At St. Paul

In the Municipal Auditorium at St. Paul opened the Farmer-Labor Progressive Convention. It was prophesied that it would assemble 2,000 delegates and 10,000 visitors. William Mahoney of the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party had called the Convention. If all the people he had expected had come, there would have been a great jam--the Auditorium holds only about 2,000.

But things went wrong. The American Federation of Labor, which does not believe in direct political action, stayed away. Senator La Follette had repudiated point-blank any support the Convention might give him, declaring that it was in the hands of communist interests. So only about 400 delegates came.

How was the Convention made up? There were 142 delegates from Minnesota and about 90 from the Dakotas. The remaining 170 came from the rest of the U. S. Several organizations had separate votes on their own account--including The Workers' Party and the Federated Farmer-Labor Party, both communistic. In the general mass of delegates were representatives of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers (the only large union represented), the Woman's Shelley Club of North Dakota, the Galesburg Musical Club, the Negro Tenants' Protective League, the People's Voice Culture Club, the Housewives' Protective League, the Workmen's Gymnastic Association, the National Woman's Party.

But it was not the organizations but the leaders. In the first place there was William Mahoney, who called the convention, thoroughly disgusted because Mr. La Follette and the A. F. of L. had despised his work. There was William Z. Foster, who began as an I. W. W., then went over to organized Labor, and finally deserted to Communism. Now he is head of the Workers' Party, the "overground" organization of the Communist Party which found it wise to "submerge" after one of its conventions, picturesquely staged amid Michigan sand dunes, had been raided and Foster, Ruthenberg and others arrested. There was Joseph Manley, son- in-law and arch-disciple of Foster. There was C. E. Ruthenberg who began as a Socialist, then found himself imprisoned as a criminal anarchist. In all, he has some nine arrests and three convictions to his credit. Now he is Executive Secretary of the Workers' Party. There was Duncan McDonald, representative of the radical Illinois Labor Party. There was Alexander Howat who had been ejected from the United Mine Workers for radical activities. There was Alice Paul of the National Woman's Party, ready to present a plank for absolute equality for women, and scamper off to the Democratic Convention as soon as it was adopted.

The Convention began with Mr. Mahoney's appearing before a curtain representing a sylvan scene. He delivered a keynote speech: "We have always employed methods sanctioned by the Constitution. We have always followed democratic and legal procedure. Our opponents have not. The ruling class never does use democratic and constitutional procedure unless it serves its ends."

Next day, committees were appointed. The Communists put themselves in charge of all the important posts. State Senator Taylor of Montana took charge and made a speech: "In the Cleveland Convention sat Harry Daugherty and the representatives of the burglars who stole millions from the people while our boys were making the world safe for democracy; sat Mellon, the arch-boot-legger of the age; sat those who waxed fat and grew rich from the labor of the babies of our industries. ... In a few days more the other party of the international banking and industrial organization will meet in the very citadel of international capitalism and there ratify a platform and name the candidate selected for them by the Second Internationale of Capitalism; men like Doheny and Murphy and McAdoo and A. Mitchell Palmer; men who stole millions while the Republicans stole thousands. . . .

"I would rather sit with the reddest Communists in the world than sit with the aggregation that met the other day at Cleveland or who will meet in New York."

A minister, the Rev. J. L. Beebe, rose and said, "If I were not a preacher I should say 'To Hell with the Capitalist system!'"

By the third day Mr. Mahoney began to feel a little blue about the Convention. Said he: "LaFollette has repudiated this Convention and contributed in a large degree to make it what it is."

Four motions managed to get before the Convention at the same time. But they were disposed of by being talked into oblivion. Finally nominations were ordered. Alexander Howat nominated his friend, Duncan McDonald. This was in accordance with the Communist program. Although McDonald is not a Communist (at least, not openly) he was in close coordination with Mr. Foster. A delegate tried to nominate Senator LaFollette but withdrew his nomination when he was assured that

Mr. LaFollette would not accept. A man in a stage box, one Stephen Fay, rose and nominated himself. He was ruled out of order on the grounds that he was only a spectator.

Two voices were heard opposed to Mr. McDonald's nomination when the vote was taken. William Bouck of Sedro Woolley, Wash., was nominated for Vice President.

Joseph Manley read the platform:

Nationalization of monopolized industries.

Government ownership of all banks.

Courts, police, militia to be used, not against, but for Labor in strikes.

Abolition of Child Labor.

National maternity insurance for all mothers.

Abolition of residential restrictions upon the right to vote.

Participation of farmers in the management of Government-owned transportation facilities.

Government loans without interest, to distressed farmers.

Federal minimum wage laws and maximum 8-hour day.

Social insurance and old age pensions.

All this was not done without protest. One farmer declared--before he and 25 others withdrew from the Convention: "The farmers of this country, and the laborers, too, will never agree to the principles shown in this convention.

"We have a group here that believes our form of government is the best ever devised by man. They want to purge its temples but they don't want to burn them down.

"We are between the two extremes-- the money power that is crushing us and the fellows whe want to change this form of government into a Soviet. Why don't you come out and say you want a Soviet Government? Why don't you put it in the platform? If you're ashamed to sail under your right name, why can I be blamed for refusing to associate with you?"

To this Mr. Foster might have replied with great point: "We don't want a pure Communist organization nor a pure Communist platform because it will serve us better to control a party which might get many non-communist votes--on that account we would have liked to ride on the tail of Mr. LaFollette's kite. It would give us an opening and make a better impression in Moscow."