Victor Berger | |
|---|---|
 Portrait byHarris & Ewingc. 1910s | |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromWisconsin's5th district | |
| In office March 4, 1923 – March 3, 1929 | |
| Preceded by | William H. Stafford |
| Succeeded by | William H. Stafford |
| In office March 4, 1919 – November 10, 1919 Unseated | |
| Preceded by | William H. Stafford |
| Succeeded by | William H. Stafford (1921) |
| In office March 4, 1911 – March 3, 1913 | |
| Preceded by | William H. Stafford |
| Succeeded by | William H. Stafford |
| National Chairman of the Socialist Party of America | |
| In office October 20, 1926 – August 7, 1929 | |
| Preceded by | Eugene V. Debs |
| Succeeded by | Morris Hillquit |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Victor Luitpold Berger (1860-02-28)February 28, 1860 Nieder-Rehbach,Austrian Empire (nowRomania) |
| Died | August 7, 1929(1929-08-07) (aged 69) |
| Political party | Socialist Labor(1881–1897) Social Democracy(1897–1898) Social Democratic(1898–1901) Socialist(1901–1929) |
| Other political affiliations | Populist(1896) Social-Democratic Party of Wisconsin(1897–1929) |
| Spouse | |
Victor Luitpold Berger (February 28, 1860 – August 7, 1929) was anAustrian–Americansocialist politician and journalist who was a founding member of theSocial Democratic Party of America and its successor, theSocialist Party of America. Born in theAustrian Empire (present-dayRomania), Berger immigrated to the United States as a young man and became an important and influential socialistjournalist in Wisconsin. He helped establish the so-calledSewer Socialist movement, and also sparked theAmerican Socialist Party'snativist turn. In1910, he was elected as the first Socialist to theU.S. House of Representatives, representing a district inMilwaukee, Wisconsin.
In 1919, Berger was convicted of violating theEspionage Act of 1917 for publicizing hisanti-interventionist views and was denied the seat to which he had been reelected in theHouse of Representatives. The criminal verdict was eventually overturned by theSupreme Court in 1921 inBerger v. United States. Berger was subsequently elected to three successive terms in the 1920s, for which he was seated.[1]
Berger was born into a Jewish family[2][3] on February 28, 1860, in Nieder-Rehbach,Austrian Empire (modernRomania).[4][5] He was the son of Julia and Ignatz Berger.[6] He attended theGymnasium atLeutschau (today inSlovakia), and the major universities ofBudapest andVienna.[7] In 1878, he immigrated to theUnited States with his parents,[5][8] settling nearBridgeport,Connecticut.[9]
Berger's wife,Meta, later claimed that Berger had left Austria-Hungary to avoidconscription into the military.[10]
In 1881, Berger settled inMilwaukee,Wisconsin, home to a large population of German Americans and a very active labor movement. Berger joined theSocialist Labor Party (then headed byDaniel de Leon). In 1892, Berger became the editor ofMilwaukee Arbeiter-Zeitung, and changed its name toVorwärts![11][12] 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 theUniversity of Wisconsin Board of Regents.[13] The couple raised two daughters,Doris (who later went on to write television shows such asGeneral Hospital, with her husbandFrank) and Elsa, speaking only German in the home. The parents were strongly oriented to European culture.[14]
Berger was credited by trade union leaderEugene V. Debs for having won him over to the cause of socialism. Jailed for six months for violating a federal anti-strikeinjunction in the 1894 strike of theAmerican Railway Union, 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 [...] 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 [prison], 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 ofCapital byKarl Marx, inscribed with the compliments of Victor L. Berger, which I cherish as a token of priceless value.[15]
In 1896, Berger was a delegate to thePeople's Party Convention inSt. Louis.[16]
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.[17] His ideological sparring partner and comradeMorris 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.[18]
Berger was a founding member of theSocial Democracy of America in 1897 and led the split of the "political action" faction of that organization to form theSocial Democratic Party of America (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 theSocialist Party of America in 1901 and played a critical role in the negotiations with an east coast dissident faction of theSocialist Labor Party in the establishment of this new political party. Berger was regarded as one of the party's leadingrevisionist Marxists, an advocate of thetrade union-oriented and incremental politics ofEduard Bernstein. He advocated the use of electoral politics to implement reforms and thus gradually build a collectivist society.[19]
Relative to other contemporary socialist politicians, Berger was a racial conservative. He regularly foughtEugene V. Debs on the subject.[20][21] Berger was terrified ofAsian immigrants, who he believed would out-reproduce white Americans and further complicate the socialist movement's cross-racialsolidarity. Between 1907 and 1912, he masterminded racially-discriminatory immigration restrictions in the SocialistParty platform.[22] His views onJim Crow 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".[23] Instead, Berger argued that segregation was a symptom of anelite capture that left the Americanlegal system indifferent to the poor of every race.[23]
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.[24] Berger was, however, a newspaper editorialistpar excellence. Throughout his life he published and edited a number of different papers, including the German languageVorwärts! ("Forward") (1892-1911), theSocial-Democratic Herald (1901-1913), and theMilwaukee Leader (1911-1929).[1]
Berger first ran for public office inApril 1904 when he campaigned formayor of Milwaukee, coming in third place with 23% of the vote. ThatNovember, he ran for Congress inWisconsin's 5th congressional district and lost again, but came in second place with 28% of the vote. He finally won in1910, becoming the first Socialist to serve in the United States Congress.
