Walter Thomas Mills
Encyclopedia
Walter Thomas Mills was an American socialist activist, educator, lecturer, writer, and newspaper publisher. He is best remembered for the role he played in the Socialist Party of America
during the first decade of the 20th Century as one of the leaders of the organization's moderate wing. He also was a key actor in the labor movement of New Zealand
as a founder of the United Labour Party
in 1912. He returned to the United States in 1914 with the advent of World War I
and worked to help keep the country out of the bloody European conflict, eventually leaving the socialist movement in the 1920s.
, the son of a Quaker farmer, Charles Mills, and his wife, Mahetabel Ladd Mills. The family moved to Iowa
when Walter was a boy and he worked at a variety of jobs in his youth to save up enough money to put himself through college.
Mills was a graduate of Oberlin College
, a liberal arts
school in Oberlin, Ohio
, where he earned his Bachelor's degree
. He went on to earn a Master's degree
from the College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio
in 1898.
After finishing his education, Mills became active in the cause of alcoholic
prohibition
, a cause which forced him to think about social issues in a large context. As a result of reading and introspection about such matters, Mills turned his attention to socialism
in the 1880s.
In the process of speaking in public on these and related themes, Mills developed skill as an orator which was acknowledged by political friends and enemies alike. This reputation as a proficient orator, combined with Mills' shortness of stature — he stood just 4 feet and 6 inches (1.37 meters) tall — lead some detractors to mockingly refer to Mills as "The Little Giant," a twisted reference to Abraham Lincoln's
1860 Presidential debate opponent Stephen A. Douglas
.
in the first years of the 20th Century, soliciting funds and then exiting the project immediately before its collapse. He repeated this basic plan in Kansas City, Missouri
, renting a cavernous building on adjacent to the city's stockyards, furnishing it at great expense, soliciting annual subscriptions to a publiication called The Socialist Teacher, and then quitting the project after just three months.
Mills was similarly involved in colony schemes in Michigan
, Kansas City
, and Colorado
, all of which drew cash infusions from outside investors before failing in short order.
Regardless of whether his series of economic catastrophes was by design or bad luck, the skilled orator Mills was anxiously sought as a public speaker on socialist themes throughout the country, usually under the auspices of states controlled by electorally-oriented "constructive socialists." Mills' predilection for appearing on the scene of factional wars and forcefully advocating the moderate line has led him to be characterized by one historian of the period as an oratorial gun for hire consciously employed by moderate factionalists in various states to rally the troops.
In the summer of 1903, moderate socialists won majority control of Central Branch of Local Seattle of the Socialist Party — the largest of seven branches in the city — and brought Mills to Seattle on behalf of the local. Mills was anathema to radical newspaper publisher Hermon F. Titus
, the head of the powerful left wing faction in the Socialist Party of Washington
, who saw Mills as a living embodiment of middle class
reformism.
After hearing Mills' presentation, a committee of the Local Seattle, Central Branch, headed by William McDevitt, drafted a resolution endorsing Mills as "an uncompromising, class-conscious, and revolutionary Socialist" and upbraiding Hermon Titus's newspaper for participating in a "plan to silence Mills by driving him off the Socialist lecture platform, and by blacklisting
him in the eyes of the Socialist Party."
This proved to be a red flag to the Reds. Titus railed against "the Mills men" using "packed" meetings to gain control of the Central Branch and the Seattle City Central Committee in the absence of other delegates. "They will stop at nothing in the way of injustice," Titus indignantly proclaimed. Washington state
remained bitterly divided along factional lines for the rest of the decade.
of their center of power, the Pike Street Branch of Local Seattle, through a reorganization orchestrated by the Seattle City Central Committee only to see lose Local Seattle lose its charter and be reorganized by the left wing-dominated State Executive Committee. Mills persuaded the Seattle moderates who had been cast aside by the Socialist Party of Washington and who had organized themselves as the "Propaganda Club of Seattle" to rejoin the Socialist Party, with a view to winning control.
