Fred
Warren was born in Arcola, Illinois, in 1872. The son of an
unsuccessful businessman, Warren moved to Rich Hill, a small coal-mining
town in Missouri, and when he was eighteen started a newspaper with
his younger brother, Ben Warren.
Converted to socialism he started the radical journal, Bates
County Critic in 1898. Two years later he was employed
by Julius Wayland to work on his Appeal
to Reason. The following year he became managing editor of
the journal.
Warren was a well-known figure on the left and managed to persuade
some of America's leading progressives to contribute to the Appeal
to Reason. This included Jack London,
Mary 'Mother' Jones, Upton
Sinclair, Scott Nearing, Joe
Haaglund Hill, Ralph Chaplin, Stephen
Crane, Helen Keller and Eugene
Debs. By 1902 its circulation reached 150,000, making it the fourth
highest of any weekly in the United States.
In 1904 Warren commissioned Upton Sinclair
to write a novel about immigrant
workers in the Chicago meat packing houses.
Julius Wayland provided Sinclair with
a $500 advance and after seven weeks research he wrote the novel,
The Jungle. Serialized in 1905, the book helped to increase
circulation to 175,000. When published by Doubleday in 1906, The
Jungle an immediate success. Within the next few year it was published
in seventeen languages and was a best-seller all over the world.
In 1905 William Hayward (general secretary
of WFM) and Charles Moyer (president of WFM), were both been kidnapped
in Colorado and taken to Idaho to stand trial for the murder of Frank
R. Steunenberg, the former governor of Idaho. This upset Warren
as a few years earlier the authorities had refused to arrest and charge
William S. Taylor, the former governor
of Kentucky, with the murder of the progressive politician, William
Goebel. Taylor fled to Indiana where he became a wealthy insurance
executive.
Warren wrote an article about the case and advertised a reward of
$1,000 for anyone willing to capture William
S. Taylor and to take him back to Kentucky. As a result of this
article Warren was himself arrested and charged with encouraging others
to commit the crime of kidnap. After a two year delay was found guilty
and sentenced to six months hard labour and a $1,500 fine. Soon afterwards
the governor of Kentucky, Augustus Everett
Willson, pardoned Taylor, Caleb Powers,
and four other people for their part in the murder.
Warren and Julius Wayland were once
again in trouble in 1911 when they published a series of articles
in the Appeal to Reason about
corruption and homosexuality in Leavenworth Prison. Although senior
figures running the prison were dismissed, Wayland and Warren were
charged were charged with sending "indecent, filthy, obscene,
lewd and lascivious printed materials" through the post.
As the popularity of the Appeal to Reason
increased, so did the attacks on Warren and Julius
Wayland. The paper's offices were repeatedly broken into in an
effort to find evidence of criminal activity. Research was carried
out about Wayland's ancestors and reports in the Los
Angeles Times claiming that they had been involved in cases
of arson and murder. In 1912 the newspaper reported that Wayland was
guilty of seducing an orphaned girl of fourteen and who had died during
an abortion in Missouri.
Julius Wayland depressed by the recent
death of his wife and the continuing smear campaign against him, committed
suicide on 10th November, 1912. He left a suicide note that said:
"The struggle under the competitive system is not worth the effort."
Warren and the children sued the newspapers about these libelous stories
and won.
In 1913 the journal reached a circulation of Appeal
to Reason reached over 760,000. However, the new owner
of the journal, Walter Wayland, fell out with Warren. In August, 1913,
Warren resigned and Louis Kopelin became the new managing editor.
Last
updated: 28th May, 2002
(1)
Fred Warren, Appeal to Reason
(13th August, 1904)
With the introduction of private ownership in land came the period
in the history of the human race when some man by reason of his superior
strength or cunning, or some group of men, by reason of greater numbers,
took possession of the land being used by another group and made slaves
of the latter.
If men understood that the land is one of the great natural resources
on which life depends, that it is the natural heritage of all men,
and not a few, and it was so recognized through the long ages of savagery
and barbarism, and that no title deed was recognized until civilization,
so-called, made its appearance, I believe few would be willing to
submit longer to the tyranny of the landlord and the master.
(2)
When Fred Warren was arrested and imprisoned for offering a reward
for the arrest of William S. Taylor,
the former governor of Kentucky, who had been accused of murdering
William Goebel. Warren's friend, Helen
Keller was one of those who campaigned for his release. She
wrote about the case in the socialist journal, Appeal
to Reason (24th December, 1910)
The more I study Mr. Warren's case in the light of the United States
constitution, which I have under my fingers, the more I am persuaded
either that I do not understand, or that the judges do not. To what
twistings, turnings and dark interpretation must the judges of the
circuit court be driven in order to send Mr. warren to prison! As
I understand it, a federal law defining the kind of matter which it
is a crime to mail has been stretched to cover his act. What was the
act? The offer of a reward was printed on the outside of envelopes
mailed from Girard by Mr. Warren. This was construed as threatening
because it was an encouragement to others to kidnap a man under indictment.
Several years ago three officers of the Western Federation of Miners
were indicted for a murder committed in Idaho. They were in Colorado,
and the governor of that state did not extradite them. They were kidnapped
and brought to an Idaho prison. They applied to the supreme court
for a writ of habeas corpus, on the ground that they were illegally
held because they had been illegally captured. The supreme court replied:
"Even if it be true that the arrest and deportation of Pettibone,
Moyer and Hayward from Colorado was by fraud and connivance to which
the governor of Colorado was a party, this does not make out a case
of violation of the rights of the appellants under the constitution
and the laws of the United States."
One need not be a Socialist to realize the significance, the gravity,
not of Mr. Warren's offense, but of the offense of the judges against
the constitution, and against democratic rights. It is provided that
"congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech or
of the press." Surely this means that we are free to print and
mail any innocent matter. What Mr. Warren printed and mailed had been
established by the supreme court as innocent. What beam was in the
eye of the honorable judges of the supreme court? Or what mote was
in the eye of the justices of the circuit courts?
It has been my duty, my life-work to study physical blindness, its
causes and its prevention. I learn that our physicians are making
great progress in the cure and the prevention of blindness. What surgery
of politics, what antiseptic of common sense and right thinking, shall
be applied to cure the blindness of the people, who are the court
of last resort?
(3)
Fred Warren, Appeal to Reason
(8th November, 1913)
I believe in the confiscation of the productive property of this nation
by the working class. I do not believe in confiscating it by piecemeal.
That would be foolish and illegal. The plan I favor is that the working
class shall first capture the political powers of the state and nation
and then the job can be done without the danger of getting cracked
skulls and prison sentences. This is the plan followed by the master
class. It has been proved a success by the master. It will prove a
workable plan for the slave.
The mission of the Appeal to Reason is to persuade the men who work
to use their political power that it may be possible easily, quickly
and without opposition to exert their individual strength. I believe
the working class should capture the political powers of the cities
as rapidly as possible.
Sewell Weidman, Appeal
to Reason
(2nd December, 1905)
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