party, which
should have been taken in January or February, 1920, if the requirements
of the party Constitution were followed.

The concern of the Socialist Party managers to keep the facts from the
general public, evidenced by their tactics in the case of the five
suspended Socialist Assemblymen at Albany, might have led to another
unconstitutional delay or manipulation of a referendum. But this was
immaterial in determining the mind of the rank and file, as we have
documentary evidence showing that the only opposition within the party
to a clear-cut Bolshevik committal sprang out of fear either of legal
prosecution or of the loss of votes through public condemnation. The
following illuminating discussion is extracted from a letter of
Alexander Trachtenberg, a conspicuous Socialist, as printed in the
"Call" of November 26, 1919:

"The members of the Socialist Party now have before them two
referenda--Referendum E, consisting of the various changes in the
party Constitution which were decided upon at the Chicago
Convention, and Referendum F, on international Socialist
relations....

"The question of international affiliation is at this moment
probably the most important before the Socialist Party. The two
reports which emanated from the convention, known as the majority
and minority reports, will no doubt receive very careful
consideration by the members....

"A close examination of the two reports reveals that the condition
laid down for the International, with which the Socialist party
cares to affiliate itself, are the same. Both reports agree that:

"a. The Second International is dead.

"b. The Berne International Conference hopelessly failed in its
indeavor to reconstitute the International.

"c. The New International must consist only of those parties:

"1. Which have remained true to the revolutionary International
Socialist movement during the war.

"2. Which refused to co-operate with bourgeois parties and are
opposed to all forms of coalition.

"In short, _both_ reports agree that the Socialist Party will go
only into such an International the component parties of which
_conduct their struggle on revolutionary class lines_. The
difference between the two reports is, that while the majority
report leaves the matter of the reconstruction of the International
hang i