POLITICAL PARTIES The Republican and Democratic parties have alternated in control of our government since their inception. In 1792-3 one party was called the "Democratic-Republican Party," and in recent years the similarity between the two has again been so marked that a suggestion has been made that they unite as one conservative party to oppose any change in established customs. Here is a summary of parties that have endeavored to introduce progressive ideas into political campaigns, chronologically arranged. Prohibition Party Organized in 1867, it has steadfastly opposed the manufacture, sale, transportation, importation or exportation of alcoholic beverages. In addition, it has stood for universal suffrage since 1872, civil service reform four years before the Democratic and twelve years before the Republican Party adopted it; international arbitration in 1876, preceding every other party by thirtytwo years, opposition to speculation in Government lands twelve years before the Republicans adopted the idea, uniform marriage and divorce laws since 1888, a non-partisan tariff commission, later adopted by the Progressive Party, income tax in 1896, abolition of child labor in 1908, and public ownership of public utilities. "It has lived to see the triumph of nearly every one of the great reforms which it has championed." In 1892 it polled 264,133 votes. In 1924 its nominees were Herman P. Faris and Marie C. Brehm for President and VicePresident. Its headquarters are at 128 Walnut Street, Harrisburg, Pa. Greenback Party Formed in 1874 to urge suppression of banks of issue and the payment of the United States debt in greenbacks. It nominated for the Presidency Peter Cooper in 1876, James B. Weaver in 1880 and Benjamin F. Butler in 1884. In a sense it was the nucleus of the Populist Party. Socialist Labor Party In 1877, the Socialist Labor Party succeeded the Social Democratic Workingmen's Party of North America which was started in 1874. This is the older of the two parties claiming to represent Socialism in the United States. It polled 82,000 votes in 1898, 14,398 in 1916 and 31,175 in 1920. Its principles are based on the division of Society into the possessing or Capitalist class and the dispossessed or Proletarian class. The latter receives from the production of wealth only wages, while the employers appropriate the profit. The Socialist Labor Party claims that the instruments of production must be owned collectively by the whole people— that is, by the Co-operative Commonwealth, "a commonwealth in which every worker shall have the free exercise and full benefit of his faculties multiplied by all the factors of modern civilization." "The Proletariat must, therefore, constitute itself into a political party of its own class, in order to possess itself of the government which . . . will be transformed into a public executive of the administrative measures adopted by a free people." In 1924, its presidential candidates were Frank T. Johns and Verne L. Reynolds, who polled 33,901 votes. The headquarters are at 45 Rose Street, New York City. The secretary is Arnold Petersen. Its publication is the Weekly People, $2 a year; Editor, Olive M. Johnson. The Socialist Party Organized in 1901 as a secession movement from the Socialist Labor Party, it had 118,045 members in 1912, dropping to 12,000 in 1923. It polled 919,799 votes in 1920. In 1924 it joined with the Progressives in supporting Senator La Follette, who polled 4,822,319 votes. Declaration of Principles, Adopted in Convention at Cleveland, July, 1924: The Socialist Party is the party of the workers. It urges the workers to take economic and political power away from the capitalist class, not to establish themselves as a new ruling class, but to abolish forever all class divisions and class rule. America today is not owned by the American people. Our so-called national wealth is not the wealth of the nation but of the privileged few. These few are the rulers of America. They are few in number but they dominate the lives of their fellow men. They own our jobs and determine our wages; they control markets and fix prices; they own our homes and fix rents; they own our food and set its cost; they own the press; they own the government and make our laws; they own our schools and mould the people's minds. The Socialist Party of the United States demands that the country and its socially useable industrial wealth be redeemed from the control of private interests and turned over to the people to be administered for the benefit of all. The Socialist Party advocates the establishment of a system of co-operative and publicly owned and managed warehouses, markets, and credits to promote direct dealing between farmers and city consumers at the cost of the service in their mutual interests. This will reduce the cost of living, will assure to the farmers a proper compensation for their labor, and will enable them to escape from the twin curses of tenantry and mortgaged serfdom. The socialization of industry, as Socialists conceive it, means more than is commonly understood in the term government ownership: it includes democratic administration through the elected and responsible representatives of the workers in the respective industries and of the workers as a whole. The bulk of the American people are workers of hand and brain; men and women who render useful service to the community in the countless ways of modern civilization. They produce the nation's wealth but live in constant dread of poverty. They feed and clothe the rich, yet bow to their alleged superiority. They keep alive the industries, but have no voice in their management. They constitute the majority and can right all these social wrongs whenever they learn to use the power of their numbers. The ruling class and their retainers cannot be expected to change the iniquitous system of which they are the beneficiaries. The workers alone have a direct and compelling interest in abolishing that system. To do this the workers must be united in a political party and use it to enact such measures as will immediately benefit the workers, raise their standard of life, increase their power, and stiffen their resistance to capitalist aggression; and ultimately to transfer to the people ownership of large scale industries, beginning with those of a public character, such as banking, insurance, mining, transportation, communication, and the trustified industries, and extending the process as rapidly as conditions will permit, to the end that the exploitation of labor through rent, interest, and profit may finally be abolished. The workers of town and country must be strongly organized on economic as well as on political lines. The ceaseless struggle of the labor unions and the constructive work of co-operative societies are absolutely necessary, not only for the immediate defense and betterment of the material and social condition of the producing classes, but also to equip them with the knowledge and the habit of self-discipline which they must have in order to administer efficiently the industries of which they are to win control. It is the bounden duty of every Socialist wage-worker to be a loyal and active member of the union of his industry or trade, and to strive with all his power for the strengthening and solidification of the trade-union movement. It is the duty and the privilege of the Socialist Party and its press to aid the unions in all their struggles for better wages, increased leisure, and better conditions of employment. The Socialist Party seeks to attain its end by orderly methods, and depends upon education and organization of the masses. The Socialist Party stands for the mass of the American people. But its interest is not limited to America alone. In modern civilization the destinies of all nations are inextricably interwoven. No nation can be prosperous, happy, and free while its neighbors are poor, miserable, and enslaved. The ties of international solidarity are particularly vital among the workers. In all advanced countries the working classes are engaged in an identical struggle for political and economic freedom, and the success or failure of each is reflected upon the fortunes of all. The Socialist Party is opposed to militarism, imperialism, and war. Modern wars are caused by commercial and financial rivalries and intrigues of capitalist interests in different countries. They are made by the ruling classes and fought by the masses. They bring wealth and power to the privileged few and suffering, death, and desolation to the many. They cripple the struggles of the workers for political rights, material improvement and social justice, and tend to sever the bonds of solidarity between them and their brothers in other countries. The Socialist movement is a world struggle in behalf of civilization. The Socialist Party co-operates with similar parties in other countries, and extends to them its full support in their struggles, confident that the workers all over the world will eventually secure the powers of government, abolish the oppression and chaos, the strife and bloodshed of international capitalism, and establish a federation of Socialist republics, co-operating with each other for the benefit of the human race, and for the maintenance of the peace of the world. The National office is at 2653 Washington Boulevard, Chicago, Ill. The officers are: Eugene V. Debs, National Chairman; Morris Hillquit, International Secretary; Arne J. Parker, Secretary of the Y.P.S.L.; Bertha Hale White, Executive Secretary. National Executive Committee: Victor L. Berger, John M. Collins, Leo M. Harkins, Morris Hillquit, James H. Maurer, George E. Roewer, Jr., Joseph W. Sharts. Union Labor Party Organized February 23, 1887, by representatives of farmers' organizations including members of the Greenback Party. The platform included a graduated land and income tax, government telegraph and railroads, abolition of National banks, free coinage of silver, exclusion of Chinese, woman suffrage, abolition of convict labor in prisons, or employment of armed guards by private corporations. It led to the formation of the People's Party. Populist or People's Party Organized in 1891 by merging the Farmers' Alliance and other associations. Its aims were to increase the circulating medium, free coinage of silver, free trade, an income tax, suppression of monopolies, etc. It nominated for President James B. Weaver in 1892, obtaining 22 electoral votes and in 1904 and 1908 Thomas E. Watson. In 1896 it endorsed William J. Bryan, the Democratic nominee. Progressive Party Organized in 1912 to destroy "invisible government, to dissolve the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics." It pledged itself to make amendment of the Constitution easier, and to adopt various methods of social reform. Theodore Roosevelt was nominated for President and polled 4,119,507 votes. |