AMERICAN SOCIALISM RE-EXAMINED
Cahan, Abraham
AMERICAN SOCIALISM RE-EXAMINE The Appeal to Class Consciousness Called weakest Link in Tactic of American Patty By Abraham Cahan •THE great Socialist movemeot of Europe lias •been made...
...The Jewish immigrants of the eighties and ninetia thus continued the work that had beet left off by their German predecessors...
...You may be Interested In knowing, nevertheless, that Epstein's article has been studled and dtewiisad in several chapters of the American Association of Social Workers...
...Fitch knows what social legtolstirm is...
...The three whom you mention call themselves social workers and are, to use your term, "honored and cherished members'* of the profession...
...Our attitude toward the American trade unions was, in the course of many years, one of senseless condemnation...
...Thus, la the entire social work movement, Dr...
...The etocton of that year waa scarcely over when be niusJons of a labor parts' betook themelves to the mysterious tend of dissipated dreams...
...In fact, the average American worktogman resents being told that on Election Day he ought to fed like an underdog...
...International solidarity to aQ very wen, and it certainly exists...
...But that does not matter...
...The British Labor Party is what it is because the British worker is classconscious, a state of mind unknown to the American wage earner...
...We know Mr...
...The prise* artide H Abraham Cohen, editor Of *W JeWft DeMy Forward, is tht first of a series under the general heeding: "American Socialism Re-examined...
...For many of the newcomers bettered thamaalrsa In tba adopted country...
...Ami yet, when the interests of German miners, for Instance, conflict with those of men who dig coal fa stogtand...
...The farmers or laborer's-boy studying his history lesson visualises a line of American presidents, many of whom began life as farm hands, male driven, tanners or grocery clerks...
...Its ultra-economic quality was the weak spot of Socialist doctrine to Europe, but that was at a time whan ft could do no barm and even fitted into the mental attitude of European workmen...
...ceased...
...on that matter it seems to me to be In much the same situation as the Socialist Party...
...In vain our effort to convince him that » is just on that day that American capital obtains or reinforces its power *•£ **• "wttnurn Of classfeeBng mjrbieb we address torn to a for. •*n tongue to ban...
...In other words, we called them violent names, because they would not change the psychology of the American masses to suit our philosophy...
...This to particularly true In those Instances when by class feeling is meant International class solidarity...
...The American boy Is brought up hi an atmosphere of ambition and aspiration, and by as we Socialists would, we are powerless to upset this part of the popular psychology...
...This is one of the things we ought to bear in mind...
...One other question I must touch upon...
...Our Marxian appeal to their sense of their own class interests was a soapajtete failure...
...nee of Social Work and leader in child labor legislation and social legislation for the handicapped...
...The control of social work by business men is a tendency to be deplored and opposed...
...Neither, so far as I know, would anyone have answered you If X bad not...
...You are right also in thinking that Ignorance and Indifference marks the attitude of some social workers toward matters of social legislation and that this mounts occasionally to clear cut opposition as in the case you cite...
...It to a common postpone* for us to address a meeting of strikers whose employers we used to add was, ten or fifteen years before, when they wars -members of the Union out on strata against manufacturers whom they bad subsequently replaced...
...She Is a member and active leader in many other social work organizations...
...Jane Addams Is a settlement worker, not usually thought of as outside the realm of social work, and h«s been president of the National Conference of Social Work Owen Love joy has been president of the National Conference of Social Work and of the American Association of Social Workers...
...Labor Pro<tuctivity Dc^ihawi Washington—<FP)-^verse» oatoat Sl pig-tron per man par boar, in Aeaartoaa doubled between x^^uvJm*vSm and the year isae, according to a steer made by the U. S. Bureau of Laker statistic...
...Miss Perkins, now in the State Labor Department and about to become the head of the department, was more than anyone else, responsible for the first hours taw for women te New York and Miss Swarts, now head of the Womene Bureau of the State Department of Labor, fought the reaction of the war and post war years...
