Socialism in Oklahoma

Socialism was first tried in Oklahoma,1907-1920.  It came about because of the grinding poverty in the aftermath of the land runs.  Relatively few Oklahomans had been there for more than a few years at the time of statehood. Many had arrived as adults gambling everything on Oklahoma. But those who had been around decades before often locked up ownership of Indian lands as the reservations were dissolved in the Indian Territory (East of a line from approximately Lawton to Ponca City). Grafting (getting your name on title to an Indian’s allotment) was one of the sharkish legal techniques and gives us the modern connotation for the word “graft”. The result was that most farmers in the east were tenant farmers who sharecropped.  In the west, homestead land ownership was more common but enormous debt was normal as people tried to establish themselves in raw land. 70% of the total farmers in OK were tenants.

            And so the Socialist Party grew, garnering 30% of votes in gubernatorial elections from 1912 to 1920. 1914 was the year that scores of Socialists won local and state representative elections. Two dozen socialist newspapers came into being, including the Kay County Populist, from Newkirk, OK.  There were more Socialists in OK than in NY. In 1917, a few rebels in the Canadian River valley refused to register for the draft for WW I.  Called the Green Corn Rebellion, it did not amount to much.  This Socialist rebellion was soon put down by state officials.

            But then after 1920, socialism rapidly died.  Why? An agricultural recession hit farm prices right after the war. Wouldn’t that have spurred socialism?  But the true demise of socialism was from the churches. Socialism is counter to faith in a personal Savior who puts one on a personal mission in life.  It is evil to confiscate property which is another man’s stewardship from God.  Pulpits clashed with newspapers and the Bible Belt won.  Elsewhere, the Red Scare overtook USA as atrocities in the Soviet Union became known and union radicals fell into distrust. Socialism went down fast.  But a few never gave in, such as Woody Guthrie, the atheist singer who went on to write for Communist Party USA’s newspaper.  Again, socialism demands a sort of godlessness that most people choked on. A softer version of help-thy-neighbor overtook hard politics and as a result, when the dust bowl struck in the thirties, Oklahomans became resoundingly FDR Democrats at the expense of the socialist movement. Though hurting at times, Okies were at heart very independent yet charitable. Ayn Rand, an agnostic, nonetheless said it well, “Socialism is the doctrine that man has no right to exist for his own sake, that his life and his work do not belong to him, but belong to society, that the only justification of his existence is his service to society, and that society may dispose of him in any way it pleases for the sake of whatever it deems to be its own tribal collective good.”  Jesus said, “Where a man’s treasure is, there his heart will be.”