Brand Whitlock (March 4, 1869 – May 24, 1934) was an
American journalist, attorney, politician,
Georgist
Georgism, also called in modern times Geoism, and known historically as the single tax movement, is an economic ideology holding that, although people should own the value they produce themselves, the economic rent derived from land—including ...
, four-time mayor of
Toledo, Ohio
Toledo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Lucas County, Ohio, United States. A major Midwestern United States port city, Toledo is the fourth-most populous city in the state of Ohio, after Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati, and acc ...
elected on the Independent ticket; ambassador to
Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to the ...
, and author of numerous articles and books, both novels and non-fiction.
Journalist
Born Joseph Brand Whitlock in
Urbana, Ohio
Urbana is a city in and the county seat of Champaign County, Ohio, United States, west of Columbus. Urbana was laid out in 1805, and for a time in 1812 was the headquarters of the Northwestern army during the War of 1812. It is the burial place ...
, son of the Rev. Elias and Mollie Lavinia (Brand) Whitlock, he was educated in the public schools and by private tutors. Rather than attend college, Whitlock began working as a reporter for several papers in
Toledo, Ohio
Toledo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Lucas County, Ohio, United States. A major Midwestern United States port city, Toledo is the fourth-most populous city in the state of Ohio, after Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati, and acc ...
, including ''
The Toledo Blade
''The Blade'', also known as the ''Toledo Blade'', is a newspaper in Toledo, Ohio published daily online and printed Thursday and Sunday by Block Communications. The newspaper was first published on December 19, 1835.
Overview
The first issue ...
''.
In 1891, he moved to
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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to work for ''
The Chicago Herald''. He covered baseball, including longtime Chicago captain-manager
Cap Anson
Adrian Constantine Anson (April 17, 1852 – April 14, 1922), nicknamed "Cap" (for "Captain") and "Pop", was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) first baseman. Including his time in the National Association (NA), he played a record 27 c ...
, whom he sometimes referred to in print as "Grampa."
He also covered the
1892 Republican National Convention
The 1892 Republican National Convention was held at the Industrial Exposition Building, Minneapolis, Minnesota, from June 7 to June 10, 1892. The party nominated President Benjamin Harrison for re-election on the first ballot and Whitelaw Reid ...
and the 1892 Illinois legislative session.
Whitlock joined
the Whitechapel Club.
Springfield, Illinois
His political writing attracted attention by Illinois politicians, and Whitlock was offered a job as Gov.
John Peter Altgeld's personal secretary; instead he took a position with the Secretary of State. While in Springfield, he also studied the law under
Senator J. M. Palmer; he was admitted to the bar in 1894, at the age of 25.
Whitlock had married Susan Brainerd in 1892, but she died four months after their wedding.
In 1895 he married again, choosing her sister Nell Brainerd.
In 1893, Whitlock prepared the pardon documents for the
Haymarket Affair
The Haymarket affair, also known as the Haymarket massacre, the Haymarket riot, the Haymarket Square riot, or the Haymarket Incident, was the aftermath of a bombing that took place at a labor demonstration on May 4, 1886, at Haymarket Square i ...
's convicted men: Fielden, Neebe, and Schwab. After Gov. Altgeld signed the pardons, Whitlock commented, "The storm will break now," to which the governor replied, "It was merely doing right."
Whitlock became very active in
Illinois Democratic Party
The Democratic Party of Illinois is the affiliate of the Democratic Party in the U.S. state of Illinois. It is the oldest extant state party in Illinois and one of just two recognized parties in the state, along with the Republican Party. It is ...
politics. In 1894, he was Chair of the Democratic Finance Committee and in charge of arrangements for the state convention.
Attorney and mayor of Toledo, Ohio
After the defeat of Gov. Altgeld in 1896, Whitlock returned to
Toledo in 1897, where he established a successful legal practice. Whitlock provided legal services to the Mayor of Toledo,
Samuel M. Jones, a.k.a. "Golden Rule" Jones. In one case, Whitlock successfully argued to overturn the Ohio state statutes that governed municipalities.
Whitlock entered politics more directly in Toledo, running on the Independent ticket for mayor; he was elected four times from 1906 to 1914. He was one of a number of Progressive politicians elected as mayors of major Midwestern cities in 1911. He declined a fifth nomination as mayor when recruited for a diplomatic post.
Ambassador to Belgium
After finishing his last term as mayor, in 1913 Whitlock was appointed minister to
Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to the ...
by
President Wilson. When the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
broke out, his responsibilities were increased as he was given representation for seven additional countries in wartime. His position was extremely sensitive after the
German occupation of Belgium. His adroit performance of his duties in the office won him an international reputation for tact, zeal, and efficiency. Whitlock ensured food aid sent by the
Committee for Relief in Belgium went to Belgian citizens rather than the German occupation forces.
