Victor Luitpold Berger (February 28, 1860August 7, 1929) was an
Austrian–American socialist
Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...
politician and journalist who was a founding member of the
Social Democratic Party of America
Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not.
Etymology
The word "social" derives fro ...
and its successor, the
Socialist Party of America
The Socialist Party of America (SPA) was a socialist political party in the United States formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party of America ...
. Born in the
Austrian Empire
The Austrian Empire, officially known as the Empire of Austria, was a Multinational state, multinational European Great Powers, great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the Habsburg monarchy, realms of the Habsburgs. Duri ...
(present-day
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...
), Berger immigrated to the United States as a young man and became an important and influential socialist
journalist
A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism.
Roles
Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...
in Wisconsin. He helped establish the so-called
Sewer Socialist movement, and also sparked the
American Socialist Party's
nativist turn. In
1910
Events
January
* January 6 – Abé people in the French West Africa colony of Côte d'Ivoire rise against the colonial administration; the rebellion is brutally suppressed by the military.
* January 8 – By the Treaty of Punakha, t ...
, he was elected as the first Socialist to the
U.S. House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of th ...
, representing a district in
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Milwaukee is the List of cities in Wisconsin, most populous city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, it is the List of United States cities by population, 31st-most populous city in the United States ...
.
In 1919, Berger was convicted of violating the
Espionage Act of 1917
The Espionage Act of 1917 is a United States federal law enacted on June 15, 1917, shortly after the United States entered World War I. It has been amended numerous times over the years. It was originally found in Title 50 of the U.S. Code ( ...
for publicizing his
anti-interventionist views and as a result was denied the seat to which he had been twice elected in the
House of Representatives
House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...
. The verdict was eventually overturned by the
Supreme Court
In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
in 1921 in ''
Berger v. United States
''Berger v. United States'', 255 U.S. 22 (1921), is a Supreme Court of the United States, United States Supreme Court decision overruling a trial court decision by U.S. District Court Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis against Rep. Victor L. Berger, ...
'', and Berger was elected to three successive terms in the 1920s.
Early years
Berger was born into a Jewish family on February 28, 1860, in Niederrehbach,
Austrian Empire
The Austrian Empire, officially known as the Empire of Austria, was a Multinational state, multinational European Great Powers, great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the Habsburg monarchy, realms of the Habsburgs. Duri ...
(modern
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...
).
He was the son of Julia and Ignatz Berger. He attended the
Gymnasium at
Leutschau (today in
Slovakia
Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...
), and the major universities of
Budapest
Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...
and
Vienna
Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...
. In 1878, he immigrated to the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
with his parents,
settling near
Bridgeport
Bridgeport is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Connecticut and the fifth-most populous city in New England, with a population of 148,654 in 2020. Located in eastern Fairfield County at the mouth of the Pequonnock River on Long Is ...
,
Connecticut
Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...
.
Berger's wife,
Meta, later claimed that Berger had left Austria-Hungary to avoid
conscription
Conscription, also known as the draft in the United States and Israel, is the practice in which the compulsory enlistment in a national service, mainly a military service, is enforced by law. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it conti ...
into the military.
In 1881, Berger settled in
Milwaukee
Milwaukee is the List of cities in Wisconsin, most populous city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, it is the List of United States cities by population, 31st-most populous city in the United States ...
,
Wisconsin
Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...
, home to a large population of German Americans and a very active labor movement. Berger joined the
Socialist Labor Party
The Socialist Labor Party (SLP)"The name of this organization shall be Socialist Labor Party". Art. I, Sec. 1 of thadopted at the Eleventh National Convention (New York, July 1904; amended at the National Conventions 1908, 1912, 1916, 1920, 192 ...
(then headed by
Daniel de Leon
Daniel De Leon (; December 14, 1852 – May 11, 1914), alternatively spelt Daniel de León, was a Curaçaoan-American socialist newspaper editor, politician, Marxist theoretician (Marxism), theoretician, and trade union organizer. He is regarde ...
). In 1892, Berger became the editor of ''Milwaukee Arbeiter-Zeitung'', and changed its name to ''Vorwärts !'' He also served as editor of another paper: ''Die Wahrheit''
'The Truth'' Berger taught German in the public school system. His future father-in-law was the school commissioner.
