The farming and mining town of Brainerd, Minnesota elects a Socialist mayor, chief of police, and three council members.

‘Elect Socialist Mayor of Brainerd, Minnesota’ by Anna A. Maley from the Chicago Daily Socialist. Vol. 4 No. 80. January 28, 1910.

Electrician Works in Shop by Day and Runs the City by Night

Brainerd, Minn., Jan. 28. Brainerd has a Socialist mayor, chief of police and, three councilmen. The city has acquired its water plant during the eight months of their administration. The electric light service has been so improved that the revenues therefrom are greatly Increased. The corporation which for twenty years had controlled the water plant, made every effort to have the franchise renewed. The city had wanted for years, to acquire the water plant but under Republican administration was prevented from doing so.

Republicans Failed

The Republicans tried to take the wind out of the Socialist sails by making city ownership of the water plant an issue of the campaign. But the Socialists went in. The mayor is a practical electrician and machinist employed in the railroad shops. He spends his days in the workshop and his evenings in the mayor’s office. No salary attaches to his office and all the Socialists who are serving the city have, of course, had to give up the pass privileges which they enjoyed as employes of the railroad.

Has 10,000 People

Brainerd is a town of 10,000. The interests there are enjoying the novel experience of treating with a council that has no price.

A Socialist member recently elected to the board of county commissioners in Clearwater county, Minnesota, has succeeded in securing a full investigation of the county tax records, which revealed he fact that the lumber interests have been for years evading payment of their taxes. The farmers have been paying the utmost farthing and even those who do not understand Socialism, feel respect for a party whose men get in and fight for such justice as may be had under capitalist law

Farmers for Socialism

But here in the north the farmers understand Socialism and they want it. They are asking no questions about how they are to be paid for their land. They have been giving for years and toil for which they have not been paid and they know it. A vision of the good things possible for all has come into the farmer’s horizon.

His labor has been the basis for the world’s enjoyment, and he knows that  in common with his fellow workers of the city, he has had his labor for his pains; what he got out of it was the job. The farmer is sick of a divide up under which he and other workers get the toil, and the idlers get the products of toil.

Land Value Greater

His farm may have increased in value during the past twenty years and for this reason he is worth more than once he was: but as for the labor of himself and his horse–for that labor they have all received their feed. And now the farmer sees the commonwealth as an abundance of the needful things, plus education, culture and the Joys of social contact. He wants these things for his children. He is learning to regard membership in the Socialist commonwealth as more valuable than individual ownership of a piece of land which yields him only meager bread.

Bagley Is Stirred

At Bagley, Minn., the farmers drove fifteen and twenty miles to our meeting. And so it was at Climax. Badger, Malung and other points. Hackensack had always been a strong Republican town. In the last presidential, campaign the Republican boss of the village arranged a “Taft dance” for election night. When the votes were counted Debs had one more vote than Taft. The Socialist men on the election board bought quantities of large red apples and offered them at the Taft dance as Debs apples.

Farmers Coming, by Heck!

Will the farmer come to the Socialist movement? The measure of injustice worked by capitalism to the farmer is the measure of the success of Socialist propaganda among the farmers. And the farmer is pre-eminently the victim of the trusts. Under capitalism he has suffered much and long.

The Chicago Socialist, sometimes daily sometimes weekly, was published from 1902 until 1912 as the paper of the Chicago Socialist Party. The roots of the paper lie with Workers Call, published from 1899 as a Socialist Labor Party publication, becoming a voice of the Springfield Social Democratic Party after splitting with De Leon in July, 1901. It became the Chicago Socialist Party paper with the SDP’s adherence and changed its name to the Chicago Socialist in March, 1902. In 1906 it became a daily and published until 1912 by Local Cook County of the Socialist Party and was edited by A.M. Simons if the International Socialist Review. A cornucopia of historical information on the Chicago workers movements lies within its pages.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/chicago-daily-socialist/1910/100128-chicagodailysocialist-v04n080.pdf