The Intercollegiate Socialist Society (ISS) was a socialist student organization active from 1905 to 1921. It attracted many prominent intellectuals and writers and acted as an unofficial student wing of the Socialist Party of America. The Society sponsored lecture tours, magazines, seminars and discussion circles all over the US to propagate socialist ideas among America's college population. The group expanded into a philosophy in the 1920s that did not focus exclusively or even primarily on college students. To symbolize the shift in emphasis, the group changed its name to the

League for Industrial Democracy The League for Industrial Democracy (LID) was founded as a successor to the Intercollegiate Socialist Society in 1921. Members decided to change its name to reflect a more inclusive and more organizational perspective. Background Intercollegiate So ...

in 1921.

History

Establishment

Supporters of the Socialist Party of America (SPA) were heartened by the results of the Presidential election of 1904, which saw the party's candidate,

Eugene V. Debs Eugene Victor "Gene" Debs (November 5, 1855 – October 20, 1926) was an American socialist, political activist, trade unionist, one of the founding members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), and five times the candidate of the Soc ...

, win approximately 400,000 votes.Harry W. Laidler, "Ten Years of ISS Progress," ''The Intercollegiate Socialist,'' vol. 4, no. 1 (Oct.-Nov. 1915), pg. 16. One supporter in particular, novelist

Upton Sinclair Upton Beall Sinclair Jr. (September 20, 1878 – November 25, 1968) was an American writer, muckraker, political activist and the 1934 Democratic Party nominee for governor of California who wrote nearly 100 books and other works in sever ...

, was motivated to help advance the socialist idea among the political leaders of tomorrow by establishing a new organization targeted at college students. Sinclair made contact with a number of leading public intellectuals of the day, gaining formal endorsements for a new national college socialist organization from a number of important figures, including novelist

Jack London John Griffith Chaney (January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916), better known as Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors to ...

, millionaire financier

James Graham Phelps Stokes James Graham Phelps Stokes, known as Graham Stokes (March 18, 1872 – April 8, 1960) was an American socialist, railroad president, political activist, and philanthropist. He was president of the Nevada Central Railroad for forty years. He is be ...

, socialist republican

William English Walling William English Walling (1877–1936) (known as "English" to friends and family) was an American labor reformer and Socialist Republican born into a wealthy family in Louisville, Kentucky. He founded the National Women's Trade Union League in 1903 ...

, magazine publisher B. O. Flower, attorney

Clarence Darrow Clarence Seward Darrow (; April 18, 1857 – March 13, 1938) was an American lawyer who became famous in the early 20th century for his involvement in the Leopold and Loeb murder trial and the Scopes "Monkey" Trial. He was a leading member of t ...

, writer

Charlotte Perkins Gilman Charlotte Perkins Gilman (; née Perkins; July 3, 1860 – August 17, 1935), also known by her first married name Charlotte Perkins Stetson, was an American humanist, novelist, writer, lecturer, advocate for social reform, and eugenicist. She w ...

, publicist Leonard D. Abbott, abolitionist hero

Thomas Wentworth Higginson Thomas Wentworth Higginson (December 22, 1823May 9, 1911) was an American Unitarian minister, author, abolitionist, politician, and soldier. He was active in the American Abolitionism movement during the 1840s and 1850s, identifying himself with ...

, and Harry W. Laidler. Over the signatures of these and other prominent public figures, in the Spring of 1905 Sinclair issued a call for the formation of a new organization, a group to be called the Intercollegiate Socialist Society. Their original call was written as follows: The new organization gathered for the first time shortly after the start of the new academic year, meeting on September 12, 1905 in a room at a restaurant in lower

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

.Laidler, "Ten Years of ISS Progress," pg. 17. About one hundred supporters of the new organization attended this meeting, chaired by Sinclair, including a number of prominent socialist intellectuals. The gathering elected Jack London as the first president of the organization, Sinclair as first vice-president, and millionaire philanthropist J. Graham Phelps Stokes as second vice-president, with anti-child labor activist Owen R. Lovejoy chosen as treasurer. The Intercollegiate Socialist Society set goals for its organization. It sought to promote and intelligent interest in Socialism among college men and women, familiarize students with the inherent evils of heAmerican economic and social system based on laissez-faire policies, and promote the establishment of a socialist order.The Life and Mind of John Dewey. Dykhuizen, George (1973). Carbondale: Southern Illinois

Structure

Rules were laid down as to how to structure the collegiate chapters of the Intercollegiate Socialist Society, organizing students on each campus into individual chapters who would fund the central organization through a small percentage of their membership dues collected to the national Society. Chapters would appoint officers, consisting of a President, two Vice Presidents, a Secretary, and a Treasurer, who would be elected annually by the vote of the entire society. The Society's activities would be overseen by these appointed individuals along with six additional members who would form an Executive Committee.

Development

The Intercollegiate Socialist Society organized slowly at first, as chapters were banned in most colleges and universities by conservative administrators who had the power to prohibit establishment of student organizations. Chapters slowly came to existence, frequently with names that did not signify its connection to the Intercollegiate Socialist Society at all, an example being the Wesleyan Social Study Club of

Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a private liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut. Founded in 1831 as a men's college under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church and with the support of prominent residents of Middletown, the col ...

, which was one of the first collegiate organizations associated with the Intercollegiate Socialist Society as well as a chapter established at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. Following these clubs, other affiliated socialist clubs were formed at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ni ...

Barnard College Barnard College of Columbia University is a private women's liberal arts college in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a group of women led by young student activist Annie Nathan Meyer, who petitioned Columbia ...

New York University Law School New York University School of Law (NYU Law) is the law school of New York University, a private research university in New York City. Established in 1835, it is the oldest law school in New York City and the oldest surviving law school in New ...

, and the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

. The college socialist clubs discussed current issues as well as distributed socialist propaganda and arranged lectures on their campuses to try to get more support the socialist cause.Tim Davenport
"Intercollegiate Socialist Society (1905-1921),"
Early American Marxism website, www.marxisthistory.org/

Transformation

In 1921, the Society recognized that socialism had become extremely unpopular in the United States after the violent Russian revolution. While its objectives to promote socialism in the United States didn't change, the name was changed to the

. In 1960 the League gave birth to

Students for a Democratic Society Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was a national student activist organization in the United States during the 1960s, and was one of the principal representations of the New Left. Disdaining permanent leaders, hierarchical relationships ...

, the principal representation in the United States of the New Left.

Footnotes

External links

* ttp://dlib.nyu.edu/eadapp/transform?source=tamwag/iss.xml&style=tamwag/tamwag.xsl&part=body Guide to the Intercollegiate Socialist Society Records 1900-1921 {{Authority control Student wings of political parties in the United States Socialist Party of America 1905 establishments in the United States 1921 disestablishments in the United States Student wings of social democratic parties