The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-03-05


first point on the agenda would be
the election of a Presidium for the
Convention. The following dele
gates were unanimously elected:
From District l, Charles W. Blk
by; District 2, Benjamin Gitlow, OF
to II. Hall and Henry J. Rosemond;
District 8, Jay Lovestone and Fred;
District 5, w. j. White; District s,
William +. Kruse, Lehtinen; District
13, John Owens; Young Workers
League, Herbert zam; Ella Reeve
Bloor and VIM. z. Foster.
The presidium unanimously Sc
lected Jay Lovestone as the chair
man for the first session, amidst
great applause on the part of the
delegates and visitors.
Lovestone read greetings to the
convention from the secretariat of
the South American Bureau of the
Comintern, from the National Ex-
ecutive Committee of the Irish
Workers League and from the
Dodge-Chrysler Nucleus in Detroit.
Then Lovestone announced the
next points on the order of business.
These are the Report on the War
Danger, with Max Bedacht, mem
Der of the Political Committee (Pol-
conn of the Party as reporter, and
the Report on the Sixth World Con-
gress of the Comintern, With Will
liam W. Weinstone, of the Polcom,
as reporter. While these reports
were being made, the Presidium
would work on the composition of
the various committees of the con
vention. This morning at 10 o'clock
these committees would be in ses-
sion. The next plenary meeting of
the convention was announced for
1 p. m. today.
Lovestone's speech as chairman
follows in full:
Comrades:
Before opening the meeting l de-
sire to avail myself of the oppor-
tunity as chairman of the first
working session of the convention
to present to the comrades the
viewpoint of the leadership of the
Party towards the hopes, the plans
and preparation of this convention.
l regret that due to the pressure of
work l will not be prepared to
make the report for the Political
Committee until tomorrow after
noon. We will not lose time, we
will proceed to consider the other
questions, but l will take this occa-
sion to indicate what the outlook of
the Central Committee of the Party
is for the results of this convention;
what we hope to have and what we
hope the delegation will seek to ac-
complish.
This convention, the Sixth Ma
tional Convention of our Party,
which will be ten years old in Sep
tember, is the most important con-
vention that our Party has yet held.
1t is the most authoritative conven-
tion in more respects than one. The
highest organ of the Communist
International is the Congress of the
Communist International. This con-
vention is held as a result of the
examination of the problems and
tasks confronting our Party by the
Sixth World Congress of the Com
munist International.
"This convention is called to help
strengthen the Party, to help unity
the Party, to help correct the Par
ty's line, to promote a spirit of Boil
shevik self-criticism; to unity our
ranks so that we can face our COM
mon enemy with more determina-
ton, with Bolshevik energy and
with greater feminist clarity. The
character of the social composition
of this convention very we'll be-
speaks the earnest desires of the
leadership of the Party to comply
fully with and to execute energeti-
cally the decisions of the Commu-
mist international. One of the in
structions given to our Party by the
Sixth Congress was to lend great
er impetus, to draw more workers,
workers from the factories, workers
from the basic industries into the
leading committees of the Party,
into the organic leadership of the
Party. This convention marks de-
cisive turning point. This convention
is a monument to the tremendous
improvement that our Party has
made since the Sixth World Con-
gress in the drawing in of workers
to our leading ranks and is an elo-
quent tribute to the fact that our
Party takes very seriously its being
an organic section of the Commu-
mist International.
"There have been, so far, three
critical periods in the life of our
Party. Some of us will recall the
first heavy onslaught against our
-.