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When The Socialists Ran Star City
By Stephen Cresswell Volume 52 (1993), pp. 59-72 |
On the night of January 10, 1915, ecstatic Socialists paraded in the streets of Star City, a village a few miles distant from Morgantown, the Monongalia County seat and home of the state university. Having just won their fourth consecutive municipal election, party members had valid reason to celebrate. The 1915 race had been especially hard fought, with members of the rival Citizens' party exerting every effort to oust the Socialists. Mayor William Shay led the parade, beating a big bass drum. The Morgantown New Dominion noted that Shay "allowed his enthusiasm to get the better of him," and burst both sides of the drum. The parading Socialists visited the homes of Citizens' party members and serenaded the losing candidates. Finally Mayor Shay addressed the crowd, arguing that it was a shame "citizens of the town found it necessary to divide along political lines," and invited the uninitiated to join the Socialist movement. As the parade broke up, everyone headed to Socialist Hall, where supporters of both parties enjoyed a dance.1
Founded in 1907, Star City was a very small town located on the Monongahela River and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The population of Star City in 1910 numbered 318, but the town grew rapidly, expanding by more than 150 percent by 1918. The two chief employers were Star Glass Company and factory "B" of Seneca Glass. Residents in the 1907 municipal election felt that political parties were unnecessary and elected a "citizen's ticket" without opposition. In a statewide organizing effort in 1910, a Socialist party was organized in the town.2
The first municipal election after the founding of the local Socialist party was held in January 1911, and came at a time when the town's economy was especially sluggish. Star Glass was operating only two or three days per week and other businesses were also in a depressed state. The workers' economic discontent and uncertainty helped lead the fledgling Socialist party to victory for the offices of mayor and recorder and four of the town council seats. The only reason the new party did not win all five council seats was that it had nominated only four candidates, believing victory was unlikely. Voter turnout in this and subsequent Star City elections was high, surpassing the vote polled in high- interest presidential elections.3
In subsequent annual Star City elections, the Socialist party maintained its control of the town. In 1913 and 1916 the party lost two of the five council seats, as well as the mayor's office in 1916, but still maintained control of the municipal government. In 1912, 1914 and 1915, the party won every office. In some of these elections, the Socialists won more than 60 percent of the votes cast, while in other cases the elections were so close that candidates tied. The Socialist-dominated town council then voted to break the tie in favor of Socialist candidates. Typically, just under one hundred Star City residents turned out to vote in these town elections.4
The success of Star City Socialists in winning control of municipal government was not unique. Historians have studied the Socialist governments of Schenectady, New York; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Flint, Michigan and many others. But Star City offers an opportunity to examine the history of Socialist control of a very small industrial town.5
The Socialist party flourished across the United States in the first five decades of the twentieth century, supported by labor unions, farmers and a smaller group of middle-class merchants and professionals. The party's candidates sought to bring major political and economic changes to the United States. Their chief goal was to foster a society in which the workers would own the "means of production," mines, farms and factories. Short of that major goal, the Socialists supported a wide-ranging progressive program including the referendum, abolishing child labor, regulating corporations and prohibiting use of the National Guard in labor disputes. The strongest Socialist nominee at the national level was Eugene Debs, who was the presidential candidate in every election between 1900 and 1920, except 1916. In his last two races, he polled close to a million votes.6
In West Virginia, the Socialist party appeared wherever the labor movement was flourishing. In the northern part of the state, Socialists won control of the municipal government in Adamston, a glass-company town south of Clarksburg, in 1912, and won the mayor and recorder's offices in 1915. In the mountains of Tucker County, Socialists controlled the key offices in Hendricks, home to many unionized railroad workers, in 1912 and 1913. Also in the northern part of the state the party won the mayor's office in Cameron, site of a major pottery industry, and a city council seat in Morgantown, home of several glass factories. Socialist candidates made unsuccessful bids for office in many small towns in northern West Virginia, and in larger towns including Clarksburg, Fairmont and Elkins. In the southern part of the state, party members won offices in several counties, especially in the coalfields.7