In Congress, he focused on issues related to theDistrict of Columbia and also more radical proposals, including eliminating the President'sveto, abolishing theSenate,[25] 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. He announced in November 1911 that he intended to introduce a bill for women's suffrage and back it with a petition bearing one million signatures.[26] Less than two weeks after theTitanic passenger ship disaster, Berger introduced a bill in Congress providing for thenationalization of the radio-wireless systems. A practical socialist, Berger argued that the wireless chaos which was one of the features of theTitanic disaster had demonstrated the need for a government-owned wireless system.[27]
Although he did not win re-election in1912,1914 or1916, 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 thesyndicalist 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, or other methods of violence as a weapon of the working class to aid in its emancipation."[28] The debate was vitriolic, with Berger, somewhat unsurprisingly, stating the matter in its most bellicose form:[29]
Comrades, the trouble with our party is that we have men in our councils who claim to be in favor of political action when they are not. We have a number of men who use our political organization — our Socialist Party — as a cloak for what they call direct action, forIWW-ism, sabotage and syndicalism. It isanarchism by a new name. ...
Comrades, I have gone through a number of splits in this party. It was not always a fight against anarchism in the past. In the past we often had to fight utopianism and fanaticism. Now it is anarchism again that is eating away at the vitals of our party.
If there is to be a parting of the ways, if there is to be a split — and it seems that you will have it, and must have it — then, I am ready to split right here. I am ready to go back to Milwaukee and appeal to the Socialists all over the country to cut this cancer out of our organization.
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.
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 theEspionage Act of 1917, 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 the1918 United States Senate special election in Wisconsin, Berger ran for the seat despite being under federal indictment. His newspaper, theMilwaukee 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.[30]
The espionage trial was presided over by JudgeKenesaw Mountain Landis.[31] Berger's conviction was appealed and was ultimately overturned by theUS Supreme Court on January 31, 1921, which found that Landis had improperly presided over the case after the filing of an affidavit of prejudice.[32]
Even though Berger was under indictment, the voters of Milwaukee once again elected him to the House of Representatives in1918. 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,[33] disqualifying him pursuant to Section 3 of theFourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.[34]
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, RepublicanWilliam H. Stafford, once again prevailed over Berger in the1920 general election.[35]
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Berger defeated Stafford in 1922 and was reelected in 1924 and 1926. In those terms, he dealt with Constitutional changes, a proposedold-age pension,unemployment insurance, andpublic housing. He also supported thediplomatic recognition of theSoviet Union and the revision of theTreaty of Versailles. 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.[36]
On July 16, 1929, while crossing the street outside his newspaper office, Berger was struck by astreetcar 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 atForest Home Cemetery his body lay in state at City Hall. 75,000 residents of the city came to pay their respect.[37]
According to historian Sally Miller:[38]
Berger's papers are housed at theWisconsin Historical Society, with smaller numbers of items dispersed to other locations.[16]The complete run of theMilwaukee Leader exists on microfilm published by the Wisconsin Historical Society and on site at theUniversity of Wisconsin inMadison.[39]
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 entitledBerger's Broadsides.[40] In 1929, the Milwaukee Leader published theVoice and Pen of Victor L. Berger: Congressional Speeches and Editorials (1860–1929) which also included an obituary.[41]: 108 Broadsides included Berger's phrase regardingdraining the swamp in reference to his assertion that the economic crises such as thePanic of 1893, were "hastened" by excessive profits—the $900,000,000 toStandard Oil "magnates". According toDaniel Yergin in hisPulitzer Prize-winningThe 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".[42]: 96–98
[Y]et as long as capitalism lasts, speculation is absolutely necessary and unavoidable in order to protect the system from stagnation." So this is another evil that is inherent in this system. It cannot be avoided any more than malaria in a swampy country. And the speculators are the mosquitos. We should have to drain the swamp-change the capitalist system-if we want to get rid of those mosquitos. Teddy Roosevelt, by starting a little fire here and there to drive them out, is simply disturbing them. He is causing them to swarm, which makes it so much more intolerable for us poor, innocent inhabitants of this big capitalist swamp.
— Victor L. Berger. Berger's Broadsides (1860–1912)
Der Vorkämpfer der Amerikanischen Sozialismus, Viktor L. Berger, ist heute gestorben. Er war am 28. Februar 1860 in Niederrehbach (Siebenbürgen, damals Ungarn) geboren....Unfäßlich des Internationalen Sozialistenkongresses in Hamburg 1923 besuchte Victor [sic] Berger mit seiner Frau auch die "Vorwärts"-Redaktion und seine Heimat, die inzwischen zu Rumänien geschlagen war.[The vanguard of American socialism, Victor L. Berger, died today. He was born on 28 February 1860 in Niederrehbach (Transylvania, then-Hungary)....Astonishingly, at the International Socialist Congress of Hamburg, 1923, Victor Berger and his wife also visited the editorial staff of [this paper] and his homeland, which in the intervening time had been ceded to Romania.] Although the borders ofinterwar Romania do not coincide withmodern Romania, it has retainedTransylvania entirely. The modern name for Niederrehbach is unclear; it may not have been anurban settlement.
| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromWisconsin's 5th congressional district 1911–1913 | Succeeded by |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromWisconsin's 5th congressional district Unseated 1919 | ||
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromWisconsin's 5th congressional district 1923–1929 | ||
