Unspecified Month
"Socialist Party Membership Data: A survey circulated in 1908." Compiled by Emma Pischel. In December 1907, the NEC of the Socialist Party determined to survey the entire party membership in attempt to better understand the social composition and demographic makeup of the organization. While certain state organizations in the industrial Northeast (MA, NJ, CT) and the Socialist strongholds of Wisconsin and Oklahoma and the big Western state of California did not respond, an excellent sample of over 15% of party members did. This document quantifies the 6,310 survey replies and provides an unparalleled quantitative snapshot of the Debsian Socialist Party. The first myth smashed by the 1908 membership survey is the tendentious assertion that the Socialist Party was little more than a conglomeration of shopkeepers and professionals. Nearly 2/3 of survey respondents were of the proletariat -- with "craftsmen" outnumbering "laborers" by a margin of 2-1, both of these groups dwarfing the number of transportation workers. Another 17% of respondents were farmers -- a percentage probably slightly inflated by the lack of participation in the survey by the various industrial centers. Less than 10% of the party was involved in commerce and less than 5% in professional occupations, according to the survey. The second myth shattered by the 1908 survey was the depiction of the Debsian SPA as comprised of innumerable youthful idealists and few greyheads. An astounding 70% of survey respondents were over the age of 30, with over 30% of the party over the age of 45. The survey also shows that over 3/4 of survey respondents were of American birth and that the most widely subscribed Socialist publication -- by a wide margin -- was The Appeal to Reason, with nearly 2/3 of respondents receiving that publication each week. Also interesting (given the Socialist movement's obsession with the medium) is the very low efficacy of leaflets in the swaying of political views, with less than 5% listing this as their own factor of primary importance.
FEBRUARY 1908
"Shall the Two Parties Unite?" by Carl D. Thompson [Feb. 15, 1908] The years 1907 and 1908 saw an effort by the Left Wing of the Socialist Party to bring about unity between that organization and the Socialist Labor Party. This concentrated effort of course drew a response from those opposing the revolutionary Socialist agenda. One prominent Socialist who was particularly outspoken in his opposition to the proposal was Wisconsin state organizer Carl D. Thompson, who contributed this two-part article to the constructive Socialist organ The Christian Socialist. Thompson outlines the turbulent history of the Socialist Labor Party and its various "unity" efforts of the past -- with the anarchist movement, with the Greenback Labor movement, with the Henry George campaign. These efforts at a unity of weakness are contrasted with the early history of the Socialist Party, which built its organizational size and strength through an essential and timely split with the utopian communalists who had won the day at the convention of 1898. Thompson declares that the SLP had been responsible for disruption with the labor movement with its dualist Socialist Trades & Labor Alliance and support of the Industrial Workers of the World; that it held a sectarian position on the agrarian question, which had served as inspiration for a long-running melee in the Socialist Party of Nebraska; and undermined party democracy, State Autonomy, and freedom of the press through its dogmatic belief in party ownership of the press and strict party centralization. The addition of the SLP en masse to the ranks of the Socialist Party would additionally bolster the "Impossibilist" wing of the party, in Thompson's view, thus setting back the work of years to lessen the influence of this wing in the party's councils. "Therefore if these people wish to join the Socialist Party the door is open to them as individuals, the same as to all others. By accepting our platform, our program, constitution, and tactics, they may come in. And upon no other ground. For them to propose any other bears upon its face a sinister suggestion. Let them apply as others do to the individual branches. And let the branches be the judge of their individual fitness and right as in the case with all others," Thompson concludes.
APRIL 1908
"Separate Organizations," by Josephine C. Kaneko [April 1908] The matter of mobilizing women in support of the socialist cause was an important matter for the Socialist Party of America from its earliest days as an organization. One notable step forward took place in 1907 with the launch of the monthly magazine, The Socialist Woman, organ of the Socialist Women's League of Chicago. While the importance of mobilizing women was almost universally accepted, the means of bringing women into the movement was the matter of some debate. Josephine Kaneko of The Socialist Woman offers her own opinion of the two primary tacks: integration of women into locals of mixed genders vs. the organization of female auxiliary branches. Kaneko states that given ideal conditions -- a sufficiently ideologically enlightened group of women and a male Socialist local "sympathetic and responsive to those needs of women which lie outside their own" -- the so-called "mixed local" was unquestionably the superior form. However, Kaneko states, frequently women were insufficiently familiar with socialist ideology or comfortable in asserting themselves on an equal plane with men, resulting in a tendency for them to sit at meetings in "obedient reverence under the shadow of their aggressive power." In other cases, Kaneko notes, Socialist locals functioned as glorified men's clubs: "a place where men met and talked and smoked, and split hairs over unimportant technicalities, transacted a little business, talked and smoked some more, and adjourned until the next meeting’s program, which consisted of practically the same line of procedure." In such cases the organization of separate women's organizations as a temporary training grounds for female activists was merited by conditions. "we have to manage, somehow, to get women interested in Socialism," Kaneko declares, "It hasn’t been done satisfactorily so far through the mixed local. It remains to be seen what can be done through separate organizations."
