Socialist Party of Missouri

The Socialist Party of Missouri was the Missouri state section of the Socialist Party of America (SPA), an organization originally established in 1901 as a federation of semi-autonomous state organizations. The Missouri organization was the direct lineal descendant of the Social Democratic Party of Missouri, which emerged in 1898.

The Socialist Party of Missouri was centered in the city of St. Louis, which was at the time of formation of the SPA the fourth most populous city in America and home to a large German-American immigrant community. Growth of the party was bolstered by the newspaper St. Louis Labor, a prominent weekly with a significant circulation among the organized labor movement of the city.

The Socialist Party of Missouri remained active throughout the Great Depression decade of the 1930s and into the 1940s, before atrophying and losing critical mass. The party's archives were donated to the Missouri Historical Society in 1964.

At the turn of the 20th Century the Midwestern city of St. Louis was a prominent center of American commerce and manufacturing. The city's population of just over 575,000 people made St. Louis the fourth largest city in the United States, following New York City, Chicago, and Philadelphia.

In 1850 St. Louis was largely an immigrant city, with more than half of its citizens born outside of the United States, including most importantly ethnic Germans and Irish. This percentage of foreign-born residence tailed off over time as the immigrants laid down roots and raised families, falling to 18% by 1910. Nevertheless, the city retained a strong ethnic character, with its population supplemented by Italians, Eastern European Jews, Czechs, Poles, and other nationalities as waves of immigrants arrived and were integrated into the American economy as wage workers.

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