LOSSES AND LESSONS IN MINNEAPOLIS
King, Murray E.
LOSSES AND LESSONS IN MINNEAPOLIS Compromise, Disunity and Treachery Reap their Reward in L,ocal Election By MURRAY E. KING AFTER two years of Socialist-Labor control, Mm eapolis passed back...
...The Star flaunted and screamed these charges, naming the Aldermen in person, calling them Communists, agents of Soviet Russia and enemies of everything American...
...What, actually happened was tha the reactionary machine, by mean of the greatest effort it has madi in the history of Minneapolis t< clear the city of Socialists and othe Progressives, with money tha flowed like water and a paid organ izatinn that was able to canvas practically every family in th< Labor wards and spread an un paralleled campaign of lies, wit...
...At the present time he holds the position of chairman of Ihe music department of the Franklin Lane High School...
...This "Americanization" campaign was practically identical in tone, language and methods with that of the Star...
...This paper seems to have but two purposes—to throw a red scare into the business element and to exploit the fears thus aroused...
...served continuously in that body since 1912, a mernbet of the Machinists' Union...
...The fact that tree 18,000 voters who remained away from the palls in the seven Labor wards could not be induced to vote for reactionary landidate, end the reactionaries could not increase their vote illustretee the possibilities of e real political Labor movement in Minneapolis as soon aa tha movement gets back to fundamental principles and a fundamental line-up and real organisation...
...G. T. I.insten of the Third Ward, progressive Farmrr-Lahorite and member of the Trainmen's Union...
...Mayor Leach, a bitter anti-Socialist and a strong...
...John Thompson, business Manager of the paper, a capitalist by the name of Prizell and VatTLear emerged as private owners of the Star when the receivership was lifted...
...In the general result the live Socialists here see only a set-back end ere not et all discouraged...
...The early visitors at Camp Tamiment report >%<> many beautiful improvements in grounds and water-front that have taken place since last season...
...They will be on land ta fill up the gap in the Labor ank» here and create a political novement of inspiring power al oon as a real political Labor move, nent begins to develop...
...The Labor Aldermen were de feated by the failure Of the Labor Progressive element to go to the polls and vote...
...At the banquet in honor of Debs' fiftieth anniversary in the Labor movement, held at the Curtis Hotel, more than 200 men and women were present to pay their respects to the veteran Labor leader, and many of them subscribed money for the promotion of the new propaganda weekly which he is to edit...
...This is a pantomime with music and in it will be presented Mary Cantor, a Denishawn dancer...
...every daily paper In the city sup porting it, was able to get out thi maximum conservative vote in thi face of an unprecedented apath) anions the voters...
...On its staff was A. B. Gilbert, former editor of the Non-partisan League organ, the Minnesota Leader, also secretary of the Non-partisan League of Minnesota and at one time a self-styled Sorialist...
...Returns show i slump of 15,000 votes in these sever Labor wards from the vote of foui years ago which elected these de feated candidates to office...
...proponent of the contract system of city improvements instead of the day labor system, was re-elected by a substantial majority...
...The Star made "the Americanization of the Minneapolis City Council" the issue of its campaign and went the limit in misrepresentation and vituperation...
...j...
...They strikingly illustrate the baneful effects of factional strife and the treachery of so-called leaders and the folly of abandoning a militant position for one of defense, retreat, apology and pussy-footing...
...San Francisco on August 1 and 2; Chicago on August 29 and "0...
...Prominent among them was the defection of Thomas Van Lear, former Sorialist mayor, and some of his former lieutenants and aids, and the treacherous desertion of the Progressive and Labor cause by the Daily Star...
...Under the Van Lear control the paper piled up a deficit which ultimately threw it in the hands of receivers...
...On Friday evening there will be held a Masque Ball, and on Saturday afternoon an Aquatic Carnival, under the direction of the Physical Director, Joe Fries...
...They had no organW tation to back them up and no papers to support them The election in Minneapolis was lost by the workers purely by division and default...
...When Debs appeared to speak he was given an ovation, and responded with an iddress that stirred his audience and caused many to remark at his wonderful vitality and eager enthusiasm...
...Since the election Ihere has been nanifested a distinct tendency imong Socialists here toward active rganization for educational purloses...
