Louis A. Arnold (July 13, 1872 –October 4, 1958) was an American schoolteacher, HVAC worker and Socialist politician from Milwaukee who served two terms (1915–1922) as a member of the Wisconsin State Senate representing the Milwaukee-based 7th Senate district. [1]
Arnold was born in Boonville, Indiana on July 13, 1872; four months later his parents moved to Newburg in Washington County, Wisconsin, where his father had a hardware store. He attended the public schools, and graduated from the West Bend high school. He taught school one year and then went to work for the Vilter Manufacturing company of Milwaukee, where he was engaged in erecting icemaking and refrigerating plants. [2]
Arnold was a member of Milwaukee's moderate, social-democratic "Sewer Socialists." In the Social Democracy Red Book of 1900 he was listed among "One Hundred Well-Known Social Democrats." [3] He was the Socialist nominee for a number of offices, including Congressman from the fourth Congressional district. He was a City of Milwaukee alderman for the 17th Ward from 1908 to 1912; tax commissioner of Milwaukee from 1912 to 1915; and was elected to the Wisconsin Senate's 7th District in 1914 (succeeding fellow Socialist Gabriel Zophy) and re-elected in 1918. [4]
On October 29, 1918, a few days before the election in which he was a candidate for re-election, Arnold (as state secretary of the Socialist Party of Wisconsin) was one of five Socialists (the most prominent being Congressman Victor Berger) indicted under the Espionage Act of 1917 due to their organized opposition to U.S. participation in the First World War. [5] Like Berger, he was re-elected despite the highly publicized indictment, receiving 4,730 votes to 4,532 for Republican David Love.
Arnold was the 1922 Socialist nominee for Governor of Wisconsin [6] and came in third to Progressive Republican John James Blaine and Democrat Arthur A. Bentley, with 39,570 votes (8.21% of a total of 481,828). [7] His Senate seat was claimed by fellow Socialist William Quick.
In 1922, Arnold was appointed Tax Commissioner of Milwaukee, with Mayor Daniel Hoan taking advantage of the absence of two objecting city council members due to illness to gain a successful vote of appointment. [8] Arnold continued in that office until his retirement in 1939. [9] During his tenure, he was offered a role on the State Tax Commission by Governor Philip La Follette, but preferred to remain in Milwaukee. [10]
He was elected in 1933 as a Wet delegate to the Wisconsin convention which voted to ratify the Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution. [11] In 1941, he spoke at a Socialist meeting in support of the return of a ballot line for the Socialist Party, which had previously merged into a Farmer Labor Progressive Federation. [12]
Victor Luitpold Berger was an Austrian–American socialist politician and journalist who was a founding member of the Social Democratic Party of America and its successor, the Socialist Party of America. Born in the Austrian Empire, Berger immigrated to the United States as a young man and became an important and influential socialist journalist in Wisconsin. He helped establish the so-called Sewer Socialist movement, but also sparked the American Socialist Party's nativist turn. In 1910, he was elected as the first Socialist to the U.S. House of Representatives, representing a district in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Daniel Webster Hoan was an American politician who served as the 32nd Mayor of Milwaukee, Wisconsin from 1916 to 1940. A lawyer who had served as Milwaukee City Attorney from 1910 to 1916, Hoan was a prominent figure in Socialist politics and Milwaukee's second Socialist mayor. His 24-year administration remains the longest continuous Socialist administration in United States history. A panel of 69 scholars in 1993 ranked him among the ten best mayors in American history.
Frederick RobertZimmerman was a German American politician from Milwaukee, who served as the 25th Governor of Wisconsin. He served before and after his governorship as Wisconsin Secretary of State—for a total of eighteen years in that office. He also served one term in the Wisconsin State Assembly. His son, Robert C. Zimmerman, was also Wisconsin Secretary of State from 1957 until 1975.
Sewer socialism refers to the American socialist movement that centered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, from around 1892 to 1960. The moniker was coined by Morris Hillquit at the 1932 Milwaukee convention of the Socialist Party of America as a commentary on the Milwaukee socialists and their perpetual boasting about the excellent public sewer system in the city.
John Charles Schafer was an American railroad operator and Republican politician from Milwaukee County, Wisconsin. He served six terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Wisconsin's 4th congressional district from 1923 to 1933, and from 1939 to 1941. Initially a member of the progressive faction of Republicans, Schafer fell out with progressive leadership after the death of U.S. senator Robert M. La Follette Sr. and then became a supporter of the stalwart faction. Late in his career, he drifted into extreme anti-communism and was a defender of the Nazi German American Bund in the lead-up to World War II.
