But today, our subject is the socialist party. The rise of socialism as a key element of american radicalism in the early 20th century. On a reading list, the chapter by michael casing gives a good quick summary of this moment in the various kinds of socialism at that time. From 1860 at least onward, there had been some kind of socialist presence in the u. S. But largely confined to immigrants from europe, particularly germans, english. The emergence of a mass socialist movement with a base in the u. S. Political system follows the final flowering of the 19th century radical tradition and the defeat of the populist party in the 1890s. The inheritors of 19th century radicalism were forced to kind of think about new ways of confronting the problems and inequities of the rapidly changing Industrial Society of that time. It is often said by those who write about the history of socialism that american socialism was particularly untheoretical. Very few americans produced theoretical works about this. Many more socialists here were influenced by their experience in populism. Or just the experience of the Labor Movement than reading karl marxs das kapital. By the turn of the century, all socialism, in some way or another, derived from the thinking and writing of karl marx, although interpreted in very different ways. One could give a whole course on karl marx, which i will not do. What people learned from marx is that history is the history of class struggle. That is the driving force of history. He claimed that under capitalism, society is being divided inexorably into two classes, the workingclass, or proletariat, and the bourgeoisie, the owning class. Production is concentrated in fewer hands, giant corporations. The gap between, what i guess today they call the 1 and the 99 , the gap between the very rich and everyone else would inevitably get wider and wider. Some of this resonates, of course, to the present day. 30 years of the administrations of Ronald Reagan and bush and clinton and bush and obama have done more to confirm marxs prediction of the rich getting richer and everyone else falling behind than 75 years of the soviet union. What was appealing in marx was that at the time of this dominant free contract ideology, which the Supreme Court and others were implementing social darwinism, that the marketplace is a site where equal participants compete, the result is best for all. Marx pierces through to the underpinning of the labor market and labor relations. He shows that it is based on inequality, exploitation, and wage earners not getting what they deserve. Something that has, of course, being an idea floating among american radicalism for a long time. What was different is that he insisted capitalism was inevitably creating the instrument of its own destruction. That was what he called the proletariat, workers whose coming selfawareness would lead them to seize power and change the whole system. Not because they were any better than anyone else, but because the very nature of their social existence made it inexorably pushed towards changing the whole system. They cannot abolish the inhuman conditions of life without abolishing all the inhuman conditions of presentday society. Oddly in the year 2000 and soon after that, there was a flurry of rediscovery of karl marx. The new yorker, at the time of the millennium in 2000, published an article saying, man of the 21st century karl marx. Why . Because marx, among other things, is the prophet of globalized capitalism. The man who saw through, that capitalism must expand to make itself a global system. Unlike the previous american radicals, marx analyzes capitalism as a system, not as bad individuals, not trusts corrupting the political system, not nonproducers trying to conspire. The system itself has a logic which has to be understood. In a way, you can put marx, and many people do, under the same category of thinkers as darwin. Darwin tried to understand the underlying principles of the natural world. Or freud, a little later, tried to understand the underlying principles of the internal human mind. Marx is trying to understand the underlying principles of the economic system, the economic world. The first principle is, as he says i will just read a couple sentences from the communist manifesto. He lays out many more. It is a political polemic, highly oversupplied. Then you waded through the 3 ultradense volumes of das kapital. What did they find when they turned to this manifesto . First they found that the revolutionary element in the world is capitalism. The bourgeoisie cannot exist without revolutionizing instruments of productions and with them, the whole relations of society. Conservation of the old modes of production in unaltered form. The first condition of existence for earlier industrial classes. Constant revolutionizing of production, interrupted disturbance of all social conditions is what capitalizes characterizes the present world, he says. All frozen relations are swept away, all new forms once become antiquated before they can ossify. The often quoted sentence, all that is solid melts into air. That is our condition right now. All that is solid melts into air. That is the essence of the system. The constant revolutionizing of everything. There is no nostalgia here. Marx is not like earlier radicals trying to go back to a previous golden age. There is no previous golden age. The nature of life now is just this constant change of everything. Then, as i say, its not a national system. The need for a constantly expanding market chases the bourgeoisie over the whole surface of the globe. It must nestle everywhere, settle everywhere, establish connections everywhere. The bourgeoisie and its exploitating of the world market has given a cosmopolitan character to production in every country. National industry is destroyed, he says. This is 1848. National industry destroyed . Its just getting going. Today, that is what is happening. National industries destroyed by the inexorable forces of globalization. More than 150 years later. All established National Industries have been destroyed or are being destroyed. We find new wants, requiring a satisfaction by the