DELEGATES DEBATE NEW DECLARATION
Feigenbaum, William M. & Hertzberg, Sidney
Delegates Debate New Declaration Waldman and Thomas Clash on Floor I By Siehaoy Ha. Iah as sj I (Confirmed from Page Thro*) B> lit* »"th toe principle* of rtve¦iiliiiini j Social ism. ¦ The...
...The convention closed with brief addresses by several of the leading delegates and the singing of the International...
...The report of the platform committee on agriculture embodied six measures of immediate relief which were arrived at after extensive conferences with representatives of fanners' organizations...
...Hi a sentence in the congressional klatform which the convention ¦dopted and which read: "Without lhat power which comes from organization, the worker* ran do Bo thing.'' ¦ If, he pleaded, the convention ¦ranted to reaffirm the St Louis, ¦•solution, then it should do so and...
...8.261...
...Jacob Psnkenof New York said that the issue was clearly drawn in his own mind...
...We are not denying but affirming lemoeracy when we state whst we j till do in the event that the pres- j at ruling classes will defy a demo-1 ratic verdict against it or in the vent that the whole apparatus of pvernment and economic life colspses in ruin...
...National Chairman Krzycki was elected chairman for the day, with Devere Allen as Vice-Chairman...
...Harry Riaeman (Michigan...
...Maynard Krnegrr...
...J.' Clifton ejaarda, 3.422...
...sl5m...
...The agricultural platform was enthustasticall supported by Norman Thomas, who declared that it was the first time the party has put forward an adequate Socialist program for farmers...
...Pre* onsej Cows The attack on the paragraph was heavy...
...And if it is treason to tell the workers what to do when the two most damnable canes en earth, war and fascism, eosse-—if that be {treason .then let them aamke the most of it," he cried...
...William Zumarh, Wlsronson...
...Those who failed of election were Jasper MVLevy...
...Fraternal greetings were sent by the convention to Mabel H. Barnes, John M. Collins, Paul Potter and James H. Maurer, who are ill...
...The latter urged ' the convention to adhere to the policies of the Revolutionary Policy Committee...
...Our duty is to prevent that...
...California, 7,940...
...W. c. Tharp, Sew Mexico, 4,2*4...
...The principles involved have always been the principles of revolutionary Socialism, he insisted...
...Edward Flynn, Missouri, 487...
...Sidney Tellen, J. T. Philips (Missouri...
...The resolution was amended by Frank Crosswaith So as to repeat the party's timeteeted pledge te fight against disctfiauaatioa in anion* on grounds of race or color...
...ORGANIZATION—Al Benson, Wisconsin...
...W. Sharts...
...Among the labor organizations that sent greetings were locals and joint boards of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers, the I.L.G...
...Illinois...
...Missouri...
...Lout* Waldman, 1s.226...
...11.274...
...The party must understand once and for all, he declared, that it is in the same boat with the AFoL...
...12.995...
...There followed a debate on NRA and trade union resolutions, reported elsewhere in this issue...
...Allen Benson of Wisconsin asked...
...3.714 r Peter Fagan, Michigan...
...The resistance to war which re must supply, even though it end n defeat, will water the seed from which will spring the final and rac-j oesaful resistance to war...
...Kantorovitch spoke for the resolution, while Martinek of Ohio declared that if we continue to play with the idea of dictatorship, we will get a dictatorship of a Ku Klux Klan or some other fascist organization...
...Jos...
...1*.s74...
...8,4*8...
...George R. Kirkpjtrirk...
...1,242...
...Those who remained in Detroit went to Belle Isle Park, where a great mass meeting was held...
...The formula tors of the declaration feel that the working class is on the inarch and it is on that feeljng that the declaration is based, Andrew Biemiller of Wisconsin declared...
...s42...
...5.202...
...Tennessee, »,646...
...Louis resolution...
...Among the individuals who sent greetings was Giovanni Sala, one of the Amalgamated organizers just released from jail in Red Bank, N. J., in the notorious Eisner case...
...Those who failed of election were B. C Vladeck, 8.77s...
...The major portion of the session of Saturday morning was taken up with changes in the party's constitution, most of them of a technical character...
...The platform proposed use as the sole title to land and favored taking over plantations worked by share-croppers and day laborers by the government for farming by individuals who have use leases or by cooperatives of working farmers...
