View source for Arthur E. Reimer

{{short description|American politician}}

{{Infobox officeholder
| name        = Arthur E. Reimer
| image       = Arthur Elmer Reimer (1882–1969) circa 1916.jpg
| caption     = Arthur Elmer Reimer circa 1916
| birth_name  = 
| birth_date  = {{birth date|1882|1|15}}
| birth_place = [[Boston, Massachusetts]], U.S.
| death_date  = c. November 25, 1969 (aged 87)
| death_place = 
| party       = [[Socialist Labor Party of America|Socialist Labor]]
| otherparty  = 
| father      = 
| mother      = 
| spouse      = 
| children    = 
| relatives   = 
| education   = [[Northeastern University]]
| signature   = 
}}
[[File:Reimer-Arthur-Elmer-1912.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Arthur Reimer, two-time presidential nominee of the Socialist Labor Party.]]

'''Arthur Elmer Reimer''' (January 15, 1882 – November 25, 1969)<ref>{{cite news |last1=Reimer |first1=Arthur |title=Arthur e. Reimer |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1969/11/25/archives/arthur-e-reimer.html |work=New York Times |date=November 25, 1969}}</ref> was an American [[socialist]] political activist and politician who served as the presidential candidate of the [[Socialist Labor Party of America]] twice.

==Biography==
===Early years===

Arthur Reimer was born January 15, 1882, in [[Boston, Massachusetts]], the son of a machinist.<ref name="ALWW">Solon DeLeon with Irma C. Hayssen and Grace Poole, ''The American Labor Who's Who.'' New York: Hanford Press, 1925; pg. 194.</ref> Reimer attended [[public school (government funded)|public school]] in Boston before going on to [[Northeastern University]], also in Boston, where he earned a law degree in 1912.<ref name="ALWW" />

Reimer worked as a ladies' tailor in his younger years.<ref name="ALWW" />

===Political career===

In 1898 Reimer joined the [[Socialist Labor Party of America]].<ref name="ALWW" />

In 1905, he was among those SLP members who joined the new [[Industrial Workers of the World]] (IWW).<ref name="ALWW" /> Reimer exited that organization along with his party comrades in 1908 to establish a rival organization, the [[Workers International Industrial Union]] (WIIU) as a result of disagreement between the IWW majority and the SLP group over matters of strategy and tactics.

As a member of WIIU, Reimers was a participant in the 1912 Paterson Silk Strike.<ref name="ALWW" />

He was the Socialist Labor Party presidential candidate for [[U.S. presidential election, 1912|the 1912 election]]. His running mate was [[August Gillhaus]] of [[New York (state)|New York]], the SLP's candidate for president in the previous election, that of 1908.<ref>Frank Girard and Ben Perry, ''The Socialist Labor Party, 1876–1991: A Short History.'' Philadelphia: Livra Books, 1991; pg. 41.</ref>

Afforded access to one of the country's leading weekly [[news magazine]]s of the day in the days before the election, Riemer criticized the attempt of the rival [[Socialist Party of America]] to win piecemeal ameliorative reform and declared a need for revolutionary change:

<blockquote>
"Where the social system starts with the private ownership of the necessaries for production, the bolt that, at first, slightly impedes fatedly becomes in the end a total bar to 'opportunity' — so far as the masses are concerned. The chains of [[wage slavery]] become more galling... At such a stage of capitalist rotten-ripeness, to look for reformatory redress in the governmental and economic maxims that rocked the cradle of the green infancy of capitalism is to be blind to economic evolution. It is to seek to hold back a runaway horse by the tail.... <br /><br />
"Capitalism has organized the forces for and firmly sunk the piers on which to rear the structure of the industrial republic — the social system under which the plants of production are owned collectively and democratically administered. *  *  * <br /><br />
"Socialism may be summed up in the motto, 'Down with the political state, up with the industrial administration!' ...Afraid, on the one hand, to alienate the vote of the 'furtive Socialists' by a propaganda which these may mistake for [[anarchism]], the Socialist Party suppresses this vital revolutionary feature of socialism; on the other hand, afraid to forfeit the vote of floating, hence anarchistically tainted discontent, the Socialist Party has elected a notorious anarchist [ [[William D. Haywood]] ] to its National Executive Committee."<ref>Arthur Elmer Reimer, "The Socialist Labor Party's Appeal," ''The Independent,'' vol. 73, whole no. 3334 (October 24, 1912), pp. 954–955.</ref></blockquote>

Reimer and Gillhaus received 33,070 votes in the 1912 campaign.<ref name="Tracht">Alexander Trachtenberg (ed.), ''The American Labor Year Book, 1917–18.'' New York: Rand School of Social Science, 1918; pp. 365–366.</ref>