products of distant lands and climbs. National onesightedness becomes more and more impossible. In other words, this is a global system, a global world, a global interchange. And thats good. This is not a critique. That is good. That is part of the progress of history because capitalism is creating the conditions in which a humane life is possible. It is overcoming the barriers of nature and population to massive production. The possibility for an equal or Fair Distribution of wealth around the world is, for the first time, created by advanced capitalism. Many people who read the communist manifesto are very surprised that most of it is based on praising capitalism for sweeping away all these old systems that are an obstacle to progress. Marx many of the people that followed marx thought of him as scientific. Later on its called scientific socialism, because he tried to understand the system. There are very few predictions in marx. Much of his writing is analytical, not predictive. His predictions change over time. Even though there is a teleology, i mean history is moving in a certain direction, its not inevitable by any means. Although later, readers would see it as an inexorable progress to a predetermined end. In the 1880s, the american ,abor journalist john swinton went to england and interviewed marx. He asked marx, what do you see for the future . And marx answered, thought for a minute, and answered in one word struggle. The future will see struggle. He didnt say the end of that struggle is inevitable. He didnt say what that struggle is going to lead to. As we will see in a minute, many people saw in marxism a way of predicting the future, which i think is not the essence of what he is talking about. The point is the whole analysis suggested that once you marry the productive capacity, the radical productive capacity of socialism to a more equitable distribution, and a more democratic control of the economy, its a utopian world. Its like bellamy, his utopian world of equality. Socialism appealed to people on an ethical level as much as on an analytical level. It was an unbounded dream. A promise people would be 10 feet tall under socialism. An italian socialist said, all children will grow up to be galileos under socialism. Marx had shown, according to people that followed him, that it was inevitable in a way. Not exactly inevitable, but the process of history working in that direction. But ultimately, especially the u. S. , the ultimate appeal of socialism is ethical, moral as much as analytical and economic. Socialism said capitalism said eugene debs is simply wrong. The vast inequality is simply wrong. Its a kind of christian underlying notion of morality beneath the sort of scientific analysis. Anyway, in the 1890s we mentioned this last time the main expression of socialism in the u. S. Was a tiny socialist labor party, headed by daniel de leon. De leon, a very strange and difficult guy, was one of the first to think in the u. S. Of some of the modern problems of radicalism. The rise of mass culture. What does that mean for alternatives . Already you are getting mass newspapers and magazines and things like that. What should radicals do in a society where a certain dominant culture this goes back to goodwin is permeating the society . He concluded the way to do that is to form an uncompromisingly radical party that would work with radical unions to mobilize workers, to get them to think in a radical way. Not a new idea. But he also concluded that the entire Labor Movement was basically an obstacle to this. Particularly the American Federation of labor, which he said was dominated by labor fakers and that the immediate role of socialism was to destroy the existing Labor Movement and create new radical unions. You can imagine that the existing unions were not too happy with the notion that the role of socialism was first to destroy their units. Some of them had joined the socialist labour party in the 1890s. Then they said, wait a minute, why is my Political Party trying to destroy the union i am working with . Many of them left rather quickly. De leon, as i say, his views actually would influence the Industrial Workers of the world, which attempted to mobilize those mass productive workers. When the socialist party of america is founded in 1901, de leon and his group are the socialists that remain outside of this group. So who does come together in 1901 to form this Umbrella Group called the socialist party of america . A conglomeration of people. After the defeat of bryan in 1896, some followers of eugene debs and others formed the group called the brotherhood of the cooperative commonwealth. They wanted to move en masse to some Western State with limited population and basically take over the state by people moving in. They thought about planned colonies in the state of washington or something. It didnt get anywhere, but i was the old unitarian ethos. The brotherhood of the commonwealth is part of this socialist party. Many people who were disaffected by the failure of populism, quite a few labor unions, the American Railroad union of debs. Under this umbrella they formed the socialist party of america. Very small group. Within a decade or so, up to world war i this is really the point between 1901 and world war i, which breaks out in 1914. Socialism grows to become a significant part of the political discourse in the United States. A factor in american life. Not a majority by any means. But not a fringe, sectarian group, as it would later become. The first thing we have to do to think about this is to remember my admonition, which i mentioned before, to read history forward, not backward. You cannot understand the socialist party of the preworld war i. People who read the pre world war i period without forgetting about the Russian Revolution, the cold war, and many other things that will happen in the history of socialism, then communism, which will split socialism into sectarian groups, which will discredit it in many ways. But nobody knows that is coming in the period of 19011917. Today, socialism, to the extent that it exists at all in our political discourse, is just an allpurpose term of abuse, right . You