...As finally passed, the platform is a revision of the form in which it was originally presented to the convention...
...Devere Allen, 11.247...
...He has always been opposed to blueprints, be said, but here was a situation is which the party asnst look ahead...
...Louis Hendin, New York, 43*3...
...After Winter's address, a message of admiration, encouragement and fraternal greetings was moved to be sent to the Austrian comrades...
...Halm JUntororitrb, DavW FelU...
...The only other business of the first day was the resolution on Pan-American Socialist and labor relations, referred to elsewhere...
...This, Resistance we must hold dearer, ban the processes of a mechanical lemoeracy...
...At this point James Oneal of few York isked if it would be in ' irder to nresent the St...
...Mllen Dempster...
...Crosswaith, James One*), and #*%#*§) a ^m^awjJfcU...
...Jacob Panken, James D. Graham, Jasper McLevy, Samuel Orr and Leo Krzycki added their warnings that organized labor would be alienated by its adoption...
...W. M. Beivo, Finnish Socialist Federation...
...It was an interesting, an absorbing debate, with plenty of fireworks...
...John C. Packard, 8.297...
...9.559...
...Louis Waldman, speaking a seejond time against the declaration, J denied that it was a reaffirmation jof the Si...
...The resolution also embodied fraternal greetings to the Socialist Party of Argentina...
...Norman Thomas, it JO...
...On the other side, defecates maintained that the paragraph did not offend the workers but the leadership and setup of the AFoL with which the workers were disgusted anyway...
...He decried j ¦be assumption of defeatists that...
...The principal changes were the inclusion of the Class Struggle in the application blank for membership and a slight change in the party's name, referred to above...
...labor will be a tail to the political kite of one of the other of the two old parties...
...Raymond S. Hofsrs, 14,923...
...Douglas Anderson...
...Howard Kester...
...They included the shifting of the tax burden from farms and homes to incomes, inheritances and excess profits...
...how Ra*ch Bee woffcon...
...John McKay, Washington...
...The objection which Charles ¦olomon of New York hod to the Bsrlaration was epitoaoiied...
...More than 2,000 peppleVwejreseated in the open air, while probably another thousand heard the 'speeches through amplifiers...
...Eric Ross...
...Andrew Biemiller, Haim Kantorovich, Glen Trimble and Maynard Kreuger insisted that its effect would be wholesome and bring respect to the party from the ranks of the labor unions...
...Merer...
...Morris .Minnesota...
...6,4*3...
...In Milraukee, he revealed, the Socialist dministration avoided conflict rith the Ku Klux Klan when it srved notice in advance that the party would fitrht back by giving two tits for every one of the Klaa's...
...The New Leader Association was represented by Sol Levitak...
...he said...
...It was democracy versus violence...
...8,171...
...Maynard Krueger and David H* H. Felix, who were members of the American delegation in Paris who supported the minority position there, vigorously supported the resolution, and Jacob Panken, who had opposed them in Paris again took up the cudgels for the majority position in Paris...
...In the evening session came the debate upon the resolution on the party's international relations...
...Louis resoBtion brought up to date...
...Waller E. Davis (Connecticut...
...The only serious objections had been the wording of certain statements...
...Julius Gerber, 9.242...
...Ida Beloof of Kansas declared that the debate reminded her of a quarrel between husband and wife leading to divorce over what college to send a child to, while the child is still in the cradle* Andrew J. Biemiller and Morris Stempa added powerful pleas for the resolution, while Louis Waldman added his eloquence to the argument against it...
...W. A, (Una, Massachusetts, »js4: C A. Preston...
...On viva voca vote the Thomas amendment wag carried, and then an roll-call the resolution as a whole was defeated...
...James D. Graham...
...He declared "The class struggle is on...
...ind so must protect ourselves in...
...He moved to strike out the second paragraph of the resolution, that so provided, but indicated that he would vote in favor of the first paragraph, in which that minority position was adopted "as representing the attitude of the Socialist Party of America on the problems discussed at the conference...
...North Ca>v, Una...
...Darlington Rooprs, 13,5(2...
...If there is inything that will halt the plans i >f the war-makers, it is the knowldge that the people are uncotntromisingly opposed to war...
...Montana...
...8.424...
...Emma Henry...
...Simon Ubross, Pennsylvania...
...Those who failed of election were Karl Paul!, Oblo...
...8.721...
...The speakers were Norman Thomas, Joseph...
