Pressured by U.S. entry into World War One in June 1917, and the Revolutions of 1917-1919, the Socialist Party found itself deeply split between Left and Right. In early June, 1919 regular elections were held for the Socialist Party’s 15-person N.E.C., National and International Secretaries. As it became clear that the Left Wing would take control, the right-wing, lame-duck N.E.C. claimed fraud, instructed State Secretaries not to count the votes, and declared the results invalid. In response, the Ohio Socialist, paper of the large and Left Wing Ohio State Socialist Party, asked each state for their count, with two big states–Illinois and New York–refusing to give numbers. However, nearly all the others did, with the Ohio Socialist publishing the results, below. The vote saw a crushing Left Wing victory across the board, with the Left out polling the right 4 or 5 to 1. The Left Wing took both leading positions and eleven of the fifteen N.E.C. seats, elected were National Executive Secretary, pro-tem Alfred Wagenknecht*; International Secretary, Kate Richards O’Hare*; for National Executive Committee: Dennis E. Batt*, Dan Hogan, Louis C. Fraina*, Kate Sadler Greenhalgh*, Fred Harwood, Nicholas Hourwich*, Ludwig E. Katterfeld*, John Keracher*, Edward Lindgren*, William Bross Lloyd*, Mary Raoul Millis, Patrick Nagel, Marguerite Prevey*, C.E. Ruthenberg*, and Harry M. Wicks*. (*left or lefty).

‘Present Party Officialdom Overwhelmingly Repudiated by National Referendum’ from The Ohio Socialist. No. 73. June 18, 1919.

The Socialist Party national referendum for the election of international delegates and international secretary has overwhelmingly repudiated the present bureaucratic officialdom of the party. Study the table of votes by states which appears below. This is a history-making tabulation for it shows that the Socialist Party of this country has faced forward and refuses longer to give ear to the siren songs of our stand-patters.

The members of the party want a new deal. They demand a party that is up to the minute in proletarian socialist thought and deeds. While the world has witnessed tremendous changes, both capitalist-ward and socialist-ward, as a result of the war, the Socialist Party in this country has been slipping backwards, or at best has been only marking time.

The party membership must have action which will place it in alignment with the kind of socialism which the lessons of the war have taught us to be the only kind that ensures victory. The party membership has enough of resolutions which straddle the question of affiliation as between the Berne-Scheidemann International and the Moscow-Lenin International. That the party membership does demand a clearing of the decks and an honest expression endorsing the Communist International is proven by the vote below, which elects comrades as international delegates who are Left Wing Socialists.

In the vote the only states with a large vote that are missing are Illinois and New York. The State Secretaries of these states refused to send the Ohio Socialist their returns.

For Illinois we can say that we are almost certain that the Left Wing candidates won out by large majorities. We challenge New York to publish its vote. We prophesy that despite the fact that the reactionaries in New York City expelled nearly half the membership, constituting the Left Wing faction, in order to be able to throw out the Left Wing vote upon this referendum, that Right Wing standpat candidates in New York received only slight majorities, if they received majorities at all.

The votes from the states not included in the tabulation below will not change results. The Left Wing candidates elected have too great a lead over the stand-pat candidates.

Victor Berger polled the largest vote among the candidates of moderate socialism and he got less than half as many as the lowest winning Left Wing candidate.

A thorough study of the tabulation constitutes a revelation to the party membership. John M. Work, Seymour Stedman, A.I. Shiplacoff, James Oneal, who together with National Secretary Germer attempted to suppress this vote, to keep it secret, to hold it up—in fact, the charge is made that their real purpose was to steal the election—these five candidates, the first four of whom are also members of the National Executive Committee which voted to suppress this referendum—these five candidates were so thoroughly beaten, so overwhelmingly repudiated by the party membership that their standing as party officials, yes, and as party members, is now nil.

Germer, the National Secretary of the party, who ought to have the respect and confidence of the entire membership, is of little thought of that he can only poll 3,846 votes. James Oneal, whom the National Executive Committee honored by sending him to Europe to study socialist progress, only mustered 1,726 votes. Shiplacoff, who has thrown his lot in with the Right Wing reactionaries, got 2,042 votes. Seymour Stedman, who has been the party’s attorney in all large court cases growing out of the espionage law, and who might have made a name for himself in the party, only has the confidence of the membership to the extent of 3,754 votes. John M. Work, an editorial writer upon Berger’s paper, received 2,313 votes.

The Left Wing candidates, because the membership knew them to be in accord with Lenin and Liebknecht Socialism, received what can be considered an ovation from the rank and file. John Reed, a strong supporter of the Russian Socialist Federated Republic, received 16,074 votes. Louis C. Fraina, editor of The Revolutionary Age, which paper leads in the advocacy of Left Wing Socialism in this country, received 13,447 votes. Alfred Wagenknecht, whom those defeated by this referendum discharged from the National Office because he was a Left Wing Socialist, received 10,385 votes, and C.E. Ruthenberg, Secretary of Local Cuyahoga County (Cleveland), which local adopted the Left Wing program at a recent mass meeting, received 10,067 votes.

The real character of the action of the seven members of the National Executive Committee (four of whom are candidates upon the ballot below) becomes apparent when this vote is examined. The results of the referendum stamp the expulsion of the Socialist Party of Michigan, the suspension of seven Foreign Federations, the refusal to tabulate the vote, and the attempt to place the party property beyond reach of the party membership, as the last desperate acts of a pitiful minority, overwhelmingly and definitely repudiated by the party membership.

The Ohio Socialist, published by the Left Wing-dominated Socialist Party of Ohio in Cleveland from January, 1917 to November, 1919. It was edited by Alfred Wagenknecht Wagenknecht spent most of 1918 in jail for “violation of the Conscription Act.” The paper grew from a monthly to a semi-monthly and then to a weekly in July, 1918 and eventually a press run of over 20,000. The Ohio Socialist Party’s endorsement of the Left Wing Manifesto led to it suspension at the undemocratic, packed Socialist Party Convention in 1919. As a recognized voice of the Left Wing, the paper carried the odd geographical subheading, “Official Organ of the Socialist Parties of Ohio and Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia and New Mexico” by 1919’s start. In November of that year the paper changed to the “labor organ” of the Communist Labor Party and its offices moved to New York City and its name changed to The Toiler, a precursor to the Daily Worker. There the paper was edited by James P. Cannon for a time.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/ohio-socialist/073-jun-18-1919-ohio-soc.pdf