as he wanted to go, and it wasn’t far enough for those who took the revolutionary pronouncements of the First Convention seriously. According to Melvyn Dubofsky, Sherman was duplicitous, and used his position as president of the IWW "to increase his power and line his own pockets." Sherman was supported by conservative elements in the WFM. He was opposed by IWW Secretary Treasurer William Trautmann, Vincent St. John, and Daniel DeLeon, head of the Socialist Labor Party, who averred that they sought to rescue the organization's stated purpose and philosophy—revolutionary working class solidarity. The more "radical" element within the IWW — composed of those referred to as "beggars, tramps, and proletarian rabble" — specifically, those who favored direct action, some organization leaders, plus DeLeon's group — adopted a member's proposal published in the Industrial Worker which called for abolishing the office of president. The proposal was agreed to at the 1906 convention. Paul Brissenden believed, however, that the issues behind divisions in the first two years were more personality than principle, complicated by intrigue on the part of individuals in the two socialist parties. Brissenden weighed the arguments of the two sides, and concluded that neither side acted charitably toward the other. Furthermore, Bill Haywood, writing from prison in Idaho before his acquittal, emphatically condemned "Shermanism", but then chided that with a bit of diplomacy, the troubles could have been smoothed over. However, with Big Bill's charismatic leadership skills temporarily unavailable, the die had been cast. Haywood would later write (in his autobiography, published in 1929), "Sherman had proved incapable, and if not actually dishonest, he had used an enormous amount of the funds for unnecessary purposes." After the Sherman faction was outvoted at the 1906 convention, they took their argument to the largest organization within the IWW, the Western Federation of Miners (WFM). There, the questions of propriety and organizational philosophy raged for the next eighteen months, with the WFM ultimately taking a conservative turn under WFM President Charles Moyer. Moyer was incarcerated along with Haywood in Idaho, but was freed without a trial. Haywood's radicalism was affirmed by imprisonment, while Moyer, sharing the same cell, was a changed man. He supported those who were already seeking to withdraw the organization from the IWW and, in spite of the fact that Haywood and St. John were likewise officials in the WFM, Moyer was successful. Historian Joseph Rayback traces the