Reconstruction, labor conflict in the gilded age, the populist movement, and moving into the 20th century. In the next couple of weeks we will look at the progressive era, a period of the Industrial Workers, womens suffrage, municipal reform. Subjecty, our turnofthecentury all socialism, and there were many varieties, in some way or another derived from the thinking and writings of karl marx, although interpreted in different ways. One could give a whole course on marx, but what people learn is that first of all, history is the history of class struggle. The struggle between classes is the driving force of history. Claimed that under capitalism the society is being divided into two classes the working class and the bourgeoisie, or capitalist class. Production is, inevitably, being concentrated in fewer and fewer hands. The gaprations between the 1 and the 99 , the very rich and everyone else, would inevitably get wider and wider. Some of this resonates to the present day. 30 years of the administration of Ronald Reagan and bush and clinton and bush and obama have done more to confirm the rich getting richer than 75 years of the soviet union. What was appealing to marx in this free contract elegy which the Supreme Court and others were implementing, darwinism, that equal participants compete and the result is best for all. Marx pierces through to the underpinning of the labor market and Labor Relations and shows it is based on inequality, earnerstion, and wage getting what they deserve. Something that has been an idea for a long time, but what was different was that he insisted capitalism was creating the instrument of its own destruction. That is what he called the whoseariat, the workers, coming selfawareness would change the whole system. Not because they were any better than anyone else, but the very nature of their social existence pushedem inexorably toward changing the whole system. They cannot abolish this is marx they cannot abolish life without abolishing 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 millennium published an article century an of the 21st karl marx. Why . Because he is the prophet of globalized capitalism. The man who saw through that capitalism must expand to make itself a global system. Know, the previous, you most previous radicals marx analyzes capitalism as a system, not bad individuals, not trusts corrupting the political system, not nonproducers conspiring. The system itself has a logic which has to be understood and in a way, and many people do, put marx in a category like darwin. Darwin tried to understand the underlying principles of the Natural World or freud later trying to understand the internal human mind. Understand theto economic world. The first principle is, as he says and i will read a couple of sentences from the manifesto where he lays out many more manifesto ted the volumes ofhrough the das capitale. Existurgeoisie cannot without revolutionizing the instruments of production and with them, the whole relationships of society. Conservation of the old modes of production was the first production for early industrial classes. Disturbance is what characterizes the present world. All frozen relations are swept away, all new formed ones become antiquated before they can ossify, and then the 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. There like is no previous golden age and life is just this constant change of everything. As i say it is not a national system. The need for a constantly expanding market chases the bourgeoisie over the surface of the globe. It must nestle everywhere, settle everywhere, establish connections everywhere. The boers was he has, through exploitation of the bourgeoisie, through exploitation of the world market, has destroyed national industry. This is 1848. He is just getting going. That is what is happening today. This is more than 150 years later. All established Natural Industries are destroyed or being destroyed. Wants we find new wants requiring, for satisfaction, the products of distant lands. In other words this is a global system, a global world, a global interchange and that is good. This is not a critique. That is part of the progress of history. 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 of 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 surprised it praises capitalism for sweeping away old systems that are an obstacle to progress. Many of the people who followed marx thought of him as scientific. Later on it is called scientific socialism because he is trying to understand a system. But there are very few predictions in marx. Much of the writing is analytical, not predictive, and his predictions change over time. Moving inh history is a certain direction it is not inevitable by any means. As anreaders would see it inexorable process toward a predetermined time. The labor journalist john swinton went to england and interviewed karl marx and asked marx, what do you see for the future . Marx answered, thought for a minute, and answered in one word struggle. He did not say the end of that struggle is inevitable. He did not say what that struggle would lead to. Minute, many in a 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 radical productive capacity of socialism to a more equitable distribution, and more democratic control of the economy, it is a utopian world. Plenty,e world of equality. Socialism appealed on an ethical level as well as an analytical level. It promised people would be 10 feet tall under socialism. Socialist said all children would be galileo under socialism. Marx had shown, according to those who followed him, it was inevitable in a way. Inevitable, but the process of history working in that direction. Ultimately, especially the United States, the ultimate appeal of socialism is ethical, moral, as much as analytical and economical. Ialism said eugene debs capitalism said debs was wrong. The inequality is simply wrong. There is a christian underlying morality behind the scientific analysis. 