Throughout early 1907 Mills conducted Sunday afternoon meetings independent or the regularly scheduled Sunday afternoon propaganda meetings of Local Seattle, using these gatherings as a means of making contact with Socialists discontented with the left wing state organization and leadership of the reorganized Local Seattle. By the first of June, Mills' Sunday meetings — scheduled in direct conflict with the regular Sunday propaganda meetings of the left wing-dominated officialdom, had resulted in "steadily diminished" crowds being drawn by the left and a great expansion of the size and confidence of the moderate faction. "This is a great setback from the time when the revolutionary element had absolute control in the party some four or five months ago," left wing adherent Harry Ault
declared.
The situation was complex, however. In March 1907, Mills had been charged by the British Columbia
Dominion Executive Committee of the Socialist Party of Canada
with having advocated "compromise and fusion" in a speech delivered in Victoria
on December 28, 1906, in which Mills urged support of the Canadian Labor Party. Having gotten wind of Mills' fusionist heresy, left wing Washington State Committee member Alfred Wagenknecht wrote to the BC Dominion Executive Committee on February 20, 1907, soliciting a complaint against Mills. The Dominion Executive Committee complied on March 6 with a letter to the Washington State Executive Committee, which lead to charges being preferred against Mills. Both sides began to organize frantically for the May Washington State Convention, which was seen as the means by which the dilemma could be overcome by Mills forces — a majority at the convention for the moderates would mean a new State Committee and an end to pressure.
Mills was brought to trial before the Local Seattle on Sunday, April 28, 1907 at 10 am on the Victoria speech. Before the largest mass meeting of Local Seattle in the organization's history, charges were read by J.G. Morgan, Secretary of the Socialist Party of Canada. Mill pleaded "not guilty" and the point was reached where Morgan was to make his opening statement and to introduce his evidence. Suddenly, Mills was given the floor and he made a motion of adjournment, which was quickly seconded and carried amid the whooping and shouting of his supporters.
Despite being outnumbered in the city of Seattle and unable to discipline Mills through Local Seattle, the left wing still held the reins of the State Committee, which continued to mull over the situation into June. At its June 10, 1907 meeting, the State Executive Committee (formerly the Local Quorum) discussed the situation at length and telegraphed a forthcoming action to the membership in a tersely-worded report by State Secretary Richard Krueger that he had been instructed "to communicate with all the state committeemen and inform said committeemen of all the facts" regarding the failure of Local Seattle to "deal in a constitutional manner with the charges against Walter Thomas Mills."
On June 23, 1907 the State Executive Committee tabulated a poll of the members of the State Committee and instructed the State Secretary to prepare evidence in proper documentary form and to notify Local Seattle to do likewise, with the deadline for submission of its defense given of 30 minutes before the start of the next scheduled meeting of the SEC. Evidence from both sides was heard at the July 7, 1907 meeting of the SEC, and the evidence sent out to the members of the left wing-dominated State Committee for decision. The results were announced on Sunday, July 21, 1907 — a unanimous vote to revoke the charter of Local Seattle for its failure to take action against Walter Thomas Mills. Hermon Titus's right hand man at the Seattle Socialist, Harry Ault, claimed to speak for "a large number of members of Local Seattle, perhaps even a majority" when he declared:
Mills-dominated Local Seattle was once again cast adrift by the Socialist Party of Washington, a deep split which deprived the SPW of its largest Local and virtually insured that the matter would be appealed to the national level at the party's forthcoming convention of 1908.
In 1911, Mills was invited by the Trades and Labour Councils of New Zealand to tour the country, speaking on the cause of labor unity. Similar in climate to the Pacific Northwest
from whence he most recently hailed, Mills was quickly engrossed with the mission of uniting the deeply divided labor and left wing political movements of New Zealand and he wound up putting down roots.
Mills was criticized by radical trade unionists such as Pat Hickey, Paddy Webb and Bob Semple for his emphasis on organizing the staid middle class. During the 1911 election campaign Mills faced Scott Bennett in a series of highly publicized debates which emphasized the ideological issues which split the New Zealand labor movement.
Mills was instrumental in the founding of the United Labour Party of New Zealand
(ULP) on Easter Sunday 1912. The existence of this new moderate organization sharpened the heated conflict even further, with the bitterness in Auckland even periodically erupting into fist fights. Mills travelled thousands of miles on his organizing mission, speaking to public meetings across both islands of the country.
While many unions refused to affiliate with the ULP, Mills still played a large roll at a 1913 conference to mobilize the New Zealand labor movement against the government of William Ferguson Massey. Mills managed to convince the various factions at the conference to merge into two new organizations vaguely following American institutions: the United Federation of Labour and the Social Democratic Party
. Many of Mills' old enemies joined him in repudiating an exclusive reliance on industrial militancy in favor of parallel political action.
Mills left the country with his wife as suddenly as he arrived in 1914, returning to the United States.
Later in the 1910s, Mills was attracted to the newly-formed Non-Partisan League
(NPL), a cooperatively-oriented radical rural organization founded by former Socialist A.C. Townley and particularly strong in the Upper Midwestern states of North Dakota
and Minnesota
. Mills turned his attention away from the Socialist Party and became fully engaged in the activities of the NPL.
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...
during the first decade of the 20th Century as one of the leaders of the organization's moderate wing. He also was a key actor in the labor movement of New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
as a founder of the United Labour Party
United Labour Party (New Zealand)
The United Labour Party of New Zealand was an early left-wing political party. Founded in 1912, it represented the more moderate wing of the labour movement. In 1916 it joined with other political groups to establish the modern Labour Party.- Origins :...
in 1912. He returned to the United States in 1914 with the advent of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
and worked to help keep the country out of the bloody European conflict, eventually leaving the socialist movement in the 1920s.
Early years
Walter Thomas Mills — he was known by his contemporaries by his full name — was born May 11, 1856 in Duane, New YorkDuane, New York
Duane is a town in Franklin County, New York, United States. The population was 159 at the 2000 census. The town is named after James Duane, a developer and grandson of New York City Mayor James Duane....
, the son of a Quaker farmer, Charles Mills, and his wife, Mahetabel Ladd Mills. The family moved to Iowa
Iowa
Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...
when Walter was a boy and he worked at a variety of jobs in his youth to save up enough money to put himself through college.
Mills was a graduate of Oberlin College
Oberlin College
Oberlin College is a private liberal arts college in Oberlin, Ohio, noteworthy for having been the first American institution of higher learning to regularly admit female and black students. Connected to the college is the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the oldest continuously operating...
, a liberal arts
Liberal arts
The term liberal arts refers to those subjects which in classical antiquity were considered essential for a free citizen to study. Grammar, Rhetoric and Logic were the core liberal arts. In medieval times these subjects were extended to include mathematics, geometry, music and astronomy...
school in Oberlin, Ohio
Oberlin, Ohio
Oberlin is a city in Lorain County, Ohio, United States, to the south and west of Cleveland. Oberlin is perhaps best known for being the home of Oberlin College, a liberal arts college and music conservatory with approximately 3,000 students...
, where he earned his Bachelor's degree
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
. He went on to earn a Master's degree
Master's degree
A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
from the College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio
Wooster, Ohio
Wooster is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Wayne County. The municipality is located in northeastern Ohio approximately SSW of Cleveland and SW of Akron. Wooster is noted as the location of The College of Wooster...
in 1898.
After finishing his education, Mills became active in the cause of alcoholic
Alcohol
In chemistry, an alcohol is an organic compound in which the hydroxy functional group is bound to a carbon atom. In particular, this carbon center should be saturated, having single bonds to three other atoms....
prohibition
Prohibition
Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is the practice of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries during which the...
, a cause which forced him to think about social issues in a large context. As a result of reading and introspection about such matters, Mills turned his attention to 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 the 1880s.
In the process of speaking in public on these and related themes, Mills developed skill as an orator which was acknowledged by political friends and enemies alike. This reputation as a proficient orator, combined with Mills' shortness of stature — he stood just 4 feet and 6 inches (1.37 meters) tall — lead some detractors to mockingly refer to Mills as "The Little Giant," a twisted reference to Abraham Lincoln's
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
1860 Presidential debate opponent Stephen A. Douglas
Stephen A. Douglas
Stephen Arnold Douglas was an American politician from the western state of Illinois, and was the Northern Democratic Party nominee for President in 1860. He lost to the Republican Party's candidate, Abraham Lincoln, whom he had defeated two years earlier in a Senate contest following a famed...
.
Political career
Mills was initially involved in a series of socialist-themed educational and living schemes of dubious soundness. He organized a so-called People's University in Berrien Springs, MichiganBerrien Springs, Michigan
Berrien Springs is a village in Berrien County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 1,862 at the 2000 census. The village is located within Oronoko Charter Township. Berrien Springs is best known for its Seventh-day Adventist community and Andrews University...
in the first years of the 20th Century, soliciting funds and then exiting the project immediately before its collapse. He repeated this basic plan in Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
, renting a cavernous building on adjacent to the city's stockyards, furnishing it at great expense, soliciting annual subscriptions to a publiication called The Socialist Teacher, and then quitting the project after just three months.
Mills was similarly involved in colony schemes in Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
, Kansas City
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
, and Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
, all of which drew cash infusions from outside investors before failing in short order.
Regardless of whether his series of economic catastrophes was by design or bad luck, the skilled orator Mills was anxiously sought as a public speaker on socialist themes throughout the country, usually under the auspices of states controlled by electorally-oriented "constructive socialists." Mills' predilection for appearing on the scene of factional wars and forcefully advocating the moderate line has led him to be characterized by one historian of the period as an oratorial gun for hire consciously employed by moderate factionalists in various states to rally the troops.
In the summer of 1903, moderate socialists won majority control of Central Branch of Local Seattle of the Socialist Party — the largest of seven branches in the city — and brought Mills to Seattle on behalf of the local. Mills was anathema to radical newspaper publisher Hermon F. Titus
Hermon F. Titus
Hermon Franklin Titus was an American socialist activist and newspaper publisher. Originally a Baptist minister before becoming a medical doctor, Titus is best remembered as a factional leader of the Washington state affiliate of the Socialist Party of America during the first decade of the 20th...
, the head of the powerful left wing faction in the Socialist Party of Washington
Socialist Party of Washington
The Socialist Party of Washington was the Washington state section of the Socialist Party of America , an organization originally established as a federation of semi-autonomous state organizations...
, who saw Mills as a living embodiment of middle class
Middle class
The middle class is any class of people in the middle of a societal hierarchy. In Weberian socio-economic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class....
reformism.
After hearing Mills' presentation, a committee of the Local Seattle, Central Branch, headed by William McDevitt, drafted a resolution endorsing Mills as "an uncompromising, class-conscious, and revolutionary Socialist" and upbraiding Hermon Titus's newspaper for participating in a "plan to silence Mills by driving him off the Socialist lecture platform, and by blacklisting
Blacklist
A blacklist is a list or register of entities who, for one reason or another, are being denied a particular privilege, service, mobility, access or recognition. As a verb, to blacklist can mean to deny someone work in a particular field, or to ostracize a person from a certain social circle...
him in the eyes of the Socialist Party."
This proved to be a red flag to the Reds. Titus railed against "the Mills men" using "packed" meetings to gain control of the Central Branch and the Seattle City Central Committee in the absence of other delegates. "They will stop at nothing in the way of injustice," Titus indignantly proclaimed. Washington state
Washington State
Washington State may refer to:* Washington , often referred to as "Washington state" to differentiate it from Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States* Washington State University, a land-grant college in that state- See also :...
remained bitterly divided along factional lines for the rest of the decade.
