The toiler. [volume] (Cleveland, Ohio) 1919-1922, 1920-06-25
UNITED COMMUNIST PARTY FORMED BY COMMUNIST GROUPS

committees for the language groups
this proposal being decisively voted
down.
Late in the afternoon of the fourth
day of the joint sessions it was decided
! to proceed with elections of party Of
ficials. There had been many hours Of
caucusing on each side as to elections
Regardless of the sentiment of the con.
ventio expressed by majority
vote against further caucuses, neither
side was willing to risk surrender of
its group strength.
A motion was made by Spark &c. P.)
that the c. E. G. be composed of
the five c. P. delegates and four c.
l.. P. delegates receiving the highest
votes, without contest as between the
c. P. and c. L. P. candidates. The
motion was not supported.
Brown and Caxton were the nomin-
ees for International Secretary. Brown,
80, Caxton 23.
With two to elect, there were four
nominees for International Delegate.
The vote stood Damon 80, Meyer
&C. L. P.) 2S, Caxton 26, Barry &C. L.
P.) &c.. The lines were not holding;
four G. P. votes had been divided be-
tween Meyer and Barry.
Then came ten nominations for the
nine places on the G.. E. G. Damon,
Scott, Reinhardt, Delion, Zemlin, &C..
P.); Meyer, Klein, Flynn, Brown,
Dawson, (C.L.P.) J. These were the
caucus nominations. Obviously the G..
L. P. caucus had determined to avail
itself of the dissensions in the C.P.
ranks and to attempt to elect major
ity of the committee.
At the night session was announced
the result of the balloting; Damon,
Scott, Klein, Flynn, 90; Brown 33,
Dawson, 32, Meyer, 80; Reinhart, 26;
Delion, Zemlin, tied at "a.
Damon, Scott and Reinhart quickly
offered their designations. A bitter dis.
cussion was precipitated. Both sides
had played for control" and the
result had been a boomerang; for how,
it was urged, could the G. P. delegates
report back to their members that they
had been outwitted in strategy in a
way to give the minority control of
the united party9 Even though the
fault was that Of the G. P. delegates
themselves, how could that remedy the
outside situations
The CLIP speakers vehemently
answered that what was done was the
result of the will of the convention
that it was outrageous for members to
resign from the G. E. G. simply because
they felt they could not boss the com.
mittee and the party; that, after all
this outcome of the elections would be
the best proof to the members that the
old party lines had been forgotten.
A motion for a recess of half an
hour was adopted. Then began the tug
of war which went into the middle
of the night, only to be resumed the
next morning-the two groups, ap
parently completely welded, now
standing sharply apart as C.P. and
CLIP. The convention vanished; in its
place were two caucuses, with commit
tees for interchange Of offers ani
counter'proposals.
The strained item in the G. P. camI
had been an attack upon Caxton, based
on the "majority" G. P. criticisms
In the c. P. caucus, after long discus
sion, he had been nominated for the
c. f. c., IS to 9. Later Caxton with
drew his name. Now it was insisted
his name reintroduced, making
Zemlin first substitute. The CLIP. of
fnred to substitute Caxton for Browr
as International Secretary.
The last morning found the situation
deadlocked. To open the convention
again meant to give the C.P. the ad
vantage of the renewed caucus pressure
in favor of solidarity for C.P. control
all questions Of personality aside. The
issue of control having been precipitat
ed by the turn of the elections, the
C.P. delegates were in no mood tC
give up their demand for a majority OF
the Gee.