ALBANY 
 
 THE CRISIS IN 
 GOVERNMENT 
 
 LOUIS WALDMAN
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 Albany: 
 Hie Crisis in Government
 
 ALL FOOL'S DAY AT ALBANY 
 
 Couriety of Mew York World 
 
 April I was an appropriate date for the expulsion of the five Socialist 
 Assemblymen from the New York State Legi lature.
 
 Albany: 
 
 The Crisis in Government 
 
 The History of the Suspension, Trial and Expulsion 
 
 from the New York State Legislature in 1 920 
 
 of the Five Socialist Assemblymen by 
 
 Their Political Opponents. 
 
 By 
 LOUIS WALDMAN 
 
 With an Introduction by 
 
 SEYMOUR STEDMAN
 
 Copyright, 1920, by 
 Boni & Liveright, Inc. 
 
 Printed in the United States ef America
 
 Prefece (^^^ 
 
 ]^ recent years the energies and intelligence of 
 statesmen and thinkers in the whole civilized world 
 have been directed to the creation of a governmental 
 apparatus which is susceptible to change in accord- 
 ance with the ever-changing conditions and facts of 
 life. It was sought to create processes by which the 
 complex interests in society may express their will 
 and affect their purposes. 
 
 We, in the United States, felt sure that we pos- 
 sessed that instrument. Ours was a Constitutional 
 Representative Government, carrying within it the 
 possibiHty of its own change and modification, thus 
 being an adequate agency for peaceful social progress. 
 We were proud of this fact. 
 
 This instrument has been brutally assaulted. It has 
 been badly damaged, if not completely destroyed. 
 
 The story of this assault is contained in the follow- 
 ing pages. The characters of the assailants, the forces 
 and interests back of them, the nature of the assault, 
 and the defenders of representative government, are 
 all described. 
 
 There are four episodes to this story: The suspen- 
 sion; the reaction of the country and of the world 
 to the suspension ; the "trial," and the expulsion. 
 
 The suspension took place on January 7, 1920. The 
 trial began January 20 and ended March 11. The ex- 
 pulsion took place March 31, 1920. 
 
 Between January 7 and March 31 enough had hap- 
 pened to fill many, many volumes. The record of the 
 proceedings of the trial alone, including exhibits, con- 
 
 M08644
 
 viii PREFACE 
 
 sists of close to 2,000,000 words. Space did not per- 
 mit of putting it all in this volume. Much of the tes- 
 timony on both sides deserves to be quoted in full. 
 The side of the prosecution quoted in full would show 
 that its entire spirit was that of the Spanish Inquisi- 
 tion. The side of the "Defense" is of educational 
 value. Enough of both sides, however, has been 
 quoted to give the reader an adequate idea of the con- 
 flict. The speeches of counsel have been much con- 
 densed. 
 
 I look forward to a lively condemnation from all — 
 from those I quoted, why I did not quote enough j 
 from those I did not quote, why I didn't. 
 
 Only grammatical errors due to inaccuracies of the 
 official record have been corrected, otherwise no edit- 
 ing of any kind was done. 
 
 The human interest side of the story I drew from 
 personal observation. I was present on all occasions 
 described in this book. 
 
 I am deeply indebted to Mr. Phillips Russell for his 
 valuable assistance in preparing the manuscript. 
 
 LOUIS WALDMAN.
 
 Contents 
 
 Page 
 
 Preface vii 
 
 Introduction, Seymour Stedman zi 
 
 Chapter 
 
 I The Suspension i 
 
 II The Country's Reaction to the Suspension 14 
 
 III The Tide of Protest Rises .... 29 
 
 IV The Opening of the Trial .... 50 
 V Socialists Challenge Judges .... 63 
 
 VI The Invisible Empire 80 
 
 VII The Prosecution's "Evidence" .... 104 
 VIII The Defense Opens : The Socialists and the 
 
 League of Nations 114 
 
 IX The Committee Instructed in Socialism — 
 
 Lee and Branstetter on the Stand . .126 
 
 X The Suspended Assemblymen on the Stand 135 
 XI The Summing-Up for the Defense — Morris 
 
 Hillquit's Speech 150 
 
 XII The Prosecution Sums Up — Speeches by 
 
 Messrs. Conboy and Brown . . . 192 
 
 XIII Seymour Stedman Concludes the Summing 
 
 Up for the Defense 214 
 
 XIV The Expulsion 320
 
 Introduction 
 
 By Seymour Stedman 
 
 During the war the people of this country with little 
 or no protest accepted the crumbling of sacred old tra- 
 ditions, the bending and even the breaking of lav/ to 
 serve the war aims and purposes of the Government. 
 They were not, however, prepared for the destruction 
 of constitutional government during a time of peace. 
 This shock came on January 7, 1920. 
 
 On this day in Albany, New York, the New York 
 Legislature assembled. The Assembly was called to 
 order. It included among its 150 members five Social- 
 ists who had been elected from five assembly districts 
 in New York City. These five, along with the others, 
 took the oath of office in accordance v/ith the require- 
 ments of the Constitution. They participated in the 
 organization of the House by voting for the Speaker, 
 the Clerk, the Sergeant-at-Arms and other officers, 
 which occupied something over two hours, and then 
 Thaddeus C. Sweet, the newly elected Speaker, di- 
 rected the Sergeant-at-Arms to present before the 
 bar of the House these five Assemblymen. The 
 Speaker informed the Assemblymen that "it is 
 every citizen's right to have his day in court. And if 
 this House shall adopt a resolution declaring your seat 
 herein vacant, pending a hearing before a tribunal of / 
 this House, you will be given an opportunity to ap- 
 pear before such tribunal to prove your right to a seat; 
 in this legislative body." 
 
 The Republicans and Democrats of the Assembly 
 had arrived at a complete understanding. They were 
 not surprised; they were pleased at the opportunity, 
 which they believed now open, to advance their politi- 
 cal prestige by an unwarranted, unjust and illegal at- 
 tack upon a minority political party. The Speaker 
 saw his ambitions for a gubernatorial nomination
 
 xii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 looming up as a reward for this assassination of a 
 democratic-republican form of government. Follow- 
 ing the statement of the Speaker, Mr. Adler, leader 
 of the Republicans on the floor, introduced a resolu- 
 tion to carry into effect the statement of the Speaker, 
 that the right of these Assemblymen should be investi- 
 gated and that they should be given the privilege to 
 prove "their right to a seat in this legislative body." 
 
 These men were presumed guilty ; it was now their 
 privilege to prove their innocence. But this was not 
 enough ; the resolution that passed the House declared 
 that the Assemblymen should "be denied their seats 
 pending investigation and other qualifications" ; "that 
 the respondent Assemblymen were guilty of belonging 
 to the Socialist Party, which had expressed solidarity 
 with Soviet Russia and the Communist International 
 of MosQow; that they had pledged themselves to be 
 guided by the Constitution and Platform of the party 
 of which they were members ; that they belonged to a 
 dues-paying political party; and that their party op- 
 posed war." 
 
 The hearing upon this was referred to the Judiciary 
 Committee, consisting of thirteen members, of which 
 Mr. Louis Martin was the Chairman. The announce- 
 ment of this proceeding in the public press did not 
 bring the wild and enthusiastic approval which no 
 doubt the Assemblymen expected. The New York Bar 
 Association, through a special committee, consisting of 
 the Honorable Charles Evans Hughes, late Governor 
 of New York, Associate Justice of the United States 
 Supreme Court, and Republican candidate for Presi- 
 dent; Morgan J. O'Brien, a former judge and distin- 
 guished member of the New York Bar; Louis Mar- 
 shall, whose reputation as a constitutional lawyer is in- 
 ternational ; Joseph M. Proskauer, and Ogden L. Mills, 
 rose instantly with a vigorous and forcible protest and 
 issued a brief reciting facts supported by authorities, 
 condemning the action of the Assembly. The papers 
 of the country, especially those of New York, of both 
 conservative and liberal policies, protested vigorously. 
 Not that they were friendly to Socialism, but because 
 they still believed there was need in the United States 
 for a democratic-republican form of government.
 
 INTRODUCTION xiii 
 
 On the 20th day of January, in the ornate and pic- 
 turesque Assembly room, the hearing was opened by 
 the Judiciary Committee. The hall was crowder 
 among the audience being some of the most distin- 
 guished men in the civic and public life of the State. 
 
 At the threshold of the proceedings Charles Evans 
 Hughes arose and said, "I crave the courtesy of the 
 Judiciary Committee to submit a brief statement on 
 behalf of the Association of the Bar of the City of 
 New York — I ask the courtesy of the Committee to 
 make a brief statement — this special committee does 
 not appear on behalf of the members of the Assembly 
 under suspicion, nor on behalf of the Socialist Party, 
 but on behalf of the New York Bar and in the public 
 interest. We desire to suggest the gravity of the 
 matter — the importance of determining at the outset 
 the applications of certain fundamental principles and 
 of formulating a course of inquiry in such matters." 
 
 He was interrupted by the Chairman, who quickly 
 disposed of the distinguished lawyer by announcing 
 that no persons could participate in the proceedings 
 except counsel representing the committee and counsel 
 representing the ousted Assemblymen. The Chairman 
 then read what he was pleased to call the rules which 
 should guide the committee in its course of procedure. 
 The document submitted said very little of rules, but 
 amplified the resolution for investigating the Assem- 
 blymen. The charge made by the Speaker was not 
 broad enough ; the charge made by the Assembly was 
 not broad enough ; it needed a charge containing every- 
 thing, and so the Judiciary Committee amplified by 
 formulating charges of its own, "that the men men- 
 tioned were members of a party whose principles and 
 doctrine as advocated called for and demanded the 
 tomplete destruction of our form of Government by the 
 fomentation of industrial unrest — that it favored abso- 
 lute substitution of minority for majority rule ; that it 
 sympathized with Soviet Russia ; that in open conven- 
 tion it denounced the war and its purposes and its mo- 
 tive as capitalistic, that they merely pretended to avail 
 themselves of a legally established means of political 
 representation and intended to overthrow this Govern- 
 ment peacefully if possible, forcibly if necessary; that
 
 xiv INTRODUCTION 
 
 they engaged in a large and well organized conspiracy 
 to subvert the duty of law and to destroy the right to 
 :-.quire and hold property honestly acquired, TO 
 . /EAKEN THE FAMILY TIE which they assert is 
 the seed of capitalism, to destroy the infiuence of the 
 church and overturn the whole fabric of a constitu- 
 tional form of government. We intend the men under 
 investigation shall have fair play; the case is not pre- 
 judged ; the committee will sit with an open mind ; the 
 men shall be accorded the right to select their own 
 counsel, and assistance will be given them in the pro- 
 curement of evidence." 
 
 The committee's protestations of fairness and open- 
 mindedness were too evidently the reaction of their 
 real mental attitude to need comment. It was a clear, 
 open, definite confession of bias, prejudice and a pre- 
 determined purpose. 
 
 The New York Constitution was adopted in 1821, 
 during a period of great national strife over free and 
 slave states, territories and boundaries. The South 
 was becoming alarmed and endeavoring to increase its 
 public power. With this vividly before the minds of 
 those who drew the Constitution, and to prevent any 
 bare majority from using its power to rob a minority 
 of its rights, provided for the taking of the Constitu- 
 tional Oath and then concluded with these words, 
 "AND NO OTHER OATH, DECLARATION OR 
 TEST shall be required as a qualification for any office 
 of public trust." This oath had been complied with by 
 the Assemblymen. Some of them had been members 
 of the Assembly during the years 191 7, 1918 and 1919. 
 No objection to their incumbency had been made dur-. 
 ing these years, though in the time of war. There was 
 no legal, constitutional authority for excluding them 
 for what had occurred prior to their election. This was 
 recognized v/hen they were permitted to sit in the As- 
 sembly and participate in the proceedings. No im- 
 proper behavior, no conviction for an offense, no con- 
 duct of a disloyal character subsequent to their elec- 
 tion or induction into office was charged against theim 
 personally. 
 
 Arguments to dismiss the proceedings and to seat 
 the Assemblymen were so well, cogently and irresisti-
 
 INTRODUCTION xv 
 
 bly made by their counsel that the counsel representing 
 the Committee, driven into an inextricable situation, 
 in the true style of royal brigands, cut loose from all 
 the restraints imposed by tradition and law with the 
 triumphant announcement of the following : "The As- 
 sembly of the State of New York has the power, un- 
 qualified power, to expel any member WITH OR 
 WITHOUT REASON, WITH OR WITHOUT 
 CAUSE. You are the judges of cause. You may de- 
 termine what in your judgment renders a man fit to 
 sit in the Assembly, and nobody can question your 
 conduct or your act. So here this Assembly in its 
 entirety, acting upon the report of a committee or act- 
 ing upon its own volition, has the undisputed and un- 
 deniable power to suspend or expel a member for any- 
 thin.<? that measures up to what you would ASSUME 
 TO BE or ASSERT TO BE sufficient and adequate 
 cause." 
 
 Mr. Stanchfield, the distinguished lawyer, under- 
 stands full well the distinction between reason and 
 cause. In using both terms he made this declaration 
 of naked power and force without qualification or limi- 
 tation ; with or without reason, with or without cause. 
 No reason and no cause required. This was a glorious 
 hour for the Socialist movement and the Socialist 
 Party of the United States. During three years that 
 were filled with hatred and passion it stood forth spon- 
 sor and proclaimer of the two great ideals of Ameri- 
 can political life, the freedom of speech and freedom of 
 the press, and now was passed to it the task of main- 
 taining the existence and the perpetuity of democratic- 
 representative government. The charge of defending 
 these three great principles of government among 
 civilized people, for which so great a price was paid, it 
 gladly accepted in the face of an ugly, reactionary ma- 
 jority. The proceedings opened with the introduction 
 of evidence offered in behalf of the Committee to sus- 
 tain the charges. 
 
 At the close of the war the profiteers in the country 
 at large, and especially in New York, were in need of a 
 smoke-screen to hide their finance-patriotism, their 
 hypocrisy from the eyes of honest people who had the 
 welfare of their country more at heart than the con-
 
 xvi INTRODUCTION 
 
 tents of their cash box. The Chamber of Commerce 
 of New York bestirred itself. It adopted a resolution 
 to investigate all radicals. The New York Legislature 
 duplicated this resolution and appointed a committee, 
 making Mr. Lusk its Chairman, which traveled from 
 town to town gathering books with red covers, and 
 green covers, and yellow covers; books on politics 
 and books on travel, books on geology and books on 
 sociology. Everything they could not understand was 
 seditious, treasonable and disloyal; they were men 
 of very limited understanding. The people were 
 thoroughly alarmed, many of whom thought that the 
 basements of New York were filled with guns and 
 dynamite, and when the trial of these Assemblymen 
 opened the people waited breathlessly for the great 
 eruption that was to cover the earth with red ashes 
 and light the sky with red flame, that would prove 
 Speaker Sweet the savior of his country. But after 
 the labor of many days, the mountain rumbling with 
 heavy and light oratory, the mouse came forth — a 
 stuffed toy from the Christmas shopping of the Lusk 
 Committee. 
 
 The first witness on the stand was shown a little 
 red book; it was in Yiddish, published by a Yiddish 
 Branch never even heard of by Socialist officials or the 
 respondent Assemblymen. It had an article which, as 
 translated, deprecated political action; on cross-ex- 
 amination it was found to contain articles favoring po- 
 litical action ; and then it developed that it was a book 
 containing articles on various theories of political and 
 industrial change. 
 
 This did not meet the public appetite which was 
 whetted by startling promises. Something must be 
 done ; so the lawyers of the Committee discovered the 
 Proclamation and War Program opposing the war, 
 which was adopted by the Socialist Party in 1917, and 
 which was circulated by the hundreds of thousands 
 and read all over the country. This startled the trog- 
 lodytes. But those who had ideas dating this side of 
 the flood waited patiently for something new. Then 
 was produced the Constitution of the Socialist Party, 
 in which the members pledged themselves to support 
 the constitution cind the principles of the party, the
 
 INTRODUCTION xvii 
 
 party having a right to expel them if they did not do 
 so. This was so novel that it was immediately fas- 
 tened upon by counsel for the committee and by the 
 Committeemen as a dangerous and revolutionary 
 piece of literature. From the time this was introduced 
 in evidence, on the 22nd day of January, until the clos- 
 ing arguments in March it was never lost sight of. 
 It was contended that it violated the laws of the State 
 and the Constitution of the State because the Socialist 
 Party could expel its members if they did not in the 
 Assembly vote according to the principles and the 
 platform of the party. That men seeking office should 
 actually pledge themselves in writing to live up to the 
 principles, their party professed, was flaunting treason 
 and sedition in the faces of gentlemen who are making 
 law in a state capitol notorious, not because of its 
 Elizabethan beauty, but for the brazen graft which ac- 
 companied its construction. 
 
 The Socialist Party Constitution required that the 
 members should sign a resignation blank which might 
 be filed if they were faithless to their political prom- 
 ises. The Assemblymen had not signed one in this in- 
 stance, but that made no difference to counsel for the 
 Committee. They believed in it ; that is, they believed 
 that the Socialist Party had a moral right to the resig- 
 nation of its candidates who betrayed their Party and 
 its cause. This, too, was mentioned and commented 
 upon and elaborated upon not less than sixty or sev- 
 enty times during the proceedings ; that persons guilty 
 of political perfidy should be chastised by withdrav/al 
 from office was considered a virtue by the Socialists, 
 but it was here laid against them as a vice. 
 
 Counsel for the Committee charged that "aliens, 
 minors and women are admitted to membership." In 
 revising this statement they omitted women, realizing 
 that they are no longer among the political outcasts. 
 They hung on to "aliens" until the evidence disclosed 
 hat the members of the Socialist Party are overwhelm- 
 ingly native-born. The fact that in many states aliens 
 vote for all state offices further weakened the legal 
 and moral force of this objection. As there was no evi- 
 dence of minors belonging to the Party, this whole 
 contention waned. The scene shifted, and the setting
 
 xviii INTRODUCTION 
 
 was prepared for a crushing attack. Entered Peter 
 Collins, sociologist, economist, expert on Socialism. 
 He had learned about Socialism while mingling with 
 Socialists "in the lobby of the Rand School," and talk- 
 ing with Socialists after meetings, and debating with 
 Socialists. He was very sure. Mr. Collins declared 
 that he was a Catholic, a member of the Knights of 
 Columbus, and that the Socialists undermined the in- 
 fluence of the Church; they desired to destroy the 
 home, break family ties ; they believed in the rule and 
 the triumph of the minority; they were against the 
 Government; in fact they were not in favor of any- 
 thing except discord, disintegration, savagery, and 
 chaos. It is to the credit of counsel for the Committee 
 that in summing up their case they passed by the tes- 
 timony of Mr. Collins, which was of considerable 
 length, in shame and silence. 
 
 Failing in the attack upon the philosophy of the 
 movement and realizing that the expectant audience 
 was becoming disappointed, they shifted the scene 
 again, and were now going to center a fire upon some 
 of the representatives. Solomon was singled out, and 
 there was ushered to the front a Miss Chivers. She 
 testified that she attended a street meeting where Solo- 
 mon was speaking, at which time a bus was going by 
 containing soldiers who were recruiting and that a 
 band was playing at a short distance; that these sol- 
 diers asked Solomon for the use of his stand and Solo- 
 mon replied, "No, the gutter is good enough for you." 
 On further examination she added to her testimony to 
 strengthen it, that Solomon at the same moment had 
 spit upon the flag, and that he said he would not wipe 
 his shoes on the flag. Under the circumstances this 
 statement was shown to be so improbable that it was 
 ridiculed by the public press, and counsel refrained 
 from bringing to the stand a Mrs. Brady, who Miss 
 Chivers said was with her at the time. She had kept 
 this story buried in the heart of an anti-Socialist So- 
 ciety to which she belonged, for over two years, and 
 she was not quite sure of her age, two or three years 
 not making any impression on her memory. Whether 
 she was fifteen or eighteen at the time she heard the 
 statement she apparently was unable to teU,
 
 INTRODUCTION xix 
 
 But with infinite patience and not to be thwarted by 
 this collapse, a new attack was made; this time on 
 Claessens. In the polling districts where Claessens 
 was running, he had made the statement that dope 
 fiends, cut-throats, and brigands had robbed the ballot 
 box, a fact undeniably proven since the election, and in 
 denouncing them, although advocating peaceful politi- 
 cal means, he mentioned such proceedings and out- 
 rages as an excuse for violence. He was examined at 
 length when on the stand and although he told of the 
 most infamous and criminal outrages perpetrated by 
 ballot box thieves and looters, there was no moral in- 
 dignation expressed by the Committee or its counsel 
 against the crime at the ballot box; only a feeling of 
 hostility to Claessens because he was not a Democrat 
 or a Republican. 
 
 Then Waldman came in for an attack. At a conven- 
 tion a year ago, in a speech OPPOSING militarism, 
 he had made a statement which was interpreted by the 
 Committee as a suggestion to the soldiers to use their 
 weapons against the capitalists. Yet on the floor of 
 the Assem.bly, a member, a Democrat, in the presence 
 of all the other Assemblymen and the Speaker said! 
 that he hoped when the men returned from Europe 
 they would keep their cartridges and guns so that 
 they could use them. He said this because he was en- 
 raged over the destruction of his saloon business by 
 the Prohibition Amendment. He was not even repri- 
 manded, except by a Socialist. 
 
 The defendants called Morris Hillquit and Algernon 
 Lee. The former gave a complete detailed statement 
 and explanation of the philosophy, tactics, programs 
 and theories of the Socialist movement nationally and 
 internationally and its political expression in various 
 countries during times of peace and war ; of its under- 
 lying economic basis and its social and political pur- 
 poses. Algernon Lee gave an exposition of its na- 
 tional and international character, form and technique, 
 and philosophy, the meaning of its various terms and 
 their import as they relate to the particular problems 
 presenting themselves from time to time for solution. 
 The testimony of these two witnesses is at many 
 points interwoven and will, together, furnish for some
 
 XX 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 time, to the intelligent readers of this country, a mas- 
 terful and complete statement of the fundamentals of 
 the movement, its political tactics and its ideals. 
 
 Norman Thomas, a clergyman, editor and publisher 
 of The World To-morrow, testified to the relation 
 between Socialism, the Church and the home. His 
 evidence must be included to complete the story of the 
 theoretical and practical phases of Socialism. 
 
 The Assemblymen were called and related their ac- 
 tion in opposition to legislation creating an ice monop- 
 oly, and bills for fastening upon the people of New 
 York filching water power companies, and with this an 
 elucidation of bills introduced and supported by the 
 Socialists to reduce the cost of living, to organize sys- 
 tematically state departments, and to promote social 
 and industrial participation and activity by the people, 
 especially in transportation and the distribution of food 
 and also legislation to regulate the relation of land- 
 lords to their tenants and to curtail the exacting trib- 
 ute levied by landlords as a result of an acute scarcity 
 of housing facilities. Statesmanship of a high, con- 
 structive ability was shown in the evidence of the As- 
 semblymen, in the masterful way they gathered the 
 information and prepared their measures for adoption 
 by the Assembly, only to be defeated at every turn by 
 representatives whose interests were too closely allied 
 with the great capitalistic combination of the Empire 
 State. 
 
 The story of this proceeding constitutes a history 
 of a legislative body excluding members because of 
 the political principles of the party to which they be- 
 long. It is the first time in American history that such 
 a proceeding has taken place. No autocrat, not even 
 Louis XIV, who declared, "I am the state," ever an- 
 nounced a more complete and all-inclusive doctrine of 
 brutal, naked power, unrestrained, power without 
 limit, power without responsibility, than that invoked 
 to justify this proceeding. 
 
 "The government of the people, by the people and 
 for the people" will not perish, no matter what this 
 Assembly may do from petty motives, immediate po- 
 litical expediency, self-assumed righteousness or a 
 false and ignoble conception of patriotism.
 
 Albany: 
 The Crisis in Government
 
 ALBANY: 
 THE CRISIS IN GOVERNMENT 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 THE SUSPENSION 
 
 On Election Day, November 4, 1919, five members 
 of the Socialist Party were elected to the Assembly of 
 the State of New York. They were: August Claes- 
 sens, elected from the 17th Assembly District, Man- 
 hattan; Louis Waldman, elected from the 8th Assem- 
 bly District, Manhattan ; Samuel Orr, elected from the 
 4th Assembly District, The Bronx; Charles Solomon, 
 elected from the 23rd Assembly District, Kings, and 
 Samuel A. DeWitt, elected from the 3rd Assembly 
 District, The Bronx. Of these five, August Claes- 
 sens was returned for the third term, having been first 
 elected in 19 17. Waldman, Orr and Solomon had been 
 returned for their second term. The only new mem- 
 ber was DeWitt. 
 
 In due course, the County Clerks of New York, 
 Kings, and The Bronx made out and mailed to these 
 five a certificate of election. A typical one is that re- 
 ceived by Waldman, which reads as follows: 
 
 "STATE OF NEW YORK 
 "COUNTY OF NEW YORK 
 
 "I, William F. Schneider, Clerk of the County of 
 New York, do hereby certify that having examined 
 the original statement and declaration of the votes cast 
 at the general election held on the 4th day of Novem- 
 ber, 1919, for the office of Member of Assembly, of
 
 2 ALBANY 
 
 the 8th Assembly District, do certify that Louis Wald- 
 man having received the greatest number of votes, was 
 duly elected for the term of one year, beginning Jan- 
 uary I, 1920. 
 
 "In witness thereof, I herewith set my hand and of- 
 ficial seal, this 24th day of December, 1919. 
 
 "WILLIAM F. SCHNEIDER, 
 "County Clerk, New York County.'* 
 
 On January 7, 1920, the opening day of the Legisla- 
 tive session, the five Socialist Assemblymen presented 
 themselves before the Secretary of State, Francis 
 Hugo, and were duly sworn in. The Assembly was 
 called to order by the clerk promptly at 12 o'clock 
 on the same day. The first act was to call the roll, on 
 which the names of the five Assemblymen were 
 recorded, the five duly answering "present." The next 
 business was the election of a Speaker. The Republi- 
 cans nominated Thaddeus C. Sweet; the Democrats 
 named Charles Donohue; and the Socialists August 
 Claessens. The roll was again called and the mem- 
 bers of the three parties represented recorded their 
 votes for their designated candidates. The Republi- 
 cans, being the majority party, easily elected their 
 candidate by a vote of no to 40. 
 
 On being escorted to the Speaker's chair, Mr. Sweet 
 delivered a speech of thanks and appreciation, taking 
 occasion in the course of his remarks to condemn 
 roundly what he deemed to be the evils of the day, in- 
 cluding labor welfare legislation and the rising menace 
 of Socialism. He then stepped down from the Speak- 
 er's platform and appointed as temporary presiding 
 officer Louis M. Martin, of Oneida County, who was 
 subsequently made Chairman of the Judiciary Ccwn- 
 mittee. Then followed the reading of the Governor's
 
 THE SUSPENSION 3 
 
 message, and the other official business, which con- 
 sumed about two and a half hours. 
 
 Meantime, an apparently genial atmosphere per- 
 vaded the chamber. Members left their seats to greet 
 each other, to inquire about each other's families, etc., 
 and to carry on a generally friendly conversation. 
 From these amenities, the Socialist members were by 
 no means excluded. On the contrary, various mem- 
 bers went out of their way, irrespective of party affili- 
 ations, to greet the Socialist Assemblymen smilingly. 
 Among these friendly members was the minority 
 leader, Charles Donohue, who came over to the Social- 
 ists and remarked: "You have five, we have thirty-five, 
 so we will have forty to fight that crowd." 
 
 On his reappearance in the chamber, Speaker Sweet 
 resumed the chair and proceeded with the air of a 
 man having unquestioned authority. He remained 
 standing, and then in cold, measured tones he said : 
 
 "The Chair directs the Sergeant-at-Arms to present 
 before the Bar of the House Samuel A. DeWitt, Sam- 
 uel Orr, Louis Waldman, Charles Solomon, and 
 August Claessens." 
 
 The careless atmosphere that had prevailed in the 
 House suddenly changed. 
 
 The Sergeant-at-Arms escorted the five Socialists to 
 the "well" of the House, which is the depression in the 
 center of the chamber, about six feet below the Speak- 
 er's chair. He said : 
 
 "Mr. Speaker, in accordance with your directions, 
 I have presented the gentlemen that you have directed 
 me to present." 
 
 The Speaker, in authoritative tones that waxed 
 warmer as he proceeded, then delivered himself as fol- 
 lows: 
 
 "You, whom I have summoned before the Bar of this 
 House, are seeking seats in this body — you who have
 
 4 ALBANY 
 
 been elected on a platform that is absolutely inimical 
 to the best interests of the State of New York and of 
 the United States. That platform is the doctrine of 
 the Socialist Party, and provides that every person 
 elected thereupon subscribe to the rules and regula- 
 tions, principles and tactics of that party. It is not 
 truly a political party, but is a membership organiza- 
 tion admitting within its ranks aliens, enemy aliens 
 and minors. The constitution of that party at Sectio.- 
 
 5 thereof provides this — 'in all my political actions 
 while a member of the Socialist Party, I agree to be 
 guided by the Constitution and platform of the party,' 
 and Section 13, Subdivision F, of the State Constitu- 
 tion of the Socialist Party provides — 'for failing or re- 
 fusing when elected to public office ... to abide and 
 carry out such instructions as he may have received 
 from the dues-paying party organization or as pre- 
 scribed by the State and National constitution.' 
 
 "It may be interesting to note that Ludwig C. A. 
 K. Martens, the self-styled Soviet Ambassador and 
 alien, who entered this country as a German in 191 6, 
 became a member of the Socialist Party upon his 
 entry into this country, and took part in its delibera- 
 tions. It is therefore quite evident that you, elected 
 to public office, in spite of your oath of office, are 
 bound to act subject to instructions received from an 
 executive committee which may be made up in whole 
 or in part of aliens or alien enemies, owing allegiance 
 to governments or organizations whose interests may 
 be diametrically opposed to the best interests of the 
 United States and of the people of the State of New 
 York. At the time of the entry of this country into 
 the war, the National Convention of the Socialist Party 
 of America at St. Louis, during its sessions from 
 April 7 to April 14, 191 7, adopted resolutions setting 
 forth the stand of the Socialist Party toward the war.
 
 THE MACHINERY OF CRISIS 
 
 ^JKu^ 
 
 Courtesy of New York World 
 
 THE PARTY LASH!
 
 6 ALBANY 
 
 and urged that the only struggle which would justify 
 its members in taking up arms was the great struggle 
 of the working class, to free itself from economic ex- 
 ploitation and political oppression, and in such reso- 
 lution appeared the following words : — *As against the 
 false doctrine of national patriotism, we uphold the 
 ideal of the international working class solidarity.* 
 The manifesto of the Socialist Party, in convention 
 assembled, adopted a resolution of which the following 
 is a part: *We, the organized Socialists of America, 
 declare our solidarity with the revolutionary workers 
 of Russia in support of the Government of their 
 Soviets, with the radical Socialists of Germany, Aus- 
 tria and Hungary . . . and with the Socialist organi- 
 zations in England, France, Italy and other countries, 
 who during the war, as after the war, have remained 
 true to the principles of vmcompromising international 
 Socialism — Long Live the International Socialist Rev- 
 olution, the only hope of the suffering world' ; and in 
 order that we may understand what this solidarity 
 means, I quote from page i6 of the manifesto of the 
 Communist International as follows: 'Civil war is 
 forced upon the laboring classes by their arch-ene- 
 mies. The working class must answer blow for blow, 
 if it will not renounce its own object and its own fu- 
 ture, which is at the same time the future of all hu- 
 manity. The Communist parties, far from conjuring 
 up civil war artificially, rather strive to shorten its 
 duration as much as possible; in cases, it has become 
 an iron necessity to minimize the number of its vic- 
 tims, and above all to secure victory for the pro- 
 letariat. This makes necessary the disarming of the 
 bourgeoisie at the proper time, the arming of laborers, 
 and the formation of the Communist army as the pro- 
 tector of the rule of the proletariat and the inviolabil- 
 ity of the social structure. Such is the Red Army of
 
 THE SUSPENSION 7 
 
 Soviet Russia, which rose to protect the achievements 
 of the working class, against every assault from within 
 or without. The Soviet army is inseparable from the 
 Soviet State.' 
 
 "It is every citizen's right to his day in court. If 
 this house should adopt a resolution declaring your 
 seat herein vacant, pending a hearing before a tribunal 
 of this house, you will be given an opportunity to ap- 
 pear before such tribunal to prove your right to a seat 
 in this legislative body, and upon the result of such 
 hearing and the findings of the Assembly tribunal, 
 your right to participate in the actions of this body 
 will be determined." 
 
 The House hesitated at first, then broke into scat- 
 tered applause. The five men who stood before the 
 bar of the House gave no sign of any perturbation. 
 There was an instant's silence, and then Mr. Claes- 
 sen's voice broke the spell. 
 
 "Mr. Speaker," he said. "Do I understand that we 
 have no rights until this body officially decides?" 
 
 "If the House so decides," said the Speaker. 
 
 At this point Mr. Waldman spoke up. Getting the 
 Speaker's recognition, he said: 
 
 "According to the rules adopted by this body, only a 
 little while ago, a member elected to this House can 
 only be unseated when charges are filed against him 
 and the Judiciary Committee reports on the situation 
 and then action is taken by the House. Is it not true?" 
 
 The Speaker hesitated for a moment. He answered : 
 "The chair rules that the Majority Leader be given 
 £m opportunity to present his resolution." 
 
 Mr. Sweet's reply was not at all to the point, but it 
 served as an answer. It left the five members con- 
 vinced that no information as to their rights could be 
 expected from the Chair. They returned to their seats, 
 to await the next move of their opponents.
 
 8 ALBANY 
 
 Mr. Simon Louis Adler, the Republican Majority 
 Leader, representing the Second Assembly District of 
 Mcttiroe County, arose. 
 
 "Mr. Speaker," he cried. 
 
 "The gentleman from Monroe, Mr. Adler," said the 
 Speaker. 
 
 "I offer a privileged resolution and move its adop- 
 tion," said Mr. Adler. 
 
 Said the Speaker, "The gentleman from Monroe, Mr. 
 Adler, offers a privileged resolution, which the clerk 
 will read." 
 
 The clerk then read the following resolution, which 
 is now historic as the resolution of suspension: 
 
 "WHEREAS, Louis Waldman, August Claessens, 
 Samuel A. DeWitt, Samuel Orr and Charles Solomon 
 are members of the Socialist Party of America, and 
 
 "WHEREAS, the said Socialist Party did at its of- 
 ficial party convention, held at the city of Chicago, Illi- 
 nois, in the month of August, 1919, declare its adher- 
 ence to and solidarity with the revolutionary forces of 
 Soviet Russia, and did pledge itself and its members 
 to the furtherance of the International Socialist Revo- 
 lution and, 
 
 "WHEREAS, by such adherence and by such decla- 
 ration made by the said party, the said party has in- 
 dorsed the principles of the Communist International 
 now being held at Moscow, Russia, which Interna- 
 tional is pledged to the forcible and violent overthrow 
 of all organized government now existing, and 
 
 "WHEREAS, Section 5 of Article 2 of Constitution 
 of the Socialist Party of America provides that each 
 member of the Socialist Party of America must sub- 
 scribe to the following: *in all my political actions 
 while a member of the Socialist Party, I agree to be 
 guided by tbe Constitution and platform of the party,' 
 and
 
 THE SUSPENSION 9 
 
 "WHEREAS, Section 13, Subdivision A, of the 
 State Constitution of the SociaHst Party of the State of 
 New York provides, *A member may be expelled from 
 the party, or may be suspended for a period not ex- 
 ceeding one year for the following offenses : for failing 
 or refusing, when elected to a public ofhce ... to 
 abide by and carry out such instructions as he may 
 have received from the dues-paying party organization 
 or as prescribed by the State or National Constitution,* 
 and 
 
 "WHEREAS, such instructions may be given by an 
 executive committee made up in whole or part of aliens 
 or alien enemies owing allegiance to governments or 
 organizations inimical to the interests of the United 
 States and the people of the State of New York, and 
 
 "WHEREAS, the National Convention of the So- 
 cialist Party of America held at St. Louis from about 
 April 7 to about April 14, 191 7, did duly adopt resolu- 
 tions that the only struggle which would justify tak- 
 ing up arms is the class struggle against economic ex- 
 ploitation and political oppression, and particularly 
 warned against the snare and delusion of so-called de- 
 fensive warfare,' and such resolutions further provided 
 *as against the false doctrine of national patriotism, we 
 uphold the ideal of international working class solidar- 
 ity,' and 
 
 "WHEREAS, the Socialist Party of America did 
 urge its members to refrain from taking part in any 
 way, shape or manner in the war, and did affirmatively 
 urge them to refuse to engage even in the prosecution 
 of the said war, and did thereby stamp the said party 
 and all its members with an inimical attitude to the 
 best interests of the United States and the State of 
 New York, and 
 
 "WHEREAS, the said Louis Waldman, August 
 Claessens, Samuel A. DeWitt, Samuel Crr, and
 
 lo ALBANY 
 
 Charles Solomon, members of the Socialist Party of 
 America, having been elected on the platform of the 
 Socialist Party of America, have thereby subscribed 
 to its principles and its aims and purposes, against the 
 organized government of the United States and the 
 State of New York, and have been actively associated 
 with and connected with an organization convicted of 
 a violation of Espionage Act of the United States ; 
 
 "Therefore, be it resolved, that the said Louis 
 Waldman, August Claessens, Samuel A. DeWitt, 
 Samuel Orr and Charles Solomon, members of the So- 
 cialist Party, be and they hereby are denied seats in 
 this Assembly, pending the determination of their 
 qualifications and eligibility to their respective seats in 
 this Assembly, and it hereby is referred to the Com- 
 mittee on Judiciary of the Assembly of the State of 
 New York, to be hereafter appointed and that the said 
 Committee be empowered to adopt such rules of pro- 
 cedure as in its judgment it deems proper, and that 
 said Committee be further empowered to subpoena and 
 examine witnesses and documentary evidence, and to 
 report to this body its determinations as to the quali- 
 fications and eligibility of the said Louis Waldman, 
 August Claessens, Samuel A. DeWitt, Samuel Orr and 
 Charles Solomon, and each of them respectively to a 
 seat in this Assembly." 
 
 Mr. Adler had hardly uttered the last word of this 
 resolution when Speaker Sweet said quickly: 
 
 "The question is upon the adoption of the resolu- 
 tion." 
 
 Mr. Waldman interrupted with the following ques- 
 tion: 
 
 "May I inquire whether it is not the rule of this 
 House and the precedent of the State Legislature that 
 when charges are filed against any member of this* 
 House, the duly elected member is permitted to repre-
 
 THE SUSPENSION ii 
 
 sent his district until the Judiciary Committee renders 
 its decision and renders a report to the Legislature, 
 whereupon the Legislature acts? Has that not been 
 the precedent and is it not the rule?" 
 
 The Speaker was again confused for a moment, but 
 recovering, he laid down this novel doctrine: 
 
 "In reply, the Constitution provides that the House 
 is the sole judge of the qualifications of its members, 
 and IT MAY OR MAY NOT GRANT A HEAR- 
 ING." But he added magnanimously : "It is the pur- 
 pose in this case that you shall be given a day in court. 
 The question occurs upon the adoption of the resolu- 
 tion." 
 
 But Mr. Waldman insisted: "Mr. Speaker, on a 
 point of parliamentary inquiry, I want to find out if 
 it is possible to move a reference of this resolution to a 
 different committee, other than the one named?" 
 
 By this time the Socialist members had begun to 
 feel that their case was about to be "railroaded" with- 
 out a hearing. The purpose of Mr. Waldman's ques- 
 tion was to take the proceedings at this point out of 
 the hands of the Speaker and place it in the hands of 
 the Committee of the Whole House. 
 
 The Speaker, denying the well established right of 
 any member to move a re-reference to the House as a 
 whole, said: 
 
 "If the resolution is adopted, it carries its own refer- 
 ence. The question is upon the adoption of the reso- 
 lution; all in favor will say aye, all opposed will sig- 
 nify by saying no. The clerk will call the roll." 
 
 The name of the Repubican majority leader, Mr. 
 Adler, was called first. He voted "Aye" and the rest 
 of the members followed his course without question 
 or debate. 
 
 As the clerk began to call the name of each mem- 
 ber, the House relaxed again, the members of the two
 
 12 ALBANY 
 
 older parties conversing and joking among themselves 
 as if in relief that the matter was now settled. 
 
 When the name of Mr. Evans, a member from The 
 Bronx, was reached, he interrupted, saying, "I wish 
 to be excused from voting and briefly state my rea- 
 son." 
 
 "Not on a resolution," was the Speaker's prompt 
 reply. "How does the gentlemen vote?" 
 
 "I vote no," said Mr. Evans. 
 
 The roll call then continued until the name of Mr. 
 Waldman was reached. The latter was silent. The 
 Speaker was forced to ask, "How does Mr. Waldman 
 vote?" 
 
 "I refuse to vote," was Mr. Waldman's reply. The 
 other four Socialist members, all of v/hom preceded 
 Mr. Waldman in alphabetical order, voted no. Mr. 
 McLaughlin, of The Bronx, also voted no. 
 
 The result was finally announced: Ayes 140 and 
 Noes 6. 
 
 Having been denied all opportunity to discuss this 
 resolution, Mr. Solomon, a member of the Socialist 
 group, rose to a point of personal privilege — a privilege 
 never denied a member of any parliamentary assem- 
 bly in a case where personal rights are in question. 
 
 But the Speaker was firm. He denied this too. He 
 declared: "The gentleman who rises at this time has 
 no privileges on the floor. The gentlemen involved 
 please retire to the back of the rail." 
 
 The Socialists refused to leave. A deep silence fell 
 upon the House. All eyes, including those of a throng 
 of visitors, were fixed upon the five accused men. The 
 Speaker then bluntly ordered the Sergeant-at-Arms to 
 escort the Socialists from the chamber. The Socialists 
 again refused to leave, forcing the Sergeant-at-Arms 
 to lead each one in turn to the rear of the chamber.
 
 THE SUSPENSION 13 
 
 Whereupon they left the capitol, followed by a throng 
 of newspaper men and curiosity seekers. 
 
 As the five men who had thus been subjected to an 
 action unprecedented in the history of American leg- 
 islative annals walked out, it was curious to observe 
 the change that had taken place in the atmosphere of 
 the Assembly Chamber. As the Socialists passed out 
 of the aisles, the members of the other parties sat in 
 their seats and hung their heads. None of them dared 
 to look at the men who had been denied their seats. 
 A few of them on the Democratic side muttered in an 
 undertone : "Sorry, boys, we couldn't help it."
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 THE COUNTRY'S REACTION TO THE 
 SUSPENSION 
 
 The news of the summary unseating of the five As- 
 semblymen for the offense of being Socialists created 
 throughout the country the profoundest sensation of 
 modern political history in the United States. 
 
 The newspapers chronicled the event in their larg- 
 est and blackest headlines. In the East it was the main 
 topic of conversation wherever men gathered — ^in 
 homes, in hotel lobbies, in clubs, on trains, in labor 
 halls, in the street, and even in the churches. It was 
 recognized that something momentous had occurred 
 in American life — that a climax had been reached in 
 governmental affairs the end of which no one could 
 forsee. 
 
 The effect on the country at large was at first diffi- 
 cult to describe. A large portion of the population was 
 apparently bewildered — they did not know what they 
 thought about it. Some persons, still in the grip of 
 the hate psychology created during the world war, 
 contented themselves with saying, "Served 'em right !" 
 Others, without grasping as yet the full import of the 
 Assembly's action, recognized that it contained some- 
 thing sinister and menacing. They felt that "those fel- 
 lows at Albany have gone too far," but their feelings 
 were undefined. Still others, perceiving the danger, 
 felt that "the Albany crowd had spilled the beans." 
 
 But probably the most bewildered persons in the en- 
 
 14
 
 THE COUNTRY'S REACTION 15 
 
 tire country were Speaker Sweet and his advisers at 
 the seat of government in the Empire State. They 
 had firmly believed that their action in turning the 
 Socialists out of their seats and driving them out of the 
 Assembly chamber would be greeted with frantic ap- 
 plause by the whole nation. They had seen other per- 
 sons in power ride into popularity and gather laurels 
 of public approval by acts aimed at what they were 
 pleased to call "the radical and destructive elements 
 in our society." They fully expected to receive the 
 same meed of praise and ensuing rewards. They had 
 already posed themselves to receive the plaudits of the 
 multitude. They had bared their heads for the crowns 
 of laurel. Their ears were alert to catch the strains of 
 the music which should hail them as saviors of the 
 State and as dauntless heroes who "had showed the 
 way for other states to follow." 
 
 Their consternation may be imagined — well con- 
 cealed though it remained — when instead of receiving 
 garlands of flov/ers, they were greeted, metaphorically 
 speaking, with a shower of bricks. 
 
 The reaction of the country, once it had gained 
 momentum, rushed back over the politicians at Albany 
 with overwhelming force. But that reaction did not 
 come at once. For a few triumphant hours Speaker 
 Sweet and his supporters imagined that they could go 
 even several steps further. It was two days or more 
 before the full force of the storm of indignation broke 
 upon them; and when it did come, they ascribed it 
 merely to the malice or ignorance of a few editors and 
 political commentators. 
 
 As soon as the Socialists had been thrown out of 
 the Assembly chamber, the scene of battle was trans- 
 ferred from there to the Sta.c Socialist headquarters
 
 i6 ALBANY 
 
 where the five suspended men immediately retired for 
 a conference. After a short consultation they issued 
 the following statement: 
 
 "We regard our exclusion from the Assembly as or- 
 ganized violence on the very essence of democracy — 
 the sacred right of the ballot. It is a denial of repre- 
 sentative government. It is the shameless establish- 
 ment of an ugly dictatorship — the dictatorship of 
 naked plutocracy. 
 
 "The whole procedure is violative of the fundamen- 
 tal law of the land as expressed in the Constitution and 
 the deepest traditions of the nation as voiced in the 
 Declaration of Independence. 
 
 "We believe in the accepted methods of the Socialist 
 party — agitation, education and organization on the 
 political and industrial field, and the organization of 
 the workers particularly for the expression of social 
 dissatisfaction through their unions and the ballot box. 
 
 "We shall continue to counsel a transformation of 
 society in the direction of industrial democracy, which 
 can be accomplished only when the workers own those 
 things their lives depend upon, and we shall urge our 
 auditors and adherents to act in an orderly and legal 
 manner. 
 
 "It is not at all improbable that the action of the As- 
 sembly is part of a movement of organized capital, of 
 which the Democratic and Republican parties are the 
 political champions, to discourage the people with the 
 methods afforded by representative government and to 
 provoke them to resort to the methods of violence. 
 
 "We shall do all in our power to expose this con- 
 spiracy and defeat its purpose. 
 
 "While this is a new experience for the five of us, 
 it is not at all new in the history of the fight for social 
 progress in its essential nature. Before and since Bis- 
 marck, violence of this nature has been employed with
 
 POLITICS OUST PRINCIPLES 
 
 
 
 "YOU GIT!" 
 
 
 Courtesy of New York Worl^ 
 
 17
 
 i8 ALBANY 
 
 complete failure, and the recent history of the world 
 especially indicates the result in this case. 
 
 "As in the past, the result of such procedure can only 
 be to arouse additional interest in the principles which 
 we represent and stimulate the growth of the great 
 movement to which we have the honor to belong. Its 
 immediate political effect will be altogether favorable. 
 
 "We assert that not only was the organic law of the 
 land disregarded in our case, but the rules of the As- 
 sembly were distorted to accomplish this lawlessness. 
 
 "We summon the American people to save their 
 country from usurpers who would make it into a new 
 Czardom. Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. 
 
 "We have nothing to apologize for, as far as our 
 opinions and convictions are concerned. We are all 
 proud to be members of the Socialist Party." 
 
 Having arranged all their affairs at the capital, 
 the five Socialists sought a train for New York City. 
 At the station numerous persons, having heard the 
 news, came up to tell the Assemblymen of their good 
 wishes and of their hopes that the accused men would 
 win their seats back again. Among those who came 
 up to greet the five were a group of workingmen. 
 They were smiling sardonically. 
 
 "Well, boys," said one, "do you still believe in politi- 
 cal action?" 
 
 One of the Assemblymen replied: "Yes, more than 
 ever. A thousand times yes." 
 
 Another worker broke in. "What's the use of your 
 political action when they can kick you out whenever 
 they want? We told you when you get strong they 
 won't let you do anything." 
 
 Again the reply was: "Don't worry. They are only 
 making propaganda for us. The country won't stand 
 for this." 
 
 The workers, unconvinced, shook their heads, but
 
 THE COUNTRY'S REACTION 19 
 
 said, "Well, good luck to you, boys," as the five men 
 started for their train. 
 
