The Socialist Party of Missouri was the Missouri state section of the Socialist Party of America (SPA), an organization originally established in 1901 as a federation of semi-autonomous state organizations. The Missouri organization was the direct lineal descendant of the Social Democratic Party of Missouri, which emerged in 1898.
The Socialist Party of Missouri was centered in the city of St. Louis, which was at the time of formation of the SPA the fourth most populous city in America and home to a large German-American immigrant community. Growth of the party was bolstered by the newspaper St. Louis Labor, a prominent weekly with a significant circulation among the organized labor movement of the city.
The Socialist Party of Missouri remained active throughout the Great Depression decade of the 1930s and into the 1940s, before atrophying and losing critical mass. The party's archives were donated to the Missouri Historical Society in 1964.
Organizational history
Background
At the turn of the 20th century, the Midwestern city of St. Louis was a prominent center of American commerce and manufacturing. The city's population of just over 575,000 people made St. Louis the fourth largest city in the United States, following New York City, Chicago, and Philadelphia.Sally M. Miller, Race, Ethnicity, and Gender in Early Twentieth-Century American Socialism. New York: Garland Publishing, 1996; pg. 73.
In 1850 St. Louis was largely an immigrant city, with more than half of its citizens born outside of the United States, including most importantly ethnic Germans and Irish. This percentage of foreign-born residence tailed off over time as the immigrants laid down roots and raised families, falling to 18% by 1910. Nevertheless, the city retained a strong ethnic character, with its population supplemented by Italians, Eastern European Jews, Czechs, Poles, and other nationalities as waves of immigrants arrived and were integrated into the American economy as wage workers.
The city's ethnic German population remained its substantial component, with first generation immigrants from Germany and their offspring comprising 56 percent of the city's population in 1900.Miller, Race, Ethnicity, and Gender in Early Twentieth-Century American Socialism, pg. 74. Those of German heritage remained the city's majority ethnicity at least through the census of 1910.
St. Louis was served by scores of German cultural organizations, including an array of German-language newspapers, fraternal organizations, social clubs, singing societies, and a German teacher-training school. Included among these were socialist political societies, some of whom were organized into a city section of the Socialist Labor Party of America (SLP) in the early 1880s. A party press soon followed, including the German-language weekly Arbeiter Zeitung (Workers' Newspaper) and the English-language Missouri Socialist — the name of which was later changed to St. Louis Labor.
Social Democratic Party of America in Missouri
Two organizations, each styling itself as the Social Democratic Party of America (SDP), emerged during the last years of the 1890s. The first was based in Chicago and headed by Milwaukee publisher Victor L. Berger, American Railway Union organizer Eugene V. Debs, his brother Theodore Debs and emerged as a factional splinter of the Social Democracy of America, an organization which sought to establish a socialist colony in a Western state.
Despite its Midwestern locus and focus, this Chicago organization was essentially unrepresented in Missouri, however. Instead the small Social Democratic Party of Missouri which emerged in St. Louis soon affiliated itself to a rival Social Democratic Party of America with headquarters in Springfield, Massachusetts."Directory," Missouri Socialist [St. Louis], vol. 1, no. 1 (Jan. 5, 1901), pg. 4. This Eastern organization, headed by William Butscher as National Secretary and including New York attorneys Henry L. Slobodin and Morris Hillquit among its top leaders, was formed as the result of a split of the orthodox Marxist Socialist Labor Party of America.
At the time of its emergence late in 1898, the SDP claimed about 75 members in St. Louis, who were joined by "a small handful" in Kansas City."The Missouri 'Gang,'" Missouri Socialist [St. Louis], vol. 1, no. 1 (Jan. 5, 1901), pg. 4. Significant growth followed. By the end of 1900 the Missouri SDP could claim a membership of 700, of whom 210 lived in St. Louis, 110 in Kansas City, 90 in Sedalia, with the rest scattered across locals in 24 other towns around the state, such as Pleasant Hill, Webb City, Milan, and Harrisonville. Other Missouri towns with Social Democratic Party locals included Bevier and Poplar Bluff."The Missouri 'Gang,'" The Missouri Socialist, vol. 1, no. 7 (Feb. 16, 1901), pg. 4.
Local St. Louis was further subdivided into no fewer than 7 "branches," these established on a geographic basis according to voting wards."Social Democratic Party: St. Louis Ward Branches," Missouri Socialist, vol. 1, no. 2 (Jan. 12, 1901), pg. 3. Each of these ward branches met twice monthly, with the local meeting as a whole at least once a month."Constitution of Local St. Louis of the Social Democratic Party of America (Adopted August 5, 1900)," Missouri Socialist, vol. 1, no. 3 (Jan. 19, 1901), pg. 4. Party dues were 25 cents per month, plus 10 cents a quarter for a subscription to the party's official newspaper.
