James Connolly began something of a new political life in 1908 after leaving the Socialist Labor Party. On tour for the Irish Socialist Federation in support of their paper, ‘The Harp,’ Connolly had joined the Socialist Party, energetically promoting Debs’ campaign, while remaining active in the I.W.W. This brief, but this rich, interview appears to show him relishing his new-found political freedom.

‘Irish Speaker Hits U.S. Press’ Interview with James Connolly from the Chicago Daily Socialist. Vol. 2 No. 289. October 5, 1908.

Connolly Says He Thinks Big American Newspapers Are Edited With Trowel

“Father Yorke, editor of the Sun Francisco Leader and a well known figure in Irish circles, said once that the Irish home rule press was edited with a trowel. He might, with equal justice, have included the capitalist press of America.

This was the answer of James Connolly, editor of the Irish Socialist magazine, the Harp, when asked what he thought of the capitalist press of the United States. Connolly has shoulder ed the task of teaching Irish workingmen the true meaning of Socialism, and for this reason he has started on a lecture tour of the big cities in the United States.

Purpose of His Tour

“The purpose of my present tour is principally to interest the Irish working class in the Socialist movement and to induce them to realize the necessity of co-operating with the workers of all other races and nationalities in their struggle for common emancipation,” said Connolly. “I have been led to make this tour by observing that the Irish-American press is purely of a capitalistic nature and is constantly boycotting all news of a character that is likely to arouse the interest of the Irish workers in the labor movement. This, however, is not only true of news concerning America, but also of the news pertaining to the labor movement in Ireland, which is boycotted by the same kind of a press. The Irish-American press will devote a column to an account of a wedding of a son of a country publican (saloon-keeper) in some remote county of Ireland, but will refuse a line to a convention representing thousands of the best elements of the Irish working class. The capitalist press is alive to the fact that ignorance of the labor movement is essential to safeguard the interests of the capitalistic class.

“My tour then is designed to break this conspiracy of silence on Irish labor matters and to tell the Irish workers in America about the idea and movement of the Irish tollers in the old country, as well as to expose the grafters and tricksters who prey upon the Irish here. As far as my personal fitness is concerned, there of course, be differences of opinion, but I may say that I have been in the Socialist movement for twenty years. I have traveled and agitated all over Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales and know thoroughly the condition of the Irish workers, both from experience and observation at home and abroad.

Twice Candidate in Dublin

“I have twice been a candidate for the municipality of Dublin on the Socialist ticket. I ran as the candidate: of an avowed revolutionary Socialist party and of a labor trades union, of which I was a member. In each instance my candidacy was endorsed by the unanimous vote of the Dublin Trades and Labor council. Nor was I the only Socialist candidate during those years. In other wards of the city other candidates were run by the same parties, under the same conditions. The vote generally averaged a third of the total electoral–that is, one voter out of every three cast his ballot in favor of the Socialist party and against the nominees of the Loyalist and Home Rule parties. Yet his eminence. Cardinal Logue, when in this country recently, said that Socialism was unknown in Ireland. He must have never read the Dublin papers He surely would be surprised to hear that Walker, of the Labor party in Belfast, has polled thousands of votes in recent parliamentary contests.

Younger Element Socialists

“I am again informed by a Belfast correspondent that practically all of the younger element in the Sinn Fein party in the northern part of Ireland are Socialists, and that most of the brilliant writers on the staff of the Dublin Peasant, a metropolitan organ of the Sinn Feln party, are outspoken in their advocacy of Socialism. John Redmond, the leader of the Irish parliamentary party, said other day while in Chicago that the Socialist and Labor parties of Great Britain were consistent supporters of home rule. This is true, and they were consistent supporters home rule when Redmond and his party were speaking against the Socialist and Labor party candidates. They supported home rule as principle, but the Home Rule party have always been ready to be tray the cause of labor both in England and Ireland to win the favor of one or the other of the warring capitalistic factions of England. In that connection may say that while Redmond is leader of the Parliamentary party, he is not the leader the Irish people. The young intellectuals of Ireland have turned away from him and today he is simply the representative of an Irish capitalistic faction. At a recent meeting in Dublin Redmond and his colleagues had to call upon the British authorities to supply hundreds of police to protect them from the fury of the Dublin working class.

To Make Facts Known

“To make the Irish workers acquainted with the facts leading up to this hostile attitude of the Irish workers to the old parties and their respective attitude toward the newer Socialist doctrines is the purpose of my tour, as it was the purpose of those who founded the Irish Socialist Federation in this country and also those who founded the Harp. We wish to rescue our countrymen from the control of the capitalistic parties in this country and to make them see that our woes a race are directly traceable to  capitalist institutions The British empire, for example, is a strictly a capitalist business enterprise and those who vote for capitalism in this country are virtually endorsing the practices of the British empire.

“I am glad that that I was enabled to come to Chicago and see personally the activities of the Windy City. I was and am impressed with the multitude of fields in which those activities figure and the catholicity of the Socialists. Sectarianism the Socialist movement cannot be said to exist in the city of Chicago, where the Socialists have warm greeting for any and every worker in the common cause. I am going to return to Chicago at the end of the month for a series of hall meetings when I hope I will have the pleasure addressing a large number of Chiago Irish.

Has Enrolled Many

“We have already succeeded in enrolling as subscribers to the Harp large numbers of the educated Irish of the advanced societies–the Sinn Fein, Gaelic League and the Clan-na-Gael–and I hope that my visit will materially increase their numbers. I have to thank the Socialists of Chicago for their help along these lines.”

Connolly left Chicago last night on a tour of the state of Illinois. He will speak in the following towns: Joliet on Tuesday, October 6: then consecutively in Streator, La Salle, Spring Valley, Peru. Kewanee, Rock Island, Moline Monmouth, Quincy, Gillespie, Collinsville, Sandoval, Danville and Beckemier.

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/1908/081005-chicagodailysocialist-v02n289.pdf