The Washington times., 1924-09-25
Of
SPARG0 IS
HIT
William WaIIing Attacks For
ner Socialist for Sup
porting Coolidge

DPoA6O' ~ VIM pEOHOunC6u
himself by inference in favor Of
the reelection Of President Coolidge
following a visit to the White House
this week, was today assailed by
another former member of the
Socialist party who left that or.
ganization ON the war issue.
William English Walling, for
years one Of the Socialist leaders,
author Of many books and writer
on economic and political subjects,
in Washington today to confer with
american Federation Of Labor cam.
palgn executives, told them that the
great majority of Socialists who
torSook that party when America
entered the war and who sunnorted
america In the war are for La
Toilette and against Coolidge and
laws and back the American
Federation Of Labor's policies.
Deserves Attention.
John Spargo, for many years a
leader OF the Socialist party. has
issued plausible but misieading
statement labelling La Toilette as a
reactlonary' and giving other novel
reasons for preferring Coolidge or
Davis Tor President" said Mr..
Walling. CAS- Spargo regards him.
self and is regarded in some GUAR.
ters as an ultra-progressive, if not
Socialist, his statement was wide.
~ reproduced and deserves attention
as a typical announcement Of the
intellectual when isolated from the
mass movement"
Spargo calls attention. to La Fol.
tette's foreign policies. The Amer.
can Federation Of Labor has dis
sociated. itself from those policies.
american labor unlike Spargo In
ms liDrary) knows that the war is
over ana that foreign issues, though
slil important, are wholly trans.
scended, overshadowed and eclipsed
by domestic issues.
Avoids Issues.
Spargo does not know what these
domestic issues are-and does nor
delgn to mention the paramount is.
sues as proclaimed by his friend.
PRESIDENT Coolidge, and realized nv
organized labor through its daily
experience extending back over .
quarter or a century, namely, the
autocratic power Of the courts. In.
stead, Spargo endeavors to exhume
the trust and government ownership
issues.
Spargo accuses La Toilette Of two
crimes against sound progressivism.
La toilette" he says "Is too much
OF socialist in that he advocates
the naturalization Of railroads and
reactionary" in that he wants
to break up the trusts into their
former constituents parts"
Spargo points out that i'm
mediate naturalization might lead
to a dislocation which at the pres.
ent moment would delay the world q
economic. recovery from the dis.
astrous effects Of the war. This il
sheer Misrepresentation, for Spargo
knows that La Toilette stands only
for ultimate naturalization and he
knows that the only railroad pro.
gram La Toilette is stressfng for
the present consists In the repeal
OF, the labor clauses of the Cum.
mins-Esch Law and the reduction
OF railway rates on a basis of
actual prudent investment.
Breaking Up Trusts.
- as " OIodhlnB up the trusts,
Spargo knows that organized labor
Is ON record against that policy
ana that the predominant feature
Of the La Toilette program is not
trust dissolution but trust Control
Supplying not only to industrial
combinations but to credit and
natural resources.
Spargo does not have any con.
siderable following even among
those former members Of the Social.
list Party, who like himself, left
that party to support the cause of
America and democracy during the
war.
ON one point Spargo has done a
public service. He speaks as an
authority when he says that by no
stretch Of the imagination can La
Toilette be called Socialist"