James Connolly spent over three months in United States in 1902 as a guest of the Socialist Labor Party touring the country. This dossier a nearly complete record of the tour from the S.L.P.’s press, the Weekly and Daily People with over one hundred original articles chronologically arranged from the tour, covering planning, notices, itineraries, reports, letters from Connolly while on the road, and maps showing the locations and dates of his talks (click to enlarge). PDF’s of full issues are linked where available.

Arriving on September 12 he would speak, starting that very evening, in dozens of cities and towns across the country, several he world make a return visit to. Starting on East Coast, through New York Ohio, Kentucky, Illinois and Missouri up to the Twin Cities and across to Salt Lake City, through California and back through Arizona and Colorado, making encore appearances in certain cities as he worked is way back to New York. Astoundingly, he spoke to a meeting at least once a day from his arrival on September 12 in New York until his December 3rd speech in St. Paul, Minnesota. At a number of these events he engaged in debates with the ‘kangaroos’, largely rightest dissidents who had recently left the S.L.P. to form the Socialist Party. After what can only be described as an exhaustive and successful string of engagements; Connolly was convinced to return to live in the U.S. the following with his family to live and work for the party. The S.L.P. put on a grand event at the Manhattan Lyceum Annex in The Bowery on December 26, 1902 to wish him farewell, celebrate his and their success, and, as always, build the Party.

James Connolly’s 1902 Tour of the United States, Complete ‘Daily People’ Dossier.

The Weekly People (New York City). Vol. 12 No. 23. September 6, 1902.

Preliminary itinerary of James Connolly’s 1902 US speaking tour for the Socialist Labor Party. The tours would be greatly expanded, running through late December when Connolly returns to the East Coast. Additional itineraries below.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/the-people-slp/020906-weeklypeople-v12n23.pdf

The Weekly People. Vol. 12. No. 24. September 13, 1902.

Connolly gets a send off as his boat leaves on August 30th for the United States from England, where he had just completed two weeks lecturing to the Social Democratic Federation and the Independent Labor Party of Salford.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/the-people-slp/020913-weeklypeople-v12n24.pdf

The Daily People. Vol. 3 No. 74. September 12, 1902.

James Connolly arrives in the United States for the first time making the 12-day trip aboard the steamer Sardinia and met at the dock by Henry Kuhn, Socialist Labor Party National Secretary. Connolly immediately embarked on a nearly three-month tour of the United States as a guest of the S.L.P. His first talk being the day following his arrival day in New Britain, Connecticut.

Arbeiter Zeitung (New York). Vol. 13 No. 37. September 13, 1902.

The S.L.P’s Yiddish-language Arbeiter Zeitung reports on the beginning of James Connolly’s 1902 U.S. speaking tour.

The Daily People. Vol. 3. September 12 to 24, 1902.

Preparing for Connolly’s arrival with meetings and flyer distributions for his his first engagements, including at, perhaps, the most famous lecture hall in the United States, New York’s Cooper Union. Along with his arrival, his engagements at Cooper Union, in Paterson, Hudson and Yonkers are reported. As well as one of a number of letters the papers would print from Connolly during his tour.

The Weekly People (New York City). Vol. 12 No. 25. September 20, 1902.

Front page report on the beginning of James Connolly’s 1902 speaking tour.

PDF of original issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/the-people-slp/020906-weeklypeople-v12n23.pdf

The Weekly People (New York City). Vol. 12 No. 26. September 27, 1902.

Continuing with James Connolly on his Socialist Labor Party-sponsored Autumn 1902 speaking tour across the United States. Beginning on the East Coast in New York City on September 15th, the Weekly People next carried reports of his stops in Yonkers, New York on the 17th of September and Elizabeth, New Jersey on September 20th.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/the-people-slp/020927-weeklypeople-v12n26.pdf

The Daily People. Vol. 3. September 25 to October 4, 1902.

Traveling from New York in the northeast, reports of Connolly’s stops as Lowell, Hartford, New and Haven, as well as encouraging comrades to sell subs to Connolly’s Dublin ‘Workers’ Republic’ newspaper.

The Weekly People (New York City). Vol. 12 No. 27. October 4, 1902.

