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GOLDEN JUBILEE
of DE LEONISM

1890-1940

Commemorating the

Fiftieth Anniversary of the

Founding of the

Socialist Labor Party

Published by thu
^CIALIST LABOR PARTY, OF AMERICA
1940

GOLDEN JUBILEE

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SOCIALIST LABOR PARTY

^"sfn. Tern 3

B>' ARNOLD PETERSEN

THE SOIL AND ROOTS

of the

SOCIALIST LABOR PARTY

^^:

HE history ot the Socialist Labor Party
is the history of workhig class develop-
ment. — Thus wrote the author of a Social- \
ist Labor Party booklet published in 1907
under the tide, ''American Industrial Evolution."
The author of these lines expressed a truth greater
and more significant than he probably realized. The
statement is true in a twofold sense. First, in the
sense that the Socialist Labor Party, since its incep-
tion, has been flesh and bone, so to speak, of the
WT)rking class of America : the struggles of the Amer-
ican proletariat have been reflected in the history and
activities of the Socialist Labor Party during the fifty
years of its existence as a Marxian Socialist political
organization, and each and every one of the assaults
made upon the S.L>.P., from whatever quarter, has
been an assault upon the premises from which the
working class must necessarily and inescapably pro-
ceed in order to achieve freedom. Secondly, in tlie
sense that the intellectual development of the Social-
ist Labor Party reflects the crystallization of Amer-
ican labor as a class, with definite class interests, and
with homogeneous class characteristics as distin-
guished from the interests and characteristics of the
property-OAvning, or exploiting, class. In the mea-
sure that the economic mould of American industrial
society has transformed American labor from its
more primitive, individualized craft existence, into
functioning as a highly coordinated, collectivized and
thoroughly disciplined industrial body, in that same
measure has the Socialist Labor Party grown and
become transformed from the early uncertain, grop-
ing beginnings to its present existence as a sound, sci-

entific organization, definite as to purpose, certain as
to means and measures, and as unvanquishable as the
w^orking class itself. The observation quoted be-
comes even more relevant if we include in the his-
tory of the Socialist Labor Party those early begin-
nings when it was know^i as the Socialistic Labor
Party, though, as De Leon insisted, and as he might
have phrased it, in the language of Shakespeare:
The present S.L.P. is to its early forerunner as Hy-
perion to a satyr!

Actually the present S.L.P. dates its existence
from 1890, which is why this year we are celebrating
the Golden Jubilee of the Party. In 1900 De Leon
wa-ote :

"It is said, in a loose way, that the Socialist La-
bor Party is tw'enty and even more years old. The
statement is, however, essentially false. There was
no Socialist Labor Party until the campaign of 1890.
It is from then the Party dates. What was before
w^as a debating society, stamped with the characteris-
tics of one Alexander Jonas, poltroonish, ignorant,
pretentious and thoroughly alien, hating the country
and its people, unable, in short, to do anything. It
is since 1890 that the Socialist Labor Party dates its
actual existence."

And again In 1903 De Leon repeated and ampli-
fied as follow^s:

''There was, before 1890, an organization by the
name of Socialistic Labor Party. It w^ent off and on
Into local elections. It w^as wholly controlled by the
Volkszeitiing and some other 'old timers,' who used

671529

GOLDEN JUBILEE

it to raise funds Avith from Tom Piatt. The thing
went out of existence In 1890.'*

De Leon should know, since he had personal
knowledge of the individuals in control of the Social-
istic Labor Party, and particularly of the worthless
Alexander Jonas. Moreover, De Leon s judgment
coincides with that of Frederick Engels, who spoke
of the Jonas crowd in terms as contemptuous as
these: ''With them [the V olkszeittmg crowd in con-
trol of the Socialistic Labor Party] the movement is
business, and 'business Is business.' " !

Llowever, though we agree with De Leon that
as a Marxian organization the S.L.P. was born in
1890, we may, perhaps, be permitted to stretch a
point and say that the crude, primitive beginnings of
the S.L.P. are to be sought in that earlier movement
known as the Socialistic Labor Party, which was
founded In the city of Newark on December 26,
1877. It is true that that earlier movement was
scarcely a party In anything but name, although those
in control were political actlonists first, and trade
unionists second, If at all, while the opposing element
cared little or nothing about political action, but con-
sidered trade unionism the only thing really worth
while. Yet, if from the suffix "ic" we may Infer
something apologetic — that is, that the Socialistic
Labor Party wasn't really Socialist, or Marxist, but
something aspiring to be such, or something that
vaguely expressed the confused Utopian notions of
the "radicals" of the day — If we so infer, and thus
clearly acknowledge the fact of the crudeness of
these early beginnings, I do not believe that In in-
cluding these early beginnings as part of S.L.P. his-
tory, w^e shall do serious violence to the otherwise
legitimate claim that the true S.L.P. as we now knoAV
it really is fifty, and not sixty-three years old this
year!-

Let us, then, briefly review the period which Im-
mediately preceded the nineties, and consider some
of the events and struggles of this formative period
In the history of the modern American Socialist
movement. I do not Intend to recite the familiar
facts already recorded, except in passing, here and
there, but to bring out a few not so familiar facts,
and to sketch roughly the background of the Party,
using such material as may seem relevant, picked
from the records of the time, or from the byways,
so to speak, of the period preceding the nineties,

The fact w^hlch stands out strikingly above all
others Is that the Socialist Labor Party since 1890
has been a characteristically native product, a typical

American Institution, as American as pumpkin pie or
corn on the cob ! One need not delve deeply into the
past in order to verify this fact. It is stupid, to say
the least, to maintain that Socialism is an importa-
tion, that because Marx and Engels were Germans
therefore Socialism is a German product, and so on-
and so forth. It is true, of course, that Marx and
Engels gave Socialism Its scientific basis. But, in
the first place, If it had not been Marx and Engels
it would have been some one else. All history at-
tests that when social and economic development
reaches certain heights, the needs that press for satis-
faction are satisfied, and this applies to basic mate^
rial or economic needs, as well as purely intellectual
or ideological cravings. The history of human so-
ciety, and of the human race, establishes beyond per-
adventure the fact of the oneness of the human
mind, to use Morgan's phrase, or, as he put It, "the
history of the human race is one In source, one in ex-
perience, and one In progress." Inventions and dis-
coveries, he said, "tend to show. . . .the uniformity
of the operations of the human mind in similar con-
ditions of society."

And so, If Marx and Engels, or some other Eu-
ropean thinker, had not discovered and laid bare the
scientific principles underlying Socialism, It would
have been an American who would have made these
discoveries, and In the light of our present knowledge
and understanding we are justified In saying that the
discoverer would probably have been the immortal
Daniel De Leon, a thinker as American as anyone
can be If we Include the Americas In our concept of
America.

Secondly, the struggles fought, and the aspira-
tions voiced by American Labor, and the utterances
of the early pioneers in the labor movement, estab-
lish the fact, as far as thought and language can do
so, that the native American worker, once stirred into
action, is as radical, as relentless, and as irreverent
of traditions as any working class anywhere and at
any time, if not more so. Long before Marx wrote
and labored — indeed, while he was yet only a child —
native-born American radicals voiced demands that
today would send shivers up and dow^n the spines of
our plutocracy and their loyal poodles. We all re-
call the famous program formulated by Thomas
Skidmore, and rationalized In his book published in
1829.'^ I quote this brief, characteristic passage
from Skidmore's book to emphasize the point:

"Inasmuch as great wealth is an instrument
Avhich Is uniformly used to extort from others their
property, it ought to be taken away from its pos-

*"The Rights of Man to Property, etc'

SOCIALIST LABOR PARTY

sessors on the same principle that a sword or a pistol
may be wrested from a robber, who shall undertake
to accomplish the same effect in a different manner, . .
''The steam-engine is not injurious to the poor,
when they can have the benefit of it, and this, on sup-
position, being always the case, instead of being
looked upon as a curse would be hailed as a blessing.
If, then, it is seen that the steam-engine [as private
property] for example is likely gready to impoverish
or destroy the poor, what have they to do, but to
lay hold of it and make it their own? Let them ap-
propriate also, in the same w^ay, the cotton factories,
the iron foundries, the rolling mills, houses ......

ships, goods, steamboats, fields of agriculture, etc.,
etc., etc as is their right."

Surely, nothing could be more radical, or, rather,
revolutionary, than that, and anyone expressing such
sacrilegious words today would surely be denounced
by the church as an enemy of religion, of the family
and of our morals, and by the plutocracy as an alien
agitator who should at least be deported to the place
whence he came !

Moreover, the history of the American labor
movement, long before Marxian principles were
known or understood, is a history of strikes, mostly

violent; of rebellions against the State powers, and
of contempt for laws il they stood in the way of the
workers' achieving their objectives, Avhich, by the
w^ay, were singularly modest as measured against
present-day standards. Let us dismiss, then, this non-
sense about Socialism and its demands being alien in
origin and nature, and treat the subject In the manner
of adults who are neither ashamed, nor yet too
proud, of the childhood of our class and nation.

IIL

The Civil War prepared the ground for the mocl-
ern class struggle in America on a scale and in a
manner unparalleled anywhere else. A predatory
ruling class emerged, finding itself in possession of
a continent, or at least found a continent ripe to be
picked by it, with fabulous natural wealth, inexhaus-
tible resources, and with a labor force at its command
which, however transient, was forever replenished
by the never-ending stream flowing into the country
from Europe. Many, of course, continued west-
w^ard, but hundreds of thousands settled in the east-
ern cities — in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Bal-
timore and so forth, and, in the Middle West, in
Chicago, notably — most of these being German,
Irish and, later, Jewish immigrants. It is an amus-

^HIB

"Puck's" Thanksgiving Dinner to the Destitute and Disappointed Politicians and Labor Agitators

{Note Father McGlynn's dejection and Henry George's baleful expression. This and all other
reproductions jrom ''Puck'* appearing in this issue are from *' Puck's" files for 1887.)

GOLDEN JUBILEE

ing commentary upon the Socialism-is-an-importation
notion that the most unruly and, on the whole, the
most lawless among these newcomers were the Irish,
despite the fact that they w^ere more political-minded
than the others, and despite the fact that so many of
them later became minions of the law. As unruly
rebels, and outstanding among those practising vio-
lence, these Irish proletarians (practically all of
them devout Roman Catholics) put the more placid,
and supposedly Socialist-tainted Germans entirely in
the shade. We have no time to cite examples, but
the Molly Maguires is but one concrete example of
this lawlessness among supposedly God-fearing,
church-loving and authority-respecting people!

It was in this environment, and largely among
such elements, that the Socialistic Labor Party had
to Avork. The movement w^as predominantly Ger-
man, since many of the members were refugees from
Germany, having fled from the persecutions of the
Bismarck regime. At the head of the Socialistic La-
bor Party, organized in Newark sixty-three years
ago, there was nevertheless a native American, a
Phillip Van Patten, the National Secretary and, ac-
cording to Commons and Associates, an active Social-
ist from 1876 to 1884. These eight years were
among the stormiest in the formative period of the
political movement of labor, ushering in the decade
of violence and cruel repression of labor by the
bloated, power-drunk and corrupt plutocracy that
arose from the ruins of the Civil War. The Cleve-

I Told You So!

Puck: "German beer and Irish Whiskey will never mix!"

