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“...corroding poison of corruption into
the Order. Its management had slipped out of the hands of
the element that had founded it and a set of crooked politi-
cians, headed by one Terence V. Powderly, as General Mas-
ter Workman, was at the helm. Thus, when De Leon entered
the order, via D. A. 49, the organization had long ago passed
its zenith and was on the downward part of the curve. But
it still had respectable numbers and, with all the vim of his
energetic personality, De Leon set to work to clean out that
nest of fakers. He beat Powderly and made him quit, only to
see him rewarded with a political job by the capitalist clas.s
he had served so well. He beat Powderlys successor, a fel-
low named James R. Sovereign, but it was found in the end
that the whole fabric of the organization was rotten to the
core and nothing could be gained by capturing what had been
reduced to a nest of crooks.
8. T. & L. A. Formed
Then came the next epoch in the development of the So-...”
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“...when, in
the course of time, the revolutionary posture of the S. T. &
L. A. became more marked and, correspondingly, more in-
convenient to this element. The origin of the Central La-
bor Federation goes back to the year 1886, and was the re-
sult of a breaking away from the utterly corrupt and faker-
led Central Labor Union, a body so rotten and stcnchful and
so honeycombed with capitalist political influences that, to
use a phrase of Artemus Ward, it was entirely 2 mutch
even for the none too clean "progressive unions which had
fakers of their own aplenty. But the membership in these
unions, still to an extent under the Influence of the traditions
of the movement in Germany, made it advisable and even...”
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“...DE LEON. 29
now an outside foe. The struggle itself had acted like a
tonic upon the organization, stirring our members into in-
tense action and vastly increasing their aggressiveness, in-
dividually and collectively. The phrase, the fighting S. L.
P., often heard in those days, had a real background and,
therefore, a real meaning. The organization, the country
over, had suffered but little in point of numbers and that lit-
tle was more than made up by a closer drawing of the ranks.
We had a clean-cut tactical program, thoroughly understood
and accepted by the membership and we had, for that reason,
a unity of purpose never attained before.
As an off-set we had on our hands a daily paper that was
sapping our strength, the maintenance of which imposed
struggles which, in the long run, seriously affected that unity
of purpose. It is an old, age-long experience of the race,
that it is far easier to start a quarrel than to end it. Th^
experience, paraphrased and applied to the Labor movement...”
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“...removed. I learn that the poltroonish attitude of
the leaders, Joan [our private pet name for Elizabeth Gurley
Flynn who had been called the Joan of Arc of the Labor
Movement] among the lot, when arrested, in trying to show
the white feather, has cooled off the dupes. But another ap-
prehension is now taking the place of the firstthe throwing
of a bomb by some police-agent to discredit the Labor Move-
ment. Hence it is that I have been hitting so hard. I have
been trying to keep the S. L. P. skirts clean against such an
eventuality. Indeed, I take the flattering unction to myself
that The People has, at least, contributed towards rendering
such an eventuality less likely. I notice with pleasure that
some of the Spokane capitalist sheets are quoting The People
on Spokane. So that they know there are Socialists who
.spurn I-am-a-bummism, and all that thereby hangs."
In the latter part of 1908, the I. W. W. having turned out
a complete fiasco, and a new situation presenting itself to the
Party, Mr...”
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“...severely and ^ j bar-room. De
Troy, as will be shown later ways ia
...nw?;:LZ&De S P
to raise high the banner of Socialism fn^^
man comrades admired him and w j r The Ger-
German. De Leon on snm delighted to hear him talk
public meetings althoue-h h spoke German even at
talk in Germafhe had To rh v - lengthy
The Ennlish-TeT- vaseline!
who understood AmeriTnT^'dif^*
New York packed the halls wheneveT D^e Le'^'"'
as a speaker in their districts bT announced
early as 92 who did not like Dp T "<=
clean motives, who had schemes to hT'
a man who would be a hindranr ' Leon
used to say: "f have not Path. As De Leon
the crooks have a good nose Tol LT'
bor PartrTnTLcrLThTSfrcl^'*'''" ^a*
The People gained in circulation n !7 were achieved,
reach and be appreciated .by workingmen^*^*^^
lish-speaking countries. The virile clpn ber Eng-
imitable style of its editor diffp ^S'cal and in-
writings in Socialist papers in the E r Previous
that matter i other langua Ta
tom-tom of the savage. P'"o differs...”
