1116 The Journal ofAmerican History December 1998

interwoven with relevant secondary literature, his cue from Robert M. Crunden's Ministers of Philadelphia's Progressive Orphanage is a model Reform: The Progressives' Achievement in Amer­ institutional study. ican Civilization, 1889-1920 (1982), Boom­ Joseph M. Hawes hower claims that Dunn exemplified the secu­ University ofMemphis lar evangelistic ethos of Progressive reformers Memphis, Tennessee who acted on their Protestant moralism in the political arena. In truth, Dunn was a "hide-bound" partisan who had more in com­ Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jah/article/85/3/1116/704057 by guest on 01 October 2021 Jacob Piatt Dunn Jr.: A Lifein History and Pol­ mon with Bourbons such as William F. Vilas itics, 1855-1924. By Ray E. Boomhower. (In­ and Manton Marble than with turn-of-the­ dianapolis: Historical Society, 1997. century Progressives, save for those racist xxvi, 174 pp. $24.95, ISBN 0-87195-119-3.) southerners who "purified" politics in their states by restricting participation in elections This short, readable book is of interest chiefly to whites only. to students of Indiana political history. Not While Boomhower displays a keen grasp of really an intimate biography, it contains a half the tawdry side of Indiana politics circa a cen­ dozen thematic chapters documenting the tury ago and has tastefully interspersed some public life of a gentleman reformer who per­ striking photographs within the text, he pays sonified the vanities and limitations of his scant attention to Dunn's personal or financial time, place, and social class. Aside from cred­ affairs, thereby making it difficult for the itable work with the Indiana Historical Soci­ reader to determine whether the man was an ety and the Indiana Public Library Commis­ honest politician or a grafter. In a passing ref­ sion, Jacob P. Dunn made his mark chiefly as erence to his subject's forced resignation as In­ an ethnologist (attempting to preserve the lan­ dianapolis city controller for pocketing inter­ guage of the Miami Indians), amateur histo­ est earned on contractors' guaranty bonds, rian (a treatise on greater being Boomhower indicates that Dunn was just fol­ his most important work), and behind-the­ lowing customary practices and was a scape­ scenes adviser to such Democrats as goat for Mayor Joseph E. Bell and his cronies. Gov. Thomas R. Marshall and Sen. Samuel One wonders. On a more personal level, M. Ralston. While Dunn never held elective Boomhower never adequately explains Dunn's office, he helped obtain a new city charter for abhorrent tendency to sprinkle his language Indianapolis and an Australian ballot law, with reference to "niggers" and "chinks" or to which Ray E. Boomhower, with considerable joke about voodoo-worshipping Haitians or hyperbole, claims purified the democratic pro­ missionaries being eaten by aborigines. It is cessin his state. The projects closest to Dunn's difficult to reconcile Dunn's smug bigotry on heart-exploring for precious metals in the these matters with his supposed concern about American West and on the island of Hispan­ the fate of the Miami. iola and forging a new constitution for Indi­ James B. Lane ana that, among other things, would have - Northwest disfranchised many immigrants and African Gary, Indiana Americans-ended, mercifully in the latter case, in failure. First-rate biographies of marginally impor­ Holy Joe: Joseph W Folk and theMissouri Idea. tant historical personages, such as Horace By Steven L. Piotto (Columbia: University of Samuel Merrill's William Freeman Vilas (1954) Missouri Press, 1997. xiv, 208 pp. $34.95, and George T. Mcjimsey's Genteel Partisan: ISBN 0-8262-1130-5.) Manton Marble, 1834 -1917 (1971), explore both their subjects' unique inner life (what Progressive Era political history is important Henry James called their perceptions, growth, because of fundamental changes in the politi­ change, and "varying intensity of the same") cal system and public policy, but it is made and the degree to which their characters, flaws more interesting by the character of many of and all, mirrored trends of their age. Taking its political leaders. Combative, dramatic, am- Book Reviews 1117

bitious, and self-confident, they portrayed sures. Like many contemporaries, however, he themselves as fighting heroic struggles, leading was lessinterested in labor issues. the people against the forces of evil. Steven L. Folk focused a good deal on morality laws, Piotr's study of the political career of Joseph which Piott presents as a concern with law en­ Folk ofMissouri retains a sense of that drama, forcement. Given the general importance of combining a useful discussion of Folk's ideas these issues, the possibilities for redesigning with some consideration of his limitations policies, and their apparent importance in ter­ and significance. minating Folk's political career, a fuller analy­ Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jah/article/85/3/1116/704057 by guest on 01 October 2021 Spending little time on Folk's early life or sis of this issue is needed. Although Piott nonpolitical activities, Piott locates Folk as a wishes to defend Folk against charges of being lawyer practicing in St. Louis in the 1890s. "moralistic," the alternative motive seems to Working with young professionals in a Demo­ be political calculation, which makes him ap­ cratic reform club, and after gaining public pear a bad politician. Given his defeats for the notice as the union attorney in a transit strike, senate in 1908 and 1918 and his failed presi­ Folk was narrowly elected circuit attorney in dential bid in 1912, perhaps that is a fair read­ 1900. Initially, he made fewwaves, but in 1902 ing, but some deeper understanding of Folk's he began a series of four investigations that beliefs regarding moral behavior would clarify electrified St. Louis and brought him major the issue. national attention. The cases involved busi­ HolyJoe is a narrative of Folk's political ac­ ness bribery ofgovernment officials, including tivities, briefly describing the political back­ many city councilmen and, most notably, ground of St. Louis corruption, discussing Democratic boss Ed Butler. Piott puts the best Democratic factionalism as it directly affected face on the trials, but Folk had limited success Folk's specific campaigns, and making some in his prosecutions, winning only some con­ suggestions regarding voting behavior. Relying victions and having some of those overturned. primarily on newspapers (judging from the What was most important was Folk's connec­ notes, Folk's papers do not include any per­ tion with Lincoln Steffens, whose article in sonal correspondence), this economical focus McClure's magazine brought Folk national eschews any discussion of broader political fame. Unfortunately, Piott does not fully probe patterns, but it provides a readable and intelli­ this connection, either in Folk's ideas about gent discussion of an interesting public leader. publicity or in their continuing discussions Philip R. VanderMeer (which a reading of Folk's letters in the Stef­ Arizona State University fens papers would show). Tempe, Arizona Folk's conclusion from his investigations was that "big business corrupted politics by bribing politicians," which led him to formu­ Democracy Reftrmed· Richard Spencer Childs and late the "Missouri idea," the notion that pub­ His Fight for Better Government. By Bernard lic corruption is the most important crime be­ Hirschhorn. (Westport: Greenwood, 1997. cause it threatens the foundation of democratic xxiv, 233 pp. $59.95, ISBN 0-313-30144-1.) government. Folk's career, as prosecutor and from 1905 to 1909 as governor, rested on this In Democracy Reformed, Bernard Hirschhorn notion and a belief that laws must be en­ presents a biography of Richard Spencer forced. Piott is most effective in articulating Childs (I 882-1978), who persisted in pro­ these beliefs. It would also have been useful, moting structural reform for nearly seventy however,had he considered related discussions years. Heir to a fortune and successfulin busi­ (most notably Richard McCormick's seminal ness himself, Childs seems nonetheless to have article) and probed more fully the alternative always given business affairs second place to cause of corruption: that some politicians ex­ his reform commitments. Hirschhorn sayslit­ torted money from businessmen. Piott does tle about Childs's business career or his per­ demonstrate that as governor Folk did develop sonal life, focusing instead on his efforts at a broader set of policies, including business structural reform. He organizes the book into regulation and various direct democracy mea- topical chapters corresponding to Childs's var-