Appeal to Reason (newspaper)
- This article is about the American radical newspaper. For the album by the band Rise Against, see Appeal to Reason (album).
 Julius Wayland, publisher |
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| Founder | Julius Wayland |
|---|---|
| Founded | August 31, 1895 |
| Ceased publication | November 1922 |
The Appeal to Reason was a weekly political newspaper published in the American Midwest from 1895 until 1922. The paper was known for its politics, lending support over the years to the Farmers' Alliance and People's Party (United States) before becoming a mainstay of the Socialist Party of America following that organization's establishment in 1901. Making use of a network of highly motivated volunteers known as the "Appeal Army" to spur subscription sales, paid circulation of the Appeal climbed to more than a quarter million copies by 1906 and half a million by 1910, making it the largest circulation Socialist newspaper in American history.
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[edit] Publication history
[edit] Forerunner
The most direct ancestor of the Appeal was the The Coming Nation a socialist communalist paper established by Julius Augustus Wayland in Greensburg, Indiana. It was moved to the utopian socialist Ruskin Colony in Tennessee as part of an effort to form a socialist colony there.
When Wayland tired of the colony he left his newspaper behind with the colonists, moving to Kansas City, Missouri to publish his own independently weekly, Appeal to Reason, established on on August 31, 1895.
[edit] Establishment
In 1897. Wayland left Kansas City for the small farming town of Girard, Kansas, in the southeastern corner of the state.[1]
Following the collapse of Ruskin Colony, a second Coming Nation was published by Wayland at Girard but folded two years later. The run of the first two incarnations, which followed a continuous whole number scheme, was #1 April 29, 1893 to #512 December 26, 1903.[2]
[edit] Growth
By 1910, the newspaper employed approximately 60 workers and boasted a "three-deck, straight-line Goss machine that prints four hundred twelve-page papers, in colors, folded, per minute, when desired."[1] The Appeal was based out of a building with the dimensions "...eighty by one hundred feet, two stories and basement."[1] In 1910, it had a weekly circulation of 550,000 and a subscription base of 450,000.[3]
The paper's popularity was powered by a folksy style of writing and the participation of many leading literary luminaries of the Socialist movement, including Upton Sinclair,[4] Jack London, Mary "Mother" Jones, Eugene Debs, and Helen Keller.[citation needed]
[edit] Decline
After founder Wayland committed suicide in 1912, the Appeal slowly lost its vitality. Wayland's surviving sons were not temperamentally suited to the newspaper business and after a short time the paper was sold to Marcet and Emanuel Haldeman-Julius, the latter an editor of the paper.
Divisions within the Socialist movement and wartime repression of radicalism further damaged the paper, with publisher Haldeman-Julius alienating a good part of his anti-militarist Socialist readership by endorsing the American war effort. From issue #1151, dated December 22, 1917, to issue #1212 of February 22, 1919, the paper carried the title New Appeal to denote its new patriotic orientation.
Building on the subscriber list of the Appeal, from 1919 Haldeman-Julius developed a very successful business selling inexpensive paperback booklets known as the Little Blue Books.
[edit] Successors and demise
The Appeal to Reason name was terminated in November 1922, to be replaced by the Haldeman-Julius Weekly.[5] This new incarnation rapidly lost its socialist character to became a "house organ" for Haldeman-Julius's lucrative publishing business.
This publication saw its name changed again to The American Freeman, effective with issue #1741 of April 13, 1929.[6] This publication continued until Haldeman-Julius' death by drowning in November 1951.
[edit] Legacy
Upton Sinclair's novel The Jungle was first published as a serial in the Appeal to Reason.[4]
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ a b c George D. Brewer, The Fighting Editor, or, Warren and The Appeal. Second edition. Girard, KS: George D. Brewer, 1910; pg. xv.
- ^ A third and final Coming Nation was published in Girard from 1910 to 1914, edited by Charles Edward Russell. This version again used whole numbers: #1 Sept. 16, 1910 - #143 June 7, 1913. See Walter Goldwater, Radical Periodicals in America, 1890-1950. New Haven: Yale University Library 1964; pg. 7.
- ^ Brewer, The Fighting Editor, pg. xvi.
- ^ a b Bob Feldman, "Upton Sinclair's The Jungle: A 100th Anniversary Retrospective," Toward Freedom, September 12, 2005.
- ^ John Graham, "Yours for the Revolution": The Appeal to Reason, 1895-1922. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1990; pp. 14-16.
- ^ Goldwater, Radical Periodicals in America, pp. 2-3,14, 26.
[edit] Circulation
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Year Circulation Notes and references 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 162,755 "A Record of Four Years," Appeal #684 (Jan. 9, 1909), pg. 4. 1906 266,512 "A Record of Four Years," Appeal #684 (Jan. 9, 1909), pg. 4. 1907 312,329 "A Record of Four Years," Appeal #684 (Jan. 9, 1909), pg. 4. 1908 293,747 "A Record of Four Years," Appeal #684 (Jan. 9, 1909), pg. 4. 1909 1910 1911 1912 694,065 Front page banner of 1912 circulation, Appeal #892 (Jan. 4, 1913). 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922
[edit] External links
- Tim Davenport, "The Appeal to Reason: Forerunner of Haldeman-Julius Publications", Big Blue Newsletter No. 3 (2004). Retrieved November 16, 2009.
- Appeal to Reason Spartacus Educational
