ABSTRACT
For a party that had been treated not so long before as the pariah of the labor movement, the Communist capture of the Chicago convention in July 1923 represented a remarkable achievement. The Chicago experience showed that, given the right circumstances, the Communists were capable of making a speedy and spectacular comeback. If the four-year-old Communist movement had traveled far to get to the Chicago convention, a far longer and more tortuous journey had been made by the Communist leaders who dominated the convention—Charles E. Ruthenberg, John Pepper, and William Z. Foster. The Communists made the first overtures to Foster. For about a year Foster's deal in Moscow paid off. The Trade Union Educational League (TUEL) came to life at the beginning of 1922. The roads that led Ruthenberg, Pepper, and Foster to Chicago differed enormously. As people, they differed just as much. They cannot be pressed into the same psychological or intellectual mold.