hear on tv, obama is a socialist. What do the people who say that mean . They dont understand either obama or socialism. Its just a way of saying i dont like obama. I dont like the things that hes done, fair enough. But to call him a socialist is absurd. We have to go back before that, before all these events of the 20th century to understand his context. It is difficult to do because the historical literature doesnt help us all that much. Liberal historians, which is probaly the majority, think socialism is really irrelevant, because the real story is the rise of 20th century liberalism, with Woodrow Wilson through the new deal of fdr to the great society. That is the trajectory, and socialism is just irrelevant next to that. On the other hand, communist historians who wrote in the 1930s and 1950s saw the socialist party as lacking in revolutionary fervor. It seemed kind of moderate and mild compared to the radicalism of communists later on. They did not think much of it either. The fact is that a broadly based socialist movement did exist in america in the two decades coming up to world war i. At the height of their influence, the socialist party had 150,000 duespaying members. Today to be a part of a Political Party, you just have to vote in the primary. But they had dues. There were hundreds of socialist papers scattered across the country. Debs, in 1912, got nearly one million votes running for president in the fourway president ial election of 1912. More than 1000 Public Officials were elected by the socialist party, from places like ridgeport, connecticut to milwaukee. Congressmen from new york. In industrial areas, but also in the west. Local socialist legislators, mayors, etc. When the American Federation of labor had their annual meeting, at least 1 3 of the unions were headed by people who call themselves socialists of one kind or another. Moreover, the socialist party was not a narrow fringe. It was a kind of umbrella, in which many people passed or took part, who were connected to major movements of the time. Womens suffrage, for example, connected to the socialist party in some ways. Municipal reform. Labor legislation of this era. Demands for Public Ownership of utilities like streetcar lines and gasworks. In other words, it was a broad, amorphous allencompassing party. Many leading figures at the time either work in it were connected to it, or sympathetic in some way or another. The idea of socialism was a rather vague idea to many people, but it was part of the political discourse. The socialist party had many diverse elements. There was often tension between them. Often it is described as left versus right, radical versus reformer, within the socialist party. What held the party together, what did they have in common . One central thread, which takes us back into the radical tradition of the 19th entry, was a faith in education as the way to build a mass socialist movement. Marx wrote of socialism in the communist manifesto as a revolutionary doctrine. A doctrine of revolution. But american socialist were not revolutionaries, although had some revolutionary rhetoric. The way social change would come is like education, convincing people. You could convince people to be socialists by talking to them, by giving them things to read, etc. As long as you did it in the language of american society, not in this european jargon, as many socialists said. A leading socialist writer at the time says, too long are socialist writings brought up by the application of a german metaphysics to english economic theory with a french vocabulary. The great task of socialist writers in the next two years is to interpret American Experience in a language and style which will appeal to the american people. In a straightforward, common sense, nontheoretical, noneuropean language. And this writer himself tries to do this in not uninteresting works of American History. In 1905, he publishes first socialist history of the u. S. , called class struggles in American History. Its written in a very popular manner. Its essentially, in a way, borrowed from Frederick Jackson turner, who had developed the frontier thesis in the 1890s. American history starting in a very democratic mode. Then the rise of corporations, greater inequality, leading up to a socialist movement. That is his effort to bring socialism into people in that language. The notion of education is broader than that. And we should understand this, being in a Great University like this. Marxists saw themselves as heirs of the western tradition. This is hard to understand when people see socialist ideas as alien. They were the heirs of the enlightenment, they felt. The heirs of the western tradition. Socialism was part of legacy of the enlightenment. The rational, the effort to analyze society rationally. And to understand it and to try to improve it. Back in the 1980s, one of these french movies, i cant remember the name. A bunch of guys sitting around talking for two hours. Thats it, thats the movie. Lowbudget, but still. I kind of like these movies. This was about the socalled new philosophers at the time. One was asked in his movie by the narrator, do you think that marx is dead . His answer, i thought was interesting. If marx is dead, that means shakespeare is dead, einstein is dead, and im not feeling all that well myself. In other words, this is part of an intellectual heritage. It doesnt mean you have to accept it or not accept it, but you have to know it. You have to find out what it is. And indeed, the socialist press, even though were talking about americanizing it, published articles not only about pompeii and other radicals, but about aristotle, about plato. Education of workers is a general education. Since we are on tv, i wont even comment on the notion floating around in our political discourse that people dont really need to go to college and learn anything. Socialists believe we did need to learn. Even ordinary workers have a right to learn. High culture. They believed in high culture, not popular culture. Culture, to them, was high culture. We are getting now to the point where my own Family History begins to intersect with the rest of history. I once