 At the Grand Central Station, New York, the sus- 
 pended Assemblymen were met by representatives of 
 the press and of the Socialist Party who escorted them 
 to the county offices of the party in New York City. 
 They were there met by cheering crowds, their recep- 
 tion resembling a jubilee rather than an expression of 
 condolence. A conference was already in progress. 
 There were leading Socialists and party officials from 
 various parts of Greater New York who had gathered 
 impromptu to receive the Assemblymen and to accept 
 the gauge of battle thrown down to them by Speaker 
 Sweet and his associates. This conference resulted in 
 the creation of agencies with full power to join with 
 the five Assemblymen in carrying on the fight to its 
 logical conclusion. 
 
 The districts which the five suspended members rep- 
 resented sent committees and groups composed of 
 men from all parties who stated their indignation at 
 what had transpired and pledged their support to their 
 representatives. Mass meetings were arranged in the 
 five districts where demonstrations were held, born 
 out of the indignation caused by the arbitrary proceed- 
 ings at Albany. 
 
 In the cafes and other gathering places in the dis- 
 tricts which had been deprived of their representatives, 
 the people said, "Well, it's the old fight — taxation 
 without representation." 
 
 The five men addressed their constituents in a state- 
 ment, which was delivered to every home, as follows : 
 
 "You know by this time the story of our exclusion 
 from the Assembly, to which you elected us by an 
 overwhelming vote. It has been told in the press of 
 the city and nation. In fact, it has become a matter
 
 20 ALBANY 
 
 of international interest. With few exceptions, the 
 metropolitan newspapers have condemned the action 
 of the Assembly as a dangerous attack on democratic, 
 representative government and as the disfranchisement 
 of thousands of citizens. 
 
 "The brutal Republican majority, aided by the spine- 
 less Democratic minority, and dominated by the Bour- 
 bon, Speaker Sweet, has taken the position that you 
 have no right to be represented by persons of your 
 own choice. They have lav/lessly driven us from the 
 State Legislature where you sent us to fight for the 
 things you need. 
 
 "This outrage on the part of the reactionaries and 
 the rubber stamps in our state government has roused 
 all true Americans, all lovers of liberty, all who desire 
 orderly progress and a peaceful solution of the prob- 
 lems that vex us to deep resentment. The cry has 
 gone up for our reinstatement, for representative gov- 
 ernment, for justice. 
 
 "Ever mindful of our responsibilities, of the faith of 
 our constituents in us, of their desires and aspirations, 
 we shall do our utmost to serve them in this crisis as 
 in the past. Whatever course we may decide to fol- 
 low in these circumstances will be dictated by our 
 purpose to serve you. 
 
 "Should it be necessary for us to suffer for our con- 
 victions, we shall do so without complaint. 
 
 "We are strong in the knowledge that you are with 
 us in this fight, which is the fight for fundamental 
 Americanism. This great responsibility has fallen 
 upon us. We cannot and must not shirk it." 
 
 As yet, the non-Socialist public, as far as its views 
 v/ere reflected by the press, seemed to be merely dazed 
 by the occurrence at Albany. The news was received 
 with a feeling more like simple amazement than in-
 
 THE COUNTRY'S REACTION 21 
 
 dignation. The tone of the press was that of neutral- 
 ity. Of all the New York morning newspapers, only 
 two carried editorials dealing v/ith the suspension. Of 
 these, one was the New York World, a daily of large 
 circulation reflecting the views of the more liberal ele- 
 ments among the Democratic Party. The other was 
 the New York Call, organ of the Socialist Party. 
 
 The World dealt with the action of the Assembly 
 under an editorial as follows : 
 
 "A LEGISLATIVE OUTRAGE" 
 
 "It was after consultation with the Attorney Gen- 
 eral of the State of New York that Speaker Sweet 
 called the five Socialist Assemblymen before the bar 
 of the House and accused them of having been elected 
 on a 'platform absolutely inimical to the best interests 
 of the State of New York and the United States.' It 
 was upon motion of the Majority Leader that the five 
 men were suspended until their cases can be heard by 
 a committee of the Assembly. 
 
 "This is a procedure as extraordinary as it is dan- 
 gerous. For years the Socialist Party has been recog- 
 nized in every State of the Union. Its right to vote 
 and to representation has been unquestioned. It has 
 elected Aldermen, Assemblymen, Mayors, Representa- 
 tives in Congress, and the men so elected have served 
 their terms without hindrance. In New York City 
 alone it has cast 145,000 votes for its candidates for 
 Mayor — nearly three times as many as were received 
 by the nominee of the party which now assumes to 
 read duly-elected members out of the Legislature be- 
 cause their political creed is not to the liking of Mr. 
 Newton, Mr, Sweet and Mr. Adler. 
 
 "Not with impunity are entire political parties thus 
 proscribed and deprived of their rights under repre- 
 sentative government. This day's work may not mean.
 
 22 ALBANY 
 
 as Assemblyman Solomon predicts, that 'the Socialists 
 will have thirty votes in the next Assembly.' It would 
 not be strange if they should have more than five. 
 And — five or fifty — they will have the right to sit. 
 
 "While we are deporting aliens on the ground that 
 they seek to substitute violence for the orderly proc- 
 esses of constitutional government, the New York As- 
 sembly excludes regularly elected representatives who 
 are citizens, who are chosen by citizens, and who have 
 strictly followed the constitutional process. What 
 happened at Albany yesterday was a wanton denial 
 of the fundamental principle of representative govern- 
 ment. It was in effect Bolshevism masquerading in 
 the livery of Americanism and as gross a violation of 
 the spirit of American institutions as anything the 
 Reds are trying to do." ' 
 
 The New York Call appeared the next morning, 
 January 8, with an epitaph across the top of its first 
 page of eight columns bordered with black and read- 
 ing as follows : 
 
 "DIED 
 
 "At Albany, January 7, 1920, 
 "Representative Government." 
 
 Editorially the Call urged Socialist adherents not 
 to be stampeded into violence by the lawless actions 
 of those who pretended to stand for law and order. 
 It went on to say : 
 
 "The Socialist party has stood for political action; 
 has stood for the settlement of the industrial problems 
 that press so heavily upon us all by the use of the 
 ballot. In standing for this it has been bitterly criti- 
 cized by many workers impatient at the abuse of po- 
 litical power by the capitalist class. These workers
 
 THE COUNTRY'S REACTION 23 
 
 have insisted that pohtical power is of no value in se- 
 curing to the working class industrial justice. They 
 have pointed to the dishonest methods of both the 
 Republicans and Democrats. They have pointed to 
 the terrorism let loose at the polls on election day and 
 at the frauds perpetrated during the count through the 
 control of the election machinery by the political tools 
 of capitalism. The Socialists, while admitting that the 
 politicians of the capitalist class parties have com- 
 mitted all these outrages, have insisted that the only 
 remedy for these conditions was a continuous educa- 
 tional campaign to bring an ever-increasing number 
 of citizens to our point of view. We have insisted in 
 spite of all temptations ; in spite of all the aggravated 
 thievery of the political tools of capitalism, that we 
 are going to settle all matters of government by the 
 peaceable means of the ballot. 
 
 "And now comes the Legislature of the State of 
 New York as an ally of those who insist that a mi- 
 nority has no chance by peaceable political methods 
 in securing industrial justice. If we belonged to the 
 hysterical group of the community that allows itself 
 to be stampeded by its indignation into playing the 
 sort of a game the lords of misrule are so anxious to 
 have us play, we might fall into the very trap the fused 
 misrepresentatives of the people at Albany have set 
 for us. 
 
 "But we refuse to be stampeded. We believe in- 
 peaceable political action, because we believe that it 
 will eventually help to achieve the industrial freedom 
 of the workers. It will take more than the panic- 
 stricken action of a lot of politicians temporarily hold- 
 ing office to make us change our position. In onie 
 sense the action of the Legislature is a great compli- 
 ment to the Socialists. Bodies of its character always
 
 24 ALBANY 
 
 become frightened when they see the opening wedge 
 of truth entering. 
 
 "We are glad to be able to record that there were 
 two Americans sitting in the Legislature yesterday be- 
 sides the five Americans suspended by the votes of 
 the traitors to the institutions of this Republic. The 
 names of these two Americans should be set down 
 here for future generations to read. They are As- 
 semblymen McLaughlin and Evans. 
 
 "The capitalist class has determined to use every ef- 
 fort to crush the Socialist movement. Socialism is 
 teaching the workers to think for themselves and this 
 spells ruin for the robber class. Every official from 
 the very highest to the very lowest whom it can use 
 to accomplish its purpose is to be used. And in spite 
 of all its power it will fail. For a time it may seem 
 to succeed. But the very persecution it lets loose will 
 eventually destroy the robber system. 
 
 "The more the thinking portion of the workers are 
 persecuted the more strongly their organization will 
 be cemented, and the more widely will the truth be 
 spread. And it is only through the spreading of this 
 truth that freedom will be achieved. The first word 
 in the new campaign against the workers v/as spoken 
 by the speaker of the Assembly yesterday. But the 
 last word will be spoken by the workers." 
 
 On the day following suspension, the leaders of the 
 Legislature at Albany, not yet aware of the storm of 
 resentment that was about to break over their heads 
 and exulting over their action of the day before, an- 
 nounced a further step. It was given out that they 
 planned to put through laws preventing all members 
 of the Socialist Party from holding any elective of- 
 fice whatever in New York State. 
 
 Meanwhile, public opinion, which first had been
 
 THE COUNTRY'S REACTION 25 
 
 staggered by the news from Albany, had begun to 
 gather itself and take notice. On the morning of Jan- 
 uary 9, the New York World appeared with a long 
 editorial entitled "A Blow at Free Government." This 
 editorial went on to say; 
 
 "The most dreadful blow ever dealt to representa- 
 tive government in the United States was struck by 
 the New York Assembly when five Socialist members 
 were suspended because, as Speaker Sweet said, 'You 
 have been elected on a platform that is absolutely 
 inimical to the best interests of the State of New York 
 and of the United States.* 
 
 "That is what every political party says about the 
 political platform of every other party. If the action 
 of the New York Assembly can stand as a precedent, 
 representative government has ceased to exist in this 
 state because all the rights of the minority have been 
 destroyed. No minority party can be represented in 
 the Legislature except on a platform that is satisfac- 
 tory to the majority party. 
 
 "The doctrine that the New York Assembly has 
 enunciated under the leadership of Speaker Sweet is 
 not a doctrin^of Republican institutions. It is not a 
 doctrine of Democracy. It is a doctrine of despotism, 
 in violation of every principle upon which representa- 
 tive government rests." 
 
 The editorial continued: 
 
 "At a time when every patriotic agency is trying to 
 establish that discontent must take its case to the bal- 
 lot box and that under no circumstances must there be 
 any feeling of force or violence, the New York As- 
 sembly autocratically denies the authority of the bal- 
 lot box. It deliberately seeks to drive discontent to
 
 26 ALBANY 
 
 the use of force and violence. In fact, it says in effect 
 that for people whose party platforms are not approved 
 by the majority there can be no political redress ex- 
 cept through revolution. 
 
 "Has the Assembly lost all sense, all reason? The 
 thing that has been done is incomprehensible. The 
 rights and liberties of every citizen of New York, no 
 matter what his politics may be, are put in jeopardy 
 when the majority denies to the minority the consti- 
 tutional processes of free government. It is the duty 
 of every citizen who respects law and order and the 
 guarantees of the constitution to support these five 
 Socialists in the fight they are making for the vindi- 
 cation of a principle without which representative in- 
 stitutions in this state have ceased to exist." 
 
 The New York Tribune of January 9 also appeared 
 with a long editorial in which it seemingly upheld the 
 novel doctrine enunciated by Speaker Sweet that the 
 unseated men were presumed to be guilty until they 
 prove themselves innocent. In this editorial the Trib- 
 une, instead of putting it up to the Assembly to prove 
 the guilt of the accused Socialists, simply said, "To 
 prove innocence, they should be given full oppor- 
 tunity." 
 
 However, other newspapers throughout the country 
 condemned the Assembly's action unhesitatingly. 
 The New York Evening Post declared that the As- 
 sembly "has arrogated the right to interpret a state- 
 ment of principles into an attack against the public 
 welfare, and it has made all subscribers to these prin- 
 ciples ipso facto violators of the law." 
 
 The New York Globe stated that "If an expulsion 
 of these men is railroaded through and their defeated 
 opponents in the last election are seated in their place, 
 more harm will be done to the theory of liberty under
 
 THE COUNTRY'S REACTION 27 
 
 law, and the principle of Democratic government than 
 has been done in generations." The Globe editorial 
 went on to ridicule the charge against the Socialists 
 that they believed in violence, saying : "The very fact 
 that the Socialists seek a franchise shows that they 
 accept the democratic form laid down in the Consti- 
 tution. It shows that the members in the past in the 
 Legislature have done nothing whatever revolution- 
 ary. On the contrary, the impartial testimony of a 
 non-Socialist investigation declared that they stood 
 head and shoulders above their Democratic and Re- 
 publican opponents." 
 
 The Brooklyn Standard-Union, a leading Republi- 
 can paper, called "the action of the Assembly in sus- 
 pending the five Socialists utterly wrong in principle 
 and lamentable as a matter of pohcy. The ground of 
 their suspension is their election on the platform of a 
 party that is opposed to the organized government of 
 the nation and state and that they are connected with 
 an organization convicted of the violation of the Es- 
 pionage law of the United States. This is ridiculous. 
 The Socialist members have neither been convicted of 
 crime nor even indicted for crime." 
 
 Comments opposing the action of the Assembly 
 were by no means confined to Democratic papers, but 
 appeared even in the most conservative Republican 
 organs. For example, the Pittsburgh Leader re- 
 marked that: 
 
 "Perhaps the next time the favorite Southern 
 pastime of lynching negroes is condemned, the advo- 
 cates of lynch law may ask Northern critics to give 
 consideration to the mob tactics of the New York 
 Legislature yesterday in depriving five members of 
 that party of their seats and legal rights. If the 
 Southerners ask for fair comparison between the de- 
 gree of lawlessness in their acts, often in the heat of
 
 28 ALBANY 
 
 anger £ind in the presence of an atrocious crime, and 
 that of the New York law makers, they will impose a 
 severe contrast upon us. The five members unseated, 
 so far as mob action can affect the purpose, are Social- 
 ists, and that is offered as the only reason and the in- 
 sufficient excuse for the lynching. More harm has 
 been inflicted upon the principles of political freedom 
 and popular self-government, the American ideals, by 
 the New York Legislature than all the blatant mouth- 
 ings of the reddest of Reds." 
 
 The Indianapolis Star, apparently resenting the 
 prominence that might be given to Socialists, said, "It 
 may be irritating to see Socialists sent to the Legis- 
 lature as such but summary ejection scarcely is the 
 way to deal with the problems that they present."
 
 CHAPTER III 
 THE TIDE OF PROTEST RISES 
 
 Within forty-eight hours after the unseating of the 
 Socialists, it was apparent that both of the old politi- 
 cal organizations had been thrown into confusion. 
 Protests arose from every section of the country. The 
 Democratic party sought to disclaim responsibility, 
 although its members in the Assembly had voted for 
 suspension. Even in the ranks of the Republican 
 party there were men who complained that they voted 
 without knowing what they were doing, asserting that 
 the resolution was sprung upon them, that debate was 
 denied, and that they had no opportunity to grasp the 
 import of their vote. 
 
 Charles Evans Hughes, former Governor of the 
 State of New York, ex- Justice of the United States 
 Supreme Court, and candidate for the Presidency 
 against Woodrow Wilson, sent a letter to Speaker 
 Sweet rebuking his stand. This was a bombshell in 
 the enemy's camp. It created consternation among 
 those reactionary politicians who had always regarded 
 ex- Justice Hughes as "regular." It had the effect of 
 adding fuel to the flare of public indignation. Mr. 
 Hughes' letter follows: January 9, 1920. -- 
 
 "Hon. Thaddeus C. Sweet, Speaker of the Assembly, 
 
 Albany, N. Y. 
 "My dear Mr. Speaker: 
 
 "I deeply regret the action of the Assembly in sus- 
 pending five members of the Socialist Party who have 
 been duly elected. I think that you will agree that 
 the high prerogative of the Assembly to pass upon 
 the qualifications of its ovvti members should be exer- 
 
 29
 
 30 ALBANY 
 
 cised in accordance with the spirit of our institutions. 
 
 "It is not, as I view it, in accordance with the spirit 
 of our institutions, but on the contrary, it is absolutely 
 opposed to the fundamental principles of our Govern- 
 ment for a majority to undertake to deny representa- 
 tion to a minority through its representatives elected 
 by ballots lawfully cast. 
 
 "If there was anything against these men as indi- 
 viduals, if they were deemed to be guilty of criminal 
 offenses, they should have been charged accordingly. 
 
 "But I understand that the action is not directed 
 against these five elected members as individuals, but 
 that the proceeding is virtually an attempt to indict 
 a political party and to deny it representation in the 
 Legislature. That is not, in my judgment, American 
 government. 
 
 "I understand that it is said that the Socialists con- 
 stitute a combination to overthrow the Government. 
 The answer is plain. If public officers or private citi- 
 zens have any evidence that any individuals, or group 
 of individuals, are plotting revolution, and seeking by 
 violent measures to change our government, let the 
 evidence be laid before the proper authorities and 
 swift action be taken for the protection of the com- 
 munity. 
 
 "Let every resource of inquiry, of pursuit, of prose- 
 cution, be employed to ferret out and pimish the guilty 
 according to our laws. But I count it a most serious 
 mistake to proceed not against individuals charged 
 with violation of law but against masses of our citi- 
 zens combined for political action, by denying them 
 the only resource of peaceful government — that is, ac- 
 tion by the ballot box and through duly elected rep- 
 resentatives in legislative bodies. 
 
 "The issue to my mind is very clear. I speak as 
 one utterly opposed to Socialism and in entire sym-
 
 THE TIDE OF PROTEST RISES 31 
 
 pathy with every effort to put down violence and 
 crime. But it is because I am solicitous to maintain 
 the peaceful processes essential to democracy that I 
 am anxious to see Socialists as well as Republicans 
 and Democrats enjoy their political rights. 
 
 "Are Socialists, unconvicted of crime, to be denied 
 the ballot? If Socialists are permitted to vote, are 
 they not permitted to vote for their own candidates? 
 If their candidates are elected and are men against 
 whom as individuals, charges of disqualifying offenses 
 cannot be laid, are they not entitled to their seats? 
 
 "What, may I add, is it supposed these Socialists 
 will do in the Legislature? As members they may 
 introduce bills, they may oppose bills, they may de- 
 bate them. In all matters they are subject to the rules 
 of the Assembly. Why should these privileges be de- 
 nied to representatives of the Socialist Party? Is it 
 not clear that the Government cannot be saved at the 
 cost of its own principles? 
 
 "If the Socialists were denied recourse, through 
 their duly elected representatives, to the orderly 
 processes of government, what resort is there left to 
 them? Is it proposed to drive the Socialists to revo- 
 lution by denying them participation in the means we 
 have provided for orderly discussion of proposed 
 changes in our laws? 
 
 "Nothing in my judgment, is a more serious mis- 
 take at this critical time than to deprive Socialists or 
 radicals of their opportunities for peaceful discussion 
 and thus to convince them that the Reds are right and 
 that violence and revolution are the only available 
 means at their command. 
 
 "I appreciate deeply your high sense of responsi- 
 bility and your anxiety faithfully to serve the people 
 of the State. I am constrained to write in this way 
 because of the seriousness of the issue. I sincerely
 
 32 ALBANY 
 
 hope that the Assembly will take swift action to avoid 
 a permanent grievance on the part of those who are 
 threatened with virtual disfranchisement. I have suf- 
 ficient confidence in our institutions to believe that 
 they will survive all the onslaughts of discussion and 
 political controversy. But Democracy cannot be pre- 
 served if representation is denied. Apart from the 
 matter of principle, the procedure is futile. To shut 
 cut the duly elected representatives of the Socialists 
 is merely to multiply Socialists by the thousand. 
 
 "Instead of protecting us from revolution, it will do 
 more to encourage the spirit of revolution and to 
 strengthen the advocates of violence than any con- 
 ceivable propaganda could accomplish. 
 
 "I remain, with high respect, 
 
 "Very sincerely yours, 
 
 "CHARLES E. HUGHES." 
 
 The day following, Speaker Sweet made a reply 
 v/hich attempted to deny that he had intended an at- 
 tack on a political party but instead merely meant to 
 question the personal fitness of its members. His let- 
 ter follows : 
 "Hon. Charles E. Hughes, 
 
 "My dear Judge Hughes : 
 
 "I notice in to-day's columns of the press that you 
 communicated to me your views upon the action of 
 the Assembly in the adoption of the resolution sus- 
 pending the right of the five Socialists to seats in that 
 body, pending an investigation of the charges that 
 they are unfit to occupy a seat in the Assembly of the 
 State of New York. It seems from your communica- 
 tion that you have assumed that the action of the As- 
 sembly was in the nature of expulsion. If you read 
 carefully and were familiar with the language of the
 
 THE TIDE OF PROTEST RISES 33 
 
 resolution adopted, you would see that the resolution 
 provides as follows: 'Therefore, be it resolved, that 
 the said (naming the five Socialist members) be de- 
 nied seats in this Assembly pending the determination 
 of their qualifications and elegibility to their respec- 
 tive seats/ 
 
 "You should bear clearly in mind that no attack is 
 made upon the views of the Assemblymen-elect in 
 question, however opposed they may be in theory to 
 the institutions of the United States and in this State. 
 The question presented squarely, is whether the dif- 
 ferent organizations of which they are members and 
 which they seek to represent in the Legislature, advo- 
 cate methods and employ tactics to bring about the 
 overturn of our form of Government which will jus- 
 tify their exclusion from participating in legislative 
 proceedings. 
 
 "The evidence respecting the Socialist Party of 
 America and other organizations to which they belong 
 and the conduct of the five Assemblymen-elect as 
 members thereof, will be presented before the Judici- 
 ary Committee and will there be impartially judged 
 with a view to determine the rights and fitness of 
 those individuals to take their seats, and in this con- 
 nection, it might be well to call your attention to this 
 outstanding fact, that a sharp line of demarcation was 
 drawn in April, 191 7, between Socialism and the So- 
 cialist Party of America — those Socialists who placed 
 the honor of their country above their creed resigned 
 from the Socialist Party of America and have done 
 their utmost to point out that the Socialist Party of 
 America as at present constituted is un-American, is 
 allied with forces of Soviet Russia in an attempt to 
 institute in this country a new form of government 
 and a dictatorship of the proletariat. 
 
 "To quote from your letter, you stated : 'If the pub-
 
 34 ALBANY 
 
 lie of&cers or private citizens have any evidence that 
 any individual or group of individuals are plotting 
 revolution and seeking by violent measures to change 
 our Government, let the evidence be laid before the 
 proper authorities.' 
 
 "Is not the Judiciary Committee of the Assembly 
 the proper tribunal to investigate the fitness of those 
 who seek seats in the Assembly as the rules of that 
 body provide, and is not the Assembly in itself the 
 proper tribunal to determine the question of fitness of 
 these five men? The Constitution of this State so pro- 
 vides. 
 
 "I believe it is my duty, as it is that of every patri- 
 otic citizen, to withhold judgment until findings of 
 fact are presented and a fair determination had. 
 
 "I must further emphasize that I believe that a criti- 
 cism of the Assembly's action without full knowledge 
 of the facts in the case, of necessity gives aid and com- 
 fort to those elements of our society which seek the 
 destruction of our institutions." 
 
 Speaker Sweet thus showed signs of weakening. 
 His plea against being prejudged was in strong con- 
 trast to his powerful attitude on January 7, when he 
 demanded that the five Socialists be suspended "with 
 or without a hearing." 
 
 To add to the confusion existing in the ranks of the 
 opposition, the Socialists now made public a privileged 
 resolution they had intended to introduce in the As- 
 sembly on January 7, when under the rules, such al 
 resolution could have been offered. This resolution 
 was of international import. Having been prevented 
 from introducing it because of their suspension, they 
 issued it to the press, which published it throughout 
 the country. The resolution was as follows :
 
 AFTER ALL THE YEARS 
 
 Courtesy'of N. Y. Evening Journai 
 
 CAN THIS RIGHT BE ALIENATED? 
 
 35
 
 36 ALBANY 
 
 **Be it resolved by the Assembly of the State of 
 New York that we request the following information 
 from the legislative committee currently known as the 
 Lusk Committee. 
 
 "i. Is it true that on June 12, 1919, the committee, 
 through its direct wire and over the switchboard of 
 the Prince George Hotel, New York City, called up 
 Bowling Green 9696, which is the 'phone number of 
 the British Military Attache, Col. Thwaites, and spoke 
 to R. N. Nathan, arranging for a raid on the Soviet 
 Bureau in New York City? 
 
 "2. Is it true that R. N. Nathan is the Chief of the 
 British Secret Service in this country? 
 
 "3. Is it true that the raid on the Soviet Bureau 
 was executed on the following day, June 13, in ac- 
 cordance with arrangements made between the com- 
 mittee and the Chief of the British Secret Service, Mr. 
 Nathan? 
 
 "4. Is it true that the papers obtained in the raid 
 were removed to the office of a private detective at 
 No. 30 East 42d Street? 
 
 "5. Is it true that Mr. Nathan joined the raiding 
 party in the office of the private detective and in the 
 presence of representatives of the committee, includ- 
 ing its associate counsel, Archibald E. Stevenson, took 
 original copies of these papers and carried them away 
 with him? 
 
 "6. Is it true that these papers were never returned 
 to the committee? 
 
 "7. (a) Is it true that the remaining papers were 
 turned over to the firm of Oliver Lippincott & Co., 
 photo§taters at No. 230 Broadway, New York City, 
 where about 3,500 copies of duplicates were ordered 
 to be made? 
 
 "(b) Is it true that in the month of August, igig,
 
 THE TIDE OF PROTEST RISES 37 
 
 a package of these photostats were delivered to Mr. 
 Nathan at the Hotel Biltmore, New York City? 
 
 **(c) Is it true that the bill for these photostats, 
 approximating $1,200, was paid in two installments, 
 one with a check drawn by the committee on the Har- 
 riman National Bank for $600, and the other some 
 time later with $600 in cash? 
 
 "(d) And is it true that prior to the cash payment 
 to Oliver Lippincott & Co., Mr. Nathan handed a roll 
 of bills to the Sergeant-at-Arms of the committee? 
 
 "8. Is it true that Mr. Nathan also participated in 
 the raid on the Rand School? 
 
 "9, Is it true that shortly after the aforementioned 
 incidents Mr. Nathan, in full possession of the origi- 
 nal papers and photostats, left the United States for 
 England? 
 
 "10. Is it true that the original papers obtained by 
 Mr. Nathan were of great commercial importance to 
 the United States and that his possession of them en- 
 abled his Government to obtain commercial and diplo- 
 matic advantages in its relations with the Soviet Gov- 
 ernment of Russia?" 
 
 The committee referred to here was the committee 
 appointed by the Legislature in March, 1919, to "in- 
 vestigate the scope, tendencies, and ramifications of 
 seditious activities (on the part of 'a large number of 
 persons within the State of New York'), and to report 
 the result of this investigation to the Legislature." 
 
 This body took its name from its chairman, Senator 
 Clayton R. Lusk, of Cortland, N. Y., and thereafter 
 became knov/n as the Lusk Committee. It came into 
 existence upon the motion of a private organization, 
 the Union League Club of New York City, and was 
 dominated by its associate counsel, Archibald Ewing 
 Stevenson, a member of and a representative of the
 
 38 ALBANY 
 
 club. This organization is known as the political club 
 of Wall Street. 
 
 The activities of the Lusk Committee were excel- 
 lently characterized by Samuel Untermeyer, a promi- 
 nent attorney of New York City and conspicuous in 
 political life, in a letter to Senator Lusk as "incredibly 
 imlawful and despotic." It became generally known 
 as a "witch-hunting" committee. In the same letter, 
 Mr. Untermeyer declared that he was "further in- 
 formed that at one time your star-chzimber proceed- 
 ings went to the extent not only of excluding the pub- 
 lic, but that you have at times heretofore even barred 
 newspaper men from your sessions, and that at the 
 end of each day of the so-called 'hearing,' typewritten 
 statements of your version of supposed 'testimony' and 
 the slurring remarks of counsel and yourself against 
 people who are absent and are given no opportunity to 
 be heard, were distributed for publication." 
 
 The press demanded from Senator Lusk an explana- 
 tion of the questions asked by the Socialist Assembly- 
 men. His answer follows : 
 
 "No one outside of members, counsel and agents of 
 the committee and State and local officials has had 
 anything to do with the so-called raids on the Soviet 
 Bureau or any other organization. No papers seized 
 have been received by any one other than agents of the 
 committee. 
 
 "Any papers seized at the Soviet Bureau were 
 brought in evidence before the committee in public 
 hearings ; photographs of some of these have been pub- 
 lished in newspapers. I DO NOT KNOW FOR 
 WHAT PURPOSE THEY HAVE BEEN USED 
 OR WHETHER COPIES HAVE BEEN SENT TO 
 ENGLAND. 
 
 "R. N. Nathan (said to be British Secret Service
 
 THE TIDE OF PROTEST RISES 39 
 
 Chief in the United States) never had any more in- 
 formation, to my knowledge, than did the newspaper 
 reporters and the public generally. There were no 
 papers of commercial importance to any one. The 
 pretended commercial activity of the Soviet Bureau 
 was a blind for distributing letters from Lenine to 
 American workingmen and the distribution of other 
 propaganda directed against the Government. 
 
 "The Sergeant-at-Arms of the Committee is the Ser- 
 geant-at-Arms of the Senate. He has never, to my 
 knowledge, received money from any source except 
 the State of New York. 
 
 "The Lusk Committee is not responsible for the ac- 
 tion of the Assembly. The Speaker of the Assembly 
 is a member of the committee and has knowledge of 
 the evidence against these members. 
 
 "The issue is clean-cut. If these men believe in, and 
 are working to bring about, the overthrow of the Gov- 
 ernment by force and violence, they will undoubtedly 
 be denied their seats. If not, they will be permitted 
 to serve. 
 
 "These charges aginst the committee are made by 
 them with the full knowledge of their falsity and solely 
 for distracting the attention of the public from the 
 • issue, which is simply whether they personally are ad- 
 vocating and attempting the overthrow of our Gov- 
 ernment by violence and revolution. They should be 
 held to this issue and given a fair trial." 
 
 The five Socialists promptly replied to Senator 
 Lusk's statement, characterizing it as "evasive, non- 
 committal and contradictory." His denial that, to his 
 kno>wledge, foreign agents or any other outside rep- 
 resentatives had anything to do with the raids on the 
 Soviet Bureau or any other organization does not ex- 
 plain why on June 12, 1919, the day before the raid
 
 40 ALBANY 
 
 on the Soviet Bureau, Bowling Green 9696 was called, 
 which 'phone number is that of Col. Thwaites, British 
 Military Attache. After calling the attention to the 
 Senator's evasive reply, the suspended men referred 
 to their resolution as follows : 
 
 "We meant to present this information and these 
 questions in the State Legislature. We were barred. 
 But the fact that we were barred will not deter us 
 from telling the truth to the people." 
 
 As one day succeeded another, the tide of protest 
 against the action of the Assembly instead of receding, 
 grew in volume as the meaning of the suspension be- 
 came clear to the people. Public men and organized 
 bodies of various beliefs joined in the outburst of pro- 
 test. The voice of the press waxed louder as the reah- 
 zation grew stronger that to permit this action to stand 
 would be to submit to an attack upon fundamental 
 American liberties. A typical editorial protest of this 
 nature was that contained in the New York Evening 
 Journal, which commented as follows: 
 
 "The suspension of the five Socialist members of 
 the Legislature is the most serious assault upon the 
 liberties of the American people that has been made 
 since a British King and Parliament forced our fathers 
 to protect their freedom with arms in their hands. 
 
 "Not all the anarchists in the country multiplied by 
 ten could strike such a deadly blow at law and order. 
 
 "Not all the anarchists from Herr Most's day down 
 to this present hour ever did strike such a deadly blow 
 at our system of free representative government. 
 
 "We do not belong to the Socialist Party. We are 
 not in the least convinced that its theory of govern- 
 ment is as good as the theory of government expound-
 
 THE TIDE OF PROTEST RISES 41 
 
 ed in the Constitution of the United States. But just 
 because we do beHeve in the theory of government ex- 
 pounded in the Constitution of the United States, we 
 emphatically protest against the suspension and the 
 intended expulsion of the five Socialist representatives 
 in the State Legislature. 
 
 "It is a high-handed act of tyranny, a criminal as- 
 sault upon public liberty, a treasonable defiance of the 
 Constitution and flat rebellion against the written laws 
 and the inherent sovereignty of the people. 
 
 "This treason of the majority in the Legislature 
 must be fought with every lawful weapon that a patri- 
 otic press and patriotic citizenry can find to use. 
 
 "We should think that any man with an ounce of 
 common sense could see that the denial of representa- 
 tion to citizens who choose representatives inimical to 
 a majority in Legislature — or in the Federal Congress 
 — is destructive of all liberties, destructive of all guar- 
 antees, destructive of ALL FREE GOVERNMENT, 
 and destructive of that confidence in the protection 
 and authority of the Constitution and the laws upon 
 which free government alone securely rests. 
 
 "The men who have committed this assault upon 
 the rights of the five Socialist members, and upon the 
 rights of the people who elected these five representa- 
 tives, are either conscious traitors to their oaths to 
 obey and defend the Constitution and the laws, or else 
 they are fools who are not mentally capable of under- 
 standing their own imbecile folly. 
 
 "It is impossible for free government to exist with- 
 out representative freedom, without the safety and in- 
 violability of each and every representative's right to 
 represent the group of citizens which elects him. 
 
 "That is fundamental. There is no argument about 
 it. 
 
 "Whenever the right of representation is destroyed,
 
 42 ALBANY 
 
 the people no longer rule themselves. They are rviled 
 by masters. They are SUBJECTS, not citizens. 
 
 "And we Americans do not intend to be subjects. 
 
 "We do not intend to call any man or any men 
 master. 
 
 "Not while our fathers* blood runs in our veins. 
 
 "We Americans must make a stand, once and for 
 all, against the daily increasing encroachments upon 
 our rights, and our liberties, and our form of free Gov- 
 ernment. The hour is come when these official tyrants 
 of our own creation must be made to recognize the 
 limitations of their authority; must be made to real- 
 ize that this is the Republic of the United States and 
 not a hunting preserve for plunderbunds, autocrats, 
 bureaucrats and secret police spies. 
 
 "As a result of the war, there is a powerful and very 
 dangerous conspiracy to overthrow democracy every- 
 where in the world. 
 
 "The agents of this conspiracy are at work here in 
 America precisely as they are at work in Europe and 
 in our neighboring countries on this continent. 
 
 "They are in our Congress, in our Legislatures, in 
 our newspaper and periodical offices, in our pulpits, in 
 our schools. And everywhere they are making a si- 
 multaneous assault upon free speech, free press, free 
 assembly, free representation. 
 
 "Everywhere they advocate repressive legislation to 
 curb the right of opinion and discussion, and every- 
 where they incite and applaud mob violence against 
 men and journals that speak out for the rights and in- 
 terests of the plain people. 
 
 H^ :(: H< H^ ^ 
 
 "The issue at stake is not the rights of these five 
 men. 
 
 "The issue at stake is the right of free representa-
 
 THE TIDE OP PROTEST RISES 43 
 
 tion — the right of all of us to choose our representa- 
 tives. 
 
 "To deny this right is treason against the Constitu- 
 tion, treason against the State of New York, treason 
 against the Republic, treason against the fundamental, 
 inherent liberties of the American people. 
 
 "The man who submits to such tyranny and such 
 treason without protest and resistance is not fit to call 
 himself an American. 
 
 "We should hold ourselves no better than mean and 
 cowardly traitors to every obligation of an American 
 journal if we did not denounce and resist this assault 
 upon the common rights and common liberties of the 
 land and its people." 
 
 Expressions of astonishment and indignation ema- 
 nated from all parts of the world. Public men in Eng- 
 land, France, Italy, and even as far off as the Argen- 
 tine Republic, added their protest to the storm which 
 was rapidly attaining its climax. For example, a dis- 
 patch from Rome, Italy, dated January 9, said that the 
 "Italian press without distinction of parties, con- 
 demned such a reactionary measure as tending to 
 strangle freedom of thought in a country which has 
 hitherto boasted of its free institutions of liberty and 
 democracy." 
 
 While the Socialists were organizing their legal tal- 
 ent for purposes of defense, the most powerful organi- 
 zation of lawyers in the country, the Bar Association | 
 of the City of New York, took up the cudgels in behalf ' 
 of the unseated Socialists. 
 
 On the evening of January 13 it held a meeting in 
 which one of the longest and bitterest debates in its 
 history took place. The discussion lasted until the 
 early morning. A resolution denouncing the suspen- 
 sion as contrary to the spirit of representative govern-
 
 44 ALBANY 
 
 ment and calling for a committee of Bar Association 
 members to assist in the defence of the suspended men 
 was introduced by Charles Evans Hughes and sec- 
 onded by George Gordon Battle, a lawyer prominent in 
 Democratic politics in New York City. The opposi- 
 tion was led by William G. Guthrie, a prominent Re- 
 publican, a corporation lawyer, and chairman of the 
 Committee on Political Reform of the Union League 
 Club. 
 
 The resolution was finally adopted by a vote of 174 
 to 117. It read: 
 
 "WHEREAS, this association regards with a deep 
 sense of anxiety the action of the Assembly of this 
 State in suspending from its membership the five 
 members of the Socialist Party who were duly elected 
 members of the Assembly at the last election, and 
 
 "WHEREAS, any attempt by a majority to exclude 
 from the Legislature those who have been duly elected 
 to its membership, merely because of their affiliation 
 with a political party, when seeking by constitutional 
 and legal methods to bring about any change in our 
 Constitution and laws, is un-American, and, if suc- 
 cessful, must destroy the rights of minorities and the 
 very foundations of representative government, and 
 
 "WHEREAS, the five members of the Socialist 
 Party now suspended from membership are charged 
 to be unfit for membership in the Legislature because 
 of their membership in the Socialist Party, and NOT 
 BECAUSE OF ANY PERSONAL UNFITNESS, it 
 is hereby 
 
 "RESOLVED, that this association is unalterably 
 opposed to any action of the Assembly excluding from 
 its membership because of affiliation with any political 
 party, when seeking by constitutional and legal meth- 
 ods to bring about any change in our Constitution and
 
 THE TIDE OF PROTEST RISES 45 
 
 laws, any person duly elected to its membership; and 
 it is further 
 
 "RESOLVED, that the president of the association 
 appoint a special committee who shall appear before 
 the Assembly or its Judiciary Committee and take 
 such action as may in their judgment be necessary to 
 safeguard and protect the principles of representative 
 government which are involved in the proceedings 
 now pending." 
 
 John G. Milbum, president of the Bar Association, 
 then appointed the following special committee to go 
 to Albany and take a hand in the legal fight: Charles 
 E. Hughes, Morgan J. O'Brien, former Judge of the 
 Supreme Court of the State of New York; Joseph M. 
 Proskauer, Louis Marshall, and Ogden L. Mills. 
 
 Speculation immediately became rife as to what the 
 status of the Bar Association's committee would be 
 when it presented itself at Albany. Speaker Sv/eet 
 and his associates immediately began scheming the 
 adoption of rules by which the distinguished jurists 
 might be prevented from appearing in behalf of the 
 Socialists. When approached on this question by a 
 newspaper correspondent, he made the following com- 
 ment: 
 
 "I hope you will quote me correctly,'* he said, "in 
 stating that this v/ill be an absolutely fair trial and 
 that the people of the State will have put before them 
 all the evidence and will not have to depend upon 
 biased accounts by certain parts of the press." 
 
 He announced at the same time that steps would be 
 taken to send out "official information" which would 
 keep the people of the State informed as to the "true
 
 46 ALBANY 
 
 nature of the evidence" and to prevent the public from 
 being "misled by the press." 
 
 The Speaker's constant reiteration of the assertion 
 that the unseated Socialists would receive a "fair trial" 
 seemed to arouse the suspicion of the press and fears 
 that the contrary would be the fact, judging by the 
 proceedings theretofore. Several newspapers resented 
 the insinuation of Speaker Sweet that they had sud- 
 denly become converted to Socialism and ridiculed the 
 charge that they could not be relied upon to give ac- 
 curate accounts of the trial. 
 
 Meantime representatives of various liberal, radical 
 and labor bodies had assembled for the purpose of or- 
 ganizing on the basis of the right of all organizations 
 to be represented in governmental bodies, no matter 
 how radical or sweeping the changes thej' might seek 
 to accomplish. 
 
 At a conference consisting of three hundred dele- 
 gates, representing organized labor, the Socialist 
 Party, the "Committee of Forty-Eight" and the Labor 
 Party, it was decided to call a State-wide conference. 
 When this conference was later held at Albany, more 
 than four hundred delegates were present. Represen- 
 tatives of organized labor pledged themselves to bring 
 about the defeat of all persons who were responsible 
 for the unseating of the five Socialists. 
 
 While all this was going on, there were evidences of 
 dismay among certain elements in the Assembly, 
 chiefly on the Democratic side. Numerous Assembly- 
 men, disconcerted by the volume of protest, began to 
 experience an uneasy feeling that the expulsion pro- 
 ceedings had not been carefully conducted. 
 
 This feeling came to a head on the night of Jan- 
 uary 12, when Charles E. Donohue, the Democratic 
 floor leader, made a motion to rescind the vote by 
 which the charges against the Socialists had been
 
 THE TIDE OF PROTEST RISES 47 
 
 adopted. Mr. Donohue first presented a resolution de- 
 signed to reseat the Socialists and to allow them a 
 voice in deliberations pending their trial. This was 
 promptly ruled out of order by Speaker Sweet, who 
 then remarked, "I would be glad to entertain a mo- 
 tion to rescind the action of last week." Never did 
 Speaker Sweet seem more sure of his power. He 
 quickly ordered a roll call. No member was allowed 
 to comment on his vote. 
 
 When the tally was taken, it was found that 33 
 members had voted to reinstate the Socialists, whereas 
 71 members were still against it. This compared with 
 an original vote to suspend of 140 to 6. At that time, 
 only two non-Socialists had voted "no," so that 31 
 members, since the taking of the original vote, seemed 
 to have become afflicted with a case of "cold feet." 
 Afterwards, it was found that 41 members of the lower 
 House, mostly Republicans, apparently not caring to 
 go on record, had remained away from the Chamber. 
 
 Speaker Sweet's next move was to announce the 
 personnel of the Judiciary Committee which was to 
 try the suspended Socialists. They were: Louis M. 
 Martin of Oneida; Rowe of Erie; Lown of Yates; 
 Jenks of Broome ; Everett of St. Lawrence ; Pellett of 
 New York; Wilson of Westchester; Bloch of New 
 York; Harrington of CHnton; Blodgett of Schenec- 
 tady; Stitt of Kings; Cuvillier of New York; and 
 Evans of The Bronx. 
 
 The trial was set for January 20, 1920, thirteen days 
 after the suspension. The Socialists made vigorous 
 protest against the delay, five Assembly Districts in 
 the City of New York meantime having been left un- 
 represented. On this account they declared they had 
 a right to demand immediate trial. They further con- 
 tended that the Assembly had no constitutional right 
 to do business, because it could not properly be con-
 
 48 ALBANY 
 
 stituted since it had performed a coup d'etat by 
 arbitrarily suspending five members of a minority 
 party. 
 
 On January 15 the Sergeant-at-Arms of the Assem- 
 bly officially served each of the five suspended mem- 
 bers with a copy of the charges and a notice of trial. 
 This typewritten notice, signed by Louis M. Martin, 
 Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, read as fol- 
 lows: 
 
 "Sir: Please take notice that in pursuance of the 
 resolutions adopted by the Assembly of the State of 
 New York on January 7, 1920, a certified copy of 
 which you are herewith served, the Judiciary Commit- 
 tee of the Assembly of the State of New York, will be- 
 gin investigation of your qualifications and elegibility 
 to a seat in the Assembly of the State of New York, 
 for the session of 1920 in the Assembly chamber, Capi- 
 tol Building, Albany, N. Y., on January 20, 1920, at 
 II A.M. 
 
 Upon receipt of this notice, the five Socialists issued 
 a statement of protest as follows: 
 
 "Speaker Sweet has changed his mind again. After 
 our forcible ejection from the chamber, the Speaker 
 had given the people to understand that specific 
 charges would be made against each of us to 'deter- 
 mine' our qualifications and fitness to be members of 
 the Assembly. This morning Sergeant-at-Arms 
 Haines served us with a copy of the charges contain- 
 ing generalizations and inferences. 
 
 "It is an exact copy of the resolution originally 
 passed. A criminal before the bar is at least per- 
 mitted to know what he is charged with. We are not 
 afforded even this right. We are as much in the dark 
 to-day against what we must defend ourselves as we
 
 THE TIDE OF PROTEST RISES 49 
 
 were when the precipitant action of the Speaker was 
 sprung upon us Monday a week ago. 
 
 "We demand specific charges, stating specific of- 
 fenses." 
 
 About this time, Morris Hillquit, who had been ab- 
 sent from public affairs for more than a year recover- 
 ing from a serious illness, arrived in New York City 
 to take charge of the defense. 
 
 The thirteen days which elapsed between the act of 1 
 suspension and the opening of the trial now drew to a 
 close. They had been thirteen days of intense excite- 
 ment. In these thirteen days. Socialism and the So- 
 cialist Party had attracted more widespread public at- 
 tention than in the thirteen years preceding. They 
 were thirteen days of awakening. In these thirteen 
 days, America once more took thought as to its liber- 
 ties, which have been forgotten in recent years. A 
 great struggle was about to take place. The eyes of 
 the entire country, of the world, in fact, were fixed 
 upon Albany. The Socialists felt pride in being thrust 
 into a position in which they appeared as defenders 
 of American constitutional government. The struggle 
 of classes was about to be transformed into one of the 
 greatest political trials in modern history.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 THE OPENING OF THE TRIAL 
 
 The trial which was to determine whether represen- 
 tative Government should survive in the United States 
 was opened in the Assembly Chamber at Albany on 
 January 20, 1920. 
 
 The House was crowded with members, senators, 
 judges, officials, and visitors coming from all parts of 
 the State. As eleven o'clock, the hour set for the open- 
 ing of the trial, drew near, a sense of excitement per- 
 vaded the whole city. 
 
 In the Chamber, the Judiciary Committee, com- 
 posed of thirteen members, of which Louis N. Martin 
 was chairman, sat in the first semicircular row of 
 chairs, near the Speaker's chair. On the left, sat the 
 accused Socialists with their counsel. On the right 
 sat the State's Attorney General, Charles D. Newton, 
 with his staff of legal advisers. 
 
 Special arrangements had been made for the press. 
 Representatives from the daily newspapers of New 
 York and other cities and states sat in the two rows 
 of seats immediately back of the Judiciary Committee. 
 
 Amid intense silence, Chairman Martin made his 
 opening statement as follows: 
 
 "The proceeding which is brought here to-day will 
 not be conducted along the lines of a general commit- 
 tee hearing. It is in the nature of an investigation as 
 to the qualifications of certain members of the As- 
 sembly of the State of New York, to sit as members 
 of that body, and under the rules, or one of the rules 
 
 50
 
 THE OPENING OF THE TRIAL 51 
 
 adopted by the Committee, it was stated that the rules 
 and procedure of the Supreme Court of the State of 
 New York would prevail. 
 
 He then insisted that the rules would be strictly 
 obeyed and that no applause would be permitted. 
 
 After the preliminaries had been disposed of, ex- 
 Governor Hughes arose from a seat in the middle of 
 the chamber. With great dignity, and speaking very 
 slowly and clearly, he said : 
 
 "I crave the courtesy of the Judiciary Committee to 
 submit a brief statement on behalf of the Association 
 of the Bar of the City of New York, which is repre- 
 sented here by a special committee composed of Judge 
 O'Brien, Senator Mills, Mr. Marshall, Mr. Proskauer, 
 and myself. In asking the courtesy of the Committee 
 to make a brief statement, I desire to say that this 
 special committee does not appear on behalf of the 
 members of the Assembly under suspension, nor on 
 behalf of the Socialist Party, but solely on behalf of 
 the Association of the Bar; and in the public interest 
 we desire, if we may, at the threshold of the proceed- 
 ings of this Judiciary Committee to suggest to the 
 Committee the gravity of the matter before them and 
 the importance of determining at the outset the appli- 
 cation of certain fundamental principles and of formu- 
 lating their course of inquiry in such a manner as to 
 satisfy those principles of constitutional law and pro- 
 cedure. We have a concrete suggestion to make to 
 the Committee, and it is our sole desire that this very 
 important matter, the determination of which is so 
 closely related to the security of the Republic, should 
 be dealt with in a manner that will commend the ac- 
 tion of the Committee and the Assembly to the judg- 
 ment of the people of the State whose interests are 
 here involved." 
 
