John Spargo
John Spargo (January 31, 1876 – August 17, 1966) was a British political writer who, later in life, became an expert in the history and crafts of
Vermont. At first Spargo was active in the
Socialist Party of America. A Methodist preacher, he tried to meld the Protestant
Social Gospel with
Marxist socialism in ''Marxian Socialism and Religion: A Study of the Relation of the Marxian Theories to the Fundamental Principles of Religion'' (1915). He also founded a
settlement house in Yonkers, N.Y. Spargo moved steadily to the right after 1917 when he supported American intervention in World War I. With AFL leader
Samuel Gompers he organized the American Alliance for Labor and Democracy in 1917. Spargo helped draft the Colby Note that formalised the Wilson administration's anti-communist policies. He strongly denounced the Bolshevik Revolution in ''Bolshevism: The Enemy of Political and Industrial Democracy'' (1919). He opposed the foreign policy of the
New Deal, especially its recognition of the USSR in 1933. He supported the
House Un-American Activities Committee in the late 1930s and Senator
Joseph McCarthy in the early 1950s. He endorsed
Barry Goldwater In the 1964 Elections.
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