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“...DANIEL DE LEON THE MAN AND HIS WORK A SYMPOSIUM ILLUSTRATED 4:,/V National Executive Committee Socialist Labor Party 45 Roe Si., Ntw York 1920...”
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“...could not perhaps be said and gathered any more and might be thus lost forever. Accordingly, I made an effort to free myself, for a short time at least, from all other work and bend to the task, hoping that, wherever I might fall short in regard to the manner and form of presentation, the reader might find compensation in the substance presented. ^ ^ Inasmuch as this is to be, chiefly, a narrative of the ac- tivity in our movement, and of the effect produced upon that movement, of the most notable man the movement has pro- duced, and only incidentally a narrative of the intimate asso- ciation that existed for so many years between him and my- self, I have endeavored to adhere closely to the text, deviating...”
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“...has not been an easy task to do justice either to the man or to the subject. For one thing, De Leon has not gone hence long enough to give all of us the proper perspective of his life and of his work; and, for another, the men and women of his own generation can not, in the nature of things, per- ceive always the full effect his life and his work have had and yet will have upon conditions, political, industrial and social. As the imposing figure of De Leon recedes into the past, and as the further evolution of our social system will add to man- kinds experience and produce new viewpoints, in that meas- ure will the effect of De Leons work come out clearer and ever clearer. Today, we may be prone often to fail in distin- guishing between cause and effect. A more distant historic perspective will bring out the one and the other, and, when that time has come, an abler hand may undertake to present to the world the true worth of the man as well as the true significance of his work. But such...”
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“...became later, the two be- coming more unlike each other as time went on. With the advent of De Leon, a powerful intellect and a masterful and commanding personality was brought to bear upon what was at first a decidedly peculiar situation. Looking backward over these many years, in the light of all that has happened since, and in the light of all I myself have learned, I can not today help thinking that we, the then N. E. C., and the entire Party for that matter, must have looked rather quaint to a man like De Leon. Gretsch and I were, sometimes (as the com- position of the body happened to change), the only ones on that committee able to speak English. Correspond- ence in that foreign tongue, unless dealing with simple rou- tine matters, had to be explained to the rest of the mem- bers. They were full of devotion to the cause as they. con- ceived it, many of them were excellent men in point of char- acter, but they were strangers in a strange land, called upon to handle a situation the pote...”
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“...of my co-members on the committee. Little did I know then w'hat the coming yearswould have in store for me and how the con- dition of comparative complacency, then prevailing, woul.1 change to one closely resembling a running battle with scarcely a breathing spell between different actions. I took office in September, 1891, and, from that time on, came into ever closer personal contact with De Leon, learning to know him per- haps as intimately as one man may know another. I was then just beyond 32 and De Leon was 7 years my senior. He a man of broad education, of much experience in life, of great in- tellectual force, whose active and comprehensive mind rapidly digested the new experience he was gaining through his con- nection with the Labor movement and, who, thereupon, force- fully reacted upon his environment. I, on the other hand, a proletarian, taken from the workshop and put into an office, still plastic, eager to learn, with some practical experience in the Labor movement, both in...”
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“...strength. It was as though Providence had first shaped and then selected him as an instrument to hold aloft Ac banner of the Social Revolution at a time and during a pe- nod when, seemingly, no one else could have so held it. And, oupled with these rugged characteristics of the leader, the forerunner, the pioneer of a new Social Order, were the more kozaan characteristics of the man, the friend, the companion, lite husband and father. Sunny of disposition, kindly, vivaci- wts, always ready with an anecdote or a jest, which latter he lad to get out of his system or bust as he often used to say, Daniel De Leon, the man, certainly was a being far dif- ferent from the horned and hoofed fiend his enemies used to depict him when, in their incessant assaults, they could find ao vulnerable spot in his armor and were compelled to resort to that style of warfare. The maxim, If you cant beat your foe, call him names, is as old as the human race rand is always new; perhaps it always will be. Still Boring...”
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“... being himself a German, he was in a position, up to 1899, to wield considerable influence within and upon the many German trade and other labor organiza- tions which, in the very nature of things in those days, had to serve as a fulcrum whenever the S. L. P. lever had to be ap- plied to dislodge some obstruction in the path of the revolu- tionary movement. Sanial, lacking this advantage of position, was, nevertheless, a valuable man. An effective and fluent speaker in English, despite his atrocious French accent, a writer of clear and forceful English, a man who had quite a reputation as a statistician, in physique broad-shouldered, heavy-set, of venerable appearance, he was the very antithesis of the rather undersized, frail and youngish-looking Vogt. Sanial certainly was a good third of the De Leon-Vogt-Sanial team. Vogt, cool, calculating, logical, and wielding a force- ful tongue and pen; Sanial, though old enough to have been Vogt s father, more mercurial in temperament, optimistic...”