In Star City, the Socialists had an explicit set of goals woven into their local platform. The preamble of the platform subscribed to the establishment of a cooperative store, owned by town residents, to reduce the high cost of living. A subsequent plank endorsed the eight-hour day for persons working for the town. at a daily wage of two dollars. The party pledged to hire Star City residents first and an honest town government. It supported the progressive principle of "recall," by which incompetent or unpopular officials could be ousted in mid-term by the voters. Finally, the platform promised municipal improvements, including better streets.8
The Citizens' party wrote platforms too, but typically these documents attacked the Socialists rather than offering alternative ideas. In the 1915 campaign, for example, the Star City Citizens' party platform complained of incompetence and neglect on the part of the Socialist town government. They also charged that gambling and drunkenness were widespread in the town. Socialists defended themselves from the charges, pointing out, for example, that "Star City has always had money in the bank under the Socialists, a condition which never before existed." Even in the face of the Citizens' party's charges, townspeople chose Socialists for all town offices in 1915.9
By 1916-17, the national Socialist party suffered from serious divisions. Most Socialists opposed any actions that would bring the United States closer to involvement in the great European war. Many Socialists deserted the party in 1916 to vote for presidential incumbent Woodrow Wilson, who ran on the slogan, "He kept us out of war." Then, when the United States declared war on Germany in 1917, the national party split again, with many maintaining the anti-war line and others arguing that Socialists support the war effort as good citizens. These differences were so divisive that the Socialists would never regain the strength they had shown in the early 1910s.10
The Star City Socialists suffered from these same divisions. In 1912, Star City had been home to a united and flourishing Socialist party and presidential candidate Eugene Debs polled 57 percent of the vote in a contest between four major candidates. Four years later, the party's presidential candidate Allan Benson won only twenty-seven votes in the town, 26 percent of the total votes cast, because many Socialists crossed over and voted for Wilson. By 1917, national public opinion made it unmistakably clear that it was now "un-American" to be a Socialist. In the close and disappointing election of that year, the Socialists lost control of Star City government, after six consecutive municipal victories.11
Meanwhile, Star City gave its wholehearted support to the nation's war effort. Liberty bonds were sold in large numbers and nearly all families agreed to participate in the national food conservation program. In 1917, two major fires wrought havoc on the town. The town hall burned down in October, possibly because of a smoldering cigar left in the building and, two months later, Star Glass, the town's keystone industry, burned to the ground. Monongalia County's second-largest factory closed indefinitely and the resulting economic hardship challenged the reelection potential of the incumbent Citizens' party town officers. The Citizens also gave their Socialist opponents an easy issue to exploit in the campaign.12
In control of the town for the first time since 1910, Citizens' party councilmen enacted a new tax ordinance. They began by slightly lowering the basic rate of taxation, and then imposing a one dollar "capitation tax" on each resident. One dollar was about half the daily wage for many Star City residents. Socialists argued that this tax favored the wealthy because under old tax policies the more wealth one owned, the more tax one paid. The capitation tax, on the other hand, applied to all equally. Factory owners, landlords, workers, the unemployed and the disabled paid the same rate of tax, however, absentee property owners were exempt from the capitation tax.13
The Socialists used the capitation tax issue to recapture control of the town government again in 1918, without calling themselves Socialists. Like many Socialists all over the country during and after World War I, the Star City party members changed their label to avoid the un-American connotations associated with the party. In 1918, and for elections into the mid-1920s, the former Socialists of Star City called themselves the "Independent Citizens' party," in opposition to the "Citizens' party" candidates. The new name for the Socialists was successful, and the Citizens' party never again won an election. By 1919, the Independent Citizens often ran unopposed. In 1922, a new rival, the "People's party" made up largely of former Citizens' party supporters, appeared. Despite contention with a rival party, the Independent Citizens successfully retained control of the town's government until 1924, when the People's party finally seized control of the municipal reins.14