 At this point, the Chair interrupted by asking that
 
 52 ALBANY 
 
 Mr. Hughes suspend his statements until the person- 
 nel of counsel for both sides had been duly noted. 
 Turning to the attorney-general, he asked that the; 
 latter announce the names of counsel for the prosecu- 
 tion. Mr. Newton then named John B. Stanchfield,- 
 Martin W. Littleton, Henry F. Wolf, Archibald E. 
 Stevenson, Samuel A. Berger, and Elon R. Brown. 
 Later ex- Attorney-General Carmody, Arthur E. Suth- 
 erland, former Justice of the State Supreme Court; 
 and Mr. Martin Conboy were added to the array of 
 prosecuting counsel. 
 
 Turning then to the left, the chairman asked that 
 the accused Assemblymen name their counsel. Mr. 
 Hillquit, replying for the Socialists, named himself, 
 Seymour Stedman, Gilbert E. Roe, S. John Block,. 
 Walter Nelles, and William Karlin. 
 
 To the query of the chairman as to whether there 
 were any other appearances, ex- Justice Hughes arose 
 and said, "I desire, if this is the proper time, to note 
 appearance of the Committee requested to appear as 
 provided by the practice of the Supreme Court of the 
 State of New York, which I understand you have said 
 the Committee is to follow." 
 
 The chairman interrupted to ask, "Do I understand. 
 Governor Hughes, you desire to appear not for the As- 
 semblymen whose conduct is in process of investiga- 
 tion? You do not appear for them?" 
 
 Mr. Hughes's prompt reply was, "Not at all." 
 
 The chairman then inquired: "Do you desire to have 
 your appearances noted for the Bar Association?" 
 
 Mr. Hughes replied that he did, "for the purpose of 
 making such suggestions and representations to the 
 Committee as in our judgment may be deemed impor- 
 tant in order that the proceeding may be heard and de- 
 termined in accordance with sound constitutional prac-
 
 THE OPENING OF THE TRIAL 53 
 
 tice, and we hope that what we may do may be an aid« 
 to the deliberations of the Committee." 
 
 But the Judiciary Committee's Chairman apparently 
 did not desire any light to be thrown on these ques- 
 tions, either by ex-Governor Hughes or by his fellow- 
 members of the Bar Association. Apparently Mr. 
 Martin considered that the public had no right to have 
 representatives on the floor of the Chamber during the 
 trial, for he said to Mr. Hughes : 
 
 "We trust you will appreciate the position that we 
 are in when we state that we cannot consent to allow 
 appearances on the part of any organization in the 
 State, outside of the real parties who are the subject 
 of this inquiry." 
 
 After paying flattering compliments to Justice 
 Hughes and his fellow-lawyers, Mr. Martin explained : 
 
 "This committee is not concerned with the tem- 
 porary suspension of these gentlemen. At the time 
 these gentlemen were suspended from the House, this 
 committee was not in existence. We were created 
 after that rule or resolution was adopted and this mat- 
 ter was referred to us and we have accepted it with 
 very grave reluctance. The duty that is imposed on 
 us and our committee is this: To determine from the 
 evidence as to the qualification and elegibility of these 
 gentlemen and report to the House. 
 
 "Now, we haven't any concern. We haven't any 
 power to pass on the question or take up the question 
 as to whether it was proper to suspend these gentle- 
 men or not. That is the action of the Assembly itself. 
 It seems to me that if a memorial is to be addressed by 
 your committee to the Assembly of the State of New 
 York, it should be addressed by your committee to the 
 Speaker of the Assembly or through some member of 
 the Assembly to the Assembly itself at its session, and 
 that it is not a proper matter to be brought before this
 
 54 ALBANY 
 
 committee under the very limited scope that we have, 
 and under the very Hmited power that is given us." 
 
 However, Mr. Hughes held his ground. Interrupt- 
 ing Mr. Martin, he said : 
 
 "I appreciate duly the fact that the Committee is 
 the judge of its own procedure, and I would pray the 
 leave of the Committee to submit a statement for the 
 consideration of the Committee which the special 
 committee that I have the honor to represent has pre- 
 pared — and that statement concludes with a sugges- 
 tion to the Committee in a very few words that is 
 pertinent to the authority that that Committee pos- 
 sesses, as we believe, in accordance with precedent. 
 I understand that all committees having to deal with 
 matters of this sort in Congress or with the Legisla- 
 ture of this State, have generally considered proper 
 procedure and have made report generally upon the 
 principles and practice involved; and I suggest that 
 this statement which we submit but which, in view 
 of your disposition of the matter, I will not undertake 
 to read or state orally, but I ask to state the conclu- 
 sion of the statement, the suggestion of this special 
 committee, to the effect that the Judiciary Committee 
 at once report to the Assembly that there is no ques- 
 tion properly before the Judiciary Committee of any 
 disqualification on the part of these members ; that no 
 charges against these members of any constitutional 
 disqualification or of any misconduct in office or of 
 any violation of law on their part have been properly 
 laid; that the members under suspension should at 
 once be restored to the privileges of their seats, and 
 that if it is desirous to present any charges against 
 them of any violation of law, such charges should be 
 properly formulated, and that until such charges, prop- 
 erly laid, have been established by proof after due op- 
 portunity to be heard, these members shall enjoy all
 
 THE OPENING OF THE TRIAL 55 
 
 the privileges of their seats in recognition of their own 
 rights and of the rights of their constituencies. 
 
 "In support of that, we submit this statement and 
 the accompanying brief for consideration of the Com- 
 mittee." 
 
 This brief, v/hich the page boys began to distribute, 
 was as follows : 
 
 "STATEMENT BY THE SPECIAL COMMITTEE 
 APPOINTED BY THE ASSOCIATION OF 
 THE BAR OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK: 
 
 "We appear as a Special Committee appointed pur- 
 suant to resolution adopted by the Association of the 
 Bar of the City of New York at its annual meeting 
 held on January 13, 1920. 
 
 "We do not represent the members under suspen- 
 sion, or the Socialist Party, and v/e have no sympathy 
 with the aims of that party. We appear solely as the 
 representatives of the Association of the Bar, and in 
 the public interest, to place before your Committee 
 considerations which we deem to be of fundamental 
 importance in this proceeding. 
 
 "In view of the gravity of the questions involved, 
 and the serious consequences which may follow any 
 deflection from sound constitutional practice, we re- 
 spectfully suggest that the committee at once con- 
 sider the present status of this proceeding and the im- 
 mediate measures which are required in the light of 
 the constitutional rights of these suspended members 
 and of the constituencies which they have been elected 
 to represent. 
 
 "We believe that the following facts are undisputed : 
 
 "i. That the members under suspension were duly 
 elected to the Assembly. 
 
 "2. That when these members appeared with their
 
 56 ALBANY 
 
 credentials, they were admitted to take the oath of of- 
 fice and that they severally took such oath and were 
 admitted to the privileges of the House. 
 
 "3. That having taken the oath and having been 
 admitted to all the privileges of members of the As- 
 sembly, they participated in the election of the Speaker 
 and otherwise acted as members until their suspen- 
 sion. 
 
 "4. That, after having taken the oath and having 
 been admitted as members of the Assembly, they were 
 suspended and denied the privileges of their seats 
 without a hearing or opportunity to be heard. 
 
 "5. That, prior to said suspension, there was no 
 charge against these members, and there is no charge 
 pending against them that they were not duly elected, 
 or that they do not possess the qualifications pre- 
 scribed by the Constitution, or that they are not of 
 sound mind, or that they have not taken the constitu- 
 tional oath of office, or that they have been convicted 
 of any crime, or that they have committed any overt 
 act constituting a criminal offense, or that they have 
 been guilty of any violation of lav/, or that they have 
 been guilty of any misconduct while members of this 
 Assembly. 
 
 "6. That by reason of their suspension, these mem- 
 bers have been denied all the privileges of their seats. 
 
 "7. That by reason of the suspension of these mem- 
 bers, there are five districts of the State now in effect 
 without representation in the Assembly, that there are 
 no vacancies that can be filled by election or other- 
 wise, and that this denial of representation will con- 
 tinue as long as this inquiry lasts, which may be until 
 the end of the legislative session. 
 
 "We submit the following propositions as abund- 
 antly supported by reason and precedent: 
 
 "First, that the power of the Assembly under the
 
 THE OPENING OF THE TRIAL 57 
 
 Constitution to be the judges of the qualifications of 
 its own members is not an arbitrary power, but is to 
 be exercised as a prerogative in accord with the funda- 
 mental conceptions of due process and the essential 
 principles of representative government. 
 
 "Second, that all questions as to the existence of 
 disqualification in the case of a member-elect are prop- 
 erly presented before he is admitted to membership in 
 the Assembly. 
 
 "Third, that after the oath has been administered to 
 the member, and he has been admitted to the privi- 
 lege", of the House, he cannot be deprived of those 
 pri' ileges except by expulsion. 
 
 "Fourth, that a member cannot be expelled except 
 upon proper charges and after due opportunity to be 
 heard. 
 
 "Fifth, that after he has taken the oath of office, and 
 has been admitted to the privileges of membership in 
 the House, a member cannot be suspended or denied 
 these privileges pending inquiry, but only upon being 
 expelled in case proper charges have been sustained 
 after hearing. 
 
 "Sixth, that when a member-elect presents himself 
 to take the oath of office, he cannot be denied the privi- 
 lege of taking it, or after the oath has been taken, it 
 cannot be denied adequacy merely because of any al- 
 leged opinion, state of mind, or intent, claimed to be 
 inconsistent v/ith the oath. 
 
 "Seventh, that mindful of the lessons of history and , 
 as a safeguard of political liberty and representative 
 institutions, it was expressly ordained by the people 
 in the Constitution of the State that no other oath, dec- 
 laration or test save that set forth in the Constitution, 
 should be required as a qualification for office of pub- 
 lic trust, and that the Assembly has no authority to 
 establish any test of loyalty or political principle as a
 
 58 ALBANY 
 
 qualification of membership in addition to the pre- 
 scribed official oath. 
 
 "Eighth, that it is of the essence of representative 
 government that no member shall be expelled from the 
 Legislature or deprived of the privileges of his seat 
 merely because of political opinions, or affiliation with 
 a political party, in the absence of any proved viola- 
 tion of law on his part or of misconduct as a member 
 of the Legislature. 
 
 "Ninth, that it is essential to the security of the com- 
 munity and to the maintenance of law and order that 
 the peaceful means of political expression through the 
 ballot box and representatives in legislative assemblies 
 should not be denied or constituencies disfranchised 
 because of political opinion. 
 
 "Tenth, that it is of the essence of the institutions 
 of liberty that it be recognized that guilt is personal 
 and cannot be attributed to the holding of opinion or 
 to mere intent in the absence of overt acts ; that a mem- 
 ber elected to the Assembly is entitled to the benefit 
 of the presumption of innocence; and that a member 
 of the Assembly duly elected, being of sound mind and 
 possessing the qualifications prescribed by the Con- 
 stitution, cannot properly be expelled or denied the 
 privileges of his seat except upon charges duly laid 
 and upon proof duly taken of personal misconduct as 
 a member of the Assembly or of the commission by 
 him of some act constituting a violation of law. 
 
 "Eleventh, we deem it important that this vital is- 
 sue, the proper decision of which is essential to the 
 security of the Republic, should not be obscured by 
 the reception of testimony, statements or declarations 
 as to matters here or abroad, in the attempt to indict a 
 political party or organization, without first laying 
 proper charges with proper specifications directly con-
 
 THE OPENING OF THE TRIAL 59 
 
 necting members accused of personal and guilty par- 
 ticipation in illegal acts. 
 
 "We therefore respectfully urge: 
 "That this committee at once report to the Assem- 
 bly that there is no question properly before the com- 
 mittee of any disqualification on the part of these mem- 
 bers; that no charges against these members of any 
 constitutional disqualification or of any misconduct in 
 office or of any violation of law on their part have 
 been properly laid. 
 
 "We also urge that this committee report : 
 "That the members under suspension should at 
 once be restored to the privileges of their seats and 
 that if it is desired to present any charges against them 
 of any violation of law, such charges should be prop- 
 erly formulated and that until such charges, properly 
 laid, have been established by proof after due oppor- 
 tunity to be heard, these members shall enjoy all the 
 privileges of their seats in recognition of their own 
 rights and of the rights of their constituencies. 
 
 "In support of these propositions and suggestions 
 we submit a brief herewith. 
 
 "CHARLES E. HUGHES, 
 "MORGAN J. O'BRIEN, 
 "LOUIS MARSHALL, 
 "JOSEPH M. PROSKAUER, 
 "OGDEN L. MILLS, 
 "Special Committee of the Association of the Bar 
 of the City of New York. 
 "New York, January 20, 1920." 
 
 At the conclusion of Mr. Hughes' remarks, Chair- 
 man Martin replied angrily, "The distribution of those 
 briefs creates confusion here, and I desire to have it 
 suspended." 
 
 This was enough for ex- Justice Hughes and his as-
 
 6o ALBANY 
 
 sociates. They turned on their heels and left the 
 Chamber without further remark. 
 
 Chairman Martin then presented what he called "a 
 statement," which he put forth "as an expression, per- 
 haps, of our understanding of the matters that are 
 brought up for the consideration of the Commit- 
 tee." This statement was as follows : 
 
 "Information came to the Assembly through various 
 channels that the men mentioned in this proceeding 
 were members of a party or society whose platform- 
 of principles and whose doctrines as advocated to-day, 
 called for and demanded the complete destruction of 
 our form of Government by the fomentation of in- 
 dustrial unrest the bringing into play of force and 
 violence and direct action by the mass. That the 
 men here mentioned, affiliated with that party or so- 
 ciety, have subscribed to and advocated such princi- 
 ples and are in favor of the absolute substitution of 
 minority for majority rule. That they are in hearty 
 accord and sympathy with the Soviet Government as 
 it exists in Russia to-day, and they have declared 
 their solidarity therewith. 
 
 "It is claimed, among other things, that in 191 7, 
 when our country was at war with Germany and sum- 
 moned the strength of the people to the great strug- 
 gle, the party or society to which these men belong 
 and to whose program they have subscribed, in open 
 convention and with calculated deliberation denounced 
 the war as criminal, its purpose capitalistic, its mo- 
 tive profiteering, and pledged every man in that party 
 to oppose the war and all the means adopted by the 
 Government for carrying on the war in every way. 
 That the men herein named by voice and vote in public 
 and in private opposed every measure intended to aid 
 the prosecution of the war to a successful conclusion 
 and gave aid and comfort to the enemy.
 
 THE OPENING OF THE TRIAL 6i 
 
 "It is claimed also, that in August, 1919, after the 
 schemes and program of the Russian Soviet Govern- 
 ment were fully known and their practices and princi- 
 ples fully revealed, the Socialist Party of America, of 
 which these men are members, in deliberative conven- 
 tion declared their allegiance to and solidarity with 
 such Russian Soviet Government. That they secured 
 their nomination and procured their election under the 
 pretense to the people that they were merely avail- 
 ing themselves of a legally established means for 
 political representation, whereas in truth and in fact, 
 it is claimed that this was done to disguise and cover 
 up their true intent and purpose to overthrow this 
 government, peacefully, if possible, forcibly if neces- 
 sary. 
 
 "It was claimed these men have taken an oath to 
 support the Constitution of the United States and the 
 Constitution of the State of New York and that they 
 have made no promise in conflict with the require- 
 ments of such oaths. The claim is made that these 
 men are with others engaged in a large and well-or- 
 ganized conspiracy to subvert the due administration 
 of law and to destroy the right to hold and own prop- 
 erty honestly acquired, to weaken the family tie which 
 they assert is the seed of capitalism, to destroy the in- 
 fluence of the church and overturn the whole fabric 
 of a constitutional form of government; and our in- 
 quiry will be conducted with a view to ascertain and 
 determine whether there is truth in such information. 
 
 "We intend the men under investigation shall have 
 fair play. The case is not prejudged. The Committee 
 sit with an open mind. The men shall be accorded 
 the right to select their own counsel and assistance 
 will be given them in the procurement of evidence. 
 
 "After the close of the investigation and after the 
 submission of the matter by counsel for the interested
 
 62 ALBANY 
 
 parties, the Committee will with all convenient speed 
 report to the Assembly its determination." 
 
 The original resolution with the charges contained 
 were thus emphasized and enlarged upon by the Chair- 
 man. The source of the authority of the Chairman's 
 new charges was not stated. 
 
 When the Committee from the Bar Association had 
 gone, and counsel on both sides had taken their places, 
 counsel for the Socialists opened fire.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 SOCIALISTS CHALLENGE JUDGES 
 
 Mr. Hillquit, chief counsel for the Socialists, 
 opened by attacking the right of the Judiciarjr Com- 
 mittee to sit in judgment upon their political op- 
 ponents. He charged the members of the Commit- 
 tee with personal bias, and of preconceived opinions 
 on the question. He said: 
 
 "I challenge the right of this Committee, the Ju- 
 diciary Committee of the Assembly, to conduct this 
 proceeding, and I move you that the Committee report 
 back to the Assembly a recommendation that the case 
 be tried by a special committee elected by the Assem- 
 bly and not appointed by the Speaker, to be composed 
 of such members of the Assembly who have either 
 voted against the resolution, which is your authority, 
 or who have subsequently voted for its reconsidera- 
 tion." 
 
 Mr. Hillquit then pointed out that however the 
 Chairman and his associates might designate the pro- 
 ceedings, whether they called it a trial or an investi- 
 gation, it was in reality a trial. Said he: 
 
 "You are the judges as v/ell as the jury in our case. 
 It is true your determination will not be final, but it 
 is also true that you gentlemen will pass upon the ad- 
 missibility or the inadmissibility of evidence ; you will 
 make the findings of fact ; you will report your con- 
 clusions and recommendations to the Assembly; you 
 are in the position of a referee. You are a trial body, 
 and one of the first requirements of any kind of a trial 
 
 63
 
 64 ALBANY 
 
 body, whether it be court without a jury; whether it 
 be jury; whether it be a Grand Jury; or whether it 
 be a court-martial, is that the judges must be clear 
 from any bias — must not have formed an opinion of 
 the guilt of the defendants. Otherwise, it isn't a trial. 
 Otherwise it is merely a farce in which we go through 
 the motions of a trial without reaching its substance. " 
 
 Mr. Hillquit declared that the Socialists' objection 
 was a two-fold one. 
 
 "We hold," he said, "in the first place, that you were 
 appointed and selected by our accuser : we hold in the 
 second place that you have publicly, solemnly ex- 
 pressed your conviction of the guilt of the men who 
 are before you now." 
 
 He recalled the opening lecture of Speaker Sweet 
 to the accused Socialists in which Mr. Sweet used the 
 following words: 
 
 "You have been elected on a platform that is abso- 
 lutely inimical to the best interests of the State of 
 New York and of the United States." 
 
 This Mr. Hillquit declared to be a "specific, con- 
 crete, definite, affirmative declaration of the guilt of 
 these five men before they had ever been charged with 
 any guilt." 
 
 Mr. Hillquit continued, "Thus the Speaker of the 
 Assembly appears as the first accuser of these five 
 men. Mind you, he does not say as this statement 
 now read by the Chairman says, Tt is claimed' — 'infor- 
 mation has come to us' ; he makes the very definite posi- 
 tive statement that these men are guilty of the charges. 
 Thereupon having made that concrete and definite 
 statement IPSO FACTO, and not in the shape of this 
 posthumous resolution reciting all these facts, the very 
 same Speaker having had the question referred to your 
 Committee, the Judiciary Committee, which was then 
 appointed, proceeds to the appointment of the person-
 
 SOCIALISTS CHALLENGE JUDGES 65 
 
 nel of your Committee. Thus the accuser selects his 
 own judges. Imagine an analogous case, a criminal 
 case, for instance, in which a prosecuting attorney 
 would appoint his judge. Imagine a civil case in 
 which the plaintiff would choose and appoint his judge 
 to sit on his case. Has there been any such proceed- 
 ing attempted anywhere, in any tribunal, no matter of 
 what character in this country? Never, I make bold 
 to state," 
 
 The lawj'^er for the Socialists went on to point out 
 how the resolution had recited a "very definite and 
 concrete conviction of their guilt." Said he: 
 
 "In other words, the proceeding starts out with the 
 imposition of the sentence and with the ordinary 
 speech of the judge from the bench following a con- 
 viction. It is then followed, not by charges, but by 
 a recital of findings against these men, and after all has 
 been said and done, after they have been told definitely 
 that they are criminals, they are told, 'Now get out of 
 this company of decent men and come back later, and 
 we will try you and find out whether or not you are 
 actually guilty.* I submit that all of you who have 
 voted on this proposition and have solemnly declared 
 your belief in the guilt of those men, and have not re- 
 tracted it on voting for consideration, stand here not 
 as judges but as accusers." 
 
 After pointing out the extraordinary character of the 
 case, Mr. Hillquit concluded by saying: 
 
 "Let us all feel, let the people of the State feel, that 
 these men are not having a mock trial, that they are 
 having a real trial, that they are being tried before 
 judges not informally pledged to do justice to them, 
 but who in their hearts and consciences can render jus- 
 tice to them. I request your immediate adjournment." 
 
 Mr. Stanchfield, chief counsel for the prosecution, 
 did not attempt to meet Mr. Hillquit's challenge. In
 
 66 ALBANY 
 
 an evasive argument, he exclaimed, "I say that counsel 
 for the Judiciary Committee intend to establish upon 
 this hearing that the five men who are involved in 
 this investigation have planted themselves upon the 
 platform indicated in the document that the Chairman 
 has read; that they have subscribed to the principles 
 and they have advocated the doctrine and they uphold 
 the plan indicated in the paper to which your atten- 
 tion has been called by the Chairman of this Com- 
 mittee." 
 
 In answer to the charge that the Committee had no 
 right to try the case, he declared: "If there be a com- 
 mittee in the Assembly of New York who are edu- 
 cated, trained, born and bred to the spirit of asking and 
 giving fair play, it is a committee of the bar." This 
 was meant as a bit of flattery, the Judiciary Committee 
 being composed solidly of lawyers. 
 
 Stripping from the prosecution the veneer of cour- 
 tesy which it had first tried to wear, Mr. Stanchfield 
 then openly declared concerning the unseated Social- 
 ists: 
 
 "These gentlemen are entitled to no representation, 
 and this Committee itself could go ahead in secret 
 and take testimony and report to the House and upon 
 that report, expulsion could be had and no one could 
 complain." 
 
 No v/onder Mr. Hillquit, speaking for the defense, 
 was compelled to assert that his "very distinguished 
 friend on the other side had evidently not grasped 
 the point." 
 
 "The point that I made," said Mr. Hillquit, "was not 
 that charges had been preferred by the Speaker of the 
 Assembly, or by anybody else, but the fact that both 
 the Speaker and the members of this Committee have 
 expressed a definite opinion of the guilt of the men 
 now before them."
 
 SOCIALISTS CHALLENGE lUDGES 67 
 
 After lengthy debate on both sides, the Chairman 
 without hesitation ruled that "the Chair feels con- 
 strained to deny the motion." 
 
 Mr. Hillquit then sought to have removed those 
 members of the Judiciary Committee who had been 
 members of, or had taken part in the activities of, 
 the Lusk Committee, which committee had assisted 
 the prosecution by supplying "evidence" it had gath- 
 ered in a supposed investigation of "radical" organi- 
 zations. Mr. Hillquit particularly challenged Assem- 
 blyman Louis Cuvillier, who had expressed himself 
 on the floor of the house on the night before, to the 
 effect that "if the five accused Assemblymen are found 
 guilty, they ought not to be expelled, but taken out 
 and shot." 
 
 Mr. Hillquit said, "A person who holds such an opin- 
 ion is qualified as an executioner and not as a judge." 
 
 This remark caused considerable amusement among 
 the numerous spectators. 
 
 At the end of the argument, the Chairman repeated 
 his monotonous slogan : "The motion is overruled." 
 
 Mr. Hillquit then made the important motion of the 
 day questioning the authority of the Committee to pro- 
 ceed. Said he: 
 
 "I move that the proceedings before this Committee 
 be dismissed and that the Committee report to the 
 Assembly recommending the immediate dismissal of 
 the proceedings now pending before it in connection 
 with the five Assemblymen under charges, on the 
 ground that the proceedings are without warrant in 
 the Constitution or in the statutes of the State of New 
 York, and are absolutely illegal and void from every 
 point of view. I maintain, in other words, that if every 
 word of the resolution was proved to be true, if every 
 charge read this morning by the Chairman of the Com- 
 mittee was proved beyond a shadow of a doubt to be
 
 68 ALBANY 
 
 true, that even then this Committee and the Assembly 
 are absokitely without power to suspend or expel the 
 five members under charges; that so long as there is 
 no question about their election ; that so long as there 
 is no question about the fact that they are citizens and 
 residents of this State and have taken the oath of office, 
 that ends the power and jurisdiction of the Assembly 
 with reference to them." 
 
 Ridiculing the assertion of the prosecution that the 
 Assembly was the sole judge as to the qualification of 
 its members, and could proceed arbitrarily, he said 
 that "this impression is without foundation in law and 
 is absolutely erroneous." , 
 
 He continued : "I shall try to demonstrate by the ex- 
 pressed provisions of the law, by all the precedents 
 in this State, and similar precedents in other states, 
 as well as the Congress of the United States ; also on 
 the basis of the general spirit of the Constitution of 
 our State and of the institutions of our government, 
 that this contention is absolutely fallacious." 
 
 He pointed out that the power of the Assembly to 
 judge of the qualifications of its members was intended 
 to be a power to judge constitutional qualifications 
 and not qualifications set up by the Assembly itself. 
 He quoted Article XIII of the Constitution of the 
 State of New York, Section I, which after prescribing 
 the Constitutional oath ends by saying: 
 
 "And no other oath, declaration or test shall be re- 
 quired as a qualification for any office or public trust." 
 
 Said Mr. Hillquit, "What did the framers of the 
 Constitution intend to convey by this direct, explicit 
 injunction? Only one thing. To prohibit absolutely 
 and definitely a proceeding of the kind in which you 
 are engaged now,— that is, ADDING A TEST 
 OTHER THAN THE CONSTITUTIONAL OATH
 
 SOCIALISTS CHALLENGE lUDGES 69 
 
 as a qualification for holding the office of member of 
 Assembly." 
 
 He then attacked the effort of the Assembly to set 
 up new qualifications — qualifications of "loyalty" as 
 understood by Democrats and Republicans. He de- 
 clared : 
 
 "Such a test is absolutely and in express terms pro- 
 hibited by the Constitution. 
 
 "We could generally rest on this argument, for it 
 seems the proposition is absolutely unanswerable. If 
 the framers of the Constitution thought it necessary 
 to make express provisions to this effect — an express 
 prohibition of imposing a new test — then you have no 
 right, you have no authority to impose a new test. 
 But I will say to you that we do not have to rest upon 
 the express language of the Constitution alone, all- 
 sufficient as it seems to be ; we make the contention 
 here that all precedents of this House or of this Senate 
 of the State of New York and of all other legislative 
 bodies in the United States, including both Houses of 
 Congress, have always uniformly and without devia- 
 tion so held. In other words, the proceeding which 
 you have initiated is absolutely unprecedented, abso- 
 lutely unsanctioned." 
 
 Mr, Hillquit then cited examples in profusion. 
 
 He ended with this remarkably close analogy, that 
 of the case of Lucas E. Decker, a member of the As- 
 sembly from the 4th District of the County of Queens 
 in the year 19 18. Mr. Hillquit's citation was as fol- 
 lows: 
 
 "In the case of Decker, the member was charged 
 with having failed to register for the selective draft al- 
 though he was of draft age; of having falsely repre- 
 sented that he had been examined and discharged on 
 account of bad health while he had not, as a matter of 
 fact, presented himself for examination at all; and
 
 70 ALBANY 
 
 of having in November, 1917, claimed exemption as 
 a member of the Assembly, although his term of of- 
 fice did not begin before January first of the next year. 
 On all these charges he was found guilty by the com- 
 mittee. The committee reported that it became 
 Decker's duty to register on July 24, 191 7; that he did 
 not do so until November 23, 1917; that he was mar- 
 ried November 9, 191 7; that he then claimed exemp- 
 tion as a state officer and a married man — you see he 
 got himself purposely married and purposely elected 
 to the Assembly to evade the draft; that he was a 
 lawyer and charged with knowledge of the law far 
 beyond that of a layman in like circumstances; and 
 the fact that for at least four months he disregarded 
 the law while advising others to obey it, and assisted 
 in the work of getting other young men to go to the 
 front, would justify any committee of citizens in tak- 
 ing the position which was taken in this matter by the 
 objectors. The report continued: 'These circum- 
 stances were matters of public record during all the pe- 
 riod of time Decker was running for the office of mem- 
 ber of the Assembly, and neither denied nor affirmed 
 by him as far as any evidence produced before us 
 showed with the exception of the fact that he stated 
 he had been discharged on the ground of defective eye- 
 sight; and your committee could not recommend the 
 dismissal of said Decker from the office of Member of 
 Assembly on the ground that he secured his election 
 by misrepresentation in any way.' 
 
 "Now, just listen to what follows: 'Since his elec- 
 tion, and since he has been in the discharge of his 
 duties as an Assemblyman, there is no evidence that 
 he has committed any act that disqualified him in the 
 judgment of your committee from so acting; that the 
 facts are insufficient for us to hold and recommend 
 that he should be deprived of his office at this time.
 
 SOCIALISTS CHALLENGE JUDGES 71 
 
 Your subcommittee holds that IN ORDER TO RE- 
 MOVE A MEMBER OF ASSEMBLY FROM OF- 
 FICE, UNDER THE CONSTITUTION, SOME 
 QUESTION INVOLVING THE ELECTION OR 
 RETURNS IS NECESSARY BEFORE THE AS- 
 SEMBLY HAS JURISDICTION IN THE PREM- 
 ISES; or, further, that the person so elected must 
 "be entirely disqualified under the constitution, or by 
 his conduct in the House must disqualify himself. 
 THESE REGULATIONS ARE SPECIFICALLY 
 SET FORTH IN THE CONSTITUTION ITSELF, 
 and there is no evidence before us that any of them 
 are lacking, as far as the respondent in this proceed- 
 ing is concerned. WE, THEREFORE, RESPECT- 
 FULLY RECOMMEND TO THE JUDICIARY 
 COMMITTEE THAT A REPORT BE MADE DIS- 
 MISSING THE COMPLAINT AND THE SAID 
 REPORT BE BY THE SAID COMMITTEE SUB- 
 MITTED TO THE ASSEMBLY FOR FURTHER 
 ACTION.' 
 
 "The report was made; you remember the points. 
 They pointed to the fact that no matter how morally 
 objectionable a member's conduct may be in the eyes 
 of his fellow members, so long as he possesses the 
 constitutional qualification, age, citizenship, residence; 
 so long as he has been duly properly elected, he must 
 be by constitutional mandate admitted to his seat, and 
 only if he misbehaves as a member on the floor of the 
 House can he be expelled. This is very much to the 
 point, is it not? unless there be a difference in the fact 
 that Mr. Decker was — I don't know which — a Republi- 
 can or a Democrat, but at any rate not a Socialist. But 
 the Constitution was then clearly understood, and this 
 report is signed by very good, authoritative names — 
 Louis N. Martin, Walker S. McNab, Harley G. Green, 
 Wallace F. Pierce, William H. O'Hara. That was
 
 72 ALBANY 
 
 done only two years ago, in this Assembly, on exactly 
 the question before you. You dismissed it by unani- 
 mous vote— 144 — ^not a single vote against. If there 
 be a more analogous case to the one at the bar, I 
 should like to see it. 
 
 "This, then, is the law. These are the precedents 
 and in the face of all that; in the face of the manda- 
 tory provision of the Constitution ; in the face of every 
 precedent known to the law; in the face of your own 
 unanimous action, and the precedents set by you, you 
 are asked at this late hour to come and to invent new 
 qualifications and make new tests for the admissibility 
 of members duly elected. You come before us with 
 charges that these men are members of a political 
 party that has been disloyal to this country, that repre- 
 sents principles inimical to the best interests of this 
 country. 
 
 "Do you gentlemen realize what issues you are rais- 
 ing? We are here as representatives of a party whose 
 platform in the last half a century has been radically 
 different from the platforms of other members of this 
 House. The Socialist party has always maintained 
 and maintains now that it alone represents the true in- 
 terests of the vast majority of the people of this coun- 
 try — ^the workers of hand and brain, the workers in 
 factory and on farm. It has been our contention right 
 along that the old parties who stand for the perpetua- 
 tion of the present economic system which enslaves 
 the many for the profits of the few are disloyal, are 
 acting inimically to the best interests of the vast body, 
 of the people of the United States. You come back 
 and you tell us you represent the? true interests ; you 
 represent true loyalty ; that our conception of what is 
 the actual interest of the people; that our conception 
 of loyalty constitutes treason. Who, pray, constituted 
 you the judges as to what policy, what economic in-
 
 SOCIALISTS CHALLENGE lUDGES 73 
 
 dustrial policy, advocated by a party constitutes or 
 does not constitute treason? 
 
 "It is history alone which will render its final ver- 
 dict upon you and upon us, and in the meanwhile we 
 have for over 120 years been united upon the proposi- 
 tion that it is not given to any man ; that it is not given 
 to any body of men, to decree in a free country, in a 
 democratic country, that those are eternal and immut- 
 able doctrines of policy, of politics, of social philoso- 
 phy, which alone we shall recognize. 
 
 "The very foimdation of our government is based 
 upon the assumption that the people as a whole — not 
 you gentlemen, not you 145 members of this body — 
 but the people of the whole State, the people of the 
 whole country, eventually are to determine what is for 
 their interests and what not for their interest; what 
 they will tolerate as loyal conduct and what they will 
 not tolerate; and that the people will express their 
 views, their desires, by proper constitutional methods ; 
 that they will meet in groups united by the same ideas, 
 by the same social concepts and will elect representa- 
 tives ; that they will allow other groups to do likewise 
 and that in the clash of conflicting opinions and views 
 and ideas and strivings, the vast body of the people, 
 the majority of the people, will find expression; that 
 what is considered treason to-day may become the law 
 of the land to-morrow; that just as the abolitionists in 
 the early days who were attacked by eminent respecta- 
 ble gentlemen in terms in comparison with which your 
 declarations are mere compliments, that they in the 
 long run had the support of the people of this country 
 and became the majority. 
 
 "What, I ask you, is left of representative govern- 
 ment, what is left of democratic institutions, if you 
 allow a majority in any parliamentary house elected 
 by the whole body of the people to pass judgment
 
 74 ALBANY 
 
 upon the views, upon the policies, of their fellow mem- 
 bers? 
 
 "Can't you see where that would lead you? If the So- 
 cialist members of the Assembly are to-day expelled 
 or excluded for the sole reason that their platform, 
 their party, are not to your taste, what warrant is 
 there that the same contention won't be made, per- 
 haps, next year, perhaps three years from now, against 
 the Democratic Party? It seems to you impossible. 
 It seems to you absurd. Why, this proceeding seemed 
 impossible and absurd to us only two weeks ago, and 
 it has happened. You set the precedent once. You 
 sweep away the constitutional limitations and guaran- 
 tees. You substitute the arbitrary opinions or ar- 
 bitrary views of the majority for your law, for your 
 constitution, for your popular will, and you have a 
 situation of chaos and civil war instead of a well regu- 
 lated democracy. 
 
 "It has happened in this state very often that either 
 house of the legislature was either Republican or Dem- 
 ocratic by a very narrow margin. Perhaps a few men 
 decided it. Look at the temptation to have the minor- 
 ity come together one particular day when the majority 
 happens to be absent, having dinner or playing poker, 
 and that minority, then finding itself the majority 
 for one single day, uses its power to exclude a sufficient 
 number of the majority party to perpetuate itself in 
 power. Why not? Qualifications? If there is abso- 
 lutely no rule for the qualifications required, you will 
 find ample qualifications or lack of qualifications in 
 your minds to justify such action. 
 
 "I am not pleading for the five Assemblymen, their 
 office, their jobs. They don't care for them to such an 
 extent. They are entitled to their offices. They want 
 to perform the duties for which large constituencies 
 have elected them. But, compared with the vital im-
 
 SOCIALISTS CHALLENGE JUDGES 75 
 
 portance of the case itself, their fate, their office, their 
 services are as nothing. 
 
 "I don't plead in behalf of the Socialist party. The 
 Socialist party is not on trial before you, no matter 
 how much you endeavor to make it a trial of the So- 
 cialist party. The Socialist party, the Socialist move- 
 ment, cannot be tried, cannot be found guilty, cannot 
 be outlawed, cannot be suppressed. There never yet 
 has been a power, a physical power, anywhere in the 
 world that was adequate to suppress the onward surge 
 of a great popular movement, or to stamp out or to 
 qualify social ideas and ideals. 
 
 "This proceeding may be delightful and novel to you. 
 It isn't new to us. It has been tried before. In the 
 balmy days of the Czar, before the Duma was in- 
 stituted, the policy of the Russian Government was to 
 outlaw and to destroy the Socialist movement. You 
 know who has been outlawed and destroyed in Russia 
 and who has been triumphant there. It is the Roman- 
 offs, it is the Czar, it is all the instruments of oppres- 
 sion that have been destroyed. It is the popular move- 
 ment of the Socialists that has triumphed. 
 
 "Bismarck attempted to outlaw Socialism. He 
 passed or had passed legislation to that effect. He 
 declared the party outlawed from the political com- 
 munity of Germciny. To-day the Kaiser who repre- 
 sented the powers behind Bismarck is what you would 
 not want to be; and as far as Germany is concerned, 
 the only question there is which of the two dominant 
 Socialist parties shall remain in control. 
 
 "We are not afraid of suppression. At a time when 
 one-half of the world is under Socialist control; at a 
 time when the Socialist movement has matured prob- 
 ably the only social organization possible under pres- 
 ent conditions throughout the greater part of Europe, 
 it is ciltogether too late for any body of men on this
 
 76 ALBANY 
 
 side of the ocean to determine to do their little stunt 
 to kill Socialism in this country. You can no more 
 kill the Socialist movement in the United States than 
 you can kill social progress, the development of in- 
 dustry, the development and growth of civilization 
 generally. 
 
 "As a party we are not afraid of your actions, but 
 as citizens, as members of a democratic community, 
 we have our word of solemn warning to address to 
 you. We say to you, we are living in an unusual time. 
 Five years of war, of suffering, of destruction, have 
 unmade the world, have ripped up all social institu- 
 tions, all organizations, have created a new condition, 
 a condition which is largely in the making. Our gener- 
 ation has to meet the greatest problem that has ever 
 confronted the world. Out of the ruins of the old 
 world, out of the chaos created by the last few years, 
 it devolves upon us, upon the men and women of our 
 generation, to build up a new, livable world. 
 
 "We Socialists are ready to contribute our share. 
 We claim to be — we always have been^ — the most 
 potent factor making for orderly, quiet, peaceful so- 
 cial changes. We do not attempt to usher in a new 
 system by violence. We know it is just as foolish to 
 bring in radical reforms by violence as it is folly to 
 try to stem reform by violence. 
 
 "And we say to you that the contemplated action 
 of this Assembly, if consummated, will be the first 
 tragic act of violence instead of law — ^violence per- 
 petrated by the very men claiming to uphold law. 
 It will loosen the sluice gates of violent revolution 
 which we Socialists have always endeavored and are 
 endeavoring to stem. We say to you, you have no 
 warrant in law, no warrant in the constitution, no 
 precedent, no warrant in the spirit of the institutions 
 of this country, to proceed to expel these five men
 
 SOCIALISTS CHALLENGE JUDGES 77 
 
 elected by the people and having the same right on 
 the floor as you. As your fellow citizens, we say, take 
 care as to what you are doing." 
 
 To this eloquent argument, Mr. Littleton for the 
 prosecution, replied in a long oration. He assured the 
 Assembly and the Judiciary Committee that they were 
 altogether in the right, even if that happened to be an 
 arbitrary right. Said he : 
 
 "The charge is made here that these Assemblymen 
 were pledged to their organization, by their constitu- 
 tion, to obedience to the dues-paying members of their 
 organizations, who were or might be aliens or minors ; 
 to do in this Assembly Chamber, when they got here, 
 not what the constitutional oath laid upon their con- 
 sciences and commanded them to do ; but to do as they 
 were bid to do and commanded to do by the very 
 agencies with whom they entered into a secret agree- 
 ment ; to give their loyalty to, not to the State of New 
 York nor the Constitution of the country. 
 
 "The charge is made that these Assemblymen, in- 
 stead of taking the oath of office as prescribed in the 
 Constitution of the State, and as it was commanded by 
 the Constitution of the United States, that it should 
 be prescribed in the Constitution of these States — I 
 say instead of taking that oath, with the obligation to 
 serve the State and to support the Constitution of 
 the State and of the nation, the charge is made here 
 that while they took that oath with their lips, they take 
 their obligation, with their fortunes and their sacred 
 honor, to the secret agencies whom they came here to 
 serve; and that when they took that oath, they in- 
 tended not the service of the State, they intended not 
 the support of the Constitution of the State or of the 
 United States ; but they took the oath here with their 
 lips, and back behind with the agencies who sent 
 them here, that they would do what those agencies de-
 
 78 ALBANY 
 
 manded ; and that they took that obligation, as we shall 
 show, in writing, to their masters behind." 
 
 In answer to the assertion that the Assembly had 
 no power to enforce the suspension of the Socialists* 
 Mr. Littleton declared: 
 
 "I repeat that if the person who comes to take his 
 oath here has given a pledge before he came here that 
 he with others not disclosed; he with others not re- 
 vealed; he v/ith others not within sight or sound of 
 the public agencies of the State, would engage in a 
 program of violence against the country, against the 
 Constitution of his State and against the Constitution 
 of his nation ; if he stands pledged to that sort of pro- 
 gram and comes to take the oath of office, his pledge 
 so taken prior to the coming here, his agreement not 
 to keep his oath of ofiice, his agreement to destroy the 
 country whose Constitution he has taken oath to sup- 
 port, his agreement to attack the country which he pre- 
 tends to represent, his agreement to destroy the Gov- 
 ernment which he pledges himself to maintain, his 
 agreement to maintain law and order when secretly 
 plotting with other men to project disorder, his agree- 
 ment to do all that is the most colossal offense against 
 his future service in that body and empov/ers that 
 body to rid itself of that contagion, if contagion it be." 
 
 Mr. Littleton attained his climax in the following 
 words : 
 
 "When a man whom his fellow citizens have hon- 
 ored with their confidence, on the pledge of a spotless 
 reputation, has degraded himself by the commission of 
 infamous crimes which become suddenly and unex- 
 pectedly revealed to the v/orld, defective indeed would 
 be that institution which should be impotent to discard 
 from its bosom the contagion of such a member, which 
 should have no remedy of amputation to apply until 
 the poison had reached the heart."
 
 SOCIALISTS CHALLENGE JUDGES 79 
 
 Mr. Hillquit then accused Mr. Littleton of confusing 
 "four different propositions, arguing them all to- 
 gether." He insisted that the committee had no power 
 under the constitution to try the five men on the 
 charges presented. 
 
 Mr. Stanchfield, resenting the bringing in of the 
 Constitution into the discussion, ended by saying: 
 
 "Mr. Hillquit, Mr. Stedman, Mr. Roe, Mr. Block, 
 and these five men who are under investigation are 
 here as a matter of courtesy — let us have no misunder- 
 standing about that — purely a matter of courtesy and 
 not of right ; and they are here because we wish them 
 to be convinced as the result of this investigation that 
 there are facts, and that there is evidence, that war- 
 rants the action of the Assembly of the State of New 
 York. YOU COULD PROCEED ARBITRARILY." 
 
 Mr. Hillquit, addressing himself to the Committee, 
 denied that the fact that the Assem.bly had the power 
 to do it gave it the right to do it. He said : 
 
 "As well might Mr. Stanchfield say that if ten good 
 husky individuals took hold of one weak chap and 
 kicked him downstairs for no reason in the world, 
 there is no recourse against them because they iiave 
 the power to do so : there is no question about power. 
 The question is this : This Assembly and every other 
 legislative body always have exercised their power in 
 accordance with the Constitution and the law of the 
 State. Otherwise, we wouldn't be here. We are here 
 upon the assumption that you proposed in your actions 
 to be guided by all the provisions of the Constitution 
 and the statute law applicable to the case. There has 
 not been a single case in this Assembly which has 
 been disposed of merely on the statement : 'We are the 
 judges; we are supreme; this is our will, and that is 
 the end of it.' "
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 THE INVISIBLE EMPIRE 
 
 Gilbert Roe, counsel for the defense, opened the 
 second day of the trial with a motion to dismiss the 
 proceedings until such time as the five Assemblymen 
 should have been returned to their seats v/ith full 
 rights restored. He contended that the Assembly had 
 no right to proceed with any business until the House 
 was properly constituted and that it was not properly 
 constituted as long as the five Socialist Assemblymen 
 were unlawfully kept away from their seats. 
 
 To the various interruptions by the Chairman and 
 the members of the Committee, during his argument in 
 support of his motion, Mr. Roe said: 
 
 "I seem to have been the only man v/ho has been 
 questioned in the course of the argument, and per- 
 haps I ought to say, if my language is at all intem- 
 perate, I do not mean it. I certainly do not want it 
 charged up to the Socialist party, because it just hap- 
 pens that I am not a Socialist; I am just an old-fash- 
 ioned Republican who believes in the Constitution and 
 the Declaration of Independence." 
 
 This sally was greeted by another outburst of laugh- 
 ter from the House. 
 
 The next motion was presented by Mr. Stedman of 
 the defense, who argued that the proceedings should 
 be dismissed on the ground of the insufficiency of the 
 charges. He opened by saying, "I cannot pretend 
 in what I may have to say to meet the exquisite and 
 anarchistic doctrine that you have the privilege of ex- 
 
 80
 
 THE INVISIBLE EMPIRE 8i 
 
 eluding undesirable members with or without reason." 
 
 He divided the charges against the Socialists into 
 seven. The first charge he declared was the resolu- 
 tion of the Socialist Party expressing solidarity with 
 Soviet Russia. He pointed out that the charge failed 
 to define what kind of Soviet Russia was meant — the 
 Soviet Russia that actually existed, or the Soviet Rus- 
 sia as defined by a hostile press. He added: 
 
 "Never before have we regarded a person's opinion 
 as to the economic or political fabric, or the social in- 
 stitutions which apply to another country, as a condi- 
 tion of membership in a legislative body. We exclude 
 a man because he believes that the people of Russia 
 have a right to develop their own economic and politi- 
 cal life in their own way. To-day you lead out with 
 that ; that is the attack made against these Assembly- 
 men — you might have gone further with equal truth 
 and said that in the same convention by which a reso- 
 lution was passed extending sympathy to Russia, 
 heartfelt approval was also extended to those in Ire- 
 land who believe in self-determination and liberty. And 
 you could have followed it up with the same applicabil- 
 ity to Egypt; you could have followed it up with the 
 same applicability to India; in other words, the doc- 
 trine of self-determination meant to the Socialists the 
 language which it purports to carry; and believing in 
 that, would it become a crime to stand for Irish inde- 
 pendence, for India's, for Egypt's, as we stood for that 
 of Russia? 
 
 "But the offense here is that these men have views 
 on a foreign political system ; no intimation, no declar- 
 ation of fact that they propose, or even dream, that a 
 system which naturally develops from Russia's ma- 
 terial conditions is adaptable to a highly complex in- 
 dustrial system such as that of the United States. 
 
 "And how do these gentlemen who assume that
 
 82 ALBANY 
 
 Russia to-day stands for wild and disorderly anarchy 
 know that that is correct? People suffering for a half, 
 or more than a half, thousand years, in ignorance and 
 oppression, are engaged in a great war, where they 
 lose more than all the other armies engaged in the con- 
 flict — by corruption, disorganization, dishonesty. The 
 army comes back on them — a great mob — they dis- 
 solve an army of 12,000,000. They re-equip, in the face 
 of that, an army of 2,000,000. They fight on seventeen 
 different points at a time, and on four great fronts. 
 They fight against an organized, equipped army. They 
 develop an educational system. They start the build- 
 ing of six railroads in the midst of it all, with four 
 armies attacking them from the east and west and 
 south. Is that the Russia you are objecting to?" 
 
 He then called the attention of the Committee to the 
 fact that in other countries Socialist parties had taken 
 a similar attitude towards the Soviet Government, 
 and that these parties had large representations in 
 Parliament and were not excluded or molested on that 
 account. 
 
