The Communists of America propose to end capitalism and organize a workers" industrial republic. The workers must control industry and dispose of the products of industry.
"The Communist Party is a party realizing the limitations of all existing workers" organizations and purposes to develop the revolutionary movement necessary to free the workers from the oppression of capitalism. The Communist Party insists that the problems of the American worker are identical with the problems of the workers of the world.
"The Communist Party is the conscious expression of the cla.s.s struggle of the workers against capitalism. Its aim is to direct this struggle to the conquest of political power, the overthrow of capitalism and the destruction of the bourgeois state.
"The Communist Party prepares itself for the revolution in the measure that it develops a program of immediate action expressing the ma.s.s struggles of the proletariat. These struggles must be inspired with revolutionary spirit and purposes.
"The Communist Party is fundamentally a party of action. It brings to the workers a consciousness of their oppression, of the impossibility of improving their condition under capitalism. The Communist Party directs the workers" struggle against capitalism, developing fuller forms and purposes in this struggle, culminating in the ma.s.s action of the revolution.
"The negro problem is a political and economic problem. The racial oppression of the negro is simply the expression of his economic bondage and oppression, each intensifying the other. This complicates the negro problem, but does not alter its proletarian character. The Communist Party will carry on agitation among the negro workers to unite them with all cla.s.s conscious workers."
Little need be added concerning the Communist Labor Party. As its manifesto and program are practically identical with those of the Communist Party of America, while all its members are likewise affiliated with the Third or Moscow International, the foregoing characterization of the Communist Party applies without essential modification to the Communist Labor Party. The identical character of these two parties was a.s.serted by A. Mitch.e.l.l Palmer, Attorney-General of the United States, in a statement given out January 23, 1920, and printed in the "New York Times" of the next day, as follows:
"These two organizations are identical in aim and tactics, the cause for their separate existence being due to the desire of certain individuals connected with the so-called Left Wing elements of the Socialist Party to be leaders. For the sake of convenience I shall refer to members of the Communist Party of America and the Communist Labor Party as "Communists.""
Attorney-General Palmer then quotes from the manifesto of the Third International, adopted March 6, 1919, at Moscow, to show, as he says, "that their sole and intimate aim was to accomplish not only the conquest but the destruction of the idea of the "State," as understood by loyal American citizens," and that "this destruction was not to be accomplished by parliamentary action, for it is specifically stated that it is to be by armed conflict with governmental authority." The Attorney-General"s statement then continues:
"It is this manifesto which was adopted by the Communist parties in the United States as their program of action....
"In the program of the Communists in the United States we find such statements as the following:
""Communism rejects the conception of the State; it rejects the idea of cla.s.s reconstruction and the parliamentary conquest of capitalism....
""The objective is the conquest by the proletariat of the power of the State. Communism does not propose to capture the bourgeois parliament of any State, but to conquer and destroy it."
"We thus find stated in very clear and plain language the fact that the aim of the Communists of America is for the destruction of the government. This shows clearly that the organizations of Communists in this country aim, not at the change of government of the United States by parliamentary or political methods, but in the overthrow and the destruction of the same by ma.s.s and direct action, by force and violence.
"Another point of particular significance to which I feel I should call your attention, is the fact that the organizations of Communists in the United States are pledged to destroy the great and loyal labor organization of America, namely, the American Federation of Labor, which, according to the Communist Party of America is considered to be reactionary and a bulwark of capitalism. Another particularly significant pledge of the Communists of America is to carry on agitation of the negro workers of America."
The I. W. W."s and the members of the Communist and Communist Labor parties are all openly confessed conspirators against the United States Government. The members of the Socialist Party are just as bad, and worse, for they are hypocrites, besides being conspirators.
The Socialists, as we have seen in a former chapter, have for many years given unlimited support to the I. W. W., knowing full well that it was an organization pledged to revolution by violence.
The Socialists, moreover, are heart and soul in favor of the Bolsheviki of Russia, who have issued the manifesto of their International expressly to stir up revolutions by violence in all countries, including our own. The Socialists of the United States call themselves Bolsheviki, are spreading the doctrines of the Bolshevists of Russia and openly admit that Bolshevism and Socialism are identical.