{"Puck's'' comment on the expulsion of the "Socialistic" representa-
tiz^s from the George-McGlynn ''United Labor party.'')

land campaign of 1884, commencing this decade,
was one of the high-lights in this period, the Hay-
market tragedy of 1886 another. Grover Cleveland
had become the darling of the middle and lower lay-
ers of the capitalist class — the same Cleveland who
in 1894 was to prove that a "liberal," even a "radi-
caP' capitaHst President of the United States will re-
spond as readily, if not more so, to the call of the
plutocracy as to the demands of those who insured
his election, whenever the interests of the capitalist
class as a whole demand it. His promptness in send-
ing troops into Chicago in 1894, over the protests of
Governor Altgeld of Illinois, to crush the Pullman
strike, proves the point.

However, during the seventies and early eighties
the Socialistic Labor Party was continually torn with
factional fights, and the greatest looseness in respect
to organizational matters prevailed. Decisions of the
Party as a whole would be openly flouted, now by
this, now by that group, and heated discussions went
on almost uninterruptedly for and against political
action, for and against trade union activities, for and
against Greenbackism, for and against anarchism
(which, of course, had raised Its ugly head), but no-
where was the line-up definite, no one took a clear
stand on any question. Secessions were frequent
and, although the Party Executive made a show of
preserving some sort of discipline, it was quite in-
capable of enforcing decisions, if indeed it ever cared
very much about doing so. A characteristic sidelight
on this organizational looseness is given in the pro-
ceedings of the Sixth National Convention of the So-
cialistic: Labor Party held at Buffalo In September,
1887. The convention adopted a resolution on Par-
ty members' participating in the campaigns of other
so-called labor parties, from which I quote:

"Resolved, To recommend to the members wher-
ever one or more labor parties are in the field, to
support that party which is the most progressive;
that is, the platform and principles of which comes
[sic] nearest to ours, and at least recognizes the con-
flict between capital and labor; but members shall
not be permitted to participate in the founding of
new parties, tvhen there is no well-founded reason to
believe that the same shall fully recognize our prin-
ciples J^ (Italics mine.)

This resolution might correctly have been labeled
"A Resolution Affirming the Political Bankruptcy of
the Socialistic Labor Party"! As we see, it was ac-
cepted quite as a matter of course that the members
might support any other party they chose, just as
long as they were satisfied that it was the "nearest
to ours." In Buffalo "nearest" might be ten miles.

SOCIALIST LABOR PARTY

in Chicago it might be a hundred niile^, while in, say,
St. Louis, "nearest" might be a thousand miles or
more to the party's platform and "principles." ! ! It
is true that the resolution also provided that where
a local Section had endorsed a certain "political
movement," the members w^ere required to abide by
the Section's decision, but we have no reason to sup-
pose that the local Sections seriously attempted, or
that they in fact were capable of compelling mem-
bers, to abide by the Section's decisions in this respect.
We note also wnth interest the innocuous phrase,
"recognize the conflict between capital and labor,"
evidently intended as a veiled affirmation of the class
struggle as the basis of the labor movement. But
even this mild, and actually meaningless, phrase was
challenged by a delegate w^ho w^anted to delete it. He
finally withdrew^ his objection, apparently being as-
sured that the phrase was intended to convey noth-
ing that was not obvious on its face — that is, that
there certainly were conflicts betw^een capital and
labor!

Incidentally, this political bankruptcy of the So-
cialistic Labor Party reminds one of the present sta-
tus and attitude of the so-called Socialist party, which
in recent years has gone around looking for "labor"
parties where the hapless S.P. members might play
political action more or less as they please. This is
simply one more proof of the bankruptcy of the Nor-
man Thomas party which thus, 52 years after the
Socialistic Labor Party passed its resolution and af-
ter all the experience made during these many years,
is reverting to the primitive tactics of the eighties,
thus rounding the circle of fusion, confusion and
compromise ! But it is more than a proof of the bank-
ruptcy of the reformistic and bourgeois Socialist
party. It is proof also of the utter criminality of the
attempt made forty years ago to destroy the Social-
ist Labor Party, proof of the utter futility, and
worse, of the entire career and activities of the so-
called Socialist party. By each and every one of the
standards acclaimed by the Socialist party to prove
that it w^as right and De Leonism wa'ong, the direct
opposite has been established. The Socialist party,
in point of its ovv^n theories, is exactly w^here it was
forty years ago, and from the view^point of numbers,
and the material success it claimed during at least
the first two decades of its existence, it constitutes a
monument of complete failure. It is idle to speculate,
but surely in view of all that has happened, it is not
unreasonable to assume that If the Socialist Labor
Party had not been faced wuth tremendous handi-
caps during these many years of a bogus Socialist
party, there might today be in this country a vastly
better understanding of revolutionary Socialism and

1^-

A Tough Job for the Atlas of the Labor World

Henry George: 'Tf you fellows up there don't keep quiet^
I shall have to drop the whole thing!"

(Pleased with the noisy dissension in the United Labor party
*'Puck" ridicules the party and its leader.)

a far greater, numerically speaking. Socialist Labor
Party. From any viewpoint, however, De Leonism.
has emerged as triumphantly as w^hat w-e might call
Hillquitism has subsided ignominiously. The crime
of the Social Democratic politicians is equal at least
to the crime of the present-day Stalinist corrupters of
working class thought, and both have contributed in
equal measure to the disruption of the revolutionary
elements in this country, and to the prevention of the
rise of a numerically pow^erful revolutionary Marx-
ian movement.

IV.

But let us revert to the general situation as it
prevailed in the eighties — that decade which by bour-
geois waiters has been called the "elegant eighties/*
but which more properly might be called the
" 'elendig' eighties" — that is, the eighties of work-
ing class misery and wretchedness. As we noted be-
fore, In the great eastern cities there had settled a
large immigrant element, chiefly Irish and German.

GOLDEN JUBILEE

The Irish were particularly audihle, partly because
they had the backing, of course, of the Catholic
Church, and partly because many of them achieved
leadership in labor unions. Since the forties, as a
direct result of the cruel maltreatment of the Irish
peasantry at the hands of the brutal British ruling
class, thousands upon thousands had departed from
the "auld sod," taking with them bitter memories of
a ruined land, strewn with hundreds of thousands of
corpses, the victims of evictions and the potato crop
failures. As one historian tells us :

"In 1846 alone 50,000 families. . . .w^ere evicted
for not paying their rents. Their huts were leveled
to the earth and they w^ere left to die. During those
hunger years there was bountiful food in sight of
the famine victims. , . . [all of which was exported
to England by the English absentee landlords]. The
Irish peasants ate grass. They ate seaweed. They
ate rotting potatoes. In the midst of plenty, at the
door of the w^ealthiest nation in the w^orld, 729,033
victims died. . . . each death was a preventable death.
Each death w^as due to causes over which mankind
has control."

How familiar all this sounds. And nearly a
hundred years later we witness a similar spectacle in
this country, now *'the wTalthiest nation in the
world." But the methods of the modern capitalist
class are more refined. The ten million unemployed,
and the millions partly employed, do not actually
drop dead and rot in public sight. They do so quiet-
ly, decently, and only occasionally do individual cases
of particularly dramatic horror reach the front pages
of our newspapers.

However, as our historian points out, to the Eng-
lish ruling class "the famine seemed the act of God,
or else the purging of overburdened nature." And
he quotes the London Times of the day as saying
that Ireland "is being cleared quietly for the inter-
ests and luxury of humanity" — by humanity we are
to understand, of course, the brutal, cannibalistic
ruling class of England !

It w^as this Ireland Avhich during the forties and
succeeding decades furnished a vast portion of the
immigration to the United States, and It w^as these,
and their Immediate descendants, who, with their
bitter memories, contributed so actively and vocally
to the political ferment of the seventies and the
eighties. As our Irish historian puts it: "It [i.e.,
"the agony of emigration"] transferred to the broad
shoulders of the United States the burden of illiter-
acy and technical backwardness which had been cre-
ated by bad English government." (More correctly
our historian might have said, in the slightly para-

phrased language of Marx: which had been created
through the ''wholesale expropriation of the agricul-
tural population from the soil," the British landlord
and plutocratic class conquering "the field for capi-
talistic agriculture .... [making] the soil part and
parcel of capital. . . . [creating for American] indus-
tries the necessary supply of 'free' and outlawed pro-
letariat.")

In view of the chaos and confusion in the Social-
istic Labor Party, the ranting of the anarchists and
the futility of Greenbackism and similar movements,
together with the presence of a large group of im-
migrants from a country where possession of land,
however limited, was a passion; and backed as these
latter were by a church reaching out for power, and
determined to become one of the major forces in
American public life — In view of all this, it is under-
standable why the Henry George movement should
have proved such an amazing political success In the
eighties. Not that the church itself endorsed the
Henry George Single Tax Idea — on the contrary, it
was opposed by the hierarchy which naturally wanted
to hold on to its already considerable land holdings
which In time were to become vast — but many among
the alert and articulate Irish immigrants, or the sec-
ond generation, took to the idea, as did individual
members of the Catholic clergy, notable among
whom we find the famous Father McGlynn. (One of
the most active members of the Irish Fenian move-
ment, Michael Davitt, who visited America in 1878,
became quickly converted to the Single Tax theory,
and remained a friend and disciple of Henry
George.) Henry George, however, was largely with-
out an organization of his own. In August of 1886
a conference of various labor groups (including the
SocialistzV Labor Party) took place in New York
City for the purpose of launching an independent
campaign In behalf of labor. This movement was
largely directed by the Central Labor Union. This
body had been organized four years earlier as a re-
sult of a mass meeting which, according to Commons /
and Associates, had been called by one Robert Blis-
sert, "a journeyman tailor and refugee from Ireland,
'for the purpose of sending greetings to the workers
of Ireland In their struggle against English landlord-
ism.' " That mass meeting, presided over by Phillip
Van Patten, National Secretary of the Socialistic La-
bor Party, was dominated by the so-called Socialist
element, and the declaration adopted followed the
familiar pattern, and was, on the whole, remarkablv
clear in Its pronouncements, viz., that "there can be
no harmony between capital and labor under the
present Industrial system," giving the usual Socialist
reasons, though perhaps not in the very clear terms

SOCIALIST LABOR PARTl^

, imA4^ ^ ixK^t ys^^ J

"Just You Wait!!"

{With none of the contemporary awe for the Rmuan Catholic Church — and no illusions concerning
its political character — "Puck" taunted it unutcrcijully.)

of today. The resolution also urged unity oi labor,
without affiliation with capitalist parties, and stressed
the international character of the revolutionary labor
movement.

It w'as this group, and affiliated bodies, which
tour years later met to nominate a labor canclidatc
on a labor ticket. Because of his prominence, his
supposed radicalism and idealism, the man selected
as labor's candidate for mayor was Henry George.
To us today there is something incredibly lutlicrous
in the thought that on a ticket of labor there could
be placed as candidate this typically bourgeois pundit,
this philistine w^hose crude, and often naive, notions
of political economy might have fitted into an eight-
eenth or early nineteenth century environment, but
which certainly fitted least of all the United States!
Marx, discussing George's nostrums, pointedly que-
ried: 'iTow^ did it happen [George should have
asked] that in the United States, W'hcre, relatively
. . . .the land was accessible to the great mass of the
people and to a certain degree (again relatively)
still is [i.e., in 1881], capitalist economy and the cor-

responding enslavement of the working class have
developed more rapidly and shamelessly than in any
other country !"

