Since the first edition of this book was published some references to DeLeon have appeared in the dispatches from Russia. Robert Minor, in an interview with Nikolai Lenin, quotes him as declaring that "the American Daniel DeLeon, first formulated the idea of a soviet government, which grew up in Russia on his, DeLeon's idea." In the same interview Lenin is further quoted as saying: "Future society will be organized along soviet lines. There will be soviet [occupational] rather than geographical boundaries for nations. Industrial unionism is the basic state...."[471]
Additional light on the relation between Bolshevism and I.W.W-ism as conceived by Lenin appears from the following account given by Arthur Ransome:
Lenin said he had read in an English socialist paper a comparison of his own theories with those of ... DeLeon. He
had then borrowed some of DeLeon's pamphlets from Reinstein (who belongs to the [Socialist Labor] party which DeLeon founded in America), read them for the first time, and was amazed to see how far and how early DeLeon had pursued the same train of thought as the Russians. His theory that representation should be by industries, not by areas, was already the germ of the soviet system.... Some days afterwards I noticed that Lenin had introduced a few phrases of DeLeon's ... into the draft for the new program of the Communist [Bolshevik] party.[472]
Finally, mention should be made of the fact that the National Labor Committee of the Socialist Labor party has just published a memorial volume on DeLeon. It is written by a group of his friends and co-workers in the Socialist Labor party.[473]
[404] _Industrial Union Bulletin_. Nov. 7, 1908, p. 1. _Cf._ appendix vi.
[405] See Appendix iv, Table A. Professor Barnett's returns, however, indicate a net gain in membership from 1907 to 1909. (_Quarterly Journal of Economics_, August, 1916.) His figures, too, were secured from the I. W. W. general headquarters. The writer is not able to reconcile the two sets of figures.
[407] _Industrial Union Bulletin_, April 11, 1908, col. 1.
[408] In April, 1908, there was a strike of [presumably] I. W. W. quarry workers at Marble, Colo. The I. W. W. papers reported that it was successful. There is also reported in August, a strike against reductions in wages by the French branch of the textile workers' local at Lawrence, Mass.