James Oneal's own orientation in these years was closer to the latter pole, along with other main political leaders of the party, such as Eugene V. Debs, Morris Hillquit, Adolph Germer, and John M. Work.

The true "Right Wing" of the party (exemplified by a large section of the publicists associate with the party, including Allan L. Benson, Charles Edward Russell, John Spargo, Emanuel Haldeman-Julius, and Carl D. Thompson peeled away in 1917-18, as American participation in the European conflict became a reality and Woodrow Wilson's argument that this was indeed a "war to make the world safe for democracy" made converts.

As the war drew to a close, accentuated with a Bolshevik victory in Russia in November 1917, the revolutionary socialist Left Wing began to organize with a view to transforming the Socialist Party of America into a form better able to establish the dictatorship of the proletariat and a soviet form of government, but by September 1919 they had been expelled and became the Communist Labor Party of America under the direction of Alfred Wagenknecht and L.E.

In 1934, Oneal played a role as a prominent member of the so-called "Old Guard" faction, which opposed the new Declaration of Principles passed by the party's Detroit Convention of 1934.

[7] Oneal mocked the Thomasites as "'militant' liberals" capable only of winning the temporary allegiance of shallow college students,[8] dismissed the Militant faction as "pseudo-Marxists and phrasemongers,"[9] and alleged that the Revolutionary Policy Committee (U.S.) were nothing more or less than practitioners of "Lovestone Communism" and were acting as a "dual organization in the party.

[12] Oneal's pamphlet included a coupon which readers could tear out, fill in, and mail to him, pledging the allegiance of the sender "as one with you for constructive party work and progress.

"[13] The coupons accumulated doubtlessly proved invaluable as the Old Guard faction left the SP to establish itself as the Social Democratic Federation of America.

While Editor Oneal was a strong SDF partisan but he clashed personally and philosophically with the publication's business manager, Sol Levitas, a former Menshevik vice mayor of Vladivostok.

In December 1937, Levitas persuaded the paper's board of directors to change his title to "Executive Editor," a move which prompted a letter of resignation from the pugnacious Oneal.