by bodies of organized labor which are still governed ... by the tenets or traditions of the "Old Unionism Pure and Simple"; to organize into local and district alliances all the wage workers, skilled or unskilled; ... to further the political movement of the working class and its development on the lines of international socialism as represented on this continent by the Socialist Labor party.[66] The Socialist Labor party naturally greeted the Alliance with enthusiasm. After officially endorsing the Alliance, the 1896 convention passed a resolution of welcome. We hail with unqualified joy [it declared] the formation of the Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance as a great stride toward throwing off the yoke of wage slavery.... We call upon the socialists of the land to carry the revolutionary spirit of the S. T. and L. A. into all the organizations of the workers and thus consolidate ... the proletariat of America in an irresistible class conscious army, equipped both with the shield of the economic organization and the sword of the Socialist Labor party ballot.[67] During this S. T. and L. A. period Daniel DeLeon looked upon revolutionary unionism as being necessarily pro-political rather than pro-industrial and non-political. He then felt that the political movement must dominate the unions as they are in Germany dominated by the Social Democracy. He later became convinced that revolutionary unionism must dominate the political movement, and that the revolutionary union had a decisive mission in the Socialist movement. The S. T. and L. A. [says Fraina] was largely a weapon to fight conservative A. F. of L. politics. The friends of the A. F. of L. roared in protest and ... split the Socialist movement to save the A. F. of L.... DeLeon's revolutionary unionism was largely a means to prevent the socialist political movement [from] being controlled by the Aristocracy of Labor and the Middle Class--two social groups which ... have certain interests in common and against the revolutionary proletariat.[68] The composition and membership of the S. T. and L. A. in July, 1898, were as follows: