The records of the Socialist Labor Party are organized in three separate parts. Part 1 consists of the records which were presented in 1907; these date 1877-1906 and are the portion which was issued as a microfilm edition in 1970 under a grant from the National Historical Publications Commission. These records total 44 boxes and 1 oversize folder and 39 reels of microfilm; they bear the call numbers U.S. Mss 3A (the paper portion) and Micro 462 (the microfilm copy). Part 2 consists of additional records received by the Historical Society in 1974. These records date 1890 and 1893-1920 and total 88 boxes; they bear call number Mss 399. Part 3 is a small addition organized in 1984. These records date 1878-1967 and total only 3 boxes copied on 5 reels of microfilm (Mss 399, Boxes 89-91, and Micro 730) plus one reel of microfilm (Micro 986) produced from materials only loaned to the Historical Society. Each part of this collection is described more extensively below.
Part 1: Original Collection (1877-1906) (U.S. Mss 3A and Micro 462)
Part 1 of the collection consists of official papers of the Socialist Labor Party from its organization in 1877 until 1907. The records are divided into the following major subseries:
- A. Records of the National Executive Committee, 1878-1906
- B. Records of the Party Press, 1885-1904
- C. Records of the National Board of Appeals (National Board of Supervision), 1878-1900
- D. Records of the National Conventions, 1877-1904
- E. Records concerning Party Activities: Notebooks, Scrapbooks, and Clippings, 1880-1905
- F. Records of State Committees and Local Sections, 1878-1906
None of these subseries spans the first thirty-year period of party history without many gaps in the files. Despite the fragmentation or paucity of some types of records, these records document many facets of the party's development, organization, thought, and tactics, as well as its contribution to the labor and socialist movements in a turbulent era of industrial change and of social and economic stress in the United States. Each subseries is described more fully in the following paragraphs.
A. Records of the National Executive Committee, 1878-1906
The National Executive Committee was the governing body of the Socialist Labor Party and made all major decisions between conventions. The duties of the Committee included carrying out the resolutions of the national conventions and enforcing their observance by all officers and members of the party; managing agitation; representing the party internally, publicly, and internationally; managing the party press; preparing for conventions; and reporting the status of the party to conventions.
Between 1876 and 1900, delegates to the national conventions chose the seat of the Committee, and the party membership ratified the decision. Then the party sections in the designated locality elected the members of the Committee (seven or nine in number), who served from convention to convention. In 1904, the national convention changed the method of election. Thereafter the Committee was composed of one delegate from every state which had a state executive committee. These delegates, chosen by a general vote of the state party membership, served for a term of one year.
NEC records in this section include a minutebook, 1889-1891; letter-press copy books of outgoing correspondence, 1883-1892; liss of letters received, 1891-1894, 1897-1899; extensive incoming correspondence, 1878-1906; official ballots, 1880, 1899-1904, of SLP sections and members on question of party policy and selection of party officials; financial records, 1881-1899; one volume designated Agitators Date Book, 1896, containing itineraries of SLP agitators and candidates; and one volume listing SLP state committees, local sections, and officers.
Most voluminous is the incoming correspondence. The NEC incoming correspondence file consists primarily of letters and reports in German and English addressed to the National Executive Committee and the national secretary from other national officials and party divisions, city and state committee secretaries, section officers, agitators, newspaper editors, and other party members. Other materials include letters addressed to the party newspapers and referred to the national secretary for reply; correspondence addressed to the New York Labor News Company, the Daily People Fund, the national treasurer, and party presidential candidates and agitators; reports of the Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance; copies or drafts of some letters written by the national secretary; and reports and financial statements of the National Executive Committee. Numerous printed party leaflets, handbills, and small broadsides occur as enclosures.
Much of the correspondence pertains to the mechanics of party operations and includes section and committee reports on finances, meetings, and other activities; agitators' reports; orders for literature and dues stamps; requests for speakers; newspaper subscriptions; contributions to campaign, newspaper, and strike funds; and requests for information about the party. Topics discussed are party philosophy and strategy; internal party controversies, particularly during 1888 and 1889 and after the organization of the Social Democracy of America in 1897; campaigns and elections; Board of Appeals cases; strikes; publication and editorial policies of the party press; organization and operation of the Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance; other labor organizations; agitation tours; national conventions; international affiliations; and party finances. The majority of the correspondence falls in the period between 1895 and 1899, and was chiefly addressed to National Secretary Henry Kuhn. The political campaign of 1896 waged by the Socialist Labor Party on national, state, and local levels is documented by hundreds of letters from party officials in all sections of the nation, discussing not only the zeal displayed by candidates and organizers but also the many problems they encountered. After 1899 the files are again very fragmentary. Throughout the correspondence there are a very few letters from some of the leaders who became dissenters and eventually left the party during the various factional disputes.
Between 1878 and 1883 most of the existing correspondence was addressed to Philip Van Patten and includes letters written by John Dougherty, John Ehmann, Paul Ehmann, P. F. Fitzpatrick, Frank Fowler, Laurence Gronlund, Joseph Holler, C.T. Kuhl, P.M. McGuire, Fred Meiselbach, Thomas J. Morgan, Henry J. Rice, H.C. Schlegel, George A. Schilling, and C. Osborne Ward. From 1883 through 1894 the correspondence file remains sparse, but contains letters by McGuire and Morgan as well as scattered pieces by Martha Moore Avery, Daniel De Leon, Alfred Fuhrman, Benjamin J. Gretsch, Henry Kuhn, W.L. Rosenberg, Albert E. Sanderson, and Lucien Sanial. During the peak of party activity in the late 1890s, the National Executive Committee and National Secretary Henry Kuhn were in close touch with national, state, and municipal party officials, editors, speakers, and organizers. Among the correspondents represented by letters in the collection after 1894 are Lazarus Abelson, H.H. Acton, H.S. Aley, Rose Asch, Henry B. Ashplant, Emil Auerbach, Martha Moore Avery, J. Waldron Badger, J. Mahlon Barnes, Charles A. Baustian, Charles F. Bechtold, J. Wilson Becker, Frederick Bennetts, B. Berlyn (Illinois state committee officer), Ernest Bohm, Thomas C. Brophy, John Buckley, Peter E. Burrowes, Harry Carless, P.C. Christiansen, Charles B. Copp, Thomas Crimmins, Thomas Curran, Peter Damm, T.J. Dean, Daniel De Leon, Daniel De Lury, Charles M. Du Puy, Leonard Fish, Max Forker, Lewis C. Fry, Garnet Futvoye, F.W. Gessner, David Goldstein, Thomas J. Griffiths, Otto Gundermann, J. Keir Hardie, Edel Hecht, Thomas A. Hickey, O.M. Howard, Karl Ibsen, Alexander Jonas, Frank Jordan, Fritz Kalbitz, Arthur Keep, B.F. Keinard, Charles F. Kelley, R.J. Kerrigan, Alfred C. Kihn, E.T. Kingsley, William Kittel, W.E. Krumroy, Algernon Lee, George B. Leonard, Ernest Liebing, Herbert Littlewood, Frances MacDaniel, Matthew Maguire, Charles R. Martin, M.C. Massie, Joseph A. Masson, Charles H. Matchett, R.T. Maycumber, George Moore, Donald L. Munro, Julian Pierce, S.E. Putney, Max Richter, David Rudnick, Moritz Ruther, Lucien Sanial, Joseph H. Sauter, Joseph Schlossberg, Herman Schlueter, F. Serrer (Connecticut state committee officer), F.J. Sieverman, Algie M. Simons, Hugo Vogt, H. Warnecke (Colorado state committee officer), George H. Warner, Rosamund D. Watkins, John C. Wieland, Frank R. Wilke, M.W. Wilkins, and Charles F. Wilson. Drafts or copies of Henry Kuhn's replies are included occasionally.