1890s the main expression of socialism in the u. S. Was the tiny socialist labour party headed by daniel deleon. Deleon was a very strange and difficult guy. He was the first to think in the United States of the modern problems of radicalism. The rise of mass culture. What does that mean for alternative . You are already getting mass newspapers and magazines. What should radicals do in a society where a certain dominant culture this goes back to goodwin as permeating society . Wasaid the way to do that forming an uncompromisingly radical party of workers. A Political Party which would work with radical unions to mobilize workers, to get them to think in a radical way. Idea, but he concluded the entire Labor Movement was basically an obstacle to this. Particularly the American Federation of labor which he said was dominated by what he called labor fakers and the immediate role of socialists was to destroy the existing Labor Movement and create radical unions. You can imagine the existing unions were not happy with the notion the role of socialism was to destroy the unions. The of them had joined socialist labour party and said, wait a minute. Why is my Political Party trying to destroy the union i am working with . Many of them left quickly, but views woulds influence the Industrial Workers of the world which attempted to unionse or organize the which the American Federation of labor left out. When the socialist party of america is founded in 1901 deleon and his group is the one group of socialists who remain outside, who are not part of this group. 1901oes come together in to form this Umbrella Group called the socialist party of america . Well, a conglomeration of people. Iner the defeat of brian and some bellamyites followers of eugene debs formed the brotherhood of the cooperative commonwealth. Massead a plan to move en to some western states with limited population and basically take over the state by moving in. They thought they would plant colonies in the state of washington or something. It did not get anywhere, but that is the communitarian eat ethos. This brotherhood. Brotherhood is part of the socialist party. Many people who were affected by the failure of populism come in. Quite a few labor unions, the American Railroad union, mine workers, and in 1901 they form the socialist party of america. A very small, but within a decade we are up to world war i. And world war i started in 1914 even though the u. S. Does not enter right aay this has become significant part of the political discourse in the United States. A factor in american life. Means, butity by any not a fringe group as it would later become. The first thing we have to do to think about this is remember my admonition which i mentioned before to read history forward, not backward. You cannot understand the socialist party of the preworld war i. Period without forgetting about the russian revolution, the cold war, and many other things that will happen in the history of socialism and communism which will split socialism into groups, discredit it in many ways, but nobody knows that is 914 or from 1901 to 1 1917. Today, socialism is an allpurpose term of abuse. You hear on tv obama is a socialist, right . What did the people mean . They do not understand obama or socialism. [laughter] it is just a way to say i do not like obama. To call him a socialist is absurd, but nonetheless we have to go back before all these events of the 20th century to of theand socialism early 20th century. It is difficult to do because the historical literature does not help us much. Historians, which is probably the majority, think socialism is really irrelevant because the real story is the rise of 20th century liberalism from Woodrow Wilson through the roosevelt,ranklin d and onto the great society. Irrelevants just next to that. On the other hand, communist theorians who wrote in 1930s, 1940s, 1950s saw the socialist party in lacking fervor. It seemed mild compared to the radicalism of communists later on, so they did not think much of it either. 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 dues paying members. These were the people who paid dues to the socialist party. There were hundreds of socialist newspapers around the country. In 1912 polled nearly one million votes in the president ial campaign. 1000 local Public Officials were elected by the socialist party from places like connecticut to milwaukee, a congressman from new york, mostly industrial areas, but also the west. Legislators,st mayors, etc. When the American Federation of labor had their annual conventions at least one third of the unions were headed by people who call themselves socialist of one kind or another. The socialist party was not a narrow fringe. It was a kind of umbrella in which many people passed or took part with other movements. Womens suffrage collected to the socialist party, municipal reform, labor legislation of this era, demand for Public Ownership of utilities like streetcar lines and gasworks. Allencompassing party and many leading figures at the time were either in it were connected to it or sympathetic in some way or another. The idea of socialism was a vague idea, but it was part of the political discourse. Party hadhe socialist many diverse elements and there was often tension between them, andbefore looking at that, often described