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149-557: The North Dakota Democratic–Nonpartisan League Party has roots in the Progressive Era of American history. At the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century, progressives – including lawyers, merchants, editors, and professors – joined both the Republican Party , which had strong control of state politics, as well as the state Democratic Party , the progressive faction of which called itself "the party of

298-553: A Lower East Side audience at New York City's Cooper Union that parliamentary Socialists were "step-at-a-time people whose every step is just a little shorter than the preceding step". It was better, Haywood said, to "elect the superintendent of some branch of industry, than to elect some congressman to the United States Congress". In response, Hillquit attacked the IWW as "purely anarchistic". The Cooper Union speech

447-465: A corporate lawyer for the railroad company. Although it is commonly thought that Darrow "switched sides" to represent Debs, a myth repeated by Irving Stone's biography, Clarence Darrow for the Defense , he had in fact resigned from the railroad earlier, after the death of his mentor William Goudy. A Supreme Court case decision, In re Debs , later upheld the right of the federal government to issue

596-497: A direct primary law , a joint resolution for a constitutional amendment for initiative and referendum power, a public library commission law, and laws to enforce prohibition. Subsequent years would see the end of Alexander McKenzie and his Republican political machine. By 1908, the first State electoral primaries solidified his retirement. That year the Republican Party, free from McKenzie's conservative influence, crafted

745-504: A "New Nationalism" with active supervision of corporations, higher taxes, and unemployment and old-age insurance. He supported voting rights for women but was silent on civil rights for blacks, who remained in the regular Republican fold. He lost and his new party collapsed, as conservatism dominated the GOP for decades to come. Biographer William Harbaugh argues: Woodrow Wilson gained a national reputation as governor of New Jersey by defeating

894-615: A European-style socialist political party with a view to capture of the government apparatus through the ballot box. The June 1898 convention would be the group's last, with the minority political action wing quitting the organization to establish a new organization, the Social Democratic Party of America (SDP), also called the Social Democratic Party of the United States . Debs was elected to

1043-546: A blistering indictment of corruption in the US Senate. Roosevelt gave these journalists their nickname when he complained they were not being helpful by raking up too much muck. The progressives were avid modernizers, with a belief in science and technology as the grand solution to society's flaws. They looked to education as the key to bridging the gap between their present wasteful society and technologically enlightened future society. Characteristics of progressivism included

1192-598: A defeat for labor that convinced Debs of "the need to reorganize across craft lines", according to Joanne Reitano. After stepping down as Brotherhood Grand Secretary in 1893, Debs organized one of the first industrial unions in the United States, the American Railway Union (ARU), for unskilled workers. He was elected president of the ARU upon its founding, with fellow railway labor organizer George W. Howard as first vice president. The union successfully struck

1341-598: A dollar a night for the next three and half years. In July 1875, Debs left to work at a wholesale grocery house, where he remained for four years while attending a local business school at night. Debs joined the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen (BLF) in February 1875 and became active in the organization. In 1877 he served as a delegate of the Terre Haute lodge to the organization's national convention. Debs

1490-433: A favorable attitude toward urban–industrial society, belief in mankind's ability to improve the environment and conditions of life, belief in an obligation to intervene in economic and social affairs, a belief in the ability of experts and in the efficiency of government intervention. Scientific management, as promulgated by Frederick Winslow Taylor , became a watchword for industrial efficiency and elimination of waste, with

1639-446: A federal prisoner in jail for sedition, though he promised to pardon himself if elected. Although he received some success as a third-party candidate, Debs was largely dismissive of the electoral process as he distrusted the political bargains that Victor Berger and other " sewer socialists " had made in winning local offices. He put much more value on organizing workers into unions, favoring unions that brought together all workers in

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1788-588: A given industry over those organized by the craft skills workers practiced. After his work with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and the American Railway Union , Debs's next major work in organizing a labor union came during the founding of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). On June 27, 1905, in Chicago, Illinois, Debs and other influential union leaders including Bill Haywood , leader of

1937-775: A graduated land tax on property worth $ 20,000 or more. Two months later in May 1956 the Democratic Convention accepted the Nonpartisan League's candidates and adopted its platform. Republicans in North Dakota also united after conservative supports broke away from the league. The Executive Committee of the NPL still formally exists within the party structure of the North Dakota Democratic–NPL. It

2086-472: A job with the Vandalia Railroad cleaning grease from the trucks of freight engines for fifty cents a day. He later became a painter and car cleaner in the railroad shops. In December 1871, when a drunken locomotive fireman failed to report for work, Debs was pressed into service as a night fireman. He decided to remain a fireman on the run between Terre Haute and Indianapolis, earning more than

2235-454: A key element of the progressive outlook, as expressed in his Fourteen Points and the League of Nations —an ideal called Wilsonianism . New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes is known for exposing the insurance industry. During his time in office he promoted a range of reforms. As presidential candidate in 1916 he lost after alienating progressive California voters. As Associate Justice of

2384-401: A major target of progressive reformers. To revitalize democracy, progressives established direct primary elections , direct election of senators (rather than by state legislatures), initiatives and referenda , and women's suffrage which was promoted to advance democracy and bring the presumed moral influence of women into politics. For many progressives, prohibition of alcoholic beverages

2533-404: A means of settling differences. The brotherhood had never authorized a strike from its founding in 1873 to 1887, a record which Debs was proud of. Railroad companies cultivated the brotherhood and granted them perks like free transportation to their conventions for the delegates. Debs also invited railroad president Henry C. Lord to write for the magazine. Summarizing Debs's thought in this period,

2682-424: A national audience, and Governor Walter R. Stubbs . According to Gene Clanton's study of Kansas, populism and progressivism have a few similarities but different bases of support. Both opposed corruption and trusts. Populism emerged earlier and came out of the farm community. It was radically egalitarian in favor of the disadvantaged classes. It was weak in the towns and cities except in labor unions. Progressivism, on

2831-578: A network of local organizers loyal to him, and fought for control of the state Republican Party, with mixed success. The Democrats were a minor factor in the state, but he did form coalitions with the active Socialist Party in Milwaukee. He failed to win the nomination for governor in 1896 and 1898 before winning the 1900 gubernatorial election . As governor of Wisconsin, La Follette compiled a progressive record, implementing primary elections and tax reform. La Follette won re-election in 1902 and 1904. In 1905

2980-455: A progressive party platform. Progressive Democratic Governor John Burke enjoyed support of progressive Republicans. North Dakota again demonstrated its progressive sympathies in 1912, when the state held the first United States Presidential Preference Primary on March 19. North Dakota Republicans favored progressive presidential candidate Robert M. La Follette over Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft . Though an angry Roosevelt formed

3129-507: A public uproar that contributed in part to the passage a few months later of the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act . In 1919, he published The Brass Check , a muck-raking exposé of American journalism that publicized the issue of yellow journalism and the limitations of the "free press" in the United States. Four years after publication of The Brass Check , the first code of ethics for journalists

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3278-532: A running mate and received 901,551 votes, which was 6.0 percent of the popular vote, which remains the all-time highest percentage of the vote for a Socialist Party candidate in a U.S. presidential election. Though Debs won no state's electoral votes, in Florida, he came in second behind Wilson and ahead of President William Howard Taft and former President Teddy Roosevelt . Finally, in 1920, running with Seymour Stedman , Debs won 914,191 votes (3.4%), which remains

3427-437: A single stroke. The writings of [Edward] Bellamy and [Robert] Blatchford early appealed to me. The Cooperative Commonwealth of [Laurence] Gronlund also impressed me, but the writings of [Karl] Kautsky were so clear and conclusive that I readily grasped, not merely his argument, but also caught the spirit of his socialist utterance – and I thank him and all who helped me out of darkness into light. Additionally, Debs

3576-574: A socialist club in Fargo), Townley brought his expertise to North Dakota. He knew that with the recent strife in Bismarck between a conservative legislature and the American Society of Equity and its farm following, the time was ripe for a political revolution. Townley resolved to organize the farmers so that they could control the primaries, whether it be Republicans or Democrats or both. This

3725-750: A statewide socialist workers' movement that eventually spread throughout the Midwest. The prewar decade was marked by a series of progressive successes, starting with progressive Democrat John Burke 's election as governor in 1906. Republican Alexander McKenzie 's conservative political machine still controlled the Senate, but the House of Representatives was filled with progressive Democrats and Republicans, who managed to introduce many anti-railroad bills despite staunch opposition by lobbyists. Progressive reforms and legislation were passed during this time, including

3874-418: A strong federal government. He promoted a strong army and navy and attacked pacifists who thought democracy at home and peace abroad was best served by keeping America weak. Croly was one of the founders of modern liberalism in the United States , especially through his books, essays and a highly influential magazine founded in 1914, The New Republic . In his 1914 book Progressive Democracy , Croly rejected

4023-522: A task in the presence of which weak men might falter and despair, but from which it is impossible to shrink without betraying the working class". Although the IWW was built on the basis of uniting workers of industry, a rift began between the union and the Socialist Party. It started when the electoral wing of the Socialist Party, led by Victor Berger and Morris Hillquit , became irritated with speeches by Haywood. In December 1911, Haywood told

4172-613: A third party in the state. The third party fell apart in the 1930s, and totally collapsed by 1946. The Wisconsin Idea was the commitment of the University of Wisconsin under President Charles R. Van Hise , with LaFollette support, to use the university's powerful intellectual resources to develop practical progressive reforms for the state and indeed for the nation. Between 1901 and 1911, Progressive Republicans in Wisconsin created

4321-486: A wife who rejects the very values he holds most dear" was the basis of Irving Stone 's biographical novel Adversary in the House . The Social Democracy of America (SDA), founded in June 1897 by Eugene V. Debs from the remnants of his American Railway Union, was deeply divided between those who favored a tactic of launching a series of colonies to build socialism by practical example and others who favored establishment of

4470-619: Is a soul in prison, I am not free. Debs appealed his conviction to the Supreme Court. In its ruling on Debs v. United States , the court examined several statements Debs had made regarding World War I and socialism. While Debs had carefully worded his speeches in an attempt to comply with the Espionage Act of 1917 , the Court found he had the intention and effect of obstructing the draft and military recruitment. Among other things,

4619-723: The Great Northern Railway in April 1894, winning most of its demands. In 1894, Debs became involved in the Pullman Strike , which grew out of a compensation dispute started by the workers who constructed the rail cars made by the Pullman Palace Car Company . The Pullman Company, citing falling revenue after the economic Panic of 1893 , had cut the wages of its employees by twenty-eight percent. The workers, many of whom were already members of

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4768-580: The Nineteenth Amendment until 1971, Progressive reformers like Gertrude Weil and Dr. Elizabeth Delia Dixon Carroll lobbied for woman suffrage . Following the Wilmington massacre , North Carolina imposed strict legal segregation and rewrote its constitution in order to disfranchise Black men through poll taxes and literacy tests. In the Black community, Charlotte Hawkins Brown built

4917-625: The North Dakota Senate are as follows: Progressive Era The Progressive Era (1901–1929) was a period in the United States during the early 20th century of widespread social activism and political reform across the country. Progressives sought to address the problems caused by rapid industrialization, urbanization, immigration, and political corruption as well as the enormous concentration of industrial ownership in monopolies. Progressive reformers were alarmed by

5066-695: The Palmer Memorial Institute to provide a liberal arts education to Black children and promote excellence and leadership. Brown worked with Booker T. Washington (in his role with the National Negro Business League ), who provided ideas and access to Northern philanthropy. Apart from Wisconsin, the Midwestern states were about average in supporting Progressive reforms. Ohio took the lead in municipal reform. The negative effects of industrialization triggered

5215-689: The Panama Canal . He expanded the army and sent the Great White Fleet on a world tour to project the United States naval power around the globe. His successful efforts to broker the end of the Russo-Japanese War won him the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize. He avoided controversial tariff and money issues. He was elected to a full term in 1904 and continued to promote progressive policies, some of which were passed in Congress. By 1906 he

5364-624: The Progressive Party after losing the Republican nomination to Taft, he had little support from North Dakota, where many Progressives distrusted his backers, George Walbridge Perkins of the J. P. Morgan group and International Harvester . Because of such opposition, Woodrow Wilson carried the state in November. Republican Louis B. Hanna was elected governor in 1912 and 1914. Once in office, he and his legislative allies halted

5513-400: The Pullman Palace Car Company organized a wildcat strike over pay cuts in the summer of 1894, Debs signed many into the ARU. He led a boycott by the ARU against handling trains with Pullman cars in what became the nationwide Pullman Strike , affecting most lines west of Detroit and more than 250,000 workers in 27 states. Purportedly to keep the mail running, President Grover Cleveland used

5662-488: The Pure Food and Drug Act . The journalists who specialized in exposing waste, corruption, and scandal operated at the state and local level, like Ray Stannard Baker , George Creel , and Brand Whitlock . Others such as Lincoln Steffens exposed political corruption in many large cities; Ida Tarbell is famed for her criticisms of John D. Rockefeller 's Standard Oil Company . In 1906, David Graham Phillips unleashed

5811-514: The Social Democratic Party of America (1898) and the Socialist Party of America (1901). Debs ran as a Socialist candidate for President of the United States five times: 1900 (earning 0.6 percent of the popular vote), 1904 (3.0 percent), 1908 (2.8 percent), 1912 (6.0 percent), and 1920 (3.4 percent), the last time from a prison cell. He was also a candidate for United States Congress from his native state Indiana in 1916. Debs

