Salt Lake Tribune | 1919-06-10 | Page 8 | Majority Socialists Facing Real Crisis , Party Leader Says

MAJORITY SOCIALISTS. FACING REAL CRISIS, PARTY LEADER SAYS BERLIN. June :. 'By the Associated Press. ) The national conve:. . of the majority fociahst pary at Virr.ar tomorrow to-morrow marks the I : r . : t mt-t;ne of the faction of Pmhpp Sheid-maiin. the fr.a?.ce!!or. since it be.-a me the tf-vern-rr.er.t party. The F-.-.-:oa pr m.-- s to I supply ihc acid test to the integrity of 1 he party in view of the prevailing national na-tional crisis and the chronic unrest within with-in the party's ranks. Notwithstanding the existence of the disaffected elements, the leaders are not afraid of any serious break at Weimar. While none " of the insurgents openly threatens to join the independent Socialists, Social-ists, they are, nevertheless, giving the independents moral encouragement in their campaign against the government. Kdouard 1'aviJ. minister without portfolio, port-folio, told the Associated Press today that the national political situation should not be sized up through Per! in spectacles, adding that "Berlin has always al-ways been the recruiting ground for political po-litical revolutionaries, professional agitators agi-tators and dreamers." "The intellectual forces which have made our partv great," he said, "came not from Berlin, but almost wholly from western and southern Germany. Berlin s political antecedents, atmosphere and environment en-vironment are notoriously not conducive to united effort. Berlin is doomed to remain the incubator of all sorts of radicalism. radi-calism. We . older party heads are accustomed ac-customed to view such phenomena with perfect equanimity. Our convention is caiUd primarily for the purpose of sizing up these newcomers." Discussing sovietisin. with which some of the dissenting members of the majority major-ity Socialist partv are said to be coquetting, co-quetting, llerr David remarked that he was convinced the party would never approve ap-prove of a pure soviet system, which, he said, was the "negation of democracy, to which the majority Socialists are pledged." "It is a contradiction of democracy. , he concluded, "because it eliminates the majority for the benefit of a dictatorial minority."