MAY 1908
"Buck Niggers and Politics," by Seth McCallen ["Col. Dick Maple"] [May 1908] This article was one of the most vile manifestations of white supremacy in the Socialist Party of America. "Col. Dick Maple" (Seth McCallen) was the co-founder and editor of The National Rip-Saw, a Socialist monthly published in St. Louis. The editorial here is a full-out Ku Kluxer racist rant -- a piece that makes Kate O'Hare's unprincipled and pandering 1912 Rip-Saw pamphlet, "'Nigger Equality," sound positively erudite. McCallen rails against "buck niggers" installed into positions of power and remuneration by Republican President Theodore Roosevelt in a brazen effort to win black voters to the Republican ticket. McCallen shrieks that "the political axe in the hands of 'Teddy' will be wielded with considerable vim from now on until the election, and many a white-skinned clerk will be decapitated to make room for foul-smelling 'bucks' with ebony hides, as you know the 'coon's' vote is a very valuable asset to the Republican Party." Etc. etc. An illustration of from whence The National Rip-Saw came and documentation of the existence of a virulent racist wing in the early Socialist Party of America -- to which organization this privately-held publication claimed allegiance.
"Are the Interests of Men and Women Identical? A Suggestion to the National Convention," by Josephine C. Kaneko [May 1908] Josephine Kaneko of The Socialist Woman magazine issues an explicit feminist challenge to the delegates of the forthcoming 1908 National Convention of the Socialist Party of America. "It is time now," she declares, "that we cease our appeal to men alone, and give some attention to womankind. It is not enough to say that 'the interests of the workingman and woman are identical, therefore what we say to the workingman includes the woman also.'" Kaneko continues: "Women are tired of being 'included,' tired of being taken for granted. They demand definite recognition, even as men have it. They know that their interests and men’s interest have not been identical since the dawn of human history, and it will take something more than a mere statement of the fact to make them believe they can be identical under Socialism." Kaneko charges that the tendency of Socialist Party meetings to be held in back rooms of taverns and "other dreary, comfortless halls which are always obnoxious to women" constitutes "a discrimination in favor of one sex over another." She additionally castigates the party for the male orientation of its propaganda and failure to actively address issues of importance to women."Report of the Finnish Translator to the Convention of the Socialist Party of America, May 10, 1908," by Victor Watia Extensive report of the Translator of the Organization of Finnish Socialists (Finnish Federation) to the 1908 Chicago convention of the SPA. Watia provides a number of interesting details about the origin of the Finnish movement inside the SPA, noting the pivotal decisions of the Federation's 1906 convention which set the table for closer participation of the organization with the party. Watia reveals that the concept of a "Translator" emerged spontaneously in several states of the upper Midwest, in which Finnish socialists found themselves in need of assistance converting documents between Finnish and English and employed their own translators. The Finnish organization determined to establish the post of National Translator and made every effort to have this individual located inside SPA headquarters for convenience. This office soon came to serve as the central office of the Finnish organization itself. Watia notes the mutually beneficial nature of this post and advocates the placing of skilled SPA organizers in the field among the various language groups and committing itself to develop Translators for other language groups desiring them. Also includes the budget of the Finnish federation for first 16 months of its affiliation with the SPA (which began Jan. 1, 1907). Watia's report includes a lengthy alcohol prohibition resolution of the Finnish Federation which caused Victor Berger to get grumpy.