5960-568: The Socialist Labor Party in 1899 unified forces at a Socialist Unity Convention held in Indianapolis in mid-1901 – a meeting which established the Socialist Party of America (SPA). Debs was the Socialist Party of America candidate for president in 1904 , 1908 , 1912 , and 1920 (the final time from prison). Though he received increasing numbers of popular votes in each subsequent election, he never won any votes in

6109-549: The United States Army to break the strike. As a leader of the ARU, Debs was convicted of federal charges for defying a court injunction against the strike and served six months in prison. In prison, Debs read various works of socialist theory and emerged six months later as a committed adherent of the international socialist movement. Debs was a founding member of the Social Democracy of America (1897),

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6258-564: The Western Federation of Miners ; and Daniel De Leon , leader of the Socialist Labor Party , held what Haywood called the "Continental Congress of the working class". Haywood stated: "We are here to confederate the workers of this country into a working-class movement that shall have for its purpose the emancipation of the working class". Debs stated: "We are here to perform a task so great that it appeals to our best thought, our united energies, and will enlist our most loyal support;

6407-535: The "community chest" movement. The American Red Cross was reorganized and professionalized. Several major foundations aided the blacks in the South and were typically advised by Booker T. Washington . By contrast, Europe and Asia had few foundations. This allowed both Carnegie and Rockefeller to operate internationally with a powerful effect. A hallmark group of the Progressive Era, the middle class became

6556-500: The 1895 case of United States v. E. C. Knight Co. As Chief Justice of the Supreme Court he took a moderate middle position and upheld key New Deal laws. Gifford Pinchot was an American forester and politician. Pinchot served as the first Chief of the United States Forest Service from 1905 until 1910 and was the 28th Governor of Pennsylvania , serving from 1923 to 1927, and again from 1931 to 1935. He

6705-477: The ARU, appealed for support to the union at its convention in Chicago, Illinois. Debs tried to persuade union members, who worked on the railways, that the boycott was too risky given the hostility of the railways and the federal government, the weakness of the union, and the possibility that other unions would break the strike. The membership ignored his warnings and refused to handle Pullman cars or any other railroad cars attached to them, including cars containing

6854-477: The Almighty marks the passage of Time upon the dial of the universe; and though no bell may beat the glad tidings, the look-out knows that the midnight is passing – that relief and rest are close at hand. Let the people take heart and hope everywhere, for the cross is bending, midnight is passing, and joy cometh with the morning. Debs was sentenced on September 18, 1918, to ten years in prison and

7003-639: The Democratic-Nonpartisan League party have been celebrated for establishing a foundation that rights the state in times of national crisis and provides economic security to generations of the state's farmers. As of the 68th session of the North Dakota Legislative Assembly (2022–2024), the Democratic–NPL Party has a total of 12 house members. The 12 members are as follows: The four members of

7152-483: The Electoral College. In both 1904 and 1908, Debs ran with running-mate Ben Hanford . They received 402,810 votes in 1904, for 3.0 percent of the popular vote and an overall third-place finish. In the 1908 election, they received a slightly higher number of votes (420,852) than in their previous run, but at 2.8 percent, a smaller percentage of the total votes cast. In 1912, Debs ran with Emil Seidel as

7301-548: The National Executive Board, the five-member committee which governed the party, and his brother, Theodore Debs , was selected as its paid executive secretary, handling day-to-day affairs of the organization. Although by no means the sole decision-maker in the organization, Debs's status as prominent public figure in the aftermath of the Pullman strike provided cachet and made him the recognized spokesman for

7450-891: The People's Power League. The group led efforts in Oregon to establish an initiative and referendum system, allowing direct legislation by the state's citizens. In 1902, the Oregon Legislative Assembly approved such a system, which was known at the time as the " Oregon System ". The group's further efforts led to successful ballot initiatives implementing a direct primary system in 1904, and allowing citizens to directly recall public officials in 1908. Democrats who promoted progressive policies included George Earle Chamberlain (governor 1903–1909 and senator 1909–1921); Oswald West (governor 1911–1915); and Harry Lane (senator 1913–1917). The most important Republican

7599-541: The Republican Party and if frustrated trying third-party activity especially in 1924 and the 1930s. Secondly the Wisconsin idea , of intellectuals and planners based at the University of Wisconsin shaping government policy. LaFollette started as a traditional Republican in the 1890s, where he fought against populism and other radical movements. He broke decisively with the state Republican leadership, and took control of

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7748-492: The Republican Party; they supported Dwight D. Eisenhower in the 1952 presidential race. Over the next four years legislative polarization grew and the Nonpartisan League eventually split in two; in 1956 North Dakota was fundamentally realigned into a two-party system. That year, the Nonpartisan League finally moved into the Democratic Party, and all Republicans joined in one organization. Two statewide parties vied for

7897-532: The Supreme Court, he often sided with Oliver Wendell Holmes in upholding popular reforms such as the minimum wage, workmen's compensation, and maximum work hours for women and children. He also wrote several opinions upholding the power of Congress to regulate interstate commerce under the Commerce Clause . His majority opinion in the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad v. Interstate Commerce Commission upheld

8046-497: The U.S. mail. After ARU Board Director Martin J. Elliott extended the strike to St. Louis, doubling its size to eighty thousand workers, Debs relented and decided to take part in the strike, which was now endorsed by almost all members of the ARU in the immediate area of Chicago. On July 9, 1894, a New York Times editorial called Debs "a lawbreaker at large, an enemy of the human race". Strikers fought by establishing boycotts of Pullman train cars and with Debs's eventual leadership

8195-514: The West. He called for government ownership of railroads and electric utilities, cheap credit for farmers, stronger laws to help labor unions, and protections for civil liberties. La Follette won 17% of the popular vote and carried only his home state in the face of a Republican landslide. After his death in 1925 his sons, Robert M. La Follette Jr. and Philip La Follette , succeeded him as progressive leaders in Wisconsin. President Theodore Roosevelt

8344-538: The Wilson administration and the war earned the enmity of President Woodrow Wilson , who later called Debs a "traitor to his country". On June 16, 1918, Debs made a speech in Canton, Ohio , urging resistance to the military draft. He was arrested on June 30 and charged with ten counts of sedition . His trial defense called no witnesses, asking that Debs be allowed to address the court in his defense. That unusual request

8493-404: The all-time high number of votes for a Socialist Party candidate in a U.S. presidential election. Notably, the Nineteenth Amendment passed in 1920, granting women the federal right to vote across the country, and with the expanded voting pool, his vote total accounted for only 3.4 percent of the total number of votes cast. The size of the vote is nevertheless remarkable since Debs was at the time

8642-429: The amendment, but that once it was adopted it should be obeyed. Debs remained friendly to Haywood and the IWW after the expulsion despite their perceived differences over IWW tactics. Prior to Haywood's dismissal, the Socialist Party membership had reached an all-time high of 135,000. One year later, four months after Haywood was recalled, the membership dropped to 80,000. The reformists in the Socialist Party attributed

8791-439: The army was enough to break the strike. Overall, thirty strikers were killed in the strike, thirteen of them in Chicago, and thousands were blacklisted. An estimated $ 80 million worth of property was damaged and Debs was found guilty of contempt of court for violating the injunction and sent to federal prison. Debs was represented by Clarence Darrow , later a leading American lawyer and civil libertarian, who had previously been

8940-907: The beginning of the age of mass media, the rapid expansion of national advertising led the cover price of popular magazines to fall sharply to about 10 cents, lessening the financial barrier to consume them. Another factor contributing to the dramatic upswing in magazine circulation was the prominent coverage of corruption in politics, local government, and big business, particularly by journalists and writers who became known as muckrakers . They wrote for popular magazines to expose social and political sins and shortcomings. Relying on their own investigative journalism , muckrakers often worked to expose social ills and corporate and political corruption . Muckraking magazines, notably McClure's , took on corporate monopolies and political machines while raising public awareness of chronic urban poverty, unsafe working conditions, and social issues like child labor . Most of

9089-441: The bosses and pushing through a progressive agenda. As president he introduced a comprehensive program of domestic legislation. He had four major domestic priorities: the conservation of natural resources, banking reform, tariff reduction , and opening access to raw materials by breaking up Western mining trusts. Though foreign affairs would unexpectedly dominate his presidency, Wilson's first two years in office largely focused on

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9238-533: The campaign for inclusion of the initiative and referendum in the state's constitution. The League sent questionnaires to prospective candidates to the state legislature to obtain their stance on direct legislation and to make those positions public. It then flooded the state with letters seeking new members, money, and endorsements from organizations like the State Federation of Labor. As membership grew it worked with other private organizations to petition

9387-400: The cause of prohibition, leading North Carolina to become the first southern state to implement statewide prohibition . Progressives worked to limit child labor in textile mills and supported public health campaigns to eradicate hookworm and other debilitating diseases. While the majority of North Carolininans continued to support traditional gender roles, and state legislators did not ratify

9536-495: The citizens who are most vulnerable and deprived. In the south, prohibition was high on the agenda but controversial. Jim Crow and disenfranchisement of Black voters was even higher on the agenda. In the Western states, woman suffrage was a success story, but racist anti-Asian sentiment also prevailed. The Oregon Direct Legislation League was an organization of political activists founded by William S. U'Ren in 1898. Oregon

9685-482: The conservation of forests high on America's priority list. Herbert Croly was an intellectual leader of the movement as an editor, political philosopher and a co-founder of the magazine The New Republic . His political philosophy influenced many leading progressives including Theodore Roosevelt, Adolph Berle , as well as his close friends Judge Learned Hand and Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter . Croly's 1909 book The Promise of American Life looked to

9834-529: The conservatives (called "Stalwarts") to elect Emanuel Philipp as governor in 1914. The Stalwart counterattack said the Progressives were too haughty, too beholden to experts, too eager to regulate, and too expensive. Economy and budget cutting was their formula. The progressive Wisconsin Idea promoted the use of the University of Wisconsin faculty as intellectual resources for state government, and as guides for local government. It promoted expansion of

9983-427: The constitutional liberalism as espoused by Alexander Hamilton , combined with the radical democracy of Thomas Jefferson . The book influenced contemporaneous progressive thought, shaping the ideas of many intellectuals and political leaders, including then ex-President Theodore Roosevelt. Calling themselves "The New Nationalists", Croly and Walter Weyl sought to remedy the relatively weak national institutions with

10132-404: The creation of a state-operated grain elevator, which may have convinced progressives to unite in 1915. When Arthur C. Townley came to Bismarck, North Dakota , in 1915, he saw strife between a conservative legislature and farmers' interest groups. With his background in organizing farmers for the Socialist Party (socialist activity had begun in North Dakota in 1900 when Arthur Basset organized

10281-559: The dawn of a better day of humanity. The people are awakening. In due course of time they will come into their own. When the mariner, sailing over tropic seas, looks for relief from his weary watch, he turns his eyes toward the Southern Cross , burning luridly above the tempest-vexed ocean. As the midnight approaches the Southern Cross begins to bend, and the whirling worlds change their places, and with starry finger-points

10430-529: The decline to the departure of the "Haywood element" and predicted that the party would recover, but it did not. In the election of 1912, many of the Socialists who had been elected to public office lost their seats. Debs was noted by many to be a charismatic speaker who sometimes called on the vocabulary of Christianity and much of the oratorical style of evangelism, even though he was generally disdainful of organized religion. Howard Zinn opined that "Debs

10579-529: The driving force behind much of the thought and reform that took place in this time. With an increasing disdain for the upper class and aristocracy of the time, the middle class is characterized by their rejection of the individualistic philosophy of the Upper Ten . They had a rapidly growing interest in the communication and role between classes, those of which are generally referred to as the upper class, working class, farmers, and themselves. Along these lines,

10728-413: The early 20th century, American philanthropy matured, with the development of very large, highly visible private foundations created by Rockefeller and Carnegie. The largest foundations fostered modern, efficient, business-oriented operations (as opposed to "charity") designed to better society rather than merely enhance the status of the giver. Close ties were built with the local business community, as in

10877-548: The elected officials in Lawrence , Massachusetts, to send police, who subsequently used their clubs on children, disgusted Haywood, who publicly declared that "I will not vote again" until such a circumstance was rectified. Haywood was purged from the National Executive Committee by passage of an amendment that focused on the direct action and sabotage tactics advocated by the IWW. Debs was probably

11026-610: The election, a disappointed Debs decided for certain that the future for socialist policies lay outside the Democratic Party. In June 1897, the ARU membership finally joined with the Brotherhood of the Cooperative Commonwealth to form the Social Democracy of America . Debs's wife Kate was opposed to socialism and was "hostile" to Debs's socialist revolutionary activism as "it threatened her sense of middle-class respectability". The "tempestuous relationship with

11175-544: The end of his sentence a changed man. He spent the final three decades of his life proselytizing for the socialist cause. After Debs and Martin Elliott were released from prison in 1895, Debs started his socialist political career. Debs started agitating for the ARU membership to form a Social Democratic organization. In 1896, Debs supported Democratic candidate William Jennings Bryan in the presidential election following Bryan's Cross of Gold speech . After Bryan's loss in

11324-521: The establishments of state-operated mills, elevators, and banks. The state was not entirely isolationist, just as it was neither entirely liberal nor entirely conservative. By 1952, the Nonpartisan League was itself divided. Two factions divided the traditionally liberal Nonpartisan League: on one side the insurgents, on the other, the old guard. Those that called themselves insurgents aligned liberally with pro-farmers' union, pro- organized labor , and pro-Democratic party groups. The insurgents wanted to take

11473-598: The fall of 1884, he was elected as a Democrat to represent Terre Haute and Vigo County in the Indiana General Assembly . He served for one term in 1885. Debs married Katherine "Kate" Metzel on June 9, 1885, at St. Stephen's Episcopal church. Their home still stands in Terre Haute, preserved on the campus of Indiana State University . The railroad brotherhoods were comparatively conservative organizations, focused on providing fellowship and services rather than on collective bargaining. Their motto

11622-465: The form of our present government; that I am opposed to the social system in which we live; that I believe in the change of both but by perfectly peaceable and orderly means. ... I am thinking this morning of the men in the mills and factories; I am thinking of the women who, for a paltry wage, are compelled to work out their lives; of the little children who, in this system, are robbed of their childhood, and in their early, tender years, are seized in

11771-406: The founder of Hull-House , Jane Addams , coined the term "association" as a counter to Individualism , with association referring to the search for a relationship between the classes. Additionally, the middle class (most notably women) began to move away from prior Victorian era domestic values. Divorce rates increased as women preferred to seek education and freedom from the home. Victorianism

11920-564: The founder of the social work profession in the United States. Maurice Hamington considered her a radical pragmatist and the first woman "public philosopher" in the United States. In the 1930s, she was the best-known female public figure in the United States. According to James Wright, the typical progressive agenda at the state level included: A reduction of corporate influence, open processes of government and politics, equity entrance in taxation, efficiency in government mental operation, and an expanded, albeit limited, state responsibility to

12069-439: The highest selling books of the late 1800s. It helped spark the Progressive Era and a worldwide social reform movement around an ideology now known as Georgism . Jacob Riis , for example, explicitly marks the beginning of the Progressive Era awakening as 1879 because of the date of this publication. Magazines experienced a boost in popularity in 1900, with some attaining circulations in the hundreds of thousands of subscribers. In

12218-507: The historian David A. Shannon wrote: "Debs's desideratum was one of peace and co-operation between labor and capital, but he expected management to treat labor with respect, honor and social equality". Debs gradually became convinced of the need for a more unified and confrontational approach as railroads were powerful forces in the economy. One influence was his involvement in the Burlington Railroad Strike of 1888 ,

12367-424: The idea to the farmers and to get their support for the new movement. The league grew quickly. The first members were pledged in February 1915. Before midsummer, there were 10,000 members, and before winter set in, there were 26,000 names enrolled. The Nonpartisan League membership pledge was $ 2.50 a year; it later rose to nine dollars a year. The goals of the league were to use their collective best efforts to secure

12516-710: The idea: Direct Legislation by the Citizenship Through the Initiative and Referendum (1893). He suggested that using the initiative would give political power to the working class and reduce the need for strikes. Sullivan's book was first widely read on the left, as by labor activists, socialists and populists. William U'Ren was an early convert who used it to build the Oregon reform crusade. By 1900, middle-class "progressive" reformers everywhere were studying it. Progress and Poverty , Henry George 's first book, sold several million copies, becoming one of

12665-460: The implementation of his New Freedom domestic agenda. Wilson presided over the passage of his progressive New Freedom domestic agenda. His first major priority was the passage of the Revenue Act of 1913 , which lowered tariffs and implemented a federal income tax . Later tax acts implemented a federal estate tax and raised the top income tax rate to 77 percent. Wilson also presided over

12814-491: The injunction. At the time of his arrest for mail obstruction, Debs was not yet a socialist . While serving his six-month term in the jail at Woodstock , Illinois, Debs and his ARU comrades received a steady stream of letters, books and pamphlets in the mail from socialists around the country. Debs recalled several years later: I began to read and think and dissect the anatomy of the system in which workingmen, however organized, could be shattered and battered and splintered at

12963-562: The key role. The Stalwarts counterattacked by arguing if the university became embedded in the state, then its internal affairs became fair game, especially the faculty preference for advanced research over undergraduate teaching. The Stalwarts controlled the Regents, and their interference in academic freedom outraged the faculty. Historian Frederick Jackson Turner , the most famous professor, quit and went to Harvard. State leaders in reform included editor William Allen White , who reached

13112-490: The laborer and the farmer." Although they did not alter the control of the Republican Party during this era, progressives found support in the Norwegian-settled state, especially in the east. By 1906, progressive sympathies were growing in opposition to what most saw as complete control of state politics by the railway companies. The initial organization and calls for reform laid a foundation that would soon grow into

13261-545: The large German and Scandinavian elements which demanded neutrality in the World War I. He finally ran an independent campaign for president in 1924 that appealed to the German Americans, labor unions, socialists, and more radical reformers. He won 1/6 of the national vote, but carried only his home state. After his death in 1925 his two sons took over the party. They serve terms as governor and senator and set up

13410-524: The league into the Democratic Party. In 1952, the insurgents formed the Volunteers for Stevenson Committee, to help elect then Democratic Candidate Adlai Stevenson . To the contrary the members of the old guard, also known as the Capitol Crowd , were more conservative, anti-farmers' union, anti-labor, and pro-Republican segment of the league, these members wanted to keep the Nonpartisan League in

13559-483: The legislature elected him to the United States Senate, where he emerged as a national progressive leader, often clashing with conservatives like Senator Nelson Aldrich . He initially supported President Taft, but broke with Taft after the latter failed to push a reduction in tariff rates. He challenged Taft for the Republican presidential nomination in the 1912 presidential election , but his candidacy

13708-601: The most famous leader of Midwestern progressivism, began his career by winning election against his state's Republican party in 1900. The machine was temporarily defeated, allowing reformers to launch the " Wisconsin idea " of expanded democracy. This idea included major reforms such as direct primaries, campaign finance, civil service, anti-lobbying laws, state income and inheritance taxes, child labor restrictions, pure food, and workmen's compensation laws. La Follette promoted government regulation of railroads, public utilities, factories, and banks. Although La Follette lost influence in

13857-479: The muckrakers wrote nonfiction, but fictional exposés often had a major impact as well, such as those by Upton Sinclair . In his 1906 novel The Jungle , Sinclair exposed the unsanitary and inhumane practices of the meatpacking industry, as he made clear in the Jungle itself. He quipped, "I aimed at the public's heart and by accident, I hit it in the stomach," as readers demanded and got the Meat Inspection Act and