The next reports of James Connolly on his Socialist Labor Party-sponsored Autumn 1902 speaking tour across the United States are from Patterson, New Jersey where he spoke to 300 people at Turn Hall on September 19th. As well, an announcement of his talk in Lowell, Massachusetts for October 4th at Huntington Hall and a reminder for comrades to hawk the Irish Socialist Republican Party’s ‘Workers Republic’ newspaper at Connolly meetings.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/the-people-slp/021004-weeklypeople-v12n27.pdf

The Weekly People (New York City). Vol. 12 No. 28. Saturday, October 11, 1902.

Continuing James Connolly’s 1902 speaking tour sees him leave the New York City area for Massachusetts. He spoke at Haverhill’s Washington Square on October 2nd, and the following evening spoke to a packed Faneuil Hall in Boston where $33 dollars was raised for the tour, 200 pamphlets and 25 subscriptions to ‘Workers Republic’ were sold. The ‘Kangaroos’ mentioned was a derogatory term by the De Leonistss for former dissidents in the SLP who would go on to form the Socialist Party. Connolly would become an SLP dissident within a year of the tour, and would join the ‘Kangs’ of the SP in 1908.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/the-people-slp/021011-weeklypeople-v12n28.pdf

The Weekly People (New York City). Vol. 12 No. 29. Saturday, October 18, 1902.

James Connolly spoke in over ten Massachusetts cities and towns on his 1902 speaking tour, spending nearly two weeks in the state. This issue reports from his stops at Lawrence on the 3rd where he spoke to over 300 at Music Hall, at Woburn where he spoke on the 6th to the city’s Concert Hall (and 45 S.L.P. pamphlets were sold), and on the October 9th meeting in Holyoke with a somewhat disappointing crowd at French Hall. Also in this issue is the announcement of Connolly’s October 19th meetings at Columbus, Ohio’s Odd Fellow’s Hall.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/the-people-slp/021018-weeklypeople-v12n29.pdf

The Daily People Vol. 3. October 5 to 18, 1902.

Still in the northwest, the reports are from Connolly’s talks in Wodburn, Springfield, and Boston, Lynn, and Haverhill and Columbus, Ohio announces their plans for Connolly’s upcoming visit..

The Weekly People (New York City). Vol. 12 No. 30. October 25, 1902.

After his long stay in Massachusetts, James Connolly moved west across Upstate New York, speaking at Troy (to which he would later move), Schenectady, Syracuse, Rochester and Buffalo before speaking in Cleveland, Ohio on the 17th of October, 1902. There he spoke at Germania Hall to between 400 and 500 people, the organizers hoping for more but had competition from the Democratic Mayor of Cleveland’s nearby meeting with bands and fireworks. Nevertheless, the S.L.P. had their own band, the German Boehm Orchestra, that greeted Connolly to the tune of ‘La Marseillaise’. Fourteen subscriptions to ‘Workers Republic’ were sold and $18 raised for the tour. Also included is an updated itinerary for Connolly’s tour and an announcement of his October 26th address at St. Louis’ legendary Druid’s Hall.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/the-people-slp/021025-weeklypeople-v12n30.pdf

The Daily People. Vol. 3. October 19 to 31, 1902.

Connolly heads west with reports from gatherings in Detroit, Cleveland, as Local St. Louis announces their plans.

The Weekly People (New York City). Vol. 13 Nos. 31 and 32. November 1 and 8, 1902.

Connolly tours the Midwest. The editors must not have been happy with the previous, disappointed, report on Connolly’s October 18th talk in Cleveland, Ohio. The following issue contains a new report, this one more focused on Connolly’s talk that is altogether rosier. Also included is a report of the October 19th meeting in Columbus, Ohio at the city’s Odd Fellow’s Hall as 300 listeners heard Connolly’s ‘masterful oratory.’ The Columbus S.L.P. comrades claim to have distributed 5000 handbill and put up 500 posters for the event and sold seven subscriptions to ‘Workers’ Republic’ and many S.L.P. pamphlets. An article on Connolly’s two-night stay in Louisville, Kentucky where he spoke to 200 each night on October 21-22. Thirteen subscriptions to ‘Workers’ Republic’ were sold and $5 raised for the tour. A poem, ‘Erin’s Hope’, written by Mary McNabb Johnston after reading Connolly’s pamphlet of the same name was also printed. As were advertisements for 25 cent photos of Connolly and of the Irish Socialist Republican Party’s paper, ‘Workers’ Republic’. After Cleveland on the 17th, Connolly also spoke at Detroit on the 18th, in Columbus on the 18, and Cincinnati on the 20th before crossing the Ohio River for his Louisville, Kentucky talks on the 22st and 22nd of October.

PDF of full issue No. 31: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/the-people-slp/021101-weeklypeople-v12n31.pdf
PDF of full issue No. 32: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/the-people-slp/021108-weeklypeople-v12n32.pdf

Weekly People. Vol. 12 No. 33. November 15, 1912.

From Louisville, Connolly traveled through India into Illinois where he spoke at St. Louis, East St. Louis, Jacksonville, moving north to Chicago and the onto Minnesota speaking at Duluth and Minneapolis a week later.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/the-people-slp/021115-weeklypeople-v12n33.pdf

The Daily People. Vol. 3. November 1 to December 3, 1902.

Into the Great Lakes and across the plains, reports from Indianapolis, Utah, Duluth, Detroit, and St. Paul.

Weekly People. Vol. 12 Nos. 33 & 34. November 22 & 29, 1902.

From the upper Midwest, Connolly traveled to Salt Lakes City, and then on to San Francisco where he arrived on November 18th and spoke at the Turk St. Temple and the Pioneer Hall. The popularity of the tour meant it was requested to extend all the way to Winnipeg. and then south in the the mining regions of the desert Southwest and Colorado areas.

PDF of 22: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/the-people-slp/021122-weeklypeople-v12n34.pdf
PDF of 29: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/the-people-slp/021129-weeklypeople-v12n35.pdf

The Daily People. Vol. 12. December 4 through 15, 1902.

Connolly’s western swing continues with stops at Denver, Pueblo, Los Angeles, and Junction City, along with plans for a second Detroit visit and his lecture in what would become his future home of Troy, New Yorl, as well as another letter from the road by Connolly.

The Weekly People. Vol. 12 No. 37. December 13, 1902.

Reports from San Jose, where Connolly spoke to 175 comrades, and from Winnipeg requesting Connolly travel to Canada to speak there.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/the-people-slp/021213-weeklypeople-v12n37-DAMAGED.pdf

The Daily People December 16 to 30, 1902.

Preparing for Connolly’s return to the East Coast after two months before his return to Ireland. Also, another on the road letter from Connolly.

The Daily People. Volume 12. December 26, 1902.

Saying Goodbye to James Connolly in New York City. James Connolly spent over three months in United States in 1902 as a guest of the Socialist Labor Party touring the country. Arriving on September, 15 he would speak in dozens of cities and towns across starting on the eastern seaboard, through the middle west to California, hitting places large and small in the mountain West, desert Southwest, and Great Lakes. After what can only be described as an exhaustive and successful string of engagements, Connolly to return to live in the U.S. the following year, the S.L.P. put on a grand event at the Manhattan Lyceum Annex in The Bowery on December 26, 1902 to wish him farewell, celebrate his and their success, and, as always, build the Party. For weeks beforehand the Daily People announced the event and its organizing. Here is a snapshot of that moment.

The Daily People. Vol. 3 No. 232. February 17, 1903.

On his return to Ireland, Connolly wrote this letter of thanks to his S.L.P. hosts and offers some impressions of his tour.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/the-people-slp/030207-weeklypeople-v12n45.pdf

New York Labor News Company was the publishing house of the Socialist Labor Party and their paper The People. The People was the official paper of the Socialist Labor Party of America (SLP), established in New York City in 1891 as a weekly. The New York SLP, and The People, were dominated Daniel De Leon and his supporters, the dominant ideological leader of the SLP from the 1890s until the time of his death. The People became a daily in 1900. It’s first editor was the French socialist Lucien Sanial who was quickly replaced by De Leon who held the position until his death in 1914. Morris Hillquit and Henry Slobodin, future leaders of the Socialist Party of America were writers before their split from the SLP in 1899. For a while there were two SLPs and two Peoples, requiring a legal case to determine ownership. Eventual the anti-De Leonist produced what would become the New York Call and became the Social Democratic, later Socialist, Party. The De Leonist The People continued publishing until 2008.