The municipal program for the S.L.P.’s 1899 run in Baltimore begins with a demand to end property qualifications for voting.

‘The Baltimore Fight’ from The People. Vol. 8 No. 50. March 12, 1899.

With the founders of this Republic we hold that the true theory of politics la that the machinery of government must be owned and controlled by the whole people; but in the light of our Industrial development, we hold therefore, that the true theory of economics is that the machinery of production must likewise belong to the whole people in common.

MUNICIPAL DEMANDS.

The Socialist Labor party of Baltimore, in convention assembled, herewith renews its declaration of unswerving allegiance to the Socialist Labor party of the United States, and unfaltering adherence to the national platform adopted in New York in 1896. We reassert our determined opposition to the political parties of the capitalist class, and call upon all workingmen to unite under our banner, and throw off the enslaving yoke of capitalism forever by aiding in the establishment of the Socialist Republic–the Co-operative Commonwealth.

As a means to that end, and with the purpose in view of immediate alleviation of the misery of the working class, we declare the following to be our platform:

1. We denounce, as inimical to the political freedom guaranteed by the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States the provision in the so-called “new Charter” of the City of Baltimore making the ownership of real estate a necessary qualification for a citizen elected as a member of the City Council; the same being the ordinance-making power of the city, such a qualification deprives the propertyless of the right of direct participation in the framing of laws for their own protection: vests in the minority the governing power of the majority: places upon the working class (the propertyless) the responsibility of maintaining a government with which they have nothing in common, and makes of their franchise of freedom, their alleged sovereign power, a sneering mockery, to be used by them only in the choice of a coterie of political blacklegs whose sole object is the binding and confusing of the working class that they may be the more readily fleeced of the wealth they produce. We further declare this provision to be the initiative step to the complete disfranchisement of the working class: Therefore, the Socialist Labor party of Baltimore warns all workingmen to awaken to their class interest by rending asunder the political shackles of capitalism, and raising aloft the standard-bearers of their own class–the nominees of the Socialist Labor party.

2. The continued encroachments of the capitalist class upon the rights of the people demand attention at this time; when the mis-representatives of the people are so prone to yield up valuable franchises for the “public good!” We therefore demand absolute self-government; abolition of the veto power of the Mayor: all measures to be submitted to the people for adoption or rejection: the people to have the right to initiate legislation by petition.

3. The appalling decrease in the wages of the working class, the absolute disregard of the constantly swelling army of unemployed workingmen and the misery these conditions must entail, is but the reflex of the tyranny of the capitalist class, and the unceasing agitation of that class for a permanent contract system of public work merits our sincerest condemnation. We therefore demand the entire abolition of contract labor in public works; all city work to be done directly by the municipality without the intervention of middlemen or contractors. Where materials are needed, which the municipality cannot supply, the same shall be purchased from firms employing none but union labor.

4. The condition of the people was brought vividly to the attention of the public authorities during the blizzard of the past winter, when one thousand employed workingmen were found at two hours’ time willing to sell their flesh, blood and bones, willing to brave the terrible elements of snow, sleet, hall and rain, poorly clad and almost barefooted, for the miserly pittance of $1.25 a day. The ribald howling of the press of the capitalist class that the people are steeped in prosperity could find no more fitting refutation than this living logic of misery! The capitalist class offers to these men institutions where the sawing of two dollars’ worth of wood is demanded in exchange for a bowl of liquid erroneously called soup, and a shake-down on a floor benevolently termed a bed. The Socialists demand, for the peace of the community and the destruction of these forerunners of a bloody revolution, the permanent employment of the employed by the municipality establishing much-needed and desirable public works, believing that the safety and peace of a community can be best subserved by the prosperity of all the people than by a condition of unrest and misery of the most of the people and the luxurious opulence and profligate waste of the few, regardless of the tax rate.

5. In conformity with the abolition of contract work, and to more completely wrest from the capitalist class the power to maintain itself through the public treasury, we demand the establishment of a municipal printing plant, wherein shall be done all the printing of the municipality, and all such shall bear the union label of the printing crafts of the city. The day’s labor shall consist of seven hours: overtime shall be abolished: the wages realized by the printing crafts unions, shall be paid in every department. We view with alarm the parading of the poverty of some of the people, and the dispensing of alleged charity by the capitalist class through the Agencies of hypocritical benevolent associations for the “improvement” (degradation) of the poor, on the one hand, and the ruthless robbery of the people by the same class in the necessities of life, on the other. We therefore demand the establishment of a municipal coal and wood yard, and an ice house and plant, these commodities to be furnished the people at cost. We demand, further, the establishment of a city Pharmacy and medical department where the poor of the city will not be made the subjects of “scientific research” by students of the medical profession; where pure medicines and competent medical attendance may be had at minimum cost, or free when necessary.

7. We hold the right of freedom of speech is inviolate. Therefore, the right of agitation and education of the people to a knowledge of their rights should not be abridged. Since the propertyless have no other meeting place to discuss public questions than the street corners, and since the regulations of the city prevent congestion at these places, thereby depriving those who have not the means to secure a hall of the right to publicly agitate public questions, we demand the use of public halls and public parks, for the holding of public meetings, without expense to the participants.

8. As bodily cleanliness is necessary to physical health, and as study of wholesome economic literature is necessary to mental and moral health, we demand the establishment of free public baths in sufficient number to accommodate the demand, and the establishment of free reading rooms wherein shall be kept on file wholesome literature of all descriptions, and the works of Karl Marx and all Socialist Labor party publications, which shall be provided by the Socialist Labor party of the United States.

9. To eliminate the planless method, now in vogue of the congregating at spots in the city of the unemployed and the employment of men on the street corners, we demand the establishment of a free employment bureau to be conducted at the expense of the city, and the registration of the unemployed, reports of the same to be publicly made monthly, and the records to be preserved in the archives of the municipality.

10. The recent agitation for the placing of vestibules on street cars to protect exposed employees in the service of the street railway corporations from the fierce onslaught of the elements demonstrated how completely are these workingmen the slaves of the corporate power. We need not recall the opposition of the owners of these railways to the proposition to establish this necessary protection to the over-worked and underpaid employees; we need not dwell upon the echoed opposition of the employees themselves. It is unnecessary to repeat the statement of a Corporation Superintendent “that the health of our employees is as zealously guarded as would be that of a valued draft horse!” All this is fresh in the public mind. The street car employees of Baltimore are freemen: they compose a part of the sovereign people! Their wrongs are again but the reflex of the tyranny of the capitalist class, Since these cannot be properly adjusted so long as the agents of the capitalist class control the means of freedom, we demand the acquisition by the municipality of all public utilities, including street car systems, lighting facilities, telephone lines and their appurtenances, and all other corporate possessions of a public nature, in which the capitalist class derives its power to tyrannize and browbeat workingmen through the franchises of the people, to be operated co-operatively by the employees under the control of the municipality.

11. Ignorance and illiteracy is the foe of freedom. Where one part of the people is equipped with knowledge and an understanding of the power knowledge imparts, and another part of the people is devoid of knowledge and consequently of the power knowledge gives, it follows that education is essential to liberty. With knowledge and power invested in a part of the people, and ignorance in the other part, tyranny is king and serfdom is given birth. Therefore, we view the future state of the working class with grim, forebodings if this condition is permitted to continue! We see daily, the army of prematurely matured-children wending their weary way to the factory, the workshop and the store. We’ see their pinched faces passing into the portals of hell with the wolfish boss standing by forcing them to their utmost. And this is civilization! This the march of progress! With horror, we contemplate these things, and cannot suffer them in silence to go on. Knowing that education is free only as it is accessible, we demand the compulsory attendance at school of all children under the age of sixteen years, the means of education to be free to all assistance in the way of meals and clothing to be given by the municipality where necessary.

12. The tenement house is the cankerous palace of disease. Its existence in a community is a moral blotch. The capitalist class builds jails for criminals and preaches much of the Increase of crime. Yet the tenement house is a good investment! Knowing that the tenement house is a primary source of vice, and that the more tenements there are, the more desirable will the jails become, we demand the entire destruction of these test-beds of filth, and the erection by the municipality of healthful, modern houses, to be rented at cost, one family to one house, and that a civilized system of sanitary inspection be carried on.

13. The growing practice of heads of municipal departments absenting themselves from their duties, and at the same time drawing pay from the city for time which they devote to other pursuits, meets with our emphatic condemnation. We demand, therefore, that all city employees shall give their entire labor time to the business of the city, and no employee shall receive less than two dollars per day for seven hours’ labor. To avoid increasing the tax burdens to the citizens of the city in the fulfillment of this requirement, the wages of all employees receiving $1,200 a year or more, including the Mayor, shall be reduced pro rata, and a corresponding reduction shall be made in the salaries paid to Councilmen. All city employees shall elect their own superior officers, when they are not elected by the people, and no employee shall be discharged for political or religious belief. Cause of removal shall in all cases be given in writing, and, If insufficient, the courts of the city shall have the power, after  trial had, of reinstating any employee removed for political or religious reasons.

ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE.

The foregoing platform and declaration is a workingman’s platform, drafted by workingmen, and workingmen stand upon it, as the nominees of the Socialist Labor party, who, if elected have the determination to carry out its principles:

Workingmen Electors! Be not led by false leaders! Be not caught by catch-penny politicians, labor fakirs and skates, who are simply the decoy duck of the capitalist class to lead you into the meshes of confusion!

Strike at the ballot box with the uplifted arm bearing the hammer! Remember, the Socialist Labor party is the only workingman’s political organization in the world! It was the first bona fide workingman’s political organization in the field, and it will stand triumphant over the prostrate body of the labor skate at the finish! It never compromises truth to make a friend! It never countenances error through fear of the foe! It strikes where striking counts–where the working class united is the superior of the capitalist class at the ballot box!

Beware of Mr. Good Man and Mr. Bad Man! You have heard of these before. The skates and fakirs stand uncovered; if you swallow their dose, you must suffer alone. Stand to your guns! A vote for yourselves and your class is not a vote thrown away! A vote for the capitalist class and against your class is worse than thrown away, because you give into the hands of your masters the instruments to oppress you! Study it over!

Give a blow with the Arm and Hammer!!

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.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/the-people-slp/990312-thepeople-v08n50.pdf