Radical Reformer Appeals to Chicago’s Voters

JOSEPHINE CONGER-KANEKO, What a Socialist Alderman Would Do (1914)

While progressive reformers like Frederic Howe lamented the economic disparities driving the wealthy and poorer classes apart, he did not go so far as Josephine Conger-Kaneko in calling for the collective ownership of factories, railroads, and utilities. Conger-Kaneko was active in socialist circles in the early twentieth century, emphasizing issues important to workingwomen, which she promoted in The Socialist Woman, a small newspaper she edited based in Chicago. Her 1914 campaign speech for alderman of Chicago’s Sixth Ward lays out her vision for an improved America.

I WAS BORN A DEMOCRAT. I was raised a Democrat. I am a Democrat today. I hope I shall die a DEMOCRAT.

And yet, in spite of the fact that I got my first lessons of real life in the office of a country Democratic newspaper, and in spite of the fact that I have followed the Bryan band wagon, and sung in a Bryan glee club, I am today a dues-paying member of the Socialist party.

I am a Socialist because I believe that Socialism is more democratic than the Democratic party.

Soon after I left the little Democratic paper, upon which I had been working, I became associated editorially with the largest Socialist weekly in the world. Here I learned many things. It was like standing on a high hill and watching the activities of the peoples of a great nation. For we were connected with every nook and corner of this country, and in communication with numerous places outside. Formerly I had not believed in suffrage for women. I, a working woman, was not interested in using the ballot in my own behalf. My family were the dyed-in-the-wool Democrats of the old South, suh. They were of that next to impenetrable combination, Democratic from both principle and prejudice, and they stood right where our present Democratic Congress stands on the woman question.

Therefore, I realized for the first time, while working on this great Socialist journal, that women are a part of our social order, that they help to bear its burdens, and that they should share its privileges with the rest of mankind. I learned that I was not a consistent Socialist unless I was an active advocate of woman suffrage. So I joined a suffrage club. And thus I became, through Socialism, a suffragist.

I found further, that while the Democratic party stands for the welfare of the middle class under the present system, that the Socialist party stands for the welfare of all the people through its advocacy of the abolition of our present insane system of production and distribution of the necessities of life. For instance, our present system is driving the middle class out of existence, and forcing its members into the ranks of the working class, through the monopolization of the industries. The little business man, once respectable in his small line, today sees his business devoured by the great trust, while he is left to seek employment at so much a week wherever he can get it, and his children, instead of inheriting his business as was the process in former years, become employes of some big concern for the rest of their days. Then big business lowers wages to the lowest possible point, and raises the price of its goods to the highest possible point, and thus both the worker and the consumer fare badly.

Socialism would have the big industries owned by the people and controlled by the people for the benefit of the people, instead of the benefit of private owners, and thus would be the ally, or friend, of ALL the people.

These are, briefly, some of the things I found out about Socialism.

When I began to look into the woman movement of this country I found that the women were also looking out for the interests of the people, rather than the interests of the private corporations. The women did not get as far as the Socialists, and yet their demands were almost identical with what we call the immediate demands of the Socialist party.

The annual reports of the women’s federated clubs are interesting commentaries on the ideals and outlook of the women. They show committees organized for the abolition of child labor; for the eight-hour day for working women; for the extension of play grounds; for sanitation; for good housing ordinances; for food inspection; pure milk; for mother’s pensions; for juvenile courts; for reduction of the cost of living, and for many things that are essential to the welfare of the whole people. That the old political parties did not stand for these things is proven in the fact that women have had to fight for every reform they have gone after.…

In the South child labor is a splendid profit-maker for the factory owner, who, by the way, is often a Northerner. For this reason the legislators will not abolish child labor. They are owned body and soul by the big factory interests. The women, however, are not worrying about the interests of the factory owners. I believe the women would be willing to see the government own the factories if this would abolish child labor.

Socialism says the government should own the factories. And that it should pay men and women living wages, and keep the children in the schools where they belong.

The program of the Socialist party calls for the following, among other things:

“The collective ownership and democratic management of railroads, wire and wireless telegraphs and telephones, express services, steamboat lines and all other social means of transportation and communication and of large-scale industries.

“The extension of the public domain to include mines, quarries, oil wells, forests and water power.

“The further conservation and development of natural resources for the use and benefit of all the people.

“The collective ownership of land wherever practicable, and in such cases where such ownership is impracticable, the appropriation by taxation of the annual rental of all land held for speculation or exploitation.” …

The Socialists would further establish —

“The immediate government relief of the unemployed by the extension of all useful public works. All persons employed on such works to be engaged directly by the government under a workday of not more than eight hours and at not less than the prevailing wages. The government also to establish employment bureaus, to lend money to states and municipalities without interest for the purpose of carrying on public works, and to take such other measures within its power as will lessen the widespread misery of the workers caused by the misrule of the capitalist class.”

These are typical of the entire policy of the Socialist party.

What a Socialist woman alderman would do if elected to office in Chicago ought to be clear in your minds.… The Socialists stand for progress, the women stand for progress. As a Socialist I could not do one thing that would be against the interests of the masses of the people, as a woman I would not want to do any such thing. As a member of the city council from your ward it would be my duty and my pleasure to see that our streets are kept in good repair; that sanitary conditions exist throughout the ward; that the housing and other existing ordinances are enforced; that all new laws making for the betterment of the general comfort are enacted.

Co-operating with the entire council for the city at large, I would insist upon municipal ownership of public utilities wherever possible, such as telephone, gas and electric light, rail traffic, etc.; upon the inauguration of municipal markets where food and clothing could be sold direct from the producer to the consumer, thus cutting out the cost of middlemen; upon the erection of municipal lodging houses for working women and girls; upon a minimum wage for workers of both sexes; upon relief of the unemployed by the extension of useful public works; upon the extension of the playgrounds system to the public parks, and the opening of the schools for social centers. I would do what I could toward the alleviation and abolition of the white slave traffic by providing employment for working girls, and by paying both men and women a living wage, and opening respectable places of amusement for the city’s great army of young people who today resort to the nickel shows without guardianship for their only pleasure. I believe that women in plain clothes, or ordinary dress, should be added to the police force as watchers in the amusement centers, to prevent young girls from being led into wrong paths.

It is impossible to point out in a brief talk like this what might be done for the betterment of a city like Chicago. But there is one fundamental point upon which we can agree — that is, we cannot expect much from a home in which children are hungry and ragged and dirty. Neither can we expect the best results from a city whose workers are underpaid, poorly fed, badly housed. Crime and ignorance and big police costs will inevitably result from such conditions. The wisest and safest plan is first to give our multitudes employment at a living wage; feed and clothe them at the lowest possible cost to themselves, and furnish them with wholesome, satisfying amusements. If, as a city we can do this, every other good thing will be added unto us. For then we shall have the REAL democracy.

I do not believe there is a woman here who can criticise this program, and if you are true to yourselves you will try and see that it is put into effect as soon as possible.

Josephine Conger-Kaneko, “What a Socialist Alderman Would Do,” The Coming Nation: A Magazine for the Creators of the New Social Order 1, no. 5 (March 1914): 10, 13.

READING AND DISCUSSION QUESTIONS