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his effort. This seems to give general satisfaction, and the English Section from that time on was a permanent factor in the labor movement of Chicago. Before this John McAuliffe and John Eckford were the only English-speaking Socialists in the city. Subsequently Philip Van Patten, John Paulson, and others joined, and the agitation began in earnest. At this time A. R. Parsons and John McAuliffe were the only ones capable of expounding in public the principles of the party in the English language; but McAuliffe was an extremist, unwilling to advocate ameliorative measures. The Section "shelved" him, except on great special occasions, and A. R. Parsons for a long time was practically the only public English speaker we had.
At this time the English Socialist struggled against many odds. There was the prejudice of the public against Socialism –a feeling the English trade unions fully shared- besides, the German Socialists were suspicious of the English Section and oft-times gave them to understand that the damned Yankees needed watching. But the worst of all was, we had no English literature on social-economic subjects. The Socialist, a weekly published by the party in New York, was the only food we had. This paper contained a series of very able articles from the pen of Victor Drury, of New York, who, while not the editor, was the major part of the brains. These articles have since been revised and republished in the pamphlet form, and entitled: "The Polity of the Labor Movement." In the fall of 1876 the Social-Democratic party and the Internationals met in joint convention in Philadelphia and formed the "Working-men's Party of the United States." The Socialist was subsequently called the Labor Standard, and J. P. McDonnell succeeded Comrade McGregor in the editorial chair. The English section of Chicago met every Monday evening to map out a program for public agitation and to discuss such economic subjects and party methods among themselves as the mental friction and antagonisms prevailing within ranks at that time naturally produced. It must be remembered that the amalgamation of the International and Social-Democrats brought together two opposite elements of Socialists. The former opposed political action as a means of economic emancipation, and predicted the wreck of the party if persisted in, while
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