Walter
Weyl was born in
1874. He studied at the University of Pennsylvania and completed a
Ph.D. in economics. This included research into working conditions
in the United States, England, France and Mexico.
Sympathetic to the emerging trade union movement,
Weyl worked closely with John Mitchell,
the leader of the United Mine Workers. He
also carried out research for the radical politician, Robert
LaFollette.
Weyl also provided articles on labor issues for journals such as the
Saturday Evening Post, the North
American Review, the Survey
and the Outlook. This included
pieces on the Industrial Workers of the World
and the Lawrence Textile Strike. Although
he held radical political views, Weyl criticized the syndicalist views
of Bill Haywood and other IWW leaders.
He wrote: "I do not believe that society can be changed as Haywood
wishes to change it, or could remain 'put' if once organized on such
a basis."
In 1912 Weyl published The
New Democracy. In his book Weyl argued that "The
old laissez-faire philosophy is done for and the old absolute socialism
is dying in the embrace of its dead adversary." While Weyl conceded
that Marxists had been motivated by a desire
to bring an end to social evils, they were wrong to suggest that capitalism
would guarantee the progressive impoverishment of the working-classes.
In fact, Weyl used statistical evidence to show that the real standard
of living of working people in Europe and the USA had risen considerably
in the latter half of the 19th century.
Weyl disapproved of social equality and called for the redistribution
of wealth. He argued that wealth, or what Weyl called social surplus,
was the product of all society and not of particular individuals.
Weyl dismissed claims by socialists that
it would be the working-class that would bring about the reform of
capitalism. He argued that around 20 of America's 90 million people
were either too rich or too poor to concern themselves with political
reform. He believed that it was the middle-classes who offered the
best chance of creating what he called the "new democracy".
In 1914 Weyl joined Herbert Croly and Walter
Lippmann in producing the New Republic,
a magazine intended as a rallying force of the progressive movement.
During the First World War Weyl protested at
the way the administration of President Woodrow
Wilson dealt with