Wisconsin's political history encompasses, on the one hand, Robert La Follette and the Progressive movement, and on the other, the Republican and anti-Communist Joe McCarthy. From the early 20th century, the Socialist Party of America had a base in Milwaukee. The phenomenon was referred to as "sewer socialism" because the elected officials were more concerned with public works and reform than with revolution. Its influence faded in the late 1950s largely because of the red scare and racial tensions. The first Socialist mayor of a large city in the United States was Emil Seidel, elected mayor of Milwaukee in 1910; another Socialist, Daniel Hoan, was mayor of Milwaukee from 1916 to 1940; and a third, Frank P. Zeidler, from 1948 to 1960. Succeeding Frank Zeidler, the last of Milwaukee's Socialist mayors, Henry Maier, a former Wisconsin State Senator and member of the Democratic Party was elected mayor of Milwaukee in 1960. Maier remained in office for 28 years, the longest-serving mayor in Milwaukee history. Socialist newspaper editor Victor Berger was repeatedly elected as a U.S. Representative, although he was prevented from serving for some time because of his opposition to the First World War.
Thomas McEwing Duncan was an American clerical worker from Milwaukee who served three terms as a Socialist member of the Wisconsin State Assembly (1923–1929) and one term as a member of the Wisconsin State Senate (1929–1933) representing the Milwaukee-based 6th Senate district.
William C. Zumach was an American laborer, engineer, union organizer, and Socialist politician from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He represented the north side of the city of Milwaukee in the Wisconsin Senate during the 1917 and 1919 sessions.
Ben Rubin was a cigar maker, zookeeper, union activist and member of the Wisconsin State Assembly from Milwaukee who served four terms. He was elected in 1930 and served one term as a Socialist. He was later elected as a Progressive on a fusion ticket, serving for six years (1937–1942).
William F. Quick, Sr., was an American machinist, lawyer, and Socialist politician in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was the Socialist Party nominee for Governor of Wisconsin in 1924 and served one term (1923–1926) in the Wisconsin State Senate, representing the Milwaukee-based 7th District. After leaving the senate, he served as a civil court judge and city attorney in Milwaukee.
George F. L. Hampel, Sr., was an American politician, accountant and bookseller from Milwaukee who served one term in the Wisconsin State Assembly as a Socialist (1931–1932) and two terms in the Wisconsin State Senate as a Progressive (1937–1944). Hampel at various times identified himself as a Social Democrat/Socialist, and Progressive; and joined the Republicans when the Progressives rejoined the latter party.
Alex C. Ruffing was an American machinist and Socialist from Milwaukee who served four terms (1919–1926) as a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly and one shortened term in Wisconsin State Senate representing Milwaukee County-based districts
John J. Polakowski was a retail clerk, dispatcher and real estate broker from Milwaukee who served one term (1923–1924) as a Socialist member of the Wisconsin State Assembly from the 8th Milwaukee County district. He was the brother of Walter Polakowski.
Edwin William Knappe was an American machinist from Milwaukee who became a lawyer, and who served one term as a Socialist member of the Wisconsin State Assembly.
Richard Elsner was an American attorney and judge from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who served one term as a Socialist member of the Wisconsin State Assembly.
The Social-Democratic Party of Wisconsin (SDPW) was established in 1897 as the Wisconsin state affiliate of the Chicago faction of the Social Democratic Party of America. When that organization merged in 1901 to form a political party known as the Socialist Party of America, the Social-Democratic Party of Wisconsin became the state affiliate of that organization, retaining its original name. For most of its 75 years, the Social-Democratic Party of Wisconsin was the state affiliate of the Socialist Party of America, established in 1901. The party was one of the largest state organizations which together comprised the Socialist Party of America.
John N. Kaiser was an American salesman from Milwaukee, Wisconsin who served two terms (1933–1936) as a Democratic member of the Wisconsin State Assembly from the 6th Milwaukee County district. He succeeded, and was in turn succeeded by, Socialist Ben Rubin.
Leander J. Pierson was an American politician and quarryman.
The 1918 United States Senate special election in Wisconsin was held on April 2, 1918. Incumbent Democrat Senator Paul O. Husting was killed in a hunting accident the previous year.
The 1922 Wisconsin gubernatorial election was held on November 7, 1922. Primary elections were held on September 5, 1922.