Protests Mounting Against Action of the N. E. C.
Protests Mounting Against Action of the N. E. C. N. E. C. Rejects All Plans To Preserve Party Unity; Scorns Peace Proposals Special to The Sew Leader PHILADELPHIA, Pa.—Lustily singing the...
...A break in New York or elsewhere will spell disaster to the Socialist Party of America...
...her local...
...Delson was made state chairman of the rump crowd...
...McLevy is also a pioneer in the movement and represents a working class movement in Bridgeport which has been built up by many years of hard work and sacrifice by McLevy and ether workingmen Had women...
...XT The announcement of the "fair" and "impartial" committee came after hypocritical announcements that the N.E.C...
...In addition, the "case" presented by Counselor Delson rehashed the mass of accusations the "militants" have been peddling for over a year...
...that while the charter would be "suspended" it would not be turned over to the bolters, and that a "fair" committee would supervise the affairs of the party pending return to normal party health...
...and who has twice been the party's candidates for VicePresident, gave to James Oneal, a member of the N.E.C., a blistering message of denunciation of the Thomas machine end denounced the machine's action as "fascism...
...Having established tie principle " of recognizing secession party members also recognize that the national organization becomes a rope of sand...
...He was supported hi a' brief statement by Winston Dancis...
...and New 'Jersey, all "militant" states!' ?¦ The OH Guard, he said, took over the whole party in 1928, when there was virtually no national organization, raised a campaign fund of over $100,000, put electoral tickets on the ballot in all but three states, and single-handed carried on a national campaign...
...This would enfranchise any and all new members the "militants" might flood their ranks with, recruited on the basis of their factional claims...
...that he would sit in judgment on his own report and vote on the verdict...
...He selected, however, the section of the "Memorandum" quoted above, in which falsified figures were used to buttress up the argument...
...at any time endeavored to get in touch with the state organization to ascertain from responsible sources what was going on...
...Ignored Warnings The majority of the N.E.C...
...jjtsnt active- of the wreckers, who had spent the major portion of their party activity for two or three years in disruptive work, had been placed on that committee, with the crowning insult that Lewi Tonka, chief "militant" of the Schenectady region, who had succeeded in turning a once fine local into a warring camp, was made State Chairman...
...Coolidge added a further substitute omitting recognition of Utiea, and ~n"'C for a temporary state committee to be selected by the N.E.C...
...had agreed to vote to revoke the charter, and no one denied his charge...
...Oneal Challenge* PreOshln The farce took the form of an act put on by Max Delson, whs staged a court-room scene, delivering a long attack upon the party Df which he was a member, rehashing over and over again the same story by now so tediously familiar, constituting what James Oneal characterized as a "tisane of misrepresentations, lies and half-truths...
...Characteristic of the new charges, not previously made, was a clumsy bit of juggling of figures, read by Berenberg from the Memorandum: Falsifying Records "The old state committee, concerned only with a campaign against the national organization of the party, has had no time, energy or funds with which to wage the first against capitalism...
...Oneal demanded...
...Warren Atkinson, Joseph Baskin, Murray Baron, Harold Raitt...
...It is certain that 9 ra* raid on New York were successful that either Pennsylvania or Connecticut will be the next state to He brought under the dictatorship of "The Leader" and his motley collection of assorted followers...
...At 3 p. m. on Saturday, the hour set for the "hearing" in the "New York case," James Oneal raised the question of when charges had been riled, what their nature was, and whether ox not New York bad been given an opportunity to sea the charges and prepare a defense...
...You cannot afford to drive oat the bulk of the, membership of the party...
...He outlined plans for an Eastern States Conference called by Massachusetts to be held in New York January 18th and 19th, and he urged support of that conference...
...Hany W. Laidler was frequently heard as such a trusted chairman...
...majority from their determination to wreck the party...
...members on details of * the document, admitted that he waa not very well informed on details of party organization, and Attorney Delson relieved him' from the witness box to be succeeded by others more ok eottrmt with "militant" slanders...