In other words, here was a continent A^ith land
aplenty, still a>^ailable, on pioneer terms, to anyone
desiring it, thus fulfilling the condition demanded in
George's naive theory, and therefore, according to
Georgeism, presenting the de facto establishment of
what George and his successors and followers call
economic freedom. George, of course, did not uer-
ceive the Haw in his reasoning, namelv, that although
land obviously is basic, it is no more so than w^ater
or air or the sun's powxM*. Therefore, for George
to talk about land being the basic element made no
more sense than if he had said that w^ater or air w^as
basic. In the given social premises lanci atid the
means of production are basic — the one useless with-
out the other. Whence it foUoW'S that land as \^'ell
as the socially needed tools of production must be
owmed in common. If George had asked himself the
questions posed by Marx, and pondered the possible
answers, he might, granted the possession of the
requisite intellect and ability to reason logically, have

(Continued on page 41.)

GOLDEN JUBILEE

"WKen First We Met"

By Bertha C. De Leon.

/'^/V^Y meeting with De Leon was, seemingly,
III the sheerest accident — or was it, as we

I \ i hked to think, destiny, or a miracle, that
led to the crossing of our paths, when so
many probable occur-
rences might have pre-
vented the meeting?

Early in 1891, the N.
E.C. [of the Socialist La-
bor Party] sent De Leon
on a cross-country tour
as National Organizer.
Just before leaving for
the trip he met a casual
acquaintance on the
street, who, upon learn-
ing of the proposed tour,
said: "Be sure to go to
Independence, Kansas. I
have a brother who was
recently pastor of the
t o w n's Congregational
Church and there are a
few radicals he knew who
might become the nucleus
of a Section. I'll give you
some names." One was
the name of a house-
painter and the other was
mine, a teacher in the
public schools of the
town.

Kansas at this time, in
common \mth the Middle
West in particular, and
the United States in gen-
eral, w^as in an economic and political ferment, and
seething with discontent and anger. Mary Elizabeth
Lease was ranging the prairies, eloquently advising
the farmers to "raise less corn and more hell," which
w^as about all the Populists ever did do politically,
and that was not really of a very high temperature,
though the political fundamentalists thought it ex-

*With the permission of Mrs. Bertha C. De Leon, we are publish-
ing here for the first time the first instalment of her memoirs of her
famous husband. The story by Mrs. De Leon brings not only a
beautifully poignant and intimate glimpse of a very personal incident
in the life of a great man, but also a glimpse into an age that now al-
most seems as remote as that of the beginning of the country — an age
?lso which happens to be the very beginning of the Socialist Labor
Party's fifty years' history. To add more by way of introduction
would constitute an intrusion.

tremely hot and felt many misgivings about the "re-
volt."

In Independence, an incongruous group, an early
miniature "popular front," so to speak, led and

taught by the minister
mentioned before, had
got a glimmer of Marx,
or at least of the class
struggle, which was such
bitter medicine to many
that they hesitated to
take it. The ideas they
found in the "Christian
Socialist" magazine and
Edward Bellamy's
"Looking Backward,"
then being read by hun-
dreds of thousands who
were groping for light
and hope, were more
palatable to most of
them.

Whatever the weak-
nesses of our "Christian
Socialist" Club, most of
its members thought it
very radical indeed, and
so did many others. Pol-
iticians of the town and
county, together with the
comparatively wealthy,
salary-paying members
of the church, aided,
abetted and driven by the
orthodox and convention-
al of the various^other
churches in town before long had shoved the "bold"
pastor out of his church and the vicinity, and it fol-
lowed that by the spring of '91 our erstwhile "brave
and radical" "Christian Sociahst" Club had breathed
its last.

De Leon crossed the country to San Francisco;
he was returning and was in Kansas. A meeting at
Lawrence having fallen through, he decided to visit
Independence, though it was not on his schedule.
Seeking the house-painter and finding that he was
out of town, he reluctantly enough turned to the
public school teacher who, he feared, would not be
much of a Socialist.

He reached my home late in the day. It was

SOCIALIST LABOR PARTY

I I

Thursday, April 23, a heavenly, lilac-scented eve-
ning. I was in the garden when my young brother
came out, calling, "Visitor to see you."

I went in and as I entered the room and our eyes
met in the instant before either could speak, each
saici within, 'T am yours and you are mine." Self-
introductions followed and I was surprised and de-
lighted to meet the author of the "Voice of Madi-
son," perhaps the one solid article that had appeared
in "The Nationalist," but I had never heard of the
much more important V\^EEKLY PEOPLE.

We spent a pleasant hour and decided that the
public meeting would have to be just the people I
could get together in my home by personal invitation
the coming Saturday evening. Twelve or fifteen
people came and seemed very much interested, but

no organization resulted. The class struggle, when
pinned up boldly anci starkly, where all who run may
read, was altogether too much for them.

De Leon left town the next day, but not without
a thrust at our early Kansas prohibition. He de-
clared that the only difference between "wet" New
York and ^'dry" Kansas was that in New York liquor
was bought in a saloon, whereas in Kansas it w^as
bought in a millinery store.

A correspondence betw^een us followed and on
June 10, 1892, we were married at the home of a for-
mer schoolmate of mine in South Norw^alk, Connec-
ticut, by the "radical" minister, and, the air being
"rosy and full of violins," we began our song of
songs that was to last until De Leon's untimely death
nearly twenty-two years later.

.ifefe^g^.

GOLDEN JUBILEE

Satire, Weapon of Truth

By Eric Hass.

ATIRE is the exclusive weapon of truth.
In the hands of Falsehood it is as useless
as a gun with a rubber barrel. "Truth is
quite beyond the reach of satire," wrote
James Russell Lowell. "There Is so brave a simplicity
in her, that she can no more be made ridiculous than
an oak or a pine." Anci from the days of the Greek
and Roman satirists, men of Truth have "winged
their polished darts" at error, themselves immune to
its sharp barb. Read the satires of Juvenal, Horace,
of Persius — who struck the highest note in Roman
satire — and you w^ill read the history of the errors
of their age.

Satirists have, it is true, indulged in rancorous
attacks on Truth and in good-natured persiflage, but
the former w^ere savorless even to their times, and
the latter, history, in her discriminating wisdom,
failed to record.

The thrusts which are long remembered are not
only those w^hich are aimed at error, but those aimed
at error of consequence. For it is not enough that a
thing be wrong to be subject for satire. It must also
be important.

"Satire's my weapon, but I'm too discreet
To run amuck and tilt at all I meet" —

sang the celebrated English poet, Alexander Pope.

And when Horace said the mountain labored
and brought forth a mouse, he did not mean that the
mouse was important, but that it became so by the
mighty expectations w^hich the pompous delivery oc-
casioned. Moreover, a jest w^hich will not bear se-
rious examination Is false wit. Gravity is the proper
test of ridicule, said the Greek rhetorician, Gorgias.
By the same token ridicule is the proper test of
gravity; even as the test rule of addition is subtrac-
tion, and subtraction of addition.

How easily ridicule demolishes false argument
is demonstrated by the story of an Oxford scholar,
w^ho, on the occasion of a Christmas visit to his
home, declaimed on the art of logic w^hich he defined

as the art of making people believe whatever he
pleased. To demonstrate, he pointed to two mince
pies w^hlch had been placed on the table. "I avIU
prove," said the scholar to his parents, "that there
are three mince pies. Now^ you wull grant me this
one," he continued pointing to the pie on the left.
"Yes," replied his puzzled paternal parent half ex-
pecting a feat of magic. "And this is two," said the
scholar, pointing to the pie on the right. "No doubt,"
rejoined his parent. "Why, then," the young Plato
triumphantly exclaimed, "if you put one and two to-
gether, they make three!" "Wonderful!" cried the
father. "You, my dear wife, shall take one pie, I
another, and Tom shall have the third to encourage
him in the pursuit of such excellent studies."

Obviously, had the scholar contented himself
w^ith proving that two pies and one made three, he
might have defied all the ridicule of Rabelais.

Thus, satirists have tilted at error, conscious of
their power to aid Truth. The American humorist,
Artemus Ward, Avho eagerly sought to aAvaken mirth
and laughter, was profoundly conscious that he aimed
beyond fleeting emotion, at the heart and the mind.
Of the mission of the humorist he once soberly
WM'Ote :

"Humorous writers have ahvays done the most
tow^ard helping virtue on its pilgrimage, and the
truth has found more aid from them than from all
the grave polemists and solid writers that have ever
spoken or w^rltten. It was always so, and men have
borne battle for the right, with its grave truth fully
in mind, wnth an artillery of wit, that has silenced
the heavy batteries of formal discussion. They have
helped the truth along without encumbering it with
themselves. They have put it boldly forAvard and
stood behind it and hurled their fiery javelins at their
opponents till they have either fled inglorlously or
been entirely silenced. Rabelais — vile fellow as he
w^as and revolting to modern propriety and taste —
did immense w^ork for the reform that began con-
temporaneously w^ith him, and from Rabelais down

University of Texas
Austin, Jem

SOCIALIST LABOR PARTY

the shaft of ridicule has done more than the cloth-
yard arrows of solid argument in defending the
truth. Those who bolster up error and hate the
truth are still men and slow; men with no warm
blood; men who hate levity and the ebullitions of
wit; w^ho deprecate a joke of any kind, and run mad
at a pun. Like Dominie Sampson, they can fire
pointblank charges, but the warfare of flying artil-
lery annoys them. They can't wheel and charge and
fire, anci the attack in flank anci rear by the light
troops drives them to cover."

And of his own *'(^bullitions of wit" he wrote:
"... .1 have always meant the creatures of my
J)urlesques should stab Error and give Right a
friendly push."

As the purveyer of Falsehood is denied the use
of satire in his struggle with Truth, the exponent of
Truth is constrained to reject the ignoble weapons
of falsehood. He cannot lie, slander, distort or re-
sort to sophistry. With facts he must bombard the
enemy's position, and with logic undermine it. But
deadly though his facts and logic are, they become
even more lethal when accompanied by satire.

What is more natural, then, than for Socialism,
the synthesis of sociological and economic Truth, to
utilize this weapon in its exposure of that compen-
dium of evils, capitalism. And with satire it does
more than expose — it holds capitalism and its apolo-
gists up to dread derisive laughter and rouses in the
breasts of the classconscious proletariat an invigorat-
ing sense of exultation.

The great American Socialist pathfinder, Daniel
De Leon, whose biting wit rarely failed to arouse
anger in the w^eak as it fired the strong, once an-
swered a critic through the "Letter Box" of the
PEOPLE:

"Satire is a powerful weapon. No movement
may throw the weapon asicle without injury to its
arsenal As satire has its strength in facts, other-
wise concealed, that it brings home, only sound
movements and thoughts can forge the weapon. It
were folly to leave such a valuable weapon unused
because of the lack of intelligence of some to appre-
ciate it."

And De Leon used this weapon for all it was
worth, laughing pedantry, affectation, sophistry and
error into the lowest degrees of contempt. In
speeches, in editorials, in the "Letter Box" and in
the gravest discussions, De Leon unlimbered his ar-
tillery of wit. Examples are to be found in almost
any of his published works but we shall mention one
or two here.

What American Socialist has not roared Avith
laughter as he read the tale of Tom Watson, the
Jeffersonian Democrat on the Socialist Gridiron, one
of De Leon's most delightful, humorous and, with-
al, profound polemics? It was an evil day for Tom
Watson, editor of The Jeffersonian and fVatson's
Jeffersonian Magazine, when, armed cap-a-pie, he
strutted into the arena snorting all sorts of threats
and challenges against Socialism. Never was error
spitted more neatly and never did the apologist for
capitalism beat a more ignominious retreat. But to
appreciate this performance one must read it for
himself, for the humor cannot be separated from
De Leon's matchless Marxian logic.

