It reached its peak in 1912 when Eugene Debs secured more than 900,000
votes for president, or 6 percent of the total presidential vote as the party registered
about 118,000 members. Socialist beliefs and groups were entrenched in three diverse
communities. The first of these was the native-born lower-middle class, several
of whom were Protestant and old-timers of Populist, Prohibition, and other
rural revolutionaries. The next community was deeply urban activists made up of
German, Croatian, Hungarian, and Jewish Russian immigrants became an
increasingly important mass base for the Socialist Party. The last was composed of members of social gospel, Progressive, and feminist
movements. They helped promote the ideas of Eugene Deb’s socialism in the
form productive conversation with other liberal organizations.
