Philosophy of Evil
Socialism in America
Chapter 28
Spread of Socialism
As socialism spread around the globe during the twentieth
century it adapted itself to the history and culture of each nation.
Evolutionary socialism developed differently than Revolutionary
socialism. Socialism in most western nations resembled what
Marx referred to as bourgeois socialism rather than the revolutionary kind advocated by Marx and Engel in the Communist
Manifesto.
“A part of the bourgeoisie is desirous of
redressing social grievances, in order to secure
the continued existence of bourgeois society.”
“To this section belong economists,
philanthropists, humanitarians, improvers of the
condition of the working class, organizers of
charity, members of societies for the prevention
of cruelty to animals, temperance fanatics, holeand-corner reformers of every imaginable kind.
This form of Socialism has, moreover, been
worked out into complete systems…”
“…The Socialistic bourgeois want all the
advantages of modern social conditions without
the struggles and dangers necessarily resulting
therefrom. They desire the existing state of
society minus its revolutionary and disintegrating elements. They wish for a bourgeoisie
without a proletariat. The bourgeoisie naturally
conceives the world in which it is supreme to be
the best; and bourgeois Socialism develops this
comfortable conception into various more or
less complete systems.” (Communist Manifesto)
They all, however, maintain the hallmarks of socialism;
redistribution of wealth and the limitation or destruction of
private property rights as they affect the creation of wealth. Prior
to the Civil War, socialism in America existed mostly in the
utopian communes which Marx attributed to the undeveloped
nature of the proletariat.
… these attempts necessarily failed, owing
to the then undeveloped state of the proletariat,
…
…The revolutionary literature that
accompanied these first movements of the
proletariat had necessarily a reactionary character. It inculcated universal asceticism and
social leveling in its crudest form.”
“The Socialist and Communist systems
properly so called, those of Saint-Simon,
Fourier, Owen and others, spring into existence
in the early undeveloped period, described
above….”
“The undeveloped state of the class
struggle, as well as their own surroundings,
causes Socialists of this kind to consider
themselves far superior to all class antagonisms. …. For how can people, when once they
understand their system, fail to see in it the best
possible plan of the best possible state of
society?” …they wish to attain their ends by
peaceful means, and Endeavour, by small
experiments, necessarily doomed to failure, and
by the force of example, to pave the way for the
new social Gospel.” (Communist Manifesto)
Following the War, especially during the Gilded Age,
conditions were ripe for America to develop its own version of
socialism. American intellectuals admired the idealism of the
utopians, but experience had shown it to be ineffective in
bringing about any widespread societal change. When the
Communist Manifesto appeared on the scene many intellectuals
embraced its core message but, as Marx rightly observed, their
form of socialism did not seek to abolish the bourgeois relations
of production “by changes in the material conditions of
existence, …but [through] administrative reforms, based on the
continued existence of these relations; reforms, therefore, that in
no respect affect the relations between capital and labor, but, at
the best, lessen the cost, and simplify the administrative work, of
bourgeois government.”
Building on the utopian ideas of Fourier, Webber and
Ripley; the utopian novels of Bellamy and Gronlund; the social
gospel of Rauschenbusch, Gladden and Ely; and spurred on by
the muckraking journalism of Ida Tarbell and Upton Sinclair,
reformers like Daniel De Leon, Eugene Debs, and Robert La
Follett began to fashion the American form of socialism known
today as liberalism or progressivism.
Another important, but generally overlooked factor in the
shaping of American socialism during the early years of the
Progressive era was the “efficiency movement”. The foremost
leaders of this movement were Frederick Winslow Taylor and
Frank Gilbreth, Sr. Taylor is best known for his 1911 book The
Principles of Scientific Management and his work with
American industry in promoting scientific management.
However, the efficiency movement also included all aspects of
economic, social, government and personal improvement as
well. At its core was the search for the “one best method” of
doing things, guided by “experts” in each field.
