James H. Maurer
James Maurer | |
---|---|
Member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives | |
In office 1911–1913 | |
In office 1915–1919 | |
Personal details | |
Born | James Hudson Maurer April 15, 1864 Reading, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
Died | March 6, 1944 Reading, Pennsylvania, U.S. | (aged 79)
Political party | Populist (1891–1899) Socialist Labor (1899–1901) Socialist (1901–1944) |
James Hudson Maurer (April 15, 1864 – March 16, 1944) was a prominent American
Biography
Early years
James H. Maurer was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, on April 15, 1864, and was one of three brothers.[1][2] His father, James D. Maurer, was a shoemaker who later served as a Police officer in Reading.[3] Maurer first went to work at the age of 6 as a newsboy, becoming an assistant to a plumber at the age of 10, later becoming a full-fledged plumber. The Maurers were of Pennsylvania Dutch ethnic extraction and the family had ancestors in America dating back nearly two centuries.[2]
Socialist and labor politics
Maurer joined the
From 1901, Maurer was a member of the Plumbers and Steamfitters Union. Throughout his later life, he was strongly supportive of the American Federation of Labor and he came to strongly disapprove of the SLP's efforts to establish a competing socialist trade union to the AF of L, the Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance, and left the SLP to join the Socialist Party of America (SPA) in 1901 over this issue.[6] He ran for governor of Pennsylvania on the Socialist Party ticket in 1906, receiving nearly 26,000 votes.[7]
In November 1910, Maurer was elected as a Socialist to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, serving during 1912.[8] During his term in the legislature, Maurer fought for the passage of a plan for Old Age Pensions and attempted to prevent the establishment of a State Constabulary, which was seen as a mechanism for the armed and organized breaking of strikes.[2]
Also in 1912, Maurer was elected as president of the
Anti-militarist activities
In January 1916, Maurer was part of a three-person delegation to President Woodrow Wilson to advocate part of the Socialist Party's peace program, proposing that "the President of the United States convoke a congress of neutral nations, which shall offer mediation to the belligerents and remain in permanent session until the termination of the war". A resolution to this effect had been offered in the House of Representatives by the SPA's only congressman, Meyer London of New York, and Wilson received London, Maurer and the party leader, Morris Hillquit, at the White House, along with various other delegations.
Maurer was the only member of the Pennsylvania legislature to vote against a resolution supporting American severance of diplomatic relations with Germany in the run up to American entry into the war. When he attempted to explain his voting rationale on the floor, Maurer was rudely shouted down by his colleagues and ruled out of order by the chair.[9]
Hillquit later recalled that Wilson was at first "inclined to give us a short and perfunctory hearing" but as the Socialists made their case to him, the session "developed into a serious and confidential conversation". Wilson told the group that he had already considered a similar plan but chose not to put it into effect because he was not sure of its reception by other neutral nations. "The fact is," Wilson claimed, "that the United States is the only important country that may be said to be neutral and disinterested. Practically all other neutral countries are in one way or another tied up with some belligerent power and dependent on it."[10]
On July 30, 1917, a public Maurer speaking event in
Maurer's outspoken opposition to the war hampered his support among his legislative constituents and he found his re-election efforts further challenged by a ban on public meetings enacted in an effort to slow the spread of deadly influenza. As a result, Maurer was defeated in his November 1918 bid to win another term in the legislature at Reading.[12]
Post-war political career
In his capacity as head of the Pennsylvania Federation of Labor, Maurer was very active in the
Maurer was elected multiple times to the governing National Executive Committee of the SPA. He was also president of the Workers' Education Bureau of America and Brookwood Labor College from 1921. He was on the governing National Committee of the
In September 1927, Maurer, as its chairman, headed an American workers' delegation and visited the Soviet Union. He exchanged opinions with its leader, Joseph Stalin.[13] Maurer was elected to the Reading City Council in November 1927, part of a sweep by the Socialist Party which won the administration of the city.[2]
In
In 1938, the
Maurer retained his faith in socialism into the New Deal of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, writing in 1938:
There can be no doubt that if the cards were dealt honestly and the game played on the level without marked cards, the New Deal would be a vast improvement over the Old. But if President Roosevelt believes that those who profited under the old deal and never played the game square in their lives will now play fair with him, he is due for a rude awakening. I believe President Roosevelt is sincere and that he really hopes to lift the suffering masses out of their desperate poverty and yet save capitalism ...
Just how President Roosevelt and his advisers hope to lift the exploited and oppressed out of the mire by increasing profits and raising the cost of living is too deep for me. If they believe employers will increase wages as their profits increase, then they believe the leopard can change his spots. They should know that increased profits only increase the appetite for profits. The desire for the accumulation of great wealth seems like a disease, and disease has never been cured by increasing its virulence. ...[T]he one lasting solution is the end of the profit system.[14]
Death
Maurer died on March 16, 1944, in Reading, Pennsylvania.[1] The eulogy at his funeral was delivered by Birch Wilson, a long-time party comrade from Reading.[15] Maurer's family were Lutherans.[16]
Works
- Unemployment and the Mechanical Man Our strike-breaking governments n.d.
