ABSTRACT
When the war feared by Marx and Engels broke out in 1914, their followers reacted in confusion. The prowar and antiwar Socialists refused to fall neatly into Right Wing and Left Wing categories. The official position of the American party seemed to put it on the side of the Left Wing in Europe. The American Left Wing was thereby deprived of the raison detre of its European counterpart. It did not have the same provocation for raising a hue and cry about betrayal by the Right Wing. Of special interest at this time was an acknowledged Left Wing authority, Louis B. Boudin. He was one of the fathers of the Left Wing, but he was not one of the fathers of the Communist party which grew out of the Left Wing. It is doubtful whether one per cent of all the thousands of people who have passed through the American Communist movement could identify Louis C. Fraina.
