The Declaration of Independence states the reasons and the
goals for the formation of the United States of America. The Constitution dictates the legal structure
for the U.S. and is subject to amendment.
The founding fathers chose to form a democratic society of citizens as
opposed to a society of subjects to a King.
Karl Marx in his essay ‘On the Jewish Question’ pointed out
that the rights designated in the Constitution established property rights for
individuals, but not the basic rights of all as equal citizens in political
discussion.(Rupert) Lincoln dramatically
changed the structure of the country with his Gettysburg Address and passage of
the 13th Amendment eliminating slavery.
 |
| Abraham Lincoln |
In the name of ‘We the People’ Lincoln did expand executive
power by suspending the rule of habeus
corpus to prevent Confederate sympathizers the right of a trial. Other Presidents also expanded executive
power but not in the name of ‘We the People’ but in the name of ‘some of the
people.’ An example would be Theodore
Roosevelt in his battle with labor and Democratic Socialist Eugene Debs. Roosevelt was considered a progressive for
attempting to reign in large corporations so as to protect the property rights
of others, but he was reluctant to give labor an equal footing in law and
politics. Eugene Debs saw politics and society differently. Debs was a Socialist. His conversion to the party was largely
because of Victor Berger of Milwaukee, the first Socialist elected to
Congress. Frank Zeidler the last Socialist
Mayor of Milwaukee defined Socialism with the following comment in an
introduction to a two volume work on Wisconsin Socialism:
“The socialist
movement was inspired by the hope of a brotherhood of workers, the Cooperative
Commonwealth; by a fierce opposition to war; by a belief in the rights of
people; by a passion for orderly government ; and a contempt for graft and
boodling.” (Beck)
(Boodling is a
term used by Lincoln Steffens of McClure’s Magazine in an article published in
1902 exposing corruption in municipal governments. He defined ‘boodling’ as a form of
corruption that ‘involves not thieves,
gamblers, and common women, but influential citizens, capitalists and great
corporations. The stock in trade of the
boodler is the rights, privileges, franchises, and real property of the city… (Beck)
 |
| Frank Zeidler |
“The Socialist Party
strives to establish a radical democracy that places people’s lives under their
own control …The economy is democratically managed for the benefit of all
humanity, not for the profit of the few.” (Socialist Party USA)
Eugene Debs was nominated as the Social Democrat candidate
for president in 1900 along with Job Harriman of the Socialist Labor Party for
vice president. Debs received 100,000
votes in the year 1900, 402,283 in 1904, and 420,713 in 1908.
Trial of Labor
Leaders: Theodore Roosevelt vs. Eugene Debs
Three leaders of the Western Federation of Miners were spirited
out of Colorado without a warrant to face murder charges in Idaho. The three were Secretary-Treasurer, William
Haywood, President Charles H. Moyer, and former union activist and business man,
George Pettibone.
The former governor of Idaho Frank Steunenberg was murdered
by Harry Orchard in 1905. Orchard
claimed that the defendants paid him to kill the governor. Orchard testified
that the Union officials had paid him to murder Steunenberg as a payback for
the governor’s active and illegal opposition to them in a mine strike at Coeur
d’Alene in Northern Idaho in 1899. The
strike became violent and Steunenberg asked President McKinley for Federal
troops. Every union man in the area was
arrested. The men were herded into a
bull pen with poor sanitary conditions.
Steunenberg dictated that all members of the union were guilty and no
man could work in an Idaho mine unless he renounced his allegiance to the
Western Federation of Miners.
| Theodore Roosevelt |
Roosevelt was adamant in his defense of Capitalist property
rights. In a speech during a ceremony laying
a cornerstone, Roosevelt implied that Haywood, Moyer and Pettibone were guilty
of murder. Democratic Socialist Eugene Debs
responded in an open letter.