The Mills Affair of 1907
The arrival of Walter Thomas Mills as a Seattle resident in 1906 energized the embattled moderate faction, which had in the previous year managed to deprive the revolutionary socialistsRevolutionary socialism
The term revolutionary socialism refers to Socialist tendencies that advocate the need for fundamental social change through revolution by mass movements of the working class, as a strategy to achieve a socialist society...
of their center of power, the Pike Street Branch of Local Seattle, through a reorganization orchestrated by the Seattle City Central Committee only to see lose Local Seattle lose its charter and be reorganized by the left wing-dominated State Executive Committee. Mills persuaded the Seattle moderates who had been cast aside by the Socialist Party of Washington and who had organized themselves as the "Propaganda Club of Seattle" to rejoin the Socialist Party, with a view to winning control.
Throughout early 1907 Mills conducted Sunday afternoon meetings independent or the regularly scheduled Sunday afternoon propaganda meetings of Local Seattle, using these gatherings as a means of making contact with Socialists discontented with the left wing state organization and leadership of the reorganized Local Seattle. By the first of June, Mills' Sunday meetings — scheduled in direct conflict with the regular Sunday propaganda meetings of the left wing-dominated officialdom, had resulted in "steadily diminished" crowds being drawn by the left and a great expansion of the size and confidence of the moderate faction. "This is a great setback from the time when the revolutionary element had absolute control in the party some four or five months ago," left wing adherent Harry Ault
E.B. "Harry" Ault
Erwin Bratton "Harry" Ault was an American socialist and trade union activist. He is best remembered as the editor of the Seattle Union Record, the long-running labor weekly published from 1912 to 1928. After termination of the Union Record, Ault worked as a commercial printer for a number of...
declared.
The situation was complex, however. In March 1907, Mills had been charged by the British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
Dominion Executive Committee of the Socialist Party of Canada
Socialist Party of Canada
There have been two different but related political parties in Canada that called themselves the Socialist Party of Canada . The current Socialist Party is an electorally inactive and unregistered federal political party in Canada...
with having advocated "compromise and fusion" in a speech delivered in Victoria
Victoria, British Columbia
Victoria is the capital city of British Columbia, Canada and is located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of about 78,000 within the metropolitan area of Greater Victoria, which has a population of 360,063, the 15th most populous Canadian...
on December 28, 1906, in which Mills urged support of the Canadian Labor Party. Having gotten wind of Mills' fusionist heresy, left wing Washington State Committee member Alfred Wagenknecht wrote to the BC Dominion Executive Committee on February 20, 1907, soliciting a complaint against Mills. The Dominion Executive Committee complied on March 6 with a letter to the Washington State Executive Committee, which lead to charges being preferred against Mills. Both sides began to organize frantically for the May Washington State Convention, which was seen as the means by which the dilemma could be overcome by Mills forces — a majority at the convention for the moderates would mean a new State Committee and an end to pressure.
Mills was brought to trial before the Local Seattle on Sunday, April 28, 1907 at 10 am on the Victoria speech. Before the largest mass meeting of Local Seattle in the organization's history, charges were read by J.G. Morgan, Secretary of the Socialist Party of Canada. Mill pleaded "not guilty" and the point was reached where Morgan was to make his opening statement and to introduce his evidence. Suddenly, Mills was given the floor and he made a motion of adjournment, which was quickly seconded and carried amid the whooping and shouting of his supporters.
Despite being outnumbered in the city of Seattle and unable to discipline Mills through Local Seattle, the left wing still held the reins of the State Committee, which continued to mull over the situation into June. At its June 10, 1907 meeting, the State Executive Committee (formerly the Local Quorum) discussed the situation at length and telegraphed a forthcoming action to the membership in a tersely-worded report by State Secretary Richard Krueger that he had been instructed "to communicate with all the state committeemen and inform said committeemen of all the facts" regarding the failure of Local Seattle to "deal in a constitutional manner with the charges against Walter Thomas Mills."
