Beginning as early as 1915, the Non-Partisan League began to develop in North Dakota[4] and by 1917 the Union Labor Party was formed in Duluth, Minnesota.
By August 1919, labor parties had been established in seven states, including Minnesota, Connecticut, Illinois, New York, Kansas, Ohio, and South Dakota.
The Conference elected a temporary Executive Committee with former AFL presidential contender Max S. Hayes as its chair, and adopted Robert M. Buck's The New Majority as the party's official newspaper.
[6] The convention quickly elected Hayes as permanent chair of the party, John H. Walker as vice-chair and Frank J. Esper as national secretary-treasurer.
The keynote address was given by Chicago Federation of Labor leader John Fitzpatrick, who had been absolutely instrumental in the development of the party.
Among the things demanded in the declaration of principles were the complete repeal of the Espionage Act of 1917, complete equality for all sexes and races, an end to labor injunctions, cost of living reductions, the nationalization of public utilities and natural resources, the enactment of the Plumb Plan to nationalize the railroads, free public education "from kindergarten to university" and democratic education, the introduction of the powers of popular initiative, referendum and recall at the federal level, the abolition of the United States Senate, a maximum term of four years for federal judges, the introduction of a nationwide age of consent of 18 years, the abolition of the employment of all minors under the age of 16 years, the institution of minimum wages and minimum prices for agricultural goods, an end to the use of convict labor and foreign labor to undercut American workers' wages, a maximum work day of 8 hour and a maximum work week of 44 hours, and full employment.
It elected, from among its quorum, a twelve-member All-American Farmer-Labor Cooperative Commission, which would concern itself with the task of paving the way for such a unification.