“Permit me to ask you,
Mr. President, how you know that these men are implicated in murder? Have they been tried and found guilty by due
process of law? (Debs)
 |
| Eugene Debs |
Roosevelt made public a letter he wrote to a congressman in
which he describes Debs, Moyer and Haywood as ‘undesirables.’ Thousands marched in the 1907 New York City
May Day parade with buttons inscribed ‘I am an undesirable.’(Lukas) Roosevelt had a personal issue with the
Western Federation of Miners because a fellow Rough-rider, Sherman Bell, was named
General of the Colorado National Guard by Governor Peabody. General Bell was involved in the violent and
illegal suppression of a strike in Cripple Creek Colorado. Bell was Roosevelt’s body guard in his
campaign for vice president in 1900. J.
Anthony Lukas quotes General Bell in his book Big Trouble:
“When asked how he
planned to proceed against the Western Federation of Miners, he said, ‘I came
to do up this damned anarchistic federation.’
‘My orders were to wipe ‘em off the face of the earth.’”
In the summer of 1907 Haywood, Moyer and Pettibone were
found not guilty; Clarence Darrow was their lawyer.
The Sewer Socialists
Lincoln recognized that the time for slavery was over but he
also knew that the equality expressed in the Declaration of Independence was in
the future. At Gettysburg he said, “It
is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated to the unfinished work which they
who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.” His interference with the law was based on
the ‘We the People’ phrase of the Constitution.
He saw his duty to protect the Union as established by the people of the
United States. The renunciation of some
States was not a legitimate Constitutional right.
The Democratic Socialists mirror Lincoln’s view on the
tension between the practical and the ideal.
Milwaukee Democratic Socialist Mayor Frank Zeidler wrote:
“The application of
political theory to the practical problems of government always presents problems
for both party theoreticians and party practitioners. The socialist movement in Wisconsin did not
escape the anguish of trying to participate in government and yet to reconcile
political necessity with democratic socialist theory.” (Beck)
Zeidler continues by noting the Milwaukee Socialists did not
mind being called Sewer Socialists by the theoreticians because they achieved many
benefits for the city and state such as labor laws which eventually became national
policies with Franklin Roosevelt’s New
Deal. During a shortage of moderate
priced housing Socialist Mayor Hoan started the first low income housing
project in the nation; it was called Garden Homes and completed in 1923.
 |
| Emil Seidel |
The houses still exist, however, the
neighborhood has experienced years of disinvestment. In recent times the neighborhood association
has been working to restore this historic district. Former and first Socialist mayor of
Milwaukee, Emil Seidel (1910 - 1912 ), was one of the occupants of the housing
project.
Milwaukee 2020
The Democratic Convention in Milwaukee in 2020 couldn’t be
more important. A candidate must be
chosen who can win against an autocratic president who has proven to be an
effective demagogue. Also the immediate
existential threats of climate change and nuclear war must be addressed without
hesitation. Related problems of refugees
and migration need to be looked at with a perspective that - all are created
equal. Concerning the economy, have
workers once again become expendable in a new technological society? Are workers expendable as consumers in a
society split into the ‘haves’ and the ‘have not’s’? Isn’t the need for single payer health care
more obvious with the coronavirus looming?
What about gun control? Should
the power of the Presidency be used to help solve these problems?
References
Elmer A. Beck, The Sewer Socialists, (Vols I&II)
Westberg Associates Publishers, Fennimore, Wisconsin, 1982
Eugene V. Debs Speaks, edited by Jean Y. Tussey,
Pathfinder Press, New York, 1970
John Gurda, The Making of Milwaukee, Milwaukee County
Historical Society, Milwaukee, 1999
J. Anthony Lukas, Big Trouble, Simon & Schuster,
New York, 1997
Mark Rupert, Producing Hegemony, Cambridge University
Press, Cambridge, U.K., 1995.
Irving Stone, Clarence Darrow For the Defense,
Doubleday Duran & Co. 1941
Socialist Party USA, “Socialism As Radical Democracy,” New
York City, N.Y.
Gary Wills, Lincoln at Gettysburg, Simon &
Schuster, New York, 1992
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