"Report of Committee on Foreign Speaking Organizations to the National Convention of the Socialist Party, May 17, 1908." Committee report to the 1908 SPA Convention in Chicago, delivered by S.A. Koppnagel. The Committee advocated the acceptance of all foreign language organizations seeking affiliation with the Socialist Party, subject to 5 conditions: "(1) They are composed of Socialist Party members only. (2) Any foreign speaking organization having a national form of organization of its own be recognized only if all the branches composing this organization having been chartered by the national, state, or local Socialist Party organizations, and pay their dues to the respective Socialist Party organizations. (3) No foreign speaking organization asking the Socialist Party for recognition shall issue their own particular national, state, or local charters. Same to be issued only by the respective organizations of the Socialist Party, as the case may require. (4) All foreign speaking organizations affiliated with the Socialist Party must and shall conform in every respect with the Socialist Party national, state, and local constitutions, platforms, and resolutions. (5) They should function only as agitation, education, and organization bureaus of the Socialist Party." Includes an amendment made from the floor but not published in the SP's Official Bulletin (probably due to incompetence rather than malice) prohibiting the refusal of admission to the SPA on account of race or language.
"A Short Speech Amongst Friends: Girard, Kansas -- May 21, 1908," by Eugene V. Debs After the conclusion of the 1908 Socialist Party convention in Chicago, a number of prominent Socialists made their way to southeastern Kansas to tour the new facilities of The Appeal to Reason. A cake and ice cream banquet was arranged bringing together leading Girard Socialists with their out of town guests, including the party's recently renominated Presidential standard bearer, Gene Debs. An Appeal to Reason stenographer was present to record the evening for posterity, the proceedings published as a small circulation souvenir pamphlet. This is the full transcript of Debs' remarks to the gathering. Debs likens the former hostility and later acceptance of anti-slavery forces among the people of Kansas to the current warming of popular temperament towards Socialism and Socialists. He also likens the fellowship of assembled Socialists to the human relations that will be evident in the Socialist society of the future: "We may not live to see the full fruition of our work, nor does it matter; so insidiously can a man feel Socialism, so completely consecrated can he be to the Cause of Socialism that he lives within the realization of it, even now." As is often the case with Debs, quasi-religious sentiment abounds: "Looking into your faces and catching your spirit I feel myself rising to exaltation. Socialism to us is something more than a mere conviction. It courses in our veins; it throbs in our hearts; it fires and sanctifies our souls; and it consecrates us to the service of humanity."
JUNE 1908
"The Failure to Attain Socialist Unity," by Frank Bohn [June 1908] This article by former SLP member and current IWW activist Frank Bohn states that "unity of the Socialist movement should undoubtedly have been attained in 1901. Failure to secure the desired end by all of the then existing factions was due to a wrong position taken by some comrades, who will now pretty generally admit their error." Despite its "correct" tactical position since the convention of 1900, the Socialist Labor Party had failed to grow organizationally due to the attempt to separate its veteran revolutionary socialist membership from the rest of the movement, which was evolving towards its orientation, as well as an attempt to "draw about itself the veil of absolute sanctity," Bohn states, adding "The scientific truths at the bottom of the revolutionary upsweep were made over into the mumbled litany of a sectarian clique." Bohn states that in addition, the SLP used "wrong methods" of propaganda and organization: "Men and women who will develop into revolutionists worthwhile to the movement are sure to demand respect and decent treatment from their teachers while they are learning. This consideration the honest utopians and reformers in the movement (and all of us were such) have never received from The People, by which the work of the SLP is ever judged." In a second section of the article, Bohn relates the parable of the field, in which a "quack doctor" [DeLeon] and his servants, together with a number of energetic young men, fence themselves off from the rest of the community and stunt their own crops in the process -- the useful members of the community ultimately leaving through a hole in the fence to join the others while the "quack doctor" hides himself away in a patch of poison ivy with his retainers. "In the IWW we who uphold political action find no difficulty in working with those who do not. On the political field we industrialists can surely labor with equal success beside those who do not realize the efficiency and the ultimate revolutionary purpose of industrial unionism. For these reasons members of the IWW who favor political action should support the Socialist Party," Bohn concludes.
"The Terror," by James Oneal [event of June 1908] Although perhaps slightly fictionalized for the allegorical telling, this short work by Socialist Party activist James Oneal detailing a June 1908 lynch mob which he witnessed stands as his most compelling piece of writing. First published in 1909, this powerful story was reprinted by the New York Call's Sunday magazine in September 1918.
