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“...suspension of the three signers and of
every organization that refuses to bounce them. They, in
trying to make themselves safe by a not too flagrant or im-
pudent violation of the constitution, have actually hanged
themselves: they enable the N. E. C. to take the attitude of
complete neutrality in a Party row, and thereby to afford the
Party a legal way to smite them. I hope the tone in your
Warning was a mere outburst of just and excusable indigna-
tion, and that the N. E. C. will take the course I map out:
Condemn the R. I. method as unconstitutional and unwar-
ranted, and at the same time submit to the membership the
question whether they care to have a special convention on
the R. I. matter. In that way the best good is obtained.
Either the membership is stalwart or it is timid.
If stalwart, it will vote NO on the N. E. C. call; and the
Curran crew will thereby get a double slap in the face; their
call is ignored, and their purpose is knocked down by the NO.
If the membership is timid and...”
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“...organization. After that he again turns to
national politics," and we see him in the New York Times
advocating, day after day, the election of Woodrow Wilson
as President of the United States. Again he appears, in the
company of Gompers, Sanial, Simpson, Spargo, Simons,
Stokes, etc., etc., as one of the founders of the National Al-
liance of Labor and Democracy"; again in the New York
Times as a writer on international or world politics, dis-
pensing, ex cathedra, opinions on the redrawing of the map
of Europe and sundry other matters; and, more recently, he
went with Mr. Gompers, Russell, Spargo and a few other
socialists on a quasi government mission to convince the
Socialists of England, France and Italy of the error of their
ways, from which mission he seems just to have returned.
Verily, Mr. Frank Bohn is a very versatile man, at home in...”
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“...WITH DE LEON SINCE 89. 65
The most despicable methods were employed to attain this
end. Fellows who had not bothered with the Socialist move-
ment for years were proposed and taken in as members; those
of the opposition who had been in arrears for months paid up
their dues to be able to vote for delegates to the general com-
mittee. De Leon had to be decapitated. It was all nicely map-
ped out by the Volkszeitung board of directors, board of edi-
tors, managers, assistant managers, etc., also by the members
of blue label leagues as well as by members of label leagues of
other colors. Raus mit De Leon! they cried in chorus.
One J. Obrist, who claimed to be on the side of the loyal
members, but who turned only a few weeks before the split,
told me that De Leon had to be removed because he had failed
to capture Debs. Obrist was regarded as an important per-
sonage by the opposition. He at first fought against the slan-
derbund of the Volkszeitung, but when the question of Who
pays the taxes...”
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“...WITH DE LEOX SINCE 89. 93
them formed the brotherhood of booze that was bound to
have serious consequences and deplorable results.
Again, in other quarters at this same period members who
had at first no connections with this brotheVhood began to
find fault with the party administration. The principal ones
were a few members of the party in Pittsburgh, Pa., at that
time a bright spot on the map of the Socialist Labor Party.
Among the latter was the secretary of the Pennsylvania State
Committee, Eberle, and his associates Goff, Adams, Schulberg,
and others. They contended that Pittsburgh should be the seat
of the national headquarters of the party, that the organization
of the Socialist Labor Party and the Alliance was more for-
midable there than in New York; that there was a greater
tonnage of wealth produced in the Pittsburgh district than
elsewhere (which was quite true, as pig iron is heavy of
weight); that Pittsburgh was the logical center; that head-
quarters should be moved to Pittsburgh...”
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