Henry Demarest Lloyd
Encyclopedia
Henry Demarest Lloyd was a 19th-century American progressive
political activist and a forerunner to the later muckraking journalist. He is best remembered for his exposés of the Standard Oil Company, which was written before Ida M. Tarbell
's series for McClure's Magazine.
. Henry was the first child of Aaron Lloyd, a graduate of Rutgers College and Theological Seminary
and minster of the Dutch Reformed Church
, and Maria Christie Demarest.
One of Henry Demarest Lloyd's strongest formative influences was the preaching of Henry Ward Beecher
, the sermons of whom he regularly attended.
Lloyd attended St. Mark's School
and Columbia College
, followed by Columbia Law School
. Lloyd worked at a library and taught to pay his way through school. Upon graduation, Lloyd was admitted to the New York state bar in 1869.
, gaining promotion to the position of chief editorial writer in 1875. He remained at the paper until 1885.
Lloyd was one of the precursors to the later muckraker journalists, writing a searing exposé of the monopolistic abuses of John D. Rockefeller's
Standard Oil Trust
, "The Story of a Great Monopoly," published in the March 1881 issue of The Atlantic. He later fleshed out his case against the unbridled corporate power of Standard Oil and similar corporation
s in his best-known book, Wealth Against Commonwealth, published in 1894. Lloyd's work thus preceded Ida Tarbell's
more famous 1904 work, "The History of Standard Oil," by a number of years.
in 1886, a position that caused his father-in-law, William Bross, publisher of the Tribune, to disinherit him and his wife Jessie Bross. However, William Bross and his only daughter must have made amends, because he died in her home.
Lloyd, after leaving the newspaper, continued to file stories as a free-lancing dispatcher, using the Associated Press wires, and his publications of outrage over the treatment of miners in the Spring Valley dispute are credited with ending that episode. Lloyd also wrote and spoke on behalf of Milwaukee streetcar operators in 1893, and anthracite coal
miners in 1902.
Lloyd was a leading citizen of Winnetka, Illinois
. Elected more than once as a Village trustee and member of the Board of Education, he served as vice-president of the Village council from 1884 to 1886, and as Village treasurer in 1887 and 1888. He was president of the Town Meeting in 1898 and is credited with a leading role in pioneering what became known nationally as the "Winnetka system" of self-government, a reform cause broadly taken up by Samuel Gompers and the labor movement.
In 1894, Lloyd ran for U.S. Congress as a candidate of the People's Party, the so-called "Populists." In subsequent years he was supportive of the aims of the Socialist Party of America
, although he was never an active member of the organization.
After his death, Lloyd's library, which included thousands of books and pamphlet
s relating to trade union
ism, cooperation, socialism
, and monopolies
, was donated to the University of Wisconsin.
Lloyd was an inspiration to a generation of young investigative journalists and radical political activists, such as Charles Edward Russell
, who later recalled:
In recognition of Lloyd's work, the Center for Investigative Reporting
launched the "Henry Demarest Lloyd Investigative Fund" in 2009 to provide grants to investigative journalists.
The Henry Demarest Lloyd House
in Winnetka is now a National Historic Landmark
.
Progressive Era
The Progressive Era in the United States was a period of social activism and political reform that flourished from the 1890s to the 1920s. One main goal of the Progressive movement was purification of government, as Progressives tried to eliminate corruption by exposing and undercutting political...
political activist and a forerunner to the later muckraking journalist. He is best remembered for his exposés of the Standard Oil Company, which was written before Ida M. Tarbell
Ida M. Tarbell
Ida Minerva Tarbell was an American teacher, author and journalist. She was known as one of the leading "muckrakers" of the progressive era, work known in modern times as "investigative journalism". She wrote many notable magazine series and biographies...
's series for McClure's Magazine.
Early years
Henry Demarest Lloyd was born on May 1, 1847 in the home of his maternal grandfather on Sixth Avenue in New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Henry was the first child of Aaron Lloyd, a graduate of Rutgers College and Theological Seminary
Rutgers University
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey, United States. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States and one of the nine Colonial colleges founded before the American...
and minster of the Dutch Reformed Church
Dutch Reformed Church
The Dutch Reformed Church was a Reformed Christian denomination in the Netherlands. It existed from the 1570s to 2004, the year it merged with the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Kingdom of the Netherlands to form the Protestant Church in the...