...AMERICAN SOCIALISM RE-EXAMINE The Appeal to Class Consciousness Called weakest Link in Tactic of American Patty By Abraham Cahan •THE great Socialist movemeot of Europe lias •been made possible by the class-consdoutness of the European workingman...
...Abo, ba is imbued with the fact that the majority of Smatfcan bankers, railroad magnates,, coal barons, manufacturers, real estate I potentates and other men of wealth and power trace their success to bumble beginnings...
...we are still adhering to a body of dogma that has never had contact with American conditions...
...Comrade Thomas' success in the colleges is a case in point...
...In the National Consumers League Josephine Goldmark has won lasting tame for bar work ef a doasn years age to oanahoranon with Mr...
...Other social workers would not i......laaoand to such a level Dr...
...Dally Forward from warn to tbae for the last twenty y*era,_: to las*, during Use I* FoOetto preslaerate!-campaign, which oar Party sop...
...We worked for our unions, because to us it meant working for the social revolution, but what we did was as fruitful to a practical way as ft was sincere and idealistic Had we adopted similar methods with regard to the American unions, had ws made an effort to gala their confidence and good will instead of a ess fling them, our movement would have come much nearer to the front of American life than it has...
...College men are not the only «imHi-«m that might be interested In what we have to say provided we know how to make them listen...
...If we happen to be poor today, it is only an accident of time and of our own special conditions, Our position may be changed tomorrow...
...He dreams of becoming a Rockefeller, or perhaps the father of one, some day...
...Whatever may be the difference between the SockefaOers and us three hundred and sixty-four days in the year, on Election Day we are of aa much hmjortanee as they are...
...No, not content...
...We were abo bop rial as to whom we meant by social workers...
...It is, however, unfortunately true In other cities with unhappy results...
...j 1 Turning to the field Covered by trw term "social les-Matlm" T An M tax* what you would include, but I should say It should cover legislation relating to tenement house conditions, probation work, prison reform, juvenile courts, state hospitals for the defective, rehabilitation of the handicapped, protection of dependent children, protection of child workem, vocational guidance, workmen's compensation, factory inspection...
...This is the day of days, just the time for us to feel that we live la a Democracy and in a land where everybody has a chance...
...class solidarity begins at home...
...This, however, may be of little importance aa compared to bis sense of hopeless economic Inferiority, of being doomed to earn tan bread by selling bis labor to tba man who owns the means of production...
...The Complacency of Social Workers" TJJE are glad to print Dr...
...Fitch shows the complaeencx of social workers towards all new social movements as well as toward outside criticisms...
...But never mind that...
...The kindly attitude of the .railroad unions left me cold...
...Fitch wants us to know that ft fa rather generous of htm to take notice of our criticisms...
...Well, not because he was any more nearly right than you are...
...Pauline Ooldmark was secretary during much of the Factory Investigation Commission hearings of 1911-16 which first brought industrial legislation up to date in the state...
...Some of them, moreover, are so engrossed in the details of their Jobs that they are unable to see the problem as a whole or if they do, have no strength of body or mind after the work of the day to assume leadership in a larger movement...
...are as rood as the Rockefellers or the Moreens...
...In raising these questions you shift the ground of the discussion somewhat since the major question was your attack on, the relief organizations...
...John A. Lapp, president of the National Conference of Social Work in 1928 and outstanding leader in the movement for social.Insurance...
...I think that, to a large extent, it is an obsolete doctrine...
...Fitch's second " letter...
...When we anebwafl Jane ArHtame, Florence Kelly and Love joy as not typical of these social workers, we, of course, did not imply that these aakassated the list...
...has been grisvously eteaeWi which, indeed, to the trouble wtofe fa* economic part of Socialist txteorg, Yas * class struggle question partly bakawa to the realm of psychology, a reabo...
...Folks' championship of certain tabor legislation...
...There are about 25,000 people in the United States calling themselves social workers and it is not surprising that they do not all think anke...
