Let us ponder this description of the Third International by its manager and greatest living expert: its scope, a confederation of the world"s Communists, a coalition of the Communist parties of all countries; its size, 8,000,000 members, perhaps greatly exaggerated; its nature, "an instrument of revolution;" and its determination, to carry on propaganda, for the violent seizure of every land by a dictatorship, "no matter what happens, legally or illegally." Let us reflect that it is with this Third International, and not the Russian Soviet Government, that Hillquit"s Party in America is affiliated, according to the testimony of the Socialists themselves at Albany. Finally, with these facts for a plummet, let us try to find the bottom of Hillquit"s hypocrisy in pretending at Albany that he and his disciples do not believe in "revolution" but only in "evolution."
Before pa.s.sing from Lincoln Eyre"s testimony, we further quote from his cable in the "World" of February 26, 1920, what we may call his description of "the Third International at work," as follows:
"Zinovieff ... is that combination of idealistic Hotspur and practical executive which is characteristic of many Bolshevist leaders. Despite his long years in exile with Lenine, to whose Doctor Johnson he played Boswell ably and loyally, this shock-haired enthusiastic young Jew--he is to-day scarcely forty--was able to run Petrograd.... Petrograd is still underfed, underheated, dirty and desolate, but it continues to live.... For this Zinovieff, as all-mighty controller of the city"s destinies, ... deserves credit....
"Besides having a hand in everything that concerns local administration, and most things which have to do with national government, he personally edits and writes many pages of the Third Internationale"s organ, "The Internationale Communist," a monthly magazine of some 250 pages printed simultaneously in Russian, English, French and German. Moreover, he pa.s.ses upon all important printed matter emanating from the Internationale"s press. Every foreign Communist coming to Moscow or Petrograd sees Zinovieff and gets pointers from him how to propagate Bolshevism.
"In the seven weeks I spent in Moscow, three delegates arrived from the United States and literally scores from Germany, Hungary, Austria, Switzerland, Scandinavia, Roumania, Bulgaria, Italy, China, j.a.pan, Corea, India, Afghanistan and Asia Minor countries.
The only important states from which few Communistic envoys come are Britain and France. Practically all these missionaries are obliged to travel illegally, that is, with false pa.s.sports or without any. They slip across the fighting fronts that encircle the Soviet Republic in astonishing ways, risking death and all forms of hardship to reach Moscow. The one-time seat of Moscow"s Emperors has become to Communists the world over what Mecca is to the Mohammedan pilgrims.
"A youthful emissary of the I. W. W. said to me: "We come here to drink of the fountain of revolutionary youth." I asked him what he thought would happen when Russia"s frontiers were opened. "We shall come as we come now, but in greater numbers and with greater ease,"
he replied.
""But won"t the Third Internationale send its Russian agitators abroad then, thus making it unnecessary for you to come here?"
"What for?" he retorted. "There is no use sending Russians to talk to American workmen. Americans will close their ears to a foreigner where they will open them wide to one of their own countrymen. The Third Internationale is a realistic organization. It has learned long ago that racial and national prejudices, however misguided they may be, are deep seated and cannot be overcome in a day. It aims to get results, and so it lets Americans talk to Americans."
"The Bolsheviki are as eager to precipitate a world revolution as ever. But at the moment they are even more eager to establish relations with the markets of the world, so that Russia may be saved from economic catastrophe.... The Kremlin realizes full well that it cannot hope to spread Bolshevism by means of its own people. And with the Third Internationale headed by Zinovieff, operating in close contact with the National Communist groups, it knows it does not have to."
Thus the overtures of peace and promises of good behavior made by the Russian Soviet Government to the other Powers are pure humbug; and equally false are the professions of peace in America which Hillquit"s branch of the Third International has made to lull the fears of the American people. To get the full force of this parallelism we have only to place the law-breaking Socialist Party of America since 1917 in juxta position with the hypocritical Socialist professions and principles brought out in 1920 during the trial of the a.s.semblymen at Albany.