as left versus right within the socialist party, what held the Party Together . What did they hold in common . One central thread which does take us back into the radical tradition of the 19th century was a faith in education. As the way to build a mass socialist movement. In thete of socialism communist manifesto as a doctrine of revolution, but they were not revolutionaries. Most of them thought, just like the abolitionists, the way social change would come was by education, by convincing people. You could convince people to be socialists by talking to them, giving them things to read, etc. As long as you did it in the language of American Society, not this european jargon. A leading socialist writer at socialistays, too writings have been made of the german physics with a french vocabulary. The great task of socialist writers for the next two years is to interpret American Experience in the language and style that will appeal to the american people. Sense,ghtforward, common not theoretical, noneuropean language. In nottries to do this uninteresting works of American History. The firste publishes socialist history of the United States. It is written in a very popular essentially, borrowed from Frederick Jackson turner who developed the. Ontier thesis with the end of the frontier and corporationsig leading up to the socialist movement, but that is his effort to bring socialism to people in that language. Education isn of broader than that. We should understand that being in a Great University like this. Saw themselves as heirs of the western tradition. This is hard to understand when you see socialists today. Ofy were the heris enlightenment they felt and socialism was part of the legacy of the enlightenment. Rational the effort to rationalize society and try and improve it. Back in the 1980s i cannot remember the name there was a french movie. Really boring. A bunch of guys sitting around a table talking. Anyway, this was about the socalled new philosophers and one of them was asked in the movie by the narrator, do you think marks is dead . Is dead,if marx shakespeare is dead, einstein is dead, and i am not feeling well myself. [laughter] part of words this is an intellectual heritage. You do not have to accept it or not accepted, but you have to learn what it is. Publishedists pressed articles not only about thomas payne, but about aristotle, about plato. Education of workers is a general education. I will notust even comment on the notion that is floating around in our political discourse today that people do not need to go to college and learn anything. Socialists believed they needed to learn. The ordinary workers had chance to learn high culture. Not popular culture. In fact, we are getting to the point of 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 ye iddish theater. She came from a socialist family from russia and i said did you go to the theater . She said we went to see shakespeare. Hhakespeare was done in yiddis and some theaters. [laughter] but this was part of what people are entitled to. It can be rather condescending toward they did not have much interest in other expressions like africanamerican culture which is a thriving american product of our society. Enlightenmentis of civilization. Them, insisted x suggested, that ,orkingclass life was bad socialism was coming. How and when they did not know, but all of the socialists held that in view of education and a capital p. H th leftis often described as versus right. In a way the same debate that took place among the abolitionists. How do you operate to change society . Do you work within the system for immediate reform . Do you try and make a standard of radical reform and not accept compromise . What is the relationship between immediate change and longterm goals . Nobody ever really solved this, but they all debated it. The problem in the u. S. Is exacerbated by the fact the American Federation of labor is becoming more and more conservative at this time. If you believe the workingclass is the agent of change, well, how do you deal with a conservative Labor Movement . You try and destroy it . Do you try to work with it or build another Labor Movement . The more moderate socialists wanted to make socialism ofevant to the everyday life ordinary people by stressing immediate reforms. The socialist Party Platform in 1912, fudged this by doing both longterm change and radical change. They included issues like Public Ownership of the railroads, for University Education not a bad idea aid to the government unemployed. Some of these have come about. These reforms would try and give people more say in how government operates, but they also said the class struggle is irreconcilable and the ultimate aim is to completely transform society, get rid of capitalism, and have a society in which the means of production are controlled by a democratic state. Socalled right wing socialists were, you might say, evolutionists. They were like bellamy. And say, we marx do not have to do much. Let us wait for it to happen. It is the inexorable process of the system. There is no need for a revolution. Capitalism will evolve into something better. The trick is to just help it a lolong. This is the notion of history inexorably evolving in a particular direction. Now, the socalled moderate or right ring socialists rightwing socialists were new york city and milwaukee. Since we are in new york, let us look at the culture that emerged in world war i era. German and jewish immigrants, those from the empire who came in large numbers. N the 1890s the foundation was the exploitation of the jewish workingclass. The garment workers, women workers in factories in the sweatshops, and the leaders were professional people. Lawyers. E writers, the leaders were familiar with to mean interpreted him a revolution does not just come along. It is a slow process and the goal is to propagate socialist ideas and run socialist candidates for office. That is how you educate people. Wonderful cartoon from ddish newspaper. Here is karl marx leading the people into the Promised Land. You are absorbing marx into this heritage. Ishebrew or yiddish and marx leading the children to the Promised Land. City i am going to give you one other picture the working women here is women in a sweatshop. The large numbers of immigrant wil women working in these sweatshops producing clothing day and night for tiny wages, d bed situation is the see of the Labor Movement. The Lower East Side in 1920 so many immigrants were living in manhattan and the population density of manhattan was greater than the city of calcutta in india. There were almost three times as many People Living on manhattan there are now. N they were packed into workingclass districts downtown. The Lower East Side elected a socialist to congress in 1914. London was another guy speaking the language of socialism in the american tradition. Just as the party had theed the civil war abolition of slavery as its issue, parties today divide on the issue whether the industrial oligarchy should survive and democracy perish, or whether the republic will survive and wage slavery perish. The Socialism Movement is the movementnist of the 20th century. This is as american as you can get in the trajectory of american radicalism. In new york city, and not only the Lower East Side, but yorkville, the Upper East Side which was heavily german, and full,n other districts, a vibrant, socialist counterculture developed. Something like goodwin talked about. These would be the populists. Of 20,000e strengths women garment workers in 1919. 09. Workers of male cloak in 1919. It inspired outpourings of community support. 1916,s a description of the streetcar drivers went on strike. We used to be crisscrossed with streetcars before they built the subways. The parade of striking streetcar workers from uptown square. E down to union relativesft yorktown of the marchers cheered for two hours. Great throngs in madison and 4th avenue and the head of the line reached the cloak making district. The windows were black with workers. Men ceased work on buildings to cheer as the carmen past. Teamsters parked wagons on the side streets and even the policeman grinned and manifested their pleasure at the parade. This was a year of constant parades in new york city. There were election parades, eight hour day parades with musical entertainment from around the world. There was a protest parade in 1911 after one of the great disasters which, last year, had its 100th anniversary the triangle fire in greenwich village. Young jewish and Italian Women were killed when a fire broke out in this triangle shirt waist factory which was on the top couple of floors of an eight or nine story building. This is a picture i like because it does not seem very dramatic. It is just people looking up at this fire, but these are the dead bodies of women who leapt to avoid the flames and are lying on the ground. They fell eight stories because the ladders on the fire trucks would only reach the fifth floor. The triangle fire led to the first serious efforts in new york to regulate conditions of work. In toty and state moving begin the process of trying to make sure, you know, safe working conditions, but as i say it kind of galvanized a tremendous protest in new york city. There was no tv, no internet, no big campaign ads. Doore campaigned door to and on street corners. The socialist party was adept at what they called the streetcorner speaking. The socialist press in new york published commentaries on different street corners and what should you say on the street corners . How do you spread the message . 96th and 2nd avenue, theoretical speeches do not go down well here. Keep it simple. 35th and broadway, the nonreligious character of the socialist party should be hammered home in this district. One irish neighborhood theyre talking about, religious discussions, no matter how well conducted, have no place here. Kill capitalism. Let the other fellow kill god. [laughter] with capitalism. Do not get into religious controversy. One of the most popular streetcorner speakers in new york was a guy named gerald m fitzgibbon. This is an account of him as a speaker. Usedsoapbox speaker never mysterious phrases. For one hour, he was funny. Funnier than any vaudeville act. Livedcribed how the rich the audience nearly died laughing. When he described how the poor suffered, they left to. He would start with a working man getting up at dawn to go to work, his sloppy breakfast, the dingy streetcar, the filthy shop, the fat foreman, the hasty lunch, the weary afternoon, the ride home, the hungry wife and kids, the noise of the streets. Six days if it. Work, eat, sleep. Fitzgibbon knew his stuff. This was the way my friends fathers lived. When he was tired of laughing would say, how long will you stand the slavery . Then he went on to explain capitalism. The people who worked were robbed by those who owned the means of production and lived on the wealth produced by those who operated the means of production. What was the solution . Abolish the system. Turn them over to the people. Fitzgibbon was a popular speaker. In new york, socialism was a movement that transcended the division between work place and public place. It existed in the public as well as the shop. It transcended ethnic boundaries. Himself,h, fitzgibbon were attracted to the socialist party and, this is very important, it was socialismists is the first radical movement that thinks of itself as part of an international movement. The abolitionists had connections with england. Advocates weree backandforth, but socialists were global in a sense. They talked about the irish struggle for independence, they talked about india and anticolonialism, they talked about the russian revolution, they talked about the liberation zarist jews in the empire. They told people they were part of a worldwide problem. It was not the exceptionalism that said we are so superior we do not have to think about anything happening in other countries. Despite what i said, they did bridge the gap between my culture and a middle culture. Many writers were associated with the socialists. , the pioneer of the 20th century dance you would not have dance today without isadora duncan. Came to new york from california and gave benefit concerts for the socialist party. They were at the cutting edge of as politicalll thought. There was even a socialist presence in columbia university. Here is an article from the new york times. Columbia shelters socialists. One. Ssor boyson was a professor was lecturing some time ago one of the smaller new england colleges. Radicalsome observations. After the lecture one other professor came to discuss theories with him. I would have been surprised, said the gentleman, to hear a College Professor put forth ideas except that you are from columbia. [laughter] we all know how radical columbia men are. There were no women at the time. He goes on to say, the university is not radical. The president and trustees are perfectly prepared to stand in are paths, but there the audience wanted to hear him and then at the University Halls were big enough. The other great center of what is called moderate right wing was milwaukee. The leader was a man named victor berger. 1890s he formed the social Democratic Society of milwaukee with close ties to the populist movement and trade union. He brought his group into the socialist party in 1901. Berger said they had to win the allegiance of the trade unions, particularly the craft unions. Elections in local offices is the way to go. When you get into office govern in a good way and you would confidence. Win confidence. Law, reason, discipline and progress. Socialism offers a way out of the conflict that is wrecking American Society. We bring law, reason, discipline. Berger disliked talk of revolution. Said,cial democrats, he do not expect success from a revolution. He sees revolution as an aimless riot. Revolution, the revolution of mind, that is a revolution. Refused todemocrats break off the threat of history ofany one place thread history at any one place. Berger offered socialism as a way to prevent class conflict from degenerating into barbarism as had happened in caesars coliseum. Socialism is the way to avoid that and have a peaceful evolution to a better society. Moreover, the concentration of industry was creating the conditions for socialism. Capitalism was doing the socialist work. It was bringing more production under fewer hands and taking over. That will be the end of that. Berger said socialism is an economic change, not a social change. Socialistsnew york who are tied in with the womens movement, berger was a family man, the man is the head of the family and the woman at home. He is rather racist. E is certainly antiblack he can use racist language like any other politician at the time. Milwaukee is the best example of what is called municipal socialism. That is socialism at the city level. Milwaukee and they actually govern quite well. In fact, the Credit Rating of milwaukee rises under the socialist administration. Why . Unlike the main parties they are not stealing everything. They are not a political machine. If you loan money to the socialist government, you are likely to get it back. People are impressed with his honesty. Ran areelected because he good, honest, in a civil government. He also provides aid to the unemployed, arbitrates strikes, refused to allow the police to admi intimidate strikers. This is typical progressive era urban reform trying to get control of the chaotic situation of the new industrial cities in the socialist party is part of that movement in many cities. Pennsylvania, bridgeport, you could run down city after city and basically operate as progressive era reformers. Many other socialists said this is not good enough. Walter whitman, a great socialistssaid, if have to make anything of political action, we have to distinguish ourselves from the progressives. We have to cut the returns to property. Cut down on the prophets of business, but they tried to run an honest government based on the skilled unions. Oldfashioned working class, particularly german immigrants. Position is anathema to what we call the left of the socialist party. Industrial unionists like bill haywood who say, what socialists have to do is organize the unorganized workers. The unskilled workers, 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. Theyukee is not socialist, are just middleclass reformers. Strongest, first of all, in places where socialism was weaker. Where there was no chance of winning elections. Haywood comes out of the west, the mining regions of colorado, idaho, some of the populist regions are the center of the left wing of the socialist party. They sent the problems we have to address are the unskilled worker, small farmer, new immigrant, and new factory proletariat. Electing people to office is not the solution. They focused on workplace conflict to increase socialist commitment and change society, not by electing people to office. Again, they were strong in the mining areas, the timber workers of washington and oregon. This is where the class struggle was raw, right in your face. Mines are violent, timber workers living in isolated communities with bitter labor unlike in the east where workers had made an accommodation with capitalism through the afl. President ,he ran for got one third of the vote west of the mississippi river. Centers ofre the more radical socialism are. The strongest was oklahoma. Not a stately tend to associate with socialism, but that is where he did the best. That is where the populist tradition flows into the early socialist party, where farm tenancy is very extensive, and remember, oklahoma is a segregated state, but it had not been part of the old confederacy. It does not have the weight of the civil war sitting on political alignment like louisiana or georgia, etc. Debs 16 of the vote in 1912. In fact, debs was popular among the prisoners in oklahoma. The warden of the state penitentiary took a poll and found the majority of white prisoners voted for debs. The black prisoners still would have voted for the party of lincoln. Stronghold of the left is in the states of montana, washington, idaho, nevada. 10 of those debs got over of the vote from mine workers, timber workers, people like that. These westerners were suspicious of what they considered the excessive respectability of eastern socialists like berger or the new york city socialists. Conventione national of the socialist party was held pankin anapolis and jacob arranged to have dinner with delegates and they look for an appropriate restaurant. Said, why do we not go in there . They said we are not going in a place with table cloths. They finally picked a place called the red devil. Not for the cuisine, but for the name. Thought, tothey elect people, if you control minutes to pull government, you can prevent the police from being used against strikers. The western socialists distrusted these victories in reallyee is not 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 socialist leaders. Here is debs addressing a large crowd. He is on the left. In chicago, im not sure what part, but he is speaking to a large crowd. Both thea symbol of 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. And the other leading figure of the 1890s went their separate ways. They both confronted devastating defeats in the 1890s. , the crushing of the craft union, debs through the defeat of the American Railroad union drew different conclusions. Gompers said you have got to make a deal. You cannot fight the system. Debs went toward socialism. He was not a socialist in the 1890s. He became a socialist because the only way to confront the powers of the corporation were to use political power against them. Use the power of the state. Exhaustion ofhe. He earlier types of radicalism debs was a democrat with a small d. Leader but he was a 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, changes not made by leaders, it is made by Mass Organization and he is willing to be the spokesman for that. Of suspicious of the labor unions, but is also the unifying factor in the socialist party. He goes beyond that. During his career he spoke to millions of americans. He was beloved by far more people than who voted for socialist. He spokerom indiana, the language of American Society to the point of telling dialect jokes and things like that, but he was the guy that was beloved by the jewish immigrants of new york city and the prairie populist of kansas and nebraska and oklahoma. Socialism was the socialism of the heart. He was not theoretical. He just spoke the language of outrage against injustice. That is what debs spoke of. The declaration of independence, and christian language. He himself was not a religious man at all. More of a follower of thomas but kind of christian radicalism, jesus throwing the money out of the temple and things like that. The evil of riches. Opposed talk of violence and sabotage. Comeid socialism should through democratic means through elections and organization. The best way to summarize him is through his great speech. For918, he is jailed involvement in world war i. He gives a famous speech at his said, whilewhere he there is a lower class, i am in it. A criminal element, i am of it. While there is a soul in prison, i am not free. As the himself representative of the oppressed groups in American Society. But he is not a politician, though he runs for president over and over. He is not interested in battles within the socialist party. Speaking,t, generally the National Party level, really not where the party operates, the more right wing were moderate socialists are in control but grassroots, there is always a battle. One other element, rather secure , of the party called the Foreign Language confederations. Immigrants who organize federations in their own indigenous language. Often because they did not speak english and had their own newspapers and publications, often, other socialists had no idea what they were doing or saying. You had to read finish to find out what the finish federation was doing. There as a Wildcard Group organizing socialism among various immigrants groups. I mentioned the fins because they are one of the most radical groups. In the mining areas, s are a major fin part of the socialist movement. Areof the main parts immigrants of the empire. Arele who flee the empire andty riled up about things more attracted to socialism. I had a conference about this given by a woman who grew up in a finnish radical family and she was talking about her mother who had been an immigrant before said, they, and she brought their radicalism with with them. Was ihers dream for me would be the person who assassinated the czar. You want to grow up and do something useful, assassinate the czar and make something good of yourself. There were italian federations but that is a whole other group and it is hard to know what they were doing. Ago, we are years entering a president ial campaign that will last until november. 1912 was one of the most momentous president ial campaigns in American History. Campaign, very unusual in american politics. The only time we had a fourway in 18 with 1860. Howard taft representing mainstream republicans, expresident Theodore Roosevelt running as the candidate of the new Progressive Party. Roosevelt broken off from republicans on the grounds that reforms undermining his informed this Progressive Party and the platform of 1912 is well worth reading. Per deck progressive Party Platform in 1912 in some ways. The new deal, some of it, Like Universal Health not somes still of it Like Universal Health insurance has still not been implemented 100 years later. Then, of course, there was Woodrow Wilson running as the Democratic Party candidate. Also a progressive. Every one of these three people claimed to be part of the Progressive Movement and claimed 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. And 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 livestock, the parliament. They seemed to be on the verge of coming to power through electoral, through the electoral process in germany. In finland, the social democrats were up around 40 , or of the vote in that district. In aust rewra, 25 . The in britain, the labor party which had a socialist platform was a major factor in, you know, in british politics. So in 1912, of course, wilszenon is elected. Theodore roosevelt comes in second. Taft. And then debs has his over 900,000 votes. Or 6 of the total. Debs gets 6 of the total. Not, you know, 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 Gompers gets onethird of the vote in the annual convention. So theres 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 im going to show you something from the appeal to reason. It published all sorts of articles. Here we go. Some of them odd. Well see them in a minute. Articles about socialism, articles about capitalism by debs. Side by side with all sorts of oddball ads. Heres some ads from the you have Helen Kellers book out of the dark. Keller a socialist. People dont remember that when they talk about their work for the blind. Socialist move with the movies. Get into the culture. How to be a successful speaker, et cetera, et cetera. Socialist watch at an antitrust price. You know, they had ads for gold stocks and patent medicines and medicines to kill the ills of wage slavery, things like that. So it was a popular and kind of offbeat but serious magazine. Their most popular columnist was a guy called warbling wilbur every week. And one agent, louis clamroth on a bicycle traveled around the great plains and sold over 100,000 subscriptions to the appeal to reason. But it was only 1 of 300 socialist newspapers and magazines in the country in that year. In new york city, the jewish daily forward. Here in new york, a yiddish daily newspaper had 150,000 daily readers. The national rip saw, another one, 150,000 readers. The socialist party was not only concentrated among workers, but among, as i say, small farmers, small towns and some ethnic groups. Some are strong, ethnic groups. Even a few millionaires joined the socialist party. Most prominently gaylord willsure, after whom willsure boulevard is named. The party attracted individuals like Upton Sinclair and jack london. Middle class reformers, well talk about them pretty soon. Charlotte perkins and margaret sangler come out of the socialists. Many women suffrage advocates are connected with socialism. Socialism is coming, says the appeal to reason in 1912. Socialism is coming. Its coming like a prairie fire. Nothing can stop it. The next few years will give the nation to the socialist party. This optimism. But if you look more closely in 1912, you would also see some real serious weaknesses. The socialist party was not attracting the new immigrant working class. The factory workers. The people who were transforming once again the nature of American Work and working class life. The working class is being remade, again, by massive immigration but outside new york city, most of the socialists appeal is to either old immigrants, not the new ones, or middle class or lower middle class farmers, et cetera, et cetera. The real challenge was how could they appeal to the new immigrant worker in the heart of american industry . If theyre going to claim to be the party of workers . And next time we will see how the socialist party and the Industrial Workers of the world tries to address this problem of how to organize the new industrial proletarians. So thats all for today. [indistinct conversations] listen to lectures in history on the go by streaming our podcast anywhere, anytime. Americanatching history tv only on cspan3. This is American History tv on cspan3, were each weekend, we feature 48 hours of programs exploring our past. The korean war began 70 years ago, june 25, 1950. It ended with an armistice agreement in july, 1950. Next, an oral history interview with u. S. Army veteran harold christenson recorded by the korean war legacy foundation. He discusses his service as upland sergeant and the loss of two friends in the war within a few months of arriving in korea. The project was underwritten by south koreas ministry of patriots and veterans affairs. Harold harold bil