike of all
labor in Paris for twenty-four hours. The press dispatches informed us
that the shut-down was virtually complete. Not a wheel was turning on
any of the transportation systems and taxicabs and omnibuses kept off
the streets. All restaurants and cafes were closed and guests in the
hotels went hungry if they had not supplied themselves with food
beforehand. Even the drug stores closed.
Theatres, music halls, and other resorts did not open. No newspapers
were published and periodic stoppages occurred in the postal and wire
services throughout the day. Industry on all sides was in a state of
complete inactivity, work being suspended by every class of labor. There
was considerable disorder and very many policemen and civilians were
injured.
In the elections of November, 1919, the Socialist vote increased to
1,750,000, a gain of 40 per cent over that of 1914. On the 1914 basis of
representation this would have given them 160 seats in the Chamber of
Deputies; but their representation was actually reduced from 105 to 55,
due to a new basis of representation and a new formation of districts.
The French Syndicalists, of the Labor Confederation, had 600,000 members
before the war and now claim 1,500,000. They were quiescent during the
war, but their congresses of July, 1918, and September, 1919, showed a
"tendency to return to the traditional revolutionary policy of French
Syndicalism."
In Great Britain it was not until 1884, when the Social Democratic
Federation was organized by Henry M. Hyndman, that the Marxian movement
displayed any notable activity. Its progress at first was extremely
slow, but after the Independent Labor Party was formed in 1893 under the
leadership of J. Keir Hardie with a view to carrying Socialism into
politics, the revolutionary doctrines spread much more rapidly, "The
Clarion" and "Labor Advocate," the two organs of the Independent Labor
Party, helping wonderfully in the work. In 1883 the Fabian Society, an
organization Socialistic in name and tendencies, was founded by a group
of middle class students. It rejected the Marxian economies, and by
means of lectures, pamphlets, and books advocated practical measures of
social reform. Among the leading English Socialists of the more radical
type have been Hyndman, Aveling, Blatchford, Bax, Quelch, Leathan and
Morris; while Shaw, Pease and Webb were the leading members of the
moderate Fabian Society.
The vast majority of English Socialists supported the government in the
World War, but the Labor Party, mostly Socialistic, during that time
engineered great strikes of the coal miners, dock workers and railroad
men. A press despatch dated London, April 21, 1919, says:
"The first gun in the long advertised campaign of Bolshevism in
Britain was fired at Sheffield, where the British Socialists'
annual convention, at its opening session passed a resolution
urging the establishment of a British soviet government.
"The resolution expresses all admiration for the workings of the
soviet system in Hungary and Bavaria. It declares war on the
'capitalist' system in Britain, attacks the policy of the peace
conference toward Russia and favors the distribution of
revolutionary propaganda in the British army and navy."
During the summer and fall of 1919, Socialist and Bolshevist principles
continued to gain an ever-increasing and very serious hold on the people
of England and proved a serious menace to the government in the general
railway strike in October.
In Italy Socialism has been making steady progress for many years and
since the end of the World War has increased wonderfully in strength.
The party has greatly profited by the suffering and discontent due to
the war and especially by the failure of Italy to secure coveted
territory after all her sacrifices and the victory of the Allies. On
April 10, 1919, the Italian Socialists manoeuvered a very successful
general strike in Rome, but were prevented by the government forces from
marching through the streets in any considerable numbers. About the same
time disturbances were also engineered in many cities and towns of the
country, especially in Florence[3] and Milan. In the latter part of
April, 1919, the Executive Committee of the Socialist party of Italy
resolved to sever its connection with the International Socialist Bureau
and the Berne Conference, in which there were many reactionary
Socialists, and to affiliate with the newly established Moscow
International, consisting of the various National groups of Socialists
giving whole-hearted support to Lenine and the Bolsheviki.
On July 21, 1919, Italian Socialists conducted a general strike against
the Russian blockade. Industrial prostration resulted in whole provinces
stopping all traffic and communication while Soviets were set up in 240
towns and cities, including Genoa and Florence. In the November, 1919,
elections the Socialists secured 159 Deputies in the Chamber, having had
44 previously. They cast over one-third of all votes cast, about
3,000,000, as against 883,409 in 1913.
The membership of the Italian labor unions is now estimated at
1,000,000, an increase of about 300,000 since 1917. At a national
conference, in April, 1919, the labor unions demanded a change of the
national Parliament into a national Soviet.
In Spain, especially in the big cities and notably in Barcelona,
Socialism has made steady progress and the Marxians have taken part in
several upheavals. In the early part of 1919 the eleventh national
Congress, which met at Madrid, elected Pablo Iglesias president of the
Executive Committee and adopted aggressive measures for extending
Socialist propaganda, especially into the rural districts, and for
establishing Socialist day schools and women's evening schools. The
official organ of the party, "El Socialista," came in for a round of
criticism because of its espousal of the Allied cause to the detriment,
it was charged, of the International principles to which it should have
adhered.
In the latter part of April, 1913, the Belgian Socialists, under the
leadership of Emil Vandervelde attracted the attention of the world by
attempting to paralyze the entire industrial system of the country by a
general strike. Shortly before the outbreak of the World War, Belgium,
with its comparatively small population, had about half a million
Socialist voters, constituting approximately half of the electorate of
the country. During the war the Socialists supported the government and
since the war down to the early fall of 1919 have not caused any serious
trouble.
On November 16, 1919, the Socialist vote rose to 644,499, with election
of 70 Deputies and 20 Senators, an increase of 21 Deputies and 5
Senators.
In March, 1919, out of the 100 members of the Second Chamber of Holland,
there were four Communists or Socialists of the extreme left and 20 of
more moderate tendencies. The Communists published a newspaper called
"The Bolshevist" and maintained relations with the Russian Soviet
Government and the German Sparticides. David Wynkoop, the leader of the
Dutch Communists, is called "Holland's Little Liebknecht" and in a
parliamentary speech openly threatened a general strike. There was a
Bolshevist crisis in January, 1919. An assembly of international
communists met at the Hague and Spartacide success in Germany was the
only thing required to launch a revolutionary attempt, accompanied by a
general strike and terrorism. The government then adopted stern
measures. Civil guards were formed, and banks, newspaper offices and
police bureaus were occupied by the military with machine guns, the
banks and newspapers having been previously equipped with wireless
against the cutting of telephone wires.
Wynkoop, in the company of workingmen, visited soldiers in their
barracks asking them to join the movement, but the soldiers fired,
killing three and wounding several. Efforts to corrupt the cavalry and
the navy by similar means were not a success.
Shortly after the overthrow of the Austro-Hungarian Government, the
three Socialist parties of Czecho-Slovakia, which had been divided
principally over questions of nationality, got together and their
leaders of moderate tendencies were very sanguine over the outlook for a
general victory at the ballot box in the near future. It appears,
however, that the party was afterwards split into pro and anti
Bolshevist factions, with a consequent decrease in political strength.
In speeches made by several leaders at the Bohemian Socialist conference
at Prague in the early part of April, 1919, it was decided that the
alliance with the Entente should be maintained because reconciliation
with Berlin, Budapest and Moscow would mean danger for the Czecho-Slovak
republic.
Bolshevism was described as the suicide of the proletariat, and it was
urged that the working people of Bohemia should differentiate between
exaggeration and methodic reform.
In Prague, Pressburg and other cities troops clashed with the Communists
and Social Democrats. On March 7, 1919, at a mass meeting addressed by
three leading agitators from Prague, 40,000 workers, mostly miners,
cheered assertions that the revolution of October 28, 1918, had not
turned out well for the proletariat which was still being oppressed;
that the Government of Prague was as weak as under the old Austrian
regime.
Socialism, in recent years, has made considerable progress in Sweden.
The majority of the Marxians seems to be of the moderate group, though
the Left Socialist Party assisted the Lenine Government of Russia.
Hjalmar Branting, the leader of the Moderate Socialists, addressing the
French Socialist Congress in the Spring of 1919, bitterly assailed
Bolshevism and issued a warning against it. Branting's Social-Democratic
Labor Party has 86 seats in Parliament, while the radicals, who seceded
to form the Socialist Party in 1917, have 12 seats. In this convention,
in June, 1919, the Socialist Party voted to join the Third (Moscow)
International, declared for the principle of the dictatorship of the
proletariat, voted for "mass action" as the means of conquest and a
Soviet organization of the workers.
In the Socialist party of Norway the Bolshevist faction appears to be in
control. After the revolution in Germany in the latter part of 1918, the
Norwegian Socialists, in speeches and articles urged the laborers to
organize revolutionary organizations similar to those in soviet Russia,
provide themselves with arms and be ready for a revolutionary uprising
to overthrow the government. The party congress in 1919 joined the Third
(Moscow) International and adopted "mass action" as tactics and
preparation for a general strike.
The Socialists were very active in Argentina after the ending of the
World War and were the back-bone of the serious and prolonged
disturbances in Buenos Aires. In the latter part of April, 1919, the
Pan-American Socialist Conference was held in the Argentine capital. Its
purpose was to promote the amalgamation of all the Socialist and labor
organizations of the Western Hemisphere into one body. In South America
Socialism is best organized in Argentine, Chile and Peru, and weakest in
Brazil and Colombia.
In Canada, at least till the summer of 1919, the Marxian forces were
gaining in strength daily. This was especially true of the western part
of the Dominion, where the radical industrial union, generally called in
Canada the "One Big Union," has become very influential. Serious strikes
with Bolshevist tendencies took place throughout the Dominion,
especially in Winnipeg in the spring of 1919.
Bulgaria has two Socialist parties, the Moderates and the Communist
Party, the latter affiliated with the Third (Moscow) International. In
the August, 1919, election the Moderate Socialist members in the
"Sobranie" or Chamber of Deputies decreased from 46 to 39, while the
Communists increased their Deputies from 10 to 47.
Mexico, on our southern border, has added "industrial unionism" to her
Socialist movement. At the Socialist Party convention in the fall of
1919 a part of the organization seceded and reorganized as the Communist
Party.
Besides the many millions of Socialists in the countries already
referred to, the Marxians are well organized and are making rapid
strides in Serbia, Denmark, Greece, Switzerland, the Balkan States,
Australia, New Zealand and even in South Africa and far distant Japan
and China.
CHAPTER II
GROWTH OF SOCIALISM IN THE UNITED STATES
Socialism was introduced into the United States about the year 1850 by
immigrants who landed on our shores from Europe. The Marxians, who came
from Germany, were principally responsible for the foundation of the
Workingmen's Party in 1876, which in 1877 was called the Socialistic
Labor Party, and, a few years later, the Socialist Labor Party, which
was reorganized at Chicago in 1889, after having lost two sections by
secession. One of these, called the Cincinnati Socialist Labor Party, in
1897 united with the Social Democracy of America, a combination of
railroad men, followers of Eugene V. Debs, and of the populist followers
of Victor L. Berger. The other seceders from the Socialist Labor Party,
called the "kangaroos," united with the Social Democracy of Debs and
Berger in 1900, the new combination then calling itself the Socialist
Party of America. The minority of the old Socialist Labor Party, which
refused to be amalgamated with the Social Democracy of America, is still
known as the Socialist Labor Party; hence, since the year 1900, there
have been two distinct revolutionary parties, the Socialist Party and
the Socialist Labor Party.
The former, under the leadership of Eugene V. Debs, Victor L. Berger and
Morris Hillquit, with 109,586 dues-paying members in January, 1919, is
by far the more powerful and influential, having steadily increased its
vote to about 900,000 in the Presidential election of 1912, though in
the year 1916 the vote dropped to less than 600,000. The Socialist Labor
Party, under the guidance of Daniel De Leon until his death, in May,
1914, seems to be making little if any progress. Though both parties
claim to be genuinely Socialistic and Marxian, each has decried the
other as being a "fake" or "bogus" party. The Socialist Labor Party's
main complaint is that its rival the Socialist Party is sacrificing the
principles of Karl Marx in its endeavor to gain votes, while, on the
other hand, the latter party retorts by stigmatizing its opponent as
being a party of "scabs," the sole purpose of whose existence is to
antagonize the Socialist Party. In recent years unsuccessful attempts
have been made to unite the two.
The Socialist Party, besides publishing two important dailies in
English, "The Call," of New York City, and the "Milwaukee Leader,"
issues at least two in German, two in Bohemian, one in Polish and one in
Yiddish. "Forward," the Jewish paper published in New York City in
Yiddish, had a daily circulation[4] of over 150,000, according to a
report in "The Call" April 6, 1919. Foremost for many years among the
Socialist weeklies in English was the "Appeal to Reason," which was once
extremely bitter and unrelenting in its attacks on the United States
Government. Published at Girard, Kansas, its circulation reached nearly
1,000,000 copies a week during the fall of 1912, but since 1917 it has
fallen into great disfavor among most Socialists because of its pro-war
and moderate tendencies. In addition to the Socialist papers already
referred to, there are in our country hundreds of others in English,
German, Bohemian, Polish, Jewish, Slovac, Slavonic, Danish, Italian,
Finnish, French, Hungarian, Lettish, Norwegian, Croatian, Russian, and
Swedish. In a report to Congress in 1919, the Attorney-General of the
United States stated that there were 416 radical newspapers in America.
A strong impression that serious party strife and bossism prevail in the
Socialist organization is gained by those who read the Marxian papers
and magazines. William English Walling, for example, in the
"International Socialist Review," Chicago, April, 1913, showed his
sympathy with the so-called "reds," who then comprised the radical I. W.
W. wing of the party, and at the same time attacked the "yellows," the
advocates of political action.
"Ever since the Socialist Party was formed," he wrote, "the party
office-holders have been spending the larger part of their energies in
endeavoring to hold their jobs and to fight down every element in the
party that demanded any improvement or advance in any direction....
"A far greater danger is the new one, that has become serious only since
we entered upon the present period of political success two years ago,
namely the corruption of the party by those elected to public office....
"Only last year we had several mayors in the one state of Ohio either
being forced to resign or deserting the party because they could not use
it for their purpose....
"Next year we may elect a few congressmen and half a hundred
legislators--if the reactionaries in the party will cease their
underhand efforts to disrupt the organization and drive out the
revolutionists....
"If then these office-holders continue to show the tendency towards
bossism so common in the past, the Socialist Party will soon become an
office-holders' machine, little different in character from the machine
by which Gompers controls the Federation of Labor, or Murphy, Tammany
Hall....
"The only possible way to avoid a split so openly and shamelessly
advocated by some of the opportunist leaders of our party--Berger even
threatened it in the last National Convention--is to have the system of
proportional representation....
"Unless some such changes as these are made in the next four years, it
does not take a prophet to see that there would be nothing left of what
we now know as the Socialist Party. If we cannot control our own petty
autocrats, how can we ever hope to control the infinitely more powerful
and resourceful autocrats of the Capitalist system?"
"The Communist," formerly the Left Wing organ of the Chicago Socialists,
in its edition of April 1, 1919, bitterly assails Victor L. Berger of
the Right Wing:
"A vote for Berger is a vote of pitying contempt for our Bolsheviki
and Spartacan comrades. A vote for Berger is a vote approving his
repeated and uncalled-for condemnation of our class-war comrades of
the I. W. W.--condemnation persistently offered to prove Berger's
own eminent respectability. A vote for Berger is a vote of scoffery
against the St. Louis platform--a vote of apology for the platform,
dissipation of its meaning, and disavowal of its essential spirit.
A vote for Berger is a vote for the International of German
Majority Socialism. A vote for Berger is a vote for petty bourgeois
progressivism as the essence of Socialism; it is a vote against
identification of the Socialist Party with the revolutionary mass
aspirations. A vote for Berger is a betrayal of all the efforts,
sacrifices and dreams of those whose lives have gone into the
socialist movement as torch-bearers of proletarian triumph over
capitalist exploitation, from Marx to the humblest comrade fighting
today in the ranks of the revolutionary class struggle.
"As far as this election is concerned there is nothing to be
considered about Victor Berger, past and present, except the ideal
Socialism which has become unchangeably attached to his name. If
the American Socialist Party is to be a party of Berger-Socialism,
then indeed, the Socialist movement will not die in America. No, it
is the Socialist Party that will die."
As we shall see presently, these prophecies of disruption were soon
fulfilled.
The representatives of the Socialist organizations of the different
countries of the world have from the time of Karl Marx met together at
more or less regular intervals, being banded together in what is called
the "International."
The official organ of the National Office, Socialist Party, "The Eye
Opener," in its issue of February, 1919, gives a detailed explanation of
the "International":
"It is an organization of Socialist Parties and labor
organizations, meeting periodically in international conferences.
In order to be eligible for membership, an organisation must meet
the following test, adopted by the International Congress of Paris,
1900.
"Those admitted to the International Socialist Congresses are:
"1. All associations which adhere to the essential principles of
Socialism; namely, Socialization of the means of production and
exchange, international union, and action of the workers, conquest
of public power by the proletariat, organized as a class party.
"2. All the labor organizations which accept the principles of the
class struggle and recognize the necessity of political action,
legislative and parliamentary but do not participate directly in
the political movement.
"This definition includes every Socialist Party and propaganda
organization in the world and it further takes in those enlightened
unions that recognize the need for political action. It excludes
conservative unions that do not yet admit the soundness of the
principles of the class struggle."
The First International was thoroughly Marxian and revolutionary.
According to "The Revolutionary Age," April 12, 1919, it accepted the
revolutionary struggle against capitalism and waged that struggle with
all the means in its power. It considered its objective to be the
conquest of power by the revolutionary proletariat, the annihilation of
the bourgeois state, and the introduction of a new proletarian state,
functioning temporarily as a dictatorship of the proletariat. The First
International collapsed after the Franco-Prussian War.
The Second International was formed at Paris in the year 1889. Its
tendencies were much more moderate than those of its predecessor. "The
Revolutionary Age," April 12, 1919, criticises it for being
"conservative and petty bourgeois in spirit," and states that "it was
part and parcel of the national liberal movement, not at all
revolutionary, dominated by the conservative skilled elements of the
working class and the small bourgeoisie. It was hesitant and
compromising, expressing the demands of the 'petite bourgeoisie' for
government ownership, reforms, etc."
In 1900 an International Socialist Bureau was established at Brussels
for the purpose of solidifying and strengthening the work of the Second
International and for maintaining uninterrupted relations between the
various national organizations.
That the American Socialists were closely united with the Marxians the
world over during the Second International, which continued till the
World War, was especially evident from the fact that representatives
from the United States met abroad in the international congresses every
three years to discuss party policies. Far from denying the
international character of the whole movement, the Revolutionists of the
United States have ever rejoiced and gloried in it, trusting that it
would result in the rapid spread of their doctrines and the ultimate
victory of their cause. In confirmation of the intimate union existing
between American and foreign Socialists, during the time of the second
International, we have the declaration of the Socialist Party of the
United States in its national platform of 1904, pledging itself to the
principles of International Socialism, as embodied in the united thought
and action of the Socialists of all nations. Moreover, Morris Hillquit
informed us in "The Worker," March 23, 1907, that the International
Socialist Movement, with its thirty million adherents and its organized
parties in about twenty-five civilized countries in both hemispheres,
was everywhere based on the same Marxian program and followed
substantially the same methods of propaganda and action. Writing again,
in "Everybody's," October, 1913, Hillquit declared that the dominant
Socialist organizations of all countries were organically allied with
one another, that by means of an International Socialist Bureau,
supported at joint expense, the Socialist parties of the world
maintained uninterrupted relations with one another, and that every
three years they met in international conventions, whose conclusions
were accepted by all constituent[5] national organizations.
Commenting upon "The Collapse of the Second International," which is
held to have taken place at the beginning of the World War, "The
Revolutionary Age," March 22, 1919, says:
"Great demonstrations were held in every European country by
Socialists protesting against their government's declarations of
war, and mobilizations for war. And we know that these
demonstrations were rendered impotent by the complete surrender of
the Socialist parliamentary leaders and the official Socialist
press, with their 'justification' of 'defensive wars' and the
safeguarding of 'democracy.'
"Why the sudden change of front? Why did the Socialist leaders in
the parliaments of the belligerents vote the war credits? Why did
not Moderate Socialism carry out the policy of the Basle Manifesto,
namely; the converting of an imperialistic war into a civil
war--into a proletarian revolution? Why did it either openly favor
the war or adopt a policy of petty-bourgeois pacifism?"
At the conclusion of the World War Socialists and representatives of
labor from many countries met at Berne, Switzerland, in what was known
as the Berne Conference. This international Socialist conference was
comparatively moderate in tendencies, while another Socialist congress,
held shortly before it in Bolshevist Moscow, was far more radical.
J. Ramsay MacDonald, commenting upon the Berne Conference in "Glasgow
Forward," in the spring of 1919, said:
"It declined to condemn the Bolshevists and declined to say that
their revolution was Socialism....
"Moscow seems to be more thorough than Berne, though as a matter of
fact Berne was far more thorough than Moscow. There is a glamour
and a halo about Moscow; but there are substance and permanence
about Berne.
"That blessed word 'Soviet' has become a shibboleth. But Berne did
not say anything about it. It declared its continuing belief in
democracy and in representative institutions. I hope that the
Soviet is not contrary to democracy; I know that it is a
representative institution. But I know more. I know that beyond its
primary stage it is a system of indirect representation--the
representation of representatives--and that a few years ago there
was not a single Socialist in the country that would have accepted
such a form of representative government. For Socialists to pretend
to prefer that system to one of direct responsibility is a mere
pose.
"Therefore, two Internationals will be the worst thing that could
happen to the revolutions now going on and to the general
Socialist movement. The duty of every Socialist--especially of
those of us who are not in revolution--is to strive by might and by
main to get a union of the two. We may have to suffer a time of
internal trouble owing to the friction of conflicting conceptions
of Socialist reconstruction, but I am quite certain that no one has
yet said what is to be the last word on the subject, and to split
on such a controversy as this is to advertise to the world how
unready Socialism is to assume command."
The Berne Conference, which had at first been called to meet at
Lausanne, the Russian Bolshevik government of Lenine denounced in a
manifesto which the "Chicago Socialist" of February 8, 1919, republished
in part as follows:
"The Central Committee of the Russian Communist Bolshevik Party in
a manifesto on the proposal to call together an International
Conference at Lausanne, declares that the project cannot be
considered even as an attempt to revive the Second International.
The latter ceased to exist during the first days of August, 1914,
when the representatives of the majority of nearly all the
Socialist parties passed over into the ranks of their imperialist
governments.
"The attempts made to revive this International, for which
agitation has been carried on in all countries throughout the war,
emanated from elements standing mid-way, which, whilst not
recognizing openly Imperialist Socialism, nevertheless had no idea
of creating a third revolutionary International.
"The attempts made to go back to the pre-war situation regarding
the labor movement crashed against the Imperialist policy of the
official parties, which could not, at that time, admit the
appearance of an attempt to restore the International, fearing, as
they did, that this might tend to weaken the war policy of the
government and the working class working in unison.
"To counteract these attempts, the Imperialist Socialist parties
undertook to change the conditions of representation of the
national sections in the old International. The last so-called
inter-Allied conference in the Entente countries made it clear that
this change had been effected.
"Great Britain was represented by a motley organization in which
the Socialist parties could play no direct role. Italy was
represented by men whose party never before belonged to the
International and whose presence compelled the absence of the
official Italian Socialist Party. America was represented by
Gompers, representing associations which never had anything to do
with the Socialists....
"As against the International of traitors and
counter-revolutionaries, organizing themselves for the purpose of
forming leagues against the proletarian revolutions the world over,
the Communists of all countries must rapidly close their ranks
around the third revolutionary International--already, in fact,
existing.
"This Third International has nothing in common with the avowed
Socialist Imperialists, or with the pseudo-revolutionary
Socialists, who in reality support the former when they refuse to
break with them, and who do not recoil against participation in the
conferences of falsely called Socialists. The Russian Communist
Bolshevik Party refuses to take part in these conferences, which
abuse the name of Socialism. It invites all those who desire that
the Third Revolutionary International shall live to take the same
line; the task of this Third International being to hasten the
conquest of power by the working class.
"The Communist parties of Finland, Esthonia, Lithuania, of White
Russia, the Ukraine, Poland, and Holland are at one with the
Russian Communist Party.
"The latter also regards as its associates the Spartacus group in
Germany, the Communist Party of German Austria and other
revolutionary proletarian elements of the countries in the old
Austro-Hungarian Empire; the Left Social Democrats of Sweden, the
Revolutionary Social Democracy of Switzerland and Italy, the
followers of Maclean in England, of Debs in America, of Loriot in
France. In their persons the Third International, which is at the
head of the World Revolution, already exists.
"At the present moment when the Socialist Imperialists of the
Entente who formerly hurled the most violent accusations against
Scheidemann, are about to unite with him and to break the power of
Socialism in all countries, the Communist Party considers that
unity for the World Revolution is an indispensable condition for
its success.
"Its most dangerous enemy now is the Yellow International of the
Socialist traitors--thanks to whom capitalism still succeeds in
keeping a considerable portion of the working class under its
influence.
"For the conquest of power by the workers let us carry on an
implacable struggle against those who are deceiving them--against
the pseudo-Socialist traitors."
At the end of May, 1919, the National Executive Committee of the
Socialist Party of the United States, probably on account of pressure
brought to bear on it by the "Left Wing," stated that the party
repudiated the Berne Conference, but, at the same time, was _not yet_
affiliated with the Communist Conference of the Bolshevists at Moscow.
The phraseology of this ambiguous announcement is here given:
"It recognizes the necessity of reorganizing the Socialist
International along more harmonious and radical lines. The
Socialist Party of the United States is not committed to the Berne
Conference, which has shown itself retrograde on many vital points,
and totally devoid of creative force. On account of the isolation
of Russia, and the misunderstanding arising therefrom, it also is
not affiliated with the Communist Congress of Moscow."
This awkward straddle is explained by the fact that the American
Socialist Party, under the pro-German leadership of Morris Hillquit of
New York and Victor L. Berger of Milwaukee, had in its Congressional
platform for 1918 expressly endorsed the Inter-Allied Socialist and
Labor Conference, held at London that year. This is the conference which
the Lenine government scoffs at in the manifesto quoted just above,
styling it the "so-called inter-allied conference," in which "America
was represented by Gompers, representing associations which never had
anything to do with the Socialists." That the American Socialist Party
had been led into the endorsement of the conference by Berger and
Hillquit because the conference had recommended a meeting with German
workingmen seems evident from the wording of the endorsement, taken from
the official publication of the Socialist Party's 1918 Congressional
Platform, pages 3-4:
"In all that concerns the settlement of this war, the American
Socialist Party is in general accord with the announced aims of the
Inter-Allied Conference. We re-affirm the principles announced by
the Socialist Party in the United States in 1915; adopted by the
Socialist Republic of Russia in 1917; proclaimed by the
Inter-Allied Labor Conference in 1918 and endorsed by both the
majority and minority Socialists in the Central empires; no
forcible annexations, no punitive indemnities and the free
determination of all peoples.
"The Socialist Party believes that the foundations for
international understanding must be laid during the war, before the
professional diplomats begin to dictate the world's future as they
have in the past.
"It therefore supports the demand of the Inter-Allied Conference
for a meeting with the German workingmen, convinced that such a
meeting will promote the cause of democracy, and will encourage the
German people to throw off the military autocracy that now
oppresses them. We join our pledge to that of the Inter-Allied
Conference that, this done, as far as in our power, we shall not
permit the German people to be made the victims of imperialistic
designs."
The phrases in the above endorsement, "Inter-Allied Conference,"
"majority ... Socialists in the Central empires," and "promote the cause
of democracy," must have invoked the scorn of Lenine and Trotsky. Hence
the wording of their manifesto, in which they acknowledged as
"associates" the "followers ... of Debs in America," is an evident slap
at Berger and Hillquit and their "followers" in the American Socialist
Party. It was so understood by many in the party, and led to the rapid
sprouting of a "Left Wing" and the ultimate secession of about 72,000
dues-paying members, leaving only about 40,000 with Berger and Hillquit.
The story of this rupture will be found in the three chapters following,
where it also appears that Berger and Hillquit attempted to hide their
"Yellow" streak under a deeper daub of "Red."
CHAPTER III
THE SOCIALIST PARTY OF AMERICA DEVELOPS A LEFT WING
Some years ago, when the people of the United States were beginning to
suspect that the Socialists were plotting a revolution against our
Constitutional form of government the hypocritical followers of Eugene
V. Debs, fearing that their plot might be nipped in the bud, endeavored
to conceal their conspiracy, and succeeded quite well, by assuring the
American people that the word "revolution," so often used by them, was a
harmless term and was to be taken in a broad sense, without the "r,"
signifying nothing more than "evolution." "Do not be alarmed," they told
us, "we Socialists are striving to bring about reforms in the
government, but solely by constitutional means and the use of the
ballot."[B]
Many proofs could be given to show that, even in the early days of the
American Socialist Party, revolution, in the strictest sense of the
word, was foremost in the minds of many of the Marxian leaders. With the
advent of Bolshevism in Russia, and the successful overthrow of European
governments by revolutionary Socialists abroad, the "Reds" in our own
country became decidedly bolder, both in word and plot, against the
Government of our country. The more outspoken, daring and impatient
plotters in the Socialist Party of America lined up in a Left Wing
faction, whereas the more hypocritical, hesitant, cautious and prudent
revolutionists constituted the Right Wing. The former became known as
the "Reds," the latter as the "Yellows."
The "Reds" made a specialty of "direct action" or violence, had little
confidence in victory through the ballot, and campaigned for a
revolution at an early day. The "Yellows," of course, also rely on a
final victory through rebellion, but in the meantime, during the period
of revolutionary education and organization, insist on political action.
The leaders in control of the executive machinery of the Socialist
Party, wishing to retain their lucrative positions, and looking forward
to the advantage of political office during the years which might elapse
before the time would be ripe for rebellion, were nearly all Right
Wingers, and have waged a bitter and unscrupulous fight against the Left
Wing organization within the party.
The Left Wing of the Socialist Party of America had its origin,
probably, in the year 1916. According to the "International Socialist
Review," of December of that year, this ultra-revolutionary faction took
form in Boston. About the latter part of the year 1917 it began to
develop more rapidly, its progress being more or less proportional to
the spread of Bolshevism and the Socialist revolutions in Europe. Its
success, of course, was at the expense of the political leaders of the
Right.
The Left Wing has certainly been more honest than the Right. The "Reds"
comprising it favor direct action, that is, strikes and disturbances,
rather than the use of the ballot, hoping thus to bring our country into
such a critical condition that they may precipitate a rebellion, and
then, though in a minority, assume control of the government by a sudden
_coup d'etat_, as the Bolsheviki did in Russia. The Left Wingers opposed
the "immediate demands" in the Socialist Party platform, preferring to
work for dictatorship rather than for social reforms. They despised the
politicians of the Right Wing, calling them yellow, reactionary,
hypocritical, capitalistic Socialists, and telling them that their place
was with the newly formed Labor Party, which had already praised the
Socialists and invited them to join its ranks. The Lefts expressed a
fear that the leaders of the Right would, if our Government were
overthrown, turn against them just as the Scheidemann-Ebert group turned
against the German Spartacides. The fight between the two factions
became severe about the beginning of the year 1919.
"The Revolutionary Age," Boston, February 15, 1919, speaking of the
disturbance in the Socialist Party, and explaining the fundamental
principles of the Left Wing said:
"The American Socialist Party is in a condition of feverish
theoretical activity. Pressing problems are being met in a spirit
of self-criticism. New forms of action in the social struggle are
being accepted. Old methods, old tactics, old ideas, which in the
test of war have proven incapable of furthering the revolutionary
struggle of the proletariat, are being seriously analyzed and
repudiated.
"The membership of the Socialist Party, the majority, is
instinctively class conscious and revolutionary. It was this
membership that compelled our officials to acquiesce in the
adoption of a radical declaration against war--which most of the
officials sabotaged or converted into an innocuous policy of
bourgeois pacificism. When the Bolsheviki conquered, the majority
of our officials were either hostile or silent; some weeks before,
the 'New York Call' had stigmatized the Bolsheviki as 'anarchists.'
But the membership responded; they forced the hands of the
officials, who became 'me too' Bolsheviki, but who did not draw the
revolutionary implications of the Bolshevik policy. These officials
and their machinery baffled the will of the membership; more, the
membership baffled itself because it did not clearly understand the
theory and the practice implied in its instinctive class
consciousness and revolutionary spirit.
"While our National Executive Committee accepts the Berne Congress
and refuses to call an emergency National Convention, locals of the
party are actively engaged in the great struggle, turning to the
left, to revolutionary Socialism. Groups within the party are
organizing and issuing proclamations, determined that the party
shall conquer the party for revolutionary Socialism. Two of these
proclamations were published in the last issue of 'The
Revolutionary Age.' They deserve serious consideration and
discussion.
"The manifesto of the Communist Propaganda League of Chicago is a
concise document. Its criticism of the party is summarized:
"'The Party proceeds on too narrow an understanding of political
action for a party of revolution, its programs and platforms have
been reformist and petty bourgeois in character, instead of being
definitely directed toward the goal of social revolution; the party
has failed to achieve unity with the revolutionary movement on the
industrial field.'
"Its proposals for democratizing the party--mass action in the
party--are excellent; it repudiates the old international and the
Berne Congress, and asks:
"'Identification of the Socialist Party with class conscious
industrial unionism, unity of all kinds of proletarian action and
protest forming part of the revolutionary class struggle; political
action to include political strikes and demonstrations, no
compromising with any groups not inherently committed to the
revolutionary class struggle, such as Labor parties, People's
Councils, Non-Partisan Leagues, Municipal Ownership Leagues and the
like.'"
In order clearly to understand the big fight that has disrupted the
Socialist Party, further explanations of the principles of the Left Wing
are necessary. "The Revolutionary Age," from which the above quotation
was taken, was first published in Boston, its editor being Louis C.
Fraina. In the summer of 1919 it combined with "The Communist," of New
York City, and, still maintaining its former name, became the national
organ of the Left Wing of the Socialist Party.
In the article just quoted reference was made to "mass action." This,
according to "The Revolutionary Age," is to be the main weapon used by
the rebels in precipitating rebellion. The July 12, 1919, issue of the
same paper explains mass action and shows how it is to be used. The
article, written by Louis C. Fraina, reads in part as follows:
"Socialism in its early activity as a general organized movement
was compelled to emphasize the action of politics because of the
immaturity of the proletariat....
"All propaganda, all electoral and parliamentary activity are
insufficient for the overthrow of Capitalism, impotent when the
ultimate test of the class struggle turns into a test of power. The
power for the social revolution issues out of the actual struggles
of the proletariat, out of its strikes, its industrial unions and
mass action."
Industrial unions of course means the union system of the I. W. W., and
not the craft unions of the American Federation of Labor.
The article continues:
"The peaceful parliamentary conquest of the state is either sheer
utopia or reaction....
"The revolution is an act of a minority, at first; of the most
class conscious section of the industrial proletariat, which in a
test of electoral strength, would be a minority, but which, being a
solid, industrially indispensable class, can disperse and defeat
all other classes through the annihilation of the fraudulent
democracy of the parliamentary system implied in the dictatorship
of the proletariat, imposed upon society by means of revolutionary
mass action....
"Mass action is not a form of action as much as it is a process and
synthesis of action. It is the unity of all forms of proletarian
action, a means of throwing the proletariat, organized and
unorganized, in a general struggle against Capitalism and the
capitalist state....
"The great expressions of mass action in recent years, the New
Zealand general strike, the Lawrence strike, the great strike of
the British miners under which capitalist society reeled on the
verge of collapse--all were mass actions organized and carried
through in spite of the passive and active hostility of the
dominant Socialist and labor organization. Under the impulse of
mass action, the industrial proletariat senses its own power and
acquires the force to act equally against capitalism and the
conservatism of organizations. Indeed, a vital feature of mass
action is precisely that it places in the hands of the proletariat
the power to overcome the fetters of these organizations, to act in
spite of their conservatism, and through proletarian mass action
emphasize antagonisms between workers and capitalists, and conquer
power. A determining phase of the proletarian revolution in Russia
was its acting against the dominant Socialist organizations,
sweeping these aside through its mass action before it could seize
social supremacy....
"Mass action is the proletariat itself in action, dispensing with
bureaucrats and intellectuals, acting through its own initiative;
and it is precisely this circumstance that horrifies the soul of
petty bourgeois Socialism. The masses are to act upon their own
initiative and the impulse of their own struggles....
"Mass action organizes and develops into the political strike and
demonstration, in which a general political issue is the source of
the action....
"The class power of the proletariat arises out of the intensity of
its struggles and revolutionary energy. It consists, moreover, of
undermining the bases of the morale of the capitalist state, a
process that requires extra parliamentary activity through mass
action. Capitalism trembles when it meets the impact of a strike in
a basic industry; Capitalism will more than tremble, it will
actually verge on a collapse, when it meets the impact of a general
mass action involving a number of correlated industries, and
developing into revolutionary mass action against the whole
capitalist regime. The value of this mass action is that it shows
the proletariat its power, weakens capitalism, and compels the
state largely to depend on the use of brute force in the struggle,
either the physical force of the military or the force of legal
terrorism; this emphasizes antagonisms between proletarian and
capitalist, widening the scope and deepening the intensity of the
proletarian struggle against capitalism....
"Mass action, being the proletariat itself in action, loosens its
energy, develops enthusiasm, and unifies the action of the workers
to its utmost measure....
"Moreover, mass action means the repudiation of bourgeois
democracy. Socialism will come not through the peaceful, democratic
parliamentary conquest of the state, but through the determined and
revolutionary mass action of a proletarian minority. The fetish of
democracy is a fetter upon the proletarian revolution; mass action
smashes the fetish, emphasizing that the proletarian recognizes no
limits to its action except the limits of its own power. The
proletariat will never conquer unless it proceeds to struggle after
struggle; its power is developed and its energy let loose only
through action. Parliamentarism, in and of itself, fetters
proletarian action; organizations are often equally fetters upon
action; the proletariat must act and always act; through action it
conquers....
"The great war has objectively brought Europe to the verge of
revolution. Capitalist society at any moment may be thrust into the
air by an upheaval of the proletariat--as in Russia. Whence will
the impulse for the revolutionary struggle come? Surely not from
the moderate Socialism and unionism, which are united solidly in
favor of an imperialistic war; surely not from futile parliamentary
rhetoric, even should it be revolutionary rhetoric. The impulse
will come out of the mass action of the proletariat....
"Mass action is equally a process of revolution and the revolution
itself in operation."
The March 22, 1919, issue of "The Revolutionary Age" published the
Manifesto of the Left Wing section of the Socialist Party of New York,
from which several important quotations are hereby taken:
"We are a very active and growing section of the Socialist Party
who are attempting to reach the rank and file with our urgent
message over the heads that be, who, through inertia or a lack of
vision, cannot see the necessity for a critical analysis of the
party's policies and tactics....
"In the latter part of the nineteenth century the
Social-Democracies of Europe set out to 'legislate capitalism out
of office.' The class struggle was to be won in the capitalist
legislatures. Step by step concessions were to be wrested from the
state; the working class and the Socialist parties were to be
strengthened by means of 'constructive' reform and social
legislation; each concession would act as a rung in the ladder of
Social Revolution, upon which the workers could climb step by step,
until finally, some bright sunny morning, the peoples would awaken
to find the Cooperative Commonwealth functioning without disorder,
confusion or hitch on the ruins of the capitalist state.
"And what happened? When a few legislative seats had been secured,
the thunderous denunciations of the Socialist legislators suddenly
ceased. No more were the parliaments used as platforms from which
the challenge of revolutionary Socialism was flung to all the
corners of Europe. Another era had set in, the era of
'constructive' social reform legislation. Dominant Moderate
Socialism accepted the bourgeois state as the basis of its action
and strengthened that state. All power to shape the policies and
tactics of the Socialist parties was entrusted to the parliamentary
leaders. And these lost sight of Socialism's original purpose;
their goal became 'constructive reforms' and cabinet
portfolios--the 'cooperation of classes,' the policy of openly or
tacitly declaring that the coming of Socialism was a concern 'of
all the classes,' instead of emphasizing the Marxian policy that
the construction of the Socialist system is the task of the
revolutionary proletariat alone....
"The 'Moderates' emphasized petty-bourgeois reformism in order to
attract tradesmen, shop-keepers and members of the professions,
and, of course, the latter flocked to the Socialist movement in
great numbers, seeking relief from the constant grinding between
corporate capital and awakening labor....
"Dominant 'Moderate Socialism' forgot the teachings of the founders
of scientific Socialism, forgot its function as a proletarian
movement--'the most resolute and advanced section of the working
class parties'--and permitted the bourgeois and self-seeking trade
union elements to shape its policies and tactics. This was the
condition in which the Social-Democracies of Europe found
themselves at the outbreak of the war in 1914. Demoralized and
confused by the cross-currents within their own parties,
vacillating and compromising with the bourgeois state, they fell a
prey to social-patriotism and nationalism.
"But revolutionary Socialism was not destined to lie inert for
long. In Germany, Karl Liebknecht, Franz Mehring, Rosa Luxemburg
and Otto Rhule organized the Spartacus group. But their voices were
drowned in the roar of cannon and the shriek of the dying and
maimed.
"Russia, however, was to be the first battle-ground where the
'moderate' and revolutionary Socialism should come to grips for the
mastery of the state. The break-down of the corrupt, bureaucratic
Czarist regime opened the floodgates of Revolution....
"'Moderate Socialism' was not prepared to seize the power for the
workers during a revolution. 'Moderate Socialism' had a rigid
formula--'constructive social reform legislation within the
capitalist state,' and to that formula it clung....
"Revolutionary Socialists hold, with the founders of Scientific
Socialism, that there are two dominant classes in society--the
bourgeoisie and the proletariat; that between these two classes a
struggle must go on, until the working class, through the seizure
of the instruments of production and distribution, the abolition of
the capitalist state, and the establishment of the dictatorship of
the proletariat, creates a Socialist system. Revolutionary
Socialists do not believe that they can be voted into power. They
struggle for the conquest of power by the revolutionary
proletariat....
"The 'moderate Socialist' proposes to use the bourgeois state with
its fraudulent democracy, its illusory theory of 'unity of all the
classes,' its standing army, police and bureaucracy oppressing and
baffling the masses; the revolutionary Socialist maintains that the
bourgeois state must be completely destroyed, and proposes the
organization of a new state--the state of the organized
producers--of the Federated Soviets--on the basis of which alone
can Socialism be introduced.
"Industrial Unionism, the organization of the proletariat in
accordance with the integration of industry and for the overthrow
of Capitalism, is a necessary phase of revolutionary Socialist
agitation. Potentially, industrial unionism constructs the basis
and develops the ideology of the industrial state of Socialism; but
industrial unionism alone cannot perform the revolutionary act of
seizure of the power of the state, since under the conditions of
Capitalism it is impossible to organize the whole working class,
or an overwhelming majority into industrial unionism.
"It is the task of a revolutionary Socialist party to direct the
struggles of the proletariat and provide a program for the
culminating crisis."
Julius Hammer, in a letter published in "The Call," April 4, 1919,
speaking of the Left Wing, says:
"Aside from the discussions as to the principles and tactics
identifying the 'Left Wing' there is a great deal of acrimonious
discussion and opposition to those in the 'Left Wing' organization.
They are called 'separatists,' 'secessionists,' 'splitters of the
party,' and this in spite of vehement denials that there is
intention or desire to split the party. 'It is unnecessary,'
say they, 'and superfluous; the party machinery is ample
for the purpose now; organization within organization is
injurious and wrong.' Some seem to go even further and fling
epithets of 'disrupters,' 'traitors,' 'direct actionists,'
'anti-politicalists,' 'anarchists,' etc. And there seems to be
quite a number who consider that the menace should be met with
stern measures--nothing less than expulsion."
In the Left Wing statements of principles and tactics the reader will
observe a constant emphasis upon "direct action," or violence, and in
favor of "industrial unionism" and the "identification of the Socialist
Party with class conscious industrial unionism." Chapters VIII and IX of
this work, which describe the principles and tactics of the I. W. W.,
will make the significance of the Left Wing movement perfectly apparent
as an effort to combine Socialist Partyism and I. W. W.'ism or to place
the latter under the political leadership of the former. In the Left
Wing we see an enthusiastic consecration of the major part of the
American Socialist Party to revolutionary violence--the direct
application of anarchistic tactics to the overthrow of the Government
and institutions of the United States. As we follow the Left Wing
movement we shall see the principles and tactics of the I. W. W., as
carried out in Russia, adopted as a program by the major part of the
American Socialist party, which also finally succeeded in committing the
minor part, the Right Wing, to the same principles.