With the United States' declaration of war against Germany in April 1917, Whitlock needed to leave Belgium. He insisted on ensuring he accompanied other Americans out of Belgium, and crossed into Switzerland, which was neutral. During the war, he visited
King Albert of Belgium at the Allied battle front.
After the signing of the armistice in November 1918 and the restoration of the Belgian government, Whitlock returned to Brussels as minister. In 1919, he went to the United States for a visit. While he was at home, the United States' representation in Belgium was raised to rank of an embassy, and Whitlock became an ambassador.
Writings
Whitlock wrote numerous newspaper articles, short stories, novels, essays, biographies, non-fiction and memoirs. His novels dealt with political and social issues. The anarchist activist
Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman (June 27, 1869 – May 14, 1940) was a Russian-born anarchist political activist and writer. She played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europe in the first half of the ...
described Whitlock's novel ''The Turn of the Balance'' as "the greatest American exposé of crime in the making" and argued that its characters demonstrate "how the legal aspects of crime, and the methods of dealing with it, help to create the disease which is undermining our entire social life."
Non-fiction
* (1908). ''Abraham Lincoln''.
* (1910-1913). ''On the Enforcement of Law in Cities''.
* (1914). ''Forty Years of It''.
* (1919). ''Belgium: a Personal Record''
vols.* (1920). ''Walt Whitman: How to Know Him''.
* (1929). ''Lafayette''.
* (1936). ''The Letters and Journal of Brand Whitlock''.
Fiction
* (1902). ''The Thirteenth District: The Story of a Candidate''.
* (1904). ''The Happy Average''.
* (1904). ''Her Infinite Variety''.
* (1907). ''The Turn of the Balance''.
* (1910). ''The Gold Brick''.
* (1912). ''The Fall Guy''.
* (1923). ''J. Hardin and Son''.
* (1926). ''Uprooted''.
* (1927). ''Transplanted''.
* (1928). ''Big Matt''.
* (1931). ''Narcissus''.
* (1931). ''The Little Green Shutter''.
* (1933). ''The Stranger on the Island''.
Represented in popular culture
*
John F. Kennedy wrote about Altgeld's pardons of men from the Haymarket Affair in his book, ''Profiles in Courage.'' In the 1965 television show based on the book,
John Kerr played Brand Whitlock.
''The Reluctant Hero: Brand Whitlock''was a WBGU-
PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educati ...
documentary about him.
Legacy and honors
For his service to Belgium, Whitlock received numerous honors, including the
Order of Leopold knighthood.
A boulevard in Brussels was named for him in the
Woluwe-Saint-Lambert municipality.
See also
*
List of elected socialist mayors in the United States
Notes
References
*
Further reading
* Anderson, David D. (1968). ''Brand Whitlock''. New York: Twayne Publishers.
* Bremner, Robert H. (1950). "The Civic Revival in Ohio: Artist in Politics: Brand Whitlock," ''The American Journal of Economics and Sociology'', Vol. 9, No. 2, pp. 239–254.
* Cayton, Andrew (2002). ''Ohio: The History of a People''. Columbus: The Ohio State University Press.
* Hofstadter, Richard (1960). ''The Age of Reform: From Bryan to F.D.R''. New York, NY: Vintage Books.
* Hofstadter, Richard (1963). ''The Progressive Movement, 1900-1915''. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
* McGerr, Michael (2003). ''A Fierce Discontent: The Rise and Fall of the Progressive Movement in America, 1870-1920''. New York, NY: Free Press.
* Thorburn, Neil (1968). "Brand Whitlock (1869-1934)," ''American Literary Realism, 1870-1910'', Vol. 1, No. 3, pp. 30–35.
External links
*
*
*
Works by Brand Whitlock at
Hathi Trust
HathiTrust Digital Library is a large-scale collaborative repository of digital content from research libraries including content digitized via Google Books and the Internet Archive digitization initiatives, as well as content digitized locally ...
''The Reluctant Hero: Brand Whitlock'' WBGU-PBS documentary.
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Whitlock, Brand
Georgists
American political writers
American male non-fiction writers
1869 births
1934 deaths
Mayors of Toledo, Ohio
People from Urbana, Ohio
Ambassadors of the United States to Belgium
Belgian relief in World War I
Members of the Académie royale de langue et de littérature françaises de Belgique
Journalists from Illinois
Journalists from Ohio
Illinois lawyers
Ohio lawyers
Writers from Illinois
Writers from Ohio
Illinois Democrats
Ohio Independents