Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1920-05-02
SOCIALIST ID OPEN
 1920 CONVENTION Al NEW YORK SATURDAY
Eugene V. Debs Is Candidate for the Presi-
 dency

New York, May 1.-The socialist party of America will open the first national political convention of 1920 when 200 delegates from various sec tions Of the country assemble here next Saturday, May 8. They will continue their deliberations for a week. According to party officers nomination of candidates for presi- dent and vice president of the Uni ted States and construction of a platform will be the chief business before the delegates.
 Socialists attach particular impor- tance to this years convention, be- cause of attacks made on the party's attitude during the war and during the investigation in Albany which led to expulsion of the entire social lst delegation of five from the New York assembly. Unseating by the house of Representative Victor L. Berger of Wisconsin, convicted O. violating the espionage act, also is likely to come up for discussion. Representative socialists also de- clare that rights of free speech, free press and free assemblage, which party officials assert have been en- dangered by "gag legislation pass ed during the war, are certain to re- ceive attention. The ethics of ap- plication now of war measures de- signed to prevent strikers also is scheduled for debate.
 A committee of which Morris Hill quit, once candidate for the New i Ycrk mayoralty, is chairman, is now at work drafting recommendations for the party platform. Adoption of new platform is considered of prime importance this year, because of efforts by federal and state off cials to ally the party with it's "left wing" Workers of the 1 World, communists, bolshevists and other elements-which it's leaders as-
 sert has been dropped during the 1 past year or so.
 | It is believed that the platform they make clear the party's attitude
 not only toward these "ex-comrades'
 but toward the present Russian gov ! ernment. During the socialist trial
 at Albany, party leaders made it plain that while they held a sympa- thetic feeling for soviet Russia, be-
 cause it presented a field for great social experiment, they did not con- 1 slider themselves allied with the con- munist party, from whose philosophy
 they said they differed.
 l According to present plans, the
 party will nominate only two can didates for national office. Eugene
 V. Debs, now serving a term in At
 lanta penitentiary for violation ci
 the espionage act, has been repeated. | ly advocated dior the presidency by
 prominent party leaders. At the
 socialist investigation of Albany
 these leaders on the stand raised the
 cry of from prison to white house.
 asserted that Debs had been convict ed for word and not deed during the I war and compared him to Jesus o1 1 Nazareth
 1 The convention will be limited te l 200 delegates, it has been announced | apportioned to the various states ir
 conformity with their socialist mem
 bership. Each state will have al
 least one delegate. New York, witt I 27 delegates, is said to be the larg I est delegation, Pennsylvania witt l 21 is said to be second
 l Otto Branstetter of Chicago, na
 tional secretary, will call the dele gates to order in the auditorium O.
 the Finnish Workers Educational as
 sociation. Leading socialists from
 Atlantic to Pacific will be presen
 -including MT. Hillquit, who is nov
 at Saranac Lake; Seymour Stedman
 Chicago lawyer who has defended
 many prominent socialists caught il
 the mesh of war legislation: Victol