Source: International Socialist Review, April 1904 issue, Vol. IV, No. 10.
Transcription and Markup: Bill Wright for marxists.org, April, 2023.
In reply to the invitation of the International Socialist Review, I take the liberty to state my personal views on some matters of importance for our national convention.
The present plural vote of the national committeemen is as unfair as was the old system of one vote for each national committeeman regardless of the number of party members he represented. Under the old system, fifteen party members in Oklahoma had as much influence in the national committee as fifteen hundred party members in New York. The present plural vote remedies this defect. But it at the same time introduces a new defect which is fully as bad. In the old system, the minority did not count at all. In the new plural system, the minority vote is included in the representation of the states, but it is cast against the minority. Take it, for instance, that Illinois is entitled to fourteen votes in the national committee. All these fourteen votes are cast solidly for the wishes of the majority who elected the national committeeman; or, if he is not instructed by the majority, he votes on the question under consideration from his own point of view. In either case, he uses the votes of a certain number of party members contrary to their wishes. This is a gross injustice and must be remedied without delay.
One way out of this difficulty would be to elect two national committee members from each state entitled to more than one vote, one to be elected by the opportunist element, the other by the revolutionary element, and each to have in the national committee a number of votes proportional to the number of party members who elected them. I mention these two factions, because nearly all questions of party policy are approached from these two standpoints, and they would furnish the simplest and most permanent line of division. States that are only entitled to one vote in the national committee could not make use of this expedient, however. There would also be the difficulty of leaving still other elements unrepresented that belong neither to the opportunist nor to the Marxian element, as, for instance, the impossibilist element.
Another way out of the difficulty would be to abolish the national committee and national quorum entirely. Personally, I very much prefer this alternative. In my opinion, these two bodies have been more ornamental than useful, and their expenses might have been used to good effect in other work. All important questions must be settled by referendum, anyway, and for ordinary routine work, the national secretary and the state committees form a sufficient and far more representative organization. Let us dispense with all superfluous wheels in our party machinery. The simpler it is, the better it will express the will of the rank and file. Let the state committees assume the duties of their national committeeman. Let the national secretary publish his quarterly reports. And let a national convention perform the services of the national quorum and at the same time assign definite subjects to certain comrades, for discussion at such conventions, and we shall accomplish for better results at less cost to the national office than we do with the present form of organization.
I am in favor of a scientifically correct, yet clear and concise declaration of principles in place of the present platform. My reasons for this position I have stated in detail in the pamphlet “The Municipality from Capitalism to Socialism” and in the article “Shall We Revise Our Program Forward or Backward?” in the December, 1903, issue of the International Socialist Review. No immediate demands, no special resolutions for trade unions, farmers, negroes, etc. The text of this declaration of principles can be so worded that it will fully cover those classes and emphasize the fact that the Socialist Party seeks to develop the political class struggle in the interest of all proletarians regardless of race, color, creed and occupation, whether organized or unorganized, whether in the store, the shop, the factory, the mine, the field, the office, the school, or the pulpit. It should be urged on the state organizations to make this declaration of principles their platform also in state and municipal campaigns, in place of the great variety of present platforms, many of them fearfully and wonderfully made. And if the next international congress should agree on a uniform international Socialist platform, I am in favor of adopting that platform in all campaigns, whether national, state, or municipal.
A handbook for Socialists in public offices, making detailed suggestions for uniformity of action under the capitalist system, is indispensable. Each state might appoint a committee for drawing up an outline for the work of Socialists in state and municipal offices, and the national convention appoint a committee to draft suggestions for Socialist activity in Congress. The committee elected by the national convention might at the same time act as editor and compiler of the suggestions made by the states. This handbook would form the basis of our present-day activity in office, be a guide for speakers, and serve as a propaganda booklet. With the increasing experience of our successful candidates, the contents of this booklet would be augmented by the bills introduced by us and by summaries of the results obtained in the various public bodies.
I favor relieving the national secretary of the burden of press bulletins and press reports. This work can be done to great advantage by a Socialist press bureau in charge of a competent editor. This bureau should receive copies of all correspondence passing between the national secretary and the national committee and quorum; or, if these are abolished, between the national secretary and the state committees. This correspondence should be summarized by the editor of the press bureau for publication in the Socialist press. The press bureau should also collect material for an official history of the American Socialist party, and become the nucleus for such official publications as the party may wish to issue from time to time. Finally, this press bureau might furnish suitable editorial matter and patent insides to the small local papers which the comrades in all parts of the country may succeed in enlisting on our side. This bureau, if properly managed, should be able to pay for itself in the course of a few years. Last, not least, this press bureau should accumulate a party library and archive in connection with the collection of material for a party history. Twenty-five cents from each dues-paying party member will set this bureau on its feet.
Incidentally, I take this opportunity to remark, that a permanent Socialist daily is a pressing necessity for the American Socialist movement. This should be a regular newspaper, similar to the metropolitan dailies, and edited from the Socialist point of view, with a department for party news and a page on scientific Socialism. This daily should find its way into every Socialist home in the United States and form one of the strongest propaganda means at our command. It would not have any official character, but be supported by the individual members, who should furnish the first means for its publication and form a stock company for this purpose. If each of the present dues-paying members of the party would at once devote $2, or as much as he or she can spare, to this purpose, the first number of this daily could be circulated at the coming national convention.
So long as the principle of state and local autonomy is recognized, the party has no means of preventing any local from engaging any free lance speaker they may like. But the national secretary might issue speakers’ cards to those who place themselves under the control of the national or state organizations, and make it known that only those are authorized to speak in the name of the party who carry such a card. This would enable the party to decline all responsibility for statements on Socialism made by free lance speakers. Each state committee might act as a board of examination for applicants for speaker’s cards.
Ernest Untermann.
Last updated on 8 April 2023