Needless to say, this movement was helped on by the various
communications received from the Lenine dictatorship, and notably by the
call for an international communist congress to meet at Moscow in March,
1919. The text of this call began to appear in the American radical
publications in late March and April, and is here reproduced from "The
One Big Union Monthly" for the latter month:
"First Section
"AIMS AND TACTICS
"In our estimation, the acceptance of the following principles
shall serve as a working program for the International:
"1. The actual period is the period of the dissolution and collapse
of the whole capitalist system;
"2. The first task of the proletariat consists to-day of the
immediate seizure of government power by the proletariat;
"3. This new governmental apparatus must incorporate the
dictatorship of the working class, and in some places, also, that
of the poorer peasantry, together with hired farm labor, this
dictatorship constituting the instrument of the systematic
overthrow of the exploiting classes;
"4. The dictatorship of the proletariat shall complete the
immediate expropriation of Capitalism and the suppression of
private property in the means of production, which includes, under
Socialism, the suppression of private property and its transfer to
a proletarian state under the Socialist administration of the
working class, the abolition of capitalist agricultural production,
the nationalization of the great business firms and financial
trusts;
"5. In order to insure the Social Revolution, the disarming of the
bourgeoisie and its agents, and the general arming of the
proletariat, is a prime necessity.
"Second Section
"ATTITUDE REGARDING SOCIALIST PARTIES
"7. The fundamental condition of the struggle is the mass action of
the proletariat, developing into open armed attack on the
governmental powers of Capitalism;
"8. The old International has broken into three principal groups:
the avowed social-patriots, who, during the entire duration of the
imperialistic war between the years 1914 and 1918, have supported
their own bourgeoisie; the minority Socialists of the 'Center,'
represented by leaders of the type of Karl Kautsky, and who
constitute a group composed of ever-hesitating elements, unable to
settle on any determined direction and who up to date have always
acted as traitors; and the Revolutionary Left Wing.
"9. As far as the social-patriots are concerned, who stood up
everywhere in arms, in the most critical moments, against the
revolution, a merciless fight is the alternative; in regard to the
'Center,' the tactics consist in separating from it the
revolutionary elements, in criticizing pitilessly its leaders and
in dividing systematically among them the number of their
followers; these tactics are absolutely necessary when we reach a
certain degree of development;
"10. On the other hand it is necessary to proceed in a common
movement with the revolutionary elements of the working class who,
though hitherto not belonging to the party, yet adopt to-day in its
entirety, the point of view of dictatorship of the proletariat,
under the form of Soviet government, including the syndicalist
elements of the labor movements;
"11. It is also necessary to rally the groups and proletarian
organizations, who, though not in the wake as yet of the
revolutionary trend of the Left Wing, nevertheless have manifested
and developed a tendency leading in that direction;
"12. We propose that the representatives of parties and groups
following these tendencies shall take part in the Congress as
plenipotentiary members of the Workers' International and should
belong to the following parties:
"1. The Spartacus group (Germany); 2. The Bolsheviki or Communist
Party (Russia); 3. Other Communist groups of; 3. German-Austria; 4.
Hungary; 5. Finland; 6. Poland; 7. Esthonia; 8. Lettonia; 9.
Lithuania; 10. White Russia; 11. Ukraine; 12. The Revolutionary
elements of Czecho-Slovakia; 13. The Bulgarian Social-Democratic
Party; 14. The Roumanian Social-Democrats; 15. The Left Wing of the
Servian Social-Democracy; 16. The Left Wing of the Swedish
Social-Democratic Party; 17. The Norwegian Social-Democratic Party;
18. The Danish groups of the class struggle; 19. The Dutch
Communist Party; 20. The revolutionary elements of the Belgian
Labor Party; 21-22. The groups and organizations in the midst of
the French Socialist and syndicalist movements who are in
solidarity with our aims; 23. The Left Wing of the Swiss
Social-Democratic Party; 24. The Italian Socialist Party; 25. The
left elements of the Spanish Socialist Party; 26. The left elements
of the Portuguese Socialist Party; 27. The British Socialist Party
(those nearer to us are the elements represented by MacLean); 28.
I. S. P. R. (Great Britain); 29. S. L. P. (England); 30. I. W. W.
(Great Britain); 31. The revolutionary elements of Shop-Stewards
(Great Britain); 33. The S. L. P. (U. S. A.); 34. The elements of
the Left Wings of American Socialist Propaganda (tendency
represented by E. V. Debs and the Socialist Propaganda League); 35.
I. W. W. (Industrial Workers of the World), America; 36. The
Workers' International Industrial Union (U. S. A.); 37. I. W. W. of
Australia; 38. The Socialist groups of Tokio and Samon, represented
by Sen Katayama; 39. The Young Peoples' Socialist International
Leagues.
"Third Section
"THE ORGANIZATION AND NAME OF THE PARTY
"13. The Congress must be transformed into a common organ of combat
in view of the permanent struggle and systematic direction of the
movement, into a center of International Communism which will
subordinate the Interests of the Revolution from an international
point of view.
"The concrete forms of organization, representation, etc., will be
elaborated by the Congress."
The testimony of Morris Hillquit in the Socialist case before the
Assembly Judiciary Committee gave the preceding document an added
interest which the reader will better appreciate further on. As
will appear later in our narrative, on September 4, 1919, the
Socialist Party adopted a manifesto strongly favoring the
"industrial" unionizing of American labor for the purpose of
reinforcing the political "demands" of the Socialist Party with
"industrial action."
On the stand at Albany, on February 19, 1920, Hillquit acknowledged
the authorship of at least 90 per cent of the "industrial action"
manifesto of his party, but declared that he had never read the
Moscow manifesto when he wrote his, and so was not influenced by
the Moscow recommendation of industrial action to bring about a
revolution by violence. But the above "call" to the Moscow
Conference urged "a common movement" with "syndicalist elements,"
or "industrial union" revolutionaries, as much as the Moscow
manifesto did, and the reader will find at the end of our next
chapter evidence that Morris Hillquit was familiar with and
criticized the above Moscow "call" at least as early as July, 1919.
CHAPTER IV
THE FREE-FOR-ALL FIGHT BETWEEN THE RIGHT AND LEFT WINGS
Emanuel Blumstein, a member of the Right Wing, in a letter published in
"The Call," April 9, 1919, bitterly complained against the tactics of
the Left Wingers--in trying to wrest control of the Socialist Party from
the "Old Guard" of Berger and Hillquit, which had acquired the habit of
domination:
"The reason that the so-called Left Wingers are concentrating at
meetings, making motions to recall delegates, and carry their
motions through, is very simple. Anyone who attends the meetings
can easily understand it. They shout down every honest thinking
Socialist with slurs and abuse. They make it so intolerable that
the meeting hall appears to be, instead of a Socialist meeting, a
room frequented by rowdies of all types and descriptions. In this
way they drive the most active Comrades out of the meeting hall, as
these Comrades get disgusted with the tactics pursued and leave the
meeting. Then they drag the meeting on to all hours of the night
until those left, having no opposition, carry all their destructive
actions through, and this they call democratic decision for the
Comrades of the branch--deciding the policies for them."
Morris Zucker, a member of the Left Wing, defends his faction in a
letter that appeared in "The Call," New York, April 11, 1919:
"In regard to Lee's objection that the Left Wing may bring about a
premature revolt, the reply is that no real revolution, no social
revolution, is ever manufactured. It must be spontaneous. It must
be real. It must be an overwhelming, impulsive demonstration of the
popular will. Revolutions may be manipulated but not manufactured.
Trotzky shows in his 'From October to Brest-Litovsk' that the
Bolshevist Revolution was not manufactured.
"The problem is to manipulate the revolution, to guide it, to
counsel it. And herein lies the importance of proper Socialist
education, of knowledge and understanding, and from these of proper
Socialist tactics.
"The Left Wing believes it has the proper program. And it wants the
Socialist Party to adopt its program. The Left Wing not only
preaches revolutionary Socialism, it believes that the economic and
social forces that have made half Europe Socialist, and threaten
momentarily to engulf the other half are at work in America also.
It believes that a revolutionary outbreak in America is not a
matter of the far and distant future. And it desires to make that
revolution as easy and as successful as it can possibly be. For
that reason the Left Wing has evolved its manifesto and program,
and now calls upon the Socialist Party to discuss it, perfect it,
and adopt it."
In April, 1919, the New York State Committee of the Socialist Party, by
a vote of 24 against 17, resolved that it was "definitely opposed to the
organization calling itself the Left Wing section of the Socialist
Party, and to any group within the party organized for the same or
similar purpose;" and it instructed "its executive committee to revoke
the charter of any local affiliated with any such organization or that
permits its subdivision or members to be affiliated."
"The Call," April 23, 1919, publishes a long letter from F. Basky in
which he defends the principles of the Left Wing and attacks the New
York State Committee for the above resolutions. We quote a part:
"Aside of these arguments the Left Wing is not a
counter-organization to the Socialist Party. On the contrary, it is
the only active force to save the party from going into decay and
finally to the scrap heap as a tool not adapted to the task. If the
Left Wing is the party, then and only then can we answer the
criticism of the syndicalist that a political party is nothing else
but a vote-catching machinery for middle-class politicians. If the
principles enunciated in the manifesto will be the principles of
the party, then it will enjoy the confidence of those who, through
their bitter experience realized the fallacies of the Second
International, led and dominated by the social-patriots, reformists
of the German Social Democratic Party. If we follow the line of
uncompromising revolutionary activity indicated by the Left
Wingers, then we can rest assured that the party will be cleared of
the would-be Scheidemanns, Eberts, Kerenskys, Brantenburgs, and the
rest of the traitors of our principles and our class.
"They will be eliminated anyway. The fight is on. And I welcome the
attack of the state committee. We at least know some of those we
would have to face in the critical hour. Might as well fight it out
now; whether they or the Left Wing represents the party. Let us
find out right now who is with us and who is against us."
"The Call," April 30, 1919, published a resolution then recently passed
by the Socialist Party of Essex County, New Jersey, which had adopted
the Left Wing program. Part of the resolution is hereby quoted:
"While the need for new orientation is clearly apparent, there is
an element within the party which is either unwilling or unable to
adjust itself to the new world conditions and the new tactics
required by these conditions. Unfortunately, this element has
controlled the party national executive committee and the party
machinery, with the consequence that the national organization, in
place of furnishing the leadership and urging the locals forward to
take advantage of the present world crisis in building up the
proletariat movement, has conspicuously lagged behind."
By the early part of May, 1919, conditions in the Socialist Party became
so serious that the Executive Committee of Local New York, according to
"The Call," May 8, 1919, issued the following statement on the Left
Wing:
"To the Members of Local New York:
"Comrades.--A critical situation has arisen within Local New York.
Your executive committee is compelled to take unusual and vigorous
measures to combat the disruptive efforts of an internal faction
which seeks to dominate the party by undemocratic and unsocialistic
methods. The executive committee addresses itself to you, the
membership, to explain the gravity of the crisis and to urge your
support in saving the organization which has been built up with so
much sacrifice by thousands of Comrades.
"The very existence of the party is at stake--its existence as the
democratically self-governed party of the working class, laboring
to awaken and educate the proletarian masses and to express their
class interests on the political field....
"This organization, i.e., the Left Wing, is not open to all party
members, nor even to all who accept the ideas set forth in its
manifesto and program. Only such persons are admitted as can be
counted on to set the authority of the 'Left Wing Section' above
that of the party itself. Its meetings are held in secret, and
their business is that of a permanent closed caucus to lay plans
for controlling the action of the party branches and committees,
and of obstructing their activities when it cannot control them.
"Even within the 'Left Wing Section' itself democratic methods are
not used. The admission of members, the choice of delegates to Left
Wing conferences, and the framing of instructions to those
delegates are intrusted to committees composing an inner circle.
All members and adherents of the 'Left Wing Section' are called
upon in their action as party members and as members of party
committees, to give explicit obedience to orders issued by the
inner circle. A sufficient sample of this is the appointment of a
'steering committee' for the Left Wingers in the central committee
of the local, and the issuance of instructions to delegates
affiliated with that section as follows:
"'In all matters involving Left Wing tactics vote as a unit with
the steering committee. Do not make motions, ask for divisions,
further divisions, roll call, and appeals from the chair. The
steering committee will attend to that.'
"The Left Wing Section has not been able to command a majority in
the central committee, notwithstanding the drastic methods used in
their attempt to capture it. Unable to control they have practised
systematic obstruction, and have openly declared that they will not
permit the central committee to function so long as their group is
in the minority there. Under the direction of their steering
committee, the time is consumed with every species of parliamentary
delay, with the aim and effect of preventing the central committee
from transacting business and carrying on the normal work of the
party. These dilatory tactics are supplemented by personal abuse
directed against those who will not truckle to the 'Left Wing,' by
insults and provocatory threats, and when necessary, by the
creation of an uproar designed to attract the attention of the
police and to break up the sessions....
"The Executive Committee has heretofore decided not to have a
meeting of the central committee on May 13, and has appointed a
committee to reorganize Local New York. This committee will begin
with such branches as are affiliated with the 'Left Wing Section.'
No one will be excluded because of his opinions, but no one can
retain a double membership in the party and the so-called 'Left
Wing Section.'"
By about the middle of May, 1919, the Left Wing program had been adopted
by the Socialist Party in Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit,
Philadelphia, Kings and Queens Counties, N. Y., and Essex County, N. J.
In Hudson County, N. J., the county committee referred it favorably to
all the branches, and at the end of the month the New Jersey Convention
of the party adopted it. In Chicago, J. Louis Engdahl, sentenced[C] to
twenty years in Leavenworth prison, was reported to have been ousted
from the organization, having been considered too conservative by the
millionaire Socialist, William Bross Lloyd, and the latter's friends who
controlled the Communist Propaganda League, the Left Wing faction of the
local organization.
"The Call," May 8, 1919, publishes an interesting letter from one of its
correspondents:
"It is not so much a question as to Left or Right Wing domination
as it is a question of whether we are to have a united or divided
party.
"I am not a Centrist, if that means to be in the center of the
party as it is today. We must move to the Left--that is understood
by all thinking, class-conscious Comrades, but we must move
together, not, perhaps, as far as some of the hot-heads would like
to have us--they fail to understand what an American Socialist
Party should be, for they seem to think of New York City as the
whole thing. If they could take a trip to Chicago and back they
might find themselves moving toward the Right.
"No one wants to be where the stick-in-the-mud Rights are,
either--that is, no one except them. The majority of us see the
need for revolutionizing the party. What we don't see is any
necessity of disrupting the party in the process. The master class
would like to see that; in fact, they have been egging us on to
fight among ourselves for the last two or three years, and we have
blindly done the very thing that they want most we should do. They
are laughing in their sleeves at us--poor boobs that we are."
On May 15, 1919, following the open fight against the Left Wing
inaugurated by the New York State Committee and its Executive Committee,
the Left Wing Locals of Boston, Cleveland and New York joined in a call
for a National Conference of the Left Wing to convene in New York on
June 21. This call opened with the following paragraph:
"The international situation and the crisis in the American
Socialist Party; the sabotage the party bureaucracy has practised
on the emergency national convention; the N. E. C. [National
Executive Committee] aligning our party with the social-patriots at
Berne, with the Congress of the Great Betrayal; the necessity of
reconstructing our policy in accord with revolutionary events--all
this and more, makes it necessary that the revolutionary forces in
the Socialist Party get together for counsel and action."
Apparently so many bitter letters were sent to "The Call" that it found
it expedient to publish the following notice in its edition of May 16,
1919:
"No letters dealing in personalities of any kind will be published
in this column. All views and all arguments set forth must be
confined strictly to the principles and tactics either defended or
attacked. This ruling is by the unanimous vote of the Board of
Managers of 'The Call.'"
Morris Hillquit, member of the National Executive Committee of the
Socialist Party till September, 1919, and one of the principle leaders
of the Right, published in his paper, "The Call," May 21, 1919, a long
article in large type, covering half of the editorial page, under the
caption, "The Socialist Task and Outlook." After speaking of the gloomy
conditions in the Socialist Party abroad, he thus comments on conditions
in the American branch of the international organization:
"All the more unfortunate is it that the energies of the Socialist
Party should at this time be dissipated in acrimonious and
fruitless controversies brought on by the self-styled Left Wing
movement. I am one of the last men in the party to ignore or
misunderstand the sound revolutionary impulse which animates the
rank and file of this new movement, but the specific form and
direction which it has assumed, its program and tactics, spell
disaster to our movement. I am opposed to it, not because it is too
radical, but because it is essentially reactionary and
non-Socialistic; not because it would lead us too far, but because
it would lead us nowhere. To prate about the dictatorship of the
proletariat and of workers' Soviets in the United States at this
time is to deflect the Socialist propaganda from its realistic
basis, and to advocate the abolition of all social reform planks in
the party platform means to abandon the concrete class struggle as
it presents itself from day to day.
"The Left Wing movement, as I see it, is a purely emotional reflex
of the situation in Russia. The cardinal vice of the movement is
that it started as a wing, i.e., as a schismatic and disintegrating
movement. Proceeding on the arbitrary assumption that they were the
Left, the ingenuous leaders of the movement had to discover a
Right, and since the European classification would not be fully
reproduced without a Center, they also were bound to locate a
center in the Socialist movement of America.[D] What matters it to
our imaginative Left Wing leaders that the Socialist Party of
America as a whole has stood in the forefront of Socialist
radicalism ever since the outbreak of the war, that many of its
officers and leaders have exposed their lives and liberties to
imminent peril in defense of the principles of international
Socialism, they are Right Wingers and Centrists because the
exigencies of the Left Wing require it. The Left Wing movement is a
sort of burlesque on the Russian revolution. Its leaders do not
want to convert their Comrades in the party. They must capture and
establish a sort of dictatorship of the proletariat(?) within the
party. Hence the creation of their dual organization as a kind of
Soviet, and their refusal to cooperate with the aforesaid stage
Centrists and Right Wingers.
"But the performance is too sad to be amusing. It seems perfectly
clear that, so long as this movement persists in the party, the
latter's activity will be wholly taken up by mutual quarrels and
recriminations. Neither wing will have any time for the propaganda
of Socialism. There is, as far as I can see, but one remedy. It
would be futile to preach reconciliation and union where antagonism
runs so high. Let the Comrades on both sides do the next best
thing. Let them separate, honestly, freely and without rancor. Let
each side organize and work in its own way, and make such
contribution to the Socialist movement in America as it can. Better
a hundred times to have two numerically small Socialist
organizations, each homogeneous and harmonious within itself, than
to have one big party torn by dissensions and squabbles, an
impotent colossus on feet of clay. The time for action is near.
Let us clear the decks."
By the end of May, 1919, the Left Wing fight had become so serious that
the National Executive Committee revoked the charter of the Socialist
Party in Michigan and suspended the Russian, Lithuanian, Ukranian,
Lettish, Polish, South Slavic and Hungarian branches, expelling or
suspending considerably over 25,000 members out of a total dues-paying
membership of about 100,000.
"The Ohio Socialist," the party organ of Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia
and New Mexico, in its issue of June 4, 1919, comments as follows on the
expulsions:
"Violating every principle of fair play and square dealing and
disregarding every constitutional provision, the National Executive
Committee at its session in Chicago, May 24 to 30, expelled without
a trial the state organization of the Socialist Party of Michigan,
constituting about 6,000 members, suspended the Russian,
Lithuanian, Lettish, Polish, Hungarian, Ukrainian and South Slavic
Federations of the party, constituting more than 30,000 members,
and worst of all--and let it be said to their everlasting
shame--are autocratically holding up the national membership
referendum for the election of a new National Executive Committee,
International Delegates, International Secretary, and the holding
of a national convention.
"Never before in the party's history have Socialist Party officials
been so lost to all sense of decency and square dealing. A wilful
group of seven members of the National Executive Committee usurped
power which the constitution does not grant them and which the
Socialist Party membership never intended any servants of the party
to have. This despotic group of seven did not act as the party's
servants, but as dictators and tyrants to defeat the expressed will
of the party membership and to perpetuate itself in office.
"Unbelievable as it may seem, seven officials of the party had the
monumental effrontery to assume the right to expel and suspend
40,000 members. Think of it. That such a dastardly deed should ever
be perpetrated upon the rank and file of our organization is almost
beyond comprehension. And yet it was done--it was done by those
whom you elected to serve you. Instead they are betraying you,
disrupting the organization....
"The intention of these autocrats is plain as daylight. Like a
tidal wave, the demand for a Socialism which stands true to the
working class at all times has swept the party. The thousands of
Comrades who are sincerely working to win the party to a more
revolutionary position are known to the Left Wing. This Left Wing
understands clearly that the Scheidemann brand of Socialism stands
for the betrayal and defeat of the working class and that only the
Socialism of Liebknecht and Lenine has within it the potentialities
of victory and success....
"There was no trial, no opportunity for defense offered to the
Michigan Comrades. A motion to allow Michigan a chance to interpret
their action was voted down. The right to appear at a trial was
denied....
"Expulsion meant throwing out over three thousand votes. On with
the expulsion of Michigan....
"But the expulsion of Michigan was apparently not sufficient to
decide the elections in favor of the reactionary moderates. At a
subsequent session, accordingly, it was decided to destroy the
whole election.
"The National Executive Committee instructed the secretary not to
tabulate the vote or make it public. They nullified the referendum
vote, destroyed the will of the membership in order to retain
control. Most of these National Executive Committee members are out
for re-election, are interested parties, knowing that the
referendum defeated them for re-election, are now, by this action,
perpetuating themselves in office....
"The National Executive Committee's action is equivalent to
stealing the elections. The party must act sternly to rebuke this
official chicanery.
"After this betrayal of the party the despotic seven seemed to fear
the results of the National Convention, which has been called for
August 30. A way had to be devised to control the convention. Happy
thought: Suspend the federations that have endorsed the Left Wing,
and we are safe. Another caucus held. Result: Suspension of the
Russian, Polish, Hungarian, Ukrainian, Lithuanian, Lettish and
South Slavic Federations from the Socialist Party--over thirty
thousand members. A plain attempt to assure the election of
reactionary delegates to the National Convention to approve the
abominable actions of the National Executive Committee majority....
"In spite of all these dirty tactics the little group of
reactionary autocrats did not feel themselves secure. They still
fear that they will not be able to control the coming National
Convention. So they formed a corporation, nearly all the directors
of which are of the same stamp as the wilful seven, and into the
hands of these directors is to be placed the entire property of the
Socialist Party, including the new headquarters building upon which
$10,000 has been paid. These directors cannot be recalled by the
party membership as long as they retain membership in the party,
and only four, a minority, can be removed in three years' time....
"They want the Left Wing to desert the party. They want us to leave
the party machinery in their hands. They will be disappointed in
this. We know their game. We shall not play into their hands. We
will not quit. Every Left Winger will work night and day for the
reinstatement of the nearly 40,000 members whom the reactionaries
are trying to sever from the party in violation of the party's
constitution. Every radical will work with might and main to get
new members and build, build the Left Wing and the party. Every
revolutionist will stick until victory is ours and the Socialist
Party is completely won for revolutionary Socialism."
Commenting on the referendum for a new National Executive Committee "The
Revolutionary Age" in its May 24, 1919, issue says:
"The moderates claim that the Left Wing represents only a small
clique in the party: why, then, not allow the membership to make
its decision through the referendum? Why disfranchise the
revolutionary Socialists? Why steal votes away from the Left Wing
candidates? These desperate tactics are understandable only on the
theory that the moderates feel that the revolutionary Socialists
are a majority, that they will meet defeat in the referendum votes
and revolutionary Socialism will conquer the party."
"The Revolutionary Age," July 12, 1919, informs us that the
Massachusetts Comrades were also expelled and that others in other
States were threatened:
"Another State gone. Massachusetts is expelled for adopting the
Left Wing program at its State Convention and for refusing to
recognize the National Executive Committee's act of suspending the
Federations. For this latter offense, Pennsylvania is now
threatened with excommunication, and very likely Ohio will meet the
same sad fate.
"It is a race against time. Will there be anything left for the
rump N. E. C. to expel by August 30th?"
Relative to the success of the Left Wing in electing its members to the
new National Executive Committee of fifteen, and to the meeting of this
new committee, "The Revolutionary Age," July 19, 1919, comments as
follows:
"The election of Comrades Fraina, Hourwich, Harwood, Prevey,
Ruthenberg, Lloyd, Keracher, Batt, Hogan, Millis, Nagle,
Katterfeld, Wicks and Herman appears now to be certain, while there
is still a question about the third choice in the First District,
Comrade Lindgren leading without the New York vote.
"There is no question, but that the final tally of the party
elections is available at the National Office, but according to the
action of the National Executive Committee this tally will not be
made known till August 30. Meanwhile the State secretaries have
published enough of the votes to leave no question of the outcome,
except as above indicated....
"According to the party law the new N. E. C. is entitled to control
beginning July 1st....
"There can be no legality by which a defunct Executive Committee
can keep the newly elected committee from taking office. By such
'constitutionality' the old body could perpetuate itself
indefinitely, let the members vote as they like. Stopping
referendums is the method chosen to make sure that the members
consent."
Accusations and recriminations, charges and counter-charges, continued
to fly back and forth between the two Wings, as the secretaries
proceeded with the work of expulsion or suspension, carrying out the
savage instructions of the Right Wing majority of the National Executive
Committee, where Victor L. Berger, Morris Hillquit and Seymour Stedman
were the dominating leaders. On the side of the Lefts little more could
be done than to set up a howl against the "dictatorship of the
proletariat" within the party which forced them to taste the medicine
they would have preferred to prescribe for the rest of the country.
During the summer the Left Wing movement was hastened on, dragging the
Right Wing after it, by the publication in the radical papers of America
of the manifesto issued in Moscow in March, 1919, by the Third or
Communistic International in session there. Max Eastman, a Left Wing
leader, in an article on "The New International" in "The Liberator,"
July, 1919, a Left Wing magazine, thus describes the Bolshevik
International:
"The Communist International, which met at Moscow on March 2d,
1919, comprised thirty-two _delegates with full power to act_,
representing parties or groups in Germany, Russia, Hungary,
Sweden, Norway, Bulgaria, Rumania, Finland, Ukrainia, Esthonia,
Armenia, delegates from the 'Union of Socialists of Eastern
Countries,' from the labor organizations of Germans in Russia, and
from the Balkan 'Union of Revolutionary Socialists.'
"There were also present _representatives with consultative powers_
from parties and groups in Switzerland, Holland, Bohemia,
Jugo-Slavia, France, Great Britain, Turkey, Turkestan, Persia,
Corea, China, and the United States (S. J. Rutgers, of the
Socialist Propaganda League, now merged with the Left Wing section
of the Socialist Party). A letter was read from Comrade Loriot, the
leader of the Left Wing section of the French Party, repudiating
the Berne Congress of the Second International.
"The Russian Communist Party was represented by Comrades Lenine,
Trotzky, Zinoviev, Kukharin and Stalin. This party contains many
millions of organized class-conscious Socialists, more, perhaps,
than are to be found in all the rest of the world."
The Communist Manifesto of 1919, issued by this Moscow International,
became the test of fellowship among the simon-pure "Reds" the world
over, and since the campaign of the Left Wing grew into an attempt to
force the Socialist Party of America to adopt this Bolshevik program, we
here quote the salient parts of the Moscow Manifesto from the article by
Eastman mentioned above:
"_To the proletariat of all countries!_
"Seventy-two years have gone by since the Communist Party of the
World proclaimed its program in the form of the Manifesto written
by the great teachers of the proletarian revolution, Karl Marx and
Frederick Engels....
"We Communists, representatives of the revolutionary proletariat of
the different countries of Europe, America and Asia, assembled in
Soviet Moscow, feel and consider ourselves followers and fulfillers
of the program proclaimed seventy-two years ago. It is our task now
to sum up the practical revolutionary experience of the working
class, to cleanse the movement of its admixtures of opportunism and
social patriotism, and to gather together the forces of all the
true revolutionary proletarian parties in order to further and
hasten the complete victory of the Communist revolution.
"The opportunists who, before the war, exhorted the workers, in the
name of the gradual transition into Socialism, to be temperate;
who, during the war, asked for submission in the name of 'civil
peace' and defense of the Fatherland, now again demand of the
workers self-abnegation to overcome the terrible consequences of
the war. If this preaching were listened to by the workers,
Capitalism would build out of the bones of several generations a
new and still more formidable structure, leading to a new and
inevitable world war. Fortunately for humanity, this is no longer
possible....
"Only the Proletarian Dictatorship, which recognizes neither
inherited privileges nor rights of property, but which arises from
the needs of the hungering masses, can shorten the period of the
present crisis; and for this purpose it mobilizes all materials and
forces, introduces the universal duty to labor, establish the
regime of industrial discipline, thus to heal in the course of a
few years the open wounds caused by the war and also to raise
humanity to new undreamed-of heights.
"The whole bourgeois world accuses the Communists of destroying
liberties and political democracy. This is not true. Having come
into power the proletariat only asserts the absolute impossibility
of applying the methods of bourgeois democracy, and it creates the
conditions and forms of a higher _working class democracy_....
"The peasant of Bavaria and Baden who does not look beyond his
church spire, the small French wine-grower who has been ruined by
the adulterations practiced by the big capitalists, the small
farmer of America plundered and betrayed by bankers and
legislators--all these social ranks which have been shoved aside
from the main road of development by Capitalism, are called on
paper by the regime of political democracy to the administration of
the State. In reality, however, the finance-oligarchy decides all
important questions which determine the destinies of nations behind
the back of parliamentary democracy....
"The proletarian State, like every State, is an organ of
suppression, but it arrays itself against the enemies of the
working class. It aims to break the opposition of the despoilers of
labor, who are using every means in a desperate effort to stifle
the revolution in blood, and to make impossible further opposition.
The dictatorship of the proletariat, which gives it the favored
position in the community, is only a provisional institution. As
the opposition of the Bourgeoisie is broken, as it is expropriated
and gradually absorbed into the working groups, the proletarian
dictatorship disappears, until finally the State dies and there are
no more class distinctions....
"In an empire of destruction where not only the means of production
and transportation, but also the institutions of political
democracy have become bloody ruins, the proletariat must create its
own forms, to serve above all as a bond of unity for the working
class and to enable it to accomplish a revolutionary intervention
in the further development of mankind. Such apparatus is
represented in the Workmen's Councils. The old parties, the old
unions, have proved incapable, in person of their leaders, to
understand, much less to carry out the task which the new epoch
presents to them. The proletariat has created a new institution
which embraces the entire working class without distinction of
vocation or political maturity, an elastic form of organization
capable of continually renewing itself, expanding, and of drawing
into itself ever new elements, ready to open its doors to the
working groups of city and village which are near to the
proletariat. This indispensable autonomous organization of the
working class in the present struggle and in the future conquests
of different lands, tests the proletariat and constitutes the
greatest inspiration and the mightiest weapon of the proletariat of
our time. Wherever the masses are awakened to consciousness,
Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Councils will be formed....
"The outcry of the bourgeois world against the civil war and the
red terror is the most colossal hypocrisy of which the history of
political struggles can boast. There would be no civil war if the
exploiters who have carried mankind to the very brink of ruin had
not prevented every forward step of the laboring masses, if they
had not instigated plots and murders and called to their aid armed
help from outside to maintain or restore their predatory
privileges. Civil war is _forced upon_ the laboring classes by
their arch-enemies. The working class must answer blow for blow, if
it will not renounce its own object and its own future which is, at
the same time, the future of all humanity.
"The Communist parties, far from conjuring up civil war
artificially, rather strive to shorten its duration as much as
possible--in case it has become an iron necessity--to minimize the
number of its victims, and, above all, to secure victory for the
proletariat. This makes necessary the disarming of the bourgeoisie
at the proper time, the arming of the laborer, and the formation of
a communist army as the protector of the rule of the proletariat
and the inviolability of the social structure. Such is the Red Army
of Soviet Russia which arose to protect the achievements of the
working class against every assault from within or without. The
Soviet Army is inseparable from the Soviet State.
"Seizure of political power by the proletariat means destruction of
the political power of the bourgeoisie. The organized power of the
bourgeoisie is in the civil State, with its capitalistic army under
control of bourgeoisie-junker officers, its police and gendarmes,
jailers and judges, its priests, government officials, etc.
Conquest of the political power means not merely a change in the
personnel of ministries, but annihilation of the enemy's apparatus
of government; disarmament of the bourgeoisie of the
counter-revolutionary officers, of the White Guard; arming of the
proletariat, the revolutionary soldiers, the Red Guard of
workingmen; displacement of all bourgeois judges and organization
of proletarian courts; elimination of control by reactionary
government officials and substitution of new organs of management
of the proletariat.... Not until the proletariat has achieved this
victory and broken the resistance of the bourgeoisie can the former
enemies of the new order be made useful, by bringing them under
control of the Communist system and gradually bringing them into
accord with its work....
"The Dictatorship of the Proletariat does not in any way call for
partition of the means of production and exchange; rather, on the
contrary, its aim is further to centralize the forces of production
and to subject all of production to a systematic plan. As the first
steps--socialization of the great banks which now control
production; the taking over by the power of the proletariat of all
government-controlled economic utilities; the transferring of all
communal enterprises; the socializing of the syndicated and
trustified units of production, as well as all other branches of
production in which the degree of concentration and centralization
of capital makes this technically practicable; the socializing of
agricultural estates and their conversion into co-operative
establishments....
"As far as smaller enterprises are concerned, the proletariat must
gradually unite them, according to the degree of their importance.
It must be particularly emphasized that small properties will in no
way be expropriated and that small property owners who are not
exploiters of labor will not be forcibly dispossessed....
"The task of the Proletarian Dictatorship in the economic field can
only be fulfilled to the extent that the proletariat is enabled to
create centralized organs of management and to institute workers'
control. To this end it must make use of its mass organizations
which are in closest relation to the process of production....
"As in the field of production, so also in the field of
distribution, all qualified technicians and specialists are to be
made use of, provided their political resistance is broken and they
are still capable of adapting themselves, not to the service of
capital, but to the new system of production.... Besides
expropriating the factories, mines, estates, etc., the proletariat
must also abolish the exploitation of the people by capitalistic
landlords, transfer the large mansions to the local workers'
councils, and move the working people into the bourgeois
dwellings....
"The capitalistic criminals asserted at the beginning of the World
War that it was only in defense of the common Fatherland. But soon
German Imperialism revealed its real brigand character by bloody
deeds in Russia, in the Ukraine and Finland. Now the Entente States
unmask themselves as world despoilers and murderers of the
proletariat....
"Indescribable is the White Terror of the bourgeois cannibals.
Incalculable are the sacrifices of the working class. Their
best--Liebknecht, Rosa Luxemburg--they have lost. Against this the
proletariat must defend itself, defend at any price. The Communist
International calls the whole world proletariat to this final
struggle.
"Down with the imperialistic conspiracy of capital!
"Long live the International Republic of the Proletarian Councils!"
As will be seen when we study the I. W. W., the above is the program of
the world-wide conspiracy of a single class, a minority of society, to
carry out the cynical purpose of I. W. W.'ism--to "take possession of
the earth and the machinery of production."
Morris Hillquit, a Right Wing leader of the Socialist Party of America,
declared that "The Communist Congress of Moscow made the mistake of
attempting a sort of dictatorship of the Russian proletariat in the
Socialist International and was conspicuously inept and unhappy in the
choice of certain allies and in the exclusion of others."[E]
Quoting this, Max Eastman, in the article from which we have taken so
much, makes the following reply:
"How can he expect them to be any more indefinite and generous in
their invitation than they were? In every country where there was a
doubt as to what groups had stood true to the revolutionary
principle and the principle of Internationalism, they so indicated
the alignment as to leave every Socialist free to consider himself
their ally who seriously and courageously desired to. This was what
they did in America. The S. L. P. (Socialist Labor Party), the
Socialist Propaganda League, the I. W. W. and in the Socialist
Party 'the followers of Debs!' Could they in a brief word open the
door wider to American Socialists, unless they wished to admit
prominent members of the Socialist Party who were known to have
repudiated them, as Berger did, declaring his solidarity with the
Mensheviks who were waging war on them?"
CHAPTER V
BIRTH OF THE COMMUNIST AND COMMUNIST-LABOR PARTIES
On June 24, 1919, the Left Wing Conference assembled in New York City.
The purpose of the Conference was for the first time to unite the forces
of the Left Wing throughout the country and to decide upon a common plan
of action against the Right. For some time there had been a growing
desire among the members of the Left for the formation of a new party to
be known as the Communist Party. The Michigan State organization and the
different Russian-speaking federations, which had either been expelled
or suspended, were particularly anxious for a new party. Then, too, many
members of the Left Wing throughout the country believed that, even
though they were more numerous than those of the Right, it would be
useless to try to control the National Emergency Convention of the
Socialist Party, called for August 30, 1919, in Chicago. They feared
that the credentials of the still unsuspended and unexpelled Left Wing
delegates would not be recognized by the party machine in the hands of
the Right Wing, and, moreover, that even if they were, these Left Wing
delegates would not be in the majority because so many other Left Wing
delegates had been expelled from the Party.
Almost at the beginning of the National Conference of the Left Wing the
Michigan State delegates and the delegates of the foreign-language
federations insisted on the immediate organization of a new party to be
known as the Communist Party. The majority of the delegates, however,
were opposed to immediate organization, claiming that it would be much
more prudent to wait till the meeting of the National Emergency
Convention, at the end of August, as many Left Wing Socialists would
refuse to leave the mother party until it became evident that the
Convention could not be captured by the Left Wing. The majority of the
delegates decided to call a Communist Party Convention on September 1,
1919. The Michigan State delegates and the Russian-speaking federation
delegates thereupon broke with the majority of the Left Wing, causing a
serious split, which continued till about the end of July, 1919.
In that month, however, most of the members of the National Council of
the Left Wing who had been leading the faction of the Left Wing which
had refused the call for the immediate formation of the Communist Party,
went over to the minority faction, which included the Michigan State
organization and the Russian-speaking federations. A compromise had been
reached whereby the aforesaid members of the National Council agreed not
to insist upon attendance at the National Emergency Convention of the
Socialist Party, while the Michigan organization, together with the
federations, were willing to wait till September 1, 1919, for the
convention of the Communist Party.
Even on these terms John Reed, Ben Gitlow and some other leading members
of the Left Wing refused to go over to the Communist Party, having
decided to fight for the rights of the Left Wingers in the National
Emergency Convention of the Socialist Party. This group of Left Wingers
later on, as will be seen, became the nucleus of a third party, the
Communist Labor Party. Several statements from the joint call for the
convention of the Communist Party, cited from "The Revolutionary Age,"
August 23, 1919, will interest the reader:
"The party will be founded upon the following principles:
"The present is the period of the dissolution and collapse of the
whole capitalist world system, which will mean the collapse of
world culture, if capitalism with its unsolvable contradictions is
not replaced by Communism.
"The problem of the proletariat consists in organizing and training
itself for the conquest of the powers of the state....
"This new proletarian state must embody the dictatorship of the
proletariat, both industrial and agricultural, this dictatorship
constituting the instrument for the taking over of property used
for exploiting the workers, and for the reorganization of society
on a Communist basis....
"The dictatorship of the proletariat shall carry out the abolition
of private property in the means of production and distribution, by
transfer to the proletarian state under Socialist administration of
the working class....
"The present world situation demands the closest relation between
the revolutionary proletariat of all countries....
"We favor international alliance of the Communist Party of the
United States only with the Communist groups of other countries,
such as the Bolsheviki of Russia, Spartacans of Germany, etc....
"The party shall propagandize class-conscious industrial unionism,
and shall carry on party activity in cooperation with industrial
disputes that take on a revolutionary character."
The national organ of the Communist Party was "The Communist" of
Chicago. In its issue of August 23, 1919, it thus criticises the
Socialist Party:
"The majority of the readers of 'The Communist' are familiar with
the form of organization of the old Socialist Party, with its state
autonomy and its bureaucratic officialdom. Every state is
practically organized as an Independent Socialist party. 'Official
socialism' of Milwaukee is entirely different from[6] 'official
socialism' in Ohio, both in regard to platforms and form of
organization. Every state has a 'Socialism' of its own brand, and
even dues are not uniform throughout the country. 'Official papers'
of the party are in most cases organs of independent associations,
not at all affiliated with the central party organizations. Such
important weapons in the struggle of the proletariat are left in
the hands of the petty bourgeois ideologists who, in reality,
prostitute the labor press. As examples, we have, for instance,
'The Milwaukee Leader,' the 'New York Call,' the Jewish 'Daily
Forward,' the 'Appeal to Reason,' and many others scattered
throughout the United States, and each contradicting not only the
others, but containing in each issue glaring contradictions that an
intelligent person who reads them becomes disgusted with the whole
muddled mess."
The fight among the revolutionists was a fight to the finish. The
leaders all wanted to become Trotzkys and Lenines, all wanted to be
bosses. It seems reasonable to conclude that if Bolshevism were ever
introduced into the United States, either by the mother Socialist Party
or by its offspring, the Communist Party or the Communist Labor Party,
the dictatorship of the proletariat, that wonderful piece of nonsense
which we hear so much about, would be grasped at by an amazing number of
competitors. In Russia Lenine and Trotzky seem to constitute the
Dictatorship of the Proletariat. In the Socialist Party of the United
States Berger and Hillquit, of the old National Executive Committee,
constituted a first-class dictatorship. In the Communist Party, Dennis
Batt, lately jailed, and Alexander Stoklitsky would surely give the
Communist rank and file plenty to do--everything of course being done
according to their wills. John Reed and Ben Gitlow would make an ideal
"dictatorship of the proletariat," if the Communist Labor Party ever
made Bolshevism the law of the land.
"Truth," one of the organs of the Communist Labor Party, published in
Duluth, Minn., in its issue of August 29, 1919, devotes nearly two of
its eight pages to bitter attacks on the Communist Party. Two short
quotations will suffice to show the spirit of envy that exists:
"'Tis said that distance lends enchantment, and perhaps that is the
reason why some of you in the East have responded to the
cuckoo-call of Michigan-Federations. Frankly, we see nothing
hopeful in the alignment presented by the Michigan-Federation
combine. We are fearful of the consequence of such leadership. The
so-called Communist Party, as it is now constituted and especially
with the accretion of a part of the National Council, presents the
prettiest bunch of 'eligibles' that man ever laid eyes upon. And as
I gaze upon this august array of talent, I wonder where the working
class is going to get off at. We of the left wing of Cook County
are reluctant to join with an organization under the guidance of a
few doctrinaires from Detroit and the would-be Lenine of the United
States.[F] We do not consider that the welfare of the revolutionary
movement would be zealously guarded in their hands."
From "Truth," of the same date, we also quote an open letter to Louis C.
Fraina, which reads in part as follows:
"Do you know how the Russian Federation is being ruled? Do you know
that a 'firing squad' is constantly on the job expelling members
and branches from the Federation who dare to disagree on anything
with the would-be bosses of the Russian Federation?...
"Do you know that a regular secret service system is being employed
by these 'bosses' to hunt down the undesirables?
"Do you know that a worse than military censorship is being
maintained in the domain of Stocklitzky (the Northwestern States),
where it is prohibited to the branches to communicate with each
other or to send out or receive any correspondence otherwise than
through the hands of the censors, the Executive Committee, and that
this censorship committee, like the imperialists in the world's
war, are holding up the mail of these branches and do not deliver
at all the 'undesirable' mail?"
August 30, 1919, the day for the assembling of the National Emergency
Convention of the Socialist Party, at last arrived. Delegates of the
Right Wing, and many of the Left, including John Reed, I. E. Ferguson
and Rose Pastor Stokes, were present. The Left Wing delegates, to the
number of about 84, arrived early at the place of meeting, Machinists'
Hall, 113 South Ashland Boulevard, Chicago. Trouble immediately began,
for the seats being occupied by the Left Wingers, the members of the
Right were crowded out.
Germer and Gerber of the Right seem to have lost their heads. "The
Chicago Herald and Examiner," of August 31, 1919, informs us that Adolph
Germer, National Secretary of the Socialist Party and one of the leading
members of the Right Wing, called in the police, who cleared the hall.
"The Chicago Tribune" of the same day tells us that everybody was
exchanging fisticuffs when the police arrived. Detective Sergeant
Lawrence McDonough, head of the anarchist squad, with the aid of a dozen
uniformed policemen, seems to have saved the day for the Right Wingers.