...The . support of all anti-war activities, j the general strike for revoJauouary < purposes, the words "mass resistance...
...the stabilization of farm prices "in proportion to the products of industry...
...The paragraph was eltieuueJy eliminated by a vote of 7« to 59...
...Chairsan VlaUeck ruled that it would ot be in irder...
...7*04...
...3,109...
...Siegfried A meringer, 10,300...
...Winston Dancis appeared for the Young People's Socialist League, and Ruth Oxman and Nat Weinberg took part in behalf of the Red Falcons of America...
...Forrest Wallace, Indiana, 2.093...
...Glen Trimble...
...and the dictatorship of the \ proletariat—none of these, he said, . was in the St...
...the Polish Bund, the Palestine Executive Labor Federation, Tom Mooney, the Latvian Socialist Party, the Workers' Gymnastic and Sport Alliance, former National Secretary John M. Work, the Cooperative League, and party locals in Atlanta and New Orleans...
...9,508...
...Greetings were read from the Labor and Socialist International, the Swedish Social Democratic Party, and the Socialist parties of Finland, the Netherlands and Hungary, of the Free City of Danzig, and of Spain, as well as from many party branches and locals, individuals and labor organizations...
...The leadership of organized labor reflects pretty accurately the mentality of the rank aad file, James Oneal countered...
...Robert Miller, Minnesota...
...On Sunday m'qrning, under the chairmanship of B. C. Vladeck, the convention received warm greetings from the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union convention in Chicago, and heard a stirring address by Joseph Schlossberg, secretary-treasurer of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers, who addressed the convention "as a Socialist speaking to Socialists...
...Jacob Panken introduced a resolution on the death of Morris HiUquit, which was moved by Norman Thomas and passed by a rising vote...
...Those not elected mere Ida Beloof, Kansas...
...mot involve itself "in ropes of rhet¦rie which can be at dangerous as j ¦opes of hemp...
...Joseph Martinet, Oblo...
...In general, the opposition to the paragraph was boned on the feeling that it was tactless for the party to criticize the AFoL nnaeceesarily...
...Do we want to reach workers who are waiting for our appeal or do we want to educate their backward leader...
...John S. Martin...
...MliiiaVi...
...The Austrian Social Democratic Party was represented by Max Winter...
...Forrest Wallace of Indiana retea ted the warning that the detention would be interpreted as reason in every capitalist court, « said...
...Comrade Vladeck repeated his oft-stated point that what the labor movement wants is not advice but service...
...War will be prevented," he ubmitted, "if the rulers of the rorld know that the sentiments we xpross are increasingly the senti-i aents of the masses...
...The rules, proposed by the N.E.C...
...The afternoon session was opened with a children's pageant, participated in by pupils in the Workmen's Circle schools of Detroit, after which there Was an interlude during which pictures Were made for the newsreels...
...George Streator...
...12-37...
...and William M. Feigenbaum, Lena Morrow Lewis and E. L. Vernon, Publicity Committee...
...New Jersey, 7.431...
...Charles Solomon declared that, unlike the German and Austrian Socialists who had won the working masses and whose use of their political power was criticized, our problem in America is to win that power and not debate what we will do with it when we get it...
...Another change was lowering the number of delegates needed for a rollcall vote from 60 to 25...
...government financing of farmers' and consumers' cooperatives to take over the processing and distribution of farm products...
...Greetings were read by the reading clerk from many Socialist and labor organizations and individuals, including Santiago Iglesias, Resident Commissioner in Congress from Puerto Rico and a founder of the Socialist Party...
...With this theory he disagreed...
...The agricultural platform recognised that the woes of the farmer stem from the same capitalist system which exploits industrial workers...
...There followed then the most important and exciting debate of the convention, that over the Declaration of Principles, described elsewhere in this issue...
...Our duty to our comrades in Europe," he continued, "is to build up our own movement...
...After the vote was taken and signatures secured for a referendum, the delegates balloted on National Executive Committe and National Chairman...
...Martin Plunkett, Connecticut, 1392...
...Connecticut, 1j79...
...Sarah Umbach...
...Saturday morning, Darlington Hoopes was elected chairman and Forrest Wallace of Indiana vicechairman...
...assumption by the Federal government of all debts on farms operated by working owners...
...16,331...
...North Carolina...
...Harry \v...