SEPTEMBER 1908
"The State Convention: What the Socialists Did at Jefferson City -- Delegates Pleased with Growth -- The State Platform," by Phil A. Hafner [c. Sept. 10, 1908] Participant's account of the 1908 state convention of the Socialist Party of Missouri, as published in the small circulation Scott County Kicker of Benton, MO. Editor Hafner notes the convergence of 5 political parties simultaneously at the state capital of Jefferson City for political conventions. Each were addressed by a representative of the Woman's Suffrage League of St. Louis and asked to instruct their elected candidates to support women's right to vote in the state at the next meeting of the legislative assembly. It seems the Socialists and the People's Party resolved as such, with the Democratic, Republican, and Prohibition parties rejecting the suggestion. Hafter also notes the way the party delicately worked around a new state law which would have stripped the rank-and-file of the ability to elect the party's officers by referendum and notes the adoption of a state platform for the Socialist Party of Missouri.
OCTOBER 1908
"How I Became a Socialist Agitator," by Kate Richards O’Hare [October 1908] Autobiographical sketch by professional Socialist organizer and journalist Kate Richards O'Hare about her early life and decision to live the life of a touring radical agitator. Beginning life on the ranch of a reasonably successful Kansas rancher, O'Hare recalls that the economic crisis of 1887 caused her family to lose its Kansas homestead and forced her father to become a wage-worker in Kansas City. Although recovering his financial position somewhat, the experience left the young Kate Richards scarred. After time as a religious zealot in the temperance movement, Richards came to understand that the liquor trade and prostitution were effects rather than causes of poverty and she began to look for solutions in other places. She pushed until she was eventually allowed to become an apprentice machinist, which gave her entre into the trade union and eventually the Socialist movements, with a speech by Mother Jones reckoned as of particular importance. Richards met Coming Nation and Appeal to Reason publisher Julius Wayland and eventually became in a school for the training of Socialist party workers in Girard, Kansas underwritten by Wayland and taught by Walter Thomas Mills. It was there where Richards met her husband, Frank O'Hare, a fellow student. Upon completion of the course at Mills' school the pair embarked on seven years as touring socialist agitators.
"This Plot Must Be Foiled: Conspiracy to Murder Mexican Comrades Now Imprisoned in This Country by Order of Diaz," by Eugene V. Debs [Oct. 17, 1908] American Socialist icon Gene Debs looks beyond American borders to rise to the defense of Mexican revolutionaries imprisoned by the country's military strongman, Porfirio Díaz. Debs alleges the existence of a "satanic international conspiracy" between the Roosevelt and Díaz governments to capture and execute Mexican revolutionaries-in-exile Juan Sarabia, Ricardo Flores Magón, Antonio I. Villarreal, Librado Rivera, and L. Gutierrez de Lara. He explicitly likens the situation faced by the Mexican radicals to that recently faced by Big Bill Haywood, Charles Moyer, and George Pettibone of the Western Federation of Miners. "These comrades have been engaged in a peaceful agitation in behalf of their wretched and suffering countrymen. Forced into exile by the ruling class, they came to the United States, but they soon found that their dream of security was a delusion and a snare," declares Debs. Debs calls upon the American working class to "arouse" to stop this "dastardly international conspiracy of capitalists to murder labor leaders who can not be silenced in any other way."
NOVEMBER 1908
"Socialist Ideals," by Eugene V. Debs [Nov. 1908] Socialist Party leader Gene Debs completely conflates philosophical and economic materialism in this article for B.O. Flower's liberal monthly magazine The Arena. As Socialism "pays chief attention to the bread-and-butter problem, [it] has been called materialistic," says Debs. Rather: "it is really the most idealistic movement of the centuries. So idealistic is it in its aims that, while having no specific religious tendency or purpose, it partakes somewhat of the nature of a religious movement and awakens something of a religious enthusiasm among its adherents." Debs calls Socialism "an extension of the ideal of democracy into the economic field" and remarks that unlike the founders of the democratic movement of 1776, "we do not need, like them, to resort to arms, but may use the democracy they bestowed on us as a means for obtaining further democracy." In Debs' vision, a simple change of ownership of productive machinery from private to public hands would result in productive labor for all wanting it at any time, a banishing of want from the earth, and education, homes, and income for all. Moreover, Debs promises that under Socialism the mind and soul will flourish, as will literature and art, fear of war will vanish, a new divinity will emerge in religion, and domestic bliss will reign triumphant.
