Thomas J. Morgan
Encyclopedia
Thomas J. "Tommy" Morgan, Jr. (1847 - 1912) was an English
-born American labor leader and socialist
political activist. Morgan is best remembered as one of the pioneer English-speaking Socialists in the city of Chicago
and a frequent candidate for public office of the Socialist Party of America
. Morgan was also one of the founders and leading figures of the United Labor Party, an Illinois political party
which elected 7 of its members to the Illinois State Assembly and another to the Illinois State Senate in the election of 1886.
movement, was a maker of nails, working long hours in an oftentimes futile effort to eke out a modest living.
As a boy Tommy Morgan attended a so-called "pauper's school" until the age of 9, at which time left school to take a job. Morgan worked as a nail maker, a printer, an iron molder, and a machinist, among other jobs, never managing to escape from poverty.
Morgan married the former Elizabeth Chambers in January 1868. The next year the pair decided to depart for a new life in the United States, settling in Chicago, Illinois.
movement in 1871, when he was elected president of the local Machinists' Union. Working in the daytime, Morgan studied mechanical drawing at night.
The economic depression of 1873
hit Morgan hard, resulting in 15 months of unemployment. This systemic economic failure made a particular impact upon Morgan, causing him to turn to the ideas of socialism
in his effort to understand the crisis.
In 1875 Morgan want to work for the Illinois Central Railroad
in the railroad car
repair shops, where he remained for the next 20 years.
Late in the 1870s Morgan was instrumental in launching the Chicago Trades and Labor Assembly, a city-wide union federation. In this capacity as a union official, Morgan guided a special committee of the Illinois State Legislature around various Chicago factories in 1879 and helped to draft city ordinances based on the English factory laws of the day.
Morgan left the Chicago Trades and Labor Association in 1884 to help form a more radical organization called the Chicago Central Labor Union, an organization which continued until 1896. In his spare time Morgan studied law, ultimately graduating from Chicago Law College.
(SLP) early in the 1880s. A large part of the Chicago organization turned to anarchism
in subsequent years, culminating in the 1886 Haymarket bombing
. Never an adherent of anarchist methods himself, the task fell upon Morgan and a handful of his co-thinkers to reestablish the Chicago socialist organization in the aftermath of the Haymarket Affair.
In August 1886, Morgan and others from the Chicago labor movement called a conference of area labor activists with a view to establishing a new electoral organization. About 250 delegates attended the conference, which elected Morgan to an executive committee of 21 members. This committee was charged with calling another convention in September to nominate a citywide slate of candidates for the fall elections under the banner of the United Labor Party.
Some 560 delegates, dominated by members of the Knights of Labor
organization, attended the United Labor Party nominating convention in September. The meeting was not harmonious and following a spate of factional shenanigans a group of 26 conservative trade unionists were excluded from the gathering on the basis of their professed support for candidates of the Republican and Democratic Parties.
Although not himself a candidate, Morgan played a key role behind the scenes of the United Labor Party, chairing the important committee on platform and resolutions at the nominating convention, and helping to shape the final program of the organization.
The fledgling United Labor Party was surprisingly successful in the November 1886 elections, garnering about 25,000 out of 92,000 votes cast and electing 7 of its members to the Illinois Legislative Assembly and one other to the Illinois State Senate.
A similar nominating convention was held by the United Labor Party in February 1887, attended by more than 600 delegates. Morgan was once again the power behind the throne as head of the platform convention and chief among the movers and shakers of the organization, prompting the Chicago Tribune
to opine that "Tommy Morgan...bossed the convention from first to last." The party's candidate for Mayor of Chicago
was ultimately defeated by political fusion of the so-called "Old Parties" when the Democrats withdrew their candidate to support the Republican nominee "to save city government from capture by the 'Reds.'"
Morgan was himself later to be a candidate for Chicago mayor in 1891, when he was tapped by the SLP as its nominee for that position.
