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“... packed the convention with
a lot of plug-ugly delegates, many of them representing purely
fictitious locals, and had refused to seat properly accredited
delegates from bona fide organizations, amongst these De
Leon himself.
This element, once it found itself in control, promptly Un-
did the work of the 1905 convention; the political clause of the
preamble, or declaration of principles, was eliminated and the
organization placed squarely upon a physical force basis. Sub-
sequent history has demonstrated, amply and convincingly, the
logical and inevitable consequences that flow from assuming
such a posture; the Anarchists did what they are always fated
to do, furnish the raison detre for the police spy, demoralize
the working class and discredit the very name of Labor. The
career of the I. W. W. since 1908, most of this time under
the leadership of Haywood, furnishes a striking lesson of
what not to do, a lesson that should not be lost sight of by
any^ thinking workingman...”
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“... vote, that there was no Socialist ticket
in the field, that De Leon had been expelled from the party,
and that he was a union wrecker. Tammany held the same
language.
Feverish Work to Beat De Leon
The scum of the great metropolis was let loose in the 16th;
so great was the fear that De Leon would carry the district
that open-air meetings of the Socialist Labor Party were
broken up by the police. Big Chief Devery, then head of
the whole police department of New York city, sardonically
answered the Sections protest with the reply that the meet-
ings of the Socialist Labor Party were interfered with because
the Democratic Party had applied to hold meetings on the very
same corners a long time ahead of the Socialist Labor Party.
On the day of election I saw a Socialist Labor Party chal-
lenger at the polls slugged by plug-uglies, such as are not seen
by daylight at any other time of the year, but who make their
appearance on election day and who appeared in profusion in...”
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