B. Records of the Party Press, 1885-1904
The phrase “party press” was used by Socialist Labor Party officers to signify the official newspapers owned by the party. However, other socialist-oriented newspapers at times also endorsed and advocated the principles of the Socialist Labor Party, and in turn the party welcomed the aid of independent newspapers in the conduct of its intensive propaganda campaign. Among the press records in this collection are not only those relating to party-owned publishing companies and publications but also some pertaining to two other newspapers which were at times edited by members of the Socialist Labor Party or by men friendly to the party's aims and policies. All of these publishing ventures had their headquarters in New York City.
Represented in the collection by records are several party-owned enterprises: the New York Labor News Company, a division of the party's national office which for many years handled publication of party pamphlets and their sale and distribution; the Workmen's Printing Company, also a firm sponsored by the party to issue party literature; Der Sozialist, a German weekly magazine published from 1885 to 1892; Vorwarts, the official party newspaper in German, which replaced Der Sozialist in 1892; The People, official party weekly newspaper in English, begun in 1891 and still the official organ of the party; the Daily People Committee, organized in 1895 to raise money for publication of a daily newspaper in English, which was issued from 1900 to 1914; the Abendblatt, a one-cent afternoon daily published in Yiddish, for which the party also had a fundraising committee. Men active in the journalistic programs of the party included William Hintze of the New York Labor News Company, Hugo Vogt, editor of Vorwarts, and Daniel De Leon, editor of The People and the Daily People. De Leon joined the party in 1886. Upon becoming editor of The People six years later he proved most effective in molding the paper as the voice of the party and in formulating and promoting the independent platform of thought and action which the party displayed in the late 1890s.
Among the records are a few relating to two papers outside party ownership, the Arbeiter Zeitung and the New Yorker Volkzeitung. Independent but sympathetic to labor and socialist causes, the Arbeiter Zeitung was a Yiddish weekly established in 1890 by Abraham Cahan, Louis E. Miller, and Morris Hillquit. It was succeeded in 1902 by the Jewish Daily Forward. The New Yorker Volkzeitung, an independent socialist daily, was issued from 1878 to 1932. During the period covered by this part of the collection (1877-1906), it was edited by several men who were either party members or who were at times sympathetic to the party: Adolph Douai, Sergius E. Schevitsch, Alexander Jonas, and Herman Schlueter. Vorwarts, which became the party's official German newspaper, was started in 1892 as the Sunday edition of the Volkzeitung. The Socialist Publishing Association, which issued the Volkzeitung and Vorwarts, also printed The People during the first few years of its publication. Nevertheless, in its editorial policy the Volkzeitung frequently did not adhere to the official Socialist Labor Party program, particularly after the party began advocating independent socialist political action, while the Volkzeitung urged abstention from politics and promoted trade unionism and a program of socialist education for workers.
C. Records of the National Board of Appeals (National Board of Supervision), 1878-1900
A division of the Socialist Labor Party national office, the National Board of Appeals was authorized by the constitution of the party to supervise the actions of the National Executive Committee and of the party as a whole. The seat of the board was chosen by the national convention, and the board members were then elected by the party members in the locality selected by the convention. Among the headquarters of the board between 1877 and 1900 were Newark, New Jersey; Chicago, Illinois; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Cleveland, Ohio; and Providence, Rhode Island. The duties of the board included the settlement of party difficulties upon appeal, and the communication of the decisions to the National Executive Committee. The board could temporarily suspend any executive committees, officers, sections, or members of the party. Although its actions were subject to regulation by a vote of the general party membership, the board in practice had the final decision in suspension or expulsion cases. Known as the National Board of Supervision between 1877 and 1896 and as the National Board of Appeals between 1896 and 1900, the board was abolished by the national convention of the party in 1900. Records include minutes, a letter book, and incoming correspondence.