 Mr. Stedman summarized charge No. i against the 
 Socialists in the following language: 
 
 "As to your first count, you are charging what? 
 First, that the system in Russia is so reprehensible 
 that if a convention approves of it and a man is a 
 member of a party through whose convention such 
 declaration is made that he becomes thereby, by reason 
 of that, disqualified to sit in your midst. There is no 
 other way around the first paragraph, except the very 
 fanciful way of saying you have power, and right or 
 wrong, you will do it anyway. But before I leave that 
 phase, I wonder what the gentlemen of the Committee 
 would say if the doctrine and the theory that, wrong 
 or right, we have the power anyhow, were uttered by 
 the soapboxer on the street, instead of the distin-
 
 THE INVISIBLE EMPIRE 83 
 
 guished lawyer, who should recognize that there is 
 imposed upon all bodies some measure of regulation 
 and duty?" 
 
 When the Chairman interrupted, contending that a 
 discussion of Russia was out of place, Mr. Stedman 
 declared that sympathy with Russia constituted the 
 chief charge against the five men. To this the Chair- 
 man answered: 
 
 "This is hardly an indictment ; this is an allegation. 
 Strict criminal law cannot apply here. WE ARE NOT 
 CLAIMING THESE PEOPLE ARE CRIMINALS." 
 
 Recognizing the value of this point, Mr. Hillquit 
 exclaimed, "Does the Chairman desire to have that 
 of record that there is no claim on the part of the 
 accusers that these five men who have been denied 
 seats in the Assembly are not criminals?" 
 
 The whole house leaned forward to catch the Chair- 
 man's reply. It came hesitatingly, but finally he said : 
 
 "The Chair would like to have it appear on record 
 that he does not so understand it." After a full half 
 minute's hesitation, he added briefly, "Of course, the 
 Chair may be very much in error." 
 
 This admission on the part of the Chairman created 
 consternation in the camp of the prosecution. It was 
 in direct opposition to the accusation that the five So- 
 cialist Assemblym.en were "plotters and conspirators." 
 
 Mr. Hillquit, following up the point, said quickly, 
 "If they are not charged with crime, if they are not 
 charged with anything else, what are we here for?" 
 
 Mr. Littleton felt it necessary to rush into the 
 breach. Said he: 
 
 "Mr. Chairman, does the gentleman think that 
 everybody who falls short of the criminal statute is 
 eligible for election to a legislative body?" 
 
 Mr. Hillquit promptly replied, "Some who do not 
 fall short are sitting in it."
 
 84 ALBANY 
 
 Mr. Littleton drew himself up. "Is that a charge 
 against this legislative Assembly?" he asked. 
 
 Mr. Hillquit, smiling, replied, "No, against legisla- 
 tive bodies generally. 
 
 Mr. Littleton demanded to know what legislative 
 bodies were referred to, but the Chairman interfered, 
 saying, "Gentlemen, we cannot have this. Discussion 
 as to the ignorsince of the Chair, of course, is always 
 pertinent." 
 
 After this exchange of repartee Mr. Stedman re- 
 sumed his argument. He finally pleaded guilty to the 
 first charge against the Socialists — that of sympathy 
 with Russia — saying, "Suppose we say to you we make 
 no contest on your first charge; we have no evidence 
 to offer; you need offer none. We plead guilty to 
 it." 
 
 Mr. Stedman then attacked the second charge in 
 the indictment, which related to a clause in the So- 
 cialist party's constitution which reads: 
 
 "In all my political actions while a member of the 
 Socialist Party, I agree to be guided by the Constitu- 
 tion and platform of that party." 
 
 "That is actually charged as an offense against 
 them," remarked Mr. Stedman. "Now, in the first 
 place, this government is one of political parties. It 
 must be so from its very nature. You cannot con- 
 ceive of a system of governmental representation that 
 is not a government of parties. 
 
 "You have .issues where groups become antagonis- 
 tic — free traders, protectionists, prohibitionists and 
 wets, and you form in groups and parties, and men 
 who come into legislative halls with a purpose, come 
 in as a group and act as a group; and they represent 
 a party in the interest of that party, and insofar as they 
 say we represent all the people in the district, they
 
 WHEN THE BOSSES RULE 
 
 Courtesy of New York World 
 
 NO ADMITTANCE! 
 
 85
 
 86 ALBANY 
 
 mean that in their minds the interests of those they 
 represent must of necessity be the interests of all in the 
 district." 
 
 He then read from the election law of the State, 
 showing that the law recognizes political parties and 
 provides for their existence. 
 
 "We submit," said Mr. Stedman, "that we have a 
 right to form an organization and to have one that 
 functions ; and when men come into this chamber, they 
 will not regard entrance here as a justification for re- 
 fusing to act any longer as real representatives and 
 servants of those who have sent them here." 
 
 In discussing the fourth charge against the Social- 
 ists, relating to the provision in the Socialist Party's 
 constitution calling for "Suspension or expulsion of 
 members for refusing to carry out the instructions 
 from dues-paying organizations," Mr. Stedman de- 
 clared this v/as no cause for expulsion. 
 
 Said he, "I would call your attention to the right 
 that any man has to disassociate himself from per- 
 sons not in accordance with his theory," 
 
 As to the charge that "Socialist Party instructions 
 might be given by an Executive Committee, both 
 wholly or in part, composed of alien enemies," Mr. 
 Stedman called attention to the fact that no claim had 
 been made that foreign born persons or alien enemies 
 had ever dominated even the most local Socialist Com- 
 mittee. He called this charge merely hypothetical. He 
 said this hypothetical crime was charged to "citizens 
 who think as much of this country as those who wrap 
 themselves in a cloak of self-righteousness." 
 
 The next charge taken up dealt with the war reso- 
 lution adopted at the Socialist Party convention in 
 St. Louis. After explaining the circumstances under 
 which it was constituted, he said: 
 
 "The misunderstanding about the position of the
 
 THE INVISIBLE EMPIRE 87 
 
 party in disapproving war comes from the fact that 
 most people have been unfamiliar with the Socialist 
 theory in reference to its attitude on war. We are 
 charged with the offense of opposing the war. It must 
 be patent to you in the first instance that every man 
 in this country had a right to oppose the war before 
 we entered, and countless thousands did. It must be 
 equally apparent that when you are in a war, some one 
 some time must suggest its discontinuation; and to 
 suggest its discontinuation presupposes an opposition 
 to that war. Our traditions are fairly well fixed, we 
 think, but sometimes the habits of a nation prove as 
 unstable and weak as the habits of individuals. Our 
 country by tradition was opposed to conscription, ex- 
 cept as states filled their quotas. We had a long record 
 of men in Congress, of men in public and private life, 
 who opposed war. Lincoln opposed it and voted 
 against appropriations, and so did Clay ; you know the 
 record full well. Our party not only opposed it on the 
 grounds which heretofore had been regarded as legiti- 
 mate humanitarian grounds, but we offered an expla- 
 nation as to its reasons. We rejected the headline 
 solution of a "kings' war." We believed it to be the 
 logical development of our econo(mic system. 
 
 "It was not something new, and you know it. The 
 party had made its declaration against war. It had 
 opposed appropriations for arms. It knew that arma- 
 ment meant war, and that war meant destruction, 
 disease, insanity. It denounced the war as criminal. 
 You need do nothing more than to glance at the world 
 to-day to realize that criminality and infamy do not 
 sufficiently describe the destruction of humanity by so- 
 called civilized men. If there is any voice on the soap- 
 box, the stump, or out in the wilderness, that can 
 breathe a breath of real life into the world, then we 
 need to hear it now, here, and in every other country.
 
 88 ALBANY 
 
 "The party pointed out that this was not a war to 
 make the world safe for democracy — not that we chal- 
 lenged that belief and ideal in the hearts of countless 
 thousands of men who went to the front, but that we 
 understood the forces engaged were not purely ethical. 
 We knew the economic conflicts which ran all the 
 way from London to Bagdad and which played for 
 possessions of raw materials. We knew that system 
 would bring what it did bring. 
 
 "When the war was proceeding, the party, as you 
 may recall, attempted to hold its conference in Stock- 
 holm and in other countries in order that men repre- 
 senting the working classes of the world might meet 
 and stop the frightful slaughter; but they were not 
 permitted so to assemble. We went into the war ; but 
 democracy has not come. Self-determination has not 
 come into the world. 
 
 "We do not complain that there has not been a 
 realization of promises, no matter how sacred that 
 may have been made before humanity; but we insist 
 that this party had a right to its opinion as to why we 
 went into that war. If it was false and misleading, you 
 at least had an excuse for the suppression of our press 
 and for suppressing information during the war — 
 namely, that Success necessary to American arms. 
 But that gives you no right to-day, when the central 
 powers are beaten, to do what you are doing. We 
 should be given the opportunity thoroughly to state 
 why we have these views and why we have those 
 theories. 
 
 "You charge us with holding an opinion. Why, the 
 Democratic party had an opinion during the War of 
 the Rebellion. If I mistake not, it was Abraham Lin- 
 coln who suggested a return to slavery, if the seven 
 States would come in, and that the slaves might be 
 purchased back in 37 years.
 
 THE INVISIBLE EMPIRE 89 
 
 "When General McClellan was the Democratic can- 
 didate for the presidency, he claimed that justice, hu- 
 manity, and the public welfare demanded that im- 
 mediate efforts be made for a cessation of hostilities 
 with a view to an ultimate convention of the States. 
 He favored any peaceable means to the end that at 
 the earliest practical moment peace might be restored 
 on the basis of the Federal Union of the States. He 
 held also that the direct interference of the military 
 authorities of the United States in the elections held 
 in Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri and Delaware, was a 
 shameful violation of the Constitution, and that the 
 repetition of such acts in the approaching election 
 should be held as revolutionary and resisted with all 
 tneans and power. No one thought of imprisoning the 
 Democrats who stood on that platform at that time. 
 It was regarded as a legitimate expression of their con- 
 victions." 
 
 Mr. Stedman then referred to the prosecution's criti- 
 cism of the Socialist stand on patriotism. 
 
 "Patriotism," he said, "is a very much misunder- 
 stood term; I judge so by the methods used by the 
 profiteers when they wrap themselves in the Ameri- 
 can flag. We marvel at that idea of patriotism. Is not 
 the ideal of those who would think of their country as 
 a country of art, of literature, of social and material 
 progress, who want it to be the most brilliant star in 
 the galaxy of nations, to be imitated? who wish at the 
 same time to be a part of a great fraternal and civilized 
 world participating and acting with all other coun- 
 tries? Isn't that real patriotism? Patriotism is not 
 the love of a machine; it is the love of the position 
 in the universe which you hope your country to 
 take as a great leader of human thought and 
 achievement. It does not consist in witch-hunting, 
 neither does it consist of fear of that which will
 
 90 ALBANY 
 
 disturb the settled convictions of vested interests." 
 
 As regards freedom of opinion, Mr. Stedman de- 
 clared : 
 
 "When a country loses confidence in its people 
 rationally to come together and discuss problems and 
 abide by a majority — that country is already giving 
 evidence of faithlessness in its own institutions. 
 
 "We Socialists pursue a political program. We be- 
 lieve in the majority dictating the course of society. 
 We repudiate the theory that a social agency must act 
 through physical effort and discord. We have clear- 
 cut notions and theories as to how to bring things 
 about ; but Mr. Hillquit was not making a threat when 
 he said, 'When you challenge representative govern- 
 ment, you welcome an autocracy; and when you do 
 that, the end is clear!' He made that not as a chal- 
 lenge, but as a prediction. You will have either an 
 autocracy or a representative democracy. Our form of 
 government is that of a representative democracy, and 
 when the opposition speaks of disloyalty, let me say 
 that disloyalty is not disaffection or want of affection." 
 
 Mr. Stedman then came to the final charge against 
 the Socialists, which he declared to be the only one 
 that he considered had "any merits." . Said he : 
 
 "You say : 'The SociaUst Party of America did urge 
 its members to refrain from taking part in any way, 
 shape or manner in the war, and did affirmatively 
 urge them to refuse to engage even in the production 
 of munitions of war and other necessaries used in the 
 prosecution of the said war, and did thereby stamp the 
 said party and all of its members with an inimical at- 
 titude to the best interests of the United States and 
 the State of New York.' That is a fairly definite state- 
 ment of what the framers of this paper may have con- 
 sidered to be the truth. That is an issue we are quite
 
 THE INVISIBLE EMPIRE 91 
 
 willing to meet, and I think it will be an issue that 
 they will regret they ever raised." 
 
 He ;oncluded with the following assertion : 
 
 "The other clauses of your accusation deal with opin- 
 ions, deal with regulations, deal with theoretical opin- 
 ions of the party. These men should not be placed on 
 trial, because, admitting all these charges to be true, 
 they are not inconsistent with the requisite qualifica- 
 tions of a man elected to a representative body in this 
 country where liberty exists and where the soul of 
 America still throbs." 
 
 The eloquent words of Mr. Stedman had hardly died 
 away when Mr. Littleton arose and startled the pros- 
 ecution itself with a new discovery, to the effect that 
 the Socialist members were guilty of being citizens 
 of "an alien and invisible empire," a discovery which 
 plagued the prosecution for the remainder of the pro- 
 ceedings. 
 
 Said Mr. Littleton: 
 
 "The representation with reference to what these 
 five men did, and what they profess, and what they en- 
 gaged to do, stands out as plainly as anything can 
 stand out, that they gave their allegiance wholly and 
 solely to an alien and invisible empire known as the 
 Internationale. 
 
 "It stands out that they are citizens not in reality 
 of the country which sustains and maintains them, but 
 they are citizens of this invisible empire which projects 
 itself as a revolutionary force into every country, men- 
 acing its institutions and threatening its overthrow. 
 Their allegiance, before they ever enter upon the 
 threshold of this chamber, was given to this empire, 
 which masquerades at one time with the softness of 
 parliamentary reform and which at other times declares 
 itself in favor of revolution with force, according to 
 the place and time.
 
 92 ALBANY 
 
 "It is to that alien state, people of alien races- 
 pledged to the destruction of this government and its 
 institutions — that the charges say that these men be- 
 long to and act with. It is not a geographical state, 
 Mr. Chairman. It cannot be bounded by the ocean or 
 the seas. It cannot be bounded by territories. It can* 
 not be bounded by the landmarks of history; but it 
 is an invisible empire, using at one time the pretense 
 of persuasion, and at another time the threat of force 
 or violence, according as the law of the country per- 
 mits it to do so, or as it may escape the vigilance of 
 the laws. It does it in churches; it does it in public 
 forums ; yet unblushingly does it in legislative assem- 
 blies; and wherever the challenge is made, it escapes 
 by declaring that it means the force of the ballot. Hav- 
 ing used the violent words that mean revolution, they 
 declare the revolution is to be merely a revolution 
 brought about by persuasion. 
 
 "That is the state to which, before the five members 
 had ever entered into this chamber, they had pledged 
 their fortune and honor and allegiance ; and that alien 
 state is the invisible empire of revolutionary force, 
 thrusting itself into the bosom of this constitutional 
 republic and daring to overthrow this government, em- 
 bodied, as it is, in the organic Constitution of the 
 country; doing it by force if necessary; perhaps by 
 peace, if possible. 
 
 "That is the program that is charged, Mr. Chairman. 
 It is the Bolshevik program, a wild speculation. And 
 4t is done, as has been suggested, to determine, in 
 parliamentary bodies and public utterances, the forces 
 that lie behind, to which they do not hesitate to pledge 
 their solidarity. Said Mr. Stedman, 'May we not ex- 
 press our sympathy with Russia? May we not pass a 
 resolution in sympathy with the downtrodden of Rus- 
 sia?' That is not what the charge means, and that is
 
 THE INVISIBLE EMPIRE 93 
 
 not what the charge says. Nobody is more gifted to 
 see or more experienced to understand the meaning of 
 that charge than Mr. Stedman." 
 
 Defining his conception of constitutional liberty, 
 Mr. Littleton eloquently declared "that ours is con- 
 stitutional liberty." He went on to charge that the 
 five Assemblymen were direct agents of Lenine and 
 Trotsky, saying: 
 
 "It is because Lenine and Trotsky, acting through 
 these agencies, are proposing the installation of the 
 same kind of government in constitutional America 
 that they have inaugurated in Russia; and these are 
 the agents and the instructors, according to the charge, 
 to carry out the program— some to do it in their par- 
 liamentary bodies, others to do it in debates in halls, 
 others to do it by writing books, others to do it by 
 proclamation and manifesto, and still others to do it 
 when the time shall come to strike, by force, as has 
 been promised by the leaders of that particular party. 
 It is quite a different thing from expressing your sym- 
 pathy in a convention for downtrodden Russia. It is 
 a little different program, Mr. Chairman, and the evi- 
 dence in this case v/ill disclose that these members, in 
 conjunction with their party, have tied themselves ir- 
 revocably to the program, and they use the word 
 "program" of Mr. Lenine and Mr. Trotsky, and what 
 they have inaugurated in Europe. Let us be patient 
 and see what Mr. Lenine and Mr. Trotsky stand for 
 as a method of governing in Russia and in every other 
 country, including this, and see what these gentlemen 
 are endeavoring to further as a part of the program 
 of Mr. Lenine and Mr. Trotsky. 
 
 "So that charge involves, I should say, a grave ques- 
 tion as to v/hether these men pledged to an alien pol- 
 icy and to do it masquerading as a political party, can 
 be put upon trial or upon a hearing or investigation
 
 94 ALBANY 
 
 in a legislative Assembly, and see whether they shall 
 be members of that Assembly and can take the oath of 
 office. 
 
 "Mr. Chairman, this is the proper place, and surely 
 this is the suitable environment, to remind you and 
 your associates and the other members of this body 
 present, that ours is a government of constitutional lib- 
 erty ; ours is a definitive creed established by a defini- 
 tive instrument; ours is not an Italian liberty; our is 
 not a French liberty ; ours is not a Slavish liberty ; ours 
 is not an Asiatic liberty; ours is a constitutional lib- 
 erty, devised by the finest instruments ever devised 
 by the wit and ingenuity and wisdom of men. 
 
 "Ours is a government, a constitutional republic, in 
 the center of whose crown is the jewel of the Con- 
 stitution. 
 
 "Before that constitution was adopted, when the 
 revolutionary fathers gathered at the table to write the 
 greatest proclamation of the rights of man, they said, 
 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men 
 are created equal, and endowed by their Creator with 
 certain inalienable rights, among which are life, lib- 
 erty, and the pursuit of happiness ; that to secure these 
 rights, governments are instituted among men, de- 
 riving their just powers from the consent of the gov- 
 erned.' " 
 
 Mr. Littleton, for some strange reason, did not finish 
 the sentence quoted from the Declaration of Independ- 
 ence. The balance of the sentence which Mr. Little- 
 ton failed to read refers to the right of citizens to "alter 
 or abolish" any form of government which becomes 
 destructive of life, liberty, or the pursuit of happiness. 
 The prosecution never explained the reason for this 
 omission. 
 
 After reciting what he deemed to be the ideals of 
 the United States, Mr. Littleton went on:
 
 THE INVISIBLE EMPIRE 95 
 
 "Those ideals are the embodiment of the Constitu- 
 tion which these men ought to have been able to take 
 their oath and support. No alien, no invisible em- 
 pire, having one corner of it resting in the heart of 
 Soviet Russia, another corner of it resting on the shoul- 
 ders of the Spartacides in Germany, and another rest- 
 ing somewhere else, to which you swore allegiance, 
 but to this country and to this standard, and to no 
 other country or standard. That is the ideal for which 
 we take the oath and undertake to support. 
 
 "Now with that situation, here is an Assembly or- 
 ganized under the ideals of that country and under its 
 constitution ; and the question here is, Mr. Chairman, 
 can that Assembly inquire into whether or not five 
 of its members are disloyal to the country, have fore- 
 sworn themselves and given their allegiance to an alien 
 and invisible empire and placed themselves in the 
 hands of a master who can withdraw them from this 
 Assembly when he chooses? Can such a deliberate 
 body as this make that inquiry, and finding the fact 
 out, can it expel that agency from this body before the 
 poison has contaminated the system? 
 
 "And yet the challenge is made and the excuse is 
 made that the declaration in April, 191 7, against this 
 country and calling the war criminal, the motive 
 profiteering, and calling it a war which was conducted 
 for the benefit of the capitalist, and calling on every- 
 body to resist every agency of the war by every pos- 
 sible means, when my son and yours were at the front ; 
 secretly acting and giving aid and comfort to the 
 enemy when we were battling for the ideals of oui^ 
 fathers, and pledging themselves to thwart the agents 
 of the Republic for the preservation of liberty ; in dark 
 places and secret ways, and writing it down unblush- 
 ingly in their creed, that they dare get in front of the 
 ideals of a real Republic and then claim the right to
 
 96 ALBANY 
 
 sit unblushingly in the councils of that country and 
 dictate its laws ! 
 
 "Mr. Hillquit said yesterday, 'What may be treason 
 to-day may be the law of the land to-morrow.* It 
 will be the law of to-morrow if you let traitors write 
 the law." 
 
 Here the Speaker got a salvo of applause. Sum- 
 marizing his long and eloquent address, Mr. Littleton 
 concluded by saying : 
 
 "What is the charge here? That these men belong- 
 ing to the invisible empire of the Internationale, whose 
 agents may be violent or peaceable, according as the 
 law allows, and according as they may escape, are here 
 acting as agents of Lenine and Trotsky, not to estab- 
 lish a Soviet republic under the rotten ruins of an in- 
 famous autocracy, but to establish a Soviet republic 
 on the ruins of a constitution on which every man is 
 pledged by every ounce of his blood and by that sol- 
 emn vow which he registered in Heaven when he 
 entered on the duties of his office. That is v/hat the 
 charge is, Mr. Chairman. Does it seem innocuous and 
 harmless when thus considered, Mr. Chairman? Is it 
 the soft whisperings of this and seductive cind dis- 
 paraging propaganda of peace which comes and talks 
 about the white philosophy of reform, and which has 
 behind it the red purposes of revolution? Is that the 
 kind of thing we are accustomed to? 
 
 "Before this investigation is over, and before the 
 waves which have been stirred — the waves of public 
 opinion — have finally subsided — I make no threat, 
 but I make a prediction that this country v/ill under- 
 stand that this so-called political party, masquerading 
 as a political party, and under the guise and name of 
 a political party, is the agent and the co-conspiration 
 with the dark forces of this invisible empire whose ob-
 
 THE INVISIBLE EMPIRE 97 
 
 ject is forcible destruction of constitutional govern- 
 ment in America. 
 
 "This case will reach further as time goes on, and 
 when we come to understand that everything that em- 
 barrasses our ideals of liberty and which we expect 
 our children to take from us unimpaired; everything 
 which came to us as the product of these illustrious 
 men to whose labor and genius we owe everything 
 we have ; when we understand that this is the object 
 of the deliberate assault of these men waged in words 
 of peace, when compelled to, but used as violence and 
 force when they dare to, and that is the overthrow of 
 constitutional liberty in America — I say, that question, 
 before it is over, will arouse this country. It will not 
 be a tempest in the teapot, Mr. Chairman. It will be 
 a question as to whether they can hypocritically mas- 
 querade as a political party and strike hands with 
 every agency of force and revolution, and still make 
 simple American people understand that they are not 
 sworn enemies of their country and ready to overthrow 
 it. That question will yet be understood and must be 
 understood. 
 
 "I say, therefore, Mr. Chairman, the charges are not 
 innocuous, that the charges are not inadequate. I sub- 
 mit that these charges lay upon your conscience and 
 upon your judgment the discharge of a duty to your 
 country greater than any other duty to which you 
 have been sworn." 
 
 Mr. Littleton finally ended his flight of passionate 
 ora,tory by saying: 
 
 "Now then, they come as the apostles of another 
 despotism. No longer is it the despotism of the crown 
 and the court with its richness and glory. No longer 
 is it the paranoia of kings and the emptiness of their 
 allies and their war parties. The despotism that comes 
 now, that is riding astride the invisible empire of
 
 98 ALBANY 
 
 forces on which these gentlemen expect to ride into 
 public service in this country, that is no longer a court 
 or a crown, or a Potsdam or San Souci, or hereditary 
 monarchy or a king strutting proudly in the thought 
 that he had some inherited right to rule; it is a new 
 despotism, Mr. Chairman, it is a new force; it is the 
 despotism which will show as the despotism of oli- 
 garchy or the mob instead of the despotism of the 
 kings. It was against the despotism of a king that our 
 constitutional liberties were established. 
 
 "Our father said: *A plague on your house, 
 whether the power shall rise from below by those who 
 attempt o enslave the minority or the majority of the 
 country by compacted force, or whether it shall be 
 claimed to have come from above.' 
 
 "That intolerable condition of hereditary kings, 
 wherever it came from, was guaranteed against by 
 our fathers ; it is the blessing of our institutions ; it is 
 the finest attribute of government of any nation since 
 the world began, that we are guaranteed against that 
 invasion of force and the destruction of our liberties 
 by the Constitution of the country. 
 
 "And these very men pretend that they took the 
 oath upon their lips to support that Constitution, when 
 we will show that by everything they have said, and 
 they have said some things ; by everything they have 
 pledged, and they have pledged some things ; by every- 
 thing they have acted, and they have acted some 
 things ; and by everything they have done, they are in 
 league with the forces of dishonor and violence, which 
 are pledged to the destruction of that countr}^ which 
 you and I and every loyal American reveres. 
 
 "Now, Mr. Chairman, I say that the charges are 
 complete and sufficient to answer every purpose for a 
 lefriblative body to find out v hether these men are en- 
 titled to sit in it. I say that the charge is brought
 
 THE INVISIBLE EMPIRE 99 
 
 under the amplest provisions of the law and within 
 justifiable and extensive precedents. I say the whole 
 matter is a question as to whether we come to grips 
 now, and whether what we say is true or not, and let 
 everybody answe: freely and to the end that justice 
 may be done." 
 
 Mr. Littleton's address was greeted with loud ap- 
 plause from the audience, many members of which ap- 
 parently agreed with his sentiments. 
 
 Directly after Mr. Littleton concluded, Mr. Hill- 
 quit, of the defense, was on his feet. He showed 
 signG of deep resentment. With the House preserving 
 a tense silence, Mr. Hillquit's voice rang out to all 
 corners of the Chamber. 
 
 "Mr. Chairman," he said, "before my associate, Mr. 
 Stedman, takes up the reply to the arguments made by 
 Mr. Littleton, I desire to make a very brief statement 
 in the nature of a personal statement bearing on a 
 reference made by Mr. Littleton to something I said 
 yesterday. I think it is important to have it recti- 
 fied. Mr. Littleton quoted me as having said yester- 
 day, that what is treason to-day, may become the law 
 of the land to-morrow. He added very eloquently and 
 effectively: 'It will become the law of the land if the 
 traitors be allowed to violate the law,' with the in- 
 ference that it is the duty of this committee, or this 
 Assembly, to see to it that those whom you regard as 
 traitors shall not be given a part in the writing of the 
 law of this State; and it was this statement of all 
 statements which invoked applause in this House, to 
 the everlasting shame of those who participated in the 
 demonstration, for years and years to come; for I 
 maintain, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, that there was 
 no more reactionary, no more un-American statement 
 ever made in a representative Assembly than this state- 
 ment made by Mr, Littleton."
 
 lOO ALBANY 
 
 Mr. Littleton interrupted: "Is that a correction of 
 my statement?" he demanded. 
 
 "It was," Mr. Hillquit repHed. 
 
 Mr. Littleton demanded, "I want to know if I made 
 any misstatement of your statement. Did I not quote 
 you correctly?" 
 
 "You have absolutely misconstrued its spirit," said 
 Mr. Hillquit. "You may consider that as you please. 
 You have drawn conclusions. I have stated just as 
 you quoted me." 
 
 At this point, Mr. Littleton, his face flushed, ad- 
 vanced towards Mr. Hillquit, and shouted: 
 
 "Mr. Chairman, I am not going to have any state- 
 ment on this record, as to whether I stated the truth or 
 not, any question as to whether I stated the truth or 
 not." 
 
 To this Mr. Hillquit calmly replied, "I admit, Mr. 
 Littleton, that you have quoted me absolutely cor- 
 rectly." The House applauded. "I say further that I 
 have quoted Mr. Littleton correctly." 
 
 Mr. Littleton broke in again : "I did not say you had 
 not quoted me correctly." 
 
 But Mr. Hillquit was not to be put down by the 
 threatening manners of Mr. Littleton. He pursued his 
 argument : 
 
 "There was a time, I believe, when a few Americans, 
 one I believe, named Patrick Henry, one Thomas Jef- 
 ferson, and a few more, uttered the doctrine that this 
 country, or these colonies, should be independent from 
 the constituted sovereignty, England. It was treason, 
 Mr. Littleton, in those days. It was treason in the 
 sight of all Tory statesmen and politicians. It was 
 treason to the majority of the people, and, Mr. Lit- 
 tleton, if we had proceeded as you v/anted to proceed, 
 then if these men had not been allowed to have a voice 
 in the legislative assemblies or in the councils of the
 
 THE INVISIBLE EMPIRE loi 
 
 nation, this glorious country, whose flag you so fre- 
 quently wave, would now be an insignificant colony 
 of Englajid. 
 
 "There was a time when a certain William Lloyd 
 Garrison proclaimed the doctrine which was absolutely 
 revolutionary, absolutely treasonable, in those days — 
 the doctrine of depriving a substantial class of prop- 
 erty, of sacred property, in slaves. It was treason, and 
 they were called traitors. There were very eloquent 
 attorneys for the vested interests in those days also. 
 If those characterized as traitors had not been allowed 
 a voice in our government and our institutions ; if they 
 had not been allowed to voice their 'traitorous' policies 
 and philosophies, chattel slavery would still disgrace 
 this country to-day. 
 
 "Now, we have a right to hold our opinions about 
 the welfare of this nation and every nation, no matter 
 how anybody else, no matter how our opponents, con- 
 sider our views. 
 
 "Just as those that I have mentioned preached in 
 other times political freedom and against the imposi- 
 tion of slavery, so we are teaching to-day economic 
 freedom, emancipation of the working class, and of the 
 whole community. It sounds treacherous and traitor- 
 ous to you. Maybe it does. But it is our good right 
 to hold those doctrines, and you are not our judges any 
 more than we are yours." 
 
 Pointing a finger directly at Mr. Littleton, Mr. 
 Hillquit concluded: 
 
 "What we want you to do is to say, and say it in 
 your own way, whether or not you claim the right to 
 dictate our political conscience or not and it is on that 
 that we want arguments. Remember, gentlemen, at 
 all times the 'Star Spangled Banner' is a beautiful 
 and inspiring hymn, but it is not a legal argument in
 
 102 ALBANY 
 
 a case of such grave, tremendous and vital importance 
 as the one presented to you." 
 
 Mr. Stedman, for the defense, made reply to Mr. Lit- 
 tleton, and was followed by Judge Sutherland, of the 
 prosecution. The latter ended his short address by the 
 plea : "Let us have the opportunity, sir, to present our 
 evidence." 
 
 Chairman Martin, true to form, wished "the record 
 to show that the motion to dismiss on the grounds of 
 insufficiency of the papers is denied." 
 
 The echoes of his speech about the "invisible em- 
 pire" had hardly died away when Mr. Littleton, who 
 had pleaded so eloquently for liberty "as a free Ameri- 
 can to go where he pleased," now announced that he 
 would have to ask to be excused from further service 
 because he was due at the trial in Michigan of United 
 States Senator Newberry. Having done what he could 
 to point out the justice of unseating the five Socialists, 
 Mr. Littleton now felt it his duty to go to the defense 
 of a millionaire politician, whom his State had accused 
 of corrupt practices and illegal methods in procuring 
 his election to the United States Senate. 
 
 The Chairman had the habit of denying all motions 
 and all the requests as made by the defense, but he 
 promptly granted Mr. Littleton's request, saying: 
 "The record may so state." 
 
 The spectacle of Mr. Littleton, having assisted in 
 the proposed permanent unseating of the five Social- 
 ists, none of whom was accused of any personal of- 
 fense against the law, rushing off to Michigan for the 
 purpose of preventing the unseating of a man charged 
 with gross violations of the law, and since convicted, 
 appealed to many persons in the audience as amusing, 
 and considerable quiet laughter was heard. The more 
 simple-minded spectators, particularly those who ap-
 
 THE INVISIBLE EMPIRE 103 
 
 plauded his remarks, seemed shaken in their faith in 
 the sentiments expressed by his patriotic outburst. 
 
 Having seen all their motions denied, the Socialists 
 now faced their accusers and demanded a bill of par- 
 ticulars stating specifically what they were charged 
 with. 
 
 Mr. Block, for the defense, insisted that it was a 
 matter of common right for every criminal before he 
 proceeded to trial to have his accusers state definite 
 charges against him. Only in that way could he pre- 
 pare his defense, and in no other. The Socialists de- 
 manded nothing more than the right accorded to the 
 commonest criminal, he said. They wanted to know 
 when and how they had advocated any change in the 
 form of government or any reforms in our institutions 
 by force and violence. They insisted that they could 
 not possibly be expected to prepare a defense if they 
 were constantly to be surprised by the prosecution 
 constantly bringing in new matter. 
 
 Mr. Block's motion was forceful, fair, and appealed 
 to the sense of justice of every one in the house. Dur- 
 ing Mr. Block's argument, the Chairman showed signs 
 of uneasiness. He knew what he was expected to do, 
 and yet as a lawyer he recognized the justice and le- 
 gality of the demand. His decision in denying the 
 motion was indirect and foreshadowed the "fishing ex- 
 pedition" in which the prosecution was about to re- 
 solve itself. He said : 
 
 "I can see that you are bound by the hard and fast 
 rule of a legal proceeding, compelling a bill of particu- 
 lars, by which the whole investigation would be con- 
 fined to such narrow channels that it could not give 
 the desired results to every one."
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE PROSECUTION'S "EVIDENCE" 
 
 In introducing the evidence upon which it hoped to 
 convict the five Socialists the prosecution made the 
 world its field. It attempted to make all authors of 
 Socialist literature co-conspirators with the five As- 
 semblymen. Every man who had ever uttered or writ- 
 ten a view upon any social or political question that 
 clashed with the views held by the prosecution was 
 placed, so to speak, on trial with the Socialists. In its 
 endeavor to procure material that v/ould prejudice the 
 case of the Socialists, the prosecution ranged from 
 Moscov/, Russia, to Rochester, N. Y. ; from the utter- 
 ances of Lenine and Trotsky, in 1920, to the conviction 
 of John Most, the anarchist, some twenty years ago, 
 the only connection of which with the Socialist case 
 was the fact that Mr. Hillquit was Most's attorney. 
 Counsel for the Committee brought forth works ob- 
 tained from obscure book stores and produced volumes 
 issued by unknown publishers ; they produced procla- 
 mations and platforms which have been distributed by 
 the hundred thousand to prove the "secretive and con- 
 spirative" works of the Socialist party; they intro- 
 duced into the record the utterances of soap-box ora- 
 tors and the writings of forgotten commentators on 
 Socialist party tactics, dating back years before the 
 accused Assemblymen had even become members of 
 the Socialist party; in fact, not content with "evi- 
 dence" bearing upon the activities of the Socialist 
 
 104
 
 THE PROSECUTION'S "EVIDENCE'' 105 
 
 party in the United States, they actually introduced a 
 pamphlet published by the British Socialist party deal- 
 ing with religious questions, and sought to fasten its 
 contents upon the five accused Assemblymen. 
 
 On the admission of witnesses under oath, of all wit- 
 nesses in fact, none of the testimony which they gave 
 had ever been communicated to the Speaker or to any 
 one else connected with the prosecution until after the 
 suspension had taken place. As the trial proceeded it 
 became plain that the Speaker had not had a scintilla 
 of evidence at the time he urged the Czarlike action 
 that threatened the republican form of government it- 
 self. It became evident that after the suspension had 
 been consummated, the Speaker had used all the re- 
 sources of the Empire State to procure evidence which 
 would justify his course of procedure. 
 
 With the introduction of evidence and the arrival of 
 witnesses, the House was honeycombed with spies and 
 detectives. This was also true of the hotels where the 
 defendants were lodging. Neither they nor their coun- 
 sel could go out without being trailed by spies. All 
 this was at the expense of the State. 
 
 The first witness introduced was a policeman from 
 Rochester, New York. He testified that he had bought 
 a little red book from a man named Miller who was 
 selling literature in that city. The prosecution placed 
 much stress upon the color of the cover — red. Any- 
 thing of a reddish, scarlet or crimson color to their 
 minds seemed indicative of blood violence, and rapine. 
 
 In fact, at a later time, Senalor Elon R. Brown, for 
 the prosecution, in an attempt to fasten the "advocacy 
 of violence" upon the five Socialists, referred to a 
 speech by Eugene V. Debs, in which the '^tter, after 
 being presented with a bouquet of crimson howers by 
 a little girl, had praised her and her gift by comparing 
 the flowers to the "spring-time of revolution." The
 
 io6 ALBANY 
 
 Senator dramatically demanded to know : "What could 
 Debs have meant by that statement?" And then he 
 explained it himself: "Why, he meant BLOOD!" 
 
 A translator in the employ of the Lusk Committee 
 was placed upon the stand. At the very outset, coun- 
 sel for the defense strenuously objected to the intro- 
 duction of a booklet not written by any one of the five 
 members, not distributed or sold by them, and not re- 
 vealing that they had ever been apprised of its con-, 
 tents or approved of by them. It was pointed out that 
 these five men should not be held responsible for what 
 any author may have written on any subject and sold 
 in any bookshop. 
 
 To this, Mr. Stanchfield, for the prosecution, laid 
 down a theory concerning the introduction of evidence 
 which was as remarkable as it was novel. He stated 
 this theory as follows : 
 
 "EVERY PAMPHLET, EVERY DECLARA- 
 TION, EVERY SPEECH, EVERY STATEMENT 
 OF EVERY MAN WHO IS AFFILIATED WITH 
 OR BELONGED TO THAT PARTY, NOT 
 NECESSARILY IN A TECHNICAL SENSE OF 
 BELONGING TO IT, BUT EVERYBODY WHO 
 UPHOLDS THOSE CLAIMS, WHO SUPPORTS 
 THOSE PRINCIPLES, WHO STANDS UPON 
 THAT PLATFORM, IS BOUND BY THE 
 SPEECHES, THE SENTIMENTS, THE WRIT- 
 INGS, THE BOOKS, THE PUBLICATIONS OF 
 EVERY OTHER MAN AFFILIATED V/ITH 
 THAT ASSOCIATION, WHETHER THEY 
 WERE PRESENT AT THE TIME, WHEN IT 
 WAS MADE OR WHEN THEY WERE UT- 
 TERED, OR WHETHER THEY WERE AB- 
 SENT." 
 
 Chairman Martin, considering this theory sound, 
 ruled in favor of Mr. Stanchfield's contention. He re- 
 peated the slogan which later was to become almost 
 
 \
 
 THE PROSECUTION'S "EVIDENCE" 107 
 
 monotonous during the rest of the trial: "Well, let 
 it in for what it's worth." 
 
 This phrase became a by-word in Albany during the 
 trial. It became the habit of men in the street to say 
 to each other in passing, apropos of nothing, "Well, 
 let it in for what it's worth." 
 
 The red booklet was therefore let in, and the trans- 
 lator was permitted to read his English translation. 
 Mr. Hillquit, for the defense, then demanded the origi- 
 nal booklet. It proved to have been printed in Yid- 
 dish. It was found that the alleged "correct trans- 
 lation" consisted only of those parts and extracts 
 which would serve the prosecution's purpose. Counsel 
 for the defense, in looking over the booklet, found that 
 it consisted simply of a discussion of two theories pre- 
 vailing within the Socialist movement, one advocating 
 the "dictatorship of the proletariat" as a means for the 
 attainment of Socialism and the other "constitutional 
 methods." 
 
 The introduction of this booklet was intended to be 
 the prosecution's opening sensation, but it proved to 
 be a boomerang. 
 
 On cross-examination, the witness admitted that he 
 was in the employ of the Lusk Committee. He was 
 asked : "What were you told when you got the book- 
 let?" 
 
 He answered : "Just simply to look it over, and use 
 my own judgment as to it " 
 
 Mr, Hillquit interrupted: "As to what?" 
 
 "As to translating what was vital," was the wit- 
 ness's reply. 
 
 "As to translating v/hat was vital, and for what pur- 
 pose?" asked Mr. Hillquit. 
 
 "For the purpose of submitting it as evidence," said 
 the witness. 
 
 "For the purpose of submitting it as evi:^.e.nce 
 against whom?" the attorney asked.
 
 io8 ALBANY 
 
 "Against Socialism," was the witness's confused an- 
 swer^ ^ 
 
 ~ "Then you were given this pamphlet by a represen- 
 tative of the Lusk Committee with the general direc- 
 tions to translate such portions that would serve as 
 evidence against Socialism?" 
 
 "Yes, sir," was the witness's prompt reply. 
 
 This admission was received with a buzz of com- 
 ment on the part of the spectators. The newspaper 
 correspondents began their stories for the next day by 
 calling this part of the prosecution's evidence a "frame- 
 up." 
 
 Mr. Hillquit finally asked: "Then you were looking 
 for such portions as would support the contentions 
 that Socialism preaches violence, is that it?" 
 
 "Absolutely," was the witness's emphatic reply, to 
 the great amazement of Chief Counsel Stanchfield of 
 the prosecution and the members of the Judiciary 
 Committee. 
 
 Many other witnesses were then called to the stand, 
 but the star-performer, the thriller of the trial, was a 
 young anaemic-looking girl, Ellen C. Chivers, of 
 Brooklyn. The entrance of this witness was dramatic- 
 ally staged. 
 
 Up to now, the sensation promised by Speaker 
 Sweet and his trained troupe of publicity agents had 
 not materialized. The Speaker saw that he could not 
 hold the recalcitrants in line and prevent them from 
 demanding the reseating of the Socialists unless he 
 produced the promised evidence. Therefore, the en- 
 trance of this young lady witness was of importance. 
 Twice before her actual appearance, Mr. Stanchfield 
 loudly demanded to know whether she was in the 
 Chamber. The crowded house became all-expectant 
 as to who Miss Chivers was. Finally the lady was 
 "found." On her taking the stand, Mr. Stanchfield, be-
 
 THE PROSECUTION'S "EVIDENCE" 109 
 
 fore she had uttered a word, said in paternal fashion : 
 
 "Speak up as distinctly as you can, because the men 
 that are on either side of me are interested in what you 
 say. First, how old are you?" 
 
 The girl in a childish voice replied that she would 
 be eighteen next month. She said she was a stenog- 
 rapher in Manhattan and lived in Brooklyn. She testi- 
 fied she had known Mr. Solomon, one of the accused 
 Assemblymen, by sight, since 191 7. She had heard 
 him speak, she said, on the corner of Ninth Street and 
 Sixth Avenue, Brooklyn. 
 
 The corner that Miss Chivers referred to is situated 
 in a strong Catholic neighborhood and is surrounded 
 by one of the most conservative populations in the city 
 of Brooklyn. 
 
 Asked as to the time when she heard Mr. Solomon 
 speak. Miss Chivers in a monotonous tone, replied 
 that she "judged about the early part of April or the 
 first part of May, 191 7." Mr. Stanchfield then asked 
 what it was that attracted her attention to Mr. Solo- 
 mon. She replied : 
 
 "I remember that in the summer of 191 7, about the 
 latter part of April or the first part of May, that there 
 was a detachment of soldiers came to Ninth Street and 
 Sixth Avenue for the purpose of calling for volun- 
 teers, and they asked Mr. Solomon if they might bor- 
 row his platform for that purpose. Mr. Solomon re- 
 plied: 'Lend you my platform? Can you borrow my 
 platform? Huh, the gutter is good enough for you.' '* 
 
 A hush fell upon the house. It seemed that the long 
 awaited sensation had come. 
 
 Mr. Stanchfield, in a stage whisper, then tenderly 
 addressed the witness : "Now, was that all that he said 
 at the time?" 
 
 The girl's reply was: 
 
 "He said, 'If we had our way, there would not be
 
 no ALBANY 
 
 any one who would ask the Socialists if they might 
 borrow their platform to call for volunteers.' He con- 
 tinued to say, 'I would not let you wipe your dirty 
 feet on it.' " 
 
 "Did he give up the platform to this man?" asked 
 Mr. Stanchfield. 
 
 "He did not," said the witness. 
 
 "What happened after that conversation took 
 place?" she was asked. 
 
 "The officer in charge of that detachment," said the 
 witness, "spoke from the jitney on which they had 
 come, and told them to obtain the number of recruits 
 they could and went their way." 
 
 The girl's assertion that a detachment of soldiers, 
 a month after war had been declared, had quietly ac- 
 cepted such an insult from a Socialist speaker and had 
 then "gone their way" evoked astonishment on the 
 part of the spectators. They were visibly affected, 
 whispering among themselves and exchanging glances. 
 
 After a pause, Mr. Stanchfield resumed: "Now, at 
 a later period, a band of music came along?" 
 
 "There was," answered the witness. 
 
 "Was Mr. Solomon still speaking?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "What, if anything, did the band do?" asked the 
 lawyer. 
 
 "The band struck up the tune to the 'Star Spangled 
 Banner,' " replied the witness, with emphasis. 
 
 "And what then occurred?" queried the chief coun- 
 sel for the prosecution. 
 
 Here the witness drew herself up, took a long 
 breath, and said with a flourish : 
 
 "Mr. Solomon turned up his coat collar, put down 
 his hat, and pulled it over his eyes, spit on the Ameri- 
 can flag and sat down." 
 
 On cross-examination by Mr. Stedman, the girl then
 
 THE PROSECUTION'S "EVIDENCE" in 
 
 admitted that she had spent the whole Sunday previ- 
 ous at the Prince George Hotel, New York City, talk- 
 ing to two members of the prosecution's legal staff. 
 Under further questioning, Miss Chivers admitted that 
 several hundred persons were present at the time she 
 declared Assemblyman Solomon had expectorated on 
 the American flag, including three policemen. She de- 
 clared that the police were just in front of the Assem- 
 blyman at the time. None of the policemen made any 
 protest, she testified. She said that she had not said 
 anything about Assemblyman Solomon's actions from 
 the time she alleged it had been committed up to the 
 time that she wrote to Speaker Sweet, a few days after 
 the suspension had taken place. On further question- 
 ing the witness declared she would be eighteen years 
 old within a month, but at the time Assemblyman 
 Solomon desecrated the flag, in April or May, 191 7, 
 she believed she was "nearly seventeen years old.'* 
 Her memory on this point was fixed. She said she 
 was a member of the "American Anti-Socialist 
 League" of Brooklyn, which she joined in 1918. 
 
 When Miss Chivers left the stand, her departure 
 from the Chamber was not quite as dramatic as her 
 entrance. 
 
 Later, a captain of the New York police force and a 
 patrolman, both of whom had been present at the 
 meeting referred to by Miss Chivers, testified that Mr. 
 Solomon had never said what he was charged with 
 saying, or done what he was charged with doing. 
 
 If it was intended that Miss Chivers was to be the 
 star-shell for the prosecution, there was now brought 
 in a person whom they deemed to be nothing less than 
 a heavy gun. He was Peter W. Collins, a lecturer 
 hired by the Knights of Columbus for the purpose of 
 opposing Socialism. After qualifying as an "expert," 
 Mr. Collins was asked to explain certain passages in
 
 112 ALBANY 
 
 the Socialist Party documents adopted at their regu- 
 lar convention. Mr. Collins "explained" numerous 
 lengthy passages from such Socialist documents to the 
 entire satisfaction of the prosecution. He was given 
 wide latitude as to the nature of his testimony. 
 
 At one time when Mr. Stedman of the defense ob- 
 jected to the alleged quotation of such passages from 
 the Communist Manifesto as not binding upon the five 
 Socialist Assemblymen, the Chairman promptly ruled 
 that such extracts were of interest to this trial, be- 
 cause the opinions of Karl Marx, the author of the 
 Communist Manifesto, were those in which these men 
 believed. But at another time when Mr. Collins was 
 asked by Mr. Stedman to explain "surplus value" as 
 understood by Marx, the Chairman relieved the em- 
 barrassment of Mr. Collins by ruHng: "We are not 
 interested in that old man, Marx, or in his ideas of 
 forty years ago." 
 
 Mr. Collins' text as regards Marx was David Gold- 
 stein's book. Mr. Goldstein is well-known as a Cath- 
 olic convert and paid speaker against Socialism. 
 
 On cross-examination, Mr. Collins explained that his 
 expert knowledge of Socialism came from his intimate 
 acquaintance with "thousands of Socialists." His 
 knowledge of the Socialist attitude on religion and 
 marriage came from his contact with "hundreds of 
 Socialists in the lobby of the Rand School at New 
 York." 
 
