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:m for $1 .OO. PRICE, 15 CEN’l---k 100 Copies for $6 ’ CONTENTS. dTISPIECE, facing . > . 3 rational Executive Board Social Democratic Party. A BRIEF HISTORY OF SocraLrs~\r IN A~IERIC~ . 3 Illustrated. THE FIRSTAXERICAS AC~ITATOR. 77 Illustrated. ATRIP TOGIR.IRD . _ . 87 Illustrated. K.~RLM~RXOXGC~&ORGE. 94 MXHIXE vs.Har~T,~~on . 97 NOTABLEL.~BORCOSFIICTS OP 1899 _ . 99 GRONLUKD-GR~~T~~T.LF,N . .lOl Illustrated. THE“GOLDEXIZI,LB X.\WR" 9 . 103 SOCI~UST CONTROVERSIRS, 1899 . .104 PROF.HERRON'SC.~SE . .105 No MUSTER (Poem) . , . 106 BIOGRAPHICAL . 107 Victor L. Berger, James F. Carey, John C. Chase, Sumner F. Claflin, Jesse Cox, Ellgene V. Debs, A. S. Edwards, W. E. Far- mer, F. G. R. Gordon, Margaret Haile, Frederic Heath, \Villiam Mailly, Chas. R. Martin, Frederic 0. McCartney, TV. P. Porter, A. E. Sanderson, Louis 11. States, Seymour St,edman, Howard Tuttle, J. A. Wayland. CHRONOLOGICAL (1899) . : . 118 ELECTIOP;STATISTICR . I . .121 SOCIALDEYOCRATIC P.\RT~ . 12’7 Organization and Press. DIRECTORY OF SOCIALDEJIOCR.~TS . 127 PLATFORYS . 130 PORTRAITS of Eugene V. Debs, Jesse Cox, Victor L. Berger, Sey- mour Stedman, Frederic Heath, Etienne Cabet, Robert Owen, Wilhelm Weitling, John Ruskin, William Morris, A. S. Edwards, F. G. R. Gordon, Eugene Dietzgen, James F. Carey, John C. Chase, Frederic 0. McCartney, W. P. Porter, W. E. Farmer, Margaret Haile, Albert Brisbane, Laurence Gronlund, Grant, Alien. ProgressiveThoughtLibrary SOCIAL and ECONOMIC. Liberty . Debs . $0 05 Merrie England . _ . Bldchford . 10 Nunicipnl Socialism . Gordon . 05 Prison Labor . Debs . 05 Socialism and Slavery . Hyndman . 05 Crovernment Ownership of Railways . Gordon . 05 Oration on T’oltaire . Victor Hugo . 05 Evolution of Industry . Watkins . 05 Hard Times; Cause and Cure . Gordon . 05 Woman: Past, Present ant1 Future . Bebel . 25 The Red Light . Cusson . 25 The Pullman Strike . Curwurdine . 25 Co-operative Commonwealth . Gronlund . 50 The New Economy . Gronhd . 1 25 MECHANICAL and ENCINEERINC- Progressive Examination of Locomo- Hill . %b50 tive Engineers and Firemen . Locomotive Running Repairs . ‘. Hitchcock . 50 Simple Lessons in Drawing for the Reynolds . 50 Shop . 1- Air Brake Practice . Phelan . 1 00 Ready Reference . Alexander . 1 .50 Locomot,ive Running and Manage- ment , . Compound Locomotives . Woods . 2 00 Twenty Years With the Indicator . Pray . 2 50 Hand Book of the Ilocomotive . Roper . 2 50 New Catechism of the Locomotive . Fww . 3 50 Address orders to DEBS PUBLISHING COMPANY. Terre Haute, Ind. :,. I r * TheSocial Democratic Party v’ - OF AMERICA. A Eational and International Political Party which Stands for the Collective Ownership of the Means of Production and Distribution. TheSocialist Corrimonwealth Local Branches can be organized with five or more members. Socialists everywhere are invited to join and extend the scope and power of the organizatio’n. \\rrite for copy of Constitution and further informa- tion to THEODORE DEBS, National Secretary, 126 Washington St. Chicago, Ills, l ’ -. ‘- National Executive Committee of the SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF AMERICA. SOCIALDEMOCRACY RED BOOK. JANUARY, 1900. A BRIEF HISTORY OF SOCIALISM IN AMERICA Intro&t&n: The history of Socialism in America, using the word social- ism to embrace the various steps by which enemies of the present social system have sought to work toward a final de- liverance, seems to’divide itself into seven quite clearly de- fined periods, as follows : 1. The earliest period, embraced between the years 1776 and 1824, when the communistic ventures of the Shakers, Rappites and Zoarites had the entire field to themselves. 2. From 1825 to 1828, when Robert ,Owen made America the theater of his attempt,s to put his Utopian dreams into practice, by communistic experiments. 3. From 1541 to 1847, the period when Fourierism swept over the country as a craze, leading to the establishment of a great number of communities and phalanxes, all of them doomed to fail within a brief time. 4. The period from 1847 to 1856, when Wilhelm Weitling was the moving spirit in trying to organize systematic social- istic agitation. It was during this period, also, that Cabet and his Icaria flourished and waned. 5. From 1857 to 1888. This period of time seemst,o have 4 SOCIAL DEMOCRBCY RED BOOK. been devoted to the effort of immigrant Socialists, particularly from Germany, to spread the tenets of Socialism, more par- ticularly of Social Democracy, but unfortunately, without getting the “Yankee” ear. It was during this period that the Socialist turner societies flourished. 6. From 1888 to 1897. This period may be designated as that in which the gestation of Socialism, as native to Ameri- can soil, was going on. It began with the appearance of Gronlund’s book, “The Co-operative Commonwealth, ” which was soon followed by Bellamy’s “ Looking Backward.” 