Capital soon recovered from a temporary
intimidation...Labor still
uneasy was still subject to the inexorable law of
supply and demand. Legislatures were still to be approached by
agents...Chinese were still employed in digging and
grading. The state board of railroad Commissioners was a useless
expense, ...being as wax in the hands of the companies it was
set to watch."*
* "Works" (vol. XXIV): "History of California," vol. VII, p. 404.
After the collapse of the Populist party, there is to be
discerned in labor politics a new departure, due primarily to the
attitude of the American Federation of Labor in partisan matters,
and secondarily to the rise of political socialism. A socialistic
party deriving its support almost wholly from foreign-born
workmen had appeared in a few of the large cities in 1877, but it
was not until 1892 that a national party was organized, and not
until after the collapse of Populism that it assumed some
political importance.
In August, 1892, a Socialist-Labor convention which was held in
New York City nominated candidates for President and
Vice-President and adopted a platform that contained, besides the
familiar economic demands of socialism, the rather unusual
suggestion that the Presidency, Vice-Presidency, and Senate of
the United States be abolished and that an executive board be
established "whose members are to be elected, and may at any time
be recalled, by the House of Representatives, as the only
legislative body, the States and municipalities to adopt
corresponding amendments to their constitutions and statutes.
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