asked my mother, who grew up in this world of new york city socialism about the yiddish theater. She came from a socialist family in russia. They didnt even go to the yiddish theater as a kid. No, we went to see shakespeare. We dont want to go to the yiddish theater. Shakespeare was actually done in yiddish in some of those theaters. But the notion of high culture, that this is part of what people are entitled to. It can be rather condescending toward others. The socialists didnt have much interest in other expressions, like africanamerican culture, which was a thriving narrative product of our society. It was more this higher enlightenment version of civilization. But that study, to them, insisted that what marx suggested was happening. Monopolies and corporations were consolidating. Workingclass life was pretty bad in the 20th century. Socialism was coming. That was the study. When, exactly how, they didnt know. All these socialists held that view of education and progress with a capital p. The differences in the socialist party are sometimes described as left versus right, or maybe it is more Political Action versus other action. In a way, the same debate that took among the abolitionists. Have you operate to change society . Do you work within the system, or immediate reform . Or do you try to make a standard of radical reform, and not accept compromise . What is the relationship tween immediate change and longterm goals . Nobody has ever really solved this. They all debated it. The problem in the u. S. Is exacerbated by the fact that the official Labor Movement, the American Federation of labor, is becoming more and more conservative at this time. If you believe that the workingclass is the agent of change, well, how do you deal with a conservative Labor Movement . Do you just try to destroy it like de leon said, work with it in some way, or try to build another Labor Movement, like the iww does . The more moderate socialists wanted to make socialism relevant to the everyday life of ordinary people by stressing immediate reforms. The socialist party platform, 1904, 1908, 1912 fudge this for immediate reforms and radical change. The socialist platform includes issues like Public Ownership of the railroads, Free University education, not a bad idea. Aid to the unemployed. Some of these have come about. The referendum and recall. The progressive your reforms which try to give ordinary people more say on how the government operates. And they said the class struggle is irreconcilable and the ultimate aim is to transform society, get rid of capitalism and have a socialist society in which the means of production are controlled by a democratic state. The more conservative, the socalled rightwing socialists, were you might say evolutionists. Like a bellamy, it would just happen. You can read marx to say we do not have to do much. Capitalism is evolving in this direction, lets wait for it to happen. The trick is to help it along. This is what kaisen talks about. The notion of history evolving in a particular known direction. Now, the socalled moderate or rightwing socialists, the two centers were new york city and milwaukee. Since were here in new york city, lets look at the great socialist culture that emerged in new york city in world war i era. Centered in german and particular jewish immigrants, immigrants from the czarist empire who came in larger numbers in the 1890s and early 20th century. The foundation of jewish socialism was the super exploitation other jewish working class. The garment workers, women workers in factories in the sweatshops. The leaders were professional people like louie boudein, writers. The leaders were quite familiar with marx and studied him and interpret him to mean a revolution does not just come about but a slow process. And at goal is to propagate socialist ideas and run socialist candidates for office isnt the way you educate people. Run candidates for office. A wonderful cartoon from a yiddish newspaper of that time. Here is karl marx kind of as moses, right . Leading the children of israel into the Promised Land with socialism. You are absorbing marx into this jewish heritage, right . Somewhat brought over from russia in hebrew. You know, in the yiddish language. There is marx leading the people to the Promised Land. And, new york city is a time here, in new york city as i say, i will give you one other picture here. The workers, the working women here are women at a sweatshop, ok . I am not sure the year. A lot of migrant women, Italian Women producing clothing for tiny wages. It is the rise of socialist organizations and the Labor Movement. The Garment Workers Union and others. The Lower East Side, that is where in every year 1920, so many immigrants living in manhattan, the population density of manhattan was greater than the city of calcutta and india. There were almost three times as many People Living on Manhattan Island then there are now. Packed densely mostly into the workingclass districts way downtown. Mire london was elected to congress in 1914. London, another guy, speaking the language of socialism in the american tradition. Says london, just as the parties preceded the civil war, how much of the abolitionist shaped this thinking of later radical spring just as the numerous parties preceded the civil war had the slavery as its issue, parties today dividing the issue of whether the industrial oligarchy should survive and democracy parish or the republic will survive and wage slavery will perish. It is the Abolitionist Movement of the 20th century. Great quote for you the socialist movement is the Abolitionist Movement of the 20th century. The trajectory of american radicalism. In new york city, not only on the Lower East Side but also yorkville, Upper East Side which was heavily german population at the time and even in other districts, a full, vibrant socialist counterculture developed. Something like goodwin talks about based on massive labor unrest. The strikes a 20,000 women garment workers in 1919. Male cloak workers. And many other strikes in new york city which became outpourings of communities of community support. A description of 1916, the streetcar drivers went on