Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-07-17
THIRD PARTYITES
ARE NOPARLOR
REDS AT ALL
by DAVID LAWRENCE


socialists have met the real Boil
shevists at the third party conven-
ton here, and will probably go home
| sadder but wiser men.
| For the committee of Forty-eight
was largely a group of progressives,
| called radicals and Bolshevists by
their conservative friends, but real
ly conservatives themselves when
ranged alongside the farmer and la
Dor groups with their extreme de-
mands and Grant psychology.
But the reader must understand
at the outset that by the terms
| farmer" and labor as used in the
third party convention, a small min
| GRITTY of agricultural workers and a
small minority of toilers in factor
les and railroads is meant. So radi-
the so-called farmer and labor
groups gathered here that even the
much condemned non partisan
league of North Dakota farmers has
| groups here intellectually and
join in the orgy of agitation and
destruction which the platform of
the majority of the committee repre-
senting the so-called farmer and la
Dor alliance asked the third party
Even Robert NJ. La Toilette, re-
garded as the radical of radicals in
the United States senate, declined to
run on the extremist platform.
want Bo1shevism
The truth of the matter is that
the extremist plainly asked for the
that has yet been suggested in a
| party convention or political gath
ering to their bosoms nearly all the
| they went a step further in gath
ering to their bosoms morly all the
| malcontents in America, including
| the people who in one breath de-
nounce the League Of Nations as an
entangling alliance and a provoker
of wars and who in the next breath
States and Great Britain unless rec
ognition of the Irish republic is
granted by both, and the people who
want to stir UP the race problems
of America anew by granting equal
social as well as political rights to
with the revolutionists in India and
| Egypt and enter into a hearty kim
| ship with soviet Russia,
Every mention of the Russian
erence to initiating what the work
ers had done in Russia was ap-
| plauded.
1t was a gathering of agitators
from all parts of the United States,
including men who started the out
months ago and the men who have
been threatening to overthrow Sam
| uel GomperS and the conservative
leaders of organized labor as part
of their program of chaos and revo-
| luton.
Small wonder that Mr.. Gompers
has had trouble REFRESHING radicals
| in the ranks of labor. And if the
minority had a sincere purpose in
trying to get possession of the labor
| organizations throughout the country,
| it might be a different story; but
the writer was assured by members
| of the Committee of Forty-Eight that
this convention was indeed a revela-
| ton to them and that many of the
leaders of the labor groups here were
merely playing game of labor poll
tics intended to help them gain the
big offices in organized labor for
| emselves-simply case of per-
sonal ambition which is so much
derided when individuals give vent
to similar human aspirations in the
Republican and Democratic parties.
Like Safety Valve
It was a good thing all the ex-
trefnists in America were gathered
| together in single room or at least
representatives of every extremist
faction, for the whole thing was like
| low all the steam to blow off. The
extreme radicals revealed their own
| hypocracies. They refused even a
courteous hearing to the progressives
and liberals who tried to furnish po-
| litical sense to the third party pro-
gram and guide it along rational
| lines in a way that, it was commended
| by George L. Record, of New Jersey,
| for instance, would convert millions
Of citizens who might otherwise close
their minds and refuse even to listen
| to the third party argument. The
progressives like, Amos Pinchot and
Mr.. Record argued that as a matter
| of pilitical expediency it was not
wise to go too far in the first year
of the third party''s program,
But the. word "exped1ency was was
a bull. Speaker after speaker from
| the ranks of labor rose and shouted
that as between expediency, and
principle they preferred principle no
matter where it led them-a splen-
but as valuable in political meet
| ing as it would be at the battle line
| if troops refused to retreat when a
commander advised it for strategic
reasons or as a maneuver toward Ill
innate victory. The labor group said
er La Toilette accepted the nomina-
| ton, though most of them must
have realized he was their, best
champion on the stump and their
pest VOC6-S6ICST.
Misguided Energy
They would insist, they said, on
making a platform first and then
getting a candidate who would run
on it. They were ready to denounce
La Toilette as out of sympathy with
and they did indeed shout down sew
eral speakers, although one of the
| planks of the platform referred in
emphatic terms to free speech. Time
and again the chairman of the con-
vention had to intercede with the
audience to permit an individual to
speak who had been given the floor
| in accordance with the rules of pro-
cedure. Cries Of sit down" and
throw him out which one would Id
| capitalistic gatherings when lib
era1 thought is uttered, were the
commonest occurrence in the. third
party meeting. All the passion Of
the mob, all the misguided energy
of some sincere reformers and pro-
| of the economic revolutionists were
let loose here without interference
by federal or state police and as
consequence the extremists have
that they will hereafter get even
the aid and comfort they have been
getting at the hands Of the intel
lectual socialists.
The radicals demanded not merely
Democratic control of all industry
and share in the management of
enterprises, but they demanded gov
eminent ownership and operation Of
all public utilities as well as natural
resources.
They never said a word about COM
pensation for those mines, stocks
yards, oil wells, ETC., which would
be taken over by the government from
their individual owners. Nor did
they suggest a means whereby the
millions of citizens whose money Is