The new organization grew much faster than the Socialist party itself, which now almost disappeared.Two years later, the International had a party press consisting of seven German, two Bohemian, and only two English papers.Like the Socialist party, it was, therefore, mainly foreign in its membership.It was strongest in and about Chicago, where it included twenty groups with three thousand enrolled members.The anarchist papers exhorted their adherents to provide themselves with arms and even published instructions for the use of dynamite.
Political and industrial conditions thus supplied material for an explosion which came with shocking violence.On May 4, 1885, towards the close of an anarchist meeting held in Chicago, a dynamite bomb thrown among a force of policemen killed one and wounded many.Fire was at once opened on both sides, and, although the battle lasted only a few minutes, seven policemen were killed and about sixty wounded; while on the side of the anarchists, four were killed and about fifty were wounded.Ten of the anarchist leaders were promptly indicted, of whom one made his escape and another turned State's evidence.The trial of the remaining eight began on June 21, 1886, and two months later the death sentence was imposed upon seven and a penitentiary term of fifteen years upon one.The sentences of two of the seven were commuted to life imprisonment; one committed suicide in his cell by exploding a cartridge in his mouth; and four met death on the scaffold.While awaiting their fate they were to a startling extent regarded as heroes and bore themselves as martyrs to a noble cause.Six years later, Illinois elected as governor John P.Altgeld, one of whose first steps was to issue a pardon to the three who were serving terms of imprisonment and to criticize sharply the conduct of the trial which had resulted in the conviction of the anarchists.
The Chicago outbreak and its result stopped the open spread of anarchism.Organized labor now withdrew from any sort of association with it.This cleared the field for a revival of the Socialist movement as the agency of social and political reconstruction.So rapidly did it gain in membership and influence that by 1892 it was able to present itself as an organized national party appealing to public opinion for confidence and support, submitting its claims to public discussion, and stating its case upon reasonable grounds.
Although its membership was small in comparison with that of the old parties, the disparity was not so great as it seemed, since the Socialists represented active intelligence while the other parties represented political inertia.From this time on, Socialist views spread among college students, artists, and men of letters, and the academic Socialist became a familiar figure in American society.
Probably more significant than the Socialist movement, as an indication of the popular demand for radical reform in the government of the country, was the New York campaign of Henry George in 1886.He was a San Francisco printer and journalist when he published the work on "Progress and Poverty" which made him famous.Upon the petition of over thirty thousand citizens, he became the Labor candidate for mayor of New York City.The movement in support of George developed so much strength that the regular parties felt compelled to put forward exceptionally strong candidates.The Democrats nominated Abram S.Hewitt, a man of the highest type of character, a fact which was not perhaps so influential in getting him the nomination as that he was the son-in-law of Peter Cooper, a philanthropist justly beloved by the working classes.The Republicans nominated Theodore Roosevelt, who had already distinguished himself by his energy of character and zeal for reform.Hewitt was elected, but George received 68,110 votes out of a total of 219,679, and stood second in the poll.His supporters contended that he had really been elected but had been counted out, and this belief turned their attention to the subject of ballot reform.To the agitation which Henry George began, may be fairly ascribed the general adoption of the Australian ballot in the United States.
The Socialist propaganda carried on in large cities and in factory towns hardly touched the great mass of the people of the United States, who belonged to the farm rather than to the workshop.The great agricultural class, which had more weight at the polls than any other class of citizens, was much interested in the redress of particular grievances and very little in any general reform of the governmental system.It is a class that is conservative in disposition but distrustful of authority, impatient of what is theoretical and abstract, and bent upon the quick practical solution of problems by the nearest and simplest means.While the Socialists in the towns were interested in labor questions, the farmers more than any other class were affected by the defective system of currency supply.The national banking system had not been devised to meet industrial needs but as a war measure to provide a market for government bonds, deposits of which had to be made as the basis of note issues.As holdings of government bonds were amassed in the East, financial operations tended to confine themselves to that part of the country, and banking facilities seemed to be in danger of becoming a sectional monopoly, and such, indeed, was the case to a marked extent.This situation inspired among the farmers, especially in the agricultural West, a hatred of Wall Street and a belief in the existence of a malign money power which provided an inexhaustible fund of sectional feeling for demagogic exploitation.