D. Records of the National Conventions, 1877-1904
The national conventions of the Socialist Labor Party were called by a general vote of the party membership and were composed of delegates selected by the party sections. The conventions framed the national platform, could select or alter the form of organization of the party, chose the seats of the National Executive Committee and the National Board of Appeals, and rendered decisions on problems and controversies within the party. All acts of the conventions were submitted to a general vote of the party members for ratification. Convention records include printed platforms, constitutions, resolutions, and proceedings, in German and English.
E. Records Concerning Party Activities: Notebooks, Scrapbooks, and Clippings, 1880-1905
Two notebooks kept by party leaders W.L. Rosenberg, and Daniel De Leon and an assortment of bound and unbound newspaper clippings, mainly from socialist publications, compose this subseries. The unbound clippings and the first three scrapbooks all pertain to the labor and socialist movements in the United States, but particularly to the activities of the Socialist Labor Party including its debates, conventions, party philosophy, agitation and speaking tours, and political campaigns. The collectors and organizers of these first three scrapbooks have not been identified. The compiler of Scrapbook IV was Moritz Ruther, Socialist Labor Party member in Holyoke, Massachusetts. Scrapbook V was compiled by Fred W. Long, member of the party in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
F. Records of State Committees and Local Sections, 1878-1906
Within the Socialist Labor Party the local units of membership were known as sections. Many of these were organized by nationality groups. In states in which the party had considerable strength, there were also state committees to coordinate and direct state party activities. At the national convention of the Socialist Labor Party in 1879, twenty sections were represented by delegates. In 1889 the party had seventy sections, but by 1893 that figure had more than doubled. By 1899, at the height of its membership growth, the party had more than 350 sections in at least thirty states and in Canada. Although German and American groups predominated, there were also sections composed of members of many other European national origins.
The records within this subseries embrace only a very small number of the state and local organizations within the Socialist Labor Party. Four states (Massachusetts, New York, Texas, and Washington) and one Canadian province (British Columbia) are represented through records of sections of American, German, Flemish, Italian, and Scandinavian membership. There are also incomplete files of minutes and correspondence of the New York State Committee within the period 1884-1902. Fragmentary as it is, this subseries of records does illustrate the varied international composition of the party membership and the organization and operation of the party on the state and local levels.
Part 2: 1974 Additions, 1890, 1893-1920 (Mss 399)
The initial folder of these additions contains background material including printed constitutions of the SLP, the Lettish Socialist Labor Federation, the South Slavonian Socialist Labor Federation, the Scandinavian Socialist Labor Federation and the Workers' International Industrial Union (WIIU). With this exception, the additions consist exclusively of correspondence files of the SLP national headquarters. They date from 1890 and July 1893-January 1908, and June 1909-1920. Just one letter is dated 1890 and only a very small amount of correspondence exists for the June-December 1909 period. The 1890-1909 files consist almost entirely of incoming correspondence and are in chronological order. The balance of the files contain incoming and outgoing correspondence and are organized by year, and then alphabetically by state or other file heading. Letters of the National Secretary make up the vast majority of the files, but also included are a few letters addressed to the party newspapers, and the party owned New York Labor News Company. Membership and financial reports of individual SLP sections and state organizations, reports and financial statements of the National Executive Committee and the Sub-Committee, printed leaflets and broadsides, and minutes of the NEC and the Sub-Committee also appear occasionally throughout the additions. In some instances, the NEC and Sub-Committee minutes are more complete than those printed regularly in the Weekly People. Most of the correspondence is with individual party members, sections, state organizations, and affiliated language federations, and concerns the day-to-day business of organizing, agitation, subscription sales, dues payment, and fund raising. Due to the lack of overall membership data in the records, the lists of contributors included in the correspondence form a valuable source of names of active SLP members in a given city or state. The other major types of information found throughout the additions concern SLP political campaign activities, relations with the Socialist Party, and the maintenance of party discipline.