, and Maria Christie Demarest.
One of Henry Demarest Lloyd's strongest formative influences was the preaching of Henry Ward Beecher
Henry Ward Beecher
Henry Ward Beecher was a prominent Congregationalist clergyman, social reformer, abolitionist, and speaker in the mid to late 19th century...
, the sermons of whom he regularly attended.
Lloyd attended St. Mark's School
St. Mark's School
St. Mark’s School is a coeducational, Episcopal, preparatory school, situated on in Southborough, Massachusetts, from Boston. It was founded in 1865 as an all-boys' school by Joseph Burnett, a wealthy native of Southborough who developed and marketed the world-famous Burnett Vanilla Extract . ...
and Columbia College
Columbia College of Columbia University
Columbia College is the oldest undergraduate college at Columbia University, situated on the university's main campus in Morningside Heights in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1754 by the Church of England as King's College, receiving a Royal Charter from King George II...
, followed by Columbia Law School
Columbia Law School
Columbia Law School, founded in 1858, is one of the oldest and most prestigious law schools in the United States. A member of the Ivy League, Columbia Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Columbia University in New York City. It offers the J.D., LL.M., and J.S.D. degrees in...
. Lloyd worked at a library and taught to pay his way through school. Upon graduation, Lloyd was admitted to the New York state bar in 1869.
Journalistic career
In 1872, Lloyd joined the staff of the Chicago TribuneChicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
, gaining promotion to the position of chief editorial writer in 1875. He remained at the paper until 1885.
Lloyd was one of the precursors to the later muckraker journalists, writing a searing exposé of the monopolistic abuses of John D. Rockefeller's
John D. Rockefeller
John Davison Rockefeller was an American oil industrialist, investor, and philanthropist. He was the founder of the Standard Oil Company, which dominated the oil industry and was the first great U.S. business trust. Rockefeller revolutionized the petroleum industry and defined the structure of...
Standard Oil Trust
Standard Oil
Standard Oil was a predominant American integrated oil producing, transporting, refining, and marketing company. Established in 1870 as a corporation in Ohio, it was the largest oil refiner in the world and operated as a major company trust and was one of the world's first and largest multinational...
, "The Story of a Great Monopoly," published in the March 1881 issue of The Atlantic. He later fleshed out his case against the unbridled corporate power of Standard Oil and similar corporation
Corporation
A corporation is created under the laws of a state as a separate legal entity that has privileges and liabilities that are distinct from those of its members. There are many different forms of corporations, most of which are used to conduct business. Early corporations were established by charter...
s in his best-known book, Wealth Against Commonwealth, published in 1894. Lloyd's work thus preceded Ida Tarbell's
Ida M. Tarbell
Ida Minerva Tarbell was an American teacher, author and journalist. She was known as one of the leading "muckrakers" of the progressive era, work known in modern times as "investigative journalism". She wrote many notable magazine series and biographies...
more famous 1904 work, "The History of Standard Oil," by a number of years.
Political career
As a political activist, Lloyd defended the Haymarket anarchistsHaymarket affair
The Haymarket affair was a demonstration and unrest that took place on Tuesday May 4, 1886, at the Haymarket Square in Chicago. It began as a rally in support of striking workers. An unknown person threw a dynamite bomb at police as they dispersed the public meeting...
in 1886, a position that caused his father-in-law, William Bross, publisher of the Tribune, to disinherit him and his wife Jessie Bross. However, William Bross and his only daughter must have made amends, because he died in her home.
Lloyd, after leaving the newspaper, continued to file stories as a free-lancing dispatcher, using the Associated Press wires, and his publications of outrage over the treatment of miners in the Spring Valley dispute are credited with ending that episode. Lloyd also wrote and spoke on behalf of Milwaukee streetcar operators in 1893, and anthracite coal
Anthracite coal
Anthracite is a hard, compact variety of mineral coal that has a high luster...
miners in 1902.