- The Far East (PDF). Reading, Pa.: Press of Sentinel Print. Co. 1912.
- The Constabulary of Pennsylvania. Reading, Pa. (with Charles Maurer)
- The American Cossack, Pennsylvania Federation of Labor, 1915.
- Things We Care About. (with others) [New York : People's Council of America for Democracy and Peace, 1917.
- Report of the Pennsylvania Commission on Old Age Pensions, March, 1919. Harrisburg, Penn.: J.L.L. Kuhn, Printer to the Commonwealth. 1919.
- A Heart to Heart Talk with Trade Unionists Chicago: Socialist Party National Office, 1920.
- Report on the Workers' Educational Classes in Pennsylvania during 1920-1921 Reading, PA: Peoples Printing Company, 1921.
- The Open Shop? Harrisburg, Pa., Pennsylvania Federation of Labor 1921.
- Report of the Pennsylvania commission on old age pensions. February, 1921 Harrisburg, Penna., J.L.L. Kuhn, Printer to the commonwealth, 1921.
- Report of the Pennsylvania Commission on Old Age Pensions, January, 1927. Harrisburg, PA: 1927.
- Unemployment and the mechanical man Chicago: Socialist Party of America, 1930.
- Socialism vs. capitalism Brooklyn: Socialist Party, Kings County, 1932.
- It Can Be Done: The Autobiography of James Hudson Maurer. New York: Rand School Press. 1938.
Further reading
Footnotes
- ^ a b c "James H. Maurer, 79, A Socialist Leader. Vice Presidential Candidate Twice. Union Official". The New York Times. March 17, 1944.
- ^ a b c d e f "Maurer Outstanding Leader of Progressive Labor: Socialist Vice Presidential Nominnee Bitter Opponent of State Constabulary 'Cossacks' — A Worker Since Childhood," The New Leader and American Appeal, vol. 1, no. 21 (April 21, 1928), pg. 3.
- ^ James Maurer (1938). It Can Be Done. New York: Rand School Press.
- ^ James Maurer. It Can Be Done. p. 87 and passim.
- ^ James Maurer, It Can Be Done, pg. 118.
- ^ James Maurer. It Can Be Done. p. 139.
- ^ James Maurer. It Can Be Done. p. 146.
- ^ "Socialists Elected". Socialist Party Official Bulletin. Vol. 7, no. 5. January 1911. p. 2.
- ^ Kenneth E. Hendrickson, Jr (October 1969). "The Socialists of Reading, Pennsylvanian and World War I: A Question of Loyalty". Pennsylvania History. 36 (4): 438.
- ^ Morris Hillquit (1934). Loose Leaves from a Busy Life. New York: Macmillan. p. 161.
- ^ "5,000 Citizens Insulted: Open Air Mass Meeting Broken Up by Hoodlumism. Right to Free Speech Denied". Seattle Daily Call. July 31, 1917.
- ^ "Maurer Defeated". The Eye Opener. No. 300. Chicago. November 1918. p. 3.
- ^ J V Stalin (September 15, 1927). "Questions & Answers to American Trade Unionists: Stalin's Interview With the First American Trade Union Delegation to Soviet Russia". Pravda. Retrieved 14 June 2019 – via Marxists Internet Archive.
- ^ James Maurer. It Can Be Done. pp. 318–319.
- ^ Wayne E. Homan (October 14, 1970). "Birch Wilson is Last Socialist Pioneer". Reading Eagle. p. section 3, page 39.
- ^ Book of Biographies. Biographical Publishing Company. 1898. pp. 451–2. Retrieved 2022-10-25 – via Google Books.
Further reading
- Kenneth Hendrickson (Winter 1969). "James H. Maurer: Socialist Labor Leader". Historical Review of Berks County. Archived from the original on November 20, 2011.
- Kenneth E. Hendrickson, Jr (October 1969). "The Socialists of Reading, Pennsylvanian and World War I: A Question of Loyalty". Pennsylvania History. 36 (4). Penn State University Press: 430–450. JSTOR 27771814– via JSTOR.
- Kenneth E. Hendrickson, Jr (October 1972). "The Socialist Administration in Reading, Pennsylvania, Part I, 1927-1931". Pennsylvania History. 39 (4). Penn State University Press: 417–442. JSTOR 27772061– via JSTOR.
- Kenneth E. Hendrickson, Jr (October 1973). "Triumph and Disaster: The Reading Socialists in Power and Decline, Part II, 1932-1939". Pennsylvania History. 40 (4). Penn State University Press: 380–411. JSTOR 27772153– via JSTOR.
- Henry Gruber Stetler (1943). The Socialist Movement in Reading, Pennsylvania, 1896-1936: A Study in Social Change (PhD thesis). Storrs, CT.