Star City was unique among West Virginia towns in its continuing Socialist control of the municipal government. Undoubtedly, the glass industry is the key to understanding the allegiance of Star City residents to the Socialist party. Glass blowers, noted one writer of the early twentieth century, were the "`aristocrats' of the labor world." Glass blowing was a difficult skill to master, and employers treated skilled blowers with deference. Wages were high, hours were short and the work place relatively safe. While the work place was uncomfortably hot, unions demanded and won factory closings during July and August. Blowers looked forward to the summer "with the keen anticipation of men who can afford a vacation and have the money to aid them in enjoying it."15 Glass workers dominated the population of Star City with 125 of the 167 employed persons in the town working at Star or Seneca Glass. The more skilled glass blowers were in a position to demand a voice in town government, and they saw the Socialist party as the one party that promised unequivocally to be the voice of labor. 16
While in some ways the glass workers were in an enviable position, in others they felt tension and uncertainty. The glass industry underwent periodic slumps, during which the factories closed several days per week, with the attendant loss in wages for the workers. A shortage of natural gas or sand could also idle the factories. Finally, automatic glassblowing machines, first introduced at Fairmont, threatened the workers' future security. The automatic bottle blowers did not immediately threaten to replace the highly skilled Star Glass Company workers because Star Glass specialized in lamp chimneys rather than bottles. Many Star City glass workers agreed the only security against the new machinery was that it "become the property of the workers" and only the Socialist party promised to achieve that goal.17
Many Americans in the early twentieth century assumed that Socialism only flourished where immigrants made up a large proportion of the population. After all, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels were German, and it was true that Socialism flourished in immigrant neighborhoods in New York, Chicago and other cities. The Star City Socialist movement, however, was largely a home-grown affair. At the time of the party's first municipal victory, only 13 of the town's 231 adult residents were foreign born. Less than one- third were second-generation immigrants, primarily of German and Irish descent.18
The 1910 census schedules for Monongalia County reveal some insights into the ethnic and employment background of most of the candidates who ran for Star City offices from 1911-13. Nine of the twelve Citizens' party candidates and an equal number of the Socialist party candidates participating in these elections can be identified on the 1910 census schedules. Eight of the nine Socialists were skilled workers in the glass factories, mostly glass blowers. Only one of the Citizens' party candidates was a skilled glass worker. The other eight were a factory manager, a glass shipper, a railroad engineer, a farmer, two merchants and two night watchmen.19
The Socialist candidates tended to be younger than their opponents. The median age of the Socialists was thirty-six compared to forty-three for the Citizens. All eighteen candidates were born in the United States, with four Citizens and two Socialists in West Virginia. However, three of the Socialists had at least one parent born abroad, while none of the Citizens were second-generation immigrants. The census returns give one indication of wealth by noting whether or not the resident owned or rented a home. Three Socialists, as compared to six Citizens, identified on the census schedules were homeowners. The Socialists may have been renters, in part, because of their relative youth.20
The composite picture provided by the census returns is of Socialist candidates who were primarily glass blowers and other skilled glass workers, younger than their opponents, less likely to own their own homes, born in the United States, but more likely than their opponents to have been born outside West Virginia as second-generation immigrants. Newspaper evidence reinforces at least part of this composite picture. The Morgantown New Dominion explained that Star City elections featured "the old residents on the one side, and the new element on the other."21 Citizens' party candidates were less likely than the Socialists to be affiliated with the glass factories, or if they were employed in glass, they were likely to be associated more with management than with labor, as watchmen, for example.
