Your search within this document for 'show' resulted in 26 matching pages.
 
1

“...PART II From 1896 to 1906.Enemy Machinations against Party Policy.Kangaroo Outbreak. Kanglets Imitation of Same.Formation of I. W. W. Formulates Policy of Industrial Unionism. The election over, the internal situation of the Party or- ganization again required attention. The opposition against the Partys trade union policy began to show signs of pos- sessing some degree of organization in a greater measure than had been the case theretofore. In a country like ours, where, to a greater extent than elsewhere, the capitalist class is dependent for its political dominance upon working class votes, it is by virtue of that fact and by the very instinct of self-preservation impelled to watch closely any attempt, on the part of any portion of the working class, that may be menacing to capitalist interests. We may safely take for granted that the steady growth of the S. L. P. did not escape its attention; likewise we may take for granted that the po- tential dangers of that growth were fully understood...”
2

“...convention of the Party, held in New York, June 2 to June 8, 1900, the largest, the most enthusiastic and the most fateful conven- tion the Party had ever held. Prior to the convention, the local and general situation, having shaped itself as the result of the bitter strife, had led to premature action towards the establishment of the Daily People. At a general meeting of the membership of New York and vicinity, called to consider this matter, a plausible statement was submitted which tried to show how, by doing this and by not doing something else, the funds in hand would be sufficient to see the venture through. Not being able to see things in the rosy light pre- sented, I opposed, but such was the enthusiasm of the meet- ing, such the desire for action that would place into the Par- tys hands a daily paper to meet the constant attacks of the daily Volkszeitung, that I stood praetically alone and the motion to begin publication on July 1, 1900, was carried over- whelmingly. Thus, at the...”
3

“...REMINISCENCES OF DANIEL DE LEON. 39 haps, be obliged to descend still farther along the zoological scale and, finally, get down to the field mouse. Rhode Islandiana In all these attempts to capture a Party that did not want to be captured, as soon as the conspirators found that they had lost, they concentrated the batteries of their abuse upon De Leon. It is true, other Party officers came in for their , share, but he was by far the chief beneficiary, which goes to show that they reasoned not so incorrectly after all, clearly discerning that he was their chief obstacle. When the first information about the Curran-Reid-Keiser move had reached me, though I had not yet seen the lampoon itself, I had writ- ten to De Leon, then at Milford, Conn., so as to keep him posted. He replied as follows: Milford, Ct, July 5, 1902. Dear Kuhn:Necessarily incomplete as must be the in- formation contained in yours of yesterday on the R. I. call for a national convention, I can form no opinion. It may simply...”
4

“...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 no convention, then he goes wholly over. By taking the stand that I outline, such people will easily be held straight, an.i the R. I. crooks will find themselves left. "As to the document...”
5

“...that the former gave me. Of course, we knew Pierce to be a liar. I also received this morning yesterdays and todays People together. The action of the N. Y. State Committee I find good. Such action, even perhaps more emphatic, should come from Sections, State Committees and individuals. They must repudiate the Curran Jesuit move, both as to its meth- ods and its contents, and I shall certainly watch with inter- est the conduct of such bodies. They are brought squarely to the touch, and can now show what there is in them. But for the same reason I regret to see your Warning* in yesterdays People. In the first place you ought to be cautious. It may be said your office does not authorize you to address the Party members except as the mouthpiece of the N. E. C. A color is given to the claim that you pre- judged. In the second place. I hold that In this particular Curran issue the N. E. C. should act with studied neutrality. The Curran statement aims, true enough, at killing The Peo- ple: but...”
6

“...52 REMINISCENCES OF DANIEL DE LEON. tionary Socialist, fighting the working class battle on the highest civilized plane that is possible today, may be per- secuted by a capitalist government. That has been done in the past the world over and is likely to be done in the fu- ture, but that theythe I. W. W.so conducted their "or- ganization as themselves to furnish a handle to their prose- cutors making it possible to convict them on their own show- ing as sabotagers, physical forcists and as men disregarding the political institutions of the land, that is the real offense from the standpoint of the Labor movement. In the last analysis it is the movement that will be saddled with a good portion of the responsibility for the folly and the misdeeds of the comparatively few. De Leon in 1908, with prophetic vision, told them just where they would land, but like so many others before them they would and did not heed. Dc Leon on I. W. W. Convention Returning again to the time prior to that first...”
7

“...54 REMINISCENCES OF DANIEL DE LEON. been back on the 5th. He had not yet returned by noon of the 7th (the ratification meeting day) and there were ru- mors that he would not be back in time. If he appeared at the meeting, then my absence would be construed as a demonstration against him; if he did not show up and I did, then his absence might be construed as a demonstration against me. In view of all this, I went to my hotel, undressed and put cracked ice on my head, and arranged with Shaynin (I ant called for my bath; shall continue later). "Here I am again. The weather is pleasant. I had a two hours sleep. Begin to feel like myself. Well, to pro- ceed. I arranged with Shaynin that he was to go to the hall and keep me posted by telephone. There was a telephone in my room. The first message was 7.45no Debs; secon#, 8.00no Debs; third, 8.15no Debs; fourth, 8.30meeting in full blast and no Debs. I breathed freely. If Debs had turned up, I would have taken my chances of a stroke of apo- plexy;...”
8