Morgan left the SLP late in the 1890s over philosophical differences with party leaders over trade union policy, joining the Social Democratic Party of America headed by Victor L. Berger
and Eugene V. Debs
. He remained in that organization when in the summer of 1901 it merged with a rival political group to establish the Socialist Party of America
(SPA), attending the founding convention in Indianapolis, Indiana
as a delegate.
Morgan was a frequent candidate of the SPA, running for Chicago City Attorney in 1903, for Cook County
Superior Court Judge in 1903 and 1907, and for U.S. Senate in 1909. He also attended three of the party's conventions as an elected delegate: the Chicago conventions of 1904, 1908, and the so-called "Congress" of 1910.
Morgan turned to journalism in 1909, editing and publishing a Socialist newspaper called The Provoker until shortly before time of his death in 1912.
In 1910 Barnes was enlisted by "Mother" Mary Harris Jones to collect a $250 debt from Socialist Party National Secretary J. Mahlon Barnes
incurred in 1905. The tangled dispute over whether Barnes did or did not repay led to charges of dishonesty being preferred against Barnes before the Socialist Party, which were dismissed as "frivolous" by the governing National Executive Committee. Morgan and Jones persisted, however, and a special investigating committee was established to hear the charges. In February 1911 the committee affirmed that "the charge was indeed a most frivolous one, whose action could have no other motive except a desire to embarrass, harass, and annoy the National Secretary."
The investigating committee also weighed in on Morgan's newspaper, calling The Provoker, "a publication largely for the dissemination of malice, slander, falsification, and misinformation." The committee sought to turn the results of its inquiry over to Morgan's party branch for possible disciplinary action.
, Morgan was killed in a train wreck at Williams, Arizona
on December 10, 1912. He was 65 years old at the time of his death.
Morgan's papers are held by the Illinois Historical Survey Library of University of Illinois in Urbana
.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
-born American labor leader and socialist
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
political activist. Morgan is best remembered as one of the pioneer English-speaking Socialists in the city of Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
and a frequent candidate for public office of the Socialist Party of America
Socialist Party of America
The Socialist Party of America was a multi-tendency democratic-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 which had split from the main organization...
. Morgan was also one of the founders and leading figures of the United Labor Party, an Illinois political party
Political party
A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...
which elected 7 of its members to the Illinois State Assembly and another to the Illinois State Senate in the election of 1886.
Early years
Thomas John Morgan, known to his friends as "Tommy," was born in Birmingham, England on October 27, 1847. He was one of nine children born to Thomas John and Hannah Simcox Morgan. Thomas Senior, a former member of the ChartistChartism
Chartism was a movement for political and social reform in the United Kingdom during the mid-19th century, between 1838 and 1859. It takes its name from the People's Charter of 1838. Chartism was possibly the first mass working class labour movement in the world...
movement, was a maker of nails, working long hours in an oftentimes futile effort to eke out a modest living.
As a boy Tommy Morgan attended a so-called "pauper's school" until the age of 9, at which time left school to take a job. Morgan worked as a nail maker, a printer, an iron molder, and a machinist, among other jobs, never managing to escape from poverty.
Morgan married the former Elizabeth Chambers in January 1868. The next year the pair decided to depart for a new life in the United States, settling in Chicago, Illinois.
American years
Morgan became involved in the trade unionTrade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
movement in 1871, when he was elected president of the local Machinists' Union. Working in the daytime, Morgan studied mechanical drawing at night.
The economic depression of 1873
Panic of 1873
The Panic of 1873 triggered a severe international economic depression in both Europe and the United States that lasted until 1879, and even longer in some countries. The depression was known as the Great Depression until the 1930s, but is now known as the Long Depression...
hit Morgan hard, resulting in 15 months of unemployment. This systemic economic failure made a particular impact upon Morgan, causing him to turn to the ideas of socialism
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
in his effort to understand the crisis.
In 1875 Morgan want to work for the Illinois Central Railroad
Illinois Central Railroad
The Illinois Central Railroad , sometimes called the Main Line of Mid-America, is a railroad in the central United States, with its primary routes connecting Chicago, Illinois with New Orleans, Louisiana and Birmingham, Alabama. A line also connected Chicago with Sioux City, Iowa...
in the railroad car
Railroad car
A railroad car or railway vehicle , also known as a bogie in Indian English, is a vehicle on a rail transport system that is used for the carrying of cargo or passengers. Cars can be coupled together into a train and hauled by one or more locomotives...
repair shops, where he remained for the next 20 years.
Late in the 1870s Morgan was instrumental in launching the Chicago Trades and Labor Assembly, a city-wide union federation. In this capacity as a union official, Morgan guided a special committee of the Illinois State Legislature around various Chicago factories in 1879 and helped to draft city ordinances based on the English factory laws of the day.
Morgan left the Chicago Trades and Labor Association in 1884 to help form a more radical organization called the Chicago Central Labor Union, an organization which continued until 1896. In his spare time Morgan studied law, ultimately graduating from Chicago Law College.
Political activity
Morgan joined the Socialist Labor Party of AmericaSocialist Labor Party of America
The Socialist Labor Party of America , established in 1876 as the Workingmen's Party, is the oldest socialist political party in the United States and the second oldest socialist party in the world. Originally known as the Workingmen's Party of America, the party changed its name in 1877 and has...
(SLP) early in the 1880s. A large part of the Chicago organization turned to anarchism
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
in subsequent years, culminating in the 1886 Haymarket bombing
Haymarket affair
The Haymarket affair was a demonstration and unrest that took place on Tuesday May 4, 1886, at the Haymarket Square in Chicago. It began as a rally in support of striking workers. An unknown person threw a dynamite bomb at police as they dispersed the public meeting...
. Never an adherent of anarchist methods himself, the task fell upon Morgan and a handful of his co-thinkers to reestablish the Chicago socialist organization in the aftermath of the Haymarket Affair.
In August 1886, Morgan and others from the Chicago labor movement called a conference of area labor activists with a view to establishing a new electoral organization. About 250 delegates attended the conference, which elected Morgan to an executive committee of 21 members. This committee was charged with calling another convention in September to nominate a citywide slate of candidates for the fall elections under the banner of the United Labor Party.
Some 560 delegates, dominated by members of the Knights of Labor
Knights of Labor
The Knights of Labor was the largest and one of the most important American labor organizations of the 1880s. Its most important leader was Terence Powderly...
organization, attended the United Labor Party nominating convention in September. The meeting was not harmonious and following a spate of factional shenanigans a group of 26 conservative trade unionists were excluded from the gathering on the basis of their professed support for candidates of the Republican and Democratic Parties.
Although not himself a candidate, Morgan played a key role behind the scenes of the United Labor Party, chairing the important committee on platform and resolutions at the nominating convention, and helping to shape the final program of the organization.
The fledgling United Labor Party was surprisingly successful in the November 1886 elections, garnering about 25,000 out of 92,000 votes cast and electing 7 of its members to the Illinois Legislative Assembly and one other to the Illinois State Senate.
A similar nominating convention was held by the United Labor Party in February 1887, attended by more than 600 delegates. Morgan was once again the power behind the throne as head of the platform convention and chief among the movers and shakers of the organization, prompting the Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
to opine that "Tommy Morgan...bossed the convention from first to last." The party's candidate for Mayor of Chicago
Mayor of Chicago
The Mayor of Chicago is the chief executive of Chicago, Illinois, the third largest city in the United States. He or she is charged with directing city departments and agencies, and with the advice and consent of the Chicago City Council, appoints department and agency leaders.-Appointment...
was ultimately defeated by political fusion of the so-called "Old Parties" when the Democrats withdrew their candidate to support the Republican nominee "to save city government from capture by the 'Reds.'"
Morgan was himself later to be a candidate for Chicago mayor in 1891, when he was tapped by the SLP as its nominee for that position.