In 1897, he married a former student,
Meta Schlichting, an active socialist organizer in Milwaukee. For many years, she was a member of the
University of Wisconsin
A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...
Board of Regents. The couple raised two daughters,
Doris (who later went on to write television shows such as ''
General Hospital
''General Hospital'' (often abbreviated as ''GH'') is an American daytime television soap opera created by Frank and Doris Hursley which has been broadcast on American Broadcasting Company, ABC since April 1, 1963. Originally a half-hour seria ...
'', with her husband
Frank) and Elsa, speaking only German in the home. The parents were strongly oriented to European culture.
Socialist organizing
Berger was credited by trade union leader
Eugene V. Debs for having won him over to the cause of socialism. Jailed for six months for violating a federal anti-strike
injunction
An injunction is an equitable remedy in the form of a special court order compelling a party to do or refrain from doing certain acts. It was developed by the English courts of equity but its origins go back to Roman law and the equitable rem ...
in the 1894 strike of the
American Railway Union
The American Railway Union (ARU) was briefly among the largest labor unions of its time and one of the first Industrial unionism, industrial unions in the United States. Launched at a meeting held in Chicago in February 1893, the ARU won an early ...
, Debs turned to reading:
Books and pamphlets and letters from socialists came by every mail and I began to read and think and dissect the anatomy of the system in which workingmen, however organized, could be shattered and battered and splintered on a single stroke ../nowiki> It was at this time, when the first glimmerings of socialism were beginning to penetrate, that Victor L. Berger — and I have loved him ever since — came to Woodstock rison as if a providential instrument, and delivered the first impassioned message of socialism I had ever heard — the very first to set the wires humming in my system. As a souvenir of that visit there is in my library a volume of ''Capital
Capital and its variations may refer to:
Common uses
* Capital city, a municipality of primary status
** Capital region, a metropolitan region containing the capital
** List of national capitals
* Capital letter, an upper-case letter
Econom ...
'' by Karl Marx
Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...
, inscribed with the compliments of Victor L. Berger, which I cherish as a token of priceless value.
In 1896, Berger was a delegate to the
People's Party Convention in
St. Louis
St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...
.
[
Berger was short and stocky, with a studious demeanor, and had both a self-deprecating sense of humor and a volatile temper. Although loyal to friends, he was strongly opinionated and intolerant of dissenting views. His ideological sparring partner and comrade Morris Hillquit later recalled of Berger that
]He was sublimely egotistical, but somehow his egotism did not smack of conceit and was not offensive. It was the expression of deep and naive faith in himself, and this unshakable faith was one of the mainsprings of his power over men.
Berger was a founding member of the Social Democracy of America in 1897 and led the split of the "political action" faction of that organization to form the Social Democratic Party of America
Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not.
Etymology
The word "social" derives fro ...
(SDP) in 1898. He was a member of the governing National Executive Committee of the SDP for its entire duration.
Berger was a founder of the Socialist Party of America
The Socialist Party of America (SPA) was a socialist political party in the United States formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party of America ...
in 1901 and played a critical role in the negotiations with an east coast dissident faction of the Socialist Labor Party
The Socialist Labor Party (SLP)"The name of this organization shall be Socialist Labor Party". Art. I, Sec. 1 of thadopted at the Eleventh National Convention (New York, July 1904; amended at the National Conventions 1908, 1912, 1916, 1920, 192 ...
in the establishment of this new political party. Berger was regarded as one of the party's leading revisionist Marxists, an advocate of the trade union
A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...
-oriented and incremental politics of Eduard Bernstein
Eduard Bernstein (; 6 January 1850 – 18 December 1932) was a German Marxist theorist and politician. A prominent member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), he has been both condemned and praised as a "Revisionism (Marxism), revisi ...
. He advocated the use of electoral politics to implement reforms and thus gradually build a collectivist society.
Relative to other contemporary socialist politicians, Berger was a racial conservative. He regularly fought Eugene V. Debs on the subject. Berger was terrified of Asian immigrants, who he believed would out-reproduce white Americans and further complicate the socialist movement's cross-racial solidarity
Solidarity or solidarism is an awareness of shared interests, objectives, standards, and sympathies creating a psychological sense of unity of groups or classes. True solidarity means moving beyond individual identities and single issue politics ...