Lloyd was a leading citizen of Winnetka, Illinois
Winnetka, Illinois
Winnetka is an affluent North Shore village located approximately north of downtown Chicago in Cook County, Illinois. Winnetka was featured on the list of America's 25 top-earning towns and "one of the best places to live" by CNN Money in 2011...
. Elected more than once as a Village trustee and member of the Board of Education, he served as vice-president of the Village council from 1884 to 1886, and as Village treasurer in 1887 and 1888. He was president of the Town Meeting in 1898 and is credited with a leading role in pioneering what became known nationally as the "Winnetka system" of self-government, a reform cause broadly taken up by Samuel Gompers and the labor movement.
In 1894, Lloyd ran for U.S. Congress as a candidate of the People's Party, the so-called "Populists." In subsequent years he was supportive of the aims of the Socialist Party of America
Socialist Party of America
The Socialist Party of America was a multi-tendency democratic-socialist political party in the United States, formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party which had split from the main organization...
, although he was never an active member of the organization.
Death and legacy
Henry Demarest Lloyd, remembered by a contemporary as the "pioneer and leader" of the trust-busting progressive movement, died on September 28, 1903. He was survived by a son, William Bross Lloyd, who would emerge as a founding member and early leader of the Communist Labor Party of America in 1919.After his death, Lloyd's library, which included thousands of books and pamphlet
Pamphlet
A pamphlet is an unbound booklet . It may consist of a single sheet of paper that is printed on both sides and folded in half, in thirds, or in fourths , or it may consist of a few pages that are folded in half and saddle stapled at the crease to make a simple book...
s relating to trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
ism, cooperation, socialism
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
, and monopolies
Monopoly
A monopoly exists when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity...
, was donated to the University of Wisconsin.
Lloyd was an inspiration to a generation of young investigative journalists and radical political activists, such as Charles Edward Russell
Charles Edward Russell
Charles Edward Russell was an American journalist, politician, and a co-founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People...
, who later recalled:
"As the Standard Oil article in the Atlantic became the armory of every person willing to fight for industrial freedom, so Wealth Against Commonwealth in later years became the great storehouse of information to which numbers of able campaigners habitually resorted for their facts. Probably millions of men read or heard Mr. Lloyd's ideas without being aware of the real authorship. But I judge that with this condition he was well content. No man ever entered such a fight with a smaller share of personal vanity to gratify. He desired that his countrymen should be informed of existing conditions, but not that he himself should gain fame or rewards."
In recognition of Lloyd's work, the Center for Investigative Reporting
Center for Investigative Reporting
The Center for Investigative Reporting is a non-profit journalism organization located in Berkeley, California. It was founded in 1977 by Lowell Bergman, , and David Weir to reveal injustice and abuse of power through the tools of journalism....
launched the "Henry Demarest Lloyd Investigative Fund" in 2009 to provide grants to investigative journalists.
The Henry Demarest Lloyd House
The Wayside (Henry Demarest Lloyd House)
The Wayside, also known as Henry Demarest Lloyd House, is a site on Sheridan Road in Winnetka, Illinois significant for its association with the "muckracking" journalist Henry Demarest Lloyd ....
in Winnetka is now a National Historic Landmark
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...
.
Works
For a complete list of works see Lloyd (1912), pp. 351-364Additional reading
- Charles M. Destler, Henry Demarest Lloyd and the Empire of Reform. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1963.
- Jay E. Jernigan, Henry Demarest Lloyd. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1976.
- Caro Lloyd, Henry Demarest Lloyd, 1847-1903: A Biography. In two volumes: Vol. 1 and Vol. 2. Introduction by Charles Edward Russell. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1912.
- George H. Shibley, Death of Noted Majority Rulist - Facts Concerning His Life and the Movement, The National New Era, vol. 20, no. 43 (October 1903), pg. 12.
External links
- "Henry Demarest Lloyd," Columbia College website.
- "Henry Demarest Lloyd," Spartacus.schoolnet.
- "Henry Demarest Lloyd," Modern History sourcebook.