...He insisted that the New York reorganization motion was nothing but a "Hitler purge...
...after which Delson put on "witnesses," a long procession of people who told stories the falsity of which has been exposed again and again and until it was a wonder that even their stooges did not laugh out loud at their repetition...
...Emily L. Eaton of Syracuse is wholly unknown to party work outside her local, and she is a Utiea adherent...
...the Old Guard that is senile...
...and a date was set for such a hearing...
...It is up to you...
...And for those four alone alternates were provided as follows: Joseph Weinberg for Baskin, Jessie Wallace Hugban for Dancis, B. C Vladeck for Held, and Joseph Stein for Miller...
...planned te "lean over backwards" to maintain unity in the party, and that "compromises" had been made to preserve suity...
...Harold Raitt is active in a dual organization fighting Local Buflalo and was one of the prominent members of the bolters' conference at Utiea...
...All insisted that there could be unity in the party if there was a will for unity...
...A few hours having been given as a concession to protests against the break, the curtain rose for another act of the Delson show...
...A previous motion by Devere Allen severely condemning the New York organization, lifting its charter and transferring it to...
...That the "reorganization" was a Wholesale expulsion long planned was thus made abundantly clear...
...in factional interest By James H. Maurer THE action of the National Executive Committee in suspending the charter of New York State is astounding news to me...
...and failure to appear in defense is an admission of guilt," the committee voted that by the fact that the so-called New York situation is a continuing situation the N.E.C...
...Most of the "militant" members of the National Executive Committee have flirted with the united front for years and this suspension of the New York charter gives them a freer hand in working with Communists, the wrecker* of many trade unions, Comrades throughout the country should raise their voices in protest against this action...
...the Socialist Call has been full of it...
...Just at what moment did you cease te be an observer on the train going to Utiea...
...A Socialist movement will arise in America...
...The New Leader is also receiving messages in which, a deep sense of outrage is expressed by members and organizations at the brazen action of the Thomas machine in recognizing his secessionists in New York State...
...She asserted that a Socialist Party, could be held together by only two things: principles and rules democratically arrived at...
...when Albert Sprague Coolidge innocently asked, "How many of these people are •militants...
...We must return to base...
...A break in New York cannot be confined to that state but will become general...
...The committee, sitting in seats •nee occupied by Morris Hillquit and Victor L. Berger, by Eugene V. Debs, James H. Maurer and A. I. Shiplacoff, by men and women who gave their energies, their souls and their very lives to build • Socialist Party, took certain actions that, if permitted to stand, cannot have any effect other than the complete destruction of the party, actions that impose the grave task upon the loyal membership of rebuilding the party upon the Working class lines that alone gives Socialism any meaning...
...tins was not done and the only contact with the state office was a notification that a report of the official observers of a baiting group was to be before the N.E.C...
...Among the proposed compromises were suggestions of "receiverships," of "liquidation committees," and of joint committees upon which both sides would be represented equally, with known and trusted neutrals holding a balance of power...
...He said he had hoped not to bs compelled to read the statement, and that when he saw the revised Allen motion he had hoped that some basis for unity might possibly be found...
...During a late recess there were hurried conferences, and agreement upon a modified resolution for the election of an "impartial" state committee...
...r . , Oneal then presented a striking comparison between the party membership in New York State and the membership in six states controlled by the "militants...
...Of outstanding importance is the fact that James H. Maurer, pioneer Socialist of Reading whose many years of service contributed to winning that working class city for the Socialist Party...
...Berenberg admitted ' privately after his presentation that the vote reported in the Memorandum for 1984 was that east in New York City alone and compared with city and up-state vote together for previous years...
...A final touch was added the day after the selection of the "impartial" committee when the N.E.C, with Hoan, Oneal and Krueger absent, appeared to get cold feet and added six more members in an executive session, after an impassioned denunciation by Samuel H. Friedman of the manifest unfairness of the make-up of the committee...
