Ben Hanford

Benjamin Hanford was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1861,^[1] the son of George Byington Hanford and Susan Elizabeth Martin Hanford.^[2] Ben's mother died when he was in infancy.^[3] Hanford's father later married Frances Jane Thompson, a woman from Bangor, Maine who as Hanford's step-mother imparted a taste for scholarship and culture upon him.^[3]

As a boy, Hanford worked for a newspaper, learning the printer's trade at the Marshalltown Republican of Marshalltown, Iowa.^[4] With his 18th birthday approaching, Hanford left Iowa for the great regional metropolis of Chicago, where on February 26, 1879, he became a member of the Chicago Typographical Union, a local affiliate of the International Typographical Union.^[5] Hanford would remain a dues-paying member of that organization for the rest of his life.^[5]

In 1892, Hanford relocated to New York City.^[6] There he worked as a printer and became involved in the affairs of International Typographical Union Local No. 6 — known as "Big Six" in that era.^[5]

En 1893, un compañero impresor de Filadelfia llamado Fred Long convirtió a su compañero miembro del sindicato a las ideas del socialismo . ^{[ 5 ]} Hanford se unió a la organización política socialista estadounidense dominante de la época, el Partido Laborista Socialista (SLP). Hanford fue elegido para encabezar la lista del estado de Nueva York del SLP en 1898, postulándose para gobernador de Nueva York . ^{[ 5 ]} En 1899, el SLP se dividió y Hanford dejó la organización con una facción anti- sindical dual liderada por Morris Hillquit y Henry Slobodin y centrada en el New Yorker Volkszeitung .

Hanford fue nominado nuevamente en 1900 como candidato a gobernador de Nueva York y como candidato a alcalde de Nueva York en 1901 por este grupo político disidente, que se autodenominó "Partido Socialdemócrata" después de perder una demanda por el uso del nombre y el emblema del SLP presentada por la mayoría leal a los líderes del partido Daniel DeLeon y Henry Kuhn . ^{[ 7 ]}

En agosto de 1901, el Partido Socialdemócrata del este, integrado por Hillquit, Slobodin y Hanford, se fusionó con el Partido Socialdemócrata de América, con sede en Chicago y encabezado por Eugene V. Debs y Victor L. Berger , para formar el Partido Socialista de América (SPA), del cual Hanford fue miembro fundador. En noviembre de 1902, Hanford fue elegido candidato del SPA para las elecciones de Nueva York, presentándose por tercera vez como gobernador de Nueva York.

Hanford era considerado un orador eficaz que poseía tanto "una ardiente sinceridad" como "la capacidad de revestir sus pensamientos y sentimientos con el lenguaje más simple y directo". ^{[ 6 ]} Esta reputación, combinada con su experiencia previa postulándose para un alto cargo en el estado de Nueva York, hizo que Hanford fuera la opción mayoritaria entre los delegados de la convención del Partido Socialista para ser el candidato a vicepresidente del partido en las elecciones presidenciales de los Estados Unidos de 1904 y 1908.

In addition to his efforts as a labor organizer and socialist orator and political candidate, Hanford was an effective pamphleteer, winning praise for his 1901 tract, Railroading in the United States, and making a lasting mark on the literature of American socialism with his short story "Jimmie Higgins,"^[8][6] lauding the silent efforts of a prototypical Socialist rank-and-file member to complete the mundane tasks that made an effective political movement possible. This character, reckoned by one commentator as "a veritable apotheosis of the faithful worker in the ranks,"^[9] was reprised after Hanford's death in a novel by the same title by Upton Sinclair.^[10]

Following the close of the 1908 Socialist Party National Convention, at which he was nominated for vice president for a second time, Hanford was stricken by "a virulent stomach trouble."^[9] The chronic condition proved incapacitating, forcing Hanford off the campaign trail and limiting his contributions to the written word.^[9] Hanford rallied for a time following the close of the campaign, spending time and effort attempting to raise funds for the New York Call, socialist daily newspaper in New York City.^[9]

On November 22, 1908, the committed 48-year-old bachelor Hanford married Alice Miriam Burnham, a fellow Socialist from New York City.^[11] The couple made their home in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn.^[11] Unfortunately, Hanford's health again began to decline, taking what would ultimately prove to be its terminal turn.

In 1909, with Hanford bedridden, a retrospective in his honor entitled Fight for Your Life!: Recording Some Activities of a Labor Agitator was unveiled by the Wilshire Book Company of New York, publishing house run by Wilshire's Magazine editor Gaylord Wilshire. Hanford's demise proved to be slow and painful, with his friend John C. Chase noting that he was confined to bed "for weeks and sometimes for months" in an "agony such as few men have to endure," while his body wasted from "the ravages of long continued illness."^[12]

Ben Hanford murió en su casa en Brooklyn, Nueva York, al mediodía del lunes 24 de enero de 1910, con su esposa y compañeros de partido a su lado. ^{[ 9 ]} Se dice que sus últimas horas fueron "pacíficas y sin dolor". ^{[ 9 ]}