The toiler. [volume] (Cleveland, Ohio) 1919-1922, 1921-05-21
l2nd Installment.l

Michigan Party Continues Under
New Name.
The Michigan Socialist Party, upon
being expelled, stood solidly together,
took the name of Communist, and
continued to thrive. With very few
exceptions, the entire membership of
the Party and of the Workers Edu-
cational Association remained in the
Michigan Socialist Party orgruiza-
tion functioning under the new name
of Communist" The great club
house at Detroit, called the blouse
Of the Masses" continued to be their
headquarters and center of educa-
tional activity. Practically the total
membership of the Michigan Party,
including 5000 in Detroit, accepted
gladly the Party's revolutionary
trend.
A very few members in the city
of Detroit were offended by the re-
solutions in favor of a scientific ac-
counting for religion and against re-
formist measures. Among these per-
sons were the Reverend /. Paul Tay-
lor. an ex-minister, Ben Blumenberg,
an old-time Socialist, and Lazarus
s. Davidow, young attorney. They
remained in the Michigan party for
a while after it's expulsion, but then
left it to respond to the National
Offices invitation to form a new
Socialist Party of Michigan" They
formed a new Socialist Party of
Michigan" They formed new party
of ten members, with the Reverend
Paul Taylor as State Organizer.
The Reverend Taylor obtained two
new converts to Socialism in the
persons of Mrs. Ida Ruth Stewart,
a society lady prominent in the
Christian Science Church, and Char
les G. Gildemeister, a real estate
broker and investor, who with Tay-
lor, Blumenberg and Davidow, be-
came the most active members of the
new local.
Of the group of ten, only the law
yer Davidow was at the time a
member of the Workers Educational
Association. Another of the group
had once been a member of the
Workers Educational Association
and had been on the Board of Di-
rectors of that Association; but he
had long ago been recalled from
the Board of Directors and expelled
from the Association as the result
of a quarrel in which he had Of
Tended the membership by taking the
part of the Social Democratic Party
Of Germany and by justifying Victor
Berger's keeping a portrait Of the
Kaiser in his office. As events later
proved this man was the most i'm
portant recruit that the Reverend
Taylor had.
AS Detroit recovered from the rea.
estate depression of prohibition, the
property that the Left Wing So
cialists had bought for $4,000 quick.
ly rose in value to $150,000. Mr.. Gil.
demeister, real estate broker and in
vestor, and Mr.. Davidow, attorney
at law, began poignantly to regret
that the property belonged to the
great membership of the Workers
Educational Association of Left
Wing Socialists or Communists. None
of the Reverend Taylor's group had
had anything to do with the raising
of the money to buy the clubhouse,
except three who had raised not
more than three hundred and fifty
dollars. But Davidow began to nurse
a hope that the property might be
obtained by bringing law suit
against its possessors.
When Palmer Raided.
When Palmer's raiders descended
upon the Workers Educational AS
sociation building and threw all of
the Communists that could be found
into Jail, young Davidow's hope Of
obtaining the property revived. He,
with Mr.. Gildemeister and the Re-
verend Taylor, hurried about the city
and gathered their local.
They sent for Seymour Stedman,
who came to Detroit, studied the ST.
tuation and announced his position
that the actual members Of the
Workers Educational Association
were, as members Of a political para
ty that advocated the overthrow Of
the government, criminal organi-
zation committing a nuisance on the
premises, and that the property
should be taken away from them
and given to the members of the
Socialist Party rs law-abiding per-
sons.
Stedman's contention was, further,
that the actual members Of the