Wheeling majority. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1907-192?, 1913-01-23
AMERICA REVISITED.
(Ry D. Keir ,Hardie, MP.

$3.50 - AuHuOH SOCIALIST ReV1eW.)
seventeen years ago I paid my first
visit to the United States of America
IN tnat occasion I went right across
the american continent, from New
OK 70 San Francisco, and away up
into the wilds of Montana. Needless
70 say, stopped at most of the prin-.
clpal cities en- route, and addressed
meetings under the auspices of the
SOCIALIST Labor party. In those days
there was no Socialist movement in
America. Everywhere found a small
group of sturdy German comrades,
who had been driven out of their ma
tive land either during the revolution
airy period of 1913 or by the Bismarck
ian anti,Socialist prosecutions of the
'70's., They had brought with them
to the. land of their adoption their
German Socialist watchWords and war
cries, and for long, weary years had
been faithfully and conscientiously
proclaiming their class war gospel to
prosperous and amused democracy.
Week after week they were to be
found in their places at street corners
and clubs reiterating in their gutteral
broken English the phrases, the form
ulas, which they had learned in their
native land, but which had no mean
ing for the average American work
man of, that day. It was rare, in
deed, to meet an American4born citi-
zen in the party at that time, and,
such as there were, at least so it
seemed to me, were mostly quack
medicine men. Not in one place, but
in many. on arriving at a city we
Crank Smith, /. c. c., was with mel
were met by a tall-hatted, freck-coated
gentleman, and conducted to his bust
| ness quarters, only to learn once
more that he had been specially en-
dowed by providence with power of
| healing all manner of diseases to
which the human frame is heir. Oc-
| casionally we met with lawyer, but
these were more rare.
Daniel de Leon was the inspiration
and guide of such HSovement as there
then was. De LeoR:is man of strong
individuality, iron will, and of an alb
normally developed critical faculty.
He had been professor of interna-
,tional law at one of the universities,
but had given up the profession to
devote himself exclusively to the So
cialist movement. His paper, the Peo--
| pie, was then the chief organ of the
party, although the Appeal to Reason
was also in existence. There were
also few German papers, and at Mil
waukee and st. Louis weekly papers
printed in English, although mostly
edited by German comrades. De Leon
however, was the outstanding figure.
To him a trade union was anathema,
and trade union leaders were all
skates" "fakis," and the like. Moth,
ing was good which he did not con.
troll. His policy was one of bigoted
intolerance toward everything and
everybody who did not see eye to eye
with him. Autocratic and overbear-
ing. he brooked no rivalry and toler.
ated no criticism. He is of the stuff
of which autocrats and despots are
made, and, as his personality over
Swallowed everything and everybody
j the party made no appeal to men OF
ilarger growth and better understand
ing. My meetings on that occasion
were large and fruitful. 1t was clear
that the thinking element among the
working class were just beginning to
realize that all was not as it should
/ be with the American workingman.
Capitalism was just then beginning to
develop its harsher features. A few
months earlier strike had broken out
at the Pullman car works, near Chi
cago, and Eugene v. Debs, who was