strike in new york city. We had been crisscrossed with the streetcars before building the subway. The parade of striking streetcar workers from uptown yorkville like 86 and lexington down to union square, 14th street. As they left yorkville, relatives and friends cheered for two hours. Great lines lined at madison. It reached the cloak of making district and a windows of the factories were black with workers. Men ceased work on buildings to cheer as the carmen passed. Teamsters parked their cars and a policeman grand and manifested their pleasure. This was the era of constant parades in new york city. There were election parades, eight hour day parade, musical entertainment from around the world like france. There was a protest parade of over 100,000 people in 1911. After one of the great disasters of this era, the 100 anniversary, the triangle fire. Down in Greenwich Village where over 146 young women, jewish and italian were killed when a fire broke out in the triangle shirtwaist factory which is on the top of the floors of an eight story building. This is a picture i like. It does not seem very dramatic. People looking up at the fire but these are the dead bodies of women who had leaked to avoid the flames and are now lying on the ground. Leaped 8 stories. Ladders would only reach to the 5th floor. It led to the first serious issue to regulate conditions of work. The city and state moving into beginning the process of actually trying to make sure safe working conditions and things like that. Its kind of galvanized the protest in new york city. The socialist party, an era of different no tv, no internet, no big campaign ads. People campaigned doortodoor and on street corners. The socialist party was adept at street corners speaking. And a socialist press in new york, for example, the daily newspaper published commentary on different street corners. What should you sound the street corners . How do you spread the message . For example, 96th and 2nd avenue, theoretical, marxist speeches do not go down easily. Keep it simple. And then one irish neighborhood, they are talking about, religious discussions no matter how well conducted have no place in a propaganda meetings here. Kill capitalism, like let the other fellow kill god. Do not worry about that. Do not get into religious controversies. One of the most popular streetcorner speakers in new york was a guy named gerald fitzgibbons. And this is an account of him as a speaker. Fitzgibbons never used mysterious phrases. For one hour he was funny. Much funnier than any vaudeville act. When he described how the rich lived, the audience nearly died laughing. When he described how the poor suffered, they laughed too. He will start with a working man getting up at dawn and a sloppy breakfast and the field the shop and has to lunch feel the shop and the hasty lunch. 6 days of it was ever marx may have said, fitzgibbons knew his stuff. When the audience was tired of laughing, he would shout, fools, how long will you stand this slavery . He explained the economics of capitalism. The trouble was the people who worked were robbed by the people of means and to let on the wealth produced by those who operated the means. What was the solution . Abolish the system. Turn the private organization over to the people. Very simple. Fitzgibbons was very popular. Here in new york socialism was a movement that transcended the division between workplace and public place and existed and the public as well transcended ethnic boundaries for some irish, fitzgibbons, not that many, many ethnic groups attracted to the socialist party. This is very important in terms, internationalists, socialism is the First American radical movement that thinks of itself fully as part of an international movement. The abolitionist had that connection with england and transatlantic, no question. Womens suffrage, back and forth. Socialists were global in a sense. Talked about the irish struggle for independence and talked about india and anticolonialism and talked about Russian Revolution and what happened. They talked about the liberation of the jews in the czarist empire. They taught people they were part of a worldwide movement. They spoken american language but not an exceptionalism that said we are so superior to everybody we do not to think about anything happening in other countries. And they did. Bridging the gap between high culture and maybe a little culture. Many writers were associated with the socialists, they had public event free isadora duncan. You would not have it today without isadora duncan. Came to new york from california and gave benefit performances for the socialist party. They were at the cutting edge of culture. As well as you know, political thought. There was even, believe it or not, a socialist persons at columbia university. An article from the New York Times january 1911. Shelters socialist, professor boyson is one. Here is what is said. A professor at columbia was lecturing some time ago the smaller new england colleges and made in the course of rooms marks radical observations. One of the other professors came to discuss series with him. I would have been surprised to hear a College Professor setting forth such ideas except you are from columbia. [laughter] prof. Foner we all know how radical columbia men are. No women at the time. The university is not radical, the president and trustees are perfectly prepared to stand in the old paths for an indefinite period. There are radicals. When eugene debs spoke on socialism before the students at columbia, the audience that wanted to hear him was so large that none of the University Halls were big enough. Umm all right. The other great center of what is called moderate rightwing, nonrevolutionary was milwaukee. Milwaukee, wisconsin. The leader there was a man named victor berger. German born, a teacher, politician, newspaper editor who in the 1890s formed a social Democratic Society of milwaukee with close ties to the populist movement and trade union, American Federation of trade unions in milwaukee. And brought his group into the socialist party in 1901. Berger said socialist have to win the trade union, the skilled craft union. And to win