HE SERVED HIS CLASS
Oneal, James
He Served His Class By Jemes Oeael THE American Socialist movement has produced some brilliant men who emerged out of proletarian life and fitted themselves to serve their class. Of these one...
...On his side he agreed to make a straight suffrage argument...
...He went through the whole class history in hit owe personal struggles and was steeped in the sorrows of the classes he strove to liberate...
...William Mailly, miner, who came out of the depths to become one of the greatest executives the party ever had...
...There was never any slackening in the completeness of his devotion...
...of the strongest and the best »fcan can become...
...Even at the end his last thoughta were with the workers...
...A year has passed since Death's tola" *fl§er touched Morris, a year full of taeks and painful fears— »nd atill I am lonely, often thinking, 'If Morris could only be with us...
...The two hundred or more delegates and the train itself blossomed with banners and insignia...
...intelligently dttvAtad hsWb Ju»tice for "even the least of these"—fronj JNMPr young manhood till in death he dropped his pen and bowed his good gray head...
...The reward supreme was t-Md is—his: the love of hosts of Winds h\ many lands, the gratiMe 9f multitudes who never saw Wi «nd also the respect of even Jwneroug and powerful enemies— Wstet men, I mean—of whose Wtjr he could well be proud, indaily trooping into this |jaj Imagination—tugging at his Jjyr-many millions of the hunWrragged, desolate boys and girls f pi World's tortured poor—look**H«erly, timidly for a friend— i lET^61"'—in<* Morris, once one ?**n,i never forgot them, never PjW them—never for even one gatating moment—but with fire g Power defended them and G&i *ben he became a man, an r*»«tion»l man of distinction "J0* the world's bar of public mSrr power and courage and SjrKj°y his life was tirelessly, *nd...
...Had he done nothing else In his life for thjs labor movement than give us that ideal it would have been a signal contribution to the cause he sp dearly loved...
...Of course, deep movement move on though competent leaders are snstehed from the front by death...
...However, he served it endlessly, with all the brilliant resources at his command...
...earnest, devoted, tireless...
...His Vision Is Needed By Gaerge R. kirkpatrisk ATHIRP of a century %go, out in old Terre Haute in kke office of Jfapmy Oneal'i Kile/, a progressive trade union Lyyr as an eager but green Cijsiionary in our movement, I mi lor the first—but not the luk-time inspiringly and unfongfttably greeted by 'Gene 82s, thrilling lover and leader tfpif fellowinen...
...His personality was one of charm, of personal honor and rectitude, a warm human being who won friends because of his modesty and bubbling humor that immediately set one at ease...
...For he radiated from his person a cultural refinement that will be necessary to any collective ideal society, and without which no economic and industrial control will ever be successful...
...He was engaged in the most strenuous work of organizing...
...He worked among the unions directly, in their raw weak state and later when they grew more self-sustained, He understood thejr need* as few theorists have ever understood the real society about which they discourse...
...Soon after leaving the Grand Central, Mr...
...the craze for sabotage...
...No really great man ever failed to make enemies as well as friends, but throughout history 1 think that it can be sajd of the really great man that enmity is the tribute that mediocrity pay* to genius...
...So have all of us, and he was the first to admit a mistake when in the perspective of time it became evident* However, it is the essence of greatness for the really big man to admit them...
...Hence his great earnestness and incalculable usefulness to therhattle of Labor...
...the Women's Political, Union, I was heading a large delegation to apj>ear, by appointment, before the Judiciary Committees of the Senate and Assembly...
...slaved and died for Socialism...
...And when he died I felt lonely, Kaelly lonelyfast as I animated...
...Hillquit, the youth, discussing revolutionary philosophies on (the roofs of tenements far into the night of sweltering summers and there learning his first lessons in the art of logical reasoning of which he became a master...
...Thus Morris Hillquit served me, haired me thus even when, occasionally, we disagreed—served me •iehbj, though while we were indea&ejitd friends, I could not claim th» hjpr of his intimate friendttawMorris Hillquit...