On June 23, 1907 the State Executive Committee tabulated a poll of the members of the State Committee and instructed the State Secretary to prepare evidence in proper documentary form and to notify Local Seattle to do likewise, with the deadline for submission of its defense given of 30 minutes before the start of the next scheduled meeting of the SEC. Evidence from both sides was heard at the July 7, 1907 meeting of the SEC, and the evidence sent out to the members of the left wing-dominated State Committee for decision. The results were announced on Sunday, July 21, 1907 — a unanimous vote to revoke the charter of Local Seattle for its failure to take action against Walter Thomas Mills. Hermon Titus's right hand man at the Seattle Socialist, Harry Ault, claimed to speak for "a large number of members of Local Seattle, perhaps even a majority" when he declared:
"These comrades are disgusted with the rule or ruin policy of the opportunistsOpportunism-General definition:Opportunism is the conscious policy and practice of taking selfish advantage of circumstances, with little regard for principles. Opportunist actions are expedient actions guided primarily by self-interested motives. The term can be applied to individuals, groups,...
, who, though they have been defeated in every state convention and in every referendum in which they have crossed swords with the revolutionists, persist in creating strife and dissension in the party in this state.
"The importation of Walter Thomas Mills is merely the culminating act of a band of desperate filibusterers, who, having been foiled in their attempts to control the party, resort to this means to disrupt it and organize it anew upon their plan."
Mills-dominated Local Seattle was once again cast adrift by the Socialist Party of Washington, a deep split which deprived the SPW of its largest Local and virtually insured that the matter would be appealed to the national level at the party's forthcoming convention of 1908.
New Zealand years
Pacific Northwest
The Pacific Northwest is a region in northwestern North America, bounded by the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains on the east. Definitions of the region vary and there is no commonly agreed upon boundary, even among Pacific Northwesterners. A common concept of the...
from whence he most recently hailed, Mills was quickly engrossed with the mission of uniting the deeply divided labor and left wing political movements of New Zealand and he wound up putting down roots.
Mills was criticized by radical trade unionists such as Pat Hickey, Paddy Webb and Bob Semple for his emphasis on organizing the staid middle class. During the 1911 election campaign Mills faced Scott Bennett in a series of highly publicized debates which emphasized the ideological issues which split the New Zealand labor movement.
Mills was instrumental in the founding of the United Labour Party of New Zealand
United Labour Party (New Zealand)
The United Labour Party of New Zealand was an early left-wing political party. Founded in 1912, it represented the more moderate wing of the labour movement. In 1916 it joined with other political groups to establish the modern Labour Party.- Origins :...
(ULP) on Easter Sunday 1912. The existence of this new moderate organization sharpened the heated conflict even further, with the bitterness in Auckland even periodically erupting into fist fights. Mills travelled thousands of miles on his organizing mission, speaking to public meetings across both islands of the country.
While many unions refused to affiliate with the ULP, Mills still played a large roll at a 1913 conference to mobilize the New Zealand labor movement against the government of William Ferguson Massey. Mills managed to convince the various factions at the conference to merge into two new organizations vaguely following American institutions: the United Federation of Labour and the Social Democratic Party
Social Democratic Party (New Zealand)
The Social Democratic Party of New Zealand was an early left-wing political party. It existed only a short time before being amalgamated into the new Labour Party...
. Many of Mills' old enemies joined him in repudiating an exclusive reliance on industrial militancy in favor of parallel political action.
Mills left the country with his wife as suddenly as he arrived in 1914, returning to the United States.
Later years
Upon returning to America in 1914, Mills once again became involved in the activities of the Socialist Party of America. Despite his renown as one of the most moderate voices in the Socialist Party, Mills was a devoted anti-militarist, perhaps owing to his Quaker background. Mills authored a pamphlet against the European war published by the SPA and spoke out publicly on anti-war themes.Later in the 1910s, Mills was attracted to the newly-formed Non-Partisan League
Non-Partisan League
The Nonpartisan League was a political organization founded in 1915 in the United States by former Socialist Party organizer A. C. Townley. The Nonpartisan League advocated state control of mills, grain elevators, banks and other farm-related industries in order to reduce the power of corporate...