...He has violated the trust given him by the national convention and has "helped to wreck the party which he should help to build...
...The presentation of their "case" took well over eight hours, at a time when problems of Socialist work were being neglected, A OaeiiMiismUini" af 16 'mimeographed pages was read oracularly by David P. Berenberg, who, when quizzed by N.E.C...
...The name of Dr...
...THE PART PLAYED BY NORMAN THOMAS IN THIS DIRTY DEAL IS INFAMOUS...
...If yon do that, you will never...
...Upon protest by James D. Graham that there should be individual nominations and asking if there was no choice but voting for all or none for that committee, Norman Thomas said impatiently: "Vote for all or none...
...took the action they did...
...All demanded as the first consideration that the demand for the lifting of the charter be refused...
...When the "case" was all in, Oneal rose to attack the whole proceedings, but his address was far more than a defense...
...Lev...
...There is no parallel to this in the history of our party...
...If so, let these men who have committed this act quit talking about fascism...
...Krzycki likewise delivered an attack upon the Old Guard...
...The National Executive Committee has actually rewarded a group of secessionists and punished the regular party organization...
...There was no official defense by the New York state committee because there had been no charges and no notification of any charges...
...Oneal offered as a substitute: "Resolved: That the State Committee of the Socialist Party of New York be given a copy of the charges made by the "militant" group and be given not less than one month to submit a reply and to face its accusers before a special meeting of the National Executive Committee...
...maurer denounces "lynching" of party...
...Hapgood made the remark about a "sense of guilt" on the part of New York, quoted above, and Norman Thomas read a N.E.C...
...The Old Guard that doesn't know how to organize...
...Maurer who often served as a member of the N.E.C...
...2. A mutually acceptable committee with plenary powers to be entrusted with New York's affairs until the troubles are liquidated...
...The Leader" Issues Orders It was close to midnight that Albert Sprague Coolidge innocent victim of those who were perpetrating the raid on New York, read the list of names that had been handed to him...
...at a secret midnight caucus...
...Delson's show was interrupted by adjournment late Saturday, and Sunday morning Adolph Held, Jessie Wallace Hughan and Samuel H. Friedman made their plea for harmony...
...Your decision will cause a split...
...The piece de resistance of the dish served up by Delson, the major crime attributed to the scoundrelly Old Guard, was the attempt to liquidate factionalism, dual organization and paralysis in the party by the so-called reorganization resolution...
...I Close upon the heels of the Maurer message came a telegram from Jasper McLevy, Socialist Mayor of Bridgeport, Conn...
...Senior announced he bad been the only "official observer" at Utiea, and be reported only on conflicting claims upon the membership represented there.' The N.E.C...
...Then your names will go down in Obloquy as those who killed ear party.*' His plan, in four paragraphs, follows: 1. Refusal to revoke the charter...
...Thereafter Thomas moved that the supervisory committee consist of Krzycki, Coolidge and Allen, but by that time the meeting had broken up in disorder...
...Accusers Mite Appear THE COMMITTEE SAT FOB S E VE R A L HOURS WAITING FOB THE SPONSORS OF THE CHARGES TO FACE THOSE THEY ACCUSED — AND NOT ONE "MILITANT" APPEARED TO BACK UP THE SLANDERS THEY HAD SO LONG BEEN PEDDLING...
...In addition, there had been solemn warnings by Sarah Limbach, state secretary of Pennsylvania, and Joseph Bearak, officially designated by the Massachusetts organization, as well as others not party to the controversy, that their states would not stand for the destruction of the New York organization...
...to that he and his witnesses, and later Maynard Krueger and Powers .Hapgood and Norman Thomas Himself, reverted again and again...
...The party vote in the state has fallen to extraordinary low levels...
...Only Atkinson, Dancis, Baskin, Held and Miller are nonmembers of the Utiea state committee...
