eved that, even
though they were more numerous than those of the Right, it would be
useless to try to control the National Emergency Convention of the
Socialist Party, called for August 30, 1919, in Chicago. They feared
that the credentials of the still unsuspended and unexpelled Left Wing
delegates would not be recognized by the party machine in the hands of
the Right Wing, and, moreover, that even if they were, these Left Wing
delegates would not be in the majority because so many other Left Wing
delegates had been expelled from the Party.

Almost at the beginning of the National Conference of the Left Wing the
Michigan State delegates and the delegates of the foreign-language
federations insisted on the immediate organization of a new party to be
known as the Communist Party. The majority of the delegates, however,
were opposed to immediate organization, claiming that it would be much
more prudent to wait till the meeting of the National Emergency
Convention, at the end of August, as many Left Wing Socialists would
refuse to leave the mother party until it became evident that the
Convention could not be captured by the Left Wing. The majority of the
delegates decided to call a Communist Party Convention on September 1,
1919. The Michigan State delegates and the Russian-speaking federation
delegates thereupon broke with the majority of the Left Wing, causing a
serious split, which continued till about the end of July, 1919.

In that month, however, most of the members of the National Council of
the Left Wing who had been leading the faction of the Left Wing which
had refused the call for the immediate formation of the Communist Party,
went over to the minority faction, which included the Michigan State
organization and the Russian-speaking federations. A compromise had been
reached whereby the aforesaid members of the National Council agreed not
to insist upon attendance at the National Emergency Convention of the
Socialist Party, while the Michigan organization, together with the
federations, were willing to wait till September 1, 1919, for the
convention of the Communist Party.

Even on these terms John Reed, Ben Gitlow and some other leading members
of the Left Wing refused to go over to the Communist Party, having
decided to fight for the rights of the Left Wingers in the National
Emergency Convention of the Socialist Party. This group of Left Wingers
later on, as will be seen, became the nucleus of a third part