Until very recently the Socialist Party nursed within its bosom about 70,000 dues-paying members, out of 109,586, who went over to the Communist and Communist Labor parties. Hence, at least till lately, nearly two-thirds of its membership consisted of avowed rebels. Has it changed since the break with the Communists? No, not at all. It is just as bad as ever, only more hypocritical, more prudent and biding its time so as not to start a premature revolt. After the wholesale arrests of the members of the Communist and the Communist Labor parties on January 2, 1920, the Publicity Department of the Socialist Party, 220 South Ashland Boulevard, Chicago, said: "The Socialist Party herewith raises its voice in emphatic and solemn protest against these activities on the part of the hot-headed and overzealous guardians of the safety of the United States."
Now listen once more to the words of Morris Hillquit, who poses before the public as in a different cla.s.s from the American Communists and Communist Laborites. In "The Call," May 21, 1919, in a long article in large type covering half the editorial page, Morris Hillquit said of the "Left Wing" movement: "I am one of the last men in the party to ignore or misunderstand _the sound revolutionary impulse_ which animates the rank and file of this new movement, but the specific form and direction which it has a.s.sumed, its program and tactics, spell disaster to our movement. I am opposed to it, _not because it is too radical_, but because it is _essentially reactionary_ and non-Socialistic; _not because it would lead us too far_, but because it would lead us nowhere.
To prate about the dictatorship of the proletariat and of workers"
Soviets in the United States _at this time_ is to deflect the Socialistic propaganda from its realistic basis, and to advocate the abolition of all social reform planks in the party platform means to abandon _the concrete cla.s.s struggle_ as it presents itself from day to day." (Italics mine.)
The wisdom of this crafty, go-slow policy is now apparent, with the "Left Wing" leaders in jail, and Hillquit"s chameleons now posing as angels of light, the saviors of "representative government" in America.
The fact that the Socialist Party of America "goes into politics" does not make it less dangerous than the other revolutionary bodies, but more dangerous, for it thus expects to have men in political positions to seize the reins of government when the hour of blood and violence arrives. That this is its definite policy, the meaning of its political activity, was apparent as far back as its National Convention of 1908, when, in opposing those who would dismiss the use of the ballot in favor of "direct action"--violence--exclusively, Victor L. Berger said:
"I have no doubt that in the last a.n.a.lysis we must shoot, and when it comes to shooting, Wisconsin will be there.... In order to be able to shoot even some day we must have the powers of political government in our hands, at least to a great extent. I want that understood. So everybody who is talking to you about direct action and so on, and about political action being a humbug, is your enemy today, because he keeps you from getting the powers of political government." ("Proceedings of the 1908 National Convention of the Socialist Party," page 241.)
In the "Social Democratic Herald" of Milwaukee, July 31, 1909, Berger wrote: "It is easy to predict that the safety and hope of this country will finally lie in one direction only, that of a violent and b.l.o.o.d.y revolution. Therefore, I say, each of the 500,000 Socialist voters and of the 2,000,000 workingmen who instinctively incline our way, should, besides doing much reading and still more thinking, also have a good rifle and the necessary rounds of ammunition in his home, and be prepared to back up his ballot with his bullets if necessary. This may look like a startling statement. Yet I can see nothing else for the American ma.s.ses today." In the same paper, August 14, 1909, he wrote: "We should be grateful if the social revolution, if the freeing of 75,000,000 whites, would not cost more blood than the freeing of 4,000,000 negroes in 1861."
Thus the Socialist Party of America, under the tutelage and control of far-seeing and deep-witted leaders like Hillquit and Berger, is by far the most dangerous band of conspirators in the United States. No "revolutionary impulse" is too extreme for Hillquit, no movement is "too radical;" but its "program and tactics" must be deep-laid, deceptive, seizing every present political advantage so that the central power can be grasped by astute leadership in one lurch when the hour of "shooting"
arrives.
