TES

Socialism was introduced into the United States about the year 1850 by
immigrants who landed on our shores from Europe. The Marxians, who came
from Germany, were principally responsible for the foundation of the
Workingmen's Party in 1876, which in 1877 was called the Socialistic
Labor Party, and, a few years later, the Socialist Labor Party, which
was reorganized at Chicago in 1889, after having lost two sections by
secession. One of these, called the Cincinnati Socialist Labor Party, in
1897 united with the Social Democracy of America, a combination of
railroad men, followers of Eugene V. Debs, and of the populist followers
of Victor L. Berger. The other seceders from the Socialist Labor Party,
called the "kangaroos," united with the Social Democracy of Debs and
Berger in 1900, the new combination then calling itself the Socialist
Party of America. The minority of the old Socialist Labor Party, which
refused to be amalgamated with the Social Democracy of America, is still
known as the Socialist Labor Party; hence, since the year 1900, there
have been two distinct revolutionary parties, the Socialist Party and
the Socialist Labor Party.

The former, under the leadership of Eugene V. Debs, Victor L. Berger and
Morris Hillquit, with 109,586 dues-paying members in January, 1919, is
by far the more powerful and influential, having steadily increased its
vote to about 900,000 in the Presidential election of 1912, though in
the year 1916 the vote dropped to less than 600,000. The Socialist Labor
Party, under the guidance of Daniel De Leon until his death, in May,
1914, seems to be making little if any progress. Though both parties
claim to be genuinely Socialistic and Marxian, each has decried the
other as being a "fake" or "bogus" party. The Socialist Labor Party's
main complaint is that its rival the Socialist Party is sacrificing the
principles of Karl Marx in its endeavor to gain votes, while, on the
other hand, the latter party retorts by stigmatizing its opponent as
being a party of "scabs," the sole purpose of whose existence is to
antagonize the Socialist Party. In recent years unsuccessful attempts
have been made to unite the two.

The Socialist Party, besides publishing two important dailies in
English, "The Call," of New York City, and the "Milwaukee Leader,"
issues at least two in German, two in Bohemian, one in Polish and one in
Yiddish. "Forward," the Jewish paper published in New York City in
Yiddi