"To Our Comrades: Greetings," by Eugene V. Debs [Nov. 3, 1908] With the arduous campaign of 1908 over, marked as it was by scores of speeches coast-to-coast from atop the Socialist Party's chartered train, the Red Special, Presidential candidate Gene Debs takes time to thank his supporters for their efforts. Debs makes note of the "hundreds of young, forceful, and effective orators, both men and women" who have become part of the Socialist movement since the 1904 campaign and the effective efforts of the Socialist press to counter systematic efforts at obfuscation and disinformation by capitalist politicians in the capitalist press. Debs notes the grave illness of his Vice Presidential running mate, Ben Hanford (chronic stomach trouble) and expresses well wishes. He also indicates belief that the Red Special had been effective and puts forward the idea of a permanent Socialst Party rail car, to travel from city to city in an effort to "thoroughly stir up the community and sow the seeds of Socialist thought and activity."
DECEMBER 1908
"The Tour of the Red Special," by Charles Lapworth [Dec. 1908] This is a valuable primary source document, a participant's account of the famed Socialist Party Presidential "Red Special" of 1908. This lengthy memoir from the pages of The International Socialist Review is in addition rather fun to read -- its colloquial tone and sometimes snide commentary not entirely dissimilar in form from a punk rock tour diary from a 1990s fanzine. The Red Special, a chartered train which crisscrossed the country in the late summer and early fall of 1908, was met everywhere by large and enthusiastic crowds, many of whom paid admissions to hear silver-tonged Presidential candidate Gene Debs and other Socialist luminaries expound upon the party program. Speeches from the train at depots across the nation were additionally coordinated with successful evening meetings, Lapworth makes clear. The result was an explosion of excitement and energy around the Socialist Party campaign (albeit not reflected in the disappointing 1908 Socialist Presidential vote count). The Red Special's very real media success has been emulated over the years by "whistle stop" tours of the candidates of the two major parties and additionally finds its echo each campaign season as primary candidates charter buses and planes and crisscross the nation attempting to generate media attention with their sundry road extravaganzas.
"The Tour of the Red Special," by Charles Lapworth [Dec. 1908] Large graphic pdf file, 9.2 megs. This is a copiously illustrated participant's memoir of Eugene V. Debs' memorable 1908 Presidential campaign, during which a special train was chartered and toured coast-to-coast in support of the Socialist Party of America's electoral program and ticket. Lapworth indicates that SPA Executive Secretary J. Mahlon Barnes was the individual who conceived of the special Socialist campaign train and A.M. Simons the one who devised the moniker "Red Special." The debs train traveled from Chicago to the Pacific coast, back to the Midwest and then along the East Coast, drawing enthusiastic crowds wherever it went. Riding the train along with Debs and a bevy of Socialist Party worthies was a brass band which entertained crowds at campaign stops. Anecdotes about various campaign stops make this a significant primary source material for historians of 20th Century American socialism. Published in International Socialist Review, vol. 9, no. 6 (December 1908), pp. 401-415. File also ported to Archive.org.
"Words of History: From the Annual Report (1907-08) of the Editor and Manager of St. Louis Labor which was Read at Last Year’s Annual General Meeting of Local St. Louis and Adopted," by G.A. Hoehn [Dec. 13, 1908] Valuable history of the early period of the socialist press in the German-American mecca of St. Louis, Missouri, written by veteran party editor G.A. Hoehn. Hoehn, a German immigrant born in 1865, recounts the first German socialist newspapers in the city, the Volkstimme des Westens (People's Voice of the West) (c. 1877-c. 1880) and the St. Louis Tageblatt (St. Louis Daily Gazette) (1888-1897). The first English-language paper, according to Hoehn, was the original St. Louis Labor, edited by Albert E. Sanderson (1893-1896). Hoehn explains the proliferation of SLP papers of this period using the name Labor: "Later this publication developed into a Socialist Newspaper Union with special editions for 34 cities, some of which were Chicago; Milwaukee; St. Paul; Buffalo, Troy, NY; Boston, Holyoke, Manchester, Adams, Mass.; San Antonio, Texas; Los Angeles; San Francisco; Pueblo [CO]; Lincoln, Neb.; and other cities. St. Louis remained the headquarters of the Socialist Newspaper Union. For three years these publications, which had a joint circulation of over 6,000 [sic.?], did good work." A demonstrably incorrect version of events leading in the transition from the Social Democrati Party paper Missouri Socialist to the second iteration of St. Louis Labor follows. Hoehn hints at disarray within the seemingly solid ranks of Local St. Louis, declaring: "we cannot tolerate the DeLeonistic and Anarchistic work which some of our ward clubs have pleased to carry on for a number of years, much to the detriment and injury of our general party movement and our local Socialist press."