...Twice during the long speech by Oneal some one turned the lights off, leaving the audience in darkness...
...The continual strife in the party, he said, justified suspension of the charter, but he hoped for some way of liquidating all difficulties...
...a member of the audience shouted, "Fifteen," and a roar of derisive laughter swept the crowd...
...magnanimously refrained from conferring the New York charter upon the (Jtica bolters after they voted to lift it from the properly elected ^tate organization, 'they aecomolished the same thing by cowardly indirection by granting it to an "emergency" committee' almost wholly sympathetic to that rump srroup AND MADE UP IN LARGE MEASURE BY THE SAME PEOPLE...
...He recalled the statements repeatedly made that -the Old Guard did not know how to build and then quoted the latest figures submitted by Secretary Senor to show that New York State has more members than Missouri...
...the Old Guard that is oligarchic—that Old Guard put the party on the map and we have plenty of vigor in us yet, and if it is necessary far Local New York to rebuild tile party we have it in us to do it again...
...Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio...
...be able to Hve down what you have' done...
...When the session adjourned for dinner late Sunday, word was reported to have gone out that there was to be no mercy for New York...
...The announcement of that committee at a late hour Sunday stunned the large gathering of Socialists present...
...extended that courtesy to these being savagely attacked, the charges were gone over in detail, and eight out of eleven members were convinced there was substantially no basis in them and in the peace pact virtually dismissed them...
...And no further nominations were permitted...
...If you revoke the New York charter, the responsibility for breaking up the Socialist Party will be on your shoulders...
...Joseph Bearak, speaking officially for Massachusetts, exploded his bombshell when he charged that the verdict bad been arrived at by the majority of the N.E.C...
...How can the National Executive Committee face decent party members throughout the country after tikis brazen act of rewarding disloyalty to a state organization affiliated with our national organization...
...You have the power in your hands...
...as "fascism.*' Fare of Orber States Coming from two men representing two great industrial states where capitalism is highly developed, where Die class struggle is always keen, and where Socialist victories ware won in two cities thai have practically no trace of the pink liberalism and parlor Bolshevism of Norman Thomas, "The Leader," it is evident that these states do net intend to stand by had invite the same fate that the Thomas machine has imposed upon New York...
...There was no pretense of fairness, no suggestion that the organization against which two days of unproved charges had been hurled, be given a single seat iu that committee, while six men who had been ¦saepgft|a...
...the rump organization sot up by the bolters in Utiea had been withdrawn after it had been Slated for passage, and it was amended into a seemingly conciliatory form...
...Get oa with the voting...
...motion by Oneal and the late A. I. Shiplaeoff in 1919 as a precedent "This is infinitely 'more drastic in violation of rights," said Thomas, misinterpreting the 1919 motion, "than anything we have done...
...But when he sen the nature of the committee, he found it impossible to go on...
...New York case continued before it, and having thus clumsily handled the issue of Jurisdiction, Max Delson began his functions as master of ceremonies of his act...
...If it is tolerated, then democ- J racy In the Socialist Party is dead...
...But whatever your decision will be, there will be a party in the United States based upon the organized workers...
...his charge was not denied...
...The letter cited the tact that according to the party's constitution the national organization is required to conduct its business with the states only through the state organizations and that if there were any reports of an "unofficial" state conference, the only proper thing under recognised party procedure was immediately to get in touch with the state office in New York...
...There was added the sentence: "At the opening of the session the exact time for taking up the situation in the State of New York will be definitely set...
...Nothing denoted, however, the "militants" hashed them up again, together with additional material equally "valid...
...We are at the parting of the ways...
...first presented in Boston in December, 1934, they appeared again in Buffalo in March, 1935, when the N.E.C...
...The "impartial" body set up to function as a "state committee' is as follows...
...No mention was made, of course, of the fact that the immediate purpose of the reorganization resolution in New York was to enable the party to exclude a known Communist to whom the "militants" loyally rallied, hot whom they themselves expelled from their own ranks within a month of the setting up of their dual "party...