...Joseph Jablonower, and he will be assisted on the recreation side by an unusually strong staff of young people skilled in sports and recreation...
...The Recreation Department of Camp Tamiment is this year under the direction of Jacques Wolfe, who has been associated with musical productions at adult camps for several years...
...This unusual spectacle has convinced thousands of Progressives here that it...
...Theodore E Jenson of the Twelfth Ward, wh( was tied for re-election by his reac tionary opponent, is a Socialist anr member of the Railway Carmens Union...
...Under the new private regime, the Star pretended to be a "progressive" publication while masking its real reactionary nature under an extremely virulent anti-Communist policy...
...rialism...
...Thomas Van Lear, once the idol of the working people of Minneapolis, launched a campaign of re-, venge against his former associates in the Labor movement which has finally carried him entirely out of the Labor movement, placed him on the other side of the fence and made a complete renegade of him...
...These members of the City Council were all labelled "Socialist-Communists" although they are all strongly antiCommunist...
...As part of their present organization activity, the local Socialists have pledged to secure 5,000 subscriptions to the American Appeal, soon to be published by the National Socialist Party, with Debs as editor-in-chief...
...At the Communist zenith j i of power here two years ago, when 'this faction virtually controlled the Trades and Labor Assembly and the Farmer-Labor Federation of Minneapolis, representatives of the con | servative wing of the American Fed j eration of Labor were placed in i Minneapolis to organize and array the Labor forces against this condition...
...In the midst-of this division, die- I couragement ana apathy, the once militant and powerful Soeialjat movement of Minneapolis was sW most disorganized and wholly un...
...Comrade Debs will participate in all these conventions, and in addition will speak at the monster Socialist State picnic at the State Fair grounds, Milwaukee, on July 19, and at a meeting in Seat-, tie, Washington, on August 8. Tamiment In Full Swinz CAMP TAMIMENT, Forest...
...Against the most violent anti-Socialist attack in the history of the city, no Socialist back-fires were built...
...He was President of the outgoing Council...
...The cooperative stockholders now face the prospect of a suit and judgment making them responsible for the old debts of the Star...
...A Red Scare Stirred Up In this insincere and treacherous attack the star was supported by "Minnesota," a vile little sheet started by Louis Harthill, "Socialist" Chief of Police when Van Lear was mayor...
...H>s particular grudge is that they expelled him from the Socialist Party, which was the beginning of his downfall...
...The opinion was generally expressed by the conference speakers, including the most prominent Socialists in the State, that the leath of Robert M. La Follette, "ecognlzed leader of the national Progressive forces, will have a disruptive effect on the Progressive novement in this country, including Minnesota, where it found expression largely through the Farmer...
...This choice collection of renegades covered the city with this weekly publication filled to the brim with flaming, red-scare headlines and personal attacks on the Socialist and Progressive Labor Aldermen...
...The defeat of the railway workers in the great national railway strike practically dispersed the most militant Labor element here...
...It reserved the recent municipal campaign to strike its real blow against the whole progressive movement and consummate its supreme act of I tin...
...CONVENTION STIRS NEW HOPE Debs Inspires Thousands to Rebuild for Socialism | By BIRCH WILSON MINNEAPOLIS, Minn.— The second regional Convention of the Socialist Party, held here June 20-21, far surpassed the expectations of local Socialists in attendance and enthusiasm...
...This resulted less than a year ago in the expulsion of the Communists from the Trades and Labor Assembly...
...They did not attempt to justify their position as Socialists, They avoided all purely Socialist or class or fundamental questions and rested their case purely on their very good and clean records as pus...
...Thii loss of voters was borne almost en tirely by the Labor forces, as the re sctionary vote in these wards wa no larger than the reactionary voti of four years ago anil in some in stances it was slightly smaller...
...Conservative Laborite Is Elected John Peterson, the only Laboi Alderman who was indisputably reelected, is a member of the Car penters' Union and is a Farmer Laborite of the conservative type He lives in a Larbor ward, the Sixth where the vote is usually six to on« for the Labor candidate...
...He re ceived about three times as manj votes as his opponent...