John Reed, of the Left Wing, was furious, and "The Call," New York,
August 31, 1919, tells us that he issued a statement which he addressed
to the delegates of the Emergency Convention:
"We address you to inform you of occurrences this morning which
every Revolutionary Socialist on the floor of this convention will
protest against.
"Delegates from Illinois, Minnesota, Washington, Oregon, Ohio,
Nebraska, California and other states entered the convention floor
and took their seats in readiness for the opening of the
convention.
"At nearly 10 o'clock Gerber of New York and Goebel of New Jersey,
who were at the door and attempted to refuse the above named
delegates admission, called the police and these delegations were
ejected from the hall by police power, many of them being roughly
handled."
Press reports inform us that after the belligerents had calmed down the
meeting was again convened, and that Victor Berger, in referring to the
Lefts, said: "They're just a lot of anarchists; we are the party."
Berger did not say whether or not by the word "we" he meant the old
National Executive Committee, which should have gone out of office in
July,[G] but seemed to have given itself a "mandate" to run the National
Emergency Convention.
On August 31, 1919, the hot-heads and sore-heads again assembled, and a
dispute arose as to who called the "cops." As a result the Left Wingers
next met by themselves downstairs, on the first floor of the hall, while
the Right Wingers remained higher up on the second floor. On the same
day the Minnesota group was seated by the Convention, but was denied a
vote.
On September 1st the high climbers of the Right Wing purged the party
still more by unseating the Washington State delegation and expelled
Katterfield "for the good of the party." The California delegates then
threw a bomb into the Right Wing Convention by announcing that they
would not take their seats until all of the contested delegations were
seated and the police were withdrawn from the hall. These delegates
finally went down to the first floor and joined ranks with the Left
Wingers there, this section henceforth being known as the Communist
Labor Party.
On the same day the Convention of the Communist Party assembled at
Smolny Institute, 1221 Blue Island Avenue, Chicago. Red flags were
displayed and Bolshevist songs were sung until the police of the
anarchist squad finally demanded the removal of the blood-colored
standards of revolt.
"The Call" informs us that on the next day, September 2nd, the Communist
Party, composed of the Michigan crowd, the Russian Federation and the
former Left Wing National Council, nearly split in two when, at a
concerted signal, there resigned from the emergency committee of the
convention, Louis C. Fraina, C. E. Ruthenberg, I. E. Ferguson,
Maximilian Cohen, S. Elbaum and A. Selakowich, and, from other offices,
A. Paul of Queens and Fannie Horowitz. It seems that these members were
anxious to have the Communist Party amalgamate with the Communist Labor
Party, but that the foreign federations, fearing that they would be
outnumbered by the English-speaking members, were very much opposed to
the union.
On this same day Dennis Batt, one of the principal leaders of the
Communist Party, was jailed.
Moreover, on the 2nd of September the Communist Labor Party--the group
that had first met with the Right Wing, and, later on, down stairs on
the first floor of the hall on South Ashland Boulevard--assembled at the
I. W. W. Hall at 119 Throop street. This party, heart and soul, is in
favor of the propagation of Bolshevism and I. W. W.'ism in the United
States, and if not completely broken up by the Government, seems
destined to become more numerous than either the rapidly disintegrating
Socialist Party or the Communist Party, which is principally made up of
foreigners who speak the various Russian languages. The principal
leaders of the Communist Labor Party are John Reed, William Bross Lloyd,
formerly known as the millionaire Socialist, and Benjamin Gitlow.[H] It
seemed likely, too, that Fraina, Ferguson, Ruthenberg and Cohen,
prominent "Reds," who resigned from the emergency committee of the
Communist Party, would soon be found among the leaders of the Communist
Labor Party. At the time of the convention no national organ of the
Communist Labor Party had yet begun publication, but "The Voice of
Labor," edited by Reed and Gitlow, and "Truth," formerly the Socialist
paper of Duluth, were local organs.
Both the Communist Party and the Communist Labor Party are strongly
Bolshevist. The Communist Labor Party is decidedly more in favor of the
I. W. W. than the Communist Party; but the main differences between
these two parties seems to be a matter of race, language, and especially
of personal jealousy and dislike among the leaders.
For years the Socialist Party and the Socialist Labor Party have
remained separated from each other, so that now, with the two new
parties, the Communist Party and the Communist Labor Party, there are
four parties of rebels, all plotting a revolution against our National
Government, while the great body of the American people sleep and dream.
Quite a number of educated people in the United States, including the
editors of some of our leading dailies, seem to think that the remnant
of the Socialist Party is not at all a Bolshevist organization and not
at all revolutionary in character. They are very much deceived, having
let the crafty, deceptive, hypocritical leaders of the Right Wing fool
them badly. The Left Wingers have indeed been much more open in
admitting their intentions to overthrow our government by force of arms.
They are dangerous, but perhaps not nearly so much so as the slippery
"Yellows," cunning weasels of the imported Russian Hillquit type, who,
though they do not talk as openly as the "Reds," are spreading their
subversive principles on every side, and especially among the less
educated classes of our people, into whose minds they instil the spirit
of hatred between employers and employees, while at the same time
encouraging strikes, wherever they can, with the hope of overthrowing
our Government when conditions become sufficiently critical. Both
parties of the Socialists and both parties of the Communists, along with
the I. W. W., are all revolutionary in the strictest sense, and the
sooner the American people wake up to the fact and take some intelligent
action to stamp them out, the better it will be. It is not yet too late,
but soon may be.
The Bolshevist Socialists of Russia and the two new parties of
Socialists that at Chicago in September, 1919, seceded from the mother
party, have all adopted the name, "Communist," which "The Call," New
York, July 24, 1919, informs us was used by Marx and Engels, the
founders of modern Socialism, adding that though the name is somewhat
confusing, inasmuch as the word has another and a distinct meaning in
English, still, "wherever it is used it means revolutionary Socialists
as distinguished from Social patriots and mere parliamentary
Socialists." Is this definition an alibi for Hillquit and Berger?
Many persons have hastily assumed that the main reason why the Left and
Right Wings of the Socialists fought each other like cats and dogs was
that the Right Wing members of the party are opposed to Bolshevism. This
is nonsense. The Socialist papers of the country, Right and Left, with
the possible exception of the once powerful "Appeal to Reason," which in
recent years has fallen into great discredit among Socialists because it
favored our entrance into the World War--have been and still are
advocating Bolshevism every day. If anyone has any doubt, let him read
any of the rebel sheets.
The Socialist Party of St. Louis, in its appeal for party unity,
published in "The Call," July 19, 1919, informs us that the Socialist
Party is whole-heartedly with the Russian Bolshevists and their cause:
"Promptly, and notwithstanding all obstacles and persecution, the
Socialist party hurried to the front in defense of the cause of our
Russian Comrades. Mass meetings were held, demonstrations in behalf
of Soviet Russia were arranged, our Socialist press gave all
possible support to counteract the sinister work of the American
capitalist press."
Eugene V. Debs, many times the presidential candidate of the Socialists
and the idol of "Reds" and "Yellows" alike, has all along been an ardent
Bolshevist. Listen to these words of his in his article, "The Day of the
People," published in many Socialist papers in the early part of 1919,
and taken by us from the March number of "Party News," the official
organ of the Socialist Party of Philadelphia:
"In Russia and Germany our valiant Comrades are leading the
proletarian revolution, which knows no race, no color, no sex and
no boundary lines. They are setting the heroic example for
world-wide emulation. Let us, like them, scorn and repudiate the
cowardly compromisers within our ranks, challenge and defy the
robber-class power, and fight it out on that line to victory or
death!
"From the crown of my head to the soles of my feet I am Bolshevik,
and am proud of it."
The report of the Right Wing majority of the old National Executive
Committee of the Socialist Party, made to the National Emergency
Convention, and here quoted from "The Call," September 3, 1919, contains
the following defense of their Bolshevism, against the aspersions of the
Left Wing leaders who had challenged the committee's attitude toward
Russia:
"Ever since the revolution in Russia, the party has hailed it as
the first great gift of the International. At every meeting of the
National Executive Committee held since the second revolution in
Russia [the revolution which put Lenine and Trotzky in power] the
committee has issued some ringing declaration in favor of the
workers' and peasants' government in Russia....
"Rarely has a meeting been held under party auspices that our
speakers have not taken advantage of it to present the claims and
achievements of the Russian revolution. The party's position may be
easily ascertained by consulting the party bulletins and the party
press."
The Executive Committeemen who signed this defense of the committee's
Bolshevist complexion were Victor L. Berger, Seymour Stedman, James
Oneal, A. Shiplacoff, Dan Hogan, John M. Work, Frederick Krafft and
George H. Goebel. These, with Morris Hillquit, were the men who had
violently expelled or suspended tens of thousands of members of the
party without warrant of the party Constitution and without granting a
trial or the right of self-defense to those thus dealt with; who had
maintained themselves in office after July 1, 1919, in express violation
of the party Constitution, having suppressed announcement of the result
of the referendum vote by the rank and file to elect executive
committeemen, by which vote Left Wing committeemen had been elected, as
the report to the National Emergency Convention of the Right Wing
committee appointed to investigate this referendum had to acknowledge;
and who, by these devices and a similar high-handedness committed by
themselves and friendly delegates had seized control of the National
Emergency Convention and organized it in their own interest.
In their report to the convention they further defended themselves
against the Left Wing charge that this majority of the Executive
Committee had allied itself with the Berne Conference. Under this head
the above-mentioned committeemen say:
"While no definite date may be set for the beginning of the present
party dissension, it is certain that they began to be generally
noticeable in January of this year [1919], when the National
Executive Committee elected delegates to the Berne Conference owing
to the fact that the delegates elected by referendum could not
serve, and the assembling of the Berne Conference in March made
necessary the election of delegates by the National Executive
Committee.
"The so-called Left Wing members of the National Executive
Committee participated in the election, nominating and voting for
candidates. None of their nominees were elected, and shortly after
the election an organized attack was made against the international
delegates by the Left Wing....
"The National Executive Committee, in session, decided that if our
delegates arrived at Berne in time and the conference failed to
take the position of the party on war and imperialism, we were to
withdraw with any other elements favoring a genuine working-class
International. It was agreed that we would not affiliate with any
International that excluded the Russian Comrades, who were fighting
world imperialism, or the Comrades opposed to the Ebert-Scheidemann
regime in Germany.
"Before our delegates could leave the country, the National
Executive Committee learned that the Berne Conference had failed to
respond to its opportunity.... Learning this, the National
Executive Committee decided to send one delegate abroad to impart
information to the Comrades in Europe, informing them of our
attitude on international questions."[I]....
"Yet, despite all this, a systematic campaign of falsehood has been
waged against the party by a faction within the party. This faction
has falsely claimed that the party is allied with the Berne
Conference.... They have denounced the party and its officials as
an organization of 'Scheidemanns' and 'Noskes,' asserting that if
the party were intrusted with public power it would murder our own
Comrades with machine guns and hand grenades....
"These slanders have been accompanied with a similar propaganda
regarding Russia. The party and its officials, especially the
members of the National Executive Committee, have been charged with
being 'Kolchaks' and 'counter-revolutionists,' the implication
being that the party has been committed to counter-revolution in
Russia, allied intervention, and support of Kolchak in Siberia.
"As in the case of Germany, so in the case of Russia, the National
Executive Committee and the party in general have opposed
intervention in Russia or support of Kolchak and have supported the
Russian Comrades at the head of the Soviet power against a campaign
of international lying.
"There has never been a single utterance of the National Executive
Committee quoted by the Left Wing to support these slanders. The
Comrades may rest assured that this faction would quote the
National Executive Committee if it could."
It is technically true that the Left Wing writers were not able to quote
the Executive Committee as such; but they could and did quote the
dominating leaders of the Right Wing majority of the Executive
Committee, Hillquit and Berger, through their organs, the "Call" and
"Leader"--"The Call" as characterizing the Bolsheviki as "anarchists"
and Berger as proclaiming his solidarity with the Mensheviki--and we
have nowhere seen any evidence that these leaders could purge the record
of these charges. That these leaders _were_ the Executive Committee, to
all intents and purposes, seems abundantly shown by their ruthless use
of it to smash the party, going so far as to cast out nearly two-thirds
of the entire party membership to get rid of their accusers, the Left
Wing leaders.
This scandal and disaster to a cause they pretended to serve are logical
outcomes of a double hypocrisy--an effort to fool the voting public and
our Government officials by a pretense of moderation in papers and
electioneering speeches, while at the same time fooling the dues-paying
rank and file of their party with expressions of loyalty to radicalism.
The significant facts in estimating the revolutionary character of the
American Socialist Party, as recruited and indoctrinated by its
double-faced leaders are two: the fact that as lately as September,
1919, some 70,000 of their pupils graduated into the open course of
revolutionary violence adopted by the Communist Party of America and the
Communist Labor Party, and the fact that the more manageable 40,000
remaining with these leaders were so much like their seceding Comrades
that their leaders were compelled to defend their own radicalism in the
fashion above shown, and were also compelled, as we shall soon see, to
take an open stand for revolution and I. W. W.'ism in order to keep even
the remnant of the party from deserting them.
Thus a serious mistake has been made by the many who fancy that the
"Yellow" Socialists--Hillquit's Right Wing which still constitutes the
Socialist Party of America--are not plotters who work for a revolution
to overthrow our Government. Of course they are, and any one who has
read the Socialist papers and publications, even to a very limited
degree, may easily see that these alleged "moderates" appear such only
in contrast with the more rabid "Red" rebels of the Left; and that the
one object of Right and Left alike is to stir up discontent and foment
hatred of class against class precisely in order that a rebellion may
some day break out.
True it is that the crafty leaders of the Right do not act as
imprudently as the hot-headed leaders of the Left, for they fear lest
rashness should precipitate them in a premature and unsuccessful
outbreak; yet they are sowing the seed of revolution as certainly as are
the Communists, and perhaps with much more success, because they proceed
more prudently. Once in a while, when they are off their guard, the "cat
escapes from the bag." As an example we quote from an article that
appeared in the May Day, 1919, issue of "The Call," the paper founded
and controlled by Hillquit, the foxy leader of the Rights:
"The world revolution, dreamed of as a thing of the distant future,
has become a live reality, rising from the graves of the murdered
millions and the misery and suffering of the surviving millions. It
has taken form, it strikes forward, borne on by the despair of the
masses and the shining example of the martyrs. Its spread is
irrepressible. The bridges are burnt behind the old capitalist
society and its path is forever cut off. Capitalist society is
bankrupt, and the only salvation of humanity lies in the uprising
of the masses, in the victory of the Socialist revolution, in the
revolutionary forces of Socialism.
"The World War, which is now about to be officially closed, has
slid into a condition neither war nor peace. However the war of
nations has been followed by the war of the classes. The class
struggle is no longer fought by resolutions and demonstrations.
Threateningly it marches through the streets of the great cities
for life or death."
Yet the Right Wing papers, on the whole, are much more reserved than
those of the Left. As an example of the openness with which the Left
Wing or Communist papers instigate rebellion, a quotation from "The
Communist," Chicago, April 1, 1919, will interest the reader:
"The Communist Propaganda League of Chicago came into existence on
November 7, 1918, first anniversary of the Russian Soviet Socialist
Republic, and the very day of the German Revolution.
"A group of Socialist Party officials and active party members came
together for consultation as to ways and means for giving the
American Socialist movement a revolutionary character in harmony
with all the significance of November 7th, the most glorious date
in all history. At the hour of that little meeting bedlam reigned
in the streets of Chicago by premature celebration of peace. The
calling of this meeting during the mass tumult of November 7th is
prophetic of the revolutionary vision which brought these Comrades
together. On that day the seething proletariat ruled Chicago by
sheer force of numbers. One thing alone was needed to give this
mass expression identity with the proletarian uprisings of
Europe--one thing: the revolutionary idea!
"The Communist Propaganda League is an organization for the
propagation of the revolutionary idea. The civilization of tomorrow
is with unorganized masses who greeted the news of peace and
revolution in Germany with what may be safely described as the
greatest spontaneous expression of mass sentiment ever witnessed in
America. To give direction and inspiration to the advancing and
irresistible army of the preletariat is the mission to which this
League is dedicated."
This League, with the millionaire Socialist, William Bross Lloyd, at its
head, became part of the Communist Labor Party.
The indications are that the Communist Labor Party, had it been left
undisturbed by our Government, would soon have surpassed in numbers the
remnant left in the old Socialist Party, whose dues-paying membership
dwindled from 109,589 in January, 1919, to 39,750 by July of the same
year. Evidently, when the Left Wing secession occurred, a few real
rebels came out of the Socialist Party, which used to boast in election
campaigns that it was merely a party of evolution, not of revolution.
Those who still remain in the old party are rebels, too, but the rank
and file is restrained by seasoned leaders, who are more prudent but
less honest than the hot-headed Communists.
The Socialists now have in the country four revolutionary organizations:
the Socialist Party, the Socialist Labor Party, the Communist Party and
the Communist Labor Party. The scum of the land, the wrecks and wreckers
of civilization, deluded ignoramuses, thus find ample opportunity for
selecting an organization of rebellion in which there is "no political
corruption." The members of these parties find fault with everything
under the Stars and Stripes, and yet hesitate to pass over to Russia and
live under the bloody standard of Lenine and Trotzky. If these four
rebel parties do not suffice for some of the rebels, there still remains
the I. W. W. All are pretty much the same, their principal differences
being the varying degrees of hypocrisy, boldness and lust for power of
their leaders.
The open and pronounced revolutionary character of the I. W. W.,
Communist Party and Communist Labor Party, evidenced in their
inflammatory utterances and tactics, had established their criminal
status with our National and State police and legal departments, while
startling wholesale arrests, deportations and indictments of these three
classes of law-breakers soon impressed a recognition of their criminal
status upon the public mind. It is important to establish the further
fact, if it be one, that the only difference between the rank and file
of these organizations and the rank and file of the remnant still
attached to the Socialist Party of America is the difference between
tweedledee and tweedledum.
The late inquiry into the qualifications of five suspended Socialists to
sit as law-makers in the New York Assembly created an astonishing
furore, disclosing amazing ignorance concerning American Socialism among
our most intelligent citizens. The confusion of the public mind was
still further increased by the Attorney-General of the United States,
whose convincing characterization of the two Communist parties, given
out on January 23, 1920, contained the following sentence:
"Certainly such an organization as the Communist Party of America
and also the Communist Labor Party cannot be construed to fall
within the same category as the Socialist Party of America, which
latter organization is pledged to the accomplishment of changes of
the Government by lawful and rightful means."
But can the facts so far brought out in this book "be construed" as
indicating any substantial difference between the 39,000 or 40,000
Socialists who have kept their old party name and the 70,000 or 72,000
who separated from them in September, 1919? Up to the moment of
separation were not all alike under the same "pledge" to use "lawful and
rightful means?" But if this public profession of lawfulness meant
nothing to 70,000 of them, why think it means more to the rest?
We have the further striking evidence, shown above, that the leaders who
had compromised their attitude toward Bolshevism felt compelled, in
order to hold any of the rank and file, to argue that "the National
Executive Committee and the party in general" had "supported the Russian
Comrades at the head of the Soviet power." Yet in spite of this defense
the old National Executive Committee of the Socialist Party was rebuked
and kicked out of office during the Emergency Convention, even by
delegates who were friendly to the compromised leaders. The "Call,"
September 5, 1919, gives some of the details:
"The rebuke of the National Executive Committee was in the form of
an amendment to the original motion to adopt its report. The
amendment carried by 63 to 39....
"Perhaps Frederick Haller expressed the general sentiment of the
convention when he said:
"'We must endorse this supplemental report of the National
Executive Committee, but we must go back to our constituents and
tell them that we gave the National Executive Committee hell.'"
These "constituents," the rank and file, determine the character of the
party, and not the thimble-rigging games of their political leaders, who
support themselves and have "made a good thing" out of Socialism by
carrying water on one shoulder for gullible voters, and on the other for
their credulous disciples. This is not the first time that self-serving,
hypocritical teachers, in compassing sea and land to make proselytes,
have made them twofold more the children of hell than themselves.
The National Emergency Convention of 1919 affords still other evidence
of the mind of the rank and file of the Socialist Party in the report of
the committee which investigated the referendum vote of 1919 which the
old National Executive Committee had suppressed. The "Call," September
1, 1919, says:
"The report states that on the face of the returns, referendum B
and D were carried by large majorities, and a National Executive
Committee, consisting of Louis Fraina of New York, Charles E.
Ruthenberg of Cleveland, Seymour Stedman of Chicago, Patrick S.
Nagle of Oklahoma and L. E. Katterfeld of Cleveland was elected.
The returns also showed on their face that John Reed and Louis
Fraina had been elected as the party's international delegates and
Kate Richards O'Hare its international secretary."
Thus the party was "Red" or Left-Wingish "by large majorities," and was
distinctly Bolshevist, as we learn from the "Call's" explanation of
"referendum B and D," which "were carried by large majorities."
"Referendum B put the question of holding a National Emergency
Convention up to the membership. Referendum D asked the membership
to decide whether the party should record itself as being opposed
to entering any other international Socialist alignment than that
of the Third National [International?] which held its first
conference at Moscow early in March.
"Its adoption means that the Socialist party will not take part in
any international conference from which the Bolsheviki of Russia
and the Spartacans of Germany are excluded, or in which they refuse
to participate."
Thus at the Emergency Convention of August-September, 1919, the
Socialist Party of America was tied to the will of the Russian
Bolshevists and the German Spartacides, who held the powers of approval
and veto in deciding what internationals the members of the Socialist
Party of America might associate with! A more anomalous product of the
double-faced generalship of Berger and Hillquit it would be hard to
imagine.
But this is not all. The Moscow Manifesto of March, 1919, was before the
Emergency Convention. This Russian Communistic Manifesto is addressed
"To the proletariat of all countries" (see Chapter IV) and reads: "We
Communists, representatives of the revolutionary proletariat of the
different countries of Europe, America and Asia, assembled in Soviet
Moscow." Would the Socialist Party of America accept its inclusion among
those in "America" thus designated, or refuse? The committee which
considered the matter split, bringing in majority and minority reports.
The majority report, favored by Berger, considered the Third
International as not yet constituted, thus hanging the Socialist Party
of America in the air, without fellowship with Moscow, Berne or any
other thing--a trapeze performance truly Bergeresque. The minority
report, voted for even by a third of the machine delegates in the
Emergency Convention, favored affiliation with the associates of the
Moscow Conference as constituting the Third International. It was
decided to submit both reports to a referendum vote of the party, which
should have been taken in January or February, 1920, if the requirements
of the party Constitution were followed.
The concern of the Socialist Party managers to keep the facts from the
general public, evidenced by their tactics in the case of the five
suspended Socialist Assemblymen at Albany, might have led to another
unconstitutional delay or manipulation of a referendum. But this was
immaterial in determining the mind of the rank and file, as we have
documentary evidence showing that the only opposition within the party
to a clear-cut Bolshevik committal sprang out of fear either of legal
prosecution or of the loss of votes through public condemnation. The
following illuminating discussion is extracted from a letter of
Alexander Trachtenberg, a conspicuous Socialist, as printed in the
"Call" of November 26, 1919:
"The members of the Socialist Party now have before them two
referenda--Referendum E, consisting of the various changes in the
party Constitution which were decided upon at the Chicago
Convention, and Referendum F, on international Socialist
relations....
"The question of international affiliation is at this moment
probably the most important before the Socialist Party. The two
reports which emanated from the convention, known as the majority
and minority reports, will no doubt receive very careful
consideration by the members....
"A close examination of the two reports reveals that the condition
laid down for the International, with which the Socialist party
cares to affiliate itself, are the same. Both reports agree that:
"a. The Second International is dead.
"b. The Berne International Conference hopelessly failed in its
indeavor to reconstitute the International.
"c. The New International must consist only of those parties:
"1. Which have remained true to the revolutionary International
Socialist movement during the war.
"2. Which refused to co-operate with bourgeois parties and are
opposed to all forms of coalition.
"In short, _both_ reports agree that the Socialist Party will go
only into such an International the component parties of which
_conduct their struggle on revolutionary class lines_. The
difference between the two reports is, that while the majority
report leaves the matter of the reconstruction of the International
hang in the air, the minority report has something tangible to
offer. It also more specifically outlines the Socialist policy on
the question of international affiliation, and gives several
reasons for joining the Third (Moscow) International....
"The Socialist Party of America cannot afford to remain amorphous
at the present stage of the building of the new International. It
has refused to go with those elements who have either betrayed or
were unwilling to remain true to their professions. It belongs
among those parties which have remained true to International
Socialism and who alone have the right to build the edifice of the
new International.
"By voting for the minority report the Comrades will give
expression to _what they have professed and believed in_ during the
past critical years in the life of the international Socialist
movement."
A letter on the same subject, by Benjamin Glassberg, appears in the
"Call" of December 4, 1919, from which we take extracts showing the
Bergeresque argument of Hoan, Berger's mayor of Milwaukee:
"The most important question before the members of the Socialist
Party just now is the referendum on the majority and minority
reports on international relations. Comrade Trachtenberg has argued
in the columns of 'The Call' in favor of the minority report, and
Hoan of Milwaukee for the majority, and Comrade Warshow has argued
against both.
"A careful examination of the position taken by both Hoan and
Warshow fails to reveal why the minority report should be voted
down. Comrade Hoan is naturally very much concerned at the
possibility that 'in the coming political battles the capitalistic
henchmen will flaunt in your face that the above is the program of
the Socialist Party' (referring to the statement in the governing
rules of the Communist International that the revolutionary era
compels the proletariat to make use of mass action).
"The important thing, according to Hoan, is not whether the
minority report is right or not, but rather what will the effect be
at the next election. In this respect he is typical of the pure and
simple political Socialist....
"In one breath Comrade Warshow calls for a new International to
which shall be admitted all Socialist parties of the world who
believe in the class struggle, and in the next he defends the
Socialists supporting a coalition government. How can one subscribe
to the doctrine of the class struggle and at the same time approve
of Socialists joining in a coalition government, which of necessity
will not be the agent of the workers but of the class with which
the workers are at all times at war?....
"In all our official declarations, including the Chicago manifesto,
we have voiced our support of the Bolsheviki. In our meetings and
in our literature we have taken our stand solidly with our Russian
Comrades, our friends, the Left Wingers to the contrary
notwithstanding.
"Why, then, hesitate to affiliate with them?"
Thus, whether or not Berger's policy of dissimulation prevailed--and his
wholesale slaughter of dues-payers with the ax of the Executive
Committee had shown all who opposed him what they might expect--it
remained true that identification with the Bolshevist principles and
tactics of Lenine and Trotzky was what the present members of the
Socialist Party in America "have professed and believed in during the
past critical years" and was in accord with "all" their "official
declarations," their "meetings" and their "literature."
The base ingratitude of Berger toward those who have followed and
supported him; the gross, incredible savagery of his egotism in turning
to rend those he had discipled into revolutionaries the moment their
allegiance to the principles he taught them stood in the way of his
cowardice and ambition; his butcher insensibilities in making his
party's Constitution a "scrap of paper" and the party a shambles for the
hewing down of two-thirds of his "Comrades;" his burlesque effrontery in
posing in the convention as a law-and-order man, railing at his own
victims as "anarchists"--these daubs of color paint the cubist portrait
of Wisconsin's mock hero, one of the meanest caricatures of human life
that ever swaggered on a political arena.
When the two Wings of the Convention raised the question, "Who called
the cops?" Berger's pale and innocent figure rose with the trembling
remark: "If they had not been here yesterday morning we would not be
here now. The two-fisted Reed and the other two-fisted Left Wingers
would be here." He took pains to have the delicate pathos of his
martyrdom sketched into the Executive Committee report he signed,
"Victor L. Berger, in addition to a sentence of 20 years, has four more
indictments pending against him, besides being refused his seat in
Congress. All the Socialist candidates for Congress in Wisconsin and the
State Secretary also are under indictment. No mail whatever is permitted
to be delivered to the 'Leader,' the party daily in Milwaukee," etc. On
the other hand, against the terrible "anarchs" who had so outraged his
own gentle spirit and sense of order, he even fulminated outside the
Convention Hall, as in the interview which we take from the "Call" of
September 4, 1919:
"Ever since the Socialist movement has existed there have been two
very distinct tendencies apparent--the Social Democratic tendency
and the Anarcho-Syndicalist tendency....
"But the revolution in Russia and Hungary, which had been predicted
by us, as well as in Germany, has had a peculiar psychological
effect on many of the rank and file of the party, especially upon
those who had come from Russia and Hungary. They really believe
this revolt can be repeated today in America.
"The revolution in Russia and the psychological effect of it
penetrated into the foreign federations affiliated with the
Socialist party of America and gave the Anarcho-Syndicalists, who
have joined us in great numbers in the last six months, a chance to
split up the Socialist party of America into three groups.
"First, the old Socialist Party, which will remain longer to aid
the old ideals of Social Democracy, even though there may be a
change in tactics required by changed conditions.
"Then there are the Communist Socialists, led by John Reed and a
few hysterical men and women, who try to bring about a Russian
revolution or God knows what other things, they themselves don't
know tomorrow morning.
"And, finally, there is the Communist Party, led by Louis Fraina,
which consists mainly of Russians, Ukrainians[7], Slovenic races
and other foreign federation members, who have been suspended for
stuffing ballot boxes in the last referendum, and who also want
revolution of some kind, the wherewith and howwith they haven't
been able to explain so far."
Do we exaggerate the humbuggery of leadership uncloaked in this
Emergency Convention of the Socialist Party of America? Let the reader
judge from the supreme example of it, the motive of which we present in
the words of the organ of one of the chief conspirators, Hillquit's
"Call." The issue of August 31, 1919, declared: "The convention will
adopt a stand, expressed in a manifesto that is expected to satisfy all
those in the Left Wing who are contending for what they believe to be
revolutionary principles." In the issue of September 3 we read:
"There will be a restatement of party principles which is expected
to cut the ground from under the feet of the former members and
organizations of the party who have read themselves out and will
remain suspended in mid-air between the newly formed and still more
newly revised Communist-Labor Party and the Communist Party."
In the "Call" of September 5, which published the manifesto, we also
have this comment on it by James Oneal: "The American movement can
congratulate itself on having produced such a splendid document. It will
tend to rally members who have been uncertain of the outcome of the
convention, and will eventually bring to us many who are sick of the
hypocrisies, the shams and the illusions that have held them in chains
for nearly three tragic years."
What hypocrisies, shams and illusions are referred to? Who were their
authors? In another column of the same issue we are told: "With every
delegate on his feet and cheering, the National Emergency Convention of
the Socialist Party unanimously adopted its manifesto this afternoon.
[September 4th.] It was the big moment of the convention. The document
is regarded as the most revolutionary the party has ever drawn up, and
one certain to bring back into the organization thousands of members
temporarily outside of it, either because their local organizations were
expelled or by reason of what Lenine has called 'the intoxication of the
revolutionary phrase.'"
Thus this manifesto was adopted by the wreckers of the Socialist Party
to hold the "revolutionary" rank and file still left them and to draw
back the revolutionary seceders--minus their leaders, of course.
Nevertheless the manifesto is truly revolutionary--"most
revolutionary"--the revolutionary creed of a revolutionary organization.
It is, of course, carefully worded, so as to deceive if possible that
public whose intelligence the cynical Socialists despise at the same
time that they appeal to it for votes, and this careful wording we can
understand from a comment in the "Call" of September 5, 1919: "Before
reading the manifesto, Block told the convention the manifesto was
largely based upon one suggested by Morris Hillquit, now ill at Saranac
Lake, N. Y."[J]
Seen through its mask of verbiage, however, the manifesto of the
Emergency Convention of the Socialist Party of America joins with the
famous Preamble of the I. W. W. and the manifestoes and programs of the
Communist and Communist Labor Parties in advocating the plundering of
mankind by proletarians, the elimination of the private ownership of
natural wealth and the machinery of production, and the _wresting_ of
"the industries and the control of the government of the United States"
out of their present ownership and control so as "to place industry and
government in the control of the workers."
This revolutionary document incites "American labor" to "break away"
from its present leadership, called "reactionary and futile," and "to
join in the great emancipating movement of the more advanced
revolutionary workers of the world"--the I. W. W.'s and Bolshevists. It
is "the supreme task" of "the Socialist party of America," its "great
task," to which its members "pledge all" their "energies and resources,"
to "win the American workers" from their "ineffective" leadership, "to
educate them to an enlightened understanding of their own class
interests, and to train and assist them to organize politically and
industrially on class lines, in order _to effect their emancipation_,"
namely, "to _wrest_ the industries and the control of the government of
the United States from the capitalists _and their retainers_" and "place
industry _and government_ in the control of the workers."
Furthermore, "to _insure_ the triumph of Socialism in the United States
the bulk of American workers must be strongly organized politically as
Socialists, in constant, clear-cut and _aggressive opposition to all
parties of the possessing class_" and "must be strongly organized in the
economic field on broad industrial lines, _as one powerful and
harmonious class organization_, co-operating with the Socialist Party,
and _ready in cases of emergency_ to _reinforce_ the _political_ demands
of the working class _by industrial action_." (See, a few pages further
on, the manifesto itself, from which we have quoted in the three last
paragraphs.)
Is this the thing which Berger and Hillquit have let loose--after
blocking a much less compromising resolution of long-distance
affiliation with Moscow? Does Berger think the people of Wisconsin such
blockheads that they will shy at a word like Bolshevism, but are unable
to understand the plain, bold English of a conspiracy to bring about
industrial organization "to wrest the industries and the control of the
government of the United States" out of the hands of the American people
and into the hands of a special class? Indeed, if the "workers" take
everything, what will become of the drones--the Socialist political
hacks?
While we reserve the details for Chapter XVI, we add here in passing
that on February 10, 1920, it was acknowledged in testimony at the trial
of the five Assemblymen at Albany that affiliation with the Third
(Moscow) International had been carried by referendum vote in the
Socialist Party of America with a large majority.
Before giving the reader the text of that part of the Emergency
Convention manifesto which we have been discussing we must call
attention to another piece of evidence--Morris Hillquit's letter in his
paper, the "New York Call," shortly after the Emergency Convention, in
which he says:
"The split in the ranks of American Socialism raises the question: What
shall be the attitude of the Socialist Party toward the newly formed
Communist organization?" His letter answering this important question
was read out of the "Call" into the record of the New York Assembly's
inquiry into the qualifications of the five suspended Socialists to act
as law-makers and will be found in the "New York Herald" of January 29,
1920, from which we take it:
"Any attempted solution of the problem must take into account the
following fundamental facts:
"First--The division was not created arbitrarily and deliberately
by the recent convention in Chicago. It had become an accomplished
fact months ago, and the Chicago gatherings did nothing more than
recognize the fact.
"Second--The division was not brought about by differences on vital
questions of principles. It arose over disputes on methods and
policy.
"Third--The separation of the Socialist Party into three
organizations need not necessarily mean a weakening of the
Socialists. They are wrong in their estimate of American
conditions, their theoretical conclusions and practical methods,
but they have not deserted to the enemy. The bulk of their
following is still good Socialist material. When the hour of the
real Socialist fight strikes in this country we may find them
again in our ranks.
"Our quarrel is a family quarrel, and has no room in the columns of
the capitalistic papers, where it can only give joy and comfort to
the common enemy. The unpardonable offense of the
Simons-Russell-Spargo crowd [which withdrew from the Socialist
Party of America on account of its unpatriotic and un-American
opposition to the people and Government of the United States at
war, as expressed in the Socialist Party's St. Louis Convention
utterances in April, 1917] was not so much their social-patriotic
stand during the war as the fact that they rushed into the
anti-Socialist press maliciously denouncing their former comrades
as pro-German and deliberately added fuel to the sinister flame of
mob violence and government persecution directed against the
Socialist movement.
"We have had our split. It was unfortunate but unavoidable, and now
we are through with it. Legitimate constructive work of the
Socialist movement is before us. Let us give it all of our time,
energies and resources. Let us center our whole fight upon
capitalism, and let us hope our Communist brethren will go and do
likewise."
Thus all three organizations, Socialist Party of America, Communist
Party of America and Communist Labor Party, have merely had "a family
quarrel" and are still one kin, one blood, one "family," without
"fundamental" "differences on vital questions of principles," so that
the Socialist Partyites and their "Communist brethren" can go on doing
"likewise" against our present Government and institutions until, "when
the hour of the _real_ Socialist fight"--the Great Rebellion--"strikes
_in this country_" the members of the Socialist Party "may find" the
members of the two Communist parties "again in" their "ranks." Thus by
Hillquit, at least, all three parties can only "be construed" to be in
one and the same "category."
We end this chapter by reproducing from the "New York Call" of September
5, 1919, a considerable part of the Socialist Party's Emergency
Convention manifesto. This offspring of Hillquit's brain declares
"solidarity with the revolutionary workers of Russia" and "radical"
Spartacides of Germany and Communists of Austria and Hungary. Let the
reader carefully weigh this document's meanings, comparing them with the
call for and manifesto of the Moscow Conference, the definition of
"industrial unionism" and "mass action" in the Left Wingers' writings,
the Communist and Communist Labor manifestoes and programs, and the
principles and tactics of I. W. W.'ism as set forth elsewhere in this
volume, and then ask himself if the latest official utterance of the
Socialist Party of America can in any way "be construed" as placing that
party in any "category" which does not also contain the Communist
organizations and the I. W. W. The salient parts of the manifesto
follow:
"The capitalist class is now making its last stand in its history.
It was intrusted with the government of the world. It is
responsible for the prevailing chaos. The events of recent years
have conclusively demonstrated that capitalism is bankrupt, and has
become a dangerous impediment to progress and human welfare. The
working class alone has the power to redeem and to save the
world....
"It now becomes more than ever the immediate task of international
Socialism to accelerate and organize the inevitable transfer of
political and industrial power from the capitalist class to the
workers. The workers must recognize the economic structure of human
society by eliminating the institution of the private ownership of
natural wealth and of the machinery of industry, the essence of the
war-breeding system of international commercial rivalry. The
workers of the world must recognize the economic structure of human
society by making the natural wealth and the machinery of industry
the collective property of all....
"The workers of Great Britain, France and Italy, the workers of the
newly created nations, and the workers of the countries which
remained neutral during the war, are all in a state of
unprecedented unrest. In different ways and by different methods,
either blindly impelled by the inexorable conditions which confront
them, or clearly recognizing their revolutionary aims, they are
abandoning their temporising programs of pre-war labor reform. They
are determined to control the industries, which means control of
the governments.
"In the United States capitalism has emerged from the war more
reactionary and aggressive, more insolent and oppressive than it
has ever been....
"But even in the United States the symptoms of a rebellious spirit
in the ranks of the working masses are rapidly multiplying.
Widespread and extensive strikes for better labor conditions, the
demand of the 2,000,000 railway workers to control their industry,
sporadic formation of labor parties, apparently, though not
fundamentally, in opposition to the political parties of the
possessing class, are promising indications of a definite tendency
on the part of American labor to break away from its reactionary
and futile leadership and to join in the great emancipating
movement of the more advanced revolutionary workers of the world.
"Recognizing this crucial situation at home and abroad, the
Socialist Party in the United States at its first national
convention after the war, squarely takes its position with the
uncompromising section of the international Socialist movement. We
unreservedly reject the policy of those Socialists who supported
their belligerent capitalist governments on the plea of 'national
defense,' and who entered into demoralizing compacts for so-called
civil peace with the exploiters of labor during the war and
continued a political alliance with them after the war.
"We, the organized Socialists of America, declare our solidarity
with the revolutionary workers of Russia in the support of the
government of their Soviets, with the radical Socialists of
Germany, Austria and Hungary in their efforts to establish working
class rule in their countries, and with those Socialist
organizations in England, France, Italy and other countries, who,
during the war as after the war, have remained true to the
principles of uncompromising international Socialism....
"The great purpose of the Socialist Party is to wrest the
industries and the control of the government of the United States
from the capitalists and their retainers. It is our purpose to
place industry and government in the control of the workers with
hand and brain, to be administered for the benefit of the whole
community.
"To insure the triumph of Socialism in the United States the bulk
of the American workers must be strongly organized politically as
Socialists, in constant, clear-cut and aggressive opposition to all
parties of the possessing class. They must be strongly organized in
the economic field on broad industrial lines, as one powerful and
harmonious class organization, cooperating with the Socialist
Party, and ready in cases of emergency to reinforce the political
demands of the working class by industrial action.
"To win the American workers from their ineffective and
demoralizing leadership, to educate them to an enlightened
understanding of their own class interests, and to train and assist
them to organize politically and industrially on class lines, in
order to effect their emancipation, that is the supreme task
confronting the Socialist Party of America.
"To this great task, without deviation or compromise, we pledge all
our energies and resources. For its accomplishment we call for the
support and co-operation of the workers of America and of all other
persons desirous of ending the insane rule of capitalism before it
has had the opportunity to precipitate humanity into another
cataclysm of blood and ruin.
"Long live the International Socialist Revolution, the only hope of
the suffering world!"
CHAPTER VI
SOCIALISM IN THEORY
Morris Hillquit, a ring-leader among Socialists of the United States,
writing in "Everybody's," October, 1913, page 487, informs us that the
term Socialism is used indiscriminately to designate a certain
philosophy, a scheme of social organization and an active political
movement.
Socialism, used to designate a certain philosophy, may better be
distinguished by being called Socialism in theory. Socialism as an
applied scheme of social organization may be termed Socialism in
practice, and means nothing other than a form of government according to
the principles of Socialist philosophy. Socialism, as an active
political movement, means the Socialist Party. Thus, when we say that
Socialism won several times in Milwaukee, we do not mean that the system
of Socialist philosophy was voted upon and accepted by the majority, for
most of the voters knew practically nothing about the philosophy of
Socialism; nor do we mean that the form of government in accordance with
the principles of Socialist philosophy was adopted at the polls, for, as
a matter of fact, we know that the government of Milwaukee has never
been in accordance with the Marxian principles; but we mean this, and
only this, that the active political movement of the Socialists, in
other words, the Socialist Party, elected its candidates. No doubt the
victorious candidates would have ruled Milwaukee according to the
philosophy of Socialism, applying the Marxian principles to their
government, if they could have done so, but the Constitution of the
United States as well as that of the State of Wisconsin would have stood
in the way, as will be seen when Socialism is explained more in detail.
The first form of Socialism to be explained in detail is Socialism in
theory. There seem to be about 57 hundred times 57 hundred varieties of
Socialists, owing to the conflicting views that members of the party
hold on different subjects which they wish to include in Socialism, and
also because of their different interpretations of the fundamental
principle of Socialism. There is, however, one underlying principle that
seems to be held quite generally by Marxians the world over. No matter
what other radical measures individual Socialists may favor or wish to
see included in the Socialist philosophy, and no matter how many
different interpretations are given to the principle of Socialism, the
basic principle that stands out above all others and is accepted
generally by Socialists the world over may be said to be the demand for
a government, democratic in form, under which all the citizens would
collectively own and manage the principal means of production,
transportation and communication.
The Industrial Workers of the World form one of the few classes of
Socialists who object to the generally accepted fundamental principle
just mentioned. "The One Big Union Monthly," March, 1919, prefers to
drop the words "democratic form of government," because the I. W. W.'s
are not sure that ownership by the people as a whole would succeed
better under a democratic form of government than under a dictatorship
of the proletariat.
"The Labour Leader," the organ of the Socialist Independent Labor Party,
Manchester, England, February 6, 1919, declares that Socialism is "the
complete ownership and control of the means of life by the people, and
the development of industry and the distribution of its fruits under a
genuine and absolute democracy." In explaining Socialism, it says that
"it means that the land shall become the property of the people, not of
private individuals. It means that the great industries shall become the
property of the people. It means that the railways and the canals shall
become the property of the people. It means that the shipping shall
become the property of the people. In short it means that everything
essential to the life of all shall become the property of all, and shall
be administered not for the profit of the few, but for the use of all.
And it demands intelligent control of public affairs by the people,
women as well as men."
Practically the same ideas are expressed in other words by Jaures in
"Studies in Socialism," page 32 of 1906 edition, translated by Minturn.
This great leader of the French Socialists, who was assassinated at the
beginning of the World War, and in whose honor there was a tremendous
demonstration in Paris on April 6, 1919, prophesied that "the time is
not far off when no one will be able to speak to the public about the
preservation of private property without covering himself with ridicule
and putting himself voluntarily into an inferior rank. That which
reigns to-day under the name of private property is really class
property, and those who wish for the establishment of democracy in the
economic as well as the political world should give their best effort to
the abolition and not to the maintenance of this class property."
