Quincy native became a Socialist Montana mayor

Between 1880 and 1920, the United States evolved from a rural and agricultural society to an industrial and urban one.

This period of unfettered industrial growth created social problems and economic inequities. As a consequence, labor and reformers got together to deal with industrialization’s downside.

One remedy to industrialization’s ills was socialism.

The socialist antidote to the economic inequities of capitalism was expanded government and public ownership of transportation, utilities and communication.

Though socialism never took hold in the United States, the Socialist Party in America did gain enough followers in the early 20th century to elect several officeholders.

Beginning in 1906, the Socialist Party in Quincy nominated candidates for ward and town offices. By 1912, the party succeeded in electing an alderman.

In 1910, the party took three U.S. mayoral races — the most significant being Milwaukee. The next year, 1911, the Socialists elected 18 mayors.

“Lewis J. Duncan, an old Quincy boy, was elected mayor of Butte, Montana, yesterday, as Socialist,” The Quincy Daily Herald reported April 4, 1911. The newspaper noted: “Mr. Duncan was a long time resident of Quincy and began his active career in this city. Later he entered the Unitarian ministry and he has filled the pulpit of the local church on many occasions.”

With her husband’s death in 1860, Emma Duncan left St. Louis with her two children and returned to her parents’ Quincy home. Here, Lewis, born May 4, 1857, lived until 1893. He attended Quincy’s public schools. Eventually, he studied law and was admitted to the bar. However after two years, he gave up law for a railroad job. Finding this not to his liking, Duncan took up bookkeeping and with years of self-study, he “qualified himself for the Unitarian ministry. He accepted a position in Streator.

After stops in Sheffield, Ill., and Milwaukee, the Rev. Duncan in 1902 took “charge . . . of the Unitarian church” in Butte. But Duncan’s socialist beliefs “crept into his sermons,” and after nine years he “was compelled to leave….”

In his own words: “I got out of the church and into the socialist party. It had been my party for years, but then it became my political religion.”

In a lecture delivered Nov. 20, 1911, Duncan explained: “It was here in Quincy, and in this Unitarian church, that I first obtained a vision of ideals which have become tangible to me in the form of socialism.” He continued: “I stand here, preaching the doctrine of equality under socialism, where I once stood as a minister. This old town was my home for more than thirty years. This old church was where I was led into the religious beliefs which I preached for so many years.”

Collier’s magazine reported that Duncan’s election was largely due to auditors discovering shortages in the city’s books that had occurred under both the Democrats and Republicans. In addition to Duncan, the Socialists’ candidates for treasurer and police judge won office. Five out of eight Socialist aldermanic candidates also were elected, but the old parties still held a majority on the city council. They did, however, approve the Socialists appointed to be city attorney, assistant treasurer, street commissioner and sanitation inspector.

With his team in place, Duncan ran an efficient and competent administration. He wanted social change but felt that it could only be accomplished by the ballot and with the aid of the labor movement. Under his guidance Butte’s finances were soon in order; the streets and alleys were clean; contagious diseases were reduced; laws regulating prostitution and alcohol sale were strictly enforced; corrupt police and public officials were dismissed; and consumers were protected from dishonest merchants.

Duncan may not have achieved socialism, but he had brought reform.

Duncan’s Socialists were re-elected in April 1913. But by late June 1914, The Quincy Daily Journal reported there was “serious rioting going on in Butte and Mayor Duncan has his hands full. The difficulty is caused by labor troubles, factional differences … between the Western Federation of Miners and the Industrial Workers of the World.”

While Duncan’s Socialist Party believed the ballot was the best means to free the working class and bring change, the industrial workers’ union called for immediate revolution, using the tools of general strike, violence and sabotage. When Butte’s Miners Union Hall was blown up, they were blamed. Turmoil continued and the Journal on July 6 reported that an irate IWW miner stabbed Duncan, who shot and mortally wound his assailant.

Duncan’s problems, however, were not over. The federal government intervened, and proceedings were started to remove him as mayor. On Oct. 5, 1914, a federal court ruled that Duncan had “refused and neglected to perform the official duties pertaining to his office,” writing that he had made no attempt to suppress the rioting and disorder on June 23. Quincy’s Journal wrote that the newspaper hated to hear of Duncan’s removal and added, “He has been elected mayor of Butte on the socialist ticket a couple of times … and has made a good record while in office.”

Phil Reyburn is a retired field representative for the Social Security Administration. He wrote “Clear the Track: A History of the Eighty-ninth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, The Railroad Regiment” and co-edited “‘Jottings from Dixie:’ The Civil War Dispatches of Sergeant Major Stephen F. Fleharty, U.S.A.”

Sources

Calver, Jerry W. The Gibraltar: Socialism and Labor in Butte, Montana, Montana Historical Society Press 1988.

Congressional Edition, Vol. 7599, 1919.

Connolly, C.P. “The Labor Fuss in Butte,” Everybody’s Magazine, Vol. 31, August 1914.

Dewitt, Steve, Butte: Town and People, American Graphic Publishing, 1988.

Emmons, David M. The Butte Irish, University of Illinois Press, 1989.

“Freedom,” Collier’s, Vol. 47, April 22, 1911.

“The Week,” The Nation, May 18, 1911.

Sanders, Helen Fitzgerald, 1913 History of Montana, Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1913.

Spence, Clark C. Montana: A Bicentennial History, New York: Norton & Co., 1978.

The Quincy Daily Herald, March 14, 1908, April 4, 21, 1911; Nov. 17, 20, 21, 1911; Nov. 4, 1913; and Sept. 11, 1914.

The Quincy Daily Journal, June 25 and July 6, 1914.

The Quincy Daily Whig, Nov. 21, 1911, April 4, 1912.