 For example, Mr. Collins quoted from the last para- 
 graph of the Communist Manifesto so as to make one 
 sentence read: "Let the ruling classes tremble at a 
 Socialist revolution." 
 
 Mr. Stedman jumped to his feet, demanding to know 
 if the word "Sociahst" was actually in the paragraph 
 just read. The witness replied, "No, sir, every one
 
 THE PROSECUTION'S ''EVIDENCE" 113 
 
 knows that Communism and Socialism is exactly the 
 same thing." 
 
 But Mr. Stedman replied, "I did not ask you that. 
 I was asking the integrity of your reading." 
 
 Mr. Collins was on the witness stand for three half 
 days, and the prosecution learned all about Socialism 
 from this witness. Mr. Collins did not at any time 
 claim any personal acquaintanceship with any of the 
 five Socialists under suspension, nor did any of them 
 know him. He was put on the stand simply to estab- 
 lish an alleged "state of mind" on the part of the ac- 
 cused Assemblymen. 
 
 The range of Mr. Collins' testimony may be judged 
 from the last question, which Assemblyman Cuvillier, 
 who earned the reputation for himself during the trial 
 as being the "unsilenceable Assemblyman," asked 
 whether the witness knew where Victor L. Berger, the 
 Socialist Congressman-elect, was born. To the an- 
 swer that he thought Mr. Berger was born somewhere 
 in Austria, Mr. Cuvillier said, "That's all, that's all," 
 and turned from his chair with a triumphant glance 
 at the audience. 
 
 Of the numerous witnesses called by the prosecu- 
 tion, some were the defeated opponents of the five As- 
 semblymen in the previous election, others were mem- 
 bers of the National Security League, and still others 
 were members of New York City's police force who 
 testified that some of the Assemblymen had taken 
 part in strike activities. 
 
 The audience in the Assembly Chamber which in- 
 cluded citizens from Albany and near-by towns, which 
 at first had been openly hostile, became more and more 
 friendly as the prosecution developed its case, with 
 the result that by the time the last witness for the ac- 
 cusers had stepped down from the stand, they were 
 asking for Socialist literature.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE DEFENSE OPENS— THE SOCIALISTS 
 AND THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 On Monday, February 17, the defense opened its 
 case. Public interest, v/hich had fallen to a low ebb 
 on account of the dry and tedious nature of the testi- 
 mony introduced by the prosecution, was now raised 
 to high tide again. The Assembly Chamber again be- 
 came crowded to capacity. The newspaper corre- 
 spondents who had left came back. The trial once 
 again took on an appearance cf life and interest. 
 
 The first witness called by the defense was Morris 
 Hillquit, its chief counsel. Direct examination was 
 conducted by Mr. Stedman. 
 
 Mr. Hillquit's appearance on the witness stand was 
 a surprise to the prosecution. It was highly pleasing 
 to the audience, which by now had become eager to 
 hear something authoritative concerning Socialism. 
 Even counsel for the prosecution appeared deeply in- 
 terested. They left their accustomed seats and drew 
 up chairs close around Mr. Hillquit, with the intention 
 of not missing a word. In fact, Mr. Hillquit was, by 
 virtual unanimous consent, given the center of the 
 stage. For three days he kept the stand, his testi- 
 mony becoming more like the remarks of a professor 
 addressing his class than a witness called in a trial in- 
 volving a political struggle. 
 
 Mr. Hillquit qualified as an expert witness on Social- 
 ism, on Socialist theory, and on the status of the 
 American Socialist Party in the Internationale. No 
 question was raised as to Mr. Hillquit's right so to 
 
 114
 
 THE DEFENSE OPENS 115 
 
 speak, because of his long experience in the Socialist 
 movement. He was one of the founders of the Social- 
 ist Party of the United States, he served for a long 
 time as International Secretary, he is the author of a 
 number of books on Socialism and the Socialist move- 
 ment, and since the creation of that office, has been 
 chairman of the National Executive Committee of the 
 Socialist Party. He testified to his ability to read and 
 speak several different languages, including English, 
 French, Italian, Russian, German, together with some 
 Spanish and Dutch. He spoke very clearly and con- 
 cisely and was listened to with the keenest attention. 
 
 Mr. Hillquit gave a clear exposition of the workings 
 of the various Internationales of the Socialist parties 
 of the world since 1864. On this point, he made it 
 clear that the Internationale was not in the least the 
 rom.antically devilish "Invisible Empire" that the 
 prosecution had attempted to make it appear. He ex- 
 plained that the various Socialist parties of the world 
 enjoy absolute autonomy within their respective ter- 
 ritories and are not bound in any manner by the rules 
 adopted by the Internationale. Each country pursues 
 policies and tactics suited to the political and economic 
 conditions prevailing in each country at the time. 
 
 After describing the various phases of Socialist 
 philosophy, the witness was asked by the Chairman, 
 Mr. Martin, to explain the attitude of the Socialist 
 Party on the League of Nations. 
 
 Mr. Hillquit replied, "It gives me exceptional pleas- 
 ure to answer that." 
 
 "Not as great pleasure as to hear you," remarked 
 Mr. Conboy, of the prosecution, graciously. 
 
 Mr. Hillquit then began : 
 
 "Mr. Collins's statement that the Socialists are op- 
 posed to the institution of the League of Nations is
 
 ii6 ALBANY 
 
 absolutely false, because, if anything, the Socialists 
 pride themselves upon being the first ones to formulate 
 and to demand the institution of a pure league of na- 
 tions. Socialists to-day are enthusiastic adherents of 
 the league of nations idea and philosophy. But they 
 are utterly opposed to the concrete program of the so- 
 called League of Nations adopted at Paris. They are 
 opposed to that so-called League of Nations because 
 they are in favor of a true League of Nations. The 
 Socialists' idea of a League of Nations is, briefly speak- 
 ing, this : 
 
 "The office of the League of Nations, if it is to be a 
 real League of Nations, is to do away with wars among 
 nations; and consequently the composition, the 
 machinery, the entire make-up of the League must be 
 directed toward that end, that is, the abolition of 
 wars. That means, in the first place, that such a 
 League of Nations, by its Constitution, should pro- 
 ceed to abolish the principal causes of wars among na- 
 tions. By that we mean that the causes of war among 
 the different nations have undoubtedly been very 
 largely commercial. That is not said by way of re- 
 proach, but by way of statement of indisputable fact. 
 
 "I may mention, by the way, that in his very latest 
 pronouncement upon the subject. President Wilson 
 has taken the same stand with reference to the last 
 war. Now, these causes are the following: In every 
 advanced nation, the dominating or capitalist class 
 reaches a point where the resources and facilities of 
 their own country are insufficient for their economic 
 or commercial development. All countries, v/ith very 
 few exceptions, need raw materials, all of which they 
 cannot get on their native soil. They, therefore, must 
 have access to raw materials in foreign countries, 
 usually less developed countries. In order to do that, 
 they embark upon a colonial policy, that is, try to con-
 
 THE DEFENSE OPENS 117 
 
 quer and hold colonies and monopolize the products 
 of such colonies for themselves. 
 
 "They also strive to secure certain special spheres of 
 influence. For instance, China is partitioned — a cer- 
 tain part is for the English sphere of influence, a cer- 
 tain part is for the French sphere of influence, a certain 
 part for the Japanese sphere of influence, and so on. 
 
 "Then also, they must, of necessity, have facilities 
 to make investments abroad after they have exploited 
 the best facilities at home. That is why we have in 
 foreign parts concessions for railroads and other pub- 
 lic works, and so on. 
 
 "Then again, as our present industrial system de- 
 velops and grows, imports and exports, foreign trade 
 and foreign markets are an ever increasing important 
 factor. That means that nations must have outlets to 
 the sea. They must have a sufficient number of ports. 
 If they do not, they are hampered, and they strive to 
 acquire such ports. In the transportation of commodi- 
 ties and merchandise, the control of the sea, or the! 
 freedom from control, is highly important. The great 
 waterways of the world, such as the Kiel Canal, the 
 Straits of Gibraltar, the Suez Canal, the Panama Canal, 
 the Bosphorus, and so on, are of tremendous impor- 
 tance ; so that a League of Nations, in the first place, 
 if it is to establish a condition of affairs which will do 
 away with the necessity of wars, must do away with 
 this incentive to rivalry among nations. 
 
 "Nor is that all in this competition among various 
 advanced nations and among capitalist classes in those 
 nations. There is a constant intrigue — so-called di- 
 plomacy, secret diplomac5% each nation trying to get 
 advantage over the other nation by secret treaties, by 
 preferential terms of all kinds. All this should be 
 abolished in order to have a true League of Nations. 
 
 "Then again, the fact that there has been in Europe,
 
 ii8 ALBANY 
 
 and outside of Europe, a number of oppressed nation- 
 alities striving to regain their independence, has been 
 a fruitful source of wars in the past — at any rate, a 
 great contributing force. That, of course, would have 
 to be eliminated in a proper League of Nations. 
 
 "Then, likewise, the system of competitive arma- 
 ments — I mean both land and sea — is another source 
 of wars among nations; and finally, there is an ab-*' 
 sence of any organization to dispose of quarrels among 
 nations peacefully. 
 
 "So that a League of Nations, to be properly con- 
 stituted and actually to have the power to do away 
 with wars, would have to be based upon a program 
 which was pretty aptly — though not completely — for- 
 mulated by President Wilson in his late lamented 
 fourteen points. Or, as it was more specifically and 
 more circumstantially mentioned, in the program of 
 the British Labor Party. In other words, it would 
 have to be an association of nations, a league of all the 
 nations peopling the world, without exception; it 
 Kvould have to be a federation, or league, of every na- 
 tion, large or small, in Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, 
 or any where else in the world. 
 
 "That league would have to be based upon a certain 
 definite constitution, an international constitution, if 
 you like, which would first, say, internationalize the 
 great waterways of the world — neutralize them — make 
 them accessible to all. There is no reason why any 
 nation should appropriate any part of the ocean for it- 
 self. It would have to be followed by the internation- 
 alization, if you like, or at least permission to use, the 
 important ports of the world; so that, for instance, a 
 large country like Russia does not find itself bottled 
 up and shut off from commerce or intercourse with the 
 rest of the world. 
 
 "It would have to do away with the ownership of
 
 THE DEFENSE OPENS 119 
 
 one country by another, the abominable system of 
 colonies. It would have to do away with the system 
 by which a strong country can go into Africa or Asia 
 and take hold, by force of arms, of a defenseless, large 
 and undeveloped nation or people, and say, 'You are 
 my subjects. You are my colonies. We will take 
 your wealth — your natural wealth. You will take our 
 products, and you will not trade with anybody else.' 
 Colonies would have to be internationalized, or at any 
 rate, the open-door policy would have to be declared 
 for all. 
 
 "As far as duties are concerned, those that discrimi- 
 nate in favor of one nation as against another certainly 
 would have to be abolished as a very fruitful source 
 of war. 
 
 "Then aside from that, the principle of self-determi- 
 nation, of which so much has been said and about 
 which so little has been done, would have to be incor- 
 porated in the League of Nations. Every nation, or 
 every nationality, should be given the right to deter- 
 mine for itself what form of organization — what politi- 
 cal form of organization and what political affiliation — 
 it should adopt; or whether it should adopt none and 
 develop its own independence. 
 
 "Secret diplomacy would have to be absolutely abol- 
 ished, as being probably the worst sore in international 
 relations. Armaments would have to go, for as long 
 as there are to be millions upon millions of profes- 
 sional soldiers and standing armies that drain all the 
 resources of the country — each one having an eye to 
 his neighbor to see whether it is increasing its arma- 
 ment, and then following suit — so long will there be, 
 of course, an incentive toward war. And finally, also, 
 so long as a better and more civilized method of set- 
 tling disputes among nations remains undevised, so 
 long will wars continue.
 
 I20 ALBANY 
 
 "Now then, the present League of Nations, so-called, 
 does not incorporate a single one of these elemental 
 features. To begin with, it is not a League of Nations 
 at all. It does not represent the nations of the world ; 
 it does not pretend to. It does not represent nations, 
 but Governments. It takes the same diplomatic corps 
 in different countries, the same cliques that have been 
 involving the world in all these wars time and time 
 again — it elevates them, lifts them out of their respec- 
 tive chancelleries, brings them together in one place, 
 and calls them a League of Nations. 
 
 "The League of Nations, as formulated in Paris, is 
 not to be composed of members elected by the differ- 
 ent nations by popular suffrage; not even by Parlia- 
 ment. No ! They are to be men appointed by the for- 
 eign offices, by the diplomatic offices in various coun- 
 tries. Now, of course, you can hardly expect the 
 diplomats to abolish diplomacy; just as little as you 
 can expect the capitalist class to abolish capitalism. 
 
 "But that is precisely what we expect them to do. 
 We sent a lot of old diplomatic fossils, who have been 
 responsible for more human misery than any other 
 class of men in the world, into one room in Paris to 
 devise a League of Nations — and they did. They per- 
 petuated themselves and legaHzed themselves and de- 
 scribed themselves as a League of Nations." 
 
 Assemblyman Cuvillier here put in a word. 
 Throughout the trial, Mr. Cuvillier apparently suf- 
 fered under a belief amounting to an obsession that 
 Lenine and Trotsky, the leaders of the Russian Bol- 
 sheviki, were the authors of all the world's troubles 
 and that they were the head devils to whom all prevail- 
 ing iniquities might be traced. 
 
 He asked Mr. Hillquit: "Do you think Lenine and 
 Trotsky and the Soviet government have adopted your 
 idea of the League of Nations?"
 
 THE DEFENSE OPENS 121 
 
 "Yes, they have," said Mr. Hillquit. 
 
 "You think so?" 
 
 "Yes, I know they have. I will tell you about that 
 a little later in detail." 
 
 Mr. Hillquit resumed by stating the concrete Social- 
 ist objections to the League of Nations. Said he : 
 
 "One of the Socialist objections to the League of 
 Nations as constituted or formulated at Paris, is that 
 it was not a League or organization of the peoples of 
 the different nations; that it was not democratically 
 constituted, but that it attempted to perpetuate the old 
 diplomatic system in various countries under the name 
 and guise of the League of Nations. 
 
 "The next objection of the Socialist party or parties 
 to this so-called League of Nations, is that the admin- 
 istration of its affairs is not left in the hands of the 
 nations who are supposed to constitute the League, or 
 such an executive instrument as such nations may 
 chose; but that it is left in the hands of a council of 
 nine, of whom five are perpetually named. These five 
 forming the majority of the council are the five prin- 
 cipal powers on the Entente side in the war. 
 
 "Now, the Socialists reason that if a League of Na- 
 tiojis is to have any real, vital function it must wipe 
 out hatred between nations ; it must wipe out all lines 
 of demarcation between one camp and another camp. 
 It must, at any rate, not perpetuate hostile camps 
 among nations, and this arrangement by which the five 
 principal belligerent powers on one side are consti- 
 tuted as the majority in the council of the League of 
 Nations renders that council practically impotent 
 under its terms. Excluding all of the rival camps, it 
 is something that must of necessity defeat the hope of 
 any League of Nations. Of course, sentiments and 
 hatreds are strong now because the war was so recent, 
 but the object of the League of Nations, nevertheless,
 
 122 ALBANY 
 
 is to do away with national antagonism and hatred 
 once and for all. 
 
 "Now, then, instead of doing that, national hatred 
 and antagonism within this League of Nations are per- 
 petuated. The belligerents on the Entente side be- 
 come by themselves the League of Nations. The other 
 side is excluded from its administration. 
 
 "Moreover, a more cardinal objection to the League 
 of Nations is its one-sidedness ; if you want to choose 
 a somewhat stronger term, it's hypocrisy. 
 
 "We start upon the assumption that it is wrong to 
 subjugate peoples. Our President has said, *I believe 
 that never again in the future shall peoples be bartered 
 by us from hand to hand like chattels' ; which means 
 that the system of maintaining colonies — subjected 
 countries — must go in a civilized world. Now what 
 did our League of Nations in Paris do? They took 
 from that a moral principle and applied it to Germany, 
 saying, 'You shall not subjugate foreign peoples. We 
 will take away your colonies.' 
 
 "But they did not do that to England, France or 
 Italy. In other words, the thing morally reprehensible 
 that is allowed to ourselves is denied to the other fel- 
 lows. Our opponents must be good, but you may be 
 bad. The same applies to every other cardinal pro- 
 vision ; for instance, the provision as to disarmament." 
 
 Surprised by Mr. Hillquit's frankness, Mr. Conboy, 
 of the prosecution, interrupted. 
 
 "May I ask you when you say, 'Our opponents must 
 be good, but you may be bad,' whom are you referring 
 to?" 
 
 "The Allies," Mr. Hillquit promptly replied. "We 
 are part of the Allies." 
 
 "You incorporate the United States among them?" 
 asked Mr. Conboy. 
 
 Mr. Hillquit replied :
 
 THE DEFENSE OPENS 123 
 
 "I incorporate all those parties who are responsible 
 for the draft of the League of Nations as manufac- 
 tured in Paris. I say they apply these principles to 
 one side but do not apply them to themselves. For 
 instance, the principle of disarmament, gradual and 
 eventually complete, must be one of the main points 
 of the basis underlying any League of Nations. The 
 Paris conference has effectively disarmed Germany 
 and Austria, Bulgaria and Turkey; and it was very 
 well that it should have disarmed them, but when it 
 came to themselves they did not do so. They provide 
 that each country may maintain a necessary force, 
 leaving it to themselves to determine what is neces- 
 sary, taking into account geographical situation and 
 so on. In other words, as far as applied to the Allies 
 themselves, there is absolutely no attempt at actual 
 disarmament. 
 
 "The same applies to the waterways. For instance, 
 the Kiel Canal is internationalized. The Straits of 
 Gibraltar, the Suez Canal, and the Panama Canal are 
 not. The same applies in fact to every provision. The 
 paradox of the entire situation is that it looks as if our 
 representatives had got together in Paris for the pur- 
 pose of creating ideal conditions among our enemies or 
 late enemies, and leaving the Allies with the condi- 
 tions obtaining before the war. 
 
 "The enormity of the present plan of the League 
 seems to us Socialists — and when I say to us Socialists 
 I base my statement on official declarations of Socialist 
 parties here and everywhere and on international con- 
 ferences as well — the enormity is that the League of 
 Nations, of course, cannot be considered apart from 
 the Peace Treaty. The Peace Treaty is just as much 
 an organic part of the arrangement as the League of 
 Nations. 
 
 "Now, by the Peace Treaty, we proceed in rear-
 
 124 ALBANY 
 
 ranging the world in a certain way. First, we leave 
 the main powers on our side in possession of all of the 
 stolen goods, figuratively speaking — referring to the 
 colonies — and then we impose certain very onerous 
 conditions upon the other side. When we have done 
 all that, we declare that this condition of affairs that 
 we have created must remain so forever; for it cannot 
 be changed except by unanimous consent of the coun- 
 cil including the votes of the powers who have the 
 advantage of having dependencies, colonies, and so on. 
 
 "Having proclaimed the abstract right of self-de- 
 termination, for instance, we leave Ireland under the 
 subjugation of England — call it subjugation, because 
 the Irish feel that way. We leave Egypt and India in 
 the same condition. And then the League proceeds to 
 say that this condition cannot be changed; that if an 
 attempt is made to change it, the entire world has to 
 be reckoned with. In other words, so far from mak- 
 ing it easy for oppressed nationalities to gain their in- 
 dependence, the League makes it more difficult. So it 
 is not a step in the right direction, a step toward prog- 
 gress ; but it is a step backwards." 
 
 On cross-examination, Mr. Hillquit was asked about 
 various phases of the Socialist movement, including 
 the SociaHst attitude on the war ; about the St. Louis 
 resolution; about the Chicago Manifesto; about the 
 meaning of Social revolution; about the meaning of 
 "mass action," of the general strike, and of the party's 
 attitude toward and relation to Russia. 
 
 Mr. Hillquit answered all these questions in detail. 
 He explained that the Socialists believed in full and 
 unhampered self-determination in Russia as well as in 
 Ireland, Egypt, India, China, and all other subject 
 countries. He explained that Socialists were in sym- 
 pathy with the heroic efforts of the Russian workers
 
 THE DEFENSE OPENS 125 
 
 and peasants in their attempt to establish industrial 
 democracy. 
 
 The defense called to the stand the Rev. Dr. Nor- 
 man Thomas, a clergyman, who testified to the matter 
 of Socialism and religion. Mr. Stedman, for the de- 
 fense, asked him this question: "Will you state your 
 opinion as to the antagonism, if there is any, between 
 Socialism and religion?" 
 
 "There is in my judgment, no essential antagonism 
 whatsoever between them," Mr. Thomas replied. "As 
 a matter of fact, the American Socialist party has spe- 
 cifically adopted a neutral stand on religion, taking the 
 position that religion is a matter for the individual. 
 That was done in 1908, and that particular act has, 
 never been repealed or altered in any way. It is my 
 own personal belief, after much study, that the most 
 effective way of carrying out Christian ethics would 
 be in connection with the cooperative commonwealth, 
 which is the goal of Socialism."
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE COMMITTEE INSTRUCTED IN SOCIAL- 
 ISM—LEE AND BRANSTETTER ON 
 THE STAND 
 
 In order to throw light upon the operations and 
 workings of the Socialist Party and its scope of ac- 
 tivity, Mr. Otto F. Branstetter, National Secretary of 
 the Socialist Party in the United States, was called to 
 the stand. 
 
 Perhaps the most striking part of Mr. Branstetter*s 
 testimony was the figures he gave refuting the loud 
 assertions of the prosecution to the effect that the So- 
 cialist Party and its principal committees were domi- 
 nated by aliens and alien enemies. He confounded the 
 prosecution by asserting that at least seventy-one per 
 cent of the present membership of the Socialist Party 
 I was native-born, and of the present National Execu- 
 \ tive Committee consisting of seven members, six were 
 \ American born, the remaining one being foreign bom 
 1 but naturalized. 
 
 Mr. Branstetter showed, in addition, that so far from 
 being an organization existing for the purpose of tear- 
 ing the United States to pieces, that, on the contrary, 
 all its activities had been devoted to constructive work. 
 He revealed, moreover, that on a list of books on So- 
 cialism and allied subjects recommended by the Na- 
 tional OfBce of the Socialist Party for general reading, 
 there are many volumes which have no direct relation 
 to Socialism and others which are opposed to Socialist 
 theories. 
 
 126
 
 THE COMMITTEE INSTRUCTED 127 
 
 Mr. Branstetter explained that the Socialist Party is 
 made up of dues-paying members and elucidated its 
 form of organization. He added : 
 
 "Outside of the regular political activities of the 
 party it covers quite a wide field, because we are more 
 than a political party. We are an educational organi- 
 zation, and as such we carry on extensive educational 
 campaigns amongst our membership, the effort of the 
 party being always to give our members and sympa- 
 thizers a wide and thorough understanding of the prin- 
 ciples of Socialism, and also of general knowledge 
 ivhere it is possible for us to do so ; and in that field 
 our literature covers every phase of Socialism on both 
 sides of the subject. We desire that our membership 
 shall be thoroughly posted and familiar with not only 
 the questions of Socialism but of civics and govern- 
 ment generally, and not with one-sided information, 
 but knowing both sides and understanding both sides 
 of the question." 
 
 On the subject of books listed by the Socialist Party 
 for general sale, Mr. Branstetter, to refute the charge 
 that the Socialist Assemblymen were responsible for 
 the contents of all books dealing with Socialist theory, 
 produced a catalog on which was printed the following 
 resolution adopted by the National Executive Commit- 
 tee June 2, 1913: 
 
 ''RESOLVED, that the placing of the name of any 
 paper, publication or book on lists or catalogs sent out 
 by the national office does not necessarily im.ply en- 
 dorsement of such paper, publication or books, except- 
 ing when expressly stated." 
 
 On the matter of lending assistance to striking work- 
 ingmen, Mr. Branstetter explained that the Socialist 
 Party does not attempt to interfere with the internal 
 workings of economic organizations, but had fre- 
 quently furnished relief during strikes whenever it
 
 128 ALBANY 
 
 seemed to be necessary. He testified furthermore that 
 the party had often undertaken to inform the foreign 
 born elements in the working class upon the American 
 conditions. Said he : / 
 
 "The Socialist Party perhaps was the original 
 Americanization party. We started naturalization 
 schools and appointed naturalization committees in 
 our state and local organizations as far back as ten 
 and twelve years ago, and in furtherance of this work 
 i of naturalizing of the foreign-born, the national offices 
 prepared and published a booklet, *Hov/ to Become 
 Naturalized.* We translated it into Finnish. In addi- 
 tion to those two languages, which we published and 
 which were prepared by the party, we sold extensively 
 Jordan's 'Naturalization Made Easy.' We carried that 
 and now have it in stock in seventeen different lan- 
 guages." 
 
 Assemblyman Cuvillier, who had been itching to get 
 in a question, now got his chance. "Have you got a 
 school to teach them the English language and the 
 Constitution of the United States?" he asked. 
 
 "The party itself does not conduct such a school,'* 
 replied the witness. "Local organizations have con- 
 ducted such schools, especially where there is a large 
 foreign population, and our language federations have 
 conducted such classes. Nearly all of them have con- 
 ducted classes in English and Americanization." 
 
 But Assemblyman Cuvillier was not content to hear 
 that classes had been instructed in English ; he wanted 
 to know whether instructions had been given in the 
 "American language." Said he: "You spoke about 
 that you have seventeen different foreign language as- 
 sociations and literature to make American citizens. 
 Do you teach them the Constitution in the American 
 language?" 
 
 "Yes," replied Mr. Branstetter. "We have some
 
 THE COMMITTEE INSTRUCTED 129 
 
 books in English, besides those we publish, and the 
 one we translated into Finnish ourselves has the Eng- 
 lish and Finnish in parallel columns on opposite pages. 
 This is both for the purpose of giving the information 
 and giving them a knowledge of the English lan- 
 guage." 
 
 But the examining Assemblymen could not keep 
 away from the subject of the Socialist Party's relation 
 to strikes. Again and again the matter of industrial 
 conflict came up. Assemblyman Harrington of the 
 Committee asked: "I understood Mr. Stedman to ask 
 you whether the Socialist Party advised men to strike. 
 Was that the question?" 
 
 "I think that was not men, but unions," replied the 
 witness. 
 
 "The Socialists go on a theory that strikes are gen- 
 erally proper and you help them out?" asked Assem- 
 blyman Harrington. 
 
 Mr. Branstetter's answer was : "We go on the theory 
 that strikes are necessary, absolutely essential and 
 necessary to the welfare of the working classes; that 
 they have organized into labor unions, and having or- 
 ganized, while not desirable, it is necessary upon occa- 
 sion that they strike." 
 
 But Mr. Harrington was still not satisfied. "So, 
 they can always rely on the Socialist Party to sympa- 
 thize with them and help them once they strike?" he 
 asked. 
 
 The National Secretary's prompt reply was: "An 
 organized movement, irrespective of political belief or 
 affiliation of its members, a group of organized work- 
 ers striking for the betterment of their conditions, can ' 
 always depend upon the support and assistance of the 
 Socialist Party." 
 
 When asked about the so-called alien membership of
 
 I30 ALBANY 
 
 the National Executive Committee, Mr. Branstetter 
 answered : 
 
 "The Executive Committee now consists of seven 
 members — six of them are American-born, one of them 
 foreign-born and naturalized. Preceding committees 
 were of the same general character. The National 
 Executive Committee has varied in numbers at differ- 
 ent times from five to fifteen. So far as I know, and 
 I think I know, the composition of every executive 
 committee since the organization of the party, there 
 has never been an alien on the committee." 
 
 Questioned as to the states and areas where the So- 
 cialist Party is strongest, Mr. Branstetter stated, that 
 the membership in Oklahoma outnumbers that of any 
 other agricultural state, and that it had been and was 
 the strongest Socialist state both in proportion to the 
 membership and to the votes cast in relation to popu- 
 lation. 
 
 Mr. Branstetter was questioned by Judge Suther- 
 land about an expression he had used which the lawyer 
 had understood as "the scum proletariat." 
 
 "No, I said the slum proletariat," said Mr. Branstet- 
 ter. Asked to explain, he said : 
 
 "The slum proletariat is the proletariat resident in 
 the slums of the industrial sections. There is an ele- 
 ment of that slum proletariat — the lowest element, the 
 vicious element, the criminal element, the pauper ele- 
 ment — all of those elements form the lowest strata of 
 society and are included in the slum proletariat; and 
 my statement, I think, was that we did not reach, and 
 never hoped to reach, those people. THEY ARE 
 NATURAL SUSTAINERS AND DEFENDERS 
 AND UPHOLDERS OF THE EXISTING ORDER, 
 BECAUSE THEY ARE DEPENDENT UPON IT, 
 BECAUSE SUCH INCOME AS THEY HAVE. 
 SUCH LIVELIHOOD AS THEY HAVE, DE-
 
 THE COMMITTEE INSTRUCTED 131 
 
 PEND UPON THE PRESENT SYSTEM. THEY 
 GET IT THROUGH CHARITY, THROUGH 
 VICE, THROUGH CRIME; AND, AS SUCH, ARE 
 ADHERENTS OF THE SYSTEM AND SUP- 
 PORTERS OF THE EXISTING REGIME. Quite 
 often — quite frequently — they even exist and carry on 
 their means of gaining their livelihood by vice, or 
 crime, or beggary, with the connivance, if not with the 
 consent, of the police officials and politicians of the 
 existing order ; so that they are always aligned against 
 the Socialist Party. We have never had their support 
 and do not expect it. I think that is the substance of 
 what I was trying to convey this morning." 
 
 Mr. Sutherland then asked about the status of a man 
 he had known, who fifty years ago had entered the 
 largest store in his town as a check-boy. At the end, 
 he said, he was employing thousands of people as head 
 of the establishment. "Where did that man leave the 
 working class and enter the capitalist class?" asked 
 the judge. 
 
 "When he became an employer of labor and began 
 to draw the principal amount of his income from the 
 labor of others and not from his own individual ef- 
 forts," replied Mr. Branstetter. 
 
 "There came to be between him and those with 
 whom he had worked up to that time, a state of en- 
 mity, of warfare, in your conception?" 
 
 "Maybe not a personal conscious antagonism on 
 their part, but there did certainly arise a condition 
 where their economic interests were in conflict ; their 
 interests were opposed to each other, and whether they 
 were conscious of the fact or not," was the reply. 
 
 Assemblyman Harrington, of the Committee, de- 
 clared that it seemed to him that every man in the 
 country had a chance to become wealthy if he wished,
 
 132 ALB AN Y^ 
 
 competent to support his family, send his children to 
 college, and so forth. 
 
 "It seems to me," he said, "your doctrine keeps your 
 man down there and tells him he will always be a la- 
 boring man." 
 
 On this point, Mr. Branstetter said : "The possibility 
 that large numbers of workingmen may enter the capi- 
 talist class does not alter the fact of the existence of 
 classes. What we say, is not that any individual work- 
 ingman may never become a capitalist. If I, or any 
 other member of the Socialist Party, should become a 
 capitalist, that would not remove the objection to the 
 capitalist system. The system is such that the over- 
 whelming majority of the working class can never be- 
 come capitalists, because one capitalist necessarily im- 
 plies a large number of workingmen who are exploited, 
 and it is the system we are opposed to and not the in- 
 dividual." 
 
 As to the difference between a worker and a capi- 
 talist, Mr. Branstetter explained that as long as a man 
 draws his principal income from the sale of his labor, 
 either manual or mental, he belongs to the working 
 class; and when he draws his incom-e from invest- 
 ments, from the ownership of property which other 
 people have to use, he is a member of the capitalist 
 class, even though he may continue to superintend or 
 direct his factory or mill, and although he continues to 
 do necessary work in the conduct of his industry. He 
 declared that there is an inherent conflict between the 
 economic interests of the employing class and the em- 
 ployed class. This conflict, he said, manifests itself in 
 strikes, in lock-outs, and in other industrial disturb- 
 ances. The wealth of great capitalists, he explained, 
 came from their ownership of the means of production 
 and not their superior business ability. 
 
 But Judge Sutherland objected: "If you have not
 
 THE COMMITTEE INSTRUCTED 133 
 
 got the managerial ability, the business is not worth 
 much." 
 
 "You can be an inmate of an insane asylum, and 
 your trustees can hire a manager and you can draw 
 millions," replied Mr. Branstetter. 
 
 Mr. SteJman put in a remark to the effect that 
 Harry Thaw drew more in the asylum than he did, 
 outside. 
 
 "Certainly," replied Mr. Branstetter. 
 
 "That shows that it pays to be insane," commented 
 Mr. Stedman. 
 
 The next witness examined was Mr. Julius Gerber, 
 county secretary of the Socialist Party in New York, 
 Borough of Manhattan. 
 
 After explaining how the Socialist Party put up its 
 candidates in elections, Mr. Gerber was asked whether 
 he knew of a case in which a person, not a member of 
 the dues-paying organization of the Socialist Party, 
 had filed a petition for election in the primaries as a 
 candidate of the Socialist Party, in accordance with 
 the State Primary Law. 
 
 "Yes," replied Mr. Gerber. He then made the start- 
 ling statement that the person who had so filed a pe- 
 tition as a candidate of the Socialist Party was none 
 other than Assemblyman Cuvillier, who at that mo- 
 ment was sitting in front of him as a member of the 
 Judiciary Committee which was trying the accused 
 Assemblymen, and who had distinguished himself 
 throughout the proceedings as a rampant opponent of 
 all that related to Socialism. Mr. Gerber went on to 
 say that Mr. Cuvillier had filed his petition as a can- 
 didate for member of the Assembly on the Socialist 
 Party ticket in the 30th District of New York County 
 in 1916. 
 
 "Did Mr. Cuvillier decline the nomination for the
 
 134 ALBANY 
 
 Socialist primaries in that district that year?" Mr. 
 Gerber was asked. 
 
 "He did not," was the reply. 
 
 "Did his name appear on the primary ballot on the 
 Socialist column?" 
 
 "It did." 
 
 "Did Mr. Cuvillier receive any votes on the Socialist 
 ticket?" 
 
 "Two," replied the witness. 
 
 At this statement, a ripple of laughter spread over 
 the Assembly Chamber. 
 
 Mr. Algernon Lee, educational director of the Rand 
 School of Social Science and former Socialist member 
 of the Board of Aldermen in New York City, was then 
 called to the stand by the defense. When asked to 
 state the attitude of the Socialist Party in regard to 
 the ownership of private property, Mr. Lee answered : 
 
 "Socialists try to make it clear to the public that it 
 is not the abolition of private property that is intended, 
 but the abolition of such private property as gives to 
 some of the people a control over the lives and over 
 the opportunities to work and produce a living by 
 which other people live. Private property used for 
 the satisfaction of human wants, — let us say the home, 
 furniture of the home and so on and so forth — belongs 
 to one class, and we do not seek to abolish it. To an- 
 other class belong those means of production — that 
 productive wealth which is owned by some people and 
 operated by others, yielding a profit to the owners out 
 of the product of the workers, and it is to this type of 
 private property that the Socialist platforms and dec- 
 larations refer. Only occasionally — a shorthand state- 
 ment, so to speak — is used to describe it. Can there 
 be any confusion in the matter?"
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 THE SUSPENDED ASSEMBLYMEN ON THE 
 STAND 
 
 More than four weeks had now elapsed since the 
 opening of the trial. Meantime the State was paying 
 for the heavy expenditures by the prosecution. The 
 Socialists also had been put to an expense they could 
 ill afford. During this period, the accused Assembly- 
 men had been compelled to sit in the chamber listen- 
 ing to endless arguments and debates, but without yet 
 having had a chance to speak for themselves. How- 
 ever, their turn came on February 4th. 
 
 The first of the five to be called was Louis Wald- 
 man, of the 8th District of Manhattan. After briefly 
 sketching his personal career and record in the As- 
 sembly, he delved into the legislative history of his 
 party in the Assembly of ig 18 of which he was a mem- 
 ber. He described the organization and the activities 
 of the Socialist group of ten members for that year. 
 
 While admitting that the group acted as a unit on 
 all Socialist matters, he denied the charge of the prose- 
 cution that that rule was "hide-bound." He declared 
 that the Socialist rule regarding unity did not compel 
 members of the group to vote as a unit when it was 
 their conviction that they could not agree upon any 
 given question. 
 
 "We decided in such an event to dissolve the unit 
 rule, and such an event had happened in practical ex- 
 perience in legislative work," he declared. 
 
 135
 
 136 ALBANY 
 
 When asked to cite an instance where the unit rule 
 had been broken with the consent of all the Socialist 
 members, Mr. Waldman replied: "One conspicuous 
 case was a piece of legislation pending in this House, 
 sponsored, I believe, by our worthy Chairman, Mr. 
 Martin." 
 
 Mr. Waldman then explained that it was in connec- 
 tion with the repeal of the educational law known as 
 the Tov/nship Law. On that question, he said, the 
 Republican Party had been divided, one part of it led 
 by Senator Elon R. Brown, then majority leader of 
 the Senate. The other side was led by Mr. Martin. 
 The Republican party, he related, was about evenly 
 divided, and there was also a division among the 
 Democrats, except that a majority of them were on 
 one side. The division of the Socialist caucus, he said, 
 was nine to one. On being asked as to the identity of 
 the "one," he replied that it was himself. 
 
 "I believed that the Township Law ought to be re- 
 pealed for reasons that I explained when I voted on 
 the question," he explained. 
 
 Mr. Waldman then took advantage of an opportu- 
 nity never presented to Socialist Assemblymen before, 
 and that w^as to explain the constructive side of their 
 work in the legislature. Heretofore the only oppor- 
 tunity they had enjoyed was to be the opposition. 
 The steam-roller had never permitted their legislative 
 measures to come up for careful scrutiny before the 
 House. To the edification of the Judiciary Committee, 
 of the Assembly members, of the spectators, and news- 
 paper correspondents, Mr. Waldman then related the 
 scientific methods employed by the Socialist group, 
 in their attempt to discharge their duties as the ser- 
 vants of the people. He said: 
 
 "At the very first conference, we took up the Social- 
 ist Party State platform for the year 19 16, which was
 
 THE SUSPENDED ASSEMBLYMEN 137 
 
 the platform upon which we were elected to office in 
 the year 191 7, there not being a State convention in 
 the interim. We took the platform up for the division 
 of labor, assigning to each member of the group that 
 plank of the platform in which he was particularly 
 qualified and interested." 
 
 "Was it the idea," Mr. Waldman was asked, "to 
 cover all those platforms, pledges or planks by con- 
 crete legislative measures introduced by the Socialist 
 members?" 
 
 "That v/as the idea," Mr. Waldman replied. "We 
 adjourned with this mutual understanding, that each 
 member who received an assignment for the prepara- 
 tion of legislative measures was to go out into the field 
 which that legislation was supposed to affect, and 
 study the matter, first from the literature published 
 on the subject; second, by consulting experts best 
 qualified to speak on the question; third, by personal 
 investigations. The results of such investigations were 
 then reported back to the conference. Then the con- 
 ference took up, section by section, the proposed piece 
 of legislation, and modified it or suggested new ideas. 
 
 "Again, the matter would go to the person in charge 
 of that particular legislation, and the person would 
 finally beat the bill into shape, then report it back to 
 the conference for approval, and after it had been so 
 approved, it would be introduced by the member of 
 the group. 
 
 "The first bill that was assigned to me for introduc- 
 tion was a food and fuel act. The object of the bill 
 was to relieve New York City in particular, and New 
 York State in general, from a great fuel crisis which 
 was coming upon the State as a result of the increas- 
 ingly high cost of living of the necessaries of life. The 
 situation that existed at that time in the city was such 
 that the children, particularly of the districts which we
 
 138 ALBANY 
 
 represented — the working class section of the city — 
 were undernourished. 
 
 "The school children and those children v/ho were 
 not yet old enough to go to school were being under- 
 nourished, by reason of the fact that the earnings of 
 the family were not sufficient to meet the onrushing 
 rise in the cost of living. The purpose of the bill was 
 to bring relief to this situation. 
 
 "In the first place, I consulted all the reports that 
 were available on the subject, rendered by committees 
 or commissions appointed by the mayor of the City of 
 New York, or the State Legislature. At that time, 
 there were two reports particularly which were valu- 
 able in the preparation of the bill. One was the 
 Weeks* report, a report named after Senator Weeks 
 of this legislature. Another one was the report ren- 
 dered to Mayor Mitchel by George W. Perkins. These 
 two reports were the latest reports on the subject. 
 There were about eleven investigating commissions in 
 the past seven years engaged on the question. 
 
 "I then consulted experts in the trade of production 
 and distribution of food. I held hearings at which I 
 called wholesalers, retailers, commissionmen, jobbers, 
 sub jobbers, warehousemen — I called them to my own 
 home, and conducted hearings in the presence of some 
 of the members of the group. They voluntarily ap- 
 peared. They gave me their opinions in the matter; 
 they gave me their experience ; they told me the weak- 
 nesses of the present method of distribution ; they sug- 
 gested remedies out of their own experience." 
 
 "About how many persons did you thus interview?" 
 
 "At least eighteen," said Mr. Waldman. 
 
 "In the course of what period of time?" 
 
 "In the course of about a week." 
 
 "Working practically continuously?'* 
 
 "Working continuously all day."
 
 THE SUSPENDED ASSEMBLYMEN 139 
 
 "Then what did you do?" 
 
 "Then consulted such legal talent as I could, I 
 consulted these experts for the legal side and sociologi- 
 cal side of the legislation. I then went out among the 
 farms. I put in a week of traveling from farm to farm, 
 to find out the complaints the farmers had to make. I 
 was particularly struck to see from reports that the 
 farmers were leaving the farm; that they refused to 
 stay on the soil ; that they refused to continue to pro- 
 duce; that there was inefficiency in farm production. 
 I went particularly to milk producers; I wanted to 
 find out what they were complaining of. They told 
 me, and made certain suggestions to be embodied in 
 the legislative act. I first reported in raw shape the 
 material to the conference ; they then delegated me to 
 draft a bill, which I did, and it was subsequently ap- 
 proved by the group. This was on January 8, 1918." 
 
 Mr. Waldman then gave a summary of the provi- 
 sions of the bill mentioned. 
 
 His testimony made it increasingly obvious that the 
 Socialist Assemblymen had not come to Albany with 
 the destructive purposes accredited to them by the 
 prosecution, but on the contrary, had labored with a 
 view of relieving distressing conditions in a construc- 
 tive way. He explained that his food bill was "based 
 on the proposition that the high cost of living is caused 
 by three elements: First, inefficiency in production; 
 second, inefficiency and waste in distribution ; third, 
 unnecessary profits to various groups handling the 
 food, and so the bill provides for the relief or the set- 
 tlement of these three problems. In the first place, it 
 provides for the stimulation of production. The farm- 
 ers to-day are compelled to pay excessive prices for 
 food, feed, seed, fertilizer and machinery, paid to pri- 
 vate speculators and private owners. Under the bill, 
 the State would establish a series of department stores
 
 I40 ALBANY 
 
 all through the farming sections, where the farmers 
 could buy these things at cost; cost to be construed 
 as being the purchase price the State pays at the point 
 where it buys, plus deterioration of the plant; plusi 
 whatever loss is incidental to the business; but no' 
 profit to be made on these things. It proposes to elim- 
 inate waste and chaos in distribution. 
 
 "The reports made by commissions of this House 
 are that it costs more to transport a pound of food, 
 when it lands at the port of New York, to the house 
 of the consumer than it does to transport it from Buf- 
 falo to New York. The condition of distribution in 
 New York is recognized by all investigators as chaotic 
 and anarchistic. Under the provision of this bill, a 
 system of terminal markets would be created, equipped 
 with storage houses, with refrigeration facilities, in 
 many cases with facilities to manufacture, to take care 
 of seasonable and perishable goods. This would elimi- 
 nate the losses and waste due to our present system of 
 distribution. 
 
 "This bill also provides for the elimination of the 
 middlemen, such as the jobbers, subjobbers, wholesal- 
 ers, retailers, commisionmen, warehouse keepers, all of 
 whom add a profit to every article of food that comes 
 from the producer to the consumer. This would be 
 estabHshed by the institution of a system of distribu- 
 ting stores, to be operated by the municipalities, where 
 food and milk and all things necessary for the people 
 to live upon, would be sold to the people at cost." 
 
 He explained that the bill had been killed in Com- 
 mittee; and that notwithstanding the continuous rise 
 in the cost of living to this day, no bill had ever been 
 reported out which in any measure would relieve the 
 conditions responsible for suffering among all the peo- 
 ple in the State, chiefly the workers. 
 
 He then explained, one by one, the nature of the
 
 THE SUSPENDED ASSEMBLYMEN 141 
 
 seventy-four bills which had been introduced by the 
 Socialists in the Assembly of 19 18. These bills re- 
 lated to social insurance ; conservation of natural re- 
 sources ; conservation of human resources ; radical im- 
 provements in the labor law; protection of workers 
 against the perils of fire and machinery ; shorter hours 
 and a minimum wage ; public ownership of public utili- 
 ties ; and other legislation tending to protect the work- 
 ers in their right to grow and develop to the full dig- 
 nity of manhood and benefiting the people of the 
 State. All these bills, with the exception of a minor 
 one, he declared, had been killed in Committee. 
 
 His frank criticism of the indifference and negli- 
 gence of the Assembly to the welfare of the people, 
 was received with astonishment by the Committee. 
 
 Mr. Waldman then referred to a speech he made in 
 Brooklyn on January 7, 1919, a passage from v/hich the 
 prosecution had sought to use against him. That pas- 
 sage read as follows : 
 
 "To-day in Russia, they have founded a new state 
 which is a state based upon the divine right of hu- 
 manity ... it says to the v/orld, that the function of 
 the state is not to be a mere policeman, to be the 
 jailer and the judge, and the tax-collector and the con- 
 script ; but the function of the state is to organize the 
 industries, the wealth, the resources, human and ma- 
 terial, for the purpose of establishing things as they 
 should be." 
 
 The prosecution had taken this to mean that Mr. 
 Waldman had advocated a Soviet system for the 
 United States. Another passage of the same speech 
 about Russia which had provoked the ire of the prose- 
 cution was as follows : 
 
 "They said to a man, 'You either go to work or 
 starve.' In America, the situation is reversed. The 
 millions and millions who work are starved, and those
 
 14^ ALBANY 
 
 who do not work live on the luxuries of capital. 
 Which do you prefer? Here is presented the problem: 
 Shall the majority of people who work, starve? Or 
 shall the few who do not work, starve if they refuse 
 to work? The answer is very simple, and it is that the 
 new state, the Socialist state, the Socialist conception 
 of justice and right and ethics and morality, is that 
 they who toil and labor and sweat and produce and 
 make and create, shall enjoy the product of their own 
 labor. 
 
 "If you commemorate the birthday of the Russian 
 Revolution, if you revere your Russian comrades, if 
 you applaud Lenine cind Trotsky, if you believe in the 
 worthiness of their cause, in the accomplishment of 
 their work, then it is your duty to enter the Socialist 
 movement in America, to make it more like Russia is 
 to-day. 
 
 "We must choose between two alternatives: either 
 Russia lives and conquers the world — not Russia con- 
 quers the world, but the present ideals and philosophy 
 worthy of the Russian Government conquer the world 
 — either that ; or the ideals and philosophy of Gary and 
 Wilson and Palmer, Lloyd George and Clemenceau 
 are to conquer the world. Between the two, for my 
 part, and for the part of thousands of Socialists now 
 battling in America to-day, we choose to stand by the 
 ideas and philosophy and program and principles of 
 Lenine and Trotsky as those we approve." 
 
 Mr. Waldman was asked what he meant by "enter- 
 ing the Socialist movement in America to make it more 
 like Russia is to-day." 
 
 He replied: "I meant it in connection with what I 
 said preceding that phrase; namely, that those who 
 work shall receive the full product of their toil. Those 
 who do not work shall be compelled to go to work to 
 earn their living. A situation in Russia exists where
 
 THE SUSPENDED ASSEMBLYMEN 143 
 
 those who do not work, by reason of ownership ol 
 mines and mills and factories and banks, are put to 
 work; and if they are not willing to go to work, they 
 starve. I allege that here we have a reverse economic 
 condition: that millions who work, as a rule, starve; 
 and those who do not work, live upon the luxuries. I 
 say in that respect, I prefer the condition that exists 
 in Russia to-day." 
 
 Mr. Hillquit concluded his examination by asking, 
 "You stand for industrial democracy as against indus- 
 trial autocracy?" • 
 
 "That is my position," replied Mr. Waldman. 
 
