Radicalism in the Mountain West, 1890-1920 by David R. Berman

Author:David R. Berman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University Press of Colorado
Published: 2007-08-14T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Going Local

Water and Sewer Socialism

IN 1911 THE MUNICIPAL PLATFORM of the Socialist party in Great Falls, Montana, promised municipal workers an eight-hour day at union scale, free water for widows making a living doing laundry work, free legal advice from the city attorney to members of the working class, and municipal ownership of the electric power, gas, and street railway companies. Also included in the platform was a call for “a municipal owned and controlled ice plant, coal yard, loan office, hospital, dance hall, sanitary department, and free employment office.”1 A year later the Socialist party in Prescott, Arizona, sought votes in the upcoming city elections with a similar program when it came to municipal ownership and also called for such steps as more economical administration of the city’s finances (the city was deep in debt), greater equalization of taxation and water rates, an ordinance closing down all saloons in the city on Sundays, and greater enforcement of laws against prostitution.2 As was typical of Socialist parties around the country at the time, the party also called for the initiative, referendum, and recall—the popular package of direct democracy that Socialists claimed as their own. In pressing their credentials, Prescott Socialists made a point of noting that “the Socialist Party is the largest political organization in the world. It is international in scope. The International Socialist Party has locals and branches in every country in the world. Affiliated with the locals and branches are more than thirty million men and women working heart and soul together toward the realization of an ideal.”3

Socialists often ran for office simply to educate the voters, not expecting to win. In running for office on the local level, however, to the surprise of nearly everyone they sometimes won. On the aggregate level, the number of surprises is greater than one might imagine: the Socialist party secured dozens of victories in local contests throughout the Mountain West from 1910 to 1912, particularly in the spring of 1911.4

As noted in regard to Anaconda, Montana (see Chapter 5), Socialist parties had enjoyed isolated local victories prior to this time, but municipal triumphs became more common toward the end of the first decade of the twentieth century, when the party’s strength was reaching its peak. Victories—most evident in Colorado, Utah, Idaho, and Montana—sometimes came by riding a protest vote against corruption in local government and incompetent local administration.

Colorado Socialists enjoyed a particularly pleasing triumph in Victor, the scene of fierce fighting between the Western Federation of Miners and mine owners in the years 1904–1908, by capturing the office of mayor and four other offices in the spring of 1911. The mayor, J. B. Bitterly, took pride in making “sound business decisions” to get the city of around 4,000 people out from under a debt of more than $500,000. In response to citizen complaints about the weight of coal and other commodities, he installed a municipal scale to ensure that people would get the correct weight on their purchases. The

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