...Then there was Morris Hillquit, of frail physique, swallowed up in the poverty of the East Side Ghetto for years1...
...There is no man to take his place in this country...
...Victor L. Berger, printer, master of simple exposition ana the incomparable organizer of victory...
...The franchise must be broadened, Again later during the fiery mayoralty campaign in New York in 1917, Morris Hillquit proved an invaluable friend to women's enfranchisement...
...As the years peqt by Debs and the significance of Debs meant more and esore to me—meant so much that, sometimes, when writing 1pm, I urged : "Do be careful, oh, so very careful, dear 'Gene, of jqttT precious energies...
...women, and children of the working masses and others passed by the still form, emotions suppressed by some, by others breaking into tears and all affected by a profound sense of the loss which the movement had sustained...
...But when one looks over the long range of Morris Hillquit's life through the S. L. P. and its conflicts...
...How gloriously Morris Hillquit lived, and...
...Not that Comrade Hillquit did not make mistakes...
...the various phases of the Communist movemeint, there are few who will not agree that his keen judgment has been vindicated by afterevents...
...Ben Hanford, printer, whose rough and simple speech, apt anecdotes and iron logic, won masses of workingmen to the Socialist banner...
...His brilliant achievements as writer, thinker, and educator of the masses suffice to place him in the class of the foremost Socialist and labor leaders...
...We, who had grown up with Comrade Hillquit felt that something had gone out of our lives when lie passed on, something that could opt be replaced, for Morris Hillquit was something more than the Marxian logician, Socialist leader, and internaitioiialjst...
...Anita Block...
...Morris Hillquit's life could not ^scarry...
...associate of human driftwood that recalls Gorky's sketches of proletarian life in the old Russia of the Czars...
...He was a Marxian who kept abreast with the unfolding Marxism of his time...
...Hp served the labor movement through the legal profession upon the basis of economic and philosophic necessity even more than purely legal advantages...
...It can as truthfully be said that his mature efforts is behalf of Socialism were fillet} with more great poetry thap with revolutionary bitterness...
...never losing confidence in the working class to the day when he hurt us by laying down his standard and rested in a wilderness of flowers in the Rand School Auditorium a year ago...
...That is one reason why the mediocre man is mediocre...
...Hillquit, one of the leading theoreticians of International Socialism, intellectual leader of the movement from the time of the break with the S. L. P. in 1899...
...For Hillquit stands almost along among the great leaders of the people in his refined and poetic temperament...
...a As the founder and first secretary of the United Hebrew Trades, he brought to a difficult task ajl these qualities and imparted to that organization at its outset a definite ideal which sustained it from Its inception to the present...
...And ;e 'Gene Debs—Morris Hillquit this served a multitude of his felhwaien, served them unmistakably, Bttjnincently...
...Long Sre I known st as the years roll on ¦rough the imminent revolution Merris Hillquit and his noble services will ever loom larger and Wtier in the Great Days of Prepajatkm...
...With twinkling eye he would ask why I was so obviously taken aback when his identity was revealed, and why the marshals kept every banner from his willing hands and each tiny suffrage button from the lapel of hie honorable coat...
...However, in the sublime drama called Hainan Progress, men and women hale always sorely needed «of oak/ able leaders but also ineaniations, illustrations, exhibition...
...We had taken the first opportunity on the train, when out of earshot of everyone, to lay down the rules to govern the drama at Albany...
...He gradually maneuvered his opponents into a position where they had to declare themselves favorable to suffrage...
...This cultural elevation was 10 great a gift to the cause of Labor that it can scarcely be compensated for even by great material gains...
...How much, Ww|esperately we need his clearpes pt vision, his- wisdom, his gem his power, his Christis* devotion — his magnificent bsienhip— now...
...Morris Hillquit was a thorough sportsman...
...As president of...
...Hillquit and the Woman Suffrage Cause By Harriot Stonton Blotch THE first time Morris Hillquit and I met was on a Suffrage Special bound for Albany...
...Such men Women are priceless both as VSiils and as inspiration to the Sef us—and the best of us...