While in office, the Socialists unfortunately spent considerable time defending themselves from legal actions brought by members of the Citizens' party. The Citizens initiated the first legal action immediately after the Socialists' first victory, in January 1911. Incumbent Mayor David S. Brewer of the Citizens' party alleged that Socialist Mayor-elect William Shay was not eligible to serve, since he had not paid tax on the minimum one hundred dollar property value required by law. Shay responded that he had paid taxes on twenty-five dollars of personal property and on a lot valued at one hundred dollars held jointly with his wife. The outgoing town council ruled that Shay was ineligible to hold office. Recorder-elect Harry A. Higgins also failed to qualify to take office. He admitted that he had paid taxes on only fifteen dollar property valuation, and he did not press his claim to the office.22
"Star City is on the verge of a civil war," reported the Morgantown New Dominion, "which, it is hoped, may be settled without bloodshed." When the new Socialist city council came into office in February, they declared the mayor and recorder's offices vacant, and elected Socialists to fill each. The incumbent mayor and recorder claimed that they had the right to retain their offices, but a circuit court judge threw their arguments out of court.23
Over the next several years, Citizens' party leaders sniped at the Socialist town fathers, arguing that under Socialist leadership the town was deteriorating, especially streets, roads and sewers. In October 1914, the town council moved to meet these criticisms by offering for sale bonds valued at fifteen thousand dollars to be used for paving and for sewer work. The bonds were given favorable ratings by investors and the state government initially expressed interest in buying some as an investment for the workers' compensation fund. But, a "prominent Republican" attorney in Morgantown predicted that the bonds would not sell "when it was found out that the Socialists controlled the town." This prediction proved accurate and the bonds were withdrawn from the market.24
After the bitter 1915 town election, Citizens' party leaders again moved to block a Socialist from taking office, claiming that Mayor-elect John F. Higgins had not paid the requisite amount of personal property taxes. The Citizens hired as their attorney former governor William E. Glasscock. Glasscock argued before the town council that Higgins had paid taxes only on his personal library, which should have been exempt from taxation. He also argued that because Higgins lived at his mother's house, the library was her property. Nearly every resident of the town turned out to hear the proceedings and Higgins's testimony in his own defense. The would-be mayor asserted firmly that the books were his property and named the titles by memory: the Talmud, the Koran, the Egyptian Book of the Dead, The Origin of Species and many others.25
Glasscock sneeringly praised the defendant's taste in reading, but remained steadfast that Higgins was ineligible and the library should have been exempt from taxation. The Socialists' town attorney Altha Warman hotly denounced the Citizens' party members, accusing them of being cowards "in that they file a petition to set aside the will of the people expressed at the polls." Higgins was being blocked by "a small minority of disgruntled citizens who refuse to abide by the result of the election," Warman concluded. The town council ruled that Higgins was eligible to hold office, but the Citizens appealed the case to the circuit court. Circuit Judge George C. Sturgiss ruling in favor of the Citizens' party made Higgins ineligible for office and forced the town council to elect another mayor.26
Blocking Higgins's inauguration as mayor was just the beginning. Shortly thereafter, Citizens' party members petitioned the circuit court to dissolve the town's charter, alleging that the town leaders "had failed to perform in any satisfactory degree those things necessary for a municipality." Without a charter, the town government would be dissolved and the county government would take control of what had once been Star City. Judge Sturgiss, recognizing Star City's recent difficulties, especially in keeping the roads in good repair, ruled early in 1915 to grant the town officers until October to make improvements.27