. Between 1907 and 1912, he masterminded racially-discriminatory immigration restrictions in the Socialist Party platform
A political party platform (American English), party program, or party manifesto (preferential term in British and often Commonwealth English) is a formal set of principal goals which are supported by a political party or individual candidate, t ...
. His views on Jim Crow
The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws introduced in the Southern United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that enforced racial segregation, " Jim Crow" being a pejorative term for an African American. The last of the ...
were only slightly more nuanced: while Berger wrote in a 1902 editorial that "There can be no doubt that the negroes and mulattoes constitute a lower race — that the Caucasian and even the Mongolian have the start on them in civilization by many years," he does not appear to have believed that this justified "the barbarous behavior of American whites towards the negroes".[ Instead, Berger argued that segregation was a symptom of an elite capture that left the American ]legal system
A legal system is a set of legal norms and institutions and processes by which those norms are applied, often within a particular jurisdiction or community. It may also be referred to as a legal order. The comparative study of legal systems is th ...
indifferent to the poor of every race.[ For a less charitable reading of the editorial, see ]
Berger was a man of the written word and back room negotiation, not a notable public speaker. He retained a heavy Austrian accent and had a voice which did not project well. As a rule he did not accept outdoor speaking engagements and was a poor campaigner, preferring one-on-one relationships to mass oratory. Berger was, however, a newspaper editorialist ''par excellence''. Throughout his life he published and edited a number of different papers, including the German language ''Vorwärts!'' ("Forward") (1892-1911), the ''Social-Democratic Herald'' (1901-1913), and the '' Milwaukee Leader'' (1911-1929).
First term in Congress
Berger first ran for public office in April 1904 when he campaigned for mayor of Milwaukee, coming in third place with 23% of the vote. That November
November is the eleventh and penultimate month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. Its length is 30 days. November was the ninth month of the calendar of Romulus . November retained its name (from the Latin ''novem'' meaning " ...
, he ran for Congress in Wisconsin's 5th congressional district
Wisconsin's 5th congressional district is a congressional district of the United States House of Representatives in Wisconsin, covering most of Milwaukee's northern and western suburbs. It presently covers all of Washington County, Wisconsin, W ...
and lost again, but came in second place with 28% of the vote. He finally won in 1910
Events
January
* January 6 – Abé people in the French West Africa colony of Côte d'Ivoire rise against the colonial administration; the rebellion is brutally suppressed by the military.
* January 8 – By the Treaty of Punakha, t ...
, becoming the first Socialist to serve in the United States Congress. In Congress, he focused on issues related to the District of Columbia
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...
and also more radical proposals, including eliminating the President's veto
A veto is a legal power to unilaterally stop an official action. In the most typical case, a president (government title), president or monarch vetoes a bill (law), bill to stop it from becoming statutory law, law. In many countries, veto powe ...
, abolishing the Senate
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
, and the social takeover of major industries. Berger gained national publicity for his old-age pension bill, the first of its kind introduced into Congress. Less than two weeks after the ''Titanic
RMS ''Titanic'' was a British ocean liner that sank in the early hours of 15 April 1912 as a result of striking an iceberg on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United States. Of the estimated 2,224 passengers a ...
'' passenger ship disaster, Berger introduced a bill in Congress providing for the nationalization
Nationalization (nationalisation in British English)
is the process of transforming privately owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization contrasts with p ...
of the radio-wireless systems. A practical socialist, Berger argued that the wireless chaos which was one of the features of the ''Titanic'' disaster had demonstrated the need for a government-owned wireless system.
Although he did not win re-election in 1912
This year is notable for Sinking of the Titanic, the sinking of the ''Titanic'', which occurred on April 15.
In Albania, this leap year runs with only 353 days as the country achieved switching from the Julian to Gregorian Calendar by skippin ...
, 1914
This year saw the beginning of what became known as the First World War, after Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the Austrian throne was Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, assassinated by Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip ...
or 1916
Events
Below, the events of the First World War have the "WWI" prefix.