In the "Letter Box" of the PEOPLE De Leon
let fly many a barbed shaft. His accuracy is best
judged by the howls of impotent rage which ema-
nated from the camp of the enemy whose boundless
hate for De Leon is as great today as when that
towering Marxist strung his bow. For when De
Leon demolished their theories he, not infrequently,
encroached upon their material interests, exposing
the rackets and fake movements by which they lived.

Examples of De Leon's wit as exhibited in the
"Letter Box" are almost numberless. We content
ourselves by reproducing only a few selected, more
or less, at random. To a correspondent who was
intrigued by the idea of sick and death benefits, he
wrote :

"Put your thinking cap on. Can aught be more
grotesquely absurd than the expectation of a manly,
revolutionary posture on the part of a man whose
horizon is bounded by his coffin, and whose conduct
is controlled by his anxiety to keep that coffin safe?
The unions that set up coffin benefits produce such
beings."

And in reply to a query concerning Max Hayes,
whom De Leon continually referred to as "her"
and "she," to the maddening discomfiture of that
would-be socialist and faker, De Leon replied:

"What answer Max Hayes made to the exposure
of her false statement that wages had gone up? Let's
think! — Oh, yes, she answered that De Leon had
drownecl his grandmother, or something equally to
the point, truthful and conclusive."

And, Indeed, the creatures who did not reply to
De Leon's logic with slander were few. But there
were some who were willing to admit that De Leon
was right, and that the PEOPLE was thoroughly
Marxist, but who hated De Leon and the S.LP
nonetheless.

"An enemy of the S.L.P. may recognize the

671529

GOLDEN JUBILEE

PEOPLE as 'a prime educator,' " wrote De Leon,
'' — but he will never be educated by it. Were he
capable of education he would not be an enemy.
Such folks generally have a screw loose — they rec-
ognize that 2 + 2 = 4; they admire the close reason-
ing that proves it; — but they hold to the lingering
hope that, after all, 2 + 2 may make 22 — in other
words that sunbeams may proceed from cucumbers."
And "such folks" usually returned to the lists,
either with their old shoddy wares or new schemes
with which to delude and confuse the workers. Some
seemed as incapable of smarting under the volleys
of wit w^hich riddled their arguments as they were
of learning from facts, reason and logic.

"No creature smarts so little as a fool.
Destroy his fib or sophistry — in vain!
The creature's at his dirty work again."

Nowhere in all the literature of Sociahsm is wit
appreciated by the student as much as in Marx's epic
analysis of capitalist economics, "Capital." Here the
founder of scientific Socialism meets sundry oppo-
nents with their fetishisms and specious contentions —
Senior's "last hour," the so-called "labor fund" theo-
ory, the alleged "abstinence" of the capitalists, etc. —
tearing their empiricisms to bits. So thorough is the
job done that the most robust mind following the
attack step by step feels the effects of mental exer-
tion. But this fatigue is banished, the wearied mind
exhilarated, by the rapier-like thrusts with which
Marx delivers the coup de grace.

The "economist," Nassau W. Senior, is the of-
fender for whom Marx reserved his most ironic
scorn. This vulgar doctrinaire had the doubtful
honor of having fathered at Manchester both the
strange contention that the profit of capital is the
product of the last hour of the twelve-hour working
day, and the sycophantic phrase, "abstinence," which
was supposed to explain the disparate riches in the
hands of the virtuous few. In dealing with this lat-
ter argument, Marx exposes its fallaciousness with
the following reductio ad absurdum :

"All the conditions for carrying on the labor-
process are suddenly converted into so many acts of
abstinence on the part of the capitalist. If the corn
is not all eaten, but part of it also sown — abstinence
of the capitalist. If the wine gets time to mature —

abstinence of the capitalist How the capitalists

as a class are to perform that feat, is a secret that
vulgar economy has hitherto obstinately refused to

divulge. Enough, that the world still jogs on, solely
through the self-chastisement of this modern penitent
of Vishnu, the capitalist- Not only accumulation, but
the 'simple conservation of capital requires a con-
stant effort to resist the temptation of consuming it.'
The simple dictates of humanity therefore plainly
enjoin the release of the capitalist from this martyr-
dom and temptation, in the same way that the Geor-
gian slave-owner w^as lately delivered, by the aboli-
tion of slavery, from the painful dilemma, w^hether
to squander the surplus-product lashed out of his
niggers, entirely in champagne, or whether to re-
convert a part of it, into more niggers and more
land."

The limits of the present sketch forbid more ex-
haustive exploration of Marx's works for additional
examples of his wit. The Avritings of Frederick En-
gels must also be passed over for a time, even though
this brilliant Socialist and polemlst has left us, inter-
spersed in his profound writings, a rich legacy of
salty satire. But we cannot ignore the Frenchman,
Paul Lafargue. Of those we have mentioned he
alone merits the title, "Socialist satirist." Marx,
Engels, De Leon, et al., capable though they were
of devastating wit, used satire sparingly. Lafargue,
on the contrary, has written satires^ i.e., w^hole works
which intensify the incongruities of capitalism. No-
table among these are his devastating "Religion of
Capital" and the volume bearing the strange title:
"For Sale: An Appetite." In the latter volume
Lafargue ridicules the gluttony of the rich as no
other author has ridiculed it, and yet between the
lines one finds a true and accurate picture of a sys-
tem almost cannibalistic in its class relationships — a
system in which the insatiable appetite of the ruhng
class feeds on the growing misery of the ruled.

In this solemn hour, when the world is engulfed
in the chaos capitalism has been steadily tending to-
ward for decades, satire is more than ever useful to
the cause which will ultimately restore order and
peace. The motley mixture of reform aspirations —
ideas many believed were swallowed in the past but
which are now regurgitated by a dying social order —
offer a multitude of targets both for the lightly
feathered shafts of satire and grinning broadsides of
wit. With writer's pen and caricaturist's crayon. So-
cialism supplements its heavy artillery of logic and
facts, conscious that its missiles smart and rout the
enemy as they invigorate and attract the friend.

€N<:

A History in
Caricature

Selected Cartoons

from the

WEEKLY PEOPLE

GOLDEN JUBILEE

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SOCIALIST LABOR PARTY

•7

The labor faker has no real
ambition. He is a cynic. He
does not seek to be what yoii
S'O neatly say ^'if hut a fly on
the fifth wheel of govern-
ment/^ so that he may have
some glory. Not he. Poltroon-
ery, the poltroonery of the
sow in quest of garbage, is his
characteristic. He may know
nothing of the laws of physics.
Intuitively, however, his sow
soul knows that the club of
power is felt less heavily by
him zvho is close to those who
wield it. He therefore tries to
get as close as he can to the
capitalists, not in search of
glory, but in search of sur-
cease of blows for his wretch-
ed carcass,

-De Leon.

The notion that pro-capi-
talist unions can be '^cap-
ture d'^ by ^'boring from
within^' is chimerical. The
pro-capitalist union is the
labor faker^s private do-
main. Either the ^^borers
from within^' bore to a pur-
pose and '^bore^^ their way
out — or their ''boring'' con-
sists of *^ snoring from with-
in.'' Socialisls have no illii-
sions. They agitate from
within and zvithout for the
demolition of pro-capitalist
unionism and the establish-
ment of Industrial Unions
of, by and for the working
class.

— Eric Hass.

The People, 1900

GOLDEN JUBILEE

The executive of the mod-
ern State is but a committee
for managing the common af-
fairs of the whole bourgeoisie.

— Communist Manifesto.

Today only crass political
ignorance can imagine that
bourgeois life must be held to-
gether by the State. The truth
is that the State is held togeth-
er by bourgeois life,

— Karl Marx.

Weekly People, May 10, 1917

THE INNOCENT— '^What's it called the Capitol for?"

THE WISE ONE : — ** 'Cause it's run for Capitalists^ of course."

'CONiSIDERL'THe LILIES

HOW T+IEV <jRQW'

Weekly People, December 12, 1917

THEY TOIL NOT, NEITHER DO THEY SPIN

. , . ,by 1929 the situa-
tion had become such that,
according to no fewer than
six surveys by conservative
economic agencies, three- '
fifths of the nation\s mate-
rial wealth was owned by
two percent of the citizens,

— Ferdinand Lundberg

SOCIALIST LABOR PARTY

Given the private ownership of combined elemenls of pro-
duction, and the capitalist class will congest ever more into
its ozvn hands the wealth of the land, zvhile the working class
must sink to ever deeper depths of poverty and dependence,
every mechanical improvement only giving fresh impetus to
the exaltation of the capitalist class and to the degradation
of the workingman.

The issues between the tzvo classes is one of life and
death; there are no two sides to it; there is no compromise
possible. Obviously, it is in the interest of the working class
that the issue be made and kept clear before the eyes of the
rank and file, and that capitalism be held up to their view in
all its revolting hideousness,

— De Leon.

Weekly People, September 19, 1914

"HELLO, SUCKER!"

Weekly People, December 12. 1914

GOLDEN JUBILEE

Weekly People, March 24, 1917

FIRST WORLD WAR.

That after the most tremendous war of modern times the conquer-
ing and the conquered hosts shoidd fraternize for the common massacre of
the proletariat — this unparalleled event does indicate, not as Bismarck
thinks, the final repression of a new society upheaving, but the crumbling
into dust of bourgeois society. The highest heroic effort of which old so-
ciety is still capable is national war; and this is now proved to be a mere
governmental humbug, intended to defer the struggle of the classes, and to
be thrown aside as soon as that class struggle bursts out in civil war. Class
rule is no longer able to disguise itself in a national uniform; the national
governments are one as against the proletariat!

— Karl Marx.

^^r// : ^y HONQR //AS 0£tN

Weekly People, March 24, 1917

SOCIALIST LABOR PARTY

CAPITALIST DEMOCRACY.

Bourgeois democracy [i.s] a

very limited^ a very hypocritical imtiUh
Hon, a paradise for the rich and a trap
and a delusion for the exploited and
poor.

— Lenin.

So long as the . . . .ruled class does not
feel its historic mission to overthrow the
ruling class throb in its veins, the veil of
democracy is kept unlifted from the face
of the riders.

— De Leon.

Weekly People, November 14, 1914

Weekly People, May 6, 1916

GOLDEN JUBILEE

Weekly People, December 16, 1922

// is no figure of speech, no
fanciful thought, that the world
today, is one broad slave-band,
ruled over by one despot, whose
name may vary according to dif-
ference in language — ^^Mikado^^
in one place, and Capitalist
Commerce in another — Abuse
in all.

— De Leon.

There is no such thing as pa-
triotism in the heart of capital-
ism; ^^patriotism,^^ with capital-
ists, is a swindle, and when work-
ingmen are caught by the trick,
it is a case of ignorance with
them, not patriotism.

— De Leon.

pEX SOLDIER I HUKTGRY M

bosh!!! whydomt m^

■L YOU EAT THE'FRU(TS' WML

i?SS^> OF^ VICTORS ;?"

Weekly People, December 16, 1922

SOCIALIST LABOR PARTY

•^"fiUSINESStS

Weekly People, September 16, 1933

NATIONAL RETROGRESSION ACT.

The true conservative seeks to protect the sys-
tem of private property and free enterprise by
correcting such injustices and inequalities as

arise from it ^*The voice of great events is

proclaiming to us — reform if you would pre-

serve.

— Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Give us a truce zvith your ''Reforms.'' There
is a sickening air of moral mediocrity in all such
petty movements of petty, childish aspirations
at times like these, when gigantic man-issues are
thundering at every door for admission and so-
lution.

— De Leon,

GOLDEN JUBILEE

The modern labo7'er^ . .
rising with the progress of industry, sinks
deeper and deeper below the conditions of
existence of his own class. He becomes a
pauper J and pauperism develops more rap-
idly than population and wealth. And here
it becomes evident that the bourgeoisie is
unfit any longer to be the ruling class in
society and to impose its existence upon so-
ciety as an over-riding law. It is unfit to
rule because it is incompetent to assure an
existence to its slave within his slavery, be-
cause it cannot help letting him sink into
such a state that it has to feed him instead
of being fed by him.

— Communist Manifesto.

To say that the interests of capital and
the interests of the workers are identical
signifies only this, that capital and wage-
labor are two sides of one and the same
relation. The one conditions the other in
the same way that the usurer and the bor-
rower condition each other.

— Karl Marx.

THERE AIN'T NO SANTA CLAUS
instead of

Weekly People, December 24, 1932

Weekly Pdqple, Octcber 2S, 103.^

SOCIALIST LABOR PARTY

The problem of unemployment reflects itself in
confusion in the minds of the capitalist class, fFe
have, for example , this gem from the would-be phi-
losopher of Dearborn^ Michigan, Henry Ford: ^^The
only way to hire more men/^ said Ford, ^Hs to create
more markets. The men with new jobs will furnish
new markets. The difficulty as far as industry is con-
cerned is finding a place to employ the men before
the market exists to make their employment profit-
able,^^ One can only ask, ''Which comes first, the
chicken or the eggT* and remember Marx^s classic
observation, that ''on the level plains simple mounds
look like hills, and the imbecile flatness of our pres-
ent bourgeoisie is to be measured by the altitude of
its great intellects/'

— Eric Hass.

Weekly People, December 1, 1934

■y

-^'-lii

;.^

f ;-3

Meanwhile, each succeeding winter brings
up afresh the great question, "what to do
with the unemployed^' ; but while the number
of unemployed keeps swelling from year to
year, there is nobody to answer that question;
and we can almost calculate the moment when
the unemployed, losing patience, will take
their own fate into their own hands. Surely,
at such a moment, the voice ought to be heard
of a man whose whole theory is the result of
a lifelong study of the economic history and
condition of England, and whom that study
led to the conclusion that, at least in Europe^
England [and by parity of reasoning the
United States^ is the only country where the
inevitable social revolution might be effected
entirely by peaceful and legal means. He cer-
tainly never forgot to add that he hardly ex-
pected the English ruling classes to submit,
without a "pro-slavery rebellion,^' to this
peaceful and legal revolution.

— Frederick Engels.

UeeKly People, January 31, 1931

GOLDEN JUBILEE

-S^

Wimm DEMOCRACY

ASYLUn
FOR FOUNDLINGS

The Communist party 'Opposes with
all its power and will help to crush by
democratic means any clique^ group, fac-
tion, circle or party — from within or
without — which acts to undermine, over^
throw or subvert any democratic institu-
tion of the American people,

— Earl Browder.

It zvas without a compeer among
swindles. It was perfect, it was rounded,
symmetrical, complete, colossal.

— Mark Twain.

Weekly People, September 7, 1935

^^^%>,:.,^/-'-

" TURU IMPERfALlSr WAR
INTO CIVIL WAR ! "

Weekly People, May 6, 1939

^7^^

^SViV?

o^"^

iv\t^^^

.t^oc^'

.^^vc

v^<

PH^-

KtW^t^^

GM^^^•"

..,OR ROOSEVELT DEFENSE PROGRAM!

"RALLY FORCES OF DEMOCRACY '."

lJ/."//°'^*"""'' """^ FORWARDS
'N««Br5 AND, DIALS OF Roo^mn-

'Plh

THE JANUS H EAD

-T Te,/f/f^f-^s^J<-.

SOCIALIST LABOR PARTY

The governing classes do
not really want war; but
they do want to keep up a
continual menace of war.
They want the peril to be
always averted^ but always
present. They do not want
the camion to be fired j but
they do want it to be always
loaded. Those who per-
petually spread abroad ru-
mors and alarms of war
only half believe them^ or
more often do not believe
them at all^ but they see
great advantages to them-
selves in inducing the people
to believe them. You know^
comrades^ zvhat those advan-
tages are. They are politi-
cal and financial. A people
living under the perpetual
menace of war and invasion
is very easy to govern. It
demands no social reforms.
It does not haggle over ex-
penditures on armaments
and military equipment. It
pays without discussion^ it
ruins itself, and that is an
excellent thing for the syn-
dicates of financiers and
manufacturers for whom
patriotic terrors are an
abundant source of gain.

— Anatole France.

Weekly People, December 17, 1938

The Communist party of the U.S.A. for the
first time in its existence has come to the conclu-
sion that it is necessary to take a positive attitude
toward armaments.

— Earl Browder.

(Speaking at the 15th anniversary of Lenin's death.)

The attitude of the Socialist Labor Party to-
ward anti-militarism is — ^'Organize the working
class integrally-industriallyf^* Only then can the
revolt against militarism result in a Waterloo to
the [^parasitic capitalist] class of sponge^ instead
of a massacre to the class of labor.

— De Leon.

Weekly People, March 18, 1939

GOLDEN JUBILEE

Weekly People, September 2, 1939

The common designation of ^^Labor^^
that clings to the labor leader^ and
which he is zealous to cultivate^ does
for the labor leader what the common
designation of ^^plebeian^^ did for the
plebs leader: it covers him, along with
the toiling and fleeced wage slaves in
the shops, mills and yards, placing him
before these in the light of ^^fellow
workingman/^ In this instance, as in
that of the plebs leaders, the people —
capitalists as well as proletarians — gen-
erally fall victim to the delusion, a de-
lusion that, just as in the instance of
the plebs leader, the labor leader alone
remains free from. Accordingly, in
this instance, as in that of the plebs
leader, the common delusion arms the
labor leader with the club wherewith
to wrench from the capitalist class
safety for HIMSELF,

— De Leon.

Weekly People, March 11, 1939

SOCIALIST LABOR PARTY

LABOR DAY

By the Grace of Capital.
The keynote of Labor
Day speeches by clergymen^
politicians, labor lieutenants
of the capitalist class is ever
the same. It is the biggest
Lie of the Age, the lie that
wealth is the joint product
of Brother Capital and
Brother Labor, that is, of
the capitalist class and the
working class; that the in-
terests of both are identical,
that the two can and should
live in harmony, peace and
brotherhood, and that
the aim of the Labor
Movement is to maintain
that harmonious equilibrium
and thus perpetuate the
capitalist wage system by
securing for the workers *^a
fair day* s wage for a fair
day*s work*' by means of an
'^equitable division'* of that
^^ joint product of Brother
Capital and Brother La-
bor:'

— Eric Hass

Weekly People, September 2, 1939

SIX MONTHS TO
RAISE THE ^SQU ALUS'

But the submerged ^Hhird
of a nation** haven* t been
raised in ten years.

'^Given the private own-
ership of combined ele-
ments of production, and
the capitalist class will con-
gest ever more into its own
hands the wealth of the
land, while the working
class must sink to ever deep-
er depths of poverty and
dependence, every mechani-
cal improvement only giv-
ing fresh impetus to the ex-
altation of the capitalist
class and to the degradation
of the zvorkingman.**

— De Leon.

Weekly People, June 10, 1939

GOLDEN JUBILEE

. . . .for the hinocenl victims. . . .the
Holy See is more than ever sorry, zvhile
it sends words of moderation and piety
to lessen as much as possible the horrors
of zvar,

—Pius XL

Lifting up our heart to the Lord zve
give sincere thanks with Your Excellency
for Spain^s desired Catholic victory.

— Pius XII to Franco.

To the victorious Generalissimo the
newly appointed American Ambassador
transmitted, on June 15, 1939, Presi-
dent Roosevelfs ^^ assurance of his high
esteem and best wishes for the personal
happiness of your excellency and the
welfare of the Spanish people.^'

Weekly People, April 9, 1938

Weekly People, April 22, 1939

THREE WISE MEN

SOCIALIST LABOR PARTY

Fascism^ Nazism repre-
sent capitalism degenerate^
with the modification logical
to the European setting.
Accordingly^ they represent
also, in effect, an aborted
social revolution. Where a
social revohitton is aborted,
the ^'man on horseback^^ is
the logical answer. But the
*^man on horseback^' neces-
sarily must represent the
dominant reactionary inter-
ests — i.e.^ the interests of
Industrial Feudalism — and,
therefore, constitute the al-
ternative to, and negation
of, the Proletarian Revolu-
tion, which everywhere pre-
sents itself as the dreaded
specter, the supreme judge
and ^* executioner^^ of capi-
talism, and the capitalist
class as such. Precisely for
this reason the ^^democratic
powers,^^ the ^Jree na-
tions,^^ fear the Marxian
Socialist movement infinitely
more than they fear Fas-
cis7n. They would much
rather tvitness the Nazi he-
gemony of Europe than the
triumph of the Proletarian
Revolution. However much
they dread war, they dread
Marxian Socialism even
more. Of the Fascist powers
the same thing may be said,
though perhaps in reverse
order: However much they
dread or hate Marxian So-
cialism, they dread war even
more if that war threatens
to become a universal war.
For, like their ^^democratic'^
rivals, they know that a
world zvar means their fin-
ish, with the prospect of the
triumph of the Proletarian
Revolution.

— Arnold Petersen.

Weekly People, March 11, 1939

A SLICE FOR EACH

B-BETTER H-HELP US

GET 'IM' OR HE'LL

B-B-BLOW YOURS

DOWN TOO!

Weekly People, June 3, 1939

GOLDEN JUBILEE

Here the cat is all out,
from whiskered nose to tas-
seled tail. Commercialism
deals in war as it deals in
potatoes, mm, bibles, etc. It
matters not that the effect
of owning a navy is to ren-
der a nation readier for
war; what of it? War feeds
commerce, commerce feeds
war, and the end of the
song is larger wealth for
those to luxuriate in who
neither bleed on the battle-
fields nor swelter on the in-
dustrial fields of toil.

Capitalism means war;
one plank of capitalism
means the whole of capital-
ism. To oppose one plank
only is to leave all others
standing, and thus render
abortive all seeming success
against the monster.

— De Leon.

Weekly People, November 4, 1939

CURE FOR UNEMPLOYMENT.

By and large, war seems to be regaining the
biologic function once claimed for it, of tending
to eliminate in considerable numbers those ele-
ments of the population least adapted to con-
temporary culture. It is a drastic and horrible
method of slum clearance, but it looks as if it
is a method,

— Toronto Saturday Night, May 7, 1938.

The Nation that the land^ s Plutocracy is foe
to, and is arming against, is our own Nation^ s
vitals — its Working Class.

— De Leon.

Weekly People, September 23, 1939

SOCIALIST LABOR PARTY

h may be theoretically possible that
unemployment some day may no longer
have a place in our economic picture.
But that day won^t happen in your life-
time or mine .... there is no use quarrel-
ing zvith the facts.

— Harry Hopkins.

Ten million potential zv-orkers and a
total of possibly 30,000,000 people are
outside the circle of ivork, production
and income. They are not only a burden
— they are an economic loss — to speak
with grim realism, the country would be
relatively prosperous, if they were anni-
hilated.

— Ma(jaztne of Wall Street.