Again the town council considered a bond issue to finance street improvements. This time, however, the bond issue was placed on the ballot, allowing the voters of the town to accept or reject the bond issue. The Citizens' party was accused of telling tenants that if the issue passed, rents would increase. Prior to the election, Circuit Judge Sturgiss came to Star City and urged voters to pass the bond issue. He pointed out that the council could have adopted the bond issue without voter approval. But, because the council was made up of Socialists who believed in the principle of the referendum, the voters would decide, voting to reject the bond issue by a vote of forty-seven to fifty-eight. Facing a suspension of the charter if it did not move forward with road repairs, the town council reluctantly secured a bank loan to finance the summer's work. The loan repayment was tied to anticipated August tax revenues.28
In July, the Citizens' party returned to circuit court to demand Judge Sturgiss revoke the town charter immediately, charging that streets, alleys and sewers continued to deteriorate. They alleged the street work undertaken caused further deterioration and that Socialist officials had paid too much for the work. Finally, the Citizens pointed out that the Socialists had been unable to win passage of the bond issue. For this hearing, the town government hired an engineer, who examined the improvements and reported favorably on the work. He concluded that when the work was complete, drainage and other problems would be solved. Judge Sturgiss refused to rescind his earlier decision to issue his final judgement in October.29
In June 1916, a bond issue and tax levy finally won the approval of the voters of Star City. It is not clear why the voters finally passed the bond. Perhaps they were heartened by the county commissioners' decision to approve county money for improving the road between Morgantown and Star City. The June bond issue passed by a vote of seventy-three to twenty-two and, by the end of the year, the streets of Star City were in good condition.30
Residents were not likely to forget that Star City was a socialist, working-class town. The three pillars of community life were the Socialist party local, the Young People's Socialist League and Local Twenty-six of the American Flint Glass Workers' Union. Nearly all of the local youth joined the Young People's Socialist League, which boasted more than fifty members in 1914. The league hosted dances, parties and debates, while the party local was noted for its box suppers, ice cream socials, square dances and prominent lecturers such as the fiery Mother Jones. Each year the local sponsored a town-wide Christmas party at Socialist Hall, where each child was given an orange and a pound of candy. The local became a real center of the community, which undoubtedly aided the Socialist candidates. To vote against the Socialists was to vote against a bulwark of community life.31
Many devoted Socialists hoped the party's control of the town would establish Star City as a great model of a Socialist municipality. The Workingmen's Co-operative Store, an institution founded by the Socialists, endeavored to use collectivism to benefit the town's laboring folk. The Socialist platform of December 1913 pledged the party's support to a cooperative store. Townspeople were purchasing stock in the store and officers were elected. The store sold groceries and other goods at prevailing prices, but stockholders regularly received rebates of about 10 percent. Star City merchants undoubtedly disapproved of the new cooperative store, but few of them were supporters of the Socialist party.32
Administratively, Star City was a typical small West Virginia town. Town leaders promoted such projects as laying boardwalks to keep pedestrians out of the mud and, in 1913, purchasing the first street lights for the town. The town council debated the idea of taxing pool tables and vowed to end the practice of speeding after the appearance of automobiles.33
As in other West Virginia municipalities, the mayor functioned as chair of the town council and the chief law enforcement and public safety officer. When vicious dogs threatened pedestrians, the mayor ordered the town sergeant to insure that dog owners kept their animals tied, or to "begin a process of elimination, using the shot gun method." The mayor's direct involvement in law enforcement was demonstrated by an event of August 1915, when a number of rowdies descended upon a dance at Kauffield's Hall. A brawl erupted and bystanders summoned Mayor R. C. Maurer. As the Socialist mayor stepped onto the front porch of Kauffield's, a rowdy took a swing at him. "He came back with a punch," a reporter later noted, that "knocked Ed Burns off the porch. . . . [Burns] dropped to the ground three or four feet below, and lay there." Mayor Maurer arrested Burns and several others, but all escaped. The newspaper account of the fight closed by noting that it was believed the rowdies would not return.34
