Spargo, John

Spargo, John (spär`gō), 1876–1966, American reformer and author, b. Cornwall, England. An early socialist, he was active in the Socialist party of the United States but resigned in 1917 because of its antiwar policy. With Samuel Gompers he organized (1917) the American Alliance for Labor and Democracy. He also founded a settlement house in Yonkers, N.Y. His many books include The Bitter Cry of the Children (1906), a biography of Karl Marx (1910), Applied Socialism (1912), The Psychology of Bolshevism (1919), and studies in Vermont history.

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Spargo, John (1876–1966) reformer, museum director; born in Cornwall, England. Leaving the ministry for the labor movement, he attacked the British conduct of the Boer War in his Barry Herald (1899), earning the reputation as a socialist intellectual and skilled orator. Emigrating to New York (1901), he worked on behalf of many social causes and exposed childhood poverty in The Bitter Cry of the Children (1906). Moving to Bennington, Vt., he wrote extensively on socialism and served on the executive committee of the Socialist Party. During World War I he resigned from the Socialist Party and became a major architect of President Wilson's anti-Bolshevik policy. In 1926 he founded the Bennington (Vt.) Historical Museum and until 1954 served there as a caretaker of American history.