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“...Next came attempts to
lay hands on Party funds through various litigations. They
sought to confuse the working class of the land by setting up
a counterfeit S. L. P., with a counterfeit The People. In its
application for an injunction, the legal exigencies of the case
were such that the Volkszeitung was estopped from including
in its petition the real editor of the real The People, De Leon,
who was thus left free to hammer the foe to his hearts con-
tent. And, oh, how he did hammer that foe I Reading The
People of those days is an education in itself.
In this protracted legal battle, the Party finally won out
all along the line. We won out in the injunction case and
did not go to jail though we came very near it at one time,
so near that the Volkszeitung, in a premature but
very triumphant news item, announced that we would
have to go to the lock-up; we won out on the bal-
lot contest and preserved our name and emblem in
New York State; we beat them when they tried to
lay their claws on funds...”
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“...profit.
In the course of time, events proved that we had drawn
the bow too tight and when, some years later, the Party
abandoned that position, the damage had been done and
could not easily be repaired. In all the years De Leon and I
had been working side by side, we had never differed on any
matter of importance until this measure was being agitated
and, much as I respected his foresight and reasoning powers,
I could not be convinced. However, opposition to the meas-
ure amounted to little, the lay of the land being such that it
carried overwhelmingly in the convention and in the subse-
quent general vote of the Party.
The
Troubles and Tribulations
1900 convention having become pa.st history, the
Party now entered upon a phase of its existence different in
many respects to any we had so far passed through. To all
appearances, we were at the height of our strength. The
fight with the would-be disrupters was still on, but they were...”
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“...morale, but the S. P.
never.
And if there be such of our members as really yearn for
unity with the S. P. on sentimental grounds, who have not
gotten over deploring the split and all that sort of thing,
let these by all means unite and leave us alone to fight our
own battles. At best they do not understand and live entire-
ly in the past. Political parties and movements are not im-
mutable; they are organic structures changing with changing
conditions of which conditions they are the products. The
lay of the land in the United States is today such that there
HAS TO BE an S. P., and, for the same reason, there HAS
TO BE an S. L. P.
This much must be said on the purely practical side of
the unity matter: If we of the S. L. P. permit that the fur-...”
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“...Social-
ist organization on the face of this earth. And whenever the
S. L. P. banner was raised in other countries, in England, in
Australia, or in South Africa, so strong proved the guiding
principles of our movement, that these parties were always
true chips of the old block. We occupy an advanced posi-
tion and can not, for that very reason, boast of large num-
bers; we should not even desire large numbers NOW. It is
our fate and our mission to hold grimly to the position we
now occupy, for the lay of the land today is such that we can
not attract and hold the mass of the working class without
sharing, or pretending to share its errors and, thereby, be-
traying it. Our time will come, is bound to come, when so-
cial evolution has advanced sufficiently to make our position
understood by that mass. That does not mean that we must...”
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“...should
come out with his old chestnuts about your bossism and tyr-
anny, etc. It took me several years to see the truth, but it is
all the plainer now after reading your letters, and then Gor-
dons, Careys, Cassons, etc. In conclusion let me say The
People is laying a solid foundation for Socialism and when I
now hear people kicking against The People I know that they
do not understand Socialism. The work of The People will be
appreciated and honored when such things as Gordon, Casson
and Carey lay rotting in the ground, forgotten.
Yours fraternally,
M. Ruther.
An anecdote from the Association days illustrates how
hard these Kangaroos were put to it in order to furnish the
goods to their dupes, and how angry it made them that De
Leon kept himself free from alliances, adhering strictly to the
goal he had set, and that no allurements of place, pay, or pre-
ferment could dissuade him from his course. An old German
member of the Volkszeitung Association, commenting on this,
exclaimed: Der De...”
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“...report a regatta, it picks
out a man skilled in sailing and navigation, so he can report
intelligently. If they want to report a pugilistic encounter,
they pick out a specialist in that department, so that he can un-
derstand the relative qualities of the fighters; if a billiard tour-
nament, they pick out an expert billiardist, knowing very well
that none but such can give a correct report. But when the
capitalist press wants to report a labor meeting, they pick out
the biggest jackass they can lay hands on, and just as soon as
they have ascertained the biggest jackass possible, they give
him the appointment, and that jackass must win his spurs or
his long ears, whatever the case may be.
The worst worry of his life, I should s ay, was the
Editor the natural born Socialist Editor.^* The terrific birth-
rate of this genus during De Leons life-time was simply amaz-
ing. The charged atmosphere these species could create when
their genius was rudely prevented from blossoming forth, was
such, at...”
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“...Leon had to attend to in those days,
eight oclock in the evening found him at the open-air meetings,
where large crowds were waiting to hear the Old Man, as De
Leon came to be known in the 16th Assembly District.
In the same year (1897) Lucien Sanial was the mayoralty
candidate of the Socialist Labor Party in Greater New York.
The vote of the party in the first election under the charter of
the Greater City was 16,000. There was quite a scramble among
the old party politicians for the spoils that lay in waiting for
the victors. Besides the regular nominations by Tammany
Hall and the Republican Party, there was Seth Low, president
of Columbia University, in the field, nominated for mayor by...”
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“...SINCE 89.
Political Action Repudiated
When by seating duly elected delegates St.
wnen, uy e Brigaders, the preamble
came supreme commander of the K convea-
fave the St. John clique tne oyi' ^ conven-
B.nm Oct. M8, .8..c
John relative to the argument "^e Leon s credent a
eltl'S'e b,
*DUrD. Leon, <> "Tb. Wtbet TD.nWDf
Extracts from St. Johns Arguments against Daniel De Leo .
A reader of these extracts, however, who would not
have known who De Leon and St
likely have concluded ^rwhat De Leon had to
lay 'Si's''thVbasei kind of misrepresentation that ly ^
Trautmann could have the audacity to put on paper. ,
After these happenings in Chicago the district counei s
of New York and Paterson, together with a number of loca
of tiew fpTpnre of I W W. organizations which
Tas^lS in Paterson. N. J., on Nov. 1. 1908. The delegates
to that conference declared that the doings of
If the former general officers had placed them outside of the
? W W The conference decided to esUblish new headquar-
ters in New York...”
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“...Self-seeking, Ignor-
ance, Slander, Mutiny, Treason, Confusion, and he slew them,
and the whirlpool of anarchic Charybdis did not swallow the
ship, though many of the crew sought safety and in fear fell
overboard or jumped to oblivion.
The Pilot diligently watched the compass and steered his
wheel. And his crew received inspiration from him, and cries
were heard from a few that had left the ship that its course
was insane; from a few that the Pilot was a poor navigator,
that the promised land lay in the opposite direction and that
he should steer backward.
The sea became calmer, the horizon clearer. Some of the
people who inhabited islands nearer to the great land thought
him a master pilot, for he had dared go so far and they shout-
ed encouragement to him. And in some of the islands crept
reptiles that hissed defeat. But the Pilot stood at the wheel
by night and by day, imparting great knowledge to the crew,
solaced by the presence of his life-companion and of his chil-
dren, making charts...”
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