The dramatic violence of Lenine and Trotzky pa.s.sed through all the radical bodies in America like an electric shock, and the enthusiasts wished to start a ruction right away. But Morris Hillquit was not carried off his feet. If the boys were so senseless as to try to seize the reins of party government, Hillquit would dismiss them with a friendly wave, as in his article, quoted above, in which he also says: "There is, as far as I can see, but one remedy. It would be futile to preach reconciliation and union where antagonism runs so high. Let the Comrades on both sides do the next best thing. Let them separate, honestly, freely, and without rancor. Let each side organize and work in its own way, and make such contribution to the Socialist movement in America as it can." If the "contribution" of the boys should really turn out to be a successful general strike and overturn, who would be better able to grasp the power than an astute leader like Hillquit?
This book was written before the Judiciary Committee of the New York a.s.sembly began its inquiry, in January, 1920, into the fitness of five Socialist a.s.semblymen to act as law-makers, and since then has only received the addition of some important facts and testimony. It is remarkable, therefore, that all the evidence independently sifted in that investigation overwhelmingly points to the same conclusions arrived at in this volume.
On January 21, 1920, at the second day"s hearing at Albany, as reported in the "New York Times" of January 22, John B. Stanchfield and Martin W.
Littleton, of counsel for the Judiciary Committee, stated the fundamental nature of the charges brought against the five suspended Socialists--charges based, as is well known, on the results of raids and investigations of radicalism by the New York State Legislative Committee, Senator Lusk, Chairman. Said Mr. Stanchfield:
"When the Chairman read from the statement yesterday that the charge against these men was disloyalty, and that they had affiliated themselves with a party whose platform and program call for an overthrow of this Government by violence, he added that we will prove this beyond the shadow of a doubt.
"We are not upon this investigation engaged in a discussion of the philosophy of Socialism or its economics. We are engaged in an investigation of its tactics, its methods, its practical program, and these tactics, these methods, and that program called for the overturn of the power of this State and its annihilation, its utter and complete annihilation."
Mr. Littleton said:
"The representation with reference to what these five men did and what they profess and what they engaged to do stands out as plainly as any thing can stand out--that they gave their allegiance wholly and solely to an alien and invisible empire known as the Internationale. It stands out that they are the citizens, not in reality of the country which sustains and maintains them, but they are citizens of this invisible empire which projects itself as a revolutionary force into every country, menacing its inst.i.tutions and threatening its overthrow. Their allegiance before they ever entered upon the threshold of this chamber was given to this empire, which masquerades at one time with the softness of parliamentary reform and which declares itself in favor of revolution with force, according to the place and time where it may so declare.
"It is that alien state, people of alien races--pledged to the destruction of this Government and its inst.i.tutions--that the charges say that these men belong to and act with....
"Perhaps at a later day in this proceeding we will ascertain the specific program to which they pledged themselves, the program of Mr. Lenine and Mr. Trotzky, not to reform Russia--that is a misconception and a misdirection; it is not that Lenine and Trotzky are trying to reform Russia or change Russia, it is that Lenine and Trotzky, acting through these agencies, are proposing the installation of the same kind of government in const.i.tutional America that they have inaugurated in Russia, and these are the agents and the instructors, according to the charge, to carry out that program.
"It is quite a different thing from expressing your sympathy in a convention for downtrodden Russia. It is a little different program, Mr. Chairman, and the evidence in this case will disclose that these members, in conjunction with that party, have tied themselves irrevocably to the program.
"So that charge involves, I should say, a grave question as to whether these men, pledged to an alien empire to carry out an alien policy and to do it masquerading as a political party, shall be members of that a.s.sembly and can take the oath of office.
"Our ideals are the embodiment of the Const.i.tution which these men ought to have been able to take the oath to and support. No alien, invisible empire, having one corner of it resting in the heart of Soviet Russia, another corner of it resting upon the shoulders of the Spartacides in Germany, and another resting somewhere else, you swore allegiance to, but to this country and this standard and no other country or standard--that is the ideal which we take the oath for and undertake to support.
