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“...2 REMINISCENCES OF DANIEL DE LEON.
therefrom only when considerations of historic accuracy made
it necessary to refer to matters on which we were fated to dif-
fer in spite of otherwise undisturbed and harmonious rela-
tions, both official and personal.
It 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...”
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“... his belt. The
unconstitutionality of his course, though expected by him to
act upon the N. E. C. like a red rag before a bull, is so clever-
ly woven that it will fail to strike many, and nothing but a
call for a general vote by the N. E. C. itself, with the Curran
charges for the subject of the special convention, will save
such members. I have said enough. We have knocked him
out at each move. We can knock him out for good now, and
clear the atmosphere immensely. Frankly, I have a sneaking
leaning for a convention. The subjects these people bring
up are all worth thorough exposition.
"Is anything being done to find out who was at that con-
vention, and what it did really do, and who in R. I. approved
of this lampoon?
Fraternally,
D. De Leon.
In the foregoing letter De Leon goes into the subject
quite closely, considering all possible contingencies. Being
away from headquarters, and depending upon information
most if not all of which had to be indirect and second-hand...”
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“... such of our members who are born
strategists and who think that these unity conferences pan
be used to maneuver the S. P. into an untenable position.
These fail to understand the peculiar jelly-fish character of
the S. P. organization. They reason from an S. L. P. organ-
ization viewpointtoo much so. It is true that the S. L. P.,
caught in a position that violates accepted tenets of the move-
ment, would suffer in standing and in morale, but the S. P.
never.
And if there be such of our members as really yearn for
unity with the S. P. on sentimental grounds, who have not
gotten over deploring the split and all that sort of thing,
let these by all means unite and leave us alone to fight our
own battles. At best they do not understand and live entire-
ly in the past. Political parties and movements are not im-
mutable; they are organic structures changing with changing
conditions of which conditions they are the products. The
lay of the land in the United States is today...”
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“...no
DANIEL DE LEONOUR COMRADE.
dominant; it is dominated. This takes us back to my scepti-
cism regarding your expectations of such an Open Letter being
published by the S. P. privately-owned pressespecially when
the letter comes from a notorious S. L. P. national officer. I
dont want to discourage you. Try your plan. But I fail to un-
derstand the ground on which you base your expectation of
reaching that desired proletarian element in the S. P. through
a press that is owned by the very leaders whom you recognize
the proletarians are fighting.
You ask me whether I do not believe that if the letter is
all right the plan is all right too? I smile. All the more 'all
right the letter is, meseems the plan will prove the reverse of
all rightthe S. P. press will not give it publication. The evi-
dence, to me conclusive, is that the S. P. is developing from
left to right. Its leadership is waxing more and more reac-
tionaryand they own the press.
Feb. 2, 1909.Last night I...”
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“... revolutionary quirements
pSupTwi."* iodly! onr'thI, in
element in the Socialist Party was believed to be wher
as in the decade that has passed since it has proved itself to
be very much like the rest of the Socialist Party-revolut.on-
MLrhft?me,Towever,^when by pressure
capitalism threatening the whole labor movement,
ment of revolutionary forces was actually industrial
like Debs to fail to appear at a convention of the Indust
Workers of the World when it was known that ^
^how its head and would have to be combatted was
fenay the working class. Before relating ^ -
b 1, ntno-c at the second convention of the inaustnai
X,k,, of .he Would .om. of the .e.i.itie, d oceur.euee.
in the Socialist Labor Party should be ,
Henry Kuhn resigned as national secretary of the party, a...”
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“... sitting there. That sort of argument
wont do. If a charge is false against us we must see to it
that that charge has no hook upon which it can be hung, and
failing that, we fail in our duty.
Now, as to the errors that crop out of Caminitas brain.
He certainly is perpetrating a joke, or else he is woefully mis-
informed.
He said if you keep the political clause in here, then it
S a Socialist organization, but if you will strike out the po-
litical clause then you will be greeted as an economic or-
ganization. Why, that is a brand new discovery. Socialism
IS the gospel of the labor movement. Socialism says that la-
bor produces all wealth, but under the capitalist system of
production it is not a human being, it is merchandise, and
there is no hope of anybody recruiting his wages, and cap-
italism will lead to worse and worse conditions. That is So-
cialism, and Socialism says that the emancipation of the work-
ing class must be brought about by the collective ownership
of...”
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“... on the misery of mankind.
Learned teacher, untiring advocate, revered friend, the
class to whom he devoted the best years of his life will hold
him in grateful memory. Hammered brass and sculptured
stone shall fail to save from oblivion the names of those who
sordidly and selfishly pursued their own gain or advantage,
but when a triumphant working class shall writeas write
they willthe story of these stirring, trying times, his name
will be acclaimed foremost among their champions. Let us
in dedicating this day to him dedicate ourselves to the cause
he espoused so manfully and devotedly, and thereby add
greater glory to him who taught us how to harness and direct
a revolution and put a bit into the mouth of chance....”
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