elections and local offices and thats the way to get to socialism. Run candidates for offices. And when you get into office, you govern in a good way and when peoples confidence. It is evolutionary process. We educate, he said. We enlighten and we reason. We also bring law, reason, discipline, and progress. Socialism offers a way out of the conflict that is wrecking american society. Berger disliked talk of revolution. The social democrats he said do not expect success from a revolution. That is a riot. He sees revolution as an aimless riot. But from a real revolution, the revolution of mind, you convince people. That is a revolution not just take it to the street, he said. The social democrats refused to break off the threat and when he and anyone plays. A seamless web that does not just break as people advocating revolution says berger. Berger offered socialism as a way to prevent class conflict from degenerating as had happened in caesars column, remember the great book of donnelly . It ends with the world being destroyed. Socialism is the way to avoid that. And to have peaceful evolution to a better society. Moreover, the concentration of industry was creating the conditions for socialism. Capitalism is doing the socialist work, bringing more and more production under fewer and fewer hands and eventually take it over. That will be the end of that. He said it would be an economic change, not a social change. It was unlike the new york socialist tied in with the womens movement. Berger is a strict family man, patriarchal, the social family would be upstanding, with the man the head of the family and the woman at home. He is rather racist and antiblack. There are very few blacks at the time but he can use racist language like any other politician at the time. Milwaukee is the best example of municipal socialism, at the city level. The socialist could win control. Slidell is elected for the socialist party. And they actually govern quite well. In fact, ironically, the Credit Rating of milwaukee rises under the socialist administration. Unlike the main parties, they are not stealing everything. They are not corrupt and not a political machine. If you loan money to the socialist government, youre likely to get into that. People are impressed with his honesty. He is reelected not because everybody is a socialist but he ran in honest municipal government. He provides aid to the unemployed and arbitrate strikes refused to allow the police to intimidate strikers. They improved public health. Very typical progressive era urban reform. Try to get control of the chaotic situation of the new industrial cities, and the socialist party as part of it in many cities. Connected in new york, reading, pennsylvania, bridgeport, you can run down city after city, socialist administrations come to power and operate as progressive era reformers. Other socialists said it wasnt good enough. A great journalist starting out at the time as a writer, as a socialist, says if socialists is to make anything of Political Action, we have to distinguish ourselves from the progressives and at least cut the returns to property. Try to cut down on the profits of business. But they tried to run a good, honest government based on the skilled unions, the nativeborn white. It is an oldfashioned kind of workingclass, particularly german immigrants and their children, which is governing in milwaukee. And in other cities. His position is anathema to what we call the left of the socialist party. Industrial unionists like bill haywood that say no, was what socialists have to do is organize the unorganized workers. The unskilled workers, the factory, the workers on the factory floor. The workers who are left out of the American Federation of labor, skilled organizations. Lift up the lowest ranks of labor. Haywood said milwaukee is not socialist, just middleclass reformers. No different than anyone else. The left was strongest, first of all, in places where socialism was weaker, no chance of winning elections. You may tend to gravitate to more ideologically pure and radical position. Particularly in the west. Haywood comes out of the west, mining regions of colorado, idaho, etc. , some of the old populist regions. The centers of the left wing so to speak of the socialist party. Said problems we had to address were those of the unskilled workers, the new immigrant, the small farmer, and the new factory proletarian. Electing people to office is not the solution. The left insisted more on workplace conflict. That was to improve and increase socialist commitment and change society. Not by electing people to office. Again, they were strong in these mining areas. The timber workers of places Like Washington and oregon. These are places where the class struggle was raw, right in your face. Minds. Pretty violent. Timber workers working in isolated communities with their labor struggles. Unlike in the east, where workers had made an accommodation with capitalism. President he ran for in 1912, got 1 3 of his vote west of the mississippi river. That is where the centers of more radical socialism are. The strongest was actually oklahoma. Not estate we associate today with socialist proclivities. That is where debs did the best. That is where the populist tradition flows into the early socialist party, farm tendencies are extensive. Oklahoma is sort of a segregated state, but had not been part of the old confederacy. It doesnt have the weight of the civil war sitting on political alignment the way states like louisiana or georgia, making it difficult for any insurgency. Oklahoma gave debs 16 , 1 6 in 1912. In fact, debs was popular among the prisoners. The warden of the state penitentiary in oklahoma took a poll and found the majority all the white prisoners voted for debs. The majority of the black prisoners still wouldve voted for the republicans, the party of lincoln. The other stronghold of the left is in the states of montana, washington, idaho, nevada. All of the states debs got over 10 of the vote. Mine workers, timber workers, people like that. These westerners were suspicious considered the respectability of eastern socialists, like berger or the new york city socialists. In 