14006-405: The nation's first comprehensive statewide primary election system, the first effective workplace injury compensation law, and the first state income tax , making taxation proportional to actual earnings. The key leaders were Robert M. La Follette and (in 1910) Governor Francis E. McGovern . However, in 1912 McGovern supported Roosevelt for president and LaFollette was outraged. He made sure

14155-496: The national party in 1912, the Wisconsin reforms became a model for national progressivism. Wisconsin from 1900 to the late 1930s was a regional and national model for innovation and organization in the progressive movement. The direct primary made it possible to mobilize voters against the previously dominant political machines. The first factors involved the La Follette family going back and forth between trying to control of

14304-462: The next legislature defeated the governor's programs, and that McGovern was defeated in his bid for the Senate in 1914. The Progressive movement split into hostile factions. Some was based on personalities—especially La Follette's style of violent personal attacks against other Progressives, and some was based on who should pay, with the division between farmers (who paid property taxes) and the urban element (which paid income taxes). This disarray enabled

14453-461: The nomination and election of men for office within the state who would support legislation to save millions of dollars each year for farmers. The League program consisted of five planks: Each was designed to remedy what the farmers conceived as an abuse, and each was to lower the cost of producing and marketing grain. The determination of the league fulfilled their pledge and many of their planks passed legislation. The growth of far-left sympathies

14602-479: The number grew to 28, 1959 the numbers continued to grow reaching 67, despite a drop to 62 members in 1961, nevertheless, for the first time in history, North Dakota was becoming a two-party state. North Dakota has one of the lowest unemployment rates of all 50 states. The Nonpartisan League laid a foundation of enriched public ownership and responsibility in such institutions as a state bank. One study has drawn conclusions that publicly operated institutions such as

14751-528: The only person who could have saved Haywood's seat. In 1906, when Haywood had been on trial for his life in Idaho, Debs had described him as "the Lincoln of Labor" and called for Haywood to run against Theodore Roosevelt for president, but times had changed and Debs, facing a split in the party, chose to echo Hillquit's words, accusing the IWW of representing anarchy. Debs thereafter stated that he had opposed

14900-633: The other hand, was a later movement. It emerged after the 1890s from the urban business and professional communities. Most of its activists had opposed populism. It was elitist, and emphasized education and expertise. Its goals were to enhance efficiency, reduce waste, and enlarge the opportunities for upward social mobility. However, some former Populists changed their emphasis after 1900 and supported progressive reforms. Eugene V. Debs Progressive Era Repression and persecution Anti-war and civil rights movements Contemporary Eugene Victor Debs (November 5, 1855 – October 20, 1926)

15049-624: The party by 1900, all the time quarreling endlessly with ex-allies. The Democrats were a minor conservative factor in Wisconsin. The Socialists, with a strong German and union base in Milwaukee, joined the progressives in statewide politics. Senator Robert M. La Follette tried to use his national reputation to challenge President Taft for the Republican nomination in 1912. However, as soon as Roosevelt declared his candidacy, most of La Follette's supporters switched away. La Follette supported many of his Wilson's domestic programs in Congress. However he strongly opposed Wilson's foreign policy, and mobilized

15198-429: The party in the newspapers. Along with Elliott, who ran for Congress in 1900, Debs was the first federal office candidate for the fledgling socialist party, running unsuccessfully for president the same year. Debs and his running mate Job Harriman received 87,945 votes (0.6 percent of the popular vote) and no electoral votes. Following the 1900 Election , the Social Democratic Party and dissidents who had split from

15347-711: The passage of the Federal Reserve Act , which created a central banking system in the form of the Federal Reserve System . Two major laws, the Federal Trade Commission Act and the Clayton Antitrust Act , were passed to regulate business and prevent monopolies. Wilson did not support civil rights and did not object to accelerating segregate of federal employees. In World War I, he made internationalism

15496-717: The political movement of progressivism, which aimed to address its negative consequences through social reform and government regulation. Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr pioneered the settlement house outreach to newly arrived immigrants by establishing Hull House in Chicago in 1889. Settlement houses provided social services and played an active role in civic life, helping immigrants prepare for naturalization and campaigning for regulation and services from city government. Midwestern mayors—especially Hazen S. Pingree and Tom L. Johnson , led early reforms against boss-dominated municipal politics, while Samuel M. Jones advocated public ownership of local utilities. Robert M. La Follette ,

15645-515: The public good brought about by the Bank's establishment that still stands today is what some have identified as the Bank's role in reducing the impact of economic recession. The public-private relationship establishes roles assigned according to what each sector does best, allowing the mutual benefit of public and private banks balancing out inequality and building equality, thus creating an economic safety net for North Dakota citizens. These early roots of

15794-430: The remorseless grasp of Mammon , and forced into the industrial dungeons, there to feed the machines while they themselves are being starved body and soul. ... Your honor, I ask no mercy, I plead for no immunity. I realize that finally the right must prevail. I never more fully comprehended than now the great struggle between the powers of greed on the one hand and upon the other the rising hosts of freedom. I can see

15943-600: The right of the federal government to regulate the hours of railroad workers. His majority opinion in the 1914 Shreveport Rate Case upheld a decision by the Interstate Commerce Commission to void discriminatory railroad rates imposed by the Railroad Commission of Texas . The decision established that the federal government could regulate intrastate commerce when it affected interstate commerce, though Hughes avoided directly overruling

16092-446: The social sciences, especially history, economics, and political science and improve efficiency with scientific management or Taylorism. Initially, the movement operated chiefly at the local level, but later it expanded to the state and national levels. Progressive leaders were often from the educated middle class, and various progressive reform efforts drew support from lawyers, teachers, physicians, ministers, business people, and

16241-418: The spread of slums, poverty, and the exploitation of labor. Multiple overlapping progressive movements fought perceived social, political, and economic ills by advancing good democracy, scientific methods, and professionalism; regulating business; protecting the natural environment; and improving working and living conditions of the urban poor. Corrupt and undemocratic political machines and their bosses were

16390-459: The state bank have helped North Dakota weather economic storms. The Bank of North Dakota was created to address market failures associated with monopoly power among large financial and business institutions in the early twentieth century. This market power meant that small farming operations had inadequate access to credit. One of the goals of the Nonpartisan League was to remedy limited access to credit by establishing this institution. A measure of

16539-590: The state legislature, which was not responsive. In 1902 the League won a state constitutional amendment establishing direct democracy at the local level, and in 1904, it successfully engineered the recall of the first public official. Progressivism was strongest in the cities, but the South was rural with few large cities. Nevertheless, statewide progressive movements were organized by Democrats in every Southern state. Furthermore, Southern Democrats in Congress gave strong support to President Wilson's reforms. The South

