Table XLIX
Ranks of Race Groups in Relative Socialist Strength
| ——— | |
| ——— | |
| Rank | Race |
| ——— | |
| 1 | Americans |
| 2 | Finns |
| 3 | Germans |
| 4 | Jews |
| 5 | Slavs |
| 6 | Lithuanians |
| 7 | Scandinavians |
| 8 | Czechs |
| 9 | Hungarians |
| 10 | Italians |
| 11 | Letts |
| 12 | Slovaks |
| ——— | |
| ——— | |
This is well enough for rough purposes, but it is too loose for generalization as to racial tendencies. “Jews” might be of almost any nationality, and “Slavs” might cover natives of almost any of the countries east of the Carpathians and the Adriatic.
The foreign-language groups of the Socialist party in 1916 had an aggregate membership of over 29,000, and if we accept the estimate of the National Executive Secretary of the party, of 94,140, as the dues-paying membership during the first four months of that year, it would appear that 31 per cent of all dues-paying members of the party were foreign-born persons, either not citizens or so unfamiliar with English as to prefer to belong to a foreign-speaking branch of their political party.
There are two ways of looking at all this. One is to assume that, but for the war and the disorganization which it threw into the Socialist party’s ranks, including a virtual decision to confine membership to voters, there would have grown up a large political body of aliens, of unknown and probably menacing potentiality. The other is to recognize that, with the foreign-speaking organizations as a starting point, the immigrant would have been brought directly and early into an active interest in American politics, personal participation in the study of its affairs, and susceptibility far greater than it is common to acknowledge to the appeal of reason and experience in the solution of political questions. The present writer believes that to a considerable extent the fluctuations in the Socialist vote are due to changes of mind about Socialism on the part of individual voters of all races.
The Socialist Vote
Previous to the organization of the Socialist party, the Socialist political activity in this country was in the custody of the old Socialist-Labor party. Its vote, as listed by the Appeal Almanac for 1916, developed as follows:
Socialist Vote for President from 1888 to 1898
| ——— | |
| ——— | |
| 1888 | 2,068 |
| 1890 | 13,704 |
| 1892 | 21,512 |
| 1894 | 30,020 |
| 1896 | 36,275 |
| 1898 | 82,204 |
| ——— | |
| ——— | |
After 1898 the vote of this party declined rapidly until, in 1914, its candidate polled only 21,827 votes.
On the whole, the best index of Socialist political strength is the vote recorded in the ballot box. A tabulation of the vote of the Socialist party in the presidential elections since and including that of 1900 is therefore germane. (See Table LI.)