7. From 1897 down to the present time. The period in which American Socialism having “ chipped the shell” first asserts itself as a force in American politics through the formation of the Social Democracy of America, the Socialist Labor party, by its transplanted methods, having failed to reach the American ear. Two factors which helped prepare the field for t,he new party, were the agitation work of Eugene V. Debs and the proselyting powers of Editor J. A. Wayland, successively of the “Coming Nation” and “The Appeal to Reason.” CHAPTER I.-THE FIRST PERIOD. In 1776, the year memorable in history as well as to the American people as the beginning of a nation pledged to political democracy, the first attempt at communism in the new world had its place. This was the establishment of the Shaker community at Watervliet, New York. The Sha- kers first landed on our shores in August, 1774, and between that date and 1792, two settlements had been formed in New York state, four in Massachusetts, one in Connecticut, two in New Hampshire, and two in Maine. Between 1805 and and 1807 two were formed in Ohio, one in Indiana and two in Kentucky. Between 1822 and 1827 two were formed in Ohio and another in New York state. The Indiana society . and one of those in Massachusetts disbanded a few years ’ SOCIAL DEMOCRACY RED BOOK. 6 later. The others were quite successful, having at one time a total population of between 5,000 and 6,000. In 1778 the membership had dwindled to half that number. Litt,le need be said of the Shakers in a history such as this. Whatever of success they attained to, sprang from their re- ligious discipline, rather than from the mere fact of commu- nistic association. And the history OI a multitude of varying experiment.s in pure communism has shown the impossi- bility of successful communistic achievement. The Shakers began as a sect in 1747, as an off-shoot of the English Quakers. Their coming to America was in obedience to an alleged vision seen by Mother Ann, their high priestess, who came hither as “spiritually directed.” The Shaker com- munities have taken the form of home farms, of several acres in extent, and a good deal of their activity has centered round the raising of garden seeds,medicinal herbs, etc., which t.hey have sold to the outside world with no little profit. Hinds, in his work on “American Communities, ” estimated that the wealth of the Shakers (1878) must be not much less than twelve millions. In 1804, thirty years after Mother Ann and the Shakers came to this country, a religious sect known as Separatists set out from Germany and also found a haven on the shores of the western continent. Their leader was George Rapp, or “Father Rapp, ” as he was generally called, and they were variously known as Rappites, Harmonists and Separatists. They were schismatics of the Lutheran church. Their first settlement was on the banks of the Couequenessingin Butler county, Pennsylvania, but afterward, in 1814, they removed to Indiana, where they secured 30,000 acres of land on the lower Wabash river in Posey county, not far from the town of Mt. Vernon. Their village, which was entirely commun- istic, comprised some 160 houses, half of which were of brick, and was called New Harmony. It is chiefly of inter- est to the student of Socialism because it was later the scene of Robert Owen’s American experiment in communism. The 6 SOCIAL DEMOCRACY RED BOOK. Rappites were. well disciplined and achieved a remarkable successin a material way, increasing their per capita average of wealth from $25 to $2,000 for each man, woman and child, in twenty-one years. In the matter of culture and intellectual advancement they made practically no progress. The Rappites were mostly celibates, ate five meals a day and were very religious. They lived at New Harmony ten years and then went back to their old home, called Economy, in Pennsylvania. It is claimed that this removal was made by Rapp because, once the rigors of pioneering began to wear off the members of the community became less amenable to dis- cipline because of their easy living. On taking up life anew in Pennsylvania the colonists added materially to their wealth, becoming in time largely interested in coal mines and oil wells, as well as controlling, at Beaver Falls, the largest cutlery establishment of its time in the United States. They are said to have received $150,000 for their New Harmony property from Robert Owen. While the Rappites were still in Indiana, a third commu- nistic sect made its appearance on American soil-the Sepa- ratists of Zoar, also schismatics, from old Wiirtemberg, who settled in Tuscararas county, Ohio, in December, 1817. It was not at first intended to form a communistic settlement, but the Zoarites were forced into such an association by stress of circumstances, a fact commented on as very curious by the press of the country when the Zoarites finally gave up the communistic relation just eighty-one years later, in 1898.