...At this meeting many applications for membership in the Socialist Party were secured, hun-1 dreds of books were sold, and subscriptions taken for Party papers...
...A. E. Voelker of ihe Ninth Ward, veteran .Socialist member of the City Council, having...
...k.,i the stage in Minneapolis where the controlling interests can actually assign the role each psper is to assume in a well worked out program of gulling the public, Labor Ranks In Disunity This division in the ranka of the Socialists with former prominent Socialists and their associates doing the dirty work of the big business interests was reinforced by the most thorough division smong the trade unionists this city has seen j in years...
...V. F. Calverton, author of The Newer Spirit and editor of The Modern Quarterly, will lecture during the week beginning July 20, and Clement Wood the week of July 27...
...The new City Council will have seventeen or eighteen conservatives to eijrht or nine Socialists and Labor representatives, instead of fourteen Socialist and Labor representatives, in a council consisting of twenty-six members, as was the case with the retiring City Council...
...And to this end, Murray E. King of Minneapolis will engage in organization work in the city and State immediately followin, the conference...
...In P V At the critical moment as the campaign neared its close, the Star launched a venomous attack against the Socialist Aldermen running for re-election and all the other Labor Aldermen who had voted with them on practically all questions...
...The final feature of the two-day Socialist celebration was a great picnic and mass meeting in Camden Park, attended by several thousand persons, on Sunday afternoon in spite of threatening weather...
...Park, Pennsylvania, the sum-| mer playground of the Rand School of Social Science, is now open and is the scene of a busy conference week of the League for Industrial Democracy...
...lie servants...
...The fallowing week, M iss Isabel Kendig, | who comes under the auspices of...
...The : virulent fight involved In these pro- ! cesses has caused the Labor move-I ment to swing farther to the right than it has been here for many | years...
...but the most noticeable thing about i it was the new hope and enthusiasm I aroused in the comrades, and their expressed determination to put all their efforts into the rebuilding of the Party locally and throughout the State...
...A special program is prepared for the weekend of July 4 and a record-breaking crowd is expected...
...Louis on July 4 and 6, followed by others at Los Angeles, on July 26 and 26...
...From reservations received in the Rand School Office, 7 East 15th street, the attendance in the Camp will probably exceed that of all other seasons...
...The Socialist Aldermen were entirely silent on alt charges connecting them with 8s...
...Four major charges were made against them by the Star and reiterated in every issue—They had refused to participate in a vote of condolence upon the death of Roosevelt: they had refused to participate in a vote of condolence upon the death of Wilson: they had voted favoring the recognition by the United States of Soviet Russia: they had voted to welcome J. 0. Bentall upon his release from a Federal prison after he had served a term for alleged opposition to the war...
...Out of the: seven Socialist and Labor Aldermen running for re-election live were defeated by their reactionary opponents, one on the face of the official returns was tied by exactly the same number of votes as his opponent received and there will be a recount, and one was reelected...
...In Minnesota, I in particular, where the FarmerLabor movement developed its i greatest strength, determined efi forts will be made to rebuild the defunct Socialist locals for their presi ent educational value, and in anticiI pation of the time when the Farmer! Labor party will cease to function as a class-conscious political party expressing the needs of the work; ers of city and farm...
...i The conference spent the entire day in discussing organization plans for the rebuilding of the Party in the states represented by the assembled Socialists...
...The great special interests which had control of Minneapolis up until the advent of the Sorialist and labor majority two years ago will have full control of the City Government for two years...
...The Labor forces, on the other hand, without organization, or a definite line-up of their forces on fundamental issues, or any publicity except for pamphlets, and divided as they never were before, were not able to muster their full vote...
...Sunday morning a Musicale will be given...
...hy August Claessens, exAsaemblyman and well known speaker in tbe Socialist movement, as well as teacher in the Rand School of Social Science...
...The manager of the Camp for the current season is Mr...
...and New York City on September HI and 20...
...Paul, and points in Minnesota and j Wisconsin...