In "The Revolutionary Age," Boston, January 11, 1919, page 4, we read:
"What is Socialism? It is the public ownership of all the wealth,
the mills, the mines, the factories, the railroads and land. Things
that are used in common, must be owned in common, by the people and
for the people under democratic management by the people, instead
of the present system of private ownership for profits."
According to Morris Hillquit in "Everybody's," October, 1913, page 487:
"The Socialist program advocates a reorganization of the existing
industrial system on the basis of collective or national ownership
of the social tools. It demands that the control of the machinery
of wealth creation be taken from the individual capitalists and
placed in the hands of the nation, to be organized and operated for
the benefit of the whole people."
Hillquit, in his various articles, has, of course, like many other
Socialists, given his explanation of the detailed method of organization
and operation of industries under a Socialist form of government. It
reads very nicely and appears attractive, as his statements do till
truth's searchlight falls on them, but it does not seem worth while to
present his views, for very many of the leading Socialists of the world
not only differ with each other as regards the method of organization
and operation that they advocate for the Marxian state, but they are
also very much at variance with the plan of organization and operation
that Hillquit describes.
Eugene V. Debs, in his "Daily Message from Moundsville Prison,"
published in "The Call," New York, April 21, 1919, tells us what
Socialism is:
"The earth for all the people! That is the demand.
"The machinery of production and distribution for all the people!
That is the demand.
"The collective ownership and control of industry and its
democratic management in the interest of all the people! That is
the demand.
"The elimination of rent, interest and profit and the production of
wealth to satisfy the wants of all the people! That is the demand.
"Co-operative industry in which we all shall work together in
harmony as the basis of a new social order, a higher civilization,
a real republic! That is the demand.
"The end of class struggles and class rule, of master and slave, of
ignorance and vice, of poverty and shame, of cruelty and crime--the
birth of freedom, the dawn of brotherhood, the beginning of MAN!
That is the demand.
"This is Socialism!"
In the Preamble to the American Socialist Party Platform, adopted by
national referendum, July 24, 1917, we are told:
"The theory of a democratic government is the greatest good to the
greatest number. The working class far out-numbers the capitalist
class. Here is the natural advantage of the working class. By
uniting solidly in a political party of its own, it can capture the
government and all its powers and use them in its own interests.
"The Socialist Party aims to abolish this class war with all its
evils and to substitute for capitalism a new order of co-operation,
wherein the workers shall own and control all the economic factors
of life. It calls upon all workers to unite, to strike as they vote
and to vote as they strike, all against the master class.
"Only through this combination of our powers can we establish the
co-operative commonwealth, wherein the workers shall own their jobs
and receive the full social value of their product. The necessities
of life will then be produced, not for the profits of the few, but
for the comfort and happiness of all who labor. Instead of
privately owned industries with masters and slaves, there will be
the common ownership of the means of life, and all the
opportunities and resources of the world will be equal and free to
all."
The fundamental principle of Socialism, namely, a government, democratic
in form, in which all the citizens would collectively own and manage the
principal means of production, transportation and communication, will be
more clearly understood if the several component parts of the basic
principle are explained.
A government, _democratic in form_, would, of course, require the
overthrow of all limited monarchies as well as the annihilation of those
that are despotic. Even a republican form of government, like that of
the United States, is very far from being satisfactory to the
Revolutionists, for they demand that the citizens have as direct a voice
as possible, first in the election of all public officers, secondly in
the framing of the laws, and thirdly in the management of the many
industrial departments of the proposed government.
By the citizens' _collective owning_ of the different things enumerated
is meant that they would own them just as the citizens of the United
States, as a body, to-day own the post-offices, arsenals, navy and
public lands. Of course, collective ownership does not imply that, after
the state should have taken over the things referred to, each citizen
would be entitled to an equal share of them as his own private property,
to be used by him according to his desires.
_The management of the property_ of the Socialist state and the
remuneration[8] for labor would not be in the hands of private
individuals acting independently, but would be subject to the will of
the majority of the citizens.
By the _principal_ means of production, transportation and communication
is meant any instrument of production, transportation or communication
that would be used for purposes of exploitation, in other words, for
making profit through the employment of hired labor. To illustrate this,
several examples will be given. Mines, factories and mills of all kinds,
large business houses and stores, together with those farms whose owners
would employ hired labor for the production of goods to be sold at
profit, would all be looked upon as being among the _principal means of
production_. On the other hand, a sewing-machine used for family needs
would not be included in the list.
There are many Socialists who have held that their intended state would
allow the private ownership of very small farms, provided that the
products were raised without the employment of farm hands. But it seems
likely that such a plan of private ownership would not be tolerated
under a Socialist government, for, first of all, a very large number of
Socialists are opposed to such a plan, and, secondly, the political
actionists who have favored it either have sacrificed thereby the
principles of their party, or else by advocating the private ownership
of small farms, have done so with the intention of deceiving farmers and
small land owners in order to win their votes. More will be said about
this further on.
Railroads, street car lines, express and steamship service would be
among the _principal means of transportation_; while included in the
list of _principal means of communication_ there would be the public
telephone and telegraph systems. Automobiles, horses and carriages, if
used without the assistance of hired labor, would not be considered as
being principal means of transportation. So, too, under similar
conditions, a private telephone or telegraph line running to the house
of a friend would be excluded from the principal means of communication.
The state would, of course, own all the goods produced in its mines,
factories, shops, etc., until they were purchased with money or labor
certificates. The people would then retain these goods as their own
private property, and would not, according to the leading American
Socialists, be compelled to divide them up with their fellow countrymen.
The Socialist plan looks very nice on paper, allures many impoverished
workingmen of the present day, appeals strongly to the uneducated, and
offers great inducements to the "downs and outs" of society. It is,
however, a deadly poison, and this will be proven conclusively in the
chapter on "Socialism a Peril to Workingmen." There it will be shown not
only that a Socialist state cannot possibly be a success, but that it
would be a source of continued civil strife and discord, thoroughly
unsatisfactory to workingmen, whom it would overwhelm with all the evils
attendant on crime, strife, rebellion and chaos. In the Marxian state
the industrial establishments, land, and business enterprises would be
confiscated; neither interest, rent nor profit would be tolerated; the
wage system would be abolished; no satisfactory plan could be devised
for assigning so many millions of workingmen to the different positions,
while at the same time satisfying them with remuneration for their daily
toil; religions of all kinds would be the object of persecution;
free-love would be legalized; and political corruption would be much
more widespread than today. These are but several of the factors that
would make a successful Socialist state an impossibility.
It may interest the reader to know that Socialists of the highest
authority inform us that in the new state women would be called upon to
work. The late August Bebel, one of the foremost of German Socialists,
says that as soon as society is in possession of all the means of
production, "the duty to work, on the part of all able to work, without
distinction of sex, becomes the organic law of socialized society."
["Woman Under Socialism," by Bebel, page 275 of the 1904 edition in
English.] Frederick Engels, in his book, "Origin of the Family," teaches
that the emancipation of women is primarily dependent on the
reintroduction of the whole female sex into the public industries.
["Origin of the Family," by Engels, page 90 of Untermann's 1907
translation into English.] In "The Call," New York, February 27, 1910,
it is stated that "the man who professes himself to be a Socialist, and
then says that under Socialism men will provide for women, is wide of
the mark."
Keeping clearly before their minds the fundamental principle of
Socialism, the people of America must be careful to distinguish between
Socialists ruling under our present form of government, and Socialists
ruling in a Socialist state. Possible success in the first case would by
no means indicate success in the latter. If our citizens are cautious in
this respect, the enemies of our country will not dare to boast of the
so-called success of Socialism in those places in which the members of
their party, elected to public office, may have given a good
administration under our constitutional system of government.
Though Socialism, in the strictest sense of the word, is concerned
exclusively with economics, still this does not mean that those who
profess it do not advocate, as part of their program, many pet projects
not appertaining to economics. By a vast majority, the members of the
Socialist Party either advocate atheism and opposition to religion, or
at least do not oppose those Socialists who do. Most of them, too, in
their cravings for what is base and low, are by no means adverse to
seeing free-love reign supreme in their contemplated state. The word
_Socialism_ is, therefore, frequently used in a broader sense, and is
made to include not only the common doctrine advocating the democratic
form of government under which the citizens would collectively own and
manage the principal means of production, transportation and
communication, but also those other doctrines that are taught or
silently approved by the majority. It is in this broader sense, then,
that the opponents of the Marxians justly claim that Socialism is
atheistic, anti-religious, and immoral.
We are told by Hillquit in "Everybody's," October, 1913, page 486, that
"like all social theories and practical mass movements, Socialism
produces certain divergent schools, bastard offshoots clustering around
the main trunk of the tree, large in number and variety, but
insignificant in size and strength. Thus we hear of State Socialism,
Socialism of the Chair, Christian Socialism and even Catholic
Socialism."
Persons who call themselves Socialists may be divided into two classes,
in the first of which are those who are Socialists merely in name, for
they go no further than to vote the party ticket. It is in the second
class that we find the real Socialists, men who besides severing all
connections with the other political organizations and voting regularly
for the Socialist candidates, have taken out membership cards which
entitle them to vote on party policies by the payment of several dollars
a year into the treasury of the party. Many of the first class are, of
course, not guilty of propagating atheism, free-love, and other radical
doctrines. In fact, it often happens that they scarcely know that such
things are taught by Socialists, for the deceitful Revolutionary orators
and writers, having blinded them with vivid pictures of their
misfortunes, lead them to believe that the movement is morally upright,
and that the contemplated state of the future will bring them every
blessing under Heaven.
But unless those who are Socialists merely in name sever their
connection with the party of Karl Marx, it will not be long before many
of them will lose all sense of honor, decency and morality. Indeed they
often sink lower than the base character who composed the "poem" that
takes up half a page of "The Call" of May 10, 1914. Though "The Call"
seems to consider the "poem" an excellent specimen of literature, or
else uses the large type that it does in order to attract the attention
of its readers to the sublime virtues of the author, the quotation of
but a small part of the production will suffice to bring out its real
worth and at the same time show us the benign effects of Socialist
teachings:
"You who are exalted by pictures but not by people: you who
worship a book and a god rather than hearts and men and
women:
I'd rather have my world and its flesh and its devil than your
heaven and its spirit and its god:....
And while I don't blame man for being base or praise man for
being noble, I embrace man as my brother for being man:
And there you have the whole story, my man intoxication: I am
drunk with man: you see how it is:
You can have your bibles: I don't need your christs: your
creeds would be an insult to me: I have man: I am drunk
with man:
That's the secret of secrets: that's the confession of confessions:
that's the inside of the inside of me:
I don't expect you to take it in: drunk with man: no: that's
too much like mockery to you: you shudder at it:
To you man always comes last: man never comes first: gods,
mountains, laws--they come first: man can take his
chances:
That's the rule of precedence as you have fixed it: that's the up
and down and around of your cosmos:
But I say no: I who am drunk with man can't give up my faith
for your blasphemy: you who are sober with god."
The attention of the reader must now be drawn to something of vital
importance. There is no doubt that "Knights of the Red Flag" have
advocated many excellent social reforms, such as higher wages, shorter
working hours and greater safety for laborers, legislation against
trusts, and the prevention of child labor and political corruption.
Great credit would they deserve if their real object were not to gain
votes to secure the establishment of a Socialist form of government. It
is probable that before long, voting with true social reformers, they
will see the materialization of many of the immediate demands enumerated
in their platform. But it is to be remembered that no matter how many
beneficial reforms Socialists may help to procure under our present
constitutional system, they thus in no way prove the superiority of a
Socialistic government, democratic in form, in which the citizens would
collectively own and manage the principal means of production,
transportation, and communication. The reason is that our constitutional
government would still be in vogue, and the contradictory fundamental
principle of Socialism could not be applied by the ruling Marxians.
Persons who judge the Socialist movement solely by the immediate demands
of its political platform, or by social reforms instituted after a
political victory, understand very little either about Socialism or the
methods and purposes of the Marxians. Yet this was the short-sighted
manner in which the press persistently, and for a long time, viewed the
tactics of Socialist politicians. Only a revolutionary movement far
enough advanced to neglect gradual transformation by means of immediate
demands would be able to sweep away by force, at a single stroke, all
the old conditions of production, together with our present form of
government, and the existing order of society.
The so-called "Immediate Demands" of the Socialists may be termed
political campaign Socialism or vote-catching Socialism. They are the
sugar coating of the poisonous pill of Socialism itself. Their object is
to attract and interest the voter, and at the same time keep his mind
off of the fallacies of Socialism proper. They keep him from asking too
many unanswerable questions about the detailed method of organization
under a Socialist form of government--for instance, how the millions
upon millions of government employes would be assigned to positions that
would suit them, and at the same time receive satisfactory remuneration
for their labors.
These same immediate demands also give the voter a chance to find fault
with our present system of government and to criticise it, thereby
rendering it less able to withstand successive Socialist assaults. The
immediate demands are, of course, meant for the present day and even if
they should materialize, under our present system, they could not be
continued in a Socialist state, that would be necessarily weak,
poverty-stricken, strife-ridden, politically corrupt and chaotic. It is
one thing to make demands, quite another thing to be able to grant them.
A highway robber can demand a million dollars from the person whom he
attacks, but that doesn't make the one assaulted able to surrender the
sum; nor would it prove that the robber himself could afford to pay a
like amount if he should afterwards be held up for a million.
The immediate demands of the 1918 Congressional Platform of the
Socialist Party are entirely too many conveniently to enumerate. They
are classed under
A--International Reconstruction.
Peace Aims.
Federation of Peoples.
B--Internal Reconstruction.
Industrial Control.
Railroads and Express Service.
Steamships and Steamship Lines.
Telegraph and Telephone.
Large Power Scale Industry.
Democratic Management.
Demobilization.
The Structure of Government (i.e., of the present system of
government).
Civil Liberties.
Taxation.
Credit.
Agriculture.
Conservation of Natural Resources.
Labor Legislation.
Prisons.
The Negro.
The immediate demands are so numerous as to require a booklet of 24
pages, published by the National Office, Socialist Party, Chicago, Ill.
It is very hard to find a single reference to Socialism itself in the
entire 24 pages of the Congressional Platform.
In a letter of Moses Oppenheimer, published in "The Call," New York,
April 14, 1919, we are told that under the opportunist leadership of men
like Hillquit, Berger, Ghent, and Robert Hunter the struggle for reforms
has gradually overshadowed and supplanted the demand for the abolition
of wage slavery. The writer continues:
"More and more it has resulted in petty tactics for vote catching.
Berger's Old Age Pension bill was a glaring exhibit of opportunist
incapacity.
"Immediate demands are a tactical problem! Comrade Lee knows that
the tactics change with changed conditions. There was a time when
the opportunists expected to win the votes of the bulk of A. F. of
L. workers. Hence the sugar coating of the Socialist pill and three
years of Chester M. Wright in control of 'The Call.'
"That is now ancient history. Lee could not repeat that chapter if
he would. Nay, I believe he wouldn't if he could.
"The powerful impulse from the movement in Europe makes itself felt
over here. There is great need for reforming our front, for
recasting our tactics. The old roar of opportunism led us nowhere,
except to barren failure. If nothing else the experience with our
Ten in Albany and our Seven in the City Hall should open our eyes.
The time for picayune politics is irrevocably gone."
In an article published in "The Proletarian," Detroit, April, 1919, page
4, Oakley Johnson thus criticises the Socialist policy of reformism as
manifested in the immediate demands of the party platform:
"Socialists have been dazed time and again by the glitter of
reformism. In every country the question has been an ever-present
one, and, as a result, the rainbows of reform have found many
chasers in the ranks of the workers. The matter seemed, up to near
the end of the war, to involve more an academic dispute on tactics
than a principle of vital importance. There seemed too many good
reasons why immediate demands for slight concessions should not be
worked for, as a step in the direction of proletarian emancipation.
"When, however, the Bolshevik revolution in Russia showed the stand
taken by the reformist groups--a stand in defense of capitalism
when capitalism was about to fall--the uncompromisingly
revolutionary attitude of Marxian Socialists toward reform in the
past was amply justified. And when, in the course of a few months,
the reformistic Majority Socialists of Germany took exactly the
same stand as the Kerensky crowd had taken, there could no longer
be any doubt that the purpose of reform parties in capitalistic
society is to function as the last obstacle to the victory of the
proletariat....
"The fact is, there is a threefold objection to reformism as a
working-class policy. In the first place it is a waste of effort,
for the same zeal displayed by short-sighted reform-Socialists
would, if applied in the propagation of straight Socialism, treble
the strength of the movement in a few months' time. In the second
place reformism obscures the real end in view, develops
confusionists rather than revolutionists, gives capitalist
political parties a chance to steal a few 'Socialist' planks and
thus bid for the Socialist vote, and, worst of all, paves the way
to such tragedies as are now occurring in Germany, where Liebknecht
and Luxemberg have been murdered by their 'reform' comrades(?). And
finally, in the third place, even if reform be the sole object in
view, reformism is the poorest policy to follow to get it. A
proletariat organized for revolutionary ends has no difficulty in
securing reforms; it does not need to ask for them, for an awakened
and apprehensive bourgeoisie will shower reforms upon them like the
proverbial manna. If, indeed, workers want only reforms, why take
the longest way around?"
"The New Age," Buffalo, April 10, 1919, page 4, rejoices that the
reformists of the Socialist Party, whose policy it is to pay more
attention to the immediate demands than to the principles of Socialism,
have now a serious rival in the New Labor Party:
"Now that the New Labor Party is established (and in Chicago
recently they polled more votes than the Socialists), we wonder
what the old machine will do to combat this new octopus that
threatens the big vote that used to belong to 'US.' Answer: Teach
the working class real Socialism, the Socialism of Marx and
Engels."
The millionaire Socialist, William Bross Lloyd, of Chicago, has a very
interesting article on "Socialist Platforms" in "The Communist,"
Chicago, April 1, 1919:
"Confession is good for the soul. Let the Socialist Party of the
World now stand up and confess that it bears a close resemblance to
other political parties in that, like the others, its platforms are
mostly bunk.
"The difference between its platforms and others is that the others
mean nothing while its platforms mean anything. The difference
between Socialists and other politicians is that the Socialists
mean what they think their platforms mean while the others mean
only to get office.
"This follows from the state of affairs we have had in the world
since 1914, when Socialists became so diverse in words and deeds.
Most of those on both sides are honest. The trouble is the
vagueness of the words of the Socialist propaganda.
"Socialist thought should be so clearly stated in its platforms
that no one can doubt its meaning. This will eliminate from the
party the reformers and compromisers who are such a source of
weakness to the movement. It will also make clear to the workers
that the movement really means something.
"Take, for instance, the case of the party's attitude toward war.
Socialists are said to be opposed to all wars--then come the
exceptions: wars of 'defense,' 'invasion,' 'emancipation,'
'liberation,' and all the meaningless tribe. Confusion results. We
have the German Majority Socialists, i.e., so-called Socialists,
supporting their government in a war of 'defense' against
'invasion' and of the maintenance of their 'liberties'--God save
the mark--against Russian autocracy....
"Without knowing the precise intention of those who drafted the St.
Louis platform, I infer that it was partly written in the hope--if
not belief--that the American workers would rise against their
oppressors and the situation to which they have been subjected. It
was a ringing declaration--a 'mass movement' of the delegates to
the convention, later endorsed by the party membership. And as
these delegates separated hot-foot for home, they got cold feet as
they dispersed into the cold-footed isolation of the individual
Socialist scattered here and there throughout this land. The
platform contained no statement of individual duty, no individual
program of action Each Socialist began to ask as his feet got
colder and colder: 'Where are these "mass movements;" what are the
others going to do?' The situation was made worse by the action of
the National Executive Committee which told every Socialist to read
the St. Louis platform and then act as his conscience dictated.
Fine business for a revolutionary mass movement seeking to
establish the co-operative commonwealth. No anarchist could be more
individualistic.
"The party's attitude toward war should be cleared up. It should
definitely provide for mass action, and bind the individuals of the
party as units of the party mass. This war platform should be
followed by a Workers' Mobilization plan carefully worked out in
detail and laying down action in response to each step taken in
approach to war. For instance, on the introduction of the War
Declaration in Congress, a one-day general strike just to show the
rulers what was in store. On passage of the War Declaration a
general strike, refusal to serve in the military forces, and such
other measures as may be effective."
"The Appeal to Reason" some years ago was the leading Socialist paper of
the United States. In 1917 it came out in favor of war with the Central
Powers. Either because of this, or because it violently assailed
Bolshevism for a long while, it is now outlawed by the greater part of
the Socialist Party.
On the editorial page of "The Call," New York, April 24, 1919, we read:
"Instead of the 'Appeal to Reason' asking for a pardon for Debs, it
should ask a pardon from Debs."
In "The Bulletin," Chicago, March 24, 1919, there appears on page 12 a
bitter attack on "The Appeal" by no less a personage than Adolph Germer,
National Secretary of the Socialist Party. In this official paper,
issued by the National Office, Socialist Party, we read:
"An Open Letter to 'The Appeal.'
"_March_ 19, 1919.
"Editor Appeal to Reason,
"Girard, Kans.:
"Sir.--In the issue of the 'Appeal to Reason,' March 15, 1919, you
publish an appeal for $30,000 CASH, for an alleged 'Amnesty and
Construction Fight.'
"You give yourself credit for having 'won' the first skirmish in
the amnesty fight and on the basis of this unfounded claim, you
justify your appeal for $30,000 CASH. To make your appeal seem
legitimate, you use such names as Eugene V. Debs, Kate Richards
O'Hare, Rose Pastor Stokes and refer to 'many of our comrades.' I
happen to be one of those who is facing a prison sentence and if
you have included me in 'many of the comrades,' I want you to
strike my name from your list. I loathe to be a 'comrade' of yours.
You and your paper helped to create a hatred against the Socialist
Party and you wilfully and maliciously lied about the National
Executive Committee when it refused to follow a course that would
put more of our members in prison. In other words, you and your
paper must bear a part of the responsibility for the prosecution
and persecution of the Socialists and it is rank hypocrisy for you
to prate about your fight for amnesty.
"Others may speak for themselves, but I scorn any effort that you
make in my behalf. A thousand times would I rather spend the rest
of my life behind prison bars than to have one word from you whom I
hold responsible for the persecutions of which my colleagues and I
are victims.
"I look upon your appeal for $30,000 CASH, in the name of
'Amnesty,' as a sinister method of filling your own coffers.
"You have lied to us and about us and betrayed us in the past and I
resent your hypocritical prattle about amnesty.
"Yours without respect,
"Adolph Germer,
"_National Secretary, Socialist Party_."
Judging from the bitter attacks that Socialists are making upon each
other, it would seem that there might be a little harmony in the party
if their platforms were limited to the principles of Socialism and were
not concerned with "immediate demands" to the almost total exclusion of
Socialism itself.
CHAPTER VII
SOCIALISM IN PRACTICE
Now that considerable has been said about Socialism in theory, we shall
make the transition to Socialism in practice by quoting what may be
called George Herron's dream of Socialist perfection. On page 28 of his
booklet, "From Revolution to Revolution," we are told: "Perhaps we shall
learn in time, before accentuated capitalism has intensified the
universal misery of labor. Socialism is already on its way to the
conquest of Europe. And it may be that we shall yet behold that glorious
uprising of the universal peoples which is to begin man's real history,
and the world's real creation--that united affirmation of the world's
workers which Socialism foretells, knowing boundaries neither of nations
nor sects nor factions, speaking one voice and working together as one
man for one purpose, filling and cleansing the world with one glad
revolutionary cry. When the peoples thus come, divine and omnipotent
through co-operation, the raw materials of the world-life in their
creative hands, no longer begging favors or reforms, no longer awed by
the slave moralities or the slave religions that teach submission to
their masters, but risen and regnant in the consciousness of their
common inheritance and right in the earth and its fullness, of which
they are the makers and preservers, then will the antagonisms and
devastations of classes vanish forever, and the peace of good will
become the universal fact."
"Glorious," indeed, have been the uprisings of the Bolsheviki of Russia,
the Communists of Hungary and Bavaria, and the Spartacans of Germany,
all of whom are Socialists of the most pronounced type. These uprisings,
instead of being the "beginnings of the world's real creation," are
rather the beginnings of its destruction and ruination. The world's
workers have been "wonderfully united" in Russia, Hungary, Bavaria and
Germany since Socialism came into power--and no better proof need be
given than the way in which they have been shooting each other down and
trying to oust each other from office. Though the Socialists were not
supposed to know "the boundaries of nations, sects or factions," but
were to "speak one voice and work together as one man for one purpose,"
the Spartacans, it seems, would be better off if they had not only an
imaginary boundary to separate barbarians of their type from the rest of
civilization, but a barrier of mountains with heights towering in the
clouds to divide Germany into two parts, in one of which the Spartacans
could rest in peace, safe from the attacks of their beloved brethren of
the Ebert-Scheidemann group.
If the Communists of Bavaria had only built half a dozen Chinese walls
around Munich, they might still be holding out against the Socialist
army that besieged them and overcame them. Lenine's Government caused
such rivers of blood to flow in Russia that it could well dispense with
imaginary boundary lines to separate "Bolsheviki Land" from the domains
of Socialist Siberia. "One glad revolutionary cry" was to go up from
Socialists all over the world, but the cry is: "Workers in
anti-Socialist countries, save us from our false, hypocritical,
reactionary, murderous Marxian brethren!" Have the Socialist peoples the
world over become truly "divine" by their attacks on God and all
religions? Have they become "omnipotent" wherever they are in power--so
omnipotent that law, order and decency are no longer needed? The "raw
materials of the world were in their creative hands," and yet the
Russian people were starving by the millions, and the longer the period
since the world war, the worse things became in those vast domains once
so famous for their natural resources, wheat, cattle, wool, minerals,
oil and wood.
The Socialist dream was one of "no submission to masters;" but, strange
to say, the dictator, Lenine, rules "Bolsheviki-Land" just as he
pleases; Bela Kun so ruled Hungary; while the supposedly democratic
Soviets just issued decrees of murder or plunder, and no national
representative body of all the Russians or of all the Hungarians ever
seemed to meet. The Socialists of Russia, Hungary and Bavaria were
indeed "regnant in the consciousness of their common inheritance,"
provided, of course, that by inheritance, confiscated property is meant.
Yet although "antagonism and devastations of classes" were destined to
"vanish forever, and the peace of good will become the universal fact,"
somehow or other certain "scientific reformers" forgot that there were
such things as fools' paradises and overlooked the old saying that "all
that glitters is not gold."
In Chapters X and XI much more will be said about the Lenine-Trotzky
dictatorship of Socialist Russia, the Bela Kun administration of
Hungary, the criminal Socialist crew of Bavaria, and, of course, the
fiery Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxembourg group that at times in certain
localities replaced the Ebert-Scheidemann government of Germany.
In "The Call," New York, April 28, 1919, under the caption, "Socialist
Government of Yucatan Grapples With the Binder Trust," we read:
"We get vastly less news nowadays from our next-door neighbor,
Mexico, than from Europe and Asia, therefore a 'Call' reporter,
meeting a Comrade who has recently returned from the tropic
peninsula, fell upon him and demanded news of the Socialist, labor
and co-operative movements there.
"'We are facing a very much tangled-up situation down there,'
answered the man from Yucatan. He is W. Elkin Birch, a well-known
American Socialist and business man, who has lived in Mexico
several years. He came up to 'the States' on a business trip, and
is returning to Yucatan, where he is prominent in the Socialist and
co-operative movements.
"'The forces of capitalism in Mexico are so strong, and the
commercial system is so vicious,' he began, 'that I am not very
optimistic about the future of Socialism in Yucatan.'
"'But we thought that Alvarado had established almost a paradise
down there,' cried the reporter. 'A year ago we learned that you
had elected a complete Socialist administration in Yucatan; then, a
few months since, we heard that it had not put any part of the
Socialist program into effect. We wondered what was the reason, but
hardly any news comes through now.'
"'Alvarado did work a wonderful transformation, and much of the
good he did remains. It is true, we have an administration of
Socialists, but we find that that is a very different thing from a
Socialist administration. Yucatan is still in the grip of the
commercial interests, and the game is blocked at every move. As
fast as the radicals devise some means of stopping the robbery of
the people by special privilege, the privileged interests find a
way of circumventing the radicals by apparently yielding, but
really maintaining their domination.
"'Alvarado took over the Reguladora, through which the henequem,
Yucatan's principal product, is sold for export; he took over the
railroads, and the line of steamships running to the States....
"'The government still controls the Reguladora, but, as I said, it
is in a deadlock with the powers who control its market. We still
have government-owned railroads in Yucatan, but government
ownership merely takes the public utility out of the hands of
private capital and places it under the control of a political
organization. And private capital already has secured control of
that political organization, and graft and robbery are running
riot. Government ownership of railroads has increased the cost of
operation 100 per cent. The payrolls are packed with friends of
officials and friends of friends. If a man can control a few votes,
they reason, why shouldn't he have a job? What's the railroad for,
if not to provide jobs? The folks down there are very much like
people in other countries, you see.'....
"'But why doesn't the Socialist administration take control of
industry and commerce, and put the interests out of power?'
demanded the reporter, determined to uphold the faith in the face
of disappointing facts.
"'Well, of course, that sounds easy; but Socialists are just
people, after all, and when a Socialist gets into office he finds
it quite as hard as ordinary folks to resist the subtle influences
that surround officials. A man can't be sure that he is a real
Socialist until he is put to the test of being a part of the
government. The commercial interests offer him opportunities to
make money; they give him and his family social advantages. He
begins to see that capitalism has its good points, after all.' Mr.
Birch smiled half-satirically, half-tolerantly. 'Some members of
the Assembly have made fortunes during their year of office. One
member, who handles concessions, illegal and otherwise, has cleared
over a million pesos."
The February, 1918, issue of the "International Socialist Review,"
Chicago, was suppressed by the authorities of the United States
government, and, as a consequence, it is probable that not very many
copies are in circulation. The author of "The Red Conspiracy," however,
has in his possession a copy of this edition, in which there is a very
interesting article, beginning on page 414, entitled, "Your Dream Come
True."
"A Land of practical Socialism in active operation.
"Nearly 4,000,000 people without one cent of money in circulation;
and where no man owns a foot of land or the tools of
production--trades unionism, industrialism, single tax and
socialism all rolled into one.
"Ninety thousand square miles without a policeman; where gold rings
are placed in the public markets in large baskets, to be had for
the asking.
"A work day of two hours for the strong; of play for the young,
middle-aged and old. A land where there is plenty of candy for the
kiddies, playgrounds for all; and from which the spectre of want
has departed.
"Land of peon-slaves awakened from centuries of capitalist misrule
to the glories of co-operation, without master or landlord.
"This is no dream, but an actualized verity right here in
America--in southern Mexico. Shades of Thomas Moore, Edward Bellamy
and William Morris arise and rejoice, for your wildest visions have
become facts.
"Across the miles I stretch my hand in fellowship with Mexico's
great democrat--Zapata. Don't forget that name. The capitalist
press has not told much about him--for obvious reasons. He is
putting into practice the basic principles of co-operation. The
golden rule is being translated into action.
"General Zapata now absolutely controls 90,000 square miles,
comprising parts of Morelo, Jalisco, Chapas, Quintana Roo and
Tabasco. This land is well under cultivation. The population (on a
rough estimate, without the advantages of a scientific census) is
from three to four millions. The inhabitants are nearly all peons,
who for centuries had existed in a degrading state of slavery. More
than ninety-five per cent. can neither read nor write.
"Zapata's control began in 1910, but only in the three years past
has the co-operative system been placed on its present basis. The
greatest development has been made during the past two years.
"Methods of propaganda have been simple and effective. Direct
action is the keynote. The people awoke to a knowledge of their
slavery and the realization of their heritage--and took what
belonged to them. The only message sent to the people was somewhat
similar to the I. W. W. preamble, but much shorter than that
classic document.
"Having aroused the slaves to realize their status by saying in
substance: the rich unjustly possess the land; we want all that is
ours and are not willing that any man should possess that which is
not his--Zapata would lead his army into some rich valley and
simply dispossess the wealthy 'owners.' Then the peons on the land
would be given the use of the land. Not one man in the ninety
thousand square miles holds a title to one foot of land. After
getting the new territory, the land was cultivated and the district
organized.
"When strong enough the army--the propaganda branch of the
revolution--held another convention in some other fertile valley
and benevolently assimilated some other opulent set of
slave-driving usurpers of the land....
"Every citizen of each community is given a little brass
citizenship tag. It is necessary to show this only in strange
towns. It is his passport for whatever he needs for food, clothing
and shelter. Each person goes into the stores and gets what he
needs for the simple asking.
"We have heard endless discussions as to the nature of the future
medium of exchange. Many volumes have been written on the subject.
Zapata isn't worrying over these problems. He is leaving them where
they belong--to the philosophers. There isn't any medium of
exchange in Zapata's land. Why should there be on a free earth? If
a man wanted ten pairs of sandals or shoes he could have them, but
why would he want them? He can always go--in Zapata's country--to
any store and get a pair when he needs one. So with all other
provisions. In practice, in the few years the plan has been in
operation, the peons have not abused the privilege. They are
producers, and realize it. Why rob themselves? There is not one
idea of profit in all that 90,000 square miles, and human nature is
just as it was when Adam delved and Eve spun.
"Travelers are not being admitted freely just now, in these
unsettled times, because of the lying reports carried away by
spying emissaries of capitalism. But when one is given permission
to visit the country, his route is marked out and listed on the
passport given him. He pays the government and then is provided
freely on all the travels over the designated route.
"No women or children are to be found in any line of manual labor
in mill, field or factory.
"The young and middle aged men alone work. They work from one and
one-half to three hours a day. Some will work more steadily for a
week and then go away to some town for two or three weeks to enjoy
their country. For the first time in history the workers have a
country that is really theirs. Workers? Yes, for all are workers.
There are no landlords or 'bosses' and overseers to prod them into
exhausting toil. And these people are simple enough to believe that
man should enjoy life--that all people should find pleasure in
living.
"Of course there are foremen and superintendents in the
administration of industry. But they receive no wages, just what
they need to live on, and every man, woman and child gets that. The
men will work two hours and then go out to play hand-ball and other
games in the plaza or courts.
"When the fields need attention, men go from ranch to ranch
wherever help is needed. In like manner all industry is carried on.
"One example will show something of how matters are managed. One
big sugar refinery formerly employed 2,500 men, working them
fourteen hours a day. Employees now work two hours a day. The
refinery still is in operation fourteen hours daily. There are
seven shifts of workers. All told, there are 25,000 employees of
that refinery. All are happy and have all of the food, clothing and
shelter the land affords. The children have big sticks of candy as
large as they can carry--and there is no talk of conservation of
supplies anywhere.
"Access to the land and co-operation did it. There isn't any
regular freight and passenger service. The trains operate as
required. Production for profit has ceased on 90,000 square miles
of this planet and the mills and mines are run to manufacture
products for use only. When goods are needed anywhere, the trains
haul them. Occasionally a few hundred men, women and children will
be taken into the mountains by the trainload for a few days'
outing. It is all a part of living--no fares to pay....
"The churches are being used as schools, for lecture centers, as
play houses and for similar useful purposes. There is no liquor
sold. This is not the result of any decree or election. The people
had so little desire for booze that they quit its manufacture....
"It is not to be inferred that Zapata has solved all of the
problems of society. Everything can't be done at once, even by the
magic wand of his propaganda. Still, his achievements make the
genii of Alladin's lamp look pretty small and cheap. In three years
every worker has been united into one industrial union; all titles
to land and ownership of the tools of production swept away;
labor's hours shortened to the minimum; the entire population fed,
clothed and sheltered--all through cooperation on a free earth."
This is the kind of "stuff" that is served up to the "learned,"
"scientific Socialists," who place so much confidence in the leaders who
are supposed to be honest and worthy of leading them into the Marxian
Paradise. This is the way they spoke of "Socialism" in Mexico some years
ago, and today they are speaking of it in Russia in much the same way.
Act the Second
Scene--A large photo of Zapata--4 by 6 inches, in "The Call," the
Socialist paper of New York City, April 24, 1919.
Under the photo there is the following inscription:
"General Emiliano Zapata, Mexico's apostle of terrorism, and
recently officially reported to have been killed by Carranza's
troops, was a former plantation stirrup-boy, who, at the zenith of
his rebel power, gained temporary control of Mexico City. Twice
since 1910, when he began his revolt in Morelos, he and his Indian
followers took brief possession of the capital. For nine years he
ravaged southern Mexico, co-operating for a time in 1914 with
Villa. He was the most implacable enemy of peaceful reconstruction
through several regimes. Poor, uneducated, primitive but magnetic,
Zapata was the leader of Mexico's half-savage Indians, in whose
power he planned to place control of the country. Toward the last
he was little more than a hunted renegade, and is reported to have
been killed by strategy of troops operating under General Pablo
Gonzales in Morelos."
The wood-cut of Zapata appears in connection with an article by Jack
Neville, part of which is hereby quoted:
"Cuautla, Mexico, April 23.--The death of Emiliano Zapata removes
Mexico's most ruthless destructionist and implacable enemy of
peaceful regeneration.
"Now, on the wreckage of his empire, where the rebel chief laughed
at civilization and played his huge joke on 100,000 confiding
workers, General Pablo Gonzalez is placing firm underpinning for
freedom and progress.
"Here in the world's richest garden spot, where exploited humanity
has been kept poorest, and where Zapata 'gave' his half-savage
followers the land only to commandeer all crops--here the peon is
for the first time in centuries enjoying the fruits of his toil and
supporting instead of hating government."
The next day, April 25th, 1919. "The Call" published another article of
Neville's under the title, "Mexican Peons Rejoice in First Taste of
Freedom." Only a small part of the article will be quoted:
"I stepped into a pulque-reeking cantina. A group of former
Zapatistas invited me to join them--to have a glass. It was the
open sesame. They chattered like children. Presented me with
cornhusk cigarettes; told me tales of Zapata; his perfidy, his
ruthlessness.
"'Not more than 800 rebels were yet in arms when Zapata was
killed,' they said. These, they explained, had ousted Zapata from
leadership because he had refused to divide the loot with them.
They told me of Zapata's former army of 30,000, blood-letting
surianos and ayetes (unarmed men carrying ropes) who formed the
rear guard to carry away the loot....
"Alongside the old church, where the patriot Morelos had more than
a century ago made a successful stand against the Spaniards, a
train was disgorging families returning to their homes, now that
Zapata was gone.
"A little man stepped out--the bishop of Cuernavaca, coming back to
his diocese under the conciliatory program of Don Pablo after eight
years' exile.
"I rode into the country with Colonel Sanchez Neira and talked with
the workmen in the field. They crowded round to pose for pictures.
"They laughed and sang while they worked.
"We rode to the headquarters of one of the 2,000,000 acre
haciendas. The gigantic sugar mill, formerly worth more than
$1,000,000, was a shell filled with debris. We rode to another
mill. The same! Thirty-seven of them. All ruined, wrecked wantonly
under Zapata's rule.
"In the village of Youtopec I drank lemonade with Gen. Pilar
Sanchez, while Zapata's captured band serenaded us. We rode down
the Inter-Oceanic railway and viewed the right of way, strewn with
wrecked rolling stock. We saw utterly demolished villages, the work
of Zapata and communism.
"I saw a bridge where train after train was dynamited, where
Zapatistas had ruthlessly executed more than three thousand
peaceful men, women and children passengers."
From these articles published in "The Call," the great Socialist paper
of New York City, it seems that the poverty-stricken, perpetually
begging staff of Hillquit's paper does not relish the Chicago brand of
Socialism described so beautifully in the "International Socialist
Review." The more "talented" and "progressive" "evolutionists" near the
shore of Lake Michigan have many a year's hard work to perform before
they can sufficiently develop the brains of their backward chums and
brethren on the lower east side of New York City. It takes editors like
Kerr, Haywood, the Marcys and all the Bohns on the staff of the
"Review" to reveal the true glories of Socialism.
As recently as February, 1920, it could safely be said that the
principles of Socialism had never been put into full operation in any
country. The nearest approach to a truly Socialist state is Bolshevist
Russia, that strife-ridden land of crime and bloodshed. The penalty paid
for the foolish attempt has already been a dreadful one. How much
greater it will be, as time goes on, nobody knows. The Socialists of
America have hailed Russian Bolshevism as true Socialism; but, no doubt,
as the evil consequences of Lenine's Red rule become more widely known
and more universally feared, or if, even on the low ground of
materialistic economics, the attempt fails, the slippery Marxians will
try to prove that Bolshevism was not Socialism after all, since the
Russian government was a dictatorship, with the principles of Socialism
never fully applied.
We should add that even if the Russian dictatorship succeeds in
realizing the mere economic success which seems to be the height of its
ambition, this will not prove to be an argument in favor of Socialism,
but a terrible indictment of it. For the road the dictatorship is now
taking, which indeed offers it the only possible hope of even a passable
economic success, is the barren, heartless, unspiritual, materialistic
tyranny of machine-like "industrialism" which the I. W. W. represents.
In the two chapters immediately following, VIII and IX, the reader will
learn something of the loss of all moral standards and the cruel,
lawless violence to which the atheistic, anarchistic materialism of
I. W. W.'ism leads; and will also find that Bolshevism is already
committed to this system as the only economic solution of its bloody
experiment.
Is it worth while? In Chapters X and XI the reader will face some of the
appalling details of the blood, violence and despair which have been
tyrannically imposed upon Russia's groaning millions for the sake of an
experiment which leads to nothing but the pagan barbarism of I. W.
W.'ism. Is it worth while? Even if at last they are able to produce and
distribute enough to clothe and feed themselves, can human beings be
happy in such a state? Is this the dream of the dreamer come true?
Again, the hope of a bare economic solution of the question of bread and
butter is possible in Russia only through such an absolute and tyrannous
dictatorship as has been established, under which the reluctant and
disorganized proletariat can be forced back to work, whether they wish
or no, at the point of the bayonets of the Red Guard. Would the American
working-man think this worth while in America?
It has been said that the Lenine desperadoes are determined to win an
economic success even at the cost of forcing Russian labor to toil under
literal military conscription. If they do this, they may
succeed--economically merely. But does American labor think such an
experiment _here_ would be worth what it costs?
Furthermore, in the Russian land of Socialistic experiment the people,
left to themselves by the other nations, cannot find peace among
themselves. Why should there be peace as long as any manhood is left in
Russia to lift up its hand out of its despair against its Bolshevist
oppressors? Is civil war worth while--for such a barren result?
Finally, if the proletarian tyrants wear all Russia down until a spirit
of resistance is left in no breast, still will there be no peace; for,
as will be found quoted elsewhere in this book, Lenine declares that
Socialism cannot endure in a world half Socialistic and half
Capitalistic, so that his wretched Russian slaves seem likely to be
dragged into a war against the rest of the world to help out the crazy
experiment of domination by the proletariat. Is it worth while?
CHAPTER VIII
THE I. W. W.
The I. W. W., or the so-called "Industrial Workers of the World," whose
policy may be summed up in the words, "I Want to Wreck," and who in
derision are termed the "I Won't Works," the "Imported Weary Willies"
and the "Wobblies," enjoy the unenviable reputation of being classed
among the most insurrectionary, impious and infamous workers of the
world to-day. This industrial union, also known as the One Big Union, is
the bitter rival of the American Federation of Labor. Joseph J. Ettor,
in his I. W. W. pamphlet, "Industrial Unionism," page 5, speaking of the
fear that people have of the I. W. W. says:
"Yes, gentle reader, our ideas, our principles and object are
certainly dangerous and menacing, applied by a united working class
would shake society and certainly those who are now on top
sumptuously feeding upon the good things they have not produced
would feel the shock."
The I. W. W. was organized at a secret conference in Chicago, January 2,
1905, attended by 26 of the most radical Socialists in the country,
including Eugene V. Debs, William D. Haywood, William E. Trautman,
Thomas J. Haggerty, Daniel MacDonald, Charles H. Moyer, Charles O.
Sherman, Frank Bohn and A. M. Simons. Daniel De Leon was prominent at
the first convention, June 27, 1905, and for three years afterward, the
organization being founded on his theory that the Socialistic revolution
would not come by voting but by a violent seizure of the industries of
the country by Socialistic workmen industrially organized.
