New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-09-07
I ak of
City Hall

4 visit TO Socialist headquarters. a.
II Union Square, brings no realizing
sense Of the Importance of this third
party in the approaching municipal
campaign. One finds there no great
suite Of Offices full OF preoccupied func'
tionaries. typewriters clscking like the
looms OF mill, corridors clutterec
with cigar smoke and district leaders
Instead. on the ninth floor, are two tiny
adjoining rooms containing one secre-
tary, a young man who wears horn
trimmed spectacles and has a very quiet
and confident air.
This man, Mr. Solomon, is the secre-
tary OF the Socialist State Committee
His Office is the state committee head
quarters. But he is now also campaign
manager for the greater city, and is
county chairman, though in com
Portable and leisurely fashion that
might beft an old-fashioned family
lawyer on the Main Street OF sleepy
country town.
We're figuring on polling vote Of
10000 here this fall
lie said this calmly yesterday, With
out q laugh or blush, in answer TO
the suggestion that his party seemed
20 be making headway. This is more
than TIE late Uncle Billy WINS polled
when he ran for Mayor on the Republi-
can ticket in 1905. IL is as many votes
as Hearst got in the three-cOrnered
fight Of 1909. Charles Edward Russell,
Socialis. candidate for Mayor in 1913,
polled only 50 ,067 votes.
Needless to say, 100000 Socialist
votes is Il higher number than any vet
Gran expert in Republican or Demo
cratic ranks is willing in his most
pessimistic moments to concede TO the
new rival. Some have gone as high as
100000, but with the plous air OF one
who cxaggerates for the good of his
soul. One hundred thousand would be
TRIPPING Russeli's vote Of four years
ago, as Russell tripleG that of Cassidy,
the Socialist choice for Mayor in 1909.
But the larger vote becomes, of
course the more difficult it is to multi
ply il, since the reservoir rs Dy no
means inexhaustible. To triple Rus
sells vote would be much greater
feat than Russell accomplished IN trip
ling Cassidy. It would give the So
calists the balance of power in this
great city, and in return for an effort.
II contracted with the elaborate cam
uaigns OF the older partle:, quite in
significant.
There is a feeling in the air that this
is TO be a good Socialist year. Last
month the Socialists Of Dayton, Ohio,
swept their city primaries. War wearl-
ness has helped TO increase the party :
numbers. The Russian revolution has
recommended socialism to the human
imagination, while all the belllgerent
governments have been adopting social
istic measures by degrees to wage war
the more effectively.
But the party in this country and
city has suffered some hard knocks Of
late. Within forty-eight hours its ma
tional headquarters in Chicago have
been rsided by Federal agents in a
search for evidence of treason or sedl-
ton. Mr. Solomon says that no ripple
from this splash has reached the local
headquarters. Yet the implications in
volved seem bound to ALLEVIATE from the
party here a good many who had hest
tated before TO believe the charges
OF ro-Gernanism spread broadcast
against il By such seeding members as
John Spargo. Charles Edward Russell,
J. G.. Phelps Stokes, Lucien Sanial,
William English Wailing and Chester
81. Wright.
These men represent that appreciable
body of Socialists who are also pa
triots. They have condemned the party
in general and Morris Hillquit, its can
ddate for Mayor, IN particular, as anti
American. They have repudated both.
and in doing so have undoubtedly
shaken the faith in the organization Of
many a member or former sympsthizer.
The Chicago raid will tend TO confirm
their accusations.
But Solomon processes 10 see no de-
lection OF consequence as a result, and
he points TO the fact that already the
party here has increased its card
membership BY more than 90 per cent
over the number last year.
The Socialist party's strength con-
sists Of card members and affiliated"
members. The former are those who
pay dues TO the organization, who win
ter it and summer IL, nurse il and live
with it. and who carry little red cards
to proclaim their regularity. They
form the rock bottom nucleus % the
organization and its most dependable
element.
The affiliated" members. on the
other hand. are those who sympathiLe
With Socislistic aims, and, when prop