Jimmie Higgins by Upton Sinclair

Socialism vs. militarism in World War I

Jimmie Higgins, yet another novel about Socialism by America’s most prolific muckraker Upton Sinclair, was published in 1919. In this book, Sinclair paints a picture of what it was like to be a Socialist during World War I. Socialists by definition are pacifists because they refuse to take up arms against their brother workers of other nations. In this time of extreme militaristic jingoism, not only were Socialists persecuted for their beliefs by so-called American “patriots,” they also faced a troubling dilemma in deciding whether to abstain from the war and uphold their pacifism or join the war effort and fight for the defeat of the German Empire.

Jimmie Higgins is a factory machinist who moonlights as a propagandist for the local office of the Socialist Party in the town of Leesville. His position in the party is one of an eager underling. Jimmie is not the kind who makes fiery speeches at Socialist rallies. He’s the guy who posts the flyers and sets up the chairs. Early in the book, Jimmie has a chance encounter with the Socialist candidate for U.S. President (patterned after Eugene V. Debs). When World War I breaks out in Europe, Jimmie and his Socialist friends are outspokenly against America entering the war, at first. Despite his pacifist intentions, however, Jimmie keeps finding himself getting roped into the war effort. The factory in which he works is converted into a munitions plant. After some German Socialists pay him to distribute anti-war propaganda, Jimmie discovers they are agents of the Kaiser. Sinclair finds humor in such ethical conundrums, but they read true to life nonetheless. As Jimmie’s party comrades squabble over what their official stance should be toward the war, Sinclair satirizes the inner workings of the organization, pointing out, for instance, how the Party’s wealthier members—doctors, lawyers, professors—are treated as elites in a party that preaches universal equality.

Much like Jimmie Higgins, Sinclair is a known propagandist. Though he’s often criticized for laying on his socialist views a little thick, in this novel it’s sometimes difficult to tell exactly what he’s trying to say. In some chapters, he satirizes the socialists; in others, he satirizes the capitalists. Rather than one overarching theme to the book, it reads as if Sinclair is making a different point in each chapter. The plot structure of the novel is almost picaresque in that the hero just kind of stumbles from one escapade to the next, as if Sinclair didn’t have a definite plan in mind when he started the book but rather just made it up as he went along. The prose of this novel is written in a style very similar to Sinclair’s later Lanny Budd series, except that Lanny Budd is an international playboy, whereas Jimmie Higgins is a working-class rube only slightly more intelligent than Forrest Gump. Sinclair makes the reader like Jimmie and sympathize with his well-intentioned Socialism, while simultaneously making fun of him.

Though Sinclair gets across his Socialist views in this novel, reading between the lines reveals a rather apologetic tone to the book. It seems as if Sinclair the Socialist felt the heat during World War I, causing him to temper his views for a mainstream audience and assert that “Socialists love their country too!” Sinclair, through the surrogate of Jimmie, seems to be saying, I can be a Socialist and a patriot at the same time . . . so please don’t beat me up or set my house on fire. The novel also suffers from an absurd ending. Sinclair wants to admonish mainstream America for its persecution of Socialists and pacifists during the Great War, but he feels the need to dilute his message with humor. It’s one example of how Jimmie Higgins just never strikes the right balance between frank and funny. A year after the publication of this novel, Sinclair would be far more successful combining social realism with satirical humor in his novel 100%: The Story of a Patriot.