‘The Socialist Movement in Indiana’ by James Oneal, State Secretary from Appeal to Reason. No. 398. July 18, 1903.

The Socialist Party of Indiana is rapidly forging to the front as one of the best states in the union. There are 38 active locals of the party organized and this number will certainly be doubled before winter. In the state elections last year surprising gains were made in various parts of the state, which alarmed the capitalist press, who are unable to account for the desertion of their parties by those whom they have succeeded in deluding for many years. Three large cities, Evansville, Ft. Wayne, and Indianapolis, polled upwards of a thousand votes each and substantial gains were made at other points. The comrades at Evansville assure us that they will send a few workingmen down to the statehouse at Indianapolis in the next election for a visit to last as long as the legislature is in session. A plan of agitation for the summer months has been adopted similar to that which prevails in Michigan and indications point to the most active campaign work this summer that has ever been inaugurated. The plan enables the state organization to send speakers to all parts of the state at a cost of $1.25 for each meeting and applications for enrollment under this plan are coming in by every mail from cities and towns in all parts of the state. Comrades who have hitherto remained apart from the organized movement are enthusiastic over this plan and are securing pledges from local comrades who agree to take the speakers we will send out under these terms. The state is ripe for this work and the problem now is not whether we can get enough towns to cooperate in this work but whether we will be able to supply the demands which will be made for our speakers. Our watchword in this states is 20,000 votes for the Socialist candidate for President in 1904 and we are marshalling our forces with that object in view. Let every Socialist take advantage of the opportunity for summer agitation for we have an unscrupulous foe to meet next year and their fire will be directed against the Socialist Party in every state in the union. The world for the working class is a prize worthy of our best exertions.

Yours Fraternally,

James Oneal, State Sec. Socialist Party of Indiana,16 South Fifth Street, Terre Haute.

The Appeal to Reason was among the most important and widely read left papers in the United States. With a weekly run of over 550,000 copies by 1910, it remains the largest socialist paper in US history. Founded by utopian socialist and Ruskin Colony leader Julius Wayland it was published privately in Girard, Kansas from 1895 until 1922. The paper came from the Midwestern populist tradition to become the leading national voice in support of the Socialist Party of America in 1901. A ‘popular’ paper, the Appeal was Eugene Debs main literary outlet and saw writings by Upton Sinclair, Jack London, Mary “Mother” Jones, Helen Keller and many others.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/appeal-to-reason/030718-appealtoreason-w398-DEFECTIVE.pdf