The Toiler

1898-1903

Introduction

THE TOILER (Terre Haute, IN — 1899-1904) The Toiler was a privately owned tabloid newspaper published every Friday in Terre Haute, Indiana — home town of socialist leader Eugene V. Debs. The paper was one of two English-language weekly closely associated with the Social Democratic Party with headquarters in Chicago, the other being the official organ of the party, the Social Democratic Herald. It is believed to have been first launched early in the spring of 1899.

Only one copy of the paper dated prior to 1903 has so far surfaced, the December 7, 1900 issue presented here. This issue notes that the paper was by then the official organ of the Central Labor Union for the towns of Terre Haute, Brazil, Clinton, Cayuga, and Linton, as well as the Terre Haute local of the Typographical Union. Professing the slogan “Exclusively a Labor Paper,” the publication was also clearly an organ of the fledgling Vigo County local branch of the Social Democratic Party, including a complete reprint of the organization’s national program.

The names of editorial staff were never published on the masthead, nor did the paper bear a heavy percentage of editorial content.

Although technically the local socialist paper of Gene Debs, he seems to have written original material for The Toiler very infrequently, concentrating his efforts instead on the Social Democratic Herald — which he regarded as the current incarnation of The Railway Times, weekly organ of his beloved American Railway Union. This focus lasted through 1904, the last year in which The Toiler is known to have been published.

After the rival Social Democratic Parties of Chicago and Springfield joined forces in the summer of 1901, The Toiler dutifully cast its allegiance with the new organization under the banner slogan, “Join the Union of Your Craft / Join the Party of Your Class.” The paper regularly published contributions by Socialist Party worthies, including Christian socialist E.E. Carr, Robert Hunter, Algie Simons, and Terre Haute's own James Oneal, as well as periodic official reports and communiques from local, state, and national Socialist organizations.

The surviving run for the last years of The Toiler is excellent, featuring a virtually complete series from February 1903 through December 1904, albeit with a fair number of these issues in damaged condition. The inclusion of regular reports of the affairs of the Socialist Party of Indiana make the tabloid an important resource for understanding the state and local history of the SPA during these years of initial growth.