16688-523: The state university system and improvements in transportation, which earned it the nickname "The Good Roads State." State leaders included Governor Charles B. Aycock , who led both the educational and the white supremacy crusades; diplomat Walter Hines Page ; and educator Charles Duncan McIver . Women were especially active through the WCTU , the Baptist church, overseas missions, local public schools, and in

16837-476: The stopwatch as its symbol. The number of rich families climbed exponentially, from 100 or so millionaires in the 1870s to 4,000 in 1892 and 16,000 in 1916. Many subscribed to Andrew Carnegie 's credo outlined in The Gospel of Wealth that said they owed a duty to society that called for philanthropic giving to colleges, hospitals, medical research, libraries, museums, religion, and social betterment. In

16986-427: The strike came to be known as "Debs' Rebellion". The federal government intervened, obtaining an injunction against the strike on the grounds that the strikers had obstructed the U.S. mail, carried on Pullman cars, by refusing to show up for work. President Grover Cleveland , whom Debs had supported in all three of his presidential campaigns, sent the United States Army to enforce the injunction. The presence of

17135-409: The term conservation ethic as applied to natural resources. Pinchot's main contribution was his leadership in promoting scientific forestry and emphasizing the controlled, profitable use of forests and other natural resources so they would be of maximum benefit to mankind. He was the first to demonstrate the practicality and profitability of managing forests for continuous cropping. His leadership put

17284-714: The thesis that the liberal tradition in the United States was inhospitable to anti-capitalist alternatives. He drew from the American past a history of resistance to capitalist wage relations that was fundamentally liberal, and he reclaimed an idea that progressives had allowed to lapse—that working for wages was a lesser form of liberty. Increasingly skeptical of the capacity of social welfare legislation to remedy social ills, Croly argued that America's liberal promise could be redeemed only by syndicalist reforms involving workplace democracy . His liberal goals were part of his commitment to American republicanism . Upton Sinclair

17433-562: The university through the UW-Extension system to reach all the state's farming communities. University economics professors John R. Commons and Harold Groves enabled Wisconsin to create the first unemployment compensation program in the United States in 1932. Other Wisconsin Idea scholars at the university generated the plan that became the New Deal's Social Security Act of 1935, with Wisconsin expert Arthur J. Altmeyer playing

17582-718: The votes of North Dakota citizens. Creation of the Democratic–Nonpartisan League Party was codified in March during the League Convention; 173 to 3 voted yes to file candidates in the Democratic column. The new party introduced a full slate of candidates for state office and adopted a liberal platform that included the repeal of the Taft–Hartley Act , creation of a $ 1.25 an hour minimum wage , and

17731-467: The working class. Certain key groups of thinkers, writers, and activists played key roles in creating or building the movements and ideas that came to define the shape of the Progressive Era. Inspiration for the initiative movement was based on the Swiss experience. New Jersey labor activist James W. Sullivan visited Switzerland in 1888 and wrote a detailed book that became a template for reformers pushing

17880-534: Was Jonathan Bourne Jr. (senator 1907–1913 and national leader of progressive causes 1911–1912). California built the most successful grass roots progressive movement in the country by mobilizing independent organizations and largely ignoring the conservative state parties. The system continues strong into the 21st century. Following the Oregon model, John Randolph Haynes organized the Direct Legislation League of California in 1902 to launch

18029-411: Was "Benevolence, Sobriety, and Industry". As editor of the official journal of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, Debs initially concentrated on improving the brotherhood's death and disability insurance programs. During the early 1880s, Debs's writing stressed themes of self-uplift: temperance , hard work, and honesty. Debs also held the view that "labor and capital are friends" and opposed strikes as

18178-509: Was a leader of the Progressive movement, and he championed his " Square Deal " domestic policies, promising the average citizen fairness, breaking of trusts, regulation of railroads, and pure food and drugs. He made conservation a top priority and established many new national parks , forests , and monuments intended to preserve the nation's natural resources. In foreign policy, he focused on Central America where he began construction of

18327-581: Was a main target of Northern philanthropy designed to fight poverty and disease, and help the black community. Booker T. Washington of the National Negro Business League mobilized small black-owned business and secured access to Northern philanthropy. Across the South the General Education Board (funded by the Rockefeller family ) provided large-scale subsidies for black schools, which otherwise continued to be underfunded. The South

18476-553: Was a member of the Democratic Party . He was elected as a Democrat to the Indiana General Assembly in 1884. After working with several smaller unions, including the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen , Debs led his union in a major ten-month strike against the CB&;Q Railroad in 1888 . Debs was instrumental in the founding of the American Railway Union (ARU), one of the nation's first industrial unions . After workers at

18625-423: Was a member of the Republican Party for most of his life, though he also joined the Progressive Party for a brief period. Pinchot is known for reforming the management and development of forests in the United States and for advocating the conservation of the nation's reserves by planned use and renewal. He called it "the art of producing from the forest whatever it can yield for the service of man." Pinchot coined

18774-552: Was a notable figure in the history of social work and women's suffrage in the United States and an advocate of world peace . She co-founded Chicago's Hull House , one of America's most famous settlement houses. In 1920, she was a co-founder for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). In 1931, she became the first American woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize , and is recognized as

18923-422: Was also disenfranchised for life. Debs presented what has been called his best-remembered statement at his sentencing hearing: Your Honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth. I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element, I am of it, and while there

19072-439: Was an American socialist , political activist, trade unionist, one of the founding members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), and five-time candidate of the Socialist Party of America for President of the United States. Through his presidential candidacies as well as his work with labor movements, Debs eventually became one of the best-known socialists living in the United States. Early in his political career, Debs

19221-465: Was an American writer who wrote nearly 100 books and other works in several genres. Sinclair's work was well known and popular in the first half of the 20th century, and he won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1943. In 1906, Sinclair acquired particular fame for his classic muck-raking novel The Jungle , which exposed labor and sanitary conditions in the U.S. meatpacking industry , causing

19370-648: Was another investigative journalist and one of the leading muckrakers . He launched a series of articles in McClure's , called Tweed Days in St. Louis , that would later be published together in a book titled The Shame of the Cities . He is remembered for investigating corruption in municipal government in American cities and leftist values. Jane Addams was an American settlement activist, reformer, social worker, sociologist , public administrator and author. She

19519-425: Was at one point headed by former State Senator "Buckshot" Hoffner (D-NPL, Esmond), Chairman, and former Lt. Governor Lloyd Omdahl , Secretary. Although the Democratic Party was still the minority, the number of Democrats in the state legislature increased greatly. Before the league moved into the Democratic Party, there were only five Democrats among the 162 members of both houses of the legislature in 1955. In 1957