“...as a fisherman uses a pond. In the fall of that same year, 1908, the regular state election was due in New York state and, in due time, the S. L. P. held its nominating convention. Bohn was a delegate to that convention, and so was I. Many of us sus- pected that for a good while past he had maintained close connections with S. P. circles and that he was plotting, but he had not yet been unmasked and could still obtain the votes of unsuspecting members. But "as murder will out, so did he have to show his hand in the end, and he did so at the time of this convention. On my way to the meeting room on the top floor of the Daily People building, then located at 28 City Hall Place, I stopped at De Leons office as was my habit when in the building. De Leon, as soon as he saw me, exclaimed: "You are just the man I wanted to see; look at this!handing over to me a letter. It was a letter Bohn had written to B. Reinstein, at Buffalo, N. Y., wherein he sought to draw Reinstein into the support of a plot...”
9

“...any rate, he was not on hand when the committee on credentials made its report. I deferred action, preferring that he be present at the coming exposure. But he failed to turn up and I finally asked for the floor on a matter of per- sonal privilege, exposed his treasonable scheming and moved that as a matter of form his seat in the convention be de- clared vacant and that the contents of the letter be made part of the record of the convention. Towards the close of the convention he finally did show up and he was then curtly in- formed that he had been unseated. Thereupon he landed in the S. P.naturally. Next we see him in the role of an or- ganizer of the Anarchist Chicago I. W. W., raiding the head- quarters of the Detroit I. W. W. (now the W. I. I. U.) at Paterson, N. J., driving up with a truck in the dead of night and, with the aid of several henchmen, carrying off the furniture of the organization. After that he again turns to national politics," and we see him in the New York Times...”
10

“...reminiscences of DANIEL DE LEON. 67 ther existence of our movement be continually called in ques, tion, for that is the inevitable impression created upon the public mind as well as upon our own membership, we simply weaken and injure our movement to that extent. We show a lack of faith in the correctness of our position, which show- ing or which lack-whichever it be-tends to demoralize us md CCIUS6 discord in our rBnks. Europe Blind to American Conditions Far more weighty are the objections upon the ground of principles and tactics. The unity resolutions of the Interna- tional_ Congresses, from whence our unity advocates derived their inspiration were adopted with an eye to European con- ditions and with scarcely a thought of us in America We were, to them, a negligible quantity anyway. These con- gresses, as De Leon correctly stated at the 1900 National Convention of the Party, were really peace demonstrations and their unity resolutions manifestations of the instinct of self-preservation...”
11

“... never to be switched aside from our course, never to barter ulti- mate aim for temporary gain no matter what the allurements In the words of De Leons favorite hymn we must Dare to be a Daniel, Dare to stand alone; Dare to have a purpose firm. Dare to make it known----- and when we arc approached by such as cry "peace whe* there is no peace, or propose "unity with something there can be no unity with, it is for us to knock that proposition squarely on the head and then utilize it as a text to show why there can not be such a thing. Armageddon Breaking Loose In 1914 we saw how the productive forces of society, having outgrown the social forms within which they were confined, blew up with much eclat, drenching a world in blood of which drenching the end is not yet. We also saw how the majority of the Socialist parties of Europe were drawn into the swirl of events and became active participants in the up- heaval on one side or the other of the conflict. By this I do not mean that the individual...”
12

“...Leon was a BRAND in many important particulars. A passage in a private letter also serves to make clear this essential trustfulness, hopefulness, and belief in man. This letter from which I quote was written to me in 1908, after the split in the I. W. W. As to my having been over-confident with regard to some men, I must plead not guilty. My enemies charge me with fighting people unnecessarily. Fact is I uniformly go the full length, fullest length, possible of giving people the opiportunity to show what good there is in them, if any, for the movement. All these men who have gone to the dogs gave promise of better things. There is in all of them some good that was useful in the movement. Unfortunately the evil prevailedand what caused it to prevail is that greatest fatality of all: the existence of a party that calls itself Social- ist, that the capitalist press finds its account in booming, that thereby is in a condition to fill the public eye and ear, and thereby to cause its debauchery...”
13

“...continued his smoking. A little later Flower met Darling and asked: Who is that eccentric ^old lan smoking a clay pipe? Darling answered: Oh! He s a Chicago millionaire and doesnt care a damn about the Gov- ernor of New York State 1 When Elizabeth Flynn was commencing to be hailed as a sevfen-day wonder, she naturally wanted to show herself off to De Leon. She was appropriately gotten up for the occa- sion, including a volume of Peoples Marx which rested on her arm. After the usual formalities had been gone through, De Leon said abruptly: Let me see what you read while you are traveling about the city. Oh, just People s Marx, said the presumptuous youngster. Now, I will show you what I read, said De Leon, laughingly, and pulled out from his satchel a copy of Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. ^'*^De Leon, himself a great linguist, continually either poked...”
14

