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."