UcckK I'copk, Ociubcr U, 1939

Weekly People, June

"OH, WE LEFT THAT TO LET
SOME TRADE IN!"

You are correct in believing our desires to be
first of all to serve the cause of the Allies, and
at the same time the commercial interests of our
own country, these two objects being, in our
judgment, supplementary to each other.

— Thomas W. Lamont.

(Of J. p. Morgan & Co., to a Paris partner, Jan. 29, 1917.)

Perhaps our going to war is the only zvay in
zvhich our present preeminent trade position can
be maintained and a panic averted,

— Walter Hines Page.

(Ambassador to England, to Woodrow Wilson, Alarch 5, 1917.)

.... the state of war between the United
States and the Imperial German Government
zvhich has been thrust upon the United States is
hereby formally declared.

— U.S. Congress.

(Joint Resolution, April 6, 1917.)

GOLDEN JUBILEE

This social system of to-
day^ kept in constant fer-
ment to defend itself
against the disorders that
rise out of its own lap, is
compelled perpetually to
strengthen force against
force; in this century of un-
limited competition and
over-production^ there is
also competition among ar-
mies and an over-production
of militarism; industry itself
being a battle^ war becomes
the leading, the most fever-
ish of all industries.

— Jean Jaures.

Weekly People, December 30, 1939

In time of war, great dis-
cretionary powers are con-
stantly given to the execu-
tive magistrate. Constant
apprehension of war has the
same tendency to render the
head too large for the body,
A standing military force
with an overgrown execu-
tive will not long be safe
companions to liberty. The
means of defense against a
foreign danger have ever
been the instruments of
tyranny at home. Among
the Romans it was a stand-
ing maxim to excite a war,
whenever a revolt was ap-
prehended.

— James Madison.

:nber 18, 1939

FIRST RECRUITS — FRONT LINE.

SOCIALIST LABOR PARTY

The bona fide Movement
of Labor may not ^'adopf^ the
methods of the capitalist class
in the class war. The Labor
Movement must, on the con-
trary ^ place itself on the high-
est plane civilization has
reached. It must insist upon
the enforcement of civilized
methods, and it must do so in
the way that civilized man
does,

— De Leon.

BUT ADOLF :

VOT I DO ^
DEV GOT

LIGHTNINa RODS

Socialism cannot be imposed by force
from without, and least of all upon a coun-
try not ready for it, or unwilling to accept
it. It can no more be done than one can
force Socialism ^^down the throat'^ of a per-
son unwilling to accept it. In either case re-
vulsion against Socialism is the result, and
thereby great harm is done to the cause of
Socialism, .... The liberation of a nation^ s
oppressed class must proceed from within.
Each nation^ s proletariat must settle its ac-
counts with its own ruling class. The eman-
cipation of the working class must be, even-
tually will be, through the classconscious
efforts of the workers themselves.

— Arnold Petersen.

\\'eekly People, January 20, 1940

GOLDEN JUBILEE

When Bryan attacks
^^militansm^^ and yet up-
holds the capitalist system,
he is fighting an effect while
defending the cause. He and
all others of his kind in at-
tacking ^^militarism^^ merely
imitate the farmer who
knowingly planted cockle
seed and then complained at
the nature of the crop.

— De Leon.

Weekly People, October 7, 1939

irti^^-HiL^-trfK^

"SPECIAL DELIVERY."

President Roosevelt pleads with belligerents

not to bomb women and children

— News Item.

Punchinello-like the political heads of the
Capitalist Class move as their masters, the Capi-
talist Class, pull the strings. According as the
strings are pulled, Presidents and Kings, Con-
gresses and Parliaments, shut their eyes to in-
fractions of the lazv, or rattle their sabres. Obe-
dient to capitalist dictation laws are superseded,
or passed; and war clouds are pulled upon the
scene, or pulled ofj .

— De Leon.

W'llLIn Pcopk, September 16, 1939

SOCIALIST LABOR PARTY

"THE SMOKE SCREEN."

A foreign war ever has been the refuge of ty-
rants from the danger of turbulent elements at
home. To simply massacre these^ and thus get
rid of them, is no easy task^ however absolute
the power of the tyrant. Local and isolated mas-
sacres may be indulged in and may not shock
the public conscience; but they are inadequate.
A foreign zvar meets all the requirements of the
case. By means of a generous healing of the
drum patriotic the very domestic elements con-
sidered dangerous at home are lured into the
army; war^ once engaged in^ the carnage among
these is looked upon as an incident of war; and,
whatever the issue of the war the tyrant that
brought it on zvins his real point : the turbulent
elements that alarmed him are decimated . . . .
Just such mo lives as these are back of the war
wave zve are now experiencing, and they it is
that give it the persistence it has.

— De Leon.

Weekly People, September 23, 1939

REMOVING THE CLOAK!

But the greater the effort of the government
and the bourgeoisie of all countries to disunite
the workers and pit them against one another,
the more ferociously they use for this lofty pur-
pose a system of martial law and military cen-
sorship {which measures, even now, in time of
war, are more success f id against the ^* enemy
within^^ than against the enemy without)^ the
more urgent is the duty of the classconscious
proletariat to defend its class solidarity, ils in-
ternationalism, its Socialist convictions against
the orgy of chauvinism of the ^^ patriotic'* bour-
geois cliques of all countries.

— Eric Hass.

Weekly People, September 16, 1939

GOLDEN JUBILEE

GOTT 1ST MIT
UNS t

GOD IS WTH

Weekly People, March 16, 1940

DRUG OF WAR

Thus^ while the hoiirgeois declaim peace^ yet manufacture
war; zvhile clericalists pray with lip-service devotion for hu-
man brotherhood^ yet bless the weapons of fratricidal strife;
while the revived spirit of Napoleon III — who proclaimed
^^The Empire means peace/' yet raided Italy and Mexico —
has been reincarnated in a Big-Stick Roosevelt, who declares
^^The Progressive party is peace'^ \_or Franklin Delano
Roosevelt who declares, ^^we are all for peace /^ yet strains
to equip the belligerents with money and guns^; — while, in
short, at one side of the line Hypocrisy reigns supreme,
Slaughter being promoted under the pretenses of peace, it is
on the other side of the line, in the Socialist camp only, that
peace is a cardinal principle, a religion, a goal earnestly, sin-
cerely and devoutly pursued with all the intelligence at the
command of the race,

— De Leon.

SOCIALIST LABOR PARTY

-NO— NO— r///5 WAY!"

Weekly People, February 24, 1940

Pius XII

.... the great political conflict that is coming to a
head is wiping out all intermediary political expres-
sions and is bound to leave extant just two — the two
types of the two opposing forces — the Socialist po-
litical body as the type of the forces that make for
progress^ hence freedom; and the Roman Catholic
equally political body as the type of the forces that
make for retrogression, hence slavery. These two
political bodies will attract, each its own affinities,

— De Leon.

GOLDEN JUBILEE

SOCIALIST LABOR PARTY

Soil and Roots of the Socialist Labor Party

(Continued.)

perceived the absurd naivete of his Single Tax no-
tion.

George did not ask these questions, his intellect
and understanding of the problem being what they
were. However, he was nominated for mayor on
the Labor ticket in 1886. We are familiar with the
circumstances which brought Daniel De Leon into
this campaign as an active supporter of Henry
George. Commons, in his work, "History of Labor
in the United States," has an illuminating account of
what he calls "the memorable campaign [of 1886],'*
and from it I quote this brief passage:

"On October i a mass meeting was held in Chick-
ering Hall of several thousand radical middle-class
and professional people to ratify George's candidacy.
Among those who took part in its debates were Pro-
fessor Daniel De Leon and Father McGlynn."

The Democratic party, then as now divided into
Tammanyites and anti-Tammanyites, sank their dif-
ferences and nominated a wealthy iron manufacturer,
Abram S. Hewitt, while the Republican party (vig-
orously waving "the bloody shirt" — i.e., the dead
Civil War issues) nominated a young upstart who
then was even more of a windbag and phrasemonger
than he became later, to wit, none other than Teddy
Roosevelt I! Hewitt, of course, was elected. The
total vote cast was in round numbers 220,000, of
which George (running second, with T. R. a poor
third) received about 70,000 votes. In passing it
is of interest to note that the comic weekly, Puck.
published and supported by a group that w^as vio-
lently anti-George, and contemptuous of the Repub-
lican corruptionists, or spoilsmen, as the paper called
them — this Puck printed a cartoon shortly after the
campaign, depicting the Republican politicians (In-
cluding young Teddy I, Depew, Cabot Lodge, and
others) busily engaged in putting a huge suit of ar-
mor on a puny-looking Roosevelt, the title of the car-
toon being:

"Little Roosevelt!!!— The Grand Old Partv
MustBeHard-Up!"

The cartoon was accompanied with this jingle:

"The old belated party knights
Equip their hero for the fray —

Yes, they who fought for equal rights.
Through all the nation's darkest day/^

Their earliest steps would now retrace,
And bring the spoilsmen's slavery back^

Their only objects pay and place —
Their champion — a jumping-jack."

These are harsh words about the terrible Teddy,
he who later foully slandered the noble Tom Paine
by referring to him as "a dirty little Atheist." Puck
also referred to Teddy I as one who "was quite will-
ing [in 1886] to incur the risk of delivering the city
over to the hands of the anarchists and socialists."
In view of subsequent history, Piick^ s horoscope of
the "guileless" Teddy (who is described as "inno-
cent, simple and confiding in character") is interest-
ing: "You are not [said Puck to Roosevelt] the tim-
ber of which Presidents are made, even if you were
not, at present, disqualified from the office by the
harsh law which decrees that the beautiful bloom of
adolescence must be brushed from the cheek of man-
hood ere the doors of the White House open to the
aspirant." Actually, as we know, Puck guessed
wrong, although it could hardly have been expected
of the paper to foresee that the assassination of a
President was to catapult the "jumping-jack" into the
Presidential chair some thirteen years later!

If the 1886 campaign was virulent, the 1887
campaign was even more so. Following the defeat
of 1886, Henry George and his allies set to work to
repair fences, and to strengthen their movement.
Tentative arrangements for a permanent party were
made, the name selected being the United Labor
Party. "^ A county convention Avas called for January
6, 1887, At this convention of 340 delegates (of
which 320 Avere wage earners), there were present
among the delegates Daniel De Leon, Lucien Sanlal
and ITugo Vogt, all of whom were to play significant
parts in the post-1890 Socialist Labor Party.

These three were placed on the important com-
mittee on organization. The platform and party
name, United Labor Party, previously agreed upon
tentatively, were reaffirmed, and it was stipulated
that none should be eligible to membership unless he
had "severed all connections with all other political
parties, organizations and clubs." (Quoted by Com-
mons from the New York Leader, January 22,
1887.) On May 5, 1887, a joint call was issued for
a state convention at Syracuse on August 17, the

*The Civil War.

*In part I have drawn upon Commons's work for certain data
presented here.

GOLDEN JUBILEE

three issues stressed in the call being taxation of land
values (George's Single Tax), currency reform, and
government ownership of railways. The "planks"
of the Socialist?^ Labor Party were completely ig-
nored, which led to a rumpus, culminating in the ex-
pulsion of the "Socialistic" representatives in the
United Labor Party on the ground that they were
members of another political party — that is, the So-
cialistf<: Labor Party! As if George & Co. did not
know this from the very beginning!

