Meyer London, Socialist Congressman During War, Killed in Auto Accident

Meyer London, former Socialist Representative from the 12th Congressional District, New York, died in Bellevue Hospital Sunday night, as a result of injuries suffered earlier in the day when he was struck by an automobile.

The accident occurred at First Avenue and Eighteenth Street.

Mr. London was rushed to the hospital, and his brothers, Louis and Harris London, and his wife, Mrs, Anna London, and his daughter, Isabella were summoned to his bedside. They were all with him when he died.

Witnesses told the police that Mr. London was crossing First Avenue from east to west, when Louis Greenspan of 23 Calden Street, Newark, who was driving north, swerved to avoid striking an automobile driven by Jack Applebaum, of 1290 Lafayette Avenue, the Bronx, The two cars crashed together and Greenspan’s was thrown to the right, striking Mr. London, who was in the middle of the street. Although suffering severe pain London asked that no charge be made against Greenspan and he was not arrested.

Meyer London was fifty-five years old. He lived at 308 East Eighteenth Street and had his law offices at 302 Broadway. He came to the United States from southern Russia, when he was eighteen years old, studied law and became a leader and the attorney for several labor unions.

Mr. London was the first Socialist sent to Congress by an Eastern state. He served in the sixty-fourth and sixty-fifth Congresses in 1915-1919 and again in the sixty-seventh Congress in 1921-1923.

Mr. London opposed the entrance of the United States into the World War and went to Congress with the declared intention of proposing to “make war on war,” to force Europe to come to terms by starving out the warring nations and refusing to furnish war materials by which the fight could be maintained. He was denounced on the floor of the House when he voted alone against the resolution to make war on Austria-Hungary. He carried on his fight to oppose conscription.

Mr. London was torn by two emotions when he voted against our declaring war on Austria-Hungary, he explained. One was his desire that the action of Congress be unanimous and the other that the philosophy of the people he represented, which was opposed to the declaration of all war, be expressed.

“I hate professions of loyalty.” he said. “but I believe I am as deeply in love with the United States as any man who can trace his ancestry to the Mayflower.”

Mr. London said from the beginning that communism had no place in this country, and he refused to make speeches favoring the Soviet. Only about a year ago he made a speech before the Young Peoples Socialist League in which he advised the members to “keep their noses to the grindstone,” to forget idealism for the time being and to work out their problems in an American way, also to convert America to socialism in the light of existing facts and not fancies engendered by the Bolshevik revolution.

The funeral will take place tomorrow. Wednesday, from the hall of the “Jewish Daily Forward.” Internment will be at the Workmen’s Circle cemetery.