In [[1913 Massachusetts gubernatorial election|1913]] he ran for governor of Massachusetts, only spending six cents, and again in [[1914 Massachusetts gubernatorial election|1914]] with the Socialist Labor nomination both times.<ref>Larry Kestenbaum (ed.), [http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/reily-remsen.html "Arthur E. Reimer,"] Political graveyard.com. Retrieved March 9, 2010.</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/40456800/the_boston_globe/ |title=Reimer Spent Six Cents |date=8 November 1913 |work=The Boston Globe |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191212063759/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/40456472/the_boston_globe/ |archive-date=12 December 2019 |url-status=live |page=2 |via=[[Newspapers.com]]}}</ref>

In the summer of 1914, Reimer was named the representative of the Socialist Labor Party to the International Socialist Bureau at the meeting of the [[Second International]] in [[Vienna, Austria]].<ref>[http://www.slp.org/pdf/slphist/vienna_1914%20.pdf "Report of the Socialist Labor Party to the International Bureau in Vienna"] August 23–29, 1914.</ref>

On April 29, 1916, he was given the Socialist Labor presidential nomination again by [[acclamation]] at the 1916 convention with [[Caleb Harrison]] as his running mate.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/40456457/hartford_courant/ |title=Candidate For President In Jail |date=21 July 1916 |work=Hartford Courant |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191212063548/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/40456457/hartford_courant/ |archive-date=12 December 2019 |url-status=live |page=17 |via=[[Newspapers.com]]}}</ref> During the [[1916 United States presidential election|1916]] campaign, Reimer and Harrison toured the country and during the campaign Reimer was thrown in jail for a time by the authorities of the mining town of [[Butte, Montana]], for giving a speech on the streets without permission from city officials and was later given a $10 fine that was suspended, while his running mate Harrison suffered a similar fate in the steel city of [[Homestead, Pennsylvania]].<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/40456349/the_butte_miner/ |title=Socialist Labor Candidates Named |date=1 May 1916 |work=The Butte Miner |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191212063112/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/40456349/the_butte_miner/ |archive-date=12 December 2019 |url-status=live |page=1 |via=[[Newspapers.com]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/40456472/the_boston_globe/ |title=Arthur E. Reimer Fined |date=22 July 1916 |work=The Boston Globe |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191212063759/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/40456472/the_boston_globe/ |archive-date=12 December 2019 |url-status=live |page=14 |via=[[Newspapers.com]]}}</ref><ref name="Tracht" /> During the course of the 1916 campaign, the SLP produced and distributed 1.5 million leaflets in support of the socialist cause, en route to garnering 14,398 votes.<ref name="Tracht" />

===Later years===

The [[Russian Revolution of 1917]] exerted an enormous impact upon the membership of the Socialist Labor Party, as with all on the political left wing in America. A significant section of the SLP exited the party in the 1917–1919 period to join forces with the communist movement in the United States. According to one history, Arthur Reimer was among this group, joining his 1916 vice presidential running mate, Caleb Harrison, [[Buffalo, New York]], druggist and party veteran Boris Reinstein, the late [[Daniel DeLeon|Daniel DeLeon's]] son, Solon DeLeon, and Dr. Julius Hammer of New York City.<ref name="GP51">Girard and Perry, ''The Socialist Labor Party, 1876–1991,'' pg. 51.</ref> Another source, published in 1925 and edited by Solon DeLeon himself, contends that Reimer had not left the embrace of the SLP up to that date.<ref name="ALWW" />

===Death and legacy===

Arthur E. Reimer died in 1969.<ref>Robert J. Constantine, ''Letters of Eugene V. Debs: Volume 2, 1913–1919.'' Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1990; pg. 250, fn. 2.</ref>

==Footnotes==
{{reflist|2}}

==Works==
* "The Socialist Labor Party's Appeal," ''The Independent,'' vol. 73, whole no. 3334 (October 24, 1912), pp.&nbsp;954–958.
* [http://www.slp.org/pdf/slphist/vienna_1914%20.pdf "Report of the Socialist Labor Party to the International Socialist Congress at Vienna,"] August 23–29, 1914.

{{Socialist Labor Party of America}}
{{United States presidential election, 1912}}
{{United States presidential election, 1916}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reimer, Arthur E.}}
[[Category:1882 births]]
[[Category:1969 deaths]]
[[Category:Politicians from Boston]]
[[Category:American Marxists]]
[[Category:Candidates in the 1912 United States presidential election]]
[[Category:Candidates in the 1916 United States presidential election]]
[[Category:Socialist Labor Party of America presidential nominees]]
[[Category:Industrial Workers of the World members]]
[[Category:Socialist Labor Party of America politicians from Massachusetts]]