“...in season and out of season, to exhibit its possessions and luxuries. An- other anecdote shows how neatly he could rap this class over the fingers. It was on board the steamer which took De Leon back to America after he had attended the International Socialist Con- gress at Stuttgart in 1907. A crowd had gathered in the salon, most of them belonging to the bumptious and snobbish mo- ney aristocracy. Someone asked what the hour was, and this afforded a welcome opportunity to these gentlemen to show off. Watch after watch was pulled out, and everyone boasted of his particular timepieceits work and jewels, where it was bought and, of course, how much it had cost. Enormous amounts running into the hundreds of dollars were mentioned. Finally De Leon pulled out his watch and began to brag. He stated seriously and solemnly that nobody else had such a won- derful watch as his. The curiosity of the crowd was aroused. The watch passed from hand to hand and it was turned and turned, looked at on the...”
15

“...DANIEL DE LEONOUR COMRADE. 107 dy]t you touch upon a thing that has given me not a little worry. I have all along been apprehensive that some of those Knipperdollings would throw a bomb. That apprehension is substantially 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...”
16

“...1886 a Single Taxer. 1888, a Nationalist. 1889, a Socialist (?) 1899. a nominee through the favor of a Tam- many Police Board aided by Republicans yviiat Next ? A foreigner bimMlf he hates and denonncea every tsreign bom citizen. Me Soctalist, no henest worhinginail can rote fqg this man. Semember, the Socialist Labor Party hao' no. ticket in the field this year. 16. Asuscuibly District, S. I.. Pi The following two documents, the first printed i Ger-^ man, the second in both German and Jewish, show that the zealous Kangaroos left no stone unturned in order to expose this vicious adventurer. To the Organized Workers of Greater New YorkI Friends and Comrades: The election is at our door and how shall class-conscious workingmen vote? This is the question which every worker, who has fully grasped his class position, must put to himself. Perhaps never before has the working class of New York been forced into a position like the present one. The faction, functioning in the elections of this year...”
17

“...election and agitate with tongue and pen amongst your unsuspecting fellow workers. ABSTENTION FROM VOTING IS THE SLOGAN! Whatever the clique, DE LEON, VOGT and KUHN, may undertake to suppress or to hush the true revolutionary spirit of the time, and, with the aid of capitalist politicians to overcome Socialismit is in vain! Next year we shall again be on the field of battle, whilst De Leon, Vogt and consorts shall He shattered on the ground, overwhelmed by the workers or- ganized in trades unions. Show that you comprehend the shame perpetrated upon you, in that you do NOT VOTE! AWAY FROM THE BALLOT BOX THIS YEAR! DO NOT VOTE! By order of the United German Trades Unions, repre- sented in the Parade Committee of the S. L. P. After the foregoing wind-up there follows, on the leaflet, in big, flaring type, covering one-half of a page, the following: DO NOT VOTEl ABSTENTION FROM VOTING IS THE SLOGAN! II. VOTERS! READ WHAT THE SOCIALISTS [SAY?] ABOUT DANIEL DE LEON, THE ADVENTURER, WHO LIVES ON 84th...”
18

“...22 WITH DE LEON SINCE '89. ings in District 49, Knights of Labor, and also the inner work- ings of the A. F. of L. craft unions, their relationship with the employing class, and their inherent tendencies to fasten tighter the chains of wage slavery upon the workers, because of that relationship. It is necessary to show the futility of the boring from within policy in an organization started in many cases by the bosses themselves, as was the case with many a local of the Brewery Workers; or the identity of fancied as well as real immediate material interest with the small manufacturer against the large companies, as in the case of the Cigar Mak- ers. Besides these factors, the material interest of labor lead- ers whose numbers were legion must be understood. Only by having a clear insight into all this, is it to be made plain that to bore from within under such conditions was like playing against loaded dice. Only by knowing how many soft jobs were made insecure, and the immediate material...”
19

“...Vulgar Language The spokesman of the opposition in that district was one Loewenthal, a brother-in-law of Jablinovsky. He came to ev- ery meeting with a new accusation, and was in every instance s.iown up to be unreliable; yet was sure to come with another story the following meeting. At one meeting the allegation \-ould be made that De Leon had used unduly harsh language .against some official of the A. F. of L., when in fact the un- duly harsh language was not half harsh enough, as De Leon would show. At the next meeting again Loewenthal would come with a claim that the general committee was dictatorial m Its dealings with subdivisions. When facts disproved this some other accusation was made at the next meeting...”
20

“...WITH DE LEON SINCE 89. 85 did not show any signs of dying, in spite of the loss of votes. Those who remained in the Socialist Labor Party were convinced that the party had taken the correct stand, and that sooner or later the working class would realize this fact and turn to the Socialist Labor Party; that the logic of events, to- gether with the educational work of the Daily People would raise the S. L. P. to be recognized as the only party of So- cialism. The devotion, the sacrifices, the work in behalf of the maintenance of the Daily People will forever remain the bright- est day in the life of the party. On the day of its birth, after a march through the streets several hundred comrades waited until four oclock in the morning to receive the first copy of the paper, the first, and in fact the only. Socialist daily ever published in the English language. The building situated at 2-6 New Reade street, the birthplace of the Daily People, was torn down several years ago. The party members...”