The gathering passed an "Address to the American People", [1] stating its criticism of existing conditions and formally proposing an amorphous plan of action validating the status quo ante: the labor unions on the group's Right Wing to endorse labor-friendly candidates of the Democratic Party, the Socialists and Farmer–Labor Party adherents on the group's left wing to conduct their own independent campaigns.
To this end, it urged the formation of joint committees within each state, congressional district, county, and municipality to decide upon the specific course of action.
State branches of the CPPA were to buy individual membership cards for 25 cents each and to remit 25 percent of all other income to the national organization.
The National Committee reported to the gathering that it had worked "in close association with the People's Legislative Service and with the weekly, Labor" over the course of the year.
The National Committee declared the 1922 campaign a great success, claiming that 21 improved Senators had been elected, while 93 undesirable members of the House had been defeated with another 13 quitting their seats.
William F. Dunne, Caleb Harrison, Ludwig Lore, and C. E. Ruthenberg were elected as representatives of the party, with J. Louis Engdahl, the 5th place vote-getter, named as alternate.
The major part of the unpaid bills related to the special editions of Labor, printing, and expenses of the People's Legislative Service.
The gathering also adopted a short platform calling for public operation of the railroads, coal mines, and water power resources, direct election of the President, an end to the use of courts to declare legislation unconstitutional, enactment of a farm credit organization, increased tax rates on large incomes and inheritances, and legislation providing for minimum employment standards for women.
It was attended by about 120 delegates representing the state branches of the CPPA, railroad labor organizations, the Socialist Party, and scattered groups.
The Cleveland Convention was addressed by the Senator's son, Robert M. La Follette, Jr., who read a message from his father accepting the call and declaring that the time had come "for a militant political movement independent of the two old party organizations."
La Follette declared that the primary issue of the 1924 campaign was the breaking of the "combined power of the private monopoly system over the political and economic life of the American people."
The representatives of the railway unions on the National Committee, with the exception of William H. Johnston of the Machinists, were united in opposition to the gathering and they proposed a motion not to hold the 1925 organizational convention.
Following their defeat on this question, the National Committee members withdrew, announcing that they would await further instructions from their respective organizations with regards to future participation.
The task was virtually insurmountable, however, as the heterogeneous organization had split over the fundamental question of realignment of the major parties via the primary process vs. establishment of a new competitive political body.
The February 1925 Convention was attended by "several hundred delegates"—a number that will never be known precisely since the body voted for sine die adjournment before the report of the Credentials Committee was delivered.
L. E. Sheppard, President of the Order of Railway Conductors, presented a resolution calling for a continuation of the CPPA on non-partisan lines as a political pressure group.
The reconvened Founding Convention found itself split between adherents of a non-class Progressive Party based upon individual memberships as opposed to the Socialists' conception of a class-conscious Labor Party employing "direct affiliation" of "organizations of workers and farmers and of progressive political and educational groups who fully accept its program and principles."
The body voted to allow the chair to appoint an Executive Committee of five to coordinate with local organizations in establishing a network of state groups.