TALKIN' SOCIALISM: JULIUS A. WAYLAND, FRED D. WARREN AND RADICAL PUBLISHING, 1890-1914 (KANSAS)

Julius A. Wayland and Fred D. Warren were the architects of the most successful publishing enterprise in the history of American radicalism. Their flagship paper, the Appeal to Reason, published in Girard, Kansas, was the chief exponent of socialism in the United States, with a circulation rivalling that of the most popular magazines of the day. Both Wayland's and Warren's influence on the course of radical and publishing history has been overlooked. This dissertation places them in a publishing and radical history context.;Using much previously unexamined manuscript material, this dissertation argues that Wayland's role in the development of American socialism equalled that of other, better known leaders. It explores the dilemma of running a socialist enterprise in a capitalist environment by assessing the various choices Wayland and Warren made in response to business pressures that affected the operation. This study looks at the contribution of the Appeal to Reason to muckraking in the first decade of the twentieth century and brings to light the activities of its chief correspondent, George H. Shoaf. It discusses the culture of socialism in the small town of Girard and how that environment contributed to the decisions that the editor took. This dissertation describes the decision by Fred Warren to focus on sensational political trials as the main rallying point of the paper's efforts and shows how that decision weakened the paper and the Socialist Party; particularly, it sheds light on the pivotal role played by the paper in the McNamara brothers' trial of 1911. This study concludes that the appeal of the Socialist Party for support was too narrowly based, that the strains on radical organizations to maintain their programs in the face of practical business considerations were enormous and that the socialists in Girard underestimated the will of government for violent opposition to them and their ideas.