New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-06-27
Vote
Down Call for
Labor Uprising
Bar All Reference 30 Die
,atorship of ProIeiariat
in Spirited Session of
the National Meeting
Shy From Russian Terror
Delegates Ssvayed by warn
iings Of Hillquit, Berger
and Other Moderales

DETROIT, June &C. Seized with
what Morris Hillquit described as q
"homicidal manis," the Socialist Ma
tional Convention to-day killed three
resolutions which sought in varying
| terms 10 define dictatorship by the
proletariat" as a part of Socialist pol
icy and then overwhelmed two others
which asserted the dictatorship is not
at this time an issue. A session which
lasted fer three and a half hours in a
sweivcring hall ended with all refer
! ence to working class dictation barred
from the party policy.
Inc fight against inclusion Of the
dictatorship was waged by Hillquit,
Victor Berger, Algernon Lee and Cam
eron King, of California They branded
1t as inseparably linked in American
minds with the Red terror in Russia,
AND declared it was useless TO fix a
policy which never would be called
into play unless, in some distant fu-
ture, Socialist revolution takes place
"Why dictate in 1921 what our
grandchildren shall do in 1902" Ber-
ger asked, while King declared:
The terror IS inseparable from die
tatorship of the proletariat. You have
got to have the terror to put it over"
Radical Moves SqueIched
j. Louis Engdahl and William Z.
Kruse, Left Wing Communists from
Chicago, offered two resolutions as
sorting the rights of the working
classes TO set up dictatorship to in
ftion and the duty not to permit any
thing TO stand in the way of their
being the ruling class" One resolu-
ton received only four votes and the
second eight.
Hillquit offered a substitute which
defined the dictatorship as "the po-
litical rule of the working class in the
period of transition from the capital
list system to the Socialist ORDER" and
added:
at is not necessarily associated
with a restraint of the political rights
Of opponents or with violence or ter
ror."
The New York delegation split and
Delegates Orr and Solomon both urged
the death of all the. proposals. "We
have tried to pour holy water over the
term dictatorship of the proletariat' !"
Orr said. 1--WE have tried to make it
kosher. The soviets will laugh at US
If we adopt this resolution. The Com
munists will laugh. We will be the
laughing stock Of the world" The
Hillquit plan was defeated, Is to 90.
j. W. Richman, of Washington, said
Of ten thousand Socialists talking
about the Dictatorship Of the probe
tariat is silly" and offered counter
resolution which declared that "we
do not consider the question of suffi
cient Importance at this time to go on
record for or against IT,"
Both sides attacked his plan and
his was the only vote cast for it.
Cameron King offered a motion de-
ciaring "the movement in the United
States is not sufficiently advanced at
two votes for it,
Berger Attacks Communists
The fight was enlivened when Victor
Berger attacked the Communists within
the party and both Kruse and Enedanl
replied.
THE Communists issued circulars in
Milwaukee last April advising the
workers not to vote because the reyo-
lutien was coming May l." Berger said.
They were going to. rise in all their
grandeur and overthrow the existing
order. And on May / it rained. So
they postponed their revolution and set
the date for May 6. And on May 6 a
policeman arrested two of them for
throwing handbills on the street in
violation of a city ordinance and the
revolution never has taken place.
''Engdahl and Kruse, the opponents
of Communism, do not belong to the
proletarlat, They are in the 'salariat,'
living off the money received from the
Socialist party. Engdahl has fastened
himself oh our party, where he ,ioesn't
belong. | am willing for him to have
a Communist party and write all the
nice Red articles he wants to, but
do not want him to sabotage our party
from within, and that is what he is
trying to do"