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“...6 WITH DE LEON SINCE 89.
mills. Hired Pinkerton thugs drove the Homestead strikers to
desperate acts of violence. When additional thugs and strike-
breakers were being brought to Homestead by boat, some of
the strikers got possession of a cannon and trained it upon the
boat. The captain lost his head, not metaphorically, but ac-
tually; his head was shot clean from his shoulders.
This gave t)he capitalists a chance to get in the militia, and
six strikers were killed by the boys in blue, and many others
wounded. It was at this time that the Anarchist, Alexander
Berkman, went into the office of H. C. Frick, the steel mag-
nate, with the design of performing an autopsy upon that gen-
tleman first and letting him die afterwards. The autopsy did
not turn out quite successful, however. Outside of a scare and
a penknife scratch on the abdomen, Frick succeeded in post-
poning the autopsy to a time when it could be performed with-
out any inconvenience to himself. Berkman, however, got
twenty-two...”
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“...it was only the true instinct of some intellectuals in the
Socialist movement, who could feel that in a movement such
as the Socialist Labor Party stood for there would be no pos-
sibilities for big salaries, ten-story buildings, and a good time
in general, that made them rise against De Leons dictator-
ship, as they pleased to call De Leons insistence that a man
should not be a labor faker at one corner of his mouth and
claim to be a Socialist at the other corner.
Disrupters Not Satisfied by Clean Vote
The campaign in the ninth Congressional district with
De Leon as the candidate showed the power that was latent
in the Alliance. Four thousand, three hundred votes should
have satisfied even those who were after votes only. But that
was not the point. What good are such votes that bring otily
more struggles and no revenue? Besides, a revolutionary
movement makes one so insecure in ones possessions! So...”
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“...Workingmen Sadly Humbugged
Millions of people were made to believe that silver could
by law be given a fixed and determined value as compared with
gold, regardless of the amount of crystallized social labor
power it contained. Bryans speech at the Chicago conven-
tion had the effect upon suffering humanity desired by that
wily politician. It seemed to the masses of starving workers
like actual relief; to the farmers it looked like the rising of
clouds heavy with rain after a long period of exceedingly dry
weather. Bryan was hailed by the small farmers, who were
the backbone of the Peoples Party, as the Israelite, Joseph,
was hailed by the Egyptians of old.
You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold, was...”
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“...,162 WITH de LEON SINCE 89.
compared with the capitalist system, inasmuch as neither can
be kept clean or reformed because of the very manner of its
construction, even when attempts at cleanliness are actually
and honestly made. There are bound to be more ills of all
sorts, more things to be reformed, under capitalism, than there
are reformers; so the vermin in one cell exceeds in numbers
the citizens of a populous city or the membership of a reform
party. The comparison would also hold good in that it would
be as usdess to try to reform the capitalists as it would be
to try to reform the bed-bugs.
The stone floors of the halls where the prisoners spend
the short day are kept scrupulously clean, however. A
visitor may easily be deceived, but not if he would stay over
night, especially in summer.
Both Frank Young (who was sentenced to three months)
and I had a good many visitors, with whom we were permit-
ted to talk through the bars of a door leading into the main
hall. I had the special...”
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“...single tax movement had spent its force, De Leons ge-
nius was quickly recognized and appreciated, and he soon
took a leading and at length a commanding position in its
conduct. He became editor of its official organ, and from
that point of vantage began to mold it into a party which
would be able to cope with triumphant capitalism. With him
began the history of a real Socialist movement in America,
the foremost country of capitalism. The task before him,
however, was no common one, for he had to clean house
before he could get fairly started....”
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