"The One Big Union Monthly," March 1, 1919, page 4, referring to the
hungry and desperate masses tells us:
"In some countries these revolting, desperate masses may come out
victorious, and establish a rule of their own, like the Russian
Bolsheviki, only to find that they will have to keep on running
society on private ownership basis, until industrial organization
of the workers is so far advanced that it can take over the
responsibility. There is no way in which the masses can escape
industrial unionism. What they do not want to do now at our
prompting, they will have to do later of their own initiative,
driven by economic necessity. Our new society is bound to come. It
will be firmly established in ten years if we are energetic. It
will take longer if we are indifferent. We cannot stand still
socially, because there is no footing before we reach the bottom.
We cannot go back, any more than the butterfly can again become a
larva. We must go forward to Industrial Democracy."
On page 23 of the same issue of "The One Big Union Monthly" we are
informed that Industrial Unionism is International:
"Industrial unionism arises out of and is modeled after modern
capitalism. Unlike trade unionism, it is not born of the capitalism
of fifty years ago. Industrial unionism recognizes that capitalism
is not only interindustrial, so to speak, but also international.
That just as it binds industries together by means of machine
processes and financial investments, so also does capitalism tend
to bind nations together. Industrial unionism follows the same
trend. It, too, is not only interindustrial but also international.
Industrial unionism seeks to organize the industrial workers of the
world just as capitalism seeks to exploit them. Industrial unionism
is spreading wherever international capitalism exists. Like
international capitalism, industrial unionism knows no boundaries,
color, race, creed or sex. As international capitalism knows only
profit, industrial unionism knows only the industrial exploitation
by which profit is possible. Industrial unionism organizes to make
industrial exploitation an impossibility. And capitalism is its
most valued assistant."
Ettor, in "Industrial Unionism," page 21, tells us, that the I. W. W.
does not organize by trades, but by industries: "All the workers in any
plant, factory, mine, mill or any given industry in a given locality
organize in one Local Industrial Union. All the Local Industrial Unions
of a given general industry are banded together in the National
Industrial Union. The National Industrial Unions are banded again
stronger in the Industrial Department and then all Departments, six in
all, are brought under one head, the General Administration of the I. W.
W. One Big Union of all workers, welded together in such a manner that,
imbued with the war cry: 'an injury to one is an injury to all,' all its
members can act together in fighting the common enemy."
Explaining organization by industries rather than by trades, "The One
Big Union Monthly," March 1, 1919, page 25, takes for instance the
stockyards:
"We do not know how many crafts there are in the stockyards, but
there are many. According to the old style, these crafts would be
organized each by itself, the carpenters belonging to the national
union of carpenters, the engineers to the national union of
engineers, the butchers to the national union of butchers, etc. It
also belongs to old style unionism to leave the unskilled workers
unorganized. Our method would be to organize all the workers in a
plant, as a branch of the Stockyard Workers' Industrial Union. This
would imply the cancelling of trade distinctions and craft lines.
As against the employer we would face him not as butchers,
laborers, carpenters or engineers, but as stockyard workers, no
matter whether we are office clerks or laborers, or carpenters, or
engineers. This is what we mean with industrial unionism. The
various branches would combine into district organizations if
necessary, and all of them together would form the Stockyard
Workers' Industrial Union as part of the Industrial Workers of the
World. By being thus organized we hope to be able to carry on the
fight locally, or by districts, or on a national scale with better
chance of success, than if we were split up in a great number of
unions in each plant, with little or no contact with one another.
The advantages of the one big union idea are so apparent that no
honest worker will, in earnest, contradict us."
The famous Preamble to the platform of the I. W. W. throws a startling
light upon this revolutionary industrial union, which has, within recent
years, been getting a very strong hold on immigrants from Europe:
"The working class and the employing class have nothing in common.
There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among
millions of the working people, and the few who make up the
employing class have all the good things of life.
"Between these two classes a struggle must go on until the workers
of the world organize as a class, take possession of the earth and
the machinery of production and abolish the wage system.
"We find that the centering of the management of industries into
fewer hands makes the trade unions unable to cope with the
ever-growing power of the employing class.
"These conditions can be changed and the interests of the working
class upheld only by an organization formed in such a way that all
its members in any one industry, or in all industries if necessary,
cease work whenever a strike or lockout is on in any department
thereof, thus making an injury to one, an injury to all.
"Instead of the conservative motto, 'A fair day's wages for a fair
day's work,' we must inscribe on our banner the revolutionary
watchword, 'Abolition of the wage system.'
"It is the historic mission of the working class to do away with
capitalism. The army of production must be organized, not only for
the every-day struggle with the capitalists, but also to carry on
production when capitalism shall have been overthrown. By
organizing industrially we are forming a structure of the new
society within the shell of the old."
Giovannitti, editor of the New York City Italian Socialist publication,
"Il Proletario," one of the official Socialist organs enumerated in the
"Proceedings[9] of the 1910 National Congress of the Socialist Party,"
writing in the April 5, 1913, edition of his paper, says:
"The aim of the Socialists and of the Syndicalists is precisely
that of dispossessing the middle class by transferring property to
the working class.
"We shall take possession of the industries for three very simple
reasons: because we need them, because we desire them, and because
we have the power to take them.
"Whether it is just or unjust, moral or immoral, it is no concern
to us. We shall waste no time whatever in providing the validity of
our legal titles, yet, if it will be necessary, after the
dispossession will have been accomplished, we shall engage a couple
of lawyers and judges to adjust the contracts and to render the act
perfectly legal and respectable. So, too, if it will be necessary,
we shall find a couple of most learned bishops to sanctify it.
These matters can always be arranged--all that is strong and
powerful becomes in time just and moral--and for this reason, we
Syndicalists maintain that the social revolution is not a question
of necessity and justice, but of necessity and strength."
"The New Unionism," by Tridon, on page 112, informs us that Arturo
Giovannitti was, in turn, a minter, a bookkeeper, a theological student,
a mission preacher and a tramp. Ettor, in "Industrial Unionism," page
15, speaking of the I. W. W. principles of morality, says:
"New conceptions of Right and Wrong must generate and permeate the
workers. We must look on conduct and actions that advance the
social and economic position of the working class as Right,
ethically, legally, religiously, socially and by every other
measurement. That conduct and those actions which aid, help to
maintain and give comfort to the capitalist class, we must consider
as Wrong by every standard."
"The New Unionism," page 104, gives us Vincent St. John's statement of
the methods and tactics employed by the I. W. W., of which he has been a
prominent leader:
"As a revolutionary organization the Industrial Workers of the
World aims to use any and all tactics that will get the results
sought with the least expenditure of time and energy. The tactics
used are determined solely by the power of the organization to make
good in their use. The question of 'right' and 'wrong' does not
concern us. No terms made with an employer are final. All peace so
long as the wage system lasts is but an armed truce. At any
favorable opportunity the struggle for more control of industry is
renewed....
"The organization does not allow any part to enter into time
contracts with the employers. It aims where strikes are used, to
paralyze all branches of the industry involved, when the employers
can least afford a cessation of work--during the busy season and
when there are rush orders to be filled."
In the Socialist Labor Party paper, "Weekly People," New York, February
10, 1912, the following article by Arthur Giovannitti shows the part
that the I. W. W. is expected to take in bringing about the Marxian
rebellion through the instrumentality of a general strike:
"The future of Socialism lies only in the general strike, not
merely a quiet political strike, but one that once started should
go fatally to its end, i.e., armed insurrection, and the forcible
overthrow of all existing social conditions.... The task of
revolution is not to construct the new society, but to demolish the
old one, and, therefore, its first aim should be at the complete
destruction of the existing state, so as to render it absolutely
powerless to react and re-establish itself.... The I. W. W. must
develop itself as the new legislature and the new executive body of
the land, undermine the existing one, and gradually absorb the
functions of the state until it can entirely substantiate it
through the only means it has, the revolution."
On May 1, 1919, plans for a nation-wide strike on July 4th were
disclosed by I. W. W. orators at a mass meeting in the workingmen's
hall, 119 South Throop Street, Chicago. It was Simms, a colored man, who
gave the details of the strike plan:
"The workmen will lay down their tools on July 4th, and on the
morning of July 5th not one will take them up again....
"It will be the opening of the social revolution. Moreover, not one
workman will take up his tools again until every prisoner of the
workers now incarcerated in the capitalistic prisons is released."
"The One Big Union Monthly," March 1, 1919, page 22, declares:
"Socialism rears new institutions. It weaves a new fabric for our
social life. In Russia it is the Soviets; in America it is the One
Big Union. This fabric is proletarian only. Within its limits the
Socialist Revolutionist halts. This new organism--this One Big
Union--may, or may not seek Democracy. Democracy is merely a method
of governing. If that method leads to Socialist goals it will be
followed. Otherwise, we will seek further for our avenue. But the
great end is proletarianism. It is the social ownership of the
means of production. It is the creation of a society where all
classes will be melted into one, and where the class war will
soften into an all-race proletarianism."
Another I. W. W. publication, "The Evolution of Industrial Democracy,"
page 40, speaking of government after the "Wobblies" get into power,
goes still further:
"Government, as now understood will disappear--there being no
servile class to be held in subjection--but in its place will be an
administration of affairs."
Relative to property rights in the future, "The Evolution of Industrial
Democracy," page 39, informs us:
"Rights of inheritance would disappear with the right to hold
private property in the lands, tools and machinery of production.
Any accumulation by the individual that might be used for
exploitation would pass to the collectivity at the death of the
holder. Society would be the heir of the individual and, vice
versa, the individuals would be the heirs of society. The right to
freely function at the machines and enjoy the social value of his
toil would guarantee the worker a full competence."
As regards compensation for work in accordance with the I. W. W. plan,
we are told on page 39:
"Compensation in the industries would necessarily be upon the basis
of the 'man-day'--the average production of an average man in an
average day when working under average conditions--and in those
industries not of an actual productive nature, such as 'public
service,' etc., the man-day must prevail there also (being based
upon the average production of all the industries served) for the
reason that no man could be induced to serve for less than that
average--to do so being to confess himself an inferior being--and
to compel him to serve for less would be to set up a new slavery,
which the moral sense of the new community could not endure."
Giovannitti, in "Il Proletario," New York, April 5, 1913, gives a lesson
in sabotage to the Italian Socialists and members of the I. W. W.:
"We are not yet sufficiently strong to restore them [i.e., the
instruments of production] to ourselves, it is true, but it is also
true that we cannot allow any opportunity to escape of reaping any
advantage from them.
"Thus, if to-morrow we shall be justified in wrenching from
capitalism all the industries, why, when it is a question of life
or death for us to win or to lose a strike, is it not just to
remove a screw, derange a wheel, break a thread, or commit, in any
way whatever, an act of sabotage on a machine which otherwise would
become the very beginning of our defeat in the hands of the scabs?
"We cannot understand how it is still possible while we have a
right to all the produce of our work, we have not an entire right
to a part of it."
Other illustrations of sabotage may be of interest to the reader. The
following one is taken from the Chicago "Syndicalist," February 15,
1913:
"A few drops of sulphuric acid placed on top of a pile of woolen or
cotton goods never stops going down.
"Two decks of cards in a grain separator cover the screen and cause
the grain to vanish out of the blower.
"A piece of iron dropped in a crucible full of glass will eat
through it. Crucibles are made of graphite and cost $40.
"A handful of salt in paint will allow a good-looking job for a day
or two, but when dry will fall off in sheets.
"Maclay Hoyne, Chicago's district attorney, is analyzing a
spontaneous fire powder that allows the user to be miles away when
it breaks forth.
"Castor oil capsules dissolved in varnish destroy the ability of
the latter to dry. The job must be washed down and started all over
again.
"The suffragettes of England have significantly notified their
opponents that a fire in every shire was the way the word was
flashed in days gone by."
Pages 40 to 48 of "The New Unionism," by Tridon, furnish us with some
more barbarous examples of sabotage:
"We may distinguish three forms of sabotage:
"1. Active sabotage which consists in the damaging of goods or
machinery.
"2. Open-mouthed sabotage, beneficial to the ultimate consumer, and
which consists in exposing or defeating fraudulent commercial
practices.
"3. Obstructionism or passive sabotage, which consists in carrying
out orders literally, regardless of consequences.
"If you are an engineer you can, with two cents' worth of powdered
stone or a pinch of sand, stall your machine, cause a loss of time
or make expensive repairs necessary. If you are a joiner or
woodworker, what is simpler than to ruin furniture without your
boss noticing it, and thereby drive his customers away? A garment
worker can easily spoil a suit or a bolt of cloth; if you are
working in a department store, a few spots on a fabric cause it to
be sold for next to nothing; a grocery clerk, by packing up goods
carelessly, brings about a smashup; in the woolen or the
haberdashery trade a few drops of acid on the goods you are
wrapping will make a customer furious ... an agricultural laborer
may sow bad seed in wheat fields," etc.
"With two cents' worth of a certain stuff, used by one who knows, a
locomotive can be made absolutely useless."
"The first thing to do before going out on strike is to cripple all
the machinery. Then the contest is even between employer and
worker, for the cessation of work really stops all life in the
capitalists' camp. Are bakery workers planning to go on strike? Let
them pour in the ovens a few pints of petroleum or of any other
greasy or pungent matter. After that, soldiers or scabs may come
and bake bread. The smell will not come out of the tiles for three
months. Is a strike in sight in steel mills? Pour sand or emery
into the oil cups."
"The electrical industry is one of the most important industries,
as an interruption in the current means a lack of light and power
in factories; it also means a reduction in the means of
transportation and a stoppage of the telegraph and telephone
systems. How can the power be cut off? By the curtailing in the
mine the output of the coal necessary for feeding the machinery or
stopping the coal cars on their way to the electrical plants. If
the fuel reaches its destination what is simpler than to set the
pockets on fire and have the coal burn in the yards instead of the
furnaces? It is child's play to put out of work the elevators and
other automatic devices which carry coal to the fire room. To put
boilers out of order use explosives or silicates or a plain glass
bottle which thrown on the glowing coals hinders the combustion and
clogs up the smoke exhausts. You can also use acids to corrode
boiler tubes; acid fumes will ruin cylinders and piston rods. A
small quantity of some corrosive substance, a handful of emery will
be the end of oil cups. When it comes to dynamos or transformers,
short circuits and inversion of poles can be easily managed.
Underground cables can be destroyed by fire, water or explosives,"
etc.
"The New Unionism," the book from which the above quotations were taken
and which was purchased by the author of "The Red Conspiracy" at the I.
W. W. headquarters, 1001 West Madison Street, Chicago, in the latter
part of the spring of 1919, also informs us on page 123:
"As far as sabotage is concerned, all the I. W. W. speakers and the
I. W. W. press countenance it although they steadily warn the
workers against the indiscriminate and unsocial use of that weapon
of warfare."
CHAPTER IX
INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD IN ACTION
Members of the I. W. W. and Socialists who advocate sabotage or get into
trouble in one way or another, especially in strikes, are often put into
prison for their revolutionary talk or their violent methods. The One
Big Industrial Union and, of course, the Socialist Party then proclaim
their innocence, collect funds for their defense, and urge all the
working men of our country to strike in behalf of amnesty for "poor,
persecuted, noble protagonists of the cause of labor jailed because
freedom of speech and liberty of action are no longer tolerated by the
government." Thus on page 409 of the February, 1918, edition of the
"International Socialist Review," which was suppressed by the United
States Government, we read:
"Socialists Demand Fair Trial for Indicted I. W. W.--In a
declaration adopted by its National Executive Committee the
Socialist Party calls for a fair and unprejudiced trial for the
indicted members of the Industrial Workers of the World. The demand
says:
"'The Socialist Party repeats its declaration of support of all
economic organizations of the working class and declares the
lynching, deportation, prosecution and persecution of the
Industrial Workers of the World is an attack upon every toiler in
America, and we now call attention to the fact that the charges of
incendiarism, the burning of crops and forests and of vicious
destruction of property, made by the public press against the I. W.
W., have been proven pure fabrications when put to legal test. The
Socialist Party has always extended its aid, material and moral, to
organized labor wherever and whenever it has been attacked by the
capitalist class, and this without reference to form of
organization or special policies; therefore we pledge our support
to the Industrial Workers of the World now facing trial in Chicago
and elsewhere, and demand for them a fair and unprejudiced trial
and urge our members to use every effort to assist the Industrial
Workers of the World by familiarizing the public with the real
facts, to overcome the falsehoods and misinformation with which
the capitalist press has poisoned and prejudiced the public mind
and judgment against these workers, who are now singled out for
destruction, just as other labor organizations and leaders have
been singled out for destruction by the same capitalist forces in
the past."
The Socialist Party, in pledging its support to the Industrial Workers
of the World, pledges its support to a revolutionary organization like
itself. "The One Big Union Monthly," March 1, 1919, page 4, under the
caption, "The Red Tidal Wave," says:
"With great satisfaction we record the fact that the red
revolutionary wave is encircling the globe, sweeping away the last
remnants of feudal rubbish from the body social, and some of the
capitalistic. The world war acted like a vigorous laxative on the
stomach of the nations."
"The Rebel Worker," an I. W. W. paper of New York City, in its
issue of April 15, 1919, after printing the word, "Revolution" in
the heaviest type all the way across the paper, publishes an
article on the first page entitled "Terrible Days Ahead in the
United States."
"'The United States is in the grip of a bloody revolution!
Thousands of workers are slaughtered by machine guns in New York
City! Washington is on fire! Industry is at a standstill and
thousands of workers are starving! The government is using the most
brutal and repressive measures to put down the revolution!
Disorganization, crime, chaos, rape, murder and arson are the order
of the day--the inevitable results of social revolution!'
"The above is what we may expect to see on the front pages of what
few newspapers survive the upheaval. No one who has the interest of
the working class at heart wants to see such a revolution. But
whether those interested in the working class want to see such a
revolution or not, there are powerful forces in the United States
that are making for just such a catastrophe. The Industrial Workers
of the World has in the past and is now using all of its energies
to avert such a cataclysmic debacle. It is not yet too late to
avoid this terrible and sanguinary strife--provided that the I. W. W.
is allowed to carry out its program of organizing and educating the
workers for the purpose of taking control of, and operating
industry and giving to those who work the full social value of the
product of their labor."
"The New Solidarity," the Chicago organ of the I. W. W., in its
edition of April 19, 1919, publishes on the editorial page an
article entitled, "When We Are Ready," part of which is hereby
quoted:
"Frequently the question is asked how the proletariat is to know
when they are ready for the revolution, how it would be possible to
know a sufficient number were class conscious enough for the
revolutionary change. This question is asked with the idea that
there must be a periodical counting of noses, and that little or
nothing may be done except educate until an absolute majority has
been obtained....
"It matters not how many members of the working class do or do not
stand up to be counted for or against capitalism, just as soon as
the organized workers can overthrow that system of industry they
will do it and not wait to be counted....
"To wait for majorities at all times is to enervate and emasculate
the working class movement. To constantly attack, and attack for
the purpose of taking and administering industry for the workers by
action on the job and in the Union halls, is to strengthen and
encourage the workers in their task, and is the plan that must
ultimately win the age-long struggle against exploitation."
On September 5, 1917, the I. W. W. headquarters, 1001 West Madison
street, Chicago, and the Socialist headquarters were raided by the
United States authorities. On March 10, 1919, Solicitor General Lamar of
the Post Office Department submitted a memorandum to the Senate
propaganda committee stating that the I. W. W., anarchists, socialists
and others were "perfecting an amalgamation with one object--the
overthrow of the government of the United States by means of a bloody
revolution and the establishment of a Bolshevik Republic." Mr. Lamar
said his conclusion was based upon information contained in seized mail
matter. Accompanying the memorandum were several hundred excerpts from
the mail matter. The solicitor named the following organs, published in
the interest of the I. W. W. or Bolshevist movements: "The New
Solidarity," English, weekly, Chicago; "One Big Union," English,
monthly, Chicago; "Industrial Unionist," English, weekly, Seattle;
"California Defense Bulletin," English, weekly, San Francisco; "The
Rebel Worker," English, bi-monthly, New York; "La Neuva Solidaridad,"
Spanish, weekly, Chicago; "Golos Truzenta," Russian, weekly, Chicago;
"Il Nuovo Proletario," Italian, weekly, Chicago; "Nya Varlden,"
Swedish, weekly, Chicago; "Der Industrialer Arbiter," Jewish, weekly,
Chicago; "Probuda," Bulgarian, weekly, Chicago; "A. Fels Badulas,"
Hungarian, weekly, Chicago. After referring to the excerpts from the
seized mail matter, the solicitor general's memorandum said in part:
"This propaganda is being conducted with such regularity that its
magnitude can be measured by the bold and outspoken statements contained
in these publications and the efforts made therein to inaugurate a
nation-wide reign of terror and overthrow of the government.
"In classifying these statements, they are submitted in a major or
general class as follows: I. W. W., anarchistic,
radical-socialistic and socialist. It will be seen from these
excerpts and it is indeed significant that this is the first time
in the history of the so-called radical movement in the United
States that the radical elements have found a common cause
(Bolshevism) in which they can all unite. The I. W. W.,
anarchistic, socialists, radical and otherwise, in fact all
dissatisfied elements, particularly the foreign element, are
perfecting amalgamation with one object, and with one object in
view, namely, the overthrow of the government of the United States
by the means of a bloody revolution and the establishment of a
Bolshevik republic.
"The I. W. W. is perhaps most actively engaged in spreading this
propaganda and has at its command a large field force known as
recruiting agents, subscription agents, etc., who work unceasingly
in the furtherance of 'the cause!'
"This organization publishes at least five newspapers in the
English language and nine in foreign languages. This list comprises
only official papers of the organization and does not take into
account the large number of free lance papers published in the
interest of the above organization."
In the April 19, 1913, edition of "Solidarity," the eastern organ of the
I. W. W., we are informed that "among other diseases common to all
nations and particularly prevalent in the United States is respect for
law and order." The same edition of the paper extends greetings to "all
Rebels" from its new home in Cleveland.
During the 1913 Paterson strike, which was managed by the I. W. W.,
Quinlan, one of the leaders, declared on May 17th:
"Paterson is a dangerous place to live in just at this time, no
matter in what direction you are looking. The longer the strike
lasts, the stronger and more bitter and the madder the workers are
growing. Out of it all we want to build up an organization that
will be able to fight efficiently, and fight to win--to fight to
win, if necessary, by dying.
"And we are going to win this strike or Paterson will be wiped off
the map. If the strike is not won Paterson will be a howling
wilderness and a graveyard industrially, because the workers will
not stay there. We have had too long and bitter a fight to lay down
what we have gained so far. Heaven might fall and hell might break
loose, but the strike is going to be won."
Boyd, another speaker, is reported as saying on the same day:
"We are going to get what we want whether the courts want it or
not. We are going to call a general strike, if it is necessary, to
free our fellow-workers. We are going to cut off the lights in
Paterson, and tie up the street car system. We shall reduce the
city to a condition of absolute helplessness. We are going to
paralyze Paterson, and we are going to win in Paterson just as we
are going to win in New York City."
Robert Plunkett, said to be a former Cornell student, who was introduced
as a "fellow-worker," urged the strikers and their sympathizers to use
every means to free their leaders, even if Paterson had to "starve or go
naked." He said that the lights would be put out in Paterson, and that
the street cars would be tied up, so that Paterson would become a dead
city.
Mohl, who also made his appearance at the silk mills strike in Paterson,
declared on May 18, 1913:
"The American flag is pretty to look at. Its colors are
striking--red, white, and blue, with two or three twinkling stars
here and there, but it is not good to eat."
The I. W. W. is, of course, an atheistic and anti-religious
organization. In the March 1, 1919, issue of "The One Big Union
Monthly," page 40, we read under the caption, "Help Wanted, Male or
Female:"
"Priest or Minister to show the One Big Union family why our
Solidarity Dogma is not superior to the ethical teachings of Jesus,
Buddha or Mohammed, also to demonstrate the inside of the religious
business, and where it is interwoven with Wall street."
"The Call," New York, May 3, 1919, in an editorial on "The Bomb Plot,"
which had just aroused the whole nation, said:
"The bomb and torch have not the slightest relation to any branch
of the organized labor movement in this country, and the editors
know it. Those who print such unfounded and slanderous insinuations
place themselves in the same class as the would-be-assassin."
This editorial was published the day after the following special
dispatch was sent to "The New York Times:"
"Sioux City, Iowa, May 2.--'We will blow the whole town to hell if
you put Mayor Short out of office.' This was the threat on a
postcard addressed to E. J. Stanson, who is trying to secure the
recall of Mayor Short. The card was received today. It was signed
'I. W. W. Alliance for Short.' The police are rounding up all
suspicious characters, and those known to have a leaning toward the
Bolshevists of the I. W. W. Citizens are seeking to oust Short
because he welcomed delegates to a recent 'wobblies' convention
here."
In the latter part of the spring of 1919 the author of "The Red
Conspiracy" obtained at the I. W. W. headquarters in Chicago a leaflet
entitled, "To Colored Workingmen and Women!" Part of it is hereby
quoted:
"To the black race, who, but recently, with the assistance of the
white men of the northern states, broke their chains of bondage and
ended chattel slavery, a prospect of further freedom, of Real
Freedom, should be most appealing.
"For it is a fact that the negro worker is no better off under the
freedom he has gained than the slavery from which he has escaped.
As chattel slaves we were the property of our masters, and as a
piece of valuable property our masters were considerate of us and
careful of our health and welfare. Today, as wage-workers, the boss
may work us to death at the hardest and most hazardous labor, at
the longest hours, at the lowest pay; we may quietly starve when
out of work and the boss loses nothing by it and has no interest in
us. To him the worker is but a machine for producing profits, and
when you, as a slave who sells himself to the master on the
installment plan, become old, or broken in health or strength or
should you be killed while at work, the master merely gets another
wage slave on the same terms.
"We who have worked in the south know that conditions in lumber and
turpentine camps, in the fields of cane, cotton and tobacco, in the
mills and mines of Dixie, are such that the workers suffer a more
miserable existence than ever prevailed among the chattel slaves
before the great Civil War....
"The only problem, then, which the colored worker should consider,
as a worker, is the problem of organizing with other workingmen in
the labor organization that best expresses the interest of the
whole working class against the slavery and oppression of the whole
capitalist class. Such an organization is the I. W. W., the
Industrial Workers of the World."
"The One Big Union Monthly," March 1, 1919, page 6, publishes an article
entitled, "The Chinese and the I. W. W.":
"The Chinese workers in this country have discovered the I. W.
W....
"Long enough have workers been divided along colored lines. The
old, old misunderstanding created by our masters is fading away as
we mutually discover that we are all condemned to slavery if
divided, and that freedom is ours if we unite. The accessions of
Chinese workers to our ranks fills us with great joy. May they also
succeed in soon carrying the gospel of Working Class Solidarity and
Industrial Organization to their native country. That hope takes
the sadness out of the news of their possible deportation."
"I. W. W. Songs," a Red booklet published at the Chicago headquarters,
has already met with such popularity among the "Wobblies" that fourteen
editions have been published. Several songs, showing the spirit of the
Reds, are given here:
The Preacher and the Slave
By Joe Hill
(Tune: "Sweet Bye and Bye")
Long-haired preachers come out every night,
Try to tell you what's wrong and what's right;
But when asked how 'bout something to eat
They will answer with voices so sweet:
_Chorus_
You will eat, bye and bye,
In that glorious land above the sky;
Work and pray, live on hay,
You'll get pie in the sky when you die.
And the starvation army they play,
And they sing and they clap and they pray.
Till they get all your coin on the drum,
Then they'll tell you when you're on the bum:
Holy Rollers and jumpers come out,
And they holler, they jump and they shout.
"Give your money to Jesus," they say,
"He will cure all diseases to-day."
If you fight hard for children and wife--
Try to get something good in this life--
You're a sinner and bad man, they tell,
When you die you will sure go to hell.
Workingmen of all countries, unite,
Side by side we for freedom will fight;
When the world and its wealth we have gained
To the grafters we'll sing this refrain:
_Last Chorus_
You will eat, bye and bye,
When you've learned how to cook and to fry,
Chop some wood, 'twill do you good,
And you'll eat in the sweet bye and bye.
Tie 'Em Up!
(Words and music by G. G. Allen)
We have no fight with brothers of the old A. F. of L.,
But we ask you use your reason with the facts we have to tell.
Your craft is but protection for a form of property,
The skill that you are losing, don't you see.
Improvements on machinery take your tool and skill away,
And you'll be among the common slaves upon some fateful day.
Now the things of which we're talking we are mighty sure about.--
So what's the use to strike the way you can't win out?
_Chorus_
Tie 'em up! Tie 'em up! That's the way to win.
Don't notify the bosses till hostilities begin.
Don't furnish chance for gunmen, scabs and all their like;
What you need is One Big Union and the One Big Strike.
Why do you make agreements that divide you when you fight
And let the bosses bluff you with the contract's "sacred right?"
Why stay at work when other crafts are battling with the foe,
You all must stick together, don't you know.
The day when you begin to see the classes waging war
You can join the biggest tie-up that was ever known before.
When the strikes all o'er the country are united into one,
Then the workers' One Big Union all the wheels shall run.
Walking on the Grass
(Tune: "The Wearing of the Green")
In this blessed land of freedom where King Mammon wears the crown,
There are many ways illegal now to hold the people down.
When the dudes of state militia are slow to come to time,
The law upholding Pinkertons are gathered from the slime.
There are wisely framed injunctions that you must not leave your job,
And a peaceable assemblage is declared to be a mob,
And Congress passed a measure framed by some consummate ass,
So they are clubbing men and women just for walking on the grass.
In this year of slow starvation, when a fellow looks for work,
The chances are a cop will grab his collar with a jerk;
He will run him in for vagrancy, he is branded as a tramp,
And all the well-to-do will shout: "It serves him right, the scamp!"
So we let the ruling class maintain the dignity of law,
When the court decides against us we are filled with wholesome awe,
But we cannot stand the outrage without a little sauce
When they're clubbing men and women just for walking on the grass.
The papers said the union men were all but anarchist,
So the job trust promised work for all who wouldn't enlist;
But the next day when the hungry horde surrounded city hall,
He hedged and said he didn't promise anything at all.
So the powers that be are acting very queer to say the least--
They should go and read their Bible and all about Belshazzar's feast,
And when mene tekel at length shall come to pass,
They'll stop clubbing men and women just for walking on the grass.
Although the I. W. W. does not yet officially constitute a part of the
Socialist organization, still very many of its members are most active
Socialists. Indeed, it may be said that the I. W. W. is related to the
Socialist Party quite as closely as a child is to its mother, for not
only does the I. W. W. owe its origin to the followers of Karl Marx,
but they are its directors and leaders, and have assisted and encouraged
it in not a few of its principal strikes, notably at Lawrence, Mass.,
and Paterson, N. J.
Though we readily concede that quite a number of Socialists are
individually antagonistic to the I. W. W., still they are opposed to it
not because the I. W. W. differs in essential principles from the
Socialist Party or even because this unfriendly minority of Socialists
would oppose violent methods, if such were considered expedient, but
because the "Yellow" Socialists prefer political action which is made
light of by the I. W. W. direct actionists who are looked upon as
enemies, for they seem to be doing harm to the Socialist political
propaganda. In verification of this, an excellent proof is furnished by
no less an authority than John Spargo, then a Socialist, and a most
prolific writer, whose opposition to the Syndicalists and to the direct
actionists of the Socialist Party was a well established fact even
before the publication of his book, "Syndicalism, Industrial Unionism
and Socialism." On page 172 of this work he writes:
"If the class to which I belong could be set free from exploitation
by violation of laws made by the master class, by open rebellion,
by seizing the property of the rich, by setting the torch to a few
buildings, or by the summary execution of a few members of the
possessing class, I hope that the courage to share in the work
would be mine."
Spargo, in "Syndicalism, Industrial Unionism and Socialism," admits that
the Socialists have continually and consistently given aid to the
Industrial Workers of the World in their strikes. Yet notwithstanding
this active support, many persons have been led to believe that the
Socialists have repudiated the I. W. W. This incorrect opinion may be
due to the fact that the Socialist Party did not endorse the I. W. W. at
its 1912 National Convention, or else to the fact that William D.
Haywood was subsequently removed by a referendum from the National
Executive Committee of the Socialist Party. But the 1912 Indianapolis
Convention of the Socialist Party did not repudiate the Industrial
Workers of the World. The representatives of the party only declared for
a neutrality between this organization and the American Federation of
Labor, and would in all probability have endorsed the I. W. W. and
repudiated the American Federation of Labor if the Socialists had not
nursed a hope of getting control of the latter organization and turning
it into an industrial union similar to that of the Industrial Workers of
the World.
That the Socialist Party by no means repudiated the I. W. W., but on the
contrary was still on the most friendly terms with it after the 1912
Convention, is evident from several facts. "The Call," May 17, 1912,
affirms that the Convention decided for neutrality in affairs of unions.
In the "Appeal to Reason," May 25, 1912, we read: "So after long weeks
of discussion in the press, after days of apprehensions and fencing for
advantage, the labor organization committee brought forth a unanimous
report, which after a few speeches, all expressing the spirit of
solidarity, was adopted without a dissenting vote. It was a compromise
resolution. Each side declares itself completely satisfied with it. Each
declares that it expresses its sentiments."
William D. Haywood, who perhaps more than any other person had the
interests of the I. W. W. at heart, declared, according to "The Call,"
May 17, 1912, that with the adoption of this declaration concerning the
neutrality of the party towards the two rival labor unions he felt that
he could go to the 8,000,000 workers of the nation and carry to them the
message of Socialism. "This," he continues, "is the greatest step that
has yet been taken by the Socialist Party."
Although Haywood was for the time being removed from the National
Executive Committee of the party, charged with favoring direct action
rather than political action, he was never expelled from the
party--which yet boasted so much of the constitutional clause adopted at
the 1912 National Convention demanding that any member who opposes
political action, or advocates crime, sabotage, or other methods of
violence as a weapon of the working class, to aid in its emancipation,
shall be expelled from membership in the party.
"The New Unionism," page 119, points out some of the "merits" of the I.
W. W., in comparison made with the Socialist Party, against which it was
somewhat offended by the anti-sabotage and anti-direct action plank
adopted at the 1912 National Convention:
"There are vote-getters and politicians who waste their time coming
into a community where ninety per cent. of the men have no vote,
where the women are disfranchised 100 per cent., and where the boys
and girls under age, of course, are not enfranchised. Still they
will speak to these people about the power of the ballot, and they
never mention a thing about the power of the general strike. They
seem to lack the foresight, the penetration to interpret political
power. They seem to lack the understanding that the broadest
interpretation of political power comes through the industrial
organization; that the industrial organization is capable not only
of the general strike, but prevents the capitalists from
disfranchising the worker; it gives the vote to women, it
re-enfranchises the black man and places the ballot in the hands of
every boy and girl employed in a shop, makes them eligible to take
part in the general strike, makes them eligible to legislate for
themselves where they are most interested in changing conditions,
namely, in the place where they work."
Again we read, on page 122 of "The New Unionism":
"The politicians in the Socialist Party, who want offices in the
government, fight the I. W. W. because we have no place in our
ranks for them, and if our idea prevails, it will crowd them out
and destroy their influence as 'saviors of the working class.'
These politicians cater for votes to the middle class--to business
men, farm owners and other small labor skinners--while the I. W. W.
appeals only to wage-workers, and allows none but actual
wage-workers to join our ranks. The Socialists can never get a
majority of votes for a working class programme (if they had such a
programme) because the majority of voters are middle class, since
about ten million male wage-workers are disfranchised (being
foreigners or floaters without long enough residence in one place
to have votes). But the wage-workers are a big majority of the
whole people, and produce nearly all wealth, so when they organize
as the I. W. W. proposes, the working class will control the
country, and with similar organizations in other countries will
control the world. Foreigners, women, children and other non-voters
at elections, have equal rights in the union, and take part in its
activities, regardless of nationality, age, sex, or any other
consideration except that they are wage-workers with common
interests in opposition to those of the employers."
It may come as a surprise to the reader to hear that at the 1917 St.
Louis Convention of the Socialist Party the anti-sabotage and
anti-direct action plank of the Constitution was dropped. The
"International Socialist Review," May, 1917, page 669, commenting on the
removal of the clause, says:
"It has served its purpose, which was to guillotine and drive out
most of the revolutionary workers from the party. The Constitution
committee recommended that it be striken out by unanimous consent
without going on the minutes or records. Ruthenberg opposed. He
insisted that it be struck out and the minutes show the record of
the action. It was carried almost unanimously."
Further on we read in the same issue of "The International Socialist
Review":
"An industrial union plank to be inserted in the platform was defeated
by a vote of 63 to 61. Had it been offered as a resolution it would have
gone through by a big majority." Though most of the Convention favored
the I. W. W., evidently a small majority feared to put the Socialist
Party on record.
In 1918 and 1919 the Socialist Party grew more and more friendly to the
I. W. W. At present they seem to have fallen in love with each other.
The American Federation of Labor is held in greatest contempt by the
Socialist press, while the I. W. W. is lauded to the skies. Its meetings
are advertised, sympathy and aid are extended to its imprisoned
officials and everything is being done to help it along.
Eugene V. Debs has all along been the sincere friend of the I. W. W. In
the February, 1918, issue of the "International Socialist Review," page
395, he says:
"Every plutocrat, every profiteering pirate, every food vulture,
every exploiter of labor, every robber and oppressor of the poor,
every hog under a silk tile, every vampire in human form will tell
you that the A. F. of L. under Gompers is a great and patriotic
organization and that the I. W. W. under Haywood is a gang of
traitors in the pay of the bloody Kaiser.
"Which of these, think you, Mr. Wage-Slave, is your friend and the
friend of your class?....
"The war within the war and beyond the war in which the I. W. W. is
fighting--the war of the workers of all countries against the
exploiters of all countries--is our war, the war of humanity
against its oppressors and despoilers, the holiest war ever waged
since the race began."
"The Call," New York, April 19, 1919, published at the top of its
editorial page, "Debs' Daily Message from Moundsville Prison:"
"Though Jailed, He Speaketh.
"The clear voice of the awakened and dauntless few cannot be
silenced. The new unionism is being heard. In trumpet tones it
rings out its revolutionary shibboleth to all the workers of the
earth: 'Our interests are identical--let us combine industrially
and politically, assert our united power, achieve our freedom,
enjoy the fruit of our labor, rid society of parasitism, abolish
poverty and civilize the world!'....
"There can be no peace until the working class is triumphant in
this struggle and the wage system is forever wiped from the earth."
In the May Day issue of "The Call," May 1, 1919, there is a very long
article on Debs' Imprisonment by David Karsner, staff correspondent. He
tells us that on the afternoon of April 28 he sat talking with Debs in
his little room in the prison hospital at Moundsville, West Virginia,
and that the many-times presidential candidate of the Socialist Party
among other things said, when told of an intended visit by Karsner to
the Leavenworth Federal prison to see William D. Haywood and the other
93 I. W. W. prisoners:
"I want you to take my love to Bill Haywood and all the other boys
you see out there. We all stand shoulder to shoulder together."
The staff correspondent then goes on to say:
"The reference of Debs to Haywood and the I. W. W. brought vividly
to my mind the little scene enacted between 'Gene' and 'Big Bill'
in the corridor of Judge Landis' courtroom in Chicago last August
during the I. W. W. trial.
"'You and the boys are making a great and noble fight,' said Debs
to Haywood at that time, patting the cheek of Big Bill. 'You are a
born champion of the underdog.' Haywood clasped Debs' in his own
great palm and said affectionately, 'You are the champion of the
underdog, Gene, and you always will be.' There was something
thrilling and inspiring in witnessing this friendly and comradely
felicitation between two noble men, both of whom have never
retreated one jot from their ideas of emancipation of the working
class.
"I recalled as I saw him this afternoon that seven years ago, or at
the time of the Indianapolis Convention of the Socialist party,
Debs pleaded for unity of the movement. He refused to be stampeded
into any position that would compromise the noble work that
confronted himself and the Socialist Party. Debs has always been
for industrial unionism. His speeches and writings are filled with
the spirit of organization and solidarity on the industrial field
as well as on the political. But above everything else he has
warned his fellow Socialists and industrialists that the thing to
do is to keep united, to solidify their economic and political
strength to the end that when our day comes we shall be ready to
enjoy the fruits of our victory."
"The One Big Union Monthly," March 1, 1919, pages 14, 19 and 21, gives
us some very interesting information about the I. W. W. attitude toward
Bolshevism and the two extreme groups of the Socialists:
"We have long predicted the revolutionary cyclone that is now
sweeping over the world, even though few people cared to believe
us. We asked them to prepare for it by building up the framework of
the new society within the shell of the old, in other words to see
to it that we had the new house ready to move into, before we
dynamited the old one....
"Personally we are convinced that Russia will never again return to
the old order. The workers have control and they will not let go of
it. As the days go by, they will gradually organize production and
distribution on the lines of industrial unionism, as Lenine assures
us, and that will be their salvation.
"The plight of the Russian people is a warning to other peoples to
immediately start building the new society, by building industrial
unions right now, before the structure of the old society topples
over. Industrial unions are the only social apparatus that will
make abolishment of wage slavery possible....
"The Bolshevik Revolution has emphasized this sad fact. Socialism
in Russia, facing for the first time in Socialist history, the
problem of inaugurating a working class state, found itself
paralyzed by the existence of a parliamentary form of Democracy.
The Revolution was at stake. In order to destroy capitalism it was
necessary to destroy parliamentary Democracy, and Lenine destroyed
it. In its place he reared a new form of Democracy--the
Dictatorship of the Proletariat, which is Socialism.
"And yet, so misled is the thinking of our European Socialists that
in the very presence of a living, accomplished Socialist
commonwealth, they hastened to repudiate it because it was not
'Democratic.' Plekhanov betrayed it. Kautsky reviled it. Albert
Thomas called upon the capitalists of France to send their soldiers
there and crush it. Mr. Walling, Mr. Spargo and Mr. Russell
baptized themselves into a 'Socialist' crusade to destroy
Socialism. Could idiocy be more abject?
"The alternative is presented, to choose between Socialism or
Democracy. Or perhaps it would be better to put it--between
industrial Democracy and parliamentary Democracy. And our pitiable
Spargos, duped by a stale phrase, abandon their Socialism because
it is not 'Democratic.'
"In America, it is this same issue of Democracy which has long been
the dividing line between the Socialist Party and the I. W. W. Like
the Bolshevists of Russia, the I. W. W. have championed Democracy
but we have refused to allow the capitalist thinkers to define it
for us. We have practiced Democracy in our organization and we have
sublimated it into the most perfect of Democratic organizations.
But always, it has been a Democracy only of proletarians. We have
built the framework of a new society which says that those shall
not vote who do not work. And this, indeed, is Socialism.
"But the political Socialists have feared to draw this distinction.
They have not built themselves upon the proletarian rock. Into
their ranks they have admitted, not only the butcher, the baker and
the candle-stick maker, but also the lawyer, the doctor, the
merchant, the sky pilot, yes, and even the capitalists--known as
millionaire Socialists. Out of such a medley, a medley philosophy
was sprouted. Democracy, to the political Socialists, could not be
rigidly proletarian, because the political Socialists, themselves,
were not proletarians. And their ideals paled into evasion and
compromise.
"Again, the I. W. W. being proletarian, spurned a parliamentary
action which would have drawn it together with the exploiting
class. It realized, before Spargo took that fatal dodge, that, from
parliamentary Socialism to parliamentary Democracy it was but a
step. Hence we spurned politics and parliamentarism, and
substituted a Democracy, grouped around unions, and not around
parliaments.
"But the political Socialists, immersed in parliamentary hack work,
stifled the Socialist concept of Democracy by recognizing and
participating in the capitalist form of Democracy. Entering the
parliaments, they dreamed that they could transform these
parliaments into Socialist republics. Only too soon they discovered
that the parliaments had transformed them into 'Democratic'
apologists. Like a poisoning strain, parliamentarism spread out
over Socialism. And so, when Socialism came at last in Russia,
without the aid of the foolish parliaments, deluded Socialists
cried that Bolshevism was not Socialism."
The year 1919 witnessed a very marked drawing together, in the United
States and throughout the world, of I. W. W.'ism, or Syndicalism, and
all the bodies of radical, revolutionary Socialism. The Moscow
Bolshevists gave a great "boost" to the I. W. W. principle of industrial
unionism by endorsing it and declaring that Russia was being
reorganized economically along similar lines. Bolshevism in Russia, in
fact, has had the help and counsel of I. W. W. experts from the United
States, and I. W. W. leaders in America have naturally been elated. John
Sandgren wrote in "The New Solidarity," April 12, 1919:
"The immortal gains of Bolshevism for humanity lie on the political
field. When it comes to economic reconstruction, the Bolsheviks are
going to find that it cannot be made from the top through laws and
regulations. Any attempt to make the people the real owners of the
means of production and distribution must start with the industrial
organization of the workers themselves as outlined in the I. W. W.
program. In the meantime, let us hope that Bolshevism will sweep
victoriously over all such parts of the world where it still has a
mission to perform. After that, begins the I. W. W. period in human
history."
