William Mailly

Will Mailly was an early National Executive Secretary of the Socialist Party of America.

William Mailly (November 22, 1871 – September 4, 1912) was an American socialist political functionary, journalist, and trade union activist. He is best remembered as the second National Executive Secretary of the Socialist Party of America and as the first managing editor of the socialist daily newspaper, the New York Call.

Biography

Early years

William Mailly was born November 22, 1871, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Mailly's parents emigrated to Liverpool, England when the boy was 2, and so the American-born Mailly was raised in English schools—an extremely rare pattern of emigration for an American radical activist. He worked in Liverpool from a very early age as an errand boy.

Mailly returned to the United States in July 1889, working briefly in a brickyard and on a railway before moving to Alabama in 1890 to take up work as a coal miner.

Mailly took part in a coal strike in 1894, an activity which resulted in his blacklisting from the Alabama coal mines.

Political career William Mailly as he appeared in a drawing in the Appeal to Reason in 1903.

Following his blacklisting from the mines, Mailly began to work as an organizer on behalf of the UMWA and the Socialist Party of America.

Mailly turned his hand to labor journalism, taking a job as associate editor of the Birmingham Labor Advocate in May 1895 and serving at that post for about a year.

The January 1903 meeting of the governing National Committee of the SPA elected Mailly as the new Nati Secretary of the party, and he assumed these duties the following month. The same meeting moved the headquarters of the party to Omaha, Nebraska, and so Mailly moved there forthwith. Mailly was reelected as National Secretary of the Socialist Party in 1904 and continued in that position until 1905. Mailly also served as a member of the National Executive Committee of the SPA from 1905 to 1906.

Mailly finished up his life back in New York City, first as associate editor of the socialist weekly The Worker (1906–1907) before becoming managing editor of its successor the New York Call (1908–1909). He then moved to the mass-circulation monthly The Metropolitan Magazine where he was to contribute an article each month on the topic of socialism.

Death and legacy Shortly after his move to The Metropolitan Magazine, Mailly's health began to fail.

Mailly died September 4, 1912, at the age of 40. He was survived by his wife, Bertha Howell Mailly, whom he married in 1898.

Footnotes

Works

"The Movement from January 1 to July 1, 1903," Appeal to Reason [Girard, KS], whole no. 405 (Sept. 5, 1903), pg. 2. "The Socialist Movement in the United States," in F.W. Pethick Lawrence and Joseph Edwards (eds.), The Reformers' Year Book: 1904 (vol. 10). London: The Echo, 1904; pp. 70–71. "Trade Union and Socialist Movement in the United States," in F.W. Pethick Lawrence and Joseph Edwards (eds.), The Reformers' Year Book: 1905 (vol. 11). London: The Echo, 1905; pp. 156–158. "The Socialist View," in "Lessons of the Election: A Symposium," To-Morrow: A Monthly Hand-Book of the Changing Order, vol. 1, no. 1 (January 1905), pp. 39–40.