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“...said De Leon and 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...”
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“...insignificant, actually amounting
to nothing, failed even more egregiously than the Kangs. These
had to be taken notice of, the Kanglets can even be ignored. I
know that they are smothering in their own rage to see I take
no note of them, of their silly paper, or of their silly selves.
Had I been less on my guard, they would have been less un-
happy.
Here are a couple of the best anecdotes that I know, relat-
ing to this subject.
At one of the I. W. W. conventions some one got up and
raved in the usual billingsgate fashion. When he finally cried
out pointing to De Leon-"This Pope, this rabbi, De Leon
rose calmly and asked the floor on a question of personal
privilege.^ Mr. Chairman, he said, We are getting ourselves
into religious complications here, which we had better straight-
en out before we become entangled beyond recall. I am per-
fectly willing to be a Pope; I am perfectly willing to be a rabbi,
but I insist upon having a ruling from the chair whether I am
to be a rabbi or a Pope, for...”
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“...130 DANIEL DE LEONOUR COMRADE,
calls De Leon the most abusive fellow he ever met, just be-
cause he had been completely disarmed by De Leons quick
wit and kindly, razor-edged humor.
At a meeting in one of the middle western cities, after a
lecture, the usual crop of questions on the difference was being
fired at him, when a very irate little man came running up to-
ward the platform and in a strong German accent cried out:
You are a Pope, you are a Pope. Come, now, said De Leon
with a smile, You cant even spell Pope.* Yes, I can,
shouted the angry man, B O B E, and with that the audience
was in convulsions.
To illustrate the fun we used to extract out of this foolish
abuse and vituperation, and how the rest of us became imbued
with his own good humor in regards to it, I quote a stanza
from one of the birthday effusions which we sang at him on
his sixtieth birthday:
His adventures have been numerous, terror to poor Kan-
garoo,
Speared the elephant, kicked the donkey, kept old Sammy
on the...”
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“...ternal delegate from the British trade unions, there was a con-
vention held in Albany, N. Y., of all A. F. of L. trade unions
in New York state. At this convention I was a delegate, rep-
resenting the Trades and Labor Council of Troy, N. Y. Samuel
Gompers was there too, having come as a delegate from Lo-
cal 144, International Cigar Makers Union. There were seven
or eight members of the Socialist Labor Party at that conven-
tion. Naturally the political action resolution was trotted
out in the usual manner and defeated in the same way. There
were, however, some things that I observed that should be
related here.
Gompers, of course with much ado, posing, and attempts
at eloquence, warned the delegates not to leave the path of
trade unionism pure and simple; he told the delegates that in
some of the European countries where the Socialist political
movement was stronger than the economic organization, the
workers toiled longer hours and received starvation wages, etc.,
etc.
The noteworthy things...”
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“...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 manner. When his turn finally came he was so over-
wrought with anger that he started his speech by cursing. He
did not proceed further than the curse; down came the gavel
with a crash; the delegate of the Liedertafel was...”
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“..."kangaroos" loved to tell the tale of how Kautsky dis-
liked De Leon. Perhaps Kautsky did; it does not do much
honor to Kautsky if true. Most likely it is true. The authors
of such resolutions and Daniel De Leon have not much ia
common.
Sanial and the Ninnies
Lucien Sanial headed the delegation of the Socialist Labor
Party to Paris. I used to take pride in being able to imitate
Sanials French accent, which was so pronounced that once
after a mass meeting held at Cooper Union, where Sanial was.
as usual then, one of the principal speakers, a comrade who had
not attended our meetings before, wanted to know who the
man was that had spoken in French! Sanials report was in-
teresting, and my desire to reproduce all Sanial said and the
way he said it to the members of my dear old 22nd Assembly
District, has left an impression still in my memory. Samal said:
1 was on the commission that had to deal with the Kaut-
sky resolution; so was Jaures, whom I severely criticized. In
answer to my criticism Jaures...”
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“...Liebknecht arrived there to deliver his lecture. I in-
tended to ask Liebknecht a couple of questions relative to his
revolutionary position and Socialist Party revisionism, and
made my intentions known to Socialist Party members in St.
Paul and Minneapolis with whom I had had many tilts during
my stay there and previous to the arrival of Liebknecht. I
never asked these questions, however, for no sooner had Lieb-
knecht concluded his lecture than a singing society closed the
meeting with the usual Tendenz-Lieder.
Liebknecht impressed me as a true revolutionist, more by
his manner of speech than by what he said. There were no
attempts to reach heights of eloquence, no affectation or
stage-strutting.
Not having the chance to ask a question publicly, I tried
to have my question answered after the meeting was over. In
company with several other S. L. P. members I introduced
myself to Liebknecht, but the S. P.ites formed a cordon around
Liebknecht and I did not get further than the introduction...”
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