EXPANSION AND DECLINE 20y 



thing for the workers and farmers. Six men voted to unseat me in Con- 

 gress after I was elected by the workers. . . . The Nonpartisan cowards, 

 Sinclair and Baer, voted to lynch me. I understand in St. Paul they elected 

 another man, Keller, who also voted to lynch me." 53 What more "con- 

 clusive evidence" was required to show that "the League program is not 

 socialism?" Was the League not composed of rich farmers "thirsting for 

 political power?" Did it not represent the "bourgeoisie" as opposed to the 

 "proletarian" movement ? Did the League not have old and conservative 

 aims? Would it not be found allied with reactionary political and eco- 

 nomic forces? 



Efforts were made to bring these groups together. Particularly active 

 in this respect was W. C. Zumach, a Socialist who later went over to the 

 Nonpartisan League in Wisconsin and repeatedly tried to arrange con- 

 ferences between Socialist leaders such as Mayor Daniel W. Hoan of 

 Milwaukee and Victor Berger and representatives of the League. Zumach 

 wrote Teigan, the national secretary of the League, that he was pushing 

 the "get-together" idea with the hope that as many Socialists as possible 

 would be able to sit in with the Nonpartisans. "Of course I'll see to it that 

 only the fellows with the right ideas will take part in the conference so 

 that no time or energy will be dissipated." He admitted, however, that 

 there were still in the Socialist party "a few 'nuts' that love to roll their 

 'R's' especially in the word revolution." 54 A meeting finally was arranged, 

 but hope of reaching an understanding was dispelled before the meeting 

 had come about when League congressmen showed their antipathy or 

 indifference to Berger by voting to expel him from Congress or by being 

 conveniently absent when the vote was taken. Zumach expressed the 

 views of the Socialists when he wrote Teigan: 



But I'm disgusted with the showing of League congressmen on the expulsion 

 vote. I'm heartsick for I see all hopes of getting together knocked in the head. 

 I could not and would not ask our boys to make common cause with such 

 representatives. Do you expect that labor of Wisconsin will consider you people 

 as safe guardians of their interests? Not if I know the Labor movement of 



53. Quoted in Answering the Socialist Charge (n.d.), a leaflet in the Minnesota 

 Historical Society. 



54. W. C. Zumach to H. G. Teigan, October 15, 1919; October 22, 1919; Teigan 

 to Zumach, October 23, 1919; H. G. Teigan to Martin Teigan, October 26, 1919. 