...The specific action was the suspension of the charter of New York State, thus attempting to drive out of the party all its loyal members...
...Do you think I like to wake up every day to see what The New Leader says about me, or the Forward ?" Darlington Hoopes added that we have declined to a sect and that to split our sect would be disastrous...
...McLevy also brands the action of the N.E.C...
...Why didn't the National Executive Committee recognize secession in Indiana...
...Lift the charter if you want to...
...As a generous concession the party organization was to be permitted to listen to that report and answer charges the nature of which were to be kept secret until revealed at the meeting...
...No other speaker was at any time given this treatment A Allen Begins Raid At this point Allen moved that because of various things—reciting the full list of unproved charges made by the "militants"—the party in New York is split, and therefore the charter of New York is lifted and given to .the Utiea organization...
...Hapgood told Friedman that his plan implied "saving the face of the Old Guard," and he seemed displeased with that...
...That base is the constitution of our party...
...Peace Pleas Ignored He was interrupted by a question: "Are you making a peace proposal or a threat ?" "I am making a peace proposal," he shot back...
...Upon that basis Max Delson began staging his floor show...
...There never were any charges properly before the National Executive Committee, and yet it did this terrible thing...
...I will hot stultify myself in trying to answer them...
...Then* came the "impartial" committee, and Oneal's withdrawal...
...The Leader Speaks Norman Thomas spoke at considerable length in defense of the Allen motion, giving credit to the Old Guard for work in the past, but accepting in full the "militant" theory of misconduct of party affairs in later years...
...HE HAD NO BUSINESS T OLE AD THAT GROUP AND HE HAD NO RIGHT TO SPEAK FOR IT AT THE UTICA RUMP CONVENTION...
...Murray Baron, Max Delson and Charles B. Garfinkel are almost wholly unknown for any Socialist Party activity except in the factional group...
...Graham asserted that Utiea was a pure and simple secession movement, and urged that some plan similar to that of the HughanFriedman committee or the Forward be adopted...
...Cariotta Kingsley of Oneida attended the Utiea conference without mandate or any action of...
...The Leader" as Observr Oneal 'then raised the point of the propriety of Norman Thomas, elected an "observer" at Utiea, while he was known to be leader of that secession movement, and...
...The technical form that the split took was the selection by the NJJXU of an "emergency" "state committee" to supplant the State Committee elected by the last state convention, consisting of fifteen persons, eleven of whom were associated with the bolters' "convention" at Utiea, seven of whom have been among the most active agents in bringing about a split in the Socialist ranks, AND NOT ONE OF WHOM IS OR EVER HAS BEEN ASSOCIATED WITH THE STATE ORGANIZATION OF NEW YORK OR WITH WHAT IS DERISIVELY CALLED THE "OLD GUARD...
...he asked...
...In what way is the New York matter before us...
...Is it- surprising that the dual organization is here and is confident that they will be recognised ? That they have been given assurances even before they have heard their own side...
...So keen was the resentment of Jim Maurer over the raid on New York that he expressed the view that as we had always had endleas trouble with preachers in the party they should be made ineligible for .membership in the party- This revealed his reaction to "The Leader.'' Moreover, Thomas and Oneal were to apeak in Philadelphia Monday night at a mass meeting, but it was called off in part because Of bad weather but also due to disgust with the action of the WES1...
...Frank R. Crosswaith took a prominent part in the last stages of the disruptive battle and was elected to the Utiea state committee...
...Your decision will make or break the party for years to come...
...by name with responsibility for much of the party chaos...
...They know that "The Leader" by his insufferable arrogance, his measureless lust for the limelight, and his dictatorial attitude has lost the confidence of the big majority of the party membership in New York State and that this sentiment is general in many other states...
