page_title: Socialist Party of Washington
section_title: The factional war of the 1910s
hierarchical_section_title: Socialist Party of Washington / Establishment / The factional war of the 1910s
caption_attribution_description: English: Ludwig Katterfeld, 1909 Founding member and top leader of the Communist Labor Party of America in 1919 Via Marxists Internet Archive (www.marxists.org)
context_page_description: The Socialist Party of Washington was the Washington state section of the Socialist Party of America, an organization originally established as a federation of semi-autonomous state organizations.
  During the 1910s, the Socialist Party of Washington was one of the largest state affiliates of the SPA in the Western United States, touting a membership which peaked with more than 6,200 paid members. The Socialist Party of Washington is remembered today for its place in the free speech fights of the first decade of the 20th century, during which it was closely connected with the Industrial Workers of the World. It was also the organizational home of a number of key leaders of the early Communist Party of America.
context_section_description: The departure of Hermon Titus did not end the division within the Socialist Party of Washington, however. It was not long before the battle between Left and Center erupted again in a new form.
  Prior to the 1912 Washington state primary election, the state legislature passed a new primary law mandating the election of Precinct Committeemen and the governance of party organizations by those elected officials. The regular Socialist Party of Washington refused to recognize such a mandate from the legislature, contending instead that they were a dues-paying voluntary membership organization under the law, not subject to such regulation. However, a dissident moderate faction based in Seattle and headed by attorney E.J. Brown saw in this new law a means to take control of the state party apparatus. The dissidents used write-in ballots to elect themselves as a dual State Central Committee.
  Factional war waged for the next two years, with supporters of Brown's effort expelled from the SPW en masse.
  In 1913, L.E. Katterfeld, until recently the head of the Socialist Party's recently terminated national speakers' bureau moved from Chicago to Washington state where he became active in the SPW.
  In accordance with the wishes of the National Executive Committee of the SPA, a "Unity Conference" was held on June 18, 1914, a meeting intended to unite the bitter factions of the Washington state party was held. The gathering elected the newcomer Katterfeld as the new State Secretary of the SPW, a post in which he served through 1915.
caption: L.E. Katterfeld, State Secretary of the Socialist Party of Washington in 1914 and 1915. Katterfeld was later a top leader of the Communist Labor Party.
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