Report from the Cincinnati local of the Socialist Party on efforts to overcome its contraction after failures in the 1908 campaign.

‘Cincinnati Now Getting Busy’ by S. Salkover from The Chicago Daily Socialist. Vol. 4 No. 170. May 13, 1910.

Energy Brushing Aside the Gloom That Is Hovering Over Workers

Cincinnati, O., May 12. Local Cincinnati has seen better times in the past. Some years ago it had sufficient means to maintain an organizer and its membership went over the 300 mark.

The city wards were well represented in the local. There was also a prosperous woman’s branch with many active members, and a few good-sized race branches besides.

Temporarily Demoralized

The comparatively small vote we polled in 1908 and the following year seems to have had a demoralizing influence on the membership. A sort of lethargy took possession of the comrades.

Discouragement and consequent inactivity took the place of hopeful and energetic effort. To cap the climax, internal dissensions began to disturb the peace of the meetings, and resulted in destroying the necessary unity in the local.

Not All Darkness

Still all is not darkness around us. There are some bright spots that certainly deserve to be pointed out. Notwithstanding the diminished income, due to a reduced membership in good standing, we have been able to keep up good headquarters, a spacious hall capable of accommodating several hundred people.

This hall makes it possible for us to have regular agitation meetings every Sunday afternoon during the winter season, giving the public an opportunity to listen to the best national speakers of the Socialist party.

Overcame Difficulties

It was no easy matter to maintain this hall, and the credit for it must be given to our previous and the present hall committees. They have managed this business to the satisfaction of the local silencing all opposition in the end. Miss Pearl Monroe and Mrs. Daisy Millard have been actively engaged in this work during the past year, and Miss Lotta Burke is the managing genius of this standing committee this year.

Germans Active

We also cannot avoid mentioning what a refreshing example the German branch, called the Lassalle club, has offered to the rest of us by displaying an unbroken spirit and more energetic activity.

This branch organization can boast of counting among its members two veteran Socialists, Comrades Schulz and Zorn. The former is known as a practical worker, while Comrade Zorn is esteemed as an organizer and speaker for Socialism and unionism.

Promising Future

Hopeful signs of progress in the future may be seen in the step lately taken by Local Cincinnati and the county organization. At our last monthly meeting the local resolved to adopt new methods in distributing literature.

The distribution is to be made henceforth on a large scale, covering regularly every week the poorer portion and the center of the city. The joint convention of the city and county members held on Sunday, May 8, has determined to add some planks to the platform embodying the immediate demands of the worker.

The Socialists will demand the abolishment of city contracts and government enterprises in its stead. In order to secure higher wages and shorter hours for the employes.

They will ask for better housing conditions, for an inquiry into the steadily rising prices, and other similar matters. The committee has been given until May 28 to frame the new planks in popular words in order to make them clear to everybody when circulated during campaign time.

Confidence of Masses

Standing firmly on a platform that expresses the most crying needs of the working class in this city we cannot fail to get the confidence of the masses, and this will encourage us and spur us on to greater activity.

The convention has almost unanimously, with but one dissenting voice, adopted the resolution introduced by the Jewish branch, requesting the national congress to take a stand for free immigration.

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.

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