...No Mercy for New York Among these who proposed such compromises were Jessie Wallace Hughan and Samuel H. Friedman of a committee that had been set up to seek unity, and Adolph Held for the committee of the Jewish Daily Forward...
...the uarty...
...It is generally known that in Pennsylvania and Connecticut "The Leader" has not received that sycophantic homage which he thinks is his due...
...after authorized spokesmen had reported that several language federations would secede from the party if such action were taken, and after the "militant" bolters had five* detailed plans te the committee of a primary fight they plan to wage, throwing the party cwlraveray into the laps of the enrolled voters, ONLY A FRACTION OF WHOM ARE PARTY MEMBERS...
...LeftWin#sintheN.E.C...
...Indeed, earlier in the day Joseph Bearak, official representative of the Massachusetts organization, openly charged that he had heard that a secret midnight meeting of a majority of the N.E.C...
...The Pennsylvania State Committee had already adopted a resolution protesting against the Thomasites of the N. E. C. recognizing secession by sending "observers" to the state "conference" of the secessionists...
...This turns things upside down...
...At she July meeting, pi executive session with the majority of the State Committee and the State Executive Committee, the first aad only time the present N.E.C...
...With a fat agenda before it, with problems of enormous importance to be met by any properly functioning Socialist Party, the committee permitted l tragic farce-comedy to be stages that lasted practically all of two long and tedious days, with hardly a single moment for consideration at party work...
...He asked point blank: "Has the N'.E.C...
...then voted that what it celled the...
...HAVE WE REACHED THE POINT WHERE A STATE ORGANIZATION CAN BE LYNCHED IN THE INTEREST OF AN ORGANIZED FACTION...
...The Lost "Leader" It is also recognized that Thomas and his followers in New York State made the illegal raid on the State because they know that they could elect only very few of the 44 delegates to the national convention to which New York State is entitted by its membership...
...And if rules and constitutions agreed to by comrades are to be disregarded, it is impossible to carry on...
...took the action they did after they had been assured that the action they contemplated against the New York organization would inevitably lead to a nation-wide split...
...It was in this atmosphere that the bombshell of the hand-picked committee was sprung...
...He told of the building up of the party by the despised, senile and fossilised Old Guard, and the collapse in Queens County and Bronx, New York, when the "militants" were permitted to show what they could do...
...on procedure before them the charges were written down and presented to the State Executive Committee, by whom it was referred to a special committee with instructions to hold hearings...
...He added the story of the party wreckage and prostration that has followed wherever "militants" have gained control, showing the collapse of membership and vote in Ohio, in Illinois and in New Jersey...
...When the head-picked list, earn, sisting in the majority of expert, enced and practiced party wrecker* without a single representative tf the state organization they have sought to wreck, was Sfjtetoji James Oneal rose amid tense silence and read a prepared state* ment of protest, withdrawing from further deliberations in that session of the committee...
...I have made protest against the proceedings...
...The only official notification by the National Office was a letter from National Secretary Senior to State Secretary Merrill to the effect that "This is to notify you, and through you, the Socialist Party of the State of New York, that the National Executive Committee at its next meeting in Philadelphia on January 4th, 5th and 6th will act upon the report' of the official observers which it has voted to send to the State Conference called by New York branches to meet in Utiea on December 28th and 29th...
...Every "witness" was given the widest latitude to say whatever he thought on party matters and was listened to with rapt attention by the NJS.C...
...Tonks, State Chairman...
...W. C. Perry of Elmira was elected to the Utiea state committee—although he has since repudiated his election, a fact not known in Philadelphia at the time he was elected to the "impartial" committee...
...Maynard Krueger delivered a strong attack upon the Old Guard and The New Leader, and left has vote with Thomas to cast as he saw fit, as he left to catch a train...
...This seems to be the logical result of the flirtation of these "militants" with the Communists...
...The statement appears elsewhere in this issue.] The N.E.C...
...The New York state committee had voted at its meeting the previous week-end not to appear but to send a statement by messenger in protest against the procedure...