(NPL), a cooperatively-oriented radical rural organization founded by former Socialist A.C. Townley and particularly strong in the Upper Midwestern states of North Dakota
North Dakota
North Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States of America, along the Canadian border. The state is bordered by Canada to the north, Minnesota to the east, South Dakota to the south and Montana to the west. North Dakota is the 19th-largest state by area in the U.S....
and Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
. Mills turned his attention away from the Socialist Party and became fully engaged in the activities of the NPL.
Works
- The Science of Politics. New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1887.
- The Product-Sharing Village. Chicago : Civic Letters, 1894.
- Tariff: Legislation or Arbitration? Chicago: Thorne, n.d. [1890s].
- Is Socialism Anti-Christian in its Tendency? Debate between Mr. W.F. Phillips, Newport, Affirmative, and Professor W.T. Mills, Milwaukee, USA, Negative, at the Workmen's Hall, Nantymoel... Aberdare, Wales: South Wales Divisional Council of the Independent Labour Party, n.d. [1890s].
- Evolutionary Politics: Addresses and Essays. Chicago: Charles H. Kerr & Co., 1898.
- How to Work for Socialism. Chicago: Charles H. Kerr & Co., 1900.
- What is Socialism? An Address Delivered at the State Convention of the Socialist Party at Sedalia, Mo., October 19th, 1901. Girard, KS: J.A. Wayland, 1901.
- The Struggle for Existence. Chicago: International School of Social Economy, 1904.
- How a Socialist Sees Things. Chicago: International School of Social Economy, 1906.
- What Is Socialism?: A Lecture. Spokane, WA: Workers Publishing Co, n.d. [c. 1911]. —Illustrated 2nd Edition of 1901 Sedalia, Missouri speech.
- Alcoholic Degeneracy: A Compelling Lecture. Invercargill, NZ: Southland Times, 1911.
- Proposals for Securing the Industrial and Political Union of All the Labour Organisations of New Zealand: Ready for Action! Are You Ready to Act? Auckland, NZ: New Zealand Worker, 1911.
- Unity Campaign, a Movement for the Industrial and Political Union of All Labour Organisations: Here are the Proposals: Solidarity, Strength, Progress. Auckland, NZ: New Zealand Worker, 1911.
- Why a Labour Party in New Zealand? Lower Hutt : Hutt and Petone Chronicle, 1912.
- The Unity Conference: Easter week, Auckland, March 17, 1912. Auckland, NZ: Voice, 1912.
- The United Labour Party: Its Constitution and Platform. Wellington, NZ: United Labor Party, 1912.
- Land Monopoly and How to End It. Wellington, NZ: United Labor Party, 1912.
- Amended Report of the Unity Scheme: Debate between H. Scott Bennett and Walter Thomas Mills which took place at uckland on December 8th, 1911: Subject:— "Do the unity proposals embody all the necessary features for sound industrial and political organization of the working class of New Zealand?" Wellington: The Maoriland Workers, 1912.
- Political Parties and Poverty. Glasgow : Reformer's Bookstall, n.d. [1910s].
- War. Mills essay "Make an End to War" along with "Big Business and War" by Charles Edward Russell. Chicago: Socialist Party, 1915.
- Democracy or Despotism. Berkeley, CA: International School of Social Economy, 1916.
- The Articles of Association of the National Nonpartisan League: Together with a Discussion of the Democracy of the League's Purposes, the Democracy of its Form of Organization, the Democracy of the Measures Supported by the League, and the Ending of the Autocratic Monopolies and the Triumph of Democracy. St. Paul, MN: National Nonpartisan League, n.d. [c. 1918]
- Your Choice: Government by Plunderers or Producers. Fargo, ND: North Dakota Nonpartisan League, n.d. [c. 1920].
- The Voice of the Sea. Santa Ana, CA: Standard Print. Co., 1933.
Further reading
- Thomas J. Morgan, "Walter Thomas Mills — His Record," The Socialist [Seattle], whole no. 350 (November 2, 1907), pg. 3.