that everybody was
exchanging fisticuffs when the police arrived. Detective Sergeant
Lawrence McDonough, head of the anarchist squad, with the aid of a dozen
uniformed policemen, seems to have saved the day for the Right Wingers.
John Reed, of the Left Wing, was furious, and "The Call," New York,
August 31, 1919, tells us that he issued a statement which he addressed
to the delegates of the Emergency Convention:

"We address you to inform you of occurrences this morning which
every Revolutionary Socialist on the floor of this convention will
protest against.

"Delegates from Illinois, Minnesota, Washington, Oregon, Ohio,
Nebraska, California and other states entered the convention floor
and took their seats in readiness for the opening of the
convention.

"At nearly 10 o'clock Gerber of New York and Goebel of New Jersey,
who were at the door and attempted to refuse the above named
delegates admission, called the police and these delegations were
ejected from the hall by police power, many of them being roughly
handled."

Press reports inform us that after the belligerents had calmed down the
meeting was again convened, and that Victor Berger, in referring to the
Lefts, said: "They're just a lot of anarchists; we are the party."
Berger did not say whether or not by the word "we" he meant the old
National Executive Committee, which should have gone out of office in
July,[G] but seemed to have given itself a "mandate" to run the National
Emergency Convention.

On August 31, 1919, the hot-heads and sore-heads again assembled, and a
dispute arose as to who called the "cops." As a result the Left Wingers
next met by themselves downstairs, on the first floor of the hall, while
the Right Wingers remained higher up on the second floor. On the same
day the Minnesota group was seated by the Convention, but was denied a
vote.

On September 1st the high climbers of the Right Wing purged the party
still more by unseating the Washington State delegation and expelled
Katterfield "for the good of the party." The California delegates then
threw a bomb into the Right Wing Convention by announcing that they
would not take their seats until all of the contested delegations were
seated and the police were withdrawn from the hall. These delegates
finally went down to the first floor and joined ranks with the Left
Wingers there, this section henceforth being known as the Comm