34 Facts About Meyer London

Meyer London was a Lithuanian-born American politician from New York City.

Meyer London represented the Lower East Side of Manhattan and was one of only two members of the Socialist Party of America elected to the United States Congress.

Meyer London's father had established himself as a grain merchant in Zenkov, a small town located in Poltava province of Ukraine but his financial situation was poor, and in 1888 his father emigrated with Meyer's younger brother to the United States, leaving Meyer behind.

Meyer London attended Cheder, a traditional Jewish primary school in which he learned Hebrew, before entering Russian-language schools to begin his secular education.

In 1891, when Meyer London was 20, the family decided to follow his father to America so Meyer London terminated his studies and departed for New York City, taking up residence in the city's largely Jewish Lower East Side.

Efraim Meyer London's shop was a hub of activity, bringing together Jewish radical intellectuals from throughout the city, many of whom met and influenced the printer's son with their ideas.

Meyer London earned money as a tutor, taking on pupils at irregular hours and teaching literature and other topics.

Meyer London later obtained a job as a librarian, a position which allowed him sufficient time to read about history and politics and to study law in his free time.

Meyer London frequented radical meetings, gradually developing proficiency as a public speaker and participant in public debates.

In 1896, Meyer London was accepted to the law school of New York University, attending most of his classes at night.

Meyer London completed the program and was admitted to the bar in New York in 1898, becoming a labor lawyer, taking on cases which fought injunctions or defending the rights of tenants against the transgressions of landlords.

Meyer London did not handle criminal cases, but rather limited himself to matters of civil law.

Meyer London was attracted by Eugene V Debs and his new Social Democracy of America and resigned from the SLP to help establish Local Branch No 1 of the Social Democracy in New York in 1897.

Meyer London was a delegate to the June 1898 convention of SDA in Chicago and was one of the political action-oriented minority which bolted the June 1898 convention to establish the Social Democratic Party of America following a dispute over the strategy of socialist colonization.

In 1898, Meyer London again ran for New York Assembly in the old 4th Assembly District, this time as the candidate of the SDP.

Meyer London ran for a third time for the 4th Assembly District seat in 1904, this time under the banner of the SPA.

The Russian Revolution of 1905 was deeply inspirational to the former citizen of the Tsarist regime, and Meyer London threw himself into the task of speaking to mass meetings organized to help raise funds for the relief of Jewish victims of the pogroms which erupted at that same time.

Meyer London engaged in fund-raising on behalf of the Bund, the Yiddish-language revolutionary movement in regions with significant Jewish populations in the old Russian Empire.

Meyer London was active in the 1910 New York Cloakmakers strike, during which the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union brought out 50,000 in a successful struggle for higher wages and better work conditions against their employers.

Meyer London argued against an injunction issued against the strikers before the New York Supreme Court en route to a victory of the strikers after a labor action lasting the better part of two months.

Meyer London thus became the second Socialist elected to Congress, following Wisconsin's Victor Berger.

Meyer London strongly opposed the Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918, which made criticism of the president or the war a crime, and in the end cast the only vote in the House against the Sedition Act of 1918.

Meyer London ignored the St Louis Resolution right after it was adopted.

Meyer London refused to introduce bills suggested by the National Executive Committee.

Meyer London neglected every opportunity of manifesting the attitude of the Socialist Party.

When Meyer London sent his famous telegram to Russia not to conclude a separate peace, a good many of us felt that he ought to be recalled from Congress.

The Jewish community was further fragmented in opposition to Meyer London, with Orthodox Jews advocating his defeat because he was not religious while rich and powerful Jews worked against him because he was a socialist.

Meyer London was defeated for reelection two years later by Samuel Dickstein.

Meyer London was an uncle of Ephraim London, and through Ephraim, grandnieces were Sheila Michaels, a remarkable activist in her own right, whom Ephraim never publicly acknowledged as his daughter, and Ephraim's nieces Harriet Fraad and Rosalyn Baxandall; their mother Irma was his sister.

Meyer London became confused and when he halted in the middle of the road he was struck by a driver of a car, suffering internal injuries.

The driver rushed him to Bellevue Hospital, where Meyer London's daughter was an intern.

The next day, Meyer London's body was taken to the Forward building, where it lay in state while 25,000 men, women, and children filed past the casket, paying their respects.

Meyer London's body was interred at Mount Carmel Cemetery in Glendale, New York, in the borough of Queens.

In spite of his votes against the previous world war, London became the namesake of a World War II Liberty ship, the USS Meyer London, launched in 1943.