Great Falls daily tribune., 1920-05-21
THE SOCIALIST CONVENTION.

THE SOCIALIST CONVENTION.
By an overwhelming vote the Socialist con-
vention voted down the revolutionary red fac
tion, and adopted platform which dlsavoWs
any purpose to use force in the overthrow of the
present form Of government A Socialist plat
form is of course radical. 1t favors total
change in present social conditions and also IN
governmental functions. But according to the
majority view as expressed in the latest plat
form of the party it favors the realization OF It's
ideals through the ballot and by lawful means.
It is the most conservative platform the party
has adopted for some years, and notably more
conservative than the last platform, which was
distinctly reasonable in it's implications about
the war and conscription.
On this platform the Socialists nominated
Eugene V. Debs for president. The candidate
and the platform do not fit very well, for Mr..
Debs is now under conviction by the courts Tor
sedtion, and he glories in the acts which brought
him into Jail, and declares on every occasion that
he would do the same things again under the
same circumstances Mr.. Debs goes far beyond
the platform of the Socialists in his expressed
views. He would violate the laws of the nation
ing to his often expressed determination. That
he would approve of the use of force to over
throw the laws government elected by ma
iority of it's citizens if he did not believe the
laws of the land or the government of the land
Just, is to be inferred from many of his acts and
also from his speeches. The Socialists, there
fore, while adopting a platform which cannot
well be described as sedtious, evened up the per-
formance by nominating candidate on that
platform who is not only notoriously sedtious
but who is actually found guilty of that offense
by the courts and under sentence of impri5on-
ment for this crime.
Just how much influence the action of the
New York legislature in expelling the Socialists
from that legislature had on the making of the
last Socialist platform we do not know, but the
main argument put forward by the Republican
leaders of the New York assembly for their eX
pulsion was their last national platform which
was far worse than unpatriotic, and smacked
very much of treason. Perhaps the Socialists
wanted to keep such weapon from their oppo
nents in the future and so adopted mild plat.
form of dissent this year, while pulling up the
most rabid of the candidates.
The war split the Socialist party. Many OF
their leaders bolted the reasonable platform
adopted before, and gave the government Their
full and patriotic support during the war No
few such Socialist leaders were in the late ton
vention and led the fight against the reds
or extreme left wing of the Socialists. The pre-
sent platform is broad enough for loyal Social
st citizens to stand on, and the candidate il
"red" enough to be platform for the 1ost eX
treme element. Possibly this also is dove
move to unite the Socialist party again and hea
the breach caused by the war.
They had red hot time at the Socialist con
vention and much disorder. The radicals, though
outvoted made big lot of noise. The New Yorl
Evening Post feels called on to get sarcastic
about it as follows:
''f the judiciary committee at Albany coulC
have anticipated the proceedings of the Social
st national convention, now in session, it nigh
have thought twice before deciding that the So
cialists were a conspiracy and not rolitica
party. Even Speaker Sweet might have fel
beating within him some pulse of common hu
manity with Socialist convention endowed will
a temporary chairman and permanent chair
man; listening to keynote speeches; vlewin,
with pride; pointing with alarm; crying on
against a packed platform committee; snarin
itself up in two-hour's parliamentary tangle o.
single point; denouncing steam-roer tactics
injecting an occasional liar! into the debate
boasting of the governors to be elected and tn
new millions of votes to be cast; and in man
other ways proving how thoroughly Socialist
have assimilated at least one distinctive phas
of American life"
uVSTEPJA AMI PEEOPMC