CURRENT AFFAIRS 137 136 THE CLASS STRUGGLE ceive of Spargo in another party. In this respect, Spargo loss will mean to the party much more than that of Mr and Mrs.
Stokes, Charles Edward Russell, Ghent and William English Walling put together. But there was another factor that seemed to justify us in thinking that Spargo would be content, in the end, having declared his minority point of view to remain within the ranks of our movement; his intimate personal relittions with the leading men of the with whose views on matters of principle as well as of tactics he has usually been in full accord.
It is clear, therefore, that the differences arising out of the war question alone could not have led him to separate himself from the party. They were the immediate but not the fundamental reason. Spargo made this difference the occasion of his resignation only because he felt convinced that the Socialist Party could be replaced by another party that would express his ideas and purposes more effectively and more successfully. In short, his social patriotic indignation, honest as it undoubtedly is, was after all only a subterfuge to cover up a change of heart that had long since taken place within him. Spargo had lost all mental affiliation with the long before American intervention offered him the welcome opportunity to act according to the dictates of his utmost desires.
He has expressed this, with the admirable honesty that has always been characteristic of him in all of his recently published statements. Conditions, says Spargo in his letter of resignation from the Party, are ripe for a re orientation of the Social Democratic forces of the country upon a sound program of democratic public ownership which will appeal to all who are willing to aid in establishing an industrial democracy.
Thus public ownership is to take the place of Socialism; nor is he willing to restrict himself, in his appeal to the working class. An authorized interview recently published in the Philadelphia Public Ledger makes his meaning still more clear. Expressing Socialism in terms of American life and experience, this new party. will not cling to formulae and let the substance of Socialist hope pass by unnoticed. It will make its appeal, not to one class alone, but to all men and women of good will and social vision. It will be a party of the toilers, not because it sets them apart and panders to them, but because its principles carried into effect must bring their emancipation.
The delegates to the St. Louis Convention will know what we mean. On every question that arose, Spargo stood on the extreme right. He defended, on all occasions, a policy of determined opportunism. He favored fusion with other organizations, demanded more liberal tactics against party orthodoxy and mental stagnation.
The pitiful remnants of the National Progressive Party that convened in a hall adjoining ours in Planters Hotel, St. Louis, held such a strong fascination for him that Spargo was hardly more than an occasional guest at the convention of his own party, after the day when the Progressives opened their meeting and had to be sent for, time and again, when his presence was desired.
The whole spirit of the Socialist Party not its attitude on the war question alone had become objectionable to John Spargo.
This can, of course, mean but one thing: that the new party will do away with the narrow minded and un American principle of the class struggle, once and for all times. It will adapt itself to all conceivable kinds of reform and freak movements and take them under its sheltering wings. The farmers with their Non partisan Leągue will be received with open armis. Roosevelt will, and we say this advisedly, find in the new party a reincarnation of his National Progressive Party that will give expression to his ideas and ideals far more faithfully, perhaps, than his own original organization. And Sam Gompers, too, may enter into more or less intimate relations with the Spargo conglomeration so far at least, as his lawfully wedded spouse, the Wilson administration, will permit, should the radical elements in the of become too importunate in their demands. His recent growing intimacy with Charles Edward Russell and Wm.
English Walling are, viewed in this light, not entirely devoid of significance.