JFK+50: Volume 7, No. 2373
UPTON SINCLAIR QUITS SOCIALIST PARTY OVER OPPOSITION TO DRAFT
Los Angeles, California (JFK+50) One hundred years ago today, July 17, 1917, Upton Sinclair* issued a statement in which he gave reasons for his withdrawal from the Socialist party.
Mr. Sinclair took issue with the party's "majority report" in which mass opposition to the draft was advocated.
Upton Sinclair wrote...
"For me to remain in the party would be to misrepresent both the party and myself."
The writer predicted the Socialist party would be "wiped out" if it attempted to carry out its policy of mass opposition to conscription.
He concluded...
"I intend to go on working for socialism as hard as I can. When the breakdown of the Prussian caste system seems to me to have progressed far enough, I may come back to ask the party to take me in again."
*Upton Sinclair, Jr. (1878-1968) was born in Baltimore, MD & studied law at Columbia University. His novel, "The Jungle", about conditions in the meatpacking plants of Chicago became a best seller.
Although a socialist, US supported the nation in WWI. In 1920, he founded the California chapter of the ACLU. US wrote nearly 100 books & won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1943.
SOURCE
"Sinclair Says War Views Made Him Quit Party," The Chicago Daily Tribune, July 18, 1917, http://archives.chicagotribune.com
LBJ & Upton Sinclair
UPTON SINCLAIR QUITS SOCIALIST PARTY OVER OPPOSITION TO DRAFT
Los Angeles, California (JFK+50) One hundred years ago today, July 17, 1917, Upton Sinclair* issued a statement in which he gave reasons for his withdrawal from the Socialist party.
Mr. Sinclair took issue with the party's "majority report" in which mass opposition to the draft was advocated.
Upton Sinclair wrote...
"For me to remain in the party would be to misrepresent both the party and myself."
The writer predicted the Socialist party would be "wiped out" if it attempted to carry out its policy of mass opposition to conscription.
He concluded...
"I intend to go on working for socialism as hard as I can. When the breakdown of the Prussian caste system seems to me to have progressed far enough, I may come back to ask the party to take me in again."
*Upton Sinclair, Jr. (1878-1968) was born in Baltimore, MD & studied law at Columbia University. His novel, "The Jungle", about conditions in the meatpacking plants of Chicago became a best seller.
Although a socialist, US supported the nation in WWI. In 1920, he founded the California chapter of the ACLU. US wrote nearly 100 books & won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1943.
SOURCE
"Sinclair Says War Views Made Him Quit Party," The Chicago Daily Tribune, July 18, 1917, http://archives.chicagotribune.com
LBJ & Upton Sinclair
December 15, 1967
Photo by Yoichi Okamoto
LBJ Library Image