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“...secured Thomas J. Morgan, of Chicago, a man who had evoluted from a machinist into a lawyer, a rather queer personality, as vain as a peacock and known all over the country as Tommy I. I. I. Morgan, which modification of his name he had earned by the constant re- iteration in his speeches of the personal pronoun, first per- son, singular. He had some reputation as a speaker and writer and had acquired further fame as the introducer of the famous "Plank 10," embodied in the program of the A. F. of L. at the Detroit convention, utterly disregarded by the of- ficialdom of the organization and then knocked out at the next convention, at Denver, Col. Morgan was a Socialist "too." His Plank 10, calling for the collective ownership of the means of production, was to transform the A. F. of L. into a Socialist body, not all at once but bye and bye, which explains that Tommy Morgan was the possessor of a robust optimism and withal a rather unsophisticated man, provided...”
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“...became certainty. The aforesaid call for the genera! vote, accompanied by a statement that set forth the succes- sive developments that had taken place, was issued on June 6, 1899, and the vote was to close on August 1 of that year. For the Volkszeitung, time was both short and precious; ac- tion of some sort had become imperative. Kangaroos Break Loose The fight that had raged for some time past now became still more intense. In the National Executive Committee there was just one loose wheel, a man named Stahl who, a out and out Volkszeitung supporter, tried to obstruct where he could Or thought he could but was powerless to do much more than just nag and irritate. But elsewhere the conspira- tors were better represented and they put up as vigorous a fight as they could. We fought in the Assembly District or- ganizations of Section Greater New York, we fought in the Volkszeitung Publishing Association, we fought in the local unions of the S. T. & L. A., we fought everywhere with ton- gue...”
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“...attitude of uncompromis- ing hostility to these interests, was not a thing to be preserved from the Volkszeitung point of view and its disruption, if it could be accomplished, was a risk gladly assumed without any qualms of conscience. In 1899 it was not difficult for a Socialist to properly ap- praise the true character of the A. F. of L.; and it was not difficult on September 2, 1909, while today, in 1918, its true character has become so unmistakable that it may readily be discerned by "the man in the street, but while mountains may heave and worlds may fall, so long as the New Yorker Volkszeitung sees in the pure and simple unions the pasture it must graze on, so long will it maintain its conception of "economic determinism. And that, of course, carries with it the defense of the A. F. of L. against the assaults of rev- olutionary Socialism and the maintenance of that champion of "Labor and Democracy as the united body of American unionism. Before closing this chapter, and taking leave...”
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“...REMINISCEN'CES OF DAX^IEL DE LEON. 25 around could do the right thing: Daniel De Leon. "His fights against the Knights of Labor, to whom he himself had belonged, against the A. F. of L. and the So- cialist Party, which he hated most heartily, no less than he hated the Volkszeitung, are too well known to our readers to deserve here more than passing mention. With the ex- ception of the K. of L., which at the time of the De Leon- Samal fight were already in a state of dissolution, the en- mity of this man never had any evil consequences for those attacked by him, the sufferer was almost always the Amer- lean working class which was by him entangled in struggles through which the capitalists alone would benefit. The reac- onaries in the A. F. of L. were for many years greatly aided by the formation, set on foot by De Leon, of the So- cialist Trade and Labor Alliance, and again, later, of the Industrial Workers of the World, and a Gompers, who would most likely have long ago been swept away by a pro-...”
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“...obedience to the pressure of the class struggle and that they furnished a legitimate field for our propaganda. The exception, when such unions are formed at the behest of the boss, does not alter this general fact. When such organiza- tions were formed, our men, as a rule better equipped than their fellow workers, w'ere looked to to take office. Forced to decline, because their Party forbid it, they were placed in a position which to maintain required more than can be ex- pected from the average man. Instead of the rank and file being impressed with the rectitude of their stand, it worked the other way. The rank and file naturally regarded such an attitude as an act of hostility against themselves, regarded the party that ordered it as a hostile force and its members in their union as instruments of that hostile force. Thus it meant that our members had to vacate the field and leave the labor faker in undisputed control. It was he and the S. P. that would profit. In the course of time, events...”
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“...REMINISCENCES OF DANIEL DE LEON. 31 us. He shaped matters so, while still in charge of the man- agement, that wage claims of his cronies, claims that he was supposed to have had cancelled and could have had if he acted in time, claims that the loyal Party members working on the paper did cancel, were left uncancelled and became in his hands so many clubs to assail the Party with. The sec- ond, Fiebiger, while he did not commit any positive act against the Party such as many of the others were guilty of, nevertheless condoned every act of rascality committed by the crew he was with, himself sued the Party for money he had advanced and did so at a time when he and Vogt had reason to believe, or thought they had, that now the psycho- logical moment had come to give the Party the last blow. The third. Sauter, did not do anything at that time, but later, after he had landed in the S. P., he published over his signa- ture, in an S. P. paper, the would-be witticism suggestin,g that the most a...”
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“...32 REMINISCENCES OF DANIEL DE LEON. arnend the constitution as to abolish the Board of Trustees form of organization and place the management of the paper directly into the hands of the N. E. C. The Partys vote so decided but, even prior to the taking of that vote, as early as 1901, trouble had been stalking abroad. There was on the Daily People staff a man named T. A. Hickey, a rather worth- less individual, irresponsible, blatant, shallow, an ardent dis- ciple of John Barleycorn and a crony and protege of Vogt. The latter had helped him out once before, when he had got himself in trouble with the N. E. C. in 1900, because he had got drunk and allowed meetings that he had been sent to cover to go to smash. The phyrric victory Hickey had gained at that time with the aid of Vogt and his followers, made him more impudent than ever and also less cautious. He had, in the spring of 1900, agitated in Pennsylvania, under the aus- pices of the State Executive Committee of that state, had taken...”