1912, the National Convention of the socialist party was held in indianapolis. Jacob pankin, a jewish delegate from new york, arranged to have dinner with a group or oregonian delegates, and they walked around looking for an appropriate restaurant. Pankin saw a place that looks nice and the oregonians said we are not going to the place with tablecloths. Too bourgeois. They pick the place called the red devil. Not for its cuisine, but for its name, which sounded kind of radical. The ballot in the east, they thought to elect people, if you controlled municipal government, you could always prevent the police from being used against strikes, etc. The western socialists distrusted these victories in milwaukee as not really socialist in essence. Finally, standing with one foot in each camp, and the only leader around whom the socialists could unite nationally was eugene debs, the greatest of all the socialist leaders. Here is debs addressing a very large crowd. He is way on the left. In chicago, chicago, yeah. I am not sure what part. Debs speaking to a large crowd. Debs was a symbol of both the class consciousness and the idealism of socialism. He came out of the American Railroad union, which had suffered the great defeat in 1894 of its National Strike because of the use of federal troops in the junctions. The two leaning labor figures of the 1890s went their separate ways. They both confronted devastating defeats in the 1890s. Alga mateder the association, and homestead, the crushing of the craft union. Debs with the defeat of the American Railroad union. They drew 2 different conclusions. Gompers drew the conclusion you have to make a deal. You have to work within the system. Debs went towards socialism. He became a socialist because the only way to confront the power the corporation was to use political power against them. The only countervailing power in society. Use the power of the state to confront the power of the corporation. Both of them in their own way reflected the exhaustion of the earlier types of radicalism. Debs was a democrat, a genuine democrat with a small d. Leader, but he said i would not lead you to the Promised Land if i could because if i could lead you in, someone else can lead you out. Movements are not made by leaders. Change is not made by leaders. Its made by mass organizations. He is willing to be the spokesman for that. Debs is sort of suspicious for the American Federation of union. We will see next time with the workers of the world. He is a unifying factor in the socialist party. But he goes way beyond that. During his career, he literally spoke to millions of americans. He was beloved by far more people than voted socialist. He was quintessentially american. He came from indiana. He spoke the language of american society. The point of telling dialect jokes. He was beloved by the jewish immigrants of new york city and the prairie populists of kansas and nebraska and oklahoma. Because debs socialism was the socialism of the heart. He was not theoretical. He just spoke the language of outrage against injustice. To do that, he drew on american language, the declaration of independence, all men are created equal, and christian language. He himself was not a religious man at all, but more of a reader of thomas pain. Kind of christian radicalism of the evil of riches. He opposed talk of violence, sabotage. Again he said it was to come through democratic means, organization. And maybe the best way to summarize him is through his great speech. In 1918 when he is jailed for opposing american involvement in world war i. He gives a famous speech at his sentencing where he says while there is a lower class, i am in it. While there is a criminal element, i am of it. While there is a soul in prison, im not free. He puts himself as the representative of the oppressed groups in american society. But debs is not a politician. He is not really a politician he is not interested in the battles within the socialist party. As a result of that, generally speaking, at the National Party level, which is not where the party operates, that the service the more conservative, rightwing are in control. At the grassroots, always this battle. Finally, one other element, rather obscure of the party called the foreignlanguage federations. Immigrants who organized socialist federations in their own foreign in their own indigenous language. And often because they did not speak english and they had their own newspapers, publications, the other socialists had no idea of what they were saying or doing. You had to read finnish to know socialists were doing. It was a wild card group. I mentioned the finns because they were one of the most radical groups. Up in the upper midwest in michigan and the mining areas, minnesota, wisconsin, the finns are a major part of the socialist movement. One might almost say that the two biggest groups are immigrants from the russian empire, jews and finns. People who fled the czarist empire are riled up about things. I once went to a paper at a conference given by a woman who grew up in a finnish radical family and she was talking about her mother, who had an an immigrant before world war i. Brought their radicalism with them. My mothers ambition for me was i would be the person who assassinated the czar. [laughter] if you want to do something useful, assassinate the czar. Make something good of yourself. There also slavic federations, italian federations, but as a whole other group. It is hard to even know what exactly they were doing. In 1912, 100 years ago, we are entering now a president ial campaign, we are in it. It will last until november. 