January
* January 1 – The British Empire, British Royal Army Medical Corps carries out the first successful blood transfusion, using blood that has been stored ...
, he remained active in Wisconsin and Socialist Party politics. Berger was especially involved in the biggest party controversy of the pre-war years, the fight between the SP's centrist "regular" bloc against the syndicalist
Syndicalism is a labour movement within society that, through industrial unionism, seeks to unionize workers according to industry and advance their demands through strikes and other forms of direct action, with the eventual goal of gainin ...
left wing over the issue of "sabotage". The bitter battle erupted in full force at the 1912 National Convention of the Socialist Party, to which Berger was again a delegate. At issue was language to be inserted into the party constitution which called for the expulsion of "any member of the party who opposes political action or advocates crime, sabotage
Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening a polity, government, effort, or organization through subversion, obstruction, demoralization (warfare), demoralization, destabilization, divide and rule, division, social disruption, disrupti ...
, or other methods of violence as a weapon of the working class to aid in its emancipation." The debate was vitriolic, with Berger, somewhat unsurprisingly, stating the matter in its most bellicose form:
The regulars won the day handily at the Indianapolis convention of 1912, with a successful recall of IWW leader "Big Bill" Haywood from the SP's National Executive Committee and an exodus of disaffected left wingers following shortly thereafter. The remaining radicals in the party remembered bitterly Berger's role in this affair and the ill feelings continued to fester until erupting anew at the end of the decade.
World War I
Although Berger's views on World War I were complicated by the Socialist view and the difficulties surrounding his Austrian heritage, he supported his party's stance against the war. When the United States entered the war and passed the Espionage Act of 1917
The Espionage Act of 1917 is a United States federal law enacted on June 15, 1917, shortly after the United States entered World War I. It has been amended numerous times over the years. It was originally found in Title 50 of the U.S. Code ( ...
, Berger's continued opposition made him a target. He and four other Socialists were indicted under the Espionage Act in February 1918. The trial followed on December 9 of that year, and on February 20, 1919, Berger was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in federal prison.
During the 1918 United States Senate special election in Wisconsin, Berger ran for the seat despite being under federal indictment. His newspaper, the ''Milwaukee Leader'', had printed a number of anti-war articles, leading the postal service to revoke the paper's second-class mail privileges. Despite these circumstances, Berger won 26% of the vote statewide in an April special election to fill a Senate vacancy, including winning 11 counties, in a three-way race.
The espionage trial was presided over by Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis
Kenesaw Mountain Landis (; November 20, 1866 – November 25, 1944) was an American jurist who served as a United States federal judge from 1905 to 1922 and the first Commissioner of Baseball, commissioner of baseball from 1920 until his death. ...
. Berger's conviction was appealed and was ultimately overturned by the US Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all Federal tribunals in the United States, U.S. federal court cases, and over Stat ...
on January 31, 1921, which found that Landis had improperly presided over the case after the filing of an affidavit of prejudice.
Even though Berger was under indictment, the voters of Milwaukee once again elected him to the House of Representatives in 1918
The ceasefire that effectively ended the World War I, First World War took place on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of this year. Also in this year, the Spanish flu pandemic killed 50–100 million people wor ...
. When he arrived in Washington to claim his seat, Congress formed a special committee to determine whether a convicted felon and war opponent should be seated as a member of Congress. On November 10, 1919, they concluded that he should not, and they declared the seat vacant, disqualifying him pursuant to Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Fourteenth Amendment (Amendment XIV) to the United States Constitution was adopted on July 9, 1868, as one of the Reconstruction Amendments. Considered one of the most consequential amendments, it addresses Citizenship of the United States ...
.
Wisconsin promptly held a special election to fill the vacant seat. On December 19, 1919, they elected Berger a second time, and on January 10, 1920, the House again refused to seat him. The seat remained vacant until January 1921, after his previous electoral opponent, Republican William H. Stafford, once again prevailed over Berger in the 1920 general election.
Second stint in Congress
Berger defeated Stafford in 1922 and was reelected in 1924 and 1926. In those terms, he dealt with Constitutional changes, a proposed old-age pension, unemployment insurance
Unemployment, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), is the proportion of people above a specified age (usually 15) not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for work du ...