As the long record of jury convictions of officials and members of the Socialist Party of America is the real foundation of the case against the five New York a.s.semblymen, exposing the character of the organization they serve, we quote for the reader"s information a press summary of the facts, submitted by a citizens" "Committee on Publicity,"
March 2, 1920, "for the approval of the People of the State of New York." According to the Albany "Knickerbocker[13] Press" of March 3, 1920, this Committee"s statement, after referring to "the procedure of the New York a.s.sembly in January, 1920," in "temporarily suspending the five Socialist a.s.semblymen while inst.i.tuting a judicial inquiry into their qualifications to serve as law-makers," continues as follows:
"We believe the a.s.sembly was misjudged in the minds of many who reasoned: "Socialists elected to previous a.s.semblies were seated without objection, why then suspend the five Socialist a.s.semblymen this year and investigate them?"
"We offer what we believe to be a complete answer to the question.
We believe the a.s.sembly had a compelling warrant for its procedure in serious facts and charges not known to previous Legislatures.
These include:
"First--Court records showing that most of the princ.i.p.al leaders of the Socialist "Party" were convicted lawbreakers.
"Second--the revelations of the Lusk Committee.
"Under the first head may be mentioned the conviction and twenty-year sentence, on January 8, 1919, of Victor L. Berger, National Executive Committeeman of the so-called Socialist Party; the conviction of Eugene V. Debs, four times Presidential candidate of the party, whose ten-year sentence was affirmed by the United States Supreme Court March 10, 1919; and other convictions in 1919, including, Adolph Germer, National Executive Secretary; J. Louis Engdahl, editor of the Socialist Party"s official publications; Irwin St. John Tucker, head of its literature department, and William F. Kruse, Secretary of the Young People"s Socialist organization. In addition, twenty of the Socialist Party"s lesser leaders and scores of its rank and file had been convicted of disloyal acts and utterances, while nineteen of the chief Socialist organs had their second-cla.s.s mail privileges canceled for disloyalty.
"Under the second head may be mentioned the fact that the investigations of the Lusk Committee showed that the Socialist incitement to lawlessness prevalent throughout the country was largely due to the propaganda of the Rand School of Socialism, a New York Corporation of which two of the Socialist a.s.semblymen were members. Furthermore, the American Socialist Society, the corporation that owns and conducts the Rand School, had been convicted under the Espionage Act before the United States District Court and heavily fined by Judge Julius M. Mayer.
"These were some of the facts and charges which were matters of public record and public knowledge when the a.s.sembly of 1920 convened. We submit, therefore, that if the a.s.sembly had not taken action as it did, it would have been derelict in its duty.
"We therefore recommend:
"1. That all loyal organizations pa.s.s, publish and file with this Committee resolutions in acknowledgment of the service rendered by the New York a.s.sembly and in encouragement of similar action by the Legislatures of other states.
"2. That individuals affirm this judgment in suitable ways, and particularly by letters to the press in their localities.
"3. That all loyal individuals and organizations co-operate to give the whole American people the exact facts concerning the conspiracy of radicals against our Government and inst.i.tutions.
"To this end we propose to continue the work of education by permanent organization under the name of "Publicity Committee Against Socialism.""[M]
The above list of Socialist convictions for lawbreaking will be found completely confirmed, on Socialist authority, in Trachtenberg"s Labor Year Book, 1919-1920, pages 92-103.
Was this record questioned by the Socialist defense at Albany? In no wise; it could not be. Was the record faced, the guilt of the lawbreakers confessed, and their transgressions deplored as acts of disloyalty which the Socialist Party now condemns and repudiates? Not at all. These acts were freshly confirmed, and taken anew upon the Socialist Party, by brazen justification of them at Albany and condemnation of the laws, juries and courts of the American people.
