Channels, Spring 2017

P age 54 Schwartz • Inspiration or Distraction? known as the “Kangaroos” sought to join with the Social Democratic Party and held a unity gathering in New York City three weeks after the convention of the Social Democratic Party. 15 Nevertheless, this merger was less than jovial. The Kangaroos attempted to foist their presidential ticket upon the larger Social Democratic Party. Victor Berger actually supported the idea for a few months until Debs and others expressed their outrage at such a betrayal. 16 In the meantime, the two factions quibbled over a name for the united political entity, confusing the rank and file even as the compromise ticket of Debs for president and leading Kangaroo Job Harriman for vice president managed to build some headway. This pairing was not the most enjoyable for the two candidates. Harriman had originally been the presidential candidate for the Kangaroo faction and naturally felt animosity toward Debs. While in most cases, “the slightest acquaintance with the socialist leader left most men completely charmed by his affability,” Harriman continually critiqued Debs’ methods and motivations in private, claiming that Debs’ was “filled with self-importance” and urging the publication of an anti-Debs leaflet in the middle of their cooperative campaign. 17 Facing disjointed support and outright betrayal, Debs still had some momentum. But when the established parties took notice and turned their newspapers against Debs, his ceiling for popular appeal was limited. The Democrats contended that the Republicans were funding Debs’ campaign, and the Republicans countered that Debs’ would endorse William Jennings Bryan, which forced the Socialists to spend time and effort battling rumors instead of staking out a position. 18 Debs’ final tally was 96,878 votes, a minor showing compared to the Populists’ third party total of over 1 million votes in 1892. Nevertheless, with a more united, better organized Party and a further fleshed-out Socialist doctrine, the Socialist Party’s appeal and electoral success could no doubt increase. To bring about this success, the immediate task following the 1900 election was to heal Party schisms and increase Party membership. The results of success in these areas would be a clearer and therefore stronger ideological appeal as well as an increased base of support, activism, and organization. Nevertheless, these needs were complicated once more by the nature of the circumstances facing the party and by Debs’ own unhelpful actions. There was a division of the Party into left and right wings based on the question of whether or not capitalism should be completely abolished or gradually reformed. The immigrant, urban Socialist leaders like Victor Berger carried with them European ideas of reforms that were bringing change on the continent. Extending the vote, reforming labor practices, and improving public utilities had bettered workers’ quality of life and political situation in England, France, and many other industrial countries in this period. However, the other key Socialist faction was a radical one, led by Americans like Bill Haywood, centered in the West with most of its strength in the mines. This faction was more distant from urban improvements and on the receiving end of violent strikebreaking by the mining 15 Ibid, 225. 16 Ibid, 226. 17 Salvatore, Nick. 1982. Eugene V. Debs : citizen and socialist . n.p.: Urbana : University of Illinois Press, ©1982., 184. 18 Ginger, Ray. 1949. Eugene V. Debs : a biography . n.p.: [New York] : Collier Books, [1970], 1949, 227.