and withdrew the Macdonald-Bouck ticket-not in favor of La Follette, as Mahoney had originally planned, but in favor of the just-announced ticket of the Communist party, William Foster and Benjamin Gitlow.

     The Comintern's decision regarding the La Follette campaign thus had several results for American Communists. First, they passed up a chance to participate in the impressive, if unsuccessful, La Follette campaign. Even without Communist support, La Follette received 4,825,000 votes. The Communist party, on the other hand, retained its status as an isolated radical sect on the margin of American society; Foster received only 33,300 votes. Minnesota's Farmer-Labor Federation, badly scarred by the Communist manipulation, expelled scores of Communists from its ranks. When Communists reentered the state farmer-labor movement in the mid-1930s, William Mahoney, who had never forgiven their derailing of his dream of a national farmer-labor party, became their most determined enemy.

     A surprising casualty of the Comintern's decision was Ludwig Lore. On the surface, the Comintern had upheld Lore's ideological objections to Communist entry into the La Follette campaign. But despite its appearance, the Comintern's decision to order a pull-back from the campaign was not a matter of principle. In reality it was an anti-Trotsky ploy by Zinoviev. Lore was an admirer of Trotsky's; consequently, document 4 ordered American Communists to adopt a position that was closer to Lore's while simultaneously announcing: "Lore position repudiated. Comintern severely rep[r]imands Lore." Soon afterward, in 1925, Lore and other Communists who were deemed guilty of "Loreism" were expelled from the party.
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Ruthenberg to Amter, 16 February 1924, RTsKhIDNI 515-1-307. Original in English. February 18, 1924
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#25
I Amter Moscow Russia

Dear Comrade Amter

     You will find enclosed herewith the minutes of the meeting of the Central Executive Committee of our Party for February 15th and 16th from which you will see that a very deepgoing difference of opinion has developed in our Committee in reference to our Labor Party policy[,] which is made more dangerous for our Party in view of the factional situation which has developed as indicated in the minutes of this meeting.

     The C E C has decided to send a delegation consisting of Comrades Pepper, Cannon, Foster and Ruthenberg and a representative of the Anti-Third Party tendency to Moscow immediately to present the whole question to the Executive Committee of the C I in an effort to secure a decision and avoid a factional controversy in our Party which would endanger the work and our achievements of the past year.

The points to be brought before the Comintern are the following:

1 Are the policies outlined in the November thesis of the C E C in regard to our relation to a Third Party correct?