victor berger, he was the first socialist elected to the u.s. congress in 1910.a sweeping victory for the socialists. in large part, it was because of the corruption of the previous administration, there was all sorts of graft and backroom dealings and that kind of thing. also kind of pushed milwaukee as this wide open, wild city liquor,bling, saloons, prostitution. all of those things kind of ridened to help socialists this wave into power. won controlialists of city hall. they won a number of county seats, state seats, victor berger was elected to the u.s. congress. the party put out this calendar success aswaukee's far as advancing the socialist movement. again, it starts at the bottom with city hall and all the people that won offices there, including victor berger's wife, who was elected to the school board. then at the county level, then moving on to the state capital in madison, and finally to the capital in washington, d.c., with victor berger winning election there. the socialists, they had a very contentious relationship with milwaukee streetcar company

abing it essentially started here in milwaukee in 1897 under the leadership of victor berger and it took off from there. there were a lot of factors that led to the formation of the socialist party here. there was this huge influx of immigrants and to milwaukee. many of them had the socialist spent already when they got here. those german emigrants provided the leadership for socialists here in milwaukee. huge pool ofs a industrial workers. there were numerous factors around the city. ofwe had this huge pool working-class, immigrant workers who were very receptive to a message that promise to benefit the working class. they could see this wide gap between the owners and the working-class people who are laboring for pennies. they could see that working conditions were not good. they worked in the hottest, dirtiest, most grungy jobs available. they were hoping socialists could make those conditions better. socialism means different things to different people. that an economic system be aves there is going to collapse of the capitalist system. and it will be replaced by a collectivist state

[video clip] >> the socialist party started here under the leadership of victor berger and it took offm there. there were a number of factors that really led to the formation of the socialist party here. number one, there was a huge influx of german immigrants into milwaukee. been socialistd when they arrived in the walkie. those german immigrants kind of provided the leadership for socialist here in milwaukee. you had that. workerss a huge pool of in the machine shop of the world, there were numerous factories around the city. so, you had this huge pool of working-class, largely immigrant workers who were very receptive promised tot benefit the working class. they could see that there was a wide gap between the owners of the business and the working-class people who were laboring for pennies. they could see that. the working conditions they had to deal with work not good at all. i'm in they worked in the hottest, the dirtiest, the most grungy jobs available. they were hoping that the socialists could make those conditions and their lives in general, could make that better. we hope you