Reform leaders Herbert Croly, Richard Ely and others
sought to improve the functions of government by training
experts in public service. A number of business schools, most
notably the University of Wisconsin and the University of
Pennsylvania, set up business management courses oriented
toward efficiency. Ely, an economist, was a founder and first
Secretary of the Christian Social Union in 1891. From 1892 until
1925 he was professor of Political Economy and director of the
School of Economics, Political Science, and History at the
University of Wisconsin at Madison. Ely was a supporter of the
union movement and advocated an interventionist government
and strong regulatory policies. He also believed that the state
should support white "Nordic" people against people of other
races, a common view at the University of Wisconsin at the
time. Efforts to improve the efficiency of government met with
only limited success, but it did establish the idea that
government policies are best set by “experts” usually drawn
from academia with loads of theory but little practical
experience.
Another important tenet of the efficiency movement was the
efficient management of natural resources. The undisputed
leader in this effort was John Muir, founder of the Sierra Club.
For Muir, the preservation of nature had a spiritual meaning
rather than a commercial one. This led to a conflict with Clifford
Pinchot, a close advisor to President Theodore Roosevelt.
Pinchot and Roosevelt wanted to preserve natural resources for
their long term commercial use. Muir valued nature for its
spiritual and transcendental qualities. On a 1906 camping trip
with President Roosevelt in the Yosemite wilderness, Muir
convinced the president of the value of National Parks as
opposed to State Parks.
The Yosemite valley including the Mariposa grove of giant
sequoia was granted to the state of California “for public use,
resort and recreation” in legislation signed by Abraham Lincoln
in 1864. Due to neglect of the park by California it was
federalized in 1906 by the Roosevelt administration. The park
was placed under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Army until 1914
and when the National Park Service was created in 1916, its care
and management was transferred to the Park Service. The Sierra
Club is the forerunner of the modern environmentalist movement. After the fall of the Soviet Union, the movement was
radicalized by progressives and dispossessed communists into a
quasi-religious sect that today is one of the leading opponents of
capitalism in America.
The Square Deal
Conservation was one of the three primary focuses of the
Presidency of “Teddy” Roosevelt. The other two involved
controlling corporations and consumer protection. The term
“square deal” was first used by Roosevelt in describing his
handling of the coal miner’s strike in 1902. He attempted to treat
both the United Mine Workers and the mine owners as equals,
later claiming he had given both a square deal. The term came to
be used as a description of his social policies as President.
Roosevelt was elected Governor of New York in 1898. His
efforts to root out corruption and end the spoils system in New
York was so intense that Republican boss Thomas Platt forced
him on President McKinley (to get him out of New York) as his
vice-presidential running mate in 1900 against the wishes of
McKinley’s campaign. The McKinley-Roosevelt ticket won the
election, defeating William Jennings Bryan in a landslide. When
McKinley was assassinated while attending the Pan-American
Exposition in Buffalo, New York in September 1901, Roosevelt
became President .
As President, Roosevelt attempted to move America in a
more “progressive” direction. One of his first acts was to deliver
a 20,000 word speech to Congress asking it to curb the power of
the large corporations. During his term in office his
administration brought 44 antitrust suits against some of the
nations biggest businesses earning him the title of “trust buster”.
The Interstate Commerce Act had been signed into law by
Grover Cleveland in 1887. However, some of its provisions had
been found unconstitutional by the Supreme Court and was more
or less dormant until Roosevelt took office in 1901.
In 1903 Roosevelt persuaded Congress to establish a new
cabinet-level department, the Department of Commerce and
Labor to help regulate commerce and monitor labor relations. It
was the first new executive department since the Civil War. As
an arm of the newly created department, the Bureau of
Corporations was established to root out violations of the
Sherman Antitrust Act. Investigators quickly focused on the
steel, meatpacking, oil and tobacco industries. Roosevelt’s
Attorney General, Philander Knox, launched a series of lawsuits
against J.P. Morgan’s Northern Securities Company, John D.