...German and Jewish worklngmeb iron Russia are g-iv-n to Intellectual interests and their Socialism was of a mental am idealistic character...
...pitch's enumeration of social legislation, only the respectable and long existing legislative demands are mentioned...
...The Socialist press twe dailies and several weeklies was all it that language...
...The fact that most social workers are too engrossed In the details of their jobs and cannot see the problem as a whole is fa itself an accusation of the system more serious than we haW dared to charge...
...Must the social work movement, even as Sodom and Gomorrah, be spared all criticisms because there Is one good man in it...
...This, however, waa only a secondary reason why our Party's ecstasy over them and over the prospects of an American labor party failed to appeal to my imagination, though our support of La Polls tie had enlisted my hearty sympathy...
...These, I submit are as fine a group ol leaders as are to be found fa any field and their standing as social workers ii attested by recognition accorded then again and again by their fattens in the social work field...
...Man-hour output rose from AMI gross tons to o Jte gross tons...
...Association, National and State Child labor Committees, National and State Consumers Leagues, the American Association for Labor Legislation...
...The esse is strikingly different In the United States, where instances of poor farmers or mechanics achieving wealth and social position are so frequent as to be considered a most commonplace and natural occurrence...
...Still, It would be a t-i to ovatwnapbaatea it even fa their ease...
...There is a point of contact between the two topics...
...There is no need to define what we mean by social legislation, We assume that as a teacher of this subject, Dr...
...Nor to this out of keeping with our ideas of aotmortuc self-interest as a baste prtnetole of the Marxian philosophy, a subject which will be taken up later...
...You ask why no one has answered my friend, Abraham Epstein's article In Carrent History...
...ported, there waa much talk about the cbaneas of starting a. labor party along the lines of the organisation tba* *•¦» cbat name to...
...They would thrin to the philosophic concepts of our duetilne and to its appeal in the name of a nobler social arrangement...
...Each of them has to her credit distinguished achievements in social investigation and legislation...
...These are the subjects I wish to discuss in the present series...
...The Socialist movement to thi United States was entirely German hi those days...
...Instead of having a surplus population to get rid of, It opened its doon to the surplus populations of neighboring lands...
...We would assail their leaders with streams of diatribe, noi^g them responsible for the indifference of their men to our class-talk...
...Folks' stand on these questions...
...She is a member of the National Conference of Social Work and has frequently been a member of Its executive committee...
...This...
...Another thing that is entitled to consideration is the kind of Socialist theory that we teach from the platform, the lecture room or by means of the written word...
...Of course I cant help wondering why, if you knew this, yon wrote the misleading paragraphs which were the occasion of my comment...
...thereupon a great deal of optimism wss derived from the friendly attitude that was shown at that time by the railfcad unions to the candidacy of Senator'La Eollette and, indirectly, to our Party...
...Indeed, in his concluding paragraphs, Dr...
...The ten years fight for adequate compensation for longshoremen would not have reached its recent successful tome had it not been far the work of this association...
...If our American audiences voiced their reaction to our point ef view, their answer would be «"»«»»»«~g like this: •We, American wcrklngmen...
...It' was significant, abo, that In Dr...
...We should learn toradapt our activities to the environment in which we are trying to make converts...
...His Arrserican brother, on the other hand, is a stranger to that sort ef feeling, and this is the main cause why our rnovernent meets with comparatively little success in this country...
...The La FoOetto campaign was looked upon as a sort of connecting link between that rtn"ipri'gi and our movement...
...Anyhow, the majority of Americans in our party were drawn nSt" from workmen, but from the middle class...
...Once & wage earner always a wage earner...
...When the average Fourth of Jury orator runs into ecstasies over the "land of opportunities,'' there may be as little sincerity to his rhetoric as there is to an advertisement, but neither Is thexer a true ring to the oratory of a Socialist speaker who would overdo bis criticism of this country to the extent of denying that the American workingman enjoys many economic advantages over the European wage-earner...