19668-537: Was born on November 5, 1855, in Terre Haute , Indiana, to Jean Daniel and Marguerite Mari Bettrich Debs, who immigrated to the United States from Colmar , Alsace, France. His father, who came from a prosperous Protestant family, owned a textile mill and meat market. Debs was named after the French authors Eugène Sue and Victor Hugo . Debs attended public school, dropping out of high school at age 14. He took

19817-543: Was created. Ida Tarbell , a writer and lecturer, was one of the leading muckrakers and pioneered investigative journalism . Tarbell is best known for her 1904 book, The History of the Standard Oil Company . The book was published as a series of articles in McClure's Magazine from 1902 to 1904. The work helped turn elite public opinion against the Standard Oil monopoly. Lincoln Steffens

19966-564: Was elected associate editor of the BLF's monthly organ, Firemen's Magazine , in 1878. Two years later, he was appointed Grand Secretary and Treasurer of the BLF and editor of the magazine in July 1880. He worked as a BLF functionary until January 1893 and as the magazine's editor until September 1894. At the same time, he became a prominent figure in the community. He served two terms as Terre Haute's city clerk from September 1879 to September 1883. In

20115-628: Was granted, and Debs spoke for two hours. He was found guilty on September 12. At his sentencing hearing on September 14, he again addressed the court and his speech has become a classic. Heywood Broun , a liberal journalist and not a Debs partisan, said it was "one of the most beautiful and moving passages in the English language. He was for that one afternoon touched with inspiration. If anyone told me that tongues of fire danced upon his shoulders as he spoke, I would believe it." Debs said in part: Your honor, I have stated in this court that I am opposed to

20264-623: Was key to eliminating corruption in politics as well as improving social conditions. Another target were monopolies , which progressives worked to regulate through trustbusting and antitrust laws with the goal of promoting fair competition. Progressives also advocated new government agencies focused on regulation of industry. An additional goal of progressives was bringing to bear scientific, medical, and engineering solutions to reform government and education and foster improvements in various fields including medicine, finance, insurance, industry, railroads, and churches. They aimed to professionalize

20413-474: Was moving to the left, advocating some social welfare programs, and criticizing various business practices such as trusts. The leadership of the GOP in Congress moved to the right, as did his protégé President William Howard Taft. Roosevelt broke bitterly with Taft in 1910, and also with Wisconsin's progressive leader Robert M. La Follette . Taft defeated Roosevelt for the 1912 Republican nomination and Roosevelt set up an entirely new Progressive Party. It called for

20562-579: Was not wholly comfortable with his standing as a leader. As he told an audience in Detroit in 1906: I am not a Labor Leader; I do not want you to follow me or anyone else; if you are looking for a Moses to lead you out of this capitalist wilderness, you will stay right where you are. I would not lead you into the promised land if I could, because if I led you in, some one else would lead you out. You must use your heads as well as your hands, and get yourself out of your present condition. Debs's speeches against

20711-631: Was noted for his oratorical skills, and his speech denouncing American participation in World War I led to his second arrest in 1918. He was convicted under the Sedition Act of 1918 and sentenced to a 10-year term. President Warren G. Harding commuted his sentence in December 1921. Debs died in 1926, not long after being admitted to a sanatorium due to cardiovascular problems that developed during his time in prison. Eugene Victor "Gene" Debs

20860-525: Was on the rise in North Dakota. The Socialists had considerable success. They brought in many outside speakers; Eugene V. Debs spoke at a large antiwar rally at Garrison in 1915. By 1912, there were 175 Socialist locals in the state. Rugby and Hillsboro elected Socialist mayors. The party established a weekly paper, the Iconoclast , in Minot, North Dakota . Throughout the decades, the League pushed for

21009-598: Was one of the few states where former Populists like U'Ren became progressive leaders. U'Ren had been inspired by reading the influential 1893 book Direct Legislation Through the Initiative and Referendum , and the group's founding followed in the wake of the 1896 founding of the National Direct Legislation League, which itself had its roots in the Direct Legislation League of New Jersey and its short-lived predecessor,

21158-543: Was overshadowed by Theodore Roosevelt. La Follette's refusal to support Roosevelt, and especially his suicidal ranting speech before media leaders in February 1912, alienated many progressives. La Follette forfeited his stature as a national leader of progressive Republicans, while remaining a power in Wisconsin. La Follette supported some of President Wilson's policies, but he broke with the president over foreign policy, thereby gaining support from Wisconsin's large German and Scandinavian elements. During World War I, La Follette

21307-408: Was pushed aside by the rise of progressivism. Robert M. La Follette and his family were the dominant forces of progressivism in Wisconsin from the late 1890s to the early 1940s. He tried for a national leadership role in 1912 but blundered badly in a highly embarrassing speech to leading journalists. Starting as a loyal organizational Republican, he broke with the bosses in the late 1890s, built up

21456-492: Was targeted in the 1920s and 1930s by the Julius Rosenwald Fund , which contributed matching funds to local communities for the construction of thousands of schools for African Americans in rural areas throughout the South. Black parents donated land and labor to build improved schools for their children. North Carolina took a leadership role in modernizing the south, notably in expansion of public education and

21605-481: Was the beginning of a split between Haywood and the Socialist Party, leading to the split between the factions of the IWW, one faction loyal to the Socialist Party and the other to Haywood. The rift presented a problem for Debs, who was influential in both the IWW and the Socialist Party. The final straw between Haywood and the Socialist Party came during the Lawrence Textile Strike . The decision of

21754-422: Was the most outspoken opponent of the administration's domestic and international policies. With the major parties each nominating conservative candidates in the 1924 presidential election , left-wing groups coalesced behind La Follette's third-party candidacy. With the support of the Socialist Party , farmer's groups, labor unions, and others, La Follette was strong in Wisconsin, and to a much lesser extent in

21903-600: Was the organization of the Farmers Nonpartisan League (later called the National Nonpartisan League). Townley organized the farmers of the state together for united action in nominating at the primaries and electing at the polls the men of their own choosing and men who would carry out their programs. The method of organization was simple, scientific and successful. Organizers carefully went forth in ever increasing numbers to sell

22052-563: Was visited in jail by the Milwaukee socialist newspaper editor Victor L. Berger , who in Debs's words "came to Woodstock, as if a providential instrument, and delivered the first impassioned message of Socialism I had ever heard". In his 1926 obituary in Time , it was said that Berger left him a copy of Capital and "prisoner Debs read it slowly, eagerly, ravenously". Debs emerged from jail at

22201-465: Was what every socialist or anarchist or radical should be: fierce in his convictions, kind and compassionate in his personal relations." Heywood Broun noted in his eulogy for Debs, quoting a fellow Socialist: "That old man with the burning eyes actually believes that there can be such a thing as the brotherhood of man. And that's not the funniest part of it. As long as he's around I believe it myself". Although sometimes called "King Debs", Debs himself

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