Section New York of the Socialistic Labor Party
held a meeting, declaring that they were really not a
political party at all — that is, that the party was a
political party only in a very strict Pickwickian sense !
That argument smells of Alexander Jonas and the
Volkszeitung crew — definitely! Well, it didn't work
• — the "Socialistic" gentlemen were excluded at the
Syracuse state convention, August 17, 1887. The
spokesmen for the "Socialists" included one Sergius
E. Schevitsch, a Russian reputed to be of noble birth,
and one of those eciitors of the Volkszeitung of
whom Frederick Engels spoke so contemptuously."^
The "Socialists" countered by organizing another
"Labor" party, the Progressive Labor Party, which
in fact w^as simply the Socialist/c Labor Party under
another name, and which was quietly laid on the
shelf a few months later. The Henry George group
adopted a Single Tax platform, nominated George
for Secretary of State, and the political battle was on.

Earlier in the year of 1887 Father McGlynn,
who had defied the Catholic hierarchy (not in
matters of religion, but in matters entirely politi-

*iSchevitsch had married a Countess Helena von Racowitza, who,
as Helena von Doenniges, played such an important role in the life
of Ferdinand Lassalle, being, in fact, the cause of his untimely death.
Schevitsch returned to Europe in 190il, eventually arriving in Ger-
many where he planned to settle. Someone started a rumor that
Schevitsch was a (Russian spy, and apparently the German Social-
Democrats believed that he was one, though the facts as to his guilt
or mnocence do not ever seem to have been fully established. The
late Morris Hillquit claims to have secured the adoption of a resolu-
tion at "a general party meefing" in New York in which the inno-
cence and good character of , Schevitsch were certified. There is
something peculiar about Hillquit's reference to his part in this af-
fair. He said that it fell to him, "a mere youngster," to take the
initiative in clearing Schevitsch. Since the incident took place in
190il or later, it means that Hillquit was then a "mere youngster" of
32 years ! Moreover, the "general party meeting" must have been a
meeting of the then recently organized Socialist party, which officially
could have had no knowledge of Schevitsch's record while a member
of the Socialist Labor Party, and therefore was no more competent
to pass on the case than any other group of whatever political com-
plexion, Hillquit also says that the charges against Schevitsch
(originally published in the German party organ, Vonvuerts) "were
practically withdrawn [by the editor of the Vonmerts]" Now, the
phrase "practically withdrawn," especially employed by a lawyer, and
above all by such a lawyer as Hillquit, can only mean that the
charges were in fact not withdrawn. Be this as it may, the career of
Schevifsch as a Socialist was finished in Germany even as it had
been previously finished in the United States. It is reported that he
and his wife died in a mutual suicide pact in the year 1912.

cal and economic), had organized what he called
the Anti-Poverty Society, based generally on the Sin-
gle Tax theory, with a quasi-religious aclmixture. Its
large membership was composed mainly of Father
McGlynn' s Irish co-religionists who, when McGlynn
was excommunicated following his second refusal to
go to Rome to explain himself, organized a protest
parade in which it is reported 25,000 took part,
overwhelmingly Irish Catholic wage workers. The
Catholic hierarchy raged and raved in unison with
the rest of the propertied elements who thought
themselves menaced by the McGlynn-George eco-
nomic heresies — fatuous delusions we would call
them.

The pages of Ptick, the comic weekly (it was at
that time really a political journal, and only inciden-
tally a comic paper), are revealing in the light they
throw on that turbulent campaign of 1887, and also
because of the utter contempt for, and refreshing
disrespect shown to, the Catholic hierarchy, includ-
ing the Pope. If a bourgeois journal of today would
dare to manifest one-tenth the contempt for the Ul-
tramontane machine which Puck displayed, its days
Avould be numbered. Certainly the arrogance and
insolent anti-American propaganda of a Coughlin
would in the eighties have called forth the strongest
rebuffs, if they would not have provoked physical
violence against the howling clerical demagogue.

It is one of the characteristics of the Roman
Catholic political machine, particularly in the United
States today, that while it will, and does, attack any-
thing or anyone conceived by it to be undesirable, re-
gardless of the truth or all the facts in the case, a
terrific howl is instantly raised if but one timid ques-
tion is asked concerning the church or its priesthood
— a question relating to political or economic mat-
ters, of course — and whining complaints are made
about attacking religion and the holy church ! Well,
the spirit of the eighties was different, and that fact,
among others, measures the change that has taken
place in matters libertarian during the past fifty-odd
years. One of the reasons for the boldness of the
press of that period in this respect was, of course,
that the Roman Catholic Church as yet was relatively
weak in the United States, unable to apply that ter-
rific pressure in political and economic matters which
is one of the commonplaces of our times.

Ptickj as stated, represented the typical capitalist
viewpoint of its day — anti-plutocratic, anti-labor
(specifically, and with violent emphasis, anti-labor
union), anti-Henry George, and anti-Catholic hier-
archy. In a series of brilliant and powerful car-
toons, and in pithy editorial paragraphs, the maga-
zine's bias Avas presented on all these questions.

SOCIALIST LABOR PARTY

Looking at these cartoons today, still breathing, It
seems, with full life, one feels as if suddenly the cur-
tain of the past is drawn aside, and that one again
walks the streets of New York of the eighties, and
that one hears the many battle-cries and w^atches the
great and near-great personages tripping along the
streets, or debating hotly in the halls, of that, rela-
tively, "little, old New York/'

As I said, during the particular year of 1887
this thoroughly representative bourgeois magazine
had three chief ''pet aversions." It was violent on all
three. The argument against labor unions is the
classic one — by joining a union the worker becomes
a slave and a dthe-payer to the union bosses. As
one of the paper's rhymesters said:

"For I am one of the Bosses —

Work not with my hands, but my jaws;

Thrive best on the workmen's losses —
When he strikes, my fnoney I drawJ^

By joining the union the worker loses his indivi-
dual liberty (which capitalism, of course, carefully
guards and maintains for him!), and his social and
economic advancement, it is argued, depends entirely
upon his Individual efforts. In a day when Saturday
half-holidays were a startling, almost incredible idea,
Puck argued that half-day on Saturday would, of
course, mean that the worker would get paid only
five and a half days, and It belabored the point with
that would-be scientific aslnlnlty which characterizes
all discourses on capital and labor by bourgeois com-
mentators.

A double-page, colored cartoon, entitled "The
New Ally of the Knights of Labor — Does the Cath-
olic Church Sanction Mob Law?" shows a crowd of
w^orkers armed Avith bricks, which they are hurling
at a noble-looking worklngman who lies bleeding on
the ground, his tools scattered about him. He Is a
scab. In the center of the street a group of priests,
headed by the then Archbishop, later Cardinal, Gib-
bons, marches along, Gibbons wnth arms outstretched
in the posture of blessing the striking workers who
are stoning the scab. The workers carry such signs
and banners as: "The Injury of one is the concern
of all," "Death to the scab," "Knights of Labor,"
with a saloon, of course, in the background to con-
vey the suggestion of drunkenness, etc., on the part
of the strikers, as contrasted with the sobriety, thrift
and general, all-around nobility of the scab. Edito-
rially the magazine accuses the Catholic Church of
bidding for the "labor vote," and chides Gibbons for
his endorsement of the Knights of Labor. Referring
to Cardinal Manning of England, Puck observed:

"But Cardinal Manning, not having the knowl-

edge of 'practical politics' of his American coadjutor,
has frankly stated, in his missive, that he wants the
Knights of Labor to help him in spreading the power
of the Romish church In America." !

Another cartoon shows Father McGlynn and
Archbishop Corrlgan engaged In a pugilistic bout
with Pope Leo XIII (made to look like a scare-
crow) seated on the right, looking apprehensive lest
his man (Corrlgan) lose, and holding a bottle la-
beled "St. Peter's Tonic," while Henry George, In
clerical robes, stands on the left, equally apprehen-
sive for his man, McGlynn, and also holding a bottle,
labeled "Anti-Poverty Elixir." Still another cartoon
shows Pope Leo XIII in a rage, his tiara rolling on
the ground, while he brandishes one of his slippers
at McGlynn (who is comfortably seated on a book
titled "H. George's Theories"), the slipper bearing
the legend "Excommunication." Still another de-
picts the struggle between the Georgeites and the
"Socialists," the "Socialists" being personified In a
bewhiskered beer barrel in front of "Socialist Head-
quarters" which flies a flag wuth the lettering: "Mc-
Glynn Is ausgesplelt," while McGlynn, portrayed as
a whisky bottle, Is shown swinging a stick at Mr,
Beerbarrel. The whisky bottle torso of McGlynn
bears the label: "Irish Whisky, McGlynn" Brand,"
and the whole thing is captioned: "I told you so —
German Beer and Irish Whisky will never mix!"
Well, that's one way of explaining the historic strug-
gle of 1 886-1 887, to which the serious historians.
Commons and Associates, devote many pages ! And
numerous other cartoons show Henry George offer-
ing his "Anti-poverty" quack medicine, while others
convey suggestions for exterminating violently all
Socialists, anarchists, single taxers and labor leaders !
Finally, to vary the monotony perhaps, we note
two cartoons which serve to remind us that in cer-
tain essentials it is the same old capitalist w^orld,
though fifty years have gone by, and two whole gen-
erations have sunk Into their graves. One shows the
British lion sprawling all over the map, Avith Presi-
dent Grover Cleveland holding back the beast by its
tail, nobly supported by an army of American capi-
talists, w^hlle a rather lean-looking eagle (dressed as
the traditional Uncle Sam) Is carrying a bundle la-
beled "Commerce," and trying to get ahead of the
outraged lion ! Yet another, sardonically reminiscent
of the present, shows Bismarck as the full moon la-
beled "Peace," shining on the troubled European
waters, with predatory beasts on all sides ready to
jump on a wee mouse, the beasts being designated
Italy, Austria, Germany, France and Russia, the
mouse representing Bulgaria which, the throne hav-
ing become vacant, at that time was the prey being

GOLDEN JUBILEE

stalked by the predatory European governmental
beasts.

The political cartoons of a given period faith-
fully reflect the thoughts and mores of the age, and
are a powerful aid to a later generation in recon-
structing the period. It is so in this case, and having
dwelt long and intimately with this subject, and the
period of 60 or 70 years ago, through the records
and pictorial presentation of the struggles of that
time, one is apt to become possessed of the uncanny
feeling that one has just stepped out of these dusty
tomes to join the ghostly throng, and to fight the old
battles over again with them.

VII.

The decade of the eighties also witnessed the rise
of the American Federation of Labor, and the emer-
gence out of obscurity of the foxy and utterly un-
scrupulous Samuel Gompers. Like a mole, Gompers
seems mostly to have tunneled underground during
this period, for there is comparatively little mention
of him. Sammy was biding his time, meanwhile
blowing not too hot this way, nor yet too cold that
way. Some of his utterances of this early period
have a "Socialistic" ring. De Leon used to say that
no man in a public cause starts out with corrupt in-
tent, but that circumstances and persistence in error
affect the character and lead to corruption. It w^as

even so with Gompers, said De Leon. In the precise
language of De Leon:

"There is that in errors of conduct that inevitably
affects the character of him who indulges in them.
How^ever sincere he may be at first, bound he is to
become crooked."