1912. It was one of the most momentous president ial campaigns in American History. Remember the fourway campaign. Very unusual in american politics. The only other time we have for have four credible candidates was 1860. You had president William Howard taft representing the sort of mainstream republicans. Expresident Theodore Roosevelt running as the candidate of the new Progressive Party. Roosevelt had broken off from the republicans. This was on the grounds that taft was undermining some of his progressive reforms from when he had been president , and he formed the new socalled bull moose party, the Progressive Party. The Progressive Party platform of 1912 was well worth reading. It is the blueprint for 20th century liberalism. Modern liberalism is the working out of the Progressive Party platform of 1912 in some ways. Some of it is implemented in the new deal, some of it is implemented in the great society. Some of it, Like Universal Health insurance, still has not been implemented 100 years later. And there was Woodrow Wilson running as the Democratic Party candidate. Also a progressive. Every one of those three people claim to be part of the Progressive Movement and claim to have an answer to the inequalities of wealth and corporate power. And then there was eugene debs running as the socialist candidate. And not likely to win but a part of the political campaign. In 1912, socialism appeared to be a rising force not only in the United States but elsewhere. In germany, the social Democratic Party, the largest in the west, had almost a majority of the parliament. They seemed to them the verge of coming to power through electoral process in germany. In finland, the social democrats were up around 40 of the vote in that district. In austria, 25 . Britain, the labour party, had a socialist platform and was a major factor in british politics. In 1912, wilson is elected. Theodore roosevelt comes in second and taft and debs had over 900,000 votes, or 6 of the total. Not a tremendous amount but enough to be a factor in the election. In the same year, max hayes running as a socialist for president of the American Federation of labor against samuel gumpers gets 1 3 of the vote annual convention. So there is a socialist presence there. The largest weekly periodical in the nation is a socialist magazine called the appeal to reason which had over 700,000 subscribers. More than the saturday evening post or harpers magazine or things like that. Which, the appeal to reason i will show you something from it. It published all sorts of articles. Some of them wait, wait. Here we go. Some of them. Articles about socialism. Some about capitalism by debs. Sidebyside with oddball ads. Helen kellers book out of the dark. She was a socialist. People dont remember that when they talk about her work for the blind. Socialist pennants. Socialism movies. How to be successful so on. Socialist watch at an antitrust price. You know. They had ads for gold stocks and medicine and medicines to cure the ills of wage slavery and things like that. It was a popular and kind of offbeat but serious magazine. Their most popular columnist was a guy called warbling wilbur. One agent on a bicycle travel ed around the great plains and sold over 100,000 subscriptions to the appeal to reason. It was only one of 300 socialist newspapers and magazines in that year. In new york city, the jewish daily forward in new york, a ddish daily yi newspaper, had 150,000 readers. Another had 150,000 readers. The socialist party was not only concentrated among workers but as i say, small farmers, small towns. A few ethnic groups. Not all youd not all. Some strong. Even a few millionaires joined the socialist party. Most prominently gaylord wilshire, after whom wilshire boulevard in l. A. Is named. It attracted intellectuals like Upton Sinclair and jack london. Middleclass reformers, we will talk about them soon. Margaret sanger. Many women suffrage activists. Socialism is coming says the appeal to reason, in 1912. Socialism is coming. It is coming like a prairie fire. Nothing can stop it. The next few years will give the nation to the socialist party. This optimism. If you look more closely in 1912, you would see real serious weaknesses. The socialist party was not attracting the new immigrant workingclass. The factory workers. The people transforming once again the nature of American Work and workingclass life. The working class is being remade again by massive immigration but outside of new york city, most of the appeal is to old immigrants and not the new ones or middleclass or lower middle class farmers. The real challenge was how could they appeal to the new immigrant workers in the heart of american industry if they claim to be the party of workers . Next time we will see how the socialist party and Industrial Workers of the world try to address this problem of how to organize the new industrial proletariat. That is all for today. You can watch lectures in history every weekend on American History tv. We take you inside College Classrooms to learn about topics ranging from the American Revolution to 9 11. That is saturday at 8 00 p. M. And midnight eastern on cspan3. History tv is on cspan3 every weekend, and all of our programs are archived on our website at cspan. Org history. You can watch lectures in College Classrooms, tours of historic sites, archival films, and see our schedule of upcoming programs. That is cspan. Org history. American history tv on cspan3, exploring the people and events that tell the american story every weekend. On sunday, at 6 00 p. M. On american artifacts, we will tour a museum, the largest stone fort in the United States, at the mouth of the chesapeake bay. Here about how it served as a beacon of freedom for enslaved people, who were protected in heldtronghold, and how it confederate president Jefferson Davis for two years after the war. Fdr, truman and the atomic bomb on the heels of the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombing on hiroshima and nagasaki, with president trumans grandson. At 8 00 p. M. , on the presidency, Ronald Reagans 1983 interview with Readers Digest and 1988 interview with the bbc. Both interviews were conducted in the oval office with reagan discussing a variety of issues, including his holiday days, the 1983 bombing in beirut, his vision for u. S. Soviet relations, and the assassination attempt that left him seriously wounded. Exploring the american story. Watch American History tv on sunday on cspan3. The korean war began 70 years ago on june 25, 1950. It ended with an armistice next, an in july, 1950 oral history interview with u. S. Christiansenharold recorded by the korean war legacy foundation
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