The SDP fielded an extensive slate of candidates in the November 1900 general election, including Caleb Lipscomb for Governor, St. Louis trade union writer and lecturer Leon Greenbaum for Lieutenant Governor, and William M. Brandt for State Treasurer."Vote in Missouri," Missouri Socialist [St. Louis], vol. 1, no. 1 (Jan. 5, 1901), pg. 3. In the 1900 elections the SDP emerged as the third most successful party in Missouri, gaining more votes than its orthodox Marxist rival, the Socialist Labor Party of America, as well as the People's Party and Prohibition Party in the polls. The margin between it and the so-called "old parties" — the Republican Party and Democratic Party — was vast, however, with the SDP's candidates for Congress generally receiving approximately 1% of the total vote.
Establishment of the Socialist Party of America
In the summer of 1901 the two Social Democratic Parties joined with smaller groups and independent individuals to establish a new multi-tendency political organization known as the Socialist Party of America (SPA). St. Louis was chosen as the headquarters city for the new organization and Leon Greenbaum of that city was selected as the group's first Executive Secretary. Members of Local St. Louis served as members of the organization's first executive body, known as the Local Quorum, which handled day-to-day operations of the largely decentralized organization.
Largely in response to perceived lack of democracy and other deficiencies of the highly centralized SLP, the SPA was initially established as a somewhat loose confederation of largely autonomous state organizations, of which the Socialist Party of Missouri was one. Missouri contained a significant number of committed socialist adherents at the time of the party's formation in 1901, with the large circulation weekly Appeal to Reason noting in November 1901 that it had more than 9,000 subscribers in the state — fourth most of any state, following California, Ohio, and Illinois."Circulation by States," Appeal to Reason, whole no. 310 (Nov. 9, 1901), pg. 4.
According to the first constitution of the Socialist Party of Missouri, the primary unit of party organization, generally known as a "Local" across America, was designated as a "Club."E. Val Putnam, "Socialist Clubs of Missouri: What They Are Doing," Missouri Socialist, vol. 1, no. 46 (Nov. 30, 1901), pg. 4. At the end of November 1901 the fledgling Socialist Party of Missouri counted 21 clubs in the state, according to State Secretary-Treasurer Val Putnam, with a paid membership of "about 500." The former "ward branches" of the city of St. Louis were designated as "ward clubs" in the lingo of the new party organization. In addition to the geographically based ward clubs, based upon electoral districts, there was also from the fall of 1901 a "Women's Socialist Club" in the city of St. Louis. By February 1902 the number of Socialist Party clubs with official state charters had grown to 31, "with new applications coming in every week.""Socialist Clubs of Missouri: What They are Doing," St. Louis Labor, vol. 2, whole no. 55 (Feb. 8, 1902), pg. 8.
The first state convention of the Socialist Party of Missouri, held in Sedalia in October 1901, voted to accept the donation of the weekly Missouri Socialist in order to make it a party-owned official organ.E. Val Putnam, "Victory Over Ignorance: State Convention is a Great Event for the Socialist Movement," Missouri Socialist, vol. 1, no. 41 (Oct. 26, 1901), pg. 1. After passing the paper to state control the St. Louis club — far and away the largest such organization in the state — determined that it needed a special city edition of the paper to better serve its organizational needs. This new city edition was to be known as St. Louis Labor and was intended "to deal largely with trade union matters.""St. Louis Labor, Our City Edition," Missouri Socialist, vol. 1, no. 49 (Dec. 21, 1901), pg. 1.
The new St. Louis city edition, which almost immediately supplanted the Missouri Socialist from whence it sprung, was formally launched in the third week of December 1901. In addition to an increasing number of stories related to the national trade union movement, the revised and expanded publication featured dozens of meeting announcements for the union locals of St. Louis together with Socialist Party meeting information in an effort to more closely join the trade union "economic" and Socialist Party "political" wings of the workers movement. The deemphasis of the word "socialism" in both title and content of the publication resulted in increased participation by advertisers and a doubling of the paper's physical size, from four pages to eight.For example, the February 22, 1902 issue of St. Louis Labor included advertisements from the Cigarmakers' Union, the Bakers' Union, the Musicians' Union, the Brewers' Union, in addition to an array of radical magazines and newspapers from around the country, ads for local professional services, and ads for brands of lye, bread, and a homebuilder.
Move of national headquarters
The location of the Socialist Party's national headquarters in St. Louis was not satisfactory to all party members and the idea of moving to another city soon took root. Particular dissatisfaction was expressed by the more radical elements in the party, who objected to the tendency of the St. Louis Local Quorum towards "fusionism" — joint action with non-socialist political parties."Resolutions of National Executive Committee, Socialist Party of America: St. Louis, Missouri -- January 29-31, 1903," International Socialist Review, vol. 3, no. 9 (March 1903), pp. 537-538. At the 1903 annual meeting of the governing National Committee of the SPA, held in St. Louis from January 29 to 31, these anti-St. Louis elements won the day, and the National Committee voted to move party headquarters to Omaha, Nebraska — a state firmly controlled by the radical wing. Headquarters were moved shortly thereafter for what would prove to be a brief stint in Omaha before a permanent home would ultimately be found in the industrial mecca of Chicago.
Electoral growth