 Mr. Waldman was kept on the stand for two and 
 one-half days. During that time he was closely ques- 
 tioned by all the committeemen, and by Mr. Conboy 
 for the prosecution. In teply to the insinuation that, 
 as an adopted son of America, he had not shown hi% 
 gratitude, Mr. Waldman replied that he was indeed 
 grateful; that he was proud of America; and that he 
 had endeavored to show his gratitude by taking part in 
 the Socialist movement and the labor movement for 
 the purpose of making them stronger, healthier, and 
 more effective, that they might do the largest good to 
 the greatest number of American people. His personal 
 effort, he explained, had always been directed toward 
 constructive work for the benefit of the country. By 
 the country he explained that he meant the people ; he 
 did not mean the economically dominant or ruling 
 class which always sought to identify itself as the 
 country. 
 
 On cross-examination, Mr. Waldman was re- 
 quested to state his position on war. He said he was 
 opposed to all wars. He referred to an anti-enlistment 
 pledge which he had signed in the latter part of 19 16. 
 Mr. Conboy of the prosecution Vvranted to know how 
 Mr. Waldman could reconcile with that the oath of al-
 
 144 ALBANY 
 
 legiance he had taken upon becoming a citizen of the 
 United States. 
 
 "At the time these slips were being circulated," said 
 Mr. Waldman, "the country was divided into two 
 camps politically; one advocating military prepared- 
 ness, the other opposing military preparedness. One 
 side was trying to force the President of the United 
 States to ask Congress to finance greater military 
 preparedness; the other opposed that view, trying to 
 keep the President in his original anti-military po- 
 sition. These were not small groups, but large move- 
 ments, lined up on both sides. Those who were in- 
 terested in establishing a larger army and a larger 
 navy were circulating petitions, asking everybody to 
 sign them, then forwarded them to the President, 
 pointing out to him how many citizens of the United 
 States demanded preparedness. The same was done 
 by the other side. This was long before the United 
 States entered the war. 
 
 "It was at a time when we maintained neutrality. 
 It was at a time when the President made his cam- 
 paign for reelection on the slogan "He kept us out of 
 war," with the implication that he WAS going to keep 
 us out. It was the time when President Wilson was 
 elected against Charles Evans Hughes on that slogan. 
 It was under those circumstances and even prior to 
 this, that I signed this pledge. I do not concede that 
 this pledge in any way, shape or form violates my oath 
 of allegiance to the United States. I am ready to de- 
 fend the United States and its institutions against 
 enemies internally and externally, and I believe that 
 those who advocated military preparedness, the arm- 
 ing of the nation to its teeth, are those who are leading 
 the country to destruction and ruin. It is my convic- 
 tion that those who advocate large inilitary establish- 
 ments in any country are the enemies of the country.
 
 THE SUSPENDED ASSEMBLYMEN 145 
 
 Civilizations in the past which have rehed upon mili- 
 tarism have been destroyed by militarism. For these 
 reasons, and with these convictions, I signed the 
 pledge." 
 
 "Norw," asked Mr. Conboy, "in this pledge taken by 
 you, signed by you, after you had sworn that you 
 would support and defend the constitution and laws 
 and the United States against all enemies, foreign and 
 domestic, you say that you pledged yourself against 
 enlistment as a volunteer for any military or naval 
 purpose in an international war, offensive or defen- 
 sive; now, what do you mean by a defensive war in 
 that pledge?" 
 
 "I had in mind," said Mr. Waldman, "the situation 
 that existed in the world at that time. Every military 
 country was pretending to fight a defensive war. With 
 the German Kaiser and his whole military machine 
 saying to his people that he *was fighting a defensive 
 war; with Czar Nicholas in proclamations telling the 
 people of Russia that he was fighting a defensive war, 
 with England and France insisting upon the same 
 thing, I felt my position was sound and my name went 
 down to that pledge." 
 
 Assemblyman Evans, a member of the Judiciary 
 Committee, here interrupted, saying, "Did not you 
 form a judgment as to which of those Czars or Kaisers 
 were telling the truth or not?" 
 
 Mr. Waldman replied : "On this I shall say that this 
 war was prepared by the social, economic and politi- 
 cal forces operating for the past twenty or thirty 
 years. Since the beginning of this century Europe has 
 experienced six actual wars and four threatened wars. 
 With such an experience in a period of twenty short 
 years, I, for one, could not make up my mind that, 
 had the Kaiser not done this or that, war would not 
 have broken out. War was the logical outcome of the
 
 146 ALBANY 
 
 military preparation in all camps; of the search for 
 colonies in all camps; of the search for possibilities 
 of investment in all camps ; in the secret diplomacy in 
 all camps, in the desire of bankers to seek opportuni- 
 ties to invest their money in all camps ; any excuse 
 would have been a good excuse for them to start this 
 conflagration." 
 
 To the interminable questionings of the prosecution, 
 and the members of the Committee, Mr. Waldman in- 
 sisted that the Socialist Party always recognized the 
 fact when war is declared, but reserves to itself the 
 right to oppose war as it has opposed all wars in the 
 past. 
 
 Assemblyman Charles Solomon of the 23rd District, 
 Kings County, then took the stand. He stated briefly 
 his personal career and explained the bills he had 
 sponsored in the Assembly during his service the 
 previous year. On cross examination. Judge Suther- 
 land, of the prosecution's counsel, plimged into Mr. 
 Solomon's war record. 
 
 "You openly supported the St. Louis resolution, did 
 you not, in many speeches?" asked Mr. Sutherland. 
 
 "As openly as I found it necessary," replied Mr. 
 Solomon. 
 
 "Did you not say here, when you were under the 
 friendly examination of your own counsel, that you 
 said openly that you supported the St. Louis plat- 
 form?" 
 
 "Why surely," repHed Mr. Solomon, "I said then 
 and I say now that I supported the St. Louis plat- 
 form." 
 
 "You do not want to edge away from that, do you?" 
 
 "No, I do not edge away from it," said Mr. Solomon 
 emphatically. 
 
 Taking up another point in the St. Louis platform, 
 Mr. Sutherland then questioned Mr. Solomon as to
 
 THE SUSPENDED ASSEMBLYMEN 147 
 
 the "false doctrine of national patriotism versus the 
 ideal of international working class solidarity." 
 
 To this Mr. Solomon replied : 
 
 "I say that there is a false doctrine of national pa- 
 triotism. I know it. I think I can demonstrate it, 
 and I will do all in my power in the future, I hope, to 
 teach the workers of this country that there is a false 
 doctrine of national patriotism. I will not confine my 
 conduct in negative action. I will at the same time 
 endeavor to acquaint them with what I understand is 
 the true doctrine of national patriotism, and I will 
 characterize any doctrine of national patriotism which 
 is in the interests of the preservation, augmentation of 
 the income of vested interests and which sends the 
 workers in this or any other country into bloody 
 fratricidal strife — I will characterize such a doctrine of 
 national patriotism as a false doctrine." 
 
 Judge Sutherland's next question was: 
 
 "When, as the result of those appeals to national 
 patriotism, our boys enlisted and marched towards 
 the shores and towards the camps, did the Socialist 
 Party encourage them to follow their flag, or did they 
 stand aside and wave the red flag and sing the In- 
 ternationale?" 
 
 In reply Mr. Solomon declared: 
 
 "I never saw them stand aside and wave the red flag 
 and sing the Internationale. I never saw them do 
 anything to discourage them. I know they actively 
 advised them to obey the law. I know many Social- 
 ists in my district who were heart and soul opposed 
 to the war, went into service and went across and* 
 many returned, and some have not. Inasmuch as I 
 believe the war to be a capitalistic war, I, with a heavy 
 heart, registered and complied with the law, and if it 
 were not for the fact that I have a wife and two chil- 
 dren, I would undoubtedly have been selected and I
 
 148 ALBANY 
 
 would have gone forth, obedient to the law, but be- 
 lieving all the time that my life might be sacrificed 
 in the interests of vested interests here and else- 
 where." 
 
 Quoting at length from the St. Louis platform, Mr. 
 Sutherland wanted to know whether the Socialist po- 
 sition was that the American interest in the European 
 war was instigated by predatory capitalists. 
 
 Mr. Solomon answered: 
 
 "I will say this, that I believe that given large capi- 
 talist interests with direct, pronounced, and over- 
 whelming interest in a given war, that interest being 
 an economic interest, you will have a powerful in- 
 centive to impel these capitalist groups upon a course 
 which would express itself in propaganda to foment 
 war, and once having succeeded in fomenting war — 
 in a general sort of way, let me give you a little in- 
 formation along the lines that disclosures have been 
 made in European Parliaments, and by European pub- 
 licists to this effect: that there exist in Europe, in- 
 ternational rings for the purpose of fomenting interna- 
 tional rivalries and that these rings are directly and in- 
 directly associated with persons who are profiteers in 
 war goods before wars, during wars, and after wars, 
 ammunition manufacturers on both sides. And if I 
 have the time, I will bring here for the Committee, 
 so it might go into the record if the Committee so de- 
 sires, disclosures to that effect, by well-known pub- 
 licists and parliamentarians in Europe." 
 
 Replying to the charges made by the prosecution as 
 testified by Miss Chivers, Assemblyman Solomon 
 flatly denied her accusation, saying, that if in truth 
 he had spat on the United States flag, "I would not be 
 here." 
 
 After being under fire for two hours and a half, Mr.
 
 THE SUSPENDED ASSEMBLYMEN 149 
 
 Solomon left the stand, and the final witness was 
 called : 
 
 Assemblyman August Claessens, from the 17th Dis- 
 trict of Manhattan, took the stand. His appearance 
 was the signal for much laughter in the Assembly 
 Chamber. Mr. Claessens had enjoyed the reputation 
 throughout previous terms of being a humorist, and 
 his round, bald head, and genial countenance served 
 to strengthen this belief. His short stature was in 
 striking contrast to his two hundred-pound opponent, 
 Senator Elon R. Brown, who did his best to trip the 
 Assemblyman. For an hour and a half, the House 
 was kept rocking with laughter. 
 
 He explained his various activities in his two years 
 of service in the Assembly, including the hundreds of 
 bills that he had voted for, and the hundreds that he 
 had opposed because he was sure they were against 
 the people's interests. He declared that of all the nu- 
 merous bills he had introduced, designed to be of bene- 
 fit to the people of the State, not one had been al- 
 lowed to come out of Committee, or had been passed 
 on the floor. 
 
 Assemblymen Orr and DeWitt, the two remaining 
 unseated Socialists, were not called to the stand, inas- 
 much as no accusation had been made against them 
 individually.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE SUMMING UP FOR THE DEFENSE- 
 MR. HILLQUIT'S SPEECH 
 
 Soon after the testimony of the five accused As- 
 semblymen had been completed, Mr. Hillquit entered 
 upon his summing up for the defense. 
 
 He spoke for more than seven hours, and was lis- 
 tened to throughout with the keenest attention. His 
 speech was afterwards characterized, even by oppo- 
 nents of the Socialists, as one of the ablest speeches 
 ever heard in the Assembly Chamber. It was a mas- 
 terful tying together of the many and diverse threads 
 that had been allowed to run through the testimony 
 introduced in the trial. It was not so much a politi- 
 cal speech as a survey of the entire Socialist move- 
 ment. It dealt not only with the matter at issue, but 
 with history, sociology and economics. At its con- 
 clusion, Mr. Hillquit received congratulations from 
 every side. 
 
 At the outset Mr. Hillquit referred to the extraordi- 
 narily wide range of testimony introduced concerning 
 all subjects, some relevant, and some irrelevant, so 
 that in summing up, counsel was confronted with 
 about 2,000 printed pages, referring to almost every 
 imaginable matter that could in any way be connected 
 with the Socialist movement or ascribed to the So- 
 cialist Party. 
 
 After reciting the charges laid down in the resolu- 
 tion of suspension, he pointed out that a new and sup- 
 
 150
 
 • DEFENSE SUMMING-UP 151 
 
 piemental charge had been made by the Chairman, Mr. 
 Martin, in his statement at the opening of the trial. 
 
 "Here," he said, "for the first time the theory of a 
 conspiracy is sprung upon us. In the original reso- 
 lution these five members of the Assembly were 
 charged with membership in a political party and it 
 was claimed that that political party had rendered 
 itself unfit for membership of a political community 
 in the country by its conduct." 
 
 After referring to the "desperate lengths to which 
 the framers of these charges went when they prepared 
 the supplemental charges," Mr. Hillquit went on: 
 
 "The entire supplemental statement, inasmuch as it 
 is supposed to be part of this proceeding, in so far as 
 it is supposed to constitute a basis of additional evi- 
 dence against these Assembljrmen not in the charges, 
 should be disregarded from the beginning to the end; 
 should be thrown out of your minds and from your 
 consideration, together with all the testimony based 
 upon it. 
 
 "The charges made against us, the charges on which 
 we were summoned here to defend ourselves before 
 you, are charges formulated by this Assembly. If 
 any additional charges were to be made against us, 
 there was only one way of effecting it. The Assem- 
 bly could amend or supplement its resolution. You, 
 gentleimen of the Committee, could not do it. The 
 agent can certainly not extend the authority conferred 
 upon him by the principal. You have no legal right 
 to add any charges. But, if there was, at least, a sem- 
 blance of legality or propriety in those additional 
 charges made by the Committee in the statement read 
 by the Chairman, there certainly was none in the 
 further additional charges made by counsel for the 
 Committee ; and they have made additional charges. 
 
 "It seems to be a general 'free for all' proceeding.
 
 152 ALBANY 
 
 Here are five men, brought before a court on some- 
 thing or other. Everybody who feels like licking thetn 
 or hitting them, goes on and does so. 
 
 "Counsel in submitting their so-called brief at the 
 close of their case, I repeat, made definite and adi 
 ditional new charges against these five men. They 
 are : first, that the provision contained in the national 
 constitution of the Socialist Party prohibiting mem- 
 bers of the party from voting for any appropriation 
 for military or naval purposes or for war, is in con- 
 flict with the provision of the Constitution of the State 
 of New York, which enjoins the Legislature to make 
 annual appropriation for the maintenance of the mili- 
 tia; and that consequently that fact disqualifies these 
 five men from taking seats in the Assembly. I am not 
 going at this time into the merits of this contention. 
 We will do that later, but I call your attention to the 
 fact that this is distinctly a new charge, not contained 
 in the resolution, not contained even in the Chairman's 
 statement, but wholly invented by counsel for the 
 Committee. 
 
 "Likewise, the charge that the Socialist Party has 
 for its purpose the substitution of the Soviet form of 
 government in the United States — that was not con- 
 tained in any of the previous charges. That was dis- 
 covered by counsel for the Committee; likewise, that 
 the Socialist Party is an anti-national party; and 
 finally, counsel for the Committee take it upon them- 
 selves to prefer, formulate and state specific charges 
 of individual misconduct against these five Assembly- 
 men. I call attention to the fact that when the resolu- 
 tion was adopted there was no such charge, or shadow 
 of a charge, in it. But in order to conform the charges 
 to the evidence improperly introduced, specific charges 
 are made against each one of the five Assemblymen; 
 and the learned counsel for the Committee even goes
 
 DEFENSE SUMMING-UP 153 
 
 so far as to suggest that these five men are guilty of 
 a violation or violations of the Espionage Law, and 
 should be convicted under the terms of the Espionage 
 Law. 
 
 "To what extent counsel for the Committee have 
 gone in the preparations and formulation of charges 
 against these five men can be best judged by this : that 
 they have had the hardihood to take up the records of 
 these men in previous sessions of the Assembly and 
 to make that a basis of criticism. If ever there was 
 a sacred right recognized in the political fabric of 
 our country, it is the untrammeled right of an elected 
 representative to any legislature, State or National, to 
 speak his mind freely and according to the dictates of 
 his conscience, to vote and act upon all measures be- 
 fore him as an absolutely free and untrammeled agent. 
 And our constitution specifically provides that the acts 
 and votes of members of the legislature should not be 
 questioned anywhere else in any proceeding of any 
 kind. 
 
 "Nor is that all. Counsel goes so far as to make 
 this charge with reference to August Claessens, that 
 during his terms of office, he introduced affirmative 
 legislation of an offensive character. Think of it! 
 Have they come down to the point where a measure 
 introduced by a member of your House or of any other 
 legislative body — which to him we must assume, 
 represents a measure of public welfare — that, not per- 
 sonal misconduct, not personal misbehavior, but a 
 measure of affirmative legislation, subsequently hap- 
 pens not to meet with the approval of learned coun- 
 sel for your Committee, is made a basis of a proceed- 
 ing for their removal from the Assembly? 
 
 "I merely point that out to show to your Commit- 
 tee the length to which this modification of charges 
 has gone, the piling of charges upon charges; and I
 
 154 ALBANY 
 
 again respectfully repeat that with respect to all these 
 new charges discovered by counsel for your Commit- 
 tee, they are not before you. You have no right to 
 go into them. You have no authority from your par- 
 ent body for it. You must disregard them and dis- 
 regard all the evidence in connection with them. You 
 know this proceeding otherwise will certainly set a 
 precedent, a very novel precedent in the jurisprudence 
 of this country. 
 
 "Imagine for a moment a defendant charged with 
 larceny brought into trial. The District Attorney tries 
 the case upon an indictment of forgery. The judge 
 submits it to the jury upon the theory of ARSON, 
 and perhaps the jury brings out a verdict of AS- 
 SAULT AND BATTERY. This is practically what 
 you have before you, for the evidence, no doubt, in 
 that connection would show that, even with all this 
 latitude, with all this superstructure of various 
 charges, the evidence is not confined to the charges. 
 
 "Now with reference to that evidence, there is one 
 point I wish to make, and, gentlemen of the Commit- 
 tee, I wish to impress that upon your minds as 
 strongly as I can. . . . The evidence so absolutely dis- 
 torts the vision of those who read it as to the subject 
 with which it deals, as to be absolutely worthless and 
 worse. My criticism is based upon two points, not so 
 much on the point that utterances, platforms, declara- 
 tions and other statements of the party or certain in- 
 dividuals have been misconstrued or misread; that 
 may happen ; but there is another important point : the 
 testimony is so one-sided as absolutely to blur your 
 vision. Let me tell you what I mean by it. 
 
 "The Socialist movement, in its modern phases, is 
 about 70 or 75 years old. It has produced a literature 
 of hundreds upon hundreds of volumes in all modem 
 languages. The Socialist movement in the United
 
 DEFENSE SUMMING-UP 155 
 
 States is almost half a century old. The present party 
 is twenty years old. It has had numerous conven- 
 tions, national, state and local. It has adopted hun- 
 dreds of official documents of all kinds. Its press is 
 large. 
 
 "You take, for instance, The Call alone, which has 
 been cited here so often. It is a daily. There are 365 
 editions of it every year. It is in its thirteenth year 
 of existence. Consequently it has published roughly 
 about 4,500 numbers. Each of them contains an aver- 
 age of from four to five editorials or contributed ar- 
 ticles. Consequently that paper alone has published 
 about 20,000 different editorials, expressions and con- 
 tributed articles. Now, this is only one paper. 
 
 "The Socialist Party at all times has had an average 
 of about 100 papers, daily, weekly, monthly, in Eng- 
 lish and other languages, supporting its policies. 
 Imagine how many statements of all kinds have been 
 made. In its campaigns almost every member of the 
 Socialist Party is a speaker, a propagandist. Millions 
 of Socialist speeches have been made in this country 
 within the last couple of decades. Now, here is my 
 point: Every indiscreet statement that creeps into 
 our literature, our press, or our public forum, every 
 foolish, irresponsible statement — and such are bound 
 to occur occasionally — are at once seized upon by our 
 professional opponents, the £Uiti-Socialist League, the 
 National Civic Federation, etc., and are immortalized. 
 They are transm.itted from book to book and from 
 paper to paper, and then all are collected and turned 
 over, ready-made, to a Lusk Committee or any other 
 committee that investigates great social problems. 
 
 "Learned counsel on the other side, I make bold to 
 state, have practically every incriminating utterance of 
 any kind ever made by the Socialist Partj^ or any of 
 its subdivisions or any of its members, or any of its ad-
 
 156 ALBANY 
 
 herents, or of any one who ever called himself a So- 
 cialist. And what do they produce before you? 
 Twenty, thirty, forty utterances, and they ask you to 
 judge the character of the Sociahst Party by these. 
 What becomes of the millions, the thousands and hun- 
 dreds of thousands of other expressions of the Social- 
 ist Party which are perfectly proper and which are 
 not brought up here? Do you think you can get a real 
 conception of the Socialist movement by reading these 
 conglomerations, these collections of slip-ups, if you 
 want, and nothing else? nothing of the whole litera- 
 ture, proclamations, speeches and statements of the 
 Socialist Party? 
 
 "Imagine I am a foreign correspondent in the 
 United States and I am reporting upon conditions in 
 the United States. I am perfectly truthful except that 
 I select my material. I don't care for marriages. I 
 don't care for births. I don't care for parties. I don't 
 care for ordinary politics. I don't care for the ordi- 
 nary every-day life of the United States; but every 
 crime, every murder, every assault, every lynching, 
 every boycott, every political scandal, I report at once. 
 In every case, I am painstakingly truthful. V/hat con- 
 ception will they get on the other side? Why, the 
 United States is a country of perpetual war. There is 
 nothing but crimes committed there. It is the most 
 lawless nation existing. 
 
 "Would that be correct? No. Would they have a 
 right to arrive at those conclusions upon a basis of 
 this testimony before them? Yes. Is the testimony 
 false? Not formally so, but actually it is. It is true 
 in the dry word. It is a lie in its soul and substance 
 all through. That is, gentlemen, the nature of the tes- 
 timony before you. 
 
 "Think of it ! To drag in here the one indiscreet ar- 
 ticle written by Victor L. Berger, in 1909, eleven years
 
 DEFENSE SUMMING-UF 157 
 
 ago, a man sixty years old, editor of a daily paper, 
 writing day after day ; he, once in a moment of caprice 
 or whim, as it may happen, writes one article which 
 makes him the butt of his friends. It does not repre- 
 sent him truly. It is not a very incriminating article, 
 if you read it, knowing Victor L. Berger, but it con- 
 tains some extravagant statements. Gentlemen, which 
 one of you as a professional writer does not have one 
 such slip-up on his conscience in a career of thirty 
 or forty years of daily newspaper work? From that 
 you are asked to infer not only that Victor L. Berger 
 is a firebrand — and he is just the opposite — ^but that 
 the party endorses and approves of that one little slip 
 of his and that we stand for violent revolution. 
 
 "There is a man by the name of Perrin, who, per- 
 haps indiscreetly, is engaged on The Call. He writes 
 an article, a shocking article, I admit. We all admit 
 it. We read it the next day, and the telephone wire 
 of The Call begins to get busy. How does an article 
 of this kind come to be printed in The Call? The man 
 is fired, but the article is here, and it is asked of you 
 that you make it a basis of decision as to the quali- 
 fication, the eligibility, of these five men, who at the 
 time were not of age, and who at no time approved of 
 the article; because the Socialist Party distinctly dis- 
 approved of it. 
 
 "You produce every kind of gossip that you can 
 possibly get. There is a man who ran against one of 
 these men and was beaten by him. Naturally he is 
 somev/hat sore, and he has certain opinions about his 
 opponent. He is allowed to testify as to them. Then 
 there is another man who goes around, heckles speak- 
 ers and gets answers. He makes no notes. The 
 speeches are oral. Of course, he comes here and gives 
 his version of it, and it goes in. 
 
 "Finally you call an 'expert,' an 'expert on Social-
 
 158 ALBANY 
 
 ism,* the only expert you gentlemen of counsel for the 
 Committee have called. You know Socialism by this 
 time is not a hidden mystery. It is a perfectly well- 
 known subject. The libraries are filled with it. It is 
 a science. It is taught in the colleges and universities 
 as part of political economy. Whether you agree or 
 disagree with it, it is there. You want authorities, 
 non-Socialists. Why don't you call some one who has 
 made a study of it; call the professor of any univer- 
 sity, a non-Socialist who knows the subject — Profes- 
 sor Ely or Professor Cummings? Instead, there is a 
 certain man, a professional anti-Socialist. He knows 
 his Socialism from the various excerpts I have referred 
 to and from talks to individual Socialists. He comes 
 before you, and you ask him what is the Socialist at- 
 titude on religion? 'Oh, hostile!' How do you know? 
 *I spoke to thousands of Socialists about it!' And if 
 you do not believe him, all you have to do is to call 
 those thousands of unnamed Socialists in rebuttal ! 
 
 "You might as well take a policeman who makes 
 love to the maid of a great authority on geology and 
 call him as an authority on geology, because he knows 
 all the kitchen gossip of an authority on geology. That 
 is precisely what Collins did. To all those who know 
 anything about law, that is a joke. In a serious body 
 of this kind, in a proceeding of this kind, to introduce 
 these Socialist or anti-Socialist rumors as authorities 
 when you could have had so many competent authori- 
 ties, by no means pro-Socialist, — people who have 
 made a study of it, and who have the proper qualifica- 
 tions ! 
 
 "All that testimony has introduced ill-defined or 
 non-defined charges; and we are now called upon to 
 meet all of them indiscriminately." 
 
 After pointing out that many of the charges and 
 much of the evdence produced had been irrelevant
 
 DEFENSE SUMMING-UP 159 
 
 to the issues involved in the proceedings, and that they 
 were outside and beyond the scope of the Committee's 
 authority, Mr. Hillquit then summarized the charges 
 against the accused Assemblymen under eight main 
 heads. 
 
 "First: that the Socialist Party is a revolutionary 
 organization. 
 
 "Second : that it seeks to attain its ends by violence. 
 
 "Third: that it does not sincerely believe in politi- 
 cal action, and that its politics is only a blind or 
 camouflage. 
 
 "Fourth: that it is unpatriotic and disloyal. 
 
 "Fifth: that it is unduly controlled— or that it un- 
 duly controls — public officials elected on its ticket. 
 
 "Sixth: that it owes allegiance to a foreign power, 
 known as the Internationale. 
 
 "Seventh: that it approves of the Soviet Govern- 
 ment of Russia and seeks to introduce a similar regime 
 in the United States ; and, finally : 
 
 "Eighth: that the Assemblymen personally opposed 
 prosecution of the war and gave aid and comfort to 
 the enemy. 
 
 "I wish to call your attention at this time to the 
 fact that the only charge against the Assemblymen 
 individually, improperly introduced as we claim it to 
 be, is the last or eighth charge. To this charge I leave 
 my colleague, Mr. Stedman, to reply. Personally, I am 
 concerned in this argument with the first seven 
 charges. All of these charges, if you examine them 
 carefully, are distinctly charges against the Socialist 
 Party as such. 
 
 "In other words, it is the Socialist Party of the 
 United States that is on trial before you. On its quali- 
 fication to be a member of the political community of 
 this country, your decision will depend. Hence, it is 
 very important for your committee to know some-
 
 i6o ALBANY 
 
 thing more or less definite about this Socialist Party 
 which is on trial before you. 
 
 "The first charge is that it is a revolutionary organi- 
 zation. This charge appears in the resolution of the 
 Assembly itself, v/hich recites that the Socialist Party 
 at its national convention in August, 19 19, did pledge 
 itself and its members to the furtherance of the in- 
 ternational Socialist revolution. Then also, there is 
 your Chairman's statement in three specific forms: 
 First, that the Assemblymen, with others, are engaged 
 in a conspiracy to subvert the due administration of 
 law; to destroy the right to hold and own private 
 property honestly acquired; to weaken the family tie, 
 which they assert is the seed of capitalism ; to destroy 
 the influence of the Church; that the platform of the 
 Socialist Party calls for the complete destruction of 
 our form of Government; finally that the Socialist 
 Party is in favor of absolute substitution of minority 
 for majority rule. 
 
 "We come thus squarely to the question: What is 
 the Socialist Party of the United States? What are 
 its aims, its objects and its methods? 
 
 "I think this is highly important for all of you to 
 understand that, or at least our view of it. It would 
 be somewhat too simple, almost childish, naive, to 
 describe the Socialist movement in this country, in 
 every country in the world, a movement which has 
 sprung up many decades ago, a movement v/hich has 
 proceeded and is growing and has now gone forward, 
 a movement which is in full control of a number of 
 very important countries of Europe — I would say it 
 would be childish to ascribe it to the machinations, to 
 the malevolence or malice, of a few agitators who just 
 go out in order to create disturbances and to create 
 a movement of opposition. 
 
 "A movement of such age and such achievements,
 
 DEFENSE SUMMING-UP i6i 
 
 as well as dimensions, must have some more real, 
 some more rational cause; and I believe that if the 
 special legislative committee wanted to investigate 
 into the cause and conditions of radical movements 
 in this country — and your Committee also — and would 
 start with this inquiry : 'What causes, what produces, 
 the Socialist movement here or elsewhere?' — you 
 would come very much closer to a scientific, satisfac- 
 tory and rational solution of the question confronting 
 you. 
 
 "We Socialists differ somewhat from the other po- 
 litical parties in our first, and cardinal assumption, 
 which is that organized government everywhere has 
 for its primary object and function to secure the physi- 
 cal, mental, moral, and spiritual well-being of its mem- 
 bers. We do not consider the Government as a mere 
 policeman sitting over us and passing upon our daily 
 quarrels. We believe the functions of the Govern- 
 ment are more substantial, more vital ; and in that we 
 really do more than endorse, and perhaps extend, the 
 very well-known declaration which the founders of 
 this republic have made popular all over tlie world — 
 that the object of every government and of every peo- 
 ple is to attain and maintain the right to life, liberty 
 and the pursuit of happiness. 
 
 "To us, these are not phrases to be recited glibly 
 on the Fourth of July. To us, this declaration is a 
 living truth. What we mean when we assert the right 
 of the people to life, is the right of the people actually 
 to live ; not merely to breathe, but to have the means 
 of sustaining and maintaining their lives; to have 
 food, to have clothing, to have shelter, to have all the 
 means to sustain modern civilized life. 
 
 "When we speak of liberty, v/e do not mean merely 
 a condition outside of jail. We m.ean by it the actual 
 political and economic independence; the freedom of
 
 1 62 ALBANY 
 
 men from men; the equal freedom of all in so far as 
 such freedom is compatible with the existence of or- 
 ganized government. 
 
 "And when we speak of the right to the pursuit of 
 happiness, we mean the right — the concrete right — of 
 every man, woman and child in this country and every 
 other country, to life, to sunshine, to air, to enjoyment, 
 to amusement, to the blessings of civilization; to the 
 products of art and science. We mean by it the right 
 to enjoy life as fuUy, as nobly, as the best members 
 of our community are privileged to do= And starting 
 out with these premises, we say that neither our Gov- 
 ernment nor any other modern government has at all 
 achieved those fundamental objects or functions for 
 which they have been organized. 
 
 "We say that every advanced country can to-day, 
 at the present state of development, easily assure the 
 physical and moral and mental well-being of every 
 member of such country; that it can produce with 
 modern resources all the food, all the clothing, all the 
 necessaries of life, so as not to suffer any one, any 
 member, of the community to go hungry or to go in 
 misery in his daily existence. 
 
 "Take our own country, the United States. Here 
 we probably have the most striking illustration of this 
 proposition. Here is a great and powerful country, 
 3,000 miles wide, 3,000 miles long, blessed with every 
 element of natural wealth. The land is abundant, 
 mostly fertile. It produces products of practically 
 every clime, and produces them in abundance. We 
 have inexhaustible wealth of metals and minerals and 
 forests; we have coast lines on both sides from one 
 end of the country to the other. We have ports, we 
 have waterways, and we have an alert, active, capable, 
 population of over 100,000,000, of whom the vast ma- 
 jority is capable, ready and eager to lend a hand in
 
 DEFENSE SUMMING-UP 163 
 
 the production of the wealth required for the suste- 
 nance of the life of the nation. 
 
 "We have developed the modem processes of 
 wealth-production to such an extent that we can pro- 
 duce to-day ten times, in some cases 100 times, more 
 than our fathers or forefathers could with the same ef- 
 fort. We have an industrial organization the like of 
 which history has never known. If all this wealth, if 
 all these resources, if all these great industrial factors 
 had been scientifically, rationally, and reasonably or- 
 ganized, there is no reason in the world why there 
 should be slums in any of our cities ; why there should 
 be under-feeding of children, an appalling child mor- 
 tality; why there should be want; why there should 
 be misery; why there should be those ghastly strug- 
 gles for existence going on in the heart of this country 
 day after day. 
 
 "But our industrial systems are not organized ra- 
 tionally. In fact, they are not organized at all. The 
 people of this country, as the people of every country, 
 do not own their countries, and that is the fundamen- 
 tal charge, the fundamental indictment, of Socialism 
 against the present conditions. It is not the people of 
 the United States — the one hundred million men, 
 women and children who constitute the people — that 
 own the United States. 
 
 "There is a tremendous stretch of land, a large slice 
 of the surface of the globe, that should be the common 
 heritage of all those who live on that land, but it is 
 not. It has been parceled out, divided up into lots 
 and plots, and has been turned over by gradual proc- 
 esses to a comparatively small number of landhold- 
 ers, who own the surface of the United States and by 
 whose permission the rest of the people, who own no 
 land, work. 
 
 "More than seventy per cent of the people of the
 
 i64 ALBANY 
 
 United States owe their ability to walk on the streets 
 of the country, to live in the houses of the country, to 
 special license which is given to them by the land- 
 owning class. When we come to the natural wealth 
 below the surface of the earth — the vast stocks of 
 minerals, of metals, the stocks which a benevolent Na- 
 ture has created in the course of many thousands of 
 years, and upon which to-day we depend for our light, 
 for our heat, for our energy, in production of wealth — 
 we find another group, and a comparatively small 
 group, of our fellow citizens who hold that as against 
 the rest of the whole country and who say, 'This is 
 ours ; the Almighty God has not meant the sources of 
 life for the people who need it for their lives ; no, the 
 Almighty God has meant it for us to turn it into fran- 
 chises, to capitaHze it into stocks and bonds, to derive 
 profits, and make our individual fortunes on it/ So it 
 is with the oil wells; and with the great arteries of 
 trade and commerce and life in this country — the rail- 
 roads ; and so with our factories ; with the marvelous 
 machinery of modern production produced by the 
 agency of many generations past as well as present— 
 the natural heritage of all men. They are owned, they 
 are claimed by a small minority, comparatively — a 
 handful of the people hold it as against the rest of the 
 country. 
 
 "The situation is this, for the majority of the people, 
 the working class of the United States : they stand to- 
 day, ready, v/illing, eager and highly capable of turn- 
 ing those natural resources, that rav/ wealth, into con- 
 sumable products for themselves, their v/ives and chil- 
 dren; to turn it into food; to turn it into clothes; to 
 turn it into dwellings ; to turn it into other necessaries. 
 They can do it, except that they cannot do it at this 
 time without the use of modern implements of labor; 
 they cannot do it without the natural resources, the
 
 DEFENSE SUMMING-UP 165 
 
 raw material. Between them and their lives stands 
 that small capitalist class, which says: 'Hold on, this 
 is ours, the land and the fullness thereof, the land and 
 all above it, and all below it, is ours ; and if you want 
 to live, if you want to eat, if you want to work, you 
 must first secure a license from us, and such license we 
 shall not give you unless you stipulate to pay us a 
 tribute ; unless you stipulate to turn over to us for our 
 personal profits a large and substantial portion of the 
 product of your toil.' 
 
 "And the great masses of the American people, as is 
 the case with the great masses of the people in every 
 modern country, by permission of this small class of 
 industrial autocrats they work or they starve accord- 
 ing to the dictates of that class. If a time arrives when 
 it does not pay the owning class to continue the in- 
 dustries of the country, they are not responsible to 
 anybody for continuing them. They shut their fac- 
 tories, their mines and mills; they throw millions of 
 workers out of employment, cause the direst poverty, 
 because it suits their business ends. And the whole 
 country stands there, impotent, pov/erless to interfere 
 with this industrial autocracy ; absolutely impotent to 
 assert itself. 
 
 "And so we have all the special social evils of mod- 
 em days, resulting from this condition; so we have 
 the few millionaires and multi-millionaires in this 
 country; and we have the millions and millions of 
 men, women and children, whose whole life is one of 
 toil and privation, deprived of all joy, all sunshine, all 
 life, in the actual sense of the term. We have the class 
 of the idle, who take pleasure after pleasure, without 
 rendering any useful service to society; and on the 
 other hand v/e have the children of the poor beginning 
 their lives — their joyless lives — in the factories, at a 
 tender age; groiWing up stunted physically, mentally
 
 1 66 ALBANY 
 
 and in every other way, making miserable citizens, 
 making a weak foundation for the hope of the future 
 generations. 
 
 "Now then, we have made that indictment ; we have 
 made it more than once, but once in a while, we are 
 met with this simplified statement, 'Well, if you don't 
 like this country, what is there to hold you? Take the 
 first ship and go elsewhere/ -. . . 
 
 "An argument more silly and more immoral has 
 never been advanced. I say 'silly' because it is not the 
 United States alone in which these conditions prevaiL 
 They prevail in every modern country. Our com- 
 plaint is not specifically against the regime or system 
 of the United States. It is an indictment of our whole 
 capitalist society. 
 
 "'Leave this country; go to a country that suits 
 you better.' Just think of that argument, gentlemen. 
 Suppose in this city of Albany, you have by misfor- 
 tune a corrupt, incompetent administration on account 
 of which you find your streams polluted, the sanitary 
 conditions neglected, your health menaced, your exist- 
 ence poisoned. A number of citizens may get together 
 and protest against these conditions, against this ad- 
 ministration and its misdeeds ; and this political ring 
 or its adherents turn to such protesting citizens and 
 say, 'Gentlemen, if conditions in Albany don't suit you, 
 there are plenty of other cities in the United States. 
 You may go elsewhere.' 
 
 "Suppose, to take another illustration, you and I 
 and somebody else entered into a partnership in busi- 
 ness, and have given our joint efforts to this business 
 for years and years. At a certain moment, I, as one of 
 the parties, discover that another partner of mine has 
 been inefficient, perhaps dishonest, that the business 
 is suffering, going to the bad, our joint interest being 
 gradually destroyed. I try to introduce reforms in our
 
 DEFENSE SUMMING-UP 167 
 
 business management and methods, and the very part- 
 ner who profits perhaps by his own dishonesty turns 
 to me and says, 'If you don't like the way we conduct 
 this business, there is nothing to hold you in this busi- 
 ness of partnership ; you can get out.' 
 
 "You would not consider this a good argument, and 
 so exactly does the argument present itself to us. Bear 
 in mind, once and for all, we take the position that 
 America is ours just as much as it is yours ; that 
 America is ours just as much as it is that of any other 
 class of persons or individuals in this country. These 
 men here, these five Assemblymen under charges, 
 come here as representatives of many thousands of 
 workingmen who have given probably their youth, 
 iprobably the greater part of their lives, to the en-* 
 hancement of the wealth and prosperity of this coun- 
 try, to making it what it is, great and powerful and 
 prosperous ; these men have a right to say to-day that 
 the wealth which they have helped create be equally 
 or at least equitably distributed, and that the workers 
 have a proper share of it and a proper share of life. 
 
 "They are not going to quit this country. They do 
 not have to quit this country any more than you. 
 They propose to stay. They propose to contribute the 
 best that is in them for the advancement, for the bene- 
 fit, for the betterment of this country, and also for the 
 bringing in of a better, juster social system of wealth 
 production and wealth distribution. 
 
 "Had it been merely an economic question, perhaps 
 it would not have been so vital as it is now, but it isn't 
 purely an economic question. It is much more than 
 that. It goes to the very substance, to the very life 
 nerve of our national existence. You see that these 
 conditions, under which a small class owns the coun- 
 try and a larp;e populous class v/orks for it, have 
 created what we have referred to here in the evidence,
 
 i68 ALBANY 
 
 as a class struggle ; and we have been foolishly charged 
 with fomenting that class struggle. 
 
 "Do you know, gentlemen, we are the only politi- 
 cal party that not only is not fomenting class strug- 
 gles, but tries to eliminate all classes and all class 
 struggles? But the fact of the matter is that, under 
 present conditions, there is nothing but the struggle 
 of classes in the country. You may not call it strug- 
 gle; you may call it antagonism, but it is a vital an- 
 tagonism. 
 
 "It is found throughout the entire field of our life 
 and economy. It exists between employer and worker 
 everywhere, whether it expresses itself in strikes or 
 walkouts or blacklists, or not at all; or whether the 
 personal relations between employer and employee 
 are very bitter, or on the contrary very friendly. The 
 fact of the matter is that the employer, under present 
 conditions, must see to it that he makes proper profits, 
 must see to it that he pays as little in wages as he pos- 
 sibly can, to get as much out of his worker as he pos- 
 sibly can. It is the law of present economics. It would 
 mean economic extinction if he were not to follow it. 
 
 "The worker who has nothing but his labor power 
 must, whether he wants to or not, see to it that he 
 gets every dollar of wages he can; that he conserves 
 his energy — his only commodity — as much as possi- 
 ble ; and between these two opposing and different in- 
 terests, there is, and must be, a constant conflict. 
 
 "There is a warfare between employer and em- 
 ployee; there is a constant competitive warfare be- 
 tween capitalists of different classes, and within each 
 class separately. You know all about it. You know 
 the history of our great financial and industrial insti- 
 tutions. You know how they have been built up on 
 the ruin of smaller industrial concerns. You know how
 
 DEFENSE SUMMING-UP 169 
 
 they have been eating and devouring the smaller 
 brethren. 
 
 "There is the same War between the worker and 
 worker, because whenever, in times of industrial de- 
 pression particularly, a job is open, there are hundreds 
 of workers looking for it, each one eager to get it, each 
 one — or most of them — having wives and children to 
 support; each ready to take any pay so long as he is 
 allowed the privilege of working and earning wages — 
 underbidding each other, cutting wages against each 
 other, and bringing children from their homes to work 
 and to compete with adults; bringing in their wives 
 into the factories to compete against the men — all be- 
 cause necessity compels them. But it is a v/ar, never- 
 theless. 
 
 "And there is the same antagonism between land- 
 lord and tenant ; there is the same antagonism between 
 producer and consumer. It is not a uniform system 
 operated for the benefit of all the members of the com- 
 munity. It is a system of war and violence, where 
 each is engaged in war against all, and all against 
 each. 
 
 "And in this war of interests, every class, every in- 
 dividual, of necessity tries to exert the greatest possi- 
 ble power in its, or his, behalf ; and so it becomes that 
 the capitalist classes, the most powerful classes, in or- 
 der to maintain their supremacy, go into politics and 
 see to it that their interests are in the control of the 
 government in all its departments as much as they 
 can. All we have been hearing and saying about polit- 
 ical corruption and machinations in this country in the 
 last decade — and many volumes have been written on 
 the subject — have had their mainspring in this desire 
 of the privileged classes to maintain their privileges 
 against the people; and all the corruption of our 
 schools and of our presses and of our public institu-
 
 I70 ALBANY 
 
 tions— of which there have been many and various 
 public indictments — have had their mainspring in the 
 same source. 
 
 "This is not a mere Sociahst contention. No ! It is 
 borne out by the naked facts and conditions in this 
 country. Only so far back as 1915 the Industrial Re- 
 lations Commission — a commission appointed by the 
 President of the United States — composed of men who 
 may be considered more or less neutrals in the class 
 war — at any rate not Socialists — found and published 
 the folloiwing illuminating facts. Speaking of certain 
 industrial communities dominated by corporations, 
 they said: 'In such communities, democratic govern- 
 ment does not as a rule exist, except in name or form, 
 and as a consequence there now exists within the body 
 of our republic industrial communities which are vir- 
 tually principalities, oppressive to those dependent 
 upon them for a livelihood and a menace to the peace 
 and welfare of the nation. 
 
 "The wealth of the country between i8ig and 1912 
 rose from $65,000,000,000 to $187,000,000,000, or 188 per 
 cent; whereas, the aggregate income of wage earners 
 in transportation and mining and factories has risen 
 between 1819 and 1909 only 95 per cent. It was found 
 that the income of almost two-thirds of these families 
 was less than $750 per year, and almost one-third were 
 less than $500; the average for all being $721. The 
 average size of these families was 5.6 members. Elab- 
 orate studies of the cost of living made in all parts of 
 the countty at the same time have shown that the very 
 least that a family of five persons can live upon, in 
 anything approaching decency, is $720. 
 
 "It is probable that owing to the fact that the fam- 
 ilies investigated by the Commission were to a large 
 extent foreign born, the incomes reported are lower on 
 the average than for the entire working population.
 
 DEFENSE SUMMING-UP 171 
 
 Nevertheless, even when fair allowance is made for 
 that fact, the figures showed conclusively that be- 
 tween one-half and two-thirds of these families were 
 living in a state which can be described only as abject 
 poverty. 
 
 "It has been proved by study here and abroad that 
 there is a direct relation between poverty and the death 
 rate of babies ; but the frightful rate at which poverty 
 Idlls was not kndwn, at least in this country, until very 
 recently, when, through a study made in Johnstown, 
 ?a., the Federal Children's Bureau showed that babies 
 v/hose fathers earned less than $10 per week, died dur- 
 ing the first year at the appalling rate of 256 for every 
 thousand. On the other hand, those whose fathers 
 earned $25 per week or more died at the rate of only 
 84 per thousand. The babies of the poor died at three 
 •imes the rate of those who were in fairly well-to-do 
 Tamilies. The tremendous significance of these figures 
 v/ill be appreciated when it is known that one-third of 
 all the adult workmen reported by the Commission 
 were earning less than $10 per week, exclusive of time 
 lost. 
 
 "On this showing in Johnstown, these workmen 
 may expect one out of four of their babies to die during 
 the first year of life. The last members of the family 
 to go hungry are the children, yet statistics show that 
 in six of our largest cities from twelve to twenty per 
 cent of the children are underfed and ill-nourished. 
 
 "Between one-fourth and one-third of the male 
 workers 18 years of age and over in factories and 
 mines, earn less than $10 per week. From two-thirds 
 to three quarters earn less than $15, and only about 
 one-tenth earn more than $20 a week. This does not 
 take into consideration loss of working time for any 
 cause. 
 
 "The rich — 2 per cent of the people in the United
 
 172 ALBANY, 
 
 States — own 60 per cent of the wealth. The middle 
 class, 35 per cent of the people, own 35 per cent of the 
 wealth approximately. The poor, 65 per cent of the 
 people, own 5 per cent of the wealth. That is a telling 
 story. Sixty-five per cent of the people — over 70,000,- 
 000 people of the United States — together own one- 
 twentieth part of its wealth; and if you exclude the 
 highest strata of these workers, if you reduce it, say, to 
 50 per cent, or a little more, that is, half of the people 
 of the United States, you will be justified fully in say- 
 ing that they own absolutely nothing in this world; 
 that this country with its wealth, to which they have 
 contributed by their toil, has not given them any return 
 of any kind, and that they face the dread of starvation 
 from day to day. 
 
 "This means, says the report in brief, that 2,000,000 
 people who would make up a city smaller than Chi- 
 cago, own 70 per cent more of the nation's wealth than 
 all the other 108 millions of the country. Then to prove 
 the extent to which concentration has gone, the report 
 makes this interesting observation: there is at least 
 one individual, one out of the 110,000,000, who owns 
 approximately $1,000,000,000 in wealth. The average 
 wealth of the working people is $400 per head. Hence, 
 this one individual owns as much as 2,500,000 workers 
 in the country. 
 
 "And bear in mind, gentlemen, that was the report 
 in 19 14, before the war. Since that time, conditions 
 have become incomparably worse and the contrast 
 very much greater. In that year, there were only 7,500 
 millionaires in the United States. To-day we count 
 about 35,000, more than four times the former num- 
 ber. The cost of living since 1914 has more than 
 doubled. Wages have not kept pace. The picture so 
 eloquently given by this report of the Industrial Re-
 
 DEFENSE SUMMING-UP 173 
 
 lations Commission is rosy, is optimistic, as compared 
 with conditions as they exist to-day. 
 
 "Now then, in view of that, the Socialist Party and 
 the Socialist movement say that there is nothing 
 wrong with this country, or its people, or the country 
 or people in other advanced countries, except the in- 
 dustrial system v/hich they live under. 
 
 "The Socialists propose, as a remedy for this evil, 
 the nationahzation of the country's principal indus- 
 tries. They say it is altogether wrong, it is immoral, 
 to allow such a vital function as feeding the people, 
 maintaining them in health, to be carried on by a 
 group of irresponsible capitalists for private profit and 
 aggrandizement, without any reference, without any 
 concern, for the men, women and children who have 
 to be fed day after day and who often die from mal- 
 nutrition. We say it is an absolute wrong to allow the 
 great industry of clothing, of sheltering the people to 
 be carried on by individual capitalists or profiteers for 
 their own private interests and pleasures. 
 
