In the late 1800's and into the early 1900's there was a strong socialist movement in the United States. This movement was anti-capitalist and antagonistic to the railroads and other large business organizations. Take-over of the U.S. Government was also one of their goals. (The IWW or "Wobbleys" were part of this movement.) The socialists in the U.S. followed the radical theories of Karl Marx and other international socialists. Although I have no information on the railroad bridge incident at Pierce City I suspect that it was aimed at the railroad, but it could have been targeting the Army troops, too, because they were a representation of the authority of the U.S. government. With the advent of World War One, the socialist movement largely dissipated. However, there are some advocates of a socialist state in this country now, mostly pinhead professors in the humanities departments of colleges and universities and a few self-serving politicians. There are also some anarchists, but they are, fortunately, a very small group. Anarchists are predominantly poorly educated and not very bright based on their literature and an encounter I had with a couple of them a few years ago. (Anarchists advocate no civil authority and are anti-capitalist.) Dale ************************************** See what's free at http://www.aol.com.

Now I'm wondering if the IWW was a presence down in Peirce City. Were they trying to organize railroad workers? They were a big organization at one point, but the mainstream labor unions prevailed over them and now they are a teeny-tiny organization that just prints a song book as far as I can tell. It includes the classic "Halleluja, I'm a Bum!" There was a railroad strike on the Missouri and North Arkansas line in 1921 in Harrison, Boone Co., Arkansas where bridges were destroyed: http://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=749 - Heather http://hblair.uchicago.edu/ On Tue, 12 Jun 2007 Dwestcw@aol.com wrote: > In the late 1800's and into the early 1900's there was a strong socialist > movement in the United States. This movement was anti-capitalist and > antagonistic to the railroads and other large business organizations. Take-over of > the U.S. Government was also one of their goals. (The IWW or "Wobbleys" were > part of this movement.) The socialists in the U.S. followed the radical > theories of Karl Marx and other international socialists. > > Although I have no information on the railroad bridge incident at Pierce > City I suspect that it was aimed at the railroad, but it could have been > targeting the Army troops, too, because they were a representation of the authority > of the U.S. government. > > With the advent of World War One, the socialist movement largely dissipated. > However, there are some advocates of a socialist state in this country now, > mostly pinhead professors in the humanities departments of colleges and > universities and a few self-serving politicians. There are also some anarchists, > but they are, fortunately, a very small group. Anarchists are predominantly > poorly educated and not very bright based on their literature and an > encounter I had with a couple of them a few years ago. (Anarchists advocate no > civil authority and are anti-capitalist.) > > Dale > > > > ************************************** See what's free at http://www.aol.com. > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to MOLAWREN-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >