The Socialist Party of Oregon (SPO) is the name of three closely related organizations — an Oregon state affiliate of the Social Democratic Party of America (later the Socialist Party of America) established in 1897 and continuing into the 1950s, as well as the Oregon state affiliate of the Socialist Party USA from 1992 to 1999.
Socialist Party of America affiliate (1890s–1950s)
Origins
The Socialist Party of Oregon traces its roots to the late 1890s, when local affiliates of the Socialist Party's antecedent, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) first emerged. The earliest published report that a local branch of the SDP had been formed in the state appeared in the Appeal to Reason in October 1899."Appeal Army," Appeal to Reason [Girard, KS], whole no. 203 (October 21, 1899), pg. 4. By the end of the year a rudimentary state organization was in place, with a state organizer, J.D. Stevens of Portland, actively involved in the effort to establish local branches of the organization."Oregon Socialists, Attention," Social Democratic Herald [Chicago], vol. 2, no. 38, whole no. 88 (March 10, 1900), pg. 3.
The SDP underwent a small, incremental growth process during 1900, with a local branch launched in Oregon City in March."New Branches," Social Democratic Herald, vol. 2, no. 39, whole no. 89 (March 17, 1900), pg. 4. A formal state organizational convention followed, held in Portland on April 10, 1900."Socialists of Oregon," Social Democratic Herald, vol. 2, no. 40, whole no. 90 (March 24, 1900), pg. 3. In the fall election of 1900, the unity slate of Eugene V. Debs and Job Harriman gained 1.76% of the presidential vote in Oregon running a joint campaign on behalf of the two independent SDP factions in the November 1900 election.US Election Atlas.
Following the establishment of the Socialist Party of America in August 1901, a move was made to organize the state under the name of the new party. The inaugural gathering was held September 25, 1901 at Women's Christian Temperance Union Hall in Salem.[ "State Socialist Convention,"] Daily Capital Journal [Salem], vol. 11, no. 227 (September 25, 1901), pg. 4. Attendance was light and the start of the session was postponed one hour to allow time for delegates to debark from a train from Portland. The dozen or so delegates elected a chairman and secretary and conducted routine organizational business, naming Albany as the first headquarters city for the fledgling organization. Oregon was granted an official state charter by National Secretary Leon Greenbaum during the second half of October 1901."Party News ", The Socialist [Seattle], whole no. 64 (October 27, 1901), pg. 4. A few counties seem to have organized at this time, such as the 50 individuals who gathered in Oregon City to form a county organization for Clackamas County."Socialists Organize," La Grande Observer, December 26, 1901, pg. 4.
The modest launch of the party was followed with a flurry of enthusiastic county-level conventions during the spring of the election year of 1902. The Marion County gathering alone drew over 100 participants to a gathering held March 5, 1902 in Salem to nominate candidates and approve a platform."The Socialist Convention: Full Legislative and County Ticket is Nominated," Weekly Oregon Statesman [Salem], vol. 51, no. 51 (March 7, 1902), pg. 5. The fledgling SPO was able to field broad slates of candidates around the state for the June 1902 general election, with the statewide ticket headed by R.R. Ryan of Marion County for Governor, C. W. Barzee of The Dalles for Secretary of State, B. F. Ramp of Douglas County for Congress in the 1st District, and D.T. Gerdes of Clatsop County, Oregon for Congress in the 2nd District."Socialist State Ticket," Daily Capital Journal [Salem], vol. 12, no. 112 (May 21, 1902), pg. 2.
Party headquarters were moved to Portland by decision of the March 1904 State Convention, where they would remain throughout the Debsian period,
The Socialist Party's 1904 ticket generated an even stronger showing, with Debs and his running mate, Benjamin Hanford of New York, receiving approximately 8.5% of the vote.
Comparison to the Socialist Party of Washington
Although (or perhaps because) it was an older state than its less populated neighbor to the north, Washington, Oregon never generated as large or influential a political organization as was the Socialist Party of Washington. Nor did Oregon generate any publications with a national readership, as was the case with the Seattle Socialist, the Industrial Workers of the World weekly The Industrial Worker, published in Spokane, or even the weekly papers of two of the utopian socialist colonies established in Western Washington just prior to the turn of the 20th century.Carlos A. Schwantes, "Labor-Reform Papers in Oregon, 1871–1976: A Checklist," Pacific Northwest Quarterly, vol. 74 (October 1983), pg. 154.
Portland, the largest urban center in Oregon, was a far more orderly town than was Seattle, the rowdy upstart to the north. As historian Carlos A. Schwantes notes, Portland was "conservative, business oriented, with a tendency towards smugness among its elite" and consequently the Oregon labor movement was correspondingly more cautious than were the shipping and mill workers of Puget Sound.
The "Red Special" of 1908
The election of 1908 saw the arrival in Oregon of Presidential candidate Eugene Debs aboard the so-called "Red Special," a train chartered by the Socialist Party and taken from station to station around the country for campaign speeches on the fly. The train made several stops in Oregon on September 14, energizing the state's party members.
Speaking in Eugene, Debs declared "I am the candidate of the workingmen, and don't expect the votes of any capitalists.""Socialist Candidate for President Talks to a Good Sized Crowd," Eugene Daily Guard, vol. 35, no. 208 (September 14, 1908), pp. 1, 5. An enthusiastic crowd was addressed in Albany, with Debs asserting that the two old parties each represented the capitalists rather than the people and that the Republican Party had fulfilled its historic mission by freeing the slaves, subsequently becoming a political organization of the plutocracy."Debs at Albany," Albany Weekly Democrat, vol. 44, no. 7 (September 18, 1908), pg. 3.
An evening speech on September 14 by Debs at the Exposition Auditorium on Washington Street attracted more than 10,000 spectators, erupted upon the appearance of the candidate in the hall:
"Men and women stood on chairs and benches and waved handkerchiefs, hats, and umbrellas. Ten thousand voices howled and shouted until the band, which had started to play, was drowned out and could not be heard. This commotion lasting for a couple of minutes subsided in three cheers and a tiger led by Chairman [Tom J.] Lewis.""Ten Thousand Hear Debs' Views on Government," Oregon Daily Journal, vol. 7, no. 166 (Sept. 15, 1908), pg. 5.
Radical SPO State Secretary Tom Sladden made particular note of the 3,000 person procession in Portland which preceded Debs' appearance and expressed optimism about the party's prospects for an increased vote in November:
"The sentimentalists are quitting us; the revolutionary element that four years ago were scoffing at us are joining us now. The lines are being drawn sharply, hatred is being expressed and a class conflict is clearly in evidence. We have enthusiastic members and bitter enemies and the man on the fence is getting hell from both sides."Thomas A. Sladden, "Oregon," International Socialist Review, vol. 9, no. 4 (October 1908), pg. 812.
Sladden noted that from 1904 to 1908, the number of Socialist Party Locals in Oregon had grown from 32 to 74, despite a lack of full-time party organizers.
The heyday of Oregon Socialism
The years 1910 through 1912 marked a high-water mark of sorts for the Socialist Party of Oregon in terms of its size and influence. The organization conducted an impressive demonstration in the afternoon of May Day 1910, in which 1500 members and supporters of the party, decked out in red ribbons and carrying red banners, marched through the streets of Portland.Tom J. Lewis, "May Day in Portland, Oregon," International Socialist Review, vol. 11, no. 1 (July 1910), pp. 37–38. Beginning at 309 Davis Street, the procession of men, women, and children marched with neither police protection nor police interference to a vacant lot recently purchased for a future school.Headquarters were on the West side of the river in a since-demolished building located on today's NW Davis Street. There a crowd estimated by a supporter at 4,000 people heard speeches and sang together "The Red Flag" and "The Marsellaise," before adjourning to Finnish Socialist Hall for singing and dancing until midnight.
In June 1910 Klamath Falls in Southern Oregon became the site of the first "Socialist Encampment" in the Western United States with the establishment of "Camp Progress." In an idea borrowed from the evangelical protestant religious movement and used with particular effectiveness in Oklahoma, a socialist "revival meeting" was held. More than 60 tents were divided into two parallel lines, with very large tents suitable for group meetings raised at either end. Socialists and their friends camped together, attending politically oriented meetings in the evenings in which they sang, watched plays, listened to speakers and debates, and were entertained by a 12-member "Encampment Band."Kittie E. Hulse, "The Oregon-California Encampment," International Socialist Review, vol. 11, no. 2 (August 1910), pp. 107–108. Members of the local community were invited to attend the evening meetings, which drew between 2,000 and 3,000 attendees during each of the 8 days of the encampment. Speakers included J. Stitt Wilson, journalists Cloudesley and Dorothy Johns, and Tom J. Lewis.
One Oregon Socialist in attendance saw the 1910 Encampment as a large step forward for the party organization:
"As I looked nightly over the immense throng in the Big Tent, noted the striking absence of dissent to the utterances of our speakers, even the most revolutionary, heard the at times uproarious applause, I recall the time four years ago when the handful of members of Local Klamath Falls held their meetings in a lumber yard. Later the meetings were held at private houses and afterward a hall was hired. The local has had a hard fight and has had its seasons of depressions, also its internal dissensions, but today the movement is progressing at a rapid rate. * * * "What impressed even the most casual observer at the Encampment was the Spirit of Comradeship that was so plainly manifested, the atmosphere of equality and freedom from conventionality that prevailed."
The Socialist Party showed promise at the polls in the November 1910 general election, with Albany furniture factory worker W.S. Richards receiving more than 7.5% of the total vote in his campaign for Governor of Oregon."The Vole Was Big," Albany Weekly Democrat, vol. 44, no. 17 (November 25, 1910), pg. 3.
A short-lived effort to organize unemployed workers took place in 1912 with the formation of a mass organization called the "League of the Unemployed.""League of the Unemployed," Daily Capital Journal [Salem], vol. 22, no. 10 (January 22, 1912), pg. 1. An initial membership of 1,000 was dubiously reported in the press, an error resulting from sloppy misreporting of a January 21 open air meeting in Portland at which "nearly 1,000 men raised their hand in response to the query as to how many were unemployed.""Jobless Men to Hold Big Parade Sunday," Oregon Daily Journal [Portland], vol. 10, no. 275 (January 22, 1912), pg. 18. An organizing committee of 8, headed by Tom Lewis, was named and a march planned for January 28. This effort appears to have fizzled and the new auxiliary organization vanished without a trace.