The April 1, 1919, issue of "The One Big Union Monthly," published the
Russian Communist Party call and invitation to the Moscow Conference
[see Chapter III for a copy of this document], remarking that "as to the
general demand for the overthrow of Capitalism, the dis-establishment of
private ownership and making the working-class the rulers of the world,
there is apt to be little if any dissension." However, noting that "the
I. W. W. of this and other countries" had been invited to the
conference, it declared that "we have no reason to get excited over the
invitation," since, "with the exception of the I. W. W., there is hardly
any of the thirty-nine invited bodies who seriously endorse industrial
unionism as the basis of a new society.... The proposed communist
conference would consequently be a congress of radical political
Socialists to consider the question of discontinuing the use of the
ballot and adopting the methods used by the Russian communists in the
past in overthrowing capitalist society." The I. W. W. world-scheme is
then outlined:
"The I. W. W. has given up all thought of using the machinery of
the present state for its purposes. It proposes to create an
entirely new machinery of administration in which not even a
particle of the old shall enter as a constituent part. We propose
to re-group all mankind on industrial lines in industrial
organizations which we hope will make superfluous and crowd out the
political groupings which constitute the state. We propose to make
the unit of industry, the place of work, the shop, the mill, the
field, the ship, the basis of our new social organization. These
units will combine in two different manners. From a purely
industrial standpoint, they will unite with other units into large
industrial unions, calculated to embrace the whole world, each and
every one of them. For the purpose of local administration, we
propose that the local industrial units shall form a district
industrial council or local administrative body to take care of
local affairs. As we propose to order all branches of human
activity along these lines and include them in a world scheme of
industrial co-operation, we must conclude that our program,
although fundamentally aiming at the same thing as the program of
the Communist Party, somewhat differs from the program proposed as
a basis of unity."
An editorial in the same issue on "Soviet Government in the U. S." says:
"The papers have informed us that the police and the secret service
have unearthed a gigantic plot among the Socialists of this country
to gather up all the radical elements with a view to establishing a
Soviet government in this country.... We do not deny that this
agitation is useful, for it stirs people to thought and excites
contradiction, ... but when that is said, we have said all the good
we can about it....
"The Russians made their revolution not because they had Soviets,
but because the people willed it.... The I. W. W. has at least on
paper an institution corresponding to the Soviet, namely, the
District Industrial Council, ... a local representative body of the
various industrial unions in each locality. So far, it lacks all
practical significance because we are not numerous enough, but
whenever there is to be a radical change in this country, the
change will have to be made through these councils locally. They
will take over the functions which were taken over by the Soviets
in Russia."
Another editorial in the same issue treats of the overtures of the Left
Wing Socialists:
"Of late we have noticed an ever-increasing tendency to hush us up
in the name of unity. We are being told not to show up political
Socialism; we are told not to attack Anarchism. We are asked to be
more lenient toward the A. F. of L. [American Federation of Labor.]
We mustn't touch on church and religion....
"It appears that political Socialists, anarchists and other labor
elements feel that the bottom has fallen out of their programs and
they want us to keep quiet about it, and as a reward we will secure
their friendly services. The I. W. W. is not willing to enter into
any such bargain."
Another editorial gives further light on the "boring in" process begun
by theoretical Socialists with an itch for revolution--paper soldiers
anxious to get a-straddle of the great strike-conducting war-horse of I.
W. W.'ism and ride into "the dictatorship of the proletariat." This is
thus dealt with:
"There is a large element in this country who want a radical change
if not a revolution. This element would like to see the change made
to suit them with the smallest possible cost to themselves.
"The most insistent agitators belong to the upper-class radicals,
and their object seems to be to stir the working masses into some
sort of revolutionary activity, not clearly defined. It seems they
built great hopes on the participation of the I. W. W. They know we
are a compact mass of industrial workers, able to manipulate such
great affairs as the general strikes in Seattle and Butte, the
strike of the silk workers, the strike on the Mesaba Range, and so
on, and we are just what they need for their purpose.
"For this reason we have met with an unusual amount of courtesy and
consideration of late, but we are sorry to say that we do not
consider it disinterested. If these revolutionists were sincere in
their friendship for us, they would throw everything aside and help
us build up industrial unionism, but that is exactly what they are
not doing to any considerable extent. Their activities are directed
on aims that are strange and foreign to us. Some of their adherents
in overalls are getting into our ranks because they work in the
industries we have organized or because our recruiting unions are
open to them, and their activity is frequently annoying to us, as
it has little or nothing to do with the industrial organization of
the workers."
The same issue contains an article by a Left Winger, I. E. Ferguson, a
"Little Corporal" ready to step to the front of I. W. W.'ism and lead it
to glory. He complains:
"The attempt to 'hog the market' of propagandizing the Russian
Revolution in the United States for the I. W. W. is leading to
excesses which ought to be checked right now, else these excesses
will accomplish injury to the American Socialist movement. This
does not mean to repudiate the claims of the I. W. W. to any
extent, but to controvert the negative proposition that all of the
American revolutionary socialist movement is and necessarily must
be within the folds of the I. W. W....
"The I. W. W. is the livest thing in the American Socialist
movement, therefore, truly, the Greatest Thing On Earth for the
American working class. But ... when the same organization carries
on the business of unionism and the business of revolution at the
same time, it is more than likely, when it becomes overburdened, to
throw overboard the more remote job in favor of the more immediate
one. Revolution is a political proposition, or, if you please,
anti-political. Its direct task is the overthrow of the capitalist
state, the bulwark of capitalist industrialism. There is no
question in the world but that the I. W. W. form of labor
organization is the most powerful possible weapon for the overthrow
of the capitalist state, because of its adaptability to great mass
protests and mass movements of the proletariat. But only an
organization with the sole aim of revolution can take the
responsibility for leadership in this fight."
Granting some truth in the above argument, it is not probable that a
great practical organization like the I. W. W., which _does_ things, and
very rough things, will invite theorists, non-working drones, to come in
and take charge of it. Nor is it willing to be borrowed, and diverted
into an engine to run toy revolutions. This is the substance of the
reply to Ferguson made by Harold Lord Varney in the same magazine. We
quote its pith:
"Like the Left Wingers of the Socialist Party; like the editors and
the writers of the Revolutionary Age and the Class Struggle; like
the Eastmans, the Nearings and the Frainas of our American
movement, my critic is obsessed with Russia. To him, the
Bolshevists and their mass action revolutions are like dazzling,
fiery suns which blind and obscure all rivals....
"As proletarians, I. W. W.'s rejoiced at the Lenine triumph. As
proletarians, we have unwaveringly supported the Bolshevist regime
in all our propaganda. Those of our members who happened to be in
Russia when the October Revolution came (and there were thousands
of them) were all found in the Bolshevist army. Bill Shatoff,
Volodarsky, Martoff, Kornuk and others who have been leaders in the
Bolshevist army were all old members of the I. W. W. In brief,
then, were we in Russia, all I. W. W.'s would be Bolsheviki. But
from this it does not necessarily follow that in America the I. W.
W. must turn Bolshevist also....
"Mr. Ferguson's proposition is that after all these years of
struggle we should now discard this One Big Union goal and unite
with political Socialists to create an American Bolsheviki. And in
that proposal he demonstrates the impractical artlessness of the
Left Winger. The I. W. W. is a Socialist who is a materialist. The
Left Winger is a Socialist who is an ideologist. The I. W. W. seeks
for verities and for concrete, ponderable power. The Left Winger
follows the intoxicating dreams of his own imagination....
"Of course, the I. W. W. wants unity. But we will have no unity
with any who are not willing to accept the proletarian conception
of Socialism. We will have no unity with any who do not belong to
our class. And we will have no unity with any who flinch at the
'radicalism' of our program....
"The I. W. W. is not anti-political. Its members are free to be
members of the Socialist Party and thousands of us, the writer
included, do carry Socialist cards....
"The social revolution is not a thing of theories. It is merely the
final act of working-class organization. It is the historic mission
of the working class to mount to supreme power. They do this, not
by debating nor by marching in the street; they do this by the slow
process of organization. In their union halls, the workers learn
class consciousness. In their union halls, the workers learn
self-government. In their union halls, the workers are disciplined
and solidified for the 'final conflict.' Every strike is a
revolution in miniature. Every gain which organized workers make,
by a conscious act of their own, weakens capitalism and is
revolutionary. In short, the union movement is the schoolhouse of
the new society....
"Mr. Ferguson is not correct in asserting that the I. W. W. does
not have 'the sole aim of revolution.' In our Preamble, he will
find the boldest revolutionary utterance which has ever been
penned.... Even were we silent in revolutionary words, our very
form of organization and mode of action stamp us as revolutionists.
We are organized against capital. We are an army that is ever
battling....
"The real I. W. W. is not to be read in books of the intellectuals.
It does not flash in phrases. It is written in the hearts of strong
silent men. It can be read in the ineffable tales of anguish which
ring from the prisons of the land. It can be read in the tragic
sacrifices of the Littles, the Joe Hills, the Barans, the Looneys,
the Jonsons, the Rabinowitzes, the Gerlots, the Jack Whytes whom
destiny has claimed from among us. Its chapters have been penned,
not with words, but with the living dramas of Spokane and San
Diego, Lawrence and Paterson, McKee's Rocks, Everett and Mesaba
Range."
This is indeed the spirit of the most dangerous organization of devoted
fanatics in the world today, and if our present order of society hopes
to survive its steady, unrelenting assault, it must take into its hands
the weapons of truth and justice.
We have given these quotations to show clearly both the difference and
the bond of union between the I. W. W.'s and the other brands of
Socialists. A Left Winger sums it up concisely ("The Communist," August
23, 1919): "The syndicalist and the Socialist have this in common: That
they both strive for the reduction of the state to zero and the
'building of a new society within the shell of the old.' The fundamental
difference between the two is that the syndicalist naively strives to
build the new society while the capitalist class controls the coercive
power, and the Socialist aims to destroy that power first and then begin
the 'building' process."
But I. W. W.'ism is the more logical, and, in conditions like those in
the United States, much the more dangerous, because it is _revolution
going on_ every day of the year, holding what it gets, be it much or
little. Moreover, since I. W. W.'ism will not give up its position,
Socialism in America has adopted the industrial unionism creed. This now
is the backbone of all the recent Socialist platforms, including that of
the Socialist Party of America. Even with the Left Winger's buoyant
faith in a speedy overturn of the United States, he now sees that the
One Big Union is the necessary steam-roller to accomplish it, and for
months he has been at work, "boring from within," to get the forces of
American labor industrially organized for revolutionary action. In
short, there has been a general following of the advice which "Truth,"
Left Wing organ in the Northwest, gave in its issue of May 23, 1919, as
its answer to the above-quoted challenge of Varney to Ferguson:
"The Left Wing represents the revolutionary portion of the
Socialist Party in opposition to the opportunism of the Right Wing.
Therefore we must, in order to make the Socialist Party a
revolutionary expression of the working class, join hands with the
Left Wing....
"The I. W. W. represents the revolutionary section of the working
class in opposition to the opportunism of Gompers et al. Therefore
we must, in order to make working class organizations
revolutionary, join hands with the I. W. W.
"The resolutions and the manifestoes of the Left Wing are
revolutionary expressions. But action counts for more than words.
If all Left Wingers are sincere they will join in the I. W. W. and
endeavor to make the I. W. W. the dominant working-class
organization throughout the country. The times demand that we must
make ready to enforce our demands. No pious resolutions will bring
us freedom. Only POWER through organization on the job will bring
us freedom. True it is that we have to resort to mass action. But
the basis of our mass action must be organization on the job. The
I. W. W. represents the highest form of industrial organization and
therefore merits our support. So we trust that ALL Left Wingers
will join with the I. W. W. This is not the time to indulge in
hair-splitting. If you are enraptured by what has taken place in
Russia, do your share here in America."
This appeared in May, 1919. Six months later we open the December, 1919,
"One Big Union Monthly" and read:
"We need hardly repeat the now well known facts that the workers of
western Canada and of Australia have in mass adopted our principles
in the course of this year. Close upon these significant events
came the news that the three fragments into which the Socialist
Party was split endorsed industrial unionism, while two of them
rather outspokenly favored the I. W. W.
"Later we were able to state that the increase in our own
membership in the course of the 12 months, September 1, 1918, to
September 1, 1919, was about 50,000. Now we are able to inform our
readers that the growth of the last three months has been
unprecedented. Lumber workers, miners, construction workers, marine
transport workers and many other unions report many thousands of
new members. We are getting a footing in fields that we have never
been able to touch before, such as the printing industry and
building construction. Carpenters and painters are joining us by
the thousand. On November 9th delegates of eight independent unions
in different industries, representing something like 250,000
workers, met in New York City and took the first steps for an
affiliation with the I. W. W.--in spite of jails and persecution.
And let us not forget that the Negro workers of the U. S. are
organizing on the basis of our program.
"But the influence of our principles is not limited to the
English-speaking people in America and Australia. Other races and
countries are enthusiastically taking up our program and proudly
announcing that they are with the I. W. W. Thus in Mexico our
movement has taken form and been laid out on a national basis. In
South America, where the labor movement always has been in
sympathy with us, the workers are going one step further and have
started organizing as an I. W. W. In Buenos Ayres there is already
an organization of 2,800 marine transport workers in such an
organization.
"Furthermore it is to be noted that practically all the old trade
unions on this continent prove to be honey-combed with friends of
the I. W. W.
"Over in Europe it is the same story. The rebuilding of production
and distribution in Russia is said to be largely based on our
principles. At last report there were about 3,500,000 industrial
workers organized in industrial unions for the carrying on of
production and distribution. The Russian people are taking
possession of the industries through their industrial unions.
"In Italy 'The Italian Syndicalist Union,' 300,000 strong, is
forging ahead along the same lines as the I. W. W. In Spain our
adherents are to be numbered by the hundreds of thousands. In
France the proposition has recently been made in the organ of the
Communist Party, 'L'Internationale Communiste,' to start
reorganizing the French working class on our program, in opposition
to the C. G. T. [Confederation Generale du Travail, or French
Confederation of Labor]. In England there is a separate
organization of the I. W. W. that is advancing rapidly, while the
influence on the old trade unions is very noticeable in their
changed attitude of late toward 'direct action.' ...
"But the biggest surprise of the year we received from Germany. At
least two separate calls have been issued by the German workers to
organize exactly as the I. W. W. The recently formed 'Freie
Arbeiter Union' is also a federation of industrial unions that
endorse our principles. And, finally, from distant, unknown Greece
we are receiving news that the One Big Union is the aim of all the
organized workers of that country."
Several very important facts have been proven in this and the preceding
chapter: first, that the Industrial Workers of the World is a
revolutionary organization in the strictest sense and has for its object
the overthrow of the United States Government; secondly, that, like the
Socialist Party, it is constantly seeking to stir up trouble whenever it
can do so; thirdly, that it respects neither morality nor the law and
appeals to the basest passions in man; and, finally, that all sections
of the Socialist Party are on the strictest terms of friendship with it
and are giving it full support.
CHAPTER X
BOLSHEVIST RULE IN RUSSIA
Shortly after the Lenine-Trotzky government came into power in Russia,
in the latter part of the year 1917, Bolshevism became very popular in
America among the radicals, especially the Socialists. Among those who
helped most to bring it into such high esteem was Albert Rhys Williams,
who had spent but one year of his life in Russia, hardly spoke the
Russian language, and while staying in that country was in the pay of
the Bolsheviki, as he testified before the Senate Committee.
The Bolsheviki came into power by violence and have sustained themselves
in power by violence and terrorism. Their main support, the so-called
Red Army, in which the Chinese and Letts have played a prominent part,
is an army of mercenaries who are well paid and well fed, while
thousands of civilians are dying from starvation in the cities and towns
of Russia.
The first success of the Bolsheviki was the dissolution by bayonets of
the Constituent Assembly, which for forty years had been the goal of all
Russians--even of the Bolsheviki up to the time when they found it
overwhelmingly against them. Then they invented a new double name for
their anti-democratic government: Soviets, or dictatorship of the
proletariat. Next they dissolved all the democratic Municipal Councils
and Zemstvos and proceeded to take away the various liberties won in the
revolution against the regime of the Czar.
The dictatorship of the proletariat led rapidly to an almost complete
stoppage of industry. Governmental expenditures increased by leaps and
bounds with the growing pauperization of the people; for the growing
staffs of Bolshevist officials were utterly incompetent, a large army of
mercenaries was required in order to keep down the ever-increasing
number of insurrections and the ceaseless attacks from many foreign
foes, enormous subsidies had to be paid to Bolshevist workingmen,
regardless of the fact that the factories were producing sometimes
little and sometimes nothing, and, finally, the Lenine government spent
great sums in revolutionary propaganda in the different countries of
the world. Political and economic slavery, moral corruption and the
starvation of millions of people, are a few of the "blessings" bestowed
upon Russia by Bolshevism.
Catherine Breshkovsky, the "Grandmother of the Russian Revolution,"
herself a Socialist, speaking of the Bolsheviki, said:
"In addition to the crimes in their foreign policy, which
culminated in the treacherous Brest-Litovsk 'peace' with German
militarists, the Bolsheviki have committed innumerable crimes in
their internal policy. They have destroyed all civil liberties in
Russia: freedom of speech, of the press, of assemblage and of
organization; they have filled prisons through the country with
their political adversaries, proclaiming 'enemies of the people'
not only the Liberals, the Constitutional-Democratic Party, but
also the party of the Socialists-Revolutionists and the
Social-Democrats Mensheviki, that is, the parties of the Russian
peasantry and proletariat. They have instituted a system of terror
unequaled in cruelty, and while hundreds of innocent hostages would
pay with their lives for the assassination or for the attempt to
assassinate a Bolshevist commissaire, they did not punish the Red
Guards who assassinated the two Ministers of the Provisional
Government, Kokoshkin and Shingariev, while the latter were under
Bolshevist arrest, lying sick in a hospital."
The January, 1919, issue of "The Eye Opener," the official organ of the
National Office, Socialist Party, publishes the full text of the Russian
Bolshevist Constitution under the caption, "Here's Constitution of
World's First Socialist Republic." Some quotations from the document
will no doubt prove interesting as well as instructive:
"For the purpose of realizing the socialization of land, all
private property in land is abolished, and the entire land is
declared to be national property and is to be apportioned among
husbandmen without any compensation to the former owners, in the
measure of each one's ability to till it.
"All forests, treasures of the earth, and waters of general public
utility, all implements whether animate or inanimate, model farms
and agricultural enterprises are declared to be national property.
"As a first step toward complete transfer of ownership to the
Soviet Republic of all factories, mills, mines, railways and other
means of production or transportation, the Soviet law, for the
control by workmen and the establishment of the Supreme Soviet of
National Economy is hereby confirmed, so as to assure the power of
the workers over their exploiters....
"Universal obligation to work is introduced for the purpose of
eliminating the parasitic strata of society and organizing the
economic life of the country.
"For the purpose of securing the working class in the possession of
the complete power, and in order to eliminate all possibility of
restoring the power of the exploiters, it is decreed that all
toilers be armed, and that a Socialist Red Army be organized and
the propertied class be disarmed....
"The Russian Republic is a free Socialist society of all the
working people of Russia. The entire power, within the boundaries
of the Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic, belongs to all
the working people of Russia, united in urban and rural Soviets....
"The Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic considers work the
duty of every citizen of the Republic, and proclaims as its motto:
'He shall not eat who does not work.'
"The following persons enjoy neither the right to vote nor the
right to be voted for, even though they belong to one of the
categories enumerated above, namely:
"Persons who employ hired labor in order to obtain from it an
increase in profits.
"Persons who have an income without doing any work, such as
interest from capital, receipts from property, etc.
"Private merchants, trade and commercial brokers.
"Monks and clergy of all denominations."
This Bolshevist Constitution shows that the Lenine government has
decreed the socialization of all the land, factories, mills, mines and
other means of production, as well as the railways and the various means
of transportation. This program has been carried out, though as yet
probably not completely. Conditions in Russia were deplorable under the
regime of the Czar, but the Socialist government has made them a
thousand times worse. Industry has been reduced to an almost negligible
minimum, property has been destroyed on every side and possession made a
crime. The country has been reduced to chaos, for no one cares to sow
where others will reap; and unemployment is widespread, for employers
are outlawed, and the government has not enough satisfactory positions
to offer. The right to hold property is one of the binding forces that
holds civilization together and supplies incentive to labor. Some of the
evil effects of the confiscation and socialization of property in Russia
are shown from the following articles, published by the
Socialists-Revolutionists, a faction of the Marxians opposed to the
Bolsheviki. Their paper, "Vlast Naroda," declares:
"The village has taken away the land from the landlords, farmers,
wealthy peasants and monasteries. It cannot, however, divide it
peacefully, as was to be expected.
"The more land there is, the greater the appetite for it; hence
more quarrels, misunderstandings and fights.
"In Oboyansk County, many villages refused to supply soldiers when
the Soviet authorities were mobilizing an army. In their refusal
they stated 'in the spring soldiers will be needed at home in the
villages,' not to cultivate the land, but to protect it with arms
against neighboring peasants.
"In the Provinces of Kaluga, Kursk and Voronezh peasant meetings
adopted the following resolution:
"'All grown members of the peasant community have to be home in the
spring. Whoever will then not return to the village or voluntarily
stay away will be forever expelled from the community.
"'These provisions are made for the purpose of having as great a
force as possible in the spring when it comes to dividing the
land.' ...
"Some villages in the Nieshnov district, in the Province of
Mohilev, have supplied themselves with machine guns. The village of
Little Nieshnov, for instance, has decided to order fifteen machine
guns and has organized a Red Army in order to be able better to
defend a piece of land taken away from the landlord and, as they
say, that 'the neighboring peasants should not come to cut our hay
right in front of our windows, like last year.' When the
neighboring peasants heard of the decision they also procured
machine guns. They have formed an army and intend to go to Little
Nieshnov to cut the hay on the meadows 'under the windows' of the
disputed owners....
"Stubborn fights for meadows and forests are always going on. They
often result in skirmishes and murder. There are similar happenings
in other counties of the Province, for instance, in Petrov,
Balashov and Arkhar.
"In the Province of Simbirsk there is war between the community
peasants and shopkeepers. The former have decided to do away with
'Stolypin heirs,' as they call the shopkeepers. The latter,
however, have organized and are ready for a stubborn resistance.
Combats have already taken place. The peasants demolish farms, and
farmers set fire to towns, villages, thrashing floors, etc."
Indeed, the results of confiscation and socialization were so bad from
the very beginning that no less a personage than Lenine himself, in "A
Letter to American Workingmen," published by the Socialist Publication
Society of Brooklyn, New York, on pages 12 and 13, says:
"Mistakes are being made by our peasants who, at one stroke, in the
night from October 25 to October 26 (Russian Calendar), 1917, did
away with all private ownership of land, and are now struggling,
from month to month, under the greatest difficulties, to correct
their own mistakes, trying to solve in practice the most difficult
problems of organizing a new social state, fighting, against
profiteers to secure the possession of the land, for the workers
instead of for the speculator, to carry on agricultural production
under a system of communist farming on a large scale.
"Mistakes are being made by our workmen in their revolutionary
activity, who, in a few short months, have placed practically all
the large factories and workers under state ownership, and are now
learning, from day to day, under the greatest difficulties, to
conduct the management of entire industries, to reorganize
industries already organized, to overcome the deadly resistance of
laziness and middle-class reaction and egotism."
The Socialists of the United States and other radical elements in our
country, after the World War, began to laud to the skies the Russian
Soviets as the most perfect form of government that the world had ever
seen. They were held to far surpass parliaments, congress and other
legislative bodies and to be the supreme accomplishments of a democratic
form of government. The deputies of the soviets, according to the
Bolshevist Constitution, were to be elected by the secret, direct and
equal vote of all the working masses. Theoretically the soviets were
very attractive, but in reality fall far short of the ideal. "Struggling
Russia," a well-known weekly magazine published in New York City by one
of the groups of Russian Socialists, has this to say about the Soviets
in its issue of April 5, 1919:
"In fact, there never was either a secret election in Soviet
Russia, or one based on equal suffrage. Elections are usually
conducted at a given factory or foundry at open meetings, by the
raising of hands and always under the knowing eye of the chairman.
The majority of the workers very frequently do not take part in
these elections at all. The rights of a minority are never
recognized, as proportional representation has been rejected.
"As regards direct elections, it is again a mere phrase. The
Central Executive Committee, which is supposed to embody the
supreme administrative organ of the country, was actually being
elected through a four-grade system. Local Soviets send their
representatives to the Provincial Congress, the Provincial Congress
is represented by delegates at the All-Russian Congress, and only
this last body elects the Central Executive Committee. Often the
delegates are not elected by the regular meetings of the Soviets at
all, but are sent by the Executive Committees, cleverly handpicked
by the Bolsheviki after the system of proportional representation
was rejected....
"The exclusion from the Soviets of all who think differently from
the Bolsheviki developed gradually. They 'cleansed' the Soviets in
Perm and Ekaterinburg, in January 1918; in Ufa, Saratov, Samara,
Kazan and Yaroslavl in December, 1917; in Moscow and Petrograd in
February, 1918. They were excluding all Socialists-Revolutionists
and the Mensheviki, to say nothing of the People's Socialists and
members of the Labor Group. Often, when workers demanded new
elections to the Soviet (as happened in Petrograd late in December
of 1917, and early in January, 1918), and such elections did take
place, the Bolsheviki would not permit the newly elected delegates
to enter the building of the Soviet and frequently arrested them.
Gradually only Bolsheviki and Socialists-Revolutionists of the Left
remained in the Soviets. Soon, however, after the assassination in
Moscow of Count Mirbach, the German Ambassador, and the attempt at
rebellion in Moscow early in June, 1918, by the
Socialists-Revolutionists of the Left, the Bolsheviki began to fill
up the prisons with the latter just as they did with the
Socialists-Revolutionists of the Right and the Menshiviki.
"So, practically, there remained only Bolsheviki in the Soviets.
And as there was no difference of opinion among them, regular
meetings were soon abandoned altogether and the ostensible 'rule of
the working masses' thus definitely disappeared. A few persons,
often appointed from above (the Bolsheviki often had recourse to
bayonets to support the fiction of Soviet rule: in Tumen the
Executive Committee of a non-existent Soviet was brought from
Ekaterinburg under a convoy of 800 Red Guards), would rule and lord
it over the people, tired and weary of the war and a sterile
revolution.
"Occasional outbursts of popular wrath serve as indications of the
depth of dissatisfaction which is engendered by the Soviets and
their offshoots, the Military-Revolutionary Committee. Thus, in the
Polevsky works, in Ekaterinburg County, a mob of peasants, armed
with axes, scythes and sticks, fell upon the Soviets and beast-like
tore into fragments fifty Bolsheviki. In the Neviansk works the
insurrection of the workers against the Red Army lasted for three
days, until reinforcements from Perm finally subdued this
'counter-revolutionary' revolt. In Okhansk County 2,000 peasants
were shot down for demanding the abolition of the Soviets and the
re-establishment of the rule of the people."
In the April 19, 1919, issue of "Struggling Russia" we are told that
"Vlast Naroda," in May, 1918, thus described the uprisings against the
Soviets:
"In Kleen, a crowd entered by force the building occupied by the
Soviets with the intention of bringing the deputies before their
own court of justice. The latter fled. The Financial Commisary
committed suicide by shooting himself, in order to escape the
infuriated crowd.
"In Oriekhovo-Zooyevo, the deputies work in their offices, guarded
by a most vigilant military force. Even on the streets they are
accompanied by guards armed with rifles and bayonets.
"In Penza, an attempt has been made on the lives of the Soviet
members. One of the presiding officers has been wounded. The Soviet
building is now surrounded with cannons and machine-guns.
"In Svicherka, where the Bolsheviki had ordered a Bartholomew
night, the deputies are hunted like wild animals....
"In Bielo, all members of the Soviets have been murdered.
"In Soligalich, two of the most prominent members of the Soviets
have literally been torn to pieces. Two others have been beaten
half-dead.
"In Atkarsk, several members of the Soviets have been killed."
"Struggling Russia," May 31, 1919, informs us that the Petrograd
Committee of the Socialists-Revolutionists of the Left, in the middle of
March, 1919, issued the following proclamation condemning the Petrograd
Soviet:
"Shame to the Bolshevist Violators, Liars and 'Agents
Provocateurs!'
"The Petrograd Soviet does not express the will of the Workmen,
Sailors and 'Reds.'
"The Soviet was not elected. The elections were either pretenses or
held under threats of shooting or starvation. This terrorism
completely suffocated freedom of speech, the press and meetings of
the laboring classes.
"The Petrograd Soviet consists of self-appointed Bolsheviki. It is
a blind tool in the hands of the 'agents-provacateurs,' hangmen and
assassins of the Bolshevist regime....
"Where is the dictatorship of the proletariat and working
peasantry? It has been supplanted by the dictatorship of the
Central Committee of the Bolshevist Party, governing with the
assistance of a swarm of extraordinary commissions and punitive
detachments of imported soldiers."
Though the Russian Socialists overthrew the government of the Czar in
the hope of securing liberty, liberty, under the Bolshevist regime, is
farther off than it was before. The British High Commissioner, R. H.
Bruce-Lockhart, in a telegram sent to the British Foreign Office,
November 10, 1918, among other things said:
"The Bolsheviki have established a rule of force and oppression
unequaled in the history of any autocracy.
"Themselves the fiercest upholders of the right of free speech,
they have suppressed, since coming into power, every newspaper
which does not approve their policy.
"The right of holding public meetings has been abolished. The vote
has been taken away from everybody except the workmen in factories
and the poorer servants, and even amongst the workmen those who
dared to vote against the Bolsheviki are marked down by the
Bolshevist police as counter-revolutionaries, and are fortunate if
their worst fate is to be thrown into prison, of which in Russia
today it may truly be said, 'many go in but few come out.'"
V. M. Zenzinov, a member of the Central Committee of the
Socialists-Revolutionists, in an article published in "Struggling
Russia," April 12, 1919, speaking of absence of liberty under
Bolshevism, says:
"It was during my stay in Petrograd in April, 1918, that a
conference of factory and industrial plant employees of Petrograd
and vicinity was held, to which 100,000 Petrograd workingmen (out
of a total of 132,000) sent delegates. The conference adopted a
resolution sharply denouncing the Bolshevist regime. Following this
conference an attempt was made, in May, to call together an
All-Russian Congress of workmen's deputies in Moscow, but all the
delegates were arrested by the Bolsheviki, and to this day I am
ignorant of the fate that befell my comrades."
Justice, as well as liberty, is a dead letter in the land of Lenine, and
conscription is rigidly enforced by the Russian Socialist Government. R.
H. Bruce-Lockhart, to whom reference has been made, in his telegram to
the British Foreign Office, November 10, 1918, stated:
"The Bolsheviki have abolished even the most primitive forms of
justice. Thousands of men and women have been shot without even the
mockery of a trial, and thousands more are left to rot in the
prisons under conditions to find a parallel to which one must turn
to the darkest annals of Indian or Chinese history....
"The Bolsheviki who destroyed the Russian army, and who have always
been the avowed opponents of militarism, have forcibly mobilized
officers who do not share their political views, but whose
technical knowledge is indispensable, and by the threat of
immediate execution have forced them to fight against their
fellow-countrymen in a civil war of unparalleled horror."
Concerning religious conditions in Russia, the Rev. Dr. George S.
Simons, shortly after his return from that country, testified before the
Senatorial Committee, which, in February, 1919, was investigating the
nature of Russian Bolshevism:
"The Bolshevik is not only an atheist, but he also seeks to make
all religions impossible. They assert that all misery is due to the
superstition that there is a God. One of their officials told me:
"'We now propose to enlighten our children, and with this purpose
in view, we are issuing a catechism on atheism for use in all the
schools.'
"The man who told me this was the Commissionaire of Enlightenment
and Education."
On February 7, 1919, an appeal was sent to Pope Benedict XV, by the
Orthodox Greek clergy of that part of Russia which had not fallen a prey
to the Bolsheviki. It was signed by Sylvester, Archbishop of Omsk,
President of the Supreme Administration of the Orthodox Church, and by
other members of the same administration. This letter implored the Holy
Father to deign to take into consideration the conditions existing in
Russia. It exposed a list of crimes and outrages, cities sacked,
churches profaned and pillaged, more than twenty bishops and more than
one hundred priests assassinated, the victims being of every kind. Some
of them before they were put to death had their arms and legs cut off,
while others were buried alive. Nuns were violated; the socialization of
women was proclaimed; rein was given to unbridled passions; everywhere
there was nothing but famine, death and misery. The following message is
also noteworthy:
"With deep grief, Venerable Father, we expose to you the unhappy
conditions in which millions of Russians of true Russia are
reduced. Relying on that unity which makes all mankind one, and on
the strength of Christian fraternity, we hope, Venerable Father,
that we may count on your compassion as representing the Christian
Church, and trust that your flock will be informed of what is going
on, and that in common with you they will offer fervent prayers to
Him, in whose hands are both life and death, for those who in the
northeast of Europe are being made, because of their love of
Christ, Martyrs of the faith in the twentieth century."
"Dyelo Naroda," an organ of the Socialists-Revolutionists of Russia, in
April, 1918, stated that the situation of the church and clergy was
horrible. "Everything pertaining to them is being spit upon and
profaned. People, with rifles on their shoulders and their hats on,
often enter the church and right there question the clergymen and arrest
priests, at the same time mocking the religious feelings of the praying
crowd. Many churches have been closed as a result of the edict
concerning the separation of Church and State."
"The New York Times," April 11, 1919, published the following special
cable despatch concerning the religious persecution:
"London, April 10.--The Chronicle publishes an article by R.
Courtier Foster, a British Chaplain at Odessa and Russian ports of
the Black Sea, describing the religious persecution practised by
the Bolsheviki following upon their former capture of Odessa. He
says:
"'Committees were held on board the ships of the Black Sea Fleet,
among the dockers in the port, in the towns and villages on every
hand, which passed resolutions reading:
"'"We abolish God." In Odessa Cathedral, when the Archbishop of
Kherson was celebrating the Holy Mysteries, an uproar occurred with
cries of "Down with the priests!" "Down with the Church!" At a fete
in the town gardens one saw a soldier of the Red Army, amid the
guffaws of his fellows, spit on the Russian holy picture of the
face of Christ, then tear it into fragments and stamp it into the
dust.
"'The Bolshevist conception of religious toleration is considerably
more elastic and far-reaching than the ideas of any mediaeval
inquisition. In this matter the Bolsheviki pride themselves on
being far in advance of our effete western thought. They have
murdered Vladimir, the Metropolitan of Kiev, twenty bishops, and
many hundreds of priests. Before killing them they cut off the
limbs of their victims, some of whom they buried alive in the
Kremlin. The Cathedrals in Moscow and those in the towns of
Yaroslav and Simferopol have been sacked. Many nuns were violated
and churches defiled.
"'The ancient and historical sacristies and famous libraries of
Moscow and Petrograd were pillaged and countless sanctuaries
profaned. In Cronstadt Cathedral the great figure of the Crucified
Christ was torn down and removed, and a monstrous and appalling
pagan form placed in its stead, symbolizing "Freedom of Mind."
"'It is not against any one particular form of religion that the
terrors of the new Freedom are hurled. Orthodox, Roman Catholics
and Lutherans alike have been tortured, mutilated, and done to
death under the aegis of the Holy Revolution which appeals to the
proletariat of the whole world to join its forces.
"'The Revolutionary Government is subjecting the Christian religion
to persecutions as great and brutal as anything the world saw
during the first three centuries of the Christian era. Moral
disintegration and ruin spread their tentacles on every side. Any
restraint on sinful impulse or covetous desire is laughed to scorn.
The Bolsheviki publicly encourage outrage and looting. The
propaganda for freedom of mind is essentially nihilistic. It is
based on negation and denial of the existence of God, denial of the
authority of any moral law, denial of all rights of conscience,
denial of all religious liberty, denial of all freedom of the
press, denial of any liberty of speech.
"'One officer remarked despairingly to me: "In Russia now there is
no God, no Czar, no law, no property, no money, no food--only
freedom." And in that travesty of liberty, which the whole
civilized world may well shudder at, all mercy, pity and toleration
are alike scorned. And it is this new and wonderful equality of man
which by means of torture, outrage and assassinations proclaims the
"freedom of mind and body" to the devastated Russian nation.'"
In an Associated Press despatch, from London, that appeared in "The New
York Times" on April 19, 1919, we are informed that of the 300 priests
in the Perm diocese, 46 have been killed; moreover, that two monasteries
were pillaged.
A very interesting and enlightening article on religion in Russia and
the attitude of the Bolsheviki towards it appears in "The Proletarian,"
Detroit, April, 1919. The author is Ernest Greenburg and we shall quote
the greater part of his article:
"The resolution adopted by the Socialist Party of Michigan at its
recent State Convention that, 'It shall be the duty of all
agitators and organizers upon all occasions to avail themselves of
the opportunity of explaining religion,' caused a storm of
indignation to arise among certain 'Socialists.' Clinging to the
old fallacy that religion should be left alone, they point to the
Russian Constitution and the works of the Bolshevik leaders who say
'Religion is a private matter.' But they fail to understand that
the interpretation of the term 'Religion is a private matter,' has
a different meaning here than it has in Russia.
"The slogan, 'Religion is a private matter,' is not of Russian
origin. It has been and is one of the battle cries of the
Revolutionary working class in all countries in which the Church
and the State are combined. Different conditions account for
different understandings of the terms 'Private Matter' here and in
Russia.
"Probably in no other country have religion and the church played
such an important role in the affairs of the state as in Russia up
to the very present time. Truly, it was not so much the force of
arms as that of ignorance which kept up the Czardom for hundreds of
years. The Feudal aristocracy realized the advantages to be derived
from keeping the minds of its slaves in darkness and superstition.
One of the most powerful weapons in the hands of aristocracy was
the Church, whose noble duty it was to sow and to propagate
ignorance. The Church was officially a part of the state. People
were forced to go to church; school children[10] were taught the
'Holy Law of God,' attacks against the church were punished as
attacks against the Czar.
"Religious ignorance of the masses was the greatest enemy of the
Socialists in their propaganda work; at every step they had to meet
and to combat the authority of God, in whose name the church
servants consecrated the yoke of the Czar and the landlords. It was
necessary to pull this poisonous tooth out of the jaws of the
state. Hence came the demand: 'Religion is a private
matter,'--private as opposed to state. It meant that the Church
should be separated from the state and be deprived from its
protection. It was a demand which, put to the Czarist government,
if granted would only facilitate the struggle against this very
religion.
"Similar demands have been put in the Socialist platforms of
Germany, Austria, and other countries which were confronted with
conditions like those in Russia. One of the immediate demands of
the French revolutionists of the nineteenth century was of this
nature.
"The November Revolution put the Russian workers in possession of
the machinery of the church. As a weapon of ignorance, it could not
be used against the exploiters; nor could it be destroyed by force.
Then the Russian workers declared religion a private matter,
thereby depriving it of State protection and forcing it under the
blows of scientific criticism, which will rapidly do away with the
reminders of the decrepit superstitions.
"In America religion always was 'a private matter.' It had never
been officially related to the state, but just the same it is now
being employed by the ruling class against the workers. If it is
not yet as influential here as it was in Russia during the reign of
the Czars--it is becoming so. Its destructive work cannot be
neglected any longer. It must be fought....
"German Socialists understand that by destroying the holy alliance
between the Church and the State their task would not be completed.
After that 'We must wage unrelenting war against the Church,' says
Bebel, 'because she foments civil war among the workers--because it
is the only reactionary force which has any strength and which
keeps us in voluntary slavery.'
"By separating the Church from the State and thereby enforcing
their demand, 'Religion is a private matter,' the French Socialists
were not yet satisfied. They went on fighting religion, and their
Belgian comrades worked in accord with them. Says E. Vandervelde,
'We are bound to admit that both in philosophy and in politics
there must be war between Socialism and the Church.'
"This attitude of the French and Belgian Socialists was approved by
the international Congress at Amsterdam, 1904.
"The position of the Russian Socialists is very clear. They fully
understand that 'Religion is a private matter' signifies only the
first stage in the war against mental slavery. 'Religion is a
private matter,' says N. Boucharin (The Church and the School),
'but it does not mean that we must not fight it by persuasion.'
Further on he emphasizes that it is a 'private matter' only as
much as forceful protection or forceful destruction is concerned.
Beyond the gates of the State's protection, religion is not
considered to be a private matter in Russia. It is fought there in
schools and educational institutions by 'Propaganda, explanation
and education.'
"In this question American Socialists must not be misled by the
seeming contradiction in terms."
In the April 19, 1919, number of "Struggling Russia," Dioneo gives some
interesting information relative to the destruction of education under
the Bolshevist regime:
"The lower and secondary schools are ruined. The villages have
their Soviets, their premises for meetings, but no lower schools.
As regards secondary schools, the Bolshevist reformers are of the
opinion that, in general, such institutions are not wanted and are
just as unnecessary as the intermediate stage between nascent
capitalism and the extreme form of communism.
"The Bolsheviki have only acknowledged the universities. At first,
the reformers made such experiments on the latter as, for instance,
the appointment of a porter to the post of inspector of the
Technological institute, or of a cook as head-mistress of the
Higher Courses for Girls. Then the Bolsheviki decided that no
certificates were necessary for matriculation at the university.
Any half-educated person might become a student of any faculty. The
professors were at a loss to know how to lecture on higher
mathematics to students ignorant of the multiplication table, or
how to explain spectral analysis to persons hardly able to read.
Then the Bolsheviki decided that there was no necessity for the
professor to have a diploma either. It was only necessary that he
should be a supporter of the Bolshevist platform. That is all! And
celebrated Professors were obliged to leave the universities which
they had made famous....
"National education--elementary, secondary, and higher--has been
completely ruined by the Bolsheviki. Lately, they have apparently
decided that Bolshevism ought to give the world a new type of
university, quite different from that of the bourgeoisie. And with
that in mind, the Municipal Council of Voronezh has thought of a
'Street University.' This is how the 'Izvestia' describes this
curious institution of higher education: 'Each of the principal
thoroughfares of Voronezh is now a faculty--of law, economics,
history, literature, science, etc. The walls of the houses are
placarded with posters, containing portraits and brief biographies
of men distinguished in one or another branch of knowledge and
brief items of information concerning the respective subject.'
Thus comments the organ of the Bolshevist Government: 'Every
citizen, instead of spending years at a university, can pick up a
general knowledge of the principal educational subjects as he goes
along.' ...
"Russia's school system is ruined. Education reforms exist only on
paper. And at the same time the Bolsheviki, wishing to show that
they value knowledge very highly, have announced that a
geographical university such as the world has 'never yet seen' is
going to be opened in Petrograd. It is interesting to know what
professors will lecture in this new university, and who will form
their audience?"
CHAPTER XI
RUSSIA RED WITH BLOOD AND BLACK WITH CRIME
Socialists have for many years boasted of the perfect peace and harmony
which would prevail when once they had established their state.
Bloodshed, civil discord and strife of every kind would cease when the
Marxian workers ruled the land, for, as they said, privately owned
property, and exploitation of workers are the source of wars and the
fundamental cause of the oppression of the people. Bolshevist Russia,
however, the first Socialist country, appears to be an exception.
Perhaps no nation has ever witnessed such scenes of violence, bloodshed,
murder and cruelty, perpetrated by a government, not against a foreign
foe, but against its own people, and this not after an existence of a
hundred or several hundred years, but constantly from its very birth. So
far only a few pages, comparatively speaking, of the history of the
terrible outrages are opened to us, but from these we can form some
slight idea of the dreadful condition of the land that is truly red, but
red principally from the rivers of blood that flow in abundance over
every section of the country.
The "Izvestia," an official Bolshevist publication, on October 19, 1918,
published the following news item under the heading, "The Conference of
the Extraordinary Commission:"
"Comrade Baky threw light on the work of the District Commission of
Petrograd after the departure of the All-Russian Extraordinary
Commission for Moscow. The total number of people arrested by the
Extraordinary Commission amounted to 6,220. Eight hundred people were
shot."