When the Knights of Labor declined, and with
the overthrow (which De Leon effected), of its
leader, so-called master workman, Terence Powder-
ly, the organization virtually ceased to exist. As
Commons says, when Pow^derly passed out of the
picture he w^as succeeded (in 1893) by a farmer edi-
tor from Iowa, one James R. Sovereign (also elimi-
nated later by De Leon's efforts), and with the elec-
tion of this farmer editor "the national organization
of the Knights took the final step away from the
wage-earners' movement." Thereafter the evil days
of Gompers and Gompersism began in earnest. How-
ever, In the eighties the position of Sam Gompers,
In so far as he had at all active participation In pub-
lic affairs, Avas, as Commons put It, "that of a sym-
pathizing outsider" — sympathizing, that is, to both
sides until he knew which way the cat w^ould jump.
On the issues projected by the George movement,
during the fight in 1887, he cautiously spoke as fol-
lows :

"The labor movement, to succeed politically,

It's a Very Pretty Quarrel As It Stand® — Protestants Can Afford to Smile Whoever Is the Victor

(Father McGlynn and Archbishop Corrigan do battle while Henry George and Pope Leo XIII
egg ihem on — to ''Puck's*' boundless delight.)

SOCIALIST LABOR PARTY

must work for present and tangible results. While were beasts of burden who, if they did "ot pul n

keeping in view a lofty ideal, we must advance to- harness with brother capital (which means, tha they

ward it through practical steps, taken with intelligent were carrying "brother capital on their backs as

regard for pressing needs. I believe with the most part of the load) , would be rounded up in a corral,

advanced thinkers as to ultimate ends including the President Roosevelt, who delivered a dedication ad-

abolition of the wage-system." (Italics mine.) dress in 1933 when a monument to the memory ot

,, the sainted Sammy was unveiled in Washington,
This wicked heresy of abolishing the wage- £, (3 ^ ^^jj this spirited tribute to the old labor faker
system" was quickly abandoned by Gompers, who .^ j.gj.og„ition of his abihties to herd the "labor cat-
later accepted, as the "lofty ideal" of the labor ^^^„ ^^^ ^^^ shambles. I quote from Mr. Roose-
movement, "a fair day's wage for a fair day's work, ^HHrP« •

and who solemnly protested that capital and labor , • r/- » n

were, or should be, brothers, and that one just could ''But more than that, it was his [Gompers s] pa-

not get along without the other. The crafty fox soon triotic leadership lor the unanimous mobilization of

had no end of exits and entrances from and to his the workers in every part ot the union which supple-

fox's lair. He was the perfect ideal of the capitalist mented the mobilization of the men who went to the

labor lieutenant who, as the plutocratic Herald Trib- front."

fine recently pointed out, must be, and is, a politician ]s^Iy Roosevelt might have added that Sam Gom-

in order to be a good "labor leader," because (the p^i-^ went even further, in that he took an active

plutocratic Herald Tribune says) "labor is so large- p^rt as a recruiting sergeant for the military forces,

ly under bureaucratic control" of the political gov- persuading thousands of his misled dupes that it was

ernment — that is, labor is now virtually in a state of ^heJi- duty to slaughter or get slaughtered, in order

economic serfdom. We know that what the pluto- ^j^^t the Gompers brand of democracy might be made

cratic journal says about the labor fakers being politi- safe !

cians Is true; that it has been true since the rise of Through the twenty-four years of his activities

the labor faker (the modern plebs leader), and that i^ the Socialist Labor Party, De Leon fought this

it is true today, as a review of that illustrious row of crafty labor faker and his plutocratic masters, earn-

labor lieutenants attest — Green, Lewis, Dubinsky, \^g the hatred of Gompers — a hatred that knew no

Hillman, Schlossberg, and the smaller fry — all of l[mit — venomous, unscrupulous, unending. But that

them serving the interests of capitalism faithfully, is another story.

all of them attempting, and as yet largely succeed-
ing, in keeping down the revolutionary spirit of the
exploited workers, and all of them deep in capitalist
politics

Another active, and at times influential, force in
the seventies and eighties was the anarchist move-
nient — if one can describe as organic that which is
LiLs. essentially amorphous. The outstanding representa-
And Sammy Gompers, though he protested "no tives of the anarchist gospel were A. R. Parson, Au-
politlcs in the union" until he was blue In the face, gust Spies, and the questionable Johann Most, an ar-
plunged himself and his American Federation of La- rival from Germany, of whom Bebel said (in his
bor into capitalist politics up to its neck — indeed, it "Memoirs") that although Most started out right
was frequendy completely submerged In the murky ''he went astray. . . .and finally. . . .ended in the
waters of capitalist politics. Whenever the capital- United States as a drunkard. ..." There was also
ist class needed the herding of labor for purposes the "philosophical anarchist,'' Benjamin Tucker,
other than, or, rather, in addition to, those directly born in Massachusetts of Yankee stock. The an-
relating to craft union activities, Sammy was on the archists were dealt a crushing blow in the Haymarket
job. No less important personages than two Presi- tragedy, which, of course, also caused a set-back to
dents of the United States have enthusiastically cer- the labor movement and in time gave impetus to the
tified to this fact. Paying a glowing tribute to the rise of labor fakers and unscrupulous "labor" pohtl-
"patrlotic courage" of Gompers, and to his "states- clans. We know now that those hanged at Chicago
man-like sense of what has to be done," President were innocent of the crimes of which they w^ere con-
Wilson in November, 19 17, said: "The horses that victed; Ave know that a desperate ruling class, seeing
kick over the traces will have to be put in a corral." a splendid chance to crush the rising, rebellious labor
The workers have been called many names, and to movement, seized this chance, and made the most of
be likened to horses may not have been the biggest it. But we also know that several of those hanged,
insult offered them, and yet, one wonders. Cer- In their anarchist folly, did everything possible to aid
tainly, Wilson made no secret of his belief that they the capitalist class in achieving Its end In this respect.

GOLDEN JUBILEE

The New Ally of the Knights of Labor — Does the Catholic Church Sanction Mob Law?

What Cardinal Gibbons calls "Taking the part of the weaker" —
the Knights of Labor — "against the stronger" — the Scab.

("Puck," representing the reactionary, but anti-clerical, capitalists, glorifies the scab.)

Parson and Spies were particularly violent in their
avowals of anarchist theories of physical force, and
in their expressions of contempt for the ballot, the
peaceful means of settling the social conflict.

Benjamin Tucker, the "philosophical anarchist,"
whatever that may be, has been quoted as asserting
that "every group of individuals has the right to op-
press all mankind, if it has the power to do so." This
is the good old philosophy of power politics, the es-
sence of which is that might makes right. Thus an-
archism proves itself the obverse, as capitalism is the
reverse, of the same base coin of class rule and class
exploitation. And that men should have died simply
to prove that once more is the real tragedy of the
"Haymarket affair."

VIII.

Such was the scene, and these were the actors, in
this drama preceding the founding of the scientific
Socialist Labor Party, which for fifty years has up-
held the banner of working class emancipation, dur-
ing half of which period it was directly guided by the
great De Leon, w^hile during the latter half it has
been guided and inspired by his mighty spirit and

noble example. This was the soil of the modern
American labor movement, and these the roots of
that movement. It is not the purpose, nor is there
space, to tell the story of the S.L.P. itself since 1890,
nor the detailed activities of Daniel De Leon in the
Party. That has been well done by others, even
though the subject aAvaits thorough and coordinated
treatment by those Avho not only understand and ac-
cept the principles of De Leonism, but who may be
expected to have gained a better perspective of the
battles, events and achievements ot the S.L.P. and
of De Leon than one might reasonably expect to find
in those who fought side by side with De Leon, and
who themselves participated in these achievements,
or temporary defeats, as the case might be. The
record is there for all to read, and it is a record of
which to be proud.

Out of chaos, De Leon and the S.L.P. created
order; out of contusion, De Leon and the S.L.P.
forged coherency, direction, and clearly outlined
goal. The goal and methods having been clearly
defined (the integrated Industrial Union Republic
of Labor and classconscious, revolutionary political
and economic organizations of the workers), and

SOCIALIST LABOR PARTY

this goal and these methods having been found to
check with every requirement of the modern emanci-
pation movement, it remains for us to carry on the
fight to reach through the wall of opposition to the
workers themselves. It can be done ; it must be
done; it WILL be done. If we are few in numbers,
that is no proof that we are wrong. On the con-
trary, the fact that we are as yet few in numbers,
considering all the past and present factors and cir-
cumstances, is an assurance that we are holding to
the correct line. For if we were to abandon or com-
promise our principles, Ave would soon attract in
large numbers those who thrive only on compromises
and temporizing. But if we were to do that, there
would be no reason or excuse for our continued ex-
istence. Pursuing our great task along the true and
tested line, we cannot fail. We know we are right —
w^e know the workers will eventually come to an un-
derstanding of their class interests, and when that
day comes (and it cannot be far off now), they will
accept the program of the S.L.P. and translate it
into requisite organizations, and in the spirit of De

Leonism electrify the organizations into action, lead-
ing to the sublime goal, the crowning glory of man-
kind, the Socialist Commonwealth.

Meanwhile, fcAV or many, having paused for a
moment at the fiftieth milestone of our Party's exis-
tence, we tighten our belts, and prepare for the
fifty-first year, and as many thereafter as may follow.
It is, as the American poet said, a case of —

'^ . , .the obedient sphere

By bravery's simple gravitation drawn."

And so, the Party rallies its forces to renewed battle,
enjoining each militant in the land to —

Be the first to join the onset

Though you traverse flood and fire;
Smite relentless every foeman

That would foil your heart's desire.
Knightly faith, and Roman courage.

Live and hold the vantage still;
Valor wins the victor's garland —

Yoii can conquer if you will.

.'jwv{3>

At Last!

A determined effort to break England's hold on the commerce of the world^ and givG America a chance.

{Freetraders, the editors of ''Puck" rejoice at lower tariffs.)

50 cents

Contents

Daniel De Leon Frontispiece

Reproduced from a painting by Fred Free lit

The Soil and Roots of the Socialist Labor Party,

by Arnold Petersen ^

"When First We Met,"

by Bertha C. De Leon lo

Satire, Weapon of Truth,

by Eric Hass 12

A History in Caricature,

Selected Cartoons from the fFeekly People i ^

S.L.P. Stamps and Seals ij i

Published 1940 by the
SOCIALIST Lx'\BOR PARTY OF AMERICA

61 Cliff Street, New York, N.Y.

(Printed in the United States of America.)

^^.^^t' ^OU HAVE HOTHj^^L^S

^'"'"^AvTTSlSSrToo^^^-

^^... AGITATION FUND 'n

oF the Iwenliebh cenbur/.

SOClALlSn AL^n* c\- *^c•_ s-
OPPORTUniTY TO AIL.

LdDOr IS ,

enslaved
iiiduslrialk;
it musl
organize
bo

»-ABORPARTY/n

.-. AG I TATI N FU N D .«.

Socialist
Labor. Party

^^*^ Agitation

rocidlism is

\ federal industrial
J S^vernment.

/Capitalism is

private ownership
■ry.

of induslr

Socialist
Labor Party

•AGITATION FUND-

^SOCliLISMMHEMlQR.

^:--.4; :.;-.., Cy •,.-;■ s:^<

Examples of S.L.P. Seals and Agitation Stamps.

The first group of six stamps, originally printed in three colors, were design of 1929, by Sidney Armer), 1930, 1931, 1932 and 1933, these lat-

issued as agitation stamps during the National Campaign of 1916. The ter designed by Walter Steinhilber, and all originally printed in two

others (with the exception of the Weekly People Club stamp) represent colors on colored stock.
Christmas Seals for the years (beginning with the Christmas Candle

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Full text of "Golden jubilee of De Leonism, 1890-1940, commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Socialist Labor party."

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