Morgan left the SLP late in the 1890s over philosophical differences with party leaders over trade union policy, joining the Social Democratic Party of America headed by Victor L. Berger
Victor L. Berger
Victor Luitpold Berger was a founding member of the Socialist Party of America and an important and influential Socialist journalist who helped establish the so-called Sewer Socialist movement. The first Socialist elected to the U.S...
and Eugene V. Debs
Eugene V. Debs
Eugene Victor Debs was an American union leader, one of the founding members of the International Labor Union and the Industrial Workers of the World , and several times the candidate of the Socialist Party of America for President of the United States...
. He remained in that organization when in the summer of 1901 it merged with a rival political group to establish the Socialist Party of America
Socialist Party of America
The Socialist Party of America was a multi-tendency democratic-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 which had split from the main organization...
(SPA), attending the founding convention in Indianapolis, Indiana
Indianapolis, Indiana
Indianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...
as a delegate.
Morgan was a frequent candidate of the SPA, running for Chicago City Attorney in 1903, for Cook County
Cook County, Illinois
Cook County is a county in the U.S. state of Illinois, with its county seat in Chicago. It is the second most populous county in the United States after Los Angeles County. The county has 5,194,675 residents, which is 40.5 percent of all Illinois residents. Cook County's population is larger than...
Superior Court Judge in 1903 and 1907, and for U.S. Senate in 1909. He also attended three of the party's conventions as an elected delegate: the Chicago conventions of 1904, 1908, and the so-called "Congress" of 1910.
Morgan turned to journalism in 1909, editing and publishing a Socialist newspaper called The Provoker until shortly before time of his death in 1912.
In 1910 Barnes was enlisted by "Mother" Mary Harris Jones to collect a $250 debt from Socialist Party National Secretary J. Mahlon Barnes
J. Mahlon Barnes
John Mahlon Barnes was an American trade union functionary and socialist political activist. Barnes is best remembered as the Executive Secretary of the Socialist Party of America from 1905 to 1911, during which time he originated the idea of the party's 1908 "Red Special" campaign train on behalf...
incurred in 1905. The tangled dispute over whether Barnes did or did not repay led to charges of dishonesty being preferred against Barnes before the Socialist Party, which were dismissed as "frivolous" by the governing National Executive Committee. Morgan and Jones persisted, however, and a special investigating committee was established to hear the charges. In February 1911 the committee affirmed that "the charge was indeed a most frivolous one, whose action could have no other motive except a desire to embarrass, harass, and annoy the National Secretary."
The investigating committee also weighed in on Morgan's newspaper, calling The Provoker, "a publication largely for the dissemination of malice, slander, falsification, and misinformation." The committee sought to turn the results of its inquiry over to Morgan's party branch for possible disciplinary action.
Death and legacy
While headed for retirement in CaliforniaCalifornia
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, Morgan was killed in a train wreck at Williams, Arizona
Williams, Arizona
Williams is a city in Coconino County, Arizona, United States west of Flagstaff. Its population was 2,842 at the 2000 census; according to 2006 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city is 3,094. It lies on the route of Historic Route 66, Interstate 40, and the Southwest Chief Amtrak...
on December 10, 1912. He was 65 years old at the time of his death.
Morgan's papers are held by the Illinois Historical Survey Library of University of Illinois in Urbana
Urbana, Illinois
Urbana is the county seat of Champaign County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 41,250. Urbana is the tenth-most populous city in Illinois outside of the Chicago metropolitan area....
.
Works
- "Walter Thomas Mills: His Record," The Socialist [Seattle], whole no. 350 (Nov. 2, 1907), pg. 3.
- Who's Who and What's What in the Socialist Party. Chicago: Morgan, 1911.
Further reading
- Daniel DeLeon, "The Socialist Party a 'South Sea Bubble,'" Daily People, vol. 10, no. 301 (April 27, 1910).
- Ralph W. Scharnau, "Thomas J. Morgan and the Chicago Socialist Movement, 1876-1901." PhD dissertation. Northern Illinois University, 1969.