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The Telmarc Group PROGRESSIVISM, INDIVIDUALISM, AND THE PUBLIC INTELLECTUAL agree to what must be done in their community and the Federal Government is hands off. In a sense this is libertarian or as Miller calls them market anarchists 194 . Each to their own and each entity or individual is free to choose, decide and then a mechanism to clear any transactions and that mechanism is the market and not the government. 4. Segmented: A segmented political architecture is really a hybrid. Each segment uses a sub political architecture, a community, that meets the requirements of the existing system but then networks are interconnected through standard political, economic, or social interfaces. In a political sense this is a confederation, an architecture where states or communities have the ultimate power. Miller calls these communitarian anarchists 195 . 7.2 SOCIALISM: THEN AND NOW. There has been significant talk that the current administration is socialistic. It is worth looking at this issue as compared to the neo-progressive approach which we have been arguing. As regards to the socialist platform I can approach this in a rather personal manner having been brought up with the conversations at the kitchen table. In 1920 my grandmother, Hattie Kruger, ran on the Socialist Party ticket for Treasurer for the State of New York. In 1917 she was arrested by President Wilson for protesting the War and also for protesting the Women's failure to have the vote. In 1916 she was the Socialist Party candidate for US Senate from New York. 196 . Following on a previous discussion, we can now ask what were the paradigms that drove the Socialists world view and what is different from then and now, if anything. To do this we will examine the Socialist Party platform during this period 197 . 194 Miller. Political, p. 25. 195 Miller, Political, p. 25. 196 See: http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/S?ammem/mnwp:@FIELD(SUBJ+@od1(+kruger,+hattie+)) some of the picket line of Nov. 10, 1917. Left to right: Mrs. Catherine Martinette, Eagle Grove, Iowa. Mrs. William Kent, Kentfield, California. Miss Mary Bartlett Dixon, Easton, Md. Mrs. C.T. Robertson, Salt Lake City, Utah. Miss Cora Week, New York City. Miss Amy Juengling, Buffalo, N.Y. Miss Hattie Kruger, Buffalo, N.Y. Miss Belle Sheinberg, N.Y.C. Miss Julia Emory, Baltimore, Md. 1917 Nov. 10 Summary: Photograph of nine suffrage pickets standing single file along a tall lattice fence, with suffrage banners. Left to R: Catherine Martinette, Elizabeth Kent, Mary Bartlett Dixon, C. T. Robertson, Cora Week, Amy Jungling, Hattie Kruger, Belle Sheinberg, Julia Emory. Title transcribed from item. Cropped version of the photograph published in The Suffragist, 5, no. 95 (Nov. 17, 1917): 197 Also see Kagan, E, TO THE FINAL CONFLICT: SOCIALISM IN NEW YORK CITY, 1900-1933, Thesis BA Princeton, April 1981. Kagan approaches this period in a manner which is dramatically different from what I had been exposed to. There were indeed many conflicts in the Socialists ranks, there were German Jews versus Eastern European Jews, intellectuals versus raw union types, and each group fought each other. The key factor for each however was state ownership of the dominant industries, railroads, telephone, water, and the like. It was a reaction to Trusts as was the entire Progressive movement. Page 194
The Telmarc Group PROGRESSIVISM, INDIVIDUALISM, AND THE PUBLIC INTELLECTUAL 7.2.1 The 1920 New York Platform We will use the 1930 Socialist Party Platform as a stepping off point for a discussion for several reasons. First it was at the most mature point of the Party, second it was still while Debs was imprisoned, third it is readily accessible on line and fourth my grandmother was part of the process. The Socialist Party of New York met in 1920 to select a slate for the State offices 198 . It was at this meeting that Hattie Kruger was nominated as Party candidate for New York State Treasurer. The platform of the Part at that time included the following 199 : "1. Laws which empower municipalities to acquire land, construct dwellings, and rent them at rates adequate for upkeep and replacement but with no profit to eliminate the current housing shortage. 2. Establish a comprehensive system by which the State in conjunction with the municipalities can co-operative societies shall deal on a large scale in food and other necessities of life, buying directly from the producers and selling directly to the consumers at cost, thus eliminating the capitalist middlemen, stimulating production and diminishing the cost of living. 3. The rapid extension of State and municipal ownership and operation of transportation and storage plants of lighting and other so called public utilities and of industrial establishments beginning with those which are already most largely monopolized and those which have to do with the production of the prime necessities of life. 4. The conservation by the States of the forests, mineral deposits and sources of water power which it still owns, the reclamation of such as have been voted away and the exploitation of these resources by the State, not for profit, but for the production of raw materials and power to be sold at cost. 5. Legislation which will clearly exempt labor unions and farmer associations from prosecution under the so-called anti-trust laws, and will assure them the right of 198 We have also reference the Kagan thesis from Princeton but we find her presentation wanting substantially. She seems to focus on a few fringe elements of the Socialist Party in New York and leave out the major portions which were aligned with Debs and the Socialist Party in power. Thus I refer to the Debbsian wing of the Party. This section was also dominated by many New York Jews but for the most part they seem to have been German Jews and generally secular in nature. 199 Taken from the New York Times, July 5, 1920. Page 195
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