...Pitch's analogy of social work and the Socialist Party Is, of course, farf etched...
...I think, has been one of the main faults of oar movement...
...f have submitted that point to the ?T...
...The Can—em ¦ League...
...In our Joy over the cordial attention of AngloSaxon toads unions to our activities and over what eeamed to be a foothold for us to the native labor movement we lost our heads somewhat...
...Look at the list of organisations: The National Housing Association, The National Probation Association, the National Prison...
...Fitch does Is to add to the list of men and women who are working on legislative programs and who are, as we said before, only InaVteiitoTte social workers...
...Jacob Billikopf, long active in many types of social work, now head of the Jewish Federation (social work organisation) of Philadelphia and Impartial chairman In...
...Had we Interpreted our ebeervations correctly we might have attracted much larger numBers of recruits, people idealisticaiiy inclined, not only from the mto> dte cases, but abo from « Warn* w*» knew bow to win tba ear and tba SSL W^M^m^mmM mmWdtlta and gsMss, tba is asters of their tabor for tba moral and r""f*—1 taaawawn we It b not for nothing that tba that Soetanst Oongraawaen elected to tba United States casne from German Milwaukee and the Jewish East Side of New York...
...We are in the habit of considering the worker's economic conditions exclusively, his mind and heart being practically out ef the picture...
...Cases ef toilers reaching higher rounds of the economic and social ladder in Germany, France or England *** tremely rare...
...McAdoo did not get the nomination, wt, so far as the prospective Socialist ympathies of the raitoed unions were oacsrnad, this dM us so good...
...The news story in the New York Times says that "The degree to which corporations should assume responsibility for social welfare to Niinmiiifflaa where they operate wD2 be considered at the meetThe New Leader...
...What few American workina-men joined our ranks did so, not because they were wage-earners, but because they happened to be thinkers and dreamers...
...We go oa with our work, a work not merely of words, but of substantial, fruit-bearing service...
...At a later period, when the discrepancies between tins part of the Socialist theory and realities of the growing labor movement in Europe became a grave ohstaele, the error was gradually corrected...
...The rule 1s brad fat tba worklngmau's bone...
...But let me say first of all that you are quite Justified in some of your reservations about social work and social work and social workers...
...I am afraid X cannot let you do that...
...School for Social Work, I New York City...
...You suggest that Jane Addama, Florence Kelley and Owen Love joy ere not social workers...
...Rubinow is no longer in social work and was only accidentally in the profession for a Short while...
...It was an open secret that McAdoo was their first choice as a candidate for the White House...
...But of tins later...
...I have been fairly dose to them all of that time and I know that the tendency Is quite in the other direction...
...The latter under the leadership of John B. Andrews has done more in the field of social insurance than any other agency...
...About one of them we have our suspicions...
...As this Is written we notice that the annual masting of the National Association of Community Cheats and Councils to to be beat to the Union League Club...
...e I shouldn't like to close these remarks without adding a word or two on the subject of class-consciousness...
...When we tell the amghah apeaktog workingman in America to go to the ballot box an Election Say not merely as an American citisen, but also, and mainly, as a member of the working class, our plea Jalls on deaf ears...
...who organised the Women's Bureau of the U. 8. Department of Labor Graham Taylor of Chicago Commons, another former president of the National Conference of Social Work, for a generation a civic leader In Chicago, Illinois and the nation...
...And if tba laborer in republican Germany is tba equal of his employer before tba law, bis awareness of it is a novel feeling to him...
...This point is of particular importance when one touches upon the subject of oliUcal parties to the United States rhere parte psychology-te-ut*erty tomke rhat it fs m "Europe, where they are hiefiy class organisations, sfswrUiIng abolutely foreign to the nature of political If e under the stars and stripes...
...There was a time when tin Russian msgasines were strongly tinctured with Marxism, and when the revolutionary movement of Russia was built on purely Marxian lines...
