A Brief History of Socialism in America.† [Published January 1900]
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A Brief History of Socialism in America [Jan. 1900] 1 A Brief History of Socialism in America.† [Published January 1900] Published in Social Democracy Red Book (Terre Haute, IN: Debs Publishing Co., 1900), pp. 1-75. Introduction. ignated as that in which the gestation of Socialism, as native to American soil, was going on. It began with The history of Socialism in America, using the the appearance of Gronlund’s book, The Cooperative word socialism to embrace the various steps by which Commonwealth, which was soon followed by Bellamy’s enemies of the present social system have sought to Looking Backward. work toward a final deliverance, seems to divide itself 7. From 1897 down to the present time. The into seven quite clearly defined periods, as follows: period in which American Socialism having “chipped 1. The earliest period, embraced between the the shell” first asserts itself as a force in American poli- years 1776 and 1824, when the communistic ventures tics through the formation of the Social Democracy of the Shakers, Rappites, and Zoarites had the entire of America, the Socialist Labor Party, by its trans- field to themselves. planted methods, having failed to reach the American 2. From 1825 to 1828, when Robert Owen made ear. Two factors which helped prepare the field for the America the theater of his attempts to put his Utopian new party were the agitation work of Eugene V. Debs dreams into practice, by communistic experiments. and the proselyting powers of Editor J.A. Wayland, 3. From 1841 to 1847, the period when Four- successively of The Coming Nation and The Appeal to ierism swept over the country as a craze, leading to the Reason. 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 Wil- Chapter 5 — The Pioneers helm Weitling was the moving spirit in trying to orga- of Scientific Socialism. nize systematic socialistic agitation. It was during this period, also, that Cabet and his Icaria flourished and The steady influx of German immigrants fol- waned. lowing the political disturbance of 1848 made it pos- 5. From 1857 to 1888. This period of time seems sible as early as 1850 to found Turner societies in this to have been devoted to the effort of immigrant So- country, and it is an interesting fact to Socialists that cialists, particularly from Germany, to spread the te- all these early Turner organizations were avowedly so- nets of Socialism, more particularly of Social Democ- cialistic. racy, but unfortunately, without getting the “Yankee” Their influence on the succeeding growth of the ear. It was during this period that the Socialist turner Socialist movement in America is hard to estimate, for societies flourished. that growth was very slow. For years it seemed as if it 6. From 1888 to 1897. This period may be des- would never take root among the native Americans. †- Although first published in January 1900 by the fledgling publishing house of Eugene Debs, this unsigned article is clearly not written in Debs’ inimitable style — not to mention that it is many times the length of the typical article written by the Terre Haute firebrand. Ruling out Debs himself, internal evidence indicates the anonymous author was a delegate to the 1898 convention of the Social Democracy in America who bolted that organization to help found the Social Democratic Party. 1 2 A Brief History of Socialism in America [Jan. 1900] This fear finally caused great anxiety among the lead- were unorganized. ers, and many of them lost heart because of it and In 1857 a club of Communists was founded in dropped out of the fight. New York by German revolutionists of 1848. It did As a matter of fact the Turners were not orga- considerable propaganda work and on the following nized as Socialists so much for propaganda on this side year arranged a memorial meeting in honor of the Paris of the ocean as they were for the purpose of supple- June revolution of 1848, with an attendance of 1,000 menting and encouraging the movement in Germany. men of various nationalities. It is true, however, that this condition wore off and In 1865 enough followers of Lassalle were lo- that the Turners did their share in trying to get Social- cated in New York for an attempt at organization. They ism established on American soil. were not able to hold together, however, and did not The first Socialist Turn Verein convention was succeed until 3 years later. held at Philadelphia, Oct. 5, 1850. Several societies In 1866 a congress of national labor organiza- sent delegates, among them Baltimore, Boston, New tions was held in Baltimore and a Socialist delegate York, and Cincinnati, which were the strongest. The named E. Schlegel, who was elected vice president of name American Gymnastic Union of North America the congress, made an unsuccessful effort to create a was chosen, but this was changed the following year political labor party. to the Socialistic Gymnastic Union. It had at that time During the year following, several members of 17 local societies with large memberships. When the the club of Communists, together with some mem- war of the Rebellion broke out, most of the Turners bers of the labor organizations in New York and in went to the front to fight against negro slavery. coalition with a newly formed club of Lassallites, is- When the war was over the Turner Societies re- sued a call for a mass meeting for the purpose of start- organized as the North American Gymnastic Union, ing a proletarian political party. The meeting was held and ceased to be distinctively Socialistic. In 1876 a Jan. 20, 1868, in the Germania assembly rooms in the Socialistic Turner Society and turn school existed in Bowery [New York City] and was well attended. An New York City, but it had no influence with the other organization known as the Social Party was effected societies of the country. Many of the old Turners have and a platform adopted which embodied the principles become Republicans as a legacy of the war, while oth- of the International of Marx, together with several ers have become large employers and grown conserva- positive demands for the laboring class. tive by reason of their changed class interests. During the following summer an address was In the spring of 1852, Joseph Weydemeyer, a sent to the central body of the International at Geneva, friend of Karl Marx, began to disseminate the teach- Switzerland, by the temporary Central Committee of ings of Marx and Engels as set forth in the Commu- the party, and signed by its president, F.A. Sorge. nist Manifesto. During the same year the National Labor Union, In order to do this the better, he began the pub- which had previously held aloof from politics, recon- lication of a monthly magazine in the German lan- sidered the matter and formed the Labor Reform Party. guage, which he called The Revolution. The first num- The members of the Social Party did not wish to in ber was especially notable through containing a spe- any way obstruct this class-conscious action of the trade cially contributed article by Marx. The magazine could organizations and so ceased all agitation under their not well have been more short lived, as the second party name and gave the new movement all their number never made its appearance. Weydemeyer had strength. The result was that the new political party the financial assistance of a German merchant named sent a delegate to the congress of the International H. Meyer, but the magazine was found too expensive which was held that year at Basle, Switzerland. The to continue. Weydemeyer was an engineer under Fre- name of the delegate was A.C. Cameron. W.H. Sylvis, mont during the war and built the fortifications round who served as one of the presidents of the Labor Re- St. Louis. He died in that city. form Party, was one of the hardest working Socialists. In 1853 Weitling’s Arbeiter Bund dissolved, and In 1869 the Social Party took on new life and for several years thereafter the Socialists in New York was strengthened by an affiliation with the Interna- A Brief History of Socialism in America [Jan. 1900] 3 tional through the London office. Soon the Interna- Internationals took the place of one. By the removal tional became international in fact, by the formation of the headquarters to New York, the struggle between of sections in the various cities of the United States, the Socialists and the Anarchists reappeared on the new which sections did a valuable work by keeping in close shore. fellowship with the various labor unions. The first proclamation from the new headquar- During all this time the “respectable” people of ters was an appeal to workingmen to emancipated la- the United States had increased their apprehension as bor and to eradicate all national and international strife. to Socialism and Communism. The foreign news was The disastrous times of the following year helped its full of lurid accounts of the “new social terror,” which agitators and it made no little headway. During 1872 the American capitalist editors took good care to a socialist congress was held in New York with 22 sec- supplement with denunciatory and foreboding edito- tions represented by delegates. rials. This “respectable” element breathed a little easier In 1874 the Socialists founded the Social Demo- in 1870, when Judge Thomas Hughes, the Christian cratic Workingmen’s Party at a convention held at Socialist and author of Tom Brown at Rugby and Tom Philadelphia.