...Proposals had been heard during die two days for compromise settlements somewhere between the demand of the bolters that they be recognized as the official organization after tite vast majority constituting the party organizationhad been expelled, and the justified demand of the organization that no charges be heard except in legal and proper form...
...Later, frightened at the effects of what they had done, they tried to remove the curse by adding other members to that committee, but they did not change its essential complexion...
...Comrade Oneal's address, which consumed over an hour and that went deeply into party history and theory, will be printed in a future issue.] ¦ ¦¦¦ "The majority of the N.E.C...
...The 1934 up-state vote, received after a campaign conducted by an Old Guard state and campaign committee, was 47387, THE LARGEST EVER RECEIVED TN THAT SECTION, THE ALLEGED NEGLECT OF WHICH BY THE "OLD GUABD" HAS LONG BEEN ONE OF THE MAJOR ITEMS OF THE "MILITANT" INDICTMENT...
...The special committee notified everyone concerned to appear with then- charges and to be prepared to defend them...
...Sarah Limbaeh.read «- statement adopted by the Pennsylvania state committee which followed a resolution adopted by the State Executive of that state and telegraphed to the National Office, as follows: "State'Executive Committee fnday closed vote and passed resolution expressing disapproval of National Executive Committee going to Utiea convention tailed by group whidk seceded from New York organization and asking reconsideration of action...
...The "Impartial" Committee Thus, while the N.E.C...
...It was a deeply moving and eloquent statement of the position of the Socialist Party and its battle against factionalists and diaruptionists in its ranks.' Oneal Indicts Thomasites "This committee," he said, "has devoted eight to nine hours to accusations, charges and misrepresentations involving the life of the largest state in the United States...
...If Utiea is recognized, he said, it would be as a red rag to a bull and would infuriate good comrades everywhere...
...4. Immediate resumption of work for Socialism...
...The party," she said, "cannot afford a break...
...members...
...The resolutionwent on to call for reorganisation and new elections in New York under the supervision of a committee of the N'.E.C, and to invite all Socialists who hold red cards by February 7th to cooperate...
...Yon can find a way out if you want to...
...adjoining states became aware of the gang raid on New York State by the National Executive Gmmittee in suspending its charter, resentment mounted each day and it increases as The New Leader goes to press...
...too, hoped for an impartial committee to liquidate the situation...
...instructed them to prepare them in written form and prefer official charges against the party organization...
...the amended motion that was carried eliminated the scurrilous end untruthful "whereasage" rehashing the unproved and oft-refuted sunders of the "militants," and provided that the charter be "suspended," transferred to a provisional state committee, and called for early elections for party offices under the supervision of a committee of the N.E.C, on the basis of membership of both factions in the party February 7th...
...The state and local party offices are flooded with letters of protests by members and resolutions adopted by iocais and branches...
...8. Elections to party office on a basis of preferential voting...
...Hours have been spent presenting one side of the case, and the committee is now proceeding to act on it without giving the other side an opportunity to summon witnesses and present its arguments...
...And I am promising vou that If you take this action of ttfting the charter, yea will have a split" Sam Friedman made a deeply earnest and eloquent plea for...
...Oneal Brands Usurpers Leo Brushingham of Olean attended the Utiea conference after the most prominent member of that local, John G. Cooper, candidate for Mayor in November, had refused to participate in its disruptive activities...
...Thomas was elected by a national convention representing the members throughout the country...
...Admission of Guilt...
...A letter from Mayer Hoan of Milwaukee was read, explaining that he was not attending the meeting, that be felt the situation was almost hopeless aad that there was less than one chance in a tiKmsenfl for harmony being restored...
...Adolph Held, Cariotta Kingsley, Abe Miller and W. C. O?|hoie names, four are believed, to haw been put on as a gesture of "frinkjes" to the '^.Guard": Baskin, DanciF, Held and Miller...
...But when the members came back for the late session Sunday, the word was passed that a compromise had been ^agreed upon...