...The present attitude of the Socialists of Minnesota toward the I Farmer-Labor party u expressed in Ihe following resolution, which was unanimously adopted by the conference: "Whereas: The Farmer-Labor I party in Minnesota is functioning i as the orianlzed political expression of tbe masses of city workera on the farms, "Be it Resolved: That it ia the eenee of tbia conference that the Socialists of Minaeaote, aa individuals, continue their cooperation with the Farmer-Labor party, end that tha Socialist Party for the present remain an organ iird educational force in conformity with its own ideals and principles...
...This will complete the lecture courses in July, which are under the auspices of the Rand School of Social Science...
...i -----k...
...Many leading Socialists in Minesota have assented to this msthod nly-to he confronted with increasig confusion among the voters, inreasing division, and decreasing orartizatlon and enthusiast*,, i' An enoumping tendency is developing to ¦et back to fundamentals which ugurs well for the success of the lebs meetings in this State...
...Under conditions of gnat dlvilion, treachery, confusion, lack of •eal issues and principles, comiromisinjT and trimming, 15,000 Labor voters put over as a protest i big vote strike...
...A Few Lessons For Labor The farts behind this Labor defeat are most interesting and valuable...
...The recent election hal horoughly demonstrated that there s nothing in the tactical position f the Farmer-Laborite...
...They have already gone too far to the left to espond to the utmost arguments ind inducjjmentx and intimidations if the opposition...
...When the campaign to re-elect the Socialist and Labor Aldermen was in full swing, the Central Labor body of Minneapolis had swung clear back to the American Federation of Labor non-partisan political policy and the Farmer-Labor Association had become almost non-existent in Minneapolis as a result of lack of support from the trade union* Indorsement of the Labor candidates by the Central Labor body and what was left of the FarmerLabor Association came only after some effort, as half-hearted, eleventh-hour measures...
...This portion is that a wider following can ie gained by avoiding fundamental rinciples and issues and making an ppeal to the people on a basis of upposedly popular reforms...
...Van Lear's particular object of revenge has been the Socialists in the Labor movement, particularly the Socialist members of the City Council...
...National Chairman Eugene V. Debs presided at the Conference held in Eagles Hall, which was attended by Socialists from Minneapolis, St...
...The defeated Aldermen were, Richaid Dunlravy of the first Waul, a progressive Farmer-Labor party representative, and member of the City Employes' Union...
...able to meet the situation...
...Lewis Beneke, Socialist, and member of the Millwrights' Union Beneke was elected for the first timi four years ago...
...Then followed a series of other disasters...
...He is well known as a piano composer and a concert accompanier...
...Labor party...
...the National Federation of Pro-1 gressive Women, will lecture for i five mornings on "The Social Effects of Changing Sex Standards...
...I The next regional convention and celebration will be held in St...
...On Saturday evening the program will feature two plays, one by Clement Wood and the other, the well-known "The Nightingale and the Rose," by Oscar Wilde...
...George Guider of the Tenth Ward, conservative Farmer-Laborite and member of the Ice Wagon Drivers Union...
...In anticipation of this result, vigorous efforts will be made to prepare the Socialist Party once more to become the organized political expression of the producing classes in this State...
...The lecture courses, which are such an attractive feature of Camp Tamiment's pleasures, will begin on Monday, July <:, at 0:80 a. m., with the first of a group of five lectures on "The Psychology of Prejudice...
...About the same time I the Communists were expelled from ¦ the Farmer-Labor movement...
...Strangely enough, as if by prearrangement, the regular capitalist sheets of Minneapolis, usually so vociferous in their attacks against the Socialist and Labor candidates, for the first time in the history of Minneapolis retained a dignified silence on the Labor candidates and devoted volumns to the promotion of the reactionary candidates...
...LOSSES AND LESSONS IN MINNEAPOLIS Compromise, Disunity and Treachery Reap their Reward in L,ocal Election By MURRAY E. KING AFTER two years of Socialist-Labor control, Mm eapolis passed back into the hands of the reactionaries as a result of the municipal election two weeks afro...
...He was expelled from the Socialist Party for certain acts and policies while Msyor of Minneapolis which in the minds of his asscoiates placed him in a compromising position as a Socialist, The Treachery Of tha Star Van Lear succeeded A. C. Townley in the control of the Minnesota Daily Star, a publication cooperatively published and owned by the organised workers and farmers of Minnesota...
Vol. 2 • June 1925 • No. 26
