Creating an Ideal America, 1919-1970
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Written in Black and White: Creating an Ideal America, 1919-1970 © 2012 By Dustin M. Gann Submitted to the Department of History and Graduate Faculty at The University of Kansas In partial fulfillment Of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy ___________________ Chairperson, Dr. Jeff Moran ___________________ Dr. Jonathan Earle ___________________ Dr. Kim Warren ___________________ Dr. Jacob Dorman ___________________ Dr. Brian Donovan Defense Date: April 9, 2012 ii The Dissertation Committee for Dustin M. Gann certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Written in Black and White: Creating an Ideal America, 1919-1970 ________________________________ Chairperson, Dr. Jeffrey Moran Date approved: April 9, 2012 iii Abstract This project juxtaposes the careers of three unique publishers in order to analyze how the twentieth century public sphere gave publishers new pathways to prominence, an ability to cultivate personal audiences based on ideology, and wide latitude to express personal visions for America. Emanuel Haldeman-Julius, a socialist sympathizer and the son of Russian immigrants, founded Haldeman-Julius Publishing in 1919 and advocated a rational reordering of American society. Haldeman-Julius used nationwide mass-marketing, multiple periodical publications, and the popular Little Blue Book series to vigorously challenge conservative views on sexuality, religion, labor, race, and education. Further challenging the exclusionary characteristics of American society, the African American newspaperman Chester Franklin founded the Kansas City Call in 1919 and championed racial uplift through hard work, self-reliance, and education. He expanded the paper throughout the Midwest and gave a voice to campaigns for integration and improved working conditions in the region. Finally, native Kansan William Lindsay White used the combination of national and local platforms to articulate a conservative vision for America based on a return to traditional values. Specifically, his writing advocated hard work and self- reliance along with an emphasis on anti-communism. Despite his traditionalism, however, he envisioned an American society that granted equal opportunities to African Americans and immigrants who embraced these values. The success of each publisher depended upon individual initiative, career opportunism, and community commitment. Each pursued an audience outside his local community and, collectively, they demonstrate how the printed word became a tool of advocacy for competing social and political agendas during the twentieth century. iv Table of Contents Introduction ...........................................................................................................................1 Chapter 1: Creating Community: Emanuel Haldeman-Julius’s Effort to Manufacture an Audience and Influence America ..........................................................................................27 Chapter 2: Chester Franklin and the Kansas City Call ..........................................................71 Chapter 3: William Lindsay White Enters the Public Sphere................................................111 Chapter 4: Controversy, Conviction, and the Nationalization of Obscenity Law .................152 Chapter 5: William Lindsay White’s Independence .............................................................196 Conclusion: Assessing Influence and Legacy........................................................................238 Selected Bibliography ............................................................................................................252 1 Introduction Emanuel Haldeman-Julius, Chester A. Franklin, and William Lindsay White considered themselves the discoverers of truth, the defenders of public interest, and the voices of their respective audiences. In other words, they considered themselves journalists. Haldeman-Julius explained in 1935, “I look on the printing press as a weapon to fight with, not as a toy. I look on myself as something of a teacher, and to my notion a teacher should always be hot for his subjects, militant.”1 Franklin, a prominent African-American businessman, stressed the purpose of his publication, The Kansas City Call, in an editorial titled “The Press is to Safeguard the People.” He hoped that “Kansas City may see what is the proper intention of THE CALL . our duty is to publish the facts. Opinion and cheap rumor are not our province, but facts are.”2 Franklin linked his publication to the local community when he asserted that “a free and fearless press is the chief safeguard of our people, and we shall do our full duty as a newspaper."3 White felt a similar responsibility to provide his audience with unvarnished truths and objective analyses. He struck back against critics who claimed his Report on the Russians reflected a political agenda rather than actual conditions within Russia. He argued, “It is all right if the current B picture at the neighborhood movie tells the audience what they want to hear at just the right time they want to hear it . a reporter must on occasion warn his readers of dangers ahead, even when they do not want to see them.”4 Considered collectively, the written products and public personas of Emanuel Haldeman- Julius, Chester A. Franklin, and William Lindsay White demonstrate that the early twentieth- century gave publishers new pathways to prominence, an ability to cultivate personal audiences 1 Emanuel Haldeman-Julius to Goldberg. 27 June 1935. E. Haldeman-Julius Collection, Axe Library, Pittsburg State University. 2 Chester Franklin, “The Press is to Safeguard the People,” Kansas City Call, February 15, 1924. 3 Chester Franklin, “News Service Reflects the Opinions of the People,” Kansas City Call, February 15, 1924. 4 William Lindsay White, “Report to the Critics,” Saturday Review, October 5, 1946, 15. 2 based on ideology, and wide latitude to express personal visions for America. These efforts, coupled with an enthusiasm for social change, allowed each to spread his ideas beyond a local audience and gave each an avenue for influence. The three individuals examined within this study shared an involvement in the publishing world and a common desire to influence their audience. Their publications, editorials, books, and business dealings centered on issues each found important: race equality, foreign policy, communism, capitalism, and individualism. Haldeman-Julius, Franklin, and White based their editorial perspectives on individual experience and personal belief. Each man’s Midwest location provided an outsider’s perspective on the impact of rapid change within American society and prompted each to pursue a radically different strategy to access the public sphere. Their writing focused on issues of central importance to an America that was expanding in population, while also struggling with economic stability and redefining social opportunity. Unfortunately, their Kansas roots have also kept their careers out of historiographical analyses of American journalism. Each man’s agenda and positions on these issues differed because each represented a distinct strand of the American experience. Emanuel Haldeman-Julius, born in Philadelphia in 1889, was the son of Jewish Russian immigrants. His life story embodies the Horatio Alger up- by-the-bootstraps American dream. From humble beginnings, and through an almost entirely self-guided education, he came of age during a period in American history that witnessed the end of westward expansion and increasing urbanization. He thrived at numerous publications before founding a publishing venture that would sell millions of Little Blue Books. The obstacles overcome by Chester Franklin, born in 1880, stemmed not from lack of education but from race. Franklin worked tirelessly throughout his life to demonstrate the African American’s ability to meet established social expectations. His entrance into the newspaper business resulted from a 3 desire to fulfill a community need. Finally, William Lindsay White, born in 1900, represented the next generation. Rather than establishing his own publishing platform, White followed in his father’s footsteps at the Emporia Gazette and later joined The Reader’s Digest, which had been founded in 1922 by DeWitt Wallace. The background of each author influenced his career trajectory and his ideological beliefs. The divergent experience of Haldeman-Julius, Franklin, and White demonstrates the diversity of the American public discourse because it illustrates how the public sphere provided each a relationship with a broad readership. The early twentieth century ushered in a great expansion, and shift, in America’s population. Between 1890 and 1920 the country’s population more than doubled. Further, the 1920 census recorded for the first time more than one-half of the American nation residing in “urban” environments.5 Primarily known for agrarian production and as a setting for pre-Civil War frontier strife, Kansas grew exponentially during the early twentieth century and experienced an industrial boom. The changes in Kansas mirrored population shifts within the rest of the country and this growth widened the local audiences available to Kansas publishers. As the state’s population expanded it also shifted away from the farm: “between 1900 and 1910 the population of the state defined by the census as urban increased 49 percent, from 330,000 to 492,000. By 1920, it increased by another 120,000, or 25 percent,” notes Craig Miner.6 During subsequent decades,