...Allen, Coolidge, Thomas and Hoopes then presented the amended resolution, and Oneal and Graham were the only ones to vote against it...
...Those added were Simon Berlin, William E. Bonn and Joseph Stein of New York, Newton R. Jones of Utiea, the only member of the State Executive Committee to be considered at any time for that committee, and George Dimmik of Rome, all opponents of the seceders, and Murray Gross, an active member of the secession group...
...It is hardly necessary to report that these hostages to fairness added to the committee indignantly spumed the doubtful honor of being permitted to be official witness to the proposed execution of the party...
...had staged a characteristic performance...
...With the kindly advice of the N.E.C...
...Ignoring the fatuous statement of Powers Hapgood that "everybody knows about the charges against the New York organization...
...And many of those scars are inside...
...Scorns Peace Proposals Special to The Sew Leader PHILADELPHIA, Pa.—Lustily singing the International and making brave promises of efforts to build a great, united and fighting Socialist Party, the majority of the National Executive Committee, at its meeting here over the week-end of January 4th and 5th, struck a blow at the party that can have no meaning other man a deliberate attempt to split it and render ks work ineffective, action that threatens the destruction of the party and the prostration of all Socialist work and the disintegration of Socialism as an effective force in Ameridan life...
...Warren Atkinson went to Utiea from Rochester, violated his instructions and, remained to help organize the bolt...
...We have seen here a picture of prostration, chaos and disintegration, frustration and paralysis.'* He charged members of the N.E.C...
...But these official statements did not deter the N'.E.C...
...Do you think I like doing this...
...By whom ?" Oneal cited the provision of the national constitution providing 30 days' notice to states, and bo caused the majority of the committee to squirm uncomfortably in trying to adjust their contemplated actions to the constitution trader which they were serving...
...he declared, "is false to its mandate...
...If this is a farce," he said, referring to Bearak's charge that a verdict had secretly been arrived at, "when men have made up their minds be-' forehand, then there is no use any one's coming here...
...Have charges been filed...
...Leo Bsushingham, Frank R. Crosswaith, Winston Dancis, Max Delson, Emily L. Eaton, Charles B. McLevy and Maurer Flay NEC Decision as 'Fascism' AS Socialist Party members in New York and...
...In New York State our gubernatorial vote has declined consistently: "1980 _120,444 1982 -_ 102,959 1984_ 79,243" The actual vote in 1984 was 128,580, THE LARGEST GUBERNATORIAL VOTE EVER POLLED BY THE PARTY with the" exception of 1920, when special conditions prevailed...
...It was held that if any charges were made against the state organization, tiie ' only proper procedure would be to put them in writing, transmit them to the accused party and give sufficient time for a detailed answer...
...It la a clever trick of the debater to put so many questions to his opponent as to leave no time for him to present his own case if he answers them...
...HE WAS THE HEAD AND FRONT OF THE NEW YORK DESERTERS...
...Thomas then made the statement that he had declined to act at Utiea as an observer...
...continues jurisdiction...
...Some of us have scars in the party's battles...
...asked Oneal...
...Secretary Senior's answer wai one word: "No...
...TrJ to fate Dictatorship On the Party in New York Garfinkel...
...If you revoke the charter," he said, "we will meet there as Socialists...
...Any minority of Thomasites that cannot win support of the members in any state may easily set op a secession movement and obtain the recognition of the N. E. C. as against the regularly established party organisation...
...At the same time the N.E.C., in a hypocritical gesture at "fairness," refrained from conferring the charter on the Utiea bolters, hot instead turned it over to a "provisional" state committee composed in a majority of the same people...
...Only the instant action of the membership of the Socialist Party, WHICH IS ASSURED, and their rallying to the support of their New York comrades, will defeat tike attempt to destroy the Socialist Party that was made when the majority- of the N.E.C...
Vol. 19 • January 1936 • No. 2