 "We say that this country, as every other country, 
 has as its first concern to see to it that the wealth 
 which an Almighty Providence has placed within their 
 reach, which an industrious people has increased one 
 hundred fold by their efforts, by their energy, through 
 generations and generations of thinkers and inventors 
 and workers — we say it is the duty of every self-re- 
 specting rational people, organized in a proper way 
 and on a civilized basis, to take these life-sustaining 
 agencies out of the hands of private individuals, out of 
 the hands of speculation, out of the chaos of compe- 
 tition that rules and ruins at the same time, and turn 
 it over to the people to organize it properly, to organ- 
 ize it rationally, scientifically, to organize it with a 
 view eliminating the waste ; to organize it with the 
 view of producing the maximum of wealth and dis-
 
 174 ALBANY 
 
 tributing it as equitably as possible among all of the 
 people. 
 
 "This is the program of the Socialist Party. It is 
 nothing we have adopted just here or within the last 
 few years. It is the program upon which our party 
 was founded many, many years ago. It is the program 
 which has been underlying all our activities, all of our 
 duties, ever since the Socialist Party existed. If you 
 like, you may call that a revolutionary program. It 
 is revolutionary, and in that sense, we, the adherents 
 of that program, we Socialists, are revolutionists. We 
 don't object to this term. We glory in it. And so long 
 as the end sought to be accomplished by us is com- 
 mendable, is for the welfare of humanity, we don't 
 care how much you label it. 
 
 "But we ask you, gentlemen, and we ask those who 
 framed the charges against us, since when has the 
 term 'revolution* or 'revolutionary' become a term of 
 opprobrium in a country which owes its existence to 
 a successful revolution? 
 
 "Since when has the doctrine been proclaimed in 
 this country that a change — a fundamental, a radi- 
 cal, a revolutionary change — in the mode of govern- 
 ment, in the mode of life, is not permissible so long 
 as the people wish to introduce it? 
 
 "There has been a very characteristic incident in 
 that connection. You remember when Mr. Littleton 
 opened this case in a very eloquent address, he took 
 me to task for having said this: 'What is treason to- 
 day may become the law of the land to-morrow.' And 
 he said to you by way of warning, 'It will, if you let 
 traitors write your laws.' 
 
 "It seemed to be an eloquent argument, but what is 
 revealed is that my good friend Mr. Littleton and those 
 of the same social and economic school with him have 
 come to the point where they already consider the
 
 DEFENSE SUMMING-UP i75 
 
 fundamental law of this land, the constitution of this 
 country, with its Bill of Rights and Declaration of In- 
 dependence, as traitorous. They are ashamed of it; 
 they discard it. Aye, they don't have the courage to 
 repeat all of it. Mr. Littleton read from the Declaration 
 of Independence — he read a portion of it. I shall repeat 
 to you. He said, quoting, 'WE HOLD THESE 
 TRUTHS TO BE SELF-EVIDENT, THAT ALL 
 MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL AND ENDOWED 
 BY THEIR CREATOR WITH CERTAIN IN- 
 ALIENABLE RIGHTS, AMONG WHICH ARE 
 LIFE, LIBERTY AND THE PURSUIT OF HAP- 
 PINESS; THAT TO SECURE THESE RIGHTS, 
 GOVERNMENTS ARE INSTITUTED AMONGST 
 MEN DERIVING THEIR JUST POWERS FROM 
 THE CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED.' 
 
 "And he stopped right there. He stopped dead be- 
 cause he did not dare to read what follows ; and what 
 follows is: 
 
 "'WHENEVER ANY FORM OF GOVERN- 
 MENT BECOMES DESTRUCTIVE TO THESE 
 ENDS, IT IS THE RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE TO 
 ALTER OR TO ABOLISH IT AND TO INSTI- 
 TUTE A NEW GOVERNMENT, LAYING ITS 
 FOUNDATIONS ON SUCH PRINCIPLES AND 
 ORGANIZING ITS POWERS IN SUCH FORM AS 
 TO THEM SHALL SEEM MOST LIKELY TO 
 EFFECT THEIR SAFETY AND HAPPINESS.' 
 
 "We are here to remind you that this eloquent sen- 
 tence is a legitimate and organic part of our Declara- 
 tion of Independence just as much as the part read 
 by Mr. Littleton ; and we say to you that we believe, 
 sincerely believe, that the present form of our indus- 
 trial system, our industrial regime, has become de- 
 structive of the very ends proclaimed as inalienable 
 rights in our Declaration of Independence; that life,
 
 176 ALBANY 
 
 liberty, and the true pursuit of true happiness have be- 
 come impossible to-day under the prevailing and un- 
 equitable and iniquitous economic system; and we 
 say that we have the right, and that we have the duty, 
 to demand that this system, this pernicious system, be 
 altered ; that it be abolished, and that the people of the 
 United States form a new industrial system, basing it 
 upon such rights, upon such conceptions, as to them, 
 the people of the United States — not Mr. Littleton, not 
 counsel for the other side, not even you, gentlemen of 
 the Committee, or members of the Assembly — deem 
 proper, but the people, the people as a whole, deem 
 proper. 
 
 "That is all there is to the first point or charge 
 against us: that we are a revolutionary party." 
 
 Having thus answered the first charge against the 
 Socialist Assemblymen to the effect that they were 
 members of a revolutionary party, Mr. Hillquit then 
 took up the second charge, namely, that the Socialist 
 Party, of which the accused Assemblymen were mem- 
 bers, sought to attain its end by violence. In answer- 
 ing this, Mr. Hillquit ridiculed what he called "ro- 
 mantic notions" in regard to changing the fundamen- 
 tal forms of society by violence or conspiracy. He de- 
 clared that the aim of the Socialist Party was to con- 
 vert the majority of the people to its views. This 
 point he elaborated upon as follows: 
 
 "The prosecution has sought to establish this point 
 principally by inferences. I think I shall not be con- 
 tradicted if I say that they have not read a single of- 
 ficial party declaration or any other authoritative So- 
 cialist statement advocating violence as a means of at- 
 taining social ends. . . . 
 
 "Ours is a movement of propaganda. We are a 
 minority party. Our object and ideal is to convert the 
 majority of the people to our views. To hold certain
 
 DEFENSE SUMMING-UP 177 
 
 views and conceal them would be diametrically op- 
 posed to the methods and purposes of the Socialist 
 Party. . . . 
 
 "Where there is a machinery for righting grievances, 
 for changing of Governmental forms, we Socialists say 
 that that is the method which we adopt. That is the 
 part of our program. At the same time, we cannot 
 blind ourselves to history. We cannot be blind to the 
 fact that in actual practice revolutions, changes — fun- 
 damental, governmental and economic changes — have 
 been accompanied by violence. We say that in most 
 cases, the violence has come not from the victorious 
 majority, but from the defeated minority. In most 
 cases it has been forced upon the majority; I might 
 say practically in all cases ; and we have cited a num- 
 ber of cases to you. 
 
 "Now, we say the Socialist Party is not a party of 
 non-resistance, and we say further, the hypothesis 
 having been placed upon us, that if a majority of the 
 people of this country were to vote for a Socialist 
 change in the reform of government and the capitalist; 
 minority were to attempt by force to prevent them 
 from coming into their lawful inheritance, we would 
 repel or advise repelling such force by force. Did you 
 expect a different answer? Would any American make 
 a different answer? No. And that is all there is to 
 the theory of violence in the Socialist movement, not- 
 withstanding all these disjointed fragmentary state- 
 ments that sometimes are made falsely, sometimes in 
 the course of an impromptu speech, and sometimes 
 perhaps in an ill-considered article. . . . 
 
 "Socialism, like any other national political program, 
 can be realized only when its adherents, sympathizers 
 and supporters are numerous enough to wrest the ma- 
 chinery of government from their opponents, and to 
 use it for the realization of their program. Does that
 
 178 ALBANY 
 
 look like a conspiracy to overpower the government of 
 the United States and overthrow it by force and vio- 
 lence? 
 
 "But to make it still clearer: modern Socialists do 
 not expect the social order to be introduced by one 
 sudden and great cataclysm, nor do they expect it to 
 be established by desperation and starvation. The So- 
 cialists expect that a cooperative commonwealth will 
 be built by a disciplined working class, thoroughly or- 
 ganized, well trained, fully qualified to assume the 
 reigns of government and the management of indus- 
 tries. Next to the education of the workers in the 
 philosophy of Socialism, the prime task of the Socialist 
 movement is, therefore, a political and economic or- 
 ganization. The Socialist movement of each country 
 presents itself primarily as a political party. 
 
 "And again, the objective point of the Socialist at- 
 tack is the capitalist system, not the individual capi- 
 talist. The struggles of the movement represent the 
 organized efforts of the entire working class, not of 
 daring individual leaders or heroes. The intellectual 
 life of the working class is determined by the training 
 of men and women constituting that class, and not 
 by the more advanced conditions of a small group of 
 it. A country may be educated, led and transformed 
 into Socialism ; but it cannot be driven, lured or bull- 
 dozed into it. The Socialist's conception of the world 
 process is evolutionary, not cataclysmic. Socialism 
 has come to build, not to destroy. This is the accepted 
 position of the modern Socialist movement. . . . 
 
 "The accepted position, then, of the modem So- 
 cialist movement is, however, not to be taken as an 
 assurance or prediction that a Socialist victory will 
 in all cases — in all countries — come about by orderly 
 and peaceful methods and will not be accompanied by 
 violence. It may happen that the classes in power
 
 DEFENSE SUMMING-UP 179 
 
 here or there — that means in one country or another — 
 will refuse to yield the control of the government to 
 the working class even after a legitimate political vic- 
 tory. In that case, a violent conflict will necessarily 
 result, as it did under somewhat similar conditions in 
 1861 ; but such spectacular and sanguinary outbreaks 
 which sometimes accompany radical economic and po- 
 litical changes are purely incidental. They do not 
 make the social transformation. 
 
 "Thus in England, the revolution which transferred 
 the actual control of the country from the nobility to 
 the capitalists was accompanied by gradual and peace- 
 ful stages, without violence or bloodshed. In France, 
 the same process culminated in the ferocious fights in 
 the great revolution of 1779; but who will say that 
 the transition in England was less thorough and radi- 
 cal than in France? As a matter of fact, street fights 
 do not make a social revolution any more than fire- 
 crackers make the Fourth of July. 
 
 "Another point was tacked onto this proposition, 
 namely, that we advocate mass action and the general 
 strike. Mass action or mass petition occurs quite fre- 
 quently in our phraseology. What we mean by it, 
 gentlemen, is the opposite of what you impute to 
 us. We distinguish between mass action and individ- 
 ual action. Mass action is organized action of the peo- 
 ple. Political action is mass action. Organized strikes 
 are mass action. Individual attempts, individual as- 
 sassination, individual attacks, individual acts of sa- 
 botage, are not mass action, and we deprecate them. 
 The mass action we have in view is the legal organized 
 action of large masses in the community. 
 
 "As to general strikes, let me state our position. As 
 a matter of history, the Socialist Party of the United 
 States, together with the greater number of Socialist 
 organizations in the world, has always consistently
 
 i8o ALBANY 
 
 rejected the idea of a general strike for political pur- 
 poses; and our argument has always been this: that 
 if we have a number of workers in a parliamentary 
 country determined to the point of striking for a po- 
 litical reform, it is strong enough and numerous 
 enough to cast its votes for such reform, and the strike 
 becomes unnecessary. Either the working class goes 
 to the limit in such demand, if it is right ; and if it is 
 right, we do not need the general strike. If it is not 
 right, there will be no effective general strike. 
 
 "The first and only endorsement of the general 
 strike method by the Socialist Party in the United 
 States was contained in that proclamation in connec- 
 tion, I believe, with the U-boat warfare by the Ger- 
 mans. At that time, under special pressure, the So- 
 cialist Party declared its opposition to the war, not yet 
 declared to be so strong as to sanction even a general 
 strike for its prevention. Now, gentlemen, we main- 
 tain that a resolution of this kind, whatever view you 
 may have on its political wisdom, was perfectly legal, 
 that we had a right to adopt such a resolution. I shall 
 say more regardless of the attitude of the Socialist 
 Party on general strikes for political purposes; I will 
 say that the workers of this country have such right, 
 and that it is v/ell that they should at least hold it in 
 abeyance as a possible instrum.ent in some cases, in 
 very exceptional emergencies. . . . 
 
 "I will say that the general strike is very often used, 
 has been used abroad, for the purposes of enforcing 
 parliamentary action or political action, and I can well 
 imagine such concrete instances now. Let me give you 
 this hypothetical instance. A labor party is now being 
 formed, at least in some parts of the country. Suppose 
 the working men of any state got together and said: 
 *We want to form a party of our own; we are not 
 satisfied with the way these representatives of the old
 
 DEFENSE SUMMING-UP i8i 
 
 parties are legislating on labor matters. We want our 
 own representatives to come into legislative bodies and 
 to voice our demands, our aspirations, our sentiments. 
 We want them to speak for us by our mandate. Sup- 
 pose an election is held, and being confronted with all 
 sorts of election frauds of the most brutal manner, they 
 still manage to elect a few of their representatives ; and 
 those representatives come to the legislative body, and 
 their working constituency is waiting and watching, 
 hoping that there at last their own direct representa- 
 tives will speak for them in the halls of the legisla- 
 ture ; and suppose a big capitalist in the same legis- 
 lature thereupon gets up and tells them, 'Look here, 
 gentlemen, I don't approve of your program, of your 
 principles, of your platform. Get out of my legisla- 
 ture.' I say this would be eminently a case where the 
 workers would be justified in declaring a general strike 
 until such time as their constitutional rights are ac- 
 tually accorded to them. 
 
 "I should not be surprised, if there ever arises a 
 condition of this kind on a large scale, that that will 
 be what will happen. We do not apologize for it. We 
 have the right to safeguard the political rights of our 
 constituents, and of the people, by every legal means 
 without exception, and the general strike for such 
 purpose is one of such legal methods. 
 
 "It has been recognized in every country, in every 
 civilized modern country. I hope personally, the So- 
 cialist party hopes, that the occasion may never arise 
 where it shall be necesary, but if it should, the work- 
 ers have a full and perfect right to use it for the pro- 
 tection of their interest." 
 
 Mr. Hillquit then took up the next big point made 
 against the Socialist Party to the effect that it is really 
 a political party only in appearance ; that as a matter
 
 i82 ALBANY 
 
 of fact, it does not believe in politics except as a "blind 
 and camouflage." In answer to this he declared : 
 
 "Are the Socialists perhaps too much in earnest 
 about their politics for the health and comfort of their 
 opponents? I could not in any way consistently see 
 the charge of the politics being a sort of camouflage. 
 If an Assemblyman of the Socialist Party came here 
 not to introduce a bill, but a bomb ; if an Assemblyman 
 of the Socialist Party came here not to debate, but to 
 shoot; if he came here to commit acts of violence in- 
 stead of legislating ; if there had been any such record 
 on their part, I could conceive of the justice of such a 
 charge; but the very record of these men proves that 
 they and the party take their tasks seriously, that they 
 are a Socialist Party. . . ." 
 
 Mr. Hillquit then took up the charge that the So- 
 cialist Party exercises undue control over its elected 
 officials. He discussed this as follows : 
 
 "You say in the former charge our politics has 
 been a camouflage, that we are not a political party at 
 all, and in the next charge you say that the Socialist 
 Party is too much of a political party, that it dictates 
 the policies and actions of its members elected to pub- 
 lic office. The consistency of the two charges is not 
 very obvious to me, but they exist and we shall discuss 
 the second now — that the Socialist Party unduly con- 
 trols public officials elected on its ticket. . . . 
 
 "All through the proceedings there have been elo- 
 quent speeches about the oath that the Socialist party 
 members take to their organization and to their Inter- 
 nationale against the constitutional oath. There is not 
 any oath being taken, nor has there been, by any mem- 
 ber of the Socialist Party in any way. They merely 
 subscribe in their application, to the ordinary natural 
 — even implied — obligation to live up to the Constitu- 
 tion and principles of the party while they are mem-
 
 DEFENSE SUMMING-UP 183 
 
 bers of the party ; and if they do not, they are thrown 
 out. . . . 
 
 "In this very House, as in every other House, you 
 recognize the existence of political parties, and their 
 right to control the actions of their representatives. 
 What is your majority leader? What is your minority 
 leader? Are they other than instruments of the re- 
 spective parties to influence and control the conduct 
 of their representatives? Inasmuch as such control is 
 not for corrupt purposes, but for legitimate political 
 purposes, or the purpose of securing party unity in ac- 
 tion, it is perfectly legitimate and we recognize 
 it." ... 
 
 Concluding his discussion on this point, Mr. Hill- 
 quit declared: "We recognize the fact fully and 
 frankly, and v/e recognize it is a proper fact, and we 
 say the Socialist Party above all other parties insists 
 upon the right and the duty of the party as such, to 
 see to it that its representatives live up to the pledges, 
 to the promises, to the representations which we make 
 in elections." 
 
 The next charge Mr. Hillquit discussed aa one that 
 accused the Socialist Party of being "unpatriotic and 
 disloyal." 
 
 On this question he said: 
 
 "What has been proved, gentlemen, and what un- 
 doubtedly has been the fact, is this : That the Socialist 
 Party has consistently, emphatically, and at all times 
 opposed the war; that it was opposed to the entrance 
 of the United States into the war ; and that when the 
 United States entered the war it was in favor of rf 
 speedy cessation of hostilities, of a speedy peace. 
 
 "We claim — I think we proved, and we shall revert 
 to it again — that with all that, we at all times recog- 
 nize that war is on ; that war has been declared ; that 
 it has been legally declared, and that we submitted
 
 1 84 ALBANY 
 
 and complied with all the concrete enactments of war 
 legislation in every respect. We did not surrender 
 our opinion — our sincere belief that the war was 
 wrong, a monstrous wrong, and that every day of its 
 continuace entailed unnecessary misery and privations 
 upon our people. We voiced those sentiments. We 
 voiced them because we maintained, and maintain that 
 there is not an act of the Legislature . . . such even as 
 a constitutional enactment or amendment, which in- 
 tends to silence the tongues and stifle the thought of 
 the people, to which the people must bow, not merely 
 in the sense of practical submission, but in the sense of 
 intellectual and moral submission against their open 
 convictions. 
 
 "We say that it was never intended that this doc- 
 trine should ever be preached in this country. It was 
 never intended upon the declaration of war, or any 
 other great national emergency, that all thoughts of 
 these great people in this great Republic should stop ; 
 all democratic institutions should come to an end, and 
 that the destiny of 110,000,000 persons should not be 
 placed in the hands of one individual, no matter how 
 exalted. Such is not a democracy. It is the worst 
 form of autocracy. 
 
 "We proceeded upon the assumption that it is not 
 only the right, but the duty of every citizen in a de- 
 mocracy like ours at all times, and in connection with 
 all measures, to use his best judgment, and if he hon- 
 estly, conscientiously thought that a measure enacted 
 was pernicious or against the interest of the country, 
 of his fellowmen, that it was his right and his duty to 
 do all in his power to have it righted, to have it 
 changed, to have it repealed, to have it undone; and 
 we had ample authority in all the precedents of this 
 country for that general theory, that the greater the 
 crisis the greater the duty to that, the greater the dan-
 
 DEFENSE SUMMING-UP 185 
 
 ger of expressing a position, the higher the call of duty 
 to brave that danger. It is the arrant political coward 
 only who supinely submits to what he in good faith 
 considers a crime. . . . We had abundant authority 
 in this country to hold this position. In fact, this was 
 the American position ; the position advanced against 
 us now is a novel, un-American proposition. . . , 
 
 "We did not believe that civilization or the human 
 spirit would be advanced by this war. We could see 
 nothing but a colossal carnage brought on by the com- 
 mercial rivalries of the people in Europe. We could 
 see in it nothing but a cataclysm for human civiliza- 
 tion. We could see in it nothing but the greatest blot 
 upon human intelligence. . . . 
 
 "We said, holding views as we do, it is our sacred 
 duty as citizens of this country, our sacred duty to 
 our fellowmen, to protest against the war, to oppose it 
 with every fiber of our existence, come what may, not 
 only in the shape of disagreement, but persecution or 
 prosecution, suffering of all kinds ; and we say to you 
 gentlemen, if any of you had held those honest convic- 
 tions, and if you were true to yourselves, true to your 
 country, you could not have acted otherwise. Now 
 that the war is over and the entire world is quivering 
 under the torture inflicted upon it, now that the war is 
 over and ten millions or more human beings have been 
 directly slaughtered, and many more millions killed 
 by the ravages of epidemics, now that all Europe is in 
 mourning, now that the greater part of Europe is 
 starving, succumbing, bringing up a new generation of 
 anaemic, under-nourished weaklings, now that we be- 
 hold the ruins of our civilization, we Socialists say we 
 have absolutely no reason to repent our stand. . . . 
 
 "It is, gentlemen, with this attitude of mind in view 
 that we formulated our proclamations, formulated our 
 programs. We have been asked on this stand by elo-
 
 i86 ALBANY 
 
 quent counsel on the other side, time and time again, 
 'You say you submitted to the law.* *Yes, yes, we do.' 
 'Did you do anything more than the law compelled 
 you to do?' 'No, we did not.' How could we? We re- 
 garded the law as an inhuman law. We regarded the 
 law as an inhuman institution. We submitted to the 
 concrete will of the majority as good citizens of a 
 democratic republic, but to go out of your own free 
 will to in any way contribute to what we consider 
 nothing but a senseless insane slaughter of our fellow 
 men, how could we consistently do it? How would 
 you, or you, or any of you act in the face of a law 
 which you would consider absolutely obnoxious? 
 You would comply with it. You wouldn't do more 
 than that. You couldn't, if you remained true to your- 
 self. . . ." 
 
 Mr. Hillquit then took up two more accusations 
 against the Socialists, the first of them to the effect 
 that the Socialist Party owed its allegiance to a for- 
 eign power known as the Internationale ; and the other 
 that the Socialist Party approved of the Soviet Gov- 
 ernment of Russia and sought to introduce a similar 
 regime in the United States. 
 
 Concerning the first of this pair of charges, Mr. Hill- 
 quit said : 
 
 "That has been embellished and decorated some- 
 what by my eloquent friend, Mr. Littleton, who, 
 among other things, charged that they (the Socialist 
 Assemblymen) gave their allegiance wholly and solely 
 to an alien, invisible empire, known as the Internation- 
 ale ; and also that it is the alien state to which, before 
 the five members had entered into this Chamber, they 
 had pledged their support, honor and allegiance, going 
 even so far as to say that it was through the instru- 
 mentality of this Internationale that the Socialist Party 
 of the United States received orders from Lenine and
 
 DEFENSE SUMMING-UP 187 
 
 Trotsky and carried them out in this country. This 
 was somewhat supplemented by counsel's brief, who 
 charged the Socialist Party with being an anti-na- 
 tional party. 
 
 "In the progress of the evidence, the invisible em- 
 pire — that mysterious body — has become more and 
 more invisible until at this time, looking through the 
 evidence, you cannot see it with a magnifying 
 glass! . . ." 
 
 Mr. Hillquit explained that the Socialist Party is not 
 anti-national, but international in the sense that its 
 aims and ideals are the same in every country. He 
 declared that the party's affiliation with an Interna- 
 tionale does not disqualify it from being represented 
 in a nationalistic legislature. He pointed to Catholi- 
 cism as being an international organization. 
 
 "I can think of nothing more impressive to show 
 the danger of this line of attack," said the speaker, 
 "than a little paragraph in a letter written by my good 
 friend and sturdy opponent, a thorough non-Socialist, 
 a good American citizen, the Reverend John A Ryan, 
 when he said : 
 
 " 'Possibly my desire to see your personal cause 
 triumph — meaning this cause before you — is not alto- 
 gether unselfish. For I see quite clearly that if the 
 five Socialist representatives are expelled from the 
 New York Assembly on the ground that they belong 
 to and avow loyalty to an organization which the auto- 
 cratic majority regards as inimical to the best inter- 
 ests of the State, a bigoted majority in a State — say, 
 in Georgia — may use the action as a precedent to keep 
 out of that body regularly elected members who be- 
 long to the Catholic Church, for there have been ma- 
 jorities in the Legislature of more than one Southern 
 state that have looked upon the Catholic Church ex-
 
 i88 ALBANY 
 
 actly as Speaker Sweet looks upon the Socialist 
 Party.' " 
 
 With regard to the Soviet Government of Russia, 
 Mr. Hillquit explained the attitude of the Socialist 
 Party as follows : 
 
 "We do not seek to introduce a Soviet system of 
 government in the United States. We recognize the 
 right of every people in every country to choose their 
 own form of government and to adopt it if it suits 
 them as a moral right. We recognize besides, the 
 economic and social fact that the government of every 
 country must correspond to the economic, political 
 and historic conditions of that particular country ; that 
 a form of government that may suit one country may 
 not suit the other country; and we say, just because 
 we recognize this verity, we hold that the Soviet form 
 of government may be good for Russia, and that the 
 parliamentary form of government seems good for the 
 United States. We do not attempt to force a form 
 of government upon the United States which is not 
 suitable to the genius of its people. . . ." 
 
 He insisted that the Socialist Party had a right to 
 urge a policy upon the United States that would in- 
 duce it to leave the peasants and workers alone to 
 work dut their form of government in their own way. 
 He explained that the party sought to make the Ameri- 
 can creed in actuality what President Wilson pro- 
 claimed in theory — self-determination for all peoples. 
 
 In concluding his summing up, Mr. Hillquit invited 
 the Assembly to consider the peculiar situation in 
 which it found itself. Said he : 
 
 "You gentlemen belong to different political per- 
 suasions. Your views, your stations in life, your sur- 
 roundings, your education, your preconceptions — all of 
 that predisposes you against our views cind we know 
 it. But we say that does not matter. What about it?
 
 DEFENSE SUMMING-UP 189 
 
 This Assembly and every representative body in this 
 country is instituted for the purpose of harboring, of 
 uniting, the representatives of different and conflict- 
 ing social views, with the sole provision that those 
 who can command a majority for any measure, rule 
 on this measure at that particular time. If you take it 
 upon yourselves, largely or solely because you dis- 
 agree, and strongly disagree with the Socialist Party, 
 its program and policies, to bar these five representa- 
 tives of the party, then what you will have said in 
 effect is this: That we will tolerate none in this As- 
 sembly except those whose views and platforms are 
 approved by us — in other words, Republicans and 
 Democrats. . . . 
 
 "Where is your compass in this wild political navi- 
 gation? Where is your stable, definite, solid test, by 
 which to uphold popular representation? If there was 
 anything at all to illustrate and prove conclusively and 
 concretely the danger of the method of departing from 
 constitutional qualifications, the danger of inscribing 
 into the law new tests, new qualifications based upon 
 your concepts of what is right and what is wrong, it 
 has been, I say, this proceeding more than anything 
 else. 
 
 'T expect, of course, that in the consideration of this 
 case and in arriving at your conclusions, you will bear 
 that point in mind that we made at the outset particu- 
 larly. I cannot see how you can possibly refuse to seat 
 these five men and at the same time comply with that 
 part of the Constitution which specifically prohibits 
 from adding any additional test or qualification for 
 members of this House, other than those contained in 
 the Constitution and recited in the oath of office. In 
 order to unseat these men you will have to reverse 
 yourselves in your unanimous decision in the Decker
 
 190 ALBANY 
 
 case, in which you expressed your position very 
 soundly and at any rate very clearly. 
 
 "Throughout all these weary days of testimony we 
 have been trying to be helpful to the Committee; we 
 have not withheld anything in our possession. We 
 have freely submitted to your Committee ; we have an- 
 swered all questions; we have stated our creed; we 
 have stated our platform; we have stated our meth- 
 ods. We have given you all the facilities to arrive at 
 a proper conclusion. 
 
 "Let me be frank with you. If we had been guided 
 only by a question of political advantage, we might 
 have sabotaged this proceeding a little ; we might have 
 goaded you a little into a decision against us ; for from 
 a political point of view, I cannot see anything that 
 would benefit the Socialist Party more than an adverse 
 decision. For remember, we are a rival political party. 
 Your political mistakes are our political gain. Your 
 political ruin will be our political upbuilding, and we 
 cannot conceive of a more flagrant political mistake, 
 of a more flagrant political and moral wrong, thcin the 
 unseating of these five men. 
 
 "But, gentlemen, do you also recognize the higher 
 and more important principle involved in this proceed- 
 ing, the principle greater than any possible immediate 
 political advantage? We recognize that in trying this 
 issue, you are making political history. For the first 
 time since the existence of this Republic, aye, I will 
 go a step further and say for the first time in any 
 country of parliamentary government, has a case of 
 this kind come up, a case involving the outlawry of 
 an entire political party, a case in which the majority 
 political parties may take it upon themselves to bar a 
 minority party because they strongly disagree with 
 such minority. . . . 
 
 "Like a blow came this action of the Speaker of the
 
 DEFENSE SUMMING-UP 191 
 
 House in connection with these five Socialists. It 
 was overstepping the limit somewhat. It has caused 
 a reaction somewhat, and to that extent it has done 
 good. But let me say to you, gentlemen, it is abso- 
 lutely inconceivable that in times of normal, rational 
 conditions, any such proceedings would have been 
 undertaken. Socialists have been Socialists of the 
 same kind as they are now, all the time, many and 
 many years. They have been elected to various ofBces 
 and they have been allowed to hold office. These very 
 members, or a majority of them, have been in this 
 House, last year and the year before, after their atti- 
 tude on the war had been made public and was gener- 
 ally known, after these various manifestoes dated from 
 19 1 6 had been adopted, after these regulations writ- 
 ten in 1909 and 1908 had been published. Their seats 
 were never questioned. Attempts were made on the 
 part of one or another individual to bring about their 
 unseating. It was frowned down and squelched by 
 the very same Speaker of the House. And I say it 
 is only morbid, political psychology which prevailed in 
 this country a short time ago that made this proceed- 
 ing possible. Gentlemen, this will pass. We will re- 
 turn to normal conditions. We will return to normal 
 mind. We will return to the condition of an actual 
 free and democratic republic, with toleration for all 
 political opinions, so long as they meet on the com- 
 mon, better ground of the ballot box and constitutional 
 government. And I say, if in the meantime you 
 should unseat these Assemblymen, while these nor- 
 mal conditions will be restored, that stain upon our 
 democracy will never be washed off, never be re- 
 moved. That precedent once created will work to- 
 wards the undoing of the entire constitutional, rep- 
 resentative system so laboriously built up and upheld 
 in this country. . . ."
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE PROSECUTION SUMS UP— SPEECHES 
 BY MESSRS. CONBOY AND BROWN 
 
 Mr. Hillquit's speech for the defense was followed 
 by an address by Mr. Martin Conboy, who began the 
 summing up for the prosecution. Mr. Conboy is tall 
 and heavy. His manner during his address was cold, 
 cjmical, and ponderous. 
 
 In the beginning he emphasized what had already 
 become abundantly apparent — that it was the Socialist 
 Party that was on trial and not the five unseated As- 
 semblymen. Said he : 
 
 "It is not the intention of counsel for this Commit- 
 tee to do other in the course of the discussion of this 
 evidence than to refer to such portions of it as are con- 
 tained in the official pronouncements, proclamations, 
 manifestoes, declarations, platforms and writings of 
 the party itself, and the statements of its accepted 
 leaders. 
 
 "There will be observable a studied intent to keep 
 directly within this character of testimony, and if it 
 brings the conviction to the minds of the Committee 
 and the minds of the members of this Assembly, that 
 we, who have given it the closest attention and scru- 
 tiny, believe that it will, THESE MEN WILL SUF- 
 FER FOR THE OFFICIAL PRONOUNCE- 
 MENTS, DECLARATIONS, AND PLATFORMS 
 OF THE SOCIALIST PARTY OF AMERICA,* as 
 
 * Italics mine. 
 
 192
 
 THE PROSECUTION SUMS UP 193 
 
 declared in the official statements of that party and 
 for their undoubted participation in the disloyal and 
 treasonable conduct of the party. . . . 
 
 "There is, at the present time, in process of organi- 
 zation or has been already organized, what is known 
 as the Third Internationale. It was preceded by two 
 others, known respectively as the First and Second 
 Internationales. Each one of these international 
 understandings between the Socialist groups in vari- 
 ous countries had a purpose common with that which 
 will probably characterize the Third Internationale. 
 The phrases of international Socialism have not been 
 changed. The phrases and expressions which have 
 been used here time and again may be read in the lit- 
 erature of Socialism for more than a generation. The 
 phrase that "the only struggle in which the working 
 class is interested is the class struggle" may be found 
 in the record of the trial of the anarchists a generation 
 ago, in Chicago. "International working class soli- 
 darity" is no new expression. Unity of the workers of 
 the world dates back to the manifesto of Marx and 
 Engels. There is nothing new in any of these terms 
 and expressions, and we must look deeper to see what 
 it is that has caused the institution of this inquiry and 
 what lies at the bottom and constitutes the foundation 
 of this investigation. . . ." 
 
 After stating the history and purpose of the first 
 and second Internationale, as he knew it, Mr. Conboy 
 continued : 
 
 "But the Socialist Party of America put its alle- 
 giance to the principles of internationalist above its 
 allegiance to the United States of America. Its mem- 
 bers were true to their faith, and were not led away 
 by the false doctrine of national patriotism, but stead- 
 fastly maintained and upheld the ideal of international 
 working class solidarity, and called upon the workers
 
 194 ALBANY 
 
 of the United States to refuse support to this govern- 
 ment in the war. 
 
 "Two thousand members of the party were arrested 
 for their activities, and the principal executive officers 
 and members of the executive committee were in- 
 dicted, convicted and sentenced to terms of imprison- 
 ment." 
 
 The orator then discussed the formation of the third 
 Internationale at Moscow. Resuming, he said: 
 
 "We are, therefore, confronted at this day and by 
 virtue of these recent events and facts with the neces- 
 sity for determining how we shall treat this group of 
 persons who are in the United States but not of it, 
 who, while accepting the benefit of our laws and insti- 
 tutions and sacrifices of blood and treasure, given to 
 support them, refuse their support to them, who take 
 all they can get but will not give a life or a dollar to 
 preserve, defend and perpetuate the government that 
 is their sole and only guaranty of life, liberty, prop- 
 erty, and the pursuit of happiness. 
 
 "It is the first time since the rebellion of 1861 that 
 notice has been plainly and explicitly served upon the 
 government of the United States by a group of men 
 residing within its borders that they will not support 
 or defend it, but that on the contrary, they will by all 
 means in their power obstruct and resist it in its effort 
 to maintain in time of stress its national honor and ex- 
 istence. The present issues, therefore, transcend in 
 importance even the war program of the Socialist 
 Party of America adopted in April, 191 7; for disloyal 
 and traitorous as that program was, the present inter- 
 national affiliations and the purposes of the same are 
 the evidence sufficient and satisfactory to the point of 
 demonstration that what transpired at that time was 
 not an isolated act of disloyalty, but only the initial 
 step in a continuing program of treason. The Social-
 
 THE PROSECUTION SUMS UP 195 
 
 ist Party of America is not a loyal organization, dis- 
 graced occasionally by the traitorous act of a mem- 
 ber, BUT A DISLOYAL PARTY OF PERPETUAL 
 TRAITORS. . . ." 
 
 Mr. Conboy contended that the Socialists v/ere no 
 longer satisfied with using "force and violence," but 
 decided upon a "means of a more insidious character," 
 the use of "the institutions of the government to de- 
 stroy it." Referring to the oath, he said : 
 
 "The taking of this oath is not a mere formality. 
 The pronouncement of its terms is not exacted as a 
 mere lip service. It has a definite purpose and object. 
 It is intended to secure an official statement from and 
 pledge by those who have been elected to office under 
 this State that they will support the constitutions of 
 the United States and of the State. If a member of 
 this Assembly, duly elected by the votes of his con- 
 stituents, were to present himself at the bar of this 
 House and declare that he would refuse to take the 
 oath to support the Constitution of the State of New 
 York, he would be refused admission as a member of 
 this body. It would not make any difference whether 
 he refused to take that oath because of an expressed 
 determination to refuse support to this government or 
 because of failure upon his part to give any explana- 
 tion for his conduct. The situation is no different if 
 a man elected by the vote of a constituency to take a 
 seat in this body subscribes to and accomplishes the 
 formality of the constitutional oath of office, but is a 
 member of an organization whose principles and ten- 
 ets he has accepted in their fullness which.require him 
 and all the members of the same organizations to re- 
 fuse support to this government in time of stress and 
 national crisis when the very existence of the govern- 
 ment is threatened, when powers domestic or foreign 
 are endeavoring to pull down the structure; and the
 
 196 ALBANY 
 
 man who at that time is pledged to obstruct and re- 
 sist the effort of the government to sustain itself can- 
 not without a lie upon his lips and within his heart 
 take an oath to support the Constitution of the State 
 of New York and the Constitution of the United 
 States, and his attempt to qualify by taking an oath 
 which he does not mean to keep should be utterly dis- 
 regarded as patently sham and a mere cloak for 
 treachery." 
 
 At this point, Mr. Conboy turned aside from his 
 theme to discuss "Bolshevism" and the workings of 
 the Soviet system in Russia. Having polished ofiE 
 these subjects to his satisfaction, Mr. Conboy then 
 resumed : 
 
 "And now I come to apply, with the aid of the evi- 
 dence, these fundamental principles to which I have 
 been directing your attention, to the charges that have 
 been made against these five Socialist Assemblymen 
 and the party of which they are members ; and I shall 
 very largely follow, in this connection, the lines of 
 the argument made by the representative of these five 
 men in his remarks delivered in this Chamber yes- 
 terday. 
 
 "The Socialist Party of America is neither a party 
 nor American. It is an organization created for the 
 purpose of accomplishing in the United States by any 
 available means, determined only by national condi- 
 tions and exigencies, the social revolution and the es- 
 tablishment of a Socialist commonwealth as part of 
 the international revolution of which the present 
 Soviet government of Russia is a part. . . ." 
 
 Referring to the St. Louis platform adopted at the 
 National Convention of the Socialist Party in April, 
 1917, Mr. Conboy continued: 
 
 "The explanation of the anti-American attitude of 
 the Socialist Party of America during the war lies in
 
 THE PROSECUTION SUMS UP 197 
 
 the anti-national and pro-international character of its 
 program. Its members are not occasional but perpet- 
 ual traitors, in constant conflict not merely with the 
 purposes of any temporary administration of the af- 
 fairs of this government, but with its very institutions 
 and fundamental laws. They are citizens not of the 
 United States, but subjects of the Internationale 
 whose pronouncements are to be given their moral 
 support, a support which they not only withhold 
 from, but deny to the government of the United 
 States. Their submission to the laws of this country 
 is a matter of expediency or the result of the coercion 
 of the Penal Law. Resistance to the raising of na- 
 tional armies or repudiation of the solemn obligations 
 of the nation were advocated, approved and adopted 
 by the deliberate and overwhelming support of the 
 membership of the party and only deleted or exorcised 
 from its platform by an utter usurpation of power on 
 the part of the National Executive Committee of the 
 Socialist Party, to hide from the public authorities the 
 illegal purposes of the party and to suppress and con- 
 ceal the evidences of its unquestioned guilt. To-day 
 these illegal provisions stand unrepealed and no at- 
 tempt has been made to secure their elimination from 
 the platform of the party or by any means known to 
 or accepted by its organic form." 
 
 Mr. Conboy then launched into a long and intricate 
 discussion of the various "Internationales" and what 
 he called the dictatorship of Moscow, which he de- 
 clared was trying to extend itself to the United States. 
 He then resumed his argument as follows: 
 
 "Now, we come to a consideration of the methods or 
 tactics by which the Socialist Party of America hopes 
 to accomplish these things. The Socialist Party of 
 America is preparing for and attempting to bring 
 about a revolution in this country as a part of the in-
 
 1^3 ALBANY 
 
 ternational social revolution for the foregoing purpose 
 and to accomplish the foregoing program by the fol- 
 lowing unlawful methods : 
 
 "First : It has opposed and obstructed and continues 
 to oppose and obstruct the government of the United 
 States and of this State in all measures relating to the 
 national and state defense. Its purpose in so doing is 
 a manifest one : to weaken and leave defenseless the 
 government of State and Nation against the attacks of 
 foreign and domestic enemies, and thus deprive it of 
 that right of self-preservation which is admittedly the 
 first law of governments as it is of individuals. 
 
 "Second: It has advocated and incited the destruc- 
 tion of the existing government of the United States 
 by illegal mass action. 
 
 "Third: While professing to utilize political action, 
 it constantly denies that existing evils or defects may 
 be remedied by such action, and insists that such po- 
 litical action must be supplemented by violence and 
 mass action, which it advocates, both directly and by 
 insinuation and suggestion. 
 
 "Fourth : The political action of the party is respon- 
 sive only to the dues-paying membership. Those who 
 are elected to office are bound to follow the dictates of 
 such membership and their compliance is compelled 
 by drastic and comprehensive provisions in the con- 
 stitutions of the party. 
 
 "Fifth: These methods and tactics are prescribed 
 for the members of the party as an integral part of the 
 party's principles and program by a great international 
 body. In the employment of each and all of these 
 methods, the Socialist Party of America is in harmony 
 and accord with the radical revolutionary Socialists in 
 all the countries of the world. . . ." 
 
 The speaker then quoted extensively from alleged 
 utterances by Eugene V. Debs and Kate Richards
 
 THE PROSECUTION SUMS UP 199 
 
 O'Hare, imprisoned Socialists, in regard to war, say- 
 ing: 
 
 "The position taken by Debs is the position of the 
 party. The acceptance of the program promulgated 
 by Lenine and Trotsky through the instrumentality of 
 the Third Internationale at Moscow is a program of 
 force and violence. It is this program that the Assem- 
 blyman-elect, Louis Waldman, in his speech of No- 
 vember 7, 19 19, unqualifiedly supports and approves. 
 I have also emphasized that the document known as 
 the Manifesto of the Moscow Internationale exhorts 
 the proletariat of all lands, including the United States 
 of America, to disarm the bourgeoisie at the proper 
 time and arm the laborer. This is no peaceful revolu- 
 tion, but means force and violence." 
 
 At last Mr. Conboy came to the point where he said 
 he was ready to "deal with certain acts, conduct, and 
 declarations of these individual members of the So- 
 cialist Party who are the subjects of this investiga- 
 tion." All these acts and declarations, however, 
 proved to be nothing more than what had already 
 been previously emphasized — that all the accused As- 
 semblymen were, in truth, active, dues-paying mem- 
 bers of the Socialist Party. 
 
 Said Mr. Conboy: "Mr. Hillquit well said that the 
 Socialist Party was not a pacifist party. It will not 
 be necessary to review in detail the evasive responses 
 made by Waldman to questions respecting the vari- 
 ous provisions of the war proclamation of the Socialist 
 Party, its various platforms and pronouncements ; that 
 evidence is before you ; you have had the opportunity 
 to observe him on the witness stand; it is for you to 
 judge whether his answers were frank, clear-cut and 
 responsive. It is for you to determine whether the 
 witness before other audiences has shown the same 
 care, caution and solicitude to impress upon his audi-
 
 200 ALBANY 
 
 tors the innocuous, vacuous and wholly innocent 
 meaning of words and declarations which to ordinary 
 minds carry an unmistakable message of disloyalty, 
 contempt for American institutions, and treasonable 
 purposes. It is this witness, who, having just been 
 chosen to represent a district in an American legisla- 
 ture, eagerly participated in a meeting called for the 
 purpose of celebrating the second anniversary of the 
 Russian Revolution. It is this witness who urged his 
 hearers to join the Socialist movement in America if 
 they revered their Russian comrades, if they applauded 
 Lenine and Trotsky, if they believed in the worthiness 
 of their cause, in the accomplishment of their work, im 
 order to make America more like Russia to-day. 
 
 "Bearing in mind that at the time of uttering his 
 speech, the Socialist Party had already committed it- 
 self to an alliance with the Third Internationale under 
 the leadership of Lenine and Trotsky at its National 
 Emergency Convention held at Chicago in September, 
 1919, the real meaning of this plea cannot be clouded 
 by the statement of this witness to this Committee. 
 He was not satisfied to express his admiration for the 
 Russian regime, but must needs convince his hearers 
 that there were but two courses of action open to 
 them. He presented but two alternatives, either Rus- 
 sia lives and conquers the world (at this point he re- 
 membered that there was some government represen- 
 tative sitting in his audience recording his utterances, 
 so he hesitated a moment, and said : 'Not Russia con- 
 quers the world, but its ideas and philosophy, worthy 
 of the Russian government to-day, should conquer the 
 world — either that, or the ideas and the philosophy of 
 Gary and Wilson and Palmer, Lloyd George and 
 Clemenceau is to conquer the world. Between the 
 two, for my part and for the part of thousands of So- 
 cialists now battling in America to-day, we choose to
 
 THE PROSECUTION SUMS UP 201 
 
 stand by the ideas and philosophy and program and 
 principles of Lenine and Trotsky as those we approve.' 
 Before an audience of his own kind, Waldman has 
 given expression to his real meaning and real pur- 
 pose. It is to the program of Lenine and Trotsky that 
 this Assemblyman-elect has committed himself. You 
 have before you in detail that program. It is set out 
 in clear and unmistakable terms in the Manifesto of 
 the Moscow Internationale, which has been offered in 
 evidence bearing the signature of Lenine and 
 Trotsky." 
 
 Mr. Conboy concluded by saying : 
 
 "It is of the utmost importance that these matters 
 shall be given the most careful attention and scrutiny, 
 for upon the one hand the determination is involved 
 whether we are to harbor within the United States, 
 and sanction, by permitting the use of our legislative 
 halls to them, a group of men pledged to destroy our 
 institutions ; or whether, upon the other hand, we are 
 to maintain against such attacks the integrity of our 
 institutions." 
 
 The last speech for the prosecution was delivered by 
 former State Senator Elon R. Brown. Mr. Brown has 
 always been known as reactionary, even among the 
 members of his own party. He is a large, fleshy, 
 heavy-set man, advanced in years, and suffers from a 
 defect in his hearing, which perhaps partly explains 
 why new ideas are so long in reaching the ex-Sena- 
 tor's mind. In his capacity as leader of the Republican 
 Party during his term in the legislature, ex-Senator 
 Brown was responsible for measures which well-nigh 
 nullified all the existing laws against the employment 
 of child labor in the State, and he was always a cham- 
 pion of the manufacturing interests in their opposition 
 to labor welfare bills. 
 
 In opening his speech, he declared it to be "impor-
 
 202 ALBANY 
 
 tant that a rule should be laid down now, and that a 
 party has arisen, or what claims to be a party and or- 
 ganized for the purpose for which the Socialist Party 
 is organized, to say whether or not now and here- 
 after, the members of that party are competent under 
 the Constitution, to sit here and perform the high du- 
 ties which are devolved upon the sovereign body of 
 the State." 
 
 Continuing, he said: "I DREAD TO TAKE UP 
 WITH YOU AND FOLLOW THE PRECEDENTS 
 UPON THIS SUBJECT. IT WOULD BE MORE 
 INTERESTING FOR ME TO SPEAK TO YOU 
 GENERALLY ABOUT IT, BUT IT IS A MATTER 
 OF SUCH VITAL IMPORTANCE, IT IS SO ES- 
 SENTIAL THAT YOU SHOULD FORM A JUST 
 JUDGMENT UPON IT; IT WILL CARRY 
 WEIGHT NOT ONLY IN THE JUDGMENT OF 
 THIS CASE, BUT IT WILL CARRY WEIGHT IN 
 THIS HISTORY OF THE STATE; IT WILL 
 CARRY WEIGHT IN OTHER STATES ; IT WILL 
 BE THE BASIS OF ACTION NOT ONLY IN 
 THIS JUDGMENT, BUT IN OTHER JUDG- 
 MENTS, AND IT IS OF THE FIRST IMPOR- 
 TANCE THAT YOUR ACTIONS SHOULD BE 
 ALONG RIGHT LINES." * 
 
 Mr. Brown went on to contend that while it might 
 not be all right for the Assembly to expel certain men 
 at one time, it was perfectly all right for it to do so at 
 another time. This novel viewpoint he elaborated 
 upon in the following words : 
 
 "Of course the necessity of self-defense is greater at 
 some times than it is at others. The necessity of the 
 exercising of the right of self-defense by a legislative 
 body in the trying times of the great rebellion, was 
 greater than in piping times of peace, and it is because 
 
 * Capitals mine.
 
 THE PROSECUTION SUMS UP 203 
 
 the necessity of considering the question which you 
 are now considering is greater now than it has ever 
 been before that this case has arisen. If it had not 
 been for the war and the development and the conse- 
 quences of the war, this case would never have arisen. 
 The counsel for the defense are right in that respect. 
 But because the occasion is different and the necessity 
 is greater, doesn't result in the conclusion that the 
 right could not or ought not to be exercised at other 
 tinies. It is because the duty then becomes plain in 
 the light of conditions which is only seen dimly when 
 everything is moving along slowly, easily and peace- 
 fully." 
 