...My views were chiefly based on what I know regarding the question of class reeling...
...vbsB to the weakest spot to our phllcseskf...
...I think that It is primarily due to our failure to realise all this, that after mare than half a century..of organised effort, oar Party has failed to gain a foothold among the native elements of the populatkn...
...In every one of these fields social workers and social work organizations have for years been working to secure.adequate legislation...
...And while, aa baa been said, Socialist theory has undergone radical changes in Europe, we still preset the tenets that German newcomers Imported to America fifty or sixty yean ago...
...Great Britain...
...At the very moment we were hanking upon then- support at our Cleveland Convention a committee of theirs was hanging around the Democratic Convention in New York in the fond hope of seeing McAdoo nominated, to which case they would have dropped La FoUette...
...Fitch's list...
...It ao happened, however, that about the same time the immigration o: Russian Jews to America reached oversowing proportions, arid Ube intellectual leaders of these wanderers brought wit* them the same Socialist Ideals and doctrines which during a former period cami from the land of Marx and LassaUe...
...AS Dr...
...Josephine Roche, social worker of Denver, who recently acquired control of the third largest coal company in Colorado and made it a union shop...
...In the early part of the war, when I visited Germany and the sections she had occupied in Poland, I had occasion to realise how Illusory it would be to rely on it for the coming of a world revolution...
...He not only admits practically an the charges we brought against the social work professionals but makes the indictment even clearer...
...They flocked to his gatherings, because bis talk appealed to their sense of justice and because they yearn for the high minded approach to politics with which bis n*Ti^i ia Identified...
...As long aa there is Hfe, there is hope to our country...
...His was one of the most American campaigns our movement ever made and the encouraging effect It produced should help us determine the kind of educational work we ought to develop...
...Such terrible subjects as unemployment insurance, health insurance, old age pensions, etc., problem which constitute the chief concern of the 35,000 pwftesatsaal social workers are oonsplcuously absent frem Mr...
...The present writer failed to share this optimism...
...Moat at the gain came to the yearn 1SS0-M, f*wj vartous technical cheagai and -exwfsi down tnefflftent plants...
...This is inevitable, but if you think that family case workers are less socially minded today than twenty years ago, you are wrong...
...e e There is every reason in tba world why class feeling...
...When a supposedly^, idealistic movement reaches the stage where the men and women on the top of it cannot even see the goal towards which they are driving, it la fraught with the greatest danger...
...You ask if the Welfare Council must be content with pious resolutions...
...Florence Kelley is secretary of the Consumers League, which was founded, incidentally, by Josephine Shaw Lowell who also founded the Mew York Charity Organisation Society...
...Our eaQ for class hatred appealed to them merely as a link in that chain of philosophical and ethical Ideas...
...The students or professors who eagerly listened to his speeches during his presidential campaign did not do ao from class motives...
...Here, on the other bend...
...L M Rubinow, for years head of the- Jewish Welfare Society of Philadelphia, one of the leading advocates of social insurance and the leading expert In the country In that field...
...should be alive in the European wage-earner...
...Grace Abbott, her successor...
...Along with these honored names should be placed those of Julia Lathrop, former president of the National Conference of Social Work and first chief of the Federal Children's Bureau...
...Homer Folks, the bead of the State Charities Aid Association...
...We have good reasons for doubting Mr...
...Homer Folks of the New York State Charities Aid Association, twice president of the National Confer...
...The Psychology of Socialism," by Henry de Mao, which waa brought out a few years later, contains a ¦iirtaaw array of facte illustrating the aaa* Altogether, the theory of the awn struggle, while prefeotiy sound as s amdency...
...The result was that instead of gaining a bearing amont, them we persistently kept estranging them...
...To be sure the organization of a chest in a community does not necessarily imply business control and in many cities this is not the case...
...Subsequently German Industry med< great strides and emigration from that country to the United States practlcalb...