Members of the Citizens' party both elections and litigation to dramatize their belief that Star City was poorly run by the Socialists. It is true that an examination of the surviving records of the town council shows that during the 1915 term, the town recorder littered the minute books with gross misspellings, giving at least superficial evidence of his lack of qualifications for the office. Recorder William Kramer, a glass blower and second- generation immigrant, wrote "soor" for "sewer," "siggrett" for "cigarette" and "missalanious" for "miscellaneous." On the other hand, good government can undoubtedly move forward even with a poor speller in the recorder's office.35
But the Socialists had even more serious complaints about the record keeping under the Citizen's party. They pointed out that the town's account books under the Citizens were filled with entries so vague as to be worthless. They cited entries such as "cash from mayor . . . $14.00; cash for fines . . . $2.00 and `cash for licenses, $2.92'." Such entries would prove useless if a question arose as to whether a certain fine or fee had been paid. When Socialist recorder R. C. Maurer took office in 1912, he found a file of tax bills marked "uncollectable." Within a short period Maurer had collected forty-two of the delinquent accounts.36
In contrast to the citizens, the Socialists issued regular financial statements for the town and closed the books in the black every year they held control. Star City under Socialist control compares favorably and was typical of similar municipalities for that time. Like a great many West Virginia small towns, Star City did not involve the two major political parties in local elections. Candidates instead ran on a variety of local and third party labels. The town government experienced difficulties in raising funds for major capital projects such as roads and sewers and found its ability to govern hampered by incessant attacks from the opposition party. It dealt successfully with law enforcement and with mundane maintenance and repair of potholes, bridges, sewers and street lights.37
Under the Star City Socialist government, the most significant success was the sense of power and control granted to blue-collar workers, who were unaccustomed to this role. From 1911 to 1924, Star City factory owners, landlords and merchants were not as dominant as capitalists in other towns. The Socialists regularly felt the same joy that led Mayor Shay to burst the bass drum during a victory parade. In January 1915, Mayor-elect John F. Higgins wrote proudly to the Socialist party's national headquarters, reporting on the recent town election. "The victory was sweeping," Higgins noted, "every candidate was elected by a handsome plurality." Higgins carefully made a chart showing each office, the names of the new Socialist officials and their occupations. This chart ran in the national American Socialist newspaper, reflecting Higgins's pride that Star City was governed by five glass blowers, a carpenter and a laborer. Higgins ended his election report by asserting that although the opposition had been keen, "we lambasted them some, and some more, and fought the good fight of Socialism and won hands down." Higgins proudly closed with a joyful, "Hurrah for the International Socialist movement!"38
Notes
1. Morgantown New Dominion, 11 January 1915; American Socialist (Chicago), 16 January 1915.
2. Thirteenth Census of the United States, 1910: Population by Counties and Minor Civil Divisions (Washington, D. C.: GPO, 1912), 561; Earl L. Core, The Monongalia Story: A Bicentennial History, IV: Industrialization (Parsons: McClain Printing, 1982), 341-42; West Virginia State Gazetteer and Business Directory, 1912-1913 (Detroit: Polk, 1912), 662; West Virginia State Gazetteer and Business Directory, 1918- 1919 (Detroit: Polk, 1919), 677.
3. Morgantown New Dominion, 2 and 6 January 1911.
4. Morgantown New Dominion, 5 January 1912, 20 January 1913, 9 January 1914, 8 January 1915 and 7 January 1916.
5. Donald T. Critchlow, ed., Socialism in the Heartland: The Midwestern Experience, 1900-1925 (Notre Dame: Univ. of Notre Dame Press, 1986); Richard W. Judd, Socialist Cities: Municipal Politics and the Grass Roots of American Socialism (Albany: State Univ. of New York Press, 1989).
6. David A. Shannon, The Socialist Party of America: A History (New York: MacMillan, 1955).
7. The standard reference on socialism in West Virginia is Frederick Allan Barkey, "The Socialist Party in West Virginia from 1898 to 1920: a Study in Working Class Radicalism" (Ph.D. diss., University of Pittsburgh, 1971). See also Molly Ann McClennen, et al, Socialists in a Small Town: The Socialist Victory in Adamston, West Virginia (Buckhannon: n. p., 1992); Parsons Advocate, 11 January 1912 and 9 January 1913; Moundsville Daily Echo, 2 January 1914; Morgantown Post- Chronicle, 5 and 9 April 1912. Further work needs to be done to compile an accurate list of Socialist victories in the southern part of the state.