...But he alone followed faithfully his own suggestion of appealing to his followers at every onVof his meetings to register their vote for the amendment (to election day...
...mediocrity never confesses an error...
...We need you, need you desperately...
...Tell them,'' he said in his final message to the United Hebrew Trades just before his death, "tell them that the fight they are waging is a noble onet catried on for the creation of 4 brotherhood of men which mu$k) eventually come about if civilization is to eontin'u...
...More than his professional service was his personal devotion and the stimulus he gave through the medium of the speakers' platform and of his pen...
...It was fitting that the final farewells were said by his comrades in old Cooper Union where the fighters against Negro bondage so often assembled before the Civil War...
...Of these one thinks of Eugene V. Debs, the railroad fireman, its greatest orator and incamatjon of working class ideals...
...He demsnded of the workers clear judgment, honest Inquiry and a tireless search for truth...
...His speech was one of the finest, most convincing I have ever heard...
...On my side I agreed to help, not hinder, this opportunity for him to put his views before the Judiciary Committee...
...This remarkable man could bring a great inspiration into his moat dispassionate diecourses, and while he never resorted to bombast, to excitement or to demagogic technique, he raised the collective intelligence of those who listened to him so as to render the mass as potent and Ttyr tional as the individual...
...We both agreed that to make it appear that Socialism would bring votes for women, or votes for women Socialism, would injure both our great causes...
...It went hand In hand with the ever widening circles in which his intellect moved...
...He never failed to play the game fairly...
...he rise of the I. W. W...
...The Socialist crusader urged: "Knowing the great importance of the direct and indirect issues in the city campaign, I assert that the issue of woman suffrage overshadows them all as a permanent measure of social justice and progress...
...A Dreamer and a Doer ¦y Kourlco C, Felnetone Seeretmry, United Hebrew Trades A BIOGRAPHER of Morris Hillquit qrnce aid that his parly lyric poems were filled with more revolutionary astfor Jhan with poetry...
...In a letter to each of the other three candidates— Mitchel, Hylan and Bennett—he urged an appeal be made by them all to their supporters to vote for the woman suffrage constitutional amendment to be submitted to the voters the coming November...
...Hillquit wae certainly foremost among the practical and sane...
...In turn, I queried why he had proved that day a sounder suffrage statesman than an uncompromising Socialist politician...
...Carved fittingly deep, his name is safe onjfcbe tablet reserved far Jmrapr^el-1BocisJists—aafa, indeed, from any feeble, jealous, "chiseling" by distinguished brutality and eminent, egotistic littleness...
...With apt historical references, he eloquently urged the need of democratic evolution...
...Thus, also, J wrote to Morris Mquit^-ln my lively appreciation of him and in mj sincere a p p r e hension lest such a map and such a leader should be tilt to us...
...There men...
...In no small measure the women »f the Empire State owe their enfranchisement to Comrade Morris Hillault...
...Hillquit and I were introduced by Mrs...
...He probably more than any other Socialist, contributed to the adjustment of Marxian philosophy to the movement in this country...
...He did...
...His wit, his clarity created a stimulating sphere of influence about him in the labor and Socialist movement...
...To the very last, when he had experienced the hardness and difficulties and sorrows that lie in wait for aH idealists, he had the 9ame purity of soul and breadth of imagination that he had as a youth...
...Hillquit was not a dogmatist...
...the maze of problems involved in preserving the integrity of the Socialist Party while working with the trade unions in the national campaign of 1924...
...As thinker and leader and comrade, we miss him, and will miss him for years to come...
...In other years we so often used to rally each other about our experiences that day...
...Meyer London, rising out of the ghetto, proletarian wrongs seared into his life, wrongs that hurst into impassioned speech that moved workingmen to tears...
...Protect yippr nealth—don't you dare go tjray and leave us...
...These qualities are ordinarily attributed to young and inexperienced dreamers, or to unworldly and Impractical men...
...His activity was not confined to the law and to the lecture plat* form...
Vol. 17 • October 1934 • No. 80
