his definition an alibi for Hillquit and Berger?

Many persons have hastily assumed that the main reason why the Left and
Right Wings of the Socialists fought each other like cats and dogs was
that the Right Wing members of the party are opposed to Bolshevism. This
is nonsense. The Socialist papers of the country, Right and Left, with
the possible exception of the once powerful "Appeal to Reason," which in
recent years has fallen into great discredit among Socialists because it
favored our entrance into the World War--have been and still are
advocating Bolshevism every day. If anyone has any doubt, let him read
any of the rebel sheets.

The Socialist Party of St. Louis, in its appeal for party unity,
published in "The Call," July 19, 1919, informs us that the Socialist
Party is whole-heartedly with the Russian Bolshevists and their cause:

"Promptly, and notwithstanding all obstacles and persecution, the
Socialist party hurried to the front in defense of the cause of our
Russian Comrades. Mass meetings were held, demonstrations in behalf
of Soviet Russia were arranged, our Socialist press gave all
possible support to counteract the sinister work of the American
capitalist press."

Eugene V. Debs, many times the presidential candidate of the Socialists
and the idol of "Reds" and "Yellows" alike, has all along been an ardent
Bolshevist. Listen to these words of his in his article, "The Day of the
People," published in many Socialist papers in the early part of 1919,
and taken by us from the March number of "Party News," the official
organ of the Socialist Party of Philadelphia:

"In Russia and Germany our valiant Comrades are leading the
proletarian revolution, which knows no race, no color, no sex and
no boundary lines. They are setting the heroic example for
world-wide emulation. Let us, like them, scorn and repudiate the
cowardly compromisers within our ranks, challenge and defy the
robber-class power, and fight it out on that line to victory or
death!

"From the crown of my head to the soles of my feet I am Bolshevik,
and am proud of it."

The report of the Right Wing majority of the old National Executive
Committee of the Socialist Party, made to the National Emergency
Convention, and here quoted from "The Call," September 3, 1919, contains
the following defense of their Bolshevism, against the aspersions of the
Left Wing leaders who h