The "Northern Commune," another official Bolshevist publication, in its
issue of September 10, 1918, stated:
"In the whole of the Jaroslavl Government a strict registration of
the bourgeoisie and its partisans has been organized. Manifestly
anti-Soviet elements are being shot; suspected persons are being
interned in concentration camps; non-working sections of the
population are being subjected to compulsory labor."
The same edition of the "Northern Commune" publishes the following
despatch:
"Tver, Sept. 9.--The Extraordinary Commission has arrested and sent
to concentration camps over 130 hostages from among the
bourgeoisie. The prisoners include members of the Cadet Party,
Socialists-Revolutionists of the Right, former officers, well known
members of the propertied class and policemen."
From the September 18, 1918, edition of the "Northern Commune" we learn
that in Perm, in retaliation for the assassination of Uritzky and for
the attempt on Lenine, fifty hostages from among the bourgeois classes
and the White Guards were shot.
"Struggling Russia," March 22, 1919, supplies us with other details of
Bolshevist rifle rule:
"We know a great deal about the terror in Petrograd, and
considerably less about Moscow. The reason is plain. We find the
curtain dropped on the activities of the All-Russian Extraordinary
Commission which had its seat in Moscow. In a report of the meeting
of the Executive Committee of the Moscow Soviet, which took place
on October 16, we read:
"'The report of the work of the All-Russian Extraordinary
Commission was read at a secret session of the Executive Committee.
But the report and the discussion of it were held behind closed
doors and will not be published.' ['Izvestia,' October 17, 1918.]
"The kind of decisions adopted by the Moscow Bolsheviki behind
closed doors and the mass terror practised in Moscow and all over
Russia under the direction of the All-Russian Extraordinary
Commission are well illustrated by Eugene Trupp, a prominent
Socialist-Revolutionist and a member of the All-Russian Constituent
Assembly, who wrote the following in the Socialist-Revolutionary
daily, 'Zemlia i Volia' (Land and Freedom) of October 3, 1918:
"'After the murder of Uritzky in Petrograd, 1,500 people were
arrested; 512, including 10 Socialists-Revolutionists, were shot.
At the same time 800 people were arrested in Moscow. It is unknown,
however, how many of these were shot. In Nizhni-Novgorod, 41 were
shot; in Yaroslavl, 13; in Astrakhan, 12 Socialists-Revolutionists;
in Sarapool, a member of the Central Committee of the Party of
Socialists-Revolutionists, I. I. Teterkin; in Penza, about 40
officers; in Kooznetzk people are daily shot in masses; all this is
only a drop in the ocean. I have no exact information as to the
number of people shot in other cities.' ...
"'Despite all these and other outrages, a demonstration of Red
Guards took place in Moscow on September 6. Their main demands were
"deeds for words" and "relentless red terror in the fight against
the bourgeoisie." ...
"'The last days of my stay Moscow and Soviet-Russia in general were
filled with red terror. A gray, silent and dejected crowd, with
pale, terrified faces and eyes full of excitement, was moving along
the streets. "Such or such people have been arrested today." "This
or that number has been shot." "Do not sleep at home, they are
looking for you." "You are still alive?" "Why do you not go away
from here?" were expressions hastily exchanged.
"'No conversations were heard; only silent whispering in corners.
All were trembling. All were filled with horror of the wild terror.
Spies were all over. At the proper places you could see their
familiar figures.
"'These spies sneak about the stations, mingling with the crowds of
Red Guards, in the trains, and in all dirty, warm corners always
pushing forward. While traveling you feel that if your face or
perhaps your attire, or your opinion, carelessly uttered, will not
please them, you may be held up at any moment. You feel that every
passenger is hiding something in himself. Keep silent; we will
talk later when we have passed the spying cordons.'"
In the September 18, 1918, evening issue of the "Northern Commune,"
there is a report of a meeting of the Soviet of the First District of
Petrograd. After a report made by Kharitonoff, who emphasized the
necessity of suppressing the bourgeois press, and after speeches by
other members, the following resolution was passed:
"The meeting welcomes the fact that mass terror is being used
against the White Guards and higher bourgeois classes, and declares
that every attempt on the life of our leaders will be answered by
the proletariat by the shooting down not only of hundreds, as the
case is now, but of thousands of White Guards, bankers,
manufacturers, Cadets (Constitutional Democrats) and
Socialists-Revolutionists of the Right."
We are indebted to "Struggling Russia," March 29, 1919, for the
following information as regards the Red rule of Lenine and the shooting
of children:
"The following quotation from a speech of one of the most active
Bolshevist leaders, Zinoviev, printed in the 'Northern Commune' of
September 19, 1918, fully expresses the spirit of the Bolshevist
terrorism:
"'To overcome our enemies we must have our own Socialist
Militarism. We must win over to our side 90 millions out of the 100
millions of population of Russia under the Soviets. As for the
rest, we have nothing to say to them; they must be annihilated.'
"The program of annihilating ten million of the opponents of
Bolshevism in Russia (Mr. Zinoviev has considerably underestimated
their number) began to be executed by the Bolsheviki from the first
moment of their coming into power. In the beginning of March, 1918,
they held mass executions in Rostov-on-the-Don, killing, among
others, many youths. The Moscow 'Russkiya Viedomosti' (Russian
News) in its issue of March 23, 1918, reported that the president
of the Rostov Municipal Council and the Chairman of the Don
Committee of the Russian Social-Democratic Party, B. C. Vasiliev,
the mayor of the city, P. Petrenko, the former Chairman of the
Rostov-Nakhichevan Council of Workingmen's and Soldiers' Delegates,
P. Melnikov, and even M. Smirnov, at that time Chairman of the
Council, have handed in a petition to the Bolshevist
War-Revolutionary Council asking them to shoot them 'instead of the
innocent children who are executed without law and justice.' A
group of women, horrified by what was going on, also asked that
they be shot instead of the children. In their petition they wrote
as follows:
"'If, according to you, there is need of sacrifices in blood and
life in order to establish a Socialistic state and to create new
ways of life, take our lives, kill us, grown mothers and fathers,
but let our children live. They have not yet had a chance to live;
they are only growing and developing. Do not destroy young lives.
Take our lives and our blood as ransom....
"'We, mothers, have served the country by giving our sons, husbands
and brothers. Pray, take our last possession, our lives, but spare
our children. Call us, one after the other, for execution, when our
children are to be shot! Every one of us would gladly die in order
to save the life of her children or that of other children.
"'Citizens, members of the War Revolutionary Council, listen to the
cries of the mothers. We cannot be kept silent!'"
Charles Dumas, a French Socialist, on his return to France from Russia,
wrote a book in which he warns his fellow-comrades on the dangers of
Bolshevism, and among other things he says:
"Upon my arrival in Petrograd I wanted, first of all, to meet three
of my old Russian friends, but soon learned that my searches were
in vain. Two of the poor fellows had lost their minds and the third
had cut his own throat with a razor....
"The Sebastopol horrors of March, 1918, when the sailors of the
port, inflamed to a high pitch of bestiality by the Bolshevist
press decided to kill all the inhabitants of the principal streets,
not sparing even children above the age of five, are still so fresh
in your minds that I need not remind you of them....
"On March 18, 1918, the peasants of an adjoining village organized,
in collusion with the Bolsheviki, a veritable St. Bartholomew night
in the city of Kuklovo. About 500 bodies of the victims were found
afterwards, most of them 'intellectuals.' All residences and stores
were plundered and destroyed, the Jews being among the worst
sufferers. Entire families were wiped out, and for three days the
Bolsheviki would not permit the burial of the dead.
"In May, 1918, the city of Korocha was the scene of a horrible
massacre. Thirty officers, four priests, and 300 citizens were
killed. The Peoples' Commissaries and the Soviets have, upon more
than one occasion, made admissions that these horrors were part of
their program. At the Congress of the Soviets the chairman of the
Central Committee of the Soviets, Sverdlov, said: 'We invoke the
Soviets not to relent, but to fortify the Terror, no matter how
terrible it may be and what dimensions it may assume.'"
An Associated Press despatch, dated Omsk, April 5, 1919, stated that the
Bolsheviki had murdered 2,000 at or near Osa:
"Indisputable evidence of the massacre by the Bolsheviki of more
than 2,000 civilians in and near the town of Osa has been obtained
by Messrs. Simmonds and Emerson and Dr. Rudolph Teusler of the
American Red Cross, who have just returned from reoccupied Russian
territory. Approximately 500 persons were killed at Osa and 1,500
in the surrounding districts."
The same despatch shows the excessive cruelty of Lenine's gang of
blood-thirsty Reds:
"A blacksmith was shot because he could not pay 5,000 rubles. A man
was shot because he lived in a brick house. All attorneys and
jurists and doctors whose services were not required were killed. A
woman was compelled to fetch a lamp and gaze upon her murdered sons
for the amusement of the slayers.
"The Soviet called a meeting and prepared lists of those to die.
The houses prescribed were visited by squads, the doors were
smashed in, the victims dragged to the edge of the town and forced
to dig their own graves. A survivor testified that he had seen men
thrown into a pit and buried alive. Priests were hunted
unmercifully. The evidence showed that men were slain whose only
offense was that they worked as sextons or caretakers of churches.
In the Perm district everything of value was stolen from the
churches, the monastery was looted and several priests were
murdered."
According to two more Associated Press despatches, even women and
children were not excepted by the Bolsheviki who have been so much
extolled by our American Socialists and recognized as their brethren:
"Stockholm, April 17, 1919.--The Bolsheviki are carrying out a
rapid and systematic annihilation of all the bourgeois elements in
Riga, according to reports from Libau to 'Svenska Dagblast.' The
victims of the Bolsheviki terror are taken to the Island of Hasen,
in the Dvina river, and are said to number 70,000, including women
and children. No one is permitted to take food or money to the
island."
"London, April 17, 1919.--Eighteen hundred persons, including 400
women, were murdered by the Bolsheviki at Ufa, according to a
dispatch from Omsk, received in official quarters here."
The "Northern Commune" published the following report in which the
horrors of the Bolsheviki prisons were described by the Bolsheviki
themselves:
"The presiding officers of the Soviet of the Viborg district
decided to send a delegation to the prisons of that district when
they heard that terrible scenes were occurring there. The prisoners
were starving. Many of them who had been held eight months had not
yet been tried, for the Commission entrusted with the investigation
of their cases had not yet been in session.
"The delegation consisted of Dr. Petropavlovsky, the Military
Commissionary, Vasilyevsky, and the President of the Soviet,
Frilisser. The latter handed in the following report: 'Comrades,
what we saw and heard in visiting the prisons of the Viborg
district cannot be described....
"'The cells are repulsively dirty. There is neither clean linen nor
pillows. The prisoners are being punished for the least offence.
"'But what is most terrible is the scene we witnessed in the prison
hospital.
"'Comrades! We found there no people! We found there living ghosts
who had no strength to talk, for they were starving.
"'When somebody dies, the corpse remains for several hours with its
living neighbors, who say: "That is nothing. We shall all soon die
of hunger."'"
"Dyelo Naroda," in its issue of April 26, 1918, thus describes the
cruelties of the barbarous Bolshevists:
"In Kirensk County the people's tribunal ordered a woman found
guilty of extracting brandy, to be enclosed in a bag and repeatedly
knocked against the ground until dead.
"In the Province of Tver the people's tribunal had sentenced a
young fellow to freeze to death for theft. In a rigid frost he was
led out, clad only in a shirt, and water was poured on him until he
turned into a piece of ice. Out of pity somebody cut his tortures
short by shooting him."
The British High Commissioner, R. H. Bruce-Lockhart, in his telegram to
the British Foreign Office, November 10, 1918, thus describes one of the
methods of torture and the taking of hostages as practiced by the
followers of the "gentle" Lenine:
"The Bolsheviki have restored the barbarous methods of torture. The
examination of prisoners frequently takes place with a revolver at
the unfortunate prisoner's head.
"The Bolsheviki have established the odious practice of taking
hostages. Still worse, they have struck at their political
opponents through their woman folk. When recently a long list of
hostages was published in Petrograd, the Bolsheviki seized the
wives of those men whom they could not find and threw them into
prison until their husbands should give themselves up."
When the Bolsheviki were forced to evacuate Riga, in May, 1919, they
left behind them in the [**] prisons 1,600 hostages who were found to be
in a state of unspeakable misery and starvation.
An Associated Press despatch of March 22, 1919, states that "a Russian
girl of 19 years, who, in December, 1918, had been charged with
espionage, was tortured by being pierced thirteen times in the same
wound with a bayonet. She lived, however, and made an affidavit to these
details."
The same dispatch states that "an examination of dead bodies of persons
alleged to have been killed by the Bolsheviki in the Perm district,
shows a preponderance of bayonet wounds in the back, but in other
instances mouths were slit, fingers and hands cut off, and the heads of
the victims smashed."
"Struggling Russia," in its issue of April 5, 1919, informs us that
"officers have come out of Petrograd prisons with their nails torn off,
and that prisoners after having been fed on herrings were given nothing
to drink for two or three days."
A dispatch from Warsaw, dated April 10, 1919, stated that fugitives from
Russia were pouring into that city, each of them bringing fresh tales of
Bolsheviki horrors. The people in Russia, it was said, were being shot
on the least provocation. For instance, men who remained in bed during
the cold weather to keep warm because they had no fuel were accused of
"discontent" and dragged into the streets and shot. Dead bodies, it was
claimed, were left lying in the streets in heaps.
In order to maintain their popularity with the workingmen and with their
hired mercenaries, the Bolsheviki paid their supporters enormous wages
by means of an unchecked paper issue. In fact they have turned out so
many tons of paper money, without financial guarantees of any sort, that
today in Russia money has lost practically all its value.
"Struggling Russia," March 22, 1919, publishes an appeal issued in
Petrograd and signed by the following organizations: Committee for the
Defence of Freedom of the Press; Central Committee of the Russian Social
Democratic Labor Party; Central Committee of the Party of
Socialists-Revolutionists; Central Committee of the Councils of Peasant
Deputies and the Union of Workmen-Printers. Among other things the
appeal says:
"Civil war has inflamed the whole country. Cities are being
destroyed. The war of brother against brother is consuming the
strength of our revolutionary democracy. The cannons, secured to
guard the conquests of our revolution, shatter monuments, homes,
and shrines of art. The cities of Russia fall at the hands of her
own citizens....
"The nation is being driven towards ruin. The people are deprived
of all liberties won by the revolution."
The April 26, 1919, issue of "Struggling Russia," under the caption,
"City of the Dead," describes the deplorable condition of Petrograd as
follows:
"Vladimir Bourtzev published in his paper, 'Obscherye Dyelo,' (The
Common Cause), appearing in Paris, an interview with a well known
pedagogist and journalist, C. L. Avaliani, who recently arrived
from Petrograd. Mr. Avaliani lived in Petrograd during the bright,
early days of the revolution and has also witnessed the tragic
period of the Bolshevist rule:
"'That Petrograd that used to draw to itself the leading social and
scientific forces is no more. That living spring that sent upward a
spray of rainbow hues and colors has gradually died out and is now
finally extinct.
"'There is no scientific activity, no research work, no literary or
artistic life. All is leveled down and compressed under one
Bolshevist lid. The only burning question is the problem of food.
The only blessed object of Bolshevist providence is the remaining
bourgeois element, the only axis around which all their creative
experiments revolve. On the one hand, those who toil,--and on the
other the "parasites," and to the latter class all the members of
the liberal professions, all the literateurs, the lawyers and the
clergy were assigned. The sympathizers and upholders of the "rule
of the Soviets" get a food ticket; all the others are sentenced to
starvation.
"'It is a rule that rests solely on bayonets! There is no popular
confidence, no social support. It is all regarded as superfluous
and a "burgeois" prejudice. The sole means of enlightenment and
conviction are the bayonet and machine gun....
"'A real Kingdom of the Dead! Petrograd is empty. Many have been
summarily shot, but still more have died from exhaustion and
disease, and some have fled. From a population of three million
only 976,000 remain.'"
"Struggling Russia," on April 5, 1919, published a detailed list of 76
places or districts in which there were uprisings against the Bolsheviki
in the year 1918. In the year 1919 the revolutionary outbreaks seem to
have become far more numerous.
Evidence as to the criminal nature of Russian Bolshevism was supplied by
the Rev. Dr. George S. Simons, who, in February, 1919, testified before
the Senatorial Committee as to his personal knowledge of the matter:
"There is a large criminal element in the Bolshevist regime. The
fact that the criminal has a big part in the movement is proven by
the destruction in a public bonfire of court records, the
destruction of prisons and the liberation of all criminals who are
sympathetic with the cause. We know it to be a fact that some of
the worst criminal characters in all Russia hold positions under
the Bolshevist Government, while others are helping as agitators."
A press dispatch dated Warsaw, April 10, 1919, states that it has been
decided by the Bolsheviki regime that control of desire of impulse, even
when self-imposed, is against the freedom of man, that as a consequence
unbelievable orgies and indecencies take place, and that all restraint
is at an end. The despatch states, futhermore[11], that the aristocrats
remaining in Russia have lost all will and energy. They accept
degradation or death with complete fatalism and do not even try to save
their wives and daughters.
The deplorable condition of that part of Russia under Bolshevist rule
was described in the Declaration adopted by the Socialist groups in Omsk
on February 23, 1919. The Declaration says in part:
"The main prop of an agricultural country such as Russia
principally is, the peasant population, is pauperized, starving and
is being driven under the banners of the Red Armies by lash and
rifle. The numerically small class of intellectuals is being shot
down and exterminated. The cities have been handed over to the
pillage and rule of Red Army troops. The prisons are overcrowded.
The enemies of the people have carried out their destructive
program to the very end, and given the people, in place of bread,
peace and freedom--a new inter-Russian war, the complete exhaustion
of all the productive forces of the land, economic, industrial and
railroad desolation, unemployment, a terrorizing reign of disorder
and a lapse into barbarity."
The Council of the All-Siberian Co-operative Assemblies, in a
Declaration brought to this country by C. A. Kovalsky, a prominent
Russian writer and a member of the Party of Socialists-Revolutionists,
says:
"The All-Siberian Co-operative Movement--as the expression of the
unity of the creative democratic elements--strives for the
rehabilitation of the destroyed statehood of Russia....
"The immediate aims of our political activities must be--the
support of the existing Omsk Government, which has proclaimed
itself a democratic rule; the steering of its political course into
democratic channels; the struggle with anti-democratic influences
from the Right as well as with the destructive forces from the
left; the strengthening of the ties between the rear and the
fighting front, and the support of the army as the cultural force
which is reconquering the violated rights of the people to the
formation of a democratic state."
The Russian Co-operative Unions, having a membership of over 20,000,000,
and representing the strongest economic organization in Russia, reaching
every little town and village, announced through its representatives in
New York, on May 20, 1919, its opposition to the Lenine regime and its
support of the Provisional Russian Government at Omsk, Siberia, headed
by Admiral Kolchak:
"When Russia fell under the Bolshevist Soviet rule, the
representatives of the Co-operative Organizations, at the
All-Russian Co-operative Congress in Moscow, April 18 to 24, 1918,
rejected the principles and the methods of the Bolsheviki and
declared the Brest-Litovsk Treaty, concluded by the Soviet
authorities with the Austro-German, dishonorable and ruinous for
Russia. In these terrible and trying times of bloody rule that our
suffering and worn-out country is passing through, the Co-operative
Organizations of Siberia and North Russia serve as a unifying link
for all the honest, healthy and State-preserving elements of the
Russian democracy.
"The All-Siberian United Co-operatives are fully cognizant of the
abnormal conditions in which the territories liberated from the
Bolsheviki--the Ural, Siberia and the North Russian Provinces--find
themselves, where in pain and anguish a new Russian Statehood is
arising. Nevertheless, considering the unusual difficulties
connected with the work of rebuilding and re-establishing legality
and order in a land overburdened financially and economically,
ravaged by civil war and hunger, and with a popular psychology
corrupted by Bolshevism, the United Co-operatives recognize and
support, until the formation of a new, ultimate government through
the Constituent Assembly, the Provisional Russian Government formed
on Siberian territory and headed by Admiral Kolchak....
"We have, on our side, State wisdom, equity and justice. Our
adversaries oppose us with terror, violence and complete social and
economic ruin."
In the early part of the year 1919, the report reached America that the
Bolshevist authorities were nationalizing women. The Socialists of our
own country, who are far from being noted for their reliability and
truthfulness, have, of course, denied the charge, in order that the
Lenine regime, which they support and wish to see extended to our own
land, might not have its already terribly sullied name dishonored still
more. The Bolshevists are far from being saints, and a "few" of their
"shortcomings" have been pointed out in this chapter.
Certainly the Lenine Government is absolutely lax in matters
appertaining to sex relations. It has fully legalized free love, as we
learn from the No. 2 issue of the radical Los Angeles magazine, "More
Truth About Russia." This magazine, of course, defends the Bolshevists,
and on page 6 of the above-mentioned issue quotes several of the decrees
of the Lenine Government on the matter of marriage and divorce. Among
the decrees we read:
"Marriage is annulled by the petition of both parties or even one of
them." All that is necessary to annul a marriage is the expressed desire
of either party. The party is, of course, then free to marry again and
remain married till another partner is desired. Hence free love is
legalized. A government that legalizes free love may be expected to
nationalize those women who do not wish to marry or who are unable to
secure partners by the time they have reached a certain age.
"The Call," New York, April 2, 1919, on its editorial page reprinted an
apology of the English publication, "New Europe," which in a previous
issue had given as the authority for its charge of the nationalization
of women in Russia an article in the Soviet paper "Izvestija:"
"I have made particular inquiries among friends recently arrived from
Russia," says Dr. Harold Williams, "New Europe's" collaborator, "as to
the alleged nationalization of women, and they have all assured me
positively that they have never heard or read of such a decree."
Those "friends," whoever they were, were possibly Bolsheviki themselves,
and are not said to have denied that the women were nationalized, but
merely that they had never heard or read of the "decree." Lots of things
are enforced by authorities without decrees. The Bolshevist authorities
may have had no decrees for the murder of the many thousands of innocent
citizens whom they tortured and put to death.
Dr. Harold Williams states, moreover, that it is certain that "the
Central Bolshevist Government has issued no order of the kind" (i.e., of
nationalization), but he does not deny that in different places the
local Bolshevist authorities may have nationalized women.
Further on it is admitted that not the official national Soviet organ,
but the local Vladimir Soviet organ, "Izvestija," was the Bolshevist
paper which stated that the Bolshevists of Vladimir had nationalized
women.
The article in "New Europe," republished in "The Call," concludes with
these words:
"As this puts an entirely different complexion on the matter, and
as the Central Moscow Government cannot be held responsible for the
lucubrations of every local committee, we desire to withdraw
unreservedly the imputation and to express our regret for the
mistake."
This article in the March 13, 1919, issue of "New Europe," which thus
apologizes for the "mistake" that it claims it made in a previous issue,
has been quoted far and wide by American Socialists and other radicals
of our country. Yet witnesses who were questioned at the Senatorial
investigation at Washington, in February, 1919, attested to the
nationalization by the Bolshevists.
On February 7, 1919, the Orthodox Greek Archbishop of Omsk and other
clergy of the Russian Church sent a letter to Pope Benedict XV,
mentioning, with other crimes and abuses of the Bolshevists, the
socialization of women.
A press despatch dated Warsaw, April 10, 1919, stated the following
concerning the condition of women in Russia:
"The nationalization of women is becoming quite general. The
Bolsheviki have declared war on family life and consideration for
one another's mother or sister is forbidden. All must be treated
alike. The most terrible thing is that the women themselves have
accepted this nationalization and very little protest is made. This
applies to every class. In certain cases, however, a hitch has
occurred. Even Bolshevism cannot master human nature, and it has
been found that a masculine jealousy occasionally stands in a way.
Certain men have refused to nationalize a particular woman and as a
result Bolshevik has fought Bolshevik with considerable force."
An Associated Press despatch from London, April 15, 1919, gives lengthy
details regarding the nationalization of women, and even the opposition
offered to it:
"The law providing for the nationalization of women in Northeast
Russia has been suspended in one province as a result of popular
outcry, according to information reaching London today, from
Stockholm.
"The Commissary of Vladimir has, by decree, appointed a committee
of women, who are to inquire into operations of the law and make a
report with the least possible delay. His action has been approved
by the local Soviet.
"'The Krasnaya Gazeta' publishes an account of the results of
nationalization. The system provides that every girl on reaching
the age of eighteen must register her name in the Bureau of Free
Love, after which she is compelled to select a partner from among
men between the ages of 19 and 50 years old. The law led to
lamentable confusion, says the 'Gazeta,' in judicial notions as to
personal inviolability.
"A few days after the Soviet's decree, which women very generally
ignored, two men known to nobody, arrived in the town and seized
the two daughters of a well-known non-bourgeois comrade, declaring
they had chosen them as wives and that the girls without further
ceremony must submit, as they had not observed the registration
rule.
"Comrades Yablonovski and Guriakin, who sat as judges on the claim,
decided that the men were right, and the girls were carried off.
They have not been heard of since by the village folk.
"This, says the Gazeta, was done in the name of the nationalization
of women.
"Many other instances of the fantastic operation of the law, not to
speak of its inhumanities, are cited by the Gazeta. Enthusiasts for
nationalization, naturally all males, raid whole villages, seize
young girls, and demand proof that they are not over 18. As this
proof is difficult to give, many of the girls are carried off, and
there have been suicides and murders as a result.
"In the town of Kovrov, a campaign without parallel since the
Trojan war was waged between the vengeful relatives of an abducted
nationalized girl and her persecutors.
"In this town the 'register of nationalized women' was opened on
December 1, but up to February 1 last only two women, both over 40,
and neither of whom had ever been married, registered themselves as
willing to accept the first husband the state sent along.
"On the committee which is now to revise the nationalization decree
or to recommend its complete abrogation sits Mme. Vera Arkadieff, a
Bolshevist enthusiast, who commanded a detachment of women soldiers
during the recent operations against Admiral Kolchak's army at
Perm. She has been twice wounded."
"The Krasnaya Gazeta," translated, means the Red Gazette. It is a
Bolshevist newspaper published in Petrograd. The following "Special
Cable" to "The New York Times," dated Milan, April 24, 1919, published
April 26, 1919, gives a Bolshevist's explanation of the Russian sex
legislation:
"A Bolshevist statesman, from whom the 'Journal Epoca' obtained a
special interview respecting the Leninist legislation on the sex
problem, complains that a vast amount of grotesque
misrepresentation has appeared on the subject in the hostile or
unsympathetic press.
"'Abolition of celibacy has been adopted,' he stated, 'simply as a
means toward class equality. Every woman, on attaining her
eighteenth and every man on his twentieth year, is bound to
inscribe his or her name in a special register kept at the
Commissariat of Unions, and must then contract a union within the
period of six months. Should they fail to do so, they are served
with three warning notices at successive intervals of two months,
before any step is taken in the way of coercive measures. Every
bachelor and every spinster is bound to furnish a written
explanation of their irregular condition, and the only reasons
admitted as valid are serious ill-health or organic defects.
"'When two lovers wish to marry they present themselves to the
People's Commissary, who witnesses their marriage. The same course
is followed as regards separating, only that the Commissary, after
freeing the unhappy pair, inscribes the man afresh on the celibate
list and the woman on the register of marriageable persons,
notifying each of the obligation to find another partner within six
months. In case children have been born from their union, they are
either delivered to the custody of the particular parent desiring
them or else divided between them. The Commissariat of Unions aids
the youth of either sex in their quest of a mate by promoting all
healthy forms of social intercourse and facilitating introductions
among families of every type.'"
The above despatch was published in the April 26, 1919, issue of "The
New York Times."
On April 28, 1919, the following very apt comment was made on it and
appeared on the editorial page of the "New York Times":
"As explained by somebody whom a Milan paper calls a 'Bolshevist
statesman,' marriage as regulated by the great and good Lenine is
not at all the dreadful thing described recently by the mendacious
enemies of his Socialistic paradise. As pictured by his friends,
nothing worse has been done than to exert a gentle pressure on the
marriageable unmarried to the end that they may do their duty to
the Bolshevist State and provide it as soon as may be with new sons
and daughters to take the place of those recently 'removed' by a
benevolent terrorism.
"Bachelorhood and spinsterhood are to be regarded as
'irregular'--conditions that must be explained in writing to the
proper authorities. For the well disposed a simple civil marriage
ceremony is provided; also a simple divorce ceremony in case the
union proves wearisome. And that is all there is to the Bolshevist
marriage system, the statesman says.
"But one notices that he does not disclose what is done to those
who fail to find pleasing mates in the six months allowed after
notification for the making of a choice. Apparently it is then that
the so-called nationalization of women comes in, and the statesman
forgot to say a word about the only peculiarity of the system that
has evolved any serious criticism."
Commenting on Bolshevism, Mr. Eber Cole Byam, in the April 26, 1919,
issue of "America," very aptly says:
"As the Roman world was reduced to barbarism by the barbarians so
now the modern world is threatened with reduction to Bolshevism by
the Bolsheviki. Whatever the word Bolshevism may have meant
originally it has come to mean fiendish treatment of women, the
savage murder and mutilation of men and the wanton destruction of
the accumulated labors of generations. The Bolshevik is a
Socialist, not the armchair theorist dreaming fantastic fancies.
The Bolshevik is the real Socialist, the Socialist of practice."
The following encomium on Bolshevism appeared in "The Call," New York,
April 26, 1919, and shows what strange inclinations the Socialists have
towards barbarism:
"For the first time in Russia's history law has been established
based on the direct will of the population, established through the
most democratic franchise in the world. Under Czarism, law was
merely the promulgation of autocratic tyranny....
"For the first time in Russia's history, perfect freedom of
religion is guaranteed to Christian, Moslem and Jew alike. After
the American pattern, no church may control the state....
"For the first time, millions of Russian workers and peasants find
themselves with decent homes. For the first time, women have equal
social rights with men. For the first time, a real educational
system has been inaugurated for the children....
"The recent official American investigators sent to Russia found a
great change in the life of the cities from of old. They described
the life as puritanical. Russians explained the change to them by
the fact that vice and debauchery had been confined mostly to the
idle ruling class, the old aristocracy, and these things had passed
with the passing of that class."
Listen now to the words of the Russian Socialist author, Leonoid
Andreiev, who has seen quite enough of the "blessings" of Bolshevism.
They appear in the April 26, 1919, issue of "Struggling Russia," under
the caption, "S. O. S., An Appeal to Humanity":
"One must, indeed, be insane not to understand the palpable and
simple acts of Bolshevism! One must be sightless, stark-blind or
have eyes that see not, to fail to observe on the face of the great
mutilated Russia murder without end, ruins, miles of cemeteries,
dungeons and insane asylums; not to perceive what hunger and terror
have done to Petrograd, and, alas, to many other cities!
"One must be earless, stone-deaf, or have ears that hear not, to
remain callous to the sobs, the sighs and the wailing of women, the
heart-rending cries of the children, the death-rattle of strangled
men, the cracking of the assassins' rifles, the only music that has
filled the air of Russia for the last eighteen months!...
"As the wireless operator on a sinking vessel, in the thick
blackness of the night, sends out his last appeal, 'Help, quick, we
are sinking, save us!' so I, moved by my faith in the goodness of
man, am sending out into distance and darkness my prayer for my
people who are sinking.
"If you only knew how dark is the night around us, if my words
could only convey its density and depth! Whom am I calling? I know
not. Does the wireless operator know who may intercept his call?
For thousands of miles around the ocean may be deserted and not a
living soul may overhear his appeal.
"The night is dark. The sea is frightful. But the operator has not
lost his faith, and he calls persistently, to the very last minute,
until the last light is gone and his apparatus is silenced forever.
"What does he trust in? He trusts in humanity, and so do I. He
trusts in the law of human love and life. It is impossible that one
human being will deny help to another in his hour of perdition. It
is impossible that one human being will abandon another to perish
without attempting to help. It is impossible that such an appeal
for help will not receive any response!...
"Friend! I do not even attempt to tell you how frightful life is in
Russia at present, in our tormented Petrograd. Others have told
enough, and new words cannot be coined by the human tongue.
"It is frightful when children starve and perish, and assassins are
well-fed and Trotzky is pouring down his throat the last bottle of
milk. It is frightful when the cemeteries of Petrograd have no more
room for the dead, and the murderers have a free road not only to
the Princess Islands, but to all the ends of the world, and the
wealth they have stolen will enable them to live in balmy lands and
in the most attractive corners of our mercenary globe."
Catherine Breshkovsky, the Socialist "Grandmother of the Russian
Revolution," though now an aged woman, lived long enough to bewail the
fate of her country. Speaking of her native land, now reaping the
harvest from the Marxian seed first sown many years ago, she says in her
"Message to the American People":
"Flooded with tears and blood, Russia moans and cries out to the
world. She is a living body, and her tortures cannot be looked upon
cold-bloodedly as an extraordinary, never-before-witnessed
experiments in social evolution. She is alive and every pore of her
body is shedding blood."
Let the "scientific" American Socialists continue to take their
information from "The Call." They are far too learned to be deceived by
Russians such as Andreiev or the "Grandmother of the Russian
Revolution." "The capitalist press is lying about the conditions in
Russia." "The Call" alone speaks the truth, for it is a proletarian
sheet.
Not satisfied with ruining his own country, Lenine would have Bolshevism
spread to all other nations. He longs for their workingmen to rise in
revolt against their present systems of government. Listen to his words
in his "Letter to American Workingmen," published by the Socialist
Publication Society, 431 Pulaski street, Brooklyn, New York:
"We know that it may take a long time before help can come from
you, Comrades, American Workingmen, for the development of the
revolution in the different countries proceeds along various paths,
with various rapidity (how could it be otherwise!) We know full
well that the outbreak of the European proletarian revolution may
take many weeks to come, quickly as it is ripening in these days.
We are counting on the inevitability of the international
revolution. But that does not mean that we count on its coming at
some definite date. We have experienced two great revolutions in
our own country, that of 1905 and that of 1917, and we know that
revolutions cannot come either at word of command nor according to
prearranged plans. We know that circumstances alone have pushed us,
the proletariat of Russia, forward, that we have reached this new
stage in the social life of the world not because of our
superiority but because of the peculiarly reactionary character of
Russia. But until the outbreak of the international revolution,
revolutions in individual countries may still meet with a number of
setbacks and serious overthrows....
"We are in a beleaguered fortress, so long as no other
international Socialist revolution comes to our assistance with its
armies. But these armies exist, they are stronger than ours, they
grow, they strive, they become more invincible the longer
imperialism, with its brutalities, continues. Workingmen the world
over are breaking with their betrayers, with their Gompers and
their Scheidemanns. Inevitably labor is approaching communistic
Bolshevistic tactics, is preparing for the proletarian revolution
that alone is capable of preserving culture and humanity from
destruction. We are invincible, for invincible is the Proletarian
Revolution."
The above words of the dictator Lenine may throw some light on the
Socialists' demand for "justice" to Russia, and their campaign in behalf
of the recognition of the Soviet Government of that country.
The Socialist Publication Society of Brooklyn at the end of the World
War issued a large pamphlet entitled, "One Year of Revolution,"
celebrating the first anniversary of the founding of the Russian Soviet
Republic. On the cover page, under the caption, "The Spirit of
Revolutionary Russia," and the subtitle, "To the Oppressed of All
Countries," we read the summons to a Socialist world-wide revolution:
"And this life and death struggle with our own oppressors gives us
the right to appeal to you, proletarians of all countries, with a
strong voice, with the voice of those who look into the eyes of
death in the revolt against the exploiters.
"Break the chains, you who are oppressed! Rise in revolt!
"We have nothing to lose but our chains!
"We believe in the victory of the revolution, we are full of this
belief.
"We know that our Comrades in the Revolution will fulfill their
duty on the barricades to the bitter end.
"We know that decisive moments are coming.
"A gigantic struggle will set the world afire. On the horizon the
fires of the revolt of all oppressed peoples are already glowing
and taking definite shape.
"At the moment that the waters of the Baltic will become red with
the blood of our Comrades, will close forever over their bodies, at
this moment we call upon you.
"Already in the clutch of death, we send our warm greetings and
appeal to you.
"Proletarians of the world, all, unite!
"Rise in revolt, you who are oppressed.
"All hail, the International Revolution!
"Long live Socialism!"
In the spring of 1919 reports reached the United States that the
Bolsheviki had been inciting our troops in the Archangel District of
Russia to disloyalty against our government. An Associated Press
dispatch, dated Vienna, April 24, 1919, shows how the Bolshevists
carried on their campaign in the Ukraine:
"The Bolsheviki penetrated the country in four sections. First came
agitators and next marauding bands to strike terror. These were
followed by larger bodies of troops, made up of foreign elements.
Last came Soviet troops, headed by Bolshevist commissioners. Iron
discipline was maintained by Chinese assassins, who executed all
soldiers who revolted against orders."
On May 26, 1919, the "New York Times" announced that a Bolshevist weekly
paper would be issued in that city:
"Nicholai Lenine, the Premier, and Leon Trotzky, the Minister of
War, together with other officials of the Russian Bolshevist
Government, will begin next Monday the publication in this city of
a sixteen page weekly newspaper, the purpose of which will be to
spread propaganda favorable to the Bolsheviki. This announcement is
made in today's issue of the propaganda sheet issued weekly from
the headquarters of Ludwig C. A. K. Martens, the unrecognized
'Bolshevist Ambassador' to the United States. The paper is to be
known as 'Soviet Russia.'"
"'Every friend of Russia, as well as every person interested in
international affairs,' says the announcement, 'will subscribe to
this weekly.' 'Soviet Russia' will contain news items, editorials,
original articles, and unpublished documents."
The American Socialist Party acknowledges the Bolshevist regime of
murder and starvation to be a Socialist regime and states that it
upholds the lofty, international proletarian ideals. Debs and the
American Socialist press, at the present writing, acknowledge the
Bolsheviki to be real Socialists, not reactionaries or Socialists merely
in name, like the Ebert-Scheidemann group in Germany. They want
Bolshevism in America. They welcome it, laud it, love it. At least this
is the case just now. Will they presently be offering arguments to prove
that the Bolshevists were not Socialists at all, but traitors to the
whole Marxian movement? Meantime the American Socialists spread all
kinds of lies about the "wonders" of the Soviet Government while
claiming that "the press" is lying about the Lenine system to save the
capitalists from the demands of the laboring class.
Let us sincerely hope that no more Bolshevists from Russia will land on
our shores. We have enough rebellious, hypocritical Reds here already,
and need no more of them to teach us how to run our government. Congress
should pass strict laws allowing no immigrants to land here who are
Bolshevists.
It is to be hoped, too, that the leaders of the Illinois Labor Party who
secured the adoption in their platform of a pro-Soviet plank in the
spring of 1919 will take a few hours off and learn something about the
Russian system before trying to "work it off" on our country.
There has been a great deal of "pussy-footing" talk in the American
press about Bolshevism and Socialism, implying that there is no
connection between the two. Yet Bolshevism is nothing but a form of
Socialism. It is Socialism applied, though not yet as completely applied
as the teachings of Karl Marx require. If an incomplete application of
the principles of Socialism reduces a country to such an awful condition
as Russia reveals, what may be expected from the full dose of Socialism?
At the last moment, with this book in type, a cry from the Bolshevik
dictatorship comes out of Russia through interviews given by Lenine and
Trotzky to the "New York World's" European correspondent, Lincoln Eyre.
"I had an hour's talk with Lenine in the Kremlin at Moscow," Eyre writes
in a dispatch headed, "Riga (by courier to Berlin), Feb. 20, 1920," and
printed in the "World" of February 21, 1920. Lenine turned the interview
into an argument for the lifting of the Allied blockade of Russia, and
gave more than a hint that Russia's economic condition is desperate.
According to Mr. Eyre's cable to the "New York World" of February 21,
1920, Lenine said, speaking in English:
"Russia's present economic distress is simply a part of the world's
economic distress. Until the economic problem is faced from a world
standpoint and not merely from the standpoint of certain nations or
groups of nations, a solution is impossible.... Not only Russia but
all Europe is going to pieces, and the [Allied] Supreme Council
still indulges in tergiversation. Russia can be saved from utter
ruin and Europe, too, but it must be done soon and quickly."
By insinuating that "all Europe is going to pieces" with Russia, and
faces the same "utter ruin," Lenine covers his plea for Russia under an
appeal to the self-interest of other nations. Yet his confession that
Russia is "going to pieces" and trembles on the brink of "utter ruin" is
plain enough, making his whole argument a cry to the "capitalistic"
nations to help Socialistic Russia. Indeed, in other parts of the same
interview, as reported by Mr. Eyre in the "World" of February 21, 1920,
Lenine appeals to "foreign capital" and the "capitalistic countries" in
the baldest terms, as follows:
"We have reiterated and reiterated our desire for peace, our need
for peace and our readiness to give foreign capital the most
generous concessions and guarantees.... I know of no reason why a
Socialistic commonwealth like ours cannot do business indefinitely
with capitalistic countries. We don't mind taking their
capitalistic locomotives and farming machinery, so why should they
mind taking our Socialistic wheat, flax and platinum?"
Having waded through blood and violence to exterminate "capitalism" and
cancel all "concessions" and "guarantees" in Russia, has "the
dictatorship of the proletariat" emerged out of its nightmare of
destruction simply to coax "foreign capital" back into Socialistic
Russia by bribing offers of "the most generous concessions and
guarantees?" After two years of a reign of terror to make an earthly
paradise by destroying "capitalism" and the whole machinery of
"capitalistic countries," this hungry reaching out by Lenine after
"capital" and "capitalistic" things is almost too ludicrous for belief!
Eyre's interview with Trotzky, sent from "Riga (by courier to Berlin,
Feb. 23)" and printed in the "New York World" of February 25, 1920,
simply reenforces Lenine's appeal to "foreign capital" and the wicked
"capitalistic countries." According to Eyre in the "World" of February
25, Trotzky spoke of "Russia, bankrupt, bleeding and starved," and said
in part:
"Our military successes have not blinded us to our need of peace.
We require peace for the re-establishment of economic
stabilization.... We have had to sacrifice the welfare of our
people and the health of future generations to the desperate needs
of the hour."
And for what? Apparently only to substitute the autocracy of a new
proletarian aristocracy for the autocracy of the old regime, and the
czardom of Lenine and Trotzky for that of the Romanoffs. And the new
tyranny not only re-establishes the old partnership between "capital"
and labor, but puts the burden of militarism on labor more exclusively
than before. This seems to be the program of Trotzky, "the People's
Commissary for Military Affairs," according to Eyre's report of
Trotzky's words in the "New York World" of February 25, 1920. His words
are as follows:
"We recognize our need for outside aid in setting this country on
its feet industrially and economically. It is a tremendous
enterprise, one that will take two, five, perhaps ten years to
carry out, but through the indomitable spirit of our proletariat it
will be accomplished with a speed and competency that will amaze
our foemen.... And once again I say that the people who help us
gain peace will share in the profits, the very considerable
profits, resultant from the aid they will have extended to us....
"Foreign capitalists who invest their money in Russian enterprises
or who supply us with merchandise we require will receive material
guarantees of amply adequate character. They need have no fears on
that score.... It is obvious that we must look to the victorious
nations, to Great Britain or, still better, to America for
machinery, agricultural tools and other imports which Russia's
economic renaissance demands."
Thus the old partnership of capital and labor is to be resumed. But what
of the Russian workers? Having fought and toiled to put Lenine and
Trotzky on the proletarian throne they must keep up military training to
keep them there, and must toil hard to produce "the very considerable
profits" which Lenine and Trotzky are going to share with the "foreign
capitalists" who help them. But let Trotzky explain the destiny of the
Russian workers in his own words, as reported by Eyre in the "World" of
February 25, 1920:
"The workers and peasants will insist, once the revolution is no
longer in peril, on returning to their factories and farms and
making Russia a fit land to live in. Frontier guards will be
maintained, of course. The framework of our (military) organization
must also be preserved in order that with the experience they have
received in the past eighteen months our proletarian fighting men
can be remodelled in two or three months if the need arises. There
will also be some form of military training for the working class,
that it may always be ready to defend itself against the
bourgeoisie."
Will not this be "militarism?" Of course not; for, in Trotzky's words in
the same interview, "Militarism, striking as it does at the very roots
of Communism, cannot possibly exist in Soviet Russia, the only truly
pacific country in the world!" Thus facts disappear behind words.
Conscription was militaristic under the Czar, but it cannot be under a
Trotzky, for he has labeled his system a Soviet Republic and since
Soviets are never military their military arrangements, though
apparently more severe than the other kind, are really only a form of
pacifism! Thus the happy Russian workers must serve as "frontier
guards," keep up the framework of their military organization, and
submit to "some form of military training," but may whistle as they
groan, knowing that the yoke they bear "cannot exist."