"Now, with that situation, here is an a.s.sembly organized under the ideals of that country and under its Const.i.tution, and the question here is, Can that a.s.sembly inquire into whether or not five of its members are disloyal to the country have foresworn themselves and given their allegiance to an alien and an invisible empire, and placed themselves in the hands of a master who can withdraw them from this a.s.sembly when he chooses? Can such a deliberative body as this make that inquiry, and, finding the fact out, can it expel that agency from this body before the poison has contaminated the system?"
Mr. Littleton here took up the charge that the five Socialist a.s.semblymen, before taking office, had placed their resignations in the hands of their party leaders, or their local organizations, to be used to withdraw them from office should they fail to carry out their party"s behest. He continued:
"What is the charge here? That these men, belonging to the invisible empire of the Internationale, whose agents may be violent or peaceable, according as the law allows, and according as they may escape, are here acting as agents of Lenine and Trotzky, not to establish a Soviet Republic under the rotten ruins of an infamous democracy, but to establish a Soviet Republic on the ruins of a Const.i.tution to which every man is pledged by every ounce of his blood and by that solemn vow which he registered in heaven when he entered on the duties of his office.
"Mr. Chairman, before this investigation is over and before the waves which have been stirred, the waves of public opinion, have subsided, I make no threat, but I make a prediction, that this country will understand that this so-called political party, masquerading as a political party, is the agent and the co-conspirator with the dark forces of this invisible empire whose object is the forcible destruction of const.i.tutional government in America.
"I say this question, before it is over, will arouse this country.
It will not be a tempest in the teapot. It will be a question as to whether they can hypocritically masquerade as a political party, and strike hands with every agency of force and revolution, and still make simple American people understand they are not sworn enemies of their country and ready to overthrow it."
The power of the "invisible empire" established by Lenine and Trotzky can be traced in the quotations in this book as a great dramatic energy which has seized and dragged into its vortex one after another of the radical organizations in the United States until none are now left out, and some even of the comparatively conservative trades union bodies appear to be trembling on the verge of peril. The evil fascination of the blood-reign of Lenine and Trotzky has been most remarkably evident in the Socialist Party of America, and precisely so because an element in this organization developed a strong power of resistance--only to succ.u.mb at last.
The story of this struggle is told in Chapters III to V of this work, where we see the Moscow Magnet dragging one section so much more rapidly than the rest moved that the Socialist Party at first stretched out into two wings, the Left and the Right, and then exploded into three parts, the Communist Labor Party, the Communist Party of America and that which still calls itself the Socialist Party of America.
We cannot forget the significant statement by Morris Hillquit in the "New York Call" after the Chicago Emergency Convention of September, 1919. This was put in evidence against the Socialist Party of America during the trial before the New York a.s.sembly"s Judiciary Committee and appeared in the "New York Herald" of January 29, 1920. Hillquit"s letter in the "Call" raised the question, "What shall be the att.i.tude of the Socialist Party toward the newly formed Communist organization?" In answering this question Hillquit used the following remarkable expressions:
"The division _was not brought about by differences on vital questions of principles_. It arose over disputes on methods and policy. The separation of the Socialist Party into three organizations _need not necessarily mean a weakening of the Socialists_.... Our quarrel is a _family_ quarrel, and has no room in the columns of the capitalistic papers.... We have had our split.... Now we are through with it. Legitimate constructive work of the Socialist movement is before us. Let us give it all of our time, energies and resources. Let us center our whole fight upon capitalism, and let us hope _our Communist brethren_ will go and do likewise." (Italics mine.)
The difference, then, is not at all one of "principles," but only one of "methods and policy," that is, of cunning in putting on disguises; and in this we concede that the Socialist Party of America is greatly superior to its "Communist brethren."
Another evidence of this cunning, brought out at the trial of the Socialist a.s.semblymen in January, 1920, bears directly upon the conspiratory character of the Socialist Party"s policy of "political action." According to the "New York Evening Sun," January 22, 1920, the following from the Socialist Party"s New York State Const.i.tution was put in evidence: