A Socialist Administration

Abstract

BY KENNETH E. HENDRICKSON, JR.* ON NOVEMBER 4, 1927, the voters of Reading named 0 J. Henry Stump, Socialist, their Mayor. In addition, party members George S. Snyder and James H. Maurer were elected to the City Council, George D. Snyder and Raymond Hofses won seats on the School Board, and W. R. Hollinger became City Controller. Also, it appeared for a time that William C. Hoverter had been elected Treasurer, but a recount of the ballots denied him the office.'. Reading thus became the third major city in the United States to have a Socialist administration. The victory of the Socialists came as the result of years of intense activity coupled with the skillful use of propaganda and the development of a significant issue. It was, nevertheless, a rarity in American politics, and even more so, when it is realized that in 1927 the Socialist party in Reading had only about fifty dues-paying members!2 Let us examine this remarkable political phenomenon more closely. The origins of the party in Reading go back to the late Nineteenth Century. From as early as the 1870's, there was a small group of labor radicals in the city who were at various times associated with the Knights of Labor, the Populist party, the Socialist Labor party, the Social Democracy, and finally, the Socialist Party of America. Within a decade after 1901, when the latter affiliation took place, a small group of dedicated and skillful men had emerged in positions of leadership among the radicals. Indeed, for a time, these men were themselves about