| 1 |
 |
“...REMINISCENCES OF DANIEL DE LEON.
43
thing. On the whole he seemed to favor a special conven-
tion, doubtless because he felt the urge to meet and annihi-
late these fellows, as surely he would have done had the con-
vention been decided iipon in a regular constitutional man-
ner. I did not see the situation in that light at all, not 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...”
|
|
| 2 |
 |
“... (stating also exactly when the steno-
graphic report will begin to appear) just as soon as Chase
will have perfected arrangements with the stenographer for
transcribing the notes. I have referred him to Chase with
whom he was to communicate immediately. I find I have
not his address; by this mail I am writing to Clarence Smith
to send Chase the stenographers address immediately, so
that Chase can initiate the correspondence should the stenog-
rapher not be as prompt as he promised. CONVENTION
MEMBERS AND SYMPATHIZERS WANT THE RE-
PORT. The Coates-Simons clique maneuvred to take the
stenographic report from our hands and then pigeon-hole it
We foiled them.
^ would suggest that certain episodes of the con-
vention report be given the right of way. Haywood also is
of that opinion, seeing that it would otherwise take very long
before those episodes would appear in the regular course.
The episodes are the following in the following order: a)
Ratification meeting; b) Episode on...”
|
|
| 3 |
 |
“...REMINISCENCES OF DANIEL DE LEON. 63
Natural History of Mr. Frank Bohn
A purpose of future usefulness will be served if we now
digress a little and devote a little space to the further evolu-
tion of Mr. Frank Bohn. Having ceased to be the National
Secretary, he continued for a time to linger in the Partys
ranks, intending to use it, it may be supposed, 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...”
|
|
| 4 |
 |
“...
windward and is trimming its sails for readers. It has be-
come downright disreputablea regular asylum for such ele-
ments as the Eberts, Williamses, and I-am-a-buras generally....”
|
|
| 5 |
 |
“...120
DANIEL DE LEONOUR COMRADE.
Dont Vote for Frauds I
The Socialist Labot Party has.BO TicJtet
in the field this yeat.
Candidates under the 'Sr emblem are DOt
Socialists. That Embleih was Stolen irom
the regular Party.
Don't vote for De-Leon. He is an enemy
of Labor, a wrecker of labor organi
.Nations, an adTenturer, who has done
more mischief in workers- ranks, thaj
any other fiend of organized labor.
HIS record:
tSS4i a paid spellbinder for the Democratic
party-r
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...”
|
|
| 6 |
 |
“... vengeance against the tyrant Dee Leawn. The so-
cial question remained unsolved 1
The man or woman who called on De Leon with a real
purpose concerning the great cause, for which alone De Leon
labored, always received merited attention, it mattered not who
the individual happened to be. No matter how great was the
volume of work that De Leon had to attend to in those days,
eight oclock in the evening found him at the open-air meetings,
where large crowds were waiting to hear the Old Man, as De
Leon came to be known in the 16th Assembly District.
In the same year (1897) Lucien Sanial was the mayoralty
candidate of the Socialist Labor Party in Greater New York.
The vote of the party in the first election under the charter of
the Greater City was 16,000. There was quite a scramble among
the old party politicians for the spoils that lay in waiting for
the victors. Besides the regular nominations by Tammany
Hall and the Republican Party, there was Seth Low, president
of Columbia...”
|
|
| 7 |
 |
“...66 WITH DE LEON SINCE 89.
ter against Abelson, for in his capacity as organizer he had on
several occasions to execute orders of the general committee
IB reorganizing some unruly subdivisions. Sometimes they
called Abelson re-organizer.
Things did not turn out to be quite as easy as the dis-
rupters imagined. Henry Kuhn, in a neat parody on a song
known by all who speak German, summed up this revolution
in the S. L. P. To this day I remember every line:
(Wir saszen so froehlich beisammen.)
We sat all so snugly together.
And held one another so dear;
We gave each a lift in his business.
Had that lasted the coast had been clear;
But it could not forever remain thus,
A malevolent fate cut it short,
That Cuckoo, De Leon, the old cuss.
Kicked us out and himself holds the fort.
First Attempt at Physical Force
On July 8, 1899, the general committee of Section Nev
York was to hold its regular meeting and elect officers for the
ensuing six months. The meetings of the...”
|
|
| 8 |
 |
“... the funeral of the Socialist Labor Party; how
many kegs of beer were consumed in addition to the regular
supply only God and the brewing company know. They were
a sadly disappointed Liedertafel, for the Socialist Labor Party...”
|
|
| 9 |
 |
“..., which, however, had a disastrous effect upon the physi-
cally weaker man, Vogt. This partaking of stimulants became
a regular habit among a few other members, until several o...”
|
|
| 10 |
 |
“...ISO WITH DE LEON SINCE 89.
and tone of the articles in the Industrial Union Bulletin be-
came more and more hostile toward political action in general
and toward the Socialist Labor Party in particular, and the
inclinations toward Anarchistic methods more pronounced.
Overall Brigade at 1908 Convention
Finally, it was announced that the Overall Brigade was
coming in force from the Far West to attend the convention.
This Overall Brigade was really not what the name would
seem to imply, namely, men in their working clothes, but con-
sisted of that element that traveled on freight trains from one
Western town to the other, holding street meetings that were
opened with the song, Hallelujah, Im a Bum, and closed
with passing the hat, in regular Salvation Army fashion.
The Overall Brigaders," though they traveled in box
cars where conductors do not collect fares, were nevertheless
upholders of organized labor ethicsthey would only steal
rides on railroad lines that employed...”
|
|
| 11 |
 |
“... to esUblish new headquar-
ters in New York city, and elected a general secretary and a
general executive board to serve .til a regular convention
ccvld be held.
The acts of the conference were endorsed by all locals
there represented. The pirates in Chicago were repudiated by
the I W W. organizations generally, as shown by the fact
Jhat of the entire membership that voted on the
issued by the Trautmann-St. John Administration, the hig -
est vote cast on any subject was 970, and only th^e issues of
the Industrial Union Bulletin appeared after that packed
convention had done its deadly work....”
|
|