...Well, the answer depends partly on what you mean by social legislation and partly on whom you mean by social workers...
...The present high standards in workmen's eorrrpenaation are due vary hugely to its leadership...
...the men's clothing industry in New York...
...What is ingrained in bis soul is the hereditary habit of regarding himself as a aeaaaber of a lower class...
...European workingmen are certainly possessed of a larger dose of that feeling than American wage earners...
...The nest article in this series,.in which Comrade Cohan wSI deal with what he terms vital changes in*Socialist policy away from Marxian Socialism, will appear in The New Leader of February 2nd, Social Work And Social Reform Dr...
...Deriving as we do our Inspiration front a doctrine exclusively economic we disregard, as a rule, the human nature side of our problem...
...You dismiss all that In your reply by accepting: a* correct my account of the methods of case work...
...Zn the entire list of names which be •numerates, be can cite only two men who are in the class of social workers ef whom we spoke.- These two are Jacob BUlikopf, who has bean renagnlaefl at standing head above shoulders ever the average Community Chest director, and Mr...
...Even their ream imsrtonaiwss, on American soil, hugely became a matter of abstract reasoning, with laamnrwa of the das* dlttotous to the old country for a basis...
...The new questions that you now raise are Just .as pertinent and worthy of discussion...
...You are not the only one to view with concern some of the possibilities that exist -under the development of chests...
...Defining "Social Workers" Now let me come back to my suggestion that the answer to your questions depends in part on definition of terms...
...European society has bean divided into classes since tba beginning of time...
...Sea The Socialist, movement to America res founded by Germans for Germans, rhat was to the seventies, before German Industries had reached a high depee of development and whan every Gernan boat coming to tba United States brought crowds of working people to our ¦bores...
...The headquarters of this organization constitute a source of Information in the whole field of social insurance and tabor Irgtosstion not to be duplicated anywhere else in the country...
...W* spoke definitely of the "leaders of Welfare Federations and Community Cheats the real bosses of* present day social work...
...Fitch, indeed, admits and deplores the recent tendencies in Community Chests and Welfare Federations and their control by business men...
...And those who stayed below never ceased hoping...
...BUUkopfs stand on social insurance and tabor kgtolattan ite has been awe of the jntetandliig lessen te thb movement, we do not know, now* ever, Mr...
...The Socialist Party has lost fa power and mrmhers but fa ao far as it could it has' not contented itself with ptous resolution*, social woritars, we fear, have not even reached tba stage ef such resolutions...
...It was from the same well that Russia's intelligentsia drank Its Socialist inspiration...
...The small American minority that found its way into our camp was actuated by visions of a higher morality and happiness for all rather than by their own economic grievances...
...Of course you have it your own way if you demand names of social workers who favor social legislation and at the same time argue that Hiadrmhtp in this field takes one oat of the ranks of social workers...
...Justice Brandeis, then a practicing lawyer, which established the constitutionality of laws limiting working hours for women...
...Fitch finds only two names to whom he can point with pride...
...hare been In most Instances the leaders of opinion and action In those fields...
...They boil down to this: do social workers stand out as leaders in the movement for social legislation and particularly for social Insurance...
...Worthy of special mention is a group of women who have been active in the New York State Consumers League, Pauline Goldmark, Frances Perkins and Nelle Swarts, each of whom has been at some time executive secretary of the League...
...The American working-men we tried to address did not know what we were talking about...
...They aaved up some money, started in bnataaas and graduated into the capitalist cava...
...We want ao far as to declare the labor party as good as aa accomplished fact...
...It reminds one of certain Eaghat words and phrases that were abandonee two or three centuries ago In old England, but have survived in New atotJans* to thb day...
...Fitch Returns To The Social Workers Defense By John A. Fitch Editor, THE NEW LEADER: VTOU have raised a number of questions In your reply to my recent letter which seem to call for some farther comment from me...
...Mary Van Kl-eck...
Vol. 8 • January 1929 • No. 1