8. Morgantown New Dominion, 29 December 1913 and 6 December 1915.
9. Morgantown Weekly New Dominion, 16 December 1914.
10. James Weinstein, The Decline of Socialism in America, 1912-1925 (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1967),
11. Morgantown Post-Chronicle, 1 and 5 January 1917; Morgantown New Dominion, 6 November 1912 and 5 January 1917 and Frederick, Cinder Heads in the Hills:The Belgian Window Glass Workers of West Virginia (Charleston: West Virginia Educational Services, 1988), 7.
12. Morgantown Weekly New Dominion, 10 and 31 October and 12 December 1917.
13. Morgantown New Dominion, 3 January 1918.
14. Minute Books, Star City Town Council, Star City town hall, I:163 (1919), II:63 (1922) and 133 (1924). The surviving town council minute books begin with 10 April 1915 and have no significant gaps for the years covered by this study. Morgantown Post-Chronicle, 1 January 1919.
15. Robert J. Wheeler, "The Passing of the Bottle Blower," International Socialist Review 11(February 1911): 449-57; Barkey, "Socialist Party in West Virginia," 31-33.
16. Census of Population, Thirteenth Census of the United States, 1910, (National Archives Microfilm Publication T624), Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29, National Archives. Returns for Star City are located on sheets 31-34 for enumeration district 79 of Monongalia County, hereafter 1910 Census.
17. Wheeler, "The Passing of the Bottle Blower," 457. On idled factories at Star City see, for example, Morgantown New Dominion, 4 February and 4 March 1914 and 1 July 1915.
18. 1910 Census. "Adult residents" are defined as persons aged sixteen or older. Many persons described as second-generation immigrants had one American-born parent. In 1920, Star City's residents were still overwhelmingly American born. See Fourteenth Census (National Archives Microfilm Publication T625), sheets 1-10 for enumeration district 102 of Monongalia County.
19. 1910 Census. Socialist candidates included six glass blowers, two other skilled glass workers and one planing mill foreman. Not considered here are two persons who changed parties during this period.
20. Ibid.
21. Morgantown New Dominion, 6 January 1911.
22. Ibid., 25 and 26 January 1911
23. Ibid., 2 and 10 February 1911.
24. Morgantown Weekly New Dominion, 21 and 28 October 1914.
25. Morgantown New Dominion, 20 and 25 January 1915.
26. American Socialist, 22 May 1915; Appeal to Reason (Girard, Kansas), 20 March 1915; Morgantown New Dominion, 25 January and 1 February 1915.
27. American Socialist, 6 March 1915.
28. Minute Books, Star City Town Council, I:4-16 (1915); Morgantown New Dominion, 29 May and 16 June 1915.
29. Morgantown New Dominion, 15 and 19 July 1915.
30. Minute Books, Star City Town Council, I: 45-56 (1916); Morgantown New Dominion, 15 and 20 September 1915.
31. Morgantown Weekly New Dominion, 7 October 1914; Morgantown New Dominion, 12 June 1913, 7 January and 27 December 1915 and Barkey, "The Socialist Party in West Virginia," 118.
32. Morgantown New Dominion, 29 December 1913, 21 January and 18 February 1914 and 20 April 1915.
33. Minute Books, Star City Town Council, I:17-23 (1915); Morgantown New Dominion, 16 December 1913 and 21 October 1915.
34. Morgantown New Dominion, 16 December 1913 and 30 August 1915.
35. Minute Books, Star City Town Council, I:2-9 (1915).
36. Morgantown New Dominion, 14 December 1914 and 7 February 1917.
37. Ibid., 16 December 1914.
38. American Socialist, 16 January 1915. See also Appeal to Reason, 20 March 1915; American Socialist, 6 March and 22 May 1915; Huntington Socialist and Labor Star, 9 January 1914.