Correspondence for 1893-June 1899 totals about two boxes and seems similar in nature to the letters of that period in the original collection (Part 1). In addition to letters addressed to SLP National Secretary Henry Kuhn, there is correspondence to District Assembly #49 of the Knights of Labor. For a period in the 1890s the SLP adopted a “boring from within” strategy and had considerable power within District #49. Letters to District officials Henry Carless, William L. Brower, and Patrick Murphy shed some light on the relationship. Also included in these early years are a substantial number of letters from Ernest Bohm, General Secretary of the Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance.
The volume of letters increases appreciably in mid-1899. This coincides with a serious internal split which led a substantial group (the “Kangaroos”) to leave the party. Especially well documented in 1899 and the years immediately following is reaction to the split from the sections and state organizations outside New York City, and information on “Kangaroo” activities in various parts of the country.
The 1901-1903 files contain information on a tour of this country by James Connally of the Socialist Party of Ireland, and on the 1902 (“Kanglet”) internal party struggle.
Between 1905 and 1908 correspondence from William Trautman and other IWW officers is frequent. The IWW apparently made regular use of SLP organizers including August Gillhaus, Philip Veal, and Frank Bohn. Consequently, letters from or about these men contain information on the organizing activities of both the SLP and the IWW. Contact between the two organizations became more frequent after Frank Bohn became SLP National Secretary in 1906. As a party organizer Bohn had traveled extensively in the West, and as National Secretary he continued to correspond regularly with the IWW, Western Federation of Miners, and other labor and radical groups in the West. After its 1908 split with the SLP, documentation on the IWW movement becomes less frequent, although the SLP maintained close ties with the “Detroit IWW” and later the WIIU. Moreover, the activities of the “Chicago IWW” (generally referred to as the “Bummery” or the “I'm a Bum Movement”) are occasional topics of correspondence, especially from Illinois, Washington, and other Western states.
Starting with 1910 the arrangement of the files changes and both incoming and outgoing letters are included. Most of the correspondence continues to be with party members and sections, and is arranged by the state in which they resided. The files for some states are further subdivided by the major cities within the state. In addition, separate alphabetical files are maintained for Canadian correspondence, individual agitators, the NEC, and some other organizations and events. The NEC files generally contain reports, votes on matters before the body, circular letters to members and, occasionally, minutes of NEC and Sub-Committee meetings.
Like most national election years, 1912 files contain information on the campaign of the SLP presidential and vice presidential candidates. In 1912 and 1913 extensive information is included on the Patterson, New Jersey, textile strike, and the roles of the rival IWW organizations in that strike. The files for 1914 and 1915 contain considerable information on an internal party dispute centering around actions of the Texas State Executive Committee. The Texas SEC proposed that the SLP adopt a permanent platform demanding that ownership of all land, manufacturing plants, and transportation and distribution mechanisms be transferred to the Detroit IWW. The NEC opposed the plank and the ensuing conflict resulted in the suspension of the Texas SEC. The 1915 Illinois files also include a number of letters by and about Phillip Veal which vividly reflect the plight of this radical organizer. Out of work, blacklisted in many localities, and with no place to live, Veal intentionally broke the law so he could be jailed and thus fed and clothed. The 1915 Caleb Harrison file contains information on his organizing tour through the Midwest.
1915 also reflects the first substantial effects of the war on the SLP. The Ohio file, for example, contains charges that the party's German language organ was expressing “pro-German” sentiments. In the three following years information on the war's effect became more pronounced.
Data on government raids and arrests of SLP members and sympathizers is found in the Michigan, Indiana, New York (especially Erie County), and other files. The New York City and District of Columbia correspondence includes numerous letters on the SLP's problems with postal authorities.