, and public housing
Public housing, also known as social housing, refers to Subsidized housing, subsidized or affordable housing provided in buildings that are usually owned and managed by local government, central government, nonprofit organizations or a ...
. He also supported the diplomatic recognition
Diplomatic recognition in international law is a unilateral declarative political act of a state that acknowledges an act or status of another state or government in control of a state (may be also a recognized state). Recognition can be acc ...
of the Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
and the revision of the Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles was a peace treaty signed on 28 June 1919. As the most important treaty of World War I, it ended the state of war between Germany and most of the Allies of World War I, Allied Powers. It was signed in the Palace ...
. After his defeat by Stafford in 1928, he returned to Milwaukee and resumed his career as a newspaper editor. He became national chairman of the Socialist Party upon the death of Eugene V. Debs in 1926, holding the office until his own death in 1929.
Death
On July 16, 1929, while crossing the street outside his newspaper office, Berger was struck by a streetcar
A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some include s ...
travelling on North Third Street (now Dr. Martin Luther King Drive) at the intersection with West Clarke Street in Milwaukee. The accident fractured his skull, and he died of his injuries on August 7, 1929. Prior to burial at Forest Home Cemetery
Forest Home Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery and arboretum located in the Lincoln Village, City of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Lincoln Village neighborhood of Milwaukee, Wisconsin and is the final resting place of many of the city's famed bee ...
his body lay in state at City Hall. 75,000 residents of the city came to pay their respect.
Legacy
According to historian Sally Miller:
:Berger built the most successful socialist machine ever to dominate an American city.... econcentrated on national politics...to become one of the most powerful voices in the reformist wing of the national Socialist party. His commitment to democratic values and the non-violent socialization of the American system led the party away from revolutionary Marxist dogma. He shaped the party into force which, while struggling against its own left wing, symbolize participation in the political order to attain social reforms.... In the party schism of 1919, Berger opposed allegiance to the emergent Soviet system. His shrunken party echoed his preference for peaceful, democratic, and gradual transformation to socialism.
Berger's papers are housed at the Wisconsin Historical Society
The Wisconsin Historical Society (officially the State Historical Society of Wisconsin) is simultaneously a state agency and a private membership organization whose purpose is to maintain, promote and spread knowledge relating to the history of ...
, with smaller numbers of items dispersed to other locations.[ US Congress item B000407]
The complete run of the '' Milwaukee Leader'' exists on microfilm published by the Wisconsin Historical Society and on site at the University of Wisconsin
A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...
in Madison.''The Milwaukee Leader,''
University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries, MadCat.
Works
Victor Berger's writing was voluminous, but rarely reproduced in book or pamphlet form outside of the newspapers in which it first appeared. In 1912, the Social-Democratic Publishing Company published a collection of his works entitled ''Berger's Broadsides''. In 1929, the Milwaukee Leader published the ''Voice and Pen of Victor L. Berger: Congressional Speeches and Editorials (1860–1929)'' which also included an obituary. ''Broadsides'' included Berger's phrase regarding draining the swamp in reference to his assertion that the economic crises such as the Panic of 1893
The Panic of 1893 was an economic depression in the United States. It began in February 1893 and officially ended eight months later. The Panic of 1896 followed. It was the most serious economic depression in history until the Great Depression of ...
, were "hastened" by excessive profits—the $900,000,000 to Standard Oil
Standard Oil Company was a Trust (business), corporate trust in the petroleum industry that existed from 1882 to 1911. The origins of the trust lay in the operations of the Standard Oil of Ohio, Standard Oil Company (Ohio), which had been founde ...
"magnates". According to Daniel Yergin
Daniel Howard Yergin (born February 6, 1947) is an American author, economic historian, and consultant within the energy and economic sectors. Yergin is vice chairman of S&P Global. He was formerly vice chairman of IHS Markit, which merged with ...
in his Pulitzer Prize-winning '' The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power'' (1990), at the time the general public considered the Standard Oil conglomerate, which was controlled by a small group of directors, to be "all-pervasive" and "completely unaccountable".
