[3] Among the elements that joined in forming the new party was a faction of independent Midwestern socialists centered around Victor Berger.

This mainly German American group kept up a loosely organized Social Democratisher Verein and published the oldest socialist daily in the country, the Milwaukee Vorwarts.

[4] This tendency emphasized electoral socialism, especially in local politics, in order to appeal to workers on issues of immediate, day-to-day importance.

Some elements within the SLPs Jewish membership, concentrated in Manhattans Lower East Side, had objected to the party's dual unionism policy.

[7][8] Among the prominent members of this faction were Abraham Cahan, Meyer London, Isaac Hourwich, Morris Winchevsky, Michael Zametkin, Max Pine and Louis E.

[10] In January 1897, the St. Louis local readmitted a member named Priestbach into the party after he had left in 1896 to work for William Jennings Bryan's campaign.

[11] This contingent was bolstered in August 1897 when the SDA was joined by the remnants of the Social Democratic Federation (SDF), a predominantly German-language group headed by Wilhelm Rosenberg which had split off the SLP in 1889.

According to the published statement of Secretary Sylvester Keliher, during the organization's first month of existence there were 50 branches established, of which 11 were located in the city of Chicago.

Willard went to Seattle to consult with SDA member J.B. Fowler, who pointed out the good harbors on southern Puget Sound, where they found Henry W. Stein, who was sympathetic to them politically and had just become the executor of some land in rural Kitsap County that was open for sale.

A colony scrip was created that included a $1 denomination for an eight-hour work day and smaller units, called minims, for minutes worker over or less than six hours.

The Brotherhood was later governed by a twelve-man board of trustees who were elected by mail vote each December for four year staggered terms.

In December 1904, some members re-incorporated into the Burley Rochdale Mercantile Association and three months later the Cooperative Brotherhood itself re-organized into a joint stock company.

The trustees called a meeting of stockholders to dissolve the Brotherhood in late 1912, but it lacked the two-thirds majority, whereupon those who were in favor of disbanding took the company to court.