646 ★ CHAPTER 16 America’s Gilded Agesurvived the Ku Klux Klan in Recon-
struction Texas, Parsons perished on
the Illinois gallows for a crime that he,
like the other “Haymarket martyrs,” did
not commit.Labor and Politics
The Haymarket affair took place amid
an outburst of independent labor polit-
ical activity. One study has identified
more than 100 local political tickets
associated with the Knights of Labor
between 1886 and 1888, from Annis-
ton, Alabama, to Whitewater, Wis-
consin. Their major aim was to end
the use of public and private police
forces and court injunctions against
strikes and labor organizations. At least
sixty achieved some kind of electoral
success. In Kansas City, a coalition of
black and Irish- American workers and
middle- class voters elected Tom Hanna
as mayor. He proceeded to side with
unions rather than employers in industrial disputes.
The most celebrated labor campaign took place in New York City, where
in 1886, somewhat to his own surprise, Henry George found himself thrust
into the role of labor’s candidate for mayor. George’s aim in running was to
bring attention to the single tax on land. The labor leaders who organized
the United Labor Party had more immediate goals in mind, especially stop-
ping the courts from barring strikes and jailing unionists for conspiracy.
George ran a spirited campaign, speaking at factories, immigrant associations,
and labor parades and rallies. A few days after the dedication of the Statue of
Liberty, New Yorkers flocked to the polls to elect their mayor. Nearly 70,000
voted for George, who finished second, eclipsing the total of the Republican
candidate, Theodore Roosevelt, and coming close to defeating Democrat Abram
Hewitt.
In a political system that within living memory had witnessed the disap-
pearance of the Whig Party, the rise and fall of the Know- Nothings, and the
emergence of the Republicans, the events of 1886 suggested that labor might
be on the verge of establishing itself as a permanent political force. In fact,In a political cartoon from Frank Leslie’s Weekly,
November 13, 1886, Uncle Sam congratulates
a workingman for the defeat of Henry George’s
candidacy for mayor of New York City on the
United Labor Party ticket. A disappointed anar-
chist fulminates in the background. Local labor
parties did win many local victories in 1886.