See also
*Meyer London
Meyer London (December 29, 1871 – June 6, 1926) was a Lithuanian-born American politician from New York City. He represented the Lower East Side of Manhattan and was one of only two members of the Socialist Party of America elected to the Unit ...
*Espionage Act of 1917
The Espionage Act of 1917 is a United States federal law enacted on June 15, 1917, shortly after the United States entered World War I. It has been amended numerous times over the years. It was originally found in Title 50 of the U.S. Code ( ...
*First Red Scare
The first Red Scare was a period during History of the United States (1918–1945), the early 20th-century history of the United States marked by a widespread fear of Far-left politics, far-left movements, including Bolsheviks, Bolshevism a ...
*List of Jewish members of the United States Congress
This is a list of Jewish members of the United States Congress. , there are 10 American Jews, Jewish senators and 25 Jewish members of the House of Representatives serving in the United States Congress.
Senate
Elected to the Senate, but not ...
*Palmer Raids
The Palmer Raids were a series of raids conducted in November 1919 and January 1920 by the United States Department of Justice under the administration of President Woodrow Wilson to capture and arrest suspected socialists, especially anarchist ...
* Sewer Socialism
*Socialist Party of America
The Socialist Party of America (SPA) was a socialist political party in the United States formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party of America ...
* Social-Democratic Party of Wisconsin
*Unseated members of the United States Congress
Both houses of the United States Congress have refused to seat new members based on Article I, Section 5 of the United States Constitution which states that:
"Each House shall be the judge of the elections, returns and qualifications of its own m ...
Footnotes
Further reading
*
* Benoit, Edward A.
A Democracy of Its Own: Milwaukee's Socialisms, Difference and Pragmatism
. Thesis. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2009.
* Brookhiser, Richard.
Thunder on the Left: Victor Berger
. ''HistoryNet'', February 8, 2019.
* Kates, James.
Editor, publisher, citizen, socialist: Victor L. Berger and his Milwaukee Leader
" ''Journalism History'' 44.2 (2018): 79–88.
*
*
* Muzik, Edward J. "Victor L. Berger: A Biography". (Ph.D. dissertation, Northwestern University, 1960; ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 1960. 6004782).
* Muzik, Edward J.
Victor L. Berger: Congress and the Red Scare
. ''Wisconsin Magazine of History'', vol. 47, no. 4 (Summer 1964).
* Nash, Roderick.
Victor L. Berger: Making Marx Respectable
. ''Wisconsin Magazine of History'', vol. 47, no. 4 (Summer 1964).
*
*
* Wachman, Marvin. ''History of the Social Democratic Party of Milwaukee, 1897–1910''. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1945.
Primary sources
* Berger, Victor L.
A Leading American Socialist's View Of the Peace Problem
" ''Current History'' 27.4 (1928): 471–477.
* Stedman, Seymour. "[ Victor L. Berger Plaintiffs in Error, Vs. United States of America, Defendant in Error: Error to the District Court of the United States for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division. Brief for Plaintiffs in Error]" (1918).
* Stevens, Michael E. & Ellen D. Goldlust-Gingrich, (eds.). ''The Family Letters of Victor and Meta Berger, 1894–1929''. Madison: Wisconsin Historical Society, 2009.
External links
Victor Berger Archive
at marxists.org
*
Representative Victor Berger of Wisconsin, the First Socialist Member of Congress
U.S. House of Representatives Archives
U.S Senate
* Spargo, John
"Hon. Victor L. Berger: The First Socialist Member of Congress,"
''The American Magazine'', 1911.
''Time Magazine'', Aug. 19, 1929.
* Dreier, Peter
''Huffpost'', May 6, 2012.
* Glende, Philip M
"Victor Berger's Dangerous Ideas"
*
Constitutional Minutes episode about Victor Berger at the American Archive of Public Broadcasting
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Berger, Victor L.
1860 births
1929 deaths
19th-century American newspaper editors
20th-century American newspaper editors
American anti-capitalists
American anti–World War I activists
American people of Romanian-Jewish descent
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Pedestrian road incident deaths
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Burials at Forest Home Cemetery
20th-century members of the United States House of Representatives
Candidates in the 1914 United States House of Representatives elections