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Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday July 5, 1898
Controversy Continues over Division in Social Democracy
From the Omaha Western Laborer of July 2, 1898:
Social Democracy:
The Withdrawal of Debs and What It Meansby Joseph R. Buchanan
“What’s the matter with Debs?”
I have heard that query propounded many times during the past four weeks. Men whom I met at different places on a trip from New York to Omaha and return asked me the question. The division in the Social Democracy was in the mind of everyone who asked it, and what they really wanted to know was the cause of the split in that organization. I was in Chicago two or three days after the break occurred [June 11th], and I met and talked with representative men of each wing of the divided movement. I tried hard to see Debs but failed. However, I saw two men who undoubtedly had the knowledge to speak for his side, and they claimed the authority to do so. However, both sides agree as to the real reason of the division, and that reason is not a secret, as it was given in the daily press of Chicago at the time.
A minority of the delegates to the national convention held in Chicago [June 7-11] wanted to change the program and policy of the Social Democracy by abandoning the colonization feature. When the test vote was taken, the result showed 52 for retaining the colony scheme and 37 against. The 37 bolted the convention and Debs joined them. They afterward met and decided to reorganize the minority on educational and political lines, entirely abandoning the colony project and to go forth with a new plan for a socialistic political party