...were adopted with some slight changes, the delegates voting against the unit rule for states...
...Addresses were delivered by Martin Plettl of the German Socialist and trade union movement, Max Winter of the Austrian Social Democracy, J. S. Woodsworth, M.P., of the Canadian C.C.P., S. Mendelsohn of the Polish Bund, and E. A. Kadice of the Socialist League of England...
...Powers Hapgood, 11.264...
...He agreed that minor changes in phraseology might be made but he supported the declaration as a whole...
...Frank R. Crosswaith was appointed Sergeant-at-Arms...
...We are not seeking violence, but • o maintain peace by opposing j rar," Comrade Thomas insisted...
...kssiei Coifs for Rtjht on War I Norman Thomas then took the j boor and congratulated the party] ¦a having the opportunity to adopt j ¦he new declaration...
...17,241...
...4,826...
...Jacob Panken, 8,3*5...
...11.049...
...PLATFORM — Andrew J. Biemiller, 16.070...
...Pennsylvania...
...The first test of the strength of various groups in the convention was the election of committees...
...Anna BercowlU...
...idvanee...
...Arnold Fresse...
...New York...
...The declaration is based on the theory that the working class is ready for illegal means, he said...
...insurance against pestilences of nature, and the formation of land utilization boards to prepare the way for agricultural planning on a national and ultimately on a world scale...
...CONSTITUTION — Daniel w. Hoan, 17.50...
...In many unions, he avowed, the rank and file is more conservative than the leaden...
...The party will never win over organized labor by a policy of left sectarianism, be warned...
...Mayor Hoan resumed the argunent with great vigor...
...It was in that debate that Norman Thomas declared that as one of the men who go out into the field to do the actual work of propaganda for the party it "is playing with fire" to employ phraseology about dictatorship, and it would be "political suicide" to adopt the resolutions favored by the minority in Paris as "the basis of the policy and tactics to be utilized" by the Socialist Party, as the resolution in its original form provided...
...The following were elected with their roll-call vote: RESOLUTIONS—M- v. baiter, UXt votes: A. G. McDoWcfl, lmss...
...Mayor Hoan of Milwaukee made a spirited attack upon the resolution, declaring that if "this goes on I will propose that we send no more delegates to go to Europe and bring back fights to America...
...and added that "In the next national campaign there is danger thai...
...Thomas thereupon left to address a meeting In Canada, and when* rollcall came, Louis Waldman moved that his vote be recorded in the affirmative...
...Fred G. Strickland, Reading Clerk...
...W.U., and many Workmen's Circle branches...
...te will be called to war without be- j ng able to do anything about it...
...Pennsylvania, 9.181...
...W. N. Beivo, 11,097...
...Alton Lawrence...
...Schlossberg Calls for a Labor Party By Wlfflora M. Fclfosbsua (Continwed from Page Three) of the Italian Socialist Federation...
...Algernon Lee...
...8,505...
...Joseph M. Cold well of Rhode i Island, a prison-mate of Debs, declared that if the time had come | when the Socialist Psrty is afraid 'to say what it means, then it was time to take down the red lag...
...M. Cold well, Frank...
...A leselntien on Pan-American Socialist relatione was passed in which a survey of tho Socialist and labor snovesaent of Pan-America was proposed to lay the basis for the establishment of a permanent organization of Pan-American Socialist parties...
...Sam Rivin...
...Louis resolution...
...The devil's hirelings aren't going to be carrying many of these things around...
...Now, more than ever, it is our duty to build up a great class party of the workers, and I hope we will be able to bring that about...
...He objected to] ¦be declaration "not because it is] ¦adical but because it is reckless...
...Laidler, 12,122...
...The resolution on economic action and Socialist policy in the trade unions (printed elsewhere) was adopted after revision of paragraph four with comparatively little discussion...
...I have asked that the St Louis resolution be buried with me," Comrade Cold well said, "and now I want this one buried with me too...
...Arizona...
...The debate on the tosotetsea ea . the -NBA aad Sortalisss revolved i srosnsd a paragraph attacking the i ideology, the organ txatjoaal atrac; tare aad the leadership of the AFoL...
...I know as a simple Socialist worker that these laws our psrty lawyers are concerned with are made by our masters to whom legality means nothing," Frank Crosswaith said in concluding the debate...
...Massachusetts, 7*43...
Vol. 17 • June 1934 • No. 69