1916's presidential campaign is especially well documented. Extensive correspondence with candidates Arthur E. Reimer and Caleb Harrison shows the tactics and problems of radical, third party campaigns. The District of Columbia file for 1916 contains a report on SLP campaign receipts and expenditures. Also of interest is a list of the number of Weekly People subscribers by state, contained in the Philadelphia correspondence.
In January 1917, the SLP and the Socialist Party convened a unity conference. Information on arrangements, the conference itself, and a resulting controversy concerning the printing of conference proceedings can be found from 1916 to 1918, especially in files headed “NEC,” “Socialist Party,” and “New York City.”
In addition to war related problems, 1918 files are highlighted by information on the removal of Edmond Seidel as Weekly People editor, and an organizing tour by Olive M. Johnson. Johnson toured the East and Midwest early in the year and seemed to concentrate on organizing SLP women's groups. 1918 and 1919 correspondence also reflects greatly increased activity by the SLP in Canada, especially by the section in Kitchener, Ontario.
In 1919 the SLP mounted an unusually strong organizing campaign in the Illinois coal fields. Three full-time agitators, John Francis, Sam J. French, and Fred Koch, were fielded by the party, and each corresponded extensively with the National Secretary. Former National Secretary Henry Kuhn was also sent to examine the situation. His correspondence on coal fields organizing and other topics is split between the Illinois and New York files. The SLP's program for the miners (summarized in a pamphlet entitled Mines to the Miners) and some of the actions of its agitators were opposed by a number of party members. Information on this controversy is concentrated in the 1919 and 1920 Illinois, Michigan, and NEC files, as well as the files on the individual agitators.
The situation in Russia engaged increased SLP interest in 1918 and 1919 and the party condemned bolshevist and communist activities in the United States. Examples of SLP attitudes toward communist organizations can be found in the 1919 Youngstown, Ohio and Erie County, New York files, and the 1920 California file. The 1920 presidential campaign is also well covered in correspondence with the candidates and several individual agitators employed during the campaign. Documentation on an SLP effort to establish contacts in Spanish-speaking countries is found in the 1920 Maryland file. Word H. Mills of Baltimore was appointed the party's Commissioner of Propaganda in Spanish Speaking Countries and corresponded extensively with individuals in Spain and Latin America.
Part 3: 1984 Additions, 1848-1967 (Mss 399, Micro 730, Micro 986, PH 4876, Audio 1928A)
These additions consist of manuscript minutes of the SLP's National Executive Committee (NEC), 1878-1889 and 1893-1920 (NEC minutes for 1889-1891 are part of the original collection); NEC printed proceedings, 1919, 1934-1967; and manuscript NEC Sub-committee minutes, 1905-1921.
The NEC, the SLP's governing body, until about 1904 was a fairly small committee which generally met monthly. At that time the NEC was restructured to include one representative from each state which had a State Executive Committee (SEC -- to have an SEC a state needed at least three “sections,” or local chapters). The restructured NEC first met twice annually and later changed to annual meetings. The NEC Sub-committee was created at the time the NEC was restructured for the purpose of carrying out the executive work of the party when the NEC was not in session.
The NEC printed proceedings include NEC minutes as well as reports of the National Secretary, the editor of the Weekly People, and of the various Language Federations. The National Secretary's report is generally very detailed including information on organizing and membership, internal disputes, harassment by the government (especially during World War II), national political campaign activities, and the financial condition of the party. Supplementing the 1953 proceedings is a lengthy report on the party's editorial policy and standards, and following the 1955 proceedings is a financial statement and balance sheet for the party printing plant. There are no proceedings for the following years: 1944, 1946, 1948, 1952, 1956, 1960, 1964, and 1965.
The proceedings were printed in limited editions in a newspaper format. Many of the issues were in poor condition when filmed and portions of some issues, especially 1939 and 1941, are illegible.
Visual materials include photographs, ephemera, a drawing, and poster related to the Socialist Labor Party, depicting members and gatherings.
The tape recording consists of a discussion about Party policy on reform at the 1984 National Convention.