Rockefeller’s Standard Oil, James Duke’s tobacco companies
and a number of other large corporations, 44 in all.
The Interstate Commerce Commission also controlled the
rates railroads could charge their customers. In 1903 Congress
passed the Elkins Act, prohibiting railroads from offering
rebates to large shippers further crippling the rail industry. The
long term effect was to cause a major decline in the industry due
to its inability to adequately compete with an emerging bus and
trucking industry for customers.
In 1906 Roosevelt signed into law the Food and Drug act,
also know as the Wiley Act after its chief sponsor. The Act
prohibited the interstate transport of food which had been
"adulterated" with fillers of reduced "quality or strength", or
coloring to conceal "damage or inferiority." The act applied
similarly to the interstate marketing of "adulterated" drugs, in
which the "standard of strength, quality, or purity" of the active
ingredient was not either stated clearly on the label or listed in
the United States Pharmacopoeia or the National Formulary.
Roosevelt decided not to run for reelection in 1908 and
hand-picked his Secretary of War, William Howard Taft, as his
successor. Based on the popularity and support of Roosevelt,
Taft won an easy victory, beating William Jennings Bryan by
159 electoral votes giving Bryan the worst defeat of his three
Presidential campaigns. Taft won New England, the Midwest
and the West. Bryan carried only the Southern states. As
President, Taft outdid Roosevelt in “trust busting”, filing
lawsuits against 80 major corporations during his four years in
office.
In addition to trust busting, Taft concentrated on strengthening the Interstate Commerce Commission, established a postal
savings bank, started a parcel post system and expanded the
Civil Service. He was a strong supporter of the sixteenth and
seventeenth amendments. The sixteenth Amendment authorizing
the income tax was passed by Congress and forwarded to the
states in 1911. It was ratified in 1913. Taft was a progressive,
but not progressive enough for Roosevelt. Roosevelt was so
determined that Taft would not be reelected in 1912 that he ran
against him on a third party ticket.
1912: The “All-Progressive” Election Year
By 1912 all mainstream political parties in America
promoted a progressive ideology. The Republican Party that had
been the incubator of progressive ideas since its founding was
split between Roosevelt and Taft supporters over the degree of
progressivism held by each group. Taft was considered the more
conservative of the two. At the 1912 Republican convention
there were three candidates vying for the nomination, Taft,
Roosevelt, and Senator Robert La Follette of Wisconsin. When
it became obvious that Taft would win the nomination,
Roosevelt and his supporters withdrew from the convention and
organized the Progressive Party, also known as the “Bull Moose
Party”. The Progressive Party nominated Roosevelt as its
standard bearer.
At the Democratic convention there were five candidates in
contention. After 46 ballots Woodrow Wilson finally won out.
Speaker of the House, Champ Clark had been the frontrunner
going into the convention, but when the Tammany Hall faction
of New York endorsed him, William Jennings Bryan threw his
support behind Wilson, accusing Clark of being in bed with
Wall Street. With Bryan’s backing Wilson was selected to
represent the Democrats.
The Socialist Party of America had elected local officials in
33 states and 160 cities throughout the country in the previous
election. Eugene Debs had been its Presidential Candidate in
1904, 1908, and would be again in 1912. Debs ran five times for
President, mostly in order to support local candidates. This fact
has significant meaning for the twenty-first century, which we
will discuss later. Debs received 5.99% of the popular vote in
the election but no electoral votes.
In the general election, Roosevelt and Taft split 51% of the
popular vote giving the election to Democrat Woodrow Wilson
with less than 42%. Roosevelt received 27% of the popular vote
setting an all-time record for third party candidates and is the
only third-party candidate ever to get more votes than a sitting
President seeking reelection. All four presidential candidates
supported the progressive causes of an income tax, the popular
election of Senators and protective tariffs.
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