Workmen's advocate. (New Haven, Conn.) 1883-1891, 1889-10-12

asked to define the position of the party
towards Nationalism.
Conrade Southeran thought that we
should for the present leave the Nation
alists alone, because their movement
has not yet taken definite shape.
Comrade Sanial endorsed this view.
''The position of the party towards
Natlonalism," he said, "should at pres
ent be one Of silent expectancy. Bel
lamy's book is apparently the credo of
a majority of those-mostly professional
men--who are prominently connected
with the Nationalist movement. 1t is
a fine book, and calculated to induce
thought among a class of people who
have not yet studied the question, and
who can never understand it fully until,
by actual contact with the wage-work
ing people, they have learned consider
ably more than this book itself can
teach them Of the tendencies and re-
quirements of their epoch. It's teach
ings, as you know, are communistic
rather than socialistic, and it appeals
more to sentiment than to reason.
Books such as this were written in
France in the poetical age, or infancy
of the labor movement. Since then the
working classes of Europe have taken
their own cause into their own hands,
and in the light of their own experience
| they have found those practical truths
which Karl Marx has so ably formu-
lated 1t is well that the professional
men, and especially the men of science,
should come together and declare to the
world that science has been diverted
from its true purpose; that it is used for
the enslavement of the people instead Of
being applied to their elevation; and
that they cannot and shall not any longer
countenance such brutal system. II
this were the object of the Nationalist
clubs, we might consider them as trade
unions of scientists, a sort of primary
organization of intellectual labor, which
by placing itself in communication with
primary organizations of manual labor
would, through the -pervading influ
ence of Socialism, advance in the knowl
edge of social science. If, however
those clubs should hastily admit various
and incongruous elements, and if, strong
in numbers but weak in knowledge anC
indefinite in purpose, they should hastily
enter the political field, they woulC
soon be exposed to the same dangers
that finally wrecked the George move
ment. In brief, Nationallsm is phe
nomenon that we Socialists may watcl
with interest, sign of the times,
clear indication of the growing read
mess of the American mind to grasI
new social ideas; and we must avail our
selves of this readiness by strengthen
ing our party upon our well-known an,
well-defined lines. We know that it i
as class movement only that Socialism
can accomplish the emancipation o
labor, and as a party we must go ol
without concession or compromise. A
no time was it so necessary to preserv
the integrity of the Socialist Labo
Party"
These views were accepted, and it wa
resolved that the delegate or his subst
tute shall voice them in the convention
The delegate was also instructed t
propose that paragraph II of "SociS
Demands" and paragraphs 6 and c
, "Political Demands" be struck out c
the platform,
Comrades Wiener, Ernest Boehn
Shaeffer, Vogt, and Hotfer were electe
a committee to draw up a plan of agits
,ion. This committee shall call NEE
ing of the Section at the earliest POI
, sible date after the convention.