Other contradictions in these interviews will be discussed later in this
book. For example, we shall find, in Chapter XVI, that the Soviet
Republic at Moscow can make peace with "capitalistic countries" and form
partnerships with "foreign capital" while at the same time the Third
International at Moscow carries on a world-wide conspiracy to destroy
"capitalism" and overthrow the governments and institutions of
"capitalistic countries."
CHAPTER XII
EUROPEAN SPARTACIDES AND COMMUNISTS
In Berlin, shortly after the Revolution against the Imperial Government,
Karl Liebknecht, Rosa Luxemburg and their group of Socialists of the
extreme Left were raising a merry riot almost every day in the hope of
overcoming the ultra-conservative Socialist government and introducing
the radical Bolshevist program. The constant disorder occasioned by
these Spartacans or Spartacides of the Left provoked the opposition
parties very much, annoying them to such an extent that many Germans
wished to remove the capital of the country from Berlin to some more
orderly city.
The name "Spartacides" or "Spartacans" came from the fact that early in
the World War Karl Liebknecht, their leader, issued a number of anti-war
pamphlets bearing the pseudonym, "Spartacus."
The Spartacides are the reddest of the Reds, the real Socialists of
Germany. They differ very much from the Ebert-Scheidemann group, for the
Spartacans want the principles of Socialism applied immediately, whereas
Ebert and other members of his government warned their followers that
though they held Socialist theories, the application of Socialism must
be postponed to the distant future. The Ebert-Scheidemann Majority
Socialists are regarded by the others as Socialists only in name, being
really social reformers, or, at the most, weak-kneed Socialists who
sought power, but fully realized that the application of the Marxian
principles would be doomed to absolute failure. The Spartacans, however,
still have confidence in Socialism; they agree heart and soul with the
Russian Bolsheviki; they are the rowdies and ruffians of Germany, always
looking for trouble. Strikes, riots and civil discord are their weapons,
and the American Socialists are among their particular friends. Indeed,
the Socialist Party of Eugene V. Debs has no use whatever for the
Ebert-Scheidemann group, who are looked upon as reactionaries,
hypocrites, murderers and traitors to Socialism.
In the latter part of 1918, the Berlin correspondent of the "Koelnische
Zeitung" drew a graphic picture of the terrorism exercised in Berlin by
the Spartacan gangs:
"Dr. Liebknecht himself, whose imprisonment has obviously clouded
his formerly keen intelligence and probably turned his brain,
spends his time in visiting barracks in Berlin, Spandau and
elsewhere, and inciting the men to refuse to allow any distinctions
even of non-commissioned rank or to accept anything resembling
orders from officers or to admit them to the local councils. His
chief of staff, Dr. Levy, who before the war was his business
partner in his law office, is preaching fanaticism in Berlin to all
and sundry.
"The word Spartacus goes through the city like a bogy. Civilians,
soldiers, employees, capitalists, all feel themselves equally
threatened. A sitting of the Prussian Lower House had to be
adjourned because it was feared that the Spartacus gang was going
to seize the building.
"'The Lokal Anzeiger' has several times failed to appear, as the
result of repeated efforts of the Spartacus gang to seize it.
Careful burghers chain up the house doors, and it would be well if
the steadier elements of our workmen and soldiers would chain up
the door of their hearts against the murderous and suicidal ideas
of the Spartacus gang."
The Spartacides made a practice of terrorizing German newspapers into
supporting them. In the early part of 1919, they tried to prevent the
Constituent Assembly from coming together, and later on engineered many
a revolt in the various cities of Germany. Since their leaders, the
fiery Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg, were assassinated, the orderly
elements of the German people have succeeded more and more in weakening
the power and influence of the Spartacans.
Kurt Eisner, of Bavaria, after the overthrow of the German Imperial
Government, sought to establish a federation of German republics under
the head of Bavaria. It was not very long before the first step was
taken, Bavaria declaring itself a republic independent of the Berlin
Government. After the assassination of Eisner, Bavaria, and especially
its capital, Munich, came more and more under the control of the extreme
radical group of Socialists known as the Communists. About the end of
March, 1919, Bela Kun, the Foreign Minister of the newly established
Communist Government of Hungary and one of the most active propagandists
of Russian Bolshevism, arrived at Munich to confer with the leaders of
the Bavarian Government. Shortly afterwards, in the early part of
April, a Soviet Republic was proclaimed at Munich.
The socialization of industry began. That part of the press that favored
the new regime was upheld by the Government, which suppressed unfriendly
organs. Members of the Christian Textile Workers' Association were
forced, on pain of being deprived of work, to join the Social-Democratic
Union. Various other measures of "freedom, equality, and justice" were
also bestowed upon the people, and the hope was expressed by the Red
Socialists of Munich that the proclamation of a Bavarian Soviet would
have its effect throughout Germany and result in a world revolution.
Towards the middle of April, 1919, press dispatches stated that the
Munich Communists had elected a council, consisting of five workmen and
five soldiers, with Herr Klatz, a bricklayer, as president; that the
police was disarmed; that eleven hostages were taken from the ranks of
the trade-union leaders; that revolutionary tribunals were established
at Munich, where twenty-eight judges continued, in relays of seven, to
pass sentences day and night, and, finally, that a decree was issued by
the Communist government confiscating all dwellings.
Shortly after these reports reached America, the peasants of Bavaria
rose up against the revolutionary government in Munich and declared an
effective ban on the shipment of food to that city. No attacks were made
upon Munich by the troops of the moderate Hoffman government of Bavaria
which had been ousted by the Communists, for it was feared that the
whole country might thus be plunged into civil war. The only strategic
movement of these troops was to cut off the supplies of food.
Discord soon sprang up among the Soviet leaders themselves, who engaged
in open street fights against each other. Before the end of April, 1919,
the Central Council had been dissolved and the Communist mob had turned
to plundering. Food ration cards were taken away from the bourgeoisie,
and barricades were erected around the city to defend it from Noske's
army, sent to attack it by the Ebert-Scheidemann moderate Socialist
Government of Berlin. In the early part of May, 1919, the Communist
rabble of the Bavarian capital was finally overcome by the artillery
fire of Noske's troops, and Hoffman was once more put in control.
The American Socialists look upon the ousted Communists of Bavaria as
the upholders of the Marxian doctrine, and consider them, along with
the Russian Bolsheviki and the Hungarian Communists, as Socialist
brethren worthy of their respect and imitation.
In Hungary the "100 per cent" Socialists, the Communists, under the
leadership of Bela Kun, came into power in the early part of the year
1919. Press despatches, at the end of March, stated that all villas,
industries and building had been declared the property of the state;
that each factory was controlled by a Council of Laborers; that
free-love was legalized as in Russia; that all clergymen and nuns were
removed from the hospitals, excepting those who acted in the capacity of
nurses, and the religious, tuition schools were abolished.
A press dispatch dated Buda-Pest, April 4, 1919, said that "in
Transylvania, following the practice in Moscow, the churches have been
converted into music halls, the best seats being reserved for the
proletariat. The government officials do not pay house rent and have
priority on foodstuffs and clothing."
The American Socialists boasted about the absence of bloodshed in
Hungary during the early part of Bela Kun's regime. Whether or not he
had been cautioned by Lenine not to wear out too many rifles in the
beginning, lest there be a dearth later on, we do not know. At any rate,
by the latter part of May, 1919, the Hungarian Communists also began to
manifest their true color. They were not satisfied with "painting
everything red" in Buda-Pest, but also wanted to see red blood flowing
in the gutters. In confirmation of this we have the following Associated
Press report, dated Vienna, May 20, but not appearing in the "New York
Times" till May 23:
"Many persons accused of being counter-revolutionists are being
executed by the Hungarian Communists, according to despatches
received here. The victims are usually shot in front of the
Hungarian Parliament House in the daytime or in the school-yard in
the Markostrasse at night.
"Among those who are said to have been executed are Herr Holan,
manager of the Kaschau-Oderberg Railway; Bishop Balthasar, a
hostage from Debreczen, and Colonel Dormany of the General Staff,
who was taken from a hospital. Several girls, who were accused of
making tri-color rosettes for the counter-revolutionists, also were
executed. The presiding Judge of the Revolutionary tribunal, which
orders the executions, it is said, is a former locksmith, 22 years
of age.
"Many bodies of men and women and girls of the better classes have
been found on the shores of islands in the Danube below the city.
It is reported that they were arrested in the residential quarter
of Buda and thrown into the Danube by guards who were taking them
to prisons in Pest."
In the summer of 1919 the Hungarian Communists lost control of the
country. Not only had internal dissensions broken out at home, but they
had been attacked for a long time by the Rumanians, who had caused them
endless trouble. If they had succeeded in remaining in power long
enough, they would, no doubt, in time have shown themselves proficient
in murdering their fellow-countrymen and as skilled in the use of the
rifle as the Bolsheviki in Russia, the Spartacides in Germany and the
Communists in Bavaria. These four groups of European Socialists of the
extreme Left--ruffians, brutes, murderous thugs, half barbarous savages,
slayers even of their own Socialist brethren--have long been in a
"position" to teach the "gentle art" of plunder and murder to their
admiring comrades on this side of the Atlantic, that "poor,"
"persecuted," "workingman," Eugene V. Debs, and his crowd of "honest,"
"scientific," "evolutionists."
With these European thugs Berger and Hillquit deliberately "lined up"
the Socialist Party of America in the words of their Chicago manifesto
of September 4, 1919:
"The Socialist Party of the United States at its first national
convention after the war, squarely takes its position with the
uncompromising section of the international Socialist Movement. We
unreservedly reject the policy of those Socialists who supported
their belligerent capitalist governments on the plea of 'national
defense,'" etc.
There is no breath of patriotism in these dogs.
The above "line up" was confirmed by the rank and file of the Socialist
Party of America in their referendum vote identifying their party with
the Revolutionary Third (Moscow) International. (See Chapters V and
XVI.)
CHAPTER XIII
THE BOLSHEVISM OF AMERICAN SOCIALISTS
To accuse American Socialists of conspiring against our fair land may at
first startle the reader. Brand as traitors to the common welfare men
who boast so loudly of being the only friends of the oppressed laborer!
Call the followers of Karl Marx the enemies of our country after they
have lavished so much precious time on exposures of those who defraud
American workingmen of an honest wage! Yet, as our investigation moves
along, telling evidence uncovers the existence of an alarmingly
widespread conspiracy.
Our Chapters VIII and IX have clearly revealed the I. W. W. as a purely
revolutionary organization, enrolling under its red flag discontented
workingmen, even negroes and Chinese, pledged to overthrow our
Government, while meanwhile, with anarchistic contempt for law and
morality, they do what damage they can through strikes and sabotage.
The same chapters proved that the Socialists are co-operating heart and
soul with the Industrial Workers of the World.
Chapters X, XI and XII gave the reader evidence of some of the terrible
results of Bolshevism in Russia, Communism in Hungary and Bavaria, and
Spartacism in Germany. Yet far from being dismayed by these horrors, the
Socialists of the United States proclaim themselves of the same breed as
the Bolshevists, Communists and Spartacans abroad, whose torch of
incendiarism they would apply to the United States.
The Socialist Party of Buffalo, New York, published a pink booklet
entitled, "The Truth About Russia," in which reference is made to the
Russian call to a world-wide Socialist revolution. On page 41, at the
conclusion of the articles of the Bolshevik Constitution concerning
rights and duties, we read:
"In proclaiming these rights and duties the Russian Socialist
Republic of the Soviets calls upon the working classes of the
entire world to accomplish their task to the very end, and in the
faith that the Socialist ideal will soon be achieved to write upon
their flags the old battle cry of the working people:
"'Proletarians of all lands, unite!
"'Long live the Socialistic world revolution!'"
The plan is for Socialists in countries outside of Russia to be helped
in their revolts against their governments by their Bolshevist comrades.
In the "Labor Scrap Book," published by Chas. H. Kerr and Co., there is
a long article by Nicholas Lenine, the Russian dictator. Several
quotations are here given:
"Russia's revolution is not a domestic revolution, but essentially
a world revolution....
"The Bolsheviki follow a consistent policy. They realized long ago
that the revolution, though primarily political, must become
economic and socialist. They know that economy and socialism have
nothing to do with racial or political boundaries and that the
future of our revolution must, therefore, be international. The
revolution must pass over all political and racial frontiers and
crush opposing economic ideas. They know that a state organized on
Socialist and pacifist lines cannot exist if hemmed in by
capitalistic and militarist states. Russia's revolution must follow
the law of all healthy organisms. It must increase. If it does not
increase it will decline....
"Russia will continue to propagandize unshrinkingly in all
countries.
"We may be left temporarily in peace to enjoy our revolutionary
social and economic system while the rest of Europe continues to
groan under a capitalism and monarchism which, perhaps, for the
time being, will be purged of a too dangerous imperialism.
"What will Russia do if this be so?
"Short-sighted men reply: 'Cherish your own revolution; thank
Heaven that you are better off than the rest of the world; and let
the rest of the world do what it likes.'
"But we Bolsheviki are against such a policy. Short of armed
pressure against any European country, we shall not shrink from
measures necessary for spreading our revolution in the world.
"The motives why every Bolshevik must approve of this policy are
overwhelming. The first is that a peace between the ideas of
revolutionary Russia and the ideas of non-revolutionary Europe
could at best be a truce....
"Each side would foster its ideas and prepare for a future
struggle, and since non-revolutionary Europe will always be better
armed than pacifist Russia, the European despots (as soon as they
have recovered from their present bitter lesson of the meaning of
war) undoubtedly would hurl themselves upon Russia in order to wipe
away the one revolutionary plague-spot.
"For that reason our revolution cannot rest until it has
established full revolution in all neighbor lands.
"The second reason why Russia must incite Europe to revolt is that
by its very nature, the revolution cannot live in isolation. Europe
must be organized, either on a capitalistic basis or a proletarian,
anti-capitalistic basis. The dual system is inconceivable. It is
impossible for Russia to exist without capitalistic banks and
industries, if she has to trade with countries which have
capitalistic banks and industries....
"In its own defense the revolution must propagandize and convert.
It must incite and urge on the masses against their present rulers
in all countries, and it must do this unshrinkingly, without fear
of consequences, or consideration for the feelings and interests of
the foreign affected parties."
The question may now be asked, What means is the Russian Bolshevist
government using to incite revolution in America? We have not, of
course, much definite information as yet; but we know that Lenine's
government has lots of money which it can use for foreign revolutionary
propaganda, and that a certain Ludwig C. A. K. Martens has been in our
country for some time claiming to represent the Soviet government and
boasting that he is able to deposit in our banks for commercial purposes
hundreds of millions of Russian gold. He is very active, has been
assisted by Morris Hillquit of "The Call," the Socialist daily of New
York City, goes about visiting different Socialist organizations, and in
return is entertained by them. During the months of April and May, 1919,
many notices of such receptions were published in "The Call." One
example will suffice. Under the caption, "Official Socialist News," in
the issue of March 31, 1919, we read:
"The central committee of Local New York, Socialist Party, greets
Comrade L. C. A. K. Martens, recently appointed the representative
of the Russian Soviet government in the United States and in his
name the victorious Russian proletariat.
"We sincerely hope that his work in behalf of the Socialist
government of Russia will be crowned with success. We pledge him
our aid, and promise that we shall not rest until the government of
the United States has ceased to be a party to the economic and
political isolation of Russia and the military occupation of
territory of the Soviet republic."
In the latter part of March, 1919, Martens shared offices with Santeri
Nuorteva, also a great friend of the American Socialists. Nuorteva was
head of the Bolshevist propaganda in this country and from his office
mailed the "Weekly Bulletin of the Bureau of Information on Soviet
Russia." Nuorteva denied that these large sheets, which are about the
same size as the propaganda sheets issued in the first months of the war
by the German Information Service, constitute propaganda. Like the
German Information Service sheets, each contains from six to ten
articles. All paint conditions in Russia under Trotzky and Lenine as
steadily improving and show those men and their aids as gentle,
kind-hearted individuals whose only sin is the betterment of mankind.
Among labor unions Bolshevism has made great headway. The New Labor
Party of Illinois in 1919 not only supported Soviet Russia but favored
the Soviet system in our own country. Sensible workingmen in the
American Federation of Labor and conservative members of the new Labor
Party had good reason for being alarmed and for suspecting that American
propagators of Bolshevism received Russian gold from some one, possibly
from Martens.
The Socialist papers of the United States approve of Bolshevism,
Spartacism and Communism, and would gladly welcome it to our country.
"The Call," New York, March 31, 1919, on its editorial page says: "The
red in the East is the dawning of a new day." On April 1, 1919, the same
paper contained a long article on the first page, entitled, "Forces of
Darkness Open Their Campaign to End Bolshevism." On April 11, 1919, in
an editorial on the impending capture of Odessa by the Bolsheviki, it
says:
"The evacuation of the Black Sea port of Odessa by foreign troops
that have been holding it for many months is news of great
significance....
"Like the German forces hurled against Soviet Russia by the mailed
fist of the Kaiser, the French, Greek and Rumanian soldiers go out
in a different mind and temper than they had going in. Wherever
they go, they will spread the ideas of human liberty and
co-operative development that they were sent to crush."
On April 13, 1919, "The Call" printed a poem on the assassinated
Spartacan leader, Karl Liebknecht:
"Liebknecht
"Liebknecht, your lonely, bitter course is run!
While we, with cautious feet, pursue the goal--
'Tis not in pity's name that we make moan--
Nay! 'tis in envy of your martyrdom!
The mirror of your flaming soul
Has caught our poverty and gloom,
In that fierce light our virtues shown
Petty, distorted, wan!
Then, hail! O martyr, in our day of doom!
Hail, fiery heart, receive the victor's crown!
Our heart a charnel house has grown
For our vast dead! Yet we make room
For freedom's slain. Shall not the tomb
Yield heavy harvest where such seed is sown?"
"The Call," April 15, 1919, published the following endorsement of
Hungarian Communism by the New York State Committee of the Socialist
Party:
"Whereas, the working class of Hungary have seized political power
and are using the same for the purpose of socializing industry and
as an instrument for the complete emancipation of labor, therefore
be it
"Resolved, that we, the State Committee of the Socialist Party of
the State of New York, in meeting assembled congratulate the
Socialist movement and the working class of Hungary on the success
of the revolution and on the position that the Hungarian Socialist
Republic has taken in defiance of the capitalist imperialists of
all lands."
In the April 24, 1919, edition of "The Call" we read:
"A new period in the evolution of the social and economic structure
of the world is at hand. A new day for those who toil. A new day
which will mean economic and political liberty based on justice for
those who toil. Some call it revolution. Well, if that be the word,
so be it. And woe be to those who in their blind folly throw
themselves in the way to stop its onward sweep throughout the
civilized world, for they shall be as grass before the sickle!
Hail, all hail, the new day!"
Again, in its issue of April 30, 1919, "The Call" favors the Hungarian
Communist regime of Bela Kun:
"'There is reason to believe,' says a dispatch from Budapest, 'that
the present Hungarian government has been unofficially approached
by the Entente with the suggestion that military invasion might be
arrested if the extremist members were replaced by more moderate
Socialists.' Making all allowance for the unreliability of the
dispatch, it is hard to say which cuts the more contemptible
figure, the Entente or the 'Moderate Socialists.'"
In its 1919 May Day edition, "The Call," under the caption, "All Attacks
on Russian Revolution Have Recoiled," shows its sympathy for Bolshevism
and Spartacism:
"Every attack of world reaction upon Soviet Russia, the center of
the world revolution, has remained fruitless. The internal strength
and the external power of the Russian Workers' and Peasants'
Republic is growing daily into a power that will successfully
withstand the onslaughts of capitalism. The possibilities of
subduing the Russian revolution by force from without decrease
constantly as the governments of the different countries are ever
more forcibly threatened by the fermentation among their own
peoples which they must combat.
"At present the second, the Socialist revolution, has come upon the
scene in Germany, which, driven to the edge of starvation, bleeding
and drained to the marrow by Kaiserism and militarism, is now being
held in the grip of Entente capitalism. There at this moment the
courageous and steadfast Socialists stand under the flag of
Spartacus, first on the barricades under the sign of the general
strike and street battles....
"The German Socialists of the Right have soiled the name of
Socialism by being inimical to the Russian revolution; by failing
to communicate with the radical English elements in the English
strike movements, which are also spontaneous expressions of
proletarian unrest; by acting as the lackeys of Kaiserism and
capitalism in opposing the November revolution to the last hour
before its outbreak; and, finally, by their unspeakable mass
murders of starving, demonstrating and striking proletarians.
"In this struggle between the revolution and the social-patriotic
bourgeois reaction which now enters into a decisive phase, two of
the noblest pioneers of the international, Dr. Karl Liebknecht and
Rosa Luxemburg, were murdered by the hate-filled bourgeois mob and
the degenerate Scheidemann-Noske henchmen. Another victim of the
treacherous reaction was Kurt Eisner, Socialist premier of Bavaria.
One need but be an honest, fearless Socialist to be in danger of
one's life under the hypocritical, false, brutal and murderous
regime of Ebert-Scheidemann-Noske. This regime revives the worst
methods of Kaiserism and holds its protecting hand over the
bourgeois and capitalists of Germany. But this blood and the blood
of our martyrs will only urge the masses to continuous
unconquerable struggle, till the criminal Ebert-Scheidemann-Noske
reaction, together with the criminals and conspirators of the old
empire, yield to the power of the revolutionary justice of the
masses."
In the May 1, 1919, issue of "The Call," the May Day Manifesto is made
public by Morris Hillquit, International Secretary of the Socialist
Party of the United States. Only part of it is hereby quoted:
"We send fraternal greetings and vows of whole-hearted sympathy to
the Socialist Soviet Republic of Russia, which is so valiantly
upholding the lofty international proletarian ideals in the face of
the combining military economic and political attacks of
reactionary powers, and in spite of the systematic campaign of
libelous misrepresentation on the part of the lying capitalist
press of the world. We send congratulations and fraternal good
wishes to the workers of Hungary on the establishment of a free
Communistic Workers' Republic, upon the ruins of the predatory
monarchy of their exploiting and land-monopolizing rulers. We
extend the hand of comradeship and solidarity to the revolutionary
Socialists of Germany and Russia, now engaged in a life-and-death
struggle to secure for the working masses of their countries the
full fruit of their victorious revolutions; to the workers of
England in their efforts to wrest the control of the industries
from the parasites in their country, and to the Socialists of
France, Italy and all other countries of Europe in their fights
against their revolutionary governments."
"The New Age," the Socialist paper of Buffalo, April 10, 1919, published
a "Greeting to the Soviet Republic of Hungary":
"The proletariat of Hungary has taken all power in its own hands.
Like a bolt from the blue the workers, soldiers and peasants of
'conquered' Hungary proclaim their intervention in the arena of
world politics--and the diplomats of capitalism are thrown into a
flurry of mingled rage and fear.
"While the wires were still hot with the news of the resignation of
Count Karolyi, president of the provisional government of Hungary,
as a protest against the peace terms of the Paris Conference, came
word of the complete triumph of revolutionary Socialism and the
establishment of the second Soviet Republic in the world.
"With little or no resistance, with no intervening period of
Socialist compromise, the Hungarian Soviet Republic rises to power
and in its initial proclamation ushers in the dictatorship of the
proletariat, decrees the socialization of the large estates, mines,
big industries, banks and lines of transportation, declares its
oneness of purpose with the revolutionary proletariat of Russia and
its readiness to form an armed alliance with the federated Soviet
Republic. All over the country Workmen's, Soldiers' and Peasants'
Councils are in action and take over the functions of government."
"The Revolutionary Age," then a Socialist paper of Boston, on March 29,
1919, showed its complete sympathy for the Bolshevists, Communists and
Spartacans:
"So the Hungarian workers set about their task and the eastern sky
is brightening.
"Already the two Soviet governments have issued an appeal to the
workers of all countries to sweep away the old system. The
bourgeois press tells of the spread of Bolshevism throughout
central Europe and the diplomats of Capitalism are turning this way
and that to avert fresh outbreaks. But they are powerless. Every
new move brings new complications, every award of territory here
brings discontent and adds to the 'menace' there.
"Next!
"The fear that weighs upon the world of Capitalism and the
diplomats in Paris is: Who next? The proclamation of a Soviet
Republic in Hungary is to them not a fact, but a symbol--a symbol
of the onward sweep of the proletarian revolution, which may break
loose in other nations.
"Through this symbol looms Soviet Russia--gigantic, mysterious and
implacable. Despised by the world of Capitalism, intrigued against
and vilified, isolated in the spaces of its own territory, attacked
by the soldiers of the Allies--Soviet Russia, through the flaming
energy of its proletariat and Socialism has conquered in spite of
all. The Allies, their Capitalism and Imperialism, are no longer a
menace to Soviet Russia; it is now Soviet Russia that menaces the
Allies through its own gigantic strength and the threat of the
international proletarian revolution....
"And this revolutionary army of Soviet Russia, massed at the
frontier, is prepared to march into Hungary or Poland or Germany to
co-operate with the revolutionary masses in any war that may be
necessary against international Imperialism and for the proletarian
revolution.
"The situation in Germany is critical and crucial. The conquest of
power by the revolutionary proletariat in Germany will assure the
world revolution. The recent butchery of the Spartacans by the
Government of 'Socialist' assassins has not crushed the
revolutionary masses; on the contrary, the masses have been
aroused, the Ebert-Scheidemann government depending more and more
upon the worst elements of the old regime; it is being isolated,
and the workers are rallying to the Soviets."
"The Ohio Socialist," published in Cleveland, and claiming to be the
"Official Organ of the Socialist Parties of Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia,
West Virginia and New Mexico," in the spring of 1919 gave its unlimited
support to Bolshevism. "The Proletarian," then a Socialist paper of
Detroit, was in thorough accord with Bolshevists, Spartacists and
Communists, of Russia, Germany and Hungary respectively. The following
quotations are taken from the April, 1919, edition:
"In order to be a good American, according to the view of the
powers that be, it is necessary to repeat and believe the stories
written in the capitalist press about the Bolsheviki. But we, who
know what is going on, and do not believe them, maintain that a
person can be truthful, and still be an American. That he can be a
good, pure, unadulterated American, and still lend his sympathies
to the Bolsheviki.
"In revolutionary Germany the struggle between the defenders of
capitalism and the champions of working class emanicipation--the
Spartacides and their adherents--continues almost unceasingly. The
'democratic' government has taken desperate steps to crush the
revolution; there have been wholesale executions and other
repressive acts....
"The final conflict is now on. 'Ruthless slaughter' is the
governmental decree with Gustav Noske, 'minister of defense,' in
charge of the butchering. And what is it that Noske and his
'Socialist' colleagues are defending? The interests of the German
capitalists. Sacred private property rights are in danger; the
stronghold of capitalism is being assailed. The expropriation of
the capitalists is the aim of the proletarian revolutionists....
"All the old friends of Kaiserism--Hoffman, Hindenberg and the
rest--are lined up against the Spartacans. Although these elements
of reaction have gained temporary victory, the workers are
undismayed."
"The Proletarian," in this same issue, referring to the Bela Kun
dictatorship of Hungary, says:
"On Sunday, March 23d, the news was flashed across America that
Hungary had swung into the ranks of the revolutionary proletarian
dictatorships....
"A note from the Paris Conference seems to have been the last straw
that 'broke the camel's back' of the middle course government,
causing President, Cabinet and all, to resign. This allowed the
political power to fall into the hands of those who are alone
capable of handling the situation--the revolutionary proletariat."
"The Chicago Socialist" is also pro-Bolshevist. In the April 1, 1919,
edition each of the three following lines extends across the top of the
front page of the paper:
"How Many Bolshevists in Chicago?
"The Vote Today Will Tell.
"Vote The Socialist Ticket."
At the bottom of the first page of this April election day issue of "The
Chicago Socialist," the following notice is given to voters:
"Vote for the great change, TODAY, by casting a Socialist ballot.
Stand up and be counted for a Soviet Republic, not only in Russia,
or in Hungary, not only in the United States or in some other land;
but stand up and be counted for the Soviet Republic of the world."
The Socialist paper of Duluth, like the other Marxian papers of the
United States, also favored Spartacism and Bolshevism, for in the March
7, 1919, issue of "The Truth" we read:
"We can honestly say that the position in Germany is very
promising. The Spartacides are now coming into their own and ere
long we shall see Bolshevism firmly established in Germany."
The pink booklet published by the Socialist Party, Buffalo, New York,
entitled, "The Truth About Russia," contains the text of the Bolshevik
Constitution, and on page 2 appears the following introduction:
"This little booklet is published by Local Buffalo, Socialist
Party, Erie County, with the object in view of giving information
to those who desire to grasp the true situation and understand the
struggle now going on in Eastern Europe between the reactionary
elements allied with German imperialism and other imperialists
against the Workers' Republic of Russia in their struggle for true
democracy."
On the back cover sheet of "The Crisis in the German Social Democracy,"
written by Karl Leibknecht, Rosa Luxemburg and Franz Mehring, and
published by the Socialist Publication Society of Brooklyn, New York,
there is an advertisement of "The Class Struggle," "a bi-monthly
magazine devoted to International Socialism." This bi-monthly "does not
exploit the ephemeral, but gives serious studies of the international
movement from the pens of comrades in all parts of the world. Among the
recent contributors are: Lenine, Trotzky, Lunacharsky, Franz Mehring,
Liebknecht, Rosa Luxemburg, Friedrich Adler, Santeri Nuorteva" So the
advertisement reads.
"The Bulletin," issued March 24, 1919, by the National Office, Socialist
Party, page 11, volunteers information which shows one phase of
Bolshevist propaganda carried on by that Party in the United States:
"The striking effective leaflet, 'The Great and Growing Fear--No
Work,' is accomplishing a double purpose and is being snapped up
eagerly and distributed by the hundreds of thousands by state and
local organizations and by individual hustlers. Two hundred
thousand copies have been sold and it will shortly go to its third
printing. Orders indicate a million edition of this powerful
leaflet. The Russian Constitution, an article and
thought-compelling cartoons on unemployment, that this leaflet
carries, make it the Socialist literature triumph of the month.
Send for sample copy and order early.
"From the hustling 'Red' town of Hamilton, Ohio, comes an order for
8,000 'Great Fear' leaflets to put the truth about the Russian
Soviet Constitution in the homes of the workers of that community."
"The Eye Opener," the official national organ of the Socialist Party of
America, in its issue of January, 1919, shows its sympathy for the
Spartacans by the following article:
"'You Did Not Die In Vain!'
"American Socialist Party to
"_Liebknecht and Luxembourg_.
"The Socialist Party executive committee has adopted a resolution
on the death of Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxembourg, Germany's two
most uncompromising foes of Kaiserism and imperialism. It is as
follows:
"'The National Executive Committee of the Socialist Party of the
United States of America, has learned of the deaths of our beloved
comrades, Dr. Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxembourg, who are reported
assassinated by the agents of the reactionary forces of Germany,
who are now conspiring to deprive the workers of that country of
the opportunity to establish a free government there.
"'These comrades, always true to the principles of revolutionary
Socialism, in the face of unqualified opposition before, during and
after the great war, commanded the love and admiration of all the
lovers of international liberty, and have, by their incomparable
devotion to this great cause, made their names immortal in the
history of working class liberation.'"
From the "New York Times," November 18, 1918, we learn that the Chicago
Socialists endorsed Bolshevism.
A despatch by the International News Service from Cleveland, Ohio, March
31, 1919, informs us that C.E. Ruthenberg, leading Socialist of that
city, after a meeting of the Cleveland Socialists on March 30, announced
that the members of the party had just voted in favor of the adoption of
the Bolshevik doctrine of Lenine and Trotzky for the further direction
of the Cleveland party and that the action of the members was
practically unanimous.
"The Call," New York, April 3, 1919, gave notice of a pro-Bolshevist
meeting to be held by the Socialists on the following Saturday afternoon
at Park Circle, New York City:
"This is the first of a series that the Socialist Party of Harlem
proposes to hold, inspired by the success of the Debs meeting two
weeks ago at the same place, when 15,000 people attended.
"The assemblage on Saturday, besides demanding that the United
States recognize Soviet Russia, will also give a welcome to the
Soviet Republic of Hungary."
In its issue of April 10, 1919, "The Call" recorded the approval by the
Queen's County, New York, Socialists of the Bolsheviki and Spartacans:
"We desire to clearly place ourselves on record for, and openly and
actively sign ourselves with the revolutionary proletariat the
world over, as at present expressed by the policies and tactics of
the Communist Party of Russia (Bolsheviki), the Communist Labor
Party in Germany (Spartacans) and other parties in harmony with
them."
On May 31, 1919, "The Call" published the declaration of the National
Executive Committee of the party in favor of Bolshevism, Communism and
Spartacism: The Socialist Party of the United States "supports
whole-heartedly the Soviet Republic of Russia and the Communist
government of Hungary.... In Germany, Austria and countries similarly
situated, its sympathies are with the more advanced Socialist groups."
In "The Call," May 17, 1919, Martens, the representative in the United
States of the Russian Soviet Government, is quoted as saying:
"Russian workers, whom I represent, acknowledge with gratitude the
sympathy toward the struggles of Soviet Russia evinced by the
Socialist Party of America, as well as by the Socialist Labor
Party, the I. W. W. and other organizations of the working class,
and they return the sympathy without discrimination."
"The Call," March 30, 1919, informs its readers that Cleveland
Socialists were organizing a Workers' and Soldiers' Soviet, and again,
on April 1, 1919, that soviets had been established in Seattle, Portland
and San Francisco. Eugene V. Debs, in an article written by him in "The
Class Struggle," said:
"From the crown of my head to the soles of my feet I am Bolshevik
and proud of it."
"The Call," April 14, 1919, published Debs' "Last Minute Message to All
New York Socialists":
"As I am about to enter the prison doors, I wish to send to the
Socialists of New York who have loyally stood by me since my first
arrest, this little message of love and cheer. These are pregnant
and promising days. We are all on the threshold of tremendous
changes. The workers of the world are awakening and bestirring
themselves as never before. All the forces that are playing upon
the modern world are making for the overthrow of despotism in all
its forms and for the emancipation of the masses of mankind. I
shall be in prison in the days to come, but my revolutionary spirit
will be abroad, and I shall not be inactive. Let us all, in the
supreme hour, measure up to our full stature and work together as
one for the great cause that means emancipation for us all. Love to
all my Comrades, and all hail to the Revolution.--Eugene Victor
Debs."
From the same issue of "The Call" we learn that Debs, on leaving
Wheeling, West Virginia, for the Moundsville prison, gave the following
statement to David Karsner, staff correspondent: "I enter the prison
doors a flaming revolutionist--my head erect, my spirit untamed, and my
soul unconquered."
A press despatch from Toledo, Ohio, March 31, 1919, describes the
serious socialist riot which took place that afternoon as a protest
against the then impending imprisonment of Debs, the self-styled
"flaming revolutionist":
"Toledo, Ohio, March 31.--When they were refused admission by city
officials to Memorial Hall, a city building where Eugene V. Debs
was scheduled to speak, 5,000 persons stormed the place, broke
windows and doors, and then paraded the streets crying, 'To hell
with the mayor.' ...
"Announcement that Debs would not be permitted to speak was made
late Saturday night, after the Socialists here had prepared to
handle an overflow crowd. The announcement appeared in the morning
papers, and was the first notice the Socialists had that their
meeting could not be held.
"When the hour for Debs to speak arrived there were at least 6,000
men and women congregated about the William McKinley monument in
Courthouse Park, across the street from Memorial hall.
"A man mounted the base of the monument. 'We'll use Memorial Hall
this afternoon if we have to wade through blood to do it!' he
shouted. A policeman grabbed him and he was thrown unceremoniously
into a patrol wagon. The man who essayed to speak next also was
arrested.
"As the crowd sensed what was occurring the radicals began to hoot
and boo the officers. Clubs were drawn and the crowd was made to
move. Then came the parade through the streets and cries of 'Down
with the mayor!' 'Hang him!' 'To hell with the police!' and others
of a similar nature.
"It was after five o'clock before the police were able to disperse
the crowd. Fist fights by the dozens occurred on corners. Hotel
lobbies were invaded by the malcontents. Street cars were held up
and threats of serious outbreaks were to be heard on every hand....
"More than seventy-five men were arrested, including Thomas Devine,
Socialist member of the city council."
CHAPTER XIV
VIOLENCE, BLOODSHED AND ARMED REBELLION
Every year on May Day the Socialists are in the habit of publishing
articles and making speeches of a more than usual revolutionary
character. They are also fond of parading on that day to incite riot,
and of holding meetings to stir up discontent and to foment rebellion
among the laboring classes. May Day, 1919, was an especially serious one
in several cities of the United States and will long be remembered,
because the Socialist riots occurred while the whole country was excited
over the unsuccessful mailing of bombs to a score or so of eminent
citizens. The most serious Marxian riots took place in Cleveland, Ohio,
and were described in part in the "Chicago Tribune" as follows:
"Cleveland, Ohio, May 1.--An unidentified man was killed by a
detective's bullet, eleven policemen were shot or badly beaten, and
about 100 persons wounded, many seriously, in general rioting which
brought a dramatic finale this afternoon to a Socialist May Day
demonstration here.
"About thirty persons, seriously injured, are in hospitals
to-night, while scores of others, including women, were trampled by
rioters or clubbed by police.
"Socialist headquarters was totally wrecked by angry civilians bent
on putting an end to the demonstration....
"A mob of several hundred threatened police headquarters when C. E.
Ruthenberg, Socialist leader and former Socialist candidate for
mayor, was arrested and for more than an hour the entire downtown
section of the city was a warring mass of Socialists, police,
civilians and soldiers, the latter riding down the rioters in army
trucks and tanks.
"Dozens of shots were fired in Public square, where more than
20,000 Socialists and sympathizers assembled for a May Day rally
and to protest against the convictions of Eugene V. Debs and Thomas
J. Mooney.
"The trouble started in Superior Avenue, near East Ninth Street,
when the head of one of the five Socialist parades, scheduled to
meet in a mass meeting at Public square, was stopped, and Liberty
Loan workers and an army lieutenant tore a red flag from a man at
the head of the marchers, practically every one of whom were
carrying red flags.
"In less than ten minutes riots had developed at several other
points, mounted and foot policemen being switched from one location
to another to quell the fighting.
"The trouble in the public square started when Lieut. H. S. Bergen,
who served with the 80th Division overseas, demanded that several
soldiers among the Socialists on the platform remove their uniforms
or the red flags they wore on their breasts.
"The soldiers refused, and C. E. Ruthenberg, scheduled as the
principal Socialist speaker, interceded for the Socialists.
"Lieut. Bergen, followed by Lieut. John Hardy of Detroit, thereupon
mounted the platform and tore the red insignia from the khaki
uniforms. The act was the signal for a grand rush by thousands of
Socialist sympathizers."
On Sunday, May 4, 1919, serious trouble with the Socialist-Bolshevist
element of Gary, Indiana, was narrowly averted. The account, as
published in the "Chicago Tribune" on the next day, reads in part as
follows:
"There was no 'Red' parade in Gary yesterday....
"Fifty policemen, wearing revolvers on their belts and reinforced
by a special shotgun squad of sixteen, a company of state militia,
thirty deputy sheriffs, a group of secret service men from Chicago
and hundreds of citizen volunteers, prevented the parade after the
Russian Socialists flouted an order of Mayor W.H. Hodges
prohibiting the march and declared they would proceed despite the
authorities....
"Yesterday's demonstration was the result of a carefully planned
plot matured for nearly a month by the foreign radical element of
Lake County, Indiana. Its stated purpose was to protest against the
conviction of Eugene V. Debs and Kate Richards O'Hare. An
undercurrent of rumor among the radicals gave it a more significant
meaning, however.
"On Thursday secret service men obtained copies of pamphlets
printed in Russian, containing a formula for the manufacture of
explosives. More literature calling for the overthrow of the
government was circulated. A third series of pamphlets contained
the Constitution of the Russian Soviet Republic.
"Friday Morris Lieberman, head of the Socialists, called on Mayor
Hodges for a permit to parade. It was refused with the explanation
that riots such as caused two deaths in Cleveland were feared....
"Early yesterday morning radicals began to arrive in Gary. Cars
from Indiana Harbor, Whiting, Hammond, Crown Point, and trains from
Chicago brought them by the dozens.
"By noon several thousand had gathered in and near the Socialist
headquarters, a mile south of the business district of Gary. Under
portraits of Trotzky and Lenine they sang Russian songs and
gathered about in knots waiting for 'zero hour'--one o'clock.
"Lieberman, fearing bloodshed, decided to counsel his followers
against a parade. They howled him down, however, and hotter heads
took charge of the meeting. A dozen girls, with rolls of red
ribbon, pinned a scarlet strip on the lapel of each man's coat as
he entered the meeting hall. Red neckties were abundant. Red hat
bands made their appearance. Many wore scarlet carnations."
Judge Haas of the Municipal Court of Gary thus commented on those
arrested in the demonstration:
"All except Capolitto have failed to become citizens. All except
him and one other tried to evade war service in our army,
endeavoring to sneak out on the ground of not being citizens of
this country. All they seem to want is to come over here and make
trouble--out of twenty-one gun-toters who have been brought before
me, nineteen have been foreigners and not even citizens."
The leaders of the Marxian movement, both in the United States and
abroad, testify that to be a Socialist is to be a plotter against all
existing forms of government. Marx and Engels, for instance, confess the
truth of this in their celebrated "Communist Manifesto," which they
addressed to their followers over half a century ago, and which is
looked upon even today by the rank and file of the party as embodying
the fundamental principles of International Socialism. "The Communists,"
we are told, "everywhere support every revolutionary movement against
the existing social and political order of things" and "disdain to
conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be
obtained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social
conditions. Let the ruling classes tremble at a communistic
revolution."
We are indebted to the late August Bebel, the leader of the Socialists
of Germany, for the confession that "along with the state die out its
representatives--cabinet ministers, parliaments, standing armies, police
and constables, courts, attorneys, prison officials, tariff and tax
collectors, in short the whole political apparatus. Barracks and other
such military structures, palaces of law and of administration,
prisons--all will now await better use. Ten thousand laws, decrees and
regulations become so much rubbish; they have only historic value."
["Women Under Socialism," by Bebel, page 319, of the 1904 edition in
English.]
"The People," New York, May 13, 1900, in speaking of the relation of
Socialism to existing forms of government, including our own, affirms
that "while there is a very general idea that Socialism means an
extension of the powers and functions of government, still this is a
very natural and dangerous misconception, and one that ought to be
guarded against." "Socialism," it adds, "does not mean the extension of
government, but on the contrary it means the end, the elimination of
government."
The "International Socialist Review," Chicago, February, 1912, together
with many other magazines and papers current at the time, called
attention to the fact that William D. Haywood, who for a long time had
been before the eyes of the public on account of his revolutionary
utterances and writings, declared in a speech at Cooper Union, in New
York City, that the Socialists were conspirators against the United
States Government.
"The Call," April 1, 1919, in an editorial note says that "the whole
system of government in the United States, Federal, State and Municipal,
seems to be out of date."
Though the men who march behind the red flag, singing the Marseillaise
of the French Revolution, usually deny to the general public, for
reasons of political expediency, that the Socialist movement is a
violent and revolutionary one, it is evident to those who have read
their books, magazines, and papers, that the use of the ballot and
education are not the means on which they rely finally for the
establishment of their visionary commonwealth. Violence is advocated and
habitually practised by the Socialists who constitute the Industrial
Workers of the World, whose banner with the inscription, "No God, No
Master," has brought them into disrepute all over the country. Jack
London, a Socialist widely known in the United States and England as a
novelist, furnishes us with excellent reasons for believing that the
International Socialist Party approves of violence and assassination,
and thereby reaffirms its allegiance to the base principles of the
French Commune. Writing in the "International Socialist Review" of
August, 1909, Jack London made the following comment on the progress of
Socialism in Russia:
"Our comrades in Russia have formed what they call 'THE FIGHTING
ORGANIZATION.' This FIGHTING ORGANIZATION accused, tried, found
guilty and condemned to death one Sipiaguin, Minister of the
Interior. On April 2, he was shot and killed in the Maryinsky
Palace. Two years later the FIGHTING ORGANIZATION condemned to
death and executed another Minister of the Interior, Von Plehve.
Having done so it issued a document, dated July 29, 1904, setting
forth the coun 
The Red Conspiracy / Mereto, Joseph J.