We have seen how Hillquit on the witness stand justified the disloyal and violently revolutionary utterances of two of the chief offenders, Debs and Victor L. Berger, identifying himself with their sentiments and proclaiming Debs as the highest type of American citizen, the man most fit for President of the United States. We have also seen that the whole Socialist Party was in 1919 committed to the nomination of Debs as its Presidential candidate in 1920; while it is a well known fact that when Congress excluded Victor L. Berger from that body because of his conviction as a lawbreaker, the lawless Socialist Party at once re-elected him to show its contempt for law and order under our inst.i.tutions.
The testimony piled up by the prosecution at Albany showed that, instead of judging the wholesale lawbreaking by its leaders and members in 1917 and 1918, the Socialist Party had in 1919 and 1920 involved itself in a still deeper guilt, adding treason to disloyalty by affiliating itself with the open enemies of our Government in Russia and other foreign lands. Was this denied by the Socialist defense at Albany? No, the fact of affiliation with the Third (Moscow) Internationale was admitted, reducing the defense to the false principle that the five Socialist a.s.semblymen should not be excluded on account of their signed pledge of obedience to a lawless organization, no matter how lawless it might be.
Thus in summing up for the defense, on March 3, 1920, Morris Hillquit, according to the "New York Times" of March 4, 1920, made the following excellent summary of the evidence against his party:
"First--That the Socialist Party is a revolutionary organization.
"Second--That it seeks to attain its ends by means of violence.
"Third--That it does not sincerely believe in political action, and that its politics is only a blind or camouflage.
"Fourth--That it is unpatriotic and disloyal.
"Fifth--That it is unduly controlled--or that it unduly controls public officials elected on its ticket.
"Sixth--That it owes allegiance to a foreign power known as the Internationale.
"Seventh--That it approves of the Soviet Government of Russia, and seeks to introduce a similar regime in the United States; and, finally,
"Eighth--That the a.s.semblymen personally opposed prosecution of the war and gave aid and comfort to the enemy.
""All of these charges," Mr. Hillquit said, "are distinctly charges against the Socialist Party as such. In other words, it is the Socialist Party of the United States that is on trial before you."
""I think, perhaps, the most telling point is the charge that the Socialist Party is unpatriotic and disloyal--at least it has been emphasized more than any other," said the lawyer. "We opposed the war.... If similar conditions again arise I am sure we will take the same position.""
Similarly, Seymour Stedman, summing up for the Socialists on March 5, 1920, not being able to deny the many convictions of leaders and members of the Socialist Party under the Espionage Law, openly attacked the law itself, according to the following account in the "New York Evening Sun"
of March 5, 1920:
"Albany, March 5.--A bitter attack on the Espionage Act was made by Seymour Stedman in his final summing up for the five suspended Socialists before the Judiciary Committee of the a.s.sembly today.
""Because of that act, you don"t know the truth about this war; you cannot know the truth about this war until the Espionage Act is dead," he a.s.serted....
"Mr. Stedman admitted that the St. Louis war platform of the Socialist Party was drawn "in lurid language to meet a situation in high flame," but said no meeting could be called to consider amending it because those who favored it might have been convicted under the Espionage Act....
"Mr. Stedman contended that, of course, the Socialists took their oath to uphold the Const.i.tution of New York State and the United States with the idea that they could interpret for themselves what the Const.i.tution means.
""Each public officer who takes an oath to support the Const.i.tution swears that he will support it as he understands it, and not as it is understood by others.""
According to the "New York World" of March 6, 1920, Stedman, in his speech of the preceding day, justified Eugene V. Debs" lawbreaking with the disgusting remark, "He had no conception of Jesus with a dagger in his teeth;" and justified the lawbreaking for which Rose Pastor Stokes was convicted with the sentence, "She had a right to disagree with the war aims." She, of course, was not convicted for "disagreement" but for wilfully interfering with the "recruiting service" of the United States Government.
The "New York World" of March 6, 1920, also gives the following specimen of Stedman"s reasoning:
"Answering the charge that Socialists generally were guilty of law violations, he exclaimed: "Go down to the penitentiaries and get the histories of the birds there and you won"t find any Socialists.