 Early in Mr. Brown's speech. Assemblyman Evans 
 interrupted him to ask his definition of the word "test," 
 as used in Article 3, of the State Constitution, to the 
 effect that "no other oath, declaration, or test shall be 
 required." The speaker replied : 
 
 "Well, the word 'test' has a very definite meaning in 
 the development of constitutional history. They for- 
 merly had a Test Act and Test Acts in England and 
 other parts of the English Empire, by which a man, for 
 instance, who was a Catholic could not be admitted to 
 a legislative body. The Test Act — I have not briefed 
 up the subject, but I am familiar with it in a general 
 way, as I have read of them in history — the test re- 
 ferred to is that a man shall not be required to say that 
 he does or does not believe in this or that or any other 
 thing which, under our Constitution, is deemed to be 
 a matter of free exercise of his thought, judgment, and 
 conscience. It had principal relation to religious tests. 
 I can see that it may have application to other tests, 
 but it certainly does not apply to a case like this, of 
 alleged disloyalty to the country, for the reason that 
 the test of disloyalty to the country is embraced in the 
 constitutional oath which every one of you is required
 
 204 ALBANY 
 
 to take ; and the only test which is to be applied in this 
 case is the test which is expressly applied by the Con- 
 stitution, namely, ability to take the oath and com- 
 pliance with it." 
 
 In giving his understanding of the meaning of So- 
 cialism, ex-Senator Brown was at his best. He took 
 particular alarm at the statement that under a prole- 
 tarian regime those people who will not work must 
 starve. Said he : 
 
 "Hitherto a man's desire for an opportunity to em- 
 ploy his energy, his talents for individual advancement 
 to acquire means for the establishment of a home and 
 the care of his loved ones, has furnished the chief im- 
 pelling motive for the establishment of a free and 
 democratic government. 
 
 "Opportunity ; opportunity — the basis of the heart's 
 desire and of every human institution, since the crea- 
 tion during the entire history of man, that has been the 
 struggle of humanity for individual opportunity and 
 that age-long quest at last found its great triumph and 
 success in the American Republic. The opportunity 
 to develop your talents, to get an education, to find em- 
 ployment and occupation for the purpose of saving and 
 accumulating so that you and yours might be in com- 
 fort; the opportunity to gratify the proper ambition, 
 the reasonable ambition, of the human heart for posi- 
 tion in life, in business, in society, in government ; the 
 opportunity to be free and to have secured the earn- 
 ings which your talents and your industry have 
 brought you — this has been the picture which has been 
 held before the human mind and which has demanded 
 gratification of the human heart through all the his- 
 tory of the development of civilization, and nowhere 
 was it ever realized before in the degree that it has 
 been realized in this Republic. 
 
 "Now, Socialism, as summed up by Morris Hillquit
 
 THE PROSECUTION SUMS UP 205 
 
 may be summed up in an even briefer form. Hereto- 
 fore, thrift and the CAREER OF THE INDIVID- 
 UAL WHO DESIRED TO SUCCEED IN THE 
 WORLD FINANCIALLY HAS BEEN CON- 
 TROLLED BY SUBTRACTION AND ADDI- 
 TION. HE SUBTRACTED FROM HIS EX- 
 PENSES AND THE GRATIFICATION OF HIS 
 WISHES AND HE ADDED TO HIS INDUSTRY 
 AND HIS SAVINGS SO THAT HE MIGHT AC- 
 CUMULATE, AND THE RESULT HAS BEEN 
 THE GREATEST AVERAGE FINANCIAL WEL- 
 FARE IN THIS COUNTRY THAT THE WORLD 
 HAS EVER KNOWN, NOT AT ANY ONE PAR- 
 TICULAR PERIOD, BUT AT ALL PERIODS. 
 NOW, MR. HILLQUIT WOULD SUBSTITUTE 
 FOR ADDITION AND SUBTRACTION, DI- 
 VISION. That is, instead of working harder and sav- 
 ing more and denying oneself, WE WILL SIMPLY 
 DIVIDE UP WHAT OTHER PEOPLE HAVE 
 SAVED? ISN'T THAT A FAIR STATEMENT 
 OF IT? * 
 
 "If this were a dream of Utopia or of a millennium 
 or even a Seventh Day Adventist plan of translation 
 to a better world, it would not require your attention. 
 It would only arouse your amusement and furnish to 
 you what Mr. Hillquit claims we are bound to furnish 
 at the expense of those who have saved, to all the peo" 
 pie he represents ; that is, amusement and the blessings 
 of civilization. It is not the suggestion that demands 
 our notice, but the proposed means as they affect US, 
 the state and the nation. If the program succeeds, we 
 shall no longer have a government of the people, by 
 the people and for the people, because it clearly ap- 
 pears in their program that it is not the people, but a 
 class; and we will have a government of the prole- 
 
 * Capitals mine.
 
 2o6 ALBANY 
 
 tariat, for the proletariat and by the proletariat; that 
 is, government by a class and all who are not of the 
 class must surrender all their worldly possessions for 
 the enjoyment of that class, and, as Waldman says, if 
 they don't go to work, — that is, work as approved by 
 the proletariat — they must starve. 
 
 "THIS PROGRAM WOULD BE SUFFICIENT- 
 LY STARTLING AS A PEACE PROGRAM, 
 BUT AS A REVOLUTIONARY PROGRAM, AC- 
 COMPANIED BY REVOLUTION, IT IS TERRI- 
 FYING, AND AS FAR AS IT HAS PROGRESSED, 
 MENACING TO THE GOVERNMENT AND THE 
 INSTITUTIONS OF OUR COUNTRY." * 
 
 Mr. Brown compared the modern Socialist program 
 to the "eruptions of Alaric and his barbaric hordes" of 
 ancient times. He said : 
 
 "A somewhat cursory examination of the present So- 
 cialistic program shows that it differs from Alaric's 
 adventure chiefly in the expectation that the Huns are 
 already securely quartered upon us, and can, if for- 
 eigners take advantage of the nations' hospitality, and 
 if citizens employ their privileges to conquer the land 
 and divide the booty; and all that intervenes between 
 their carrying out of this program is awakening them 
 to a sense of their power." 
 
 Ex-Senator Brown gave his own private definition of 
 what he conceived the Socialist philosophy to be in 
 the following words: "Stripped of its rhetorical orna- 
 ments, it is that a certain class, including the foreign- 
 born and foreigners, who number millions, should take 
 the accumulated wealth of all the generations that 
 have toiled and saved on this continent, and to divide 
 among those who arrived yesterday and the day be- 
 fore, as well as twenty years ago." 
 
 Mr. Brown then pointed with alarm to a certain 
 
 * Capitals mine.
 
 THE PROSECUTION SUMS UP 207 
 
 speech once delivered by Eugene V. Debs, in which a 
 reference to "crimson flowers" was interpreted by the 
 horrified ex-Senator to mean "blood." He quoted Mr. 
 Debs as saying in a speech delivered in Cleveland 
 March 13, 1919: 
 
 " 'These crimson flowers that have just been pre- 
 sented to me, represent the springtime, the springtime 
 of revolution.' 
 
 "WHAT DID HE MEAN BY THAT?" 
 shouted Mr. Brown. "HE MEANT BLOOD. 
 IT ISN'T SUSCEPTIBLE OF ANY OTHER IN- 
 TERPRETATION! HE ADVOCATED AND IN- 
 CITED HIS HEARERS TO TREAT THE CRIM- 
 SON FLOWERS AS REPRESENTING THE 
 SPRINGTIME OF REVOLUTION! IT WAS NO 
 ACCIDENT THAT THEY V/ERE CRIMSON." * 
 
 The Socialist recognition of the class struggle the 
 ex-Senator described as "a return to barbarism" in the 
 following language: 
 
 "Mr. Hillquit's proposal to do away with all conflict 
 between classes is to destroy all classes except his 
 own. That is the reason and meaning, that is the 
 means that he proposes to employ to do away with 
 class rule. He proposes so far as all classes are con- 
 cerned to make a wilderness and call it peace. It is 
 the suppression of right by might. It is, so far as its 
 very innermost principle is concerned, a return to bar- 
 barism." 
 
 That there were no charges against the Socialist As- 
 semblymen as individuals was the admission of Mr. 
 Brown at one place in his speech. He admitted that if 
 the five Socialists had been guilty of specific offenses, 
 the law would be able to take care of them. On this 
 point he explained his sentiments as follows : 
 
 "I v/ish to say now that for my part, and I say it 
 
 * Capitals mine.
 
 2o8 ALBANY ' 
 
 with the entire concurrence of all of the counsel upon 
 this side, that if it were mere aggressions, the law 
 would be sufficient to treat the individuals who are 
 guilty of them, but such a claim cannot for an instant 
 be maintained. . . ." 
 
 The former Senator also took a turn at shaking the 
 bogeyman of Bolshevism at the Judiciary Committee 
 by saying: 
 
 "You can judge as well perhaps as anything of 
 whether the utterances of Mr. Hillquit are benign 
 about his explanation of his friend Debs, which I read 
 to you ; of Lenine, *a sober and moderate man,' and as 
 he says, whose friendship he enjoys. Lenine, the mon- 
 ster who has brought ruin to the civilization of Rus- 
 sia, to whose charge lie innumerable assassinations 
 and murders, who has overturned the whole system 
 and fabric of society for the purpose of working out 
 his will — the Socialist will — upon the people of Russia. 
 
 "No wonder the name of Bolsheviki has come to be 
 a name of horror. We have all seen the pictures of 
 the dead lying in the streets — the starving women with 
 their children. We know what it means in society as 
 well as nationally. We know that Russia to-day is the 
 most disturbed territory in the world ; that its horrors 
 exceed all horrors of history since the French revolu- 
 tion. We know them. They have come to us, and the 
 Socialists know them — but there is no horror which 
 will deter them from carrying out the Socialist pur- 
 poses. They have been forever a revolution in the 
 past, and they are forever a revolution of the future, 
 except the revolution which will overturn the Bol- 
 sheviki ; and to-day there is no doubt from the evidence 
 which is before you, from the expressions of opinion 
 given by witnesses, and the literature which you have 
 here, that the American Socialist Party would run all 
 the chances that its courage permitted it to, for the
 
 THE PROSECUTION SUMS UP 209 
 
 purpose of supporting Lenine and the Bolsheviki of 
 Russia. What for? As they all say, because it is rf 
 monument to their belief, and its maintenance will 
 help its extension here and throughout the world ; and 
 its destruction means their destruction, or at least the 
 indefinite postponement of their revolutionary and 
 awful program." \ 
 
 Mr. Brown made strenuous objections to Mr. Hill- 
 quit's citation of the Declaration of Independence. He 
 declared that the Declaration of Independence, as "we" 
 understand it, is not the Socialists' understanding of 
 the Declaration of Independence. Said he: 
 
 "The Declaration of Independence was a Declara- 
 tion of Independence from a foreign domination and 
 for the purpose of establishing a free representative 
 government on this continent, and what was said then 
 we adhere to fully, but it furnishes no justification 
 whatever for the Socialist contention. The declaration 
 I will read to you: 'WE HOLD THESE TRUTHS 
 TO BE SELF-EVIDENT, THAT ALL MEN ARE 
 CREATED EQUAL, THAT THEY ARE EN- 
 DOWED BY THEIR CREATOR WITH CER- 
 TAIN INALIENABLE RIGHTS, THAT AMONG 
 THESE ARE LIFE, LIBERTY AND THE PUR- 
 SUIT OF HAPPINESS. THAT TO SECURE 
 THESE RIGHTS, GOVERNMENTS ARE INSTI- 
 TUTED AMONG MEN, DERIVING THEIR JUST 
 POWERS FROM THE CONSENT OF THE GOV- 
 ERNED, THAT WHENEVER ANY FORM OF 
 GOVERNMENT BECOMES DESTRUCTIVE OF 
 THESE ENDS, IT IS THE RIGHT OF THE PEO- 
 PLE TO ALTER OR ABOLISH IT, AND INSTI- 
 TUTE NEW GOVERNMENT, LAYING ITS 
 FOUNDATION ON SUCH PRINCIPLES, AND 
 ORGANIZING ITS POWERS IN SUCH FORM
 
 2IO ALBANY 
 
 AS TO THEM SHALL SEEM MOST LIKELY TO 
 EFFECT THEIR SAFETY AND HAPPINESS.' 
 
 "Now, Mr. Chairman, in relation to that passage, I 
 desire to call your attention to this. Mr. Hillquit read 
 the words that were not read by Mr. Littleton for the 
 purpose of justifying a revolution against this Gov- 
 ernment. Words that were uttered in justification of 
 the revolution, the American revolution, he has twisted 
 into a justification for the action of the Socialist Party 
 in seeking to overthrow this government. Otherwise 
 his language cannot be significant. The Declaration 
 recognized no class, and had for its leaders Washing- 
 ton and Hancock, wealthy men of their day. To in- 
 voke the Declaration of Independence to justify the 
 Socialist Party's revolutionary purposes is a gratuitous 
 insult to its framers and the nation. That declaration 
 has carried the torch of liberty to the darkest corners 
 of the earth and lighted the footsteps of millions of the 
 oppressed to our shores, among them Morris Hillquit, 
 August Claessens, and Louis Waldman. But Hillquit 
 represents the Declaration as justifying the dedication 
 of his life to employing every opportunity to benefit 
 himself personally and to destroy our government and 
 institutions. 
 
 "You know Patriotism, as the Socialists understand 
 it, is not our patriotism, and so you know the Declara- 
 tion of Independence, as we understand it, is not the 
 Socialist understanding of the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence. They believe or profess to believe in this 
 statement, that when our fathers planted, they sowed 
 the seed of tares and thistles that will grow up and 
 choke and destroy the crop of American freedom, lib- 
 erty and pursuit of happiness. The simile is not a 
 sound one. It has no application. It is not true in 
 fact. The truth about it is that another simile is much
 
 THE PROSECUTION SUMS UP 211 
 
 more applicable, namely, that a serpent has crawled 
 into the bosom of the Republic for the purpose of 
 stinging it, if possible, to death. The seed was not 
 sown with the original crop. It is not a matter of 
 vegetable growth. It is a matter of animal venom, 
 and that venom is directed to destroying the institu- 
 tions based upon the Declaration of Independence." 
 
 The ex-Senator then read from the opinion of the 
 court in the case of the People vs. Most, comparing it 
 with that of the Assemblymen's case. He referred to 
 it in the hope of prejudicing the cause of the accused 
 Assemblymen. The court's decision in the case of 
 Most was thus apparently intended to be charged to 
 the account of the five unseated Assemblymen. 
 
 Suggesting that if there were constituencies possess- 
 ing sufficient effrontery to vote the unseated Assem- 
 blymen back into their chairs, it was the duty of the 
 country to "suppress" them, Mr. Brown said: 
 
 "It is suggested that if these men are expelled they 
 will be reelected and an increased Socialist vote will 
 be given. That is, you are warned that if you throw 
 traitors out of this House, it will be discovered that 
 they have traitorous constituencies, and that more 
 traitors will be added to them because you have per- 
 formed your solemn duty. Well, gentlemen, Berger 
 was reelected, but he was peremptorily thrown out, 
 and he will be peremptorily thrown into prison. If he 
 had a disloyal constituency, IT WAS THE DUTY 
 OF THE COUNTRY TO SUPPRESS IT." * 
 
 Mr. Brown rose to the climax of his oration in the 
 following words: 
 
 "I have been brought up on a literature to which all 
 this cattle is a stranger. I remember that there is a 
 posm reading: 
 
 * Capitals mine.
 
 212 ALBANY 
 
 ** 'Lives there a man with soul so dead, 
 'Who never to himself hath said, 
 *This is my own, my native land?' 
 
 "It does not read very well when placed beside the 
 literature of the Socialist Party, that cares nothing 
 about the boundaries of a country ; that cares nothing 
 about any of the people of the country, except the pro- 
 letariat; that does not believe in our government and 
 wants to overthrow it ; that continues an allegiance to 
 a foreign entity which seeks the destruction of our gov- 
 ernment and the destruction of all classes except it- 
 self. 
 
 "The test for office, gentlemen, in this State and 
 Nation is a simple one, that no loyal man should have 
 the slightest difficulty in complying with. The State 
 requires very little in the way of qualifications of those 
 elected to office. It is with only one of these that we 
 are concerned in this proceeding. The Constitution 
 only requires that an oath be taken to support the Con- 
 stitution. The Legislature did not prescribe the oath. 
 It is the fundamental law stated by the people them- 
 selves and initiated by them for their protection to se- 
 cure the support of their organic law. If a man can- 
 not comply with its requirements, he cannot be per- 
 mitted to sit in this body. The people of this State 
 have declared that if he cannot comply with it — and 
 from time to time it has been declared — the Legisla- 
 ture may not permit him to sit in the law-making 
 body, because he cannot sit here until he has taken 
 his oath, and the oath is the most sacred of the pledges 
 among men. He should not be permitted to take it 
 when it is known THAT HE DOES NOT INTEND 
 to carry it out. It is the duty of this Assembly to pro- 
 tect their membership in order to deserve the confi- 
 dence of the people of the State. This is not merely a
 
 THE PROSECUTION SUMS UP 213 
 
 trifling matter. IF YOUR JUDGMENT SHALL BE 
 THAT THESE MEN ARE ENTITLED TO SIT IN 
 THIS ASSEMBLY, WHAT LESSON ARE YOU 
 TRYING TO INSTIL UPON THE LOYAL PEO- 
 PLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK? If these 
 men may sit in tljis Assembly, with their disloyal pur- 
 poses established beyond controversy, what must a 
 man do which will cause you to prevent him from sit- 
 ting here, which will lead you to exclude him? Is it 
 of no importance that your judgment be right? What 
 think you of its effect upon the free institutions of 
 this State and of the country, that you PERMIT DIS- 
 LOYAL MEN TO SIT HERE AND BE ADVER- 
 TISED TO THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE AS 
 MAKING LAWS FOR THE PEOPLE OF THE 
 STATE? 
 
 "No more disorganizing a force could be conceived. 
 IT MEANS WEAKENING THE PATRIOTIC 
 FIBER OF EVERY PATRIOTIC MAN. . . . 
 
 "It is admitted that these men subscribed to the 
 tenets of the Socialist Party. That is in the record. 
 What the Socialist Party did, furnishes gravamen of 
 the charge agamst all of them. What was done by in- 
 dividuals only goes to support that charge, and if 
 what they did had not been done in the presence of 
 the disloyal purposes of the party, they would be com- 
 paratively harmless, and it would be of no importance, 
 no matter what your judgment may be. 
 
 "The question is, which flag do you follow? Do you 
 follow the red flag of anarchy now suppressed by law 
 which these men would, if they could, parade in every 
 street, in every city, of the land, or do you follow the 
 Stars and Stripes?" 
 
 The conclusion of Mr. Brown's speech was greeted 
 with applause.
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 MR. STEDMAN CONCLUDES THE SUMMING 
 UP FOR THE DEEENSE 
 
 The second and concluding speech of summary for 
 the defense was made by Mr. Seymour Stedman of 
 Chicago. He spoke with grace and dignity, and made 
 a visible impression on his audience. Loud and last- 
 ing applause greeted his peroration. One Assembly- 
 man came up to him to say that he had heard enough 
 to cause him to change his mind, and that when the 
 Judiciary Committee's report came in, he would vote 
 for reseating the Socialist Assemblymen. 
 
 In beginning his speech, Mr. Stedman referred to the 
 fact that since the hearing had started it had become 
 known that the Socialist Party by referendum had 
 voted to afBliate with the Third Socialist Internation- 
 ale, with certain reservations to the effect th%t this 
 affiliation did not carry with it an endorsement of the 
 Moscow Internationale program or tactics; that this 
 was not known at the time of the suspension, and^ 
 could not therefore constitute a basis for investiga- 
 tion. He declared that the hearing had gone far afield 
 from the charge made in the original resolutions of 
 suspension. Said he : 
 
 "In the opening of this trial it appeared that there 
 was no precedent to guide your actions, and it is true 
 that on all fours none exists. In no European body, 
 no parliamentary government, Anglo-Saxon, Oriental 
 or Slavic, have we any record like that presented here 
 and upon which it is claimed there is a right to ex- 
 
 214
 
 SEYMOUR STEDMAN CONCLUDES 215 
 
 elude men from participating in a legislative assembly. 
 
 "I might say that the nearest to it is an incident 
 growing out of the Duma, when there was a general 
 strike in Russia, so much deprecated by the gentlemen 
 who have preceded me, in which the lawyers and the 
 laborers participated, demanding the right to meet and 
 assemble in a National Council; the Czar yielded and 
 threw what Mr. Conboy referred to as a sop to the 
 people, by permitting the organization of the Duma. 
 During its existence there were some four or five men 
 who were members of that body, charged with a con- 
 spiracy, as we would understand the term. It was 
 shown that they had come together; that they had 
 agreed; that they had purchased explosives; that it 
 was their object and purpose to destroy the lives o£ 
 some of the royal family or those affiliated with them. 
 As a result, they were prosecuted, convicted and ex- 
 pelled from the Duma. So at last we have reached 
 the point where an American Assembly can borrow 
 from the greatest tyrant of modern times a half-baked 
 precedent for the course it is attempting to pursue. 
 
 "Early in this proceeding it was obvious that there 
 was no law for the proceedings which had been taken. 
 Mr. Stanchfield commenced to establish a law, and he 
 established it, under a very wide basis. He is a lawyer 
 of distinction. But before I refer to his statement as 
 to the power and authority of this Assembly and what 
 justifies it to proceed, I should first use, or define, a 
 few of the terms which will b2 used in the course of my 
 remarks. Words constitute simply the vehicle with 
 which we carry thought from one to another, and it is 
 important that we should understand precisely what 
 is meant by words so frequently used in this pro- 
 ceeding. 
 
 "Opposition has been used constantly as synony- 
 mous with disapproval. A person may disapprove an
 
 2i6 ALBANY 
 
 act, and jret his conduct may not be such as to ob- 
 struct it or destroy its efficiency. Neither is opposi- 
 tion in opinion against a law necessarily a violation of 
 it. In fact, in no instance is it a violation. A person 
 may be opposed to the Prohibition Act. The fact that 
 he is opposed to it and never speaks a word in its favor 
 does not constitute him a criminal. The fact that he 
 may oppose it and never say anything in its favor does 
 not constitute him an accessory to a boot-legger's op- 
 erations. A man may oppose a federal revenue law. 
 That does not constitute him a violator of it; be- 
 cause, forsooth, at no time has he expressed anything 
 in approval of it. And the fact that a man becomes a 
 violator of that law, a smuggler, is not the responsi- 
 bility of the man who has opposed the law." 
 
 Discussing the question of the constitutional oath 
 which had been raised during the trial, Mr. Stedman 
 proceeded to cite some Americap history in the fol- 
 lowing language : 
 
 "I want to read now an authority — that is, he would 
 have been an authority one time in American history — 
 and he is to some people now. The man's name is 
 Andrew Jackson, at one time President of the United 
 States. The question came up who should construe 
 a constitutional oath and a provision of the Constitu- 
 tion. Of course, it seems to me that it ought to be per- 
 fectly apparent that there would be a difference as to 
 the meaning of the Constitution. You know now I am 
 referring to military appropriations, and whether mem- 
 bers must vote on it. 
 
 "You pass laws. The Supreme Court says you are 
 wrong, the laws are unconstitutional. Does that mean 
 that you have violated your oath of office? Maybe it 
 happens a dozen times. Does that mean it? Not at 
 all. But more fundamental than that, every single 
 one of the great departments, the Executive, Judicial,
 
 SEYMOUR STEDMAN CONCLUDES 217 
 
 and the Legislative department of this government, are 
 each sovereign in determining what is constitutional 
 Otherwise you would have no method of checking one 
 department against another. 
 
 "So I want to read from the messages and papers of 
 the President. This is stated on July 10, 1832. It is 
 stated so long ago that we have forgotten. It has 
 been smothered by more recent utterances of men 
 prominent in life and newspapers with large head- 
 lines. 'If the opinion of the Supreme Court covered 
 the whole ground of this act,' said President Jackson, 
 ' it ought not to control the coordinate authorities of 
 this government. The Congress, the executive and the 
 courts must each for itself be guided by its own opin- 
 ion of the Constitution. EACH PUBLIC OFFICER 
 WHO TAKES AN OATH TO SUPPORT THE 
 CONSTITUTION SWEARS THAT HE WILL 
 SUPPORT IT AS HE UNDERSTOOD IT, AND 
 NOT AS IT IS UNDERSTOOD BY OTHERS;' not 
 as it is understood by Mr. Sweet; not as it is under- 
 stood by this Assembly; but as each Assemblyman 
 understands it for himself. Because, after all, if a con- 
 stitutional question comes up for disposition in this 
 House, the majority decides it. The Committee re- 
 ports, your Code Committee here, or the Judiciary 
 Committee in other assemblies. They report the bill, 
 and a member raises the question: is it or is it not 
 constitutional? You divide on the question. 
 
 " 'It is as much the duty of the House of Represen- 
 tatives, of the Senate and President, to decide the con- 
 stitutionality of any bill or resolution which may be 
 presented to them for passage or approval as it is of 
 the supreme judges, when it may be brought before 
 them for judicial decision. The opinion of the judges 
 has no more authority over Congress than the opinion 
 of Congress has over the judges, and on that point the
 
 2i8 ALBANY 
 
 President is independent of both. The authority of 
 the Supreme Court must not, therefore, be permitted 
 to control the Congress or the executive when acting 
 in their legislative capacity ; but to have only such in- 
 fluence as the force of their reasoning may deserve.' 
 
 During the summing up, counsel for the prosecution 
 had made so much of the "criminal attitude" of Eu- 
 gene V. Debs in regard to the war, that Mr. Stedman 
 introduced into his speech the reply of Debs to the 
 court as to why sentence should not be pronounced 
 upon him for alleged violation of the Espionage Act. 
 
 This speech by the best beloved Socialist in the 
 United States, as read by Mr. Stedman was so elo- 
 quent that many persons in the Assembly chamber 
 were moved to tears by its telling passages. 
 
 Mr. Stedman then commented upon the attitude and 
 personality of Debs as follows : 
 
 "The witnesses who have been examined in this 
 case — Assemblymen and others — have, in response to 
 questions asked of them whether they favored Mr. 
 Debs as the candidate for President at the coming 
 presidential election, without exception, those who 
 have been so interrogated, have responded in the af- 
 firmative. It was stated that the beliefs of Mr. Debs 
 personified and represented the spirit, the purpose and 
 the object of the Socialist movement. As nearly as it 
 can be portrayed, from what he has said and the 
 charge against him we gather his intent, his motive 
 and his ideal. It is not anti-national; it is not de- 
 structive in the sense of ruthless, barbarous upheaval. 
 It is not a mode of warfare of the sword. He has no 
 conception of Jesus with a dagger in his teeth. He be- 
 lieves in the pov/er of moral suasion, and in this declar- 
 ation he makes the statement most emphatically, as he 
 
 * For the full text of this speech see "Debs: His Authorized 
 Life and Letters" by David Karsner (Boni & Liveright).
 
 SEYMOUR STEDMAN CONCLUDES 219 
 
 has throughout his entire life, that in a government 
 where the voice of the people is the voice of God, some 
 time the truth would prevail for all time, until it served 
 the great majority of the people. 
 
 "He has faith in the people of his country, faith in 
 their intelligence. He represents in a sense the move- 
 ment. Perhaps he represents it more completely than 
 any other man in this country. The fact that he is con- 
 victed does not change the fundamental purposes and 
 objects for which he stood." 
 
 In concluding, Mr. Stedman referred to the Socialist 
 recognition of the present struggle between classes, 
 which is to be succeeded by an era of fraternity and 
 world-wide brotherhood. He ended his address as fol- 
 lows: 
 
 "What is the difference between you and me? In 
 your hearts you do not believe that Morris Hillquit or 
 any of these men think less of the people of this coun- 
 try than you or I do. You simply think we are wrong, 
 that our judgment is bad, that our heads are not built 
 right on the inside — that's all. No one but some om- 
 niscient power knows who is right. You take your 
 chance in presenting your views to the people. We 
 take ours, feeling that the mass intellect of this coun- 
 try, with all the facts before it, will ultimately ar- 
 rive at the correct solution. That is the faith of the 
 Socialist — faith in the ideals of Americanism — deep, 
 solid and heartfelt. That is what we believe in. And, 
 gentlemen, basically that is what you believe in, and 
 it is in that belief that we have our hopes and our just 
 expectancy for the seating of these Asseanblymen."
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 THE EXPULSION 
 
 Expulsion was the verdict. 
 
 The Judiciary Committee, acting with the "reason- 
 able speed" promised by Chairman Martin in his open- 
 ing statement, took three weeks to frame its report. 
 It was handed in on March 30, a little less than three 
 months after the act of suspension. 
 
 The report was by no means unanimous. With all 
 the pressure that the Speaker brought to bear, the 
 prosecution was able to muster a majority of only one, 
 the vote of the. Committee being seven to six. The 
 seven members who signed the majority report recom- 
 mending outright expulsion were Chairman Martin, 
 Everett, Jenks, Rowe, Wilson, Cuvillier and Harring- 
 ton. 
 
 Five other members — Evans, Bloch, Stitt, Blodgett 
 and Pellet — insisted upon reseating all the five accused 
 men. Mr. Lawn reported in favor of reseating only 
 DeWitt and Orr. 
 
 Upon motion it was decided that action upon these 
 reports be taken March 31. An unsually large crowd 
 gathered and packed the Assembly chamber on this 
 day as early as 11 o'clock in the morning. The gal- 
 leries were ordered closed by Speaker Sweet, from 
 apparent fear that they might be filled by the com- 
 mon people. The limited area on the floor, however, 
 was crowded by the wives and friends of the prosecut • 
 ing legislators. At 11 A. M. the Assembly chamber
 
 THE EXPULSION 221 
 
 was locked, so that no member could leave without 
 the Speaker's permission. 
 
 At the very beginning a struggle opened between the 
 Republicans and Democrats, the latter trying to have 
 consideration of the reports postponed for 24 hours. 
 The purpose of this was to relieve Governor Smith, 
 who is a Democrat, of the duty of calling special elec- 
 tions, inasmuch as under the Constitution, a vacancy 
 occurring after March 31, cannot be filled for the regu- 
 lar legislative term. 
 
 A compromise was arrived at under which "unlim- 
 ited debate" was agreed upon, so that the proceedings 
 might be dragged out until the day following. This 
 would prevent the five Assemblymen from being im- 
 mediately reelected in case their constituencies so 
 voted. 
 
 The majority report consisted of distortions of the 
 testimony and misstatements of the law. Through its 
 81 typewritten pages ran ignorance of the Socialist 
 movement that was startling. Its dominant note was 
 that the Socialist Party was not a "loyal" party and 
 that it was the duty of the Assembly to rid itself of 
 "disloyal" members. It made no attempt to define loy- 
 alty. It was sure, however, that the five Socialists 
 were disloyal. It characterized the entire membership 
 of the Socialist Party as being composed of "perpetual 
 traitors" and let it go at that. Not content with de- 
 claring the seats of the five Socialists vacant, it urged 
 legislation that would outlaw the party to which they 
 belonged. It declared that "each and every charge" 
 made against the accused Assemblymen "had been es- 
 tablished," that each one was therefore disqualified 
 to occupy seats, and that "because of such disquali- 
 fication they were and each of them was incapable of 
 taking the oath of office prescribed by the Constitution 
 of the State according to the real intent and purpose
 
 222 ALBANY 
 
 of the constitutional provisions requiring the taking 
 of such oath." 
 
 One of the minority reports, signed by Stitt and Pel- 
 let, strongly dissented in the following words : 
 
 "If the Legislature cannot by statute prescribe mem- 
 bership in a political party as a condition for holding 
 office nor the taking of an oath of loyalty as a condi- 
 tion for holding office, nor the taking of an oath of 
 loyalty as a condition for exercising the right to suf- 
 frage, it necessarily follows that the Legislature should 
 not by resolution exclude from membership a duly 
 elected member by reason of his membership in a par- 
 ticular party or group. ... To exclude a duly elected 
 member because of membership in a particular politi- 
 cal party or because of his political or economic views 
 not only would be contrary to the spirit of the Consti- 
 tution but would be a most dangerous attack upon the 
 right of representative government and free political 
 action, the fundamental principles upon which our Re- 
 public was founded. ... In view of the long estab- 
 lished recognition of the Socialist Party as a political 
 party, we cannot now say that it is not a political party 
 and, by excluding its representatives, disfranchise the 
 people of five Assembly districts." 
 
 Another report submitted by Mr. Blodgett, the 
 youngest member, and not yet hardened to the "tradi- 
 tions" of the Assembly, denounced disqualification Be- 
 cause of party membership as "too dangerous." 
 
 "It is not American in method," said Mr. Blodgett 
 "It is not sound. We have passed through many pe- 
 riods of history, which have taught us the priceless- 
 ness of freedom and the value of institutions that stand 
 firm through all periods and with reference to all 
 men. . . . These men as Socialists have very different 
 viewpoints from those of us who are non-Socialists. 
 Their party is more than a political party — it is an
 
 223
 
 224 ALBANY 
 
 economic and social creed, and the faithful thereof hold 
 it in almost religious reverence. The party differs from 
 other political parties because it is and always has 
 been international in its general scope. It is claimed 
 to be national with reference to such problems as are 
 peculiar to individual countries. The party principles 
 with reference to the party here are in decided op- 
 position to our two older parties, and these principles 
 have been published and disseminated to a point of sat- 
 uration. The party has always consistently been in 
 opposition to war and most of its members hold these 
 views." 
 
 Assemblyman Bloch made as the basis of his report 
 the doctrine that "Liberty involves the right to think 
 wrong." 
 
 Assemblyman Evans in a lengthy legal document 
 denied the right of the Assembly to ask any test of 
 loyalty of a duly elected public officer. 
 
 Debate was opened by Chairman Martin of the Ju- 
 diciary Committee. He thundered the question : "Are 
 these men loyal according to OUR standard of loy- 
 alty?" He admitted that people might differ as to that 
 standard. A little later he answered his own question 
 in the following words : 
 
 "We found, according to OUR standard of loyalty, 
 that their conduct was not loyal." 
 
 This argument brought from Mr. Evans the charge : 
 "I find you. Brother Martin, and the other six mem- 
 bers who signed the majority report, disloyal to the 
 State and to the Constitution." 
 
 The debate lasted for 22 hours. More than one- third 
 of all the members participated. During the weary 
 hours of night, many orators spoke to empty chairs. 
 Members could be seen dozing in their seats, lying on 
 benches, taking a nap in committee rooms, and seek- 
 ing refuge anywhere.
 
 THE EXPULSION 225 
 
 The speeches made against expulsion were met by 
 derision and laughter. Gradually the attacking As- 
 semblymen worked themselves into a frenzy. Those 
 who were reported to have made up their minds not to 
 consent to the wrong done against the Socialist mem- 
 bers soon found it to their interest to join with the 
 crowd and gain their share of applause. 
 
 As the debate advanced, the Chamber became more 
 and more crowded in the expectation that a vote would 
 be reached at any moment. As the atmosphere warmed 
 up, the time became ripe for a speech by Assembly- 
 man Marty McCue, former prizefighter and saloon- 
 keeper. It was the best "lynch-'em" speech ever de- 
 livered before a mob. There was no restraint either 
 in the code of decency or law on McCue's lips. He 
 characterized the Socialist Assemblymen, with whom 
 he had so frequently fraternized during the prohibition 
 fight, as "traitors," "curs," "whipped dogs," and other 
 equally savory names. He marveled at the patience of 
 the Assemblymen who "did not take one or more of 
 them and throw them out of the window." He elo- 
 quently declared "these five men ought to be made an 
 example to the other traitors and violators of the law. 
 They ought to be strung up to the nearest lamp post, 
 with their feet dangling in the air." 
 
 "I believe the men who stood by the Speaker when 
 he lined the five up in the well of the Chamber and 
 asked them, 'Are you each and every one of you good 
 Americans? If you are not, get out,* were sincere," 
 announced Mr. McCue. He made a savage attack on 
 the Socialist Party and pointed directly at Mr. Wald- 
 man, one of the five, who was present on the floor, de- 
 manding to know "what he had ever done for the 
 United States." 
 
 This open incitement to lynching was greeted by 
 wild cheers in the House, lasting for three minutes.
 
 226 ALBANY 
 
 Hardly had the ovation died away when an assistant 
 to the Sergeant-at-Arms handed Mr. McCue a note 
 saying : 
 
 "Marty, be a good spojt and move that I be given 
 the floor to answer you. Will you do it? 
 
 "WALDMAN." 
 
 The ex-pugilist did not dare. He looked over at the 
 writer and shook his head. But the challenge seemed 
 to unsettle him, even in the midst of his triumph. 
 Later when Mr. Waldman started to leave the Cham- 
 ber, Mr. McCue arose and came .up to him to say: 
 "They would think I am a four-flusher, Louis. I 
 would like to give you the floor." 
 
 After McCue's speech all the others came as an anti- 
 climax. None of the following orators could approach 
 his effort in abuse or indecency, and the crowd soon 
 began to dwindle. 
 
 The Chamber now looked like a dance hall after the 
 crowd has gone home. The floor was' littered with 
 paper. Assemblymen who were not asleep threw 
 things at each other. All the lobbyists who were de- 
 pendent upon Speaker Sweet's nod and who were con- 
 stantly hanging upon his skirts, remained wide-awake, 
 however, to cheer on the assailants of the Socialists 
 and to "keep up the spirit" of the proceeding. 
 
 While speeches were being made denouncing the 
 Socialist Assemblymen as violators of the law, their 
 accusers were out in the lobby enforcing the Eight- 
 eenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United 
 States, which is designed to down the liquor traffic. 
 
 "Never was there a better irrigated debate," said 
 the New York Globe the next day. The same paper 
 said : "It seemed at times as if every man one met had 
 a bottle of old-time whiskey on his hip and was ready 
 to share it. The cloak room of the Assembly reeked
 
 THE EXPULSION ' 227 
 
 with alcohol, and most of the breaths one encountered 
 in the lobby were redolent of the still," 
 
 The lockers of some Assemblymen seemed to be 
 filled with liquor. One member was so drunk that his 
 friends had to carry him out of the Chamber to be 
 sobered up. While still under the influence of whis- 
 key, he returned to the floor, and getting recognition, 
 balled out: 
 
 "Misser Speaker, I-I-I'm 'n favor of" — he paused and 
 waved his head in a search for the right word — 
 "throwin* 'em out!" 
 
 About this time Assemblyman Wells got the floor 
 and said: 
 
 "We must expel these Socialists. If we do not, our 
 children and our grandchildren will be washing the 
 blood off the doorsteps." 
 
 He later explained that he alluded "to the custom 
 prevailing in Egypt when the doors of the Jews were 
 smeared with blood." It must be remembered that 
 the infamous Bailin case in Russia, which called forth 
 protests from the whole civilized world, was conducted 
 by the Czar on precisely this charge. To make his 
 state of mind perfectly clear, he added : "No man can 
 change his name by taking the 'Witz' and 'Sky' off it 
 and try to hide the fact that he is a traitor." 
 
 It must have been depressing to the intelligent spec- 
 tator to listen to man after man arise and repeat igno- 
 rantly, sneeringly and incomprehendingly certain 
 phrases taken from written Socialist theory and phi- 
 losophy which to other men have meant so much that 
 volumes have been composed about them. It would 
 have been more interesting if these speakers had oc- 
 casionally exhibited even a little originality and spice 
 in their remarks, but most of them were merely in- 
 sipid and dull. 
 
 Early in the debate questions of law, fact and de-
 
 228 ALBANY 
 
 cency were abandoned and the speeches degenerated 
 into wild and purposeless harangues in which the stock 
 phrases beloved of mediocrity and the "whoop-em-up" 
 orator abounded. Such phrases were : "My Fair Cit)^" ; 
 "This Great State," "Our Country, the Greatest in the 
 World" ; "Our Sacred Constitution, The Wisest Docu- 
 ment Ever Written"; "Our Holy Flag"; "Our Boys, 
 Oh, Our Boys !" ; etc. 
 
 These statesmen, now self-converted into judges, re- 
 linquished all the parliamentary formalities ordinarily 
 observed and launched into malignant tirades against 
 the "traitors" that they all with one accord had decided 
 the Socialist Assemblymen to be. The only problem, 
 to their minds, was whether these "traitors" should be 
 expelled, imprisoned, shot or hanged, according to the 
 mood of the speaker and the amount of liquor with 
 which he had fortified himself. 
 
 Long after midnight Assemblyman Theodore Roose- 
 velt obtained the floor. In his maiden speech he op- 
 posed the outlawing of a whole political party. He 
 contended that the evidence adduced was not convinc- 
 ing as to either the necessity or the legality of the pro- 
 posed action. But little attention was paid to his 
 words, despite the prestige of his name. 
 
 All night long the flood of abuse continued. At lo 
 o'clock the next morning Speaker Sweet left the ros- 
 trum and came down upon the floor to assail the So- 
 cialists. Referring to the United States flag, he 
 chanted: "That flag is the inspiration for everything 
 that is best and holy within every man and woman in 
 this country, and when it is replaced by the red flag 
 of Socialism, the red flag of Communiam or the red 
 flag of any nation that spells injury to our government, 
 that day will see the life-blood of every citizen dye- 
 ing the ground sacred to the patriots of our early his- 
 tory who proclaimed it first, last and always the hal-
 
 THE EXPULSION 229 
 
 lowed ground for Americans who in their hearts are 
 Americans alone." 
 
 He re-ascended the rostrum amid cheers from the 
 floor. He ordered a vote taken. Each accused Assem- 
 blyman was balloted upon separately. The first vote 
 was upon Waldman. The result was 115 to 28, for 
 expulsion. 
 
 The Speaker then triumphantly announced: "The 
 resolution having been duly passed, I declare the seat 
 of Louis Waldman vacant." 
 
 The same process was repeated at the end of the bal- 
 loting on each Socialist member. Solomon and Clacs- 
 sens were declared expelled by a vote of 116 to 28. De- 
 Witt and Orr, last to be voted upon, were permanently 
 tmseated by a vote of 104 to 40. 
 
 Of the Republicans 98 — taking the highest vote— • 
 voted for expulsion, 18 Democrats joining them, 
 against 1 1 Republicans and 1 7 Democrats. A majority 
 in both parties thus voted for expulsion. 
 
 The announcement of the result was greeted with 
 loud applause by the judges, who thus bestowed ap- 
 proval upon themselves for their courage and pa- 
 triotism. 
 
 Solomon and Waldman, who had been in the Cham- 
 ber for 22 hours, remaining throughout the night, with- 
 drew and issued the following statement: 
 
 "Treason has been committed in the New York As- 
 sembly by Republicans and Democrats, with few hon- 
 orable exceptions. A bi-partisan combination has over- 
 thrown representative government. The representa- 
 tives of a political party have been driven from the leg- 
 islative hall solely because their platform was dis- 
 tasteful to their political opponents. 
 
 "The Constitution has been lynched, and the perpe- 
 trators of this outrage must be brought to justice. The 
 spirit of the mob breathed in the Assembly debate
 
 230 ALBANY 
 
 throughout the weary hours. Under the leadership 
 of Speaker Sweet, man after man openly incited to 
 violence. 
 
 "The doctrine of arbitrary power was shamelessly 
 proclaimed again and again. 
 
 "The forces of plutocracy and reaction have tem- 
 porarily triumphed. The common people have been 
 told they have no voice in government, except on the 
 sufferance of the hirelings of vested interests, to whom 
 the powers of state have been surrendered. 
 
 "The outrage at Albany is a clarion call to the people 
 of America to rally for the revival of their ancient lib- 
 erties. The life of democratic institutions is at stake, 
 and the people must get together to right the wrong. 
 
 "The workers by whom we were elected must and 
 will be heard. If the people are to be driven from the 
 ballot box where shall they go? 
 
 "The right of the ballot is an American right, and 
 those who deny it are traitors. 
 
 "The Assembly has consummated the act of lawless- 
 ness it began on January 7. Where the verdict was not 
 the product of hysteria and ignorance it was the fruit 
 of contemptible political jobbery. The Albany outrage 
 is the culminating step in a series of assaults on our 
 popular liberties, which will jolt the people into a new 
 political consciousness. 
 
 "The Socialist party refuses to regard the act of the 
 Assembly as more than a mad manifestation of fear 
 for the growing political power of labor. 
 
 "It will not be swerved from its historic course and 
 mission. With greater faith and vigor than ever it 
 will go on agitating, educating and organizing the 
 workers for peaceful social change. 
 
 "Socialists will not be goaded into violence or driven 
 underground. These have never been the methods 
 of Socialism. Always and everywhere it has waged
 
 THE EXPULSION 231 
 
 its fight in the open, and where this opportunity has 
 been denied it has ceaselessly fought for political de- 
 mocracy. 
 
 "We shall go back to our districts with complete 
 confidence. The people who sent us here knew us, and 
 they will repeat their sovereign will in overwhelming 
 numbers." 
 
 Each of the remaining expelled Assemblymen ex- 
 pressed himself to the same effect. 
 
 The new despotism promulgated by this verdict 
 shocked those citizens who still believed that repre- 
 sentative government was supreme in the United 
 States. Various public men stated their surprise and 
 concern. Among these was ex- Justice Hughes, who 
 said: 
 
 "I do not care to speak of the action of the Assem- 
 bly in a casual or flippant manner. I regard it as a 
 serious blow at the standards of true Americanism 
 and nothing short of a calamity. Those who make 
 their patriotism a vehicle for intolerance are very dan- 
 gerous friends of our institutions. I expressed my 
 views on this question at the outset and I have seen 
 no reason to change them." 
 
 Louis Marshall, well known as a constitutional law- 
 yer, said : 
 
 "This is the saddest day in the history of the State 
 of New York. If the precedent set by this action is to 
 continue, it will wipe out every vestige of representa- 
 tive government in this state. The action of the As- 
 sembly is an action of anarchy, infinitely worse than 
 anything that has been charged up against the So- 
 cialists. 
 
 "The men who are responsible for this action are 
 deplorably short-sighted and committed this outrage 
 without regard for the future. They did it, I am satis- 
 fied, for the sole purpose of furthering their own po-
 
 232 ALBANY 
 
 litical ends. If this action is permitted to stand it 
 means a return to the Middle Ages, to that period in 
 English history when there was no conception of rep- 
 resentative government." 
 
 Ogden L. Mills made this statement : 
 
 "I have read the entire record of the proceedings 
 very carefully and I have read nothing that in my 
 judgment justified the expulsion of the Socialists." 
 
 Mr. Hillquit, chief counsel for the defense, received 
 the news at his home at Saranac Lake, New York. 
 Said he: 
 
 "The action of the Assembly was a brutal lynching 
 of the Constitution. The black ii6 in the Assembly 
 have settled nothing. They have outraged the sense of 
 decency of all thinking members of the community and 
 brought home to them the realization of the dangers 
 of reactionary mob government. 
 
 "Henceforward it will be a finish fight between so- 
 cial democracy and capitalist absolutism. The fight is 
 only begining. The Socialists are ready for it," 
 
 The day after the expulsion The New York World 
 in an editorial entitled "A Legislative Lynching" de- 
 clared : 
 
 "If the people of New York are to retain their free 
 institutions, if they are not to be Russianized by their 
 stupid politicians, their first concern must be the re- 
 storation of representative government which was 
 overthrown yesterday in Albany by the Assembly." 
 
 The day following the same newspaper, under the 
 title of "Nothing Short of a Calamity, said editorially : 
 
 "No more lawless act was ever committed by a law- 
 making body than that which stains the record of the 
 New York Assembly. In all the history of representa- 
 tive government there is no other instance of a politi- 
 cal party's expulsion from a legislative body. Individ-
 
 THE EXPULSION 233 
 
 ual members have been excluded on one ground or an- 
 other, but in this case a lawfully constituted political 
 party was brought before the bar of the Assembly and 
 denied representation on the ground that its platform 
 was objectionable to the majority. . . . 
 
 "The security of free institutions depends upon the 
 complete subjection of political and economic discon- 
 tent to the constitutional processes of government. 
 There can be no security on any other terms. There 
 is no menace in the radicalism that takes its grievances 
 to the ballot box, but the radicalism that is denied ac- 
 cess to the ballot box becomes a continuing menace, 
 and any set of men responsible for such denial have 
 committed a crime against the public welfare and a 
 crime against popular government, whatever excuses 
 they may give for their conduct." 
 
 The rest of the more liberal newspapers echoed 
 similar sentiments. 
 
 On April i, 1920, therefore, a new page in Ameri- 
 can history was turned. While the world was going 
 forward, the ruling powers had set our State two cen- 
 turies back. Once more the people of the State were 
 called upon to answer the question: "Shall govern- 
 ment of the people, by the people, and for the people 
 survive?"
 
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