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“...REMINISCENCES OF DANIEL DE LEON. 35 sober a man for thatbut he had become infected with some scheme to build up a big printing plant, and the Daily People, demanding so many sacrifices, did not fit into that scheme at all. He had looked over the books, at least he said he had and by painting in the blackest tints all that looked unfavor- able, while at the same time withholding all information that tended the other way, he tried to sweep the N. E. C. off its feet. He failed. At that time, and with the conditions then prevailing, to propose to stop the paper by simple executive action was either hare-brained lunacy or it was an attempt to discredit the N. E. C. with the Partys membership. Short work was made of Pierce and .his scheme. Having made the statement that the heart had been taken out of him," he was asked to resign which he did. Lampooning Little Kangs We then entered what might rightly be called the period of lampoons. It rained lampoons from all sides, their au- thors proclaiming...”
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“...of a Convention is not a body recoo-- mzed by the constitution. Such a committee can not be sus- pended. Guess you will have to communicate officially with luc State Committee or the Section, or both, so as to get something tangible. I also think it would be well to send someone to Provi- dence, and some of the men, and ascertain to what extent the rank and file are hypnotized into making fools of them- ves, an getting material ready for a new organization. In many respects Brower is the fit man; he can connect with our Alliance men. The talk I had with O'Connor showed that they are onto Kroll, at least. It can not be possible that all those men are gone to the dogs. to alesf "tT organizations to a test. The section that does not give the thing a back- handed swipe is not worth the powder to blow it to hell. I dont break my head to fathom Curran. His policy satisfies me that he is deficient in thinking powers and is '^''Sht. But what does interest me is Jid fr? yPOg'-aphical errors seem...”
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“...late these fellows, as surely he would have done had the con- vention been decided iipon in a regular constitutional man- ner. I did not see the situation in that light at all, not believ- ing for a second that the S. L. P. membership could be stam- peded into voting for a special convention demanded by such men employing such methods. De Leon sizes up Curran quite correctly when he says the man hoped that the N. E, C. make the mistake of refusing to call for a general vote as that would have given him an opening to call a rump convention. De Leons next letter reads; Milford, Ct., July 8, 1902. morning your two letters en- I am glad to see they do not the Party. They make a show I would close my eyes at the false pretense, and call the thing simply irregular. Let them come to the convention. But I urge you not to oppose the holding of a convention. Remember, that many a man is merely roped into endorsing such a R. I. proposition, but if the N. E. C. acts in a way to make him think it wants...”
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“...must be observed that Sanial, too, had succumbed. When that investigation com- mittee came .from Pittsburgh he, already rotten-ripe for a fall, threw in his lot with the disrupters. An attempt was made to go and see him to talk matters over, but he evaded meeting the issue after he had at first agreed to meet a com- mittee of the N. E. C. Thereafter, not to be outdone by his confreres, he followed the prevailing fashion and issued a very sonorous lampoon. At the present day, Sanial is a very old man. After he had said good-bye to the S. L. P. he joined the S. P. and re- mained with that party for some years. But he left the S. P. a short time ago and the last heard of him was to the effect tliat, in conjunction with Simpson, Stokes, Spargo, A. M....”
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“...formidable or- ganization on the economic field, based upon the unqualified reco,gnition of the class struggle and all that implies. At the end of 1904, and the beginning of 1905, the N. E. C. had arranged for a national organizing and agitation tour, with Frank Bohn as the organizer and speaker. At the time of the national convention of the Party, in 1904, Bohn had come from Michigan as a delegate thereto, had taken an active part in that convention and had begun to be looked upon as a coming man. How he came and went will appear later, but in 1905, while en route on the aforesaid tour, he received at St Louis, Mo., an invitation to attend a conference to be' held at Chicago, 111., where said conference was to work out and adopt a manifesto to be addressed to the Workers of the World, calling upon them to form a new organization of Labor, based upon the class struggle and being industrial in form as opposed to the old craft union organizations. Bohn reported the matter to headquarters and...”
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“... the convention. When, finally, the meeting was decided on, it was too late for the Audito- rium, and the convention hall had to do. On the speakers question we beat down the crooks, as you know, and every- thing was in good trim. Thus stood matters up to Friday afternoon. By that time, I began to feel indisposed. For one thing the heat in Chicago during the convention week was intense; for another, the heat in the convention hall and in my committee room (Committee on Constitution with Sher- man who was elected President and with Moyer) was in- tenser; for still another, the work was still intenser; add to that the sooty atmosphere of Chicago, by noon of Friday I had a splitting headache. You know I am on the lookout against apoplexy. This was the alternativeeither join the demonstration of the ratification meeting and then run the risk of breaking the Milwaukee, possibly also the St. Paul date, or give these dates a chance and let the ratification meeting go. My decision depended upon...”