The Committee for the Preservation of the Socialist Party was a short-lived organized factional grouping in the Socialist Party of America established in 1934 by its New York-based "Old Guard" faction. The Committee was initially organized to fight for the defeat of the Declaration of Principles adopted by the 1934 National Convention in the referendum for its ratification taken by mail vote of party members. After the Declaration of Principles was passed, the Committee served as the organizational core of the Social Democratic Federation of America, a rival social democratic organization to the Socialist Party established in 1936. History "The Committee for the Preservation of the Socialist Party" was formed immediately following the conclusion of the 1934 Detroit Convention of the Socialist Party, held from June 1 to 3, 1934. At this gathering a resounding victory was won by the party's so-called "Militant" faction, composed for the most part of young revolutionary socialists, working in conjunction with the group of radical pacifists surrounding Norman Thomas. Deeply troubled by what they believed to be an official call for direct action against the American government in time of war explicit in the Declaration of Principles passed by the convention, the New York-based Old Guard faction returned home to work for the defeat of the Declaration in the forthcoming referendum vote. A first pamphlet was published called Detroit and the Party, written by former New York State Assemblyman Charles Solomon. The name of the committee was at this time designated as the "Committee for the Preservation of Socialist Policies," changed shortly thereafter to the more familiar "Committee for the Preservation of the Socialist Party." In this pamphlet, Solomon decried the Detroit Declaration of Principles as "reckless," observing pointedly that "furious phrases cannot take the place of organized mass power." Solomon noted that over "the past three or four years" there had arisen "certain definite groups" in the ranks of the Socialist Party. He continued: "The Declaration does not stand by itself, in a vacuum, as it were. Important as it is, it does not alone account for the vital struggle that is now being waged in the party. It represents the culminating point of a deep seated antagonism. It is like the straw that breaks or threatens to break the camel's back. "The Declaration of Principles has brought to the surface divergences which are deep, antagonisms which make of our party not a