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“...ratio of 16 ounces of
silver to 1 ounce of gold. The Populist Party had, inciden-
tally, been swallowed, hide and hair, by the Democratic Party
when Bryan raised the free silver standard and became their
joint nominee for President. The free silver craze, an eco-
nomic absurdity flying in the face of the very cornerstone of
Socialist economics, the law of exchange value, had to be
combatted by us and we had thus to occupy a rather difficult
position, appearing to the ignorant as though we were sup-
porting the position of the pro-gold-standard Republicans.
The work of that campaign imposed heavy burdens upon De
Leon who, with speech and pen, had to maintain the Partys
position under these difficult conditions, in addition taking
upon himself the candidacy for Member of Congress, in the
old 9th Congressional District, where he conducted a very
vigorous campaign and polled a vote of 4,300....”
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“...adopted and applied, but
it does not explain how the leaders of the European move-
ment could remain so cold and so unsympathetic and so un-
interested towards these policies which encompassed the
wfiole range of Socialist thought and action. One would rea-
son that the principles of industrial unionism, providing that
form of organization of the working class which enable it to
take and hold and administer the industries of the land when
the day is here to expropriate the expropriators" and to sup-
plant the political state with the Industrial Socialist Repub-
iic, and which also and at the same time provide the form
of organization that can most effectively conduct the work-
ing class struggle in present society, that such principles
would appeal to the intellect of these men and cause them to
exert themselves to also make them the intellectual property
of their rank and file.
Yet what did we see? We have seen a De Leon carrying
this message to them again and again, yet hardly able to
make...”
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“...drinkespecially the latter.
A number of times I was elected chairman at the session
of the general committee^ a job which was not an easy one.
There were always from ten to twenty hands raised asking
for the floor and not all could be permitted to speak at the
same time, and there was not enough time to have all speak in
succession. Some had to be disappointed. The delegate who
raised his hand first and asked for the floor in the proper man-
ner was recognized. The minority delegates were never sup-
pressed. On one occasion the Liedertafel elected a new dele-
gate, who came to the general committee with his mind made
up to tell De Leon and the rest what he thought of them. He
did not ask for the floor in the usual manner, that is by rising
from his seat and addressing the chair; instead he made wild
gestures, snapped his fingers, etc., and as he could not arrest
my attention he finally whistled at me. He had to wait, how-
ever, until those had spoken who asked for the floor in a de-
cent...”
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“...their per capita tax. The miles upon miles of freight
trains running into the various railroad yards of Chicago still
kept on running undiminished in number, but nary a one was
directed to 148 W. Madison street, filled with dollars, half dol-
lars, quarters, dimes, nickels, or even coppers, and President
Sherman waited in vain.
On the other hand, the I. W. W., cleansed of the Sherman
gang, again made headway. Though the new administration
was left without as much as a postage stamp in funds or sup-
plies, money was soon gathered, a new headquarters fitted out
in Bush Temple, and the work of organization continued.
Trautmann retained his post as secretary-treasurer; St. John
was elected general organizer; and Edwards became the editor
of the Industrial Union Bulletin, the weekly then started bv
the I. W. W.
To all industrial unionists who were rightly informed upon
what took place in Chicago at the second I. W. W. convention
it was clear that the cause of the fight was the attempt on the...”
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“...Blamed by His Enemies
Surely, it had to be that De Leon was the cause of all the
splits in the labor movement. Was he not in the Knights of
Labor and was there not a split in that organization? Was he
not a member of the Socialist Labor Party, and was there not
a split there? Even in the Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance
there was a split. So there had to be a split in the I. W. W.
So argued the pure and simple politicians, and a credulous
audience was not wanting. They cited the old proverb in sup-
port of their generalities, that where there is so much smoke,
there must be some fire. No specific act of De Leons in the
Knights of Labor, the Socialist Labor Party, or the Socialist
Trade and Labor Alliance was ever referred to, unless some
of the weird tales, such as were whispered by Algernon Lee
(that De Leon was a Bismark spy) and by others of the same
ilk (that De Leon was a South American Indian) can be called
such. To the superstitious it was even whispered that De
Leon had underground...”
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