ter-Allied Labor Conference in 1918 and endorsed by both the
majority and minority Socialists in the Central empires; no
forcible annexations, no punitive indemnities and the free
determination of all peoples.

"The Socialist Party believes that the foundations for
international understanding must be laid during the war, before the
professional diplomats begin to dictate the world's future as they
have in the past.

"It therefore supports the demand of the Inter-Allied Conference
for a meeting with the German workingmen, convinced that such a
meeting will promote the cause of democracy, and will encourage the
German people to throw off the military autocracy that now
oppresses them. We join our pledge to that of the Inter-Allied
Conference that, this done, as far as in our power, we shall not
permit the German people to be made the victims of imperialistic
designs."

The phrases in the above endorsement, "Inter-Allied Conference,"
"majority ... Socialists in the Central empires," and "promote the cause
of democracy," must have invoked the scorn of Lenine and Trotsky. Hence
the wording of their manifesto, in which they acknowledged as
"associates" the "followers ... of Debs in America," is an evident slap
at Berger and Hillquit and their "followers" in the American Socialist
Party. It was so understood by many in the party, and led to the rapid
sprouting of a "Left Wing" and the ultimate secession of about 72,000
dues-paying members, leaving only about 40,000 with Berger and Hillquit.

The story of this rupture will be found in the three chapters following,
where it also appears that Berger and Hillquit attempted to hide their
"Yellow" streak under a deeper daub of "Red."

CHAPTER III

THE SOCIALIST PARTY OF AMERICA DEVELOPS A LEFT WING

Some years ago, when the people of the United States were beginning to
suspect that the Socialists were plotting a revolution against our
Constitutional form of government the hypocritical followers of Eugene
V. Debs, fearing that their plot might be nipped in the bud, endeavored
to conceal their conspiracy, and succeeded quite well, by assuring the
American people that the word "revolution," so often used by them, was a
harmless term and was to be taken in a broad sense, without the "r,"
signifying nothing more than "evolution." "Do not be alarmed," they told
us, "we Socialists are striving to b